Shabu Shabu

Yesterday I had the final for our business class. It was (as you would say in Britain) pure bollocks. Barely anything had to actually do with International Business. And nothing was really even talked about it class. But I'm glad to be done with that. This was the class by the way where we had to learn the prefectures of Japan. None of us could really figure out what it had to do with International Business. Luckily we had class evaluations so I could tell someone higher up what a waste of time that class was.

Last night was aki's birthday. Aki is one of the fellow exchange students from England. At first we went to this "Shabu Shabu" place. Shabu Shabu is pretty much like Japanese fondue. In the middle of the table you have this huge bowl of bowling water/oil. And you put meat or vegetables in it and eat. It was kind of funny since they just give you a huge plate of meat and a huge plate of vegetables. Probabaly would be some sort of health code violation in the US. Shabu Shabu is a motion word by the way. Japanese has lots of these to describe certain actions. Like the heart beating is "Doki Doki" and shaking something is "Yusa Yusa". So I was asking the Japanese people at my table if you can "Shabu Shabu" anything else. And they thought I meant putting other things in the bowl to eat. Like I wanted to play around with it. It took us a while to finally get down to what I was actually trying to say. Crappy Japanese strikes again.

After that we went to an Izakaya. Izakaya (居酒屋) litterally means drinking place. Since most Japanese people go there to have drinking parties (飲み会). We had a room reserved for us, it was pretty nice. It had a karaoke machine and one of those tables that are low on the floor but have actual leg room underneath. You were supposed to order from a little phone in the room. Even though a majority of the people either were Japanese or spoke it fluently, they decided I should order. So I talk to this guy on the phone to order drinks and such. It sounded like a drive thru speaker. Everyone in the room was staring at me while I was ordering. Good times. Well after
an hour I think, the first order of drinks finally came. Not all of them though. Another 45 minutes later we had our complete order. Since we only had reserved the room for 2 hours, this wasn't good. Adding to that, the karaoke machine was broken. After a while of messing with the wires it got fixed though....2 hours later. Aki told them off and we ended up getting free food and staying in the room for free until 12. (normally you have to pay 500 yen a person if you were to stay beyond the 2 hour time). It was funny because what Aki said wasn't really rude in english but when you translate it directly to Japanese it's pretty forward. Just because Japanese is really polite and you never actually say what the problem is, you just say "Chotto..."(a bit). After the complaning service picked up 10 fold. Then our good friend Atilla came and the karaoke began. This machine had a score that it would give at the end of the song. At first it was just out of 100, like a percentage. But then all of a sudden instead of a score, a bunch of blocks would come on the screen. And depending on the score bricks would come off. Higher score, higher bricks. And what was below the bricks. This is Japan, what do you think? Porn. Like what other country has karaoke where you are rewarded with naked pictures. In Japan, you get used to random porn moments, but I have to say this one takes the cake.

After that we had to get the last train back, and on the Keio line (the line that I take) it gets really really busy after about 11. So the last few trains are beyond packed. Once again I've broken my record and the train has been more packed than ever before. This time when we stopped the doors woudln't even open there were so many people. And when we left the stations, the doors took forever to close. I was trying to think what would happen if the US had trains, would companies ever allow them to get that crowded? I'm thinking there would a higher murder rate if that happened. Everyone needs to experience it once though. Nothing like being pressed on all sides by new Japanese friends. Especially when you are the tallest so you can breathe on top.

Korean Gospel Time

So today after class I was eating lunch with my midwest buddy Nichole and all of a sudden we were approached by this lady asking us to go to a gospel concert. At first I thought they were inviting me to go to a concert in the future but I found out it was going on right now. I thought this was a perfect random Japanese moment for me to participate in. It got pretty random let me tell you. I ended up going alone with these people since Nichole had class in a bit. So as we were walking to this concert the people (a guy and a girl) tell me that this is like an introduction concert to tell people about the really big concert they are having this sunday. They also tell me they are Korean and the guy just got here monday. So we go to this classroom and this Korean girl is belting out a christmas song in japanese. It was amazing. To me, Japanese isn't a very pretty language to put to music but this lady certainly changed that. After the first song, she started speaking in Korean to everyone. Then another person would translate to Japanese for some of the people. Most of the people were Korean though, so it was jsut for me and 5 or 6 other Japanese people. Kind of funny when the language you understand most is Japanese... Then the girl singing busted into Amazing Grace with three verses, one in english, Japanese and Korean. She sang some other songs but I didn't reckognise them. After the mini concert the guy who came with me asked me to come to the concert sunday and of course I will. If this lady is singing. Plus, a Korean Christmas Gospel Concert...who can say no? Also after the mini concert they gave all of us a "choco pie", basically a marshmalow pie. And they kind of stared at us waiting for us to eat it because apparently it's a big thing in Korea. I didn't want to tell them that we have it in America as wel to make them feel special.

Oh something I forgot to add about the vagueness of Japan is that the language is incredibly vauge as well. Very rarely do you use pronouns, or state the subject of the sentence. I think this has a lot to do with why Japanese people are vague in every area of life. For example here i a perfectly acceptable conversation in Japanese:

A: 明日、映画に行かないの？
([do you want] to go to the movies tomorrow?)
B: 明日はちょっと。。。
(Tomorow is a bit...)

a bit what? In this case it means basically tomorrow is no good since the person is busy. But heaven forbid they say they are busy. Or that they can't actually go. So much of Japanese is implied that I think this gets projected on the rest of their lives. And when they talk in English. Like how in Japanese the word "yes" (はい）doesn't really mean yes, affirmative. Rather it means yes, I am listening/just heard what you said. Hence the reason I get answers that make no since to me whatsoever.

"Modern" Convieniences

Maybe it's my western mind, but the lack of insulation in all Japanese buildings seems rather fruitless. Sure, you save money in the beginning by not using as much materials. But during winter and summer you pay who knows how much heating it back up. For a country that did the whole Kyoto protocol thing, they sure do use a lot of resources making up for their lack of insulation. Like downstairs; the cafeteria is heated, but none of the halls are. So basically the hot air is just going right out as soon as it leaves the skimpy Japanese heaters. If I turn off the heater in my room, in 5 minutes it will be cold again. And this all works with air conditioning in the summer. With all the marvels in technology here, the insulation thing must have been bypassed for the much more neccesasry technology like heated toilet seats.

Today was the last day for Japanese Thought class. It was a big deal for them I think, all these random people from various parts of Hosei came to sit in on the class. It was an interesting class, but we never really discussed christianity in modern Japan. Sure that is the title of the class, but in Japan things are rarely truthful upfront. We still have a paper to write and the teacher gave us the assignment about a month ago and said to "feel free to turn in early". Then today he told us what the topic would be, previously it had been a free choice. Then when I asked for more specifics on the paper I didn't get an answer really.

"So is the paper supposed to be 3 or 5 pages long?"------------->"Hmm, yes."

I think there is some sort of hidden amendment to the constitution of Japan that makes it illegal to give a coherent and precise answer.

End of the Year Party

Last night the Hosei International Department held an end of the year party for basically anyone related to anything international in the school. Which included students who studied abroad, students who are going to study abroad and us exchange students. I thought it was just going to be a low key thing but it was in a really nice banquet hall and everyone was dressed up. Luckily there were more people than just me in jeans. They had really nice food and all so that was a treat. Then they had a korean student go up and do a martial arts presentation. But only about half of the people paid attention. Then they had a chinese student go up and do a dance to a Chinese pop song. It was sort of an interpretive dance with pop moves. Pretty funny, especially since we were in this really formal setting and here was this guy basically breakdancing in the middle. Of course we had to go up to the front and "Jikoshoukai" (self introduction). If you go to Japan, just go ahead and prepare a few basic sentenaces about yourself because everywhere you go they will ask you to do jikoshoukai. Every time there is any sort of international student event, I always see these 2 guys from the Hi-C party there. And they always end up trashed by the end of the event. This time was no exception. I wonder if they are actually involved or just come for the free booze.