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!