Friday, April 27, 2007

Kyoto: Miyako Odori

Today we had a field trip to Miyako Odori. It was a traditional dance by geishas and maikos (geishas in training). It was pretty cool, but I have to pack for tomorrow, so I'm not going to talk too much about it. In particular, there was this one woman dressed in a pretty plain black kimono that was really good. There was something in the way she moved that was really elegant, even though her face was not particularly beautiful. She must have been the teacher or master geisha. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of the performance. Otherwise, today was more getting ready for the trip and practicing some viola for the first time. I still remember how to play, even if just barely :). Some pictures taken right before the Miyako Odori:

Kyoto Miyako Odori

Brian: School, Day 4

Today is Thursday, the last day of the school week. God I love my schedule :). A good day it was, too. Let me see... but before I get sidetracked, our home computer in Irvine had a hard disc crash and I was wondering if anybody knows how to recover data from it. Please leave suggestions in the comments kudasai, ne. On to the story...

I woke up naturally at 8:30 and got to school at about 10, where I planned to do reading for my Contemporary Japanese Relations class. Instead, I finalized the reservation for a ferry from Matsuyama to Oita during golden week with Yamashita-san and then talked with our group about Golden Week plans until my Japanese placement interview at 11. The interview went very smoothly, which is much more than I can say for Japanese interviews I've had in America. Even being here only several days has made me much more fluent, of course this is relative to my original ability. At least it is easy to hold up a conversation with a sympathetic Japanese speaker who has experience listening to broken Japanese :). We talked about various things like my Golden Week plans, our travels in Tokyo when we just arrived, and my interests. It was really quite easy because I've talked about those same things with other people already, so they were somewhat crystallized in my head already. This must be why it is so easy for politicians to speak in public. They don't really speak extemporaneously, they simply organize the mini-speeches they've given before into one that fits the occasion. Anyways the "placement interview" is apparently a misnomer because we will generally be placed in the same sequence we were in at Stanford, since all of us are Stanford students.

The next big event was getting a cell phone! I met up with my host brother Charlie, who is in the KCJS program and speaks better Japanese than me, and we went to the cell phone store together. The best company for foreigners and students is apparently au, as they offer a gakuwari or student discount. Of course, the cell phone selection for the student plans is very limited - no cool phones that can swivel 2 ways or let you watch TV. It is ungodly how cool the phones in Japan are. I can't believe I was happy with my Razr back home, it is ridiculous how good the technology is here. As it is, the student phone I picked is still gorgeously sexy and functional too, unlike the somewhat sexy and barely functional Razr. Take a look at the pictures, which hardly do it justice, but some of the cool features are easy to press, large buttons, a light but very solid construction, a beautiful large screen, fast and easy to use software, innovative features like a macro function for the camera and a manner mode (for switching to driving manner, for example). I didn't have to pay too much for it either. The activation charge was ¥2700, the monthly charge is ¥2000 for talk (35 min, ¥40 per additional minute) and ¥300 for text (100 packets, ¥.2 per additional). The cancellation fee is about ¥3100, which is much much less than in the States. So, it makes sense to buy a year-long plan and then cancel after 5 months. It is actually comparable to the pre-paid phones in price, with a sexier phone in the bargain (and no need to recharge).

The other big thing today was a party hosted by my host family. It was in honor of my okaasan's daughter's wedding. Her name is Ai and she is married to Shin. They were married in February and honeymooned in Australia. Anyways, today we went out to a traditional Japanese dinner with seemingly endless courses and chatted away until about 9pm before coming home. Then, I played several pieces on the piano to the audience's approval (Melodies of Life, Moonlight Sonata, and What a Wonderful World) and then they all sat around talking, drinking, smoking, looking at picture albums, and watching a DVD of the wedding. It was a good time. One interesting thing is that two of the cousins came late to the dinner. I swear they looked like rock stars. It is amazing how fashion conscious these Japanese people are. They are high school students, 16 and 18 years old, and it is like they walked out of the pages of a catalog. One of the guys looked just like Hanazawa Rui from Hana Yori Dango, with the bleached hair and bangs that hung down. The other guy complemented him with darker brown hair that was styled in spikes. Their outfits were all designer-quality and they had this sullen model quality that seems typical for teenage Japanese boys. I guess that's the way you have to dress to catch the attention of the girls, who primp, preen, and dress themselves to match their various idols in the catalogs as well. I think it looks good in general, though I'd prefer if more of them kept their black hair. I still think straight black hair is the sexiest, after all.

Kyoto Day 6

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Patrick: Gallery

Since I'm quite a bit behind on my posts and I still need some time to write out the entries, I'm going to post temporary links to my pictures...

04162007 - 04172007


04182007


04192007


04202007


04212007


04222007


04242007

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Brian: School, Day 3

¥8100 books
¥200 chibidensha
¥220 bus
¥380 lunch
¥115 milk tea
¥525 umbrella
¥220 bus
¥200 chibidensha
-----------------
¥9960 total

A couple things: I can't write long essays in my blog anymore because I have that dreaded curse of students everywhere - homework - and also next week is Golden Week so there will be an unfathomable amount of material in just a few short days. So, very briefly, today.

I accidentally did not account for the cost of books for my architecture class, which is ¥8100, so I'm not going to get much lunch money next month (I got ¥29000 for lunch and transportation this month). Also, I finally managed to buy an umbrella. Today was a lot of planning for Golden Week by Patrick, me, and Yamashita-san. It's really going to be an adventure when we leave on Saturday. We plan to go to Tokushima, Takamatsu, Matsuyama, Oita, Mt. Aso, Nagasaki, and Fukuoka all in one week. It's going to be very tough. I hate planning stuff, but nobody else will do it besides Patrick and I figure I better know what's going on in case things don't work out. Architecture class today was pretty boring. I don't think I'm cut out for architecture. It's pretty much just a discussion about spaces and buildings and other fuzzy things. Unfortunately I don't really have a choice because I'm taking it as a general requirement class. It is also a lot of work. Yup, that's it for today. No pictures either.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Brian: School, Day 2

¥200 chibidensha
¥400 bus (I paid too much, actual was ¥220)
¥1297 lunch for me and Stephanie
-¥550 she paid me back
¥220 bus
¥200 chibidensha
~¥9300 books
-----------------------
¥11,070 total

Every day has its little adventures, I guess. Thus far the public transportation system hasn't failed to provide its share of adventures. This time the screwup was on the bus. Today I tried bus #50, which my okaasan had written in my notebook as being OK to ride to school. It went the right way for about 3 stops, then turned right on Sanbon-dori. Luckily I was paying attention and got off right away. However, as I left I popped a ¥500 coin into the slot. I waited about 2 seconds for change before I realized that you're supposed to put exact change in there. I asked the bus driver for change and he started to dispense ¥10 coins one at a time, slowly, by pressing some sort of button on his side of the machine. He had dispensed about 10 coins when I felt really bad for holding up the train, took the money with a "sumimasen", and left. It would have been a good opportunity to use a phrase I just learned, "fuzakenna", which means "you're f'ing kidding me." I paid something like ¥400 to go a couple blocks. Even taxis aren't that expensive. Not only that, I had to walk like 8 blocks to school. I had left about 15 minutes to spare in addition to the 30 minutes I alloted for the commute, but even walking briskly I just barely made it. I didn't really mind the walking though - it's good exercise and taiken (personal experience). I checked the bus routes later and #50 actually runs to Kyoto station, so my okaasan had made a mistake.

Today was a walking tour of the Heien Shrine, the Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts, and the Nanzenji temple. The Heien Shrine was orange and green (somebody said it looked like Taco Bell colors) and had this immense courtyard. I went in the very middle and tried to take a digital assist panorama shot. I'll stitch it together later. I know it's underexposed but it's better underexposed than overexposed, as I can still bring out the details later. It was pretty good looking, the shrine, but nothing really extraordinary. I guess I've had a lot of sight-seeing lately so just seeing a big shrine doesn't do much for me. It also awoke the cynic in me to see the various structures where they'd hang little papers with wishes. It was as if the sole purpose of the shrine was to fulfill their wishes like some genie.

The Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts was pretty cool. The exhibits were very informative, with step by step descriptions of how the artisans accomplished stone-cutting, or fan-making, or laquerwork, or sake production. Otherwise, it was just another museum.

We grabbed lunch in a nearby convenience store. Everybody tried out different things. I bought this bento with fish and rice. Mickey D just bought a big fish. Patrick had some onigiri (rice balls), Michael had this sandwich with noodles inside (weird huh?), and Stephanie got soba noodles with this nasty-looking paste. When she put it in her sauce it looked like poop, so we made fun of her.

After lunch we had to do little group presentations on different eras in Japan's history from a brook we were supposed to read. I didn't finish the book, so right before my group went up, I looked up some stuff about tea ceremonies to say. I would say most people didn't read the book and the presentations were very informal in nature. Some people did seem to know what they were talking about, however, and I managed to record some of Nick's spiel since it was quite good.

The rest of the day was sort of uneventful. I had my first lecture for Contemporary Japanese Relations, taught by Professor MacDougall, and I didn't fall asleep. There were some Japanese students in the class that I got to meet, which was cool. They were eager to practice English, so I spoke to them in English. It's so sad... their English is so much better than my Japanese... One of the students I asked said he understood about 60% of the lecture. That's much more than I could do for a lecture given in Japanese, I'm sure. After dinner, which was tempura (they mix the vegetables in batter and fry it on the spot!), I played the piano. The dog really loved it and started to howl(?) or bark(?) or sing, I'm not quite sure which. It was really cute though. Okaasan and Otoosan liked it too, even with all the mistakes.

Kyoto Day 5

Monday, April 23, 2007

Brian: First day of school

¥200 train fare (on the chibidensha)
¥220 bus
¥340 lunch (oyakodon)
¥250 subway to Shijo
¥588 hair wax (loose shuffle)
¥250 subway to Karasuma-Imadegawa
¥220 bus to Hakubaicho
¥200 train fare (chibidensha)
¥0 getting lost and finding your way again? priceless
-----------------------------------------
¥2268 total

Isn't it hard to believe? Today's the first day of school. Like Alan said, they're almost halfway done at Stanford. Actually it's only been 3 full weeks, right? But still, those last 7 weeks until summer vacation will just fly by, I know. I hear it's time to do the draw again, as well (the lottery system for Stanford housing).

The commute to school was, thankfully, uneventful. I left around 9 AM and just barely caught the 9:06 train to Hakubaicho (the end of the line), then took a bus to Karasuma-Imadegawa. That is the intersection of Imadegawa, the east-west street, with Karasuma, the central north-south street. Doshisha is on the intersection, so it is another short walk from the station to the Stanford center. I was stupid and didn't bring a map or an umbrella, but wasn't punished for either. I'll bring a map next time, but still out of luck on the umbrella. I couldn't find a small one in the convenience store I visited.

I didn't have any class today but there was more orientation, from 10 until 2:20. They went over how to set up the wireless (we have to re-authenticate for every outside site we visit, how stupid), then Professor Duus (professor emeritus) gave a 1-hour introduction to the history of Kyoto. I took notes, if anybody cares to take a look. Some interesting things were that Kyoto was based on the Chinese template for capitols, with the emperor and palace facing south and the city arranged in a grid pattern. Also, he said that a lot of the geishas in the pleasure district are fake - office workers from Tokyo that pay money to dress up and get their pictures taken with gaijin (foreigners).

Lunch was a simple affair in the cafeteria in the basement. I had oyakodon - oya means "parent" and ko means "child", and don is short for donburi, or covered rice. That is, they put chicken and egg on rice (the chicken is the parent, the egg is the child). It's pretty cool that they print the number of calories on the receipt. My bowl was 740 Kcal, which seems like a lot. By the way, I haven't lost any weight here yet - I weighed myself on the bathroom scale today.

The orientation stuff was done by 2:20, whereupon we 3 boys started planning Golden Week destinations. We narrowed them down to 2 cities in Shikoku (the island just south of Honshu, the main island) and 4 or 5 in Kyushu (the southern-most island) - Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Miyazaki, Beppu, and maybe one more. We'll use our one-week JR rail pass so we'll only have to pay for housing, food, and entertainment. One of the things we want to do for sure is to stay at an onsen (hot springs) resort, which will undoubtedly cost a lot of money.

At about 4:00PM, I announced that I wanted to buy an electronic dictionary, so we went to Teramachi, the electronic district in Kyoto, to look for one. It turns out that all the dictionaries that have handwriting recognition, which I need, are over $200, so Patrick suggested an alternative. I could buy the Nintendo DS (a modern GameBoy) and a "dictionary game" that has handwriting recognition. The total cost would be under $200 for sure, and would also let me play other games. So, I think that is probably what I will do. The stores we visited in Teramachi were all sold out of that dictionary game, so I will search for it some other time. As for the DS, I think I will buy it online, since it is no cheaper in Japan.

Things started to get interesting when I tried coming home from Teramachi. I found my way back to school just fine, with a little spatial reasoning about north-south and by looking at the sun. From there, I almost took the bus in the wrong direction but corrected myself just in time. Then, I got on the train, but thought it was the wrong one so I got off, only to get back on just as it was leaving when I realized it was the right one. That is when I realized I didn't know what stop to get off at. Uh-oh. One by one, I looked at the stop names, and none of them sounded familiar. I ended up getting off at the last stop, and was relieved when the station looked familiar. I'm home free, I thought, as I left the station to walk home. After about 10 minutes of walking, I start to feel like something is wrong. I know that the street should end in a cul-de-sac next to a middle school, and then I take a narrow bridge to get to the house. However, the street just got busier and busier instead of terminating in a cul-de-sac. Then, I saw a fork in the road. I wonder which one I should take, I wonder. The one on the left was much narrower, but didn't look familiar, while the one on the right was busy, but looked more familiar. I decided to take the one on the right, but after 5 minutes of walking, I saw lots of things I would have remembered on my walk to the station, like a gas station. So, I decided that wasn't the right way. I walked back to the fork and took the other direction. After walking about 10 minutes, there is construction and an underpass I definitely know I didn't walk through in the morning. By now, it's getting dark, since it's about 6:30. I decide that I didn't give the right path enough of a chance, and maybe I saw the gas station but just didn't remember it, I tell myself. So I take a shortcut from the left path to the right path and walk even further down. It's almost dark already, and things are starting to look less familiar instead of more. This is when I realize I'm in trouble. It's time to get serious, I tell myself, so I took my glasses out of my book bag and put them on. I started looking all around for recognizable landmarks while walking back, but none of them were familiar. Distracting thoughts start to enter my head... what will I tell my host parents when I'm late for dinner? I don't even know the Japanese word for getting lost... I wonder if they'll wait for me to eat dinner? These thoughts ran through my head as I made my way back to the station. That's when I saw a woman putting child in a car seat in a car parked on the side of the road. I had already walked past when I decided I really needed help, and this was definitely the least intimidating person I could find. So I walked up slowly, and said "ano... tasukete itadakimasenka?", which is a really polite way to ask, "can you help/save/rescue me?" She turned around with a surprised expression, and asked something like, "what is it?", at which time I asked her if she could help me find this address, and held up a post-it note where I'd written the address for my host family. After struggling through the romaji, she gave me a helpless expression and said she couldn't help me, but then spotted the phone number and asked me if I should call it? I replied that I didn't have a phone, so... she got the hint and called the number for me. Unfortunately she then handed the phone to me, so I had to explain the situation, which was very difficult because I didn't know how to say "lost". Anyways my host father picked up the phone and I pretty much just begged him to save me. He asked me what station I stopped at and I told him I couldn't remember. Was it Arashiyama? he asked me, which I knew it wasn't - that was much further west (I took a walk there with my host mother yesterday). No... it was the last stop for the chibidensha, I replied. We agreed to meet back at the station. At that point I humbly thanked the young mother for helping me (she looked relieved that I was helped too) and then hurried back to the station. Anyhow, the reason I got lost was that I screwed up by taking the wrong set of stairs out of the station. The lesson is to bring a map! And of course, not to be afraid to ask for help. And maybe, to buy a cell phone.

Kyoto Day 4

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Brian: Sunday, the day before school

I spent exactly ¥0 today. yokatta ne (that's good, huh).

I got up at around 7:30AM and uploaded some more pictures before heading downstairs to greet my host parents. Charlie apparently sleeps until noon or later, which is probably what I'll do once I get over any residual jet lag. Anyways, my okaasan (host mom) likes it when I get up early so I'll try to keep it up as long as possible. Breakfast was interesting... okaasan brought out a hot plate and we made pancakes, bacon, and an egg for my breakfast (they had eaten already). We talked about various things (that I can't remember now), of which one was an electronic dictionary. I said that I wanted to buy one, so she brought out some advertisements and told me to go to Teramachi in downtown Kyoto or this other area in Osaka to buy one. It looks like they go for around ¥20,000 which is kind of expensive for my budget, but I just might suck it up because it is so useful. The problem with my pocket dictionary is that it only has characters, so if I want to look up a kana phrase, for example "chanto", which has no kanji, I'm out of luck. It can also be time consuming to look up kanji I don't know the radical for. Plus, it can't go from English to Japanese, which I don't really need yet, but will when I start writing compositions in my Japanese class.

Lunch was instant ramen, which reminded me of the kind my dad makes because they put in various things. For example, they also put an egg inside. It seems like they like breaking the egg, however, instead of leaving it in one piece. I was a little surprised because the program said they weren't expected to provide lunch on weekends, but I guess it wouldn't really be proper to eat lunch without me while I am home. So, I just decided to thank them. My luggage arrived soon after, and otoosan and I got all 70 pounds of it up the narrow suitcase with only a little difficulty. In the privacy of my room, I got out the omiyage I wanted to give them and prepared the gift bags. For okaasan, I decided on the Ghirardelli chocolates (blueberry and cherry) and the Stanford teddy bear. I was a little surprised at how nicely it turned out. The white bear wearing a red Stanford shirt fit perfectly between the red and blue chocolates, in a deep red bag with white paper packing. It looked really swell, I think. The cards I bought were also really pretty. Using the pink pen I bought at Tokyu Hands in Ikebukuro, I wrote out her name, Fujiwara Mieko. For otoosan, I decided on the Stanford cap and the divot repair keychain. In similar fashion, I put both items inside the bag, filled it with packing, and wrote Fujiwara Fuyuki on the card, this time in blue. For Itaru, I decided on the Underarmor Stanford shirt, a long-sleeve shirt designed to hot weather and sports. I'm not sure he'd use it too much - he's 32 and works probably 6-7 days a week for a political party, but I'm sure he'd like it anyhow. I wrote his name out in green. I only got a chance to give okaasan her bag today, but at a suitable time tomorrow I'll give the other two their omiyage gifts.

In the afternoon, okaasan and I walked the dog to Arashiyama, a popular tourist destination for Chinese tourists. The dog is a really cute thing, Duka-chan it's called, a small dog with really short legs but a long body. I'm usually somewhat uncomfortable around dogs, but it's so affectionate that I was very natural around it. Okaasan even asked me if I owned a dog. I was surprised myself that I got along so well with Duka-chan. Duka-chan gave us a lot of problems on the trip, however. Not long after we left the front door, she stopped at the side of the road and did a #2 business, which okaasan cleaned up. But, we had to go back because she didn't want to carry "it" with us. Then, Duka-chan was always sniffing at poles and peeing on them. It was very interesting how this very small and domesticated dog was so territorial. By the way, it was raining when we left, so we tried to get Duka-chan to wear a raincoat. But after we put it on, he refused to walk. He cut the cutest figure. So, we had to take it off and let him walk around and get himself dirty. When we got on the train, we had to put him in a bag. And he was constantly running around in circles, tangling up his leash. But he was cute nonetheless.

Arashiyama was beautiful as promised. Also as promised, there were lots of Chinese tourists. Some of them were riding rickshaws, like the one I took a picture of in Asakusa next to the Kaminarimon gate. I don't blame them, the view from the bridge was quite amazing. As okaasan explained, the bridge was called the moon-crossing-bridge and people would come by the river to watch the cherry blossoms and drink during the spring. Otoosan would swim in the river every day when he was a boy. She also pointed out Monkey Mountain and other landmarks, but I didn't fully understand everything she said. For example, we went to a large rock engraved with a poem, and she tried to explain the poem, but I didn't get most of it. The Chinese tourists came to see the poem, I think. On the way back, okaasan treated me to a coke float. It was a long walk, but it was fun, I think.

I had so much for dinner I think I might burst. First there was fish, of course. Then I had two katsu, or fried pork, with shredded cabbage. Then there was a bowl of rise and tempura. Then there was a bowl of miso soup. Then there was 2-bowls-worth of potato salad. If I eat like this every day, I might even gain weight here rather than lose it, as I expected.

Kyoto Day 3

Brian: Pictures from Kyoto, Days 1 and 2

Kyoto, Day 1:
Kyoto Day 1


Kyoto, Day 2:
Kyoto Day 2

Brian: Pictures from Tokyo, Day 3

Tokyo Day 3

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Brian: Kyoto, Day 2

It seems like I have to pay for less and less now because there are more people I can rely on now, like the Stanford program and my host family:

Expenditures for 4/21/2007
¥250 fare to Doshisha on Karasuma subway
¥650 lunch at Doshisha cafeteria: hayashi raisu (rice with beef stew)
----------------------------------------
¥900 total

We checked out of the hotel by 8:45 AM today, and set off once again for Doshisha, this time with all our luggage. Yesterday, I used up all the money on my transportation card on the trip to the ward station in Ukyo-ku to complete my alien registration. So, I had to pay ¥250 for the train fare today. At Doshisha we left our luggage in the library and then had a quick computer orientation (that was when I posted the entry for 4/19 since it happened to be on my thumb drive at the time). The Doshisha computer specialist would explain all the procedures in Japanese, and then Nishimura-san (on the SCTI staff) would translate it into English. So, they don't expect us to know much Japanese at all. The computers at Doshisha are very good: my computer was 3.6 GHz and I heard they have over a thousand computers on campus that are for public use. Also, it is somewhat strange to say this, but the manual they hand out to students is also very good. It has very clear pictures and screenshots and instructions in Japanese for all sorts of common things, like changing your password. They should do that kind of thing in America too.

After the computer orientation, we were taken on a tour of the campus, led by Doshisha students in the cultural exchange club. It is a club with very friendly people, of which Shigeo Majima, who was one of the SJEC exchange students, was one. It seems like everything has a 10% discount for students. Right now I'm tired enough to fall asleep so I will keep this short. Our host families came to pick us up after the tour of the campus. It was like a lottery, sitting in the room while people got called one by one when their host family arrived. All of us were really nervous because we were about to meet our host family for the first time.

It turns out that my host family is really cool. The father is an assemblyman, which means he is on the city council (not that he works in an assembly line -_-). The mother used to teach elementary school, but now is retired. The son works for a political party doing what, I'm not sure. I helped my host mother make dinner, which meant stirring and placing 3 dishes into various smaller bowls, and cooking chicken. She said I was a いい男の子 or a good boy because I helped out. Dinner consisted of sushi, spinach, chicken, seared ahi, and lots of Sapporo beer. It was the second night that I had a lot to drink, since yesterday was nomihodai. My host parents kept refilling my glass with more beer, and would complain when I was drinking too slowly too. So, in addition to learning how to speak Japanese well, I will also learn how to drink large quantities of alcohol, it seems. After dinner, we had a long conversation in Japanese, which was very awkward for me because I could only understand at most 50% of what they were saying. So, it was very important for me to understand and infer enough to know what questions to ask such that I could answer their questions without sounding entirely stupid. For example, one of their questions was what was famous about Orange County. I wasn't sure how to answer this, so I ended up talking about the beach and how there were a lot of rich people. The KCJS student, Charlie (a junior from Tufts), would help me out when I seemed completely lost. There is more I would like to talk about, but I already almost fell asleep while writing this post, so I think I better go to bed now and post the pictures tomorrow.

Brian: Kyoto, Day 1

Again, a backdated blog entry, this one was written on 4/20/2007.

4/20/07
Expenditures for the day:
¥350 Alien registration card
¥210 fare to Kyoto station
¥220 bus fare to downtown
¥320 lent to friends
¥2500 dinner, nomihodai (all you can drink)
¥1000 karaoke
---------------------------------------------
¥4600 total

Our first full day in Kyoto started with buffet breakfast in the hotel with both western and Japanese choices. I started with scrambled eggs, sausage, ham, and pasta, then moved on to Japanese cuisine – rice, with pickled vegetables. The orientation started in earnest at 9AM. We traveled as a group by subway to the Doshisha campus and went on a tour of the Stanford Center, which is in the very center of the campus. It is a very well-equipped place, and furthermore, as the director informed us, Stanford is receiving it rent-free and utilities provided. So, it makes sense that Stanford went with Doshisha University rather than a more well-known institution. The orientation itself was somewhat boring, just reading rules and such from handouts they gave us. One of the other things we received was our monthly allowance, which includes lunch money and a stipend for transportation that varied depending on how far away from campus you were. The total allowance I received was about ¥30000 (approx $250), which included about ¥4000 for my commute.

After orientation, a student volunteer for Doshisha took us to a ward station to complete the mandatory alien registration. The registration needs to be done in the district where we will reside, so for example, I had to go to Ukyo-ku, while some students who lived very near the campus did not even have to take public transportation.

Today was also Friday night, which means party night in Japanese. I was part of a group that decided to go to karaoke, and, led by Keisuke-kun, we had dinner with nomihodai (all you can drink) for ¥2500 per person. I had a mango chuu-hai, which is similar to a wine cooler, and after I finished that, a pint of Japanese beer. The alcohol wasn’t that strong, luckily, and I even managed a shot of sake without any problems. The food was interesting, though none seemed to be a main course. There were little trays of food that came continuously, and of those, I remember eating daikon, soybeans, dried pork skin, 3 bowls of soup, and some sort of omelet with lettuce. But the best part about it wasn’t the food, it was the conversation. One of the Japanese people with us was Min, who was actually only ¼ Japanese and somewhat of a foreigner himself. He really broke the ice and made good conversation in English and Japanese. In the end, he even came with us to karaoke as well. We sang the night away until about 11:30, and then had to leave so that we could catch the last bus back to the hotel. The whole experience of drinking and singing together with friends and strangers was new to me, but one I found to be really a great part of Japanese culture.

Brian: Kyoto Day 1

I wrote this on the night of 4-19, but didn´t get internet access until now:

4/19/07
Expenditures for the day:
¥580 Milano sandwich set (M) with ice coffee
¥160 fare to Ueno
¥160 Ginza subway to Asakusa
¥493 postcards
¥100 dango
¥100 Asakusa temple blessing
¥740 osusume (suggested) teishoku (set lunch)
¥160 subway to Ueno
¥160 fare to Ikebukuro (to pick up luggage)
¥190 fare to Tokyo
¥13330 shinkansen to Kyoto, charged on MC
---------------------------------------------
¥16173 total, of which ¥2843 was spent in cash

Our final day in Tokyo was supposed to be spent in Shinjuku and Asakusa. As it turned out, they were too far away for us to visit both of them, so we decided to only visit Asakusa. The day began as usual with Pat and I getting breakfast and Michael staying back programming. This time we went to a café to get a “western” style breakfast – I ordered a sandwich and ice coffee. I put “western” in quotations because the sandwich had shrimp, tuna, and mayonnaise, which I’ve never seen before in the States (then again, it was called a Milano sandwich). We left for Asakusa at about 10 AM, and something very strange happened. As we split up to use the fare machines in the train station, I was accosted by a middle-aged man wearing a denim jacket. He immediately said “keitan desu” while flipping open a badge, and I was immediately reminded of a phrase I learned yesterday, fuzakenna, which means “you’re f’ing kidding me.” Why was I being stopped by a plainclothes officer? In response I just said “amerika-jin desu kara…” to which he nodded in acknowledgement and continued asking me questions. He asked if I was a tourist, to which I said yes (although not technically), and also to see my visa, which I said I wasn’t carrying at the moment, and then where I was staying at, and where I was going on the train. I could actually understand pretty much everything he was saying, which was a good thing because the whole time he was staring at me intently like police officers do, reading me. It also happened to be a good thing that we got stopped, because in the end, he was able to help us out. We were trying to get to Asakusa, which is not on the train system, but rather requires us to connect to the subway first. The police officer kindly wrote out the kanji for “Asakusa” and also told us to connect at Ueno (we were originally going to go the opposite direction, hehe). So in retrospect, if he hadn’t stopped me, we probably wouldn’t have gotten to Asakusa in time today, although it was freaky being stopped by an undercover officer in a foreign country.

Asakusa was really tourist-y, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t fun. It was also a great opportunity to buy gifts. I bought a few postcards to send back to the States and also got to eat… dango! This probably has no significance for my readers but Makino works at a dango shop in the J-drama Hana Yori Dango. Dango are these doughy balls on sticks that are covered with peanut powder. They weren’t especially good, but I really had to try them out. The main street we were on, which led from the Kaminamon Gate to a nearby Buddhist temple, was very busy with tourists and Japanese school kids. Who would have thought there would be so many on a school day? They were all wearing their uniforms and traveling from shop to shop buying things and goofing off. Their uniforms were different styles and colors depending on their school and whether they were elementary, middle, or high schoolers. The temple was also pretty cool. It was very large and had two big panels filled with lanterns right outside it (you have to see the picture). The lanterns were arranged such that they formed two parallel planes, one on either side of the street. Outside the temple were blossoming plum trees and fountain with several spigots. There were also long metal spoons that you’d use to wash your hands and rinse out your mouth in ritual purification. I got some pictures of Patrick doing it. Inside the temple, I threw in ¥100 and did a quick prayer, as did Patrick.

After getting a blessing at the temple, we found a nice shop selling teishoku or set plates for lunch. I ordered the osusume teishoku or “suggested set plate”, which was ¥740. Not only was it tasty, but it was the first time I felt full after a meal! Although, my stomach might have shrunk over the last week to compensate for eating less.

We headed back to House Ikebukuro to pick up our luggage before setting off finally for Kyoto. The shinkansen cost us ¥13330 or about $112 and took 2:20. We rode the Nozomi Super Express, the fastest one they currently have. It was not only fast, but quiet and luxurious too. I imagine it would be like sitting in business class on an airplane (not that I’ve ever experienced ever sitting in anything besides coach -_-). It was fun watching the scenery fly by while listening to music on an iPod (Michael lent me his because mine ran out of battery). Michael and Patrick passed the time by playing a 2-player computer game. We arrived in Kyoto at around 5:20PM. The hotel we’re staying at, the Kyoto Dai-ni (#2) Tower Hotel, was right next to the train station.

Thus ended the self-guided portion of our Japan trip, and commenced the Stanford handholding version. There was of course a person from the Stanford center waiting for us in the lobby and a page of instructions was given to us in English. The Stanford person also arranged all the necessary logistics for our luggage, since it will be staying at the hotel until the 22nd and will then be shipped to our homestays. I grabbed my laptop out of my luggage (this is being written on that laptop, but I can’t upload it as I write it because there is no wireless) before turning it back over to her. Our rooms are quite small and cramped, not as comfortable as the annex suite we had just moved out of but still adequate. I’m sharing my room with a boy named George Schnurle, a really tall Caucasian. I only met him briefly but he has apparently taken 2 quarters of Japanese and is really jetlagged because he just arrived today. We had dinner together as a group at a Japanese-style restaurant. Everybody introduced themselves and we had a fun time socializing over free food and drinks. I chatted a bit with Professor Macdougall, the director of the Stanford center who helped me find the internship, and also Sensei Yamaoka, who is teaching first and second year Japanese at the center. After dinner those of us who weren’t tired climbed a huge staircase with over 150 stairs, I’m guessing, to get to the top of the Kyoto train station and take in the view. On the one hand it was really fun catching up with friends and joking around comfortably, but on the other hand I felt like I was losing the familiarity with Japanese that I was starting to pick up.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Brian: Tokyo, Day 2

Expenditures for today:
¥450 salmon breakfast
¥105 pudding from a convenience store
¥1239 bags, cards, packing from a shop
¥190 fare to Tokyo Station
¥130 fare to Akihabara
¥690 lunch: donburi with sushi
¥160 fare to Harajuku
¥780 sanshoku so-su omuraisu: 3 sauce omelette rice
¥200 Mario Kart
¥100 Sticky pics
¥100 4 player air hockey
¥600 batting cages
¥100 DDR
¥160 fare to Ikebukuro
------------------------
¥5004 total (approx $42)

I slept in the middle of the mattress, between Patrick and Michael, last night. This morning, I was rudely woken up to a loud conversation between them literally OVER me. -_- We got up around 7AM today, then Pat and I grabbed breakfast while Michael stayed behind to program. We ate a set breakfast from a store where you pay a vending machine, but are served by people. We both ordered the salmon set, which was a good deal as you can see from the picture (it comes with rice, salmon, miso soup, seaweed, turnip, and fermented cabbage), costing ¥450. On the way back we bought a cheese bread for Michael at a convenience store (there is at least 1 per street, it seems) and I also bought a delicious pudding for ¥105. Then we saw a paper and gift packaging store and decided to buy materials for the omiyages we are going to give in Kyoto. I bought some nice bags, packing material, and some cards for ¥1239, which should be worth it because Japanese people really care about the appearance of the gift too. The bags are a deep red and the packing straw is white, which I intended so as match Stanford's colors.

At about 10AM we set off for the Imperial Palace, which is right next to the Tokyo Station. If there is any indicator of wealth in Japan, it is without a doubt space, and the palace has it in spades. It stretches further than you can comfortably walk in a city with a ridiculous population density. It is also surrounded by a moat, and the stones used in the walls can be enormous. The best part was the garden, though. The Japanese are masters at harmony with nature, and everything in the garden was not only immaculately manicured but also thoughtfully placed/trimmed/arranged so as to convey the proper aesthetic. I have lots of pictures from the garden, and in many instances I found it so much better than Ueno Park that I'm glad we went to Ueno Park first. Also, admission was free, which was nice.

For lunch, we rode to Akihabara and ate donburi. I had one with just tuna (I have to watch my cholesterol, ne) while Michael and Patrick ordered theirs with salmon roe (oh but I wanted it too). Mine was still delicious though, and only ¥690. I am still in ecstasy that we can find such good food for what seems like a budget price. Of course, the portions for everything in Japan are smaller than in America, so I haven't been completely full even once since arriving, but in terms of taste and presentation, I've been more satisfied than in the States by far. After lunch we explored the various shops in Akihabara, taking in the electronics and model shops, especially. By model shops, we mean serious, "otaku" stuff, where "otaku" is defined as:
A fairly derogatory term used to describe an obsessed fan of something (not necessarily anime). In North America, however, the term is often a badge of honor for hard-core anime fans.

The stores will filled with gundam models and other models from anime, as well as a large section devoted to a certain other category appealing to the young male demographic. Patrick was about to buy a Gundam model but refrained at the last minute from what seemed like indecision between several models. We then hurried to meet an appointment with Yuichiro at 3:30 in front of Harajuku Station, which was across the city.

The train to Harajuku took us about half an hour, including 2 connections in order to ride a line that connected the stations more directly. Yuichiro met us there as promised in his car, a blue Toyota Accent(?), a model not found in the US. It is similar to the Camry, I think. Some of the differences are that the passenger seat has significantly reduced control: you can't access the power locks, and you can't see the dashboard dials (they are blocked by guards so only the driver can see them). Of course, the driver also sits on the right side of the car as well. We proceeded by car to Odaiba, a trip that took over an hour on a not-too-crowded Wednesday afternoon, although accounting for some wrong turns and map checking, we made decent time. It was Yuichiro's first time in Odaiba as well, so finding our way to Odaiba proved nontrivial. In the end, we arrived after 5PM at a place called Venus Fort, which is one of those deluxe indoor malls like the Sunshine City we went to yesterday. There was a shop that sold really interesting things that defy categorization, but in general they were oddities, or gags, or stylish, or old. I have a couple pictures of the store, and you can really see that the store is jam-packed with stuff, literally from floor to ceiling. It was more fun than exploring a museum.

Speaking of which, our next stop was the Toyota Historical Car Garage, which was as expected, although most of the cars inside were not Toyota. The notables were a Nissan Skyline, a Corvette, the Delorian, and various Grand Prix cars made by Toyota. We also got a chance to take some group photos with the cars. For dinner, we decided on omuraisu, or "omelette rice". It is basically rice wrapped in a thin layer of egg, with a sauce poured on top. This one I could probably eat everyday :). I ordered the 3 sauce omelette rice and it cost a reasonable ¥780. Well, parking at the complex was understandably expensive, however, but Yuichiro covered it (¥1000).

Our final stop was the game center adjacent to the Venus Fort. This place was amazing: as you walk in you scoff at the childish carnival games but as you continue to enter you are engulfed in the most eclectic entertainment world you can ever imagine. The type of games you find at Palace Park, like air hockey, bowling, and batting cages, but all improved. The air hockey was 4 player. We didn't try bowling but there was an actual lane instead of the hokey curl up lip that flips your ball into bins that you find at Palace Park. The batting cages had LCD screens which showed the pitcher throwing the ball at you, and various selections for ball placement and speed. I tried it twice, and managed to do much better swinging left handed. We also took some sticky pics there, which was tons of fun both to take the pictures and to decorate them. I took a high-res picture of the sticky pics with my camera, so you should be able to zoom in to get a better view. Alas our night thus ended at about 9PM, whereupon Yuichiro drove us back to the train station and we took the train back to Ikebukuro. The train was more packed than imaginable - I was touching I think 6 other people, guys and girls alike. Everybody there is used to it, obliviously texting on their cell phones with bored expressions or else sleeping. At one point I almost fell over when the train reached a station and people had to push through the crowd to get out at the stop. But I didn't really mind it being crowded at all. It's strange though, even there are so many people, you still feel really lonely in their midst.

All in all, today was the most fun I've had in a really long time. It really took my mind off the stress of traveling, and it was also helpful in another respect: Yuichiro was kind and patient enough to help us (well, especially me because my Japanese is rotten) with our Japanese. He was also a really fun and smooth guide, although apparently he hadn't been to those places before either. I couldn't tell until later, when I read his blog, that when he was texting his friends during the trip it was to get ideas about what to do. It was really amazing when you consider all the stuff we did and that it was purely a spontaneous excursion. We can't thank him enough for making our last day in Tokyo so memorable...

Tokyo Day 2

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Brian: Tokyo, Day 1

I am currently at a terminal in the annex suite we are staying at in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. The expenditures for the day:

¥190 egg sandwich
¥130 fare to Ueno Station
¥160 fare to Ikebukuro Station
¥3675 purchase at Tokyu Hands for stationary
¥970 okonomiyaki for lunch
¥7400 2 nights stay at House Ikebukuro
¥150 bottle of ocha from vending machine
¥450 ice cream cone from Magic Ice (like Coldstone)
¥160 fare to Shibuya
¥700 chashu ramen in Shibuya
¥160 fare to Ikebukuro
----------------------
¥14145 total (approx $119)

To continue from the previous post, we entered a western-style cafe for breakfast and I had an egg sandwich. Then, since none of the stores were open at that early hour (stores don't open until around 10am), we decided to go to Ueno Park. I shot some nice pictures there before my camera ran out of battery. It had been doing pretty good, considering I didn't charge it once in Hawaii, and I wanted to drain it completely to condition the battery. Some notable things there were a sign that said "No feeding the pigeons or cats" which seemed pretty farcical, until we walked around and saw a bunch of cats as well as the pigeons as normal. Unfortunately, the cherry blossoms had already fallen, but the green trees made for pretty good pictures too. The park was very peaceful and not crowded until we started to make our way back to the station around 10, whereupon there was a sudden burst of activity, lots of little kids probably heading to the zoo in the middle of the park. Interestingly, there were identical castings of Rodin's Burghers of Calais and the Gates of Hell, which can be found at Stanford. Michael and Patrick have some pictures of those, with our travel gnome owl in some exquisite poses.

Afterwards, we took the train to Ikebukuro and went shopping. We went to a store called Tokyu Hands and the 6th floor was entirely devoted to stationary. I bought about $30 worth of stuff there, blowing about $10 on one particularly nice Staedler pencil (I'm partial to the brand) and some more on pens, lead, and a small notebook. We found a place to have lunch in the adjacent Sunshine City, a mall-type superstructure. I had okonomiyaki for the first time, which is a pancake-like dish made with cabbage, chopped red ginger, batter, and various other ingredients you can add. We ordered three okonomiyaki and shared, one with mayonnaise and cheese, another with pork, and the third with shrimp and scallops. After grilling them on a hot plate in front of us for 4 minutes per side, we put benito flakes on top and pour a sweet sauce over it. It was starchier than expected, but it was still delicious. It's not something I'd have every day though.

After lunch we bought a laptop case for Michael in a Sakuraya. Patrick ended up buying one too. Then we went to check in to House Ikebukuro and settled in. Yuichiro, the SJEC student I hosted last quarter, met us at the ryokan at about 3:30PM and we immediately set off for some more good times. He took us first back to Sunshine City, this time to an interesting area that is a mix of carnival games, restaurants, and plain old oddities. He paid the ¥300 per person admission for all of us and we wandered around admiring the various oddities, many from Japan's past. For example, they had an old advertisement for gyuunyuu or milk, and a home furnished from the mid 1900's. They also had a street selling only gyoza or dumplings, which looked delicious but we weren't that hungry. The other great thing was Ice Cream City which was also in the "area". Yuichiro had a soft serve cone with wasabi (!) ice cream, which was actually really good tasting and faithful to the wasabi taste, and the rest of us had cones from Magic Ice, which serves the equivalent of ColdStone. Patrick had a Japanese green tea cone, Michael had a blueberry/raspberry cone, and I had a strawberry/banana cone. I also noticed a sign selling a "glape" flavored ice cream :). Besides that, they had a section with blow-your-mind weird flavors. Notables are beef, snake, Indian curry, eel, sea urchin, and soy sauce. After finishing our ice creams, we left the "area" for a bookstore also in Sunshine City. Yuichiro showed us lots of mangas, books, and magazines. I wanted to a buy a manga to practice my Japanese, but it was kind of expensive and Yuichoro informed me I could buy it much cheaper second hand, so I held off on the purchase. Finally, Yuichiro took us back to his home district of Shibuya, Tokyo for some ramen before he had to take off for a band rehearsal at 7PM. After he left, we explored Shibuya and stopped at an HMV, the equivalent of a Virgin Atlantic record store, before taking the train back to Ikebukuro and settling in for the night. Tomorrow we will meet up with Yuichiro again and go off to explore Odaiba and Yokohama.

Tokyo Day 0


Tokyo Day 1

Brian: Tokyo

I'm writing from a public terminal in a capsule hotel right now. So far, I've spent close to ¥9200 (approx $92), here's the breakdown:

¥110 - small (roughly 1 pint) bottle of Evian water
¥1700 - luggage delivery for 1 suitcase to Kyoto
¥3000 - Narita Express 32 from Narita airport to Tokyo, then to Akihabara (no additional charge)
¥380 - beef bowl at Yoshinoya
¥4000 - 1 night stay at a capsule hotel

So to start from the beginning, we left Honolulu at around 10AM and the flight was 8 hrs. The in-flight movies were good: I watched Happy Feet, Blood Diamond, and part of Casino Royale. I also did some reading and took a restful nap. After landing in Narita airport, I had to speak Japanese for the first time when passing through immigration. I didn't want to screw up so I just asked if he could speak english, ego ga dekimasenka? and luckily he could, so there were no problems getting into the country. Michael also got through really fast, so we had about 2 hours to kill while waiting for Patrick to arrive. During this time, there was a small unattended bag on the seat 2 away from me, and a police officer noticed it. Thus commenced about 40 minutes of pointing at the bag, asking nearby shop clerks about the owner, calling for backup (2 other officers eventually showed up), scanning it with some sort of handheld scanner (for explosives?), and finally removing it. I took a few pictures of the episode, which I will upload later when I get the chance to use my laptop.

After Patrick arrived we collectively sent our luggage to Kyoto, then bought tickets for the Narita Express to Tokyo. This time I managed to ask for a ticket, say yes to a question, and ask for the price before copping out and asking if she spoke english. Although in retrospect, that's about all you need to do to buy a ticket...

The ride to Tokyo was about an hour, where we connected to the Yamanote line to get to Akihabara. The station is like a mini-city, and lots of times we would literally be going up and down stairs following the signs as if we were in an underground Dwarven mining camp. Patrick and Michael are waiting for me now, so I will abbreviate the next parts. At Akihabara, we saw a Yoshinoya across the street from the JR station and ate dinner there, then looked for Internet for the next hour. We finally decided to ask for directions to a capsule hotel at a police station, and somehow got there without getting lost. The capsule hotel was also a bit of a culture shock, everything there was new and different, and there were few signs in English. I think I accidentally threw away my one-use toothbrush instead of putting it in the recycling bin, and showering was interesting because I had no idea what to do (and it's hard to think about it without getting awkward in front of the other people there). The capsule itself was more spacious than I imagined and also quite comfortable. I got a full night's sleep and woke up at 5:30 to some guy's alarm that wouldn't turn off. It's 7 AM now and we're about to take off for breakfast and from then on make our way to the ryokan we reserved in Ikebukuro. Then, we're meeting up with a friend from Keio university at 4PM.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Brian: Hawaii, Day 6

Our last day in Hawaii. Paradise Lost comes to mind. But adventure awaits us in Japan! We are sure to be the most confused and disorganized travelers in the history of the Japanese tourist industry. Well, before then, the day's news.

We went bright and early to Hanauma Bay. Michael didn't come because he was doing a programming assignment. It was pretty much the same as the last time we were there, except that I am a lot better at snorkeling now. We went in for 2 snorkeling sessions. The second time I lent my flippers to Patrick's dad and snorkeled flipper-less. It was much more of a workout, for sure, but at the same time I was able to turn on the spot, which is almost impossible with fins. This is useful for those dead ends in the reef where you have to turn around and come out the way you came. I also dutifully worked on my tan for the last day I will spend in Hawaii. After a week I have only managed a dusty beige. I'm sure that will seem plenty dark when we get to Japan.

The fancy dinner at Roy's cost me the rest of my money... I have exactly $15 left in American dollars and 524,000 yen. We will see where I stand after one week in Japan. Because, of course, I was able to use my credit card while in Hawaii, while it's still somewhat rare in Japan.

Our plan, by the way, is thus: Michael and I have a flight at 9:50AM so we're leaving at 7 for the airport. Patrick's parents are making 2 trips because the luggage won't all fit. After we get to Japan, we will wait for Patrick in the arrival lobby. Then, we'll ship our luggage to the hotel in Kyoto and take an express shuttle to Tokyo with just a backpack each. We plan to hit up a manga cafe to relax and look up any necessary info on the internet, then stay the night in a cheap hotel or a capsule hotel. We've already made reservations at an inn for Tuesday and Wednesday night in the Ikebukuro district of Tokyo. I don't know when I'll get to post next, so this is Brian, over and out until I've arrived in Japan!

Hawaii Day 6

Patrick: Hawaii, Day 6

Today we got up early and headed back to Hanauma Bay for the third time this week. Michael unfortunately had to work on his BMI 214 assignment so he couldn't join us. There weren't very many people this morning compared with the other days, which was odd since it was a Saturday. I guess Hawaiians need a time off on the weekends since they work so hard relaxing during the week. Life here is so laid back... no wonder I start falling asleep within a few minutes of sitting down.

We weren't so lucky as to see a sea turtle today. We did see a lot of the Hawaiian state fish, Humuhumunukunukuapua. The tide was high around noon and the waves kept tossing us to and fro. It allowed us to glide over the previously unreachable shallows which seemed to be where all the fish were hiding out.

In the evening, we played some cutthroat in the billiards room. I got my ass owned by team Brian/Michael and my dad/my brother. And afterwards we had dinner at Roy's, an asian fusion restaurant which I presume had its origins in Hawaii. The Mahimahi in lobster sauce was excellent as was the delectable chocolate souffle. We topped off the day with a dip in the hot tub where we met a Canadian guy who just arrived. He had just broken up with his girlfriend who he planned to vacation with for the next two weeks. He ended up here alone... Picture Michael when I steal Melanie away from under his nose.. teehee.

Anyways, it's been a long day. We're all packed and ready for tomorrow's flight. I don't know if I'm ready to leave this place of sunshine, beach, and shave ice for what looks to be freezing cold temperatures and rain in Japan...

04142007

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Patrick: Hawaii, Day 5

So I guess I don't have much more to add to Brian's description of today's events.

Aside from a few scattered showers here and there, the catamaran ride was wonderfully exhilarating. Along the way, we saw a few random sea turtles floating like deadwood on the ocean's surface carried by the rolling waves of the open sea. A pod of dolphins came to greet us and one excited little fella even entertained us with some acrobatic stunts. These Hawaiian spinner dolphins are smaller than the typical Sea World performers, but they shared a similar curiosity and playfulness that we've all come to expect from dolphins. Check out the clips for some sleek swimming action.

I must say, the snorkeling part of the trip could have been more enjoyable. Unlike Brian's goggles, mine kept leaking from the top no matter how much I pressed it against my forehead whenever I dove down into the depths. Our area of exploration was also severely limited and I kept bumping into the other guests. Once I accidentally came up underneath a woman, which resulted in an embarrassing and awkward situation... Still, we got to see a large assortment of fish of various colors and being amongst a school of fish felt like floating in a swirling rainbow.

In the afternoon, we found ourselves back at the shaved ice store that Jason took us to on our very first day in Hawaii. It's called Waiola Bakery and Shave Ice in case you might be curious. This time, I ordered coconut and pudding shave ice dessert which was, as expected, delicious. Compared to the other stores we've been to on this trip, the shave ice here is extremely fine. The variety of flavors couldn't compare with the Aoki shave ice we had in Haleiwa the other day, but I think it's been my favorite so far. Michael and I talked briefly about getting our own shave ice machine some day. We'll see how that goes...

04132007

Brian: Hawaii, Day 5

Today was the big day: we went on the snorkeling trip that we paid $100 each for. We departed midmorning in a catamaran (a two-hulled boat, like the Catalina Flyer that takes you to Catalina Island) skippered by a young guy called Ryan. The other crew were Jay, Gardenia, and a Japanese guy called Yudai who also did translating. The atmosphere was relaxed and fun the entire time, which was good because I had a bit of nerves going snorkeling in the middle of the ocean. However, there were lots of older folks that would need more pampering than me, so I felt better and it turned out to be almost as natural as swimming in a pool. On the way to the snorkeling spot, we passed a pod of dolphins. Everybody was crowding around trying to get a good look/video of the passing dolphins. I didn't bring my camera (Patrick did camera duty for the trip) so I just stayed aft and avoided the crowd. The dolphins looked like they were showing off. One of them kept jumping up and doing spins. They do seem to be playful creatures at heart after all (either that or the boat comes back with buckets of food later :P).

The actual snorkeling went a lot better than at Hanauma Bay. I carefully checked my mask for leaks this time and discovered a tear in the seal, so I got the crew to replace it with another one. As a result, I didn't have to keep fixing my mask every two seconds or taking everything off because my eyes were stinging. The water was slightly cool at first but easy to get used to. The trouble was there'd be these warm currents that you'd enter and be like "awesome!" only to leave a few moments later and be colder than you were before. We were also given life vests that were a big help. They were the self-inflatable kind so when I wanted to dive, I released all the air, and after half an hour, when I was starting to feel tired, I just blew into it and floated around for a bit. It was much nicer than snorkeling around in Hanauma Bay avoiding reefs and choking on salt water that kept leaking into my mask. By the way, we're going back to Hanauma Bay early tomorrow morning.

On the way to the snorkeling spot I also met this older man and his Asian wife. He was a commercial photographer living in La Habra Hills and she did software development. We talked a lot about what I was doing and about his past: he stayed for 12 years in the Philippines (where he met his wife, perhaps?) and also lived in Japan for a year and a half. In a grandfatherly sort of way, he was always giving me advice like to get as much education as possible and that "you only have a strong body once in your life: use it". Patrick's dad also joined the conversation and it veered towards interest rates and property values. I didn't have much to input at that point. His wife reminded me a lot of a girl I know at Stanford (Diana Austria). I've mentioned this before but this happens to me a lot. After you meet a certain number of people, new people you meet start overlapping with the ones you already know.

After snorkeling we went once again to Waikiki Beach. I got my remaining $200 exchanged into Japanese yen at a much better exchange rate (118.5 yen to the dollar) and also bought a small gift at a marketplace. But what was really cool was the mail drop-box we saw that was painted like R2D2, one of only hundreds in the country, according to Michael. Afterwards we went back to the shaved ice place we went to on the first day with Jason and I had a delicious azuki bowl: finely shaved ice with condensed milk, mochi, azuki beans and vanilla ice cream. It seems like shaved ice is to Hawaii as pearl milk tea is to California.

Hawaii Day 5

Friday, April 13, 2007

Brian: Hawaii, Day 4

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Patrick: Hawaii, Day 0-4

I have found over the past few days that starting a post in this blog is as difficult for me as starting any other paper. The excellent weather outside doesn't help much either. At any given time, I feel the need to be outside where the sun beats down and fills every spot on my skin with glorious warmth. Even the 5-min rain shower yesterday (or the day before, I can't remember) was relaxing in its own way quite unlike the freezing cold droplets found in California.

But as I put off writing each day, the days begin to mix and churn in my memories. Soon this entire week will be one Cold Stone creation in a pint. So let me begin with day zero...

I arrived at SFO with Michael and discovered that my original flight was delayed. I got switched to another flight which allowed me to bypass the connection flight in LAX and got me directly to Honolulu. All in all it was a net-gain in utility since I arrived in Hawaii earlier than anticipated. After watching (albeit with a hint of jealousy) Michael and Melanie attempt to detach themselves from each other and after getting myself and my carry-on bags checked for explosives (am I really that suspicious?), I headed for the gate where I proceeded for the next 2 hours to work on a yet-to-be-finished research paper.

The first thing that struck me as I got off the plane in Honolulu was how warm and humid the climate was compared to that of California. The sky was dark and I was still in short sleeves. It felt way better than the recycled air conditioning we were treated to on the plane. I found Michael and Brian patiently waiting in the baggage claim area and soon we got picked up by the rest of my family who had arrived here earlier in the afternoon. Since we were practically starving from the lack of quality food and free meals on domestic flights these days, we ate at Wendy's and headed to the hotel in Ko Olina.

04082007

The next day, we met with Jason Foley at Costco (of all places). He took us to lunch at Zippy's, a local fast food chain with a menu of katsu-stuff, fried chicken, and chili. We then proceeded to Hanauma Bay which never fails to delight with its fabulous scenery and snorkeling. Michael, Brian, and I rented snorkeling gear since we were not as adept in the water as Jason. Apparently his high school PE class required biathalons which entailed a good deal of both swimming and running. We saw fish, or rather they saw us, as soon as we entered the water. Fish of all different colors, shapes, and sizes swirled around us. We followed schools of yellow striped fish, long skinny silver fish, and even a meandering sea turtle all the while trying to navigate safely through the maze-like corridors of rock and coral. At one point in time, we found ourselves in the deeper water beyond the protective lagoon barrier where the currents were a good deal stronger. Without the fins, I felt like I would be at the mercy of the surging ocean; quite a scary feeling indeed.

In the evening, Jason took us on a stroll along the Waikiki beach. It was around sunset, since it took us a while to find parking, and most people were off the beach already. The atmosphere was splendidly relaxing with music from bands entertaining guests of the numerous hotels found along the shore. The music mixed with the sounds of tourists chatting, people conversing in rapid Japanese, kids squealing, the waves crashing on the shore all together created an atmosphere of absolute serenity. When we got on the shopping street, the beach was replaced with designer store fronts. The people in bikinis and board shorts were swapped with groups of Japanese tourists in nice clothes. Brian noticed that the tourists tended to travel in couples and girls especially never failed to travel in groups. Oh wells.. most of the girls are either too young (middle schoolers on spring break?), too old (office ladies on vacation?), or too tanned (makes my pathetically pale skin embarrassing in comparison). We ended up walking back to where we started as we tried to find a restaurant to eat at. In the end, we found ourselves in a diner where we had a relatively cheap American-style meal. It was a wonderful end to a spectacular day in Hawaii. Oh, did I mention the excellent shave-ice store Jason brought us to earlier? I had the azuki bowl which had vanilla ice cream layered beneath a mountain of fine shaved ice smothered with condensed milk and topped with white and red mochi and sweet azuki beans. Glorious...

04092007

The following day, like Brian said, we ran some errands. We ate a fabulous buffet that put Todai to shame. Bought our JR passes for Golden Week. Swam in a lagoon right outside the hotel. Built sand forts on the beach seeing who's best withstood the test s of time (i.e. the tide, the wind, my foot, Michael's rocks, Brian's rippling muscles). In the end, Michael and I decided to even the playing field by digging tunnels into Brian's mound of sand.

04102007

The third day, Brian suggested going to Waimea Falls. It turned out to be a wonderful suggestion as we got to see peacocks, native flora, and a nice waterfall. We also went up to the north shore to see the famous surf. Indeed the waves were tremendously powerful and the surfer's were pros. It's too bad Jason couldn't stay with us longer to teach us how to surf. Even then, of course, we would not be ready for the crashing waves of the north shore. On the way back, we had... shaved ice. Shaved ice seems to be to the Hawaiians what pearl milk tea is to us California residents. It's everywhere, the refreshment of choice. I think I came back after the third day with a new appreciation for the ocean. The power of the waves as they broke on the beach was terrifying yet a wonder to behold. And all I could do was stand on the sidelines watching in awe as people much more experienced, much braver, much tanner than I challenged the ocean at its own game.

04112007

Today, the weather started out perfect. We left for Hanauma Bay again this morning, only to arrive at the gates disappointed by the closing of the beach due to jellyfish invasion. Apparently some people reported being stung earlier in the day already. We proceeded further up the coast to a place called Sandy Beach where the waves were like nothing I have ever seen in California. We put on some sunscreen and were all ready to dive in when the lifeguard called to us and warned us not to go in. He said the place held the record for the most broken necks and ribs incidences than any other beach. Everyone else out in the water all had boards and they were all presumably much more experienced at tackling those waves than us. I wonder how he knew we were tourists... Michael suggested that we were too pale... After lunch, the sky was pouring. It was raining about as hard as it does in California but the air was still warm enough to be out in a t-shirt or in Brian's case, no shirt at all. Michael and I are convinced that Brian cannot be contained... After lunch, we went to Pearl Harbor. After watching an hour long documentary on the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor, we took a short boat ride to the USS Arizona memorial. This place hasn't changed at all over the years. Even after 66 years, the surface of the water still has a thin layer of oil. It's fitting that we were here to see this, since we'll soon be seeing the final location for the Pacific theater of World War 2 in Japan.

04122007

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Brian: Hawaii, Day 3

The days pass by, warm and sunshiny. The weather is so warm it literally lulls you to sleep. Every time we got in the car for more than a couple minutes, we'd nod off. Today we made a trip to Waimea Falls, a waterfall on the north shore of Oahu. It's located in a valley that is a nature preserve. I took a buttload of pictures there of varying quality - the scenery there was amazing, what varied was just my ability to capture it. The waterfall at the end was about 45 ft high and emptied into a pool 30 feet deep. Swimming around in the pool was kind of like in the movies where you see people relaxing in paradise. However, it was kind of scary when you swim over the drop off from the shallow area into water so deep you can't see the bottom. It also got really cold as you got closer to the waterfall. After Waimea Falls we went to Turtle Beach, the most famous golf course on Oahu. It costs $180 to play a round of golf, which is somewhat out of my budget. On the way back we stopped by a random beach on the North shore and watched the surfers riding waves. At night we went to the jacuzzi again. This time there was a singer performing covers with a guitar. The first song was James Blunt's "You're Beautiful", and the next song was Green Day's "Time of Your Life". I played those songs with Dan on guitar, so I was stayed for the whole performance. He wasn't spectacular on guitar, but his voice was pretty good.

Pictures:
Day 2
Day 3

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Brian: Hawaii, Day 2

Every trip has its milestones, the unforgettable moments that you recite endlessly to your friends when they ask you "how was it?". Today wasn't one of those days. Today was one of those days spent in traffic, going outlet shopping, running errands, and loafing around at the pool. I didn't even get a decent tan (although I'm still recovering from a mild sunburn on my back). There were still some highlights from a relatively uneventful day, however. One of the errands we had to run was to get a JR pass (Japan Railways pass) which lets us travel an unlimited amount on the trains in Japan for 7 days. It cost $238, which isn't exactly cheap, but when you consider that a round-trip ticket from Kyoto to Tokyo on the Shinkansen is about that price, 7-days worth of unlimited travel suddenly sounds golden. We also had a marvelous lunch at an all-you-can-eat Japanese buffet. They had crab, lobster, bowls of ikura (fish eggs), sea urchins, soft-shell crab, ... pretty much everything I like to eat except the plain old tuna nigiri. This is not including the chocolate fountain fondue and made-to-order crepes for dessert :P. And the sweetest thing is that the bill was only $12 per person. We also did some outlet shopping because Patrick needed some gifts for his co-workers. I ended up buying a messenger bag from Calvin Klein for $40, minus 10% because it was a little defective. Then at night, I soaked in the Jacuzzi for a while. It was pretty cool because I met this couple - the guy was white and the girl was Japanese. That seems pretty typical. We started out pretty cautiously, as you tend to do with strangers - they revealed that they were from San Francisco, I revealed that I was from Stanford, we talked a bit about Mandarin Chinese (which they heard me speak to Patrick's parents), and that's when I found out the girl was Japanese. Then the guy reveals he's sort-of a professor, before finally spilling the beans that he and his wife are in the San Francisco Symphony. It turns out that he plays the French horn and his wife is a violinist (how the stereotypes hold up) and we talk about all sorts of music things and education in general. I gathered that the girl must have been a prodigy because she said she went to conservatory in Vienna (that just knocked me dead!) and combined with the information that she started violin when she was 4 and was now in the SFS, pretty much sealed the deal. Their names were Naomi and Doug. Back to the room after that: dinner was buffalo wings and instant ramen.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Brian: Hawaii, Day 1 (Pictures)

Photo album from the day with a short movie at Hanauma Bay

Brian: Hawaii, Day 1

We're in Hawaii right now. This place is REALLY freaking nice :). And by "this place" I mean simultaneously Hawaii, Oahu, this hotel, and our room, EVERYTHING! It's super ridiculously nice. The room is a suite so there's a kitchen, living room, and 3 bedrooms for just 6 people. Also, the weather is sooo good. Basically I walked around in swim trunks and a t-shirt (or no shirt) from when I got up until I got back to the hotel late at night. AND, I ate shaved ice outside after it got dark with no jacket...! In the morning we went to the beach outside the hotel and made sand castles, then we went to costco to buy some things. A friend from Stanford (Jason) who's a local then took us to Hanauma Bay where we did some snorkeling. There's an incredible diversity of fish in the bay. It's like swimming in an aquarium. There was even a sea turtle! It was kind of painful though because I got a bunch of scratches from the reef and salt water kept going up my noise and burned my eyes. That's the part they don't tell you about snorkeling :/. Afterwards, we went to have shaved ice and then walked around Waikiki Beach. That place is like the Las Vegas strip on the beach - there's all these really fancy stores and so many people (especially Japanese people). We had dinner there at a diner-type establishment called the Wailoa Coffee House and then came back after walking around for a couple hours. I'm so tired now... but at the same time, it's really a relaxing place :).