During my first sojourn abroad as a wide eyed 19-year-old studying at Kyushu University in Japan, I sent out a series of e-mails to friends and family back home detailing the various adventures from one of the best years of my life. While my youth and naivety are glaringly apparent, these were my first attempts at writing travelogues and I look back at these silly little e-mails with a good bit of nostalgia and fondness. And it’s interesting to see how much the world and I have both changed over the years.
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Konnichi wa,
That’s right…. Jay finally got off his lazy butt to write to his tomodachis back in America… I’m sure everyone is just thrilled… ok, maybe not, but its a pleasant break from studying for your midterms. I would have written sooner, but I’ve actually been very busy with homework, field trips, and all that fun stuff so far. But let me assure you, there is plenty to tell.
First of all, in case you have no idea where I am in Japan or what I’m doing, I’ll fill in a few details… I am studying in the city of Fukuoka, which is the biggest city on the island of Kyushu (the same island as Nagasaki, so rest assured I’ve been getting my daily supply of radiation) and the seventh largest city in Japan with a population of around 1.2 million people. I am studying at Kyushu University (better known as Kyudai here in Japan), which is one of seven Imperial Universities (and of course the best… ok, not really) in a special exchange program which emphasizes Japan’s role in today’s world (in fact, it is called JTW, short for Japan in Today’s World…. brilliant name, eh?). “But wait”, you think, “Jay doesn’t speak any Japanese… whatever will he do!” Well, don’t get your underwear in a knot… the classes are in English (well, for the most part…. most of the professors speak a form of Japanglish, which is quite interesting but not always easy to understand). Also, they offer us Japanese language courses, so hopefully by the end of the year I might know a word or two of Japanese…. but please don’t get your hopes up. I would tell you more about the program, but it’s all posted on my web page, so please go look there if you want more info (the address is www.owlnet.rice.edu/~frijol….. I started to “reconstruct” it right before I left, so it finally looks a little different, but most of it is still “under construction”, whatever that’s supposed to mean).
Anyway, now to the juicy part:
First, I had the longest plane ride of my life… I flew more in one day than I had previously flown in my life. I started out from Intercontinental (thank goodness I didn’t have to fly out of that rathole called Hobby!), where my three best friends from Rice, my girlfriend, my older brother, and even my parents saw me off on my long journey… four hours later I was sitting in San Fransisco (in fact, I was sitting for several hours) waiting to fly out of the country for the first time in my life… so after a nice little wait in the international section of the airport (which grossly redefined my definition of weird!), I boarded a huge Japan Airlines (JAL) jet and was on my way to Narita airport outside of Tokyo (man, JAL beats the heck out of any American airline I’ve ridden on… and not just because they had Japanese stewardesses). Once I arrived in Tokyo, I was not looking forward to all the customs mess I was going to have to go through. However, after a rather long wait in line (you could tell who had been to this airport before because they all sprinted off the plane to get in line first), I found there really wasn’t much red tape and I was soon waiting (for several hours again) for my departure to Fukuoka.
After I exchanged some dollars for yen (about 120 yen to a dollar), I had my first taste of Japan from the little convenience store there in the waiting area: Pocky (pronounced “poh-key). Let me just say I was in love from the first bite… in fact, I took several pictures to commemorate that special moment. Actually, there is nothing “Japanese” about Pocky – I’m not even sure if it’s made in Japan – but we don’t have it in the States, so I consider it my first Japanese food (although it’s actually just a snack)… perhaps I should explain. Pocky is a very simple candy (but I sometimes eat it in large quantities as a meal) that comes in many flavors like “Bitter Black”, “Strawberry” (which is the flavor I had in the airport), “Milk Tea”, “Melon”, “Chocolate”, and my favorite… “Men’s Pocky” (I just love the English used here on Japanese products and advertisements). On the box, Pocky is simply said to be something like a flavored pretzel stick, but I don’t think that’s a very good description… Pocky sticks are long, skinny, crunchy little things that are kind of the same taste and texture as a cookie, but they are covered with frosting (that’s where the above flavors come in). I can assure you I am quite addicted already, but at they are a wee bit expensive (as everything is here), they have been running up my grocery bill a bit and I’ve had to cut back on my addiction… so instead of Pocky, I’ve taken up cigarettes =0)
Ok, so I finally flew out of Narita and soon landed in Fukuoka… all I can say is that there was neon everywhere as we got near Fukuoka airport, which I thought looked really neat. I met Jun-san (who is one of the guys who works with the JTW program – this guy is about as great as they come!) and Noguchi-san (another JTW worker – he’s really cool too, but he doesn’t speak much English so I haven’t exactly had many conversations with him consisting of more than one or two words per sentence) at the gate, as well as several of the other JTW students (I’ll get to these clowns in a minute). Well, anyway, we made our way to the “kaikan” (the name we use for the apartment complex we live in), but even though most of us had been flying for almost 24 hours, we had to fill out some paper work. Jeez… but they also gave us our arrival allowance of 50,000 yen, so I guess it was worth it. After we were done with the paper work, I made my way to the fourth floor of the E-building with my year’s supply of possessions strapped to my body… I was tired, hungry, and definitely not in the mood to climb four stories with two thousands pounds on my back, but I was about to meet my new home for the next year of my life, so I scrambled up the stairs, threw open the door, and alas… I walked into a room the size of my closet back home… not really. Actually, I must admit that the room suits my needs just fine and it is actually bigger than I was expecting after hearing so many horror stories about small Japanese rooms. Yup, she was equipped with a small refrigerator, a one-piece plastic molded bathroom, a bed with a futon and thick comforter (although I had to give those back last week and buy my own), a balcony, a nice shelf system along the wall, plenty of cabinets for my stuff, and it was all mine! Yup, no parents, no roommate (man, everyone knows how terrible my roommate back at Rice is…), no restrictions… I was definitely feeling a wee bit more freedom than usual… however, each floor shares a kitchen, and since we either cook for ourselves or blow a lot of money on eating out all the time, the kitchen gets a lot of use and since our floor is all guys, it doesn’t exactly get cleaned too often… in fact, it’s pretty darn nasty most of the time. And speaking of cooking, I sure wish I would have learned a bit more back in the States before I came, because the first three weeks I think I had spaghetti every night for dinner… I can’t say that I’m a big fan of spaghetti anymore! But last week I finally experimented a bit, and for the first time in my life used a frying pan (in America, all I ever used was a microwave, so this was a big jump for me). Yup, I made some funky concoction which was partly from a little kit with meat already in it that I bought at the store mixed with some chopped onions and green peppers. Also, I made some rice to go with it, but the Japanese use short grain rice (the sticky kind you can pick up with chopsticks) and I had no idea that it takes well over half an hour to cook (man I’m missing good old minute rice right now).
Speaking of food, it is rather expensive here, but that isn’t the main problem… it’s actually figuring out what you’re buying and how to make it, seeing as how the directions are in Japanese characters and I’m not exactly up in that department yet! Yeah, all of the food is so different here too… I can walk down half the aisles in the supermarket and not see a single thing I recognize… and from the looks of most of them, I don’t think I won’t to eat them anyway! For breakfast, I’ve been sticking with good old cereal, although it is definitely more expensive here than back home… but somehow I just can’t get up early in the morning like most Japanese and cook myself some Miso soup and other little goodies that require more than the pouring of milk and cereal into a bowl to prepare. For lunch, I eat at one of the shokudo (cafeterias) on campus… almost everyday I get the same thing: gyuu-don! It’s a big bowl of rice topped with thin strips of beef… it’s quite delicious and runs about the equivalent of $3.50 with a small salad, soup, and a raw egg (which you’re supposed to mix in with the gyuu-don, but I don’t quite fancy eating raw chicken fetus with my meal). For dinner, like I said, it’s usually spaghetti, but I’ve been switching it up lately because I need a little more variety… also, I buy tuna in bulk and eat it straight out of the can 24 hours a day… yummy!
Okay, back to the people in the group… right now there are 20 people, with 4 more coming in January. There are 12 Americans, 3 Belgians, 1 German (yeah, they actually let one of them nasty Germans into the program), and 4 Koreans. Everyone in the group is really neat, and for the most part everyone gets along great, although there has been a little friction here and there so far. Anyway, there are 6 people from the University of Washington, 2 people from Michigan U., one guy from Duke, and 3 of us from Rice (hmmm… excuse me, three of us from Brown College!!!). The Belgians in the group are absolutely hilarious… one is from the French speaking part of Belgium and speaks fluent English but with a strong French accent… he’d make it big in the movies! The other two are from the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, but their English sounds almost native and they also speak French and incredibly good Japanese. The German guy is quite a character and is definitely one of my favorites to pick on (just because he’s German). He is the oldest in the group at age 27 and yet is only a junior in college back in Germany (which, according to him, is quite normal). Anyway, he definitely has the best spoken Japanese out of any of us… plus he knows a ton of Kanji (the Chinese characters that are a pain in the butt to learn). He also speaks some French, Italian, Chinese, and of course is fluent in English… he’s also traveled all over the world… I’m quite jealous! The Koreans in our group have been a little quieter than the rest, but are extremely nice and definitely fun to joke with. Among the Americans, there is also a lot of diversity. One girl from UP is Chinese and grew up her entire life in Hong Kong before moving to the States 3 years ago. She speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, and English fluently, and her Japanese is pretty darn good too! Another guy from the UP was born in Finland, moved to America when he was young, and then moved to Hawaii where his family now lives. He is fluent in Swedish, English, Chinese (he studied it for four years), and his Japanese is pretty close to being fluent. The girl from Michigan is only 18 (yeastiness…. I’m not the youngest in the group!) and has lived in America her whole life, but she speaks French, German, and almost fluent Japanese… not bad for an American! Needless to say, the group I’m in is quite diverse and a lot of fun to hang out with… I’m going to miss them when the year is over!
Ok, so what have I done so far… well, I haven’t left Kyushu island yet, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t seen a lot, because it’s a big island. The second week we had our orientation at Mt. Kyoto, which is in the middle of Kyushu and is absolutely beautiful… Kyushu University owns a mountain resort there and we stayed for three days and got to climb the mountain and go to the local onset (hot springs), which were absolutely fabulous! Also, the first night we were there, a group of medical students from a nearby medical school were staying in the same facility and they were having some kind of party… when we walked by, they were already pretty drunk and made us come join the party… all of us hung around and had a blast with them until the wee hours of the morning, and my Japanese definitely got much better throughout the course of the night from trying to talk to everyone! Also, at the end of the night, each country represented had to sing their national anthem in front of the group, starting with Japan and followed by us crazy Americans…. then the German guy went solo and did a nice job with such a bad national anthem (I just love to bash the Germans!). The Belgians didn’t know their national anthem, so one of them got up and sang a Belgian drinking song… but that was ok, because the Japanese thought it was the real national anthem… I just love Japanese people!
Also on that same trip, we got to visit an active volcano and a really cool old castle in Kumamoto. We’ve taken a few other trips, but mostly near the Fukuoka area… last week we went to Dazaifu, the ancient capital of Kyushu island and saw the temple there, which was pretty but not the highlight of the trip… that morning, when we first arrived, we went straight to see a real sumo practice!!! I have to admit it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life… I definitely have a much greater respect for sumo wrestlers now! They were practicing at Dazaifu (which is just south of Fukuoka) because one of the biggest sumo tournaments in Japan just started in Fukuoka yesterday. Anyway, we walked into this practice building and all these big guys (most didn’t have really big stomachs like you normally picture on sumo wrestlers, but they definitely had stomachs) were either doing weight lifting or some sort of training exercise on the side or they were up on the big mound in the middle that was hard earth… this is where they wrestling! They used the classic winner stays on system, and basically two guys would go all out at each other and whoever threw the other guy off the mound or onto the ground first (and they weren’t nice about it either) would face the next challenger… they did this for the entire two hours we were in there, and by the time we left, almost every single one of them was bleeding somewhere on his body… one guy even had a huge, nasty gash on his nose that made my little collision with the ice skating rink floor a few years ago look like nothing… but he just kept wrestling! So afterwards, much to my surprise, these vicious guys turned out to be real nice guys, and they served us (yes, they waited hand and foot on us after four hours of practice before they even touched a single piece of food) lunch and then afterwards sat and talked with us for about an hour…. they were the coolest guys. That has definitely been the highlight so far of our field trips, but I’ve done a lot of other fun things too.
This last weekend, I went down to a small rural town called Yame in the southernmost part of Fukuoka prefecture to do a homestay. My host family was extremely nice and the mother (luckily) spoke good English because she is an English teacher there in Yame (and she just happened to be one of the most beautiful Japanese women I’ve met so far in Japan). Anyway, she had a two year old daughter who was absolutely adorable… I don’t think I’ve ever seen a two year old as cute as this one back in the States. The family had a really nice house and they lived with the husbands parents, who were absolutely hilarious…. I taught the grandfather a little Spanish, and when I left he next day, he repeatedly yelled “Adios amigo!”… I must admit that it was a lot of fun!
As far as Fukuoka goes, it has been absolutely wonderful! It is just perfect… the climate is not too extreme in winter or summer (of course I haven’t experienced either yet, so I’m kind of going by what I’ve heard… but I can assure you it has been absolutely wonderful so far)… the town is not too big, yet it easily supports a rather lively nightlife. I’ve found it to be just a great place to live. Also, I really enjoy how there are people walking on the streets at all hours of the night. In Tenjin, the downtown area, there are always people out and the streets are lit until daybreak with neon. The second weekend we were here, several of us went together to Tenjin and stayed all night until the 7 am bus came (buses don’t run past midnight and taxis are quite expensive). There were people out the entire night, and there was no shortage of things to do… there are a ton of clubs to go dancing at, and all sorts of other little places in between (like Print Club shops, a big fad over here, which are like picture booths in the U.S. but the pictures are much smaller and have funky little borders). Needless to say, it beats Houston hands down when it comes to nightlife!
Well, I have been typing for several hours now and I have a ton of homework to do, so I will tell you more later. I would give you my address, but I don’t have it handy right now, so I’ll send it in the next e-mail or maybe post it on my web page (hopefully I’ll get around to adjusting my web page during the year and maybe even put up some pictures). Also, if anyone wants some pictures, I bought a digital camera before I left and I’ve taken a ton of pictures, so if anyone wants me to e-mail them some pictures, just ask!
Ja mata,
Jay