March 1996 (last updated on 2005/06/21)

January / February / March / April / May / June / July / August / September / October / November / December

If you want to read my story before March 5th, please go to "the beginning"

5	Arrived to Wichita, beginning of my study abroad life in Wichita, KS. Although I did not know how to read it at the time, I wanted to fill this journal with as much as information I could find, so I spend several months looking over the old Sunflower campus newspaper and I have posted those on this journal. Wichita State's baseball pitcher, Jason Krafft was arrested on DUI at age of 20. (Sunflower)
6	I set off an alarm of an armed door since I could not read English! (The sign says "alarm will sound if opened") Well, I woke up, and was fool enough to think Japanese way which I always take stairs. So, I got down to the first floor but I just don't remember how I got in to the building. So I opened the door which was to the hallway of the dorm. I wanted to get out so I tried the other one, and now there are constant bell ringing. Oops. I know there is a cafeteria but I just do not know how to get in neither. Some Japanese students helped me getting in. My poor English skill does not allow me to explain the situation. All other friends came with me had different room assigned. I had to catch up with them. At the time, I was so scared. I do not understand what people are saying, I don't know the place and did not want to get lost. I cannot communicate with anybody, and I just don't know where are the all other Japanese students are at! The Sunflower, campus newspaper had its own web page, http://156.26.160.72/sunflower.html The IP between 156.26.0.0 to 156.26.255.255 are for the WSU's system.
7	The first day going to the IELC (Intensive English Language Center) to take a placement test. I remember this day was very cold and windy. I tried to go to school but it was way too cold. I did not know about shuttle van until that day and the driver found us freezing. I think I am going to ride the bus more often... They provided rides between Fairmount Towers and IELC, almost of the time. I will be staring from Intermediate I level with others. I had to fill out forms for the school with other Japanese friends, but I had to use electric E-J dictionary all the time since I do not understand so many words. Especially the medical terms about epidemics and vaccinations. WSU's Intensive English Language Center (IELC) (called "Inten" between Japanese) picture taken on summer 2004.
8	TB Test. I think. I remember several things. Ridge, the guy who picked us up at the airport, and Dana a fun girl were the conversation partners (and Mike and Ryan?). Mike was a Japanese American, from Hawaii, and been to Olympic game Ryan was from Washington,
11	Opening a banking account. I went to Bank IV (which later changed to Nations Bank and now it is Bank of America) at 21st and Hillside with Takemasa. Luckily there was a Japanese employee at other branch so I was able to open one at the end. I deposited all the traveler's check. They gave me a bank card and a check book. You can still send money via post office but my friend went to pickup $3,000 in cash. Like, wow, right? Tall Oaks was offering 2BR apartment for $375 a month. (Sunflower) I don't know about the situation right now, but at the time, there are so many bad things about Tall Oaks. Rapes, Murder, Theft... I think the things got better after they installed the security gate. There aren't many Japanese students who lived there. Most of these days I came back to cafeteria of the dorm with my new friends.
13	Japan Express was posting an ad on the Sunflower Obento $4.50 Tonkatsu $3.75 Oyakodon $2.95 Teriyaki Chicken $2.95 Chicken Yakitori $3.50
15	Beginning of the Intensive English Language School (until 5/10) It was a kind of scary moment. Just two weeks ago, I was sitting in a classroom filled with 40 Japanese students and spoke Japanese. Now, I have a bunch of people from all over the world; Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and so on. I had one other Japanese student. No English to foreign language dictionary allowed in the classes. I have seen some of them being caught using it, confiscated. They will be able to reclaim it at the end of semester. We had to use Longman's English-English dictionary but it is such a mess. While I was looking up on a word, the description of the part uses several other word which I do not understand, therefore I had to look up those words to find out the description wants to say. Sometime, I had to do this more than 10 times to get the meaning of ONE word. I still have the dictionary with me. (There was a Korean guy who knows pretty much every single word on the dictionary. People were happy to have him ) The schedule of the classes are the same, from Monday to Friday. We do go somewhere on almost every Saturdays. There are Reading Writing Grammar Lab Conversation Class The conversation class was kind of fun. You get to play games like Pictionary,
17	Before I moved into this room, I had a very exciting thing happed. I did not have my room assigned at first there was a about two weeks after coming to the U.S. I am still alive!
18	campusMCI was posting an ad on the Sunflower (WSU archive) Shocknet by campusMCI $12/mo for 60 hours free between 1AM-6AM Sign up fee $10 As we can see, the internet service was provided by MCI, and used to be
20	Randy Smithson appointed as Shocker basketball coach; he was a guard for WSU between 1979-1981, son of Gene Smithson (former WSU men's basketball coach) (Sunflower)
24-30	Spring break. Over the break the cafeteria closed so we don't have any food served. We did not have anyway getting food since we don't have a car. We had a food from Japan Express for the first time (I think I had Oyakodon). The good thing about this place is that there will be free drink for student with WSU ID.
25-27	Texas trip We left Wichita in the evening, drove all night, got arrive at Houston sometimes in the afternoon in the next day, been to the space center (serving as a museum), ate sushi in a Japanese restaurant in that evening, spent time at the gulf. Stayed in a motel that night. Next day we moved to San Antonio, ate burrito for the first time (was big and delicious!), Went to river walk but one Japanese guy tried to jump over small canal and broke his leg. Also been to the Alamo. Stayed in a motel again, we drove back from Texas. When we are driving back, we get pulled over in Oklahoma by State Trooper for speeding, but one of Japanese friend was behind the wheel she only had international driver's license. Saturn rocket Saturn rocket At San Antonio, we also went to Houston, Dallas...

Since after I got here, I had a lot of problems

I could not get in the cafeteria by myself because I have not get the student ID until the 17th, and could not speak English to explain the situation.

I could not go buy an stuffs since I did not have a car. I always had to ask someone to give me a ride

I was not familiar with the lock in the door so sometimes I was not able to lock it

I had trouble calling home since I did not know about the calling card provided by companies other than AT&T, at the time, many people were using Sprint calling card since it was about $1.70/min compare to $2.30/min for AT&T. (By the time I switched to Airnex, or Japan Telecom, the price dropped to $0.37/min, as of 2004)

I was invited on a dinner with other friends

Names of the friends -- Ryotato Tomoda, Rentaro Aoyama, Yoko Taguchi, Atsuko ?, Tomohisa Yamaguchi, Takemasa Iga

I used to go play basketball with my Japanese friends in the evening.

The song I hear often was 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins at the time.

January / February / March / April / May / June / July / August / September / October / November / December

Go back to TOP / Go to Home