Japan Style

A lot has happened this week, and it's only Thursday.

I arrived at my dorm via bus on Monday morning. On the way there, I sat next to an Australian guy and we talked about the differences between America and Australia. He was the first Australian I'd really ever spoken to, and I was his first real American to speak to.

We arrived at Seminar House 4 sooner than I'd anticipated. It was just so sudden. It wasn't quite like I'd imagined it to be. Somehow pictures add a certain dreamlike quality to a place. The reality is wonderful, but different and somehow more...mundane, or worldly. I moved into my room, 4309, and my roommates were already here, sleeping on their futon, or Japanese bed made of a thin padded mattress and some blankets on the floor. They're really comfy.

Chris is from Puerto Rico and Florida, and Doug is from Massachusetts. Chris is doing homestay this semester, and was here last semester. They're nice guys, although for the first couple days I was a little anxious around them, especially Chris. His intonation is very strange, and I could never tell if he was being sarcastic or not. I annoyed him once, when I asked if he was mocking me. Those days are long over, though - my self-esteem is back, and I have relaxed around everyone. It's a very good thing I did, because making friends would be hard otherwise.

I took a tour of the area with some Japanese students that afternoon. We went to the closest shops - shimamura and Avail, two clothing stores. Miho and I got to know each other pretty well. She's a Spanish major, and very easy to talk to. We went to several other shops, and a really, really awesome 3 story mall with a HUGE electronics store. I will be buying a DSi LL soon, I'm sure.

Deodorant is hard to find in Japan, and anti-perspirant is all but impossible to locate. I settled on some unscented stuff called "Bodycore" or something like that, made by Gatsby. It's okay.

Tuesday was jam-packed full of things. On Tuesday, I opened a bank account, signed up for a cell phone, and more. It was a very tiring day. I walked a really long way. More later!

I arrived in Osaka on Saturday evening. It was quite a trip!

My family went to Tulsa with me Thursday to Tulsa, and we went out to dinner for my parent's anniversary which was the same day. I have terrible timing, eh?

Friday Morning, they took me to the airport. We had a somewhat tearful goodbye, especially for my Dad.

Through lots of flying and waiting...I finally arrived at Tokyo! It was there that I met some fellow Kansai Gaidai-ers: Chris, Priscilla, Brittany, and George(?). They were a lot of fun, and I got to know Priscilla pretty well on the plane ride to Osaka.


I had no idea how to get to the Dotonbori hotel once I was in Osaka, but luckily my new friends were getting a friend to go take them to the dorms. I followed them up until my stop, and then a very nice woman helped me to my next subway train.


She was super nice, and wasn't even getting on the same train as myself! Upon surfacing, a different hotel gave me directions to the Dotonbori, and then a homeless man guided me to the correct crosswalk. It was all very interesting, but at that point I was so exhausted I just wanted a shower and some sleep.

The next morning I went to go pick up Megan and Blaine, but they had spent the night in Guam at an Internet Café and didn't get any sleep. They hadn't really slept in 40 hours...poor guys. They had booked a hotel (without me knowing) at the airport and they went straight to bed. We didn't hang out at all Sunday. At first I was upset because I had spent $9 and an hour of my time to come get them, but I can understand how tired they were, and they probably wouldn't have been much fun in their state anyway.

So I spent the day in Osaka by myself. I went to Melissa's favorite ramen shop in the whole wide world. It was really delicious! Then I hit up an arcade at this place called "Nanba HIPS" and played some Taiko Drum Master with a little boy who was better than me. The escalator up to the arcade was really cool.



After that, I just started wandering around. There were lots of people walking around. After a few minutes of sightseeing, I was approached by these two young Japanese men. They were comedians and took a great interest in me! I was really excited. They were really cool. There names were Kattchan and Mattchan, and they (along with Chiakk) showed me their comedy club. I watched their performance for only 500円! It's a comedy style called "Manzai," and it was a lot of speaking and word humor. However, I got enough of it to have a really wonderful time. It was in a very traditional looking room with seat mats - you even had to take off your shoes to get in. Most of the audience were girls. There were about 25 of us watching the show. It was really neat. Afterwards, I walked with the guys back to the bridge and we chatted the whole way. Every so often I'd see them again in the street and they'd come up and hug me or shake my hand. It was great to feel so welcome here.


I also heard a street band called "524" and they were really good. I liked their vocal harmony. They noticed me and were very friendly. They all came up to me after their song and greeted me. We all took pictures together, and I signed up for their fan club. It was really neat.



After some shopping (Melissa, I found an omamori toosan!), my backpack started killing my shoulders, so I went back to the hotel for a brief nap. That was 4pm. I briefly woke up 3 hours later, then went back to sleep until midnight. Not good for my sleep schedule.

I decided to get some tonkatsu at this restaurant called "New Host," and head to bed after that.

It's now 2:30am. I should probably get to bed. This morning I take the pick-up service to Kansai Gaidai!


Tyler