Up, Up and Away

It’s 6:33pm EST on October 3, and I am writing this in Microsoft Word. Figured that I can pass the time by writing a very long entry, and regale you all with the tales of my travels thus far.

I think from now on, I need to provide a glossary at the beginning of each entry after this one. I think out of the 30 people or so that I gave the link to this blog to, only 3 will automatically understand the Japanese terms that I litter throughout this and future entries. However, when my writing gets good enough to attempt to write a whole entry in Japanese, nothing much I can do there, short of a translation. If anyone has noticed, my entries can get rather long, so it’s doubtful. I need the writing practice.

But first, an announcement. There has been much speculation and understanding that there was only one Monbusho Scholarship given in the United States in the Research Student category that I am in. Turns out that was wrong. My apologies. There is more than one Kenkyusei Shougakuin (Research Student Scholarship) given out each year across the U.S.

You are probably scratching your heads. How does Maria know this? She hasn’t even landed yet! She is still in the plane! She doesn’t know anybody!

I know because my seatmate is also a Monbusho student. I saw him studying the Japan Times Intermediate Japanese text (the ones that second year students at SOAS use in the fall term). So when the opportunity presented itself, I asked if a) he is studying Japanese (duh, but how else can I start?) and b) what he is doing going to Japan. My guess was since the Fulbrighters and the JETs are in Japan already, study abroad kids have started in September because that’s when the American school year starts, there has to be something that's left. Maybe another English-teaching program, or a different scholarship?

What’s even more coincidental is that a) we are both going to Kyoto, b) we have the same flight to Osaka and c) we are both going to Kyodai (Kyoto University) However, he is going straight into classes and research, while I do the 6-month academic lockdown (as I call it) in Japanese language classes. So, while I got accepted into Rits (Ritsumeikan University’s nickname) he got accepted into Kyodai.

We compared notes on the interview (both of us are from NY so we had the same people) and our projects. We also compared passports and showed our visas to one another – he graduated in 2005 so he did a master’s degree in IPE at LSE in England, so it was interesting to talk about London. It seems that things are turning for the better – at least I won’t be wandering around Narita in a panic, trying to get my luggage and run to the connecting flight. I wonder if there are other Monbusho people on the plane.

The in-flight lunch was good. I had shrimp with ginger and some spicy sauce with rice, salad, cake and this thing called “Japanese Delicacies.” It looked like vegetables, but I swear that one of the things reminded me of the animals and the forest scenes in Princess Mononoke. I should have taken a picture. I figured that I would see stranger edibles in Japan, so I pour the soy sauce on it (in the cutest little squeeze bottle) and down the hatch! It didn't make me gag so I guess I survived my first round of “Japanese Delicacies.”

Right before I boarded, I went to the bathroom in the Sakura Lounge. When I turned around, I burst out laughing. Why? The bathroom has those heated toilet seats that clean you, just like the ones in Japan. I did not press any of the buttons, since I had no clue what they would do. Just before we ate lunch, the stewardesses handed out the hot washcloths to the passengers, just as if you were in a Japanese restaurant. I haven’t even left the North American continent, and already I am in Japan.