Around Campus

This is a post from the other Blog that is for the School.

The first week that you come to Kansai Gaidai you will stay in the Seminar Houses. You get to walk back and forth between campus to go to Orientation. In Orientation you get told all the information that you could possibly need about Campus.
I am going to tell you about the things that you do daily.
First The Center for International Education (CIE).

This is where you practically live. 

You have your classes here, this is a speaking classroom.

You wait in the CIE student lounge between classes.

You pick up your school mail here.

You can use the internet and printers here. There is also wifi which is decent if there are not to many people trying to use it.

If you have any questions about anything you can ask The CIE staff here.

This is the Language Lab for listening and speaking practice.

We also have our other classes here in the CIE. This is my ceramics classroom. There is also Sumie (brush painting), but I am not in that class. The culture and business classes are on the fourth floor. Language classrooms are in the second floor and the teacher's offices are on the third floor.

When you are not at the CIE you are probably eating.

The first option is the cafeteria, which is very decently priced, and has good food. There is a table at the front with the day's options.

If you don't want to eat there there is the Convini, and McDonald's across the way.

If you don't want to eat indoors you can eat outside

If you don't have money you can use one of the ATMs. They are on either side of the amphitheater.

The Post Office Bank can be used if you have a checking account with a 4 digit pin number and a cirrus of plus on your bank card. The post office bank is every where in Japan, so it is very handy.

Host family's House.

I think that when I imagined a Japanese home I saw some minimalistic, obsessively clean house. My host mother's house is not like that at all. It is rather reminiscent of any older couple's house, who has had sixty some odd years to accumulate stuff. The house is quite large for a Japanese house. It is a house that has been lived in by multiple generations, and so is an older traditional house.

 This is my bike in front of the house. The Laundry is done almost daily, and hung out to dry in front of the house. My host family has a dog. Sado looks very cute, but he isn't very friendly and he is prone to snap. He is also hard of hearing, so until he sees someone he doesn't start to bark, but He really likes to bark.

Okasan likes to garden in the yard. Most of the gardening is done in containers.

When you first enter the house you come into the genkan.

Okasan does ikebana, and there are always flower arrangements in the genkan.
Behind the genkan is the kitchen where we also eat.

This is normal, but somewhat messy. Food is frequently left out overnight on the dining table, even meat. This is very typical for Japanese people. I usually get four of five small plates of food for dinner.
To the right of the genkan is the living room. This is messier than usual.

She cleaned the table later that day.
To the left of the genkan is a room that used to be a sleeping room, I think, before they built bedrooms on.

It is mostly used for storage now, I think. There is a room to the right if this that is definitely storage. The door to it is almost never open. Through this room is the bedrooms.

The toilet is at the end of the hall. My room is next to the toilet. There is really nothing but the toilet and a hand washing sink in that room.
The bath is off of the kitchen.

there is a large sink and mirror in one room, and next to it is the bath. The bath has an approximately 2 ft deep  tub, and a shower head on a hose. You never get right into the bath, because everyone uses the same water. First you have to wash yourself off. You sit on the little stool, and wash yourself, and make sure you rinse very well, then you can soak in the Ofuro if you like.

My room is next to the toilet. My room is somewhat messy too.
And that is my house.

Pictures...

For those of you who are tired of all my complaining here are some pictures.

These are the most wonderful invention ever!
They are layers of pastry, chocolate, sweet bean, and apple. only 80Y.

I love Japanese Bakeries

In Kyoto

I saw this on the way home.
It was rather disturbing as the chopsticks go up and down.
I had a video, but I can't find it.

These pictures are from the Danjiri Matsuri, in the south of Osaka.
The different neighborhoods each have a cart which they pull through the streets alternately fast and slow.

We also visited the local castle.

This is not a model, it is a view from the top of the castle.

This picture was taken about a week after the other pictures.
It was rather shocking to me to find the field this way.

These fish are as long as my arm.