Yeah, It's been a while

Well, I have had a very busy last week and a half or so, I'm sorry for not keeping you all informed!

So last Friday, (not three days ago, but the friday before that) my friends and I went out for our first karaoke experience. I stuck to what I knew and sang Guns N' Roses, as well as "ABC" by the Jackson 5 which I quickly realized I knew not a single lyric to. Well, other than "ABC, 123, etc." Karaoke was both not as embarrassing as I thought it would be, and way more embarrassing than I thought it would be. Perhaps I should have consumed a little more alcohol beforehand...

The next day we made our first trip to Osaka, which has a section called Denden town which may as well be called Video Game Land, or possibly, Greg's favorite place on earth. Really old video games which you could never find in America are pouring out of shop windows on to the street, and the area is famous for its negotiable prices, so if you find the same product at two stores, you can show the lower price to the higher-priced store, and that store will sell you the product for an even lower price. I didn't buy anything (somehow) but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to every 5 feet.

Sunday was a chill at home day (they usually are) and Monday was class, but Tuesday was a national holiday, and also happened to be my 21st birthday. So, Monday night we, the Midd Kids, plus a friend from summer school and some Midd kids from other programs went out to a pub (which an english speaking bartender, though we spoke in japanese anyway) and had a great time. Tuesday, of course, was more drinking, this time with my host family. They took me to the Suntory brewery which is very close to my house, very awesome, and very free. We took a tour of which I took a few pictures even though I was asked not to, and got free drinks at the end! Before that my family took me to a sushi lunch, which was both fantastic and incredibly cheap. A huge plate full of sushi plus soup, tea, and coffee flavored jello (never again) was 12 bucks, and would probably be around 30 in America. It was awesome. For dinner we went to basically the opposite kind of place, a real shack of a restaurant my family frequents a lot, where we sat at the bar and talked to the bartender the whole time. It was a yakitori place (grilled chicken) but of course they grilled every thing else too.

I talked my family out of ordering horse, and reluctantly ate a piece of raw chicken, which I told my host family would raise hell in America. It was delicious, however, and the bartender was a real character. I felt pretty proud of myself too, as I heard other guests in the restaurant commenting to each other about how surprised they were at my Japanese skills. I guess all this education has gotten me somewhere.

Wednesday and thursday were same old same old, and friday my garden class went to another awesome garden where we sat and drew pictures for a few hours. I have to say it is definitely my kind of class. Friday we went into kyoto and chilled by the river after hitting the arcade, and yesterday went back to Osaka, though I was only there for a short while. Today was another family sunday, with the exception of some studying with some buddies.

So now you're all caught up, mostly, although I'm definitely saving material for conversation at the wedding next week. I'll see you all there!

Week Two

Ok, so for everyone who I should have e-mailed/called/talked to personally by now, yeah, I'm sorry. For those of you who have skype, and would like to talk to me sometime, my skype name is gregselover I believe. Since I'm 13 hours ahead of the east coast, though, and don't really know your schedules, if you would like to talk to me on skype, or on the real phone, please send me an e-mail of sometime you might be free! The e-mail address I check most frequently is gselover@middlebury.edu but I also check greg.selover@gmail.com.

Anyway, Japan. Last night my host brother took me to a metal bar and we blared the new Metallica album over the sound system, it was absolutely awesome. Today is a holdiay (respect for the elders day) so my host brother and I spent all morning figuring out how to set up wireless (which we finally did and is how I'm posting this right now). Exactly when all my interesting stories happened is becoming a blur, but a few of them did occur to me that I thought I would share.

So, when my friends and I first got here and were looking for something to do, we decided to see if we could find an arcade. We thought we knew where we were going but headed off rather blindly into the city to find one. We ended up asking a little boy if he knew where a "place where you can play video games" was, only we used the word "television-game," which specifically implies video games that are played on your tv, as opposed to a computer or in an arcade. What it boils down to is we inaddvertantly asked this little kid if we could come to his house and play video games. After about 10 seconds of silence he said, "I have no idea what you're asking me" and left.

I've got more stories, of course, but I thought I would spread them out over the week. So look forward to more later.

Japanese class also finally starts tomorrow (last week was review week) and one of my electives is in Japanese, which I hadn't realized before. I think it's going to be a blast.

The First Real One!

So, I’ve been here since Monday (I’m writing this on Saturday, but I won’t be able to post it until Monday), so by the time you all read this it will have been a week in Japan for me.  All I can say is this is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.  Let me start with some fun stuff and then I’ll get to the more interesting challenges.

 

As I’ve probably told you guys, I am one of 8 Midd kids here and all but one of them I know pretty well, so it’s really nice to have some friends I can talk to.  I still haven’t talked to anyone in the states in person, which hopefully I’ll fix soon.  I just signed up for a Skype account, which if you have a computer with a microphone or a webcam, we can talk online for free, so if you like, check that out at skype.com

 

Anyways, Japan is crazy.  I’ve eaten more than 20 things already (most of them fish) that I still have no idea what it was I ate (which may be to my benefit), drank a soda that tasted exactly like an apple, with an aftertaste of the apple skin.  I was impressed.  We stayed at the Kyoto Tower Hotel from Tuesday to Thursday, and last night I came home with my host family, who is extraordinarily nice, but speak no English whatsoever.  We all drank a bit last night and had a good long conversation to break the ice and there were surprisingly few moments of complete misunderstanding or inability to communicate.  Not to say that there weren’t any, but I can communicate much better than I thought I would be able to.

 

Reading stuff, however, is a whole different story.  It’s impossible and there’s nothing I can really do about it.

 

My family lives a bit out of the way, my commute is 45-60 minutes, and requires that I take a bus, which only comes ever half hour, so if I ever miss it, I’m half an hour late for school.

 

On Thursday two students from the Doshisha Daigaku (where I go to school) showed me how to commute to my house and back and helped me do a bunch of paperwork I couldn’t read, and they were really awesome.  However, when we got to my house and rang the doorbell to say hello to my host family, my host mom stepped out the door and immediately into a huge pile of dog crap, courtesy of my “host dog” Yanchan.  Needless to say, it was a pretty embarrassing moment but we all just laughed and me and my guides were on our way.  They took me to two awesome meals, and then to a huge arcade, 7 floors of video games.  I honestly wasn’t sure what to do with myself at that point.  They don’t start school for another month, so I’m not sure when I’ll see them again, but I’m hoping they’ll be my first “Japanese friends,” I think we hit it off pretty well.

 

I also am thinking of teaching English as a small part time job.  All I have to do is stick around school for a few hours once a week and speak English with Japanese students, I don’t even have to instruct, just have conversations, and I think that too will be a good way to meet people.

 

Today the AKP students all went to a huge shrine together and received a blessing from the gods for a good school year and then my family took me to an amazing sushi lunch, and now I’m here.

 

It’s all very overwhelming and I’ve had some intense moments of home sickness, and have also reconsidered my position on Japanese food a little bit (It’s all delicious, but my stomach is just not used to it).  It’s definitely been tough, and I stick out like a sore thumb (I get STARED at, like, really really stared at.) But, luckily people seem rather delighted when I speak to them in Japanese, and most people are enthusiastic about speaking with me, although just about every one I do speak to ends up asking me questions about their English.  I guess we all have to learn from each other.

 

I miss you all who are reading this, and it’s been a bit tough.  When I’m with my friends, it’s great, but of course a host family is a sort of strange situation, sometimes we’re very talkative and sometimes I just can’t think of anything to say at all.  But of course I’ll manage, and it’s only week one, and on a normal weekend I would probably be hanging out with my friends, but this weekend is obviously a hang out with the host family time.  I swear I’m not neglecting them right now as I write this, we hung out from about 8 in the morning until 2 today, and I’m currently “napping,” but I should probably go back down stairs soon and try to strike up a conversation.

 

By the way, Dad, my host father LOVES golf.

 

Hope you’re all well, good luck with the school year or whatever it is you’re up to!  Thanks for reading, too.  If you all get skype I can talk to you in person some time.

 

Jya, mata.

I'm here!

But don't have any time to write. Just know that I successfully made it, everyone. I bought a beer (actually 2) last night! And the first english sentence I saw in Japan was spelled wrong, which made me chuckle. This place is nuts, by the way.

I also haven't figured out how to call the states yet, so none of you will be hearing from me verbally for a while, but when I do figure it out I'll call.