Day 47--Visit!

ALEX IS HERE ALEX IS HERE!!

This is so special. We haven't seen each other for a year and a half and now we get to meet up in Japan! :) That's something that no other of my home friends can say.

In the morning I walked to the bus station to pick him up and I worried that I wouldn't find him or his bus would be late or something but everything was okay! He was super surprised at my curly hair. -__-;; Don't worry, I am too. We dropped off his stuff at the apartment and then went to see the city.

The heat melted us the whole day. After 20 minutes of walking my face and hairline dripped with sweat and despite my sunblock usage, my neck, chest, arms and legs all turned pink from the sun. -___- And I'm not even one of those people who burn easily. What the hey man. BUT I AM SO HAPPY FOR THE CLOUDLESS SKIES AND THE CLEAR BEAUTIFUL WEATHER PLEASE PRAISE THE WEATHER GODS FOR BLESSING US WITH THIS WONDERFUL AMAAAAAZING WEATHER WHEN ALEX IS HERE!

Our itinerary:

Suwajinja-->Tateyama Park-->Doubutsu Hiroba (small zoo)-->Nagasaki Cultural Center-->7-11 to get drinks(I got the BEST-TASTING-EVER milk tea, omg)-->Dejima Wharf-->Seaside Park-->Glover Garden-->Dejima Island-->Hamanomachi-->Ringer Hut for dinner-->Meganebashi-->home. That's a lot to see in 7 hours! But we did it!

We chilled at home for a little bit and then went out to the convenience store to get food for dinner. Alex bought a bottle of wine (yay!) so we sat on the terrace with a glass of wine and talked for a long time. Then we went inside and watched a movie called Paternal Instinct about a gay couple who conceive a biological child through a surrogate mother. It was wonderful and heart-warming and I loved it.

I love this time. It's so nice to have someone else here. Someone who I can really talk to. Someone from my other world. Visiting is so fun. :)

The only downside of today is how much money I spent. In a world where I normally spend less than Y2000 a week, I spent over Y1800 just today. Y147 bottle of milk tea, Y300 admission to Glover Garden, Y100 soft cream ice cream, Y320 Fried rice at Ringer Hut, and Y658 shampoo and conditioner that I had to get because my travel bottles already ran out. But I reminded myself that if I had taken a weekend trip this weekend, I would have spent more than that anyway just on transportation. So this is like my weekend trip...except I get to stay at home and splurge a little on food instead. :)

And to any haters who hate on my spending habits, I really appreciate that I'm doing it because it lowers my standards and thus makes "normal" things a very special treat for me. Because I don't eat out often or buy beverages (because water is free,) when I DO splurge on them, it feels AMAZING. It was such a crazy treat to have that milk tea today. SO GOOD. And the ice cream! Amazing! :)

Days 45 & 46

In the beginning I would get upset because I "wasted" a weekend not traveling. Now I'm glad I'm not stuffing my schedule, because that means I get to save my money for my trip to Kansai & Tokyo next week :) I'm so excited!! It's already only a week away! :O
My train travel and lodging will be free thanks to my 2-week rail pass from Guy and the kindness of friends, so my only expenses (hopefully!) will be food and non-train travel (subway, bus, etc.) BUT eating out here is supremely expensive compared to not eating out

Just to compare for you: Each week I go to the grocery store and spend around $15-20 on groceries for the week. That is all the food money I spend that week. In contrast, if I eat out, I could easily spend $15 on a single meal. (Not fast food, but a regular restaurant.) ONE WEEK'S worth of food for ONE MEAL? You can see why the only place I ever "eat out" here is my church's Y150 udon lunch. A place to socialize and talk in Japanese with friends. :) And yet this weekend when Alex comes I'll be eating out probably at least 3 times! Aah, the money! But I want to give him the full experience and have him taste the Nagasaki specialties (which I haven't even tried yet) champon noodles, sara udon noodles, and castella cake.

Speaking of that, Alex is coming this tomorrow!! Yay!! I was trying to think about the last time I saw him, and I think it was Winter 2009, freaking a year and a half ago! Sheeesh. So excited to show him my city :)

Day 44--Never have I ever...

Some things I did today:

-Got on the wrong bus and had to pay 50 Yen extra and walk far in broken shoes
-Took 40 pictures of a hot dog
-Taught a voice lesson in Japanese

Japan: you do something new and unexpected every day.


To be fair, the bus came at exactly the time our expected bus was supposed to come, but it was late and so was the real one. Mai and Carley followed me on, but right when I reached the "foyer" and took my bus ticket, Mai was like "Uhh...this isn't the right bus..." but she followed me on anyway, I guess in the hope that this bus would lead to the same area as our regular bus. It followed the same route, but stopped after a few stops and we were made to get off. End of the line, and we had to pay Y140. Yoko had given us Y250 for bus money, so we only had Y110 left, which obviously wasn't going to be enough to cover our trip down to our neighborhood. We got on the right bus but instead of getting off at our regular stop, got off 4 or 5 stops early, when the fare was at Y160. So we paid Y300, 50 cents extra, and I was actually legitimately upset, because that's how stingy I am here. That Y50 was definitely at least a piece of fruit or a package of ramen that I could have bought. :/ But live and learn, live and learn. Actually, I fell asleep on the bus, and Mai woke me up at the further stop and was like "Oh uh I'm gonna get off here" and I decided to get off with her, but I was still half asleep and hadn't even counted my money yet, so when I went to go pay I held the whole bus up and I was like "doumo sumimasen! doumo sumimasen!" and I was so embarrassed and stressed. Leave it to me to let a tiny thing like that get to me all day. Oh no, I held the bus up! Life is over! We walked home, but I chosen today of all days to wear my heels, which were breaking and are now broken. The straps are coming loose. Now I have no heels, and heels are like the footwear staple of Japanese women. Oh well!

After I came home and crashed on my bed after having gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before, I was in the middle of a dream (which I don't remember) when Yoko woke me up and asked me to the Guy Healy official food photographer. They need promotional photos for Guy's new restaurant in Sasedo, Rock 'n' Roll Brats. So Yoko made a hot dog and put it in a choux pastry bun (puffier than hot dog buns, apparently) and I took over 40 photos of the hotdog plus a background of chips, ketchup and mustard bottles at various angles and zooms. Good thing I already knew a little bit about food photo, and there was a big window with natural night and a white-walled background I could use. So my photos will appear in advertisements and menus in the Huis Ten Bosch theme park ^_^ Guy is affording me opportunities in photography as well, haha.



Later that night, after I had fallen asleep again, I was woken up by the doorbell. It was Ai, the same girl who Carley and I gave a voice lesson to last week. She came again unexpectedly! Except this time Yoko wasn't there to translate. I tried my best speaking in a mix of Japanese and English. It sucks that I couldn't really get across the concepts that I wanted, and everything was so basic. Communication is key to understanding and changing your voice. But she was a good sport and I think she improved and had stuff to work on for next week :)


This week at school we're giving them conversation tests. Next week is the last week--games and pictures!

Days 40-43

It's the second-to-last week of classes (both Seido and English club) before the "semester" is over. As long as the schedule doesn't change again, I'll visit friends in Kyoto/Tokyo during July 17-21, evaluating my bosses' English Summer camps with the other interns from July 21-30, and then just chilling in Nagasaki from August 1-15 (although that time may or may not involve visiting my friend in Shodoshima, going to Beppu or Kagoshima, singing/performing at Huis Ten Bosch, and/or evaluating more camps.)

I'm glad that not only do I know my boss, but I see him on an almost-daily basis and he gets to know me. He's not just a manager, he's the big fish of the whole shebang. THE Guy Healy of Guy Healy Japan inc. So it makes me proud. Sort of. He's given me a lot of opportunities, not only in interning here/teaching English but in music as well.

I kind of wish I could stay here six months and do two terms here. It would deepen everything. I could actually form a concrete network and care about them. But I'd need an income source. Without an income source, the 5000yen/week stipend is pretty measly.

So this is really sad, but I'd rather forego another weekend trip in Japan and go to Vegas when I get back. Like, I'd rather not spend that money here and have it to spend in Vegas when I get back. I really REALLY want to go to Vegas. It's been too long. I also REALLY want to go dancing/clubbing. My body is itching for it. When I don't dance (or barely dance) for a period of time, I just feel STUCK. My body just feels so stressed and uptight. I need to dance. And sing. It's definitely therapy for me. Stress relief. Bodily comfort. I think it is for all humans? But some have just tapped into it more.

I'm gonna miss my kids SO much. I always do this. I get really attached. I don't even want to think about how next week's the last week. Waaaay too short. (My time here is only a little more than half done, though.) I'm excited to take pictures and post them and show you my babies! :)


Tonight after class we went to Atsuko's (our English Club lead teacher's) house for okanomiyaki. It was so good! Her children are the cutest beings that exist. Kaname (2) and Narumi (6 mos.) SO perfect. We watched Totoro and played with trains with them. Atsuko is fluent in English because she went to college for 5 years in the states, but sometimes she does little things that make me laugh. Like she asked if we wanted "corns" with our okanomiyaki, and she said she "teached" a class, and she didn't know what teething was. It's cute. :)







I made kanji for my name. 麗紅花。Re-be-kka. It kind of means pretty red flower. I really like it. The "red flower" part is the exact same kanji as the restaurant "Benihana" but just with different pronunciation. (I know, Japanese is weird, right.)


TODAY'S CULTURE TIDBIT

Japanese apartments and houses are really small and that's just how it is. And some, maybe most, have sliding doors (not Western doors.) Atsuko's apartment has sliding doors and tatami mats. There is one parking lot for all the apartments and it takes them up to 10 minutes to walk to their communal parking lot.


The view from Atsuko's parking lot at night.

In Japan, you're either in a big city or boonie countryside. There's no in between. There's no suburbs. Like literally, you either live IN the city or you live out in nature. It's a really weird concept that I just recently noticed and wrapped my head around. That's why Japan's highways are absolutely nothing like America's freeways (especially SoCal's.) You don't need to use the freeway for ANYTHING unless you're going out of town. None of this linking-towns-by-freeway. Back at school we go to Garden Grove, Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, etc. on a daily/weekly basis and we always take the freeway to get there. Every day. But in Japan there's just the city (and in the city you can drive on the streets or use public transportation), and the only time you would use the highway is if you are road-tripping to an entirely different area.

Day 39--Salsa Party

I spent almost the whole day at church today! Yay networks and speaking in Japanese! I didn't get a headache this time. Haha. Service, lunch, regular choir practice in the morning, Gospel choir in the afternoon, and salsa party at night ^^


Choir! In Japan!
I think shouldn't even go to gospel choir because it makes my throat hurt. Yeahhh, I canNOT belt. Can someone help me with that? (-__-) But the people are so nice and I love seeing their passion!!

Regular choir is fun and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that I get so many opportunities to SING while I'm here! Today I performed with them at the service! Except I hadn't gone to practice so I basically sight-read the song which had 2 key changes. Haha. Good thing it was easy. But, in my elitist-way, practice is a little annoying because the alto next to me is glaringly flat (does she not hear it?!), the sopranos have too much imposed vibrato, no one can sight-read so we go super slow, and (worst of all) there's almost no musicality, even after Natsuki tells us what to fix, it still sounds like everyone is singing how they would plunk notes on a piano. Doot doot doot. IT'S NOT DOOT DOOT DOOT, IT'S A PHRASE! But I still LOVE singing with them. I love sharing music with people. Especially people I'd never think I'd connect with. Old ladies who live in another country. Music is universal!


Salsa Party
The pastor(I think that's the right word?) and his wife (they are SOOOOO nice) invited us to a salsa party at his house--which is IN the church. On the 3rd floor. So they're there, like, all the time. It was fun because almost everyone was a Japanese learner, so it takes the pressure off constantly trying to listen and feeling out of the loop. There were 4 Chinese people, 1 Korean, 1 Japanese, and me. I LOVE hearing their Chinese-Japanese and Korean-Japanese accents. It's so cute!! I wonder what my American-Japanese accent sounds like. The Korean girl's name is Yunji and her major is pipe organ!!! Just like Dr. Lee!! They had Kirkland tortilla chips from Costco and homemade salsa with guacamole. SO GOOD. And turmeric rice and this kinda macaroni and cheesy thing. SO GOOD!! I love eating real food. 99% of the time I eat what I cook for myself which is never very good >_<. And I make the same things all the time.

It was so cool, a little frustrating, but mostly cool, to talk all in Japanese for the night, ESPECIALLY when you know that everyone in the room speaks a decent amount of English but you're just ignoring it for the sake of being respectful to the commonest language. Of course, talking in Japanese isn't exactly all in "Japanese," due to the extremely high katakana word usage, but whatever. The only time I started using a little English was when I started talking about how some Christians in America use the Bible as a reason to denounce gay rights, which leads to some liberals antagonizing Christians, and it's kind of a big messy thing. (If you're wondering it wasn't awkward or controversial really, it was just part of the conversation.) In any case, I felt a lot more comfortable speaking Japanese in that group setting than I do one-on-one or during choir, etc. practice (because in there, they're all native Japanese speakers making no effort to slow down.)

I said that I probably knew about 60% of French and 5% of Japanese and they all guffawed and remarked how humble I am, citing the example of typical un-humble Americans who say they can play piano but can only play that song where you rap your knuckles on the black keys. You know what I'm talking about. HAHA. I also apologized when I used an English word/phrase, much to their surprise and delight. It makes me sad though. Like, what, all the other American people you met were cocky and overbearing?! -__- What are your stereotypes and conceptions of Americans?

It really made me treasure the "network" that I'm forming here, happy to meet so many great people, kinda sad that it's a church, something I don't really connect with and can't immerse myself in fully, and sad that I'm leaving so soon. I can't even go to chuch for the next two weeks so I won't even see them. :/ But! One of the girls is going to school in Santa Monica this fall! To study dance! So we can meet up. :)

It just makes you realize that people are people. The more you meet people from all over, the more you realize how strikingly similar people are, despite the fact that we were raised in different countries speaking different languages. So much can be communicated despite those barriers. I was the only American there. The only one who'd ever even been there for more than a vacation. I'd never met some of those people before that night and yet I felt close with them after only a couple hours. Humanity is cool that way.

4th of July tomorrow. Yay?

Day 38--佐世保 Sasebo

My feet are sore from walking around SASEBO all day!

Sasebo is a city in Nagasaki Prefecture about an hour and a half up the peninsula. The thing about Sasebo is that there's a US Navy Base there, so there's a few more American people running around town than your typical Japanese small city.

When I got there I decided to explore the area around the station on foot. (Of course, I spent 3 hours last night looking up sights, prices, bus routes, and maps, re-sizing and printing out 3 maps, writing my itinerary, calculating my expenses, and preparing my food.) I went to the shopping arcade called Yonka Cho/Sun Plaza, the longest arcade in all of Japan! I walked it twice and noticed a lot more white people than in Nagasaki. A.k.a. more than just me. (I think I've seen another white person in Nagasaki twice ever, and once it was Guy's teacher friend.) I ambled around the dock area, half-heartedly searching for Sasebo Park. I found a really pretty little tree-lined neighborhood and a run-down dockhouse that looked creepy in the fog. Yay for finding things! Then I ran into the park, across the Sasebo river, connected by the Albequerque bridge which commemorates their sister-city relationship. I HEARD SO MUCH I ENGLISH I CAN'T EVEN. First, it was 3 adolescent boys crossing the bridge at the same time as me, then 3 teen girls in the park, then a white family. All American English. It was kind of a crazy surreal reverse culture shock. In Europe I was used to it because there's tourists everywhere, but white people don't tourist in Nagasaki and especially not Sasebo. It almost made me feel threatened. Get off my territory! I am the outsider here! No not really. And then I was looking for a bus stop and I asked a girl who was just sitting there in Japanese and she looked at me bewilderedly and it turns out she didn't even speak Japanese! So weird.

So I walked back to the station to catch a bus for the Pearl Sea Resort and the Kujuku Islands. The Kujuku Islands (it means 99 islands but there's really 208 of them) are a chain of small islands along the coast of Nagasaki and Saga prefectures. They are uninhabited except for the 4 biggest ones. I took a cruise on some wannabe pirate ship which weaved throughout the islands and pointed out the features of each one, including flora, fauna, and industry (pearl cultivating.) It was actually really cool. I said this before, but I love that I'm getting to the age where I can appreciate stuff like that. The ship was mostly Japanese families with young children but there were two Americans on board who lived in the Navy base, one from Pennsylvania (but she had a Southern accent?) and one from Texas. They were kind of annoying though. They're the Americans that give Americans a bad name. Talking loud, overweight, badly butchering the Japanese, don't know any Japanese at all, complaining/not appreciative. But I think I'm overly critical of all Americans in any case.

Oh and because I bought a day bus pass I got Y200 off the price of my cruise ticket! Yay!

After the cruise I was able to explore some of the coastline on foot, not part of my original plan, but it was AMAZING and the best part of my day. It was low tide, so I was able to cross over a land bridge onto one of the islands (just like in France at St. Malo!!) There was an old Japanese couple swimming in the small bay next to the island. I was so excited that the receded tied revealed a wealth of tidepools! There were starfish, crabs, little sandbugs, oysters and shells galore, and a (dead) jellyfish. I picked up a few shells as "presents" for Carley, Mai, Guy and Yoko. :) There was a torii and a shrine on the island and a small precipice with really pretty ringed orange-brown rock, having been worn smooth from so many years of tides. I sat there for a while and thought about how lucky I was to see this place and be there. That's one advantage of traveling alone--time to think.

After I left the Kujuku Islands area my plan was to visit the multiple panorama/viewing spots hoping to get a good aerial-esque pic of the islands. However, I got on the wrong bus (I realized it right after boarding too) and ended up riding all the way back to the station. Then I waited around for a bus to come for 20-30 minutes and it never came. (Let's just say the bus system is a little confusing, especially with all the kanji.) So I finally got my bearings and figured out which buses I needed, but by that time I only had time to go to one of the vista points instead of two or three like I planned.

This vista point, Yumiharidake, is an observatory at the very top of a hill. (Ya think?!) Everyone slowly got off the bus at their respective neighborhoods, so by the time we reached the top it was just me and the bus driver. As I was getting off I asked him: "What time does the last bus come?" And he was like "...this is the last one." (Wtf, was he just gonna leave me up there if I didn't say anything?) So while I was sputtering and trying to put together the right Japanese question, he just said "10 minutes." ten minutes?I immediately got it and burst out "Thank you, thank you so much! I'll come back in 10 minutes!" How nice of him to wait for me instead of abandoning me up there!

It only took my five minutes before I had my fill. I knew it was a cloudy day, but I didn't know we'd be so high we were literally IN THE CLOUDS. Just for reference here is what it is supposed to look like on a sunny day:



And here is what my view looked like:

Yay! -_____-
So After 2 seconds of looking at that and the other parts of that rest-stop-of-an-observatory, I went back on the bus and me and the bus driver went home. To the station that is.


Here are some more (out-of-order because Blogger is stupid) SASEBO PICS ^^

Days 33-37: 7月の始まり

It's July, what the ?!?!?! (I say "It's ___ already, what the?!" at the beginning of every month. Really.)

I was in Japan for the entire month of June 2011! Weird.
I liked it when everyone was still in school and I was already here. Now it's summer for everyone. Haha.

Um, so I usually don't write when I don't do much, and I haven't done much this week, because the rain came back in and I have been lazy and just didn't care. When I do stuff alone it's completely my initiative, so it takes more motivation for me to do stuff. Other people's insistence or invitation is a huge motivator for me.


Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: Work, chilling with Atsuko and her 2-year-old Kaname and 5-month-old Narumi at the apartment, taking the trash out, cooking, etc, going on the computer. Mai and I watched Bridesmaids.

On Thursday night one of Guys' friends' daughters, Ai, came over to have a singing lesson with Carley and I! She's 16 and has a powerful pop-style voice with a strong developed chest voice and mid-range. Head voice not so much. She sang Whitney's I Will Always Love You, haha. It reminded me of Belinda and how she always sings it in CDL when we have to sing for everyone. It was hard with the communication barrier but luckily Yoko was able to translate for us. I helped her crescendo/decrescendo in some parts and I helped her with the English pronunciation of a lot of the word combinations. Words that have that back-set L like "apple" "pull" "beautiful" etc. are like impossible for them though. Initial or middle L's like "love" or "melody" are fine but that final "ul" sound just doesn't come out right.


When I come back and start teaching American kids again, I'm really gonna miss Japanese kids. Well, at least the Seido girls. I don't know if they're an exception or if this is nationwide, but they're so well-behaved, kind, polite and respectful.

Ayano
Today I worked with the 5th graders and then the 4th graders. I had a group of girls in 5th grade and we ended class late so we rushed out to 4th grade. As we were starting class Ayano, a heavyset shy and hardworking 5th-grader, ran panting into the 4th grade classroom going "レベッカレベッカ！" (Rebecca, Rebecca!) and she shoved my pen into my hand. I had forgotten my pen in the other classroom. A navy-blue-and-yellow pen from the UCI counseling center. And it was absolutely imperative that she give it to me as soon as possible.


At the end of every class they sporadically go "Thank you! Thank you very much! Thank you for the lesson! See you! Have a nice day!" Etc. I feel that it's genuine and not just some mechanical thing they've been trained to do, but maybe.

American kids: *loudest voice possible* "All right, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!" *still whispers and talking* "ALL RIGHT, LET'S START!" *more waiting*

Seido girls: "Okay everyone let's start!" Within 3 seconds everyone is standing by their desks ready to listen. But not in a robotic or strict way. Not because they're scared. Because they've been trained to have respect and recognize the importance of what a teacher says.


I was gonna go to Kumamoto this week, and then I decided not to because it was too expensive. And because I didn't want to go alone but really I can't afford to spend money on a hotel. SO I compromised. I'm taking a day trip to Sasebo tomorrow. This is definitely going to out-do my half-day-trip to Unzen. It's a little further and there's more to see and I'm going to stay there all day like from 8AM until 10PM. Aah! Sasebo isn't any great shakes, AND it's going to rain so there won't even be any good views or visibility, but I'm telling myself it's gonna be worth it and I need to get out of Nagasaki and do stuff. I'm just bored and stir-crazy without it. I'll actually go to Sasebo later when I go to Huis Ten Bosch with Guy et al, but I won't get to tourist it like I'm going to tomorrow! I'm going to see a panoramic view of the Kujaku Islands (even in the cloud & rain, boo hoo) and maybe take a cruise around them. And just walk around the city and enjoy its parks and shopping arcade.


TODAY'S CULTURE TIDBITS

Double-level parking lots.
So...I'm not entirely sure how this works. There's a car parked on the ground, and there's a hydraulic lift, and there's another car stored right above it. A lot of the manshon parking lots park cars this way. But what if the top-car wants to get down and the bottom car is still there? ...I'll have to wait and see.

Culture Clash.
As a country that has undergone and continues to undergo rampant Westernization/modernization, Japan is still extremely proud of its history and traditions and they all seem alive and well today. So you'll see things like a woman in a kimono shopping next to plainclothes women in a supermarket (I personally have seen this twice. I'm told it's because she was on the way to or from some special occasion: a wedding, funeral, religious ceremony, etc. and that's why she was wearing a kimon.) Or A convenience store next to a huge Shinto shrine (a block away from my house.) Or a Mcdonald's across the street from a traditional Izakaya bar. Or an Obon Matsuri festival that shares the same stage as a Beyoncé concert a month later. I don't think Japanese people really think twice about it. It's not weird if you think about it. I guess every culture has its own mix and its own extent.