The House May Be Cold, But my Butt Isn't

One of the countless benefits of using a Japanese toilet has got to be the heated seat. Ours is set at around 100F and I might just have to spend all my time in the bathroom sitting because its certainly the warmest part of the house. I'd say that the cold has officially settled in now as of maybe 3 days ago. Its around mid 50's here now and our house is most likely the same (minus the wind). I'm actually just writing this update in my bed and using my laptop warmth as a make-shift heater.

CultureShocked?!
I guess I'll take this first part of this blog to talk about my own state of mind. I've passed the two months mark now for being in Japan and am pretty sure that I even passed through the 3 phases of culture shock in the past 2-3 weeks. (Please go ahead and wikipedia it) To sum it up, its basically built up irritation towards you're hosting culture that occurs as you try to cope with all the cultural differences between your own country and your host country. I think now at this point, I'm very glad that I decided to take the homestay option instead of a dorm or apartment. Initially it was always so bothersome to say, constantly detail my daily plans to my mother or having to work so hard to communicate all the time. But at this point, I really look forward to coming home at the end of the day and go to "my" room, eat a hot meal, use the family shower, or just to have someone to talk chat with all the time. What I'm hoping to say here is that, at first I was somewhat jealous of the freedoms offered to the other students living in dorms and the relationships that they all were developing together, but now I think its flipped, and generally most people are trapped in the rigidity of dorm life and jealous that I have a family to go home to everyday. Score one for me.

Sidenote: Christmas season started here right after Halloween. Its not even thanksgiving and I'm on the brink of going deaf from all the Christmas music and have seen my yearly share of trees, holly, and flashing lights already.

Last Weekend:

A member of our walking circle invited a group of students out to Tachigawa for a picnic out in a park they have out there. Naturally, it instead ended up raining that entire day and so instead of a picnic we went to "New York Ramen Square." So we got to choose from 11 small ramen shops in an oddly New York themed area. Ramen in Japan, is a strictly mom-and-pop affair. Its quite popular (even though it originates from China) and one of the most enjoyable parts of eating it, is that every store prepares it differently. And its not just the noodles that you are supposed to judge when eating, but the soup that they are in as well. The New York Ramen Square had a little section squared off where they featured blow-ups of all the chefs, brief biographies, and then their style of preparation. It remembered me alot of the Food Network show "Iron Chef" sitting there and judging which Ramen I thought I would most enjoy. After lunch, I once again found myself in another Karaoke room (this time at 1pm!), quite possibly my earliest karaokeing yet. We then walked off our meal once the skies cleared up and then headed back to the station to part. Though when we arrived, because there had been an "accident" (read: suicide) the trains were running behind for everyone and only my line was available, so I left alone.

I finally saw Mt. Fuji as well! Its Japan's most famous mountain, and its right outside of Tokyo, but due to near constant cloudy weather/pollution I hadn't seen it yet. Sorry my pictures have such poor quality, its just because I was a looking at it from my classroom. Most of the week, I ate my meals on top of the cafeteria's building. It hadn't gotten too cold yet, (due to that rain storm that ruined my picnic) so the roof terrace was still a viable option.
The reason I bring this up, is because one of my classmates from Hawaii was eating lunch with us that day. And he pulled out his Ukulele(apparently everyone in Hawaii DOES play them) and played us a few songs while we ate. I really enjoyed the experience because it was just strange to picture. It was a group of foreign students, sitting out on the chilly roof, looking over Tokyo, eating Japanese food, and listening to music that made it feel as if it were mid-summer and we were laying out on the beach.

Thats it for today, I'm going to get back to doing some homework now. I must say, I'm a bit dissapointed that I can't watch any of the football games in the next week... I'll have to track down a sports bar for Thanksgiving. Least I can always checks the scores and highlight reels online from all of the UVa games.


Oh and here's a commercial for Pachinko... its basically the Japanese equivalent of a slot machine.