The Total Language Immersion Experience...or So You Thought You Could Speak Japanese

Before coming to Japan for the first time, I'd taken about three years of Japanese and gotten A's in all my courses: I was always at the top of my class, received high scores on tests, and was all-around doing very well ...or so I thought. And then I came to Japan, where I realized that I could barely speak Japanese.

Everyone spoke so fast; I couldn't figure out how to say the things I wanted to say and when I did, I made mistakes that I knew were wrong even as I said them; and there were so many kanji EVERYWHERE.

I guess this is what they mean by total language immersion.

Anyway, after about half a year, I feel way more confident in my Japanese abilities. My listening comprehension has gone through the roof; I can even watch ドラマ now without English subtitles (though I still like watching with Japanese subtitles on). I can understand much more kanji than I did a year ago: even when I don't remember the exact reading for a kanji, I usually comprehend the meaning. And I've lost a lot of my shyness when it comes to conversing with others (especially when drinking, haha) and hesitate a lot less when speaking.

Don't get me wrong, though, I still have so far to go in my learning. When I leave Japan in a few months, I won't have daily interaction with native speakers, so all my learning will go back to classroom and independent study. But I won't give up! My goal is to someday get so fluent that people get surprised 「あっ！日本人じゃないの？？」 Haha, a girl can dream, right?

Kimono!! ...or $3000 that I Really, Really Wish I Had

 
 

(Photo: Kimonorific!)

Before I came to Japan, I didn't have much interest in kimono. Really. I mean, sure, I thought they looked pretty but I didn't have any particular interest in them. However, with this year's 成人式 (seijinshiki, Coming of Age Day), seeing all the girls in their beautiful winter kimono made me feel that I really wanted to try it as well. When I talked to my friend Kozue about it, she said she would take me to a department store and try some on!

So we went today and it was really wonderful fun. <3 I wish they weren't so very expensive, haha... I'll never be able to afford one of these. In the pictures to the left, you can see me in the sample kimono they have in the store: the sleeves are way too long and the obi too wide!! But it didn't make any difference at the time because I was too excited～

Eating Around Baba, Pt. I

My host mom doesn't really cook, so I end up cooking at friends' houses or eating out. A lot. So I thought I would talk about some of the places I frequent~

やすべえ (ya-soo-bay) is a really awesome noodle shop and one of my favorite places to eat. Exiting Takadanobaba station, head past the big box and at the ロッテリア beside The Hub (English pub), make a left. At the next street, make a right--there should be a コンビニ on your right. Walk straight down the street and you'll soon find the noodle palace known as Yasubee on your left!

Their specialty is つけ麺 (tsuke-men), a type of noodle dish where the soup is served separately in a bowl and the noodles are served chilled on a platter and you dip them into the broth as you eat.

The thing I really like about やすべえ　is that 並　regular, 中　medium, and 大盛り　large noodle sizes are ALL THE SAME PRICE. So you can eat a lot here at no extra cost!! Of course, I wouldn't recommend eating the large (I've tried, ugh) and even the medium can make you feel too full. The best flavor is without a doubt the 辛味つけ麺 (karami tsukemen), which is really flavorful with a touch of spiciness. If you really like it hot, then ask them to double the spiciness, it's free~ Also make sure to request the 味玉 (aji-tama), a flavored hard-boiled egg that's really savory. ^_^

久しぶり！ I'm Such a Slacker...

I've had so many great experiences in Japan since I arrived two months ago. Though I'd intended to update my blog constantly, that plan fell through as soon as I landed at Narita, haha. To make up for it, I'm making a list of things to discuss here in the near future.

My host family, housing arrangements for CSU students
How to sign up for the Waseda gym
Commuting - get a teiki/PASMO/SUICA
Getting a cell phone
Maintaining a long distance relationship
JASSO - a really awesome scholarship

I'll try to do a better job of posting here from now on.

サンマルクカフェ！ST MARC CAFE ☆

If you ever seen the logo for サンマルクカフェ (St. Marc Cafe) in the morning, STOP. And go in for breakfast!

My hotel roomie Chelsy and I both missed the breakfast buffet at the Sunroute Hotel. Ugggh, even though I woke up early, I am way too slow getting ready in the morning! >:O But Chelsy was super awesome and grabbed me something yummy on the way to orientation at Waseda. What a sweetie~ ♥

They call it the びっくりタマゴ (bikkuri tamago), and it's ham and egg baked together in a flaky croissant-like pastry--so good! I hear that I'm supposed to lose weight in Japan, but if I keep eating these things I don't think I will. XD It's weird, because I dislike breakfast and usually can't stand ham, but for some reason this was the most delicious thing I've ever eaten, kyaaa.

Cramming Your Already Sensorily-Overloaded Brain with Tons of Info, or... Orientation Week, Day One

Here is a very loose recap of my first couple of days in Japan... My memory's kind of fuzzy on the details, but let's see how much I can remember.

Day One
Incoming CSU IP students! When you stay at the Hotel Sunroute Takadanobaba, make sure to partake in the breakfast buffet because you get free vouchers and the food is hardcore yummy. The first morning I spent too long getting ready so I was only able to run in the last five minutes and grab something really quickly. T_T

It was raining and I didn't bring any proper shoes for the rain so my feet got absolutely soaked through! (My hair has also frizzed like CRAZY, which sucks because it takes forever to iron it.) Because it was raining, we took a bus to Waseda, which Kazaoka-sensei paid for and toured the campus just a little bit. We stopped by her office on the 3F of 6号館 (Bldg 6) and picked up our orientation materials. She passed out some plastic portfolios, and it was funny because there were only two colors: pink and black... and not nearly enough black ones for the people who wanted to receive them. So I got stuck with a pink one, as did a bunch of guys, haha.

 
 

We then headed over to 19号館 (Bldg 19), which is the building for 国際教養学部 (kokusai kyouyou gakubu) the School of International Liberal Arts or SILS, where we will be taking most of our classes. I sat next to a random person so that my new friend Bora could sit behind me. Turns out his name is Erek, he's been in Japan for a while already, and his cell phone is the awesomest shade of blue ever!

For lunch, a bunch of people came over from the International Circle 虹の会 (Niji no Kai) and took us out to lunch. I met the nicest girl ever named Kiki★ and a few other really nice people; we all went to 松屋 Matsuya together, which is a fast-food gyuudon place. [For the record, I should just say that most of the fast-food gyuudon/donburi chains are all pretty terrible... Matsuya, Yoshinoya, Sukiya; you can get way better gyuudon at most any mom-and-pop gyuudon restaurant in Japan and for fairly affordable prices.] The rest of the day was spent walking around the Baba (short for 高田馬場　Takadanobaba) and Waseda area, and checked out a hyakkin, or ￥100 shop. The nickname comes from 100円均一 (hyakuen kin'itsu), which means "everything for ￥100."

When evening rolled around, we headed to an izakaya by our hotel called 天の天 (Ten no Ten). While Bora and I waited for everyone else, an oyaji walked by and totally ogled my chest because I was wearing a tank top... and I decided to never wear that camisole in Japan again. Which brings me to my next point: Girls in Japan expose very little of the upper body. If they do wear a camisole, it's layered over a light long-sleeve! I've seen plenty of J-girls wearing long-sleeve shirts, even in the ulta humid summertime.

At the izakaya, I tried beer for the first time and couldn't handle the bitterness, haha... ^^; I headed back to my hotel room early since my first attempt at drinking was a failure and watched some "A Clockwork Orange" with Kelsey before she had to head back to her room... And then someone knocked at my door. I opened it to find a large crowd of people and my roommie Chelsy who'd had too much to drink and had to be carried back. Everyone was really glad that I was her roommate (have they already suspected that I'm responsible?!) Erek sat in the corner making funny comments the whole time. Then everyone finally left, and I got to take care of Chelsy which wasn't actually that bad since she's super sweet-★

Flying to Japan

I intended to write this back in September when Ifirst arrived and my memory was still fresh... but there's something about Japan that keeps me too busy to blog, haha. Anyway, here is what I can remember about my first international flight, and I hope it will be of use to someone.

I booked my flight through Travel Cuts, which arranged group flights for CSU IP: one out of SFO, one out of LAX. (I flew out of Los Angeles via United Airlines; the round trip ticket was just under $1000) We were allowed two pieces of luggage (up to fifty lbs a piece), a carry-on, and one personal item like a purse or laptop. A word of caution - if you do max out your luggage, make sure you can carry it... mine was way too heavy for me. ^^; Luggage carts at LAX cost a few bucks, and I didn't have any more American money on me / didn't want to pay for it anyway, so I suffered.

The seats on the plane were terribly narrow, even for me, and I'm a really small person. The flight took ten to eleven hours and included two meals (one on departure, one on arrival) and one snack break. Because I'm really antsy about flying and it was my first international flight, I panicked on takeoff; so I took some Dramamine and was knocked out for at least six hours. It was kind of embarassing because I fell asleep during the dinner meal, and when I woke up again the flight attendants had taken my tray away!

During the flight, you fill out an immigration arrival card and a luggage declaration form. Since my family was going to send me my winter clothes once I arrived in Japan, I had to declare that I had unaccompanied articles and submit two copies of the form.

When I finally arrived in Tokyo, it was a long walk from the gate to Immigration. I had a little bit of trouble since I didn't have the address of the hotel where we were staying for the CSU IP orientation. (However, it worked out okay since I was able to get the address from other people in my group.) They look at your passport and check your visa, etc. No big deal. Once through Immigration, the other CSU students who took the LA flight and I picked up our luggage, and we found out that at Narita International Airport luggage carts are free!

From the baggage claim area you head through Customs, where they ask if you have anything to declare. I submitted my forms stating that I would have unaccompanied articles; Customs took one copy and returned the second copy to me to keep until my extra baggage arrived.

From there I walked down a hall and when I came out into the general area of the airport, there was a group of students from 虹の会 (Niji no Kai) and WIC, two international clubs, there to greet all the CSU arrivals. Kazaoka-sensei was also there with a print-out of all our photos so she could recognize us, along with Koshino-sensei, the CSU representative for this year.

We took a chartered bus over to Takadanobaba, where our hotel (Sunroute Takadanobaba was located and had dinner at Shakey's Pizza, much to everyone's amusement.