Halfway through my First Semester

Although studying at Akita International University (AIU) is fun, I am sad to know that despite meeting all of these great people I may not see them for while. This semester I got to go to a "Ninja Park" for my birthday, got lost in Japan, and I got the opportunity to live by myself without relying on my parents too much.

Recently I have been feeling culture shock because I miss certain things from Hawaii like food, family, dog, and friends, but I think I am slowly getting adjusted to life in Japan. As of right now, I still think I do not want to live in Hawaii because I want to experience some place different, but I am not sure if Japan is where I want to live yet.

According to my friend from Hawaii that has lived in Japan for five years due to the JET Program, it is difficult for foreigners to apply for citizenship in Japan because the Japanese people do a thorough search before approving foreigners as Japanese citizens. Some people that apply for citizenship in Japan find the process humiliating.

In addition, there is a lot of food and cultural traditions that can only be found in Hawaii, so I know may miss that. Therefore my current plan is to learn as much as I can about Hawaii so that regardless of where I live, I can still enjoy the things I like about Hawaii. I want to be able to make delicious Hawaii food like poke (raw fish cubes), lomi salmon, malasadas, and meat-jun.

Back with a new haircut

These past few weeks have been pretty busy. I have had a few exams, one presentation, got a haircut, signed up for Amazon Japan, and got to finally make some spam musubi's. Recently the leaves have started changing color and pretty soon it will start snowing at the beginning of next month. I am definitely looking forward to seeing snow however, I have not completely adjusted to the cold yet. Due to the cold wind, I have to wear two jackets outside, and I have started staying at the library more because my room is so cold.

Although I like living on my own in Japan, it does have some disadvantages. Some of the disadvantages are lack of money, unable to get a part-time job, making plans for the winter, cleaning myself, and my poor cooking skills. Despite the fact that Japanese food is very delicious, everything in Japan is so expensive so I need to budget my money carefully. Currently I spend a lot of money on food, utilities, cellphone, and rent.

My roommate and me go grocery shopping every weekend because certain food ingredients such as eggs, bread, and vegetables run out very quickly during the week. In addition in order to save money we both rarely eat breakfast in the morning, but eat at our apartment at night normally. Compared to him, I usually eat lunch at the cafeteria so I think I spend more money on food. Meals at the cafeteria cost around 200 to 400 yen. Occasionally we can get free food or money from school events, but they fill up pretty fast. About a week ago I was able to get free sweet potatoes from a school event so my roommate used them to make sweet potato french fries.

The girls are getting to pull sweet potatoes with the kids

Spreading some Aloha to the AIU Festival

After many weeks of preparing for the Akita International University (AIU) Festival, the AIU Festival is finally over. The festival lasted for two days and because of the festival, the students had a five day weekend.   I was apart of the Hawaii booth so I was busy preparing for the Festival on Friday and Saturday with seven other international students and spent Sunday and Monday managing the booth from 9am to 4:30pm. The Hawaii booth consisted of five people from Hawaii and three other students that were not from Hawaii but were interested in helping us manage our booth.

My friend with oil paints on his hands after preparing for the festival

For our booth we had hula lessons, an ukulele performance, origami workshop, an Okinawan dance performance, shamisen performance, Kikaida marathon, a video about Japanese Americans, Hawaiian trivia, sign painting, a lei making workshop, and a list of pidgin words with Japanese translations. Originally we wanted to sell spam musubi and poke (raw tuna fish cubes with seaweed), but decided against that because the food committee had a lot of regulations, and we realized that the cost to make the food would be too expensive.

Biking Adventures around Akita

Here are pictures from my biking adventures around Akita. Overall despite getting lost, I am happy that I bought a bicycle. With my bicycle I am able to explore the beauty of Akita and get a lot of exercise before it starts snowing. So far I got pictures of rice fields, a shrine, a wild deer, and a water fountain nearby the university. In addition, on Thursday, I had the opportunity to ride my bicycle late at night. Compared to Hawaii, Akita does not have many lamp posts in the rural areas so it gets really dark outside. Thankfully my bicycle comes with a flashlight, and the drivers are very friendly here so I do not have to worry about getting hit.

A house I saw while biking around Akita

Akita's famous rice fields are almost ready to harvest

Hawaiian Culture Shock

It has been a month since I have arrived at Akita International University, and I am slowly feeling the effects of culture shock. I miss my friends and family from Hawaii, but I am starting to miss other things such as Hawaiian food and culture. I miss the bicycle racks on the bus, the aloha spirit, and the food from Zippy's. Although the food here is nice, I miss being able to eat spam every morning and not having to pay for my own food. The spam at Japan costs 500 yen compared to $2 to $4 in Hawaii, and I feel that is too expensive. I miss my spam too much that I tried to get my parents to send me a few cans of spam to Japan.

I think when I leave Japan in a year, I may miss my friends and food here, but as of right now, I cannot stop thinking about the Hawaiian food such as lomi lomi salmon, meat jun, saimin, and poke. I definitely want to move from Hawaii, but it is sad to know that there is something that I will miss about that place as well.

In order to deal with my culture shock, I have kept myself busy. About a week ago I got to sign up for a community service event for the school and meet with some of the survivors from the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. I did not ask them about their experiences from the earthquake, but I tried to play with some of the little kids and practice speaking Japanese with the elders. In addition, I gave them candy from Hawaii to the survivors. 

Best Birthday Party So Far

Yesterday my friends and I went out for my birthday. Normally I do not like to celebrate my birthday, and I try to avoid telling everyone about my birthday except for my parents, but my friends at Akita International University (AIU) found out about my birthday so they wanted to celebrate it.

For my birthday, my friends bought me a jacket from Uniqlo and we walked to this "Ninja Park" that was about two miles away from the school. Our group consisted of thirteen people and two of them were Japanese students. Within our group three of us had bicycles.

At the "Ninja Park" our group of thirteen broke into two groups and we tried the obstacle courses at different times. The obstacle courses were pretty fun and some of them were pretty challenging. The obstacle courses had a lot of bridges, ropes, and surprises for us to try.

Feeling like a kid again at ninja park

Bicycle for Akita

Today I bought a new bicycle at the AEON mall near Akita International University (AIU). I bought it at 4pm and got lost for three hours trying to figure out how to get to AIU before returning to AEON mall. I almost did not buy it today because I do have a cell phone yet, and I did not know my apartment's address until I asked my friend who bought a smartphone.

I tried to return to AIU using the same route as the bus, but I found out that route is for cars only. In addition I tried to ask the locals how to get to Akita International University in Japanese, but I got lost or I could not understand everything they were saying. While biking I saw a wild animal, almost got ran over at a crosswalk, and rode at a road that prohibited bicyclists but I was unable to notice due to my limited Japanese.

I felt really stupid for buying a bicycle at AEON mall when I returned to the mall. I thought I had to ask one of my friends to pick up my bicycle for me tomorrow morning or beg a taxi driver to drive my bicycle and myself to AIU. Luckily I ran into couple students from the university while walking around the mall. One of the students knew how to get from AEON to AIU by bicycle so he rode my bicycle to Akita International University for me.