Saturday was a surprise group trip out to Don Quixote and a ¥100 shop. I simply walked outside and ran into a mass of IJS (International Japanese Studies) students. I was told that it was about an 8 minute walk, but I think Yobi accidentally misspoke, and instead I walked 25 minutes through Nagoya in what quickly became heavy rain. Few of us owned umbrellas, let alone had them with us, and we were drenched by the time we arrived at our destination.
Not knowing we would be walking so far, and being too lazy to switch out my arch supports, I went through this experienced in my water absorbing converse shoes. Did you know that the material of the shoe actually shrinks as it becomes wet? I didn't. Until my pinky toes were screaming at me in agony. Although the streets are clean here, I was not confident enough to walk back without my shoes on like one of my friends did. I've been wearing my waterproof hiking boots ever since.
My first order of business was to buy an umbrella at the ¥100 shop, along with laundry detergent, slippers for inside my dormitory, chapstick, and the bare essentials. No money was on me, so Kat let me borrow ¥1,000 so that I could buy what I needed. The only thing I still feel I need is a laundry basket.
Don Quixote was a small place that was crammed with tons of products. I mean, it took up almost the entire top floor of the building, but Japanese buildings are not large in comparison to American architecture. The aisles and spaces between the aisles was maybe 4 feet wide, and there were electronics, housewares, makeup, and grocery departments. The prices were pretty decent, too, but I had was I needed.
Character from a childhood Anime
My shoes were nowhere close to being dry by the time we left, but at least I had an umbrella. The cafeteria doesn't seem to be open on the weekends (at least not yet), so everyone made plans to go to Sushi Row for dinner. After changing into dry pants and putting my boots on, I headed off with the group to find the way to this cheap sushi restaurant. Of course, there was a wait, but it's located right next to a large video game arcade. So I perused the several floors of Japanese gaming devices for about a half hour.
Some of that stuff is pretty cool. They have online RPG gaming consoles, and photo booths where you can draw on your pictures with your friends before printing them out as mini stickers. There were some strange pods that I think had something to do with virtual gaming, too. Also, about half of the place was some kind of casino, and another 1/3 was filled with grabbing machines - those money-eating games where you have to use a three-pronged claw to grab impossibly heavy/poorly shaped objects - filled with anything from giant boxes of candy to huge stuffed animals to toast. Yes, really, they gave you a chance to win pre-cut loafs of bread! Welcome to Japan!
The Toast
The sushi was amazing (-ly cheap, too)! Basically, you are seated at a booth next to the conveyor belt that carries around plates holding different kinds of food. There is a picture menu with all of your food and dessert options with prices next to them. If you don't see what you want going 'round and 'round, you can call your order in to the kitchen and it will come down on the conveyor belt on a special plate that tells everyone that it is special order and not to touch it. Most of the plates are ¥105 and even things like udon noodles or salads are only ¥280. Green tea is freely dispensed from a tap at the table and not charged.
Our Food-Delivery System
Green Tea Anyone?
The food was delicious, the green tea is growing on me (very slowly), and I spent very little money.
Speaking of money, let me go over that.
With the current exchange rate ¥100 = $1.10. So when I said I borrowed ¥1,000, I borrowed roughly $10. So the exchange rate isn't too terrible; it's the cost of some things that make living here expensive.
My Saturday ended with a scenic walk back to campus from Sushi Row and a couple hours of drinking and getting to know my classmates. It seems that most of us will get along just fine, so long as I behave myself.
Sunday was even busier. I was in the shower when someone knocked on my door, so I had no idea what was going on. At the time, I had thought Kat was coming by to hang out and study together, so I got ready to head over to her place or the lounge to do just that. It seems I was just in time for a group trip out for brunch. One student who has been here previously knew of a great place to get okonomiyaki (Japanese Pancakes), and I thought I would tag along since I have never actually tried okonomiyaki. We had to buy ¥600 day passes for the subway, simply because it was cheaper in case we went elsewhere, and head over to Kanayama (a part of Nagoya).
It turned out that the restaurant that we were going to was small, and full of people, so there was the option to wait outside or head back to the mall-like area of the train station where some bands/people were performing for some judges for something. Like most mobs no one spoke up and took any initiative, so everyone was just standing there aimlessly. I decided that I would walk around the block and see a bit of Nagoya.
A Japanese man fell into step next to me and began speaking to me in Japanese. He asked the usual things like where I was from. I tried to tell him that I was from Nagoya Gakuin University and tell him the story of the okonomiyaki restaurant being full and how I was wanting to look around Nagoya. My conversational Japanese is lacking since I am so out of practice, but my point was made. I guess. He offered to drive me around and show me Nagoya. It was at this time when I had fully circled the block, so I politely refused and informed him that my friends were over there and I was headed back with them. So he smiled, said the equivalent of "Later," and I headed back in time for everyone to make the decision that we should ditch okonomiyaki and go get Miso Tonkatsu (which is a well-known dish in Nagoya, I suppose).
We had the Tonkatsu (breaded pork over rice, covered lightly in a miso sauce) at a small restaurant above a Dulce & Gabbana outlet that had some really bad models in their posters. Afterwards, we headed across the way to Oasis 21. It's a pretty amazing place. At ground level, there is a park surrounding a hole in the ground. Said hole in the ground is actually filled with a staircase system and elevator which lead to the top of the structure. About 50 feet (I could be exaggerating) above the park is a strange oval-shaped level that holds a fountain that takes up most of the level, leaving a thinner outter walkway that overlooks the city. The fountain is very shallow and has a few small jet streams of water shooting straight up down the center of it for the length of the oval. If that wasn't cool enough, below ground is a two-story mall.
We didn't really check out the higher of the two stories, but the bottom-most story is not just an underground mall. It actually stretches out underneath the major intersection and connects with the subway and nearby bus stops. There is a store for all the Shojo lovers (girl manga/anime) right by a store for Shonen fans (that would be the male manga/anime that's full of ninjas, violence, and not crammed with lovey-dovey crap). I didn't even look inside the Shojo store. I did, however, enter the store that was in between the Shojo and Shonen; it was the store for Ghibli Studio. This is the famouse anime studio that brought things like Domo and all of the Miyazaki films to America and the rest of the world. Right across from all of this was an honest-to-god group of otaku (roughly "geeks") playing the Pokemon card game on the ground. Not far from them was the Pokemon Center; it looked like some kind of massive command center that was literally filled with fans, kids, parents, and tons of Pokemon merchandise. It was a sight.
I didn't have a camera on me, as it was a spontaneous trip, but I will be going back to the area in the future. Pictures will be had at that time.
After we were done at Oasis 21, we all thought we would stop by the local SoftBank down the road. SoftBank is a place where we can purchase cheap cell phone plans, and the one in Sakae always has English brochures and an English-speaking representative on staff. Once finished there, we walked to a Maruzen bookstore. Many of us became interested in the study material for the JPLT (Japanese Proficiency Language Test), and I think a few people purchased the next level of their Japanese textbooks that they used at their regular colleges.
We split up at that point. Some people decided to head back to campus, since all of our feet were screaming from all of the walking we had done in the past 48 hours. Those of use who stayed headed back to the subway to go to Osu Kannon. Osu is basically the Akihabara of Nagoya. Most of us were looking for an electronic dictionary to help us translate between the languages easily. A lot of them also have an input for drawing a kanji so that it can give you the definition for kanji you don't know. It would be a lot easier than me trying to count/guess how many strokes are in the kanji and look for it that way in my regular dictionary, praying to find it quickly. I could have bought an electronic dictionary at home or online before I came over, but it is usually cheaper to buy nearly any kind of electronic if you buy it in Japan.
We only spent about an hour there before heading back to campus, but I would not mind heading back there later in the semester. I saw mechanical robots, a huge anime/manga city-store, tons of really tasty looking food, and some very interesting clothing stores. If anything, it is a great place to spend the day and explore. I mean, the place is huge! It covers numerous city blocks and has thousands of stores, restaurants, and pachinko places. It would also be nice to find an electronic dictionary for easy research and kanji help.
Needless to say, I passed out upon my return to my room. Orientation began at 9:30am the next morning.
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