Day 17: Birthday

Today for my birthday, I went to Umeda to celebrate instead of Namba.

 

Many thanks to E, who did her best to make sure today would be awesome, and our group. :)

(And yes, I took a picture of the polaroid. Me no have scanner.)

I also finally got a phone today and for the first time in my life, I have texting. And it's unlimited. Abusive use is in the foreseeable future.

I also was looking to buy an electronic dictionary but all the decent ones were extremely expensive. I have a friend who uses an iTouch and uses an application that basically serves as an Japanese-English dictionary. I weighed my options and as the iTouch is significantly cheaper than most of the electronic dictionaries available...I bought the iTouch. \O.O/ 

I don't know how I'm going to tell my parents. 

Thank freaking God for my scholarship.

Day 16

Tonight I went to a welcoming party held by Bisky, a international circle at school. If this party was an accurate representation of what all young people parties in Japan are like, then I think Western party lovers will be pretty disappointed. Maybe people weren't drunk enough? Hahaha. :P

Yesterday when I went to Namba, we stopped at a Starbucks to get some coffee. I didn't know there was a short size! Apparently, American Starbucks have them too but it's just not on the menu. They're super cute and perfect for someone like me who likes to drink hot coffee slowly.

 

ETA: I forgot to mention, the train stations late at night is sooo much more interesting than during the day. You get to see groups of middle aged men in suits making constipated faces while trying to walk in a straight line and yelling really loudly. I watched a group of three businessmen in particular zigzag down a corridor while conversing with each other, not in Japanese, but what I'm pretty sure was gurgling. And on the bus, there were these two guys slumped in their seats completely knocked out. I felt bad for them though because it would be horrible if they woke up, only to realize that they had missed their stop five bus stops ago. 

And everyone has Asian glow. It's fantastic.

Day 15: Hosts in Namba

I went to Namba today with some friends. Some quick info: Namba is a famous entertainment district in Osaka. Popular for shopping, bars, karaoke, restaurants, etc.

Anyways, while we were there, I spotted a buttload of hosts!

They're extremely easy to spot. They usually have dyed styled hair and wear a lot of designer brand clothes and accessories. Our fellow host to the left was sporting a Hermes belt and carrying a Louis Vuitton briefcase/bag/thing.

There's this bridge where groups of hosts hang around trying to pick up girls. And I actually spotted one in action. 

I later saw this same guy walking down the street in the direction opposite us when he suddenly swerved around and started to walk alongside this girl and tried to talk to her. I think it's safe to assume that he spotted her as a potential customer. 

I'm going to Namba again this weekend so I'm going to try to take more pictures of hosts because some of them look pretty hilarious/ridiculous.

Day 13 & 14

I forgot to post yesterday. Haha oops, sorry. I'm pretty beat when I come back from school so usually the moment I come home, my brain plans out how's the quickest way I can get to bed.

Here are the zoo pictures:

 Yeah. There were penguins swimming. In the fountain. In the front lobby. I don't know what to think of it.

 We were taking a "safari tour" and the old ladies behind were laughing, saying that the bear was relaxing in an onsen.

Chilling like a villain. 

You could walk up to the flamingos and feed them. Crazy. And that big one in the background. It was huge. Almost as tall as me.

It's a baby polar bear. SO CUTE.

 

The pandas were easily the park's main attraction. Evident by the gazillion panda souvenirs that were everywhere.

I'll post the rest of the pictures on Facebook some time later.

Day 12: Himeji and stuff

I got the photos from my friend. There's quite a bit of them so I'm just going to post some here and the rest on Facebook.

After the castle, we went to Kokoen park, which was very pretty. My friend, E, and I are planning to come again in the fall because the picture in the brochure was supppperrr gorgeous.

 

We also went to the longest suspension bridge in the world (?).

 

 It's harder to enjoy when you're freezing your ass off.

I posted a lot of pictures here so the zoo details/pics will be in tomorrow's post, promise. 

Today I picked up half of my scholarship money for this month 'cos it's way more cash than I'm comfortable carrying around. I went to the mall afterward to shop for a few school supplies as well as some presents for upcoming birthdays. Japanese clothing really confuses me. I don't understand the sizing system. What is size F?? Right now I'm guessing...one size? (ETA: Kay, I asked E (who's Korean, FYI) and she confirmed it meant free size/one size). Also, I thought their sizing system was the standard S, M, L but everywhere I went there were NO size S. 

Me no comprehendo.

I walked around 3 stories for about 2.5 hours wondering what happened to all the size smalls. At the beginning, I found something really nice but it was only in size M. It wasn't 'til near the end of my shopping fiasco that I started to noticed that these size M's look like they could fit me. It was THEN when it occurred to me that maybe size M was the smallest size. So I started running around the mall, looking for that store again, quickly coming to the realization that...I couldn't remember what store it was. Memory, how could you fail me when I'm shopping, of ALL things.

After all that "shopping", I was too pooped to do the exploring in my neighborhood that I had planned to do and just went straight home. I bought a little plastic container to hold my tape, stapler, and etc. though. 

One last thing, I filled out the form to set up my bank account today and was told that it wouldn't be ready until next week. It's a little unnerving because it means I have to wait another week to buy a cellphone, which my lack thereof is starting to grow increasingly inconvenient.

Day 10 & 11

I'm pretty knackered so I'm going to keep this post as brief as possible, despite having a bit of material to cover.

First off, Himeji Castle. I'm getting the photos from my friend tomorrow so I'll post them up and talk about the trip tomorrow.

This weekend, my host family took me to Shirahama. It was very windy. And very cold.

This is the beach outside our hotel. I've never seen the water sooo blue~ Pity the weather was freezing.

We also went to look at the cherry blossoms. See all the pink? All cherry blossom trees.

This weekend also marks the first time I've went to an onsen, which is basically a public bath where you strip down to your birthday suit and bathe amongst your fellow 50 year-olds. Kay, they weren't all 50, but that doesn't make it any less a terrifying experience. I don't even think my own mother has seen me bare all since I was a kid. Now, my host mother and sister, who I've only known a week, and 20 other fine female strangers (and their children) can confirm that without any undergarment assistance and visual trickery that clothes can provide, that my ass is undeniably bigger than my bewbs in astronomical proportions.

Honestly though, once you see everyone strip down without a thought, it's pretty easy to get over yourself and do the same (it was for me, anyways). It was really, a very interesting experience. Earlier tonight, my host mother told me that they (my host family) love onsens. It made me shrink in my seat a little, but since I survived the first time, I feel like I can do it again. Huh. Wasn't I more self-conscious that this?? Maybe it's easier because it's amongst strangers, and so for me, their opinions matter less. 

 

Post-onsen.

Dinner at the hotel was a 10-course meal in a big tatami room. It was a very pretty meal that was very photo-worthy, and in a last minute decision before going to dinner, I didn't bring my camera. From now on, whenever in doubt, always, always bring the camera! So I did for breakfast, but it didn't look as great as dinner did.

 

On Sunday (today), we went to a zoo/amusement park called Adventure World. I'll post photos and details tomorrow. Last day of orientation is tomorrow and I have to wake up at 7am. Good night, everyone.

Day 9

We went to Himeji Castle today but my camera ran out of battery so I only have a few pics. Fortunately, my friend took a lot of pictures with her nicer camera so I'll post some of those up once I get them from her.

So I'll leave you with this photo of Naga, the family dog. Who sleeps like this:

We're leaving for Shirihama tomorrow morning so I'll see you Sunday.

Mmkay, I shall relent. Here's some sneak peeks on the Himeji photos: