Behind the Scenes: What It Took To Get Where I Am

People always ask me how I planned my trip to Japan. Some of them are merely curious and some ask because they would like to do something similar. I personally believe this has been a life-changing experience for me and one that I think everyone should be able to enjoy so I am going to share with you all my not-so-secret secrets!

I spent almost a year preparing for my application to the "ideal" exchange program. I wished and hoped and wished again that it would work out for everything I had was dependent on getting accepted by this program. Needless to say, when I got rejected I didn't really know what to do. I didn't want to deal with the hassle (or the expenses) of applying for another program so it seemed the only other option I had was to make my own!

First I had to figure out more or less how this trip would lay out. I ideally wanted to go for 6 months because it is said that that is how long it takes to be fluent however, with my trip rushing in on me I realized that I did not want to deal with the hassle of getting a student visa. I can be here 3 months on a tourist visa (aka just a passport) and I realized this would just have to do. I asked around to find out what a reasonable sum to pay my host family for boarding me would be, I applied for a passport (of course), and I calculated approximately what all the expenses would be.

Next, I needed to find a host family. Thankfully I happened to have contacts in Japan through my Japanese aunt, my Japanese teacher, and my church (the LDS church). I am not exactly sure how the host families were found except that my aunt somehow contacted a church leader and the church leader found 2 families who would be willing to accept me. My Japanese teacher found one more willing family through a friend of hers who happens to live in Osaka. I decided to stay with one family from my aunt for 1 month and the family from my teacher for 2. With the first big hurdles done I was on a roll!

Lastly I needed to find something to fill my time while in Japan. I knew I wanted to go to school but I if that had not worked out I would have found a different sort of volunteer opportunity to make this trip really worthwhile! I asked my host families what the closest high schools were and it turned out that my host sister from my first family went to a school that loves exchange students. I wrote a formal letter to this school requesting that they allow me to be a visitor at their school. I offered to volunteer in the English classes if I couldn't be a student and basically assured them that I would respect their rules and be a great addition to their school. I had this letter translated into Japanese by my aunt and sent it off to the school. My second host family did basically the same thing for my second school. They went through about the same process.
For those of you wondering what the school's wanted of me this is what I provided for them:
-2 recommendation letters (one from principal, one from Japanese teacher)
-proof of health insurance that would cover me in Japan
-a few photos of myself (for the first school)
-and other various paperwork that will vary from school to school.

These 3 steps seem like very little but there are many little minute details that had to be planned in there as well but since every trip is different these details will vary. Basically the thing that made this trip possible was having contacts in Japan. Family, friends, church, teachers, etc, all of these are great resources for planning a trip to another country. The only thing you have to keep in mind with something like this is that there is always a way. Some plans may fall through, others won't work out quite like you wanted and all you can do is keep yourself open to many options and you can accomplish anything! To all those who are going to embark on a journey like mine I say "good for you! good luck! and you will never regret it!"

No Cheapskates Allowed

I am going to take this opportunity to fill you all in on what I have been doing lately while at the same time comparing Japan and America as everyone expects me to do.

I become increasingly busier everyday at least 3 times a week I head off together with friends to a different destination. I've Osaka Castle for the first time, enjoyed the more karaoke (that never gets old), and gone shopping two days in a row! Almost everyday now is filled with a new adventure. This coming week I am looking forward to Universal Studios Japan, more karaoke, and probably a lot more. Each time I go out with friends I make it a priority to get purikura to remember the day by and so far I have done just that, my purikura collection is becoming quite vast.

However, the interesting thing is this: in America everyone is familiar with the phrase "just hanging out" which simply entails being together with friends. If you happen to have money you go see a movie, if no one has money then you just "chill" somewhere and do very little. Here, there is no such thing as "just chillin" when you want to hang out, you better have money because you will need it. I have not gone out once without spending at least 1000 yen (about $10). Because of this, play-dates are usually great fun and you don't often have to worry about long awkward silences or bored friends. You do, however, have to worry about going completely bankrupt.

Bunraku

I had the great opportunity to go to a Bunraku performance with my school on Tuesday. For those of you who don't know, Bunraku is traditional Japanese puppet theater. Needless to say I did not understand a word of it but this didn't seem to be a problem because judging by the looks on their faces, I don't think any of my friends did either.
Bunraku uses very old traditional Japanese the language, imagine really difficult Shakespeare then times it by 10 and you probably have about the right idea of what I was attempting to understand....yeah, probably not gonna happen any time soon. Not only this but the narrator (Tayu) puts so much characterization into his voice that even the Japanese people needed subtitles to have any idea what he was saying. Imagine really nasally shouting with a lot of breaks into the vocal ranges that shouldn't be possible for a grown man with lots of long drawn out syllables and you have about the right idea of what a Tayu sounds like.
However, through the eyes of a theater geek this performance was interesting on a different level. It was so cool to see the Tayu and Shamisen player working together to weave this story. At times it seemed like they were almost trying to outdo each other in their performances but according to the brochure this is the way it always is and in all actuality their efforts matched each other perfectly. The Tayu went from talking to singing and back seemingly at random but his "singing" was something new altogether.
All the puppets were so complex they needed two or three people apiece to operate them and almost every limb down to their eyebrows were mobile making this performance far more intricate than your standard sock puppet show.

I don't think any of my friends quite understood why I said afterward that I thought the Bunraku was quite interesting, most of them dosed off before it was halfway through but I wasn't lying when I said it. Bunraku is as different a type of theater as you can get from my usual Broadway musicals and quite an experience.





photos courtesy of: eee.uci.edu/clients/sbklein/images/EDOTHEATER /bunraku/images/chanter02.jpg and http://www.pref.osaka.jp/en/attraction/culture/bunraku/img/main.jpg

America vs Japan: Reading Between The Lines

Each conversation that people have has underlying currents and extra communication that goes on. The direct meaning of the words you say have little to do with what you communicate. However, I have noticed the means for this underlying communication is different from culture to culture.

In America, tone of voice and inflection is a very important communicator. You can say the exact same words simply in a different manner or place the emphasis on a different word and change the way your comment will be perceived. Sometimes we Americans are a little oblivious to feelings or emotions but tone inflection says a lot.

When you are participating in a Japanese conversation this is very different. Heavy inflection is not often used when speaking in Japanese. In fact, I vaguely remember someone once telling me that the reason most Americans have an accent when speaking Japanese is that they put so much inflection into the words.
Yet there is much more that is perceived in a conversation than you might think. The Japanese are very attuned to emotions. They are much more sensitive to how the other person is feeling or the atmosphere of the room and conversation in general than many Americans. I had a talk with my host sister about this the other day and she told me that when she attended BYU Hawaii, her professors would often ask her to "speak up" and voice her opinions because they couldn't understand why she was so quiet. She said she was surprised at how oblivious they were to her emotions if she didn't speak.

Everyone "reads between the lines", humans communicate in far more complex and descriptive ways than the words that are spoken would allow, and everyone does it differently. Next time you have a conversation with someone this is a good thing to keep in mind.

The New Girl. Again ;)

As I sit here struggling to think of a clever and unusual to write this blog post and consuming large amounts of ice-cream like the American I was born to be I realize that I can't put off this post any more. In conclusion (or well, the conclusion of the introduction) you are just going to have to deal with a sad lack of originality. So suck it up and have a nice day ^^

Well, I am the new girl again. Not that I mind really, my first day of school was great. The first day is always the most entertaining for a gaijin exchange student. Unless of course you don't like being constantly stared at and admired out loud.
I was saved having to give multiple introductions by being asked to prepare one speech to give to the entire school. As an actor, large groups of people really aren't a problem for me, speeches have never really been a problem. However, put that speech in another language and I think Oscar winners would get nervous! Thankfully it went well and I didn't sound like a complete idiot.

Classes here are structured much the same way as at Mishima. We stay together as a homeroom class for every class except history in which half the class goes to another room for World History and half the class stays for Japanese History.
My classes are still practically impossible but I have taken to writing down all the notes solely for kanji practice. However, it's a given that I have no idea what I am writing on my paper, nor can I read it later.

As a private school, International Takii High School, is a bit different from the public Mishima. They are sticklers for the formalities, mainly the bow which we must perform before and after each class. Yet with this added strictness there is also a certain amount of freedom. Students actually speak up in classes here and ask questions when they have them and teachers talk a bit slower (which has done wonders for the gaijin's understanding level). There are other subtle differences but these are hard to put into words. Perhaps in the future (when my brain is not so clogged with writer's block) I will be able to describe these differences in more detail.

For today, I hope this simple description has sufficed.

gaijinzilla's alter-ego: UNIFORMzilla!

Every morning I wake up and I am saved the effort of trying to put together some sort of outfit that doesn't look horrendous by having my clothing dictated to me in the form of a school uniform.

I don my pleated skirt and collared shirt and try to convince myself that I am a real Japanese school girl. However, this facade doesn't really last when I actually get to school. No matter how similar the uniform is a gaijin is still a gaijin. In fact I probably get more stares in a uniform than I did in casual dress. I guess I can understand though, it would be like seeing Godzilla waltzing around in a sundress. I would stare too.

It is hard for me to understand other's conversations but I do know enough to understand that when I hear "gaijin" and "seifuku" (uniform) in the same sentence it is safe to assume that they are talking about me. Now, I get the opportunity to make this assumption all the time!

Chapter 2: New Home, New School, New Experience.

Yesterday I made the move to the residence of my new host family. Due to this change I get the most thorough experience of Japanese culture because everything is very different than my last family. The only problem with this is that I feel like a newborn gaijin again!

I thought Takatsuki was a big city before(probably due to Mapleton being so small we only have 2 notable businesses) now I have moved to Osaka city. Which happens to be the 3rd largest city in Japan. I see now why Airi laughed when I noted how "big" Takatsuki was on my first day in Japan. I would have too.

Rather than my western bed in a western bedroom that I had become so accustomed to before I now reside in a traditional tatami room with a traditional futon to sleep on for the next two months.

After getting so very skilled at riding a bike on the terrifying Japan streets (or well, I didn't die every time I went out) now I must ride the bus to school and I am sure that will be an adventure in and of itself!

My new school is amazing, huge, beautiful, and "private". I thought I had a good handle on what Japanese schools were like and then I switched to a private one...hmmm. This isn't to say my new school is bad. No, in fact I will write a whole new post solely for its awesomeness. It is just, like everything else here, a bit different.

Thank you fate for giving me such a...thorough...Japanese experience. Hopefully I can come out of it alive, or at least sane.