I realize that I have a lot to say for myself. And I'll get there. I've got a 3-step plan worked out:
Step 1: This post will cover the last week of classes and such, up until Friday night.
Step 2: The next post will cover Saturday night, a night that will live on in infamy until the end of days, as well as today, Sunday, which was also pretty decent.
Step 3: I'll give myself a week to stew over my many experiences in Japan and to try and come up with some poignant closing remarks. Then I will post them.
I actually got all kinds of shit done this week, starting on Sunday, when I had a little Grace Church School reunion. I already mentioned that my Japanese friend from GCS, Sakura, came to see fireworks with us. Well, another friend, David, has been interning here all summer at Apple, and a final Japanese friend, Mimi, just flew in last week for vacation. I hadn't seen David or Mimi in roughly a year. We struggled to find a large locker for Mimi's suitcases in Shibuya (her flight was delayed, so she came to meet us directly) and grabbed dinner at some trendy organic-fusion-something place called the Bio Cafe. The air was thick with nostalgia. And then we did purikura.
Believe me, I understand that no one but Japanese girls should engage in that sort of activity. But there was no resisting it.
Tuesday, I believe, was the night of the Yale Club party. A bunch of us went to the Rolling Stones Cafe in Roppongi, where we met with Yale interns and alums alike and had our free eats and drinks. I also got to see the inestimable Engin Yenidunya, President of the Yale Club of Tokyo. Engin is, in short, the man. He's been working in Tokyo for the past four years, although he originally intended to stay for only one month. He's met 1700 people, by his count, in that time, and he even has a Japanese girlfriend. What's more, if you need to know anything about parties, clubs, concerts or fun in Tokyo, he's the guy to ask. He enthusiastically recommended that I go to Ageha at some point during my last weekend. In addition, he offered to join me in doing Geronimo's' 15-shot Hall of Fame challenge. He'd done it 12 times already, and it's pretty easy to find his plaques on the bar's walls. We made tentative plans to do it Friday, after my exam.
If I have my chronology right, Wednesday was when I met up with my friend Anya, whom I met last summer. She's a Polish artist who lived in New Haven and has been studying and painting in Tokyo for the last few years. She's supposed to send me a link to some pictures of her work, and I'll share it if she lets me.
Thursday was the day of very little studying for the final exam. I basically spent most of the day reading comics online. All in all, not the most efficient use of time, especially since Friday's test turned out to be an evil beast with twice the power and ferocity of its midterm cousin. Basically, the whole thing was far too long for the time we were allotted, and some of the stuff on which we were tested was just impossible to remember and/or do. Still, I'm not worried.
Unfortunately, Friday night was pretty tame.
Engin couldn't make it to do the 15-shot challenge, so we rainchecked it for Saturday. However, I ended up going to Geronimo's with some people anyway, and I actually drank quite a bit. I bought 2 gin and tonics and 2 shots, but that was hardly the end of it. Geronimo's has a policy whereby a (drunk) patron can hit a big Native American style drum hanging over the bar and thus become obliged to buy everyone in the bar a shot. I got 4 free shots that way that night. I also scored another gin and tonic by helping the manager of the bar get the door open when he was trying to carry in a case of water bottles. General point of advice: always help out a bartender in a pinch.
Then we went one last time to the bar where that one Yalie worked last year, getting a free shot of Jagermeister and a couple more paid drinks.
Seems like a solid foundation for an awesome night, no? But the two people I was with wanted to get home early, so we ended up taking a train back around midnight.
Also, I forgot to pop a hangover pill and awoke with a splitting headache the next morning. At which point I had to get ready to go give a presentation in Japanese.
But we'll get to that day later. I need to finish cleaning up my apartment and packing.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Nothing to see here
Final exam tomorrow. Semi-final impressions to follow.
We still have a freaking presentation on Saturday.
A presentation.
On Saturday.
Afterthefinalexam.
Is nothing holy in this country?
We still have a freaking presentation on Saturday.
A presentation.
On Saturday.
Afterthefinalexam.
Is nothing holy in this country?
Friday, August 1, 2008
Home stretch
This week, it really hit me just how little time we have left here in Tokyo. I'm leaving 10 days from today, but that's not really how I'm measuring it.
In fact, when I think in terms of days, it seems much longer, because it means that we have that much class left to finish. However, if I consider the time in terms of weekends, with only two left to go, there hardly seems to be a moment to spare. There are several friends here in Tokyo whom I still haven't managed to see, and cramming them all into the space of only four days will prove challenging, if not impossible. It makes me wonder what I did with all of those other weekends.
Then I remember, and I end up feeling pretty good about time well spent, after all.
Last weekend was actually a fantastic one. On Friday, I met up with a Japanese friend of mine with whom I went to elementary school for 10 years. I hadn't seen her in 6 years, when she last attended a reunion. We grabbed some Thai/Vietnamese food and caught up and reminisced about all the funny times and people we knew from way back when.
We also managed to meet up again on Saturday. You see, last Saturday was Random Summer Celebration Day. Honestly, even she didn't know what everyone was celebrating, but the fact is that there was an enormous fireworks celebration in Tokyo, and we had some pretty sweet rooftop seats, thanks to the host family of another SANC kid. My friend's fireworks-viewing plans fell through, so she tagged along in her white yukata. Together with the red yukata and blue yukata sported by two girls in our group, it made for a neat little ensemble.
The fireworks were awesome, running for a straight hour and a half. They took place in two locations along a river in Asakusa. Unfortunately, we only had a really good view of one (albeit the better one) from our vantage point. If you went down to the bridge on the river, you could see both equally well, but there were also about one million people (no joke) crowding around down there. Needless to say, getting back home wasn't exactly pleasant.
Following that, we hit up Roppongi, meeting up with some Yale (summer session?) people in the process. I never thought, all those years ago back in middle school, that I would ever go out nightclubbing with any of my friends. Of course, I didn't have any concept of such activities, so I can hardly be blamed for my lack of foresight.
Overall, another good weekend. However, I've decided that I've had my fill of Roppongi. Thing is, the group I'm with really has little motivation to take advantage of Tokyo's all-night atmosphere. Everyone's ready to call it a day at 2 or 3 in the morning. Compared to last summer, with all those midnight-to-5-am trips to Muse, it's been pretty tame. So, tonight, we're going to explore Shibuya's clubbing streets, and hopefully the change of venue (if not of pace) will cause me to perk up a bit.
Weekly highlights time. Monday, I went to see my friend who owns a traditional shouting restaurant in Tokyo, only to discover that he's still working at his new place in Seoul until the 6th. Bummer. But at least he'll be back before I'm gone. I'm really psyched to have a meal there again.
Thursday, we had an all-day trip (seriously, it was 12 hours) to Nikko. I was off to a great start when I was woken up literally at the time we were supposed to be meeting in the lobby (7:20 in the god damn morning), and I spent much of the day being exhausted and failing to sleep on the bus. Still, the weather was amazing, and the temples were nice, although any realistic person will admit that they're very much of the if-you've-seen-one-then-you've-seen-them-all variety.
What wasn't so run-of-the-mill was the marathon monk we met. Okay, so he only did a mini one-third version of the 1000-day, 40,000 kilometer run through the fucking forest on a mountain in all kinds of weather wearing traditional Buddhist robes followed by not eating or sleeping for a week, but still, that's damn impressive. We got to see him perform a traditional Buddhist ceremony of some kind, and I learned why anyone would want to become a Buddhist priest: to play with fire. Seriously. Lighting and throwing shit into a big ass fire was a major part of the ceremony. It was awesome. Afterward, we met with him in private and got to ask him some questions. Love of fire aside, I was barely awake, so I didn't say much more than "thank you for your time," but he was an amazingly down-to-earth and funny guy, not at all what one might expect of a high-ranking Buddhist priest.
And you thought I was kidding about there being a million people watching these fireworks. This is only one part of the crowd.
It's not easy to capture fireworks well. Usually they're gone by the time you realize you have a really awesome picture to take. Also, I didn't bring my camera, so this isn't my picture, anyhow. I'll steal some more from other people later.
In fact, when I think in terms of days, it seems much longer, because it means that we have that much class left to finish. However, if I consider the time in terms of weekends, with only two left to go, there hardly seems to be a moment to spare. There are several friends here in Tokyo whom I still haven't managed to see, and cramming them all into the space of only four days will prove challenging, if not impossible. It makes me wonder what I did with all of those other weekends.
Then I remember, and I end up feeling pretty good about time well spent, after all.
Last weekend was actually a fantastic one. On Friday, I met up with a Japanese friend of mine with whom I went to elementary school for 10 years. I hadn't seen her in 6 years, when she last attended a reunion. We grabbed some Thai/Vietnamese food and caught up and reminisced about all the funny times and people we knew from way back when.
We also managed to meet up again on Saturday. You see, last Saturday was Random Summer Celebration Day. Honestly, even she didn't know what everyone was celebrating, but the fact is that there was an enormous fireworks celebration in Tokyo, and we had some pretty sweet rooftop seats, thanks to the host family of another SANC kid. My friend's fireworks-viewing plans fell through, so she tagged along in her white yukata. Together with the red yukata and blue yukata sported by two girls in our group, it made for a neat little ensemble.
The fireworks were awesome, running for a straight hour and a half. They took place in two locations along a river in Asakusa. Unfortunately, we only had a really good view of one (albeit the better one) from our vantage point. If you went down to the bridge on the river, you could see both equally well, but there were also about one million people (no joke) crowding around down there. Needless to say, getting back home wasn't exactly pleasant.
Following that, we hit up Roppongi, meeting up with some Yale (summer session?) people in the process. I never thought, all those years ago back in middle school, that I would ever go out nightclubbing with any of my friends. Of course, I didn't have any concept of such activities, so I can hardly be blamed for my lack of foresight.
Overall, another good weekend. However, I've decided that I've had my fill of Roppongi. Thing is, the group I'm with really has little motivation to take advantage of Tokyo's all-night atmosphere. Everyone's ready to call it a day at 2 or 3 in the morning. Compared to last summer, with all those midnight-to-5-am trips to Muse, it's been pretty tame. So, tonight, we're going to explore Shibuya's clubbing streets, and hopefully the change of venue (if not of pace) will cause me to perk up a bit.
Weekly highlights time. Monday, I went to see my friend who owns a traditional shouting restaurant in Tokyo, only to discover that he's still working at his new place in Seoul until the 6th. Bummer. But at least he'll be back before I'm gone. I'm really psyched to have a meal there again.
Thursday, we had an all-day trip (seriously, it was 12 hours) to Nikko. I was off to a great start when I was woken up literally at the time we were supposed to be meeting in the lobby (7:20 in the god damn morning), and I spent much of the day being exhausted and failing to sleep on the bus. Still, the weather was amazing, and the temples were nice, although any realistic person will admit that they're very much of the if-you've-seen-one-then-you've-seen-them-all variety.
What wasn't so run-of-the-mill was the marathon monk we met. Okay, so he only did a mini one-third version of the 1000-day, 40,000 kilometer run through the fucking forest on a mountain in all kinds of weather wearing traditional Buddhist robes followed by not eating or sleeping for a week, but still, that's damn impressive. We got to see him perform a traditional Buddhist ceremony of some kind, and I learned why anyone would want to become a Buddhist priest: to play with fire. Seriously. Lighting and throwing shit into a big ass fire was a major part of the ceremony. It was awesome. Afterward, we met with him in private and got to ask him some questions. Love of fire aside, I was barely awake, so I didn't say much more than "thank you for your time," but he was an amazingly down-to-earth and funny guy, not at all what one might expect of a high-ranking Buddhist priest.
And you thought I was kidding about there being a million people watching these fireworks. This is only one part of the crowd.
It's not easy to capture fireworks well. Usually they're gone by the time you realize you have a really awesome picture to take. Also, I didn't bring my camera, so this isn't my picture, anyhow. I'll steal some more from other people later.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
In which both binge eating and binge drinking take place
Monday was a national holiday, Ocean Day, upon which the Japanese celebrate the bounty of the ocean by going out to do karaoke on Sunday night. I think there were fireworks, too. At any rate, I spent most of the daytime over the three-day weekend asleep in my room, as is my wont, so I have no idea if there were any festivals.
About half of the SANC students spent most of the weekend in Kyoto and Kobe, seeing the sites and staying (in the latter city) with our first-year Japanese teacher Nishimura-sensei. I did not attend, for three reasons: 1) That region of Japan is about 10 degrees hotter and 50% more humid even than Tokyo. 2) The whole trip cost each person about $300. 3) I've already been to Kyoto.
So, I was happy to stay behind. They were leaving on Saturday morning, so we got together on Friday evening to have a light night out. It began with the most amazing meal I've eaten since coming to Japan this summer: all-you-can-eat sukiyaki for about $16. We had 90 minutes to stuff ourselves with as many plates of thin-sliced beef and pork as possible. I even ate some of the veggies and noodles, and, naturally, drinking the remaining sukiyaki sauce like a broth (or, as I call it, "meat tea") is half the pleasure. Now, I'd never had sukiyaki before, but only shabu-shabu, and one of the key differences that I really enjoyed was the raw egg. With shabu-shabu, you cook your food in boiling water and dip it in sauce. Sukiyaki is already cooked in the sauce, and then you have the option of dipping the meat or what-have-you in raw egg. Awesome. P.S. Salmonella is not a problem in Japan.
After that, I bought a flask of shouchuu (Japanese spirits) and we went karaoke-ing for a couple hours. Standard karaoke fun, no need to go into much detail there.
Saturday was far more interesting. You see, a few Yale students have come to Tokyo to do some internships, like I did last summer, and so we went out with them to Roppongi that night. It began with your typically intense pregaming, followed by dancing at 911 (a Roppongi staple for us) and then a quick trip to the bar one of the SANC students tended last summer, where we got free drinks. Now, one of the interns was already pretty drunk, and, though I was possibly too drunk at the time to notice, she became too drunk (yes, we covered this several weeks ago, it's possible) after that freebie.
Thus, somewhere between that bar and Muse, we lost her. I mean, completely lost her. We had no idea where she was, and she didn't have her phone with her. We ended up searching both Muse and the surrounding area for about an hour and a half, all the while becoming unpleasantly soberer. What was meant to be an all-night party was brought to a screeching halt by all of our worrying, and we ended up taking cabs back around 2- or 3-ish.
Turns out, she was okay. Managed to get in touch with her the next day around noon, and it seems that some nice folks got her in a taxi and home somehow. That was incredibly lucky, given how easily it could have gone the other way--drunk girl alone on the streets of Roppongi, a district well known for sketchy foreigners and Japanese alike? I'm just glad she was fine.
Sunday! A couple of us met up with a Tokyo native cum Yale '11 student and found an all-you-can-eat Indian curry buffet for about $15 in Shinjuku. I'd been craving Indian for a while, so, even though it wasn't the most delicious curry ever, the price was right. 15 bucks at Zaroka in New Haven will get you, well, one order of curry, after all. That makes for the second excessive eating episode of the past week.
Wednesday! Finally had a chance to wear my suit. After class, we went to the University of Tokyo to engage in one-minute interviews with the inestimable Professor Koshiba, 2002 winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics. (He invented neutrinos.) Basically, we were tasked with the creation of one question to submit to him. I wasn't really sure how this format was going to work, but it turned out that we all sat down in a room with him and posed our questions one at a time. Some he answered in English, some in Japanese. He turned out to be a really funny old guy. Highlights:
- He had no interest in physics until grad school, when a senior student invited him to participate in an experiment, and he thought, "Huh, this is something I can do."
- He was good friends with Feynman.
- He explained the lack of success curtailing nuclear proliferation with the following metaphor: "Imagine two of you have a dagger, which you can use to easily kill lots of people. And you say to everyone else, nobody should have a dagger. But everyone else is thinking, 'They've had so many daggers for so many years, so why shouldn't I get a dagger too?'" That pretty much sums it up.
- Nuclear fusion probably will not be the next energy source because the easiest method of bringing it about unleashes a shit ton of high-energy neutrons that will kill us all. Apparently he hasn't seen Back to the Future II. Mr. Fusion looked perfectly safe to me!
- He went to the U.S. in 1951 to study at the University of Rochester. While he was on a train on the way there, he got into a conversation with an old lady who had never heard of Japan. That left a lasting impression on him. America is such a big country that it can go to war with a place that some of its citizens don't even know about. Makes you wonder if we've been anywhere other than Iraq recently.
- The universe is probably going to keep on expanding until we all die of cold. Stupid dark energy.
- He used all of his Nobel Prize money to help start a foundation to encourage the study of science in Japan. Now that's just too damn nice. Stupid nice funny old man and your nice funny ways!
Today (Thurdsay) we went to an all-you-can-eat $8 buffet at Shakey's in Shibuya. That is all.
About half of the SANC students spent most of the weekend in Kyoto and Kobe, seeing the sites and staying (in the latter city) with our first-year Japanese teacher Nishimura-sensei. I did not attend, for three reasons: 1) That region of Japan is about 10 degrees hotter and 50% more humid even than Tokyo. 2) The whole trip cost each person about $300. 3) I've already been to Kyoto.
So, I was happy to stay behind. They were leaving on Saturday morning, so we got together on Friday evening to have a light night out. It began with the most amazing meal I've eaten since coming to Japan this summer: all-you-can-eat sukiyaki for about $16. We had 90 minutes to stuff ourselves with as many plates of thin-sliced beef and pork as possible. I even ate some of the veggies and noodles, and, naturally, drinking the remaining sukiyaki sauce like a broth (or, as I call it, "meat tea") is half the pleasure. Now, I'd never had sukiyaki before, but only shabu-shabu, and one of the key differences that I really enjoyed was the raw egg. With shabu-shabu, you cook your food in boiling water and dip it in sauce. Sukiyaki is already cooked in the sauce, and then you have the option of dipping the meat or what-have-you in raw egg. Awesome. P.S. Salmonella is not a problem in Japan.
After that, I bought a flask of shouchuu (Japanese spirits) and we went karaoke-ing for a couple hours. Standard karaoke fun, no need to go into much detail there.
Saturday was far more interesting. You see, a few Yale students have come to Tokyo to do some internships, like I did last summer, and so we went out with them to Roppongi that night. It began with your typically intense pregaming, followed by dancing at 911 (a Roppongi staple for us) and then a quick trip to the bar one of the SANC students tended last summer, where we got free drinks. Now, one of the interns was already pretty drunk, and, though I was possibly too drunk at the time to notice, she became too drunk (yes, we covered this several weeks ago, it's possible) after that freebie.
Thus, somewhere between that bar and Muse, we lost her. I mean, completely lost her. We had no idea where she was, and she didn't have her phone with her. We ended up searching both Muse and the surrounding area for about an hour and a half, all the while becoming unpleasantly soberer. What was meant to be an all-night party was brought to a screeching halt by all of our worrying, and we ended up taking cabs back around 2- or 3-ish.
Turns out, she was okay. Managed to get in touch with her the next day around noon, and it seems that some nice folks got her in a taxi and home somehow. That was incredibly lucky, given how easily it could have gone the other way--drunk girl alone on the streets of Roppongi, a district well known for sketchy foreigners and Japanese alike? I'm just glad she was fine.
Sunday! A couple of us met up with a Tokyo native cum Yale '11 student and found an all-you-can-eat Indian curry buffet for about $15 in Shinjuku. I'd been craving Indian for a while, so, even though it wasn't the most delicious curry ever, the price was right. 15 bucks at Zaroka in New Haven will get you, well, one order of curry, after all. That makes for the second excessive eating episode of the past week.
Wednesday! Finally had a chance to wear my suit. After class, we went to the University of Tokyo to engage in one-minute interviews with the inestimable Professor Koshiba, 2002 winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics. (He invented neutrinos.) Basically, we were tasked with the creation of one question to submit to him. I wasn't really sure how this format was going to work, but it turned out that we all sat down in a room with him and posed our questions one at a time. Some he answered in English, some in Japanese. He turned out to be a really funny old guy. Highlights:
- He had no interest in physics until grad school, when a senior student invited him to participate in an experiment, and he thought, "Huh, this is something I can do."
- He was good friends with Feynman.
- He explained the lack of success curtailing nuclear proliferation with the following metaphor: "Imagine two of you have a dagger, which you can use to easily kill lots of people. And you say to everyone else, nobody should have a dagger. But everyone else is thinking, 'They've had so many daggers for so many years, so why shouldn't I get a dagger too?'" That pretty much sums it up.
- Nuclear fusion probably will not be the next energy source because the easiest method of bringing it about unleashes a shit ton of high-energy neutrons that will kill us all. Apparently he hasn't seen Back to the Future II. Mr. Fusion looked perfectly safe to me!
- He went to the U.S. in 1951 to study at the University of Rochester. While he was on a train on the way there, he got into a conversation with an old lady who had never heard of Japan. That left a lasting impression on him. America is such a big country that it can go to war with a place that some of its citizens don't even know about. Makes you wonder if we've been anywhere other than Iraq recently.
- The universe is probably going to keep on expanding until we all die of cold. Stupid dark energy.
- He used all of his Nobel Prize money to help start a foundation to encourage the study of science in Japan. Now that's just too damn nice. Stupid nice funny old man and your nice funny ways!
Today (Thurdsay) we went to an all-you-can-eat $8 buffet at Shakey's in Shibuya. That is all.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
This is rapidly becoming one of those picture-blogs.
Partly because Alison demanded more pictures of Sachiko, but mostly because I like looking at myself, I'm going to upload yet more photos. But first, week in review!
On Friday, a group of us managed to pull what I believe was our first all-nighter. We drank in the streets, we drank in the subways, we drank in the bars and clubs. Around 3:30-ish, we got in a couple of cabs and headed over to Tsukiji, the largest fish market in the world, to watch the hustle and bustle as it opened up. I'd already seen it, two summers ago, but I wanted the inevitably sushi breakfast that would follow.
Unfortunately, getting there at 4 was a good hour too early. Now, I thought that, last time I went, it was before 5 o'clock, but that might have been because we were on a tour with the executive chef of the Park Hyatt hotel. So we went into some fast-food place to waste an hour.
It was there that we entered that special stage of exhaustion wherein everything seems hilarious. Most of the hour was spent laughing about the purported contents of one of the items on the menu: bracken. For the life of me, I cannot now comprehend what was so funny about bracken, but we all thought we'd struck a vein of comedy gold.
Anyway, after that, we went into the fish market, where the busy fishermen riding around on their bizarre-looking little cars through the labyrinth of ichthyic aliment spared no effort trying to run us over. Especially the girls in their nice dresses and heels. It was quite a sight. Once we'd had our metaphorical fill of fish, we proceeded to have our literal fill of fish at one of Tsukiji's overpriced sushi breakfast places. It was delicious.
Saturday was a little less interesting, but still fun. We went out to Kabukicho, the red lightiest of Tokyo's many red light districts, whereupon we were escorted by what I can only call a pimp to a pretty crappy club. After walking around for a while, we managed to find a neat horror-themed bar/restaurant, which required us to walk through a dark and spooooky hallway that must have made some noises or something, because everyone ahead of me freaked out and tried to escape. I helped the sane among us push the others inside. One of us also had to stick his hands through a hole in the door or something to have them handcuffed before we could be let into the restaurant proper.
The waiters, who wore baggy striped prison outfits, crammed us into a tiny prison cell of a room, which became only increasingly cramped as other friends joined us later in the evening. We ordered various horror- and drug-themed drinks, like some cocktail with an eyeball in it, a row of shots and mixers in test-tubes, a drink inside a big plastic syringe, etc. It was all very charming. I naturally ordered the strongest thing in the house, some tall titration beaker filled with a 50% alcoholic liquid that was probably some variant on limoncello.
Since Kabukicho is in Shinjuku, we were able to walk back home in about 20 minutes and didn't have to stay out all night.
The only thing worth mentioning from the week proper was Tuesday, on which we went to a Tokyo elementary school to learn kids some knowledge. Actually, we were just there to teach them games. After the opening welcome ceremony, during which we all introduced ourselves on a stage before hundreds of watchful young eyes and then listened to the dulcet tones of their (quite frankly amazing) school band's rendition of John Williams' unforgettable masterpiece, the opening theme from Star Wars, we went our separate ways to teach our classes... alone.
As putative "advanced" students, we were assigned the oldest kids, and I ended up with 6th graders. Still, they were good kids. I prepared a Pictionary-variant game for them, and I'd spent precious time (which could have been spent watching Highlander: the Series online) contemplating, writing and cutting out slips of paper with 50 Japanese words of varying levels of difficulty. We did 4 of them.
Turns out, all the classes already had plans for us, which I believe universally involved playing Musical Chairs and Fruits-In-The-Basket. My kids also introduced themselves individually and told me what they thought made their school in particular and Japan more generally so great. Apparently, the school is very clean, with fighting markedly absent, and Japan has lots of culture, food and public transportation. See? It was a learning experience for everyone. We also had lunch in our individual classrooms. The kids were amazingly serious about preparing and serving lunch, with the assigned students dressing up practically like hospital surgeons for the job. During the meal, the kids at my table mostly asked me about what anime and manga I liked. I never thought I'd hear Fullmetal Alchemist be called "old." Damn.
All in all, they were great kids, and I had good time. And I'll never see or remember any of them ever again. Ever. :D
Now, on a more serious note, I've heard concerns that I should take my current educational opportunity more seriously, or at least pretend to take it more seriously on my highly public blog, which is supposedly read by Light Fellowship staff. In response to said concerns, I would just like to note that I am here to learn Japanese (among other things), and I am learning it. You don't need to get an A+ to learn something (and I think I got a B or B- on my midterm, even with my previously noted lack of studying). In fact, I am surprised every day by how much more Japanese I can read on sight. So please forgive me if I don't stress out and bury my nose in my books to squeeze out the extra 10 points. Or, if you can't forgive me, kindly blow it out your ear. (See, I can be slightly genteel, if I try.)
SUPER HAPPY FUN DELICIOUS PICTURE TIME!
Me examining one of the drawings. Man, some of them really sucked. I've got a good one I'm going to keep, but unfortunately I returned the camera cable I loaned, so I can't upload a picture of it just now.
Me, about to start another round.
Introducing myself. Me! Me! MEEEEE!
This is how they serve lunch.
This pretty much underscores how staggeringly different my 6th-grade experience was from theirs. Especially given that this is not my classroom and is in fact filled with 2nd-graders. We're talking major discipline here. Major discipline and concomitant societal tension.
This random delight comes from that Italian dinner we had with our buddies way back when at the beginning of the program. Damn, my hair was short.
SO CUTE! I CAN'T STAND IT!
Family pic.
This might give you a better understanding of the awesomeness that is okonomiyaki. Probably not, though.
Waiting for our sushi and sashimi. That Japanese girl in the front was with us. The incredibly sketchy guy in the back was most decidedly not.
On Friday, a group of us managed to pull what I believe was our first all-nighter. We drank in the streets, we drank in the subways, we drank in the bars and clubs. Around 3:30-ish, we got in a couple of cabs and headed over to Tsukiji, the largest fish market in the world, to watch the hustle and bustle as it opened up. I'd already seen it, two summers ago, but I wanted the inevitably sushi breakfast that would follow.
Unfortunately, getting there at 4 was a good hour too early. Now, I thought that, last time I went, it was before 5 o'clock, but that might have been because we were on a tour with the executive chef of the Park Hyatt hotel. So we went into some fast-food place to waste an hour.
It was there that we entered that special stage of exhaustion wherein everything seems hilarious. Most of the hour was spent laughing about the purported contents of one of the items on the menu: bracken. For the life of me, I cannot now comprehend what was so funny about bracken, but we all thought we'd struck a vein of comedy gold.
Anyway, after that, we went into the fish market, where the busy fishermen riding around on their bizarre-looking little cars through the labyrinth of ichthyic aliment spared no effort trying to run us over. Especially the girls in their nice dresses and heels. It was quite a sight. Once we'd had our metaphorical fill of fish, we proceeded to have our literal fill of fish at one of Tsukiji's overpriced sushi breakfast places. It was delicious.
Saturday was a little less interesting, but still fun. We went out to Kabukicho, the red lightiest of Tokyo's many red light districts, whereupon we were escorted by what I can only call a pimp to a pretty crappy club. After walking around for a while, we managed to find a neat horror-themed bar/restaurant, which required us to walk through a dark and spooooky hallway that must have made some noises or something, because everyone ahead of me freaked out and tried to escape. I helped the sane among us push the others inside. One of us also had to stick his hands through a hole in the door or something to have them handcuffed before we could be let into the restaurant proper.
The waiters, who wore baggy striped prison outfits, crammed us into a tiny prison cell of a room, which became only increasingly cramped as other friends joined us later in the evening. We ordered various horror- and drug-themed drinks, like some cocktail with an eyeball in it, a row of shots and mixers in test-tubes, a drink inside a big plastic syringe, etc. It was all very charming. I naturally ordered the strongest thing in the house, some tall titration beaker filled with a 50% alcoholic liquid that was probably some variant on limoncello.
Since Kabukicho is in Shinjuku, we were able to walk back home in about 20 minutes and didn't have to stay out all night.
The only thing worth mentioning from the week proper was Tuesday, on which we went to a Tokyo elementary school to learn kids some knowledge. Actually, we were just there to teach them games. After the opening welcome ceremony, during which we all introduced ourselves on a stage before hundreds of watchful young eyes and then listened to the dulcet tones of their (quite frankly amazing) school band's rendition of John Williams' unforgettable masterpiece, the opening theme from Star Wars, we went our separate ways to teach our classes... alone.
As putative "advanced" students, we were assigned the oldest kids, and I ended up with 6th graders. Still, they were good kids. I prepared a Pictionary-variant game for them, and I'd spent precious time (which could have been spent watching Highlander: the Series online) contemplating, writing and cutting out slips of paper with 50 Japanese words of varying levels of difficulty. We did 4 of them.
Turns out, all the classes already had plans for us, which I believe universally involved playing Musical Chairs and Fruits-In-The-Basket. My kids also introduced themselves individually and told me what they thought made their school in particular and Japan more generally so great. Apparently, the school is very clean, with fighting markedly absent, and Japan has lots of culture, food and public transportation. See? It was a learning experience for everyone. We also had lunch in our individual classrooms. The kids were amazingly serious about preparing and serving lunch, with the assigned students dressing up practically like hospital surgeons for the job. During the meal, the kids at my table mostly asked me about what anime and manga I liked. I never thought I'd hear Fullmetal Alchemist be called "old." Damn.
All in all, they were great kids, and I had good time. And I'll never see or remember any of them ever again. Ever. :D
Now, on a more serious note, I've heard concerns that I should take my current educational opportunity more seriously, or at least pretend to take it more seriously on my highly public blog, which is supposedly read by Light Fellowship staff. In response to said concerns, I would just like to note that I am here to learn Japanese (among other things), and I am learning it. You don't need to get an A+ to learn something (and I think I got a B or B- on my midterm, even with my previously noted lack of studying). In fact, I am surprised every day by how much more Japanese I can read on sight. So please forgive me if I don't stress out and bury my nose in my books to squeeze out the extra 10 points. Or, if you can't forgive me, kindly blow it out your ear. (See, I can be slightly genteel, if I try.)
SUPER HAPPY FUN DELICIOUS PICTURE TIME!
Me examining one of the drawings. Man, some of them really sucked. I've got a good one I'm going to keep, but unfortunately I returned the camera cable I loaned, so I can't upload a picture of it just now.
Me, about to start another round.
Introducing myself. Me! Me! MEEEEE!
This is how they serve lunch.
This pretty much underscores how staggeringly different my 6th-grade experience was from theirs. Especially given that this is not my classroom and is in fact filled with 2nd-graders. We're talking major discipline here. Major discipline and concomitant societal tension.
This random delight comes from that Italian dinner we had with our buddies way back when at the beginning of the program. Damn, my hair was short.
SO CUTE! I CAN'T STAND IT!
Family pic.
This might give you a better understanding of the awesomeness that is okonomiyaki. Probably not, though.
Waiting for our sushi and sashimi. That Japanese girl in the front was with us. The incredibly sketchy guy in the back was most decidedly not.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Whoa! We're half way there!
Whoa-oh! Livin' on a prayer!
Bon Joviness aside, we just had our midterm exams, officially putting us halfway through the program. Honestly, I completely phoned it in this week, and I think that the feeling was shared by many of my classmates. Especially during news class, where we were all basically falling asleep the entire time. The radio-listening portion of the class, in particular, is a real snoozer. It's almost impossible to understand the NHK announcer, even after listening to him say the same thing several times, and, when the sensei asks us questions, we sort of stammer something generic with blank looks on our faces and let her fill in the rest of our sentences while we nod along as though it were exactly what we had planned to say.
It didn't help that I got a migraine on Wednesday. How do I know I got a migraine? Day-long headache, photophobia plus nausea equals migraine. It happens to me rarely enough that I can't remember the last time I had one, but they always suck. I took the day off and spent it in the dark feeling sorry for myself.
But even if that hadn't occurred, and even if newspaper class (which I unfortunately did not get to miss) were not a chore at times, this still would've been a highly unmotivated week for me. I think it started to dawn on me on Monday that I've essentially given up my entire summer to school, and I was none too happy with the realization. So, for the midterm exam, I really couldn't bring myself to study. After all, my grades here don't factor into my GPA, so what's the point in busting my ass for the A when cruising along with a B will do? Hell, I think I only need a C or C+ to get credit. So, last night, instead of staying up late cramming, I went to bed at 11 and slept for a solid 7 hours. Instead of bringing my materials with me to review on the bus and during the breaks between test sections, I brought my iPod Shuffle. I just sort of chilled.
Frankly, I felt kind of like the Dude, abiding.
Anyway, I think it was all for the best, because the exam wasn't the genitalia-inverting horror that I believe we all expected.
Last weekend, on Saturday, we had to get up at the butt-crack of dawn (well, close enough) to go to Kamakura (again) to see the Tsurugaokahachimonguu Shrine (again) and eat okonomiyaki (again). Well, all those "again"s were just for me, since I'd been there before for my homestay. There were at least as many Japanese buddies there as there were Yale students, as well, but the real highlight of the trip--for everyone--was that my host family managed to swing by and walk with us for a while! Atsuko-san drove over with Marichan and Sacchan, and their cuteness was admired by all.
No one ever would have guessed that cute little Mariko kicked a church during my homestay. It was great. We were walking along, and she was practicing ballet kicks against random walls on the street, when I hear her mother say, in Japanese, "you shouldn't kick churches." I look back, and, sure enough, there's a building with a huge cross slapped on its side. Mariko's response: "what's a church?" She didn't know the Japanese word for church. Or possibly even the concept. I think that's just awesome. How many countries are there in the world that Christianity never really got its greedy mitts on, discounting the Islamic and Communist ones?
Two, I guess, if you count Israel. Still, Japan has its own style of fucked up. So does Israel, but that's neither here nor there.
Hopefully, this adorable church-kicking family will be able to come to Tokyo some time in the next month.
Anyway, I promised more pictures, and here they are! Atsuko-san sent me pictures she took during my homestay, and I've also uploaded some pictures of my apartment.
Making a children maki roll: before.
Children maki roll: after.
Unwrapping! My hand looks giant.
The triple-sibling specialty roll was a real family favorite.
These kids hate walking. Maritan actually rode on my back for most of the time when she visited us all in Kamakura last weekend.
At the okonomiyaki place.
I'm really not good for much else, apparently.
Mariko made a face in her ice-cream. When I pronounced it an "aisu-jin"--literally "ice(cream) person"--the kids became ecstatic with glee. I think that the Japanese generally find foreigners playing with their language incredibly amusing and unexpected. I like to do it fairly frequently, and I usually get a good reaction.
Pensive. And messy.
A closet entirely devoted to shoes (and a tiny fire extinguisher) welcomes me home every day.
My room right after I moved in. The table is about twenty times more cluttered, now.
View from the balcony.
Part of the balcony, with the hang-drying bar and a machine that I think might be capable of producing hot air. I still haven't dared to touch it.
Another view of my room and the narrow little hallway leading outside.
The kitchenette lines one side of that hallway.
Bathroom.
Hello, robot toilet!
This washer-dryer may look very convenient, but you can dry your clothes for three hours and still come out with damp socks. They really love hang-drying here. Scary thing is, I've started to like it, too.
Also, I promised to link to another blog with photos from the night our Yale Japanese senseis took us out to dinner.
Bon Joviness aside, we just had our midterm exams, officially putting us halfway through the program. Honestly, I completely phoned it in this week, and I think that the feeling was shared by many of my classmates. Especially during news class, where we were all basically falling asleep the entire time. The radio-listening portion of the class, in particular, is a real snoozer. It's almost impossible to understand the NHK announcer, even after listening to him say the same thing several times, and, when the sensei asks us questions, we sort of stammer something generic with blank looks on our faces and let her fill in the rest of our sentences while we nod along as though it were exactly what we had planned to say.
It didn't help that I got a migraine on Wednesday. How do I know I got a migraine? Day-long headache, photophobia plus nausea equals migraine. It happens to me rarely enough that I can't remember the last time I had one, but they always suck. I took the day off and spent it in the dark feeling sorry for myself.
But even if that hadn't occurred, and even if newspaper class (which I unfortunately did not get to miss) were not a chore at times, this still would've been a highly unmotivated week for me. I think it started to dawn on me on Monday that I've essentially given up my entire summer to school, and I was none too happy with the realization. So, for the midterm exam, I really couldn't bring myself to study. After all, my grades here don't factor into my GPA, so what's the point in busting my ass for the A when cruising along with a B will do? Hell, I think I only need a C or C+ to get credit. So, last night, instead of staying up late cramming, I went to bed at 11 and slept for a solid 7 hours. Instead of bringing my materials with me to review on the bus and during the breaks between test sections, I brought my iPod Shuffle. I just sort of chilled.
Frankly, I felt kind of like the Dude, abiding.
Anyway, I think it was all for the best, because the exam wasn't the genitalia-inverting horror that I believe we all expected.
Last weekend, on Saturday, we had to get up at the butt-crack of dawn (well, close enough) to go to Kamakura (again) to see the Tsurugaokahachimonguu Shrine (again) and eat okonomiyaki (again). Well, all those "again"s were just for me, since I'd been there before for my homestay. There were at least as many Japanese buddies there as there were Yale students, as well, but the real highlight of the trip--for everyone--was that my host family managed to swing by and walk with us for a while! Atsuko-san drove over with Marichan and Sacchan, and their cuteness was admired by all.
No one ever would have guessed that cute little Mariko kicked a church during my homestay. It was great. We were walking along, and she was practicing ballet kicks against random walls on the street, when I hear her mother say, in Japanese, "you shouldn't kick churches." I look back, and, sure enough, there's a building with a huge cross slapped on its side. Mariko's response: "what's a church?" She didn't know the Japanese word for church. Or possibly even the concept. I think that's just awesome. How many countries are there in the world that Christianity never really got its greedy mitts on, discounting the Islamic and Communist ones?
Two, I guess, if you count Israel. Still, Japan has its own style of fucked up. So does Israel, but that's neither here nor there.
Hopefully, this adorable church-kicking family will be able to come to Tokyo some time in the next month.
Anyway, I promised more pictures, and here they are! Atsuko-san sent me pictures she took during my homestay, and I've also uploaded some pictures of my apartment.
Making a children maki roll: before.
Children maki roll: after.
Unwrapping! My hand looks giant.
The triple-sibling specialty roll was a real family favorite.
These kids hate walking. Maritan actually rode on my back for most of the time when she visited us all in Kamakura last weekend.
At the okonomiyaki place.
I'm really not good for much else, apparently.
Mariko made a face in her ice-cream. When I pronounced it an "aisu-jin"--literally "ice(cream) person"--the kids became ecstatic with glee. I think that the Japanese generally find foreigners playing with their language incredibly amusing and unexpected. I like to do it fairly frequently, and I usually get a good reaction.
Pensive. And messy.
A closet entirely devoted to shoes (and a tiny fire extinguisher) welcomes me home every day.
My room right after I moved in. The table is about twenty times more cluttered, now.
View from the balcony.
Part of the balcony, with the hang-drying bar and a machine that I think might be capable of producing hot air. I still haven't dared to touch it.
Another view of my room and the narrow little hallway leading outside.
The kitchenette lines one side of that hallway.
Bathroom.
Hello, robot toilet!
This washer-dryer may look very convenient, but you can dry your clothes for three hours and still come out with damp socks. They really love hang-drying here. Scary thing is, I've started to like it, too.
Also, I promised to link to another blog with photos from the night our Yale Japanese senseis took us out to dinner.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Several thousand words
No, I'm not actually going to write several thousand words, even though it has been a while since I blogged and I have a lot of ground to cover.
However, I finally uploaded some pictures, each of which is worth--or so I am told--ten hundred distinct linguistic units.
Now to run through the past several days:
The weekend in Kamakura was great, especially thanks to the kids--to review, the girls are Mariko (7) and Sachiko (3) and the boy is Taiki (10). They were really energetic, or 元気 (genki) as we say in Japanese, especially the youngest, who had a habit of turning on a practice song on an electric piano, ramping up the tempo to maximum and then running around in circles screaming "Hayai! Hayai!" ("Fast! Fast!")
On Saturday I went to visit the school attended by the older two kids, with Sachiko and her mother (Atsuko-san) of course. No, they don't normally have school on Saturday, except for Taiki, who very frequently has cram school, but I managed to show up on the one Saturday that has a half-day of classes set up so that working parents can come visit and see what school is all about. (Hint: it involves indoor slippers far too small to fit any gaijin male's feet adequately.) After that, we went to a Shinto shrine, the description of which I shall skip, then to eat okonomiyaki, which to the uninitiated I can describe only as "do-it-yourself omelet-cakes with extra awesome." We also ate soufutokuriimu, AKA soft-serve ice cream. I got a twist of vanilla and green tea. We then visited a Zen Buddhist temple in a bamboo forest.
Home time was a mixture of playing Wii Sports, wrapping up the kids like sushi rolls in a blanket (Atsuko-san will send me the pictures by the end of the week), carrying and swinging them around, etc. Basically all the things you would want to do if you were suddenly in the presence of a friendly and accommodating giant who could pick you up with one hand. They tired me out, but it was great. Their father was able to come home that night. I'm not sure what I expected, but he was very warm, if a little quiet.
On Sunday, I mostly played around with the kids some more, and we visited a few more shrines before we all drove together to the train station. As fate would have it, SANC is taking us to Kamakura again on Sunday, so I should have a chance to see them again. I really hope that I do.
Some of the things that Atsuko-san cooked over the course of the weekend: cheese-toast with egg and bacon, curry and rice, tempura, soba, and lots more stuff I can't remember! Too bad Daniel wasn't there, or I'd have a complete and detailed list, down to the seasoning on each dish.
Okay, okay, I want to get to the pictures, too, but I have one more important thing to mention. On Tuesday, Yale senseis Murata and Stever showed up to take us out to dinner with Light Fellowship money. We went to a nice restaurant in Shinjuku and went nuts with a tasting menu and extra courses a la carte, not to mention beverages including $100 bottles of champagne. Doumo arigatou, Mr. Light(-ato). I didn't bring my camera, but a couple of the other bloggers photographed every single course, so I'll link to those posts later.
PICTURES!
Sachiko! Alison wants one as a souvenir from Japan.
Too bad! She's mine!
Family shot. Mariko's face looks a bit weird, but I have a better photo from the Zen garden later:
I actually took quite a few pictures of that Zen garden. Zen gardens kick ass (but they do not dwell on this fact, instead enjoying each ephemeral moment of ass-kicking as it passes into the next).
And some of the bamboo:
Oh, yeah, and we saw a wedding at the shrine. Nice hat, lady:
Dude looks badass, though. I'm definitely rocking haorihakama at my wedding.
The kids also made me some postcards shortly before I left:
The top left is Mariko's, depicting an aquarium (they own several), some grapes, and apparently me. It says "Goodbye David-san, please come again!!"
The top right is Taiki's, depicting Wii Tennis. It reads "Thank you for the past 3 days. I hope we can meet again."
The bottom two were hand-drawn with love by Sachiko, with Atsuko-san writing in her name and "Please visit again." I think the first was supposed to represent strawberries, and I have no idea about the second. Perfectly adorable, though.
Speaking of which, why don't we top this post off with a couple more photos of darling Satchan, just to reinforce how cute Asian children are?
Revel in the cuteness, dear readers. Revel! And exult! Excelsior!
However, I finally uploaded some pictures, each of which is worth--or so I am told--ten hundred distinct linguistic units.
Now to run through the past several days:
The weekend in Kamakura was great, especially thanks to the kids--to review, the girls are Mariko (7) and Sachiko (3) and the boy is Taiki (10). They were really energetic, or 元気 (genki) as we say in Japanese, especially the youngest, who had a habit of turning on a practice song on an electric piano, ramping up the tempo to maximum and then running around in circles screaming "Hayai! Hayai!" ("Fast! Fast!")
On Saturday I went to visit the school attended by the older two kids, with Sachiko and her mother (Atsuko-san) of course. No, they don't normally have school on Saturday, except for Taiki, who very frequently has cram school, but I managed to show up on the one Saturday that has a half-day of classes set up so that working parents can come visit and see what school is all about. (Hint: it involves indoor slippers far too small to fit any gaijin male's feet adequately.) After that, we went to a Shinto shrine, the description of which I shall skip, then to eat okonomiyaki, which to the uninitiated I can describe only as "do-it-yourself omelet-cakes with extra awesome." We also ate soufutokuriimu, AKA soft-serve ice cream. I got a twist of vanilla and green tea. We then visited a Zen Buddhist temple in a bamboo forest.
Home time was a mixture of playing Wii Sports, wrapping up the kids like sushi rolls in a blanket (Atsuko-san will send me the pictures by the end of the week), carrying and swinging them around, etc. Basically all the things you would want to do if you were suddenly in the presence of a friendly and accommodating giant who could pick you up with one hand. They tired me out, but it was great. Their father was able to come home that night. I'm not sure what I expected, but he was very warm, if a little quiet.
On Sunday, I mostly played around with the kids some more, and we visited a few more shrines before we all drove together to the train station. As fate would have it, SANC is taking us to Kamakura again on Sunday, so I should have a chance to see them again. I really hope that I do.
Some of the things that Atsuko-san cooked over the course of the weekend: cheese-toast with egg and bacon, curry and rice, tempura, soba, and lots more stuff I can't remember! Too bad Daniel wasn't there, or I'd have a complete and detailed list, down to the seasoning on each dish.
Okay, okay, I want to get to the pictures, too, but I have one more important thing to mention. On Tuesday, Yale senseis Murata and Stever showed up to take us out to dinner with Light Fellowship money. We went to a nice restaurant in Shinjuku and went nuts with a tasting menu and extra courses a la carte, not to mention beverages including $100 bottles of champagne. Doumo arigatou, Mr. Light(-ato). I didn't bring my camera, but a couple of the other bloggers photographed every single course, so I'll link to those posts later.
PICTURES!
Sachiko! Alison wants one as a souvenir from Japan.
Too bad! She's mine!
Family shot. Mariko's face looks a bit weird, but I have a better photo from the Zen garden later:
I actually took quite a few pictures of that Zen garden. Zen gardens kick ass (but they do not dwell on this fact, instead enjoying each ephemeral moment of ass-kicking as it passes into the next).
And some of the bamboo:
Oh, yeah, and we saw a wedding at the shrine. Nice hat, lady:
Dude looks badass, though. I'm definitely rocking haorihakama at my wedding.
The kids also made me some postcards shortly before I left:
The top left is Mariko's, depicting an aquarium (they own several), some grapes, and apparently me. It says "Goodbye David-san, please come again!!"
The top right is Taiki's, depicting Wii Tennis. It reads "Thank you for the past 3 days. I hope we can meet again."
The bottom two were hand-drawn with love by Sachiko, with Atsuko-san writing in her name and "Please visit again." I think the first was supposed to represent strawberries, and I have no idea about the second. Perfectly adorable, though.
Speaking of which, why don't we top this post off with a couple more photos of darling Satchan, just to reinforce how cute Asian children are?
Revel in the cuteness, dear readers. Revel! And exult! Excelsior!
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