Days 11, 12, & 13: The Recap

Did I say daily updates? I meant the other thing.

Checked out the kendo club, which was terrifyingly intense.

Anyway, not much happened on Thursday. It was a free day, so I hung out with a friend in Shibuya.

Friday, as the first day of classes, was much more eventful. It was only kind of a real class day though. It's supposed to be a day for "shopping" for classes, so students can attend any class without registering to see if it's to their liking. Only a few of the classes I want to check out meet on Fridays though, so I just went to three classes that day.

The first was my Japanese 150 class. This is the one I was placed into based on the results of my language placement test. I'm actually quite happy with the results. This is a class between Japanese 1 and Japanese 2. We reviewed some of the material we should already know for the class, and I knew most of it, but it looked like the later stuff would be new to me. I'm pretty sure this is the best one for me.

Tori are so cool! Plus lots of great stonework on display.

The second class I attended was "Comparative Literature." I figured it would be a comparison of Japanese and English literature, and I almost didn't go because I had started to lean toward another class. I am so glad I went. What the basic class listing didn't have was the full title: "Comparative Literature 344: The Development of Crime and Detective Fiction." Hey, why don't you take this moment to guess what one of my favorite things is? It looks like the whole class will be on detective fiction from around the world, and I am PSYCHED. The professor seemed like a great guy too. I am so ready for this class.

The third class was . . . I think Contemporary Society in Japan. It's a sociology class. Unlike my other classes, which have around 15 people in them, this one is more like 100. The teacher lectured for about 90 minutes at sonic boom-inducing speeds, then turned us free. The first meeting of this class was fairly forgettable, but it sounds like the material we cover will be interesting. Plus, a number of my friends are in that class.

Just one of the many temples we saw today.

On Saturday the group headed to Kamukura Town to check out some tori, shrines, and ancient Japanese architecture. I was late getting there due to a missed train, but I caught up with the group in time for an awesome traditional fixed-meal-style lunch of rice, salmon, tuna, tempura, salad, and a number of other delicious items. After lunch we headed around town to check out some of the more interesting spots. The Totoro store was of particular interest. The entire store was devoted to Miyazaki films and merchandise (though items from Howl's Moving Castle were conspicuously absent). We also stopped for some ice cream. It's amazing; green tea ice cream is a pain to find in the States, but it's like vanilla to them here. It's everywhere!

We continued on to see more shrines, and a giant Buddha. The day ended at the beach, where a few of us ventured into the tides to cool off.

School's now started, so these updates will likely become less frequent. I'll probably post once a week, or more often if something particularly awesome inspires a post. Until next time!

Day 10: The School Visit

This is part of the program I'd been dreading since before I took off. I was told a few days before boarding the plane that everyone would be visiting a Japanese elementary school and doing short activities with the kids of our choice. I got assigned to the second grade class. I couldn't imagine the second graders would speak much English—and my Japanese still isn't good enough to effectively communicate with people on the fly—so coming up with an appropriate activity was somewhat confounding.

O_O

The visit was spectacular. We received a welcome fit for royalty. The entire school gathered in the gym to greet us, bearing flower archways for us to pass through as hundreds of children bathed us in song. We made our way onto the front stage, where we witnessed an amazing taiko drumming performance, followed by another song. Two young representatives of the school then greeted us in English and Japanese to which two of our students responded in Japanese and English. Children from each grade level then took our hands and led us to our respective classrooms.

Japanese elementary schools are amazing—and huge. This one was five floors, and each floor stretched far and wide. None of the classrooms were completely divided either, there were classroom-sized alcoves branching off from the main hallways, but there were no doors to them. Each only had three walls as well. One side of the classroom was completely open to the hallway, so they really weren't very separated at all.

Cranking up the adorable factor to 11.

The students were studying Japanese, kanji, calligraphy, math, and what I guess translates as socioeconomics. I joined my class just as they were preparing for lunch. The students actually served each other, donning white chef clothes and filling up trays with rice, fish, pears, vegetables, and milk. Everyone was very polite, so no one would start eating until everyone had been served. One student then lead the class' "itadakimasu" (customary to say before eating to show appreciation for food) and everyone dug in. Even then, though, there was a required three minutes of silence before people could converse during lunch. Once we were all finished, another student lead the class' "gochisousamadeshita" (said at the end of a meal to show appreciation for food). These 7-year-old children were all so polite and well behaved. It was startling.

This is just a small part of the outside area.
This school is huge!

We then went outside for lunch break and played Sprint-For-Like-15-Minutes tag, which had me and the rest of the foreign participants gasping for air and begging for water by break's end.

We went back inside and another CIEE student and I lead our classes in a game of Four Corners—which I hadn't played since elementary school. It went surprisingly well, considering I had trouble explaining the rules in Japanese.

We finally said our goodbyes to the students, and headed up to the roof to see the pool (this place has a 5th-floor rooftop pool!) and watch the children depart from above.

It was such a special opportunity to be a part of a foreign elementary school for a day and see how another part of the world does things—and the welcome ceremony had me tearing up. I'm so thankful to have been a part of this.

My elementary school didn't have a rooftop pool...

I headed out to Harajuku with some friends that night for some food and fun, but this post has already gone on long enough. I'm thinking these will probably become less regular once classes start and my days become even more busy. I'll likely switch to a weekly format at some point. For now, though, expect daily updates.

Oh, and this is for you guys, Aislyn and Pat.

Day 9: The Escape

Not much to report from today. Lots more orientations, plus lunch.

I was getting kind of tired of the all-out assault on the senses that is metropolitan Tokyo, so a friend and I headed out to find some greenery today. There are actually some really nice parks here, if you can ignore the noisy trains barreling past every few minutes and the relentless mosquitoes. We just kind of stumbled onto this place and explored from there. It makes me think there are probably a number of these places if you just know where to look. Google Maps, ho!

Tomorrow we're all headed to an elementary school to do some activities with the kids. I'm with the second graders, so I'm thinking I'll play 4 Corners with them. Do they already have that in Japan?

The last time I saw this much green in one place, I was drinking Melon Soda.

Not sure what all of these are trying to convey, but most of them look really unhappy.

Where's a Portal Gun when you need it? 

Holy snap, trees!

And wide open spaces? I thought there was a law against that in Tokyo.

Super peaceful way to wind down the day.

How can I get one of these in my room?

We walked by a fitness club on our way through here. The Japanese like their tennis.

Baseball is pretty much the biggest thing since sliced squid gonads here.

Day 8: The [REDACTED]

Today was a good day, but one I'm going to keep to myself . . .

Here are some pictures of Akihabara though.

So many Gundam models at this place. They were pretty cheap too.

Figures were everywhere. Some I recognized, most I didn't.

The entire third floor of this huge store was covered with these things. Good luck
finding something like this in the States.

An obscene amount of decent anime and manga, and a decent amount of obscene anime and manga.

You could barely see the walls in this place, there were so many posters.

I really wanted shreddin' Jack Skellington, but it in was one of those rigged crane games.

More Dragon Ball. It's like air to these people.

Some sort of, like, arcade Pokemon battle arena game? This guy would alternate
mashing these two buttons at supersonic speed to do . . . something.

This one's for you, Richard.

Day 7: The Swag

Oh yes, this just happened.

Today I went to the Tokyo Game Show with a few friends from the group. That place was insane—so many people, so many games, so much swag! This was the first game con I've ever been to, so it was pretty overwhelming. There were lights and signs everywhere, blasting music, character costumes, and people yelling through microphones and handing me stuff . . . now that I read that again, it sounds just like the rest of Japan.

Anyway, I got to play a bunch of unreleased games that I'm dying to pick up. I got to check out Metal Gear Rising at the Konami booth, which was spectacular. I played a bit of Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney, which was pretty much impossible without knowing the language. "Solve these word puzzles! Cross examine this witness!" "Umm, watashi no Nihongo wa chotto warui desu..." The game looks like it's going to be fantastic, though, and it's awesome to get to say I played it.

It wouldn't be a con without booth babes.

I got to get my hands on a Wii U for the first time as well. I played against one of my friends in the Wii U version of Tekken. The system was pretty cool, Tekken less so, but that's just a preference issue.

I didn't actually play them, but I got to see quite a bit of Project X Zone, the Sega/Capcom/Namco Bandai crossover mash-up game which looks like an insane mess of crazy and awesome. Who doesn't want to see Resident Evil's Jill Valentine duke it out with .hack's Kite? Nobody, that's who. I also saw some of Professor Layon 6. (We don't even have 5 in the States yet. What's up with that?) I also saw some of Ace Attorney 5, Resident Evil 6, and a bunch of other stuff that's slipping my mind right now.

I had so much swag that I couldn't fit it all in my
swag bag. It's pretty much the best problem to have.

Let's see, what else did I do? I picked up a bunch of awesome junk from the Square Enix Booth's store. I got a Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance wall scroll, a plush Kingdom Hearts Meow Wow, a Keyblade keychain, a chibi Cloud figure with his motorcycle, and a deck of Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary playing cards—plus all the free stuff people just kept handing out (except for this one staffer who was being really stingy with the Metal Gear swag).

I got to try takoyaki for the first time today (that's balls of fried octopus for those of you not in the know). It was so good! It actually tastes kind of like pasta. We got dinner out at an udon place tonight, which was also quite good.

It's late and I'm exhausted, so I'm gonna wrap this one up early and put down some pictures to fill space instead. Do note that the center was rather dim, so a lot of the pictures are a bit blurry or poorly lit.

Still questioning if this actually happened or if it was just some sort of fried octopus-induced hallucination.

So much Metal Gear at the Konami booth.

The Level 5 booth had some of the coolest stuff at the show.

Pretty much nothing here I wasn't interested in.

Pfft, yellow Chocobos can't fly; only black ones can do that. Get it together, Square.

Some good ol' fashion Kingdom Hearts cosplay. These girls were super nice too!

Hard to see, but some really cool Kingdom Hearts figures.

The new Professor Layon has me super excited.

I still can't stand most of Evangelion 

Day 6: The Search

So just to get it out of the way, I'm pretty sure I did horribly on my JPLT. The things I expected to be basic were intermediate, the things I expected to be intermediate were advanced, and the things I expected to be advanced were impossible. It really reminded me how much I still don't know about the language. I think I actually did okay on the writing part though. Not having to worry figuring out sentences with kanji I don't know was nice. I can actually communicate quite a bit; it's just in fairly simple language. That's okay though. I got the impression a lot of my future classmates had similar issues.

I kind of flipped out when
we found Hachiko.

Now on to the fun stuff: the Tokyo scavenger hunt. After the test, we were split into three groups of five and handed a disposable camera, an all-day free commuter pass, and a list of things to either find or take a picture of. I wish I had taken a picture of the list, because I can't remember all of the items. Some were:

-Hachiko
-Electric Town
-The Big Egg
-Someone in a costume
-A specific English tourist map
-A vending machine selling something other than drinks or cigs
-Funny Engrish
-Someone in a kimono
-A police station
-A picture of ourselves eating a Japanese lunch
-The movies playing at the Shibuya theater
-A pack of tissues with an advertisement
-Quite a bit of stuff I'm forgetting

We were supposed to get
a picture of ourselves
eating a Japanese lunch.
We got crepes.

Each of these was worth a different number of points. Did I mention we only had three hours to find as much of this stuff as possible? The items weren't always clear, so it was our job to ask the (non-English-speaking) locals for help. We also had to navigate most of the city by ourselves, which would have been quite intimidating a few days ago. The hunt provided an excuse to visit some of the locations we may not have been yet. I got to briefly check out Shibuya and Akihabara, both of which are spectacular. I just wish I could have stayed longer.

I'm fairly confident our group won. We racked up a ton of points, finding almost everything on the list and we got back in time too—unlike the late third group. We won't actually hear the results until the film has been developed, but apparently there are prizes to be had.

These were right next to
the hardware section.

Afterward, I headed to Ikebukuro with two of the other students, where we walked our feet to bloody stumps exploring massive stores.

Tomorrow I'm attending the 2012 Tokyo Game Show with some friends. I am PSYCHED. Will likely post all about that tomorrow.

Day 5: The Eve of Despair

I should really be studying for my Japanese Language Placement Test tomorrow morning, but I'm posting instead.

I may have gotten a bit bored
during the orientation . . .

Today was pretty by the numbers. More orientations on campus, including how to register for classes (which I should also probably be doing). We played a little card game tournament that I won spectacularly. It was a fairly simple game split up among a few groups. The twist was that we couldn't talk and had to figure out on our own (then communicate to others) that the rules weren't actually the same between groups. The whole thing was a big allegory for studying abroad and intermingling cultures.

Today's lunch was at a fairly upscale restaurant. I think it had Tengu or something in the name. Anyway,  I got some sort of fried chicken . . . thing that came with rice, miso, and all kinds of other awesome stuff. I'm really loving the currency here. There are 500 yen coins, which are essentially the equivalent of $6 dollar coins. They make it really easy to spend a lot of money without realizing it, but they're super convenient.

Massive rainstorm out of nowhere. It went from
clear to downpour in maybe 30 seconds.
Even the weather here is crazy.

I got my rail pass today, which I adore like a son. No more bothering with ticket machines before each ride on the Tokyo Metro. I can just swipe my card—scratch that—I don't even have to swipe it; it just needs to get near an entrance gate, meaning I don't even have to take it out of my wallet. This place is awesome.

This thing was filled with all kinds of delicious fruit.
The (chocolate) sign says "Happy birthday, Dad"

Oh right, except for how the weather tried to kill me. I was startled by what was probably the closest lightning bolt I've ever seen. The thunder was immediate and it sounded like an explosion. The rain quickly swept in afterward. Good thing I finally remembered to carry an umbrella.

I headed home early today and played with my imouto and otouto. It's actually my host dad's birthday, so we had a delicious meal of sushi and inari, followed by a birthday cake and a Japanese rendition of Happy Birthday . . . at least, I think that's what that was.

Okay, it's late and I really should look over my Japanese book to make sure I don't end up back at the most basic level. Mata ashita ne.

Day 4: The Cop Out

I finally got my blog in order. Have some pictures I couldn't find spots for earlier.

Green tea ice cream-filled cream puffs. Oh yes.

I ALMOST bought it, but the English version is practically out now anyway.

Ooh, shiny.

"Make a contract with me..."

I'm not the only one who loves Halloween.

I actually did already find a place for this picture. She just gets to be here twice.

Back in Shinjuku with the widest crosswalk I have ever seen.

Dragon Ball is everywhere.

Yes, please.

My new Dumbphone. (I want my Google Maps back!)
It wouldn't be a Japanese phone without a phone charm. 

Some sort of, like, Madoka PSP cake party game box set? I don't even know.

>_<