At the airport, Lisa was having trouble checking in. Lisa is a French citizen, and she left her greencard in the States. In the end, she and Prof. Larson stayed behind for about an extra 2 days in order to go visit the consulate and work things out.

The flight to Honolulu was only 7 1/2 hours. Customs was very quick and easy. We were able to precheck our bags for the flight to MSP and then we divided up into groups to head down to the beach. 3 of the guys and I took the bus down to Waikiki and parked on a beach. I went to a nearby mall and bought a swimsuit and sandals. I believe we spent a total of 4-5 hours down there, not far from Diamondhead, and the weather was great.

So now I’m back at St. Olaf. Yay, caf food! (note the hint of sarcasm) With that, I conclude the katshomies alias. Hope you all enjoyed my “memoirs”, and thanks for being mah homies!

word word word,
Katherine

p.s. …… and just so you’re not confused when you see me, i actually got PURPLE highlights in Japan. I said blue just to upset someone (hehehe). But, although the dye was permanent, most of it is gone, so now I have sandy brown highlights.

yesterday, we visited the himeji castle. it was spectacular and not at all how i imagined it to be. the main castle had 6 floors i believe, the 5th and 6th hidden because the windows were covered by the roof:s overhang. there were many hidden rooms and other cool secrets about the place.

so that:s about it for japan. tomorrow we have from 9am to 245pm to wander around kyoto before heading out for the airport in osaka. soon after that, we:ll all be spending 6 hours on the beaches of honolulu before heading back to a snowy minnesota. this trip has been really awesome, but we:re all worn out and ready to get back.

hmmm… i:m hungry…

anyway, on our last day in nagasaki, we went to an elem school to meet 6th graders. we were like celebrities there. they asked for our autographs, wanted to shake our hands, etc. we were divided into groups. i was in the music group and the 6th graders performed jap songs and taught us some really cool games. then we taught them row row row your boat. it was a great time to interact with them. later, we briefly met the mayor where he presented wine to us (oh the look on our prof:s face), and then we went to our farewell reception for our host families.

what we:ve done in kyoto:
– we visited 3 temples. one was gold-leafed, another had a rock garden, and the third was just awesome.
– we traveled to osaka for a kabuki performance. very interesting in how they talk. kabuki is kinda like european opera except no singing (well their talking is in a singing manner) and all characters are performed by men.– today was our free day. over half of the group took the 3 hr bullet train to tokyo, 5 went to an aquarium in osaka, and prof. larson and i went to nagoya to visit st. olaf grad avery fischer and st. olaf sophomore jenny decker both studying in the city. we didn:t do much besides having lunch and coffee together and talk. a good time; laid-back compared to all the sight-seeing we:ve been doing. and hey, what are the odds of 2 kansans (avery and i) who both went to olaf and were both in the ole band being in japan in the same city?!

japan has been sort of a blur compared to china, which is ok because i:m ready to get home. i think we:re all tired out. tomorrow we will go see a castle from before the tokugawa period. tuesday we:ll go see takarazuka, a recent invention of about the past 100 years, similar to kabuki but an all women:s troupe (don:t get too excited erin mickens!). wednesday we head for home with a nice 8-hr stop in honolulu. yessss!

this is either my last or 2nd to last email since this internet is expensive, but we:ll see…

hope everyone:s getting thru january well!

Afterward, we split up into groups. My group first went to see the Peace Park and then took the streetcar to the Suwa Shrine. Afterward we went to Dejima, a museum and reconstruction of the Dutch town around the 16th cen. I found it really BORING and we all agreed on our waste of \240. We took a brief walk through Chinatown before having lunch at the train station. We all met back up as a group to go to the 26 christian martyrs museum for awhile. At that time, I was too tired to really care.

The weather here is colder than China. Today it “slushed” (wet snow) and tomorrow it’s supposed to actually snow. Annnnd that:s about it for now!

well, we just got back from Unzen and our overnight stay at the hot springs resort. the getting naked experience wasn:t that bad after the initial strip. anna and i sorta buddied up to motivate each other to the next thing. how it works is that there are pj-like clothes provided and u put them on and go down to the bath. you first go into the locker room, find a locker and put ur clothes in there. then u go into the actual bath (like an indoor pool) and along one wall are showers at waist height. you sit at the bench in front of one and rinse yourself off. then u get in the sulfur pool and relax for maybe at the most 15 min. then u get out and shampoo. that:s it. just a regular bath except w/other people.

yesterday afternoon at unzen, we took a bus up to the top of the mountain, but it was too foggy to see anything. when we came back down, we went to the geysers of the town. it]s like yellowstone park (i:ve never been there) with the hot boiling water and steam, and the wonderful rotten egg smell. mmm…

so that was our trip. i must now tell about drinking in japan briefly. on my first night here my parents asked in the car if i drank beer. i don:t, but we had champagne with our dinner. then another night before we went out to eat, my dad had beer. then at the restaurant he ordered beer. then after eating he had 2 bottles of sake and had me try some! then at home he had another can of beer. sheesh!

ok my parents are getting out of english conversation class right now so i must gooo!

as for now, i:m at the home of Reiko and Hiroshi, my Japanese host family for week. after a 2-hr flight to Fukuoka from Shanghai and a 3-hr train ride, we arrived in Nagasaki. ok, i:m going to abandon any caps, coz the Japanese keyboard is just weird and things are in different places (such as the apostrophe, as you can see). japan made a great first impression! everyone is nice, people make attempts for LINES (no cutting, as is in china), and it:s cleannnn! Japanese have a fetish for cleanliness/sanitation.

Toire (TOY-ray) or toilet: talk about hightech! the seat is warmed (how inviting in the morning!), it has a small flush and a big flush, and there are buttons that you push for when ya go number 2 that *rinse* you (like a beh-day; i don:t know the spelling).

Bath: unlike me, japanese are all about taking a bath every single day. baths are more for relaxing rather than washing. first, you rinse off outside of the bath (you don:t want hair or anything in the water, coz everyone shares the same water), then u get in and just sit and enjoy. then you get out and shampoo/soap making sure not to get soap in the bath. once all rinsed, you get back in the bath for a few more relaxing min. and then get out. it:s soooo awesome! i:m all for Japanese bathing.

Cars: as in Britain, the steering wheel is on the right and you drive on the left. i:m still not used to that.

So those are the major differences that I’ve encountered. my room is traditional tatami (the floors are composed of woven mats) and i sleep on futon (it is actually pron. with stressed on the 2nd syLLAble). we eat on the floor. they have a warming table in w/c u place ur feet under where it:s heated. very nice in the morning since the whole house is not heated brrr.

Yesterday, after class, we met and talked with an English conversation class at the college then met our assigned student buddies. Arisa is very cute and nice; she took me to the caf for lunch. after that we had a lecture on sumo from Prof. Tiedemann, English prof here, who totally looks and sounds like Prof. Entenmenn save the beard. Reiko picked me up after to take me to her salon, in w/c her friend is the owner. on the way i almost had a heart attack when she told me the cost would be \10000 ($75)! ayyy, but she said since they are friends she can get me a discount. the whole trimming and dying took well over 3 1/2 hours. i got bonuses though: cake and coffee, candy, magazines to look at, a neck massage (common in salons), and the lady will be giving me a kimono! in the end she lowered the price to \3000 ($22) which was absolutely generous. she also gave me a bracelet, brush, and cake! wow…

today was a blast. i got to sleep in. at 1pm, reiko and i went downtown and met her sister. we went shopping for jeans first, and she ended up buying them for me! then we went to a CD store to find a Japanese CD recommended by my buddy and she bought that for me also. after that, to a bookstore, where i was also given a book. i bought some beautiful origami paper and her sister bought me some postcards. it was a really great time, and they were very generous!

tomorrow, class goes to Unzen hot springs bath for the night. i am not looking forward to it, coz this is a PUBLIC bath, and i:m not really excited about getting bare with strangers and my classmates (girls and boys separated of course). ehh, at least we’ll all suffer together…

apologies for the extra-long report, but it:s hard to shorten one on arriving at a new foreign country. but thanks to your interest if u got to here (pat on the back).

sayonara,

Neko (”cat” in Japanese)

I’m wasting time for one last email from China when I should be working on my paper which is due before we leave the country, which is tomorrow morning! We load the bus at 945am and head for Hongqiao Int’l. Airport to fly to Fukuoka, Japan (1.5-hr. flight). I can’t believe that I’m leaving China in just over 12 hours! I feel like I have so much left I want to do here. Oh well, we’re all getting pretty sick of Chinese food although it’s delicious and CHEAP. Just as an example, for supper today I had a huge bowl of soup (noodles, beef, bean sprouts) and a can of 7-Up for only 14 yuan (under $2)!

Yesterday, we took a bus east across the Huangpu river to the Pudong area (pu=name of river, dong=east, so east of the Huangpu river). Pudong is the new business development area of Shanghai and quite spectacular. It has so many new skyscrapers, including the Pearl tower and the 43-story Hyatt Hotel, the tallest hotel in the world I believe. We met with Med McRindell, STO graduate of ‘99 who now works at an area development park in Pudong. She talked about Pudong and her life. It was shocking to hear her stories of 9-11 and what some Chinese people said: “too bad they didn’t hit the white house” “too bad there weren’t more politicians in the towers” etc. Afterward, we drove around and then came back.

Check out this link for awesome pictures of Shanghai; http://www.chinanow.com/english/shanghai/shtravel/phototour.html

Today, Prof. Larson talked about our Jap host families and I’m now getting really nervous! I’m afraid I’ll wear the toilet slippers in the rest of the house (yes, there are certain slippers for only in the toilet; Japs have a sanitary fetish)! Also, apparently they’ll think something is wrong w/us if we stay in our room a lot, so I have to interact with them, and also if I’m served some food I want to gag on, I have to say it’s “interesting”. Gahhh! But my host parents seem really cool in their emails.

Hmmm, I better get crackin’ on my paper, and get out of this smoky cafe! I swear, 10 years were taken off my life from smelling the pollution and smoke while in China…

My last adieu from this country!

On Friday, we all met with English major students here on campus and paired up. Ethan and I paired and we met with Wallace (a girl; she chose a guy’s English name on purpose) and Gloria. They are both freshmen. We talked for awhile and then we went walking around. They offered to show us their dorm rooms. Ethan wasn’t allowed to come in, coz all the dormitories are uni-sex, and guys are NEVER allowed in girls’ and vice versa. The rooms are EXTREMELY small; 2 bunks on each side (so 8 beds and all) and in the middle are only 2 desks for the 8 to share. Since there are no washing machines, they wash by hand and hang them to dry in the hallway. They have no hot water in their taps, so they take thermoses
to a building that provides the hot water. At this rate, I would never to Term in China (if I wasn’t in band of course), but Int’l students don’t have such a rough life. In the evening, there was a party for
all of us, which was mainly karaoke. I and my Chinese classmates sang a Chinese song and later I did “Ice Ice Baby” with Nate. We also met up with the Economics in China group. Go Oles!

Saturday afternoon, we all went to the Yu Gardens which are lovely gardens and the buildings from the late Ming dynasty (I believe). Afterward, we all had free time to wander around the markets within the area. I bought tons of really cool stuff, including a dragon kite, and one of those traditional Chinese dresses.

So that’s it for now. This evening, we’ll be going to see Chinese acrobats.

Keep warm with all that snow I’m hearing about in MN! It’s humid here.

The overnight train to Nanjing the other night wasn’t bad at all. I was dead tired, so
I slipped in my new Na Ying CD (Chinese) and fell asleep soon after. There were 6
beds in each space, 3 on each side and above each other. The train wasn’t a nice
amtrak at all but it worked, and it went at a slow enough speed that we could all
sleep well. Arrived in Nanjing at 8am the next morning.

We had breakfast at our hotel first before starting a FULL day. I swear we saw ALL
of Nanjing. We first went to the memorial built for the massacre/rape of Nanjing. It
was interesting, and we even saw an excavation site where they left the bones of
victims. We learned that the Japanese killed over 300,000 people within the 6 weeks.

Next we went to a brocade factory to see people busy making these beautiful cloths.
Wow, such work goes into a thing. Then we had lunch. Afterward, we went to see
the mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen (we always see dead people’s graves). It was set
out of town, and it’s the nicest place in the city. I’m not going to describe the place;
pictures are better. We did have a group pic at the top w/all of our cameras. During
the shots, some Chinese stopped and prepared to take our picture. A lady jumped in
with us before her husband took it! hahaha Afterward, we were taken to the ruins
of the gate of the first Ming emperor. We were going to see this the next day, but
we squeezed it in so we could sleep in.

For dinner, Lisa, Peter and I wandered around and found a place downtown. I
struggled w/my Chinese, but we managed. I must say, using my Chinese is loads of
fun, but I’m disappointed that no one else is using theirs too much.

Today, we visited the old city wall (very cool, and very thick!) before having lunch
and then hopping on the train. We had a 3-hr ride during w/c a 7-yr-old boy or so
asked Sara to read “How the Grinch Stole Xmas” to her. He speaks English pretty
well. They then taught him how to play go fish, and Johnny got up and showed him
some dance moves. The other Chinese people seemed to enjoy it.

We are now staying at ECNU for the rest of our China visit. We are lucky enough to
be staying at this year-old facility/hotel. It’s SWEET! We all live in quads of 4, our
own room w/queen-size bed, TV, and our living room has a big view, almost
180degrees around! The Economics in China group is somewhere too but stuck in
the dorms (hahaha).

Mmm, this is long. I hope you guys aren’t getting fed up with these extra-long
emails…

Zaijian!

Yesterday, we headed for Tiananmen Square at 830am in our bus. We were dropped off and luckily Mao Tsetong’s Mausoleum was open so we got in line. We were told to be solemn, and then there was a stand where people could buy bouquets to place in front of Mao’s statue. The place looked like the Lincoln Memorial; pillars, and then thru the big entryway was a statue of Mao in a chair as big as Lincoln. We were ushered into another room, and there protected by a big glass dome was Mao’s preserved body in a castlike thing. You could only see his face and over his body was draped the Chinese flag. It was so surreal to know I was looking at the ACTUAL Mao. The whole thing seemed wrong knowing he was Communist.

Afterwards, we walked over to Tiananmen. You have no idea how HUGE that portrait of Mao on the front is. Thru there was the Forbidden City, which is like 2-3 times the size of STO campus. The weather was cold that day, so I wanted to get done sooner. Oh btw, when we first got to Beijing, the temp was 51. Unbelievable! I didn’t pack for this type of weather! It’s been very warm here. For lunch we went to a restaurant for Peking duck and afterwards most of us visited the Temple of Heaven. It was very windy at that time, all the dust blowing in from the Gobi Desert.

For dinner, 7 of us went to Pizza Hut. I didn’t really wanna eat American food, but I didn’t want to eat alone either. We all forgot to order our drinks w/o ice (the water here is not good for us since we’re not used to the bacteria), so we scooped it all out onto a plate. Very funny and a memorable time indeed.

Today is a free day until 545PM. We’ll be taking the overnight train to Nanjing.

Stay warm (haha)!