Xamena & Masa (Homeless) in Japan...

Asia » Japan » Osaka
June 4th 2008

Published: June 11th 2008

Edit Blog Post

xamena

Xamena and Masa

Reunited in Japan lol

After finals (which was the most studying I've done the entire semester!) I was really excited to be finished with school...and even more excited because my friend Masa was coming to visit me for a few days!

Masa goes to school with me in Tennessee, but he was coming home to Japan for the summer. So of course we had to meet up while I was still there! Oh and Masa is really CRAZY so I knew we would have a lot of fun...

On Thursday when he arrived, I met him at the bus stop in front of the Kansai Gaidai entrance in the morning. We walked around campus and I showed him what it was like to be a student at Kansai Gaidai. He had actually wanted to go to Kansai Gaidai, but he failed the test and ended up in Tennessee haha. Then we had lunch with Leilani and Erica in the cafeteria. We decided to eat outside though, and it was super hot. But other than that, it was a good lunch!

After lunch Masa and I went back to the CIE because I still had one final left to take! So we sat

KG Campus

Campus in the spring!

in the student lounge and I looked over my notes. Masa actually helped me study too...I was surprised by how much he knew about Japanese history. It was an intense study session, we managed to cover the entire history of Japan in about an hour lol. So feeling a little bit better about my test, I left Masa in the computer lab while I went to take my final. The final went pretty well, and I finished in about an hour, so I went back to find Masa. He was still in the computer lab where I left him and was complaining about how cold it was in there...

So then we went back to the CIE to meet Haruo, a Kansai Gaidai student who is studying at Maryville College next year, so that he could meet and talk to Masa. They talked for awhile (all in Japanese), so I didn't really understand much of the conversation. But I pretty much just told Haruo how crazy Masa is lol.

So by the time we finally left campus, it was already late in the afternoon. Since Masa didn't have a bike, we had to walk back to the seminar

Masa

Masa at the KG campus

house...and Masa complained the whole time! lol. He doesn't like to walk very much! But eventually we made it back and then met up with my friend Erica to go to dinner. We went to this little okonomiyaki place next to the park that's right across the street from the seminar house. That place is so good! We all had okonomiyaki...I had the shrimp kind and the lady placed them with their tails sticking out of the okonomiyaki and it was really neat. It was such a good dinner, I love okonomiyaki!!

After dinner we went to Liquor Plaza, which was conveniently located right next to the okonomiyaki restaurant, and bought some beer and chuu-hi's to drink. Then we went to the park and sat on the little kids slides and drank them. It was such a nice night! Or at least me and Erica thought so. Masa was really cold and even tried to wear my sweater! It was pretty funny to watch...then he passed out on the slide at 7 PM haha.

After hanging out in the park for awhile, me and Masa decided to go to Kyoto that night and try to find something fun

Tanimoto Memorial Hall

This is where our graduation was held...

to do! So we walked to Makino Station (with Masa complaining about walking the whole way) and got on the train to Sanjo Station. I was excited because I had never been to Sanjo before. We always went to Shijo, and Sanjo was the very next stop. And in Sanjo there is Karamachi St., which is the center for nightlife in Kyoto! So me and Masa walked all the way down Kiyamachi St. but didn't find anywhere that looked really good. So we turned around and instead went to the closest Lawson store and bought some sake, chuu-hi's, and snacks. Then we walked a little while longer until we had actually come to Shijo! So we went down to sit at the bank of the river where the big bridge outside of Shijo station is and just talked for a couple of hours. It was really nice to be able to talk and catch up on things since I hadn't gotten to see Masa since December! So after a couple of hours Masa asks if we should be leaving, and I agree since it was already midnight and we didn't want to miss the last train and be stuck in

Campus

Walkway on campus

Kyoto the whole night...

Well when we got to the station and bought our tickets we realized that the last train was about to leave in just TWO minutes! The train station workers were yelling "saishuu densha" meaning "last train," so we ran down the steps to the platform and just barely caught the train. We were so lucky, because if we had decided to stay any longer at the river we wouldn't have made it!

And riding the last train was an interesting experience in itself...

Pretty much everyone on the train was asleep. There were men in business suits completely passed out! The funniest man, though, was standing next to the door and was holding on to a rail. But he was seriously falling asleep, and he could barely hold himself up. He kept passing out and I could see his legs buckle and he almost fell down so many times. It was really funny to watch! I didn't understand why he wouldn't just sit down. But the funniest thing is that when his stop came, he suddenly became completely alert and walked out of the train and down the steps like he had never

Campus

The huge field on campus

been tired at all! So yeah, everyone around me was completely passed out...

And at one stop this couple got on the train, and the girl was obviously completely wasted. She could barely walk, and her boyfriend had to hold her up and help her walk. They sat at the very end of the car and she just put her head against the window and looked miserable. The boyfriend was rather drunk too, but not nearly as bad as the girl. At one point she was bent over in the seat holding her head and I thought she was getting sick...and I didn't want to be anywhere near her if that happened! But luckily nothing did happen.

When the train finally stopped at Kazuha we noticed that everyone was getting off, but we still needed to go one more stop to Makino! But we realized that this must be the last stop, so we had no other choice but to get off at Kazuha. Now Kazuha is a 15 minute bike ride from Makino, so there was no way we would be able to walk back to Makino, especially at midnight! So we took a taxi back to

Japanese Garden

I didn't know this even existed until the last few weeks!

Makino Station and then walked back to the seminar house...and yes, Masa complained about walking lol. Well the original plan was to sneak Masa into the seminar house that night, since visitors aren't supposed to be there after 10 PM. But when we got there we noticed that Otousan and Okaasan were awake and something had just happened. Of course someone had to get in trouble that night! So I thought it might be too risky to sneak Masa in. And not having any other options, we decided to sleep in the park. Yes, the park. Earlier when we were drinking in the park the idea had been brought up, and it seemed like a fun idea at the time...

So after I had gone up to my room and gotten a blanket for each of us (and Masa stole a jacket), we went to the park and found a nice spot under some trees. We just laid out our blankets and went to sleep...or at least tried to! It wasn't comfortable at all. And we felt kind of strange because there were still a few people who would come through the park, and I'm sure they were wondering

Garden

Lots of people would come hang out in th garden, like these students.

what we were doing there. It was just a sad sight. I couldn't even fall asleep for more than 30 minutes! Then at about 4 AM we were both awake and it was already light outside...and the grass was wet, and it was really cold! So there was no way I could sleep anymore. We were cold so we decided to move somewhere out of the wind. But we couldn't find anywhere to go! We walked up the street to the library and then back down the street to the seminar house, wrapped in our blankets, looking very pathetic! There was just nowhere to go! We coudn't go back to the seminar house because they didn't start letting visitors in until 9 AM (the seminar house rules are completely ridiculous! That place is more like a jail than a dorm). So we eventually settled for a little covered area on the side of the library. We sat there on the concrete wrapped in our blankets, and I listened to music while Masa read a manga he had stolen from the seminar house. At one point the security guard for the library saw us there, and he just stopped and stared

Student Lounge

The popular student lounge in the CIE building.

at us for about 5 minutes before he walked on. We stayed there for a few miserable hours until the sun had come out and it was warm enough to go back out to the park.

We found another spot in the park and laid down to sleep for a couple more hours until he could get into the seminar house. It was nice because the sun was out, and I was actually able to fall asleep for maybe a full hour! Then, after what seemed like an eternity, it was almost 9:00. So I decided to head back to the seminar house and told Masa to come meet me there and sign it at about 9:15. When I got back to my room I just wanted to pass out on my futon, it looked so comfortable, but I couldn't fall asleep yet. So I went down to meet Masa and we sat in the lounge for awhile, since that's pretty much the only place visitors are allowed to go. We waited there until about 12 until Masa could go into Hirakata and check into his hotel. After Masa left I went up to my room and immediately passed

Restaurant

Ready to eat some okonomiyaki!

out. I was so tired! And I slept all afternoon.

So Masa and I got a first-hand experience of how it feels to be homeless in Japan! And it wasn't fun. Now that I think about it, it probably would have been better just to sneak him into the seminar house even if something had happened that night. Because sleeping in the park was not a good idea at all...it was horrible!! That was the longest night of my life. But I guess it does make for a good story!

Additional photos below

Photos: 30, Displayed: 29