This is my house! Sort of. This is where we are living.
Blurry picture of Kyle looking into a stream.
My...eto... special friends.
Outside! Top of the stairs.
Top of the stairs! Turning Left!
Good grief it has been a long day. The trip to Japan started with the hotel in Portalnd. Kyle and I stayed with Krista, and had decided that we were going to stay up all night so we could sleep on the plane. So we watched Cloverfield, stayed up too late, and decided to sleep anyway. After a solid (not really) two or three hours of sleep, we left for the airport (my suitcases each weighed a metric ton), and after some exciting shenanigans in the lobby, we managed to get everything toegether. Compltetely exhausted, I decided. Hey. I'm getting coffee. So I did, and it was gross, and 'The Coffee People' are apparently really bad at making good drinks. Anyway. Jittery and still tired, we boared flight one. After a short delay at SFO and some miso soup we finally got onboard with flight 2. It was rather uncomfortable chair that didn't lean back far enough, but it wasn't really a big deal. In flight food was meh. Movies were meh. Tried to sleep. Meh.
At long last they announced that we would be flying over Japan soon, so, I'm sure you can all imagine, I went into happy-panic mode and Krista and I pressed our heads against the window for a good twenty minutes watching the clouds and the boats. Finally, land. Glorious, green sprawling land. Japan is absolutely gorgeous from above. Everything was green. So epic. After carrying way too much luggage through customs (we got more crap from the Canadians than we did here, it was real fast), we met some students from Kanto Gakuin in the Narita Airport lobby. Begin epic language fail!
Today I met Yuumi, Megumi, Kazuhiko and Katsuaki(Su). I did meet a few others as well, but only just as a group, and did not get to find out their names. After waiting for some students from other universities to arrive we started a loooong bus ride to Hayama. We stopped once (I got some udon and made a fool of myself trying to order it up front (of course, you use a computer, this is Japan after all.) I spent most of the bus ride talking to Kazuhiko (or trying, my Japanese is so bad), and I think we will get along well. He is an English major and will probably come to Linfield to study next year. Eventually, we got to the Hayama seminar house (pictures incoming), where we will be staying. It's pretty sweet. Our rooms are definitely small, but they are very nice, and the building itself is HUGE. I've been trying to use as much Japanese as possible, and also have been trying to ask words. So far the biggest confusion was asking what the Japanese word for coin was. Kyle and I were trying to explain that we wanted to know the general word for metal coins, but kept getting specific answers, like oh that's 五百円です(500 yen) see, it says right there on it. Got the word eventually. Already forgot it. Crap.
I sleep now. Been awake for too many days. Blarg. More epic fail tomorrow.
Oh. Did I mention that walking around here is like swimming? It's very, VERY humid. In a non stick way, so I don't mind.
2 comments:
Oh Dane! I'm so happy for you that I cried when I read the part that you made it to Japan! Me so happy! You even get to talk to Japanese people that want to talk to you (at least I sincerely hope that is the case). Here I am living right across from JAL and not a word goes back and forth between them and us. I think it's the culture (I wish one of them would want to share Japanese language with us). They also all seem to be guys, if the girls come over here too, I haven't seen any.
Haha, I remember that feeling of "oh crap, my language skills arent as good as I thought." It'll pass as you get more used to the languages, as I'm sure you already know. Oh, and you better bring me something back, or else. lol. j/k
Post a Comment