Can You Really See What's Out There?

Hey there – still no pictures, my apologies. Forgive my laziness, if you will. However, I do have a lovely picture of my most amazing roommate, Eri:

Eri before going to a party

This is my roommate, whom I didn’t meet until approximately three or four days after I got to Japan. As far as I can tell, she is a very outgoing girl who likes playing soccer, shopping, hanging with her friends, and such. Eri’s nineteen-years-old, and is just a very, very sweet girl. She even plays piano (she played elegantly when we went shopping and found a music store randomly). Yeah, I adore my roommate.

Now, a recollection of past events over the first week of school and some way into the second. Afternoon classes (the ones taught in English) officially began last Monday, and it’s been a crazy storm ever since (not really). Here is my current schedule:

Monday:

Speaking Japanese 4D – 09:00-09:50
Reading and Writing Japanese 4A – 12:00-12:50
Sexuality and Culture in Japan: Desire, Power, and Social Order – 16:00-17:20

Tuesday:

SPJ4D – 11:00-11:50
The Struggle for Justice – 13:00-14:20

Wednesday:

RWJ4A – 09:00-09:50
SPJ4D – 12:00-12:50
Intercultural Communication in Japan – 14:30-15:50

Thursday:

SPJ4D – 11:00-11:50
RWJ4A – 12:00-12:50
Justice – 13:00-14:20
Sexuality – 16:00-17:20

Friday

SPJ4D – 11:00-11:50
Communication – 14:30-15:50

So, as you can see, it’s not a very busy schedule – 5 classes, 17 hours. Continuing on, I had my first afternoon class on that Monday (Sexuality and Culture) and it was boring as all hell. I’ve had boring teachers, most certainly, but none of them were monotone. Or thought they were funny when they weren’t (wait, no, plenty of those…). And if you say something this guy doesn’t agree with, he’ll make sure you know it by “subtly” repeating that info over and over in a “somewhat” demeaning way. I just don’t like him, and he makes an interesting topic very boring. First classes are always introductions of course, so the first week was absolutely meaningless for this class…however. On Thursday of last week…we saw the most interesting video which had to do with seeing the inner working of an engorging penis. My, my, my, I shall never look at any penises the same ever again. Also saw another small video having to do with…men running around in sperm outfits…yes, don’t ask. It’s as weird as whatever you may be envisioning. So, aside of the horrible teacher, the class may prove interesting. I’ll be honest though – this is the class with the MOST readings aside of the literature class. I have two books covering a range of craziness and terms I’m easily liable to forget – oh wait, already forgotten.

Ah, and about books by the way: as a norm (and because of copyright issues and such), teachers copy the text into pamphlets, which lowers the cost by quite a bit. Where it’s normal to spend approximately 100-300 for one book in the USA, it costed all of approximately 12-14 American Dollars per “book” I had to get. All together, I spent less than 100 dollars for six books – that’s a pretty good deal. However, there’s no buyback system in Japan, so whatever you buy…make sure it’s what you need. Don’t buy until after everything’s “certain”.

Continuing on, that Tuesday of last week was the first day I officially started my Japanese classes. Technically, one is supposed to speak in only Japanese to the teacher, and they will only speak in Japanese to the student in turn…and they do. They have no problem just rampaging on in Japanese, though they try to speak slowly so that the student will comprehend their words. I took a review test in this class and did horrible – but not horrible enough to be shifted downward a class. Then again, I knew my listening skills were abysmal, so nothing new.

I also had my first Struggle for Justice class on that Tuesday, and the teacher immediately launched the class with a trial played in the parts of the prosecutor and the defense attorney. It was very emotionally evoking, and interesting. The teacher is very interesting himself, and so this class seems to be something that will continue to hold my attention for the full semester. Much better than my sexuality class, at the very least.

On Wednesday, I had my first Intercultural Comm. in Japan class, and that was psychotic. For some reason, all of the teachers want this massive introduction from everyone…which is meaningless. I don’t want him to know me – leave me be. In any case, he started off saying that he was a teacher from the USA…blah, blah, blah…and that he was from Texas. Ah, hah…uh oh. Great, out of all the classes, I happen to get the crazy teacher who adores introductions and happens to be from Texas. And, of course, I happen to be the only one in the entire classroom from Texas… I’m sure you can imagine how that went:

“So…M…Marnia. Where are you from?”

“……Texas…”

“Oh REALLY?” *ecstatic expression* Yeah, really. What the fuck, dude, don’t associate yourself with me. “I”m from Texas, too! Where in?”

…Naw, really. You’re from Texas? Well, WOW, how GREAT. Let’s go eat lollipops together and skip around singing! No.

“Dallas.”

“Me, too! Irving, what about you?”

“Lewisville.”

“What university?”

“University of North Texas.”

“Oh, wow! I used to go to Denton a lot and my brother lives there, too! I know the area pretty well!”

What the fuck, I don’t care about your damned brother. Stop talking to me. Loser.

So, that was an annoying class period. Now whenever he sees me in the hall, I suppose he thinks we have this bond that makes him think he can talk to me. Yeah, not happening. Stay away from me.

In any case, that’s the gist of my classes so far. Nothing very interesting altogether, but my classes just the same. Now, I’ll return to talking about my lovely roomie, Eri.

I’d like to think we’ve gotten pretty close so far after only a week of knowing each other or so. About last Wednesday, she began to develop this cough that’s continued on through the week and eventually got somewhat worse. She sounded somewhat miserable during the week and when I discussed it with her, she showed me this package of powder she got from her mom (cough meds). I stared at it appalled – powder? I mean, sure, why not…no. I was determined to get her cough meds…REAL cough meds, and to buy myself a game at this place I heard of from a friend. The place is called Nanba, and it’s right next to a long street full of stores for shopping and other miscellaneous things.

This past Sunday, when we were supposed to go, Eri looked pretty out of it. She had been coughing the majority of the night, and so I suppose that she didn’t feel all that great that morning (no shit, Sherlock). Given that, I thought I’d head over to Nanba on my own. With that self-declared resolve formed, I asked her if she’d just give me the directions for me to go on my own, since she knew the way front and backwards. She smiled and said she’d just take me this upcoming Sunday (I’m supposed to go meet her family on the 20th – I’m excited. Apparently her mom knows…all about me?) after or before we go to see her family that lives an hour away from Hirakata City. However, that would have left me with absolutely nothing to do on a Sunday afternoon…in JAPAN. Not happening. I was determined to go on my own, and she knew it. Eri looked over at the clock across the dining room for a couple minutes (I suppose she was calculating how much time she had before she had to back?)  before nodding, smiling, and saying she’d just take me.

Uh, what? Take me? When she was sick? I think I suffered some kind of brain malfunction because that didn’t make any sense to me at all. She immediately left the room for the stairs, me in tow. Even though I questioned her, she seemed set to go despite her disposition. Of course I was grateful, but since I wasn’t going to be able to change her mind, I’d decided that I’d definitely buy her some cough syrup. She accepted that…grudgingly. Oh hoh, hoh, these Asians and their unwillingness to accept anything. Oh, hoh, hoh.

When we were both ready to go twenty or thirty minutes later, we found we’d missed the bus heading from our dorm to Hirakata City station, and so went on a hike to another bus stop some ten minutes away or so. Of course…we missed that bus, too, but we ended up waiting for another one that came ten minutes later. To put it in perspective, it is approximately twenty to thirty minutes walking distance from Seminar House 4 to the campus if you walk at a decently slow pace or so…and about thirty minutes to an hour of walking time from the campus to the station. Depending on the traffic, mode of commuting, and weather, anyway. This is why we hiked to find a bus stop. Upon catching that bus, we sped off to Hirakata City station, got off, went to drop off some DVDs she had rented, and went to catch a train.

Now, when we began, she’d only had 1000 yen on her, which was part of the reason as to why she was balking on going to Nanba. What the hell, like I cared. She was escorting me to some far away place so I could buy a couple of GAMES…I had no problem paying for her method of transport. We took a total of three trains from Hirakata Station to Yadobayashi or whatever. Although she patiently told me what train to take and where to get on and such…I don’t recall the Japanese names. I was just in awe of everything, of course. Stupid American.

It was approximately ten dollars of transportation from Sem4 to the shopping district alone, which wasn’t too bad considering walking would have taken a few hours. Eri showed me the long line of stores and I was absolutely baffled. So many people, so much noise, so much craziness, and yet it was so much fun. She made the entire day absolutely enjoyable. Our first destination in this crazy place was my game shop which is a well-known store around here: Tsutaya or something rather.

I got two games – one I’ve been hunting for (a rhythm game) and one that just appealed to me. Too bad it has so much KANJI. Aw, so sad.

Anyway, we ate at McDonald’s (yeah, I know…Mickey D’s of all places…) and it tasted pretty good. I hadn’t eaten up until then, but it was awesome. We passed some other stores, but none really appealed to either of us. Saw Eri’s friend at some cafe – think her name was Aya or something like that? – and then we leapt off to go play a drumming game at the Sega arcade. I won…twice. Bahahaha. Then we played some psycho mecha shooting game…we both died. Surprised? Yeah, no. And then, since I had to get it for an assignment, we did Purikura pictures. They’re those pictures with all those fancy schmancy doodles all over it and the cool poses and whatnot. I hate pictures, yeah, but…I did it anyway. It was funny, but hasn’t rid me of my phobia.

After all was said and done, and after a small rendezvous around a music store, we left for home. I paid for the both of us (about twenty dollars or so total) and then we got home around eight-ish. It was a fun day – oh, and I bought her cough medicine, too. I actually forced her to take it right outside of the drugstore we found in Shinsaibashi (the shopping centre we went to). She thought it was tasty. What the hell was in that stuff?

So, now, on early Wednesday morning, I sit here waiting for Eri to come back home since she went off for some soccer training camp and won’t be back for two days. I am sad, and lonely.

As an additional note, I made dinner last night for four people (wasn’t the intention – I’d meant to only make it for two, but that became four): fried potatoes and onions, beef steak, and broccoli. Healthy meal, though the steak was incredibly expensive. The fried potatoes and onions actually came out well, and the cooking oil I used tasted no different than anything I’d get in the USA. I didn’t have any black pepper though, so I was a bit disappointed, and had to buy some tongs so I could flip the meat better…ah well. It was delicious (way too fucking salty, though).

As another side note, biking to school hurts like hell. Those hills…what the hell? I think I’ve lost weight, my jeans keep falling. I’m sad, and yet happy. And yet sad – I just bought these three weeks ago!

This will be a compilation of my entire week of orientation, practically.

Firstly, though, I will explain the process you will deal with upon arrival to KG, and the tiresome, very tiresome orientation week.

• Banking Sessions
  • For the Fall 2009 Orientation, there were the possibility of three banking sessions which allow foreign-exchange students to set up a bank account to be used for refund monies as well as getting a cell phone and such. The banking sessions are tedious, and require you to be very exact with how you proceed about doing things. The necessary items are your passport, a photocopy of the page of your passport with your picture and various info, a photocopy of your emergency address, three forms necessary for the process which you would receive in your orientation packet, and a lot of patience. The session isn’t very long in and of itself, but it is annoying. The bank requires you to write your letters precisely as they’re written on your passport, so if the E is block-shaped, you must make your writing block-shaped as shown on your passport. If your J is crossed at the top on the passport, so must it be on your written form. Your signature must also be exactly alike in all three times you write it, or at least close enough to be matched electronically. The management people understand that a person cannot make their signature exactly as they did before, but you can make it very, very close. You fill out the three forms, take them up to one of the main tables, and have those forms perused entirely to make sure if anything needs to be changed. To be honest, I only did the process once, but there were somee people that did it at least ten times because they weren’t exact. It’s a very annoying process.
• Language Laboratory Orientation and the Campus Tour
  • This is probably the least annoying session to attend, and it’s just discussing how to use the materials in the computer lab for homework. Or rather, the language lab. It takes about thirty minutes for that, and then you have the tour around the campus. Honestly, unless you have this session on the very first day, the tour is inessential. By that time, you should pretty much know your way around the campus – it’s not that big. Ah, and in this session, you also gain access to your Kansai Gaidai email, which can have the mail forwarded to your main address anyway. Very easy and simple process.
• Japanese Language Placement Test
  • Ah hah, you must understand that this is the most ridiculous placement test ever. You get an hour and a half as a whole, but the little tests are unbelievable in their nature.
    • Listening Test
      • There’s a listening test, where you have twenty questions of listening to small conversations and answering questions. Of course, this is no different than anything you would do in school normally, except you only hear these conversations once. Only once, and no asking for a second time. If you don’t listen to Japanese speech well, you will have a lot of problems with this test. My suggestion: Try to listen to whatever Japanese things you can. The more, the better. Watch anime, movies, dramas, all without subtitles. Or hell, use subs if necessary. Talk to friends, a lot.
    • Character/Translation Test
      • This is just a basic test where you have to fill in certain characters as per necessary. I won’t divulge any details for fear of KG killing me or something. However, part of the test requires that you translate as well, so I suggest you ready yourself for that as well.
    • Grammar Test
      • Probably the most annoying test – there are five sections you can complete. A-D are given to you initially, and A is the easiest grammar test to take, while D ranges on more difficult grammar. You are allowed to take E, but you must request it, and only request this if you are sure you’ll make 60% or more on section D. Also, you are not allowed to fill in more than four sections, so if you think you can do E, just skip A. With E, though, you must make an appointment for an interview. I opted out of E out of laziness, so I cannot tell you much about that.
    • Kanji Test
      • Fairly straight-forward. Given the reading or given the kanji – just like any ordinary test in your normal Japanese classroom.
• Fee Payments
  • No matter where you come from, you must pay your fees to the SHOMU Office in the admin building on campus. For this year, the deposit fee is 10,000Yen, the liability insurance is 1,000Yen, and the dormitory security deposit fee is 15,000Yen. If you are doing homestay, this fee is waived. As I am on full-exchange, my tuition and dormitory fee were waved as I pay directly to my home university. These payments must be done by about the third day or orientation, so please don’t put it off. However, Kansai Gaidai DOES have a loan (interest-free) that you can take out while you’re waiting for you other funds to come in (JASSO, etc.). They realize that JASSO and other funds can be very slow, and so they have made this loan just for that exact reason. There are a god number of times you can pay for these fees, and they will be noted in your information packet.
• Meetings
  • There are a lot of these. General meetings, briefings, seminar house meetings, health meetings, and so forth. While they say it’s mandatory to attend, it really isn’t. However, it is definitely in your best interest to go to all these, as there is a lot of important information that they have to share. The staff makes these meetings as painless as possible, as well.
• Academic Advising
  • I actually skipped out on this session – it’s not mandatory – so I don’t know exactly what goes on here, but this should allow you to meet with teachers and check out just what’s going on with everything. This is a good opportunity to find out if you really want the classes you signed up for.
    • Classes
      • Speaking of this, Kansai Gaidai has tried a new approach this year. It is not a lotto system like in the past, but more electronically done. You sign up for you classes via a site online, and sign up just as you might ordinarily do at your own university. I received all the classes I wanted, so I think it was actually a great method, but others may disagree.
• Opening Ceremony
  • You may have heard about this, but there is indeed an opening ceremony. Semi-formal dress is appreciated as many important people will attend this meeting. The ceremony itself is pretty nice, and can be very interesting, and is made up of a bunch of speeches. Luckily for us, the speeches were fairly funny (except for the President of KG – he was boring as hell). After the ceremony, you are treated to a dinner in the cafeteria where all the tables are filled with plates of food. It’s actually a very grand thing to attend.

That’s about the gist of the entire week. I did happen to buy a bike sometime during that mayhem, and it’s nice and silver with the word Butterflies on it. I lol’ed. Also found an arcade near Hirakata station, so, that was cool. Found a bank that accepts my home university’s banking card, too. Joyous.

So, I actually woke up at a decent time of around…six in the morning or so. Bear with me, my memory’s dying from so much time in between now and last Sunday. So, I woke up quite early to the bright shining sun (which rises at four in the morning, just so you know), and so, I thought it was already about eight or nine in the morning. Hahah, I was wrong. Dang. I didn’t know what to do, but then decided to go ahead and play some Sims3 again and a get a couple of hours in. Of course, I couldn’t actually do anything else since I didn’t have internet yet, but a game’s a game. I enjoyed ruling my little game person’s life before a knock came to the door. And what do you know, it’s Annie.

Unfortunately for her, she suffered a heavy dose of Jetlag, having had her been awake since 2.30 in the morning. Unfortunately for her, I thought it was hilarious. I might have been suffering jetlag, but it was very, very minor. I think the trip actually reset my body clock, which is fine by me. So, Annie wanted to go explore, which was fine by me. We agreed to meet downstairs in such and such minutes, and I rushed to go take a shower. But, of course, rushing in my family means taking twice as much time as any other person might to get ready for the day. So, when I was getting ready to do my hair after showering, brushing my teeth, and so on, there came an impatient Annie knocking on my door and wondering why I was so effing slow. I hadn’t even gone potty yet.

I went to the restroom, and met her downstairs after grabbing all my important stuffs, and we left the dorm. Our first plan of action was to head up to the school and see what path we were supposed to take. The trip (looking back on it now) isn’t that long, and only takes about twenty minutes by walking. However, since I never did anything but sit on my ass in front of the computer back home, this was quite tiresome for me. That makes me a bit sad now. Ah, okay, so when we reached the school gates, they were closed. All that walking for a view of closed gates – I guess they were rather pretty, but I wouldn’t have minded being able to see beyond those iron gates. In any case, we didn’t know what to do at that point, so we decided to try and hit up that 99Yen store, or visit Top World. We got directions…and what did we do? Yes, why of COURSE we got lost. Of COURSE we would hit a residential district and not know where the hell we were supposed to be going.

We walked down past house after house after house, and yet we only got more and more lost. Actually, now that I think back on it, we were really looking for the main gates of the school to see if those were open. That was a lost cause. Annie ended up wanting to turn back and so we did. On the way back home, we noticed two other foreigners walking in the direction from whence we’d come, and one of them was actually someone we knew. Stephen and his roommate Nathaniel were walking the town and looking around, and they were the ones who were actually going to go check out the shops. Hahah, not us originally. Bad memory, bad, bad.

We spoke with one another a bit, and Annie and I eventually ended up tagging along with the guys. We walked down the main road running through Hirakata past many different shops, and eventually came across Top World. Top World is the equivalent of a small Wal-Mart…the family market ones? Farmer market ones? Neighborhood friendly? Whatever they’re called. It’s small, and is mostly full of food and drinks…not really any other kind of essentials. It was nice, and I got my daily dose of Orange Juice. That made me happy.

We left that store after looking around in it for a while and then walked back down the main road and came up against a couple of other stores: the 99Yen store, and Fresco. I prefer Fresco more as it’s open 24 hours, 7 days a week, I believe. Sounds like a great deal to me, but the 99Yen store is not like the Dollar General in the fact that it is actually sold for 99Yen for most items…unlike the Dollar General, where everything’s pretty much not a dollar. I will say that I hadn’t eaten at all for quite a while, and EVERYTHING in those stores smelled utterly fantastic. But did I get to get snacks? Nooo…we were gonna actually going OUT to eat. T_T

With the thought of those stores behind us, the idea occurred to us that we were very, very hungry. Luckily, Aiden had told Annie about a nice store called New Delhi, which was a restaurant with Indian Cuisine. So, when we came across this restaurant (which is actually almost directly across from the main gates of the school), we decided to hit it up. We weren’t sure that it was open or not, but we went in anyway. No one was in there at all, except for the staff, and so it was very, very quiet and…odd. Despite my earlier hunger, I actually wasn’t interested in spending much for food at an Indian place, and they didn’t have chicken curry, so I was pretty much turned off. I ended up ordering some kind of bread (Nan?) or something…it was huge. Like two slices of New York style pizza put together. Hell, that bread was a meal in and of itself, and I still didn’t finish it.

The one odd thing about this restaurant is the people that kept staring at us as if they thought we’d run out of the restaurant without paying. Well, sure, I would if I could get away with it, but since that’s impossible…I didn’t. We all ate our food (I never finished that huge piece of garlic bread), we left and decided to head back to the dorms. It was about a 30 minute walk all in all, and I actually got to relax quite a bit in my dorm before I got notified about heading out to go get ramen. Apparently, Nathaniel was meeting his speaking partner, and I guess Stephen, Annie, and I decided to tag along with them. We also waited about twenty minutes for another KGer from UNT to show up from his dorm, and so then began the long, fateful hunt for ramen at a place called Shisen (Shizen?) Ramen. Now, I’ve already said that I’m a bit of a lazy butt and don’t like walking anywhere…but this was a long walk. We left the dorm and instead headed in the opposite direction from the school towards Makino Station, the closest available train station.

Following the map the school had provided us, the ramen shop appeared to be no more than 10-20 minutes away from our dorm. Hahah, wrong. That damned map was so off, we had been walking around in circles. To be honest, I adore Nathaniel’s speaking partner, Takuya, who’s a very nice guy (he didn’t know where he was going either, though), except for the fact that he’d always shout out, “Atsui! Atsui!” Or basically, he was saying, “Damn, it’s hot!” over and over again. And, it was rather hot that day. It definitely wasn’t a pleasant time to go about hunting for a ramen shop and not finding it. We went around in circles for about thirty minutes before Takuya called a friend for help and got directions. It ended up that we hadn’t gone up a street far enough, and so we turned around, crossed the railroad tracks, and took a left at the next street. From thereon, it was actually another 20-30 minutes of walking to try and find the damned shop. However, we finally did, after being completely exhausted.

It really, really had been a very, very long walk though.

It was some damned good ramen though.

All six of us sat down together at two tables (the restaurant wasn’t too busy which was rather fortunate for us)  with Takuya, Nathaniel, and Stephen at one table, and Annie, Michael, and I at another. Three or four of us ordered my new favorite dish: Nin’niku ramen, or, garlic ramen. Really a lovely dish, full of garlic and sodium, with meat slices and small slices of garlic scattered about. They even have rice crispies you can put in, but I normally avoid those for the sake of my tastebuds. The first bite of this ramen was pure ecstasy. I adored it, purely and truly. Even better, the ramen was only about 600 Yen (approximately six dollars or so), and completely filled me. It was a very tasty meal. Orange juice costs 200 Yen. What’s up with that? Very good OJ, though.

It was in the late afternoon by the time we finished up, and the friend Takuya had asked for help from had also shown up as well. He had rode via his nice, shiny bike, which I had greatly envied at the time. Instead of taking the long route from which we had come from, we took a different path that shaved off a good amount of time. It brought us up almost directly to our Seminar House, which was nice…although it was pretty much an uphill trot. So, although we were at the Seminar 4 House, we actually escorted Michael home to HIS SH, since he had walked all the way to meet us at ours. Since it was orientation week, we were kind of kicked out since we were visitors, which made us sad, but no matter. Excluding Takuya and his friend, we all went back to SH4 and settled down to rest.

About half an hour later, I was invited to go to karaoke and go eat something. Hahah, oh joy. So, I ran to tell Annie, and then we two, along with five to seven others started on the long trek back towards Makino station. And hey, what do you know? They wanted ramen. And hey, where did we go? Shisen (Shizen?) Ramen. The people Annie and I were with had no idea just how long the trek to this place was…and I heard a lot of complaining along the way.

Yeah, well try walking that route four times in one day. I bet you’d definitely be complaining then, huh? Brats.

We finally made it…but since it was around six or seven in the evening, business was booming. There was a waiting list…and Annie eventually decided that she was going to skip out on karaoke and just go back home. I went with her, and then we had to deal with trying to get back home in the dark. Japan looks very, very different at night. Hah…very.

We got back to the Sem House, and I got ready for bed completely. Settling down with my DS Lite to play Pokemon, I found myself falling asleep…very quickly. I was too tired to play Pokemon!!!! WHY?! Oh the INHUMANITY! How saddening. I threw my DS aside and fell asleep, with my muscles hurting throughout my entire body.

*Internet has been received for my laptop, so pictures/videos will be uploaded after I edit them a bit. Not too much.*

All right, so this blog post has long since been due to be written. So, I’ll start with my trip beginning from Dallas to Tokyo, firstly. So, after Mom dropped me off at the airport, every procedure was smooth as silk, and I happily found gate 23 and sat down. I got there fairly early, so…oh well. No one was there, and so I thought, “Hey, it’s early. No one’s going to be here so early.”

Twenty to thirty minutes later, as it got closer to flight time, I began to think a bit differently. There was still no one there, which worried me. One restroom break later, I realized I was at the completely wrong gate from what one I should have been at…which should have been 33. By the time I got over to my gate, they were boarding. Hah, right on time. So, after boarding the plane, nothing truly exciting took place really. I went to sleep off and on for about five hours, watched a movie about meerkats, and ate some really, really shitty airplane food. My first meal was “chicken curry,” but I’ve yet to actually figure out how exactly it was curry…and the second meal was…ah, pizza. It was cheap, and microwaveable. But, hey…why not.

Upon finally landing within Japan, Annie (who I sat next to and who is also from UNT) and I were immediately blasted by humid heat. In actuality, Texas is far worse in temperature…but heat is heat is heat. We two met up with four other people very quickly that had that foreigner appeal – Chris from Florida, Stephen from UNT, Casey, and Samantha. We went through the initial customs, had our visas and passports checked before then heading down to the main level of Tokyo International. It was there that we retrieved our baggage and got carried away by the hoards of people. The next few hours were a just a mess full of confusion and mayhem. Initially, we traveled across the first floor of this place looking for where we were supposed to re-check in our bags…but that ended with us being directed right back to where we had first begun, which is where we should have been anyway. Walking through those double doors with our luggage, we then had to find the check in station. Stupid me, I saw a sign for departure check-ins…for the third floor. Picture us: six people, carrying around four things of luggage apiece under normal circumstances, and two of that five with luggage carts. Not a pretty picture, but hey…the escalator we took said we could use our carts on it. Awesome. We did. That was a travesty right there. As soon as all five us got on the escalator (I say five, because we lost Annie somewhere along there), with the two cart people in the very front, something disastrous happened. Ooo, drama.

One of our people fell down, his luggage included. He hit the person behind him, who, in turn, hit the one behind him. And so, as we were going up this escalator, three people were sitting on the moving stairs in a daze as Japanese people stared at us. Ooo…so fun. Why, yes. I didn’t fall, so I thought it was great.

After we got to the third floor, with the newly-found Annie in tow, we ventured over to the check-in stations happily…only to be told that we were in the wrong place.

“I’m sorry. You should be on the first floor.”

…Excuse me? Where? What?

Hahahaha, oh how much FUN we were having. The lady was nice enough to guide us to the elevators, and we went down in sections (they were very, very small elevators. Enough for just one luggage cart). And actually, we found our check-in station fairly quickly. So we checked in our bags and went into another room for an additional clearance. It was just the usual, “Take out your laptop, put it in this basket and your backpack on that one and etc, etc, etc.”

After that, we followed a long corridor to see a small convenience shop and escalators to take us down to our gate. Going down, we saw a large room with very minimal seating. Only seating available were the chairs lined up against the wall…everything else was just space. Well, fine, whichever and whatever. However, we did take note of our suppose “gate”. The window we peered through had this very small little parking area…which made us wonder just how big the plane actually was. To make it a bit clearer as to how small that area was…ah, about the size of a large school auditorium. I mean, yeah, a plane might be able to be stationary there, but the wings wouldn’t have been able to move at all. So, we were confused, but we then figured out that we’d just be bussed to the plane.

Two hours or so later, we were indeed bussed over to this slightly small plane. And, you know, I’m sorry but Japanese planes are not meant for fat people. Damn your skinny Japanese hips and butts.

The plane ride was a quick jump – only an hour and a half. We got our bags upon landing at Itami airport and as soon as we got out the doors from the arrival area, we saw a man holding a sign saying, “KANSAI GAIDAI.” Wow, so quick. I was kind of stunned that he was already there. We were one of the first few to go over, and we paid our monies, got some food, and waited for more people.

Our plane had landed in Osaka at around six, and it wasn’t until seven that our guide decided, “We’re just going to go ahead and go now.”

Supposedly, we were to stay there until eight, but since we would have only been waiting for two more people, the plans were changed. Well, perfect. All of us trekked out of the airport (it’s rather small, by the way) and we walked down a long path to get to the bus. After everyone piled on (the baggage guys were very, very efficient), and the bus finally started moving, we ate while watching the night scene of Osaka. It took about an hour for us to get into Hirakata, and the first stop was Seminar House 4. Luckily for me, that was my destination. I had heard the others had to walk to their dormitories, which I laugh at. Ahahahah. Hahahahah. Hahah. Yes. Funny.

So, the people staying in my dorm and I all walked in the main gate and through the front doors, took off our shoes and padded up to the check-in table. There, I met Maki and Mai (who you’ll see later), was told where to put my shoes for future notice, and received the information packet of doom (literally has every form necessary for surviving my first week here). I was guided to my room, 4205, and I quickly set my bags down, and went downstairs. Unpacking would come later.

Annie and I met up (it was 8:30 or so by this time) and we met these four other people who were students on extension. Unfortunately, I forget their names. We decided to go have some beer (I hate beer. This one tasted like shit, too), and go sit in the park and just talk. Honestly, we talked for quite some time, and Annie left to go back to the dorm about an hour later, and me, around ten o’clock.

Neither of my dormmates had shown up by the time I got back, so I had been alone that first night. Aw, sad. I set up my laptop, played Sims3 for a couple hours until midnight, and since I was exhausted by that time, decided to hit the bed. I got out my jammies, went and brushed my teeth and washed up a bit, and then came back to unroll my futon. Bahahah. Then I laid down and went to sleep.

Day One, End.

So, everyone else pretty much started doing a ten-day countdown on their blogs, but I’m going to be different; I have 6 days and 23 hours until I take off on Friday, August 28, 2009. I’m somewhat eager, but then I do realize I have a lot of shit to take care of before I leave.  Before I run a list of what all I need to do, I’ll let everyone know exactly what’s been up in the month since I’ve last written.

First things first: I am no longer working at the language lab at my university. This makes me a bit sad, as I did enjoy working there. Stress-free, low-management job where I could do as I needed with a fairly lenient boss. She wasn’t too keen on me this last semester because of a few circumstances, but that’s all right. She’ll never really see me again. And with the end of that job, marks the end of my time at the University of North Texas (more than likely). I will be heading off to a different university as SOON as I get back from Japan. Sound psychotic? Why, yes, yes it is.

Secondly, I’ve been assigned my speaking partner for Kansai Gaidai. Her name is Ayumi, and she seems to be a swimmer. I honestly don’t know much about her, and I can’t really say whether she sounds sweet, shy, or whatever, so I’ll have to base a first opinion on her when we finally meet. I’m slightly wary of meeting her, but I’m like that with most people I’ve spoken via emails only to.  Hopefully, it won’t be as awkward as I feel like it will be.

Moving on, I was recently assigned my dorm rooming. I reside in Seminar House IV, along with my new friend Khaulah. We aren’t rooming together as we desired, but we’re still very close. I suppose that’s something. I also have a Japanese roommate, according to an email sent to me. That’s also something, but makes me very wary as well. I’ve never dormed with anyone in my life before (unless you count orientation as a freshman at UNT…no one counts that.), and yet my first dormmate is a Japanese student. Well, if I’m going to do something, might as well do it big and loud, and as best I can, I suppose. This is guaranteed to be an awkward experience – I just hope we don’t clash. Here is a picture of what Seminar House IV looks like from the outside:

Seminar House IV

This is the most recently built Seminar House…I believe it was finished in 2006 or so? I don’t mind that it’s the furthest dorm away from the campus, but I do hope that it fits me as a person. I am somewhat glad to not be in Seminar House III though. That’s probably a little too American, and I’m not going there to remain as I am. A little change must be in order.

Ah…moving on again, I am now going to be a part of INFES, which is Kansai Gaidai’s cultural festival with which many international students can participate and show off a part of their country. Out of singing, dancing, introducing my country,  and bringing something from here, I chose cooking. I’m not sure what I’ll make yet…honestly, the best thing I make is salsa. I’m always complimented on my salsa, and I love making it. I don’t make that retarded salsa that you get in stores that tastes oh-so-sweet, but the real kind that will get hotter and hotter as more time passes. The kind that is spicy enough to make even those old, hard-ass, white men that think they own the planet cry. I took great pleasure in hearing I made someone cry from my salsa. Great pleasure.

Let’s see…I just bought a laptop online two days ago, and it will hopefully arrive before I’m ready to go to Japan. 3-5 business days, so that could be anywhere from Wednesday to Friday. I am not looking forward to that. Well, we’ll see what happens. It’s a refurbished laptop, and was dirt-cheap…approximately five hundred dollars, until you tack on the necessary 2-year warranty. Also an Asus, so I might be able to play some games on it. I surely hope so. I didn’t have enough money to get a laptop with up-to-date video cards…well, we’ll see. If nothing else, it’s better than the desktop we have at the moment.

Which now brings me to my list. Honestly, I don’t have a list to declare, but after looking at some other blogs, I have a better idea of what I may need to do.

• Clothes
  • I have many, many things I need to get in this department. Since Texas is hosting its tax-free weekend, I’m going to see what I can do with that.
• Electronics
  • MP3 Player
    • I was actually told that I might be receiving this from a friend of my mother, so I think I can check that off.
  • Laptop
  • Flash Drives
    
  • Camera
    • I kind of have this taken care of. As far as I’m concerned, I’m just going to get a digital camcorder while I’m there, but my camera part is taken care of.
• Funds
  • Financial Aid
    • This has been squared off. My tuition was automatically paid for, and my refund money to pay for housing doesn’t come in until next week. Nothing I can do about that, but it does come in on my UNT Debit Card. How handy. So, I’ll be taking that little thingamajigger over on with me.
  • Travelers Cheques and Cash
    • I don’t want to deal with Cheques. They’re more secure, yes. They can be lost and replaced, yes. That’s true, but…I just don’t want to deal with them. Plus I’d have to order them…ah. I may just get them. I still have some time. All right, ordering on Monday.
  • Credit Card
    • Yes, well, this card has caused me quite a bit of grief so far. I was turned down for a few things because of the debt on it, but that’s not entirely my fault. But, I will be dragging this card on over with me overseas for emergencies. Fun, fun.
• Documents (make copies of)
  • Insurance Cards (both ISIC and my UNT insurance card)
  • Travel Information
  • Medical Information
  • Passport w/ Visa
  • Bank Account Information
  • Place of Residence in Japan
  • Contact Details for while in Japan
• Duties
  • Give my mother Power-of-Attorney (this will take care of any emergencies I may come up against in Japan and allow her to make decisions if I am in a situation where I cannot)
  • Get my prescriptions and have them translated
  • Eye appointment
  • Doctor appointment
  • Tell Chase Morgan Bank I will be venturing overseas

There may be more than that to take note of, but these are the main items to check off. Must start packing.

Thanks for stopping by.

So…it’s almost been a month since I last updated. Well, well, well. Many things have taken place over this past month, though I can’t recall everything. First things first though…

I have recently played this amazingly fabulous visual novel (VN) called “Ever17.” For those of you unaware of what a visual novel technically is, it’s basically a game that places more emphasis on the words and texts as opposed to the graphics and detailing. It is not a movie, and can be very interactive. If you can, try to remember those old Goosebumps stories where you choose what endings you’ll receive.

“If you think Rodger should try on the duck cap, turn to page 57. If you think he should try on the beaver suit, turn to page 49.”

Remember that kind of thing? This is similar…but you don’t have to turn pages. Under normal circumstances, you are given a set amount of choices (anywhere from 2-5 choices at a time) and you pick whichever one appeals to you most. Of course, most of these games are made for males and so you’re, of course, trying to be with a certain type of woman (not necessarily in a sexual fashion). However, the stories are made so as to appeal to any sort of person at all. An example of how you choose a path may be:

Ever17

The point of the “game” is to entice your interest without having to resort to fancy schmancy graphical arts. Now, I adore Final Fantasy and other major games with all the lovely graphics of the amazing hot men and gorgeous women in full detail, but simplicity at its finest is more than easy enough to appreciate. Now, you may think, “Say what? Pictures? Bah, who gives a damn! FMVs ftw! I need me my cinematic MOVIES!”

Well, sorry, but if you’re going to stick to those kind of games just because they’re big and large and are always boom, boom, boom, then you’re missing out. The text in the visual novel reads in a first-person format, and is often done in a natural way – not very flowery as one would expect. These are normally just average people that are experiencing something unnatural. You’ll normally be able to identify with everyone, and the fact that you can choose what you want to do with whom makes it even more enjoyable. Well, now that you know, more or less, what a VN is, I will move on to tell you about the basic plot of Ever17.

“Ever17 is the tale of seven individuals who come to be trapped 153 feet within the underwater marine theme park, LeMU. During an apparently normal day at the park, a massive accident happens, placing almost half of the facility underwater. The path to the surface and the communication lines are cut off. In addition, LeMU is under constant assault by severe water pressure, limiting time to find a means of escape to 119 hours. Escape is not the only concern, however; many questions arise as to the legitimacy of the accident and whether or not those trapped there were brought there for a purpose.”

This was quoted from Wikipedia, and is actually the most concise way of summarizing it. The story, in the end, is not so clear-cut, and I found myself hoping that every character would survive in the end. Well, this and that happened, and I finished the first four available routes (VNs have different routes for you to go, with a multiple number of endings to receive) and finally unlocked the last one. The last route was the longest, and ended up just being an epilogue…but as soon as it got to its climax…I was stunned. I couldn’t believe what had taken place…and it had all made sense (finally!) at the VERY end of the game. I was lost, confused, and horribly unable to understand what was going on throughout the game, but the mystery of it all propelled me forward. And then, everything just clicked. I understand, and after I beat the game, I reviewed over the entire thing in my head over the next few days. Every word, action, and whatnot suddenly made sense, and I understood what all had taken place. I understood how everything had been wired together, and it made sense.

The game had completely fooled me.

I loved it.

I am still utterly stunned…but, let’s move away from that fascination of mine and move on to the next part of that particular series: 12Riven. Now, 12Riven has yet to be translated just yet…but that’s going to be my new job. All of you, by now, should already know of my fascination with manga…this is a step up. Translating visual novels is more time consuming, and takes far more knowledge of Japanese to keep it steady and rolling as it should. I’m not sure if I can do it, but I won’t know until I try. Wish me luck.

In other news:

My Certificate of Eligibility arrived a couple of weeks ago and I sent it off to the Japanese Consulate in Houston, Texas in exchange for a visa to enter into Japan. In my CoE package, I received details of my stay (dorm/homestay), medical insurance details, and other various items including a map and detailed outline of the Kansai Gaidai campus (in Japanese, of course).  Bah, unfortunately, I was put in a dorm. However, I have found the silver lining to this: my dorm stay should allow me to accommodate myself to Japanese lifestyle as a whole, and allow my Japanese to become better overall. So, I will gladly stay in the dormitories and just make sure that I will be ready when I apply for a homestay for the Spring. That’s fine…as long as I can still attend Japan.

I recently received an email detailing the many cultural programs available:

Kyoto Tour
Support Program for Japanese Life
Home Visit Program
Experience Japan Program

The SPP (speaking partner program (support program)) and the HVP program are both something you must sign up for and send in an attached application. I am wary of doing the HVP program, solely because it seems far too fake. I don’t want to spend time with a family for 2-3 days that is just going to fake everything in order to make sure I have a great time. That’s neither fun, nor is it reality.

In the past, I’ve done something similar – I stayed with a family in France for a week, and though it seemed a bit fake at first…drama soon ensued. I saw things that just couldn’t be covered up, and though I was horrified at the time, I was very grateful. What a wonderful family, although I still can’t speak French to save my life. Makes me sad.

The SPP program is also something I’m wary of. My friends have told me to stay far away from this program as most of it consists of women who are looking for boyfriends. I have heard that girls that sign up are SOL, and I don’t want to deal with that. I’ve had enough problems with Japanese people here at my own university that make promises and break them in such flippant manners. That’s rude, inconsiderate, and disrespectful. These past experiences have seriously made me rethink why I’m studying Japanese…but that’s all right. I still want to study it as strongly, if not more strongly than I did in the past. Despite all I’ve dealt with in the past three years, I will still participate in this program.

Last bit of news to note:

I need a laptop for my study abroad. I’ve narrowed the choice down to the Asus laptop with Intel Core 2 Duo Processor. It’s approximately $1200, and has 6GB RAM with 500GB hard drive. It also carries a Windows 7 upgrade, which I rather like having available to me. So, I went down to Best Buy last night to go sign up for the installment plan (18 months without financing) and buy it…and it’s not there. Even more, I was denied for their credit thing. Fucking pissed off. Horribly pissed off.

Ahhh…but after that, I looked at the little receipt thingie I received, and saw that there was an option she hadn’t told me about before. She asked me, “Do you rent or own?”

That was all fine and dandy until I saw that receipt which had the option of “own/rent/board.”

…I’m sorry, what? I don’t remember her asking me if I boarded. I board. I’m a student. I don’t have money to rent or own anything. What the hell? Hell no. I could have been accepted with this small little detail that she neglected to mention.

I’m over it now – I’m gonna try elsewhere…but that little bitch better not cross my path again. Grr, I say, grr.

But, that’s all to report at the moment. I’ll give you another update sometime later. Until then!

So…this isn’t really related to Japan, but more about my interesting life. This past Thursday, my mother decided that she was going to go up to Kansas to see my grandmother who’s been having trouble as of late. So, I decided I’d randomly go up with her. She’s been badgering me to go see my grandmother for forever, so hey, why not, right?

Everything starts on Thursday. I carry an avid interest in translating and do various translations of manga (Japanese comics) online for fun. I don’t know, I find it exciting. o.O Anyway, I was brousing online at mangahelpers.com for a manga to translate since I was OVERLY annoyed from having to do a manga concerning taxonomy. I searched for a taxonomical term for this one manga for an HOUR. Taxonomical terms in Japanese are BITCHES to find in English, and this author just HAPPENED to falsify information which made it ever so harder. Annoying. One word, and I was turned off of that particular chapter for a long, long while. In any case, I found a manga called Country Road, and was IMMEDIATELY taken in by it. It had to do somewhat with politics and supernatural stuff, and so, I tried it out.

Translating this manga was very easy, more or less. There was a grammar point that I hadn’t seen before, ever, but I found out what the hell it was. :3 Thank you, Dasha. :3 Anyway, I ran through about 13 pages out of 45 that night, and went to bed exhausted. On FRIDAY, I woke up at about…11:30-ish, and since I didn’t have to go to work until about 2:30, I had plenty of time to work on the manga some more. Only got about 10 more pages done before I had to leave, and then I went up to work. Of course, I IMMEDIATELY pulled out my flash drive, and raced through the damn thing. Given all the distractions that pulled me away from my lovely translating, I finished about 3.5 hours later. Not too shabby.

I was happy, and immediately uploaded it (with mistakes and all. I vouched to do those at home). That was exciting. Got home, finished shit, woke my mom up, and we were out of the house by about (lol) ten or eleven that night. Now, let me tell you why this was a poor, poor idea. Firstly, we didn’t eat dinner – mistake number one. Secondly, I was sick (didn’t realize this til later), felt shitty, and was dead tired from my sick state and from translating all day. Thirdly, I was driving (second mistake). My car, I drive. She chose to take my car, I chose to drive. Horrible mistake.

Ten minutes later, I was yawning. WTF.

An hour later, and I was not seeing well. I’ll be honest, the trip from Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX to Olathe, KS is about eight hours long. I get tired driving that when I’m in good health, much less when I’m so sick I’m coughing and sniffing, and feeling shitty. Damn sinutis infection.  So, this is where the title of my post comes in. I was about two hours into the drive and that’s when I couldn’t see well at all. Have you ever mixed up the yellow and black diagonal-striped sign at the end of the guardrail with a police car? Oh, I’m quite certain you haven’t. Quite certain. Well, I did. Not just once, but every single time a bridge came around. Hahaha, funny. No.

That was messed up, and I hated it. I only told mom how shitty I felt and what I saw after we decided to just stay in a hotel that night in Oklahoma City (that’s only 3 hours from where I live. How shitty’s that?). Next day was better; we got to Paola, met my relatives plus some friends, cleaned, went out to eat, cleaned some more, and then got a disturbing call. Uh oh, something was wrong with my grandmother out at the hospital in a city 30 minutes away. Oh shit, time to go. Was almost done cleaning, too.

We went to see her, at eleven at night, at the medical center. That, was a very big reality check. What do you do when you grandmother doesn’t really recognize you, and is mad at something, but can’t really remember why? My grandmother pretty much has dementia/Alzheimer’s. Mumbling, incomprehensible speech…and I couldn’t understand a thing. I felt…like shit. I didn’t even know her anymore, and she didn’t really know me. She didn’t say my name, or my mom’s name, even once. Not even once. That hurts.

We had initially went there because she was being a pain-in-the-ass patient who didn’t want to take her meds or go to bed, and was being hostile as hell to the nurses. We got her to take her meds and go to bed, but the nurses…well, no hope for them. Didn’t really feel sorry for them either.

But that…that was horrible. I can’t believe how horrid that day went. I can’t believe how horrid this weekend went. I feel like shit. And I don’t want to even see my grandmother anymore – I can’t take it. That makes me feel like despicable person.

All right, so I have just received an email concerning the Homestay Program, and it’s rather…ah, disturbing in a way. More or less giving you a second chance to back out, and why you should back out – as if you are going towards your doom should you continue applying for the program. Here are the details of that letter:

Dear homestay-requesting students:

I am writing to you regarding your housing while studying at Kansai Gaidai during the fall semester of 2009.

Although you requested to stay with a Japanese host family, I would like to warn you that we may not be able to accommodate all homestay-requesting students in our homestay program due to the high number of students who wish to stay with host families and the limited number of available host families.

Before we are forced to make random placements, we want you to consider your housing option once again and let us know whether you are indeed committed to staying with a Japanese host family for the entire four months.

Attached, please find the Kansai Gaidai homestay expectations and the agreement form, which will be discussed during a meeting between the student and a host family prior to moving into the host family.

As you can well imagine, participating in the homestay program requires
adjusting to household rules (e.g. curfews). Students may feel a certain
amount of frustration at being treated as something other than an adult,
or they may think that the family is meddling in their lives a little
too much.

If you think that you fall in the following categori(es), we strongly recommend you to reconsider your housing option:

*******************************************************************************
1. You feel more comfortable being alone.
2. You may put high priority on being with friends, rather than on
spending time with your family.
3. You are very independent, and do not wish to be asked your schedule or whereabouts every day.
4. You have a strong food allergy or restriction.
5. You must have access to computer/internet at home.
6. You do not wish to commute for about one hour (each way)
********************************************************************************

Every semester, we regret that among homestay-requesting students, we
have some students who are not highly motivated to stay with a family.
They do not try to interact with families, but try to stay in their own
rooms most of the time when they are at their host family’s home, or put
high priority on their own activities, rather than balancing their time
between the family and their friends.

Although host families are expected to be informed of students’ schedules and whereabouts, some students find it very difficult to inform them of their plans every day.

If students have a strong food allergy or restriction and cannot change their diet while staying with a family, we regret that we cannot accommodate those students in our homestay program. Although we accommodated some vegetarians or students with strong diet restrictions in the past, the burden on the host mother was more than we anticipated and we strongly feel that it is unfair for us to ask the host family to change their meals according to the students’ diet for four months.

As for computer access at home, please be advised that computer/internet
access is not a required condition when we ask the family to host students. In other words, it is always possible that your family will not have any computer/internet access at home. Therefore, if you think it impossible to survive without computer/internet access at home, we strongly recommend that you stay in one of our dormitories.

Please also note that the locations of host families vary from a long walk to train rides. Since not all the families are located close to the university, students must expect an average of one hour commuting each way. Commuting involves walking, bicycling, or using public transportation, such as buses and trains. Since the Japanese public transportation system is extensively developed and well run, commuting may not be as difficult as it seems. However, some students have found it very difficult to spend one hour for commuting each way.

For your information, we have four different dormitories, and dorm residents are invited to participate in the week-end home visit program as an alternative to homestay. Although it is not identical with a homestay program, dormitory students may have opportunities to experience the Japanese way of life through this week-end home visit program.

After reading the above and attached documents, please let me know whether or not you still would like to stay with a Japanese family no later than July 10. Please send a short response to: misako@kansaigaidai.ac.jp.

After July 10, if the number of students who wish to stay with Japanese
families still exceeds the number of available families, we will conduct
random placements, and let you know as to which housing option you have
been assigned.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

And so…there you are. Disturbing, yes? Most certainly, it definitely is. I am trekking towards my doom with this program, and I can’t be more wary. I knew this was coming, knew that I was wary before it did, but, now I can’t help but be even more cautious than before. What will my journey find with this new development? Will the heroine (that is I) be able to have her wish and be with a family?! Or will the accursed villains (that would be the school) keep from accomplishing her dreams and bring her crashing back down to reality?!

Stay tuned for the next episode of…

Wait, what do I even call myself? I’m not even sure. Any ideas? Well, I’ll figure out something, I suppose.

A month into the summer, and I am left calculating how much money I should be able to get by the time my job ends (around mid-August). Damn, if I’ll barely make the 1200 cut I need to buy my laptop, including gas, and random food splurges. Huh…I should visit the gym but I’m rather too lazy (which is why I’m fat as is).

Speaking of which, I have yet to choose my classes for Kansai Gaidai University, because I am really trying to hold out for when the new list comes out…but, time’s-a-ticking. I don’t even know what I want, and I definitely can’t guarantee that whatever classes I wish for will actually be there when I go for them. And that’s not to say anything about the actual method used to pick your classes at KGU. Oh, brilliant, I get to have a lottery number, and maybe have the chance to get number 500 which means I won’t be able to choose the classes I wish? Oh, how lovely! You’re really far, far too kind, KGU. Thank you for such a democratic approach.

Also, thank you for not yet giving my Certificate of Eligibility. Take your time, of course. Only two more months, though I would love to be able to sign up for my Visa long before I leave. You know, that thing that Japan requires for me to step into the country as a student? Yes, yes, that thing. Oh no, I’m not angry at all! Please do take your time.

Let’s not forget about my loans, which I have yet to complete. I need to finish my MPN signature (long form) and ship it off to UNT. I will be doing that tonight (procrastination for the world?). But, nothing more on that. Leastwise, I will be receiving a small grant. Not much, only 1200, but that’s fine. Better that than nothing.

I can’t really do much but play video games and go to work this summer – much better than last summer where I earned a ton of money at the risk of losing my mentality. Yay, for tons of monies, but wait, my mentality? Money! Mentality? Money! Mentality? Thanks to you, FOREVER 21, I am still drowning in a sea that used to be my brain. Thank you, forevermore.

I just ate a cheeseburger a few hours ago and realized that…I don’t much prefer them anymore. Nor do I prefer much fast food at all.

“Mom, won’t you cook for me?
“If you do dishes.”

Sounds dashing to me. I have no wish to cook for myself and potentially die. No. At least if she kills me, I have someone to blame when I’m floating over the world as a ghost.

“Mom, you have sullied me!”

But no, I love my mom. Quite so. And thus, this entry is finished. Do I sound American to you? I feel like I was thinking of all these words in a British accent as I went. Odd – quite so.

As of current, I’m now considered a senior at the University of North Texas, and have been selected for a yearlong study-abroad trip to Kansai Gaidai in Hirakata, Osaka. Located on the north-eastern edge of Osaka, Japan, Hirakata has a population of approximately four hundred people, give or take.

A lovely view of Hirakata

I, myself, will be attending Kansai Gaidai, a school that needs no words to describe its very beauty. Must you doubt the essence that this schools holds within it?

Kansai Gaidai University