July 13th:
A day of sports! Jason and I were once again invited by Suguru to go play tennis together with his friend Tsuya. Same old deal, we got on a train to 西宮 Nishinomiya to meet Suguru. From there Tsuyu San drove us to the tennis courts by car. Crazy, on the way to the courts we got pulled over by a cop. But this cop car looked like a regular civilian car. All of a sudden these sirens pop out of the roof like straight out of a James Bond movie and wail at us to pull over. I think the ticket cost a ton of money. A speeding ticket for about 400 dollars I think. His spirits seemed a little damp the rest of the day. Here are some pictures of all Suguru's friends who joined us to play. お疲れ様でした！
This is the cop car. Wtf right? Oh and Jason's peace sign.
Our tennis stomping grounds in Japan.
I don't remember all the girls names, but they were pretty freaking good.. Suguru and I barely pulled out a win against two of them in doubles.
After some 3 hours of tennis, we all decided to head to つるとんたんTsurutontan udon restaurant. The massive portions were great. And as always, Tsuya-San would pay for everything. Suguru warned us not to offer paying. He just loves seeing people happy from playing tennis, so he considers it his treat to pay for our dinner. He really knows what he likes, something I really respect about the guy. He is the guy in the orange by the way. After lots of tennis, massive servings of curry udon, and some flattering compliments about my eyes/eyelashes we all parted ways.
July 14th-23rd:
Monday meant back on the grind. Since I'd finished preparing my samples, it was time to start all my materials property tests. Over the next 2 weeks I would be collecting O, N, and C content, running Vicker's Hardness Tests, checking the grain sizes of the samples, running Ultimate Tensile Stress (UTS) tests, calculating carbon nanotube vs. TiC content by hand, and taking SEM images of the materials. Some gems of the week include:
This slightly sweetened tea. Comparable to the southern style sweet tea.
The sunset on Tuesday was unbelievable. And the temperature perfect.
Another intersection on the way home. Just great sunset color.
A little festival coming to a end right by our dorm.
The weekend had a pretty crazy drinking party where the Germans taught me their game flunkyball, which strongly resembles the American game 4-banger but on a bigger field basically. Aside from that, I rested up for the second week of intensive research. Also! There were 2 birthdays celebrated in the hall. We always liked to surprise each other for the parties, so we always got together for cake to celebrate.
Erika's birthday! Top row left to right, Kitty, Emilo, Shinji, Kevin, Reija, Me, front row left to right, Ran, Jiho, Felix, Erika, Yumin, and Delphine. For the record the nationalities in this picture include US, German, Brazilian, Finnish, Chinese, Korea, Swiss, and French. Pretty crazy huh?
Just me and the birthday girl.
Emilio's bday! We ambushed his room while he was playing computer games and dragged him out for cake. Top row left to right: James, Joon, Shinji, and Sophie. Middle left to right: Johanes, Me, Hanmo, Emilio, Duncan, Charles, Felix, Erika, Gaurav, and Ran. Front row left to right: Stevce, Pramod, and Emilio. Nationalities in this picture: Ireland, Korea, Brazil, Germany, America, Switzerland, New Zealand, Indonesian, India, China, and Macedonia.
Shinji's goodbye party on this one. Pictured in order from most left to most right: Me, Linda, Jiho, Erika, Hanmo, Shinji, Sara, Joon, Nena, Chin-hui, and Yo. Ok last time. Nationalities: France, America, Switzerland, Taiwan, Korea, Germany, Japan, Brazil, China, Thailand.
What a diverse body of residents. Anyhow. It was around this time that I realized my time in Japan is dwindling. Nostalgia was already sitting in. I realized the time in Japan is too short. The people were all so special in Tsukumodai. Almost every person spoke at least 2 languages, something I knew I would miss dearly upon my return to America. But yeah! A month and a half of awesomeness left!
July 10th:
Back to work. It was really rough waking up early the next morning. I had to be at the lab by 9 to do 8 extrusions; coffee was a necessity. It was a hot day. I was sweating lots by the time I got to lab and the hard work hadn't even started. As a reminder, an extrusion is where a metal sample, then when it is at the heated, more ductile state, you cram it through a small hole to form a long rod. To do this, I had to wear jeans, proper shoes, a fireproof jacket, and two layers of gloves. The work involved standing near a 400 degree C or 1000 degree C furnace, handling glowing hot metal samples, and lifting heavy pieces of metal to prepare the extrusion press. It is dangerous and tiring work. But together, Imai Sensei and I got through all 8 samples together in the morning. Here are pictures of the results:
Spent the rest of the day cutting these samples into specific dimensions for all the tests I would be running on them the ensuing weeks. It was a hard day of work, and nice transition back to what would be 2 weeks of intensive lab work. I got home just in time for a lovely yakiniku dinner with the hall mates.
July 11th:
Friday! And check out all the samples I prepared:
All the samples I cut are in the bags, and all the ones I molded and polished are in the plastic container. That is MANY hours of work.
I stayed so late at the lab that I decided to just go straight to the karaoke to meet my friends for a night of fun. It was Erika's birthday party karaoke and we all had a great time singing songs til dawn. Met a good friend Tommy there who is as much a musician as I am. It was especially fun singing a bunch of harmonies with him all night. Here are pics:
Erika, Saran, Pramod, and Shinji (left to right)
Tommy, I forgot your name sorry!, and Kitty! Kitty also has a great voice!
Taking a break from singing and hitting up the children's playground outside
Johanes had too much fun with these.
The sunrise that never gets old.
July 12th:
I slept in after a day of hard work and a night of fun. This Saturday would be a pretty wild day. Two girls in the dorm had planned a big cross-dressing party for the entire dorm. That's right, I said it, cross-dressing party. And we all went all out. The girls lent all the guys dresses and make up, and we lent the girls suits, hats, sunglasses, etc. My friend Erika needed help with her hair, so my buddy Kevin and I did our best to cut her woman's wig into something that resembles a (anime fan's) Japanese guy's hair. Also, here are other pictures that might do it justice. Check em out.
before
after
Getting my makeup done.
Post make up. Looking like a drag queen.
Many chose the more traditional Japanese route.
All the Americans. Oh and the one next to me was Queen of Tsukuomdai!
A name for each boob. And some nice cat ears.
Looking looking like a true gentleman. Rose in hand an all.
King of Tsukumodai
Stevce looking classy.
WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT AHEAD
My friend Felix (pictured) made this penis and boobs-as-balls piñata by hand. The point was to first pick the "king" and "queen" and then give them a stick to break the piñata, which was our representation of sexism, a serious problem in Japan and many other countries in the world.
Anyhow. There are plenty more hilarious pictures from the night. It was a lot of fun and thank you to those who organized it. I learned how awful and how much stress make up is. Women go through a lot of trouble to impress men. Thank you.
In the morning, I woke up briefly to say goodbye to Maika before she left for work. I slept in, packed my bags, and made my way to the train station. Maika had left me some money to buy a lunch and pay for the bus ride.
Won't forget this room.
Last meal. I must admit, the vegetables on the left were pretty strange tasting.
Here are some transit pictures from the way back to Osaka.
Bus interior
Rainy, rainy day.
Almost at the airport.
Beautiful sunset for the takeoff.
Flight was entertaining. Met two Japanese girls who I kept me company.
It was nice to be around people who speak the same language as you again. Being Taiwan made me realize how difficult it is to live in a country where you don't speak the language. And even though I can't speak Japanese fluently, the amount I do know makes life in Japan so much more comfortable.
Ok! On the adventurous part of my night. So, to start with the airport I was flying into is about 2 hours away from my dorm. My flight was late, and trains in Japan stop running at midnight. I managed to catch the first line to take me to downtown Osaka. The train only left at 11:30. On this train I realized, I will miss the last train from the station I had to transfer at to my home station. And that is a FAR distance. I spoke to the train conductor, and she gave me instructions on how I could get as far north as possible while trains are still running. So as instructed, I got off at Tengachaya, and took the Sakai line to Tenjinbashi Rokuchoume. When I arrived, I realized I still about 12 km from home. The taxi would have cost me 50 bucks, something I didn't want to pay, considering the service.. Instead, I started walking. With my heavy-ass backpack. All I had was a compass on my phone since Google maps wouldn't load the map. I walked north until I ran into the Kitasenri line, then continued following it. Here are some pictures/a video of me being frustrated:
Over the 淀川 Yodogawa Bridge.
Not everyday you get to stop in the middle of the tracks to take shots.
Really cool how at nighttime, they set up these construction projects on the railways because its the only time they can do it.
Also, these red lights indicate the path that takes you along the railway. Something you don't see during the day.
Me expressing my frustrations.
This bridge is where things got interesting.
I was taking this picture when this really drunken Japanese guy came riding by. He asked me, "did you catch it?". I had not idea what he meant, so I responded in Japanese, "Yes, I got the picture". He seemed confused. He then clarified he was talking about a fish. I guess he thought I had been fishing. I said no, and he laughed at himself saying he didn't either. Anyhow, he was pretty impressed with my Japanese so he kept talking. I found out he was going to Kandaimae, a station on the way to my place, so we just stuck together and talked on the whole walk. He even offered me cigarettes, which I took for the sake of sharing an experience with the guy. We spoke about some interesting stuff. How Japanese and Westerners see each other, stereotypes that come with it, and about our home cities. He took a liking to me, bought me some onigiri and an energy drink at the next convenient store, gave me all his cigarettes and lighter despite me telling him numerous times I don't smoke, and lastly insisted on getting me a cab. He kept asking if I have friends that can pick me up. I told him they're all asleep and only have bikes anyways. When we got to Kandaimae, I told him I can walk but he called over a taxi, gave him 2,000 yen, and told him to take me to my home. I thanked him for everything and told him I want to repay him. He said, if you ever find me here, take me to izakaya for a drink and that was it. Got this picture with the guy at 3:30 in the morning, and got in the taxi.
June 7th:
This was my last full day in Taipei and one of the things I wanted to see the most was a beach. In California, I visit the beach pretty regularly to body surf, boogie board, play volleyball, or just relax in the sand. In Osaka, I hadn't really had a chance to do these hobbies, so I was excited to see the ocean again. The trip up to Baishawan, (literally "white sand bay") took quite some time. First we had to take the metro all the way up to the northernmost station. From there we had to find the right bus to the beach, which took like another 40 minutes. But it was all worth it when we got there. Here are pictures:
Bus ride through the jungles of Taiwan to the beach.
Bein a dork.
Some shops along the strand.
Couldn't have asked for better weather.
In the evening on the way back on the bus.
The beach was so relaxing. And though the life guards held a pretty tight perimeter so we couldn't swim out too far, I still managed to ride a couple waves. For dinner, Maika wanted to show me this vegetarian restaurant she had gone to with her friend Lisa. But first, we were starving and it was only about 5 PM, so we decided to drop by the night market for some bomb pork buns and pork sandwiches. I was not let down. Delicious food. The vegetarian restaurant we went to was nice. very westernized feel. We were served about 6 courses starting with appetizers and ending with dessert. Here are pictures.
Fruit with yogurt for the warm-up.
Pumpkin soup with my lovely date.
Main course.
Vanilla ice cream dessert.
That night was a little sad. We had to part ways the next morning. The next time I would see Maika, we would be in the states again. I truly had a magical time in Taiwan, and I would like to thank Maika for accommodating me for 5 days in a beautiful city.
