Another week gone by...

It's Friday night here. Classes are over for the week. This weekend I'm heading to a place called Hakone. It's a resort town in the 5 Lakes region, near Mt. Fuji. My schools running the trip. It should be a good one, although the weather might not cooperate. I really want to see Mt. Fuji. If you recall, I went there not to long ago and tried to climb up it. But I never saw it, because the weather hid it behind a shroud of clouds and mist. It's gotten cooler here now; I bet it's freezing on the mountain.

My week was so so. Nothing fantastic happened. I had a few tests; I'll find out next week how I did on them. I've biked to school almost everyday; I skipped one day because of torrential rain. Biking is exhaustive but useful I suppose. I just wish I had an MP3 player to help pass the time (b/t 40 - 50 mins, depending). I usually bike in shorts and a t-shirt and change at school. One downside of bike riding though is that my bike isn't quite big enough for me. I got the seat racthed all the way up, but I can't quite get full extension of my legs when I pedal. I'm almost there though, so it's not too bad. I think it' s funny because I'm not really that big of a person.

Well I'm off. You'll here from me when I get back from the hot springs.

Diet, TGS, etc.

Last week was good. No qualms here.

Friday I went to the Japanese Diet (like their Congress, Capitol Hill, etc. Got to see all kinds of stuff and met with a Diet member, who got us all into exclusive places. We sat down and had coffee with him in the Diet member only lounge.

That night ate at Outback. It was too good, the first filling meal I've had thus far. I got a chili cheese burger and a side of fries.

Saturday went the Tokyo Game Show, a big video game convention where companies come out, show their wares and nerds leave the attic of their parent's homes this one weekend of the year. I don't think I'm into games that much anymore because I felt strangely uncomfortable around all these video game people. There was a good number of cosplayers (people who dress up like video game and anime characters) present, most of whom were girls. There was a giant dressing room area just for them. Into was kind of disturbing actually; there costumes were too good. They stood outside the halls and people were flocking to take pictures with them. I didn't feel like waiting in line to play any games and eventually I got bored with it all and tried to leave. I found some friends who came later though; the people I came with were pretty excited about all the games and ran off in all directions. So I hung out a little more. Eventually we left. The friends I was with were all homestays, 2 of them brought along their homestay families, both of which had small children. We all went out to Carrefour, the French version of Walmart. It's a truly amazing place. It's like a shopping mall, but it's all one store. We hung out there. I left with two friends for an hour and went to an arcade. We came back and ate dinner in Carrefour.

That night, I went out with a bunch of people, including one of the Dutch guys from Mt. Fuji that I met. Had a good time.

I've realized my posts have been way too long, so I'm shortening them up a bit. I'm very talkative when I type. Hope this helps. It'll save me time as well.

Part III: Me vs. Mt Fuji, Round 2

* times are rough estimates *

Midnight: we are woken up by one the hut guys. He wants us to leave now, probably because the weather is still bad. We get up, get ready, wake up the Dutch guys as well.

1:00 a.m.: We head out. It's still really bad outside, a lot colder now, still very windy and rainy. Actually the rain has gotten a lot worse, it's a downpour now.

1:15 a.m.: we are taking frequent breaks. One member of the party is fatiguing easily. I stay with her.

1:45 a.m.: Said member struggles up the mountain and says she can't make it the rest of the way. We take her to another hut where we told her to stay until we came back. We have not left the 7th station yet.

2:00 a.m.: We continue up the mountain. The trails have been and continue to be very sheer, many times just solid lava flows. It is pitch black outside and all we have are a few tiny flashlights. The rocks are very slippery.

2:30 a.m.: The wind is still blowing hard and the rain never lets up. We are and have been soaked. None of us had prepared at all for this kind of weather. Eventually, while breaking somewhere we encounter another human being, the first we've seen that night. He's an American from Missouri. We ask him to join us and he agrees. We continue up the mountain, taking frequent breaks again. Another member of the party is beginning to fatigue easily.

3:30 a.m.: We have reached the 8th station. We are soaked, tired and freezing. We huddle outside a hut and talk. One of the Dutchmen decides that it is not worth going to the top and wants to stay in the hut. Me and my 2 friends debate for awhile. The other Dutchmen and the American head out for the top. My party also heads out after them, but after 10 minutes, we decided that its not worth risking ourselves over. The rain and wind have been getting worse as we've gotten higher. We go to the hut our other friend is staying in.

4:00 a.m.: We get to the hut. They refuse to let us just rest and tell us that the only way we can stay is if we pay full price. We reluctantly give in. However, to make matters worse, they are very rude and tell us to put our clothes in numerous small plastic bags, which would not let them dry. Angrily, I head to bed.

6:00 a.m.: Massive commotion outside our beds. I look out and see tons of people packing. It is light out and I can see that there is still whipping heavy rain outside. Our Dutch friends and the American are in the hut. The two that went to the top said they never made it. Apparently a group of about 40 people barricaded the summit. Unbeknowest to us, a serious typhoon had hit southern Japan and a lot of the run off headed for Mt. Fuji. The typhoon had killed 9 people in southern Japan. It was said that know one was allowed on the summit because you would have been blown off. Being on the mountain was different because it provided shelter. After hearing this, I roll my eyes and go back to bed, while our new friends head back down the mountain.

8:00 a.m.: Time to go, 8 a.m. is the kick out time. I never really slept at all the whole time and since our clothes were soaked, we froze while we laid in bed. We put back on our wet, cold clothes and head out. Don't worry, I had a lot of clothes on to help compensate the fact that they were soaked through.

8:30 a.m.: We find out that the descending trail is different then the ascending trial. It's incredibly bleak and lifeless, and it's red. The descending trail, with it's red, dusty, lifeless appearance looked like Mars, while the ascending trail with it's gray, frozen lava looked like the moon. The descending trail was very hard to go down because it was steep, dusty and rocky, making us slip and slide all the way down. Plus it was very windy and rainy still.

9:00 a.m.: I think I spot the 4th member of our troupe who left at the 7th station walking up the trail. Excited I run down, yelling her name. I get closer and realize it's not her, just some lonely Russian girl. Disappointed I walk away and let someone else apologize for me. She was the last human we saw until we approached the 5th station.

10:00 a.m.: WE kept going down. We just talk, nothing interesting happened. I could never take out my camera because it was so rainy that I didn't want to ruin it. We also realize that the descending trial never hooks up with the 7th station, were our other party member. We hope that she walks down by herself.

11:00 a.m.: Back at the 5th station. Our 4th member is no where to be seen. WE get the phone number for her hut and call up. She's still there. She tells she'll walk down herself. We feel horrible. We go into a building, meet up with the Dutch guys and have lunch. I eat a pork ramen bowl and half a squid. It was exquisite.

1:30 p.m.: Our final friend makes it back down and we chill out in a cafeteria.

3:00 p.m.: We take a bus home. Still soaked and absolutely freezing. I've taken off a lot of my wet clothes and am now the coldest yet.

We get back to Tokyo and it's humid and hot out. Life's not fair. I stink too. The bus ride was 3 hrs. I have another 1hr 15mins home by train. I did not sleep for awhile. I was not in a good mood.

But it was an amazing time and I had lots of fun. There is absolutely no way that I can desccribe to you in words or pictures what happened on this trip.

Part II: Me vs. Mt. Fuji, Round 1

If you looked at my pics from the previous post, you may have figured out that I attempted to climb Mt. Fuji, Sunday into Monday.

Me and 3 friends took a 2hr 30min bus ride to the Mt. Fuji 5th station, from Tokyo. Fuji has these things called stations, staggered up the mountain; they are merely markers surrounded by small collections of buildings, mainly huts for hikers to stay in. The 5th station is at around 2200m, which saves us a lot of hiking (peak is at 3776m, around 13,000 ft., the tallest in Japan).

I had a feeling the weather wouldn't cooperate. We said to each other if the weather is bad, we'll just go home. It was OK when we got there and therefore we set out. Initially, as we went up the trail, we saw large amounts of people going the other way. We thought nothing of it and continued. 30 mins into it, one member of our party decided she couldn't climb anymore and she decided to turn back now before she got into serious trouble up the mountain. Our goal was to get to the 7th station (3-4 hrs hike), rest and eat, and then set out in the middle of the night for the summit, to arrive for the sunrise.

Me and 2 others continued. It started to drizzle, then rain. I had brought my ski stuff, so at first the weather was not a problem. Time passed. We took frequent breaks as we climbed, talked a lot and we enjoyed each other's company. However, the weather kept getting worse. The rain increased and the wind picked up significantly. We eventually reached our hut at the 7th station, where we were to regenerate before we finished the hike to the top.

They hut people were very friendly and let us dry our soaked clothes over their fire. It was also absolutely freezing outside and so we sat around the fire almost the whole time. The friendly hut people talked to us (well, the others in my party who were more fluent than I) about who we were and what not, very nice people. At some point while we were warming by the fire, the 4th member of our party went walking by. She had decided that trying to stay somewhere else overnight or go home wasn't worth the hassle and therefore she climbed up by herself. At 5:30, we had dinner. The only other people in the hut were 2 Dutchmen, who we befriended. They're about 26 and are interning in Tokyo. At 7, we attempted to sleep in the sleeping area, which is essentially a giant 2-tiered cupboard for people. I did not sleep much, and when I did, I had the most bizarre dreams.

Part III tomorrow.

Part I: Ninjas and Sumo

This is the first instalment of my weekend adventures. It makes things easier for me if I split stuff up, so deal with it. Sorry, some of the photos pertain to the next installments, so bear with me.

Ok, so I got to the ninja restaurant. It's called Ninja by the way (yes, very creative). We tried to go last week, but you needed a reservation. Anyway, we made one for Friday at 8:45. You walk in and it's a small dark room with only a receptionist around. We were told to split up in groups at this point. When my group went in, we stood in the dark room next to the receptionist. We were told there was a ninja hidden in the room somewhere. Suddenly, the wall behind me opens (uh o, trap door!) and out pops a female ninja. She tells us to follow her down the trap door. We enter through the door. It's still pretty dark. She lead us down this winding tunnel that looks like it was dug out of a cave. There are doors and things all around. Half the time we had to duck, because there wasn't enough room in the "cave." Eventually, we round this corner and stop. In front of us are these steps that lead down to this stream. The ninja says some stuff and out pops a hidden drawbridge so we can cross the stream. Pretty neat, lol. We cross the bridge and enter this big cave. This is were the dining area is. Every table in here is a private little cave or room. Our cave room had a stream running through it and some wooden sliding doors on one side. There are wooden structures integrated in the cave which add to the complexity of the dining area. You seriuosly need a guide in this place, because it is so easy to get lost. And it's intimidating too, because all these ninjas are running around.

Our waiter lived in Califronia for 5 yrs, so ordering food was easy. It was a good time, except I ate one of the habenero peppers in my drink. Never again. I got steak, bad choice because steak is not readily available in Japan (i.e. expensive, there aren't a lot of cows in Japan and they don't like American beef). But I wanted to try Japanese steak, to see what the hype as about. It wasn't bad, but it was a small portion size. I also had french onion soup. All in all it is was an ok meal. After we ate, a ninja magicain came by and did a few tricks that were pretty entertaining. After we paid, another ninja guide lead us out of the restaurant. So, it wasn't bad I guess. I wanted to go mostly because I wanted to see all the ninja stuff. It was cool, but I probably won't be back.

Next day was sumo day. Ok, before sumo, we went to a sumo restaurant. I felt kind of jipped because my meal I had to cook myself. I got chicken something. They brought it out raw in a pot with other ingredients on a portable gas burner and I had to sit and cook it for 10 minutes, which was kind of weird. Next I walked around the part of the city where I was. I stumbled across a Shinto temple. I've never been in one, so I found it interesting. It was big, but no one was there. I felt akward inside it though because it had all these pictures from the Tokyo fire bombings of World War II. I've heard people say that they were worse for Japan then the atomic bombs. I think the pictures in this shrine helped confirm that for me.

Finally we got to sumo. Ah, sumo. After watching it, I wish I had broguht a book with me. Most of the time nothing happens at all. Let me describe a typical sumo bout: the wrestlers get ready in their corners. They wipe themselves down with a towel, stretch or loosen up briefly, then dip one hand into a bucket of salt. Then both wrestlers silmultaneously turn around, toss the salt in the air and start making huge stomping gestures with there legs. Then they walk out to the middle of the ring, do the stomping thing again, get down, stare at each other, ready to charge...the ref, in his very ornate garb, hunches over, ready to begin the match...then one of the wrestlers gets up. Both wrestlers go back to their corners and do everything all over again. This cycle repeats about 4 -5 times. When they finally get down and wrestle, matches can last anywhere from 5 seconds to one minute. Usually, they are under 30 secs. So for me, watching sumo can be frustrating because most of the time there is no sumo. It's stomping feet, throwing salt and having staring contests (by the way, the rituals like salt and stomping have religious [shinto] connotations. For instance, the stopming of the feet destroys evil spirits in the ring, etc.). Yea, so after 3 hours of 'action,' I went home. I appreciated seeing the culture side of things though. For instance, the good seats in the stadium, close to the ring, were not seats, but rather large mats. And the outifts of the sumo entourage were quite ornate and beautiful, especailly the refs. After each bout, a man would come out and chant, lamenting I think about the winner. It was also neat to see all the wrestlers walking around in the streets and on the trains. They all have the typical sumo haircut and dress only in tradtional sumo garb.

Here's a vid of a match that was surprisingly exciting. I guess it was more exciting for us, because nothing much was happening for a little while.

Week 4

Short update. Another week of classes gone by. I got through my first chapter of Japanese. I can now read one of the three scripts that is used to write Japanese, which is definitely progress. I'm working on the second. I should be done that one in 2 weeks. The third, Kanji, will take years of study (no joke). I can say things realted to school, but not much pratical things, like say, when I'm in a 7-11 buying a candy bar and want to know if it has nuts.

This week it has been rainy and damp. On the bright side, it has gotten cooler, although it may get over 80 again next week. No earhtquakes that I know of either this week. I think a huge storm is heading this way over the weekend and into next week, which kinda is a bummer because I have a 3 day weekend and I plan on enjoying it. Not sure what's going on yet, but you'll here from me afterwards.

Well, I'm heading out now. Tokyo at night is a million times better then during the day. We're going out to a ninja restaurant tonite. I'll tell you what that is and what it's like later.

In food related news, I made a good dinner last night. It consisted of rice (easy), and this awesome curry I made. It had pork, red peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and onions. It was good, but the curry was a little sweet. The night before I had steamed vegetables and some chicken. I'm got better...

Adyos

Yokohama and food

Here are a bunch of pics this week. As usual, read the post first, then go to the pics. I also want to apologize for the straight up scenery pics and video. I don't take too many pics and vids of people or of myself. I'll work on that this week so that you can see me in action or something. Plus it's proof that I'm really in Japan.

Also, if you can not watch the videos, please make sure you have Flash installed on your computer. Please go here to download it.

Well, one thing I forgot to mention earlier this week is that we had another earthquake. I believe this one was a magnitude of 4.4. We hardly felt it. I was in the second story of the TUJ building and the building shook a little, as if a heavy set man person was sprinting down the hallway. We started to whisper to each other and the teacher got annoyed, not realizing there was an earthquake. When we told her, she got all upset and had to sit down. Funny, she was the only Japanese person in the room (class size was 40) and it scared her the most.

The Yokohama trip was interesting but wasn't run very well. Japanese TUJ students led us around, similar to our orientation. They procrastinated and did not plan well, so we ended up wasting lots of time. I liked Yokohama though; it's a big city and the differences between it and Tokyo are stark. If you don't know much about Yokohama, it's south of Tokyo, very close. Population is 3.5 million. Tokyo (pop: 8.5 mil, depending on how you define Tokyo)and Yokohama are pretty much just one continuous city.

First stop was the Raumen (Ramen) Museum. It was interesting for it's recreation of an old Tokyo neighborhood. There are 8 ramen restaurants spread around the "neighborhood, " each serving a unique bowl of ramen. I did not try any, as the lines were ridiculously long (I heard it wasn't anything special anyway). Instead I went to the soda shop with a friend and had an amazing cherry soda vanilla float. Simple amazing that thing. Here's a video walking through the "streets:"


Next stop was this really random walk around downtown Yokohama. That's pretty much all we did, walk around, not being told where we were going and not being able to stop at all. More vids:



Next stop was a little boat ride around Yokohama Bay. Not much to say here, it was just a boat ride. I suppose it was neat to see stuff from the water. Oh, did I mention we waited at the pier for the boat forever? I think half the time we were waiting for something, either a boat, train, people or our guides' brains to start thinking. Vid:


Next we just hung out in a park, walked around, through grass a each other (funner that it sounds). 3 of us walked to a convenience store and I was asked to try these bean paste treats. They weren't bad actually. They had red bean paste between to small pancakes. I forgot what they were called, but they didn't taste like beans. It was more fruity I think.

Exciting huh. Last stop was Yokohama Chinatown. Very cool place, I liked it here. Very happening, full of bright colors and things. 8 of us went into this Chinese restaurant for dinner. We got to eat in a room that had tatami mats (Japanese straw mats) with a table that had a giant lazy susan in the middle. It was a family style restaurant. We had a private room that was Japanese style (strange we were in a Chinese restaurant), with the paper walls, sliding doors, please remove your shoes before going in rule, etc. I thought it wasn't bad, we had plenty of food with plenty of variety: 2 kinds of soup, spring rolls, duck skin that you folded with other ingredients to make a taco like thing, 2 kinds of shrimp, fried rice of course, vegetables, some beef stir fry stuff, some other meat I think, tea, and lots of other things I can't remember. It was great. Plus, somebody had poured out roasted chestnuts for us to snack on which were also good. Video of Chinatown:


Yes, so that was that. I went home after that (which was hard because the people I was with weren't all together on how we were to get home). Sunday I did the church thing. I also went on the hunt for some needed stuff. Couldn't' find hand sanitizer or air freshener, but I did find white vinegar! And Datu Puti at that, an even better version! I was so happy, I tired some right after I got out of the store. They also were selling other Filipino stuff, like spices, Sinigang soup mix, etc. I'll be back. Weird thing about it is that it was a 100 yen store (like a dollar store) were I found these things, and the owners were European. Go figure.

For those who are interested, Jess climbed Mt. Fuji Saturday into Sunday. Some people in my dorm went with her and from the sounds of it, they had a blast. I really wish I had gone. I'm not sure if I'll do it or not; time is running out before winter comes (on the mountain, that's in 3 weeks) and my schedule is pretty busy as well.

That wraps up this post. So, next time I promise a more personal post (in regards to pics, vids), and perhaps a video blog, lol.

A Week in this Life of Mine...

Welp, the second week of classes has ended. It doesn't sound like a lot of time, 2 weeks, but me and others here feel like we've been here forever.

Now that things are in full swing, there have been a few differences. AS you may know, I have a bicycle now. I thought it would be a good idea to bike to school save money. I am saving money, but I did not factor in the fact that Tokyo is hot and humid for a longer period of time during the year then say, the U.S. Plus It's about 8 miles and hilly. The first time I biked I was drenched in sweat. And it was only 8 in the morning and I had just showered. I did it a second time this week and I just got tired of getting to class and sitting there all hot and stuff. The next day I rode the train. I almost forgot what it was like to be in the train. There is immense freedom riding your bike, when compared to being smashed together with tons of people on a train, transferring twice, walking to stations with armies of people, etc. Thursday I tried to compromise by riding my bike to another station and taking the train in, to see if it was faster. This way I wouldn't stay on my bike long enough to get too good of a heart rate going, maybe save time (both train only or bike only are 50 minutes) and I would eliminate two line transfers and therefore save money. In the end, I did not sweat (probably because I didn't get to the hilly part), but I only saved a marginal amount of time and it was only 30 yen cheaper (about 25 cents) then if I had taken the train from home. I felt dumb about that, so I abandoned that idea. Perhaps I'll think of something different or just wait to bike when it gets cooler out.

What else. Well, my Japanese teacher is incredible energetic. She's literally hops around the classroom. She also takes pride in torturing us in regards to our knowledge (or lack thereof) of Japanese. Twice this week she gave us pop quizzes on things we learned no less than 2 minutes before the quiz. And she has this crazy, evil, happy laugh, which looks even weirder because she's like 5 foot tall, Japanese and tiny.

My eating situation has improved significantly. I have discovered a few fine dining establishments in the vicinity of my school to eat lunch at. One is the vending machine place which I mentioned before. It's cheap (total under 5 bucks), filling and good. I especially like their curry and rice. I also went to a cheap Italian place nearby as well that wasn't bad. Tonight, I fried up some beef strips, garlic and rice and had a nice meal, complimented by Cup of Noodles Kim Chi, which is surprisingly good. To top it off, I had this giant apple. I think all the fruits here are double the size of what we got in America. Actually,I think these are just normal fruits and the ones in American are prematurely picked or grown too fast to meet demand or something.

Wednesday night was the best. After being turned down by what seems to be the coolest restaurant in the world because we lacked a reservation (called Ninja, use your imagination with that one), we went to this other restaurant. I forget what they are called, but you sit at a table and there are these hot plates in the middle. Then you order and they bring out the food and keep it on the hotplates. I've got pictures that I'll post later that explain things a lot better. Anyway, the food was pretty artistic, not too expensive (but portions were on the small side) and it was good. There were 8 of us and we each ordered something and shared. I think many of you will be happy to know that I ate some seafood and enjoyed it, notably shrimp, squid and octopus I think. Food yesterday (Thursday) was OK; dinner was messed up. At the supermarket here, they sell meet fully cooked. You can come in, buy it and eat it there. They have chicken wings and kabobs, for starters. I had the wings and chicken shish-kabobs with some rice Tuesday night I think and it was real good. Thursday I decided to have the other kabobs. They looked like beef covered in BBQ sauce. Man have I got to stop assuming that things that look the same as things in America are the same here. I'm not really sure what it was that I ate, but it was most likely gizzard (stomach of a chicken or other small animal I believe). I ate it, but it wasn't that good. I also had another bad experience I think Monday night. I decided to eat some sushi. Someone later told me it was tuna that I had. It had the raw red tuna, with rice and seaweed wrapped around it. It was sick. I could not finish it at all. I had 4 rolls (out of 10) and I couldn't' take it anymore. I thought it was bad and I was going to die of food poisoning, but I realized this is just how sushi tastes like. perhaps that's what I get for buying the cheap stuff (under 2 dollars)

Ok, enough of the food exploits. Wednesday night I did karaoke at a karaoke bar with 7 other people. It was lots of fun. I can't explain why or what happened that night, it's just something you have to experience yourself. Plus, karaoke is probably in my blood and I enjoy it (even if it's at a relatives house with a home karaoke system, lol...).

Finally, there is this incredible loud, super hyper Japanese girl at TUJ who I see every so often. She's learning English, so things get interesting real quick. Apparently a few days ago she learned everything bad to say in English. Me and 2 other people had to work on correcting that for about 20 minutes, because she had no idea what she was saying or how bad it was. If you've ever seen the movie "Can't Hardly Wait," she is exactly like the German exchange student. She's so loud too, way way too happy, and I think she likes me.

That's it for now. I'm going to Yokohama tomorrow. Jess will be attempting to climb Mt. Fuji. I'll update with pictures next time.

Sake and Randomness

Here are a few pictures I recently took. You might want to read this post first, then look at the pics. I think some people didn't know that if you click on the picture above, it takes you to a gallery of pictures, with captions that tell their own story.

Where to start. Ah yes, last post I was bitter about my bike ride. Later that night, TUJ sponsored a sake tasting event at a club in Roppongi, a center of nightlife entertainment in Tokyo, especially among foreigners. It cost only 10 bucks and was well worth it. Among the things that happened were: a performance from one of Japan's best shamisan (traditional Japanese instrument, see video below) players; an educational talk on sake; two rap performances by TUJ students, one a solo MC and the other a group of 3 guys (they weren't too bad, but the videos I took of them don't do them justice); a guy who was writing anything you want in Japanese calligraphy; and an after party at the end. Oh, and did I mention we were allowed to sample no less then 7 sakes? Each sample came in a small cup slightly larger than a shot glass. They were handpicked by our esteemed sake expert, so our samples were apparently of high quality. I guess they weren't bad. Oh, I also failed to mention that the legal drinking age in Japan is 20. So don't worry mom and dad, I'm not a bad person; I was merely obeying the law.

Video of Shamisan Player:


Of course I had all 7 sake samples (plus some of the 'leftovers'). The after party was a very good time. I met lots of new people and learned how much alcohol they could handle. Apparently sake has the highest amount of naturally occurring alcohol out of all alcoholic beverages, so much in fact that it is sometimes watered down. Me and most other people that night have never had sake before, which leads me to the last bit of entertainment: TUJ students. Absolutely hilarious.

So the after party was good, the next part was difficult. The condition in which many of the students were was not good. I think we walked 2 blocks in about 45 minutes. A lot of people go to TUJ and they seemed to have taken over this part of Tokyo that night, as we kept encountering students everywhere as we walked. Those of us who's brains still functioned tried to delegate what to do next, but we couldn't find consensus. Some people had things to do the next morning, so we decided to go home. I apparently was the only person out of 8 who knew how to get to our dorm (there are 4 TUJ forms spread around Tokyo, plus home-stay people and those with their own places), so I led (very slowly I might add) us back to the dorm. I have to say it is kind of difficult to get back, sober or not. Tokyo trains are a mess of lines criss-crossed in non-sensical patterns.

Another little video from the sake tasting:


One last interesting tid-bit: trains in Tokyo stop at around 1 a.m. One kid in my dorm got tired of clubbing at around 2 - 3 a.m. I think and decided to walk back to the dorm. I am not really sure why he decided to do this because taxis operate 24/7. The dorm in around 7 - 8 mile away from Roppongi. It took him over 3 hours to walk home. I am amazed he was even able to find his way back.

The rest of the weekend was meh, meaning nothing happened that's worth mentioning. I did my laundry, went running, did school work. So I'd like to take this time to list some random facts and observations I find interesting:

- Japan has lots of mosquitoes. I went to hang up clothes to dry outside and in about 5 to 10 minutes I was eaten alive by them.

- Japan is short on basically all natural resources. There are no napkins to dry your hands in the bathrooms after you wash them (and strangely no dryers either) and paper is expensive to buy.

- Speaking of bathrooms, I've noticed some toilets are just holes in the ground which I haven't figured out how to use yet. On the other end of the spectrum, there are toilets here with remote controls. They have buttons that shoot out water jets and deodorizers, among other things. I'm definitely not used to this, so these advanced toilets scare me.

- Speaking of random things, I don't know what this was. I saw it on the way home from the train station. I'm going to guess it's Shinto and they're carrying a Shinto shrine. But it could be Buddhist. Or maybe both. Japanese people have no problem combining religions I here:


- Vending machines are too popular here. It's ridiculous. You can pretty much live off of vending machines. Everywhere you go, there are drink vending machines featuring every flavor known to (the Japanese) man. A vending machine at school I think is capable of giving you fries and chicken nuggets. And some restaurants use vending machines as essential parts of their operations. At the door there is a vending machine with pictures. You put in money, then press the button of the picture of food you want. It prints out a receipt and you take it to a counter where a guy cooks whatever is written on the receipt.

- Some people here take way too much pride in their jobs. i once read a story of a Japanese grocery store worker nicknamed The Samurai. He would speak Japanese in out-dated samurai slang and work with lightning lethal precision. I think I've encountered some of these people in stores as well. I don't speak Japanese, but they yell stuff out at me and work diligently as if there life depended on it. I got scared the first time I went to the convenience store because I thought the check out guy was yelling at me.

- I biked to school today. I thing I noticed while riding was that there are lots of police in Japan. There are Kobans all around (small sub police stations). I think New York City is thinking of implementing this system. I also saw the dreaded bicycle cops. They chase after foreigners on their bikes to make sure they didn't steal their bike or come into Japan illegally. I've heard of people being stopped every day for days on end and some people even being stopped four times in one day. I passed three bike cops today. When we got close, I squinted a lot, so I don't think they recognised me. Phew.

- The pillow in my bed has beans in it. I think it works out in the end.

- I do not know why there aren't more parks in this city. There is a large one near my dorm. Last night I went running through it and tons of people where out. The park lines a river and follows it down stream. Because of this, it's long, but not wide. So there are paths on the outside of the park and fields in the inside. The part of the park I've seen has a driving range, a few soccer fields, grass tennis courts, and numerous baseball fields. Baseball field after baseball field. And people are always playing organized games on them all the time. I did a longer run yesterday. I didn't notice that the park was getting thinner and thinner, so thin in fact that there wasn't enough room in the fields for baseball. But people were playing anyway, they just extended the field past the paths that people walk on. Oblivious to these fact, I accidentally ran through center field of a baseball game. People were yelling and getting up and I was wondering what was happening. I realized what was going on as I ran past the right fielder who was standing in the middle of the path.

- Speaking of sports, I've seen a few tennis courts around. But only natural clay and grass courts. I even saw a high school with grass courts.

- I went to an ATM on Sunday. It was too futuristic for me. It was on the second floor of a sushi restaurant in Roppongi, right next to a giant TV monitor. Anyway, I got out of the elevator and in front of me there is this giant glass door. On the other side are two guards at attention. The door had a card reader and I thought 'O no, I think I walked into the bank vault.' The card reader reads your ATM card I figured out. Actually the guard on the other side of the glass was signing to me how to work the card reader, because it's upside down from usual card readers. Anyway, I get in the ATM. By now, I'm thinking to myself this is ridiculous. I felt like I was in Star Trek, with all these guards, sliding glass doors and generous use of aluminum trim on everything.

- I'm sorry to hear that Steve Irwin, a.k.a. Crocodile Hunter, died. R.I.P. See, I do keep up with current events back home.

- Last comment: Japanese people. I'd like to thank them for contrasting us Americans so well on Friday night. Large groups of Americans, loud, obnoxious, taking up all the side walk, laughing and having a good time seemed to be the exact opposite of the Japanese people we saw that night. Those Japanese that were out were mostly in suits, silent and walked around us. On the trains, as we laughed and joked, they were silent. Japanese people do only the following on trains: 30% sleep. 30% stare at the ground and then sleep. 30% read a book, read manga (Japanese comic books that all ages read), read e-mail on their cell phone or play games on it. Let's just say that they are reading or staring at something in silence. The last 10% might actually be talking face to face with a real human being. I'll leave it at that.

Last, here's a message from Jess. I think I'm in there too. You can't see us, but you can here us, lol.



Ok, I think that's it now. If you got any comments, suggestions, etc., leave them in the comment section at the end of this post.

What a day...

I have to tell you about what has happened to me thus far today. First I walked onto the wrong train and ended up who knows where. I got to scool a little late, but I wasn't marked late thank goodness. Yesterday I had decided that I was going to get a bike and rice cooker today. I was very determined. I knew where I was going to go, what I was looking for and how much I was going to spend. I got to this section of Tokyo called Akihabara aka Electric Town. It's full of everything electronical, digital, etc. plus anime and video games. It's a nerd paradise. It reminded me of the Wiz , except 1000 times bigger (for those of you from the NJ/NY area). Best Buy on steroirds. The stores are all lined up on this big avenue and there all 6-8 stories full of electronic junk. I just wanted a rice cooker. No problem, found dozens of them. But the thing is Akihabara is not really discounted, which is ironic for the elctronic discount part of the city. If you want a deal, you gotta head for the alley ways and bargain. I don't speak Japanese so that was out of the question. Eventually I went into a store called Don Quixote, known has Donki in Japan for short. For some reason Don is a blue penguin. I thought he was Spanish. Anyway, I went in and found a rice cooker. Real good price too, the best so far after scouring the other high rise stores. Apparently you have to buy the item on the floor you find it on and the alarm beeped when I stepped on the escalator with my rice cooker, which was ok, I didn't get caught. Then I found my bike. It's awesome (for what I paid, which wasn't much, so it's not that great). I'll create a post just for it later I guess, with some pictures. It took awhile to get the bike. No sales people where working on the bike floor apparently at that time and so I waited around awhile for someone to pop up. Finally got someone, went to pay for it which turned out to be a real porblem, because no one speaks english, I had no idea how what the bike sales guy was trying to tell me. After 20 minutes I figured it out, found the bike guy again, and used my universal sign language to ask the million dollar question:

You see, Japan is a relatively safe country. Crime rate and violence is much lower than it is in America. That means cops have nothing to do. In Japan you also have to register your bicycle. There are 30 million bikes in Tokyo, so bikes are important to Tokyo life. Also, foreigners stand out (because of physical characteristics, of course) and since they are many times more likely to commit a crime (like say steal a bike), I must register immeadiately. I was told that once a Temple student "borrowed" a bike. He got stopped by the cops, arrested and put in jail for 20 days. That's right. The police can hold you for 20 days, guilty or innocent. When I asked the salesman to register, we kept using weird sign language, pointing at stuff, etc. so he called up someone to speak english. I finally registered my bike and got ready to leave.

Ok. Did I mention it was raining today? Pretty good too. I have an umbrella, no jacket or anything. As I stepped outside, I thought getting back to school was going to be the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It was raining. I have a rice cooker with me (it's the size of a small computer monitor, so big it couldn't fit in the basket in front of my bike, which is pretty big). I also have my backpack on. I did not want to get wet, so I held the umbrella in one hand, which is what everyone else does in Tokyo. Also, when you ride your bike in Tokyo, you ride only on the sidewalk, unless your some kind of beast on a road bike going 30 mph thru the city. So here I am with this giant parcel in my front basket, bouncing up and down with every bump, holding my umbrella in one hand, steering the bike with the other (which was hard with this heavy rice cooker in front), hauling my backpack and steering around the throngs of people on the street. Many times I had to walk because there was just too many people. Oh, I forgot to mention how far away from school I was. Very far away. And to that the organic, non-sensical layout of Japanese roads (meaning that it wasn't a grid layout), I was in for a tall order. By the way, they do not name streets in Japan. Amazing. So try and imagine this for a second. I had to stop and read the map many times, walk behind people, dodge people and their umbrellas, grab the rice cooker as it was bouncing out of the basket while steering with one hand. It was nightmare. I also got stopped by a cop who checked for my alien registration card, which I didn't have because it's not ready yet. So I showed my receipt, which is good enough. Great. Ugh

I got lucky and got lost and ended up at school. Lucky. I was not in a good mood.