７月１０日（金）

Man, I just could not drag myself out of bed in the morning! I guess those days happen time to time. Eventually I got to my mother's hotel and we got going, but I was sluggish until...

picture: breakfast at Mister Donut

... doughnuts for breakfast. I had mentioned Mister Donut to my mom and she had sounded enthusiastic about doughnuts and coffee. It was, admittedly, a good time. 

Notice the forks? Things like this really highlight Japanese/American cultural differences to me. By my observation, in general Japanese people are more dainty and reserved about their consumption of sweets. It would just never occur to an American to eat a doughnut with a fork.

Also, those doughnuts on the right? Those are mochi ring doughnuts. If anyone doesn't know: mochi is rice dough, and it is delicious in everything.

Following coffee and doughnuts for breakfast I gracefully got us lost on the way to 大阪城 (oosaka jyou, Osaka Castle), but not too badly. When I asked some young men for directions they answered my Japanese question with the following English: "bridge, left, straight, walking" and large gestures (pointing and miming). I don't really know what to make of these types of situations, but they pointed me in the right direction because we found it.
(I keep not following my own travel tip: #10)

approaching Osaka Castle

this dude was just chillin' with a hawk by Osaka Castle, no big

view from balcony of Osaka Castle,
note the moat

gold crane depicted on Osaka Castle balcony

departing from Osaka Castle

My mom and I are both museum rats, so we hurried over to 大阪歴史博物館 (oosaka rekishi hakubutsukan, Osaka Museum of History) for some fun. In the museum we could have purchased discount tickets for both the castle and museum. (>_<) Hindsight is 20/20. Preparation vs. spontaneity is a hard balance to strike traveling, and somehow you always feel you could have reaped benefit from more of the other.

Osaka Castle viewed from the museum

Having successfully museum-ratted, we rode the trains to Osakako Station and visited 海遊館 (kaiyuukan, -known as- Osaka Aquarium). It's an amazing place to visit, I would highly recommend it. The place is sprawling; you can stroll through and appreciate the variety of animals for hours. There is also a large 観覧車 (kanransha, ferris wheel) located nearby that you can get discount tickets for with admission to the aquarium.

Kaiyuukan viewed from the ferris wheel

 

 

Amazing water arched entryway, filled with a variety of creatures including small sharks and rays

sleepy otters

sleepy sea lion

mola mola fish, he's huge

spider crabs
(I had these labelled as king crabs before, I was wrong)

jelly fish

the finale: dolphins, children, and glow bracelets <3

Culture note: Stamp stations are a child-oriented system that many museums, aquariums and the like use in Japan. In each section of a museum there will be a stamp station, and stamp booklets. It appears to be a good way to keep children engaged despite quiet, time-consuming activities. The booklets generally have a page for each section of the museum, and at each section participants can collect one new stamp for their booklets. Every stamp has a different design, so participants must visit all sections of the museum to collect them all. I have never noticed stamp stations in US museums, but that doesn't mean they aren't there. Do any of you know if museums in other countries also use stamp stations?

Osaka Museum of History stamp station

 Kaiyuukan stamp station

I don't care if they're for children, stamp books are fun

One thing I love about Japan: maccha everything. Even Seattle's Best.

maccha javakula, yum

After all our museum and aquarium fun my mom and I met Masao, Sayano, and another of Masao's employees, Toshio, for dinner at a トマトラーメン (tomato raamen, tomato ramen) shop back in Hirakata City. It's a bit of a specialty shop, but since my mom is vegetarian, it seemed safer than a normal ramen shop that uses pig stock. Tomato ramen is delicious and heavy on the garlic. Sayano said it tastes Italian. She has a point, because the broth does taste a bit like spaghetti sauce.

Travel tips:

11. Preparation vs. spontaneity is a constant concern. If you prepare every single bit of your journey, you leave no 余裕 (yoyuu, allocation) for unexpected or unplanned experiences. You can miss a lot of the enjoyment of travel if you don't let yourself wander a little off the beaten path, and leave yourself open to walk into a place you have never heard of just to see what it's about. On the other hand, researching destinations well ahead of time and knowing the routes, opening and closing times, ticket prices, special offers and the like will save you headache and often money.

(All names used in this blog are pseudonyms.)

７月９日（木）

I showed my mom around Hirakata City in the morning. She got to see my old university, Kansai Gaidai, and meet Masao. For the evening my mother and I had tickets to a baseball game: Hanshin Togers vs. Chunichi Dragons!

In the afternoon I went with my mom to Osaka Station where there is a huge mall, and this amazing fountain!

picture and video: fountain at Osaka Station, showing time and location

Inside the mall we went to the Pokemon Center, what a store! Pokemon merchandise everywhere! It made me feel like a kid again.

Pokemon Center sign

Pokemon Center stand

 entrance arcade game

My mom played a Pokemon arcade game near the entrance, but there wasn't much to it unless you could save data of Pokemon you caught. At the checkout the cashier gave me a free gift, and it was a card to save that data on. The game costs 100 yen, but I might go back and give it a shot!

In the Umeda Station Mall we went to the Hanshin Tigers shop and stocked up on some Tigers merchandise to show our support at the game in the evening. I saw some nori strips with the Tigers logo printed on it, thought that was pretty funny.

 Hanshin shop sign

Tigers nori

We still had time after our shopping and before the game so my mom let me drag her to the 世界のビール博物館 (sekai no biiru hakubutsukan, World Beer Museum) I had heard about from a friend, an underground bar with a fair selection of beers, better than any bar I have ever been to in Japan before.

World Beer Museum's classy menu 

 六甲ポーター (rokkou pootaa, Rokko Porter)

A Japanese brewery I had never heard of called 六甲ビール (rokkou biiru, Rokko Beer) brews a porter, so I got to try my very first Japanese porter! It was on-tap at the Museum and everything. Unfortunately it tasted a bit watery to me, and it didn't leave much of an impression. It was definitely a few steps up from a standard Kirin or Asahi beer, though.

It came time for the baseball game and my mom and I had a bit of a mishap when I left my stuff with her and went to buy a beer at the stadium. We had made a mistake and sat in the correct seats but in the wrong section of the stadium, and the staff kindly showed my mom to the new seats. Me, without my phone or ticket, was fortunately approached by another Tigers supporter who told me what had happened. We were separated a little while but we managed to find each other before the bottom of the first inning.

Watching the proceedings, I learned about a few Japanese ballpark idiosyncrasies that I think are quite funny.

1. There are bat girls rather than bat boys. They wear shiny short-shorts and run out looking all cute. It strikes me as objectification, but it's also kind of amusing.

2. There are beer girls serving beer from packs on their backs throughout the stadium. If you want an Asahi you won't go three seconds with an empty cup. They run around shouting "ビールいかがですか" (biiru ikaga desu ka, would you like a beer?). Those girls run around up and down stairs with beer on their back for hours: I envy their leg musculature! I'd be tempted to give the job a shot and see how it would improve my lower body capability.

3. In the 7th inning, rather than the "7th inning stretch" there is a releasing of balloons throughout the stadium. These balloons are carried around and sold throughout the bleachers before the 7th inning. Everyone blows them up, holds them closed - and after a certain tune is played - lets them go. There were balloons all over the place after the game was over!

early innings

an Asahi beer girl

Fight, Tigers!

the cub Tigers mascot dancing with the cheerleaders

(there are 3 Tigers mascots: a male tiger, a female tiger, and a cub)

 the male Tigers mascot and a cheerleader mid-backhandspring

when players came up to bat, their name and eyes would be shown on this strip around the stadium

balloons

 7th inning release of the balloons (they kind of look like sperm)

The game was intense. It was tied 2-to-2 from midway through, and went into extra innings! Finally at the bottom of the 11th the Tigers scored and won the game! There were some really spectacular plays throughout. I'm not a big sportsball fan, but that was a great game!

home team victory!

the victors

It was a late night on the trains but many people had filed out of the game after the end of the 9th inning, so the trains weren't too crowded. One man on the train called me "外人さん" (gaijin-san, Miss Foreigner) and when I looked he said "hello" several times. I've heard of people being called Gaijin-san before, but it was the first time I've been called that, so I thought that was pretty funny.

Fantastic day, excited for the next one!

(All names used in this blog are pseudonyms.)

７月８日（水）

My mom and I got a bit lost trying to find a Japanese garden and go shopping today. It was tiring, we only stayed out until about 4pm.

 picture: park sign

The garden was 慶沢園 (keitakuen, Keitaku Garden) and it was gorgeous. Just look at the photos!

After the garden, we went shopping in Den Den Town, which is kind of a game/electronics shopping haven. I bought some Japanese games there. There was a really cheap Detective Conan game, I was ecstatic!

 picture: used Japanese games!

Trying to find Nipponbashi Station we ran across a market, with all sorts of fish and other products on display. It was extensive and fun to wander through.

We both got tired early. It's humid here, and the climate definitely makes fatigue worse. We came back to my mom's hotel and we drank a little 梅酒 (umeshu, plum wine) and chatted. Overall it was a good day.

On the way home, the bicycle Ted lent me started to make a racket. The back wheel seems somehow out-of-whack. Hopefully I can figure it out and fix it before I leave it back with Ted. I'm hesitant to ride it for fear of making the problem worse, but I also don't want to pay for the bus!

(All names used in this blog are pseudonyms.)

７月７日（火）

I went to Costco in the early afternoon with Masao, as seems to have become an odd, short-term routine of ours, along with always eating a hot dog for lunch there. We asked each other obscure English/Japanese language questions the whole time, as is our wont.

After that I headed to the airport to meet my mom! She arrived at 6:15pm, and I waited patiently by the North International Arrivals Gate until 7:20 because that was the exit indicated by her flight number. Since Immigration had taken more over an hour, I just assumed she was having the same issue. In actuality, she had somehow come out the South Gate and been panicking there for 40 minutes! It wasn't even that far away, it just didn't occur to either of us to walk to the other gate. We had to laugh.

At the airport train station JR Ticket Office we exchanged the Japan Rail Pass Vouchers we had ordered before for our actual Japan Rail Passes. These are useful for short term travel if you are going to be using the shinkansen a lot, especially. There are other deals available for Japanese citizens, but this particular pass is only offered to tourists.

picture: my Japan Rail Pass

picture: plus a handy little rail map

It took us over an hour to get back to Hirakata from the airport, and then we had to find my mom's hotel. Being a visibly foreign person in Japan is funny, because even when you speak to someone in Japanese, if you aren't with a Japanese friend, that person doesn't fully believe that you could possibly know the language, even when he/she clearly understands everything you say and vice-versa. 

I went into a 7-Eleven and asked the cashier if he could tell me where the hotel was. He brought out a map and explained in complete Japanese sentences, stopping at nouns such as "convenience store" to clarify in English. I do understand the want to use a language you learned in school and don't get many opportunities to practice, but it is kind of weird to substitute in random words when it should be pretty evident that I do, indeed, understand what you're telling me. This kind of treatment used to bother me deeply because it appears condescending, but I'm starting to see it as a strange and amusing attitude that I'm going to have to deal with if I spend time in Japan. Getting offended won't help anyone.

At least at the hotel check-in was smooth, and I didn't get a repeat of the 7-Eleven treatment from the hotel staff.

Travel tip:

11. Try not to get frustrated. Just don't do it. You're going to get a splattering of good and bad when you travel. Don't dwell on negative experiences and let the fun outweigh the frustration.

(All names used in this blog are pseudonyms.)

７月６日（月）

I stayed in the house today and did some planning for my mom and friends when they come. It was raining all day, so I didn't miss much by not adventuring, anyway. Since I stayed in the house, you get to see some pictures of the little share house I'm renting!

What better place to start than the 玄関 (genkan, entryway)? On the left are some cabinets with slippers to wear in the house. As you can see the wood floor is elevated above the tile floor of the entryway. It's customary to leave your shoes on the tile and switch to slippers in the house. Japanese are pretty serious about keeping things cleanly.

This is facing in from the entryway. The little water closet is right ahead. There is also another pair of slippers inside that you wear only inside. Like I said: serious about cleanliness.
To the left is the...

台所 (daidokoro, kitchen)! On the table is my little water heater I use to make coffee in the mornings.

Hey baby, come to my place? I have a really big... sink.

Also some really hazardous-looking 階段 (kaidan, stairs), if you're into that.

My room! The futon was provided with the room and it's super comfy. On the other hand, the closet admittedly kind of freaks me out because I've watched too many Japanese horror movies. I keep half-expecting creepy little child ghosts to open it or something. The single sliding door goes to the stairs and faces a similar room across the landing.

I love 畳 (tatami) floors! But another rule is you don't even wear slippers on tatami floors, just socks. I think even bare feet is questionable, but I admittedly do it. Their care is pretty intensive. One day I would love to have tatami floors, but their upkeep is pretty intense. You have to pick them up, change out newspaper and other material underneath, and replace them other side-up somewhere between twice and four times a year, plus cleaning them with special cloths regularly.

Another thing I love is 障子 (shouji, paper sliding doors/windows).

There's the little cleaning shop run from the house across the way, and at the top of the frame you can see the pole where I hang my clothes out the window to dry.

Just for fun, here's the little room downstairs next to the entryway that I stayed in 2 years ago! The upstairs room is definitely more comfortable, but this room is 懐かしい (natsukashii, nostalgic) to me. Spent three months over the summer here. Did it ever get hot! At the time the エアコン (eakon, air conditioner) above the bed hadn't been installed, I was stuck with only a 扇風機 (senpuuki, electric fan) all summer.

Hope you enjoyed being introduced to my home-away-from-home. ^^

７月５日（日：Test Day!)

Today was the day of the 日本語能力試験 (nihongo nouryoku shiken, Japanese Language Proficiency Test or JLPT for short)!

Dave and I met at the bus stop near my house and mutually looked over some kanji on the bus and train rides to out test site.

I'm going to explain a few fun things about public transportation. First off, as is well-known, Japanese public transportation is amazing.

1. Buses
Buses almost always run right on-time or even slightly early. If you aren't a couple minutes early for your bus, you might miss it completely! It follows the Japanese convention of extreme punctuality. On regular buses there are buttons you push to indicate you want to get off at the next stop. Just the other day a toddler on the bus wanted to push the button because it makes a "pin-pon" sound. Her mom and her mom's friend were telling her "Not yet, not yet. After this next stop." It was adorable.
There are also night buses. You can catch one from the more major train stations, and they are really useful for traveling cheaply. The seats are a bit small and leg room is not abundant. If you want to save money, though, the night bus will get you from A to B overnight. If you can sleep on the bus, you don't have to waste any of your adventuring time on sleep. Plus all night buses have a luggage compartment so you don't need to juggle all of your luggage.

 picture: rather blurry picture of a "stop at the next stop" button lit up

2. 電車 (densha, trains) are simply the best
Trains travel right on-time, generally. There are all sorts of deals and passes you can get depending on your status. Japanese students and employees can get commuter passes for one specific route they will take always from home to school, or home to work. There are also cards such as ICOCA (West Japan) and SUICA (East Japan) that you can recharge and touch at the ticket gate, which are more convenient than buying a new paper ticket each time. I'm using an ICOCA card right now.
There are local trains, sub-express trains, and express trains that will take you to different stations. The express trains go faster because they only stop at the more major stations on their route. If you don't check the maps in the stations you may get on a train that goes right past your stop.
There are 優先席 (yuusenseki, priority seats) in most train cars close to the doors, meant for use by expecting mothers, people with injuries, or the elderly. The idea behind them is that anyone can use them, but that you should give them up if you see someone it is intended for get on the train. There is debate about these seats though, because most people think that you should give up any seat on the train is someone who needs it more comes on. I think it's nice that that provision is always available, though.
Also, due to societal problems with 痴漢 (chikan, molesters) on the trains, some lines have installed 女性専用車両 (jyosei senyousharyo) women-only cars that operate during certain hours of the day when trains are crowded or late and night when there might be more drunken misbehavior.

picture: the ground indicator for a waiting place to board a women-only car

3. 新幹線 (shinkansen, bullet trains)
Bullet trains are a bit expensive compared to night buses but VERY quick! They're just fantastic and very comfortable to ride. The seats are wide, leg room is spacious, and you can even swivel your row so the people sitting on the aisle get a great view of the window. They have lavatories that are handicap-accessible and vending machines. These things are the bomb.

Culture note: Punctuality is important in Japan. Americans are more lax. If you are 5 minutes late to an appointment an American is unlikely to care. In Japan, on the other hand, if you aren't 5 minutes early, you're pretty much late. Of course it depends if you are going to a business meeting or just seeing a friend, but the sense of time and punctuality is different.

Anyway, Dave and I rode a couple trains to the station about 20-minutes by foot from our test site. There was a flood of other foreigners that got off at our stop with us. Most appeared to be Korean, although I noticed a number of Chinese and Filipinos as well. There were less Caucasians than I expected, so even in the flood of foreigners walking to the test site I felt like I 目立った (medatta, stood out).

Culture note: In Japanese society standing out is generally kind of a bad thing, because it is group-oriented rather than individualistic. Most Japanese strive to be fairly similar to other Japanese people in style and behavior. So, the verb 目立つ (medatsu, to stand out) has a negative connotation. It seems opposite from the US, where from a young age we are told to appreciate what makes us different from others.

picture: A pizza sandwich Dave bought as a snack at the convenience store Family Mart, I think it's kind of funny. Do you see the tape that says "Family Mart" on the front? Japanese stores will put this tape on an item you buy if you don't want a bag to show you purchased the item.

Dave and I got to the test site in plenty of time. We were both taking the ２級 (2 kyuu, level N2) test. There are 5 JLPT levels, N5 being the easiest and N1 being the most difficult. The test runs about 3 hours and 45 minutes, including a break between the 言語知識 (gengo chishiki, language knowledge) and 聴解 (choukai, listening comprehension) sections. Oddly enough the test does not have a 面接 (mensetsu, interview) or speaking test. Regardless, the test was really difficult. I don't think I passed it, but I did my best, and I will know my result in late August or early September. Then I will have to opportunity to take it again in December (in the USA, thankfully).

Once the test was over Dave and I both avoided standing in a long, foreign line at the station to buy tickets, thanks to our ICOCA cards, yay!

 picture: ICOCA card, look how cute it is with its little platypus mascot!

My friend Yumi's boyfriend Jake was throwing her a surprise birthday party at an 居酒屋 (izakaya, Japanese-style bar) in Kyobashi and was kind enough to invite me. I got to the station very early but had so much trouble finding the izakaya that I asked four people and spent over an hour searching before I found it. Thankfully, I got there early enough to surprise Yumi and pop streamers with her other friends when she arrived! It was great to see her again, and her friends were kind enough to engage me in conversation, both in Japanese and in English.

picture: Yumi with her cakes! She had so many friends there that one cake wasn't enough!

Culture note: One difficult point for being a Japanese-learning foreigner in Japan is that many Japanese learn English in school from a young age, and see your presence as a chance to practice English. It depends on the crowd, but it can be hard to make a good impression if you are really stubborn about speaking only Japanese. The balance can be a difficult one to strike. I usually try to be inviting about others speaking English to me, but then refuse to speak English back, or just speak English a little then switch to Japanese after a little while. I try to make it clear that I want to learn Japanese and practice constantly, but show a willingness to help others with their English in return for their help. So far, that approach seems to work alright, although I selfishly want to not speak English at all. There are also times when people speak full-speed Japanese with some dropped sounds and if I want clarification they immediately think I don't understand their words, and switch to English. So any weakness in listening comprehension can turn into a real handicap.

Travel tips:
10. If you travel you are going to get lost sometimes, so never be embarrassed to ask for directions or get some help. Just be considerate of those helping you and make sure you aren't making them late for an appointment! Japanese people might not be forthcoming that you are inconveniencing them, so you should ask to be sure.

(All names used in this blog are pseudonyms.)

７月４日（土）

Today was a humbling day. It's always good when you're really working on a skill and people are being encouraging to have one day where you're just thrown in the deep end and given a real hard time. It puts things in perspective. The day before my test may not have been the most confidence-inspiring time for this to happen, but I still think it was a good experience.

I met an old friend Hideki at Fuse Station in Higashi-Osaka and he immediately began speaking to me in Japanese the way he would speak to a native Kansai person: very quickly and thick in 関西弁 (kansai-ben, Kansai dialect). Since I studied for a year in the Kansai region, normally the dialect isn't much of a problem for me, but the speed was definitely hard for me to keep up with. Plus, he has a very masculine way of talking, while I have an easier time understanding feminine speech.

There's a lot I might have to explain about what I just said, so bear with me:

1. Kansai-ben
Kansai-ben has sound and word differences from 標準語 (hyoujyungo, standard language). For a sound change example, 会う (au, to meet) sounds more like おう (ou) in Kansai. The あ (ah) sound can be more like お (oh). Endings and expressions can also be different. A well-known difference is the expression そうだ (souda, that's right) actually turns into せいやねん (seiyanen) in Kansai. At the end of a comment in standard language, informally, people will say だよ (dayo) or だね (dane). If you put that in Kansai people will say やで (yade) instead. An example of a word difference is in standard language 自転車 (jitensha) is the word for bicycle, but a lot of Kansai people call bicycles チャリ (chari).

2. Male language vs. female language
I have met Americans with the perception that Japanese is a sexist language. This may indeed be true to some extent, but not always in the way people think. Usually people think words have gender like in some Romance languages such as Spanish and French. In Japanese, words don't have gender, but there are words that only men use, and words only women use. There are also conventions and sound differences in speaking depending on the gender of the person talking.
Word differences can be found in the word for "I." Now the word also varies on level of formality, age of the speaker, and sometimes dialect, but an example could be 僕 (boku, younger male word for "I") and あたし (atashi, younger female word for "I"). The only time you'll hear a woman say "boku" is when she is singing a song. Even some songs written with a female singer in mind will use the word "boku" for "I."
One convention is that the honorific お (o) or ご (go) is more commonly used in female speech. Even when speaking less formally, women are more likely to say お酒 (osake) or お寿司 (osushi) while their male peers will simply say 酒 (sake) or 寿司 (sushi). Women are also likely to speak more formally in general. In my thinking it's a bit sexist, but it is a convention that has remained in the language as it developed through different times when the culture itself was more sexist than it is currently, so I can understand.

That was a bit of a detour, but hopefully an interesting one. Anyway, I had trouble understanding Hideki, and he spent a lot of the time explaining new vocabulary or nuances to me while we were hanging out. Fortunately he was patient and helped me a lot. He seemed sort of surprised by how much trouble I was having, and seriously underestimated the number of years I've spent learning Japanese. That's just life, though. If you're a foreign-language learner you understand: some days your brain works just fine in the other language, other days you feel like you're just mechanically and shoddily translating each thing you want to say in your head.

After walking a while in the rain we decided to sing カラオケ (karaoke) for a couple of hours, a mix of Japanese and English songs. When you go to a karaoke joint in Japan, they give you a private box and you get unlimited soft drink and coffee bar. you can also order alcohol but it gets a bit expensive. It's a lot different from karaoke in the US because you are in a room alone with your friends, and it's usually seen as a stress-reducing activity. In the US you're usually in front of people you don't know, alone, and no one wants to hear you if you're not fairly decent. Fortunately in Japan, it usually doesn't matter if you're a good singer or not, it is just an activity for socializing. You can adjust the volume of your mic and the background music, so if you're really embarrassed you can try to hide your voice. People take turns choosing songs but if other people know the song someone picked they will sing it all together, not just individually. It's a lot of fun.

Maybe it wasn't the best tribute to America, but I sang Surfin' USA by the Beach Boys because it was 独立年日 (dokuritsu nenbi, Independence Day). Masao and Hideki both told me おめでとう (omedetou, congratulations) since it was Independence Day, which I thought was kind of funny.

I came home in the early evening feeling pretty panicked about my test because I'd just had my ass handed back to me in Japanese. All I could do was try to be calm, study a little, and sleep sufficiently.

Travel tips:
8. Scary and discouraging days happen, sometimes at the worst possible time, but you just have to roll with the punches. Don't let failure take your motivation, and don't let shame keep you from trying. Maybe you just had an off day, said something really stupid, or acted in a way inappropriate to the culture and unknowingly offended someone you care about. I've done all of these things, multiple times. It's the hazard of trying to fit in with a culture you didn't grow up in. You're going to fall flat on your face sometimes, but you have to try to forgive yourself and keep your confidence and motivation up in any way you can. Don't avoid putting yourself in scary situations, because if you avoid making mistakes you won't learn and grow. We're all human and we all mess up.
9. Do karaoke in Japan. It's super fun!

(All names used in this blog are pseudonyms.)