FOOD
on the request of my best bud in Nofo (shout out to Marika C!!!!!! I MISS U GURL) I will now do an entire post about food.
OMG FOOD. SO GOOD. SO UNHEALTHY. SO WONDERFUL.


to illustrate what I am talking about, here is a picture of the Japanese food pyramid:

this is basically what I eat everyday. tons of white rice, soba noodles or udon. some pickles or deep fried veggies to accompany them. Lots of fish and eggs at every meal as the main course. no dairy and fruit in moderation. vegetables are not even included here. The Japanese version of vegetables is either deep fried or pickled, so basically awesome.  Because we are living in dorm, the program gives us a generous food stipend so we can go out to eat for every meal. 

AND WE DO. its more food than I have ever eaten in my entire life and its SO good. 

I still do not have a favorite dish, but some of the local specialties are pretty awesome. Here are a few of my favorites. 

sushi and udon lunch specials for 10 bucks

nishiki market that is full of beautiful candy like this...

and this..... its always an adventure. A great place to go for lunch as long as you don't mind not knowing what on earth you are eating. 

okonomiyaki: grilled cabbage in a batter with seafood or meat, smothered in teriyaki sauce and mayonnaise. 

this thing. 

which we plan on eating as a part of our final hurrah before leaving kyoto. 

green tea flavored soba, the specialty of Uji. 

anything flavored ice cream, but especially green tea. 

tofu tofu tofu. especially Arashiyama tofu, that is though to be the best in the world. 

so yes. These are the meals I have known and loved. There are many others too, but these are a few that have photos and were also awesome. 

Another great thing about modern Kyoto is that the locals love something called "bakery pilgrimage" where you walk between multiple bakeries all day and sample a different treat at each stop. 

this is first on the bucket list for this coming weekend. 

for now sleep, and I will catch you all up on last week's Kyoto adventures when I wake up. 

practical life
(aka Im supposed to learn something occasionally)
so as it is apparent by second week at Kyoto, we basically have two full days of work, or qazi work really because I have recently discovered that Linguistics is kinda a silly subject, and the a GIANT never ending weekend.
the weekend is the interesting part, but let me actually talk about the boring bits before I start in on this giant epic awesome saga that is the majority of all days.

so Linguistics as a study, is rather silly. its all about finding rules that are supposed to govern a language and it's writing system and allow us to create universal grammar. sounds great right? I love rules, and I love data so this should work out?

well a whole lot of what I ACTUALLY study is "avular fricatives" and "devoiced consonants" and how pronunciation works is the most BORING way possible. I read a whole chapter today on what sounds are viable or not in Japanese, which would have been interesting if I where an alien life form and had never heard the language before, but as a human, with ears who has been living here for a few weeks it is super BORING.

I am much more interested in studying the writing system, and the evolution/use of kanji characters in Japanese. Unfortunately this class is taught by our own Carleton professor (also in charge of the program) and his teaching style can really only be described as "Dad".
He likes to tell long rambling stories that never seem to have a punch line or pertain to what we are supposed to be learning about, and he always inquires first after how we are, what we ate for dinner, how we sleep ext before actually getting around to teaching. Normally I would love this teaching stlye, because almost half of the class is taken up with formal greetings, check ins, funny stories and general pleasant conversations, but this is actually the only interesting class I have and the other teachers do not teach this way.

But really I can't complain too much. the teachers are nice, I have very little homework and only three days of class per week. Also my fourth class, on Japanese culture and society is fantastic. Last week we read several chapters from the Tale of Genji (the national epic book written in the Heian era) and got to visit the place where the book was set as a 'field trip'.
The funny thing about the tale of Genji, is that everyone loves it. They love Genji and they love the writing and the story. But really the whole thing is terrible. Its a several thousand age novel that details the life of a womanizing court tramp who goes around raping women, harassing them, cheating his friends and generally just being a scalywag. However, because he is SO charming and beautiful, for some reason everyone still loves him, both in the book and in real life.
really the book did have some interesting parts, but the general purpose and character of it I did not agree with.

For this week we are watching and getting a lecture of Kurosawa's 'Throne of Blood', a really fantastic movie, so it should be great.

so yeah thats school life. Not much else to say about that. It seriously only takes up about 20% of my time, and thats mainly because I have to be in class periodically.
NOW ON TO FOOD.

Kyoto: doshisha university, keshikan and neighborhood explorations
Tokyo is to New York as Kyoto is to San Francisco minus the hills. The city is mostly residential, dotted with parks, school and other necessary things  that makes one feel more like your living in a city than a giant rat maze. It also is not filled with nearly as much overwhelming stuff. For example, the part of town we live in does not have a Kareoke place for a mile in any direction, much to our disappointment. It is FULL of temples, and historical places and many other wonderful places, but its just a lot slower by comparison. Also, the city is like San Jose in that it is surrounded by rolling mountains on every side, and it feels like you are being cupped in the hand of Buddha when the sun shines between the mountains at sunset.

Our living situation is now a dorm (a really nice dorm) just a few minutes from campus. Unfortunately the other Doshisha students have been forbidden to come visit us (I guess they are trying to quarantine the awkward) so if we ever do make freinds, it will have to be on campus. The rooms are tiny, but nothing we can't handle. My roommate and I are getting along great :)


By far the best thing about the neighborhood is that we are a two minute walk from the entrance to the old Imperial palace of Japan. Its a HUGE stony walled complex perfect for morning runs and lunch picnics. The cherry blossom trees are just coming out too, which makes for a truly spectacular show. Half of me is actually more interested in the people taking pictures than the actual trees, but the flowers are undeniable gorgeous.

The big central river is also just about an hour away from us by foot, and we went down there yesterday for almost three hours just sitting in the sunlight. Its a beautiful place with many children and adults alike playing in the river. 

the school is small but nice, but I really dont think we will be spending that much time there at all. 

jk gotta go to class, ttly. 

Tokyo: day three

day three was all about wandering about the REALLY famous tourists sights and asking for directions. SO MANY DIRECTIONS. 

For those of you who do not know about the Japanese direction telling systems, it is basically as follows. 

you ask where is X?

they reply with a set of directions that is comprised almost entirely of the word "zooto" and accompanying hand motions. the length and direction of the zooto indicates how long and in what direction one should travel. so a set of directions basically sounds like this:

zooooooto (left) zooto (right) zoooooooooooooooto (walk a few blocks) zooto (immediate right) dekimasuyo (then your there). 

its basically impossible. and yet we always ask in the hopes that the person will actually give us a map of some sort. 

also, we found out that it is possible to get stuck inside a train station, in that one you swipe in, you cannot exit out the same entrance, even if you have made a mistake and this is not your desired train line. thus you get on a train bound for god knows where and end up lost someplace down town. 

but being hopelessly lost aside, first we went to Akihabara: the electronics mecca of the geek world complete with multi-story electronic stores, hacked up computer part vendors on the streets and "maid cafes" where desperately lonely gamers pay young women upwards of 10 dollars entrance fee plus food and drink money to serve them food in maid costumes and exchange a few pleasantries. You pay upwards of 30 dollars for a photo with your server. WIERD

also there are anime porn towers that each floor gets weirded and creepier  as you go up, and you stop on whatever floor creeps you out to the point of no return. We basically didn't make it was the entry way, but  we did take pictures in these things:

I believe I am carrying a ladle... but I have no idea what creepy fetish that is...

then we went to the MOFO ZOO! and saw pandas, an polar bears, and tiny cute Japanese children and more people than I have ever seen in my entire life. 

the best part was how they turned one two hundred year old lovely red pagoda temple into a bird stoop and now it is covered in bird poop. But in a country as old an as well preserved as Japan, this is not big loss. 

at night we went out into the super hip trendy young area of Japan and had another adventure. we took pictures at "puricura" which are basically photo booths with way too much technology behind them and meant for max two people, but we stuffed in 8 anyways. We took pictures in a booth that artificially widens your eyes within the photo itself, which makes Japanese school girls look like bambi and Gaijin look like a creepy alien race with giant eyes. 

then we wandered into what seemed like a free haunted house, but turned out to actually be an S and M themed dinner completed with handcuffs and cars at each booth. We explained that nobody wanted to get handcuffed and we hand made a terrible mistake to the scantily clad police woman, but when it became obvious she didn't understand us,  we made our escape when she went to go get us english menus.

the next morning we took the Shinkansen to Kyoto and moved into our dorms. btw, the bullet trains are hands down the best way to travel ever. smoother and faster than a place, with a shit ton of leg room and vendors who sell ice cream on the train. 

I highly recommend this mode of travel

Kyoto is also awesome, and I love the school (so far), but its late and I will write more tomorrow. 

  

Tokyo: day two
today, we did a lesson in the morning, followed by a tour of the famous Japanese Tokyo department stores that literally stock every single item known to man and advertise for it all in a nauseating sort of sensory overload sort of way. For my Stockmans loving friends out there, Finland ain't got nothing on these guys. we went to one department store that was 10 stories, just for electronics, toys, and food. No clothing. There was an entire floor just for cameras. There was anther department chain with two separate 5 story buildings across the street from each other: one for men and one for women.

did you even know there where this many KINDS of hairdryers? let alone purchase them all in one place???

best product found at this place was a vacuum cleaner designed to vacuum your dog, and only your dog.  No floors or carpets. just dog. some how I really don't see how dogs are getting on board with this....

we found this sign on the way back to the center for our night time classes. so far the best engrish we have found, although there are also some other good signs out there. more to come.

then, because it was Deborah's birthday, we went out o kareoke after dinner.

end

Tokyo: day one
Morning was survival Japanese classes and getting cell phones that work in Japan. They are fucking rad and I love them to bits. I have more emotions on this sucker than I could ever hope to use.

In the afternoon we went to shijo shrine in the center of Tokyo in the company of Mike (our head professor). Shinjo is basically the equivalent of  central park, but much smaller, older and has a shrine in the center of it. It was a beautiful day and we saw one of the national baseball teams being blessed for good luck at the temple.

Also just saying, this park is really really old. an old growth forest right in the center of Tokyo. 

we creeped on so many cut couples on dates :)

Then we were turned lose on Tokyo and told to meet back for dinner. It was an adventure. 

first stop Harujuku: home of crazy otaku people who dress up as bo-peep and stores with names like "candy stripper" and "store my ducks"

we have quite a collection on photos like these

I struggled for about ten minutes to open a mik carton and for some reason everyone found this funny and took pictures of me. 

then we found a park and some cherry blossoms which were lovely. 

at night I and two other students when on an adventure to see in person, the building that looked like a cheese grater. We had no map, and no idea where we were going except that we could see the giant cheese grater in the distance. It was an expedition in the best sort of getting lost way. 

It was totally worth the walk because we found out, only when standing next to the tower, there is actually a small swiss cheese ball next to it that seems to only contain coffee shops and stairs. 

end

the Name of this Blog:
I am entitling this adventure as "awkward Gaijin in Japan" because that is exactly what I am.
for the non-Japanese speakers among us, Gaijin literally means "outside person", and awkward means, well embodies really, my natural state.  Now I have been unleashed on an equally awkward and strange country, and as such our interactions should be interesting.

exhibit A: KFC colonial in Akihabara  

Arriving in Japan and Survival Japanese 101 in Tokyo


the flight from LAX was probably the best I have ever had. for anyone traveling to Asia in the near future, Singapore airlines is the way to go. fan-freakin-tastic and our program took up a huge portion of the airplane.
On our arrival into Tokyo, we were greeted by two english teachers from Tokyo university who helped us pack up and ship our big luggage to Kyoto, pack us up onto a bus and take us to the Olympic youth center where we stayed for four nights. The center had wonderful architecture, but the rooms were very small and we had to move dorms every night. All I could think of every time I took a shower in the tiny closet like bathrooms was "what happened when the first American basket ball player, or weightlifter checked into his room, got to the door and couldn't get inside the doorway". Michele Phelps would have had a hard time sleeping in those beds is all I'm saying.

Carls in Tokyo on our first adventure into the city

The entire purpose of us staying in Tokyo for the first week-ish was to get a crash course on surviving in Japan as awkward Gaijin. The Carls on this program are divided into three categories:
1)No Japanese at all
2) some survival Japanese
3) can speak and stutter out our general desires and maybe by the fourth time they actually know what the hell you are asking for. (This is me btw)

there are 5 of us at the highest level, but unfortunately only one other guy is better than me at both speaking and listening. This is a problem because, if any of you have ever heard me speak, I am actually not very good and usually butcher the actual purpose of each sentence into incoherent mubo-jumbo.

hence our program gets even more awkward than just 18 gaijin walking around and sticking out like sore thumbs in that now we can't even properly communicate why we are here or what we want. Our interaction with native speakers is basically a series of halting charades that the other person did not agree to play.

the entire point of the Tokyo orientation was to overcome this barrier. Not to fix it, because lets face it they aren't micicl workers, but to force us out into Tokyo, rather unprepared and unaccompanied in order to prefect our charades system.
It was like pushing a baby bird off a cliff and to prove that even if it can't fly, it can survive the fall.

And fall we did. and fall we continue to do. But we learn more this way from our mistakes, and become more brave each passing day. I can already feel myself improving dramatically from where I was when I first got here, and I see more students willing to go out and adventure on their own.

so in this orientation, we learned how to ask for direction, order in a cafe,  say things like "I am deathly allergic to peanuts" ext. Then we broke into groups and ran around Tokyo like baby chickens on scavenger hunts and various other missions.

The following posts break them down by day/adventure. But in general, it was an amazing way to welcome us into a new very different country in the most embarrassing way possible.  We all loved it :)

in the Tokyo equivalent of times square. Also now called the "Sexy Zone" by Deborah and I.