The end is near… (a.k.a. “My daily routine”)

Konnichi wa once again, folks! Sorry for not posting in such a long time, yada yada, you know the drill. The term’s almost finished, and I won’t have to write for much longer since I’ll being seeing most of you in person shortly. (Yay!) In the meantime, however, I felt I should leave at least two more posts for you, including this one. In my final update, I’ll leave you with my parting thoughts on Japan and my time here in the form of a list called “Things I Learned from My Semester in Japan.” Get pumped. It should be cool, despite the prosaic title. For this update, I thought it might be nice to give you all an idea of what a day in my life has been like for the past couple of months. Let’s start at the beginning with weekdays…

On weekdays, I wake up every morning at 8 a.m., with the exception of Thursday. Thursdays begin an hour earlier because my Japanese classes begin an hour earlier on that day. I don’t know why they scheduled it that way. They probably just hate gaijin. (Whenever the international students want to explain why something bad happens, we just blame it on Japanese people hating foreigners. You’d be surprised how accurate it is.) Anyway, I first check my e-mail/IMs to see if anybody from back home contacted me overnight, then I grab a shower. Our shower stalls are unique in that they don’t have a knob. When I want to shower, I push a large metal button in the center of the wall, and a jet of water sprays me with the force of a fire hydrant for about 15 seconds, then shuts off. Have you ever been in a public restroom where they have sinks that require you to press a button to get water, and it’s on a timer? You can never get a wet, soap, scrub, and rinse with one push, can you? You know how annoying that is? Imagine taking a shower using the same system. every. day. Yeah. Actually, I’ve gotten used to it by now. I’ve gotten to the point where I can anticipate the shut-off and can jab my elbow into the metal button in a pre-emptive strike–even with soap in my eyes. Each of the six shower stalls has its own personality, too. For instance, the middle-right stall has insane water pressure and a slightly longer-than-average shower cycle, but the water temperature alternates randomly between Antarctic cold and Mauna Loa lava hot. By the end of the semester, all the guys have gravitated towards the few showers that are within an acceptable range of temperature, pressure, and timer length, meaning that if you come into the bathroom too late in the morning, all the “good” showers are taken and you have to settle for the bipolar stall.

Breakfast consists of one slice of toast with strawberry or blueberry jam (no grape jelly here), a glass of some form of juice, and a bowl of “BIG” brand cereal. I always buy it because it comes in a larger box than other brands but costs the same, which makes it very cheap by comparison. It tastes like a weakly-sweetened version of Frosted Flakes, which they actually do sell here for $5/tiny box. When I get home and eat American-style sugar cereal, my mouth will probably think it’s died and gone to heaven. While I eat breakfast, I usually watch CNN in English on one of the two cable TVs in the dining room. Reid or someone else is usually watching “Dragonball” cartoons on the other. It’s my way of keeping in touch with the rest of the world while I’m here, and it’s about the only news I get.

Classes start at 10 a.m. (9 a.m. Thursdays), so about 15 or 20 minutes til the hour, I head downstairs, exchange my slippers for tennis shoes at the shoe shelves, and grab my bicycle. The ride to school takes about 10 minutes on a good day, and walking from the bike lot to the classrooms takes another 5. The campus is larger than you’d think for being in the middle of a city. On the way, I see lots of elderly people, mostly women, out for a morning walk or headed to who-knows-where. About 20% of Japan’s population is over 65, which means that roughly 1 out of every 5 people you see throughout the course of a day is a senior citizen. In the mornings, most working adults are already at work by the time I leave for class, so I see an unusually large proportion of the older folks. Interestingly, many of them use something that looks like a cross between a baby stroller and a walker. It has wheels and two handles, a cushioned seat, some storage space either under the seat or in side pockets, and is very compact. According to one Japanese friend, it’s for people who have heart problems or other conditions that prevent them from walking long distances at a stretch and allows them to sit down and take a breather whenever they need to. In a country where a large portion of the population does not own a car and where most people walk at least 300 meters to a market or grocery store, I can see how these could be very useful. Unfortunately, their… phlegmatic pace makes them difficult to deal with on a crowded sidewalk, especially when they are strolling and chatting two or three abreast. Oh well. It’s made up for by all of the cute little dogs I also see everyday being walked by the stay-at-home moms in the neighborhood. Dogs in Japan are small by necessity because Japanese houses aren’t large enough to accommodate bigger breeds. That means no golden retrievers or German shepherds, I’m afraid. Recently, it’s been a particularly pleasant commute because of the flowering trees lining the street. For the last week, the falling petals have made me feel some days as though it were raining drops of pink and red and the sidewalk was covered in pastel puddles. I like spring.

Japanese classes are always interesting, especially speaking class. I have mentioned before that Takayashiki-sensei is my favorite, and he has prepared some pretty awesome activities for us. Just last week we presented some skits that we had prepared in small groups and made a party out of it complete with drinks and snacks. My group wrote a skit about a “happy idiot” type of guy from Russia named Boris (played by moi) who comes to Japan to see his younger sister get married to a Japanese man. He hasn’t met his brother-in-law or his brother-in-law’s father yet, but through the course of the skit, he bumps into them and pisses them both off without either knowing who the other is. Everyone is surprised when Boris finally shows up at his sister’s place to meet the family, and that’s the end. I won an award for “best performer,” but another group got “best skit.” Oh well, it was a close vote. We did really well. I got it on video, but I can’t convert the whole thing into a YouTube-compatible format without proper software, so it may have to wait until I come home. Sorry! Anyway, writing/reading class is pretty much a standard class. I’m not doing badly, but I don’t have an “A” either. Meh.

For lunch, I usually head to one of two cafeterias, except Fridays when I customarily go to McDonald’s. Every once in a while, I’ll go with people to a nearby restaurant, particularly Bikkuri Ramen (“Surprise Ramen”). Every day I go with a different group of people depending on who’s hanging around the lounge when I get out of class. Typical groups may include any of the following: Tammy, Nick, Elizabeth, Kim, Kime (a.k.a Midori), Amanda, Camilo, Jen and her crew, Trevor, Kat, either of the Danish dudes, and/or Mindaugas. I may have forgotten some. At caf #1, I tend to go with the club lunch, which includes shredded cabbage, pasta in a mayo sauce, and a meat, usually tonkatasu, karaage, and/or hash browns (not the kind you’re used to). At caf #3, the only reason I go is for their most excellent katsu curry with yellow rice. Ohhhh man, I want some right now… I’m getting hungry just thinking about it. Japanese curry is very different from Indian or other Asian curries, mind you, because it’s sweeter and not as spicy. It’s served with/on top of rice and sometimes another item such as tonkatsu or another meat, and it is one of the few Japanese dishes that you eat with a spoon. Quite tasty.

So some of you may be thinking, is Japanese McDonald’s different than American McDonald’s? Yes. For one thing, there is less salt and less grease on the fries. After clearing the bin, the “fry guy” will wipe it with a cloth to remove excess salt and oil before adding new fries from the cooker. Unfortunately, this is terribly inefficient and time-consuming, and it never would have worked at the McDonald’s where I worked last summer. Service is slower for two reasons that I can figure. 1) The Japanese pay more attention to what they’re doing. 2) The system at that particular McDonald’s is terribly inefficient because the space is poorly designed. Also, milkshakes are thin. If you gave a Japanese person an American milkshake, they would refuse to drink it because it would be too thick for them. However, McFlurries are the same, generally. Portions of everything except burgers are about half the size for the same price, so a “regular”-sized drink here is the same price as in America but is the size of a “small” drink in America. Also, if they don’t have your order ready when you finish paying, you are given a plastic stand with a number on it, much like McAlister’s or some other type of restaurant, and they will bring your order to you at your table or wherever you happen to be standing around waiting. Pretty impressive, I think. Taste-wise, everything else is the same. They do have some interesting sandwiches, including a shrimp filet, teriyaki burger (soooo good!), and teriyaki burger with egg sandwich. For a while, they had a “Mega Mac,” which is basically a triple-decker Big Mac, and just as delicious. Trevor and I each managed to finish a Mega Mac combo, but only he has pictures. *shrug*

After lunch, I hang around for a little while to chat if my friends want to, then I go home and take a nap or do other miscellaneous things. My afternoon classes are at 4 p.m. every day, which gives me a 3 hour break on average. Things now are basically the same as I told you earlier in the semester. Art class is a pain and China-Japan relations is awesome. I’ve got a big art project coming due in two weeks, and I really should get cracking on it. I’ve chosen to do a visual analysis paper on an ukiyo-e from the Kamigata Ukiyo-e Museum… I just haven’t actually been there to see it, yet. Hmm, must remedy that this week. Actually, this week is a holiday in Japan called Golden Week. We still have classes on Tuesday and Wednesday for reasons unknown to any of us, but some people are skipping out to go various places. Midori-chan (a.k.a. Kime) is going to China with her family. If your screen starts turning green, that’s my jealousy leaking through the ethernet. I, however, am doing nothing so spectacular. Today, I went grocery shopping and wrote this entry. Tuesday, I’ll go to class, visit the travel agency to plan my Hokkaido trip, and go to the ukiyo-e museum. Wednesday is class and prayer meeting. Thursday, I’m going to Himeji Castle with Pastor Takeshi and some other guys from the church. Friday, I’m going to hike up to Fushimi-inari and do some shopping. Saturday is for studying and Bible study. Sunday is for church and preparing for finals. Then, it’s the last week of classes! Wow, time sure has flown.

Finally, there’s the late afternoon and evening, which includes swing dance circle on Monday nights, prayer meeting on Wednesday nights, and studying *every* night. Dinner happens whenever it happens. I cook from a very small repertoire, which includes: Campbell’s canned clam chowder, PB&J, stir-fry, breaded fried chicken breasts, salad, pan-fried and broiled fish, pasta with a variety of sauces, grilled cheese, scrambled eggs, french toast, and several frozen entrees, including bite-sized tonkatsu, karaage, fried rice, gyoza, pizza, and pizza toast. To those, I add various sides such as raw carrots, butter rolls (rolls with pats of butter inside, God’s delicious gift to lazy people everywhere), apples, grapes, oranges, cheese and crackers, and rice. For dessert, there’s Oreos and tiny packs of ice cream (I often have two). Actually, making rice here is interesting. There is no such thing as “minute rice”; you really do have to cook the stuff. In the kitchen, we have 8 or so rice cookers available for our use, and they can cook one cup of rice in about 20 minutes on the highest setting. First, though, you have to measure and wash the rice. Since the rice is raw, it still has debris leftover from the sifting process, and in order to cook it, you have to clean the grains. This involves putting the measured amount of rice into the rice cooker bowl, adding water, and quickly sloshing the rice around with your hand or with a whisk until the water turns cloudy. Then, you pour out the water and repeat the process until the water comes out clear (or nearly so). After that’s done, you can add water up to the appropriate fill line, replace the bowl inside the rice cooker, and turn it on. Thanks to this, I’ve learned to start planning dinner ahead of time many nights, because if I don’t, I’ll have to be hungry while I wait for the rice to cook. It really is a staple of everybody’s diet now. Sometimes I get a little treat if Kat, our famous Quebecois chef, makes a special dessert. Those are good nights.

In my free time and on weekends, I go out with friends to shop or do karaoke or go to a restaurant or even see a movie, as I did two nights ago. (no subtitles! I actually understood a lot of it!) Occasionally, I play video games our surf the net, but if I’m on my computer, it’s usually writing e-mails or chatting over AIM. I also play the guitar frequently, and I’ve learned how to play a lot of songs we sing at church gatherings, including ones that are only in Japanese. Brother Luke has requested that I invent some English lyrics to the Japanese praise song “Ame wo Sosoide” (“Let the Rain Fall”), and I’m very excited. I’ve translated it before, but it’s much more difficult to arrange the words in such a way as to be conducive to singing while still maintaining substantial, worshipful meaning. Whew! Still, I absolutely love the song! It’s one of my favorites. We’ll see what happens… At last, I get to bed around 11 or 12 most nights, giving me around 8 hours of sleep.

So now you know what it’s like living as an exchange student in Japan! I guess you could say I’m surviving, but whether I’m “thriving” is debatable. I have enjoyed my time here very much, but I’m ready to go home. I am eagerly anticipating seeing most of you guys in the near future, and those of you who aren’t in the NC area, I’m still thinking of you, too, and hoping you’re well! Well, I gotta go fix some dinner and get some other things done. Sayounara! Genki de ne!