My New Home In Detail

       Hey everyone! I am going to have this blog post start by detailing the dorm where I will live while I am here. This will include descriptions about Japanese living in general and hopefully a better understanding of Japanese culture for all of you. After that, I will tell you about my last two weeks and how classes are going. I will also include a personal story and I will tell you some of my personal observations of Japan and some differences that I have to deal with! 始めましょう！(Let's get started!)

       I live in a city called Matsudo, which is in a prefecture called Chiba. I live at a special dorm for international students, international businesspeople, and Japanese natives. It is called DK House.

       When you enter the dorm, you arrive in the げんかん (Genkan-entrance area). Every house and apartment in Japan has a Genkan where you have to take off your shoes. You NEVER wear shoes inside houses in Japan. You instead wear slippers indoors. In the dorm's genkan, each room has a cubby that is assigned them where you keep your shoes/slippers and switch them out when you leave and enter the building. 

Here are the cubbies

Here's my cubby with three pairs of my shoes

       When you enter the building and put on your slippers, you can head to the common area. There is a miniature ping pong table where people sometimes play. Then you head into the living room where there is a community TV and people hang out there. The kitchen and dining area is connected as well and that is where I usually hang out with all of my friends to eat and study and stuff. There is a huge community kitchen where we cook all of our meals and it is always crowded around dinner time. It is fun to go in and see all the different foods people are making because there are people from all around the world that live in the dorm. 

                                        

Ping Pong (I am undefeated)

Dining Area

Community Kitchen

A typical night at the DK House 

A Dorm party with authentic Japanese food! (And my friend Corey)

       On the first floor there is also a small gym area where they have one machine (that's broken) and a punching bag. There are some free weights but mostly all I can do there is push ups and curls. Luckily there is a gym at my college I can lift weights at. Next to the gym is the shower area that everyone in the building shares. There are like 14 showers, half for girls and half for guys. They are pretty nice showers and I have never not had hot water which is always good! Down the hall from that area is a multi-purpose room that we usually use for movie nights. I have a group of friends that watches a weekly TV show (Game of Thrones) in there every week. 

Gym

Multi-Purpose Room

Showers (Guys on the right, girls on left)

       There is an elevator to go up floors but I never use it because I live on the 2nd floor. Room 245! I already showed you my super small room but I will include a picture again. On each floor there is also a room full of sinks where people brush their teeth, etc. Each floor also has a bathroom. Japanese people do not wear their regular slippers in the bathroom, there are special "Toilet Slippers" to wear in the bathroom. Japanese toilets can be very different from other countries as well. Most places have toilets just like those in America, but not always. Some toilets are "Squat Toilets" where there is basically just a hole in the ground. Other times they have very high-tech toilets that are extremely sophisticated. The toilet seats are heated for starters. They also have a bunch of buttons that do different things. Some buttons cause the toilet to make noise so other people will not hear the sounds you make in the bathroom. Other buttons start a bidet that can be adjusted for pressure. A bidet is a thing that shoots water to clean people after they go number 2 in a bathroom. There are separate bidet buttons for guys and girls as well. Toilet paper is also available. 

My room

Room 245, home of the best looking guy in the DK House

Bathrooms

Sink Room

High Tech Japanese toilet

Toilet Slippers (And my regular slipper on the bottom of pic)

       Up on the fifth floor, there is the laundry room. There are a bunch of coin-operated washers and dryers for use by the residents. There is also a roof area where we often hang out. To go out on the roof, you have to change slippers again though. You can also hang clothes out on the roof instead of using a dryer. 

DK Laundry Room

Roof entrance with roof slippers

View of Matsudo from the DK Roof at night

     Now I will give you a brief update on my last two weeks in Japan! I started classes at Sophia University. I have four 1.5 hour classes on Monday and Thursday, but only one 1.5 hour class on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. My classes are not too hard except for Japanese. I have a quiz or test every day in Japanese and usually have to study an hour or two each night. I have made a bunch of new friends in my classes as well! I joined a club called SISEC which is a club for international students and Japanese students to hang out and meet. I am still a part of the basketball team called APES but I couldn't go to the last meeting because of class and the one after got cancelled. There is another practice in a couple days though and I am very excited. Most days I hang out at the dorm and do homework and chill with friends. There is a cool place to run near my dorm next to a river where I run a few times a week. On weekends I go out on the town usually. We went to an art festival and a club in a city called Roppongi. It is supposed to be sort of a dangerous town but we did not run into any trouble. When we went to Roppongi, we missed the last train back to Matsudo at midnight so we had to stay out all night and catch the train at 6:00 am. This weekend, I went to a SISEC welcome party where I met a bunch of people and got to know the people in the club. The next day I was invited to a "bubble party" by a friend I made in one of my classes. The party was at a night club in a city called Omotesando. Basically a cannon would shoot foam out on to everyone in the club periodically throughout the night. It was a blast and I got to practice my Japanese and meet some cool people. 

   So I guess my "honeymoon period" in Japan is over. I still love it here but I recognize now that certain things annoy me. The first is that there are never any trash cans around. They are not common at all around the city and so I end up holding my trash all the time looking for a trash can. Another thing that annoys me is that there are so many things I am unable to read. I go to restaurants all the time where I don't know half of what I am ordering. I cannot read a lot of signs and I sometimes just have to guess what I'm supposed to do in certain situations. It can be pretty frustrating. Luckily, there is English everywhere in Japan which surprised me. The thing that annoys me the most about Japan is the trains. To get anywhere, you have to take trains. To get to school each day I take a train for an hour total and I have to switch trains three times on the route. Not only is it long and tedious, but the trains get unbelievable crowded. Sometimes I cannot even look at my phone because I am unable to move my arms at all. It gets extremely hot with all these people stuffed in together and it is difficult to have a long commute where you don't end up sweating. Other than these things though, I have very little problem living and getting around here. There are challenges, but I am having a seriously amazing time! 

       I am going to finish up this post with a brief personal story about my good luck charm in Japan. 

       Many years ago, I went on a boat trip with my Grandfather to an island near Charleston, South Carolina. We got to the island and then walked a few miles to get to a beach where the current of the ocean causes shark teeth to wash up on shore. We spent the whole day looking for shark teeth together and we found around 60. It was one of the best days of my life for sure. My Grandaddy found the biggest one of the day from a prehistoric shark called a Megalodon that lived like 30 million years ago. Megalodons got to be up to 60 feet long so the tooth is pretty big. Anyways, years go by and my Grandaddy kept all of the teeth at his house and we would look at them every once in a while to remember the fun day we had. Before I came to Japan, I got to see my Grandparents one last time. My Grandaddy told me he had a gift for me to take with me overseas.

He gave me the big Megalodon tooth we found that day for me to use as a good luck charm while I am here in Japan. So now I usually have it with me to remind me of all my loved ones back in the states and to bring me good fortune! Just thought I would share that with you guys because I am missing everyone back home!

  

Hope you all enjoyed the post! I will post again soon! Until then, facebook message me or email me at ajohn2414@yahoo.com if you want to catch up! 

Sayoonara for now!

-A.J. 

Honeymoon Period

     Hey everyone! It's been two weeks since my last post because I've been so busy! I have a lot to catch you up on so let's just jump right in shall we?

     The day after my last post we had orientation at campus and then headed to a Life Safety Learning Center in Ikebukuro, Japan. As a group we took classes on dealing with earthquakes and fires in Japan. I led a team in one demonstration where I led a group through a fake burning building. Our time was the fastest and we were the only group that had zero casualties so that's always good news. We learned how to dial the police and fire departments on phones which is a different number than the U.S. and we learned how to operate fire extinguishers. The center also showed us the devastating effects of the last big Japanese earthquake and tsunami. It was crazy all of the damage we saw on video footage and it definitely made us all aware of the potential dangers of being in Japan. We all left the center feeling pretty scared about impending earthquakes but we rallied to get a group together to explore the surrounding area and check out some nightlife and eat at a restaurant.

     The next day, we had some more orientation (which was getting reeeeeaallly old) and got our School IDs and discussed the rules of the campus and stuff. It was pretty straightforward and boring but the information was definitely necessary. Everyone went home immediately and started studying because the Japanese Placement Test was the next day. The test determines what Japanese class you will take at Sophia University. After a night of brushing up on Japanese grammar and Kanji (the picture characters that mean words in Japanese), I felt mildly confident going into the exam. All the dorm kids went to the test together and we all left feeling pretty miserable. The test was seriously the hardest test I'd ever taken. It is designed to start easy and then get progressively more difficult and you just do as much as you can. I did well in the grammar and essay sections, but the kanji section was downright impossible. Even the near-native speakers couldn't get much farther than the "beginner" section. The test was really hard and we all felt mad about it, but we immediately had to go to a welcome party for international students.

     The party was extremely crowded and had a bunch of international students and Japanese students. Some of the faculty and clubs were there to tell us about Sophia and we met a bunch of people and chatted. A lot of us were pretty burned out by the test so we cut out early and headed to an Irish Pub down the street of the school. We mostly hung out there that night to kind of let off some steam from the test.

     The following day we had another orientation on campus and then I got a group of friends together to go do Ohanami (お花見). Ohanami is where people in Japan go out to parks and other places and look at the Sakura blooming and eat and drink and sometimes sing. It's a national celebration in Japan when the Sakura bloom for two weeks a year and this is how people celebrate. We went to a park that was having a special festival to look at the flowers and walk around. Here are some of the best pictures of Sakura from that park:

At the festival, we walked around and sampled some of the local cuisine! I had some Takoyaki, which is fried balls of octopus and dough:

I also ate some grilled corn on a stick: (The guy who made it was just casually smoking the whole time)

 For the final course, I ate a grilled fish on a stick! You have to eat the bones, tail, and even the head!

     After the Ohanami, we checked out some of the nightlife around our dorm city Matsudo-shi.

     The next day after another orientation on campus, we went to another park for more Ohanami because you can never see too many flowers am I right? We tried to rent some boats to row on this river while we viewed the flowers but the line was way too long so we headed to a regular park. After the park closed, we decided to explore Shinjuku which is supposed to be a very cool place for nightlife. We barhopped to a few different places during happy hour and then we ended up at a Japanese pizza restaurant for food and drinks. The pizzas were really different so we shared a bunch of different types. There was a classic one with pepperoni, bacon, peppers, and onions that was really good. Another type had ham and eggs on it. One of them had seaweed and fish on it also. The best one was actually a pizza with gorgonzola and maple syrup! I know it sounds really weird, but it tasted amazing! After dinner we headed deeper into the city to check out a few more bars. We talked with some local Japanese people at the bars and everyone was extremely friendly. The drinking age in Japan is 20, so a lot of the people around were about our age. 

     The next day a group of my friends decided to do a little exploring around our city of Matsudo. We walked around for a few hours and learned the specs of our new home. We somehow ended up at a random Japanese university that was really beautiful and we just kind of enjoyed the nature that day. My personal highlight was meeting a super cute Japanese puppy:

    The next day was Sunday and we all decided to kind of relax because we had been so busy. We got some friends together and watched a movie and I made a trip to the grocery store. The grocery store is a very interesting experience because it is so different. First of all, I didn't recognize 75% of the stuff in the store! I also couldn't read many of the words describing what the foods were. I kept it pretty easy and bought some chicken, eggs, soy sauce, rice, bananas, wasabi peas, and soda. AKA: the essentials. That night I went out for a sweet curry dinner with one of my best buds from USC who's also here with me, Corey. We got Tonkatsu Curry Rice, which is deep fried pork cutlets mixed with rice and curry and some other meat that I didn't know! It was とても美味しかったよ！(Very Delicious)

       On Monday, I had to go register with the city of Matsudo so I wouldn't get deported! You have two weeks after you enter the country to go register and our time was running out. Registration was a pain but afterwards I got a nice Japanese ID Card that says I'm legally allowed to be here which is cool. 

At this point, I was feeling pretty sick. I was coughing and had some serious congestion. I guess I caught a bad cold. I decided to spend most of my Monday resting and sleeping and I took a trip to a Japanese medicine store called a Kusuriya. I had to ask for help in Japanese and was able to explain my symptoms and get the proper medicine. That night I watched the latest episode of Game of Thrones with a few friends and crashed early. 

     Tuesday was a really fun day. We started with another round of orientation of course. Orientation got fairly useless after the first few days but it's mandatory so you have to go. Most of the days we play games that are metaphors for dealing with problems abroad but it's all pretty annoying and obvious. The leaders of the program are great though so I don't complain (out loud). I think that day we played a card game where everyone got different rules which caused conflict. This was to demonstrate that you may meet people with different cultural expectations and rules than you are familiar with. A valuable lesson I'm sure, but two hours of card games got pretty monotonous. After we were allowed to leave, I went to an aquarium with a few friends. That was so much fun! We had to decipher a lot of Japanese to know what we were looking at, but we saw some really cool aquatic life which is always a good time. 

Some neon Jellyfish

You've heard of Grumpy Cat? How about Grumpy Fish?

My new best Penguin bud and me! I named him Mr. Tuxedo

The next day was a surprise trip. Our program told us to meet at Kamakura at 10:30 am for a surprise. The train ride took about two hours but we were not disappointed when we got there. We got into groups and headed to the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shinto Shrine. It also includes a Buddhist temple! To enter, you have to walk through a famous gateway called a Tori. Then you must purify yourself with a special cleaning ritual of washing hands and face. We walked around the shrine and temple and learned about its rich history. Here are some pictures: 

Tori Gates with accompanying guard statue

Nice view on the grounds of the Shrine

Our awesome tour guide!

Purifying Process

Large barrels of Sake (Japanese Rice Wine)

The main part of the Shrine

Shrine 

View of Kamakura from the top of the Shrine

I paid to get my fortune!

I had to shake a box for the fortune to come out

Here's my fortune! Of course it's a good one! 

When we left that Shrine, we got lunch at a great restaurant in Kamakura before heading to see a world-famous Buddhist Statue! It's called the Kamakura Daibutsu and it is one of a few large Buddha statues around Japan. It was made in the year 1252 and it is about 44 feet tall. We also got to check out the inside of it! 

View from the inside

My group for lots of activities and some of my best friends here!

From the left: Sharon, Chen, Izzy, Jon, Me, and Zach

(That big guy in the back is totally photo-bombing our picture)

       We left the Daibutsu and headed to another Buddhist temple called the Hasedera. It was beautiful and was a great way to finish up our day of culture! Here are pictures of that as well: 

Twins?

      We finished everything around midday so we decided to get a group of friends and check out more of the nightlife in Shinjuku. We ended up going to a bunch of different places but the coolest one was called a Nomihodai. It's a favorite nightlife activity for many Japanese people. You pay a flat rate and hang out in one place for two hours and you can drink as much as you want of anything. It was a lot of fun and we made some new Japanese friends there! 

     The next day I put my class schedule together. I got placed in to Japanese M2 which is about where I should be I think. That corresponds with where I was studying at USC. I am also taking: Management in Japan, Controversies in Globalization, and Advertising. Should be a fun semester of classes! 

    Friday was our last day of orientation (Thank Goodness!) and after we checked out a club fair on campus. I was most interested in a basketball club that looked really fun that I had learned about a few days before. They were having a practice/tryout in the afternoon so I went to it with a couple friends. It was a lot of fun but pretty confusing. All of the directions were in Japanese so it was difficult to follow for sure! Luckily basketball is the same in any language and I'm not too bad at speaking that particular language. There were about 40 guys and 20 girls but they said that usually it thins out to about half that by next week. We ran a bunch of drills and then separated in to teams to play a couple of games that lasted about 8 minutes each. I played for about 12 minutes total and scored 9 points with a few lay ups and a three pointer in the corner that got a nice roar from the crowd. I had a lot of fun and made a few Japanese friends and I think I will definitely keep going to that club over this semester! I am also looking at a billiards club right now and will let you know how that goes! 

     The weekend was a lot of fun! I hung out with a lot of my friends in the dorm and we got some hot sake to try for the first time which was a cool experience. One night, a few friends and I went to a dance club/bar type place and it was crazy. We were treated like celebrities because we were foreigners! It was really funny and quite an experience! People were all trying to talk to us and give us drinks and stuff but we declined because they were strangers. We had a really fun time and led the singing of all of the American songs. 

    I am so far loving Japan and all it has to offer! I am told often that studying abroad has a honeymoon period followed by a period of some frustrations and annoyances but I haven't hit that yet. Other than having some trouble ordering food at restaurants, I am having little trouble living in Tokyo, Japan. Hopefully the honeymoon period lasts awhile but who knows?! I start classes tomorrow which will likely add some stress to life but I am excited to start back anyways. I will post again soon detailing my dorm and basic Japanese home life! I will also keep you guys up to date with what I'm up to and how clubs and classes are going! I miss you all and I am glad we can stay in touch with today's technology!

Sayoonara for now! 

-A.J.