okayama, japan

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September 7, 2008

As I wake up in a new city, in a new bed, I glance at the clock ... 4:00am. Great, what am I going to do now? I dont have breakfast plans until 9:15am. Yikes! Welp ... might as well give a brief overview of my life so far in Japan.

((rewind))

Saturday - September 6, 2008. I arrive at the Osaka-Kansai International Airport at approx. 5:30pm. Yay, now I get the adventure of going through customs. After waiting for an hour I proceed through immigration for my 30sec. stint in customs. I could get used to this no nonsense living. I meet the Amity Representative and I think ALL of my nerves disapate (sp?). "Hi, I'm Javaria, nice to meet you." Well, Javaria is about 5'8, thin, black, with natural twists. JACKPOT!!!! This will not be so bad. After shipping my luggage to my home school Javaria turns to me and says, "so, you went to Spelman?" I look at her with a bit of confusion and she recognizes my confusion, thus responding "I saw your sweatshirt, I graduated from Morris Brown." Oh - this is fantabulously wonderful, a black chick in Japan (ending her 4th year here) that is from Texas and went to school in the AUC.

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We walk up to the train that we will be taking to Okayama. As Javaria instructs us to LEAVE OUR LUGGAGE Brian and I look very confused. (worry not, i will "re-introduce" Brian later.) We leave our luggage and proceed to the airconditioned room. Oh, did I fail to mention it is HOT. It is a true detroit humidity added to 90 degree weather at night after it rained, if you dont get that picture, sorry. (lol). After all of the trainage (yes, I said it, TRAINAGE) we get to our "dormitory" and I take a shower and lay down for bed.

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Now, as for the introductions of the fellow trainees... we have

Brian from Philly

Libby (gov't known as Elizabeth though she doesnt really know Elizabeth is her name) from Cambridge

Shaan from Sydney (my roommate)

Krysta from outside of Toronto

Joel from Alberta (Canada)

Teddy (or Ted) from Minnesota

Nora from Washington (also known as our tour guide, she knows everything about japan)

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So we meet for breakfast at 9:15 and decide to go find Brian (who is staying in the Tokyo-inn.com hotel across the way, still not sure why) he was surprisingly easy to find. We venture off to the train station and stop in this food market/clothing store/restaurant/cafeteria get up and get breakfast. I decided to eat the chicken and mushroom quiche (has nothing on moms) and it was decent. Shaan and Krysta went for waffles (they were waffle sandwiches, one with ice cream in the middle ... i thought this was breakfast!) Libby, Joel, Teddy and Brian decided to pick their posoin at the pastry shop and Nora (who doesnt eat wheat/whey) went to Heart-In and got some rice (someone please check for me, Im pretty sure there is wheat/whey in rice).

After everyone indulged in their food (me only eating to bites and thinking about how interesting this day will be) we decided to proceed to the map. Now, Nora is the only "japanese enhanced" American. Shaan has lived all over the world and read every possible book on the Japanese World. Joel, he attempts and is quite good I must say. Teddy knows enough to get by. Brian and I just keep making jokes. Krysta is attempting to learn the language. Now, back to this map ... I may not know japanese but i can always tell you where I am and where I am trying to go. So, I look at the map and say "we need to go this way because we are going here." Did anyone listen? Of course not! Mind you, everyone is a stranger to everyone else and we dont know anyones last name. We are all working on faith (or not, since I am the only religious person in the group). So, Nora decides its a good idea to attempt to buy train tickets, I say... its only a 1.5km walk, its not that far. Finally we all come to some common consensus (sp?) to take the street car (or trolly).

After getting on the street car we are attempting to make our way to the castle. However, we had to get off the train and we went into this underground thing for you to cross the street (yes, cross the street). Later Brian and I make jokes about how dumb this is but we follow the group anyway. Now, this underground thing is ridiculously clean. The crazy thing about it is it has a fountain in the middle (where Detroit bums would definitely be showering) and there is a janitor that was walking around cleaning EVERYTHING. You know that smell at Hart Plaza in the basement? Well, it didnt have that! These are the few reasons I love Japan already. When we get into this underground station (for lack of better terminology) we see two girls practicing dancing in sweats - tshirts - and 4inch heels. ((when my adapter starts working I will download the video, so, check back again for that.)) After we walk past those young girls we take a "potty break" and Nora (affectionately titled the tour guide) explains to us what squaters (sp?) are. For those of you reading this that dont know, Japense toilets are in the floor and you squat to use them. Again, when my adapter starts working you will see pictures!

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We FINALLY make it to the garden. It was quite hot and the steps were quite uneven but we made it safely and it was absolutely beautiful. The view was breathtaking, the atmosphere was serene, I must get used to this quiet lifestyle. While in the castle I even dressed up in traditional Japanese garb and will post those pictures, eventually. (lol - the adapter, I promise its the adapters fault.) After leaving the castle we all decided a drink would be good. So, we stopped at the vending machine (they are all over, its great. they have liquid beverages (even beer) and then there are others for cigarettes, crazy). After leaving the castle we headed to the gardens and they are beautiful. Now, I am not big on gardening; however, I love beautiful scenery. When we first entered the garden we stopped in a random building (still not sure what purpose it serves). As you know, the Japanese culture requires the removal of shoes in just about every building. So, this also mean the Japanese operate on an honor system, for the most part. The funny thing about this whole honor system situation is I love shoes. So, of course, Brian and I had a joke about this occuring in Philly or Detroit ... you better only have beaters because if you wear some of your best sneaks they would NOT be there when you came back. Though this is a sad thought it is quite hilarious when you look at all of the shoes outside/at the entrance of buildings. The Japanese hosts led us to a table in which we consumed "iced tea" (that was delish!) and figs (they are really good, if you havent had them you should try one). We also took a great deal of pictures and looked around at the ikibana (sp?) that was in the building. Welp, we almost overstayed our welcome, but then it started raining so we waited, on the stoop until the rain left. Now, I dont know if anyone has ever experienced a thunderstorm that lasted about 5minutes and then the sun comes out and it feels like it never rained, but, that is a very strange experience. We were finally able to begin our true journey in the garden and it was truly an amazing place - and huge!

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After leaving the garden we headed back home, but we took a different route. Though madame tour guide was against it, we said "dude, we are in japan, everything is an adventure." When we get back to the underground station thing (also where Brian and I laugh about how it makes no sense) we make our way back to the street car. After getting off of the street car we take a detour to shops 21 which is basically a strip mall that is above ground but surrounded by other shops so it seems to be underground, I guess you had to be there for that to make sense, lol. We look around the electronics store, that was 4 floors and the large plasma flat screens (that may cost thousands in the statements) were max $300, shame. Oh yes - the iphone 3G was $23 and the ipod nano was also $23. After walking through shops 21 we realized it was time to eat again and FINALLY decided on going to this beef bowl place (dont know the name of it, pics of the food to come) where I had rice with beef and onions. The beef tasted like soft cooked pork bacon but it was surprisingly good, and you all know I dont eat beef. But, when in rome, do as the romans, right?

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Well ... its only 6:25pm here and we are going to a karoake spot at 8:00pm tonight so I will add that to the Monday morning post.

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Check back often,

love you all

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sayonara