Weeks 2-3

(1)Nagoya Castle 

(2) Nagoya Castle Tea house with friends 

Hello again, family, friends, co-workers, and possible strangers! I apologize for the late entry unfortunately (or fortunately) the past few weeks have been an exciting rush of various activity. This in  mind, try to bare with me, I will do my best to accurately retell my experiences with the help of the many pictures I have been taking.

Starting where I last left off...  I went to visit the famous Nagoya Castle! The original castle was actually burned to ashes in 1945, during World War II. However the rebuilt castle is an exact replica and is definitely an imposing sight on the Nagoya city skyline!
In the picture(1), you may be able to see at the very top of the castle two golden objects these are known as kinshachi. They are incredibly large statues of  imaginary animals resembling a dolphin or other sea creature  each statue is said to be made from Keicho era gold and according to my small pamphlet each statue is separately made up of almost 50kg of gold a piece! pretty impressive! Showing off money and power aside the statues hold a symbolic or superstitious belief as well, the decoration or  specifically the animal (hard to tell from my translation) was supposed to be protection from fire....Oh the tragic Irony of the situation....

The castle was incredibly well restored and although I took no pictures of the inside (I did but the pictures were quite dark and uninteresting :C)  my description will have to suffice. At the base of the castle tourist walk up a large stone stair case entering through a large wooden gate one inside the stone base you must continue through another set of gates leading to a path toward the main wooden castle. the stone base used presumably for protection was made up of large boulders and stones taken from all over the surrounding country side and some of the boulders (although faded with time) still display the insignia of old Japanese clans who helped build the castle. In my opinion, this was certainly the most impressive part of the castle, as it is the only original part left after the wooden castle was burned down those many years ago. The inner castle was really set up as a museum  full of very touristy displays of how the reconstruction was completed and etc. I'm sorry to say the lighting was so low no good pictures could come of it :(

In any case, I still had a wonderful time and made many new friends on the trip picture(2) was taken in front of a restored tea house right inside the castle grounds. looking at the picture, to the right of me, are my three foreign student friends, Melissa Dobbs(Texas), Amanda Franklyn (Missouri), and Claire Smith (Edinburgh, Scotland) in that order starting with Melissa in the blue shirt.

Over the past few weeks, I have made many friends from all over the United States and the world! I still can't get over how, regardless of out cultural or educational upbringing, we all have a love for Japanese language and culture in common! :D

(3) Nagoya Station party

After Nagoya Castle, Claire invited Amanda and I to spend time with her and a couple of her Japanese friends. :) we were originally supposed to go to see a movie but as we caught the train a few minutes late, we ended up going to dinner in the center of Nagoya :D  (see picture (3))
We had a lot of fun doing our best to communicate in some strange combination of English and Japanese :) not to mention trying to figure out what exactly we were eating!:P xD

(5) Coffee hour

I don't just spend time with the Foreign students of course, Nanzan University has been very good about organizing seemingly weekly events to allow study abroad students to intermingle with interested Japanese students, many of which have majors concerning Foreign Language or

(4) welcome party Coffee hour

International Relations. :) These almost weekly events, are known as Coffee Hour (although coffee is rarely served :P) and essentially involves talking with Japanese students in whatever language you prefer (or want to practice) while participating in various  team activities. I've gone almost every time and always meet many new people :D It is really quite a lot of fun :D see pictures (4) and (5)

(6) Nagoya dome

On the 26th I went to a very exciting Japanese Baseball game at the famous Nagoya dome! I went with my Host family and we rooted for the home team the Nagoya Dragons! We were facing the Baystars from another Japanese city (the name escapes me at the moment) but it was interesting to see how animated the crowd was compared to an American baseball game. Here, every time someone came up to bat a new cheer rang out from the whole crowd of that teams supporters regardless of the players record. The field itself was incredibly interesting as instead of being an outdoor stadium the entire field is contained in an enormous dome!(see picture (6) and (7)

(7) PLAY BALL!

Our team was doing so well! but in the last inning the other team pulled ahead and we lost :C a tad disappointing but the experience was definitely one to remember!



Since my last post, I have been steadily improving my Japanese and becoming more confident or trying to speak with many Japanese people. I am easily able to navigate the subway and train systems now so I haven't made any other mistakes concerning riding the train. But as a treat for everyone who takes the time to read my blog. I will end this entry with my latest "Gaijin Goof" as I have lovingly been calling my many foreigner mistakes.

About three days ago, last Thursday, I was running a tad late to class. and reading my schedule quickly I noticed I was on the 6th floor of the main building today. Running up the stairs I began thinking about how today (as is every Thursday) was the day I would be speaking with a Japanese student one on one for the entire class period about what ever topic planned for us. Making it to the 6th floor I found the room number and confidently threw the sliding door open and walked about half way in to the class, when suddenly I was greeted with frantic cries of excitement as I'd say 10-15 of the girls I met in coffee hour recognized me and shouted my name. seeing one of the girls I talked with the most I strolled over, not paying much attention to my surroundings, planning on asking her to be my speaking partner (as I was a tad late and I didn't want to cause to much of a problem)

Then I realized as I sat on the desk next to Kanako-san (the girl I was planning on being my speaking partner) that I was the only guy in classroom full of about 30 Japanese girls. who were all staring at me and speaking frantic Japanese. the teacher or class leader (it was hard to tell really she looked rather young) soon came up to me and speaking very quick Japanese asked me what I was doing. I had accidentally stumbled right into the middle of an all girls English class right in the middle of the lesson which had nothing at all to do with going to my classroom to speak with Foreign students.

Dazed and confused a showed her my schedule claiming this to be the right room and apologizing endlessly I ran from the room. Still late for class I ran down the stairs wondering how in the world this could have gone all so wrong only to notice I had misread my schedule and had read Tuesday's room assignment rather than Thursday's!  I was actually on the 3rd floor! Dashing to the third floor room assignment I threw open the door and before stepping inside once again notice the room to be filled with Japanese girls (who I didn't know) I slammed the door as quickly as I d opened it and now more confused than ever I noticed one of my fellow classmates closing a door on the opposite end of the hall and running over I made it in to class discovering the the teacher had actually decided to change rooms last minute for some unknown reasoning concerning class size.

Thankfully I was not counted as late, but the emotional trauma and embarrassment was plenty punishment enough I think! XD And NO I don't have any picture of the look on my face when I finally realized where I was :P so don't ask for any :P till next time I hope everyone is doing well and I can't wait to write my next entry! Enjoy the fall for me everyone! its going to be 81 degrees again today :C Write again soon~
Your Gaijin Friend~
Matt~