Adapting to a new way of life

Time takes care of a lot of things. Adjusting to a new location, culture, and group of people is a process that doesn't happen overnight.

Feeling out the local area has provided a sense of stability here. The super market is just down the road, there are convenient places to get a cheap and delicious lunch, and there's a quiet little bar which provides a nice place to sit and relax while chatting with some friends in the evening.

Although I've been to Japan before, there's still a bit of a culture shock in some sense. Before, I was merely learning about the culture. This time around, I'm integrating into the culture. In Kobe, I just had to understand why something was done a certain way; in Fukuoka, I actually have to DO it that way.

Living with a group of strangers like this is something I haven't done since freshman year when I first moved in. Everyone wants a friend but is forced to rely solely on first impressions to pick who they want to spend time with. As it happens, first impressions are often wrong. Over time you get to know everyone and you find out who you sized up about right, as well as who you misjudged.



Time for some details.

Nishijin is a really nice area. It's very clean and modern, beautiful on a nice day. The only thing that seems missing are sidewalks on many of the smaller roads, but drivers are accustomed to a high volume of pedestrians. There are two main roads where most of the "stuff" in Nishijin lies. One we call main street, and the other market street. Main street has a bento shop called Hotto Motto where you can get a quick meal to take home. Bento is like a Japanese ready to go lunch. The tray is divided into sections with a small portion of any number of different things in each. The Cheese Hamburg bento has a Salisbury steak with melted gouda cheese, a side salad, and rice for 480yen; the Katsu Curry bento has a fried pork cutlet sliced up on a bed of rice with a small bowl of curry and a little portion of something crunchy and brown that I presume is kelp for 530yen; and the Hawks bento has a fried shrimp, fried chicken, something else fried that I couldn't identify (maybe spam or something like scrapple), teriyaki stir fried beef with onions, a sausage, spinach, kelp, potato salad, noodles, and a bed of rice for 640yen. Good stuff.

There's a little bar we found called Spice X Spice (I think that's the name) that's a short walk away. It's small and quiet even on a Saturday night, but it has a relaxing atmosphere and a nice menu. The drink prices are a bit steeper than america, a draft beer (choosing from Carlsberg or Suntory) is about 500yen and most cocktails are 750yen. Since we only go there for one or two drinks, it's not so bad.

One surprise was a fantastic Indian restaurant called Shiv Shankur (yeah I think it's funny too). They have a student menu where you can get a soup or salad, yellow rice, a big piece of bread called nan, and a bowl of Indian curry made as spicy as you like it. It's really good.

Pork Ramen is Fukuoka's specialty. I've had a ton of ramen here that's ranged anywhere from 290yen to 800yen. Ramen here is much better than whatever you're picturing in your head right now. It has a pork broth with ramen noodles, green onions, a slice or two of pork, and sometimes kelp, spices, garlic, and other yummy things. My favorite ramen shop is called Ichiran and you customize your ramen on a little paper there when you order. You pick how rich you want the soup, how fatty, how much garlic, how spicy, whether you want no onion, weak onions, or strong onions, how firm the noodles are, and whether you want pork slices or not. The result is a delicious bowl of ramen catered perfectly to your tastes.

Onward to classes. I'm taking the Advanced level Japanese class which is hope will be as rewarding as it is demanding. The primary focus seems to be polish, taking our Japanese from competent to proficient. Learning to talk like a Japanese person rather than a foreigner who is learning Japanese has been a critical element thus far.

My health issues class seems interesting and the professor is a very well known psychologist who did a lot of research with disaster victims. He worked with the WHO (no not the band, the World Health Organization) for a long time and taught at several universities.

My anime manga and movies class looks like it'll be a lot of fun. During the first class we watched a video which I highly recommend if you have about 30 minutes to dedicate to laughing hysterically. It's broken into four parts on youtube, here are the links:
Pt 1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt4BmXnR5zQ&p=70D75C12D1211808&playnext=1&index=10
Pt 2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGWa4vnPkO4&feature=related
Pt 3- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP5L0JC81bE&feature=related
Pt 4- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAiRm0YIgJE&feature=related

Seriously. Watch them.

Judo seems like it'll be neat, though all we've done so far is receive our uniforms and learned how to put them on.

Natural World of Japan is kind of like an ecology class. We get to go on field trips which should be fun, but so far we've just had lecture and it goes preposterously slow since the professor refuses to use the interpreter she has been provided with and tries to speak English instead. Oh well.

History of Japan seems like it'll be interesting. The professor does his best to be funny and seems enthusiastic.

Finally, Intercultural Communication is taught by the previous director of the international division of Seinan University so he speaks quite fluently and has a lot of interesting anecdotes. It should be a cool class.

Did you make it this far? It's been a long post, so you get a gold star. If you made it, leave a comment, I enjoy reading them!

I miss you all!