IKEA

Since my friend recently moved into an apartment she was in need of some household items. What better store to go shopping at then, than IKEA! Our friend from Sweden also came along and she was really excited because it was cool seeing all this Swedish food again as well as signs in Swedish and so on. She translated a lot of the Swedish names given to merchandise and explained some of the cakes and other Swedish things to us.
In my marketing class last year the teacher asked us if anyone has been to IKEA in more than one country. I raised my hand because I've shopped there in Germany and the U.S. I was asked if there were any differences, and I replied that despite being in different countries, the IKEA stores had been much the same. That's the point: IKEA is the same in different countries because they don't adapt to the cultural differences. My teacher said that because of that, IKEA isn't doing well in Japan. The thing is, Japan is big on customer service and care. Some examples of this are that store clerks are always present and constantly greet you, trains always run on time, and announcements at train stations include a lot of details and information. IKEA is all about do-it-yourself, which is obvious in that there are rarely workers around the store to help shoppers, and customers are expected to bring their items and furniture home themselves and then put it together on their own. This is the complete opposite of the norm in Japan.
Though I heard that IKEA isn't doing well in Japan and that it's most likely due to all the stores around the world being the same and thereby not adapting to the local culture, IKEA was rather crowded when I went. There were people everywhere. I don't think I've ever been in an IKEA store that was that busy. When buying lunch, first we had to walk around the entire seating area and then wait because every single table was taken. It was difficult getting a place to sit. In the end, the time it took for lunch was one hour.
I heard from someone that Japanese people think IKEA is cool, probably because it's different. I don't think you can find anything like it, especially not in Japan.
The IKEA I usually go to, the one near my home, is nearly identical to the IKEA in Osaka. The only difference was that in addition to the Swedish and other European food served at the restaurant, here in Japan they also offer curry rice.

A bus took us from a train station in Osaka out to IKEA. It takes more than 20 minutes but it's free!

Asian American

The Forgotten Minority: That Moment When You Realize You’re Not White by Connie Zhou

Transformed Into White Gods: What Happens in America Without Love by David Byunghyun Lee

Michigan in Color: Our sacrifice, our shame by Carlina Duan

My least favourite question: where are you from? by Patricia Park

Seminar House

A few recent pictures taken in seminar house 2.

My room when I first arrived two weeks ago.

futon

The third floor is a girls floor now.

My kitchen box thing changed from the top row to the bottom row. I thought I'd hate the bottom row but it's not that bad.

This is what my cupboard looked like several days ago.

They changed the room numbers for refrigerators. Though I live in the same room again, I now use the fridge to the right.

Kobe: Chinatown

Chinese New Year, or Lunar New Year, was one week ago. It's a major holiday in several countries. Japan is not one of them.
I heard all about it online because I follow the twitters/instagrams/blogs of a lot of people from South Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Since it was Chinese New Year, we decided to go to Kobe's Chinatown last weekend.

other pictures from Kobe

Osaka (1)

In the past I used the kanji for cities when I had picture posts for them, but for 2014 I'm just going to go with the romanization. This way I can start over with counting, which makes things easier. Previous Osaka posts were titled with 大阪 and a number.

First Day of Classes

Orientation week is over and classes have begun!

Speaking Japanese is required for all exchange students, and though I didn't take Reading & Writing Japanese last semester I decided to take it for the spring semester.
I had the best Japanese teacher ever last semester. He was awesome and class was always fun. I miss that class, but my Japanese teachers this semester also seem friendly.
My Speaking Japanese class includes three other people who were in my Speaking Japanese class last semester. In fact, out of 11 students, there are only three people who are new this semester. There were a few people who were absent though, so I'm not sure about the final count. Also, the first week is review and then we take a test. Therefore people have the ability to move up or down a level.
My Reading and Writing Japanese teacher lived in the U.S. for nine years so I'm sure she's fluent in English. I can't be certain because the class is taught in Japanese so I haven't heard her talk in English, but she did say a few words in English to translate and her pronunciation was great. She seems really nice.
The thing about Reading and Writing is... my level. I didn't take that class last semester. In fact, I haven't done much with kanji in over a year! I didn't take any Japanese class at all last spring when I studied in South Korea. I took a placement test last week and it was short, and somehow I was put into the intermediate level. I thought I'd be far lower for Reading and Writing. I was surprised.
Now, after the first day of class, it dawned on me that I really want to try to stay in this level. I'm worried now, since to do so I can't fail the review test next week. Therefore I hope to study lots of kanji and try my best to pass. I felt a little overwhelmed. I hope I can do it...

Since I'm taking two Japanese classes this semester I signed up for two lecture courses instead of three. One is Pacific Rivalry, which I really want to take, and the other is Japan and Globalization. Well, I didn't get into the Globalization class. They placed me into Visual Anthropology instead, which I don't want to take! I'm going to drop it. At first I thought I'd try to get into the globalization class, but over the weekend I talked to half a dozen people who are also on the waiting list. Since it seems difficult to get into that class and since I found another class that would be better for my major, I'm not going to worry about getting into Globalization anymore. Now I'm trying to get into a class about the modernization of Japan and China. I really want to get into it. It interests me a lot.

What else... I could write about a lot of things.


All exchange students here are in the Asian Studies Program, which is different from the rest of the university. We're on a calendar that resembles the American calendar, so although our semester started, the Japanese students won't start their semester until April or so. It was different in the fall. We started earlier then too, but the Japanese students started about one week later (and ended much later than we did). Now we'll be on our own on campus for roughly two months. It's emptier, and it's not difficult to find a place for my bike in the bicycle parking lot for now.


We don't have a fancy opening ceremony this time. Instead, we'll have a completion ceremony in May.


I live in seminar house 2 again. There are four in total and SH2 was open during the winter for extension students, but I moved out completely for the winter because I traveled the whole time. I was surprised that they assigned me to the same exact room I had last time. Initially I had a roommate from the U.S., but I met someone who wanted to change rooms so she ended up switching with my roommate. That means that I've had a new roommate since yesterday. She's from the Netherlands. We get along.
I'm used to living in dorms. I think this will be my last semester having a roommate, and I don't mind at all.
This will be my sixth semester of college and my fifth semester sharing a room. I will have had roommates for a semester from four countries: the U.S., India, Japan, and the Netherlands.

There are some changes to this seminar house. One major difference, compared with the fall semester, is that the third floor changed from a boys floor to a girls floor. That means there are only nine guys who live in this building now. Seminar house 2 is the smallest seminar house. We have four floors. The first floor barely has any rooms. The second floor is an actual floor, but it has slightly fewer rooms than the floors above because the kitchen and dining room are there. The third and fourth floors only have rooms. Last semester, the first and third floors were for boys while the second and fourth were for girls. Now all floors except for the first are for girls, and the first floor only has four rooms.

Aside from more girls, there are some empty rooms this semester. At least two or three rooms are completely empty. Also, rooms are assigned to a refrigerator, and they changed the numbers. Even though I live in the same room again, I'm using a different fridge now.

As for RAs, only one RA from last semester is an RA again. We have three RAs here in total, and I actually knew two of them already because one of them who is an RA now was a resident here last semester. That means there's just one new person (in my view), and she's quite nice. Also, she's good at English.

Last semester we had three Japanese RAs and four Japanese residents. This semester we don't have any Japanese residents.


I'm still adjusting to this new semester. I'm having a bit of a hard time because I don't warm up to change like this easily. I'm in a bad mood sometimes or feel sad.
Last semester wasn't always the greatest and there were some people I disliked, especially towards the end, but I've started to look back at it and I miss it. Last week I was thinking about all the people who used to live here in this building, many of which are no longer in Japan. Since our seminar house is small I knew everyone by name and face.
Now there are all these new people. That's ok, I get along with some of them and we have fun, but... it's different because I'm not new.
One major change is that my two really good friends don't live in the seminar house this semester. I met them here in the fall and we started to go to places together on weekends and watch movies together and stuff. I spent my winter break with them. This semester, however, they decided not to live in the seminar house. One of them is doing a homestay and the other is living in an apartment. I never looked forward to living in SH2 by myself. We wouldn't see each other in the hallway anymore, or hang out in the kitchen, or spontaneously watch movies together. I miss that. I think it will be alright, and we can see each other at school and make plans on weekends, but it's another adjustment.
Many SH2 people from last semester were either in their second semester already, were only here for one semester, or are still here but live off campus in their own accommodation now.

I'm still getting used to all these new people, some of whom I haven't met yet, and my new schedule and classes.

I actually counted the other day, and I could think of 12 people (myself included) who lived in SH2 last semester and who are living here again for the spring semester. In addition, I know of five extension students who lived with host families last semester and who live in SH2 now. This is just based off of my memory and the knowledge I have. SH2 supposedly has a capacity of 58, and I know that the number of people who live here is lower than that, so 17 people from last semester actually isn't that bad.

Sometimes I wish I weren't living here again just because I could then avoid having to deal with all these changes and differences.


The weather has been warm lately, at least during the day. I keep thinking that it feels like spring.


I looked at the list of everyone who is living in the seminar houses, and not including SH2 I could only recognize a couple of names. Wow. Are there no students left from last semester? Perhaps a lot of the extension students live off campus now? Then I reasoned that most of the people I knew last semester I only knew because we lived in the same building. There are plenty of people who I can recognize when I see them, but I don't know their name. Since I was on campus for classes today I realized that I recognize a lot of people from last semester, only I don't know their names. I don't think it's that uncommon for the people who do a year here to stay for the fall and then the spring. Still, I met plenty of one-semester students last semester.


Anyway, these are some things that have been on my mind. I'll probably come up with more things I could mention later, but I'll end this post now.