The good, the bad, and the horrific

Someone today asked me what I thought of Japan so far. It's definitely been a mixed experience. (Don't worry, I'm still very happy to be here, just, things are very...different.) But I've never been one to say things are subjective, and different sounds so wishy-washy, so here's my very objective view of the past couple days in Japan:

The Good

The people here at SPring-8 are the most hospitable, helpful, and friendly people I've ever run into. Every single person I've talked to for more than twenty minutes has asked me how I like the canteen food (it's not the best) and at least five or six of them offered to take me grocery shopping. This isn't completely uncalled for since the only place I can buy food on my own is that convenience store and that's pretty sucky...but still. Three of them actually have taken me.

So that's pretty sweet, but the hospitality doesn't end there. Three people have offered to take me to Himeji castle (it's where The Last Samurai was filmed) just for this weekend. Two of these people don't even work with me. One, I haven't even met and the other speaks virtually no English. Why are they so nice????

And then tonight, Sachiko-san (her first name) took me to a Rotary Club meeting where we did ikebana, Japanese flower arranging. I was introduced to her through Kohmura-san who does actually work in the Ishikawa group. I think he knows every single female office worker in the User's Office. Anyway, it seemed like the Rotary Club is real into international stuff, i.e. taking care of the foreign researchers at the local Hyogo University campus and SPring-8. There was lots of sushi and a bunch of Indian people who brought delicious food as well (this was not sushi, as tandoori wrapped in seeweed wouldn't be quite the same, but it was still awesome.)


This is me and Sachiko-san in front of my arrangement. You can't see the really ugly part, but it's ok because the teacher came by later when everyone was eating and fixed it so it's a super double plus great arrangement now. Unfortunately, you can still see me. I'm going on a diet once all my groceries are gone. (Please don't tell me I'm being silly, or that I look fine. I'm not going to listen. The only comment I won't delete is Sam telling me to run tomorrow. Or possibly Anna.)

Plus - they have Japanese classes every Thursday night. Apparently there is a surplus of teachers, so you can just show up at some point between 6:00 and 9:30 and you'll get taught. Guess who's going to take me there every week? Sachiko-san.

I've also been taken out to okonomiyaki (they say it's japanese-style pizza, but really it's make-your-own omlette with a hot plate in front of you) and down to the closest river to see fireflies. I'd write about the fireflies, but it wouldn't come across in words correctly and I don't want to demean the experience. Suffice to say, the Japanese woods are beautiful and all that crap you hear about fireflies being worth seeing is all true. So on top of that, remember the Seos? Waaaay too nice to me. And they're throwing me a welcome party tomorrow night after work. This is apparently pretty standard in Japan but it's getting to be overwhelming and I wish I'd brought about 20 more presents from home. The stuff I brought is so inadequate.


The Bad

I'm sure that any of you who have been to Japan or live in Japan know about how stupid the government regulations can be. For me, it's been ok, mostly due to Kubo-san and JSPS (the people running the EAPSI summer program.) But I'm starting to get a taste.

1.) I'm a Sitchel again, this time on official government documents. Those of you not in my family or not Sarah, you might not know about this. No one ever pronounces our name correctly, and it's a little annoying after a while, but my dad's family enjoys being annoying, so when we're particularly obnoxious, we say we're just being Sit-chels. So on my application to become an official radiation worker, someone spelled my name 'sai-che-ru.' Thanks, guys. Way to assume I can't spell my own name.

2.) After sitting through 5.5 hours of safety training so that I could get into the synchrotron on Wednesday, I couldn't get into the synchrotron on Wednesday. Or, more accurately, I couldn't get out. I followed someone in, properly swiping my card like I'd been instructed in hour 5 the day before, but improperly listening to the Japanese which was saying 'your card is NG' not 'your card is OK.' In any case, I was stuck inside. I had to borrow someone else's card to get out, then go to the User's Office. It was closed for lunch. I went to find Kubo-san the amazing, because she can fix everything, and gave my card to her, and took hers so I could get inside again.

Too bad the person who is in charge of the cards wasn't in the office on Wednesday. Luckily, I didn't have to go inside the ring today and doublely luckily, the person in the safety office was there today. Hopefully it'll work.

Honestly, the bureaucracy hasn't been horrible (yet), which is why it's only the bad, not


The Horrific

Once again, it's the television here. This show had about 20 people put on an outfit and guess how much it cost. The one who guessed the closest to how much their outfit cost...maybe they got to keep it? I sincerely doubt that, though. Maybe they just win, or just get a million yen or something. Here's the visuals you've been waiting for:


This very ordinary looking outfit cost $9,703.73. I looked it up on google. But wait, there's more!

I really just picked her because of the expressions on their faces. They are far, far more common than you would think. So, her outfit cost a mere $2,992.77. But that's probably because it's been damaged:
(sorry for poor picture quality. The pale patches on her back are her skin.)

But the winner in ridiculosity, by far, was this outfit.
$20,6054.32
That's right.
$20,6054.32
Only about $13,300 was in jewlery. That means that those clothes and the handbag cost 6,000 US greenbacks (multicolorbacks?). Who on earth in their right mind would pay that kind of money for perfectly ordinary looking clothing? Even in the closeups, they aren't anything special. Needless to say, I was horrified.

You may have won today, Japan....

In response to Sarah's second post from yesterday, here's the scoreboard so far:

Me vs. Japan

Public Transport: Draw. The trains and I have an understanding. It's the buses that I need to whip into shape.

Shopping: Japan. Unless there's pictures or it's a product for children (=no kanji) I have no idea what I'm buying.

Food: Me. I've only found two things that I don't like (some pickled green stuff and fishy sauce) and believe me, there's been plenty of things not to like.

TV: Dude, there's no contest. Japan. More on that later.

Plumbing: Me. It was a hard fight, but I prevailed. Today I took a hot shower (40 C, to be exact) without turning on the tub. Just so you understand, this is what it looks like:
although to be fair, the tub did start while I was taking the picture.

So as of this morning, the score was tied at 2-2. But today Japan struck a mighty blow in the form of safety training.

I'm sure you've all watched some horrible safety videos at some point in your lives. They all have truly horrible acting and several summarizing points at the end that are really, really obvious. Like in high school chemistry, "Don't have a snowball fight with liquid nitrogen." or "Johnny shouldn't have pipetted the hydrochloric acid with his mouth. Now he'll never taste again." So, imagine that for 5 hours.

The Japanese government has decided that anyone who works with or near sources of radiaiton must go through this training, i.e. watch these videos. What I find fascinating is that they don't care - at all - whether you pay attention or even understand at all. The first three hours of the videos were all in Japanese. Someone actually told me that it was just a ritual you have to go through, and several others suggested that I just take a nap. It didn't come to that, but I did spend about ten minutes watching the cat drama. (There were some cats in the field outside...they sniffed each other and hunted butterflies...did cat stuff...)

On the plus side, I did have a translator present for the lecture and mini-labs, and the test was given in English. The government regulations did come in an English version, although I think I may be the proud owner of the only hard copy of the regulations specific to SPring-8 in English.

So Japan, you've proven yourself a powerful and mysterious foe, but you haven't seen the last of me yet! Bwahahahahaahah!




PS. This is one of the reasons why Japan also wins the TV category. I may have to devote a whole post to the subject later on.
This is part of a show where you can win one million yen by playing hide-and-go-seek in your own house with these people.

The danger(s) of unguarded pluralization

Today (Monday) at 5 pm I was doing the usual dance in my head - should I go home, because I can without getting in trouble, or should I stay late, and look like I'm working hard - but I got interrupted by Kirimura-san (he's a fourth-year grad student) asking me if I was busy.

Of course I wasn't. He has a car, and therefore the potential to get me down the mountain.

Turns out that there was a whole group organized. I am totally pathetic and when everyone was introduced to me in a giant group last week, I forgot most people's names. So I'll call the other two guys (who deserve so much better than this) A-san and B-san.

A-san is very quiet. He's also a first year grad student, and four months younger than me. I don't think he's really all that quiet usually, but his English is about as good as my Japanese, so he plays it safe and doesn't say too much. We took his car today.

B-san is a college senior. He's new around the lab, too, so we both have no idea what's going on. Well, maybe he has some idea. I don't. He plays jazz guitar and is part of a band. He also went to a concert last weekend in Kobe.

See - see - I do know these people and am not a horrible person who can't be bothered to remember their names. I just can't read thier ID cards because it's all written in kanji.

Anyway, I think these guys were going to go shopping and thought I would like to go along since I really have no access to anything. (Imagine being able to shop at 7-11, and 7-11 only. This is what it's like.) So if it had been Sunday, I would have needed to come. Today, I just really didn't want to work anymore so I figured wherever they were going would be more interesting than working on a powerpoint presentation.

I was right. Boy, was I right. All we did was
1) drop some film off and get one picture framed
2) go to a grocery store
3) go to a 100 yen store
4) eat dinner
but it was awesome. You remember back in high school when you could have the best time with your friends just filling up the gas tank or buying some milk for your mom? Yeah, tonight was that kind of night. Despite the rather large language gap, we could pretty much understand each other. There was one noteable exception, though...

A-san says something I can't understand to Kirimura.

Kirimura says "A-san wants to teach you about Japanese seishin, spirits."

"Well, I'll be a very enthusiastic student!" I say. Wisconsin has trained me well, and I do like the sake. And the beer.

"What does sujistaku mean?" Kirimura says.

(cut out a ten minute conversation involving the meaning of enthusiastic, nuances in pronunciation of the same word, inquiries about Japanese and English accents, me saying 'This is a nice restaurant' in Australian, Texan, American, Cockney, and British accents, them teaching me the difference between Kansai (Japanese equivalent of the Midwest) and non-Kansai accents, a forty minute car ride back with discussions of anime, the dangers of driving at night when there are deer, me hitting a moose, our return to the office, looking up 'moose' first on the dictionary and then on Google, much incredulity, and finally remembering to look up enthusiastic. While they do this, I borrow a dictionary and look up liquor.)

(Me pointing to the definition of liquor) "Is this the same as seishin?"

"No...this is sake..." says B-san.

Turns out I'm going to learn the Japanese spirit, not about the spirits of Japan. I'm sure one will involve the other, though, so it'll be ok.

Proof that scientists are full of it

Apparently, we can make up any sort of word we want. How about flexoelectric? Personally, I'd prefer flexolectric. Just say it - it's fun.

If you don't believe me, here's the quote from the paper I'm reading right now.

"It should be remarked that there is a profound analogy between
spatially modulated structures in a ferroelectromagnet and waves
of the director in a nematic liquid crystal [12], especially in their
behavior in electric fields. This analogy formally manifests itself
in the similarity of the equation for the energy of the inhomogeneous
magnetoelectric interaction in a ferroelectromagnet and the
equation for the energy of the interaction of the flexoelectric
polarization with an external electric field in a nematic liquid
crystal."

Zhdanov et al., "Effect of the Electric Field on “Incommensurate–Commensurate” Magnetic Phase Transitions in BiFeO3 -Type Multiferroics", Physics of the Solid State, 48, No. 1, pp. 88–95 (2006).

Why I shouldn't be allowed out by myself

I was a total retard this weekend and didn't take any pictures. So it's back to the masterpieces that come out of mspaint.

This weekend, I ended up not having any plans. At the last minute on Friday, Kubo-san (our secretary who is awesome) somehow found out that I had nothing to do, so she offered to show me around a little bit on Sunday. This did mean, however, that I was left to my own devices for a day.

On Saturday it was very sunny here, but since the bus ride down to the nearest tiny town is about 710 yen and takes 45 minutes, I didn't really want to do that unless I really really needed something. So for Saturday I borrowed a bicycle and rode to the nearest convenience store about 2-3 km away. I (very foolishly, as it turned out) also decided to explore a little bit before hitting the convenience store. I tried to climb a mountain.
This failed miserably, since they're all so steep, the slope is about 60 degrees. I went about 100 feet and gave up since the trees were so dense that I wouldn't have been able to see anything even if I did get to the top.

Then I found a cute little stairway going straight down another hill. I could hear running water, so I assumed there was a stream of some sort, which might be pretty. These stairs didn't seem so long, so I decided to go check it out. I got to the bottom and discovered the running water was actually a storm drain. (It was really strange, actually. I was pretty much in the middle of nowhere - there were only two streets I could see and certainly no buildings anywhere close - but the storm drain went really really deep, like a hundred feet or so. Why on earth the civil engineers decided that such a hardcore storm drain was necessary is way beyond me.) Anyway, after discovering Japan's most unecessary sewer, I had to climb up these stairs again.
I almost died. After finally reaching the top and catching my breath, I got to ride another kilometer or so to the convenience store and come all the way back (uphill) to SPring-8. As soon as I got back I took a cold shower, drank about a liter of juice, and fell asleep in the sun for about two hours. Then I got up, ate dinner, and worked a little bit before falling asleep again while 'taking a short break' on the bed.

Today was awesome. My advisor's secretary, her daughter, Ao-chan, and her friend took me shopping. I finally have laundry detergent, and I found a store you can buy taco sauce and tortillas at. (not that I really want tacos, but it's good to know that there's somewhere I can go in case of a taco emergency) We also went to an electronics store. Everything here is really spiffy and way better than in America, but also way more expensive than in America. Also, I found a $12 apple, $20 canteloupe, and an $11 dollar bell pepper. Then we had sushi that was amazing AND cheap, and now I'm super full. Ao-chan taught me lots of words like star, halo, and poo-poo. She was calling Matsumoto-san all sorts of things that are really amusing to a tired six year old, like butt-girl and fart-chan. I have to admit, it was both hilarious and educational. She has a new name, too. She's Broccoli-chan now. I totally forget why she became Broccoli-chan, but she wanted me to be Broccoli-chan so we arm wrestled for it. She totally cheated, so she says I'm Broccoli-chan but I call her Cheater-chan. She also cheats at cards, but she's so cute at it that it's ok.

I'm starting a new method for learning Japanese, other than trying to understand Ao-chan's...earthy Japanese. I bought a Japanese-English dictionary (all the English to Japanese dictionaries have all the Japanese in kanji, which I can't read, and all the kanji dictionaries have the definitions of the the kanji in more kanji.) I also bought a manga (Japanese comic book - they're waaaay more popular here than in the US.) Holy cow, they're cheap here! This was about 300 yen. The english translations cost about $20 at home. Anyway, I'm going to translate this manga. So far, I've gotten halfway through page 1.

Anna and Julie - I almost bought you something today. They had some notebooks that say "Simple things are well loved. Our first goal is tasty design." or something like that. If they had more than about 40 pages in them, I totally would have gotten them for you guys. But don't worry - I'm sure there are plenty of T-shirts with horrible English out there. Just you wait.

Friday Night (cabin) Fever

So, ladies and gentlemen, it's my first free Friday night in Japan. Am I out trying as many different kinds of sake as possible? No. Am I hopping from trendy dance club to trendy dance club until I've worn holes in my shoes? No. Am I at least participating in some sort of cultural event, like attending a Kabuki performance or some sort of Noh theatre? Oh no. Because I am in the Coarsegold of Japan. It is beautiful, rugged mountain country that is good for the hiking, but bad for the being any good at all after dark. It was an 710 yen ($7.10), 45 minute bus ride from the nearest town, which discourages any uncessesary travel. To continue the Coarsegold analogy, the nearest town, Aioi, would be Oakhurst. (For you of non-San Joaquin valley origin, go here, or to Yahoo maps beta, which kicks butt but needs Flash. Fresno, the nearest big town, which you may have heard of, is a 500,000 person (or so) suburb of nothing. Why the fascination with Coarsegold? It's my hometown.)

But that's ok, I guess. I've been pretty busy at least during the days. Yesterday I got a tour of the experiment hall at SPring-8. This is most likely where I'll be spending long, long hours for the rest of the summer. I'm working for Ishikawa-sensei and he's in charge of two very cool beamlines.

Hmm. It occurs to me that none of you probably have any clue about what I'm talking about, except for my grandfather and maybe my dad, if he didn't fall asleep while I was trying to tell him about it. Okay kiddies, open your copies of Synchrotrons for Dummies to page 8, please, and follow along.

One explanation of synchrotrons I once heard was that it was where you spin electrons around until they get dizzy and throw up x-rays. This is basically true. A synchrotron (copy this into your notes, children) is basically a big circle with electrons going around in it very, very, quickly. Because the electrons are always going in a circle, they're always changing direction, which means they are being accelerated (F=ma). Due to some electrodynamics, when an electron is accelerated, it emits radiation. Then after some more theory of relativity (thank you, Einstein), it turns out that the radiation has wavelengths in the x-ray regime. The x-rays go out in straight lines from the circle (storage ring) and each path is called a beamline.

Key concepts:
make electrons go almost speed of light -> spin them around -> they spit out x-rays

vocabulary:
synchrotron - big expensive x-ray source
storage ring - the circle electrons go around in
beamline - where the x-rays come out.

The quiz will be on Monday.

Why do people do this? The x-rays are really really good. You can also get other kinds of radiation out if you want. For instance, there's a synchrotron in Canada where they get the kinds of x-rays that they use at the doctors office that they use for medical and vetrinary imaging. They're actually building a beamline with a door for cattle.

Anyway, I got to see the storage ring (it's very dangerous when the synchrotron is running, but it's in shutdown mode right now so I got to take a peek) and got a tour of all the beamlines. We have two beamlines. #19 is the most brilliant (brightest light) in the world and #29 a 1 kilometer beamline which makes coherent light. Okay, enough technobabble. Here's the pic!
I look retarded and you can't see anything I just told you about. The green machinery behind me at least goes in the x-ray beam...

My friend Chris came to visit SPring-8 with his own group yesterday and today. He brought some...food...with him. Too bad this picture is so blurry. Believe it or not, we actually ate the clear and green ball-y thingies. You stick them with the little plastic toothpick and roll them around in some powder, and enjoy. They basically taste like the powder. It's sweet, but that's all the description I can give you. For the rest of the night, we were total dorks and talked about our research groups and working at synchrotrons and so on. Although we did complain about our respective housing situations, though, so at least we're a little normal.


Wow! I'm impressed with myself. Really, nothing happened and still I've managed to talk for quite a long time.

Oh oh oh - Ishikawa-sensei arrived from France today. He seems pretty cool, and much more casual than I was expecting. Hopefully I'll only offend him a little bit with my American boorish manners. We're going to discuss my schedule on Monday, when he's not so overwhelmed and jet lagged. (As if he weren't busy enough, he's also in charge of the x-ray free electron laser (think a laser that shoots x-rays) which just started working two weeks ago and there was a press release yesterday and he's been gone...) So I guess I'll finally figure out what I'm doing on Monday.

From Tokyo to SPring-8

So, if today were really Tuesday, this would be posted at the right time. So let's pretend that I'd had internet access then and that I posted this on Tuesday.

So they finally let us free from Hayama! We all got packed into buses and taken to Tokyo train station. From that point, it was up to us to get to our host institutions. I was lucky and there was a Shinkansen super express (which amazingly is not as express as they get) straight to Aioi, the train station closest to SPring-8. The train ride was fine. They had really pretty conductresses? (if it were a plane, they'd be flight attendants) who were selling coffee, bento boxes (lunch boxes), snacks, candies, beer, wine, etc... and all for pretty cheap. I'd bought my lunch at a convenience store before because I thought it would be cheaper. Anyway, I got off at Aioi station.

Wierd Japanese thing of the day: this was at Aioi station.


Leaving Aioi was where the fun began. After this point, it really felt like Myst, or maybe one of those text-based adventure games where you have to solve the puzzles when you don't even know what the puzzles are, much less how they work. Here's kind of how it went:

You wake up, not really knowing where you are. You look down and see that you are holding a bus schedule and the 4:37 bus to SPring-8 is highlighted. You notice that the clock says 4:32. You also notice that you really really need to find a bathroom.

>>look for bathroom

You see lots of kanji.

>>look for sign with guy and girl

It's over there.

>>go over there

For the sake of propriety, we'll skip the discussion of learning to use the porcelain hole-in-the-ground type toilet. Suffice to say, bring tissue with you into the stall.

You go outside and look at the clock. It is now 4:58.

>> check schedule

Your schedule says another bus comes at 5:07.

>> wait

People stare at you until the bus arrives.
get on the bus? y/n

>> y

Take a ticket? y/n

>> n

You sit down on the bus along with several high school students. (Imagine the next part is a movie)

(Okay, even I can't imagine that was a movie, but just go with it)
As the bus continues on its route, you notice that the stops are being displayed at the front of the bus. You also notice that you can't read kanji, except for the occasional (something something) elementary school. Where do you get off?

a.) where the last guy on the bus does
b.) when you start seeing English on the street signs again
c.) first stop after you realize you haven't seen a house for about five minutes
d.) SPring-8 + some more kanji, one of which is possibly the one for gate

>>d

You get off at the bus stop and go up to the kiosk. The guy there does not speak English. In broken Japanese, you tell him you're supposed to call Akiko Kubo. He says he doesn't really understand. You say you don't really understand, either. The guy standing next to you thankfully does speak some English. He escorts you to the user's office.

At the user's office, you meet Akiko Kubo, your boss's secretary and the wonderful person who's been organizing everything for you. She brings you to the guest house after introducing you to the few people left in the lab. You recieve a key card and proceed to room 203.


Put key card in slot? y/n

>>y

The door opens and you enter.
Look for a light switch? y/n

>>y

There is a light switch, but it does not do anything. You notice something else on the wall. There appears to be a slot.

>>get keycard
>>put keyard in slot

The lights turn on! You try to enter the room, but find yourself restrained by your impeccable manners.

>>take shoes off
>>put slippers on


You can enter the room without guilt. You are in room 203. There is a door to your LEFT. You can look RIGHT or STRAIGHT.

>>look right

(you appear to have already put your luggage down.)

>>turn left
>>turn left
>>open door

You see a sink and doors to your RIGHT and LEFT.

>>turn left
>>open door

You again feel dishonorable about entering unless you change slippers. Put slippers on? y/n

>>n
>>turn around
>>open door
>>open door
You are now in the bath room. You have no idea how to use anything.

>>cry

I'm sorry, I don't understand 'cry.' Please use Japanese.

>>exit


I'll explain about the air conditioner (with remote control!), heater, and bathtub later.

Pretend this was posted on Monday

Until about 6 pm, yesterday’s blog would have consisted of about two sentences, probably something along the lines of ‘Today we finished our Japanese class and listened to another set of lectures. There was a Canadian who told us about the Japanese and a guy from Japan who talked about their space program. The Canadian guy was funny, but the Japanese guy was not.’ Thank goodness we decided to have a beer after dinner, otherwise you would have been extremely bored.

So while drinking our beers, we started playing cards. A couple nights before, we wanted to play poker but we had nothing to bet for, and poker really isn’t interesting without even fake money to play with. Then Adina (or possibly Julie) had the brilliant idea of playing for Fire brand Milk and Beans. What could that possibly be, you ask? So did we. It looked like this:

and was in the same area of the fridge as juices and stuff, so it wasn’t alcoholic and probably edible. The loser of the card game had to drink it.

Unfortunately, it was just iced coffee. But that didn’t stop us from having a great time for the rest of the night…Will came over and talked us into walking to the beach with a bunch of other people. It was only supposed to take 20 minutes. Thirty minutes later, we decided that was a) not true and b) coming back was really going to suck because we had been walking downhill the entire time.

When we did finally get there, the ocean was gorgeous. The beach was pretty pebbly, as opposed to the beach near the Seo’s house which was nice and sandy. There was also a big rock sticking out of the ocean and a little peninsula (quick diversion here – I’m watching Japanese baseball and there’s something that sounds exactly like a bagpipe, perhaps as a cheer?) that was so picturesque. See how picturesque it was?

This is what happens when you choose the really low resolution setting on your digital camera.

Walking back 30 minutes uphill in wet clothes and flip flops was fun.

Home Stay

I'd like to preface this post with an enormous thank you to the Seo family (I hope you're reading this!!) for the incredible weekend that they arranged for me and their wonderful hospitality.

So, about that incredible weekend - on Friday we all left Sokendai (the guest house we were previously staying at) for a homestay. This is pretty popular in Japan. The idea is that when you want to go stay somewhere that you don't live, go stay with a family instead of a hotel. I guess it happens a lot with foreign exchange students for extended periods of time, like semesters even. Anyway, this was for Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday (today.)

Here's the family I stayed with:

From left to right, they are Mitsuki, Hiroyuki, and Keiko Seo. Mitsuki is nine years old and very genki (lively) as well as incredibly flexible. She can do cartwheels and handstands and those bridge-things they make you do to stretch your back, but then she can actually stand up. It's something to see. They also have a black lab, Momo. She and Mitsuki play hide-and-go-seek.

On Friday night, Mitsuki and Keiko took me out to okonomiyaki, which although it was represented to me as Japanese-style pizza, was nothing at all like pizza. It kind of looks like...um...I don't know what it looks like. The one we had included cheese, the japanese version of gnocchi, and corn in an eggy (?) sauce that sort of held it together once it cooked. Anyway, all this food talk really belongs in the post that got deleted, so hopefully I'll get to rewrite it soon enough.

After dinner, we picked up Hiroyuki from the train station and went home. That was pretty much that for Friday, but the next day they took me to Kamakura. Kamakura used to be the capital of Japan, way back in the day, so it has about a million temples and shrines. We went to the most famous (= crowded and full of other foreigners) temple called Daibutsu, which just means great Buddha. Guess why?
We also got to go inside. It was a really hot day, and the bronze was hot to the touch. There are really a ton of pictures that are all amazing, so let's just get all of this over with. First of all is the sign with all the statistics of the Buddha. Basically, he's big. You can also walk inside him, since it's hollow. He actually has windows in his back which is probably good because it's quite warm inside and without ventilation it might get scary hot. Finally, no Buddha would be complete without a set of beach sandals, for those days when high heels are just too much. The really dark picture below is the inside, looking up at his head. Mitsuki says that he was cast by making a big wooden mold and pouring the bronze inside.
The other place we went in Kamakura was the tsurugaokahachimanguu. I think it's something like pigeon shrine, but I'm really not sure. There were a ton of pigeons and the shrine itself has some pigeons on its name - they're the squiggly things at the top of the name plaque.

The road leading up to Tsurugao (I'm too lazy to write the whole name) is long, but they were super-clever when they made it. It's wide at the beginning and narrow at the end, so that it looks much longer than it is. At the end of the road is a very beautiful gate and some bridges, as well as a coffee shop on one side. (Side note: coffee here is a much more formal deal and involves sitting down at a table.) The temple sells fortunes. You shake a box, shake a stick out that's got a number on it, and they give you that paper and that's your fortune for the day. If it's bad, you're supposed to tie it on something and then it's a prayer. If it's good, you keep it. Mine was kichi, good luck.

Wish: Your wise will come true, but take care that the darkest place in under the candlestick.
Marriage: Leave it to your parents. It will be a good relationship.
Relationship: You yourself will suffer a loss if you get angry.
Illness: You will be unexpectedly ill if you don't take care of yourself.
Business: You will succeed if you set up production with great efforts.
Examination: Improve yourself in your language.

Righteo.

I forgot to mention that their neighbors invited us for lunch and fed me the biwa. They were also supernice and definitely are dog people. There was a yellow lab and golden retriever (one from each couple) and we fed the dogs soba and whatever else we were eating when they came and looked at us like they were starving. That night, family friends of the Seos came over with their two boys and it was just like a barbeque with the Forbeses. Kids running and yelling, adults stuffing themselves and talking and laughing, and great food and everyone's having a great time. They actually spoke pretty good English, but we spoke Japanese for most of the night except when I had to say something complicated.

Today we went to Yokohama. It was raining, so the amusement park we went to wasn't so...amusing. We did go on the ferris wheel, but that wasn't too exciting. After that we went inside and Mitsuki and I took pictures in a photo booth. Compared to American photo booths, hese things are on crack. Not only do you get more backgrounds, but there's also several different poses, more shots, and then you can edit them. And when I say edit, I really mean decorate until it's so cute that it's a little scary.
These ones aren't even the worst. There's bears and hearts and stars and borders and backgrounds and clothes you can put on the people as well as horns or wings or halos or ears. You can also write whatever you want. It's insane. After our photo session, we went to Chinatown, which is really big and feels very much like the one in San Francisco. We went to the Chinese temple there. It was very very ornate with decorations on every little corner. You can buy incense and go inside, which Mi-chan did and then I had to go with her because she wasn't allowed to carry the stuff once the stuff was lit. If anything, it's more decorated inside than out. There's five different altars which you're supposed to pray to in order. They've got...dolls? models? I don't really know what to call them of old men in them. It was really cool to go see. After that, since I needed a new wallet because yen don't fit in my old one, not only did we go shopping, but Hiroyuki and Keiko insisted on paying. They also paid for everything else during the weekend, including meals and admission. This doesn't seem overly ridiculous until you see the prices, which definitely are. They also bought me an umbrella and gave me a yukata (summer kimono) that Keiko wasn't using anymore and the grandma Reiko showed me how to wear it. Japanese hospitality is so much more...hospitable. They were incredibly nice to me even though they didn't really know me at all. It was amazing. Thanks again, Seos!!!

Noooooooooooooooooooooo! I just deleted a really long post about loquats and eating lots of Japanese food that I've never heard of and it rocked but now it's gone because I can't read the Japanese buttons.

I want to cry. I guess I'll put up pictures and try to redo it tomorrow. It's almost time for dinner with my host family.

These are biwa or loquats. I ate them at lunch and they are delicious. I've also eaten many, many other delicious things since I got here, most of which I have almost no idea what they were.












Here's where I'm going (SPring-8)

The Amazing Machines of Japan

Apparently, alcohol isn't nearly as big of a deal here as it is back home. 1) It's cheap and and 2)
I don't know if you can see the prices, but the soda-sized can is 250 yen (or so), which is about $2.50. The big ones are 300 yen ($3) and wine coolers are 200 yen. This vending machine happens to be in our hotel right next to the ice machine, but I've seen other ones. The other day, I went to a mini-mart and bought something that said grapefruit freeze but turned out to be a wine cooler. Oops.

Our other find at 7-11 was this, which can speak for itself.
Make sure you read the small black subtitle next to his head.

Today we're going to have more Japanese lessons, then present our posters about our what our research this summer is supposed to be (this will be a giant joke to everyone except the people who organized it), and then we get to go home with our home stay families. For those of you who aren't familiar with how a home stay works (I wasn't), a Japanese family volunteers to have a student come stay with them for a period of time. It's pretty popular here, both with domestic and foreign exchange students. We're going to be staying for tomorrow night, all of Saturday, and come back on Sunday.

I actually got to meet my host family yesterday, or at least part of it. The mom and the nine-year-old daughter Mitsuki (when I told her my dog's name, Minski, she thought that we named her Mitsuki and got a little offended but in a cute way) came to our 'cultural experience' night. We got to do origami, calligraphy, and watch part of a tea ceremony and drink the tea. I didn't realize that my host family was coming, so I'd started doing the calligraphy when one of my friends came over to say that my family was here. I tried to get up to go, but Izumi-san (the old lady teaching us) would not let me go until I'd finished my two practice characters and the final one on the fancy board. They're real big on doing things the way they're supposed to go, even if there's no good reason. For instance, the doors here at the Sokendai guest house are closed between 11PM and 7AM, so if you want to go running in the morning, you better not want to come back in until 7:00 sharp.

Wierd Japanese thing of the day:

There are two kinds of toilets at the guest house. One is a very nice ceramic hole in the ground, and here's the other.
Check out the buttons on the side. They say that they spray, bidet, and heat up the seat. You can control the strength and warmth, too. We're all too scared to try anything but the heater.

Woah

Holy cow...I just got out of a four hour Japanese session and it was intense. My brain is about ready to explode. We talked about how to speak politely to our superiors, discuss the representative landmarks of our respective countries, and how to order from a beer garden (beeyah gahden in Japanese.) The good news is that I could understand the teacher who spoke almost entirely in Japanese. The bad news is that I've forgotten how to say everything. I have a whole page of new vocabulary and they gave us a book of different grammatical structures that we'll be using. Stuff like 'can I do blah blah blah' or 'let's go have dinner' or my personal favorite 'Hey, let's get drunk.'

Wierd Japanese thing of the day:

The very polite way to ask your boss for a favor literally means 'would you please do me the favor of making me do x.'

Bugs, jet lag and MTV

Note: This was written the day I got here (June 13th) but I didn't have time to post until today. I really was very tired when I wrote this... I'll write about what's happened since then later on.

Well, I’m here. We’re staying in Narita (right next to the airport) tonight, but we’re getting shipped off tomorrow to a place called Sokendai. I stayed up all night last night (?) so I could sleep on the plane, but I only got a couple hours of sleep, so I’m pretty out of it right now. Plus, for some reason, it was light during the entire flight. We flew along the Alaskan coast and down the other side of the Bering straight, which took 12 hours, and somehow it’s tomorrow but there wasn’t any night. I don’t get it. It seems like we were flying opposite to the path the sun travels so there’d have to be dark, right? Maybe we were far enough north so that there isn’t any night.

Here’s my plane from Madison at 6:00 am. To make things better, I found out this afternoon (night? Next day?) that the other girl from UW Madison flew out on a 8:00 flight to make exactly the same connection I did in Chicago. Oh well. I have a fantastic sunrise picture now. Nyah.

Here's the JAL plane that actually took us to Japan - it's so enormous. There were 10 rows of seats plus two aisles in economy class.

This is when I thought we were starting to fly across the Pacific Ocean:

Too bad the shortest path to Japan isn’t a straight line on the normal map. Oh well, I suppose a practical lesson in spherical geometry isn’t the worst thing in the world.

So right now there’s an enormous waspy-thingy flying around in my room.

There’s no perspective in the picture. I’d hold my hand or something to give you the scale of this enormous monstrosity, but that’d require getting close to it and I think it could bite my finger off. It’s seriously two inches long at least. Luckily, the room doesn’t have curtains – instead there are these panels that slide to block the windows. So now gigantor bug is buzzing around in between the window pane and the panel. It sounds a lot like an electrical short and I keep on thinking it’s my computer’s power adapter about to flip out and fry my computer and all the work and data and papers that’re on it, along with my connection to all ya’ll.

Japanese TV is hilarious. Of course, there’s the obvious hilarity in dubbing Japanese over shows that should have been subtitled for the good of mankind. Take for example, Columbo. It’s Columbo’s voice that makes it any good at all, and the Japanese version sounds suspiciously like Or how about the inflight movie, Big Momma 2? Imagine a black woman, but in Japanese. It doesn’t work. At all. It’s more like a drunken housewife or something.

And MTV. Holy cow, it’s weird. In between each video there a little animation, which is cool, but the animation is just plain on crack. Like one is the MTV logo turning into a swarm of cockroaches and one comes up to the screen and eats it. And then there's the ska band - they've all got pink jackets and are skanking. Or how about the rapping rabbi? He was actually pretty good. I don't think I 'm really doing a very good job of conveying the amazing amount of strangeness here. Maybe I'll take pictures as evidence.

Anyway, I'm here!