Rejoice!

My last blog got cut short because some random Japanese kids started talking to me.

So Saturday I ended up staying home and doing lot of studying. It was very good for me.

Once Sunday rolled around I really wanted to get out of the house. I still wanted to go to Akihabara as I had not been yet. Vaso and I headed out around noon to go. A couple stops before Akihabara, I saw a roller coaster from the train. Curiosity got the best of us and I made us get off the train. It turns out that the station where we exited was right next to the Tokyo Dome! Along with the baseball field, there is also a small amusement park which housed one roller coaster. It was 1000 yen to ride it, but Vaso and I did not feel like waiting in line for it. Quite possibly the coolest thing about this coaster was that it went through a building! Check it out:



We finally made it to Akihabara around 3 and it was packed. We walk out of the train station and the first thing I see are maids handing out fliers for their respective cafe's. Sadly, because we were foreign, they did not try handing us any. We walked down the main street of Akiba checking out all the little stores along the way. Once we reached the end we went to the other side of the street and walked back towards the station. I dragged Vaso to a model shop where I purchased a couple random boxes. In front of that store they were selling Final Fantasy Potions. I had to buy a couple:



He then dragged me to Kaitenzushi (Rotating sushi) to eat some dinner. We actually went to a good place this time. All of the 100 yen sushi was really good, and 10 plates was more than enough to fill us up. By the time we finished, it was starting to get dark out. The road was opened once again to traffic and people were starting to go home. Not wanting to go home yet, we headed into the back allies to see the real Akihabara. There were all sorts of shady merchants and shops selling all sorts of electronics. We searched high and low for a used game shop that was selling a Famicom or Super Famicom for cheap. I really wanted to buy one for nostalgic gaming purposes. It was during this adventure that I happened upon the thing that I had been searching for for ages.





A Limited Edition Final Fantasy Crisis Core PSP (Number 46,466 / 77,777)

I saw it, and I bought it almost instantly. The store clerk kept saying that there was dust under the screen, but I could see no such thing. The thing is in near perfect condition and looked like it had never been played. I was so pleased with this find.

So after Akiba, Miles invited us over to visit his apartment. We went over to Nezu (which happens to be the same place that Shoko lives) and had more dinner. This time it was Indian Curry. I thought the serving was kind of small, but the place was really exquisite and it tasted really good. After dinner we went to Miles' apartment, chilled for a while, and headed home. It was a good day.

Today after class I went to Nakano with some people to go beetle shopping. There is this weird craze about beetle fighting which led to these kinds of shops popping up. Austin ended up buying a beetle, cage, and some food for a little over 3000 yen. Not bad if you ask me. I was a little jealous about the whole ordeal. Owning a beetle sounds like it would be a cool experience.

When I returned home I stopped at the supermarket for the first time. This was mainly to supplement my lunches with instant ramen and the like. Our host families are not required to feed us lunch, and sometimes I feel bad asking. I was never so happy in my life to buy milk, cereal, and bread. I had some when I arrived home and felt like I was in heaven. Here is a pic of my stash:

Yeah Yeah

The Good Stuff

I am just going to skip my boring days at school and go right to the good stuff. On Saturday there was a Typhoon off the coast of Japan. It rained all day. My original plan was to go to Akihabara with Michael and Keaton to shop for some games and figures. Well I got dressed, grabbed my umbrella, and walked outside. I did not get 50 feet out the door when I decided to go back. My pants were completely soaked.

I Wanna Sleeeeeeeeeep

So it has been a rough couple of days. The lack of sleep and lots of homework is getting to me. I really need to get caught up and stay that way. The biggest thing is reading Genji. The book is just soooooo long. Coupled with the fact that I cannot concentrate on reading it past 10pm or so at night, means that it never gets done. I also do not take the book to school because it is so big. The book itself easily doubles the weight of my backpack.

So right now I am trying to find something to do. My translation studies class today was cancelled as the teacher never showed up. Therefore, I have to find something to do for 3 hours until my next class. Posting in my blog seemed like a perfect idea.

So two days ago I stopped by the hub and met 2 Waseda students who wanted to practice their english. I wanted to practice my Japanese, but it is always a give and take relationship. We talked a lot about the differences between American and Japanese schools. I had a lot of fun. We also agreed that next time we meet we will converse in Japanese.

Yesterday I had an optional Japanese class. The program is offering 4 different classes that are taught by Waseda students wanting to teach Japanese. We spent the entire hour and a half going over the differences between ありがとうございます　と　ありがとうございました. It was the most long and drawn out class I have ever been in. Needless to say I will not be taking that again.

Afterwards, I went to the Super Mario Club with Vaso and Rienzo. It turns out that the club only has 4 members and therefore is not really a club at all. They share a room with another club that plays the cardgame "bridge". They just go there to hang out and play some Nintendo games. It was really cool to get to meet some people that share the same interests as me although, I do not think I will be joining. I will however, keep in contact with the guys running it. After playing some games, Vaso and I decided that we wanted to start collecting Famicom and Super Famicom games. They are relatively cheap and you can find them used all over the place. The only problem is buying the actual system...

Coffee

So now I drink coffee. There is not much more to say about it. My host family drinks coffee every morning for breakfast and I have joined them. When the students are out and about, we also tend to hit up a coffee shop at least 2 times a week. It is a great way to chill and talk about life.

Today was a pretty chill day. I spent the morning reading Genji and studying some Japanese. I did not realize that my family had gone out around noon, so I ended up not eating lunch. Around 4 pm I met up with Shoko at her apartment. This time around we went off to Ueno for food. I was absolutely starving. We hit up a 回転寿司 (kaiten-zushi) place and stuffed our faces. I had 5 plates at 100 yen a pop. It was a really cheap and delicious meal. Afterwards we went to a Starbucks where I consumed a white-chocolate mocha. I was immediately made fun of for not drinking coffee black. What can I say? Sweet drinks are the best. I have become used to drinking black coffee at home, but it is still not my drink of choice. Shoko and I ended up talking a lot about the general life in Japan. She is thinking of quitting her job because the work is too hard. She also made me realize that I do not want to work while in Japan. I worked all summer to experience this and to have $$. Now that I am here there is no reason to spend all my time teaching English or something along those lines.

I found out that Ueno is a really cool place. I was told that it used to be the black market of Japan, and still kind of is. Everything there was fairly cheap. There were many vendors trying to sell off the rest of the food they had for the day. The prices on day old fish were insanely cheap. There were also many new and used clothes stores which had some pretty good designs. If I ever need to do some clothes shopping, Ueno is where I would to it. Sadly I did not get any good pictures because it was too dark out...

UVERworld

Amazing. Today was simply amazing. I knew it was going to be good, but it could not have gone any better.

I got to sleep in for the first time all week. It felt really good to just lie in my nice warm bed and not have to worry about anything. I spent the entire morning being lazy around the house. I did some laundry, ate breakfast, and played Zelda.

For lunch I was invited to go with Mieon and 2 students who came to CWRU this year. They just returned to japan a couple weeks ago and were really excited to see me. Their first impression of course, was that my Japanese is really good. When I talked to them in Cleveland, I spoke only in English to help them learn. That is a part of the foreign exchange student experience. Now that I am in Japan, it is the other way around. They speak to me only in Japanese. There was another student named Shoichi that met with us as well. I just happened to meet him last time I was in Japan as he is one of Hiromichi's good friends. It is simply amazing how coincidental life really is.

So for lunch we ate at this place in Harajuku. It was an お好み焼き食べ放題, that is, all you can eat okonomiyaki for 90 minutes. It was really good and we all ended up eating way too much. It was the first time that I actually stuffed myself full since I arrived in Japan. During lunch we talked about how the students spent their time at CWRU, as well as what Mieon and I are currently doing at Waseda. It was a fairly relaxing time albeit a little hot from the grills. Here is a picture of the girls making lunch.


After lunch we wandered around Harajuku popping in and out of shops. I was very surprised to see an used clothes store along the way. It does not have a huge selection like good-will, but in every other sense it is the same. We ended up walking all the way to Shibuya where Shoichi and I departed from the girls. He was going home, I was going to a concert.

I had very minimal directions on how to get to the UVERworld live. I knew it was at this college whose name I could not read. I looked it up on google maps and apparently the college is really close to my house. I stepped off the train at nishi-eifuku station and immediately found a map. Japan is so convenient because there are maps at every single train station. I did what I do best and matched up the Kanji I had written down with the ones on the map. I was off to the college. It did not take long before I caught up with some students who were also on their way to the live. I did not get a chance to talk to them, but they kept looking back at me for some reason. When I found the college I instantly saw the massive crowd of people waiting to get in. I asked one of the helpers if I could buy a ticket and he said "NO"

Heartbroken. The only word to describe my feelings at that moment. I was looking forward to seeing UVERworld so much and then there was this huge letdown. Defeated, I slowly started back towards the station....

Just then, a group of 4 Japanese students caught my attention. A blessing has come down unto thee! One of the students was selling 2 tickets because his girlfriend could not go with him to the concert. I spent a while talking to them about whether or not they were trying to rip me off, which was a very amusing conversation. I ended up buying a ticket from them for 1000 yen. I was expecting to pay 2000 because that was what the general admission was. What a steal! I exchanged phone numbers with them and was on my way.


The concert ended up being amazing. I could not take any pictures as that was prohibited, but I did snap one of my ticket to prove I went. First off everyone was ushered into the school gymnasium where there were 400+ chairs set up. My first impression was that this was going to be really lame if everyone was sitting down. I found an empty seat next to these two otaku looking guys. They had never heard UVERworld before and were just there for the entertainment. The girl that sat on the other side of me was a huge fan. She got really into it. When the lights went out, everyone immediately stood up. I heard cries from the girls sitting behind us 見れない！見れない！ (I can't see!) The two guys next to me were roughly the same height I was, which is approximately 20cm taller than any of the girls there. So the concert started and it was the same as any other concert I had been too. Everyone cheered, screamed, and sang along to the songs. The show was amazing.

After the show I was exiting the building when I noticed something. Most of the people there were girls. I hadn't noticed it before, but when I gave it a second thought it made sense. There were parts during the concert where the crowd sang a few lines from a song. It was an overwhelmingly female sound when those parts came up. All well, it makes me think no less of UVERworld.

When I arrived home I also received an e-mail from the guy that sold me the ticket. He wanted to go out drinking / partying. I was all for it except for the fact that I was already at home. Hopefully we can hang out another time.

I must be missing out

I feel like I am missing out on something. I go to school and then come back home. Sure there are some fun times in between, but life seems to have slowed down for the moment. It feels as though I am adjusting to school and the initial awe of being in Japan is wearing off. This must be what it feels like to finally get used to another culture.

Bills

Today I did not go to school but was out all day anyways. First there were interviews for some English teaching jobs this morning. I attended the meeting, filled out the forms, and got interviewed. It was not very exciting. Afterwards I went to a convenience store to pay my bills. It was then that I realized how much better they are than standard American stores. I can go to almost any convenience store in Japan and pay my cell phone bill (or electric, gas, etc). I also just found out that if you want to go to a concert somewhere, you buy tickets from a convenience store too. I was amazed. After this adventure, I went to Waseda with Vaso to start the work permit process to secure a job. It turns out that this was pretty much a wasted trip as we needed our alien registration cards. So we headed to Setagaya town center to pick up our cards. We got lost as soon as we got off the train station. There was a sign on the sidewalk that said the building was 20 meters to the left... There was nothing there. We returned to the train station and went to the other side. There was yet another sign that said the place was 140 meters straight ahead. This one was actually correct. Getting the card was a painless process. We handed them our passports and they handed them back along with the card. Now we are all set. Just need to open up a bank account so I can get paid.

Wait.... What homework?

So Monday I had finally recovered from the trip. I got a lot of sleep the previous night, therefore it was going to be a good day. The day started on a good note when we actually went over new concepts in my Japanese class. It became even better once class ended. I met up with many people for lunch and afterwards headed off once again to Shinjuku.

We spent the day wandering around again. The biggest discovery this time was a little alleyway with all sorts of really small food shops. At that point Steven went to work, but we promised to eat some Yakitori with him when he got back. Nikki, Austin, Vaso, and I ended up wandering around Shinjuku some more which eventually led to a Okonomiyaki shop. It was the first time I had been to an actual resturant of that sort. Afterwards we found this hippie shop with some crazy clothes. Nikki was really into it. Finally, Steven got off work and we went back to the alleyway. We ate at this tiny shop which was filled with people. The food was amazing, the bill was not. I guess it is alright to splurge a little every once and a while. That night I got back around 12:30 and immediately went to sleep.

The next day I regretted staying out so late. I had homework in all my classes which I failed to do. I somehow managed to read enough of Genji during lunch to make it through that class. My song class was having difficulties with the website so its homework was postponed. I was really lucky. After class ended I ran to the station to get to the Shinsei Bank in Tokyo center. There was a bridging scholarship reception. I figured it was free food so I might as well go. The party turned out to be amazing. We were on the top floor of this bank with windows all around the room. There were tables in the middle with all sorts of food from sushi to pasta. I also enjoyed some red wine with my meal. Of course I met lots of people too. There were only 3 of us from Waseda, the rest were from various other places around Tokyo. I was very pleased with the entire presentation.

Retreat to Karuizawa

This weekend we had the Japan Study trip to Karuizawa. First and foremost, I am really tired so this will most likely be a fairly short post.

We all met in Takadanobaba to leave for Karuizawa. The program chartered a bus for all of us. There was just barely enough seats for everybody. The thing that surprised me the most was that some people had their backpack and a small suitcase. I could not believe that someone would need all that stuff for a single overnight trip. I brought a change of clothes and my gameboy, nuff said. The ride up was alright. It took about 3.5 hours to get there, but we also made a stop for lunch. My first impression was that this place was in the middle of nowhere. There were mountains and farms all over the place. When we arrived my first impression was that I wanted to go hiking in the woods. I am disappointed that we never did.

The facilities were really nice. I was assigned to a large room with 12 or so of the guys. As soon as we walked in, we started setting up the futons. Everyone asked us why we were doing it so early. Little did they know that the plan was to be able to walk in and sleep wherever one may fall. Outside there was a large baseball field, tennis courts, and basketball courts. There were also other buildings for housing as well as a nice cafeteria. Apparently this place is often used by Waseda for club outings.

First off about 10 of us went for a walk. Being around nature was a nice change of pace compared to the center of Tokyo. A few people explored some of the woods nearby, but I did not join in. It was a very rural area with not very many houses.

When we got back from our walk some of the guys and I went back to our room and turned on the heater. It was so cold outside. By some freak reason I felt the need to not bring a sweatshirt. Bad choice. I ended up wearing a t-shirt and two long sleeve shirts the entire time. I did not realize that it was going to be that cold such a short distance away from Tokyo. We had dinner, a meeting afterwards about how things were going, and then a party. We all drank, danced, played games, and generally made fools of ourselves. We had to be out of the building by 11pm, so the party ended up moving to my room. Everyone loved the fact that the futons were all set out. It was very homely. I ended up going to bed around 3 or so once the party faded and people returned to their own rooms.

Today I was so tired. Breakfast was at 7:30 in the morning. This announcement came on and woke everyone up. I saw many people sit up, look around in sleepily, and then roll over and fall back asleep. I for one, wanted some substance so I forced myself to get out of bed and head to the cafeteria. I was very glad I did because it made life so much better afterwards. We had another short meeting and then free time before departure. Many of us enjoyed the warmth of the sun by playing frisbee and badmiton. We had lunch and then departed.

As soon as I arrived home I took a nap. It felt so good.

Ma Na

So school is finally starting to set in. I have not taken many pictures at all recently. This is mostly due to the fact that I am not doing much besides attending classes and studying. The week has been pretty boring.

Yesterday I met up with Vaso and had lunch. Today I had lunch with Rienzo, then dinner with Shoko. Tomorrow I don't have class until late afternoon which means I get to sleep in.

On Saturday we are departing for Nagano for a weekend trip with the Japan Study students. It will be a good time, but I think it should be a little later during the year. We just started classes and are still talking to the other people in our program! All well, it gets us out of inner Tokyo for a little while.

More Studying

I woke up this morning and started studying kanji. Vaso e-mailed me around noon for lunch. We went to this really good Italian restarant in Shinjuku. We had some seafood pizza which consisted of shrimp and squid. Afterwards we went to the arcade and played a game of Gundam and Guilty Gear. I also ended up playing a game of Beatmania, which I realize that I really suck at. It is that turntable that always screws me up. It was raining all day today and I somehow managed to lose my umbrella at one of the arcades. Personally I think someone stole it. Vaso had some club meeting to attend at Waseda so we parted ways. I returned home and started reading Genji. 4 chapters per week means a lot of reading!

Last Train

So now I know when the last train is to my house because I just took it. It runs at 12:15 from Shinjuku station. I am so glad that I managed to catch it, otherwise I would have been screwed.

Anyways, today was a very unproductive day. The good news is that I got to see where my good friend Shoko lives. Her aunt owns a rather large plot of land in Nezu which is near Ueno. She built some apartments and is renting them out to Tokyo University students. The apartments are kind of small, but it is just like living in a dormitory with full amenities. Her aunt visited and gave us these sugar coated grapes. They were pretty gross. Anyway, Shoko was in awe that I had not seen the Miyazaki film となりのトトロ (Tonari no Totoro) so she made me watch it. It was a bit on the childish side, but still a really good movie. We also had breakfast for dinner (pancakes, eggs, sausage) with some dango for desert. There always has to be some sort of Japanese twist in there right? So I ended up staying a bit too late and barely caught the last train home. I will be sure not to do that again.

First Weekend

Saturday was a blast. First of all, I woke up really early to go to Ceatec. Vaso decided to be lazy and sleep in instead. I ended up going by myself. It cost me 900 yen to get to the convention center. That is fine and all, but it only cost me 500 yen to get back home via the same route. Talk about weird. The first thing I noticed as I stepped off the train was that everyone was going the same direction. I followed suit and they eventually led me to the convention center. That place was huge! There are three convention buildings each housing a different specialty: home entertainment, fancy new electronics, and the components that go into the fancy new electronics.

I went to the fancy new electronics first because it was closest. The first thing that struck me was the amount of different companies in this huge hall. There were the big ones like Panasonic and Microsoft, but there were also really tiny companies with some pretty cool electronics. The second thing that struck me were the booth babes. They were everywhere. The big companies had upwards of 15 while most of the smaller places had 1 or 2. I thought it was simply amazing that almost every single booth had at least 1.



So I walked around and enjoyed the geeky-ness that comes with every big conventions. I checked out the new TV's, mp3 players, phones, computers, and everything else that I could find. The bigger companies had a show about every half hour or so. They ranged from normal presentations to song and dance and even a magic show! It was very impressive.

After I had seen everything (or at least walked by it) I headed back home. I made a stop at Shinjuku to eat and meet Vaso and Miles. It took them a while to show up so in the meantime I went arcade hopping. There is a popular area in Shinjuku that has about 5 different arcades on the same block. If there is a game you want to play that is already taken, you can simply go on to the next arcade. I ran into Vaso and Miles while changing arcades. They apparently had plans to go to this bar / international party. I decided it would be a good chance to meet people.

I talked to a ton of different people at the party. Most of them were enamoured that I was attending Waseda University. The rest were just surprised at my Japanese ability (which I still do not think is very good.) The party ended around 10pm so we had to move elsewhere. We ended up just walking around until late.

Forgetfullness

I realized that I have been slacking in the blog department since classes started so here goes.

Two days ago I had planned to go to Ceatec with Vaso. However he sent me an e-mail in the morning saying that he was sick. It was probably something he ate, as he wanted to meet up and do something around 1 pm. Anyhow, I spent my morning being lazy around the house. While I have not picked up any video games yet, I did pick up my Japanese textbook and started studying; something I have not done in a long time. I ended up mostly reviewing my Kanji as that is the gateway for me to learn other words. For lunch I ran up to the local convinience store and picked up some onigiri and a plate of yakisoba. By the time I arrived home, Vaso was already wanting to do something. Naturally, I agreed.

We met up at Shinjuku at the usual spot, the bridge in front of Bic-Camera. From there we went on a journey through Shinjuku looking for the lone bank that was still open. We had already been to this bank once before, but neither one of us really paid attention to where it was. We walked past various landmarks including a row of vending machines and a few banks with only atm's in them. Finally we had a revelation, and realized that the bank we were looking for was right across the street. Well that was a fun adventure.

So now we were left with nothing to do. I suggested that we hit up the local Kinokuniya to pick up the books we needed for school. I needed the Tale of Genji and Vaso needed something called Japan and Korea. We needed to go to the other side of the Shinjuku train station. The plan was to walk straight through from the west exit to the east exit. We came out of the exit, walked around a corner, and there was the Bic-Camera again. Somehow we managed to walk in a circle. Back to the train station! This time we came out a lot closer to our destination, so I decided that it was best just to walk around the station until we hit Kinokuniya.

I ended up buying the Royall version of The Tale of Genji. It is the most recent and hopefully will be easier to read than the other versions. Vaso found his book as well. After that we headed home. I read the introduction of my book later that night. It looks like it will be an interesting story.

Yesterday I had lots of classes. Japanese class was awesome as we had a different teacher. This one is much more engaging compared to the other. I am really glad that we will have her every Thursday. The next class was really fun. It is my Translation Theory class. We started off by breaking into groups and trying to translate a short story from Japanese into English. Our group consisted of me, Vaso, Mariko, and another girl at our level. Mariko is a native Japanese speaker and helped translate all of the kanji. We found out that it is hard to agree on a translation when we are all working together. Everyone has their own idea of what they think would be the best way to describe any particular sentence. After this little project, our teacher started going over some of the basic theories of translation such as word-for-word and sense-for-sense. I really think I will enjoy that class. Finally, I attended the second lecture of Genji. We talked about the family tree of the old emperor Nobihiko. It did not interest me too much, but it is important to know where the tale of Genji came from and why. I just cannot wait to start reading it!

Study Time!

I have been to almost all of my classes thus far. Today I attended Japanese again in the morning, then The Tale of Genji and Japanese Popular Music in the afternoon. In the morning class everyone brought in a show and tell item. Mine was the chopsticks that my last host family gave me. I did not really prepare at all, but think I did a pretty good job explaining my item. Some other people had real trouble, and still others simply read from a speech they wrote the previous night. Now that in cheating in my opinion. The thing that makes Japanese class fun is the fact that you get to use your knowledge to make new sentences. That is also the best way to learn.

The Tale of Genji class looks really interesting. The teacher even remembered Brenden when I said that my majors were computer science and Japanese studies. I want to get my hands on a book pronto. The music class looks like it will be more of a "translating and understanding lyrics" type of course. We started the day with the Japan national anthem called Kimi ga yo. We went through the lyrics explaining what all the kanji was, then compared it to 3 different translations of the song. It is amazing how different the translations were. Thursday I have a class about the theory of translation. I am hoping that these two courses will go hand in hand together.

Tomorrow I want to check out the Ceatec which is somewhere in Tokyo. It is this big electronics expo which shows off the latest and greatest. Admission is free so there really is no reason not to go.

First Day of Class

My first class of the day started at 9am. This meant that I had to get up at 7:30 and be out the door by 8. I just so happened to leave my notebook with the room numbers written in them back at my house. Nice. So I ended up being 5 minutes late as I had to find out where on campus this class was.

The class itself was relatively painless. We started out by doing our introductions. I felt like I was in the upper 5 or so people in the class in terms of fluency. Our sensei then explained the class rules and whatnot. Finally we had a set of 3 tests to take: Kanji, Grammar, and Listening. The kanji test was really hard. I should have done a decent job on it, but I had not written any characters all summer. The other two tests were really easy.

After class I met up with Vaso and Shoko to grab lunch. We had Tonkatsu obentou. Vaso is so lucky, he somehow managed to have no classes on Monday or Wednesday. Course, his other days are going to be crammed packed with classes. After lunch we hit up a Japanese modern liturature class. It looks like a pretty cool class but I really do not think that I can fit it into my schedule.

The first day of class was pretty sweet. I am kinda wore out too; It's partially from the bad weather, cold, and class.