Right before Returning

Here it is everyone.

The final blog post before I bring my silly self back Stateside.

Have you missed me? You ready for me to come back and RUIN YOUR LIFE. I mean, fill you with joy that only a guy who has lived in Japan can bring? Yea, I bet you are.

I have to say my time here has really changed me as a person, or at least opened my eyes to viewing the world from a new perspective. I've lived with a family here, and have really felt like I was a part of the Japanese lifestyle. What that translates out to is being busy all the effin' time, but gosh darn it if it didn't get me in shape.

Photos will be super-updated once I am home and have the time to dwell on it. Until then busy yourself with knowing that I'm like almost totally more spiffy then my pictures... wait. Is that a bad thing?

Guess we'll find out.
Hope to see you all soon!

~Love

Eddie

Bullet Update

Finals have started.

I ran a half marathon Sunday.

My mind is ravaged with stress and the like.

I will need, like, 800 hugs when I get home.

Later.

Hokkaido: Nudity, Tragedy, and Kareoke

Love that title.
Thought it up all by myself you know.

This last weekend, I went with some of my friends to Japan's northern island, Hokkaido. The main appeal for me was larger just being able to see snow. There is no blipping snow here in Hirakata, and the weather is simply to nice. Similar to what my sister would say toward her needs for hate and loathing, I've found myself needy of the freakishly cold weather that only Michigan can provide.

So Friday morning instead of going to class ( ' w ' ) I instead went to the train station . We hit the trains for about an hour before getting our buts to the station and on a plane. Oh man, domestic travel is so much easier than the BS infused fury fest that is international flights. We were done and in the air in moments.

A short 2-hour, nap filled flight later we were in Hokkaido. The first day, there was no real snow, but that was okay as it was still freezing. Nostalgia freezing. We spent most of our time dilly-dallying from place to place before we finally capped in for the night.

The next day, we hit the subway and went to... I forgot where, but out of the city. Hokkaido felt so much like America. It had lots of trees and wide open spaces occasionally punctuated with signs of life. The illusion was broken a few times with several temples springing up seemingly anywhere.

In... the place we went, we made tracks for an Onsen (hot spring)! A bum chilling later, we had found our destination. A quick walk inside, a few formalites, and a locker room, and I was standing outside naked with snow coming down from the mountain and steam raising from the outside bath. It was one of the most amazing and beautiful things I think I may ever see.

There were several different bathes at this particular facility, but I was quite partial to sitting in the hot spring outside and watch the snow in the mountains. We and my friends relaxed for like an hour before heading back in, dressing, and then we went upstairs where there was a kick awesome cafe. It was warm and comfy in there, and most of our group wound up napping on the floor. Begrudgingly, we left the place with food in stomachs, and seemingly more fatigue than we came in with. Man, I wanted a nap.

(MORE LATER, I'MMA GO HOME)

It's Coming Down

Cake, go listen to it.

Years closing. Oh. Man.
I'm so not ready to be getting around to come home yet. It just feels like there is so much left to do, and beyond Hokkaido this weekend and finals in the next few weeks, there really isn't much. Today, we spent time working on our skit for Speaking class. It's all in Japanese and poorly acted, so clearly it is golden. I'll be bringing home a copy, or posting it on YouTube / Face Book, so it will so be good as blackmail latter in my life.

Keep that in mind, kids.

I've recovered a bit from my bike accident last week, so my hand still looks pretty fierce. I'm soo getting a scar out of it. I can only wait, heal, and hope it turns out to be a chick magnet. It's also sorta shaped like a crescent, so maybe I can get a moon out of it.

It make trashy myself on my bike over turning slightly to the right a little more bearable.
Alas.

We finish the skit tomorrow, and Dan (guy in my group) will be editing it for the Thursday due date. More on that as it comes.

Take it easy everyone.
~Cheers

Update for Pain's Sake

Kinda sorta totaled my bike.
I'm okay, though I've botched my right hand, elbow, and knee. My beautiful face has remained unscathed. Writing and doing anything with my right arm has become an episode in pain and suffering. It ain't broke, but man, there is a twinge.

Not much on the agenda. A few problems here and there, but nothing I can't handle / try my best to ignore.

~ Cheers

That Buzzing Sound

Salutations, my westward friends (though honestly, east works too).

Found a new way to school today. It skips a great deal of the usual pants-soiling terror I've come so accustomed to. There is however, a rather cruelly steep hill, but I'm not complaining. Anything is better than being a foots length from being decimated by traffic... angry, angry, traffic.

(shudder)

Things have been going pretty well here, if I can get away with saying that. School is a monster, but I'm managing. I don't see my friends too often, but I do my best to hang out with them when I have the chance. I went with a couple to Osaka a few days ago, and we bought some passes that would let us hit up a whole bunch of museums.

One of the first ones we visited was pretty much the Japanese equivalent of Co-Sci. There were kids darting around and playing on everything, doing all the little experiment stations. One in particular I found groovy was levitation. There was a little model of the earth held suspended in mid-air by three different magnets. It was really neat.

Later, we'd go to a (crappy) art gallery, miss a dinosaur show by minutes and then go to Floating Garden. If you are silly, and read the title of this place, you may be inclined to believe that the floating garden includes foliage of some shape or variety. Not true. The floating garden is... well... I'll show you the postcards latter. The easy explanation is that I was on a rooftop 40 some stories up looking out over Osaka City at night, and it was magical.

It was a fun day.

Anyway, on a more life focused thing, I'm realizing a lot of the things that I'm going to miss here. The food, the scenery, the mountains, new friends from far away places... there a plenty of things that I'm going to miss dearly. I am, however, ready to just be able to talk to and see people again. While I'd never want to do the dorms here, living with a homestay comes at the disadvantage of being far away from everyone all the time.

... sigh...

Going out for sushi tonight with friends. If anyone would like to send me a message or something, I'd totally dig it. Also, for those with gmail accounts, I'm online at 8 am to 9 here nearly every day. If you do the math, that means that I can chatted with from 6 to 7 o'clock in America time. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I'm online until about 8 pm Western time.

I imagine (and hope) I'll talk to some of you later.
Take it easy everyone, much love.
~ Cheers

The Great Photo Post

Hey there everybody.
I was originally going to title this post 'Ghosts, Goblins, Buddhas, and Essays', but for the sake of my rapidly depleting time, I'm just going to post a bunch of pretties for you.

Enjoy!

PS - Photos are in no particular order. But I'll let you guess where it fits in the Timeline

Tokyo - Aquarium - Halloween - Nara

Good luck!

OooooooOOOH! We're halfway there!

OOOOOOOOOOOH!!! LIVING ON A PRAYER!!!

That's right comrades; the great journey to Japan has reached its midpoint. I don't know how time has moved back in the States, but I can tell you in great confidence that it flies like a rocket here. Which I imagine is good thing when you consider the less than savory events that tend to take fold. Being stressed out of one's mind is much easier to bear when it only lasts for a short period of time.

So a few things have happened since the sick post. I went back to Tokyo last weekend and met with one of the family's previous home stay kids... which I can't really call him since the last time he was at Kansai was sixteen years ago. Not sure how, but in some fashion he's found himself in Japan working for a big ol' business selling... you know I can't recall. All I know is that his job is largely English based, so his Japanese really is only a skosh better than mine.

Which of course we all know is flipping awesome. *
*It isn't.

Eric (he has a name though I failed to mention it) also has two kids and a wife, so he's well set into the culture and life here. After a weekend of grooviness (we went to Tokyo Tower and saw a dolphin show), we came back on home. Later, Okaasan was showing me a few of her other earlier foreign kids, and holy crap. The things they were presented in were magazines! Like, these blokes got interviewed and famous-ish and what have you. Man, if I don't get that sometime down the line, I will have totally thrown off my family's track record.

CROSS THINE FINGERS FRIENDS.

As I think a lot of you know (because I may or may not have openly whined at you), last week was midterms. Not to ruin the bliss that is finished toil, I have another set this coming Monday, so as soon as the lovely little blurb is finished, I'll likely be slamming my face into my workbook.

Repeatedly.
Until I pass out.

Funzies. Regardless of previously mentioned masochism as a means to avoid actually studying, I think I've performed fairly decent on Thursday's and Friday's exams. Thursday was my speaking exams. For one I had to hold a conversation and answer simple questions for 5 minutes. This was pretty tricky, but I managed to hold out until the end. Immediately following that bout of silliness was my reading exam. The idea was to read a short excerpt in Japanese. The challenge was merely remembering all of the Kanji (Chinese characters) we know. For this we were given two minutes, and I finished reading in one.

BAM.

Friday's exam was boring. It was just one of those 'remember details on a whole bunch of different art pieces and write about them' things. Bleh...

I know that in that little blurb in the top of the screen, it mentions something about this being an art blog as well. Up until now the only art presented was some bad Photoshop in some clearly deadly lavatory (also small). As luck would have it however I am (surprise!) an art student with aspirations towards becoming a cartoonist. To meet this end I pursue a variety of personal art projects, as well as take ceramics because APPARENTLY YOU HAVE TO KNOW HOW TO THROW A POT TO BE AN ARTIST THANK YOU SO MUCH ADRIAN COLLEGE.

(quiet rage)

Complaints about major requirements aside, my current art project actually coincides with my Japanese Studies Major. Being the kind sensei that he is, my Japanese Prof. back home has allowed me to make a Japanese comic for my senior project / presentation / whatever thingie. In order to try and get my creative juices focused on a particular project I've, in what little free time I have, thrown together what you see below.

The quick and dirty is that this is murder mystery starring a bunch of fruits and vegetables. The main character (the Eggplant up front) is detective and it's up to him to solve the string of murders happening all over. I have plans for a couple issues, but for the moment we'll focus on one, and then think about other wonderful things, like an English translation and T-shirts. You know you want a T-shirt with at least one of these guys. The story is in the process of being written, and I'm going through some different designs for the actual cover. Also, I'm trying to come up with names for my characters, because at the moment they are all just Mr. / Mrs. 'Whatever They Happen to be". Seems lacking yea?

I think that just about catches us up to current events. Wouldn't want you cats to know too much about me, yea? My air of mystery is all but evaporated, and can use as much help as possible.

Take it easy everyone.
~Cheers

Midterms Cometh

More on this post later, just a fast update until I get some free time.

I'm still a little sick.
Midterms are this week.
I have photo account somewhere.

Poof.
More when I get a chance.

Aaand Sickness...

Yep, it finally happened everyone. I'm sick.
I went to sleep late last night from my trip to Shikoku (pictures will be put up, I just need to find the time), and woke up this morning with a raging headache and sore throat. But does that stop me from being social?

NO BECAUSE I AM A SOCIAL BUTTERFLY.

Pictured: Me

Anyway, went on a picnic today to really lovely park with my Adrian friends. Had a great time, and learned how to avoid a terrible fate that is the Japanese Squat Toilet... look it up, I'm not taking pictures. All you must do is find the handicap toilet, as they seem to always have more room and a western toilet. Maybe someday, I'll venture into the world of true Japanese digestion, but for the moment I'll cling to my silly American ways.

Midterms are coming up, and I'm doing my best to prepare. Lots of studying, lots of speaking, and lots of being healthy... oh crap. Looks like I've lost out on my third pillar of success. Oh well.

Really sorry about the lack of photos. They do exist, but uploading all of them (or any of them for that matter) can become an hour or so project that I just can't spare the time for.

Many sorries.

Anyway, I hope you're all well, and I'll work to get these photos online so I can blab about them.

~Cheers

So... Typhoon...

Just a quick update.
We are going to hit by a Typhoon sometime tonight (twelve hours from this post).
I've never had the experience of something like this so I am a wee bit pants-soilingly-nervous. Oh, also two of my friends are going to be on local news channel tonight as well. I don't know if I'll get a chance to see it, as I'm thinking about going home early and locking down if I get the chance. I've got my DS fully charged, and have both phone and train cards.

Wish us luck everybody.

Feet Fall Soundly

Can you guess who almost destroyed his foot?
No?

Well, I'll give you a hint... Oh-mah-gosh it's me.
Yea, I wanted to take a photo of a river right? But I couldn't get to get due to a fence. Fences are silly, silly things to hopped right on over it and took the photo anyway (I don't have it at the moment, but you can expect it to be updated to my flickr account sometime soon.)

For all intents and purposes the photo turned out rather poopy. Depressed, I ran back to fence to hop over. I cleared the barrier, no problem, but what I failed to notice on the initial trip was the gutter running directly in front of it.

Needless to say, I missed my toe up pretty bad. I don't know if I've seen quite so much blood come out from underneath my toenail. It was fairly disgusting, for all intents and purposes.

Anyway, I did that about a week ago, and it still hurts a bit. Whatever.
I took some time off from running club, but I intend to come back with a vengeance. There is a race coming up that goes through Hirakata, and I want to run in it, gosh darn it. I think it's a 10 K, which just makes me happy, as I've been running those here like it's nothing.

Also a jolly running note. Passing people on bikes going up hill? FUN.

I've a couple trips planned for October. This Saturday, I'll be going to Asuka (weather willing) to take a boat load of photos. There be temples in them thar hills, and I'mma get some pictures. It's being paid for by Kansai Gaidai, so no worries there.

On the 11th, some of my new homies and I will be going to Shikoku. Why, I'm not to sure, but apparently we get to wear silly hats. More on that as I figure it out myself. I guess it's 40 dollars round trip, but lunch will be free.

Another trip I would love to make is a trip to Kyoto to see the William Kentridge exhibit. My art professor back home would be so proud that I actually give a care about anything art related, so I imagine some brownie points are in order. Also brownies... I want brownies.

I've had lot of things bearing down on me lately (both school work and emotional stress) so I apologise for the scantity of updates. I'll try to post something next Monday, and I will definitely keep you posted on these coming trips.

~Cheers
PS: Apologises for bad English hither and thither. I write these things in a rush, and don't always have time to fix it.

How Things Are

I've been here for three weeks now haven't I?
Can't say that it feels like it. I've been so busy and have had so many different things to take care of that I've not really had time to sit for second and truly think about what's going on, much less tell everyone.

Have I mentioned what classes I'm taking yet?
If not here comes the list, woooo.

Japanese Speaking

- A basic Japanese class. Go in, sit down, spew forth Japanese language by the teacher's command, hunt desperately for homework, finish it, turn it in, cry in fear of the coming grade, etc., etc. I'm fast finding that learning Japanese from a Japanese Sensei is much more brutal than doing so by some silly American professor.

Look at that smug little man...

Japanese Reading and Writing

- More of a supplement to the previously mentioned class, this one focuses more on the grammatical aspects associated with (here it comes) reading and writing Japanese. It's fun and the professor is an excited little lady, and the course is completely taught in the native language. Needless to say, I pay attention.

Ceramics Basic

- As a core requirement for my Bachelor of Fine Arts major, I am bound by blood to do a full year of a medium that only fills my with rage and sadness. I suck at ceramics, but I have to it anyway. Stupid.... anyway. Inomata Sensei is really cool dude. He reeks of talent and wisdom... also cigarettes. Okay, mostly cigarettes, but he is very good at what he does.

Survey of Japanese Art

- Another course taken with the desire to achieve the ever elusive art major. This class is taught by some white bloke who has been living in Japan for the last 30 years. While he lectures are a miraculous mix of both boring and amazing, the historical artwork is made fascinating by the sheer fact that 90% of it was all discovered in the Kansai area. Heck, there's an ancient burial mound behind one of the dorms! Groovy class, but I struggle for consciousness.

Not necessarily a class but...
Running Club

-That's right. Even though I have to ride my bike uphill for half an hour to get to school in the morning, and even though the relationship between myself and my legs has been fairly rocky as of late, I've found it necessary to punish myself physically during my stay here. I'll let you know if I break something.

On the subject of all the exercise I get just trying to get from place to place, I have lost a reasonably amount of weight. I've gone down two notches on my belt, so whatever that means...
This weekend starts sliver week, which is basically a five day holiday. I'll be putt-putt golfing with my host Otoosan (dad) and it'll likely be difficult not to think of putt-putt at Cedar Point with the Franks (I miss you guys!).

Much love and I'll post sometime late next week

.

Cheers

Fun Facts from Japan

Hey there, you silly people, out in your silly countries far beyond this island of great ideas and greater innovations. Japan is a place where almost anything is possible. Beer, panties, and candy can all be dispensed from vending machines (oftentimes, the same machine), public transportation can actually work, phones can read phone numbers off of signs, and giant mechs (robots for the older crowd) are crafted and placed to intimidate the masses into solemn obedience.

Work 6 hours overtime without pay, or I will crush your family!!

For what it's worth however, every good turn deserves a bad one. All ideas can't be haphazardly applied to anything with the fleeting belief that it all will just turn out okay. In fact, there are some things that are just plain unnecessary, and you wonder how people can possible live with it, much less

accept the fact that it must have been constructed by human hands and not that of uncaring god. I am of course talking about...

...heated toilets. These accursed things have plagued my time here each and every time nature has called on me for duty. (get it?) How I long for the

days when I knew that my toilet would be cold and unfeeling toward my rear end. Now I feel the warm embrace of the seat with increasing discomfort. Is it happy to see me? Is it (unlike our cold, unfeeling American toilets) happy about its lot in life? If so, does that mean that the darn thing is hugging my cheeks with each passing? (do you get it?)

I can't shake the feeling that these things are sentient. Heavens, they have enough electrical cords coming out of them, you'd think they could power a rock concert.

Looks like somebody just flushed...

While I do suppose it could be worse, I often worry about short-circuits... oh boy.

Catch Up

Alright, here's the deal.

I have a lot I want to talk about, and just not enough time to do.
While I would love to back-track and cover every minuet detail of this crazy adventure, there is just too much in the past now to cover it all with the clarity that the instances deserve. However, I do have separate (fragmented) diary, so if I ever do have the time, I will be able to wrap you around some past events and save you all from a boring present. For the moment, let's just live for the present. As such, there is some important information needed to catch you up with the moment.

I now am living with a host family (Muraguchi Kimiyuki and Miyoko).


I have attended classes at Kansai Gaidai for nearly a week.


And I've been living in Japan for the last few weeks.


... oh yea, and I've been wicked lost trying to get home each day.

Well this doesn't seem right...

That last point brings me to the main point of this blog post; wanton confusion. Taking the recap further, I am from a small town, my home American college is in a small town, and Japan is one of the most jam-packed places on the planet. Even after led to school three times in a row, I still manage to get completely and obliviously lost every day since class began.

On Monday, I left school at 3:30 and didn't find my homestay house until 6 (after of course asking some locals for help, calling my college, and realizing that where I wanted to be was a street over.


Tuesday, was similar. I left at 4:00 and didn't make it home until I again asked for help. You may be giggling to yourself thinking that Eddie is absent-minded silly face, and you'd be right. But the matter of the fact is that I am in a large city. Not only is it a large city, but when you try to get to any of the homes, you'll find that housing is as packed as possible streets and inky-dinky, and there are bikes and scooters and cars and buses and people EVERYWHERE. You know the phrase 'more (insert thing here) than you can shake a stick at'? Here, you wouldn't even be able to get the bloody thing off your person without being smoked by a motorcycle.

More on this later. If the past is to be any sort of notice, I will lost again today. I will try to update this post with an extended entry and pictures tomorrow. Wish me luck, I have placement tests!

Holy Crap

What a week!
I've arrived in Japan seven days ago today, and the chain of events that finally led to me sitting here at Kansai Gaidai could not have been more stressful and fantastic if I had attempted to distort it with a heavy pudding binge. As I am on a bit of a tight schedule, I'll give you the short version of the journey, and then follow it up some time this week with more details and photos.

1. Arrive at Detroit Metro Airport
2. Wait three hours longer for flight due to typhoon in Tokyo
3. Get on plane, wait another hour due to unwell passenger
4. Fly to Japan. 13 hours
5. Arrive in Narita Airport, discover that the flight to Osaka is cancelled
6. Panic
7. Go through customs, find luggage
8. Ask follow NW 25 passenger what to do. Says take a train.
9. Find Info Desk. Learn that trains are closed.
10. Panic
11. Wait in Narita for four hours while trying to contact air service with other 400 passengers.
12. Learn that the connection with North West does not provide English.
13. Super cool phone booth prints reimbursement ticket, regardless of our shortcomings with the language.
14. Read ticket, discover that we are now flying to Seoul, Korea then to Osaka.
15. Panic
16. Notice the diminishing numbers of passengers, wonder where they are going; Realize that Narita has called a hotel to house us for the night.
17. Catch last bus to hotel. Sleep for two hours. Catch bus back for morning flight.
18. Find luggage check in Narita. Wait in line. Turn in bags.
18a. Luggage attendant seems troubled, calls for backup.
19. New attendant runs us through customs and security, tells us we need reentry visas to come back from Seoul.
19a. We don't have reentry visas, we were meant to go to Osaka
20. Panic
21. Panic
22. Attendant breaks out his mighty bureaucracy shattering power, gets us through waiting lines and gives us reentry visas.
23. Thank super sexy attendant twelve times, barely catch flight to Seoul.
24. Arrive in Seoul. Do happy dance because what else could go wrong?
25. Buy trinkets, make way toward terminal
26. Ask terminal attendant about luggage.
26a. Learn that no one knows where our luggage is.
27. (what do you think goes here?)
28. Catch flight anyway, not missing flight to Osaka
29. Arrive at Kansai International. Find luggage, get through customs.
30. Find Kansai Gaidai staff waiting for us at entrance.
31. Happy Dance
32. Arrive at Seminar House. Find room. Shower. Sleep like baby who'd been awake for 56 hours.

And this is just the first two days. Admittedly, most of the panic came just from the flight, but now we can move on to cheerier things. I'll update this post throughout the week with more details, so check every now and again.

Cheers.

Here We Go

Welcome all to my blog page.
With this being the first entry, I'll quickly flash through the introductions and all sorts of soon to be irrelevant tomfoolery. Namely, that though I introduce this page with this post, will it matter down the road how I opened this silly place up? If I mince words now, will it cause me despair in the near or distant future?

Of course not, don't be stupid.
Sheesh...

Anyway, I bring this up because in the near near future, I'll be flying away to Japan to study the language and the culture as well as begin prepping myself for the huge senior projects two years away (more on that in a future post). Also, I'll be posting photos from my trip, and will try to at least update this lovely little page at least once a week (maybe more if I get craaAAaazy).

Because I intend to hang on to this page after the trip as well, I'll also be posting about my doodles, my art, my plans, and the soul crushing amounts of school work I will only too inevitably receive.

Also sparkles.
Everyone loves sparkles.

~cheers