1000 words.. no picture..

4/24 - 5/12

Yeah... I know.. I'm sorry I haven't updated in a long time.. but it's been crazy with homework. The biggest thing was a lecture I was supposed to give about the Japanese Contemporary Economy and I ended up having to do a lot of research to cover the time requirement of 90 minutes. I've never given that long of a presentation for class.. so it was a little strange and tiresome to have to do all the prep work for it. It turned out okay though and I managed to fulfil all of the requirements and the teacher seemed happy so yes.. Though that took a lot of time though, it hasn't been all work. I was busy enjoying some vacation time for something called "Golden Week" over here. It just so happens that in Japan, there are 3 holidays in a row in the beginning of May and so what happens is that usually people get the whole week off. My college however.. didn't feel like being nice and made us come on the Monday and Tuesday instead. Nonetheless.. it was a 5 day weekend and boy did it feel good.
But before that, I guess I should describe more what happened before that. The last week of April was pretty much homework and such but there were a few key events that happened. On the 29th, I went to baseball as I said I would. The game started around 6 and getting there was not hard. It's less than 30 minutes from my house and all I pretty much did was follow the huge crowds wearing Tiger baseball uniforms who were carrying mini baseball bats, coolers, and everything else associated with a baseball game. I went with one of the other exchange students, Stuart from Australia, and we me up some other friends there as well. Just something I found strange (but nice) was that in Japan, at the baseball games, people are allowed to bring beer in. At home, I'm pretty sure that at events, be it athletic etc..., people are not allowed to bring things in let alone alcohol which the price is highly inflated. Here though, just bring some beers and they'll pour it into paper cups for you and you'll be on your way. The only catch is that it must be poured into paper cups because they don't want bottles and cans coming in. I suppose they don't want people to throw those things at the players and such. But yes, the game was extremely exctiting because it was a very close game the whole way through. Unfortunately we lost that night to the Yakult Swallows from Tokyo, but nevertheless it was well worth the time, money, and effort to go.
Ok, now we are ready to talk about Golden Week. I decided ahead of time that I wanted to check out 3 different places not too far away. The first place was Nara. It is famous for the hugest indoor Buddha and although I've been there before, i thought it would be nice to go during Golden Week when they have lots of vendors, special ceremonies, and just random events going on. It was a warm day and there were TONS of people. The deer were out as usual and by the end of the day, they couldn't eat the crackers that people were offering them because they had been eating all day long. (a pack of 3 small senbei-crackers cost about 100 yen) I had some traditional food there like dango, takoyaki, and some other little snacks along the way. I went in the late morning and so there wasn't much time to do much else because it takes about an hour to get to Nara from my area.
The second day, Thursday, was designated as the day to explore Osaka a little bit. I decided to hit the big metropolitan area where there was shopping to be had. Within Osaka, the place I went was called Namba and Shinsaibashi. These are known for their clothes, many shops, and just big city life. There were ENORMOUS amounts of people here. I thought Nara was bad, but wow... I mean it was packed here. I soon realized, because many people were asking local policemen where things were, that these were people from Tokyo and other places using their vacation time to explore the Osaka/Kansai area. According to the people here, compared to Tokyo, Osaka is much more laid back and the people are supposed to be more down to earth and friendly with lots of humour. Of course the Tokyo people would consider themselves more obedient to laws and such and more polite than the people from Osaka, but since I have yet to go to Tokyo, this is only hearsay for now. It's funny how the Osaka people will just make fun of the Tokyo people though. But anyways, I looked around with two other Pacific students and of couse by the end of the night, we did Karaoke... The catch was though.. it was all night........ wow.. that was pretty hard to do. I wanted to go home that night, but the other two dragged me into trying it. If you want to do it all night, it starts from 11 and goes until 5 (when the first trains start up again). It was amazingly cheap though ending up to be roughly 11 dollars per person. What a lot of Japanese do if they miss the last train (around 12 at night), they just sleep at the Karaoke roooms. It's pretty comfortable in there and it's cheap for a night's stay. But yes.. that will probably be the last time I do that though.. I went to bed as soon as I got home and slept for about 6 hours because I wanted to go hit up Sannomiya before the weekend.
Amazingly, I wasn't tired after doing that all nighter but yea.. I'm not going to try it again anytime soon though. Oh so, my host parents were gone for these three days because they wanted to go visit their children and grandchildren in Kyuushu so I told them to have fun and not to worry about me. I survived and cooked some food for myself so don't worry.. I did not die or anything like that (even though my cooking isn't great). But yes.. Sannomiya.. even more exploring and just shopping. People watching and just soaking in all of the city life that I don't get to experience at home. Sunnyvale and Stockton just aren't huge cities and I find it extreemly interesting just walking around crowded streets and stores for the afternoon. There are many styles to observe from clothing to hair and I enjoying picking out the differences as well. Sannomiya is as of now probably the most interesting place in my opinion. It's big enough to have enough stores and people to satisfy my expectations and yet small enough where it has a sense of intamacy to it. Whatever one needs, it can be found here and if it's pleasing scenery one seeks, that too is here. There is a mix of old and new Japan, young and old, male and female and it just gives off a good vibe. If you are ever in the Kansai area, check it out.. it'll be worth your time! (Near Kobe)
And finally for this entry, we have the volleyball circle I joined. OOOOHHHHH... SOOO FUN!! There was a huge turn out on the first day of practice (about 70 people) and it was just fun meeting everyone one. We did drills and volleyball related activities for the whole time but during breaks, there was socializing time and I made many new friends that day. The best part though, was just being forced to use my Japanese. I have to do it at home and school as well, but here I got to talk about things people my age would talk about like music, movies, and other various things. With my host parents, we talk about these things as well, but they cannot relate to as many things as the kids in the volleyball circle can. School is learning and speaking various useful phrases, so that too lacks a little bit of the excitement that I got from practice. They people were all very nice and seemed interested that a foreigner would want to join THEIR circle. I felt unique (kinda akward) because I got almost too much attention, but it turned out ok once things started. I don't know HOW many times I had to introduce myself to people.. and I don't know HOW many names I forgot due to too many people talking to me that day, but it was very fun. I felt drained at the end of the day, but look forward to going again today. It was very strange in the beginning because everyone knew my name and I hadn't even met them. I guess my Japanese friend (I had told her that I wanted to join her volleyball circle) told everyone and they seemed pretty happy to have an America playing with them. Practice should be interesting again... but probably less people because it's a Friday and people want to hang out, etc...

Well, I will let you know how the second day of practice goes and how the weekend goes as well later. Until then... hope that everything is going well for everyone back in the States... Talk to you again soon!

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