Aug30

Kamakura

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I, along with my good buddies Nonchan and Maisan, made my way to Kamakura on Saturday. It is Maisan’s home town, and I truly think that she is one of the luckiest people in Japan for this. I’ll cover the sightseeing in a minute, but first I want to mention the amazing beach and restaurant that we went to. We made it to the beach around sunset, and the water was glowing from the setting sun. There were dozens of wind surfers, and it was the first time I’d actually seen anyone windsurf. Kamakura felt nothing like Japan, and it reminded me a great deal of California.


The sea air was relaxed, and so were the people. We went to a small hemp café for dinner. I’d never heard of hemp used in food before, obvious brownie joke aside, but it really wasn’t something that I was eager to try. To me, it was as if someone was asking “would you like me to put this smelly rope into your coffee?” I wasn’t too keen on the idea, and that’ll be the only time in my life that I type the word “keen.” I had taco rice, with a brown sugar and lemon rum drink, followed by an iced ginger-with-lemon cappuccino. It was all pretty much amazing. Maisan was still hungry, so we ordered come cheese fries. I had no idea that these fries were also covered with anchovy paste, until I had eaten a few and noticed the rich flavour. This is coming from someone who is now pretty much immune to the horror of eating something new and strange, but anchovies are truly underrated in America. In the case of cheese they serve as a flavour enhancer, in effect making the cheese more “cheesy.” People may notice if they were to eat a whole anchovy, but if it’s mixed with something I would bet that most couldn’t guess what it was. It’s amazing how so many people find putting a wad of overly processed and chemically laden beef in their mouth pleasurable, but they just can’t manage the fresh fish. I can understand an aversion to eating things with eyes though; in fact, I think Jim Gaffagin said it best. 3:57


So now, to the actual Japanese culture. We went to an amazing bamboo forest, and I couldn’t help but think of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Yup I know it’s Chinese). We had traditional Japanese tea at a little tea house in the middle of the forest, which was awesome! I think the best thing as a whole about Kamakura is that it wasn’t touristy in any way. Fuji was a tourist trap, but Kamakura maintained its epic sites and beaches without blatant attempts to separate you from your money or sell you a crappy keychain.


The giant Buddha was amazing; unfortunately, we couldn’t go inside because it was closed for the day. I always assumed that this Buddha was made recently, but it is several hundred years old, and much older than America (but what isn’t).


We also went to a temple/shrine, but no one seemed to be able to really explain which one it was. In most cases, a shrine is reflective of the Shinto religion, paying tribute to a God or deity, and a temple is reflective of the Buddhist religion, housing no specific God, but this Buddhist temple seemed to contain many attributes of a shrine. There was an amazing gold Buddha, but as with most places like this no pictures were allowed. Most of the Buddha were modelled after the Indian interpretation of Buddha, more skinny and with a different hairdo. They had an excellent museum, containing likenesses of many people who had gained the third eye. The eyes on the statues were incredibly real, as were the sculptures themselves. In some cases it appeared as if the third eye was just emerging from the forehead, with skin stretched and distorted. The detail was scary in some instances.


The day was amazing, and I was exhausted by the end of it. We were fuelled by famous soba, which contained tons of vegetables and a type of fish jelly, which was actually quite good. We also had plenty of sweets and ice cream. It was another great trip in Japan, and with only two weeks left, I’m trying to cram in as many as possible.


Aug24

Mt. Fuji, a Realist’s Guide

Posted at 9:25 PM • No Comments

Japan is one of the most culturally magnificent places in the world, and its long term isolation is largely responsible for its unique culture and the survival of its amazing history. If you only had 24 hours in Japan and wanted to do the most iconic thing possible, you would climb Mt. Fuji. Thousands of Japanese people flock to the mountain everyday during climbing season, so it must be fun and incredibly awesome right? It was simply one of the worst things that I’ve ever done.

In many ways Fuji is a tourist trap. Every bathroom costs money, and the price progressively increase until it reaches $3 at the top of the mountain. Drinks and food vary in the same way. Realistically, you could pay $2 for a drink at the bottom of the mountain and $3 to get rid of it at the top: the humour that I find in this cannot be expressed in words. You may be thinking “it’s a mountain, why not just walk over the hill somewhere and utilize glorious nature?” To use the word “climb” for Mt. Fuji is misleading. If you take the easy path to the top during peak season, you won’t be climbing anything; you’ll be waiting in the longest line you’ve ever seen. We essentially stood for over seven hours, occasionally shuffling forward, until we reached the top of the mountain. This line is only a few feet wide, roped off from the rest of the “dangerous” mountain that is off limits. A good tip to keep in mind if you visit Japan is that if you are planning on going somewhere, most likely several thousand Japanese people are planning the same thing.

So there you have it, climbing Fuji on the main path is essentially a tourist trap. There are hundreds of Japanese business-men looking to cash in on your hunger, thirst, and need to relieve yourself. The system is set up so that you cannot avoid paying for some of these essentials; after all you’re going to have to go to the bathroom at least once. On top of this, you have to pay $20 for a hot, overcrowded bus to the 5th station of the mountain where the climb begins. The climb is normally seven hours up and around three hours down.

So yeah, it was a miserable experience. So why bother to go?


We made it just in time for sunrise; even though I almost missed it for a $3 bathroom visit. To be honest, the sunrise was cool, but I felt like it just wasn’t as good of a view as I had hoped for. I decided to leave the massive group of people and walk up a bit further. I climbed on top of a small hill, away from all of the stores and people. As I turned around and looked out over the mountain, I simply lost my breath. It was the most beautiful view that I’d ever seen in my entire life.

Now when I hear someone way “I climbed Mt. Fuji,” I’ll understand that it is not a statement of simply physical accomplishment, but rather patience and endurance. I’ll know what the person wants to say: “I waited on the stupid mountain for seven hours, standing behind slow people who refused to move. I paid $5 for a hot chocolate at the top and then I basically rolled down the slippery steep path for two hours, back to the miserably hot bus where I had my knees mashed against the back of the seat for another hour. If the top wasn’t the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, I probably would have flung myself off.” Fuji is symbolic of Japan; everyday is a waiting game. I wait for the train, the bus, the bus again, another train. Everybody here is usually waiting for something. If they are lucky enough, as I am, their waiting leads to little moments of beauty that make the wait worth it. In the case of Fuji, the misery of the wait is rewarded with a masterpiece.

So, after all, this is supposed to be a tip post, so here you go:

1. Bring all of you own food and water. (Buying it there is ridiculously expensive).
2. Bring warm clothing (It’s not nearly as cold as you’ll be told it is, but it’s still nippy towards the top.
3. Bring patient friends (It’s not worth it without awesome friends).
4. Don’t take the easiest route (It’s inundated with people who shouldn’t be climbing a mountain and are eager to get in your way. It’s also a horribly long line).
5. Be sure to climb in the middle of the climbing season (It’s too busy during the beginning and end of the season).
6. Climb at night, starting around 9pm. (This way you’ll see the sunrise, which is really the only thing, besides friends and bragging rights that makes it worth it.)
7. If you have no stamina or like to complain, don’t bother going (the latter almost disqualified me).
8. Once you feel that you can wait no longer expect to wait for at least another three hours.
9. Take care of your body. (Drink lots of water, wear sunscreen, and snack often).
10. Remember that you have to climb down.

The view and my awesome friends definitely made the trip worth it. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime, or more of a there’s-no-way-in-hell-that-I’d-do-that-more-than-once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Please go here to see the whole thing; I wanted to embed them all!. Fuji Photos


Aug16

Free Factory

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Last Sunday I went to an awesome café called the Free Factory, with my friend Layna. The café was opened by a famous modern Japanese author Ayumu Takahashi, who’s works focus on living a carefree life and taking advantage of the journeys that life has to offer. He and his wife took a two-year honeymoon across the entire world, returning to Japan with only about $200. He chronicled his journey through prose and countless photographs. When Takahashi came back to Japan, he and his wife had no place to live and simply drove around until they felt in their hearts that the location was where they wanted to be. After he settled in Okinawa, he developed an artist’s community, where he and his family lived for a few years.

The café itself was started on a whim, and he has since opened two cocktail bars after seeing one in a movie and finding the concept intriguing. We took the elevator to the café’s floor, and at first glance the place appeared to be closed, which was a bummer considering the 1.5 hour train ride that it took to get there. In fact, there wasn’t any sign acknowledging the place’s existence, but there was a small door with a Cambell’s Tomato Soup can painted on it.

We took a chance and opened the door, only to be met by another large dark room, reminiscent of a prison of some sort. We walked up the short metal stairs to a door that was literally half my size, and pulled the giant “F” handle. It was as if we were entering wonderland, or the chocolate factory. The adjoining room was lively and bright, with exposed brick walls and a staircase that drastically increased in size at the bottom. There were no windows, which was actually a nice touch: it felt as if this place was out own private oasis, sheltering us from the busy streets below, and transporting us to somewhere very far from Tokyo. Photos from Takahashi’s journey lined the walls, and there were bookshelves of his works, along with albums by Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, and many others. There were ample design books and books about life, love and freedom. It was quite an incredible experience. The cheesecake was outstanding and the coffee was rather good too.


I think what made this place so special was the fact that almost every person was there because they knew of the author; the awkward location made sure of that.

Here’s a link to the site:
http://www.a-works.gr.jp/freefactory/index.html


Aug3

Black Monday

Posted at 9:04 PM • No Comments

Coming back from vacation is never easy, but coming back to a broken hot water machine, the only source of hot water for the life blood known as coffee, is downright depressing. I trudged over to the contraption Monday morning and was quick to notice the out of order signs encasing it. As I stumbled away in a state of confusion, one of the office workers gave me a sympathetic look and muttered the words “故障” simply meaning “failure.” I suppose there is no good phrase for “fail of massive proportion” in Japanese. This means that I had to face a Monday, after a week of vacation, with no caffeine besides the puny little mints that I carried in case of emergency. Why oh why did I buy the lemon water instead of the bottle of coffee this morning?

One redeeming quality of these devilishly black Mondays is that most people in the office return with gifts. These gift boxes are found in nearly every store in Japan, from specialty street stands to supermarkets, and it is almost a crime to return from vacation without some type of goody for everyone. Most boxes range from $5 to $10 or so, so it doesn’t damage the wallet too badly. On Monday everyone passed out their goodies, and most people ended up with a healthy pile of sweets and savouries. In Japan gifts are also given when one stays at another family’s home or acquires a new job. This is one of the visually distinctive differences between Japanese and American work cultures, and it made this caffeine-less Monday just a bit more bearable. After two chocolate cookies, an apple cake, lemon cake, and miniature cheesecake I was still sleepy but very satisfied.

Update: Today (Tuesday) the hot water machine was replaced by a bigger-badder beast, and the caffeine buzz was almost too much for me to handle.


Aug1

Week In Ehime

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I spent this week with my Japanese teacher and her family in Ehime and Matsuyama (towards the South West end of the map). It’s truly the most mountain that I’ve ever experienced, and the area is considered to be true Japanese country side. My teacher’s home is a more traditional home, with the paper framed walls and an open interior. If you were to open all of the sliding doors of the house, the entire house would almost be one giant room. The neighborhood is an old farming community, growing things such as rice, eggplant (long and skinny), and kale. The nearest store is a convenient store, which is nearly a 10 minute drive, and most of the older families order their groceries through a company and have them delivered.


We had two drinking parties, one of which was at the local even room, near the school, and the other was at my teacher’s house. To put it simply, drinking in this part of town is insane; if someone finishes a glass of beer before you can refill it for them (which is easy to do since the glasses are small) they can pass the cup to anyone, who immediately has to drink an entire glass. Seeing as I was the guest of honor, the glass was often passed to me. Other than the drinking challenge, all of the younger guys and girls that I met were great and so friendly. In this part of the country students have two school choices, one choice involving preparation for college and the other involving preparation for farming. One guy there was actually a cow guru.


The second drinking party was held at my teacher’s house, so I helped make dinner. I learned how to make sushi, and we also had somen(noodle) balls and raw octopus. While many might cringe at the the idea of eating raw fish, especially octopus, Japanese raw foods are really something special. The octupus is so fresh, has none of the fishy tendencies associate with some sub par American fish, and is extremely healthy. I should think that more people should cringe at the idea of eating McDonald’s.


I spent one day with Koucho Sensei, a local school official, and he took me on a grand tour of all of the mountain sites. This was a bit difficult, because it was the morning after the grand drinking party, and the mountains were a bit rough on the stomach, but it was fun nonetheless. The mountains in the area are famous for there milk, so there are many ice cream and milk bars in the area. You can truly taste the difference between Japanese and American milk anyway, but mountain milk is something mind blowing. The flavor of this milk is rich and bright, and it even made the bread that is made with it taste absolutely amazing.

We made our way up the mountain to the mountain hotel, and we saw the amazing limestone rock hills. It reminded me of pictures that I’d seen of Irish hillsides, except these rolling hills were at the top of tremendous green mountains.


It was truly and amazing week. My teacher and her family were so kind, as were the people of the area. Finally, I had the chance to relax that I had so desperately wanted, all while taking in the country views that even many Japanese never have the opportunity to experience.


Jul20

2/3 General Update

Posted at 8:41 PM • No Comments

As much as I love to make themed posts, I’d like to take a bit of time to make a two month update address. Today marked the start of the final one third of my stay in Japan. It’s amazing how much has changed since I came here almost three months ago.

I’ve been studying for the GMAT every morning, unlike my failed attempts at Japanese-book study. It’s shocking to me how little I know about the English language. Engineering has dulled my ability to read in any way beyond methodical, and I can’t grasp the reading comprehension practice whatsoever. It’s amazing how overly simple the questions are, “what does the author infer about increasing national debt as a means to finance military actions,” or something of that sort. What the hell does that mean? The author could be inferring anything. It says that all answers can be found in the passage, but if this answer can be found in the passage, then it’s not a bloody inference is it? I’m not saying I’m a fan of scientific writing by any means, but I’m so used to seeing direct introduction and conclusion that these pseudo-scientific GMAT passages are miserable to read. In the world of the concrete, a world that I’ve had to live in for four years now, I’m ill prepared to handle the abstract. I still find it rather dumb that a “scientific” paper would have one infer anything; it should be the job of a paper to convince, not to lead one down the rabbit hole. If the test makers, in their infinite wisdom, desire to know if I can detect an inference, then give me a piece of literature that is worth examining, something with depth that I can actually draw an inference from. Of course, this idea would defeat the purpose of the test, to see if I can clear an arbitrary bar that somehow magically determines if I’m capable enough to go to business school. In the end, I know I can train myself to find the right answer, not by feeling but by elimination or methodology. It just makes me wonder what the purpose of taking this test is, if it can be defeated by mere trickery.

Moving on from my apparent inability to read, this and next week are vacation weeks! I went to ?? with my friend Nonchan. I met his family and even his infamous cat Chocco. I’ll post more on this later. Speaking of cats, my parents had to put mine to sleep a few weeks ago. It’s amazing that I’ve had her for 13 years and she tuckers out during the 6 months that I’m away. I’m sure my house will seem empty without the wailing beast that was Alley.

This weekend, I’ll be heading out to visit my Japanese teacher in Ehime for my week-long summer vacation. By the time all of the vacations are over, I’ll only have three weeks left. I’m extremely excited about the vacations; there’s been a two month dry spell, and work is a tad bit boring. I can only hope that our fluids lab this fall uses Fluent and Gambit, because it’s literally all that I’ve done since I’ve been here. Fortunately, I’m learning a lot about the software, but I just can’t see this knowledge being useful after my final fluids lab this fall, if even then. Although desk jobs are definitely not for me, I’ve learned more practical information this quarter than any other; I just wished that things were a bit more animated around here, or that I could experience any aspects of Japanese business, or perhaps even see the physical representation of what I’m modeling. It’s amazing how little I interact with anyone on a daily basis, and sometimes it’s even quite comical. The other day for instance, I was sitting at my desk when every single person in the room, about 50 people, literally got up and left, without saying a word to me. Was it the nuclear apocalypse and everyone was just going home to be with their families? I’m sure it was a meeting, and I couldn’t help but laugh at how clueless I felt. Fortunately I’ve been given the task of creating a presentation concerning what I’ve been working on for the past three months. Having to make a presentation in Japanese about technical subjects is perhaps one of the most terrifying things that I could ever imagine doing. I’m not the kind of person who’s afraid of skydiving or anything like that, just speaking in front of people concerning things that I’m not confident about. This is a double wammy, due to the aerodynamic presentation and the Japanese language, but I’ll take it over sitting at a desk any day. I should probably mention that the presentation in question has a recommended length of one hour, which is a length that I’ve never even surpassed in English: it’s apparent that my company is an avid fan of meetings and presentations.

I was finally able to see Toy Story, after a frantic search for a theater with an English language track. My Japanese isn’t quite up to the task of watching a movie with no English representation, plus I don’t think that I could stand watching Toy Story without the familiar voices. The movie was amazing, and it felt like my childhood came to a close when it ended. It’s shocking to think that the original movie premiered 15 years ago. The final movie looked amazing, and the objects and surfaces looked so real. I do wish they’d drop this gimmicky 3D; it added nothing to the film, and it only served to dull the brilliant colors and crisp images. It’s amazing what companies will do to prevent bootlegging and to make an extra buck.

All in all things are going well. I’m still having fun in ?? and Japan in general, despite some dull workdays. I can’t wait to go to Ehime this weekend, but the 12 hour bus ride sounds tiring already. They’ll be lots of things to do in Ehime, and I can’t wait to meet with my teacher. I just hope that my language skills have improved enough to earn her satisfaction:). Being in the country for a weekend has made me realize just how tiring Tokyo is; however, I’m hoping to kick into overdrive in order to squeeze as much fun out of the remaining time as I can.


Jul6

A Lesson in Kindness

Posted at 9:42 PM • One Comment

A close language school friend and I went to Akihabara yesterday to meet our Taiwanese friend. We had never met Anita before, but Akira and I both talked to her quite extensively on Facebook, and we have a mutual friend who went to our language school last year. Anita is staying in Tokyo for a week, at a cool place that’s basically called the Ninja Hotel, or something similar, so luckily we had a chance to meet her.

I met up with Akira in Shibuya, where we walked around for a few hours, and I somehow managed to attain a beautiful crimson sunburn. We made our way to Akihabara, where we met our Taiwanese friend Anita. Meeting up at large train stations is no easy feat, especially when dealing with cell phones from three different countries. Calling for me is cost prohibitive, and Akira’s phone didn’t seem to like Anita’s Taiwanese number. Anita ended up having to use a payphone to get in touch with Akira. We finally found Anita and after we introduced ourselves she immediately realized that she left her camera at the payphone. It wasn’t the kind of camera that you merely shrug off if you lose it, it was the cry for weeks sort of camera that equates to the value of a small child. Naturally, it wasn’t at the payphone. Being in the Cincinnati mindset, I knew that her camera had been stolen, but I suggested that we check the station office anyway. If anything, we could at least have had a glimpse at the dirty thief who stole it, because there was surveillance camera facing the payphones.

The gate officer made a call to security, and we heard the glorious Japanese word for “have.” It turns out that Japanese train stations actually hire people to watch the security monitors, and the cameras are not fakes, as many are in America. Security noticed that Anita had left something at the phone and went to retrieve it. The mousy security woman made her way to the counter holding the shiny-white Lumix, and I have to say that I’ve never been so emotionally invested in someone else’s possession. It turns out that her brother had just given her the camera for her birthday, in June I believe, so it was barely a month old.

You can say whatever you’d like about Japan, whether you think it’s the glorious epicenter of technology, a cultural wonderland, or an overcrowded Otaku-laden nightmare, but you can never question the honor and integrity displayed by the Japanese people. This is a culture that has evolved around taking responsibility for one’s actions and putting personal opinions aside in favor of social harmony. I’ve never felt so safe or respected as I do here in Japan. I’ve been told that pickpockets even return your wallet, cards intact, after they’ve taken you yen and perhaps you Mister Doughnut point card.

It’s easy to criticize a country with which one has no experience, especially when information outlets only tend to display the negative or sensationalist. In truth, there is a give and take with every culture, America included. Japan is a hard place to live, in terms of excessive work and strain of everyday life, but it’s a culturally rich country with kind and caring people, some of whom I’ve been lucky enough to develop friendships with. American lifestyle is more relaxed, with exponentially more time to explore friendship and personal endeavors, but it lacks the community, focus, and safety that come standard with Japanese life. In the end, it’s about preference, and the only certainty is that there is no “greatest country in the world,” an idea perpetrated by those who only see in black and white and never shades of grey. Every country, state, city, and town has a different personality, and it seems to me that the happy person spends his or her life trying to find the best fit, a place that will allow one to achieve his or her own aspirations.


Jun27

Okonomiyaki… Oh My God

Posted at 4:07 PM • One Comment

I’d say that one of the non-debatable best foods in Japan is Okonomiyaki. There are two types of Okonomiyaki, Osaka and Hiroshima, but what is Okonomiyaki? Osaka Okonomiyaki is essentially a giant pancake-like creation, held together with egg, and includes your choice of things such as: cheese, tomato, seafood, Kimchi, meats, and anything you could possibly imagine.

Most Okonomiyaki restaurants have small tables, seating 4-6 people, with a giant Hibachi-like grill in the middle. Most of the time you do all of the cooking yourself, but if you are feeling particularly inept or tired, one of the restaurant workers will prepare it for you. You start by mixing your delicious looking batter and scoop it out onto the Hibachi. It’s smoothed out in a circular shape, perhaps about .5 to .75 inches thick.

In theory, when one side is browned you simply flip the delectable treat with the two scrapers provided. The amount of batter depends on the restaurant, but I always think that bigger is better in this case. There is nothing more satisfying than flinging a molten pile of melted cheese, tomato, and seafood into the air with reckless abandon, well besides eating the aforementioned magmatic delicacy. After the batter is browned on both sides, you add a copious amount of Okonomi Sauce (in my case I forgo the brush and just pour from the container), fish flakes (which seem to dance due to the heat), and green onion. I can’t describe what happens after this, because the carnal food satisfaction cannot be appropriately conveyed in any language, but I’m sure you know the feeling. This is a good time to express the importance of Okonomi sauce in my life right now. It is essentially a mix between barbeque sauce and steak sauce, with what I would imagine to be a pinch of some illegal addictive substance. It’s tangy, sweet, potentially spicy, and delicious on everything from rice to eggs.

Hiroshima Okonomiyaki is more like a giant crepe sandwich. You start by pouring the crepe batter onto the grill in two circles, letting it brown, and then putting all of your ingredients on top of one of the crepes. These ingredients are not in the batter, unlike the Osaka counter part, and can also include pretty much anything your heart desires. After placing the other crepe on top of the ingredients the Okonomiyaki is flipped. This is much more difficult to do than with the Osaka variety, because the tasty bits in the middle are completely free to fly across the room if flipped with a lack of or too much confidence. Personally, I don’t think Hiroshima Okonomiyaki holds a candle to the Osaka version, as indicated by this shorter paragraph.

Manja is another food worth mentioning and is best described as a wet Okonomiyaki. The big glob of batter never fully cooks, so it must be scraped into smaller bits and drug across the Hibachi. This is accomplished with small scrapers that are also used like spoons, essentially small Okonomiyaki scrapers. It’s an acquired taste, because many just can’t grasp the concept or gain appreciation for a runny pancake. I think it’s actually the coolest of the three to eat, but once again Osaka Okonomiyaki wins for taste.



So there you have it, a short description of what could easily be the most satisfying food in Japan. The best part about this dish is that essentially anything can be thrown into the simple batter, so there are plenty of options for making Okonomiyaki in America. If your personal hibachi happens to be broken or nonexistent (I’m imagining the latter) then a griddle or even a fry pan should work perfectly. Please consider the following video to avoid heartbreaking disaster, because nobody besides the dog likes floor pancakes.


Note: I failed to mention the delicious mayonnaise that adorns many foods in Japan. It’s an integral part of Okonomiyaki and is completely different from the culinary disappointment that is Hellmanns. After tasting Japanese Mayo, you’ll never go back (snicker if you will).


Jun19

Halftime Show

Posted at 5:19 PM • No Comments

Tomorrow is officially halftime for my stay here in Japan, and I want to reflect on my journey so far and where I want to go from here.

My biggest goal for the next quarter is to use more Japanese. While this should be easy, seeing as I work for a Japanese company with very few fluent English speakers, I have to make huge efforts not to revert to using English. It’s truly a bittersweet problem, because my close friends all speak English decently well, and my desire to communicate with them fluidly always hinders my will to use Japanese. It’s difficult because these people are not just Japanese practice buddies but my increasingly close friends. Don’t get me wrong, I love practicing Japanese, but I still have to use English if I want to have a conversation involving anything deeper than simple thoughts and ideas. My plan for the remaining months is to beef up study time, so that I can learn enough to no longer depend on English. This means I have to motivate myself to study, which can be difficult after a long day of hearing nothing but Japanese. My hearing abilities have improved exponentially more than my speaking abilities, so I have to focus more on vocabulary, which is truly the largest beast to conquer. I’ve found that I can be understood if I forget a verb form or some bit of grammar, but there is nothing that can combat a lack of vocabulary, except maybe a fondness for charades.

Surprisingly enough, I think that the easiest way to learn the language is by simply watching movies, or hanging out at a bar. If I want to practice listening, I watch a Japanese movie with English subtitles. If I’m daring and want to practice reading and listening at the same time, I watch a movie that I’ve seen many times before, except with no English. My friends have also said that keeping the T.V. on in the background is a great way to increase ambient hearing. It’s still hard to motivate myself to take these steps, but it’s more a result of my laziness than anything else. Recently, I’ve been getting back to the dorm extremely late, so I usually just go to sleep, but if I can just convince myself to study during the 30 minutes before work and 30 minutes during lunch, that’s one hour more than the 0 hours that I spend studying now. It isn’t helping that work has become extremely monotonous. Essentially I do the same project over and over again, with each case being just a little different than the last. It’s hard for me to find the motivation to complete a task when I know that it will just be replaced by something that is essentially the same. The only thing that really keeps ne going is a slurry of coffee and energy drinks, along with the promise that 5:00 will eventually come. I’m afraid that I’m now completely immune to caffeine.

Fortunately for me, I do get to practice Japanese quite a bit if we go to Tanoshoku or during company events, so I’m still learning despite my lack of self discipline. I think that this is partially because of my school habits. It’s been so long since I’ve actually been motivated to do hard work that I think I’ve forgotten how. With school, many of the assignments are so uninteresting or irrelevant to me that I find it impossible to be passionate about anything. This started to change when I took Japanese, but I’m still just beginning the battle to regain dedication, or an attention span for that matter. Now that my co-op job is losing its initial shine, I find myself falling into the same patterns, which results in me not using Japanese when I know I could and just doing my best not to fall asleep. Granted, I’m not blaming school or work for a problem that can only be solved by my willingness to try. I wish that I had no choice but to use Japanese. Seeing as English is probably the most popular second language to learn, it’s so easy to get by with just using English. If I were a native Spanish speak, things would not be so easy.

So basically, the word for the second half of the co-op term is “willpower.” It all comes down to whether I’m willing to try or not and fight through the boredom/fatigue. It’s also funny that now I need to start studying for the GMAT, which means I have to start practicing analytical writing, sentence correction, and the other irrelevant things that someone deems necessary for me to begin my MBA journey. This means that I have to study English and Japanese, something that my friends find quite amusing. Imagine trying to explain to your Japanese friend that you have to study English because yours is not good enough to receive a passing grade.


Jun6

Japanese-French Toast

Posted at 5:23 PM • No Comments


I never thought that Japan would be the place where I learned how to make American foods (er French I guess), but I was mistaken. I made an offhanded comment to my friend Nozomi about French toast one day and he excitedly said that he wanted to try it. The problem with this is that American French Toast (is that correct?) is not really available where we live in Japan, so we set out on a French toast making mission, which was difficult considering that our kitchen consists of a conduction cook top, a sink, two fry pans that do not work on the induction cook top, and a stock pot. Apparently, a stock pot has the potential to make decent French toast, as we soon found out.


The first attempt was less than ideal. We forgot to buy butter, so we had to use a bit of oil to keep the bread from sticking. It’s also worth noting that butter can burn extremely easily when you accidentally turn the temperature up too high (who’d a’ thunk?). The first time around we didn’t let the bread soak in the egg mixture long enough, so the mixture simply burned off in the pan, due to the excessive heat. We had to use a plastic container which was too large for the egg mixture, and we had no powdered sugar. I don’t feel so bad about it if I just refer to the first time as practice.

The second time we were armed with knowledge and ready for battle. It turns out that a box-ramen container is almost exactly the size of a slice of bread. Japanese bread is great for making French toast, because it is thicker than and not nearly as flimsy as good ‘ole American white bread. We remembered the butter this time and also let the bread sit in the egg mixture longer. Adding some salt and sugar syrup to the egg mix provided it with much needed flavor. After turning the burner down, we held our breathe and dropped the bread in. This time the terrible burning smell was replaced by the fresh smell of eggs and melting butter. While chopsticks are decent utensils for flipping bread, we have since purchased a cheap flipper (essentially an Okonomyaki scrapper). Seeing as we started with no recipe, had none of the correct utensils, and Nozomi knew nothing about French toast beforehand, I’d say that the first real foray into cooking in the Kabe dorm was quite a success: next stop, our own cooking show.



Note: Please ignore the way that I say toast; it sounds as if I’m from Minnesota, and I have no idea why those sounds emanated from my mouth. I find it hilarious how slow and simple my English is in the video. I hadn’t realized how much my tone and speed have changed due to my attempt to speak more clearly for my friends who are not fluent in English. My writing is also suffering. This is truly bad timing, because the GMAT will soon rear its ugly head, so I have to keep up with my already limited vocabulary. There was also an epic America vs. Japan table tennis match that followed the amazing meal, but I’ll post more on that later!