Tokyo Tour

8/9

(now, I know what you're thinking - but when did I ever say that I was anything less than a procrastintor of the highest order?)

...and back on the tour bus we go. The plan for today is Asakusa, Tokyo Tower, The Imperial Palace, and then Tokyo Bay Fireworks.

I've been feeling a bit lonely this week. I haven't seen Mr. Awkward since, what, back on the 27th? I get the distinct impression he's avoiding me, and while its not really that big of a deal, you know, I'd kinda like to know why...especially if it's something I did unintentionally. We had a pretty good time that last weekend, I thought, and we'd been hanging out quite often since Kamogawa, so it felt abrupt...

Anyway, onwards and upwards, as they say. So, I'll say right here that my new *fav* place in Tokyo is now Asakusa, at least for shopping. This is tourist central for non-name brand, uber-generic omiyage ^ ^

We didn't have all that much time, so I have vowed to return before I go home. Waaaay to much random shit I want to buy. On the way back to the bus, I dropped one of my smaller packages and, not realizing that I'd dropped it, proceeded to kick it and stumble slightly over it, then mutter "Somebody's gonna be pissed they dropped that..."

*kicks self repeatedly*

So, I get back to the group, stand around for a while, until somebody asks me what I bought. "Oh yeah, I got these great little---あれっ？"

ピンポン！

So I run screaming back through the throngs of people, foresaking any hopes of staying fresh and only lightly coated in my own sweat. At least I wore a skirt and tank - I might actually dry off before the evenings out. It doesn't take long before, looking frantically about near the area I remember kicking it, that I see it placed gently-- not kicked, mind you-- perfectly upright against the side fencing. I would have not been surprised if someone had tied a bow around it.

In the US, it would have probably lasted 30 seconds before somebody picked it up, made a show of looking around like they were actually trying to spot some the poor sap who dropped it so they could feel like a good samaritan, and then shrug their shoulders thinking, well, finder's keepers. That's if they were really nice. F*ckers. Next! Tokyo Tower. This was a bit awkward, as for a brief period nobody was quite sure who had our passes or how they were supposed to work, but after a bit we all got in in a somewhat orderly fashion. We got curry for lunch, and then everyone milled around in line for the elevators, until a bunch of us decided to quit being lazy and just walk up the stairs. All 600 of them...

Afterwards we went to see the Imperial Palace.

See it there? Waaaaaay in the far left hand corner. Yeah. We didn't get very close. Subsequently, this thing here --->

on my shoulder, received the most attention and picture taking. The grounds surrounding the Imperial Palace were predominantly gravel, with large exspanses of grass and sparse trees. Not the most colorful area I've seen, but you definitely got the impression you were on well-groomed, government property

Next stop....I'm still not really sure. We got dumped off somewhere on the farside of...somewhere...walked for quite a while and ended up in a semi-industrial area with a mostly decent view of Tokyo Bay, where we proceeded to set-up camp (that is, picked an empty stretch of sidewalk and rolled out the plastic tarps) and wait for about 4 hours for the fireworks to start.

This was probably the least well-planned excursion, so I can't complain too much. But if I'd known this was how they were going to go about things, I would have not worn a skirt, and brought some kind of blanket to sit on. A tarp just does not offer any kind of cushion on an asphalt surface. There was a convenience store a few blocks away, so about half of us walked out there to pick up dinner and, of course, lots and lots of alcohol. ...with humorous results (you can hear Mr. Awkward commenting drunkenly on the fireworks =)

I was probably the only person not even mildly buzzed. Mr. Awkward got pretty wasted (no surprise), and halfway through the fireworks was near falling over sitting on the sidewalk. I cleared a space on the tarp I was standing on, and drug him over to lay down, and he was out for a good hour there at my feet. Poor sap.

When things finally started to wind down (and the rain started up again), we gathered ourselves and all of our trash and started the march to the nearest subway to get back. In the dark and pouring rain.

I ended up hanging out with a Japanese student (who was kind enough to share her umbrella, and whose name I have naturally forgotten), Austin, and Mr. Awkward, who I tried to keep an eye on because he seemed really, really out of it.

We had a memorable conversation that involved the three of us making fun of Mr. Awkward who was both too sloshed and not advanced enough in the language to grasp what we were saying, as well me, being the haughty-taughty 4th level student, trying to explain various American idioms to the Japanese girl in Japanese. I think I did alright - Austin seemed impressed anyway.

This was really the first and only time I experienced anything resembling the crammed-in-like-sardines phenomenon Tokyo subways are so infamous for. There were thousands of people, and I only just made it on the subway, though I was stuck pressed against the doors. Good thing Mr. Awkward found a seat after the second stop - he was in pretty bad shape.

And so ended the night...

Back in Tokyo...

8/4

Back to class this afternoon. Probably won't be too many entries this week - classes run until about 5pm again...whoot.

One interesting thing that happened today: I found Matt, one of the guys who went to karaoke with us back in Kamogawa, passed out in the kitchen on my floor. In his underwear.

*shakes head*

I very briefly contemplated taking a picture, but Matt's always been nice to me, and I'm not that mean.

I shook him awake, and he gets up kinda startled and asks me where he is. I tell him, and then he says, "I probably should get back to my room..." and sneaks out back downstairs.

Jeez.

Later, I found out that I wasn't the first one to happen upon poor Matt - Alice, one of the other girls on my floor, found him earlier, and had taken a video and posted it on YouTube somewhere. Bummer. But I doubt this is the first time something like this has happened to Matt. Guy gets wasted just as much as the rest of them - what'd he expect would happen?

On the other hand, that was a pretty nasty thing Alice did - that girl came across as having sketchy morals right from the start, so I guess I'm not that surprised.

This is one of the reasons I don't drink.

Homestay - Farewells

Last day of the homestays. After breakfast, we took the kids out to the Southern Alps area, apparently famous for its natural beauty and also soba (?).

We stopped at another river side parking area, and went down to play by the water for a while. Nice area, but not as pretty as the first place we went to.

Afterwards, we drove out to a little visitor center to pick-up some "pan", which is essentially "bread", but in Japan it's also usually sweet pastries. We bought a whole box and a half worth of goods, and I picked up a watermelon and some little cakes to take home.

Lunch was really good. They made this azuki bean rice, which is one of my favorites, and then we got ready to head out to the farewell ceremony.

The little kids gave me letters they wrote, and I got two bags worth of omiyage, including snacks and a really pretty "Japanese style" purse...made in China (lol) We all said out goodbyes, and then the older girl, the little boy, the mother and the grandfather drove with me out to the city hall building.

The ceremony was held in a nice auditorium and little by little all the families and my fellow classmates came filing in, most looking tired with their luggage in tow.

A couple people were selected to give speeches beforehand, none-too-happily of course, and then several of the family members also gave little speeches.

Mr. Awkward and his host mother, along with her young son, got up on stage and she proceeded to spend the next several minutes gushing about how great of a time she had...and how impressed she was by how much Mr. Awkward likes his sake.

LOL =)

Of course, after we'd piled on the bus and headed home, he breaks out one of the numerous bottles of sake he's collected over the weekend and shares it with a bunch of the other guys. They were pretty buzzed by the time we got home.

You ask me, he *likes* that reputation.

Homestay (2)

8/2

I wake up bright and early at the crack-o-dawn to go for a walk with my host mother before she goes to work. Probably the only outside-time I'm going to be able to stand once the heat kicks in. Adorably, the little boy insists on coming with us, even though he's clearly half-asleep and mom has to dress him while he stands there rubbing his eyes. What a cutie.

I kind of wish I'd brought my sneakers, because this place is great for jogging. Clean air, quiet, pretty scenery...oh well.

We talk a stroll out from the house and up to the dike, from which we have a great view of the river. The little boy rides along behind on his bike with training wheels...he's only like 5 or 6 years old, but I recall insisting on keeping my training wheels on until I was like 8 or something...I remember because I only ever rode behind the school on weekends when I was sure no one would see me. The shame...

After we got back, she left for work and I went back to my room to take a nap until the rest of the family woke up.

They fixed a great breakfast, just like back at Kamogawa - little egg, little salad, some miso, a bit of fish, pickles...yumm.

Later that afternoon, the lot of us loaded up in the car and we went to a riverside park for a picnic.

The river was really cool - the water was sparkling clean, and it seemed that this stretch of it had been dug out and rebuilt with gradiated steps and lots of large stones and bolders to step on and cross the river. The kids had a great time, and I tagged along with my video camera hoping for dear life that I would not slip and fall and/or drop my camera...luckily, we both made it out alive.

When we walked back up to the main park area, the kids showed me this rain-simulator called "AmeTarou" - "ame" is "rain", and "-tarou" is a common suffix one sees in Japanese boys' names, for instance "ShouTAROU" or "ShinTAROU".

It was kind of cool - it was a large shed with the front half of a truck inside that you sit in while it blasts rain at you at speed upward of 180 mml/sec. Unfortunately, Ai-chan did not like AmeTarou, and her reaction is on video at my YouTube channel...poor kid.

While we were hanging around the park, one of the groundskeeper guys showed us a monstrous beetle that is apparentlt native to the area (there are even large-scale statues of them) and that lots of people keep as pets. The kids, or course, both declared that the poor hapless creature was *theirs*.

For lunch we stopped at this fancy little soba shop up in the mountains. I had TenUdon, which was pretty bland compared with what I'm used to...they must use less oil in their fryer or something. But it was good.

Today is the Ina-Matsuri also.

So after we go back and "rest" for a while at the house, the daughter's husband comes home and the little girl just goes nuts 'cuz "papa" came home. Awwww...

Anyway, we pile into the mini-van and head into town. We actually get an awesome parking spot considering we're pretty close to the beginning of the festivities. Its just a short walk to the main street, and once we get there the crowds are really dense and its slow going to walk down the sidewalk.

We eventually stop somewhere towards the end of the parade line, and already I've seen several other people from the program. Most of the girls are in yukata, but I'm just in my regular clothes, and I kinda wish for a minute I'd bothered to buy one. On the other hand, I've always thought non-Asian people wearing that kind of get-up was a bit goofy looking. They just don't go together, IMO.

Anyway, the parade announcers get the crowd kinda worked up, and then the parade starts. They play a song throughout the whole thing based on this year's theme of "Dancing on the Road", or "Dancing on the Load", if you listen carefully to what actually is being said. Heh.

After we've been watching a little while, we actually join in the line and do this funny little side to side swaying-dance for a couple blocks, then, during one of the breaks, we skoot off to the food court area.

They had little cups of cut watermelon, which was really good, but probably my favorite thing was the Goheimochi, which is mochi/rice balls on a stick with a miso paste smothered on top. Yums.

As it starts getting dark, we move back toward the main street and they have some really cool floats going by.

On the way back home, we stop at a grocery store, and the grandfather buys a bunch of sparklers and little firecrackers.

Because I'm rather attached to my eyes, limbs, and other body parts, I decline to actually participate, but instead watch them blow-shit-up from about 15 feet away.

Hooray.

Bedtime...

The rock I live under...is stupendous

I just learned via an episode of HomestarRunner that "Chick-Fil-A" is pronounced "Chick-Fill-Ay", as opposed to how I had been pronouncing it in my head, "Chick-Fill-Uh".

Why in the hell I would pronounce it like that is beyond me. And I don't know what's worse: that I never connected it with the concept of "chicken fillet", or that I first heard someone actually say "Chick-Fil-A" on HomestarRunner...or that I still don't know exactly what "Chick-Fil-A" is (are?)

I'm off to Wikipedia...

Homestay

8/1

In what has become our usual manner of group transport, we head down to the lobby at around 9am and board the charter buses in a heap of grogginess and mismatched luggage.

Its Homestay Day.

Truth be told, most people are ho-hum about the whole affair. A good deal of people in this program have done homestay before, and the rest of us just wanna spend our free time in Tokyo rather than being shuttle back out to the sticks.

We are such whiners.

Anyway, the trip is a good 3 hours or so, and we end up being late, so its almost 2pm when we finally stop for our scheduled lunch, which ends up being in a neat little restaurant call the Tomoato Tree. The food was awesome and very ecclectic - plus, it was all pre-paid, which was great, because I'm already down to my last 2000 yen or so.

Its an all-you-can-eat buffet style, and because we only have about 20 minutes, people are running around trying to get as much as they can just in case this ends up being their last "real" meal for a couple days. *pfff* What do they think, their host family's going to make them eat lawn clippings?

Once we're back on the bus again, its just a short drive to the city hall, where we meet out host families and the city officials give a little presentation.

The hall is all decked out with various welcome banners and there are people waiting to hand out pamphlets and direct us into the auditorium. There are a number of long banquet tables set up, and we are given a seating chart so we know which Japanese people we've been paired up with.

My 'host grandmother' is an older lady, and, due to a combination of her having a slight accent and the room being extremely noisy, I can't understand a damn word she's saying. Perfect...

There's a lot of smiling and nodding and "Eh?" so finally we just give up trying to talk until the cermony is over.

Once we've been dismissed, she escorts me out into the hall where her husband, daughter, and two grandkids are waiting. She introduces me, and of course the few I promptly forget the few names/relations I was able to catch as we're walking to the car. I also can't understand her husband, who talks in mumby, short bursts. Thankfully, the daughter realizes I need to be spoken to slowly and as clearly as possible, so I am able to talk to her fairly well.

They have a pretty nice car, and once my stuff is thrown in the trunk, we all pile in and head out.

They ask me the usual questions, drawing from the info sheet and the letter I'd sent them from Kamogawa. The grandfather, who is driving as seated directly in front of me, is pointing out this or that, and I understand nothing until the daughter either repeats it or rephrases *sigh*

We drive for a bit, and then arrive at their house.

The house is freakin HUGE. It has two wings, one of which is two stories and very much a Western style structure. The house branches off into another multi-room wing that is all lain out with tatami mats and decorative wall scrolls and shogi screens.

This is my room...I pretty much was alone in the Japanese-style wing, though.

Pretty afluent family, it seems. 'Course, there are 8 people there.

I won't post pictures of the family members because this blog is open, but I will say that their little girl, Ai-chan, is the most adorable child I have ever seen in my life. Ever.

Anyway, they show me my room and where necessary things like the bathroom are, and then start giving me all these little snacks like pickled plums and jello and cucumbers and chocolates...jeez

I also gave them the omiyage I bought at Fred Meyers before I left...as well as a bag of Skittles someone gave me on the bus ride over. None of which was wrapped because I completely forgot about it until the morning of.

I am lame.

But they thanked me up and down anyway, and after we hung out for a while, the younger son came home from some kind of school thing. He was really friendly and insisted on showing me his mukashi-banashi story book, which I can actually almost read better than he can, even though the lack of kanji frustrates me (am I weird, or am I weird...)

We all sit around and they ask me questions about my letter...apparently I marked somewhere along the line on the questionairre that I didn't like pork, which I told them is not really the case. I vaguely recall answering that particular question, but I think I just couldn't think of anything else at the time.

The grandfather takes me out to their garden and we pick some eggplant, cucumber, and tomoato. He also shows me their rice paddy, which is pretty neat, and I get introduced to a couple of the neighbors.

So far so good...

When dinner finally rolls around, they haul out the low table and set up pillows, though I get the feeling its mostly for show and, like my family, they generally eat in the kitchen so they can watch TV =)

...and, lucky for me, they picked up on the fact that I am a sushi addict, so for dinner they prepared a whole feast of sushi, sashimi, and various little side dishes including some karaage.

DUDE.

Once I'm good and stuffed, the little boy asks me if I want to go out to the cemetary and see the "obake".

Huh?

I spend a little time having them explain it to me to make sure I heard them right, and it occurs to me that its probably just like a haunted forest set-up. Cool.

The mother and the little boy lead me out into the night and down the road a ways. As we approach the hillside graveyard, I can hear little kids squealing and some flashlights bobbing about through the trees. Kenny, a guy from the program, is there with his host family, too, and we're both like, "Yeah...Obake. Awesome"

The little boy is taking the whole affair very seriously, and clutches my hand as he leads me around the gravestones to where a group of kids are talking is frightened voices and pointing at something in one corner of the graveyard.

What they're pointing at is apparently to older girls dressed up in these elaborate while kimono-things and wearing some kind of masks, crouched around a candle and speaking in these soft, creepy voices.

I assume this is just the opening, so I stroll past, half-expecting some ghoul to jump out of the shadows, and so I get a few feet and wait....and wait...

And the kids are still yelling and pointing, until finally they come swooping past in one big shrieking group.

...huh. Apparently that was the "obake".

I felt kind of dumb, but nobody seemed to notice that I had effectively walked right past the main act and not even realized it.

Oh. Well.

Back to the house, and off to bed...

東京⑤

7/31

This 9-6pm schedule is really draining. I will say that there is one teacher (Kobayashi-sensei)who keeps me awake and day-dream free for 2-3hours of workshop daily - she's a really quirky older woman who is just so sweet and enthusiastic about her class that I can't help but pay attention and involve myself. Still, getting out at 6pm means that I have less than 3 hours to explore Tokyo before everything starts to close down (earlier for many street vendors).

Because its Thursday and I have Homestay tomorrow, I'm gonna do the one thing I've really wanted to do since we arrived in Tokyo and I discovered its existence via WikiTravel: Condomania.

What? You thought I was going to visit a shrine or some shit??

For the sake of mixed readership, I will only comment on my motivation as being...well, I suppose there's really no need to comment; you people are smart enough to figure that out.

Anyway, Condomania is exactly what you think it is -

But the intersting part, as you might be able to tell, is that its not exactly in a discreet location.

No, this little gem is located right on the corner at the intersection of Omotesando-doori and Meiji-doori, directly in sight of all the major upscale, fashion centers like Laforet and the Gap. Totally shameless.

I love it =)

Expectations & Observations

This is not really chronological or stemming from any specific experience, but since I've mostly just been bitching about the weather or raving about the various cool stuff I've bought/seen/done, I felt it was time to do a little writing about the more "profound"-ish thoughts I've had since being in Japan.

First of all, my overall reaction to Japan "in the flesh", as it were, is that I'm a little underwhelmed by the supposed cultural gap people have been telling me since I first took an interest in the language. I am of course aware that my particular situation is pretty darn cozy and designed by all the higher-ups involved to make my stay as pleasant as possible. I have in no way, shape, or form been dumped smack in the middle of Tokyo and left to fend for myself. By and large, the people in this program have been well pampered. But. BUT.

My trip has not occurred in complete gaijin-friendly isolation. I'm walking around Tokyo every day, I have to explain myself to Japanese people when there's an issue or if I need something, and I am almost daily asking for directions home from people working in the convenience stores. It's not home; I have to step back and consider how to handle situations using the things I've been learning the past few years, and it can be frustrating and draining to have to speak and verbally comprehend a language I have only a passable grasp of day in and day out. And yet I cannot see it as being, at least for me, something I could not handle in the long term. Things don't get easier in anything resembling a linear fashion, but they do (almost invariably) get easier.

I do feel I was well-prepared for this trip. What some might have found to be completely shocking or abhorrent were mild to somewhat irritating inconveniences that really just amounted to a different (and more often than not more effective) way of accomplishing the same thing; cultural differences were anticipated and actually less of a probem than initially predicted; particular instances of weirdness were generally taken in stride; communication was never smooth, but it was successful.

I don't notice people starting at me. I don't really feel isolated. The cultural customs are familiar and while not always to my taste, can be well dealt with. I'm having a hard time not just saying, "What is everyone's problem? Why do people seem to breakdown over here?"

I also think that my personality is helping me out in that respect. I'm the kind of person who naturally tends to isolate and insulate myself from psyche damaging stress and people by being what I would call self-contained. Things that don't directly impact me rarely make it into my mental priority que of things-I-give-a-shit-about*. I prefer to be alone most of the time, and while I've never had a problem getting along with people, I also don't go out of my way to be anybody's friend. At any given time I'd say I have, at most, two or three really good friends, and maybe a boyfriend, in my close social circle. And that's fine with me.

Maybe it really just boils down to my disposition. I'm psychologically compatible with life abroad...by virtue of being an introverted, selectively-apathetic loner.

Hm.

*Exceptions to this rule being things that I find anti-scientific and/or anti-logic, such as religion, alternative medicine, George Bush...

東京④

7/28

Mr. Awkward flaked out on me, so I went for a run alone. I know, I know, probably not the smartest thing, but I didn't go off into any seedy areas (mostly just circled around the campus a few times)and I have to say I feel pretty darn safe in Tokyo. As compared to Seattle, where I feel on edge even just walking from my car to class, there was a complete lack of feeling like I could at any moment be a victim. Maybe it was the lack of creepy homeless people, the lack of graffiti and dingy alleyways, or the Kobans every few blocks, but I imagine I'll be going out with or without a jogging partner.

I was exhausted, as usual in this weather, and because I left an hour early, pre-breakfast. I ended my run at Starbucks, which just so happens to open its doors right at 7am, which is perfect timing for me. I did bring my credit card this time =)

First day of classes today - like the overachieving fool I am, I'm signed up for both workshop sections in the afternoon, which makes my daily schedule 9am-6pm with one hour for lunch...this week is gonna suck serious balls.

Classes were good - I have another teacher who insists on speaking at least 3 times faster than normal, but at least she has very crisp pronunciation or I'd never catch anything she says.

Workshops were intersting - this week its "Listening to the News" and "Literature by Foregin Writers".

After classes, I was pretty damn tired, but I ended the night by making a short trek out to Shinjuku again with Tara to find the Loft, where she intends to go tomorrow to buy tickets for a show.

I foresee very few entries this week...just workout, class, dinner, bed. Yay.

東京③

7/27

I slept in till about 7 am ("slept in"...HAH)because we didn't get back til around midnight, and I had breakfast (finally breaking into the oatmeal stash I brought) and got dressed fully intending to just skip my morning run. After an hour or so, though, the weather seemed pretty tolerable, so after a little mental bickering I talked myself into going anyway...

...and decided to call on Mr. Awkard to come with me =) He was still in bed, and looked pretty tired, but he agreed to come. What a sport.

We took a side street off from the dorm, which was not the smartest thing to do considering we'd only the other not gotten lost within shouting distance of our dorm, but I was feeling pretty good (gee, maybe because I got sleep and food and water before running for 45 minutes in a hellish tropical heat???) so we just kept on going. Mr. Awkward actually called for a break first, which isn't surprising considering I drug him out of bed and he was probably a few notches lower than I usually am most of the week doing the same thing minus food/water/sleep. Poor guy.

We walked for quite a while, and after turning so many differnt corners I didn't have the slightest idea where we were. Its not as thought we really had to be back for anything, but we were both pretty dehydrated by that point (Mr. Awkward especially) and I didn't even have my credit card, which was very stupid of me. So we turned around in the hopes that one of the many area maps would show that we were approaching the dorm...or at least the Waseda area. I think we were somewhere in Ikebukuro...

Anyway, we had a pretty interesting conversation on the way back...which I won't embarass him by repeating here in Internet land, but its nice to have a really open conversation like that.

Eventually, we did make it back, though definitely not the way we came, and I have no idea how that happened. But it only took a couple hours...

Since we were both planning on going out somewhere, we decided to go to Akihabara after cleaning up a bit.

We met back downstairs and made a stop first at Starbucks...and apparently Mr. Akward is deathly allergic to sunflower seeds, which he tells me kind of nonchalantly by asking me if I can read the ingrediant list on his sandwhich. I figure he's just being an ass and pulling my leg, but he says he's totally serious, and thinks the bread might have sunflower seeds in it.

So, starting to feel a littly panicky, I leave Mr. Akward at the table and go running downstairs to ask the barista to check the bread ingrediants (thankfully, I just so happen to know the word for both 'sunflower' and 'seed', so communication is successful), and while I'm waiting I'm keeping an eye on Mr. Awkward to make sure he's still vertical and at the same time trying to remember all the various medical emergency terms I know so, if need be, I can talk to the paramedics....

(O__O)

JEEZUS!!!

The barista finally comes back and tells me no sunflower *seeds*, but maybe sunflower oil. I tell Mr. Awkward, who, in the mean time, has finished eating his sandwhich, and he says that shouldn't be a problem.

(O_o#)

I'm pretty pissed off at this point, especially since he seems to be so laxadaisy and CONTINUED TO EAT THE EFFIN' SANDWHICH (!?!?) while I was checking to make sure he wouldn't, like, DIE or anything. He gives me kind of an unreadable look and a half-smile and thanks me for checking but is confident there's no problem because he would have been aware of it by now.

[...]

Yeah, he would have been going into anaphylactic shock by now >(

Seriously, WTF? If I had a life-threatening allergy, especially something like friggin sunflower seeds, which are OFTEN IN BREAD, I'd sure as hell be more careful.

Stupid, stupid, stupid...

Anyway, after I've made my disapproval known and had a chance to cool off, we continue out to Akihabara.

Akihabara, which has a strech known as "Electric Town", is associated with otaku and electronics. Also porn.

The porn was kind of disappointing. It was all fetishy and was mostly single girls or girl on girl, and there just wasn't really anybody having any actual sex with each other. Huh.

We wandered around for quite a while, and ended up having a late lunch at Mos Burger, which エリック had recommended to me. Pretty decent, but like everything else in Japan, its a good 1/3 smaller than what you get in the States. I think that's great, because portions are just ridiculous back home, but its surprising.

When we'd gotten bored with all the noise and goofy looking gaijin walking around, we headed back and had dinner at a little TenDon shop.

東京②

7/26

Bright and early for our campus tour and orientation.

They hearded the lot of us down to the International Building, which shall be referred to as B-22 for the sake of brevity, and we all met in one room on the 5th floor for a quick introduction of program coordinators, teachers, and another sneak peak of our upcoming homestay.

After that they split us up into several groups headed by Japanese students from the International Club and something called "The Rainbow Club"...which I'm sure is nothing to do with gay pride, but...heh

The campus is pretty nice - sadly, until I can steal photos from the other peoples on Facebook, there will be extremely limited stills during the period before my charger arrives.

So, as we were walking along, I managed to get Mr. Awkward explain the whole "Lion Cash" thing on video - those of you with video access can find it on my YouTube channel - and in case I have not yet done my part to spread the good word on Blogger, let me take a moment to do so here: "Lion Cash" has its roots in (supposedly) the American expression "That's so cash", which effectively means, "That's so awesome/cool/etc" and which Mr. Awkward has contrived to take one step further by adding the very powerful sounding "Lion" as an adverbial. The ultimate goal is to spread the expression to Japanese people in the hopes that it will one day find its way back to the U.S., as an experiment in sociolinguistic manipulation. In other words, just because we can [try]. "Lion Cash" has, since its birth during our stay in Kamogawa, undergone two transformations: a literal translation in Japanese as "ShiShi Okane", and further distortion for the sake of making it sound more hip, as "ShiShi Okan" - you'll notice the last "e" mora has been dropped.

*ahem*

Anyway, that's all on video for posterity...just remember, you heard it here first =)

We had a nice lunch in the cafeteria, which I fear will be too far from B-22 to be a practical option during school, but it was nice to see.

Later, we found a pretty large bookstore and I bought this awesome 'science through MANGA' type book on Steven Hawking's life and times - pretty interesting, and very readable even for a lowly gaijin such as myself.

That night Tara, Anne and I went out shopping in Shinjuku. Or, rather, Anne and I tagged along behind Tara who had already scoped out a multi-floor Lolita/Emo fashion bananza...

Pretty elaborate clothes they were selling, though. Some of it, if take one at a time, might even have been stuff I would wear myself. Tara, on the other hand, picked out a $800 dollar pants/shirt/purse ensemble which, quite honestly, was mostly black raggs sewn together and embellished with various zippers and rings. Tara wears that kind of thing well, but its...just...not for me.

We ended up leaving a little early to meet up with Evelyn and Eri for a birthday celebration at this nice Italian restaurant just a couple blocks from our dorms. Really good food, especially the nori-noodle thingy I had.

Afterwards, we ran into some of the guys, and that one Brit whom I don't much care for invited us all out to go clubbing in Roppongi. I wasn't too hot to go out with *him*, but I figured as long as other people were coming I could take it. I rather wanted to hit the clubs in Roppongi...

We made a stop back as the dorms to fetch our stuff, and on the way out I ran into a group of the guys I thought were supposed to be heading our way. They were carrying grocery bags seemingly filled with cartons of sake and such, so I very quickly came to the conclusion that they would not be joining us =(

Mr. Awkward was with them, and I talked him into coming along with us because, while I have no problem with the girls, I really needed to ensure there was better male company than Jay/whatever-he-calls-himself. Mr. Awkward, being the bright boy that he is, also realized within a block or so that the only other guy with us was Jay. He wasn't very happy about that, but stayed with us till be got to Takadanobaba Station.

Everyone (myself included) had already bought our handy-dandy Suica cards (like a reloadable train/bus/metro ticket)except Mr. Awkward, and by that time I was already having second thoughts about wasting money to go out to Roppongi with...well, friggin' Jay. Jay, Eri, Evelyn, and Taylor went ahead on the train and I waited while Mr. Awkward got his card, intending to catch up with them. After a brief moment of indecision, we both decided to bag the outing to Roppongi...plus we couldn't figure out how to get there.

JR Yamanote Line is great - it goes in a big circle around almost every major stop (except for Roppongi and such)in Tokyo, so as long as I can get on the Yamanote, I can to and from a lot of places reliably. Since Mr. Awkard had is brand-new Suica in hand already, we decided we might as well go somewhere.

"Somewhere" ended up being Shibuya, which was pretty cool to just walk around. Really crowded, being as it was a Saturday night, but we wandered about for a couple hours, checking out the bookstores and some other places. It ended up being a pretty nice night.

東京 ①

7/25

今日は東京行きです!

I got up around 6 am, as usual, but this time I went and did all of my laundry. None of which ever got dry in those stupid dryers. I think I’m probably just going to handwash and linedry everything at the main campus, because I’m tired of wasting all my coins on washer/dryers that don’t do shit and are too small anyway.

I sent an e-mail to エリック's friend Izawa-san yesterday, and I got a reply today. He’s certainly a funny guy…

After lots of standing around, sweating, and dragging out various farewells and photo-taking, we finally hit the road.

We made a stop on this huge shopping center as we crossed Tokyo Bay called Umi-hotaru, where, at long last, I was able to have my first Starbucks in 2 weeks =D
They had a nice kaitenzushi place, and the view of Tokyo Bay was quite incredible. Sadly, my camera was still kaputs.

After we got back on the road...

Natsuko-san, one of the R.As, made a show of pretending to me our Japanese Tour Guide, using all this over-the-top service industry 敬語, which was really funny.

Long drive to Tokyo, but after we piled out of the busses and dragged our heavy-ass luggage once again through the streets, we got to the dorms...

THANK FRIGGIN' GAWD!!!!

Everything is brand-spankin' new, as the dorms only just opened around 2 weeks ago, and while everything is still really tiny and slightly more cramped than us Gaijin are used to, is very space-efficient, with two bunkbeds on either side, and a desk underneath with INTERNET(!!!!)

We had an orientation dinner later that evening on campus, and it was also insanely well prepared with little dishes of every conceivable inclination, including sushi and these rice balls wrapped in leaves that I always see in Dim Sum restaurants.

This was also the official mixing of the two program groups: Those from the Oregon program (6 weeks/Kamogawa) and the "independents" who have a four-week program that lacks the Kamogawa section and homestay.

Mr. Awkward sat with me, along with a few of the IND students. There was this really obnoxious girl there who was apparently a former 4-Channer (lurker/participant of the infamous 4chan forum) and was poking fun at Mr. Awkward for being a "B-tard"...whatever the hell that is. Although I myself spend obscene amounts of time on teh Internets, I've apparently managed to come this far without even knowing about some of this stuff. Hell, I only even knew about Annonymous because it got noted on one the blogs I usually read due to its "War on Scientology" campaign. Sometimes I don't even feel like I belong in my generation...

...anyway, there were a number of 4chan terms being thrown about that were meaningless to me, so I just kind of kept my neutrality. He looked a little disgusted.

After dinner I left with Mr. Awkward to go find a LAN cable. We proceeded to walk around for the next hour or so and get exactly no where, and then get lost. And we couldn't seem to find a place that sold LAN cables. We came upon a group of high school girls, and Mr. Awkward managed to explain to them our situation, so they were leading us back. After a while it occured to me that our dorms were not on the "Waseda Campus", and when I asked them again, I realized they were taking us, probably, to the old International Dorms, wherever on campus they were, and so luckily I had a map with me and was able to point to where we were.

Turns out, we'd been wandering up and down Waseda Ave half the time, I'd say no less than three or four blocks from the little side street leading to our dormitories.

Figures. But! At least we managed to find a Starbucks =)

鴨川セミナーハウス：2週間/ Kamogawa Seminar House: 2 Weeks (10)

7/24

Final day in Kamogawa!

Mr. Awkward slept in and flaked out on me again, although he did say he probably wouldn’t because he had homework anyway. I ended up running with Brian, which was really good because he tends to set a faster pace. Although, ironically, I had to let him go ahead of me when we got back to the hill leading up to the seminar house – I just did not have the stamina for that. He was nice enough to come back towards the end and make sure I hadn’t “died’. LOL.

I had to give my speech this morning, in which I ranted about Chiroquaky,but it went okay other than the fact that I kept saying さそう instead ofそうさ or 操作. I went first, and because the class was held in the morning instead of the afternoon because we had already finished our regular comprehensive classes, I managed to stay mostly sweat free. Some people really went all out with PPT and such, but I just made a show of writing all the goofy medical terms in my speech.

Lunch was UNA-DON!!!! Yay! Many people, for reasons unfathomable to me, do not like eel, so I stole a few extra pieces =)

At about 2pm, I went out to play tennis with Toni. It was a lot of fun, but 2pm was a piss-poor time to play, with the almost sun directly overhead and no shade to speak of. Plus, Toni ended up keeping as many as 8 tennis balls so she wouldn’t have to keep running after my wild shots. Bah.

I came back completely drenched in sweat and a little fried, but it was a good game.

I watched 恋空 for a while with Amanda and some of her friends on her laptop in our room. It’s a good drama, but they all have one of two plot-lines: Either the boy gets sick, or the girl gets sick, and they always die slowly and sappily in the hospital, and there's this ubiquitous theme of whomever is sick acting like an asshole and alienating their lover, only to reveal later that they "only did it to protect them" so they wouldn't be all weepy when they inevitably kick the bucket. That mentality seems especially common in Asian culture, and it rather pisses me off. On the other hand, I will say that the guy was particularly カッコいい, the dialogue notwithstanding, as it is even more sappy than American soaps.

Afterwards we had a farewell party upstairs in the 食堂.

O…M…GAWD!!!!

There were about four or five tables set up, each with a huge “sashimi boat”, complete with fish heads/tails sticking up in various places, as well as these huge vegetable sushi rolls wrapped in tamago and rolled in a such a way that there were various designs (flowers, pandas) and such in the center. There were also neat little sandwiches, karaage, and melons.

There was a goodbye speech and some raffle gifts given, too.

Afterwards, I talked briefly with Harada-sensei before she left. We talked about “summer feelings”…like the sound of crickets signaling the season and such. I was glad to talk to her one last time.

As people started dispersing to their various drinking/games/both, I joined Ariane, Sheila and one other person down in the multi-purpose room for ping-pong. Given my spectacularly shitty hand-eye-coordination (probably from a lack of playing such games as a child), I sucked for the first half hour, but I was actually doing pretty good after a while, and not just on accident, though I still kept hitting it too far and missing the table.

I was already laughing pretty hard because, among other entirely not-funny-in-retrospect things, people noticed I was hording balls somewhat, as per my intuitive understanding of the factthat I sucked and would therefore need lots in order not to have to chase them all the time, when Mr. Awkward and Stephanie showed up.

The four of us played for a while, and of course Mr. Awkward is making smart-ass remarks and goofing around and not hitting the ball even as well as me, so that set off another giggle fit.

After Ariane, Sheila, and the other girl left, just Mr. Awkward and I were playing, but I was still trying to (unsuccessfully) suppress my giggling, which only made it worse, and eventually I was just choking on my laughter so much I gave up. I’d already been playing for two hours as it was.

Oh well. Definitely no need to exercise tomorrow morning.

I went to bed early, but most people stayed up well into the morning, getting drunk and playing games.

鴨川セミナーハウス：2週間/ Kamogawa Seminar House: 2 Weeks (9)

7/21

Went jogging again with Mr. Awkward this morning. For the sake of optimizing my run, he’s probably not the best partner, being as laughing and joking tends to disrupt my breathing, but I’d rather spend the morning with him and sacrifice stamina for conversation instead of jogging with someone who probably doesn’t even like me all that well and doesn’t talk to me because she’s half a mile behind me.

Mr. Awkward is a funny guy. Awkward, but funny.


First day of the new workshops. The so-called “discussion” workshop.

My ASS.

What they really mean by "discussion" is that you get to *discuss* what you want to write your speech about. Might just as well have taken the speech class and stayed with Harada-sensei. At least I could understand what the hell she was saying.

I like Swan-sensei, but she seems to be both talking waaaaay faster than everyone else, and she has some kind of accent or quirk of pronunciation because 70% of what she says just goes right over my head. And while I'll be the first to admit that my listening sucks in a huge way, that kind of lack of comprehension really doesn’t happen to me all that often, and never in the class room.

I am sooo fucked.

But there's not much to be done about that. Hopefully it will get better in the next few days.

I’ve found that, working out every morning, I end up having to wash my clothes more than once a week. Of course, can’t find 100 yen coins to save my life.

But now I’m just whining. After I eventually did start a load of laundry (successfully this time, though I still don’t understand why the instructions say, quite clearly, push the “shower” button, and don’t put your clothes in right away. Whatever. I just end up waiting for a while so the water fills up a bit) and it went through fine. Dry doesn't work worth crap, though.

Anyway, during the period while I was waiting for my clothes to finish, I hung out with Mr. Awkward. He told me about his family life growing up and we wandered around a bit, occasionally stopping to find a USB hook-up or this or that. He shared a few of his favorite songs with me, including one that I've concluded is the best thing since sliced bread: “Delorian”, by Atomica. He even gave me the mp3, which will keep me entertained for quite a while.

YAY. Musics.

Also, someone special sent me a special letter…tehehehehe….

鴨川セミナーハウス：2週間/ Kamogawa Seminar House: 2 Weeks (8)...

7/20

Holy shit did I have weird dreams last night. They were a series of odd little mini-dreams, most of which I don’t remember, but the strangest thing by far was that, at some point during the night, I woke up to the sound of one of my roommates shifting in bed, and then a woman’s voice speaking a bunch of Japanese in kind of a “come hither” tone. I couldn’t understand most of it, but I did hear, clear as day, “貴方、食べるよ～” WTF???? I lay totally still and just listened, waiting for it to continue, but there was no more.

I swear I heard it, very clearly and very loudly, but it didn’t sound like my roommates’ voices, and I sure as hell hope it wasn’t mine. I asked them later, and they didn’t hear anything unusual besides maybe the people upstairs being noisy late into the night, so I can pretty safely conflude it was just in my head, because I was just waking up as I heard it, but still…

Creepy.

“I’m going to eat you~~”

*shudder*

My morning workout today was a combination of TKB moves and later some strength exercises, all while listening to “Praan” and +5 speed, which was pretty awesome. Luckily no one came buy to see me do my goofy round-houses and upper-cuts.

Today was our field trip to Kamogawa SeaWorld, which I was kind of hesitant to go to because I really don’t care much for all that, having been to SeaWorld many times in the US, but my need to do something recreational outweighed my indifference, so I went.

We ended up missing the first courtesy bus to the park, and then being squeezed into the second one like sardines. Some people said that it still wasn’t as bad as some of the subways, so…yay.

The park was pretty nice – many times smaller than the US SeaWorld, but it had three large stadiums for Orca, Dolphin, and Sea Lion shows, all of which were very well put together and very entertaining.

One of the more interesting things I saw was a たこせんべい stand, where a little old man and his wife were making - I kid you not – flattened octopus cracker-wiefer thingies. He took raw octopus, put them in some kind of flour, and then flattened them with this steam presser-cooker. The result was a large sheet of octopus, kind of like those fried cheese sheets they serve at fancy restaurants, except with the impression of tentacles and suckers. Mun-san bought one, and so I tried a piece of it and it tasted more or less like friend cheese, but a little sweeter. Cool.

One bad thing: more 和式トイレ…