A story that needs telling

At the moment this story is incomplete and coming from word of mouth and a few pamphlets I've read. I hope to try and flesh it out in the future and coming back to this post as more information becomes available.

So for the first two months of my stay I've been spending the majority of my time going to school, meeting students, professors, and characters of all types. I've tried, like the Japanese exchange students sent to Evergreen to fit in as much as possible. This has proven to be quite difficult and noticeably impossible at times, seeing as I have very little responsibility assigned to me as a student. It has led however, to a growing curiosity to the inner workings of the college, its history, and the state of the exchange program I am currently taking part in.

From what I've heard from others the state of the exchange program is in a state of looming change, or uncertainty and due to certain complications in the past is not on "good terms". All of this has a pretty ominous feeling but it doesn't speak much truth. I still can't speak as to why the exchange program is not on good terms besides a few past incidents which will go unnamed and claims that communication between Evergreen and The Hyogo Economic/Business college has been what it was.

About 4 years ago the college I go to now was reformed with Hyogo prefecture University, bringing into the fold of a multitude of colleges around Hyogo prefecture. Before that it was a general college but it was forced to split its faculty in to two departments, Business and Economics. History, Law, English, Environment, and other professors who were not specialized in Business or Economics were forced to enter one of the two departments. Apparently professors who were well acquainted with each other joined the same department. So the school was not originally set up to be a Business and Economic school! This makes a lot of sense seeing as the curriculim is a bit strange and the type of professors pecuilar seeing as the college is suppose to be about business and economics. The students and faculty also seem to gravitate towards the department they've chosen.

Recently one of the other campuses had some interest in the exchange program but the problem is that this university would lose the opportunity to send two students to Evergreen. Also what about the students coming from Evergreen? There has been the possibility that the other campuses all over Hyogo prefecture would be open to Evergreen students. So instead of coming here other campus such as the nursing, engineering, or science campuses could be open to Evergreen Students. Would that mean students from those campuses would have an opportunity to come to Evergreen? All of it is a little perplexing and hinges on the fact of whether there is interest from the other campuses and the topic is brought up again whether there will be change or not.

So where do I come into all of this? I'm not really sure and I often worry how I am viewed having an affect on the future of the exchange program (thats probably one of the reason I go to school so much) recently I've felt a responsibility to be a spokesman for Evergreen College or somehow get involved into this mess, or improve the relationship between the two colleges but I think there are some things that can't be helped and other things I think I'm just imagining. Time will tell.

Convience or how my curiosity caved into candy

85 steps, an elevator trip, and 30 stairs away from the door of my apartment is a convenience store. Now there is convenience you can measure. Sometimes though I think that maybe its a little too convenient.

To explain a little better to the uninformed, Japan is covered in a sea of convenience stores. These stores bare a resemblance to 7/11 but then again they are a little different. Well actually no, since when I say the word convenience store I include 7/11 and there are 7/11's here in Japan. So maybe what I meant to say is the products sold inside are a bit of a treat for the curious foreigner. Put plain and simply I've gotten a sweet tooth since I came here.

So not only are the convenience stores plentiful but the vending machines too. Now vending machines only come in the variety of drinks (hot and cold), ice cream, cigarettes, alcohol, porn, vegetables, eggs, instant food and video games, (these last five are a little harder to come by, with vegetables and egg vending machines I've only seen in rural towns, the instant food in dining halls, and porn and video games? well I haven't seen them yet but I know they exist). Yet there are no snack vending machines. I would imagine unless you are without a pocket full of change and a working limb you would never go thirsty in Japan. Its interesting to note too that a lot of other services in Japan take on vending machine forms. For example high traffic fast food restaurants get rid of the ridiculous cashier job and instead have there entire menu displayed on a vending machine. Put in some money. Push a button. Out drops a ticket which you then hand to the person in the kitchen who makes your food. Makes me wonder, if every service, store, and interaction was just a massive wall of shiny buttons to press and choose what would life be like? Would there be any reason to speak at all? In fact I'm doing it right now, just pressing buttons.

Anyways back to the vending machines, here is one of the more interesting products that can be found in the drink vending machines.

Flan in a Can! Well on the label its called pudding but its the same texture as flan and just look at the picture.

Heres another interesting product, Calpis

If you've ever encountered Japanese junk food are been hit in the head with any form of modern Japanese culture, then you are probably aware of the famous candy called Pocky: Chocolate covered pretzel sticks buts whats this???

Men's Pockey??? So why is there a need to make gender targeted candy?

Despite searching high and low I couldn't not find any clues or the original story I heard that I guess can only be considered a rumor: Glico the Company that makes Pocky had trouble selling Pocky to Men, who saw it as a frilly snack not to be trifled with. Thus Men's Pocky was created. As far as gender targeted products go this is one that seems to confuse. Candy is candy, how did it become masculine or feminine in the first place?

Then theres one of my favorites,

Koala Match!!!!!
Chocolate filled crackers with pictures of Kola bears on the front.

Well that concludes a peek into Junk food in Japan, and the super convenience that surrounds me. If I really wanted to I could eat every meal of the day from the convenient store, they have all sorts of meals and boxed lunches precooked and ready to eat. After one meal however I can instantly feel my insides telling me if you eat here again theres a chance you won't live to see 40. The problem with this super convenience is people can work themselves to the bone, never learn how to cook, and eat instant food from convenient stores. If you'll excuse me I think I need to go eat a salad or something.

Rolling Stone

Yesterday I awoke to the somewhat violent rocking back and forth of my bed. I remember waking up and laughing at the comical nature of the bed hopping around. It wasn't until about 5 minutes later when it had stopped that the thought even occurred to me that was an earthquake. Well luckily it wasn't too bad in that no one noticed until I mentioned it. This happens to be the 2nd earthquake that has occurred while I have been here (3rd if you count another that someone was explaining to me). Mostly mild and sometimes hardly noticeable, earthquakes are capable of occurring quite often. If we just take a look at this chart of Preliminary Determination of Earthquake Epicenters here we'll notice something quite interesting.
Japan seems to be missing on this map, covered by a rather large clump of black dots.

It did remind me of the great earthquake that struck the Kobe area 12 years ago. I remember on my first trip to Japan hearing about the stories of the clean up in Kobe and of the international attention it received. Since then there have been monuments build to commemorate those who died and the lives it affected. This is a piece of the damage kept intact at the earthquake memorial park. The Earthquake created a huge and needed awareness for earthquake safety and how earthquakes need to be handled. You can read about it here



With that I'm off to Tokyo this weekend for a little vacation. Expect pictures and explanations when I get back.

Sannomiya, Sannomiyaです

A half hour away from the nearest subway station is the downtown area of Kobe, Sannomiya. A bustling center and hub for various train lines. Here you can find shops, restaurants, more shops, entertainment, and more! A surprise and shock at first sight, this is the first big city I've ever visited in Japan. With crosswalks that stretch down the entire street and people constantly on the move adding to the barrage of flashing lights, signs and advertisements. After awhile I can't take it all in and it starts to become over stimulating and I start to squint, shaking away any oncoming headaches. My friends laugh and coolly say, "this is nothing compared to Osaka". This was also a first time meeting a homeless person in Japan, something I was sworn by my high school Japanese teacher didn't exists (although I think she meant few in comparison to the states?).

One thing I have yet to understand is how services and restaurants share the same building. There will be a building about 7 stories tall and on the side will be small signs briefly describing what exists on that floor. This adds infinite amount of signs to read something that is impossible for me to do when walking at the same pace as everyone on the street. Something I also find strange is the arrangement of buildings. Obviously there is huge competition for space in such a big city but the way shops and stores are constructed creates weird experiences for me. For example imagine ordering at a McDonald's that's open to the street and then having to go down a spiral stair case into a basement to find seating. Being brought up in the Northwestern part of the USA, I associate building size and shape to different establishments. You see the outside of the building you recognize it not only by its exterior signs but by its physical shape (Wouldn't you be suspicious if you saw a Safeway in a building the size of a flower shop?). Since there's so much damn space, these buildings can be made as big as possible with huge exteriors like some commercialism mecca, beckoning people from a mile away.
So here's where I get to my point, Because of the way buildings are made in the Northwest, the exterior is very important to me. In London and in Japan too, Department stores exist in multi story buildings with different products on different floors. You can't just open your eyes and see the name of the store you have to know where you're going and what floor to go to. Similarly there are many restaurants and shops that have no exterior entrance. You have to walk down a flight of stairs narrow enough for one person or go up an elevator or climb stairs and discover which hole in the wall to go into. For me it creates a kind of duality, with friendly street signs and mysterious, faceless entryways that are somewhat maze like, I really don't know whether to feel welcomed or dared to enter. There must be some truth to this because I ran into another foreigner who decided to ask me if there was anything to do around here when we are surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of teeming shops and entertainment centers just begging for business. My response was get lost...... What I mean by that is walk around and get lost not the GET LOST! get lost. So yeah exteriors, Important to the US consumers? Ask yourself this the next time you pass a Walmart and you see it all the way from the highway.

A loooooooooooooong path to shopping heaven. (if you enjoy shopping)

Sakura Sigh

Ahhh, Sakura only comes once a year. I could never understand why people would want to sit out in front of trees and look at them (the term 花見 literally means flower watching). It makes a little more sense now. You have these trees with cherry blossoms they bloom once a year for about 2 weeks or so and then there gone. There appearance is self explanatory. It is representative of the idea that life is a fleeting and beautiful thing. Makes me think of the limited amount of time I am here, and the unlimited number of things I want to do. Guess its time to start somewhere. With that I'll let the pictures do the talking.

www.flickr.com

For some reason portrait style photos will not upload properly on Blogger right now so I'm using flickr.

Back to school

Before it gets too late and I forget everything I should mention the first days at Hyogo University...

4/2/07

Monday... time for school! Taking the bus it takes about 5-10 minutes to get to the station. the station which is called 学園都市 (college university town) is centrally located between 5 college campuses (different colleges). From there I met Sakai-san and we walk the path to the college. The college is located on top of a hill surrounded by residential apartments. We reach what appears to be the administration building and head inside. We then go in what appears to be the main office. What amazes me about offices, faculty rooms, banks, and other office settings is the complete absence of cubicles. Instead of wondering what goes on behind the security and privacy of the particle board walls you can see everyone in action hard at work. It definitely gives an impression of efficiency and community, everyone working in the same space. I'm let into a back room and told to wait. Dr. Nishida briefly greets me and then the paperwork is piled on. Then walks in the mighty Matsuda Sensei, Japanese teacher of foreign students. She is quite nice with an extensive history in traveling living in New York, visiting Evergreen on faculty exchange, and teaching in Australia. She then shows me around the school. The campus in comparison to Evergreen is much smaller about 3/4 to 1/2 the size. After a somewhat disorienting tour of the school I get some lunch. Matsuda Sensei treats. We begin to talk about various things, my previous trip to Japan, the exchange program, how I am alone and obviously stick out.

As far as classes goes she explains that I'm required to be signed up for 10 but since I'm getting all of my credit from Evergreen I'm not required to attend all of the classes. Talk about confusing. After lunch I meet my teacher adviser Takii Sensei: Historian of Japanese Law and Germany. A very nice man who has an office of books piled up to the sky you can hardly walk into his room. For visiting I receive a history book and later (on a separate visit) a book he has written in translation. That was pretty much all for the first day. In fact I was told I had another week all to myself. Before leaving I got a few pictures of the campus.

Campus map

The clock tower, containing a majority of the class rooms

This is the library, not as massive as the Evergreen library although on a secret tour intended for graduate students I got to explore the innards of this building which contains a huge amount of books. The basement contains endless rows of books on strange book shelves capable of moving around and squishing people. Unfortunately there are no pictures.

Campaign cars

Something annoying has sparked my interest into Japanese Politics it is called the Campaign Car (キャンペーン・カー). April 8th marks the Tokyo city elections and is also the date for local elections here in the Kobe area. Do I know what the big issues are? No. What each candidate is bringing to the table? No. How people can vote or how the voting process works? Only Slightly still reading up on this and various things. What the names of the candidates are? YES!!!!! Luckily for me being anywhere in the city allows me to know which candidates are running. Unlike elections in the states politicians are given very tight restrictions on advertising. However, each candidate is allowed for 12 days to campaign using what is called a Campaign Car. These cars or vans travel every square inch around the city with four or more loud speakers attached to the roof constantly belting out the name of the candidate and asking for your vote. When near these vehicles its almost as if you are being verbally attacked which is then softened by the passengers waving at you as they pass by. For the most part it seems as if people attempt to ignore these vehicles but it truly is hard not to. When multiple campaign cars are driving down the same street it becomes a confusing mess of words and noise completely incomprehensible to me. What really comes into question is the effectiveness of these cars. To my knowledge, not much is explained as to the benefits of voting for said candidate instead you hear a constant barrage of the candidates name so as not to be able to forget. They are amazingly good at getting me up when I forget to wake up in the morning.

I'm in your neighborhood making some noise

The candidate in question he looks pumped for the win

Props go to this guy for having the most annoying campaign car out of all the candidates. Theres no way you could forget this guys name with the chant the lady gives out.

Not knowing how to react or how to feel about these obtrusive noise machines I do what I do best. Take pictures and ask why??? Unfortunately tomorrow is election day and I have yet to figure out platforms or parties or any of what a supposed inform voter should know. Just candidate names. I was told that getting voters informed and to care about elections is a problem in Japan and it doesn't seem like the campaign car approach helps much. More research needed I suppose. Unfortunately I will have to revert back to more conventional means of waking up from now on like an alarm clock.

Update: It appears I'm not the only one who thinks these cars are annoying Click Here