A-Z's of My Time in Japan

Well its been a while since I last wrote so Im gonna give you an update of how things have been going lately.

I have been here for about 37 days, but it feels like im still in the first week. I remember getting off the plane in Narita airport and then transferring to a smaller plane to fly to Itami airport in Osaka. then, at about 9pm i got on a Kansai gaidai bound bus with about 20 of the other students, where we picked out strange english name's on buildings and tried to spot extravagant, fantasy themed love hotels. the bus drove down the highway and soon everyone became very quiet, probably most of them sleeping. we soon reached the seminar house and I met some of the guys there, all of them more awake than I was after the 18 or so hour journey. after that, I put the sheets and blanket on my futon and fell asleep right away.

So Im gonna do an A-Z list of things that have been going on.

Arashiyama-one of the places left on my Kyoto-to-go list. Im just waiting for the leaves to change colour.
Book Off-this is a great store with loads and loads of old books, and tons of Manga for super cheap. unfortunately the ones in my area just closed! unluckiest..
Capibara-perhaps my biggest surprise since coming to Japan was seeing Capibara swimming in the aquarium! and they're pretty big! すごいね！
Danjiri Matsuri- Giant Carts called Danjiri are pulled by over a hundred people, running down the street it can pick up some serious speed. apparently a very dangerous Festival!
English- sometimes i speak it more than i should be..
Fushigidane-Bulbasaur's name in japanese, it means strange/mysterious seed.
Gaikokujin-the term given to Foreigners in Japan. can be shortened to Gaijin. sometimes i hear little kids say it as I ride past on my bike!
Helmet- no one wears them on bicycles. not even really old people. or really young kids for that matter.
Ipod touch- i just bought one! i thought it made more sense than buying an electronic dictionary for around the same price.
Jitensha-Means bike in japanese.well, before I came to Japan I had not biked around Victoria much. well not at all. now, it is my main form of transportation and can be a lot of fun. or suck a lot depending where your going. ex. going back from Hirakata station to Kansai Gaidai.. its a killer hill.
Karaoke- A great time to be had by all! I want to transport all my friends here and go to Karaoke for several hours.
Lightning- there was one night where i woke up at 3am to downpouring rain, booming thunder and lightning that seemed like it was hitting right outside my window. storms are great when your inside ; )
Mashu, Matto（マシュー、マット）- my name in Japanese pronunciation. the first week in homestay my host mother kept calling me Marushi. don't know where that one came from.
Nakamiya- the name of my campus, and the area surrounding the campus. pretty urban, without anything super exciting.
Okonomiyaki-a popular dish over here, especially in the Osaka area. kind of like a pancake?
Purikura-so you go into a photobooth and take a bunch of photos, then draw crazy things and stamps on the pictures which in turn become tiny stickers. oh, and they turn your eyes like 20x too big.
Q
Round 1- when I came to Japan last time this was one of my favorite places. I went recently and it still is! you can play a bunch of sports, arcade games, karaoke, etc.
Sekai no Owari- this is a band i discovered today : D check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4AQRn9bd7o&feature=related
Temples- I've been to so many, and they never lose their appeal. My favorite is Kennin-ji in Kyoto. the layout was really cool. it was raining but still really great.

Umbrellas- or Kasa in japanese. well i brought one from canada, then one day i was caught in the rain so i bought another one from 711 for around $7. then i found out the 711 one was really crappy and bought a big one for about $6 from another place. haha, that story was kind of pointless.
Vancouver- it's a place almost all japanese people can relate to. i can always say, bikutoria wa bankuba no chikaku desu. which means, victoria is close to vancouver. I guess for this letter i could do Victoria too, which i think about often. something i took for granted was the ability to walk almost anywhere, how close the beach and park are. but im not ready to go back, not yet!
Wakayama- aside from the industrial harbour area, this is the closest place where you can see the ocean. it is about a 2-4 hour drive, im not exactly sure.
Xylophone-i couldnt think of an x word.
Yodobashi Camera- its like a 4-or something story electronics store that has a giant selection of models and toys, way over priced CDs and DVDs and a bunch of those capsule machines!
Zen-In Kennin-ji temple we saw people practicing Zen meditation, where they sit still and if they fall asleep are hit by a monk holding a big stick. at least thats what it looked like. very interesting.

Phew, some of those were hard to think of, but i think i did pretty well. apart from xylophone maybe.

Lucky!

So coming home after an incredibly awesome day in the Mount Rokko area of Kobe I felt that my bus ride was taking a little too long. My friend and I had figured out that this bus would travel to Tsuda Eki, the station right by my homestay house. Busses i had taken before had always turned into the station, so I could visually see when we had arrived. This time though, it was getting past the 25 minute average that it usually took there, and nearing 30 minutes I turned off my Ipod (so much for paying close attention to where I was going) and made my way to the front of the bus to ask the driver.

Me : "Tsuda Eki ikimasuka?" do you go to tsuda eki?
Bus Driver: "Ikimasen" Doesn't go there.

i thought about what to do. perhaps i could take another bus or at least a taxi from a bigger station?

Me: "Ooki eki ikimasuka?" do you go to a big station?
Bus Driver: "Iie" No

at this point i had no idea what to do. the bus went on further, as far as i knew it was the opposite direction of where i needed to go.

A japanese man tapped me on the shoulder. he asked me where i needed to go and I told him Tsuda Eki. He told me something about a car, another station, and i wasn't really sure what he was talking about but it was my only choice at that point.

i got off the bus and began to walk with the man. we passed a 7-11 and i thought about calling a cab from there. he told me that he could drop me off at another station and i could go to Tsuda from there by train. it sounded okay. actually, it sounded incredibly nice and I exclaimed.

"Doomo Arigatou!"

his wife would come in a car and pick us up. I eased up a lot when i heard that. but as i started talking to this guy, he seemed like a really good guy. he spoke with a little english which i found out he had picked up 9 years ago working in a hotel with lots of international meetings. now he worked in a supermarket. I talked to him about a bunch of different things as he smoked a cigarette.

he asked if i was from where the olympics were. Its great to live near vancouver because almost everyone can recognize it from the olympics. Yeah, i live close to there. as we stood at the street corner a woman came up and asked if she could help. at 11pm, on a generally desolated street, this woman came walking by herself. "it's safe counry" the man told me. we found out she was also a Kansai Gaidai Student, but actually from China! her japanese was super good though, and when she found out I was already taken care of, she said "oyasuminasai" (good night) and took off.

soon the man's wife came, and they had a daughter in the front seat. i sat with the man in the back, and he told the wife my situation. she said that she could drive me all the way to Tsuda eki, it wasnt a problem. here i was overwhelmed by relief, and above all... surprised. here was a family that i had never met, giving me a ride home out of their way. i talked with the man and his wife in mixed japanese and english on the 15 or so minute ride home. they told me how they were going to go home and watch Formula one racing after. The sleepy looking daughter glanced back at me curiously. she must have been around six. the father asked her to say good evening in english, and she said "hello". it was so great.

i arrived at Tsuda at last, and i thanked the family very much for their help. I should have taken their name and address, but in the moment i forgot. the man told me that he usually drives the car home, but today after work he had been drinking Sake so his wife would pick him up. that was the first time he too had taken that bus. ラッキーね！Lucky Eh?

Bonsai

Here Goes Nothing

Well, first off, let me apologize for the name. i spent some time trying to think up a cool blog name(for example spelling something like ボクノメカラミタオサカ！(Osaka, from my eyes) all in Katakana,  but i fell back on the typical Matt in Osaka. But it's true, here I am, in Osaka. You may think its very different over here from where you are, and I must say, it is. So whats different? You get on buses from the rear doors instead of the front (hmm thats boring... think of something interesting) steering wheels are on the right side instead of the left (still not that shocking) Theres Vending Machines Everywhere!? Well i guess just the overall feel is different. Walking through the bustling Umeda area, biking through one of the quiet neighborhood streets, Noticing the Japanese people's incredible politeness and helpfulness, The food in itself. It's hard to pin down exactly what is differrent, but its certainly in the air. I have still not seen a real robot, which I will be looking for in the coming months.