That's Japan for ya'!

It has been a week (and some) since Fabian and I arrived at AIU. It has been fun getting to know the campus, taking wild videos here and there, and getting to know the people we would be spending the year with. Definitely have met rather interesting individuals and have seen some questionable actions, but that’s what makes this experience so fun—you never know what you’re going to get.

There are people from all over the world here—anybody who is geographically challenged (like me) would realize how bad you are when you have someone telling you they’re from Lithuania or Latvia. I’m sorry, but, what? Where? I really need to learn more about the world. Where's my atlas? 

Before I came to Japan everybody I spoke with was super worried about what I was going to eat, and even more anxious when I told them that I was allergic to shellfish. This would raise flags in their heads— wait so why are you going to go to Japan? When you think of Japan, it’s almost second nature to think of Sushi and other kinds of seafood. Don’t worry I can eat seafood; I love seafood. Shellfish, on the other hand, I can live without.

The cafeteria food is great! At least I think so. There’s ご飯 (gohan) rice and みそ (Miso) soup available with each dish, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I usually mix the rice with ｿｰｽ (soosu), a sauce that is usually put on とんかつ (Tonkatsu), pork cutlets, and mayo. Yupp, mayonnaise. Apparently it's not a very "Japanese thing to do"-- to put ridiculous toppings on your rice that is, but I enjoy it. I enjoy it a lot. 

  Taco rice (Octopus) with Mayo rice and Miso

Sorry about the awkwardly positioned photo... I should take more photos of the food here. 

Apart from the food and various on-campus shenanigans, we've gone into Akita City and explored some over the weekend before classes started. It was a good time!

The city is, how should I put this, very city-ish. There isn't anything too out of the ordinary, and, now that I think about it, nothing that would make someone think of Japan (but maybe I'm just biased since I've been here for a little while. It is distinctly Japanese, especially in the train station! So I take back what I said earlier)-- unless we start talking about the all you can drink buffets and the karaoke bars. But that's another story and not something that is as conspicuous as maid cafes in Tokyo.

Anyway, we stopped by a small ramen shop, and had the most incredible bowl of ramen. Wow. I'll say it again, WOW. It was soooo delicious! It was filled with beef and all sorts of other Japanese goodness. The chefs were so skilled, and everything had a specific way of being made. I wouldn't expect anything less from a local Japanese restaurant.

This week we also visited a pretty interesting festival! There was a lot of food, people dressed up in Kimonos, battle cries and giant carts (floats?) ramming into each other. I didn't know what was going on half of the time, but I was filled with adrenaline. That's Japan for ya'!Take a look here, maybe one of you can tell me what I am looking at exactly. Warning: you may want to lower your volumes.

Before the night festival we hit up some local shops, and museums that were filled with priceless relics. I always enjoy looking at antiques-- here we have some nice pottery and other kitchen-like utensils. Some of those small bottles are for "sake", a Japanese liquor.

Sake bottles & others on the bottom.

Kitchen ware, and other nice pottery. 

Hanging Scroll

Cool looking dolls

The festival food was also pretty good! I had "okonomiyaki" for the first time. It was, how should I put this, interesting. I enjoyed it, it was good at the festival, but I probably will not order it again. I would recommend that you eat it at least once when in Japan. If I had to describe it was like a mix of pancakes, eggs, cabbage, and different sauces, topped with some fishy flakes. In all honesty, I think that I am just not a huge fan of the fish flakes, which is probably why I wouldn't want to eat okonomiyaki again. Without the fish flakes I think I would like it more. After the okonomiyaki I enjoyed some classic "yakitori", fried chicken on a stick, some "tacoyaki", fried octopus balls, and some refreshing Asahi beer (I'm legal in Japan, watch out).

Okonomiyaki