I’ve been contemplating a return to Japan, but in what capacity I do not yet know. Teaching English was the first thought, but that is a difficult job to get. My friend Aaron applied to GEOS and was not able to get in, and is now looking to go to grad school there to study Japanese at some language school or program. My English isn’t awful but isn’t great; if I applied I would probably get rejected.

The option that I’ve been looking at most recently was jobs at Google Japan. With a master’s in International Affairs with a business concentration, I could be able to find work, but that is pretty far ahead and I am lacking in experience.

I am gonna start retroactively posting the stuff I did the second semester, as I have a lot of the photos lying around so I thought that perhaps I should complete the blog.

Okay, originally I was gonna end this blog. But after going through the blog and looking through some of my stuff I brought home with me from Japan, I will continue posting here. But I think the direction will change, not so much about my time in Japan as I would post about just random Japanese related things. My interest in Japan, while not as much as it used to be, is definitely still there and I hope in the future to visit.

While my time in Japan sort of feels like a dream, it also still feels very real. I remember riding the trains, eating Matsuya, walking down the street to the station or to school, and going to izakayas. I miss La Pausa.

Adjusting to life back home wasn’t hard, going away for a year isn’t that long. But remembering a memory from Japan is easier than remembering the feeling of actually being there. But I suppose that is something best left to the past, and maybe the future.

Unstable internet and lack of time have prevented me from making a post and uploading my photos. I’ll most likely start making posts smaller in the future, but I always feel compelled to add photos to each post, so people know what I am talking about.

Summer thus far has been uneventful, mostly me just trying to study Japanese, hanging out with friends, watching Entourage and some Korean/Japanese dramas, and trying to enjoy myself here in Japan. I plan to go do one more trip somewhere nearby before the summer vacation ends, as I really only made one big trip.

After saying good bye to Lindsey, we left for Osaka on the 31st of July. Me, Aaron, Ryan, Ayumi, Yuri, and Brandt went to the Shinjuku bus station and got on a bus to go to Osaka at around 11 pm at night. The bus ride was 8 to 9 hours long, but it was fine because we all just slept during the ride.

We arrived in the morning, spent a little bit of time looking for the hotel, dumped our luggage, then started going around the city. First place we went to is Osaka Jo Koen (excuse my bad romanjification).

Osaka Castle is most notable for when Tokugawa Ieyasu laid siege to the castle in order to defeat the Toyotomi clan and consolidate his rule over Japan. They renovated the castle a few times, and fell into disrepair and was damaged in the modern period before and after World War 2. They repaired the castle, and renovated it in the 90s. The inside of the main castle building is actually a museum now.

The museum is very intersting, with a lot of displays of items from the castle like armor, weapons, documents, etc. One of my favorite displays was the figurines for the battle and siege. English on a lot of the displays helped to understand what I was looking at. For the most part, the museum described the history of the castle and the role it played in events in the past. Osaka Castle is probably Osaka’s most notable landmark, and one of Japan’s most important cultural places.

The view from the top floor is pretty nice, you can see a good amount of Osaka from up there.

I think it is pretty cool to see a lot of cultural stuff here, most of the time while in the Tokyo area I mostly see just a lot of the country’s modern pop culture. It was kind of mentally refreshing, but not physically, because I think I spent the whole time there constantly wanting a shower due to the heat and humidity. But hey, its an island country, that’s just the way it is.

The next day, we all went to Universal Studios Japan. Being as I have never been to the one in America as far as I know, it was a lot of fun. While there were not many roller coasters ( I think there was just one), there were a lot of theme and show rides which were good nonetheless, like Back to the Future, Terminator 2, ET, etc. Best one? Hard to say, but I really liked the Spiderman one. Good use of visual elements to create a good ride despite the lack of heavy movement on the car’s part.

The one that was really not worth it had to be Jaws. 30 minute wait in line with a 2 minute ride that was pretty uneventful and outdated. I thought this picture was pretty cool though. For the most part, a lot of the things you would probably find at an American Universal Studios were there at the Japan one. A lot of english signs, lots of the pictures and video (dubbed in Japanese), and lots of American food. The Waterworld Show even had Caucasian actors (with Japanese voice-over).

Later that day, we went to Dotonbori. From what I could tell, it was like a shopping/eating area-thing-place, up and down many winding streets and alleys. We went to an izakaya there, and just took it easy for the evening. We were all pretty tired to look around, but it seemed like endless rows of restaurants and drinking establishments.

Next day, we took a train to Kyoto. On the express, it was like 45 minutes or so. When we arrived, we got one of those tourist maps and decided to go to the Gold temple. Or the Silver temple. I forgot the name.

After a short bus ride, we hiked a short distance up the hill to the temple. The area is pretty scenic, a lot of older style Japanese buildings and homes. The place definately had a different feel than Tokyo, although at times the look was not too different. There were lots of tourists, plenty of Americans and Europeans.

The temple itself was very nice. Despite the large amount of tourists, it still managed to have a very tranquil and quiet ambience. Some of my favorite photos of the trip were taken here, which you can go check out on my flickr. There weren’t a lot of english signs, and my Japanese being terrible, pretty much tried to guess or figure out what I was looking at. After checking the place out, we ate and made our way back to the station. I kind of wish we had more time to check out the other places in Kyoto, but perhaps that is reason to go back again at a future time. One of the things I really enjoy about sightseeing in Japan is seeing temples and shrines. I think I’ve seen enough buildings and the like in a lifetime, but I never get tired of visiting temples and shrines here. Maybe because we don’t have any back in Texas?

We went back, got ready to go home, ate, and then hopped on the bus home. The ride home was uneventful, although I did sit next to a very cute girl. The 9 hours weren’t too bad.

The photos for this set are partially on my flickr, but I had to make a new flickr account for the rest. The other flickr site is here . Don’t ask about the profile name, you figure it out (hint: had to do with what I was eating at the time I was making the account).

I will be attending the Tokyo Game Show this September, I hope to bring back some information and pictures of some new video games. Hopefully, I will get some free swag, because hey, who doesn’t like free stuff?

So finals are over, and it is now summer vacation. Everyone will be leaving soon, going home to their respective countries. New kids will come next semester, kinda looking forward to that.

What do I got in store for summer? I plan to study for the Japanese placement exam for the fall, maybe do some light reading, exercize(sp?), and learn to cook. I have moved into a new apartment already, and will move into another one when school starts. My internet is unstable at the moment, so it’ll be interesting.

I just got back today from Osaka. Hopefully if my internet holds out, I can write a post and upload my 160-odd pictures.

Sorry about the lack of updates, finals week is coming up, and I’ve got a hell of a lot of work to do. Compounding this is a general lack of doing things, as I have settled into a daily routine, and it costs money to do stuff, like visiting places.

Hopefully summer vacation will give me the boost of energy to go do more stuff… or just make me lazy. Who knows. I am moving into an apartment for the next semester, and moving out of my homestay. Not that the homestay was bad or anything, but I like my privacy and freedom. I tend to come home late a lot, and doing that at a homestay is usually not good.

I will be heading to Osaka for a couple days with some friends when the semester ends, but other than that, I hope to accomplish a few projects for the summer while in Japan during my free time.

Tonight I went to a Sushi-ya type place with some of the international students to try Basashi.

What is Basashi? Jim Breen’s WWWJDIC says “raw horsemeat dish”. That describes it pretty well. It’s raw horsemeat.

It tastes like raw beef, if anyone out there has had raw beef before. It even looks like raw beef. The best part of the horse is the meat under the mane, supposedly. I don’t know which part of the horse this meat came from. Some people mentioned that raw horsemeat is bad to eat in the summer. I don’t understand why, but perhaps it goes bad faster in the heat? But I would definately recommend those that enjoy sashimi to try basashi, it is pretty tasty.

We had some nabe also, which was pretty good. Beef, tofu, and leeks. I did not have my camera with me at the time, so I had to use the cellphone camera.

Japan right now is very hot, but what really kills me is the humidity. Texas is hot and dry, but Japan is hot and humid. Skin becomes gross and sticky, and hair becomes nasty. I am looking forward to colder weather here, unforunately that won’t come around until October.

On Wednesday, I got up at 9:30 am to do some homework before I went to school to meet up with the other ryuugakusei for Fieldwork D.

What is Fieldwork D? It’s a class where international students go to elementary/middle schools in the area and tell kids about themselves and their countries of origin. After meeting in the Eito-kan at 11 am, a group of us walked to an elementary school pretty far away. I never found out the name of the school, I guess I probably should’ve.

 When we arrived, one of the teachers there brought us inside to a conference room, where they quickly went over the plan for the day. We would meet with children, answer questions, and eat lunch with them. So we got a quick tour around the building. I’ve seen quite a few Japanese dramas while in the states, and yes, the schools really look that way. They got a kind of old-style charm while maintaining itself as a institution of modern learning. The doors slide shut, lots of long sinks, and no central heating/cooling. We were all sweating pretty bad.

So we got name-cards, and went into a classroom. There, we introduced ourselves and answered questions about what we liked to eat. Ryan was popular with the boys and Lindsey was popular with the girls. After the Q&A, we ate a lunch of ramen, some kind of pickled vegetable thing, and some poundcake. Milk and poundcake kicks ass. I sat with a bunch of little kids and one of the teachers there. The teacher told me they were kind of shy, and had to encourage them a bit to get talking. I told them stuff about Texas, about like cowboys and such. They asked me what kind of fruit I like and what color I liked, those kinds of questions.

After lunch we did answered questions like “what do you think of Japanese food?” and the like. The visit was about 2 hours long, and we got paid 2000 yen. While I disagree with being paid to do classwork, it IS money, so I just kept it. Before this day, I did not really like kids. But now, I think I just don’t like American kids. American kids are pretty bratty and spoiled, but Japanese kids rock.

After me, Aaron, Ryan, and Lindsey walked back to Obirin, we met up with Brandt and went to Tokyo Disneyland. We left the university at 3 pm, and didn’t make it to Tokyo Disneyland until 5 pm. Kind of late to begin, but the tickets we had were for June only, and this was the last free day we had that we had nothing planned.

Yuri had told us ahead of time they had Mexican food, and that got Brandt all excited. Upon arriving and finding out that Taco Rice qualifies at Mexican food in Japan, well, we were all not incredibly happy about it. But our disappointment quickly went away as we just ate some food at some fancy restaurant place that overlooks the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which was not open at the time. I had a Chicken and Sausage Gumbo thing that looked more like a Chicken and Sausage Sauce thing, but it was pretty good.

The place looks like Disneyland, as well as I can remember Disneyland back in America. Since the last time I went to Disneyland was when I was in my early teens, I can’t really remember too much. My time spent at Disney theme parks were usually spent riding the simple rides and doing kiddy stuff. I was never really into roller-coasters, and some scared the crap out of me as a kid. But after riding some really crazy-ass roller-coasters at Six Flags when I was in high school, I knew I could ride them, but I usually refrained from them if I could. After eating, we did Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain(2 times), and the Haunted Mansion. A lot of the cool rides seem to have the word “Mountain” in them. For a weekday, there was a lot of people, but the wait time for rides was pretty short, 15-20 minutes at most. I have never been on these rides before, so it was certainly an experience. Perhaps the most interesting thing was that all the Disney characters in the rides and elsewhere spoke in Japanese. I grew up knowing them to speak a certain way, and hearing them speak in Japanese threw me off a bit.

The parade was cool, probably one of the things that reminded me the most of my past times at Disneyland back when I lived near Anaheim.

Left to right: Lindsey, Ryan, me, and Brandt.

So after the Haunted Mansion, me, Lindsey, Brandt and Aaron got onto the Teacup Ride. Probably the biggest mistake of the day on my part. While Aaron and Brandt were tired as hell and decided to make sure their cup didn’t spin, me and Linsdsey spun the hell out of our cup, and partway through, I decided that I would stop spinning the cup but Lindsey kept going despite my cries for mercy. The Japanese girl working there held the gate open and laughed at me as I stumbled out of the ride like a drunk. I was unable to eat after that and it made the trip home pretty shitty. But looking back at it, it was pretty funny.

The gang(minus Ryan and Ayumi, they kept running off and doing their own thing, those bastards). By this time my hair was all flat as it had absorbed all the humidity in the air and my sweat. We left when the park closed at 10 pm, but didn’t make it back to Fuchinobe until 1 am. I decided to not attempt the 2 hour walk home from the Fuch, and crashed at Aaron’s, a sweaty and tired mess. Aaron, Brandt, Lindsey, and I went to Ministop for drinks and snacks and then passed out while watching Anchorman. We woke up at 10 am then in the spirit of Disney, watched Disney’s Robin Hood, which is by far my favorite of the Disney movies. I went to 3rd period and then called it a day.

For the most part, Tokyo Disneyland is the same as Disneyland in California, minus the Curry Popcorn and few other things. It is very up to date, and if I didn’t know I was in Japan, I could’ve sworn I was in California. Wednesday was one of the longest days I’ve had since coming to Japan, but probably one of the most fun. I will definately miss Brandt and Lindsey when they have to return to Hawaii. Yuri and Ayumi will be leaving for Canada and Thailand as well.

For Josten’s birthday, a bunch of us went to an Izakaya in Machida.

What is an Izakaya? Well, in Japan, it is essentially a bar that sells food. The kanji for it is 居酒屋, I don’t know the first kanji, but the 2nd one is “sake” the alcoholic beverage and the 3rd one is “room”. You sit down at tables, and depending on which one you go to, you may either sit in chairs or on the floor. Some have private rooms but most are just open air with other groups of people behind something like a small wooden barrier. You can pay a fee for 2 hours of all-you-can-drink alcoholic beverages, and is the best deal as long as you keep the drinks coming. Most izakayas serve all manner of drinks, like fuzzy navels, whiskey sours, and gin & tonics, to name a few. The food selection ranges anywhere from sashimi to hamburgers, to salads and miso soup. Izakayas are, for the most part, packed many nights of the week with college students and salarymen coming after work to enjoy a few drinks and good food with some friends. So you can imagine slightly cramped, smoke-filled rooms with waiters running around with full or empty drink glasses, people yelling and talking, and just a general social atmosphere not unlike a loud and chaotic get-together of some sort. Bars in America have nothing on Izakayas. You stand at a bar, get a drink, no food, and its uncomfortable. An Izakaya is not just a solution to many of the common problems the American bar has, but is also an institution.

We got all-you-can-drink for 2 hours(nomihodai),  lots of large Suntory malted beers(best beer imo), and a lot of food for 2500 yen. A very good deal, about 20 USD. This was perhaps my 5th time going to an Izakaya in Japan, and it always ends up the same: everyone gets drunk, some get trashed. After a few cups of beer, I was in party mode, as was everyone else. In the picture above, there is Edamame, some kind of bean sprout dish, some chow-mein, and some tofu thing. There was yakitori and some other stuff, I don’t remember what exactly. There was definately more food than we could eat, and we ended up picking at it as the night wore on.

A few photos:

From left to right: Yuima, Josten(his birthday, turned 21), and Sakako.

From left to right: Brandt, Randon, some girl I didn’t get around to meeting, Matt, and Azusa.

From left to right: Maria, me(Justin Chan), Kenny, and Kurara. My hair was in pretty bad shape after walking to school in the hot sun and the sweat kind of messed it up.

There is a video floating somewhere on someone’s Facebook of me dancing with Josten. There was more people there, but I neglected to take a photo of them. My bad.

To those who come to Japan in the future and meet up with or make some friends here, one of the places you will probably find yourself at is an Izakaya. It is always a party waiting to happen, without a lot of the hassles. On a side note, Suntory is probably the best beer brand here in Japan, in my opinion. On a final note, the Hub in Machida closed. Sad to see it go, the next semester international students will not know the joy of the Hub. Many good times were had and I met most of my friends there.

Saturday the 9th, I went with Ryan, Lindsey, Aaron and Dave to a middle school near Enoshima. Ayumi was teaching there for three weeks for her college coursework, and she invited us to check out the sports festival.

I got there late because I did not get off at the right stop, and it was an express. About 40 minutes late, I met up with the gang out in front of the train station.

School sports festivals are pretty common in Japan. This is the first time I saw one, and it was pretty much how I expected. Everyone’s parents were cheering their kids from the sidelines, and essentially all the classes and all the grades competed against each other. There were some 5 legged races, jump rope, and running. It was mostly relays, but they were all fun to watch, because no one team was much better than the rest, so there were no blowouts. For the most part, the sports at the festival were mostly running sports, it might as well have been a track day. We all had a lot of fun that day, although the weather kind of sucked a bit.

This is the only picture I had of the race where Lindsey, Ayumi, and Ryan ran in a PTA race. We were all laughing so hard on the sidelines because Ryan destroyed a bunch of old Japanese women at a race, then capped it off with a celebration at the end.

After the festival, we went into Machida and ate at LP. This is everyone on the train on the way home. Left to right: Dave, Aaron, Lindsey, and Ryan. After LP, I watched a movie at Aaron’s, then we all went to Sho’s apartment for a little partying. A good time was had by all.

 Needless to say, it was a little crazy.

In Japan, there is always interesting things about food and drink. Hell, I drink Calpis Water all the time. Corn and mayonaise is in everything, like in onigiri and pizza. But we got something new here that is well, a little weird.

Yes, that is right. Ice Cucumber Pepsi. I bought one today and foreseeing that I would be unable to finish it alone, made Maria drink the first quater of it. When you first open it, it has a fairly plain smell of soda, but with a little cucumber freshness. It is of a light green color, almost a darker Mountain Dew. Upon drinking it, I found that it tasted pretty much like regular Pepsi with a little hint of cucumber while drinking it and in the aftertaste in my mouth afterwards. The green throws off the taste expectation. The subtle hint of cucumber is similar in execution to Pepsi Twist. I was able to finish it, although it was not incredibly enjoyable. Afterward, I did not feel too well, although I think it more to do with the fact that I dislike soda in general than perhaps the flavor of it.

But only in Japan could something like “Ice Cucumber Pepsi” be marketable enough to produce and sell. Not that Japan is an incredibly weird place, but because I could not imagine it appearing in the United States. It was actually selling alright, but to be honest, I think they were trying to bank on the appeal of a odd drink perhaps making a draw on the curious.