I'm in Japan

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After a long, long flight on the amazing Boeing 777, and a 90 minute charter bus trip to Hirakata City from Kansai International Airport in Osaka, I am finally in Japan.  I arrived at the school at around 5:30pm, Osaka time.  The plane ride was long, but at least it was on a 777.  We got about 4 meals, and there were TV screens on the back of each chair.  When I arrived, it was cloudy, as it had been raining all day.  Osaka, a the moment, is quite warm and extremely humid.  When I was riding on the charter bus from the airport, I had a very surreal feeling. Thoughts such as, "Going 500 miles per hour, it would still take me 17 hours to get home."  Compared the the large American cities I've visited, Osaka is very, very congested.  It appears that the people are using every possible inch of space.  The traffic seemed to be slightly slower than in the US, but that could be because it had been raining.  The style of the buildings is also somewhat different from those in the US.  They remind me of an older style of American architecture.  Additonally, Osaka has a more visible and possibly larger industrial district than any city I've seen in the US.  There seem to be miles and miles of refineries.  From Osaka to Hirakata City, it was as if the city never ended; it is absolutely huge.  It's 5:00am Osaka time and I'm awake.  That may be ascribed to the jet lag.

    When I first arrived at the school, I was surprised by the location.,  As I desrcribed, Japan is a very, very dense area.  There are houses and shops all around -- and vending machines.  There are vending machines on evey corner, for anything imaginable, and probably some things that you wouldn't think you'd find in vending machines. 

    At about 8:00 Osaka time, I was quite hungry, so one of my three temporary roommates and I decided to go walk around and look for some food.  We were rained on, but fortunately I didn't get sick.  We went into a sushi bar which embodied what I see as one of the main differences between Osaka and large American cities.  In Osaka, I've noticed a large number of individually owned shops, stores, etc.  They tend to have a more rustic, personal feel to them than your everyday American Chilis'.  It's actually quite refreshing.  One of my roommates, from Queens, and I found a sushi bar. The sushi was excellent, although the wasabi almost killed me.  Laughing, I said, "Attakai desu!" -- "It's hot!"  The owner brought me some ice to put in my green tea, laughing.  My roommate also had some beer, but I've never been fond of alcohol, so I passed on that.  I tried desperately to hold a conversation in Japanese with the owner for about 30 minutes.  My roommate is better at it than I am, but it was still fun to use the Japanese I've been studying.  The owner of the bar was very nice and seemed genuinely interested in talking to us.  Ther food was excellent, as well -- even if it was so spicy that it made my eyes water and my nose burn.

        I eventually went to sleep, and today I have my language placement test.  I think that I'm going to try to review a bit before then.  I would like to place out of at least one class, although I may not know enough to do that, since I've never fornally taken courses, and I've been studying for about a year.

    I'm starving, so I'm going to go see if I can find some cheap food -- even though it's 5:15am.

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Photos

Leaving
Leaving for DFW airport

Leaving
Scenery on while leaving the airport

Vending Machines
"Pocari Sweat" -- interesting name for a beverage. This is one of the first examples of "Engrish" that I saw.

Sega World!
I saw this from the chater bus in Osaka. This is the coolest thing about Japan. Okay, not really, but I like Sega.

Walking to the School
This is one section of the neighborhood containing Kansai. It's rustic in a refreshing way, and everything is very packed together. The way people move between traffic is almost amazing.

Comments

[deleted_548]

Vending machines
Haha yeah, I remember sometimes those vending machines being on the side of the road outside of the city just sitting there with no building around or any kind of protection. They always had like 20 or 30 drinks and half of them were different varieties of tea. Milk tea, green tea, this tea, that tea, other tea, monkey tea... Anyways, have fun! -Ryan

[Lori Ann]

wow!
I'm impressed that you were able to teach yourself Japanese at all! I have a friend who has been studying it at school for several semesters and I hear it's quite hard. I think anything you know is amazing! I hope your trip is still going well!