行く前には。。。 Before Going...

The interim four weeks between finishing summer school and setting out on my adventures abroad is drawing to a close. Today is Tuesday, which means that I will be leaving the US in less than five days, Yikes!

It's interesting the questions that I get asked when I tell people that I am leaving to study abroad in Japan. There are two main ones, the obvious yet very appropriate, "Are you excited?" and the one that makes me wonder what people think of me, "Are you scared?" My answers will follow, but first, why do people ask if I am scared? I understand that Japan is very far from my home, about 5,500 miles to be exact, and I also understand that Japan does not speak English, my first language (who knew!). Furthermore while my skills in Japanese get better everyday, I still am below par. On that basis I can understand why someone would ask if I was scared, but somehow it still seems somewhat of a strange question to ask, to me anyway. The way I seem to see it is that each person who askses me that question sees me as somehow incapable. I believe that I am smart enough to make the right decisions, to make the best of my time, and most importantly to be safe and ultimately...survive. Perhaps people just honestly care for me, and would be scared if they were in my position, and are thus acting humanely as humans tend to. And perhaps I can't see that because I am an asshole. You decide :)

Now to get to the answers to those questions. Am I excited: not really. As unusual as that may sound, I feel as if I have been working/studying non-stop since school began last year in September, and I have not had a single break. I am therefore very in need of relaxation, and am really enjoying my current state of leisure at home. I suppose the right answer to that question is, I am excited, but not ecstatically so, I am however starting to get anxious. Am I scared: not even a little. I have been planning this trip since I was in middle school. For what ever reason I have had an infatuation with all things Japanese for as long as I can remember (who knows why, the best answer can be found here: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/07/58-japan/). As far as I am concerned, this is one of my life capstones, And I feel as if I can die contentedly after my trip is over. As long as I make it to Japan I have nothing to fear (this doesn't mean I wont play it safe). This is why I see this question as such an unsavory one.

Now I have to say thank you to some people. First, to all my friends. You have all been so enthusiastic and have helped me through my journey up to this point, especially Red. I still remember booking my airfare, and the two day process that Red and I took to determine the best day (Which I decided would be two days before I officially have to arrive). Thank you so much for all the good wishes and the support. For those of you that made it up for Rage (which was very few) Thank you so much! I had a blast that weekend, including the near death tire escapade. Also thanks for the Birthday/Goodbye party which came after D9 and before Ice Skating. I still have two horrible bruises from the Ice skating by the way. I also want to say thanks to Ray, my roommate, who I coincidentally ran into at the train station in Los Angeles on Sunday. He has gone through a lot of crap with me ditching him to study abroad. For example having to worry about apartment rent and so on and so forth. He's a great guy and I am glad that he could be my roomie :)

And thank you most importantly to my wonderful parents. They have been along my side through everything and they are wonderful. I could go on and on about them :]

One thing that is quite funny is my mothers infatuattion with me looking good while I am abroad. She recently told me that I do not know how to dress myself, and so she has been taking me around buying me cloths. The purpose of these cloths is so that I can do nothing other than look pretentious while I am abroad. thanks mom.

日本にいるまでに、
Until I Am In Japan,
Cary

Yokohama, the second largest city in Japan, and my four month home away from home. The tallest building in the picture is also the tallest building in Japan and 56th in the world Furthermore it houses the second fastest elevator in the world, traveling at 41ft per second, allowing access from floor 1 to 69 in 40 seconds. In addition, I am sane :]

日本国総領事館 Consulate of Japan

Hello everyone! So today I finally made it down to the Japanese Consulate in Los Angeles in order to apply for my visa. I started the day thinking it would be one easy ride down to LA from Palmdale to quickly drop off my application, and then a quick ride back. I was wrong.

To begin, I had planned to leave Palmdale very early in the morning in order to beat traffic, and perhaps a crowd at the consulate itself. I assured myself there would be no one in Southern California that would be at the Consulate, for some strange reason (probably stupidity). Thus, I planned to spend only minutes in the Consulate itself. In short I thought the entire excursion would take about two hours max. Now here's where I was wrong...

The morning started with my mother getting into a car accident, in our own neighborhood none-the-less. She made a left-turn in front of an oncoming car and you could imagine what happened. While the damage was quite bad, no one was hurt. I couldn't ask for more. :) In such a circumstance I would usually forget about any plans I had made, but the importance of getting this visa before time runs out was more important then a fender bender, so I started on a search for a vehicle. My parents truck decided just the other day that it wasn't going to work, so the only option left was to use my brothers car. My mother stayed at home, negotiating with the insurance company, and my dad and I set of for LA.

After about an hour of driving we had arrived at our destination, the Consulate of Japan in Los Angeles...

Upon entrance, I headed straight for the elevator before being stopped by a burly security guard who told me to check in at the desk. From there it was up 17 floors in an incredibly fast elevator, and then a left into a full waiting room. It was full of service windows, all for a different purpose, all with a title in Kanji. It took time for me to decipher each title before finding the one that said 「査証」 or visa. I sat down to started my wait, before ten minutes went by and I realized I was supposed to have grabbed a number. I grabbed 37, they were serving 32. There was a women trying to obtain visas for her entire family, literally. The directions on the application are very simple "Must Submit in Person," for whatever reason she thought she was exempt. It appears there can be provisions made if a family member is disabled or the like, and she was trying to work the system for more than eight people. After waiting and hearing others complain, and meeting another UC student from UCI (Laura?) who is also going to MGU, the girl finally left. Apparently she was turned away by the window attendant. From there he raced through the next four people, and then called my number. It took less than five minutes. He reviewed my application and accepted it on the spot. He gave me a receipt and my visa will be available for pick-up tomorrow! Down the elevator, to the building plaza for a snack (steamed buns and tea) and back on the road.　

By now of course, it was no longer morning, it was in fact almost 4:00pm. Guess what driving is like in the afternoon, in Los Angeles, on a week day. That's right, like Hell. There was heavy traffic on the way back, but I got my visa, and now I'm at Japan's doorstep (and they'll let me in).

Japanese Consulate, 17th Floor of the California Plaza building (pictured above)

早く戻ってくれる、

Come back soon,
Cary

終わった！ It's Over!

I finally finished my sophomore year at UCSD! Well, I guess I finished mid-June technically, but I never got to relax. I had to move off of campus, move some of my things back to my home in LA, and then move all the rest of it into my Apartment in La Jolla. After that I had to undergo 5 weeks of torturous summer school. It wasn't that summer school was difficult, it just required thinking. I had to honestly think about things, which was quite difficult to do in the midst of a beautiful SD summer, with beautiful SD people. In any case, now I'm heading back home.

This is a blog about my trip to Japan, right? Right. So how does this relate? I had to say goodbye to all of my wonderful friends because I'm leaving SD for now and won't be back until next year. I had to spend my whole summer on school work, so I never got to really do too much with most of my friends, and now I'm leaving! I'll try and come down to SD once more before I leave, but I know I won't be able to see a lot of people, for those of you, I'll see ya in 2010 :)

For the moment, I'm staying with my parents at a hotel on Shelter Island. It's my Dad's 60th birthday, so we wanted to take a few days and enjoy SD, and his B-day. From here, I'll be back in the LA area where I will be prepping for Japan, which means being lazy and then rushing at the last moment to pack. It'll be fun. Until then here is two pics from the start and end of my summer SD escapades (so I can learn to post pics before my trip)...

The 4th of July at Sea Port Village

The Inlet to SD Bay at the Shelter Island Hotel

また今度、

until next time,
Cary