Holiday Cheer: Disney Style

I'm not sure about you, but back in my day there were 3 major sources of magic as a kid: Christmas, Harry Potter, and Disney. Last Friday, a few friends and I decided to indulge in a healthy combination of two of these.

Quick Statistics:
Tokyo Disney originally opened in 1983, and was the first Disney theme park to open up outside of the US. It today consists of two parks, DisneyLand and DisneySea (see what they did there?), which together welcome roughly 25 million visitors a year. It's not actually in Tokyo, but in Chiba (千葉) which is a little over an hour train ride out of Tokyo.

So three friends and I decided on Wednesday that we should really go to DisneySea to see all of the Christmas decorations before it was too late, and Friday we were off. That's one of the things I love about Japan: you can decide last minute that you want to go somewhere, and with the train system here it takes minimal planning to go almost anywhere. Tokyo Disney sells a pass that just gets you into the park after 6pm, which was perfect since some of us had class that day. That park was fantastic, the decorations were awesome, and for seem reason things just seemed to go inordinately well that evening. I'll let the pictures tell the story though (sorry for the lack of picture-containing posts recently).

The train going to different areas of the Disney resort was pretty well branded.

Entrance to the park 

The enormous Christmas tree in DisneySea.

The Little Mermaid area of the park from afar. At night it is really stunning.

King Triton and his dolphins in holiday garb. 

A room in a castle of the park talking about the motion of stars and planets. Every park should have some science!

A two-tiered Merry-Go-Round in Agrabah

A Christmas Show happening in the park. Don't ask why, but in Japan Mickey's voice is significantly higher than Minnie's.

Sukiyaki and Songs

Within the past few weeks, I have been fortunate enough to have a dish called sukiyaki (すき焼き), not only once, but twice. The first time I had it was with my host family, which starting off is a dangerous game. I was brought up to never turn down food that is put on your plate in somebody else's home, and while this is basically my home in Japan, I've been maintaining that philosophy whenever physically possible. And that evening was no different.

Where the danger comes in, is that sukiyaki is basically moderation's worst enemy. It's a type of "hot pot", where there is basically a big pot of boiling sauce in the middle with all sorts of things thrown in it, and then everybody grabs what they want, when they want it. The signature to sukiyaki is that the sauce has a soy-saucey taste, and you dip everything in raw egg before you eat it. Disregarding the inbred habit of running away at the sight of raw egg, it's absolutely delicious. And it never ends....Ever. The night that we made it, we cooked around 4 pounds of meat, at least 3 pots worth of veggies and tofu, and then when all of that was gone some mushrooms and noodles, because why not? Afterward, I felt pretty incapable of movement, but with enough motivation was able to waddle over to my bed and collapse in a ball of delicious, painful, food-induced exhaustion.

The next time I had sukiyaki I went out with a group of Japanese and exchange students to an area called Ikebukuro (池袋). This is actually where we had stayed during the orientation period of the program, and had been my first time returning there since. Most sukiyaki places in Japan operate as tabe-houdai (食べ放題), which means all-you-can-eat for a certain amount of time. So picture us, 20 college students, sitting down to a 90 minute celebration, a 90 minute challenge of how much delicious your stomach is really capable of holding, and heading in full force. I had a great time with everybody there, and by around lunch the next day I began feeling like my stomach was once again back to normal capacity. There is actually photographic evidence of me having fun with with Japanese people somewhere, but not on my camera. If it ever surfaces I'll be sure to post it.

The other interesting thing about sukiyaki, is that it is also the name for the English version of what is incontrovertibly the most famous song in Japan. The original song, titled "Ue wo Muite, Arukou" (上を向いて歩こう), was sung by Kyu Sakamoto (坂本九) in 1961. It's claim to fame was being the first Japanese song to become known and liked by international audiences, and it remains the only Japanese song to reach top charts in the US. If you've got some time, take a listen. I have yet to meet a single person in Japan, of any age, who doesn't know this song.

Original (which I prefer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbH754gScuk

English Version (lyrics are almost completely unrelated to lyrics of actual song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqFkUNqBwMw&feature=fvst

National Health Care, For The Win!

As many of you probably know, I'm really great at being sick. If they had awards for it I might be able to squeeze one out. Usually, at about this time every winter I end up with my standard illness. Sometimes it's just a cold, sometimes it decided to grow into a sinus infection, but it always follows the same progression of steps. At any point I can usually tell what's going to happen next, and so usually I don't think too much of the whole "being sick" thing. Much to my mother's shagrin this also means that I don't usually go to the doctor when it doesn't go away.

However, this morning I woke up without being able to hear as much as I usually can out of my left ear. In the past, this has meant that I have a sinus infection (don't ask my why disabled-hearing = sinusitis, but it does). So I decided what the heck, I'll go to the doctor.

Quick Side Story:
When I was going through the necessary procedures to register as a student resident in Japan I registered for the national health care plan (our program requires all students to do so). Each month it costs my around $15, and by being on the plan it automatically reduces my cost of getting health care by 70%, and I'm not even a citizen!

Anyway, so at 9 o'clock this morning my host mother and I did headed off to the doctor. The place we went to was just a general doctor's office, no specialties. After a brief wait we entered his office, he said "So what's up?", and did the typical quick check that I was still alive. From there, he then sent us off to an ear/nose specialist (it's just ear and nose in Japan, not ear/nose/throat). Turns out this doctor was in the bigger hospital. Once there I had to fill out some more paperwork (there's always paperwork), and then after a bit more waiting we saw Doctor #2. She again asked me what was wrong, and then looked in my ears and nose to find that they were indeed filled with gunk.

Up until this point all of the doctors had been speaking entirely Japanese, and surprisingly I had been able to follow them and describe my symptoms. After poking around my ears and nose I expected this doctor to either ask more questions or deliver instructions, but she did neither. Instead, without a word she just grabbed a funnel, stuck it up my nose and inserted a thing, transparent tube up my nasal canal. She then hit a button, and quite literally vacuumed out all of the general nastiness that filled my nose and ears. It was among the strangest nose-related feelings I've had, although I was definitely cleared out afterward. In retrospect, I'm glad that I wasn't giving a warning, but for some reason it still felt a bit like a cheap shot.

Past-cleaning she sent us off to wait again, until Medical Professional #3 came to get me for a hearing test. Apparently this is standard when you get any sort of head-related illness in Japan, and after the nice little vacuuming I could hear everything just fine. Another wait, and once again we were back at Doctor #2. She said that I probably had sinusitis (thankfully she knew this word in English) and wrote up some prescriptions. A quick stop by the drug store, and I had my medicine within 15 minutes of leaving the hospital.

Overall it was good as doctor's visits go, but what blew my mind at the end of the day was the price. I had seen two different doctors, received a test, had my sinuses completely cleaned out, and filled four different prescriptions. Imagine my surprise when the combined cost of everything was about $50. You can barely fill one prescription in the us for $50, let alone go to two doctors and then some! I have to say, for all the pros and cons that Japan may have, national health care is definitely a pro. Here's to hoping that we get this in the US sometime soon....

Hello Kitty and Midterms

The only defense that I really have for not having written anything in the past two weeks is that this past week happened to be when almost all of my midterms exams fell (most people have them spread out over a couple weeks), so I've been suddenly busy with school work/studying. In the past week I've had 2 tests, 2 papers, 1 presentation and 4 quizzes. Surprisingly though, this stress level was still low compared to the academic rigor at K, but nonetheless I had a lot of preparation to do.

Outside of that however, it's been a fairly regular two weeks. The most interesting occurrence happened last Sunday. Jeric (a good friend and the only other K College student here) managed to acquire two ticket to a symphony concert in Tama-Center, so we hopped on the train and off we went. Upon arriving, I found out that Tama-Center is apparently the homeland of Hello Kitty, and it looked the part. It was almost like being in an amusement park: the buildings were all conspicuously picturesque, decorations and lights abounded, and cute Hello Kitty signs were strategically places throughout the pedestrian streets to point you in the direction of all buildings-of-note in the area. After a bit of exploration, we discovered an actual amusement park, various performance spaces, and an enormous and gorgeous park that was tucked a small stroll off the main area (pictures shown below).

Oh, and we did eventually go see the symphony play. The repertoire was all over the place: Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky, but it was pretty good. Also, it was the first time Jeric had ever been to a symphonic concert, so he enjoyed at least getting the experience, and we both agreed the Tchaikovsky was cool. 

One of the streets

The Amusement Park: Saurio Puroland

One little section of the enormous and beautiful park

みかんや家族 (Clementines, Family, and the like)

This Sunday I went to a town called Yokohama (横浜) which is wear the majority of my host mom's family lives. My host brother had a competitive soccer-related event and my parents went with him, so it was just my host sister and I. We left the house at a refreshing 7:45 in the morning on Sunday and after a few train transfers and roughly 1.5 hours, we arrived at our destination.

We were greeted at the station by most of the people who I would end up seeing that day. For the sake of convenience, I will refer to familial relations as if I were actually a member (ie. Kaho will now be referred to as my "sister", host-mother as "mother", etc.). So here is the group that met us at the station:

Aunt: I can't remember her name, but mom's older sister picked us up there
Hasashi: Uncle, mom's younger brother
Ayane: Cousin (Aunt's daughter), son's birthday was yesterday, providing the occasion for us to visit
Haru: Cousin (Uncle's daughter), approximately 12 years of age
Sou: Cousin (Uncle's son), approximately 7 years of age
Ukyou: Second cousin (Ayane's son). Turned 5 yesterday

Don't worry if the family tree seems difficult to keep track of: it is. Either way, the underlying point is that we had quite the group to greet us upon arrival.

The very first thing we did after that was head to the mikan (みかん) fields. Mikan are essentially clementines (I'm actually not sure if there is a difference, they taste about the same), and apparently Yokohama is famous for them. It's rather reminiscent apples in Michigan actually. There was a big field absolutely field with clementine trees, and everybody was given a bag and free reign to run through and pick/eat whatever they wanted. As we entered, we ran into an older gentleman who seemed to know a lot about clementine horticulture: signs of sweetness, which trees were best, and so on. As we were picking he came by us at one point and mentioned that the clementines at the top of the tree were always the sweetest.

Now, given this new tidbit of information, how else was I supposed to respond than by immediately climbing as high as I could in the tallest tree I could find? What else would we do, have sub-optimal climentines!? I think not (although fortunately for me, clementine trees are rarely more than 10 feet tall). If I had photographic evidence of this adventure I would share it; it must have looked rather humorous. Regardless, it was a lot of fun, and the high-up clementines sure were delicious, although I can't be sure if they actually tasted different of the struggle just added to their sweetness.

The clementine field in Yokohama.

After clementine-picking, we went to a variety of seemingly-unrelated stores that together formed an errand-running excursion for Ukyou's 5th birthday party. We eventually went back to Ukyou/Akane's house and began getting everything ready. As preparations were being made I met a few more people: Grandmother (who's name I never learned), Akane's husband Yuta, and a seemingly-unrelated high school boy name Reika (or something like that (in case you haven't guessed yet, I'm bad with names, particularly Japanese ones)). The party consisted of a barbecue, other general foods, and typical family mingling. It was very small scale, by no means elaborate, and yet really nice. We all sat around the food while chatting and enjoying the company (I also lost a few times at arm wrestling to the other men in the room). Everything continued on in this fashion until the time came for us to head back, at which point we hopped on the train, I immediately fell asleep, and then a few hours later we arrived home.

All in all everybody was very nice and interesting to talk too. I realized that yesterday was actually the first day I've been in Japan were I haven't spoken more than a sentence or two of English. While I only speak Japanese with my host family, I'm almost always speaking English at school or with my friends in the program. Yesterday, however, it was all Japanese (minus a few sentences of English when talking politics with the uncle). It was a great way to spend a Sunday, and I'm definitely looking forward to the next chance I have to visit them all again.

Waseda Festival

Unfortunately, after the retreat in Karuizama, in which 34 students slept in close quarters and stayed up late for several nights with a significant disregard for health, I fell down with a bit of a cold this week. At this point I'm essentially past it, although I still maintain the cough that I always have after being sick, but the general level of health is pretty good. 元気だよ。The week was fairly mundane, but excitement came with the weekend.

This weekend's big event was 早稲田祭, which basically translated to Waseda Festival. Around this time of the year, the majority of universities have some sort of festival. As far as I can tell this is something that doesn't happen in the US. Universities might have festivals for some reason or another, but these festivals are just basically a celebration of the universities, no other reason required. However, these aren't university-only affairs. Being that Waseda is one of the most prestigious universities in Japan, it's festival draws a crowd of roughly 100,000 people every year and has all of the necessary staples: A performance or two by famous individuals, several stages of performances happening all day, tons of food stands and a special brand of density that can only be found at big festivals.

The festival before it got particularly crowded

Among the many performance at the festival was the juggling group that I have joined. While I am definitely not a performance level (compared to the rest of the group here), I still was with the group for a good portion of the weekend. All day Friday was spent helping them "setup" for Saturday's performances. This basically involved 7 hours of juggling, with maybe 2 hours of actual setup-related work being done, but it was a good way to spend a free Friday. Our group basically had an off-the-main-path performance space completely to ourselves for the entire day, and the range of performances throughout the day Saturday drew quite the crowd. After I had my fill of other festivities at the festival, I came back and helped draw people in to come see is. It was actually really fun, especially since everybody passing by seemed pretty surprised that I knew the necessary Japanese to say "Come watch us juggle!".

The following day (Sunday), there was not setup necessary: the group had a spot on one of the central stages for an hour. I watched the show with the other non-performing members of the group, and it was tremendously well done and fun. I'm definitely stealing many of the ideas I've seen in the juggling group and bringing them back to the circus back at K. That night the group essentially rented out a bar and had a party to celebrate the end of the festival, which is the last big event for the year (even though the academic year doesn't end until the beginning of February). That party was fun for many reasons, the main of which was that the Japanese students were definitely more talkative and willing to interact with me and the other international student after a couple drinks.

One of the routines performed on center stage. Note (and be appropriately amazed): 3 people, 9 diabolos. 

To me, that's one of the greatest things about shows and their subsequent celebrations: the tendency to bring everyone involved together. It's one of the reasons that I'm involved with performing groups back at K, and I'm glad to see that it transfers across cultural borders. Needless to mention that while I definitely did not have a relaxing weekend, it was definitely an enjoyable one.

Retreat in Karuizawa

At about 12:30 on this past Saturday, everybody in my study abroad program hopped on a bus for 3 hours and went to a place called Karuizama. It is a less urban area that is up in the mountains, and Waseda owns what they call a "Seminar House" up there. Basically, they have a bunch of facilities that student groups and classes can use for field trips, retreats and the like. So we got there and at first just had some free time to find our rooms and settle in a little bit. I was in a room with 6 other guys and we all had bunk beds, so it was kind of reminiscent of being at summer camp. In that free time I ended up playing basketball with some people (they had basketball courts), and then after dinner I went to take a bath. A real bath. It was a Japanese style public bath, so one giant tub for however many people wanted to partake. I ended up going in with 3 other guys from our program and the whole being-naked-in-the-same-tub thing actually wasn't that awkward. But the bath sure was fantastic!

That evening we had a meeting with everybody about how life has been so far in Japan. We broke into small groups and then went through a couple of questions and just chatted. It was really nice to hear what other people had to say about their experience so far. In particular, I was in a group with all ethnically Chinese students, and they mentioned how it has been really weird for them to be less of a minority in Japan. Apparently it can be just as uncomforting to go from minority to majority as it is to go the other way. After the meeting we had a party (basically, drinks and snacks were brought into the room and we all hung out), and it was nice to talk to a lot of people who I hadn't seen in a while.

The next morning I woke up at 5am to go try to find a good place to watch the sunrise with a couple of the other folks on the program. We headed out highly motivated, but it was cloudy and we couldn't find any trails. Ultimately, we settled on the soccer field near the seminar complex and just waited to see what would happen. Unfortunately, the sky was actually more colorful before the sun rose. When it was still dusky there was a little purple on the horizon. As the sun came up, it all evened out to that all-too-familiar shade of cloudy gray. But, we had a good time, and then since we were up went back to the building where the rooms were and played Go Fish for an hour, which was tremendously fun.

Later that morning we had our final meeting, which was about the Cultural Practicum that we are doing in February. Michiyo (the program coordinator) presented all of the different options for this year and we filled out a form with our initial preferences. Right now I'm on the fence between two. One is where you life with a family in a smaller area outside of Osaka and hang out with/teach kids in elementary schools. In the other, you work in at a ski resort for the entire month, working about 10-11 hours a day in all of the different services that the resort provides, living in the resort and having the opportunity to ski/snowboard in your free time (there is a 3 hour break in the middle of the work day). Right now I'm actually leaning toward the ski resort one. For one, I think it would be interesting to see what the work is like (at least for a short duration), and this would give me a great opportunity to practice polite Japanese with resort patrons. Either way, we will have a couple more meetings about it at some point and probably get matched up in a month(ish(maybe)).

Trying to keep y'all updated, so stay tuned!

ひさしぶり。。。

It does not take much deductive reasoning to notice that I've been incredibly bad at keeping this blog updated as of late. As I had mentioned in previous posts, I'm starting to settle into life in Tokyo. With that, I've also begun to settle into being fairly busy, which for some reasons always seems to happen...

On that note, there have been several potentially-notable things that have happened over the past couple weeks, which I  think may be best summarized in a picture-caption format. So here we go!

This is Akihabara (秋葉原), an area of Tokyo that is famous for two things: Japanese cartoons, and electronics. I went there with a group of friends and explored some of the shops, gaming centers and an anime-themed cafe in the area. It was a fun experience, but the most surprising thing that day was how incredible two of my friend are at Dance Dance Revolution

This is the juggling store in Tokyo that was recommended to me by the juggling club that I've joined (finally, a city immense enough to actually have a juggling store!). Inside was a mystical wonderland of technicolor, jugglable implements of every shape and size, as well as a friendly guy who helped explain some of the differences between various diabolos. 

...and this is what I actually ended up buying.

This past weekend, I went to see fireworks with an international-student-friendly social club called Niji no Kai. I had heard before coming to Japan that their fireworks were significantly better than those in the US. Let's just say that they definitely meet expectations. This was the last show of the season, and therefore much smaller than during the big festivals in the summer. That being said, it was an hour of nearly continuous fireworks, with a various sub-finales that could have outdone any finale in the states, followed by a Grande finale that illuminated almost all of what I could see at once. Taking pictures was difficult, but here is one example.

I will add that everything is going well here. Things are still going well with my host family, the juggling club is still much fun, I'm still seeing different parts of Tokyo every week. I shall try to be more diligent in updates (but alas, I can make no promises). また今度！

Holiday Games

Today was Sports Day, a Japanese national holidays whose purpose is to promote everybody to go outside and play sports. No school, no work, just fun athleticism. In my opinion, it's among the best of the random-national-holidays. So since we were all free from the usual requirements of Monday life, my family and I went to the Sports Festival that was hosted by my university (which is also, coincidentally, my host-dad's Alma Mater). Throughout the day there were a variety of different organized sporting activities up for grabs, but for me the most interesting by far was soccer.

Quick preface: I'm not very good at soccer, but I love playing it. There is honestly almost no sport that I won't play, and soccer is definitely among the long list of ones I enjoy. But do not be fooled, it doesn't take much to best me in this particular game.

So I happily walked onto the field with my host brother and his (slightly younger, probably 8 years old) friend. What followed was easily my biggest minority-experience in Japan so far. I mean on a field of some 50-some-odd people, I was the only guy wearing jeans. Really? Who wears jeans to a sports festival? Also, I was the only person in the entire participant pool who was over the age of 13, not to mention being the only blonde-haired, blue-eyed guy within 3 kilometers (at least). Also, kids tend to be less discrete than adults when it comes to this whole "Hey look a foreigner!" thing. Before we had even really started I could hear my name being whispered and see kids trying to hide the fact that they were staring. Also, I don't think the university student coordinators knew exactly what to make of me. Here I am, not only a gaijin (外人: literally - outside person), but standing 20 years old and lined up to play soccer with a bunch of kids. Fortunately, most of them just sorted laughed at the awkwardness of the whole situation (hey, it's better than the alternative), and they let me play.

After a quick round of icebreakers and a few more minutes of organization I eventually wound up with on a team with 6 other kids, ready to play some soccer......sort of. I didn't exactly know how to act. On one hand I'm entirely feeling my place as a minority, and therefore super awkward, and on the other hand I've easily got at least 1.5 feet and 40 pounds on any of my opponents (okay, the student coordinators were playing too but they don't count).  I feel like I should do something to show some kind of worth, but at the same time I can't very well go all-out-competitive and a group of elementary school students (although honestly, most of them could beat me). I ended up kind of awkwardly being around, nudging the ball if it came near me and letting the kids play it out. Eventually, as a sort of joke some of the guy college students would constantly yell out「ルーカス！」("Lucas!" with a Japanese accent) if something happened that I was close enough to do something about. Again, I wasn't quite sure how to respond. This was typical college-dude behavior that I'm used to and can enjoy as much as anybody, but the combination of my insecurity, lack of Japanese and lack of soccer ability kind of left me to just sort of smile awkwardly and half-play-along.

After it was all done I chatted with some of the college guys a little bit. They seemed fine enough but I still was a feeling funky so I went off with my host-brother and his friend to play some tennis. I love tennis. I'm good at tennis. I know what to do in tennis. So despite the whole minority thing playing a little tennis definitely brought me back into my comfort zone.

Afterward my host-bro wanted to go play soccer again, and this time was significantly better. I just took on the same playful attitude I usually have with kids (thankfully it's mostly acting and less vocal interaction, ergo this was possible), and now that I had kids smiling instead of staring I could easily college-dude-it-up with the other university students. Funny thing is though, this time everybody (kids included) was constantly saying「ルーカス！」, whether it be when I missed a ball or when they were telling me to shoot. I still felt a little bad about overshadowing anything else going on, but I still enjoyed it, and I'm actually getting lunch with two of the university students tomorrow.

Overall it was a great day. I got to spend a lot of time with my host family (although not my sister, she wasn't feeling well and so stayed home for the day), and a got to play sports (which I've been craving). It still surprised me how different being a minority is though. Even if you were sure that people aren't judging you, the blatant not-one-of-them-ness that you feel is incredibly difficult to brush off. The thing I've learned the most though is to just stay open minded and try not to get offended easily. Example: At the end of the second soccer game one of the kids came and said 「おい！アメリカ人、バイバイ。」("Hey, American! See you later"). Now as many open-minded people that I know, I definitely know a few who would quickly take offense to being called by ethnicity (and who could blame them). But my response was to wave back and return the farewell. When you're just an anomaly to someone, it's better for them to remember you with a smile, rather than a glare.

Tokyo Sky Tree

This one is pretty self explanatory. A couple nights ago a couple of friends from the program and I went to the Tokyo Sky Tree. For those of you who aren't familiar, the Tokyo Sky Tree is a little over 2,000 feet tall, and is the largest tower in the world (and the second largest structure, after a building in Dubai (of course)). And, believe it or not, as expensive as things may be in Japan from time to time it's less expensive to go up this tower than the Empire State Building, and it's a view worth seeing.

Please pardon the grainy nature of most of these pictures. I still haven't totally figure out how to use my new camera (since everything is in Japanese), and the lighting at night presented some minor difficulty. Either way, here are some pictures from the top of the Sky Tree.

Notice that you can see to the horizon, but not the end of Tokyo

View of the river

The red tower to the left is the Tokyo Tower, another "tall" observation tower (about a quarter of the size of the Sky Tree)

Now as absolutely awe inspiring as the views were, honestly one of the most fun parts of the night was the ice cream we got before going up. Yes, ice cream. There are a variety of other shops and restaurants in the Sky Tree of course, and the actually even have an aquarium that we didn't get the chance to go to. However, as we were passing a Coldstone on the way to get tickets, we couldn't help but notice that their flavors in Japan are significantly more awesome than flavors in the US. So of course we had to partake. Not only was the ice cream fantastic, but the four workers behind the counter made all of ours in unison and sang a song with beautiful harmonization and melody. By the end of it everybody was smiling and clapping for the performance (other restaurant patrons included). All in all, it was definitely one of the top 3 fun nights I've had in Tokyo so far.

Coldstone's Best and Brightest

Apparently, juggling is universal

Today I went to my first practice with Waseda Universities juggling circle (club). Before I dive in though, a quick preface about circles:

What are called "clubs" back in the States are referred to as "circles" (サークル) in Japan. Also, they tend to be bit more intense than clubs in the US. For example, it's not uncommon for students in the US to be a member of many different clubs, but only attend some of the meetings at each of them. However, in Japan your circle is your social group, it's your commitment, so people tend to take attendance and participation to heart, and most tend to be members of only one, MAYBE two circles. That being said, one nice thing about the imma-foreigner-card is I'm pretty sure I don't have that same expectation of die-hard devotion.

So now that you know about circles, today I went to the juggling one. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, but there is now one thing I know for sure: they are absolutely incredible. One of the mid-level members (from the looks of it) said that they are probably one of the best juggling groups in Japan. Let's just say that if you stack my juggling up next to them, I might as well be trying to use my feet. I figured snagging pictures on the first day might be a bit strange, but trust me, of every juggle-able object I've ever picked up, they can do more of them, more smoothly and with more tricks.

That being said, this means that I am going to return to the US as a new juggler. Of the roughly 30 people there today I met about 3 of them, but from those three I've already started learning how to do some tricks with two diabolos at once, and I can't wait to see where I'm at in a year. Juggling with them was much fun, and I'm definitely going to get a lot better, but I haven't juggled seriously for about 5 months and my hands could feel it (see figure below).

Diabolo Hand: Note red marks, which shall soon be callused 

Non-Diabolo Hand: Note mundane normalcy

So why, you may ask, did I only meet 3 people today? To be completely, honest it was intimidating in there! Not only was everybody significantly better than any juggler I've ever met, but I also don't exactly know many Japanese words that apply to juggling (although I got by), so I didn't exactly barge into the middle of everything and start begging these masters to show me the way. That being said, the people I did meet seemed pretty cool. The first guy I met was a 3rd year student as well (三年生, as they say in Japanese), and the next person was also very friendly, and as it later turned out seems to be in some sort of position of power within the circle. The only other guy I met was the only other person being as quiet as me, and turns out he's a 1st year student (一年生), so we both kind of bonded over our awkward newness. Sort of. He is the fastest speaking Japanese person I have ever met (and potentially ever will meet), so I had some trouble figuring out what he was saying. Also, in his relative shyness he would put is hand close to his mouth every time he spoke, which wasn't helping. But we eventually got to talking a wee bit and he seems nice. Anyway, let's talk circle politics:

Another factor that added to the general intimidation at the beginning was a slightly observable presence of Senpai-Kouhai relationships (先輩ー後輩). This is basically the Japanese version of "I'm older and higher up than you", although here it's more of an implicit thing. Senpai = older (or veteran), Kouhai = younger (or rookie). You can notice in the language people use who is being more respectful to whom, and also by interactions, both group and individual, how different people of different status are perceived by other members within the group. In many ways this club would be a sociologist's dream. You can even notice subgroups within the organization. The diabolo-ers, the club jugglers, the ball jugglers - each with it's own subsequent members. And then me and the first-year, juggling on the outskirts. But hey, you can't climb the ladder in a day, and the fact that I'm on the older-end of the spectrum (as well as being able to claim ignorance) helps (I think).

Once practice was over (I was there doing diabolo for 3 hours straight), I just followed the flow of people outside where everybody began to congregate in an open-ish area. I don't know if this is a regular thing, but the girl that I met (the leader-y one) asked if I wanted to get formally introduced to the group. To translate it into English, my basic response was "uh uh uh uh uh sure?". Anyway, so I gave my little "hi I'm a study abroad student" intro and got the names of a couple more people (will I remember them, most likely not. I'm bad with names anyway, let alone Japanese names), and more importantly I think it placed me up a notch on the political ladder. All in all though, it was a lot of fun, I'm going to learn a lot, enjoy it, and definitely get a different view of student life in Japan

Yakied Tako

A few days ago my family decided to do dinner in a bit more hands-on way. As opposed to the usual somebody-cooks-everybody-else-eats approach, we collectively prepared our own takoyaki (たこ焼き). So what is takoyaki? I'm glad you asked!

Takoyaki is a compound word in Japanese. Tako = octopus, Yaki = grilled, fried, etc. So takoyaki is basically fried balls of dough and octopus. I've actually always been a bit curious as to how they are able to make it into such a nice, spherical form, and now I know.

It all begins with a cast-iron pan that has many dimples in it. You pour in an egg-water-flour-fishy mixture into each of the dimples, and then put in green onions and small chunks of octopus. After just enough time has passed, you then take a little skewer (basically a large toothpick) and finagle around the now semi-cooked spheres so that the uncooked side is down. Repeat the process until everything is cooked evenly, then enjoy with a bit of sauce and fish flakes. This was the first time I've learned how to make any sort of Japanese food, so it was pretty exciting (and actually pretty tasty to boot). I'm sure my description wasn't that helpful, so here's a picture of my host sister manning the takoyaki production line.

A Step Back from the City

The Diabutsu

A few days ago, our whole Japan Study group escaped the Tokyo skyline and went to Kamakura. It's about an hour train ride out of Tokyo and absolutely filled to the brim with Shinto shrines and temples. We've seen lots of these shrines around Tokyo, but today was a bit different. While there were all of the usual facilities of a Shinto shrine, in Kamakura they are presented with a but more extravagence. Also, in a different area the have an enormous statue of Buddha called the Daibutsu (大仏) that was quite an impressive site to behold.

Inside the Diabutsu

While seeing this giant statue of Buddha was cool itself, what was really fun was the group of elementary/middle school kids that we ran in to. According to my host mother, this area is a pretty standard field trip for Japanese students, and so throughout the day we saw roving hordes of kids wearing matching hats (maybe to mark which school they were, but honestly I'm not sure). At one point I just chatting with someone when one of our Japanese student guides came over a grabbed me. I was then placed in front of a small group of students and asked if I wouldn't mind answering some questions in English. Honestly, my first thought was "English? I can do English!", and of course I was happy to oblige. After the interview they excitedly said, "How about we take a picture!", and when a group of Japanese children asks you to take a picture, you don't say no. So a picture we took! (see below)

My interview crew in Kamakura

At this point our large group split into smaller squadrons to pursue various other activities in the Kamakura-ish area. I choose to go with a group to Enoshima, a small island that was a quick train-and-walk away. That was probably the best decision I've made in Japan so far.

Shrine at Enoshima

Enoshima (江島) is, without a doubt, the single most beautiful place on that I have ever been to. Granted, 20 years ain't that long to explore the various beauties of our planet, but it's absolutely spectacular. On one side of the island you can see a sprawling city, on another side a costal line, another side the open ocean, and on the other side is Mount Fuji. The island itself was beautiful as well, with ancient shrines and interesting shops lining the pathways. At the top of the island is a observatory/lighthouse called the Sea Candle which gives the best opportunity for spectacular panaromaic views.

View of the city from the Sea Candle

After spending some time at the Sea Candle and wandering the island we made our way to the ocean shoreline. It also just so happened to be about the time for sunset. They might exists, but I don't know any words to appropriately describe how incredible it was to watch the sunset behind Mount Fuji. At the risk of sounding cheesy, it literally painted the sky a rainbow of orange and red, and I would have happily spent endless hours watching the day culminate in this spectacular close. There were some locals fishing on the shore as this happened, and I couldn't help but imagine what it would be like to see something like this on a daily basis.

Sunset at Enoshima

When at last the rumbling in our stomaches provided enough motivation for the group to head for dinner we walked up a short flight of stairs and ate the islands locally famous cuisine while overlooking the sunset. Could the day end on a better note?

Settling In

Now that the orientation is finally winding down, I'm beginning to settle in to my new home in Tokyo. Yesterday I went to the Shinjuku-ku Ward Office to update my alien resident card, signed up for national healthcare (which is so inexpensive it's ridiculous) and opened a Japanese bank account. But enough about the boring stuff, let's talk about my host family.

Quick demographic: Mother, Father, Daughter (age 18), Son (age 12). They are, respectively, Miyo (美代), Hatsushi (初志), Kaho (華穂) and Yuu (友) of the Ueta (上田) family, and they are fantastic. Miyo is an english teacher in various different capacities (elementary school, private tutor, cram school), and if it's possible in Japanese society to have a big personality, she's got one (in the good way). Hatsushi is some kind of computer guy for Fujitsu, a big computer company in Japan. However, he works in Sendai and is therefore only home on the weekends. Although he sounds super intensely corporate, he's actually very chill, and plays both the stand up and electric bass.

Kaho is a first year student at an all-girls university that is a 2 hour train ride from Tokyo, a commute she makes every weekday. She's studying English, so occasionally I have the opportunity to help her with homework a little which (however shallow it may be) makes me feel a bit better about my not-so-good Japanese. She's a bit quiet but very nice and really liked manga, so she's lending me some to help me pick up this whole "reading" thing.

Yuu is one of those 12-year old boys who plays every sport he can get his hands on. Every day I've been with the family so far he's had practice for either wrestling, soccer, rugby or aikido. He's super energetic and has that little bit of young boy insanity about him, but he's also very nice and polite and seems to enjoy having another guy around.

So that's the family in a nut shell. The past couples days that I've been with them have been interesting but a lot of fun. They are a very non-stereotypical Japanese family. Miyo is quite liberal in governing the house and has made it clear that I don't have to worry about typical-strict-Japanese-house-customs that fill the nightmares of most 留学生 (students studying abroad). Also, she likes to cook a variety of different styles of food. My first night we had this vegetable stewy thing with some fried lamb that was delicious, then last night I had a fish in which I had to remove the spine to eat, and tonight we had 焼肉 (fried meat) with miso soup and rice. And since she's an english teacher, if there's something in Japanese that I just cannot understand she can always explain in English (although fortunately this happens very rarely). So far so good =)

Dear Baseball Fans: Go to Japan

As part of our various adventures during orientation, last night we went to a good 'ole fashioned baseball game.

The two teams that were facing off where the Yomiuri Giants (home) vs. Tokyo Yakult Swallows (away). The showdown happened in the Tokyo Dome, which is an enormous, fully enclosed baseball stadium that was awe-inspiring in its own right. There were several times throughout the game where it seemed like a fly ball was going to hit the ceiling, but somehow it magically remained intangibly far away.

To be entirely honest baseball is not my favorite sport. I tend to enjoy sports where points go back and forth quickly (aka. tennis), but then again, I had never seen Japanese baseball. After watching last night's game, I may be a convert (at least while in Japan).

So you may ask, why is Japanese baseball so incredibly enthralling? Short answer: the crowd. Take your typical American crowd at any sporting event, take out boo-ing at the away team, and then multiply the crowd's enthusiasm by 10. That is how energetic a Japanese ball game is. Every single player on the home team as their own chant, which everybody in the crowd knows forward and backward. Furthermore, whenever one of the many go-us-we-scored rituals starts up, there is not a single person in the completely-filled stadium that is sitting down. For the Giants, this meant that everybody singing a chant and swinging around an orange towel and fist pumping in proper unison.

When the home team won, the stadium simply erupted. There were businessman hugging each other. There were streamers. There were shiny things. There was a trophy. There was a speech. And it wasn't even a championship game!

Quick Summary: If you could turn the energy in that stadium into electricity, the world's energy crisis would be solved in one season of Japanese baseball.

Oh, and the game itself was actually pretty good to. Both teams scored home runs throughout the game, and there was an absolutely incredible double play during the 5th or 6th inning. Bottom line, while I may still be new in Japan, there is one thing I know for sure. They definitely know how to do baseball right.

First Week in Review

As of a week ago, I disembarked a plane at Narita and began life in Tokyo. Sort of. This past week has been absolutely filled to the brim with orientation-related activities organized by our study abroad program. We've had many different meetings, walked around different neighborhoods of Tokyo, climbed a mountain, registered for classes, visited shrines, and climbed a mountain. So, might as well start from the beginning....

When we first arrived in Tokyo we were greeted by several students from Waseda University, all of whom were very friendly and excited to see us. As it turns out, our group of 30-some-odd students has 4 student volunteers from Waseda who are basically there to help us to get oriented, and they are awesome. Natsumi, Maru, Koutarou and Shiori have spent an incredible amount of time making preparations for excursions, negotiating cell phone plans, and helping us enjoy our introduction to Tokyo. We've been staying the Toyoko Inn in Ikebukuro (池袋) , one of the many neighborhoods within the city. It's a popular area, with many restaurants, karaoke places and shops lining the streets, making it a lot of fun to explore when we are done for the day.

We spent our first few days at Waseda's campus, having meetings and slowly but surely exploring the campus and surrounding area. It's enormous compared to K, with about 8,000 undergraduate students at the University. After the first few days of fairly regular orientation-y activity, we took an hour train out of Tokyo one morning to climb Mount Takao (高尾山). While our entire route was on a nicely defined trail, it was quite the hike and when we all reached the top after 2-3 hours of hiking everyone was appropriately exhausted, but the soba at the top of the mountain was worth it (not to mention the view (which I don't have a picture of (sorry about that one))).

While climbing Mount Takao was easily our biggest excursion as a group, we've seen an incredible amount of different sights by simply walking through different areas of Tokyo. Throughout the tightly packed roads of the metropolis one can occasionally find a traditional Shinto temple or shrine. As far as I can tell, these parks and shrines are the only two places where you can see a tree in Tokyo. Regardless, I like that even in the modern city there are still definite signs of traditional Japanese cultural.

On top of all of this exploration, we have actually been preparing for the academic side of being a Waseda student as well. Yesterday, I finished my first round of class registration. Waseda works on a lottery system, so there are no guarantees, but assuming that I get the classes I signed up for this will be the first time in 15 years of education that I won't be taking a math or science class. What I will (hopefully) be taking is Japanese, History, Architecture, Business and Sociology. All topics that I find interesting and most of which I've never had the chance to really try out. Needless to say I'm excited for the upcoming semester =)

So that's all for now. I apologize for the sporadic nature of this post, but later posts will include more details as orientation draws to a close and I should theoretically be more capable of maintaining the blog on frequent basis. Just to hold you over though, here are a couple pictures of the group. Enjoy!

Introduction

Hello and welcome! Soon enough, this blog will be filled with updates about my excursions and adventures during a year spent in Tokyo, Japan. There are several reasons that I've decided to maintain this blog (or at least attempt to), which are as follows:

1. It's been a while since I've done a good bit of writing, and posting semi-regularly to this will be some well-needed practice.

2. While I can't be sure what I'll find in Japan, writing about it should be helpful in sorting through it all.

3. Many people (and probably some of you!) have expressed an interest in knowing what I'm up to, and this is the best way to convey my experiences to whomever may be interested.

And with that said, stay tuned!