4 posts tagged “jpod101”
It's not entirely planned out, but it's definitely happening. I'm spending the greater portion of Golden Week in Osaka. I know it's happening because I already paid the kick-off to an entire week of dropping money everywhere: ￥４，３００ (~$36 USD) for a bus to Osaka, which is very roughly ￥１４ (~$0.11 USD) per mile. (I calculated by clicking along the most likely highway path in Google Earth to get 313 miles total. See the map on the right.)
David, QZ, Gorgeous, and I plan to leave Tuesday night and come back early, early Monday morning. (Names were mangled to protect the innocent.)
As for the rest of the trip, thank goodness the lodging situation has improved since my last conversation with mom. At that point, only one night had been confirmed. Now, we have confirmed lodging for three of the four nights, with a tentative plan to stay at an Internet cafe or capsule hotel (introduced to me in Survival Phrases 10 of JapanesePod101) on Thursday night if we can't find a room that day. I really, really hope we can find a room, although staying in a capsule hotel is on my list of weird things to do in Japan.
Why take such a risky trip? Well, Golden Week is the closest we get to a vacation for the whole semester. We have time after all is done, but it looks like everybody is already pretty set on what they want to do with that time. If we don't travel now, we won't get another chance like this.
Besides, only one night is in the air, and we have a general idea of what to do if things don't go our way. It'll be fun, and we're young.
I forget the name of Wednesday night's hotel, but it will cost ￥１，５５０ (~$13 USD), which doesn't make any sense unless QZ reserved us a single bedroom and we'll be sleeping all over the furniture and floor. I don't know the prices for the other nights, but I think they'll be comparable. For comparison, a night in an Internet cafe costs about ￥２，０００ (~$16.70 USD).
Our first day will likely be spent at Universal Studios Japan for ￥５，９００ (~$50 USD) If it's like the Universal Studios I remember in the US, we won't be there all day. I remember cafes and restaurants more than engaging attractions, but my memory's known to be faulty, and that was a very long time ago. I do remember a man painted as a statue that would stand very still and surprise people. That would be entertaining for at least half an hour..
The second day, we plan on getting the Osaka Unlimited Pass for ￥２，０００ (~$16.70 USD). This gets us discounts on various things around town, and makes travel cheap (free, I think). My "homework" is to look at the list of discounted attractions for discussion tomorrow. I might do that, QZ, I might...
After that, who knows what we'll do? I'll keep you posted.
Note to self: use an ATM when you wake up, or you won't have cash!
I bought myself a Wii recently, and earlier won a Nintendo DS in a programming contest. I can't wait to see what I can do with them in Japan.
Constantly browsing the JapanesePod101 forum has yielded several threads related to Kanji training on the DS (an interesting use I would not have thought of):
- Nintendo DS Kanji Training by ryanhdsl
- I want to improve my skill in Kanji by jkid
- I'm looking for a good dictionary by Harv
Classes have ended and finals have begun, but I talked to two Japanese professors today. I found out that while unlikely members of the rest of the faculty had heard of my trip, many people in the East Asian Studies department had no idea.
I went to the first professor, the one who teaches my class, with questions about surviving the trip. Hearing on JPod about (small) train stations with only the kanji (Chinese characters) for destination names, I was worried that I wouldn't know enough of the lingo to survive from the terminal at Fukuoka Airport to the exit (where, thankfully, transportation will be waiting). She told me that the airport is big and popular enough to have all signs in both Japanese and English. Unfortunately I found this so encouraging that I came away without learning any new vocabulary, like the words for baggage claim, line, terminal, etc. I should look these up in case I have to ask questions.
I also learned that to access my money in Japan, it would be good to get an account with Citibank, which she said has a lot of ATMs in the Fukuoka area. Maybe it does, but they only list two on their site, and one is at the airport. At any rate, Bank of America is my current bank and only has facilities available abroad to business travelers, so opening a secondary account at Citibank sounds like a good plan.
If I decide to stay in Japan for a little while after Kyushu University kicks me out, she tells me that hostels would be a cheap way to live, and amazingly didn't have anything negative to say about the capsule hotels either! She tells me security and safety are not a concern there, so I should just try to find the cheapest available housing.
After our talk, I spoke with the director of the East Asian program about my trip. I had spoken with him for advice before I applied, but had completely forgotten to follow up! He was very happy to hear that I will be making this trip, citing the great amount of money that goes into our school's membership to the study abroad consortium, and how only 1-2 people go every two years.
I'm always surprised to hear these dismal figures for the number of people studying abroad in Japan, and even the number of people studying the language. It seems to lag far behind the other languages in general interest, despite how deeply its culture has permeated ours in America.
Anyway, we talked for a few minutes about various topics, the most interesting of which to me were sumo and trains. According to the JTW site, the only sumo trip planned this year already took place. I can't blame them as the tournament only comes to Fukuoka once a year and the dates are set, but it's a bit disappointing to me. I will be there for the May and July tournaments, but I have yet to look up how far from me they will be.
On the subject of trains, I asked about distance from Tokyo. He claims it would be a 6-7 hour journey on the bullet trains, which isn't bad for a a multiple-day trip, but basically bars spur-of-the-moment trips. A few friends from home are planning a stay near Tokyo (with family) some time this summer, and it would be amazing if I could visit. Hopefully our schedules will align and I'll get to see some familiar faces while I'm on the opposite side of the globe.
As a quick note to round off this incredibly long post, I recently discovered an amazingly interesting blog written by an American who lived in Japan for a few years in Okinawa. There are some great insights hidden in the archives (she has since moved back to the US), and I've had a great time reading through. I recommend it for people planning to travel there, and people looking to reminisce about similar "gaijin" experiences they had abroad.
To quote Bueller_07's response to annie on the JapanesePod101 forums:
annie:
My grocery bill has probably doubled since I moved to Nagano. I'm paying a lot more for fruits and vegetables because I don't have access to the direct produce stands.
And rent out here isn't as cheap as you'd hope it would be. especially with the key moneys and other added costs.
Bueller_07:
Haha. Well there's your problem. Key money.
Plus, you're buying fruit in Japan.
It's cheaper to just get your scurvy treated when you go back home.
