Billiards, Ueno and Children

Yesterday was just Interational Business at University. We watched this video about japanese buisnesses in America. The teacher is really funny. He seems to love America. Maybe we can exchange citizenships. Everything said about the western world, particularly the english speaking one, was america. I feel the europeans and especially the british feel kind of left out. He was telling us about how much to read for the class and he said "Those native english speakers from America can read all of the assignment but for the japanese students only half is ok". Mind you most of the other students besides the japanese students speak english fluently especially the british ones. Also during the video there was a picture of a squirrel and he paused the video and talked about squirrels for a bit. Japanese people love them, because they aren't here at all. Unlike in most of the midwest where those little devils are everywhere.

After class I ate some lunch then went back to the dorms. I mostly just loafed about for the afternoon. It was a good break from the week.

Then I went with some of the guys to play pool in Shibuya. To get there we took the Keio line, which is a pretty small line compared to the big JR (Japanese Railways) line that Shibuya has. So when we got out, it took a long time to find the other people we were meeting. We ended up walking pretty much all around the perimeter of the station. And this is no little station, definately a couple times bigger than Times Square. But we eventually found the others. We were meeting some of the guys and Miho. Miho is this really nice student from Hosei that wanted to play pool with us. She is really shy and quiet, so it kind of surprised us all that she wanted to play pool. She had also told us that she plays for money. Pretty funny. We went to the Pool Hall. It was a really chic place. They had a pool table with the American flag it in the front of the hall. And the room had that wearhouse feel, but other than that it was typical japanese really nice place. At the pool hall they kept on playing cheesy pop love songs. Definately not sticking with the pool theme. But the japanese people loved it. The funniest was when they played Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles", pretty much the girly song anthem. Of course I lost every game I played. No surprise there. Attila was getting really into it and in one shot he ended up knocking a glass over on the ground. Making all the people in the pool hall look at us. We left the place soon after...

The rest of the guys wanted to go back to the dorm after pool. So Daniel, Quentin, Miho and I went to look around Shibuya. We ended up going to an Izakaya named "Shirokiya"(White Tree Restaurant). An izakaya is basically a place where everyone orders different dishes and shares it all. It is usually a good social thing. Izakaya means "Food, Alcohol, Restaurant". Sometimes an izakaya is where you pay a set price and then eat and drink as much as you can. Since japanese people don't eat or drink much, these places probably make a killing. Shirokiya was a pay per dish/drink place though. Anyway, at Shirokiya it had this saying everywhere that said "I Love New York". Like on all the wrappers, dishes, plates, doors etc. But there was no mention of new york outside of that. Kind of funny. It was pretty good food but the portions were so small. But it's more of a social thing I guess.

After the Izakaya Daniel wanted to go to this bar in Shibuya that had 200 yen beer. (side note, a yen is about 114 yen to one american dollar. as of today. The easiest way to convert from yen to dollars is to take the two 0's off the end. and you get the approximate price in dollars) 200 yen is dirt cheap for beer in Tokyo. Land of nothing less than 500 yen for a drink anywhere. It ended up being quite a nice little pub with big screen tv's that normally show soccer. Miho and I didn't get any beer being as that beer wasn't too appetizing after all that raw fish stuff. But still. To be in a place that cheap deserves a mention.

This morning I got up bright and early to go to an elementary school festival. It was way too early, but how often do you get a chance like that. It was really interesting. The festival was two days long, but we had only gone for one part of it this morning. The 4th graders put on some play about who knows what. Then the 5th graders played some songs and sang. Then the 6th graders put on another play involving the history of Japan. The last scene was when Commodore Perry came to Japan and the kids were speaking english and then japanese with an american accent. It was really funny. The kids of course were incredibly cute. We all decided that asians have a monopoly on cute kids. Especially the japanese. The kids always wear matching clothes and such.

After the festival I went back with the girls because they were going to Ueno. The guys had gone to Ueno a while ago so they went back to the dorm. Before going back to their flat I was going to eat something so I wouldn't mooch on them. I stopped into this small little hole in the wall soba place. Soba are buckwheat noodles. Really good. I was the only white person, so I know I got some stares but oh well. I'll get used to it eventually.

We left for Ueno a while later. Ueno is a place with lots of parks, temples, shrines and mueseums. I think that it is north Tokyo. Not sure. It was really pretty. Not such a good day since it was overcast and muggy. But pretty none the less. We were going to go to the tokyo metropolitan mueseum since we heard it was free. But you had to pay for each exhibit you saw. Which would get pretty pricey. So we decided to look at all the shrines and temples in the area. The first one we went to was really pretty. I ended up taking 20 pictures just there. The statues all had moss and algae growing all over them and the whole temple had a very weathered look. Very beautiful. We went to some more shrines later and such. More pretty-ness.

A temple is a buddhist temple while a shrine is a shinto shrine. Most japanese people, if any religion at all, claim to be a mix of both buddhist and shinto. Shinto is a native animist religion in Japan while Buddhism is from india and pretty much atheist. So the mixing is pretty interesting.

On a religious note, the other day I found a christian church by Tsutsujigaoka station. The services are in Japanese so it could be very interesting. I haven't gone to a church here yet since all of them are in downtown Tokyo. So hopefully I'll get up sometime to go to this one.

I really need to do an update a day on days I actually do something. Becuase I know I am leaving out more interesting things. For those of you who are interested in the Tokyo happenings. And I imagine if you made it this far you are. I took a lot of pictures today but I am so tired from walking who knows how many kilometres today and don't feel like doing all the picture buisness now.

Wood

Instead of thursday I thought it would be more appropriate to write wood. Since in Japanese, thursday is "mokuyoubi" day of wood. Yes, I am that lame.

Today was just youth and schooling in japan. With the female Mrs. Rogers. She reminds me of Mrs. Rogers because she is so nice and talks really slow. I expect her to have a letter of the day or something every time. Today I learned that she was American. I knew that she was north american but we (the americans) couldn't tell if she was american or canadian. But they she said something about "the 16 hundreds" and then said something about "back in america". So all questions were out. For that class, we have optional field trips to an elementary school and a high school. This saturday is the one for the elementary school. I think it will be really interesting. I mean how often do you get to sit in on an japanese elementary school. Consdering little kids are usually excited about older people visiting anyway, the whole us being foreigner aspect should make for interesting times. Speaking of little kids, I forgot that sometime last week or so I was walking back from the station with some of the guys and a few little japanese girls saw us and said "Hello!", and we waved back and said hello. So cute. And cute sells on the baby black market.

After class I got some lunch and then went to see about getting a bank account. I thought it would be difficult seeing as that my japanese is crap and I don't really know any bank-related vocabulary besides money and bank. But it was really easy to do. When I went in to the bank the welcoming lady knew that I probably wanted to open an account and showed me what to fill out. It was one of those rare moments that I actually felt literate while talking to someone. So I opened an account with no problems. Unlike in America where opening a bank account is compareable to giving birth even if you speak english fluently, opening a bank account in Japan is really easy. I just filled out my address, telephone number, date of birth and gave them my alien registration card. Then I deposited 1000 yen and I had a bank account. That was seriously it. Something also kind of funny was that when I went to the area where you open new accounts, there was a lady whose sole job was to be nice to customers waiting. So if you sat down she would go and get the forms you needed and such while you wait. And when it is your turn, she makes sure you know you have been called and then she pulls the chair out so you can sit in it.

Then I went back to the dorm but I decided to stop off at the Sengawa station to see what was there. Sengawa is the stop before Tsutsujigaoka station. My dorm is almost equidistant from Sengawa and Tsutsujigaoka but Tsutsujigaoka has express service, hence the reason I use it. The area around Sengawa is really nice. I had been there a couple times but only down the main little market area. To the right of the market area they had a really western looking shopping centre. With little cafes and world markets. They had one grocery store which I think was named "Ise Queen" or something like that. But it was a really big grocery store. It looked like Hen House. This store had an actual produce section, dairy section and so on. Most japanese grocery stores are just mixed around. But this one was really western. And for being a big nice grocery store, it really wasn't that expensive. In fact, some of the produce was cheaper than I had seen before. The store had a big liquor section, which you don't really see in Japan. I mean they have liqour stores, but it's usually just domestic stuff. They had wine from all over the world, something we are used to in the US. But I dont think the Japanese much like wine. As obvious by the table wine they usually serve that tastes like dishwater.

I went into a clothing store called "Uni-qlo". It's pretty much like the old navy here. But with much cooler clothes. Something I was excited to see was that the entire first floor was men's clothes. That is definately something you wouldn't see in the US. Thanks to the Japanese men who love fashion. I found some pants for 500 yen. Which was pretty awesome. Considering even in the US that would be a good price for pants. Plus they fit, a rarety in these parts. When I checked out, the lady asked me if I wanted them tailored. Apparently they will hem the pants up for you for no charge. That was pretty funny to me. I can't imagine going to the Gap and asking them to tailor the clothes I was about to wear.

Tomorrow is friday, and after a week of mind draining it will be much appreciated. Only I'll probably be doing homework all weekend, but still...

Wednesday

As you can tell I am running out of clever titles.

Today I got up pretty early and I was going to meet Rachel at uni to see about going to the gym here. It was raining today. But it was that light misty Seattle rain. So an umbrella didn't really help but it helps you fit in here. And for white people that is crucial. So because of the rain type weather it took us a little to find the gym. We found it, sort of by accident. When we got into the foyer, it didn't look like a gym at all. But the sign said it was a gym.. So we just decided to follow the girls right in front of us. They handed their ID's to the man behind the glass and got a key. This was the key to a locker. So we got a key and followed the girls upstairs to the locker room area. So I went to the guy's locker room and Rachel was going to meet me on the other side and we would go from there. But you were supposed to take your shoes off at the locker room. Which really confused me. So I put my backpack in the locker and walked in my socks to the other side of the locker room. I was expecting to see maybe a weight room or something. But it definately was like a small little hallway. So I went up and down the hallway and up the stairs and such but couldn't make sense of it. So I went back to the front of the locker room and I saw Rachel and she said she was going to follow the girls to the weight room but all the girls in the locker room were just sitting and talking. I guess it's a big hangout or something? So we looked around the building for a while, probably looking like big morons all the while. We saw one weight room but it was pretty small, like room for 5 people maybe and one guy was in there already and looked serious. So we just decided to give up and ask someone later. So we turned in our keys and got our ID's back from the man behind the glass. And on the counter was an ad for the Wendy's nearby with coupons attached. Of course we got a few of these, coupons are rare and so is Wendy's. So basically we went to the gym, got lost and got a coupon from Wendy's. How American is that?

After that I decided to study a bit in the library. For some reason the library is like 4 degrees warmer than the rest of the school. But really quiet. So a good place to do actual work. Then I had class and went home. Thrill.

My internet has lately been really crotchety and not letting me put pictures on here. So someday I'll get some on here. Until then, you'll have to use your imagination.

Since I don't really have anything else interesting to say, I can tell you about some of the snack food here. It's really interesting to me. I don't think this kind of stuff could sell in the US at all. The major reason is that it's not full of trans fat and heavily salted. There is something here that is basically seasoned dry ramen. You don't really think about doing that, but it's really good. Unfortuantely it comes in nasty flavours everynow and then like "Mayo-Corn". But for the most part it is good. There is some sort of cracker here that is really popular. I'm not sure of the name right now. But the taste is pretty much like the sea. No matter what flavour you get, it always has that hint of the ocean. But these cracker things come in spicy flavours sometimes. Which, in Japan, is highly appreciated. Not much of anything here has any sort of spice. Except the curry. But even that is pretty mild compared to indian curry. Also the drinks here that you buy in the vending machines are pretty interesting. I just noticed that 2 days ago, they have started including some hot drinks in the machine. So that must mean fall is in full swing. But the drinks are mostly juices or some sort of dairy creation. Pop is pretty rare and is usually just coke. Even rarer is ginger ale. And even rarer than that, everynow and then there is a Dr. Pepper. And only once, at the 100 yen store near a station near here, I saw mountain dew cans. Kind of funny when you think that all they sell in vending machines in the US is pop. And here pop is barely in there.

Tuesday

Today was quite long. The E-class was in the morning bright and early. It started at 9:30 but thanks to me missing the express train I got to class I think right on time or a bit late. Something that is odd, is that university is never on time. I don't think any of my classes have been on time yet. But the rest of Japan is on a very strict time schedule. The trains run to the minute, stores close right on time, and meetings begin right as the clock hits the minute. So luckily this day was no exception. The class started out with the teachers from both sides of the classroom introducing each other. It was funny at first, but it got boring after they all were telling their life story to another. The class in UC Davis only had one student and at first there were three other teachers but eventually there was only one teacher. The actual teacher for this course is at Hosei which is nice, because I don't think I would want to watch someone on TV for two hours give a lecture. The teacher is pretty interesting I think. But when he asks discussion questions, he makes no sense. So the most of us look like we know nothing about history because his questions are so oddly put together. Rumour is that he is 75 so oh well. Even though the class is about christinanity in modern japan, he kept on talking about Jean D'arc, the opium wars and the holy roman empire. Staying on subject was not his forte, but it was interesting anyway.

After that class we had about a 2 hour break. I talked to some of the japanese students that were in the class with me earlier for a bit. Kind of exciting that my japanese is getting a little better each day so I can hold a decent conversation now. Then I looked upstairs in the Audio/Visual library to see what was about. They had a whole bunch of western movies and cd's. And also a lot of resources to learn languages on. It was pretty neat. I'll probably have to go up there later definately.

The next class was Familes and Sexualities in Japan. It was discussion/presentation day and the topic was "conventional families in japan". Basically we talked about the dropping fertality rate, single life in japan and gender roles in a typical marriage. Since we have people from all over the world in that class, it's usually very interesting what everyone has to say about their country. In japan it's pretty accetable to live with your parents long after you graduate high school whereas in America living at home after high school is practically the most embarassing thing you can do.

After that class was japanese culture. We talked about earthquakes and the geography of Japan. Pretty elementary but it was all in japanese. So that kind of makes it a bit more difficult.

At about 4 o clock it started getting really foggy. My last class was on the 10th floor so you could really see the extent of the fog in Tokyo. It was very pretty to me. Although most people thought it was dull like all rainy days. But since living in Waco, land of no rain. Rainy days are pretty much the best.

I got my national health insurance card in the mail today. I was pretty excited, as excited as you can get over socialised health care. I suppose it's a liberal thing.

Some funny things.. The soap in Japan, is pretty much crap. The hand soap is practically water with food colouring. And I bought some body soap the other day and it smells like a 50 year old perfume you bought at a garage sale in Queens. And I picked the best smelling one out. But at least the body soap has the jelly soap feel. I haven't seen a handsoap yet that isn't water-ised blue liquid. I also bought some mouth wash the other day, something I hadn't seen yet in Japan. (Japan isn't too keen on dental hygeine, they give the british a run for their money) But the mouth wash or "Mausu Wosshu" doesn't have any alcohol in it. So you don't get that tingly feeling. I really wouldn't be surprised if mouth wash here is just coloured sugar water. And I did find some febreeze at QQ. (QQ is the 99 yen store, QQ-kyu kyu- standing from 99. kyu means nine in japanese.) Everytime I go to the QQ there is something new/vaguely familiar to figure out.

The Queen meets the Tsar

During the day saturday I went to the Ichigaya area to attempt to open up a bank account. (Ichigaya is where Hosei is) I had heard it was really easy to open up a bank account at Tokyo Mitsubishi Bank so I went in there to figure out how to do so. It took me quite a while to figure out that the bank was closed. Apparently all banks are closed on the weekends. What had thrown me off is that the lobby was open since the atm's were there. Also, atm's are only open certain hours in Japan. Usually until 5 pm on weekends and 10 pm on weekdays. This makes no sense to me, since atm's require no human workers, but "when in Rome". So I decided since I couldn't open up a bank account at least I should figure out how to get money from my bank account back home. Much easier said than done. Almost all the Atm's accepted international Visa cards, but that function was not available on the weekends. Only during the bank hours of 9-3pm Monday through Friday. So I was kind of worried since I didn't know how I could get to a bank in a while with the free time that I don't have during 9-3. I went up and down one street in Ichigaya looking for atms and all of them didn't accept international cards. I knew that there was a Citibank atm somewhere near Shinkjuku station and I was prepared to find it. I say prepared becuase Shinjuku is, I think, the largest station in the world. And even with directions, a place that large is impossible to find anything. But I had time so I was ready. I was about to board the train home (shinjuku is on the way from Ichigaya to the Tsutsujigaoka stop) when I saw a little atm booth that said "We accept International Cards". It was pretty much like a movie, where the main charachter finds something in the least expected place. I'm not sure what the fee was exaclty but I don't think it was that much, plus the US dollar gained quite a few yen the other day. So the exchange was better than a month ago.

Saturday night we went to this club called "Lexington Queen" because we had heard that a lot of famous people go there while in Japan. It took us forever to find it. We went up and down the main street of Roppongi looking for this place. All the while being harassed by every bouncer to go to their club. It gets pretty old, it's not like I'm going to go to your club if you surround the group I'm in with other bouncers. Anyway, so we finally found the place and it looked promising at first. On the walls they had pictures and signatures of all these famous people. But then we went inside and it was really small and shady. It was good times though. I'm not sure why anyone famous would have wanted to go there, but apparently they all do. The walls inside were covered with poloroids of famous people. I wasn't too impressed by the place, but oh well. I think it may have been a gay bar, but no one is really sure. Long story.

This morning I got up early to do some more studying. Since today I was going to into a russian class here and attempt to talk to the teacher to see about joining the class. I wrote down a bunch of stuff to remember and thought I had the most of it down. So I went onto university and waited outside the classroom getting more nervous. When I was waiting this japanese girl kept on smiling at me, and since odds are I had met her before I went over to say hello. Atilla was there as well, and of course she remembered him. She then told us about how she was going to be a TV host later in the afternoon. She had her uniform with her. It was this little sailor school girl outfit. She even had gloves and a sash. We never found out what kind of show she would be hosting, but Atilla was convinced it was some sort of talk show like Oprah maybe.

So I went into the russian class about 10 minutes before it was supposed to start. I said Здравствуйте (hello) to the teacher and after that all my russian left me. Although she asked me if I was russian and told me that she thought I was russian at first because of my accent. So that is exciting. I pulled out all my notes and looked like a moron as I tried to figure out how to tell her who I was and what I was doing there. Luckily she is really nice and understood what I was saying. She then had me do some grammar excercises to see where I was in russian. Doing the whole class there was only one other student in there and apparently that is the norm. Right before class ended 2 other students showed up because they were late or something. The entire class was either in russian or japanese. Which is really tiring on the head. Becuase anything I didn't know in russian I had to say in japanese. When I couldn't understand the russian, the other student would tell me it in japanese. Which actually I understood it all. Even though this class will be very hard, I think it will be a very good practice for japanese and russian. If my brain doesn't explode.

After that class I ate some lunch and went onto the next class. Which was Japanese 4. The teacher is really vague (of course) and most of the time I had no idea what he wanted. But after the russian class, it all seemed really easy. Thinking in Japanese and English is 100x easier than thinking in Japanese, Russian and English. After Japanese 4 was Japanese 3a. I made the mistake by sitting the closest to the teacher. So every single example was used on me. Since the teacher already knows that I don't like Bush she would ask me questions about bush for examples. Pretty funny.

After class I went home and tried to look at this russian stuff again. Luckily there are 2 exchange students from russia and one from uzbekistan that have all offered help. It's more of a rescue mission than help though. ha.

Tomorrow is the class day of death. As my first class will be at 9:30. Which means I'll have to leave here about 8:30 probably. And then I won't be done until 16:40. Tomorrow is the first day that we have the 9:30 class. It is an e-class done simultaneous with a class in UC-Davis. So that is pretty neat. It is about christianity in modern japan. Since I am a dork, I find that kind of stuff interesting. But it's a 2 hour long class, so I don't know how interesting that will be. After that is "Families and Sexualities in Japan" or as Atilla calls it "Sexual Feelings". It's the first presentation so it should be interesting.