My experiences as an offical globe trotter...

Yes, it is me and I am back from Japan. No bird flu, no SARS... although I did manage to catch a relatively nasty cold before I got back. Let me just say that the airplane pressure change when your ears are plugged up is NOT fun! I should be going to bed soon, but I haven't posted in a long time so I wanted to give you guys all something new to read. I will tell a little about my trip, but I may have to save some for later.

I was correct when I guessed that I wasn't going to like the 11 hour plane flight. I was in the middle of the row both times. The first time I was sitting next to some Japanese guy and this guy in the military who is stationed at Okanagwa. He was pretty cool... the Japanese guy just drank beer and didn't talk. On the way back I sat between two old couples that had both just been on a cruise that ended in Osaka. That was interesting... one of the guys didn't have an arm. He quite literally had a claw and reminded me of Captain Hook, but he was really nice. The plane ride was boring, other than turbulence. I'm not sure if it was the whole flying over the Pacific thing, but it was the most turbulence I had ever experienced, both coming and going. Going to Japan I watched Fantastic 4, The Wedding Date, About a Boy, Babe and something else I think. Coming back I watched Bewitched and Batman Begins and parts of Moulin Rouge and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. But enough about that... that paragraph sounds almost as boring as my plane flight.

When we got to Japan it was hot and TERRIBLY humid. Thankfully, the humidity broke the next afternoon when it rained, but for awhile it was miserable. We ate dinner at the airport that night... they have a very artistic looking airport and it is actually really cool. I had something called Udon, which is a kind of soup/noodle dish with fried tofu on top. It was good... but so began my adventure in looking at a picture and deciding that I wanted that, although I didn't know what it was. In Japan, they have this really cool custom of actually making fake "sample" dishes and displaying them in the windows of restaurants so that you can see what they offer. This is all well and good until you go in to order and you get a menu with no pictures. Then you have to go back outside and quickly memorize the kanji so that you can find it on the menu! When we got to our hotel, we each got our own room, which was awesome. It wasn't much bigger than the bed and the bathroom, but it wasn't squished. I have pictures of this stuff on bebo if you guys want to look.

Random things about Japan: Like I said, it was terribly humid in Japan for the first day, and this was miserable. Over the rest of the week, it was less humid, but it was hot and we had to wear our band uniforms for three full days and also MARCH in them. Talk about disgusting. I took a bottle of Febreeze with me and by the time I came home it was about 3/4 gone. I honestly have never sweated that much before in my entire life! Osaka is by far the biggest city I have ever seen in my entire life. It took us an hour to drive from the airport to out hotel, and that was without traffic. It is also a very pretty city. Things in Japan are by far a lot brighter and more engaging. Signs are everywhere and they are bright and flashy with not much empty space. I wonder if that is a factor of the small size of the island nation... if clutter is sort of built into their culture. But to drive through downtown at night is serious sensory overload. Even to go into something as basic as a drug store is an intense experience. The lights are very bright and the signs are very cheerful and colorful. Oh yah, and those little anime-style characters? Everywhere! I thought that it was just an American thing to depict the Japanese as having anime everywhere because that is one thing they are known for... but no, it is all over Japan. For instance, something serious that we would use a pretty lady to advertise, they use a little anime cat. It is hilarious, but also cute. And it is embraced in their culture... I saw ties for grown men with Hello Kitty faces on them and little elephants and little airplanes/trains/dogs/boats/giraffes. You name it, I saw it. I specifically remember one businessman I saw in an elevator who had on a nice suit and tie, but there where little elephants and palm trees all over the tie. It was hilarious! And there are so many people! Everywhere! And the streets are narrow and the buildings are TALL. For instance, my street would be a wide street compared the street our hotel was on. Oh yes, and they had Tully's, Starbucks and Seattle's Best Coffee. It was very strange to go into places like these because you are familiar with the store, but other than the name, it is not familiar at all.

Since I can't take the time to tell you everything, I will list some highlights from my trip:

Hanging out with the Golden Bears Band and Cheerleaders. They were these cute little highschoolers and they LOVED us. Everything we did they copied, so we taught them our cadences =).

Going to Karaoke in Japan and riding the subway to get there. Karaoke was in Namba, which is the part of Osaka that is a little seedier, which equals more bright lights and even narrower streets. They had like little malls where the streets were so narrow that they just sort of put a roof over it and turned the street into a walkway. It was very fun and gave you sensory overload! I have pictures of karaoke and of the place. Plus, it was amazing to see the subway at 11 pm on a Sunday night... it was absolutely packed.

Buying things from all the vending machines and convenience stores. I am in love with some types of Japanese candy now... and their waffle ice cream, oh my goodness!! It is true when they say there are vending machines everywhere. They are just stuck in little nooks and crannies along the street. They are only about four types though: Cigarettes (a LOT of men smoke), Beer, Drinks and Ice Cream.

Going to the public bath in Himi with my host family. Nothing like getting to know your host family like getting naked with them and taking a shower. The only way this could have been more public would have been if it was in the street and the guys and girls were together! You go to this place that looks a lot like the YMCA and buy a little ticket then go into guys/girls locker rooms. And then you take off all your clothes. You don't leave anything on. I didn't know if this was like camp where you could wear some stuff until you get into the shower and then take that off, but no... you take a shower in a giant place with all the other women. You don't even take your towel with you. So you get this little bucket and you sit on it in front of a little vanity thing that has a mirror and a shelf and a shower head and you take your shower. All of these little "stations" are in a shower room type setting which equals no privacy. When you are finished, then you go to a hottub sort of thing that they call the bath. You can soak there and it is rather enjoyable, other than being naked with a bunch of naked Asian women that look at you because you are the white girl =) But still, it was one of my favorite things.

Riding on the Italian EuroStar bus and then the French EuroStar bus because the tire fell off the italian one. The guys took it to get to their temple homestay in Himi and the tire fell off as they were driving and rolled across a ditch, jumped a fence and went into a field. Apparently the lugnuts weren't tight. Yah, apparently. Oh yah, and the buses had these horribly cheesy looking fake chandeliers. It was interesting, to say the least.

Being treated like a rock star at the concert in Himi. THe line to see us wrapped around the building and people got there at 4 for a 7:30 concert. Crazy. I waved at one little old lady and she started jumping up and down and waving back enthusiastically. It was amazing.

Getting to meet all sorts of new kids and people who also share a love of music.

Trying to figure out what I am doing when I can't speak the language or even read it! It was very frustrating at times because if I was in Europe, most likely I could attempt a pronunciation, but I couldn't even do that here. Yet the language amazes me and I found it to be quite fascinating, although I never got the characters down. I know like 10 Japanese words now, thats about it =)

Anyway, as you see, I could go on and on about my trip. But I need to go to bed and you are probably tired of reading about it. You can ask questions if you want, and I sure have a lot more stories than what I wrote about here. I seriously could talk for days about my trip! I had an amazingly wonderful time, and I would actually like to go back at some point in time. It was weird, by the end of the trip when we came back to Osaka from Himi, Osaka felt familiar, like I was coming home to something. It was awesome!