Lauren's Adventures in Japan

I swear there will be a picture update soon

2009-07-08T10:08:34Z

I am the laziest person on the planet :(

Observation 1: Japan has yet to discover WD-40. Every braking bike makes my ears bleed.
Observation 2: It is very easy to spend a lot of money here.
Observation 3/Prediction: Climbing Mt. Fuji may or may not kill me.

Amuse yourselves with this for now :)

More observations because I don't want to edit pictures

2009-06-30T05:34:36Z

PICTURES SOON I PROMISE.

Um. So, let's seeeee.

1) On packed trains (even only slightly packed trains), there is little to no effort made to keep yourself upright. If the train stops suddenly, you allow yourself to be thrown onto the person behind you. I do not understand this logic :(

2) I have seen way more nose-picking here than I've ever seen stateside, haha

3) Japan is a bag culture. Children going to school have a backpack, a small cloth bag (sometimes multiple) tied to said backpack, a quilted bag in their hands... Everyone has five million bags, all quite small! There's also the habit to use shopping bags as just, like...bags. Which leads us into...

4) There is an insane love of brands here. So, if you buy a bag from Coach, you'd better get a shopping bag to put it in that's just as ~*fabulous*~. Think Abercrombie and Fitch bags (sturdy, thick paper with woven handles) in every store everywhere, hahaha.

5) A (moving?) truck drove by us today and honked and waved at us. Japan sure is hilarious - like they've never seen a white person before!

6) Sometimes cold meds are not coated. BLECH.

7) The word for snot is literally translated as 'nose water'

Can you tell I have a cold?

Exciting!

2009-04-30T10:17:39Z

It's almost Golden Week! I get next Monday-Thursday off! Hopefully I'll stop slacking and post more pictures :)

More Observations Plus Pictures (Finally!)

2009-04-24T13:41:04Z

A few more funny things about life here, because Mom won't stop harassing me ;)

The other day we were crushed in the train in the morning. The commute has never been pleasant, but it was atrocious... I was, literally, standing on one leg, crushing this poor guy with all of my weight via my shoulder/elbow. I hid my face in Hillary's back the whole time! The funny thing is, you're not supposed to apologize, not supposed to really pay any mind to anyone. You pretend that you aren't on top of someone. Of course, I got the giggles, and they already think we're crazy, so...

On a totally random note, one of the best things about our phones is that they come with a million little picture icons. My friend Morgan summed it up best when she said "Some of them are totally random, too. Like, when are you ever going to need to use an animated picture of a rocket ship flying into outerspace when you're texting someone? The best thing to do is to put totally random ones in there. Like, 'I'm hungry *Mt. Fuji*'" I love my friends here!

Observations from Disneyland will come with Disney picture posts. Let's just say that Hillary and I stood out even more than usual.

Shibuya, to get our phones!!

Tokyo, the land of over-stimulation

This is the site of that massive crossing

MASSIVE crossing. Lots of people. I'll get a better picture before I leave, haha.

We ventured to Ginza a day or two later! We sat down and had onigiri (rice balls) for lunch.

And I attempted to blend in with the surroundings.

And then we decided to walk to Akihabara from Ginza!

We followed the train lines

And went through lots of neat little places

I was, of course, artistique

This was in a very tiny back street we wandered down because we saw lights

I looked like a doofus for taking pictures of trees because they had nice color gradients

And Japan proceeded to be the coolest place on the planet.

Akihabara at night! Yes, that is a girl in a maid outfit. They have lots of maid cafes there.

Our next adventure (some days later) was our first experience with tabehodai (all you can eat) here in Japan that wasn't ice cream.

Shabu-shabu! You take those trays of meat and put them into boiling broth with veggies. It's really, really good. And I actually get beef! Morgan looks quite excited

Our pot, and my bright green melon soda

Jenny was on veggie duty

And Hillary was a goofball, as usual.

This is not the last of shabu-shabu tabehodai. We went a week later. Very good, but very fattening!! Following this (by another few days. It's been so long!!) we went on another hanami, before all the sakura were dead.

A little place near our house. It was really nice to sit out there and just chill

We like taking pictures of each other taking pictures of each other taking pictures of each other taking pictures of...

Ben's having fun :)

And Josh lounged in the shrubs.

Afterwards we went to the arcade...but I'm saving those pictures for another day! Miss you guys!!

A post about life

2009-04-14T14:08:01Z

Forgoing pictures for the moment, since I've been busy (read: lazy) and haven't edited any more. But I figured I should just do a general post about life here and all the things I've learned so far, especially since Mom is always hounding me to write more stuff down here :)

Friends: It's funny how I always have to relearn that it's really the people you're with that make the experience of going abroad even more enjoyable. Morgan, a friend who's been here since the beginning of the Fall semester, went on a late night walk with me. We talked about a lot of things, but at some point the discussion moved towards what this would all be like if we weren't here with all the people we loved. Japan is absolutely amazing. But the Japan I know is filled with hanami with my friends, runs to the arcade, and running around Tokyo. When I come back (which I will, trust me :) ), it'll be a whole new experience. This is both good and bad. I hope that next time I make it to Tokyo I find such wonderful people and do such fun things.

The Japanese: There are a few things the Japanese will not tolerate, and one of them is eating/drinking things past the expiration date. Morgan learned (or shall I say learnt? our New Zealander was very adamant about 'learned' not being a word) this first hand when a bunch of girls brought a loaf of bread to school and passed it around, eating it. She inquired, obviously, and got the answer that it would be going bad the next day. Her response was that you could eat it until it got moldy, and even then if there were little spots those could be torn off and the rest would be fine. They were mortified. The five-second rule also came into play, prompting the same response. We also don't get smushed as badly in trains as the Japanese do, which Morgan attributes to our 'gaijin cooties' (gaijin being foreigner). Everyone still stares at us.

Gaijin: The Japanese stare, but so do the other gaijin. It's like you have to acknowledge that there's another outsider, because you're one as well, and you're decently rare. It's actually really fascinating... I'm so used to the U.S., or Europe, where, unless someone's speaking (and even then in America this isn't the case), you have no idea where they're from. Here it's painfully obvious when you're an outsider. I didn't realize how strong I would feel this until I actually got here and experienced this sense of exclusion. It's not horrendous, but it's definitely there.

The Language: One great thing is most everyone is sweet about us being totally helpless at Japanese. Hillary, my friend who came over with me, had a hard drive failure in her laptop this morning. Being the resident tech geek, I went to assist. We managed to find screwdrivers that fit, and then pretty much went to an electronics store and thrust the dead hard drive at them, saying that we needed a new one. Much was said, though the only thing we understood was that what they had was too big, and we needed to go to the other store. We did, and the poor woman at the counter attempted to explain warranties to us while we stared blankly and tried to throw English words to assist her, as if she'd know the words if we said them to her. What was nice, though, was that everyone apologized for not being better at English. We, of course, did the opposite. Some men helping us with directions when we first got here were insanely impressed that we could just thank them in Japanese. It's refreshing to have someone be nice to you when you butcher their language.

Random: I'm also beginning to really appreciate ovens. I want to bake so badly! Still, I have no room to complain. I'm ridiculously spoiled here in that I have a burner and a mini fridge in my room.

Have I mentioned that Japanese television is hilarious? We watch a lot of game shows, and end up screaming at the TV with the audience.

I reaaaally need to get going. I have a huge quiz tomorrow and it's late :( Let me know if you guys have any questions you want answered, or pictures of anything! We're doing shabu shabu tabehodai again tomorrow (all you can eat meat shabu shabu. It's amazing~), so I'm sure that'll bring some more exciting pictures. Love you all!

Hanami and Akihabara

2009-04-09T09:45:24Z

Things have been going great here! I'm mostly settled in, though we still spend about every day walking around for 5+ hours. Yesterday I'm pretty sure we left around 1pm and got back around 8pm. PHEW! Lots of walking, which is good for me :) We went to Ginza, walked back to Akihabara, and generally just...messed around. Classes start in about 4 days time, and I'm anxious. It looks like at least a few of my classes will be fun, and Hillary will be taking all but one with me!

I can see why no one ever wants to come home. Everything seems so magical here! My phone is amazing, there's a ton of good food and, as weird as it is, all the public toilets in restaurants and karaoke places, and even at our school, have heated seats. It's like I'm living in the future! And I guess, for most of you (actually, all of you) I am ;)

Hanami is, essentially, where you go sit under the cherry blossoms, talk, and get drunk for hours.

We ate a lot

And were there for forever (5 hours on your butt on a tarp on hard ground is not so fun, but the company was great!)

To go a bit out of order, this is on the walk to get our gaijin cards, which is pretty much where you tell the Japanese government you're going to be in the country for over 3 months, and get registered for an ID card. It was impossible to find, but at least it was pretty where we were walking.

Afterwards we were starving, so we stopped by a Mos Burger because we just wanted a hamburger! Of course, they were totally different than anything we have in the states, but they were still good!

Another out of place-r, but too hilarious to pass up. Yes, those are who you think they are. Yes it is a manga. I don't quite understand, either.

BACK ON TRACK!

Lunch at a curry place in Akihabara yielded ninja cups. They were nearly sharp and really thin around the edges, which just made us think of hidden weaponry, and thus, ninjas.

And the essential engrish - which is, for those of you who don't know, what we call the butchering of the English language by the Japanese. Typically it results in pretty funny things, like this.

At first glance, this picture does not seem very exciting.

And then we see why Lauren went sprinting along to take this picture. I love Japan.

Cute little robot on the ground, with Hillary and I cameoing :)

A train station, for your enjoyment

That's it for now! More stuff later, like Shibuya (which is VERY EXCITING), Ginza, and more Akihabara!

Cherry Blossoms Etc.

2009-04-05T00:40:53Z

Ahaha, whoops! Sorry everyone. I forgot to make the whole directory public. It's fixed now, though, so you should be able to see the pictures :)

So yesterday we went out to sit and watch the cherry blossoms at about 5pm, and didn't leave until around 10:15pm! It was nice, even if by the end it was freezing, kind of drizzly, and my butt was numb from sitting on the hard ground on a tarp for 5 hours. Morgan came over afterwards and we talked 'til 2am (whoops), and today Hillary and I are going shopping.

View of the buildings near school

And then it was time for the welcome party, which involve shamisens

And epic martial arts

Action shots!

And then that evening it was time for karaoke

During which Hillary belted it out like no other

And we had a ton of fun :D

That's all for now! More pictures to come :)

First picture post! The abode

2009-04-04T06:29:02Z

So, after a little bit of a bumpy start (starvation), things are really looking up. It's totally amazing here! Last night after taking a rather horrific placement exam that we all felt pretty poorly about, Hillary and I went and got our bus passes. After that we went back to the school and people watched for a few hours (after I bought a hoodie and bag which I'll take pictures of later) before going to a welcome party thing. The party was...not very exciting, but we got to see a few neat things and were accosted there by our friends Morgan and Ben, who have been here for half a year already. We were dragged with them to karaoke, which was way more fun than expected (we were there for two hours!), and then off to Shinjuku to the gay district to go to a gay dance club for an hour or so until we caught the last train back home. It was really fun, and really tiring! Hillary and I are just relaxing a bit today, and will go watch the cherry blossoms in an hour or so. Tomorrow we'll probably go shopping, and then Monday we get to go register with the government to get our foreigner id cards (we just call them gaijin cards) and our cell phones.

The (first) train we took from Narita Airport

Welcome to my room!

My desk

My view (and that's my private balcony, too)

My 'kitchen'

Bathroom

It's compact, and, as you can see, you're supposed to hose yourself off before you get in the tub (so that's a little soap dish thing under the sink there)

Breakfast pastry the morning after arrival. I think it had cream in it. I wasn't sure, I just bought it. It was really good, though!

Hillary drinking her vending machine coffee, which comes out hot, by the way

It's kind of cold, hahaha. I look like a hobo compared to all the Japanese women in their heels and skirts

Cherry blossoms by school!

I wish I had time to post more, but we're about to go look at the cherry blossoms, so I'll have to post more later :) Miss all of you, but I'm having a blast at least!

Here!

2009-04-01T09:56:13Z

I'm in Japan, safe and sound, but wayyy too tired and hungry to say much else. I'm happy, but also horribly freaked out. Miss you all already.

First Post!

2009-03-31T04:05:12Z

Okay :) This is going to be my Japan journal! I'll still be posting on my normal one, but this is for so my family has something to watch, and so I don't spam up my normal journal with photo sessions (though, depending, I might do that anyways).

I leave tomorrow morning for Tokyo. I'm completely and totally freaked out.

I'll make a post (with pictures!) when I arrive at my home for 4 months <3