beer and internet
Okay, so maybe I'll never be caught up and I'll just have to skip a couple days. Oh well. My Saturday was pretty interesting, so I'll post what I wrote about that, but then I'll just summarize the next couple days after that.
09/12/04 1030
Saturday I couldn't sleep in too late because I'd agreed to go with okaa-san (mother) to meet otou-san (father), who apparently works in Nagoya so couldn't meet me, on a trip to see Asahi Beer's factory at Suita. I found out later that he has an apartment in Nagoya, so I guess he stays there during the week and comes home for Saturday night and most of Sunday. So I won't be seeing him much, although I'll be at school during the week and stuff too, so he'll be here when I'm not at school at least.
I didn't realize beforehand that we were going with a group of his work friends and such, but that made it a very interesting trip because a few of them could speak some English, and even if they didn't, I think by the end all of them spoke to me at least a little. One guy had actually lived in Chicago for three years, so his English was quite good. Another guy knew German as well as a little English, so he kept trying to tell me the translations of Japanese words into German. At any rate, they were an interesting group of people.
We got to have a guided tour of the plant when we got there. This seemed to be a scheduled, prearranged thing, which made sense since we were a group (about 11 people including me). At that point it seemed like more, since everyone moved around and they were all new faces, but I could count them properly later when we went to lunch.
09/13/04 2100
The first part of the tour was just a five-to-ten minute video about processing the mugi (what they call whatever grain it is that they use to make the beer). I wasn't really interested in it though; I was more interested in the fact that I could actually follow some of it. I was like, "Hey, I'm on a Japanese-language tour watching a movie for Japanese people, and I'm not totally lost!" That was cool. Anyway, after that we were led around by a tour guide who (of course) spoke entirely in formal Japanese which was amusing to listen to. I didn't really learn much on the tour except that making beer is a much more complicated process than I had imagined. After the tour was over, we were led to a big room with a whole bunch of tables and benches and given complementary beer and snacks. Well, to qualify that, I didn't drink any beer; I got some sort of fruit soda instead, and only one kind of snack was actually free. The couple of guys sitting next to me and okaa-san seemed to like to buy snacks and share them with us though, so I had plenty to munch on while I listened to people chatter and the tour guide lecture. Those nearby people tried to talk to me part of the time too. I'm not a very good conversationalist even in English with people I don't know though, so it was hard to keep up the conversation even when I understood it, which was only about half the time.
As we left the building, we went by their little souvenir shop, where I tried samples of a couple of jam-like things that Asahi apparently makes along with beer. They were pretty good. There was beer cake, too, which I guess doesn't really have much if any beer in it. Maybe's it's like coffee cake, which doesn't really have coffee in it I don't think. At any rate, I tried a sample of that too, and it tasted pretty good. Then, as we got outside, everyone decided that we should take a group picture in front of these stained glass windows that I'd gotten a picture of on the way in. Someone asked the tour guide to take pictures, and since other people had handed her their cameras, I gave her mine too, with an "onegaishimasu" ("please"). She ended up having trouble with mine for some reason, so I had to explain it to her in Japanese. It wasn't hard, but it was one of those things that I wouldn't have been able to do three years ago when I was here before. I was pleased with the result.
From there we went to lunch at a place that seemed to serve some American-style foods with a bit of a Japanese twist. For example, I ordered salmon, and okaa-san ordered spaghetti, but my salmon came with a bit of the same kind of spaghetti on the side. It was good spaghetti, too. Not the way I would have made it, but tasty. Another amusing part of my meal was the fact that it came with exactly three thick fries. I guess it was sort of a garnish rather than a real part of the meal. They tasted good too, but it was just odd to have just three. It seems like most Japanese meals consist of either one sort of food that comprises the whole meal (like udon, or ramen, or pizza), or many small dishes of different foods. So my meal there consisted of salmon, salad, spaghetti, fries, and maybe something else too. It sounds odd to see all of those foods together, because in a normal meal, that would be too much, but like I said, there were only three fries and a bit of spaghetti, so it wasn't too much.
Even after drinking beer at the factory, most of the people ordered at least a couple more glasses of beer, except the one other woman on the trip, who ordered a bottle of wine after one glass of beer. I don't know how much she'd had at the factory, but I know several of the other people had had at least two glasses. Even my host mother had had one glass, but then she didn't drink any at the restaurant. I think she doesn't drink normally, but it was because it was free there, I guess. So by the time we left, I guess most of the people were pretty drunk. Not falling-down drunk, but enough to make them significantly louder, anyway. And then once we got home, otou-san went upstairs to sleep it off. Okaa-san said getting drunk makes him sleepy, but the only real effects she's seen is that he has to go sleep for a while, and then he's okay again. It's good to hear that he isn't a violent drunk or anything. I could barely tell, really.
For dinner we had okonomiyaki, which is sort of a specialty of the area. More so in Osaka and Hiroshima, but Kobe is close enough to Osaka that I'm not surprised people make it around here. Anyway, it was really yummy. After dinner I brought out my omiyage (gifts). They seemed to like the t-shirts. I had to explain "Fighting Illini" and "the Chief" and stuff, but once they understood that, they seemed happy about getting the t-shirts. I think the candles were good too. They're pretty and usable at the same time. I'm not sure if they'll actually be used any time soon, but for now they're locked away in one of the display cabinets so that Shikkun can't get to them. The last thing I gave were my handmade potholders, a matching set of four in different colors. I told them that I was giving the potholders to okaa-san because otou-san probably wouldn't need them. I dunno, at that point I wasn't thinking about the fact that he was living in Nagoya by himself much of the time. I suppose he makes himself food there, but oh well. Actually, I had to explain the potholders too. I forget what they thought they were for when they first saw them, but it wasn't quite right.
Sunday was a pretty uneventful day, except for the fact that my host father was actually there until after lunch, and he let me get set up with the family's internet. Like I think I mentioned, there wasn't much to it: when I put in my wireless card, it just worked without any fiddling. The signal in my room isn't so good, because the YahooBB modem thing is in the dining room by the phone, but if I take my laptop out to the dining room table, I get a perfect signal. On my bed with the wireless card pointing toward the door works fine most of the time though, so I've been doing that a lot so I can leave the laptop plugged in. I spent most of Sunday afternoon catching up on things on the internet.
Monday our host mothers went with us to school from home for the first time to make sure we could find the place, although it's not that hard. We also had the first part of the Japanese language placement test, which was really easy. I only wrote one kanji wrong on the writing section. So the parents didn't have to wait, there weren't any afternoon classes that day, so instead our mothers took us to an Italian restaurant for lunch (they wouldn't let us pay) and then we went to get bank accounts and cell phones. A lot of people ended up getting the same kind of phone I did eventually; it comes in green, orange, white, or blue (Doug and I both got the green model) and has built in text messaging, a digital camera, radio tuner, and Japanese-English dictionary. And this phone came without charge with our service, which shouldn't cost more than like 2500 yen per month if we don't make a lot of phone calls. It's a lot cheaper to just send an email rather than calling anyway. I'll take a picture of it some time. Speaking of pictures, definitely by this weekend I should be able to upload them. I'm not sure I want to do it tonight, but maybe tomorrow night.
On Tuesday Jeff and I went to school on the trains together and didn't get lost or anything. I think he has a better direction sense than I do anyway though, so I mostly followed him. ^^ Too bad the train we have to ride thirty minutes on is always crowded at 8 in the morning, so we have to stand the whole way unless we're *really* lucky. Anyway, we had the second part of the placement test plus the interview. Of course, most of us from UIUC took the hardest test, which was actually really hard. I couldn't remember or had never learned a lot of the kanji and vocabulary on it. The interview went okay though, I think. We mostly had to talk about our previous Japanese experience; it wasn't like the UIUC placement test where they ask you to read a list of words in kanji.
Today was really fun and interesting, but I think I'll write about today separately and post it later or tomorrow. We'll see what the next few days bring.
09/12/04 1030
Saturday I couldn't sleep in too late because I'd agreed to go with okaa-san (mother) to meet otou-san (father), who apparently works in Nagoya so couldn't meet me, on a trip to see Asahi Beer's factory at Suita. I found out later that he has an apartment in Nagoya, so I guess he stays there during the week and comes home for Saturday night and most of Sunday. So I won't be seeing him much, although I'll be at school during the week and stuff too, so he'll be here when I'm not at school at least.
I didn't realize beforehand that we were going with a group of his work friends and such, but that made it a very interesting trip because a few of them could speak some English, and even if they didn't, I think by the end all of them spoke to me at least a little. One guy had actually lived in Chicago for three years, so his English was quite good. Another guy knew German as well as a little English, so he kept trying to tell me the translations of Japanese words into German. At any rate, they were an interesting group of people.
We got to have a guided tour of the plant when we got there. This seemed to be a scheduled, prearranged thing, which made sense since we were a group (about 11 people including me). At that point it seemed like more, since everyone moved around and they were all new faces, but I could count them properly later when we went to lunch.
09/13/04 2100
The first part of the tour was just a five-to-ten minute video about processing the mugi (what they call whatever grain it is that they use to make the beer). I wasn't really interested in it though; I was more interested in the fact that I could actually follow some of it. I was like, "Hey, I'm on a Japanese-language tour watching a movie for Japanese people, and I'm not totally lost!" That was cool. Anyway, after that we were led around by a tour guide who (of course) spoke entirely in formal Japanese which was amusing to listen to. I didn't really learn much on the tour except that making beer is a much more complicated process than I had imagined. After the tour was over, we were led to a big room with a whole bunch of tables and benches and given complementary beer and snacks. Well, to qualify that, I didn't drink any beer; I got some sort of fruit soda instead, and only one kind of snack was actually free. The couple of guys sitting next to me and okaa-san seemed to like to buy snacks and share them with us though, so I had plenty to munch on while I listened to people chatter and the tour guide lecture. Those nearby people tried to talk to me part of the time too. I'm not a very good conversationalist even in English with people I don't know though, so it was hard to keep up the conversation even when I understood it, which was only about half the time.
As we left the building, we went by their little souvenir shop, where I tried samples of a couple of jam-like things that Asahi apparently makes along with beer. They were pretty good. There was beer cake, too, which I guess doesn't really have much if any beer in it. Maybe's it's like coffee cake, which doesn't really have coffee in it I don't think. At any rate, I tried a sample of that too, and it tasted pretty good. Then, as we got outside, everyone decided that we should take a group picture in front of these stained glass windows that I'd gotten a picture of on the way in. Someone asked the tour guide to take pictures, and since other people had handed her their cameras, I gave her mine too, with an "onegaishimasu" ("please"). She ended up having trouble with mine for some reason, so I had to explain it to her in Japanese. It wasn't hard, but it was one of those things that I wouldn't have been able to do three years ago when I was here before. I was pleased with the result.
From there we went to lunch at a place that seemed to serve some American-style foods with a bit of a Japanese twist. For example, I ordered salmon, and okaa-san ordered spaghetti, but my salmon came with a bit of the same kind of spaghetti on the side. It was good spaghetti, too. Not the way I would have made it, but tasty. Another amusing part of my meal was the fact that it came with exactly three thick fries. I guess it was sort of a garnish rather than a real part of the meal. They tasted good too, but it was just odd to have just three. It seems like most Japanese meals consist of either one sort of food that comprises the whole meal (like udon, or ramen, or pizza), or many small dishes of different foods. So my meal there consisted of salmon, salad, spaghetti, fries, and maybe something else too. It sounds odd to see all of those foods together, because in a normal meal, that would be too much, but like I said, there were only three fries and a bit of spaghetti, so it wasn't too much.
Even after drinking beer at the factory, most of the people ordered at least a couple more glasses of beer, except the one other woman on the trip, who ordered a bottle of wine after one glass of beer. I don't know how much she'd had at the factory, but I know several of the other people had had at least two glasses. Even my host mother had had one glass, but then she didn't drink any at the restaurant. I think she doesn't drink normally, but it was because it was free there, I guess. So by the time we left, I guess most of the people were pretty drunk. Not falling-down drunk, but enough to make them significantly louder, anyway. And then once we got home, otou-san went upstairs to sleep it off. Okaa-san said getting drunk makes him sleepy, but the only real effects she's seen is that he has to go sleep for a while, and then he's okay again. It's good to hear that he isn't a violent drunk or anything. I could barely tell, really.
For dinner we had okonomiyaki, which is sort of a specialty of the area. More so in Osaka and Hiroshima, but Kobe is close enough to Osaka that I'm not surprised people make it around here. Anyway, it was really yummy. After dinner I brought out my omiyage (gifts). They seemed to like the t-shirts. I had to explain "Fighting Illini" and "the Chief" and stuff, but once they understood that, they seemed happy about getting the t-shirts. I think the candles were good too. They're pretty and usable at the same time. I'm not sure if they'll actually be used any time soon, but for now they're locked away in one of the display cabinets so that Shikkun can't get to them. The last thing I gave were my handmade potholders, a matching set of four in different colors. I told them that I was giving the potholders to okaa-san because otou-san probably wouldn't need them. I dunno, at that point I wasn't thinking about the fact that he was living in Nagoya by himself much of the time. I suppose he makes himself food there, but oh well. Actually, I had to explain the potholders too. I forget what they thought they were for when they first saw them, but it wasn't quite right.
Sunday was a pretty uneventful day, except for the fact that my host father was actually there until after lunch, and he let me get set up with the family's internet. Like I think I mentioned, there wasn't much to it: when I put in my wireless card, it just worked without any fiddling. The signal in my room isn't so good, because the YahooBB modem thing is in the dining room by the phone, but if I take my laptop out to the dining room table, I get a perfect signal. On my bed with the wireless card pointing toward the door works fine most of the time though, so I've been doing that a lot so I can leave the laptop plugged in. I spent most of Sunday afternoon catching up on things on the internet.
Monday our host mothers went with us to school from home for the first time to make sure we could find the place, although it's not that hard. We also had the first part of the Japanese language placement test, which was really easy. I only wrote one kanji wrong on the writing section. So the parents didn't have to wait, there weren't any afternoon classes that day, so instead our mothers took us to an Italian restaurant for lunch (they wouldn't let us pay) and then we went to get bank accounts and cell phones. A lot of people ended up getting the same kind of phone I did eventually; it comes in green, orange, white, or blue (Doug and I both got the green model) and has built in text messaging, a digital camera, radio tuner, and Japanese-English dictionary. And this phone came without charge with our service, which shouldn't cost more than like 2500 yen per month if we don't make a lot of phone calls. It's a lot cheaper to just send an email rather than calling anyway. I'll take a picture of it some time. Speaking of pictures, definitely by this weekend I should be able to upload them. I'm not sure I want to do it tonight, but maybe tomorrow night.
On Tuesday Jeff and I went to school on the trains together and didn't get lost or anything. I think he has a better direction sense than I do anyway though, so I mostly followed him. ^^ Too bad the train we have to ride thirty minutes on is always crowded at 8 in the morning, so we have to stand the whole way unless we're *really* lucky. Anyway, we had the second part of the placement test plus the interview. Of course, most of us from UIUC took the hardest test, which was actually really hard. I couldn't remember or had never learned a lot of the kanji and vocabulary on it. The interview went okay though, I think. We mostly had to talk about our previous Japanese experience; it wasn't like the UIUC placement test where they ask you to read a list of words in kanji.
Today was really fun and interesting, but I think I'll write about today separately and post it later or tomorrow. We'll see what the next few days bring.