Geidai Trip 1 - Oct 10th

Today my only class was the Practicum in Japanese Art. I guess we're still in the orientation phase, before we break off into studio groups, because we were set to meet up at Ueno station for part one of our tour of Geidai (東京藝術大学), a well-known art college in Tokyo, and our instructor's alma mater. I went a bit early to meet up with Hans, who is also in the class, to have some lunch. Unable to find a suitable cheap restaurant, we settled on conbini food and went to the rendevous point in front of the station. About 20 minutes or so after we were supposed to leave, the group made its way through the park past some... interesting street performers, to the Geidai campus.

The school is divided by a street into two parts: fine arts and performing arts. Today we would visit the fine arts half of the school, and see some of the disciplines we would be learning for the next several weeks. We visited the metalworking studios, including hammering, welding, and casting, then we moved on to ceramics and urushi (traditional Japanese enamelware). Urushi is especially interesting and at the same time, seems to be mind-numbingly boring. Many many layers of noxious enamel applied to the same piece of wood for several weeks sure sounds fun, but seeing as it's the most expensive studio class to take, I don't think I could handle all that fun.

The last stop on the tour was weaving, where we saw a few students working on concepts for woven work. This would not be one of the studio classes offered to us, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Once the tour ended, we all set off in different directions. As luck would have it, there was a "good design award" show being held at one of the buildings on campus, so I went to check it out. It seemed to be mostly consumer design from the past 50 years or so, and there were some weird things considered for the award, such as the original playstation. Upstairs were the items from the past decade or so, along with a crowd of people listening to a couple of older gentlemen give a speech. The speech being in Japanese, and the acoustics bouncing the speech off the walls made it impossible for me to understand anything that was being said, so after a respectful period of looking like I was paying attention, I headed again for the door.

On the way back to the station, I looked through the entrance to a restaurant and took this photo. I just think it looks cool, so live with it.

Yabusame - Oct 9th

Today is some kind of national sports holiday, and a lot of events are happening throughout the city. One of those events is Yabusame, a traditional form of equestrian archery, where the rider tries to hit three 2x2' targets while riding at full tilt. The event would take place in the same park that we had been setting off fireworks a couple weeks back. I met up with a few friends and we moved over to the temple, where the riders and their entourages were being blessed by the resident priests. The "baba" in Takadanobaba is actually 馬場, which means stable. Some centuries ago, the entire area surrounding Waseda was actually a collection of fields and farms, and Takadanobaba was the official stable of the Shogun. There are various clues hinting at this time long since past, but they are mostly overlooked by the casual observer.

After getting blessed, the riders moved down to Toyama park, where the yabusame would take place. We walked down the temple steps past the statue of a yabusame rider about to fire his arrow, and pushed our way through the crowd to find a good vantage point.

Those riders sure are fast! The first one had almost completed his run before I could pull out my camera and squeeze off a shot. They event continued for a couple hours, and each time I got better at timing my photos. Thankfully, my camera has a good continuous shot mode, so I was able to get several nice sequences of the riders making their runs. After a while, the crowd started to disperse, and I took a few more photos before gathering the group back up. From then, everyone had plans to do various things, so we all splintered off to attend to our various plans for the day. I had promised James and Ehtesham that I'd take them to get a haircut, so Ayaka (the girl who went with Derek and myself the first time) was kind enough to escort us to Shimokitazawa again for another round of style.

James had a hard time at first picking a look; he had purposefully grown his hair out (almost chin-length) so he could give a Japanese stylist a blank slate to work with, but the overwhelming number of options available to him made it difficult to choose a style to go with. He finally settled on a semi-long look, and the stylist got to work. There was a lot to be done, so Ayaka and I went out to explore the shopping district surrounding the station. We saw all kinds of weird and interesting shops, including a restaurant with a huge fugu (blowfish tank) right out front. We returned to the shop to find James a changed man; I forgot to take a before photo, but the results were startling! I took a few photos for posterity, and we headed back home on the Odakyu line. I can't wait to get my own haircut too!

Samba Serendipity - Oct 8th

Today again I had no specific plans, but Hans rang me up to see if I wanted to hang out again with Hilary, Kaoru and Maho. Of course I had nothing else to do, so I went over to 'baba to meet up with them. Kaoru was already there waiting for us, watching some random performers up on a makeshift stage that had been erected a few days ago in the rotary. After a while, Hans and Hilary showed up and we headed out for Ikebukuro. Maho couldn't make it until later, due to her job schedule.

We went around to various shops and malls in the Ikebukuro area. Upon Hilary's recommendation, we hit up a local ramen shop that her boyfriend frequents. It was about the same price as 一風堂, but had a decidedly different flavor. If I'm back in the area again, I'll hit them up again for sure.

We returned to 'baba, intending to go to Big Box, but were stopped by a fantastic sight; a humongous Samba Parade! Totally unexpected, there were several hundred participants clad in all sorts of costumes dancing down the main drag to the tune of carnival music. It was almost as if Mardi Gras had broken out on Waseda-doori. After watching the noisy spectacle for about 20 minutes, we returned to our original plans and went up to Big Box to kill some time before meeting with Maho. We took some purikura and played a few arcade games, including the new guitar hero game which only has three buttons, but I failed anyways cause apparently I don't know any Japanese songs! My kingdom for Killer Queen!

We got ahold of Maho, who was apparently already waiting down at the Hub with a group of European exchange students. We met up with them and pondered our next move for a while. The other students wanted to go drink at an izakaya, but we didn't want to spend another 2500 yen to have watered down drinks for a couple hours, so we stuck around the Hub and made the discovery of a lifetime.

Happy Hour!

After enjoying drinks at less than half the normal price, we moved our party of five to a local karaoke joint, and along with cheap nomihoudai, sang for about an hour or so before walking Hilary back to her place, then returning to baba to part ways once again.

Nakano and Family - Oct 7th

Today I got a message asking if I wanted to go check out the shopping district around Nakano station. I headed out around noon, figuring I would walk through Tetsugakudou park to the other main street that leads to Nakano, since it's only about twice as far as Araiyakushi. I stopped by the same spot as the night before, and was amazed by the scene; it was as if there had been no storm. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Even the water level hadn't risen at all. Amazed but unfazed, I crossed the street and started my way through the park I turned at what I thought was the appropriate spot, but ended up getting lost in a maze of suburbia, and had to ask a fruit stand for directions. After wrestling with the map for a while, I finally found my bearings and made my way to the station, where I met up with Hans and Hilary.

We ducked into the Nakano Broadway mall and puttered around there for a while, stopping at a delicious bread store for some sweets. We moved up to the second, then third floor, which seems to be mainly reserved for toys of all sorts. Nestled amongst the toy stores was a fancy watch store selling rolexes and similarly expensive wrist-candy. Until today, I had never seen a watch that costs as much as a house.

As we climbed to the last inhabited level of the mall, I spotted a shirt that made me laugh out loud. I took a photo thinking that would be sufficient, but after walking around for a while, I found the shirt calling to me, summoning me to buy it. I knew that I would regret it if I didn't buy it, so I caved into the pressure and picked it up. All hail the colonel! My new assignment to myself is to find one of the thousands of KFCs with a statue of the late founder outside, beckoning to passers-by to come in for some dead fried bird. I must have a photo of myself in this shirt, with my arm around the "kenta-no-ojisan."

I headed home and met some of my extended host-family. Several cousins had gathered for the family dinner, and we all had a good time chatting about various subjects. Staying with a host family is like having non-stop listening and speaking practice; it's extremely good practice, but is terribly exhausting! It was Yumi (Haruto's mom) and one of my cousin's birthday, so we surprised them with some cake before the group dissolved for the night. Stuffed and very tired, I retired to my room.

meltdown

ok, so I guess I wasn't out of the woods yet; my hard drive decided to crash again, this time giving me a friendly "unbootable volume" error. I finally got ahold of a floppy disk to make a Hitachi boot disk with analysis and formatting tools. Lo and behold, the tests showed data corruption, and recovery attempts resulted in a "drive defective" message. I'm now running a low-level format on the drive to see whether I can spare this thing; I've been considering getting a new laptop, since this one is getting old and has been nothing but trouble the past few weeks.

And for those of you who didn't get anything out of that; my computer done broke again, and I lost two or three entries I hadn't posted yet. I'll try to rewrite them and get them up for you, now that I'm almost a whole month behind.

The rest of my first week of class – Oct 04th to 06th

As far as my class schedule is concerned, I ended up dropping the American Advertising class, and although I went to the Japanese written expressions class, it seems that I’ll have enough essays to write in my other Japanese class to keep me busy. I’m keeping my Sound Systems class, although it seems that Eri got scared away by a little bit of reading (which we didn’t even have to do), and dropped the class in favor of some slam-dunk film studies course. The phonology class is going to be challenging, but I’m actually enjoying it. I’m still not enrolled in Dr. Shek’s class, but I still plan on auditing the course. I still have plenty of credits to meet the requirements of the semester.

On Friday, the weather took a turn for the awful. Two typhoons decided to meet up somewhere over Tokyo, and wreak havoc on our umbrellas and pants. Everything below my knees got soaked, so I spent as much time out of my shoes as I could.

After my class, I met up with Rina and Naoko and took them to Malabar, the aforementioned Indian restaurant, bringer of naan. Unfortunately, they ordered chicken and shrimp curry, which pale in comparison to the glorious mutton curry to which I am so endeared. Enjoying the bounty of naan, we spent as much time as we could indoors, thankful for the shelter. The girls apparently had some “girl talk” to hash out, so we decided to split off from there. I found a pair of stretch pants at a local shop, and hustled over to the gym to make use of my membership (and take advantage of the fact that they have a roof). I hung out there for a while, practicing yoga and ignoring the gaggle of people on treadmills chasing me. I ran into Willy on my way out; apparently he works out often. Needing inspiration to make use of my gym membership, I might meet up with him later.

I hurried through the torrent and by chance met up with a few of the other students. We made our way to baba, and they talked about getting something to eat. Noticing that it was approaching dinner time, and that I had yet to call home, I got a phone call from Okaasan asking if I needed dinner tonight or not. I told her I would head home, and after briefly chatting with everyone, I struck out for home. On the way back, I stopped at tetsugakudou park to take a photo of the river that runs through it. If the weather tomorrow is as bad as it was today, I plan on staying in bed.

So…

After I wrote the last entry, I went to bed, and when I woke up, my computer had rebooted and said that the kernel file was missing. I’ve spent the last several days trying to recover my photos and documents, the only copies of which were on this laptop. Finally, I was able to buy a cable that would let me take my laptop’s hard drive out and plug it into another computer. Hans came over on the 12th with his laptop, and we recovered my files and made a bunch of backups on various computers to ensure that I wouldn’t lose them. I wiped my hard drive and reinstalled windows, and it seems to be working alright now, but that’s not to say that I’ve restored my faith in technology. Thanks for your comments and patience, we now return you to your regularly scheduled memories.

Spot of Computer Trouble

So, my [begin geek talk] MFT file on my external hard drive somehow got corrupted, and I've been unable to access the files on that drive. I'm trying to rebuild the file table using TestDrive, but it's going to take forever to finish[end geekness] external hard drive done broke. At this rate, it'll take several days to fix. I'm not even sure if I'll be able to recover my stuff, but this is the best I can do. All my files are still safe at Home in the States, but it would just be a real pain in the ass to get them over here.

I'm in Safe Mode right now, so I'm limited in the number of things I can do for the next few days. I'll try to keep y'all up to date.

Manin Densha - Oct 3rd

Today there’s not too much to talk about. The train to get to school was a bit cramped, but I noticed that I had a bit more space around me than the other passengers were afforded. A lot of people have called this the “gaijin barrier” or “gaijin forcefield,” which Japanese people are reluctant to penetrate for one reason or another. Some people see this as a form of silent racism, I saw it as a chance to stretch my arms and legs a bit.

We had mostly kanji practice in the Japanese class, and did a listening comprehension section from the level 2 Japanese Proficiency Test. If I knew the stuff was that easy, I would’ve taken it last year with binchan! Eri (one of the Japanese students, and to the people back home, not the one you’re thinking of) is in my sound system of languages class (read: phonology), which is actually really interesting so far. I had a bunch of time to kill, so I ended up meeting up with random people all over campus, and hung out in a couple student lounges. I then went to Dr. Shek’s Chinese Religions class; I already have 19 units, and 20 is the limit, so I can’t actually enroll in his class unless I drop one of my other ones. He said that I’m welcome to sit in on the class, which I might do. It’s a later class, and staying at school that long means going home at rush hour. Even three stations away, it’s a hideous affair.

So, I walked up on the platform and found a sea of people. This isn’t so unusual, but the platform was especially crowded. My train (the one that stops at each station) was waiting in front of the crowd, already ridiculously packed with people. I skipped over to the doors, but not fast enough to get past them. Dejected, I sunk back into the crowd. The next train would be a kyuukou (express), and a majority of the people would be riding that. As the doors of the incoming train opened, I watched a frightening but comical scene unfold. A stream of people getting off the train ran headfirst into the river of people fighting to get on. The train was obviously filled to capacity, and yet, more and more people kept pouring into it. It came to the point that people were literally standing outside the doors, shoving the strangers inside the train to make room for themselves. With great difficulty, the doors finally closed on the third attempt. I thought the sides of the train were going to bulge from the stress of all those people crammed inside. The train took off, and I edged closer to the edge of the platform, not willing to miss another one. My train arrived, and I got some first-hand experience. Once in the train, I was moved by the will of the crowd toward the center of the car, and with each new passenger, was inched back just a bit further. Finally coming to a rest somewhere near the other door, I wrapped both hands around the metal bars above everyone’s heads. Unfortunately, in this close proximity, I can’t even afford to reach down to change the song on my ipod lest I catch a handful of someone else and get accused of being a 痴漢 (groper), not that it’s physically possible to lower my hands anyways. Perhaps since it is such a common occurrence, everyone just kind of suffers in silence and listens to their headphones, or plays with their cell phone if they can. It’s amazing, the mental wall the locals are able to put up around themselves to ignore the more crowded, unpleasant situations of daily life in Tokyo.

Grateful to disembark from the train, I enjoyed a nice walk home, and had tempura with Okaasan and Yukiko (sorry, that's the only picture I took today). I told them about the gaijin barrier, and they explained that most Japanese don’t know how to act around foreigners; mostly they are worried about bumping into us or causing us discomfort. They aren’t even sure if we’d understand if they apologized to us for stepping on our toes. It’s not so much that they expect all foreigners to be ignorant of Japanese customs or manners or the language, but rather, since they aren’t sure, it’s safer to avoid embarrassing themselves or us. Of course, we can’t speak for all Japanese people, but it was very interesting to hear the other side of the story. Later on, Otousan came home from a business trip in Aomori, and gave me a packet of neat postcards. Maybe if you’re lucky, you’ll get one.

First day of class – Oct 2nd

Oh yeah, I forgot I was here to go to school! Today I made my way to class, not quite sure which building it was in. There are about 12 people in my Japanese class: Myself, Hans, Heather and Tracey from CSU, Aiko the spunky Australian, someone from Oregon, someone from Hawaii, someone from Helsinki, and the others are Korean, I believe. For some reason, our teacher reminds me of an older Masuyama-sensei (my teacher back home); not in her appearance, but there’s something about her mannerisms and the way she speaks. I can tell that she enjoys her job.

After a short self-introduction, we had a short test on grammar. I was the first to finish, but who knows if that means anything. I had already studied a good portion of the grammar I saw on the test, but there were some things I’d never seen before. I think I’ve been placed in an appropriate level. It turns out that it was a good idea to bring my BKB Kanji book along with me, since we’ll be using that for the class, along with a grammar book I’ve never seen, called 日本語中級J501、中級から上級へ (Intermediate to Advanced Japanese).

My next period was Topics in American Advertising. I walked into the class but wasn’t sure if I was in the right place. I wrote a short memo to myself;

“I’m besieged by Japanese students; if there are any other Americans, they hide themselves well. Odd that a class on American advertising would have so few Americans, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to expect my expectations to be broken.”

The teacher is a stout woman with a booming voice; a commanding presence in the din of silent chatter. Japanese students do a great deal more talking during class than one would expect. I noticed some of the people next to me helping the others understand all the English being thrown at them both in audial and written forms, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the majority of the murmurs weren’t related to the scholastic topics at hand.

After class, I met up with Yukako, Kazaoka-sensei’s daughter, and she helped me get my student co-op membership card. I got the grammar book for my Japanese class, and ran into Stephen and Phillip, who was carrying SIX books for his level 3 class. I’m suddenly grateful I got placed in a higher class. I was going to go home from there, but I decided to stick around and be a bit more sociable. I ran back into Yukako, and a few other students. I got a call from the cell phone company about confirming my address, but the guy wouldn’t stop using keigo, so I passed the phone off to Yukako. Ehtesham (whose name I have been misspelling up until now) is really homesick, and is kind of depressed. I’m going to try to think of something to do to help him cheer up, but I’m wondering if letting Kazaoka-sensei know what’s going on would be considered snitching or something… It’s not like he’s doing anything wrong, but with all her experience, I think that she would have a lot of great ideas to help him deal with his issues without flat-out leaving.

We hung around the SILS building for a while, and Yukako had a Tennis Circle meeting to go to, so we accompanied her for the sake of seeing the 理工学部 (Department of Science and Engineering). Lots of ugly buildings later, she gave us directions back to the station, and disappeared into the mangled mesh of 1970’s era industrial architecture. We walked back through Toyama park and ended up near the Mister Donuts I had eaten at before. We all parted ways and I headed back home on a relatively crowded train. At home, I wrote my self-introduction essay with a bit of help from Okaasan, and watched the new live-action drama for 名探偵コナン (Detective Conan).

PS: I saw the stray cat in the photo above near the dorms, next to a restaurant. Quite cute, but I haven’t actually pet an animal since I got here, and for the record, I miss that contact.

Shopping for a bike – Oct 1st

Well, I’ve finally caught this damned journal up to date, just in time for school to start. Tomorrow I get to see how my classes turn out. I’m anxious to see how things work out, but I’m not too anxious for school to start. I’m learning so much out of the classroom, it almost seems like the schoolwork is going to get in the way of my real education.

So although I’m able to ride the mama-chari, I’ve gotten a hankering for a real bicycle, or at least one that fits me properly. Yukiko and Okaasan have offered to take me shopping for bikes and stuff. First we went to Olympic, a local (kind of) sports store. There was a pretty nice 6-speed mama-chari that was my size for about 12,800 yen. There are other stores to see, so we just wrote down the info and moved on, after picking up some workout shirts for myself. Check out the shoe brand I found… not very descriptive, is it?

The next stop was further out, called Viva Home. This was kind of a mix between Wal-Mart and Home Depot, with a pet store tucked inside. The animals were all cute, but I felt sorry for them. There’s a major pet problem here in Japan, as well as most of the world; people don’t know how to properly take care of their pets, or think of them more as an accessory than as a living, breathing creature. Young, cute animals sell, but those who are in the store too long are considered unsellable and are thrown out like garbage. The pet shelters are ill-prepared for the massive influx of pets, and many animals are needlessly put down. I’ve been thinking about talking about this for my speech, if I choose to give one (sorry Brian, no donuts this time).

Well, enough of that tangent. I found a mountain bike that looks surprisingly good for the price—only 17,800 yen ($150). If I decide to buy a bike, it’ll probably be this one. My only worry is that it’ll get stolen; mountain bikes kind of stand out in a sea of mama-chari. Well, I’ll ride mom’s bike around for a while and see if I really feel the need for a real bike.

On the way home, we got hungry, and stopped at a Denny’s. As I’ve said before, the Denny’s in Japan is totally different from America. Walking in, it seems like much the same diner, but when you look at the menu, the first thing that comes to mind is “where the fuck are the pancakes?!” That’s right, Denny’s is just another fami-resu, like BLDY or Saizeriya: a bunch of Italian-esque and Japanese food with bloated prices. I ordered a club sandwich (I couldn’t bring myself to order soba at a Denny’s. The sandwich was pretty good, but I still want pancakes.

On the way home, we stopped at a supermarket and picked up some goodies. Once home, I went back to work on this ridiculous blog, and in short time, a wondrous spread of kimchi nabe (hotpot), hanpen, sunomono and Japanese black beans lay in front of me. How I’ve managed to actually lose weight since getting here, I don’t know.

Mama Chari and O-Mawari… san – Sept 30th

Today I had no official plans, so I had to make my own. Last night, Okaasan showed me how to fetch her bike, so this morning I decided to give it a spin, and see just how long it would take me to get around. I told Hans to meet up with me around 1pm, and I figured I’d leave around 10 or 11 and explore a few different routes to get to school. Well, I ended up working on catching up with my journal, and didn’t really leave the house until around noon. It turns out that will be more than enough time to get to school, since I was simply meandering down the road, and it only took about 25 minutes to get to the SILS building. If weather permits, biking is actually faster than going by train!

I had to wait a while for Hans. He gave himself 3 whole hours to get from his apartment near Kuramae station to Waseda, and he still ran late. He did, however, find a Freshness Burger on his roundabout way to the school, so we biked down there and enjoyed a small but filling lunch. From there we went to the Waseda gym, where I realized that I had left my health forms at home. So we biked back to my house to pick up the forms, and on the way back, I snapped a few photos of Hans on his bike. Notice the way he’s riding the bike, then note the car just over his shoulder.

So the cop pulled us over. I was almost certain that he was going to go after me, the white foreigner who was weaving around while taking photos behind him, but he all but ignored me, while asking Hans all sorts of questions, like whether the bike was his, where he lived, to see his alien registration card or student ID, etc. I pulled all my stuff out just to show him, but he just kind of glanced it over and told us to be more cautious before sending us on our way.

We made it back to the gym in one piece and I was able to sign up for my membership. Bob showed up and we worked out together for a little bit before heading over to the main campus to wait for word from Rina. After a while she said she’d arrived at the station, and we rode down there to park our bikes and meet up. Rina showed up with her little sister and a friend named Yurika, who had been studying in Pennsylvania the past year. We all went over to a family restaurant called “Cozy Corner,” and met up with two more Japanese students (Takako and Takuya), and an American named Tim from a university in Ohio. We ate and chatted a while, and were considering karaoke, but all the Japanese people had to take the TOEIC English test in the morning, and couldn’t really stay out much later. We all split up and went home. It was really good to see Rina again, and for the record, her sister is a spitting image of her!

Ikebukuro and my new fukuro – Sept 29th

As I said, I went to Teru’s place to hang out until the morning train. His apartment is a strange assortment of American and Waseda memorabilia, including flags, posters, and a Bill Clinton doll that actually spouts random quotes when you press a button. His surroundings reflect the personality, several times I’ve caught him practicing the (American) National Anthem, or humming the Waseda school song… he makes no excuses for his behavior, which is probably why he’s been so long without a girlfriend (the right girl just hasn’t come along, you know). The floor of his one-room mansion is made of tatami mats, so he just laid out a futon (a real Japanese futon is more like a thick comforter than a mattress), and gave me a pillow. As long as I have a pillow, I’m good. With just barely enough room for the three of us, we lay down and chatted for a while. Teru, who was actually pretty drunk, fell asleep quickly. Jin, whose sobriety I didn’t venture to estimate, gave me a history lesson (in Japanese) about Nikko, one of the destinations for our future group trips. Both of them need girlfriends, and I told him I’d keep my eye out for them.

I set my alarm for 5am, so I could catch the early train, but since the guys were still sound asleep, I went back to sleep for another couple hours. I had strange dreams about a perpetual “ooru” (all-night) where I never went home, and just hung out and ate and drank with various groups of people. I certainly hope my experience in Japan doesn’t turn into that. I got up again around 7:30 and by some small miracle, so did Teru. He let me out and I thanked him for letting me stay at his place. I tiptoed down the stairs and walked back to the station. The train was practically empty; most of the commuters were headed in the opposite direction, towards Shinjuku. I disembarked and walked back home, just in time to see Yukiko and Okaasan pulling out of the driveway. I flagged them down and explained that I didn’t drink that much, and just missed the train. They laughed and asked me how it was and I told them that I’d pay closer attention to my watch from now on.

Once in the house, I brushed my teeth (I’d been dying to do that all night) and took a hot shower before crawling back into bed. I had told my friends that I was going to meet them at the gym at around 1pm, but I had a premonition that I would never make it…

Around 5:30, I was just sitting down to dinner, when Hans sent me a text message asking if I wanted to go shoe shopping in Ikebukuro with him. I said I’d head out once I finished my meal. We met up at the rotary and rode the Yamanote to Ikebukuro, just a couple stops away from Takadanobaba. Tracing the steps I’d taken a year ago, I found not only Don’s old hotel, but the excellent Thai restaurant where Don, Okabe-kun and I had stuffed ourselves and been likened to various American celebrities. Hans got a pair of shoes at ABC Mart (a shoe store), and we walked in the direction of Sunshine City (a huge mall complex). We turned a corner and strangely enough, there was another ABC mart. How odd, we thought, to have two identical stores in such close proximity. Finally arriving at Sunshine City, there was a third ABC Mart right next to it. Then, the universe collapsed upon itself.

We walked around the deserted mall for about 15 minutes. The mall closed about 5 minutes before our arrival, and the place is so huge, it was extremely easy for us to get a bit lost without anyone to follow to the exits. Once we escaped, we decided to call it a night before something really ridiculous happens. We stopped back by the rotary, where a small contingent of exchange students from the Houshien dorm were gathered (mostly male). I recognized Roberto, a half-Italian, half-Japanese fellow, and stopped to say hi. Apparently, the European guys were going to Shibuya to “score,” and probably weren’t coming back until the next morning. Having no interest in going to Shibuya, picking up random girls, or staying up all night, I bid him adieu, and returned to my nice warm house. I’m seeing more and more a huge dichotomy of interests between the students who have come to Waseda. On perhaps our first day, Kazaoka-sensei warned us that our actions reflect badly not only on ourselves, but as our entire group. We may be individuals, but first we are Americans, from the CSU group, in SILS, of Waseda; while back home we might just embarrass ourselves, here, we embarrass everyone. It seems that not everyone got the same lecture, I just hope my fellow CSU students were paying attention.

After I got back, I had a small snack with Okaasan, and Yukiko gave me a neat bag she bought for me in Kyoto the other day. It’s about as big as my wallet, made out of kimono silk, and has a rat design on it (my zodiac sign). 気に入った – I like it.

Matsumoto Castle – Sept 28th

Another early rise, but I was quite punctual today. We were due to meet at 8am at Shinjuku station; a recipe for disaster, mainly because it’s just so easy to get lost in Shinjuku station. I met up with Reed at the rotary at 7:30. He had been there since 7, and only Willy had shown up, and was now missing again. At about quarter to 8 we decided that we waited as long as we could, and started to make our way to the station. As we crossed the street, we ran right into a large group of students, including the ones that we had been missing, led by Dr. Shek. Relieved, we went to Shinjuku and met up with everyone. Without much further ado, we jumped on the bus and got out of town.

The ride there was quite enjoyable. The people in my immediate area played a lot of word games and stuff to keep things interesting. After stopping for a bite to eat and a view of Mount Fuji, we toddled back onto the bus and continued our journey. In fact, in the collective six weeks I had spent in Japan, that was the first time I saw Fuji-san. If all goes well, I’ll reach the summit sometime next July.

We stopped at a small village called “Narai” for a couple hours to poke around a bit. Apparently, Narai is one of the few remaining pit-stops on the old feudal era roads that the Daimyo (lords) took every other year to pay homage to the shogun (head honcho) in Edo. The village was very small and on the outside appeared to be very old, but the spider web of power and telephone lines overhead were a constant reminder of the age we currently reside in. The view around the town is quite beautiful, it’s nestled in the midst of many lush tree-covered mountains. After walking around the area a bit, we came across a park with a zip line that every absolutely had to try. We then made our way over to an amazing wooden bridge overlooking a small river. I sat under the bridge and admired the shade, breeze, and scenery my vantage point provided. Some of the students ventured down to the stream, and a couple brave Japanese students took off their shoes and waded into the cold water. Hans sat nearby under the bridge, but when he went to stand up, struck his head on the underside of the bridge hard enough to draw blood. His wounds weren’t fatal, so we all started to head back to the bus.

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. More jokes and gossip and reading and sleeping were the staple of the day. We made one more quick stop at a shop that sold urushi (lacquerware) goods. I didn’t buy anything, but in retrospect I probably should have; urushi that particular area’s specialty.

We finally arrived at Matsumoto about an hour later, and spent maybe an hour or so exploring the castle and the castle grounds. Of all the castles in Japan, only two have not been completely rebuilt (replicated): Himeji and Matsumoto. Matsumoto castle is not very large, but the historical significance and the fact that it is in its original form made it much more interesting than Osaka castle, which felt too new and obviously rebuilt to accommodate tourists. We admired the view from the various floors, and awed at the prospect that we were walking in the footsteps of men who shaped the nation hundreds of years ago. Well, “we” might not have felt that way, but I certainly did.

Back to the bus, we all went. The ride back was decidedly more subdued. An enormous nomikai was planned for that evening, and we were running behind schedule. Alas, we would be at least an hour late for the event, and so we had to make our own plans. To be honest, by the time we all got back to ‘baba, I didn’t feel much like drinking, but a few other Japanese students showed up and cajoled me into going to a smaller nomikai with some of the other CSU students. Teru had made a reservation at the fire-hazard place, called Han-Zou. The drinks are watered down and the food isn’t that good, but it was the cheapest venue and only place we could find at such short notice. Some of the people, upon seeing where we were headed, decided to dotakyan (flake) and took off. We didn’t go crazy or anything, but we had enough fun to warrant the expense (teaching random hand gestures to the Japanese students). By now, I think I’m ready for a couple liquor-free weeks.

We returned to ‘baba and found a sizable group of students from the big nomikai still gathered. A group was being organized to go to the Hub for a nightcap, including some people I knew, so I figured I’d go along as well. I didn’t order anything at the hub, having already spent plenty that evening, but I enjoyed some interesting company. I met a couple of the Italian students and a Japanese-Chinese girl from Shanghai named Yuu, decked out in Gothic Lolita fashion. I spent much of the evening speaking Japanese with the group, and eventually realized that I had missed my last train. Jin (the blondish-guy with his face in Teru’s crotch in the zip-line photo) said I could hang out with him and we could probably stay at Teru’s until the shihatsu (first train, usually around 5am). We talked for a bit longer and ran into a few more acquaintences, then went back up to ground level to meet up with Teru. He and a girl named Abe-chan took us to a local soba place, where they had a snack before parting ways. Teru led us to his apartment, ridiculously close to the station, and warned us to stay close and be quiet, for his landlord is fearsome and lives next door.

One surprising thing about Japan is the “mansion.” Americans hear that Japanese people live in mansions, and think “wow, they must be rich!” In reality, the word “mansion” has been imported into Japanese and the meaning has changed; it means “tiny-ass apartment” now. With space at such a premium, mansions do everything they can to minimize the amount of room a human being can take up and still technically “live.” That’s not to say there’s any shame in living in such a small space, as they typically pay about the same rent as an 800 square foot apartment back home. For this reason, I would probably never live on my own in the city unless I had the means for a bigger place. I can now honestly say that I wouldn’t want to live in a “mansion.”

And now for a bit of reverse culture shock: the European kiss. This evening, I’ve seen quite a few Japanese girls quite shaken up by the European greeting and parting gesture, which involves a kiss on the cheek. A lot of the French and Italian guys have brought this custom with them, and for obvious reasons, aren’t about to leave it at the gates. I just found it interesting just how jarring such an experience can be for the Japanese, who are only vaguely aware of the custom. Even some of the other foreign students who have fallen victim to this obvious excuse for physical contact appear quite uncomfortable; it’s either out of complete ignorance or blatant disregard for other cultures’ sense of space that these guys continue this practice. I’m anything but shocked.