They're Dancing Choreographed Steps to Techno Christmas Carols Behind Me

Japan takes instant food to the next level. 

So today I got this really strong craving for, of all things, fried chicken. This was problematic for two reasons; a) not having any around and b) I've been pescatarian for over two years now and therefor would not eat it anyways. 

Thinking that perhaps I was merely hungry and craving salt, I took a brief trip to the student store, where I found this:

Seems normal enough, doesn't it? Clams in miso soup, can't go wrong with that.

Since this seemed likely to contain both protein and a significant amount of salt (cheap miso is nothing if not salty) I purchased it and carried it back to my table. But then I opened it and, well, it's just one of the oddest prepackaged meals I've ever laid eyes on.

That would be a small packet of miso paste, nothing too odd... And a vacuum-packed, precisely separated set of the tiniest clams I've ever seen. And that's it. I purchased a cardboard cup with a packet of miso and some vacuum packed tiny clams. 

The instructions firmly forbade the use of a microwave, so I got some hot water from the cafeteria and made myself some soup. It was actually fairly good, for what it was. Salty enough to appease my strange cravings, at least, and clammy enough to evoke the memory of better quality seafood without being too overpowering.

Anyways, back to packing and laundry- only 3 days left here! Soon I'll be in Tokyo, trying to remember how to dance.

Snow is the Prettiest Thing

So Akita gets snow.

Lots of snow.

Do understand, I am from Seattle. Schools shut down at an inch or so. Buses stop running at any hint of ice. We sold all our snow plows years ago because they weren't seeing enough use. I have never lived in this much snow in my life.

Really, it's just so damned pretty.

And its not even that we got one big snowfall or something. No, it started up a couple days ago snowing every night, and then yesterday it snowed a bit during the day, and today it was a constant gentle shower of white fluffy prettiness. Every time I look outside the trees are a little whiter, the windows on the cars a little foggier, and each time I walk out of my room the snow reaches new heights on my mercifully waterproofed boots. 

The trees around campus are gorgeous.

When I finished class today (Criminal Justice through Film and Literature, which is great by the way) I walked back towards the main building and saw some friends outside building a snow fort. So I did the obvious thing and threw all my stuff in the lounge, borrowed some gloves and ran outside to join them. The snow right now is perfect for packing, it makes the best snow balls I've ever seen and was excellent for constructing forts out of. There were already several kamakuras scattered about, in fact, from previous students' forays into transient architecture. We cannibalized a snowman made several days ago by some other friends for parts, jumping on it and breaking it down to use as blocks in our walls. 

A kamakura. (They're made by piling a bunch of snow and then hollowing the inside out, for those who may have been curious).

The snowman we cannibalized and its proud creators. Note that it is quite a bit taller than all of them. It was huge. From reports, the head was attached via the combined efforts of the 3 tallest people in this photograph lifting it as high as they could. Decapitating it was as easy as climbing up the body and kicking it off (I got the honors).

Unrelated, but I find it kind of fascinating the somber solidarity winter brings about in clothing styles. There are people from five different countries in this photo and they are still largely monochromatic in their coat choices. All except Hannes, who apparently has decided that winter is his bitch and he will wear whatever he damn well pleases. Which actually knowing his character does not surprise me in the least.

Fun things I realized today: My hair, at its present length, is just thick enough to keep out snow. My head was not remotely moist after an hour or so of fort building, despite the plastered wet hair of most of my compatriots.

Interestingly, I've been told it has not snowed at all in Tokyo and will likely remain that way through Christmas. Evidently I'm far enough North to be getting special weather conditions. Hurrah for Akita, I suppose. At least I'm leaving before it reaches my knees. 

What is a Convenience Store, Really

What do you expect to find when you walk into a convenience store?

In America I knew I would always see food (the assortment ranging from candy to soda to the occasional bag of mixed nuts, and maybe some milk if you were lucky), magazines from sporty to sexy, cigarettes, alcohol, maybe some amount of toiletries.

In Japan I've come to expect mostly the same, although I know I will be devastated when I return to not have easy access to such common foodstuffs here as onigiri and melon bread. But for the most part a convenience store is a convenience store, and there is not usually any great variations from the norm.

The exception to this seems to be the convenience store next to my school, run by an elderly couple and open from 7am to 7pm every day of the week. It's actually a pretty nice little shop, though it's not name brand and therefor lacking in some of the usual amenities. It makes up for it with the local products it regularly carries, such as bags of apples from Yuwa, a neighboring prefecture, sold at the ridiculously low price of 7 for $2.00. Additionally, every weekend there is a sort of mini-farmers market in the empty room next door. 'Farmer's Market' here refers to one little old lady selling lots of vegetables the selection of which varies week to week. It tends to have a pretty great stock, but yesterday in particular it had something special.

And by 'something special', I mean it had fresh, living crabs caught from the local river that morning, selling for $1.50 each.

Paula came and knocked on my door at 11:00 to tell me that there were living crabs for sale at Bonafi's and did I want to have a crab dinner with her tonight.

Of course we bought 10.

Paula, modeling our purchased crab bag with the appropriate severity.

Additionally, me with our bouquet of leeks. Also, my hair is long enough to kind of sort of put up now!

While we planned our attack we kept the crabs in what we had on hand- a large pot, a plastic strainer, and a note tied to the top. Clearly the most sophisticated technology available.

Pictured: Technology

A close up of the note I wrote to keep people from disturbing our crabs. In typical AIU fashion, it featured both English and Japanese, and an illustration as well for good measure.

After a bit of research into proper crab-preparation we started planning a meal, and before we knew it we'd made not only crabs but spaghetti with homemade white sauce and fried leeks, a broccoli-like vegetable with a soy sauce-based garnish, avocado, and a bit of apple each for dessert. Ryuusei, the third of our party, was very shocked upon learning that a fair amount of Americans do not eat the "kani miso" (the stewed guts of the crab) and actually throw it out. It's considered a bit of a delicacy here and is often the main reason the crabs are purchased. You can even buy it in jars. It's often served on rice.

The feast.

After we'd finished eating we brought the leftovers out to the lounge to be devoured by the colony that has developed there; the group of (mostly exchange) students who sit in a certain corner of the room by the vending machines. It's grown to be quite the living area- Simon regularly buys small bouquets of flowers for the table, Paula brought down a tea set, and I contributed tea and cookies. As I said, the colonization is fairly complete. Anyhow, the leftovers were happily devoured, and so our day of crab ended- happily, and with more food consumed in one setting than I have experienced in quite awhile.

Bonus: I was the Mad Hatter for Halloween, for those of you who do not have the books of face.

Paula was the March Hare, and when we found Alina dressed as Alice we had to take a picture. The mad tea party, together again!

On Illness

As some of you (not that many of you) already know, I've been fairly sick as of late. It started about 5 days ago, when I noticed that my throat was a little sore. This followed directly after I'd had a bit of a screaming match with a tree (it's been a hard week, don't worry, the tree's fine) so I didn't think much of it, figuring my vocal chords were probably just a tad worn out. It persisted though, and I began noticing that I had less and less energy to do even the most mundane tasks. Suffice to say, I did not go to all my classes last week.

On day three of this I realized I might not have just a simple cold, so I went and talked to the nurse. Her English is decent but not overly technical, and while she didn't tell me what I had she very effectively communicated that yes, what I had was bad and no, she could not help me. She gave me vague directions to a doctor who theoretically spoke English (more on that later) and told me to go there tomorrow as it was already closed for the day.

Paula happened to drop by later and upon looking at my throat informed me that I most definitely had (have) strep, and that I should really, really go get some antibiotics for that.

The next day, after a thrilling morning of waking up at 3:00 am from throat pain, I headed off to the mall. From here I was helped by another exchange student, a man I know vaguely but am not overly friendly with, who had time and decided that helping the sick girl find the doctor's office was a decent way to waste it. His name is Stuart, and he's the only student from Scotland at AIU. We walked around for a little while somewhat aimlessly, eventually asking at a convenience store for directions. They drew me a very imprecise map that mostly just served to confuse things further, but eventually we found the place and he went on his way.

Inside the doctor's they had me fill out a form that was entirely in Japanese, which was an adventure to say the least. The woman also asked me to pee in a cup, which was definitely something I wanted to clarify to make sure I'd translated correctly. Unfortunately there were integral words in this inquiry that I definitely didn't know, and I somewhat helplessly resorted to hand gestures. This was not a proud time for me or the nurse.

After an hour in the waiting room (there was only one doctor and Japanese clinics often run on a first come/first serve basis) I was called into an office occupied, as far as I could tell, by one doctor and two nurses. The doctor didn't precisely speak English so much as he knew sporadic vocabulary in the language, so we communicated in a kind of broken mish-mash that probably resembled a pidgin language more than anything else. He also said "ano," which is the Japanese equivilent to "um," about ever 2-3 words no matter what language he was trying to speak, which was not very beneficial to effective communication. He asked me a couple of questions and then took my pulse, which for some reason required a nurse nearby. Her primary purpose seemed to be to keep me from running away while he put a stethoscope to every available inch of my chest and back. It was an odd experience.

I was let go just a couple minutes after my entrance to the office with instructions to head to the pharmacy next door. Apparently I have one of the most clear-cut and visible cases of strep ever, and anyone who's looked down my throat has been pretty much instantly sure of what it was. The man at the pharmacy initially gave me nine different medications- nine! But I talked him down to just the antibiotic. The rest were mainly for generic things, symptoms I wasn't experiencing, and, for a couple of them, illnesses I didn't have. He sent me back to the hospital when I'd bought my pills to get a $0.60 refund for not getting the other eight. Apparently Japan charges not just for medicine, but for medicine referrals too. That said, I paid less than $25 for both the appointment and the medicine combined, so I really can't complain too much. I guess that insurance card they forced us all to get was worth it.

Today I have spent the largest portion of my time sleeping, with occasional breaks for meals and pill administration. I've been eating yogurt with everything because it doesn't hurt. This is probably the most yogurt I've eaten in years.

Other than sleeping and eating, I've made significant headway into my book (if anyone wants a mildly trippy, highly metaphor-driven, sometimes disturbing and always confusing new book to read, I highly recommend Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami) and talked to Paula for an hour or so after dinner. She's dropped by for a little while each day during my self-imposed hermitude, for which I am eternally grateful. I do not like to go without human contact for a whole day, it makes me a little crazy. Her willingness to come over and spend time with the sick person is something I will always appreciate.

In conclusion: being sick sucks, Japanese doctors are weird, yogurt and antibiotics are good, and friends are the best things to have.

That One Day We Tried to Go Swimming

Last weekend, we went to the beach. By "we" I mean a somewhat arbitrary group of people assembled primarily through luck and happenstance, and lacking the initial leader of the expedition.

This group, in fact, minus our friend Nayu who left early.

Once we got to the beach area, there was the usual stripping of clothing and shuffling of extra swimwear to the people who'd forgotten to bring their own, and then we all went into the water. After around 20 minutes or so of normal, we're-in-shallow-water-with-friends-type activities, we spied a couple of men on jet skis a little ways out. While we watched, they seemed to notice us as well, and came over. Neither of them spoke any English whatsoever, but we managed to make out that they were offering to let us go for a ride (it helped that we had Kouta with us, and he actually, you know, speaks Japanese). Of course we said yes, and so for the next several hours we all took turns riding, driving, and being towed behind (on a large yellow inflatable raft) the jet skis. 

An activity interrupted only by a completely necessary sword fight with conveniently-sized driftwood.

After the first round of crazy jet ski adventures, we all stood around with the jet ski guys and their families (they were having a bit of a BBQ) and talked for awhile. Then, out of seemingly nowhere, the two initial riders decided that they wanted to have one more go, and let three of us tag along. This happened to be Paula, Kouta, and I, although after an initial couple of minutes Kouta fell off and swam back to shore. Seeing this, I transferred from the jet ski Paula and I were on to the newly un-passengered one, and then the fun began. Our two drivers, you see, decided that the best way to let their mildly terrified passengers experience the thrills of jet skiing was to have a sort of "who can do the craziest stunts without capsizing" competition. There was a point in time where they seemed on a fairly steady track to creating a miniature whirlpool between the two of them, as they were both driving in the same circle with a considerable amount of speed. Later on I was treated to the full extent of a jet ski's power and speed, as my driver pressed down fully on the gas and took off into the ocean. It was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I don't think I've felt that much uncontaminated happiness in a long, long time. 

Paula and I with one of the drivers, Kohei.

A rather useless picture of us playing what appeared to be the Japanese jet ski version of chicken. We were far enough out that there were no clear pictures taken of us while we were riding.

We did have to leave eventually, and so we went back to Akita city for dinner. We ended up getting Okonomiyaki, make-it-yourself style, which was as delicious as it always is. The self-cooking did cause the meal to last a little longer than it otherwise would have, but it was a generally good time for all. Crepes were acquired at a stand near the station for dessert, and then we started our journey homewards. 

All in all, I'd say it was a successful day out at the beach.

Cataloging

New Friend Rundown (AKA: That day when I facebook stalked all my friends to find decent representative pictures of them that possibly had me in them as well in an attempt to slightly assuage my guilt at using them).

Paula: I believe the first time we met was on a bus back from the mall, and we got along well enough, but the next day we started talking and realized just how well we work together. Even later we realized we're in the same Japanese class, and so our friendmance began (it's like a romance, except we don't kiss. Except we did kiss that one night at the bar, so really I'm not sure what to call it). We keep accidentally keeping each other up until ungodly hours of the morning simply because neither of us wants to leave the conversation.

Paula and my friend from last semester, Kouta. Also Peter in the background praising something, and presumably someone else behind him. Oh, and me looking slightly more boyish than usual, possibly due to Martin's shirt.

Also, this happens to us ALL THE TIME. Its amusing.

Martin: My extremely liberal, woman's studies friend who hails from Ireland. Really nice guy, and has been letting me teach him acroyoga so that I don't get out of practice. He's also on rugby with me (by the way I joined rugby) and in my sociolinguistics class, so I end up seeing him a fair amount. 

Decent face shots are hard to come by, so instead here's one of us fencing with sticks on the beach in swimsuits. 

Sam: My dance partner. They know Ballroom (and all that that encompasses), West Coast Swing, some Tango, and are currently learning Break Dancing. Our dances are mainly Waltzes, Swings, or some odd sort of fusion-esque combinations reminiscent of Sunday nights at Om in Seattle. They are a very strong lead, and if I ever get confident enough to switch, I believe also a fairly accomplished follow. So far we've agreed to meet on Fridays for an uninterrupted hour or so of dancing, although we tend to run into each other throughout the week and will occasionally do a waltz or two for fun.

Bad, blurry dance picture, but fairly representative of a typical evening in Komachi Lobby.

Hannes: From the same university as my other German friend from last semester, oddly enough. He has a really great tree tattoo on his bicep which never fails to remind me of the one I want to get when I get back. We mainly see each other at parties and the (basically) campus bar, although we do have a class together every Tuesday and Thursday. He led me and our friend Helen on a hike through the woods/swampy area place the second week he was here. And this last weekend he just up and left to take himself on a camping trip into the surrounding hills. Because really, why not?

A picture Helen took from that hike. It has been pointed out to me that the branches behind my head look rather like horns. I am in full support of this idea.

Simon: An extraordinarily cynical and sarcastic British man. Our primary forms of interaction oscillate wildly between flirting and insulting everything the other holds dear. We never really plan to hang out but he tends to be in the general vicinity enough that we've built up a fairly strong friendship on mutual sarcasm and insincerity. He's pretty fun to have around.

  

Edit: A picture was taken! Simon is the one giving me a massage. No idea whose butt that is on the right though.

And that essentially concludes the new friend round up, for the moment. Of course, there are others, and some returning players from last semester that I didn't feel like introducing again, but these are the main people I hang out with. Other names I should mention: Ryoko (the girl who's papers I usually edit), Ryusei (a friend from last semester and also Hannes's roommate), Kouta (who is by anyone's definition certifiably crazy, but a lot of fun to be around) and Hiro (who continues to be a pretty solid friend).

I will doubtlessly meet/become closer to more people throughout the course of the Semester, but for now, I will end this, and get back to letter writing. I have a LOT of letters to write...

Cheers!

Grapefruit Theft Makes Tasty Snacks

Okay, first, a note: I have been silent for far too long, and I do apologize. Time got a bit away from me after I came back from my vacation, and between new classes and new people and somewhat successful attempts at staying in touch with the old ones, I've had far less time than I'd grown accustomed to for my own writings. I promise I'll try to make space more often now on for such communications, it's making me feel a tad twitchy as well.

Anyways, onto the blog.

As some of you may know, I had my version of a summer vacation here during the month of August. To celebrate this, I, along with two friends, went traveling. Specifically we visited Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo.

The street we stayed on in Kyoto. It was pretty damn gorgeous.

Because the other two were chronically late risers and could not be convinced to do otherwise, I took to getting up around 7 or 8 and taking myself out for breakfast. Generally I would simply pick a direction and walk, as cafes are plentiful enough in Japan that this was a viable option for food-findage. 

This particular place served "Bread with Chocolate," which, when delivered, turned out to be two slices of toast, a saucer full of Hershey's chocolate sauce and a miniature spoon. It was fantastic.

We did manage to do some sight-seeing things as well, once Chase and Cami woke up. In Kyoto we went to some pretty brilliant shrines, got lost a bunch, walked far longer than any of us would have liked in the sun, and bought ridiculously expensive fans. You know. Touristy things. 

Shrine gates for daaaaaayyyys. But really there were hundreds of them all the way up the mountain. I was impressed.

Chase graciously modeling my new fan for me. It has bamboo on the front.

And speaking of bamboo, I found a rather large growth of it, so of course I had to hug it.

Also, Cami stole a grapefruit from a shrine, in an area that was off limits to the public (to be fair, we didn't realize that going in). We all felt slightly bad about that, but we ate it anyways. It tasted like adventure.

Then, after a 9 hour overnight bus ride, we finally got to Tokyo. We hostel jumped a lot there, but despite sleeping in 4 separate places during the duration of our stay, we still managed to be in the general neighborhood of Asakusa. This suited me fine, because shortly after arriving at our first lodgings I accidentally befriended the grumpy, 50 year old owner of an English bookshop down the street. I noticed that he had a bag of tin whistles behind the counter and asked to play one, and he was apparently so startled by me, a random 20 year old American girl, being able to play Irish folk songs that it shocked him into friendship. We ended up talking until 5am that night, with occasional breaks for tin whistle or hand drum lessons. This bookshop happened to have a bar in it as well, and I ended up spending quite a few nights drinking with him and the only other regular. 

Said other regular had me over several times for lunch, and made some pretty fantastic salads and fish dishes. He also automatically made me tea whenever I visited, which was somewhat wonderful.

In Tokyo I discovered the benefits of traveling alone. As I was spending so many of my nights at the bookshop, I didn't see Cami or Chase as much, but I got to meet some pretty interesting people, make new friends, and hear of stories and adventures that I otherwise never would have been privy to. I really enjoyed it; waking up early for coffee breakfast with a book or some letter paper, going out for lunch with random people from my hostel, and then ending each night at the bookshop, drinking and talking and having fun. I think I'd do well traveling alone, although not for too long. I do start to miss steady companionship after awhile. 

A fairly good representative picture Chase took of me on the night my friend Bartosz, along with seemingly half the school, got on a bus to the airport and never came back. This was my "WHY IS EVERYONE LEAVING???" face. 

So. That was my vacation. Apologies again for the long wait, I've gotten several emails and messages in the last couple of weeks asking me what the heck I've been up to. I'll write up something on my classes soon, as well as general new-people cataloging (actually, do any of you want to hear about that? Are people observations of interest to you, o viewers of my blog?). Until then, as my new Irish friends keep saying, cheers!