March 2009

It’s been quite a while since I updated my blog, but it’s about time I do so XD I plan on finishing it off ‘cause a lot of stuff happened between March and August. Anyways! Moving along to March…

Roee and I woke up really early on March 1st because we planned on going to Kansai! (Western Japan). We woke up at about 5:30-6, and boarded the train at 6:30-7. The train ride to Kansai, which is supposed to take about 3 hours on the shinkansen (bullet train), took us 9 hours ‘cause we were using the Seishun Juuhachi kippu (Youth 18 ticket), which limited the trains we could have taken, but saved us quite a lot of money. Nevertheless, the ride was very long! At about 4, we reached Kyoto. Kyoto station was beautiful. Much nicer than Tokyo’s stations. After we finally arrived in Kyoto, we met with Erik, a friend of mine from Tokyo who was staying with his girlfriend nearby Kyoto at the time. After that, we checked Roee in his hotel and started to explore a little bit. My first impression of Kyoto was kind of a… disappointing one. All I saw were a bunch of brand stores and one shrine. Erik said to not fret ‘cause we will explore even more tomorrow! And that’s what we did :)

The next day, we visited Nijou castle, Kinkakuji (Temple of the golden pavilion), and Kiyomizudera (a temple that overlooks Kyoto). The sights were beyond spectacular. I was really happy to visit those places because it definitely gave me the right impression of Kyoto (being Japan’s capital before Tokyo). At night, we didn’t do much. We just went back home.

The following day, we went to Fushimi Inari shrine (a shrine with many, many torii gates), Sanjusangendo (a Buddhist temple with more than a 1000 temples), and we were able to check out Osaka. I really enjoyed myself today. Fushimi Inari was amazing because of all the gates, and Sanjusangendo was also amazing. It’s really too bad that we couldn’t take any pictures of the statues… Anyways, Osaka kind of reminded me of Tokyo. We haven’t been able to check the main part of it today, because I kind of messed up :D

For our final day in Kansai, we went to Osaka again and later, to Kobe. This time, we were able to check out the main part of Osaka (Dotonburi, I think…). It was pretty cool. It had a lot of neon signs and whatnot. After exploring Osaka for a bit, we went to Kobe. I kind of screwed up in the directions, so we ended up going to the wrong place XD After I realized that, we went the right way. When we arrived at the station, we grabbed some Kobeyapan (some bread and pastries). I didn’t realize it, but after eating the food, I accidentally dropped my wallet…… So, after exploring Kobe for about an hour or so, we reached the harbor. It was a really beautiful sight at night. When we checked out a souvenier store, I was just about to grab my wallet, when I finally realized that.. It was gone O_O I started panicking for a bit, but then we traced our way back. In the end, we found out where I dropped it near the station. I felt so relieved when I found it….. After we found it, we headed back to Kyoto.

The next day, we returned to Tokyo. The ride, again, was long and pretty exhausting. I also had to work that day, so it was very annoying.

On the 18th, Roee and I went to Korea for a week. Before going to Korea, though, I showed Roee a bit more of Japan. We traveled around Tokyo almost every day. One day, we went to Asakusa and from there, we walked all over the place. We went to Ueno and Akihabara and passed through some other places, too. In the end, we saw Tokyo Tower, so we decided to try and walk back to Shibuya. And… We did so XD It took us a long time, but it was worth it. We could barely walk after we got back to Shibuya. The distance from Asakusa to Shibuya is about…. 15-16kms (roughly 10 miles). That’s the most I’ve ever walked in one day.

The next day, we went to Kamakura to see the big buddha statue. Kamakura used to be Japan’s capital a long time ago (I think before Kyoto was the capital, which was the capital before Tokyo). Anyways, it took us a bit to find the place, but finally, we did. We also saw the beach of Enoshima. The weather was a bit chilly and rainy, but the smell of the sea made up for it.

On the 17th, Roee and I went to Shibuya to hang out with Steven. He came back from his trip to South east Asia, so he wanted to hang out before Roee and I were bound for Korea. It was fun seeing Steven after a month or so. That night was kind of annoying, though. Just before Roee and I were about to leave Shibuya, Roee realized that he lost his wallet -_- We ended up looking for it and missing the last train. In the end, it was in Omotesando’s police box. Apparently, someone picked it up in front of Shibuya’s main post office and dropped it in the police box. He stayed annonymous ‘cause he didn’t want any prize for finding it. I forgot to mention that Roee had about 40,000 yen (~$400) in it O_O So it was very nerve wrecking. Since we missed the last train, I told Roee that we should try and walk back. He offered to pay for a taxi, but I said that I wanted to try and walk back home from Shibuya anyways, so we decided to go for it. It took us about 2.5 hours (about 12-13kms). The most annoying part of it, though, was that once we got back home, we had to pack for Korea -_-

On the 18th, we went to Korea. The trip to Korea was a lot of fun. Seoul reminded me of Tokyo, but it wasn’t exactly the same. We got to Seoul pretty late. After getting our luggage and exchanging our yens to wons (it was really annoying ‘cause the highest bill they had was 10,000 won, which equals about $10), we got on a bus to take us to the city. It took us a bit of time to find our hostel (we got there at midnight). After we settled in the hostel, we went to 7-eleven to buy drinks and snacks. After we ate, we went to explore a little. We went to a place called Hongdae (Hongik University), which is a place where students hang out. to We toured lots of places in Seoul. We went out a lot and really enjoyed it. It finally gave me more time to spend with Roee because back in Japan, I had to work a lot. When we were in Korea, though, we spend all of our time there together. While in Korea, I was able to see my exchange students friends from Fall semester (only briefly, though), Ken and his friends, who are students at Aoyama Gakuin, Melissa, who came to visit me in January, and Eleanor, who studied Japanese with me back in MD, and Gene, who used to live in the University’s Language House two years ago. The places we went to included Seoul Tower, Seoul’s world cup stadium, some palaces, and different districts of Korea.

Also, on Friday night, we went to Chabad. It took us a very long time to find it. Just as we were about to give up, we found it. There, I ate beef for the first time in 6 months. I was very happy :D After that, we went out with Melanie, a girl we met at Chabad, to a karaoke box. Karaoke boxes are a bit different than the karaoke places in Japan. It was fun, nonetheless.

On the 24th, we went to the DMZ (the border of South and North Korea). It was a really cool experience. We went to the 3rd tunnel the North Koreans tried to dig in the 70s. Some info about it: they planned to dig it all the way up to Seoul. 10,000 soldiers could have passed through the tunnel in one hour. When it was found by South Korea, North Korea claimed that there was a coal deposit there. Geologically, it was impossible to have any coal there, so the North Koreans were caught lying. Anyways, we were able to see a bit of North Korea, but unfortunately, we couldn’t go on the tour to Panmunjeom, which is where the Joint Security Area is, and where North and South Korean soldiers stand in front of each other. After we took a few pictures, we went back to Seoul. I can’t remember what we did for the rest of the day, but I remember that it was very cold XD It was flurrying at some point. The next day, we went back to Japan, and it was great to be back!

For the rest of March, I don’t think we did anything special. We did go back to Akihabara to buy some more stuff, like presents. As you noticed, March was a very busy and fun month. It was definitely one of the funnest, if not the funnest, month I’ve had in my study abroad experience.

Anyways, I will try and update the blog more. I will definitely finish it. I’ve started it with the goal of finishing it and it will happen. I will try and update it during the weekends! Until next time :D

February 2009

Well, I thought it was about time to update the blog…. I have been awfully busy lately, so I had no time to update it… Don’t get me wrong, though. I’m still awfully busy :D

Anyways! Off to February…. Now… What happened in February…. Well, quite a lot of things did. First, Justin and I slowly adjusted to living in Mizonokuchi. I’m really happy we moved. It did cost us an arm and a leg, but it was well worth it. By slowly adjusting…. Well…. We didn’t have an internet connection until the 9th, which really sucked…. Other than that, everything was ok. On the 4th, we had a farewell party at school for the Fall semester students (people who came to study at Aoyama for either that semester or for the entire year -> April 08 – February 09). The party was a lot of fun, although it was quite emotional. A lot of people cried (well, for the most obvious reasons), but overall, everyone enjoyed it. After the party, we went to an after party, which was a lot of fun, too. And after that, we went to an all night karaoke. After the 2nd party, it happened to be my birthday :D I’ll be honest, though. It was great, and I really enjoyed it, but I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t celebrate my 21st in America. Oh well…..

On the 6th, if I’m not mistaken, I submitted my final essay for Asian politics class and that pretty much marked the start of our break! I had a lot of lessons and whatnot during this month. I tried and worked as much as I could, which turned out pretty well! I finally started to have plenty of regular students.

On the 22nd, Justin and I had a house warming party. About 13-15 people showed up and we had a lot of fun, although it was quite tiring. On a completely different note, Roee, my Israeli friend, and I talked on the 21st. Roee just finished his army service and didn’t really feel like starting to study any time soon, so we talked about a possibility of him coming over to Japan. He told me that he might be able to come on the 28th. Anyways, on the 23rd, Justin left for Korea for a month, leaving me in the apartment by myself. I thought that it’ll be a bit lonely without him for a month.

Lo and behold! I got a call from Roee at about 6PM….. He told me that he’s coming to Japan on the 25th! I was reallllllllllllllllllllllllllllly excited. I haven’t seen him since January of last year and I was really looking forward to it. He called me to ask me if I wanted him to bring me anything from Israel XD So I told him to bring me some sweets. On the 25th, I went to pick him up from the airport. The ride to Narita is…. Very annoying. It was the first time I kind of got on the wrong train, but I still managed to get to Narita, although it took some extra time to do so. Anyways….. I felt kind of bad when I finally saw him XD He looked extremely exhausted. He had the worst flight ever and it took hell of a long time to reach Japan because he had a layover in Austria. After heading back home, we went to grab some sushi. He was really happy to eat sushi right after he got here :D

We didn’t do too much until the end of the month. Actually…. A really weird incident happened on the 28th, the day before we headed to Kansai (関西, western Japan). We went to shop for ingredients for dinner. After we shopped at Donki, I told Roee to wait for me at a nearby building ‘cause I wanted to grab some salmon at Maruetsu (a supermarket next to that building). Anyways, I went in to get the salmon, and to my surprise, I ran into a woman that I saw a few months ago at Mizonokuchi’s Donki. When I saw her at Donki, she started to talk to me and asked for me phone number and stuff (she claimed to be French, but I kind of had a hunch that she was actually Russian). Anyways, stupidly, I started to give her my real number, but I saw that she screwed up, so I didn’t bother to correct her. So…. I ran into her on that night…. And… She started to talk to me again. Asked me where I was from and whatnot. Again, stupidly, I told her that I was from Russia. I told her that I didn’t have any time to talk because my friend was waiting for me. So I grabbed the salmon and ran to the register. Who do I see waiting for me at the register? That woman. After I paid, she started to curse me in Russian O_O Not only that, she started to hit me with her umbrella @_________@ I was completely shocked at that moment XD It’s actually really funny when I look back at it now, but it was really bizzare at that night. Anyways, I ran for the door, but since it was an automatic door, it took a few seconds for it to open, so she managed to kick me O______O When I was far enough away from her, I yelled back at her. Shocked, I entered the building Roee was waiting for me at from a different entrance. Roee had no idea what was going on XD I told him that there’s a crazy woman who tries to beat me up. After that, we went back home. Later on, Roee told me that he saw the whole thing, but he didn’t recognize me because he didn’t wear his contacts at that time XD I also forgot to mention that she apparently wanted to “play” and “hang out” when I first met her. God knows what that meant…. A pretty bizzare end to a great month, huh?

Update

Sorry I haven't updated in a while... I've been quite busy since the last time I posted. I'll try and update as soon as I can. On a different note, I got my ticket back home. I'll be coming back to the US on August 10th and I'll be going to Utah on August 12th until the 26th!

January 2009

So continuing last post.... New year's was great. We got back to Tokyo on the 1st. For the rest of the break, I haven't done much. Well, I count procrastinating as not doing much XD I had a few papers to write and some exams to get ready to, but.... You guys know me :D I'm a terrible procrastinator ^_^ So! School was back in session on the 7th. January was a very busy month. I finally got more and more lessons. Also, I started to work for Maskal. I had only one lesson, there, though. Thursdays at 7. The students are a lot of fun :D Other than that... I had to write 2 reports and I had 3 finals, if I'm not mistaken... The reports weren't hard, and the exams, with the exception of the economics exam, weren't terrible. Actually, since I focused on the last chapter of econ, I managed to do well on the final :) I can't recall anything really important happening in the month except for my American friend's (Melissa) visit, and the move on the 31st. Melissa is currently teaching English in Korea. She came to Japan on the 26th and stayed here until the 30th.

Since she came all the way from Korea, I decided to take her to a few places. First, I showed her around Shibuya. I wanted to take her to Meiji Jingu, but we were too late. She got to my place at about 3, and after I put her stuff back in my place, we went to Shibuya only to find out that the shrine has already closed for the day. So! We didn't do too much that day. The next day, I took her to Asakusa (浅草), where Sensoji (浅草寺) is. Sensoji is a big Buddhist temple. Just outside of the temple, there's a nice street market. By the way.. Before we went to the temple, we tried to look for a place to eat. When we didn't find any "suitable" place, we got some sushi at the supermarket. It was Melissa's first time eating sushi! Sorry it couldn't have been sushi from a restaurant >_< After we were done wandering around Asakusa, we walked all the way to Ueno (上野) to check out Ueno park (上野公園). Ueno park is pretty cool. It's reallllllly big. After a nice walk in the park, I told her that we should go to Akihabara (秋葉原). I wanted her to check it out. If it wasn't for it's weirdness, it would have been an ok place XD All-in-all, we walked a lot that day XD Next day, I was able to show her Meiji Jingu. On the way to Meiji Jingu, lo-and-behold! We saw a woman walking around with her pet monkey.... Yes, a pet monkey XD Anyways, we were able to make it on time to the shrine. After showing her around, we went to the usual conveyor belt sushi place. I think that's everything I did with her.... The next day, she hung out with Justin and went to karaoke with him and his friends 'cause I had some classes. Overall, we had a lot of fun :D

And then, moving day on the 31st..... It was pretty ridiculous -________- Minami, a fellow student at Aoyama gakuin who I already mentioned in a post a few months back, helped Justin and I to move. I can't describe how annoying it was... It started off with Minami not reserving a truck (at Mazda in Takadanobaba) 'cause he thought that we would be able to find one on the day of the move. First place we went to didn't have any trucks. After making a few phone calls, we were informed that there's a truck back in Saitama. Saitama is about 40 minutes from the place we were at that moment. I was a little nervous because I already told people that we would come pick up things from their places and we didn't have the truck yet.... Fortunately, we found a Toyota rental car in the same place we were and they had a truck in stock! I was very relieved... After picking up the truck, we stopped at about 6 places. We got everything we needed. Unfortunately, I had to use my phone's GPS 'cause Minami's phone was dead. He has an unlimited plan, so it kinda sucked using mine, especially because I ended up maxing the amount of packets I could use XD For that day alone, I had to pay ¥4,000 XD My cellphone bill was pretty high 'cause of it, but it was well worth it. Anyways! We decided to rent the truck for 6 hours, but guess what.... It took much longer than that.... After we stopped everywhere, we had to stop at my place and at Justin's place to pick up our belongings. We ended up having the truck for almost 12 hours, and it was 15 minutes before the Toyota close for the day (10PM). On top of that, we had to refuel the car >_> So... There was no way we could have made it on time... Luckily, we only had to pay ¥6,000 extra to convert the 6-hours rent to a 24-hour one. If we returned it before, we would have to pay an extra ¥1,500 or ¥2,000 for each additional hour (¥9,000-12,000). In the end, it worked out perfectly. After we were done with everything, we decided to grab something to eat.... We were extremely exhausted and hungry. Justin and I treated Minami 'cause he kicked ass for helping us out. We ate at Watami (an izakaya at the center of Mizonokuchi). Overall, January was a hectic month, but it felt great when it ended XD

Stay tuned for February....

The Long Awaited Post? December 2008

Let me apologize again for not updating the blog in a realllly long time. I've been busy with all sorts of things last month. Roee came to visit me from Israel and we've been all over the place, so I couldn't really update the blog. Anyways... I'll probably try and write about the passing months, so I'm going to write 4 long posts... Well, they probably won't be THAT long 'cause I'll be trying to write everything from memory. So here it goes!

December... Was kind of an eventful month. Other than the same routine of going to school and having very few private lessons that finally started to pick up at the end of the month, I went to an end-of-the-year party, which is called a bounenkai in Japanese (忘年会), on December 7th. It's funny, 'cause it literally means a gathering for forgetting the past year XD I was invited to the party by Akie, one of the women that works at the chat room. I went with Kazuki, one of Akie's acquaintances, and Yusuke, one of the chat leaders. It took place at Akie's house somewhere in Yokohama. I had to wake up quiet early, but it was well worth it. We got there at about 10-10:15. It was the first time I saw people drinking so early XD I had to pass, so I just drank a soft drink. During the party, they had a barbecue. The only thing I was able to eat at the party was the sticky rice, called mochi (モチ), that they made. I also had the opportunity to make mochi, and it was ridiculously fun. After steaming the rice until it's very sticky, you have to put it inside a mortar, and then hit it with a big hammer. All I can say that it's a lot of fun :D After talking for a bit, we left at about... 1:30 I think.

On December 13th and 14th, a few of us participated in a weird psychology research O_o It was about listening to the phrases "11:30" and "Is that so?" and circle the appropriate emotion we got from the speaker based on the tones. First day, we just listened to the phrases. On the second day, we actually got to see the speakers, too. In any case, I got ¥8,000 for 4 hours, so I was quite happy :) The research was weird, nonetheless. On the 17th, we had a really cool workshop. It was about candy art (雨細工 Amezaiku in Japanese). The guy created really cool animals out of really hot taffy. After he made our animals (I asked him to make me a phoenix ^^), we tried to make one ourselves. I wanted to make a rabbit, but I ended up making something that looks like a ghost boar XD

On the 19th, we had a Christmas party at school. They didn't serve a lot of food, but it was a nice amount. The party was followed by another party at the bar Steven works at for Waleed's birthday. I don't remember much about it, but it was a lot fun. A lot of people showed up. I think we had an after party... We might have gone to karaoke.

If I recall correctly, Justin came to Tokyo on the 12th, so he stayed over at my place for a few days. It was a bit cramped because of the size of the room, but we managed to live as comfortably as we could during those days XD It was fun having someone 'cause you do become a bit lonely after a while....

Our winter break started on the 23rd and lasted for almost 2 weeks. The break was great. On Christmas day, I went to Disney Sea with some of my friends. Actually, until Justin showed up, I was the only guy with them >_< Even though it was ridiculously crowded, we managed to get on a bunch of rides. My favorite ride was the Tower of Terror. I've heard that it's not as good as the one in Orlando's MGM studios, though. The main reason we went to Disney on Christmas day was because of the night show they put up for Christmas. It was a pretty cool show. Other than that, they put up other shows, which were pretty cool, too. You can expect nothing less but great shows from Disney, unless.... They get canceled -_- The fireworks show was canceled because it was windy... In any case, Disney was a lot of fun :D

At the end of the month, I went with my Korean (Ken, Jieun, Jieun, Yumi, and Ken's friend) and Thai (Chutima) friends to Ken's host family house for New Year's. It was a great experience, because I got to have an authentic Japanese New Year's. We stayed at the Fujii's house (Ken's host family) for 3 days. Other than having tons of food those 3 days, we didn't do too much. The visit to the local shrine on midnight was a very nice experience. Then, on the next day, we did a hatsumoude (初詣), which is the first visit to a shrine on New Year's. I'm not sure that the visit before midnight counts XD Actually, it probably did :D I forgot to mention that we made mochi!!! Again, awesome times ^^

Overall, December was a blast of a month! January will soon follow ^_^

Update

Sorry guys for being sooooooooo terrible at updating my blog. I will try my best to update as soon as I can. I'm kind of busy at the moment with private lessons and whatnot. A lot of stuff happened since December. I'll try and summarize everything so that I won't have to type my whole journal up. Anyways, my friend Roee is coming to visit me from Israel on Wednesday. I'm realllllllllly happy that he's coming 'cause Justin left for Korea for a month and I was supposed to be here by myself, which is a bit lonely 'cause the apartment is pretty big XD Anyways, I'll try and update very soon. Sorry >_<

Update

I finally moved! Justin and I settled in on the 31st. The new place is great :)
I will update as soon as I can! I won't have an internet connection until Monday....