Paderbornness

We had just finished our "Politics and Economics of Globalization" class in the Economics building and were walking from the classroom outside, when we came by a board.

なにこれ?

What is that?

ベラさんとフレデイさん！

Familiar faces! ^^

みっちゃんさんとりささんはのみほうだいがすき?

Looks like Japanese international students in Bar Celona?

のみものがやすいから、パダボンのパ-テイ-はたのしかったよ！！

Looks like Japanese and Korean girls having fun at a Paderborn Uni-Party!!

Ooohhh! More Paderbornness! 

The Paderborn Dom in Oita University

Unfortunately I cannot read Japanese well, so I do not know what all the articles said. I wonder who wrote all this and why it was hanging in the Economics building on the third floor in front of some classroom and not next to the International Office or something else more obvious. But anyways, I liked seeing pictures of my home town and its people ^^ Nice surprise.

Japanese Pumpkin

May I introduce another delicious Japanese dish to you: Kabocha. It is a Japanese squash/pumpkin, which tastes like sweet potatoes.I ate it at Eriko's house for the first time and immediately loved it. But I have to say that some (of the Germans) do not like it.
A traditional Japanese meal consists of a soup, a main dish with meat, rice, a pickled dish, and a vegetable side dish. Kabocha is one of the common vegetable side dishes served.
It is simmered in a stock made of dashi (soup stock made of for example konbu kelp), soy sauce, sugar, sake, and mirin (sweet rice wine for cooking). You just have to cut it into cubes, eliminate some of the outer skin so that the simmering soup stock can soak through, put all the simmering ingredients in a pot and cook for 15 minutes. It is really easy and so delicious!

 Kabocha, a Japanese squash

 

 Kabocha - a basic dish in Japan

When I cooked it, it did not taste as good as the one I ate a Eriko's house, because mine was too sweet. 

And the second time I cooked it, it was too taste neutral. 

Hold on, I will get there soon... ^^

Japanese compliment

We Germans - Marion, Fabian, Miriam, and I - decided to cook German food for our favorite tutors. We made "Gefüllte Paprika in Tomatensauce" (bell peppers stuffed with meat in tomato sauce). It is not traditional German food though, is it? But we eat it alot in Germany. I have to confess that I especially like the Gefüllte Paprika in our Paderborn Mensa (university cafeteria) ^_^

We managed to squeeze 6 big bell peppers into two pots 

 

Voilà! ^_^

  

From left to right: Eriko, Fabian, me, Kouji, Miriam, and Marion 

たのしかったよ

 

 My vegetarian version with tofu. 

But I think that the non-vegetarian version tasted way better :D

The most interesting part of the evening was something that one of our Japanese tutors said.
It went like this:
"すごい！おいしい！みんないい奥（おく）さんになるよ。"
This literally translates into:
"Yummy! It's great! You will all be good wives!"
We Germans were a little bit stunned for a few seconds.
Hmm, we did not really feel flattered.
Apparently our Japanese tutor liked the food so much, that she had made us a sincere compliment. But it was made in a Japanese way.
I knew that it was meant as a compliment and so I thought this was a really interesting encounter with a Japanese way of thinking. In Germany it would be a little bit insulting though, don't you think? I could not imagine to be invited to dinner at someone's house and then to compliment the cook by saying she would make a good housewife. But in Japan it still seems to be an ideal role for women to be good wives. Actually, many Japanese girls plan to work for a few years after graduating from university but then to stop working after they are married. I could not imagine to do that. For what other reason would I have spent 6 years working so hard in order to obtain a good degree other than to earn money lateron? Times are changing in Japan though. But it seems that the traditional housewife role is much more implemented in Japanese family life than in Germany. Of course, I do not know Japan and Japanese families well enough to judge that. But it is an impression that I get after talking to our tutors and Japanese professors.
Anyways, I thought this was a really interesting and insightful moment that evening. I hope to get some more of that kind ^_^

Weather in Oita

It is December and I sometimes go outside without a jacket! It is amazing!

Even when it is cold here, often the sun is shining and there are no clouds in the sky. This is my favorite weather. In Germany it is so rare (according to my taste ) in autumn and winter to have cold, crispy, but sunny weather. Oita really spoils me. I had a long summer and the winter will be like this. たのしみにしていますよ。

Last week I went to university by bike like this. It was so warm!

Also worth mentionable, although old, used, and crappy, my bike has become my best friend. (At this point my family might fail to avoid grinning at the screen, because my lazy arms and legs usually only operate a car and no bike...)
We (German international students) could not live without our bikes. We use them to go everywhere. University campus is 45 minutes by bike, the train station / downtown only 5 minutes! This is especially convenient, as there is no bus from Kaikan to train station / downtown - it takes us 20 minutes to walk! In the beginning when we did not have bikes it was really annoying to walk every morning.

We got the bike from a salesperson introduced by our janitor Mr. Oishi. I would also recommend for future international students to get a bike from him. It is convenient - he comes to the Kaikan, brings the bikes, and does the registration. All the bikes with three gears cost 5,000 Yen in total (including registration).

Nagasaki

I wish I could tell exciting things about my trip to Nagasaki. But the city was actually a little bit of a disappointment. It looks much European, because of the Portuguese and Netherland(ers), who have left their footprints in architecture and culture in Nagasaki. So often I felt like in Europe when I walked through Nagasaki. But I don't want to say that it was a bad trip! The best part about our trip was probably our travel group. Fabian and I went together with a bunch of Americans and a Thai. The group was very fun to travel with and I liked it alot. Travelling in a big group did not get on my nerves (like in Fukuoka) as I had feared. Without the others it would have been a sad trip, haha.

People interested in history will find Nagasaki a city with a tragic background. The second atomic bomb during WWII has created a disastrous turn in the development of the city's history. A visit to the Atomic Bomb Museum and the Peace Park is probably a must for every visitor in Nagasaki. I have to admit thatq we did not go into the Museum. Nagasaki was also the first Japanese city which opened its gates to the West. Portuguese trade ships and Christian missionaries arrived in this city. (Yes, we learn all this in our Japanese history class ^^)

Some yellow cats enjoying the sun. The weather in Nagasaki was pretty good half of the time.

Nagasaki has so many cats!

 

German sculpture in the Peace Park.

 

Trees turned red

 

Cathedral near the Peace Park

 

Could not hold back the excitement and euphoria ^^

 

Hundreds of origami cranes. They hang by many statues. 

 

Peace Park Stairs

 

Sea Side Park

 

What is that?

 

At the Harbor

 

Spectacular Nightview on Mount Inasa

 

Nagasaki uses trams

 

Looks so European here

  

 Something Japanese - a temple.

I could not help but think of the magnificient temples that I saw in Kyoto.

That's why it was a little disappointment for me. :(

 

Plant

 

I found an apple lying around in the temple. I wonder why it was there. It was in the middle of the buildings, no altar around...

 

Some Park, which reminded me of Germany

 We met some scary mob. Look at their faces, you know they mean it.

I think the most important factor that made Nagasaki a disappointment for me was that I went to Kyoto. It is so much more beautiful and exciting for me there. Gomen ne.

Anyone who wants to go to Nagasaki  would recommend:

1. Go to Nagasaki first before going to Kyoto or any other big exciting city in Japan.

2. Go to the Akari Hostel. I have stayed in 5 hostels so far and this was the one that I liked best.

 

Our last day. Bye bye Nagasaki. 

And thank you Michael for the great group pictures ^^

Sumo

One of the American international students in our Kaikan had found out that there was a Sumo Match in Fukuoka. Many of us wanted to go see it. Sumo is the national sport in Japan, so of course I wanted to see it!

People who read my blog regularly will already know Fukuoka. (Oh yeah, feel the bad conscience coming up? ^^) It is about 2h by train from Oita. It was the very first city that I saw in Japan. It was there that I made contact with the Japanese culture.

The match was on Saturday, but we wanted to go already on Friday in order to go to a club. And after the match we wanted to travel to Nagasaki and come back to Oita on Monday evening. What was really exciting was that so many of us actually went. So when we got on the bus, I immediately had the feeling of going on a second field trip ^^ (People who have read my blog will know about the first one.)

Although it is exciting and fun to be a bunch of people, it was also annoying to coordinate so many people. I felt like half the time in Fukuoka we spent waiting or looking for someone. We ate some great motsu nabe (Fukuoka specialty), which is vegetables, meat, tofu, pasta-like dough, cooked in broth in a big pot in the middle of the table. It was delicious. But unfortunately, it was not much (but expensive!) and I ended up buying some food from the 7-Eleven konbini afterwards. The club was a club.

Motsunabe - delicious and expensive

I wish I could tell some exciting story about Japanese club culture, but it was like being in Germany. It was probably also a foreigners' club. The name was something like "Sam and Davis". And somehow the club reminded me a little bit of the "Fun" in Paderborn. (Paderborn people will know this is not really a good sign ^^). One thing I might have noticed is that the guys and the girls in the club were flirting a little bit more aggressively than I know from Germany. I wonder if it was our group, which attracted much attention, or if it is a normal thing in clubs in Japan.

Probably the most interesting part of my trip was the Sumo Match. I never knew that the sumo wrestlers fulfil so many ritual proceedings before the actual match, which itself only lasts several seconds. So most of the time we spent time watching the sumo wrestlers performing their ceremonial rituals for about 4 minutes before fighting for about 5 seconds. The sumo match had already started at 10 a.m., but we were told to come at 15 p.m. when the main event starts. And after watching big people doing the same rituals over and over again, I can understand why. It is impossible to sit through a sumo match for more than 2h. I even caught myself missing the fights, because their preceding rituals had driven me into daydreaming.

But if you think about it, Sumo has already developed as a sport in Japan already 1,500 years ago! It started out as a religious ritual in order to pray to the Gods for a good harvest. The interesting thing is that all these rituals have survived and make sumo so unique. So it is acutally not only the sport you watch, but also a piece of Japanese history, culture, religious beliefs... Imagine, even Samurai have watched the same as we do now.

The sumo ring is called the dohyo and is made of clay. 

The hard surface is covered with a thin layer of sand. 

You can see a roof hanging from the ceiling. It resembles a shrine and the four tassels in different colors at its corners stand for the four seasons of the year.

 

 I constantly saw people going over the dohyo with brooms, but I did not if they spread the sand evenly or if the sweep it away.

Before the matches start, all the sumo wrestlers come up on "stage" in reverse order of their ranks. You could notice that because when the last wrestlers came up the audience started cheering. 

They wear ceremonial aprons made of silk (I read those are really expensive). 

The sumo wrestlers go through a series of symbolic movements before acutally fighting. They rinse their mouths with water to cleanse body and mind. Then they wipe their bodies with a towel. I actually saw one wrestler wiping his armpits first before wiping his face. And some wrestlers seem to be eager to make a dangerous impression, because they wipe their faces and body pretty aggressively, as if they wanted to rub off their skin and at the same time looking like they wanted to kill somebody.

They then clap their hands together in order to attract the attention of the Gods. Then they raise their arms with the palms upwards to show that they carry no weapons.

The following movement is probably one of the best known in Sumo. The wrestlers lift one leg to the side high in the air and then stamps his foot on the ground, repeating the procedure with the other leg. This symbolically drives evil from the dohyo.

The athlete throws salt into the ring in order to purify it. It is supposed to protect him from injuries. 

 

The athletes then squat facing each other and glare at each other. This is a kind of indirect warfare, part of the intimidation. At this point you would think that they start fighting, right? No, they do not, they go back to their corners and repeat the whole procedures again and again. This can take up to four minutes!

The actual fight only takes several seconds. 

The winner (left) of the match squats again facing the referee. The loser leaves the ring (right).

As you might have noticed the color of the kimono of the referee changes colors, because I took the pictures from several matches. There are also ranks for referees. Only certain ranks can officiate a match with a top rank sumo wrestler. The rank of the referees can be determined by the color of the tassel of his fan. 

You can also see a person in black garments in the middle in front of the ring. Around the four sides of the dohyo sit four judges, who come up in the dohyo when their is doubt about a referee's decision. They can overrule the referee's decision. 

I actually saw them coming up once. It was like watching a scene from Lord of the Rings - four black knights slowly approaching and circling one person from four sides....

And if you liked the match, you can buy some souvenirs ^^

It was fun! Thank you guys!

Summing up

It has now been 9 weeks that I came to Japan. Time flew by.
In my Intercultural Communication class we talked about culture shock. This made me think about my stay in Japan.

According to Gullahorn's W-curve model (yeah, we need to increase the intellectual level of this blog) the stay abroad starts with the honeymoon, a time of high flying emotions and enthusiasm. The good mood then decreses and ends in a crisis, when reality starts to set in. Then, when one gets to one's home country again, one is extremely excited and happy to get into one's familiar surroundings again. But also this second honeymoon becomes a crisis at home, before recovery and adjustment at home starts.

Well, for me the W-curve does not really apply. When I came here, it all started out quite crappy. In Fukuoka everything was okay, but not really exciting. And when I came to Oita, I faced a full grown crisis, as I felt unhappy, hated the city and was fed up with the Japanese people. I remember seeing the Kaikan for the first time, all the dirt, the dead insects lying around, the old and smelly rooms... Moreover, during the first week it rained almost constantly. The second week I finally started to feel a little better in Oita. But then, in the third week, I got sick. This was the worst. I hated it so much. Especially because I felt extremely lonely and isolated in my room. I had only started to feel more comfortable in Oita, but the sickness had destroyed everything. I remember seriously wanting to go back home to Paderborn. This was aprubtly ended, when I was finally able to leave my isolation and join everybody on the school field trip. This was the beginning of my honeymoon.

I started to love Japan. I loved all the differences in food, people, cultural events,... Every day was a new exploration, every day was a gift, every new experience was a gift. I remember waking up and being happy that a new day started which awaited new things to discover. The sun was shining almost all the time, I experienced so many new things with my friends. I breathed in that I saw, lived, smelled, tasted,... It had been a long time that I have been so happy and carefree.

Unfortunately, this only lasted about two weeks, as reality started to creep into my live again. I started to think about my future, my life in Germany, my worries again. I realized that Japan was only a short vacation from my real life. I Japan I could forget all my worries, my university obligations, my future job - apparently physical distance to the life in one's home country helps to create a mental distance as well.

Two weeks ago I had the worst time. My computer broke down. I could not use it anymore. As I sat in my silent, quiet room, I noticed how lonely it was in there, how unrelated I actually feel to this city and its people. I realized how fragile my happy honeymoon bubble had been. And I realized how important the internet is in Oita. Without it, you feel very isolated and lonely in the Kaikan. Internet is not only your window to the outside world, it is the connection to the people that you know. Here everything is confined - the little room, the little community of exchange students. You do not have anybody here except the other exchange students. In Germany, the Germans are also my community. I know my way around, I understand the culture, I am part of it. Here I feel that I only belong to the exchange students.

It is very difficult to relate to the Japanese culture. We do not have much contact to Japanese people except for our tutors. Even when I walk down the street and nobody notices me (as I look Japanese), I feel like a stranger. One important factor is that I do not speak Japanese properly. I cannot ask people anything except for the way, the price, and other simple things. And even then I usually do not understand the answers. This is exhausting because the Japanese do not speak English. They sometimes do not even try to utter a single English word. In the beginning it even made me angry. They have been studying English since high school and I have been studying Japanese for only a couple of months - and I am supposed to struggle my way through a Japanese conversation?! So every time I travel in Japan, the asking part becomes really exhausting and sometimes frustrating. It is the only thing about travelling in Japan that I dislike.

What also makes me feel like a stranger is that Japanese seem to notice (Western) foreigners more than Germans would notice Asian people in Germany. Being a foreigner here makes you special immediately. People often look at you curiously - not staring, but subconsciously noticing, even from the corner of their eye. Some are exceptionally helpful when they see a foreigner; others are somehow scared and quickly move away.

Right now I feel that many obligations and duties await me, which I confine to the back of my mind. Up to now I have not taken university too seriously (except for my language courses). I have been seeing my stay in Japan as a cultural learning process for me, rather than an academic challenge. But slowly I cannot delay my To Do List anymore.


But actually I cannot really describe how it feels like in Japan. Right now it feels neither good nor bad. Neither exciting nor boring. I'm trying to shake off this cloud of indifference!

I guess I will just have to see how my W curve will actually turn out.