KATIE IN JAPAN! OMGWTFBBQ???
"This is it. This is your story. It all begins here."
<9:30 pm> //EPISODE ONE: Tokyo, ikuze!
Woo hoo, I finally figured out how to get this LJ thing to work, so here it is, the first entry in my Nihon journal! Amaze your friends and family! Judo-chopping action! I`ve been here in Hikone, Japan for nearly one month now, so there`s lots to tell! There may be more than a few spelling and technical mistakes in these entries; I have precious little time to type and find that the Japanese is slowly overwriting the English in my head anyway. Since I`ve got a lot to catch up on, I`ll just do this in installments. Good? Good! Yooosha! *Content edited for suitable viewing by adults, namely family!*
The flight over here was amazing. I lucked out on Jan 1st, when I had the pleasure of flying of Greenville-Spartanburg at 6 am; We flight-ees raced the sunrise all the way to Chicago, where we got to see the city lights right before the sun came up. Flying on my own wasn`t nearly as hair-raising as I expected it to be, in fact, an awesome group of German flight attendants quizzed me the entire way to Chicago as to my motives for flying across the planet by myself. I could hardly understand them, but they must have thought I was cute, or crazy, because they would pinch my cheeks all aunt-like and giggle. It made having to walk away from Blake and MU at the airport a bit more bearable, for a while anyway.
I was so tired by the time I arrived in Chicago, that I (in a stunningly simultaneous display of trust, exhaustion, and stupidity) curled up in a chair with my stuff next to me and fell asleep. Oops! But I woke up 3 hours later, and everything was still safe. Many JCMU students had already arrived by then--aka, Japan Center for Michigan University, both EXPO kids and regular students. We departed for Tokyo International Airport at 11 am.
This flight was a winner as well. One of the few other gaijin (FYI: a word you`ll hear me use very frequently, gaijin is short for gaikokujin, basically foreigner) on our exodus was seated next to me, a travelling theatre fellow who was so famous he oozed coolness from every pore. He was apparently a very successful opera musician, who had in his humble 40 something years travelled to every corner of the world (He had just finished up a 3 month tour in China.) He was wonderful company, and found it hilarious that I had no idea we`d be flying over Alaska to reach Japan and was thusly plastered against the window for a few hours watching the Alaskan expanse. Oh really, did you know either?! It was on this flight that I met the first of my G-unit partners in crime, and a few kindly Japanese folk who loved listening to me babble in Engrish.
Perhaps it should be said, since most of you reading this will likely be family who may be unfamilar with much of Japan, that for every Pokemon or Dragonball fad we have in America, there is ... Engrish. One of the greatest glories of Japan is its complete love/hate relationship with America. There is English here, overflowing with rabid support from the Japanese youth. (First sighting: a blue sweater that read "PALATABLE: TREATMENT MAY BE RECEIVED") They adore American music, pop idols, rap, words, clothes, our apparently overflowing supply of boobs and our public-speaking ability. While the older generation regards us as intrusive at best, young Japanese adore Americanism. It's adorable.
And so next full entry, which I promise will be less sober and more of the good down and dirty Japan you want to hear about, will be TOKYO...something something. Bwahaha. Beware my literary prowess. Love you all!
Eskimo-chan (thanks for the marshmellow, MU)
<9:30 pm> //EPISODE ONE: Tokyo, ikuze!
Woo hoo, I finally figured out how to get this LJ thing to work, so here it is, the first entry in my Nihon journal! Amaze your friends and family! Judo-chopping action! I`ve been here in Hikone, Japan for nearly one month now, so there`s lots to tell! There may be more than a few spelling and technical mistakes in these entries; I have precious little time to type and find that the Japanese is slowly overwriting the English in my head anyway. Since I`ve got a lot to catch up on, I`ll just do this in installments. Good? Good! Yooosha! *Content edited for suitable viewing by adults, namely family!*
The flight over here was amazing. I lucked out on Jan 1st, when I had the pleasure of flying of Greenville-Spartanburg at 6 am; We flight-ees raced the sunrise all the way to Chicago, where we got to see the city lights right before the sun came up. Flying on my own wasn`t nearly as hair-raising as I expected it to be, in fact, an awesome group of German flight attendants quizzed me the entire way to Chicago as to my motives for flying across the planet by myself. I could hardly understand them, but they must have thought I was cute, or crazy, because they would pinch my cheeks all aunt-like and giggle. It made having to walk away from Blake and MU at the airport a bit more bearable, for a while anyway.
I was so tired by the time I arrived in Chicago, that I (in a stunningly simultaneous display of trust, exhaustion, and stupidity) curled up in a chair with my stuff next to me and fell asleep. Oops! But I woke up 3 hours later, and everything was still safe. Many JCMU students had already arrived by then--aka, Japan Center for Michigan University, both EXPO kids and regular students. We departed for Tokyo International Airport at 11 am.
This flight was a winner as well. One of the few other gaijin (FYI: a word you`ll hear me use very frequently, gaijin is short for gaikokujin, basically foreigner) on our exodus was seated next to me, a travelling theatre fellow who was so famous he oozed coolness from every pore. He was apparently a very successful opera musician, who had in his humble 40 something years travelled to every corner of the world (He had just finished up a 3 month tour in China.) He was wonderful company, and found it hilarious that I had no idea we`d be flying over Alaska to reach Japan and was thusly plastered against the window for a few hours watching the Alaskan expanse. Oh really, did you know either?! It was on this flight that I met the first of my G-unit partners in crime, and a few kindly Japanese folk who loved listening to me babble in Engrish.
Perhaps it should be said, since most of you reading this will likely be family who may be unfamilar with much of Japan, that for every Pokemon or Dragonball fad we have in America, there is ... Engrish. One of the greatest glories of Japan is its complete love/hate relationship with America. There is English here, overflowing with rabid support from the Japanese youth. (First sighting: a blue sweater that read "PALATABLE: TREATMENT MAY BE RECEIVED") They adore American music, pop idols, rap, words, clothes, our apparently overflowing supply of boobs and our public-speaking ability. While the older generation regards us as intrusive at best, young Japanese adore Americanism. It's adorable.
And so next full entry, which I promise will be less sober and more of the good down and dirty Japan you want to hear about, will be TOKYO...something something. Bwahaha. Beware my literary prowess. Love you all!
Eskimo-chan (thanks for the marshmellow, MU)