Visiting Aizu, More Deep End Dining, Conducting a Tea Ceremony, and Clubbing in Tokyo

The trip to Aizu was amazing. First we went to the wakamatsu tsurugajou, the view from the top of the castle was amazing. On the bus ride there we played a game with the teachers where they would make the noise of an animal in Japanese and we had to guess what it was. Afterwards we would give the english sound. The teacher in charge was so cute, you can see her trying not to die as she climbs down the stone steps in the adjoining picture taken from my flickr collection. For frog someone said it was rabbit, and she said ribitch, it was quite amusing.

After the castle we went to the byakkotai memorial/grave. This was an event when a group of aizu samurai saw the area around the castle burning and they thought they lost the war so they went to go kill themselves. They gathered at a meeting place but one samurai got lost on the way and his dog found him in the forest so he survived. Another did cut his stomach but a wandering farmer found him and saved him. Everyone else died. Afterwards we went to the museum honoring them and there was so much amazing calligraphy. There were a few kanji poems, no kana, so Fei, the taiwanese girl read them aloud for me and they were very beautiful. She translated them as well and although they made sense they lost their beauty.

From the museum we went to the house where a samurai family used to live. It was the house of the leader of the aizu clan. It was very beautiful, I wouldnt mind living in a place like that.

After that we went to urushi (lacquer) factory. There they produced many beautiful things from cups to plates and chopsticks and boxes. Basically if you can craft it from wood they had it. The most amazing things were the tools for the tea ceremony. The cha`ire (container for matcha) were amazing, but even more so was the price. They started at about $200 maybe and went all the way up to $3700! I had a very hard time deciding something to buy so I just ended up buying chopsticks and a bowl for myself. I already bought some things for gifts to take back to American in Nikko, and thus, I wasn't ready to spend any more money.

After the factory we went to the hotel. Everyone was wearing the yukata and we had an enormous meal at the hotel. We got a whole crab, maguro and ebi sashimi, ama ebi (sweet shrimp), broiled bamboo shoot, crab soup, pickled vegetables, rice, tea, and probably some more I forgot. I almost ate everything, but I couldnt finish the crab. After dinner most of the students went in the onsen (Japanese baths). I talked to a Japanese man for a little while there and he showed me what happens when someone is sad. His crying impression was so funny; he said this is what happens when you girlfriend breaks up with you.

In the morning we went to (touchijuku?) A small town that preserves Edo period architecture. It was very quaint and beautiful, and it even snowed! I tasted a grasshopper for the first time, it wasnt so bad. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and sweet and salty from the seasonings. I also bought some plums which have been blackened by coals or something. All I know is they are the best salted plums I have ever had. I still havent opened them. On top of that, so many students bought food from that shop, the shopkeeper gave us three bags of seasoned burdock roots from free.

The next day we went to Tou no Hetsuri, which is a natural rock formation created over millions of years by wind and water erosion. There I sampled two different kinds of miso soup, and a fried anko thing which tasted some some sort of amazing donut. They also sold viper liquor. This is when you take a live viper and pour sake into its jar drowning it. Afterwards when you drink the liquor its supposed to be somekind of health elixir. They also sold one with enormous wasps instead of the snake. The rock formation was simply amazing, quite possibly the most stunning thing I have ever seen in nature. You could really feel the ancient energies resulting from the slow formation of the rock towers.

From there we went to lunch, it was nothing special, I had a bowl of mountain vegetable soba. Afterwards we went into the bakery where they had free samples of cheesecake. People went crazy like it usually happens with that desert (I simply dont understand what all the fuss is about) and Tanaka-san also ate his fair share. I saw him run away with a goofy grin on his face and I told him that Ive never seen him look so guilty in his entire life. He just burst out laughing and I thought he wasnt even going to say anything, but eventually he said the look the worker gave him was if you like it that much why dont you actually buy one! It was hilarious.

After that we went to an animal farm where they have supposedly famous ice cream. It was good, but still doesnt compare to anything from Italy or even America. I went on the bungee trampoline there which allowed me to do flips for the first time in many moons. It was a lot of fun, until I stopped and realized my hands had practically frozen. After the farm we headed back to Tokyo. Aizu was quite possibly even better than the trip to Nikko. I had a blast!

The next monday was the ochakai (tea ceremony). Putting on that kimono was such a bitch! I understand why people dont really wear them anymore. One of the male teachers helped me put it on, and he really struggled with it, but in the end after he left Minagawa-sensei (tea instructor) and Kamisaka-sensei (the cute one from the trip to Aizu) looked at it and decided its not good enough. My undershirt was showing and the hakama wasnt tight enough in the back. So Kamisaka-sensei helped me adjust it and shes reaching inside the kimono by my legs and my chest, she asks me if its ok if she does this, because she is a girl and I am not. I had no complaints. She told me my chest was very warm... I wasnt really sure how to respond to a comment like that. In the end she did it much faster and better than Ogawa-sensei. I did pretty well preparing the tea, except I forgot to turn on the water heater so the one cup I made wasnt quite hot enough... oh well. Im planning to do it again next quarter so I should do even better than.

Last Thursday I went out and had a few drinks with the girl I met at a club. She is the only Japanese girl I have gone out with again after the first meeting. She is a dental assistant, maybe about 25, and still lives with her parents. She told me she had a boyfriend four years ago who was the ideal man, but I think she broke up with him when he said he wanted to marry her but she wasnt ready. She seems as if maybe she likes me, but I dont really know. I plan to see her again sometime over the break. She is very busy with her job, so there are not many opportunities.

Friday I went to a party of a Japanese guy I met at that same club. It was actually a gay club in Nichome, so almost everyone there was gay except for the group of Americans I came with (excluding one, who brought us to to the club in the first place). The party was great, after our host had some drinks he was sooo funny. He was ridiculous. Near the end a Japanese girl showed up, she was amusing. She was amazed by our efforts studying Japanese. She said that after she studies something for two years she just goes to sleep.

Yesterday, I went to a live concert that Miki-san, Tomoko-san's oldest son, is affiliated with. Miki is a great singer, guitarist, and pianist. Shin-san also performed, as well as Mikako, Maki-san's girlfriend. She is the only one in my extended host family who will drink, and she had a fewdrinks by the time she performed. She messed up while singing, and apologized for it before continuing. Afterwards she came up to me, and I told her she performed well. All the performances were great, but one band called Janet Seven were on a completely different page than the rest of the set. They had their volume blasting, and played some type of crazy punk fusion. The guitarist was in a trance, and the singer danced like a freak. As he sang he would spill his mints on the ground and then pick them up and pop them in his mouth. It was quite the amusing performance, if not a little too loud.

I invited my friend David to the concert, who coincidentally is going to homestay with Tomoko-san next quarter. She invited him to the concert when she found out, but he said he already had plans. The great part is because I had already invited him!

Today Im just staying at home. Im going to get to my studies after this. Everything is going great... but Im starting to get a little sad knowing some of my best friends are going home after the fall quarter ends. But some are staying, and new students are coming next quarter! I hope to make friends with the Japanese living in my dorm in Fuchu next quarter, as well as meeting more Japanese girls. I still need to start looking for a job though...

More on Eating, Japanese Culture, and Visiting Nikko

As I type this for my blog, I am uploading the photos from nikko and the class trip to the tokyo edo history museum. A lot has happened since I last uploaded pictures and talked about Tokyo. Somehow my parents realized, I stayed up all Saturday night bowling waiting for the subway to start, and they called at 6 am Tokyo time. I couldnt speak to them, as I needed to sleep before I could be coherent.

Previously, I wrote about going out after the midterm with the koreans from my class in which I was the only non korean there. It was about 60% korean 38% japanese and 2% english. I was planning to go out for karaoke with one of them after the food and drinks but at the second location he suddenly left to go handle something that came up with his girlfriend. I was dissappointed because I dont have a lot of chances to hang out with the koreans because they mostly all work. At the first restaurant we went to all the tables had a teppan and they cooked what seemed like enormous strips of bacon (or belly meat is more appropriate perhaps). They cooked that with garlic and kimchee and onions and potatoes and then rolled it up in a leaf of lettuce. It was very good. I also tried some sort of tofu soup with clams I think it was. By the way if its korean food its probably spicy. At the end we had some rice cooked on the teppan. All of this was eaten with several shots of sojuu (the korean liquor).

Next we went to a bar called Orange where we had some draft beer and some type of food I didnt understand. Of course I ate it and it was good. Eventually one of my teachers arrived and joined us at the table. Even after a drink or two she still refused to say her age, in class she told us she is eien no juhassai (eternally 18). She ordered a dried octopus that came with the spicy rice cracker crescents. Upon recommendation of the students she also ordered some type of soup. It was too spicy for her and a few of the koreans so I ate most of it. It was great.

Several Saturdays ago for the culture class we had a lecture about polite fiction and gestures. This polite fiction is the way Japanese do not boast and brag and will actually talk down their family members when introducing them. For example I just got married so I am inviting you to have dinner with me and my wife. Shes not very beautiful and she cant cook well but I hope you will still join us. This is because talking about your success or talents is considered very rude. Additionally Japanese people feel obligated to help out when confronted with a request. As im sure you noticed when you were in Japan they are especially eager to help out foreigners. The same today generally still holds true; however, once the Japanese exit their community and enter the public space they completely transform. They ignore the plight of people obviously in need of help. More or less they pretend these things arent even happening before their eyes. For example, what is common courtesy in America such as to hold open a door, pick up someones dropped items, or help out someone with too much luggage is absolutely unheard of. It can even be confusing to the Japanese when foreigners do this, but I still continue to nevertheless.

After the lecture I went to Harajuku and then Shibuya with my friends Mike, Tim, Ed, and Dave who met us in Shibuya. I bought two shirts both with some Engrish. One says the whole of life on Earth is one, which makes sense but is oddly worded. The other is basically incomprehensible. I forget exactly, but its great. I also bought a bob marley headband that says africa unite. ...I just realized I already wrote about these events.

Nikko was amazing. The nature is so beautiful there, the biggest disappointment is that I did not see any monkeys. There are many living at lake chuzenji and they are even infamous for stealing food right out of your hand. Luckily we made a reservation for friday night when we arrived in Nikko. I believe it was some type of information center where the guy reserved it for us. It was 5000 yen a person for one night which I hear is a decent price. However it was near the aformentioned lake, which is up the mountain from the town. It was called 憩いの湯　ikoi no yu (the relaxing hotspring). So we were stuck in the hotel friday night, we ate dinner there (I had a bowl of soba), and went in the onsen. Interestingly, the sulfur in the onsen reacted with my silver necklace and it has become a sort of gunmetal color. It it is still shiny but no longer silver in color. The next day we got up and took the bus into town to eat lunch. We ate at a Japanese restaurant where we ate more noodles and alyssa had tonkatu (the fried pork cutlet). Since we had no idea where our hotel, the Turtle Inn, was for the night, dave asked the owner of the restaurant. He directed us towards the general location.

From there we walked around town a bit and I bought a dragon painting with the kanji magokoro (true spirit) written. It was 3000 yen. The artist was so good and very fast. It only takes him fifteen minutes to make one like mine. Unfortunately at my house I touched a spot that never dried and smeared it a little, but overall its still amazing. Then we went to find the hotel. Once we got to the area we asked for directions from the japanese. No one knew so we called the hotel. We were told to go past the save on (a konbini) all the way until the road hits a T intersection and turn left but I didnt fully understand so we turned too soon. We wandered around about and then asked two English speakers. The man pointed us one way but his girlfriend told us not to believe him. We went that way anyways and after a block I asked the worker at a beauty salon. Sure enough the guy pointed in the exact opposite direction but this time somehow I understood the Japanese directions.

The 係員 kakari`in at the turtle inn was very nice and spoke some english. We had free internet access and could come and go at any time, but when we do, please shut the door she said. It was already past three after we checked in and the shrine closes at 4, moreover, the sun sets at five so there wasnt a whole lot to do. We decided to go to an area with many buddha statues lined up that she told us about.
I dont have much to say about it that the pictures cant, but there were at least a hundred statues lined up. The river and surrounding scenery was fantastic.

Afterwards we walked into town to eat dinner. Around this time I got a call from Tim who said he would be arriving at 8pm. He went to Nagano and Matsumoto on Thursday and Friday nights, but there is no train from Nagano to Nikko so he had to stopover in Tokyo first. Thus it took about 10 hours for him to arrive. So we ate a family dinner called gusto, it was not bad but the best part happened at the drink bar there. I saw this English speaking woman looking slightly confused so I asked if there was a problem. In some type of British accent she responded `no theres no problem. Im just debating the drink bar. Its a constant source of joy within our miserable lives.` I told my friends and everyone was highly amused. So then we went to meet Tim at the train station and then set out for second dinner. Everything closes at 8 so Tims lucky he didnt have to eat at the konbini. We found a korean restaurant with the western tables and two low japanese. No customers were there, but along the walls were about 20 photos with messages from those who had previously feasted. Everyone had such high praise and there was writing in English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, some Russian dialect and maybe something else too. It truly was an amazing restaurant. The owner loved talking to us and was very surprised by our japanese.

We asked if we could drink the bottle of sake Tim brought from Nagano which is supposedly the most famoud sake of Japan yet no one actually knows what it was. They have been making it since the 17th century. They told us we could only if we bought some of their alcohol first. So we did. It was the most enjoyable meal of Japan so far, but the luxurious restaurant after the hakamairi was the tastiest. But anyways the best dish of ki kou was a maguro sashimi with a spicy fruit dressing. The owner told us it is a dish normally made for the emperor.

Afterwards we went back to the hotel and were told by another customer at 12 30 am "the walls are very thin" - I guess we were too loud so we brought it down to a reasonable level. Sunday we went to the shrines and it was an amazing experience; however, the best parts cannot be photographed. I was very tired by 4 pm. We met two Italian women at the shrines, they were very pleased to hear Tim spoke some Italian, but he would get it a little mixed with Japanese.

After the shrines we went to the Nikko Beer Brewery. It took about 25-30 min to walk from the shrine. We had two pitchers of beer and it was the best japanese beer Ive ever had. We praised the owner and took pictures with him. In the end Chris asked me to ask him if we could get a ride back into town because it was already 5:15 pm and the last train leaves at 6:50 pm. He happily obliged and drove us all the way to our hotel where our luggage was waiting. It may not have been the most responsible situation, but without that ride we most likely would not have made it to the train on time.Back at the hotel I thanked the kakari`in for taking care of our luggage. She was talking to a customer at the time, and they both seemed slightly surprised by my respectful japanese, but the customer was much more so. Before we left she came over to us and asked where we were from and what we were doing in Japan. Afterwards she asked if she could take a picture with us. She seemed very pleased to meet such foreigners like me and my friends who could speak Japanese as we do. As she was heading back up to her room I told her she was pretty. She said `uwaa! ureshii!` (Im so happy!). It was a great reaction. Oh and one last note regarding Nikko. I tried an egg boiled in the hot springs. The shell turns almost black and the egg turns light brown. The flavor is hard to describe, but... best egg ever.

A couple weeks ago in class we had to write a composition about any topic to present to the class. I wrote about my dream that had the previous night, except I just used that as a starting point. I was snowboarding on some mountain wearing some boots that I only vaguely remember picking up from the ground and they somehow fit perfectly. As I was riding my board mysteriously disappeared. From there I made the rest up. Basically a bear comes to me and says he wants to show me something. We end up at a cave and somehow I knew that was were he planned to take me. Inside there were lots of gnomes busily working amidst huge piles of collected objects. I thought I could find my snowboard here but there bear told me I must not act outside of my reason for coming here. At that point I realized I didnt even know why I was there but that it doesnt matter. You may think you are doing something for a certain goal but by the time you reach it you look back and realize you ended up somewhere you never expected to be. Isnt life full of surprises?

This previous week went by without much significance, but yesterday was very enjoyable. It was my friends birthday party, whos from Dallas, Texas, just like Chris back home. But before then we had a culture lecture regarding the Japanese psychology. Essentially it is a society based on the person, not individual. This means a persons social status is very important, i.e. age, sex, job, birthplace etc. Additionally the Japanese are a society of non verbal communcation. They expect you to understand them and analyze a problem without anything actually being said. The japanese hate conflict and do their best to avoid it even if it means pretending like nothing bad happened at all.The lack of communication stems from the family unit. A mother can usually tell what their child wants even when they dont say anything. Additionally the parenting of the father can be described as 親の背中 (the parent`s back). What this means is that he doesnt speak to his kids much and teaches them what to do by example.This nonverbal raising from the mother results in amae (dependancy, but also means sweetness). Many boys especially single children dont know how to communicate in the real world because their mothers knew how to address all their needs and they never experience conflict like that of sibling rivalry. Tada sensei said she believes the majority of japanese psycological issues are a result of amae.There is a dichotomy within world societies. Cultures of shame and cultures of guilt. Guilt is more related to feeling bad for what you have done perhaps because it is immoral or god is watching you. Shame is felt for disgracing the community.There was some more but Its already midnite so I will wrap things up. Afterwards we went to the museum, it was very interesting. They actually had manga in the edo period. Later, we went to the street ramen stand. Best raamen of Japan. They call the owner master. I also met Chris`s Japanese friend Chikara who is studying English in order to study theater in New York. He is really cool.

Afterwards the three of us went to Shinjuku Nichome for our friends birthday party. That area is known being the most openly gay part of Japan. We went to Calebs friends bar and afterwards we went to a dance club. It was about 90% or more guys but the music was good and I enjoyed the dancing. I met one of the few girls there as well as a guy from California. He was born in San Francisco and went to Berkeley.

From there we went to another club that we got into free because we had a stamp from the first one. Naturally it was mostly guys again but this time I danced with a girl for quite some time. I also got her number I really want to see her again. There was just something about her...

In other words last night I had more luck with the Japanese girls than ever before and aside from that made two new Japanese friends. To top it off all class is still going great and I got an average of 83 on the Level 3 KCP midterm.

Tokyo Food Experiences

Sorry I havent posted in a while, I have been fairly busy lately. The KCP Level 3 mid-term test went well. Perhaps, I got an A-....hopefully. I tried to send an email home from my mobile phone, but I accidently closed it after spending 30 minutes writing it >:( After the test on friday, I went out again with the koreans from my class, this time I was the only non korean. Later that night one of our teachers joined us at a bar, and even after a drink she still refused to tell us her real age. I never ended up going to the museum on saturday. The culture class was about polite fiction, how the japanese wont boast or brag and even go so far as to introduce their wife as my stupid wife when meeting someone. It was the most interesting culture class so far.

I went to harajuku with some friends and I bought two shirts and a bandana. One of the shirts has particularly indecipherable engrish on it. We walked to shibuya and ate at a japanese restaurant. We had fried chicken, fried squid, maguro and ika (squid) sashimi, and japanese style german potatoes. Im not really sure what the potatoes were meant to be, but they had onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, bacon, and katsuo (the dried fish flakes). Afterwards we went to an arcade and then later a bar called ghetto happy dining. There I tried umeshuu (plum wine) sorbet and sherbet, which was fantastic, as well as the panic chicken (which was delicious, although not as spicy as I expected).

On Sunday I went to the graveyard with the whole Suzuki family to honor tomokosans late husband. Along with the picture above, I have a few other pictures of everyone that I uploaded to flickr.. Afterwards we went to a very fancy restaurant. We sat down in a waiting area that had a bar with no bartender. From there we were lead to an extravagent private room which coincidentally was available for us that day. We started off with champagne, and the first dish was a salad of various tubers. Next was some type of fish cooked on the steel grill at the table. (Normally this would be a black surface, a teppan, but there it seemed to be some type of stainless steel.) It had a mushroom and champagne sauce, it was amazing. Next was some type of very tender beef (I dont know what, it had little fat but was so soft) served with two sauces and slices of grilled garlic. After that was two small slices of sirloin. Next came garlic rice with miso soup and a small bowl of pickled vegetables and a cup of tea. I had white wine with the fish and california red wine with the beef. After the meal we were lead upstairs to the desert room where I had coffee and two scoops of different chocolate ice cream. One was brandy and the other Im not sure. The meal itself was fantastic but I was more amazed by the decoration of the place, it was just so extravagant. I took some pictures of the outside on my phone, I will eventually upload those as well.

Oh and last monday I believe I had a private (free) lesson with a calligraphy teacher who came to the house. He was a friend of tomoko-san's friend, so she also met him for the first time. He arrived at 7 30 and I expected maybe 2 or 3 hours, but he wouldnt leave until 12 40. He brought three pieces that he wrote for me, aikido, mu shin, and mu ga. Mu shin is literally no mind (spirit), but its more like having a pure spirit. Mu ga means no self, basically selfless. He is a paid teacher, but he volunteered to do this for me. It was a great experience.

This monday night Hiromi-san made tacos. It wasnt anything more than premade shells and ground beef mixed with salsa and then topped with tomatoes, lettuce, onions, but it was so good since its been a while.

Last night I went to an okonomiyaki restaurant with tomoko-san and three of her friends. They were a crazy bunch. It was very amusing. I also found out that Tomoko-san was born in China and at three years old, how she got into into japan. This weekend Im planning to go to Nikko with some friends. I was going to go out to dinner with another girl from my class today, but she didnt go to class, so we will probably go friday instead.

I guess thats about everything for now. Happy Thanksgiving.

KCP Undoukai (School Sports Day)

Things are going great still. I have had some problems with making it home before midnight which is something very important to my host mother, Tomokosan. I dont really have much more room to screw up with that, but otherwise we are still getting along very well. One of her friends from the chorus group is an expert of calligraphy and he is going to teach me this monday for maybe 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Therefore I bought a new brush since the bristles on my previous brushes are already starting to open up. The brush I bought is the biggest one I have now, hopefully he can show me what to do so it wont happen again.

Im doing really well on the KCP Level 3 kanji tests but I have yet to get an A on the grammar. Oddly enough its not usually the grammar that trips me up, but its when I write the wrong kanji or miss the vocabulary. Im still getting Bs on them though so there is nothing to worry about here.

Ive gone bowling several times now, and not yesterday, but on the previous time I bowled my best score so far, I think it was 104. At the beginning I was bowling with a 7lb ball, but Ive moved up to a 10lb now. Despite all the interesting and friendly Japanese people Ive met I still dont really have any close Japanese friends aside from Tomokosan and maybe her sister Hiromisan. However when I went bowling in Asakusa after the festival a group of 4 japanese joined us at the adjacent lane. The leader of the group (I suppose I can call him that) was a 56 y.o. businessman. He was very friendly with us and gave us two bottles of water and one tea. I asked him why he placed them in front of us and he said they were a gift. Later I decided to go to the konbini to buy some beer. When I said I was leaving he said well then lets go together. When we got there he grabbed about 10 beers off the shelf (four were the 18oz size) as well as toasted raamen snack, beef jerky, potato chips, and dried squid. Altogether it was 3000yen and when I tried to give him 1000 he would not accept it. He bought all that stuff for us maybe simply because we were americans who spoke japanese! That same day in Asakusa I bought some whale jerky at at store that only sold whale products. It was very good.

This previous thursday was the undoukai (school sports day). This is a tradition among Japanese education, so it was pretty cool to participate in one. My flickr site includes many pictures from the costume part of it. There were several events including the rope relay, leap frog, skip race, sit-up contest, tug-o-war, cosplay contest, and a 4 person 400m relay (so each person ran 100m). I signed up for the relay and since I didnt really have the right shoes I bought some pumas for 3900yen (from what Ive seen so far a very good deal, the cheapest running shoes Ive seen so far). Who knows if I really needed the shoes or not, because my team won the first round as well as the final, it was no contest. I think everyone was amazed by my explosive speed (which fortunately still remains after my three year gap of not much running) from all those years of competitive soccer. Of course if my teammates werent fast as well we could have lost. Additionally the yellow team (all level 3 classes) was the yusho (first place) of the whole undoukai. Afterwards I went out to drink with several of my classmates (The group was all koreans except for one of my american friends. It was a great bonding experience with them.

One of my friends who I will refer to as beatk (his nickname) I had never even spoke to before thursday night, but we really hit it off. He is now my korean brother. He asked me who I like the most in the class. When I talked to beatk about this he said that she thinks I am very young, almost as if she sees me as a child. He told me in order to get past that I have to make my heart/spirit wider. I think what he meant to say is I need to be more of a gentleman and to act older than I actually am. So friday I invited her to go with me to Hiromi-sans koten (private exhibition) and she said yes. So we will go on sunday after she is done with church.

This week I started the tea ceremony class. It is every monday and friday from 11-1pm. I really enjoy the class. Its amazing how exact everything is. There is a precise method for everything, but its nothing too complicated, with practice it becomes second nature. By far the hardest part is sitting seiza for so long. We get about 3 breaks where we walk out of tghe room and stand, and it extremely difficult to make it through the class. Hopefully by the end it wont be so tough. I guess thats about it for now. Im drinking an extremely bitter cup of tea at the moment. Since tomoko-san went out today I made the tea myself for the first time, I suppose I put too many leaves in.

Oh and one last thing, last week I found some 18month aged cheddar at a liquor store. It was about 770 yen for a peice slightly larger than what you get from bravo farms. Such a terrible price to pay for only average quality cheddar, but I needed to buy it. The japanese dont really eat cheese unless its on a hamburger or pizza. And Ive had pizza at three different places now, the best one remains the first one I went to in harajuku. It was so good! Just about what you would get in Italy.

Week 3 at KCP

School is going great, my classmates are an enjoyable bunch, and my three teachers are great. They all make class very interesting and have plenty of jokes. One in particular is very funny, yet at the same time she is the most serious of them all. At the KCP entrance ceremony she was introduced as the most beautiful teacher at school. She is in fact very pretty, but she is not yet married and this seems to bothers her. One of the korean males in a class has what appears to be a wedding ring on his finger but he won't admit to being married. This teacher (Konno sensei) is always giving him a hard time. Today she said his ring is minikui which has two seperate, yet interestingly linked meanings: ugly or hard to look at.

My commute takes about an hour or more, and if I leave in the morning the train is packed. Coming home at just about any time its the same case. Once it was so crowded I could not even read my book as I was standing. I was so close to the japanese businessman I would believe I would have felt his heartbeat were I on the left side of his chest. Im always so tired by the time I get home, its always a big relief stepping through the door and even more so getting in the bath at the end of the day. A couple nights ago after drinking maybe a little too much I was so tired on the train I actually fell asleep standing. The train attendant had to wake me up at the last stop but it wasn't a big deal since my stop is adjacent. According to tomoko-san my route is the most crowded in all of Japan, I believe her. Oh and I dont normally stop here but I have been to Shinjuku station a few times and it is absolutely enormous. It is by far the largest train station I have ever seen.

I recieved my gaikokujintorokusho (foreigner identification) this morning and also applied for the national health insurance at the same time. It should be coming at some point in the near future by post. I also received my student id two days ago, and I bought a cell phone 3 days ago.

I have a 2 year plan, that way the phone was free. Even though I said I would have to cancel before the contract is up, they said that is the cheapest way. The cancellation penalty is 20,000 yen. I also am paying for email and internet service for 400 yen/month, as well as 500yen/month for full coverage insurance. My plan right now is 1950 yen/month for 20 yen/min, but i can downgrade to 950/month for 40 yen/min. These figures are approximate, If did the math correctly, and unless i talk for over 45 min a month, the cheaper plan is the way to go.

Im doing a little better with my money now. I'm approaching the final 5000 yen from the 60,000 I originally withdrew from my account. Tomorrow, I will make another 30,000 withdrawal. My goal is to be spending less than 50,000 a month.

Tanaka-san (from KCP) is a second degree black belt in enmei ryuu kendo. I asked him about obtaining an iato and he said the best way is through a mail order. They custom make every sword and he said they are very good quality. The prices start at 40,000 yen and scale upwards; I was interested in the midrange of 50,000. This is the one big purchase I want to make in japan, and if I take good care of the sword, it will last my lifetime and even longer.

Last night a group of 16 American students (although one wasn't a student, as he works for honda racing development and is from los angeles and my friend met him skateboarding) went out for karaoke in honor of one students birthday. It was a lot of fun.

This week I got an 82 on a grammar test and 100 on a kanji test. Next thursday is the undoukai (sports meet). I signed up for the relay.

Approved for Tea Ceremony Class

Yesterday I was approved for the KCP tea ceremony class. I paid the 3000 yen fee and the class starts next monday at 11 30. I hope I can manage sitting seiza for an hour! Im doing it right now and after only 15 minutes my legs are already feeling fairly numb...

Visiting Odaiba in Tokyo

Odaiba is near the spot where matthew perry landed. It's mostly shopping but a few thing to note: it has one of the worlds largest ferris wheels, the fuji terebi building, and a scale replica of the statue of liberty (also built by France). Yesterday was a typhoon so we couldn't ride the ferris wheel even though it was running. The rain and wind was incredible, yet despite it Odaiba was still a lot of fun. I had a russian lunch, it was chicken hayashi and beef stroganoff.

There is an art store in shinjuku that has a mc escher vending machine, odd but very amusing. For about a week or so now I have been practicing my calligraphy everday. My progress is very encouraging, I can finally write decent characters with quite some consistency. I wanted to do the tea ceremony as an extra curricular activity, but I was not selected. I will apply again next quarter as well as for the koto class. Today, I went to a duet recital of violin and piano. The violinist was superb, but as usual, the classical music put me to sleep. Its just too relaxing.

I now have posted pictures from Japan on on my flickr website. The picture above is taken at the most beautiful spot in Venus Fort. From the left is me, Ju Youn, Gwenny, and Sujin.

More on Week 2 in Tokyo

I got my first kanji test back today in Level 3 at KCP and received a 90. We had a grammar test on Monday and I think I did really well. Today in class we got back our first composition and had to rewrite fixing the mistakes. I received a B; I wrote about the experience breaking my collarbone, and how I don't think it would have happened if I had been doing my aikido training this past summer in Long Beach.

I have been bowling two times in shinjuku now, but since I play with my left hand due to my injury, my score isn't very good. My best so far was 57. I also went to an opera presentation with tomoko-san, different people would sing a song or two from various operas. Afterwards the friend I brought, as well as tomoko-san and her friend, we all went to a karaoke box. I sang many different american songs.

Last night I went to a raamen ya san with one of the korean girls from my class and her friend. The three of us as well one the american girls are planning to go to odaiba this weekend. This korean girl, sujin-san is studying in japan until june like me, but she isnt returning home until the following december. She invited me to korea when she finally returns.

One other surprising thing I don't think I told you is that one of the American students is a Long Beach Poly HS alumni, he also took japanese there. Just like me he is level three, but I never expected to see him in Japan, much less at the same school as me!

Today after school I went to this one store where they have an M C Escher toy vending machine. I got some weird seascape type thing as well as a doctors model of a stomach from another machine.

Last saturday I went to the supermarket with tomoko-san, it was so much different than in America and of course, everything was more expensive.　There I bought some practice paper for shodo, a fudepen, and some blank cards. Sometime soon I will write you with one. I have been practicing with the fudepen, but so far I have not used the real brush so far.

Every day I hope next week I will be able to roll over my right shoulder, but when it comes I never feel confident; however my shoulder is not hurting as much by the end of the day, that is not to say it doesn't hurt at all. Every morning I wake up in time I do my aikido stretches and ukemi. It is a great way to start off the day. I have also been reading breaking into japanese literature on the train, those stories are really great reading.

I saw on the news the fires in Califorina, I was worried but since you don't really live in that part of the state I assumed you were ok.

I am getting my studying done and the conversation with tomoko-san is so helpful since she hardly speaks any english it improves my japanese greatly. She tells me she already notices a large improvement and I surely do myself. I am having such a good time.

The food has ranged from fantastic to bearable. I went to one italian restaurant in harajuku. I ordered a margherita pizza and it was like a real italian pizza, they even had some tasty habanero hot sauce. The first couple weeks or so I think I spent a little too much money on alcohol, but Im doing better about that now. This truly does seem to be my dream come true and even more than I could have ever imagined, and I aint seen nothing yet.

Joshua

Week 2 in Tokyo

Dear Mom and Dad:

Things are going even better this week than the previous one! Tonight, I went to this one bar for the second time, and there I made some Japanese friends. They seemed to be very happy to be speaking with Americans. I also got to know the hawker who called us in the first time we went to the bar, and on Thursday I might do something with him since he is off that day. I also finally began to get to know some of my Korean classmates at KCP. One of the korean girls invited me to go out with her and a few other friends after school on Monday. I truly am making lots of friends already!

As far as class goes, we are moving at a pretty fast pace. It definately is more intensive than any other schooling I've had so far, but I'm keeping up just fine, especially since not too much is new material, but that doesn't mean I'm not still learning in class.

This morning I had the most in depth conversation with tomokosan so far. We talked about politics, including the resignation of abe shinzo and my views of george bush. We also talked about the futility of war, and the absurdity of those regarding religion, such as the crusades. Every is going great, I am practicing my ukemi (rolling) in the tatami room at home, but only on the left side so far. I did attempt a single front roll over my right shoulder this morning, but I actually did my best to not directly roll over it at all, if that makes any sense.

I also went to an opera performance with tomoko where people do indivual songs. I brought along a friend from school. Afterwards we went to a karaoke box along with tomokos friend suzuki who is your age.

Joshua

My First Week in Tokyo

Dear Mom and Dad:

Sorry I haven't corresponded so far, Ive been so busy having a good time during my first week in Tokyo. I have gone to shinjuku, harajuku, and shibuya in tokyo already. Tokyo sure is a crazy place. So many people in outrageous clothes and so many people in general. I have been to a few shrines, including tsuruoka hachimangu in kamakura, but I did not see the daibutsu (huge buddha). I already have a few good friends among my KCP classmates, but they are all American. I have yet to really make friends with the korean students and local japanese here, but we have only had one day of real class so far.

My host family is great. Even though I am only living with Tomoko-san, her sister Hiromi-san is staying here this week because of her art exhibiton at nearby yokosuka. Tomokos son, Shin-san picked me up on the arrival day, and he was also the one who took me to kamakura, as well as the place where matthew perry landed. They are all so friendly and interested in talking to me and I have already learned so much Japanese from them. In addition, they are eager to learn english from me, because none of them speak it very well. Tomoko's english is especially limited and Hiromi is fairly good, but my japanese is still better than any of their english.

Tomoko also took me to the aikido hombu dojo, it was amazing and so inspiring to see the calligraphy of aikido that was actually painted by ueshiba morihei osensei. My shoulder is still getting stronger every day from breaking my collarbone 6 weeks ago. On saturday I attempted a forward and backward roll with success, but only across my left shoulder.

So much has already happened in this week, but I have still yet to buy a cell phone. I am waiting for my student id so i can get the discount on the plan. And once I have a permanent Internet connection, I hope to be using Skype.

Anyways Im tired and have class in just under 12 hours so I must go to sleep. I hope my english doesnt seem odd... the longer I'm here the more japanese it seems to become, if that makes any sense.

I was only able to place in to level 3 class at KCP. I talked to tanaka san about this and he said I need to talk to the teachers, but because I am not a fully rounded level 3 student, even if I may know a lot of it as well as some level 4 already, it may be too difficult starting out in 4. But either way I will do my best and Im sure it will work out in the end. Love you and don't worry too much about me, everything is going great!

Joshua