Attacking the language barrier one day at a time

Monday

I keep getting turned around with these blog posts because I try to post them on the day that the actual events happen but I forget that here I'm 16 hours ahead so it's more difficult than expected to keep track of time. Oh well a day late it'll have to be. So yesterday we landed and went exploring and that was Sunday afternoon-evening. After getting over my intense jetlag, soreness, and upset stomach from eating two breakfasts and lunches in a day Monday here was much better. After about 9.5 hours of sleep I felt refreshed and ready to attack the day with "an enthusiasm unknown to mankind." Included in the stipend envelope was a packet of meal tickets so we could access the breakfast bar in the hotel. Breakfast here in Japan is not quite like what you'll find at your local IHOP. We found comfort in some American food options like french fries, waffles, and eggs but we were definitely not in Kansas anymore.

Breakfast bar of champions. At least that's what I think it says

After breakfast we decided to head out and explore downtown Osaka. Since we had a whole day to ourselves we figured we'd make the most of it and actually experience the city we were in. We hopped on perhaps the most confusing subway system ever designed and were on our way. Now it may not be the most confusing subway system to the locals but for us it was a little hard to understand why there were at least 10 different lines and the stations didn't start at number one but number eight. We made it without getting lost though!

These things are pretty much everywhere you turn

So with that we arrived and took our stipend money out for a spin. Downtown Osaka is really cool but we noticed that there are a tremendous amount of buildings. Whether it be malls, businesses, living high rises, or the like, it's buildings as far as the eye can see. We figured that with the populations being so large space is at a premium but man did I miss the sigh of a park or a fountain/public play space. As soon as we got out of the crazily busy train station we could see a big ferris wheel in the distance so we figured that was as good a place as any to start.

The wheel was located at the top of a shopping center to we took the elevator up to the 7th floor and that was the middle of the wheel so you can imagine how tall this thing was. The tickets were 500 yen (so $5) and we were off. The wheel turned pretty slowly but there was an ipod dock (broken) inside and plenty of time to take pictures of the landscape. I think that Osaka is a really cool place but probably not as hustle and bustle as Tokyo. We thought about going there but it turns out that the train ride is two hours long and the tickets are 15000 yen!

Skyline

Inside the mall were a ton of shops and stores. The downside though was that everything was fairly expensive. There are many signs around claiming bargains far and wide but most of the prices were comparable to what you'd pay in america. Oh and by the way the mall had six floors of women's clothing and one of men's. SMH. The clothes in the store were pretty cool and all the shop owners were quite surprised our group walk by. We're basically giants everywhere we go, it pretty cool but at the same time everything it to small!

The western influence was very apparent

What?

After the ferris wheel ride it was time for some more food. We stopped by a few familiar places like 7/11 and KFC. It's quite difficult to order/buy anything because we don't know how to say basic things like "what is this" or "what is that!?!." We managed to get by ordering food by putting our Stanford knowledge to good use and pointing to the pictures on the menu and using charades like gestures to indicate quantity and size. Good times. My appreciation for translators/those who work at the UN increased exponentially because this language barrier is no joke. At the same time though it made me really want to keep up my Spanish learning and get back into sign language. A valuable asset you are if you can be a bridge between cultures. I succeeded in ordering my first meal though and I was pumped it came out the way I wanted. Japanese menus are a tad different because they have one picture then about eight bullet points next to it so you don't really know what they all mean or how there could be so many options. My order pretty much went like this:

              Server: something in Japanese akin to "can I take your order"
              Me: Pointing frantically at picture of sandwich
              Server: Graciously helps me out by narrowing down my picture options
              Me: point to the one that looks less scary
              Server: asks if I want a drink
              Me: Pepsi! Only drink on the menu I could recognize (there was a logo)

              Success!

The colonel lives

After walking around for a few hours we decided that was enough fun for one day. We headed back to the train station and nearly got lost once again. I really wish that you could read Japanese and just sound it out like you can Spanish or German but alas no such luck. We made it back to the train station and for 350 yen we were on our way.

It definitely says something

The night ended with our welcome party and that was really cool. We got to sit out on the patio by the pool and have all you can eat/drink. The food was really good actually with a good mix of American and Japanese entrees. I didn't bring my camera down because I thought we would be going in the pool so no pictures whatsoever from the evening but it was a nice relaxed event with about 100 other people that we had no idea why they were in attendance. Another day in the books and tomorrow is the first day of practice. Apparently we'll be in shells all week, no complaints here. Until the next time