Adventure to the "Other" (University)

Alert the authorities, Jessi is making a blog post.  But please, don't panic.  Mack is still alive, I swear.

Today I had one of my longest adventures "sans Mack".  While he was off doing who-knows-what with his host family (I don't know because he's not back yet), I travelled to Akita City for Akita University's school festival.

AU (not AIU) is the regular, Japanese university for Akita.  I don't even know if they have international students, but it would not surprise me if the number is few to none.  For those Ithacan readers out there, the comparison between AIU and Akita University is like that of Ithaca College and Cornell.  Bigger campus, developed campus, more crowded, better funding.

Anyways, I was to perform with my choir, as well as AIU's Yatose club.  So 10:00AM on this Sunday morning, I packed up my tambourine, saw Mack off to his own adventure, and hopped on the bus to the train station with my fellow choir members.

When we got to the station, we still had about 30 minutes until the train came.  I passed the time running through our songs in my head, while occasionally helping out some of the Japanese girls with reading English.  Apparently a group of them had a major test coming up based on a reading comprehension book, not unlike one we used in AP English classes.  As the single non-Japanese member of choir, I become the go-to person for English pronunciation and definitions.

One train ride to Akita city later, and the group splits up for lunch and shopping before we head to the festival.  After much deliberation (partially caused by my limited cash on hand), I am lead by a group into an alleyway and to an off-the-beaten-path restaurant.  I'm learning that in Japan, these are the best kinds...

In the resturaunt the six of us sit down (on the floor!) at a table and we get right down to ordering (by we, I of course mean them.  I merely supplied helpful phrases like "I don't eat fish." and "Yes, I like shrimp/cheese/etc" when asked).  

What we got was a bowl of stuff: cabbages, meats, veggies, and an egg.  Time to make okonomiyaki!!!  

Okonomiyaki is a food from Osaka (!!!!!) sometimes known as Japanese pizza.  But really it's nothing like pizza.  I'd actually say it's closer to a latke, but anyways...  I saw it on "No Reservations" once (Thank you Mom and Dad...), so I was really excited to try it!

As it was my first time, I was given the "honor" of mixing the ingredients, then dumping the resulting goop onto a hot iron grill built into the center of our table.  After a while, the other girls again gave me the honor of "flipping" the pizza, like a pancake.  They got a kick out of it when it preceded to fall apart on landing impact.

Anyways, what resulted was a horrifying looking, absolutely delicious fried mash-up of goodness, not unlike what you see below.  

We had a total of 4: regular(?), tofu, cheese, and shrimp, between the six of us.  I will definitely have to go to this place again, with someone who can read the menu...

Finally, the festival.

The choir performance went well.  The stage and the crowd were small.  We weren't on the main stage (if there was one, I'm not sure) like at the AIU festival.  But we got through all our songs and the crowd seemed to enjoy it.  I didn't screw up too bad on the tambourine, or my solo for that matter.  Yup, I had a solo.  (Apparently I had to leave the country to get one, but it was bound to happen if you sing long enough.)  I was very nervous, but it was short and I knew it well.  So all was well.

Sadly, I didn't realize the choir performance and Yatose performance overlapped in times until I got to the festival.  So I didn't get to perform with our Yatose group.  But there was a "free dance" period later on, where all the Yatose groups danced together.

This was likely the highlight of my day.  Over a hundred people of all ages, little girls to obaa-sans (grandmothers), men and women, a rainbow of colored costumes.  All dancing the same dance, for the pure joy and energy of dancing.  I was really excited when the first "free dance" was the same dance our group usually performs, so I was able to join right in.  The second dance, called "Power dance!" I didn't know, but I did my best to keep up.  Then, everyone was having so much fun, we did the first dance again!  I may have been the only foreigner in the dance, but I think I held my own. :)

All in all, an awesome day.  It was long, and terrifying being without Mack or someone to translate for me all the time.  But I think I will sleep well tonight and dream of dancing.  Dokai dokai dokaisho!

A Brief Estimation on Spending

Souvenires 35%
Food 30%
Transportation 20%
School Supplies Maintenence 15%

This is a very rough graph but represents fairly solidly my expenses thusfar in Japan. A few things have been suprising.

Food
I've only eaten of campus about six times, but that adds up rather quickly. Additionally, trips the grocery store have pushed that pecentage up. If you know me, having my second highest expenditure being food shouldn't be that suprising.

Souvenirs
Souvenirs is a little higher that expected, but I did decide to buy a new external hardrive. Additional I've got most of the specific souvnirs that I wanted for myself, and a few for other people already. Otherwise I think souvenirs is set about right.

Transporation
Transportation was a lot higher than I expected. Granted that has the bus trip between airports included. But a round trip bus to the mall is three dollars, and a round trip to Akita City is 8 dollars. Additionally, on an early school trip to Managa Soko there was a mild fiasco with a taxi cab and a bus that turned out a lot higher than expected. Note: If you come to northern Japan, commuter travel is a lot more difficult.

Exchanging Money
It didn't make it onto the graph but exchanging money has been quite costly. Using the basis of 100 yen to a dollar, exchanging money has cost about $65. Granted the dollar is really weak right now, but I've been looking for a place to exchange money that charges a flat fee as opposed to a percentage of what you take out. I havn't found one yet, but it has still been a little frustrating to see that much money fly out the window for no real good reason.

Laundry
I don't know if it's a Japanese thing, or just an AIU thing, but laundry costs a dollar per machine. So a dollar to wash and a dollar to dry, per load of laundry. The machines aren't very big either, nor powerful. Jessi and I have been doing laundry cooperativly, but for our normal laundry load together it costs about 6 dollars. 3 dollars to wash three loads, 2 dollars to dry, 1 dollar to re dry one of the loads.

The dryers are actually pretty weak. We put the whites in one machine and the colors, jeans, and towels in the other machine, but it never gets dry. In fact after two cycles they're still a little damp. So for this month we've spent about 16 dollars. Two big loads, and one smaller one.