hostfamily

alright sailors, i'll keep this one short.


I've been doing plenty of fun stuff lately, it has snowed a lot.

I am changing host families tomorrow,

I like my current host family, they dont have any very comfortable furniture, they dont bend any rules for me, and the laundry system has officially stretched several of my favourite tee's beyond redemption, but they are fantastic people. They have treated me with the utmost hospitality since my arrival, but at the same time have treated me like a real member of the family; I do my own chores, I have cut wood for them, I have helped renovate a building they own, I call them Mother and Father, I have climbed mountains and harvested sunflowers with them and their grandchildren, I play basketball at the community center with my host brother and his friends.

I dunno, I owe them a lot. I have Japanese life figured out here, its going to be lame having to adjust again, being twenty minutes farther from my friends in their apartment, and that much farther from school as well.

here some pictures i havent posted anywhere else yet.

class trip, kyoto, nara, osaka, tokyo, okinawa.

Although pricey, the class trip was really fantastic. previously I had been to the Tokyo airport for an hour, and then just in Hokkaido doing pretty much zero traveling. Now I've been to most of the most famous places in Japan, all in one week.

I don't even know the names of most the places I went and their was often no English information available. Regardless everything was breathtakingly huge or made of gold or really really ancient. there was a fountain outside one temple that my teacher told me was 1,200 something years old, that's much older than my entire country. It was a little bit surreal being in these places that were of such historical and cultural importance, places kings had lived, battles had been fought...we don't have that so much in Canada.

Once again I regret that there is a 5 pictures per post limit, and I took 500 pictures during the trip.

First we went to Kyoto, I took the train with some friends and we got on the plane together, the first day we saw this really famous ancient temple, part of which was 60 metres tall an built without nails. i was surprised by the amount of foreigners I saw there, I asked a couple if in English if they knew who was ahead in the American election, but they were unfortunately Russian, and very confused.

That night on the news, in Japanese, we found out Obama had won, and we slept on straw mats and hard pillows and got up at 6. the second day in Kyoto was a free day, me and my group must have seen 10 different temples and landmarks that day, we used a map and the bus routes to get around and even saw the old shogun headquarters palace thing, after lunch we got on a train to Osaka, were we saw the famous Osaka castle and had a fantastic dinner.

Day three the class went to Nara, a city outside Kyoto that is most famous for its Edo period style architecture and many important Japanese cultural heritage sites. there were tame deer everywhere that could be hand fed, and one had either been trained to bow at everyone who passed through the temple gates, or had something wrong with its neck.

I should say that in my personal experience Japanese (high school kids at least) like to rush through a museum, aquarium, castle, what have you, as fast as they can so they can buy garbage at the gift shop. Actually maybe its just my group of friends.

That night we flew to Okinawa, When I got off the plane, the air was so hot and wet I thought I would be dead within minutes, but the bus was air conditioned and our massive expensive hotel was as well. There was a fantastic view of the ocean and the beach and I even won the largest bed in the room by Japanese rock paper scissors.

Okinawa is a place I knew little about, it is quite unique from the rest of Japan and I was surprised how dark skinned the people were, being kind of rushed through everything and having very limited reading ability in Japanese, I still knew very little about places we went to after we left. I will include some Wikipedia links to things I've been too at the bottom of this post.

The Castle in Okinawa was being restored, it smelled like wet paint and all the colors were really bright, apparently Americans blew it up in world war 2 and they've been putting it back together from photographs and memory since the early 90's.

It was pretty awesome to see but there was a kind of falseness to a lot of stuff there.

the aquarium in Okinawa was really cool, there were animals I'd never seen, including whale sharks and manta rays. The tank for them was so huge. We went snorkeling after the aquarium and I saw a lot of the things I'd just seen in the aquarium but now in their natural state. I feel i should add that all the coral was gray and dead and I had the feeling the exotic fish were only surviving there still because of the bread given to them by tourists every day. I am a much stronger swimmer than my classmates, and a lot of them cant actually swim at all, i did not expect that. I've never been anywhere tropical before, and that day was really a lot of fun.

The next day we climbed down into a cave that had been used as a shelter in the battle of Okinawa, the guide told an hour long story in Japanese as everyone huddled together in the dark, I'm sure it must have been a pretty interesting story, but all I understood was to watch my head, and that many many people had died there.

That night we flew to Tokyo, driving through there at night was pretty breathtaking, I'm sure you've seen pictures of Tokyo at night, but going through it is something entirely different, there were so many raised highways I don't think we touched the ground once from the airport to the hotel, it made me think of the Jetson's a little. We ate a buffet style dinner in a hall with a view of both the downtown and the harbour.

The next day was Tokyo Disneyland, it was so busy we only got to go on two rides. one was a mistake, it had the shortest line but turned out to be a slow train ride through a very crummy old west, which included extremely red faced native Americans moving robotically and living in a bamboo forest. the other ride was an hour and a half line up, but by far the greatest roller coaster I've ever been on, and almost entirely in the pitch dark, it was called space mountain and was beyond illin. Again they spent massive amounts of money on massive amounts of junky Disney memorabilia. there are other places I would like to have seen in Tokyo, but this was a really fun day with my friends regardless of the waiting and crummyness and disneyness, and that roller coaster was honestly almost as good as Obama winning the American election on Japanese TV in the hotel room. those are two things I shall not soon forget.


I've taught English in a few times to a few classes, I enjoy it and it goes over well, but I think I taught the most English on this trip, and learned more Japanese, but also more about Japanese people, and feel a lot closer with my classmates.

thank you to my parents for their massive contribution, and thank you to superstore for the tiny paychecks that made up the rest.





Here are some wiki links to places I went.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todai-ji


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinkaku-ji


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiyomizu-dera


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaka_Castle


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryoanji


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nijo_castle


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_Aquarium


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuri-jo

this is just what I could find from names on ticket stubs and pictures I recognize in my book.

Thanks to anyone who reads,

and you don't have to sign up with this website or anything to comment on my posts, I appreciate knowing you're reading, and having your input and criticism.

Alex,

student abroad

i have nothing to say about this.

コナンフチャボイ。

So i went camping again.

I caught four rainbow trout this time, one of which was huge.
I also saw a lot more of Hokkaido, including a volcano, the tallest mountain on the island, a lot of the coastline, and this fantastic peninsula.

The volcano was dormant, but there was boiling water bubbling up, and sulfur everywhere.

the hot spring water was used for an onsen, a japanese public bath. They sold us hard boiled eggs boiled in the hotspring, and in case you dont know sulfur kind of smells like rotten eggs, so this was like eating a rotten egg, but its apparently a very famous japanese food.

I also visited a whiskey factory, with a very interesting story about the founder going to scotland to learn the secrets of making whiskey, and gettign married while he was there to a scottish woman and bringing her back to japan, something very strange for the time period,

I also went on a tour of the nuclear power plant, although the tour was really just getting on a bus, going through a gate and up a hill, then looking out the window for 5 minutes listening to the guide talk in Japanese, then going back. I read later that the two reactors there provide 25% of this part of japans power, and when the third one's construction is complete it will be 40%, they are also painted and camouflaged, to make them less of a target, (for Russia I'm told).

The part that got me was that tons and tons of extremely hot water is simply dumped into the ocean, raising the temperature a full seven degrees, apparently its all OK and that environment is actually causing a lot more life to grow there, but it just doesn't sit well with me.

Anyway,I'll provide a picture of this huge mountain we camped near, when we drove in there was a cloud on top of it, and that night there was a huge rainstorm, and the next day there was snow covering the top, which I thought was cool.

Driving along the seaside was really fantastic, there are huge cliffs and massive crashing waves everywhere. A crazy amount of tunnels has been built to get through all the low mountains, way longer than any mountain tunnel in the Rockies.

We stopped at this peninsula that ended in a really high cliff, and the sea was rough and the sun was coming through the clouds, it was the most fantastic view I have ever seen, I took up my camera to take a picture, and the battery was dead. I took some on my cellphone camera, but they're terrible,I got one decent one before it died, which I will include.


Mikki san (the guy who took me) is a great man, and I have a lot of respect for him. He is one of those people who has learned a lot of his English from movies and stuff, its really quite good, but also very animated and funny. He knows it.

In between jokes he told me that　has studied Japanese legends, western legends, and non fiction stories,

therefore he can see the future, a little,

which he says is good for business


I agree.

Angry blog.

Lets begin with Maruyama zoo.

During exam week at Yamanote, me and the 5 other foreign exchange students had nothing to do, so we spent most of our time studying together in the study center, but on the second last day of exams they took all of us to Sapporo's zoo for the day. We were all pretty excited to just be out of school for a day and to see somewhere new.

It was the most depressing place I have been in my entire life.

The animals where in very unrealistic enclosures that were much too small, and dirty.
Everything was rusty and in need of repair. The animals were dull colored and looked sad.

Lions were in a desert environment, with sand, in a small space on a very steep hillside. Tigers had a similar enclosure with more plants. The Giraffes were almost gray in color, and ate branches tied to the walls. The bears had brutally small environments and really nothing to do but sit, or sit in a pool. The polar bear's enclosure was kind of dangerous in how it was set up, and the bear itself was covered in some kind of green fungus. Giant fruit bats with like two foot wingspans or whatever were in an all glass box that couldn't have been 3 feet across, in full daylight. The penguins where in a very rusty pool and the only thing that separated them from people was a thin plastic mesh that was torn to shreds anyway. They also had armbands that had been put on when they were young, and the wing had grown around it. THE SEALS had it worse by far. these ocean animals where in literally less than three feet of water, and the one I saw was completely blind and its eyes were gray and glazed, I'm pretty sure that from some parasite in the water I read about. Two feet of water is not enough at all. I looked Maruyama zoo up on the internet also, and all I found in English was another tourists review, and it sounded very similar to mine.

Japanese zoo's have been in trouble with animal rights dudes for a long time, and Japan as a whole is said to have little regard for animal rights. This particular zoo was just a dirty park full of Japanese 6 year olds in school uniforms watching animals waiting to die.





Now something that gets me even more angry;
I wrote previously that I haven't seen any homeless people and that everyone seems to have perfectly comfortable middle class lives. I mentioned this to the other other exchange boys at school and they gave me a string of extremely shocking information, which was then backed up and expanded on by the English speaking Japanese teacher.

"You haven't seen one yet, eh?"

no.

"yea we see them in the subway station sometimes"

-Sensei jumps in and explains to me that you do not see many homeless In Sapporo because they're all dead. They die of cold, and you sometimes see them dead and frozen in a park or station she told me the Hokkaido (northern japan) word for homeless is the same for a frozen fish or something. I have also stated before that there is not a whole lot of drug use in Japan, so please understand these human beings are not drug addicts, probably not alcoholics, or even mentally ill. These are people, whole families even that lose their jobs and can not find a new one in time to keep their home. There are apparently no homeless shelters or rehabilitation programs here, Panhandling is dishonorable, and there is no way a Japanese is going to offer money or a hand out to a homeless person. My friend, a New Zealand exchange student said he gave ￥1000 (10 Canadian dollars) to a homeless man once and "he shit his pants over it".


I found a long article on Google about this from another Canadian living in japan, they said:

I have been told that the homeless in Japan are on the streets because of shame and their own accord. They have lost their jobs. They have lost their social positions. They are on the streets because they are too ashamed to admit to their families their changed circumstances. How tragic! Honor and shame values continue to exercise a pivotal role in Japanese life despite its Westernization even though these values have been pushed to the background in the West.

Why is it that the individual must bear the brunt of a society's mishaps and economic failures? No one deserves to be on the streets.

It can happen to anyone. It can happen to you, to a family member or to a dear friend. Marital breakup, domestic violence, child abuse, mental illness, job loss can all contribute to someone falling through the cracks and ending up on the streets.

http://www.thingsasian.com/stories-photos/3540

So yea, a fresh crop dies of cold each year, and the government and media try not to talk about it too much, and especially not let it become part of their international appearance. There are no programs trying to get these unfortunate people back on their feet, not even a soup kitchen. There is an American teacher at my school and he explained to me that Japanese often ignore something if they do not want to see it through to its end, as in if someone looks lost, and a Japanese offers to help them, they will follow through with helping them until they get where they need to go, if they do not have the time or desire to help them they will simply keep walking. He said it went farther than that, and that someone could fall down on the ice and people would simply ignore it because they didn't want to get involved, I was a little shocked at this, but I was more shocked when I saw a girl fall off her bike at a crosswalk quite painfully and although she was tangled and trapped under her bike, no one helped her up, or even turned their head. I was most shocked today though, when I found out this can go as far as men and women freezing or starving to death in the street.



I do not consider myself a bleeding heart, and I know for sure my friends don't...
Dinner's ready, and there's a crazy game show on,

There are things I really like here, and things I really don't.

sunday

I climbed another mountain yesterday with my host family and some of their grandchildren. This was a much higher more difficult climb, and the view of the sea/city/other Mountains was spectacular, the changing leaves were also pretty cool.

There is a limit on the number of pictures i can include in a post, but ill give you the five best from yesterday, they will be difficult to choose.

Here are some general overgeneralizations.

The following are things I have seen/experienced myself, or been told by fairly reliable sources, that appear to be true about this country so far at least.

Japanese think shaking hands is novel, but they don’t realize it’s meant to be done with the right hand, they just use whatever,

It is common for family members to share bathwater, and to put tea in the bathwater.

It is common for Japanese women to use tiny strips of double sided tape to make their eyelids appear more Caucasian.

Whale meat is available at most if not all grocery stores.

If you pay for the license, there is no limit on the number of bears you may hunt in a season.

Prostitution carries less social stigma in Japan than in other parts of the world, and though it is now officially illegal, it is visible almost everywhere and there are many buildings set up just for this purpose.

Marijuana culture is very popular in Japan, Rastafarian apparel, marijuana paraphernalia etc is sold everywhere and clothing with marijuana related logos or designs are extremely popular.

There is no marijuana in all of Japan, well there is some but the penalties are so high, that its very uncommon.

Seatbelts are not always used in Japan, and only considered necessary on major roads.

There is thirty percent universal health care coverage in Japan. Outside of that, people are on their own.

Everyone has a bike, but helmets are almost never seen.

English study begins in middle school and is mandatory. No other languages are offered.

Every town, no matter how small has at least one massive slot machine casino.

There are no warnings on Cigarette boxes in Japan, and smoking ads are everywhere.

Japan’s Garbage is separated into three categories, combustible, non-combustible, and recyclable bottles and cans.

Japanese toothpaste is essentially wet baking soda in a tube. Gold teeth and dentures are both common, even for the middle aged.

It is common to see elderly women with part or all of their hair dyed purple, I have no idea what for.

University admittance is determined by an exam, rather than by high school grade transcripts. Students are often studying for this exam during their final high school year as well as regular high school exams.

There is a high student suicide rate in Japan, there are gates in subway stations supposedly to stop people from throwing themselves onto the tracks.

It takes several Japanese students working together to hold an English conversation, and when you see people alone who would normally talk to you in a group they will often just say hello, or avoid you, or be afraid.

In situations where we English speakers would use phrases like “good luck!” or “do your best!” Japanese say “がんばて” [gam ba te] or “がんばれ” [gan ba re]. The literal translation of these phrases is “fight!” so often before I give a speech or do anything really, people will shout at me in English; “FIGHT!” This was very confusing in the beginning and I often thought I was about to be attacked.

Other things I feel like mentioning:

Today I gave an introduction speech to the entire student body, despite having been in attendance for more than one month. It was well received.

I’m going on another fishing trip this weekend because I said I enjoyed the last one so much, which I did, but it wasn’t this cold before!

Yamanote is a private sports school, with teams that train for hours on end. Everyone in Canada told me I would be much bigger than most Japanese, but many of the guys at school are much taller and more massive than I. On the same note, people are constantly asking me what sports I like, expecting me to tell them a specific sport which I have been training at since childhood. I’ve just been saying skiing, which is essentially true, and gives me a month or so more before I have to prove it. I now have way more ski trip invites than I can possibly afford though. Also the mountains I have seen are half or less than half the size of most Canadian mountains.

According to my host dad the snow is salty from the mountains proximity to the sea… at least I think that’s what he said.

The Japanese language is completely different form English, I have a hard time stopping myself from comparing everything to English because it doesn't work, and gets you really confused. There is no plural in Japanese and everything is just said differently. "Is" comes at the end of a sentence, i dunno i could go on forever but heres a quick example;

if i were to show a LITERAL word for word translation of what my host parents said to each other at dinner tonight it would sound like this:

host mom: father, rice eat?

host dad: yes yes, eat,

host mom: milk drink?

host dad: no, is.

so, it can be easy to understand when they are talking simply and informally, but correctly saying what you want to say can be much harder.

I have seen zero homeless people since I came here, but I’ve read on the internet that Japan does have some. I don’t know how such a massively capitalist society has managed to have only upper class and upper middle class citizens.

I know this was a kind of bleak one, but I just wanted to show you the imperfect side of Japan, which I haven’t really talked about previously. I’m still having the time of my life and making every day an adventure!