Korea! The first 24+ hour day

Hey guys! To say today has been weird is a bit of an understatement. Yesterday, aka Thursday, I went to the airport at the buttcrack of dawn to start my journey to Asia! There was nothing terribly special about my first flight, which was from Dulles to San Francisco. From there I hopped on a plane to Seoul. Let me tell you, when they say Airbus, they mean Airbus. There were so many people on the plane! I prayed that I would get to sit next to a cute oppa but I guess God had better things to do because I was sitting next to an ajhussi (older man) who smelled like car tires and kept reaching over to imperiously open the shade on the window. He also was taking pictures of the guy sitting on the other side of him without that guy knowing. So, creepy. 

(Dulles Airport's architecture is AWESOME.)

(Classy airplane wine. Complimentary!)

I made it safely into Seoul and managed to find an ATM too! I'm still getting used to won-- one dollar is 1,016 won, give or take, so I've offered people 10 times what I owed them twice now, since I'm convinced that 10,000 won is about 1 dollar. I tried to pay for my 4,000 won soup with 40,000 won and the nice lady was like "yeah, no, little girl." Also while putting my new currency in my wallet I took out the 1,000 yen in there. Some dude saw it and just kept saying "Watashi" at me, which is "I/me" in Japanese. Needless to say I got out of there fast.

(Korean won)

Now I am currently ensconced in my hostel, which is in Hongdae, the artsy/college-y/hip district in Seoul. Walking through the neighborhood was pretty neat and I ventured out for some dinner at a place that had an English menu. Here is my dinner, spicy seafood ramyun (ramen).

Eating with metal chopsticks is a lot harder than it looks, since these were slightly flattened. (FYI I do know how to use chopsticks). I then headed to the nearby convenience store, to get some more to eat since my ramen was a little too spicy. I also had the dumb idea of picking up eye makeup remover even though I don't speak or read Korean. So, that was a basic fail. I did however pick up: SNACKS! Got some dried squid, which was delicious if a bit sweeter than the kind I'm used to (I'm a snob) and THIS 

... Which was my guilty pleasure in Japan. It's like the ice cream version of taiyaki-- waffle outside, vanilla ice cream and red bean. Red bean is delicious, if an acquired taste. Here I am pigging out on this. 

I also got mystery tea that tastes like bread. My guess was terrible, I was hoping for oolong. 

And now I might be going out with some new hostel friends! 

Byeee

Oh hey there.

Hello everyone. I'm pretty sure anyone has long since given up on checking this blog, since I updated it about 7 times in the 10 months I was in Japan (that's about once a month... right?) but I just found this again and I want to try and go back and tell stories from Japan. Partially because I feel like you guys got cheated, but a large part is because I really, really miss Japan. Not to say that being in America again with all my friends isn't amazing, but I find myself daydreaming about my life last year almost once a day. So this is in large part for me.

Anyhoo, a picture. I'm going to try and pick a story a week and write it up and include pictures from each one, so stay tuned!

eating pizza with chopsticks!

Princess for a Day. Well, 20 minutes.

Hello!

So I realize that I have about a month's worth of stuff to tell you guys about... actually, make that two months since my two month anniversary with Japan was on Sunday, but in order for you to actually have something to read I'll be posting non-chronologically about the various trips and weekend activities that I've participated in (or initiated!) Usually my weekdays, aka the days I have classes, aka Tuesday through Thursday, are really blah, with Tuesday being the worse. However, this particular Tuesday　（yesterday) was different because I was a princess or 姫様 for about 20 minutes yesterday.

On Tuesdays I take a class called 日本事情, or Japanese Culture and Affairs, and yesterday we took a field trip (修学旅行) to a museum in Fukui. Now, this doesn't sound like the beginning of an exciting story, but what you don't know (well, now you do) is that during this trip we all got to try on kimono from 江戸時代 (the Edo period, 1603 - 1868). I'm fairly obsessed with kimono, partially because of my interest in fashion, partially due to the idea of a historical costume with many traditions surrounding it, and a large part from the part in my brain that says "oooohhh, pretty colors!" (I can tell that you are thinking to yourself that this part of my brain helps me get dressed. Don't deny it.) So because of that I was excited for this particular Tuesday. We had a limited amount of time and kimono at the museum, so once we got there we were split up into two groups, and then my group was hustled over to the designated kimono area. Putting on kimono takes a long time, especially the more formal ones, but we didn't have that kind of time (in a different story for another blog post, it once took about 20 minutes for two ladies to put a formal kimono on me) so we were hustled into our traditional Japanese clothes.

I was one of the last girls to get dressed, and they started putting a yellow kimono on me. I thought that was it, but when that kimono was on, the woman dressing me scooped up this huge, thick, ornate red silk robe and puts it on me, and shows me how to hold it closed. Standing next to me was my fellow American and friend Kim, and she was wearing the same sort of robe. Although I love kimono, I'm a bit ignorant on who wears what, although I do know as a general rule that older women wear more subdued colors with normal length sleeves, and unmarried women (the younger kind) wear brighter colors with long sleeved kimonos (振袖). The outer robe I was wearing didn't seem to fit either category, so I asked Kim. She told me that we were wearing the robes of 姫様, a princess/daughter of a nobleman. So, I was a princess yesterday. Granted, only for 20 minutes because they had to shuffle the entire class into and out of kimono, but it was a royal 20 minutes. And princess-y.

Speaking of Princess for a Day, a shout out to JQ! Happy 17th birthday (one day late)!

Starting the trip off excited in our mini bus!

Aya (on the left) and Kim get dressed. Note Kim's Disney princess hands. :)


This is what the boys wore. Here Jake models his straw hat.


Aya wearing her 振袖


Here Bao-san models the Edo period peace sign. Not much has changed.

My royal attendants help me put on my robes. This is how I get dressed every morning in Japan.

p.s. My teacher has group shots of everyone and many more pictures than I have, so once I get those I shall add them to this post. Promise.

< 姫様　himesama: princess, daughter of a nobleman　日本事情　nihonjijou: Japanese Culture and Affairs　修学旅行 shuugakuryokou: field trip　江戸時代　Edo jidai: the Edo period 振袖 furisode: kimono with long sleeves >

久しぶり！

Hey there! Remember me? It's definitely been a while, and for that I apologize. Updates are coming soon, I promise. Those of the wordy variety and of the picture-y variety will soon be present, so don't fret! And if you are mad, just look at that picture for a little. My cuteness will win every time.

Crazy things from Japan, vending machine edition

Hey everyone!

I have tons and tons of news to share, and it will hopefully make it onto this blog very soon! Just not in chronological order. Anyways, today's topic is crazy things from Japan: vending machine edition, and it will consist entirely of pictures of said crazy things! Woo!

ALSO, regarding updates, I did update more recently than the majority of you think; however Blogger put the new entry below the one directly below this one (is this making sense? It's a bit late here) so I don't think many of you saw it. So, pretty please, if you'd like to read an update, scroll down 2 entries, and there should be a new one that you haven't seen before.

じゃ、またね！

a juicebox full of cold hot chocolate. yum!

a cafe latte available from the vending machine. served cold and drunk through a straw.

here's where there crazy kicks in: a vending machine for bowling shoes in the bowling alley! "wow," you are thinking, "Japan has vending machines for everything!" you'd be pretty much correct (including beer, although those are as rare as a vending machine with food in it), which is how you find things like the following:

that, my friends, is a can of pancake flavored drink, served warm. when we saw this in the vending machine we all thought "ew! ... wonder what it tastes like?" I was more curious/brave/stupid than everyone else there, so I took the plunge and drank it. post first sip, this was my expression:

read: euhh, i just drank that, didn't i? and for your information, it really did taste like pancakes with syrup. i have no idea how they make such a thing happen, but that's what it tasted like. incidentally, I could only take a couple sips before passing it off to Jake, who was the only other one brave/curious/stupid enough to try it. bonus picture of his facial expression post sip below:

mm, yeah, sorry, that really did just happen Jake.

Guess what I did today?

Can you guess?

No?

Maybe?

Okay, okay, I'll tell you... I used a traditional Japanese toilet (successfully!). やった！But what about the rest of my adventures? They pale in the face of this grand accomplishment, honestly. But I jest, and it is about time that I chronicled last week for you and at least put up some more pictures. So please expect some posts very soon. For now, I hope that you will be satisfied with this awesome picture of milk tea that I got (cold) out of a vending machine for only １００円.

すげ～　象ですよ。

< やった！ yatta!: hurray!　円 en: yen 　すげ～ suge~: awesome, wonderful (the exclamation), so maybe more like wow! or amazing! 象ですよ zou desu yo: it's an elephant, you know>

Nicole "whoisit" and two trees

今日は、みんな！ Ready to hear about some of my adobenchaas from last week?

First of all, on Thursday I was significantly less jet-lagged, although I did manage to doze off at a nice early 6:30 pm. Getting up at 8:30 will do that to you, I guess. But anyways, Wednesday was orientation for me and 5 other international students, which was all of us sitting in a room being given packets of forms to fill out. I got to finally meet Jake, the other Clemson student, which was nice! Everyone here was surprised that we had never met before coming to Japan.

After that we each went off with our tutors to do various errands, such as getting our pictures taken for 色々な用紙, and other things that are way too exciting to write about on this blog. Marina-san had a meeting to go to, so I tagged along with Jake and his tutor, Chie-san, to go and meet Tachi Sensei, who is the Clemson-Fukui liason as well as Jake's advisor here. Tachi Sensei, who is a professor of linguistics, is really funny and charming. When I introduced myself he said that he'd have no problems remembering my name because in 福井弁、the local dialect in Fukui, my last name is slang for "Who is it?" 例えば、when someone knocks on your door you can shout "誰あぁ？" (Dare a?), which sounds the same as my last name in Japanese: ダレーア (Dareea). He also told us to make sure to be "good little aliens" as we had to go to 市役所　later that day to complete our Alien Registration Forms. And because these forms are official documents, we needed ハンコ or　印鑑, which are both names for a personal seal (it is stamped alongside your signature on official documents). Which leads me to this:



This is my personal seal, in a handy dandy personal seal holder complete with ink, thanks to the generous Chie-san. You may notice that the seal has some Japanese on it, and at this point may be thinking "But your name doesn't have any Japanese in it Nicole!" or maybe even "How much cornier can this post get?" Because I am a foreigner, I can't just waltz into my local スパー, which is where I got the seal, and pick out one that says my name in katakana (ダレーア）. However, thanks again to Chie-san, we found this little seal, which says 二木　（にき）. The literal meaning of this is two trees, but the pronunciation is "Knee-kee," and since I've been telling people here that they can call me Nikki or Nicole, this is nicely fitting. (My second choice was Kishimoto, as a tribute to the two 岸本先生　who have done so much to help me over the past two years. お世話になったありがとうございます。）So now I have my very own personal seal of "two trees."

One additional fun fact: in the スパー, which has 4 floors and a restaurant, the seals are all in a four-sided rack, and you just pick out the one that matches the kanji (characters) for your last name, in the same way that you would look for a keychain that has your first name on it at a souvenir shop.

That's all for now from "Two trees who is it?" (aside from some 写真）。

おはようございます、Japanese student dorms!

＜　今日は、みんな konnichiwa, minna: hello, everyone　色々な用紙　iroiro na youshi: all kinds of (blank) forms 福井弁　Fukuiben: Fukui dialect 例えば tatoeba: for example　市役所　shiyakusho: City Hall ハンコ　hanko: personal seal 印鑑　inkan: personal seal スパー supaa: supermarket　岸本先生　Kishimoto Sensei: the Professors Kishimoto お世話になってありがとうございます osewa ni natta arigatou gozaimasu: Thank you for taking care of me　おはようございます　ohayou gozaimasu: good morning ＞

Jet Lag = pretty pictures!

ごめん、みんな。I haven't posted for two days! This will be a semi-short post with pictures to make up for it, because my Wednesday was a haze of arriving and my brain shouting at me "Go to sleep, you dummy!" I was met at the 正門, or main gate, of the University on Wednesday morning by Yuki-san, who was a grad assistant/teacher in the Japanese department at Clemson last year. (It was so nice to see a familiar face!) I was then shown around town by my tutor, Marina-san. We ran around town buying various things for my room while she tried to get to know me better. I wanted desperately to make a good impression but my brain was working so slowly! As an example, during the car ride to a soba place called "Tsurutsuru" (the sound of someone slurping noodles, which is really hard to get myself to do) Marina-san asked me "誕生日はいつ？" (tanjoubi ha itsu?) To my non-Japanese speaking readers, this is the very simple question of when is your birthday, but to my jet-lag fogged brain she might as well have spoken Cambodian. My thought process was hilarious looking back, but just sad at the moment. This is how it went: "Tanjoubi... I know that word! It's like half of joudan (joke) and half of daijoubu (okay)... what does it mean?" Eventually I figured it out and answered. Thankfully Marina-san and Rei-san, Marina's boyfriend, were really cool about the fact that I was dazed the entire afternoon. After shopping I returned to my room ("before" pictures below) to try and put it together!

Some quick notes about my room: it's teeny but awesome! It's pretty much like an efficiency apartment- there is a fridge, kitchen area, bathroom and bedroom area. I do have a mini balcony too! Oh, and a big things to John Heatherington, who was one of the Clemson study abroad students here last year, and who left me so much stuff, including a bunch of dishes, a summer futon, a rice cooker, a microwave... 本当にありがとうございます！

< ごめん、みんな　gomen, minna: casual way of saying sorry, everyone 正門 seimon: main gate　本当にありがとうございます　hontou ni arigatou gozaimasu: thank you very much! 写真 shashin: picture(s)>

写真

Jet-lagged me was excited about the complimentary striped pajamas and the stuff to make tea in my hotel room.

View from my hotel window in Komatsu. Yes, those are rice fields and a church.

On the bus on the way to Fukui from Komatsu. The hardest part of riding the bus was figuring out how to buy the ticket. I watched about 10 people do it before I successfully bought one.

Room before organization and after shopping. Note the kanji flashcards.View from sliding glass door to the balcony!

84.7 pounds, jisa boke and new friends

1) Just because everything fits in your suitcase, does not mean that it will magically weigh the correct amount. Sadly.

2) Damn you, Nicholas Sparks.

3) I am charming Japan one lady at a time. Watch me go.

Would you like some explanation? Okay, let's go!

Yesterday/today/approximately 20 hours ago I embarked with mi madre on the early morning car ride to BWI. Just before doing this I sat on my largest suitcase, zipped it up, and then waited until I was practically out the door to weigh it. Which was a huge mistake (I can see you shaking your head, mother dearest) because my suitcase weighed a whopping 84.7 pounds, a full 34.7 pounds over the amount allowed. Which means that I spent the ride to the airport alternately dozing and pulling extraneous pairs of shoes out of my suitcase. When I checked in it was still 8 pounds over but after removing another pair of shoes and a huge jacket or two I got it down to 49 pounds. Nothing like starting a trip with some excitement.

As for Nicholas Sparks, there are several guilty pleasures aboard airplanes (minds out of the gutter, children). Mine are the little movie screens where you can do anything listen to J-POP from the 80s to "exercise in the small space you have" aka while sitting down, and the airplane food. I know, what is wrong with me? Airplane food is just always so cute and if not always tasty the presentation makes up for it. But getting back to Nicholas Sparks, I took the time to watch some movies that I would not pay for, like Prince of Persia (an ode the ancient Persian art of parkour) and The Last Song. Yes, the Last Song. I think the darkened airplane and the fact that 5 of the people around me were watching the newest Karate Kid made me feel better about this, but what I want to curse Nicholas Sparks for is the fact that I actually kind of teared up during the movie. And not just because Miley Cyrus was in it. I blame it on the jisa boke, aka jet lag.

めっちゃかわいいね～

And finally, my new friend! She's well on her way to Nagoya now, but she sat in the same row as me during the long flight. After I asked the flight attendant for tea in Japanese "お茶下さい” she kind of started to take care of me, making sure that I filled out forms and helping me with the food, etc. (Don't worry, she didn't have to open food for me.) We said our goodbyes on the plane but lo and behold, after I navigated around Narita Airport looking for a Softbank (a cell phone company) and asking for directions in Japanese, I looked up from my laptop in the waiting area to see my sort-of plane buddy! She sat and had a nice conversation with me, and turns out she's from Brazil. It was really nice to have a conversation in Japanese, even if I only understood part of it. Okay, so more like half. But still.

So, 2 posts so far about my adobenchaa! Aren't I feeling ambitious? Until next post, みんな。
<みんな　minna: everyone... お茶下さい ocha kudasai: tea, please>

行きましょう

今日は、皆さん！
Hey, everyone!

So, this is the start of yet another one of my travel blogs, but I'm going to actually keep up with this one! Tomorrow I embark on my ten month study abroad at the University of Fukui in Fukui, Japan, so I write this post from a room that is clean aside from the two overstuffed suitcases that hold my life for the next 10 months!

I'm going to be good about updating this blog, even if it's just posting a couple pictures or a short little story, so you, the reader, will be updated about my little adobenchaa (adventure). I plan to post in Japanese and English, but don't worry if you don't know Japanese... I'll always put a translation under the post.

I'm not much of a writer, but I'll do my best to be witty and not too long winded. Speaking of which, time for me to go minimize 時差ボケ　by catching a few hours of sleep. またね！

<行きましょう ikimashou: Let's go!... 今日は、皆さん　konnichiwa, minasan: hello, everyone ... 時差ボケ jisaboke: jet lag ....またね! mata ne: see you later!>