Nature and Hokkaido

Now I know I've been slacking on the photos of Japan's scenery. Which is a darn shame.

I live in Hokkaido, and we have some immense beauty.

To me at least, this is most prevalently displayed in the vivid distinctions nature creates.

About a month ago, as fall hastily closed, the last few leaves falling, is about when I noticed this trend.

Rather than bogging down the blog with my analysis of beauty in nature, I'm just gonna show some photos, and stay clear of overly talking.

At the end of fall... the mountains in the back started to frost over. I thought the white was pretty striking in comparison to the bright yellow. This is the sight that kind of made me realize, and in turn begin to appreciate, what it is I am surrounded by on a daily basis.


A better view, check out the mountains in the back.

Keiteki, my dorm, also has it's own vivid colors.

As an example, a lot of the leaves that fall from the surrounding trees turn WHITE when they dry out. Crazy color.

Not photoshopped :p

But the vine on the side of building turns BRIGHT RED.


Naturally, as it's winter now we have the amazing contrast of black to white.

After a VERY rough 15 inch blizzard, my walk to class looked like this.


And just outside of the student center?


I could get used to this sort of life... Winter wonderland.

Happy holidays everyone.

Okinawan Food

Okay look look look, yes. I know.

I know.

I knowwwwwww.

Too much food stuff right?

Pardon me while I break down the necessary link between food and culture.

Argument goes as follows (thanks Mr Basl for this argument flow chart format!)

1. People cook based on their tastes, their likes and dislikes.
2. People can be classified into cultures.
3. Cultures determine the way people behave.
THEREFORE
4. Culture can determine a given diet.

Duh kids. Duh.

SO

In a culture related way, I'd like to talk about my Friday.

I am blessed enough to be taking a class from a VERY cool medicine teacher (don't ask how this situation came to be, what a story that is!). He's so cool that last week he decided to cancel class and INSTEAD, take the students to an Okinawan restaurant. In Hokkaido.

For those who don't know, Okinawa is one of the prefectures of Japan, consisting of hundreds if not thousands of tiny islands south of the main four. I'm not here to give a history lesson, but basically, this cluster of islands is fairly detached from the centralized country that focuses on Tokyo/Osaka culture. 標準語, or standard Japanese, is really just Toyko Japanese, which due to centralization within the culture, gradually became "normal'.

But to avoid a tangent here, because this area is somewhat detached from the "center", the culture, and in turn the food, can be quite distinct.

Yes, they do have their own dialect. I won't go into that either.

This is a point that needs to be addressed; Japan is not just a single likeminded country. People act, speak, look, and think VERY differently from place to place. If you took an Okinawan and an Osakan and made them speak in their respective dialects, the two wouldn't understand each other. It'd be like Spanish and Italian.

The problem is that we, as people on the outside, just SEE the culture as being Tokyo-ian or Osakan, because of this center ideology within the country. This is "Japanese", Tokyo is the hub, everything shoots out from there. But if you are to understand a country's culture, focusing on a city will give you a very narrow outlook on it.

I mean c'mon, do people from New Orleans act like people from New York? I'm not saying anything new here!

So with that in mind, let's focus on Okinawa, a prefecture SO far from the rest of the country, in many ways it's like it's own country. But it's Japan! It's JAPAN!

For 2500 yen, you get a multiple course meal and all you can drink. I dig it. Thanks teach for the hook up!

And the food is CRAZY different. Maybe this is partially the genius of the owner/chef, or maybe it's just the way Okinawans do cuisine, but let's see. Here's some of the highlights:

Squid Ink Yakisoba, with special Okinawa style soba.

Squid ink, for my Japanese word nerds, is quite literally in Japanese ALSO "Squid Ink" or イカ墨.

Anyways.

Then they brought out a special Okiawan style Shochu, which is a clear distilled alcoholic drink similar, but much stronger than, Sake, usually served over ice. It has a similar smell to some whiskey, but contains far less alcohol. Here's what they served it as:


This one was especially smooth. But the nose was a little off putting... kind of musky. Still fairly enjoyable. It paired extremely well with one dish in particular, which was a small block of Tofu covered in a red miso sauce.

Perhaps the reason this tofu worked so well with the sake was because it had been soaked in the alcohol itself. But the texture of it was really marvelous, It has this kind of butter, smooth, rich mouth-feel, the kind you associate with foie gras or something. Explains why it came in at less than 1 cubic inch to be shared by 3 people. Riiiiich. And pretty dang impressive. I've obviously never had tofu like that.

But surely, to everyone, the highlight of the night was the following dish, which actually came pretty early:

The title of this dish in romaji is "Gooya Champloo". Nerds recognize the name Champloo imediately from the popular anime Samurai Champloo. Champloo in Japanese is ACTUALLY チャンプルー, pronounced "Chanpuruu", and it refers to a stir fry dish, a "mash up" of sorts. The name of the anime actually is derived from this "stir fry/mashup" idea, as the story combines multiple genres and ideas, even stories themselves.

AND, Gooya, oh gooya, means "Bitter melon". Those green things you see? Bitter melon.

I googled bitter melon to show yall, they look like this:

Mmmmm, bitterrrrr

VERY different taste on this one folks. It's hard to describe bitter melon, something like a root vegetable but with less aroma, a slight bitter kick, better texture. But it's as Okinawan as it gets. Stir fried with some tofu and a little ham (which was shocking for sure, you don't see ham much in Japan), And it was TASTYYYYY.

And that's Okinawan food.

So what have we learned here?

Well what HAVEN'T we learned here? Food is indeed a mirror to a culture, and despite the idea that a country can have it's own style, regions make variations on the diet extremely distinct.

I mean, what IS Japanese food?

Where have all of Mike's Frequent blogs gone?

Well kids, to be short and sweet. I've been up to a lot.

A lot.

Adventures and school. Yippie!

As such, my ability (and even desire) to blog has been limited. But don't worry one bit folks, it's more like I have SO much to discuss, I haven't gotten around to posting up MASSIVE thoughts and analysis of this lovely world.

More coming soon, hang tight!

Big Chance Card!

Alright, I love free stuff, it's quite true.

At the beginning of November, the local Co-op, or the cooperative store, OR private business on campus that cooperates with the school to sell general food and household products (whew that's long), began a "value campaign" in which, during a rather nifty price cutting session, people could possibly win prizes while doing their shopping at co-op, by entering into a raffle.

The system for getting tickets to enter said raffle is fairly interesting.

Each time an individual spends 400 yen, or about 4 dollars, they receive a "抽選補助巻" {Chuusenhojomaki), or a "raffle assistant ticket" which looks like this:

Don't ask why I'm so vain. XD

Notice that these are translated as "assistant" tickets. This suggests that simply getting one of these bad boys is not enough. In fact, to even enter the raffle, you must collect ten of these "assistant" tickets, and then trade them in for one legitimate ticket. The REAL ticket is much like you'd expect; it has a ticket number that you input into a form online to enter for a chance to win prizes.

What kind of prizes?

Well look at this link here!

http://www.hokkaido.seikyou.ne.jp/value/

Or this screen cap I took, if you're lazy. Though you still might want to click it.

Crazy Japanese advertising...

One person can win a PS3, one person a Wii, two people walk away with brand new computers, 15 people get ipod nanos, and so on.

Naturally, I figured hey, I buy lunch often enough from the university... why not go for it?

Because 10 tickets is a deceivingly large amount of money. It's 4000 yen, or around 40 usd. And this assumes you spend 400 yen perfectly each time. Obviously you'd always spend more, so who knows how much money you'd spend to get 10 of those! Could be even 7000 yen!

For one chance at those prizes.

So really... you should just save your money and buy a nano yourself. It'd be far cheaper.

Unless you're smart like me, and you continue buying lunch as normal and mooch all your friends for the tickets they don't want to use.

That's some ego boosting right there. But essentially all my friends gave me the tickets they also got, since we all usually buy stuff from co-op at SOME point.

Well... Mike... that's cool and all. But did your plan work? How many did you get?


Six. I got six. Quick math makes that about 2.4 man, or 240 dollars of tickets. More like 300.

I am evil.

Now I sure hope this gives me any chance at all; closer inspection of the contest reveals that it's not just for the Sapporo campus but for ALL campuses of Hokkaido University.

Crapz.

But maybe other people won't spend as much money as I (through cooperation) amassed, right? Right?

Urg...

With me luck? I'd love a new free something! We'll find out December 9th!

- Mike

New Vlog: Apples

I eat too much, I know.

But check out the video below!





If the embed doesn't work, click the link below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeYhdR6ES8o

Link about Aomori's legendary "Ki ni Naru Ringo" （気になるリンゴ）(in japanese unfortunately, but really sweet photos) :
http://www.rakuten.co.jp/ringoen/557880/557929/

Sapporo Ramen Alley, 札幌ラーメン横丁

I went to a touristy tourist trap with my friend Tre. As he called it, we're "long term tourists," so it seemed fitting. Enjoy the video below!



If the embed isn't working, click the url below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY5vvZAN7oI

Influenza in Japan

I got sick in Japan... oh jeeze. Not cool.

I'll admit this before I begin, I've never gone to see a doctor for influenza in America. When you get the flu, you sleep it off.

They take things pretty seriously here though, (way to seriously, I've had to talk to 4 people and report it to the university administration that I was sick) and so, in connection with the Swine flu scare, I was asked to go visit the doctor a few days back. Boyoh, what an experience.

I asked for an English speaking doctor, but a large majority of the procedure and explanation was done in Japanese. We're talking everything but two or three sentences. Regardless of the doctor's English speaking ability, all of the nurses knew little to no English, and so my attempt for English security quickly flew out the window. To be fair... I knew enough Japanese to get by, as long as they tried to explain and perhaps show any words I didn't know. I'm sorry, I don't know what Antibiotic or Lymph Node is in Japanese, that's complex. (Apparently they are 抗生物質 or "Kouseibusshitsu" and リンパ節 or "Rinpasetsu" respectively... go figure. I am too curious sometimes).

Anyways, so first they shove a rod up your nose.

Wait wait what?

Yessssss, if there is any possibility of having influenza, to test for it, they take a small stem like rod and gently slide it up about 4-5 inches into your nose. Yikes.

I mean c'mon it LOOKS scary.

Er... yes it hurts. Badly. Burns even after that sucker is long gone. Despite the test coming back negative, the doctor noticed (as did I earlier) that my symptoms matched influenza, and I had swelling lymph nodes on my neck.

She then told me I would be on a drip to reduce the lymph node swelling, and then they'd give me some medication. Already I am stoked. Lymph node drip? What? Nifty.

So then I pass out for a nap with a drip on me, wake up, and they explain how to take the medication. This is all done in Japanese. I don't know why I remember any of those words.

Um... there is mad medication to take. I have a total of four. Four. If you include the drip they gave me, 5.

I will now briefly explain the medication. Because it is completely different than anything I have ever taken before.

Also the names are kind of funny.

The most prominent in my mind are "Cravit" (クレビット) and Relenza (リレンザ)

Relenza is apparently a powdered form of "Zanamivir", which you take with this insane nifty inhaler.

Click the picture for much more detail than I'm willing to squeeze onto this page

Cravit, or Kurabitto as it's called here, is perhaps the most odd, in that the drug of which it is composed of, Levofloxacin, it is highly criticized in America for it's potential to cause tendinitis, as well as other "life threatening" side effects.

But I'm not a doctor... I don't feel like questioning my Japanese one.

Oh dear what do they have me taking?

The other two drugs I'm on are called Loxoprofen (ロキソニン) an anti inflammatory (like Tylenol or Motrin or something), and -I'm not totally sure why I even have to take this, but- Famotidine (ファもチジン) a stomach acid inhibitor. It's an ingredient in Pepcid.

Holy junk nuts that is a lot of pills.

Sounds expensive right?

Well for two days of service the total was around 50 USD. Including two influenza tests. That sounds remarkably cheap to me, maybe I'm missing something.

The reason I had two tests, and thus went to the doctor twice, mind you, is because, as I mentioned earlier, the first test came up as inconclusive. They wanted to re-check, as it's possible I did the test too early.

This doctor was spot on. When I went in for the second test (which for some reason they did the test orally, not through the nasal cavity) they found out I had Type A influenza.

Not swine flu.

Thank god that would be embarrassing.

All of this amazing nice health care for 50 bones. WOW.

Dramatic Question: Why is it so cheap???
Answer: Japan has national health insurance, and I have, by law, National Health Insurance (Kokumin-Kenkō-Hoken 国民健康保険). Normally the cost of the bill would have been around 190 dollars, but I pay 30%. National Health Insurance in Japan covers ALL medical expenses.

So... well... this is confounding. This seems contrary to the free marketing idea that government run health care would lead to rationing or poorer service. I got lovely service.

In fact, let's talk about the service. GOODNESS those nurses were nice. I've never seen such attentive staff. They literally run when a patient calls for a question. All wearing clean uniforms and masks, so professional. I was gobsmacked.

Perhaps it's just a cultural difference eh?

Dang I hate when I have to rely on that excuse.

Hyper Branding

Most of you read my previous blog about food. Specifically the one with insanely priced melon.

And I'd assume, based on the messages and comments that I've gotten from my American friends, that a lot of people have become fairly defensive over the subject. How am I so audacious as to criticize American food but not Japanese food?

In fact this is a legitimate point. No culture is perfect, no food without criticism and no form of pleasure absolute. Perhaps it is philosophical of me, but the inherent quality of pleasure is that it ends, which just by hedonistic definition is bad. We all die, after all.

Therefore, it only seems fair to maybe take a stab at Japanese food. We've already discussed American food and it's seemingly less than desirable respect for the ingredients in which food is made.

But let's consider the opposite. What if you respect food TOO much?

It leads to something I'll call "hyper brand naming," and this is a phenomena all too common in Japan.

Perhaps we are all familiar with the idea of branding as a marketing tool. Fashion requires brands to make sales, fast food chains require a brand name to establish a sense of similarity among different shops as a pull strategy. Chipotle is owned by McDonalds? You'd never know, the brand name is what you assign the product to, not the stockholders equity.

Okay, fine fine, that's pretty standard. We need names to help us generalize by quality. It helps us make decisions.

Alas, in Japan, this trend is, well... obscene. Appalling. Hilarious.

To my previous readers, maybe you remember the melons I took a picture of? They are actually a brand of melon called "Yubari Melon", which is a melon farm located in the town Yubari, Hokkaido. The strange thing is that, as my friend Teppei told me recently, those melons are CHEAP compared to normal Yubari Melon.

Normal Yubari Melon, as Wikipedia also agreed with, costs 60-150 USD.

I mean to be fair it's quite pretty, ahahaha. Priced at around 70 USD.

Ho
Ly
Crap.

And thus we have the problem with hyper branding. No one in their right mind would spend 60 dollars on ONE fruit in the states. It's a melon, you have to draw a line somewhere. But precisely because it's made by Yubari, there is a niche market for it. This company survives in this cultural climate.

This idea of branding however, is frequently put towards food as a location, rather than a company, though there are some exceptions. As an example, other companies make Nama Caramel for far less, but the Hanabatake farm (the one I purchased) is the original, and thus the most liked. They have established branding.

We have it in America too, (Wisconsin cheese?), but this is taken to a hyper extreme. Japan loves branding. They love the idea that a product came from somewhere special. Kobe beef, Hokkaido milk, Kyoto green tea, I mean the list is endless.

Perhaps more appalling is that this is actually taken one step further. Products, to further make sales, stick on key brand words to their products. Yubari melon flavored white chocolate, or Hokkaido milk flavored cookies, as examples. Not melon, but "Yubari", so it must be better somehow, despite it not being an actual melon at all.

Does the quality always correlate with the brand? I'd be willing to bet no.

It's merely a completely outlandish extension of the idea of "local food." Everything has a location and thus a price and a suggested quality. But for many times it's just a marketing strategy, it has nothing to do with how good the dang thing tastes.

This correlates well with the idea of "omiyage" or souvenir gift giving, which comprises mostly of expensive, BRANDED foods that are limited. A perfect example is Shiroi Koibito cookies (White Lover in english, lolz). Despite being factory made, and easily shipped nation wide, Shiroi Koibito is only purchasable in Hokkaido, and only really consumed for gift giving.

Well what if I just wanna eat some Shiroi Koibito? Those things are tasty! Why isn't this product expanding? Why do I need to be in Hokkaido to buy cookies for 20 dollars? That's nuts!

Ooooh, brand appealllll.

Because the brand, the idea that it is limited, is appealing. Too appealing. Everything is branded, and too much stuff is "limited time only". And most of it is nonsense.

It's like fashion of food.

To be fair... it usually tastes pretty darn good. But not for all the extra effort and branding.

New Vlog: Keiteki Dorm Festival

Oh dear Jeeze, have I let out a can of worms or WHAT? I'm not sure you guys are ready for this one.

Check the video below everyone!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFmdNWTPkQ8

Oh MAN is that expensive!

Okay... I know people are sick of my food talk. I can't help it, honestly!

Food is so important in all cultures, and if anyone knows my background at all, I have a pretty long relationship with food and cooking. So it only makes sense that my observations in cultural differences and adventures would largely incorporate food.

It's only fair to mention that Hokkaido is renown in japan for it's high quality produce, fish, and general food stuffs.

Observe the following image below.



Why yes, those melons are being sold at 1100 to 1800 yen a PIECE. All different types of melon, each categorized by sweetness, size, flesh color, and priced accordingly.

It's gradually come to my attention that food in Japan has a dominant focus on local production and high quality. These melons are expensive because they're grown nearby, without high infrastructure shipping methods or big corporation cost reduction strategies.

In other words, they're local, and I'd bet my foot and arm some of the best melon you will ever taste.

Similarly, I present "Nama Caramel", or quite literally, "Raw Caramel"

Why yes this is amazing stuff

A Hokkaido specialty, nama caramel is a caramel candy which is slowly cooked at low heat at hours at a time.

The result is a candy which must be kept in the refrigerator, or else, quilt literally, the candy will melt. It is a caramel with the texture and mouth feel of butter, smoothly coating the palate as is gently warms and melts over the tongue. Simple and yet extremely deep flavor, rich, completely and utterly delicious. It honestly made me speechless.

And it costs 850 yen for that tiny container of 12.

Which might seem outlandish. Who would spend $8.50 on caramel?

But that store is packed, every day throngs of customers gaze at the treats. Why?

Because here in Japan, quality, the assurance of something special, be it a simple melon that was grown with detail to perfect flavor and appeal, or instead a perfectly smooth luscious slice of tuna, or a simple candy that is created so flawlessly and deliciously, has become a very modern trend. The foodies here are satisfied by the simple, yet perfect.

By comparison, American cookery, with it's overly detailed 30 ingredient dishes, absurd "molecular gastronomy" techniques, and redundant recipes, is a joke.

A caramel, a melon, a slice of fish. Respect for the ingredients themselves. This is missing from the American food world.

But it exists here, and it is delicious.

Kit Kats （キットカット）

I think pretty much everyone on the planet loves Kit Kats. They're crispy, chocolatey, small, delicious, easy to find and carry, and sharable. If you don't like Kit Kats, well... I'm sorry. Something is wrong with you. I'm not biased, I just think most people agree with me on this one.

So, imagine, if you will, one of the quintessential candies on this earth.

Part two to this wonderful equation is Japan: which is a land of extremes of course. All the proof you need is Ganguro girls:


GOODNESS that is a lot of makeup! If you took a photo of a geisha in negative is what I'm saying.

Thus, in the land of Japan, why would anyone ever stop at just one good thing? Why not make it EXTREME??

I imagine the conversation went like:
"Psh, Kit Kats are so BORING, why don't we try to hype up the flavor more?"

Modern Japanese candy production, then, has come to a point where, for any flavor of anything you can dream of, there exists a Kit Kat flavored like it.

When I say "any" ladies and gentlemen, I don't merely mean fruits and sweets. I mean even things that, to the unassuming observer, are grotesque and odd, and off-putting.

Seriously.... come now. A few flavors I've seen:

Rose

Lemon Vinegar

Soy Sauce

Why yes, this is very real. And very wild, even by most Japanese people's standards. But obviously someone is consuming them. Including myself. Wowwie.

Actually, for my own curiosity, a week into staying here I bought "Hokkaido Roasted Corn" flavored Kit Kats:

Despite what you may think... quite tasty.

So what have we learned today?

Er... not much. Japanese Kit Kats are crazy. But with an open mind, a lot of them end up being pretty delightful.

New Video!

Hey hey hey kids! A new vlog about a College Festival.

With... an all female college. Oh dear...




Enjoy!

Embed not working? Go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-M1crIvRFs

I HAVE INTERNET

Just a quick update for everyone (aka the four people who read my blog), I have internet!

I LIVE!

Thus, much more coming soon!

Stay tuned!

McDonald's

Okay okay okay, I cave.

I like fast food, maybe a little too much.

If you guys watched my previous video, you might have noticed me mentioning Mr. Donut. I love Mr. Donut; I wish they had such things back in the states. The little donuts look like works of art, and considering the quality, most of them don't get higher than 140 yen, a bargain for the experience. I can have coffee and a little snack for less than 5 dollars usually.

And Mr. Donut is an enormous chain, which means I can find it pretty much everywhere. Again, to site the video; inside of a train station, on the street, in super markets, everywhere.

But this blog is not about Mr. Donut, no no no.

This is about McDonald's.

I also happen to enjoy McDonald's. As any business majors might know, they key to an internationally successful operation is to adapt to the culture. McDonald's has don this rather well, with distinct menu items depending on the country. McDonald's also only uses "local" food sources and factories of production, so I've been told.

But McDonald's marketing is a little... rough on the edges. I won't talk about 365black (McDonald's somewhat racist campaign for black employees), but instead I'd like to talk about their Japanese campaign.

Specifically, Nippon All Stars, and Mr. James.

A quick note: My friend Josh told showed me this on facebook before I arrived, props go to him.

Mr. James is McDonald's new mascot in Japan, and he's here to show us some new sandwiches! Ooooooh. He looks something like this:


Think of it as a new Ronald McDonald. Except he's a nerdy white American male who speaks terrible Japanese.

Seriously.

Now... I don't want to pull a race card... but I see cardboard cutouts of this guy EVERYWHERE. Is this not a little messed up? It seems to be playing on what the stereotype of an American in Japan is. Who is this marketing directed to? American tourists?

I'll just make a brief comparison. If we had a new noodle dish in American McDonald's, wouldn't it be messed up if "Ching Chong China-man" were the mascot, and he spoke like "Ree rearry rike Noodaw"?

Because that's what Mr. James is equivalent to in Japan. Just a thought experiment for you all.

I just wish Teriyaki burgers weren't so damn tasty.

Video Blog, Japanese Baseball

So I made a video, check it below! It's about going to see a Japanese baseball game! Check it out and lemme know what ya think!




It looks like the embed isn't working... so check the link below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d61s84hgTXE

Legendary Culture Shock

Now, I expected this sort of thing, but not of such magnitude.

I should begin by explaining why there have been no entries for the last few too many days. The answer, hard to believe as it may be, is actually fairly simple.

I have no internet.

And when I say I have no internet, I don't mean just that my room has no internet, no no no.

Perhaps the most immediate culture shock of them all; there is a CRAZY lack of available internet in Japan. In my few days in Sapporo I only found only one single restaurant that has wifi, pardon the McDonald's which requires an iPhone to use. Snazzy.

This is an astounding revelation; because, by contrast, it seems these days in America that almost too many restaurants have Wifi, almost always free.

It seems then, that the actual use of internet in Japan via laptop seems drastically smaller than Americans. Aside from home internet use, there seems to be zero.

That is, unless you include the cellphone, but that's an entirely new phenomena I'm not going to get in to.

Alas, culture shock. Why doesn't this totally industrial nation have Wifi?? Waaaaaaah!

In other culture shock news: Men wearing Uggs.


Indeed, culture shock is vicious.

Pre-culture-shock culture shock

We all know the story. Foreign guy goes to far away unknown place. Culture in this land is significantly different to him, and he freaks out. Culture shock.

But have we ever heard of it happening before the actual arrival in said country?

Welcome to my life folks.

I keep thinking ABOUT all the expected things I won't enjoy. Which is somewhat selfish I know; most people would kill for such an adventure.

For instance, my last meal :


Deep dish from Chicago. I'd be hard pressed to find a better pie in Japan.

Now this sounds TOTALLY outlandish. What sort of fool am I to dislike the obviously impossible variety of food that I crave in japan? If anything the styles of food and composition are in many ways BETTER than in the States. But I suppose we all have some favoritism.

But what all about high context issues you aren't fully capable of understanding? I 'unno mannnnn....

And let's not forget about clothes! Yikes! I doubt I'll fit anything I buy there!

Ehem, but let me compose myself.

I suppose the most of my worries comes from the unknown. There's always a level of uncertainty that I need to get used to in any traveling. Being comfortable with the unknown will help with enjoying my time abroad.

And soon... it won't be unknown anymore.

Pre Japan Orientation Blog

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS.

My name is Mike.

Yes, Mike. Simple really.

And in fact, the purposes for making this blog are rather simple.

I have enjoyed the wonders of cultural differences between Japan and America for a good 6 years, and now, it's time to take this completely different lifestyle head on. I will be studying abroad at Hokkaido University, arriving in Japan on September 24th, 2009. Using this blog, I will document the intricacies of daily life as a foreigner in the sprawling landmass known as Hokkaido.

I mean what in the world could be so different huh? Yeesh!

Naturally I will make sure to keep everything intellectually accessible to all audiences, not just those studying or familiar with Japanese. Such things would be unfair, right?

Honestly the idea of making a blog was questionable to me; there are tons of "gaijin in japan" blogs out there, a vast number of foreigners showing the same photos of Japanese Big Macs and sushi served on conveyor belts. It's somewhat hard to imagine my perspective would add much to the already deep pot of knowledge from the outsider perspective.

But perhaps this blog is more for my own desires; a diary or sorts to track things I find interesting, unique, vivid, wild, astounding, and just plain fun.

But in regards to the name of this blog, what does any of that mean right?

どうも、マイクで〜す！ Doumo, Maiku Desu! Is really just a corny way of me introducing myself in Japanese, much like saying "Heyyyy, I'm Mike!" . And this first blog is my introduction.

I hope you all will enjoy reading my rambles as much as I will enjoy writing them.

- Mike