Bushas in Japan

To conclude the *not so* epic cliffhanger, er...rather statement from the last entry, upon seeing each other in Narita airport, Brian and I did indeed perform a less than graceful, but still rather spectacular in its own right, 'jump-hug' of sorts. And yes, we got a few looks from those around us. I had come off an all-night bus, and after killing the morning doing a whole lot of nothing (i.e. watching the main intersection of Shibuya from the second floor of Starbucks), I headed to Tokyo station. There I got slightly confused on which line to take, but figured it out after ten minutes of staring at the line map only to realize I was on the wrong platform. No worries, though, as I had nothing but time on my hands. An hour and a half or so on the trains and I was at the international arrivals gate...about 4 hours early. Again killed time just people watching and playing my DS. First some Mario Kart, then a little nap, some more people watching, and a bit of Final Fantasy III right before they came. Times like that I really mourn the fact that my iPod kicked the bucket a month or so ago. Some music would've been handy for passing the time...or a book or something, but I sent all those back early by boat mail. It was getting to be time for the Bushas to exit, but they didn't for a bit, and I worried it might have been the other American Airlines flight, which got out at exit A, not B. So I quick ran to A to double check, and of course by the time I ran back to B, they had already exited and began the money changing process. I called out to them, Brian immediately spun around and it was then that the 'jump hug felt 'round the world' took place. We caught up on the train back to Tokyo, and grabbed some dinner at a ramen place. Then we dragged their luggage to Alaina's apartment, and experienced the joy of riding a crammed train in Tokyo while carrying massive luggage. Getting off from the middle of the train was a puzzle itself, but the solution mainly consisted of profusely apologizing while jostling half the folks riding in our car. After arriving at Alaina's and completing a rather difficult game of luggage tetris (solution? stack 'em sky high) we managed to work out a sleeping arrangement in Alaina's tinsy Tokyo apartment. I slept in the entryway on some blankets the landlord left out for any of the tenants to use. The thing about Alaina's place is that I think a special type of allergen permeates everything in there. That compounded with the fact that the blankets I borrowed seemed to have been washed pollen or something comparable, I had a nightly allergic bout while waiting for the Sandman to whisk me away. But don't get me wrong, I don't mean to complain in the slightest, as I am nothing but grateful to Alaina for letting us stay in her place, these are simply facts. Free in Tokyo normally doesn't happen, so we were extremely lucky. However, due to unfortunate circumstances, our luggage was seen when her extremely pesky, nosy landlord decided to walk straight into her room (apparently knocking is just a formality to him). On top of that, he saw us leaving the place early this morning, and apparently got pissed at Alaina. She covered for us, but in order to not further invoke his suspicion, tonight we are staying at an internet/manga cafe. It is from a small room in that cafe from which I am currently typing this up.
The first night we just sat at Alaina's and chatted. Alaina is having a horrible time here, and so when asked to talk about Japan, she started venting. And although I have a much more optimistic view of Japan than her at the moement, there are things wrong with the place, and so I joined in a bit. All in all, though, we may have given the Bushas an skewed negative first impression of Japan. I think we managed to improve that over the past couple of days, though. We've explored the Shibuya, Akihabara (the elecronics district), Asakusa, and Ueno areas to name a few. In the process, we hit up a few arcades along the way, Brian and I teaming up on various light gun games, including multiple runs at House of the Dead 4. I'd recommend trying that out, but arcades don't exist in America anymore (tear) so that's futile. We explored some temples/shrines in Asakusa, and while walking to Akihabara, stumbled upon the Nintendo-Tokyo Branch building, so that was a pleasant surprise. Who knows, maybe someday I'll work there, or have to reason to business trip over there, haha. Then to Akiharabara, where we went to probably the best arcade I've been to in Japan-absolutely amazing selection of games. There, Brian unknowningly challenged the guy across from him to a fighting video game (Arcana Hearts) when he put his coin in the machine. Brian managed to take one match, but then got creamed pretty in the other three. Today rained all day, but it was fine since we spent most of the day in the Tokyo National Museum, which definitely had a wide collection and some interesting pieces. There is a limit, however, to how many old scrolls with absolutely unreadable characters (even to most Japanese) one can gaze upon before becoming bored with the activity.

Yesterday evening, I went to Yokohama for the final goodbye with most of my classmates. We went to a Chinese restaurant and had a good time while munching down all you can eat Chinese food for 2 hours. You can order freely for 90 min., but have to eat everything ordered or be charged accordingly. This left myself and two other brave souls to at the very end eat cold fried chicken wings in order to escape the monetary penalty. It was definitely a sad occasion to part with all the new friends I have made over the course of this past year. Yet at the same time, I really think that I will be seeing a good number of them again sometime in the future, and so with that attitude in mind, we all parted, vowing to stay in touch and whatnot. It will be interesting to see where everyone goes from here, as there was a lot of potential in that class. Tonight I spent a little more time with Pak, grabbing a drink with him at Starbuck's (my second trip there today, ugh...) He vows he will concentrate on English once he returns to Korea, seeing as he is currently surviving on all the less than widely useable slang we've been teaching him thus far. Well...I am getting rather drowsy, so I am bringing this one to a rather abrupt end. Good night!

The beginning of the end

So finals are over, and we had the closing ceremony for the study abroad program two days ago. That was followed by a party at Nanzan's student union before heading out for karaoke with a bunch of people from class. It still hasn't fully hit me that I'm leaving in two weeks, but the ceremony made it slightly more real for me. It was rather boring, as ceremonies are, with everyone saying almost the same thing in their speeches. Thanking the host families, the dorm management, the teachers, etc...and urging us to not forget Nanzan, but use the international mindset we theoretically gained while here and use it in the rest of our lives. The president of Nanzan is German (at least I'm 90% certain of that) and despite having lived in Japan for who knows how many years, still isn't all that great (and I'm being polite with that statement) at giving a speech in Japanese. Despite knowing this, I was still floored my how much he was outdone my the student representative's speech (a classmate of mine). Not only the delivery of the speech, but the speech's content and structure was about ten times better than the president's. Somebody had better was job... Anyway, after having a good laugh with everyone about our classmate taking the president's job, we handed over a present to our teachers. Just a nice picture of everyone with messages everyone had written around it. Then we got a little momento of IJ700 that a few of our classmates worked rather diligently on. There are even rather humorous comics that one of our artistically talented classmates drew. The party at the student union was crowded, but a good chance to see the teachers one last time along with the other students outside IJ700. Then a bunch of us went to karaoke afterwards, cramming 11 or so people into an 8 person room. It was stuffy and sweaty, but a ton of fun. I had almost the entire group singing with me on Sorafune by Tokio, but the more humorous selection I chose was Young Man by a comedian by the name Razor Ramon, who has a character named Hard Gay, which is indeed as hilarious as it sounds. The costume consists of a vaguely more S&M-esque version of the biker guy from the village people (assuming there was indeed a biker guy...I could be making this all up). Anyway the song is a cover of YMCA and the music video is hilarious (or slightly disturbing) depending on your understanding of Japanese culture/appreciation for batshit crazy things. We sang some more somber songs of parting as well. Luckily, though, a large number of us will be meeting again in Tokyo (all there for different reasons), so we'll have one more chance to say goodbye. After karaoke, we headed to 'The don' which is a chain donburi/udon restaurant. Nothing terribly delicious, but it provided a place to goof around with everyone. Apparently some of the others find some of my facial expressions rather humorous, and Pao took it upon herself to try and mimic me. So there ended up being some interesting photos and some "hilarious to us, but painfully stupid to everyone else" 5 second videos of her and I trying to pull off the expressions simultaneously.

My host mom helped organize a bazaar for Yugo's pre-school and it was yesterday, so I helped out with that, running one of the kid games and helping out with the raffle. I met a strange old lady that day, however, who looks 100% Japanese (and may very well be) but she is American, and was born in Brooklyn. She moved over here for her husband over 50 years ago, and she was telling me about all the trouble she has since everyone assumes she is a native speaker and can read kanji perfectly. She has apparently had a pretty hard time living over here, so we commisserated (spelling?) a bit about Japan's less than finer points. The society's rigidness, the country's crampedness, etc... I realized just how much some of their customs have become ingrained my head later when I was eating my lunch. She said she was going to be leaving and just wanted to say goodbye. I instinctively started to get up from my seat (a custom when saying hello or farewell, especially to someone older than you) , and she immediately gave me an 'oh sit down!' There are other facets of the society, other parts of the culture, that have practically become hardwired in my head...the incessant bowing, the constant apologizing. I will look forward to apologizing when I have done something wrong or messed up, not when someone else has messed up. Sometimes the level of sacchrine kindness just gets to me. It can all seem so fake at times. Oh well, you've got to be keeping up appearances. Ah...now there's a good British comedy, Keeping Up Appearances. If you haven't seen it, you ought to. Sorry, off track. Back to the old lady story. I ended up getting up from my seat anyway to say goodbye to her husband. After I talked to him a brief bit and they were going to leave for real, she just says all of a sudden 'Okay, I know this isn't 'allowed' in Japan, but I want to hug you. Of course I hugged her, but was a bit surprised at first. Then I thought about it, raised in America and then move to Japan for 50 years, where kids (at least once they hit 7 or so) don't even hug their parents. She must have just been desperate for someone to hug. For all of it's supposed conciousness of those around oneself, Japan can be rather cold society at times. I guess I'm going to get stared at when I jump clothesline/hug both the Bushas when they arrive in Tokyo tomorrow. Now don't get me wrong, Japan is not a horrible place, far from it! But...there are certain things about it that can get to you (I can only imagine what 50 years would do.) Which is why I am so appreciative of my host family, who at times can be rather un-Japanese in how they do things. Although my host dad does not even, and I quote 'touch his parents.' (...let alone hug them) But I, myself, will most certainly be hugging my family, and probably a majority of my friends when I get back. Only 2 weeks left...craziness!

Onsen-it'll cure what ails ya

...So the next we grabbed more uni-ikura donburi for breakfast, and then bought some crab and fish to be sent home. And this was some rather fresh stuff. Once we realized you can't really send the live crab walking around in the pool via takkyubin (Japan's UPS/FEDEX, etc.) we went with already dead, on the rocks. After heading back and checking out, we went for a drive, with our ultimate destination being lunch. Anyway, Hokkaido reminded me a lot of Wisconsin, not only in the fact that it was still refreshingly cold in May, but also the scenery. Save for sharp changes in elevation, between the farmland and the pine trees I felt right back at home. Oh, and the cows. Not exactly anything surprising for me, but my family seemed to get a decent kick out of 'em. At one point, we saw some horses galloping (not walking, trotting, etc.) across a meadow, and that was rather picture-esque. I also couldn't help remembering how delicious that horse meat I ate back in the fall was. The road starts climbing, and we arrive at some huge, fancy hotel which is quite literally on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. There is, however, a rather pretty vista overlooking Lake Toya, which I assume is part of the draw. That and the golf course, how could I forget. Anyway, we had a nice lunch there, Yugo terrorized the hotel as best he could, and then we were off for Noboribetsu. The place is famous for onsen (natural hot springs) and I could immediately tell because upon driving into the town I was literally knocked over by the overwhelming smell of sulfur in the air. While, yes, it does kind of stink at first, the smell grew on me, and evetually my nose got used to it. The onsen was attached to the hotel, so a simple elevator ride was all it took to get to the bath. After an extensive meal that was brought to our room, I put on my yukata (a thin, summer-style kimono, or in this case something that resembled more of a bath robe) and headed with Yugo and my host dad to the bath. After heading into the changing lounge (and yes, it is not a room but a lounge) and stripping down, I grabbed my little hand towel (with which most people hide their unmentionables) and headed into the public bath. First on the list, I threw water over myself with this little handled bucket, and found and empty shower station. Basically, you sit down on this little bench take a shower, all the while breathing in steam filling air and enjoying a generally sense of warmth. After the shower, it is natural spring time. And this is where it can get difficult, simply due to the number of choices. There were probably a good ten different bath indoors, plus three more outdoors, each one having different water with varying minerals and properties. Oddly enough, that was one of the more interesting things for me. Each spring had a sign (no English, sorry) explaining what minerals the water had in it, and what health benefits one could supposed get from steeping in said water. The creepiest looking one was a murky gray color, due to the high sulfur concentration. Other pools had naturium, calcium, high acidity, etc. Benefits listed included helping against high blood pressure, certain skin deseases,...even hardening of the arteries could be stemmed by taking a dip in the stuff. Man, do they bottle this stuff?! There was even sort of a 'cure all' spring. I took my time in that one. My favorites have to be the outdoor ones, though. It was even the perfect temperature out (probably upper 30s I'd guess), so that while soaking my body was nice and warm, but there was a refreshingly crisp breeze against my face. Probably nothing better to refresh oneself both physically and mentally. The water constantly flowing into the 'cure-all' spring was brought in on this criss-crossing set of roughly hollowed out wooden halfpipes, really giving it and authentic natural feel...it also really, really felt like Japan. While living in Japan can have its downsides, the hustle and bustle, the crowded, cramped feeling, there are certain wonderful things that one can only experience here, and the onsen is one of them. Granted I sleep like a log anyway, but after going in the onsen sleep comes almost instantly. The next day we went to a bear park. After taking a ski-lift up to the place, there were a couple a large pens where you could toss puchased food nuggets to the bears. One bear was rather active and would stand on his hind legs and even put his paws together in an 'itadakimasu!' sort of fashion to try and get everyone's attention. Yet another bear, who's laziness I rather admired, refused to get up from his laying down position, but lazily put one paw to see if there were any takers. I decided to give it a shot, and even managed to get one in his mouth, he didn't even have to move. But in the end, that sort of thing isn't my cup of tea. It's cool to see the bears and all, but it's kind of sad when you realize they spend day in and day out in this pen sitting around catching the same nuggets over and over again. We grabbed ramen and yakiniku (grilled meat) for lunch, and then left for the airport. We took the scenic route, but mother nature must have had it out for us that day, as the fog was so thick I could barely see the trees lining the road, let alone any sprawling, distant scenery. That and I think my host dad was getting sleepy, as his driving was getting rather irratic. Random slowing down, hitting the brakes a little harder than he needed to, and considering these were windy mountain roads, it wasn't the most comforting thing in the world. My host mom was yelling at him constantly to pull it together, but her license had expired a week or so ago, and that fact served as fodder for my host dad. 'You're commenting on my driving? You don't even have a license. Haha' etc. The comment doesn't come off well without his light-hearted, joking tone of voice, but he was indeed joking around. At the airport, we bought a bunch of souveneirs (i.e. dessert) some of which had to be eaten the same day. So we ended up munching on these cream puff sort of things while still in the airport. I managed to find an interesting 'gourmet' variety of Kitkat only sold in Hokkaido-red wine and raspberry Kitkat. Delicious. Japan seriously knows how to do dessert. The portions may be smaller, but they are exquisite.
Halfway through finals. Two down two to go. Unfortunately the two remaining are the tougher of the four. After finals, only a few weeks until I leave. Scary! One of those weeks will involve me painting Tokyo red with the Bushas (for family who doesn't know-two really good friends of mine who are both going to study abroad in China). The city will be brought to its knees. Any international incidents during the week of May 22nd will likely be our doing.

Hokkaido-the most delicious place on the earth

So I have a week break right now for Golden week, which is week that a good amount of the population gets off of work, aside from certain restaurants, workaholics, etc. Not sure of the origins of this holiday, but most Japanese are overworked anyway and could use a nice break, so I say that's reason enough. Anyway, I went to Hokkaido, the northernmost of the four main islands, with my host family for about 3 days. The thing is, though, the entire reason we went up there was to eat. Hokkaido is especially known for its fresh seafood, namely crab, ikura(salmon eggs) and uni. But seriously, everything is super fresh and tasty. Now, my host dad normally rolls pretty hard when it comes to food, but on this trip we reached a whole new level of decadence. It almost felt like we were constantly eating, and don't recall ever feeling not stuffed the entire trip. So after landing in New Chitose airport, we waited a bit to get the rental car and then sped off to Sapporo to try and make it to our 1:30 reservation at this supposedly outrageously delicious sushi place (and the place closes at 2pm). Sapporo apparently likes to put stoplights every two feet on the main drag, so we got there around 1:40, but luckily they were nice, still seated us and even stayed open until 2:30 so we got to eat at a semi-leisurely pace. And this was some delicious stuff. Shrimp, squid, saba, salmon just to name a few, but my favorite is by far fatty tuna, I think I put away about 6 of those little buggers. On top of all the sushi we clam miso soup, along with a Hokkaido specialty uni-ikura donburi, which is basically a bunch of ikura and uni thrown on top of some rice. It may sound deceivingly simple, but the point is to appreciate the deliciousness of the fresh seafood. And this specialty dish is rather top-tier in terms of delicacies. A modest sized bowl runs about $25. After that we just wandered around a shopping center trying to find me new shoes. My shoes had severe holes in them, and after seeing the prices of shoes in Japan, I had decided to tough it out until returning to America. That is until my host mom let slip the terrible condition of my shoes to host dad, at which point it was pretty much decided that I would be getting new shoes. After going to a couple stores, and not being able to find shoes big enough for me, we finally found a pair. The length on the other shoes wasn't the problem, it was the width. They were all too narrow. Sometimes I forget how big I am the the 'Japan scale' so to speak.
We stopped at a local cafe for dessert, and I had this parfait that had chocolate ice cream on the bottom, but then this really weird frozen pudding on top that had a very strange texture but was also quite tasty. Then the mac daddy of dinners. We were going out for crab, and my host dad had this specific style in which he wanted it prepared. After wandering around trying to find our restaurant, we finally arrive and have a about five ladies in kimono greet us at the entrance. So already it feels like a fancy place. We walk past this glass case in which there is a mammoth crab just sort of chilling, waiting to be eaten. We get to our little room only to find out what my host dad wants isn't on the menu. So he tries haggling with the waitress to see if the chefs can do it up special. She seems a bit unnerved by that and fetches who I assume is a manager of sorts. So he asks her about the mammoth crab out there, and if they could prepare it half grilled/cooked and half raw sashimi style. After consulting the chefs and thinking about, she decides they can, but it'll run just shy of $400, to which my host dad, without thinking twice, says 'okay, let's do that.' To a certain extent I thought I was getting used to how my host dad throws around money, but I was once again flabbergasted. And it was good and everything, but there was so much of it, I don't think I ever want to see crab again.
　We head back to the hotel, and decided to take Yugo to a game center (arcade), but it is nighttime in one of the less elegant parts of downtown and the arcade won't let children in that late, so we dropped Yugo back off at the hotel. My host dad then decided we should go to a hostess club. This is similar to what I mentioned back in my Kyoto post. You pay money to drink and chit-chat with pretty young ladies done up in fancy dresses. I have decided I am not a big fan of these. I don't particularily like idle chat in the first place, plus the whole concept of 'I'm paying to talk with you' just makes for an uncomfortable premise in my opinion. Anyway, about a half hour through, my host dad sees a closed off room and asks what that is. 'Oh, that's the VIP room, it costs more, but has karaoke, etc, etc. ' 'Well hey, why don't go over there!' And so we head to the VIP room and sing karaoke for the next hour or two until the place closes. My host dad asks the two ladies if they know of any good ramen places and invites them to join us for ramen. So the four of us grab a midnight snack, and I had some out of this world miso ramen. After taking care of cab fare for both the ladies, we took cab back to the hotel. And that was just day one...to be continued.