Monday, June 25
Another exciting day in Japan! My day started at 9:30
this morning when I woke up to meet Audrey, Ryan, and David at 11AM to go to
Sunny, the small コンビニ (convenient store). Toh was awake and went along with
us. We all still needed some groceries. For example, I got a 5kg bag of rice,
some eggs, and pancake mix, to name a few items. I also bought myself a
Japanese umbrella (かさ), clear and for only 150￥.
(We’re here in the middle of the rainy season for Japan. So, umbrellas are sort
of necessities since people pretty much only ever walk or bike to places.) I still as of yet have to get a phone. But
Alecs did explain what I would need to do. The unfortunate thing is that the
phone itself would cost about $125-$150… On top of 3000￥ (or
about $30) for a two month phone plan… I can’t decide if I should buy one or if
I could possibly find a cheaper one. I refuse to use my US phone, seeing as it
is $1.99 per minute of calling. (I
have no idea the cost for texting.)
After Sunny, we all went back to the I-House around noon,
in order to put our groceries up. We decided to meet back at 2 because Audrey
was hungry and was going to eat. During that time, the four of us stood and
chatted with each other as well as any others passing through the main lobby. I
met some other people such as Mia (Australian) and Tiffany (Chinese).
I also met Eiko, a Chinese girl with awesome blue hair! I met a number of
others, but I admit I don’t exactly remember all of their names….
About 1:20 or so, Alecs offered to show Toh, Ryan, David
and me around Seinan’s campus. He showed us the cafeterias, a cheap place to
get a haircut, where the school library is, where a small convenient store is,
and where the on-campus ATM is. David and Toh each bought some food at the
second and (what I think is) the nicer of the two cafeterias. From there, we
wandered back to the I-House. Right as we walked out, Audrey came out, looking
for us. Needing to get Japanese yen, she told us she was headed for the ゆうびんきょく (the post office). With Alecs in the lead, we all
headed that way. We reached the post office and Audrey pulled out some money.
In an adventurous mood, we all set out to explore
Fukuoka, instead of returning to the I-House. We walked for a little less than
3 hours in a large loop around the area north of Seinan Gakuin’s campus. We
passed Fukuoka Tower, which some Japanese girls were nice enough to take
pictures of us all standing in front of. ^^ It was awesome! We also went along
the coast for a little bit, looking at the ocean and the part of Fukuoka that
curved around into the sea. Taking a break there, we moved on. We passed a lot
between all of these major points that I am telling you all about, such as
awesome looking houses, cool fountains that people can play in, odd sculptures,
etc. So, from the beach, we went to see Yahoo! Fukuoka Dome, the place where
the baseball diamond is. Near it is the largest Hilton Hotel of Japan. There is
also a mall (or series of malls?) near it, too. (I say “series” because there
were signs saying “Mall 1” and “Mall 2,” though I wasn’t sure how they were
divided, exactly….) We passed through the mall(s), including into an arcade,
the likes of which greatly surpass anything like that of America! We strolled
looking at the stores, stopping a few times for a few items like drinks or
candies. After the mall(s), we continued on, heading back to the I-House,
completing the loop. We passed more amazing structures and things. At one
point, we passed the Embassies for both Korea and China. Being goofy tourists
as we were for the day, we started taking pictures of the Korean Embassy. As we
continued on, one of the Japanese guards approached us and began speaking to
Toh. I didn’t fully understand, but I could tell he was not simply asking us
about the weather. He was extremely nice and kept smiling, though, which was
rather odd. He then realized that some of us (like myself….) couldn’t
understand. So, he said, again, extremely politely, “Please, do not take
pictures…” I felt bad, having done so, not thinking, but I was awed at how
kindly he treated us and the situation. In America, we would have been lucky to
get a polite tone from a guard like that…. After asking forgiveness and bowing
our way away, Alecs told us that essentially the guard had initially said (in
Japanese), “You don’t have to delete the pictures, but please, do not take
anymore.” We all laughed because we now have illegal pictures of the Korean
Embassy, which is made funnier by the fact that the US is not on good terms at
all with North Korea.
Eventually, we made it back to the I-House. There, we met
some more people. I, again, don’t remember all of their names, unfortunately….
I do know that one of them was Keisei (日本人 or a Japanese person) and another
was Ryo (another American, this one from Pennsylvania). I stood there talking a
while with those two, Audrey, Ryan, Toh, and some others. People filtered in
and out of the conversations and lobby. Eventually, I left to go study some
Japanese, hoping to review and brush up on some grammar for the placement test
for Tuesday… David came and studied with me, as well as Audrey. We studied for
a while.
At 7:00, a large group of us ate food together, as cooked
by the Koreans. The Koreans love spicy food, so I actually did not eat anything
besides rice… The rice was excellent, though, and the rest of the food smelled
pretty good, too! After that, we all played Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who
would have to clean. Thankfully, I was one of the ones that won and did not
have to clean! :3
At one point after that, a new student arrived, and we
all went down to meet him. Unfortunately, the attempt failed, but I did meet
Mariko, a student who had simply picked the new student up to bring him to the
I-House. Then Alecs and Sumika invited us all to get ice cream! There is a
Baskin Robbins next door to Sunny that has a “Triple Challenge.” The Triple
Challenge is honestly not hard for Americans and our large food portions, but
it was still tasty. (The Challenge gives you 3 scoops for the price of 2
scoops.) I got Musk Melon, Caramel Ribbon, and Strawberry Cheesecake. The
Caramel Ribbon flavor was my favorite. Charles, another UTM student, had joined
us at dinner and was with us at Baskin Robbins at that point. He got the ice
cream that was flavored matcha and let me try some. It tastes exactly like
matcha—bitter and everything. So, it was okay, but not at all sweet like I
thought it’d be as an ice cream. After the ice cream, we came back to the
I-House.
There, David, Charles, and I studied Japanese a little
more. A number of people came up to us and asked if we were studying and we’d
tell them yes and we’d all laugh about it because the placement test is not
something one can fail but is still rather こわい
(scary) anyhow… So, that’s how my night ended and now it’s time to sleep again.
Each day is causing me to fall more and more in love with
Japan, and I really wish I could stay here. I already dread the day I have to
leave because it is so amazing here…. But that is still a ways off and I will
enjoy the time I have here!! Good night, everyone. じゃまたね！
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