The week till now

Well, the week has been, surprisingly busy.

On Tuesday me, Chihiro, Ken, Otosan, Okasan and Obaasan (grandmother) went out to a restraunt called "Saint Marc's." It was a bakery and restraunt, kind of reminded me of a very fancy Panera. Bread is really big here, I think it's because people don't have ovens in their houses, so baking isn't a task often performed by the average Japanese person. The meal was good. I got chicken - Yay Chicken! At first I was worried, because it looked really fatty, but then I realized it was the breast just served with the skin on top still. After I peeled that back it was delicious (though I don't think the waiters got that I was done, couldn't figure out why I'd left the "best part" on my plate... not to mention they didn't know the universal restraunt symbol for "I'm finished.") Between every course they came around with a new platter of breads, Macha Bread, Chocolate Bread, Poppy Bread, Onion Bread, Garlic Bread, French Bread, Asiago Bread, Crossiants, on and on. I think I ate like 12 rolls, and I ate the least! The portions of the meal were small, after that I knew why! Desert was really good though. I've learned that there are a lot of English words in Japan that have entierly different contexts in Japan. Like "Pie" is a piece of thin airy crispy waffer that's sweet. Not like, crust and filling, pie. My desert was "pie" sandwitched with cream to make a cake. It was served with some really amazing ice cream and even had a piece of white chocolate with "Happy Birthday (in Japanese)" written on it. It was a good dinner, and really interesting to see how western etiquitte has been fuzed with some Japanese elements.

On Wednesday I went to my normal slew of classes in the morning. Then HeeWon and Oglivie were hanging out so I chilled with them. They were going to get a late lunch/early dinner and I decided to tag along since well I had nothing else to do. I sat with them while they ate at a restraunt, I got an order of fries to not be rude to the restraunt, but not enough to ruin my dinner when I got home. I have a hard time paying for dinner, when I can get it for free if I wait an hour. Then we walked around the station and did Purikura, I think that's one of my favorite things about Japan. I rushed home, I was really nervous because my bus hit a lot of traffic but my Okaasan was very chill about it.

Thursday was a long day of classes... But when I got home it was just Okaasan and me for dinner. She eats very fast, so she always gets done before me. She normally doesn't leave the kitchen though when it's just us, because she cooks dinner or prepairs something for Otosan or one of the kids. So Thursday, I'm eating dinner, got about half a bowl of soup, a quarter thing of rice, and the last two hunks of meat that I've been slowly working on. And then I found out I was really turning Japanese (I really think so :D). Okaasan pulls out a cutting board on the counter in front of me. Her back was to me, but the kitchen is about 6ft wide, including counters and table space, so you're always in the middle of everything, and I was facing the counter top. Pulls out some fish. Gets her big knife. And then... THWAK - CRUNCH - RIP. She begins to chop off the heads, and pull out the guts of the fish while I'm just chilling, STILL EATING. I'm sipping my soup as I'm watching the blood and guts drain out of the fish after the head comes off. I'm gnawing on my slightly less fatty meat as I'm watching her fillet the fish. I managed to finish my dinner and keep it down. The next time she said I could try butchering fish myself, that's going to be an experience...

Friday (today) I got a lot of pieces back from my ceramics class, some are very good, but I have no idea how I'm going to get them home. One of the glazing turned out beautifully, I'm really happy about it. Then I went out to Mos Burger with a friend, and then ran errands with my Okaasan. She taught me how to cook Shrimp Shumai tonight, delicious!!

I also had the dillema of to go to Hiroshima or not. I had the luxury of waiting until the last minute because I didn't get group tickets with everyone. But here's the thing, it's actually cheaper NOT to get the group discount. On the Shinkansen there are reserved seats (which are exactlly as they sound) and non-reserved seats, which are essentally a free for all in the first three cars. When booking both seats you pay a service charge, but reserved seats are much much more expensive than non-reserved. So much so that even with the discount of a group ticket, it's still a little more expensive than just getting a non-reserved seat. (I did the research with a friend who got the reserved ticket.)

I decided, in the end, I'm going to go to Hiroshima, and stay the weekend. It's an almost painfully expensive trip for how long I can stay (I thought about skipping classes on Monday, but there also isn't much to do in Hiroshima...) but the thought of hearing the talk won me over. Every time I decided against it, I thought again "But I'm going to miss that talk." Not to sound dramatic, but I knew it'd be something that I wished I sucked it up and did for a long time after if I didn't go. There weren't many survivors of the bomb to begin with (given the scale and all that..) plus it happened a long time ago, so I can't imagine there's many left. And to have a chance to hear one talk, live, and in English, it strikes me a bit as, once-in-a-lifetime. Plus, I just had a birthday, so some of my birthday money will go to funding this trip as my birthday present.

I also found out that not only were other people staying the night, but some of them my friends! Unfortunately, because I jumped on the bandwagon late their Hostel was full. But they opted to stay in a more expensive hostel, like 60.00 US. So I found a significantly cheaper one (half the price) nearby. I figure by the time we wearily walk back to the Hostels it'll be late anyways, then we just have to meet up in the morning, and I think (looking at the maps) they're in walking distance.

I've been looking up stuff to do in Hiroshima, like I said, there isn't much, but at least two days worth, so I'm going to pack as much as I can in. I figure, people have spent 150.00 US to do something significantly less imporant than listen to an A-Bomb Survivor.

If I get there, and there seems like a lot to see, I may skip classes on Monday. Doing non-reserved shinkansen I can go back whenever. Plus, Hostels normally have open beds for just one person. And, at Kansai, you have a 10% attendance grade, but other than that they don't count attendance, it's just, miss more than 30% of the course and you fail. So having not missed a class yet, I can afford to skip if I want to...

I'm still hesitant if this trip is the right decision or not, but I think it is. I wouldn't be debating and rationalizing it so much if I didn't really want to go. Though I do have to get up at the near ass-crack of dawn 6:30am tomorrow... UGH....

Thank you guys for the previous comments, I appreciate it. And before I go, here's some random facts!



Random things I've learned about the Japanese:

1) They have the best Playlists Ever
Due to the mass amounts of public transportation everyone always has ear buds in, listening to their ipods and whatnot. But I have never EVER seen a Japanese person change the song, ever. In fact, I've never even seen their mp3 players. For all I know their headphone jack could just be snaked into their bags and pluged into nothing. And even if they're listening to the raido on their ipod or whatever, they never ever cange the channel, or even turn it off....

2) They don't yawn or sneeze
I've never seen a Japanese person yawn. Sleep on trains and busses, yes. But yawning and sneezing in public, nope, never seen one person. I know with the H1N1 people are likely freaking out about sneezing, but when you gotta sneeze you gotta sneeze! Yawning is nearly impossible to stop too...

3) They apologize even if it's your fault
I can't tell you all how many times my backpack has nearly taken off someone's head when I swing it on in the bus. I'm looking for my bus pass or digging through my bag (or chaning the song on my ipod :D ) and I bump into someone or get in a bicycle's way on the street.... and so on, but every time they also apologize, every person. I'm like, I know you're polite, but I was being a dumb foreginer...


Okay, love you all! I need to go to bed so I have some chance of getting up tomorrow!! I'm not bringing my laptop with me to Hiroshima, so I'll catch you all on the flip side!