Sayonara Japan, NiHao China

My last few days in Japan were pretty fun. One of my language partners, who had been in Korea the previous week, returned and had some free time. So we went to Kyoto. The first 2 picture are of me at Kiyomizu Temple. It's a very pretty, very old building. The view of Kyoto is also quite nice from up there. The next day we went to Himeji Castle. A very well designed old fort, with another really great view of the city below. It was two days of interesting old architecture in a row. Even though there were long train trips involved to get a mere hour or two seeing sights, it was the long walks, conversation, food and just soaking up Japanese culture that I enjoyed the most. 

A bit of a change of pace, on the way home from Himeji, we stopped to see the Akashi-Kaiko Bridge. It's the longest suspension bridge in the world (its 1991 meters long, compared to 1280 for the golden gate). It was a really amazing feat of engineering.

Wednesday was my last full day in Kobe. Mostly boring moving stuff, but I did get to see Kana one last time. We had a really nice time, relaxing and talking. I'll really miss her:(

Thursday morning was pretty hectic. I finished my packing, and had to find a taxi, bring him to my apartment, load up my luggage, the chair, the desk, and go to the school. I tied up all the loose ends at the school very quickly, happy that there were no confrontations of any kind, and got out of there. Jumped back in the taxi, and went up to the bullet train station. 2 train rides later, I was in Narita airport, changing my yen back into dollars. I flew to Shanghai, and finally got into my Hotel room around midnight. Everything about the trip went just as planned, and I'm getting used to my new surroundings.

               

Classes are Over!

Sunday night, after I got home from our chinatown trip, I sent another email to my contact teacher. I requested that they not allow smoking during the hours that I had left. She replied that she would forward the request to the other teachers. So I decided to stick with my classes after all. 

Monday was full of surprised. It was another beautiful, sunny day. First, my morning language partner cancelled, after I'd already left to meet her. Fortunately, the KICC was locked up. It was a government holiday. So, I ran back to my apartment, 10 min away, thinking I'd check my email and negotiate a different venue. That's when I found out she was sick. So I was bummed, but prepared for class.

I went to class, only to find it locked up. That's when it clicked. There had been talk about a school sports day, or health day, or something, but I thought it was for the weekend after I finished. Surprise! I have to confess that I had this great sense of loss, because there are so many really pretty/friendly Chinese girls in the other classes. My big opportunity evaporated. Sniff.  Ok, the girls in my class are very nice too, and are much appreciated as friends.

So, I was a little annoyed with myself, and decided to celebrate health day, or whatever the hell it was, by climbing Mt. Rokko (the mountain with the cable cars). I grabbed a water bottle, and ran out the door. I got to the base of the mountain (really a hill), about 3:30, and started hiking up. There were many Japanese hikers coming down at that time, and one girl hiking up. The scenery was very pretty. A series of tall thin waterfalls, some rustic bridges, 2 dams, a reservoir and lots of trees.

Anyway, I passed the one girl, who was really moving fast. She was at a viewpoint, so I greeted her. She totally blew me off. Very abnormal for Japanese. So I ignored her, and pressed on. Before too long, I reached the lower gate of the park area for the ropeway. It was locked. The hike up had been fairly long, and very steep, with lots of stairs. I didn't like the idea of walking back down - my plan was to take the ropeway.

I saw lots of people inside, so I was sure one of the higher gates must be open. So I went of on what I thought would be a quick loop around to an upper gate. After realizing no trail went exactly where I'd expect, I resigned my self to the probability that It would be an out-and-back trip. The trail I walked didn't climb, and I came to a dried up river bed with lots of campers after about a mile. There were some warning signs, but I couldn't figure them out, so I just kept walking.

Finally, the trail started to curve in a direction that seemed to be about right. And then it started gaining altitude. I felt too far away from the ropeway, but the trail was rising quickly, so I thought it would lead me to a nice look out. For the first time in over a mile, there was another hiker walking towards me, who also blew off my greeting. Maybe he missed his health day too.

The trees started to clear a little, and I saw a big antenna up above. I was getting close to my viewpoint. A couple hundred yards from the top, there was a fork in the road. I was careful to note which way I came from, since I once again couldn't decipher the signs. The trail was really steep, with steps between tree roots. I was breathing pretty hard when I  finally burst through the trees, under the antenna.

The view was not bad, mostly of tree covered hills. But the highlight was, less than a quarter mile away, the the top end of the ropeway park (the Hotel) was obviously the destination of the other branch of the trail from the fork I just passed. I started down the hill, and to my surprise, the unsociable girl cut right in front of me just before I hit the fork. There was some uncomfortable silence, and I decided to wait for a minute so she could get well ahead. 

She had to rest at the next hilltop, and I passed her, greeting her loudly and with much enthusiasm. This time she smiled, bowed and mumble a reply. I'm sure it had nothing to do with being alone with a big foreign man in the woods. So I continued my hike to the back gate of the ropeway. Locked.

I could have stepped over it (it was that low), but there were lots of people around, and I didn't want to get busted. So I decided to continue along the trail, since it would certainly lead to some intermediate gates. Wrong. 

Although the trail got close to the park several times, there were no gates. My last hope was at the lowest point, near the big field with the windmill. I saw the field way below, The trail was steep downhill, and I began to worry about my knees. I can go like crazy uphill, but downhill is another story. I didn't like the idea of returning all the way to Kobe, and having to limp for several days. Finally, the trail swung towards the field, and there was a gate. Locked.

Or actually, shut. But the fence appeared to be electrified. That much I could tell from the signs. I thought about peeing on it to make sure. Just kidding. But I did consider flicking it with my finger. I dismissed that quickly. It looked like I'd either have to go down all the way to Kobe, or backtrack all the way to the short gate, and take my chances with Japanese security guards (if there were any). 

I went back just to the branch that went to the field, and my Japanese improved enough to figure out that the trail going down just went to a view point, not down. It clearly stated that the way down was through the field. So now the choices were electrified fence, Japanese prison, or going all the way back the way I came. So I went back to the electrified fence, trying to decipher the signs, or maybe ask the people on the other side to read it to me.

Then it struck me. It was well latched, but designed in a way that would allow me to open it with a stick. I found a stick and was through in a second. There were some picnickers near by but everyone seemed uninterested in what I was doing. Then I had a bad thought.

The gates were all secured, which means everyone was required to buy round trip ropeway tickets. If I tried to buy a one-way ticket at the top of the ropeway, surely they would figure out what I'd done, and send me to a concentration camp. So I figured I better just face the music, and get it over with. I walked to the cable car building, and saw people buying one way tickets out of a machine. Phew!

So I rode back down to Kobe, by myself, near sunset, pondering the day's events. Had any of the gates really been locked, or had they just been shut? Were the warning signs I saw saying "keep out" or "keep closed". I've been studying Japanese for 3.5 years, and still I will probably never know the answer. I celebrated my successful return with a very good, but very greasy, bento made in a special bento shop near the bottom of the ropeway. Not a bad health day. 

Anyway, back on topic, if there is one. I finished out the week with the uncomfortable chairs, unhappy teachers, etc., etc. Today, the last day, we started out with a test in my favorite class, reading comprehension. It really was a good class and book. Fortunately for me, instead of drilling us on a lot of kanji, which the teacher threatened, she wrote a test designed to award people who do homework. That's me! I got 93:) That was the highlight of my stay at Communica. The 3rd (of 4) hour of the day started, so we switched topics/teachers, and I was once again getting a lot of helpful comments like "why did you get that wrong" and "why don't you understand this". So I decided to leave during the break before the 4th hour. In those 10 minutes, I collected some friends' contact info, and said all my goodbyes very quickly. They were really a good bunch of fellow students, and I'll miss them. But I was really happy to finally blow out those doors.

When I left, I didn't say a word to any of the teachers. Even though students often disappear during the day with no excuse, I normally would have said goodbye.  But the fact is, I have to go back and close up some issues with my contact (apartment keys, furniture, etc), so I'll say my goodbyes then. No need to do it twice. Even with only one set of goodbyes, I'm going to have a really hard time pretending that everything was wonderful.

China Town

Friday the 3rd was the first day of real classes. They are really hard. I'm pretty close to the bottom of this class, which is a new experience for me. 

On the bright side, it is pushing me hard, so I'm making pretty good progress. Really, it's all the language partners helping me, and all the homework/self study that's making the difference. All the class is doing is setting the bar really high. So I feel I've already accomplished what I hoped to do here - bring my Japanese up to it's highest level in the 4 basic skills. 

So I might quit this class. It's stressing me out. The desks are really small, 3 of the 6 teachers are unhappy, and don't use positive reinforcement. 4 hours in the afternoon is really hard for me to stay alert. 6 of the 20 hrs per week are devoted to listening practice, and the way they do it is ineffective for me. And the real reason I'm thinking about quitting - they allow one of the teachers to smoke in her office, which fills the whole school with smoke. I mentioned this on Thursday (the first day it happened), and the teacher I reported it to, my contact teacher,  just scoffed at me. She said the smoker was in her own office, so it was ok. I sent my contact an email that night, requesting to speak to the principal about it. The next day, Friday, there was no smoke in the office. I assumed it had been taken care of. 

Unfortunately, I was wrong. Today, Sunday morning, she sent a somewhat negative/condescending email back to me, essentially telling me to stop complaining. I was pretty bummed about it, and that's why I'm considering quitting. There are only 5 days left. The money's already spent, and it wouldn't break my heart if I didn't get a refund. If I quit, I'll probably work with a private tutor for an hour or two per day. I've got some specific grammar areas I want to target.

But then I met with the fabulous Yukina and Miho again, and we did a tour of chinatown here in Kobe. The first picture is of the entrance gate. The food is awesome. We ate some dumplings, ramen, etc, and topped it off with shoe cream. Ok, maybe it was shuu cream, but it was still delicious. Sort of like a cream puff, and very popular here.

Afterwards, we went to the top of City Hall, which is a really nice tall building here. There was a great view of the city and the bay. That's where the rest of the pictures were taken. I didn't mention this before, but Kobe and Seattle have been "friendly cities" or perhaps "sister cities" for over 50 years now. There was a plaque to that effect in the city hall.

Then we went for a long talk in the local park. I'm constantly impressed by the ladies' english. We talked about our goals of improving our language skills for the future. Ganbarimasu!

Cable Car trip

I met with my friends and language partners, Miho(left) and Yukina(right), today.  First, we went to my favorite ramen restaurant for ramen. It was delicious. Then we decided to go up the Kobe "ropeway", which is a cable car ride to the top of the mountain north of the city. There is an Inn and some sort of perfume museum on top. We enjoyed the view of the city, checked out the perfume place, and headed down one level to an arboretum. It was really nice. There was a spice museum of sorts inside, along with lots of tropical plants. After that, we headed down another level, and sat in a nice little park, and talked for about an hour. These ladies are both fluent English speakers, and conversation in Japanese and English was a lot of fun. 

Finally we got back into the cable car, and returned to Kobe. We all forgot our cameras, so we quickly stopped by my apartment to grab mine. The pictures were taken in downtown Kobe, but came out blurry.

The answer to last post's question was given by my friend Scott in Thailand. The grooves on the sidewalk are for the blind. Well done!

Starting School

Today we had 4 hours of orientation at the school. It was mostly about immigration stuff, and silly stuff meant for kids being away from home, or out of their country, for the first time. Just about none of it applied to me, although there were certainly some interesting things. For example, the slide show of last years student activities. 

And probably the coolest thing of all - the simultaneous translations going on during the teachers speech. After each sentence, two advanced Japanese students (level 2 of 8 levels, 1 being the highest) and the admissions director, translated in Korean, Mandarin and English. The english wasn't meant for me, but for the single Phillipina in the classroom. So I got to listen to the Japanese, then the Mandarin. Sometimes I'd focus on the Korean, just for the fun of it. From this class, and from working a few desks down from a Korean at Boeing, I've determined that Korean will be pretty easy to learn after Japanese. The languages are very similar, except for the writing system.

As I mentioned before, there are 8 levels in this school. They give next level tests every 3 months, so it's supposed to be a 2 year program. The lowest level is 8. I was told they have levels 8 & 4 in the morning, and 6 & 7 in the afternoon. Anyway, I took the level test with all the new students yesterday. There were about 20 of us. Finally, today they announced the results. Two are in level 6, two are in level 7, and the rest are in level 8. I was in level 6. I guess I zigged where I was supposed to zig on the test. They took me aside and asked me if I could handle the kanji. They were stunned when I told them I already knew the joyo kanji (basic 2000 Chinese characters) to a certain extent, and I was able to convince them that the level 6 reading they had was reasonable for me. It's a big fear for them, because westerners often excel at speaking, but struggle with kanji. So I was very happy about being one of the top 2, but a little disappointed that they think I need 1.5 years of submersion to go. My estimation is 6-12 months of submersion, or 1-2 years of self study followed by 3-6 months of submersion.

Another cool thing that happened. When I first walked into the classroom yesterday, some Chinese girl essentially told me to move. I didn't understand why. So I moved. The room went hush when the only white person walked into the middle of the room. I later found out that chinese girl was the translator for the Chinese kids (I'm by far the oldest student; I think number two is 27) who were all sitting together in that part of the room. So that was yesterday, and everything was pretty tight and quiet. So today I decided to break the ice a little. During one of the breaks, when everyone was sitting very quietly, staring into space, I crossed the room and introduced myself to one of the Korean guys, in Japanese. Then I loudly introduced myself to this very cute Chinese girl, in Mandarin. It was hilarious. Every Chinese head  was staring at me, jaws dropped in amazement. They excitedly started to talk amongst each other, but then the teachers came in and called the class to order.

After school, it was a beautiful day again, so I decided to go for a walk with Kana, one of my language partners, She is a very pretty young lady. She looks 20, but is in fact 30. I was shocked by that news. The picture doesn't do her justice. It was taken by a homeless guy, who was overjoyed to help us. Unfortunately, it came out pretty blurry. We went for a walk in the park, traded languages, and she helped me with some Japanese reading. The other picture is of grooves in the sidewalk. It took me a long time to figure out what they were for. Any guesses?

Kobe Rocks

After several days of rain, the sun finally came out. It was in the mid 70's here. The first picture was taken from my apartment. That big building wasn't here before the earthquake, of course. The next two were taken looking both ways on a nearby street. Busy city, but my apartment is quiet. 

Today was my level test. I think I did alright, but I'll see tomorrow. I found out both morning classes are for advanced students. I've been given little chance to get into those by the teachers here, but who knows. I'd rather take morning classes, because I do my best learning in the morning. My listening and speaking are good enough so that I won't hinder any of their classes, and I could use help with all grammar, so it probably doesn't really matter which class I end up in from that standpoint. I've studied all basic and intermediate Japanese grammar, I just need practice to let it sink in. But they have their rules, and if I don't know grammar "x", I can't be in class "y". 

Here's the number one reason Kobe rocks: language partners. The KICC (Kobe International Community Center) has a message board for language exchange. It's a really helpful, relaxed atmosphere where people can meet or get language exchange information. I've met with 6 different language partners already. I've met everyone looking for english posted on the bulletin board, and now I'm just picking up people who are in there browsing the bulletin board. My goal is to have a 1 hr meeting every day I'm here. In my experience, this means I'll need to meet 10-20 people (some quit really fast, some have scheduling problems and some aren't good matches).