What an Adventure!

Winter vacation came and went along with all of our final papers and now I finally have time to make my final post.

The last few weeks of school at Tokiwa had been very busy with our classes, EC, and TA that we hardly had time to do much of anything. Which was difficult for all of us because we had become so close with many of the students and all of them wanted to spend as much time with us before we left. This of course, was my biggest fear, as I wanted to make many friends during my stay in Japan but leaving them has possibly been one of the more difficult things I've had to do. I think all of the students here have come to finally get used to our lifestyles in Japan, only to be flying home. I can only speak for myself but I have surely been experience some reverse culture shock even before returning home. But it's unavoidable.

I spent my winter vacation in Tokyo for a week, as my friends from Los Angeles came to visit me. In all honesty, I can't begin to explain how nervous I was, because I knew that I would have to really become a translator for my friends and I wasn't sure just how capable I was in doing so. I knew that the week in Tokyo would possibly be my 'final exam' in a sense. But overall the trip went smoothly and I couldn't have honestly asked for me.

We went to Yokohama and Kamakura which are both in the neighboring prefecture, Kanagawa. Kamakura happens to be the first settled Samurai city in the Kanto region (from what I recall) and because of it there were plenty of old architecture to see. The Big Buddha that you see in that picture is perhaps one of the more famous sites within Japan. We also visited Asakusa Park just before New Years and were able to see all the preparations that go into one of the biggest events of the year in Japan. As far as I'm aware, many people visit a temple on New Years Eve to shed the troubles of the year past, and a Shrine on New Years day to ring in the New Year with a cleansed spirit and free of worries. We did in fact visit Meiji Shrine for New Years but because of clock troubles, we missed to New Year by two minutes. Still, it was amazing to see how many Japanese people uphold this tradition, easily there was over a thousand people.

During our stay we were able to visit Ueno Park which is famous for its Zoo as well as museums that encircle the park. Though we weren't able to visit any of the museums we did get a chance to visit the zoo which is one of the first established in Japan. The zoo itself was pretty big considering how it was centered in the middle of a city and it was well kept with lots of visitors from all over the world.




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This surely has been an adventure with not a moment wasted. I can't express how great of an opportunity t for encouraging me to join the program.

In our final days I had a lot of time to think about everything that I had been able to experience and I think some of my best memories I have are from traveling with the other exchange students around Ibaraki and Tokyo together, as we discovered new places and experienchis was and I couldn't have done it without the help of all the Japanese professors at CSUN, especially Hirota Senseied a wide range of things within Japanese culture, traditional and modern.

I promise to give a more in-depth look into Japan on my return to America which is in less then 24 hours.

Thank you Japan, you have honestly been too good to me and I promise to visit you again.

1/15/10

This is my final day at Tokiwa University! I'm very sad that we have to leave because it feels to me the past five months have flew by so quickly. Living in a foreign country has opened up my perspectives on many different things, not just on the language or culture, but a better perspective on life in general. I feel I've benefited from this program greatly and I hope future exchange students can benefit equally or greater. I'm very happy to have been part of this program because it gave me the opportunity to learn the language and a chance to meet so many people. Thank you CSUN for giving me this great opportunity to study abroad!

Sincerely Yours,

ハー　ジェームス

明けましておめでとうございます！

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I'm sorry for the very, VERY late post! I have been busy these past few weeks, so I haven't had the chance to write a blog. I am planning to write about 4 things today in this blog.

1) NENGAJO Nengajo (年賀状) are the postcards that the Japanese send during new year's. They usually write things like 今年もよろしくお願いします。(Please treat me well this year). Some nengajo are blank so that if you want, you can write or draw whatever you want. There are also nengajo with picture and a message. Usually, the picture in front is the chineze zodiac of the coming year; in this year's case, it is the tiger. They also use cartoon characters like hello kitty (wearing a tiger costume), mickey, and minnie mouse for the nengajo. 2) Movie Theaters in Japan Movie theaters in Japan are different than American Theaters. Although both countries give discounts to children, students, and the elderly, they have ladies' (Wednesday) and gentlemen's (Thursday) day in Japan. The movie theater that I went to gave us a 500 yen discount since we went there on Wednesday (ladie's day). In Japan, they have the typical movie theater food: popcorn and hotdog; however, they also have french fries and chicken nuggets. They also sell a ice-blended coffee and believe it or not, beer! They also have many souvenirs for the movies that they are showing and in fact, they have a corner in the theater specifically for the souvenirs. Another interesting thing about the Japanese cinema is that they give you seat numbers. I guess that's a good way to keep your seat :) 3) Uniqlo Man

Like in the United States, the lines get longer as the time the store opens gets closer. I was amazed at how long the line got when it was time for Uniqlo to open. When the store did open, it was shocking to see that the people were patient and they were following the rules. In America, the people waiting in line are impatient and they would complain about how long the line is getting. When I got inside the store, people were all over the place, trying to get the best deals, buying clothes and shoes for less. What surprised me was the calm way that the store clerks were dealing with the chaotic store. The store clerks on the floor were patiently helping the customers look for the things that they are searching for while the clerks on the registers use “keigo” (formal language) with the customers. Another thing that surprised me was the guy who patiently waits for the customers in front of the register line. He helps the customers by carrying their purchases for them. We do not have that kind of customer service back in the United States, and I think it would be a good thing to have that because it leaves a good feeling to the customers, making each one of us special.

4)弓道 (Kyudo)

弓道 (kyudo) is the Japanese archery.I was fortunate enough to be able try it at least once :) The bow was long unlike the bow for the regular archery.There are many things that you need to do before you actually get to try to use the bow and arrow. I used a three fingered glove called "mitsugake". The bow is called "yumi" and the arrow "ya". Although I was only able to try it one time, I still had a lot of fun.

明けまして、おめでとうございます。

明けまして、おめでとうございます= Happy New Year!
今年もうよろしくお願いします= Please continue your good will towards me this year.

The above statements are formal greetings at each new year.
Of course, all my young friends say あけおめ, utilizing the shortened version, a very common trend in Japanese language. (笑)

I have begun this post with a picture of Kyoto Tower in the early morning, taken at Kyoto Station, after arriving to Kyoto after a long 8 hour bus ride from Tokyo (which we got on after having just ridden a 2 hour bus from Mito to Tokyo.)

It has been quite some time. Everyone here has been occupied with reports and traveling over the holidays. I had the opportunity to visit Kyoto and Oosaka over the holidays. I would like to take the opportunity to post some photos of the trip and also post some pictures of some other interesting sites over the course of the past year that I did not have the opportunity to post sooner. My recap will be spread over a few posts. I would also like to devote a later post to Oosaka, since I really like Oosaka (although I only got to spend a few hours there).


Here is a ph0to of 清水寺（kiyomizudera), a temple in Kyoto.




At 清水寺, we were able to see the Kanji of the Year. The exchange students and I were expecting to see a crazy Kanji that we never learned, but we were suprised to see a familiar kanji, 新. Although this is unrelated, the craziest kanji that the exchange students and I have come across so far is the kanji for depression, 鬱 (utsu). Many Japanese students have confessed that they have difficulty remembering how to write this kanji. After hearing this, one of the Fresno exchange students commited himself to learning how to write this kanji. He has done so successfully, so it is funny to see his notebook which has the kanji for 'depressed' written all over it.


Here is a picture of the sign of the bus we took from Tokyo to Kyoto. It had a very cute name, Seishun (youth) Dream.



Look how beautiful this looks! We turned on a random sidewalk and this beautiful site came out of nowhere! This is Kyoto early in the morning.

~Now for a brief recap~


Thanks to one of the Tokiwa Senseis, we had the opportunity to visit Ginza in Tokyo and watch a piece of a Kabuki play. This is a photo of the outside of a 歌舞伎座, a kabuki theatre. The play was very interesting, although I did not understand the language. Many fans in the audience called out the actors' names during the play, which I was very surprised to see. It seems that Japanese people are allowed to be involved in the Kabuki play, which is completely opposite from my experience at the Japanese movie theatres, where you are not supposed to clap or verbally interact with the movie (even if the movie is really good).


Here is a lucky picture I got of Mt. Fuji while riding a bus to Tokyo. Before this bus trip, I had only taken the train to Tokyo. It was truly an experience to ride the bus from Mito to Tokyo, because I had the opportunity to see the vast variety of buildings and streets.



These pictures are of old (throughout history) Japanese money. I wish I could explain it to you, but these heirlooms were shown to us by our friend's father whose family has heritage in the Tokugawa shogunate, and the Japanese he used was far too high level for my understanding.

Since I promised I would eventually post a picture of a Japanese style toilet, I will end this post with a picture of a Japanese toilet, the only type of toilet available after exiting the plane at Narita airport...although fancy western style toilets are widely available elsewhere in Japan.