Big Dog on Campus

Howdy peeps. Thought I'd take some time out of my labor day to update you on my readjustment progress. Did I mention it's raining outside in Pittsburgh right now? Yeah, lovely labor day.

So I've been through two weeks of classes already and things are going okay. My literature courses are proving to be quite interesting. We've already started discussing Tess of the D'Urbervilles in Major Works of Modern Fiction. If you haven't read it before, allow me to sum up the moral of the story: bad things happen to good people. Oh, and don't fall asleep in a deserted forest with a rapist. Yeah, great book. I hope Lord Jim is a bit more upbeat.

The only class I'm really not enjoying is Calc 101. I've never liked math, but I'm not bad at it, it's just that I haven't taken a legit math course since high school. So I know I've learned all this stuff before in AP Calculus, but I totally don't remember. And of course, since it's a freshman class, all the little newbs are like, "This is so boring! Hurry up and get to the hard stuff!" whereas I'm praying the TA slows down so I can copy every single little detail into my notebook. So embarrassing. There is an excellent chance I'm the oldest person in that lecture. Why oh why didn't that Humanities Scholars course on philosophical mathematics count for my required course???

I also got my first taste of my new internship, but I won't post on that until I take some photos of my office and the hallways. Trust me, it's worth the wait.

On the reverse culture shock side of things, I've begun to notice some major changes that Japan has wrought in me. One of the negative changes would be that I'm super lazy now. I mean, by CMU standards. I'm so unused to having multiple assignments at a time and going to the same class more than once a week. In Japan I had lots of time to play games, watch movies and TV shows, write, etc. Now I find myself feeling ridiculously guilty for not having my nose buried in an assigned book or reading every waking moment. I haven't even begun to factor in my internship hours or my thesis research! It's going to be an uphill struggle readjusting to the work load, but I've never been afraid of hard work before, so I'm not really worried.

A more positive change I've noticed is my insatiable sweet tooth is gone. Seriously, I think my taste buds are having their own type of reentry shock! In Japan, I ate TONS of sweets and junk food, which is how I gained Xpounds over the course of the year (did you really think I'd tell you the number?). Now all I want every day is healthy food: yogurt, hummus, pita chips, fruit, etc. I even tried to go back to Ben&Jerry's, my ultimate guilty pleasure, and just couldn't do it. It was way too sweet! It's not like I ate healthy food all year long in Japan, so I'm really not sure why this is. But I like it. Makes eating healthy (and losing my Japan-fat) painless. Maybe my body just really really missed vitamins and is now compensating by giving me healthy cravings. For once, I'm just gonna sit back and let the cravings take over. Thank you, Japan.

I am also much more relaxed in general. I've always been a bit of a control freak- I have to know every detail of what's going on, I have to make all the plans and follow them to a T, and god forbid if I'm not at least fifteen minutes early for every single thing. Maybe I just used up all my anal-retentiveness in Japan, but I'm so much more chill now. It's easier for me to be flexible, to roll with the punches. I can be spontaneous, and if I'm two minutes late, it's not the end of the world (so long as it isn't important, like a class or interview). I guess Japan taught me that there is no way I can be in control of everything; in fact, I know I can't control the great majority of things in my life. But it obviously didn't kill me there, so there's nothing I can't handle here. I'll save the stress for when my computer inevitably breaks down sometime in November. It's become an annual event now.

And finally, what I'm really happy to have brought back from Japan with me is confidence. I wouldn't say I strut everywhere, but I certainly hold my head high and nothing and no one can intimidate me anymore. I'm a senior on campus, a big dog, and I just returned from a year in Tokyo. That makes me super cool. Yeah, I said it. I speak Japanese (casually), I will likely graduate with a 4.0 in my major, and there are iPhone apps with my name in the credits. I am so ballin'.

Of course, at CMU, I'm still only one of the many impressive students here. I have a loooong year ahead of me and a lot on my plate, so I'm still going to have to work my little bum off just like I've been doing since the fourth grade. But honestly, after Japan, I feel like there's nothing I can't handle. Even the insanely expensive price tag of grad school, the GRE, and an economy in recession. Bring it on.

My Room!

'Ello, chums! I just finished throwing away my storage boxes and decorating my side of the room, so I thought I'd take some photos and post them. Allow me to take you on a tour:
Our room is shaped like a fat L; the first leg consists of the closets and my desk area, the middle is taken up by our beds, and in the second leg is Alex's area and our food area.
Using the remarkably versatile substance known as sticky tack, I put my fan and postcards on display as well as hung up the picture cloth from Kyoto that my sister Heidi gave me. Notice how I have my PS2, PS3, and video games out on display. In case you're tempted, just know that all the individual bedroom doors in the house lock ;) I'm not losing this PS3 too!
This lovely lady is my roommate, Alex, aspiring doctor and noted college athlete. As you can see, her desk is quite the opposite of mine: a live ivy plant, Giovanni the goldfish, and various flower-themed decor. I love the contrast :)
As for our beds, I have the top bunk and yes, that is a coat rack standing next to the window. Stylish yet functional, it's easily our favorite thing in the room.So that's the grand tour. Hope you enjoyed it!

The fat lady has yet to sing!

Hey loyal readers! You probably thought I had left you for good. Well, fear not! Though I am returned from the land of samurai and Sony, my study abroad experience is not quite over. There is still the delightful process of reverse culture shock, which, I am told, could be as lengthy a process as the original culture shock. Oh joy.

Now, I could tell you all about my three-week vacation at home in Texas, about the amazing steak I ate every other day, the awful experience my mother and I had watching District 9, or how my dad ended up buying me two PlayStation 3's after the first was stolen; however, none of that is related to my experience abroad. So I'm gonna save myself some time and write only the relavent readjustment stuff. Like the fact that Ben & Jerry's ice cream, once my kryptonite, now tastes far too sweet, or the fact that American bread tastes absolutely terrible to me. It's like a big doughy ball of grossness in my mouth. Ew. But let's move on, shall we?

I'm blogging from my new room in my new sorority house- Tri Delta has moved from our residence on Maggie Mo to a house on the Greek Quad which is twice as large, which means twice as much estrogen under one roof. Scary, I know, but they're my sisters so I am obligated to love them. Luckily, I really do love them, or at least the ones I know.

Yeah, that's another thing that's somewhat confounding my return to the house: a good third of the girls are strangers to me. They initiated last fall when I was in Tokyo. It's a little awkward to pass them in the hall or share a sink with them in our community bathroom; we smile at each other, but neither of us knows who the other person is, but we both seem to be living here so we must be sisters. I'm sure that will wear off with time as I get acquainted with the house again, but for now, it's kinda weird.

That little awkwardness aside, I am really happy to be back. I've been spending a lot of time with the sisters I'm closest to, catching up and whatnot. They're really helping to make my transition back into the house and CMU much easier, especially the sisters I've kept in contact with over the year. I have no idea what I'd do without them!

Oh, and did I mention my room is awesome? And that it comes with an even awesomer roommate? As a senior with a strong history in the house, I got pretty much first pick when it came to rooms, so I'm in the GIANT room on the second floor, the third-floor-twin of which is a triple, if that gives you any idea. And my roommate Alex, who is also a senior and in my pledge class, just returned from a semester in France, so our room is going to end up with very international-themed decor. It's been great swapping stories with each other. I feel lucky to have a roommate that I can relate to concerning such an important event in both of our lives.

Classes start tomorrow, but I only have one hour of math; I consider my real first day to be Tuesday, on which all four of my classes are scheduled (my fifth spot is for my thesis). So though I may not have time to blog as often as in Japan (nor will I have as much to blog about), I will keep writing about how my readjustment goes, how my thesis develops, progress in my service projects, and various other areas of my life on which my time in Japan has had a lasting effect. Stay tuned, sports fans!

Sayounara Japan!

I just wanted to do a really quick post before I have to leave. Today is my last day here, and in ten minutes I have to lug my under-50lbs suitcases downstairs. Sorry I didn't leave time to post a lengthier goodbye-Tokyo message; I was too busy packing, cleaning, and downloading WoW (you'll hear all about that in the next post ;) ).

Fear not! This is not the end of my blog! I plan on continuing it to document my return and the eventual, inevitable reentry shock. And hopefully I'll get to post some photos of my time in Texas with the family, too. Talk about culture clash.

So bai bai, Nihon! It was fun/weird/crazy/amazing/expensive/scary/frickin' magical!

The Photo!

Here is the photo that was taken of us on the Indiana Jones ride the second time we went:

Isn't it awesome?

It's Frickin' Magical!

So for those of you who haven't heard my gleeful cries of eight-year-old joy, on Tuesday my homies and I went to Tokyo DisneySea, one of the two parks at the Tokyo Disney Resort. In opposition to its neighboring park Tokyo Disneyland, DisneySea is more for adults: the rides are scarier, there are more shows, and you can purchase alcohol (not that I know this from experience cough cough).In case you are wondering how it was, check the title: the phrase of the day was "it's so frickin' magical!" and we repeated it every time we saw something amazing, which was about every 1.3 seconds. My comrades were Melanie, Sarah, and Michelle, and out of the three of us, Mel was the only one who had ever been to a Disney Park before. So as you can imagine, the three of us newbies were freaking out the entire ride there.

Tokyo DisneySea is the most expensive theme park ever built, and it shows: every ride is meticulously designed to emerge guests in whichever world that particular area of the park encompasses. The Tokyo Disney Resort is also the only Disney park not directly owned by The Walt Disney Company- it is licensed to The Oriental Land Company. But trust me, you totally can't tell; according to Mel, the experienced veteran, going to Tokyo Disneyland is just like going to Disneyland in California. And even though all the speech at DisneySea is in Japanese, all the writing is in English, if not both English and Japanese. Maybe it's because I've lived here for nearly a year, but it was easy to forget that every employee in the park was Japanese and we were only fifteen minutes outside of Tokyo. All I saw was the Magical World of Disney, and my inner eight-year-old couldn't be happier.

They even have a ~1910's era Americana area called "American Waterfront", which is home to Hotel Hightower, a.k.a. The Tower of Terror, and the U.S.S. Columbia, a full-size luxury cruise ship.




The first thing that struck us was how incredibly detailed everything was. From the train to the lampposts to even the employees' themed costumes, everything was meticulously designed to reflect the theme of whichever area we were in. Sarah actually took photos of all the bathroom signs we saw!

Since we went on a Tuesday and it was somewhat rainy all day, there were very few people at the park- the longest line we waited in all day long was 20 minutes! We arrived at the park thirty minutes after opening and stayed until the moment it closed. We went on every major attraction, saw several shows, and hit the vast majority of the souvenir shops. Needless to say, we made the most of our day ^^.The center and icon of the park is Mount Prometheus, a volcano that smokes during the day and shoots fire at night during the light show. It stands over a tall ridge line that forms a ring in the center of the park, inside of which is the Mysterious Island area. This is a picture of the view of Prometheus from inside this area; the things sticking out of it are part of the Journey to the Center of the Earth attraction, which at one point shoots you out of the volcano's side!The ride we most anticipated was the Tower of Terror, to which we made a beeline the moment we entered the park. It is seriously insane how much design goes into the waiting areas for the attractions- you have to see it to believe it. Seeing these areas is really half the fun.
But our favorite ride of the day, which we hit once during the day and once at night, was the Indiana Jones Temple of the Crystal Skull ride. It was fast, scary, and action-packed the entire way through. They even had three impressively life-like robotic Indi's spaced along the ride to help create the story! The best part, though, was the picture- we knew they would snap a group photo sometime during the ride, so we discussed how we should pose beforehand and settled on complete terror. And by a stroke of good luck, we four got to sit in the front row, with Mel in the driver's seat! She gripped the steering wheel and made the most ridiculous face! Sarah looked aghast in the photo, but I, being the genius I am, ducked the moment they snapped the photo because of a boulder bearing down on the car, and Michelle just looked confused. But when we went again at night, we all did it again and the result was perfect- everyone looked horrified at Mel, who was grinning maniacally while steering us to certain death. We all bought one or both photos, and as soon as Sarah scans hers, I'll post them here!The "most magical area" award definitely goes to Mermaid Lagoon, a reconstruction of King Triton's castle from The Little Mermaid. On the outside you see the castle, but the attraction area itself is all inside. They created a giant room using dark lighting and watery shapes so it actually feels like you're under water! It was really beautiful.

It would take me all day to give true justice to how amazing DisneySea is and what an awesome time the four of us had. This was the one thing I wanted to do most in Tokyo, and the one thing I didn't think I'd get to do. I'm so grateful I was able to go with my friends and I will remember it as one of my happiest days in Japan, if not the happiest. I don't care if The Walt Disney Company is a giant conglomerate with sweatshops in southeast Asia and criminally overpriced merchandise. It's frickin' magical!

The end of an era

I finished my last exam of my last Japanese class on Saturday. Before I had even handed the four-page test in, I began to feel a sense of loss: I had just completed my formal education in Japanese language. Of course, I still have my honors thesis to write next year, but as for classes in Japanese language and culture, I'm through. From here on out, I'll mainly be working on completing my degree in creative writing.

Regardless, my informal education in Japanese will never be complete. I freely admit that I am not fluent, after three years of study, and I doubt that I will ever truly be fluent. Japanese is a difficult and subtle language which, I believe, few foreigners are equipped to master. And quite frankly, I have no desire to do so. To become truly fluent in Japanese would require many more years of study and probably a great deal more time spent abroad. But from the very outset, Japanese was never an end to me, but a means through which to become better acquainted with the Japanese video game industry. Thanks to my current proficiency in Japanese and my experiences abroad, I am already meeting that goal.

Of course, I have no intention whatsoever to give up my hard-earned language skills just because I'm no longer being tested on them. I'm still somewhat awkward at the conversational level, but thanks to several friends of mine in Pittsburgh who are native Japanese speakers I am confident I can improve upon that area. As for reading, I have my Japanese video games to keep me on my toes and remind me of kanji, as well as a couple of books in Japanese (one being the first Harry Potter).

Now I am eager to return to Carnegie Mellon and continue my degree in creative writing. Even though no writing courses were available at Keio, I didn't completely neglect my craft. During the second half of my stay here, I worked diligently on several short stories, including a lengthy Greek mythology piece which I believe is the best fiction I've ever written. I look forward to advancing my skills in fiction and screenwriting at CMU next year. In case you didn't know, I plan on using my two degrees to pursue a career as a video game writer, and I intend to apply to several graduate schools this winter to help achieve this end and to learn about game development.

In a week and two days, I will be on a plane back to America. I'm quite anxious about it, both concerning the long trip back and reentry shock, but I am also excited to spend my last week in Japan having fun with my friends. I promise you'll hear all about it shortly, with plenty of pictures! Cheers!

Sharing is Caring

Just a quick update about my final research paper for my Japanese Buddhism class: it's finished, it's beautiful, and it's available for your reading pleasure online at my group's blog-

Discrimination in Buddhism

If you have some free time and want to learn about discrimination in Japanese Buddhism, feel free to read mine and my partners' essays. Intelligent comments welcome.

Tanabata Matsuri

Hi friends! I am taking a short break from my extremely busy final exam/paper preparation/writing time to bring you pictures from my awesome night at the Tanabata Matsuri- don't you feel special? ;)

The Tanabata Matsuri, which means "festival of the evening of the seventh" is a lunar festival celebrated at night to commemorate the once-a-year meeting of two lovers, represented by constellations, separated by the Milky Way. The town my friends and I went to were celebrating all weekend, so we went on the fourth of July as a kind of pseudo-Independece Day celebration (we're all Americans)! This is a pic of Mel and Jake commemorating the holiday with American periphenilia that Mel's friend brought from the States ^^;;;

My friend Sarah is doing a homestay, so Melanie, Jake, and I were invited to go with them to the festival. Tanabata Matsuri is one of the many yukata festivals of summer, so when we arrived at Sarah's home, we changed into yukata, which are thin summer kimono. I happened to have my fan with me which has rabbits on it, so I picked a yukata with rabbits and moons; in Japan, they believe there is a rabbit on the moon, so it was very appropriate for a lunar festival ^^. Melanie wore a really beautiful obi that looked like a fall of sakura blossoms.

The festival is held in the shopping district of town. Every side street is lined with food, drink, and game stalls, and the broad avenues are canopied by decorations made by local shopowners. Needless to say, it was an incredible sight.

We ate okonomiyaki will standing, chocolate-covered bananas, and fresh melons and coconut. There was a haunted house that we went into- it was actually pretty scary! Sarah took video of it on her camera- you can't see much, but you can hear us screaming, especially me ^^;; We also took part in the most important Tanabata custom: writing a wish down on colored paper and hanging it from a bamboo rod. I hope mine comes true!

We all had a really, really great time at the matsuri. I'm so glad I got to go! It was really nice of Sarah's host family to invite us and lend us yukata for the night ^_^ Mel and I were already friends with Sarah's host-sister, Sakie (whom I have officially dubbed Cowgirl Sakie by the power invested in me by the great state of Texas), but her parents were so, so nice and welcoming. I hope I get to see them again before I come back to the States.

Hope you enjoyed the post! Now I must go back to my studies- one week of finals then I'm home free!!

Home Stretch

Howdy homies!

Sorry for the long pause. June was quite an eventful month. My sorority sister, Heidi, was here for two weeks on her graduation trip before heading off to Korea. No one in my family had planned on coming to visit, so when Heidi sent me an email saying "I'll be in Tokyo on Saturday", I was super excited!

Every day I didn't have class, I spent playing tour guide with Heidi. We went all over Tokyo, and I got to see a few things I still had on my list. We went to the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace. The stones that the walls were made out of were HUGE! And the gardens were sooo pretty.

We also took a break at Cafe Paulista in Ginza, the oldest western-style cafe in Japan. It turned 100 this year and was made famous by loyal patrons like John Lennon and Yoko Ono. I had been trying to go there since February, but they were always full or I was too busy. But Heidi and I just walked right on in in the middle of the afternoon and got a table. The coffee and food were excellent, yet it was surprisingly moderately priced compared to most Tokyo cafes. History + cheap snack = win.

With only two weeks of class left, I'm busy writing final term papers and prepping for exams. My last one is on the 18th, so I have 11 days to enjoy Tokyo before I go home. My friends and I are already making plans, like going to Tokyo Disney- I've never been to a Disney park! And this weekend happens to be the lunar festival where they have hanabi, or fireworks. So on Independence Day, I'll be seeing fireworks in Japan wearing traditional yukata! Sure, there won't be July 4th barbeque, but maybe I'll sing the Star Spangled Banner under my breath while watching the hanabi ;)

Comfort Zone

I went to the post office the other day to send home a box of stuff to help lighten the weight of my suitcases for my return flight. I carried it down the street to the small office, told them where to ship it and by what method, filled out the form, thanked them and left.

It wasn't until I was leaving that I realized how relaxed I'd been. I hadn't had an ounce of anxiety during the whole transaction. Even when my friend, who had previously agreed to mail her box at the same time, changed her mind, I just said "okay" and immediately went and mailed it alone.

This may not seem a big deal to you, but to me, it speaks volumes about how far I've come to adjusting to life here. In the spring, I sent home another box filled with winter clothing and omiyage for my family after I returned from Hokkaido. I was so nervous about using the post office, I put it off for three weeks! I was wracked by anxiety at having to make such a complicated transaction and filling out forms in Japanese that it took me weeks to build up the resolve to go.

Of course, much of my newfound ease can be attributed to my increased fluency. Even my professor, who also taught me last semester, remarked the other day about how much more talkative I am and how easy it is for her to understand me.

But more than that, I'm no longer anxious about making mistakes, about not understanding. I am still terrible at listening to employees and salespeople; I hear them, but my mind just doensn't process what they're saying. I have to seriously focus in order to dissect their keigo, which is a complicated grammatical pattern used in formal situations. I often have to ask them to repeat themselves, in which case they use gestures or perhaps a word of Engrish to convey their meaning. But I guess I'm just so used to this, it no longer deters me.

I've also been here so long that employees at the combeni and grocery stores I frequent interact with me. Usually it's about the weather, but the simple fact that they are trying to talk to me is very encouraging. It makes me feel like I've been accepted as part of the community, inspite of my being a foreignor.

Most people that I talked to before coming here told me it takes at least three months to gain fluency, so to go for just one semester doesn't make sense. By no means would I call myself fluent, but I definitely agree that one semester isn't enough. I mean, it took me half a year to use the post office without stressing out! More than just becoming fluent, staying abroad longer gives you more time to truly adjust to living in another culture. And only after I became more comfortable was I able to really appreciate Japanese lifestyles, instead of focusing just on how out of place I felt or how much I had to compromise my own lifestyle.

It's a shame, though, that just when I'm comfortable living here, I have to plan on coming home again. Only six weeks and I'll be back States-side! I'm really excited to return to my family and school, but I'm also sad. There are so many experiences here that I have to savour while I can, and important friends I may never see again. I'll just have to do my best to enjoy the rest of my time here with everyone.

Plus, I have a feeling that I'm going to get really bad reverse-culture shock when I go home >_<

Train Fail

Last Saturday, my sorority sister Heidi, who just graduated from CMU with a degree in architecture, arrived in Tokyo for a two week vacation, the first week being spent in Tokyo. This isn't an update about our fabulous time together (soon, don't worry!), but rather about how we both had really unfortunate, and just plain stupid, experiences on the train this week.

Monday is my least favorite day of the week because I have a really boring class during 5th period, so I never get home until about 7pm. This time, while riding the Den-en-toshi from Shibuya to my station of Sangenjaya, I put my book bag on the metal rack inside the train and spent the time thinking about all the fun stuff Heidi and I have planned for the week.

Completely distracted, I got off at my stop WITHOUT my book bag!

I didn't realize it until I was halfway up the stairs and the train was already pulling out. So I had to go to the ticket window and explain my predicament to the station employees in Japanese and give them a description of what I lost, where I'd placed it, etc. They made a call and told me to wait. Luckily, ten minutes later someone called to say they found it three stops down the line. The employees told me to get back on the train and go pick it up. So I went down to the platform and got on the train.

In the wrong direction.

I had to get off at Ikejiri-ohashi, go to the other side of the station, and get back on in the other direction.

After finally getting to the right station, collecting my bag, and returning to my own station and back to the dorm, it was 8pm :___( You'd think I'd be past making those kinds of mistakes by now! ばかだね。。。

But I'm not the only TriDelta who made a silly mistake on the trains this week ^^

Yesterday afternoon, I left Heidi in Harajuku and agreed to meet back up with her in Shibuya in the evening. She ended up being an hour late to meet me, and here's why:

When trying to get back from Shinjuku to Ueno, she took the Yamanote line, which is correct. But she kept changing her mind about which way to go. She couldn't figure out if she should go left or right, so she kept getting off, riding in the opposite direction, then getting off again a little later to go the other way. She basically ended up going around Tokyo on Yamanote twice because she forgot it's a loop! Which I had specifically told her the day she arrived! ^^;;;;

So this week has not been a good week for TriDeltas on trains. But in our defense, Tokyo does have the most complicated public transportation system in the world.

And yet, I've been here nine months... ばか。。。

Hello Robo

I met a robot today.

No, seriously, I totally did!

The Starbucks near campus is in the same building as a Mitsubishi showroom, and about two months ago, they tore down the wall separating the cafe and the showroom so you can sip coffee while gazing at shiny new cars. Mel, Sarah, David and I were getting coffee when we noticed this short yellow robot gliding around the showroom!

We watched a salaryman try to speak to it briefly. It didn't seem like the robot responded, but it was so cool-looking we all wandered over to check it out. It happened to be standing near its own info panel which listed words and phrases that the robot, named Wakamaru, would respond to.

Sarah asked, "What time is it?" loudly in Japanese, and the robot responded with the correct time in a Japanese woman's voice. It was so cute! There is a panel on its chest that flashed pictures like the time, a heart, and its battery life. Sarah asked it several questions, like What are you doing, What is your name, etc, and it responded to each question with a really cute answer; to "What are you doing?", it replied, "I'm wandering around the room, smiling all the while." Chou kawaii!

But what made it really interactive was it has sensors on its head that allows it to locate whomever it is talking to it. Every time Sarah moved, Wakamaru moved its face to keep its focus on her.

Here is a link to Mitsubishi's Wakamaru website in English if you want to check it out: http://www.mhi.co.jp/kobe/wakamaru/english/

One more experience to check off on my Japan to-do list!

Goodbye Freeman-ASIA

I am deeply saddened to be sharing this news with you today: I just received an email from Freeman-ASIA , a program administered by the Institute of International Education which awards scholarships to students studying abroad in Asia, announcing that it will be closing after this spring term. You can read this announcement on their website here: http://www.iie.org/programs/Freeman-ASIA/p_announcement.shtm

Freeman-ASIA is one of the three organizations from which I received scholarships for my year in Japan, and I started this blog as part of my service project required by the Freeman-ASIA and Gilman scholarship programs. Over 4,000 American undergraduates have gone abroad with help from the Freeman-ASIA program, and I am honored to have been one of its last recipients.

いろいろなこと。。。

Though I am trying to keep my blog updated about once a week, there's actually not a lot for me to post about at the moment. Nothing big, anyway. As the title says, there are various things going on right now, such as:

Video games
This month, my boss, Marc Cellucci, is getting hitched to his long-time girlfriend in Hawaii, and they're also having their honeymoon there. He's from Texas and she's Japanese, so their parents are flying in from both countries to meet halfway in Hawaii for the wedding. おめでとう、マルクさん！

Also in the world of JVG this month: the eagerly anticipated Kingdom Hearts spin-off for the Nintendo DS, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, releases in Japan on May 30! That's next week, people! To help with my Japanese study *coughplaygamescough*, I have pre-ordered it from Amazon Japan. Sooooo excited! Don't worry, my fellow American KH fans: the English version is coming to the States at the end of August.

School
Interesting how I put the video game paragraphs before the school update...
My core courses in Japanese are going along swimmingly. I really like the textbook we're using, and the professors are very skilled at explaining grammar in Japanese.

My Special Focus course, Intermediate Aural Comprehension I, is boooooooorrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiinnnnngggggg. I always leave that class feeling like I downed a bottle of sleeping pills. But on the flip side, listening is my worst skill, so it's necessary. According to Mel, who took a similar class last semester, it greatly improved her listening skills, so I'm hoping that the painful hours of mind-numbing listen-and-repeat exercises will pay off in the end.

The comparative literature class I'm taking is quite interesting. I've really enjoyed the selections so far. It's so nice to have a literature class again; it makes me less homesick for CMU. And in my Buddhism class, I've joined the team focusing on gender and social discrimination in Japanese Buddhism. It's fascinating how similar, at least in my perspective, Japanese Buddhism and certain types of Christianity are in their use of particular interpretations of core teachings to discriminate against disenfranchised groups. I plead the First.

My Imminent Return
With only two-and-a-half months left, I spend a lot of my time considering all I need to do before I return to the US. I bought a plane ticket for July 29, two days after the last day of finals, which will give me approximately three weeks home with my family before going back to Pittsburgh. Apparently, while I've been abroad the airline companies have decided that financially raping customers is O.K., so I have to keep my two suitcases under 50lbs. or pay $150 extra. Why hasn't someone at CMU invented a teleportation device yet?

Packing aside, I also have a few lists of things I need to accomplish before leaving. There are still at least half-a-dozen places in Tokyo I haven't been to, such as the Tokyo Fish Market. I have a lengthy list of omiyage (souvenirs) to buy for people back home. And, since I just received IRB approval for my thesis interviews, I need to start contacting Japanese video game developers to find willing subjects. So much to do, so little time.

I'm also nearly done with my second of two video game books (in English) that I found at Keio's library. I don't think I've ever been so enthralled in non-fiction before. Did you know that Sega was started by an American in Japan? Yeah, it's true, look it up. And Miyamoto, the genius behind Nintendo's Super Mario Bros, plays blue grass guitar and banjo! These tidbits may seem insignificant to you, but already I am finding that Japanese and American video games have a more intimate history with each other than I suspected.

Seriously: best thesis topic EVER.

Golden Week

Howdy, everyone! How's everybody doing? I'm doing just fine myself, thank you. Now, on to business:

Last week was Golden Week, a period of four holidays in a row during which many Japanese leave their homes and go on a short vacation. Tokyo pretty much empties of people as everyone flocks to the countryside to enjoy spring, the south to party at the beach, or to Tokyo Disney, which is notoriously crowded during Golden Week.


Since I still have a long list of places to visit in Tokyo (and little cash left), I stayed in the city. Mina also happened to be in town at the time for a club of hers. She had all of Monday completely free, so we decided to go to the zoo.






As did the rest of Tokyo.

Monday was May 4, which happens to be Midori no Hi, or Greenery Day, and on this day all the zoos are free of charge. So the Ueno zoo, the largest and oldest zoo in Tokyo, was PACKED with grandparents, parents, and small children. Mina and I were probably the only people between the ages of 10 and 30 in the whole park. Normally, I'm not that fond of children, but Japanese kids are about as cute as kids can get, especially when they chase ducks around, as they did near the zoo's pagoda.

I don't really know why, but they had this giant string of fish kites/flags strung up near the entrance, and I thought it was cool.















We were really surprised to see this guy: an American Buffalo. A lot of people were looking at him and taking his picture. Mina and I couldn't believe how massive his head was! It's a bit difficult to get a sense of scale in this photo, but there were some wild pigs in the enclosure with him, and they weren't as big as his head.

I was excited to get to see an aardvark, or ant eater. I had never seen one before. He just kept pacing in front of the grate of his enclosure, giving everyone a good look. Mina and I noticed that he seemed to be walking on his knuckles, kind of like an ape.

We were at the zoo for maybe an hour and a half before wading through the throng just became too tiresome, so we missed some of the big cats and arctic animals. But all in all, it was a nice zoo. For some reason, they had the kangaroo situated in the Africa area, but I'll forgive them.

If you ever decide to visit Ueno Zoo, take this advice: pony up the $6 and go on any day BUT Greenery Day. And don't be shy about taking a picture with the super cute panda statue- Mina wasn't!

Green is the New Pink

I think I’ve become an environmentalist.

Lately I find myself asking questions like, How can I persuade my mother to recycle, How can my sorority become more earth-friendly, and How practical is a commuter bike for transportation in Pittsburgh?

The realization that I’ve begun to think green came quite suddenly last week. I spent almost an entire day off researching green energy solutions in America, green commuting, green home improvements, and discovered the Amazon Green page on Amazon.com (which I definitely recommend).

Of course, my new attitude is by no means an overnight development. Early on in my sophomore year, I bought an organic cotton grocery bag I saw advertized in my favorite magazine, Shape, and I use it every week in Pittsburgh. Though Shape is a health and fitness magazine, over time it has become a great source for information on eco-friendly products, and every year they devote an entire issue to green living. So of course, the magazine has had an influence on me.

And even before then, I was no stranger to the environment. In high school, I was the vice president of Grable’s Grasshoppers, my school’s environmental community service club. It was my favorite extracurricular, in spite of the heat, blisters, and proximity to garbage. It felt good to do something with my spare time that had a positive impact on my city.

But in college, I became so busy with school work and my sorority, I forgot about my passion for eco-service. But about a week ago, I realized that over the last few months, my concern for living green has returned, and I believe that this is due in large part to living in Japan.

In my neck of Texas, very few people recycle. We should, but no one does and since there are no city campaigns showing people how easy it is, no one bothers. Even my sorority house at CMU doesn’t have a recycling bin inside, though I think we did before I moved in. And as far as I know, no sisters have really tried to reinstate it.

In Japan, recycling is mandatory. There are no “anything goes” garbage cans. In fact, garbage receptacles of any kind are few and far between; I have never seen a public trashcan or recycling station here. You have to be in a restaurant/café or in a train station. And instead of giant black trashcans, there are three-to-five receptacle recycling centers, with separate bins for plastic bottles, cans, combustibles and noncombustibles, and sometimes for mixed paper.

For your home, each of these categories has its own day for trash pickup, and if you don’t put out the right refuse on the right day, you can get fined. You can also get in trouble with the managers of your apartment building, if you live in one.

When I first learned that we had to separate our trash, I was not happy. Digging through my trashcan and trying to figure what all is combustible and what isn’t is not my idea of a good time. But eventually, the managers simplified our system to separating out cans, bottles, and cardboard from everything else, so it wasn’t much trouble at all. Now I’m totally used to it; it’s a habit, and a good one to have.

In America, recycling centers are even less picky than that- all your recyclable materials can go into one bag and your mixed trash into another. It makes you wonder why more Americans don’t recycle. Let’s face it: we’re just lazy. It’s the cause of many of our problems, but it doesn’t have to be.

Another green practice that is popular in Japan, as well as many parts of Europe, is cycling. In Japan, having a car is an important status symbol and many families own them, but they’re not very practical for everyday use. Tokyo commute traffic is terrible, which is why a great many car owners opt to take the train (which is also painfully crowded), but many others bike to work, if they don’t live too far. But more commonly, people ride their bikes to do grocery shopping and other errands in their section of Tokyo. Almost everywhere I go, somewhere in view is an extensive line of commuter bicycles standing in an orderly line with baskets and child seats attached.

Of course, commuting by bike is becoming an increasingly popular practice in certain metropolitan areas of the US, not only because it’s eco-conscious, but because it’s waaaay cheaper and less stressful than being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. But we’ve still got a long way to go before it can be called “common” in the States.

Simple changes like recycling and biking to work are easy ways that Americans can help combat our environmental crisis, save money, and live healthier lives. I’m not saying compulsory recycling is just around the corner (though with the current administration’s groundbreaking environmental policies, it’s not an impossibility), but maybe we should take a look at Japan’s greener lifestyle and copy an idea or two. As the Land of the Rising Sun demonstrates, urban living doesn’t have to mean living in opposition to the environment. A few tweaks here and there, and America will be on track toward a greener future.

So whether you buy a reusable grocery bag, start tossing your water bottles into a recycling bin, or dust off your bicycle, make one small change this week and take the first step towards a green lifestyle and a greener planet.

The real reason I came to Japan:

Instant access to all things Square Enix!

As most of you probably are not aware (nor care), last week marked the release date of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete DVD, the Director's Cut of the CG FFVII sequel. If, like me, you purchased the Blu-ray set, you also got the Final Fantasy XIII demo disc, which contains the first half hour of the game. I pre-ordered the demo set from Amazon.co.jp months ago, and on Friday, it finally arrived!

Now, now, I know what you're thinking: but Katherine, you have neither a PlayStation 3 nor a TV! And you're absolutely right. But I do have a friend who was bent on writing a blog review of the movie and demo, and he had a friend with a PS3 and access to a large TV. Problem solved.

So Saturday night, my friends and I basked in the glory of FFVII:AC Complete, which even without an HD TV was truly breathtaking in both art and music. The new DVD has half an hour of extra footage. Many fans speculated that this would probably be nearly all fight scenes, with which the original is already quite saturated. But I'm happy to report that most of the new material is exposition explaining the true nature of geostigma, which is now as scary as the Black Death, and also the appearance of Denzel, an orphan who was completely absent from the game but now inexplicably lives with Cloud, Tifa, and Marlene. The new scenes show how he came to live at 7th Heaven, and it's quite a touching story.

If you already own the original cut and are on the fence about buying the new version, I assure you it's entirely worth the money: in addition to superior backstory, the end of the fight scene between Cloud and Sephiroth is totally different and positively wicked!

After having our minds nearly blown by the movie (we suspect that HD would finish the job), we popped in the FFXIII demo and, since I bought it, I got to play the new game for the first time. Of course, the demo was entirely in Japanese, but with four exchange students of varying levels watching, we were able to understand most of the dialogue. Also, I have been keeping well up to date on all available info on the game, so I knew the battle system well enough to skip the Japanese explanation screens and just dive right in.

I could sit here and type up all my thoughts about the game, but to be honest, I was so busy kicking butt and trying not to die that I wasn't paying much attention to the game as a whole. Instead, I suggest you pop on over to David's blog to read his review of the game- he watched me play, asked lots of questions, and took notes. You can find the link to his blog, Bored of Pixels, to the right under "May I Suggest". If you're interested in learning more about Final Fantasy XIII and the Fabula Nova Crystallis series, click on the FinalFantasy-XIII.net link.

Of course, the most important reason for my studying abroad was to improve my Japanese, which I am certainly doing. But my main reason for learning Japanese in the first place is Square Enix. Their games are not only entertaining, but they embody incredible artwork, original music, and the finest computer graphics and programming in the interactive entertainment industry. And playing their games in the original Japanese is a great way to improve my reading and listening abilities.

So remember kids: enjoy video games responsibly, and you may end up with a great career opportunity.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

That is the sound that is currently blaring from a truck outside my window as it backs up. This and other incredibly annoying noises associated with construction sites have been plaguing me for weeks now.

My dorm is situated in the middle of a very short street that connects two main streets (think of an H). My window opens up to give a perfect view of one of these three-way intersections, and since it's getting quite warm out (and my AC seems to be broken), I have to keep said window open at all times or my room turns into a sauna.

But about three weeks ago, the large apartment building that stood on the other side of the main street in view of my window was demolished, and ever since then, swarms of construction workers have inhabited the area with beeping trucks and massive yellow construction vehicles that also beep and grind lumps of concrete.

They start working at 7 IN THE MORNING. ON SATURDAY.

Oddly enough, this is not the most annoying sound that's been grating on my nerves.

About a week ago, I was reading one of my video game history books when I began to hear this mangled yell being repeated over and over. It sounded like a person screaming/crying something, maybe a name or phrase, but assuming it was in Japanese, I couldn't understand and therefore tried to ignore it.

But it went on for FIFTEEN MINUTES at the same volume.

I have no idea how anyone can yell that loud for that long, but by god they did. So heat be damned, I closed my window and continued reading. But I could STILL hear it!

After about half an hour, whoever was yelling finally stopped, and I forgot about it.

But then it happened again the next day. And two days after that. And last night.

I whomever is yelling seems to be deranged or senile, it's probably one of the residents at the retirement home across the street. Hopefully one of the nurses will give the old codger some heavy meds so they shut up. Or kick the bucket. Whichever is quicker, I don't care, so long as my reading goes uninterrupted.

Heartless? Yes. Wrong? No.

Fishnets in the Spring

I'm happy to say that I'm feeling a little less homesick today. On Saturday, Melanie and I went spring/summer clothes shopping in Shibuya. She's a skinny 5'9" redhead with killer legs but little fashion experience, so she became my barbie doll for the day. After hitting up the Gap and Zara, we had lunch at TGIF (yes, they have those here). The heavy shot of Americana cleared up my bout of homesickness.

While strolling around Shibuya, Mel and I people-watched to see how Japanese women dress during the sunnier seasons. Apparently, not all of them registered the season change: we saw plenty of young women in black leggings, knee-high boots, and heavy jackets. It was 72 degrees and sunny!

I discussed this bizarre behavior with Mina, my go-to-gal for all things Japan, and she said that women here have no qualms whatsoever about wearing knee-high boots all year round, regardless of how hot and humid it gets. I fully expect to see fainting females once we get into July.

Last week was also the start of my spring classes. As I mentioned, I am taking Bhuddism and Fiction for my Optional Electives. Lots of people showed up for the Short Fiction class on Wednesday. The professor is British and said it will be a discussion class, not lecture, so we're all very excited about it. My Bhuddism class, taught by an American who's lived in Asia ever since he graduated from Princeton in the nineties, is also discussion-based and focuses on how modern bhuddism is used to address social issues in Japan. We get to go on three field trips, including one to see a temple that was recently made over to be a "green" building- it's entirely run on solar panels!

It's odd to think that at the same time I'm beginning the spring semester, Carnegie Mellon is enjoying the annual Spring Carnival, which marks the last stretch of the school year. My sisters have built a "Jack and the Beanstalk" booth this year, and I can't wait to see the pictures! Good luck, ladies!

Since Maggie asked...

Here is a picture I took at the Shiroi Koibito Chocolate Factory in Hokkaido. Looking at the bridge, I was reminded of the whole "troll-under-the-bridge" fable, so I asked my homies to help me out and pose. That's Melanie down under pretending to be a dreaded bridge troll, and Maggie and JC are astonished and frightened victims of Mel's wrath. And might I say, Maggie absolutely nailed it ;)

Cherry Blossoms

It is finally truly spring here in Tokyo: the leaves have returned, the warm sun, and, unfortunately, so has my homesickness :_( As I reported in my end-of-semester essay on Culture Shock, a sojourner's mood goes up and down, and this is just another small dip in time. Fear not, I shall recover.

I am, however, very grateful to be here for Hanami season. Hanami means, in so many words, cherry blossom viewing party. For about one week, the sakura, or cherry blossoms, are in full bloom, and everywhere Japanese pour outside with cameras and sake to enjoy the country's national flower. My friends and I strolled over to a nearby temple in Setagaya that is famous for its sakura, and rightly so. The trees were absolutely dripping with blossoms, and I was once again reminded how fortunate I am to be able to enjoy Japan as an American student.

But sakura season also signals the beginning of the new semester, as I mentioned in my last post. I am happy to say that my two dormmates, Melanie and Michael, who were in my class last year have tested into the same level as me, so we'll all get to worry about quizzes together again. Though we haven't registered yet, I've decided on my supplementary Japanese course: Intermediate Aural Comprehension. I tend to have trouble understanding what salespeople and others say to me (thanks in large part to keigo), so I think this class will help with that.

For my two optional courses in English, I'll be taking Japanese Buddhism and Social Suffering, and 20th Century Japanese and Western Short Fiction, which I am particularly looking forward to as a Creative Writing major.

Luckily, my schedule is arranged so I only have to travel to Keio three days a week, allowing me time to continue my unpaid internship at Mission One. I am also keeping up with my short story writing; my current project is a rather lengthy piece set in Ancient Greece. Nothing better than man-eating harpies and merciless irony to brighten your day.

Hope the weather in Pittsburgh is improving. Cheers!

I hate you Blogger

So, I know I was supposed to eventually post all the wonderful photos I took of the snow and ice sculptures at the Yuki Matsuri, but that isn't going to happen, and you can blame Blogger for that. Their editing program for pictures is so incredibly inconvenient and unpredictable, I'm just not going to deal with it anymore. First it was the video, now it's the pics. So sorry, but no more. Instead, I will be including the photographs in my presentations promoting studying abroad at CMU in the fall. I hope you come and see it; the photos are really amazing.

I am also sad to report that my spring break is pretty much over (weeps inconsolably). Yesterday, all of us exchange students had to take this semester's placement test. It was less stressful than last time, as I knew what to expect. I also felt much more prepared, since it had only been two months since my last Japanese class, instead of four months at the last test.

Afterwards, my friends and I went to Rappongi Hills to go see Watchmen in the theater. There are several theaters in Tokyo that show American movies, but we chose Rappongi because a) the theater is SUPER nice and b) they have the cheapest tickets for exchange students. Seeing a movie in Tokyo is usually ridiculously expensive- about $20 for one adult. But at Rappongi Hills, it's $18 for adults, $15 for students, and an amazing $10 for foriegn exchange students! All we had to do was show them our Keio student IDs and our alien registration cards. Huzzah!

By the time I made it home last night, our dorm's welcome party was about to start. About a third of Willing Setagaya's residents moved out, and though we will miss them, we got a lot of new students last week. Oddly enough, nearly all of them are from France or Scandanavia (Norway and Sweden). They are all very nice people, and I really look forward to hanging out with them this semester.

I especially hit it off with the four students from Paris; I took four years of French in high school so I was able to exchange a few greetings with them and follow a bit of their conversation (and they were kind enough to translate whatever they said in French for Maggie and me), and they were fascinated by my Texan background, even making me talk with an accent for them! None of them know very much Japanese, so I'll help them a bit with their Japanese and they can help me relearn a bit of French.

Tomorrow, I will find out what level I tested into, which will also determine which optional courses I'm taking- my plan is to take as many classes on the same days as possible so I have several days off a week. That way, it will be easier to continue at my internship during the semester.

I'll let you know what classes I'm taking as soon as I find out. Cheers, and Happy Easter!

Prescription for Sleep

Hey everyone! I'm happy to announce that the application for the iPhone and iPod Touch I worked on is finally available for download. It's called Prescription for Sleep, and you can read about it here: http://www.apptism.com/apps/prescription-for-sleep

It's a really great program that helps relax your mind so you can fall asleep more easily. As the Quality Assurance Intern, it was my job to watch all the simulations multiple times to look for errors or bugs, and to play around with all the different features. It was fairly easy to test, but using a sleep-aid application for four hours is not easy to get through. It certainly had the intended effect on me: even with 7 cups of coffee, I was still yawning the whole time!

There is a free trial version on iTunes that you can check out before purchasing the full program for $2.99. Make sure to read the About page- my name is at the bottom!

Let the games begin!

I decided to put off this post until I finally got to do some work, and today is that day!

About a month ago, I signed on for an unpaid internship at Mission One, an entertainment software and application developer here in Setagaya, Tokyo. I had met the founder and president, Marc Cellucci, last October at a Halloween party at Keio's Hiyoshi campus. Also a native Texan, Marc spent many years working for Sega both in America and Japan before starting his own company. Marc mentioned that his company needed testers in the near future, so we exchanged business cards. At the beginning of my lengthy spring break, I shot him an email, he offered me an internship, and I was onboard.

My official title is Quality Assurance Intern, which is really just a fancy way of saying I'm an unpaid game and application tester. But honestly, I would clean the entire office if it meant learning about video game development. Though he can't pay me, I have been getting fed, and everyone knows how much college students love free food!

The main part of my job is to test out the software that Mission One develops to see if there are any technical, design, or typographical errors and bring them to Marc's attention. Marc has also taken it upon himself to introduce me to the process of how entertainment software is designed and developed. I really could not ask for a better introduction to the entertainment software industry.

The application I tested for Mission One today will hopefully be available next week worldwide on the iPhone. I can't disclose the name of the app before it is released, but I will post it here asap. My name is actually in the credits!

Here is a link to Mission One's website, which is available in both English and Japanese: http://mission-one.jp/index_e.html They already have one game for the iPhone available for purchase: a pachinko game called Sho Chiku Bai. Though based on the widely popular Japanese slot game, the download is also having a great deal of success amongst Americans. Try it out- you're sure to get addicted!

I'll post any exciting developments in my internship here, so stay tuned. Watch out, video game industry! Katherine's coming!

March of the Penguins

Hey readers! Sorry about the lengthy pause; I've been quite busy applying for various honor societies/programs/grants at CMU. I've also ended my creative writing hiatus. Yay for being productive!

On the second day of our vacation in Hokkaido, my friends and I took advantage of the free transportation provided by our travel agency to go to the Asahiyama Zoo.

Asahiyama is the most popular zoo in Japan. It is known for the diversity of their animals, which come from as far as Africa and as close as the surrounding mountains, and the design of their enclosures and attractions, which allow visitors to get a closer view than is normal for zoos.

But Asahiyama is probably most famous for its "march of the penguins". A couple times a day, all the visitors in the park line up along a marked path around the edge of the zoo to see a half-dozen zookeepers herding a dozen or so penguins along in the snow. My friends and I arrived at the zoo just before the procession began, so it was the first thing we got to see.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime up close and personal moment with the penguins, especially this little guy, who insisted on investigating the crowd every few meters.

Probably my favorite animal in the zoo was this red panda. I had not known before that there was a different variety of panda, but there you have it! It actually looks nothing like the Chinese panda, but to me, resembles a raccoon or tanuki. I wasn't able to get any pictures of them, but there were three babies sleeping high up on platforms and in trees. 超かわいい！

I was also very excited to finally get to see a tanuki and Japanese Macaque, or snow monkey. In high school, my friends and I founded a manga/Japanese culture club, and we chose Tanuki as our mascot. Though a real animal, in Japan, Tanuki is revered as a spirit of fertility. And I had been waiting to see Japanese snow monkies since I had first learned about them on some national geographic show a long time ago. Natives of Hokkaido, Japanese macaques spend a great deal of their time relaxing in the region's hot springs. I generally don't like monkies, but I wouldn't mind being one if it meant lazing around in an onsen all day!

There were also a few animals from Africa, like this lion. To be honest, seeing him in the snow made me kind of sad; he seemed restless and spent a lot of time just standing on this thin piece of plywood the zookeepers had placed next to the window; he would stand there and roar. I don't think he was very happy in the snow.








This giraffe, however, looked perfectly happy. For the first three minutes we watched him, he was licking up snow on top of a box. The rhino waltzed right up and gave us some really great shots, as well.

I also got to watch the seal being fed. He was rather reluctant to come out onto the ice, but he did get half-way out.

The trip from Sapporo to the zoo was three hours each way- it was an entire day of just animals! When we returned to the city, we found a restaurant that specialized in soup curry, a delicious hybrid of curry and stew, served here with rice and chai tea. Hokkaido is a really great place to find deliciously spicy food!