bikkuri: Learning about Japan the Hard Way (English)

September 19, 2001

The End - I'm down to my last week in Japan, and my internet connection will be terminated tomorrow. That marks the end of this web page. It's amazing how fast a year goes by. This page will still be around until my account gets removed from Evergreen's web server, but don't expect any new updates. Thanks for reading!

*Note - For those who are interested, I'll be arriving in Seattle on the morning of the 25th, assuming nothing happens to make my flight be canceled.

September 12, 2001

Woah - After getting to the hotel from Disneyland, I got a call on my cell phone from one of my friends. He simply told me to turn on the TV. I was greeting to images of only one tower of the World Trade Center standing with smoke billowing out of the top of it. This was being played on almost every single channel in Tokyo. Normally I'd make some sarcastic comment about this, but I think I'll refrain this time. Incidentally, security was a lot tighter on the way back from Tokyo than it was on the way there. Is it me, or have most of the things happening lately been depressing?

Disneytyphoon - The typhoon that had been sitting off the coast of Japan for a week finally decided to head inland, right into Tokyo. My flight to Tokyo wasn't cancelled, but was delayed for 2 hours as they waited for the storm to move north. When we finally arrived in Tokyo, it was pouring rain with 70km/hr winds. Not to bad considering it was 120km/hr a few hours earlier. The bad part is that it was raining at Disneyland for the first 4 hours we were there, and some of the rides weren't running. The good part was that there wasn't anyone there so we could walk directly on to the rides. Ironically, I was soaked before I even rode Splash Mountain.

September 9, 2001

Okinawa Trip - Well, my trip to Okinawa turned out to be a quite "interesting" ordeal. I looked at the week-long weather report before leaving, and according to that, it was supposed to be clear or partly cloudy the whole time. The weather was great on the 24-hour long ferry ride from Kagoshima to Naha (the largest city in Okinawa). After arriving in Naha, we took a taxi to the next ferry port, and the driver took one look at the clouds near the setting sun and said that a typhoon would come within a week. I looked at the week-long weather report again, and it still said clear and partly cloudy. After another 14-hour long ferry ride, we arrived in Ishigaki. The weather was still great. We did some shopping and then got on the next ferry to Iriomote Island. After a short 50 minutes, we arrived at our destination. A quick bus-ride later, we were at the "Hoshi no suna" (sand of the stars) campsite. The first thing we did was set up the tents, and then went swimming. I couldn't help but notice the dark clouds that were coming over the hills, but didn't really think much of them. By night time, it was pouring rain. The next day we decided to head back to Miyazaki due to flooding in the hills which made hiking impossible. The next day we hopped on the boat back to Ishigaki, then found out that the boat to Naha didn't leave until 6:00 am the next morning. After staying in a youth hostel, we got on the ferry in weather that looked like the beginning of a typhoon. Sure enough, on the way to Naha they announced that a typhoon was behind us. We arrived in Naha at about 10:00 pm with no problems. Once again we stayed in a youth hostel (a very nice one, at that), and awoke to the sound of water coming in from under the doors and windows. The rain outside was falling vertically. Wondering if the plane to Miyazaki would actually take off, we went to Naha Airport, and luckily the plane did leave. Apparently, they are used to taking off in typhoons in Okinawa. So that ended my Okinawa trip, with literally half the time spent on a ferry.

I'm going to Disneyland! - I'll be going to Tokyo Disneyland from the 10th to the 11th, so don't expect any updates during that time.

August 30, 2001

Another Earthquake - I was woken up last night to my room shaking, just long enough to think "oh, another earthquake," before going back to sleep.

Photo Gallery Update - Here's something I haven't done in a while: actually upload some new photos! You can find the pictures that I took on my trip to Honshuu in the Photo section.

Okinawa Trip - Assuming that a typhoon doesn't come, I will be going to Okinawa with the mountain climbing club from the second to the tenth of September. Apart from Oita Prefecture, that covers all of Kyuushuu.

August 21, 2001

First "Typhoon" Experience - Japan's first typhoon of the year came over the past three days, and I have to say I'm severely disappointed. The wind never really got above 35 mph, and the rainfall was not much different from a normal heavy rain. The winter storms that Seattle gets are a lot more interesting that this "typhoon" was. Hopefully the next one will be stronger.

Honshuu Trip - I think I finally recovered from my two week trip to Kyoto, Matsumoto, and Tokyo. I had already been to Kyoto before, so that wasn't very impressive to me. Matsumoto left one impression on me: There are places even more rural than Miyazaki. And here I thought stores closing at 8:00 pm was bad. The best part of the trip for me was being able to see Tokyo. I spent most of my time in Shibuya, which is where all of the young people hang out. I saw many interesting things, from a store called "Condomania," to Japanese hippies. Tokyo is definitely a place I'd like to visit again in the future, but after hearing the rent prices, I still don't think I'd want to live there.

Essay Update - Even though my academic contract is already over, I decided to translate and upload the speech I gave for the Japanese Culture class in July. You can find it in the Essay Section under "Living in a Foreign Country."

July 31, 2001

Lets go to Kyoto! - Today, I will be getting on an airplane to Kansai Airport. After a one night stop at my friend's house in Kobe, I will meet my parents at the airport, and head off to Kyoto. From there I will go to Matsumoto, Nagano-ken and Tokyo. I just hope I don't die from the heat in Kyoto. I will be gone until August, 15, so there won't be any updates between now and the time I get back.

July 20, 2001

Two months left - Except for a report and one last final, I've finished my studies at Miyazaki University. Now I get figure out how to keep myself occupied for the two months I have left here.

Good movie - Today I went to see Hayao Miyazaki's new anime, "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi," or "The Mysterious Disappearance of Sen and Chihiro." It's a story about a girl and her family who go to an old abandoned theme park to discover a strange new world. I don't want to give away any of it, so I'll just say that it's a very interesting story with impressive animation. It's drawn in the standard Gibili style, but uses computer graphics more than the past Studio Gibili movies. It has some truly amazing scenes, so I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys quality animation.

June 18, 2001

The Long Needed Update - Yes, yes, yes... I know I haven't updated in over two weeks. To make up for it, I have another essay for you all to read and enjoy. Ok, maybe not enjoy, but read it to see my take on the Japanese social class system.

Japanese Linguistics Presentation - COMPLETED - After worrying about it for 2 months, I finally gave my presentation about Dialects today. I'd say it went about as well as can be expected for someone with my level of Japanese. The students all seemed to enjoy it, and I actually went over the allotted hour and a half. And here I was worried that it would be too short... You can see the materials I wrote in the Essay Section, but beware, they are in Japanese.

Absentee Graduation - Last Friday was The Evergreen State College's graduation ceremony, and I couldn't go. I guess it is a little unfortunate that I had to miss it, but spending $650 just to walk across a stage didn't make much sense to me. At any rate, I only have about 3 months left here in Japan, so I'm afraid I'll be busy getting everything I want to do done. With any luck I'll come back at some later time, but I really don't know where my life will end up when I get back. Best enjoy my time here while I can.

June 3, 2001

The Non-surgery Update - After all the tests and x-rays, they finally determined that it was a virus, not appendicitis, that was causing Rebecca's pain. She's got out of the hospital about five days ago, and is almost completely recovered. After seeing what she had to go through in the past two weeks, I sure hope I don't get sick in Japan.

May 26, 2001

New Essay - After a month of being a slacker, I finally wrote a new essay. Just a note that this essay is based more on observation that personal experience, so take it with a grain of salt. Sometimes there are things that can't be observed. The topic, "Gender Roles in Relationships."

May 22, 2001

Appendix Surgery Update - It turns out that it may or may not be Rebecca's appendix. Apparently the doctors seem to be having a hard time diagnosing what the problem is. She does seem to be getting better, so hopefully it will go away long enough for her to go home and see a real doctor.

Profile Update - Ok, it's not so much of an "Update" as it is that I finally put something in the Profile section. If you are interested in seeing my typical weekly schedule, go take a look.

May 15, 2001

Appendix Surgery - Today, Rebecca, the student from New Zealand had to go to the hospital to have her appendix removed. It's a good thing she has the national insurance, especially since they are making her stay there a week.

May 13, 2001

Photo Update - Ok, I guess it's only one photo, but it's better than nothing. A few people were commenting on how "brown" Miyazaki looks, so I figured I'd post a new picture of the view from my room. You can find it in the "My Room" section of the photo collection.

April 26, 2001

Another Earthquake - I felt another earthquake last night at about 10:20 pm. This one was weaker than the previous (about a 3.0 in Miyazaki), and was centered to the north. It was also a short one, only lasting around 10 seconds.

Another Trip - I'll be in Kobe for a week starting tomorrow, so there won't be any updates during that time.

April 24, 2001

Essay Collection Update - It's a little short, but I completed another essay. This one is on Japan and how the average age of the population is getting older. Go take a look at "Aging Society" in the essay collection.

April 14, 2001

Essay Collection Update - I finally stopped slacking off and wrote another essay. This one is more of an analytical essay rather than a reflective one. The topic: educational differences between America and Japan.

April 8, 2001

Photo Collection Update - I completed the photo gallery for the Yakushima hiking trip I went on. Go take a look and see how much FUN we had.

April 7, 2001

Student Activity Fair - Today was the student activity fair, where all of the student groups hunt for freshmen to recruit. It was quite different from the activity fair at Evergreen. The Evergreen groups just sort of sit and wait for people to ask questions, whereas the Miyazaki groups hunt down anyone who looks like a freshmen and give them flyers. It sort of resembled a vulture feeding frenzy.

A New Semester - The first semester has officially started at Miyazaki University. I still haven't decided all of the classes I'm going to take, but it looks like it's going to be the following: Intro to Electricity, Intermediate Japanese V, Advanced Japanese I & II, Japanese Culture II & III, Japanese Education Exercises, Lecture on Japanese Literature, Calligraphy, and Intro to Information Science. This adds up for a grand total of 17 credits, or at least it would if I was actually getting credits for this.

April 1, 2001

Photo Collection Update - I uploaded pictures from a practice hiking trip I went on two weeks ago. Take a look if you want to see what the hills are like around Miyazaki.

No more counter - It looks like the current economic slowdown is affecting counter services as well. Since the free counter service I was using terminated its free counter, I erased it. The final number of hits stood at 560.

March 24, 2001

First Earthquake! (that I've felt) - Well, I experienced my first earthquake here in Japan, and it felt like a 3.4 or so here in Miyazaki. It was 6.4 centered between Honshu and Shikoku, near Hiroshima. It looks like the standard broken windows and dishes-falling-off-the-shelves damage in Hiroshima. I'm still upset about missing that 6.8 in Seattle.

Monday's Trip - I'll be going on a hiking/camping trip to Yakushima on Monday, so I probably won't be able to update for a week or so. I'll post pictures when I get back.

Bargaining in Japan - I bought a digital camera the other day, and had my first experience with price bargaining. I got the store to lower the price 7000 Yen. The final price was 53000 Yen ($440). Not bad for a camera that has a list price of $800, and an internet price of $530.

March 19, 2001

Photo Update - It's about 2 months late, but I posted pictures of Miyazaki's Coming of Age Ceremony. You can find them under "Festival Photos" in the photo section.

Hiking Trip! - I went on a practice hike in preparation for the trip to Yakushima. The weather was perfect: about 70 °F (21 °C).

Vacation Break - I must say, after going on vacation after vacation, it's nice to have nothing to do for a few days. I'll give you a short overview of each trip below:

Feb 23 - Meeting with the Elementary School Kids
I must admit, this was a pretty fun trip. I got to play kickball and dodge ball with a bunch of elementary school kids. Afterwards, we played some Japanese games that I really didn't get the point of, but it was fun anyway.

Feb 24 - Ice Skating and stuff
We drove for 2 hours to go ice skating, but when we got there, it turned out the ice had melted so we couldn't skate. We also didn't go to a hot spring. We did get some free alcohol, though.

Feb 26 - A Natural Hot spring
Ok, it turns out it wasn't a natural hot spring, but it was a really nice indoor/outdoor hot spring in Kumamoto. Going with 6 girls wasn't so bad, either.

Feb 28 - Fukuoka
This trip actually turned out to be the least interesting. The person who I went with caught a cold, so basically I did everything myself. To top it all off, it rained most of the time. Nevertheless, I did see enough to discover that Fukuoka is a really nice city. If I ever live in Japan, a place like Fukuoka would be nice.

Mar 3 - Nagasaki
Although this trip was supposed to be free, it actually ended up costing around 1500 Yen. It seems that the school didn't get enough money from the government to cover all of the costs. We did get to see a lot of places, including: an amusement park, a Dutch town, the Atomic Bomb Museum, and Peace Park. By far the most memorable thing was the natural hot spring. After smelling that, I think I'll stick with the unnatural ones.

Mar 7 - Seagaia
Since I got some free tickets for this place, I figured I'd go. It actually ran out of money last year, and for some reason is still operating. I think I understand why no one goes. It's expensive, and not that interesting. There's a large wave pool, two water slides, and a tube slide. Going once is more than enough.

Mar 8 - Osaka, Kobe
This trip had the potential to be very fun, but turned out to be average. Unfortunately, the time I picked to go was the time that all of my friends were busy. I did get to see all of my friends at least once, and was finally able to buy some root beer. The thing that I remember most about this trip is how cold it was. It snowed in Miyazaki right before I left, and snowed in Kobe for the first few days I was there. That is not a good thing when you are staying in an apartment with no insulation and no central heating.

February 23, 2001

Photo Update - Finally got around to making the HTML for the photos of a trip to Sun Messe Park. Check them out in the photo section.

Suddenly Busy - Just when you thought I would actually start doing regular updates again, I'm not going to be able to update much in the next few weeks. For those of you who are curious, here is my schedule for the next three weeks or so:

Friday, Feb 23 - Talk about American games/food/etc with Elementary School students.
Saturday, Feb 24 - Go to an Ice Skating rink, a hot spring, and various other sight-seeing spots around Miyazaki
Monday, Feb 26 - Go to a natural hot spring
Wednesday, Feb 28 - Go to Fukuoka (the largest city on Kyuushuu)
Saturday, Mar 3 - Go to Nagasaki (south of Fukuoka) on a school-sponsored trip for free!
Wednesday, Mar 7 - Go to Seagaia, a water-amusement park in Miyazaki.
Thursday, Mar 8 - Go to Osaka for 1 or 2 days, then move on to Kobe, then perhaps Kyoto and/or Nara until the 15th or so.
Monday, Mar 26 - Go camping on Yakushima, an island off of Kagoshima Prefecture.

February 22, 2001

Interactive Photo Map - I created sort of a "virtual photo tour" of Miyazaki University using Flash. You can access it from the Photos area.

February 17, 2001

A Semi-New Essay Update - I added another essay about drinking to the essay collection. It's a revised version of the original "Have a drink" essay.

January 16, 2001

New Essay - I finally stopped slacking and wrote another cultural essay. This time the topic is "bullying." You can find it in the essay collection.

Winter at last - The weather has finally gotten cold here in Miyazaki. After having temperatures in the 10s (Celsius) for the past month, they finally got down to the freezing level. It makes me even more happy that I bought this Kerosene heater.

January 10, 2001

New Millennium - Well, we finally made it to the 21st century and the third millennium. Not that any of that really matters, since our entire system of date and time is entirely arbitrary. Anyway, now we can all accidentally write "2000" on all of our checks for the next month or so.

Photo Collection Update - I uploaded pictures from the new year festivities here in Miyazaki. I have quite a few pictures from other events to upload, but don't have the time or inclination to do it now.

December 30, 2000

Photo Collection Update - I updated the Photo section with pictures from my trip to Kagoshima. I also had the pictures from Mr. Butterworth's party developed, and will post them as time permits.

December 25, 2000

Merry Christmas - Well, Christmas has already come and almost gone in Japan (it's 11:25pm). For those who don't know, Christmas in Japan is kind of like New Years in America, and New Years in Japan is like Christmas in America. Tonight there was a large party with lots of good food, drink, and dancing. Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas in whatever way you choose to spend it.

Trip to Kagoshima - I'll be going on a trip to Kagoshima tomorrow, so don't expect any updates for the next few days. I'll try to post some pictures from the trip when I get back.

Busy December - Between all of the year-end parties, contests, and gift shopping, December is an incredibly busy month. Hopefully I will be able to update more often when the new year comes.

December 17, 2000

Mr. Butterworth's Christmas Party - After the speech contest was over, I moved right on to the next order of business, a Christmas party at Mr. Butterworth's (the American/European Culture teacher at Miyazaki University) house. There were probably somewhere around 60 to 80 people there, which is a lot when you consider the average size of a Japanese house. There was much conversation, eating, and caroling to be had. At the end, we did a gift exchange. I decided to take pictures with a regular camera this time, because I needed a flash. I'll post them after I get them developed.

Speech Contest - I managed to survive my first Japanese speech contest, even though I lost. It still was a good experience, though. I managed to only botch my lines twice throughout the entire six minute speech. The prize for entering the contest was 5000 yen (~$45) worth of book coupons, so at least I got something for my effort. The winners were as follows:

Award of Outstanding Excellence - Sulesta Bin Prasado (Nepal)
Award of Excellence - Kutsu Gi (China)
Special Honor - Seong Jiuong (Korea)

Clothes Shopping in Japan - I made an interesting discovery the other day. Being the average American height in Japan is very convenient. Whenever I went clothes shopping in America, I could never find clothes in my size, but since people my height are rare in Japan, usually my size clothes are the only ones left.

December 10, 2000

Photo Collection Update - You can now see my room in all of its glory by selecting "My Room" under the Photo Collection page.

December 9, 2000

Essay Collection Update - I added the transcript for the speech I will be giving on the 16th to the Essay Collection. It's titled "Americans and Japanese say 'It's weird here!'." Unlike the rest of the essays, I wrote this one in Japanese first, and then translated it to English.

December 4, 2000

Update - I'm afraid that I won't be able to update very often in the next two weeks. I'm currently busy with preparations for a speech I have to give on the 16th of this month. I will update as time permits.

November 29, 2000

Dinner Party - Well, I experienced my first high-class Japanese Dinner Party yesterday, and since I never really went to any equivalent parties in the US, I have nothing to compare it to. The party was a congratulation party for Ms. Mori Wafuu, the calligraphy teacher at Miyazaki University. She apparently received some sort of achievement award from Miyazaki Prefecture sometime in November. I must admit, it seemed pretty odd having someone put on their own congratulation party, but I guess that's how things are done in Japan. Another rather surprising thing was that there were a bunch of Japanese drag queens (okama) there. They were providing entertainment such as dancing and singing, and they brought people their food and drinks. It's quite amazing how feminine some Japanese guys can look and act. Saruul was convinced that one of them was a girl for a long time. Most of the other guests were teachers and company managers. Unfortunately, another Japanese custom is that the personal guests of the party's host have to sit in the back of the room. This means that I didn't really get an opportunity to talk with many people. I did meet the owner of a museum and the owner of a curtain shop. They told me to be sure to come and visit them, but I'm still not sure if that was a real invitation or just a standard departing phrase. At any rate, it was free food and entertainment, and an opportunity to see a different part of Japanese culture.

November 26, 2000

Essay Collection Update - There is a new essay in the Essay Collection. This one is about Japan and Drinking.

Photo Gallery Update - I added a few pictures to the Friends and Acquaintances section of the photo gallery.

November 24, 2000

Update - Since I didn't do anything interesting today, I won't bore you with the details. However, I did manage to fix the site so it works correctly with Netscape.

November 23, 2000	- gobble, gobble

Photo Gallery Update - I've added some pictures of friends and acquaintances to the Photo Gallery. Take a look if your interested in the kind of people that are living in the International Dorm.

Thanksgiving - Well, Thanksgiving day has arrived, except that there is no Thanksgiving in Japan. Today is known as "kinroukansha no hi," or Labor Appreciation Day. It's basically the same holiday as the U.S. Labor Day. So, to all of you in the U.S., Happy Thanksgiving!

November 22, 2000

Wednesday Lunch - After a leisurely morning, I enjoyed another one of my weekly lunches with Mr. Hirase (an English Teacher at Miyazaki University). The other attendees were Isabella, Johanna, Rebecca, Hiroko, Makiko, and Kana. While we were feasting on our exquisite rice balls, we talked about a wide variety of things, ranging from why Rebecca doesn't talk very much to why America still hasn't chosen its next president (I am asked this question on a daily basis). There may have been some meaningful conversation somewhere in there, but I either didn't understand it, or already forgot about it.

Calligraphy - We had another exciting day of calligraphy class. After a 45 minute lecture about life, spirit, and a bunch of other stuff that I partially understood, we started in on the excitement: practicing the five basic strokes. There's nothing more stimulating that writing the same strokes 100 times. It always amazes me how much paper is used every class. It's enough to give most Greeners a heart attack, especially when everyone throws it in the garbage (not recycling) at the end of class. After the second class, the teacher called Saruul and me up to talk to her. She invited us to a "high-class" dinner party that she will be having on Tuesday, the 28th. Now I get to show a bunch of Doctors, Artists, Politicians, and Teachers how bad I am at Japanese. I'm looking forward to it.

November 21, 2000

Opening Comments - Welcome to bikkuri, a personal web page about my experiences in Japan. The web page is currently under development (obviously), so please continue to check back as more information is added.