Well, this morning was our first typhoon in Kyoto, which is worthy enough for me to break my blogging fast. Since I’m a desert woman, any more than an inch of rain makes me worry. So I had no idea what to expect from a typhoon. I was relieved in the morning (most of it passed throughout the night) to find that my apartment was unscathed. Actually… everything was fine. A few branches fell off trees, and there are leaves everywhere.

The worst of the damage.

Though during the night it seemed pretty dramatic. I woke up once to find my whole apartment lightly shaking and another time to the wind. The city sirens went off around 2-3am, but apparently I’m the only one who heard them. So now I can stand proudly and say I’ve lived through a typhoon! I’m sure my grandchildren will be amazed.

Sorry for the lack of updates but I’ve decided to do something quite different this time around in Japan. Instead of just doing a weekly update that says what I did for the week, I’m going to do a series of more informative posts. I mean, I’m going to be in school mostly, that’s just boring.
Instead, I’m going to being doing posts on Japanese culture from my perspective. My first post (which I’m working on) will be on food and all its glory here. I’ll even have a seperate post on all the vending machines. Its amazing! I know it will be amazing.
My first post will be up sometime this week. It will have amazing pictures for you to look at as well as a story or two. I might even see if Christina will write something. Who knows.

-Kyle

So I took some pictures of the city today and some other various things that I did during this day. They can be found…

First Pictures of Japan

It was my first full day here in Kyoto. What a day it was. I woke up at 5am to go walk around. I then had to get some registration done so that I don’t get deported. After such, I went on to have some wonderful raman with my new friends Chad, Ayda, and Jyunku. So far I’ve learned more Japanese then I have in all my years of taking it. Jyunku speaks English but doesn’t to me at all. Yet somehow, she still manages to make fun of me. So life is good. I leave you all with the link to the gallery as well as a gorgous picture of me eating yakisoba.

Hey everyone out there! After some long and horribly long flight Chris and I made it to Japan! We left at 6am on Monday the 7th of September 2009. We went off to San Fransisco so that we could wait for a flight to Japan. I got Burger King for breakfast. It was a bit greasy. I’ll miss America just for that. So as we went to our plane we realized that we were surrounded by Japanese people. That’s when it hit me that I was going to a Japan. It was an odd sensation. So we were off to Japan! We rode on a Boeing 777.

This was a huge plane. Luckily, Chris and I were next to one another. We tried to sleep but that failed miserably. I was up for the entire time. I DID try to sleep but didn’t. We had some good movies to watch such as Star Trek and The Hangover. This was quite a nice surprise. Then they showed them in Japanese. That was quite awesome. They did feed us despite my mother’s fears. Even more so, the food was good. I had a chicken curry and a noodle thing.

After a long 12 hours, we landed at Kansai International Airport. Customs was very easy. It only took us about ten minutes total from going to the customs counter to getting out with our bags. Neither Chris or I were fined or imprisoned. So that was good.

Once we were out of customs, we were greeted by a sign with our names on it. A older looking man led us to the place where we would wait for our shuttle. This shuttle service then loaded up our bags and shuttled us to our various places of residence. This took quite a long time. Kyoto and Kansai International are no where near each other. So it was about two hours before I was lead up to my room at my dorm.

My Lovely Wall

Once I got into my dorm (after much knocking,) I was shown around the place. It is quite nice and I will be putting up pictures later. I met some of the students. There are two from Michigan and some from Korea. The funniest part about this is that no one speaks any Japanese (except the Americans) so everything I was told about the place was more of a vague idea to me. So I think by the end of this year, I’ll be very well off when it comes to Japanese.

After a good nights rest, I decided to go for a walk around my new surroundings. It was quite amazing to say the least. Everything is so cramped and there were people everywhere. I looked around for awhile then I found this lovely bakery. Since it was the only thing open at 7:30am I decided to get some food from it. I then preceded to a 7-11 for some refreshment. Then I was off to my dorm to eat. I got very lost for thirty minutes but luckily I found my way home.

So for now that is it. I’m going to be registaring for my foreigner status today. So hopefully that goes well.

-Kyle

Well, it’s five days till we go to Japan. I’ve been spending most of my time with family and friends, which has grown almost exponentially these last few weeks. When I left for my road trip in the middle of August, there were only our two new roommates, Melanie and Stalin, and my mom. Now we are temporarily housing Will, a longtime friend, and Yvonne, one of Melanie’s close friends. In addition to that, our pet population has more than doubled. We now have three dogs, two cats, a turtle, and a snake. We are the free equivalent of a hostel.
It’s been a pleasant surprise, however. Everyone gets together remarkably well, and the pets are doing just fine. Instead of having strangers stay in our house, it just feels like our family has expanded.

On the other hand, the fact that I’m going to Japan has finally hit me. To steady my nerves I’ve envisioned every single detail of landing in Japan. Then to make sure I’m not one of those passive-aggressive anal types, I run it over and over in my head. Each time I visualize it, landing in Japan and doing simple things like walking to the grocery store become less surreal and more manageable. More than anything, I’m excited for the challenge of everyday life in a country where I don’t know the language. Although, the thought of being a blue eyed, blonde haired “icon” there still scares me…

-Chris.

Hey everyone, I would like to thank everyone for my good wishes upon going to Japan. The day we leave is almost upon us. September 7th at 6am Chris and I will be off to Japan. We will first stop in San Fransico to change planes. We have a four hour layover but then we are off! We will have a long flight ahead of us but I think we will manage. I personally plan to just study my Japanese.

When we arrive in Japan we will have to go through the customs and all that but that shouldn’t be a problem as long as Chris doesn’t do something illegal. She’s a good girl so I don’t think we will get stopped. Once out of customs we will be greeted by our taxi service! They should have a sign letting them know that they are picking us up and everything like that. Exciting, I know. I’m excited for that. I’ve always wanted to have sign saying I’m special.

Once we get all taking to our various places, I’ll crash I’m sure but first put up pictures. There will be a lot of pictures up around here once we leave so please come back and enjoy all of them. One other idea I’ve been toying with is doing a podcast for this blog just to let know the happenings around Japan while we are there. I’m not sure if that will happen but hopefully it will. If it does happen, it will be here first. So stay tuned.

We are having a party today at my house! It’s to celebrate the momentious occasion of Christina Brown and me going to Japan on September 7th. So why is the party today? That is because my brother (Greg) and sister (Nikki) are in town. They both live in far off places, and I don’t see them much. So today is the day for the party. Please stop by if you want. We have ribs, hamburgers, and hot dogs.

-Kyle

So just to let everyone know, Chris and I are goign to leave for Japan on September 7th. We are leaving at 6am and will be gone for an entire year. I do wish everyone well. I will start posting on this blog much more often once we arrive ^.^

Also! There will be a going away party for us on the 19th of July. Everyone who knows this will be able to go. Just let us know. I hope that you will attend.

-Kyle

Hey everyone! I hope that everyones wonderful summer is going wonderfully. I know mine has so far. My first week of summer classes has ended. Quite boring if I do say so my self but alas, I need the class. It doesn’t look that hard.

So Chris and I have been talking a lot about Japan and the up and coming trip to said place. Should be fun. I hope so. We are both worried about the expense. Hopefully we will be getting some schalarships to offset the cost of living in such a wonderful place. If we don’t, we will just be eating rice…a lot.

As for anything wrong on the site, sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong so just send me an email. I’ll try to fix it.

-Kyle

Chrissy’s and my summer class started on Monday the 8th. Thus ends our summer of fun times doing nothing but oh well. Even so, I had a fun summer break. It was quite amazing I must say. Now I’m taking classes. It’s amazing how fast three weeks goes by when you’re not doing much of anything. I still personally think that time is speeding up. That’s just me.

So I’m taking statistics for engineers and Chrissy is taking Chemistry two. My class doesn’t look like it will be all that hard. Here’s to hoping that it isn’t. As for chemistry, I hope that Chris does well. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be all that easy for her. She works hard though. Very hard actually. So, she will be fine.

The last thing, I’m having trouble with the images on this site. Sorry for the inconvenience.

-Kyle