Sunday, November 28, 2010

Day 244

 

I've been seeing commercials for these things everywhere. Home television sets in 3D! They have these little 3D glasses for you to take a look as well, and after five minutes, my eyes started to hurt. They're really milking this 3D gimmick for all it's worth. I've seen commercials for 3D computer screens as well.



Saturday, November 27, 2010

Day 243: USJ Christmas

Yesterday I went to Universal Studios Japan with a group of friends, mostly to see all the Christmas decorations as Christmas is my favorite time of the year.

Last time I went to USJ, I failed to get a photo with the Cookie Monster, Elmo, and co. as their shift was ending and were seriously sprinting away from everyone. This time I managed to catch the group of Sesame Street Monsters, but of course, there was a huge group of people. It would take too much time to try and get a picture with everyone so I just focused on getting a photo with my favorite Monster.

 

This little girl seriously cockblocked me. She went up to him and asked in the cutest voice ever, "Cookie Monster, can I take a picture with you?" Holy crap, she even won me over.

 

But I got a photo with my Monster in the end. :)



Thursday, November 25, 2010

Day 240

 

I'm not sure if you can tell, but those are all Harry Potter posters hanging up and down the ceiling of the Umeda train station. 

But I just watched Harry Potter movie last night and it was great fun. An interesting tidbit about movie watching in Japan. So there are a good number of restaurants and recreational places that offers a "Ladies" discount price, the movie theaters being one of them. The standard movie admission ticket is an ridiculous 1800 yen ($21.50 USD), but usually every Wednesday is "Ladies' Day" where if you're a lady, an admission ticket costs 1000 yen ($11.95 USD). I usually don't worry too much about trying to schedule watching movies on Wednesday since there's a movie theater chain that offers a foreign student discount of the same amount, and is also applicable any day of the week. 

However, sometimes when I go to watch the movies with Nick, I'll get a Ladies' Day ticket and a foreign student ticket, give Nick the foreign student ticket, and use the Ladies' Day ticket for myself. However, for Harry Potter, the best time slot ended up being at another theater where I wasn't sure if they had a foreign student discount or not. I went to the theater in the morning to buy the tickets and when I went to the counter to ask, the staff member just started saying since it was Ladies' Day that I should just buy that ticket. I got annoyed and was about to be late for class so I just told her to give me two Ladies' Day tickets. 

So now we had the problem of how to get Nick into the theater with a Ladies' Day ticket since I wasn't sure how closely they would check our tickets. So what did we end up doing? While walking up to the movie staff and giving them our tickets, talked loudly in English as to distract and intimidate them from confronting us. 

And yes, it worked.

Mom, Dad, aren't you proud of me?


By the by, wasn't the animated sequence of the Three Brothers, beautifully awesome? Useless tidbit: the guy who directed that sequence is Swiss animation director Ben Hibon, and just recently signed to direct a Peter Pan remake.


Monday, November 22, 2010

Day 238

 

How Juso celebrates the upcoming Christmas season. It looks a bit better at night when they turn on the lights, but it still looks pretty ghetto. :P


  

And about 5 minute train ride from Juso is HEP5, a popular swanky shopping mall in Umeda. In front of the mall was this beautiful Christmas setup. 

Sigh. Poor Juso. 


Saturday, November 13, 2010

Day 229




Sigh. Oh, messy desk. My Grammar midterm is coming up this Friday. I've been having a bit more trouble wrapping my head around the grammar as of late so I'm studying way more in advance than I usually would have. 

And yes, that's Lord of the Rings playing on my computer. Fellowship of the Ring, if you're curious. :D


Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Day 224

 

The night I took this photo I was waiting for my friend on the Dotonbori bridge. I think I made a post around the time I came to Japan how there are a lot of hosts that stand around on this bridge hoping to pick up customers. While I was waiting, this young guy walked up to me and started to talk to me. He only managed to say 3 words before I freaked and bolted to the other side of the bridge. I knew he wasn't an izakaya employee trying to get customers because they usually are holding menus and this guy wasn't carrying anything in his hands. He was just standing there, kind of watching people, which is actually what hosts that frequent the bridge do, except this guy didn't look like one. My friend came up to me a few minutes later and I pointed the creepy guy out to him. He took a look at the guy and deadpanned, "Maybe he's a cheap host."

I punch him rawr.


Thursday, November 4, 2010

Day 219

 
Last weekend, my host family took me to a famous onsen that was actually the model for the onsen in the Hayao Miyazaki film, Spirited Away. It was an over six hour drive. Still haven't decided if it was worth it.



Monday, October 25, 2010

Day 209

 
Went to a ramen shop in Namba that Wentworth Miller ate at. I remember when Prison Break first broadcast and how diligently I watched it. Until it got weird second season.



Saturday, October 23, 2010

Day 208

 
My host family took me to an onsen up a mountain called Koyasan. Worst car drive ever. The road was so windy and steep, I wanted to throw up. 

 

Friday, October 22, 2010

Day 207

Yikes, it's been a while since my last update. :[ It's been really difficult trying to find the motivation to consistently update this blog and I've finally realized why. Every time I update, I feel the need to write long, somewhat in-depth blog entries with many photos. While that in itself was fun in the beginning, now I see it as something that takes up a lot of time and is actually quite tiring. And to be more honest, I'm getting bored with it.

So in an effort to provide more regular updates, I'm going to try to significantly decrease the content of each future entry. It'll be less content, but at least I'll be posting more often. That's the hope anyways. I'll try to add a witty comment or two so the entries don't become too disappointing.

So in keeping with this new plan, I'm going to continue and finish the Gifu post with just a photo. Although, I think it pretty much represents the highlight of the trip.

 
I ate dinner on a boat. What up.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Day 186: Gifu

It's been two weeks since school started up again for fall semester. While it's nice to get out of the house and be a little productive, it makes me sad that I have to relegate my days of rolling-around-in-bed-doing-nothing to the weekends.

Shortly after I came back from Korea, my host family took me on a two-day trip to Gifu.

 
There are these soumen restaurants where the noodles float down these chutes and you catch with your chopsticks. I believe that in Kyoto they have these long bamboo chutes where you catch the noodles from.



 Some time ago in Himeji, we went to a soumen restaurant where you got your own water-jetting plastic chute thingy. 


There was also this place where you can fish from a pond, and for the fish you catch, you gut it and grill it yourself. 

 
The fish I caught!


 
My host dad grilled it.


 
My host brother eating the fruits of my labor.


 
There's also a shop that's famous for making fake food, like the ones you see on display outside of restaurants.

 
They also have a small workshop where you can make your own fake food.

 
And make it into a cellphone strap.


Part 2 coming in next post.


Monday, September 20, 2010

Day 174: First Baseball Game

While I was in Korea, I went to my first baseball game with a few friends. It was surprisingly a lot of fun. Although it wasn't the actual game itself that was fun, but the cheering and chanting which I'll get into later.


 


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The side we were sitting on was for the LG team. A sea of red. 
 

 
Almost everyone has these big balloon sticks and this one group was carrying a whole box of them. There were quite of few people still in work wear (like above) and came in big groups, so I'm assuming they were on company outings. 


Each team had a some sort of head cheerleader. It seems like the major part of games is the audience participation. Each player has their own song (which were popular songs tweaked to incorporate the respective player) so when they go up to bat, the song is played and the head cheerleader guy leads everyone into the song and the gestures that go with it. There are also songs/chants when there are hits, homeruns, etc. Everyone participates and are really into it so makes the whole atmosphere very infectious. I was throwing my hands in the air and chanting/singing along with everyone even though I had no idea what I was saying.

 
 
This head cheerleader guy was incredible. I was waiting for this guy's voice to give out. 

Another interesting part of these games were the girls in skimpy outfits. I think in the States, the ball boys are usually middle school/high school kids, right? Or usually they're younger dudes, I think? Well the "ball boys" here were girls (probably late teens, early 20s) in belly shirts and teeny tiny shorts. 


 


 
And the girl cheerleaders.

 

This guy was hilarious. He was so into it, bellowing out all the chants and songs. And every time the cheerleaders came up on the stage behind us to dance, he would go, "OOOOOH!!"



 
Breakdancing mascots.

 

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Day 166: Lotte World

I mostly got around Seoul using the train and occasionally bus. The taxis here are suppose to be ridiculously cheap, but since the train and bus are cheaper, I didn't get around to riding the taxis.

 

Anyway, I went to Lotte World with some friends, which is an indoor and outdoor amusement park in Seoul. It was pretty hot that day so we spent a good amount of time indoors. 


 
There was a model of the Trevi Fountain at the station.

 
 



 
It took me a moment to remember, but this is the ice rink they filmed some scenes for the Korean drama, Full House with Rain and Song Hye Gyo.


 



 
Where we waited in line, there were these kinds of writings all over the walls. I know the lines are long, but vandalism much?



 



 
If anything, the one thing I have to complain about Korea are the couples that come en masse everywhere I go. And they try to match too. It's like they somehow figured out what the last thing I wanted to see was and decided to shove it into my face, Costco-sized. 


 
Afterward, we went to a Korean barbecue place. ...It looks just like the ones I see in the dramas! :D






 
Every meal I had in Korea, there was always a lot of side dishes. No complaints though 'cos I love kimchi. :)



 
Sigh. Yum.



 
And of course, soju. And as all alcoholic beverages do (to me, at least), it tasted nasty.
 


Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Day 162: Korea - Arrival

Ever since I got back from Korea, I've only gone outside a handful of times. The weather's consistently been low-90s to mid-90s and every time I come back from outside, I'm a disgusting sweaty mess. So I've been huddled in my room sitting under the air conditioner. My host mom and dad have called me a hibernating bear since I've barely gone out. I'm going out tomorrow to run some errands. The bear is crying.


 

After I arrived in Korea, I had to take the airport bus from the airport and get off at the station close to my friend's house. I was suppose to get off at Sadang station but once I got on the bus, I realized that I wouldn't know which station was Sadang. I was going to rely on any signs in English but when the bus reached its first stop, I couldn't see any English signs. So I turned to the lady sitting next to me, pointed to outside and said, "...Sadang?" Add nervous laughter.

The lady first spoke to me in Korean. After I gave indication that I couldn't understand her (more nervous laughter and head shaking), she then spoke to me in Japanese. Being that Korea, Seoul in particular, is a popular traveling spot for Japanese tourists (especially after the Korean Wave), I wasn't too surprised. And then, she said something that I didn't understand. After I went, "Huh?", she then spoke to me in English. Then I was surprised.

She told me it wasn't Sadang yet; later when it turned out that she was getting off before me, she talked to the guy next to her and told me that he was getting off at Sadang as well, and she had asked him to tell me when the bus came to the right stop. When we reached Sadang, the guy gestured me to follow him to the front of the bus and asked me where my duffel bag was. I pointed to it and was about to reach for it when he grabbed it and carried it off the bus for me. At that moment, after coming back from the rude-fest that was Shanghai, I thought, "Holy crap, Koreans are hella nice!"

However, later that week when I met up with some friends and relayed this story back to them, they told me that actually wasn't the case and that I was just really lucky. Ha.


 
My first meal in Korea.
 
I 
I thought this was amusing because I never saw someone eating on the job before, especially at a restaurant. 


I went to Lotte World, an amusement park in Seoul, with some friends from UoP a couple days later but I have a lot of photos from that day so I'll put them up next post. 

Before I finish, there was something amusing that happened in all my trips (or just my stay here in Asia) that I thought I'd share. When I was in Singapore, Shanghai, and Seoul, everyone assumed I was a local, and I still get it now here in Japan. Even back in the States, people normally assumed I was (and I swear it's in this order almost every time) Chinese, Japanese, and then Korean. Even Vietnamese people don't always get it right. When I first met one of my friends, she did a double-take when she overheard me talking to my mom on the phone, and later told me, "Yeah, I was thinking, how is this girl speaking my language??" While I was traveling, after realizing I wasn't a local, people's next go-to would be Japanese, and then blank stare. 

Back home, it never really bothered me how people kept confusing my ethnicity; since there are so many different Asians around, I could understand how it could be confusing. In fact, I actually take some pride in being able to identify who's who. But once I got to Asia, as naive and ignorant as it was, I guess I just assumed that the locals would be able to identify their own. Which actually brings me to another story.

When I was at the Expo, I was going around the little shop stalls they had in the African Pavilion and was surprised and delighted to hear the African shopkeepers speaking Chinese fluently. Even the Chinese were getting a huge kick out of it, going up to talk to them just to hear them say hi. Anyway, I was looking at some jewelry when a shopkeeper started talking to me in Chinese:

Me: I'm sorry, I can't speak Chinese.
Shopkeeper: You can't speak Chinese.
Me: Yeah, I'm not Chinese.
Shopkeeper: Why can't you speak Chinese?
Me:...Because I'm not Chinese. I'm American. 

I later came back to his stall again and he prodded me some more.

Shopkeeper: How come you don't want to study Chinese?
Me: ...Er, well, I'm not Chinese. I'm Vietnamese-American. 
Shopkeeper: But why do you not want to study Chinese?
Me: Wha- I'm not Chinese! I'm Vietnamese.
 
He then gave me this look like he didn't believe me, and I thought, 'Why would I lie??'

I remember in my Cross-Cultural Training class, they told us about the concept of Visibility and Invisibility when people go abroad. The concept being basically that if you're a Caucasian staying in an Asian country, you'll never quite blend in (Visible). On the other hand, if you look Asian and are staying in an Asian country, you'll blend in quite well (Invisible). It was naive of me to think otherwise, but it seems like no matter where I am in Asia, I'll always be invisible. But I've always thought some Asian countries have very distinct physical features (i.e. when someone says, "She has a very Korean face."), with there being exceptions of course. I guess I just have a rather ambiguous Asian face? 


Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Day 155: Expo

I got back from Korea on the 26th and my host family took me to Gifu for the weekend right after. After getting back from Gifu, I took the next couple of days to rest (read: vegetate and roll around in my bed) since all the traveling really exhausted me.

Anyways, I'm back but before I go into my Korea trip, I thought I should finish up on Shanghai by talking about the World Expo.

For those of you who don't know, the World Expo is like a huge fair where countries from all over the world build pavilions that represent their respective countries.


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There was a crapload of people. There's no doubting that it was at the Expo that I really felt the impact of China's overpopulation. I did not appreciate it. Do people here not go to work?


 
 Australia.


 
Sweden.

 
 
Germany.


 
 
Russia.


 
 
China and Macao (the rabbit).



 
Vietnam.


 
 
South Korea.



 
Japan.


 
 
Saudi Arabia.


 
 
Morocco.


I didn't go into most of the big ones since the lines for them were absolutely ridiculous. The longest line was undoubtedly for the Saudi Arabian Pavilion. I believe they spent the most money on theirs so I guess everyone wanted to go see what they paid so much for. When I got there, the wait time was six hours. I heard there were days when it was ten.  Honestly, do these people not have jobs? 

Probably the biggest pavilion I was able to get into was France's, because if you eat at their restaurant (which was pricey), you can cut in front of the line. At night since there were less people (but the lines to get into Saudi Arabia and Japan were still three hours), I was able to get into the United Arab Emirates Pavilion. 

To be honest, as interesting of an experience as it was, I don't think I'd go to another World Expo. The entire event felt like one huge glamorized advertisement where countries try to show themselves off in hopes of boosting their tourism. This was especially flagrant when I went into the UAE Pavilion. After going inside, it was mostly them showing us a series of movies, which were honestly just really long commercials with camera-swooping cinematography and loud majestic music. Yes, I get it. Dubai has very pretty hotels. Thank you for reminding me that I will never be able to afford to go there. Unless they have a Motel 6 or Holiday Inn. 

I wouldn't say going to the Expo was a waste though because the one thing I really liked was the innovative and in most cases, amusing (Macao) architecture of the pavilions. I think my favorite was Morocco because of its simplicity; to me, it was just breathtaking, especially when I got inside.

Okay, I'm ending this post now because I really have to pee. I'll talk about Korea next time.