That aside, I’ve been having a very good time. My health has regained itself completely, and since I moved from my room upstairs at 220, I haven’t been sick at all (knock on wood).

A few weeks ago, I went to visit one of the local elementary schools with my piers Dave and Todd. We worked specifically with first graders and we were made very welcome by them. I befriended two girls, Momoko and Kazue, and I helped all of the girls and boys in the first grade class make kites.

The weather was very nice that day, and we were able to go and fly the kites, as well. With some minor difficulties (such as pieces of ribbon falling off of the kites) we managed to have a very fun afternoon!

The next week was a short week for classes (and Melville went a little crazy), and for JCMU’s one-day Spring Break (I know you are as shocked an appalled as I am) I went to the Fukahori house. That weekend the Fukahori family (Mom, Dad, Keita, and Yukiko) took Yukiko’s boyfriend (Shingo) and I on a bus tour trip to the next prefecture over, Gifu. Imagine the time difference being the time it takes to drive from Metro-Detroit to Ohio, except add horrendous traffic and man-high snow, and you will imagine the bus ride.

One cool part of the bus ride was that we rode over Japan’s highest bridge! It was really scary to look down, and I wish I had been thinking and taken a picture. I quickly remembered my camera only AFTER we passed the bridge, but I did get some nice camera footage (video) of just after that point. The mountains in Gifu Prefecture are stunning, especially covered with snow.

Gifu Prefecture is more country-side than Shiga Prefecture (which I didn’t think was possible!) and sometimes there were no houses for miles. There is much more to Japan than the crowded metropolitan areas, something that I had really failed to realize fully before actually coming here. An interesting point about Gifu’s houses was the fact that a lot of them resembled American Log Cabins. I was surprised!

Once our bus ride was over, we arrived in the city of Takayama, which means in English “Tall Mountain.” Those words describe perfectly the location of the city. Though it was very peaceful, it was also quite cold.

While in Takayama, we visited a museum about Japanese festivals, which included some stunning pieces of Japanese craftwork, as well as some scary ones. After that, we went to an ancient village that was located in Takayama. The buildings within are considered national treasures of Japan, and they were very beautiful. However, it was already dark by the time that we reached the village, and unfortunately I could not take pictures very well.

However, I did have an interesting experience! While inside one of the brilliantly constructed houses, I decided that (being the goofball I am, I suppose) I was going to take pictures of everything. In one of the rooms was a brilliantly carved shrine. This shrine, as is typical in older Japanese houses, was built as a place to remember deceased family members.

When I tried to take a picture of it... my camera started malfunctioning. Keita began to talk about how I was going to be haunted, though as he said those words I was finally able to snap this shot. No ghosts, but it was kind of creepy! Also, I snapped a picture of the dolls that were set up for Girl’s Day, which was the day after the day that we went to Takayama.

I noticed that Japanese Architecture is really detailed. I really am beginning to develop and interest in it, because it’s just so beautiful. Sure, European architecture is also stunning, but I’ve grown up around that, and understand about it. Japanese architecture, on the other hand, seems so mysterious to me. The other day I was looking for the book that my art teacher recommended, that explains most everything about Japanese architecture, but unfortunately it was about $150 USD, so I ended up not buying it.

The first temple was literally falling apart at some places, so we couldn’t enter. Instead we went to the museum, which unfortunately prohibited any picture taking.

When we finally made it to the city of Nara, I was struck by the history. Japan always seems much more mysterious to me than the United States, but Nara’ s buildings were so ancient I felt blown away. Nara, at one point, was one of the Capitals of Japan, so it has many imperial buildings that are very rich and well built.

The second thing that struck me was the sheer number of deer hanging out around town. They’re EVERYWHERE! They also maul you at the chance to get any sort of food you might happen to have on you. I spend 150yen to feed them which was really fun until about 7 or 8 of them crowded around me and tried to eat me! Here’s a movie of the deer you can download, if you’d like. It’s an example of them mauling Greg, who is in my class.

Also the deer bow! I’m not kidding. Before and/or after you give them food, they bow to you. I guess they must have originally learned from the Japanese people, who do bow at anything, but it’s so incredibly cute to see deer bowing, even big scary hairy guy deer.

I also bought a bunny hat because it was cute. Incidentally, Kay bought the same hat. (No, not Kei, Kay is a girl. People get them mixed up all the time, though!) I also bought some charms for my family, for good luck.

The first one is the Koto, an instrument that is often heard in Japanese traditional music. It is a long hollow piece of wood with 13 strings, that one plucks with finger picks. The Japanese music scale doesn’t have the same as the traditional European scale, but through manipulating the strings by pressing down on them, all of the scale can be made.

I was totally amazed and enchanted by the Koto. I took a movie of the instructor playing a beautiful song. I’d really be interested in learning the Koto, and I think through JCMU I can take lessons for free. I’ll have to look into it! It may have to replace Ikebana for my cultural learning.

After the Koto, we learned about the Taiko, the traditional Japanese drum. Actually, a huge fad in Japan right now is an arcade game which involves playing the Taiko Drum, known to all of the kids at JCMU as “The Taiko Game!” It’s also available for Playstation2. If people thought Dance Dance Revolution was a fad in Japan still, they’re wrong. This game is all the rage. Unfortunately, because my camera didn’t have space for pictures of the Taiko, I didn’t get to take any pictures of the women playing. But be assured, it was extremely fun!

I’d just like to thank Keita’s family for always inviting me to their house and taking care of me.

Today we had the Tea Ceremony for our Friday Project, the one that occurs after our Friday test. I am very interested in the tea ceremony and the ladies involved did a beautiful job. I also figured out how to use the movie camera on my digital camera, and I took a movie of the first tea ceremony. Please download it if you are interested.

Keita and all of the guys here have been having ping-pong competitions every day, which turned out to an all out battle this afternoon (and into the evening).

After that, Keita’s friend Atsushi came and took us out. We had sushi, which tasted really good. Of course, though I live in Japan, you must realize that I don’t eat sushi every day. I’ve only eaten it twice since I’ve been there. This means that there ARE many other foods in Japan besides sushi. The place we went was cheap and we all ate a lot!!

Things have been busy around here. I just was tested into Japanese third level with Melville. She is a small Japanese woman with a loud opinion who likes to shout but is always a pleasure to learn from. I really like her. I am excited about starting classes again, though I know they will be just as big of a challenge as last semester’s classes.

As we speak Keita is playing Ping-Pong with one of the new students. They’ve constructed a make-shift Ping-Pong table in the lobby and lately everyone’s been competing. I, however, am inept and cannot play Ping-Pong to save my life.

The new kids all came last week. There are 18 boys and 9 girls - so far everyone has been really nice. I miss all the kids from last semester, though. Hello to everyone who is reading this! JCMU isn’t the same without you.

The weather has been cold and gloomy, much like Michigan I suppose. There is not much heat in the dorm and everyone is constantly wearing blankets or turning on their space heaters. As we speak I am wearing gloves. Heating is expensive in Japan and most Japanese people are used to it, I suppose.

What were some of the events of my break? Unfortunately I did not get to go out. I had plans for Guam, I had plans for Tokyo, and I had plans for Yokohama... but they all fell through! I did have some fun eating sushi (2) with Kei and his friend Atsushi. Atsushi has a car and often drives Kei from Hikone to their hometown of Kosei. The drive takes usually at least an hour, so Atsushi is a really nice guy. He’s shy of girls, but lately he hasn’t been shy of me. Maybe it’s proof that he’s growing up!

We also went bowling to the bowling (2) (3) (4) plaza by U-Store. Soon I plan on making a picture map of Hikone for you all, so you get some idea of what our lovely town (The Japanese for the town roughly translates a few ways... my favorite is “Town full of handsome men.” Never was there a more ironic statement.) looks like. I know Hikone gets a bad wrap for being a country-bumpkin town in the middle of no where, but I find there’s a lot to do, and I like it here. If I get bored, there’s always Moriyama, Kusatsu, or Otsu, too. Or if I want to go far, Kyoto or Osaka. I love the interconnectedness of Japan. You can get anywhere!

After class, I went back to work on writing the 15 page paper that my Japanese Culture professor assigned. The topic is “Juvenile Violence in Japan,” and I have since finished that paper too. I hope he finds my paper interesting and gives me a good dream. While writing the paper, I fell asleep accidentally and had a dream that the same professor called me a “booger.” Talk about having an adult mindset. I’m 20 now, can you believe it?

In my own words, “I’m 20, I do what I want!”

For a late dinner (9:30, when Keita gets out of work at the JCMU office where he works in the evening) we went to CoCo’s, the “American Style” restaurant connected to the JCMU building. Every time I go there I can receive a stamp which gives me a 300 yen refund at the end of the month. I had my usual (of course) “Chunky Chicken and Avocado Sandwich” with “Corn Soup.” For dessert, I got a “Crispy Caramel Sundae,” which is always delicious and will probably make me extra fat. (Andrea, my roommate, always gets one too so that the both of us don’t feel so fat together.)

Then came the celebration. Keita told the waitress that it was my 20th birthday and so of course I got free ice cream, sung “Happy Birthday” to, and a picture taken. I was happy, even though CoCo’s is not anything out of the ordinary for me, my friends did a really great job in making me feel happy. Eleven people showed up total, and I was actually really surprised.

Being really nice guys, Deshawn and Alex “made” me a cake with small cake parts bough from Lawson. By mistake they used candles that are meant to be used on graves! D’oh! It’s actually kind of ironic. Japan has special types of everything for very specific events. I was really happy and I got to blow out 20 candles! Of course I couldn’t do it in one blow, but in the end I won out!

Thanks so much to everyone who helped me to celebrate my birthday!!

Oh... and here is a random picture of Keita's friend Keiji. Yes, he was posing.

I am a second year student this semester, which means we use the text book Genki II (level one uses Genki I book). This text book is actually very nice compared to many other text books on the market. I might recommend making a search for the Genki textbooks if you are planning on testing into level two or even level three Japanese at JCMU.

One of the biggest parts of our grade, besides tests of course, is the Friday Project speech. First of all, one has to write an essay (for level two, the essay has to be at least three pages in length) and then deliver a speech (level two’s speech length was five to six minutes) in front of your peers, teachers, as well as other Japanese people who are invited to the speech presentation.

My speech topic was actually Keita. He was embarrassed about this, so he decided not to come to the presentation, which is actually fine by me. The presentation and essay are worth, at most, five extra percentage points on grade. This means that if, over all, someone received a 87% as their grade, an extra five percent is added, making the finally grade 93%. This project is easily what is going to make the difference between me getting a 3.5 and a 4.0. I am hoping hard that I got graded well. I was very nervous and made at least one mistake that I noticed, but undoubtedly I tried my best and really memorized my speech, which was more than many people in my class did.

However, everyone in my class and all the other classes did very well. I was proud and happy to see everyone succeeding. It is amazing to see how much we have all improved since we started out at the beginning of the semester. I was relieved to get the project over with. Next Thursday is my final exam… I’m going to study my hardest!

We drove the bus and stopped at a convenience store about half way. I am convinced that the Japanese think that foreigners cannot hold their bladders for more than an hour. On the bus, a dedicated group of students who will remain unnamed (but it can be certain that I was not one of them) decided to get drunk before the field trip, perhaps to make it more interesting. That made the bus trip much more adventurous than it normally would have been.

When riding on the bus with JCMU students, I kind of think of the trips I made by bus while I lived in Germany. Or riding the bus in elementary school. I love everyone at JCMU… they’re so enthusiastic. I’m not kidding!

When we finally reached Kyoto, the bus took us to an area called Arashiyama. It is a huge tourist trap, but don’t get me wrong it’s beautiful. I loved the temples that we went to, but the place was very crowded because of the changing color of the leaves around the temples. There were a surprisingly few number of foreigners, though, I thought. Also, I noticed that American tourists who are in their middle-ages depend on granola bars as a staple of their diet. My mother does this too (don’t deny it mom). It is not bad but you can always tell the Americans from the others because the Americans have granola bars.

On our way to the temple we saw many traditional Japanese things. Kyoto is the “traditional” city of Japan, which is largely maintained for tourism. In fact, it is said that the people most wishing to keep up the “traditions” of Japan are foreigners. We saw many “rickshaws” which is actually the bastardization of the Japanese word “人力車” or “jin-riki-sha” which means “man powered vehicle.”

We went to a temple which was particularly large, and set up for tourists. There was a large shoe room, since we had to wear slippers to walk on the wooden parts of the temple. The parts of the temple that were tatami (woven rice-husk flooring) were strictly limited to stocking feet. The place was almost too crowded to take pictures, but luckily most people were watching the trees as opposed to looking inside the tatami portion of the temple.

There was a particularly lovely shrine. In front of the shrine was a large wooden carved ball which is called a “木魚” or “mokugyo.” The kanji literally means “wooden fish,” though I don’t think it resembles a fish in any way. The monks of the temple hit it while they pray, I am told, but I am not sure what this symbolizes.

After looking around the interior and garden part of the temple, Andrea (my roommate), and I left to take a walk in the bamboo paths. They were extremely quiet and tranquil. When I walked through them, I felt a kind of peace. It was also mysterious. I can understand now why so many foreigners get the picture of Japan being an old-fashioned and exotic place. However, even the bamboo was not safe from vandalism. There was graffiti written on many of the stalks.

After walking for about a half hour through the bamboo, Andrea and I ended up at a Shinto Shrine. I really wanted to buy charms (a good luck charm for my mother, and good luck on tests charms for my brother, my sister, and I) but I could not properly read the signs as the place was so crowded with high school students. On a funny note, the high school girls were buying charms as cell phone charms and paid no attention to the meanings, only which matched their cell phones best. It seems that most of the young generations of Japanese do not have much connection with the traditions of their country. However, this is true about most places in the world.

I shopped for presents for my little brother after that, which was actually relatively successful. I hope he likes the toys that I bought for him. They are a secret or else I would post pictures of them up. No peeking, Liam!

Because I wanted to meet with Kei and his roommate Josh, I decided not to take the bus back to Hikone. Instead, I braved the country train routes instead. People often get worried about riding the train alone, but actually it is rather easy, I think. As long as you can read hiragana (though it is nice to know the kanji too) then you can get by fairly easily. If you have a question, you can always ask someone. I befriended a group of elderly people who kept saying I was cute.

Being called cute by Japanese people does not mean you are cute, but it is always very flattering to hear. I’ve lost about 15 pounds since I came to Japan too. I know I will probably gain it back when I get back to the USA, because I will drive everywhere. That thought rather depresses me.

I made it to Kyoto station where I had to wait about three hours for Kei and Josh, which was good people watching time. The station had marvelous Christmas lights and a huge tree. Astroboy (Atom) seemed also to be prevalent around the station. It was my first time to the main station, though it was really interesting it was rather crowded! It is a new station and really nice.

Once I finally met Kei and Josh, the fun began! Don’t worry, we only went shopping and to dinner. I recommend Kyoto very highly and want to return again soon.

At the party, each person at JCMU helped out ? there was a haunted house, musical chairs, face painting, party bag making, pin the nose on the pumpkin, and finally trick-or-treating.

There were so many cute children there! My job was to help with pin the nose on the pumpkin, which was not actually very popular but was very fun! Then I helped out with musical chairs. Most of the Japanese students helped as “tour guides” in taking groups of children through the haunted house.

After the children’s party ended at 6:00, the JCMU student’s party started at around 7:30. Our lovely Kay and Diane were the MCs and in charge of the music. They did a great job, speaking in both English and Japanese. At the party, besides the students studying Japanese, the Japanese students studying English also came, as well as the students taking the English-speaking classes at Shiga University and University of Shiga Prefecture.

We had many interesting costumes, though unfortunately most of the Japanese students chose not to dress up. I was a high school student, borrowing clothes from Kei’s younger sister. However, there was a costume contest which turned out to be very fun. The winners got special secret presents. I entered the costume contest in the hopes that the prize would be a no effort 4.0 in my language class, but to no avail! Here are some of the others who entered the contest (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9).

The party was a big success… probably one of the most fun events at JCMU by far. Just seeing the little kids dressed up was fun enough!

However, when I do have some time where I need a break from studying, I find that taking a bike trip down to downtown Hikone or AlPlaza is often break enough. If I feel like shopping, Viva City in Southern Hikone (Minami Hikone) is place enough. By train, I can go there and back for 360 yen, which is just less than three dollars. If I am feeling very burnt-out from studying, I usually head over to MYCAL department store in nearby Omihachiman. Though Omihachiman is not as big as Hikone, the shopping mall is much bigger.

Going out is always fun! Except that in Japan, there is a rainy season in autumn. This past week it rained for nearly three days straight. The food in my refrigerator became nonexistent and I survived off of eggs and bread for a while. But when it rains in Japan it doesn't just drizzle... it pours. And it poured consistantly, without letting up. Talk about going stir crazy! Then again, I had no excuse not to study.

Beside the rain, I did not do much this week. I have made good friends with Shige, who I hang out with constantly. He is from not-so-nearby Gamochuu, which is a very small town aparently. He is a student at Shiga University, also the president of E.S.S. (The English Speaking Society) at Shiga University. He has a cool cell phone. It's fun hanging out because he teaches me new Japanese all the time, though I know some of it would make my teachers have heart attacks. We can usually be found either at Shiga University or downtown (2) (3) Hikone, because we are poor students. Or when we have 500 yen we do purikura (print club, like a photo booth).

On Saturday, I went to Karaoke with some of the JCMU students (2). It was non-alcoholic because this particular group doesn't drink, so the atmosphere was completely different from when I went last Friday. It was two of the student's birthdays, so happy belated birthday to the both of them!

And here is a short interview with the ever handsome Deshawn Long.

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Though it had always put me in awe to see, I had not yet had the time to venture there. When I did on Sunday, however, I was immediately very glad. For ￥900 I bought a ticket for Hikone Castle Museum, admittance into the castle itself, and admittance into the famous castle garden (2) (3) (4).

I am not an artist or an architect, but I feel that I can comment upon the beauty of Japanese architecture. It fits so perfectly with its surroundings, and every feature seems to have some deeper meaning. Hikone Castle was originally constructed entirely out of wood, though now I believe the roof is metal. The slope of the roof is so helpful for the assurance that rain will not get inside. Also, Hikone Castle had many windows to open. When I climbed up to the highest point in the castle, the breeze was so cooling that even though down at ground level I wanted to be wearing a tank top, while I was up I wanted to be wearing a pullover! Japanese ancient air conditioning, though I’m sure the winters became difficult to deal with, especially with walls that were not insulated.

There was also the most magnificent view of Hikone from the plateau that the castle stands on. Also, the view of Hikone Castle at night is really spectacular.

The week basically went on normally. During classes I was told that I have improved quite a bit from the first two weeks. However, I still feel really behind! I can read well but sometimes I am just too scared to speak. Class feels too tense to me because some of the people in it are really competitive! I hate that!

Ah well, I still love going, even it is really hard.

Test on Friday and then after that we did Japanese calligraphy. I took some pictures with my cell phone, so when I get them up I will also post them!

Friday night was also busy. I had my first experience going to sing karaoke. It was very fun, but today my throat is so sore!! I sung way too much. The atmosphere was fun despite the fact that everyone except me got quite drunk. (I don’t drink… it’s just not appealing to me.)

I am going to go back tonight and I have plans to go with my friend Shige on Monday, as well! Karaoke fever!!

Class runs from 8:50 until around 11:50. Although at first I thought that these times would be quite early and I would not want to be up, I have come to realize that jet-lag was a good thing. I am still getting up every morning at about 6:30am, and going to bed by around 12:30. For those people who know me, this is so rare! I am also using the internet much less than I ever have before.

Even though I am now basically settled in, I still had an exciting week! Monday classes tied me up, but Tuesday I went with a few friends and saw the movie Zatoichi. It’s very good and I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Japanese films. The version that we saw is made by a man called Beat Takeshi. He also stars as the lead, a blind samurai.

We also took purikura…. Purikura stands for “Print Club” and is extremely popular in Japan, especially among the teenaged female. Basically it’s like a photo booth except with about eighty million more features, and better photo quality.

Wednesdays are very busy because I have my other class that day too. I am taking a class on Japanese Culture as seen through film and literature. The teacher is a very interesting man who has had a lot of experience with living in Japan. He and his wife are also living in the dormitory at JCMU. Both of them are very nice.

Also on Wednesday, I ate at Cocos for the first time. Coco’s is the restaurant attached to JCMU. It serves “American Style” food and is actually pretty moderate! I can get cheap meals there thanks to our student discount cards. Their ice cream sundaes are the best… mmm!

Thursday I bought a mobile phone. It is a j-phone and it’s baby pink. It has a camera and cute melodies. In other words, it’s my baby. Also if anyone calls me, no matter from where, I don’t get charged. Happy!!
Buying the phone took a long time, though! If you’re under 20 you need parental permission to buy the phone, so I had to put in my mom’s birthday and they had to run a background check to see I wasn’t lying about her…! It took about 4 hours! How bad. But now I have it, and it’s mine-all-mine.

Friday was the weekly exam, and I also got an exciting tour of Shiga University by a third year student named Shige. It was really a lot of fun and we had a great lunch!

Also this week... a very special interview with my roommmate, Andrea Kohl.

This week signaled the start of classes at Japan Center for Michigan Universities (JCMU). Saturday was the dreaded placement test, and Monday morning I found out that I tested into Level 2. My teacher’s name is Ms. Nishikawa, though I have two other teachers as well. One of them is also the Level 3 teacher, whose name is Ms. Melville. Both Ms. Nishikawa and Ms. Melville are extremely nice!

Class has been very challenging so far, but I am happy to be pushed so hard. Though sometimes by the end of a five-hour study period I feel like pulling my hair out, class is fun and I enjoy my classmates too.

Though I was very afraid of my classmates and peers disliking me at first, I have come to realize that we all have things in common and we relate to each other very well. I do not think there is anyone who I dislike in the whole program, and that is saying a lot!

Being that this is the first time living on my own (though I do have a roommate), I have begun to realize just exactly what it takes to keep myself healthy! The City of Hikone has a very particular recycling program. Every time I cook I must separate my food into burnable garbage, plastic, glass, and tin. The efforts are much more rigorous than in the United States, and it is impressive. Even Hamburg’s recycling program is not so advanced.

Though I am somewhat of a city-lover myself, I have become to realize the beauty of Hikone. Every other day I must bicycle to down town Hikone to buy groceries at a place called AlPlaza. (AlPlaza is a seven story building, and the basement level contains a grocery store. On the other levels, one can find almost anything they need to get by in Japan!) In many ways, Michigan and Japan are alike. I am also reminded of Germany whenever I ride my bike next to the inlets leading into the beautiful Lake Biwa.

This week also brought about registration for my Alien Identification Card. In Japan, if I want to have a bank account, I must be registered as an Alien. This goes the same for if I want to buy something like a phone or a bike… I applied for the registration and I should be able to go pick it up in around two weeks. Until then I am relying on the Post Office’s International ATM.

I have heard from a good source that the best way to have a bank account in Japan is actually through the post office! Then, at any post office in Japan I may withdraw money with no pesky ATM charge! Also, I can also drop off letters at the same time. Talk about ease and multitasking!

Getting to the title of my journal entry, this week was filled with cooking! On Monday we had a volunteer come from the local international organization, called VOICE. She was a very sweet woman and she helped teach my roommate and I to cook fried rice and another dish called yakisoba. Both are very easy and delicious to make!

On Friday, many of the residents of the apartment complex at JCMU decided to have a cooking party. It started on the whim that Cindy and I wanted to make Korean Barbeque. By the end of the night, it had turned into a food extravaganza! I’m so happy at the sense of closeness I feel with other people at JCMU.

Saturday morning signaled the decision that I wanted to go to Osaka! Along with my roommate, Andrea, and my friend Cindy, I peddled my bike to downtown Hikone, parked in the all day parking lot next to the train station, and took the 1:15 ride to Osaka by express train. (Not bullet train! Bullet train is much too expensive!)

Osaka is very big and seems nice… the streets are clean and the buildings are tall! Though we got lost a few times, Cindy, Andrea and I managed to go shopping. I was able to go to Tower Records, which I was looking forward to. Tower Records has such a huge selection that I cannot wait to go back! I want to buy so many CDs! But I realize I have to buy them in moderation so that I don’t spend too much money.

Unfortunately, Cindy, Andrea and I had something bad to eat for lunch, so we decided to come back to JCMU early. Hope that my stomach feels better soon! Don’t trust the ladies at the grocery store if you don’t know what they’re selling you… or you could regret it!

Sunday, August 31, 2003 / 06:26 a.m. posted by erin

Plane Ride, First Night, Orientation Day 1, Placement Test.




First of all you must pardon me for posting a day late! Unfortunately my computer is not working very well here ? I think I may have something to do with Hikone’s humidity! There is no air-conditioning in the lobby where the laptop hub is located. (The laptop hub allows me to connect my laptop to the internet!) There is also optional air-conditioning in my room, but as there is a good breeze I have kept it off. Heating and cooling systems are very expensive in Japan, so I must only turn on the air conditioning when is absolutely necessary. (That is, unless I want to pay a big utilities bill.)

So much has already happened and I’ve already been in Hikone for around two and a half days! The plane ride was very long, but because I took the group flight (arranged by Spartan Travel) I was able to meet many of the other new Japan Center for Michigan Universities (JCMU) students. I’ve hopefully made some friends already! Everyone here is very nice so far.

Most of the plane ride I couldn’t sleep, because there was a little boy sitting behind me. He kicked the seat and / or cried for the duration of the flight. The in flight movies were: The Core, What a Girl Wants, and Down With Love. I didn’t particularly care for any of them, but Down With Love was the best of the three. The food was actually pretty good, considering it was airline food.

By the time we got to Nagoya International Airport I was too excited to be very tired. I went through customs and got my luggage quite easily, then took a bus straight to JCMU.

Just by landing in Japan I realized how much I need to improve my Japanese. By the next morning at orientation, I had only slept a few hours. Unlike going to Germany, Japan’s time difference really has thrown me off so far. Even though I was exhausted, my body just didn’t want to sleep!

Friday, orientation day, was the day where we were given our bikes, helmets, and locks. Then we went for a ride to downtown Hikone. I realized while biking that I am really going to get into shape if I bike downtown often!

Downtown we went shopping at the “mall” which was a five story department building. It was fun except for the fact that I had to lug around a 14kg bag of rice! Today my arms are a bit sore from that. If I carry it around with me I’m sure to get strong arms.

Today was the placement test. For me it was quite difficult! I felt most confident in the reading / writing and speaking sections, while the grammar section made me really insecure. However the test was supposed to be hard. I hope I will place into level two! Wish me luck?

Saturday, August 30, 2003 / 12:44 p.m. posted by erin

One more day to go...

Things have been quite hectic in my world!

I have not yet finished packing and I leave at 12:00 noon tomorrow for the airport! I will be riding with a group from Spartan Travel, but as of yet I do not know any of the people who I am flying with. I hope I will make friends on the plane.

I plan to study my kanji and language books for the upcoming placement test. I hope to place into level two of Japanese. Wish me luck, okay?

The reason I wrote today was because of a third layout change. I really want this website to look nice. I wanted everything to be ready so I would only have to worry about updates once I got to Japan. We’ll see if I can keep this one. I’ll almost certainly change the top picture to something more relevant to my time in Japan. That picture is scanned from FRUiTS magazine and is being used on a trial basis.

Tuesday, August 26, 2003 / 04:57 p.m. posted by erin

Less than three weeks to go...

Finally I have finished the first version of this page. It took me a while to do because of lack of images. When I go to Japan, I will no doubt change the header-image to something more appropriate than fruit. I just wanted to have something ready for me before the big trip over.

This page will be updated at least once a week, as my independent study contract requires. I have a feeling my updates will be more than that, but I suppose that we shall see as time goes by.

When I am feeling a little less lazy, I will take pictures of my pre-departure conditions. My room is starting to look so empty! I also must start packing soon.

I am getting very excited to go! My departure date is August 27th. I am also hoping for the luck of my friend, who we shall call S.S., who is having problems getting her funds right. She will be studying in Yokohama and hopefully this means I will be able to visit her.

I am out for now. Soon will be a real first entry which details the aims of this web journal.

Saturday, August 9, 2003 / 08:10 p.m. posted by erin