As of today, a full month has passed here in Japan. I can hardly believe it's gone by so quickly. Where has the time gone? Oh yeah, traveling all across the country, starting class, arcades, river walks, buddies, "reviewing" Japanese I never learned, going to black sand beaches, winning souvenirs for everyone, deers, bunnies, tanuki, octopi, squid, ramen, udon, somen, and so, so much more. But rather than taking the time to go over all that any further, I've got some summarizing to do for the past few days! Let's do this~
Really, the most interesting day of late was when we went to Mejiro Garden. It was a mandatory cultural activity, so some of us weren't exactly into it. It's not that we weren't interested in going, but a handful of us are getting tired of being forced into doing events. Regardless, the many activities at Mejiro garden were fantastic and I think the group as a whole had a blast. It started with ikebana, the art of flower arrangement, which I unfortunately missed out on watching. Why is that? Because I was randomly selected to be the male model for the kimono demonstration right afterwards! It took a full 20-25 minutes to get fitted and dressed with the help of two of the women there. I had thin white undergarments to wear first, but then was outfitted with three thick white towels that were strapped to my stomach and around my sides. Then there were layers... and layers... and layers of clothing put over me. Robes and over-robes and a final robe, all tied with various sashes. But MAN did I look like the badass. Photos are uploaded on Flickr, but not nearly enough to do the outfit justice. I definitely felt like the boss of bosses.
Afterwards was lunch with a real, full bento box. It was so interesting, the many things inside of said bento. Cucumber, rice, chicken, and many weird things I have no idea what they were. But eating this while outside in the garden itself was relaxing to the utmost degree. What followed lunch was the dividing of groups and rotating different interactive demonstrations of the arts they follow at Mejiro. First for my group was Chado, or the art of tea ceremony. All the specifics and careful way of going about the process were mesmerizing. Pictures should help a little bit with understanding this. You had to turn your bowl three times to the left and have a designated "front" face the person you are taking the bowl from. The manner in which they grind the tea powder (matcha) itself is special too. And you always make sure to thank your tea master with appropriate floor bowing, given you're always sitting on your knees, traditional Japanese style.
From there, we joined the table for caligraphy, or shado. We had our teacher, Izumi-sensei, write out our favorite kanji to base ours off of, and then attempted to recreate it on our given scraps of practice paper. Eventually, when getting good enough, we were given a board to write out the characters on for a keepsake. This was WAY more difficult than one might think. The brushes, you don't want to be too wet (like painting), but too dry and you screw up the stroke order of the kanji. It's a careful art, just like everything else we learned about that day. Mine looks kind of lame, like an alien sitting on it's knees, but it was fun/challenging.
On to ikebana, flower arranging! This was really tough too. I poked myself multiple times while trying to stick the shaft of a flower onto tiny spikes. And bending the stems just right to make them look nice took some effort too. It didn't turn out well overall, but throughout the teaching lesson, the women were all very supportive and nice. It's so pleasant here, how nice people are, even if they're lying through their teeth.
Finally, we worked on making a jewelry box out of cardboard and gluing paper with pretty designs to the outside. It turned out really nice, to be honest. I really hope it doesn't get harmed on the plane trip back. It'll be a nice gift to someone special, methinks =]
Max and I decided to follow up our Mejiro Garden trip with a little exploring in Ikebukuro, the giant section of Tokyo known for being, I dunno, generally awesome? When we got there, we were greeted with (oh yay) a festival of hundreds and hundreds of people. Street food, dancing, traditional Japanese music, and tons of performers with weird, unique outfits. While there, we hunted for about 45 minutes a specific ramen shop advertised in a brochure we got about Ikebukuro. Eventually we gave up... but on the way to the station, we found it. This place was AMAZING, and decorated like it was the Iron Chef of ramen. We soon learned that it was known for a special characteristic: the ramen they served is MIND-BOGGLINGLY SPICY. I got a 6/10 on the heatness scale on accident and mannn... We knew there was something fishy about the place when each spot to sit at was flanked by tissue boxes. Red faces, burning bellies, and more food than I could stomach, we left Ikebukuro to find an onsen hot springs in Yokohama.
We encountered a dilemma, unfortunately. Despite being a modern hot spring bath, the establishment retained a time-old rule that prohibits people with tattoos from entering. There was no way I would be able to hide my mark on my left shoulder blade, nope nope. So we trekked around Yokohama a bit, checking out Cosmo World, the amusement park-ish thing they have off the coast of the bay. Spent plenty of money trying to win UFO catcher stuff (without luck), so we decided to head back towards home. I opted to go to another area of Yokohama by myself and find other arcades where I'd be able to win stuff while Max headed home. This led to yet another adventure, as I got lost, couldn't find a 7-11 to withdraw money from, got lost again, and it started raining. WHOO.
Eventually I conceded and went back to Totsuka, just before the Taito Station arcade closed, and got to play a couple games. Always fun, and I won a figure to boot. The issue? I had to walk back in rain with drops the size of my skull. No, not literally, but that rain was HARD and had really fat drops. I was drenched to my boxers by the time I reached MISH.
The next day, I slept until 2PM. Yes, really. I knocked the hell OUT and didn't come back up. I think I might have gone somewhere afterwards... but I might have just done chores. It was my lazy day and I loved every second.
Monday was neat because we watched a 4-hour Japanese film called Love Exposure. I can't even begin to explain how awesome this movie was. It has so much WTF-ery and sillyness, but also proves to be like the Forrest Gump of Japan (in my eyes, at least). Here, go see the trailer and decide for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fxa5NuVrqU
Tuesday = delicious day. We went to a sushi place about 15-20 minutes away that blew every other place out of the water. Not necessarily because of how good it was, but because of the way in which the establishment is operated. See, you sit down at a table like normal. To one side of the table is the conveyor belt that brings around sushi that's already been made and set on plates. You pick off whatever sushi you want and they tally up the plates at the end for you to pay for. This is something found in America and nothing particularly noteworthy. However, this place had a special characteristic that made it unique. Above the table is a touchscreen, and on it is a menu of every item they serve. Nigiri, udon, tiramisu, it's all there for you to order fresh at no extra cost (which, might I add, is about $1.30 for a two-piece plate of sushi). Pretty cool, right? It gets better. Rather than delivering the sushi to you when it's done, there's a second track above the conveyor belt that is completely empty. On this track sits a platform modeled after the Shinkansen bullet train that holds four spots for sushi plates to sit. Thusly, when you order sushi fresh, they make it in the back, set it on the train, and ship it off at super-high speed directly to your table. A quick hit of the button and the train is back to the kitchen, ready for the next order. Needless to say, we were in love.
What wasn't lovely was staying up until 6AM doing Japanese homework. Can you guess what that led to? Yes, it led to me sleeping through my alarm and not waking up in time for class. AGAIN. This has led me to finally decide to drop to the lower level of Japanese. I don't want to spend my time here hating every moment I'm in my room, forced to spend completing worksheets and studying. I want to learn from the people, from the environment, and read a textbook while I'm there. Helping out the other beginners will be good to form my foundations even further, too. I think it's for the best. I just hope they let me switch down.
So what better to do when missing class? Catch up on homework further, do some reading, and go on an adventure. I spent the afternoon with the incomparable Jason fishing for my first time at the river next to the house. What an experience. The carp in this river are GIGANTIC, easily between 10 and 15 pounds, and put up a mean fight. He and I both caught 2 a piece, which we had a lot of fun de-hooking and throwing them back in. Sometimes we'd fight them up to 20 minutes, tuckering them out until they could be reeled in close. Poor guy Jason caught was snagged in the tail! How does that even happen? That bad luck. We used some squid and had a great time. We plan to go to Yokohama one of these days and fish for heavier stuff, the sort we can keep and eat. Wish us luck!
The nighttime was just as good, if not better, in the form of sushi journey #2, now with added Fion, plus Taito Station hijinks later on. This time, we got adventurous with our meals. We shared a plate of what was the Squid Carpaccio. It was a mini squid sitting on a piece of rice. It. Was. WEIRD. The texture was just... shudders everywhere. The other food was fantastic, especially for the price, but that guy was... something special. I hornswaggled her into joining me for Taito afterwards, checking out the UFO catcher machines, but more importantly, playing music games. I got tons of practice in on Pop'N while she tried out Jubeat Saucer. She's ridiculously good for being so new to the game! It's pretty nuts actually. I'm quite jealous.
We returned back to MISH, UFO prizes in tow, and I threw down (and got stomped) at the original Super Smash Bros for the N64. So strange, playing that game again. You don't realize how clunky it is until playing it so many years later.
Thursday, simple class day. Nothing special there. Oh, besides GOING TO AKIHABARA AGAIN. We went at night when everything was lit up and oh-so-cool. The only problem? Shops close at 9-10PM usually. We went around about 6 different arcades, trying out so many UFO catcher machines, and Fion won SO MANY COOL THINGS. On her own too. No self-confidence? Not anymore! I got a couple of little things that I'll be able to souvenir to my peeps back in the states. Armand was there to grab a new MP3 player since his died, so we accomplished that mission, played games till almost midnight, and headed back home with hopes of returning on a future weekend. When it's so busy, they close the streets to cars to let people shop freely. So excited.
And now there's today! I'm off to do my homestay and meet my family for the next few days. The Nakamura's, Yoko and Keichi, with 2 year-old daughter Tomomi. I'm so nervous though! I know at least Yoko-san speaks good English, so I hope we can converse more than a little. I'll be there till Sunday night, after all, so fingers crossed.
Meanwhile, also preparing for Kyoto/Nara/Osaka trip come Halloween night/beginning of November. It's gonna be one crazy trip, not to mention the money dilemma. One can only hope I can afford this without having to sell my body. @_@ Wish me luck on that front too, please.
New pictures posted, so go take a look on the flickr! Link is on the right-hand corner of the page, as usual. Also, I filled up the first album, so make sure to look through the second one too. Thanks for reading!
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