The State of Things

Overall things have not been as exciting as they once were. While I used to be amazed with every passing day, daily life has reached the point where everything no longer surprises. I guess once you remain in one place long enough eventually you normalize yourself.

I shall start off with the most important subject, school. The other day, I received the second grammar test back and got an 89 on it. Unfortunately, about a week ago, I received my first grammar test back and only got a 64 on it so I had to retake it on Tuesday. I am confident that I passed it the second time around. On the most recently returned kanji test I got a 95, I only missed one problem. I took another kanji test, unfortunately I'm pretty sure I will get a 95 on that one too.

We also took the first grammar test regarding the Japanese proficiency test. I have a feeling I performed well on this test as well. I am planning to take the Japanese Language proficiency test in June, but I'm not sure exactly how this is possible because I thought it was only offered once a year. Regardless I paid the fee for the application form and later I will pay the test fee, which is around $50. I also filled out the application for the part time work permit earlier this week.

Last Sunday, February 3, was the Japanese holiday setsubun. This is a holiday marking the change from winter to spring based on the old calendar. Traditionally setsubun is a time to wish for good fortune in the upcoming year, however it is also said that on this night oni (demon) come out. In order to keep them out of the house sardine heads and holly are placed in the doorway. Yet this often doesnt seem to be enough to stop them, so when the demons get into the house you throw dried beans at them while saying oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi (Out with the demons, In with the good fortune). Since real demons probably don't exist, the father of the house often dresses up as a demon on this day in order to allow the tradition to be carried out. Additionally, the dried beans are eaten in accordance with your age (so If you're 25 you eat 25 beans).

Last friday at school we experienced the setsubun tradition in the classroom. We all ate the appropriate number of beans (some people ate more) and during the middle of class two demons burst into the room. Traditionally there is the green demon and the red demon. The only clothes they wear are usually shorts made of zebra or tiger skin. They also carry a golden staff. Fortunately we had plenty of dried beans in the classroom so by throwing them at the demons we were able to keep the evil out of our lives. Afterwards the students and the teacher cleaned up the beans together.

I have come to really like this one bar near my dorm. Although all three bartenders are really great one in particular has become a good friend of mine. I enjoy telling him about my experiences in Japan as well as showing him the poems I write, which he gladly corrects any errors I might have. Moreover, in order to complete my homework assignment for the setsubun I went to the bar and the people there taught me five common phrases using the word oni, and the barmaster drew a picture of oni for me.

Additionally someone else of significance from the bar is this Brazilian guy Chris. His mother is Japanese and father German, yet he was born in Brazil. I believe he has had some experience living in an isolated small community in the jungle, but now he has been living in Japan for around fifteen years. He has a Romanian wife so in addition to speaking his native language Portuguese he can also speak Romanian, as well as Japanese and English. Right now he does some type of construction related job for Toshiba.

We have had some very interesting conversations about Japan/Tokyo mostly centered on the fractured state of this city.On the surface Tokyo seems to be a wonderful glamorous place. The economy is doing well, crime is very low, and its probably the cleanest city I've ever been in. But if you can speak Japanese and you dig deeper certain surprising aspects appear seemingly out of nowhere. I believe the root of this problem is based on the size of Japan. Its only roughly the size of California but the population is disproportionally enormous. This has lead to a severe overcrowding of the train system which is the main mode of transportation for the city. This train is integral to their lifestyle and some people feel as if they can't even escape it.

This point was fantastically illustrated by one of the short animations I saw when I went to the independent film theatre. It was about a man who lived underneath the seat of the train. Someone would deliver him meals three times a day and he would always pay attention to everything that went on around him in the train. He would be partically bothered by those people who would blatently break the train manners, such as talking noisily on their cell phone. He often wondered what life would be like outside the train in a room that wasn't so small. Yet one day he sees himself sitting on a seat in the train and suddenly he is disillusioned. His life was so intrinsically linked to the train that he felt like he lived under the seat.

And now back to the so called real Tokyo. Fashion and materialism have taken a deathgrip of this city. I have never experienced a place where material possessions are believed to be so important. Often I walk down the street in Shinjuku and look at the passing girls and think to myself the outfit they are wearing probably costs more than all the clothes I have in Japan combined. I have talked to a few Japanese people about my thoughts about this superficial existence, and one of my friends told me he believes that most relationships in Japan dont work out well because people are so obsessed with appearance they easily forget that someone’s mentality and personality is far more important than the clothes on their body. As a result it is very refreshing to speak to girls that can just dress casually and be satisfied with that, but regardless I have received many phone numbers without a moment of hesitation from several girls who end up never answering my phone call. Other people I have met will talk to me at first and then after some point just break off communication, as if they suddenly no longer care whatsoever.The point is I can't think of any Japanese girls as a real friend that i've met in Tokyo outside of class, except maaaybe one, but she is 44.

Interestingly, to flip things around I have talked to many Japanese guys who I really enjoy as people. Two are just as good as any English speaking friends I have. But the interest in Japanese guys among the female KCP students is actually very low. According to one Malaysian girl, she doesnt like Japanese men because she always sees them looking at the adult magazines in the convenience stores. This is particularly interesting to me because as far as I know all the adult magazines are kept sealed in the store, yet right next to them are manga which almost invariably have a picture of a barely clothed woman on the cover. Yet, on the inside there's maybe only a few more pages similar to the cover while the majority is just comics.

Despite all of this, it doesn't stop Tokyo from being one of the most amazing cities in the world.

My lead picture taken from my flickr collection is of Tokyo viewed from across the Ueno Station train tracks.

Demonstrating Ochakai for the American KCP Students

The first week of school at KCP was a good one. I have one of the same teachers from last quarter, and two new ones. I like all of them. On thursday was the ochakai for the American students and I was there to help. I served the food and then took it out and also gave them the cups of tea and removed them when they were finished. The tea ceremony class also started the same day and continued on Friday. It is different this time around, I suppose because its the winter. Instead of pouring water from a kettle you remove it from a larger pot on the floor with some type of ladle. So far its been tough on my legs. I can sit long enough to do the whole procedure I learned in those two days, but by the end I cant feel my legs at all. So far I have been alone in the morning tea ceremony instruction, but there will be a new American student joining me next friday. There is no practice this coming monday.

Everyday in KCP Level 4, we study new kanji and a lot arent words so commonly used in conversations but more so in writing. We now have small group discussions about selected topics once a week before we write a composition about it. These are opinion conversations and writings, so we have to either agree or disagree, which is different than our writings from last quarter. It is definitely a noticeable change from last quarter in Level 3. I think I will be more challenged, as Level 3 was a lot of review for me. Having to work harder, I will enjoy class even more this time around, not that it wasnt enjoyable before. There is one other American in my class, but he is a Japanese descendant from Hawaii.

The other day I went to a korean restaurant with some american students and we had yakiniku. The grilled meat was very good. After that I went back to Shinjuku and met one of the new korean students in my class. She brought her friend and we had a couple drinks at the bar. We stayed a little too long though so I missed the last train. I slept in McDonalds for a while and then went to a cafe and my friend came and met me. He’s the one who works in Shinjuku trying to save up money to go to Australia in April for maybe 2 years. He works at night so he was able to meet me at 4am.

I finally went to Shimokitazawa which is only 2 subway stops from the Shinjuku station. I went with Dave and my friend Joe who also lives in the Fuchu dorm with me. We saw a series of very odd short animations, including one about tooth man, the man who lived under the subway car seats, and a fish talking on its way from the market to being eaten. This trendy area is full of cheap stuff and interesting restaurants. I bought a jacket and jeans for $7 each. We went to this one Japanese restaurant and they were hiring staff. I forgot to ask but maybe I will go back to see if I can get a job there making use of my UC Santa Cruz dining hall work experience and my short time as a busboy in Long Beach.

No word from gaijinpot on the teaching jobs I applied for. Living in the dorms is proving to be far more expensive than staying with a host family. Even when I try to spend my yen carefully it just disappears in an instant it seems. Hopefully I will have a job soon to offset the terrible negative flow of funds. We have our first test on tuesday, so I will do some more studying again tonight. I guess thats it for now.

KCP Winter Quarter Begins

My parents called me on my mobile last week, as I was getting on the train to visit a guy in Shibuya who emailed me from the japan-guide.com. As you can see from my flickr pictures I met another girl through the Japan guide who is 19 and majoring in Spanish. Leading off this posting is our picture taken at one of the arcades where you can do artwork on it.

My second quarter has begun at KCP and I moved up as expected to Level 4. I did very well on the final: 95 on the kanji and composition, 96 on the grammar, but only about 75 on the reading and listening. This week, I am planning to go to an area I have not yet visited in Tokyo with Dave called Shimoto Kitazawa. He says its awesome; we're going to see a movie at a short film theatre there.

I have applied for some part time english teaching jobs, and I bought the monthly train pass which was about $150. Hopefully I will have a job soon though so that I will have more spending money. Also, this week is the new years party for tea ceremony, and the day after is the tea ceremony for the new american KCP students which i will participate in and also be wearing a kimono once more. Maybe I will get some more pictures from that up onto flickr.

Ive talked to some of the new American KCP students, they seemed pretty cool but I still dont know much about them. I also saw some of my Korean friends for the first time since school ended. The other day I studied my Japanese at Chikara's school, Chikara is one of my Japanese friends, and I went there with Chris. I’m starting to get to know more and more of Japanese locals in Tokyo. This one friend works 6 days a week, and with a break in his schedule, he called to take me out for dinner and a couple of drinks. He is planning to go to Australia in April, and he likes to practice English with me. His name is Yuki, just like my friend from Santa Cruz.

I would like to write more, but I am pretty tired now and still have to study a bit more and will upload later.

Lost in Translation

Over the past week or so I havent really left my dorm in Fuchu during the day except to get food. But when night comes around I've been going to this local bar. I've met a lot of great people there so far, but I've been spending too much money. Without school its harder to keep from spending so much money. One guy from the Fuchu bar who is really cool is from Brazil. He has a German Father and a Japanese mother; he has been living in Japan for several years, is 35, works for Toshiba and has a Japanese wife. He offered me a job because Toshiba needs more workers to help construct a new shinkansen (high speed train), but he said working 4 hours a day would not be enough. Another guy I met is from Canada and he said he might want Japanese lessons from me. He hasnt responded back yet though.

Two nights ago I had an especially strange experience, almost out of “Lost in Translation.” I was at the bar alone when the woman sitting next to me noticed this hat my friend gave me. It was gachapin, which is some frog guy from Japanese TV. She said she really wanted it but I didnt really want to give it to her. She spoke decent English so we talked more in English than Japanese, but still used Japanese. She was talking about an exchange where if you give somebody something you will end up with more in return, i.e. part of Japan’s culture of gifting. She was 38, and accompanied by her boyfriend/husband. She asked whether I wanted to go somewhere else to get something to eat/drink with her and her boyfriend/husband.

There was a place nearby called Misato that was also owned by the bar, so we decided to go there. I told her she could have the hat at the end of the night, but I just ended up giving it to her before we even left the Fuchu bar. She seemed so suprised that I actually gave it to her and kept asking if it was really hers. She was already pretty drunk at this point. So we went to Misato and since I dont know anything about sake besides the fact that I like the dry kind, I told her boyfriend to pick something for me. They asked me what I wanted to eat and I said I like sashimi. Yoko (the girl) asked me what kind I didnt like and I said kai (shellfish). Then she asked me why I dont like tai, and what that is in english. Tai is seabream and I told her, but I said I didnt say tai I said kai. I said I really like toro, maguro, and tako. She asks me what the difference was between tai and tako, I told her I like the way tako feels in your mouth but I dont really like the flavor of shellfish too much. On a side note I do enjoy shellfish more than I used to, but its still not a particular favorite. So the sashimi comes and it is in front of Yoko. I'm eating it, and I think she is very surprised at how well I use chopsticks, as I reach across to pick up the sashimi.

As I was eating she says I look like the emperor and she tried to adjust my posture. Either I was slouching too much or sitting up too straight... I really dont know. Then out of nowhere she starts saying I shouldnt eat the fish. During oshogatsu (Japanese New Year celebration) the fish market closes down for several days, so she said it was old. It doesnt taste good. And I said I never said it doesnt taste good, I like it. I know but it doesnt taste good says Yoko. Tell the chef you dont want to eat it. I was getting really confused at this point. Once again she asks if the hat is really hers to keep. I said yes. I said I came to Japan by myself, that I have no family here. My parents are planning to come to Japan and she says no they cant. I was very suprised and said why not. Because you dont have a koseki. Whats a koseki? Oh its very hard to explain. I (yoko) have a koseki but you dont. If a foreigner marries a Japanese person, then they would get one. At this point I looked up koseki and it is family register. Then I told her they were just coming to visit me so she says ok thats fine then.

At this point, Yoko is very drunk and is staring at me. She then wrapped her fingers around my necklace and gazed at it for a few moments. I said you want this? No answer. Finally I took her hand away from my silver Japanese necklace (which was a holiday gift from my parents a year ago) and asked her, what do you want now? She started talking about how much she loved her boyfriend, mixing in English with the Japanese, such that at times I was not sure what she was really saying. Around this time her boyfriend said that its time to go. But she says no you go on ahead, I'm gonna stay here. He says no we're going right now, so lets go. He almost had to drag her out the door and without saying anything he apologized to me with a look alone. I still had my second glass of sake and the food, all of which they paid for so I continued to sit there and eat and drink. I asked the man working behind the counter if he had any idea what really happened and he said no..... It was so bizarre.

There are several websites like Gaijinpot.com that have been useful for living and visiting Japan. I got an email today from a Japanese girl responded to an ad I posted on one of them, Japan-guide.com looking for friends. Straight up she said she has a guitar but never plays it, so she is willing to give it to me so someone can make use of it. That would be fantastic, so I'm going to respond to her and see what happens.

I still havent gotten my KCP Level 3 grade back, I dont think I will know until I go back to school when the next term starts. I will be absolutely shocked if I didnt pass though which is scoring better than 80%.

I might check out the Tokyo zoo this week based upon a suggestion from my father. When he visited 30 years ago, the pandas were the rage in Tokyo. I have no idea whether there are still pandas, but maybe it would be a good place to go.

My friend Tim who returned back to New York said he is sending me some books. Tim was my best friend at KCP, we ate lunch together almost everyday just because we would run into each other before class. He is also a linguist and is fluent in Russian and English. He also knows some German, and Italian. Of course he knows Japanese as well, but he had no experience before coming to Japan. Out of all the level 1 students I knew though he had the best Japanese. He has been studying in Holland but he didnt know if they were going to let him back in the school. Hopefully that works out for him. A picture of Tim leads off this posting.

And if Jacki Breger is reading this blog, a big hug from Tokyo, as you saw my parents at a downtownLA holiday party. Its too bad it never worked out having a small City Life reunion before I left for Japan.

New Years on Takaosan

So on New Years eve I decided to go to Takaosan which is a mountain nearby Tokyo that has a Temple. You can take a cable car which only takes maybe ten minutes or walk the nature path which requires about an hour. I talked to a older man as I was waiting for the cable car, and we walked together up to the main temple area. My plan was to rest on the mountain and then go to a different section but I was in the rest room when a family of two small kids, maybe 5 and 7, the husband and wife, and then probably the wife's father sat down in front of me. I started talking to them and like most people they seemed very surprised by my Japanese. The husband has some sort of trading business so he often takes trips to California. He has been to Long Beach once. I ate one of my mikan (mandarin orange) and offered the other two to the family. The kids didnt want them so the mom says well if you kids wont eat it then I will. At first the kids were very shy of me, one of them couldnt stop staring at me but wouldnt say a word. The mother said dont worry he's just like Bob, except his Japanese is much better than Bob's.

One of them bought some mini donuts and offered me one. As I got the donut, I was in the middle of writing in my notebook simply because I havent written Japanese in a while. I was actually surprised how good my characters looked this time because sometimes when I write fast, its really sloppy, but this time I was very pleased. I basically wrote about coming to the mountain by myself but no longer feeling alone, to protect my family, friends, and everyone, and then a request for world peace. I showed it to the husband and wife and they were very surprised by the kanji I could write. I think they made some comment about me knowing more characters than them.

They asked me if I wanted to join them in the temple where the monks would come and do some sort of ritual. It happened around midnight but we entered the room at about 11 20 pm because it was filling up so fast we needed to get a seat on the floor. Eventually a man started beating a taiko drum, and then the monks entered sounding conch horns. They gathered in the middle of the room and starting chanting. I couldnt really understand anything they said but the vibration of the sound was very powerful. They would also hit these weird bells that rang for a long time. Another monk started playing the taiko in the middle of the room and te conch horns started up again. There was also a fire in the middle of the room which one monk kepts going with a fan. I think there was some significance to the fire consuming your desires or past grief or something like that. To sit in the room and just close your eyes was an amazing expereience.

During this whole time the kids could not sit still, they were getting very restless and the mother was obviously doing her best to control them. Before the monks came in I was showing the grandfather, mother, and one of the kids some of the photos I've taken. The child was very interested. After the new years opening ritul some bells rang outside and everyone was cheering. Obviously it had become 2008. The older brother of the youngers asked me if I wanted to eat soba with them. Even though I wanted to see the sunrise I decided to go eat with them. So I also forfeited the nature walk down the mountain, but I can always go back to Takaosan again, it is fairly close after all.

On the way back to the cable car the father bought me a cup of sake, and it came in one of those wooden box cups. It had the taste of the wood, maybe its cedar. It still has a strong pinish smell, it must have been freshly made. So we got to the bottom of the moutain and sat down in the soba shop. They ordered tororo soba, I'm not sure exactly what made it different from other types of soba but like often there was a raw egg. Ive come to enjoy eating eggs recently, even raw eggs dont bother me. Especially in soba its pretty good. I asked the father what his wish for the new year was, and he said to raise his children well without them getting hurt. I told him my wish was to find a girlfriend in Japan. Despite the amazement of this night I failed to really take pictures. However I did take a picture of the family (which led this post), minus the husband because he hadnt sat down yet; I didnt even know of his existance.

On a side note, my two years of summer savings are dwindling, and won't get me to June. ... I have been looking at jobs a little bit and I think maybe english teaching would be the best thing for me. I need to update my work history. Another time, I will tell more about my travels to Echigo, Yuzawa, and Niigata, but for now I need to get something to eat... so hungry...

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.