Holiday Homesickness can hit harder than the eggnog

I guess the Christmas holiday has finally caught up with me, and in the most unlikely of places. Who'd think that a few jazz-covers of Christmas songs over a bowl of Curry could stir up so much emotion. Its all okay though, because it was quickly remedied when I ran into Chris, a friend who had graduated from the University of Virginia last year, and is presently teaching English in Japan. It was true-chance meeting if there ever was one, as Chris lives 5 hours away, and was only in the city for the weekend before he flies back to the USA. But anyway, in a city of 12 million, I managed to bump into him roaming the streets while showing my friend Kohei around the city.


Anyway, thanks everyone for your support. I wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a　Happy New Year (especially those of you in VA and TX).
I am signing out for the remainder of the year and heading to Korea, so I'll get back to you when I return.

Much Love,
Daniel

Its been 3

Months that is. I must say that so far my time here in Japan has been chockfull of high and low points. Still I think I've adjusted to living here and find it hard to believe that its only been 3 months (still 7 more to go!). I guess it is true that I really didn't know what I was getting into by going abroad, but I'm glad that I decided to go for a full year, because having to leave now would be completely disappointing. Its strange, that so many things I thought I knew about Japan can turn out to be false, other things are true, and still others I had never even imagined.

In celebration of reaching this landmark, I'd like to take some time to talk about some of the things I've been most proud of during these 3 months, and what I'd like to work on for the remainder of the year (just for some reference).

I guess firstly, I'm surprised I kept this blog up for even this long, but I think I can easily add a few more entries per day. Even having to overcome the challenges are sparse internet use at home. I'm glad that I'm longer as reserved when speaking Japanese. I used to have a bit of a complex when speaking, and feared making a mistake, but now generally just go for it and see what happens. Likewise, we've covered a lot material in our class, and I'm glad to see myself keeping up with everything, still, I believe I can study much harder and really want to get as much out of this time as I can, so I'm hoping to crack down more. In the past few months I've traveled around the Tokyo area quite a lot which has also been exciting, but I hope that I'll get out of the Tokyo area in time (wallet permitting). But enough can't be said about the friends that I've met here, and already I'm saddened by the idea that at the end of this school year we'll all be scattered back across the globe (literally). I think that for every tidbit of information I've learned about Japan, I've learned twice as much about my friends countries.

Goals for the new year:
- Get a Job (you bum)
- Study up
- Snatch up an ever-elusive "non-english-speaking" Japanese friend


Lastly, here is a video of Tokyo that really nails the way this city feels, especially for me. I think it probably conveys more than my pictures ever good. This city really can overwhelm you with everything in it, and has been a huge adjustment for me, but I think its definitely grown on me.


Oh and here's a picture of me dressed like a little Chinese girl...

Look at these until I'm ready to write something!

I spent this weekend in Yokohoma with some classmates and their friends. Our first stop on this trip was Chinatown (entrance pictured above), where our main goal was to eat some chinese food, drink some bubble tea, and just generally take in the sights of "Japan's Biggest Chinatown."

From there, we walked down to the boardwalk (Yokohama is a port city) where I snapped these shots of one of the better developed areas in Yokohoma. It seemed to be a trend in this area for people to dress up there dogs in clothing and then bring them to the park. Which was unfortunate, because none of the dogs seemed too happy with the idea.

Around the ferris wheel was a very large shopping center featuring almost any brand you could think up. Also the Christmas lights in this area for extra nice. After a bit of shopping, we all returned to our friends' house and the Japanese girls who had accompanied us for the day cooked dinner for us lazy foreigners. It was especially nice of them because they live in Yokohama, so the fact that they rode the train 1 hour just to cook us dinner and then go home was a real nice gesture.
Once they left, we all threw on pajamas, watched movies til the early morning, made a few VoIP phone calls, and then called it a night.

On Monday (school holiday) we went to Fuji-Q, an amusement park located at the base of Mt. Fuji. Our assumption was that many people wouldn't be there because it was a holiday, but unfortunately it was also raining just heavy enough for the rollercoasters to be closed all morning. In the end things worked out though, and everything opened up (including the sky) and the trip became that much brighter.


And lastly, here are two of the three main rollercoasters at the park. Once is a 4thDimension coaster (your seats rotate) and the other is one of those pressure launch ones. I've probably never enjoyed a coaster as much as I did after riding the red one, and if you watch the video you can probably understand where all the adrenaline comes from. The high-speed launch one was also nice, especially with the great view of Mt. Fuji while you ride.

A Belated Blog Post

So now for some quick housecleaning.
1). One of my classmates seems to have been culture-owned (refer to last post) and has returned back to the US. I sort of figured as much when she hadn't come to class for 2 weeks straight (not to mention she barely came to class before that), but still, thats quite the investment to spoil over a little homesickness. Maybe I should of made an effort to hang out with them more or something... unfortunate because the ratio of guys to girls in our class was already poor enough without one girl leaving.
2). Happy Birthday Dad.





My apologies on the late blog post, something about a birthday, thanksgiving (x2), and midterms may be to blame.

Since I last blogged:
I went on another walk with my walking circle. This time we visited all the government bureau's/supreme court/diet. I once again forgot my camera, and so you'll have to forgive the lack of pictures once again (edit: I shamelessly stole a friends photos).
The night after the walk, myself and some friends had a small get together at our Spanish friends' house (its just three people living in a Japanese-style house). The best part of the weekend was definitely just bumming around playing uno, eating pancakes, and ignoring the midterm week we were about to go through. This picture is of a kotatsu, its essentially just a table with a blanket, but, get this, there is a heater under the table and so you're legs stay nice and warm while you work. I'm tempted to pick one of these up and bring back with me to the States (it would be perfect for my dorm room, no?).

Birthday:

So it was my birthday! Go me. I wasn't expecting much of anything, I really just intended to go to class, call home, and maybe have some cake with my homestay family. But instead while I was eating lunch with Japanese friend, my friends/classmates came in and surprised me with some muffins (an impromptu cake), two new hats (my old one is quite dirty), and some grip strengtheners (uh... for gameboy). I was quite excited and especially liked the hat they made me with my name on it and signed (I'm even wearing it right now).


After that we stopped by Shibuya, I got some free drinks, and then I went home. My homestay family had made me some pizza (beef and tuna!) and a cake as well. Plus I got a card from my mommy. All in all an excellent birthday indeed. And since the next day was Japanese Thanksgiving (nothing special happens on this day by the way) I was rewarded with a three-day weekend!

The biggest part of my weekend was a trip to Kamakura. Its about the only temple/shrine filled area near Tokyo. And I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking for this part, as I have a take-home exam I should be working on.






So a quick rundown:
1) I took a picture of my morning train ride. Its kinda like this... a little hard to take a solid picture when I can barely move my arm.
2). Someone actually had Christmas lights?!?! I think this may be the only home in Japan with Christmas lights.
3). Big Buddha
4/5). I forget this shrines name...

I'm totally using this airline on the ride home...

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.

I had a five-day weekend, and it went a little something like this...

Pre-Halloween:



So myself and a number of exchange students had been eagerly awaiting Halloween for the last month, and now that it was finally upon us, everyone went all-out. The day before Halloween was our last day prior to class, so myself and few classmate of mine decided to dress up for class no matter. My costume was a pair of "Panda-Pajamas" that I found during the week (actually they're quite comfortable), and so that morning I woke up per usual and rode the train in my full panda garb. To my dismay, their were only about 10 people dressed-up on campus, so needless to say I received a number of stares.

On the other hand, that night was our school Halloween party in Shibuya. In this case, all the students went crazy dressing up for the party (which started at 7:30pm by the way). Whoever organized the party did a great job indeed. While the music played there some guys spray painted a design up on the stage, some dancers came out, there was a costume competition, and I think at one point a Japanese rapper came out and performed. I was thrilled because many of these students seem so lifeless during the week and it was nice to see everyone moving around for once. Another plus were the large numbers of students from neighboring schools that showed up. I quite literally was dancing until the sun came up (there are no trains after midnight), and shyly went home at 7am to sleep for 5 hours.

The next day I showed up to the campus for the kick-off to the student festival. One of the main buildings on campus had its window blinds rearranged to form a giant butterfly, which was very cool. As it darkened, everyone gathered for a free concert from the band Monkey Magic and a performance from one of the school dance teams. I must say, the audience may possibly qualify as the most stoic I've ever seen. Perhaps they were just tired from a long night of partying?

Festival:

The days of the school festival saw the school packed with students, many of whom were wearing Halloween costumes (they do realize its only one day right?). I split my time between eating various foods provided by campus circles (clubs) and watching performances (almost entirely composed of hip-hop dance groups). I tried to see the "Ms. Sophia" competition, but apparently you have to show up many hours prior just to get a seat. I heard that the winner of the competition usually winds up being a news personality and its actually a very big deal for students on campus. On one day, myself and a group of students went out to Karaoke (where else?). But this time it wasn't just any karaoke, this one features eat-all-you-can ice cream. And the best party? 1 hour of Karaoke, and eat all you can ice-cream ran a mere 150yen (or 1.30$). How this is an effective business model I can't tell you. In light-of my sparse-available internet connection at home, I spent a few hours at an cafe in Shibuya one night. It was quite nice. I purchased one cup of coffee and then stayed for the next 2 hours abusing the cafe's wi-fi connection. I was up in the 7th floor and had a great view of the hustle-bustle below in the scramble (infamous intersection in Shibuya).

I left Tokyo!:

Saturday I journey to northern Chiba to see my friend Sato and his school festival. He was my host-brother in summer of 2004 and I hadn't seen him yet since arriving in Japan. He had me meet him at 8:45am, so I had to leave my home around 7 in the morning. When I arrived, it turned out that he was busy and I didn't get to hang out with me much until 6pm. At first I was quite sour that I was even there, considering how early I had woken up. But in the end, this was probably my favorite day thus far in Japan. Sato's school was quite small, and as such didn't host too many foreign students. He kindly arranged for one of his club members to shadow me for the first part of the day. It was a huge-change from my Sophia. I actually sat around and talked to a group of 3 English majors in Japanese, because none of them could manage to speak English with. It was quite empowering to see that I could communicate fairly well at this point.

Later that afternoon, I met this student studying in Japan from China. He spoke no English, and I speak no Chinese, so our only option was to talk to each other in Japanese the entire time. This is this first time I've ever had this situation in my life. And I really just don't know how to describe it. I think I may actually prefer it to speaking in English or his Chinese. It is quite difficult to explain, but if you ever get to speak to someone in neither of your native languages, you should definitely go for it. Oddly, I spent the next 4 hours talking with this guy along with other members of the club. And just to elaborate on the differences between Japanese and American schools, not only were classes shut down for a festival, but they were serving drinks (alcoholic) in the classrooms, as in the German Oktoberfest themed room I visited.

Lastly I met up with two exchange students who I met at the school, and together with Sato we went out to karaoke. I'm somewhat envious of their experience in Japan. Being so far away from Tokyo and having the chance to speak so much Japanese, not to mention living on the campus. Sure there is much more to do in Tokyo, but I can't help but find it a bit overwhelming (which it is). I really did enjoy my time in Chiba, and can't detail how much I liked it. I'll probably try and make it out there at least one time a month if possible.

Yeseul!:

And finally, I saw my friend Yeseul. She lived in my dorm with me last year and is studying in Kyoto for the semester. It was great seeing a familiar face from school finally and I think she felt the same way. We also met up with Mi (UVa 06') and Tomo for Okinomiyaki (look I even took a picture!). Headed out to Roppongi-Hills (a new building in Tokyo) where we could see Tokyo tower at night (sorry my picture don't do it justice), and then Yeseul and I just ended the night talking. Apparently her new favorite band is Monkey Magic (see above), but she was in Okinawa during the free concert and was coming off a 10 day weekend, so I'm not too sorry that she missed out on the concert.

Tokyo Motor Show

This past weekend I journey out to Chiba to go the Tokyo Motor Show. Its held all the way in Chiba because there isn't much room in Tokyo for an appropriately sized building. I've always wanted to go to the event (having seen photos from it every year paraded about on the internet) and now I have. Only hurdled I had to cross was that half-way there I realized I had left my ticket behind, but fortunately a German (of course) friend had been helping Volkswagen setup their booth and he was able to lend his employee bad (along with meal tickets!) to me.

The event was definitely amazing, especially watching how half the people there reacted to the models (women not cars). I'd say that all in all the event was very mouth-watering and it does make me miss driving (though I'd never dare try and drive in Japan). The themes this year were once again fuel efficiency and another big one was the idea of having these pods that deploy from your car and you ride them into the stores like a mini-scooter. Really it just seemed like an exercise in laziness, but it was fun to watch nonetheless. Other highlights include a Mini display to celebrate the new Clubman that was designed a full-on club, discoball included.

After the show ended, Pablo and I decided to head out to Costco. But there was a slight problem, in the a typhoon had blown in. But what's two miles walking in a typhoon when Costco is at the finish? So anyway, we braved the high winds, and even harder rains to reach Costco. At the end, the only casualties were our umbrellas. Unfortunately, when you go to Costco, you always end up buying much more than you intend to, and I had to find a way to get 6L of cranberry juice, 4 lbs of Peanut butter, 4 tubes of toothpaste, 3L of coffee, and 1L of Vodka all the way back to my home.

Still, it was definitely worth the visit to relax in that mecca of American consumerism after the past 6 weeks in Japan. Also the giant pizza at the end of the trip was appreciated (in Japan, a medium Dominoes pizza runs up to 30$ easily!?!?).