Man. There’s gotta be at least one of these days in everyone’s study abroad experience I guess. I just hope there aren’t too many more because I am so worn out right now I don’t even know what to do with myself. It’s only 6:20 and I’m ready for sleep. I think it’s the stress.
It’s not really “culture shock” per say that I’m experiencing right now so much as it’s “big city shock” and “being in a place where I don’t really know anybody” shock. I think I’d be having the same feelings if I were studying in, say, New York City, or somewhere like that.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not unhappy, really. I really like my host family, particularly my host mom. I’m just getting used to things.
Today was my second day commuting to class by myself. I guess because I thought I knew what I was doing I got over confident? Not sure.
Well, it all started when I woke up, probably at some point in the middle of the night, and noticed that my phone only had two bars of battery left. I didn’t think too much of it. This morning when I was leaving the house, I checked to see if I had everything. See, Okaasan and I were going to the city hall today to get my Alien Registration Card, the proof that I’m allowed to be in this country for 4 months. So I needed to bring my passport, and I needed to be prepared to meet my host mom at a different JR train (Kasugai, for the Kasugai City city hall) station on the way home in the afternoon.
Anyway I had my passport and I had my phone and I had the packet I needed for school today to register for classes, so I was like “All right, I’m good.”
But as soon as I got down the hill to the train station I got a text from one of my friends and was going to reply to it, but then my phone battery died. I had a few extra minutes before my train so I thought about hurrying back up the hill and going to get --- what would I get? The phone charger? That wouldn’t really work. Besides, it’s a really long, steep hill. It takes about 10 minutes walking down, but up is an entirely different story.
So I decided what the heck, I’d just go to school. I didn’t want to be late after all. I ride the subway part of the way home with a friend from back home, Iris, anyway, I’d just borrow her phone and shoot off a quick text or call or something.
So I get to the train station, and I get on, this time going all the way to the last car like my host mom first suggested. She said if I did that it’d pull closer to the stairway I wanted to take so it was I good idea. Or something like that. But the last car was a handicap accessible one so it looked different! All the seats were in sets of 4 and 4 facing each other, instead of one line on each side of the car with handles in the middle! And, because this is Japan, the two rows of seats were all (for me) wayyyy to close to each other seeming. Personal space norms are different in Japan. People don’t really hug or touch or anything like that if they’re close, but strangers bump into each other and take up each other’s personal space all the time. It’s a small country, I guess.
Anyway so I got in that car and because it looked different I immediately freaked out that I’d gotten on an express train or something by accident. But it was okay. Thank god for English signage EVERYWHERE in the Japanese transportation system.
I arrived successfully at Ozone, my train stop, and there were stairs right in front of the exit of the car, so I was like “Huh? This doesn’t quite look familiar, but maybe it’s right...” I went down them and arrived, not at the station, but at the street. O_O! I “Sumimasen ga-ed” (すみませんが。。。is a pretty standard “Sorry excuse me I have some kind of problem/request” greeting) the station attendant saying “...Is this the way to the subway?” And he was like “Yeah, just go straight.”
So I did... and I saw no familiar signs or anything (I can actually read “subway” in kanji, unlike most other things -- in fact I even got confused later because I was looking for 地下鉄 and all I could see was SUBWAY in bigger font... fail.) I saw some business man looking guys waiting at the crosswalk so I was like “Sorry excuse me I think I’m a little lost...” and asked them if this was the way to the subway. And they were like “Uh...” and told me I needed to go a different way. Which actually made much more sense based on where I thought I might have messed up. (I think I might have misunderstood the station attendant’s definition of “go straight.”) They were really nice about it, one of them pulled out his smartphone an showed me the map and it looked like walking there was really far away. They were like “Where did you come form?” and I said “The J.R. station...” “And then you went straight...” I was like “Would it be better to go back to the station?” And they thought that was probably the case. So I told them I would and I thanked them and they told me to take care. They were really nice. As Masae said during our orientation (after someone gave us some free stuff out of nowhere) “Japanese hospitality, right?”
Thank goodness I have a ToiCa commuting pass swipe card thing, so I didn’t have to buy another ticket to get back through the gate so I could walk back up to the platform and then all the way down to the opposite end of it to the exit I was supposed to have taken. 北口、Shannon. 北口 (north exit). If it’s not a loooong walk through the station, you’re doing it wrong.
The silver lining at the end of all this is I was late, so I ran into Alisha, another girl from my study abroad program! Apparently she’s been taking the same train and subway route as me, but leaving later. We’re going to take the same train together starting tomorrow, because she said she wanted to be a little early. We don’t have anything for orientation until 9:30, and normal classes don’t start until 9:20, but if I take the route I’ve been taking I get to campus around 9:00 or 9:10 if I don’t stop anywhere. There’re stores in the station, and a convenience store on the way to campus, though, so it’s nice to know I can slow down a bit if I need to.
So then we arrive and campus and that was all okay. Did our orientation stuff, I was tired, it was boring, but that’s okay, it’s just orientation.
At lunch I asked for a nearby bank where I could change travelers checks to yen, and got directions to one by Yagoto station, one stop away from the one I get off for school. I was like “All right this’ll be easy to find!” but I decided I’d better get something to eat first just in case I ran out of time.
So I went to lunch and sat with some people, one girl from Australia, one from Indiana, one from Germany, and one from Minnesota who’s from my program. And we were talking about various things, and somehow we got onto the subject of sperm or egg donor ship and adoption, and, in one girl’s case, how she really wanted to adopt an Asian baby because they’re the cutest. After a while of nodding and giggling along I was like “Man I’m such a fun sucker but the sociologist in me can’t help but think this is super problematic!!” and then rambled off about how adoption is so messy culturally especially adoption across races because caucasian and Asian babies are seen as so much more desirable, when there are many African American kids in the US who none of these affluent white couples want to adopt, and yet that doesn’t necessarily mean everyone should just go adopt African American kids because the fact of the matter is no matter how you raise somebody African American kids, particularly young men get perceived a certain way by society and white parents, having not experienced that, can’t prepare their kids for that experience so is that really better? Adoption is so messy...! Hahaha ... ha...
And everyone was kind of like “...” But they eventually shook it off a bit.
And went on to talk about making out with Asian boys again.
Man I’m so glad I have other people from my school here. I think that would be the real culture shock, if there was nobody who’d had that same experience as me here with me.
So anyway, at lunch time I didn’t make it to the bank, but I figured “okay I’ll just go later.” I didn’t have to leave for the city hall until 3:40 at the latest so it was probably fine.
Went to another orientation session, and then set off for the bank.
My plan was this:
-Iris had to buy her commuter pass at Yagoto Nisseki, so while she was doing that, me and the other people who needed to cash travelers checks would go to Yagoto, the next station over and find that bank.
-I’d buy my ticket for the one stop, come back to Yagoto Nisseki, get off the train, and get back on using my Manaca (subway commuter pass)
-Then together Iris and I would take the train back to Ozone and I could use her phone and call Okaasan and tell her what time train I was on.
Pretty could plan, right?
Well, you know what they say about best laid plans.
Let’s start with what *didn’t* go wrong.
We did actually end up getting money.
And I eventually got everywhere okay.
Okay so we went to the station and got off and went outside to find the bank. Found it. Nearly walked into automatic glass doors (you have to stand a lot closer to get them to open here than in the US... so I figured that was the problem, okay?!) because the bank was closed! Banks in Japan close at 3:00 PM apparently. And they apparently open late, too! What’s up with that? What’s a girl gonna do when she needs a 銀行？！ (ginkou = bank)
So we were like... “Well we’ll try a post office since we already bought tickets over here..?” And walked up the way we thought the sign pointed us. Found another bank instead, but it had ATMs so we tried that but it only took Japanese cards. Some bank people were still there so we asked but they were like “We can’t do it now because it’s just after 3:00 so we’re closing...”
Then we found the *real* way to the post office and asked if they could cash traveler’s checks.
They couldn’t, but there was an international ATM in the entranceway! YAY CASH = GOT
I’m really glad I decided to open a bank account after all. If this is what the finding cash process is like, it just seems unnecessarily difficult. (Besides, to open a bank account you needed to order an inkan, or name seal, to stamp official documents, so I got to get my name put into kanji and a cool souvenir! Nifty, huh?)
Anyway so from there I bought my ticket back to Yagoto Nisseki. I got on the train, saw Iris still waiting for me but she just got on the train with me instead of letting me get out like I planned. I was like “...okay whatever, I’ll just swipe out with my Manaca card on the way out or do fare adjustment or whatever... “ I didn’t really know how any of that worked but I figured I could try.
At this point I tried to call my host mom. But I realized I didn’t have her number because it was in my phone... which was dead, which was the problem to begin with. But I had this card she’d given me that had their address on it...! ...but it only had the home phone. My host dad picked up and was like “okay” but sounded very confused as to why I would be calling. And it was on the train so it was loud and I probably wasn’t really supposed to be making a phone call anyway.
I figured I’d call again when I got to Ozone, where I change to the JR train. So Iris and I got off the train. But then I realized I dropped my ticket somewhere! I couldn’t find it anywhere...! I tried to swipe out with my commuter pass and it wouldn’t let me! ;_;
I talked to the station attendant and explained what happened and he was like “oh okay, go ahead.” He was very understanding, so that was good.
Then, as Iris and I were about to separate I tried to call my family again. Luckily, I remembered that on the note where Okaasan had written the train directions the other day she’d also jotted down her cell phone number! I called it... And got a wrong number. I asked if it was [name], and I thought the person (sounded like a man! Not like my host mom!) said yes, but then he was finally like “You have the wrong number.” Damn Japanese politeness. In America we would have been like “Nope. Bye.” from the word go!
Anyway I realized I dialed it wrong, called again, left a message saying where I was (because my host mom was driving and didn’t pick up the phone), and proceeded to get nervous until I got to Kasugai. How would I know what exit to use?!!!! What if we wandered around each other in circles and never connected because my phone was dead?!!!
Luckily from the train I saw my host mom standing right at the gate. She saw me at the train door and waved. I have never been so relieved to see that woman. I was like “今日全部まちがえた。。。！けいたいも電車も！” (Today I messed up everything! The cell phone and the train...!) She just told me “It’s an experience!”
How motherly.
We went to the city hall and got my Japan National Health Insurance and Alien Registration Card taken care of. OH SHOOT I FORGOT SOMETHING I NEED FOR THE BANK...! Some kind of certificate I was supposed to ask for. I was so relieved to just be there that I completely forgot everything else. ...I wonder if I can get it when we come pick up the card.... I can’t really go by myself because it’s a really far drive away from the station.
Blah.
It’s that kind of day.
I’m managing to stay pretty positive about it, though. This kind of thing is inevitable. At least right now I don’t have homework or anything.
My host mom is funny. On the way home we started playing some kind of “マンション (mansion) orアパート (apaato)？” game. It started because my host mom likes to point out funny differences between Japanese and English she thinks I might not know. She said “Did you that in Japanese a building like that [a tall multi-story apartment building] is called a mansion?” I said yeah I’d heard that and chuckled. She was like “Haha you laughed I knew you would! International students always laugh. ‘A mansion, that?’” I was like, “Then, if that’s a mansion, what’s an apaato [the word I’d learned in class for ‘apartment’]?” My host mom explained that in an apartment, everyone rents their room(s) but in a mansion people own their own room(s). Then she went around saying “See that? That’s a mansion! That? That’s an apartment building!” ...They looked the same to me. It went on some more. “Mansion!” “Apartment!” I was finally like “...How do you know which is which...?”
It wasn’t as mysterious as I thought it would be, haha. My host mom admitted she knew because a lot of the apartments were controlled by different companies, and she’d seen a lot of the fliers!
I think the mansions seem to be a bit taller and nicer looking, though. The apartments look a bit dirtier. At least around this area.
We played the “Mansion/apartment” game a bit more, with Okaasan finally admitting there was one she didn’t know and she’d “have to go look at more fliers later.”
Oh Okaasan, you and your shumi (hobbies).
Wow, this blog post is way too long. Stopping now.
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