Final Blog Posting!

I would like to start off by thanking everyone who followed me on my journey to the East.  As you could probably tell, things weren’t always easy, but that made everything all the more rewarding once I was able to accomplish them. 

It is amazing reflecting back on my first days in Tokyo, and comparing them to my last days, only 4 months later.  I remember being completely lost, and the simple most mundane tasks were nearly impossible without help.  While I was no wiz by the time I left, my improvement in everyday Japanese life was evident.  I can only hope that I get a chance to return to Japan and build upon these skills in the future.

My last day was such a memorable experience, as there was such an outpour of love from many of those I had become close with.  All of my close friends from the dorm walked with me from the dorm to the station,  and a couple friends from school also met us at the station.  I recall grabbing someone from the crowd of passerby’s and asking them to take a picture of us together, one last time.  It must have been quite a scene seeing a bunch of rowdy Japanese and White kids scrambling to take a picture in the middle of the crowded station.  I’ll post the pictures below.

Once I returned to the States, it was such a weird feeling.  It was like experiencing culture shock all over again.  I remember thinking to myself, “where are all the Japanese?”  For about a week I felt like a stranger in my own country.  Quite an interesting feeling.

 Some of my friends at Musashi Koganei Station

 These 4 rode with me all the way to Shinjuku.  Thanks all!

Again, thank you all for reading, I’m glad you got to share this great experience with me!  See you around!

Last Day in Japan

Hey all,

So the day has finally come..my last day in Japan.

It has been quite a journey!  I have made some great friends and great memories that I will never forget.  I am real busy today packing and sorting things out before I go, but I just wanted to say thanks for reading!

I will have one more blog entry once I am back in the states and have had some time to reflect, so please check back!

Also, I want to give a BIG thank you to all the good people at Honjo International Scholarship Foundation, Rikki Mitsunaga, and Professor Misawa for making this trip possible! 

かなしい！ (sad)

Yeah, I'm sad its all winding down, but in a good way.  (Sorry, my next few posts until I leave are probably going to keep mentioning how sad I am to be leaving.) 

Tomorrow is my last concert here at Sophia University.  I'm playing in 4 bands, got a lot to memorize tonight, but I am looking forward to it.  I will post pictures when I get a chance.  Its going to be my last hurrah on stage with a lot of my friends from this music "circle". 

I cannot emphasize enough how good of company these people are, and it is kind of funny reflecting on my relationships with them a mere 4 months ago when I first arrived.  First off, I didn't know that so many of them could speak English.  They were very shy at first (a common trait here in Japan) and were very hesitant to use their English skills.  However, as we got to know each other (and they figured out I wasn't a crazy Gaijin, well not completely crazy at least) they opened up and BOOM all of a sudden everyone was an English speaker (slight exaggeration).  It felt like a snowball effect.  As soon as I got close with a couple people in the circle, the metaphoric "Warning Label" was lifted off of me, and others felt like they could actually talk to me!

The "shy" factor, as I call it, is the biggest difference between the US and Japanese culture. They know it. Us foreigners know it.  However, it's a gap that when bridged, opens up so many deeper and frankly more interesting cultural insights.  I see many instances where this initial bridge is not crossed and as a result many misconceptions about one another remain.  My friends from this circle have even told me that as long as they have been a member, no exchange student has gotten close to knowing them as I have.  Its a great honor, and I hope it will help them warm up to the next batch of exchange students more quickly.  After all, there is so much to learn from each other!

Ok enough with the cheesy life lessons, gotta get back to practicing for tomorrow's concert. じゃあね。

the home stretch

Hey all,

So time is winding down here in Japan and it is really sad! I just want to reiterate, if you are considering doing a study abroad program, go for a year!  However, I have had such a great time so far...and I still have a month, so its not quite time for reflecting.

Well, over the course of a week, the weather has gone from mediocre and rainy, to unbearably hot and humid.  Everyone in Japan knew it was coming, and we were all dreading it.  It probably 80 degrees at night, pretty ridiculous.  Living in Hawaii has really not even prepared me for this LOL

Speaking of Hawaii, yesterday, a student organization hosted a "Hawaiian Culture Party" or something like that.  For the past few weeks they have really been on us UH kids to come and represent. One of the UH students, Kele, even performed a hula dance.  I gotta say, it was great! Very elegant, very smooth.  Well done Kele.

Also, I am not sure if I mentioned this before, but the school year is ending about 2 weeks early here at Sophia in order to save electricity.  A lot of people are happy about this, but I'm not too thrilled.  Don't get me wrong, its gonna be great not having to wake up at 7am every morning, but I am gonna miss a lot of the daily interactions with the students here at Sophia.  But, it is what it is, and I knew some sacrifices were going to have to be made when I decided to come to Japan during such a hectic time.

And I don't want to forget to mention the Tokyo perspective on the ongoing Fukushima Power Plant issues.  Basically, the Fukushima is an afterthought to many of us, at least the students here.  However, it is clear that the situation up there is not getting much better.  In fact, there is a lot of criticism aimed at the Japanese government for downplaying and even covering up the reality of what is actually going on up there.  Its definitely some scary stuff, but as far as I can tell it is not dramatically affecting people's live here in Tokyo.

Anyways, more to come later!

Hey all,

So, anyone who is considering doing study abroad in the future, I highly recommend it, and I also recommend that you go for en entire year.  A single semester is just too short! Recently, I've been discussing this with other exchange students who are only here for a semester and they agree.  It just feels like you are counting down the days as soon as you get here.  Lately, I have been feeling really rushed, and that I just am not going to have enough time to do everything I want to do! In addition to this, my Japanese has been getting a lot better, but by the time I leave it is not going to be at the level I would like.  A year here would definitely get me a lot closer to that goal.

Unfortunately, the prospect of staying another semester here in Japan would delay my graduation from UH at least another year, due to the Japanese semester start/finish dates not lining up with schools in the States.  And yeah, I am already a super senior so the general line of thought is that I need to go back and finish school.  I have been exploring options in which I can come back to Japan for an extended period of time post graduation, for example the JET program.  Let's hope it can work out!

On another note, my trip to Nagoya last weekend was a lot of fun! I had some very interesting experiences being the only native English speaker in my group.  Needless to say, it was great practice for my Japanese speaking.  However, I have noticed lately that my listening/comprehension is very far behind my speaking.  This is probably because I will want to practice Japanese, so I will speak to my friends in Japanese, but they want to practice English, so they will end up responding in English.  After that, if I say "Nihongo dake kudasai" (Japanese only please) they will speak to me in Japanese, but its hard for me to pick up a lot of what they say, so they explain themselves in English (and then speak in English after that) and thus the whole "nihongo dake" thing goes out the window.  I don't blame them, I would probably do the same back in the states.

But, it was a great experience nonetheless! 

Update

So....not too much new stuff going on.  Just been super busy with midterms and such. 

But, in about an hour I am off to Nagoya for the weekend to play a concert which should be a lot of fun! It should be interesting being up there with what I am assuming will be a good Japanese language experience (aka lack of English being spoken).  The event (from what I understand...which is not much) is a weekend long sports competition between Sophia University and another rival school. Apparently there's a long history of a strong rivalry between the 2 schools.  Mixed in there will be some festivities, such as food/drink/music etc.  It should be quite eventful!  Also, going to take the Shinkansen for the first time since I've been here, I am looking forward to it!

Sick in Japan :(

As soon as some sort of sick bug goes around, without fail, I get it.  Weak immune system, whatcha gonna do? (thanks Mom!)

Anyways, had a really weird experience today at the Sophia University Student Health services center that I'm going to try to describe, even as my head feels as if its a balloon filled with wayy too much helium (What does that even mean?? See, im sick!).  So I just wanted to get some cold medicine, and unlike the US, you can't really just go to 7-11 and buy some DayQuil.  I just needed something to make me feel less junky so I could finish my take home midterm and study for my Japanese lesson test, both occurring tomorrow.  Apparently you have got to go to the pharmacy, or in my case the Sophia University Health Services Center.  So I staggered over there after barely making it through my first and (luckily) only class of the day.  I had prepared by making a cheat sheet of phrases I could say to describe my symptoms such as  "Atama ga itai" (Lit: My head has pain..aka headahce) "Kaze o hita" (I have caught a cold)...etc.


So I go in there with the expectation of hopping in and hopping out with some Japanese equivalent of cold medicine.  Well, as usual, my expectations were totally wrong.  I go in there and they make me put a thermometer under my armpit (ok, thats fine, i guess) and then they bring to this bed in the back of the ward and motion for me to lay down (ok, I can see that being realistic as well).  Then, they close the curtain around me, and close a sturdier looking curtain system behind that, so I am completely isolated.  Kinda weird but OK. I'm sitting there for an hour waiting for a doctor to come give me some medicine and send me on my way, but no one comes.  So, I decide to text my Japanese friend, Takuya, and ask him what is going on/is this normal?  His reply was essentially, "No not really normal, but want me to talk to the on the phone for you?" I said that it wasn't necessary, then proceeded to get out of the bed to go and get some answers for myself.  This is when I got a little bit creeped out.

I got out of bed, pulled back the 1st curtain, then tried to pull back the 2nd sturdier curtain, but it wouldn't budge.  It seemed as though they had locked me in, quarantined me, if you will.  WEIRD.  So I kind of shimmied between the 1st and 2nd curtain, past other beds etc. until I got to an area where I could get out into the main infirmary.  I hopped out, relieved, and the nurses were sort of standing there looking at me like "Uh...where did you just come from?" So I made up some story that I had to meet my teacher and just wanted some cold medicine.  They then proceeded to tell me that the Doctors weren't in today and that they couldn't prescribe me and medicine.  I'm thinking to myself, "Ok, so why was I laying in that bed for an hour?" Well at this point I was pretty creeped out by the quasi-quarantine vibe, so I decided to cut my losses and get the heck out of there.

I'm still completely confused about what had happened, and I still wonder how long I would have been there had I not escaped from my quarters.  My Japanese has definitely improved a lot, but in terms of hospital vocabulary, my knowledge is pretty limited.  So I am kind of wondering what my experience would have been like had I been able to communicate with the nurses. 

Well, I hope that made some sense to you all...but seeing as how the whole experience didn't/doesn't make any sense to me compounded by the fact that I am trying to recount this experience while totally sick, I don't have very high expectations...

Slide show of Ishinomaki

So I have included a link to a slideshow of Ishinomaki.  This slideshow was created by a man named Masato Kato, who I met while I was volunteering.  He is a very talented photographer and I highly recommend checking out his work! Also, I make a couple cameos around the 5:45 mark. One is in Japanese, the other is in English. Enjoy!

Life-Changing Experience

I just want to start off this blog post by expressing how much admiration I have for all of those effected by the earthquake and tsunami.  The past week that I spent with them has been an eye opening and humbling experience.  Ganbare (Fight on!) people of Northeastern Japan.

We took an 8 hour bus ride from Tokyo to Sendai then finally to Ishinomaki.  Our HQ was at an elementary school transformed into a "Refugee" center/Volunteer headquarters.  This place was truly a site to see. There were many sections around the school that looked like a junkyard with cars, bikes, boats etc. strewn about.  It would be impossible to describe all of the destruction so I will post some pictures.  (Also, I will post more pictures on my Facebook page.  I will make the album "public" so you all can see it.)

As I said earlier last week, we had no idea what kind of work we were going to be doing.  As it turns out, they put us out in the field armed with shovels and wheelbarrows helping the local residents clean up their homes a bit.  Our groups (anywhere from 8-15 people) would work 2 shifts a day from 8:30am-5:30pm with a lunch break.  We were working our butts off all day, and the crazy thing was that at the end of the day it hardly looked like we did anything.  Sure, we would clear tons of mud out of people's bedrooms, living rooms, and kitchens, but we would move them out onto the streets where it looked like a wasteland.  The rebuilding process is going to take years, even with all of the help they are getting.  However, it was such a rewarding feeling to be able to help these people out.  The gratitude on their faces and in their words was remarkable.  There were times where we would be shoveling through the mud in their homes and we would find pictures and various possessions.  We would bring it to them and ask them if it was trash or if they wanted to keep it, and there were times where they would be so thrilled that we were able to retrieve these items.  These were memories that they had thought were lost forever, yet we were able to bring them back to them.

The elementary school that housed us was unlike anything I had ever seen.  Classrooms had been converted into bedrooms housing anywhere from 20-25 people, the gym was converted into a cafeteria for the residents, and a portion of the baseball field had an Ofuro (public bath) built where everyone could get cleaned up.  Overall there were probably around 500 people living at this school. I was so impressed with the cleanliness of the school, as many of the residents/volunteers took it upon themselves to make sure it was a suitable place to live.

Back at the elementary school that housed us, many of us were able to develop some really great relationships with the displaced people living there.  In fact, some of the children came to hang out with us every day.  We would come back from our shifts and they would be in our rooms waiting for us with baseball gloves and soccer balls ready to play ball!  One of my friends, an avid yo yo enthusiast, brought 30 yo yo's up as gifts, and was giving some of the kids lessons.  I brought my friend's guitar up and we would have jam sessions with the kids, and sometimes with the Oji-san's (Uncles, or middle aged guys).   The residents stories of their experiences with the tsunami/earthquake were so sad, it was impossible to imagine what they went through.  In future blog posts, I will go into further detail of some of the residents stories.

Overall, the trip was one of the most amazing things I have ever done in my life, and I feel like I have changed for the better because of it.  I think we all have.  The positivity at this place was something to behold, especially given the circumstances of their living situation.  I will continue to post stories of my experiences, but I doubt I will be able to document everything.  If any of you have specific questions, leave it in the comments box and I will try to answer them!  

 Driving through Ishinomaki

 Ishinomaki elementary school/refugee center/our home for a week

 Ishinomaki Elementary's pool

 A home we cleaned up, that used to have a beautiful botanical garden in front.

 The line of sediment left on the wall, just below the 2nd floor was the water level of the tsunami.

 Some old records

 A class picture we found

 The Oji-san's hanging out

 Little man channeling Hideo Nomo

 Team Kobe and Shunsuke, a resident, in the middle

 Ishinomaki was really a beautiful place, and will become beautiful once again.

Leaving for Miyagi tomorrow

So tomorrow morning at 6AM a group of 7 of us are going to Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture (not Sendai as I previously blogged) to do what we can to help out for about 5 days.  Apparently we will be camping out with groups of others who are already up there volunteering.  I have no idea what to expect, I don't know if any of us do.  But we suspect that a lot of what we will be doing is helping out the people in the shelters, due to the fact that much of the debris cleanup is handled by more qualified organizations (eg Japanese Self Defense Forces, US Army etc.)  But again, no one really knows for sure.

As this area was hit very hard by the tsunami, I am sure it is going to be a very emotional experience.  I have seen pictures and videos of this area, and it is absolutely heart wrenching to see the destruction that was brought upon these communities.  As far as we have heard there is NOTHING there that resembles a functioning town. We are indeed headed towards the heart of this destruction but we have been assured that the necessary precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of all the volunteer workers.

 I will try to take some pictures and notes so I can do a little update when I return, however I have heard that the Japanese government is discouraging cameras in order to prevent "Disaster Tourism."

Anyways, 5 days of cup of noodles and dry cereal, here we come.....

Update from Japan

Hey all,

As you all know, Northeast Japan is in the midst of recovering from the catastrophic earthquake and ensuing tsunami that struck a little over a month ago. There are major efforts occurring right now to help out the region as quickly and effectively as possible.  I am excited to announce that I am getting the opportunity to do my part.

On April 30, I will be joining a group of Japanese students from my dorm to go up to volunteer in Sendai.  Our trip will last 4 or 5 days, and we are all eager to get up there and do what we can to help all those affected.  This trip will coincide with "Golden Week" a late Spring Break in Japan, so it is a great opportunity to spend a relatively extended period of time in Sendai without falling behind in school.

I am definitely a bit nervous, but this is an opportunity I know I cannot miss out on.  Even though the sad state of affairs in Northeast Japan are not being covered in much of the US mainstream media anymore, there is still so much help needed.  I encourage you, if possible, to help out as well, in any way that you can!

I will probably do another post before I leave with more details on what we are going to do. 

Talk to you all soon!

Ouch!

Well...just sprained my ankle AGAIN playing basketball.  Can hardly put any weight on it. I even went to a sports shop a couple days ago to buy an ankle brace to avoid a situation like this. Of course, I sprain the other one.  Figures.  Anyways, the courts were a 30 minute walk from the dorm so my friend Tak (Takuya) and I were gonna have to take a cab back.  Koganei Park is HUGE so we had to ask directions in order to find out where the best place to catch a cab was.  Tak asked this middle aged Japanese woman, walking her dogs, where we could do this.  Instead of just giving us directions as I feel many in the states would do, she offered to give us a ride back to our dorm...before she even knew I had sprained my ankle! Now that is some of the Japanese kindness I had heard about!

So we walked to her car (well, I hopped on one foot) and we were on our way.  As I was sitting in the back of her typical Japanese teeny, but nice, sedan with her two golden retrievers, I was listening to her and Tak converse.  All I could think about was how respectful of a language/culture Japan has! It really is a cool thing to witness: two strangers speaking with the utmost respect and courtesy for each other, in a foreign tongue.  Also, I noticed that I was able to pick up a lot of what they were talking about.  Compared to a week ago, I feel like my Japanese has improved a lot!  Its nice to see the benefits of my persistence in trying to learn this language.   On a side note, I feel bad for Tak because Ryocho (an honorific name for our dorm manager) is making me stay in my room, and making him bring me dinner.  Oops. Thanks Tak!


These next few days, while my ankle is healing, are going to be interesting.  Tokyo is a city that requires A LOT of walking, and with school set to start on Thursday i'm hoping I will be able to move around decently.  This is where the need for Japan to conserve energy is gonna hurt.  The escalators at the train stations aren't running for most of the day! Hmm...

Well one last thing I want to tell you guys about.  Since I've been here in Japan, every morning I hear what I think is an ice cream truck.  My thought was that it was an international business.  I guess not, because I looked outside my window this morning and it turns out it is the garbage truck that is BLASTING ice cream truck melodies.  Quite interesting, thought I should mention it. 

Thanks for reading, later!

TOTALLY lost in a Gaijin's translation

Whats up all! A lot is happening everyday, certainly too much to keep you updated on, but I will touch on the highlights.  Some really humbling/embarassing/hilarious experiences.

After I took my Japanese placement exam this AM, I was feeling adventurous (Certainly not because I did well).  I needed a cell phone and also needed to open a bank account.  Some friends offered to help me out tomorrow, but I wanted to try it out on my own! lol  I don't want to say it was a bad idea as I definitely learned a lot from the experience, but boy oh boy I took the hard route.  And to be honest I still haven't opened a bank account and I just got my cell phone at about 6:00pm when I left my dorm to run my "errands" around 1:00pm.  Yea...

I went to find the bank in the bustling area of Shinjuku (an area that arguably epitomizes Tokyo)where I was lucky enough to get a teller who spoke relatively good English.  I'm thinking to myself, this is gonna be a breeze, right? WRONG. She then tells me I need a phone # which I obviously didn't have yet. So I said I would be back to open the bank account later on after I went to get my phone.  So I leave the bank, the next mission: get a phone!  Apparently the best place to buy a Pre-paid PHONE is called "SoftBANK." Why? I have noo idea.  First place, eigo te wakarimasuka? (Do you speak English).  He says no we don't in Japanese, but go down the street and there is another one.  I go there, wait for 30 minutes for someone to help me and then they tell me the same thing: They all don't speak English.  So I head back to the train station, completely discouraged, ready to head home to eat.

I get on the train, and get off....at the wrong stop.  Finally made my way back home and figured i would try one last branch of SoftBank.  I needed directions, so I asked this 60 yr old Japanese woman.  I said, "Sumimasen..." then she cuts me off with a dismissive wave of her hand and says "Baka ne!" Basically I said "excuse me..." and she says "What are you stupid!" Wowww..that was great. So much for the myth that ALL Japanese people are polite (which most really are).  So I asked someone else and found the phone store.  Although this guy didn't speak English either, he was nice enough to call someone on the phone to translate for us.  Badda bing badda boom I had my phone!

I'm exhausted..but getting forced to go out to Karaoke, ill check in with you all later.

PS. Anyone know how to upload pics on this blog?

errr...whatever has happened to my life, I like it!

Ohayoo minna san!

Wow.  Just wow. Its only been 12 hours since i've been in Tokyo and there are soo many things I want to talk about.  I guess the first thing I should mention is my initial reaction landing at Narita airport and getting off the plane.  The flight attendant was talking over the loudspeaker in Japanese, I was surrounded by Japanese people, then walked off the plane into this gorgeous but very Japanese terminal.  I was overcome with such a strange feeling like "My goodness Drew what did you get yourself into?"  My mind was suddenly in a state of hilarity, I had this HUGE grin from ear to ear while muttering to myself some incomprehensible garble...craziness.  Well from the terminal to customs to the baggage claim, every airport employee I had to talk to, assumed I was Japanese (or at least spoke it) began speaking to me in the native tongue.  Now I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before but my Japanese is, for lack of a better term, horrible. (More on this later)

I finally got my two 60lb bags along with my backpack and found my student "escort" (no not that kind!), Kikuchi-san.  He spoke great English and we were practicing my Japanese all the way back to the dorm (2.5 hrs, 3 trains, 5 staircases later).  And yes, staircases because many of the escalators were not working due to the need to conserve power due to the Fukushima Daiichi powerplant situation.

We arrived at my dorm and as soon as I walked in there were five International students waiting for me looking absolutely thrilled to see me.  I was thinking dang I must be cool! lol.  Maybe I am, but turns out they were just excited to see a new face because over the past 3 weeks 30 of the other International residents and their good friends were sent home by their respective home colleges because of the delicate situation here in Japan.  They were the only ones left, the rest of the rooms have been filled with Japanese students.  They were great though, very friendly, very informative, and overall a great group of guys.

There is so much more to say, but if you are still reading you probably have better things to do right now.  So my main conclusion: my Japanese language skills need to improve and ASAP!  But this is going to be a great journey filled with plenty of excitement, learning, embarrassment.. etc etc....

I'll keep updating you all later!

Going to Japan!

Just got word today from my Study Abroad advisor that I am good to go! Now...gotta pack up my house and continue to brush up on my questionable Japanese language skills...

In Limbo

Due to the catastrophic and tragic events that have been occuring ever since the 9.0 quake and tsunami hit in Japan, my trip may be over before it even begins.  As of now, it looks like I will be able to go.  (I really hope I don't have to eat my words).While my problems are dwarfed by the tragedies occurring in Japan, my situation merely serves as an example of how far reaching this disaster is.

One of my best friends, Sean, was set to go to APU in southern Japan through the California State University program, however the UC/CSU system cancelled their program in wake of the Japanese situation.  Sean, myself, and the hundreds of other students set to go to Japan this  semester have not taken any classes here in the US this Spring semester because the Japanese semester starts in April. Therefore, if we do not go, we will all have missed an entire semester of classes putting our graduation date back even further. Hopefully the situation in Japan will continue to improve for everyone's sake and things will carry forward as planned.

I will keep you posted!

The First Post for my blog "Lost in a Gaijin's Translation"

Hello and welcome to my blog entitled...well you already know what the title is.  Anyways, for those unfamiliar with the Japanese word,"Gaijin," it is defined as "foreigner." Lo and behold, that is exactly what I will be upon my arrival to the bright lights of Tokyo in March!

This blog will document my experiences in Japan as I spend a semester abroad at Sophia University via University of Hawaii at Manoa.  I'll share occurrences of my various cultural interactions and run-ins with the infamous "culture shock."  There are sure to be moments of excitement, revelation, loneliness and embarrassment.  And yes, there will be a lot of hot and steamy...Japanese cuisine.

Words cannot express how thrilled I am to be able to continue my collegiate studies in Japan, the home of my ancestors (well half of them at least. Perhaps I'll go to China next year?). I welcome you to join me on this journey, just don't get "Lost in a Gaijin's Translation!" ba dum tss!

Til next time, jaa mata!