Week ten: Going to sleep in Osaka and waking up in Tokyo

Ten is for Tokyo!

Hisashiburi forreal this time, everyone! Well, at least I have a good excuse this time. I just got back from Tokyo this morning at 7, and you should be proud--even after hardly any sleep on that dang night bus, I still went to both my classes, stayed (mostly) awake, began and finished my midterm for one of my classes, and uploaded my pictures while studying for my vocab quiz tomorrow, all without sleeping! Impressive, right? /zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Toshi (RA), Zach, me, Shara

/cough, Just kidding! Maybe. Well, let's get this thing started.

There was the Seminar House IV Halloween Party Tuesday! That was fun, lots of silly games put on by our wonderful RAs, and lots of delicious food from Costco <3 And I even won bingo, which is always a sign of a good day. I had to fit in all my homework I knew would be due while I was gone, so that wasn't very much fun, nor was packing. Wednesday everyone at Kansai Gaidai dressed up, which made for an interesting day--don't know why they didn't just dress up the next day, on actual Halloween, but whatever. These kids went all out, mostly because for so many of them it was their first Halloween. How sad! God. Well, at least they get to experience it now.

And then, that night, we headed out for Osaka station to catch the night bus. For our trip there we paid an extra $10 ($45 instead of $35) for what they call the "sleeper" seats, which ended up being like so: Three chairs, with a gap between each one, plus one against the window. They reclined much farther back, almost vertical (almost--kind of like a good recliner), and they even provided a fluffy little blanket, plus this bus had a bathroom. No power outlets, which sucks, but you win some you lose some. After picking up people in Kyoto (about a solid 45 minute bus ride), he finally shut off the lights, and we all curled up to go to sleep. I have officially decided, after scientific research (or, ya know, four rides back and forth on a bus) that the perfect equation to actually sleeping, thoroughly, on the night bus is this: two Benadryl's taken approximately 10 minutes before the lights get shut off + one 16 oz glass of alcohol (6% or higher) + something to wrap around your eyes + White Noise App = sleep! Otherwise, consider it all but impossible.

Tokyo Skytree

We woke up in Tokyo the next day at 6am, and decided to head over to the Tsukuji Fish Market. This is one of the largest fish markets in the world, and we all know how much I love fish, right? Hah. Anyway, it was kind of cool (I guess), to see all the horrible gore of chopping up little fishies and suffocating them. I don't want to sound like a hippie, but I'd like to just play ignorant and not know where my food comes from, so I'm glad I don't eat fish. It was smelly and violent and did I mention smelly? SO SMELLY. Whatever.

We headed over to Tokyo Skytree, now the highest building in Tokyo at over 2000 meters high, and for anyone who is planning on going, know that you technically should make a reservation. We only waited for an hour, but some days it gets sold out, especially if you go later in the day. It's $20 for adults to go up, and you probably will want to try to plan it around the weather. Since we knew it was going to be cloudy all weekend, we chose the best day we had, but it was still cloudy enough that we couldn't see too far out, and definitely too cloudy to see Fuji, which kinda sucked. For a mountain its size, it sure is elusive...

My bed at the hostel, first night

After Skytree we shopped around, got some cheap Chinese food for lunch, and looked around Akihabara for awhile. There are lots of electronic stores, video games and nerdy places, plus maid cafes galore if you're into that. Our friends had finally arrived, so we headed to our hostel to meet them there. Our hostel, Anne Hostel, was roughly $26 a night, and it wasn't that awful (despite what a headache check-in was because of our changing plans while making the reservation), considering how cheap it was. It was pretty central (right near Asakusa), and the first night I had a top bunk with a handful of my friends in a mixed room of 12 people. There were 9 in my party total (me being the only female), and for the remainder of my stay I was booked for a girl's room of 8 people. Honestly, I would have preferred having the room with my friends for a variety of reasons--not that any of the girls in my other room were skeevy or anything--but that would have kept my stuff at watch with others, and I would have been able to be woken up if my dumb iPod didn't go off (which it never does). But anyway! It was a pretty nice hostel, overall, with a little breakfast thing (toast, tea, hard-boiled/poached egg) in the morning, good facilities, all was dandy. My pillow was flat as a pancake but other than that, no complaints really.

Clockwise from me: Cody, Justin, Hideki

We went out for Halloween to Roppongi, and it was crazy there. My friend had already warned me about the men there being sketchy and being famous for taking people into a "second location" where the scam them, flat rob them, or God knows what else...but I had no idea how serious she was being. Everywhere you looked, there were Somalian men and other Africans shouting at you in a mix of English and Japanese, thick accented, grabbing at your arms, trying to get you to go into their bar/club/restaurant/shop. Everywhere. They would get close to you, shuffle around you, go for your shoulders, things that were just awful. I can't believe this is such a major issue there, but apparently it is, as there's signs everywhere warning you not to listen to anyone, never go to a second location, the whole Oprah spiel.

There were a lot of clubs and bars and people out, drinking and doing their own thing. Not like walking around somewhere in America on Halloween, because you're looking at a lot less skin, but it's definitely more than you normally see in Japan. Half of us split off to go to the bars, half went to the clubs. The bar nearby that had good reviews online was cool, but it was definitely an uh, older crowd--crawling with people, both Japanese and some obvious gaijin, in their late thirties, probably mid-fourties, all drunk and dancing and lurking on each other hard. It was both disgusting and hilarious (mostly horrifying though, but it was a good Halloween scare...), and a beer and a pina colada later, I was even propositioned to have sex with this middle-aged Japanese guy's also middle-aged, heavy-set girlfriend! When the butt-touching began, we decided it was time to meander elsewhere. We did meet some nice Canadians there too though, on vacation, who bonded with our Canadian (Adam), so that was cool at least. We bar hopped around, trying to find reasonable-but-not-too-sketchy places, got some Irish car bombs, and decided to get a drink from 7-11, some Wendy's, and just people watch. It was deliciously satisfying, hilarious, and an overall really good night. Trains in Tokyo stop at midnight as well, so we hauled (two) taxis back for the 6 of us, but it wasn't too unreasonable of a price--$26, split between three of us, so I didn't have to commit suicide later. A good night indeed!


Senso-ji

The next day we went around the corner from our hostel to Senso-ji, the famous big ol' lantern temple. It, like so many other things in Japan right now, is under construction, but the main things are still available and pretty once you get past the initial unattractiveness. It was pretty, a quick stop, and after appreciating the beauty for a moment we moved on.

Kitties at Nekobukuro Cat Cafe

We headed onward to Sunshine City Mall, which is this massive shopping mall with 60 floors in Ikebukuro, filled with restaurants and a planetarium and clothing stores and whatever, you name it they had it. Three of us hit up a Cat Cafe, Nekobukuro's Cat House, which two of us paid $5 for ("boy/girl couple discount price"), and my other friend paid $6 (the lonely cat-lover price?), and it was an unlimited amount of time until you left the room. It was a really nice little facility, with lots of awesome places for the cats, but it was kind of odd because of the way the cats have been raised. When you go to an animal shelter, cats run up to you, meowing, friendly, begging to be pet, but here, they are trained to respond to food and nothing else really, so they are actually kind of skiddish--they'll come when your palm is out flat with food, but if you pet them they run away, wanting to go back into hiding. It was kind of disappointing, but not really that surprising I guess, because if you train on the premise of food and not love, then that behavior is to be expected. There were five or six other Japanese people in there, a kind of high number considering it was a Friday afternoon, but they really are popular, because we passed several other ones on our trip here. (My friends also went to an Owl Cafe on Saturday, where they paid $3 for 3 minutes of holding the owl while drinking some tea. They said it was pretty cool, and that people there were also super friendly, so if you're more of a bird rather than a cat person, go for it you weirdo.)


After the Cat Cafe we found a sweet Mexican place that had a cheap lunch special, and I got a taco platter, which was pretty tasty considering everything I was eating was being made by a Japanese person. Tokyo really does have a massive variety of foods--I mean, Osaka does too, but if you want something "odd" (like Mexican food), then you have to be prepared to pay the price--but here it was fairly reasonable for a lot of oddball foreign food. We passed different Mexican places, hot dogs, bunches of Turkish and Greek food, whatever.

We split off to go to Yokohama Chinatown, which was only 25 minutes by Express Train. It was pretty, a lot like the other China town, just in a bigger, kinda less dirty feel. I got some more Kit-Kat's (all part of my grand scheme) special to Yokohama--strawberry cheesecake flavor!--and found some cute nicknacks before we walked over to the port side. It, too, was really pretty. Yokohama was all but completely made for dating, with its mini amusement park, beautiful waterfront parks surrounding it, and tons of cute places to go hang out and see. Truly made for the cutest dates possible, I was so jealous of all the girls there. Precious! Gah. Okay, I'm done. We went and met up with our friends again over by Shibuya station, the famous crosswalk, plus it's where the statue of Hachi(ko) is. This place really is insanely crowded, and when the light changes you better get moving, or else. We found a cheap place for dinner, a rice-gyudon-raw egg thing, which I was concerned about, but it was actually pretty tasty. It didn't make it taste like egg, just kind of made your rice not dry, and the best part is I didn't get violently ill. Huzzah! Some ~incredible~  Krispy Kreme later (did I say how incredible it was? Incredible!), we went back to our hostel to prepare for the next day.



On Saturday, because we already had our Japanese friend, a Tokyoite actually, with us on the trip, luckily was able to book us a highway bus, round trip, for $42, to Fujiyama, a famous area to see Mt. Fuji from. It was a two hour bus ride away, each way, and I did manage to sleep through a lot of it luckily. Japanese highways literally have huge walls blocking either side of the road, I guess to block out noise (even though there doesn't seem to be houses nearby) or prevent accidents, but it makes for an extremely boring ride, even during the daytime when you're going through gorgeous country areas. Such a shame. The bus dropped us off at a bus station, where there were free postcard/tickets to take you to another area to go see Fuji-san. It was cloudy and rainy though, and though the sun was desperately trying to peek out, there wasn't much luck on the sun's side that day. When we rode our cable car to the top of the mountain, usually an ideal place to view Fuji from, we could see it, and it was massive and breathtaking and beautiful, white-capped, but it was definitely extremely cloudy.

Fuji-san from Fujiyama

My camera struggled to pick it up half the time because of the brightness of the clouds, which is a shame, but hopefully my friends with me got some decent pictures with their stronger cameras. It was really incredible though, and I feel again like I did with Daibutsu--it was gorgeous, breathtaking, and something that is all but impossible to get onto film and be able to express. It truly was beautiful though, take my word for it. We also did some great souvenir shopping in this area, found a lot of cheap but cool stuff, and got free postcards in celebration of Fuji becoming a World Heritage Site! Yay Fuji! We got some delicious dinner from Fire House Burgers, a famous place I found online, and it was so good. Real meat-meat, finally! So satisfying. We also tried to go out and see the Rainbow Bridge that night, but unbeknowest to us, it's only rainbow colored three days out of the year, so instead it was just a regular bridge with a Statute of Liberty in front (this is probably the millionth Lady Liberty I've seen, I don't know why they have so many of her). It was a fun night though, regardless, spent with good people.


Vegetable tempura, Harajuku

Sunday we went to the Manekeneko "birthplace", Imado Shrine. This is one of two temples where it's believed the Manekeneko began, and the other one is just too darn far outside of Tokyo, so we tried this one instead. It's really charming, and I liked it just for all the cat stuff. We saw some Playstation Fair outside in Akihabara, and then headed to Meiji Shrine to get a few quick pictures. It has a really pretty front gate, but beyond that it isn't anything too incredible, but if you're nearby I suppose I'd stop in just to say I did. We meandered off to Harajuku in hopes of seeing some weird people, but disappointingly enough, we didn't see very many. Lots of oddball shops next door to each other, like Lolita next to goth, but it was pretty cool either way.  There are some good places to souvenir shop nearby too, like Oriental Bazzar, which had cheap "pretty" stuff, like pictures and wood block prints, so if you want decorating grown up stuff, there's your place. We got some tempura for lunch, and I got the vegetable tempura bowl, and let me tell you, if you want people to eat vegetables, just dip them in tempura batter and call it a day--it hides the taste of even the most unpleasant veggies. I ate squash, pumpkin, mushroom, eggplant, sweet potato, and something else I couldn't even identify! Impressive, especially if you know me. Pretty tasty. We tried finding weirdos over by Nakano Broadway, but they weren't there either (just a crap ton of figurines and flea-markety like stuff).


Monja

We got some monja, which is a kind of Tokyo version of okonomiyaki, so it's a flat-top fried batter with whatever you choose in it. I got a cheese one (after having to ask them to remove the mini shrimp--easily explained "allergy", but having them remove the fish flakes on top confused them thoroughly. "Just cheese?!" /sigh), but my friends got a curry flavor one and a "traditional Japanese" one, which they said both were delicious. You pour it out in front of you, in this special little order where you put mostly the stuff on top down first, creating a volcano center, then pour the batter in the center. You let it bubble and cook for a few moments, and then you can start eating it by scraping it up with the little spatula-like thing they give you. It was pretty tasty.

Monja before you pour it out

The next day, Monday, we went first to put our stuff in a coin locker at the station so we wouldn't have to lug it around. May I warn you that if you want to conveniently do this to do it early in the day? It was only 10 and almost all the lockers were full, except for the small ones big enough to fit a handbag. Luckily, my friend and I found one big enough to share and split for just $5 total--not bad for an all day rental. Oh, and keep in mind how FREAKING HOT the stations are. They are either cold and miserable or hot and stuffy, there is never a pleasant medium. Jesh.

Kumamon wants longevity, too!

We did some omiyage shopping in this big outdoor shopping area, and I found a very cute Kumamon hoodie for just $20. Lots of good shopping here, tons of food--it was a very happening area (which I can't exactly remember the name of, I just know it was somewhere near Ginza). We went to try to find kitchen town after this, hoping to find the place where they make all the fake plastic food displays, but instead we just found some kinda pathetic excuses for kitchen stores, so keep that in mind if you wanted to find the store with the "giant chef head". Eh. We headed off to Old People Town, better known as Sugamo. They are famous for their red underwear, believed to help with longevity and whatnawt. It was a really cute little shopping area, with really cheap tapestries and wall scrolls, huzzah! So many cute things.


Spam burger, courtesy of Freshness Burger

We went to Hipster Town next, or Shimokitazawa, because I unfortunately hang out with some closet hipsters here (hah hah...no but seriously). It was...hipster like. Lots of used and vintage clothing, coffee shops, little bars, weird stuff, Indie music. Just like someone would imagine with their reputation. It was cute, I suppose, and I did get to try some Freshness Burger (a mostly Tokyo chain), where I ordered a Spam burger. Mmm good! Makes me miss home.

We wrapped it all up by visiting Shibuya one last time, saying goodbye to faithful Hachi, and grabbing some doughnuts for the road. Back on the night bus, a sleepless ride later, I arrived back in my room by 7:30, just enough time to shower, eat, and head to school. Midterms and midterms later, here we are, with a crappy week filled with papers and work, but it was definitely a great vacation. It was weird to be surrounded by SO many foreigners, and it was crazy how many people (both foreign and Japanese) spoke English. Kind of made a bad thing of our habit of just talking about people two inches away from us...whoops!

Mango/Banana Vending Machine

The Tokyo subway system is insane, let's just say that much. If you're going to be coming on vacation, look into the passes you can get while still outside of Japan with your passport, because if not it will quickly add up. We bought the TOEI/Metro pass ($10) 3 days of the 5 days we were there because you definitely use that up, plus some of the places farther outside that a lot of people want to see you may have to pay for on top of that just to get outside of the major metropolitan area. Transportation adds up fast in Japan, period, something I've been trying to emphasize even in Osaka and Kyoto, and Tokyo was no exception to that rule...just in a much more complicated manner. I've never done so many transfers in my entire life, there was at least two or three for everywhere we had to go, which just means you're doing a LOT of walking, even if you just counted the steps you take inside the station, I'm sure it adds up to miles, up and down stairs and around corners and across entire stations and back up and back down and...you get my point, right? I think I gave myself shin splints or something, I literally have bruises up and down the tops of my feet, and I wore what are (normally) pretty comfortable boots all week. You should probably bring real shoes, like tennis shoes or even Crocs, anything with support. You won't regret it. Oh, and foot deodorant. That's important too.

Do you see the old lady with purple hair?!

I've seen some grandma's here rocking crazy fashion and, sometimes, some odd hair, but nothing compares to Tokyo's grandmas. I saw green hair, some with blue stripes, others with purple, or wearing crazy plaid or colors that match their hair, or something along those lines. It kind of catches you off guard when you see a sweet, short little hunched over person walk past you rocking a punk rocker 'do.

Random!

Have I mentioned they back their cars in everywhere? Don't know why. Even on spots that are supremely daunting or with their massive friggin' mini-van-mobiles.

My friend, a Japanese guy who drives, says in all his years of driving (he's 25), he's never seen a single car accident. Apparently they aren't too common, as this is kind of a common theme if you talk to Japanese kids. Lots of bike-car/people-car accidents, but car-car collisions are more uncommon. Odd, considering how terrifying they drive. Perhaps it's just because of their awesome car technology here. Who knows.

The other weekend, I got my money out from the bank account I opened here, on a Saturday around 1pm, out of my bank's ATM. Can you believe I got charged a service fee, just got doing the transaction on a Saturday...? NO ONE was there, it is just the machine and me, and yet, boom, service fee, 175 yen, which is as much as I get charged for taking money out of my own account from America. I do NOT understand the point of this, and if you are ever to come here, make sure you don't open a bank with Sumitomo, it just isn't worth it. Find a different one who charges less stupid fees, or have a good bank in America if you're just here for a semester or so.

Their money is freakishly crisp, clean, and straight. Japanese people are super against fussing up their money, so even the men carry long wallets to fit the bills. It's nice but kind of makes you feel guilty when you just want to fold it and carry it somewhere more convenient. Also, having "big money" be coins is super weird--you drop a coin in America, you can be upset if it rolls down the drain, but lose a coin here, it could be $5. This happened to me in Miyajima, actually, where it fell into the bay, but luckily it fell onto a step, so with the help of a friend keeping my balance and fighting against the crashing waves, I managed to grab it (despite cutting my wrist up on the dang barnacles) and save my 500 yen coin ($5). I was always a penny pincher in America, but I can't imagine how weird I'll look when I come back, flailing around to save pennies and dimes.

We're cute, right?



Fire House burger--bacon cheeseburger with egg. Mmm!

Imado Shrine

Hachi statue, Shibuya Station



Bunny kidney punching the raccoon

Delicious doughnut



Yokohama

Week nine: Oh my naked Kobe beef

Saikin dou desu ka?   最近どうですか？(What's new?) Everything is good here as I round up yet another week in Japan. The weather is officially starting to get cool, my toes are already starting to never have feeling, and my lips are already beginning to get chapped. Woohoo, cold weather (-_-?). Well, it has to be better than the hot-as-balls weather nonstop, but we'll see how long I'm singing that song before I complain about the cold. Let's begin!

School was fine this week, actually one of the best weeks I've had yet! ...mostly because I managed to have enough needless days where I was able to miss/have canceled class and I could sleep! This futon is beginning to get downright miserable--nothing can get this darn thing to puff back up at this point--so sleeping hasn't been too easy at night. And gosh, sleep is a darn wonderful, under-appreciated thing. We watched a very interesting video about China and Japan, and it kind of makes you feel bad for the Chinese people--they've never really had a break from something awful and bad reigning over them and stopping them from being so miserably poor. It's a real shame they went from bad to crap to bad to crap with communism, but I have faith that one day there will be a democratic China. Some day.

There were two typhoons looming this week, but only one hit us--Typhoon 27. You read that right. Twenty-seven. 27 STORMS!? Meanwhile, I just finished reading an article about what an "unexpected" quiet season it was over for us on the Western hemisphere. In 2011 there were 21 named storms in the Eastern hemisphere, so this is about an average amount of storms. It sure seems like an awful lot, doesn't it? Jesh. Even these "minor" storms (our tropical storms) can do major damage to Japan, just because of how easily they flood. Poor Japan.
Friday I relaxed with friends, (hopefully) mastered the art of cooking yaki-onigiri (the fried rice balls), and made some mashed potatoes with dinner. The potatoes here are tiny, and I haven't been able to identify sour cream yet, but they came out all right, thankfully. I'm going to attempt to work on my cooking skills and learn some Japanese foods, next on my list is the omurice, perfect because of how filling and cheap it is to make.

Waterfall, taken shortly after my bathroom trauma

Saturday three of my friends and I went to Kobe and Arima Onsen (hot springs). The journey from where we live felt a little far, around an hour away, but I think it felt long just because of how many transfers it takes to get there, costing about $14 each way. However, this hot spring is pretty famous, and was definitely well-worth it. After a little bit of confusion along the way, we finally made it to Arima, which was really secluded and in the middle of nowhere, a really nice change to the bustle of the city. We explored the "park", some shrines, and the waterfall, and here's a traumatizing story for you all!

There was a bathroom (one of the "park" kinds like we have in America, big and concrete but that still let all the bugs in the world in with the high ceilings and whatnot) I used, and while I was peeing, my friends (I came with three guys) shouted from over on the other side to one of the others, "Hey, dude look at that spider! Holy crap." So I just happened to look up, and boy, what a mistake that was.
What I saw:

Zelda rendition of the spider

Staring back at me was a massive (and I mean massive) neon-yellow spider, with a body (not exaggerating!) the size of my FIST. Automatically, I yelped, which then made his web vibrate so he started crawling around. Whimpering, I desperately tried unwrapping the toilet paper (they were out, so I had to open a new roll), but the darn thing was so difficult. As I struggled, I looked up and realized there wasn't just the one mother-of-all-Zelda-spiders, there were four. All equally huge. Every time my friends shouted at each other, the webs vibrated and they all moved around, dangling above my head, and I had no way of telling them to stop without angering the spiders in my direction. My only way of surviving this experience was the equal horror at the thought of keeling over from a heart attack on a toilet in Japan. I somehow managed, with shaking hands, to unwrap the toilet paper and get out of there as fast as humanly possible. My friends thought the spider on their side was big, but I made them come over and see the ones I had dealt with, and then we all ran out, brushing our heads off in horror like little girls. So moral of this story is that I almost died, I'm just sayin'. I think this is the spider, though it seemed more solidly yellow than this, but I don't know what else it could have been. http://wordsinjapanese.com/japanese-spider.php . This is also an antidote to open the doors to talk about how big their bugs are here--I think they are equal with, if not beating, Florida bugs. There are bugs the size of my face that fly by sometimes, I swear, look at the bug at the end of this for another HUGE FREAKING BUG. (No radiation jokes, guys, come on! ...but maybe, seriously though, they all flew in radiation and are now cracked out.) 

(Left to Right: Cody, Kris, and I, Arima, Kobe)

We explored and did some great omiyage (souvenir) shopping before heading into the hot spring. Ours was a public one, so it was only $6, though there were some more expensive ones available, plus they had a deal where, for two dollars more, you could do both the Golden and Silver springs. Arima has two kinds of springs, one is kinsen (金泉,"gold spring"), which contains iron and salt. The other is ginsen (銀泉,"silver spring"), which contains radium and carbonate.The golden spring we went to is said to make your skin softer and more supple. Here's a play-by-play, without pictures, because once you enter you (obviously) can't take pictures, and I warn you, this area is not for the modest or the faint of heart.

You enter, pay, and take off your shoes, and are given a locker to put your shoes in. You go over the counter and receive another key, this one for your locker upstairs, and you can buy a towel if you didn't bring one (more on this later). I opted for the large and headed upstairs. Girls and boys then split off into two different areas, and I entered, heart-hammering, into the girls section. As I was reading the rules, I suddenly turned to my left and was assailed by boobs, flying in every direction. The locker room here was tiny, with two benches and a little "powder room" section where you can put your makeup on/do your hair afterward, a bathroom, and that's it. Nobody covered up anything, and from young to old and everything in between, everything was out. I was the only non-Asian in the house, and everyone looked over, curious. In my panic, I struggle to figure out how to get my darn key to slide out so I could open my locker, butts and bushes everywhere. Japanese women don't really believe in "trimming", much less shaving, so everything is, /ahem, au natural. I came so close to backing out, especially after realizing the pathetic size of my towel. I finally just did it, covered up as best as I could, and again, in panic, struggled to figure out how to open the door leading to the water. After pretending to wait for the bathroom (which was unoccupied), I observed and saw that the door was a slider (duh), and "smoothly" headed out. Onsens are divided by men and women by a wall that goes almost to the ceiling, but not completely, so I could hear my friends as they laughed awkwardly at their own situation.

Arima Onsen

Despite that weirdness, it was pretty, stone and tile everywhere, with a big square pool of water to the left, a little clear "cool" pool straight ahead, two standing shower areas to the right, and sit-down "cleaning" areas lining two halves of the walls. Each cleaning area had a mirror, a hand shower, a cleaning basin, two bottles of shampoo and body wash, and a stool to sit on (no little walls to hide from each other, all just out there in the open). I first showered in the standing one, but then after creepily observing everyone else (and panicking, muttering to myself about the freakishness of nudity and still having a heart attack every time someone walked by), I realized I was supposed to sit at the stool and wash off completely. I modestly shuffled over to a stool, cleaned it as thoroughly as I could, and started washing up, averting my eyes from everyone and everything, including the mirror in front of me. People were straight putting their legs up on either side of the basin, thoroughly cleaning themselves (I can now safely say I never want to be a gynecologist, or a lesbian for that matter), and my brain was frying out.

Everyone copes in their own way, like how you're taught to imagine everyone in the crowd naked when you're giving a speech so you can get past your nervousness. For me, here, white and naked in a crowd of Asians, I dealt with it by hating (hard) on everyone else. If they were skinnier, I had a slightly bigger chest, my butt (yes, even my flat butt) was bigger, whatever helped me deal with my own trauma and insecurity. Everyone was looking at me, and various people whispered, "Americajin", muttering to each other, not entirely friendly. The older people were nice, at least, so there's that. After soaping up as best I could and washing my hair, I sucked it up, wrapped my hair in my tiny stupid towel, and walked over to the pool, which was a steaming dark brown/golden, kind of the color of a mudslide or Indian curry. It was split into two sections, but I ignored that at first and just got into the emptier section, which happened to be the hotter half. It was a steamy 44 degrees C, or 111 degrees F. It made my limbs tingle, and I sat down on the step, submerged up to my chin, and managed to relax. It was really nice, especially once you could splash some on your face, breathe it in (it smelt like Earth, but not like dirt, more like salt and some kind of incense), and stretch out. After 10 minutes or so, I was feeling woozy, so I got out and headed over the "wall" (technically you could get up on the ledge and swivel around to the other pool, but that gave the entire room the OBGYN view) to the other side of the pool, which was 107 degrees F. I originally started close to the other pool still, wanting to hurry back into the water, but it was crowded and still too hot, so I wanted to move over to the corner. I'm not quite sure, even still, what the proper method of moving around in the water is, but I tried crab-crawling over to the wall, and happened to brush my butt directly over the feet of this lady who was stretched out farther than I expected, and luckily, she was nice and just smiled and nodded at me as I muttered out a quick, embarrassed apology. There were ledges all around the pool to sit up on, but I didn't utilize that, instead opting to sit on the submerged steps or the ground.

This, too, quickly became too hot, so I got out after another 10 minutes, and I didn't really want to go in the little round "cool down" pool--afraid of what I'd see in that water--so I sat down and just rinsed with cold water for another 10 minutes. At this point, I was almost completely okay with the nudity...until someone (always around my age) shot me a sideways glare or dirty look, and this would both make me feel bad but also make me want to walk naked more just to get on their nerves. I dipped in the 107 degree pool for another 5 minutes, and decided to call it a day because another minute and I'd have full-on heart attack from the heat. I rinsed off a final time, face completely flushed--which NONE of the Asians had, oddly enough, despite their red faces when they drink--and dried off as best I could (with my soaking wet mini towel) before getting dressed. Can I emphasize again how much these people don't care about nudity? As I was at my locker, still naked, a lady who had a locker beneath me just bent right down and had her face INCHES away from my buidness. INCHES!! She appeared out of nowhere, and then she was that close, and I was still all dying from the heat, so that was another close call for my poor fragile heart. I got dressed, damp as could be, and tried to dry my hair (hah) before heading out. My friends met me at the bottom, equally traumatized, and we discussed our mutual horrors.

Now, I'm glad I went, and my skin does feel much softer (especially my poor calloused feet). So I think I'd go again, but do I think I'll be just as uncomfortable with the nudity next time? Yes. I know my mom will be saying "so what", but I think others my age will probably understand better--when you just aren't used to everyone being naked, it's really weird to suddenly be surrounded by a crap ton of naked people. I'm not even the most uncomfortable person in the world with nudity, or the most insecure (I am known for mooning people left and right) but it's just weird to be full-on naked. I'm also really glad I went with three guys, because that meant I didn't have to see any of my friends naked or vice-versa.

Helpful tips for when you know you're visiting an onsen:
-Bring your own towel. Seriously, they sold towels, $2 for the "chisai" (small), or $5 for the "ooki" (large). The large was barely enough to cover from the middle of my boob down to the bottom of my buidness, and didn't even wrap around my body fully. Also, because of all the before and after cleaning, you'll want to actually be able to dry off, and your little crap towel from them will be sufficiently soaked. Nothing worse than trying to pull on skinny jeans over wet legs.

-Bring conditioner and a hairbrush. Dear God, please do. Because they only have shampoo and body wash, your hair will be tangled. My hair was matted up to no avail, and every girl knows how it is to have to wash your hair without any form of conditioner. Also, the hairdryers suck, so don't count on that, as you'll have to sit there for hours to get it damp. I pointed it at my hair and it didn't so much as blow it backwards on full blast.

-Bring deodorant. It will all be gone by the time you get out of the water, so pack ahead! Better to carry it around than smell later.

-Mentally prepare yourself. It's easier said than done, but the mental prep would probably help before you're just thrown into this. Follow what other people do without looking like you're staring them down and being a creep. Try to fit in, blend in, it'll make the whole thing less stressful.

Nicest train station bathroom yet, Kobe

Gyu-kaku style Kobe beef

Anyway! We left Arima and headed into downtown Kobe, which was super pretty and really modern. Their train stations are all updated, with really nice bathrooms and marble floors and high ceilings. There was the massive Great Hanshin earthquake in 1995 which all but demolished most of Kobe, so they were forced to rebuild and they did an amazing job with it (all of the modernity makes me even more pumped for Tokyo this week!). We were determined to find Kobe beef that was reasonable, and after a little bit of searching around and creeping down alleys (Kobe has probably more restaurants packed per square mile than anywhere I've seen yet, I swear, there were SO many options!), we found a place that served it, gyu-kaku style. Gyu-kaku is where you are seated at a table with a little grill inset in the middle of the table, which they put burning charcoal inside, and you grill your own meat with a pair of tongs. For $15, we got six slices of Kobe beef each (each slice about the size of my hand, but thin), and grilled it. The way our waiter showed us was to let it get gray on one side for about a minute, then roll it up and eat it, with one side still pink. It was delicious, especially for someone who hasn't had good beef in months. They gave us a variety of sauces, one which was really good and tasted like the sauce they use for "ginger salad", and overall it was supremely tasty, and for me at least, surprisingly filling. Worth trying just to say you've had Kobe beef.

Kobe's China town, Nankinmachi

We explored Kobe's China town, which was kind of small but still filled to the brim with food vendors and restaurants, all begging to come into their stores. They had some places serving that delicious steamed bun roll I always get at Epcot during the Food and Wine Festival in China (I was too full to try it though, but I definitely will in Yokohama in Tokyo!), and places that had Kobe beef inside of a steamed bun (which my friends got and said was delicious). We checked out their port side, though by the time we got there (around 9), everything was already closed. There were great stores though, and so much to do, so if you get there earlier than we did I highly recommend this. It all was super modern and beautifully built, with wide streets and interesting architecture. And, like always, it was good to see a body of water other than a little river.

Beautiful Port Kobe

Also, on the way back home, we ran into a little old lady we happened to talk to before on the Osaka Loop Line (train). She's super friendly, and folds thousands of these little paper cranes, and taught herself English mostly through American and British songs. She's awesome and adorable and odd but sweet. Gotta love when the world is small in a good way.

Today I'm recovering from my hectic adventure yesterday, as always, and having a lazy Sunday. It was a good weekend, and Kobe was a beautiful city, definitely worth a visit. I'm headed to Tokyo this Wednesday-Tuesday, so this next blog will both be late and long, and filled with a ton of pictures I'm sure.

Ponder ponder~~

Their shoes size and bra sizes are very different here, so be ready. Check these out to see your various sizes in shoes and in bras! http://www.i18nguy.com/l10n/shoes.html#adult , http://www.85b.org/bra_conv.php

Awesome escalator in Kobe's Port Mall

Their paper here is just slightly taller than our standard paper. I don't know why.

They used to have squirrels on mainland Honshu (the island I'm living on), but due to "deforestation", they've all gone away. Who would have thought that squirrels could disappear from somewhere?

They have loudspeakers that go throughout the city of Hirakata (and, presumably, in all if not most towns in Japan), and they use it for various things--police warnings (old people scams, some guy breaking into the library, whatever), weather alerts, and...what I think are little exercise songs? It comes on every day around 4ish, and it plays happy little music, plus a 5-minute announcement and speech when the kids get out of school and are on their way homes (mostly). I'm not sure how I feel about this system yet, because it is both creepy (think North Korea) but helpful (stopping criminals on the run, weather warning system).

Well, I think that's about it, and I hope everyone has a great week, and I'll talk to you guys next time! Until then, ja mata!

Weird things found around Arima

Delicious Kobe beef!

Snoopy store, Kobe

Downtown Kobe lit up

Awesome construction things, Kobe

Huge dead bug I pass by. Do you see the size of this?!

Expensive whopper, Burger King, Kobe

Beer served at Burger King, Kobe

Kobe, Japan

Two months in: Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum--Gaijin smash!

みんなさん、こんにちは！

Wow, am I seriously already at the halfway point of my study abroad? That's insane. I've now been in Japan for two months (to the date in three days, but close enough). I will be back in the States on the 19th of December--in less than two months! Holy crap. I genuinely can't get over all these emotions! I've always been a planner, so I'm already preparing for what I'll do when I get home and next semester, all of which I'm excited for, but I'm also already sad about all the things I'm going to miss about Japan.

はじめましょう！ (Let's begin!)

I had a pretty school-heavy week this past week, filled with two exams in Japanese (a unit test and then an oral midterm exam), plus the second half of that midterm tomorrow. Luckily, my other classes took mercy on me and kept it interesting. We learned about the different McDonald's around the world from various students, one of whom was Russian. Did you know the largest McDonald's is in Moscow? They have like, 23 cash registers. 23! That's a lot of burgers. Anyway, it was pretty cool to see the different building designs and the different menus, and hear from kids from around the world the differences at their McDonald's.

Buraku slums, Meiji 34

In my other class, a speaker came in who is a member of the buraku community here in Japan. Now this is kind of hard to explain--buraku is one of the four major minorities here in Japan, and you may ask, okay, so where are they from, how are they different? Well...they're Japanese by blood and ethnicity, they're the same religion (or non-religion) as the rest of Japan, they speak the same language, they have the same names...and yet they're a minority. Back in the Edo period, they had a feudal system in Japan. This caste system was made up as such: the ruling class was made up of the emperor, shogun (military commanders), and daimyo (land lords), immediately below that were samurai, followed by peasants and farmers, and at the "bottom" were the merchants and artisans...and then came the buraku, similar to India's "untouchables" people, a class that didn't really even make it into their triangle of power. No one is really sure how or why they were chosen to be in this caste, as even then they would have been normal, everyday Japanese people, but that's how it was. These people were given the "dirty jobs", and lived a lot like African American's did in America--slaves up until the "freeing" of the caste system with the Meiji period, but given "equal but separate" treatment. They weren't allowed to use the same facilities (restaurants, shrines and temples, public baths, etc.), nor were they allowed to marry a non-buraku. This separate-but-equal continued up until the 1920s (Showa period). They lived in slums, faced a lack of employment, poor education, and dirty or dangerous low-salary jobs.

Even after "integration" of the buraku into normal society, in the mid 1990s, 95% of people wouldn't marry a burakumin (buraku people), and many of them couldn't get jobs, live among or go to schools with other Japanese people. In the same time period we were doing our "New Deal" in America, Japan was implementing similar protocols here, with affirmative action laws and the like. And in the 1960s continuing through today, these greatly helped the buraku community, and now the polls have almost completely flipped, to 95% saying they would marry a burakumin.

Now, obviously all discrimination is dumb, but discrimination against people who are literally exactly the same as you? I completely do not understand. Anyway, even with these things all greatly alleviated, our speaker was there to just discuss the problem that Japan still faces with discrimination. There are approximately 1.5 million buraku still in Japan today, and like with most problems in Japan, the Japanese people are afraid to talk about it, even if it's happening in front of them. He said the greatest problem Japan still faces with the buraku is that if you admit to being of buraku origins, people still pull back and distance themselves, leaving the burakujin to feel excluded, something that is much more difficult to solve. The whole discussion was very interesting, and it just goes to show that people will find someone to hate no matter where, or who, you are.

He also gave another speech about homelessness in Japan, something I've seen but that isn't as prevalent as it is in America perhaps. Now, my professor and others say not to really believe the Japanese statistics on a lot of issues, and homelessness is one them, because they believe the numbers are greatly skewed due to the way they define homeless. There are homeless people, who can't afford housing at all, and then there are "day-laborers", which are people that are able to work during the day (mostly construction and the like), and are able to afford housing in the "mansions" (マンション), or "doya", which are essentially government low-rent housing. The rooms are usually about one tatami mat wide (about 3 feet by 6 feet), and go for 1,500 yen a night ($15). They get it per night, and have to be into the shelter by 5:30pm, out by 4:30am, and must lineup the following afternoon if they want another night. A lot of these shelters are in bad areas (yakuza-run towns, filled with prostitution, drugs, pawn shops, and other sketchy stuff) and, funny enough, tourists are often told by places like Lonely Planet to stay here because of the cheap hostels and hotels. Many, who either can't afford this or who don't make it in time, go to Internet cafe's to sleep (where I ended up in Hiroshima) or to McDonald's that are open 24 hours. There are approximately 5,400 of these "Internet Cafe/McDonald's refugees".

Homeless in Kamagasaki (found online)

Most of Japan's homeless population are single adult men, with almost no women and no children facing homelessness. Many of these homeless people have problems with depression and anxiety (about 10-20%), some have alcohol problems, but the majority are just unskilled and old laborers. Drugs are typically too expensive for homeless people to afford, so they have more alcohol abuse than drug abuse. They have low life expectancy and a large portion of them also are infected with tuberculosis (the "disease of the poor").  Osaka has, by far, the largest homeless population in all of Japan, with approximately 20,000 in Kamagasaki.

Young people who qualify for public assistance are told to work 26 days a month to earn a liveable sum (around $1,000 a month), and it used to be 10,000 people could do this amount of work. Nowadays however, it is down to just 1,000 people. This is due to Japan's aging population (can't do construction at 67), and because of the economic under-performance since the late 80's, and lack of jobs since the Asian Financial Crisis and bubble burst back in the late 90's.  Many homeless people do things our homeless people do to earn money (aside from begging, though they have done that a few times to us, possibly because we're foreign), like gathering aluminum cans (60 cans = 120 yen or $1.20) or grabbing the past "sell by" date bentos from the conbini's and selling them half price elsewhere. If you're 60 or above, you can qualify for public assistance of around 120,000 yen/month ($1,200), and this is a strict process, given only to those with no other options--in Japan, it's shameful to resort to public assistance, and it means that either your family has already completely cut you off (a terrible fate), or that you will cut them off because you will bring shame to them. I just found this viewpoint interesting, and something I think we desperately need back in America, because the government should truly, always be your last resort instead of your first friend. Ah well.

(Clockwise: Brandon, Yuri, Chiharu)

My weekend was uneventful--after class Friday I went shopping for a few hours (stocking up on winter clothes, crying over how huge my feet are here--triple L, laughing over hilarious Engrish), and then we went out for drinks at our usual place, Toriyiki (or whatever), and that was tasty. I do love their amazing skewers, and with everything only 294 yen after tax, it's a good time for everyone. Saturday I was going to go to USJ but I guess we're going to try to go next Saturday instead because the weather was crappy, so instead I met up with some friends and we went shopping in Namba (Osaka). I got my Halloween costume all prepared (it's a surprise!), and managed to find some really cute things on sale at H&M and at various little side shops. I finally got some Chinese food--not exactly like takeout at home, but man it was still so good, I forgot how much I missed it, and it was super cheap. We split 4 dishes: fried rice, crispy noodles, sweet and sour shrimp, and gyoza, and it was both filling and delicious, all for $4 per person. Sahweet! I spent today curled up, nose cold, studying for the last part of my Japanese midterm tomorrow and doing laundry.

I've got my Tokyo trip booked (did I mention this? I don't remember) so we leave the night before Halloween (Wednesday the 30th) on another night bus (this time we got "sleeper" seats, $10 more, so we'll see how it is), and stay until Monday the 4th (Monday is a half-holiday, so we just miss Japanese class that day). I'm so pumped it's ridiculous. 

Random:

They count by different years here. Usually they'll show both, but on any official forms you'll have to put the Heisei year (named after the current emperor, Akihito Heisei). If you're like me and you've never really heard of this concept like an ignorant Westerner (whatever), here's what you have to do: to convert a Western year after 2000 to Heisei, subtract 1988 (the year when the last emperor died). For example, 2013: 2013−1988 = Heisei 25.  You have to do this for your birth year, too, (I was a Heisei baby so it's the same math, 1993-1988 = Heisei 5). If you were born in 1960, you're Showa 35. (1960-1925, when the Emperor Showa started). Odd, right? If you wanna see what year you are, check this out here: http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~watson/ref/mtsh.html

Throughout Japan, they have this black dust in the air, pollution they claim comes from China, which is a very real possibility...but also kind of questionable. Scientists did report Chinese pollution up on Mt. Fuji, but this then led to every pollution and soot Japan has in it's air to be blamed solely on China. I'm not a big fan of communists, so I'm all for blaming them whenever possible, but it is another amusing observation of the (not-so) secret distaste for their neighbor because, in reality, you know that a majority of the dust found in these smaller towns is probably still their pollution. It is pretty prominent, something I've never had happen in Florida, and on the possibility of TMI'ing you folks, here it is: when you blow your nose here, there's always a lot of black mixed in with your clear mucus. At first I was pretty sure it was because of my cold or something, but it's continued up and out when I'm healthy now, and my Japanese friends have explained it on this phenomena. I guess Florida gets African dust, but since they're still mostly dust instead of soot...

KFC Christmas Bucket, Japan

Did you know that during the holidays here (like "Christmas", aka just a totally commercial holiday here), people go to KFC to buy their "chicken dinners"? It's a fancy big deal that everyone does. Pretty much some of the only times Japanese people eat KFC. Turkey isn't a product that's available here (though I have, oddly enough, bumped into turkey legs, but they don't sell turkey in any of the grocery stores), and most Japanese people don't have ovens, plus their cost of electricity is so high that even if they had an oven it would probably be too expensive to make, so KFC is the next best alternative.


After a long, stressful week, sometimes it's nice just to be out there, by yourself, taking it all in. It's easy to get caught up in our own nonsense, to get so muddled that we don't really appreciate everything we're experiencing or have. I try to remind myself not to do this on a daily basis, because I think it's so important to remember what an incredibly blessed life we have...even if it's something like breathing on your own, or having even one great friend, or eating a friggin' piece of cheese, there's so much awesomeness around us that it's actually easy to blur it into one mass. So at least once every few days, I like to try to go out, walk around, and just breathe. I go shopping, even to just laugh at Engrish, or just take a moment to count my infinite blessings as the cat down the road coughs out a meow. Life can be hard, but it's so intrinsically good. If you feel pent up, just go out and do something for yourself, stop worrying about everyone else for an hour, and do what you have to do. You won't regret it! I know I never do.

Shopping with Yuri!

Halloween shopping. Kawaii?

Fools

Kids clothing store

Crispy noodles

Presh piglets

Pikachu onsie anyone?

Cross-dresser Halloween Outfits

Gyoza

Tissues they give out for advertising

Taiko: Drum Master (I am not)

I hope everyone has a great week, and I'll see you next time for week 9. Until next time (jikai made, 次回まで)!

<3