Japan: Subway of Thought
05/19/2006 Continued:
I'd already written a lot of this, but my computer crashed and I didn't save it, so I guess I'll have to rewrite it. After the 1 hour or so in the computer lab, we had free time until 5:40pm, which is the time we would meet to go to the Welcome Party. Most everyone went back to the Seminar House, but 4 of us (Gretchen, Sara, Marissa, and I) all decided to go to the てんじん (Tenjin), which is like the shopping district of ふくおか (Fukuoka). Along the way, we saw two of our group walking around (Parner-san and Hales-san) so they started following us (not fun... they're very annoying... Hales-san is obsessed with Japanese school girls so he talks about them non-stop...) to the 地下鉄 (Subway station).
We take the train to 天神南 (Tenjin-minami) and get off to wander around. So Japanese Department stores (デパート) are interesting. They're usually tall buildings (maybe 8-10 floors) that have various departments/stores on each floor (like men's dept, women's dept, Gap). Typically the basement has a kind of food market type place as well. We went up and down one of the department stores, then walked to another one (a bigger one called まつこし [Matsukoshi]). This one was interesting because apparently, it is International Week so they had an Italian fair on the top floor (the 9th floor). This fair very crowded; it consisted of lots of booths selling Italian goods (including food). In addition they had lots of samples of the food, some of which were actually pretty good, whereas some of the other stuff was... less so...
After mooching off the samples, we ride the 18 escalators or so down to the street level again. Across the street from まつこし (Matsukoshi) is an Eddie Bauer, and next to that is a ビックカメラ (Bic Camera: http://www.biccamera.com). We go to the store and I look for a camera to replace my old one that I left at home. I ended up buying a Canon Powershot A530 + a case for 20,844円. I'm pretty sure I could've purchased the camera elsewhere for cheaper, but I needed a camera and it seemed reasonable enough. I give the tenant my credit card she asks if I have a plus card (for discounts). I say no and we get almost to the final point until she holds my card to me and asks me a question... I have no idea what she says. She asks again and I meekly show her my ID thinking that might be what she's asking for. I then promptly get the rest of the group and no one can understand what she's asking. She then asks one of her co-workers and shows her the card; the co-worker says something and she completes the sale. *shrugs*. The entire process was pretty scary though.
After that we went to a Lawsons across the street. Lawsons is a convenience store, similar to 7-11 (of which there are tons here). Gretchen was looking for a specific type of パン (bread roll thing) that is related to an アニメ (Anime) called Yakitate Japan. They are supposed to be selling them now in Lawsons, but we haven't found one yet in ふくおか (Fukuoka) yet so maybe they're only in 東京 (Tokyo) or something. By this time, it's getting to be 5:05pm or so and the latest train that we could use to get back on time leaves at 5:16pm, so we start going back to the train station. We have to run a little bit, but we reach the train on time and all is well, except the train actually left at 5:22pm. We get back to ふくおかだい (Fukuoka University) at 5:38pm and rush towards Building 8 (of course in the pouring rain). We get there a little late, but everything's ok. We go to the building where the Welcome Party is and up to the top floor.
We get our name tags and see lots of tables set up with food (すし！ Sushi!) and chairs to both sides against the walls. We sit and I get my camera setup so I can start taking pictures while we wait for the action to start. At the front of the room is a sign that says "Welcome Georgia Institute of Technology." A few people give speeches (including ムーンさん [Moon-san], who won one of the scholarships) all in Japanese of course and then all of the students are called to the front. We figure this was when we would have to sing the song so when なき先生 (Naki-sensei) hands Sara the microphone, she freaks out not wanting to sing into the mic, but hands it down until I'm holding it in front of all of us. Oops, we were supposed to each introduce ourselves into the microphone. Sara gets it back and we each introduce ourselves in Japanese, saying our major and year in school. Tons of people forgot to say "Please take care of me" which is usually what ends an introduction.
We finish the introductions and that's when we had to sing the song. It seemed ok, except we were singing pretty slowly, I thought. The Japanese people there all clapped along to our song. The song is called 上を向いて歩こう (it's a Sukiyaki song). We then get introduced to our "Host families," who we will be staying with for a weekend in 3 weeks or so. My host insisted I call her のりさん (Nori-san; see above picture). She was very nice and her English was actually pretty good. We spoke and ate and talked with some other host families and had a jolly good time until about 8:30pm - 9:00pm. The director dude says we can take food back (and they even provide us with containers) and so I grab some food and a bottle of coke, then we head to the 地下鉄 (Subway) to come back to the Seminar House. We get off at 六本松 (Ropponmatsu) and walk the rest of the way back. Once back at the Seminar House, Masuda-sensei tells us to meet at 8:40am again the next day so we can have our ふくおか (Fukuoka) city tour. We get Internet working, I take a shower, and we decide to get up at 7:45am the next morning to grab a bite to eat before we meet.
I'd already written a lot of this, but my computer crashed and I didn't save it, so I guess I'll have to rewrite it. After the 1 hour or so in the computer lab, we had free time until 5:40pm, which is the time we would meet to go to the Welcome Party. Most everyone went back to the Seminar House, but 4 of us (Gretchen, Sara, Marissa, and I) all decided to go to the てんじん (Tenjin), which is like the shopping district of ふくおか (Fukuoka). Along the way, we saw two of our group walking around (Parner-san and Hales-san) so they started following us (not fun... they're very annoying... Hales-san is obsessed with Japanese school girls so he talks about them non-stop...) to the 地下鉄 (Subway station).
We take the train to 天神南 (Tenjin-minami) and get off to wander around. So Japanese Department stores (デパート) are interesting. They're usually tall buildings (maybe 8-10 floors) that have various departments/stores on each floor (like men's dept, women's dept, Gap). Typically the basement has a kind of food market type place as well. We went up and down one of the department stores, then walked to another one (a bigger one called まつこし [Matsukoshi]). This one was interesting because apparently, it is International Week so they had an Italian fair on the top floor (the 9th floor). This fair very crowded; it consisted of lots of booths selling Italian goods (including food). In addition they had lots of samples of the food, some of which were actually pretty good, whereas some of the other stuff was... less so...
After mooching off the samples, we ride the 18 escalators or so down to the street level again. Across the street from まつこし (Matsukoshi) is an Eddie Bauer, and next to that is a ビックカメラ (Bic Camera: http://www.biccamera.com). We go to the store and I look for a camera to replace my old one that I left at home. I ended up buying a Canon Powershot A530 + a case for 20,844円. I'm pretty sure I could've purchased the camera elsewhere for cheaper, but I needed a camera and it seemed reasonable enough. I give the tenant my credit card she asks if I have a plus card (for discounts). I say no and we get almost to the final point until she holds my card to me and asks me a question... I have no idea what she says. She asks again and I meekly show her my ID thinking that might be what she's asking for. I then promptly get the rest of the group and no one can understand what she's asking. She then asks one of her co-workers and shows her the card; the co-worker says something and she completes the sale. *shrugs*. The entire process was pretty scary though.
After that we went to a Lawsons across the street. Lawsons is a convenience store, similar to 7-11 (of which there are tons here). Gretchen was looking for a specific type of パン (bread roll thing) that is related to an アニメ (Anime) called Yakitate Japan. They are supposed to be selling them now in Lawsons, but we haven't found one yet in ふくおか (Fukuoka) yet so maybe they're only in 東京 (Tokyo) or something. By this time, it's getting to be 5:05pm or so and the latest train that we could use to get back on time leaves at 5:16pm, so we start going back to the train station. We have to run a little bit, but we reach the train on time and all is well, except the train actually left at 5:22pm. We get back to ふくおかだい (Fukuoka University) at 5:38pm and rush towards Building 8 (of course in the pouring rain). We get there a little late, but everything's ok. We go to the building where the Welcome Party is and up to the top floor.
We get our name tags and see lots of tables set up with food (すし！ Sushi!) and chairs to both sides against the walls. We sit and I get my camera setup so I can start taking pictures while we wait for the action to start. At the front of the room is a sign that says "Welcome Georgia Institute of Technology." A few people give speeches (including ムーンさん [Moon-san], who won one of the scholarships) all in Japanese of course and then all of the students are called to the front. We figure this was when we would have to sing the song so when なき先生 (Naki-sensei) hands Sara the microphone, she freaks out not wanting to sing into the mic, but hands it down until I'm holding it in front of all of us. Oops, we were supposed to each introduce ourselves into the microphone. Sara gets it back and we each introduce ourselves in Japanese, saying our major and year in school. Tons of people forgot to say "Please take care of me" which is usually what ends an introduction.
We finish the introductions and that's when we had to sing the song. It seemed ok, except we were singing pretty slowly, I thought. The Japanese people there all clapped along to our song. The song is called 上を向いて歩こう (it's a Sukiyaki song). We then get introduced to our "Host families," who we will be staying with for a weekend in 3 weeks or so. My host insisted I call her のりさん (Nori-san; see above picture). She was very nice and her English was actually pretty good. We spoke and ate and talked with some other host families and had a jolly good time until about 8:30pm - 9:00pm. The director dude says we can take food back (and they even provide us with containers) and so I grab some food and a bottle of coke, then we head to the 地下鉄 (Subway) to come back to the Seminar House. We get off at 六本松 (Ropponmatsu) and walk the rest of the way back. Once back at the Seminar House, Masuda-sensei tells us to meet at 8:40am again the next day so we can have our ふくおか (Fukuoka) city tour. We get Internet working, I take a shower, and we decide to get up at 7:45am the next morning to grab a bite to eat before we meet.
posted by Christopher Luu at 4:11 AM
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