Hey Everyone!
Sorry it took me so long to add my new
addition, here we are in the midst of finals and the last 5 weeks of
classes. I haven’t updated you all on my spring break, so I think
that’s where I will start. While I was away I wrote e-mails to my
parents that best described what I did. Here they are!
March 22
Good Morning...(Ohyo gozaimas!) I am here in
Osaka and already the trip has paid for itself. Donnah and I landed
this morning around 8:30 and we are having great fun already. The
Osaka airport is like Boston where it juts out into water. As we
descended we broke through the cloud level (which was low here this
morning as it was raining). We immediately saw the beautiful green
mountains and it was spectacular. We found our way easily to Genny.
She took us back to her place, which is very cute in the middle of a
very bright bustling area of the city. We then set up our bed on the
floor and fell asleep for 5 hours as Donnah only slept for an hr on
the plane and I slept for 3. We got up, showered and hoped on bikes
and rode around Osaka. We were going to have dinner at this place
that sells Ramen (like the cheap noodles that college kids eat) but
apparently it is really dressed up here and supposedly really good.
That place was closed so we ended up going to a place that sells
Tonkatsu, which a traditional dish of fried pork with sides of
lettuce topped with a delicious dressing, rice and Miso soup. (You
can see a picture of it here.)
It was soooooooooo good and the people were
really nice. I got to try out some Japanese. We then went to Namba,
another part of the city. There, we rode an encapsulated ferris
wheel that went REALLY high and we could see the whole city. We met
up with a few of Genny's friends and in a bar called American
Beauty. There we had some nachos and coke. (YUUUMMMMYYYY). We
also had these yummy cream puffs mmm. We then headed back to
Genny's and here I am e-mailing you. Tomorrow Genny wants to take
us to Kyoto which I am excited about. I have learned so many words
so far!! I can say:
Domo Aragato Gozaimas: Thank you very much
(the longer the more polite)
Sumimasen: I'm sorry
Konichiwa: Hello
Mido: Hello in Osaka Dialect
Kudasai: Please
Sodes: Yes, that is correct
Kai: Yes, I understand
It is so cool to be here amongst all this
new stuff and Genny is REALLY good at Japanese especially since
she's only been here for 6 months. She had a whole conversation
with the chef at the Tonkatsu place.
March 23
Today we slept in
for a really long time then we got up and got ready to go out. We
took the train to go see the Sumo wrestling competition, which is on
throughout March. We stopped at the McDonalds and I ordered my meal
myself all in Japanese! (with Genny's help I ordered my
cheeseburger meal "Cheese-buuhgah (spelled phonetically) seto
hetotsu toe haambuhguh (again, spelled phonetically) which
literally translates to Cheesburger meal one and hamburger one (the
hamburger was Donnah's.) Then, after, Donnah wanted another
hamburger so I went down and got it for her cause she doesn't like
to try to speak. I did it all by myself and communicated to her
that we were eating in, (which I conveyed through a small amount of
impromptu sign language.) and then said domo aragato gozaimas. We
then went to see if we could get into sumo, but it was all to
expensive so we just took pictures and then went to go see a
Japanese temple. It started off kind of cool, but not as good as
some of the others (as far as Genny says), but then Donnah found
this beautiful garden with waterfalls and with ponds filled with
carp. It was great. We then went to go eat sushi! (Here you see a
picture of Donnah eating some.)
It was really good,
and after we finished, we went back to pick up our bikes that we
left at Genny's friend's apartment and then rode home. As I'm sure
Dad knows they don't wear helmets here, which really freaks me out.
However, we are careful and I feel much safer on the street as
opposed to the sidewalk. I am more afraid of getting into an
accident with another biker or a walker than a car! Tomorrow we
might go to a Japanese lesson with Genny and then Donnah and I are
going to go off by ourselves while Genny is in work. We will
probably take the train somewhere. I actually feel confident enough
that I know enough Japanese to get around and not get lost. Also,
the people here are so nice and patient while you do your best to
talk to them. I think they appreciate it, but I have had many
people talk to me in English, and it is really nice of them...they
always smile and are very happy to speak in English if they can.
Now we are just going to have an early night tonight so I will try
and e-mail back tomorrow!
Jen
I included this picture because it is my
favorite one that I took out the plane window!
I will end here for now, but I will continue my
update soon!
