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.