Hello everybody,

I want to announce some changes to my website. First of all, due to lack of action and lack of time, and to keep my videos to good quality, I will be editing and uploading my video series when I return to America. I will still be collecting video footage with the rest of my time here in Japan, but I will be unable to edit and upload the videos while I am here. However, for record purposes and for people in the future to read my blogs, I’ll be uploading what blog entries I am able, (I have been still taking offline notes day to day). Photos are also regularly updated on my flickr account (see the left menu link).

It took me a while to come to terms with my decision, and to get over my own disappointment and self loathing. Originally I wanted to take this project to prove some things to myself, but I have yet to really prove anything.

As you can see, my schedule doesn’t leave me a lot of time to invest into the process of editing and uploading videos. When I came to Japan I actually expected I would have way too much free time and that I wouldn’t have a lot of friends –; . But I ended up making other commitments which add up. In addition to classes, once a week I’m an english conversation teacher part-time, and on Sundays I go to church. And sometimes  during the evenings from 7-8pm until 11pm, I visit my teacher’s studio (where they do editing, composite, and graphic work) in the city as an informal internship. I have also been participating in club activities for group CAS (Comic Animation Society). I also know way more people this semester so I am going to more social events with them. I am very happy to be busy with some great opportunities here, but since I need to commit to these opportunities and will be working on many projects for my classes, I cannot make the time for my project. As much as I’d love to, it would not be right to cancel these opportunities in Japan to work by myself on this side project that I can do when I return.

I am sorry to disappoint everyone and myself, I have some regrets for poor planning and execution of my project, but I do not want to the videos to go to waste. It loses the benefit and original idea I had of showing my experiences in real time, but I hope that my blogs and my videos to be uploaded later in the year will help teach about Japanese culture encourage study in Japan.

So I will do my best with the couple months I have left in Japan.

Actions speak louder than words. I’ve had a lot of thoughts about this project (especially the video), the events of the past year and myself. That will be for another entry and I’ll save you the trouble of reading a long list of excuses for the LACK OF action, and rather you view this site as it’s originally intended. There will be many offline entries uploaded within the next few weeks as well as some videos. I will also hopefully have a new web layout up. But you know, actions speak louder than words. Time to gather the specs of what self-esteem remains and create action.

On friday I received a doorbell awakening around 9am. I was still pretty tired so I fumbled for the phone that was next to my door (the phone acts as an intercom for whoever is in front of the door). “Yes.” “This is Nakamura, the teacher said I’d pick you up for the filming”. Oh crap that’s right…*still sleepy and out of it* “Is it okay if you can give me a few minutes?”. So I rushed to get ready, apologize a bunch of times and we headed over to do my second set of “Obaahan” scenes. George-sensei shouted 「おそい！」”You’re late!” and we got right to work on my make-up, which took just as long as before. These scenes were at the studio with the blue screen again. This time my scenes were pretty simple, I just had to do some actions. One scene, involved Obaahan coming out of a space ship, so I stood on some large wooden boxes, and sensei asked if I could hop off the boxes stairs one by one. They thought the hops were really cute. Another one I had to throw a colored ball (which is supposed to be a candy that I throw to the heroine, since she’s in giant form at that part of the story). One scene, I had to face the camera head on and make weird noises with weird facial expressions T_T I kept laughing every time I tried making sounds, and also felt like an idiot for not giving them a good take –; so sensei suggested I just silently make talking motions and make the random facial expressions, which actually worked much better. (cause they’ll dub in the sound in post anyway)

I finally got my ケイタイ cellphone a few days after I got my gaijin card. First, Mr. Hisano picked me up and we drove to the cell phone company center. Mr. Hisano was watching his baby daughter, so I got to meet and sit with her ^_^ she’s only a few months old! The company I decided was AU since I talked with a few of my classmates and they recommended AU for international students (the other big cell phone companies are Docomo and Softbank). Hisano-san helped me out guiding me through the application process with the AU representative. (I would seriously have no idea if I’d do this by myself) I didn’t get the phone until a day or two days after since they have to confirm all the paperwork. I figure choose the most basic phone, as long as I can make calls and text. So Hisano-san recommended I sign up for a plan, thats about 4k a month which includes a cellphone for free and cancel the contract, which would be better out of the plans that they offer without a plan. Most people would think Japanese phones would be smaller, but actually most of them are pretty bulky compared to the sizes I see back home, and also almost all of them are the flip type with the simple rectangular shape, that size seems to be standardized probably for internet and software services. The phone I chose is the green and white model of the Sony Ericsson W62S. Not cause there was an ad of Oguri Shun holding it ^^;; but cause of the color and it was the slimmer looking model compared to the other ones.

Then I found out later, that this happens to be the same cell phone as the one in Metal Gear Solid 4. Coincidence I swear!

Thurday I headed over to the town hall and finally got my gaijin card or to put it less offensively my certificate of alien registration card. Now with this I can get a cell phone (you also don’t have to carry your passport). Although, they said I had to return the card before I go back to America boo. Hisano-san would let me know the day he’d be able to take me to sign up for a cell phone service soon.

That day I got to bust out my cheap plastic calligraphy set for the first time. Sensei guided me on how to set it up. I layed out a sheet of hanshi calligraphy paper and then set it flat with the long paperweight holder. She said I didn’t have to use the small inkstone that came with it, since I can just use the bottled liquid ink (however the traditional way is to ground the inkstone into water to create the ink). And with the brush, dip enough ink and make the strokes on the paper. The kanji they were covering in that class was difficult, so to start me off, sensei created a special booklet with basic kanjis I can practice, pretty much ones I am already familiar with. (She’s too nice to go to the trouble to have a booklet prepared for me!) So sensei would demonstrate to me how to do the strokes, and I would have to mimic what I saw, while she gave me some advice. So I would have to fold the paper into four boxes and write each kanji 4 times each paper (from top to bottom, right to left) Wow this is pretty hard T_T I would be making 4 pathetic blobs, then sensei would come over to draw the kanji saying “こう。。こう” “like this…like this” and the result practically pwns all 4 of mine… sensei’s skills are too awesome T___T *happy tears* But yes it’s pretty tough, every stroke is carefully controlled, every stroke with a different energy or meaning, so every stroke has to count. I guess I have to learn how to control that brush.

The only kanji calligraphy I’m proud of so far is 一 “ichi” hahahah…

On Wednesday, I went to the classroom and found only a few girls hanging out…is there no class AGAIN!? O_o I asked the girls if there is class there with Asao-sensei, but they said they don’t know. So I headed to the student office and met with Mamiya-san and Hisano-san. They told me I had to go to the ATC building, so that day was ATC day? Hisano-san helped me out and contacted Asao-sensei and told me the directions to get there by train. Thankfully the way to get there involved the way by subway, which I already tried before =) There were 2 more transfers though =X Anyway, I had Hisano-san’s business card so in the case I get lost, I’d contact him with one of those green pay phones. So off I went, and this time took the school bus to get to the station. I took the train station like normal but I had to transfer to a different line and then transfer again to “New Tram Line” or something like that and get off at “trade-center mae”. On the way I saw a humungous ferris wheel and a really huge dome/arena. This ATC place is super far since it took a while to get here and we’re already near the ocean. The place was pretty big and impressive though, especially the elevators ^_^

I found the imedio studio (where Asao-sensei and the crew were) using the store guide signs, but I don’t think I could just walk in. So I tried to look all around for another pay phone in the building (I already called Asao-sensei when I arrived at the station, but I had to find a better place to call so that he could find me)

One of map signs lied, saying there would be pay phones here only to find the above. So I went back down to the floor I was on and finally found a pay phone just in front of this store that was selling 10 yen skirts! @__@ Why didn’t I buy one for the hell of it?… well I guess I can see why no one was buying it, it looked like the material was made out of window curtains =/ I called Asao-sensei and came down and found me. Then we walked together to the imedio studio. (there was a receptionist and they let us through to another door with a small hallway, and another door which led to their editing room !! =X Asao-sensei introduced me to some of the students and staff there. The room was divided in two parts, one half had a mini living room setting with a large plasma tv and sound system on the wall and some seats and a couch where the actual editing station is. It had several computers and a main computer where Asao-sensei sat. That windows computer had the Avid editing software and system (there were a couple of other machines for monitoring). What was awesome was that sensei was using to a large touch tablet to do all the editing actions! Now that I think about it, it would be a pretty fast method of editing. At one of the other computers, a student was making text credits on photoshop. Asao-sensei suggested maybe I could help since I mentioned that I know how to use photoshop (although that was the Japanese version of photoshop =X )They were editing the drama that the OUA grad students were filming (the same filming that was going on at that Junk & Antiques place near OUA). I mostly sat down with the other students and watched them edit. Other teachers there gave advice on whether a cut was too quick or if there are any other mistakes. It was funny when I noticed a continuity error in one of the scenes, the main character is talking with a teacher and he takes out a flyer. He accidentally rips it a little bit (not part of the script I bet) and puts it down flat on the table to read. Cut to a close up of the flyer, and the rip is not there. Cut back to the wide shot and the rip is there again. I guess they didn’t have a spare flyer to re-shoot it hehe… (reminded me back to when I shot the FTS08 video I made two copies of the prop photo in case one gets lost or destroyed) Even though with some minor mistakes I felt like the overall production of the episode I saw was broadcast worthy up to quality of a typical drama. I later asked Asao-sensei what the name of the drama is: “Broadcast Asuka” 「ブロードキャストASUKA」and it was airing on several Kansai area tv stations, but ironically I can’t even watch the show from my place since the tv won’t receive those channels =(
Broadcast Asuka website

It’s a story that takes place at Osaka University of Arts campus about a student in the broadcasting department. You’ll also notice that the drama has a white guy as one of the characters, he’s the Canadian grad student that Mr. Hisano mentioned before. His japanese seemed really good from the episode I saw and what’s funny is that he wears a red maple-leaf printed kimono in one scene.

When I headed back to Kishi station those green public buses were bugging me for a while so I asked at the bus window if I could take the bus from there to Osaka Geidai, and turns out I could! She directed me to bus stop number 3, I just had to get off at Higashiyama Geidai-mae. Before I hopped on I asked the bus driver to confirm. So I rode the public bus for the first time. There was a announcement system and when you wanted to get off at the next stop, you’d have to hit the button that says とまります “tomarimasu” on it. This is definitely the way to go, especially since I live pretty far, takes me 40 mins to get there by walking, and my bike is out of commission =X When I got off I had to pay at the coin drop machine near the bus driver (in America we pay the toll first), first time so I asked how much it was and it was a 200 yen fare.

Now I realize I could have taken the bus back with my heavy ps3 the other day instead of walking it =X But it didn’t matter actually, since an unfortunate thing about the bus is that it stops early at around 8pm on weekends. (10pm on weekdays)

On Monday, I took my Japanese 1 and Japanese 2 classes for the first time. Since there are very few international students at Osaka Geidai, there were maybe only about 5 people in that class, there was an American teacher there too. Ryan was there also. I arrived a bit late tho trying to find the classroom >_< bad bad. Anyway, we each had to introduce ourselves and then watch a video on using japanese in the work force. We also had a worksheet that we went through together. Yay for keigo! (敬語 = honorific and polite way of speaking). After lunch, I had to come back to the same exact classroom (4th floor yay T_T). While I already knew stuff from the Japanese 1 class, Japanese 2 suddenly jumped past my level –; Sensei passed out handouts with an article on it and we would read through it and discuss and answer some reading comprehension questions. So many kanjis and vocab I dunno –; So instead, sensei gave me a separate handout with a short article on fast food in Japan, which was fairly easy, although I don’t know all the vocab on the articles so I figured it’d be good to do anyway. Normally for Japanese 2 at OUA you’d do your own self study, since everyone is at different levels (well the Korean and Chinese students in my class were already ahead of me since they’ve been in Japan a while) The only textbook I really brought with me was from Japanese 321, which had the most useful lessons in it. Though I wish I had brought the textbook that I would be studying when I come back to America to get a head start >_< The teacher, Saito-sensei, seemed really nice and she’d occasionally ask me questions regarding the topics they’re talking about in class or the worksheet I was doing

Tuesday there was no class again (I don’t know what’s with all these no class days) So I decided to get a few more things I needed and check out a store called “Komeri” that was pretty close to where I live. Judging by the outside, it had all farming things and assorted plants. And walking inside, it did pretty much feel like a watered down home depot, smaller (not in a warehouse kind of building). They sell equipment for farmers, pet things, a few electronics, kitchen things, toiletries and furniture. Komeri even has its own original soundtrack…the music seriously sounds like the store music in rpg games! This was probably the best place for me to get toiletries since the prices are better than Mandai’s. Later I found out that I can buy a box of 6 2 litre water bottles for much cheaper than separately, WIN . It’s the American mentality: buy in bulk, save more money.

Been surviving on konbini food, which I know is pretty bad >.>; at least for the time being until I figure out how to get to the nearest market from here. –; The customer service is as good as foreigners say so far, compared to our standards. They treat you really well and always acknowledge your presence, so if you just browse the stores and pass by any of they may say 「いっらしゃいませ！」”irrashaimase!” even if they already have when you entered. They are attentive and speak in a clear audible voice with a smile, and of course speak in really polite language 「敬語」”keigo”. They announce the price for each item scanned and they really confirm everything with the customer. Do you have a point card? Would you like this heated? From a 1000 yen? Would you like the warm food and the cold to be in the same bag? One time a lady was about to bag some of my things, but she stared at it for a couple seconds and said “sorry” and put that one aside and opened up a new bag…maybe there was a hole in it???

Oh yea and point cards…I always been saying no at Family Mart just cause I don’t want to deal with it. (I guess part of the mentality with avoiding getting credit cards). A point card though is different from the kind of store credit cards back in America. Everytime you purchase something at the store, you collect points on the card, which you can use later to receive bonus things for free. You can also get some percentage discount and other stuff. It is similar to the membership or credit cards, that they’re supposed encourage you to shop more and be loyal to their store.

Oh yea and I need to develop a system for dealing with the coins. oh and…I HATE COINS. In America, I used my debit card a lot and avoided carrying too much cash. When I did use cash in America and got change back I would collect all the annoying pennies, dimes, nickels in a bag and when it was pretty full I’d throw it all in the Coinstar machine at Ralphs. But Japan uses cash more, and they also have more coin denominations. The lowest paper bill is 1000 yen (roughly 10 dollars), so I figure the 500 yen, 100 yen, and 50 yen coins will be used a lot. Then there’s the loose 1 yen, 5 yen, and 10 yen coins… so annoying T__T Especially when I buy something and get my receipt and change back, they would stick this heavy wad of coins on top of my receipt…I wouldn’t be able to put it in my wallet like normal T_T So I just throw it all in my pocket, and later I gather them together in an ash tray at home as kind of my coin holder. Judging by the time at Izumiya with Mamiya-san, it’s probably encouraged to get your payment exact or to even out the payment enough that you don’t have to receive and deal with more loose 1,5,10 yen coins. So now I try to get the payments down to the cent to get rid of those annoying coins –;

Each time I get home, I get tired so easily. I mean to do the blog and my video project but I just knock out really easily –; Until I get used to the new routine and time difference maybe…

So I googled Osaka Catholic archdiocese to find where the nearest church would be, and found that the nearest happened to be in Nipponbashi… where Den Den Town is (Osaka’s “electric town”, Akiba, or otaku nerd district O_o). So I set out to try to find the church and attend the English mass there. (and nerd out in between of course).

According to the news, there was a typhoon coming from the south and heading upward (this is Japan for sure!). Which means rain, and as expected, it was raining on Sunday…and man it was coming down =X Ryan and I skyped back and forth and decided to wait out until the rain dissipated a little. As soon as it did an hour later, we met up and headed to the train station. So this time on the train, from riding the Midosuji subway we had to get off at Dobutsuen-mae station (in front of the zoo), and switch to the Sakaisuji line and then get off at Nipponbashi. The transfer station was pretty close, and so was our stop shortly after getting on Sakaisuji line. But once we got off at Nipponbashi, came the challenge of actually finding the place T__T

Prior I had taken a picture of the map they had on their website, but they had no directions from the train station just says get off at Nipponbashi station and 10 minute walk =X Ryan and I tried to find our way, we passed by a really huge area with old style buildings and a thick wall running along it, which could possibly be a Buddhist temple, monastery or some rich person’s house? At some point we found the Den Den Town area, we stopped by a 7-11 to ask the lady where she might point us out according to the map. They tried matching it with the map from a book they had in the store, the book was old so it probably didn’t have the place name labels up to date, and they didn’t know of any Catholic church nearby (I expected). But according to the map and her we had to cross through some narrow streets. It was kinda tricky, cause these narrow streets (you can find in any district) they don’t have names and they’re also awkwardly arranged.

Well we got lost T__T so we went to a car dealership place nearby and asked the guy there showing him the map on my not-so-practical lcd screen of my camera. He sketched out on a map of our current location and Sakaisuji street, and at Den Den Town - 3 (the third traffic light) we just make a right and should run into it. So Ryan and I headed to find the Den Den Town -3 while passing by a few anime stores and a computer cafe, on the turn we found the place to be oddly familiar… All I remember from the appearance of the building was that it was a white sign on a brown building… (which didn’t help at all of course T__T) On the way we passed by a maid cafe called “Poco Lv 1″ Kinda amusing how there’s a maid cafe just down the street from the church O_o. “Only in Japan” I guess.

But somewhere past this beef bowl place we finally found it. It was then that we realized that we had passed that area before, but easily missed the church –;. Well It didn’t stand out too much, since it was a regular building, unless you looked up at the sign. We walked in and the hallway was pretty dark, except for a few lights that turned on automatically. At the back was the elevator we had to take up to the chapel. And the chapel was empty??? Okays, we were there a little bit early, so we waited out near the backwater stairs watching the rain fall. When it became 5 a couple Filipinos showed up. I thought that mass was earlier but later the priest also came (also Filipino) and said mass would start half an hour later. There were a total of maybe 3-5 other people at the mass, well it was an English language mass so I guess the number would definitely be smaller. Mass was just as I’d expect since a Catholic mass is pretty structured, there isn’t too much differences. The only differences were the song set (every church has a different song set anyway, but what’s with the high notes? T__T) and that we bow instead of handshake when we wish peace to our neighbors (I was just about to stick my hand out when I saw everyone stay where they were bowing to everyone). After mass, I talked with the priest, Father Consulta, and we introduced ourselves to them. There was also a nice Filipina lady and a man from Australia, one of the people who did the readings. Overall, they were seemed pretty kewl.

Ryan and I ate at a ramen place for dinner in the Den Den Town area. Yay my first time having ramen in Japan =) The waitress there overheard us speaking English, so she nicely came over to help us out. We weren’t sure what to get, but chose the top ones in the menu. Found out later the one I had was pork bone soy sauce ramen… was soo good ^_^ Later we checked out a few of the stores. The first was the Joshin Gundam’s store, which was pretty EPIC. So much Gundam merchandise like the apparel, they even had manjuu (red bean filled cakes) with the Gundam’s logo in omiyage-type boxes. We took the escalator to the second floor which had nothing but gunpla (model kits) and figures. They probably had every gunpla released there, since Ryan recognized some of the same ones he used to have. There was also a section with different airbrushes, decals, paints, and every other tool you would need for gunpla. In the back was a big lcd screen playing an episode of Gundam 00 (on it’s second season). I’m not a fan of gundam, but I can imagine some of my friends going crazy in this place. The next place was a model store, aisles and aisles of glass cases with anime and video game figures. There was an interesting system too, to get the model you want you’d, write down it’s labeled number on a piece of paper (pencils and papers provided near the cases) and you’d show it to the store clerk. I’d imagine the “regulars” do some mass shopping =X anyways, I was trying all over AX to find a Minoru nendoroid puchi (the only male character in Lucky Star, who also has the same name as its voice actor =P ) and there he was! along with Kyon who has a little video camera included =P It’s funny how the male characters are way cheaper than the popular female ones. Anyway I jumped ship and asked the store clerk for them. We went up a few floors, still nothing but figures, one floor had the gachapon type of little figures and another floor had Western comic and entertainment ones. Ryan was really amazed at the figurines of the hollywood actors. Next store we checked out was a doujinshi specialized store called Melon Books. Near the entrance they had a space set aside that seems to be used for special events (like autograph signings and whatnot). There was also a small tv playing the caramell dansen and two anime characters doing the dance. Walking in, they had a few merchandise, but the store primarily sold books. One section had all the weekly/monthly publications (Japan has a load of different anime publication series). The shelves near the front had all age doujinshi comics (fan-made/independent comics) and just walk past that was a pretty big section of ero doujinshi (adult oriented fan-made comics). It was pretty empty except for 1 or 2 guys, well I think it’s pretty embarrassing to be in that section –; Along the wall they had doujinshi games (some shooters like Touhou or visual novel/dating sim types) and doujinshi original soundtracks on cd. After that we checked out a dvd/cd store which had videogames on the first floor, up one floor was older generation videogames, then another floor up was dvds, and another floor music cds. Most of these stores seem to always have narrow escalators and to go back down there’s either another escalator or a set of stairs in the back.

Anyway, I had this plan to purchase a playstation 3 when I would come to Japan. Yes, also planned. AND yup I have a “things I want to do in Japan” list =).

You see, I’m a fan of the Metal Gear Solid series and I have this super autographed copy of MGS4…but of no means to play it. I have not played it yet ._.; (except for the demo back at E4all) I decided it was best to get a ps3 here since I was gonna leave America in a few months. I didn’t want to wait a whole year to miss out on mgs4 T__T Then I’d just sell it or somehow mail it back in US. I was hoping to get a used one, and the store there had the 40gb model for 32k yen (the regular price is 40k yen). Anyway I wanted to ask about the refund policy, but how to in Japanese… hmmm… T___T (my memory of Japanese 321 don’t fail me!) For some reason I couldn’t find the word in my DS Sonomama Kanji Rakubiki Jiten. So as I asked the guy normally and then I’d say 「何と言うか」”Nan to iu ka” and make hand motions hoping the guy would fill me in, but of course that would end in FAIL since a refund cant be described that way –; So I had to ask the guy in a situation like “say if I were to buy this, and bring it home and open it, to find it already broken, can I return it?” Then he says that I can return it up to one week, and they’ll replace it. I asked about money and he utters 返済 surely I scribbled the word in my DS (yea I had it out in front of him lol) and it was in the dictionary as “refund”. I say YES and he says the refund can only be done within a week as well. In case, Ryan suggested I get his name, so he wrote his name on a note, in case the ps3 doesn’t work I can mention his name if I come by. So I purchased the ps3. At the moment I wasn’t really feeling the excitement of having a ps3, but realizing that it felt a bit frustrating, but a relief to finally get the communication across. Communication is really taken for granted huh?

I thought I got the silver ps3, but I ended up with the white one, well whatever it will match the wii =)

Ryan helped carry it back on the train ride home and then…the DREADED MARCH IN THE RAIN back home. It practically POURED by the time we got off the train station! So Ryan helped carry it and halfway we parted since I live much farther away. I lugged the heavy “ps3 grill” back home (thankfully covered in a big plastic bag and I had my umbrella too).

Looks like it survived!

So Thursday, I officially started my classes and went to the Documentary Theory class in the morning. Sensei took attendance by calling out our names one by one like how it’d be done in America (except we say “hai” instead of “here”). And then he talked a little bit about a documentary that we would be watching, not like I understood all of what he said T_T The film is called 「怒りをうたえ」”ikari o utae” which means “sing/express the anger”. It’s a film about the political events that happened in the 1970s, and has to do with the struggle between Japan and US security pact and the occupation of Okinawa (Japanese demanded Okinawa to be returned) . When sensei asked everyone if they heard about or know about the history no one raised their hands (well I didn’t know either other than WWII and a little on post WWII US occupation). The whole work is super long though, split into 4-5 tapes and sensei mentioned we would watch all of it (going through little by little) , everyone was like ughh… It was pretty interesting, I never seen Japanese going public outrage and rioting. They showed scenes of major train stations like, Shibuya station, masses of people gathered all holding wooden planks and wearing helmets, they would be shouting, throwing rocks or lighting things on fire, and an armored wall of guards opposing them and breaking them up with a fire hose. After the films, Sensei wrote a couple names on the board of the groups of people that protested. I thought it unusual to not receive a paper syllabus, so I asked for one and he directed me to ask Mamiya-san to print one out for me, which turned out to be the page from their website O_o Seems like all the syllabi are online.

After lunch I had calligraphy class, the class was much smaller with a group of 10 or less people. Everyone had their calligraphy gear set in front of them with a sheet of paper, the ink stone, and the calligraphy brush. At the beginning of class Sensei would say 「起立して」”kiritsu-shte” and everyone stood up. Uhh okay I think I know what this is I thought –; then a representing students says,「礼！」”rei!” and everyone bowed, and then sit back down. Good thing I knew a bit about it or I’d have no clue @_@, although it was my first time really doing the Japanese classroom etiquette, similar to how we do the US pledge in American classrooms. Then sensei asked me to do my self introduction—eeep! So I stood in front of everybody giving my name, major, and that I’m a student from SDSU and a big 「よろしくお願いします！」”yoroshiku onegaishimasu!” *BOWS* and everyone applauded. Sensei passed out a handout which had photocopies of the original writing of Japanese proverbs, poetry, or something of the like. She would guide us through each kanji (chinese character) one by one. For the rest of the class, I felt weird just sitting there without the calligraphy equipment to follow along and watched over my classmates next to me. We did the bowing gesture again at the end of class, then sensei told me that I need to get a calligraphy set. I asked if I could buy it on campus, but they didn’t sell it there. Later we asked Mrs. Mamiya and she offered to go to the trouble of taking me to the store to buy a set, thank you so much Mamiya-san!

So Mrs. Mamiya takes me to a department store called Izumiya. And wow the Izumiya store is big, it felt like a Target but with more floors and more products there. I noticed her phone charm which had a Bleach character on it, Kuchiki Byakuya =P. She mentioned that her son loves Bleach a lot and watches it every week. We took a look at the calligraphy sets, which seemed to be intended for junior high or high school students =X Quality wise they were plastic, but i didn’t want to pay too much for something fancy so I decided on one that was about 2500 yen, which had everything I needed. I also needed to buy the special paper for it, a large thin kind of practice paper especially for calligraphy. Mamiya-san asked if there’s anything else I needed, and I thought about shelves I was planning to get (but would dare not try to carry by train and walk home =X) they had some there, which was 1000 yen for each, so I got two. I also thought about the kotatsu, the traditional Japanese table that has a heater on the bottom… and YES, it was my plan from the beginning to get a kotatsu once I study abroad here, well it is my dream thing to do, don’t make fun of me~ T___T Hmm they were kind of expensive though, when I talked with Nakamura-san, he mentioned that I could get one as cheap as 5k, but the ones there were 7k or more. Then Mamiya-san mentioned that she would let me borrow her kotatsu; she said she didn’t use it much anymore anyway and or in her words “Mamiya-san rental”. She mentioned she’d bring it over a little before winter time, and I said I was not in a hurry. Mamiya-san is too nice T___T so I am SOOO thankful, that she helped me out. Anyway, I ended up getting a ground chair for my future-borrowed-kotatsu (I feel much more comfortable sitting on the ground actually), and we also got a few groceries, well I only got melon cream soda =)

On Friday, I came by studio 3-F and George-sensei and a couple students were there working on stuff. So I got my hands dirty to help make the plaster, which Sensei says that in Japan they use something called gypstone, while in America they use a different kind of plaster for molds (stronger than plaster of paris) Sensei guided me through slowly combining the mix, I had to shift it in the water and combine it little by little until it was of a thick consistency. Then I helped apply it over the model, I had to be real careful applying it cause I had to poor it over thick enough on all areas and watch where the liquid would go without touching it too much (otherwise itd thin out) (I can see how that can be tricky each time since the model shapes tend to be oddly shaped). Later everybody moved to a classroom in a different building, we all carried some molds and models there. My classmate showed me this crazy animatronic monkey head, it was just the skeleton, so its dentures and everything were exposed. He’d mess with the switches for the radio controls (the kind for RC cars) and it’s eyes and mouth would move around, even making monkey noises O_O It was lunch time so I decided to get something from the bread store on campus.
I got kara-age meal bread (which had kara-age fried chicken, sauce, sausage and egg), and a churro (heck why not). It was the worst churro ever, stiff hard, and barely any flavor (the sugar’s there but no flavor from the actual bread). Kara-age bread was really good though =)

I came back to the classroom for the special effects seminar and Sensei asked me to do a self-introduction—eeep another one! =X For this class, everyone was halfway through their projects already, and I wouldn’t be able to do a work like everyone else, but I could still learn by volunteering to help out and going through all the steps and asking them questions. Sensei pointed out to a couple of guys waving over to let me help them out. They had a male bust base and a grip of clay in front of them. And my classmate tells me to slowly apply the clay to the chest area of the bust (using a concept art for reference, we were actually making a kind of breast plate armor). Once the majority was on and sculpted, he worked on refining it while I’d be a second set of eyes. I mentioned it looked a bit strange, well one side didn’t quite match the other, and Sensei came by later to confirm it =X I later talked to the gothic punk style girl again, her name is Mai. She’s able to speak English a bit, and I also met her friend Shiori. I asked how long the class was and the class can go on til super late =X as late as 8-9pm. But George-sensei mentioned I can stay until 4:30 or however long I want after that. So it was 6pm and I set out to leave. Just when I walked out Shiori ran out and caught me to ask for my e-mail (I don’t have a cell phone yet so I gave her my internet address and we exchanged).

Overall good experiences with classes so far ^_^

Later that day, I tried to boil water to make boiled eggs, but the stove suddenly crapped out =X I turned on the stove, and suddenly I hear a loud click and all the lights go off… which means the circuit breaker must have gone off. I could switch all other electric circuits on, except for the one that goes to the stove =X Hisano-san came by later to check it and said he’d call Leo Palace to send someone to have it checked, which I’m glad. I just have to hold out til then, thankfully Hisano-san brought a rice-cooker prior… I can boil eggs in that!

Saturday, I made the long trek on my own to the Daiso 100 yen store/dollar store and got covered my list of house and living things, such as chopsticks, cooking utensils, hand towels, school supplies etc. The store has soo much stuff. Of course the quality is cheap, cheap, but some of it’s decent enough for its purpose. This is also a good place to get souvenirs for the family/friends back home, (just dont tell them it was 100 yen=P ), but in all seriousness a few Japan-only things can be found here. One of the dangerous things about that store though, just because it’s cheap you’re more prone to buy it cause it is, and before you know it the total spending amount builds up and you’re buying way more things then you actually needed =X Yes, I wish I pinched my 1-yen coins on this one –; Anyway I had to carry my stuff back and the traffic patrol guard near the Osaka Geidai intersection says good evening to me which I reply as well. “You have quite a lot there dont you?” ahahah..

To be honest I feel like a visitor here (which I am) but to the point where I’m still in a bit of disbelief that I’m going to be here for a whole freaking year. Sounds pretty long, but Ryan and I were assured that once these classes get going it’ll go by, FAST.

I live quite away from the train station (about a 40 minute walk) not to mention to get to some of the stores, like the Daiso for things I need, I would have to walk that 40 minute walk. So a bike (bicycle) would definitely help a lot, and it’s the transportation of choice for Japanese (combined with the train). Well Mr. Hisano brought me the bike on Wednesday. It’s apparently the bike that some of the past alum have used. And it’s pretty big =X I was worried my short legs wont be able to reach the peddles =( and as expected…my feet also can’t touch the ground T__T and yup I set the seat to the lowest setting. I tried riding it around my immediate neighborhood but I had trouble stopping the bike and turning. Either it’s just my horrible bike riding or the bike is just too big for me =( Maybe I need more practice? but I didn’t have too much trouble back when I was riding my dad and stepmom’s bikes back home, although I never really learned to ride a bike properly until a few months before I left for Japan. (My family never taught me, and I tried learning to ride a bike during junior high with friends, but that ended in fail.) Well not being able to have full control on this bike, and trying to ride it around the sidewalk-less narrow roads here with the cars…nope not gonna happen.

Later I met with Mr. Hisano and Mrs. Mamiya again to figure out the rest of my schedule. She introduced me to Asao-sensei, who we were trying to meet the other day but was out busy. He can speak fairly good English, and is in charge of the visual study class. Another thing I can do for class credit is to work on a project any kind of work, commercial, short, animation, etc and I choose a teacher, such as Asao-sensei, to guide me on the project. He is also one of the editors for Osaka Geidai’s television drama that the graduate students are producing (the same ones ) and they do that at the ATC (Asian Pacific Trade Center), so sometimes I would need to go to the city, but I would so love to watch and observe them editing ^_^

So my schedule is set:

Well no direct editing class in there, which at first was what I told them I would like to learn the most, but they recommended against taking the editing class since they say the teacher is pretty strict =X Japanese classes monday, and the basic introductory class on tuesday. Well, the I’ll be doing a little bit of everything which should be good, learning about editing through Wednesday’s class, Thursday watch documentaries and Calligraphy class (for fun), and Special Effects classes alternating on Fridays. It’ll be an interesting semester =)

And btw, I didn’t find out until later that one of the bicycle tires was flat… =/

well there was no school monday cause it was a national holiday: respect for the aged day. So Ryan and I decide to look for the Joshin electronic’s store. I heard about it from Christina, which was the nearest electronic’s store in the area but it would be quite a walk since it was close to Tondabayashi station. I also wanted to pick up a few things =X Ryan and I talked on Skype and agreed to meet at the Sukiya beef bowl place near the Ishikawa river bridge, so it was a good place to meet halfway

It’s interesting seeing so many rice paddies, and come to think of it I’ve never seen them in my life, even though I’ve grown up eating it

Ryan wasn’t outside so he was probably eating lunch there. I was totally shy to go in, but walked in without a clue as to go about the process of (Okay, yea I learned restaurant vocab and phrases already, but I was nervous cause it was legit this time and not script practice with a partner). Anyway I looked at the menu and ordered an egg and onion beef bowl. It was weird how hey had 4 different sizes, I went for the cheapest one “mini”. And then for drink, I ordered green tea. phew, well, my Japanese was good enough to order food =) I saw Ryan on the other end. I realized I just ordered a bento (that’s meant to be taken home) instead of eating there which I thought, oops but oh well. A waiter came over and brought a beef bowl and looked over to me I was eating my beef bowl bento =X Ryan and him stared at each other for a moment, ehhhhhh… and the waiter apologized and walked away in silence. He must have thought he ordered for me, another oops T_T Ryan glanced over and saw the guys chuckling in the kitchen, so I guess they weren’t bothered too much by it. It was amusing that the restaurant was playing No Doubt’s “I’m Just a Girl” and other 90s music. I thought there would never be Japanese pop music in an American restaurant (or any kind of foreign language pop music on the radio) and Ryan suggested unless the restaurant were going for a traditional Japan culture vibe. (Well the Convoy Tapioca Express used to have Japanese and Korean music videos playing, but that doesn’t really count). Sukiya is a typical fast food franchise, I wouldn’t imagine foreign pop songs being played in say an American Mcdonalds

Japan has the most awesome cartoon warning signs:

Ryan and I headed over towards the direction of Tondabayashi station (me checking the map a bunch of times). On the way we saw a big entertainment building with a bowling pin on top that had bowling, karaoke, internet cafe, and other stuff. In order to get to Joshin we had to cross the train tracks. Train crossings are everywhere and pass by frequently so I thought waiting for a train to pass by is part of the Japan experience =) When the train is about to pass by the lights come on and make that very distinct and repetitive sound. On the way we ran into Daiso, the 100 yen shop that practically has everything from household things, craft supplies, toys, and more. Good ol’ Daiso. I have actually already been to a Daiso before back in Convoy area of San Diego. It’s funny cause I recognize the same exact American flag business card holders that I saw back in SD Daiso.

Somehow we finally find the Joshin close nearby, with a big red sign. The parking lot for it was all on the first floor, and you had to go up an escalator to enter the store floor. It was pretty big inside. And very noisy, like the Yodobashi-Camera. Someone was talking on the store’s PA the whole time, about new products, deals, and stuff. I also heard the Hanshin Tigers theme music playing and the store clerks would be wearing yellow and black happi coats (the kind worn for festivals) and headband. We looked around the game section, ahh standing there and seeing all the games (many exclusive to Japan or not released in America yet) made me pretty happy, although games are more expensive here (about 10 dollars more than priced in America). We tried to look for Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten DS for Ryan, a cheap option as an electronic dictionary (I already had mine for my ds) but didnt find it there. I definitely will get a lot of exercise out of it whenever I don’t know a kanji or word, I can write it and it search its definition.

Anyway I bought an a/v switchbox, wifi router (now i wished i brought mine) and extended power strips, since the apartment seriously lacked plugs. I didn’t bring enough cash so I was hoping my card could be used there, turned out the card worked but it was confusing at the counter telling me “IKKAI BARAI” since I said I didn’t understand. I had no idea for words like for checking account, and just showed me card asking if i could use it T_T but at least the card worked, and later checked and showed up on my account like it should. It hit me later that she might have meant “one time payment” asking if its okay to be on checking, rather than credit. Yay for misunderstandings. More of those to come =X