There had been confusion as soon as I began my journey from Suminodo from having a delayed train to having to change trains en route. When I arrived at Osaka station I thought the fun had ended. But it was going to get a little more interesting when I tried to navigate my way through Osaka station, which is really an underground city with tunnels leading this way and that. Following signs would be my only hope, so I dutifully followed the signs with the "han" kanji on them. I was looking for the Hankyu Line to take me to Hyogo-ken. And I thought I did pretty well until the train station employee got frustrated with me and said, "I told you - this is the Hanshin Line, not the Hankyu Line!" In a huff he exchanged my mispurchased ticket for a refund and closed his window sharply. It took me a moment to understand what had transpired and then I realized I had to also look for the "kyu" kanji.

Never underestimate Osaka station.

When I finally found the Hankyu Line it was another maze going this way and that. But soon I was at the Hankyu Koten Station boarding a bus for the Kwansei Gakuin University, which had recently merged with Seiwa College. Ms. Hashimoto was waiting at the entrace to Kwansei Gakuin University for me and from there we walked over to Seiwa College. This had been decided in advance because supposidly the way to Seiwa College was a bit more confusing.

When we arrived I was fortunate to be able to visit the attached yochien (kindergarten). I even met the principal/director of the yochien who loves gardening and just walking around the school grounds that was apparent. There were gardens everywhere. There was several little play houses on the playground area too. They had all been made from wood, not like the plastic eye sores I'm used to in the states. Everything looked natural and beautiful. It was somewhere that any child would love to play.

Then I was able to conference with Ms. Hashimoto about studying and researching early childhood education in Japan. Unfortunately the scholarship I want to apply for is for national universities only, so going to Seiwa College won't even be an option. But I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit Seiwa College and who knows I might be able to visit it again one day in the future as part of a collaboration in research. I can only hope, right?

On the way back I went by a different route because there was a train station within walking distance. It was completely downhill, but there were many winding paths involved so thankfully a student from Seiwa College guided me. At first I didn't think she would want to because she was on her keitai denwa (cell phone), so I asked some construction workers first. But they asked her for me (because they saw her walking by and said, "Well why can't she tell you the way?!"). I felt like a little kid when they asked her on my behalf. And then I felt even more embarassed when I understood her Japanese response to her friend on the phone (Some foreigner needs help - I have no idea why). At that point I thought I would have rather just wandered around and gotten lost than become embarassed for asking for help.

Why is that?

Why can't we just ask for help without thinking we are inconveniencing everyone around us? I don't know. But I felt silly again.

But on the way she seemed to warm up to me and we were able to have a nice conversation and I asked her many things about being a student at Seiwa College. It was interesting to get a perspective from a college student who was commuting by train every day.

On the way back I suddenly felt really thirsty, so I started looking at the drink vending machines to see if there were any drinks I had never tried before. This is my policy sometimes. I refuse to buy a drink I've tried before if there is a new option available. Or rather I like to try new things, period. But every drink machine had "old" stuff in it, so I kept passing them by. And finally I came upon a Kiosk with some new items to get my attention.

I tried to get the clerk to give me back change in only 5 yen coins. She raised an eye and said something along the lines of, "I won't mind giving you 20 cents work of 5 yen coins... but the rest I won't do that." I was happy to even get a few 5 yen coins (which was one of my small missions during the trip), so I agreed happily. But seriously, her eye raise was humorous.

Next I waited in lines at the shinkansen reservation counter at Shin-Osaka station trying to figure out the schedule and possibility of getting tickets to Hiroshima the next day as well as tickets from Hiroshima to Shizuoka. Apparently it wouldn't be an easy six hour trip on one train and would involve several train changes, which would make getting reserved seats risky. So I opted to only get reservations for the ticket to Hiroshima and take my chances from Hiroshima to Shizuoka - which was what the station clerk had suggested. 

Then I wandered around Shin-Osaka station for a long time. It wasn't that I was lost, but that I couldn't figure out what to do next. Actually I was a bit depressed because I really liked Seiwa College and I knew I couldn't apply to it through the scholarship I hadn't even applied to yet. I also realized I had to come up with a research theme asap that would work with the research scholarship. It was clear that I needed a theme that was necessary for studying in Japan and could only be done in Japan according to Ms. Hashimoto. I love Froebel but that is best studied in Germany I guess, but Japan has so much Froebel influence still in their kindergartens. I also love the idea of studying second language acquisition but I don't have a linguistics degree, so I don't know if I can study this through the scholarship. And goodness I haven't even applied for the scholarship. Also I was thinking about how I talked in ONLY English with Ms. Hashimoto. I couldn't imagine having had as successful of a conversation had I conducted it in Japanese. I felt so miserable about my level of Japanese at that moment. I knew that I needed to study Japanese intensively if I even wanted a small chance of doing research in Japan in the future.

Also I really was dreading going back to Osaka and its underground confusion, so I just kept pacing back and forth around Shin-Osaka while the evening commuter passengers were rushing about. It was all quite surreal feeling and I soon became delirious.

Then I remembered I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and it was nearing dinnertime. At that moment I smelled something wonderful. It was bean paste sweets. An-pan in a crispy pastry shell. And there were two different types of an - the red kind and the lighter yellow kind. I was in a trance watching how they chefs busseled about creating these tasty treats. And soon I was purchasing four of each flavor. I thought to bring back omiyage for everyone. And I felt very clever for finding something to eat.

But then I realized that since it was going to be omiyage I couldn't just open it and eat it. I was defeated again. And hungry. So I knew I had to brave the underground madness that is Osaka station to hurry back to Suminodo. And honestly it wasn't so hard this time around. I magically found the right place where I needed to board a train for Suminodo.

Back in Suminodo I arrived with omiyage just as my host was heading out. And when she heard I hadn't eaten yet, she suggested we go to Coco Ichiban, a curry restaurant down the road.

It was actually perfect because this is exactly what Gerard told me I had to try. And try I did.

But boy was I out of it. I was like a shell of a person walking around. A good bath in the o-furo with a view healed my weary body and I slept soundly.