アンパンマン (Anpanman) and 携帯電話 (cell phones)

My host family has a little girl who loves Anpanman. I still don't know what that name means or why she loves it, but one weekend I wanted to get a cell phone so I agreed to go along to the Anpanman show they got tickets to on the way to the cell phone store. I remember as a kid there was a puppet show that would visit my elementary school and teach us about friendship and imagination and how to get a gymnasium full of small children to sit down and stop whining for a while, but it was nothing like this. Here's what my youth looked like:

Here's what Japanese children get:

Actually, the show I went to was slightly different.

Look at these adorable costumes. Look. At. Them. The narrator is on the far left, Baikinman is the dark-colored one, and to his right (in the cape) is Anpanman. They're all food-related I think. Whatever. It's a kid's show.

It was about ばいきんマン (Baikinman) being a jerk the whole time and everyone else putting up with him because they're all friends and アンパンマン (Anpanman) is the best. I really don't know what was happening so that's my best guess. No love for Baikinman.

One of the things I could understand was that they taught kids to look both ways before crossing the street and they actually had the kids stand up and yell at Anpanman at one point to give him strength so he could defend himself against Baikinman. Come on, Baikinman. Get it together.

Seriously, Baikinman, what's wrong with you?

And then at the end all of the kids lined up to shake the characters' hands. I mean, it's a cartoon so I guess the kids watch it every day and they grow to love the characters, but man. I was surprised. The kids were super attentive. They were also younger than five years old so maybe all the bright colors and excited voices were more than enough to keep them engaged. I was also the only foreigner there, too, so I was really glad I was there with a parent so it looked like I was maybe helping her babysit rather than just being a random Westerner with a weird taste in animation. Who am I kidding, we're all random Westerners with a weird taste in something.

Afterwards we tried some free samples of food that were outside and had the girl "win" some food through rock-paper-scissors (the mom whispered to the employee that the girl only played paper and we paid for it anyway). I mean, I bet I would've had lots of fun if I were that age. It was at least interesting to see. I might actually start watching the show since it's basically at the level of Japanese I can understand (if not higher).

So then we drove over to the nearest mall, where we had wandered around a bit before we went to the show (and where we only found one store with a Japanese name between places like Ralph Lauren and Nike) and stepped into the Softbank store. Softbank is one of the cell phone companies here and they did a presentation at my school so I already knew their prices and that they had prepaid phones for people like me who wouldn't stay in the country more than a year. When we got there, though, we had the employee call at least four other stores, and none of them had the prepaid phones in stock. The store closest to my school did, however, which was a d'uh moment for me, although I was trying to avoid going there because the line seemed so long at the beginning of the semester.

The only problem with Japanese cell phones, at least the one I have, is that, even though you can change the settings to English, when you type there is no "space" key so you have to dig through a list of punctuation marks every time you write a sentence. That's all the more reason to default to Japanese, but I figured out how to switch between languages while typing rather than changing the phone's language settings every time I want to use both Japanese and English. Yeah, I'm supposed to be using Japanese as much as possible, but with the vocabulary and knowledge of grammar that I have at the moment it's not exactly fluid. I might've told some people before I left that I was "conversational". That was a lie. Actually, sometimes I'm not even conversational in English. Life is hard.

So I don't end on a sour note I'm just going to add a view of my walk to campus. It was cloudy when I went today, but somehow the mountains always look so green and fresh to me. Then there's a river I walk along which I want to study by one day because even though it's near the train station and cars always pass by and other students chat with their friends on their way to school, the sound of water is so soothing and it looks so clean I feel like I could dip my feet in there on a really hot day and read a book for a few hours. Near where I live in the U.S. there's a river I can walk to but I wouldn't necessarily want to stick any part of my body in there.

You guys, I love mountains. I don't think these are even tall enough to be mountains but I love them.

The only problem here would be mosquitoes, which don't seem to bite me as much as they did back home (maybe there are less of them here?) but somehow they always go for the strangest, least expected places. My friend was bitten under her toe. I always get them between my knuckles and, even worse, under my knee. My mom once told me that hand sanitizer takes the itch away so I've been carrying a travel-size bottle around religiously. It really works! Thanks, Mom!

恥の朝ごはん (lit. "Breakfast of shame")

This right here.

Alright, so if you're pretty familiar with me, you know I don't eat a lot. Yeah, I'm skinny, and my weight's hovered around the same mark since high school. I haven't really changed my diet much, either. So now that I'm in a totally new environment, with different foods and proportions, it's understandable that it'll take some time for me to get used to it. On the other hand, someone who doesn't know me might take one look and worry that I'm not eating enough (note: I'm within the healthy weight range, according to my doctor. Maybe the fat all goes to my brain). I think that was the situation I faced with my host family: they wanted to feed me because they thought I wasn't eating well. It makes sense, since usually people will find it hard to sleep or eat if they're facing a huge life change like traveling thousands of miles across the world. Thing is, I slept really well up to the night before I left, and kept eating the same things as usual, so when I arrived I couldn't handle the sudden influx.

Since then it's become better. My host family will ask what amount I think I can handle, especially of rice (that stuff is filling!). But before that point I would feel really bad about not finishing the food, even more so when I was told that rice holds a special significance to Japanese people and that, out of courtesy, I should at least finish the rice bowl, if not anything else. I have to really thank my host family for explaining it to me in as understanding a way as they did, plus continuing to handle all of my nuisances (I can't slurp soup or noodles! I make a big mess because I still can't use chopsticks correctly! Sometimes I need a fork anyway!). On one night, since I had so much left over I suggested that maybe I could finish it the next morning, so my host mother showed me how to use the microwave and set it out for me before she left for work. I ate it alone, in the dark, since I couldn't work the lights, as quietly as I could. That was not a good day for me.

I do have to mention that the food tastes fantastic. Don't think I didn't like the food that was leftover: it was curry udon. I've been told that in the Kanto region people will make curry rice two nights in a row, but in Kansai they will use the leftover curry from the first night to make udon. Man. Is. It. Good. Then there was a fried potato I had only eaten half of and my host mother threw in an onigiri, which are always fabulous. Every night has been something different, as far as I can tell (but always with a bowl of rice), and in the mornings I usually default to toast because I need something familiar once in a while. People, if you haven't tasted the seafood of Japan... just do it. Just hop on over here and grab a bite. I haven't even tasted takoyaki and I'm already hooked. The only thing I wouldn't recommend is natto, although one of my French classmates thinks it's utterly delicious so at least try it once.

If you've been told that prices are much higher here than in the US, you've been lied to. It really depends, though; go to a regular grocery store and you'll find ingredients for Japanese cuisine for cheap. If you want to make American food items, though, you might have a harder time. Vending machines dispense 100-yen ($1) coffee, juice, soda, and beer. I don't drink alcohol, but one of my classmates was talking about a 1000-yen ($10) all-you-can-drink bar, probably only at certain times but still. Whereas a complete meal at my home university would be around $6-8, on the campus here it would be $4-6, but usually I spend more like $2-3 because I'm cheap and, like I said, the rice is plenty filling. Today I walked around the neighborhood and found a few cute little shops, plus one sweet lady who coerced me into buying an apple for 50 yen (about $.50, but I could've had 5 for 100 yen so maybe I'll go back later and stock up for the week's lunches!) and a cafe where I got a chocolate croissant for about 120 yen. It's really nice to just walk around, and today's weather was fantastic. Yeah, I feel pretty good. It feels like that "breakfast of shame" was a whole week ago...

Airport Adventures! (And How I Got Here)

Alright, let me try to break down my trip. It went something like this: drive to the airport around 7 in the morning (~30 mins), take the first flight to connect in Chicago (~2 hours), take another flight to Narita in Tokyo (~12 hours), one last flight to Itami near Osaka (~2 hours), a bus between Itami and Kansai International (~1 hour), and a free shuttle to the hotel where I would stay with members of my school program (~15 mins). I think I was experiencing too much stimulation to realize what was going on most of the time. I do remember almost missing the bus between airports because I misread a sign and the driver ushering me and another student to board because they had to "keep schedule".

And then the driver of the hotel shuttle maneuvered around town like a pro. Who needs red lights and stop signs, anyway?

I almost believed I had some skill in Japanese when I asked a woman working at the airport where the buses to Kansai International were and could follow her directions, but, as you'll later find out (if I find the time to write about it) I was quickly humbled by, well, everyone. Still, the whole trip was pretty uneventful. Sure, one or two of the flights were slightly delayed, but I bought tickets that gave me 2 hours at each airport so I didn't have much to worry about. You see, I'm a severe worrywart; I even looked up the timetables and locations of the buses I would use at least a week before I departed. I triple-checked my luggage allowance and weighed my suitcase several times before I could go to sleep the day before the first flight would leave. Better safe than sorry, right? (Apparently I was right on the mark, weight-wise. Go me!)

I was really grateful to have someone to talk to (hi, Teresa from the Philippines!) and some English movies and shows to watch on the international flight. That mood of familiarity would quickly dissolve once I arrived in Narita, especially when I had to check into customs. Since they split everyone into Japanese and non-Japanese at that point I could tell this was the start of my "outsider" experience. From then on I thought, "Well, at least for a week I'll let myself speak in English a bit, just so there's no confusion for important stuff like registering my address and getting to the right accommodation." Aaand a week has passed. Welp.

Before I forget, I wanted to share a picture of something very Japanese: food previews. I don't mean the nice Photoshopped pictures you see on menus, I mean full-scale, looks-good-enough-to-eat plastic models that look like the ones below. This display was at the airport, but at a lot of different restaurants you'll find these. I guess it helps you estimate the portion size rather than guessing by the picture, but it seems a little overkill for me. The one place I found it very useful was at an ice cream shop where it showed the inside of a crepe so you know what ingredients are inside; for foreigners who can't speak the language very well I guess this could be really convenient if there's a food you don't like or are allergic to.

It may be plastic, but I still want to eat it.

Is it a 鳥? Is it a 飛行機? Or is it...

SuuPaa, as in "supermarket", also refers to the shortened form of "Super Pat", which is me. I'm super. I just flew to a country I've never been before and decided to live here for 10 months. That either takes someone extremely courageous or extremely crazy. (Maybe both?)

"Chan" would be the affectionate or familiar suffix one would add to a name in Japanese, usually for girls or babies. That's right: the country in question is Japan. Why? It'll make more sense as I go, I think, rather than spelling it all out upfront. In any case, Paa-chan was the nickname given to me in Japanese class (because Patricia was too long and the usual "Pat" or "Trish" would be too hard to pronounce).
(Update: the meaning of "paa" isn't very flattering, it turns out. Was laughed at by my teacher. He's a cool guy though. Anyway, I'll stick to Pat.)

Unfortunately, I haven't proven myself to be so "super" during my time here. For one, I can't seem to be able to finish a meal, whether that's because of remaining jet lag or unfamiliarity with the food or my inadequacy with chopsticks that causes me to eat half as quickly as everyone else and fools my stomach into thinking I ate just as much. With a fork you can just go ahead and shovel it all in, but with chopsticks there's only so much you can pick up in one go, at least for an amateur like me.

Another unwanted surprise came as soon as it came to actual conversation. And here I thought I did well in class! It turns out that, outside the classroom setting, even the vocabulary I know by heart is immediately rendered undecipherable. What? Crab? Club? Grab? Nani?? When you're living on your own in a place where your native language isn't spoken it's imperative that you grow accustomed to common phrases. My host mother has had to translate her own words into English every day since I've been here. I'm sorry, family back home: I bring dishonor unto thee. But let's be honest, I have 10 months; there's no way I'm going to keep bumbling around like a fool until the last day. Right? Eh? Anyone?

I am, indeed, in Japan. For real.

The garbage truck here sounds like an ice cream truck. I looked out the window one day when I heard the familiar chimes before I quickly realized an ice cream truck wouldn't make sense so early in the morning, for one, and squeezed between the narrow streets of the neighborhood, for another. That's probably the one disappointment I've had so far. Everything else has been pretty amazing: from a typhoon that arrived the day after I did to the views (I can see a mountain from my house!) to the food, which, although delicious!, has been far too much for me. I cannot understand how some people think the Japanese diet is small. Maybe it's just more filling?

I've learned to say "いっぱい" (ippai) to describe nearly everything. My stomach is full of food. The hallway is full of people. My life is full of confusion (pfft, as if I knew how to say that in Japanese). One thing is for sure: my experience here will be full of lifelong lessons. There will be disappointment. There will be heartbreak. Mostly, there will be ample opportunity to grow into someone who doesn't shy away from difficulty.

スーパー ちゃん, Go!