Goodbye Part 1

My apologies everyone, I meant to write a blog post sooner. That being said, this one is going to have to be short as well. Tomorrow I begin my journey back to the good old USA, my mouth already watering for a decent slice pizza :-).


Lots of mixed emotions going on. On one hand, having the week off and no finals due to swine flu really made me want to go home, I had finished everything I needed to do. I was growing antsy to get out of here with little to do. However, seeing my friends for the very last time (possibly ever?) can be really heartbreaking. We all go into this process, knowing that it must come to an end, and yet, people still get involved in each other's lives. Yet, I write these words still not feeling that ache in full. Maybe it hasn't hit me yet, or maybe I'm growing up, but I don't really feel the pain or shed the tears that others have. That's not to say I haven't loved the relationships I've formed here (losing my wonderful speaking partner really makes me upset), but at the end of the day, I've accepted this program for what it is, a brief escape into a new world. However, leaving that new world itself is a bit harder to do. I really fell for speaking in a totally different language, and while I will never give myself the credit of becoming fluent, I now have the confidence to speak Japanese in public without fear. I cannot wait to bring this revamped mentality back to Tufts next year. I also loved adapting to a new culture. It was difficult at first, but I think I've really blended in to Japan. My only regret remains that I did not come here sooner.



Anyway, I'd love to continue to wax philosphically with you all, but I need to get some rest for a long 18 hours of travel ahead of me. I will be adding some more pictures, giving you all some lists of my favorite things in Japan for my final post back in the USA (quick spoiler, Karaoke is an easy #1). As for a final recommendation, either go watch the show Dexter because it is amazing, or listen to this song "Lullabies" by All Time Low, it kind of gets my mentality right now, and is also my goodbye song (oops long sentence >_<)

Much love Japan

Hanshin Tigers and the Beginning of the End

First and foremost, a very special Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there, with a special Happy Mother's Day to my own mother. Thanks for everything Mom, I wouldn't be the man I am today if it weren't for you!

Now then, what's going on everyone? So I finally got to go to a Japanese Baseball game, and it was sick! Here's a little background info for you to soak in:

-My seats were 10 rows from Home Plate
-The local team (Hanshin Tigers) were playing the Yomiuri Giants, which is akin to the Red Sox playing the Yankees back home, so the atmosphere was electric
-Unsurprisingly, there were a ton of differences between a typical day at the ballpark in the U.S. and Japan.

Alright, so the game was amazing, the Tigers beat the Giants 6-0 for their first win against the Giants this season, and the crowd was pumped up the entire time. Now time for the really weird/awesome differences. First off, people are just as insane for the Sox back home as they are for the Tigers here. No body paint or anything like that, but Tigers sweatpants, towels, facepaint, you name it, they most likely have it. The next obvious difference was the food at the ballpark. Peanuts and Cracker Jacks? Try Gyoza and Ramen. All the typical Japanese foods were here (sushi, yakisoba, etc), but little sign of the American goodies we've come to love back home. As for the vendors, while they might not have been the typical yellow uniformed fellas you're used to in Fenway, the Koshien dome has "beer girls". The Beer girl is a girl dressed fully in pink who carries around a mini-keg backpack to disperse to her patrons. It was so hilarious I had to get a picture with one, check it out below this picture! This picture directly below is my friend Yugo and I. Yugo invited me to the game, and he will be studying abroad at the University of Vermont next year, so I'm hoping to repay the favor with a trip to Fenway in the fall!


Now to the actual game. As most people who follow baseball know, the Japanese play a vastly different game in comparison to the United States. The strike zone is larger, the key component is small ball (i.e. singles, sacrifices), and pitching changes are very frequent. The players also tend to swing at the first pitch, which as an American baseball fan, makes me die a lot on the inside. Moreover, whenever a hit is made by the home team, noisemakers erupt. Seriously, it felt like a was watching an intense BC or Celtics basketball game with thundersticks, real crazy stuff. Another weird thing I saw is that there is actually a cheering section for the opposing team. I'm sure all of you would agree with me when I ask what the heck? There would never, ever, EVER be a cheering section speicifically designated for Yankees fans at a Sox game, it really freaked me out. However, leave it to Japan to be the polite nation it is and respect the enemy team's fanbase. The funniest thing I found is how the crowd sings. Whenever an opposing pitcher gets knocked out of the game, the crowd begins singing a song to the tune of Auld Lang Syne, and if Hanshin wins, they sing a specific Hanshin song (with music video and all), really interesting stuff.


While it may not have been the same as singing my good old "Sweet Caroline" after the 8th inning at a Sox game, the Tigers had another really cool tradition. In the bottom of the seventh inning all the fans begin blowing up balloons, and in between the 7th and the 8th inning, they let them all fly. It only lasts a few seconds, but it is something you have to see. Lucky for you all, I took a video of the experience, enjoy!


So that was my Hanshin Tigers experience. I'm really hoping to get back there one more time before I leave Japan, but it might not be able to happen, we'll see. This brings me to another point, turns out I'm coming back stateside in less than 3 weeks, and I'm filled with a lot of mixed emotions. I'm really excited to see my family and friends back home, but the honest truth is I don't think I'm ready to leave Japan. I came into this experience not really knowing what to expect. I had done my studies on the culture and the language, so I wasn't expecting to be culture shocked, and yet, I still was. The weird thing is, I enjoyed the culture shock. I enjoyed being thrown into the public where no one who could speak english, relying solely on my studies. As a result, my speaking skill has increased significantly. That being said, there is so much more to do here. While I've done a lot of sightseeing and had a lot of fun on the weekends, I'm still a student looking to do more research. After meeting Japanese people and getting to know their personal histories, I have come to find the culture and the people all the more interesting. Their personalities, their relationships, their emotions towards others, I find that all very unique, mainly because it is so different than how we emote, and you cannot learn that in a classroom.


The thing that really bogs me down the most is that while this experience has been unforgettable, it is also irreplacable. While the idea of something being irreplaceable may sound like a good thing in theory, the fact of the matter is that for the rest of my life I will never have an experience like this ever again. I'm one year away from graduating and going off on my own, and while I'm sure I'll be back in Japan to work (no question now, I'm coming back sooner or later :-P), I don't think I'll be able to take on this academic mentality again, and that kind of hurts. By being here, I've come to terms with the evanescence of life and these experiences, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I'm sure by reading this I must sound like I've matured a bit and I think I really have, but at the same time, I don't want to mature. That may come across as ignorant, but the truth is, you don't really appreciate the value of being young or innocent until it's too late, and I'm sure my elders can agree to that, right?

Now that I've jumped off into a sad post let's bring it back to the good stuff. I came to Japan intially to do my time here, hopefully improve my language skills, meet some cool people, and head back home. While I've done all that, I did one more important thing as well: I fell in love with language again. Honestly, I love the challenge of being forced to speak another language that isn't my own on a daily basis. It has driven me to be a better student and has driven me to respect another group of people. Whenever I hear a word I don't understand or a tense that doesn't make sense, I either ask a Japanese friend for the meaning or whip out my electronic dictionary to quelm my thoughts. The beautiful thing about being a language student is that you'll never truly be entirely fluent, and while that may sound disheartening, in the right mind it is the exact opposite. In my head, it leaves me hungry to learn more. I'm never really satiated with the knowledge I've achieved up to this point, I want to learn more, and that's what continues to push me further. Anyway, I think I've trotted off the page a little bit, but I hope you enjoyed this post. Hopefully another culture segment concerning nightlife or some other fun subject will come up soon. See you soon!

Daily Life in Japan

Well, I figure since I update constantly about the places I've gone to or what I've been doing for fun, I figured I'd take a second to reflect on what a typical weekday is like here in Japan. Basically, I wake up every day around 9 a.m. to get ready for the day. I then go on a 20 minute walk to school for Spoken Japanese class. I love this class. Not only is it a good clash to refresh my memory on older grammar patterns, but I'm learning brand new things in it too. Moreover, there has been a myriad of vocab I've already learned, most of which are great for everyday situations. I also love my classmates, but I feel like in most Japanese classes I've taken, I've had a lot of fun with my classmates. Next is Japanese Reading and Writing. While I find this a bit less entertaining than Spoken Japanese, the readings have been very useful as well. For example, last week we read a sample email a foreigner would send to a Japanese company requesting a meeting or interview. Then I usually get lunch at the cafeteria or a nearby restaurant with friends, and then prepare for my afternoon lecture. My film class has been pretty decent so far. The movies have been great, but the discussions are a bit lacking in comparison to Tufts. The same goes for my Popular Culture class. That being said, my culture Professor is pretty intelligent, so I enjoy his lectures. Then I head home or to the gym, grab some dinner, hang out with friends, and do some homework. All in all, a pretty simplistic schedule, but I'm really enjoying meeting and getting to know all the people here.

As for the Japanese people, there are moments where I've noticed some interesting things. There is obviously sometimes a little bit of indifference or distaste toward the foreigners from the older generation (represented by the word gaijin/foreigner), but I really haven't encountered too many issues with it. Once I begin conversing in Japanese, all sense of being a clueless foreigner is forgotten, and I feel like the Japanese accept me a little more for learning their language. The Japanese students are amazing too. Most of them are fairly quiet at first, but as long as you are willing to put yourself out there and say hello, they love it. They love meeting the study abroad student and hearing where they come from, and I love hearing more about their culture, especially what large differences there are between Japan and America.

So what does this all mean to me exactly? Well here it is: basically, I could see myself living in Japan in the future. There are so many amazing and interesting things in this country that I'm still yet to see or even comprehend. I feel like even though I've only been here for a month, I could really become a part of this culture. Whatever aspirations I may have had about working abroad sometime in the future have been solidified by my experience here to this point. I almost feel bad in a way that I'm enjoying this experience so much that I feel like I will need to be back her sometime in the future (and no, there's no girl involved, so don't get any ideas). You can do research, take classes, read books, watch documentaries, but until you have fully thrown yourself into a culture that isn't your own, you'll never fully understand it. I love the fact that I get to be a student both inside and outside of the classroom, my only regret is that I haven't been here before now.

That's it for my life chat, I hope you all enjoyed per usual \^o^/. As always, I love hearing from you all, so feel free to give me some news. As for future plans, I may be going to Kobe on Sunday, so that should be interesting. Next week is the week before spring break, so it should be a little hectic, but nothing too serious since classes have been so sweet up to this point. Then I'm heading to Tokyo for spring break, which will be insane. Plenty to look forward to if you're enjoying my blog! BTW, the picture right above is called Purikura, basically it's like hopping in a photobooth, but you add all the extra stuff in the background and such after taking the pictures. Sounds weird or boring right, but it's actually a lot of fun. Until next time!

P.S. T-sull, what's going on kid? Of course I heard about Vrabel and Cassel, I check the sports section all the time online. I like the trade, Cassel needed to go and although I love Vrabel, he is getting older. Now they have a bunch of picks, hopefully it'll pan out. What'd you think of the B's deal?

What a Week!

Hey Everyone!

I had an amazing week here, Japan continues to leave me in awe everyday. OK well I guess I'll first start out with class. Class has been pretty easy this week, with not a substantial amount of work yet. Next week should be a bit more difficult, but still nothing Earth shattering yet. It is really nice to get this break from Tufts because I know I'd be swamped if I was there right now. That being said, the academic discussions that happen in class are a bit less intellectual than I expected, but hey, can't win 'em all right? We did see my favorite Japanese movie in my cinema class this week (Ikiru, go watch it now), so I'm really excited to discuss it on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, we got the day off so my friends and I decided to take the opportunity to visit Osaka for more sightseeing. We decided to go to DenDen Town, which is largely regarded as the electronics district of Osaka. It was definitely an informative and interesting trip. We spent the first part of the day actually at a zoo a few blocks away from DenDen town. This zoo had everything: tigers, elephants, giraffes, penguins, koala bears, you name it. Some of the animals were a bit dirty though. Nevertheless, it was really cool to see a zoo right in the middle of the city, for a second we all forgot we were in the city to begin with! As for the electronics themselves, there was a lot of cool stuff. There was everything from speakers, computers, TVs, video games, and many other things. I think the only thing we were nervous about was what store was selling bootleg items and what wasn't, but I think you could usually figure that out depending on the store's decor and what not. Moving on, we went to a delicious okonomiyake place that evening, and then for strictly research purposes only, we went to a cafe where all of the waitresses dress up like French maids, just to see what it was like. It was kind of a blur. We went in, and the first thing we noticed is that it was so normal, everything was so non-chalant, making it almost kind of sad. It was sort of demeaning to the waitresses, but I think the weirdest thing about it all was that the other guys who were eating there seemed so normal. Nonetheless, we got an awesome picture together (which I wish I could show you, but I cant because I don't have a scanner :-( ), had a delicious melon-soda float (melon soda is my new favorite drink) and took off. It had been quite a busy day, and it was now time to head home. Oh by the way, the picture at the top screen was an awesome shot I caught of DenDen town in its entirety. Hope you all like it!

That brings me to this weekend. This weekend was a lot of fun, and probably my favorite since I've been here. Friday night I went to a club with a group of 10 kids (see picture for some of them) and we had a great time. I myself met bunch of Japanese guys who I hung out with for a while on the stage. The night itself was pretty crazy, as the large group of us danced until the wee hours of the morning. I wish I could embellish on this more, but to sum it up it really was just a great evening of fun and debauchery, and I hope to hang out with that group of kids again. Saturday night I met up with my buddy from Tufts again and his group of friends, and we went to an all you can eat dinner. It was a bit pricy, but considering we could eat as much food as we wanted, I couldn't really argue. Just to wow you all the kids I hung out with over the weekend come from all these places: Boston (me, duh), Texas, New York, Hawaii, Washington DC, Georgia, Italy, Ireland, Lithuania, Australia, and the United Kingdom. How about that eh?

OK so I think that is going to do it for me for this time, I hope you all enjoyed. As always feel free to drop a line, I enjoy hearing from you all. I'll do my best to update a little bit more this week, things got a little hectic though so my apologies. Oh and for fun, I want to introduce you to my best friend that I've met in Japan. I don't know his name, but I do know he is always happy. Haha see you next time!

A New Day Dawns

Konichiwa minna-san!
So a few days have passed since my last post and I figured I'd update you all on the happenings around here. So far things have been mucho busy with choosing classes and such, the Japanese system can be very strenuous at times. The banking session may have been the scariest thing I've ever gone through, everything must be translated from your passport to your banking account, including uppercase and lowercase letters, with absolutely no differences. Like this was scarier than taking a final, kids would say, "oh no I messed up" only to have their application torn up in front of them, forcing them to start over. As for classes, I had an awful number, but still managed to get the two lecture classes I wanted. I'll be taking a class on Japanese Cinema from 1949 - 1987 (which features my favorite Japanese movie ikiru) and a class on how sexuality creates pleasure and identities. They both seem very interesting and I'm looking forward to starting them.



The food has been pretty amazing so far. I'm a big fan of Donburi, which is a meat of sorts with extra vegetables served over rice. It is delicious and very filling. I also had Beef Udon at this mom and pop restaurant right near our dormitory. Not only was the food great, but the hostess/chef asked me where I got my hair the way it is, and I told her I got it like this in America, and then called it pretty. Naturally, that made my day. I must mention that on this picture to the left, there is a meal of yakisoba I ate, with a very interesting drink. You see, I went on a tour of our town Hirakata, and our Japanese student tour guides took us to a grocery store. Feeling adventurous, I asked our tour guide what was the weirdest drink in the entire place, to which he replied the drink you see in the photo. Turns out this drink is a Fanta brand of Grape Jelly soda, that is there is soda partially in there, but there is also jelly. I know it sounds awful, but trust me when I say it was AWESOME. I've already bought two more since then, and I want to bring them back to America with me haha. Anyway, figured that would be a good, crazy story you'd all enjoy.

Hmmmm let's see what else is going on? The people here are great, but you can definitely tell who has been here already fora semester and who's new. All my friends here (minus my friend from Tufts) are new kids, and while the kids who have already been here aren't cold or anything, they don't actively introduce themselves. This leaves the new kids in a panic to make friends before classes by introducing themselves to every single person on the street (or at least I'm guilty of that) so that they have a core to hang out with. I have made a nice core of friends though, my closest friends being from Alabama, Indiana, and New Jersey, which I just find awesome. It's a little weird because our home stay friends leave on Sunday, but I think things won't be too bad once we all get phones. I also saw Ayuna again today! We could only meet for a little while because I forgot I had another mandatory meeting for school. I think my Japanese is improving when we chat, but I have to stick to either informal or formal speech, since for some reason I switch a lot with her. Enclosed is a better picture of the two of us that we took today. Finally, I think I'm going to have dinner with her and her mother sometime soon, so that should be exciting and helpful haha.

OK so that's it for this time. I'm going to Kyoto tomorrow (along with some Karaoke debauchery later) so hopefully I'll have another cool post for this weekend. Like last time, please leave a comment or drop a line, I love hearing from people back home!

P.S. 先生、コーメントを書いてくれてありがとうございました！来週日本語を書きたいです。タフツ大学はいいといいですね！

And so it begins...

Hello all! After a grueling 18 hours in the air, I finally landed and am now living life in Japan, and wow, it is awesome here. Last night was pretty fun, not a ton happened but we got a tour of the different supermarkets so now I know where to go buy food that I don't understand the packaging for...sweet. I met some people here too, pretty nice overall, it's just weird because we cannot communicate with each other right now due to the lack of phones haha.

As for Japan itself, things are pretty intense. The people are friendly and on bikes all the time, the streets are really narrow with the houses like right on top of each other, kinda reminds me of the north end minus the honking cars. It's really nice here too, in the 50's degree wise. All the Japanese people are saying it's freezing and I'm about ready to put on a T-shirt and shorts. The most interesting thing I've found so far though is that is really quiet. Walking around last night and today I noticed how there was never any superflorous noise, which is so different than what I'm used to in Medford/Boston.

Finally, I met my speaking partner Ayuna for lunch today and she's pretty cool. I had some chicken don for lunch which was delicious as well. Enclosed is a picture of Ayuna and I with her friend and speaking partner and a picture of my wicked lunch. Thursday I think we're getting lunch and going to do some Karaoke, so naturally I'm pumped. Sorry for lack of articulation in this post, but not surprisingly, I'm in a rush. Tomorrow I have my placement test, and I have to deposit all my fees in order to get my registration lottery number, it should be fun though. I actually have to get ready because I have a tour of Hirakata in an hour but I hope you enjoyed this first post. As for the Japanese version of the upcoming posts, I think they'll start after the insanity that is Orientation, hope you don't mind Sensei! Thanks for reading everyone! Send me a comment or a message and let me know how home is!