Rather than reminisce on what has happened since my last update, I thought I'd write down some goals for the remaining amount of the time I have left here.
- I have to really look into job opportunities in Japan. I need to network and find out where I can possibly be employed for a while here. Also, finding a part time gig here wouldn't be too bad either. I could use a bit of extra cash.
- I want to try to be more friendly and outgoing this semester. The first year students have all arrived and are looking for new clubs, so this should be a good opportunity for me to further develop my social skills. It also should prove to be a good way to get better at Japanese.
- I also want to use less money while I'm here lol. I spend a lot, and I realize that.
- I want to enjoy the rest of my time here to the fullest and take advantage of the remaining opportunities that I have while I'm here.
I haven't really said much, but I promise to do an update of some of the things I've been up to since my last update! Really it's for me as much as it is for everyone else to read!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Freshmen/1st Year/Study Abroad Students Retreat
The last weekend was jam packed full of fun and craziness. The freshmen and foreign students all packed together to go on a retreat out in Saitama. The location had an onsen, yakiniku, and lots of drinking! It was probably the first time I've drank until sunrise, and then proceeded to help take everyone back to their rooms and clean up the room we were all drinking in. During which, I was still drunk for the most part. A great weekend to be had.
On Sat morning, we all met up at the rotary in Takadanobaba again to get ready to head off by train to the ryokan that we were staying in. (I'm doing this all from memory from a month ago because I was too lazy to write this earlier) We all got together and headed off to the train. Aiko was late, and we kept messaging and calling her. She finally responded and sent an incomprehensible message. We all boarded the train, and Aiko magically appeared. She explained what had happened, which was very interesting to say the least, and we continued on our way to the retreat. We took the train all the way to a little town where we waited over an hour for our bus. We had lunch, sat around, had some ice cream, and our bus finally got there.
We arrived at the ryokan and settled in before we had dinner. Dinner was an all you can eat yakiniku, but the meat was all pork. Still pretty good dinner though we didn't have any time to cook any vegetables. We played some ice breaking games, some took baths, and some rested before the real party got started. Everyone piled into a room where all the liquor was at, and we all sat around and waited for the big toast. After the toast, a bunch of "Call"'s were done for all the people who arranged everything for the retreat. If you don't know what "call"s are, check out my facebook. I have a video of it there. We all started drinking after that, and it was complete madness. I won't mention any names, but most of the people who went were drunk off their asses. Fun night overall. I ended up not sleeping the entire night because I felt it was pointless. Went to see a pretty awesome river and the surrounding area too. After that, we all gathered and left. When we got back, ate some curry, went home, showered, and slept. Great time to be had. The trip was a little expensive, but it was worth it.
On Sat morning, we all met up at the rotary in Takadanobaba again to get ready to head off by train to the ryokan that we were staying in. (I'm doing this all from memory from a month ago because I was too lazy to write this earlier) We all got together and headed off to the train. Aiko was late, and we kept messaging and calling her. She finally responded and sent an incomprehensible message. We all boarded the train, and Aiko magically appeared. She explained what had happened, which was very interesting to say the least, and we continued on our way to the retreat. We took the train all the way to a little town where we waited over an hour for our bus. We had lunch, sat around, had some ice cream, and our bus finally got there.
We arrived at the ryokan and settled in before we had dinner. Dinner was an all you can eat yakiniku, but the meat was all pork. Still pretty good dinner though we didn't have any time to cook any vegetables. We played some ice breaking games, some took baths, and some rested before the real party got started. Everyone piled into a room where all the liquor was at, and we all sat around and waited for the big toast. After the toast, a bunch of "Call"'s were done for all the people who arranged everything for the retreat. If you don't know what "call"s are, check out my facebook. I have a video of it there. We all started drinking after that, and it was complete madness. I won't mention any names, but most of the people who went were drunk off their asses. Fun night overall. I ended up not sleeping the entire night because I felt it was pointless. Went to see a pretty awesome river and the surrounding area too. After that, we all gathered and left. When we got back, ate some curry, went home, showered, and slept. Great time to be had. The trip was a little expensive, but it was worth it.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Blah blah...
I know I haven't updated in a while, but here's a quick little update.
So I signed up for a speech contest a while back. I turned in an application, interviewed, and was selected for the contest. I have been working on and off on my speech, but that's not what this update will be about haha. I can't wait to get done with this speech!
Since my previous update, I went to Nikko, which had some excellent scenary, Waseda Fair, where I made and helped to sell nachos, and plenty more drinking. During the drinking, I was also able to learn some new drinking games. They're fun for the most part, but not so fun when I want to drink.
One actual new experience I had here was going to a club in Japan for the first time! One of the the CSU girls' birthday was on the day we went to the club. The club was in Shibuya and it was named Club Atom. 1000yen to get in the door before 12. For your information, trains stop running a little before 12 for most and a little after 12 for some. I bought new outfit and everything for the club, and it was a decent experience. I must say, guys in Japan are quite awkward. They are all willing to go to a club with only dudes and dance around with each other. Seriously bring some chicks with you to the clubs or something, so it's not a complete sausage fest with each other. They apparently also don't believe in maximum occupancy and air conditioning because the rooms were amazingly hot and crowded. The girls tickets also got 2 free drinks with their entrance fee. Overall a very interesting experience to say the least.
I'm going to just drop this update the way it is. It was basically about my club experience. I'm going to update really soon because I had a lot of fun this weekend.
So I signed up for a speech contest a while back. I turned in an application, interviewed, and was selected for the contest. I have been working on and off on my speech, but that's not what this update will be about haha. I can't wait to get done with this speech!
Since my previous update, I went to Nikko, which had some excellent scenary, Waseda Fair, where I made and helped to sell nachos, and plenty more drinking. During the drinking, I was also able to learn some new drinking games. They're fun for the most part, but not so fun when I want to drink.
One actual new experience I had here was going to a club in Japan for the first time! One of the the CSU girls' birthday was on the day we went to the club. The club was in Shibuya and it was named Club Atom. 1000yen to get in the door before 12. For your information, trains stop running a little before 12 for most and a little after 12 for some. I bought new outfit and everything for the club, and it was a decent experience. I must say, guys in Japan are quite awkward. They are all willing to go to a club with only dudes and dance around with each other. Seriously bring some chicks with you to the clubs or something, so it's not a complete sausage fest with each other. They apparently also don't believe in maximum occupancy and air conditioning because the rooms were amazingly hot and crowded. The girls tickets also got 2 free drinks with their entrance fee. Overall a very interesting experience to say the least.
I'm going to just drop this update the way it is. It was basically about my club experience. I'm going to update really soon because I had a lot of fun this weekend.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The past week.
The past week was filled with activities, though not all fun and games. I did enjoy the week, but my wallet and bank account probably don't feel the same. It's ok though, as I just have to get to the 30th, when my scholarship finally kicks in. I know I've probably left out some information on what's been going on, but I probably don't remember what happened all that well anyways. I'm more upset about it than any of my readers probably are, but I'll continue with where I left off.
So on the past week we only had really 3 days of school during the week because we had Wednesday and Thursday off due to some holiday scheduling conflict. On Monday, I dragged myself to school again and dealt with another boring day of class. I remember this day of class because I was sleeping in class. During my light sleep, my classmate decides that during on Kanji lesson, it would be appropriate to bring up the fact that I was sleeping in class. Kind of sucked, but I didn't really care all that much. Culture in Context class wasn't as fun this week because I was so exhausted. I did enjoy the class as usual however. After the class we all basically tried to kill time until the evening when we would throw a party for our friend Kumi. I met up with my fellow CSU Andy coincidentally and walked around to find something to do. We ran into a few WIC members and talked to them for a while. Coincidentally, the WIC member who was very very very drunk the night before was there too, and we talked about the previous night's crazy events. They soon left as did we, and me and my friend headed off to Saizeria to have a early dinner because I had heard dinner would not be provided at the party. We get to Saizeria and see that 2 other CSU members were there, so we sat next to them. We all ate and talked for a couple hours to kill some time before the party. Nothing else really happened, and we eventually all walked over to the party.
At the party, everything was slow to start. We had no booze, not too many people, and NO BOOZE! A few of us went off to buy some snacks and beer, and we went back to the party. They did some fun stuff like shove a cream puff in the birthday girl's face and then take pictures, but the funny stuff didn't happen until after we started drinking and talking to a 4th year Niji no Kai member. It was probably the most hilarious moment since I've been here. I first talked with another acquaintance of mine before the 4th year walked over. I had met the 4th year before, but only once before this time. We started talking about some pretty funny stuff after that. I can't repeat any of the jokes and situational comedy that ensued, but if you want to know, you'll have to ask me directly or message me on facebook. The jokes were hilarious, and I could not believe this guy was uttering some of these jokes. The jokes included gifts that were given, video stores, and Macau. Crazy night of laughing. After everything concluded, most of the people went home, but some of us remained to talked outside the dorm we held the party at. I literally stood around and talked for another 2 hours. I knew the next day was going to suck majorly. I got hungry, so before the night ended, I went with my buddy Shuta to grab a gyudon real quick. Headed home after that to sleep and get ready for school.
So I'm going to throw together something real quick because I haven't updated in a long time. The excerpts before this were actually written a while ago, but I just hadn't had time or motivation to update this. My buddy and I also had arranged to grab lunch the following day, which we did end up doing. We gathered a few people up and headed off to Shinokubo, which apparenlty had lots of Koreans and Korean restaurants. We went to a real cheap place with some good Korean food. It was fun and all, but a terrible thing was about to occur that day. Lunch was great. Great people, great food, great jokes, but after lunch I had to head back to my dorm to deal with some internet crap.
I get back to my dorm, and wait for these losers to come and show up to check my internet again. They finally arrived after being very late, and I graciously allow them to scan my computer. The thing was, these stupid dumb fucks didn't know what the hell they were doing. Apparently, no one in the fucking IT department in Waseda has a fucking clue how to work a MAC really. I told them I had the newest fucking thing, but the dumb fucks didn't seem to understand. I include all these "fucks" because after a while, I really felt like they were raping the shit out of my brand new macbook pro. After I'd say about an hour or so, they decided that their version of anti-virus was actually incompatible with my laptop. I COULD HAVE FUCKING TOLD THEM THAT IF THEY ASKED! What a bunch of fucking dicks. I was sooo angry. They adjusted all my settings, and on top of that, didn't return anything to what it was before! They also downloaded all this shit onto my desktop and didn't even delete. I was quite furious that day. I felt like someone had raped my soul. I felt quite dirty. I literally wiped down my macbook after that.
Following my soul/computer rape, I didn't want to be in the same room as my computer. I got a couple friends, and we went and got some happy hour at a cafe/bar near my dorm. It was pretty cool, and the drinks did help to calm me down. I did have to have a few drinks because Japan seems to enjoy weakening their drinks to the point that they taste like soda. My gin and tonic was mostly tonic and a bit of gin I believe. We got lots of gyoza after that, and a calmed down me was able to head home and deal with my raped computer. I'll update with some more soon, but I have to go to bed to get up tomorrow to have lunch with some friends. Miss you all back home. Send me stuff! My cell phone mail address is "seefutbow@ezweb.ne.jp". If you want to send me actually mail, email me and I'll reply with my actual address. See you all in about 8 months!
So on the past week we only had really 3 days of school during the week because we had Wednesday and Thursday off due to some holiday scheduling conflict. On Monday, I dragged myself to school again and dealt with another boring day of class. I remember this day of class because I was sleeping in class. During my light sleep, my classmate decides that during on Kanji lesson, it would be appropriate to bring up the fact that I was sleeping in class. Kind of sucked, but I didn't really care all that much. Culture in Context class wasn't as fun this week because I was so exhausted. I did enjoy the class as usual however. After the class we all basically tried to kill time until the evening when we would throw a party for our friend Kumi. I met up with my fellow CSU Andy coincidentally and walked around to find something to do. We ran into a few WIC members and talked to them for a while. Coincidentally, the WIC member who was very very very drunk the night before was there too, and we talked about the previous night's crazy events. They soon left as did we, and me and my friend headed off to Saizeria to have a early dinner because I had heard dinner would not be provided at the party. We get to Saizeria and see that 2 other CSU members were there, so we sat next to them. We all ate and talked for a couple hours to kill some time before the party. Nothing else really happened, and we eventually all walked over to the party.
At the party, everything was slow to start. We had no booze, not too many people, and NO BOOZE! A few of us went off to buy some snacks and beer, and we went back to the party. They did some fun stuff like shove a cream puff in the birthday girl's face and then take pictures, but the funny stuff didn't happen until after we started drinking and talking to a 4th year Niji no Kai member. It was probably the most hilarious moment since I've been here. I first talked with another acquaintance of mine before the 4th year walked over. I had met the 4th year before, but only once before this time. We started talking about some pretty funny stuff after that. I can't repeat any of the jokes and situational comedy that ensued, but if you want to know, you'll have to ask me directly or message me on facebook. The jokes were hilarious, and I could not believe this guy was uttering some of these jokes. The jokes included gifts that were given, video stores, and Macau. Crazy night of laughing. After everything concluded, most of the people went home, but some of us remained to talked outside the dorm we held the party at. I literally stood around and talked for another 2 hours. I knew the next day was going to suck majorly. I got hungry, so before the night ended, I went with my buddy Shuta to grab a gyudon real quick. Headed home after that to sleep and get ready for school.
So I'm going to throw together something real quick because I haven't updated in a long time. The excerpts before this were actually written a while ago, but I just hadn't had time or motivation to update this. My buddy and I also had arranged to grab lunch the following day, which we did end up doing. We gathered a few people up and headed off to Shinokubo, which apparenlty had lots of Koreans and Korean restaurants. We went to a real cheap place with some good Korean food. It was fun and all, but a terrible thing was about to occur that day. Lunch was great. Great people, great food, great jokes, but after lunch I had to head back to my dorm to deal with some internet crap.
I get back to my dorm, and wait for these losers to come and show up to check my internet again. They finally arrived after being very late, and I graciously allow them to scan my computer. The thing was, these stupid dumb fucks didn't know what the hell they were doing. Apparently, no one in the fucking IT department in Waseda has a fucking clue how to work a MAC really. I told them I had the newest fucking thing, but the dumb fucks didn't seem to understand. I include all these "fucks" because after a while, I really felt like they were raping the shit out of my brand new macbook pro. After I'd say about an hour or so, they decided that their version of anti-virus was actually incompatible with my laptop. I COULD HAVE FUCKING TOLD THEM THAT IF THEY ASKED! What a bunch of fucking dicks. I was sooo angry. They adjusted all my settings, and on top of that, didn't return anything to what it was before! They also downloaded all this shit onto my desktop and didn't even delete. I was quite furious that day. I felt like someone had raped my soul. I felt quite dirty. I literally wiped down my macbook after that.
Following my soul/computer rape, I didn't want to be in the same room as my computer. I got a couple friends, and we went and got some happy hour at a cafe/bar near my dorm. It was pretty cool, and the drinks did help to calm me down. I did have to have a few drinks because Japan seems to enjoy weakening their drinks to the point that they taste like soda. My gin and tonic was mostly tonic and a bit of gin I believe. We got lots of gyoza after that, and a calmed down me was able to head home and deal with my raped computer. I'll update with some more soon, but I have to go to bed to get up tomorrow to have lunch with some friends. Miss you all back home. Send me stuff! My cell phone mail address is "seefutbow@ezweb.ne.jp". If you want to send me actually mail, email me and I'll reply with my actual address. See you all in about 8 months!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Weekend...
So I'll kind of pick up where I left off in the last post. On Saturday, after sleeping a little over 5 hours, I had to wake up again to help prepare for a Waseda International Club event called Yataimura. It was basically the club and foreign students split into 4 groups from different areas of the world such as the Caribbean and Mediterranean, but the food was pretty Japanese on the same note. I woke up, got ready, and took off with my fellow dormy and group member towards the cooking area where my group was going to do all the cooking at. I probably should not have pulled an all nighter before this day because I was utterly exhausted during the entire day.
So my friends and I were put into the cake group. Apparently in Japan, you must wear a bandanna and an apron if you're going to cook because of some weird rule I guess. Because a few of us didn't have aprons or bandannas, we had to borrow some from other people. We ended up helping them make the cake, but it was a very very long day. I had so much difficulty being nice and smiling to people by the end of the day. We did finish our preparations. My group made a chai cake, though during the creation process I must say it looked like bread dough. We also prepared chicken and some curry for the following day to be sold. After the work, I was invited to go to a bar to have a few drinks, but I modestly declined because I was too tired. I had some dinner with my friend and went home and slept, though it wasn't for too long as the following day we had to meet at 9:30 at school for the actual event.
The actual day of the event was Sunday, so I didn't get to sleep in like I wanted to. We get to school and get dressed up (you can see on facebook, but I deleted most of the tags for where I'm costumed), so that we can help the group sell the food and cakes. The event lasted for 4 hours or so. We sold a lot of cakes, curry, and chicken. It was pretty funny watching the upper class men do as they pleased to try to get people to come buy their food. It was very hard trying to sell to all these old Japanese people. The old members of the club also came by and made their under class men drink which was very very funny. Some of the members were drunk in the middle of the day. After the event, we all went to Toyama park to announce the winners and the placing for each group.
Toyama park was another experience in itself. The WIC members amazed me with their camaraderie and fun traditions. The winners were announced at the park. My group ended up finishing 3rd of 4 in the whole event. The winners were the Caribbean group. Looking back, if I had showed up to the events more prepared, I would have had much more fun. After the announcements were made, all the organizers and leaders were forced to walk up to the front of the groups. Before this happened, WIC members passed around cans of beer to everyone and told us to shake them up and get ready to douse people. Once the signal was sounded, we all doused the organizers with beer. The CSU kids mostly targeted our friend Yusuke, and he ended up being covered in beer. After the beer douse, a crazy ritual ensued.
So as we always do, to end the event we formed a circle, but on this particular day, some very special events occurred. As the organizer of Yaitamura attempted to close the event, someone interrupts them and presents her with a gift of a giant bottle of sake. Apparently, this happens every year, and she and the other organizers line up and drink the bottle of sake one by one until it's gone. The circle of people around sing and clap to make the atmosphere very enjoyable. The organizers attempted to close the event a couple more times, but both times a newer bigger bottle of sake showed up. 2 more bottles of sake were presented, but the organizers didn't drink those, as the first 3 seemed to be more than enough. After the rituals at the park, we ended up going to another nomikai!
So for this drinking party, we had to sit with our groups. I wasn't feeling too good from the beer, but I still had quite a bit of beer that night. Only a few CSU people went to this drinking party, but this was probably one of my favorite drinking parties so far. I enjoyed watching the younger class men get forced to drink, and I myself was strongly urged to down my cups. Overall very fun night. Some highlights of that night were meetings lots of people, Shunsuke sleeping in the rotary while we ended the night, and drinking with my friends. As it was Sunday, the 2nd drinking party wasn't as popular as it usually is. I went and had a bit of food and drink, but not much more. Took my friend home after that, and that was pretty much it.
Next entry I'll try to write about what happened this week. Here are some of what I'll probably write about because it's all I can remember ><.
-My friend Kumi's birthday
-Nikko trip
-Oct. birthdays
-Lunch, computer rape, and some happy hour!
-Shopping and clubbing
-Nachos making!
O yea, I don't really write about what happens in class because it's really boring. Most of my classes suck and are boring as watching paint dry. I literally talk and sleep through half of my classes. I only stay up in Japanese class because it requires participation. The one class I have that I enjoy is too complex for my simple mind to explain. Let's just say it rocks.
So my friends and I were put into the cake group. Apparently in Japan, you must wear a bandanna and an apron if you're going to cook because of some weird rule I guess. Because a few of us didn't have aprons or bandannas, we had to borrow some from other people. We ended up helping them make the cake, but it was a very very long day. I had so much difficulty being nice and smiling to people by the end of the day. We did finish our preparations. My group made a chai cake, though during the creation process I must say it looked like bread dough. We also prepared chicken and some curry for the following day to be sold. After the work, I was invited to go to a bar to have a few drinks, but I modestly declined because I was too tired. I had some dinner with my friend and went home and slept, though it wasn't for too long as the following day we had to meet at 9:30 at school for the actual event.
The actual day of the event was Sunday, so I didn't get to sleep in like I wanted to. We get to school and get dressed up (you can see on facebook, but I deleted most of the tags for where I'm costumed), so that we can help the group sell the food and cakes. The event lasted for 4 hours or so. We sold a lot of cakes, curry, and chicken. It was pretty funny watching the upper class men do as they pleased to try to get people to come buy their food. It was very hard trying to sell to all these old Japanese people. The old members of the club also came by and made their under class men drink which was very very funny. Some of the members were drunk in the middle of the day. After the event, we all went to Toyama park to announce the winners and the placing for each group.
Toyama park was another experience in itself. The WIC members amazed me with their camaraderie and fun traditions. The winners were announced at the park. My group ended up finishing 3rd of 4 in the whole event. The winners were the Caribbean group. Looking back, if I had showed up to the events more prepared, I would have had much more fun. After the announcements were made, all the organizers and leaders were forced to walk up to the front of the groups. Before this happened, WIC members passed around cans of beer to everyone and told us to shake them up and get ready to douse people. Once the signal was sounded, we all doused the organizers with beer. The CSU kids mostly targeted our friend Yusuke, and he ended up being covered in beer. After the beer douse, a crazy ritual ensued.
So as we always do, to end the event we formed a circle, but on this particular day, some very special events occurred. As the organizer of Yaitamura attempted to close the event, someone interrupts them and presents her with a gift of a giant bottle of sake. Apparently, this happens every year, and she and the other organizers line up and drink the bottle of sake one by one until it's gone. The circle of people around sing and clap to make the atmosphere very enjoyable. The organizers attempted to close the event a couple more times, but both times a newer bigger bottle of sake showed up. 2 more bottles of sake were presented, but the organizers didn't drink those, as the first 3 seemed to be more than enough. After the rituals at the park, we ended up going to another nomikai!
So for this drinking party, we had to sit with our groups. I wasn't feeling too good from the beer, but I still had quite a bit of beer that night. Only a few CSU people went to this drinking party, but this was probably one of my favorite drinking parties so far. I enjoyed watching the younger class men get forced to drink, and I myself was strongly urged to down my cups. Overall very fun night. Some highlights of that night were meetings lots of people, Shunsuke sleeping in the rotary while we ended the night, and drinking with my friends. As it was Sunday, the 2nd drinking party wasn't as popular as it usually is. I went and had a bit of food and drink, but not much more. Took my friend home after that, and that was pretty much it.
Next entry I'll try to write about what happened this week. Here are some of what I'll probably write about because it's all I can remember ><.
-My friend Kumi's birthday
-Nikko trip
-Oct. birthdays
-Lunch, computer rape, and some happy hour!
-Shopping and clubbing
-Nachos making!
O yea, I don't really write about what happens in class because it's really boring. Most of my classes suck and are boring as watching paint dry. I literally talk and sleep through half of my classes. I only stay up in Japanese class because it requires participation. The one class I have that I enjoy is too complex for my simple mind to explain. Let's just say it rocks.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Yesterday...
So since I haven't updated in a while. I just drop down a quick few lines about yesterday's party and events afterward.
So 2 nights ago, I get back to my dorm after a normal uneventful day I believe. I walk up to my room, and I notice a small white paper on the door. The paper literally only said, "Tomorrow in the morning please contact the office, from Nakamura". Nakamura is the caretaker here, and no one else in my hall had that small note. I was quite worried. After I worried all night unable to sleep well, I woke up yesterday at 8:40 to a knock on my door. The caretaker, Nakamura, came to my door! I opened up the door, and she let me know that a computer virus had entered the dorm internet or something like that. People were going to come by in the evening to fix it. What a relief that was to hear her tell me that. After that I just basically waited for lunch, had lunch, and went to class.
After class, I had a few hours before the people came to check the computers, so I just hung around school for a bit. I eventually headed back at around 4 and waited. The computer people didn't even go into my room or check my computer, but they informed me that my computer was safe, which is a relief. I headed out to grab a bite with my friend Colin before our drinking party because I had heard there wasn't going to be enough food at the drinking party, and we were right. After having some Mcdonalds, we went to drink!
We get to the drinking place, and us CSU's were the first to get in which was awesome. The place was literally packed full of Japanese and foreign students. We squeezed close to 100 people into the place. The food was ok, but the drinks were all you can drink! It wasn't everything on the menu, but I only really needed beer. Lots of drinking ensued, and later in the drinking part, the Japanese people did a really cool drinking game. I'll describe the drinking game in detail some other time, but let's just say for now that it involves a shit load of chugging and chanting. So after the drinking party, we all headed off to the park to do some more drinking!
Most of us went to convenience stores to get some drinks, including myself as I didn't feel like I drank enough at the party. We did some more drinking at the park, hung out, talked with people, and eventually had to leave because the cops came and told us to scatter. We went to the rotary, where we usually gather, and basically the large group split up and went separate ways. I was hungry, so I went to grab a bite with some Japanese acquaintances. I got to talk to them more, and it was pretty fun. Following the snack, I went to karaoke at around 1-5. It was quite a long time. After karaoke, though I must say I was very very tired at this time, we went to eat breakfast before we went home. I went home and slept until this afternoon, when I have to do some work for another club's event. Sorry it wasn't in as much detail as usual, but you get the gist of what happened last night :D. I'll write again soon, but I'm in a bit of a rush right now. Look forward to more entries, as I'll try to write more now. I miss and love you all back in the states. See you in around 9 months!
So 2 nights ago, I get back to my dorm after a normal uneventful day I believe. I walk up to my room, and I notice a small white paper on the door. The paper literally only said, "Tomorrow in the morning please contact the office, from Nakamura". Nakamura is the caretaker here, and no one else in my hall had that small note. I was quite worried. After I worried all night unable to sleep well, I woke up yesterday at 8:40 to a knock on my door. The caretaker, Nakamura, came to my door! I opened up the door, and she let me know that a computer virus had entered the dorm internet or something like that. People were going to come by in the evening to fix it. What a relief that was to hear her tell me that. After that I just basically waited for lunch, had lunch, and went to class.
After class, I had a few hours before the people came to check the computers, so I just hung around school for a bit. I eventually headed back at around 4 and waited. The computer people didn't even go into my room or check my computer, but they informed me that my computer was safe, which is a relief. I headed out to grab a bite with my friend Colin before our drinking party because I had heard there wasn't going to be enough food at the drinking party, and we were right. After having some Mcdonalds, we went to drink!
We get to the drinking place, and us CSU's were the first to get in which was awesome. The place was literally packed full of Japanese and foreign students. We squeezed close to 100 people into the place. The food was ok, but the drinks were all you can drink! It wasn't everything on the menu, but I only really needed beer. Lots of drinking ensued, and later in the drinking part, the Japanese people did a really cool drinking game. I'll describe the drinking game in detail some other time, but let's just say for now that it involves a shit load of chugging and chanting. So after the drinking party, we all headed off to the park to do some more drinking!
Most of us went to convenience stores to get some drinks, including myself as I didn't feel like I drank enough at the party. We did some more drinking at the park, hung out, talked with people, and eventually had to leave because the cops came and told us to scatter. We went to the rotary, where we usually gather, and basically the large group split up and went separate ways. I was hungry, so I went to grab a bite with some Japanese acquaintances. I got to talk to them more, and it was pretty fun. Following the snack, I went to karaoke at around 1-5. It was quite a long time. After karaoke, though I must say I was very very tired at this time, we went to eat breakfast before we went home. I went home and slept until this afternoon, when I have to do some work for another club's event. Sorry it wasn't in as much detail as usual, but you get the gist of what happened last night :D. I'll write again soon, but I'm in a bit of a rush right now. Look forward to more entries, as I'll try to write more now. I miss and love you all back in the states. See you in around 9 months!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
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Right outside Narai village. After this, it got real traditional. All the other Narai pics are on my point and shoot. Got tired of holding my Nikon.
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Some weird thing outside the castle. I think it's supposed to be an oni or something. I think the onmyouji's and oni's were off duty today. We weren't able to see any onmyouji and oni fights on the day we went.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Everything else... Part 2
As it has been over a week since these events have transpired, I once again stress that I'm doing my best to remember what happened with the help of my handy dandy schedule. Well here goes from, Thursday Sept. 17!
Once again we woke up, had breakfast, and headed over to Waseda University to have what we thought would be our orientations for JASSO, the scholarship I and 9 others from CSU received. Turns out though, there was an orientation for all the students living in the dorms too. They made us fill out a form and watch a video about the rules of living in certain dorms. Pretty boring stuff. After we finished with that room, the us CSU folks went to the next room to find out about our JASSO. We won't receive it without a Japanese bank account, which I recently made with the help of my WIC and Niji no Kai buddies. After the orientations, we all met back up in a classroom at the SILS building, where we waited for everyone to gather back up.
Following the return of all the CSU students, the Japanese students had taken down our names and what we wanted to eat. The Japanese students then split us up into groups, so we could all go out to lunch together. I chose ramen, which turned out to be a really dumb decision. About 10 of us CSU students chose ramen, therefore the group was too large. The CSU ramen group was then split again into more manageable groups, allowing us to fit better into restaurants. My group went to a restaurant named Guren I believe. I thought we went to get ramen, but when we went to the restaurant, the restaurant only sold Abura Men or something and Tsukemen. I reluctantly went with the Tsukemen only to find that it was actually quite good. The restaurant happened to play Michelle Branch, so a few of us CSU'ers decided to sing along. As we left the restaurant the worker told a couple of us to order the smaller portion if we can't finish. Our friend Akki assured us that such a thing was not a common occurrence as it was only our our 3rd day in Japan. After the lunch, we returned to the SILS building to get an orientation for class selection. Quite some boring stuff. Almost fell asleep. We all picked our classes, and the WIC and Niji no Kai students waited for us to finish. They then took all of us in separate groups to Shinjuku to look around for a bit. Following the small tours, we all went to an okonomiyaki restaurant.
Okonomiyaki is pretty easy to make but the monjayaki or whatever it is called, is not all that great. We had all you can eat, but the place was literally like an oven with all the hot plates going at once and the 50+ people in a tiny Japanese restaurant. Overall a fun night. After the hot hot dinner, I believe we all headed to a chain bar called Hub. Had a couple beers to end the night. Very fun night overall. Got to have some drinks with some new friends and make some new friends.
9/18 MOVING DAY
Moving day was probably the 2nd saddest day since I've been here. We all started the morning off the same way we did for the past few days by waking up and going to grab breakfast. Afterward however, we all headed back up to get our luggage ready, so we could store it in another room because we had to check out of the hotel. Following the storing of our luggage, we all went to Waseda again, for the host families needed to be announced. We all took a look at all the host families, and after that we had a pizza lunch with the WIC and Niji no Kai students again. I must say it was very trying for me as I had trouble with my Japanese that day for some unknown reason.
When lunch was finished, we had a final mini orientation to address any final issues any of us might have had. The orientation was short, and we all headed back to the hotel to pick up our stuff. We did some final preparations and basically everyone went their separate ways for the time being. The dorm students did however agree to meet up, so that we could all go grab a bite to eat as we didn't have cellphones yet. I'm pretty sure after dinner we all just went home and slept. It was a long and emotional day. The next day we had to pick classes in the morning.
Most of us all magically met up around the same time the following morning. The rundown of the day was pretty simple. We picked classes, had lunch, went to a Hanko store to buy some seals, went to Akihabara for bit though I didn't look at much, ate dinner, and went back to my dorm I believe. Pretty uneventful day overall. With that, I believe I've pretty much caught up with my blog. I'll include some better entries in the near future hopefully! I still have a couple days to write about recently including Ghibili Museum, though don't expect much haha.
Once again we woke up, had breakfast, and headed over to Waseda University to have what we thought would be our orientations for JASSO, the scholarship I and 9 others from CSU received. Turns out though, there was an orientation for all the students living in the dorms too. They made us fill out a form and watch a video about the rules of living in certain dorms. Pretty boring stuff. After we finished with that room, the us CSU folks went to the next room to find out about our JASSO. We won't receive it without a Japanese bank account, which I recently made with the help of my WIC and Niji no Kai buddies. After the orientations, we all met back up in a classroom at the SILS building, where we waited for everyone to gather back up.
Following the return of all the CSU students, the Japanese students had taken down our names and what we wanted to eat. The Japanese students then split us up into groups, so we could all go out to lunch together. I chose ramen, which turned out to be a really dumb decision. About 10 of us CSU students chose ramen, therefore the group was too large. The CSU ramen group was then split again into more manageable groups, allowing us to fit better into restaurants. My group went to a restaurant named Guren I believe. I thought we went to get ramen, but when we went to the restaurant, the restaurant only sold Abura Men or something and Tsukemen. I reluctantly went with the Tsukemen only to find that it was actually quite good. The restaurant happened to play Michelle Branch, so a few of us CSU'ers decided to sing along. As we left the restaurant the worker told a couple of us to order the smaller portion if we can't finish. Our friend Akki assured us that such a thing was not a common occurrence as it was only our our 3rd day in Japan. After the lunch, we returned to the SILS building to get an orientation for class selection. Quite some boring stuff. Almost fell asleep. We all picked our classes, and the WIC and Niji no Kai students waited for us to finish. They then took all of us in separate groups to Shinjuku to look around for a bit. Following the small tours, we all went to an okonomiyaki restaurant.
Okonomiyaki is pretty easy to make but the monjayaki or whatever it is called, is not all that great. We had all you can eat, but the place was literally like an oven with all the hot plates going at once and the 50+ people in a tiny Japanese restaurant. Overall a fun night. After the hot hot dinner, I believe we all headed to a chain bar called Hub. Had a couple beers to end the night. Very fun night overall. Got to have some drinks with some new friends and make some new friends.
9/18 MOVING DAY
Moving day was probably the 2nd saddest day since I've been here. We all started the morning off the same way we did for the past few days by waking up and going to grab breakfast. Afterward however, we all headed back up to get our luggage ready, so we could store it in another room because we had to check out of the hotel. Following the storing of our luggage, we all went to Waseda again, for the host families needed to be announced. We all took a look at all the host families, and after that we had a pizza lunch with the WIC and Niji no Kai students again. I must say it was very trying for me as I had trouble with my Japanese that day for some unknown reason.
When lunch was finished, we had a final mini orientation to address any final issues any of us might have had. The orientation was short, and we all headed back to the hotel to pick up our stuff. We did some final preparations and basically everyone went their separate ways for the time being. The dorm students did however agree to meet up, so that we could all go grab a bite to eat as we didn't have cellphones yet. I'm pretty sure after dinner we all just went home and slept. It was a long and emotional day. The next day we had to pick classes in the morning.
Most of us all magically met up around the same time the following morning. The rundown of the day was pretty simple. We picked classes, had lunch, went to a Hanko store to buy some seals, went to Akihabara for bit though I didn't look at much, ate dinner, and went back to my dorm I believe. Pretty uneventful day overall. With that, I believe I've pretty much caught up with my blog. I'll include some better entries in the near future hopefully! I still have a couple days to write about recently including Ghibili Museum, though don't expect much haha.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Cell Phones
Alright, I'm going to try to write this while I have bit of leftover buzz from the drinking earlier. The day before yesterday was the day all of us CSU students got our phones. The day was surprisingly long and stressful.
The day started off with all of us CSU students going to our respective district offices, so we could all obtain our alien registration cards. The Waseda students also wanted to take all of us CSU students cell phone shopping later in the day after lunch, therefore we all had to go to our respective district offices relatively early depending on where we lived. I, of course living in Shinjuku, had to go the "busy" Shinjuku office very early, which turned out to be hardly even busy so early in the morning. Us CSU dorm students met up around 7:30 to head out to the office and arrived before almost anyone was there. It was lucky that we got to the office and hardly anyone was there. We filled out our sheets, and after some confusion about sheets and copies, we eventually made our way to the 4th floor of the same building to deal apply for insurance.
After I had finished applying for my insurance, an elderly gentleman near the entrance to the health insurance area suddenly got quite angered. He started a small commotion, however the workers at the bank were able to calm him down for a while. As he sat down to finish his application for whatever he was applying for, he started to smoke a cigarette. He was soon escorted to the smoking every, but upon returning, he started another small commotion and proceeded to remove his top to show his many tattoos on his body as if to say he was some sort of yakuza. We decided to ignore the odd gentleman and moved on with our group.
Following a bit of exploring and ice cream, the group decided to go eat. Almost everyone from the CSU group met up, so that we could all get lunch together at an "Italian" family restaurant. I must say tuna with tomato sauce is actually quite tastely, contrary to what I believed it would taste like. We finished eating and headed off to a Hanko (a family seal) store, so that we could all buy Hanko's and be able to open a bank account in case we all wanted to get SoftBank. I bought a Hanko with my family name on it, and after everyone selected their Hanko, we all headed to make our bank accounts. It was there that I first noticed that a lot of the Japanese students were visibly exhausted. They had to have been very tired as they had been helping us CSU students out a great deal since we stepped into the country. After we made our bank accounts, the students set off to check out cell phones!
As I entered the cell phone shop, a few of my fellow students had actually picked phones already and gone with the company AU. I personally was still considering between AU and Softbank, so I decided to check out some of the phones, so I could compare them. The AU phones were nothing special, though a couple did catch my eye. As nothing made a big impact on me, I asked one of the workers there if there were any other phones possibly available to which he responded by opening up a secret compartment under the available phones to show me 1 more phone. I was interested in the phone, but not particularly attached. That is, until he mentioned the phone would be free if I decided to get it. My decision was basically made for me because on top of the fact the phone was free and had a 8 megapixel camera, I would be the only CSU student with that phone in that color. If any knows me, I try to get electronics or anything that is or is more exclusive to one person. I ended up getting the phone, and trading numbers was possibly the best part of the night. (I originally stopped writing this post here, and I'm going to continue it now. 9/29)
It was really interesting how Japanese phones just use infrared to trade profiles between phones. You literally line up the infrared areas to trade profiles. After all the number trading, we went to dinner at some restaurant called Jonathan's, which wasn't very good and allowed smoking inside. Wasn't very fun. Some of the CSU students finished getting their phones when we finished eating, so they went to eat some Mcdonalds. Nothing else really happened, and I went home afterwards.
The day started off with all of us CSU students going to our respective district offices, so we could all obtain our alien registration cards. The Waseda students also wanted to take all of us CSU students cell phone shopping later in the day after lunch, therefore we all had to go to our respective district offices relatively early depending on where we lived. I, of course living in Shinjuku, had to go the "busy" Shinjuku office very early, which turned out to be hardly even busy so early in the morning. Us CSU dorm students met up around 7:30 to head out to the office and arrived before almost anyone was there. It was lucky that we got to the office and hardly anyone was there. We filled out our sheets, and after some confusion about sheets and copies, we eventually made our way to the 4th floor of the same building to deal apply for insurance.
After I had finished applying for my insurance, an elderly gentleman near the entrance to the health insurance area suddenly got quite angered. He started a small commotion, however the workers at the bank were able to calm him down for a while. As he sat down to finish his application for whatever he was applying for, he started to smoke a cigarette. He was soon escorted to the smoking every, but upon returning, he started another small commotion and proceeded to remove his top to show his many tattoos on his body as if to say he was some sort of yakuza. We decided to ignore the odd gentleman and moved on with our group.
Following a bit of exploring and ice cream, the group decided to go eat. Almost everyone from the CSU group met up, so that we could all get lunch together at an "Italian" family restaurant. I must say tuna with tomato sauce is actually quite tastely, contrary to what I believed it would taste like. We finished eating and headed off to a Hanko (a family seal) store, so that we could all buy Hanko's and be able to open a bank account in case we all wanted to get SoftBank. I bought a Hanko with my family name on it, and after everyone selected their Hanko, we all headed to make our bank accounts. It was there that I first noticed that a lot of the Japanese students were visibly exhausted. They had to have been very tired as they had been helping us CSU students out a great deal since we stepped into the country. After we made our bank accounts, the students set off to check out cell phones!
As I entered the cell phone shop, a few of my fellow students had actually picked phones already and gone with the company AU. I personally was still considering between AU and Softbank, so I decided to check out some of the phones, so I could compare them. The AU phones were nothing special, though a couple did catch my eye. As nothing made a big impact on me, I asked one of the workers there if there were any other phones possibly available to which he responded by opening up a secret compartment under the available phones to show me 1 more phone. I was interested in the phone, but not particularly attached. That is, until he mentioned the phone would be free if I decided to get it. My decision was basically made for me because on top of the fact the phone was free and had a 8 megapixel camera, I would be the only CSU student with that phone in that color. If any knows me, I try to get electronics or anything that is or is more exclusive to one person. I ended up getting the phone, and trading numbers was possibly the best part of the night. (I originally stopped writing this post here, and I'm going to continue it now. 9/29)
It was really interesting how Japanese phones just use infrared to trade profiles between phones. You literally line up the infrared areas to trade profiles. After all the number trading, we went to dinner at some restaurant called Jonathan's, which wasn't very good and allowed smoking inside. Wasn't very fun. Some of the CSU students finished getting their phones when we finished eating, so they went to eat some Mcdonalds. Nothing else really happened, and I went home afterwards.
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I know she's not in Japan, but I miss her. Who's going to lick my face at 9 in the morning or jump into bed with me without even asking?
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