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.

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Okay, folks. Not sure where to start. Let's see, a few weeks ago friends of my host mom came in from Osaka and stayed for an extended weekend (which felt like a super extended weekend to me). Why did I feel this way? Oh, it just so happens the number of kids in the house doubled. This has pros and cons. Pro-They will sometimes be content playing with each, leaving me with relatively quiet time in which to do homework, relax, etc. Con-the rest of the time they are attacking me in a group. The worst of which involved me giving two of them piggyback rides simultaneously. Nothing like having a 5 and 6 year-old (around 80 pounds) clinging to your slowly deteriorating back. It was fun enough at first, and made for nice exercise, but they don't comprehend that after awhile I'm both mentally and physically tired of giving them piggyback rides (onbu). So they just shout ONBU ONBU over and over. I can't even sit down without one or both of them climbing up onto my back/neck, 'If you don't onbu we'll get even noisier' That's one part of returning that I'm looking forward to, no kids constantly screaming, etc. Don't get me wrong, I love the hell out of Yugo and Tayusuke, but it'll be nice to return to the real world. Also, I went on a huge, crazy trip/adventure about a month ago to Kyushu, Yakushima, and Shikoku over spring break. I don't have the time to detail it at the moment, but suffice it to say Molly and I hiked over 10hrs just to see a damn tree. Are we crazy? Yes. Another fun anecdote involves the konpa we had for Japanese Lit class. We went out drinking and to karaoke with our sensei. Nothing like drunkenly talking about the meaning of life, etc. with your also drunk 50-year-old teacher. Good times. I may also detail that later. We had our 'returning home' orientation last week. It's starting to hit home that this is ending. It has been a fun ride, and I'll make the most of what is left. This coming weekend is a trip up to Hokkaido with my host family to consume mass amounts of super fresh sushi and crab. Scrumtralescent! After that I have about a week break before finals, so I should be able to get a decent post in then. Sorry about the drought of posts lately. The shorinji kenpo club I joined is more time consuming than I imagined. Later.

The saga continues

So I didn't plan on writing this blog post, but it was warmer than I expected this morning, leading me to switch my winter jacket for just a hooded sweatshirt instead. There is a small problem, though, both my cell phone and my keys to the house were in the front pocket of my winter jacket, so when I came home from school today and nobody was home, I was kind of in a pickle. I was hungry so I decided to head over to the manga cafe a few minutes from the house, and that is where I am now. I am going to try and catch up quickly on my travels, for those of you who can't see the picture version on my facebook account. Way back in January, while I was still on winter break, I was lucky enough to get to accompany my host family on a vacation to Bali, Indonesia. I never thought I'd be going to Indonesia in my entire life, let alone the resort island Bali. Needless to say, it was awesome. We were there for four nights, and the first two were spent at a hotel that was literally in the middle of the jungle. It consisted of a series of (very nice) huts all scattered on this slope. There was a gondala-esque (spelling?) contraption that got us from our rooms to the restaurant and front lobby (on the upper part of the incline). The view over the ravine was incredible, and we spent most of the day there chilling in the pool. As per usual, I got sunburned, as the tropical sun has absolutely no sympathy for pasty white boys like myself. We took in two traditional dances, the first being the legong dance, and the second was the kecak dance. They were both very mesmerizing, but the latter involved fire and chanting, so it gets the nod out of the two. In that second dance, the guy playing this monkey god gets trapped in a ring of flaming piles of dead grass. While barefoot, this guy kicks a pile into the air, and then side kicks through it, all in one fluid motion. It was pretty badass, no lie. But he must have gotten a little too excited, because one of the other piles he kicked a little too close to some of the spectators, and the other dancers had to intervene.
Shopping in Bali can be a living hell. Haggling (which I don't like to do) is the name of game, and often the quality of the goods is questionable at best. My host dad, however, loves to haggle. We drove to this mountain village in the tour van for lunch, and upon getting out we were encircled by women trying to sell us T-shirts, 5 for 1000yen (about $8.75). My host dad got them down to 10 shirts for the same price, but our tour guide warned us that the design would likely ruin after one wash, and the shirt itself would follow soon after, so we passed on those. There are no stoplights in Bali, and the streets give Japan a run for its money in their narrowness. Enough room for one lane each way, if you're careful. More than cars, though, mopeds are generally used. We had a cool enough tour guide, named Suweden, but he couldn't take a picture to save his life. The final two nights were at the Bali Hyatt, which is right on the ocean. We went snorkeling, which was really cool, since there was a lot of really pretty coral. I mean, it's pretty on TV and all, but having it just a few meters below you...well, it feels like a different world. Okay, enough of Bali.
The last weekend in January involved at trip to Tokyo to see a danpatsu-shiki, which is the ceremony a sumo wrestler goes through when they decide to quit the sport. My host dad went to the same school (and was friends with) one of the current sumo, so through that connection, he has made a lot of sumo wrestler buddies, one of whom was retiring. The main part of the ceremony is the cutting off of the sumo's chonmage, the special hairstyle that only sumo are allowed to wear. The sumo selects literally hundreds of people to come up and cut off the chonmage, bit by bit. My host dad was one of the people who got to go up. More than that, though, halfway through the ceremony I got to go back with my host dad into the back prep room and meet the current yokozuna (highest rank in sumo), and get a picture with him, which is a really rare opportunity most Japanese never even get. We had chinese that night, but it wasn't your take out General Tso's chicken. No, this was a multi-course meal including peking duck, and shark fin, along with countless other dishes. That next day we hung out with an ex-sumo and his family. They took us around Tokyo a bit, I had squid ink ramen for lunch. Then we stopped at this place that specializes in fruit-based desserts. Apart the restuarant, the same company had another store on the floor below that sells top quality fruit. The prices are literally mind-boggling. The ex-sumo with us splurged on two oranges, each of which ran close to $20 a pop. I had to steady myself however, when I saw the $185 melon. That is not a typo, folks. There is not a melon on the face of this earth that a level of deliciousness to warrant such a price tag. After recovering from that, we all split the $20 oranges, and while delicious, they weren't $20 delicious.
Two weeks later I found myself again in Tokyo for a sumo ceremony of sorts. The first part was a broadcast variety show, with the sumo participating in games and singing karaoke. Apparently some famous singers were there as well, but I had no clue who any of them were. The second part wasn't televised, but the baby, Tayusuke, got carried into the ring by the sumo, and they did some little special blessing type of thing. That was the main reason we went, and it was done and over in about 2 minutes. I had developed a fever that morning on the shinkansen (bullet train) and my condition was deteriorating, so I went back early with the grandparents, rather than go out for dinner with the rest of the family. The fever went away the next day, but a stomach virus stayed around for about a week or so, limiting me to eating very plain foods. I was definitely sick of udon (thicker noodles) by the end of that week.
That was during a week and half or so break we had in mid-February. Just before this Tokyo episode, though, I had spent two nights in Kyoto. My host dad was going anyway for work, so I went with him to Kyoto, and then explored the city on my own while he was at the meeting. There were a good dozen or so of his business buddies and we all rode the shinkansen together from Nagoya. We had lunch together at a place that specializes in the skin that forms on the top of the vat while making tofu. Not exactly my cup of tea, not something I'll order on my own, but it was good to try it once. Then I got tips on sightseeing from all the other business guys, and split with the group at the hotel. The first day I hit the golden pavillion, and tried walking to two other temples, but they were already closed by the time I got there. So I just wandered up and down the streets of Kyoto, looking for interesting shops or a good place to eat. I found a cool little bakery and cozy restaurant where I had yakisoba and okonomiyaki, along with a orange/lychee flavored mixed drink. I got back to the hotel around 8pm, and when the business meeting ended at 8:30, I decided to go out with my host dad and his buddies. So here's me a foreigner wearing a hooded sweatshirt and khakis walking around with 12 guys in suits. But all them were cool, and I think most of them had already had a little to drink at the work banquet. We were going to Gion, a district famous for Geisha and extremely expensive night clubs. In the taxi ride there, one of the salarymen was surprised that I hadn't yet snared a girlfriend, and then informed me it was a waste for me to having less than 3 girlfriends...okay, buddy, whatever you say. Still, he was funny. Someone needs to tell the Japanese female population to stop talking with a pitch so high that Alvin the Chipmunk hangs his head in defeat. Then maybe I'll reconsider. Anyway, we get to this night club, go to the second floor, and for the group of 12 or so, there are 8 or so women in really pretty dresses, makeup, etc. They are hostesses, and basically they are there to talk with you, laugh at your anecdotes (even if they aren't funny), pour your drink, light your cigarette, etc. The alcohol is super expensive, and you pay for whatever the girls drink as well. Anyway, the one girl I chatted with most of the time was really nice, and she had even been to America. She had apparently been treated very well and helped out a lot while in America and said she wanted to do something in return. She offered to take me around Kyoto the next day in her car and do some sightseeing. So after doing some sightseeing on my own, I met up with her in the early afternoon at Heian Shrine. We stopped at a favorite candy shop of hers and then hit a couple of temples. She bought some tofu donuts along the way, so I got to try those. And being not a huge fan of tofu, I was really surprised to find out they taste like normal donuts, and they are even good for you! Crazy. She also suggested a restaurant for me to go to that evening. Her friend runs it with her dad, and it was a place that specialized in chicken. After intially ordering some rather tame stuff (since I couldn't understand half the menu), the dad told me I ought to have something a little different, that I've never had before. So I left everything up to him. I quickly found out that I couldn't understand half the menu because they were simply body parts I hadn't learned yet. I basically had an anatomy lesson that night, eating neck meat, crunching through what I could only imagine was cartilidge (spelling?), and the worst was probably trying to bite through the chicken KNEECAPS they served me. Not too pleasant. But I did have a really nice yuzu(citrus-like fruit) infused sake with all of this. Basically though, I loved Kyoto. All the temples have really nice gardens and are super peaceful and calming. It is often hard to get away from the city in Japan, so it was a really nice 'refresher' so to speak.
So my host dad likes Star Wars, and we recently went to the robot museum in Nagoya (where I got to try out the Segway), where my host dad found a super realistic light saber for sale. The thing ran about $200, and my host mom gave him a disapproving look. After thinking she had convinced him to give it up, we went to wait outside the store while he looked around some more. Well, long story short, he bought the Obi-Wan lightsaber. Where it gets really funny is the other night, when my host mom and I, in the living room, here a light saber noise from the hall. A few seconds later enters my host dad, in a t-shirt and his boxers, waving around this lightsaber. Deciding the outfit wasn't complete, he grabbed a quilt and drapped it over his head...it was priceless. I think the quilted, boxer-clad Jedi could really take off. Then he insisted my host mom couldn't play with the lightsaber since she wasn't a Jedi like he is. Hilarious. Okay, I'm wrapping this monster post up, and going back to see if my host family is home yet. Cross your fingers for me.

The cult of IJ700

Okay, so a couple want to hear about who I hang out with. Well, it is pretty simple. I hang out with those people who are in my intensive Japanese language course. Why, you ask? Well, in general, it is somewhat difficult to make friends with study abroad students in other levels of the language. Last semester wasn't as bad in the fact that my linguistics and history course were both open to anybody, so they had a nice mix of people. However, both of those classes involved getting talked at for 90 min and 135 min respectively. The one common thread we had was bitching about the classes, which was fun, but it wasn't as if we ever hung out on the weekend or anything. This semester, all of my elective classes have a proficiency reequirement, so only people from the top 2 levels can take them, which leaves me seeing largely the people I just saw all morning in the Intensive Japanese class. We pretty much eat together almost everyday, and then occasionally go on karaoke outings or check out a film at the Picadilly Theatre near Nagoya station, which is generally preceded by dinner at a nearby ramen place (which has a 'happy hour' of sorts-half price gyouza(dumplings) and you can't beat that). The two guys I hang out the most with are Ken (from UW-Madison) and Tom (from UI-Iowa City). We often head out to the various game centers (read: arcades) and have a good time remembering exactly what an arcade is (since I haven't seen one in America for years). Aside from DDR, Mario Kart Arcade is always a good choice, along with the slew of 2D fighters. They still have freakin Street Fighter II cabinets. Not to mention the Neo Geo stuff, Guilty Gear, Tekken 5, and oh, how could I forget, Virtua Fighter 5, which is a disease in Japan. A lot of the arcades I have been to have a separate LCD display so spectators can watch the matches currently being fought. They're hardcore over here. Why does the group consist of so few? Because a fair number of people in the class seem to only go out if it's for karaoke. There is a guy named Kevin in the class as well, who is a gamer and that provides for some nostalgic conversation. He also has a rather dark sense of humor (always a plus) and I'd say he rivals Wallin in emo-ness. Erika is from Hong Kong, so natively she speaks Cantonese, but she also has stellar English and a good sense of humor. Pao, from Thailand is easy-going and fun to joke around with. She takes teasing well, so I dish it out liberally...and she has taken one lesson of Taekwondo from me. She wants to exercise more, so I may have a training partner soon. Running through forms by myself leaves a bit to be desired. Then there is Yongkyu (or Pak-san) from Korea, who is about as stylish as it comes. Rather concerned about his looks, but and all around good guy, and I just found out today he is a huge WWF fan, and has been for awhile. He started talking about Wrestlemania VI's Hulk Hogan v. Ultimate Warrior match, which I have no recollection of. I was rather surprised, and entirely amused that WWF had made to Korea, and more than that, it has taught him important English phrase's including, but not limited to X-Pac's 'Suck It' (with appropriate x hand gesture). Sara is from New York, she likes to read books a lot, and got screwed in terms of her home stay situation. She's currently trying to get a bowling outing planned, which I am completely in favor of. They are others I didn't bother to profile here, but they are all good people. However, to answer Busha's query, they are not as cool/awesome, etc. as Brian himself, or all of my other friends in the U.S. I look forward to seeing everyone in a few months!