Restaurant, Bus, Train

So, I just wanted to briefly talk about how the 3 of those things work there. All 3 seem to work on a philosophy of saving you time.

Restaurant: generally in a family type restaurant such as Udon place or family restaurant, there is a button on the table to call a waiter. This eliminates the issue in the states of waiting forever for a waiter to come take your orders. It also eliminates the issue of the waiter coming to your table bothering you with the phrase "Is everything ok?"

Bus: Generally the way the bus works is that, the bus has 2 doors, the middle and front door. You enter through the middle door and take a ticket form a machine. The ticket has a number, there is a board at the front of the bus which gives the price from the bus stop you got on (number on the ticket) until the next bus stop. When you get to your stop you go up to the front and drop the ticket along with the payment into a machine next to the driver. Obviously sometimes you can pre-pay a ticket from point A to point B, in which case you just drop the ticket.

Train: Generally on local trains and metros there is a board at the station which gives the cost of a ticket to a certain station. You buy a ticket that is worth a certain "value", or the cost to your destination. If the train you're taking is an express has reserved seating then you'd have to bay for a specific time and date. When you get on the train you pass through a gate, using your ticket to open it. When you get to your station, your use your ticket to get out through another gate. On a local train if you pass your stop, you would have to go to the fare adjustment window and pay the extra cost. I'm not sure, and don't really want to know what happens if you lose your ticket. In more rural areas on small stops there are no gates, so the tickets are sold and collected by a cashier. When the cashier closes, one of the conductors from the train might collect some of the tickets.

AIkido Test

Ok, so after quite a bit of training and some last minute training I went to take the 5th kyu Aikido Test today. Me and the other people taking the test were told to be at the Dojo at 9AM. Now, since there are no buses at that time meant we left the school at 6:30AM. We did consider taking the Taxi, which would cost 3500 yen (bus costs 150), split between the 6 of us it would cost around 600 yen. Unfortunately, as we discovered the taxi van was booked which means we'd have to take two of them, we decided we'd rather walk. After taking the train we ended up taking another good 30 minutes to walk to the Aikido Dojo (school).

The Dojo is very small by American Standards. There were about 10 of us and it was quite crowded. As students of the assistant Sensei we were treated as members. Those of us that took the 5th kyu test (lowest rank). All the tests were graded by the school's Head Sensei. Considering the set up of the school, I think he lives over the Dojo. Following the 5th kyu students, higher ranked students took far longer test after us. After we were done, we practiced some anti-knife techniques. The results...we weren't told. It seems that if we pass a certificate will be mailed, but I'm really not sure.

The day ended with lunch with everyone at a nearby Udon place, and taking the bus back. Well, that's how my day went, the Dojo was very traditional, I was thinking that I should have went here before for classes at least once in a while, its a little out of the way from the school but it would have been a good way to meet people outside of the University.

Sushi!!

Ok, first for a brief picture update.

I've added 4 pictures here related to my visit to the community center a little while back

The 2nd update related to this entry here, 10 pictures added to the Random Akita #2 album about my visit to a Sushi place.

So, yes it is quite overdue but I finally got some Sushi. Why did it take so long? Well, my only experience with Sushi were mostly California rolls from back home. I found them rather slimy and unimpressive. Today however, I finally went with a Japanese friend of mine, Takuma to get some Sushi. On the way we went through the mall and met up with Kris from Canada, and another Japanese girl named Marina, who I know from Aikido and who is Kris's Japanese conversation partner.

Well, let's just say I don't remember last time food made me this happy. I'm not sure if they have stuff like this back home so I will explain how the Sushi place worked. Pretty much we sat at a table with a conveyor belt to our right, seen here:

From Random Akita #2

You could pretty much take whatever you want from the belt. Also, if you felt like it you could use the menu to order something that you liked by typing it into a computer screen. Above the conveyor belt there was kind of a mini-rail. And a train would arrive carrying your orders. According to Takuma, food ordered directly was fresher and of course sometimes you had to wait until what you wanted arrived on the belt. In addition to sushi the menu contained a variety of things of desserts, chicken, omelet, takoyaki, (but of course the Sushi was the best). We also got some really good green tea with our meal. In one of the pictures early in my meal I tried some Hamburger Sushi, while it looked impressive initially it was really hard to pick up with chopsticks and not that tasty in my opinion by the end of the meal. I also tried some Sushi whose flavor I don't remember but apparenlty really impressed both of the Japanese students who told me that they've never seen anyone eat it on their first time. (mah? I thought it was good). Overall, however, the menu literally had hundreds of items and even the 2 Japanese people said that they have yet to try everything.

Overall, I think I want to just want to live near that restaurant so I can there all the time. Just a quick note on the price, all of the Sushi at this place had a fixed price of 105 yen (about $1.20) per plate. Side items such as soup, chicken, and dessert sometimes had higher slightly prices. I ended up eating about 8 plates of Sushi and side dishes for a total of about 1100 yen (A little over $11). Considering the quality and quantity of food I would say that's pretty cheap. I liked better then shabu shabu which had a fixed price of about $20, of course its apparently much cheaper during Lunch, so if I'm around the area at night I will definitely pick Sushi over Shabu Shabu.

JET ALT

So, I was talking to some about this and they suggested that I blog about it. JET is a government program that allows people from other countries to come into Japan and work. The most popular position that covers for 90% of JETs is ALT or 'Assistant Language Teacher'. An ALT is pretty much assigned to a school (or several schools) and he assists generally with English class. (Actually, ALTs can be teaching any Language, but mostly English). ALTs have 2 major requirements: Be an native speaker in the language you teach and have Bachelors degree. There are some other age-related and how much time you spent in Japan requirements. More information can be found on their website.

But I wish to talk about my personal thoughts about this. I have definitely considered becoming an ALT almost as soon as I came here, even meeting kids with the primary purpose of seeing if I can handle this and getting some experience. My final thought is that, while I think I could work with kids, I seriously doubt I would do ALT now. There are several reasons for this. First, ALT is not a career and JET limits you to 5 years. This puts you in a rather silly position in Japan, where lifetime employment is a big part of the culture, and while it is fading, teachers do generally get lifetime tenure. As such you are not really teacher, since you have a college degree, it also seems like you should have a serious job at a company.

I have met some JET's and a lot of them feel like outsiders. They justify this because they are 'Gaijin' (a derogatory term for western foreigner), personally, however, I disagree with this assessment. I think they are outsiders because they are ALT's for the reasons stated above, rather then their nationality. This is based on my personal experiences at AIU versus what I've been told by JETs.

Having met some ALT's I can definitely see ALT as sort of a "finding yourself" thing. I think this why I got to do Study Abroad, my thoughts however, more and more, is that I do have the background to do a more serious job. Yes, I will have to learn Japanese, but this was my intention from the beginning.

And of course there is the little thing of ALT's getting pretty poor near minimum wage pay. Now, there is another position that does require Japanese knowledge (ALT has no Japanese language requirement) which JET CIR, or coordinator for international relations. They pretty much put you in a local government office to assist them with things such as translating, interpreting, maybe dealing with some international guests. Possibly, occasionally teach English. apparently this various quite a bit based on where you are.

Japanese Food

So, I remember a reoccurring joke about Japan, there are 3 food groups: Rice, Fish, and everything else. Part of the reason for this joke, is that meat was illegal in Japan for many years (fish was ok). These days however, being a vegetarian causes confusion and international students that are vegetarian are in serious danger of starving here. Meat is quite a popular food, and you do not have to be a fish lover to enjoy it all. So, I will mention a few foods that I like since I got here. I did write an entry on shabu shabu a while back. So some foods:

Katsukare - Japanese rice curry with a fried pork cutlet. Yeah, they are sold in the cafeteria at lunch time, I tend to get a craving for this once in a while..

Udon - Beef over rice, a somewhat modified version called "Cheese udon" with Cheese is available.

Hamburger Steak - This may be American food but its quite popular here with "Hamburger steak" places. Its pretty much a bunless hamburger with spices and some side dishes.

Takoyaki- fried octopuses, I tried this once and can't say that I have a taste for it. However, I Tried it at a convenience store and supposedly it wasn't very good quality.

Nikuman - Also sold at most convenience stores. Flour dough filled with pork, can be filled with other things

Onigiri - rice ball with a fish filling. Common for "lunch on the go"

Taiyaki - a popular sweet, fish shaped. Usually filled with red bean paste but can contain other fillings

Reflection: Sleep

Ok, I've been told many times by family that you should always get up early, I also heard from certain teachers and doctors that its good to keep your sleeping regular and not sleep in on the weekends. I never really gave much thought to this advice, until now. There are I think 2 major reasons why sleeping regularly 7 days a week is important. First, if you sleep in late, you will find yourself up late into the night. Unless you had very clear plans for that night, that time is a lot less productive then the day. A lot of people are sleeping, stores are closed, you can't go to as many places. The other reason is that sooner or later, with work and school, you probably will have to get up early. At this point, if your sleeping isn't regular, you will feel sleepy the entire day and as such that day will be extremely unproductive.

Nagano-Sensei's dinner party

So I realized that over the last few weeks there really wasn't much going on, I haven't gone to Akita City, There were no field trips, I think my somewhat negative mood was due to this. Last night I attended Nagano-Sensei, the nursing school teacher. Unfortunately, none of her students were there but there but I did get to hang out with some International students from AIU: Joanna from US, Evelyn from Singapore, Seok from Korea, and one more guy whose name I can't remember from Taiwan. I also got to meet some ALT's (assistant language teachers that teach in schools) and a lot of Japanese people overall. We got to eat some food and drink Sake (Alcoholic drink from Rice) and Chuhai (Fruit cocktail/beer) which was quite sweet.

One thing I will say about a Japanese dinner party, there were about 40 people there, the floor was heated and everyone was sitting on the floor. This really fixes the problem in American and Europe of never having enough chairs when you have people over. Hey, you can have as many people as you like as long as there is enough floor space which was quite full. Nagano-Sensei also gave us some pictures from when we met the nursing students, I know have the only 2 paper photos from this trip (everything else is Digital). Overall, however, except for the light headache from the alcohol I feel better now then I've felt in weeks. I believe next Saturday I might go to Akita city to the Aikido dojo to watch a black belt test, and in 2 weeks possibly if I feel ready, for my own test for 5th kyu.

Lara Fabian

I seem to be listening more and more to piano lately rather the any "popular" music. It just seems like a lot of the music I used to like, I guess the singing just lacks something. A few singers like Leona Lewis, Avril Lavigne, and the German bond Monrose seem to be just "ok" to me now, rather then great. However, here is one voice that I do find absolutely amazing. It is the Belgian singer Lara Fabian. She is fluent and sings in 4 languages: English, French, Italian, and Portuguese. Americans might recognize her song "I will love again" which reached #1 on some American charts about 10 years ago. However, this song that I found is in French and it means 'Immortal', check it out:

Greetings

Ok, I don't think I wrote any entires relating directly to the Japanese language. So I just feel like talking about greetings a little bit since I think its a topic I have a good grasp on. This definitely exists in European languages, but not to this extent. In Japanese there is a clear difference between formal and informal language. I will distinguish between formal and informal greetings. Formal is used for Superiors, teachers, older people, and generally all people you just met. Informal is used with friends, classmates, family members.

So Greetings:
Ohayo- Informal, Good morning. Almost like saying "Good morning" with the informality of saying "hi".

Ohayo Gozaimaus - Good morning, formal

Konnichiwa- Good afternoon, used for both formal and informal

Konbanwa- Good Evening...there might be an informal way of saying this, but I can't remember it.

Yasumi - 'Good night', informal

Arrigato Gozaimashita - Formal "Thank you", in certain situations used to say "Good bye" formally.

Otsukare - Generally translated as "Good job". Used as an informal greeting (both hello and goodbye) between co-workers, fellow group members, fellow club members, pretty much anyone you've worked with or helped.

Yosh -Sort of a "What's up", informal, a little masculine I think and more used between men. (all do not always).

I guess since I'm at this, Japanese has minor differences between how Men and Women speak. I don't think the difference are that big, but generally it seems more approopriate for women to be a little more formal then men. Women tend to put 'o' before certain objects such as "O-hoshi"(chopsticks) rather then jut "hoshi". The more notable differences are pronoun "I". Some ways of saying it:

Watashi- Gender neutral and used by what seems to me 95% of people.

Atashi- feminine, 2nd most common "I" that I've heard in Japan

Boku - masculine, I've only heard this one Swedish guy who is fluent in Japanese use it.

Ore - masculine, somewhat arrogant, I have not heard anyone use this one.

Ok, this is the same piece that I posted before, Moonlight Sonata 3rd Movement, But I Really like the way she plays it. Performed by Japanese Pianist Atsuko Seto.

More Aikido

So, I guess my two main focuses since I came to Japan were Piano and Aikido. Both share some similarities in perhaps that I was previously not too enthusiastic about either and now really like both. On November 29th I might take a test to increase my rank in Aikido. Just some brief information, unlike Judo and many styles of Karate (In the US) Aikido does not have a color belt system. It only have two belts, white belt "kyu" and Black Belt "Dan". You start at 6th Kyu, move up to 1st Kyu, then go to 1st Dan and go up. I might test of the 5th Kyu, of course is you are 2nd Kyu or above you can wear a black Hakama.

1000 hits!

I have officially past 1000 hits mark for my blog, woot!

Some more running thoughts

If doing something has a high failure rate, standing still guarantees it. Doing it, gives you a slight chance of success. Occasionally doing something of course can cause failure at something else, but more often then not I think people are held back by the fear of failure, failing to realize that by standing still they failed already. Ok, that sounded like a tongue twister, I hope you can follow it.

So, with a little over a month left here I find things getting somewhat complicated. When you deal with people as far as personal relationships are concerned. How much can you improve your friendship with someone who you won't see again for a long time? Personally, I would say as far as I can, but I can't help but wonder if that's the case on the other side. I want to make the best of my time here of course. Then there is the question of relationships that are beyond simple friendships. For the first time in my life I feel outgoing enough and understanding that I think I could pursue those with little difficulty if I wasn't under at time limit. This is causing causing dilemmas, dilemmas that I don't have time to resolve, and such I am acting more on instinct.

I feel like I've gotten some funny looks from some of the Japanese students lately, weather those looks are all connected isn't clear. None of the looks seem negative, perhaps I'm just wearing something interesting? The hat or the scarf? I did get a rather cryptic message out of my economics group the other day. Which I might mention later, perhaps when I understand its opening, until then I will avoid putting it up here.

Moonlight Sonata 3rd Movement

So, practicing the piano, as of now I am trying to improve a piece I used to play known as the Sonata in G Minor by Beethoven. You can listen to the piece >here. As nice as this piece is, it is known as one of Beethoven's two "easy sonatas" (easy by Sonata standards, not overall piano standards) made primarily for teaching purposes. So, I really wanted to play something more serious and interesting. I have considered for some diversity to try another composer like Chopin. However, I ended up settling on Beethoven once again. So, behold, one of the coolest piano pieces I have ever heard.
Beethoven's less famous 3rd movment Moonlight Sonata. I've already printed out the sheet music, and let me just say my hands, especially my right hand will probably have grow some new muslces. The piece is classified as "Presto", out of about 20 tempo speed classifications this is the 2nd fastest (the fastest being "Prestissimo") with metronome speeds of 168-200 beats per minute. So, as soon the sorness in my arm is gone, I'll get right back to studying it.

Random #324324

Ok, some good advice, don't starve yourself. I've done this yesterday by accident, I woke up after lunch, which means that food is scare unless you go to a nearby town. I was too hungry to motivate myself, and only ate dinner and whatever I could find at the vending machines afterward. I could not sleep because I was starving. The next day I ended up waking up before lunch (after relatively little sleep), had a big lunch, a few hours later went to McDonalds, bought a lot of fruit so I don't starve anymore.

As I mentioned I slept little today, and its kind of late, so I think I have some more concrete things to express but they just aren't coming out at this hour. Maybe I will write more tomorrow since I haven't had updates in a while. I actually sat down several times before this and I tried writing somethings but none of it got posted.

Oh, I also played piano yesterday until my hands were sore. I'd like to finish this "Sonata in G minor" by Beethoven so I can both perfect it and move on to the more complicated "Sonata Pathetique".

Day 3 of concealment in the Global Village Apartment...

Ok, so don't get sick in a foreign country...actually getting sick when you don't have any family to take care of you is quite different when you don't have family around, and you don't speak the local language too well. Lucky I was only mildly sick, I stayed in the room, only came out when I absolutely had to (for food, really couldn't stack that up in here). Rested, drank warm tea when I could, etc..

On a more positive note, I have finally been able to type my Kanji name: 亜渡夢. As I mentioned, the Kanji are: "Asia, Traveler, Dream" and was given to me by a nursing student named Shizuka (静), its actually two Kanji glued together, her name means "Blue Fighter" which I think is kind of cool too, and kind of matches her outgoing personality. I will try to learn to write these so that in situation where Japanese is used, I can use that to sign my name rather then Katakana (アートム). I will briefly mention again, Katakana is one of 3 Japanese Alphabets and long with Hiragana is a phonetic Alphabet. It is used to spell many words that originated from other languages, and most foreigners that don't have Kanji names will use Katakana as well.

Oh, the nursing school professor has sent me and the other international students an invite for dinner at her house on Saturday in 2 weeks. She mentioned that her husband is a Junior High English teacher, and that she will invite some of her Nursing students. I am hoping to see some familiar faces...