My Hotel Has an Escape Hatch
My Hotel Has an Escape Hatch
Or
We’re Not in Maryland Anymore
August 26, 2010
This being my first post from Japan, I should probably take the time to mention that I am a third year at Earlham College, studying abroad in Japan for the semester. I will be taking classes at Iwate Daigaku (Gandai) and assisting english teachers at Kanan Chugaku, or Kanan Middle School. I am living with the Sasaki family while in Japan, Mr. Sasaki, Ms. Sasaki, and their daughter Chiho. Their son, Atsuto, is studying in Tokyo at the moment. This is my second time in Japan, though the first time I’ve stayed for longer than a few days. I arrived on August 15th and will remain here until December 5th. Now, with that information out of the way, here’s the blog post:
I arrived on time at Narita Airport, just outside of Tokyo, and met the program director, Jane Terashima. Jane-Sensei is the ESL teacher at Earlham, and is taking care of the twelve of us while we are here. After shipping my baggage (nimotsu) to my host family’s house, I took the bus by myself to the Narita Rest House, while Jane waited for the next few arrivals. Upon getting to the rest house, I found my room, put my remaining bag on my bed, and immediately went to find my friends. A group of those who had already arrived was forming out in the hallway as I emerged from my room. We greeted each other and went out to dinner at the mall which was, strangely enough, contained within the airport. The food was fantastic, but because I was recovering from the long flight, I couldn’t eat much, and actually got rather ill when I returned to the hotel. After that, though, I was fine.
Soon after returning to the hotel and taking a shower, my roommate, Mackenzie, arrived. We talked for a bit, catching up on the summer, and then she went to hang out with Becca, while I wrapped the gifts for my host family, so that I could send them on to their house in my last bag. I also managed to fit three days worth of clothes into my bookbag to have with me at the inn we would be staying at. Pretty soon after that, I became too tired to remain awake, and we went to bed.
The next day, we took the train from the airport into Tokyo proper, where we bought lunch at the train station and then got on the Shinkansen (bullet train). While waiting to get on the train, we spent several minutes geeking out about table-top gaming, which let me know that I really am at home in this group of people. At that moment, as now, I feel fantastic about how this experience will turn out.
The Shinkansen didn’t go as fast as I thought it would at first, but then we cleared the city. It was soooooo fast after that! I mean, it seemed fast when I looked out the window. The ride was so smooth I couldn’t feel the speed at all. I listened to my ipod for a bit, and watched the world go by. Mackenzie had me listen to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, and which was actually really funny. Maybe when I return to the states, I’ll start listening to it on my own. Anyways, fairly soon, we arrived in Morioka.
Once we got off the train, we took taxies to Kumagai Ryokan, a traditional style inn. I chose room seven, and Dina was my roommate. Dina, Katie and I all hung out quite a lot while we were at the ryokan, and we have a great deal in common. I’m really enjoying my time with them!
We were at the ryokan for three days while we had orientation. I won’t bore you with the details, but it was really interesting for me. We talked about culture, language, manners, use of cell phones, and all that sort of thing. On the first day, we also registered as aliens here in Morioka, which is a requirement for all foreigners living here. We then walked through downtown Morioka, and went to dinner at a traditional-style restaurant. The food was fantastic, again, though I was struck by the sheer amount of fish the Japanese eat. It was all yummy.
The second day, we had orientation, then lunch on our own. All the girls went together to the department store, and bought food (I had onigiri- a sort of rice-ball thingy, with Umeboshi (plum) in the center. Yum!) and we went back to the ryokan to eat. After that, we did a little bit more orientation stuff, and around 4, our host families came to pick us up for dinner.
Dinner was amazing, my host mother made spaghetti, which was excellent. We also had mugi-cha, which is a sort of cold tea. I never liked iced tea before, but it’s so hot here, I have come to love it. We chatted a bit, though it’s hard for me, since my family doesn’t speak any English at all. It’s great for my learning, but sometimes, all I want to do is have a good joke in English. I suppose I must confine that to text-messaging with my friends, like with Katie last night, in which I informed her that Katsudon tastes like pancakes and sausage- which is strange, because Katsudon is a dinner dish of rice with some kind of fried/breaded meat and vegitables. It’s really nothing at all like pancakes, or sausage. Anyways, I met my family, and they were very nice. My host sister, Chiho, loves the television, and my parents have the same sort of jobs my real parents have. It’s strange, but kind of awesome.
Oh, I forgot to mention, but somewhere along the lines of the second day at the ryokan, I found the bath. Oh. My. Gods. It is AMAZING!!!!!! First, you shower off the dirt, where you can either stand or sit to wash. The water felt so good after the heat outside. After that, once you’re all clean, you can get in the tub. It’s huge. The water covers you all the way to your neck, and it’s the most fantastic feeling. It’s so refreshing!! And the bath at the ryokan was beautiful, surrounded by rocks and small decorations, it was really amazing.
On the third day, we had more orientation, and such. I should probably mention the food, since it was really cool, although hard for me to eat at breakfast. Breakfast at the ryokan was some sort of fish, some vegetables, soup, rice, and some sort of salad. It was very good, but fish in the morning is hard on an American stomach. Lunch I usually bought onigiri or some sort of rice item that was inexpensive, and a soda or juice. Dinner at the ryokan, the third night was much the same as breakfast, with the addition of a niku-jaga type item that was very good.
The third day, we also went to Iwate Diagaku, which means Iwate College. Because of the way the kanji is written, it can also be called Gandai. It’s really really big, especially compared to Earlham, but it’s nice. The only thing missing is air-conditioning. There isn’t much of that here, which is hard because it’s so darned hot. The shokudo (cafeteria) is awesome, and the tonkatsu (a sort of pork thingy, although this one is chicken katsu, so more of a chicken thingy, breaded and (I think) fried) is amazing. I’m told the curry is also good, and will try it tomorrow when I go to class again.
The fourth day, we were picked up by our host families, and moved in. I got to finish unpacking, had the rules explained to me, and stuff like that. My family is really really nice, for which I’m super glad. My host mother likes to talk to me a lot, and doesn’t mind that sometimes it’s slow going while I look up a word or try to figure out how to say something.
Sunday we had an opening ceremony, in which we ended up in the newspaper. There’s even a picture of us as we made out speeches. It was terrifying, trying to introduce myself in Japanese. I get to do it again on Friday, to 400-plus students and teachers. Yikes! (That's tomorrow, folks!)
So... that's about it for now. I'm just getting settled in to classes and working at my host school. I'll give you all more on that in my next post. I hope to hear from y'all soon! Love yas.
--Alice