Last night, inspired by Diana needing help to figure out how to put the cover back on her comforter, I decided clean my room more thoroughly than I had been... and ended up rearranging most of my furniture. So far I feel very happy with the new setup. It feels like I have more room in my little 6-jou apartment.
And maybe it's new location is why I turned on the tv for the first time in forever. Some interesting random things on the news. 2010's kanji of the year (a la Kiyomizu Temple) is 新 or "new," as in オバマ新大統領 (new President Obama) and 鳩山新政権 (Hatoyama's (Prime Minister) new government) and 新型インフルエンザ (swine flu).
I also learned that when referring to the sexes 性別 of animals on tv we use the animal specific words osu 雄 male and mesu 雌 female.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
All Hallows Eve, and whatnot
I was a bunny for Halloween. Not terribly creative I know.
As I said before, Japan had a surprisingly large amount of Halloween decorations all over the place.
As I said before, Japan had a surprisingly large amount of Halloween decorations all over the place.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
yum
So it's been way long since my last post. I got out of my six weeks of Japanese school on Sept. 25, and jumped into life at Rits on the 28th. So we're in the .... 5th week of school now, I guess. Wow. Time flies.
My classes are pretty diverse, in a sense. 12 classes: 3 Japanese language, 2 Japanese society (in Japanese), 4 international relations classes in English, and another 3 in Japanese.
Halloween is suprisingly (to me) popular in Japan. Lots (though not as much as in the US) of Halloween themed goods, and quite a few Halloween parties, including one at my uni this Friday (which I am most likely going to).
The Ritsumeikan school cultural festival is coming up (in 17 days according to the big countdown sign in the main quad area). Pretty of excited for that.
My takoyaki machine has been fun. I figured it would be a pity to just use it for the occasional party so twice more I've made a half batch of takoyaki as my lunch or something. Delicious, but I haven't gotten any better at making them. I also need to work on my okonomiyaki skills. Tastes great, but I can't make anything bigger than a half-pan one or I can't flip it...
My classes are pretty diverse, in a sense. 12 classes: 3 Japanese language, 2 Japanese society (in Japanese), 4 international relations classes in English, and another 3 in Japanese.
Halloween is suprisingly (to me) popular in Japan. Lots (though not as much as in the US) of Halloween themed goods, and quite a few Halloween parties, including one at my uni this Friday (which I am most likely going to).
The Ritsumeikan school cultural festival is coming up (in 17 days according to the big countdown sign in the main quad area). Pretty of excited for that.
My takoyaki machine has been fun. I figured it would be a pity to just use it for the occasional party so twice more I've made a half batch of takoyaki as my lunch or something. Delicious, but I haven't gotten any better at making them. I also need to work on my okonomiyaki skills. Tastes great, but I can't make anything bigger than a half-pan one or I can't flip it...
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Random News from Nowhere
Natalie...
Officially has a good 3mi default jogging route from her apartment up a mild hill (following the road), and then back down the hill.
Baked cookies today in her small toaster oven on an (approx.) 4" x 6" baking sheet.
Has a big test tomorrow :)
Is doing a pretty good job keeping her apartment clean and orderly (unlike how her room was this summer).
Is glad the whole "talk to friends and family on skype" thing is working out.
Wishes she had the will to edit and upload her pictures, both on fb and for her blog (eg. on flickr). EDIT: Okay, that's not completely true...
Went to eat bi bim bop ビビンバ with Biggie at a Korean place by Kinkakuji Temple 金閣寺 on Monday. It was pretty good. Too bad it was so expensive (8.50 if you wanted it in the earthware bowl 石焼, and it's not true bi bim bop unless it is imho).
Our apartment building has six rooms. So far it has just been Biggie and I on the third floor (the other tenants moved out), but today an American boy doing a year long exchange program at Rits moved into the other room on our floor. (fyi there are three rooms on the third and second floors respectively. The first floor is a shop of some sort).
Yesterday for the first time I saw someone from the apartment building next door (our buildings' respective staircases are right next to one another. I'm kind of jealous of the cool ivy growing on theirs). He said "good evening" konbanwa こんばんは, and I said "good evening" back.
Officially has a good 3mi default jogging route from her apartment up a mild hill (following the road), and then back down the hill.
Baked cookies today in her small toaster oven on an (approx.) 4" x 6" baking sheet.
Has a big test tomorrow :)
Is doing a pretty good job keeping her apartment clean and orderly (unlike how her room was this summer).
Is glad the whole "talk to friends and family on skype" thing is working out.
Wishes she had the will to edit and upload her pictures, both on fb and for her blog (eg. on flickr). EDIT: Okay, that's not completely true...
Went to eat bi bim bop ビビンバ with Biggie at a Korean place by Kinkakuji Temple 金閣寺 on Monday. It was pretty good. Too bad it was so expensive (8.50 if you wanted it in the earthware bowl 石焼, and it's not true bi bim bop unless it is imho).
Our apartment building has six rooms. So far it has just been Biggie and I on the third floor (the other tenants moved out), but today an American boy doing a year long exchange program at Rits moved into the other room on our floor. (fyi there are three rooms on the third and second floors respectively. The first floor is a shop of some sort).
Yesterday for the first time I saw someone from the apartment building next door (our buildings' respective staircases are right next to one another. I'm kind of jealous of the cool ivy growing on theirs). He said "good evening" konbanwa こんばんは, and I said "good evening" back.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Takoyaki!
Last Friday I started to catch some sort of laryngitis so Saturday through Wednesday were shot in terms of me talking to new people. I stayed home on Saturday at Biggie's urging, but on Sunday I had to at least make it down to shijo-omiya to meet up with Anna (neither of us have cellphones, and she doesn't have computer access on the weekend) since we had plans to go to Osaka and wander around Shinzaibashi and Namba.
I ended up saying "screw it" and went with her by train ~$6 to Shinzaibashi where we walked over to the "America Village" アメリカ町 and ate takoyaki たこやき (think octopus surrounded by a weird fried dough the size of a donut hole) which is an Osaka-n specialty (along with okonomiyaki). Anywho, the American village is just a park surrounded by various hip clothing shops. The park itself (for all intents and purposes) seems to have been built for the sole purpose of allowing everyone who just bought takoyaki from one of the two nearby vendors to sit and eat it. Of course, Anna and I did so as well. The rest of the afternoon Anna and I just wandered around the various shopping roads and arcades (covered pedestrian-only roads). Anna was very nice and put up with my 14-year-old boy voice changes like she'd had six brothers go through puberty already.
Mon-Wed were not at all interesting. I didn't do much since attempts at communicating with other people had to go through my throat to have a hope of being effective (remember, laryngitis-esque symptoms), and were failures before they started. I went to Japanese class in the morning, of course. On Monday I could barely croak. On Tuesday I was at a whisper. On Wednesday I could kind of talk, and was even able to practice in front of the class the poem I was doing for the school-wide (I still hadn't realized what a big deal it was) poetry reading contest 朗読大会. By Thursday, I was even able to talk somewhat normally, and so Thursday I did a bunch of stuff for Ritsumeikan. Joy.
And then Friday was the school poetry reading contest 朗読大会 which was divided into a) people reading famous Japanese poems; b) people reading poems they wrote in Japanese. I (joy oh joy) was in the former category. Thankfully I have friends (and cousins) in the creative arts so I knew better than to just stand there and read off a paper. So I memorized the poem and added movement and more-than-minimal-vocal inflection. A surprising amount of people took the time to memorize, but only two others (both in the write-your-own poem category) went for broke like I did.
In retrospect, that effort is probably why we (me, and an American boy whose poem was entitled ナンパ (skirt-chasing) but was performed super awesomely--different voices for different characters) won the grand prize 最優秀賞 in our respective categories. Now here's when I finally realized how seriously our school takes its poetry reading contest: grand prize was a takoyaki making set, including mixes, a recipe book, and the actual takoyaki fryer and utensils. AND everyone had food afterward (pizza and sushi and donuts and sandwiches).
Oh, and our school principal is a Japanese woman who wears a kimono but dyes her bangs neon green.
Pictures to come eventually.
I ended up saying "screw it" and went with her by train ~$6 to Shinzaibashi where we walked over to the "America Village" アメリカ町 and ate takoyaki たこやき (think octopus surrounded by a weird fried dough the size of a donut hole) which is an Osaka-n specialty (along with okonomiyaki). Anywho, the American village is just a park surrounded by various hip clothing shops. The park itself (for all intents and purposes) seems to have been built for the sole purpose of allowing everyone who just bought takoyaki from one of the two nearby vendors to sit and eat it. Of course, Anna and I did so as well. The rest of the afternoon Anna and I just wandered around the various shopping roads and arcades (covered pedestrian-only roads). Anna was very nice and put up with my 14-year-old boy voice changes like she'd had six brothers go through puberty already.
Mon-Wed were not at all interesting. I didn't do much since attempts at communicating with other people had to go through my throat to have a hope of being effective (remember, laryngitis-esque symptoms), and were failures before they started. I went to Japanese class in the morning, of course. On Monday I could barely croak. On Tuesday I was at a whisper. On Wednesday I could kind of talk, and was even able to practice in front of the class the poem I was doing for the school-wide (I still hadn't realized what a big deal it was) poetry reading contest 朗読大会. By Thursday, I was even able to talk somewhat normally, and so Thursday I did a bunch of stuff for Ritsumeikan. Joy.
And then Friday was the school poetry reading contest 朗読大会 which was divided into a) people reading famous Japanese poems; b) people reading poems they wrote in Japanese. I (joy oh joy) was in the former category. Thankfully I have friends (and cousins) in the creative arts so I knew better than to just stand there and read off a paper. So I memorized the poem and added movement and more-than-minimal-vocal inflection. A surprising amount of people took the time to memorize, but only two others (both in the write-your-own poem category) went for broke like I did.
In retrospect, that effort is probably why we (me, and an American boy whose poem was entitled ナンパ (skirt-chasing) but was performed super awesomely--different voices for different characters) won the grand prize 最優秀賞 in our respective categories. Now here's when I finally realized how seriously our school takes its poetry reading contest: grand prize was a takoyaki making set, including mixes, a recipe book, and the actual takoyaki fryer and utensils. AND everyone had food afterward (pizza and sushi and donuts and sandwiches).
Oh, and our school principal is a Japanese woman who wears a kimono but dyes her bangs neon green.
Pictures to come eventually.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Moving
So I spent Wed and Thurs moving into my apartment and cleaning up. On Wed I took my suitcase, duffel, and backpack on the 8 bus from my temp place at shijo-omiya 四条大宮 to my new apartment, which is closer to Ritsumeikan University and right near Ryoan-ji Temple 龍安寺. I got there at 2:30, right as my landlord was arriving for our 3 o'clock meeting. Talk about good timing. After going over the important stuff I played homemaker for a few hours, then headed back to shijo-omiya 四条大宮 to go out and eat yakiniku 焼き肉 with my roommates from the temp place and another girl living there. We got it "all you can eat" for 90 minutes eating 食べ放題 (~$30) and drinking 飲み放題 (~$3 non-alcoholic, ~$12 alcohol) and it was totally worth it, because we at a lot, lot, lot (and sooooo much meat, including cow tongue トン and raw beef mixed with raw egg ユッケ, both of which were surprisingly good).
Thursday I brought the remainder of my stuff over by bike, and paid my rent for the next month as well as the deposits and whatnot (which basically felt like a stab though the heart). At night, Biggie was boring, so I went to try and find the way to the Life ライフ (this big supermarket/Target chain) near us by bike (we'd only walked there before). I bought some groceries and cooked yummy food in my apartment :)
Yesterday Biggie and I stopped by Daiso ダイソー (a big 100 yen store ~ $1) to pick up more cheap necessities, and I did one of those things that everyone knows about but never does because a) they're afraid to try, b) they can afford better, c) they didn't have my worries about transporting stuff since the have a car, or a friend with a car.
Basically, I built a "bookcase" out of wire rack and zip ties. It took a REALLY long time, but I did it. And it's very useful.
Thursday I brought the remainder of my stuff over by bike, and paid my rent for the next month as well as the deposits and whatnot (which basically felt like a stab though the heart). At night, Biggie was boring, so I went to try and find the way to the Life ライフ (this big supermarket/Target chain) near us by bike (we'd only walked there before). I bought some groceries and cooked yummy food in my apartment :)
Yesterday Biggie and I stopped by Daiso ダイソー (a big 100 yen store ~ $1) to pick up more cheap necessities, and I did one of those things that everyone knows about but never does because a) they're afraid to try, b) they can afford better, c) they didn't have my worries about transporting stuff since the have a car, or a friend with a car.
Basically, I built a "bookcase" out of wire rack and zip ties. It took a REALLY long time, but I did it. And it's very useful.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Japanese Road Rage
Does it exist? you wonder.
Wonder no longer. The one day I'm in a car here (and probably the only day for a good while yet) we see two unparalleled examples of road rage. I've never seen people this crazy in the US.
First example: we're on the highway (called highway because it's not free, according to our driver, Naoki). We run into a little bit of congestion. Turns out it's because some salaryman-looking guy decided to take the time to stop his car in the middle of the highway, get out, go the car behind him, and start violently kicking the driver side door (we were in the rightmost lane, so he had the wall on the other side of him).
Second example: a small little dispute between a pedestrian and a car that starts to turn into the road the pedestrian is crossing turns nasty when the pedestrian (an old 70+ man) decides to teach the driver a lesson. I don't know whether the pedestrian was abusing his right-of-way or not, but even though the car stopped in time, he slapped the hood violently with his free hand, then walks over to the driver door and begins to argue with the driver. They argument lasts awhile, and they're blocking traffic, so the lady driving the car behind decides to get involved and starts yelling at the pedestrian. He pulls the drivers door open. The lady from the car behind yells some more. The driver, though she apologized at first, seems to now just be trying to reason with him while defending her actions. As we turned away some sort of settlement (to a very good one from the unhappy faces all around) seems to have been reached.
Lastly, and something that I noticed quite quickly, is that cars in Japan tend to be square. Nothing at all like the predominant rounded aesthetic preference in the US.
Wonder no longer. The one day I'm in a car here (and probably the only day for a good while yet) we see two unparalleled examples of road rage. I've never seen people this crazy in the US.
First example: we're on the highway (called highway because it's not free, according to our driver, Naoki). We run into a little bit of congestion. Turns out it's because some salaryman-looking guy decided to take the time to stop his car in the middle of the highway, get out, go the car behind him, and start violently kicking the driver side door (we were in the rightmost lane, so he had the wall on the other side of him).
Second example: a small little dispute between a pedestrian and a car that starts to turn into the road the pedestrian is crossing turns nasty when the pedestrian (an old 70+ man) decides to teach the driver a lesson. I don't know whether the pedestrian was abusing his right-of-way or not, but even though the car stopped in time, he slapped the hood violently with his free hand, then walks over to the driver door and begins to argue with the driver. They argument lasts awhile, and they're blocking traffic, so the lady driving the car behind decides to get involved and starts yelling at the pedestrian. He pulls the drivers door open. The lady from the car behind yells some more. The driver, though she apologized at first, seems to now just be trying to reason with him while defending her actions. As we turned away some sort of settlement (to a very good one from the unhappy faces all around) seems to have been reached.
Lastly, and something that I noticed quite quickly, is that cars in Japan tend to be square. Nothing at all like the predominant rounded aesthetic preference in the US.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Planes
So, the whole blog idea kind of failed before it even got started. Unfortunately, I'm just not the type to set aside time and patience to write up the days events on anything resembling a regular basis. I guess I'll just label this blog as WYSIWYG and warn people not to expect anything in terms of regularity.
So my flight plan was:
San Diego, CA -> Portland, OR -> Vancouver, Canada -> Tokyo (Narita) -> Tokyo (Haneda) -> Osaka -> Kyoto
Long, right?
I passed out on the first to flights (Portland and Vancouver) then had several hours layover till my plane departed to Tokyo, during which time I played with my iPod and discovered (20 mins before boarding) that the Vancouver airport is nice enough to supply free internet.
I didn't sleep so much on the plane to Narita Airport since a) they were playing Star Trek (the movie) and b) it was very amusing to watch Monsters, Inc. dubbed in Japanese. When I got to Narita I took a bus to Haneda Airport and arrived around 8. I knew I had to stay there overnight, and I'd read that it was possible, but I didn't know exactly how things worked, so I just picked a seat in the arrivals waiting area and stayed there until all the planes had come in (all the while hoping that I wouldn't be kicked out of the airport or something). I probably weirded out some Japanese by falling asleep slouched over my bags while waiting, but thankfully I woke up around the time a nice security officer came by and gave me a little slip of paper to fill out that was a "Request for Permission to Stay Overnight (For Foreigners)." I dutifully filled it out, and was thankful I could stay there what with my flight to Osaka being at 6:30 in the morning and all.
The security officer who dealt with me was REALLY nice. I had a suitcase, two duffels and a backpack. A little heavy, but not to troublesome to carry around. Still, he loaded my stuff onto one of those airport trolley things I've never used before. Then, even after I initially refused, he shoved another set of chairs next to mine to make a "bed" like some of the other overnighters were using. I would have been fine with just my one set of chairs like the boy the next set over, but hey, I couldn't very well break them apart after he'd taken the time to shove them together for me.
Then, I flew in the morning to Kansai International Airport (in Osaka), and from there took a JR train to Kyoto Station, where Diana picked me up and navigated me through the bus system to somewhere near my temp place (which is in a pretty good location downtown, at Shijo Omiya).
So my flight plan was:
San Diego, CA -> Portland, OR -> Vancouver, Canada -> Tokyo (Narita) -> Tokyo (Haneda) -> Osaka -> Kyoto
Long, right?
I passed out on the first to flights (Portland and Vancouver) then had several hours layover till my plane departed to Tokyo, during which time I played with my iPod and discovered (20 mins before boarding) that the Vancouver airport is nice enough to supply free internet.
I didn't sleep so much on the plane to Narita Airport since a) they were playing Star Trek (the movie) and b) it was very amusing to watch Monsters, Inc. dubbed in Japanese. When I got to Narita I took a bus to Haneda Airport and arrived around 8. I knew I had to stay there overnight, and I'd read that it was possible, but I didn't know exactly how things worked, so I just picked a seat in the arrivals waiting area and stayed there until all the planes had come in (all the while hoping that I wouldn't be kicked out of the airport or something). I probably weirded out some Japanese by falling asleep slouched over my bags while waiting, but thankfully I woke up around the time a nice security officer came by and gave me a little slip of paper to fill out that was a "Request for Permission to Stay Overnight (For Foreigners)." I dutifully filled it out, and was thankful I could stay there what with my flight to Osaka being at 6:30 in the morning and all.
The security officer who dealt with me was REALLY nice. I had a suitcase, two duffels and a backpack. A little heavy, but not to troublesome to carry around. Still, he loaded my stuff onto one of those airport trolley things I've never used before. Then, even after I initially refused, he shoved another set of chairs next to mine to make a "bed" like some of the other overnighters were using. I would have been fine with just my one set of chairs like the boy the next set over, but hey, I couldn't very well break them apart after he'd taken the time to shove them together for me.
Then, I flew in the morning to Kansai International Airport (in Osaka), and from there took a JR train to Kyoto Station, where Diana picked me up and navigated me through the bus system to somewhere near my temp place (which is in a pretty good location downtown, at Shijo Omiya).
Thursday, July 9, 2009
アパート探し (apartment searching)
So, I thought I'd first write about apartment searching, since that took up a great deal of my life across spring semester and summer. Apartments with decent rent are not at all hard to find in Kyoto, but the Japanese tack on so many other fees (both upfront and monthly) that just looking at the rent will result in epic fail.
Apartment vocab:
Apartment vocab:
- Recurring Fees
- 家賃 ＜やちん＞ rent
- 共益費 ＜きょうえきひ＞ monthly maintenance fee, sometimes included in the rent (家賃に含む)
- 管理費 ＜かんりひ＞ if your apartment/mansion has a maintenance person, this is what you pay them to help you with any issues you may or may not have
- Upfront Costs
- 敷金 ＜しききん＞ is basically a security deposit. You're not guaranteed to get it all back at the end of your stay, but provided you don't put a hole in the wall and you clean up when you leave, you should get most of it back.
- 礼金 ＜れいきん＞ is known as "key money" in English, and is basically a "gift" to the landlord. You won't get any of it back.
- Utilities
- As far as I know, there is no Japanese equivalent for the word "utilities." Instead, different utilities are addressed in different ways
- 光熱費 ＜こうねつひ＞ refers to lighting and heating fees
- インターネット接続 ＜internetせつぞく＞ indicates internet capability. This is still a rarity for Japanese apartments but becoming more popular. 光ファイバー is the best type to look for (sometimes shortened to just 光)
The best Kyoto apartment searching websites I found:
- http://www.kyoto-adpark.jp/
- http://www.chizumaru.com/
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