Last Blog: Home and the start of the Next Adventure

It has been about a week since I returned home to Hawaii from AIU (Akita International University). It is nice to be back home because I get to sleep in my own bed, walk my dog, and relax before I begin my final year at UHM (University of Hawaii at Manoa).

Before I left AIU, I sold my bicycle to my friend, and I went to the Kanto Festival. I forgot to bring
my camera with me, so I got these pictures from my friend.

Pictures from Kanto

Aloha Akita

Recently, I just finished my final exams at AIU (Akita International University). I still have to write a paper for one of my classes, but right now I am taking a break. Currently, I am trying to spend time with my friends that are returning to there home country, going to study abroad, or will be at AIU when I return to my home country.

It seems strange because I am so used to seeing my friends here. In addition, it will be weird to return home because I will be able to overhear other peoples conversations and not worry about the language barrier. At Akita, I have gotten used to seeing Japanese words everywhere and people speaking to me in Japanese that I do not have a problem anymore.

Saying goodbye to my Japanese Conversation partner before she goes to Norway for study abroad

Final Hawaii Night

This past weekend was the Final Hawaii Night. For the last Hawaii Night, my friends and I made Hawaiian foods such as lomi lomi, garlic shrimp, meat jun, tuna poke, malasadas, spam rice, haupia, hawaiian-style sesame cabbage, macraoni salad, fruit punch, li-hing mui pineapple, and fried tofu poke. We wanted to make other Hawaiian foods such as mochiko chicken, hawaiian beef stew, and avocado poke, but the ingredients for those foods were too difficult to find or too expensive.

For this event we charged everyone 550 yen and we were hoping to get at least 40 people to attend the party. However about 30 people came and not everyone that signed up the event showed up. Thankfully there were a lot of people that showed up for the party even though they did not sign up.

People were pretty happy with the food, and they were happy to keep the leis, and take home leftover food. Here are pictures from the Hawaii Night from my friends.

You only live once Hawaiian Style

It is hard to believe that my study abroad experience is almost over. After coming to Akita I have been able to learn Japanese, make friends with people from different countries, improve my cooking skills, and travel by myself around Japan. Recently I have been really busy because I am taking a lot of Japanese classes this semester, looking up internships to apply for when I return, and spending time with my friends that I might not see again for a while. In addition, I got a new camera about a week ago from my parents because my old camera broke. All of the pictures on this post are from my friends because I have not figured out how to use my new camera yet.

Below is a picture from a Hawaii event that my Hawaii friends and I hosted for the students at Akita International University (AIU). This is the second Hawaii event my friends and I hosted this year. I was nervous planning this event because I could not think of any activities for people to do, but people were pretty happy when they came. They loved the food, and Keli'i was able to play Hawaiian music with two other students for entertainment.

Okayama: Sharing a moment in a Peach Town

When I was little, one of my favorite Japanese stories was about this peach boy called Momataro. This boy was born from a peach to an elderly couple that was unable to have children. When the boy grew up he traveled around Japan befriending a bird, pig, monkey, and dog while defeating evil ogres. My parents decided to meet at Okayama because the story of Momataro was believed to have originated from Okayama, and city is famous for its food chichi dango.

A statue of Momataro in front of the train station

I arrived at Okayama two days before my parents arrived. On the day that I arrived from Tokyo, I found out that I lost my cell phone on the night bus, so I had to ask one of my Japanese friends to help. Apparently the bus drivers found my phone, but because I was traveling at the time, I was unable to receive my phone until I returned to AIU.

The day after, I met with my friend from AIU that was from Okayama. My friend that I met at Okayama is my Japanese Conversation and Friends Partner.  She will be leaving to study abroad at Norway when I leave to return to Hawaii.

Chilling in Tokyo

The following week I stayed at Tokyo where I met with several of my friends from AIU and the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM). In addition, I also bought the Seishun 18 Pass because it would allow me to travel around Japan without having to worry about transferring when using the train for JR for five days.

I stayed around Asakusa area at a hostel nearby the Asakusa station. My hostel was located near the Tokyo Skytree. Compared to Okinawa, it was really easy to travel using the train so I avoided going to places like the Tokyo Skytree where I was required to pay.

At Tokyo, I went to Keio University to meet with my friend from the UHM, went to the Toei Musem and ate Monjayaki with my friend from AIU, went to Pokemon Center with two of my other friends from AIU, and hiked Mt.Takao by myself.

It was nice to see my friend at Keio because I rarely spoke to my friends from Hawaii after arriving at AIU, and my friend from Keio was one of my first friends I met as a Freshmen at UHM. My friend still looked the same, but he was still very passionate about learning Japanese.

Okinawan Fever

For Japanese students at Akita International University (AIU), the academic school year starts around April and ends around December. From December to April, students may decide to take classes during the Winter Semester from January to the beginning of March or take a break from January to April. I decided to take classes during the Winter semester, so I had a one-month break during March. 

After returning from Sendai to visit a friend from AIU, I spent about a week at AIU catching up with friends and making last minute arrangements for my trip. I was nervous because I decided to travel by myself for the first half of my trip, and had only reserved my hostels and my tickets for the night bus. Before leaving for my trip I thought about how to get to the sight seeing locations for the places I want to go to, but I was unsure about how easy the public transportation would be at Tokyo, Okinawa, and Okayama, so I thought it would be best to do this when I get to those locations.

On the day, I left AIU for my Winter break, it was really cold, and I had trouble finding my night bus from Akita to Tokyo. I downloaded the email from my night bus reservation to my iPod, but I was unsure of the location of the night bus despite knowing that it was located at the East entrance of the JR Akita Station.

It took me several minutes to find my night bus, but after finding the driver using my limited Japanese, I was able to find the correct bus. I was so happy to find my bus because there was a blizzard outside of the bus.

Sleeping like a Baby

 Since coming to AIU, I have had to become more dependent, and more cautious about the things I do. Compared to back home in Hawaii, I need to cook more, be careful of waking my roommate up at night, pay for gas, water, and heater bills, and clean my apartment unit that I share with my roommate.

My roommate and me have a good relationship, but I remember for our first few weeks living together, he complained about me making too much noise when I walk. I tried to be careful after that, but occasionally I would wake him up at night because I would drop something on the floor accidentally. By the end of the semester, I have gotten better at being more quiet at night, but I discovered that regardless of how quiet I try to be, it is really hard to not make noise in the apartments at AIU. Other students seem to have the same problem with the noise like me and my roommate.

My bed makes a sound whenever I try to move in my bed, and regardless of how quiet I try to be, the floor always makes a noise whenever I walk on it. Usually if my roommate wakes up at night when I am around, it is usually because he cannot sleep not because of me.

Aloha' Oe to the People leaving AIU

My Japanese 300 Class this semester.

It is so sad. The semester is already ending soon, and after getting to know all of these great people at Akita International University (AIU), I may never see some of these people again. Some of the students I have met will be graduating or returning to their home country. Also the Japanese students at AIU are required to study abroad for one year, so they be leaving to study abroad at the beginning of next year. As for me, I will be at Japan, until next August, but I am pretty sure time will move by too fast. 

I know that are there some people who are thinking about staying here for at least a-year-and-a-half, but I think that may be too long for me. I do not have enough money to stay here for that long, I need to graduate, and I do not I think I will use my time at AIU more efficiently if I decide to stay at AIU for a year-and-a-half instead of a year.

My Taiwanese roommate is staying at AIU until March of next year because he needs to write his thesis for graduate school. His major is Chinese Teaching. My friend, and fellow blogger Will from Gonzaga University, is only staying here for this semester because he does not have enough money. Both of them will not be at AIU as long as me so they need to be more efficient with their time year.

My roommate is apart of the Taiwanese-Japanese Club here, so he does a language exchange with a Japanese student that wants to learn Chinese. He is also apart of the AIU's Academic Achievement Center so he gets to practice his Chinese teaching skills with other Japanese students.

Thanksgiving and a Taste of Malasada

Last Thursday night, I celebrated Thanksgiving with most of the American students, a few Japanese students, and a few of the other international students. For most of the Japanese students and a few of the international students that went, it was their first Thanksgiving.

It was nice celebrating Thanksgiving because although Akita International University (AIU) is an "international school," Thanksgiving is one of the few holidays that is not celebrated by most of the students at AIU. Usually Christmas and Halloween are celebrated at AIU.

The Thanksgiving party that I went to was a private party, and it was required that anyone who went to the party pay at least 600 yen entrance fee or bring food. For the Thanksgiving party, I had made yakisoba with my friend from the University of Hawaii, my Japanese friend, and another international student from Thailand. Both my Japanese friend and the student from Thailand were unable to go to the party.

As for the yakisoba, originally I wanted to use spam for meat, but because one of the American students complained about how much she dislikes spam, we used teriayaki meat instead. It seems like not everyone can understand Hawaii's love for spam.

The food we ate at the Thanksgiving party was very delicious. I was able to eat food that I have not eaten for a while since coming to Japan such as cake, potato salad, and macaroni and cheese. Unfortunately, the timing was very inconvenient, because their was a Dancing Contest at the same time in the same building on the same floor.

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.

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

Lake Tazawa and Kakunodate

Here are pictures from a Lake Tazawa and a Kakunodate trip on Friday that I had with the other international students. The trip was free for international students but the full-time students had to pay. We had several stops on the way and my friends and I took plenty of pictures.