Oddly enough, my first experience shopping at Costco was in Japan, not the United States, and it occurred this morning. I went to Costco in Kobe with Okaasan and one of Okaasan's friends, Naito-san ("san" is an honorific term which means Mr., Mrs. or Miss), who is a host mother for another student from U of I who is on the Year-in-Japan program. Naito-san actually has the membership with Costco, so thanks to her I was able to go. The quantities sure are large, and I hope that I can finish all the snacks and use up all the toiletries I purchased there within the next eight months! I was explaining to Naito-san why I decided to purchase a variety pack of Pepperidge Farm cookies (Milano cookies were included, how could I resist?), and an older woman who was strolling by with her cart stopped and just started looking at the cookie box. I could tell she was listening in on my conversation, but I wasn't sure why. After I finished explaining to Naito-san why I was going to purchase those cookies, the woman walked away, and I asked Naito-san why the lady had listened in on our conversation. Naito-san explained that many of the brands and products found at Costco are new to Japanese people, but if a Japanese person knows that I come from the United States, they think that I'll be familiar with the brands and products and thus be able to provide trustworthy recommendations as to which products are worth purchasing. Maybe I should look for part-time work at Costco...?

Friday, October 9

Today in Culture and Education in Japan, we discussed the concept of Orientalism. Kouji sensei (sensei means teacher) asked us to come to class with examples of Orientalism. Another student from U of I brought up The Mikado, a nineteenth-century operetta composed by Gilbert and Sullivan of England. The only time I have seen this operetta was in the summer of the year 2000, when I was an eleven-year-old going into sixth grade. I loved the operetta at the time, but haven't given it much thought since. But yesterday in class, my classmate discussed how it is an example of Orientalism because it portrays Japan based on views held by westerners that are offensive to some Japanese. As soon as he said that, my mind immediately jumped to the female lead's name, which is Yum-Yum. My classmate said that the operetta became hugely popular in England upon release; however, when a member of the Japanese royal family came to visit Japan in the late 1800s, all performances were temporarily suspended because society knew that the production would offend him. I am now curious to see the operetta again and reevaluate my opinion based on what I learned in class yesterday.

Last night Otousan pulled out the wind-up battery-powered radio/alarm, and we all took turns winding it up around the dinner table as we watched the evening news for the latest typhoon updates. We wouldn't know for sure if school was going to be cancelled or not until this morning, but we watched the projected path of the typhoon on the television screen, and it looked as though it could come toward Kobe.

After dinner I was sitting at the table doing homework when I noticed that the wind had become really strong. I started feeling a little nervous, so I told Okaasan and Otousan that I would head back into my room in my separate area of the house for the night so I could get in safely before the storm hit. Otousan handed me a huge, red flashlight and told me to take it to my room for safety. He also cautioned me to take a shower sooner rather than later because no one knew if or when we would lose power. The imminent storm draws closer, yet one of the most pressing matters in people's minds is cleanliness. I told Otousan that if we lost power and I still hadn't taken a shower, I would just go stand outside for a minute.

The wind was howling away last night, and as it was coming from the north and the east, my windows were rattling especially loudly. The wind would blow very strongly for a while, then stop, then pick up a short while later. I still heard cars and motorbikes from the street outside my window, though, so there were a few daredevils out last night. The rain was coming down pretty hard, but not so much so that it completely obstructed one's vision. I had trouble falling asleep, though because the wind was quite loud.

This morning I woke up early to the sound of a gentle rain falling outside. By nine thirty or so, the rain had stopped, and an hour later the sun was shining brightly overhead. So the typhoon is all gone from the Kansai region, but now it's in the Kantou area, near Tokyo, and also hitting Nagano prefecture. I heard Otousan's mother lost power in her home in Nagano.

Morning lessons were cancelled for me, and Otousan and Yoko have the entire day off of school. I, however, must report to university for my fifth period class this afternoon. So ends my first typhoon experience.

I did not feel very well on Monday, and yesterday I just got caught up in living life in Japan (I had a wonderfully normal day), so I have not posted a blog entry since Sunday.

On Sunday evening I did not sleep very much, and then I ate a huge bag of doughnuts on Monday afternoon, so my tiredness and the energy crash I experienced about an hour after eating the doughnuts left me with a big headache. I went to sleep early on Monday evening and felt refreshed on Tuesday when I woke up.

I decided on Sunday evening after staying up really late finishing homework and studying kanji that the Japanese class in which I currently study is too difficult for me. I do not even know all the concepts or kanji the students in the second highest class study, so why am I in the highest class? Then on Monday morning I received my grade for my second test, and I was quite pleased. I still think that the Japanese class is very hard, but I'll take this next test two days from today and see how I do on that test. If I do well again, maybe my current class is doable with a lot of work on my part.

Yesterday evening Okaasan taught me how to make okonomiyaki. It is literally a meat, seafood, and vegetable pancake, and the batter is made of egg and flour. I believe okonomiyaki may be a sort of style of cooking as well, because you can incorporate many types of vegetables and meats into the pancake to cater to one's own liking, and there are many okonomiyaki restaurants across the country. But back to last night, I was beginning to feel a little antsy while preparing dinner because Okaasan was doing most of the cooking and I was just watching. I know it's her kitchen, and she's probably used to doing things her way, so she may feel that she does not need help in preparing dinner, but I want to experience Japanese cooking in a hands-on sort of way. But after watching her cook four of the pancakes (one is similar in size to a buttermilk pancake, but thicker), she said she needed to pick up Otousan at the train station, and she handed me the bamboo spatula. I was able to cook two by myself while she was out of the house. She still won't let me use the gas stove if no one is home, but it was fine for me to use this iron pan because it plugs into the wall. I did a good job cooking the okonomiyaki, according to Okaasan, so I was happy to have that opportunity.

There's supposed to be a typhoon coming in tomorrow morning, and accompanying the typhoon will be extremely strong winds. School may be cancelled tomorrow, but I'm not sure yet. I'll watch the news tonight and find out for sure tomorrow morning. I've never experienced a typhoon before, so I'm feeling slightly anxious right now.

I've been spending a lot of time with Okaasan lately. Yesterday evening she allowed me to cook niku jaga with her. It's a type of beef stew, but maybe the liquid isn't as thick as stew. It includes carrots. potatoes, and onions. The sauce is made from osake, mirin (a sweet, cooking alcohol), soy sauce, and sugar (not white sugar, not brown sugar, but something in between). It doesn't seem too difficult to cook, but I don't have a recipe yet, and I have cooked it only one time, so I don't know if I'll be able to reproduce the recipe upon return to the U.S. Okaasan also taught me how to grill whole eggplants and then skin and season them. I happen to not care for the scent after the eggplant is grilled, however, so even though it's easy to cook and season the eggplant, I doubt I'll reproduce that dish too often.

Tonight Otousan and Yoko were horseback riding at the barn during dinner time, so Okaasan and I ate together. We discussed the population problem in Japan. I told her what I learned last year in class about women not wanting to put children through the strict, stressful education system, and about women not wanting to marry a man only to rarely see him because he works such long hours with a company. Okaasan said in the past, it was socially acceptable and encouraged to get married, and it was even better for a woman's social position if she married and raised children. Now, however, it is also socially fashionable to be a single, working woman who can provide for herself with her own salary. This concept, coupled with the slow but steady push for gender equality in the workplace, is surely making it more desirable for women to have their own jobs. That, in addition to the points I mentioned that I learned at U of I last year, have probably contributed a fair amount to the population decrease.

Okaasan doesn't feel very confident in the new government's ability to ameliorate the population problem. She feels that it's too early to form an opinion, but she senses that some voters may have chosen Hatoyama based on promises he made during his campaign. These promises could provide temporary relief, but they will not solve the long-term problem. For example, the new government declared that it will give each family a certain number of yen for each child in the family who is of elementary or middle school age. Okaasan thinks that many citizens voted for Hatoyama based on policies such as this. Those voters may see the immediate benefits of such a course of action, but they are failing to look at long term issues or ways that the money could be better spent. Okaasan said that families of elementary school and middle school children may not need the money as much as families with university-aged children do, because university tuition is quite expensive. Instead of using that money to fund their children's educations, families may use the money for vacations, or other sorts of expenses. Okaasan also said that the money could be used on other issues, such as too-large classes in schools. There are currently classes with forty students and one teacher, but the money going to families with young children could instead be used to divide those large classes into two classes of twenty students per every teacher. Maybe a Japanese person's opinion depends upon his or her personal situation, but this is what I have heard thus far, and I find it interesting.

But enough politics for now. I have to take a shower and study kanji before I go to sleep.

I decided to relax today after a hectic day yesterday. I went to a Japanese-style bazaar with Okaasan this morning. Every year, there is a bazaar held at a middle school, high school, and college complex about a half hour train ride from Okaasan's home. The bazaar is usually held in May, but this year the bazaar was postponed because one high school student in Kobe came down with the swine flu, so the entire city went on lockdown. Okaasan told me that everyone wore face masks, and that the usually crowded city center in Sannomiya became empty. The scene was lively this morning, however, as many vendors brought handmade foods, crafts, and other items such as clothing and household accessories to sell at the bazaar. I didn't buy anything, but I enjoyed looking at the jewelry, stationery, household items, and sweets. I also helped Okaasan pick out a pearl necklace for herself.

In the afternoon I went to my host cousin Ayako's home. She lives right across the street from Okaasan and Otousan, and she is Okaasan's cousin. She plays piano very beautifully, and we had previously picked out four pieces to learn together. Two pieces are Japanese melodies, one traditional and one from an anime program, but the other two were Ave Maria and Csàrdàs by Monti. It was very difficult to play Ave Maria, I felt as though I was adding no emotional sensitivity or musicality to the piece.

I'll be at home for the rest of the weekend, relaxing, cleaning up my room, studying, catching up on journal entries, doing laundry, and practicing violin.

Yesterday evening I had an interesting conversation with Otousan. Otousan is a teacher, and he teaches biology at an all-boys high school in Osaka, which is about twenty minutes away from Kobe by train. I told Otousan and Okaasan that in the U.S., there is a day called "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" during which fathers occasionally bring their daughters with them to the fathers' work places. I asked my host parents if such a day existed in Japan, and they said no. I asked if I could accompany Otousan to work to view a biology lesson, and he said definitely not. I asked why, and Otousan replied that I would create a disturbance. I told him I had not attracted the attention of a single Japanese boy thus far during my stay in Japan, and Otousan said that this is not true, but I simply don't know that I'm attracting the attention of Japanese boys because they are shy and because it is not polite to simply tell a woman that she is beautiful. Otousan said that according to most Japanese boys, I fit into the biijin, or beautiful person, category. I told Otousan that in the United States I am just average looking, but Otousan said that here in Japan I would be considered a beautiful person by most Japanese boys, so if I went to Otousan's work to view a biology lesson, no lesson would take place because all the boys would be distracted by my presence since I am a foreigner. I exclaimed that this is the students' fault for considering me good-looking, and Otousan responded that it is my fault for being good-looking. What an interesting conversation...

Today I took my second Japanese language test within my language class. This test was harder than the last, and it took me a long time to complete compared to the previous test. I think that this class is too hard for me. I've been studying a lot, and I'm still not receiving the grades I desire. But I want to be in this high-level class, so as long as the studying doesn't kill me, I should stick with it and devote as much time as possible to studying while still maintaing a social life. After all, I did come to Japan to learn Japanese.

Also, my Japanese teacher told our class today about a recent undertaking of hers. She and another Japanese teacher, who lives in Osaka, are creating a website for learning advanced Japanese. This use of this website does not include tuition fees, and thus my teacher hopes it will gain popularity. She is hoping that this website will be useful for people in African and Asian countries where citizens may have had an opportunity to study basic Japanese, but they cannot afford a study abroad trip in Japan and must continue their language studies in some other way. My teacher hopes that this website will also be useful for students who wish to study Japanese but are too busy with other primary majors in school. My teacher created a website with Japanese stories, and the stories are accompanied by furigana, the written hiragana, or Japanese alphabet, translations for kanji, as well as the English meaning for kanji. This will help students improve their Japanese comprehension without studying in a classroom setting. I feel proud to have a teacher who is involved in such a project. I hope her website will be a success.