From Nagoya, Japan, happy Halloween everybody! In this episode, I talk about my Japanese Halloween costume as well as create a time lapse. (I have been looking for something to time lapse so I am happy I finally found it) My friend Roxanne was the one doing the make-up and she did a great job. Some friends and I dressed up for Halloween and went downtown to party. It was really fun and definitely a memorable time. Now I have to start studying again for midterms. :( Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted.



Happy Halloween!!!

-Tristan

Hello everyone, I took a break from the constant studying and went to Osu with some friends. Osu is a very popular shopping district and it lives up to its fame. There are oodles of shops ranging from the generic clothing store to the just bizzare. It is a great location if your looking to lighten your wallet.

Halloween is approaching soon and this week I am on the search for my costume. I have something in mind but I will keep it a suprise for next week.

Missin everyone back home!!!

Peace,

Tristan

Hello everyone, this episode I travel to Shirakawa-go. It is a small village in the mountains of Japan. The air was really clean and the scenery was beautiful. It is definetly the place I would want to live if I joined the JET program. (The JET program is a teaching program in Japan. It forces you to live in the country side but does give you some preferences.) Not to say I want to join the JET program as of yet. I really enjoyed the whole experience.

Sayonara,

Tristan

On the weekend of October 9th, I stayed two days with a home-stay family. The family lived in Nagakute city which is close to where my apartment is. I was amazed by the kindness and warmth the family showed towards me. Like the name implies, I was treated like a family member durring my stay. We were complete strangers in reality but none of that seemed to matter. There was a mutual interest in each others' culture that bridged the gap between our nerviousness.
The first day we sat around and talked about our lives. They were very interested to find out about life in Texas and what I thought about Japan. I observed something while I was being questioned though. Specifically I remember the question: What does your dad do(for work)? Yet, there was no question about what my mother does. I do not know enough about Japanese culture to make a fair observation but it seems like women are not given the same respect as men when it comes to work(run-on sentence?). Regardless, it was a pleasant conversation. Later that day we went to the Toyota museum downtown and watched a movie (Angels and Demons) at their house. I let the family choose the movie. It was fun watching a movie but we watched it in a room with no furniture. The father had designed the movie room to be a traditional Japanese room with a big screen projector and surround sound. Watching the movie on the hard tatame mat floor was... interesting. Honestly, it was a little uncomfortable but fun to experience.
On the second day we went to the anual Nagakute festival. It is a war reenactment festival that includes hundreds of volunteers. They even had martial arts demonstrations at one point. The festival was a great experience and some clips can be seen above.
All in all, the homestay experience was a blast. To anyone studying abroad, I highly recomend staying with a homestay family. Hopefully, I will get an oppurtunity to visit my home-stay family again before I leave.

Thanks for reading,
Tristan

This week I went to a mixed martial arts tournement called DREAM 16. It was at Nihon Gaishihoru, a sports stadium in Nagoya. The place was packed and the fighters did not dissapoint. There were astounding KO's, submissions, and 3 round fights. I had a really good time.
This was actually the first time I have been to a profetional MMA tournament. Even though I was in the cheap seats, 5,000 yen ($60), I could see everything that was going on. Next time I will probably go for the same cheap seats but maybe invest in some binaculars. :-)
Another thing I liked was the food. I bought a sausage on a stick with french fries and it was delicious. Those two things are hard to come by in Japan; it's mostly asian food. I will do a blog on food some other time.
Long story short, it was a fun four hours. Note: DREAM has tournaments throughout the year and at different locations in Japan. If you can make one, I recomend it.

Sayonara,
Tristan

Tokyo Train Ride

Hello everyone!!! Things are going great in Japan. Above is some footage from my last days in Tokyo. Tokyo is a really exciting city. There are lots of things to see and do. I enjoyed it so much that I will probably go back near the end of my trip. Stay tuned for some footage of my life in Nagoya where I go to school.

Sayonara,
Tristan

Hello everyone, this is a video I made on my first day in Japan. My hotel was in the Akihabara district of Tokyo so the video mostly contains scenes from that area. It was a nice hotel and the owners were really nice. Their English wasn't very good and my Japanese isn't very good so that made for interesting conversations. However, that was a walk in the park compared to lugging all of my luggage around Tokyo. Word of advice to anyone coming to Tokyo: Pack Light. My arms were killing me and I got lost a few times. All of that said, it is a beautiful city. It is clean and the bus system is really efficient, if you know how to use it that is. Next episode I will give everyone a tour around Tokyo via JR Takenote line. Coming soon...

Sayonara,

Tristan