Week 9 in Japan: Class trip to Iwate Prefecture

       Week 9 has was here and now gone in Japan. It's hard to believe it is already almost December but at the same time when I look at what I've done in the last two months I can see that it has been full of a lot of great experiences. This week I went on a class trip to Iwate prefecture for "Multicultural Communication Training". Just over 30 students from Akita University went. I left for this class trip on Saturday at 7am and got back Sunday night. The drive took about 3 hours each way but it included some really great scenery, I had friends to talk to and also the bus was nice so it wasn't so bad. We stayed at the "National Iwatesan Youth Friendship Center" along with students from Hirosaki University and Iwate University. Over the two days there were various events that we did all together but usually we split into small groups. One of the things that was a big deal for me was that Marina(from last weeks blog) and I gave a presentation on Akita University to everybody at the camp (over 100 students). We had prepared a power point presentation over the previous weeks with information about Akita Unversity. We basically both would say the same thing but I would say it in English for people at the camp who didn't understand Japanese. Just a couple minutes before we went up to do the presentation I talked to Marina and told her we should do something to make the crowd happy and laugh right from the start of the presentation. Making your audience laugh will make them more comfortable and interested, plus it will make you more relaxed which will make the whole thing turn out better. I told her we could start with me saying my name and hello in Japanese (Konnichiwa) and her saying hello in English. After saying "hello" I had the idea for us to simutaniously wink and put one arm out with the peace sign. I was surpised and happy that she decided to go along with my idea. To my relief and surprise the crowd clapped, cheered, and laughed! From there everything was smooth sailing. The food at the camp was good Japanese style food and it was also a buffet too so I enjoyed that a lot. The camp was located in a great location so my only real complaint for the trip is that there were no activities outside. I would have loved to go for a hike or spend more time enjoying the view of the mountain while I was there.

       I'm going to keep this weeks blog short and sweet. As always thanks for reading! Please come back next week for my next blog and feel free to leave me a comment below.

 I might look kinda tired because Friday night I slept about an hour and Saturday night I got about 4 hours. All things considered though I still felt pretty great. This was Sunday.

 Here is a picture I found on a friends Facebook. This was on Sunday just before we left. Look carefully and you will see that I'm in the picture.

 Here is a picutre of just the group of students from Akita University. I actually notice now when looking at it that it is not everybody from our class though. Also we took a picture with everybody from the camp together but I don't know how I'm supposed to find it. I'll probably have it for next weeks blog though.

 On Friday I went again to teach in Yurihonjo to a class of pre-schoolers. They surprised me with some pictures they had taken of me from the first time I taught there. It actually really was a surprise because I didn't even know they took pictures of me to begin with. Again I don't have access to a scanner at the moment so you are left with photos of photos. Inception.

 Playing a game to learn Englsih. These kids are all so unique and smart. I haven't been around them much but I could already tell you a little about each kid.

Week 8 in Japan: Jazz club and Purikura プリクラ

        My eighth week in Japan, coming your way now. As you may or may not have noticed my last blog was like three days late so I'll start off telling you about Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and why they I was too busy to blog.
        First off this past week was very busy with homework and studying. We had a day off a week ago because a professor took a day off so to make up for it and to get ready for midterms there has been a lot to do. Other than that on Monday I went to jazz club for the first time. I used to play bass a decent amount especially through high school but stopped playing competely in college and the summer after. The club went from 7-9 but it's pretty laid back so people come and go as they want and need to. We had a drummer, piano player, trombone, saxaphone, guitar, and me on bass. The first song was pretty rough because I had kind of forgotten how to read sheet music so I got lost a lot while we played. The next couple songs were better though. One song you might know that we played was "Georgia On My Mind".
        Tuesday I met with Ryouen (featured in previous blogs) to do an interview for a good friend of hers in China. It was some project that needed an outsiders opinion on a couple questions. The questions were first off: "How do you find success?" second: "What kind of success will you pursue?" then a few others like "What's are the advantages of the U.S. education system" and "What's the shortcomings of the American education system?" the shortcomings were easier to name. I made up answers on the spot so I can't remember what I said now but just think of the smartest thing possible and that's probably not what I said at all.
     Wednesday my friend Kaori and I met to help her with her English. We went to a "burger" place thats name translates to "Surprised Donkey". I put burger in quotations because in Japan it is called a burger place but to my surprise there are no actual hamburgers being sold. Just burger itself with rice, curry, or cheese or something. It was tasty but much different from American style burgers. Don't get me wrong though they have McDonalds here in Japan so you can still get your burger fix if need be.
     Next I'm going to skip all the way to Sunday which was the best day of the week for me. At noon I met with my friend Marina who I know from my part time job and a class we have together. First we had lunch at a really good Italian restaurant called Nove. It was really delicious, very tasty, and yummy. Next we went to a the biggest mall in Akita called AEON to do some shopping. The main thing we were looking for was a winter jacket for me. The thing is having talked to Marina in the past I knew she liked to shop and she has cool style so I asked her to help me pick out a new jacket. At first we were not finding much because I didn't really know where to start or what I wanted other than something warm that covered the top half of my body. However since I truly wanted her help and advice I told her we could pretend like I was a rich or famous person (both is good too) and she was my fashion coach who needed to buy clothes for me or at least help guide me because I have no real fashion sense (the last part is true). From there things went better at least in my eyes. We looked at lots of different jackets. I ended up getting one I really liked I'll probably be wearing it in future pictures so keep your eyes open, not shut.
      While at the mall we also decided to do Purikura. I had never done it before but I had heard about it. Basically it's like a photo booth that we have in the United States accept better in every way. Purikura is taken with a really nice camera so the pictures turn out really nice and then afterwards you can edit them. The biggest difference about Purikura is that it will automatically make some changes that are supposed to make you look better. The two things that are most noticable to me are that your eyes are bigger and your skin is more pale. It was 200 yen (total, not per person) to do one session and I guess it's normally 400 yen but it was a special deal for some reason on that particular day. So you go in take six pictures and then edit them afterwards. The editing process is a little annoying because there are tons of options but you have to make decisions really fast because there is a countdown timer. I made the mistake of choosing a bunch of small pictures with the same pics on the photo slab twice each. Oh well. Lastly It's worth mentioning that at the end you have an option that I think is very popular and that is to send the pictures digitially to a phone address. It doesn't cost anything extra and you still get the physical copy. The problem was neither of us had a phone address that they allowed so we just got the physical copies. Somehow only having the physical copy feels less real to me in some ways. I'll maybe scan the picture later to get better quality but for now I have pictures that I took with my Nexus 4 of the picture. If you go to Japan I highly reccommend trying Purikura, I was kind of reluctant at first to do it but somehow it ended up being extremely fun for me haha. The experience alone really was worth the money.
      This was a long blog post so if you made it this far thanks for reading and please check back again next week. Here are some pictures that I took:

 I went running on Thursday and Sunday at 6:30am. Crazyness for me to wake up that early but it's pretty great to see the sunrise. My friend Richenmin and I run from the apartment to the park. I feel like sunrises are special and worth waking up for... on occasion.

 A grocery store that I normally don't shop at has a giant bean stock leading to a castle in the sky. I'm a fan of Jack and the Bean Stock.

 Here are the pictures. The whole thing from taking photos to having them in your hands I think takes around 10 minutes. The dollar is for scale and cuz merica'.

 Part of what makes this fun is that it happens pretty fast so you kind of improvise as you go. The one on the left here is my favorite. I asked what a good pose was and that's what she came up with. Gonna use it all the time now o(≧▽≦)o

Week 7 in Japan:NoTimeoSay'Hello','Goodbye'. Also billards, nomihodai, and shopping.

      Hello everybody and welcome to week 7 of my blog. I'm late this week and for that I am sorry. This week has been really busy and some unexpected events have popped up (all good ones I assure you). I just got back from a morning run with my friend. We went out and ran at 6:30am, as you can probably guess I didn't schedule it for that time as I'm not usually a super early riser. We ran to the nearby park and got a great view of the sunrise so it was pretty awesome.
      One thing that happened during the week was after class on Thursday the 7th me and a couple friend went and played billards. It was me, two Romanians, a Russian, and an Indian. I had not played in a very long time but it was fun. It was about 525 yen or about 5 dollars to rent a table for an hour so it was pretty reasonable. The problem is that we stayed for I think 4 hours and were renting 2 tables so it was a little expensive. We played 8 ball, 9 ball, and cutthroat. I was definitely best at cutthroat.
      On Friday me and a couple Chinese friends of mine Ryouen (previously featured on my blog) and Fancy. Fancy is apparently her English name and I'm the only one who calls her that but I think it's a good name and It's an alternative to her Chinese name which I can't pronounce. We had a delicious sushi dinner where we had all the raw fish, veggies, rice, etc on the table and then we would take our own seaweed wrap or "nori" and make our sushi however we wanted. This was actually my first time having sushi in Japan. I've eaten a lot of raw fish but it has all been sashimi which is fish alone rather than with seaweed/veggies/rice. It was really delicious and I would post a picture but I don't have one. I think everyone took a picture of the meal prior to consuming except for me. Maybe somebody can send me their copy and I'll post it in the next blog. After the dinner Friday we went late to a late Halloween party.
      On Saturday I helped a friend write a report. We have the same class and the mid term report had to be in English so I helped out. In return she made me lunch so it was a pretty good trade off in my eyes. After that I had a different friend who wanted to go for a walk in the park. You should know by now I never turn down a walk in the park. Following that I went out with some friends to a bar in town. My friend is basically a pro snowboarder so we went to a bar where the owner was her snowboarding coach so we got some free food. Besides the food we got Nomihodai which is where you pay a set amount and you get free drinks for the next 2 or 3 hours or whatever is decided. It was 3,000 yen for 3 hours so at about 10 dollars an hour for drinks it really is cost effective if you plan on getting more than like 4 drinks.. cuz math and stuff. Nomihodai is very popular in Japan and is basically a buffet of drinking. I haven't really heard about this in the U.S. (but then again why would have I?) but I think maybe it would be a bad a idea for most bars in America. From the little experience I've had with it and from what I've heard Japanese people are responsible with how much they drink, even when everything is free.
      Sunday November 10th I went out with some friends and went shopping in Akita. Although we went shopping only one of us actually bought clothes. I haven't went shopping with friends many times but I don't think it is the best for me. Although I definitely enjoy it I don't think I will usually buy anything. I think I take after my dad a little bit in the sense that I take a long to make decisions sometimes. I'll have to see every option and weigh the pros and cons before making a decision. Also I don't like trying on clothes but since I'm in Japan I kind of have to since I don't know the sizing here yet so shopping would take even longer. I did buy ice cream though.. mmhhmm it was yummy. After shopping we went to my friend Kaori's house (who was also shopping with us) and had dinner with her parents. Her mom made some delicious curry so I'd called it a successful night.
      This was my week up til Sunday night. I was late on the blog because some things came up Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night but you'll have to tune in next week to hear about them. So rather than posting a week from now I'll try and post again on time at the end of the week, so maybe in like 4 days.

 The house we ate in was really cool. Really classic Japanese style.

 The pool place was really cool. It was called Big Shot and the best player in Akita plays at this place. I actually saw the guy briefly that night too. So I'm basically best friends with the best pool player in the world.. or something.

 Saw Ronald and had to get a picture. The kid in the picture was in the gaming zone. I wanted to take the picture with him in it too so I was trying to get his attention to look at the camera but he had the concentration of a brain surgeon. I then looked over his shoulder and saw he was playing Monster Hunter 4 and understood why. I think it turned out better this way anyways.

 At the ice cream place in Aeon with my snowboarding friend Kaori. Probably going to be able to start snowboarding in December.

Week 6 in Japan: Karaoke, Fall Colors

This last week has been another great one. The first thing that I did that comes to mind is a Halloween party on Thursday night, which was the actual day of Halloween. It was a party put on by my work mainly for employees but basically anybody was welcome. The style of the party was you bring a dish, I was asked to bring a desert so I actually just brought a couple bags of Kit-Kats because they are basically the only candy bar I am familiar with here. I said I wanted to bring candy because candy is important to have at a Halloween party. Around half the people who went dressed up and I went as a Pokemon Trainer. It was a very simple costume (i'll include a picture) but people liked it. Though a lot of people thought I was Ash from the Pokemon anime but I was just trying to be a generic trainer. Oh and it was confusing at first be cause in Japanese his name is Satoshi instead of Ash.

       On Saturday I went and had lunch with somebody I teach English to every other week. She wanted me to meet some people like her mom and sister. She said it was alright for me to bring a friend or two so my Chinese friend Yuan came also. It was very delicious and also free because her sister owned the restraunt or something... can't really remember.. but I do remember it was free! Also the service was great and they were truly kind. After I had finished my meal they asked me what my favorite and second favorite things were from the meal, I replied and thought they must have just wanted the opinion of a foreigner (they didn't ask anybody else) a couple minutes later they brought me a new bowl of rice and the two dishes I said I liked the most.. I was surprised and happy and ended up being really full too. I have a picture that Yuan sent me of the meal, i'll post it below. After the food and talking we went back to the apartment. Then me and my friend decided to go for a walk in the park because the weather was so nice. Here in Akita it is still around 60 everyday, but it also rains fairly often. The park was really great and we walked til it was dark so the sunset was pretty great too. Later that night I went to karaoke with some international students. People from Mongolia, Romania, Israel, Russia, and one Japanese. Karaoke was fun, everybody sang at least a little bit and the two girls from Mongolia were acutally very good. You pay a set amount of money regardless of how many people show up in your group because you just rent out a room. Also you get free non-alcoholic drinks (or I guess they are included in the rent fee) and alcoholic beverages are extra.
      Sunday I went and had lunch with my friend Chenmin, also went shopping but the guys clothes are very expensive. The lowest price I saw for a button up shirt, nothing too fancy, was over 90 dollars. Meanwhile girls fashion takes up the other four floors of the mall and they have nice looking womens clothes for like 5 dollars. They have some chain stores like Gap that I might go to. That way the prices are lower. Me and my friend also ended up going to Senshu park on the way home. It was raining on and off that day and I think that actually made the fall colors even better than they were the day before. Oh, one more thing we did was explore a high school that we found I think Japanese high schoolers are very interesting... I said we could just pretend we were international high school students but looking back on it I believe it was an all boys school, and my friend I was with was a girl... hmm. Later that night I met some Japanese friends of mine for dinner and then we went and hung out at one of their apartments. Two of the guys are the same ones that I was with last week. I think the picture I post will be mostly sufficient for showing what we did. Oh and that reminds me Sunday was the holiday Culture Day, it is a holiday that is anually on Novemeber 3rd and its for promoting culture, the arts, and academic endeavour. The holiday was on Sunday but most businesses and my college treat it like it was on Monday. For example buses are free to ride on holidays, and so Monday, although not November 3rd, had free bus rides.  
          Well thats it for this week, hope you enjoyed reading and I have a lot of pictures for you today.. yaay

 Yuki, Yuki, Me, and Marina. Yuki is a fairly common girls and sometimes boys name here. All First year students at college here. The things is their semester starts in the spring so they are all almost sophmores while I just started my sophmore year.

 The meal had a really good soup (my favorite) and various other things. This was my first Japanese style meal that didn't have a whole bunch of raw fish included.

 Me and Yuan. Shes from china and a really good cook. Her major is Japanese.

 Castle in the park (note that I didn't take this picture either, Yuan took it. Shes a good photographer).

 Shuto (left) and Yuta (right) are the ones in front that I was with last week. The ones in back are Ryouta to the left and Diachi to the right. All chemistry majors.. but a business degree is science too right?... right?. Fun night, and because they don't know English only Japanese was spoken, so that was good practice too.