Crazy Finals Week

My bad, another week with hardly a post! That's okay, it was finals week for me so very busy. And since I made an A- in the second course (and an A in the first), I'd say it was definitely worth it!! Let me update you on my fun week.

Last Tuesday my mom made me obentos for lunch because Takumi also needed one for his summer camp-type activity. Summer vacation has started for the kids here; it's only about a month long. I bet if we had a shorter break in America, even two months instead of three, there wouldn't be so many dumb Americans.

We had really good pizza for dinner. :D

Look how cute my host dad and brother are!


On Wednesday I think I just studied all day. There was the first big final exam on Thursday, then a speech and test to prepare for on Friday. I procrastinated a lot but I ended up deciding to make a poster.

On Thursday my friends and I met Bjorn at the station. He was so late that I just ate my obento in the station, haha. Then he and my friends ate at a fish restaurant near Kaihimmakuhari station. After that, we went back to Kanda and he played Wii in the SALC with some English majors. Then we went to my house, played Othello, talked to my host brother, and I made my poster. For dinner we had monja!! It was really good but I failed at making it correctly. Fortunately my host mom made it beautifully, as you can see in the picture.

Friday

I was really nervous about my speech and the second final test, but they both turned out to go a lot better than I thought.

After class, my friends and I may or may not have gone to the Aeon to buy drinks before the Sayonara party. Haha. At the party, there was sushi, pizza, salad, and everyone's host families. Mine couldn't come due to very hard work at the end of every month, so I missed them. But I got to meet other people's families again and it was great. The first-year class each gave thank-you speeches but thankfully (ha) I didn't have to, being a second-year and with my host family not there.

Here's a picture with me, Sachi, Yuumi, and Rie (2 students from Kanda University). It got a little sad to think about everyone leaving the friends at KUIS and their host families, even though I don't have to until the 28th, and then I'll see my host family again on August 1st. I don't want such nice people to be halfway across the world from me! I hope we can see each other again. Most of the students have to go home on Sunday, so they got pretty sad. At least at the party it was fun. Here's Ethan and Robert giving their speeches.

After the Sayonara party, Robert, Ethan, and I went drinking with Sachi and her host mom and 12-year-old sister. :) Her host mom is sooo funny, loves getting drunk every Friday and doing crazy things. Every Monday Sachi would tell me about her host mom's antics the previous weekend (like pulling out the freezer drawer and falling down with ice cream everywhere) and I would say, "PLEASE let me hang out with your mom!!" So finally we did. :D And her host mom was so happy to meet me that she wrote "Caroline" on the calendar for Friday, haha.

Anyway, we went to a restaurant with plenty of alcohol and had a great time. Despite my efforts I actually did not get drunk at all but I did have some really delicious drinks, like mango yogurt cocktail (see photo) and one very colorful drink that was called, "Fairy in the Forest" (to Sachi's mom's great amusement) and was labeled "Carbon Offset", haha. Who knows why. Sachi's mom's friend and her daughter came to the drinking party too, and it was neat to meet them. The girl has a test in two days and the results will affect whether or not she can get a scholarship to go to Wisconsin for a year. She seemed so smart and great at English!

One of my friends having a good time at the restaurant. ;D

We all said goodbye after the restaurant and it got pretty sad. I rode the same train as Sachi so we said goodbye there. :( I miss her mom!!! And since Sachi goes to school in Massachusetts and lives in California/Hawaii, I probably won't get to see her much. But she's friends with a guy I knew from Hoggard, so she said she might carpool with him and come visit me. :D

Sachi's shoe tan.


Saturday (today)

I woke up delightfully late, read some emails, and then got ready for a day with uncertain plans. After looking through my Japan guidebook (thanks, Emily!) I decided during breakfast to go to Tokyo Station and Nihombashi. It was a good decision, but way too hot outside.

After arriving at Nihombashi station, I first visited the Nihombashi (Japan's Bridge) bridge. :) It is very famous and measured as the center of Tokyo. It was built in the Edo period and marked the origin/convergence of all of Japan's roads. It was rebuilt in 1911 as it is now.

I saw this really neat statue beneath it.

Then I walked around the area a little bit, lingering in front of air-conditioned door entrances. Just to cool off, I went into a famous store in Nihombashi, but when I saw the clearance shoes were 15,000 yen (more than $150) I felt both bored and uncomfortable so I left, haha. I saw this huge building that was so big it couldn't fit in my camera view, no matter how I moved around. On my walk, I went into the Tokyo station, which has a huuuge, underground mall in it. I got some omiyage and a little bit of air conditioning. Then I ate lunch at a fast-food but amazing Japanese place. I got pork with rice and miso soup for a total of 290 yen! That's maybe $3 or $3.50. It was maybe even healthy.

Then I walked all the way to the Tokyo International Forum past the Tokyo Station. It was SO HOT and yet I know it's worse in a lot of the US, dang. Anyway, the TIF was in my Japan guidebook for its awesome architecture, built like the hull of a boat, and it did not disappoint!

It was actually really breathtaking. There were a bunch of huge exhibition halls, and a teddy bear convention going on. ;) I would have gone in but it was 1000 yen! I am not that interested in teddy bears but a lot of Japanese people were.

Standing at this angle, at the very top, the building was really hot. I'm sure they didn't bother to air-condition the top, so it was probably a really energy-inefficient building. But so cool to see.

Then I walked really far to the Imperial Palace. I got lost, so a nice young guy helped set me on the right path and even walked with me for 5 minutes. I saw this awesome samurai statue in the park next to the palace gardens. I also saw a lot of people sleeping or resting in the short grass in the shade. I bet they were cooler than I was but I couldn't imagine sleeping outside anywhere in that heat.

I couldn't go even into the Imperial Palace gardens but the surrounding area was really cool. Here's the famous bridge that forms the entrance and a little glimpse of a part of the palace itself.

Because the palace occupies so much land in the center of Tokyo, surrounded by huge skyscrapers that were built so high because of the cost of land, it is said that the Imperial Palace sits on a piece of land worth more than all of California. Compare these pictures. They would form a panorama (top being left and bottom being right) if I weren't lazy with photoshop.

So much open space, you'd never think to find it in the middle of Tokyo!! And that's not even the gardens, it's just a huge path in front of the gardens.

By that time I had run out of water and was kind of miserable due to the heat. Ethan called and said he would eat dinner with his host family, so there was no reason for me not to return home. That was pretty good for me, actually; I was and still am exhausted. I bought some mango juice and took the fastest route home that didn't involve any more walking!

After an ice-cold shower and hot bath (which oddly felt really good on my aching feet that had been so hot earlier), I saw that my host mom had made tomato ramen!! I love it so much that she gave me the recipe so I can make it at UNC. Can't wait, that stuff is amazing for anyone who likes tomatoes.

Tomorrow I'm giving an English lesson in the morning to a boy named Kouki. I hope I am not a bad teacher! I've given Spanish lessons to English-speakers and English lessons to Spanish-speakers but never English lessons to Japanese-speakers. I hope we practice pronunciation a lot because I always know about that. :) My host mom lent me a textbook to use. The lesson will be two hours and then I'm eating lunch with his family. His parents are professional cooks so I bet it will be delicious!

In conclusion: I am so glad that my class is over although I really don't want to say goodbye to my friends. I want to stay here longer but part of me is ready to go back to the US. I wish I could have a longer no-school break, though. :)

The previous weekend :)

My apologies for the super-long break! I guess I was having too much fun. :D I'll do a brief summary of the past five days here, and then I'll be happy to answer any questions I left unaddressed in the comments or elsewhere.

On Friday I convinced Ethan to come swimming with me in a Japanese public pool. It was hilariously filled with faux-pas. For one, I was wearing a bikini while every other girl or woman was wearing a conservative one piece. I could hear all the little kids talking about me not-so-discreetly, but it was the only swimsuit I brought with me to Japan. Also, Ethan and I didn't have swimcaps even though we have short hair, so we had to borrow them. We also forgot goggles. Then we went in the walking lane with all the old people while there were tons of genki kids taking swim lessons from strict teachers all around us. It was pretty funny; at least Ethan could try to blend in with his half-Asianness.

On Saturday morning, I woke up really early (4:30am-ish) to go to the Tsukiji fish market. To any vegetarians or fish-lovers, you may want to just skip over this little bit if you don't like hearing about fish markets or seeing any such photos.

Tsukiji is a famous place that I read about in my Japan travelers' guide. Turns out there were a ton of fish! It was a neat place to see but after a few hours I got tired of 1) being accidentally in the way of people who actually needed to be there, 2) the sight of dead fish, and 3) people carrying fish accidentally touching me and getting me fishy. I was impressed with the huuuuuuge tuna fish (see photo), the number of people who were hard at work at 5 or 6am, the busy and cramped stalls, and the knives/machinery people were using to cut up fish. I was really not okay with seeing fish/seafood killed in inhumane ways; I couldn't watch and it made me want to leave. I also got tired of the wet floors and fishy smells.

Robert was thinking about meeting me there at some point, but since he came so late and it was getting really hot outside at like 8am, I decided to eat sushi by myself. It was overpriced right next to the market (because it was crawling with tourists) but I went for it anyway and just ordered three pieces (460 yen!). I sat next to some Spaniards and proceeded to humiliate myself with my now-terrible Spanish, haha. My sentences came out in Japanese more often than Spanish, even though I told them that I lived in Mexico for three weeks and I used to be pretty good at Spanish. They probably thought I was lying, haha. Anyway, it was fun to practice distinguishing two languages that sound sooooo similar and often use the same words (but with different definitions). Fun story: just now when I tried to type "different", I said "different" in my head but I typed "diferente." Anyway, kasa in Japanese is umbrella but the same pronunciation (casa) in Spanish is house. Kara in Japanese means many things, mostly "from", but in Spanish the same thing means face. Anyway. Cool. :D

I returned home after the fish market, jumped on the bed with Takumi instead of taking a nap like I wanted, and then we all left to visit my host mom's parents in western Tokyo. It took about 90 minutes or more to get there due to traffic, but we played fun car games in Japanese. :D

At the house, Namiko, her mom, and her sister Sachiko dressed me in a real kimono! Some Japanese women have never even worn one, and most don't know how to put one on, or can't do it by themselves.

The final product was awesome! Toasty warm, though. This kimono is about 1,000,000 yen, and the obi is the same price too, making the entire outfit $20,000! Earlier I thought it was just $2,000 (still hugely expensive) but my host mom corrected me; I forgot a zero. Can you believe it?? It's only for 20-year-olds, for the ceremony of becoming an adult at age 20.

After we took pictures, we all went to a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant (fourth time since being here). This picture is funny because no one is smiling but we were actually all really happy. The sushi was great! Namiko's mom treated everyone, and then we ate watermelon and cake for dessert at home.

I went to bed early because I was so tired from my early morning. Then the next day, we relaxed, played board games, and ate more watermelon. :) I lost Othello every time except once. For lunch we went out to a restaurant and I got soba made with green tea, so good.

My host mom surprised me with a really, really beautiful and high-quality yukata before we left for the trip! Her mom then gave me an obi to go with the yukata. So that my mom won't freak out, I can't write the price here. Here is a picture of me wearing the yukata and the obi, which is really difficult to tie. I wrote instructions for how to do it on Facebook, but I now know how to do it myself. :) The more times I do it, the better it will look and the softer my obi will become. I can't wait to show it off at UNC Japan Club and at my apartment sometime when I'm feeling fancy. :D

Then we all went to a huge outlet mall. I didn't buy much, but I saw this funny shirt.

We returned home late that night and I studied a little. Then the next day, I went to a nomihoudai party with the United Nations University interns in Shibuya. It was great fun! Here's a picture of me with some new friends. I was really happy at that time. :D

Apparently everyone in America thinks Inception is the greatest movie ever made, so here's a giant poster of it from Shibuya station that I saw last night. Included in this picture is another not-too-common sight: PDA! Although I think it's becoming more popular among young people to have PDA despite the older generation seeing it as a sign of weakness and disrespect.

Today was normal class with a test and impending doom about the final exams on Thursday and presentation on Friday. To kill the stress effectively for an hour or two (only to have it rebound spectacularly on my end later), some friends and I ate some ice cream. I got Pop-Rocks ice cream and it was delightful.

Tonight my host mom told me that her neighbors want me to teach their son some English next week. It'll be fun but I'm nervous! He's 12, likes sports, and has learned only a little English at school, or at least that's what he told me on the phone. I was really excited that I could understand his and his mom's Japanese over the phone tonight; that's usually the most difficult thing about learning another language. I know Spanish is nearly impossible over the phone. Maybe I'm getting better at Japanese than I thought! Although yesterday, I saw a young boy crying in the road, and I asked him if everything was okay. I couldn't understand his answer at ALLLLLLLL so I just stood there awkwardly until he told me things were okay. But at least he stopped crying because weird foreigners are interesting to look at.

After dinner, I explained American discrimination to my host mom, who had thought that in America, discrimination wasn't too common (neither based on race nor on sexual orientation). I told her that it's quite the opposite in many places! It was pretty difficult to explain American racism, because most racist things are now illegal but social racism is everywhere.  I also explained some of economic and cultural discrepancies between whites and blacks in America, and their origins in slavery and male-oriented black culture (regarding HIV and unplanned pregnancies which often keep young black women from meeting their goals). And as for gay issues, she thought that because in San Fran that gay people can get married, it must be a really open country. But I showed her some pictures from the hate crime in Wilmington last year and told her about Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the UNC LGBTQ trip. Then I tried to explain the effect of religion on gay discrimination... so hard to do in Japanese but I think I did it. :)

That's the end for now.

Various fun times from the last few days

Today was my host mom's birthday! Every year my host family goes to the same restaurants for each person's birthday and gets a picture taken. My host mom showed me all of the pictures last week, and they are really great. I'm glad to be in one of them! Takumi made a face in last year's picture, and I thought that was funny. He was just a baby in the first one. :) But in this picture, I couldn't stop laughing at how he looks. He fell asleep midway through dinner and couldn't wake up for the picture at the end. Namiko said, "Our one memory from tonight..." Click on this picture, it's too funny. He looks adorable!

Namiko got a really great haircut today. I think she looks lovely with both kinds of hair but possibly more energetic yet dignified with shorter hair.

We had a great time at dinner eating really small food that tasted so good. Here's a picture of Tomoaki posing with his "Bikkuri Bomb" (Surprisingly Huge Bomb of Food), which was a hamburger with an egg in the middle of it. See?

I think Takumi likes me now because of how I treated him yesterday. I sat down to write my report yesterday afternoon when I heard him crying from the other room. I wasn't sure what to do and his parents weren't home. Trying to get him to explain the problem to me took awhile because he was so distraught. Thankfully I understood his mid-sob Japanese and learned that no, he wasn't in intense emotional or physical pain, but that he had lost his hat. :) I know it's a big deal to lose one's school uniform hat but it was very cute and I tried not to laugh. He kept saying, "I lost my hat, it's gone away, and now I can't go to school again!" I tried to console him and say that he could probably find the hat or get a new one, but that didn't work. So I got him some tissues and a glass of water, and that seemed to help. Then we called his mom so he could tell her. I wasn't sure exactly what to do so I got my computer, pulled up some old-school English Pokemon videos and a Super Mario Brothers video, and showed them to him. That really cheered him up. :) Then his dad came home after finding the hat and everything was a-okay again. :) But soon after, he climbed into my lap to watch more videos with me. Then today, he slowly and carefully explained to me that he wanted me to watch Pokemon with him at 7pm. :) That was really nice of him.

Yesterday and today I was worrying about some things in the US that I'll have to deal with when I return. But I realized that those thoughts are distracting me from enjoying the present, so I decided not to check my email until I got home today, after studying with my friends. Good decision!!

Anyway, today after dinner I taught my host mom some of the English phrases she had trouble with while watching Sex and the City. Some of those quotes were pretty hilarious to translate. I never noticed how many difficult metaphors are commonly used in English!  "Up to his ears" was a fun one to teach, "I don't buy into that crap" was also fun. "Dildos", "emotionally detached", and "hooking up" were interesting to try to explain, but I was at least glad that I don't have to sugarcoat anything; Namiko appreciates bluntness in definitions, it seems.

I love learning both the meanings and literal translations of words in Japanese. For instance, I think it's cool that "bathroom" in English doesn't always have a bath in it, and the Japanese equivalent, "otearai" means "place for washing hands" although obviously that's not the only reason people go there. One thing that I think is funny is the translations I make in my head for what Takumi is saying. He's only 8 years old but he says things that translate as, "Indeed" and "Is that so?" and "Right before my eyes!" and "After all..." These are all very common things to say in Japanese but to me they sound so formal coming from someone who hides under the blankets on the couch. :)

I think I was mistaken when I compared the tones of English, Japanese, and Spanish. I think what I was actually trying to say was stress. English is full of stress, which makes good rap. Spanish has accent marks and unaccented stress that sounds very regular and even, like music or poetry. Japanese has some stress but very, very little compared to English. I recognized this when I learned about Japanese rap, which has artificially-added stress, and when I was watching Japanese game shows and thought, "There's no way those tones are staying even!" :) If you ever walk into a Japanese store, the store owner will say, "IrrashaimasseeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEE" hahaha. It sometimes sounds pretty annoying. There's no stress in the word but the tone is all over the place.

I also noticed stress in Japanese because there is a person in my class who has not grasped this concept at ALL. This person not only stresses Japanese words too much, this person stresses EVERY SYLLABLE as though it's an individual exclamation, and fails to produce any soft R sounds (which in Japanese are so soft they sound like Ls). Maybe sometime I'll try to make a video but it is like a constant grating on my ears. Have you ever had a Spanish class where someone says, "Yo Quay Ro Uh-nuh Quay Say Dil La"? It's like that, except so much worse. That's the end of my rant for this week.

Yesterday there was a neat fashion show during lunch at my university. Here are some photos from it.

My favorite dress is the short black and silver one on the right. There was a great DJ playing awesome mixes during the fashion show. I really appreciate all the great entertainment at Kanda University; there's always someone performing in the courtyard next to the cafeteria, it seems. Today there was a screamy rock band playing Linkin Park and a number of other loud bands. It makes it difficult to talk to friends at lunch but it's always exciting. :)

I've been so tired that I have to go to bed now, sorry for the disorder in this post. But I fell sleep today once in class during a break, and twice on the trains! No worries, I jerk awake when the train stops or when my head hits the window, haha.

I greatly fear my next week's schedule. Monday is a holiday, there is a 2-chapter test on Tuesday, one final exam on Thursday, one final exam on Friday, and a huge, 25%-of-grade presentation on Friday (after the test) that is not even done right now. How am I supposed to have fun with all this impending doom? I'll manage somehow... :)

The sky today as I arrived home:

Back to school...

Today was a little bit tough, but not compared to the previous days. :)

I got off to a little bit of a late start today but (thankfully?) the trains on my route got delayed significantly due to strong winds. I got a late pass and was 20 minutes late to class. So were three of my classmates and a number of other people associated with my program, so it was okay. I'm just glad the trains were not damaged.

However, because of the long delay, more and more people piled into the station waiting for a train in the direction I had to go. So I got on the first one... possibly a mistake on my part, because it ended up being the worst manindensha (jam-packed train) I've been on so far. I was smashed into this pole on one side and had to support my weight with both of my arms hanging from the handlebars because I was leaning over into the personal space of a seated person. If I hadn't been holding myself up from the bars, I would have fallen into him. Also, there was only enough space on the floor of the train for ONE of my feet!! So my arms got really tired from holding myself up, and I wished that I had my iPod to make me feel more comfortable; I had left it at home. This isn't my photo but it looks a lot like my train this morning.

The manindensha wasn't so bad for me even though it was really sweaty and hot in there. But I was getting pretty discouraged because I saw all of these strong yet tired salarymen sleeping on their seats while an elderly woman was getting smushed in the center of the crowd whenever the train took a sharp turn. The poor woman looked really miserable and there was nothing for her to hold onto except the other people pressing into her. But no matter how many people there were in the train, there was still enough space for everyone to smush someone against the opposite door during a turn, and the poor woman couldn't pick up her feet that fast. :/ Fortunately, the ride was soon over.

Class today went well, I think. It was from 9-4:30 instead of 9-12:30. Looong day... but lunch was nice! I ate some leftover curry rice and bamboo rice that my host mom made for me. :D It was so yummy, and I didn't have to buy lunch at school which costs more.

It was nice to see Robert again after our crazy trip. :) I wish I could have seen Ethan too. I feel like we bonded a lot over our alternating grueling and relaxing/fun experiences last week, so I feel a lot closer to them. We actually liiiiiiiiived! I told Robert I felt like we were in the awkwardly hilarious bed-jumping reunion scene from Return of the King. :) OH SAHM. I'm sure at one point on Mt. Fuji I said, "I'm glad you're here with me, Sam... here at the end of all things." It went well with Robert frequently saying in an Elrond accent, "CAST IT INTO THE FIRE! Destroy it! Isilduuuuuuuuur!" :D Besides, we basically looked like this at the end:

My friends learned on the mountain that I am a huge nerd about Lord of the Rings and astronomy. S'okay, though. Anyway, after school, I talked to Ishikawa-sensei and thanked her for helping us get bus tickets to Mt. Fuji. I showed her my blog and told her about our trip. She didn't think we would make it to the top, haha. BUT WE DID OH YES.

Anyway, it's my bedtime. I've got two tests and a lot of school work to do tomorrow. :( It's funny that today's blog has no actual photos of Japan taken by me today. :)

Mt. Fuji Trip: Day 4, Lake Kawaguchiko

On Saturday, we woke up at 9am and got ready to be dropped off at the Kawaguchiko station at 10am. But before we left, Hirose-san had us take pictures with a photo of Mimi-san and all of us together at a nice table. Then he gave us an omamori of Mimi-san. He was really sweet. :) Then he took us to the bus station, informed us that we could leave our luggage with a store owner across the street while we went to the lake, and gave us directions to the lake. That was SO HELPFUL! We were sad to say goodbye to him but grateful for all of his help, and his really cheap price for rooms. :)

We bought Fuji-san posters from the store owner while we left our luggage there. It was a big change from two days previous, when we were saying, "I definitely do not want to buy a poster of that mountain!! I don't want to see it ever again!" Hahaha, the disgust went away with the aching legs, although mine still feel a little sore even now.

In the souvenir store, we saw some people wearing UNC gear!! They were from Spain but had taught at UNC as TAs for two years! It was so cool to speak to them. I tried to speak in Spanish but only Japanese came out, haha. They attempted to climb Mt. Fuji the previous night but had to turn around due to weather.

Then we walked 5-10 minutes to Lake Kawaguchiko. The weather was absolutely beautiful. We ate lunch and then got some amazing lavender, vanilla, and peach ice cream. The boys got the same except grape instead of vanilla. We all agreed that the peach was the best, even though lavender was amazing too. I want to eat it again!

We remembered seeing this lake from the top of Mt. Fuji, but it was a million times more peaceful and more comfortable here. :) There were parks and happy Japanese people all over the place. We also found a number of foreigners. From the opposite side of the lake, on the bridge, we could see a picturesque view of Mt. Fuji, and suddenly we wanted tons of pictures of it instead of fearing it. :) Isn't it incredible? We still can't believe we climbed it. 

The opposite side of the lake was also incredibly beautiful, although the mountains were about half the size of Mt. Fuji. 

Here is the view of Fuji from a very peaceful park along the lake. The temperature was absolutely perfect with a cool wind. I wanted to sleep in the park so much!! 

We explored around the area, saw a neat old temple in a slightly creepy wooded area, and looked at the gift shop of the Yamanashi Gem Museum. Our bus back to Shinjuku was at 4:30pm, so we had to return to Kawaguchiko station. On our way home, we saw the Fujiyama rollercoaster again and I REALLY wanted to ride it one more time. What a perfect coaster it was.

This day was very relaxing and pleasant, just as we had hoped it would be. We reflected on what a perfect vacation trip it had been, and how lucky we all were to experience Mt. Fuji and the surrounding area with friends. It really was a once in a lifetime experience. We slept on the bus ride home and woke up in Tokyo, in a completely different but equally beautiful landscape. On our bus on the way home, this was our last view of Mt. Fuji.