Insufficient Funds

My break is over and as much as I would love to be able to say that something amazing happened, sadly that is not the case. I spent most of my time on campus, hanging out in the lounge and reading or napping in my room. Not a very productive way to spend a vacation but there you go. I’m not particularly dissatisfied with how I spent the long weekend though. I have always been a big proponent of lazy, and as such I have few problems with hanging around. The one problem though, is that at some point in the last ten years I seem to have begun to suffer from auditory hallucinations that take the form of Jon telling me that it’s a beautiful day and so on. I try to tune it out, but it can be challenging. Classes start again tomorrow, and although I only have one, I’m still not looking forward to it. I think that’s inevitable though, any long break from school or work makes it harder to get back into the rhythm of things than if you had just worked through it.
I’m currently only taking four classes, though since one of them is a language class it’s still 15 credits. They are, in order from most to least interesting, as follows: Japanese language, Mass Media in East Asia, Introduction to East Asian Studies, and Japanese literature. Before I go on I would just like to preface this section by saying that I like all of my teachers, and that they are very knowledgeable in there respective fields. That being said, being knowledgeable in a field, any field at all, does not necessarily make one interesting or good at making that subject interesting. Take my Japanese literature class for instance. I don’t have any strong feelings towards Japanese literature one way or the other, but it seems as if, given the large quantity of material to draw from, the subject could be taught in such a way that could be considered interesting. Apparently my professor, a man whose knowledge and level of professionalism I respect, feels differently. His strategy for teaching is to stand still in the front of the class for over an hour and talk at length about slides (each of which containing as much text as this post will) which refer, not to Japanese literature, but rather to the history of Japanese literature. This seems to be a trend that has taken root in most of my classes. The teachers themselves are knowledgeable and interesting, but I get the impression many of them are still getting used to teaching the material they know so well.
Other than resuming classes, I really don’t have much going on in the next week. I’m still working on figuring out my money situation, but with some luck that will be resolved shortly. For now, I’ll probably do some more reading and try to memorize another 40 character alphabet.

The first break of the year has started, and I have a five-day weekend that I’m not sure what to do with. I’m still in something of a limbo in terms of being able to access my accounts in the US, certain documents and information required for the free flow of currency between banks being outside of my hands until further notice (potentially having something to do with the holiday, I’m not really sure about that), and as such I have no money. This isn’t really that much of a problem, there’s not that much that I would feel like spending my money on right now anyway, as I’m still getting used to how much things cost here, and my typical reaction upon deciphering how much something costs is to blink and slowly back out of the store. I’m sure this will pass though. As for the holiday itself, I believe it’s called Silver Week, though I couldn’t tell you why. I would ask a Japanese student, but they have all left for the weekend, and the few international students are still here are as confused as I am.
I have often heard that it is the little differences that surprise you, and this is true. For example, the green grapes that you can buy in Japanese supermarkets can be smelled from several isles away, and have an almost intoxicating scent, and the peels on said grapes are rubbery enough to produce an amusing look on the face of anyone eating them for the first time, something along the lines of the expression you may have seen when somebody eats edimame for the first times, and doesn’t realize that you don’t actually eat the peel. Also, automatic doors here seem to react just slowly enough for me to walk into them, however I’m not sure if this is a feature specific to our university or Japan as a whole. Returning to the aforementioned expression though, I have always found it curious in that it seems to imply that the big differences are not the ones that get to you. In my experience, this is not the case. Take language for instance. This is a big thing, and it does indeed get to you.
So far, I am enjoying myself quite a bit, even if at times it has been a little frustrating. I just need to wait for my alien registration certificate and once that arrives I’ll be able to deal with all the logistical aspects that are left over from the summer.

Why I Will Always Be Wrong

When entering a new situation, I try to avoid preconceptions. I have, in my short twenty years of life, had enough experiences to know that things are very rarely what you expect them to be and if they are it’s usually a let down. That is why, when going into this experience, I tried to blank my mind on what to expect (something I may have achieved to exasperating effect, at least I think some people would say so). That being said, it is inevitable that I had some preconceptions going in, and just as inevitable that they were all wrong. I can’t recall the number of times in the past two weeks where I have stopped and thought to myself; “Well I don’t know what I was expecting but it certainly wasn’t this.” This isn’t a bad thing, though the way that phrase sounds would lead one to believe that it is. It does, however, fit nicely in with an epiphany that I had recently, that being that, if you succeed in not having any expectations of something, it is not going to be at all what you expect it to be, which can be just as rattling, if not more, than having your preconceptions proven wrong. I know all of this sounds rather pessimistic, but it isn’t really. It’s more just me thinking out loud, or rather, thinking to myself and then typing my thoughts without editing them too much.I think what all this is leading up to is that so far, my experience here has been much different than I expected it to be. I think the problem is that on some level I was expecting it to be similar to my last exchange experience, but it clearly isn’t. First of all I’m now in college, which almost universally means more personal responsibility. Second, I’m attending an international university, so the dynamic is also much different, particularly in that it is not an immersion experience. Finally, and I would like to stress this point, I am in the middle of nowhere. There is appallingly little to do on campus. I have participated in the badminton club and the Go club (Go is a game that involves players placing white and black tiles onto a large gridded board in an attempt to make territories, sort of like Othello). I enjoyed both of those clubs, and plan to return, but all the clubs seem to meet on Wednesday, so two is pretty much the most I could attend. On top of that Akita is a prefecture most widely known for its stellar agriculture, and I don’t think it is necessary to tell you how much enthusiasm I have for agriculture. That’s not to say things are bad though. I will admit I have had my grumpy moments. Just today for instance it started raining the second I stepped outside to go to class, and stopped immediately, I mean turn-the-nozzle-on-the-shower-off immediately, when I got to the building my class was in (it rained about 6 minutes total). But today was also a good day. I can feel the weather turning. Today is the shifting point, Fall has begun, and I am very excited to see it here. There is so much greenery here that I can scarcely imagine what it is all going to look like when it changes. combine that with the cooling weather and I am pretty excited for the next month or two.

I have made a few friends here by this point, though only one of them is Japanese, and he is my roommate. The problem with making Japanese friends here is, to me at least, threefold. First, there is the natural inclination to be with people similar to you, and to that end I have made quite a few friends that are either from the US, or are also exchange students and therefor in the same situation as I am. Second, most of the younger Japanese students are either too shy to speak English or don’t know how to, and thus they form there own groups in which they can speak Japanese. The third part of the problem is perhaps the hardest to overcome. Many of the older Japanese students don’t like foreigners, which is most likely a result of a few bad experiences with a few bad exchange students. That is understandable. I myself have a similar bias against American college students. Many of the exchange students here behave in exactly the same manner as they would back home, they are loud, drunk, and irritating. Because of this, I think many of the Japanese students have decided to just ignore the exchange students all together I’m trying to strike a balance between doing club activities and the like to get to know Japanese students on campus, and spending time with the other foreign exchange students. For now, I’m taking it easy and trying to figure out what there is to do and how to balance that with school work. Hopefully soon I will know what that balance looks like.

Settling in

Settling in to a new situation is always a challenge, and it can often feel as though you’ll never get used to your new situation, though of course you do. I have been here for a week now, and though orientations are finished and classes begin tomorrow, I still feel as disoriented as when I first got here. Well, I suppose that’s not entirely true. I have begun to settle into a routine and have met some interesting people. The problem, I think, is that so far this experience has been an odd mix of the college life that I have grown accustomed to, and the cultural disorientation that I experienced during my exchange to Thailand. Since there are so many international students, over 100 this semester, it doesn’t really feel like I’m in Japan (oddly enough, there are five people here from Minnesota, and only two from the same school). That being said, there is still the sense of being in a strange and different culture that comes from all the mundane things, like the food and the newspaper.
My first full day here involved attending eight hours of orientation, covering everything from when and how to sign up for classes, to what festivals will be taking place in the area. Now I can appreciate the school’s desire to let us know about pertinent events, it’s nice not to be completely in the dark, but I have always been a fan of taking things as they come. The people in charge here apparently feel differently. It seems that they feel that if they have not made me aware of every event, significant or otherwise, that will be taking place in Akita and the surrounding area between now and the end of time, they will have failed us in some way. I don’t know if this is a trait common to the Japanese as a whole, or if it is simply something that is done here, but it can be a little overwhelming. I’m not really complaining though. Too much information is better than no information at all, and hidden amidst all the extra is everything that I need to know in order to be ready for classes here. As odd as it is to say this, I’m really excited for classes to start, though not in a scholarly way. There is an astonishing lack of things to do here at the moment, and I am hoping that with classes and clubs I’ll be able to fill my time with somewhat meaningful activities. The problem with finding things to do is that the campus is incredibly small, only a dozen, probably fewer, buildings, and a total student body of about 800. On top of that, it’s a 15 minute bus ride into town, with a round trip cost of close to $10. Part of the problem is that orientations finished up on Friday, and they gave us the weekend to do whatever we want, which can be a problem since I don’t speak Japanese and can’t find my way anywhere off campus. For now, I’m just waiting for class to start, once that happens I’ll at least be able to focus on something, even if it is school. Again, I’m not complaining, I’m just eager for things to get started.