I go home in one week and my finals have ended.

I am making sure to see all my friends before I leave. I've met so many wonderful people while here and I am so happy!

I went to a farewell party for my Japanese Professor whom I've had for two semesters now. Although sometimes he was strict, he is definitely one of my favorite professors throughout my college years and my favorite professor at APU. He kindly invited us to his home and we cooked and had pizza! (Haven't had pizza in a while!!)

My Japanese class has always been a small bunch. This semester we were less than ten and everyone was from different countries. (Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Finland, Uzbekistan and South Korea.) We have become very close friends and I hope I can visit them all again one day!

My professor will no longer be teaching in APU so we are his last students! I wish him luck in the future and with his move! (Let's keep in contact!) I also wish everyone else good luck in their studies and future jobs!

I may or may not have cried when the party was over...

I decided to pick up a few books I probably won't be able to find in the US. Even Amazon.com (as opposed to amazon.jp) doesn't carry these books. Therefore I decided to pick them up. They are a mix of vocabulary and JLPT test practice books.

Blue: Japanese Vocab Speed Master N1
Red: Japanese Vocab Speed Master N2
Dog (Green): Japanese Vocab Speed Master N3 (This is the one I am currently on which is why it has a cute book cover.)
Larger Green: Is a JLPT N5-N4 Grammar/Kanji/Vocab work book

This is the JLPT N4-N5 Book. 

This book is really good if you can read on train or in transit. I am not good at that but it's still good to carry around. It's not very big and has good problems and answers. (I also have the N3/N2 book, packed away). It has three problems per page and on the back of that page it has the answers and explanations. Each page has one Kanji, one Vocab and one Grammar problem.

Speed Master

This is one of the Speed Master books. It has a list of vocab in both Kanji with red furigana (the pronunciation of the Kanji) and the English answers written in red. It came with this handy dandy red thing so I can cover the answers and test myself. These books also come with CDs that has example sentences which are under some of the vocab. Vocabulary is separated by category, it has notes for polite words as well.

I picked these up mainly because I am not going to carry around my text book. Books in America are awkwardly big and I don't care to carry such a heavy thing in my back back. Why America doesn't like pocket editions, I have no idea. 



I am also not too fond of the text book we use in class but it is a very popular text book in America and Europe I hear.
There is more English than Japanese in the text book, so it is good for beginners. Vocab per chapter used to match up in early chapters, same with the kanji, but in later chapters and the second volume, they seem random and don't line up with the chapter theme. 
Japanese can be an intimidating language and the book does provide a fun, easy looking means to learn Japanese.
The good thing is, it does come with a work book and has a CD for the conversation parts.


If you are studying for JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test), then there are a few options of books. Really, a few. If you want instruction, not just practice tests, then pick up these:

These pictures are the N3 level. (Beginner is N5, fluent is N1). The raccoon is always reading, monkey is grammar, owl is kanji, bunny is listening and chipmunk is vocabulary. The only down side is that these are thin text books. They aren't small pocket sized books unfortunately. I have not bought them but use them from the library. I currently work with N3 and N4 typically.

I can't really tell you how to learn a language nor what book works best. There are many books out there. "Learn Japanese in 60 days!" Well, that probably won't happen. It will be frustrating and you will hit walls that will force you to take a day or two off. It will be hard, and self study is very difficult. Keep at it, try your best and find what works for you!

Compared to Kyoto, Beppu does not have temples or shrines really. It has onsens and pudding so that's okay. All that white smoke is actually steam from the dozens upon dozen of onsen in Beppu. I believe there are at least 36 onsen, but I am pretty sure there are over a hundred baths.


I am living in the city of onsen (hot spring), but I haven't spoken much about them. Today was cold so of course onsen! I went with a friend to a famous onsen in Beppu, only a 15 minute or so ride from my school by bus. Very cheap bus ride, rather expensive onsen but it was so much fun. That symbol to the left is the onsen symbol. The map below shows all of the onsen in Beppu. (Look for the symbol in blue!)

Beppu has the most rich and natural onsen in Japan. In Beppu there are 8 different springs which are now towns and onsen areas within Beppu. They are named Beppu, Kannawa, Myoban, Kankaiji, Hamawaki, Kamegawa, Horita and Shibaseki. I have visited onsens in Beppu, Kamegawa and now Kannawa. From sulfur baths, to clay, to salt, to special mineral water for your skin, there are many natural onsen in Beppu. There are also other onsen that are 'man made' such as the carbonated bath and the electric bath that gives you shocks as you sit in it. I have tried all of those and maybe the clay is my favorite and the shock one is my least favorite.

Indoor 

Onsens are not expensive typically (in Beppu at least). Maybe a few hundred yen (a few US dollars). There are indoor spa type baths or outdoor ones that look like beautiful pools of water. Some are small, with only one bath for both genders. Then there are some with saunas, outdoor, indoor, sulfur, clay and normal baths, those are the expensive ones.

Very Pretty Outdoor

Onsen water isn't just good for your skin, but you can boil stuff with it! Go figure. Onsen Tamago (onsen boiled eggs) are delicious, as well as sweet Purrin (Pudding).

So today I visited Hoyoland onsen in Kannawa. This one had an outdoor, clay, sulfur and sauna bath in it. The clay was by far the most fun out of the baths but the sulfur is very nice for your skin. Unfortunately the onsen boiled pudding was all sold out! We then went to get dinner at Myoban which is known for it's thatched roof huts that house crystal making facilities used in bath salts. Now because we are on a mountain and there are hot springs everywhere, including sulfur baths, yes, it smells like rotten eggs. Sometimes when the wind blows up the mountain, we get that lovely smell on campus. I can't get used to it and where a face mask.

Myoban

I don't typically go to the dining hall on campus, since we have kitchens. But when I have become so lazy and so hungry, I do go there.

It's completely different than American lunches, let me tell you. I got two fried white fish with a sweet egg and onion sauce. The other fish is mackerel in miso, then the green stuff is spinach salad with sesame and for something sweet, candied yams. For drinks either we can get something bottled or there is free hot tea (which I got two of) and cold water. All of this was about five dollars.

If I am lazy during the night and don't want to cook, I get instant yakisoba which are noodles in yakisoba sauce. The black one is dyed with squid ink (note the tiny squid picture) and the left side is just plain.

 In other news, November is already half way over and many of the trees are still green. A few have changed color on campus and some are barren, like the cherry blossom trees. The average temperature is still maybe 60 or so during the day. If it isn't windy it is warm, but the wind can really make it chilly.

So many flowers out still!

I have like, three months until I come home. So basically time to go wild and do all the fun Japanese stuff I didn't already do!

This post is a little overdue.
Our school had a festival! If you haven't realized, Japan throws awesome festivals for anything it seems.

 Cloudy and windy. Rained on and off throughout the day, but it was so much fun! There were so many stalls from different clubs and groups selling so much food. I ended up getting yakitori (grilled chicken on a stick) and tamago senbei which is like a fried egg on a cracker sandwich thing with mayo and sauce and it probably sounds awful to you but it's great. I had it twice.

The festival was two days long, over the weekend and everyone got involved! I really wish schools in America could care enough to do this sort of thing. Student clubs are so independent here and are able to do so much!

 Our club, Xiao sold Peppermint Bark! I was so surprised no one knew what it was. No one knew what peppermint was! It's never too early to get into the Christmas spirit. We ended up selling out early the first day and early the second day! We did so well!

That's not all we did though. We also did a Free Hugs event where we literally just walked around hugging people. Yay hugs! 

 The festival continued into the night time with firewords and music performances including the taiko group. Poor things must have been so cold! Without the wind it would have been tolerable.

So, I am not done with my summer blog posts, but school has kept me busy. Therefore I still am behind on those.

Time to talk about autumn. I mean. The continuation of summer. Daily it is between 75-80 degrees out. On top of the mountain it's cooler, usually 70-75. The humidity is gone and therefore it's bearable to go outside. The sun is almost always out except for the random sunny rain. I don't need to buy a jacket yet nor extra blankets because even at night it's usually 60 or so. The leaves haven't changed yet. It's still green and there are many flowers. Mikan (mandarin oranges) are spotting green little trees, same with persimmon which are much bigger than I thought!


Japan likes to make strange things, as you might have guessed by now. McDonalds has what is called the Halloween Ikasumi burger. It means Squid Ink burger. Squid Ink isn't just a fancy name. It's the reason why the bun is black. Squid ink is used in breads and noodles and other things. This burger is a double cheese burger with a yellow spicy cheese sauce, fried onions and some strange black sauce of some kind. This burger tasted good! I mean, it's from McDonalds, but it was actually a good McDonald's burger. It tasted no different than a regular double cheeseburger except for the fact it had the spicy cheese sauce.

Back in America I think of fall as hot coffee (well... I still like iced coffee...), hot APPLE CIDER and of course pumpkin everything. Now, I will say that's one thing I miss. I can't find a single orange pumpkin here and kabocha (the green winter pumkin) is too thick to make into a jack-o-lantern. I've been busy and haven't even been out much. Until today.

I stopped by Starbucks and had their autumn themed custard and caramel thing and wow. Just. Wow. I love it. I want it more. It will never be in America and that makes me sad.

It's very sweet, but what do you expect from a custard, cinnamon frappuchino?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

 Okay this post will actually be two separate, not consecutive days. But it's fits together.

My host family lives in a mansion (an apartment complex) which has a lovely view of this amazing amusement park called Greenland. At night it is lit up beautifully. Like so. Greenland is a very popular, and a very big amusement park (I'll soon find out) and it is always crowded. In the summer, at least.

On the last day of August which is the last day of summer before school starts there is hanabi (fireworks) set off. So we went to their friends for hot pot, since they have a better balcony view of the fireworks.This marks the last day of summer. Literally, the last day of being crowded.

So, a few days later I went to Greenland with my new friend Mai! She is so cute and fun to hang around with! I had to use my Japanese a lot more since she doesn't speak English. There was literally NO ONE at Greenland and it was wonderful. Still humid and hot, but no lines, nothing.

I played with guinea piggies.

Me and Mai!

There were at least ten different coasters, three haunted houses, two haunted theaters, games and many more! It sorta reminded me of a retro theme park because the rickety sounds were a little ah... unnerving, but I am not dead. I definitely had fun!

I've said this many times. Host families are literally the best people you can hang out with. They welcome you, a foreigner, into their home without knowing you at all, feed you, take you on fun trips, talk to you despite maybe not knowing the language. There is so much at risk for them and yet they STILL welcome you.

I stayed with them for half a month, which is a lot of posts, so I will maybe squish multiple days into one and talk about what we did together!

First things first, my host mother is crazy about climbing mountains. Like, the whole huge backpack, mountain climbing sticks and all that fun stuff. We climbed a baby mountain to practice for a big mountain later.  I thought it would be a nature walk. Aside from bugs, there are no animals up in the mountains. It's quiet. DEAD QUIET.

This was the look out point. We could have gone further up, but it was raining and I was ready to die. It was fun though. I was drenched in sweat and eaten alive by bugs but my host mother is so sweet and happy that it was so much fun. Japanese mountains are just... nothing like I've seen before. The forests are so different. I don't live near mountains nor had I seen one really until I came to Japan and holy crap.

SEE A PATH? I DON'T EITHER.

 After that we went to an onsen. Literally that was my whole trip. Climb a mountain, do something intense, then go to an onsen. Once getting cleaned up in lovely happy onsen (hot spring) we went to a shrine we went to back in March. No more cherry blossoms, but it is still a lovely walk!

One bell for family, for partner, for friends and for strangers.

Not actually home home. I'm going to my host families home which is home enough.

Now, I tried to be really cheap on this trip. Which mean I decided to go by bus and train everywhere. That being said, I took a bus from Sendai to Tokyo in the morning, a bus from Tokyo to Osaka later that night and took a train to Fukuoka that morning, then a train to Arao that evening. Needless to say I needed a shower, but saved a bundle.

The bus company I used was: WillerBus. The website is in English and the prices are cheap! There are different buses, from plain seats with no features, to capsule hotel style seats. Of course they get more expensive, but I think I paid about 25UDS each way on these buses and they were great. No one talks. Only women sit with women and they visit a rest stop almost every two hours or so.

Omurice and Tonkatsu

Between Tokyo and Osaka I was at the station for a while so I got dinner of my comfort food of omurice and tonkatsu. I finished it all in hopes to store up for the winter ahead. I then went to the book store to read an entire book while standing there for four hours.

Pictures from the Bus

Rice Fields, not perfect grass.

After that long journey, I came home and my host mother picked up me up the station. She fed me sweets, then I showered and went to bed.

Thought my trip was over? I have half a month more of playing around now! Look forward to me struggling while climbing a mountain, painting spiky chestnuts and going to Nagasaki!

Sendai

Back in 2009 I came to Sendai and Shichigahama for a school trip. The trip was ten days and we stayed with a host family. Everyone else stayed in Shichigahama but my family was in Sendai which isn't too far. I have a lovely host mother, a host brother and a host sister.

I knew no Japanese back then, no simple phrases, nothing. I knew absolutely nothing. My host sister knew English but my host mother does not. Yet still, we communicated and enjoyed that week together. I knew I wanted to go back the moment I left Japan and I was sure to always talk to my host family.

But...

In March of 2011, a devastating tsunami destroyed Sendai, flooded it, knocked down buildings and disrupted the lives so a whole city. So many lives were lost and it seemed there wasn't enough aid to go around. To put simply, without any better words, I was also devastated.

Thankfully I got word that my host family was okay, physically speaking. I was encouraged more to learn the language so that I could talk to my host mother. I learned my host sister went to France to marry her fiance. That meant if I visit again, I won't be able to speak English.

Now... how many years ago was that? 5 years. I took Japanese classes, I took my regular college courses, I applied for study abroad, came to Japan and now... I took a bus from Tokyo to Sendai.

I stayed for a weekend and in that weekend we visited a lovely onsen. Even in the heat of the summer, onsen are wonderful to go in. We got a room for the day as well and had lunch.

After that we visited a temple with a beautiful view. The waterfall was huge and beautiful! Sendai and Miyagi prefecture is definitely a beautiful area. Though the best part was that it wasn't nearly as hot as Tokyo was because it's further north.

The rest of the weekend was also spent pleasantly. One of the days we took a drive to Shichigahama. I did not take pictures of this. Maybe, I thought that the differences were best left to memory. The town was... different. It was like walking in a different place. The community center we went to every day was still there. But the view from the back was different. It was flat. The acres of trees were gone and the coast line was wider.

Plymouth and Shichigahama

 Plymouth and Shichigahama are sister cities. We send students there, they send students here. I was so very thankful to go on that trip. I really hope to one day work in this program to see that it always continues.

Community Office/Center

There was lots of temporary housing still. Maybe I was expecting things to be back to the way they were, but they were not. Yet still, I saw students coming back from school activities, or young children with their parents at the playground. Some people were having BBQ at the beach.

This also marks the high light of my study abroad. I had fun in Tokyo and traveling the JR. I had fun going to classes at APU for my first semester. I enjoyed Osaka on QB, I enjoyed eating Japanese food, I enjoyed it all, but this... is why I came to Japan.

I promised I would visit again when I came back to Japan.
Well, I came back to Japan, and I visited.

This is why I am studying abroad.

The subway wasn't so difficult. On day one, yeah it was confusing, but after riding it a few times, you get used to it.

Here is a great website to use to educate yourself before hand. I didn't think to use it. Tokyo Metro. In Japan, subways are all the same. Same ticket booth, same maps, etc. Sometimes they are not in English nor in Hiragana. Good news is that on all of the metro lines the stations are announced in both English and Japanese. I heard Chinese a few times too.

To start, you can purchase tickets at touch screen computers. Just look at the map above, see where you want to go and it says the price from the current station. The computers can be put in English. **Carry 1000 yen bills and coin, as most do not accept anything greater than that unless you are going far on the JR. (JR is not the same as the metro, but there is a JR Loop Line in Tokyo)

Now you get a small ticket. When you enter, put it in the little slot and TAKE IT on you way out of the ticket gate. You need this to get off. When you arrive at your destination, put it in the slot. You don't get it back. If you get off after what you paid for, there are correctional computers where you put your ticket in and it tells you the amount you need to add, then you can exit! Simple.

SUBWAY ETIQUETTE: Japan has subway etiquette. Such as standing in line. There are marked areas where the doors will be. Stand in line. Some cars are female only for rush hour. If you are female, take those. Rush hour is around 8 am and 5pm. I suggest traveling before that, or after that, unless you want to be squished between awkward businessmen. Don't put luggage on seats, offer seats to elderly. Obviously don't litter and no smoking on the subway trains.

(Click to zoom in)

It looks confusing but it's easier than New York. Everything is color coded and numbered.

By reading up on the different lines you can find what is closest to what. There are also private rail companies, not metro, that run through Tokyo. Like the Tsukuba Express which goes from right next to my hostel to Akihabara. Even if you can't read the name of the station, you can know where to go by the station number. There is also the JR Yamanote line (which is not Tokyo Metro) that loops through Tokyo.

For those traveling just in Tokyo you don't need a JR Pass and it's probably a waste of money to get one. The fare between stations is fairly cheap. Take the subway, even if it seems difficult. Taxi are expensive and often times don't speak English, nor do many accept credit cards! 

MONEY MATTERS: Tokyo has more places that accept credit cards, but if you are simply here on vacation, take cash. Exchange in your home country and come with cash, as Japan is a very cash based society. Coins are very much used and it isn't strange to walk around with fat wallets. NO TIPPING IN JAPAN. 

If you do bring a card, you can take out cash from JP Bank. (Which is also the post office). They have ATM's in English but of course there will be a fee.