This is not an exaggeration. This is what I went to the library today to do. I haven't even STARTED my actual homework. I have my cup of instant coffee, a 32 pack of instant Miso Soup and my 5 pack of Ramen.

1. Wince as the sun hits my eyes at 7:00am

2. Grumble as I go to the shower.

3. Realize I had more homework while in the shower.

4. Get ready for the day while rushing to finish homework.

5. Go to my solid 3 period (95 minute each) block of classes and try to look interested.

6. Sigh of relief when I am done.

7. Unwillingly go to the library to take a nap  do homework.

8. Walk home with plans to make a healthy, full meal.

9. Actually make instant something or other.

10. Go to study room (which is in dorms) because my floor is super loud.

11. Kanji, vocab, kanji, actual homework, kanji, more vocab, kanji, (Pause to cry), notes, kanji, vocab, then management accounting homework and macroeconomics homework.

12. Return to my room and get ready for bed.

13. Hope my floor can be quiet at midnight so I can sleep.

14. Repeat.

That pretty much sums of my real life. APU runs on a quarter system, with two semesters with two quarters per semester. Language classes are full semester. Some math courses are also a full semester.
I am taking a Japanese Language course which is four days week for the whole semester. Along with that, I am taking Management Accounting, Macroeconomics and Statistics. They are all boring lecture style courses, but the professors are nice, know what they are talking about and do their best to teach.

Students here are often disrespectful, as in, they talk during class non-stop. They also have no problem coming in half way through the class even though attendance is taken. Sit in front if you want to hear the professor. You will never find a quiet spot anywhere on campus, not even in the library. Get used to it.
NO ONE STICKS TO ONE SIDE OF THE HALLWAY/STREET AND THEY WALK SLOW. THEREFORE I LOOK LIKE THE RUSHED AMERICAN BECAUSE I WALK FASTER THAN NEGATIVE TWO KILOMETERS PER HOUR.

Also, no one holds the door here. At BSU we hold the door even for people fifteen feet away. Here, they don't hold the door even if you are right behind then. I just look super nice when I do that...

So, as a Japanese language learning student, expect to be placed in a lower class than you think. Prepare to not speak any English in class, nor be able to take/look at notes. Talking is a must, of course, but doesn't mean it's fun. YOU WILL GET DISCOURAGED AND YOU WILL BE PUSHED OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE. You will. Simple as that.
But, despite that, I really love/hate my professor. He is very difficult since he talks native speed, no English (he can, but he doesn't) and calls on people at random. BUT, he cares about the students and uses effective methods for us to understand (even if we don't, sometimes).

In other news I got this rad ice cream that tastes wicked good. Vanilla and chocolate covered nuts in a waffle.

No that's a lie. I won't walk 15 more miles for a while.

I walked down the mountain today. There are always side walks, so we can walk all the way down. It took from 11am to 4. We walked down the mountain, then through the city main strip to Youme (You-may) Town which is the mall. Along the way I took many pictures of the beautiful scenery. There were beautiful rivers and streams, as well as what looked like grave stones or mile markers.

We walked through a beautiful town, since we took mostly side roads. The houses were all so unique and despite having small yards, they had beautiful gardens and even solar panels wherever they could fit. Almost no one was walking.

 After that we walked through the city. The whole day it was sunny and at least 21 degrees (70 Fahrenheit) , if not hotter. I am so glad I wore shorts, but I am burnt to a crisp. I did not wear sun screen and now I am red as a lobster.

In the city we went to eat at a really cool log cabin place. I split a huge meal with my friend. It was chicken and omurice which is an omelet rice with ketchup on it. The best thing ever!

Right behind the restaurant was a thrift store and I bought a new bag for ¥500. It's a piggy! It even has a little curly tail on the back of it. After that we walked the rest of the way to Youme town to meet some other friends. I won a giant alpaca stuffed animal on a claw machine. 

On my day off yesterday (Wednesday) I decided to walk through campus. It was 70 out, so I couldn't not go outside! Although the sakura have passed, there are still many beautiful flowers and plenty of butterflies. There are many places to eat lunch outside, including Beppu-wan, which is the rest stop up the stairs from our school. You'll see in the video!

I've been here a month now. It hasn't felt that long.

What is a fork. I do not know. A dinglehopper I'm pretty sure it's called. To comb your hair right? I've mastered chop sticks and cooking is ten times easier with my foot long chop sticks. Speaking of cooking, I've been doing a lot of that. Since there is no meal plan (there are dining halls though) I cook most of my meals. Since American food is of course not the norm here, I've had to improvise.

Yakiudon (Pan fried udon noodles)

Mushroom Pasta (... Pasta with Mushroom)

Vegetables are cheap here. I mean really cheap. Therefore I am forced to eat healthy. I love mushrooms, so I always have these in my basket. Since meat isn't cheap, they are a good substitute. I think they sometimes have the texture of meat...

Along with those, I always have bok choy, cabbage (I'm going to turn into either a cabbage or a mushroom, if I am what I eat), cherry tomatoes (the love of my life), carrots, eggs and some kind of fruit. Fruit is expensive here so it's a luxury. The fuji apples are sweet as candy though!




Aside from my food adventures, classes started.

Classes are intense and have kept me busy so I haven't gone out to do many fun things. I definitely believe I will know Japanese after this class though. My sensei (professor) teaches really well, although we cannot speak English, or use the book in class. It's difficult and makes me study for hours on end, but I don't dread it like I did on day one.

Though I will give a piece of advice. Travel abroad while you are a freshman or sophomore, while you still have basic classes to get through. They are easier to take abroad and will allow you to other things. It is difficult trying to figure out what might transfer. Here's hoping all goes well!

Today I had planned to go to the rest of the Jigoku Hells, but it was overcast and a little chilly out, so I just tagged along while other people went shopping. I am starting to really notice the many differences from America, such as the clothing brands, the prices, and the basic stores. This probably won't be an exciting post, since I have done some posts about Beppu city already.

Daiso, which is the 100Yen store, or in US terms, the Dollar Store. It's not like our dollar store which is sketchy and has nothing you need. No, this 100Yen store has everything you need in pretty colors, designs and variety. This is a go to place. They also have some foods, spices, salad dressing and kitchen stuff, like rice paddles and tupper wear. I've gotten most of my cute cups and plates there.



For lunch I tried ramen. Not that college student food, but real good ramen. I had gyoza with it, which are meat filled dumplings in crescent shapes. It also came with fried chicken that wasn't really my favorite, and also white rice. It's become so common place to eat white rice that when I don't eat it the meal doesn't seem complete.

I didn't get a picture, but the toilets in the bathroom are well... interesting. First of all they are very clean, everywhere. (America, get on that.) Second, the lid opened and closed for me. The seat heats up.


We then went to a mall and to the arcade. Arcades are not little things here. They are big, they are fun, the games actually work and there are dozens upon dozens of UFO Catcher games, or the Crane Games. The stuff in them is usually really good, such as sake sets, brand name towels, giant stuffed animals and even Häagen-Dazs ice cream. I managed to win a giant cat pillow!

Today I made Tonkatsu! Pork covered in panko flakes then deep fried. Definitely the easiest and tastiest thing I have made. I made fat little pork chops, but normally you pound it flatter. It's surprisingly easy to make and I used this wonderful recipe from JustOneCookbook.com! They have many different recipes that I want to try and her directions are very clear.

They came out great and took maybe 15 minutes max, because I made two. Pork and chicken is common here, while beef isn't so much. I only see shaved beef, instead of huge t-bone steaks. I also made rice and boiled quail eggs with it as well. Quail eggs are just tiny eggs, from a quail... of course. They taste no different than a chicken egg and they don't need to be prepared in a special way. They are just small and cute and fit better in my bento box instead of chicken eggs which I use to cook mostly.

So, my dinner came out great. I also made a bento box which is just a lunch box. I love cherry tomatoes, so that will be my vegetable (or fruit) for lunch. To top it off, normally you put tonkatsu sauce on it, but I only had okonomiyaki sauce, which isn't too far off. Overall, this was a great meal and I will definitely be making it again!

Chee-no-eekay Ji-go-ku and Ta-tsu-ma-kee Ji-go-ku

Yesterday I visited two of the eight Jigoku Hells. The Jigoku Hells are hot springs that will probably boil you to death if you stepped foot in them. They are located in the Kannawa district of Beppu. The ones we went to are actually located in the Shibaseki district of Beppu, not all that far. We walked about a mile and a half from Kannawa instead of taking the bus, on a pretty road. It was cold and windy unfortunately, but the rain held off and it turned out to be a beautiful day, I think.




We went to Tatsumaki Jigoku first, which is a boiling hot geiser that shoots off every half hour or so. It's protected by rocks, otherwise it would shoot up over 30 meters. This was the smelliest of the two and reeked of sulfur, but that's only if you decided to walk into the steam. Just the steam was hot enough to send you back a few feet!



















Next we went to Chinoike Jigoku, also known as the blood pond hell. The clay in this hotspring makes it appear a blood red color. When the steam blew in your direction, step back! This one was very hot, even when I got the picture from at least 20 meters up. This one smelled a little like clay and if you looked into the pond, you could see the hot clay at the bottom. The water was very clear and only the bottom was red.

For lunch I got takoyaki from a small vendor across the street. Eight for 500yen! Takoyaki is octopus, in a soft, squishy wheat flour blend then fried in a special pan to make these little balls! It's then topped with tempura flakes, bonito flakes and japanese mayo. They are very much a comfort snack here in Japan. (This is not my picture, I ate mine too fast to take a picture!)

Takoyaki Recipe

No pictures this time, just a small update.

There was a small earthquake just a few moments ago. Jolted me awake! None of the Japanese students seemed to worry or even acknowledge it but the foreign students all mentioned it on facebook. We were told that large ones don't happen in this area, only little ones like today. It was big enough to wake me up though!

So without anything to do today, I headed down to Beppu-shi to walk around and learn the streets. The bus ride downtown isn't very long and takes us on a pretty route. We got dropped off at Beppu Koen (Beppu Park) and we viewed all the sakura blossoms. There are so many! Tulips are also very popular, as you can see from the pictures. There were many people enjoying hanami, which is sakura blossom viewing! You have a picnic and just enjoy yourself.

I then walked to the harbor which reminds me of Boston. It was very warm and sunny out and I got a nasty sunburn, but it's better than being cold! There are many beaches and parks in Beppu which makes it look very natural despite being a city. The Japanese have mastered living in nature very well. I also went up Beppu Tower. There is a tower in pretty much every city, so they aren't anything special. It had a great view though!

View from Beppu Tower

Beppu Station

Beppu Harbor Tsunami Warning

After that we went to dinner at a conveyor belt sushi place. Even the bad sushi here is better than in America. I am not a fan of sushi, but it was pretty cool to go to. If you want to order a particular piece of sushi, it comes out on a tiny shinkansen (bullet train) right to your table. So there are no actual waitresses or anything. It's pretty sweet.

To drink, it's not common to have soda with a meal, or even juice. Tea is the most common thing, green tea in particular. So the little yellow nozzle on the side dispenses hot water and you put in matcha, which is green tea, and you have tea.






To continue the long day, we stayed until nightfall to watch them set Mt. Obu on fire. Why? I have no idea why they do that. It's the start of the onsen (public bath/spa/hot tub) festival. It's a controlled fire, so no one gets hurt.

So in short, welcome to Beppu, we set a mountain on fire because it is fun.