First Impressions

I have been in Japan for two weeks so far and it has been a pretty ridiculous experience. The first week I explored Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and Hiroshima with my otousan to okaason (Nancy and Donald). This past week I moved into my seminar house and met other students from all over the world (meaning America). I am writing this post pretty late at night and I am pretty sure my brain is still on american time as well, so in order to avoid excessive typos I am just going to provide lists of my observations and experiences in Japan thus far. Let me know if there are any other aspects of Japanese culture that you want to hear more about..


Top 5 Japanese Foods:

1. Okonomiyaki- Japanese lasagna

I have tried this in both Hiroshima and Hirakata and this is definitely my favourite dish. It consists of eggs, noodles, and assorted meats fried on a stove and covered in spices and japanese mayo. Like any other dish here, there were also about 4 or 5 other ingredients I couldn't identify. Oishee desu..

2. Takoyaki- Octopus balls

Or to prevent confusion, balls of octopus meat. This is usually sold at a street side stand and its pretty cheap. For 300 yen (3 bucks) you can get around 8 of them. They are essentially doughy with a cream cheese filling and of course the octopus meat. Labeled differently, this could catch on in the states.

3. Morning domburi- the only acceptable Japanese breakfast

Simple but it hits the spot. Eggs and pork over rice. Mix it up with your chopsticks and dig in.

4. Udon or Soba- noodles and soup

Slurping is encouraged.

5. Japanese snowcones- more of a dessert but it is dank..

Shaved ice in a cup (flavors include green tea, melon, strawberry, etc) with milk mixed in and sometimes it also comes with ice cream and occassionally sticky rice balls. So good.


Foods to Avoid:
1. Yakitori- 50/50 shot.. grilled kabobs, with proper discretion this dish is amazing, however yakitori chefs tend to include heart, liver, gizards, and unidentifiables into their assortment platters.
2. Nato- fermented soybean.. never tried it, but have been advised by many japanese not too
3. Fugu- blowfish, if prepared wrong it will kill you..

Most food I ahve tried so far has been delicious. Bento boxes, chain restaurants, candy, and beverages are usually safe bets. As an island country a lot of food here tends to be seafood based (even when it shouldn't be, potato chips). I will continue to document my culinary successes and failures.

Funniest Engrish T-shirt slogans:

1. "Kinky Slut" - This was spotted on a sweet looking little old lady in the rural vilalge of Kurama.
2. "The Georgia-Wyoming Agreement 5th Year Anniversary" - Haha, I didn't realize georgia and wyoming had so many trade connections.
3. "Nebraska Loves Me" -I have actually seen this on 3 or 4 people..
4. "One Pound Happy Suger Make You Do The Hokey Pokey" - and thats what its all about
5. "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP" .. at least they are studying the alphabet on their downtime

The English language has taken on some kind of chic appeal in Japan. Although nobody actually understands the language, people wholeheartedly embrace the idea of putting it on their t-shirts, signs, and everything else.

Top 5 best Things about Japan:
1. The Food- so so good
2. The women- must be all the rice and bike riding..
3. Public transportation- Everything is connected by a series of clean trains, buses, and if you feel like paying for it, even rickshaws.
4. The commercialism- Anything and everything you would want to buy is nearby (with the exception of decent cereal and English books/dvds). Everyone is an entrepreneur here.
5. Customer Service- If you walk into any Japanese department store you will be treated like the prince of Zamoonda. Walking down an aisle of 50 people bowing and saying greetings is always good for a quick ego boost.

Japan is also a pretty beautiful place. Aesthetics is often valued over function.

The 5 worst Things about Japan:
1. The bureaucracy- Logic is conspicuously missing from the Japanese mindset. If a rule is written down on paper it must be followed. This is extremely inconvenient when you are filling out bank applications or trying to convince the taxi driver to put 3 suitcases in the trunk.
2. Nonverbal communication- When a foreigner makes a foux paus or a Japanese person doesn't feel like helping you, he will make a big X with his arms and stay like that until you either go away or stop doing what your doing. Because many Japanese people don't speak much English, they often resort to the X which has become progressively more annoying. When a Japanese person is thinking real hard they also tend to stick their head sideways and suck in a bunch of air, this one is actually kind of funny though.
3. Verbal communication- Sadly it seems as if I know more Japanese than the typical Japanese person knows English. This creates a pretty sizeable communication barrier.
4. The lack of diversity- A white guy walking through Japan is pretty noticeable. It is kind of weird being stared at everywhere you go. I never thought I would say this, but I think even Elon is more diverse. Every action a Japanese person takes is through the context of Wa (group harmony). Unfortunately, gaijin are not generally considered part of this group and this can make life more challenging. For instance, I have to apply for an alien registration card and carry it on my person at all times to prevent being hassled by the police etc..
5. Culture shock- In so many ways. some observations:
-Everything is smaller (cars, people, food, clothes, everything..)
-People drive on the wrong side of the street
-McHotdogs
-Everyone is too damn quiet, a normal conversation on the bus would be considered loud in Japan.
-Japanese bikes resemble 12 year old American girls' bikes; they all have baskets and little bells (don't worry I have one of them now too)
-Engrish, there is English everywhere until you sit down and try to read the menu at a restaurant or want to look at a map at a train station.
-All currency 5 bucks and under is in coins, so you end up with a lot of change in your pocket
-much much much more

Favorite Japanese Words/Phrases:
1. Nani ga osusume desu ka? - What do you recommend (to eat, buy, etc)
2. Yatta! - I did it!
3. Kore wa omoshiroy desu - That was interesting..
4. Ogenki desu ka? - Wuddup?
5. Hai - It has 10 different meanings, when in doubt.. say hai
6. Nomi tonka - this means, "do you want to fight.." according to the random mixed martial arts guy I talked to
7. Muzukashi- literally means something is difficult, if you request something that is muzukashi that typically means no
8. Sugoi! - this is pretty awesome
9. Ego desu ka? - Is it in English
10. Naze desu ka? - Why? I ask this a lot.

Will post more soon.. For pictures check out my facebook. I am tired as hell right now so instead of proofreading for grammar, I am just going to ask for leniency.

The Japan Plan

I have already received my airline tickets. I am will be arriving at Kansai International Airport via San Francisco on August 20th, 2009. At which point I will be trapped on an island until December 21st, when I make my return.

Despite all the paperwork, study, and preparations for the trip it still seems a little surreal. After spending most of my life in the DC bubble (and more recently the Elon bubble), I am about to crash into the culture of Japan-land head on. I have come to the realization that no matter how much I study I will not be able to decode all 3 of their crazy alphabets by august. I am hoping that the person I meet through the speaking partner program will provide me with translation services needed for survival.

I am considering joining a club or circle (chiller club) when I get to Kansai Gaidai to meet students and hopefully have some fun. One of the disappointing (and ironic) things that I found out is that the American Football Club is not open to Americans. This was definitely a bummer, but I saw several others that could be worth joining such as basketball and judo. As far as I can tell from youtube videos and wikipedia, Judo is pretty much the same as wrestling just with cooler outfits. Joining the basketball team would be cool too because I finally won't be the shortest person on the floor.

If anyone has any other suggestions as to what hobbies/activities I should take up in Japan I am all ears. I was also going to join their movie making club, but considering most japanese movies end up like The Ring or The Grudge, I would probably be scared to step on the set.