Monday, Jan. 13, 2014: Coming of Age Day

January 13 was Coming of Age Day, the day on which Japanese people celebrate their 20th birthday, which marks the year of adulthood. For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coming_of_Age_Day

Since I'm already 20 and wasn't in Japan soon enough to receive information about the relevant events anyway, for me and my fellow students, it was just a day off. No school! I used the time to do homework and go shopping with my roommate T.

We biked to A.L. Plaza, a department store with a grocery in the basement, and clothing stores, a train ticket vendor, a bakery, and a 100-yen store on the upper floors. There I bought:

Matcha (green tea) and red bean flavored mochi-texture bread

Frosted Flakes: carefully baked, high-quality flakes with 9 vitamins and minerals so you can keep a balanced diet!

Love milk, with iron and calcium: "One cup is half a day's worth." Margarine with butter in it that "tastes as delicious as butter" (according to the label).

Actually, my roommate bought this. It's a packet of Milk Tea powder; just add hot water and stir. The black packet on the side is a chocolate caramel-flavored candy which I disliked but which was fully appreciated by roomie T.

On the way back from AL Plaza, I took the opportunity to take pictures of the wildlife that I'm always biking past along the path next to the river.

One of the birds that's always swimming in the river.

Can you spot the heron? It's a blur, though.

 The heron and the other birds are all very wary. If I get too close and/or try to take a picture, they either swim farther away, or fly away (especially the heron) shrieking. I figured out later (from a fishing event) that it may be because the birds have probably been captured and tagged (in a traumatic way).

On my way back, a bus was waiting to turn into the road from Circle K (the convenience store that's closest to JCMU). I went slightly into the road to avoid the bus, but as I went back on the sidewalk, I didn't turn perpendicularly enough, so my tires caught on the edge of the curb and I fell down. I immediately got up (embarrassed) and pulled my bike out of the street. I walked my bike to T. She asked me if I was okay to keep riding. "Yes," I said. We were about to start riding again when I realized that maybe my knees were bleeding inside my jeans. "Actually," I added, "Since we're here anyway, do you mind if I go into Circle K and grab some bandages?"

The bandaid is made of a white, cloth/paper-like material that is soft and breathable.

 By the way, the logo for Circle K is a K inside of a circle. It doesn't actually say "circle K" on the sign or the building, as far as I've seen--just on the receipt in katakana: サークルK.

I ate the green tea bread, and it was bland and soggy and gross. I was highly disappointed.

Roomie T made yakisoba for us!

 And so Coming of Age Day passed rather uneventfully for us American exchange students.

Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014 and Sunday, Jan. 12, 2014: Second and Third Days

Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014

I didn't really do anything of note. I stayed in the dorm all day working on homework, since I needed to catch up. My teacher had given me a lot of papers. At 1:00pm, I met up with R, who was in my cooking group the day before, and we made yakisoba again together.

By the way, one of my classmates is also keeping a blog: http://myyearinjapan.weebly.com/

 ＊＊＊＊

Sunday, Jan. 12, 2014

I went to Kobe to meet with my friend from my previous study abroad. He speaks fluent English, so he had no trouble talking with T and R, the friends I brought with me. It took about 2 hours and $20 to get to Kobe from Hikone. On the train, T spotted this interesting advertisement:

The main text reads: "In a global era, the world is your rival."

We arrived at Rokkomichi Station before my friend did, so we took a look at the world-imports store inside the station's shopping area:

Tiny jars of Bonne Maman (spelling?) jam for ~$1.20 each. From left to right: orange marmalade, apricot, blueberry.

Sorry for the blurriness :( Spam, Campbell's soup, Dole...is this America?

Heinz brand sauces (shoutout to PGH!) Gratin and demi glace are very common here.

That's not American, is it? Also, I'm assuming that skull is actually a keychain.

Then my friend A showed up. We tried to find a bank so R could withdraw some money, but since it was Sunday, all the banks were closed. In addition, the only 7-11 (which has a 24/7 international ATM) was undergoing renovations. So we gave up and ate lunch at Miyamoto.

Tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) with miso soup and rice. The jug has iced barley tea in it.

After we ate, we went to karaoke at Jyan Kara for 2 hours. A tried to persuade me to sign up for a membership, but without a smart phone to read the QR code, there wasn't any point. We sang lots of American songs and attempted some Japanese ones. My friends were startled how hard it was to read Japanese (kanji or hiragana) fast enough to sing with the song. "How do you do it?" they asked me. "I practiced," I replied. Personally, if I can't sing the words without looking at them, I probably can't sing the words quickly enough when reading the lyrics onscreen.



After karaoke, we trekked up to Kobe University. Along the way I spotted...

?!

A pair of nice gloves strapped to a pole?

Since I came to Japan, I've seen a lot of orange trees. Unlike the north part of North America, winter doesn't seem to kill off everything or put it into hibernation. In Hikone, there are cabbages and stuff growing in gardens everywhere.

New Year's decorations. According to A, you can buy these cheap at the 100-yen store. I'm sure they have some sort of meaning to bring good luck for the coming year, but I don't know for sure.

As we climbed up the steep path leading to the Exchange Student Center at Kobe University, I spotted a bird (I'm fascinated by the different species--fish, birds, bugs--that live in Japan vs America).

 

It's hard to get good pictures of birds because they're always silhouetted against a bright sky.

We reached the top of the ramp.

The view of Kobe from Kobe University. The school is pretty high up...

Berry trees of some kind.

Inside the outer door of the office at the Intercultural department, I spotted this umbrella rack and contraption.

Close-up of the contraption. Translation (someone explain the grammar of 振りしずく）: "Please shake your umbrella strongly to get rid of the raindrops."

 The academic buildings were locked and no one was around besides the kids playing with their dads and the dog-walkers we had passed earlier on the way from the Exchange Student Center to the Intercultural Department. So we decided to walk to Kokui Ryo, the dorm where A and I used to live.

As we climbed higher up the mountain, we spotted this incredible moth. If not for the shape and the absence of other fallen leaves, I wouldn't have recognized it.

My friend was willing to touch it...

We passed a graveyard on the way. There were 2 or 3 black cats. Unlike America, the graves in Japan are swept clean frequently and offered flowers or food.

We passed the staircase to this shrine, so we decided to go up and see it. As you can see, the New Year's decorations are still up (the bamboo poles with paper tied to them). There were a couple of middle-school boys sitting on a nearby bench lower on the grounds. We said hello and goodbye to them in English.

The kanji say douro "road." The red symbol is the symbol for Kobe. This was on the ground, but I don't know what it means.

I passed this pharmacy every day when I walked between Kokui Ryou and Kobe University during my previous study abroad.

They have added the "STOP" words since the last time I came. I wonder if there's a reason...?

 We went to Kokui Ryou, but no one was there, so we went back down to the station and met two more of my friends (Japanese) at a ramen shop.

Making you hungry~~ I think it's called assari ramen.

Pouring out the gyoza sauce (tare) on little dishes for each of us.

After eating dinner, we went to do purikura. We had difficulty finding it, because it had moved from its conspicuous 2nd floor location to hiding in a bowling alley. My friend suggested that maybe purikura is becoming less popular in Japan. How would it be received in America, considering the popularity of Instagram and other photo editing apps?

The purikura on this board was left behind by customers who had extra or wanted to leave a memento of themselves. My Japanese friends say it just gets thrown away.

A cradle in a bowling alley?

After we left the bowling alley, my Japanese friends helped us buy discount tickets from a vending machine. Then we split up and went home.