それに、恵里ちゃんにも会えています！相変わらずの恵里ちゃんは、学校でよく頑張っています。そして、忙しいですが、名古屋の名所に連れて行って、案内してくれています。素晴らしい家族も伊勢神宮に連れて行ってくれました。それで僕は本当に嬉しい彼です！
今まで、色々な日本の特徴が好きになりました。まず、ほとんどどこでも安全の感じをします。よく一人で歩いたり、自転車を運転したりしている十歳ぐらいの子供をみます。そんなことが、名古屋のように大きいアメリカの町であまり見えません。歩道も地下鉄も建物も、全部きれいです。アメリカ人として、本当に感動しています。食べ物も美味しいし、人々も一般的に優しいし、この頃日本が大好きです。
もちろん完璧ではないです。ねだんは思ったより高いです。そして、電気代金は高いので、寒いのにヒーターは家であまり使われていません。でも、ちょっと甘やかされているアメリカ人なので、重い服を着て、慣れます。：）
とにかく、今まで日本が大好きですが、一番好きなことは、平和の感じです。名古屋の賑やかな道は写真で混沌みたいですが、実は静かなところもいっぱいあります。例えば、僕の近所ですね。家を出ると、次の角でまっすぐに行くと構大きくて、こんでいるモールに今すぐ入ります。それで無印良品とかスーパーとかで何でも買えます。代わりに、左に曲がって、少し歩いて、丘を登ったら全然静かな林とお寺にすぐ来ます。あの丘のうえから、夕日の赤い光で、下の賑やかな近所は綺麗の映画みたいです。あまり特別なお寺ではないですが、こんな小さくて平和の所が大好きです。名古屋でいっぱいあるそうですから、探し続けます。
この晴れの日曜日に、始めて洗濯しました。今、洗濯はベランダーで翻っています。とても日本らしいイメージなので、窓の外の洗濯を見ると「わー、ついに日本にいる！」と考えます。
今週、新しい授業に入るので、色々な面白い経験があるはずです。後で、それについて書くのを楽しみにしています。じゃ、また後で！
Hello everyone, and sorry it's been a while since I last wrote. Greetings from Nagoya. It hasn't been quite a week since my arrival here, but I am getting used to my life in Japan already. I live in a beautiful and very convenient neighborhood. There is a mall and a park very close to my dormitory. And I can even go running along the canal next to the neighborhood, without getting (too) lost along the way. Indeed, my accommodations are great, but even better are the people that I have met so far. My house-mates and fellow students that I've met are really wonderful. They've shown me around to different parts of the city, grabbed food with me and even helped me with my Japanese. So I am really grateful to be in a supportive community like this one, with a lot of talented people from here and there around the world. Alas, orientation at Nanzan University continues from last Friday through this coming Wednesday, and my classes don't start until Friday; so my strictly academic experience has not yet really begun. But when classes do commence, I can't wait to meet more classmates from Japan and around the world. And of course I'm looking forward to my Japanese studies! :)
On top of all that, I am getting to meet up with dear Eri these days! Of course, she is very busy with her studies; but she has taken a lot of time to show me around her home-city, and even to a beautiful shrine in the countryside on a day-trip with her kind family! So I am a very lucky guy because of that.
So far, I've come to admire a lot about Japan. First, almost everywhere feels very safe. I regularly see children who look to be about 10 running errands on foot and bicycle alone around this huge city. I can't say that I would see that at home, even in little downtown Raleigh. Also, the sidewalks, subways, and buildings are meticulously clean. Everyone is (generally) very courteous and helpful (speaking in Japanese), and the food is so far superb. I am really liking Japan right now!
But of course, no place is perfect at all. I'm definitely in the honeymoon phase of my study abroad period right now, and I know that my "rose-tinted glasses" through which I am seeing Japan will eventually turn clear. Even now, I can see that Japan is an extremely expensive place to live, and everyone must be really cautious about spending here (a mere apple costs a dollar, which is expensive compared to NC). I am still figuring out how to best spend on food and other necessities, and I definitely miss the reasonable stores back home. Also, the nation is in a power crisis in the wake of the 2011 Tohoku disaster, so we cannot use much heating or lighting in the house. In my life, I've been spoiled with plenty of heating through every winter, so it will be a good experience for me to go with a little less for a while.
Anyways, I am really loving Nagoya so far. I think my favorite thing so far is a special feeling of peace that I find in various places. If you look at a picture of a busy Nagoya street, it might look chaotic. Indeed, the traffic and glittering signage in some places are both beautiful and overwhelming. But this city is interwoven with countless little peaceful havens all around. My neighborhood is a good example of this idea. If you leave the dorm and go straight at the street corner, you enter almost immediately into a bustling multi-story mall. But if instead you take a left, walk for a few blocks, and climb a nearby hill, you will find an old Shinto shrine and graveyard tucked away in a grove of elegant hardwoods. From the top of that high hill, the crowded neighborhood below looks like a huge silent film. Drying laundry flutters in the cool afternoon breeze, bathed in the soft orange light of the setting sun. Car headlights twinkle on the distant highway, and bullet trains streak soundlessly across a bridge on the horizon. I can see a lot of beauty from this quiet place, and the great thing is that these spots seem to pop up pretty often through out Nagoya. So, I will keep finding and enjoying them.
On this sunny morning, I finished my first round of laundry in Japan. Now my own laundry is wavering in a cool breeze on the veranda. Since dryers aren't common in Japan, this image of drying laundry outdoors is everywhere here. When I see my own clothes out there on the veranda, I remember that I'm in Japan, and that gives me a very warm feeling.
This week, my classes begin, and with that I expect a lot of interesting new experiences. I look forward to telling you about them later on! :)
寮の人達と焼肉を始めてたべました！My dormmates and I went out to a yaki-niku restaurant, where we cooked our own meat and vegetables over hot coals on the table!
恵里ちゃんにも会えます！ I can also meet up with dear Eri!
近所にあるお寺の扉 The gate to the shrine in my neighborhood
丘の上から見える自分の近所 My neighborhood, as seen from the top of the hill
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