Hey everyone, it’s been a while,

Writing here from my dorm in 仙台市宮城県 (Sendai), chilling out at the end of another cold day in northern Japan. Somebody told me that it was supposed to snow this week, but it never ended up happening, well whatever. This Saturday I’m running in the 電子工学科競走, (well that’s what I’m assuming it’s called anyway, it’s a race between electrical engineering lab research members). We’ll see how hilariously bad I’ll do in that one, I’ll keep you posted.

Been keeping pretty busy lately with what I do best, which is studying. Got a pretty good grasp of 500+ 漢字 (kanji) by now (writing and reading, 音読み＋訓読みand irregulars) I think anyway. Just 1500 or so to go. My reading skill is definitely going up, thanks in part to the absolutely ridiculous TV shows in this country that have stylized subtitles for everything. I’m just about getting to the point where I can read children’s comics and simple magazine articles; it’s nice because I can measure the amount of progress I’m making based on how far I’ve gotten into the textbooks I’m using. Hopefully that progress will continue…

Despite this, my listening skill is trailing quite a bit. I do listen to the radio quite a bit, but perhaps a bit more talking with Japanese people and chilling out in the kitchen with my roommates is necessary. I also attend a seminar on semiconductor physics in Japanese, which is certainly tough but I feel like I’m understanding a little bit more each week. The seminar is a good time; the professor is a really cool old guy who has been working in the field for a long time and obviously really knows what he’s doing. He often points out errors that we make in ways that could almost be considered insulting, but since he’s the professor the person getting the criticism just bows and says thank you. We need to always use ます and 敬語 (polite speech) when speaking, but the professor can address us like friends.

Some random thought about Japan:

It’s impossible to find your way around at first because every road looks exactly the same. You need an iPhone or something.

Japanese people are seen as high class and cool if they study English. Every professional can at least read English, but barely any can speak very well. This is what I fear I am turning into but the opposite (able to read and write Japanese, not speak).

Everyone you see in any store, and most public places, will pretend that they absolutely love their job and would not rather be doing anything in the world than their job. Even if it’s completely obvious that they hate it. There are people who stand outside stores holding signs and yelling stuff to attract customers; even if there’s no one on the street they’ll keep standing there, smiling, and yelling the same lines (I saw this from a bit away, nobody else was around). Guys in grocery stores putting stuff on shelves will constantly be yelling いらっしゃいませー (which means “welcome to the store” kind of) over and over again, even if there’s nobody around or nobody is paying attention. Yes it does get annoying.

Clothes are expensive as hell. I think this is the most expensive place in the world to buy clothes. The GAP (yeah, same one) sells jeans for 150 bucks. The same ones you got on sale for 25.

Elevators talk to you. Toilets talk to you.

There’s no whole wheat bread. The only kind of bread they have is sub-wonder bread quality. You can find peanut butter and jelly, but it’s easier to find “peanut cream” with the jelly, which is like jelly consistency but made of what is allegedly peanuts. I bought it exactly once.

Let me branch off and talk about food for a second:

My roommate Wataru (渉) is always eating something weird. One of his favorite foods is natto (納豆) which is known as fermented beans. This stuff is classic for confusing the hell out of anyone who hasn’t been eating it since they were less than a year old. I was at a 回転寿司 (revolving sushi place, google this one they’re real cool) place one time, and my buddy Tim orders this sushi that is just made of natto and a small raw egg. He tells me it’s easily the grossest thing you can get at this place so of course I have to order it for myself. The taste is commonly described by people as tasting like BO; I do not disagree with this but I think it’s not entirely the taste that makes eating it such an unpleasant experience. It’s the fact that you can’t swallow it immediately and get it over with; the natto is real thick and you have to chew it and swallow it in bits, so the weird flavor hangs with you for a while, and then there’s still an aftertaste. And this sushi was compounded with a raw quail egg that congealed everything together and made the texture even less pleasant. Natto is the grossest food and provides the most fun you can have at a sushi place. Also it’s really, really good for you, it’s pretty much pure protein.

Another thing Wataru eats a lot he calls 焼き鳥 (yakitori), and I call it cat food. I call it cat food because it both comes in a small tin can and when you open it it looks and smells like cat food. You eat it cold, with chopsticks, straight out of the tin. I tried it and it’s pretty good, just tastes like real salty chicken. Like what cat food tastes like, probably. Wataru told me it’s only like 70 yen a can, so I’m definitely picking some of that stuff up next time I go to the スーパ.

Rice cookers are awesome. This country has redefined bachelor food, I swear. You can make a meal by moving you hand like three times (put rice in cooker, put water in cooker, put this other stuff in the cooker, then turn it on). カレーライス I eat a lot, which is like rice with this brown stuff you put on it. It’s decent, and only like 50 yen for a meal that basically fills you up.

There are convenience stores everywhere. There are vending machines everywhere. They sell computers in convenience stores (yes I’m being serious). Yet to see one in a vending machine though.

There’s a lot of bicycle traffic, I’ve almost seen bike traffic jams. The place is set up pretty well to prevent that from happening though. You can get anywhere in town faster on a bike than in a car, every time.

That’s about all I can think of for now. I’ll throw up some pictures soon, but I’m way lazy and barely ever take any. Oh and finally here’s the speech I wrote and read at this speech forum thing I got talked into doing the other day, yeah it was pretty hilarious. My friend took a video with his phone, if you feel like cringing at my horrible pronunciation and nervousness I’ll put it up.

Until next time,

Erich S.

Location: Sendai, Miyagi, Japan