はじめまして

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The Japanese introduction!  I introduce myself in Japanese, and explain a bit about the self introduction routine they use in Japan.

Matsushima

Link to youtube channel!

We took a day trip to Matsushima one Saturday.  It's about 20 minutes by express train from Sendai.  The main point of the visit was to see the temple at night, because they have a bunch of lights on display showing off the changing color of the trees.  We went around some of the islands during the day.  Couldn't get really good quality shots as it was raining, and I've accepted that my camera sucks at night.

Japanese Medical Masks

Link to youtube channel.

I've been fairly lazy lately when it comes to the blogging/video making.  I had a cold, and just lost my mojo a bit, but I'm gonna start doing everything again soon.  Here's one about the medical masks here, which I'm sure are very peculiar to everyone outside of Asia.

Hike up Aobayama and Yamadera

Youtube link to video.

Link to youtube channel page.

Here's a video I made from pictures I took while taking a trip up Aobayama mountain and Yamadera temple, in Yamagata prefecture.  Yamadera is an over 1000 year old Buddhist temple, and was pretty amazing to walk up and see.  I had a lot of fun there, and I hope to go back on a clear day maybe in the Spring.

Cell phone straps

Click here for the vid on youtube!

Click here for my youtube channel!

Cell phone straps here are funny, at least to me.  I've seen a few girls with them in the US, but that's pretty much it.  Here, EEEEVVERYBODY has one.  All of my professors do.  Clearly, it's not a girl thing here... its just normal.  So, I went and got one for myself.  I talk about them for a bit here.  I prolly won't do a full post about this for my school, so I won't have a full written version of the video. 

Cash Money!!

Quick post from my lab.  I will add in the written part later.

All gone :(

Ok quick update...

So my hard drive failed on me.  Had to reinstall windows, everything is gone.  That's why I haven't done much recently.  I'm afraid to put more on my comp and lose it all again.  I have a new one incoming from the US, and hopefully it will be here by the end of the week.  I think I'll try to get something up tomorrow morning, something simple at least.

Weekend Festival

Click here for the video!

Click here for my youtube channel with all the videos!!


There was a festival in center city Sendai a few weeks ago, and I got a bunch of video of the performances on the two stages they had set up.  Also, 2 weekends ago we went to check out a junior high school festival with my Japanese Culture A class, where they had some traditional dance performances that I got some pictures of.  Enjoy!

Cell Phones, Maps, and Staying Out

I figured out the easy and quick way to embed the videos, so I'll start doing that again.  Of course the videos with music in the background I can't because of the copyright stuff.  If I feel like it, I'll go fix the older posts too.


Youtube link to video (It's in HD!!)

Click here for my youtube channel with all the videos!!

Japanese cell phones are a bit more advanced than America's.  One thing that is really awesome about phones here, is the infrared feature.  Phones here have a little infrared receiver on the side or back, and what you do is tell your phone to send or receive information.  Using this feature, you transfer all your contact info without needing to typing anything in yourself.  Your name, phone number, email address, and any other info you've put for yourself will be transferred.  The email address is an actual address for your phone; the SMS texting feature that we use in America is available to use here, but most people send messages using the phone's email because there is no character limit.  Just something I found really cool about cell phones here.

One thing that is absolutely essential in Japan, is utilizing and getting familiar with maps of where you are.  Larger roads here all have names, however, there are almost NO street signs used here.  The only way to get around is to know landmarks or just know the way already.  That makes memorizing the locations of things you can use to get around essential.  I have memorized the locations of a couple stores and 7-11s that I know I can get either home or to campus from.  I still have some more work to do in order to be confident in getting around the center city area.  After spending a very unfortunate amount of hours lost so far, I'm see really how important it is to know the maps.  The school provided us with a couple maps that work nicely, and a couple that don't help at all.

The importance of knowing your way around becomes much more apparent once you start doing what is popular here.  And that is, staying out past the time the busses and trains stop running.  That seems to be incredibly popular to do here.  On weekend nights, people here like to go to an izakaya (a sort of restaurant/bar) for something to eat and possibly a nomihodai (all you can drink from a menu for a certain amount of time) for a couple drinks.  After you're done eating, you go to a karaoke place and rent out a room, which you get to keep till 6AM.  Around 6AM is when the busses and trains start running again.  So, your options are either to stay and do karaoke for the entire night or you need to walk home.  This is what many people do on Friday nights here, and sometimes both Friday and Saturday nights, if you can afford it.  So, if you don't want to stay out all night, you need to know your way home on foot.

Samurai House, Museum, and Ski Mountain

Youtube link for video (It's in HD!!)

Click here for my Youtube channel!!

Here's another compilation I made using pictures and video from a trip with my Japanese Culture class.  We went to check out an old samurai house used by the Date family (the founding samurai family of Sendai), a very small museum next door, and at the end we took a trip up to the closest ski area to Sendai.  The original plan was to hike a bit up the mountain here, but it had rained all day the day before and it is apparently not safe enough to hike after it has rained.  The view from the mountain was pretty awesome;  you could see the entire city from the parking lot.  It was cloudy that day, but our teacher told us that you can see all the way to the Pacific Ocean when it is clear.

English in Japan

Youtube link for video (It's in HD!!)
 
Click for channel page!!!



 

So today I have just one thing I want to talk about, and that is level of English of the people in Japan. 

In Japan, English is a required subject, like many other places in the world.  Much like we take math and social studies, English is taught in school from a young age.  Now, if this is all you knew about Japan, that might be misleading news.  Hearing that would sure make me think that meeting anyone who has graduated from would be very easy to communicate with using English.  However, that is not the case.  The Japanese school system works based around placement tests and preparing for them.  These tests are supposed to be extremely difficult and apparently cause a lot of stress in school kids, and English is part of these tests.  Apparently, the way English is taught is more or less just by hammering as much vocab and grammar rules as possible into a year, and just cram studying the points that will be on the test.  Because of this, talking with a Japanese person who hasn't taken it upon themselves to learn English on a conversational level will prove to be very difficult.  As a side note, however, it appears if you write or type things down for them to read it becomes a lot easier, as their reading level is generally much higher than their speaking level.

This might be a little disappointing, given that, for example, Sweden (there are many students here from Sweden) also has English taught all throughout school, and it is apparently rare to meet a person from Sweden who isn't fluent in English.  The difference is actually astounding, given that they both spend about the same amount of time learning English as a second language.  I know that there is a decent sized population of Japanese citizens that want the system to be changed to allow for more conversational based learning, rather than just vocab and grammar rules.  I know that for me, when learning Japanese, knowing the rules governing a sentence and how to comprehend it while reading do not do very much to help you when someone actually says that sentence to you out loud.  The only way to increase your skills in conversation is to actually practice speaking and listening.  All the reading and writing in the world won't do anything for you when you're stuck at a counter trying to respond to questions from a cashier.

I don't really have any relevant pictures for this so here's a random picture from a festival here last weekend.  I'm going to write about that next.

Getting Lost

Got lost after a festival late at night.  Made a video about it when I got back.

Trash, recycling, and convenience stores!

Figured I'll start posting the written portion of what I'm talking about under each video.  This will be whatever it was that I posted to Drexel's blog site.

Trash, recycling, and convenience stores!  These things work just a little bit differently here in Japan.  I'll start with the trash and recycling.  Now, from what I have read, how they handle garbage and such can be a bit different depending on what prefecture you are living in.  So, all the details I give are about Sendai, which is in the Miyagi prefecture in the northeastern part of Japan's main island, Honshu.  As a general statement, the Japanese do more separation of their garbage and recycling than we do in the USA.

The photo attached is actually a picture I just took of the trash cans in the kitchen of my unit.  The one on the left is for cans and PET bottles.  Soda cans or other soft drinks go in here, along with PET plastics, which so far it seems to pretty much just be soft drink bottles.  Plastics that are PET say so under the little recyclable triangle symbol.  Next, the bin on the right is for regular garbage, which I BELIEVE is supposed to be combustible trash.  Paper, napkins, food scraps, etc.  Finally, the middle bin is for plastics OTHER than PET bottles.  I believe these are separated because, if I'm remembering correctly from my materials science course, there are types of plastics that, when heated, either break down completely or sort of melt and are able to be reformed (recycled).  I guess PET plastics can be reformed.  Things like plastic bags from stores or meal containers from convenience stores go into the middle can.  Cardboard boxes need to be folded up and put separately from the other trash, or the city won't even pick it up.

Next, Convenience stores!  These things are actually, really... convenient here.  I know back in the US we have 7-11 and wawa, but they are only convenient... if you're lucky enough to live near one.  I know that my apartment back in Philly was about a 15-20 minute walk from the nearest wawa, which sucks when you just want something quick to eat.  Here, at least in Sendai, and the one residential area of Tokyo I was in, you can't walk more than 6-7 minutes without running into a convenience store.  This is great, because you can buy actual meals there for like 250-400 yen (2.50$-4$).  You bring it up and the person at the register asks you if you want it microwaved, then you walk back home with something to eat.  This is probably about 90% of what the convenience stores are used for here.  There's other things you would expect:  an ATM, small supplies, drinks, etc.  In short, convenience stores here truly live up to the name.

Videos

So I figured out what I have to do to get the videos with music to link to here.  It's a little bit different than what I wanted, but its the best that I can do.

J Video Blog - "Trip Around Sendai, With Some Drunken Karaoke" - 3

First weekend in Japan video/pic compilation - 1

Trip Around Sendai, With Some Drunken Karaoke

Well, here's another case of Germany sucking.  Looks like any video I have with music in the background I won't be able to directly link here, so I'll just have to paste the url.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nemejXvKzvU

Mostly from the first weekend in Sendai.  Went out drinking and karaoke-ing Friday and Saturday night, and walked to check out the 2 campuses where we have our classes.  There's a bridge over a river, and a literal trip up a mountain where the pics came from mostly.

Irrashaimase!

The start of hopefully how I will be running this bitch.  Lets hope this works out without much future difficulty.

Montage of the first weekend

I'll edit this post later with the video.  It seems that even blogspot can be a real piece of shit sometimes, and it won't let me pull up the video on youtube, or upload it myself.  I go to my videos and it only lists the dorm tour one.  Well, I guess I'll see whats making blogspot so useless later and fix it.

EDIT-  Well, long story short, blame Germany for not letting me put it here I think.  So, here's the link to it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqzF4Sm_LqM

Room in University House Sanjo

Here's a tour of my dorm/apartment at Tohoku, a few hours after I got there.  I live in University House Sanjo, which is 3 dorm buildings on campus (east, north, and west).  On each floor, there are 2 "units."  Each unit has 8 bedrooms, toilets, showers, a kitchen, and washing machines.  I'm on the third floor of the west building, and I believe all of my unit mates are Japanese, as I arrived on the first day and all of the shoe cubbys for the other rooms were filled.  I have a lot to write about after my first weekend, so I'll get some stuff up once I can formulate some thoughts on how to write it all.  More posts coming soon!

Some interesting things

So I have spent a lot of time online looking up different things related to living in Japan ever since I found out that I was definitely going.  Mostly youtube "vlogs" (I really hate that word.  When will people stop combining words because they think it sounds cool.  I will refer to these as video blogs from now on.) and the occasional regular blog.  As a side not with this, it does seem to be approximately 397,293x easier to find a video blog on youtube than it is to find blogs anywhere else.  This is a little bit depressing for the small corner of myself that thinks people other than myself will be reading what I write here.

But I digress, back to the point.  I want to say a little bit about interesting things I have learned about living in Japan, which I believe are good to know prior to leaving.  First:  bring deodorant.  Why?  Because, apparently, they don't really use deodorant in Japan.  I assume there is some biological reason dealing with sweat glands in people of asian descent vs. african or european descent, but I really have no idea.  What it means is, however, we smelly Americans will need to bring our own deodorant if we wish to prevent ourselves from stinking up the joint.

Second:  peanut butter.  Apparently, peanut butter is not something commonly sold in Japan.  Now for me, this isn't a huge deal, as I'm not a huge lover of peanut butter.  But it does raise up the idea of something you THOUGHT was relatively common, but really isn't.  I'll most likely be packing a thing of peanut butter since it lasts relatively long and doesn't need to be refrigerated.

Third: Winter Clothes!  This may sound obvious, and vary depending on what area of Japan you are going to, since Japan is a vertical country.  By that I mean is it spans vertically on the map rather than horizonally, meaning the northern half will have very different weather patterns than the southern half.  However, a common thread in construction throughout most of the country (or at least the main island of Honshu).  And that is, since most of Japan is on the more humid side, they have brutally humid and hot summers.  Because of this, it seems that Japanese construction generally leans towards more drafty buildings, to help cool them off in the summer.  Central heat and air are fairly uncommon, therefore, you cannot assume that you can just hang out inside when it gets very cold outside and be fine.  I know I'm bringing a big ass robe for myself, and some awesome old man loafers.

Finally:  CASH MONEY!!  Japan is a very very very cash society.  Apparently, only the very high end restaurants will even take credit.  It is apparently very common to walk around with what we would think of as a lage sum of money regularly.  I'm guessing between 100 and 200$ worth.  Department stores, restaurants, food markets, etc are all cash, so figure out what you would normally spend in a week, and that is probably about how much you would just take out in cash at the start of every week.  Also, as far as petty crime goes, Japan has a very low crime rate.  Apparently, because of how this society works, things like pick pockets and thieves are pretty uncommon when compared to most of ther first world countries.


T-minus 16 days.

Tohoku's program: JYPE

Ok, so since I am not leaving 'till the 22nd... I don't really have very many interesting things to put in here.  So that why I'm trying to do some infomational posts because maybe there's a .45% chance someone finds this blog and wants to know more about the programs themselves...

I'll say that one of the reasons I want to go forward with this blog is because if it were not for someone else's blog in the same situation I am in, I wouldn't have even applied to this program.  My second year is when I found his blog, and he was at that point half way through the program that I will be leaving for this month.  Through reading everything he was doing and going back to read his previous posts, I was able to muster up the drive to apply.  So, on the off chance that someone does the same, I want to have some application and program info from my point of view.

So, specifically for Drexel, here is the link to my school's info page for this program.  http://drexel.studioabroad.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=10062

That actually has a lot of really good info there.  Especially the timeframe for the program.  I am doing the full year program, while there is an option for just 1 semester.

Now, the program at Tohoku that I will be a part of is the JYPE program, or the Junior Year Program in English.  Here's the link to Tohoku's website for this program. http://www.insc.tohoku.ac.jp/jype/index.html

I'll give a little overview for the program.  Basically, there is one required course, "Individual Research Training," which is worth 5 credits there.  We have to take a minimum of 13 credits each term, so each term has 8 credits to fill.  This next class isn't REQUIRED... but it is required.  That is the Japanese language class.  Unless someone is fluent in Japanese, I have no idea why you wouldn't take this class.  They have 4 levels of Japanese, and you test in to see what level you are at before joining a class level.  This class is worth 4 credits, so basically you have 4 credits to play with each term.

Almost every other class is 2 credits, meaning that you have to choose at least 2 classes each term to go along with the research class and the Japanese class.  For my first term, I plan on taking Japanese Culture A, Mechanics of Materials, and System Dynamics.  So yes, an extra class.  But both of the mechanical classes are offered in the first term, and I really want to take advantage of the culture class as well.  My second term I am planning on taking Japanese Culture B, and Molecular and Cellular Biology.  There's not any engineering classes I need this term, so I'm knocking one of those annoying 300+ math/sci electives out of the way. 

The Culture classes I am taking are A&B,  but there is also a pair of classes, Japanese Culture C&D.  The A&B pair are more true to the name; actual culture classes including history, art, reading, etc.  The C&D pair are actually Aikido (a form of Japanese martial arts) classes, and are focused on learning Japanese culture through this martial art.

So thats a brief overview of the JYPE program.  If I think of anything else to post before I leave I'll be sure to get it down.  I'm just kinda getting ready to go over the next week, making sure I have things I'll need to bring.  And one thing I am truly, truly dreading... will be my final cheesesteak before I leave.  I have no idea how my tastebuds wills survive and ENTIRE year without the pure deliciousness that is a pizza steak from cart #2...

T-minus 27 days.

So, what is GE3?

So, the program I am going through to study abroad is GE3 - Global Engineering Education Exchange.  Basically, the application opens in early January, and is due March 1st.  The application wasn't anything amazingly difficult, fairly standard.  It consisted of questions regarding language abililty and education level, had a few relatively short essays, and needed two recommendation letters.

One thing that I am not entirely sure on, is whether you NEED a specific school in mind for the application.  When I filled out the application to GE3, as well as my first meeting with Drexel's study abroad program in fact, I knew exactly where I wanted to go, and it was that school or nothing.  But when I think back to the application process, for some reason I feel like you could have several places in mind when you apply.  I believe IIE (will explain in a minute) contacts your school with information regarding what forgeign schools they are sending your application to.

Here's a list of all the schools that are part of this program.

The list is split up in two sections, but they are more or less the same with just one difference in how they work.  The left side is GE3, and run by IIE, the Institute of International Education.  Students of the GE3 schools can go to any school any school on either side of this list.  The right side of the list is GE4, the Global Education for European Engineers and Entrepreneurs.  Students of the GE4 schools can go to any school on the left half of the list.

That's as much general information that I can think of regarding GE3.  If anyone reads this and has any questions about the GE3 application or anything just shoot me an email.

T-minus 28 days 'till departure.

Starting with... an introduction.

So this is my very first attempt at blogging in any shape or form.  I'm not really sure where to start, but I think a simple introduction will suffice. Hi.  My name is Matt, I'm currently 21, and I live in Philadelphia.  The reason I am starting this blog is that I will be spending about 11 months studying abroad at Tohoku Univercity in Sendai, Japan, the Big Red Dot.  If the name of this city sounds familiar to you, it is most likely because Sendai was the closest major city in Japan to the epicenter of the earthquake on March 11, 2011.

I will be there for two semesters, and work in a lab on what I *believe* will be on the schools rescue robotics team. The reason behind why I say it that way will be explained in the next post or two when I post something up about the program I am studying abroad with - GE3.

How I envision what I want to do with this blog is to make a post every few days detailing different things about my experience.  Food, music, events, classes, cultural difference, etc.  I'll try to cover as much as I can.  I actually bought a new camera just for this trip, so hopefully I will be posting videos as well as plenty of photos.

Well I don't wanna write too much here, so as an introduction to me, I'll use this standard questionair I found somewhere online.

<>

A-2-Z About Me Survey by bamachic49
{---Basics---}
Name:	Matthew Guedon
Nickname(s):	Matt
Age:	21
Birthday:	December 30
Birthplace:	Camden, NJ
Current Location:	Philadelphia, PA
Eye Color:	Brown
Hair Color:	Brown
Height:	5'-7"
Weight:	155 lb
Lefty or Righty:	Righty
Zodiac Sign:	Capricorn (too lazy to check with my birthday are we?)
What Do You Drive:	I have a Ford Focus and Kawasaki Ninja 250, both gonna be sold before I leave.
Screenname:	N/A
{---Favorites---}
Color:	Blue
Number:	11
Band:	Rise Against
Music Genre:	Nothing really... so long as its not R&B or more hardcore rap, I can listen to it.
TV Show:	Who knows... Breaking Bad or Human Target prolly.
Movie:	Idk really... Shawshank Redemption, Forest Gump maybe.
Actor:	No idea.
Actress:	No idea either.
Kind of Movie:	I most movie genres really... time and a place for them all.  No, I won't watch a romantic comedy by myself.
Cartoon:	Rugrats?  Hey Arnold?  Rocket Power? Doug?  Way too many choices.
Sport:	Baseball
Fast Food Restaurant:	White Castle
Food:	Maannnnnnnnn... definitely cheesesteak.
Ice Cream:	Cookies N Cream!
Cereal:	Fruity Pebbles
Candy:	Reese's
Drink:	WaWa Lemonade Iced Tea
Alcoholic Beverage:	Sam Adams Irish Red
Quote:	Tu Fockie.  (inside joke)
{---Do You---}
Have any siblings:	1 brother, 1 half brother, 1 step sister
Have any pets:	Ceazar, a German Shepherd
Have a job:	Working full time at an engineering firm till the Friday before I leave.
Have a cellphone:	Yeah, who doesn't after they turn 16.
Have any special talents or skills:	I am a very special person.
Have any fears:	Doesn't everyone?
Have a bedtime:	When I feel like sleeping.
Sing in the shower:	Sometimes I hum.
Want to go to college:	I already do.
Get along with your parents:	Well enough.
Have any piercings:	None.
Have any tattoos:	One on my right shoulder.
Swear:	More than I should prolly.
Smoke:	Nope
Drink:	Yep
Do Drugs:	Negative
{---Love & All That Crap---}
Ever been in love:	Maybe
Ever cheated on a boyfriend/girlfriend:	No
Are you single:	Yes
Are you in a relationship:	Look up a cm, no.
Do you have a crush on someone:	Don't think so.
Ever been dumped:	Yeah
Ever dumped someone:	No
{---This or That---}
Fruit or Vegetable:	Fruit, apples rock.
Black or White:	Once you go...
Lights On or Lights Off:	On
TV or Movie:	Depends on the situation.
Car or Truck:	Car
Cash or Check:	Cash
Rock or Rap:	Rock
Chocolate or Vanilla:	Chocolate cake, Vanilla ice cream
French Toast or French Fries:	Fries
Strawberries or Blueberries:	Blueberries
Cookies or Muffins:	Muffinsssssssssss
Winter Break or Spring Break:	Winter Break. Skiing is awesome.
Hugs or Kisses:	With who?
{---Have You Ever---}
Danced in a public place:	Don't think so.
Smiled for no reason:	Sure, I think that's normal.
Laughed so hard you cried:	All the time, I love comedy movies.
Talked to someone you don't know:	Is it possible not to?
Drank alcohol:	Yes
Done drugs:	Nah
Partied 'til the sun came up:	Prolly once or twice.
Gotten a ticket:	Yes, cops around here are terrible.
Been arrested:	Nope, thank god.
Been convicted of a crime:	Can you without being arrested?
Been in a wreck:	Nope.
Been out of the country:	Yeah, around North America.  So this will be totally different.
{---Random & Silly Junk---}
Are you a virgin:	No
Ever TP'd someone's house:	Negative
Ever egged someone's house:	Does anyone do that anymore?
How many languages do you speak:	1 fluently. I'm working on Japanese now.
Who do you compare yourself to:	Jesus!  No really, I don't know.  I compare myself to myself yesterday and my picture of myself tomorrow.
Ever regret anything:	Yeah, I guess we all have.
Do you like being tickled:	God I hate it.
What are your goals:	Right now, make the most of my year in Japan, educationally, culturally, and socially.
Are your fingers tired:	Nah, I type a lot.
Are you tired of this survey:	Nope, I woulda stopped a while ago if I was.
Are you happy:	Sure, a year and a half of planning and applying will all be worth it in about a month.

Thanks for reading.  Hopefully I can get some readers here so that this will be worth the effort and work I plan on putting into it.