Nichijou Seikatsu: Everyday Life

    My daily Japanese life is sort of analogous to Rebecca Black’s, as expressed in “Friday.”

    Here, let me show you. It works perfectly if I modify a couple lyrics: “Seven a.m., waking up in the morning, gotta be fresh, gotta go [down the hall], gotta have my bowl, gotta have [miso soup] ...... Gotta get down to the bus stop. Gotta catch my bus, I [get some stares]. [Standing] in the front seat, [studying] in the back seat, gotta make my mind up, which seat can I take?”

That about sums up my mornings. But you have to factor in the oddly long, fluffy and deep (by dimension) slice of Japanese white bread toast. Tastes all right but doesn’t fill you up. I don’t think they’ve really heard of whole grain yet here. On the toast goes some jam and maybe some of the Nutella I brought—one of my gifts from home, but they end up using it a lot less than me…

My apartment building

Bridge over the little Arisu River

Houses on my side of the Arisu

I say “itte kimasu!” (stock phrase for “I’m going and returning”) and am met with the reply of “itte rasshai!” (another stock phrase for “go and come back”) from either my host dad or mom. I cross the little bridge over the Arisukawa (Arisu River, though really a creek), usually passing by some groups of elementary or middle schoolers, and walk through the winding little path among the modest-sized, squished-together houses and apartments. The first few days it made me think of that opening song in Beauty and the Beast: “Little town, full of little people/Every day like the one before/Little town, full of little people/Waking up to saaayy….Ohayou!” Well in the song it was bonjour, but whatever.

I get to the bus stop, wait a bit for the #3, hop on through the middle doors, find an empty seat, and listen to my iPod while alternately studying for the daily kanji quiz and staring out the window. Once in a while someone even deigns to sit next to me!

Half an hour later, I walk to the front, flash my pass to the driver, and get off. Then it’s down into the Shijo Karasuma station, where I ride three stops north to Imadegawa. I come out at the corner and walk half a block to Doshisha University’s west gate. The campus really seems quite tiny for 25,000 students, but it makes sense when you consider the bigger Kyotanabe campus just south of the city. I head into the Fusokan, the building for all things international, where all of KCJS’s classes are held. The inside is phenomenally boring, but oh well. Then it’s Japanese class from 9:10 to noon, with an hour break either in the middle or the end. In the D class—which is one below E, the highest—we have Fukai-sensei, who’s actually pretty cool. I mean, she has hidden tattoos, she does funny accents, she has a poster of a metal band in her office (cubicle), and she showed us this video the day we learned Kansai dialect: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2xfdb_ulfuls-osaka-strut_music (Osaka STRUT! I love it, I love it.)

The train station exit closest to school. Yup, it's Japan alright

Then we eat in the decently yummy shokudou (cafeteria) with extremely reasonable prices, especially compared to Tufts and its meal plan… (grumble grumble) And if there’s time to kill between classes some of us usually hang out in the International Student Lounge, a smaller room off the main lounge in this cool underground hallway connected to the shokudou. Then English-language content class—we get to speak English inside the classroom! Yippee!—and back home, or hanging out with friends. I have Monday and Thursday afternoons off, so that’s a relief. Wednesday is going to suck though, since I have a class until 6:15, and it’s looking like I’ll join the Kyodai Gasshoudan (Kyoto U chorus) which practices Wed. and Fri., so that means heading to their campus right after class. Well, as long as it’s just that day…

Doshisha's flags at the East Gate

Doshisha University. There's a lot of brown

I get back, unlock the door, and slip off my shoes in the little entryway as I call “Tadaima!” (I’m back!), which is often met with no response, since my host parents usually aren't around till a bit later, if at all. Seriously, I’ve had more than three nights by myself here because they’re that busy. I’m even alone this evening—my host dad is playing another golden oldies/country show at “Nashville.” But even if they’re going to be out for the evening, they always have some sort of yummy dinner all ready for me to eat. Dishes I’ve had include yakisoba, yaki-udon (both with octopus!), Italian pasta, nabe hotpot with fishcakes and boiled eggs and fried tofu and such, tuna tartare, and more. Tonight it was all three of us, finally, and we had fried iwashi fish, fried egg, sautéed bean sprouts, konnyaku (weird jiggly-type plant substance) soup, rice and even kimchee from the local Korean food place. Always so much variety!

Sunset from my window/balcony. Ignore the parking lot and you can see the mountains of western Kyoto

Some of us hung out at the Kamo River last Friday after a mini welcome party

 Weekends provide a bit more wiggle room…last Saturday some of us went shopping at/in/around Kyoto Station, which is pretty much endless. We had yummy crepes and I got a denshi jisho, or an electronic dictionary, which is super helpful for English-Japanese and vice versa. Since karaoke is cheaper before the evening, two of us KCJSers and two Japanese girls we know went on Sunday late afternoon. Good times. I actually went karaoke-ing again last night (Friday) with some friends even though it was only for an hour and kind of far. Singing Disney songs and I Want It That Way together is always worth it.

Crepes at Kyoto Eki.... nommm

How can I possibly caption this?

Today a group of us went to Kiyomizu-dera (Pure Water Temple). It was actually my third time, since I came in high school, so it was pretty nostalgic for me, walking up the narrow little street lined with shops and standing on the temple’s veranda overlooking Kyoto. It started gushing rain partway through, but we dealt with it. I even brought home a bottle of holy water I filled from one of the three springs. Today was also the last day that a dragon called Seiryu gets paraded around the temple grounds by the monks…I thought we missed it, but then they came by and I got a short video! Woohoo.

So, that’s my life so far. Not all that much variation. Except for that whole part where I was trying to get an effing cell phone for more than a week...I hate you SoftBank. I would have written about that here, but it's too tiresome and would make the pH level of this post a little too acidic.

Anyway, word to the wise: Japanese do not work well with spontaneity. I learned that once and for all when I tried to buy some train tickets a few days ago for me and a couple friends to go to Tokyo this three-day weekend, but any remotely good times were sold out. Fail. So anything you’re going to do: plan in advance. That’s all I got to say. Check you later.