Culture Shock like Lightning Bolts!

こんにちは！ (Good Afternoon!)

First, a little verse…

Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins?
Who finds us here circling, bewildered, like atoms?
Who comes to a spring thirsty
And sees the moon reflected in it?
Who, like Jacob blind with grief and age,
Smells the shirt of his lost son
And can see again?
Who lets a bucket down and brings up
A flowing prophet? Or like Moses goes for fire
And finds what burns inside the sunrise?

Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies,
And opens a door to the other world.
Solomon cuts open a fish, and there’s a gold ring.
Omar storms in to kill the prophet
And leaves with blessings.
Chase a deer and end up everywhere!
An oyster opens his mouth to swallow one drop
Now there’s a pearl.

A vagrant wanders empty ruins.
Suddenly he’s wealthy.

Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things
Have gone with others. Unfold
Your own myth, without complicated explanation
So everyone will understand the passage,
We have opened you.

Start walking toward Shams. Your legs will get heavy
And tired. Then comes a moment
Of feeling the wings you’ve grown,
Lifting.
(Rumi)

I begin with this poem, entitled “Unfold your own myth” by Jalaladin Rumi, because it is with this spirit that I am trying to approach my study in Japan. I come here with, I think, few expectations, but with what expectations I do have, I am making myself open to finding the unexpected. That is to say that even though the journey may take me in to the realm of the unknown, the frightening, and sometimes delightfully surprising, ultimately I think my time here will bear good fruit, even if it is an apple where I thought there would be a pear.

Thus far, I have experienced a great deal of fear and excitement. After the fourteen hour plane ride from Detroit, through which the sat fixed above the horizon, never giving in to night, we finally arrived in Kansai International Airport in Osaka. Here the sun gave in to darkness. Riding on the bus (which took 90 minutes – Kansai Int’l Airport is actually some 36km from Osaka, and it’s even further to Hirakata-shi), I tried to stay awake. We passed billboard after billboard, all filled with kanji (Chinese characters) I could not understand. At this point, I began to realize that I am not in Kansas anymore. Stripped of the security of friends and family and a language I am comfortable with, my mind began racing. Uncertainties and doubts began to fill me.

We arrived at Seminar House 4, my home in Japan, at around 8pm (Osaka time). Having not but closed my eyes for perhaps 30-40 minutes on the plane, I was quite dazed and confused. For some strange reason, the people who had been there for the Fall semester announced to us that they would be giving us, exhausted though we were, a tour of the area in 15 minutes. Stranger still, I decided to go. So we walked around and I saw some places but I didn’t remember any of it.

I did not have much difficulty sleeping (on my futon pictured below), even though I was beginning to feel completely out of place. I woke up at about 6 in the morning and, despite still being tired, could not get back to sleep. I could only think of all that I needed to do this week, and all the worries and great doubts I was beginning to have.



But my fears have begun to come to rest. The first day (Sunday), we had no obligations and I met a few people down in the dining room who were going to go out exploring. I decided I’d go along and we walked to Makino Station (the closest rail station). I began to notice how many people ride bikes here. Everyone does. There are many scooters too. That’s not to say that people don’t drive, because there’s a fair share of that too, but bicycles seem to be the common mode of transportation (especially for students). While near Makino station, a number of children rode by us (5 tall, white guys) and waved and said “Hey” and “How are you?” They were very enthusiastic and seemed happy when we waved back at them. There was a Mister Donut across the street, so the guys went in there and got donuts. We also stopped at various vending machines to take pictures of all the crazy things you can get in vending machines here. Cold sodas, hot coffee… not too unusual, right? Well then there’s also cigarettes, hot noodles, and crazy drinks – a Kit Kat drink?

After Makino Station, we went back down to do some shopping along the main drag nearby (which also goes by campus). We got some groceries and then went down the street to a place beloved by the students here, a ramen place that served large bowls of ramen for 180 yen ($1.49). It had a Waffle House vibe to it.

Later in the day we took a bus to the main part of Hirakata-shi, which is where there is a bunch of shopping. Imagine an American shopping center, like with hundreds of stores, packed into a space an 1/6 the size. Aside from the language difference, walking around the stores didn’t feel any different from shopping in America. Starbucks, McDonalds, KFC? Yeah, all here. Not exactly my place, but the other guys needed some items.



We walked back, through a labyrinth of houses. Fortunately, one of my companions had a GPS and successfully led us through, albeit with many moments of doubt, to our dorm.

The next day I wandered about the area and through campus. The campus here is really pretty. Here are some pictures.




Like Elon, they have a fountain. Unlike Elon, their fountain doesn't shoot 70 feet in the air. They also let their grass brown in the winter. It's actually quite pretty with the brownish-red bushes.



Now get ready for some cool stuff...



So, that's cool-looking, but look at those dots on the glass at the top.




That's right: they're photovoltaic cells... solar cells! Pretty nifty. And there's a display nearby that indicates something about them (how much power they're generating or something, I can't yet decipher what's going on with it. I can tell you that it's showing that no power was being generated because it was a cloudy day).



After all this walking (a good few miles) I decided that I needed a bike. Another girl was looking for one too, so we set off to find one. I thought I knew where a bike shop was, but we couldn’t seem to find it. Up until that point, the only Japanese I had used was the very basic, “Sumimasen,” “Ohayoo Gozaimasu,” “Arigatoo Gozaimasu,” as I had been pretty nervous about trying anything else. But we needed bikes so I asked one woman if she knew where we could buy used bikes (Doko de chuuko no jitensha o kaimasu ka? – I’m not sure if this is 100% accurate or sounds right, but the message got through). She had no idea, so we asked another woman and she pointed us to a bike shop, but she wasn’t sure if they had used bikes. We had passed by a shop that sold motorcycles earlier, but we didn’t think they had bikes. On our second pass, though, we noticed a few bikes and were able to communicate with the woman and buy bikes. I tried to negotiate down the price on my bike, but she would only go so far as to knock off the taxes, which was cool with me. So I now have a sweet yellow bike with a headlight, a basket, and a bell (for 6500 yen, ~$53). It fits me quite well (which is surprising given my height) and rides really smoothly. I'll post a picture some other time.

On Tuesday, I ventured out early to the university and registered my bike and stopped in at the Seattle’s Best Coffee on campus (weird, right?). I noticed they had muffins, and being the muffin-lover that I am, took a look at their offerings. They had a green tea chocolate muffin. Now, green tea and chocolate has been known to be a great flavor combination since a wily alchemist in the late Qin Dynasty in China stumbled upon it. But this muffin tasted funny. I don’t think there was enough chocolate (not like those Cappucino Chocolate muffins back at Acorn). I think my tongue just needs to do a gestalt shift to get used to the tastes here.

After my foray into the world of uniquely Japanese breakfast foods (yeah, I know a muffin isn’t really Japanese), I took the language placement exam. This will decide what level of Japanese I'll be taking. The listening comprehension was ridiculously difficult. I wasn’t the only one who thought so either. But the rest of the exam wasn’t bad. I feel pretty good with how I did, I just hope I did well enough to squeeze into level 2 (so I’m not stuck repeating things I already know, and so I can get much further ahead in my Japanese). But I'm sure it'll be fine either way.

Today was the day we drew lots for registration (which is tomorrow). For this we eached reached our hand into a box of papers and picked out a number. This paper determines at what point in the queue we're registered. I picked #97 out of 408 I think, so I should be able to get all the classes I want.

Aside from that, I met my speaking partner today. Her name is Yukie. She was pretty nervous about meeting me, so she brought over a number of her friends, who all commented on how blue my eyes are. They were all very nice and it was fun to try to hurdle over the obstacles to communication. I was really nervous, so I didn't really use my Japanese a lot. I should have, but now that I think the ice has been broken it should be easier next time.


(Me and Yukie)

Tonight my friend from Sweden, Daniel, invited me to dinner with him and three other guys from Sweden. We went to a conveyer belt restaurant. Here, food comes by each table on a conveyer belt and you pick what you want off it. You then pay about 105 yen ($0.85-0.90) for each plate you get. The portions on each are small, but I had my fill after three (granted others got 9 or so).





That's one of the things about being here at Kansai Gaidai that I've really enjoyed. I feel very blessed for it actually. I have had the opportunity to meet people from all over the world. Today I met two girls from South Korea who live in Sem. 4 with me. There's also a girl from South Africa, there's a few from Germany, there's a few from Sweden, some from the UK, a guy down the hall from Lithuania. It's really exciting.

Well, I think that's all for now. Friday I go to Kyoto, so I'll have a post about that forthcoming. I might also compile a post of all the interesting vending machines I'm seeing, and another with a tour of Seminar House 4 (maybe a video version?).

Also, I know this post was incredibly long. Thank you for reading it. I know there were probably many dry, boring details I included that I didn't need to. I'm new to this whole blog thing, so I'm not sure what to include or what not to, so if you have any thoughts or think I should focus on particular things, let me know.