One more thing

When we were in Shinjuku yesterday we happened upon a Japanese talent contest. It was called Kabuki-cho Star Contest. The winner gets 300,0000 Yen or $30,000. There were 9 acts witch ranged from comedy skits to singing and dancing. I took a video of 4 of the acts and have uploaded them to youtube for viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Inventor - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRYpSTpEJT8
Boy Band - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaojpFiNd-U
Graduating Students - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2FVWSPQ_n8
Enka Singer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djNdvXd4G5o

Boring

Yesterday was boring. We finished up the presentations in the morning then Vaso, Keaton, and I headed to Shinjuku. I think we walked around for 3+ hours looking for a specific arcade. Vaso and Keaton eventually left me to search alone. As soon as they left I just happened to run into it. Figures. Afterwards I went to the Hub for a little bit just to hang out.

This morning was great. It had rained a little last night and had cooled down a lot. It's the kind of weather when you can wear a long sleeve shirt and not be cold or hot. I spent the morning trying to get music on my phone. I eventually figured out that it has to be in wma format for it to work. As I write this I am converting all the music that I brought with me to wma in order to use my phone as an music player. Around noonish I met Vaso at Shinjuku and we headed to the arcade that I found yesterday. We played a couple games of Guilty Gear Core and Gundam before heading to meet one of Vaso's friends. This kid is apparently working in Japan for a while doing environmental research. He went to Middlebury last summer and has had no Japanese knowledge before that. His listing skills were better than mine which really made me envious. Anyways, we hit up a bowling ally in Shinjuku for 2 rounds. I managed to break a 100 both times, which is all that really matters to me. Bowling in Japan is just like in the states... But the balls were painted like basketballs for some odd reason.

So here I am back at home. This is the first day that I have actually studied Japanese since I arrived here. I feel like I have not been learning much of the language by going outside the classroom. Classes need to start already!

Meh

Once again I woke up way too early. It was not my fault however. My host family woke me up for breakfast. Ugh. I still am feeling under the weather, but it really isn't that bad. I went to Harajuku today with some people and did some shopping. I bought 3 more issues of Yu Yu Hakusho, which brings me to number 7. I decided that I wanted to come home really early today and go to sleep right after dinner. I need to wake up early again tomorrow to finish up presentations...

On a lighter note, I now have full features on my cell phone. For just $10 more per month, I can enjoy unlimited e-mailing, internet, television, and radio through my phone.

Sick

I believe I am getting sick. It is more than likely due to the fact that I have had little sleep and lots of adjusting. Every night I have only been getting a maximum of 7 hours, usually less. It is starting to get to me. On the bright side, I now have a brand new cell phone. It is red. Yeah. Anyways, I need to be getting to sleep, but there is an important website that you all should bookmark.

http://www.risukun.com/Node.aspx?id=259618

One of my friends from college, Brendan Elliot, is letting me use space on his picture server. He went to Japan on the same program that I am currently doing in 2002. I would like to send a big thanks to Brendan.

Class Registration

Today we needed to be at Waseda at 10 a.m. for class registration. First they assigned us to a Japanese course level. There are 5 different levels of classes, 1 being beginner and 5 being the hardest. It is possible to place beyond level 5, in which case, you do not need to take a Japanese class. I managed to place into level 3, while Vaso got into level 4. I am really jealous that he got all that extra Japanese training over the summer. It just means I have to work that much harder to catch up. The good thing is, I have money to spend on things I enjoy.

After Registration we wandered around for 2 and a half hours looking for a bank to exchange travelers cheques. I could not believe how hard it was to find. We ended up going to Shinjuku to do it. Afterwards we hit up a local coffee shop for a break as well as a discussion about our project. We grabbed dinner at this place called "En". They served all sorts of different things. I had the Chirashi-zushi, which is raw fish over rice. Afterwards, everyone split except for Vaso and I. Vaso bought a USB flash drive and a new bookbag. I spent my money on a game of Beatmania Gold and Pop'n Music Adventure. I need to limit myself on how much I spend at arcades this year. It is really easy to spend $10+ a day in arcade games.

Yay for wireless internet!

September 21

Yay! New issue of Famitsu today! That kept me occupied on the train ride to and from our dorm. Today I went to the cafeteria to eat breakfast. It was suprisingly good once I figured out how to order. I told the lady behind the counter what I wanted and she showed me to the vending machine. You buy a ticket first and then give it to her to get your food. I guess it is just an easier way to manage the money. After breakfast myself, Shoko, Adam, and Vaso went to Shinjuku to check out a junk shop. They had lots of cool stuff there. I ended up buying a wallet and a strap that goes around your forehead. Shoko bought a Tiara. Adam bought some plastic ears and a interesting looking hat. We need to do a video for class and we wanted some props. Afterwards we all checked out the arcades. Vaso won a mario and luigi keychain, go figure. We also played this really cool gundam game. Now I'm not a big fan of gundam, but I liked the game. It's team based and you can play with 4 people seated beside you. Once you have a team you play against another team over the net. It was amazing. Vaso and I won the first battle even though we had no idea what was going on. We lost the second one though. Afterwards we had the formal Waseda reception to welcome all the SILS students. It took too much time if you ask me. We met up with Rienzo San once the reception was over. He just graduated from CWRU and is taking a year to study Japanese at Waseda. He was in my Japanese 101 class when I was a freshman. We went out to eat at a tiny shop near the train station. It was really cool seeing another friendly face in Japan. Back in our dorm, we had a meeting to find out who our host families were. It looks like I am living with the Usui family in Shimotakaido near Keio university. It is about a 50 minute train ride. The host father apparently likes teaching Japanese! This should be a great opportunity to improve my skills. The Waseda students put on a little skit explaining what not to do in a host family situation. It was really funny. Shohei dressed up like a girl and had Byu over for a "romantic" evening. Tonight I will be packing my bags back up. They are getting shipped to my host family tomorrow morning, but I won't meet them until Sunday.

September 22

I woke up this morning to take my bags down to the lobby in order to ship them. 7am never seemed so early before. On top of that, the school cafeteria is closed all day on Saturday and Sunday. We had to go find food on our own. Today was the first day of our project. Every person in this program was assigned a group and a place to explore. My group of Shoko and Adam headed to Hamamatsucho around 8:30. It took us over an hour and a half to get there from our dorms. Luckily we managed to snag some seats on the train. Once we got off the train, we all got into character and started filming. Needless to say, I got many strange looks today. I think Adam looked more akward with his ski mask on, but he didn't need to wear that constantly. I however just had a simple headband that said "Japan" in kanji on it. I noticed a lot of people talking about me. Anyways, we started filming our movie. This lead us towards Tokyo Tower via some parks. We just made up a script as we went along, and I personally think it will turn out pretty good. Basically the villan (Adam) kidnaps the princess (Shoko) and the hero (me) gets to save the princess. It's pretty "Super Mario" if you ask me. We filmed until around 2:30 and proceded to make our way to Waseda. There was this club meeting called the Rainbow Club that Adam wanted to go to. It sounds corny, but it is a kaiwa club for Japanese and English students wanting to learn the other language. They put on a good show with many power point presentations. The party afterwards featured Waseda students and international students at about a 1:1 ratio. I met a bunch of cool people. I also found out that there is a circle (club) that plays lots of video games, mainly smash brothers. I have to get in on that.

September 23

I cannot believe that it is 5pm already. We all had to wake up at 9 am in order to check out of our dormitory. Afterwards we went to Waseda for our orientation where we ate Dominos Pizza. The pizza in Japan is much different than in America. The weirdest thing was the eggplant pizza. I don't know if I could eat that. After the pizza there was more orientation while our host families started arriving. My host father Shouzou came to pick me up. Once all of the host families arrived, they had a short orientation and then were sent home with their respective students. On the way to my new home, I picked up my commuter pass. This allows me to go from Waseda to my host family's house as many times as I want. The school will of course, reimburse us the cost. The commute to my new house was only about 20 minutes, but then there was another 20 minute walk to get from the station to my house. I met my host mother Masayo when I got home. They both seem really nice. We had some nikuman while giving our introductions. They handed me a little packet with the house rules on it. I was impressed by this. Afterwards I was sent up to my room to unpack my stuff.

September 24

We finished our project today! Yay! The filming part is all done. Adam is going to throw it together while Shoko and I work on the other part of the presentation. I went to Shinjuku this morning to buy a power adapter for my laptop. All the plugs here only have 2 holes instead of 3. I ended up buying a surge protector so I can plug all my electronics in at once. For lunch we met up with Keaton and had some Gyuudon. Afterwards we hit up the local pub for drinks. I managed to make it home for supper right on time at 8pm. My sister Miko got me connected to the internet so now I will be able to do updates every day!

A quick update

I have been writing in a text file for the past couple of days because I did not have access to the internet. Here is the long awaited first update since I arrived in Japan!

September 17

So far I have been up for a total of 30 hours straight. Sure there may have been some sleepage on the plane ride, but I sure didn't get much. It was a long day of travel. Mom and dad escorted me to the Detroit airport where we spent the night. The next morning at 4am we woke up, ate breakfast, and headed to the airport. I waved goodbye and made my way through security. The first plane ride was fun and short. At Chicago I met up with all of the other exchange students. There were about 15 of them on the flight. It was nice that all of us were put together in the same two rows. The people seem nice so far and it seems that my Japanese is up to par with theirs. Perhaps even better. Even after talking to Vaso for a couple hours I could see that his conversation skills were not as good as I was expecting.
Needless to say, the planeride was miserable. 13 hours being crammed in a tiny seat beside two other people is never fun. The kids beside me, Michael and Houston, were pretty cool, Houston more so. I tried to sleep a couple times, but only got a half hour maximum each time. The air was just to dry and the seats too uncomfortable to get a good rest. Once the plane landed at Narita, everyone was relieved. We all marched right through customs and on to the baggage claim. I found my baggage and noticed that one of them had the zippers in the wrong spot, it had been opened. I think it was because the dum-dum stand that my mom got for me looked like a bomb... Maybe... We had a layover for an hour for everyone to get rested and get food. Then we hopped on a bus. 3 hours later we arrived at the college that we would be staying at. I unpacked my bags a little, took a shower, and here I am. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get some shut eye.

September 18

Today I bought my first issue of Famitsu magazine. I cannot wait for Rune Factory 2 to come out. Anyway, today was a pretty exciting day. It started off with an early introduction by Don Capener, our resident director. He talked about homestays, manners, and various other things relating to the program. Afterwards, Vaso and I went to Mister Donut for lunch. Then we had interviews with Don and Michiyo for our homestays. I requested first of all that my homestay family not speak English at all. Secondly, I wanted freedom to come home late and whatnot. I want to experience Japan as much as possible. My interview ended at 3pm and there were no plans the rest of the day. Vaso wanted to go to Shinjuku, so I escorted him. Shinjuku is about an hour away from Choshokigyou-Daigakko. We walked around, into and out of various shops before we ended up at Kinokuniya. There I bought my Famitsu and DS + Wii magazines. We walked around more and ended up back in Takadanobaba. I took vaso to the best raman shop ever. Steven McCrarthy and Jeff Taylor may remember it well. The name is Yasubee and the game is Tsukemen. Most delicious noodles ever period. Afterward, we headed back to the station and made our way back to Higashi-Yamatoshi station.

September 19

I'm in Japan! The realization is making my day much better. I had trouble sleeping last night. This was probably due to the fact that I am so far away from home... Or simply jet lag. In the morning my group went to Tachikawa. We stopped at a huge supermarket / eatery first off and observed all the food. I wanted to buy some, but I was told there would be time later. Lies. We were set off to go on our own shortly thereafter. Of course, Vaso and I went off together. We stumbled across a huge department store that was selling mainly clothes. After going up a few floors I felt like I wanted to leave, but then we hit the manga and anime floor. We browsed the goods for the rest of our time in Tachikawa. I ended up buying a capsule toy that makes the 8-bit mario jump sound when you press a large button on the front.
We returned to our dorm for the first Japanese language session. I placed myself in the intermidiate level, but wished I had chosen the more advanced class. We ended up talking about homestay manners, giving gifts, etc, which I have had much experience with already. Afterwards we had a group dinner with all of the students.

September 20

Today we all woke up super early to take the Japanese Language Placement Test. I ate some egg cake for breakfast and threw on some clothes. The train ride was long and packed. By the time we arrived at Waseda, there was no more room on the train. It has to look weird for 37 Americans to be crammed onto the same train for and hour. We arrived at the exam just on time. To my suprise, there were probably 200+ people already sitting down waiting for the test. It is amazing that so many people came to study abroad in Japan, and at Waseda no less. The test was very difficult and I do not think it really tested our Japanese skill level very well. It consisted of filling in the blank with the correct letter in 100 sentances. Then there were 3 different conversations that we had to fill in entire words. Finally, we were given 20 minutes to make a composition about computers. The thing that bothered me was the fact that I knew how to read and comprehend most of the sentances, but I didn't have the grammer points to fill in the blank correctly.... Meh, it's just a placement test. I plan on learning much more outside of class anyways. Once the test was over, the Japan Study people broke up into 4 groups and had a campus tour. This consisted of visiting the library, post office, bookstore, bank, and ended with a visit to a local pub. Seriously, the visit to the pub was on the tour syllabis, I checked it myself. All the students drank and talked from 5 to 8 pm. Afterwards we had a drunken trip to Shinjuku to do Purikiri (the picture taking machines.) Aside from the test, today was a fun day.

1st blog

So here I am, getting ready to go to Japan. I have all my bags packed and sitting by my door. We just need to get out and drive to the Detroit airport. It's frightening and exciting at the same time. The time of departure is so close, yet I don't feel ready. Hopefully everything will turn out alright. I don't know when I will be able to update once I leave the country. It may be a week or two before I finally get settled down and have some alone time with my computer.