紹介しようか。/ INTRODUCTION

こんにちは、皆さん！

You've just stumbled across my collection of observations from seven and a half months in Japan as an exchange student at Sapporo University in Hokkaido from May through December 2009.

Keep in mind, this blog isn't an anthropological study of Japanese culture; it's just the result of a 21-year-old American's experiences as an exchange student.

If you're interested in reading through my blog entries, I'd suggest starting from my entries from January 2009 (which explain the process of applying for admission to Sapporo University, available scholarships, and how I passed the time until I left) or from May 2009 (when I actually arrived in Sapporo).

A FEW NOTES:

+ I use a lot of native Japanese words in my blog entries, but I've tried my best to either explain the words immediately after mentioning them or by providing links to other sites that can explain them better than I can. For some words, I don't feel as much of a need to explain (like anime, for example) because they've become much more mainstream recently. If you still don't know what it is, just look it up on Google.

+ Unless otherwise noted, all photos were taken by me.

+ Many Japanese language students are huge anime and manga fans. I am a fan of Japanese animation as well, but my major interests in modern Japanese pop culture are in Japanese dramas and pop music. Throughout my blog I reference popular Japanese television shows (news shows like "News Zero" and variety programs like "Arashi no Shukudai-kun/嵐の宿題くん"), and at the end of each entry I list what song I happened to be listening to while I wrote that entry. If you have no interest in this part of Japanese culture, feel free to ignore those details.

+ Along the same note, my blog titles are often quotes from dramas or lyrics from songs. The title of this blog, as seen at the top of this page (unless you don't have Japanese enabled on your computer, which means you see a bunch of random symbols instead), is also part of the lyrics to Arashi's "Tomorrow's Memory." Translated, it means: In the middle of the ever-changing seasons, what color tomorrow will we draw?

Please enjoy reading!

Sarah

そろそろいかなくちゃ。。。

I'm in America again. 

(I've actually been home for a few days, but between getting back on a solid sleep schedule and meeting friends and family nonstop, I haven't had time to blog.)

The morning I left for the airport, Maki and Tomoya dropped by Riverside to bring me natto sushi (sushi with fermented soybeans) for breakfast and to say an official goodbye. After making fun of Jordan for trying to cram his guitar case into the back of Yusuke's van, we took a group photo (which Maki hasn't yet posted on facebook) and packed Yusuke, Maureen, Set-chan, Jordan and me inside. 

Did I mention it was freezing? And snowing? 

On the way to the airport, Ichikawa-sensei called my cell and we had a "final" three-way conversation with her, Jordan and me. I would've cried from saying goodbye to her if we hadn't been running so late; the fear of missing our flight to Narita was my strongest feeling at the time. 

That feeling didn't last long, because after Yusuke hugged us goodbye at the airport parking lot and both Set-chan and Maureen gave us hugs at the airport check-in, I couldn't hold the tears back anymore. Not my finest hour, but leaving Sapporo, my second home after almost eight months, had still seemed surreal until that moment. 

The plane ride from Chitose to Narita was more like an hour and a half of reminiscing about Sapporo and wondering about our return to American life. Jordan and I sat together (because the check-in attendant assumed we were a couple when she chose our seats) and discussed how we could best reassimilate into American society and not speak in Japanese every time we open our mouths. (I'm still having trouble with this.) 

Parting from Jordan at Narita - he flew into Seattle for a layover and I flew straight into Chicago - was difficult for both of us. He was the last living piece of my experiences in Sapporo, and once he walked through the other flight gate I would be alone for the last 15ish hours of my journey home. 

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                        FINAL VIEW OF SAPPORO FROM PLANE



BLOG SOUNDTRACK: Remioromen, "Motto Tooku e"

札幌での経験や思い出

札幌大学で勉強させていただいたおかげで、今の私は昔の私とまったく違います。七ヶ月ぐらい札幌に住んでいて、日本語と日本の文化はもちろん、自分のことも分かるようになって来ました。 何よりも、一番変わったのは私の考え方だと思います。

例えば、他の人のアメリカに対する 意見を聞かせてもらえなかったら、世界におけるアメリカの長所も短所も分からなかったかもしれません。ボール大学で日本語とジャーナリズムを勉強していますから、日本のメディアが気になりました。ほとんど毎晩テレビニュースを見て、アメリカより世界で起きた事について知るのが楽しみでした。

私と人とのかかわりが増えるにつれて、私の性格も変わりました。アメリカ人として、日本に着いてばかりの時、私の価値観はまだ個人主義を中心にしていました。でも今利己的な事をする代わりにグループの気持ちを考えるようにしています。つまり、昔より他人のことに気を向けるようになりました。

また、留学したから、私の文化を紹介する機会もありました。英語のキャンプで大学の一年生を手伝ったり、南月寒小学校でインディアナ州の伝統について説明したり、英語の学校で高校生に言葉を教えたりして、アメリカ人の生活や文化を伝え、様々な日本人と交流することができました。

外国人として、日本の数ある町の中で札幌で過ごせてよかったと思います。なぜなら、札幌の郊外のアパートに住んでいたので、毎日近所の人と話しながら歩いて通学したり、地域のお祭りに参加したりすることができました。隣の人は友達になったので、普通の家族の生活が見えました。そして留学したら、なんでもいい勉強 になるものです。バスに乗ったり、レストランで食べたりしたことはいい経験でした。

日本に来て以来、将来の仕事について考えてきました。今は卒業したら日本へ戻って英語の教師か国際ジャーナリストになりたいと思っています。日本で働くために中級の授業を受けて、今年の十二月二級の日本語能力試験を受験しました。合否にかかわらず、力のかぎり頑張り、友達ともいい思い出を作ることができたので、帰国しても幸せです。

アメリカに帰ってから、来年札幌に来る大学生に会ってここについてお話する予定です。私のした経験を分かつのを楽しみにしています。日本へ戻るために今日からまた一所懸命頑張ります！



セーラ・モアランド
札幌大学の留学生
２００９年１２月９日

ささやかな毎日の中でどれだけ君を見つけただろう？

Because I'm leaving Sapporo in a few days, I created a "bucket list" of things I want to do before I hop on the plane. Today, I knocked off three of them in one morning. Not too shabby.

For some reason, I had not yet visited Maruyama Park (円山公園), which is only about a 25-minute subway stop (with a transfer from the Toho to the Tozai Line at Odori) from Fukuzumi. Within the park is the Hokkaido Shrine (北海道神宮), which is said to enshrine four gods: the god of Hokkaido, the god of developed land, the god of claimed land, and the god of Emperor Meiji.

After leaving the Maruyama subway stop, I walked in a square before finding any signs directing me to the park. Hint for those wanting to go: Look for the big clump of trees. You can't miss them - this park is huge. (See map below.)

While I regretted not visiting the park during the summer months, we just had our second snowfall of the season this weekend and the grounds were covered in about 3-4 inches of snow.

Gorgeous.

If you follow the main road and veer to the right, you'll arrive at the shrine's entrance gate. As a lone traveler, I wasn't quite sure of shrine protocol, and although I probably could have broken a few rules of respect and not gotten in trouble because I am a foreigner (外国人), I wanted the full, proper experience. A middle-aged woman was about 100 feet ahead of me, so I waited and watched for cues to bow, then mimicked what she had done. (This is a good principle to follow while traveling anywhere in most cases.)

On the trail to the large shrine, you will pass smaller shrines dedicated to different deities. (Pictures of these were not allowed.) As you approach each one, stop at the entrance and bow with your palms pressed together in front of your chest. The woman in front of me also lingered after her bow, just gazing at the shrine in respect and adoration.

If you continue to follow the trail, you will come to an area to purify yourself before entering the main shrine. Dip one of the ladles in the water and pour some over each of your hands, then use the rest to purify your mouth. If you're confused, just watch someone else. Better yet, if you stand to the side with a confused facial expression, someone will usually show you how to use the water properly. (I know this from experience. :P)

After purifying yourself, you can enter the main shrine. Etiquette for praying at a shrine can be found at Hokkaido Jingu's English site here, but the main points: deposit money, bow twice, clap twice, bow once more.

You can also buy charms for myriad of situations (love, health, school, even traffic safety) for anywhere from 600円 to 1200円 or another type of charm called omikuji (おみくじ), on which you can write your wish or prayer and then tie or hang it in the shrine's courtyard. Most of the wishes I saw were from high school students hoping to pass the entrance exam to their top-choice college.

So, about that third bucket list item... I ate lunch at KFC. (Yes, Japan's Kentucky Fried Chicken chain.) The most obvious question: Why? Well, for about a month I've seen MatsuJun's KFC commercial on TV a few times a week, especially during Arashi's Challenge Week in October, and the pot pie he advertises actually looks good. (And I don't even like chicken pot pies.)

NOTE: I did not take the above picture. The KFC outside of Maruyama Park didn't have any posters of MatsuJun in it. :( So I just found one on Google images. Thank you, anonymous photo taker!

The box is expensive - about 600円 - and includes one piece of chicken, the pot pie, and then your choice of a small drink, fries or coleslaw.

　
Yep, about $6 got me this. On the plus side, it was delicious, and not just in a fatty, full-of-unhealthy-ingredients kind of way. It was amazing and almost worth six bucks.

More impressive was "Christmas Colonel" outside the restaurant. I never would've guessed I would get into the holiday spirit after a trip to a fast-food hotspot.

Ho, ho, ho, Santa Colonel.

BLOG SOUNDTRACK: The Eurythmics - "Who's That Girl"

もちつき大会／MOCHI-MAKING PARTY

It's already been a week since Ashley left for America, and the rest of us aren't much farther behind her. To celebrate the end of the semester, SatsuDai's International Office sponsored a mochi-making party for us and Japanese students involved with the office or the English department.



I remember walking into Linden Hall, the cafeteria I eat at at least once a week, and wondering where I was. Instead of the usual table-and-chair setup, the floor was clear of everything except three marble stone bowls, three mallets and a large blue tarp. The foreign exchange students from China, America, New Zealand and England took turns using the mallets to whack the rice into mochi, which is basically rice with a dough-like texture.

The mallets are heavy, believe me. I dipped the end in the water bowl, tried hoisting it over my shoulder, failed, tried again, and finally brought the mallet down on the rice mixture. One down, many more to go.



After my bicep workout, I joined the assembly line where we rolled the already-finished mochi into balls and added anko, red bean jelly centers.



BLUE MOCHI! (just for fun)




Eating our finished mochi - first in soup stock...

...then as a multicolored dessert!

BLOG SOUNDTRACK: KAT-TUN, "Never Again"

走れ！走れ！（Run! Run!)

After finishing the JLPT this afternoon, the three of us trekked around Susukino (which looks like a ghost town in the daylight, with no neon signs illuminating the animated 3-D crabs above the restaurant entrances) for some last-minute shopping.

What did I find? That au finally updated the Susukino billboard to the new winter Arashi ad. About time. The other one had been up since I arrived in early May.

Click on the photos for bigger images. :)

BLOG SOUNDTRACK: Arashi - "Everything"

一生懸命頑張ったよ！I DID MY BEST!

The December 2009 JLPT is OVER. Whew.

Around 8 a.m., Jack, Maureen and I left for Odori (via Tsukisamu Chuo bus and subway), stopping at a 7-11 to buy breakfast (pasta salads). Although we confused ourselves about where the test building (a dental college) was and backtracked a few blocks, we managed to arrive with an hour to spare. Not that we really needed a map. In the end, we just followed a group of Chinese students whose faces were lodged in Japanese language textbooks to a group of about 100 other foreigners (speaking Chinese, Korean, French and English) sitting on the sidewalk for last-minute cramming.

None of us had brought our textbooks, so we stood behind one of the building's pillars and ate our 7-11 salads. The doors opened half an hour later than the time written on our registration vouchers, so the 100-or-so test takers rushed to the elevators, kicking off their sneakers and cowboy boots and pulling slippers out of their bags on the way across the lobby. By the time the three of us reached the seventh floor, most of the others had already settled in their rooms.

Maureen and Jack shared a classroom while I was two rooms down the hall. Each test taker was assigned a desk according to registration number, so I sat in the back next to two Chinese girls and a Korean man. Very few "Western-looking" people were taking the exam in Sapporo, apparently, as I was one of three in a room of about 40 test takers.

And then we waited. The Level 2 JLPT's three components (reading/grammar, kanji/vocab, and listening) total 2 hours and 25 minutes, but because of breaks between each round and instruction reading time, the test lasted from 9:45 a.m. to almost 3 p.m.

How did I do? I have no clue. Check back in February when I receive my results. Until then, I have hope.

BLOG SOUNDTRACK: Yuna Ito - "Koi wa Groovy x2"