This past weekend (Apr. 2-5) I spent 3 1/2 days in Taiwan. The main point of the trip was to see the island nation for the first time, and I’ll freely admit that I completely underestimated the sheer number of experiences to be had (sights to be seen foods to be tried, etc.) that a small island nation can hold. It’s true that I’m fully aware of the vast number of places, foods, festivals, and other things that Japan (a small island nation) has to offer, but this didn’t factor into the mental calculus when I decided to take a couple of days off during Spring break to visit a place a tenth the size of Japan. Needless to say, I plan to visit again at some point over the next year and a half.
As you can probably tell by the title of my blog post, the trip turned out incredibly well. This was primarily due to a few things: my fantastic host, Sohan Manek, a classmate of mine from Georgetown who now teaches English in Tainan; my Taiwanese friend who lives here in Japan, Iku, who handmade a pamphlet for me of things to see and eat in her homeland, the 1000 little things that can go wrong on a trip that simply didn’t, and of course the perfect weather (about 78 degrees and sunny for most of the time I was there) didn’t hurt either.
The flight from Osaka’s Kansai international airport to Taipei is a brief two hours, and so after getting up at 4:30 AM in Tokushima city and taking a 5 AM bus to the airport, I was able to make it in around noon. While in the immigration line, I noticed a boy wearing a University of Texas sweatshirt and simply had to comment on it- turns out he and his family are from Austin (my home town) and have lived in Shanghai due to his father’s work for the past 4 years. They will return to Austin in the fall and the kids will be heading to St. Andrew’s, my high school’s rival school. Small world. Sohan met me at the airport, and we took off on the 45 minute bus ride into the city (Taipei, I discovered, is like Tokyo, Osaka, and Seoul in that its airport is a fair way outside of the city center itself).
We made it to the city center and headed straight for the Taipei 101, which was the world’s tallest building from 2004-2010- at 509 meters it was the first building in the world to break the half-kilometer mark, and to ascend to the 89th floor observation deck we rode the fastest passenger elevator in the world (took us about 30 seconds to get up there- which I’m pretty sure is less time than it takes the elevators in New South or the Walsh building at Georgetown to make it to the 4th floor). Though the day was cloudy, there were moments of clarity when we were able to see vast swaths of the city. The free audio tour of the building was interesting, though we couldn’t see many of the landmarks that were pointed out to us by the mobile-phone-looking audio device. Sohan and I were particularly amused by the mascots of the building (bomber-man look-alikes called “Damper Babies” with fun names and catchphrases), the fact that Taipei 101 had been certified as the world’s tallest by the Council on Tall Buildings (would love to be a member of this), and the labeling of their Tuned Mass Damper that is designed to stabilize the top of the building against typhoon-force winds (called “Super Big Wind Damper” on the signs).
After descending (an ear-popping experience despite the atmosphere-controlled elevator car) and having lunch, we headed on to our hostel, called “Chocolate Box”. After making the inevitable “you never know what you’re going to get” jokes on the way, I was pretty impressed with the laid-back character, cleanliness, people, and ultimately the location of the hostel- it was within a 5 minute walk of one of Taiwan’s major night markets, two subway (MRT) stations (Guting and one other), and a great deal of late-night spots.
We met up with a friend of mine from when I studied abroad in Japan in high school, Kota, who is now living in Taiwan. We then headed to two of the night markets to find something to eat. Iku’s pamphlet had instructed me to try 6 specific different foods: Zhen-zhu-nai-cha (pearl milk tea), cong-you-bing (scallion cake), chou-dou-fou (stinky tofo), yu-yuan (yams), dan-bing (Taiwan’s version of an omelet), and gan-mei-shu-tiao (sweet potato fries). Of all of these, I was able to eat about half over the weekend, and tried a great number of other things as well. The night markets are basically areas in which the tight warrens of streets are completely lined with stores selling clothing, electronics, house-wares, a multitude of other things, and of course food. We grabbed big cups of the pearl milk tea (or bubble tea, as it’s called back in the States), and made our way through the throngs of people of the night market by our hostel. After having thoroughly explored this one, we decided our dining options weren’t up to snuff, and decided to head to the Shilin night market, the biggest in Taipei. There we looked around the stores for a bit before entering a large building full of cooking smells and people sitting around patio furniture eating any number of mysterious looking things while downing their none-too-creatively dubbed “Taiwan Beer”. We found empty seats at a stall, and ordered a few rounds of steamed pork dumplings, shrimp fried rice, and beer. The meal was delicious, filling, and ended up costing the equivalent of about 8USD ($) between the three of us. Yum. We then headed out in the area around our hostel for a fun-filled night of experiencing the night life in Taipei, mainly at a fun bar called Roxy 99.
The next morning Sohan and I awoke early to catch 9:50 train to Hualien. Unfortunately, we hadn’t been able to reserve seats and so the two of us crammed ourselves into an entry way for the duration of the 2 1/2 hour journey (which wasn’t bad at all). After arriving in Hualien, we checked into the Formosa Backpackers Hostel. I definitely enjoyed this hostel as much as the first- the owner was fun, interesting, and very informative on every topic that we could think of: from the best places to rent (and repair) scooters, buy jade, or grab a beer to the lasting cultural legacy of the Japanese occupation/control of the island for the first half of the 20th century (Taiwan was called “Formosa” under the Japanese). There we met a wide array of fun other foreigners, primarily English teachers living in Taiwan (and one couple that had been on my program in Japan last year).
We then rented a pair of scooters (the equivalent of $15 a piece for 24 hours, man I love Taiwan) to explore Hualien and the surrounding area. This included the Taroko National Park, quite possibly the most awe-inspiring place of natural beauty that I have ever visited (sorry, Niagara Falls, the Cascades, the Rockies, Santa Elena Canyon, etc.). I’ll be putting photos up in a facebook album soon (I’ll post the link as soon as I do), but it’s the first place that I’ve ever been where I felt that I lack the ability (in photography, writing, etc.) to convey the scope of its beauty.
I thought that the wikitravel.org website had a good description of the landscape of the gorge:
“The most phenomenal aspect of the park is the amazing relief. In a single afternoon you can travel from rugged coastal cliffs through a maze of subtropical forested canyons to high elevation subalpine coniferous forests.
In about 20 kilometers the landscape rises from sea level to some of the tallest peaks in Taiwan at over 3800 meters. That's steep!
The force behind the steep valleys and narrow canyons is a (geologically speaking) relatively fast rate of uplift combined with ample water. Over the last 70 million years, these two forces collaborated to form the world's deepest marble canyon. The slot canyons here are remarkable with narrows sections a thousand feet high and only a dozen yards apart, reminiscent of the Virgin River in Zion National Park in Utah, USA. Ignore the fact that Zion is in the desert, and made of sandstone and Taroko is subtropical and comprised of marble, and these two gorges have a lot in common.”
http://wikitravel.org/en/Taroko_Gorge
We drove the scooters up narrow roads that clung to the sides of its massive cliffs while periodically stopping to take pictures or hike to one of the multitude of natural attractions and take pictures. Though most of my time in Taiwan was spent in sunny weather, the overcast skies and low-hanging clouds gave our journey up the gorge almost an ethereal quality as the clouds swirled around the mountain-tops (think the mountains in the movie Avatar). We first stopped at the Eternal Spring Shrine, a building with two waterfalls flowing through it that was located about 50 feet up a 1,000-foot cliff. We then saw the Swallow Grotto, a place where over the summer thousands of birds make their nests in hollows in the canyon wall. After that we walked through the Cave of the Nine Turns before ending our journey in the village of Tienhsian at a Buddhist shrine where we sat down to have spiced tofu and tea. The view was breathtaking heading both into and out of the canyon, as you notice a great deal of things that had been behind you on the way up.
That night we went out for dinner (fried rice) and a couple of drinks at a local bar, where we met a few other foreigners and enjoyed a surprisingly good live act that had covers of everything from Santana to Frank Sinatra. The next day after breakfast we headed first inland through tropical green fields (after taking a wrong turn), and then down along the coast (where we’d originally intended to go). It was striking for me to be able to see the Taroko gorge just 30 minutes from the town one day, and then drive down the gorgeous coastal road the next.
After returning the scooters, we had lunch (dumplings), went shopping for souvenirs, etc., and then headed to the train station. The majority of the afternoon was spent on the train to Tainan, the town where Sohan lives and is teaching English. We got in around 10:00 that night, then went out with his friends to a couple of the bars/clubs that they frequent.
All in all, though it turned out to be a breathless 3-day rush across the island, I am glad that we were able to do so much in such a short amount of time, and had an incredible trip with the places we saw, people we met, and (all the) food we ate. I would definitely recommend a trip to Taiwan, and as I wrote earlier, I’m looking forward to heading back.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Herbivorous men, Small faces, Ear of Bread
Quote of the week: “Makiko sensei is queen, John sensei is God”- Elementary 4th Grader
Strange food tried this week: Seaweed Jelly (grosser than Natto)
Sooo last week after watching Michael Cera (the boy from Juno) meet the cast of Jersey Shore with a bunch of friends, I endeavored to explain Jersey Shore (and Guidos more broadly) to my two Japanese friends our age. After struggling through a description of spray on tans, hair gel, and excessive muscle building, I decided that this is one cultural point that I should just let slide primarily for two reasons: 1.) even I don’t really understand Guido culture, and 2.) it was much more fun explaining “WTF”, “LOL”, “BRB”, and “ROFL”- concepts that I have an appreciably tighter grasp on.
Here’s a problem we’ll never have in America- a declining birthrate exacerbated by a new culture of “soushouku danshi” (or “Herbivorous men”). These are Japanese men that reject the traditional macho, hard-drinking, woman-chasing, salary-man stereotype of Japanese masculinity and have opted instead for a persona more along the lines of Japanese women- they are soft-spoken, they like to travel or go shopping (ok, maybe I like this too), don’t drink much alcohol, and wear hipster-esque-clothes (think skinny and highly fashionable). They also are less likely to make the first move around women. I’d meant to tell you about these guys months ago when I first heard about them, but my friend Adam reminded me of them when he had a discussion with a group of 30 year old Japanese women at a friend’s house about bad dates they’ve had- one of the women’s complaints was that the man was literally one of these: she said he didn’t eat enough and he was almost too soft spoken to hear. Though there are definitely meek boys in America, it strikes me as pretty funny that this is an emerging trend here in Japan, still a hugely patriarchal society (and one which is threatened by its declining birth rate). (http://capriboi13.livejournal.com/30140.html - a list of traits)
Recently, my friend Rich-- who is from Melbourne, Australia and I met during his semester abroad at Georgetown my sophomore Spring—decided to visit me in Japan during part of a 3-week Asia tour during his vacation from working at the Age, one of Australia’s largest print/online newspapers. We had two great days hanging out with my American & Japanese friends (including one I met on the plane to Seoul), seeing the sights, and eating famous Osaka food (yum). At one point four of us foreigners (Rich and I, Alex from Kobe and Chi Chi from N. Hyogo) were standing on the street trying to figure out what to eat for a few minutes when one of us looked up to notice a sign reading “Osaka Food Information Office” directly in front of us. Our observational skills were obviously in need of a bit of work. Instead of spending a full 5 days in Tokyo, Rich then decided to come to Tokushima for a couple of days in order to see the Japan in which I live- that is to say, outside of the two major metropolises. I greatly enjoyed showing him around a bit- taking him to the local favorite Ramen shop, to dinner in the city with other JETs, hiking up a frigid mountain (until the rain turned us back), and touring around my middle school. We walked around my school during the sports club practices, observing a few (Judo, Kendo, volleyball, basketball), and completely disrupting/joining others (table tennis). One comment that Rich got from a student was that he had a small face, which I thought was a really strange thing to say. I later asked my adult English conversation class, and found out that this is traditionally a sign of beauty. Who knew? The same goes for having a white face. I’ve started going to sports practices at my school a couple of times a week, and yesterday at tennis practice one of the girls remarked that I had a white face. While I’d always taken this as a matter of fact (though I was hoping she hadn’t meant “pasty”), apparently this was a good thing as well.
Speaking of physical appearance, the top 3 things that the Japanese will notice (and remark) about you as a foreigner:
1.) Your height
2.) The color of your eyes
3.) The color/length of your eyelashes (no kidding)
It was great to have Rich around for a few days, and a lot of fun. He’s working on a piece about his trip to Osaka (and possibly about Tokushima as well)- I’ll link them on this page when I receive them.
Most interesting Japanese word this week: パンの耳 (pan no mimi)- "Ear of bread" (literal translation)...can you guess? Right, exactly like you thought: bread crust.
Strange food tried this week: Seaweed Jelly (grosser than Natto)
Sooo last week after watching Michael Cera (the boy from Juno) meet the cast of Jersey Shore with a bunch of friends, I endeavored to explain Jersey Shore (and Guidos more broadly) to my two Japanese friends our age. After struggling through a description of spray on tans, hair gel, and excessive muscle building, I decided that this is one cultural point that I should just let slide primarily for two reasons: 1.) even I don’t really understand Guido culture, and 2.) it was much more fun explaining “WTF”, “LOL”, “BRB”, and “ROFL”- concepts that I have an appreciably tighter grasp on.
Here’s a problem we’ll never have in America- a declining birthrate exacerbated by a new culture of “soushouku danshi” (or “Herbivorous men”). These are Japanese men that reject the traditional macho, hard-drinking, woman-chasing, salary-man stereotype of Japanese masculinity and have opted instead for a persona more along the lines of Japanese women- they are soft-spoken, they like to travel or go shopping (ok, maybe I like this too), don’t drink much alcohol, and wear hipster-esque-clothes (think skinny and highly fashionable). They also are less likely to make the first move around women. I’d meant to tell you about these guys months ago when I first heard about them, but my friend Adam reminded me of them when he had a discussion with a group of 30 year old Japanese women at a friend’s house about bad dates they’ve had- one of the women’s complaints was that the man was literally one of these: she said he didn’t eat enough and he was almost too soft spoken to hear. Though there are definitely meek boys in America, it strikes me as pretty funny that this is an emerging trend here in Japan, still a hugely patriarchal society (and one which is threatened by its declining birth rate). (http://capriboi13.livejournal.com/30140.html - a list of traits)
Recently, my friend Rich-- who is from Melbourne, Australia and I met during his semester abroad at Georgetown my sophomore Spring—decided to visit me in Japan during part of a 3-week Asia tour during his vacation from working at the Age, one of Australia’s largest print/online newspapers. We had two great days hanging out with my American & Japanese friends (including one I met on the plane to Seoul), seeing the sights, and eating famous Osaka food (yum). At one point four of us foreigners (Rich and I, Alex from Kobe and Chi Chi from N. Hyogo) were standing on the street trying to figure out what to eat for a few minutes when one of us looked up to notice a sign reading “Osaka Food Information Office” directly in front of us. Our observational skills were obviously in need of a bit of work. Instead of spending a full 5 days in Tokyo, Rich then decided to come to Tokushima for a couple of days in order to see the Japan in which I live- that is to say, outside of the two major metropolises. I greatly enjoyed showing him around a bit- taking him to the local favorite Ramen shop, to dinner in the city with other JETs, hiking up a frigid mountain (until the rain turned us back), and touring around my middle school. We walked around my school during the sports club practices, observing a few (Judo, Kendo, volleyball, basketball), and completely disrupting/joining others (table tennis). One comment that Rich got from a student was that he had a small face, which I thought was a really strange thing to say. I later asked my adult English conversation class, and found out that this is traditionally a sign of beauty. Who knew? The same goes for having a white face. I’ve started going to sports practices at my school a couple of times a week, and yesterday at tennis practice one of the girls remarked that I had a white face. While I’d always taken this as a matter of fact (though I was hoping she hadn’t meant “pasty”), apparently this was a good thing as well.
Speaking of physical appearance, the top 3 things that the Japanese will notice (and remark) about you as a foreigner:
1.) Your height
2.) The color of your eyes
3.) The color/length of your eyelashes (no kidding)
It was great to have Rich around for a few days, and a lot of fun. He’s working on a piece about his trip to Osaka (and possibly about Tokushima as well)- I’ll link them on this page when I receive them.
Most interesting Japanese word this week: パンの耳 (pan no mimi)- "Ear of bread" (literal translation)...can you guess? Right, exactly like you thought: bread crust.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
A Day in the Life of a JET
1/28/10
I very recently realized that I am yet to write a blog post detailing a typical day in my life as an Assistant Language Teacher on the JET program.
7:30- Not being much of a morning person, I generally get up at about this time to make it to my nearby middle school by 8:05.
8:05- The students must arrive by 8:00, and have a short home room in the morning. Around 8:10 on most mornings all of the teachers assemble in the teacher’s room for a short meeting - the head teacher for the day will make any announcements, along with whichever other teachers would like to make one to everyone. The heads of school will generally speak next, followed by smaller group announcements among the teachers for each grade.
8:40- First period begins. Classes in Japanese Junior High Schools are generally 45 or 50 minutes long (depending on if it is a special schedule or not). The first four periods last from 8:40-9:30, 9:40-10:30, 10:40-11:30, and 11:40-12:30. There are also 1-2 periods of classes after lunch. I teach 4 classes a day- as I’ve previously described, I will generally teach based on a lesson plan agreed upon by myself and that grade’s English teacher, with whom I team teach. “Team Teaching,” has a very broad interpretation across different schools in Japan. Some JETs feel that they are under-utilized and serve simply as human CD players- reading passages out of the book for the students to follow along and repeat or dictating sentences for the students to write down. Thankfully, my teachers see this a bit differently- though I spend upwards of 10-15 minutes per class doing this sort of thing (and it is very important), the rest of the time usually involves me explaining and then running an activity or two that I have come up with based on their current place in the curriculum. These activities can be anything from word games to bingo, working through any kind of worksheet I’ve come up with, or the ever popular “Tsunami” game. Some example questions from today’s game with the 3rd (9th in the US) graders: How do you say “I like walking in the park” in Japanese? To I something want eat (unscramble the sentence). Name two former Prime Ministers of Japan. How do you say “韓国” (kankoku) in English (it’s Korea). Name two professional sumo wrestlers. What are you going to do after entrance examinations next week?
12:30-1:30- Lunch Time- Students eat lunch in their classrooms, and most teachers eat in the teacher’s room. Trays, silverware/chopsticks, and plates are brought in along with containers of hot food from the food preparation building (couldn’t think of a better name for it in English- kitchen didn’t really seem to fit) by students wearing face masks and hair nets- the food is doled out on the trays and handed around. The food isn’t bad, but that’s coming from an adult- . I haven’t heard the students complain too terribly much about it outside of the classroom. The meal usually involves rice or noodles, soup, and some kind of meat (it seems to be fish about 85% of the time). Much like most American schools, they get milk with their lunch every day. When they are finished, everything is neatly stacked and taken back to the building next to the school.
1:30-2:20- 5th period- another class period
2:30-3:20- 6th period- they have 6th period 4 days a week- usually used for an extended home room or a make-up class. I do not generally teach during this period.
After 6th period- Cleaning Time! Something that Japanese schools have that I never saw in America is cleaning time. Students go to their assigned places all over the school to sweep and wipe down the floors, clean classrooms, and sweep/rake outside. JETs at my school have usually been on outside cleaning duty, so that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing.
3:40-3:50- One last short home room, then school’s out.
4:00- I get off of work.
After school-
Students will generally have club practice from 4:00-6:00 or 6:30- this can be any of the sports clubs (baseball, softball, soccer, basketball, volleyball, ping pong, or that great Japanese creation- “soft tennis”), or art, band, etc.
Contractually, a JET is basically finished from this point in the day, and one of the main things that some of us struggle with is how to fill our time. Though many of us are content with playing video games and napping in the afternoon, I’ve found that there are quite a few of us who aren’t content with simply laying around. This is something I’ve really figured out since the winter break:
A few days a week I will go to club practice- usually in either tennis or basketball. Apart from the basic running of errands, I’ve begun filling in my time with a variety of (hopefully) constructive activities- studying for the LSAT/GRE at my local coffee shop, taking lessons and learning a new (as yet undisclosed) skill, studying Japanese, studying my lines for the upcoming Tokushima JET musical (the Lion King- Tokushima version), cooking dinner for friends several evenings a week, and gradually becoming better about corresponding with friends with whom for one reason or another I lost touch in the Fall.
Other JETs do things such as taking Japanese lessons in Tokushima city, learning a Japanese marshal art or skill such as Kempo or Tea Ceremony, or various other things in their communities. Though I we do live in rural Japan, my friend Rich, who recently visited, put it best after seeing my area: it’s true that there are rice fields and agriculture, but Japan simply isn’t big enough to have “rural” areas the way that the United States and Australia do, so he called it more of a rural and urban fusion. Part of the reason for this is Japan’s small size & large population- 130 million people in the land mass of the US state of Montana- and part of it is due to the fact that over 73 percent of Japan is mountainous and so habitable areas are relatively few compared to most places.
Every Thursday evening for two hours I will have my Adult English Conversation Class. This class is made up primarily of housewives over 40, with the exception of two girls my age. After having them quiz each other on what they did that week (and then presenting to the class), I will usually present a topic of conversation (things as broad as the differences between Japanese & American cultures, or as narrow as a list of English idioms) and spend the rest of the time speaking about that.
Evenings are usually spent cooking for friends, reading, or having people over for a movie night. I will also frequently watch the latest episode of the Daily Show, or even Jersey Shore if I’m thinking of indulging a guilty pleasure for mindless television.
For the ALT, weekends hold any number of possibilities. Tokushima is only two hours out of Kobe and Osaka, and so I have now spent quite a few weekends there. On 3-4 day weekends, groups of us have also made it to Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. Being in a rural/urban area places me very close to a wide variety of outdoor activities, and so it is definitely easy to take advantage of this and spend a weekend at the beach, one hiking in the mountains, or relaxing by a river in between 1,000 ft. peaks. The Tokushima JETs primarily spend the weekends during the first couple months of the year in rehearsal for an annual musical to be put on in March, the justification behind this being that it gets one out of their house and together with other people during the frigid winter.
That about sums it up for a day in the life of a JET in Tokushima prefecture. Please let me know if you have any questions or anything helpful to add, thanks!!
I very recently realized that I am yet to write a blog post detailing a typical day in my life as an Assistant Language Teacher on the JET program.
7:30- Not being much of a morning person, I generally get up at about this time to make it to my nearby middle school by 8:05.
8:05- The students must arrive by 8:00, and have a short home room in the morning. Around 8:10 on most mornings all of the teachers assemble in the teacher’s room for a short meeting - the head teacher for the day will make any announcements, along with whichever other teachers would like to make one to everyone. The heads of school will generally speak next, followed by smaller group announcements among the teachers for each grade.
8:40- First period begins. Classes in Japanese Junior High Schools are generally 45 or 50 minutes long (depending on if it is a special schedule or not). The first four periods last from 8:40-9:30, 9:40-10:30, 10:40-11:30, and 11:40-12:30. There are also 1-2 periods of classes after lunch. I teach 4 classes a day- as I’ve previously described, I will generally teach based on a lesson plan agreed upon by myself and that grade’s English teacher, with whom I team teach. “Team Teaching,” has a very broad interpretation across different schools in Japan. Some JETs feel that they are under-utilized and serve simply as human CD players- reading passages out of the book for the students to follow along and repeat or dictating sentences for the students to write down. Thankfully, my teachers see this a bit differently- though I spend upwards of 10-15 minutes per class doing this sort of thing (and it is very important), the rest of the time usually involves me explaining and then running an activity or two that I have come up with based on their current place in the curriculum. These activities can be anything from word games to bingo, working through any kind of worksheet I’ve come up with, or the ever popular “Tsunami” game. Some example questions from today’s game with the 3rd (9th in the US) graders: How do you say “I like walking in the park” in Japanese? To I something want eat (unscramble the sentence). Name two former Prime Ministers of Japan. How do you say “韓国” (kankoku) in English (it’s Korea). Name two professional sumo wrestlers. What are you going to do after entrance examinations next week?
12:30-1:30- Lunch Time- Students eat lunch in their classrooms, and most teachers eat in the teacher’s room. Trays, silverware/chopsticks, and plates are brought in along with containers of hot food from the food preparation building (couldn’t think of a better name for it in English- kitchen didn’t really seem to fit) by students wearing face masks and hair nets- the food is doled out on the trays and handed around. The food isn’t bad, but that’s coming from an adult- . I haven’t heard the students complain too terribly much about it outside of the classroom. The meal usually involves rice or noodles, soup, and some kind of meat (it seems to be fish about 85% of the time). Much like most American schools, they get milk with their lunch every day. When they are finished, everything is neatly stacked and taken back to the building next to the school.
1:30-2:20- 5th period- another class period
2:30-3:20- 6th period- they have 6th period 4 days a week- usually used for an extended home room or a make-up class. I do not generally teach during this period.
After 6th period- Cleaning Time! Something that Japanese schools have that I never saw in America is cleaning time. Students go to their assigned places all over the school to sweep and wipe down the floors, clean classrooms, and sweep/rake outside. JETs at my school have usually been on outside cleaning duty, so that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing.
3:40-3:50- One last short home room, then school’s out.
4:00- I get off of work.
After school-
Students will generally have club practice from 4:00-6:00 or 6:30- this can be any of the sports clubs (baseball, softball, soccer, basketball, volleyball, ping pong, or that great Japanese creation- “soft tennis”), or art, band, etc.
Contractually, a JET is basically finished from this point in the day, and one of the main things that some of us struggle with is how to fill our time. Though many of us are content with playing video games and napping in the afternoon, I’ve found that there are quite a few of us who aren’t content with simply laying around. This is something I’ve really figured out since the winter break:
A few days a week I will go to club practice- usually in either tennis or basketball. Apart from the basic running of errands, I’ve begun filling in my time with a variety of (hopefully) constructive activities- studying for the LSAT/GRE at my local coffee shop, taking lessons and learning a new (as yet undisclosed) skill, studying Japanese, studying my lines for the upcoming Tokushima JET musical (the Lion King- Tokushima version), cooking dinner for friends several evenings a week, and gradually becoming better about corresponding with friends with whom for one reason or another I lost touch in the Fall.
Other JETs do things such as taking Japanese lessons in Tokushima city, learning a Japanese marshal art or skill such as Kempo or Tea Ceremony, or various other things in their communities. Though I we do live in rural Japan, my friend Rich, who recently visited, put it best after seeing my area: it’s true that there are rice fields and agriculture, but Japan simply isn’t big enough to have “rural” areas the way that the United States and Australia do, so he called it more of a rural and urban fusion. Part of the reason for this is Japan’s small size & large population- 130 million people in the land mass of the US state of Montana- and part of it is due to the fact that over 73 percent of Japan is mountainous and so habitable areas are relatively few compared to most places.
Every Thursday evening for two hours I will have my Adult English Conversation Class. This class is made up primarily of housewives over 40, with the exception of two girls my age. After having them quiz each other on what they did that week (and then presenting to the class), I will usually present a topic of conversation (things as broad as the differences between Japanese & American cultures, or as narrow as a list of English idioms) and spend the rest of the time speaking about that.
Evenings are usually spent cooking for friends, reading, or having people over for a movie night. I will also frequently watch the latest episode of the Daily Show, or even Jersey Shore if I’m thinking of indulging a guilty pleasure for mindless television.
For the ALT, weekends hold any number of possibilities. Tokushima is only two hours out of Kobe and Osaka, and so I have now spent quite a few weekends there. On 3-4 day weekends, groups of us have also made it to Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. Being in a rural/urban area places me very close to a wide variety of outdoor activities, and so it is definitely easy to take advantage of this and spend a weekend at the beach, one hiking in the mountains, or relaxing by a river in between 1,000 ft. peaks. The Tokushima JETs primarily spend the weekends during the first couple months of the year in rehearsal for an annual musical to be put on in March, the justification behind this being that it gets one out of their house and together with other people during the frigid winter.
That about sums it up for a day in the life of a JET in Tokushima prefecture. Please let me know if you have any questions or anything helpful to add, thanks!!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Christmas Break ’09-’10: Best Skiing Weather Ever, Birdie the Chocolate Lab, New Years in Seoul, Seoul’s 100 year snow, Chicken Feet (Pt. 2)
For the second part of my break I was able to go to Seoul, South Korea for a week and stay with the wonderful Park family, whose sons go/went to St. Stephen’s (my high school), and who are good family friends. My visit entailed experiencing the true difference between the Korean diet and pretty much any other food I’d ever had, being pulled up on stage at a Korean comedy show, having my most international New Year’s ever, seeing some of the coldest weather I’ve ever seen in person, and even going on a weekend ski trip with the family.
Food, in Korea, is not for the faint of heart. Virtually every thing that I ate during my week there was spiced in some way, from the kimchi-flavored lettuce to be used in lettuce wraps at the Korean BBQ restaurant to the chicken feet (yes, chicken feet) we snacked on while waiting for one of our meals. For those of you who don’t know, “kimchi” can basically include any of numerous Korean dishes made of picked vegetables and spices, the most common of which is the cabbage variety. Though the smell, texture, and general look of the dish aren’t the most appealing things in the world, it ends up making a pretty delicious addition to most Korean foods. Wikipedia fact of the day: kimchi is so ubiquitous in Korean gastronomy that the Korean space agency made a form of it to travel to space with their astronauts. I wonder if they make space Tex Mex…
Anyways, every meal that I had in Korea was shared family-style, even the one at Outback Steak House. After ordering, the waiter would bring out banchan, or a variety of side-dishes (including kimchi) that we ate before and during the meal. My biggest surprise (beyond the vast array of tastes arrayed before us) came when we actually began our meal. I found out fairly quickly that Korean table manners are different than any I’d experienced before- while in the States my mother had always strictly enforced the no-reaching-in-front-of-your-brother-to-get-last-piece-of-food rule, this simply was not present at the Korean table. Also, in Japan it is bad manners to pass food from chopsticks to chopsticks, so that when Mrs. Park offered me a piece of pork over the BBQ, I at first almost thought she wanted to feed it to me. The Japanese taboo comes from the fact that in traditional funerals that was the way that they passed the bones of the deceased after cremating them. After getting over the differences in table manners, I was ready to dig in to the cuisine, which included kimchi-pancakes, BBQ pork cooked on a grill in the middle of the table, various forms of what the Japanese would call nabe (dishes cooked in a big water-filled pot in the midde of the table), fried rice, white rice, small dehydrated fish, steak (thanks to Outback), cucumber soup, kimchi-(insert vegetable here), and of course the deboned, boiled, and kimchi-basted chicken feet (chewy and spicy, but surprisingly tasty).
Along with any good Korean meal must come some form of alcoholic beverage. During my time with the family we sipped on raspberry wine, Korean beer, souju (a vodka-like liquor made from potatoes), and makkoli/makgeolli (a milky and sweet rice wine).
Speaking of food, the boys, Alex and Jason, took me to Nanta, a Korean comedy show that I can only describe as the fusion of “Stomp,” Iron Chef, and a Jackie chan movie. Needless to say, it was pretty entertaining. At one point in the show, I was pulled up on stage and thrown into a mock wedding with one of the smallest women in the audience- if you’re lucky I may someday show you the photo proof of this event.
My most international New Year’s Eve/Day ever:
Because I was in Seoul for New Year’s, I had the opportunity to witness the way that the capital of Korea celebrated ringing in 2010, which they did quite literally by ringing a massive bell in the center of the city. The bell-ringing was preceded by several musical performances by Korean pop groups, appearances by various celebrities and government figures, and music performed on traditional Korean drums. Unlike New York City, New Years festivities were split up across Seoul, with the various performances at each being broadcast on TV’s at the other stages.
In saying that I had an “international” New Years, I mean that during the course of the evening/night/next morning I experienced a bit of American, Mexican, and of course Korean cultures: Outback Steakhouse with the Park family for dinner (I say this is American, because I’m not sure if they actually have them in Australia- I’m doubtful, for some reason), then met up with some American friends in downtown Seoul to head to the bell-ringing (we went to the main stage). At midnight, we ate grape candy and made a wish with a group of Mexican friends we’d made (you eat 12 grapes and make a wish at midnight in Hispanic culture), and then the next morning I awoke to a traditional Korean New Years breakfast, including fish and a soup called tteokguk, which consists of a broth and thinly sliced rice-cakes. It is a tradition to eat tteokguk on New Years because it is believed to grant the consumer luck for the forthcoming year and for him or her to supposedly gain an additional year of life.
When it comes to sightseeing, I walked around the city for two days and nights with Alex, and he gave me a pretty complete run-down of the northern half of the city, including the Shincheon area (popular for shopping and restaurants), Seoul Tower (from which one had a panoramic view of the entire city), a street lined with vendors of various souvenirs and treats (name forthcoming), the Seoul Lights Festival, the largest of the five national palaces in the city, and a peaceful canal-turned park in the middle of the city.
Though I don’t speak Korean, I was fascinated to observe people and note differences that I thought I saw between Korean and Japanese ways of interaction. This may be a product of having lived in the countryside for 5 1/2 months now, but whereas the Japanese are closely observant of personal space and downright apologetic when it is accidentally invaded, I found that brushing past people in the big city without a word to be the norm. Many of the interactions I noted in restaurants and stores were much less formal than what I’ve grown accustomed to in Japan, but I have to assume that Japan’s hyper-active and politeness-oriented service industry is the outlier on this one. Finally, I found Koreans to be much more direct in their interactions with one another, whereas I’m now used to the self-effacing and hinting nature of the way the Japanese express themselves. Of course, these observations were hindered by my lack of familiarity with the language, but they seemed to be the most self-evident.
Though I wasn’t able to make it to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea on this trip (something I’d been greatly looking forward to), the Parks took me on a ski trip for the weekend at the Phoenix Ski resort (which also had an indoor water-park that I found to be pretty remarkable), so I did end up making it out of Seoul for a few days.
I’m incredibly thankful to the Park family for giving me the chance to fully experience Seoul in a way that I would have had little chance to do otherwise. I’m definitely looking forward to making it back there at some point, hopefully after working a tad bit more on my Korean. I would highly recommend making the trip to anyone who isn’t afraid to try new (and spicy) cuisines, who is a fan of history, and wants to experience a truly different culture, distinct even from those in surrounding countries.
Food, in Korea, is not for the faint of heart. Virtually every thing that I ate during my week there was spiced in some way, from the kimchi-flavored lettuce to be used in lettuce wraps at the Korean BBQ restaurant to the chicken feet (yes, chicken feet) we snacked on while waiting for one of our meals. For those of you who don’t know, “kimchi” can basically include any of numerous Korean dishes made of picked vegetables and spices, the most common of which is the cabbage variety. Though the smell, texture, and general look of the dish aren’t the most appealing things in the world, it ends up making a pretty delicious addition to most Korean foods. Wikipedia fact of the day: kimchi is so ubiquitous in Korean gastronomy that the Korean space agency made a form of it to travel to space with their astronauts. I wonder if they make space Tex Mex…
Anyways, every meal that I had in Korea was shared family-style, even the one at Outback Steak House. After ordering, the waiter would bring out banchan, or a variety of side-dishes (including kimchi) that we ate before and during the meal. My biggest surprise (beyond the vast array of tastes arrayed before us) came when we actually began our meal. I found out fairly quickly that Korean table manners are different than any I’d experienced before- while in the States my mother had always strictly enforced the no-reaching-in-front-of-your-brother-to-get-last-piece-of-food rule, this simply was not present at the Korean table. Also, in Japan it is bad manners to pass food from chopsticks to chopsticks, so that when Mrs. Park offered me a piece of pork over the BBQ, I at first almost thought she wanted to feed it to me. The Japanese taboo comes from the fact that in traditional funerals that was the way that they passed the bones of the deceased after cremating them. After getting over the differences in table manners, I was ready to dig in to the cuisine, which included kimchi-pancakes, BBQ pork cooked on a grill in the middle of the table, various forms of what the Japanese would call nabe (dishes cooked in a big water-filled pot in the midde of the table), fried rice, white rice, small dehydrated fish, steak (thanks to Outback), cucumber soup, kimchi-(insert vegetable here), and of course the deboned, boiled, and kimchi-basted chicken feet (chewy and spicy, but surprisingly tasty).
Along with any good Korean meal must come some form of alcoholic beverage. During my time with the family we sipped on raspberry wine, Korean beer, souju (a vodka-like liquor made from potatoes), and makkoli/makgeolli (a milky and sweet rice wine).
Speaking of food, the boys, Alex and Jason, took me to Nanta, a Korean comedy show that I can only describe as the fusion of “Stomp,” Iron Chef, and a Jackie chan movie. Needless to say, it was pretty entertaining. At one point in the show, I was pulled up on stage and thrown into a mock wedding with one of the smallest women in the audience- if you’re lucky I may someday show you the photo proof of this event.
My most international New Year’s Eve/Day ever:
Because I was in Seoul for New Year’s, I had the opportunity to witness the way that the capital of Korea celebrated ringing in 2010, which they did quite literally by ringing a massive bell in the center of the city. The bell-ringing was preceded by several musical performances by Korean pop groups, appearances by various celebrities and government figures, and music performed on traditional Korean drums. Unlike New York City, New Years festivities were split up across Seoul, with the various performances at each being broadcast on TV’s at the other stages.
In saying that I had an “international” New Years, I mean that during the course of the evening/night/next morning I experienced a bit of American, Mexican, and of course Korean cultures: Outback Steakhouse with the Park family for dinner (I say this is American, because I’m not sure if they actually have them in Australia- I’m doubtful, for some reason), then met up with some American friends in downtown Seoul to head to the bell-ringing (we went to the main stage). At midnight, we ate grape candy and made a wish with a group of Mexican friends we’d made (you eat 12 grapes and make a wish at midnight in Hispanic culture), and then the next morning I awoke to a traditional Korean New Years breakfast, including fish and a soup called tteokguk, which consists of a broth and thinly sliced rice-cakes. It is a tradition to eat tteokguk on New Years because it is believed to grant the consumer luck for the forthcoming year and for him or her to supposedly gain an additional year of life.
When it comes to sightseeing, I walked around the city for two days and nights with Alex, and he gave me a pretty complete run-down of the northern half of the city, including the Shincheon area (popular for shopping and restaurants), Seoul Tower (from which one had a panoramic view of the entire city), a street lined with vendors of various souvenirs and treats (name forthcoming), the Seoul Lights Festival, the largest of the five national palaces in the city, and a peaceful canal-turned park in the middle of the city.
Though I don’t speak Korean, I was fascinated to observe people and note differences that I thought I saw between Korean and Japanese ways of interaction. This may be a product of having lived in the countryside for 5 1/2 months now, but whereas the Japanese are closely observant of personal space and downright apologetic when it is accidentally invaded, I found that brushing past people in the big city without a word to be the norm. Many of the interactions I noted in restaurants and stores were much less formal than what I’ve grown accustomed to in Japan, but I have to assume that Japan’s hyper-active and politeness-oriented service industry is the outlier on this one. Finally, I found Koreans to be much more direct in their interactions with one another, whereas I’m now used to the self-effacing and hinting nature of the way the Japanese express themselves. Of course, these observations were hindered by my lack of familiarity with the language, but they seemed to be the most self-evident.
Though I wasn’t able to make it to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea on this trip (something I’d been greatly looking forward to), the Parks took me on a ski trip for the weekend at the Phoenix Ski resort (which also had an indoor water-park that I found to be pretty remarkable), so I did end up making it out of Seoul for a few days.
I’m incredibly thankful to the Park family for giving me the chance to fully experience Seoul in a way that I would have had little chance to do otherwise. I’m definitely looking forward to making it back there at some point, hopefully after working a tad bit more on my Korean. I would highly recommend making the trip to anyone who isn’t afraid to try new (and spicy) cuisines, who is a fan of history, and wants to experience a truly different culture, distinct even from those in surrounding countries.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Christmas Break ’09-’10: Best Skiing Weather Ever, Birdie the Chocolate Lab, New Years in Seoul, Seoul’s 100 year snow, Chicken Feet (Pt. 1)
Welcome back to my blog after an all-too-long hiatus! As the title of this entry entails, I’ve just returned from a 2 1/2 week journey that took me from little Awa city to Kobe, Portland, Osaka, and Seoul. I’ll take you through my trip (and observations through it) in as concise of a way as possible.
Dec 18- I leave Awa city after teaching my last classes of 2009. These were to JHS (junior high school) 2nd graders (read: 8th grade), and I enjoyed running around the school all day in a Santa hat, alternately bellowing out the occasional “ho ho ho” in my best Santa voice, or allowing the students in the hallways turns of wearing it and giving me their best Santa (or maybe John sensei) impression- somehow this activity was more popular amongst the girls. Having the fantastic Chris to drive me to the bus stop, I boarded for my 18 day journey and promptly made my way to my host family’s house in Kobe (note: I studied abroad in Japan for 11 months during my sophomore year of high school). I then had a relaxing evening with my host mother and 26-year-old host sister, catching up on family matters and watching my eldest host sister’s wedding video (see previous blog entry). As entertaining as the video was hearing about my eldest host sister’s exploits in running her own household for the first time, and bearing witness to a phone call home when she didn’t know what to do with a plugged toilet- this reminded me of calling my mother freshman year of college to ask whether to use hot or cold water when washing my clothes.
Dec. 19-28: Portland
I was off again early the next morning to catch an 11 am flight to Tokyo from Kansai International Airport (KIX) in Osaka, the second largest airport in Japan. This was a further 2 hour bus ride from Kobe. At the airport, I made a new friend in a lady from New Zealand, and she subsequently gave me her information in Auckland and let me know I was welcome to stay any time. I love kiwis J I then boarded my flight with a fellow JET from Tokushima who was heading home to California for the break, Henry, and then flew from Tokyo directly to Portland. That flight was interesting in that I sat with an American man who had moved to Singapore to work in IT 20 years before, and had married and settled there. As I’ve always considered either working abroad for a little while (like the present) or finding a career that sent me abroad often, I was keenly interested to hear his perspective on not only adapting to and assimilating into a different culture abroad over time, but also his views as an expat on America’s current foreign and economic policy. He was not overly complimentary of the Obama administration’s current policies, but acknowledged that the situation was a difficult one and asserted that he believed many of his critics were overly critical of medium-longer term policies that had not had time to reach fruition. He had a fairly positive view of the administration’s economic policies, which was interesting in that he was living in Asia during their financial crisis of 1997 for which the US was roundly criticized as not having done enough to stave off.
A strange (or interesting) thing about flying East over the Atlantic to the West coast is that one arrives a good deal of time before one actually left, chronologically speaking. After a 9 hour flight, I landed in a time zone that was 17 hours behind the one I’d just left, and so left at 4 in the afternoon and arrived at around 7:30 in the morning.
I arrived in Portland where my aunt and uncle awaited me at the airport. It was wonderful to be on American soil again for the first time in 5 months. They promptly took me home to meet their 7 month old chocolate lab, Birdie, who was just as awkward, gangly, playful, and adorable as a chocolate lab should be. She not only added her puppy energy to the house, but also enhanced all activities from eating breakfast (head resting on your knee), refilling the Christmas tree water (joining you to see what you were up to), and even a Portland tradition: playing four-square with the neighbors (she served as an active obstacle).
I greatly enjoyed helping my uncle pick out a Christmas tree, eating American-style pizza, and relaxing to read a book in a house that had central heating. As an unexpected bonus, unbeknownst to me my parents had been unable to cancel my cell phone plan, and so I received several texts on my arrival, which I then happily discovered I was able to respond to.
Two days after my arrival Mark, my younger (albeit taller) brother arrived from Texas, and the four of us (aunt, uncle, myself, Mark) took off to Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood to ski for a couple of days (google it for pictures or check my facebook- absolutely beautiful place). The lodge itself was built during the Great Depression in the middle of Mt. Hood national forest as a project to bring jobs to the area (much like Georgetown’s White-Gravesnor building). As the name suggests, the lodge and ski slopes rest on the upper reaches of where trees stretch on the mountain. The highest lifts give a stunning panoramic of the mountain itself, the lodge and hills below, and Mt. Jefferson, the Three Sisters, and Mt. Batchelor in the distance (the closest, Mt. Jefferson, was 40 miles away). The lodge is built like an old-style European ski lodge, with wings branching off from a single, massive, three-story room with a huge chimney in the middle, accommodating fire places on each of 4-5 sides- yes, the most perfect place in the world to curl up with a book and a cup of hot chocolate after a long day of skiing. Also exciting was an outdoor heated pool and hot tub, which had a wonderful view of the sky at night. The weather could not have been more perfect for our trip- though it had snowed a few days previous to our excursion, the sky could not have been more clear and the vistas more gorgeous for our time there. I took a great deal of pictures of the mountain and the view from the lodge, as well as a few from the top of the highest-available lift. All told, between skiing the entire day and enjoying the comfort of the lodge at night (with of course great company), it was entirely idyllic and restful.
We returned to Portland, and enjoyed Christmas-eve dinner with family friends. I was informed by our wonderful hostess at the dinner that she had a daughter currently teaching English in Seoul, South Korea. Seeing as that a trip to Seoul would constitute the second half of my winter break, she enjoined me to get into touch with said daughter to see if we could arrange a meeting. This did end up occurring, but later in my story.
My parents arrived on Christmas day, and it was incredible to be able to see so much of my family for the holidays, and look forward to seeing the rest this summer. The final three days of my stay were a flurry of Christmas- and family-related activity: I very much enjoyed having an American-style Christmas evening of dinner and opening presents. I did my best to bring presents that best represented the culture of my specific prefecture: from coasters and paper made at the Awagami paper factory (since the 16th century) 10 minutes from my house, to things died with traditional Aizome indigo dye, and various artifacts from the Awa-Odori dance festival (the largest dance festival in Japan, see early entry). Even more fun than searching for these was discovering that the 100-yen (read: dollar) store was a gold mine for stocking stuffers for my younger brother and cousin. It was rife with gag gifts such as a clear, heavily made up mask upon which was written “You can be a drag queen!” and also the fake, inflatable bags made to increase chest size. Sprinkled in with the more obvious gag gifts were the things with awkward English phrases written on them, such as the bag meant to “support your more comfortable amenity life” (Mark is free to comment on the others).
I was able to see both Avatar and Sherlock Holmes. Though Avatar’s textbook plot and sometimes inane dialogue would have seriously affected another movie, the out-of-this-world (no pun intended, sadly) visuals entirely made up for them and made it a movie going experience that I’d like to repeat. I fully concurred with the opinion that instead of the movie being eye candy, it was eye crack-cocaine. As I am no movie critic (and generally very easily amused), I enjoyed Sherlock Holmes as a less-brainy-than-expected action flick.
I spent my time in Portland indulging myself in various food cravings that I had endured while abroad. Dairy is not part of Japan’s traditional diet, and beef consumption only became widespread there after the lifting of an import ban in 1991 dropped the price of it drastically. Therefore cheese (one of my favorite things in the world) is pretty difficult to find (at least out in the country), beef comes in strips and McDonald’s hamburgers, pizza is often thin and contains such ingredients as squid, tuna, and corn, and there is no Mexican food to speak of (within an hour drive at least). My cravings were easily satiated in the period of less than 24 hours in Portland: I was able to enjoy an enchilada dinner, partake in an American pizza, eat a steak, and buy some sharp cheddar cheese at the store. Talk about a hog heaven of consumption.
This is not to say that I don’t love Japanese food, but getting a taste of home was a welcome experience, especially before the sea-change that was Korean food.
It was also nice to drive a full-size car again on the right side of the road, though I must admit I several times repeated the mistake I had in first arriving to Japan of walking to the wrong side of the car (as the steering wheels are located on opposite sides). The audacity and poor driving skill of people in my prefecture happens to be something of legend in Japan. Drivers are either very slow or very fast, the concept of “slowing down” on yellow is entirely unheard of, and one must often wait any number of seconds after a light has turned green to safely traverse an intersection for fear of one of the 15 cars that makes a right (left in the US) turn after the light has actually changed because they had patiently waited for the yellow and red-light runners coming the opposite direction. For the rest of my life, I will likely refer to any driver with less-than-stellar skill behind the wheel as a “Tokushima driver”. But I digress.
The rest of my time in Portland was spent relaxing with family, visiting my grandmother and grandfather, and seeing other friends in Portland. Mark and I had the opportunity to sip hot cocoa in downtown Portland with our friends Erika and Mai (who both speak Japanese), visit Powell’s City of Books, the city-block-sized independent bookstore (and one of my favorite places in the world), and go with our friend Nadia to Portland’s infamous Voodoo Doughnuts shop at 2 in the morning (which reminded me verrry much of the many hipster-esque places in Austin).
In all, I was extremely happy to be able to spend a few days in the States before heading back out here to Asia. My next visit will hopefully be in late July/early August to Washington, DC and Austin, we shall see J
Up next: Korea!
Dec 18- I leave Awa city after teaching my last classes of 2009. These were to JHS (junior high school) 2nd graders (read: 8th grade), and I enjoyed running around the school all day in a Santa hat, alternately bellowing out the occasional “ho ho ho” in my best Santa voice, or allowing the students in the hallways turns of wearing it and giving me their best Santa (or maybe John sensei) impression- somehow this activity was more popular amongst the girls. Having the fantastic Chris to drive me to the bus stop, I boarded for my 18 day journey and promptly made my way to my host family’s house in Kobe (note: I studied abroad in Japan for 11 months during my sophomore year of high school). I then had a relaxing evening with my host mother and 26-year-old host sister, catching up on family matters and watching my eldest host sister’s wedding video (see previous blog entry). As entertaining as the video was hearing about my eldest host sister’s exploits in running her own household for the first time, and bearing witness to a phone call home when she didn’t know what to do with a plugged toilet- this reminded me of calling my mother freshman year of college to ask whether to use hot or cold water when washing my clothes.
Dec. 19-28: Portland
I was off again early the next morning to catch an 11 am flight to Tokyo from Kansai International Airport (KIX) in Osaka, the second largest airport in Japan. This was a further 2 hour bus ride from Kobe. At the airport, I made a new friend in a lady from New Zealand, and she subsequently gave me her information in Auckland and let me know I was welcome to stay any time. I love kiwis J I then boarded my flight with a fellow JET from Tokushima who was heading home to California for the break, Henry, and then flew from Tokyo directly to Portland. That flight was interesting in that I sat with an American man who had moved to Singapore to work in IT 20 years before, and had married and settled there. As I’ve always considered either working abroad for a little while (like the present) or finding a career that sent me abroad often, I was keenly interested to hear his perspective on not only adapting to and assimilating into a different culture abroad over time, but also his views as an expat on America’s current foreign and economic policy. He was not overly complimentary of the Obama administration’s current policies, but acknowledged that the situation was a difficult one and asserted that he believed many of his critics were overly critical of medium-longer term policies that had not had time to reach fruition. He had a fairly positive view of the administration’s economic policies, which was interesting in that he was living in Asia during their financial crisis of 1997 for which the US was roundly criticized as not having done enough to stave off.
A strange (or interesting) thing about flying East over the Atlantic to the West coast is that one arrives a good deal of time before one actually left, chronologically speaking. After a 9 hour flight, I landed in a time zone that was 17 hours behind the one I’d just left, and so left at 4 in the afternoon and arrived at around 7:30 in the morning.
I arrived in Portland where my aunt and uncle awaited me at the airport. It was wonderful to be on American soil again for the first time in 5 months. They promptly took me home to meet their 7 month old chocolate lab, Birdie, who was just as awkward, gangly, playful, and adorable as a chocolate lab should be. She not only added her puppy energy to the house, but also enhanced all activities from eating breakfast (head resting on your knee), refilling the Christmas tree water (joining you to see what you were up to), and even a Portland tradition: playing four-square with the neighbors (she served as an active obstacle).
I greatly enjoyed helping my uncle pick out a Christmas tree, eating American-style pizza, and relaxing to read a book in a house that had central heating. As an unexpected bonus, unbeknownst to me my parents had been unable to cancel my cell phone plan, and so I received several texts on my arrival, which I then happily discovered I was able to respond to.
Two days after my arrival Mark, my younger (albeit taller) brother arrived from Texas, and the four of us (aunt, uncle, myself, Mark) took off to Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood to ski for a couple of days (google it for pictures or check my facebook- absolutely beautiful place). The lodge itself was built during the Great Depression in the middle of Mt. Hood national forest as a project to bring jobs to the area (much like Georgetown’s White-Gravesnor building). As the name suggests, the lodge and ski slopes rest on the upper reaches of where trees stretch on the mountain. The highest lifts give a stunning panoramic of the mountain itself, the lodge and hills below, and Mt. Jefferson, the Three Sisters, and Mt. Batchelor in the distance (the closest, Mt. Jefferson, was 40 miles away). The lodge is built like an old-style European ski lodge, with wings branching off from a single, massive, three-story room with a huge chimney in the middle, accommodating fire places on each of 4-5 sides- yes, the most perfect place in the world to curl up with a book and a cup of hot chocolate after a long day of skiing. Also exciting was an outdoor heated pool and hot tub, which had a wonderful view of the sky at night. The weather could not have been more perfect for our trip- though it had snowed a few days previous to our excursion, the sky could not have been more clear and the vistas more gorgeous for our time there. I took a great deal of pictures of the mountain and the view from the lodge, as well as a few from the top of the highest-available lift. All told, between skiing the entire day and enjoying the comfort of the lodge at night (with of course great company), it was entirely idyllic and restful.
We returned to Portland, and enjoyed Christmas-eve dinner with family friends. I was informed by our wonderful hostess at the dinner that she had a daughter currently teaching English in Seoul, South Korea. Seeing as that a trip to Seoul would constitute the second half of my winter break, she enjoined me to get into touch with said daughter to see if we could arrange a meeting. This did end up occurring, but later in my story.
My parents arrived on Christmas day, and it was incredible to be able to see so much of my family for the holidays, and look forward to seeing the rest this summer. The final three days of my stay were a flurry of Christmas- and family-related activity: I very much enjoyed having an American-style Christmas evening of dinner and opening presents. I did my best to bring presents that best represented the culture of my specific prefecture: from coasters and paper made at the Awagami paper factory (since the 16th century) 10 minutes from my house, to things died with traditional Aizome indigo dye, and various artifacts from the Awa-Odori dance festival (the largest dance festival in Japan, see early entry). Even more fun than searching for these was discovering that the 100-yen (read: dollar) store was a gold mine for stocking stuffers for my younger brother and cousin. It was rife with gag gifts such as a clear, heavily made up mask upon which was written “You can be a drag queen!” and also the fake, inflatable bags made to increase chest size. Sprinkled in with the more obvious gag gifts were the things with awkward English phrases written on them, such as the bag meant to “support your more comfortable amenity life” (Mark is free to comment on the others).
I was able to see both Avatar and Sherlock Holmes. Though Avatar’s textbook plot and sometimes inane dialogue would have seriously affected another movie, the out-of-this-world (no pun intended, sadly) visuals entirely made up for them and made it a movie going experience that I’d like to repeat. I fully concurred with the opinion that instead of the movie being eye candy, it was eye crack-cocaine. As I am no movie critic (and generally very easily amused), I enjoyed Sherlock Holmes as a less-brainy-than-expected action flick.
I spent my time in Portland indulging myself in various food cravings that I had endured while abroad. Dairy is not part of Japan’s traditional diet, and beef consumption only became widespread there after the lifting of an import ban in 1991 dropped the price of it drastically. Therefore cheese (one of my favorite things in the world) is pretty difficult to find (at least out in the country), beef comes in strips and McDonald’s hamburgers, pizza is often thin and contains such ingredients as squid, tuna, and corn, and there is no Mexican food to speak of (within an hour drive at least). My cravings were easily satiated in the period of less than 24 hours in Portland: I was able to enjoy an enchilada dinner, partake in an American pizza, eat a steak, and buy some sharp cheddar cheese at the store. Talk about a hog heaven of consumption.
This is not to say that I don’t love Japanese food, but getting a taste of home was a welcome experience, especially before the sea-change that was Korean food.
It was also nice to drive a full-size car again on the right side of the road, though I must admit I several times repeated the mistake I had in first arriving to Japan of walking to the wrong side of the car (as the steering wheels are located on opposite sides). The audacity and poor driving skill of people in my prefecture happens to be something of legend in Japan. Drivers are either very slow or very fast, the concept of “slowing down” on yellow is entirely unheard of, and one must often wait any number of seconds after a light has turned green to safely traverse an intersection for fear of one of the 15 cars that makes a right (left in the US) turn after the light has actually changed because they had patiently waited for the yellow and red-light runners coming the opposite direction. For the rest of my life, I will likely refer to any driver with less-than-stellar skill behind the wheel as a “Tokushima driver”. But I digress.
The rest of my time in Portland was spent relaxing with family, visiting my grandmother and grandfather, and seeing other friends in Portland. Mark and I had the opportunity to sip hot cocoa in downtown Portland with our friends Erika and Mai (who both speak Japanese), visit Powell’s City of Books, the city-block-sized independent bookstore (and one of my favorite places in the world), and go with our friend Nadia to Portland’s infamous Voodoo Doughnuts shop at 2 in the morning (which reminded me verrry much of the many hipster-esque places in Austin).
In all, I was extremely happy to be able to spend a few days in the States before heading back out here to Asia. My next visit will hopefully be in late July/early August to Washington, DC and Austin, we shall see J
Up next: Korea!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Getting Married in Japan
Setting the scene:
Organ music plays. The priest, bedecked in his vestments, walks down the aisle ahead of the nervously shuffling groom. He asks the congregation to stand, and as the music hits a crescendo, in walks the bride resplendent in a beautiful white wedding dress- the train of which follows neatly behind her. The bride's face is partially obscured by her white veil, and she carries a bouquet of white roses in her hands. While walking together down the aisle, she and her father are careful to match their steps. The father measures his steps carefully, taking speacial care not to tread on her dress. Reaching the altar after a halting march, the father hands her off to his soon-to-be son-in-law, making a small bow in the process.
The priest offers several prayers expounding on God's love for man and the eternal bonds of matrimony that will bound the new couple. He leads the congregation in a hym, sung in a monotone redolent of a gregorian chant. The ceremony climaxes in the exchanging of the rings, lifting of the veil, and tender kiss. "Under the power vested in me by ______, I now pronounce you man (/husband/etc.) and wife", and the couple parades out under a shower of rose petals.
On to the banquet- while everyone sits around various tables facing a main, central one- the new couple is toasted with champagne, everyone is treated to a wonderful meal (foie gras, steak, lobster, etc), and there are several tear-filled speeches punctuated by a slideshow of embarrassing childhood photos. Throughout all of this, the background is permeated by the constant murmur of sappy music.
Sound familiar? While one could easily associate this description with any given wedding ceremony and reception in the United States- it's one that I generally find harder reconciling with my previous knowledge of Japan. Only about 3% of the Japanese population professes Christianity. On top of that, the joyous and often even out-of-hand nature of American weddings and the receptions that follow had very little chance in my mind of occuring in a conservative, often painfully ceremonial culture such as Japan's. The Japanese love nothing if not a ceremony. School semesters begin and end with them. They mark the beginning and end of one's work in a company. School cultural festivals, sports days, and other special days all include them. They are employed in virtually every situation possible. Japanese ceremonies are generally serious, closely choreographed affairs- the participants know their moves and bows to a T. They are also almost unflinchingly serious and stiff while going through the motions.
Thus, it was with a fair bit of wonder (but not with much surprise), that I saw the motions of a Western wedding (complete with priest) take place before me, with all the seriousness of the typical Japanese ceremony. I was sitting in a hybrid. This continued to the wedding pictures, where the photographer did her best to get all of those involved to crack a smile (I feel like my beaming face will sorely stand out in the picture of everyone there). I did get my host, sister, the bride, to beam for a picture of us- which I was quite proud of haha.
The banquet was very closely choreographed- seats were typically arranged in the Japanese order of precedence (with the younger siblings/friends/extended family on the outer reaches, and the parents and Japanese bosses of the husband in the center), an MC talked us through each presentation (even the places for applause), and there were a number of speeches (the predictable ones- groom & groom's family, bride, a relative or two, and not-so-predictable- two of the bosses, etc.). One of my favorite aspects of Japanese culture is its bipolarity when it comes to ceremony- they know that there is a time to be very serious, and a time to unwind afterwards. This is generally when the alcohol begins to flow, as the reception turned out to be (we each received a glass of red wine, white wine, champagne, full). Japanese people aren't allowed to refill their own drinks in formal situations. This leaves a golden opportunity for socializing, as you can take one of the large beer bottles from your table, and walk around the room filling people's drink for them while making conversation (this is true for any Japanese party/occasion where drinking of any sort takes place).
The most touching parts of the reception were the slide show full of pictures of the bride & groom during their cute childhood (and awkward teenage) years. True to their personalities, my host sister was beaming in each of her photos, and her Kyoto University (read: Princeton)-educated husband was a study in serious faces. Another great part was a slightly-intoxicated uncle of the groom getting up to sing a song he'd written for the fathers of the bride & groom. I couldn't understand all of it, but overall it was a chiding song urging them to let go of their babies, and imagining the years to come. This prompted the youngest guest to the wedding, the two-year-old nephew of the groom, to want to sing a song he'd learned in nursery school (about a silly) cat, and he was duly humored.
Unlike American weddings, this was about it- after desert was served and finished, and final speeches made by the families, the guests left and went home at around 8:30. This was another big contrast from my view of American weddings lasting well into the night with dancing, etc.
The entirety of the wedding took place at an old Japanese-style mansion in one of the nicest neighborhoods of central Kobe. Though, as you can probably imagine, space is at a premium in Japan, the house and gardens surrounding it took take up at least an acre. The house was previously owned by the founder of a large insurance conglomerate, and so the 4-story house itself and gardens have been kept in immaculate condition. Wandering around the grounds, there is little to give away the fact that one is in the middle of a packed city of several million people. The chapel in which the ceremony was performed was a beautiful small building in the back that could probably only fit about 60 people in total.
The three most popular ways to get married in Japan are: the Western, hotel-style (often in a hotel with a built-in chapel, the bride wears a wedding dress); the Japanese, shrine-style (at a Shinto shrine, traditional kimonos are worn); and a Western, Christian-style celebrated at a location dedicated to weddings and other ceremonies of the type (my host sister's). According to my host father, the one my host sister and her husband chose was relatively rare (because it's a bit more expensive), but I'd have to say it seemed to be the best, most beautiful type of fusion. As stiff and formal as it was at times, it was still touching. I have the feeling that compared to this, attending a Western-style wedding in a hotel (even if accompanied by Christian vows) would smack of counterfeit. Though I know I shouldn't judge the other two types of weddings before I've actually attended them, for now the one this weekend will remain the ideal Japanese-Western/Christian fusion in my mind.
Organ music plays. The priest, bedecked in his vestments, walks down the aisle ahead of the nervously shuffling groom. He asks the congregation to stand, and as the music hits a crescendo, in walks the bride resplendent in a beautiful white wedding dress- the train of which follows neatly behind her. The bride's face is partially obscured by her white veil, and she carries a bouquet of white roses in her hands. While walking together down the aisle, she and her father are careful to match their steps. The father measures his steps carefully, taking speacial care not to tread on her dress. Reaching the altar after a halting march, the father hands her off to his soon-to-be son-in-law, making a small bow in the process.
The priest offers several prayers expounding on God's love for man and the eternal bonds of matrimony that will bound the new couple. He leads the congregation in a hym, sung in a monotone redolent of a gregorian chant. The ceremony climaxes in the exchanging of the rings, lifting of the veil, and tender kiss. "Under the power vested in me by ______, I now pronounce you man (/husband/etc.) and wife", and the couple parades out under a shower of rose petals.
On to the banquet- while everyone sits around various tables facing a main, central one- the new couple is toasted with champagne, everyone is treated to a wonderful meal (foie gras, steak, lobster, etc), and there are several tear-filled speeches punctuated by a slideshow of embarrassing childhood photos. Throughout all of this, the background is permeated by the constant murmur of sappy music.
Sound familiar? While one could easily associate this description with any given wedding ceremony and reception in the United States- it's one that I generally find harder reconciling with my previous knowledge of Japan. Only about 3% of the Japanese population professes Christianity. On top of that, the joyous and often even out-of-hand nature of American weddings and the receptions that follow had very little chance in my mind of occuring in a conservative, often painfully ceremonial culture such as Japan's. The Japanese love nothing if not a ceremony. School semesters begin and end with them. They mark the beginning and end of one's work in a company. School cultural festivals, sports days, and other special days all include them. They are employed in virtually every situation possible. Japanese ceremonies are generally serious, closely choreographed affairs- the participants know their moves and bows to a T. They are also almost unflinchingly serious and stiff while going through the motions.
Thus, it was with a fair bit of wonder (but not with much surprise), that I saw the motions of a Western wedding (complete with priest) take place before me, with all the seriousness of the typical Japanese ceremony. I was sitting in a hybrid. This continued to the wedding pictures, where the photographer did her best to get all of those involved to crack a smile (I feel like my beaming face will sorely stand out in the picture of everyone there). I did get my host, sister, the bride, to beam for a picture of us- which I was quite proud of haha.
The banquet was very closely choreographed- seats were typically arranged in the Japanese order of precedence (with the younger siblings/friends/extended family on the outer reaches, and the parents and Japanese bosses of the husband in the center), an MC talked us through each presentation (even the places for applause), and there were a number of speeches (the predictable ones- groom & groom's family, bride, a relative or two, and not-so-predictable- two of the bosses, etc.). One of my favorite aspects of Japanese culture is its bipolarity when it comes to ceremony- they know that there is a time to be very serious, and a time to unwind afterwards. This is generally when the alcohol begins to flow, as the reception turned out to be (we each received a glass of red wine, white wine, champagne, full). Japanese people aren't allowed to refill their own drinks in formal situations. This leaves a golden opportunity for socializing, as you can take one of the large beer bottles from your table, and walk around the room filling people's drink for them while making conversation (this is true for any Japanese party/occasion where drinking of any sort takes place).
The most touching parts of the reception were the slide show full of pictures of the bride & groom during their cute childhood (and awkward teenage) years. True to their personalities, my host sister was beaming in each of her photos, and her Kyoto University (read: Princeton)-educated husband was a study in serious faces. Another great part was a slightly-intoxicated uncle of the groom getting up to sing a song he'd written for the fathers of the bride & groom. I couldn't understand all of it, but overall it was a chiding song urging them to let go of their babies, and imagining the years to come. This prompted the youngest guest to the wedding, the two-year-old nephew of the groom, to want to sing a song he'd learned in nursery school (about a silly) cat, and he was duly humored.
Unlike American weddings, this was about it- after desert was served and finished, and final speeches made by the families, the guests left and went home at around 8:30. This was another big contrast from my view of American weddings lasting well into the night with dancing, etc.
The entirety of the wedding took place at an old Japanese-style mansion in one of the nicest neighborhoods of central Kobe. Though, as you can probably imagine, space is at a premium in Japan, the house and gardens surrounding it took take up at least an acre. The house was previously owned by the founder of a large insurance conglomerate, and so the 4-story house itself and gardens have been kept in immaculate condition. Wandering around the grounds, there is little to give away the fact that one is in the middle of a packed city of several million people. The chapel in which the ceremony was performed was a beautiful small building in the back that could probably only fit about 60 people in total.
The three most popular ways to get married in Japan are: the Western, hotel-style (often in a hotel with a built-in chapel, the bride wears a wedding dress); the Japanese, shrine-style (at a Shinto shrine, traditional kimonos are worn); and a Western, Christian-style celebrated at a location dedicated to weddings and other ceremonies of the type (my host sister's). According to my host father, the one my host sister and her husband chose was relatively rare (because it's a bit more expensive), but I'd have to say it seemed to be the best, most beautiful type of fusion. As stiff and formal as it was at times, it was still touching. I have the feeling that compared to this, attending a Western-style wedding in a hotel (even if accompanied by Christian vows) would smack of counterfeit. Though I know I shouldn't judge the other two types of weddings before I've actually attended them, for now the one this weekend will remain the ideal Japanese-Western/Christian fusion in my mind.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Silver Week- Tokyo- Post #1- Itinerary
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, of this week were all national holidays, granting those of us with jobs here an extended, 5-day weekend. The week itself is officially called Silver Week, and the holidays (in order): Respect for the Aged Day, National Holiday (I think a filler), and Autumnal Equinox Day. People use these days for various things (moving, visting family, etc.)- we JETs, as is typical to us, used them for travel. I spent 4 full days (Sat. morning-Tues night) in Tokyo, and in a couple of different posts I'll try talk about the highlights of my trip.
I will try to order posts in this way: Itinerary (1), Food (2), Night life (3), Shopping (4), Otaku/Nerd Culture (and other counter-cultures) (5), Tokyo vs. Tokushima (OR Why I Prefer the Country life- at least for now) (6)
First post- Itinerary Overview- hopefully this will give context to the post(s) after this- sorry if it turns a little long, was just orienting myself by remembering which order things happened in which order:
Friday, September 18- Night bus from Tokushima Stn.-Tokyo's Shinagawa Station
Tokushima-Tokyo is approximately an 8 1/2 bus ride, if you do it at night. Chris, B, Celia, Henry, and I decided on this, because it was 2 fewer nights of accomodation and was pretty convenient. In all, it cost 18,000 yen ($180) for the round-trip. We left Tokushima at 9:30 pm and arrived at 7 am- too early to check into the hotel, but we could drop our stuff off there. Stayed at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel- a really nice place right next to Tokyo's Yamanote Circle train line, which hits all of the major places that we tourists would want to go.
Saturday, September 19-
1.) Shibuya Starbucks- 2-story Starbucks with huge windows onto Tokyo's version of Times Square- some of the best people watching in the world, hands-down
2.) Ikebukuro- great district for bars/restaurants- we went to an American-style pizza buffet (Shakeys)
3.) Akihabara- Brief visit to Akihabara Electric Town- Tokyo's (and nerds') consumer electronics and anime Mecca- blocks and blocks of stores
4.) Nap- no matter how much we slept on the night bus, the afternoon still called for a nap
5.) Ebisu beer festival with Celia, B, & Henry- we met up with fellow Tokushima JET Maggie and her friend Michael for a few pints of beers and pub grub, Japanese-style- great way to spend a cool evening outdoors
6.) Lockup- a prison/horror-themed bar located (fittingly) in a multi-story basement. Think haunted house with themed drinks, waitresses dressed like guards, and periodic visits by "monsters" in gas/hockey masks
7.) Pure- a club in Shibuya with the largest percentage of foreigners of anywhere we went
Sunday, September 20-
1.) Harajuku (w/Celia, Henry, B, & Nick- another JET from DC)- shopping district also famous for its counter-culture stores, people dressed like dolls, etc.
2.) Odaiba (w/CHB, Nick, and Zach (another DC JET))- an island with massive malls, one of which is ostensibly modeled after the mall in Las Vegas with the ceiling painted as the sky
3.) Shimbashi- went exploring a bit with Nick in Shimbashi- huge, modern buildings and lots of shops
4.) Ikebukuro-Dinner w/Ayaka, Masae- two of my good friends from when I studied here sophomore year of high school. We went to a Yakitori place, and the food was amazing.
5.) Ikebukuro- went to Hub, and English-style pub w/Ayaka, Masae, HBC
6.) Shibuya w/Nick, Sumner, etc., Harlem- after HBC went to bed, met up with Nick, Sumner, and some other JETs and went out in Shibuya to a club called Harlem
Monday, September 21-
1.) Late wake-up
2.) Akihabara Electric Town with Nick, Sumner, and host-brother Ari while B etc went Harajuku shopping again
3.) Shinagawa- Dinner at a health-nabe place with Aya, Hina, and Andrew- all former St. Stephen's (my HS) students; Aya was the exchange student at my school for 1 year, Hina spent 4 years as a boarder from Tokyo, and Andrew did the same exchange program as I did, is now a Georgetown junior in the SFS, and is currently studying abroad for the year in Tokyo at Waseda University.
4.) Shibuya- Camelot night club with Chris, Celia, B, Henry, Nick, Sumner, and Andrew
Tuesday, September 22-
Ari & Mika day- Ari is my host brother from my time in Japan before- I lived with his family for 11 months, and he spent the subsequent year as an exchange student at my high school. His girlfriend, Mika, is an awesome girl who spent a year at Lewis & Clark in Portland, OR, ironically one of the college visits that Ari and I did when he was in the US (it was jr. year of HS, so we did a few coll. visits)
1.) Harajuku- Ramen, Meiji Jingu (Meiji emperor's shrine), Yoyogi Park
2.) Shinjuku- huge restaurant/bar/electronics district where we stayed for Tokyo Orientation- went to a book store with books in English (only bought 4), then bought a Playstation 3
3.) Waseda U- strolled a little around the campus of Ari's university, one of the two best private schools in Japan- he studies basically what I did- International politics, government, economics
4.) Ari's apartment- he pays almost 3 times as much for an apartment less than half the size of mine- but he lives within walking distance of Waseda, in the middle of Tokyo
5.) Korean BBQ- one of my favorite meals I've had so far in Japan, yum
6.) Bus ride home
I will try to order posts in this way: Itinerary (1), Food (2), Night life (3), Shopping (4), Otaku/Nerd Culture (and other counter-cultures) (5), Tokyo vs. Tokushima (OR Why I Prefer the Country life- at least for now) (6)
First post- Itinerary Overview- hopefully this will give context to the post(s) after this- sorry if it turns a little long, was just orienting myself by remembering which order things happened in which order:
Friday, September 18- Night bus from Tokushima Stn.-Tokyo's Shinagawa Station
Tokushima-Tokyo is approximately an 8 1/2 bus ride, if you do it at night. Chris, B, Celia, Henry, and I decided on this, because it was 2 fewer nights of accomodation and was pretty convenient. In all, it cost 18,000 yen ($180) for the round-trip. We left Tokushima at 9:30 pm and arrived at 7 am- too early to check into the hotel, but we could drop our stuff off there. Stayed at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel- a really nice place right next to Tokyo's Yamanote Circle train line, which hits all of the major places that we tourists would want to go.
Saturday, September 19-
1.) Shibuya Starbucks- 2-story Starbucks with huge windows onto Tokyo's version of Times Square- some of the best people watching in the world, hands-down
2.) Ikebukuro- great district for bars/restaurants- we went to an American-style pizza buffet (Shakeys)
3.) Akihabara- Brief visit to Akihabara Electric Town- Tokyo's (and nerds') consumer electronics and anime Mecca- blocks and blocks of stores
4.) Nap- no matter how much we slept on the night bus, the afternoon still called for a nap
5.) Ebisu beer festival with Celia, B, & Henry- we met up with fellow Tokushima JET Maggie and her friend Michael for a few pints of beers and pub grub, Japanese-style- great way to spend a cool evening outdoors
6.) Lockup- a prison/horror-themed bar located (fittingly) in a multi-story basement. Think haunted house with themed drinks, waitresses dressed like guards, and periodic visits by "monsters" in gas/hockey masks
7.) Pure- a club in Shibuya with the largest percentage of foreigners of anywhere we went
Sunday, September 20-
1.) Harajuku (w/Celia, Henry, B, & Nick- another JET from DC)- shopping district also famous for its counter-culture stores, people dressed like dolls, etc.
2.) Odaiba (w/CHB, Nick, and Zach (another DC JET))- an island with massive malls, one of which is ostensibly modeled after the mall in Las Vegas with the ceiling painted as the sky
3.) Shimbashi- went exploring a bit with Nick in Shimbashi- huge, modern buildings and lots of shops
4.) Ikebukuro-Dinner w/Ayaka, Masae- two of my good friends from when I studied here sophomore year of high school. We went to a Yakitori place, and the food was amazing.
5.) Ikebukuro- went to Hub, and English-style pub w/Ayaka, Masae, HBC
6.) Shibuya w/Nick, Sumner, etc., Harlem- after HBC went to bed, met up with Nick, Sumner, and some other JETs and went out in Shibuya to a club called Harlem
Monday, September 21-
1.) Late wake-up
2.) Akihabara Electric Town with Nick, Sumner, and host-brother Ari while B etc went Harajuku shopping again
3.) Shinagawa- Dinner at a health-nabe place with Aya, Hina, and Andrew- all former St. Stephen's (my HS) students; Aya was the exchange student at my school for 1 year, Hina spent 4 years as a boarder from Tokyo, and Andrew did the same exchange program as I did, is now a Georgetown junior in the SFS, and is currently studying abroad for the year in Tokyo at Waseda University.
4.) Shibuya- Camelot night club with Chris, Celia, B, Henry, Nick, Sumner, and Andrew
Tuesday, September 22-
Ari & Mika day- Ari is my host brother from my time in Japan before- I lived with his family for 11 months, and he spent the subsequent year as an exchange student at my high school. His girlfriend, Mika, is an awesome girl who spent a year at Lewis & Clark in Portland, OR, ironically one of the college visits that Ari and I did when he was in the US (it was jr. year of HS, so we did a few coll. visits)
1.) Harajuku- Ramen, Meiji Jingu (Meiji emperor's shrine), Yoyogi Park
2.) Shinjuku- huge restaurant/bar/electronics district where we stayed for Tokyo Orientation- went to a book store with books in English (only bought 4), then bought a Playstation 3
3.) Waseda U- strolled a little around the campus of Ari's university, one of the two best private schools in Japan- he studies basically what I did- International politics, government, economics
4.) Ari's apartment- he pays almost 3 times as much for an apartment less than half the size of mine- but he lives within walking distance of Waseda, in the middle of Tokyo
5.) Korean BBQ- one of my favorite meals I've had so far in Japan, yum
6.) Bus ride home
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