Today, Mr. Potato Head is behind on things (sorry)

So I apologize. While I feel like my fan base isn't huge, I think I do have some awesome followers who look forward to this to bring a smile to them daily. To those people, I apologize.

So yesterday was actually a REALLY awesome day. We went to Ueno Park, which had the Ueno zoo. Size wise, it's smaller than the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo. However, this zoo is most famous for...

Pandas.

Now, most people know this, but for those who I don't: I don't like pandas. I've decided NOT to hate them.. but I really, really REALLY don't like pandas. I think they're useless, wasteful, pointless animals. Like.. WHY DO WE KEEP SAVING THEM?? I feel like nature is just TRYING to get rid of them, and we're stopping it.

..but that's a WHOLE 'nother story.

So anyway, I DID actually see pandas. The line to see them was HUGEEEEEEEE. Thankfully, we didn't have small children, so we could zoom through. Honestly, pandas look a LOT different from what I expected. First of all, they move pretty fast. Second, they were yellow and black (from how dirty they were). I'm still not a huge fan of them. However, after seeing that they can actually MOVE, I'm .08% more impressed by them than I was.

As much as I loved Ueno Zoo, some of it was really depressing.. the animals (like the hippos) had TINY, TINY areas... mostly concrete. The water for the sea lions was super green and bleh. However, perhaps one of the most impressive areas was for the gorillas. They had TONS of space.. and grass.. and stuff to do. But I mean, what can you expect having a zoo in a super urban area?

So afterwards we went to food at this ramen shop. I had some SUPER SPICY ramen, which made me super happy. Then, we explored the streets of Ueno, which had this awesome stand for 1000 yen, you get tons of chocolate and snacks. We had an impromptu picnic in Ueno... which I noticed the number of homeless people. I kept staring at this homeless guy... since then, I've noticed a lot of homeless people... kind of curious.

So, on a sort of happier note CLASSES STARTED TODAY!! On bad news, WOW I suck at Japanese! I'm currently at Level 4 Intensive Japanese, and while I can understand 80% of the writing, I cannot understand the woman's speaking... AT ALL. Besides, I'd rather have an easier time and bored than harder and wanting to kill myself from too much work.

My Urban Studies class sounds like it is going to be awesome. The entire class is based off of my midterm and the final... which is kind of awesome. The teacher is from Israel, and his accent is super cool.

Then, we went to Ginza. Even though it is by FAR the most expensive place in Japan so far, I loved it. It reminded me of the Magnificent Mile in Chicago, with all the designer stores and fashion and everything.. I wanted it all (though the price is BADDDDDDD). We also went to Abercrombie & Fitch, which made me feel right at home, since it's just like it is in America: Dark, smelly, and full of white people! Seriously.. tons of foreigners. Also, even though they're paid to, the people who worked there were super nice to our faces!

Even better: pretty sure one dude's job was just to stand there. Shirtless.... not that I minded. Now I know where the actually HOT, manly Asians are in Japan... even  if they're totally toolboxes.

So,  speaking of postcards: If you would like a postcard from me in Japan, please email me your address (xxpiroxxx@gmail.com) and I will try and get one to you!

Today, Mr. Potato Head is super excited to have his keitai!

 

I am once again part of the technology world of cell phones! As stupid as this sounds, things seem 1000x better now that I have a cell phone. I've realized just how important they are to my life.

So today started with ordering our cell phones and doing the paperwork... in Japanese. ALL in Japanese. Keep in mind, cell phone contracts are hard enough in English... not being sure exactly WHAT I was doing and signing was pretty scary.. I'm hoping it doesn't come back to bite me. Thankfully, we had the Waseda students to help us out.

Afterwards, we went out to "Curry and Naan" for lunch.. I'm pretty sure I've eaten more Indian food in my two weeks here than I have in my entire life.. it's so delicious, though.

Then we had our opening ceremony... it was a lot different than most ceremonies I've been to. There was a lot of introductions, and also a WIDE variety of Japanese natives speaking with an interesting accent when speaking english. German-accent on a Japanese guy? Chou weird.

THEN I GOT MY PHONE!!!!!!!!!! I love it so much.. I even went and bought a cute white, plush case for it already. I also got apps and everything. Seriously, it feels SO NICE to have a phone again. One of the coolest features of the phone is the sending between phones via infra red.. aka you put your phones back to back, and you can send all kinds of info.. saves a LOT of time when exchanging contacts. Also, probably the best part of my phone?

It's in English.

The worst part?

The manual is all in Japanese.

Today, Mrs. Potato Head is having trouble remember ALL the rules / customs of the house.

Okay, so I didn't update yesterday because I had a huge mental break down.. bad enough to buy skype credit, call my mother, and proceed to spend over an hour talking to her on the computer. I've had some health problems lately, besides my cold (let's just say "digestive" problems), and I was freaking out for a few reasons:

1) The clinic I went to ONLY SPOKE JAPANESE. I mean, this is one of those "Duh, Lynne" moments, but honestly.. it was BAD. In broken katakana, I could kind of understand them, but it got so bad that I broke down in front of the doctor, probably with the most hilarious (but not hilarious at the time) thing I've ever said involving Japanese:

"Watashi no nihongo wa chou heta da kara  (Because my Japanese is so bad), I can't understand a damn thing you're saying"

I feel like I should make t-shirts of that.. I don't know if it would fit on a t-shirt, though.

Anyway, so eventually I calmed down, and the receptionist doctor was SO NICE, she actually TOOK me to the pharmacy and walked me back... I bowed like, a million times and thanked her so much for taking care of me. I felt really bad for freaking out on her earlier...

2) Communication with my family. My family's English is probably worse than my Japanese, and that says a LOT. They are SUPER nice people, and they try SUPER hard, so I feel SUPER guilty. But we can barely talk sometimes. last night I just cried in front of my host mom cause I was trying to tell her I was having "digestion problems" and neither of us could understand one another. Since then, it's gotten a tiny, TINY bit better. However, I am so glad to be getting my phone tomorrow, so I can get a jisho app like, NOW.

Today has been a lot better. I actually got to do laundry (yayyy), but with that, there is a LOT of rules / customs in Japan / my family, which I feel the need to write down, mostly so I remember them. They are in order by time of day.


1) First thing in the morning: open the curtains and tie them back
2) Shut off the air conditioner once I leave the room
3) Unhatch the bathroom door and.. use
4) Wash hands in sink on top of toliet and dry (no.. soap?)
5) Hatch door back on hook so it stays open
6) Start Breakfast with "Itadakimasu"
7) Wipe hands with wet towel
8) Spoon jelly with separate spoon, then spread on bread with knife
9) Use the tall, skinny strawberry glass with Engrish on it, the other one is my host sister's
10) Say "gochisosama" when done eating
11) Stack dishes and set either on counter or on ledge
12) When taking a shower, put down bath mat, then put my own SMALLER towel to serve as another bath mat
13) DON'T WASTE WATER
14) hang up everything in the exact place when done
15) Keep bedroom door closed when air conditionning is one
16) When leaving, take off slippers, and put in shoe closet.
17) Step into my outside shoes
18) Say "ittekimasu!"
19) When I come back, say "Tadaima!"
20) take off shoes without stepping into genkan in bare feet

21) Put slippers back on (or bare feet if you are made of a potato)

22)Turn shoes so that you when you're leaving, you're ready to go

23) Do all the same stuff at breakfast, except at dinner
24) CLOSE CURTAINS WHEN DARK
25) (insert a bunch of stuff after sorting garbage and such which I'll probably write about later)
26) Collaspe from trying to remember all this stuff



 
To be fair, a lot of this are basic things... it just feels like if I don't do any of them, I'm a terrible, terrible guest.

Things are looking up a little. My mom brought up a very good point: "You went to Japan with all these expectations, and they're turning out a LOT different than you expected."

Aka, Welcome to the wonderful world of culture shock.

Today, Mr. Potato Head is drying off after being out in the typhoon!

So today was very up down, up down. First, apparently fall is typhoon season in Japan. Being from the midwest, I'm not used to anything but really bad thunder storms / ice storms, and the occasional tornado scare. However, typhoons suck. A lot. I mean, the wind is just crazy storm, and no umbrella is left unturned. I will certainly not complain about Indiana weather again anytime soon.

So today we found out more about getting cell phones. Originally, I wanted to get an iPhone, only because my iTouch is getting older, and I wanted something with which when I go back to the States, I can still get some benefits from (Bascially, it would just turn into a fancier iTouch). However, I found out the company, Soft Bank, which is the only iPhone place in Japan, you have to get a two year contract. Even worse, when you cancel, You have to pay a cancellation fee PLUS pay for ALL THE MONTHS YOU HAD LEFT. I would rather spend that money on a yukata, kthnx.

Then, I had lunch with some friends at this random place.. not really sure WHAT I ate, but it was delicious, nonetheless. Then I had to buy my commuter pass. I was SUPER THANKFUL I didn't have to return my card to the JS program yet, because I just put 5000 yen on it (little under 50$). I got home kind of late, but my okaasan had to take me to the city office so I could register as a foreigner / get under health insurance... THAT is when things got emotional.

Honestly, I have bad coping skills, which I realized today. BAAAAD coping skills. So, we were walking down the streets, and my okaasan's umbrella broke. She said something in Japanese, WHICH I couldn't understand, and then ran off. I thought she had just left me and told me to go to the station, which then I kind of freaked out. I was stuck, in the rain, alone, with NO idea where to go... so I walked up to the station, after cursing at the wind a few times, just stood there, and cried... I cried quite a bit. I just wanted to be home. I didn't want to be in this county, where I can't understand anybody, and I just wanted to go home.... finally, my okaasan just showed up, while my eyes were as red as a pothead on a three day binge, and we finally got to the city office. THANKFULLY, most of the forms were in English. I got super lucky with that... but the health insurance was super hard.... at least I'm slightly covered in case something bad happens... yay!

So otherwise, I'm just kind of bleh... I'm going to the clinic tomorrow... HOPEFULLY gonna find out why i feel so bleh other than homesickness. Hopefully better news tomorrow.. and dryer.

Today, Mr. Potato Head is sick =(

So I am officially sick. I thought it sucked being sick in America, but it seems even 10x worse in a foreign country, especially since apparently Vicks Day/Nyquil is not allolwed in Japan. I went for a walk today around my new "hometown" and went to a grocery store and picked up some OJ, some dango and some green tea.. the only thing is that Japanese green tea is different from the Lipton packets back in America. I would kill right now for some Nyquil and some honey lemon tea... I miss going to SAGA just to chug down on tea.

Today I really didn't do too much. My mom saved me breakfast, which was REALLY nice of her. I mostly just hung around the house otherwise. I'm slowly starting to notice little things my family does and tiny details so I don't mess up. For example, when not in the use, you have to put the bathroom door on a hinge so it stays open. Also, food trash goes in a seperate red bin. This whole "trash cans once in a blue moon" thing is getting old pretty fast. Sure, there's a million places to recycle. However, if you have trash, you're SOL until you find a street vendor who may have a trash can or a bathroom.

When I did go walk around, I found out that in my town I have a post office, a coin laundry, a Soft Bank (it's a phone company, like Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, etc), a 7/11, a cafe (reminded me of like.. Starbucks / Panera) and a Kusuri-ya (drug store, more or else). However, everything is in Japanese (duh). The only good thing is that on the box, they put stars / dots in the areas which are "in pain." However, a friend recommended CC Lemon, so I plan to get some at the Suupaa or conbini tomorrow.

If things get much worse, I'm going to the school clinic tomorrow. I'm just hoping I didn't get some kind of parasite or something already X_X

Today, Mr. Potato Head is enjoying his new home!

So today was probably the first day I was not totally homesick / sad. First, we had to check out of Sakura Hotel, which while I loved the rooms, I was ready for a change of scenery. So we went to Waseda and heard Alumni speak about their experiences, which is cool. I was kind of sad no Earlham alumni were there cause I know there's some in Japan, but eh. Urrbody busy. Anywho, THEY HAVE DOMINOS IN JAPAN!!! However, you know how Dominos was BEFORE they did the whole "Let's Change our Sucky Pizza!" campaign? It tastes like what it did before... OH, and I was right, THEY DO PUT CORN AND MAYO ON PIZZA! I tried to be adventurous and eat some japanese pizza, but only one of them was good.. the other had WAYYY too much onion.

THEN, we met our host families. My okaasan (host mother for the sake of this blog) showed up. I felt so bad because I had  no questions for her, and she had a LOT for me, mostly about food. I was SUPERRRR nervous too. So then we headed "home" and my commute is about as much walking as actual riding, which is pretty short... not bad. My mom made tempura (fried stuff) for dinner, which was AWESOME. I also met my host dad, otousan. It feels weird to have a "dad" considering I've never had a "dad" before. However, he's the easiest to understand.

We had a "pow-wow" like thing about our homestay manual, and it was ALL in Japanese. I've taken Japanese four years, and wow. I feel SOOO unprepared. My parents are as good with English as I am with Japanese.. aka the first app I need to get on my iPhone is a Jisho app. Yeah, I'm probably getting an iPhone. My logic: new iTouch when I go back to the States. Otherwise, what else am I gonna do with said phone after Japan?

My room is AWESOME, by the way. It reminds me of a dorm room (desk, bed (NO FUTON), closet, etc). I'm a crazy person who LIKES dorm rooms, so it's a dream for me. The house is huge too... I feel bad, though, cause apparently my family had a dog, but it must have passed away. The pics of him are super cute, too.

The only downside to all this: I'm getting sick already. If it gets worse, I'm going to clinic at Waseda on Wednesday, but I'm thinking it's just a cold / flu thing.

Mr. Potato Head's very busy last 24 hours

In the past day or so, Mr. Potato Head and I have been super busy. First, I was sucessful in finding Starbucks after walking around for almost an hour before I caved and asked for directions. However, I ended up reading them wrong and ending up by the train station. However, when I was at my lowest, I looked up and like an angel in the heavens revealing itself, so I saw the green mermaid and her green glow. They have different flavors of Starbucks here. They have the usual mocha, carmel, etc. However, they also had matcha (green tea) flavor. I would have tried it, but I was craving for some home-ness, so I had dark mocha chip.

While it WAS delicious, I will never complain about Starbucks being expensive EVER again in the United States. It was 560 yen for a grande mocha frap... that's like, 6$. However, it was totally worth it. I also had McD's for breakfast, which I never complained about being expensive, but wow. 240 yen (little less than 3$) for a egg Mcmuffin, except it was like, fried chicken. IT WAS SO DELICIOUS THOUGH, OMG. But yeah... I've been feeling SUPER homesick. I've barely been here a week, and yet I am still really missing home, but more on that later.

So yesterday we had about five hours of Japanese language / etiquette lessons. It wasn't as terrible because our teacher was fun, plus we got to go out and see things / talk to people. I am TERRIBLE at Japanese. I cannot understand it at all... I've been doing this language for almost four years, and I could barely understand the lady at the flower shop who I asked about buying flowers. That's really the worst thing so far... language. EVERYTHING is in Japanese, but at the same time, there is still a LOT of English. While this is a BIGGGG stretch, I kind of sympathize now with the Burmese / Mexicans in my home town who rely on things being in their language to understand what the heck is going on. I know that it's selfish of me to want to hear / see English, because I'm in a different county, and everything SHOULD be in their language. I'm just super frustrated with being so sucky in my language skills.

After lessons, I did karaoke for the first time, which was actually super fun. They had a lot of songs in English (since the only song I know in Japanese is "Ashita Ga Arusa" so I got to belt out to fun things like "You and I
 and "Monday Monday" and the ever-famous "Fat Lip". It was fun to hear people sing. However, it turned out to be WAYYY more than I wanted to spend.. 2500 yen (that's more than 26$ for two hours of singing). I certainly don't plan on doing it anytime again soon.

Today was a really, really mixed up day. I woke up to find my screen cracked (I have a nice big black spot on my screen now)... I have no idea if it's covered by limited warrenty (probably not), so I have to budget to get that fixed, which will probably cost more than the computer did. However, with my scholarship, it shouldn't be TOO terrible, just gotta eat / live super cheap for two months or so. Also, we had to spend 2000 yen to put on our pass card so we could travel to Kamakura... not sure if we're getting reimbursed. The train ride was super long too..... okay, that's enough complaining right now.

So we went to Kamakura, which if I'm right, was the capital of Japan from about mid 700s to 1149 or something like that. It was really, really pretty. There were lots of trees, and shops, and it was SUPER sunny, but also windy. There were a lot of shops, and it felt a lot more like a city than a HUGE ASS PLACE like Tokyo. We went to the big shrine (which I can't remember the name right now... opps) and prayed. I got to get a fortune (Omigushi?) and it was a pretty lucky one. After that, we broke for lunch, which apparently Sundays are a terrible day to try and do things cause everyone is enjoying their only day off (for the most part). I wish I had just stayed on the shrine grounds and gone to all of the temples, since the grounds were so lovely.

So the best part of the day was going to the  大仏 aka "Big Buddha" at Kamakura. The feelings I had when I saw it was kind of interesting. The moment I did, I forgot how home sick I was, or that my screen was busted, or that I was super hot and dehydrated. Everything just kind of left me, and I just kind of stood there in awe of this giant statute. The even MORE impressive thing about the Big Buddha is that it isn't even the biggest one. However, I was so happy to see it, because it was one of the main things I've always wanted to see in Japan. It was certainly a moment that made my whole day and travel worth while.

I'm still really homesick.... I've craving American food like I craved Japanese food in America. I could go for a HUGE thin-crust cheese pizza from pizza hut and a homemade quesadilla like whoa.

I'm also meeting the host family tomorrow. However, I will be able to write how that goes.... if they have wireless.

Today, Mrs. Potato Head is riding a rickshaw

Today, Mrs. Potato makes an appearance. She was so forceful in being able to take a rickshaw.

We went to the Edo Tokyo Musuem, which had a lot of cool things. It basically covered history from about Jamon period (which is super, super early japan BC) to postwar Japan. I took a LOT of pictures, but the information was really interesting too. For example, I had no idea that they used to have money storages cause they would run out of gold / silver, so then everything would be screwed up. Also, the influence of literature, such as a story about a woman who threw herself into a volcano, and then people started doing the same. I've heard of similar stuff with the Aokiyama (might be wrong name) forest where lots of people kill themselves every year.

We also had a really, REALLY long Japanese customs  / etiquette lesson yesterday, FOUR HOURS LONG. I will admit, I did learn a little, but after awhile, I just got SUPER annoyed. The anthropologist in me was like "Why do they do all this?" "So what?"... the rest of me was like, "GOD THIS SHIT IS SO UGHHHHH." Plus, the guy at least seemed to have a positive attitude about it. I also learned that all this time I've been holding chopsticks wrong... I'd really like to what HOW I've been holding them, then.

We also found out our host families yesterday... I'm having mixed emotions about mine. Don't get me wrong, I VERY MUCH appreciate the work put into finding these families, and I am sure we weren't easy to match up. However, I only got one thing I really asked for, which is no smoking.. my lungs will thank me later, I'm sure. Othewise, I have a business man dad (which will take some getting used to), a (possibly) stay-at-home mom, and a university student sister.... no pets. short commute. I know I shouldn't bitch about a short commute (36 minutes), but I really wanted one so I would have cheaper stuff overtime (I'm hella poor). I'm also afraid that they won't like me...or I won't have an actual family for a year, because that's what I really want: a family.

I'm also gonna have to get creative, and figure out how to have a "pet" in Japan... or go to lots and lots of cat cafes...

Anywho, I am going to go find some Starbucks. I am hella homesick right now, and I'm pretty sure a super expensive starbucks will make it a little better... at least before FIVE HOURS of more etiquette lessons.

Today, Mr. Potato is a silly drunk.

So I wanted to start this earlier, say five days ago. But, I am just now getting around to it. Our schedules are super packed, and between trying to survive the heat and other stuff-

Oh, I should probably explain what this blog is. I mean, it's some what self-explanatory: I take pictures of Mr. potato Head doing stuff in Japan then write about what is going on in my daily life.

So far, we have donea few awesome things, such as:

* eat delicious food (okonomiyaki, sushi, soba, indian food, etc).
* gone to some awesome places (yokohama, ikebukuro, waseda campus, etc)
* meet cool people, both in the program and outisde of it

However, there are some observations I have made about Japan so far, some of which I already guessed but never had confirmation until I saw it for my own eyes:  (WARNING: I might always appear so politically correct. I'm not trying to seem racist / biased / etc, but if it comes out that way, I apologize).

*EVERYONE is always in a hurry. For example, on the escalators, it is proper to stand on the left side, so people can walk up on the right side. If you stop for a second because your subway / metro card didn't swipe, it feels like you're a HUGE bother.

* There are TONS of escalators in Japan. Like, I only really ever saw them in America in Shopping malls. They are everywhere! In the schools, in businesses, in subways, etc. It's useful, but it makes you wonder how green it is (I don't really know anything about the energy used in escalators, but eh). however, there are ones that stop once no one has walked on them for a few minutes, which is kind of cool.

* People use TONS of elevators, and yet they don't. for example, only the staff can use the stairs at the hostel I'm staying at, so we all have to cram into an elevator, and boy do we cram! Seriously, in America, it seemed like if you have more than 2 people, you can't share. Here, we're fitting at least six people each time. However, in other places, the elevators are reserved just for handicapped people/ elderly / teachers. It seems to be frowned upon to use them if you're a lazy people who doesn't want to go up six floors of escalators..


* Konbinis and Vending Machines are the staple of Japan so far. They're bascially the Starbucks of Japan in that THEY ARE EVERYWHERE. Down the street, there are two Family Marts right across the street from each other. It's pretty hilarious. However, you can get some delicious stuff there for somewhat cheap. Unless you want Arizona Tea... then it's about 4$

Okay, so I have to go take a shower / get breakfast. I've been having the unlimited breakfast across the street usuaully, but today I think I might try McD's.. and no, they have some different stuff here too.