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!