WoOah, time warp

As you may have realized my last post just now is perhaps a bit late. Three weeks late. I actually wrote it my first week here, and then preceded to leave it in the drafts folder and completely forget about it. I'll try and be better about this thing, though at the moment I don't have anything particular to write about. I guess these first few posts will be more a broad survey than anything. Expect more later on maybe?
So. Japan. It's different. Really different. But also the same. Very much the same. Allow me to elaborate. Things like food, waste disposal, mannerisms, transportation, toilets etc. are different. Things like drunk college students and partying and not wanting to go to class are the same.
First the trash, because that I think is what blew my mind my first couple weeks. The system for trash disposal is very strict. It kind of has to be, seeing as there's not a whole lot of room for it. So they burn what they can, and the rest falls under either recyclable or a mysterious mishmash of OTHER. I'm not sure what happens to OTHER as of yet. But basically every individual is expected to sort through his/her respective trash, dispersing it amongst such categories as burnable and raw, plastic bottles, plastic trash (often labelled as this OTHER trash), and cans/aluminum. If the article you wish to throw out has bits belonging to different bins, you're supposed to take it apart. And if you don't, they know. They always know. And then it becomes this problem because the trash guys won't take the garbage etc etc, and everyone loses. I didn't throw out a single thing my first week because I was just so terrified of getting it wrong. This is system also makes for an aggravating journey though public places (specifically train stations) to find trash bins. Of which there are 0. I think trash bins in public places make it onto my top five list of Things Taken for Granted in My Life.
Reading food labels is also a big one. There's little more frustrating than wandering around a grocery store and not being able to recognize anything outside eggs and the odd banana. Same goes for menus and cooking directions. Cooking even really easy instant crap is still a pain when you can't read the kanji for 'boil'.
Maybe I should tell a story or something to make this more interesting. I don't really have any great ones yet, but I can sum up what I've done so far. The pictures some of you might have seen (most notably my current facebook profile pic) were for the most part taken at Kiyomizu Dera (-mizu dera = water temple). This was a very cool place on top of a very big hill in Kyoto. The view was really fantastic. It had many fountains where you were supposed t cup the water with this big ladle thing and then pour it over your hands or drink it. There were also a lot of shrines where you could pray/make wishes, and also a few awesome sounding bell-gong things you could ring. You could also buy these little fortunes, and at the very top there was an entire area devoted to love and romantic fortunes etc. There were a LOT of giggly girls. I was not of them, but it was kind of neat to watch. After the temple we went and ate desert at this little restaurant with the same amazing view. I got green tea ice cream with mochi and red beans. I tell you, the Japanese and I share a similar sweet tooth.
And after that I had my first taste of the nihon karaoke scene. This is something everyone should do. You sit in a small room with your friends and sing really loudly and watch strange, so-completely-unrelated-to-the-song-you're-singing-that-it's-maybe-a-bit-distracting footage on the television screen. And of course you order drinks and dessert stuffs non-stop (though that makes it all a tad more expensive). People do that for hours and hours, sometimes the whole night.
Since then I've done some other things, mostly exploring Hirakata-shi (the downtown Hirakata area) and bits of Osaka (which is huge and terrifying and I haven't the courage to go alone ever.). Maybe I'll talk about these things later. For now I think I'll try to post some pictures of the area (which I will take as soon as it quits raining -_-)
Ja ne.
~ze gaijin fish.

Day Dos! Oh wait, no I meant ni. I am in Japan, not Mexico. I keep forgetting.

So, Day 2 in the whirlwind that is Sarah's crazy confusing orientation. I'll try to remember to post some pictures soon (of my dorm, of my street etc. etc...). It's kind of really different here. The streets are very, very confusing, just like everyone has said they would be, but it's not the names that confuse me. Because there don't actually seem to be names. Anywhere. At least anywhere I can see them. I guess I really need to look harder.

So. Here is my attempt at a longer-ish post.

This first part is about travel. It might get kind of boring. I'm writing it all out just to put it to paper. You are not obligated to read it. Skip to the (big) paragraph break at the end if you want to read about something more interesting.

Let's start with the flight. It was long. Really, really long. As in, 'I probably could have fit in two nights worth of sleep in there had I not been sitting in between two people with really pushy elbows' long. And also by the time we were in the air my temp was already up past 101 AGAIN, and my throat started killing me and those flight attendants walk way too fast to be genuinely interested in helping people. Food was nummy though, I will give them that. And there was this really awesome channel on the tv where you could watch the live feed off the camera on the underside of the plane *while in the air*. We flew over canada and Alaska (hm, Alaska got capitalized, but not canada. Sorry canada.), so there was tundra and forests and mountains. It was cool. Of course, we took off maybe an hour and a half after we were supposed to, so even as I was swooning over the tundra and trying to ignore the michael jackson tribute that seemed to play continuously on that particular channel I was also constantly worrying about missing my connecting flight. So basically I spent fourteen hours worrying.

Then of course an hour before we landed I was told someone would be helping me get to my gate. I was rounded up with these three American business men. We talked a bit, but that's probably only because we were so relieved to be able to speak english.

So when we landed there was a moment where I was fairly disoriented, but I basically just followed the businessmen (who were also disoriented, but seemed generally inclined to be more decisive/aggressive/and also accurate then I am). And they were handy, because one of them spotted the ground attendant who was supposed to help us. Said lady then stuck these pink stickers on our sleeves and we followed her around this huge airport like a herd of dazed sheep. It was maybe a little Ellis Island-esque, not gonna lie. Other pink stickered people joined us, though I know not from whence they came. Needless to say, though, the super efficiency of this little bo peep system got us onto that plane within ten minutes of our arrival. Pretty cool.

AND THEN I LANDED IN KANSAI. That's in caps because once I cleared customs I realized that there would be no kindly airport employees prodding me along towards my next destination. And everything -every last freaking thing- was in Japanese. Which wasn't surprising, but way, way more terrifying than I thought it would be. First of all, I knew I had to buy a bus ticket, but there weren't any kiosks or booths or anything remotely bus related inside, so I instead I had to follow the sign with the bus on it oustide. Where I discovered what I thought was a ticket box. After an embarrassingly incoherent conversation with the clerk there, I found that there were actually four of these counters, and I was basically on the opposite end of where I needed to be. But I did buy a ticket. And I did make the bus. And when we got to hirakata-shi I was approached by this couple who had also been on the bus, and it turned out the man was a professor at Kansai Gaidai. A philosophy professor. I am probably going to be in his ethics class. And he paid for the cab. Saweeet. And so ended my nerve-destroying travel experience.



THE TOILET SEATS ARE HEATED HERE. That was for everyone who wanted to skip all that. Yes, the toilets are super high tech and I have yet to figure them out. Other things of note, my roommate is completely awesome and helpful. This seems like enough for one post.

I should be doing other things right now.

So I'm leaving for the airport in, oh, eight hours. Am I packed? Um, not really. Am I confident in my traveling abilities? Hahaha, no. Am I even remotely prepared? _ _. That's a fill in the blank right there. I'll leave it up to you. Now I should really go back to getting ready, just wanted to see how this worked. Also it might be funny to look back on how terrified I was the night before leaving the country all by my lonesome. Unless I do end up in a ditch somewhere outside Hirakata, in which case the humor of the situation might suffer the teensiest bit. SO. Let's see where I am in the next 36 hours, hm?