Update

Random
September 1, 2007

It’s been awhile so I thought I should sit down and have a little online chat with everyone…you know, I’ll type and you read. J Life is the same for me here. I wake up every morning and get ready for work. I bike it to the train station and then ride to the next station. It might take 5 minutes, it might take an hour.

My days are filled with singing and dancing and speaking English. I annunciate everything not and I am accused of having a new accent that is terrible…it’s true though, there is no denying it. I hate the way I talk now. I explain everything and I am constantly searching my brain for the easiest, most simple synonyms I can think of to substitute for words that I use in my every day life…but for those who are just learning English, they don’t have a clue what I’m talking about.

I have ventured out more. We are getting brave and trying out our Japanese. Tara seems to be learning how to read (she’s up to about 4 or 5 symbols) while I am starting to understand more of the spoken language (I have a nice little vocabulary going). Between the two of us we know a whole lot of nothing and we still need out nerdy e-dictionaries and picture menus. There have been a couple of times though that we have really felt adventurous and gone into a restaurant that did not have a picture menu. That made for a laugh but it was fun and we got food that we could eat with no problem. Immersion is a funny thing.

I have been here for almost two months. I got here on July 7, and today is now September 1. The time flies by so fast sometimes. I have already been on several day trips and ventured around the city. I feel comfortable with my surroundings and I know how to get what I need. I have found the good shops and some fun places to visit. It’s beginning to feel like a home away from home.

I get mail everyday…too bad it’s all junk mail and it’s all written in Japanese. Sometimes the pictures are funny though. Some days I will save it because it makes me laugh. Every couple of weeks I’ll get a card from someone at home. That just makes my day. It’s amazing how a handwritten piece of paper can comfort you. I save all of my letters and cards and I have them here in my apartment.

The weather here has gone from pure fiery hot to manageable the past couple of days. It has been raining so that means migraines but nothing I can’t deal with. I have had a slight accident…go figure.

I was on the escalator at the train station and my flip flop got stuck on the side there the stair and the railing part meet. Anyway, I tripped and stumbled off the escalator and fell onto the pavement. I fell face first, of course, and broke part of my two front teeth. It was quite terrible. I visited the Japanese dentist though. He was very kind but I didn’t understand a word of what he was saying. It was nerve racking. It was pretty much like going to the dentist at home. First an x-ray, then looking, wiggling, etc, then shots to make my mouth numb. Afterwards he sanded the chipped part and put on new tooth stuff. Good as new…but I will be going to my dentist over Christmas just in case.

Well, that’s about it for now. I’m about to go to bed while you are all awake and going about your day. I miss you all. I’d love some letters or phone calls (it doesn’t cost me anything if you call me, nor does it cost you anything either!) Emails are welcome too!

Amanda

805 Axis Ima
4-15-23 Ima
Okayama City
Japan 700-0795

205-316-9348

Fukuyama Amusement Park

Fukuyama Amusement Park
Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Tara and I were invited to go to an amusement park called Miroku no Sato in Fukayama (one hour away from where we live) with my teachers from Hikari Nursery School. We were not exactly clear on the details; we just knew to bring out swim suits.

It was SO hot by the time we got there and got out of the car. It was like going to Six Flags on the hottest day of the year. I just knew that if I cracked an egg on the pavement, it would fry. As soon as we entered the park, I knew that we were not at Six Flags, nor anything that even resembled it. We ventured across to an area that was full of swimming pools and waterslides. I was so happy to see water. I know that I was about to shrivel up and die if I didn’t get wet fast. We put our stuff down on the grass under some umbrellas that they had rented and headed towards the pools.

There were many different pools in the area. One was small for little children, one was waist deep, and one was a little deeper. One pool had a huge bubble in the middle of it that you could climb on to the top and then bounce down, and then there were three waterslides.

One waterslide was for a huge tube/raft that you sat in. The other two were for you to lie on your back and just slide down feet first. One was covered and the other was not. The covered one was intense! There was a huge drop off and when I got to the bottom, I had to readjust my bathing suit before I could get up! The water had made it change positions! haha The uncovered waterslide was pretty cool. When I got to the bottom I hit the water hard. It was so much fun…so much fun that I didn’t notice the sunburn that was creeping up on my shoulders through the sunscreen.
Places to rent and sit in the shade
Umbrellas to rent and sit

The climbing/bouncing pool

Some of the teachers had brought their children so we played with them and we just hung out and had a great time. One difference between Japan and America is that in America you get to the pool and you take OFF your clothes, get down to your bathing suit, and get in the water. In Japan the people were putting clothes on OVER their bathing suits! They were swimming in their bathing suits, shorts, and long sleeve shirts and lightweight jackets. In Japan it is considered beautiful to be fair skinned while in America everyone wants to be tan.

After awhile we were starving. We had a picture menu and opted for fries and a hotdog looking thing that I knew to be sausage. We were also given octopus. I had eaten once before and it was weird, not my favorite but I tried it again. After Tara tried it we decided to see what was actually inside of this fried little ball. BIG mistake. We both wanted to throw up. You could actually see the suction cups on chopped up tentacles. I have been pretty adventurous so far with my food…but NO MORE octopus. I seriously thought I was going to be sick.
Lunch
Dissection
Gross

After swimming a little bit more, we left the water park and went for the rides. It was about a million degrees and this was no Six Flags. No water rides or anything to cool you off while you walked around or anything. Actually, there wasn’t much walking to do…very few rides. We went on the pirate ship ride that swings the ship back and forth. We sat on the very end so we would go really high. Some little Japanese girls were sitting with us and we got them to put their hands in the air and do it American style. It was cute. Next we went on the roller coaster. It was like a baby rollercoaster though…I sat in the front with Tara and she videoed the ride on the camera. We rode with our hands in the air and the teachers thought we were nuts. They wouldn’t last an hour at our theme parks! The system of riding rides was more like a fair. You paid money for tickets and then each ride was three tickets. We only rode those two rides but that was okay with me. There was no shade left anywhere so we headed off to something new.
Pirate Ship (Tara's favorite)
We wandered over to take a self guided took a tour of what life was like in “old Japan” back before the war. It was pretty cool. They had a big part of the park set up like Japan in the old days…old shops, streets, etc. We walked around and looked at the different “cities.” It looked a lot like it does now, but I can’t read or understand Japanese so I missed a lot while I was walking around.
Old shoe store
Old toy store

After our fun filled day, we headed back to the train station. We were so worn out. I have never been able to sleep on the train before but I almost did today. As we rode for an hour, I smashed my head against the window in a most uncomfortable position and thought about how great it would be to get in my bed as soon as I got home.

Shodoshima Island

Shodoshima Island
Sunday, August 12, 2007

We got up early today and went to the train station where we were going to be picked up by some of the teachers at one of my schools. We were going on a day trip to Shodoshima Island. I was pretty excited about this because we had been talking about it for a couple of weeks. They had given me the lowdown on all of the things there were to do on the island. I really needed to vacation there for a week to take it all in but that will have to be done another time.

We drove for a little while until we were at the bay (I guess) on the edge of my city, Okayama. We bought tickets for a ferry and then drove the car onto the ferry. The ferry ride was about 90 minutes so we just chilled out and talked. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of so many trips back home, although I have never taken a ferry with a car on it before. Two of the teachers brought their children so we played with them and looked out at the water and all that jazz.

Our ferry


Moe driving the ferry.
Soy Sauce Museum

When we got to the island we all loaded back up into the cars and drove off of the ferry onto the road. Sweet little ride, if I do say so myself. We drove over to the Soy Sauce Museum. In the museum I learned that there are five different types of soy sauce. I also learned about how soy sauce is made. Maybe I’ll try that back in my classroom when I get home…Dianne might think I had really lost my mind. haha We got some fun pictures and had a great time. At the end was a souvenir shop. Guess what I got…yes, soy sauce. Right next to the museum is the soy sauce factory where they produce it. Not a great smell in the air but an interesting place nonetheless. We went over to a little ice cream stand after that and bought, you guessed it, soy sauce soft cream (say that three times fast)! It was really sweet, like caramel. It was actually pretty good.

Teachers in the barrel.

Peace--we peace in every picture!
Where Tara and I sleep at our apartments.

We are making some soy sauce.
Soy sauce soft cream

Next we twisted and turned and pulled over a lot to let cars pass as we drove over to another tourist attraction. This time we were going to an old elementary school building where a movie had been filmed. The movie was called 24 Eyes. It was about a teacher and her 12 students during WWII. While Japan was telling everyone to fight for their country, this teacher just kept on teaching and educating her children. She ended up getting into a lot of trouble. I want to see the movie. I can’t find much about it online but I will find it somehow. Funny though how you could buy everything at these souvenir shops except the movie. Hmmm…American marketing would come in handy.

24 Eyes movie poster

This is a map of 24 Eyes.
Something about 24 Eyes.
The teacher and her 12 students.
Tara and I are taking a break in a boat.
You could feed the giant ugly fish for 100 yen.

The school house was really neat. It was old but in good condition and had some of the cameras and lighting equipment inside of it still from filming. There were statues of the teacher and students outside. As we were looking at all of this, we realized how close to the shore we were. So close that we could walk right to it. Tara and I walked out there and climbed up on some rocks and felt the ocean water as it hit us. It was so beautiful. I can’t describe the intense feeling that I had. It was gorgeous and I took a lot of pictures but they didn’t do the beauty of the island justice. There was something about being at this place that just made me feel so peaceful and happy. I wish everyone could have seen it through my eyes.

In the old school house classroom.
There is some of the lighting equipment still in there.

Here I am...sort of looking "special" if you know what I mean. I don't care, a wave hit me in the back and got me all wet and I jumped forward. It was great! See how happy I am?

We ate lunch at a little restaurant that only served noodles. Yes, I had to take my shoes off, and yes I sat on the floor. I don’t know how to spell what I ate but I can say it. It was a bowl of thin noodles in ice water. You got them out with your chopsticks and dipped them in a special sauce (like soy sauce) and then ate them. The Japanese people slurp everything here and I can’t stand it. All I can think about is how if I had done that at home I would have been reprimanded for bad table manners.

After lunch and gift shops we went winding around the mountain on the island until I swear we were at the very top. We went to see these monkeys. You climb to the top of a mountain and there are all of these Japanese monkeys everywhere…I mean EVERYWHERE! They are not in cages, just at home in their natural habitat. You don’t want to have any food on you though or these bad boys will get vicious. In theory, this sounds like a great idea; in reality it is really creepy. I was just walking around and there were monkeys everywhere. Not sweet little “oooh, oooh, aaah, aaah” ones either. These things were hissing at each other, chasing each other, biting and snapping at each other. I thought they might, “think I was something good to eat,” and try to eat me too but they didn’t. They did get really close to you though. They were inches from me. My pictures look like I used the zoom but I didn’t. I have never been frightened of monkeys, although after today I will think twice about them and their cuteness. While we were standing there looking at the monkeys, a huge deer walked out of the woods and just starting eating. Even though all of the humans were around, it felt perfectly safe coming out. I felt like I was on some bizarre episode of Animal Planet.

I'm pretty sure this sign says something about how the monkeys will jump on you when you least expect it.

They were all just sitting there...waiting...
A little monkey family.
Mama and baby
Grooming
The deer...that was so weird!

After leaving Monkey Mountain we heading to a gift shop and then rode back to the ferry. We have a 90 minute ride back and we were so tired so we just chilled out as we cruised home. When we got back into the city we were hungry so they took us out to dinner at a little pasta café by our apartment. Apart from more slurping action, it was so delicious! The green tea sherbet for dessert was a bit of a shocker when I was expecting lime. haha Home was the next stop and straight to bed. What a fabulous day!

Osaka

Osaka, Japan
Friday, August 10, - Saturday, August 11, 2007

This week seemed like it took forever and I was so tired after work. I really wanted to go home and go to bed for the entire five day holiday but Clo and I were going to Osaka tonight. I was really excited about going and Clo had been there before and is an excellent tour guide and so I couldn’t pass up the trip. This would be one of our last Japanese outings together because she is going back to the States on Wednesday.

I finally got home from the train station, grabbed my bag (which consisted of my toothbrush, a little hairbrush, contact stuff, a tiny bit of makeup, and a change of clothes—I pack light these days!), grabbed Clo (who had bought me dinner, yea Clo!), and we went to the big train station. We were going to ride the Shinkansen (the bullet train…it goes really fast) to Osaka which would get us there in an hour as opposed to taking local trains and taking a few hours.

Arriving in Osaka was like arriving in New York compared to what I am used to around here. Everything is fast paced and there were so many more people. It was hotter than Okayama too. We jumped on the subway for a short ride into the city. When we got into the actual city we were greeted with SO many shops and people and lights. It was awesome. I was so tired and I didn’t think I could walk anymore but I was so excited to be there that I just followed Clo through the streets. We walked around for a little while until we got to the hotel that we were staying in. It was a capsule hotel and was super cheap. It was 2700 yen a night which is a little less than $27.

When you walk into the hotel you take your shoes off (like everywhere in Japan). And put them in a shoe locker. You give the key to the people at the desk and they hold on to it for you. After you pay, you get a key to the women’s area (it is locked at all times) and you get a locker key. There was free internet in the lobby and pay phones by the front desk. Women sleep downstairs and men sleep upstairs. We went downstairs and into the women’s area. The whole place was really clean and well cared for. In the locker room I opened my locker. There was a pair of the world’s smallest pajamas, a couple of towels, and some hangers.

In another room there were sinks and mirrors what lined the walls. At each sink there was soap, lotion, new toothbrushes in packages, etc. There were chairs too so you could sit down and get ready. They had hair dryers and brushes and combs. The brushes and combs were in one of those sanitary things that clean and disinfect. It looks like an oven with a florescent light in it…they have them at dentist offices to clean the instruments.

There was a resting room with chairs and magazines. There was also a treadmill and a massage chair that you could pay to use. In another room was a TV and some tables. There was also a vending machine and two washer/dryers. Off of that room was a sauna and the restrooms. The only complaint I have (in general in Japan) is that you can smoke just about anywhere. At home you can’t smoke inside at most places anymore. Here, everyone smokes everywhere. The TV room was smoky and gross. The next morning I woke up with a migraine from the smoke. Not how I wanted to start the day.

Now the beds… This is a huge treat and it was hilarious to see these things and think that I was going to be sleeping in one. Clo insisted that I take the top bunk for my first capsule hotel visit. Have you even had an MRI? You have to get in the little tube? That’s what this was like except way bigger. I could lie down all the way and stretch out. I could sit straight up. I could roll over. It was awesome. Inside the “capsule” was a TV and a little air conditioner (like the ones on an airplane), a mirror, a shelf, some places to hang things, a chock, etc. It was so much fun. There was no door on this bad boy, you had to pull down a straw mat type thing (like a shade) to cover your “room.” There was a little mattress (like an inch thick) and sheets, blankets, and a pillow. I felt like a caterpillar going to sleep in a cocoon.

These are the two that we slept in. I was on top.

The bed

The straw mat door (and my feet)
Good morning!!
It's really not a tight squeeze or anything.

After my tour from Clo, we locked our stuff up and then headed out to downtown Osaka to see the lights. They were so pretty. There was so much neon that I just didn’t know what to do. Wow! We walked around for a little while and then we headed back to the hotel to go to bed.

Osaka at night
A little neon
More Osaka at night

I did find the Kate Spade store!! You should know of my obsession with Kate if you know me very well. Walking in was like being in America. It smelled like Kate Spade, just thinking about it makes me so happy. Finally Clo made me leave because if we had stayed for very much longer she was going to buy something and she didn’t need to do that.

This picture is a little tricky. It says Kate Spade New York but we are really in Japan! :)

The next morning we turned into butterflies and shed the cocoon. We had a long day of shopping ahead of us so we headed out around 10. The stores don’t open until them. After checking out we were starving so we walked to find some breakfast. We went to McDonald. It was funny to be there in Japan. The menu is pretty much the same and I got pancakes. The only big difference here is that the drinks are tiny. You pay about the same amount as at home and get the same food, but you get a drink that is four inches tall. That’s not even enough to swallow a vitamin! AND no refills. It’s like that everywhere…tiny drinks. It is healthier though except when I want a big glass of water and they hand me that tiny cup. I want to show them the American sizes!

American breakfastHere is my regular sized drink. That would not fly at home.

Breakfast was delicious but shopping was better. Seven hours of shopping in Osaka…just glorious! Many of the shops are for clothes and since I can’t wear any of the clothes I skip those (saves tons of money). We did find a few cute shops that sold Japanesey stuff and I picked up a few gifts. I don’t think I bought anything for me while I was in Osaka. I kept finding things that people at home HAD to have!! Actually, I just bought a couple of gifts (for birthdays) and looked at a ton of stuff. It was great.

We shopped and shopped. We went all over the streets and in and out of shops. My feet were killing me but I was in heaven. We went in a Hello Kitty store that was three floors! It was amazing. I am in the Hello Kitty motherland here. Ever since I was probably two years old when Mom took me into Sanrio Surprises and let me but something, I have loved that cat. Every trip to the mall required a trip to the “Hello Kitty Store” as we called it. Oh, those were the days and then the stores closed. That was a sad day for all of us. L But now, here in Japan, I see Hello Kitty everywhere. I just hope the rest of the world understands how great Hello Kitty is and when you all get a Hello Kitty present from me, you better cherish it! haha

At the end of our day we went back home. The Shinkansen was packed and I had to stand up. No worries though, I made it home and then to bed. I was so tired but so happy with Osaka. I can’t wait to go back there again!

Me, Hello Kitty, and Clo
Notice that I have a bag. Someone is getting a present!!

I am going to buy this huge Hello Kitty. I must have her for my collection.
Red, yellow, blue...all lovely little kitties.
I'm not quite sure about this one. The Hello Kitty head with crossbones freak me out a little.
Did you know that Hello Kitty got married?? Yes, to DANIEL Kitty!!!
What would you do without my knowledge of Hello Kitty guiding you through life?