Enjoy refreshing taste in relaxing time

The pouring rain in Kyoto, Japan caused me to seek refuge inside a McDonald's. Well, that, and I hadn't eaten in some time. There was a cardboard cut-out of a man holding a tray of food that was much too close for me. He is named Mr. James and he is the biggest nerd I have ever seen. His comb-over has to be the greasiest, most nasty looking hairstyle known to mankind. Mr. James' job is to promote a new sandwich; what a fulfilling life that must be.

I made it to Kyoto alone, completely relying on my own devices and when I saw the tall, needle-like tower that stands next to the station, a combined rush of excitement and pride flew through me.

My Japanese is slowly improving though trying to get control of the language is like trying to tame a wild grizzly bear. From my seat in the wonderful American restaurant, I could see a construction site across the street with a sign that read, "Kyoto Yodobashi Camera Project." Below this strange description were two small digital marquees with rapidly changing two digit numbers. Next to this was a chart with ranges of numbers and more descriptions all in Japanese. I was able to deduce that the numbers were decibels and the ranges were describing similarly loud situations from "jet engine" to "office room." It is the tiny victories such as these that keep me going.

One week down

It is currently Saturday morning at the end of my first week in Japan and I am not really sure where to begin. This first week has been largely orientations and meetings which have droned on and on due to the loud, rambling, reiterating, and slightly offensive Iga-san. However, now that it is Saturday, I think I am largely through with listening to her repeat herself on how we should attend everything we sign up for, we shouldn't assume the Japanese are like Americans, and we should park our bicycles in the bike rack. Despite the awful speeches she delivered, there was a little bit of excitement to be had on our own.

This glorious piece of machinery is my assigned bicycle. Its fabulous grey chipped paint, rusted kickstand, and distorted basket will be my wheels for the rest of my stay in Japan. It is old and weary but damnit, it has character. During our orientation several students from the local Japanese University led groups of us on a bike tour around Hikone, highlighting many important buildings and areas such as the super store, Hikone station, and the post office. The super store is called Cainz and it is like Meijer, but much larger and stranger. It has a few restaurants but they do not have the quality of food one would hope to enjoy on his first few days in Japan. This seemed to be my luck, though, when I tried to eat at my first legitimate restaurant here called Joyfull. From a distance and because of the font, I thought it was called Joyfun, which would have made the place more successful in my opinion. This food sucked too. So perhaps not.

But! With enough practice, I was able to find a better place to eat and one that was a little bit closer. It is called Chanpon and it is a ramen shop. Japanese ramen is so much more intense than American ramen! Here, the noodles are topped with meat, egg, bean sprouts, mushrooms; pretty much anything you think should or should not accompany noodles and broth. You can find a picture of Chanpon on my flickr, the URL is at the bottom of the page.

Twice, high school students came to JCMU and we were encouraged to meet with them. The first group was from a nearby school called Maibara. They came to practice their english. We were paired off two by two, grouped with two of the students, and made to talk. It was a little awkward at first when we didn't really know how to begin, but one student seemed to have quite a few questions for us and proceeded to drill us on our lives, habits, interests, and hometowns. It was actually pretty fun speaking english with these kids and they seemed to have a good time too. At the end, they asked for a picture and as I stood there smiling with them and holding up the peace sign, I was hating myself for forgetting my camera in my room.

The second group of students came from Zeze high school and they gave presentations to us about Lake Biwa. This time, I did bring my camera, but I thought it might add to the stress they already have about giving this presentation completely in english if I were to start snapping photos. These presentations were very scientific and I marveled at how good their english must be if I could follow whether or not the lake was eutrophic or if purification action was taking place on the inland lakes. After they were through and left, I decided that I maybe didn't want to go swimming in the lake now that I know it is filled with bad sorts of phytoplankton and is a little too dirty for fish to live. It is still quite beautiful though.

Touch down in the land of the rising sun

Waking up at 6:40 this morning made me realize both that my feeble attempts to ward off jet-lag have failed and that the sliding doors in Cooper and my apartment are far too loud. It is a great day in Japan: 72 degrees and sunny. The view from my window consists largely of telephone poles and bike racks, but there are great leafy hills off to my right and I can see Lake Biwa peeking at me between some trees on the left.

The flight to Japan went about as smoothly as one might expect a 14 hour flight to be. We were all rather excited to get going and this energy fueled us for the first four hours. Then, as the in-flight movie "Monsters vs. Aliens" began playing, we all realized that we were in for quite a lengthy stay in a cramped metal tube. My carry-on fit neither beneath my seat nor in the overhead compartment but instead found a spot exactly in the only area Northwest had designated for my feet. Suffice it to say, I was uncomfortable. Even with the 32 degree recliner seat, I had quite a difficult time sleeping. In the middle of my battle for comfort around hour six, I decided to pop half a Xanex into my mouth and put my knees up on the seat in front of me. If I was to be uncomfortable, I would be bringing the guy in front of me down too.

Once, while awaking from my Xanex induced coma, I heard someone shout for a doctor and lots of people were standing in the aisle only a few rows in front of me. A lady had collapsed on the plane and no one really knew what to do. The closest thing to a doctor was the stewardess who propped her up in an open seat. As the lady began recovering consciousness, I went back to my fight to lose it.

We touched down around 6 pm local time. The sun was beginning to set as we streamed off the plane. Customs went quickly since we seemed to be the only flight to arrive then. After everyone who would be staying at JCMU had gotten their luggage, exchanged currency, and used the potty, our point of contact in Japan decided to shepherd us all toward the shuttle. With a healthy dose of Shakira sprinkled with some Eiffle 65, I looked out the window at the passing cities and the illuminated buildings and tried not to think about how much I wanted my bed. Finally, we made it to JCMU. A brief speech in the lobby of the residential hall concluded with us receiving our keys, a bottle of water, and a cup of ramen noodles. I decided to hold off on my Cup Noodle and instead, collapse onto my firm bed for the night.

Ninja Warrior, here I come!

Ok everyone. I thought, in my last month in the United States, that I should outline a little bit of my trip for you in the hopes that by pointing out myself on a map, you will be able to more deeply connect yourselves with my experience. Er, something like that.

So what we have here is a lovely map of the country of Japan. Sadly, no one in the cartography business seems to care very much for the city of Hikone, even though they have a super sweet castle. Well, see Nagoya to the left of Tokyo? Yeah, that is the airport I will be flying in to. There is a giant lake in the center of Japan called Lake Biwa. My town is situated on the eastern coast of Lake Biwa.

In a crappy Microsoft Paint map of this lake, you can see the red dot that is Hikone. This lake is beautifully recreated in the above map as the pointy blue speck to the left of Nagoya. With these two pictures, I hope you get a fairly decent idea of where I will spend my next six months. So grab your kimono and your favorite Studio Ghibli movie; we are going to Japan!