Carly's Year in China and Japan

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 5:54 PM

A week in review!

So, I moved into my new place on the 4th, and since then, I’ve been exploring all of the wonderful things there are to see in Yokohama.

Plus class.  Ahh, I’ll devote an entry to that later.

Another random dinner; this one was good at first, but then I had it for 5 meals in a row to save money... and I now get sick at the thought of it ^

For now, I’ll recap some of the FUN stuff I’ve done...

I walked through the Yamate region (the mountain district, where the fancy old diplomats lived after Yokohama opened as a port city in the 1800s).  It’s free to tour some of the old houses there, so I went into two of them.  It was such a strange feeling to look down at my feet as I climbed wide, mahogany stairs in one of the houses.  It struck me that it was the first time I’d climbed domestic-style, wooden stairs since I’d left the States.  I almost expected to look up and see that I was climbing up to the second floor of my dad’s house.  It’s strange how little nuances like that can contribute to a general current of culture shock.

Baller Yamate house ^

On a park bench, contemplating my awesome Yamate walk; self-taken, emo-style^

The rest of the week was devoted to class and one new, AWESOME venture I have started here: HOT YOGA.  Ever since Garrett went to a hot yoga class in Richmond with Joe last summer, he’s been telling me that it’s right up my alley.  During the first week of classes, I noticed that I would not be able to get into an exercise routine resembling the usual jogging/cycling system I rock in the States.  I get some good exercise with the (cumulative) 1.5 hour walking commute to and from class, but I thought that I wanted something a little more... cardiovascular.  Back in China, I ran stairs a bunch, but my building here isn’t tall enough for that.  Anyway, I walked by a couple of gyms (which here are mostly lame, boxing-style studios), and I had almost decided against joining anything when, yaaaattto!  I happened upon the Yoga-Lava studio, right by my house.  They were running a special for the entry meeting, PLUS their monthly fee is lower than any of the other gyms I’ve seen around, so, I tried, and, immediately after my first experience, I joined up!  It’s awesome.  I’ve been going just about everyday.

This weekend has been great, because my Gar has been in town.  He rode the night bus from Kyoto on Friday night, and he’s here through Monday, because the official holiday of “respect the elderly day” has made this a 3-day weekend.  He got in around 6:30 Saturday morning, and I met him at Ishikawa-cho.  We spent the day seeing Yokohama!!  It was tons of fun.  I took him to the Isezaki mall shopping area, and then we walked by the port and saw my class building while enjoying little treats like coffees.

We also happened upon a random anime convention.

Starting out the morning with a walk near my house ^

Gar, loving on the Yokohama skyline ^

Waterside coffee fun ^

Odd anime convention ^

Last night, I made curry-rice (from scratch), and today, we went to a Yokohama Bay Stars baseball game!  It was so much fun, even though the Bay Stars lost.  The stadium is only about 800 meters from my house, so I always hear the games going on, and I’d really been wanting to go.  We bought the cheapest ticket possible, which turned out to be perfect, because it was in the cheering section.  We had a ton of fun singing along with the Japanese people, pretending like we knew how the cheers went.

Mid-cheer ^

Most popular snack at the stadium--ice with mandarin oranges on top ^

A few differences from baseball in the US: (a) they swing at just about EVERYTHING here.  Even when the balls were practically in the dirt, they were going for it; (b) baseball has cheerleaders (doing stunts and pom-pom dances and the works); (c) when a new player comes on, he is brought out to the field in a car; (d) cheering is an organized affair, and there are designated crowd leaders with whistles who guide the crowd through cheers and songs that last--NON-STOP--through the whole at-bat.

It was awesome.  Ok, now we’re off to Chinatown for dinner.  

I love you, Dran, Grandmommy, Grandaddy, and Aunt Peggy and Aunt Virginia. I’ll be thinking of y’all tomorrow for Respect the Elderly Day!