遅く起きた時 (When I Woke Up Too Late)

in which Max and I discover a wall closed on Sundays, and spend money at a Very Nice Store called Uniqlo.

So when Max and I woke up, it was about 12pm, which was when we had arranged to meet my peer tutor and Anna’s peer tutor at Tenjin station to go hang out at the beach. Max has set an alarm the night before, but forgot to change it to Sunday, because he had it only set to weekdays. Sigh. So we kind of rushed to get ready and leave, while I tried to call my tutor to no avail. We eventually walked all the way down to the chikatetsu (subway) station and looked around, but we couldn’t find anyone, so we went back to Max’s apt. I emailed my tutor apologizing and explaining the situation.

After a bit Max and I decided not to waste the day just because our old plans were ruined, so we went to eat breakfast at this tasty bakery in the Tenjin underground, and then got on the subway deciding to check out some historical sites. We headed towards where the Japanese defended Japan from the numerous Mongol attacks in early history, only to realize that whatever was left of the barricade was apparently inside another building and was closed on Sunday. We explored the area for a while, discovering a church that advertised itself using 8-bit art (of course), among many plants whose names were in Hebrew.

Churches are indeed 8-bit in Japan.

After giving up, we decided to go to a nearby 100-yen store to look for a hachimaki (Japanese headband) because I wanted to buy some. Before finding the store, we saw a sign for Uniclo, and Max said I’d really like it. Turns out I do (who knew a straight guy could recommend shopping) and to an intense degree. It’s sort of like a mix between American Apparel and H&M, at H&M prices. Which, in Japan, is cheap as fuck. We ended up shopping for like 40 minutes, and spending about 7000 yen each. Ouch. But I got some excellent clothing out of it, and an umbrella to replace the one I bought in Taiwan, which had completely shattered on its own.

Afterwards we went to Daiso (the 100 yen store) and bought a bunch of random stuff for even cheaper than before, mostly funny Engrish notebooks and stamps on my part. We found crazy weird shit, including a weird mask Max had to try on. After actually finding hachimaki, I decided I wanted a real Japanese cloth and not a costume-status one. So, we got on the subway and went home.


When I got home, my host family asked me if I wanted to go play at a game center (Japanese equivalent of an arcade, except usually with photo booths, a bowling alley, billiards, and pachinko) to which I couldn’t refuse. We played claw games a bit, usually winning nothing, and then tried the Taiko game. It’s really fun, I think.

Mama-san being cute and playing the crocodile game.

米作りの時 (When I Went Rice Farming)

in which I drink lots of sake, eat fast food udon, and try and help Max get a girl’s number

So today we took our first cultural excursion with ATW to Saga prefecture, where we had a few hours of farming experience in beautiful terraced rice paddies. We called it farming, but what we really did was walk in the knee-deep rice paddies (I didn’t know rice could be knee-deep) very, very slowly, weeding as we progressed. It was pretty interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, except that there were occasional spiders and one water snake. There were a few cute frogs, though, that sat in my hands for a while, so that was fun.

(Here I would put pictures of us farming, but no one brought their own cameras to the paddies, for fear they would get wet. When ATW grants me access to their photos, I’ll update I suppose.)

It was forecasted to rain heavily, but by some magic it didn’t while we were weeding. It did start to sprinkle, but not until after, which was perfect. Because it has randomly become sunny once in a while, my host family has taken to calling me a hareotoko, literally a sunny man (meaning I have good luck with the weather).

After we farmed, we had a barbeque using food the farmers themselves grew / ranched. We roasted pork, beef, and chicken, along with plenty of vegetables and rice. To put it simply, it was delicious. Probably the best food I’ve had here (and I love Japanese food). It’s definitely made me appreciate fresh food. We had giant Asahi beers to pass around, and eventually they were joined by a huge bottle of sake. After eating and drinking for hours, we naturally became very jovial and started to laugh and take pictures and give each other hugs, etc. It was a good time. All of this on the side of a beautiful mountain, too, with a gorgeous view.

The view.

Everyone being jovial.

Delicious.

After the long bus ride back, we all went home to change and shower, and then a couple of us met again in Tenjin to go out to a bar. We went to this American bar because they wouldn’t let us into this other one because Devon has a tank top on, and they apparently had a dress code(lame). It was a little awkward, because we were the only group there (though there were about 12 of us), and they played English music and Oceans 12 with no sound on the tvs. For some reason almost everyone left quite early, leaving Anna, Max, Devon, and I there alone. Finding it too weird, we left and went to eat some fast food udon, which is still way good. Anna and I had eaten dinner, so we just shared some tempura. Anna had to be home before too late, so we walked her to the subway and then tried to figure out what to do with the night. Eventually, Devon suggested we go to this other bar, called Fu Bar. It was cool, though a little expensive, and they also played mainly American music, which was fine with me. We hung out there for a while, and Max started chatting up some Japanese girl who eventually disappeared. When I went up to the bar I saw her and told him she was over there, and he went to talk to her again, eventually being dragged to another bar, leaving Devon and I for about half an hour.

Eventually Devon started dancing with some girl, so I just started to dance with a random group of people until Max came back. Eventually we got tired, and left. I stayed at Max’s, on the floor (not comfortable, at all), since it was too late to go home to my host family.

七夕の時 (When We Celebrated Tanabata)

in which I try sake for the first time

So the Japanese celebrate a holiday called Tanabata (which was actually on Tuesday, 7/7), on which they believe two stars, Orihime and Hikoboshi, are united. The rest of the year, they are separated by the Milky Way and are thus sad (because I think they are lovers or something). So, because the day is special, everyone writes down wishes using special grammar on special paper that they hang on bamboo. We made some on Tuesday in Japanese class, but since there was no readily accessible bamboo, we couldn’t hang them up. Our professors did make them into cute little packets though.

I wished Eric would have fun in Taiwan, because he was thinking of going home.

Anyway, so today the ATW tutors threw a tanabata party for us, which served both as a party where we could make better friends with each other, and where we could discuss what time / when we would meet for Yamagasa next Wednesday. It was held in this really cool tatami room that I think was basically rented out for parties. There was an enormous amount of really good finger food, so we ate and drank beer for a long while. They also passed out new papers for us to write our wishes on, which we hung up on bamboo that was placed in the middle of the room. Eventually we started passing around a case of sake, which I had never tried before. Obviously I drank some (it was really sweet) and enjoyed it.

A poster meant to discourage alcohol-related sexual harassment...

Everyone putting their wishes on the bamboo.

Eventually it got dark, and we all had to go home. But it was fun while it lasted!

ハッピーコックに行った時 (When I Went to Happy Cock)

in which Max and I meet two Swedes

So the other day Max convinced me to go with him and his friend Devon to a nomihoudai (all you can drink) for 1,200 yen ($12). We had planned to meet Devon around 9 or so because after 10 the price went up to 2,000. So, after school, Max and I had plenty of time to kill. We went back to his apartment in Tenjin, and hung out for a while in the welcome air conditioning, checking emails and the like. After a while we got bored, and eventually decided to nap. Of course, there being only one bed in Max’s apartment, that’s where he slept. I sat at his desk checking my mail, etc, for a while until I eventually got tired and put my head down on the desk and fell asleep.

Eventually we woke up ad decided to go out for ramen because we suspected the food at the bar might be sketch (which, in the end, it was). Max took me to this intense ramen place that made you sit in an individual booth with a curtain on front of you they closed once they served you, leaving you with nothing but the ramen in front of you, a water spigot, and a button to press if you wish to order something else (which you write on a piece of paper, you don’t talk to them). Despite being intense, it was pretty delicious. A little more expensive than the first ramen place I went to, and not as good, but still great (and accessibly close).


Afterwards we met up with Devon on front of Mitsukoshi and he took us to the bar, which in fact was called Happy Cock. It was a little sketch at first, but we got beers (Kirin draft), which were actually really good, so I was fine with it. The music was also fine, so it was kind of fun. Devon turned out to be a pretty cool guy, so we three had some good conversations.

Anyway, eventually these two guys walk over to us and say they recognized Jesus (meaning Devon) and introduced themselves as foreign exchange students from Sweden(!). Eventually I found out that they both studied at SMC in Santa Monica, too, and we talked about how great LA was, and then how much we like kabob. It was pretty surreal. Anyway one of them asked Max to join his band because Max plays drums and he just lost his drummer, and gave him his number. Doubt Max will call.

After a few hours of that, I eventually headed home, because I am staying with a host family after all, and I can’t exactly go out all night whenever I want, let alone on a Thursday.

メロンパンの通になりたくなった時 (When I decided to become a Melon Pan Connoisseur)

So there’s not much to say about the past three days, other than school is school. Of course Japanese is kicking my butt, and Pre-modern Japanese literature is less than life changing. However, I have discovered a new food that I do not by any means want to stop eating once I leave Japan. To be honest, the first time I ate it was actually in Taiwan, but I bought it there because it was written in Japanese, so I actually had an idea what it was. However, now that I am in the land of its origin, I have discovered its true glory.

The food that I speak of is the glorious Melon Pan (メロンパン). Yes, it is just bread. Yes, it is basically pan dulce. Yes, I’m a little obsessed. But for me, melon pan is perfect. I love bread. I love sugar. I love things that cost a dollar. Combination = amazing. So far I’ve bought about 6? different kinds, and when I say kinds I don’t mean flavors. I mean the same flavor, different brands. I’ve had the 711 brand, a cheap, not tasty, but big Family Mart brand, whatever it is they sell at the Kyudai co-op, a fresh home made one from a bakery in Hiroshima, a fresh one from a bakery at Kaizuka subway station, and, my favorite, the brand We Are Francois. We Are Francois even has a cartoon commercial I've seen on tv. After hours of searching the Japanese internet, I've found the commercial. Here it is, though after watching it again I've decided it's actually pretty crazy. The children definitely have bread-related seizures.



Yeah so that's all I'm going to write about today. I hope your mouth is watering.

Btw here's a song by some girl who is obviously as obsessed as me.

もう一度天神に行った時 (When I went to Tenjin, Again)

in which Max buys a camera for a Very Good Deal

So this morning when I woke up I went with Mama-san to go pick up Natsumi from the Barber’s where she apparently was having her “haircut” made to look more deliberate, and also colored. I brought Reito-chan (who I just realized is called reito because at one point they had another black cat named choco….choco-reito…don’t forget the Japanese “r” is kind of a cross between an “l”, a “d”, and a Spanish “r”…so her name is pronounced lay-to) on a leash! in the car! to the barber as well. She was acting completely like a dog…running from window to window in the car meowing and looking outside. Anyway, Natsumi’s haircut looks perfectly normal, trendy even.

Later, Mama-san, Natsumi, and I went to Tenjin. Since Max lives there, I figured I should give him a call. He met us at Mitsukoshi, and then we walked around a while, shopping here and there. Mama-san bought some lemon honey at some French store, and said that I should expect it for breakfast tomorrow. Eventually we made out way to Bikku Kamera, and Max shopped around for a dijikame, since he didn’t have one. A salesclerk demonstrated how nice one of the cameras was, and Max immediately decided he wanted it. Mama-san called over another lady, and somehow convinced the lady to sell it to Max for 2,0000 yen(the comma is in the right place. $200, about.), with a free 2gb memory card. See, I was a little upset because the camera he bought is a way better camera than mine, and was cheaper. But then I remembered that I also got a free case, an 8gb memory card, and an extra battery. So I guess it’s about the same. Besides, I like my camera a lot anyway. It’s tiny!

After that, we continued to explore Tenjin shopping, and fought our way through many scary crowds of crazy Japanese women eager to buy as much as they can during the summer sale. It was scary. Not only is Japanese fashion pretty foreign to me, but hearing Japanese women scream in voices so high one would assume they live in a world of Helium and not Nitrogen while running back and forth between identical clothing scores which have amazing Engrish names was enough to put me over the edge. So Max, Natsumi, and I semi ducked out for a bit and took some purikura photos. Of course, they were pretty absurd, but at least we were in control of the absurdity.

お好み焼きを食べた時 (When We Had Okonomi Yaki)

in which Natsumi gets a New Haircut

Today we had Shimo-san, my ATW tutor over for dinner, along with Joe, the head of the tutors program. My host mother decided to celebrate the occasion (she has known Joe for a while) by preparing materials for cooking okonomi yaki (a Japanese pancake with various options to add to the batter, like vegetables, pork, beef, chicken, fish, octopus, cheese, etc). We all sat around a frying pan that she placed in the middle of the table and added whatever we wanted to our own. I really like octopus now, so I made sure to add a lot of that (funny bit of trivia: octopus is pronounced “tako” in Japanese, so whenever I’m asked if I’ve ever eaten cute little tako on a stick with the little tentacles still there, it’s a little confusing) along with kimchee and beef. We cooked them ourselves, which was fun because the waiting just made it all the more delicious. You eat the finished okonomi yaki with a sort of bbq sauce on top, mixed with mayonnaise. It sounds rather odd, but really it didn’t taste all that different from things I’ve had before. Except a lot better than most things I’ve had before.

While we were cooking, Shimo-san, Joe, Papa-san, and Mama-san were speaking in very fast Japanese, so I really don’t remember much of what we talked about. At some point, Natsumi got up and left the table, which didn’t really seem odd at first. After a long while of even faster Japanese, we eventually hear loud crying coming from upstairs. Mama-san goes up to see what’s wrong, and we talk for a while longer. Eventually Papa-san goes upstairs too, leaving Shimo-san, Joe, and myself to all simultaneously wonder what is wrong.

Eventually Papa-san comes down and explains no one is hurt and that, for reasons I will not discuss thoroughly here, Natsumi cut off just about all of her hair. Shimo-san and Joe leave, and Papa-san, Mama-san, and I have a talk about what happened, and Natsumi eventually apologizes, because she felt like she ruined the evening. Didn’t really bother me, though. It’s not like I understood any of what was going on anyway.

文法を勉強し始めて天神に行った時 (When I Started Language Study and Went to Tenjin)

6/30-7/1

Thursday June 30th was the first day of language class. It was terrifying. I have definitely been placed levels above my comprehension. I spent the entirety of the two-and-a-half-hour-long class trying to understand whatever it was my professor was saying, while maintaining a managable level of anxiety which was being manifested by the presentation of the japanese-only textbook in front of me.

Here is a picture of my book.

Surely I have been placed into the level of Japanese I had hoped to switch into once I got back to the states, not one that would help me switch into it... Well, dear readers, I stuck it out. I got through that class and even decided to go back the next day. Yes, I had to answer questions I could blatantly not read. Yes, I had to use words like "typical" and "indication" after only one year of Japanese. Yes, I shat my pants. However, I eventually thought to myself: Why does it matter? I'm not submitting these grades to Swarthmore for credit. They mean nothing. The embarrassment is empty. I'm untouchable.

Thus, I decided to stay in the class, and hopefully experience some sort of a Japanese enlightenment as a result.

After class Anna (ah-na as opposed to the many Anna's in my life), Emily, Max, and I walked around Hakozaki to try and find cool places to go nearby. However, not much was accomplished. After finding a huge empty arcade in which we took more japanese photobooth photos (purikura), we decided to give up with the town and just look around the college. We found a couple museums and got invited by a curator to some sort of drinking party later in the week. Who knows, maybe we'll go.

One of the entrances to Kyudai's (Kyushu University, Kyushu Daigaku in romanji, thus Kyudai) Campus.

A random secret gate we discovered along the street that led to...

A shrine! (We didn't go in for fear it was forbidden.)

Friday was significantly easier, and we practiced grammar for a significant amount of time, thus allowing me to simultaneously scribble the words I didn't know into my convenient-and-trendy Nintendo DS dictionary. After answering a couple questions about low calorie menues and the increasing number of citizens who live alone, we studied a bunch of kanji that had 耳 in them.聞、聴、最、取、職、聖. Kanji is always nice. No talking, just writing.

Anyway, after classes, Anna, Emily, Max, and I went out with Emily's peer tutor. She took us to Canal City (which was really pretty) and we explored all sorts of Japanese stores. I found a store that stocked mainly cute little Miyazaki merch that I will definitely have to go back to. (The Ponyo DVD came out in Japan that day!)

On the way to Canal City. We actually thought this was Canal City.

We saw a lot of Giant yamakasa, which are huge art pieces teams of men from Fukuoka build once every year for a festival.

Every year at the peak of the festival, the teams carry their yamakasa on their collective backs and race across the city.

Of course the real yamakasa are smaller than these displays, even though they are in fact huge.

A view of the center fountain area in Canal City, and another yamakasa.

A better view of the above yamakasa. Trivia: this float is most definitely inspired by the kabuki Sukeroku.

This is for Azia and Leslie. When you touch the hand under him, he yells PIKA PIKAAAA.

Couldn't resist. Instead of Puma...Pu-san (as in Pooh-san <3)

After walking around Canal City a bit, we walked through an area of the city which seemed to have many a strip club, to Tenjin (read: downtown Fukuoka). We walked through an enormous underground shopping mall, then eventually went home. Anna and I were planning on going home to eat dinner, then possibly come back to go out drinking with Max, but plans sort of fell through and he ended up going with another friend from Michigan College.

View on the way to Tenjin.

At home I ended up helping a couple kids learn English by checking their homework and commenting on their reading skills. It was fun, though my Japanese was definitely not good enough to fully teach them anything. I asked one girl what about the section was hard for her, and it took me hours before I realized she had said "Answering the questions" in the form of the simple phrase ”答え方.”