Study Abroad In San Francisco

Cherry Blossom Festival

2008-04-23T21:18:00.000-07:00

Japanese cultural festival called “Cherry Blossom Festival” was held in Japan Town, San Francisco on April 12^th 13^th 19^th and 20^th. I joined on 13^th and 20^th.On 13^th, I was with my Taiwanese friend, and hanging out with her. I saw a Japanese drum concert in the beginning. After that, we bought Japanese food at the booth, and ate it in outside. There were many booths around there, and most of them looked delicious, so it took a little bit time to decide to buy. I finally decided Udon. My friend bought eel don by the way. It was awesome. It was very hot at the day, extraordinary weather. San Francisco is famous for its unique climate, easy to change and difference among places. After eating lunch, I bought ice cream inside of a building and while I was walking, I met my other friend. We took a picture together, standing in front of cherry blossom tree. It was nice picture. Finally, with the friends, I went to see Ikebana exhibition. I don’t have an opportunity to see Ikebana in my daily life even though I’m Japanese, so I had a good incentive to my life.

Valentine Day And Pillow Fight

2008-02-14T23:34:00.003-08:00

Today is Valentine Day. There is a difference for the celebration of the day between Japan and US. In Japan, in general, women give chocolates to the men but here, America is not. It’s typical that both women and men give chocolates to the other and many people give presents to the other.

I ate out at Japanese restaurant with my friend today, and I heard an interesting story. There is a yearly event called Pillow Fight in SF. People taking part in it fight literally with a pillow. They bring their own pillow to the place held the event, and smash each other with it. This reminds Japanese of Makuranage that Japanese students throw their pillow to their friends when they stay out of the home for a special school event like school trip and go to bed. I saw some people holding pillows when I was on my way to my home. They seem to get exciting... I’ve uploaded some video shows pillow fight from Youtube.

The Spring Semester has begun!

2008-01-24T22:18:00.001-08:00

The Spring Semester of SFSU began today. This semester, I’m taking microeconomic, management and organization behavior for my major, Ethical issue in Journalism, Critical thinking, and English class for multilingual. The total units are 15. My grade for last semester was bad, so I’ll get good grade in this semester.

The Trip To New York④Times Square And Grand Central Terminal

2008-01-22T17:59:00.000-08:00

I dropped in Times Square after the visit to Broadway. I was there for a little while because we wanted to check in for the hotel and leave our bag at the room, so it was just quick look. There were many commercial signs and electric bulletin boards in there like Tokyo. Through Times Square, I dropped in Grand Central Terminal. It’s the place like Tokyo Station. Many trains are available at the station , and the building was classical.

The Trip To New York③Broadway

2008-01-18T00:05:00.001-08:00

After visiting to Ground Zero, I visited to Broadway. The average temperature of the day was -3℃, so it’s very cold while I was walking. My friend had bought groves for this trip in San Francisco but I didn’t. I felt regret for that. I bought them there afterwards. On the way to there from the nearest station, I saw many people but it’s less than I expected. My expectation was Tokyo. In the end of this trip, I felt being less people than I expected after all. I think Tokyo has more people and even Osaka does. I also saw a bunch of street stalls. I bought nice warming hat at there later on. Like this, I got many discoveries at there. I saw Yoshinoya, many souvenir stores, NY Yankees and Mets goods stores, big McDonald’s sign and so on. As I expected, many theaters were there. There were sings for a play I’ve heard, The lion King and Mamma Mia. I really wanted to see The Lion King but eventually I didn’t because of the schedule and financial problem. There was no time to see. If I had one more day to stay there, I would be able to see it. There was an available ticket but it’s expensive. Even minimum one was one hundred bucks! I dropped in Times Square as the next visit place.

The Trip To New York②

2008-01-16T03:17:00.001-08:00

I landed at JFK air port in 10am in Eastern Standard Time. If the plane landed on time, I was going to visit to The Statue of Liberty. That’s because it’s so popular place for tourists that many people may line up to board the vessel to the island located the statue, so it’s better to go there to line up in earlier. I visited there in the second day, so it’s ok. I’ll write about it later on. My friend and I framed our visit plan again while we were on the plane and had decided to visit Ground Zero instead of it. Ground Zero is the place in which World Trade Center stood once as you know. That’s the one of the places I really wanted to visit in NY because it’s historically important place. After I left the plane, I took the train to the subway station to move to the downtown. As soon as I went to outside, my skin felt cold, as if my skin was stuck. After a while, the train came in. I have an image that the subway train of NY is silver and has uneven surfaces. What I saw was the image. My fried said “many scribbles on the surfaces” but it had few, not many. My first impression of the inside was that there are many black people. On the way to the downtown, many people got in, and I saw many black though I also saw white. The difference from SF was that I didn’t see any Asian American. It was obvious that NYC has more black people than SF does. I got off at the transfer station, and took the train to the site of WTC. The site was located at just right side, across a road, of the stair to the ground. The site was under construction that the skyscraper called Freedom Tower is going to be built, and some people who seem tourists were around there. As my impression, I thought it’s very scary that terrorism happened in such a center of a city. I’m sorry for the people who died because of the incident. After I saw the information board about the site, I circled the site. The angles, I saw on the way around, to the site were different. The next visit place was Broadway.

The Trip To New York①

2008-01-14T13:42:00.000-08:00

I was visiting to New York in January 4th through 6th. By the trip, I had never been to eastern part of US as well as New York, so this trip was something I really wanted. In the night of January 3rd, my friend who came along with me and I met up at the bus stop near our campus and then took the bus to the train station to SF International Airport. There was unfortunately the 1 hour delay in the flight, so our plane actually had to change. The passengers started to board around 12, and took off in 12:30. Flight Company was Virgin America and inside of the plane had a little bit cool style. It’s a relatively little small though the lights above me were purple and screen which can touch on it to operate was in front of me. With the screen, I could watch TV, listen to radio and music, play game and even chat though I think most people don’t use it.

Christmas Day

2008-01-10T15:20:00.000-08:00

On Christmas day, I was invited Christmas party. Before the part, my friend and I went to the beach called Lands End. It’s located in northern San Francisco, so I could see Golden Gate Bridge from there. While I was walking, I saw many kinds of dogs, and some of them weren’t on leash. Though this is a rare scene in Japan, it’s not special one in America. One of the reasons dog owners can let their dogs take a walk with no leash is that those dogs are accustomed to people because they had a lot of opportunities to see people when they were a little, so they are relatively friendly. I also saw this kind of scene in Canada. I’ve got accustomed to it though I had a little culture shock in the beginning.

After the beach, I played video game with the friend. We played baseball one to start with, and succor one afterwards. Needless to say, I was defeated million times. Next time, I will beat him.

My friend and I went to the house held the party by his car. I met many people in the party, and ate amazing dishes as well. After dinner, we played a gesture game. We were divided into four teams. The representative players from each teams picked up a cards which is written their gesture’s topic on it, and on based on the topic, the players gestured. The team which can answer the most is the winner. One of the people was holding a baby. Babies are cute but at the same time, a mysterious existence for me because they have weird face like alien. I had great time on Christmas day, and the last year’s Christmas was something little bit special for me because I’ve become a Christian since I came to San Francisco, so it’s first time Christmas as a Christian.

Final Exam

2007-12-31T17:18:00.000-08:00

　　　I finished all of my final exams in December 22nd. There were five ones, and the hardest one was biological anthropology one. In the class, I had five periodic exams through the semester, and I had the final one after two weeks later of the last periodic one. It covered all of the content of the periodic ones, so I had to go over everything I studied in two weeks. The series of final exams were very hard and was challengeable but I had valuable time and will make it better when I take next one.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-25T13:51:00.000-08:00

I’m taking thanksgiving break, November 17^ththrough 24^th,so I’m enjoying this great long break. This weekly long break is for my university, maybe other schools as well. American people usually take 4 days thanksgiving break, from November 22nd which is Thanksgiving Day, 23^rd , 24^th and 25^th. 23^rd is not holiday though many people take a work off.

On Thursday 22^nd, I had a thanksgiving party. My friend invited me. The host family of the party is living near Pacific Ocean, so on the way to go to there, I could see the beautiful blue sea from the car. After biting some snacks, some of us went to park to break a sweat, playing football. It was breathtaking in the beginning but more and more I got tired. My team was defeated unfortunately. After football, we ate great thanksgiving food. Though they were a full of variety and all were delicious, turkey was the best. Finally we went to sea. It’s a little bit cold but beautiful. The water of the sea is cold through the year, so even summer it’s difficult to swim. Since I was born and brought up in Nara which is inland prefecture, so there is no sea, sea is still something rare for me. Anyway, I had good time during thanksgiving break. From tomorrow, school will restart, so I have to keep good health for class.

Raiders Footaball Game

2007-11-12T12:30:00.001-08:00

Well, I have had various events since then but this time I’d like to write about NFL football game. Yesterday I saw it at McAfee coliseum in Oakland with friend and acquaintance. The acquaintance’s friend has had yearly ticket of Oakland Raiders and like football so much, so we decided to see raiders game together. As the method of going to Oakland from San Francisco, we used a train called Bart which is relatively cleaner than Muni. In the train, I saw some Raiders fun wearing black clothes which is raider’s team color. It took about 45 minutes to get to there. The weather was clear. There was almost no cloud in the sky. Sea gulls were flying above the coliseum. It was my first time to see pro football game in my life, so I was very excited. My seat was behind of the end zone which is a kind of goal for football. The game was Oakland Raiders versus Chicago Bears. Since both of teams were in last place which means almost same percentage of wins, I was looking forward to the victory of Raiders in the beginning. As Raiders player kicked the ball, the game started. Both of the team had good defense, so the game reached a deadlock in 1^st quarter. As of the halfway, both of them got 3 points. There was a show during the half time rest. Marching band was playing with marching in the center of the field and cheer leaders were dancing in front of us. My attention was almost on cheer leaders because their dance was really cute and amazing. After starting 3^rd quarter, Bears got two touchdowns. One is from very long pass, and the other is from raider’s mistake. Finally Raiders was defeated 19 to 3. We regretted the result but the day had had something sperical for us because we met after ling separation.

St. Mary’s Cathedral

2007-10-07T22:20:00.001-07:00

After going to City Hall, I went to St. Mary’s Cathedral. St. Mary’s Cathedral is one of the most famous cathedrals in the United States and it has very unique shape. Big meeting for Christian was holding inside. Something very beautiful was hanging on the ceiling, maybe crystal, and four long rectangular stained glasses were on its side walls. It was so impressive and mysterious.

City Hall

2007-10-04T01:05:00.000-07:00

I went to City Hall on September 17th. I also went to St. Mary’s Cathedral and Japan town at the day. I took Muni to downtown and got off Civic Center station. There was farmer’s market on the way to there. Fresh vegetables and fruits had been selling. I saw some statues near the market and big building, City Hall behind them. The building was really beautiful and awesome. It was something I’ve never seen. My tour book said it’s one of the most beautiful buildings in the United States. Some of the top part was painted in gold, so it can attract people’s attention. There were some and cultural buildings like War Memorial Opera House, Asian Art Museum and Louis M Davies Symphony Hall at a nearby site, so the place around City Hall must be culturally important place.

Registration And Textbook

2007-09-09T01:25:00.001-07:00

I’m taking five classes this semester, English class for multilingual, Intro Macroeconomics analysis, Intro Biological anthropology which is for my GE class, two classes for PE Elementary Karate and Personal Defense. In terms of the unit, those classes are 12 units. I have some classes I wanted to take but I couldn’t because I missed priority registration, so I will take them in the next semester, Winter or Spring.
The other day, I went to the bookstore to buy my textbook of this semester but unusual thing for Japanese happened. I picked the textbook for my Macroeconomic class up and went to cashier desk to pay the money but the staff said “one hundred twenty one seventy cents”. I though “What!?” $100 on one book!? I’d expected to pay much money for the textbook but it was a little beyond it. The book, however, is $100 worth, so I’ve got to learn English properly and get a knowledge related economics from it.

"I Have Three Roommates"

2007-09-02T22:57:00.000-07:00

One of interesting thing for students studying abroad would be ” Housing”. I’ve been living at dorm on campus. I share my room with 3 people. Two of them are international student, from Canada and Sri Lanka, and the other roommate is American. They are very nice guys. This is my first time to share a room with foreign student, so I hope I will have nice school life with them. There are 3 bedrooms in my room. We’ve been assigned the American and I share one bedroom and the other roommates have their own bedrooms. The American guy is very tall, and he said he is 6.7 feet (204 centimeters tall)! He likes to play guitar, so I sometimes hear his musical performance in my room. The contract of our dorm is for a whole year, so I’m going to live for a year with them.

Baseball Game

2007-08-29T15:09:00.000-07:00

As one of international student’s activities, I went to see the baseball game on August 25th, and about 15 of us were taking part in it. We left our campus for the baseball stadium called AT&T Park at 4pm by a street car, and got to there around 5. The match was between San Francisco Giants and Milwaukee Brewers. Barry Bonds who is famous baseball player of MLB plays in Giants, so I expected to see his home run. My seat was behind the home base; it’s a place batters stand to get hold of the ball. In the beginning of the game, most of Giants’ players successively hit or got on base and got 4 points, so everyone in the stadium got excited! Both of the teams got 2 points in the middle, and finally Giants beat the opposing team 6-2!! Unfortunately I couldn't see Bond’s home run in the game but I had a great time.

Shopping And Orientation

2007-08-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

On August 18th and 19th, I went to downtown of SF to buy necessary goods for living. I took the streetcar called “Muni” to there. On the way to the nearest Muni station from the campus, I passed through a wide quadrangle. It was nice place that some of the grounds have grass, so I was impressed. I haven’t seen the stuff like this in Japan. I took M line, and got off Powell station. After I hung out around Powell Street, I found a good store called “Ross” At the store, I bought cheap kitchenware like frying pan, source pan, ladle and so on.

I had a series of orientations for international student on August 20th through 24th. They ware for housing, class, transportation and so on and so informative. The nationality of attendants was full of variety. They were like Taiwan, Japan, Germany, China, Spain, India, Saudi and even Canada! Portland State University I’d studied at before had a lot of international students from Asia though SFSU have students from the other countries. So I have an opportunity to talk to people from around the world on campus, and learn various kind English!!

Arrival in San Francisco

2007-08-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

I was at Kansai airport on August 18th for flying to San Francisco to study abroad. My family and aunt also went to there to see me off. My father took me to there by his car, and on the way to there, I was little bit sad because I was not going to meet my friends and family for a whole year. As soon as I got to there, I switched over my feeling.

I flew to San Francisco via Seoul, Korea, and arrived at the airport of San Francisco around 11am. I picked my baggage up, and went out of there. When I went outside, I thought “it’s cold!” The mean temperature was 17 °C at the day. The weather was colder than I expected. I went to San Francisco State University to check in the dorm I was going to stay by taxi. Since the campus was little complicated and I had lack of a sense of direction, I lost my way some times but woman looked like student of there walked me to the dorm. I was glad because I felt the kindness of the people of San Francisco. My study at SFSU began.