Hmm, so...

So, I'm already back home. I know, I can't believe it. And this blog didn't turn out exactly as I had planned I suppose. It was supposed to be a day-to-day, real-time account of my doings and going ons in Tokyo but it turned out to be more of an after-the-fact-this-is-what-happened journal. Which is better than nothing I suppose. だから、all of these following posts will be after the fact.　じつわ, this may not be an awful thing; hindsight is 20/20 after all, but it also means I'll probably have left out some minor (hopefully, only minor) details. So now, with that little rejoinder, on with the posts, after-the-fact and hindsighted.

Yebisu Gardens

Apparently it's pretty well known, but the first time I'd heard of it was when I went with Mia and Quentin to visit the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and the Yebisu Beer Museum at the end of June.


The photography museum was pretty amazing and had the photographs from the World Press photo contest. We couldn't take pictures inside the exhibit but there were some pretty cool photos outside of it.

Inside there was a pretty snazzy place to put your umbrellas, a lock-up of sorts. You put your umbrella in, pull out the key and when you're done you just unlock it.


After the photography museum we went to the Yebisu Beer Museum. Mia and I weren't too excited about it, but we decided to go anyways. It turned out to be more fun than we thought, or maybe we just made it that way because the only other option was to be moody and miserable. Besides they had big beer cans that I got to take a picture with — and I don't even like beer.

kaitenzushi/回転寿し

Among other things, like crowded trains, crazy porn and jailbait school girls, Japan is known for sushi. But in all of the time that I've been here I hadn't had it. That all changed a couple of weeks ago when I met up with dBang/Diana, a fellow ryuugakusei/留学生 from Seattle, and her friend Yukari, a Jochi student who had studied in Seattle, for dinner. The plan was to meet a lot of people later for karaoke but the three of us needed to eat first. Diana and I had never had sushi in Japan so Yukari took us to this really cheap and tasty place in Shinjuku.

I wish I could have taken more pictures of the place, but it wasn't that kind of atmosphere. But here's what I did take. The picture on the right isn't so clear, but you can see the sushi passing by in the fore front. And behind the sushi there's an image with several plates. The type of plate lets you know the price of the sushi. We all tried to stay on the cheap end with sushi for 105¥ or at most 250¥. Although the more expensive ones did look pretty tasty. Also there's self serve green tea. There are tea bags and cups available and implanted right into the counter are hot water spigots.

All in all, it was a good first-time sushi experience. But my second sushi experience was even better.

The second happened not too long ago after a late night practice session at the dojo for kempo. The dojo we went to that night was in Harajuku and right in front of us was a Yoshinoya. It's a great cheap place to get beef bowls and Mia had never been before. We wanted to eat dinner, if not there than somewhere in Harajuku, but in Japan you sort of have to follow the group and two people does not qualify as a group. So we ended up getting on the train to Shinjuku and set out to find a Yoshinoya there.

Needless to say, we didn't find one, which is sometimes the way things work out when you set out to find a place. We walked around for quite some time trying to find that glowing orange sign, passing lots of stores and lots of restaurants.

A little bit of a tangent, but, we passed a really good store with lots of beautiful scarves, and people who know me know that I love scarves. So of course I had to stop in and get one. I think I'll end up going back there for some omiyage/おみやげ....

After the scarf purchase I was out of money. Absolutely no bills in the wallet and only 500¥ in my change purse. We stopped at an ATM and from there went down this small side street. We turned a corner and voila, a kaitenzushi place! Mia and I looked at each other and decided this was the place to eat. Mia had never been to kaitenzushi before so this was just as just good and ended up being even better than Yoshinoya.

We entered and sat down, but unlike the first sushi place I went to this one didn't really have any dishes going around the turntable. Mia and I grabbed two but we weren't exactly sure we were supposed to. Then we figured out that we were supposed to order whatever we wanted directly to the chefs. I wasn't sure if this was because they were closing in about an hour or so or if that was just the way the place was run.

We ordered several plates before a guy in a suit came in and sat near us. We didn't take much notice of him until he helped us get a bug out of the ginger. Then we started talking with him. Hs name is Shota and at first we thought he was a salaryman but it turns out that he's just a fourth-year studying law. He asked us at one point if we had a lot of Japanese friends, to which I replied that we were in a Shorinji Kempo club and so we knew people that way. And coincidentally, he does Shorinji Kempo too!! We were all so surprised at such a crazy coincidence. After some more chatting he told us that he was treating us to dinner. Mia and I didn't know what to think, and of course we declined at first, but he was really insistent so we just went along with it.

Outside of the sushi place we got a picture with him and I even got a video of him with Mia performing one of our wazas.


We've been chatting with him ever since and we plan to meet up with him before we had back to the States.

That night was the first time in a long time that I was really glad I was in kempo. But that's another story for another post, ne.

A picture is worth a 1000 words...

So, I've been doing a lot and there's still more to do. As a result, I don't have as much time as I want to blog. But I've taken some pretty snazzy photos, some of which have already been posted and some you've never seen before. So if you want to keep abreast of what's been happening to Jeannette in Japan (that's me, by the way) then you can check out my flickr page. Written details will be forth coming, scout's honor ^_^

Jeannette in Japan's photostream on Flickr




By the by, I passed my belt test!! I am now a brown belt in Shorinji Kempo! Hoorah. And funny to think that I almost quit....

Ridiculously full weekend - Part I

aka 凄いいっぱい週末 aka When Shu-en Came to Visit!

So the weekend of the 15, which was two weeks after the G-event and three weeks (maybe more) after Catherine came to visit, my former roommate Shu-en came to visit. She was supposed to come in on Friday night but as her flight was coming in very late she told me not to worry about meeting her. This actually worked out well since my friend Gabe had friends coming in from Cali.

The plan was to go to a nomikai in Shimbashi and then to Odaiba. Odaiba, is a man-made island in Tokyo. I think some of it was actually built by garbage but.... Anyway, there are a ton of things to do there, and there's a ferris wheel! So we started the night off in Shimbashi. It was a little awkward at first since I knew a couple of people in the group but we were all sitting far away from one another. But as you know, in Japan, once the drinks start to flow everyone and everything is better. Maybe it's that way everywhere but I feel like it's more pronounced in Japan. But I have to admit, I love seeing people drunk. It's one of the funniest things ever. Honest.

We all had fun, I think, maybe a little too much. But too much fun is better than none. In fact, we had so much fun that we overstayed at the izakaya by about 30 minutes. Usually you go for an two hours, all you can drink and there's food as well. And because we stayed a little later than we were supposed to we got to Odaiba quite late. Too late for the ferris wheel ride unfortunately. But there was a little beach we were able to admire and I was able to get this really dark picture of a well-lit bridge in the distance. So that's something.

The next day was Saturday and I had plans to meet Shu-en in Ikebukuro. I was really excited because I hadn't seen her for a year. We had a really good run as roommates and were pretty close at the end of my second year, and I knew we'd have a lot to catch up on. I was a little worried about finding her in the crowd in front of the station entrance, but luckily I'm easy to pick out from the masses so she was able to find me.

We ate at one of my favorite restaurants in Ikebukuro, really in Tokyo in general, called Ootoya. The dishes there are ridiculously delicious and the atmosphere is really nice. The first time I went there, I went with Mia who had been there before and I got this really amazing dish that came with a salad and soup. I don't know if that dish was a special but I haven't been able to find that combo since. I guess I'll just have to keep going there until I do. This time I got the katsu so-su don/かつソース丼 and it was really good. Shu-en got some rice thing. I dunno, I was too preoccupied with my dish to take notice of hers.

After lunch we did some shopping. To be quite honest, as far as tourist attractions go in Tokyo, there aren't many; really all that you can do as a "tourist" is participate in the consumer-driven atmosphere that permeates the city. I think that might be because the city's quite new. It was rebuilt after WWII because of all the fire bombing and such. As a result there aren't a lot of old buildings in the center of the city. There are some shrines, but my opinion on shrines is if you see one, you've pretty much seen them all. So we shopped instead; we did go see a shrine the next day, but that comes later.

A lot of window shopping and one purchase later, we had to part ways; Shu-en had plans with another Singaporean in Tokyo and I had kempo practice. But we planned to meet up later to go clubbing with Gabe and his friends. Unfortunately, Shu-en was too jet lagged to meet up with us that night. But we all had a good time regardless rocking out to some serious house, techno and electronica, the last of which is my second great love next to books. I'd have to label the night as a success as I was able to get this flashing-light ring for free just by asking this guy and as some girl gave me her whole book of oil blotters for your face randomly as we stood in line together for the bathroom. Actually, with that last bit, I don't know whether I should feel flattered or insulted....

So, after only 4 or so hours of sleep, Shu-en called to wake me up at 12 so I could meet her in Harajuku. I had lunch with her and a several Singaporean transplants at this famous ramen shop in Harajuku. Despite it's fame, none of us really enjoyed our dishes. I don't think it lived up to the hype, especially for the amount I paid. It does look delicious though and I did finish it all, but whether that was out of guilt for having paid so much for it or because it actually tasted good is debatable.

We walked around a bit after lunch to a) let Shu-en see what Harajuku was like and b) make some room in our stomachs for crepes later on. We stopped in this one store and found these crazy sunglasses. I've seen people wearing them in Tokyo, not as a joke, but seriously wearing them as a fashion statement. I mean, they look pretty good on us so, I can see the logic... maybe....

The end of the day met us at a shrine near the infamous Harajuku bridge. The shrine itself was uneventful, but what was interesting was this prayer tree. Well, it wasn't really a prayer tree, but a really large tree encircled by a wooden structure built to hold placards. People can buy these placards and write wishes on them for good health, or happiness, or in this case, to marry Harry Potter. Hey, whatever makes you happy.

Everyone wanted to go to Shibuya after we left the shrine, but I simply did not have it in me. Being out all night the night before and then all that walking around had left me tuckered out. Besides Shu-en would be here through the week so I wasn't too worried about not spending enough time with her. So I left them at the bridge and boarded the train completely exhausted but with the knowledge that it was due to a really good weekend, and that made it all worth it.

Long Time no Blog....

Eek, sorry guys. There's been a distinct lack of post activity. So these next couple of posts will serve to catch you all up on my time here in Tokyo. My goal is to create a post everyday for the next week. Let's see if I can do it.

I'm close to the three-month mark of my time here. And I still can't decide whether I like Tokyo or not. People keep telling me that it's not really indicative of Japan. That Tokyo has it's own culture and attitude that doesn't really mesh with the rest of the country. I hope so because, honestly, there are times when I want to get the heck out of here. But there are other times when I feel like this is a great place to be.

For example, times when U.Va. friends come to visit. Catherine, a recent graduate from U.Va., came to see me in Nihon back at the end of May, and we went to Yasukuni Shrine together. Unfortunately, maybe, I dunno, we entered from the back, so we saw the shrine and the grounds from back to front. Which was okay, but once again, Japanese people don't tell you when you're making a mistake! So we had no idea that we did that until we got to the front gates and were all, "Oh, oops, this is the front..."

Yeah.....

The day was kind of overcast, but it was still pretty. This is the shrine in the picture here. If you don't know the backstory on Yasukuni, I'll fill you in. So, Yasukuni is a shrine in Tokyo to honor Japanese who have perished in war. This includes WWI and WWII. The latter war dead are why this shrine is so controversial today. Whenever a new prime minister is instated into office in Japan, it's always a big deal whether or not he goes to the shrine. Korea and China see it a big f-you so to speak, as Japan committed some serious atrocities in both countries, some, such as the comfort women in Korea, that it won't fess up to or apologize for. So this seemingly innocuous place is steeped in controversy and international tension.

Also, it's not really a tourist hot-spot. Catherine and I were the only foreigners that I saw who came to visit that day. It's definitely one of the more reverent shrines, which makes it all the more controversial. When you first enter (through the front anyways), as with all shrines, you're supposed to wash your hands and cleanse your mouth. Left first I think, although I could be wrong. Then you enter through some really big gates and walk up a path to the shrine.

In the previous picture of the shrine, all you can see is concrete and gravel. But really there are quite a few trees on the grounds. Tied to some of the trees are small pieces of paper with prayers or wishes written on them. There was also a museum on the property but since it cost money to enter it, we decided to forgo that.

After the visit to the shrine, we met up with some of Catherine's friends and went to Ueno. Unlike Yasukuni, this place with teeming with foreigners. It actually made me a bit uncomfortable. And I wonder if it was because there were so many foreigners in one place and foreigners get a really bad rap here or if it was due to some other reason of which I'm not wholly cognizant. Hmm, I'm not sure. But I was really glad Catherine came to visit. It was like a little slice of home had made its way to Japan.

春パ

A video from my dance event. The big pay off so to speak, but I don't have the whole thing, so when I get it, I'll be sure to upload it again.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: 6/15 Here's the whole video!!!





The event, Harupa, was at Studio Coast in Shin-kiba, aka Ageha where I've partied with several of the G-Splash exchange students before. It was a blast. A very loud, very long, very visually assaulting blast. It started at 1:30 and we were the first group to go after a short opening dance act that involved half-naked men. Unfortunately, I missed that one, but....

As you can imagine after watching the video, it all went by really really quickly. I see now why they made us practice it so many times. With all of the lights and the adrenaline and the crowd, all thought quickly vanishes from your head. I'm pretty sure all of us got through that dance solely on muscle memory.

After we danced, we quickly ran back out to the audience area to cheer on the rest of the group and watch the dance as well. All in all a superb experience. The rest of the day, we could spend as long as we liked at the event watching other groups. Several of the members in G-Splash were in second groups. Jen and I were pretty amazed by that. I was sitting next to her at the time and we couldn't help remarking on how crazy their lives must be being in two dance groups. We thought G-Splash took up a lot of time, but imagine that doubled.


I'll take a moment here to backtrack about how much time G-Splash actually filled during our weeks. The first two weeks that we joined, we had practice everyday and then an :"audition" at the end, where everyone proceeded to be accepted. Then we had to choose our genres, either hip-hop or pop and lock, and we had practice for these twice a week. After a while we had the regular practices plus a second extra mandatory practice that we all had to go to. Then as the date for Harupa drew nearer, we had practice everyday and on Saturdays from 11 to 8 or something ridiculous.

So, all of those members in other dance groups did all of that, plus whatever crazy commitments they had for their second dance group. Insane, I know.

There were several really good performances, however. One about a train stopping post (the word in English escapes me right now) who falls in love with a school girl who always crosses the tracks. But she's in a relationship with this jerk. So some magic guy gives the post a potion to drink and he becomes human only to sacrifice himself for the girl's jerkish boyfriend who nearly gets run over by a train during a big fight with the girl. Because he wasn't really human to being with, the post turns back into a post, but at the end of the dance, the girl gives him back his hat, a prop that was central to the story, and kisses him on the cheek. It was all really cute, but unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me so I don't have a video of that one.

The night of Harupa, we had a nomi kai and it was really cool. We got to chat it up with our sempais who are usually really distant and strict. Turns out it was all a facade. The picture to the right is of me and my sempais A-ko and Tombo. His nickname comes from Kiki's Magic Delivery Service. If you've seen it, you know he looks like the Tombo in the movie and he sounds like him too. I mean, we knew they seemed really cool, but after talking with them, we knew it first hand that we were in the presence of some pretty cool kids.

Although, our G-Splash experience to date has been really intense, I think Harupa and the nomi-kai afterwards, made it all worth it.