From New York To Kōbe ニューヨークから神戸市まで

Having just posted, I figured I would also update on what has happened since graduation.

We all thought we wouldn't see each other but since so many of us are here it's like we've said goodbye 15 times.

Monday, I hung out with my friends Evan and David and ended up seeing the new Indiana Jones and playing games for an hour or so in an arcade. Good stuff. Evan is back in Canada now. So is Anneli. Boo.

Sometime on Monday or Tuesday, my computer decided to die. It functions, but not very well. Boo.

Tuesday, I went to my friend Chase's house for dinner and he is gone now too. Another person I'll miss.

Wednesday was cool. I ended up randomly deciding to walk with my friend Sam from Okamoto to Sannomiya in Kobe, roughly the length of the urban center. It took two and a half hours but it was a good time.

On Thursday morning, I checked out Gion Matsuri with Sam and Eskil. It was kind of underwhelming, so after seeing the first float and the next two, we decided to go see some sights. Sam showed us a waterfall you could go under behind a temple, so we did that. It was really awesome. Then we went to a cool hole in the wall vegetarian place. You would'nt believe it. It looked like the space between two buildings and you walk through and it's a house. The first floor is the restaurant. Seriously cool. We also checked out some cool stores. Kyoto has a lot of interesting stuff, though its hard to find.

I brought my host mom and brother to Neo to see para para at night. Fun stuff.

Today was the Asahi beer factory tour with Elina, Sabrina, David and Sam. I said bye to Carol right before. So many people leaving!

The best part of the beer tour was clearly the 20 minute taste test. It was mostly older people on the tour, who got a bit drunk and talked to us. First was an old man talking about how he loved America and saying English words and random stuff. I bought a beer mug print tenugui, which is like a thin cloth. Hard to describe, but useful. The woman who had given us our tour was also the cashier so we talked about where I was from and stuff, beer helping me speak smoothly.

Afterwards, we noticed a shrine, yes a shrine, by the main gate going out. We prayed (properly) cause we found it amazing and then two older ladies started talking to us. Not only that, they touched Davids beard and were telling us OH YOU GUYS SHOULD COME DO HOMESTAY WITH US! One of the woman's husband came and he talked with us too. We found out he was from near where Sam had lived in Nagano, or kind of anyways.

Moments like that make it awesome.

After that, we walked back to Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi and enjoyed being mid-day drunks. I went to Sannomiya at 5 ish, karaoke'd with Yuki, and here I am relaxing after dinner.

That is all. Pictures following.

This weekend is fireworks and a barbecue. Fun stuff!

Enjoy.

Sunday was graduation from Kangaku. We did it! It's not a diploma, but it's still something, right?

We had a ceremony with a small party afterwards. Okaa-san and Yuki came with me. I think the winners of the day for outfits go to everyone who wore yukataka, especially Chase and Ashley, and Sam gets special mention for his suit. Thao gets the most adult award.

There were performances and pictures and lots of beer drunk. Good time. Some people had flights to catch which sucked but what can you do.

After going home and taking a nap, we all gathered again for a big party by the river. It was a lot of fun, and the patrolmen ended up being graduated Kwansei Gakuin students, one of them having had a study abroad student some years ago.

About 8 of us made it until morning, out of the 80 or 90 people who had come. A lot of people went home by last train, or walked home or even crashed at someone's place.

Good times. I miss everyone that went home, but I feel better thinking that I'll see everyone again sometime.

Here are a few pictures.

Tonight I went to my usual club, Neo in the Shinsaibashi area of Osaka.

For those of you who don't know, the event is a parapara event called Super Euro Night. Parapara is hard to explain, but in short its a Japanese style of dancing.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. My friend Mika had me teach her obscene English, Makoto and I danced amusingly at the bar, Yuki learned “No no!” and then we all got food after.

At the end, Makoto gave me a ride on his bike to Umeda. It was kind of freaky, being my first time on a bike, but I enjoyed it.

My friend Cota asked me if I was coming back after July. I wish I could!

I wish I could thank the people I meet properly. There are tough days then others where its all great. It's all worth it in the end.

IN OTHER NEWS

-Midterms are over. I got an 88.5% on Kanji. I'm still waiting on grammar and the listening/speaking results. I'm confident in the latter, need more time for the former.

-Weekend before last was good. Party!

-This past weekend, I joined my friend Hiro's futsal circle which was lots of fun. I'm gonna stick with it. I had more party at night.

- Sunday was my friend Yong's bbq (I am now in love with Koreans) and lastly I met with THE ONE AND ONLY JESS O'BRIEN! Her and her bf came to Japan to tour and I got to see her for the first time in a few years. Jess was a really good friend in HS. That was a really good weekend cap.

As for this weekend, I got invited by my friend's host mom to go to Lake Biwa. It should be fun. I'm excited!

15 minutes til the station opens and 45 til the first train departs.

I can't wait to get in bed!

I'm on my way to an Ayumi Hamasaki concert with Yuki. Exciting!

I'm in Kyushu!

Hiro and I are coming back from a place called Nomo about an hour and a half south of Nagasaki.

Yesterday I got to Kokura by night bus which wasnt bad. The ojisan working on the bus was really nice. He even told me at our first stop that it was a bathroom stop. I forget how he said it but it was nice. English messager, no matter how bad or good always make me smile.

Hiro picked me up in Kokura and we had some coffee and donuts at Mister Donuts.

We took the bus after and got to his house. I met the parents, got settled and took a rest. What was supposed to be a 30minute rest turned into a 2 hour long nap.

After we got up, Hiro's dad gave us a ride to the station. Then we got on an express bound for Hakata station in Fukuoka.

We checked out Canal City and ate at the #1 place in Ramen Stadium there. Good stuff! Then we headed to a 1300 year old shrine and headed back for dinner.

If you ever get the chance to stay over a Japanese friend's home, go for it!

Today was Nagasaki. We got a late start but we got here about 1:30 I'd say.

Nagasaki has street cars! They're cheap at \100, a car comes every 5 minutes during daytime and it's awesome!

We went to see the Cathedral and the Peace Park before heading to see the sunset in Nomo. This area's famous night viewwas too far hence the trip south.

It was a hike up and around the mountain to the park up top. We ended up not staying for the sky to change colors yet just missed a bus. We had a smalltown grocery store adventure while waiting and had a chat with the two ladies working there.

Now we're on the streetcar. We get off soon.

A picture of the view is attached. Enjoy the view!

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I'm off on another trip! I'm spending a bit of time in Kyushu for Golden Week. My friend Hiro I went to Hokkaido with invited me after we talked about what I was doing and after I'd said that it seems like everything will be booked.

I'll be taking the night bus tonight (in 45 minutes at 11 actually) and I get to Kokura at 6 am tomorrow. We spend a night at his house, then we're going to go to Nagasaki and Aso I believe. We'll see, I just want to make sure I get to see some sights and I get to relax!

Okay, I'm leaving. I'll update when I get back!

It's been forever since a full post. So, on with a recap.

Winter break:
-Went to Tokyo with Anneli, met up with Max and Heather for para para events
-Went with Hiro, Phil and Sami on a bus tour of Hokkaido. We went through Hakodate, Sapporo, Asahiyama and Otaru, relaxed at hotels with onsen, saw fireworks for Chinese New Year and of course saw the Snow Festival and Penguin Sanpo.

Winter classes:
-Japanese was hard! I can't say I absorbed much of the grammar as most of it was academic grammar that's hard to get without using it much. We're using it all a lot now so it's okay.
-Kanji was okay. Conversation was helpful as we're using a text with real situations, casual and formal both.
-I also took Introductory Korean, even though I didn't go on the field work to Korea. We had it with Prof. Um and went over it all in a week. So much fun!

Spring Break:
-Made sure to go to Neo and TH Euro!
-Traveled with Mom from the 16th of March to the 25th. We stayed in Kobe, Kyoto, Tokyo, Kobe and Osaka in that order. More in detail soon. (I have so much to cover...)
-Day trip with Evan to Nara. We saw deer (Shika-san), Todaiji Temple with the huge Buddha and Ireland. More on Ireland in a moment.
-Hanami, or cherry blossom viewing, at Shukugawa! This was really fun. Nothing like chugging a chuhai in the daytime, getting tipsy and eating junk food all day with friends.

Spring Classes:
-I'm in Level 4 Japanese, Level 3 Kanji and Beginner Korean. Korean only has 4 people so it's really really relaxed. As for culture, I'm taking Japanese Novels, Society, Language & Culture, Foreign Relations of Japan and Japanese Usage. Usage is a really useful class preparing us for the 2nd level of the JLTP, or the Japanese Language Placement Test.
-The weather is warmer. Sadly, I caught a cold and did not go to Neo tonight. I think it was my birthday call, where they make you do shots and such. No clue.

Lastly, I am now 21 and I can legally drink in America! I was serenaded at midnight by Okaa-san, Yuki and Ryouma, had dinner with my host family and Evan and had an all night with friends. Thank you if you're one of them.

Lastly, some pictures.

Spring is here.

It's been raining all day though. The cherry blossoms are nearly gone.

I'm in the Okamoto station waiting room and it smells like the beach.

Time to go to Shinsaibashi. Para para para night, it's alright.

Also:
- Still have yet to meet all of the new people but everyone is great so far.

-My iPod is dead for good I think. I hope the Apple store can help.

-9 days til I turn 21!

-Saw Kaori 3 times on campus and Yuuko in Nishi Kita on my way home today. I usually don't see them randomly often, if ever. It's good to be back at school.

-Lastly, campus is packed. This is partially due to all of the new students but mostly cause everyone actually attends classes the first few weeks. Some things are international.

It's been too long! I'm waiting for the first train so I figured it's a good time to post.

Spring break has been good. The first week was simply relaxing until mom came and hanging out with friends, be it the bar with Sabrina, Ulv, Zuzana and Randi or chatting with Anneli.

My time with mom was great. We spent time in Kobe, Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka and Himeji. I finally saw geisha in Tokyo at a Spring event at our hotel not to mention Mt. Fuji! We didn't do the typical tourist thing but that's fine cause we not only had a great time, but we relaxed and ate lots at buffets. Mom left the day after yesterday. I miss her already!

Today I met up with Evan and he showed me this great spot behind Kangaku. There's a somewhat secluded park with trails and an awesome clearing with fountains and statues. Then we headed up to a viewpoint and you could see from Takarazuka to the mountains going to Kyoto. There's no real empty space minus the mountains. The view is really different from the one from my neighborhood.

Too bad I forgot my memory card at home. Pictures soon!

Next on my To-Go-To list is Nara followed by Hiroshima, Ise Shrine, Kyushu and Okinawa at the least. Only four months left! Scary.

In random news, Neo was fun and Utada Hikaru's HEART STATION is an awesome album.

I think thats all for now. Comments are welcome!

Himeji Castle

Mt. Fuji

Meiko and Geiko

I'm going meet my mom at Kansai International Airport!

I'm excited to see her and travel with her. I'm sure it will be interesting. I won't have my computer so if anyone feels the need to email me, please do so!

I know I owe a huge update. Winter Intensive was hard, but I think I did okay.

Bye guys. See you when I'm home!