Really long post

I have to offer my continuing apologies for the lack of posts in the last few months. I have been very very busy to say the least.
Just some random thoughts I have had as of late. Today, like most Saturdays, I slept in. When I woke up it was about the right time to catch all my American friends on AIM and talk to them for a while. It's these type of things that make me feel really normal and average here. Then later today I had to go out and run some errands, and when some little kid gawks at you on the way to the train that feeling of normalcy goes away. It's not that I feel completely like an outcast or something, but the fact is no foreigner will ever really be completely absorbed into Japanese society. It's so exclusive here, even other Asians stick out, and once a Japanese person hears they are not of 100% Japanese decent the view of that person changes. I think one of the most important things to do before living in a place like this is realize you will never be normal and start to accept it. The sooner that happens the better.
The people here are very passive and it's kind of nice from my perspective. Many problems that exist in America are around because people complain about things and feel that they have a need to point out when something bothers them. On a small level this can drive a person crazy, especially when people just whine about stupid crap all the time, but it is good to have a system in place to keep things in check, because if some American institution screws up, people will speak up. The Japanese seem to keep a lot of things inside themselves. Sometimes its just small stuff and they just grin and bare it, do what they have to do, but other times it can be larger things. There are many structural and bureaucratic problems at my school, and people just kind of deal with it and accept it. A lot of the foreign staff tries to change things, but they only get so far. The system of just shutting up and dealing with whatever bothers you is nice on a day to day basis, because it keeps the general peace, but in the long run I wish people would speak up a little more.
I guess I should speak a bit about my last trips and such. Around the end of June (wow that feels like forever ago) CIEE had its weekend trip to Hiroshima. We went by Shinkanse (bullet train) which is always nice, even though the ride was crazy long. The first night we arrived at about 9ish, so we were essentially set loose on the town for a while. Although still a city, Hiroshima is a great deal smaller than Tokyo and it was cool walking around in a place that seemed a little more, well, little. After a night out and an Onsen soak at about 1 am, we went to bed awaiting the next adventure. The next day we went to the Atomic Bomb dome, which is one of the few buildings that wasn't completely destroyed by the bomb. After that we went to some of the memorials and the atomic bomb museum. The whole thing wasn't exactly as sad as I thought it would be, but I think this was because I was mentally comparing the whole thing to when I visited Pearl Harbor. The main differences that stuck out was the absence of any Japanese flags at any building, (in fact I see very few Japanese flags anywhere) as opposed to Pearl Harbor, where you can't possibly forget you are in the USA due to the constant presence of the Stars and Stripes. The other main difference was the lack of mention of the US being the ones who dropped the A-Bomb. With the exception of one exhibit in the museum where the steps leading to the creation of, and dropping of the bomb, the US was rarely mentioned and it seemed little blame was put on the US. Despite the lack of implication of the United States, I still feel that Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima (and Nagasaki)are so different in magnitude of destruction that people who use the attack on Pearl Harbor to justify the use of the atomic bomb need to visit both places or at least learn the history of both events.
After lunch we were set free to roam the city. My friends and I opted to go to Hiroshima castle, which was pretty cool. Not quite as big as the castle in Osaka, but it was full of armor, swords and had a great view from the top. For dinner we went to Okonomi-mura, which is a series of a bunch of very small restaurants that serve okonomiyaki, which I'm sure I wrote about in other entries, so I'm not going to elaborate. To be brief, it was really really tasty. There was a local festival that night, so it was very cool to see the Japanese walking around in their Yukata (summer kimono). In comparison with the festivals I've been to in Tokyo the Hiroshima-ites seem to get into it a bit more and are more willing to dress up.
The next day we went to Miajima, and island near Hiroshima. This is the site of the really big orange Torii gate that most people associate with Japan. Look in the pictures, its the big orange thing, you've seen it, trust me. Anyway the deer on the island are very friendly and will come very close whether you have food or not. We saw the floating Torii gate, and also a temple that is built on the water which was very cool. Later we took a cable car ride to about 3/4 of the way to the top of the mountain on the island. Great view and more crazy deer. Some friends and I decided to hike all the way to the top which was fun as well. After all the activity and such we were glad to get on the train and go back home.
After that there were many weeks of me pretty much just going to school, studying, practicing with my bands and doing little else. Weekends usually consisted of karaoke, or going to the Irish pub near my school. Tokyo is very much home to my friends and I, so we really haven't been going to museums or seeing stuff lately. I sort of regret this but at the same time, I could come back here one day and see all that stuff in a week. The experience of going to Izakaya (a traditional type of bar/restaurant) with Japanese people, playing in bands with Japanese people and things like that are a better use of my time out here. There's so much here that I couldn't do if I were just visiting and I'm glad to have some of those experiences.
The last major thing I did worth blogging about is when I climbed to the top of Mt. Fuji. Some friends and I went about 2 weeks ago, and it was one of the more challenging things I've done since I've been here. What is usually done when climbing Fuji is you start at night, and watch the sunrise from the top of the mountain. We started climbing at about 9 and reached the top at about 4 am when the sun rose. It was truly beautiful as my pictures will show. My group became separated early on, and I was lucky enough to be with the former wrestler, and rugby player. These two guys were beasts and set a crazy fast pace. There are 8 stations along the mountain we took the bus to the 5th and started climbing there. It is supposed to take 5-7 hours to get from the 5th to the 8th station, and it took us 4 1/2 hours. This was nice, because we got to take a little 2 hour break near the top and then head for the summit. We were also the only group out of all my friends to make it to the top before sunrise. Hiking to the top was fun, it was very rocky and you had to climb on all fours at times. The way down was totally miserable. The route is different, and you go thorough a gravelly sandy type surface (Mt. Fuji is after all a volcano) which is just awful. After hiking to the top you are exhausted and the way down is just terrible. In the end it was definitely worth the time and worth the weekend.
This will probably be my second to last post before I get home, I'll try and do another before I leave.

Pictures
Hiroshima: Here
Miajima: Here
Fuji-San: Here

Earthquake

Hey I'm sure everyone has heard about the earthquake and typhoon of the last few days, but no worries, the huge one that hit yesterday was nothing but a little shake in Tokyo, so I'm fine.

kaerimasu (return)

First and foremost, sorry for the massively long lack of posts. Yes I still exist, yes I'm fine. What happened was my computer had some issues, and I had to get it repaired which took about a month. The fact that I didn't (couldn't) fix it myself should tell you a lot. I figured what fun is a blog with no pictures, so I didn't bother to even post until I could put pictures up. So now that that is out of the way let's pick up where we left off.
*****
When we last left out hero (me I guess) Golden Week (our scattering of days off) was just ending up. After a full week of school following Golden Week, one of the craziest/best things happened. Something that we know as "Hasika Yasumi" roughly translated as "Measles Vacation." There was a measles out break in the Tokyo area especially at my school. This wasn't a problem for any Americans since we were all vaccinated, but for all the Japanese this was an issue, since measles can be fatal in adults. So to be on the safe side they gave us a week off. After a brief celebration, I got Shinkansen (bullet train) tickets, ASAP, and headed to Osaka to visit Steve Munoz and his wife Erin. Erin is a Japanese-English teacher, and they live outside of Osaka, the second biggest city in Japan. Aside from the paper I still had to write and turn in online that week, what followed was one of the best weeks so far this trip. When I got to Osaka, Steve took me to a bar he plays gigs at and I had a real hamburger for the first time in a few months. A REAL hamburger. We went to Osakajo castle, which was quite impressive, and also to a ninja village out in the country (inaka) which was pretty much awesome (see the pictures, seriously). Steve played a gig in Osaka towards the end of the week, which was great. I hadn't seen him perform in several years, and he is just as amazing if not more than the last time I saw him. Come to think of it, I probably didn't appreciate his performance when last I saw him, because I was so young, but I was quite glad to see him play. The next day was my last day in the Kansai area (the area where Osaka and a few other big cities are) so we went to nearby Nara for some Okinomiyaki, and then Kyoto before I left. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see much of Kyoto, which is home to a million temples, shrines, and other beautiful/interesting things, but I figured it will give me something to see when I come back to Japan.
Thus concludes my first catch up entry, sorry for the lateness, I'll try and catch up by the end of the week.

Pictures:
Osaka
Ninja Village
Nara and Kyoto

So the Xavierite told me that they were finished publishing for the semester, but I already wrote an article, so someone has to read it. Since it contained mostly things that were going up on here anyway, here it is. Enjoy!
A friend of mine was commenting on my pictures from Japan that I had put up on Facebook. He left about 20 or so comments in one night, but this was not unusual, because he had spent some time in Japan himself, and I could tell he was excited for me, and he was happy to remember his time here. One of his many comments read: “When you come home, the sky won’t be the same color.” Although this can be taken literally, because there is a smog problem in Tokyo, I think he meant it figuratively. Things are so different here, that when you stay for so long, then go back to where ever you call home, it’s hard to forget that you are under the same big sky.
This last weekend was by far one of the best I’ve had so far since I’ve been here. The week of the April, 29th – May, 6th, is what is known as Golden Week. There are national holidays on Monday the 30th, Thursday the 3rd and Friday the 4th, they vary in purpose, from Constitution day, Childrens’ day, and nature day. What this translates to is really long weekends for yours truly. I’m sure as most of you know, the Friday before a 3 day weekend is a difficult one to sit though class for, and its even worse when you only have one class on Friday, like I do.

After class there was a meeting for my rock music club, where I found out that the band made up of the club’s sempai (seniors) was playing a show that night. The band, called ‘Student A,’ was playing at a place called Warp, and since I had not been to a show yet, I thought this would be a good opportunity to do so. After the train ride to the “live house” as they are called out here, we caught the opening bands. The one that stuck out the most was a band called ‘essential.’ They were a four piece that played a noise-funk sort of music, using some very odd sounds coaxed out of a microKorg keyboard or a guitar ran through plenty of effects pedals. The most memorable part of their set was a little funky break down in which the singer/guitar player just laughed, but not directly into the mic. After about 20 seconds of this they spontaneous burst into a noise that could only be described as total sonic annihilation.

Although they had their work cut out for them, Student A did not disappoint. They played a sort of Radiohead-ish, post alternative type of music. Their sound was heavily dynamic, always building and falling, laced with reverb, and they seemed to use some sort of sampled keyboards, but I couldn’t tell. What impressed me the most was their energy and ability to play very, very well together as one band, with a clean sound. After the show we searched for a Denny’s type restaurant, to no avail (there are Denny’s here, I haven’t been yet, but they have them) so we settled for a family type restaurant and called it a night.

The next day I had some errands to run in the day, but I had some big plans for the evening. For any of you that know me personally, you know that I’m not really one to go clubbing, but the opportunity to do so made itself available, and who can say no to that in the city with the greatest nightlife in the world? In Tokyo, all the trains stop running at around 1:00 am, about the same time the clubs start warming up and taxis aren’t cheap, so when you go to the clubs, you stay out until the next morning by default. This may be no big deal to the regulars out there, but for little ole’ me, it was a new experience. I’ll spare the details, but the night clubs here provide a great contrast to the high-strung, overly polite, somewhat uptight Japanese life I have been accustomed to. People here definitely let loose when they aren’t at work or school, and at first it is odd to picture the suit wearing salary man, drunk in a club at 4 am dancing to a reggae remix of “My Heart Will Go On.”

As we emerged from the club at around 5 a.m. we bore witness to a Shibuya sunrise, with the sun’s rays poking through the concrete pillars, neon lights and steel. People stumbled home, some to have a long day’s rest, others to put on their suits, uniforms, and guises of politeness. I looked up, and thought about what my friend said about the sky. It looked the same as it always has, but this time it was pierced endlessly with buildings cover in kanji. With the bass still blasting in my ears, my friends and I proceeded to the station and said our goodbyes. The streets were unusually empty, but after the train ride home, they filled up again, a reminder that a new day has begun, out here under my new sky.


Here are some pictures I took walking around Ikebukoro, near where I live, sorry no pictures from any of the places described above, not enough light in the room.
Pictures are here.

The last few weeks

Sorry for the delayed post, I've been quite busy with school since classes started. So far classes seem manageable, I'm taking Japanese, Japanese Literature, Japanese History and a religion class about the spread of Christianity away from the Western world. So far all of them are pretty interesting, and the work seems bearable. I know I said I would write more about Japanese culture and people, but I am also writing for my schools paper, and the article I wrote for last week pretty much sums up my initial observations. Rather than re-type it, I'll refer you to the link. Enjoy, and as per usual some pictures can be found here.

Class

After much anticipation and deliberation, today saw my first day of class. I planned my schedule so I have most of my classes on Monday and Thursday. Japanese meets everyday in the morning, so no way around that, but on Monday I have Religion, History and English. Every few Wednesdays we have CIEE core course but that varies. With this schedule I have an easy Tuesday and Wednesday, plus my weekend starts at around 11:00am on Friday, which is nice if I want to do some traveling. The rock club I am going to join meets on Friday around lunch time, which works out nice as well, because I can go grab a bite to eat after class, and then play some rock and/or roll. Speaking of eating, the cafeteria food here isn't bad at all. They offer soba, udon, and ramen noodle dishes (google those if you are curious), Japanese style curry and rice, and a daily bowl, which is usually chicken or pork of some variety with rice and other goodies. They also offer some Western style stuff, but I haven't gotten into that much. Also, I made a new friend, this friend is the ramen noodle machine in the courtyard. It is a vending machine that dispenses cups of ramen noodles, like the ones at home, but better due to the addition of more stuff, the stuff varies by bowl...BUT there is a little hot water spout, and a little drawer with chopsticks in it, so one could have a large snack, or a quick meal for about 130 yen, nice. Just as a side note, since most of the sightseeing type stuff is done for a while, my next blogs will include more observations about Japan and the Japanese, and yes... more pictures of people.

The last trip (for a while)

Monday saw our last CIEE trip for a while. We went to Kamakura, a suburb of Tokyo that is on the ocean. The weather wasn't great, it was a bit overcast, but we still had fun. We saw the obligatory shrine and temple, and also the 2nd largest Buddha in Japan. We had lunch, then went to this island, where we could roam and explore. It was very pretty, but the weather wasn't exactly on our side. The rest of the week consisted of Sophia stuff. University clubs are very important to the Japanese, and two days of the week were reserved for club days. The various clubs would set up tables on campus, put up signs and passed out flyers, it was very crazy. If you are interested in the club, you can sign up to go to their "ohonami" which is a Japanese pic-nic type thing under the sakura. I will probably join one of the rock and roll clubs, which meet once a week or so, and the members form bands amongst themselves using club equipment, and play shows. I met some cool people and played drums in a few songs with some Japanese guys, which was very very cool. It is a cool but odd feeling to meet someone, barley communicate with them, but then play a song and have everything work out and sound good. Very surreal for sure. I'll put pictures up from the club days when I figure out an efficient way to get them off of my phone, but Kamakura pictures are here.

Many updates, now one!

In an effort to make up for my lack of updating lately, and to more closely imitate my Japanese hosts and their efficiency, I am briefly recap all of last week into one update. The front end of last week consisted of a scavenger hunt around Tokyo, with our small groups. We were assigned various oddities and staples of the city to find. About half way through the list my group kind of copped out, and went to a really pretty shrine in the park (that wasn't on the list) and hung out there for a while. We were all a bit tired, and it was a good experience so no one felt bad about it. The next two days consisted of an overnight trip to Nikko, a town in the mountains north of Tokyo. On the first day we saw obviously the mountains, and some very large shrines and temples. We stayed that night in a traditional Japanese Inn, with sliding doors, tatami mats, futons etc. There was also an onsen, a natural hot spring at the hotel that was very relaxing. The next day we went up to the top of a mountain, and saw the water falls as we walked down. These were very beautiful, and like most things I describe in this entry, the pictures can speak for themselves. The end of the week was reserved for getting the paper work for our Alien Registration Cards, and general relaxing, since the Nikko trip wiped everyone out. On the weekend we were on our own, so I went up to the electronic district, and saw the cherry blossoms (sakura) around my house. It was nice to have some time off, since come Monday we were at it again!
Pictures:
Scavenger Hunt around Tokyo
Nikko
Sakura

Host Family, Homestay House etc.

On Friday CIEE had us meet our host families, which I must say was a bit embarrassing. They had all the families in one room , and all the students in another. They'd have us walk in and one by one introduce ourselves, and then sit down with our family. Apparently this is some sort of Japanese custom, but it was a bit embarrassing walking into a room full of Japanese people and saying "Hajimemashite, watashi wa Noonan Mike desu" etc. etc. My host family consists of a Mother, two daughters (Haruka 22, Sanae, 19) and another CIEE student(Kevin, who I have yet to meet). After the introduction thing, my host mother took me back to the house, which is about an hour from school via 3 trains and about a 20 minute walk. The house is a bit bigger than I expected, and I have my own room which is very nice. Over the weekend my host mom took me to the park around the house, which is on a lake and very beautiful. There are several shrines and temples along the way as well. Living here entails a great deal of walking, most of which I am not yet used to, but in the end I think it will be good for me. The adjustment would have been easier if I would have came here straight from school, instead of straight from sitting on my butt for 2 months. The food here is good, but every so often the desire for some "normal" American food kicks in. Especially when I'm around other students, we get to talking about local foods back home, who has the best Mexican food (which everyone thinks they have) and other food related anecdotes. At this point I do like it here, despite the sometimes weirdness of the whole place, it is very welcoming at the same time very real, and also can be harsh, which is good for me. Pictures are here.

Tokyo, the Saga continues

When we last left our hero (me, I think?) I was still in Italy. Well, eventually the plane took off and I landed in Tokyo. I had to get from the airport to the hotel by myself. I was very tired so taking the 2 hour bus ride was a bit much. Eventually I made it to the hotel, which was very nice indeed, and met some of the other CIEE students, most of which seem pretty cool. I only missed the beginning part of orientation which was nice. Later that night we took a bus tour of Tokyo, and ate shabushabu, which is thinly sliced beef and vegetables. There is a boiler full of water in the middle of every table, and you cook the food yourself. It was good, but sometimes a bit hard to do with chopsticks and the boiling water. After that we went to Roppongi, which is a district in Tokyo. We went to the top of the Roppongi Hills Tower, about 50 floors and got a great view of the city at night. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera, because I thought we were just going to be in the bus, and bus pictures never turn out well.
The next day we had some more orientation and I went to Shinjuku (Pictures here*) with my friend Leah. She has been to Tokyo before and can read and speak Japanese very well, so she was a good guide and we didn't get lost. We ate a curry restaurant which was quite good. I am still getting used to eating large quantities of rice, for some reason I can pile in a whole steak but a bowl of rice gives me trouble. Later that day we all met our host families which will be the topic of my next entry.

*I am going to use Facebook to host my pictures, if any non-Facebook account have any problems viewing the pictures, comment and let me know.

Italy

I may or may not informed anyone of this, but my flight to Japan entailed a layover in Milan, Italy. It seems weird but for some reason it was cheaper than going straight to Japan (go figure). Anyway, I had planned to spend 7 hours in Milan, ended up being almost 2 days. The saga begins:
So I arrive in Milan at around 8 or 9 in the morning Milan time. I decided to take the train into Milan. The airport isn't technically in Milan, like O'Hare isn't technically in Chicago, but Milan is much closer to the airport than in Chicago. I took the train to Milan, which was quite possibly the coolest/scariest thing I had done up until that point. I went to a cafe, had some great food and cappuccino, and went back to the airport in time for my flight. All in all a nice afternoon. Upon waiting for my flight, the weather got sort of overcast but not too bad. A few flights were delayed for about an hour, no big deal, my flight gave me ample time to meet with my group in Tokyo, so as long it wasn't delayed more than 6 hours I would be ok. It was delayed about 16 hours. Apparently there was some technical problem with the plane, so it was delayed for 3 hours, and the airline bought us dinner. After that it became delayed another hour, and then the delay jumped to the next day. The airline informed us we would be put up in a hotel for the night. Very frustrating indeed, but there was an upside. The hotel was very nice and I got to have a great dinner with a few Japanese men and a couple from Germany. The room was very nice, and I got to have a good nights sleep for once. The bad side is I had to arrive in Tokyo a day late. The saga only continues...

Preparation

In preparation for this trip there are countless forms to fill out visa certificates, visas, approvals from SXU, various bureaucratic things that I had to do, but I've also tried to teach myself some of the language, which regrettably, has not gone as planned. I know very little Japanese, but I am told by many people that others have gone to Japan and survived with less knowledge of the language then I already have. For some reason that doesn't fill me with confidence, but alas here I am. The one thing I was able to read up on a great deal was the culture and some of the reasons for the various mindsets in Japan. My limited knowledge of the language but fairly decent knowledge of the 'dos and don't you dares' should keep me out of a fair bit of trouble. I've also tried to become a sponge, and I'll listen to anyone who has been to Japan, whether they were there for 6 months, or for a layover going somewhere else, or if they were there 50 years ago. No matter what kind of books I read, nothing can compensate for the experiences of others. For me, this is going to be an adventure, in the most important sense of the word, because despite all my knowledge, and research (or lack thereof) I am still not completely sure what to expect.

Here goes nothing

This blog will be an account of my experiences in Tokyo, Japan, while I study there for the next 5 months. I'll be leaving in about three weeks, and I plan on updating this blog often, so friends, family and other colleagues who want to have a gander at my various adventures can do so. I'll be putting pictures up, maybe some links and other random tidbits. Enjoy.