So last night I was pretty bored, so I tried to get a group of people together to go to the 300yen place (300 yen for 30 minutes of all you can eat all you can drink fun) but of course everyone had other plans, or were too lazy, or had already eaten. fail. So me and my other buddy Ethan went to Sapporo station and we just ate at this curry place that was pretty good.
Japanese curry is strange. The more I eat it, the more I like it. Which is really funny because the first time I had it I really didn't like it very much. But now I can't stop eating it!!! On a side note, I was at Jusco today, and I found these cake thingers about the size of my fist for 60 yen!! That's so cheap for a ball of chocolate cake that actually tastes soo good. Needless to say I am addicted.
So while we were eating we got onto the topic of DDR. Now not many people know what DDR is, it stands for dance dance revolution, a game that you use your feet to play. It originally came out a long time ago, so it's been around for awhile, and like most fads has really lost its shine, but its still really fun every once in awhile. So we finished eating and we headed out to find this arcade my friend said that he had found before and ...we got lost.
Well not really, we just couldn't find the place. We knew 2 things, it was close to Sapporo station, on the 9th floor of the building, and it was above an electronics shop. yay. After 30 minutes of roaming around looking like foreign morons we finally found the place and played a few games of DDR. This was fun and bad. I say bad because A. I am not in the greatest shape, and B. because I haven't played DDR in a long time hehe, so after only a couple of songs my body was attempting to inhale 6x as much air as it could and I was dead tired. But it was still a lot of fun.
Today, I had soccer practice in the morning (so much for sleeping in zzz) and in the afternoon my friend was picking me up so that we could go buy a rice steamer YAY WIN!!! Now I love rice. A lot! So not having ample amounts of rice in my diet has really been crushing my style, but that's going to change now. Anyway, the actual trip of going to get the rice steamer was pretty fun, so I'll share it with you.
My friend Kenji has a car, so he picked me up around 1:15, and the place we were going was about 45 minutes away, or 30 if you drive like Kenji. I'm usually pretty calm inside a car, even if the driver pulls some iffy moves, but this was on a whole new level. We were weaving through cars, switching lanes in intersections, and passing cars through double center lines like it was nothing. It was slightly alarming, but Kenji said he was a good driver and had only been in one accident...lol.
So we finally get to the place, and kanji backs the car up into the spot. We get out, and look at the back, and notice that it is...directly up against the concrete barrier that he was backing up towards. He said don't worry about it, so we just went inside the store.
The place was called 2nd street and it dealt with used goods. The cheapest new rice steamer i could find was 5700 yen (60 USD) so I was willing to find something cheaper, even if it was used. Kenji also said the place was really clean, which it was. So we looked around there and the cheapest we could find was 3900 yen, which wasn't too bad.
He said there was another place close that was the same, so we decided to check there as well, so we hopped back into the car and headed on over.
On the way however I learned probably the most shocking thing about Japan that I have ever learned. You can actually run away from the cops. And I don't mean leave the country run or anything like that, Kenji said that the law states that Police really aren't allowed to chase you in a car unless they are sure they can catch you, and they aren't allowed to chase you for any more than 5 minutes.
The reason this conversation came up is because we went barreling through an intersection. We were probably 50-100 meters from the intersection when the light turned RED, and kenji decides to floor it and try to make the right turn. (Japanese streets are opposite americans, so think of a right turn as being a left turn (aka you have to cross lanes)). So, we speed up into the intersection to attempt to make a right hand turn. Now this is a really huge intersection, each direction has 3 lanes, so it is pretty large.
We zoom into the intersection and kenji starts to make the right turn as he taps the breaks a bit as well, calmly mentioning the fact that Hokkaido drivers are the craziest in Japan...yay. The tires start screaming as the car begins to slide to the right as we get into the middle of the turn. The car is shaking like mad and I have to admit I was rather alarmed at this point but kenji seemed to be pretty calm. We finally get all the way around and into our lane and I was happy to have made it through safely. In the ensuing conversation i found that out cops aren't allowed to chase cars etc, so you can tell where the conversation started hehe.
I ended up buying the 3900yen rice steamer, and am happily eating rice and curry right now. yum
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Observations
College college college. That's what I am doing right now, and that's what a lot of Japanese college students are doing right now as well. However, there is a distinct market for college students in the states I think, one that is totally non-existent here.
Using Ohio State as an example, the surrounding campus and part of the city is purely devoted to students. From bars, cheap food joints, to other places that sell dorm/college specific items. The campus is a microcosm of a larger market, which is the college students.
Now here in Sapporo, around the campus area there are most certainly cafeteria, places to buy school stuff and what not, but there really aren't any stores that are focused on the college student as a market.
In America you might have the stereotypical case where you stuff the car full of your things, drive a couple of hours, and pick which corner to shove it all into in a dorm room. I really don't think Japanese people have this type of experience whatsoever.
Now obviously I may be totally wrong, but so far I have only seen 4 dorms here on campus, 1 of which I am living in. There is another that is only for girls but only has 16 rooms, another one for international students, and then the all boys dorm, which has a designated wing for foreigners. Compare this to Ohio State, which has around 8-10 thousand beds in the dorms, pretty big difference.
So where do Japanese students live? I think its a decent combination of things. Anyone that is originally from the area still lives with their parents. It's really common for Japanese students and people in general to live with their parents for extended periods of time, however there isn't a negative connotation associated with it like there is in America.
The students that aren't from around here simply live in apartments. Some live 30-45 minutes away from the campus itself to save money. This is so different from America, because in America if you lived 45 minutes from school, 9 times out of 10 you would have to drive to school. Where as in Japan, most students bike to school, and when the weather is bad, they take the bus or the subway. Both of which just aren't possible in Columbus.
So during the daytime the campus is full of people and pretty active, but the surrounding area is not focused on students or that age group at all. There is Sapporo station which has food, shopping, and many other things you might need, but it's just not the same.
So when I go to a store, looking for a 10 dollar coffee maker, and 15 dollar rice steamer, they simple do not exist. There isn't a market for these super cheap goods that last maybe 1-2 years at most. It's really strange and interesting and annoying at the same time. There are of course used goods stores, and the 100 yen store, but these are pretty common everywhere.
Pretty cool/weird eh?
Using Ohio State as an example, the surrounding campus and part of the city is purely devoted to students. From bars, cheap food joints, to other places that sell dorm/college specific items. The campus is a microcosm of a larger market, which is the college students.
Now here in Sapporo, around the campus area there are most certainly cafeteria, places to buy school stuff and what not, but there really aren't any stores that are focused on the college student as a market.
In America you might have the stereotypical case where you stuff the car full of your things, drive a couple of hours, and pick which corner to shove it all into in a dorm room. I really don't think Japanese people have this type of experience whatsoever.
Now obviously I may be totally wrong, but so far I have only seen 4 dorms here on campus, 1 of which I am living in. There is another that is only for girls but only has 16 rooms, another one for international students, and then the all boys dorm, which has a designated wing for foreigners. Compare this to Ohio State, which has around 8-10 thousand beds in the dorms, pretty big difference.
So where do Japanese students live? I think its a decent combination of things. Anyone that is originally from the area still lives with their parents. It's really common for Japanese students and people in general to live with their parents for extended periods of time, however there isn't a negative connotation associated with it like there is in America.
The students that aren't from around here simply live in apartments. Some live 30-45 minutes away from the campus itself to save money. This is so different from America, because in America if you lived 45 minutes from school, 9 times out of 10 you would have to drive to school. Where as in Japan, most students bike to school, and when the weather is bad, they take the bus or the subway. Both of which just aren't possible in Columbus.
So during the daytime the campus is full of people and pretty active, but the surrounding area is not focused on students or that age group at all. There is Sapporo station which has food, shopping, and many other things you might need, but it's just not the same.
So when I go to a store, looking for a 10 dollar coffee maker, and 15 dollar rice steamer, they simple do not exist. There isn't a market for these super cheap goods that last maybe 1-2 years at most. It's really strange and interesting and annoying at the same time. There are of course used goods stores, and the 100 yen store, but these are pretty common everywhere.
Pretty cool/weird eh?
class
Well this week my Japanese language courses began. 2 weeks ago I took a placement exam that would determine which levels of classes I would be placed in and this past Tuesday was judgment day.
Quick background, there are 3 levels of classes, basic, intermediate, and advanced. The Japanese interpretations of intermediate and advanced are very skewed though, if you are advanced, you are basically fluent. Needless to say I was registered for the intermediate classes, 5 of them.
but man what an absolute cluster bomb of stupidity it was. Instead of emailing everyone their respective classes and such, they simply posted all of the classes and their class lists on the wall in the international student center. They told all the students they would post this on Tuesday morning.
So 8:30, I'm walking into the student center and there is just an absolute crowd of people. Everyone is trying to get closer to 1 wall, that has all the information, and write down their classes. Because not only is your name written there, the time, days of the week, and location of the class is written there as well. So you have to write down all of that, for each class. BUT WAIT, lets say you wanted to switch classes, then you would have to go back and try to find the class you wanted to switch in to, and then once again fight your way to the front to do it all again. What a mess.
A week later I am actually still in the process of switching one of my classes, so needless to say it has been a bit frustrating. From their point of view they have students from all different countries of all different skills levels coming here, and they need to figure out where to put everyone. From out point of view, we take a test, and get thrown into classes not really knowing what they are all about. So I feel kind of sorry for the teachers that have to go through these first 2 weeks of re-arranging class rooms and schedules and the like, but they could also have simply emailed the information to everyone and saved some time and paper.
I also met my advisor last week, he is an economic history professor here, and he has a “zemi” every Monday from 2:45…to….6!! yay. So he says that he wants me to come to his zemi (btw zemi is derived from some german word, but it’s not seminar. Anywho, he tells me that he wants me to come and attend his class. Yay. I get to sit in a classroom with 20 other students, while I can’t understand anything, and listen to them talk to Meiji Era railroads and media for more than 3 hours.
There is an upside, I get to sit around and listen to the language and make a couple of new friends and the like. I’ve been assigned a tutor as well that is supposed to help me get through some of the material and such, but needless to say my Mondays have been utterly destroyed.
My total class load is 19.5 hours. Is that a lot? I was talking to one of my friends at OSU and he is taking 20 credit hours at OSU and he said it is only 14 hours of classes per week, and I looked at the schedule that I would have had this quarter, and I would have only been in class around 12 hours per week. Argh. So I am in class a lot, have a lot of homework, and then soccer club. Yay.
Also the textbook that I used to study with at Ohio State. Really not that great.
Quick background, there are 3 levels of classes, basic, intermediate, and advanced. The Japanese interpretations of intermediate and advanced are very skewed though, if you are advanced, you are basically fluent. Needless to say I was registered for the intermediate classes, 5 of them.
but man what an absolute cluster bomb of stupidity it was. Instead of emailing everyone their respective classes and such, they simply posted all of the classes and their class lists on the wall in the international student center. They told all the students they would post this on Tuesday morning.
So 8:30, I'm walking into the student center and there is just an absolute crowd of people. Everyone is trying to get closer to 1 wall, that has all the information, and write down their classes. Because not only is your name written there, the time, days of the week, and location of the class is written there as well. So you have to write down all of that, for each class. BUT WAIT, lets say you wanted to switch classes, then you would have to go back and try to find the class you wanted to switch in to, and then once again fight your way to the front to do it all again. What a mess.
A week later I am actually still in the process of switching one of my classes, so needless to say it has been a bit frustrating. From their point of view they have students from all different countries of all different skills levels coming here, and they need to figure out where to put everyone. From out point of view, we take a test, and get thrown into classes not really knowing what they are all about. So I feel kind of sorry for the teachers that have to go through these first 2 weeks of re-arranging class rooms and schedules and the like, but they could also have simply emailed the information to everyone and saved some time and paper.
I also met my advisor last week, he is an economic history professor here, and he has a “zemi” every Monday from 2:45…to….6!! yay. So he says that he wants me to come to his zemi (btw zemi is derived from some german word, but it’s not seminar. Anywho, he tells me that he wants me to come and attend his class. Yay. I get to sit in a classroom with 20 other students, while I can’t understand anything, and listen to them talk to Meiji Era railroads and media for more than 3 hours.
There is an upside, I get to sit around and listen to the language and make a couple of new friends and the like. I’ve been assigned a tutor as well that is supposed to help me get through some of the material and such, but needless to say my Mondays have been utterly destroyed.
My total class load is 19.5 hours. Is that a lot? I was talking to one of my friends at OSU and he is taking 20 credit hours at OSU and he said it is only 14 hours of classes per week, and I looked at the schedule that I would have had this quarter, and I would have only been in class around 12 hours per week. Argh. So I am in class a lot, have a lot of homework, and then soccer club. Yay.
Also the textbook that I used to study with at Ohio State. Really not that great.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Purin pt. 2
Ok. So we had 2 soccer games. The first was the A-team (lulz) against their A-team, or what we from the states would call varsity. That was full 45 minutes halves, and the Hokudai team ended up winning 4-1. Yayy. It was super cold during the whole game though, and rained periodically. It was still a really good game, and the A-team got the job done.
The second game for the B-team (junior varsity) was only 30 minutes halves, but it seemed to get colder as the minutes ticked on. I didn't get to go in in the first half, but that's OK. We were up 1-0 at half, and it was a pretty close game. about 15 minutes into the second half though, I got the OK to go in, at left center back. The team runs a formation of a 4-4-2, with the back 4 (defenders) running a flat back 4. Now thanks to my coaches in high school, I have a pretty good idea of how to run the flat back 4, however the biggest part of maintaining a good defense is communication, which normally isn't a problem, but when everyone is yelling things in Japanese it tends to get a little tough.
I've become familiar with the most basic soccer terms in Japanese, such as time, turn, man-on, left right forward backwards, but the flat back 4 really requires the two guys in the center to really maintain close communications. I would like to think I did pretty well. We didn't let them get any shots on goal, and they only had a few chances past midfield against us.
Then it started to hail. Yay. I asked another guy was hail was in Japanese but I totally forget what he said. According to Google, the word is Hyou, pronouned he-yoo. It was still really fun though, I haven't played soccer in inclement weather in quite some time and it brought back a lot of fond memories.
So the game went on, and we were still up 1-0, when disaster struck. We had just moved up the left side of the field but lost possession of the ball, and their team was on the counter. The far left back had been part of the attack before we had lost the ball, so he was too far up to defend and I had 2 guys coming in full speed towards me. It is pretty much impossible to guard 2 guys, so I tried to steal the ball from the first guy, he passed it to the second, who passed it to another guy, who scored. Darn.
We ended up tying 1-1 in the end, but it was still a lot of fun.
The first picture is just an action shot. We are in green and their are in red. This was before it had started to pour.
The second picture if of some of the other first years during the varsity game. We were all pretty cold, so we had been jogging around and doing whatever we could to stay warm.
After the game I asked the captain if it was OK to take a team picture, so he made everyone get together and we got a really good picture.
And now I will explain Purin.
After the game, some of the second years took me and some of the other first years out to eat. Gotusandesu! We went to this super cool bbq place where you payed at the door, then went up to a buffet of raw meat. Grabbed whatever you wanted, and then returned to your table which was extra large because it had a grill in the middle. So you sit around usually 6 people to one table with this cool grill in the middle and you grill out, inside! I really loved it. They had different kinds of beef, some sausage, pork, and rice and some other fried stuff. It tasted amazing.
The dessert counter was just as packed. They had cake, ice cream, slushys! Even a cotton candy machine. So I helped myself to a couple pieces of cake, some ice cream, and a coffee for dessert. It was truly stuffed at this point.
However my Japanese friends had other plans. One of them came back with a tray full of Purin, or pudding. Now Japanese Pudding is a lot more like jello than it is pudding, but its pretty runny jello, not very stable. And my friend demonstrated that with these particular cups, there was a small tab on the bottom that you popped, which released the pudding from the cup, which then allowed you to squeeze the sides of the cup and shoot the pudding into your mouth. Well of course this all takes some skill, which means....YOU CAN RACE!!!
So I was already stuffed full of grilled meat, rice and dessert, but I couldn't pass up the chance to get in on an eating contest. So after watching 2 of the other guys race a couple of times, I decided to give a try. I totally botched my first try, but it was OK, because I would have many more. I finally got the hang of it on the 3rd cup of purin, and was able to beat my opponent! However my stomach was beginning to get upset with what I was doing to it hehe. After a couple more races, everyone was pretty stuffed, but not before we had gone through 46 of these small cups of pudding. The following picture is us in front of place after we finally decided to leave.
Oodalolly oodalolly golly what a day.
Purin
If you look out your window, and you see that it is raining in Sapporo, don't worry about grabbing your umbrella because by the time you get downstairs, get your shoes on and walk out the door, it will have stopped. Likewise, if you look out your window and see blue sky and sunlight, grab all the rain gear you've got because it will be pouring by the time you walk of your front door. This has happened to me twice now. :(
So today I woke up for the second time in a row at 6:45. The Japanese word for 'sleepy' is nemui, pronounced: ne (like eh) moo - i (as in e like me). Needless to say I was feeling pretty nemui when I woke up, but today we had 2 soccer games!!
The team members that didn't have a car gathered in the designated spot and we waited around as some of the older students with cars showed up. Then we all packed in (Japanese cars are small btw) and set off for Hokkai Daigaku. It was about an hour away, pretty much on the other side of Sapporo, if we were even in Sapporo anymore. The first picture is after about 15 minutes of driving, it's of the mountains that you can see from the Hokudai campus.
The second picture is of a tower that I could see right before we arrived at the other college, but was unable to see it from that college. In the second picture, you can barely see the tip of it behind the nets. Its shape was very irregular and I asked my friend in the car about it and I think he said it has something to do with Hokkaido's History.
In the next picture, you can barely see the mountains that are on the other side of the city, that are visible from this campus. Its pretty cool to be able to see mountains in the background of where you live. You can also see that the soccer field is made up of a kind of hard green dirt stuff? I really don't know how to describe it. It seemed similar to the material that tracks are made out of, but has seen some wear n tear. And for some reason I can't post any more pictures into this entry...on to the next!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Funderstorm
So its around 6:00 in the evening on Saturday night here, and it is currently thundering. I love thunderstorms, or as my neighbor just called them, funderstorms. Japanese thunder does sound a bit strange, it doesn't really roll and tumble like it does in Ohio, it just all falls over in a giant heap, to put it strangely.
The other night, I was sitting in my room dead tired after a day of classes and soccer practice, just watching a tv show, when my door burst open and a guy rushes into my room. He was Asian, but we had never met and I had no idea who he was. He stops, looks around, and says "whoa this isn't my room," to which I replied "umm yeah its mine." He started to laugh and I was still relatively shocked and he started jabbering on in Chinese or something and then he said his name was Lin. So we did the whole introduction thing, which country are you from? Hows your Japanese? Do you play any sports?
Well turns out he is from China (duh) and he has never studied Japanese, and he plays Baminton. Today he made me a chicken wing (???) which I just ate. It was spicy.
So far though I have really enjoyed Japanese society. One of the things that I enjoy the most is how the Japanese eat. If you have food in front of you, it is proper to eat it. Obviously manner with chopsticks (hasi) is important, and it is always polite to refill the drink of your neighbor. (p.s. doing this will make Japanese people go nuts. It is a tradition that really only occurs in formal or special circumstances, and so for instance you and your 3 other friends are out eating out and you refill their drinks, it will really show some class. I guarantee it.)
In other news, I have a soccer game that I have to go to tomorrow. We have to meet at 7:30 which is a bit early in the morning but supposedly it is far away and I think it will be a lot of fun.
I will definitely take my camera, so I can put up a couple pictures from the game.
As for my classes, so far I have Japanese society (Canadian prof, good class), Japanese Economics (Japanese prof, pretty bad so far), WW2 present day problems and issues in Japan (English professor, not exactly the class I thought it would be) and Soviet Russia in the 20th century (American Prof, great class). 2/4 right now, maybe things will improve.
Time to go eat some cheese that NASA blasted off the moon!!
The other night, I was sitting in my room dead tired after a day of classes and soccer practice, just watching a tv show, when my door burst open and a guy rushes into my room. He was Asian, but we had never met and I had no idea who he was. He stops, looks around, and says "whoa this isn't my room," to which I replied "umm yeah its mine." He started to laugh and I was still relatively shocked and he started jabbering on in Chinese or something and then he said his name was Lin. So we did the whole introduction thing, which country are you from? Hows your Japanese? Do you play any sports?
Well turns out he is from China (duh) and he has never studied Japanese, and he plays Baminton. Today he made me a chicken wing (???) which I just ate. It was spicy.
So far though I have really enjoyed Japanese society. One of the things that I enjoy the most is how the Japanese eat. If you have food in front of you, it is proper to eat it. Obviously manner with chopsticks (hasi) is important, and it is always polite to refill the drink of your neighbor. (p.s. doing this will make Japanese people go nuts. It is a tradition that really only occurs in formal or special circumstances, and so for instance you and your 3 other friends are out eating out and you refill their drinks, it will really show some class. I guarantee it.)
In other news, I have a soccer game that I have to go to tomorrow. We have to meet at 7:30 which is a bit early in the morning but supposedly it is far away and I think it will be a lot of fun.
I will definitely take my camera, so I can put up a couple pictures from the game.
As for my classes, so far I have Japanese society (Canadian prof, good class), Japanese Economics (Japanese prof, pretty bad so far), WW2 present day problems and issues in Japan (English professor, not exactly the class I thought it would be) and Soviet Russia in the 20th century (American Prof, great class). 2/4 right now, maybe things will improve.
Time to go eat some cheese that NASA blasted off the moon!!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Soccerbu
Soccerbu translates as Soccer Club, but really, the soccerbu at Hokkaido University is the soccer team. I am now in the Soccerbu.
So I've been trying to figure out ways to meet more japanese people, because quite frankly it's been rather tough. Walking up to a japanese guy when you tower over him and asking him to be your friend isn't exactly the best way to go about it. So there is a website for all the clubs and things at Hokudai (Hokk. U.) but of course it was written in Japanese. After some home made translation, asking around a bit, and getting some info, I found myself at the soccer grounds today at 4:30, ready for soccer practice.
Japanese people are fast. Like really fast. I mean like...man these guys are fast.
Anyway, so I get there and put my soccer gear on as about 20 dudes stand around and stare at me. They started doing a drill about halfway through me getting ready so I figured I would watch a bit. Man I thought my foot skills were bad but holy cow, these guys can play. So after I get my stuff on, I stand up and just kind of stand awkwardly on the sideline, wondering what was going to happen next. Luckily one of the japanese players walked over to me, and we started to have a little conversation.
Turns out they dont really have a coach, they just have sempai and koohai, which roughly translate at senior and junior. So there are the upper class man who play on the team and such and they basically help the younger kids get better etc. And I was currently talking to one of the upper class man. The current drill was kind of a keep away, but me and the guy couldn't really get the meaning across the languages.
But he said it was cool for me to play, we have practice every weekday at 4:30, 3:30 in the fall because the sun sets at 5. We also have practices sometimes on saturday, and sometimes we have games on sundays. Pretty busy eh?
So I am definitely going to try and play on the team for awhile, obviously studies come first and such, but it seems really fun and I think I will be able to balance it will school work and such.
So we talk a bit more, turns out I am going to need some shin guards, or regattu. I think I know where to buy them, so maybe I will pick them up tomorrow. Hopefully they will be ok.
So next they started doing a shooting drill, and the guy told me to hop in line. It was a simple drill where you passed the ball to a guy who laid it off for you and then you shot. Well...out of 6 tries I only made 1, pretty pathetic.
After that we just had a half field scrimmage with 3 teams where one switched off. It was pretty intense, I got put in at right full back and had my hands full with a couple of guys who would switch positions a lot, and I never really received orders from the center back which made it worse, so after my first day I ended up doing fairly bad.
After practice ended, I stood around and talked with a bunch of the guys for awhile, it was pretty fun. Finally getting to use some more Japanese feels great, and makes it not feel like I am wasting my time here. We pretty much figured that I was a first year here, which kinda sucks because in Japanese society, being the rookie, or first year usually means extra stupid responsibilities, like shagging balls and picking up after everyone else. Joy.
The other first years asked me to go to dinner w them so I agreed and they also offered to pay which was very nice indeed. In that situation you say a special little phrase that literally translates as "I will take advantage of your kind words." So I took advantage of their kind words. They asked me what I wanted to eat, and I said meat...MEAT. So we went to this place, sat down japanese style (insert pain here, and a charlie horse) and had meat. I order the LL (2xl) cheeze burger steak, with rice, and soup. Yum.
We sat around and got to know a little bit more about each other, and it was a lot of fun. Not having to pay was a bonus as well. It was overall a lot of fun, and I am really glad I decided to get involved. Hopefully I will be able to make some new friends, be a 20 year old ball boy, and get better at soccer too. We'll see.
So I've been trying to figure out ways to meet more japanese people, because quite frankly it's been rather tough. Walking up to a japanese guy when you tower over him and asking him to be your friend isn't exactly the best way to go about it. So there is a website for all the clubs and things at Hokudai (Hokk. U.) but of course it was written in Japanese. After some home made translation, asking around a bit, and getting some info, I found myself at the soccer grounds today at 4:30, ready for soccer practice.
Japanese people are fast. Like really fast. I mean like...man these guys are fast.
Anyway, so I get there and put my soccer gear on as about 20 dudes stand around and stare at me. They started doing a drill about halfway through me getting ready so I figured I would watch a bit. Man I thought my foot skills were bad but holy cow, these guys can play. So after I get my stuff on, I stand up and just kind of stand awkwardly on the sideline, wondering what was going to happen next. Luckily one of the japanese players walked over to me, and we started to have a little conversation.
Turns out they dont really have a coach, they just have sempai and koohai, which roughly translate at senior and junior. So there are the upper class man who play on the team and such and they basically help the younger kids get better etc. And I was currently talking to one of the upper class man. The current drill was kind of a keep away, but me and the guy couldn't really get the meaning across the languages.
But he said it was cool for me to play, we have practice every weekday at 4:30, 3:30 in the fall because the sun sets at 5. We also have practices sometimes on saturday, and sometimes we have games on sundays. Pretty busy eh?
So I am definitely going to try and play on the team for awhile, obviously studies come first and such, but it seems really fun and I think I will be able to balance it will school work and such.
So we talk a bit more, turns out I am going to need some shin guards, or regattu. I think I know where to buy them, so maybe I will pick them up tomorrow. Hopefully they will be ok.
So next they started doing a shooting drill, and the guy told me to hop in line. It was a simple drill where you passed the ball to a guy who laid it off for you and then you shot. Well...out of 6 tries I only made 1, pretty pathetic.
After that we just had a half field scrimmage with 3 teams where one switched off. It was pretty intense, I got put in at right full back and had my hands full with a couple of guys who would switch positions a lot, and I never really received orders from the center back which made it worse, so after my first day I ended up doing fairly bad.
After practice ended, I stood around and talked with a bunch of the guys for awhile, it was pretty fun. Finally getting to use some more Japanese feels great, and makes it not feel like I am wasting my time here. We pretty much figured that I was a first year here, which kinda sucks because in Japanese society, being the rookie, or first year usually means extra stupid responsibilities, like shagging balls and picking up after everyone else. Joy.
The other first years asked me to go to dinner w them so I agreed and they also offered to pay which was very nice indeed. In that situation you say a special little phrase that literally translates as "I will take advantage of your kind words." So I took advantage of their kind words. They asked me what I wanted to eat, and I said meat...MEAT. So we went to this place, sat down japanese style (insert pain here, and a charlie horse) and had meat. I order the LL (2xl) cheeze burger steak, with rice, and soup. Yum.
We sat around and got to know a little bit more about each other, and it was a lot of fun. Not having to pay was a bonus as well. It was overall a lot of fun, and I am really glad I decided to get involved. Hopefully I will be able to make some new friends, be a 20 year old ball boy, and get better at soccer too. We'll see.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Past couple of days
So I have been lazy and apologize for not having updated this in a couple of days.
Anyway, my first couple of classes were ok, not really much work, just going over the syllabus so it was a pretty big waste of my time. But the classes appear to be promising so we'll see how it goes.
The weather here is pretty funny. You can look out the window and it will be cloudy, drizzling, and look crappy. So you put your shoes on and grab a rain jacket, go down stairs, and go outside, and the sun will have come out and its become hot. And no matter which direction I jog in, the wind will always blow against me. Today I ran to the gym, and the wind blew against me the whole time. On the way back, the sun was out and there were several clouds, but halfway home it started raining from apparently a microscopic cloud above me and the wind changed direction against me again.
Also on the way home from the gym today, I was 30 yards away from a stop light and it had just turned red. I began to hear strange yelling and had no idea where it was coming from. Suddenly a minivan passed me on the right with 2 tiny heads sticking out of the windows yelling "hooww aarre uuuu...howw areee uuuuuuuu...." and then one started singing the ABC's. It was pretty funny, and I thought about yelling back that I was German and didn't understand English but decided against it. It was still pretty funny and cute.
Today I also had the privilege of going to a Sapporo Ham Fighters baseball game. Like the true bird brain that I am I forgot to take my camera so unfortunately I have no pictures. Sorry.
But the game was held in the Sapporo dome, which was the center piece of the '72 winter Olympics here in Sapporo, and is still a very important landmark to the people. The dome itself is enormous. Emerging from the subway station (which was packed shoulder to shoulder) and laying eyes on this metal behemoth was quite breathtaking. Once again sorry for not having a picture.
The inside of the dome is equally amazing. The shape is more ovular, so it doesn't quite fit a baseball field very well, but the seats we had were still pretty good. It has one giant screen that has all the player information and such on it, and plenty of stands and drink stalls to satisfy any need. Once we sat down, the real fun started (duh).
The away team fans were 2 sections away from us, and were quite rowdy whereas the home team fans were rather subdued for the moment. The away team fans had brought flags, trumpets, drums, megaphones, and anything else you could think of to wave in the air. It was quite a spectacle. They cheered endlessly while their team was at bat, but the ham fighters were pretty good, so they didn't get a single hit in the first inning.
However, as soon as the fighters got the 3rd out, all of the ham fighters fans stood up and began to sing, dance, and wave around their flags. And they continued to do this until they got 3 outs and it went to the top of the second, but not before the fighters got 3 runs in.
Then it was the away fan's turn again to cheer and chant all of their player specific songs and things, it was pretty funny. But they didn't get any runs and were struck out quickly.
Bottom of the second, the fighters scored 5 runs, so it was then 8-0. Pretty good game eh?
The marines managed to get a run in the top of the third, but that was the last point they scored. the final scored ended up being 11-1, and the Ham fighters clinched their division. Not bad for a 20 dollar ticket i think.
Anyway, my first couple of classes were ok, not really much work, just going over the syllabus so it was a pretty big waste of my time. But the classes appear to be promising so we'll see how it goes.
The weather here is pretty funny. You can look out the window and it will be cloudy, drizzling, and look crappy. So you put your shoes on and grab a rain jacket, go down stairs, and go outside, and the sun will have come out and its become hot. And no matter which direction I jog in, the wind will always blow against me. Today I ran to the gym, and the wind blew against me the whole time. On the way back, the sun was out and there were several clouds, but halfway home it started raining from apparently a microscopic cloud above me and the wind changed direction against me again.
Also on the way home from the gym today, I was 30 yards away from a stop light and it had just turned red. I began to hear strange yelling and had no idea where it was coming from. Suddenly a minivan passed me on the right with 2 tiny heads sticking out of the windows yelling "hooww aarre uuuu...howw areee uuuuuuuu...." and then one started singing the ABC's. It was pretty funny, and I thought about yelling back that I was German and didn't understand English but decided against it. It was still pretty funny and cute.
Today I also had the privilege of going to a Sapporo Ham Fighters baseball game. Like the true bird brain that I am I forgot to take my camera so unfortunately I have no pictures. Sorry.
But the game was held in the Sapporo dome, which was the center piece of the '72 winter Olympics here in Sapporo, and is still a very important landmark to the people. The dome itself is enormous. Emerging from the subway station (which was packed shoulder to shoulder) and laying eyes on this metal behemoth was quite breathtaking. Once again sorry for not having a picture.
The inside of the dome is equally amazing. The shape is more ovular, so it doesn't quite fit a baseball field very well, but the seats we had were still pretty good. It has one giant screen that has all the player information and such on it, and plenty of stands and drink stalls to satisfy any need. Once we sat down, the real fun started (duh).
The away team fans were 2 sections away from us, and were quite rowdy whereas the home team fans were rather subdued for the moment. The away team fans had brought flags, trumpets, drums, megaphones, and anything else you could think of to wave in the air. It was quite a spectacle. They cheered endlessly while their team was at bat, but the ham fighters were pretty good, so they didn't get a single hit in the first inning.
However, as soon as the fighters got the 3rd out, all of the ham fighters fans stood up and began to sing, dance, and wave around their flags. And they continued to do this until they got 3 outs and it went to the top of the second, but not before the fighters got 3 runs in.
Then it was the away fan's turn again to cheer and chant all of their player specific songs and things, it was pretty funny. But they didn't get any runs and were struck out quickly.
Bottom of the second, the fighters scored 5 runs, so it was then 8-0. Pretty good game eh?
The marines managed to get a run in the top of the third, but that was the last point they scored. the final scored ended up being 11-1, and the Ham fighters clinched their division. Not bad for a 20 dollar ticket i think.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Mission Accomplished
So I got my slippers back. I saw them sitting in the lobby yesterday and swiped them as soon as I could. I am pretty happy to have them back. I get a little sick to my stomach when I think that someone else used them but a Japanese person would say "sikata ga nai" which means literally "it cannot be helped."
A lot of things have also happened the past few days, I hope that I can get them all down here.
So yesterday morning started with orientation. The director of my program is Dr. Peter Firkola, originally from Canada, has been in charge of the program since its creation 11 years ago. He is a short chap but is rather funny and speaks VERY fast. But things went pretty smoothly, he outlined the program, the expectations and such so it was ok.
After he was done speaking we had another professor give us an orientation on the Japanese language classes that we would be taking. Now this guy was a character. Apparently he is fluent in 5 languages, japanese (duh), spanish, portuguese, Chinese, and English. But whats even better than being fluent in 5 languages? Being a Sapporo Ham Fighters fan. That is Sapporo's baseball team btw, and apparently they had a game today, and they have a game on saturday that if they win they will be very close to winning the championship.
So before he even speaks, he takes a pair of thunder sticks out of his bag and starts banging them and yelling about how amazing the ham fighters are and if anyone wants to go with him to the game on saturday. So for 2k yen, he got me and a couple other friends really good seats for the game with him, and I think it will be quite an experience. I will be sure to take my camera and write about it on sunday.
After that we had lunch and then took a japanese proficiency test. It was rather difficult at times, and also easy at times, so I am not sure exactly how I did, but I would guess that I got around 70-80% of the questions correct.
After the test we were supposed to meet our supervisors, however apparently mine was busy so I have still yet to meet with them. sigh.....
This orientation was also the first time I was able to see all the gaijins (slightly derogatory term for foreigners) in one place at once. There are 3 french men, 2 russians, and a partridge in a pair tree. Well no, but really, there are 3 guys from finland, a guy from hungary, sweden and probably 8-10 Chinese students, 3 korean students, one from Singapore, then probably 15 Americans. So it's a pretty diverse set of students, 36 in total.
After the orientation was all over, we decided to meet up and see about going out somewhere to eat and drink a little, so we ended up at a bar that was in the basement of a hotel, but it was still pretty nice. We had to all sit Japanese style, so on our knees (that lasted about 10 seconds) in front of the tables that are only about 1 foot off the ground. It was really cheap and good though, for 30 minutes, you could drink and eat all you could for only 300 yen. So we stayed for 2 hours eating drinking and sharing stories from different parts of the world for about 2 hours, and it only cost 1400 yen (roughly 15 USD).
All in all it was a very good night. Not much japanese spoken, but still a lot of fun.
So today was the first day of classes. It was also the first day I had to sort my garbage...yay. So in Japan, there are 9 categories of garbage, and it is up to you to sort your own garbage into the correctly colored bag. Luckily I have a guide (in english) which explains how to do this, but it was still rather annoying. Im glad its done...for now.
More on the rest of my past couple of days soon. I need to sleep. Oyasumi!
A lot of things have also happened the past few days, I hope that I can get them all down here.
So yesterday morning started with orientation. The director of my program is Dr. Peter Firkola, originally from Canada, has been in charge of the program since its creation 11 years ago. He is a short chap but is rather funny and speaks VERY fast. But things went pretty smoothly, he outlined the program, the expectations and such so it was ok.
After he was done speaking we had another professor give us an orientation on the Japanese language classes that we would be taking. Now this guy was a character. Apparently he is fluent in 5 languages, japanese (duh), spanish, portuguese, Chinese, and English. But whats even better than being fluent in 5 languages? Being a Sapporo Ham Fighters fan. That is Sapporo's baseball team btw, and apparently they had a game today, and they have a game on saturday that if they win they will be very close to winning the championship.
So before he even speaks, he takes a pair of thunder sticks out of his bag and starts banging them and yelling about how amazing the ham fighters are and if anyone wants to go with him to the game on saturday. So for 2k yen, he got me and a couple other friends really good seats for the game with him, and I think it will be quite an experience. I will be sure to take my camera and write about it on sunday.
After that we had lunch and then took a japanese proficiency test. It was rather difficult at times, and also easy at times, so I am not sure exactly how I did, but I would guess that I got around 70-80% of the questions correct.
After the test we were supposed to meet our supervisors, however apparently mine was busy so I have still yet to meet with them. sigh.....
This orientation was also the first time I was able to see all the gaijins (slightly derogatory term for foreigners) in one place at once. There are 3 french men, 2 russians, and a partridge in a pair tree. Well no, but really, there are 3 guys from finland, a guy from hungary, sweden and probably 8-10 Chinese students, 3 korean students, one from Singapore, then probably 15 Americans. So it's a pretty diverse set of students, 36 in total.
After the orientation was all over, we decided to meet up and see about going out somewhere to eat and drink a little, so we ended up at a bar that was in the basement of a hotel, but it was still pretty nice. We had to all sit Japanese style, so on our knees (that lasted about 10 seconds) in front of the tables that are only about 1 foot off the ground. It was really cheap and good though, for 30 minutes, you could drink and eat all you could for only 300 yen. So we stayed for 2 hours eating drinking and sharing stories from different parts of the world for about 2 hours, and it only cost 1400 yen (roughly 15 USD).
All in all it was a very good night. Not much japanese spoken, but still a lot of fun.
So today was the first day of classes. It was also the first day I had to sort my garbage...yay. So in Japan, there are 9 categories of garbage, and it is up to you to sort your own garbage into the correctly colored bag. Luckily I have a guide (in english) which explains how to do this, but it was still rather annoying. Im glad its done...for now.
More on the rest of my past couple of days soon. I need to sleep. Oyasumi!
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