Kobe College!!

Today was my first day of classes! I only had one class today, which was American Politics and Society. You're probably thinking, "You're and American! You should know this stuff already!" On the contrary, this class is very different. Yes, we are covering much material that was taught in K-12, but this class takes on a different viewpoint that many Americans aren't taught; how did America evolve through the eyes of the minorities? More specifically via the Japanese Americans (because I am in Japan). So this is something I've never learned before and I am eagerly waiting to see what this class is like further in to the semester.

I'll update more about my classes as I'm taking them throughout the week and I'll update in general about how my classes are going. :)

Other than that, I got my denshi jisho yesterday from Yodobashi in Umeda. A denshi jisho is an electronic dictionary that come in many different languages. Of course I bought a Japanese to English and vise versa one. However, there isn't an English language setting, so it's all in Japanese! That's ok, because I've figured out the main functions already. And what makes this denshi jisho awesome is the fact that I can write out kanji and it'll tell me what kanji it is. This will be very helpful when I need to decipher kanji I don't know.

 My denshi jisho!!

I also took some pictures of Kobe College. Check them out!! :D

 Picture from my dorm room balcony.

 Water feature from the Shakespeare Garden. It's the symbol of the school.

 The Emily Brown building.

 The court yard between the Science and Literature buildings.

 The Science building.

 Part of Nishinomiya from Kobe College. KC is on top of Okadayama, and tiny mountain.

The chapel building.

 This is a jinja or a shrine. Kobe College is a Christian school, so it's quite odd that there is a shrine.

 Court yard in between the Science and Literature buildings.

Close up of the fountain.

I'll post later. Sayonara for now!

Umeda!!

Today, I went to Umeda with my friend Asahi. It was sooooo much fun! We looked around the shopping malls there and for lunch, we went to a ramen shop. Officially, Japanese ramen is much MUCH better than American ramen. I don't think it should even be called ramen. :)

After that, we went to the arcade where there is a place called "purikura." It's basically like a photo booth, but much larger and more fancy. And the pictures are really cute too!

 After that, we went to a karaoke bar! That was a fun experience and I really want to go back there again. :)

After singing our hearts out, we hit up a takoyaki restaurant. It's like a fried battered ball with octopus in the middle. It's really yummy!! However, the Japanese really make you work for your food! You have to cook it yourself on a takoyaki frying pan. It's really hard to turn the takoyaki around, so Asahi had to help me with that. :P

Once we finished, it was getting late but we got some crepes before going back. Then it was time to go home. Asahi lives inbetween Osaka and Kyoto, so she had to take a different train than me when we got to the Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi station (It's a big station where many of the station lines depart from). So I had to ride
the train all by myself back to the Mondo-yakujin line (where Kobe College is near) but luckily it was only one stop up from Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi.

Then walked up the hill back to the dorms and I'm now officially tired. Time to go to bed! Thanks for reading! I'll post more when I go on new adventures! :D

おやすみなさい！！！(oyasumi nasai!!!) [Good night in Japanese!]

In Japan!

Well, I finally made it into Japan. As much as I hate airplanes, both flights went very well. The flight from Denver to Seattle was very nice, about 2 and a half hours. The flight from Seattle to Osaka was 10 hours. We hit some heavy turbulence, which scared me, but other than that, it was a smooth ride. I got into Kansai International Airport around 3:45 pm local time. Customs went over very well; I didn't have a problem with any of it. It was super hot when I got there though. あつい！After a long bus ride to Kobe College, I finally got to my room and was able to rest. :)

Today, I got my internet working. I'm not liking the little yellow triangle warning in the corner of my screen saying that I don't have internet access though. However, since I do, I'm not going to worry about that for now. Maybe if I restart the computer....

After that, went to get my alien registration card so I don't have to carry my passport around me all the time. I should be able to pick up my card in about a month. After getting that done, went to the grocery store to pick up some food. I had no idea what to get because they have a lot of different things here than in the US. I ended up getting and an avocado, tomato, and onion to make some guacamole. Got some corn chips too, but I'm convinced that they are a Japanese version of Bugles. :P Also got some cereal and milk, rice, water, olive oil, and chili sauce. I'll have to find out how to create some food from that. lol.

Then we came back to the dorms and now I'm relaxing a bit. I think a nap is in order, then to write my paper for Wyo government D: I'll post pictures when I take them too, so look out for those!

Be back soon!!!

Amanda

Getting Ready

Haven't made an update in quite a while, but now would be a good time. :)

Well, I leave for Japan on the 13th. I'm super excited, nervous, and anxious all at the same time. I'm hoping that I can get over the bad feelings and enjoy myself while I'm there. I can't wait to see Mayu and Asahi when I get over there. And I really hope to see Lisa during winter break or something!

I've started packing and that has been a HUGE challenge! I packed everything that I wanted into two bags, then unpacked it all, took out what I really didn't need, and re-packed. Took a good 5-10 lbs out of my bag! :) I'm probably still going to have to pay overweight fees since Delta decided that they were going to lower their international weight from 70 lbs to 50 lbs. -_- And my bags may be oversized too by a whole inch. I'm just hoping that they don't catch it ;D

Something has worked out in my favor though! I finally got my yakkan shoumei! This is needed to bring in any prescription medication into Japan, and it sure was a pain in the ass to get! I was worried that it wouldn't come in time before I left, but I got it the other day.

I want to make a more detailed post about my packing experience, so I'll leave this post as is and come back later.