Classes have begun

CLASSES HAVE BEGUN!

For those curious this is my schedule.


















So far the classes have been pretty good, the Japanese class has been mostly review so far, but on stuff we did at the end of my classes at Coe. The food has also been quite good, i have already found my favorites in the cafateria here, the カツ丼、カツカーレー. Katsudon, and Katsu curry, katsudon is a fried prok thing on top of rice with egg, onion and a fish sauce, and the katsu curry is a fried pork thing again but over rice with tomatoes and a curry sauce. both are super awesome. also found an udon noodle shop where i got a 肉うどん、a beef udon noodle thingy, also some fried sweet (i thinks) potatoes and something i forgot what it's called, it a rice triangle with a kindof doughy thing covering it and it's got like corn, peas and other stuff in it and it's pretty awesome.

My lunch from monday.

Other than that nothing much happening around here. just classes, homework, and studying. re-learning japanese, just wish i was learning at this pace over the last few years =/. oh well, picking it back up quickly though. Today i start karate and then do more homework and studying. soooooo weeeeee back to schooooool for my 5th year at undergrad. (hopefully my last =P)

~ティモシー・ブランドル

It has been a few days since my last post.

Sooooooooooo ummm to recap the previous few days

Monday, nothing exciting, sit in room listen to rules. meet people. yep
Tues, sit in room, listen to rules
Weds, dumb test
Thurs, dumb interview
Fri, not the same.

So friday we got to pick classes. The classes i am taking this semester are:
Japanese I
Japanese speaking (a conversation class working on fluency and stuff)
Study on japanese art and culture (movies, games, theater, ETC)
karatedo (yes, karate)

there was also "english day" where we spoke english and played games to get to know other people, all in all kinda fun at some points. then later that night some hanging out with people living in my building. a nice break from the week of orientation and reading packets about what we can and cant and have to do and blah blah blah. also the test we all had to take, a long long test that showed how ill-prepared i had come to this country in terms of language knowledge. it was hard to say the least. picture of english day follows. (i made an origami bear, it was one of the activities.)

SATURDAY
i woke up and decided that i needed to do SOMEthing with my saturday. so a couple of us walked out to kanayama station, about a 20 minute walk away. while there we got some food and also explored, we found an arcade and hung out there for a while. then after we came back we almost immediately turned around and went back with a group of 7 of us. we found another arcade and pictures follow. basically i wish that i spoke fluent enough to waste my time playing these games, i'll explain why as captions to the pictures. Then one of the students Naoya, who knows a lot of the memphis students, met up with us and showed us around to some of the food places and we got some dinner at a resturaunt who's name i forgot already. pictures of food follows as well. but i got some chicken wings, they were AWESOME, a couple other people got a dish i forgot the name of but it was pig intestines and i tried some and the was fantastic and will probably be getting that when we go back. afterwards we went to a karaoke bar right by the station and spent 2 hours there, then made our way home. on my way home, and at the karaoke bar there were a few men, middle aged, and a couple in their 20s that rubbed my stomach and gave me a grin, i mean that's it i didn't provoke them at all, it just happened, while i was standing at the bar at the karaoke bar, or when i was standing at an intersection waiting for a light. it was odd to say the least, gotta be something with budda, but yeah, still odd. (the karaoke bar, by the way, 1500Y for all you can drink that comes to just over 16$. Nice, Cheap evening. more pictures will follow again

TODAY (sunday)

At 1 we played soccer in the feild behind our house, we played a few games with the theme mostly being japan vs america. then swiching it up from time to time, playing 5v5. it was fun, and exhausting. then i went to the store, got some chicken and friend that up, made a sandwitch out of it for dinner. and now i'm here trying to figure out whats going on tomorrow since it is a holiday here tomore, which one i am not 100% sure, heard something about it being "elders day" but i'll have to look into that.

PICTURES: (look)

English day:

green bear

i am not meant to make origami....

At kanayama station there was some celebrity, singer, giving autographs and having people take pictures with him. Debated going down there and getting my picture taken as well, decided not to, there was a long line. 

OK SO  THIS IS WHAT I MEAN! There are so many of these around, and they look like fun, you buy card packs like magic or any other TCG and place them onto the screen that lays flat, the machine reads the cards and depending on the formation of the cards it effects what is on the screen, this is a Square Enix game similar looking to FF and it's called lord of vermillion, i watched some people play and it looks like something i would pump so much money into if i could read it. it looks so awesome, you can see that guy has his cards arranged in a square, when he plays he moves them all around and it effects how the peple on the screen move, where they face and what direction they cast spells, etc. It looks awesome, and this isn't the only one there is a whole level of this arcade devoted to these types of games including the next one which looks ever more awesome. 

this is a soccer game under the same mechanics, you position your players on the screen and have 6 slots for subs, you buy packs of cards and then arrange what ever team you want, there are people trading and getting really into it and it's just so awesome looking and watching them playing it is fun enough, i would love to play them, but my japanese isn't to that level yet where i can fumble my way through it....

i found DDR

group of 8 of us at the resturaunt, it was a traditional, i guess that's what it would be called? where you remove your shoes to enter the small room where you sat in a table with a hole dug out beneath it, so you sit on the tatame mats with your legs below the table. it was a great resturaunt, and we get our own private room which is even nicer. 

enjoying beers before the food comes. 

We all got one of these before we ordered, its a soft boiled, sortof poached quail egg swimming in something with ginger, i think, and green onion on top, it was odd and idk if i'll have another anytime soon....

Dinner, wings, spicy, delicious.

Karaoke bar to finish off the night. 

Orientation day one.

Hello people.

Nothing big to write about. spent most of the day sitting around listening to rules, sitting in a japanese version of the DMV waiting for my alien regestration and then went and bought a couple more things i needed. Came back and a lot of the japanese students were sooking noodles with some beef, i had a bowl and watched some japanese TV. picture follows. More interesting stuff will happen but for this week just orientation and stuff. so yeah. ^_^

EDIT: Decided what classes i'll be taking, Japanese (gotta test into a certan level, so not sure what one yet) Karatedo, Japanese conversation, and Japanese art & culture.


~tim

Tim goes to a festival, mall and it's hot.

Hi people.

Today i woke up and looked out side to find a festival right outside of my building being set up in the adjacent park. it was only being set up so i read a book about japanese etiquette, it was about 4:30 am. my roomate, dylan, and i went to the festival and did a few things, saw a few things and took free stuff that was shoved into our hands, now i am well stocked in tissues with packaging for places and things i won't goto or buy... (pictures of the festival will follow with discriptions) At the festival there were a few neat things like a stage with preformers, a lot of good food, and some kiddy attractions. but the thing i found most interesting was probably the truck that simulates a 7-level earthquake. it made me realize that if one hit i would me SOL and i REALLY hope one anywhere near that big does hit... kinda frightens me, they can REALLY shake if that simulation was correct. also it was hot. Really hot. i miss cold.

We came back cooled off and went to the mall. (a good 3.5-4 mile walk round trip) I had a good attempt at speaking well with a store clerk and didn't even have to use any jap-english failed-attempts at words. i was able to ask if he had big sandals, he asked how big and i said 32. and he told me that the biggest size they carry is 28. Also seemed kindof suprised i asked. Finding a pair of sandals will probably not happen here. walked back, and i had already gone through enough laundry surprisingly (maybe) to require a laundry run.

Nothing interesting eaten today, just a hotdog on a stick at the festival in the morning, and a ham, lettuce and egg salad sammich for dinner (this are EVERYWHERE and are amazing!) i will post pictures and discriptions of interesting dishes but so far i've not really gone too far out of my shell in that respect, mostly because i have no idea where to go yet, orientation is tomorrow and hopefully that will shed some light on everything. yeah.

PIKTORS:
Festival we went to, idk what that sais. someone who reads japanese or has a kanji dictionary please do it for me, k thanks.

The Earthquake simulator. It was rough. 

There was a concert band that preformed along with some other acts across the day, they played arrangements of carmen, sound of music, and something i didn't recognise but sounded like a pop song for sure.

It sais what you think it sais "hot cake milk shake" it was like a sweet yoo-hoo. a perfectly refreshing drink i bought in a vending machiene in 110 degree heat half way through our looooong walk to the mall. i r smrt.

more pics from the festival to follow. 

All done. Will probably not blog daily, but close to daily. 

~tim

Day One.

Hello people.

Today was my first day in Nagoya, Japan. So far it has been a fun time and super exciting. The flight was annoying, as all travelings are, but at least i got to sit alone and take up the whole row, that was good. While waiting for the plane from tokyo to nagoya i did see one of the mostest funniest and cutiest things ever. While i was sitting there waiting for my plane to board, the plane at the next gate was leaving. there were men there working for the airport filling the gas tanks, loading the baggage and other planey things. What was so awesome was after the plane pusher moved the plane out of the gate it backed up and th man driving out ran up to near the plane, then everyone that worked on that plane ran up and along the right side of the plane they all stood in a line and waved good bye to the plane, bowed and all bowed at the plane that had rolled away, and then bowed to eachother and shook hands. It was neat and super cute and I couldn't see them because i was seated on the left side of the plane but I like to think they did that for my plane as well. Alsoooooo where would you see that ANYwhere in USA... nope nowhere. (except maybe for those southwest airlines comercials.) i WISH i had a camera out.

When i made it to Nagoya i was greeted by the woman in charge of the program as well about about 15 students from the school. we went on a bus to the college and then I came in and crashed into the bed and slept. uneventful.

This morning i woke up and explored, nothing special. We went shopping, also nothing special. For lunch we went to a westernish diner-like place where they had a lot of westerned japanese things like a Mt. Fuji of french fries and then takoyama and other japanese things, i had a beef paty with an egg on top with a hash brown for a side, and a beer. the people at my table had similar beef things like a beef patty stuffed with cheese or beef with rice (there was a lot of beef here is what i am getting at, and suprisingly not that pricey at all.) Also, didn't have my camera on me today, in the future i will post pictures of food i find interesting.

After lunch one of our RAs took us to the mall nearby so i could by a soccer ball to use and other people wanted other things.  The reason i wanted a soccer ball is because right behind our building is a soccer field with 2 fields and nets and the whole deal so i thought it'd be fun to get a ball so we could play durring free time. View from my patio below.

Now i am just sitting in my room and still working on figuring things out, like skype and other stuff. tomorrow is more of the same: exploration and shopping. it's fun, i am enjoying it so far and realizing quickly that i'm a little under-prepared for this much kanji, i got a lot of the vocab down but O_O of all the kanji i've learned i see like none of them... there are TOO MANY. Pictures of my living area Follow. Bye bye. (more exciting stuff will probably follow.)