last post from Japan

Sunday, 4:20pm July 25 2010

I cant believe its over. Three months ago I was just getting settled into my Japanese lifestyle and now Im getting ready to leave. Honestly I dont really think its hit me yet even though I am mostly packed and ready.
These past two or so weeks were really rough because I was not in the best mood. Part of me is really excited to be home and to see my family and to be in a place where I understand things, but another part of me is really not ready to go.
Today after church they had a going away party for me which I didnt know was happening. I was walking around the sanctuary after lunch and the pastors wife brought out a blueberry cake and a cheesecake. I was really excited to see the desserts that we were having and Heyben (one of my friends from Korea) said "Yeah, they are for you" I had no idea till the pastors wife said also said "Dont go anywhere courtnie because we are having a Going away party for you" She proceeded to make me sit at the head of the table and she went around and told every one to say something to me either in Japanese or English. After everyone had said their goodbyes I was sung multiple God Bless you songs and prayed over in Korean/Japanese/Chinese and English (they sat me in a chair and everyone put a hand on me and prayed out loud in their own language) it was REALLY cool. I received flowers and a card that everyone had signed in their own language which was pretty neat. I finally got everything packed the best I could, I still have toiletry things to pack yet but I will do that when I clean tomorrow. Tomorrow they are coming to shut off all my electrical type stuff (gas, water, electric, Internet etc...)
Friday night we went to Fireworks (hanabi which means flower fire) we were wearing our Yukata and it proceeded to Pour down rain. We got soaked! Saturday we went out for sushi and I attempted to start packing (didnt really get anywhere, but I tried).

Last weekend (the 17th) was Nadines Birthday.We went back to the historical village with Laura Bre and Gisele After we spent the entire day there we went out to dinner and they went and saw a movie that they really wanted to see, instead of going home like I had planned i decided to go see Toy Story 3 in 3D which was a lot of fun. My main reason for going was so that I wouldn't have to walk home by myself. There is a lot more stuff that we've done but right now I cant remember it all... Class is over (for me) Monday I have to go to the ATM to get money so that I can pay bills and clean and I will be set to leave. I REALLY hate flying so I'm not really looking forward to spending the entire day on a plane on Tuesday but I'm really ready to see my family and Darlene is coming to the airport with them so that's exciting :-D pictures and videos are on face book and I'm sure I will have stories a plenty when I get back.

SEE YOU TUESDAY!!!!!!

Court

Should be writing my paper...

Thursday evening, 6:07, July 15th 2010

I cant believe how fast this trip is going. I have about a week an a half left in Japan and still so much I want to do. I have yet to eat my fill of sushi here so that is the number one thing on my list of stuff to do. I also want to go to the brewery museum and to Moss Burger before I leave.
The past couple weeks have been interesting. Last weekend I spent Friday night downtown at the DK house with Bre and Gisele. It was a ton of fun. The plan was to go out to sushi on Friday night and to the shrine in our yukata. That didn't happen. We ended up going to the sushi place and realizing that it was a very long wait, because Gisele doesn't like sushi I decided it wasn't really worth it so we ended up going to another restaurant. The restaurant served sushi so I got it and was greatly disappointed. It wasn't very filling and somewhat expensive. After our not so successful dinner we needed more food so we went looking for dessert. We found this place that served Pancakes so we decided to check it out. I wasn't really feeling pancakes so I ended up getting Tirimisu and mango sorbet. Bre and Gisele ordered what they thought was going to be a stack of 4 pancakes with toppings and were surprised when they got a stack of 6 gigantic pancakes with mounds of Chocolate and whipped cream. These things were gigantic and they both had a hard time finishing them. We were so full when we left that just the mention of more food was enough to make our stomachs hurt. After walking back to DK house and getting situated we watched Inglorious Bastards and had a fun filled girls night. The next day the plan was to check out a school festival, go to the beer museum and get sushi for lunch... That didn't happen. We went to the festival and ended up staying there most of the day. I was not very happy with the drastic change of plans mostly because the festival was at a high school. Being back in a high school reminded me of how much I dont like being a foreigner. We were constantly stared at by the high school girls and talked about like we didn't understand. It was just a bit annoying. the good thing about the day was that we got a lot of free/cheap things.
The rest of the week was filled with classes, homework, and annoying professors that like to wait till the last minute to tell us what the heck we are supposed to do for a paper that we should have already had done and turned in. This weekend is Nadine's birthday and we are going back to the historical village and out to dinner which will be lots of fun, If it doesn't rain. I got information today about what needs to be done before I leave. I still need to figure out how the heck Im getting to the airport, Im not really ready to leave Japan just yet, but at the same time Im ready to be home.
Court

My first 4th without fireworks.

monday night, 10:15, July 5, 2010

Well last time I wrote I had left you with the notion that I was going to the chocolate factory the next day. That didn't happen and I cant remember why. This weekend was crazy fun. Friday after class was nothing really special (not that I can remember anyway) I dont think we did anything friday night. Saturday we got up early and went to meet Bre and Gisele downtown to go to the chocolate factory. We got there and Teren was with them, which was fine by me. We went and got our cards for the saturday special thing where you can ride the subway all you want for 5 dollars and headed off to find Chocolate. We walked into the chocolate factory, which I decided to call the Japanese Willy Wonka, and payed our entry fee thing and set off exploring. It was a ton of fun, and really cool. More of a museum than a plain chocolate factory. We saw the Japanese oompa loompas, what we called the workers because we thought it was funny, and wondered around the gardens for a few hours. We were later joined by Teren's friend Fumitaka aka Tommy. He had been an exchange student at BSU like my freshman or sophomore year? and so he was very americanized. We decided to change his name to Tommy and convince people he was from California. After we all left the chocolate factory we had about an hour or so before we had to meet Bunkin for shopping. Teren was so tired and didn't really want to go shopping with the girls so he decided to go home and take a nap. After figuring out what everyone wanted to do Teren ended up separating from the group and the girls... and Tommy... went shopping for Yukata (yes, we managed to take Tommy with us). It was SO funny. He had us laughing so hard when he held our bags and stuff for us. He was trying to be convincing so he butchered Japanese saying Ari-ga-to go-za-ma-su in a southern type accent and trying on flowers and things when we went shopping. We almost made him try to tie the Obi (the belt part of a yukata) but he wouldn't :-(

After shopping we decided to hang out downtown and go to dinner later with everyone. We went back to DK house (where Bre and Gisele live) and hung out for a bit. After we dropped off Tommy at Terens room, Bre did our hair and makeup and we ended up borrowing her clothes (which was surprising that we all fit into). We met up with Teren, Todd, Tommy and Brandon ( The Irish Guy) and we all went out for dinner. We had our little room and everyone was trying to get Brandon to talk because we loved his accent. It made all the girls happy when he said "Shame". I sat by him at dinner and had a Beer with him. We went to an all you can drink/eat place and kept ordering food and drinks. I could tell that Brandon was Irish and I wasnt because when I was finished with my first (and only) beer, he was starting his third. By the end of the meal there was SO much food left over that we couldnt finish it all because we were SO FULL, but more food just kept coming and coming and coming. ... Tabehodai is dangerous And that is the piece of advice I will leave you with tonight.

Court

"Huh... an Earthquake" and other random Japan adventures

Monday night, 9:15pm June 28th 2010

Two months done, one more to go. Sitting on my bed attempting to get this silly presentation done before reading more Harry Potter. An update from the last time I wrote.

Many of these adventures involve getting lost, being hot, thinking that my mind is playing tricks on me, getting upset, having a blast etc... so let the stories begin.

With long classes and lots of stuff to do it was difficult to have fun this past week/weekend. We had a bunch of homework and random things that need to be done, but we managed to attempt to have fun Saturday. Nadine and I set off for the Historical Village of Hokkaido which was supposed to be only about a 15-20 minute train ride and another 15 minute walk from the station. However it took us about 5 hours to get there. Let me start at the beginning. Saturday we decided we were going to leave at 10:30 (which really ended up being 11 because Nadine is ALWAYS late). So we set off for school to get money and then to the bus so that we could actually get downtown. Once downtown we realized just how hot and humid it was outside. We decided to go underground to the subway and walk the underground shopping center called poll town that connects two stations. After stopping for a snack to tide us over till we got to where we were going we set off for the subway. Once there we looked at a map and saw that we were in the wrong place. So we walked poll town again to the other station to try that... again we were wrong. We decided that we would know where we were if we went above ground. Once above ground we headed in the direction of Sapporo Station (another station that we knew would have more subway systems). Once at this station we headed below ground and once again we saw no sign of the subway track we needed. Mind you this all took about an hour and a half. after wondering around Sapporo Station for another hour, which puts 2 hours behind where we wanted to be, we finally found where we needed to be. After buying our ticket and going through the gate we came across problem number 2. Where is our platform? After asking someone who had no idea we decided to wonder around a little bit and finally after another half an hour we decided to take my brilliant advice and ask a police man who was directing traffic for people coming off trains. By this time not only was I hot and tired, I was getting mad at little things because of how hot and tired I was. FINALLY we got on our train and headed on our way to a fun time at the Historical Village (so I thought). We got there and walked out of the train station and realized we had no idea where to go next. So we wondered in one direction for a few minutes, turned back, wondered in the other direction, turned back and finally went into the train station to ask for a map. The lady gave us one and pointed us in the right direction (or so we thought). We wondered straight like she told us and realized about half way down that we were going the wrong way. so we turned around only to see a guy walking toward us who said something to us in Japanese, which of course we didnt understand. He said in broken english that he was staff at the station and that we were going the wrong way. He was sent after us so that we didn't get lost. Finally we were on our way to the Village. 10-15 minutes later we were standing, sweating, at the bottom of the steps that led us up to the old Sapporo train Station. With 2 hours left we decided to see as much of the village as we could. Once there we had a wonderful time. It was SO cool... We learned later that we could has asked for Headphones that told us what everything was in English. Next time we go we will have to do that.

Ok Story number 2

Early this morning at about 6:05-6:10 (give or take a few minutes because I cant remember) I was woken up from an amazing slumber to my bed shaking ... I woke up, looked at the clock and literally said "Huh, earthquake" and went back to bed. When I was fully consious I decided that my mind was playing tricks on me in the middle of the night. While singing "Just my imagination running away with me" I googled Earthquake and was given a sight called "Earthquake Today" I KID YOU NOT! Looking at this web page I found that indeed there was an earthquake in Japan at 6:03 in the morning. At the epicenter (in the middle of the ocean) it was a 5.1 the city that was hit the worst was about 4.5 hours away from us. I got on facebook and sent a quick message to laura asking her if she had felt the quake. she said yes and that it woke her up as well. In class I began talking about the earthquake and people had no idea what I was talking about. Nadine had slept through it and most of the people at the DK house didnt even know there was an earthquake.

Tomorrow we are heading to the Chocolate factory with the other Ball State girls. This weekend we are going to hang out with Bre and Giselle who have met an Irish guy who they want me to meet (no objection on my end) :-)
Should be an interesting week

Night night
Court

What can I do that is NOT homework?

June 20th Sunday night 9:06pm

Just got done with homework so I thought I would update.

Last time I wrote was the 16th of June, Wednesday I believe.
The 17th was my brothers 18th birthday. I was really sad that I couldn't be home to celebrate with him. He said he had a good day which I was happy about. Other than that this week has been very boring mainly because it was so blasted humid outside.
Friday we didnt have school and so Nadine and I hung out for a bit. We did a quick grocery run on saturday so that we could have some food to eat for the weekend. Friday we got a call in the morning from Bunkin asking what we were doing. She asked if we were free to come over to school to show some high school students around campus and we said SURE. We got there and were told that instead of the 60 students that Bunkin had originally told us were coming, there were only 6. We were really excited that the number dropped so drastically. The group was/is from Washington state and they were super cool. we ended up spending about 3 hours or so with them showing them around campus, talking and getting to know them. Today (sunday) after church we got to go shopping with them downtown. It was nice to get to see them again.

Church today was good. Nadine and I sang Open the Eyes of My Heart and it went surprisingly well for just the two of us. As I said after lunch we got to go downtown to go shopping with the Washington kids. Lots of stuff that I still want to do and not enought time to do it in. I have 5 weeks left here and I still have a list of things that I want to do.
Gonna keep my note short tonight because I have a headache and Im tired.

~Court~

Time flies when your half way across the world

June 16th. Wednesday. 9:41pm

Today was boring. Long, boring, and rainy. All I wanted to do was sleep and I couldn't because I had a full day of classes and a morning devoted to learning a song so we can sing at church on sunday.

Updates from the last time I wrote.

The Soran festival was fun, but not nearly as fun as opening night. I think it was the group of people that I went with that made the difference. I really like Yosakoi and Im sad that the festival is over. Last weekend was a mess, with all the festivals going on and what not I was downtown more than I was at my apartment (which isnt a bad thing, it just cost me money every time I want to go down there.) We've learned how to navigate the subway systems, but the buses are another monster in and of themselves. Its not a problem once we are on the bus, the problem is finding out which bus to take and where it is located. Last week Nadine and I ended up walking home from the station 2 or 3 nights because we A) didn't know were our Bus was located that we needed to get on or B) were too late and the buses stopped running. Public transportation here is wonderful, but the busses stop running so early that you have to time it just right or you will be stranded at the station.

Sunday Nadine and I cooked for church (an outdoor BBQ type deal) It went really well, but I was kinda disappointed because I felt like we didnt get to do anything. There were so many people who wanted to help that it left up with nothing to do. I got to church at around nine after stopping by the convenient store to get milk and MaxValu to get butter. I walked in and the Yoshiko sensei (the pastors wife) had all the meat cooked and the potatoes boiled ready to be wrapped in aluminum foil and she was filling a big pot with water for the mac and Cheese... We made her stop cooking because there was going to be nothing for us to do if we let her continue on like she was. Food turned out great and they were SO excited about having Chocolate cake (in Japan they dont have real chocolate cake and the cakes they do have are SO expensive that they are only bought for special occasions) We are lucky that Nadine's family sent over Kraft Mac and Cheese and Boxes of Cake mix (enough to feel an army).

Tuesday the Nebraska crew met us at school and we all walked over to MacDonalds for lunch. I really enjoy hanging out with them. I decided to think outside my American comfort zone and ordered a Shrimp burger... It was actually really good! During our Mac trip I learned about the waterproof cell phones that are out in Japan. I also learned about the new nintendo creation, the 3D Nintendo DS which doesnt use 3D glasses. It was a pretty fun trip.

Today was long and rainy (like I said before) We made plans to go out and buy a Yukata because I want one REALLY Bad, we also couldn't stay awake during class, it took a mountain dew to keep me awake enough to comprehend what was going on. Friday is our sports festival which is going to be really cool. I think thats all the updating I need to do at this moment in time.

Night night and I will write more later
~Court~

Yosakoi

Friday June 11th, 10:04 am Japan
I've been here for a month already! I cant believe that, it doesn't feel like it AT ALL. There is still so much that I want to do while Im here, it seems like these next 6 weeks are going to go by and Im not going to even realize it. Lots to update on so lets get started.
Monday and Tuesday were normal days in my book. We went to class, did homework, made dinner and watched leverage.
Wednesday was the start of the Yosakoi festival. Yosakoi Soran is a festival celebrating the start of the fishing season with a special type of dance and music. After school wednesday night I ate dinner with Markie and went back to my apartment to put my stuff down and check on Nadine (she has been sick and is just now starting to feel better and gain her energy back). After making sure Nadine was ok I walked down to the bus stop where I was supposed to meet Laura and got a pleasant surprise when Talon showed up with her. We me Markie and Rob on the bus and all headed down to Odori park to watch Satsudai (Sapporo Daigako, aka our school) and other colleges perform in the Yosakoi festival. We took the bus to Odori park where the festival was being held. I sat by laura and Markie and we had our little girls talk while the guys were talking about random guy stuff. We had ran out of stuff to say and all of a sudden Talon randomly says "I have this toothpaste that tastes like mint and lime". Laura about DIED she was laughing so hard. At this moment i realized that it was going to be a hilarious night. We met Seychan at Odori and we walked over to the stage. After loosing the guys, finding a spot, finding the guys again, getting flowers from said guys, and watching two groups perform we spotted Bre and Gisele. They joined our group and we finished watching the show. Satsudai was great! I was really proud of my school, it was funny though because all of us americans were so used to cheering and yelling for the people that perform well and in Japan thats not the custom. We had a great night of fun and random-ness.
Yesterday night (Thursday Night) Nadine, Bre, Gisele and I all went out to dinner. Nadine and I have been wanting to try this little Yakitori place that is right across the street from school and we decided to invite the other BSU girls with us. It was so much fun. We had no idea what we were ordering so we just picked random things. It wasnt so bad because Bre and Gisele had been to a yakitori place before so they knew what they didnt like. We ordered liver, which wasnt so bad and we ended up spending like 8-10 dollars a person for a TON of food.
Tonight we are going downtown to Soran night of the Yosakoi festival. Im pretty excited about seeing it. All I have to do is get through this three hour class and I can enjoy my weekend.
More updates to come.
Hearts and hugs
Court