Scholarly time

Yesterday in our buisness class our teacher, normally very nice, was apparently having a bad day or something and kept on sort of going off on the exchange students. Mind you this is one of the teachers, like all of them, that are pretty much 10-15 minutes late to every class. He kept on saying it was a shame that exchange students are now "no longer the elite, but think they can be late and not turn in work". All of us just looked at each other because there was only one thing we have ever needed to turn in for this class and we all did. And it's pretty much impossible to be late to classes here since they never start on time. I guess I can write this off because it's the first time a teacher has been rude and we've been here almost 2 months.

Yesterday at work I had some extra kids in my normally 2 kid class. Let's just say they've been better behaved. Much better behaved. As fruturated as I was, I had to laugh because me teaching Japanese kids is a pretty funny situation no matter what happens. The class after it was my class of 5 4th grade girls and they were on their best behavior. I think they like me so it makes life a lot easier.

This morning Rachel and I, the dorks that we are, decided to go to the Anthropology Society of Japanese studies in Japan annual meeting. One of our teachers had told us about it and it looked pretty interesting, plus it was free. We heard from some speakers about physical intimacy in Japan first. Then a speaker talked about social pollution in Japan. Basically it was about how Japanese discimination against lesser classes stems from non-rational thought, whether religious of other. Whereas "modern" discrimination is thought of as a Marxist view of class struggle. I can't really explain it well but it was really interesting. They had question time for these speakers that honestly I think was a time for them to hear themselves talk. One guy said something about America meant to be sort of insulting but was incredibly vague and unnecessary. Yes, we understand, you are European, you don't like America. As much as Im not a fan of American policy in any way, these intellectual types who think they know it all simply because they aren't American really get old. Odds are they've never even been to the continent, much less the country. These types of morons who don't know anything but just America-bash because it's in fashion are going to turn me into some sort of patriot.

After those discussions there was a key speaker who actually just sat there and read his paper outloud. Bring a book. It was about anthropology studies and how it is evolving. Not too terribly exciting. But it was kind of funny to hear scholarly people trying to one-up their colleauges in jargon that we couldn't understand. Four people asked the same question, each in indecipherable scholarly jargon, and then one lady (who looked like she was in grad school) asked the same question in simple terms that made sense. And everyone stared at her like she was a newbie to pulling crap out of nowhere to make you sound smart.

After that we decided that was all the scholarly time we could take for the day. So we went to harajuku to wander down the streets eventually getting to Shibuya. We were going to go to Tokyo Baptist's college group that meets saturday night. It was really interesting. It was mostly in english but there were slides of themajority preacher's speech in japanese. And we sang some of the songs in Japanese. I sat next to a girl from the Phillipines who is studying here and I found out she is going to a university where I knew some people. Because I had met them in the club last weekend. As big as Tokyo is, sometime it's like a small city with us foreigners. After the worhsip thing they had food/social time. When I was leaving they gave me a goody bag with a note inviting me back, which I think I'll do. As long as they don't raise the confederate flag, these baptists seem alright.

Bunka no Hi

Yesterday was culture day (bunka no hi). So that meant no classes and another national holiday. Word on the street was that Asakusa would be the main part of Tokyo having a big festival for the day. It was called Tokyo Jidai Matsuri (Tokyo era festival). The main event was supposed to be a big parade down the main street showing Tokyo throught the ages. So before that we walked down the mian shopping avenue towards the big temple because it looked like that was all the rage at the moment.


This was the entrance to the shopping avenue leading to the temple. The charachters say "Kaminarimon"-lightning gate.


Here is a pay toilet if you get desperate.


This is the beginning of the shopping street. It was all decorated for the day.


This is the temple that was at the end of the street.


This thing was making its way to the temple as well. I'm not sure what it was for but there were ladies on board playing the shamisen and men behind the cart banging cymbals.


This was a dragon thing that was in front of the cart.

After we found the temple we decided to go and wait for the parade to start since the brochure said it would start at 1:30. Lies. We sat there for an hour and saw 2 carts go by. Finally it started and the parade went from old japan to more recent japan. Along the parade route they had set across a large piece of red plastic for people to sit on. I don't know how they did it, sitting on concrete is uncomfortable no matter what colour it is.


This was the parade route with the many viewers.


There were boy scouts all up and down the parade route just sitting there and every now and then a man scout would come and tell him something. They never really did anything but if I remember anything from being in Boy Scouts, they probably got community service for a merit badge.


This was on of the crappy carts they tried to appease the crowds with an hour before anything interesting actually happened. Two of these montrosities went by in an hour. Bring a book.


The other crowd dissapointer.


Then the actual parade started with this. I think they explained her as some sort of warlord.


Samurais.


Women.


These crane women were pretty popular. They did some dances and stuff.


Crane women dancing.


Today was also the main day of the 7-5-3 festival. Which is if you are 7, 5 or 3 your parents dress you up and go to the local temple or shrine and dedicate you. Kind of like first communion. Only you get three of them. I imagine these boys are 7,5 or 3 and are in the parade because of it.


Following the boys was this demon thing wearing these shoes that look really hard to walk in. (S)he had to walk the entire parade in them though. The Japanese are experts in wearing stilettos while running or walking up stairs so this probably isn't too bad.


To my surprise, Miho was in the parade. Miho is the girl who took us to pool a couple weeks ago. She is the one closet to the camera in green. I think she is supposed to be some sort of court lady.

After that the parade lost its initial appeal. I mean I can only look at Japanese people walking in a line dressed in Kimonos for so long before I get bored. After the parade some people went home and Rachel and I and Rachel's friends from church got something to eat. Then her friends left and Rachel and I wanted still to look around since we didn't get to see all too much because of the masses of people.

I found a really cheap shoe store and got some shoes that actually fit me. Pretty exciting to find such a thing in Japan. My shoe size here is either a 26 or 27 I found out. After a while of walking we found ourselves in another potentially shady part of Tokyo. There were homeless people on the side of the street and what I think was "massage parlours" on the other side. All we saw were giant pictures of naked women and assumed. We turned the corner and once again we were in the middle of regular Tokyo. We decided to go back after that. An exciting cultural day.

Colder-esque days

It's getting somewhat colder in Tokyo, but not as cold as I would expect it to be in October. Global warming or something I guess. Although the weather is stable unlike Kansas where the snow day could be followed be a week of spring like weather in January. But you would guess that we live in Siberia by the way Japanese people dress. Everyday I see women in furs and huge parka-like coats. And guys are wearing big scarves and gloves and whatever else is in fashion.

Yesterday on the train, I should note, was the most crowded I had ever been. At one point some man had his head on my shoulder sleeping. Probably the most awkward 30 minute train ride yet. I've gotten used to the crowded trains but moments like that I don't think I will ever get used to. Or when a man got his man purse stuck between us and was practically feeling me up trying to get it loose. No wonder they made those women-only trains here.

When we had our study abroad meeting about what to expect when we go, they told us we would have different stages. Like the honeymoon stage, the homesickness stage etc. I passed the honeymoon stage pretty much a week after I got here. And I've been in this "trying to get used to it all" stage. Right now I am still thinking of my time here as a trip instead of a year abroad. They never told us about that in those meetings.

Mondays

Today I had my massive day of russian and 2 japanese classes. The russian class is going better each week. Even though my brain gets pretty much blended when I go into class, I suppose I learn a lot. After russian I ate lunch with the other students in my russian class. It's funny how you constantly meet new people here. After lunch was the ambiguous japanese class that no one knows what is going on. The teacher is really quiet and never really looks you in the face. Today we had to write an essay of a response to an article we read about karaoke in Japan. Thrill a minute. Then in the next japanese class we went over a test we took last week. The test was of course very vague and we all got horrible scores because no one knew what we were supposed to do. We had been told to study Kanji and vocab but none of that was on the test. The vagueness of this nation is often quite frusturating. There is never a clear yes or no. It's even too vague for the most post-modern of thought. What I'd give for some absolutes and a taco..