My final days

I have been back in America for almost a month now and I think I've finally been able to sort through the emotions of my final few days in Japan. This will be my final post, and it will be slightly different than the others. Whereas most of my other posts pertained to my experiences in terms of activities and some cultural differences, this post is more about the emotional experiences I had while there and some of the personal changes I have noticed about myself. That being said, I have yet to tell the tale of my journey to the top of Mt. Fuji, so I shall begin there...

By Saturday, I already had most of my preparations done for leaving, so I only had to pack up and buy some last minute groceries on my way out. I met up with Arisa as Hachioji and then we started the long commute from Tokyo to Fuji. The first leg of our journey was a train ride from Hachioji through the Japanese countryside. I enjoyed my time in Tokyo, but riding the train through the small villages reminded me that I am not a city boy. I was born and raised in a small town and I will eventually retire there. My career and education will probably lead me to living in a metropolitan area for awhile, but seeing the less modern side of Japan served as a great emotional trigger to bring back the more rural side of my personality.

Back on topic, getting to Mt. Fuji was an annoyingly long experience with lots of trains and buses and waiting, but we eventually reached the starting point of our journey - the 5th Station. Most people start climbing from the 5th Station because the mountain is so wide and it doesn't actually become climbing/hiking until around the 5th station. And even starting from the 5th (of 9) stations, the estimated climb time was over 6 hours. And that estimate doesn't account for resting, only climbing. I just wanted to point that out so no one things I took the easy way out and cheated. =P

The first thing I did after arriving at the 5th station was buy a wooden totem pole as a souvenir. The custom is climbers buy either a small totem or a long walking stick and then have it branded at the various checkpoints along the way to the top - and eternal glory. I would have loved to have a walking stick, but I knew I wouldn't be able to fit it in my suitcase and bring it back with me so I settled on a wooden totem the I could stuff in my backpack. There were plenty of other souvenirs, but I decided to wait to do more shopping until after climbing back down.

We started our journey to the top with very light spirits and heavy backpacks as we started on the flashlight-lit path. In only an hour we had made our way to the first checkpoint - the 6th station. It was only a minor checkpoint though, so we took a swig of water and marched back into the night. Two hours later and we had reached the 7th station - the first checkpoint with a progress brand. It was an exciting moment, and I was taught the word they use for it in Japanese. Sadly, they only refer to it as a stamp (in Japanese it sounds like su-tam-pu) so it wasn't an exciting word, but I at least gained the ability to ask in Japanese.

Instead of the boring details, I'll just give you a rough outline of how climbing Mt. Fuji went. We would climb in hour long intervals and then rest for about 20 minutes to rest, eat, drink, and get my stamps. The terrain was kind of rough, but not as bad as it could have been for climbing a mountain/dormant volcano. I spent a lot of time talking with Arisa, but we also had plenty of other company to enjoy the climb with. And if things had gone wrong, there were plenty of shops and such to buy supplies from. After a few hours of climbing we finally made it to the 8th station, marked with an elevation of 3250 meters. That meant we only had a little over half a kilometer left to climb (you know, if we could climb directly up and reach our target elevation of 3776 meters).

By this point it was quite clear that Mt. Fuji is a really tall mountain. I am fairly in shape and healthy, but it still pushed me to the very edge of my physical endurance to make it to the top without stopping to sleep - especially since we climbed through the night in order to watch the sunrise from the summit. My legs hurt and I was freezing cold but we kept going. Arisa was in even worse shape than me so I had to go a bit slower, but I'm glad she was there. It gave me a cap for my pace and provided me with the company required to maintain my sanity as I climbed my way into the heavens on Japan's most sacred mountain. I was also very impressed that she kept up as well as she did, she was much stronger than I had expected. Still, I hope I didn't push her too hard..

Early on in the climb I had did a quick estimate of our climb time and even then I knew we were pushing it close if we wanted to be at the top when the sun quit being shy, but I was a little off and realized we were half an hour late - we wouldn't make it to the top before the sun rose. Soon the sky started to change colors and it was evident the sun was on its way. So we weren't going to make it in time, it was 4am and the sunrise was scheduled for 4:30am and we were almost an hour away from the top.

I am not sure if Arisa was aware that we weren't going to make it, but either way I turned to her and did my best to explain (oh man, I have forgotten so much since I left. I can't even begin to re-form what I would have told her yet I know I was able to say it quite fluently even after staying up all night to climb that cursed mountain). Instead of trying to rush and ruin the experience, we just shrugged it off and started taking pretty pictures of the beautiful landscape. Even though the sun wasn't up yet, the landscape was already lit by the ambient light and it was quite a sight to behold. Then the sun made its appearance. There weren't any other actors in the play to draw attention away this time though. There were no clouds the share the spotlight, only the morning sun in all of its glory (except when Arisa decided it was picture time =P ).

After the initial shock and awe, we turned and finished the climb to the top. Yeah we were miserably tired, but we were only a few hundred meters from the top and I wasn't about to quite just because the sun wasn't willing to cooperate with our schedule. Shortly thereafter, we were at the top - the summit of Mt. Fuji. 3776 meters above sea level. Bathed in the glory of an unfiltered sun facing both the burning rays and freezing cold air yet managing to find a peaceful tranquility while gazing on the rolling clouds sporadically broken by the lesser mountains surrounding Fuji. If I had the foresight to make a list of things I want to do before I die already, that moment would have been the first time I could cross something off.

This is the point of the journey where I realized I am mildly susceptible to altitude sickness. It hadn't been a problem before reaching the summit, but then it hit me. It was quite embarrassing, especially since Arisa was there. Not only that, the descent was rendered completely miserable. Still, the scenery was pretty. By far the most scenic place I've ever been sick...

Given the unpleasantness of the six hour descent, I'll skip ahead to when we returned to the 5th station. I was feeling better by then so I took my last opportunity to buy souvenirs. I bought a few things for some family, but I also wanted to get something for me and Arisa since we just spent a full grueling day of climbing and suffering to witness one of the most beautiful sunrises this world has to offer (can you notice the love-hate I have for Fuji?). After looking around I found the perfect souvenir: a yin-yang with Mt. Fuji on a cell phone strap.

The trip from Fuji back to my dorm was long, but I slept for almost the entire thing. I have never been that thoroughly exhausted before, and I've never slept to deeply on a train (or bus). I can't remember when, but we did manage to get a final picture at some point during the ride. Then I had to say goodbye and switch trains...

That was my final day in Japan. The rest of my story only consists of me packing, going to the airport, and leaving so I'll skip those boring parts and spare you.

It is hard to believe that I was in Japan less than two months ago. Two months ago I was living in Tokyo, on the other side of the world from my family, friends, all everything I've ever found familiar. And since then I mentored Summer Institute at Mudd after a week of being home and now the new freshman class has arrived on campus. I'm thinking about the different emotional states I've been through within these past two months and I am in awe of how quickly life can change. It seems I am beginning the most exciting part of my life, so I can't wait to see where this next year takes me. Until then, though, I am done with this blog. I can't express how much I appreciate that I have had so many people read my posts and tell me that they enjoyed them. I'll resurrect this blog if I go abroad to Japan again, but no matter what I'll always be thankful for all those that read my stories.

Best regards,
David "Legen" Derry

The Penultimate Post - My final week

I have been working on my final post for almost two weeks now. Between writing, editing, and traveling without time to write, this post has seen more setbacks than I expected so I am breaking my final post into two. This post - the penultimate post - covers everything that happened between my previous post and the Saturday before I left (when I climbed Mt. Fuji). I will get that posted when I can, but I Summer Institute started today (the summer program at Mudd that I am mentoring) and I don't expect to have much time. Until then though, I have quite a hefty post for you all. It isn't completely polished yet, and I haven't linked everything yet, but it still serves as a fairly good record of my days in Tokyo.

My last week in Japan was amazing. I know I haven’t posted for almost two weeks, so I’ll try to remember what happened since then. I am typing this post in Word right now because I am in the airport terminal in Kansai and boarding my flight to San Fran soon. Then I have a full nine hours of flight time, and then two hours in San Fran, and then another flight to Chicago. And this is after having a flight from Haneda at 10am and a five-hour layover here. By the time I’m back in Illinois, I’ll have been traveling for 24 hours and 23 minutes (if everything is on time).

Kogakuin’s English lecture series had another lecture (the husband of the first speaker) on Thursday; this one was “What was Deconstruction”. He talked about a method of analyzing artwork, poetry, Scripture, and such throughout history. I don’t particularly remember much, but it was a good presentation that none of the other students understood. The Japanese students because the English was tough and Ben because he isn’t a fan of philosophy so he didn’t pay too much attention. Again, we joined the profs and speaker for dinner and drinks afterwards.

I met up with Arisa after the party and we decided to go check out Tokyo’s Metropolitan Building (TMB). TMB might be a government building, but it was designed to be a landmark. The architecture of the building and the surrounding area is stunning, it's a shame I don’t have a camera that can do the scenery justice. Visitors don’t have much access to the building, but TMB is one of the tallest buildings in Shinjuku and visitors can visit the top floor to get a view of Tokyo. Arisa and I were on our way to see the Tokyo skyline at night, but we were too late (closed at 8:30 and we got there at 8:32). Since that plan failed, we just walked around Shinjuku Park for a bit and then headed home.

Friday was a day dedicated to working on my bucket list. So after breakfast and a shower, I grabbed my freelines and headed out for the Imperial Palace. I spent a few minutes skating around the moat and such, but I was at the park to the side for most of the afternoon because of the super smooth ground. The park has a really nice statue of a mounted samurai in the middle of a courtyard, so I was more than happy to freeline there. I even used my camera to get a few (crappy) videos of me freelining, and I smoothed out some of the tricked Mattie and Marco taught me. The people at the park and the occasional tour group that passed through were quite amused by my antics (and falling).

While I was freelining around I was also texting various people trying to make plans for that night. Maya, the girl I met at Ootemachi Romantico, invited me to a salsa event down in Ebisu that was raising money for earthquake relief. So I rushed back to my dorm, showered, changed, and headed out again. Finding the venue was really hard; the map they provided was essentially useless unless you were familiar with the area. Luckily, my Japanese teacher from high school had spent a few days talking about the way addresses are structured in Japan. The first number refers to a block, the second a building, and the third a room. I found a map of Ebisu by the train station and eventually (after an hour and a half of wandering) found the venue. It was a small dance studio below the street with a single narrow stairway leading down.

The salsa was pretty good, but they played too much bachata. I got to see Maya (the girl from my first salsa adventure) for a bit, and I met another lady named Miyuki. Miyuki was fun to dance with. And she spoke decent English, which was good because I can’t dance and speak Japanese at the same time.

Saturday was one of my best days in Japan (I can say that with confidence because I’ve already left). Ryoko, my friend that I met at the international science fair in Kyoto (Vijay did the same fair too), came to Tokyo to see me. We have stayed in touch for the last two years with skype and facebook, but it was the first time I had seen her since the fair two years ago. I wanted to visit Kyoto myself to see everyone, but I didn’t get a chance so Ryoko came to visit me.

I met her at Shinjuku station then we went out to explore Shinjuku. Our first stop was the Metropolitan building – and it worked this time. We went to the top floor and saw the Tokyo skyline. Even though it was during the day, the skyline was beautiful. I took a few pictures too. The top floor also had a lot of shops for souvenirs and random toys and such. I bought a pressed penny with an emblem of Mt. Fuji from a machine there. Partially because pressed pennies are nice souvenirs and partially because it was actually a pressed penny – from Japan. They don’t use pennies, and the only copper coin without a hole in the middle is the quarter-sized 10-yen coin. I can’t imagine the 10-yen coin would be work as well as a penny, so it makes sense I suppose.

After the Metropolitan building we stopped at Pronto Pasta in Shinjuku station (same place I went to with Arisa) for some food. For the first time, I ordered a pasta dish with a raw egg on top. I’ve always been hesitant to order anything with raw eggs, but I’m glad I did. It was delicious (I later tried white rice with raw egg and it was good too). We finished up then headed out for Shinjuku Gyoen Nation Park. The park was gorgeous. The landscaping was maintained with obvious obsession and the architecture (a French/English/Japanese fusion) was a masterful fusion of bridges, lakes, streams, trees, and open grass with traditional Japanese buildings. We walked around, took pictures, and caught up with each other’s lives.

Ryoko and I wandered around Shinjuku Gyoen for a bit and then I took Ryoko to explore more of Shinjuku. We wound up stopping at a Forever 21 (common in Tokyo, but not Kyoto) for a bit then took a train to Harajuku for more intense shopping (after all, Harajuku is the fashion district of Tokyo). Crowded and weird don’t even begin to describe Harajuku on a Saturday, especially a Saturday during the summer sales. My goal was to try to find some Japanese-style clothes and I knew Ryoko would be able to help (I wanted either clothes or a haircut, and clothes seemed like a safer and more manageable option).

Among the various shops we found a few things that I kind of liked (and a red vest covered in hearts that was pleasantly disgusting but too big for me), but nothing too tempting. What we did accomplish, though, was plenty of goofing around and I even got a Japanese snow cone (it was miserably hot and humid that day). Delicious. I’m not much of a fan of ice cream most of the time, but I rarely have the will power to turn down a snow cone.

I had made plans earlier to meet up with some first years from Kogakuin, so Ryoko and I met them in Harajuku. Since neither of them (Chihiro and Miho (not the same Miho I met during my first few days)) knew Ryoko, I got to see how casual introductions work through a mutual friend. It was pretty much what I expected with the typical phrases and introductions, but that was also mildly surprising. We were all speaking with casual Japanese (short / non-ます forms) but they still used the polite versions of names and introductions. After everyone knew each other, it was time for dinner.

Chihiro and Miho found an okonomiyaki joint for us to eat at, and it was delicious. I didn’t order okonomiyaki, but I ordered something fairly similar to it (forgot the name though, sorry). While the food was cooking, another first year – Takesh – showed up. His name is actually Takeshi, but he prefers for people to drop the “i” on the end. I’m kind of sad I didn’t hang out with Takesh more; he was a hilarious guy.

The rest of the night just kind of blurred together into a giant mass of awesome. They took me to a few Japanese stores, we walked around Shibuya and Harjuku, and went to an arcade to take purikura pictures. Quick note about purikura, purikura is definitely targeted to girls, and the effects are no exception. I can handle the obvious things like glitter fonts and heart stamps, but I will never get used to the touchup algorithm they use. Purikura uses facial recognition and touchups to edit skin tone and such to make girls look prettier (and pretty is a very defined notion in Japan). Doesn’t sound too terrible, right? The program does not distinguish between male and female… Still, the pictures are great memories. Takesh and I also snuck away for a bit to play some Mario Kart and regain some manliness.

Eventually it got late and we had to drop Ryoko off at the train station. It was sad to see her leave, but the day was quite epic and I was plenty happy to have spent that much time with her. So she went on her way back to Kyoto and the rest of us wandered around a bit more then grabbed some Cold Stone (Takesh’s request). Cold Stone was fun because a group of European girls were in line behind us. They were all tall, thin, and blonde. Chihiro and Miho had me ask the European girls to take pictures with them and Takesh completely froze from being nervous. I was laughing almost the entire time, but they all got pictures with the European girls (even Takeshi, but he was pretty much forced into it).

I spent the next day with Arisa. We met in Shinjuku and then I took her to Asakusa for her first time. I had already been there a few times, but never on a Sunday. I couldn’t believe how many people were there. We made slow progress, but we eventually got past all the little shops and through the temple gates to make our donations and fortunes. I’m actually glad it was so packed because I got a chance to see why there was a giant hole in the floor. People traditionally make small coin donations to the temple, and the temple expedited that process by putting in an area that people can throw money into. Seeing a bunch of Japanese people in a giant room throwing coins to the other side was a great sight indeed.

After paying our respects, we wandered around the temporary stands to look around. Since it was another scorching day, Arisa and I shared a snow cone – ramune flavored. So much deliciousness. Then we did the usual looking around for souvenirs, taking pictures of the temple and surrounding shrines, and we even saw a monkey. I loved the monkey’s name, they called himおさるさん (Osaru-san). The “O” is an honorific prefix, and “san” is an honorable suffix, and “saru” is Japanese for monkey. So the best translation I have of his name is “The Honorable Mr. Monkey”.

Arisa and I stopped at Shinjuku on our way back to grab some food. I had done my best to be strong, but I was finally to the point I wanted non-Japanese food. So we stopped at a place that had pizza; worst food-related mistake I made. It was terrible. It was so bad I made sure to talk to the English prof about pizza in Japan. After being here for many years, he has come to the conclusion the best pizza in Tokyo is Domino’s. I felt like crying on the inside, especially since I have such fond memories of Chicago pizza with Sal, my roommate from high school. Mostly they all pertain to the stuffed pizza, a pizza pretty much made by stacking two pizzas on top of each other. When I think of artery-clogging, fat inducing, heart attacks waiting to happen, American food, I think of the stuffed pizza (yes, I am hungry as I am writing this, I apologize).

Monday marked the start of my final week, so I was doing my best to cram as much as possible. I tried to find some of the stores my friends took me to so I could buy clothes, but I couldn’t remember where they were. Then I went to Tokyu Hands to start buying supplies for Fuji. I didn’t have much on my list to buy, just a flashlight and some gloves for climbing. Still, I couldn’t quite make up my mind so I used the trip as a scouting adventure.Walking around and shopping for hours had me pretty tired, so I took a train back to the dorm and hashed out the final details of my clinic presentation the next day.

Tuesday was the day of my first clinic presentation. I was presenting the research I had been doing the previous seven weeks on solar updraft towers and improving the efficiency of their energy collection. The background info wasn’t hard, and the concept was pretty easy, but I knew my audience wouldn’t be particularly skilled with English so I made a presentation that was very heavy with concept animations and I used the most basic English I could without sounding like a 1st grader. After all, most of the engineering profs and even a few others were there too and I didn’t want to seem stupid. The presentation went fairly well, I can’t say there was a lot I could have improved. I do with that the responsibilities given to me would have been more demanding, because I felt like I was presenting high school level work. Either way, it was over and we all went out afterwards for dinner and drinks.

During my commute back I finally had enough experience to justify some ideas of mine. My first theory came to me when I was on a train and a gaggle of girls got on the same train as me. They were all wearing open toed shoes and I noticed that all six of them had second toes that were longer than their big toes. Kind of strange, but whatever. By the time I got back, I had come across 34 girls with open toed shoes, and 30 of them had longer second toes. I told Ben this before I left and I hope he keeps his own tally. Also interesting is that I only saw a couple of guys with the toe thing. Again, Japanese girls are strange. My second theory is crazier, but I figure it is worth mentioning. I first though that a lot of bikers in Japan had squeaky breaks that needed some work, but then I noticed I only heard the squeaks when people had to slam the breaks hard (and I heard the squeal nearly every time I saw someone slam the breaks). I can’t be completely sure about this, but I think the bikes in Japan have a safety thing that the breaks squeal if someone is breaking hard to alert the other (and very numerous) bikers similar to how cars have break lights.

Wednesday was a pretty chill day. I went to the English culture class with Ben then went to off to buy more souvenirs for friends and explore more of the Shinjuku area. Once classes were done, I met up with Arisa and we decided to catch one last movie – X-Men. I generally wait to watch Marvel movies with my dad and brother, but I was already planning Transformers 3 or Captain America and I didn’t expect to have time for all three during the week I would be home. The movie was amazing and Arisa seemed to really enjoy it. I also got a chance to see posters and such for the new Harry Potter movie. I translated the Japanese title “Shi no Hihou” and it means “Treasures of the Dead”, which is pretty similar I suppose. It is closer than most translations get.

And then Wednesday night got really interesting. I was on my way back from Shinjuku and a Japanese policeman stopped me while I was freelining. I was mostly sure I didn’t do anything wrong, but the language barrier amplified my paranoia. He asked to see my passport but I didn’t have it on me so I gave him my ID card for Kogakuin. He wrote down a few things, asked for my contact info, and then said a few things I didn’t understand. During his monologue he kept pointing at my freelines and at my knees/head/arms so I think he was saying I need to wear a helmet and pads when I’m skating in the street, but I can’t be entirely sure. He eventually left and the crisis was adverted. Then I freelined home (partially to spite the policeman but mostly because I was tired and I wanted to get back quickly).

(I’m really late with this post, sorry. I am currently on my flight to Cali for Summer Institute so I have finally have time to write)

Thursday was one of my favorite days in Japan. After heading out of the dorm, I went to Kogakuin so I could say goodbye to my clinic team and prof before heading to do last minute shopping in Shinjuku. I didn’t tell my team I was coming to say goodbye, so they were surprised to see me – but I was surprised to see they had already replaced me with someone else (kind of). Some students from Korea were visiting for a short study abroad and two of them decided to join my old project and I walked in on my prof catching them up to speed with what we had done so far. Their reactions when I walked in were great. I don’t think they were expected to have a blonde-haired American walk in.

We had our introductions and I gave them a quick overview of my experiment and results. There was one guy and one girl. The guy was better with English than the girl, but the girl spoke Japanese very well (especially considering she had only been studying for three years and she had taught herself) so talking to them was a fun mix of me speaking English, the prof speaking Japanese, and the two of them taking turns being confused. I even got to practice my engineering Japanese (not that successful, but whatever).

It was kind of late, but I finally decided to buy some Japanese clothes and I found a good place to do it. The first years from Kogakuin had taken me to a nice store called Uniqlo (ユニクロ) that had some cool t-shirts and some nice dress shirts so I tracked down one of their stores in Shinjuku on Google Maps and used my iPod to navigate (sure I had been in Shinjuku for two months, but the place is huge). It wasn’t too hard to find, I had done some shopping with Ryoko about five minutes away just the previous weekend.

I spent a lot more time there than I had expected, but I found a really nice white dress shirt, some “stay dry” clothes for freelining in Claremont, and even a shirt for Brian (I can type this because I’ll be able to give him the shirt before I post this. Muahahaha). And I got all of it for less than $65. Major win. And since most Japanese guys are fairly thin, the clothes fit my build very well – much better than most American clothes. After Uniqlo I rushed over to Tokyu Hands to buy some very last minute souvenirs (I had way too much time to think about what I wanted to buy people, so I spent most of my trip trying to decided what I wanted to get for friends and then I had to rush the last few days to buy the things I had decided on).

Thursday night was the night I had my good-bye party with the profs that taught the English culture class Ben and I frequently sat in on. I met up with Arisa and Ben at Kogakuin and then we met the profs at the restaurant. We had our usual conversations about random points of Japanese culture that I had been noticing, Prof Kearney reconfirming various points of American culture for the Japanese students that were with us, and then me asking them what drink I should try next (I promise, Japan did not turn me into an alcoholic. I just wanted to try the things you can’t easily find in America). Kearney had been telling me about a bar he likes called “Mother” so we all grabbed our stuff and headed out for the after party. Oh, and they also wanted to walk me through Kabukicho since I still hadn’t seen a love hotel and they wanted to point one out to me. We were on our way when something really strange happened; we ran into a group of students from Kogakuin that were hanging out with the Korean exchange students. Ben and I knew most of the students there, so Prof Kearney and Adachi said we should spend our night with them instead of “old people like them” (they were only maybe in their 50’s so I don’t think they quite qualify as old, but going with the other students gave me a chance to say goodbye to a lot of the people I had met in Japan).

Arisa had to leave at that point, but the rest of us went to a bar/pub to eat some food, grab some drinks, and be loud and obnoxious college students. It was a great night with lots of laughter, people switching between English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (coughBencough), and plenty of drinks (especially for Nobu). At one point I was talking to the girl from Korea and I found out I was the first (natural) blond person she had met. That explained why her reaction earlier that day had been so amusing. Eventually the night drew to an end, so we all headed back to the train station (except the girl, who was staying in a hotel in Shinjuku because the dorm was male only). I have to say, taking the train with five or six mildly tipsy college guys was quite fun.

My final days in Japan were amazing, and Friday was no exception. I headed out to Shinjuku so I could stop by Kearney and Adachi’s office to say goodbye to them. Yeah we had had the party the night before, but I wanted to chat more since Ben and I kind of ditched them for our friends. We talked in their office for a bit about random things and then went to Burger King for some quick food before they left for the weekend. Burger King is fairly popular in Japan, but it was my first time eating there (outside of the US). Two things surprised me. First off, they sell alcohol (mostly beer). Second, customizing your order is extremely difficult. I don’t particularly like mustard or onions (I hate onions, actually), so I generally just order my burgers ketchup only. Nice and easy, right? Not in Japan. I had Adachi-Sensei order for me since I wasn’t sure on some vocabulary and it took her a good five minutes to explain what I wanted. She had to be very specific about what “ketchup only” means. She probably repeated “buns, burger, cheese, ketchup. No onions, pickles, mustard, or anything else” a dozen times before the cashier finally understood.

Naturally, I was really curious why it was so difficult. As they explained to me, Japanese culture doesn’t have much “personalization”. You kind of just accept what is given to you whether you like it or not because the person serving you and cooking your food knows more about the food you are eating than you do. The idea of ordering what you want, how you like it, is strange to them. They aren’t offended when you ask for specific things; they just don’t quite understand why you want something different. For that same reason, most Japanese people don’t like eating at Subway. Essentially, they don’t know how to order what they want. They would prefer to have the chef or someone else decide for them. Another cultural side-note, the burgers are small due to popular demand. I thought the burger was too small, but the profs told me about how Burger King had complaints that their burgers were too big and people either couldn’t finish them or their stomachs hurt after eating so much. Uh… Okay, Japan… I can accept cultural differences and I am very open to different views and opinions, but COME ON! Who ASKS for smaller burgers at a fast food joint? Of all the things to complain about! Seriously, wtf Japan. (Yes, I realize I care too much about this, sorry for my rant.)

We finished our food and then walked back to campus where I said goodbye to them. Of the profs I met while abroad, Kearney and Adachi were the ones I spent the most time with and the ones I knew the best. If I am ever in Tokyo again, they are both very high on my list of people to get back in contact with. I’m also really glad I visited them one last time before leaving.

Friday was also the day I had my final goodbye party – this time with Prof. Furuya (the Mudd prof) and the other profs that were responsible for me being able to study abroad. It wasn’t quite as fun as the other parties I had had, but I had a chance to discuss more administrative issues (such as future plans and possibilities for me in Japan). Arisa couldn't make it to the party but I met up with her afterwards and we just walked around in Shinjuku (for what would be my last time there). We just explored some of the places we had walked by before and then we sat down and talked. Unfortunately, that was probably the worst night in terms of our language barrier. We had long exhausted the simple conversational topics and I finally found the point where it was blatantly obvious that I need more vocabulary and grammar patterns. But in my defense, we were talking about our plans and preparations for Fuji and it isn’t like I am an expert with outdoor/hiking vocabulary.
----------------------------------
I will get the rest of the post (which should be the last blog post I write) up when I can. I am going at a slower pace as to make sure I give Fuji the description it deserves. My laziness isn't complete though, I already uploaded all the pictures on Facebook. I'll add captions and descriptions when I get a moment. Sorry for the delay. My final post will be up soon.

Akihabara, Super 8, Asakusa: Revisited, and Fourth of July

Saturday was quite a day. I slept in and woke up to a text from Ami (the girl from North Carolina) saying we should go to Akihabara and look around. Ben had already told me a few things about Akihabara, but I only remembered that it is the electronics district in Tokyo. Once I got there, I remembered the other part. It is the central hub for a type of Japanese fashion called "otaku" - anime and such. So there were weird things like anime/manga cut outs that you can put your head through, lots of anime and electronics shops, and.... maid cafés. The waitresses dress up in maid outfits and everything is pink or stuffed animal shaped. 

Finding Ami in Akihabara was a nightmare. It is really difficult to find a specific Japanese person among the thousands of other Japanese people, even if you know she is in front of the train station. We eventually found each other than then it was time to explore. At first we just wandered around the different shops and chatted and such, but then we got hungry. And of course Ami wanted to try a maid cafe. I was feeling quite adventurous, so I consented. The cafe we went to was on the 5th floor of some building and we shared the elevator with a girl about to start her shift. I get the feeling she doesn't usually dress up as a maid (hey, some girls in Japan DO quite regularly) because she did not seem happy on the elevator. Either way, our welcome was quite warm. Every waitress yelled to greet us and they all looked extremely happy to be there, unlike the girl on the elevator. I suppose they could be good actors. Or they are getting paid a lot. That place was expensive. They charge you for the "atmosphere" with a sitting fee. It was $10 just to sit. Pictures weren't allowed, so I couldn't get pics of the decorations or the maids. Sorry.

Anyways, they spent a lot of time asking where we want to sit. It seemed like they settled on putting us at a table next to two other people, but thankfully we got moved to a table with just us. I already had enough people staring at me, I didn't want to sit next to one of them too. The stares eventually subsided, and then came the embarrassment. Maid cafes have certain... rituals for dining. Not only were there phrases that had to be said, everything had accompanying gestures and body movements. And everything made me feel like a 12 year old girl. Japanese guys have WEIRD fetishes. Just sayin'. I just found this video on youtube and it has English subtitles. You should watch it. It isn't quite the same, but there is an uncomfortable amount of overlap. Wow, I definitely missed a lot of what was said. Heh...

All in all, it was a fun experience. The atmosphere was amusing, and food was good (I got to eat pasta off of a heart shaped plate), talking with Ami was fun, and the customer service was great. I made sure to order something that included a picture with a maid so I would have something to remember the experience by. They take pictures with a polaroid, so I had to take a picture of the polaroid, but it turned out kind of well. And now I am done with maid cafes. Oh, and one of the maids had a ninja sword tied right above the frilly skirt. Unfortunately for her, she also walks like a man. I normally wouldn't have noticed but the entire cafe was about injecting ridiculous amounts of estrogen into everything possible. Now I'm done with maid cafes. Promise.

Pretty soon after that Ami had to go meet another friend, so I went back to Shinjuku to meet up with Arisa. It wasn't too late, so I figured we should catch a movie. So after a quick stop at Softbank (cell service provider) to use their display iPads to find a movie theatre, Arisa and I went and saw "Super 8". The movie was English subbed in Japanese, so I understood it perfectly. But from my limited Japanese, I could tell that the translations were pretty bad so I'm not sure if the other people understood much more than the main plot, but the movie was good. I also found out that Arisa doesn't handle scary movies well. Haha. It was really tempting to see X-men or Transformers, but I am waiting to go back home to see them with my dad and brother (plus Transformers hasn't been released in Japan yet).

My Sunday morning and early afternoon were equally lazy, but then I went to Asakusa again. Going on a Sunday was a bad idea. The entire place was packed with people. But I got there kind of late so most of the people had left within the hour which gave me plenty of opportunity to get souvenirs for the women of my life - my mom, grandma, and great grandma. That triple dose of increasing crazy might be hard to handle sometimes, but I would be no one and no where without their support. And they deserve good recognition. So I bought them things - exotic things: the universal way to please women (I'm kidding, of course).

Sunday at Asakusa also marked the first time a completely random stranger asked me to take a picture with him. That kind of happened in Kyoto with some of the Japanese students at Ritsumeikan and also with some of the Kogakuin students at the welcome party, but never before has it been a random Japanese person. And I also got stopped by two college students doing a video project on tourism and souvenirs in/from Japan, so I did a hasty interview for them. It would have gone much better if I had had time to think more, but I didn't say too many stupid things. Unfortunately for them, I got nervous and slipped into extremely casual English which will probably be really hard to translate.

My Fourth of July didn't start out that exciting, but it got really good at the end. I went in to start working on my clinic presentation on the 12th and went to lunch with Yunyi and Bunny (his real name is Ayumu, btw). After that I worked some more and then went with everyone (Ben, Arisa, Yunyi) to a presentation from Kogakuin's English Lecture Series. The presentation was on potty and ceramics in India. It wasn't particularly exciting but the English profs and the presenters went to dinner afterwards and students were encouraged to tag along. So we did. The restaurant was great, the food was delicious, and the conversations were grand. And the drinks were strong...

Normally, I spend Independence Day blowing things up with my Brother while Mom and Dad laugh at us. I couldn't exactly do that at a restaurant in Tokyo, but I did order a drink with a sparkler it in. To be more precise, one of the other students with us ordered it and then said it was for me and Ben. So I (carefully) took a drink while the sparkler was lit to get a Fourth of July worthy picture. I just have to get it emailed to me... Either way, I celebrated the Fourth well. Great food with good company with fireworks exploding in my face - and a Singapore Slinger (some drink a prof ordered for me. It had some kick. Imagine an Asian version of a long island iced tea).

I am running out of time in Japan. I have 12 days left (2 weekends) to experience Tokyo to the fullest. I have my clinic presentation next Tuesday (the 12th), but after that I am free of academic obligations. My "bucket" list right now:

• Freeline at the Imperial Palace again
• Buy more souvenirs
• Go salsa dancing in Roppongi
• See the people I've randomly met to say goodbye (James, Stephanie, Maya, Ami)
• Hang out with the college students
• Climb Fuji

I'll to go freeline at some point during the week, and I am buying souvenirs slowly when I see something that looks good (I bought stuff for Michael today). This coming Saturday is going to be amazing because Ryoko is coming to visit me in Shinjuku. Ryoko is a girl I met when I did my science fair in Kyoto two years ago. She is adorably small and Japanese and she has been very kind to me ever since we met. I couldn't make it to Kyoto so she is coming here. AHHHH!!!!! I also have plans with some of the first years I met at the welcome party on Saturday, but Ryoko is more important (and she can probably tag along). I am still planning my trip to Fuji, I need to find out if Arisa wants to come along or not. I could make a day trip of it, but I want to spend two days. The first to travel there and get part way up and the second to be at the summit when the sun rises. It will be exhausting, but I can't pass this chance up. Before I leave, I will climb Mount Fuji.

And here is the link to the newest album on Facebook. I hit the 200 picture limit on the other one.

Clubbing, Salsa, Welcome Party, and a Devil's Sundae

I apologize for my laziness. I know it has been awhile since my last post, and I will try not to leave anything out but my memory is fairly packed with awesome happenings so I know I will forget something.

So my first major adventure since my last post was my first time clubbing. I met up with James (the British guy I met on the train a few weekends ago) to head to a party his friend was DJ-ing at. But before that, we had to fuel up because we were both pretty hungry. We went to McDonalds. Personally, I try to always avoid McDonalds but it was on the way and I've heard the ones here are much better. It is true, I was quite impressed. It was more expensive, but only because it was almost fancy... Yeah... Still blows my mind, a fancy McDonalds...

When we got to the club, James introduced me to quite a few people and I chatted with some of them but I spent most of my time talking to his friend Stephanie. Stephanie is Chinese, went to college in the states, and then moved to Japan to work and now she is studying acupuncture. She was really fun to talk to and we danced a bit towards the end, but I spent most of my time just talking to people. It fun. Then things started to die down so we all decided to head out. Stephanie caught a cab back home and the rest of us went to a second club. The second club turned out to be dead, so we just had a quick drink to rest our legs a bit then we went to a third club.

The guys had spent some time that night saying they were gonna find me a girl to meet, and they were adamant that the third club would be the place for it despite it was a gay club. I'm pretty comfortable in most situations so it didn't bother me any. Though I'm not really the type that hunt girls at clubs, I was kind of curious. It wasn't like I had experience at clubs anyways. I don't even spend much time at college parties. I am always dancing on the weekends.

Two things happened that I wasn't expecting. First, I was surprisingly good at attracting gay guys. Five different guys came up to me in the first hour. Luckily, everyone figured out pretty quickly I was straight and then it stopped. Secondly, I found a very amazing girl. She was with a group of her girl friends and she was very pretty (not a clubbing skimpy outfit sexy hot kind of pretty, the classy pretty). She definitely seemed a little uncomfortable in a club, so I figured her friends had dragged her along. I was kind of right.

Eventually, I was able to get close enough to chat and such - which was quite the accomplishment. Her friends were clearly watching out for her and they were working very hard to make sure I was not of malicious intent. And this is where things go downhill. I tried talking to her in Japanese and I wasn't doing so well. This girl would have made me fumbling for words in English, yet I had to speak in Japanese while yelling loud enough to be heard over the music. It didn't work too well but she was laughing. Laughing is a good sign, right? Shortly after that her friends decided it was time to leave and they headed out. I was able to make it to the door before she walked out, but all I could manage to say was goodbye.

And now things go really downhill. I was right that her friends had brought her, but I was focused on the wrong friend. It was actually one of the gay guys that had hit on me earlier (he was American, btw). Once she was out the door I realized I had seriously screwed up by not getting her number, so I went to talk to my only hope, the gay guy. While talking to him, I found out something interesting. She was American. She was fluent in English. Natively fluent. I spent the entire night stuttering with my Japanese trying to talk to a girl from America. No wonder she was laughing at me. Anyways, I gave the guy my phone number and asked him to pass it on to her. She hasn't called.

That was last Friday night. Given how Friday night had gone, I figured I would spend Saturday night meeting people. So I went to Waseda (the university my friend from high school goes to) and wandered around looking for clubs/pubs that college students hang out at so I could meet new people. Didn't work. But I did randomly run into Cari (the girl from IMSA going to college in Japan). After the initial freakout of our random encounter, she said I should try Roppongi for meeting people. It didn't work out, but we tentatively scheduled a hang out for before I leave. And I didn't run into the girl from the night before either.

Sunday was uneventful but Monday night was the night I had been waiting for - Ootemachi Romantico. I finished clinic early then headed back to my dorm to change; I wanted to look good while representing CCBDC. The venue was very classy (I didn't have my camera though, sorry), and the buffet was pretty decent. I was mildly disappointed by the lessons, but the crowd was mostly new dancers. I did meet a wonderful dancer by the name of Maya. Maya went to high school in Boston and then graduated from Boston University. My other dances were pretty standard, except most of my dances were with follows twice or three times my age (and some of them were probably almost 4 times my age) and I was the only non-Japanese person there. Claremont trained me well though, and I did a very good job of showing how good we are.

The DJ played some bachata too, which made me realize I need to work on that more. I forgot everything except the basics and I can't even remember the moves Mike Garcia taught me. My best dance was with Maya, but my most fun dance was with an old Japanese woman probably in her 70's. She was quite fiesty, but I prevailed and she really seemed to enjoy herself. After that, I had to go rest. The night was shorter than I expected, but it was great. Afterwards I headed back to Shinjuku with Maya and exchanged facebooks. She said she will keep me posted if she finds a good salsa event/club.

I did some wandering around during the week after clinic, mostly trying to find souvenirs. I have just over two weeks left, so I need to get on that. My quest for souvenirs ultimately led me to Asakusa, an old district of Tokyo and the home of an old Buddhist temple. The pictures are on facebook. Other than the Imperial Palace, Asakusa is my favorite place in Tokyo. It was beautiful. And plenty of souvenir shops. My first visit was for scouting, but I am going back soon to make my purchases. So last chance to send me requests if you want something specific.

On the train ride to Asakusa, I sat next to a cute Japanese girl. Given I am on a train for about two hours of every day, it tends to happen. What was weird, though, was running into her after three hours of wandering around Asakusa and such. She came up to me and asked how to find the train station, which was when I found out she spoke English. And then I found out she is from North Carolina visiting for summer break. I was pretty much done for the day, so I walked her to the station (after stopping to get a picture in front of the gate leading to the temple). During our random conversations, I mentioned I went to a residential high school. Then she said she did too, she went to the "North Carolina School of Science and Math" - North Carolina's version of IMSA (Illinois Math and Science Academy). THAT was weird. She is gonna let me know when she is free and we might hang out some more.

And that brings us to today. Today was the official welcome party for Ben and me at Hachioji. I finally met some first and second year students and I also got to meet some of the other profs. There was also more alcohol there than at Mudd's parties and quite a few of the students (and a prof or two) got smashed. And most people had quite a buzz. I had like three drinks (and I found out that Gin and Tonics come in a can). The food was decent, but it was mostly nice to meet new people.

I went to the station with some of the first years and then met up with Arisa. We had quite a fun night. Our first stop was a Denny's right next to the station. Just to warn you, Denny's in Japan have a COMPLETELY different menu. I took pics. I recognized the french toast, so I got some of that. Then Arisa and I split a "Devil's Sundae". It was a brutal battle, but we won. With our stomaches full and our arteries clogging, we left for a game center (arcade). I resisted the first time, but I finally broke down and played arcade style Mario Kart. Completely worth it. I need to play that game more often. Then we took a few pictures in a photo booth and headed out. Kind of a rushed night, but quite fun.

Facebook isn't letting me get external links for y'all, sorry. I'll edit this when I can to get the links up. Otherwise, the picture are in the same album as before so you can use links from previous posts. And it is 3am, so I apologize for rambling, grammar mistakes, and boring content.

-EDIT-
Links have been added. So Morgan Pepper and Parth can SUCK IT. =D

Freelining, Imperial Palace, and awesome Pasta

My plans over the weekend to go explore Tokyo and really live it up didn't go too well because of the rain and my laziness, so I have been making an effort this week to change that. I was partially successful. I did the usual 5 hour experiment for clinic Monday-Thursday, but Tuesday wasn't rainy (did I mention I hate rain?) so I headed back into Tokyo after dropping my stuff off at the dorm. Since my biggest plan for this weekend is a huge salsa event being held in Ootemachi on Monday night, I thought it would be a good idea to go to Ootemachi beforehand and find the venue. Finding the gigantic skyscraper only took a minute, so I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Ootemachi. And by walking, I mean freelining around the Imperial Palace. Trust me when I say it was LEGENDERRY

So some background info. The Imperial Palace is a huge attraction, even for the locals. Plus, there is a park and garden and lots of paths to walk. Oh, and a moat and really tall walls and big gates. Though they are mildly useless now, it is pretty obvious the Imperial Palace was an impenetrable stronghold back in the day before modern technology screwed everything up. Now it takes more than big walls and a ditch filled with water... And archer towers...

Anyways, the Imperial Palace is a great place to visit. Sadly, I got there after the gates closed so I only got to explore the outside, but the parks and paths are beautiful. I took lots of pictures. 

Fun fact #1: lots of people like to jog / ride bikes around the palace.

Fun fact #2: I like to freeline around the palace. Just to say it one more time because it was so awesome. I freelined around the Japanese Imperial Palace.

I eventually found my way back to the station and then went back to Shinjuku. By this point, I was really hungry so I texted my friend Arisa to see if she was still in Shinjuku and wanted to grab some food. She was, so I started thinking of somewhere to eat on my way to meet her. Just when I thought it would be another time where we would spend 10 minutes in this eternal circle of indecision, "どうしよう？分からない、どこに行きたい？わかない、どこ行きたい？" (What should we do? I don't know, where do you want to go? Dunno, you?), my hunger decided for us as I walked past a pasta place in Shinjuku station. 

More background information. Shinjuku station is, according to some, the busiest train/subway station in the world. The place is HUUGEEE. The station is probably bigger than my college campus.... and the other 4 campus combined. There are at least two different malls, uncountable shops and restaurants, and I don't know how many Lumines (Japanese store, not sure for what). And I usually dismiss them with logic similar to this, "a restaurant in a train station? suure......" I was so wrong. The pasta place was delicious. I only got an entree, but the entree was cheaper and tasted better than Olive Garden (though I did miss having soup beforehand). And since it is Japan, no tip. Mmm.

Since then most of my time has been spent gathering data for clinic. On top of that, I have started working on my Japanese vocabulary, I beat Yugi for Ben on his DS (yeah, I played Yugioh. And loved it. God I miss that game), and I have freelined the streets around the dorm. Oh, and tonight marks a momentous occasion. I finished the last episode of "How I met your Mother". Yep, I have had enough free time to re-watch 6 full seasons with 20+ episodes per season. In my defense, the episodes are only 21 mintues. So that is only roughly 42 hours in total, or 1.2 hours a day since I got here.

Not only that, I emulated Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Seasons (think waaaayyyy back to GameBoy Color) and completely beat both of them. And I finished organizing my iTunes library. I imported every song/audio file on my laptop and external and went through every song to delete the ones I don't want. I actually started that project while at home, but it took a long time. But, I prevailed. I went from 20gb and 4,000 songs to 5gb and 1,080 songs. And since Apple is releasing Lion soon (the next release for Mac OS X), I cleaned up my computer. Between deleting useless files and programs and moving stuff to my external, I freed up 100gb on my laptop and 80gb on my external. This is what I do when I don't have 17 hours of class and homework like at Mudd. I've also webcammed with my parents and also with Lauren.

The coming weekend should be extraordinary. Instead of clinic tomorrow, I am going back to Ootemachi to see the inside of the Imperial Palace (I hope it doesn't rain) in the afternoon and then maybe going to a club with the British guy I met on the train. And Marco (Mattie Tyce's friend from Germany) got me in contact with the freeline community in Japan and they have an event on Sunday I might head to. A few of them are heading out on Saturday night and crashing at a hotel to get an early start and I am invited to that too. I'm still thinking that over, but I'll probably go to the Sunday thing no matter what. And, naturally, Monday is already booked. Unless the universe really screws me over, I am not going to miss the salsa event. So those are my plans for the weekend. But, as always, I am open to ideas for other things to do. So if you come across anything on Google that sounds fun, send me a link.

Speaking of links, I added more pictures on Facebook.

I almost forgot, I got the best ad today. You know how Google and other websites look at your IP address, location, cookies, and such to provide audience tailored ads? Well, I got this. Notice the "You won a free year of working in America!" and "Answer for a chance to win a Green Card to the USA". Oh internet, how I love you sometimes.

Happy Father's Day!

So it is 10pm here in Japan on Sunday the 19th, which means the weekend is ending. My original intent for this weekend was to go out and enjoy the Tokyo nightlife and see some of the more popular attractions in the Tokyo area such as shrines and parks. So I finished clinic early on Friday and met up with my friend Arisa to go explore. -- Quick side note, I can't find a good translation for "to explore" in Japanese. The only combination that might work is the word for "exploration" with the "to do" verb. Turns out that modern Japanese only has roughly 40,000 words in common usage whereas English has 100,000 or more, so there are bound to be some translation errors. -- Unfortunately, Arisa hasn't been to many places in Tokyo either, so the role of navigator falls on me. But I found a really nice app for my iPod touch the other day for tourists in Japan and it is really useful for finding tourist attractions. Yes, I fully acknowledge that I am a nerd.

So on Friday Arisa and I went out and I was planning on going to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. After a few navigational errors, we were finally on the right path and made in there in good time. Sadly, the park was closed for the night. So then we walked back and went to Tokyu Hands (a Japanese department store) and found it in the middle of closing. Everything in Japan closes early! Even the trains stop shortly after midnight.

Okay, that isn't completely true. Plenty of places are open at night in Tokyo: bars, clubs, and a few restaurants and hotels. But mostly bars and clubs. So... yeah. Friday night ended pretty early once we realized everything was closed and took a train back (we both are on the Keio line from Shinjuku).  We met up earlier on Saturday and decided to go to Shibuya, a district south of Shinjuku. It was a nice day, so we were going to walk it and stop at Harajuku on our way there. Terrible idea. It started raining shortly after we left the station and neither of us had walked that far south before. We didn't get lost, but we got drenched. And the path we took was not a scenic route. After a good half an hour of walking through the rain, we found Harajuku and just decided to take a train the rest of the way. I hate rain. There is a really good reason I am in Claremont, CA for college: Claremont is a desert.

Shibuya was nice. We walked around looking for some statue (which we never found. Personally, I blame the sea of umbrellas in my way) and eventually wound up in a really small noodle joint in a basement off of a side street. Delicious. I was trying to follow Brian's method for good Asian food joints. The lower the health rating, the better. I am not sure how Japan's health regulations and such work, but that place was delicious enough to belong as low as a B in the US (assuming Brian isn't simply crazy and there actually is an inverse relationship between health ratings and deliciousness of food).

As for today, I stayed in and did some laundry and food shopping. And I watched tons of "How I Met your Mother". I blame my current obsession on my lack of ability to make jokes in Japanese. My humor doesn't translate well... But I am aware of that. I did go freelining for a bit though. I'm getting rusty. I can't imagine how much worse I have gotten at dancing. Speaking of that, the huge salsa event I've been waiting for is next weekend. I am super excited. The cover charge is kind of pricey, but I get two lessons, a drink, and full access to the buffet (soft drinks are free). The venue is a very nice hotel in Roppongi. I'll probably be one of the youngest people there again, but I'm getting used to that. I kind of like that everyone overestimates my age. Best to enjoy it while I can. I desperately need a haircut, and I'll only start looking younger and younger as it grows out. Maybe I'll try to find a barber in Roppongi that speaks English.

Ah, almost forgot. I met a British guy on the train on Friday. I think he is an English teacher here in Japan and he has been here for 9 years, so he knows Tokyo fairly well. He added me on Facebook and I might wind up meeting him and his friends next weekend so he can show me some nice places to visit in Tokyo.

One last thing, I want to give a huge shout out to my dad for Father's Day. I won't lie, I initially forgot. As far as I can tell, Father's Day doesn't exist in Japan (at least on the same day as ours) so I didn't have the usual warnings from shops and sales that it is coming up. My reminder came from Google earlier today. Wow, I have really lost touch on some things in the states. I'll be back in a month though.

Anyways, I wanted to say thank you to Dad (for those wondering, I am going to contact him directly too. I might temporarily be a blogger, but I'm not THAT bad). He always worked hard for me, my brothers, and my mom to provide for us. I remember there were times when I was a kid that he would work 16 to 18 hour shifts 4 or 5 times a week. Since my mom also worked a lot, he would wake us up in the middle of the night and drop us off at his mom's house on his way to work and we would go to school the next morning from her house. I don't remember all the details since I was only around 7 at that time (honestly, I could be completely wrong with that guess. I only know it was at an age I don't have much memory of). Either way, my dad always did his best to raise us. We didn't get pampered (okay, mom kind of spoiled us), we got hard lessons to make us better men. He taught us how to work hard and to always love our mom. We don't have to love him, but we have to love Mom because she devoted her entire life to us and she deserves respect. Growing up with a stern father was rough sometimes, but I know it made me and my brothers better men.

So for all the times you made me pay for my mistakes as a child, for all the times you reminded me I don't understand the first thing about life, for all the times you told me to shut up and work, for all the brutal hours of working at Keystone and Caterpillar breaking your body to bring home a paycheck, and for all the arguments and support and help, and for being a great dad and making Mom happy; thank you Dad. I love you. 

See you in a month,

David

School, work, and play.

It has been about a week now since I last updated you guys, so I'll do my best to remember all that has been going down since my last post. My clinic is officially off the ground. I constructed the apparatus and I had my first run though of my experimental procedure and data analysis yesterday. My project isn't complicated, but I am still quite proud of myself for designing and running an experiment of my own creation. Prof. Hikita (the sponsor of my clinic) said he wants results, and I am free to get those results however I decide. So far he seems pretty impressed by my pace and work attitude, and I hope that doesn't change. Ben is a senior, so he pretty much knows he is an engineering god and the program has never had issues with seniors from Mudd. But I am the first freshman/non-senior to do this, so no one is quite sure of how useful I will be and I want to prove that I am capable.

So, recap of last week. Ben and I went to a different section of English class (this one is actually an English culture class) and I met those teachers as well. They were happy to have us sitting in on the class and we got to give our input a few times. They were discussing the concept of a simulacra (wikipedia), and I am not surprised that most of the students had no idea of what was going on. The English vocabulary used was obviously over their heads. Still, it was a very interesting discussion for me and Ben. Random trivia, Disney is one of the best examples of simulacra. Other random trivia, Disney world in Tokyo is extremely popular to all ages (particularly teenagers and older).

I am essentially self sufficient for shopping and such. I can go to the grocery store and most restaurants without issue of ordering. The only areas I don't usually understand is when they ask "take out or dine in" and "would you like to order a drink" and "do you prefer booth or table". Mostly everything else is good. Side note, credit cards aren't that popular in Japan. I use my debit card when shopping for food and the cashier always asks something I don't understand, but I say yes and everything works out. That is what matters, right? Quick culture note, Japan has mastered the art of packaged food and lunches. Boxed tea and cup noodles is a great combo for lunch.

As for friends, I mostly talk to Yunyi and the others from the English class but I am started to kind of meet other people. I talk to the guys on my clinic team, and I talk to Arisa, and of course Ben. There is also a guy in my dorm that lives on the floor above and he is a really nice person to talk to.

I spent the last few days of last week hanging out with Arisa in Shinjuku and I really enjoyed it. But I figured I should quit bothering her all the time so I started looking for places to dance in Tokyo. Salsa and Blues weren't happening anytime soon, but I got lucky with West Coast. There was an event in Shinkuku that night and the directions seemed pretty easy. So I took a train to Shinjuku and followed the directions to where the venue was. Worked well until I realized the address was wrong. So I ducked into a dance studio I came across to see if they knew anything about the event. They didn't speak English, but I was able to explain enough for them to help me out and we eventually figured it out. The venue was actually in the basement of a place I walk by fairly often, and the crowd was really nice. I was the youngest person there (by 10 or 15 years), but they were excited to have me there. The crowd was pretty small, the max number of people there was around 15. The lead teacher is a black guy from LA and works as a translator for old Buddhist texts. We had some nice chats about living in Japan and dancing and such. After talking to a lot of people, we realized we had a lot of salsa dancers so the DJ played a salsa for us. I loved it. And the follow teacher is a coordinator for some local salsa events so she gave me some info about what is happening before I leave.

A quick culture note so you appreciate my next comment. Japanese people do not show affection through hugs and physical contact like other countries. Girls sometime do to other girls, but hugs are very rare between anyone except family and significant others. Mudd is a very touchy community, and the dance community is probably more so. Turns out, same in Japan. I would be introduced to a dancer and there would be a handshake and usually a hug too. I was pretty surprised because it was the first time I've hugged anyone here other than Cari (my friend from IMSA), but dancers are dancers. And I even got a huge goodbye from everyone when I left. Small dance scenes are the greatest. It reminded me quite a bit of blues back in Claremont.

Yesterday (Monday) was my most productive day here to date. Prof. Hikita got the glass plates I needed for my apparatus so I got straight to work getting the box put together and everything in place to start testing. I survived my first experience with cutting glass with only an extremely small scrape (not cut) on my knuckle. And yes, most of the box is held together by duct tape. I'll get some pictures uploaded soon. I'm quite proud.

Yesterday was also my craziest day here to date. My clinic team had a welcome party for me and we all (plus some friends) went out to eat some Shyabu Shyabu so they could welcome me the Japanese way. So we ate lots (lots = way too much) of food and the Prof had me trying Japanese alcohol of various sorts. Naturally, there was also lots of flattering pictures taken and jokes were plentiful. For those unaware of how sake works, you never pour your own. Someone else pours yours and you pour theirs. If someone pours you sake, you don't say no. At first that was fine, until we started pouring for people when they weren't paying attention. Long story short, all of us drank more than we expected. I was expecting two or three, I had seven or eight. It wasn't bad though, I had enough food in my stomach that I hardly felt it. We ate and drank for three hours, then we went to a cafe for dessert and spent another hour there. Finally, after almost 5 hours of stuffing our faces, I had been officially welcomed.

I uploaded more pictures on facebook, you can check them out here. I'm off to do more clinic. I will be home in barely more than a month, so see you all soon!

EDIT

Btw, I wanted to thank all of you for reading this blog and all my posts. It is strangely comforting to know that my friends and family are keeping track of my happenings of my crazy life here in Tokyo. I already have over 700 page views and this is roughly a month old. And lots of you (Mars and Jamie in particular) are commenting about my pictures and such. So.. yeah, thank you. I'm glad I still have a life in the states.