Layover in Seattle

It's traveling time after a long period of intensive workloads.
Haneda international terminal, which is very new, was interesting to visit. The upper floor consisted many high-end Japanese restaurants and shops. They seemed too expensive to me, but the quality must be so good and it may be nice for people who travel frequently and are tired of low-quality airport meals.

Pic 1. An artistic light poll. I don't mind one with this kind of design in my room.
2. I was able to hop on a train and go to downtown Seattle! It was my first time to visit the city of coffee after my English course at UW. It reminded me of many good memories and made me think a lot.

3. At the Bay Area where the very first Starbucks coffee store is, you can see Mt Rainier on far left.

4. I took exactly the same picture of the park and the hilly street six years ago with my DSL camera. It was an interesting experience. Things seemed not changed much after many years.

The final presentation

We gave a presentation on the last day of the class. Yurie, my partner, and I spent whole day preparing the presentation yesterday and still we had something to do at night. It was surely the biggest assignment of this course. Yurie is such a nice lady as she became interested in religion and arranged the interview to her friend's host family for me. She never says "Oh, it is such a hassle, I don't feel like doing that." She prepared both oral and visual ones very well.

Presentations of other students were also very interesting. They talked about Holidays in the US, Gender roles, Baseball, Marriage and divorce, Health care, Environmental issues, and Economic crisis. What they found on each topic was so deep that made me think a lot. Surprisingly, divorce rate in the US is 50%, the world highest. My classmates' interviewees think that it is because American people get married too early, and they do not hesitate to do what they think is right.

Michell, our teacher, gave us an important advice; When you are very nervous at the presentation, tell them "I am so nervous." It makes people laugh and helps you to relax.
Yurie and I were nervous before we start, so I tried saying that "We are very nervous." It did make our classmates laugh and I felt easier. Yurie talked about Hindu and Christianity, then I told them about Islam and Judaism. The contents were; the building they pray, the holy book, how they pray, important rituals or holidays etc. The other day, one of my classmates told me that he didn't know anything about Hindu or Judaism, so he was looking forward to learn something from our presentation. I guess our presentation met his expectition.

What was difficult is that we had a Muslim classmate from Saudi Arabia, the "Mecca" of Islam. When I was explaining what I heard from my former-Muslim interviewee to the class, he sometimes frowned. I had to make sure that that was not a general information of Islam but what I heard from the interviewee who is from Bangradish. Anyway, we finished our work and it was a meaningful activity.

Thanks Yurie.

Sports day on a rainy day

Today we were supporsed to play some sports in Denny field. It was showering when we arrived there, but we started playing valleyball. I took a lot of picture of my classmates playing. It began raining very soon, so we stopped and wait for the rain to stop.

The rain did not stop, so we went home. A Pretty bad day for sports. It was my first time to see such heavy rain in Seattle. I went to Suzzalo library and saw what is called "Harry Potter's room", which is a big hall with all shelves filled with books. It looked like an old, beautiful church.

In the class we chose the topic of the presentations we will give next week. We are going to interview some Americans, and learn what we want to know. I chose religion since I am very interested in that topic. I hope I would be able to get an idea of how religions influence on the people's lives and find out their opinions about their religion.

Ballard Locks

We visited the Ballard Locks today. Ballard is the name of that area, and the locks connects Puget sound and Lake Union. The locks are kind of elevator which let vessels go through the canal from the lake to the sea, or from the sea to the lake.

In the past, they needed to carry lumbers by ship from lake Washington to Puget sound via Lake Union. The problem was; the water level of the lake was higher than that of the sea. If we connect the lake and the sea directly without the locks, the freshwater in the lake will flow into the sea, and it will dry up. We need locks because we do not want to empty the lake.

This is the step-by-step explanation how the lock works;
When the ship is going to go into the sea from the lake, the gate opens and the ship goes in the lock, and then it is closed. The water in the lock will be drained until the level become equal to that of seawater, and the other gate is opened, which connects the lock and the sea. The ship gets out of the lock. Because freshwater is lighter than saltwater, the freshwater in the lake generally will not mix with the seawater. Besides, At the bottom of the lake are some barriers which prevents seawater to go into the freshwater, something like bumps.

Salmons, their precious resorce of the Pacific ocean, come back to the lake, where they were born, from the sea in this time of year. Salmons spawn only in the lake, so people had to let the salmons return to the lake. They invented what is called "Fish ladder", which is similar to stairway, so that the salmons can go back and lay eggs.

I did not know what is the locks like, and how it works, so it was good for me to know. The Panama canal and other canals were built with the same idea.

I went to waterfront park again, and took many pictures of buildings in the city center. Seattle library is famous for its look, which is fully constructed with glass. It was beautiful but unfortunately it was closed due to the maintenance. Skyscrepers were very tall in that area and traditional hotels were also good.

Fremont Sunday market

Today I went to Green Lake, which is within walking distance from my house, and then Fremont Sunday market. Though I did not buy anything, it was so much fun just to look around.

Green Lake is small compared to other famous lakes in Seattle, like Lake Washington or Lake Union, but it is still very big, about 7 km in length. I was to meet up my friends at 9:30, but they did not appear even at 10:15. So I just sat at the lakeside and wondered where to go alone. At 10:30, one of my friends found me! It was a complete coincidence that they walked around there. They had just arrived at the lake when they found me. It is very inconvenient that I do not have a mobile phone in here.

Anyway, four of us lent a boat and went into the water. We cycled to move the boat forward, and also control the direction with a handle. It was fun that the boat did not go where we want to go because of the flow of water. It was such a nice day, and the surface of the water was shining brightly. The scenary from the boat was wonderful.

We went to Fremont Sunday market where people have a second-hand store on their own. There were also many food stalls there, giving off very good smell. We found a Thai food restaurant near the market, and I ate fried rice there. It contained chicken, tomatos, beans, celery and cucumbers. It was very very nice, the sauce is my favorite. It was so delicious that I asked them to wrap half of it for dinner. It is very common to take served food home because it is usually too much, while we seldom do that in Japan. Japanese chefs are afraid of food poisoning and it may be ruin the reputation of the restaurant.

We saw the statue of Lenin in Fremont, the first Premier of the Soviet Union. But why is he in Fremont, the US?

Hanging around with friends

It was again a very very long day. It is a typical Friday, for the young and pretty enjoyable. In the class we took turns in telling an anecdote, and knew some basic history of Seattle. And then I went to Fremont area with my classmates, where there were a lot of cute and artistic buildings. Then we took a water taxi heading to Alki beach, from where we were able to see the beautiful scenery of downtown Seattle. At night one of my roommate came back from Peru, so we went to a bar together.

We really spoke English a lot today, which was surprising for me. For us Japanese, who are majority of our class, it is rather inconvenient and strange to talk to Japanese in English. I know how it feels and think it is natural. However, now I am in America in order to improve my language skill. I wished I were a minority like students from Korea, Taiwan or Saudi Arabia so that I speak English all the time to communicate with Japanese. Fortunately, some Japanese students were keen to learn English, so we are good friends never letting ourselves rely on Japanese.

One of my friend, Kahori, is very energetic to brush up her English. She stayed in Canada for 3 months last year, but she spent most of the time speaking in Japanese since her roommate was Japanese, too. She regretted it so much that she decided not to speak Japanese when she is in Seattle. I have never heard her speak Japanese yet, which I found honorable. Her English is actually very good, especially in the vocabulary, so I wonder why she is in the 2nd highest class.

The first US settlers found Seattle in 1851, which is quite late in comparison with other cities like New York found in 1624. Seattle is still a young city. The first industry was fishing and logging as Seattle faces the seashore and have a plenty of big trees, mainly cedar. There was a gold rush in San Francisco, and many people went there trying to be rich. They need houses so there were high demand for wood. It developed forestry in Seattle and the engineering to build a canal to carry the logs or lumbers. It is interesting to know how the city developed.

Fremont was awesome; I definitely go over there again. My roommate told me the best sandwich shops in there, so I will go and eat the sandwich next time. The look and the atmosphere of that area were sophisticated.

Water taxi was awesome. The fare is quite cheap, so it is definitely an indispensable public transportation for the locals. From Alki beach, we could see the beautiful view of downtown Seattle. It would have been better if we could see the sunset but unfortunately it was cloudy. We had a lot of fun.

Next weekend I am planning to go to Victoria, Canada. I wonder why I cannot use my credit card online, so I cannot make a reservation for anything on the Internet. It is very inconvenient for me but I had to make a phone call to book the boat and the hotel. The operator was so kind that he spoke slowly for me and tried to understand well my English. I successfully booked it at last, and it made me more confident. I had a feeling of achievement. The more you practice, the better you get.

I tried Fish and chips for the first time in this evening. It is a very famous seafood in Seattle. Fish and chips are usually made from cod fish. The smallest serving was yet too big for me, so I shared one with my friend. It was tasty.

Then I went to waterfront area, walking straight up to north from downtown, to pay the ferry fare I just booked. The staff there was so nice and kind. He printed out my itinerary for the trip. I just wanted to check the spelling of my name since the staff in custom would see my passport in Canada. The staff said, however, they would check my passport, but not my ticket. So my name could be John Smith on the ticket He was so funny. I really like his sense of humor.

On the way to home, it drizzled when I was on a bus. A man sitting in front of me talked to me looking outside the window. "If it rains on evening, it will be sunny in the following day", said he. I told him that I did not know that and then he told me about himself. He is from Italy working at the Sea-Tac airport, and studies business online at night. He wakes up at 2 in the morning and catches the first bus at 3 to Tacoma, and starts working at 4. He must be very hardworking. It made me happy that I had a short conversation for a while with someone who lives in the same city. People are truly very friendly here.

One of my roommate who just came back from Peru, took me to a bar with her friends. The bar was full of people talking , drinking and laughing. Fortunately, smoking was prohibited in the bar! In Washington state, smoking inside is illegal. I wish nobody would smoke in Japanese bars too. The bar was nice. I drank soda and it was free. They sometimes do that, to a designated drivers or newcomers.

Mariners

It was such a long day! In the morning we had a class as usual where we did some listening, and we went canueing in the afternoon at Lake Washington and then I went to watch a baseball game at night.

At the lunch time we went to HUB, the cafeteria, and bought some food there. There are a lot of shops, but all of them were closed except the pizza shop maybe because it is a holiday season now. The pizza was so big. The diameter of one pizza is about 50 cm long, and it was about one sixth. It is surely too big. Everything is so big in here. Food, drinks, clothes... even the smallest sizes are. I want to say "Could you give me a half of it and a 50% discount?"

I bought and ate Makizushi in the cafeteria because I missed rice so much. I want to eat rice at least once a day, but recently I do not eat rice so often. Makizushi was about 30 cm long, and inside were tuna and carrots savoured with soy sauce. Actually it was blown rice so it was not sticky at all and was totally different from what we have in Japan. It was still OK for me, though.

It was too hot a day for canoeing. Lake Washington was walking distance from the University. The university owns a water activity center near there where we can go canoeing, sailing, and kayaking. Every 3 people got on a canoe. At first I thought the canoe might flip and we might fall into water, but it was pretty stable. If you try not to lean on one side and to keep the balance, it never turns over. All we have to do was paddling. It was difficult to turn right or left, and to control its speed. So our canoe hit others, and was hit by others. It was so hot during the day with no clouds in the sky. When I looked myself in the mirror at night, my face was slightly red.

My friend picked me up in front of my house and we went down to Sefeco Field, Mariner's home stadium. There were a lot of people around the gate, but they were not fully occupying the seats. Our seats were located on the 3rd floor, and we were able to see directly down the home base. What was unlucky was that I cannot bring water, or anything to drink, into the stadium so I had to throw away what I just bought. I do not why but I think it is for food stalls. If you have something to drink or eat, you do not want to buy anything at the stalls, where foods are rather expensive. I bought a Caesar salad with small pieces of bread on the top. The size was amazing; it was in a bowl 20 cm in diameter. It seemed like they used a whole lettuce to make one plate of Caesar salad. It was good, though.

It was too bad that Ichiro did not play at that night. My friend told me that he hurt himself a few days ago and is now checking his condition. I saw Jojima, the other Japanese player in that team, hit and catch balls. I did not know that he was playing in Softbank in Fukuoka before he came here. What was interesting is the screen displayed a lot of funny videos and games during the break time.

On the way home, there was a big crossing and it was closed at that time. It was very crowded around there with people who came out of the stadium. I saw a very very long train pass the crossing. I am sure that it was the longest train I have ever seen. It went rather slowly and took a long time to finish, about 15 minutes. When the crossing finally opened, shouts of joy arose and people crapped hands.

I like that moment in that we shared the same feeling with so many people.

Long journey to Tacoma

The class went alright; we talked a lot with a different conversation partner. There are so many students from one university, so we should make sure that the partners are from different universities.

In the afternoon, I wanted to go to downtown, but I took a wrong bus. Actually it was an express bus heading to downtown Tacoma, a city in southern part of Washington. I arrived at another downtown after 1-hour journey on the bus. I went back to downtown Seattle right away but I wasted 2 hours, and I missed lunch too. It was so funny.

There was a good thing, though. The woman who sat next to me was very kind and she told me which bus stop is convenient for me. She was going to the art museum. I had lunch at a french cafe, where the menu was written in French. It was about 3:30 pm and quite late for lunch. The salad was delicious. Tres bien.

In Seattle, people are generally very friendly and easy to talk to. I see shop staff and customer greet each other and ask how they are doing almost everywhere. They usually answer "Yeah good." with smile and it seems the reason why Americans are always in a good mood. If you keep saying "Good", you are good all day. It is such a wonderful habit they have. In Japan, we do not usually ask how we are. Japanese are trained not to talk and bother people, while many Americans are keen to know the feeling of their friends.

The bus from downtown to my house was very crowded, but I was lucky to have a seat. I talked to the man sitting next to me and he said that he was going to pick up his car parked near UW. I told a bit about my self and so did he. To my surprise, he has been to Japan 6 times! He is working in YWCA, and they have some exchange program between Japan. He has been to Kyushu many times, like Fukuoka, Kagoshima, and Miyazaki.

There are some people here who have been to Tokyo or Kyoto, but I think it is rare that he went to Kyushu. My classmates from Taiwan and people I met on the airplane did not even know where Kyushu is.

I did my laundry today. We have a huge washing machine downstairs (about 1 cubic meter), and next to it is a drier as big as the washing machine. It is convenient that you do not have to hang the laundry out and to wait for them to dry up. I like the scent of the detergent, and my clothes now give a nice fragrance too. I like the scent of my hair now because the shampoos sold in America also have a good smell. I wonder where in Fukuoka I can buy the same detergent or shampoo.

After lunch I took a monorail to go to Seattle center, and walked around (or I should say wandered). It took me hours to find the SeattleOpera, which was at one corner of the square. It was such a nice day to take a walk. The Spaceneedle, the tall tower standing there, was cool. It is considered to be the landmark of Seattle and sure it is.

1st day in the class

On the 1st day in the class, we had a conversation partner and asked some questions about him/her. We also watched movie "Sleepless in Seattle", which I like so much. Grammer was a little bit difficult but gave me a clear understanding of the tenses.

It was so nice of my teacher to say "No Japanese during the class, please!" I spoke as much as possible, and it was surely a good practice.

I went to a Thai restaurant for lunch with my classmates, who are from Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. The Thai food was very tasty! I loved the smell, the taste, and the rice, which was not what we eat in Japan. It was a long type of rice and they were not so sticky.

In the afternoon, we went to University village, where there are a lot of shops and restaurants. A lot of people were shopping despite the fact that it was a weekday. I bought some cut-and-sawn and slippers in a GAP shop. Things are not so cheap in America, so I decided not to buy clothes any more. It costs too much!

One of my roommate came back, and we talked a lot. It was fun.

Placement test

I missed the listening test, but was able to take the speaking test because I overslept on the 1st day of school!! It is my fault that the alarm clock did not work as I set it 12 hours late. The clock of my cell phone still shows Japan time, so I have to calculate what time to get up in America. It is so confusing that I missed the test.

What was surprising is there are many many Japanese people there! Some people came as a group and they are already friends each other. I did not expect that. The volunteer students told me that there are usually more diversities in nationalities of the students, but this time there is not. If there are a lot of people from one country, they end up speaking in their native language all the time. I never want it to happen!

I was placed to an A class and the majority were Japanese, and many of them are from the same university, but there are some students from Taiwan, Korea, and Saudi Arabia. I strongly hope they speak English in order for us to practice! I know, at the same time, it is kind of uneasy and embarrassing to speak other languages, but we need to do it. That is why we are here. Anyway, my classmates are pretty good at English.

After lunch, we took a quick tour to the campus. The campus is beautiful. The grass was green, and I even saw a squirrel in the bush. Brick buildings are also excellent; they are all new and maintained well.

What was funny is that we wandered for almost two hours to get a U-pass, which enables students to get a free unlimited bus ride. We went to one office to get one, and were told it was a wrong place and how to get to the "right" office. And then we walk all the way through the campus and were told that it was a wrong place again. It continued 3 times!! At the time we purchased the U-pass, we were so tired and went home directly.

I am ready for the class, starting from tomorrow.

Leaving on a jet plane

I lend a suitcase for a trip to Seattle. An orange and cute suitcase was delivered and I packed my stuff in it. Though only half of the space was occupied, it was as much as 17 kg in total. It means I have room for only 6kg of souvenirs.

The flight was actually terrible in that it was shaking all the time. I could sleep only for 2 hours during the night flight and the day just started again when we arrived at Seattle. It was OK for me, though maybe because I used to staying up late.

15-year-old boy was sitting next to me. He was returning to Seattle from a short exchange programme held in Tokyo. He knew some Japanese and he read Japanese comic "Bleach". He was reading a book about "Otaku" too and he even took some notes. oh... The girl who was sitting the opposite side was 17 years old and she was returning to Seattle too. She said he had an ankle and a cousin in Tokyo and she visited them for a week. We talked about the difference between Seattle and Tokyo. For example, people in Tokyo walk very fast, likes shopping, and a lot of women wear high-heels, which American women usually do not wear. She told me a lot of things about Seattle, too and she even gave me some coins to make a phone call at the payphone. I was so surprised to her kindness and I really liked that attitude.

A friend of the person who lends me her room picked me up at the airport and took me to the house. She gave a quick tour of whole house, like how to use the kitchen, how to do the laundry, and how to get to the university. One of funny things is that I got on her car on the left side, which has a driver's seat. I knew that everything is opposite when it comes to cars, but I still did it. It also takes some time to get used to the fact that cars go on the right side of the road. Anyway, she was very nice. She even took me to a bookstore where we can get free Wi-Fi just to make sure the bus route. Without her, my 1st day in Seattle would have been so difficult. I thank her very much for her time!

There are a lot of nice cafes and restaurants around my house. As you might know, Seattle is famous for coffee shops like Starbucks, Tully's, and Seattle's best coffee. There are many other kinds of cafes along the street and you frequently see people with paper cups of coffee everywhere.

I went to downtown in the evening by bus. Bus drivers are also very friendly; they ask every passenger how they are doing. There are so many shops in downtown. The roads are all in gridlike fashion, so it is rather easy to find what we want to see. The town and the road seemed to be built artificially. In other words, it was designed to be convenient for human. It is how this City, or this country, developed.

The market had a lively atmosphere. In "Pike Place Fish", they sell fish with a loud voice and they throw the fish to their customer! The store was always crowded. The flower shops were also nice. They sell rather cheap bunches of flower.

So many things to write on the 1st day. It is because of the time difference. I left Japan on 23rd, took a night flight, and 23rd started again just after I arrived. I know it is weird to say that "day" had 48 hours, but it actually did.