Tokyo -> Okayama
Hello Friends and Family. The white boy has made it to Okayama Daigaku, but I did not teleport here. I took a bus ride from Tokyo at about 8:30 PM and arrived in Okamaya at 6:00 AM. I woke up about every hour and a half when we stopped for bathroom breaks and finally made it, with a super long day ahead of me. Once I arrived at Okayama station from the bus stop, I was greeted by my tutors Mirai and Kosuke. They have been super helpful since I have been here. They helped me get a bank account, cell phone, and have shown me around the campus. Japanese cell phone contracts are one of the most confusing contracts I have ever signed up for. If you think Japanese cell phones are awesome, they are not really that cool. We have done numerous store runs together with bags in our bicycles baskets and on the handlebars. I ride my bicycle everyday, everywhere I go. I have met all of the EPOK students and many of the student tutors here. Everyone has been very nice and very helpful.
I started my first classes today. My Japanese class moves four times as fast as my classes were in the US. We are literally using the same books and doing what I would do in two years at SJSU, in one semester in Japan. It is a pretty scary thought, but it will really help me learn the language quickly. Next semester I will be taking what would be called intro to advanced Japanese in the US, and intro to Intermediate Japanese here in Japan. Apart from this class, I will also be taking Japanese Religion and Literature, Beginners Kanji where I will learn about 300 kanji, and Study of Japan. Study of Japan is basically a 1 unit field trip class. I will also be an English language assistant in an English class. One of my friends hear has a job as an English tutor and makes about 2500 yen an hour, about 30 USD. He only works on call and they have his class schedule, so this is something I will definitely be looking into.
One thing I recently heard about was a very special festival that is held near Okayama each year. It is called Hadaka Mutsuri or Naked Festival. At this festival men wear fundoshi (sumo underwear) and compete to catch the shingi (wood stick from God). Thousands of men participate in this festival and some even get killed because of how packed and competitive it is. I am considering putting a team together to go and participate in the festival. If I competed alone I would probably die. I have heard some bad things about the festival that make me want to hold back from participating. First of all, I do not enjoy seeing naked men. Second, I was told that the fundoshi is super tight and I do not want to hurt my children. Third, the stick is nearly impossible to get. Fourth, it is freezing cold. Fifth, I do not enjoy seeing naked men. I pretty sure you can find videos of this competition online, but be careful what you search for.
Okayama is a very beautiful place, much more beautiful than Tokyo. Okayama city is almost completely surrounded by mountains. I am about one hour away from an adventurous island with monkeys on it, including the fairy ride. I live about 40 minutes from Hiroshima, and 1 hour from Osaka, by bullet train. It is a pretty central place and I am looking forward to my time here. Although my language course will be tough, the transition is tough, I am looking forward to my year very much. I am really excited to how God uses me.
A few days ago I told one of my friends that I am interested in finding hiking spots around Okayama University and we went and found one near another university part way up a hill. It was a good adventure, but there were too many spiders. The spiders are huge here, and when I say huge I mean it. I would say the biggest spiders I have ever seen.
One thing I have been praying for since I have been here is finding some kind of community with other Christians. Today I ate with my friend Shaye who is originally from San Diego and goes to school at East Bay State. We sat down to eat and I saw that she was praying, so I asked her if she is a Christian. It is good to hear her say “yes” and see that God is providing for me while I am here.
Please continue praying for me if you have been and start praying for me if you haven’t been. I really hope you are enjoying spending some time on this journey with me. I have a not below for all of you planning on traveling to visit me in Okayama!
Okayama Visitors
You will have two options when you come to visit me I am really looking forward to it. Here are some things you should think about before you come to visit.
1 - Stay in my dorm illegally. Meaning that staying in my dorm is against the rules and if
worst comes to worst I could get kicked out of the international house, but from what
I have heard is that it is not a big deal to have guests. Basically, I would not let the
managers at the international house know you were staying and we should be good.
2 - Family can stay in a kind of house my campus owns for cheap. What is cheap? I do
not know, but I will find out.
3 - Stay in a hotel. Most likely will be around 60-80 dollars a night for 2, if you go for the
cheaper end.
4 - My schedule is going to be very busy when I am not on break because of the
Japanese course I described above. I will post my Christmas and Spring online
soon. My spring semester will be easier than this semester as far as my Japanese
course goes.
If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me.
I will be putting up another blog post shortly about sports day this last sunday. Some very crazy things happened there. Oh yeah, I will be posting more pics soon, once I take them.
much love,
Dillon Steele Adams
No comments:
Post a Comment