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.