Hiroshima and Tottori

Hey sorry for not keeping you posted. I've been very lazy haha lately, but last week I went to Hiroshima and it was very moving. For anyone that comes to Japan, you must come to Hiroshima and go to the peace memorial. You will learn alot about this. Before the bombing, Hiroshima was a military city that specialized in training solidiers and exporting weapons during the war. Not only, that but till' this day Hiroshima is actually a metropolitan city with over 1 million people living there. I thought it was a rural town with just the museum. The city also has a trolley system. But other than that, I was very moved and words are hard for me to explain the moment and the feeling of what happened. So everyone should definitely hit up Hiroshima if you get a chance to come to Japan! Other than that, I saw my girl Tomoko in Tottori and I had so much fun. It was the countryside of Japan and I never realized how much I liked the countryside until I came to Tottori. It was so peaceful and everyone seemed so friendly! I was glad to experience the rural area because I've always wanted to go to the rural area of Japan. The houses are so big too they're like the ones you would see in a classic samurai movie. I can definitely say out of all the people I met in Japan I definitely had a connection with Tomoko. We click so well together and she's so americanized! I told her we have to keep in touch because it's hard finding cool people like that! I felt bad because there were times she couldn't understand me because of my accent so I was slighty embarassed but yah know yah girl is always trying! I also had the chance to see the sand dunes in Tottori which is known to be the desert in Japan so that was a huge plus! I liked going to see the dunes but I missed out on the camels hahah! I'm like what I didn't know there were camels until someone told me! I was like damn missed out on a good picture moment. Other than that, today I went to the movies and the movie theaters are so clean like I didn't step on any popcorn nor drinks at the theater it was really nice. I also got to pick out my seat before I entered the theater which was so cool and then after I left there was a guy that took our trash for us. I'm like nice! I love clean movie theaters and I saw the new Angelina Jolie movie Changeling where the kid was abuducted it was so sad. But Angelina was good, I was reading the japanese subtitles to it and wow the english slang has so much idioms and slang to it! I was like wow American english is complicated! Well anyways I need to go to bed, but before I leave get the new Utada Hikaru CD Heart Station she is a amazing and it is sooo good she has real talent produces and writes for everything. She's on the record label EMI and it seems like EMI is more talent based and Avex is more poppy and image feel like for example Jyongri amazing singer is on EMI but Amuro Namie is on Avex. Amuro is an ok singer but she's a poppy singer so it was interesting to see the difference of the artists from EMI and Avex. Well anyways peace!

Japanese and American Friendships the cultural difference!

The more I live here the more I want to stay. Of course, I don't want to work for a japanese company, but I'm really adjusting here though. I'm starting to get why people here are indirect! But other than that, at first when people come here they think and rightfully so that people here aren't friendly. Well, that is true not as friendly or open compared to americans but that's because here they value friendships more. Their definition of a friendship is more about action which is why they're shy and don't approach anyone because you have to prove and show that that you are a friend not by words. If you notice, I have a mixi and the average amount of friends on mixi aka japanese myspace is 50 friends. That's pretty good because those are the people that they usually talk to you. Unlike on myspace or facebook, where it's common to have 100's of friends! And I do mean hundreds of friends, also it's common for others to add you randomly on myspace or facebook but never say a word to you! I know how annoying!!! But yeah, in Japan friendship is mostly about what you do and when you say things no one believes you because everyone is so indirect here so they're not going to trust your words. But in America, I feel we're a fame driven society. Everyone wants to be famous or popular or it seems like it. Like look at all the reality shows, you have in America it's ridiculous the amount of things people will do just for that 5 mins. of fame! These people usually have sex and do stupid things just for that piece of fame. Also I feel that american frienships, are more of a verbal thing like hey what's up but when it comes to a situation where you are in trouble or you need something will they come for you no!! I'm not saying you can't have true friends in America, but friendships in Japan and in America are waay different. Because in America, everyone considers you to be their friends but when the tough gets going some of your "friends" back out! Where as in Japan, they're not as easily trusting until you prove yourself and your actions! So I admit, I prefer the japanese friendship way stick to yourself and call those your friends until actions proves it!