An Evening With the Tanabe's

This morning we all met up with our host families (or in most cases, one representative of our host families). My host mother, Yoko Tanabe, was there to meet me and after our quick self-introductions we set off on the fairly long journy to Machida. Despite the fact that she speaks almost no English, I found it very easy to communicate with her which was a huge relief. She was also very relieved that I can understand enough Japanese to have a light conversation, even if I often have to ask her to rephrase something or look up a word in my dictionary.

After taking a subway and three(?) trains and walking through neighborhoods for about 20 minutes, we arrived at their house, a decent-sized (for Japan), two story, incredibly clean home. After dropping my things in my room and giving her my souvenirs from Iowa (special thanks to Mom and Judy, she loved them) we drove to a restaurant for conveyer-belt sushi. I felt a little bad since I didn't eat that much, but I wasn't terribly hungry and there's only so much raw fish and rice that my stomach can take...

After driving back home (which is kind of scary in Japan with it's narrow streets and hidden intersections) we chatted for a bit before walking down to a local festival by the station. The festival was pretty interesting. It was incredibly crowded and there we lots of nifty food stands, but not a whole lot else. It was pretty different than the old-fashioned festivals at shrines you always see in anime, since it was all just set up along a street. After getting some yakisoba, a sausage, and a chocolate covered banana, we were about to leave when we saw a jazz band from a local high school setting up on a stage and decided to watch. They were, as expected, incredibly good. My host mother had also seen Swing Girls so we were excited when they played some of the same songs from the movie.

After that, this badass taiko drum group played on the same stage. Epic shit. That's what I want to do when I grow up. Videos and pics to be posted.

Afterwards, Yoko's husband Fumio, who had just gotten back from work, met us there and we all walked home together. I'm pretty sure Fumio hit the bar before coming home, since he seemed a bit inebriated, but I guess that's normal for Japan, so whatever. After getting back, we all pretty much just ate dinner and then chatted all evening. My favorite part of the evening was when I tried teaching them how to say "McDonalds" in English, as opposed to the Japanese ma-ku-do-na-ru-do.

I still think my Japanese sucks, but its nice to know I can get by in these kinds of situations.

Tomorrow, we're planning on going to the Ramen Museum and meeting Yoko's friend who is studying to be an English teacher. Should be a good time.

I'm at my host family's house

My host mother is really nice. We went out for conveyer-belt sushi and now we're eating candy and listening to American 80s music.

Pics from okonomiyaki restaurant and Shinjuku at night

Here

Not really a balanced breakfast

but it works

This Week

So this week has kind of stunk, since I've had class Monday-Thursday from 9:00 to 6:00, which lift me with very little time for anything but going to class, eating, and studying/doing homework. I did go to the Yasukuni war memorial shrine on Wednesday though, which was pretty cool (though I was technically going there for a class)

The shrine and surrounding area are beautiful, but the best part in my opinion is the war museum next to it. I only had about 30 minutes to tour it before it closed, so I didn't get to see/read everything I wanted to, but it was really interesting to see Japan's perspective of all the wars it's been involved in.

I then wrote a short presentation on how to get there (thank you Nakama 2, chapter 6!). All the other people in the workshop who decided to go there were in the class above me and were talking about the museum or the shrine or even the controversy surrounding them, so I decided to do something lighter and simpler.

Today (Thursday, my last day of class this week), I went out with some peeps and tried okonomiyaki for the first time. It's sort of a big pancake with meat and vegetables and (in our case) noodles and it's quite tasty.

After that, Ethan 1, Carrie, and I took the train to Shinjuku to visit the top of the Metropolitan Government building. The view at night from up there is pretty incredible, lighted buildings as far as the eye can see. There was a lot of glare in the windows though, so we couldn't take very good pictures.

There was also a drinking fountain up there, which are almost impossible to find in Japan!

After that, we wandered around the east side of Shinjuku station for a while which we discovered was full of 2 things: Restaurants and shady strip clubs.

Tomorrow, I meet my host family and stay with them for 2 nights. I'm a little anxious, but it should be interesting. A lot of people were already contacted by their family by e-mail, but I wasn't, so all I know is that it's just a couple in the house (aged 43 and 33), they don't smoke, they don't have pets (which is too bad), and I'll have a western-style bedroom.

I'll be staying near Machida City which is about as far from Tokyo as you can get while still being considered part of Tokyo.

Pics from Yasukuni Jinja

Here

Sandwich

I bought a sandwich from the supermarket with noodles in it. It was tasty.

"You and you and mostly me and you..."

Went to the Yasukuni war memorial shrine today. I'd talk about it, but I'm too busy listening to the Dr. Horrible soundtrack when I should be doing homework.

Geemu

Walked to a couple used game stores tonight. Picked up Boktai 3 for Paul (you owe me $15) and decided that I'm never going to have a chance this good, so I went ahead and bought a used copy of Mother 3 (complete with box and booklets). One of the places was also having a sale on manga for 5 for 100¥ which I naturally couldn't resist.

I think at this point I'm pretty much done shopping for games and comics. All that's left is random anime goods and miscellaneous souvenirs.

In other news, having 8 hours of Japanese class in a day totally sucks. Fortunately we only have class 4 days this week, which means the week is half over already. Then my homestay starts Friday and goes until Sunday.

Pics from Sunday's trip to Odaiba (and a little Akiba)

Here

Pics from Saturday's trip to Ginza

Link

Gundam!

Today Kevin, Ethan 1, and I, along with one of my roommates from Hachioji, Alan, made the trip to the man-made island of Odaiba to see the full scale Gundam statue. Getting there involved 2 subways and a monorail, but thanks to Tokyo's amazingly user friendly metro system it was no problem at all. I thought the mobile suits in the Gundam series were a little bigger, but it was still really big and really cool (they were even playing music and sound effects from the series on loudspeakers in the area).

After wandering around Odaiba for a while and riding the huge ferris wheel there, Alan decided he needed to buy an external hard drive, so we ventured to the electronic (and geek) capitol of the world, Akihabara. We didn't stay there very long and just went into a couple electronics stores before getting what we needed and leaving. I'll be back, though...

(Pics to come)

Pics in and around the Waseda campus

Here

My first subway ride!

This morning (Saturday) was our Waseda orientation/campus tour. The campus is really big and beautiful, and there's even a lovely little park, all of which is pretty impressive considering we're in the middle of Tokyo. This afternoon/evening Kevin, Ethan 1 (the two guys I hang out with most, since we're all into geeky stuff), Liz, Carrie, and I took the subway for the first time down to Ginza which is a big shopping area full of department stores. The tokyo metro system looks really intimidating on a map, but when you're actually there and have your route planned out it's actually no problem at all (it also helps that everything is in both Japanese and English). Ginza was cool and shiny, but there wasn't much there that interested me beyond the pastry/sweet shops (they're all over Ginza, but I couldn't really justify buying anything. Maybe next time...) and the huge toy store we went to.

I'm pretty confident about the transit system now, which is good, since tomorrow Kevin, Ethan 1, and I are going to the Gundam statue in Odiaba, which requires 3 subway lines, then checking out Shinjuku station on the way home.

Should be a good way to end the weekend before starting my week of 7 hours of class every day.

Sweet

There's an awesome custom design T-Shirt store called Red Bros. like 2 blocks from the dorm. I plan to buy the whole store, but first, since they don't sell them pre-shrunk, I bought a medium and a large to wash and dry and see how they fit after that.

Between that and the Waseda University stuff I'm gonna buy, I'll be coming home with a fair bit more clothes than I left with.

We're entirely on our own for food here,

which means no more fish for breakfast!

mmmm, frosted flakes. Or コーン　フロスティrather.

Today (Friday)

Today, our first full day at Waseda, I walked with Ethan 1 (there are 2 Ethans) and Kevin to the 9 story Animate store in Ikebukuro. It was a bit of a hike (we probably should have taken the train or subway, but we got some exercise), but it was worth it. I didn't go crazy buying stuff like I could have, I just got a few little figures and some manga (I'm done with manga after this, I swear!). I held back on some things I wasn't sure about since I'll probably come back once again before I leave (and they'll have a lot of the same stuff in Akihabara). Afterwards we just poked around the area around the station, grabbed some dinner, then came home.

Tomorrow morning is our orientation, but I'm not sure what my plans are for that afternoon, I'll probably just see what everyone else is up to.

Sunday, though, Ethan 1, Kevin, and I are making the pilgrimage to the full scale Gundam statue in Odaiba. w00t!

Next weekend is the homestay, and the weekend after that: Akihabara.

It's a good day to be a nerd~

Pics from today

There's no outlet in the bathroom

So I'm using my webcam as a mirror when I shave with my electric razor.

Moving Day

Today (Thursday) was our last day at the Hachioji Seminar House, so we just had a morning class, then loaded onto buses for the Nishi-Waseda campus just north of Shinjuku.

Pics from the last few days at the Hachioji Seminar House

Yesterday the guys had to move out of our rooms and stay in a different dorm for the last night, since evidently there were some new students coming in that needed our rooms. The other dorm was even weirder than the last one and was just pretty ghetto overall. More than one night there would have sucked, but it wasn't so bad for a one time thing. That night we had a going away party that started with a dinner (much better than the regular food), then Keith, a songwriting major played a few Beatles songs with our awesome RA Takashi on vocals. We were skeptical that anything would be able to follow that, but next Liz, Jane, and Carrie, another 3 musically-talented students gave an extremely impressive performance. After that we moved into the (cockroach infested) auditorium for the after-party, for which Takashi provided some sake.

I would have partied a little harder, but I still had a little homework to do that night, so I left around 11 (which is my regular bedtime).

Pics from the party

Everyone is really excited to be at the new campus since people were getting really sick of having nowhere interesting to go (Hachioji and Kitano are only fun for so long).

After getting settled into my new room (and having a mighty struggle with my fitted sheets), my new roommate Daniel (it's 2 to a room here), my buddy Ethan, and I went out to explore the surrounding area and buy ethernet cords so we can get online. We went to a store called "Picasso" which is kind of a mini department store that sells everything from electronics to food to clothing for the cables, and grabbed dinner at Subway (Shut up. A tuna sub sounded good!). After getting back, I set to work reconciling all of my various maps of the area. It looks like we have very easy access to trains and subways so we can get just about anywhere in the city pretty easily (1 train direct to Akiba!).

Later I joined a group going out to celebrate Liz's (another classmate) birthday. We first split into two groups since some people wanted to go to a noodle restaurant and the rest of us had already eaten, so we wandered around the area for a bit before meeting back up with the rest of the group and going to the Hub, which is an English Pub-style chain of bars in Japan. We hung out there for a bit (I got a Malibu and Coke) before heading out again. We continued to wander when suddenly one of our companions, Cooper, suddenly sensed booze and led the way to this shady looking shot bar called "Outsider". At first it seemed like a cheap dive bar (there was only 1 other customer), but after looking around for a bit and getting our food and drinks, it turned out to be a really classy little place (despite the wierd late 80s lawyer movie that was playing on the TV). The drinks were a little pricy (between 700 and 1000 yen for a drink), but dollar for alcohol content, it was actually a better deal than the other bar. After looking at the menu I decided on the most Japanese thing available and ordered a Kamikaze (it was also a western style bar). I'd never had a strong cocktail like that before, but it was actually really good. I might have to come back (they also had good looking food for a little bar).

Much of this was written post-kamikaze, so forgive me if it's not perfectly readable.

This new dorm is an incredibly strong contrast to the last place we stayed. The seminar house had all these quirky concrete buildings with almost rustic interiors, while this place is eerily monochromatic and sterile (everything is painted white and we have to take off our shoes at the entrance). We also will not be provided with meals here (though there is a campus cafeteria we can buy food at), which should be interesting. There are lots of grocery stores (we have a kitchen on every floor) and restaurants around though, so I won't go hungry.

My room and tonight's antics

----

And mom, Fuji-Chan is what I call the little Mt. Fuji-shaped bag I bought at (naturally) Mt. Fuji. Since the smallest paper bill here is 1000 yen, you end up with a lot of coins, so I bought Fuji-Chan to keep my coins all together.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

From Jay and Fuji-Chan (my coin bag)

Sorry Mom

I've decided that in order to maximize the amount of stuff I can bring back home, I'm going to abandon most of my socks at the end of these 6 weeks. I probably need new ones anyway :P

I think I'm gonna cut myself off from buying more manga, though. Too much more and I'll have to come up with some more creative solutions...

It seems so wasteful to make a new set of flashcards every day,

but it's the only way I know how to study vocabulary and kanji...

A glimpse of my true self

It is bad that I'm way more motivated to study Japanese now that I have a stack of manga and games that I can't read waiting for me?

Nerd-gasm

Went to Hachioji today with just a few other people to look at book stores, used clothing stores, and check out the arcades. The first place we went to, a chain of used book stores in Japan called "Book Off", completely blew me away. They had a absurdly huge manga selection, all between 100 and 500 yen. They also sold used games and CDs. Needless to say, I left the store slightly poorer. We then visited another smaller used book store, bought more cheap manga, then ate lunch at Mos Burger.

For fast food, Mos Burger is damn good. I got a teriyaki burger and a melon soda.

The used clothing stores we found were mostly closed since it was Sunday, so I'll have to come back for those. We spent a little time in an arcade (I played a nifty side-scrolling shooter with pretty graphics), but they're pretty expensive since the machines just take 100 yen coins.

After that we went to a store called Animate, which caters to one group alone: the geek. Manga, DVDs, misc. anime goods. I could have spent quite a bit longer in there, but I didn't want to spend too much or keep my companions waiting too long.

It took a lot of self-control not to just go crazy and buy everything I saw, but this is just the first week and I'll be going to Akihabara at some point...

Mt. Fuji Pics

Pics from today's (Saturday) trip to Mt. Fuji and Lake Kawaguchiko.

On the way up there was an awesome truck with a picture from Princess Mononoke on the back.

http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c52/jayrulesall/Misc%20Hachioji%20and%20Kitano/Mt%20Fuji/

Misc. Pics

A few random pics from trips to Hachioji and/or Kitano. Epic Engrish included.

http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c52/jayrulesall/Misc%20Hachioji%20and%20Kitano/

Mt. Fuji

Field trip to Fuji today was fun. All we did was take a bus up to the highest point you can drive (the 5th of 8 steps on the mountain) eat lunch, look around for a bit, then head down, but it was pretty cool and I got some sweet stuff at the souvenir shops (Souvenir Boxer Shorts!). Afterwards we drove down to lake Kawaguchiko which is at the foot of the mountain and took some sweet photos (which will be posted soon).

Tonight a group of people are going to Roppongi to go clubbing all night, but I'm just gonna hang around here, get a little work done, and take it easy overall. Tonight will be my first adventure in doing laundry in Japan so we'll see how that turns out... I picked the settings that looked the most medium, but I can't really tell...

Friday Night

Since the whole festival rumor turned out to be false, I went with another big group into Hachioji to wander around. Ended up going to a bar and getting some excellent (if not at all manly) drinks. Bars in Japan seem to have their own version of a service charge where everyone is given a small appetizer and charged an exorbitant price for it (i.e. 300 yen for a tiny bowl of vegetables). I'm not too bothered by it, though, since you don't have to give tips here.

There were 12 of us there (doing the cool traditional seating where you take off your shoes) and since we didn't want to ask them to split the bill, I volunteered to pay it off and just have everyone pay me back. It took a little while, but I'm pretty sure everyone payed me what they owed, and now I have an absurd amount of coins (the smallest bill here is 1000¥, and most people didn't spend that much)

I think I'm gonna go back on Sunday with just one or two other people and check out the arcades (It's true, Japanese people are CRAZY good at arcade games) and look for used clothing stores.

Today is our field trip to Mt. Fuji. Should be fun. Will take pictures.

Good Girly Drinks in Japan:

Cashisu Orange

Ume-Shu (Plum wine)

--

Going to Mt. Fuji tomorrow. Good night.

T-G-I-F

Sooooo happy I don't have to spend my afternoon/evening doing homework tonight. Supposedly there's going to be a festival in Kitano, so I'm gonna get a group together and check it out tonight.

できた！

Finished my sakubun (Ron Paul would be proud), played with some sparklers, got yelled at by administrators for shooting loud fireworks that might bother the neighbors, hit a volleyball around with people in a circle, and succeeded in hitting the ball 10 times in a row as a team without it hitting the ground.

All in all a good night.

Irony

I'm writing a (terrible) essay about the wonders of capitalism while wearing my communist party shirt.

I guess we're shooting off some fireworks tonight, so that should be fun. Hopefully I'll have most of it written by then. I really need to quit posting on this blog and get to work...

Pics from Hachioji

Pictures from taking the bus to Hachioji Station:

http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c52/jayrulesall/FIrst%20trip%20to%20Hachioji%20Station/

No time!

Got back my first essay (and got a new one assigned) today. We were supposed to write a story from our home country, so I told the one about the man with the hook hand. Unfortunately, I don't have time to look at it and try and make sense of the corrections.

Any time not spend doing new homework (or blogging) is going to be spent out exploring. There's actually a lot more around here than I originally thought. Kitano is less than a half hour walk and there's a lot of stores and stuff there around the station, and Hachioji is about half hour by bus and has an amazing downtown area (also by the station).

I really don't want to write this new essay. It's asking our opinions on international trade... ugh... how do you say "comparative advantage" in Japanese?...

Food

Uploaded a few pics of meals in the cafeteria here (just for you dad!). I'll probably be adding more periodically.

http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c52/jayrulesall/Hachioji%20Cafeteria/

百円の店

Went to Kitano (the adjacent town) this evening:

100 yen stores are wayyy better than their $1 American equivalents.

Also bought a pillow (from a regular department store) because the ones provided for us are filled with these horrible, uncomfortable plastic beans.

Wanted:

Ideas for things to do with all these useless 1 yen coins.

パン屋！！

Went on a 7-11 run with a few people and stopped in a little local bakery on the way back. They were super nice and gave us free bread (in addition to what we bought).

It's pretty hot and humid here, but nothing we Iowa folks aren't used to.

Odd Feeling

After Ishikawa-sensei hammered the idea of always handing your papers in to your sensei by holding it with two hands and saying "onegai shimasu", it feels so unnatural to just casually hand in my homework with one hand to the teacher here, which is what everyone does.

This class is going to ruin my (already poor) handwriting

I'm planning on taking a bus to downtown Hachioji with some folks tonight, so I'm finishing my homework as fast as possible.

Class today was much better since it was a bit more structured and we had a different teacher who talked much slower and more simply.

Dinner time~~

(speaking of which, I think my body is having difficulty adjusting to the food here...)

Pics around the Hachioji campus

This is easily the weirdest place you can imagine taking classes. I kind of love it. Too bad there isn't much else around within walking distance.

http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c52/jayrulesall/Hachioji%20Seminar%20House/

More pics

On the way to move into the Hachioji Seminar House, we stopped at this big outlet mall.

http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c52/jayrulesall/Outlet%20Mall/

I miss the TAs back home

My teacher here talks wayyyyy too fast. It seems like the hardest part about these classes is going to be figuring out what in god's name is going on during the class itself. It's pretty frustrating, but it's just the first day, so I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually.

Also, never ask your teacher what どろか　means. They'll show you by suddenly yelling in your face.

Pics from the flight and first day:

http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c52/jayrulesall/Flight%20to%20Japan%20and%20first%20day/

Saturday and Sunday

So once I touched down and made it through customs and immigration, I was directed onto a bus to take me to the Shinjuku Washington Hotel. While waiting for the bus, I met another Waseda student by the name of Jun (we were the only two from the program who arrived around that time, so there weren't any others with us). On the bus ride from Narita airport to Shinjuku (which took about 2 hours due to it being rush hour) I got a good look at the city of Tokyo. I was struck by how green the whole city is. There are bushes and trees everywhere. It's amazing how efficiently space is used here: any space that is not used for streets (which are quite narrow), sidewalks (also narrow), and buildings (tall and tightly packed) has something planted there.

That night, surprisingly energetic despite an incredibly long day of travel, I met some other students (including my roommate for the night, Jon, a History major pursuing a PHD in ancient Chinese history) and joined a group of them in search of a good ramen restaurant. We ended up meeting with Keith's (another member of the program who was with us) dad who is an American living in Shinjuku. He brought us to a great little ramen shop a short walk away. I can honestly say the miso ramen there was the best I'd ever had, of course all I'd had before was the instant crap...

Today was orientation day, so the program administrators gave us a presentation with an overview of what we'd be doing over the next 6 weeks. After that we loaded up on buses and, since we had the afternoon to kill, spend a few hours at a huge outlet mall. It was pretty much entirely clothing stores so it wasn't particularly interesting, but it was nice to wander around and get to know my classmates.

I did buy an effing amazing hat, though. I'll post a picture once I get the chance.

After arriving at the Hachioji Seminar House where we'll be spending the next 2 weeks, I joined up with a group of people and explored the campus. It's probably the weirdest place to take classes you can imagine. It's in the middle of a large, hilly, forested area, and all the buildings are oddly shaped concrete structures. We ended up walking down a small dirt trail for about 20 minutes until it suddenly opened into a residential neighborhood. All in all, its probably the best setting for a horror movie ever. Think surrealist soviet-era eastern europe with lots of trees and wildlife around.

I also bought an alcoholic drink from a vending machine and consumed it and no laws were broken.

This evening after the welcoming party (in the upside-down trapezoid building with the creepy eyeball) I wandered the area near campus to find that there really isn't much in the area besides a couple 7-11s. A little disappointing, especially since the train station is probably a 45 minute walk away, but I'm sure I'll have no trouble keeping busy.

Class starts tomorrow and I'm anxious to see how difficult its going to be. I still haven't really gotten into the groove of speaking japanese all the time, so I think it'll be useful in that, at least.

Alive

In the Shinjuku Washington Hotel. 26 hours without sleep. Will post again later.

I'm in the Moline airport:

It's early.

It was even earlier when I woke up.

Things to do as soon as possible after arriving:

1. Make friends with other people in the program. At the minimum I need 2: A Dave stand-in who's around my language ability or lower, but who would be willing do random crazy things with me (like a spur of the moment quest to find an Anna Miller's), and an Amanda or Vanessa level prodigy (preferably also with curly hair) who can find and understand directions to said restaurant.

2. Have my first legal drink. By which I mean my first drink <_<

3. Eat sushi fo rizzil.

4. Find a vending machine that sells the craziest shit possible and buy it.

5. Take pictures of frickin' everything.

Oh, and work on improving my Japanese, too, I guess...