Orientation Week
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2006
1
3
18
Trip End
Dec 23, 2006
Hirakata,
Japan
Thursday, January 26, 2006
All joking aside, after riding a bike everyday for many miles, people become quite skilled. Riding is a very common mode of transportation and commutes tend to be long, so displays of bicycle skill are present all around you in Japan
Bicycles
. When it rains, people ride with only one hand, effortlessly holding an umbrella in the other. They fly between moving busses and concrete walls with centimeters to spare. They text message each other on their cell phones. I have seen someone "walking" a dog while on a bicycle. And it is not uncommon to see a man riding, while his girlfriend sits sidesaddle on the bicycle rack. Many Foreign students here have bought bicycles. During orientation we were given a long talk about this. We learned that bicycles are registered just like cars, and police will check numbers to make sure that you are not riding a stolen item. We were also warned of the dangers of drinking and riding. We were told horror stories of fatal accidents. All of this only reinforced something that I realized on the first day: If I ride a bicycle in Japan, I will die. Needless to say, I will not be purchasing one.
During Orientation I witnessed an interesting example of Japanese efficiency. When registering for classes, all of us exchange students had a number as determined by a lottery. Two people stood at a doorway, one calling out a number, the other keeping track of who made it in. Once through the door, a woman stamped each of our payment receipts and initialed our registration sheet
Skyline!
. Moving down the line, another woman checked to see that the receipts had been stamped and made sure that we had selected a proper number of classes. After getting another initial on the registration sheet, we moved on to a woman who called off each class as a man entered them into a computer. Another initialing was done; then we were sent on to a girl who made sure we had all three initials, and then took our registration sheet for keeping. Last, we moved to a girl who handed us our student IDs.I heard many people comment on how silly this system was, requiring eight people to register you for one class. Why have eight people do this when you could just have one or two? Well, could one or two people register over 440 students in under 3 hours? I think not. This example of Japanese efficiency impressed me, but I was also given an example of Japanese anal receptivity. During orientation everyone signed up for an account at the Sumitomo-Mitsubishi bank. This was no small feet. The form had to be perfect, literally. I got it one my third try, most were not so lucky.
Kansai Gaidai's Nakamiya campus is brand new and rather beautiful. In a country with limited space, it is spacious. The walkways are certainly wider than the roads in Hirakata
Snow!
. We walked among the grand buildings during the days of orientation, going from one meeting to the next. By night we clogged the streets in huge gangs as we roved for food. Making friends seems easier when you are 7 thousand miles from home. Small groups headed out dinner soon become huge groups. Although the practice died out with the start of classes, what we called "Gaijin (foreigner) Armies" formed during that first week. Our record was 18 people. Somehow the restraints always fit us all. Although Japanese restaurants are small, they don't seem to get many customers at once either.Those social nights out were fun. I tried all kinds of new foods and learned lots of valuable things. Sushi is eaten with your hands, not chopsticks. And Japanese hamburgers are better than American hamburgers, especially with spaghetti sauce and egg on them. Paying is always simple, because although I knew that tipping was considered rude, I was not prepared for nice even prices with the tax already factored in.
All in all that first week of orientation was wonderful, filled with great eating, socializing, and exploration of Hirakata's outskirts. I learned all sorts of new things and the rusty part of my brain where Japanese language lives started to come back online. Orientation wrapped up on Friday, but since most of my friends and I had already done all that needed to be done, we were done on Thursday. Friday was left open for our first trip out of Hirakata.
