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.
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