Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Kyoto

On Sunday Kat and I took a trip to Kyoto! Kyoto was the capital of Japan until the late 1800's when it was switched to Tokyo. Needless to say it is an old, large city with a lot of history! Kyoto is only about an hour away from Hikone by train, so it is very easy to access!


Once we got to Kyoto our first stop was Kiyomizu Temple (Clear Water Temple in English). True to our nature Kat and I ended up finding a way to get ourselves a bit lost. We made it to Kyoto fine, but when taking the bus to Kiyomizu we accidentally got off a stop early. It ended up being a good experience though, because we happened to get off right near a delicious smelling restaurant, where we decided to eat. Of course the food was just as good as it smelled, so we were grateful for the mishap. We also got a good walk in since we opted to walk the rest of the way to Kiyomizu rather than pay the bus fare again.


Kiyomizu temple was amazing. It is over 1,000 years old. There were many different buildings to visit, we were there for about an hour and didn't even get to see everything.








After we left Kiyomizu we explored the city and did some shopping. We went to a part of Kyoto called Kawaramachi that was very lively! It was a good shopping district, tons of different kinds of shops! And I am proud to say we made it there (taking 2 different subways!) without getting lost. Once we were done shopping we got some dinner and headed home. We definitely want to go back to Kyoto though! There are so many more great sites that we haven't seen yet!

Friday, January 20, 2012

Japanese Daily Life

So far I have been having a great time in Japan! Here is the view from the window of one of my classes, nice huh?



I am slowly getting used to all the differences between here and America! There are a few things that I've noticed are very different here.

First is shoes. Everyone here needs to have three pairs of shoes! One pair is for wearing outside, the second for wearing in the building (to class, in the hallways), and a third pair to wear in your room. The reason behind this is that Japanese people traditionally spend a lot of time sitting on the floor (often times they have [or used to have] low tables, so they would sit on the floor to eat). Because they spend so much time on the floor, it is important to keep it very clean! Therefore, shoes that are worn outside are never ever worn inside, because they could track dirt in! Most Japanese houses (and our room) have an area to store the shoes right inside the door, and then you will step up into the room.


Another big difference is transportation. In America obviously we use cars to get everywhere. Here bicycles and public transportation are the most frequently used. Everyone at JCMU was issued a bike, and I first I thought "I am never going to use that thing..." It has been a long time since I rode a bike, so I wasn't very confident about it. There is also a shuttle bus we can ride that comes to the hotel next to our school about once an hour. However, we took a group trip to a shopping center, and had to ride our bikes there. After that I realized they were not so bad, and have only rode the bus one time since. Biking is actually a really good work out, besides the fact that they are so convenient.




Japan also has a very good train system, which I have become quite good at navigating during my time here. It seems a bit intimidating at first, but once your figure them out its not too bad. Most places have signs in English too, which is helpful. However, even experienced train riders such as myself can get confused at times! Last weekend Kat and I went to Kusatsu to go shopping. Well, we got there just fine, but on the way back we happened to jump on the wrong train! Fortunately we realized it once we got to the next stop and thought that it didn't sound familiar. We jumped off the train and decided to try and make a U-turn back to where we started. Luckily we happened to run into another foreigner (and Michigan native!) who was living there teaching English. He was surprised to see non-Japanese people at that station since it was in the middle of nowhere! He was kind enough to ride the train with us back to our original station and show us the correct train to get on! Overall I think the train system is very good and convenient. It would be nice if we had better public transportation like this in America.

Also, here are some other genius ideas that they have in Japan that I think America should pick up:
#1 heated floors! We stayed with a host family for a week, and their house had heated floors, it was amazing!
#2 heated toilet seats! Nothing better than sitting down on a nice warm toilet. :)
#3 extremely deep bath tubs. They are so nice and relaxing!
#4 check my future blogs for more great stuff about Japan!


Bonus: A snapshot of lake Biwa (the lake that our school is on!) during the sun set.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Arrival in Hikone!

So, I have finally arrived in Hikone, the location of the Japan Center for Michigan Universities and the place I will be living for the next few months!

My friend Kat and I had a bit of trouble on the way here, but we finally made it safely. We decided to stay at a hotel in Hikone the night before moving into our on campus apartment, but we got some bad directions. The hotel was supposed to be a one minute walk from the station, so when we got off the train that took us here from Tokyo I thought, it can't be that hard to find, we don't need to ask for directions! After 20 or so minutes of walking we finally gave up and went back to the train station to ask only to find out that it was a one minute walk from the next station over! We had to take another train, but once we got to the right station the hotel was visible right out the window. It was a good learning experience; always ask for directions, even if you think you know where you're going!

Now we are safe and sound in our apartment. We took a taxi here from the hotel so we would have no chance of getting lost! We also had our first experience grocery shopping in a Japanese grocery store yesterday! There was lots of yummy stuff that we don't have in the U.S. though also some stuff that Kat and I thought we would never want to try. It is hard for me being a vegetarian in Japan though because most of their dishes include meat or fish. I bought some different kinds of Japanese noodles though, and next time I go to the grocery store I'm going to get some fresh produce so I can make some stir fry.

I took a video of our apartment so if you are interested in what it is like please take a look!



We had an orientation this morning to learn the ins and outs of the school, and we got issued bikes so now we can bike to the store! Tomorrow we take our placement tests to find out what level of Japanese we get in to! Wish me luck!