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.