The Picture Post

You know, all of this writing business is taking too long. It's hard to keep on top of it. No lie. So this is the picture issue; captions included. FYI, there are about two new posts before this one, so further down the page.

My time in Tokyo is going by so quickly. I've already been here for a month and a half, almost two months and I don't feel as if I've accomplished anything yet. I really wish I could stay longer, really get better at my Japanese and make some Japanese-speaking only friends.




I have met some really cool gaijin here, however, so all is not lost in the way of making connections. We all went out one night to a club called Ageha. It was so much fun and prior to going I didn't think the Japanese guys were too fond of me. But after Ageha, I know better.




I'm not just hanging out in the city though. During Golden Week, Mia, Hunter and I went camping with the Kempo club. Kempo Camp! It was... an interesting experience. There are some personalities that I just don't like in Kempo. They're not the Japanese people but some gaijin. I don't want to get into it because it's just better to leave the negative in the past; there's no need to let it... percolate, so to speak.




The weather was pretty gloomy on the way there but despite the cloud cover, everything was still beautiful.

Natalie has a cool haircut...

...and we followed a cute guy down the street after eating at Mos Burger (yum)!

It wasn't creepy though because he was going in the same direction we were, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

So today was the first day of classes after Golden Week. Luckily it was a Wednesday, which means that I only had Japanese class today and nothing else. And because the Shorinji Kempo Taikai was this past weekend as well as the welcoming camp, we didn't have any practice today. Yay! And no G-splash practice either. All in all a pretty free day and a fairly non-stressful one.... or so I thought.

After Japanese Mia and I got lunch and then we went to get gelato for ¥100 or roughly a dollar. It was amazing; I got mango, chocolate and coffee nuts. I wanted to take a picture but that probably would have been totes inappropes. Le sigh. After that delicious break, Mia and I returned to the library intent on doing some work. She did some, but I did see her fall asleep for a good bit. And I got all my Japanese homework done, but then I started to stress about my anthro work.

Remember the one where I have to write an ethnography. well it was giving me some major problems. I didn't have any contacts and I didn't know where to start. See, a lot of gay bars in Shinjuku, the hub of the Tokyo gay scene, don't let in women or foreigners and I'm both. So I was really desperate to find a way in. But luckily, Greg's friend Jonas has a friend named Karsten who happens to be gay and a regular at some of these bars so next week he's taking me to one. Exciting, going to a bar for homework. Only in Japan.... Or maybe not. :-/

Major Recap

It's the Major Recap Show where I recap all of the wonderful things that happened in April! W00t! So for a little preview: G-Spalsh, Kempo, Classes, Yokohama — and a video!

1. G-Splash!!!!

I have a new love it's name is G-Splash. G-Splash is wonderful, it pops and locks, and hip hops and breaks... Oh G-Splash, my life was so empty before without you. And you really made me sweat: 3 hour work outs everyday for two weeks with an audition and nomihodai/飲み補題 (all you can drink) at the end. G-Splash, this, us, it's forever. Or at least until August when I have to return to the States. The pic you see to your left is of me and my two friends D-Bang (Diana) and Stephanie waiting for our audition results. We were quite nervous.

2. More kempo!!

So I've kept with kempo. Like I said it wasn't going to shake me. No way, no how. It's getting really fun and I feel that if I was ever attacked in a dark alley or even in broad daylight, I could kick some serious ass.

3. Classes

And they're super easy! Which is why I'm able to be in two circles/clubs and not lose my mind. I'm taking two anthropology course, one on individual culture and society and one on digital technology use in Japan. For the latter I have to write an actual ethnography and I'm researching digital communication patterns in the gay community here in Tokyo. Both of those courses are some of the best I've taken, ever. I'm also taking a history course and it's probably the single most boring course I've taken, ever. I've fallen asleep every class since the first day. Even caffeine is no match for my teacher's monotone. And to round it all off, I'm taking Japanese. It's definitely less intense than I thought a Japanese class in Japan would be, but that's probably for the best.

4. Yokohama! (Here's where the video is!)
[Geez, do I have enough exclamation points in this post?]

So a bunch of us went to Yokohama to see the port and, most importantly, to see Chinatown. I know, you're probably thinking, Jeannette, you're going to a Chinatown in Japan? Something about this does not seem right. But it was so right. I had bubble tea and coconut water from a coconut (yum ^_^) and a delicious dinner. And the weather that day was just perfect. The sun was out and everything just looked new and wonderful. But don't take my word for it....

       



Some of my friends here in Tokyo; most of them live at DK with me and we all go to Sophia.






This really charismatic street performer. He's the one in the video. I totally thought he was going to burn himself.



Hey it's me....






And now that you've made it to the end of the post, you get a video reward. Yeah that's right. Enjoy!

Except you would have, but I can't upload it. Boo.

The Little Black Bag

Oh Japan, there are so many things about you that confuse me. Like the way people can be really polite but also rude at the same time; or the way no one tells you when you're making a mistake until after you've made it because they don't want to embarrass you but you're still embarrassed either way and you wish they would have just told you before you made the mistake!

Phew.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand and the source of my latest confusion: the little black bag. Well, it's actually not that small, but this one has quite a few things in it. You're probably wondering what's in this little black bag. What's in little black bags in general and why is this confusing Jeannette? What's confusing me, is how the Japanese can be really open with somethings, and really modest about others. Take for example all the explicit and not so explicit sexual nature of some of their anime. Really in your face right? But, when it comes to real life, super modest. What's in the black bag: tampons, but also hands soap and toothpaste. Why do I need to hide all of that? It's not like people don't know it happens and besides once everyone sees the black bag they can almost guess what's in their. I mean, really, it's a bag with punctuation marks all over it. Let's be real, Japan. Let's be real.

Shorinji Kempo...

... otherwise known as, How I Looked Like an Idiot Trying Martial Arts for the First Time in a Language I Barely Understand.

Hmm, I think that sums up my first day of Shorinji Kempo. It was really interesting but really difficult to follow everything. I joined the club with my new friend Hunter who happens to live in DK House with me and some other U.Va.-ers. We didn't know exactly where we were going so it was really fortuitous that we saw one of the English-speaking members of the club. He led us over to this large group where the senpai introduced himself and asked us where we were from. After that, there were some words in Japanese that I didn't understand (par for the course) and then we all started walking. There were two girls in our group and they went another direction while I kept following the guys. I felt a tinge of something in the back of my mind, but decided to ignore it and nearly followed all of the boys into the boys' locker room.

Oh yeah. Talk about a cultural faux pas.

I have a new term for all of these cultural faux pas that I've been making. They're called a gaijin／外人 smash. So gaijin／外人 is a compound word. Gai／外 is foreign and jin／人 is person, so basically a foreigner. And smash, is well, me smashing all of the cultural rules Japan has to offer.

So after I gaijin／外人 smashed the locker room, I gaijin／外人 smashed the appropriate wardrobe for Kempo club. While everyone else was in their white gi (the little outfits they wear) I was in my bright yellow Soffee shorts and a green shirt. Classic.

But all in all it was fun, if not nerve racking, and despite not being dressed appropriately, I got a compliment, some girl saw me and said I had a great body. So that sealed the deal, I'm definitely going to stick with it. Kempo, you can't shake me.

Harajuku and the first day of classes

Oh the infamous Harajuku. Was it as amazing as everyone says? Hmm, yes and no. We trekked to Harajuku on Thursday as one of our last full days of touring before classes started. Once again, it was raining. And once again Teresa, Mia and I were on the lookout for certain items (boots and a bag). Teresa had warned the guys in an e-mail that us girls were going to Harajuku ready to shop, so Greg decided to bow out of this trip but Hunter and Alex figured they could brave a little shopping.

Because we went on a weekday, we didn't see all of the crazy outfits and such. Apparently the best time to go to see all of that is during the weekend, especially on a Sunday afternoon. So I'll have to go and do that sometime, if only to post the pictures here. And once again it was raining. It seems that whenever we go shopping in the rain, we never find the things that we want. This outing was no exception to the rule. I think we went to every single store on the street pictured to the right and we left Harajuku after 3 hours without a bag or boots. Furthermore, I made the unsettling discovery that the largest shoe size in Japan doesn't fit my foot! I'm only a size 9 but the large here feels like a size 8. Not good. This may mean that I will never be able to find the boots that I want here in Japan, which translates to t-r-o-u-b-l-e.

After schlepping through Harajuku in the rain we all headed to our respective homes to prepare for the first day of classes. Teresa, Mia, Greg, Natalie and Jen all had intensive Japanese at 9:15 in the morning for three hours, while Hunter, Alex and I had regular Japanese for an hour and a half at 11. The course meets for 8 hours a week so I e-mailed my advisor to see if I could get credit for all 8 hours and it turns out that I may not be able to, which is really frustrating. See the course covers a year's worth of Japanese, in my case the entire second year. But since I've already taken 201, I may only be able to get 4 credits. I'll have to e-mail my advisor again and see if we can't do something about that because it's a bother and it's 4 hours of class time that I won't even be getting credit for. Plus, if I can get 8 credits for Japanese I won't have to take 5 classes and I can take just 4! Take a moment to imagine how wonderful that would be.

Have you imagined it? Now you see why I'm so frustrated.

I went to two other classes on Friday, one of which I will definitely not be taking. The professor was just awful and the subject matter wasn't especially interesting to me either. The second course, Individual Culture and Society, however, seems really interesting and the professor studied anthropology at Oxford. So I know she's good. Other than that, I'm not really sure what else I'm taking. We'll see what happens with my Japanese credits and then I'll decide from there. Hopefully everything will work out, I don't know what I'll do if things don't.

Shibuya and Akihabara

Phew, a great deal has happened since that night out in Tokyo. And it seems that I've been a bit lax on my blogging duties. Gomenasai...

To start with, I had a couple of days before classes started on the 11th. Weather.com called for rain for most of the week, but I didn't just want to sit in my room and do nothing. I mean, I'm in Tokyo for goodness sake! I wanted to see the sights. So Teresa, Mia and I decided to head to Shibuya. Not only were we going to see what this part of Japan was like but we were also on the search for certain items. Teresa and I were (and still are) on the lookout for boots. There's a whole month of rain in Japan and we just know my Chucks and her Tims are not going to cut it. Mia was on the lookout for a bag for her school books and such.

We went on Tuesday and the rain and the wind were especially intense. A number of Japanese had told Teresa that it felt like a typhoon, but we didn't let that deter us. Instead we went from the station into the nearest department store. (Note: there are no pictures for my day in Shibuya as my camera ran out of battery. Boo. So all of the pictures in this post are from Akihabara.) This was my first time in a Japanese department store and to my surprise they have a very distinctive layout. The bottom floor usually has a food market and/or small grocery as well as some restaurants. Actually, this department store had a floor for the food market, a floor below that for restaurants and several floors at the top of the building for more restaurants. We had a lunch of omu-rice, omelet filled with rice, in one of the restaurants at the bottom-most floor. The rest of the department store had many clothing shops and a really great bookstore where we spent a good deal of time.

After lunch, though, we decided to find a store that was more... youth-oriented. We had to brave the wind and the rain to do so but it was worth it. I was able to find a great pair of sunglasses that actually fit my face and two scarves, one pink and one white, during our day out in Shibuya.

The next day, we all went to Sophia's campus to check out the student clubs and circles offered. Mia and I went to see the Sophia Uni. Concert Band and their symphony orchestra. I'm not sure if we're going to join.... We were told we won't be able to play in the final concert but we weren't given a definite answer saying that we should not join because of this. It was sort of left up in the air. After the concert and lunch, Mia and I met up with Teresa, Hunter and Alex for a trip to Akihabara.

Akihabara is the very famous electronic city in Japan. It's known for its excess of stores housing electronic goods. To be honest, it was bit overwhelming. There were so many stores basically selling the same electronic devices. It was interesting to see nonetheless. Akihabara really seems to be half and half, a tourist attraction as well as a practical location. There were many novelty stores and stores selling video games and such, but there were also many stores selling much-needed electronic goods. Teresa and Mia were on the lookout for a denshi jisho, or electronic dictionary, so finding one of those was our main objective for the outing.

Unfortunately, they didn't find one that they liked but we did get to see Akihabara in all of its electronic glory and splendor, eat some crepes, which were delicious, and I got eye-balled by a handsome sales guy. All in all, our outing was par for the course.