Shimane, Japan
My name is Melissa and I am a 22 year old American living in rural Japan. I graduated with a degree in International Studies and Japanese Language and now work as an ALT (assistant language teacher) through the JET Program.
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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Internet...a novelty in one of the most industrialized countries u_u

So…(I am going to start every post with “so” I think :P)I have been Japan for exactly 4 weeks now and have yet to update my blog or post anything about what has been going on. Not too many people even read my blog, but I guess I will go ahead and share it on facebook or something once I start posting more regularly. As of now my keeping a blog doesn’t seem very promising, but I have not given up yet…in fact I haven’t even really had a chance to start. You see in a country that is extremely technologically advanced the internet is a sketchy thing. This is not only because I live with a host family. The wi-fi on the Kansai Gaidai campus and the dormitories basically sucks to put it mildly, a warning for future KG students. It isn’t horrible, but don’t expect youtube or any other video to load. It is fast enough to update my blog, so slow wi-fi isn’t the best excuse, but when the only place to use internet is in the bustling CIE you don’t really want to fiddle around with something like a blog. I mainly check my email or facebook chat in between classes since… oh yeah I have no internet at my homestay. Okay well this isn’t entirely true either. My hostfamily doesn’t have wi-fi, they only have lan cable internet and the lan line is in the living room where everyone is all the time. Using this cable requires me to pull it out from behind the tv, stretch it across the room and plug it into my laptop and basically be in everyone’s way. Therefore, I get to use it only about every other night because they know I need it to talk to my parents on skype. This has proved to be a big pain in the butt. It isn’t even like I want to use the internet all the time. I really want to be able to use it in my room at night when I am not bothering anyone and don’t have to cut into family time at night to step away and use the internet. I simply want the internet to get stuff done that requires the internet! Mainly homework, but I really want to do this blogging thing and keep a youtube account with at least a few videos. Oh man and I can’t forget about denshi jisho.org to look up all the words I didn’t understand that day. Luckily, all hope is not lost! I trust KGU has had this issue in the past because they brought in a company to sell us wi-fi. Granted it cost way too much money, about $40 a month, but I have garunteed wi-fi wherever I go with a nifty 4g portable wi-fi router thingy. It is through the Japanese version of sprint. Unfortunately, we had to order this soooo it took 2 weeks for me to get it, but now I have it! YAY! Sooo that means real posts now about orientation, the first week, classes etc. ^^

Oh, but otherwise homestay is freaking fantastic! I highly recommend it! The internet thing was a rare problem among us in homestay and being with a real Japanese family everyday is worth some of the initial hassle and settling in period!

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