Inside Student Blogs Melinda Krajniak 
Nagoya, Academic Year 2009-2010
Melinda's Posts
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Yes, It Is I, Returned After 9 Months
Behold the power of thinking- not much accomplished but at least I’ve got that ‘thought on it’ feeling.
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10.5 Hours Pre-Departure
Don’t think I’ll be getting a lot of sleep tonight – but man if I did that would be so awesome.
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A Visit to Ghibli Studio
The farewell parties and a visit to Tokyo nine months after getting to Japan.
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I have taught the way of the grilled cheese sandwich
A store with two floors of Aladdin pants was discovered, and its wares purchased. Mark that off the list of things accomplished in Japan. You can also put down the out-of-place laughter at entirely inappropriate rap music played in stores that nobody seems to understand but me.
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In the Shadow of the Rain
busting into the bad idea of barefoot soccer with a wicker ball
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Getting Lost and Encountering Screaming Fangirls
Got to have some being lost stories to go with my Japan trip, so I decided to get lost. The first was unintentional (actually both were unintentional, but I must assume when I walk somewhere I haven’t walked before I will inevitably make a wrong turn and lose my way).
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You Don’t Even Need The Fists – Aikido’s Kneeling Walk
I’ve done kenpo a few times, though the title kung fu sounds more familiar to most Americans.
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Five Times the Flower Viewing
You could walk down the sakura covered path beside the grassy incline where daffodils bloomed or stay under the trees with everyone looking out at people on the baseball field or children running off in every which direction. I walked up the incline to the second tier of sakura and enjoyed the double layer effect: more sakura lined this higher level, but those below were granted at a bird’s eye view and seemed as clouds of sakura, the light flowers all one could see besides the blue sky.
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Sleeping in? Walking with deer? Feels like a family vacation…
Standing at the station, the sound of a blazing shinkansen flying past is similar to a tempest storm breaking the sound barrier. It’s like a wicked breeze so fast you fear for your future ability to hear and so soon it is gone.
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spring break – grinding rice and scaring people
Trying to figure out a new fruit, I bit the passion fruit and was confused by the hollow sound and tough skin. Tastes as a tropically overpowering fruit should, though it looks like brains, and it made a good chaser for the sweet potato.
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one awkward step down one familiar hill
A stroll to the subway line and a dinner encounter with inverse gaijin smash.
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Oh my gosh it means something! I think I can speak pokemon!
yes, I will throw jagged frisbee bits if you feel so bold as to make our frisbee two
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the four-story fall of a waking spider in the rain
When evenings brilliant illumination lined every memory
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Steam Off Of Tea
Somehow being surrounded by books makes it easier for one to think, reflect, and relax.
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Tanuki – the legend lives! Well… that one not so much
I had more time once my classes and finals were over and yet I would come back on campus most days, where I was usually the only exchange student among the Japanese students, who continued their classes as if nothing had happened.
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Time well spent
The rain had left us early for sun to warm us along the paths, and from the heated viewing floor of a building in the park we could see where the freshwater met the ocean, the paths we hadn’t traveled
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a bit of daily life
Such memories are perhaps not the most entertaining to read, as I am just recounting most common daily life in this entry, but normalcy does exist in the world and thus one should share more than just the weekend adventures.
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I’m no Katsushika Hokusai
It was roughly noon when the bus took a break and gave us ample time to scour the vender’s and restaurants for a cheap meal, though the entire area was full of tourist traps and $9 meals. I ate a couple korokke and some delicious meat-on-a-stick on the wide alley side of the vender’s store.
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This Irish gentleman is enquiring about ジャガイモ
We left to the tune of a laputa song, walking into the evening sun and continuing to hum the melody
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Appreciate the senses
In one home a man was making shingles in a fashion reminescent of splitting wood… Alongside him was a well-stoked fire, and the smell of a warm gathering in late fall and long naps by the fire filled me with great nostalgic peace.
