Some more pictures and stuff

Here are some random thoughts and pictures for you. Probably kind of inter-dispersed.

Our good gaijin brit friend Harriet had to leave Japan a bit earlier than the rest of us. So we had a goodbye shindig for her last Saturday. We had a good group of: exchange students, Be-bop accapella choir group, some guy named cheetah, Hiroko from the international office, the same guy who introduced himself to us earlier as a "small Japanese man" and many other interesting people. Needless to say, it was a good time. We even ended up somehow getting free karaoke out of the whole thing somehow.


Nikolaus and Quentin waiting at Iidabashi. I figured out different things you can do with the camera.


Iidabashi at night. Iidabashi is right by our uni. This street used to be some sort of famous shopping street at one time.



Crazy Aiko and flash



Hollie, Hiroko and the QQ song CD



Harriet and I



The sunset the other night



When I went to Yasukuni the other day. Hosei in the background.



A big door with the seal of Yasukuni and a lot of old people.



Greenery at Yasukuni



Our Japanese 3b class. Simon is there in the back doing his sort of "i'm a cult father with my precious children" pose.



I got bored the other day in class and gave Koizumi some makeup. I think he looks fabulous.



The ashtray outside of a convience store. How cute. Smoking is so cute in this country. Not like the anti-smoking nazis of the western world. Everyone has a right to lung cancer and impotence in this country.



These are kind of weird. These are signs telling you not cross the road. Usually these signs have this generic guy in a suit and top hat (you can see a normal sign in the first picture up there). But the first signs look like a martian or something and the second signs looks like a creepy stalker kind of guy. Maybe they live around there.

Well that is enough for now. I'm going to be climbing Fuji (hopefully) tomorrow. So that should be another good picture oppurtunity. A friend of mine went the other day and she said it was bearable. So I'm pumped and ready.

Yasukuni

Monday I had some free time in between classes so I thought I would go to the museum that they have at Yasukuni shrine. It is pretty interesting and worth a visit for anyone in the Tokyo area. In the lobby are a plane, a train and something else big. And it's described as what made Japan great for so long. Inside the museum is a look at Japanese history from the beginnings of the many civil wars in Japan to the end of WW2. This museum however is quite different from others. After the civil wars there is a room about Comadeer Perry opening up the ports of Japan. (he's described as rude and imperialistic, which is acceptable considering he did come with hundreds of warships demanding Japan open up) but then there is a huge map with arrows coming all from western countries and pointing to different parts in Asia saying "Western encrouchment on Asian soil" or something like that. And the room is dedicated to showing that western powers were brutalizing the people of Asia. Which I found out is the most commmon excuse for Japanese old people for why they went to war. Japan had a noble duty to "free" their asian brethern from western imperial powers. So all through the museum is about how Japan was just "helping" Korea and "freeing" China by taking them over and killing vast amounts of people.

At the end, right before the pictures of all the war dead, is a map with countries all over Asia and their respective independence dates from western powers. And it's written that, although Japan ultimately lost the war, Japan was able to show freedom to the Asian area to give them motivation for freedom.

All of this opinion is a vast minority only held by a few crazy old men who still think the war is going on. But it's still interesting. Not that I know the truth behind every historical event.

I can't put my thoughts into coherent sentances anymore, ahh Japan what have you done to me?

My speech

This is my speech I did for the contest. Translation at the bottom. The english may sound weird just because I want to translate it as close to the Japanese as possible. Japanese and English pretty much have nothing in common so my translation will probably sound pretty funny. I'll put my comments in paranthesis to explain things that may not make sense.

"日本で困った僕”




　みなさん、こんにちは。スコット・ディクソンと申します。アメリカのベイラー大学から来ました。よろしくおねがいもうしあげます。


　日本で暮らし始めた時、僕はすごくカルチャーショックを受けた。アメリカの暮しと比べると、東京の暮しはめちゃくちゃ違っていた。今ではもうなれたけど、初めは大変だった。今日は、その違いについて話そうと思う。


　一つ目は電車で困ったこと。アメリカは“車社会”と言われてひさしい。日本に来る前、僕も電車に乗ったことは少しだけあったけど、東京の電車や地下鉄のことは全く分からなかったので、電車になれる必要があった。調布に住んでいるから、毎日京王線を使って通学する。最初、京王線が新宿から都営新宿線に変わることをよく理解できなかった。最初に乗った時、これは大変なことだった。京王線新宿駅に到着することがあれば、時々市ヶ谷駅に到着する時もある。しかも、どうやって乗り換えするのか分からなかったので、時間がめちゃくちゃかかった。それに、地下鉄もめちゃくちゃ混乱した。だって、あんなに入り組んでいる地下鉄は世界でも珍しいと思う。乗り換えの時にあやまって改札を出てしまったため、もう一回きっぷを買わなければならなかったこともあった。


　二つ目に、日本での食事で困ったこと。アメリカでは和食と言えば、みんなは『すし』と答えるほど、しんとう（浸透）している。でも、『すし』以外の和食はめずらしいんだ。日本に来る前に、和食を食べる機会は少なかった。だから、日常的な日本の食事はたいてい目新しいものばかりだった。といっても、和食の中に好きな物は少なかった。アメリカでの食事と比べると、味がないように感じたからなんだ。日本の洋食も味がないと思ったんだ。だから、食事の後、食べた気がしなかった。さらに、時差ぼけのせいで、あまり食欲がなかった。ぼくは日本に来て２〜３週間で、なんと6（rock）キロやせた。日本の食べ物は全部本当にまずいと感じた。でも、今では和食のほとんどが好き。納豆もまあまあ好きになったほどだ。最初のころと比べると、正反対になったんだ。洋食の中に食べたいと思う 物があまりない。

　最後にお金で困ったこと。アメリカでは現金をあまり使わない。ほとんどの場合、カードか小切手で支払うからだ。だから、現金をたくさん持って行くのは最初大変だと思った。さらに、日本のお金には硬貨の種類がたくさんある。ポケットや財布で持ち歩くのはちょっとめんどくさいと感じたね。１ドルは約１１０円だから、 円はドルに比べると、 「０」がたくさんある。商品の値段を見るたびに、混乱した。 貨幣計算を頭の中でするのに手間取った。今ではなれたけどね。あと、銀行の営業時間が短い。だから、なかなか口座を開けなかった．３時で営業終了なのにはビックリした。アメリカは5時までやっているからね。やっと、口座を開くことができたと思ったら、こんどはATMのことが分からなかった。アメリカのATMは毎日、それも２４時間使えるので、なぜ日本では夜と週末にATMが閉まるのか。理由がまだ分からない。もしお金が必要なら、平日におさせなければならない。このことを今では学んだ。だって、200円の手数料は払いたくないからね。

　日本の暮しは最初、ちょっと難しかったけど、なれた今ではすごく楽しんでいる。今日から、日本に住んでいる時間はあと１ヶ月しかない。今日話したように、僕は日本のことをたくさん学んだ。だけど、まだ知らないことがたくさんあると思う。これから、帰る前までになるべくたくさん学んで、たくさん楽しむつもりだ。


"Problems I had in Japan" (literally "The me which had problems in Japan")

Hello everyone. My name is Scott Dixon, I'm from Baylor University in America. Please accept my good favour. (i'm not sure how that really translates)

When I started my life in Japan, I received quite a lot of culture shock. Compared to American life, life in Tokyo was completely different. Although I'm quite used to it all now, in the beginning was pretty tough. Today I'll talk about those problems.

First are the problems I had with the trains. For a long time America had been called a "Car society". Before I came to Japan, like most Americans I had little experience with riding trains. And since I didn't understand the trains or the subway in Tokyo, I knew that I had to get used to trains soon. Because I live in Chofu, I use the Keio line everyday to commute to school. In the beginning, I couldn't understand that changing of the Keio line into the Toei-Shinjuku line. This turned out to be problematic. There were times when I would arrive at the Keio line Shinjuku station and times when I would arrive at Ichigaya station. But since I had no idea how to transfer lines, this would take up a lot of time trying to figure out how to transfer. Also, the subway confused me a lot. I think this kind of complicated subway system is rare in the world. When you were supposed to transfer and took the wrong ticket gate, you were required to buy another ticket even though you had bought one before. I didn't understand which gate to take.

Secondly is the problem I had with the food in Japan. In America Japanese food is well-known to the degree that everyone will answer "sushi" when asked what they think of when they think of Japanese food. But outside of sushi, not many other Japanese food is well-known. Before I came to Japan, I didn't have many experiences of eating true Japanese food. So I knew that my daily food in Japan would be all new to me. However, at first I really didn't like much of Japanese food. It was because, compared to all kinds of food in America, food in Japan doesn't have much of a taste I felt. Even the "western food" in Japan had no taste. So, after eating, I never actually felt full. Also, because of jet lag I didn't have much of an appetite. In the first 2-3 weeks I came to Japan, I lost about 6 kgs. All Japanese food was really tasteless I thought. But now I've come to like pretty much all Japanese food. I even like natto a bit. (natto is this really nasty Japanese food made of fermented soybeans that smells like garbage but is supposedly really healthy for you). Compared to my beginning time in Japan, it's become to the complete opposite. Even now, there's not many foods I want back in America. (which is a lie. i'd still kill for a taco)

Finally are the problems I had with money matters in Japan. In America no one really used cash anymore. In most cases we pay using credit cards or cheques. So having to carry around a lot of cash was really difficult to get used to in the beginning. Also, in Japanese money there are a lot of coins used. (Japanese have coins for 100 yen and 500 yen...compare this with having a $1 coin and $5 coin) So carrying around all these coins in your pockets or wallet is really troublesome I thought. Right now $1 is about 110 yen so when you compare the yen to the dollar, prices in Yen have a lot of zeros. this can be really confusing when you look at prices. It would take me a lot of time to do the calculations in my head at first. Now I've gotten used to all that. Another thing is the banking in Japan. The bank hours are really short. So I could never open a bank account. Banks close at 3pm. Finally I thought I could open my bank account but then I didn't understand the ATM's. Because all ATM's in America are open 24/7, I didn't understand why ATM's closed at nights and on the weekends. Actually, I still don't understand why they do this really. But I do know that if I need to get money, I have to make sure to get it on the weekdays during the day. Plus, I don't want to pay that 200 yen service charge.

Although my time in Japan was kind of difficult at first, after I got used to everything I've been enjoying myself a lot. From today I only have 1 month left in Japan. I've learned lots in Japan but there are things still unlearned I think. So I'll continue to learn as much as I can and have as much fun as I can until I leave.

Speech Results

Well. No surprise here, but one of the many people who spoke Japanese fluently won the speech contest and I came home with a lot of "good job"s. There was one guy who didn't even memorize his speech but just read it off the paper and he even won something. But people actually laughed at my speech so who cares.

The whole speech contest turned out to be some what of a formal affair which was accented by me in jeans. Even if I knew about the suave-ness of the event, that was probably the most dressiest thing in my closet anyway.

A lot of people came up to me afterwards and said that mine was the best. Even if they were lying, it's still a nice little ego trip.

I'll put up my speech in a later post with a translation to let my audience judge for themselves.


The before of the stage.


Me giving the speech. My name is proudly displayed on the top there as "Scott Dixon Russell". And they got the name of my speech wrong as well. I blame it on blatant racism.


My friend Kyoko and I. Earlier one of my speech group members came up to me and handed me that statue without explaining anything. So I used it for pictures.


My semi-speech-group. There, officially, are 14 members in the speech group, but these were the only people who ever came to any of the meetings


Me with Mr. Boissonade (who the Hosei "boisonadde tower" is named after)