Tokyo Adventures Part 1!

So arriving in Tokyo was like arriving in Japan all over again. What a completely different place! The people are less friendly and less fashionable, there are homeless people everywhere, even the atmosphere is stressed with overworked salary men. We arrived at a painful 6am, with luggage in tow, in the middle of Shinjuku, one of the busiest hubs in the world. The station itself is massive, with an underground map that looks like a bowl of spaghetti. I met up with my two friends who had elected to take a more comfortable bus than I was willing to pay for and we set off to figure out where to start.

Tokyo Subway Map o_O

Shibuya, Tokyo

So where do we go at 6:30am on a Monday morning in the middle of Tokyo? One of the only places open: McDonalds. Tokyo wakes up surprisingly late for how international it is. Normally back home people are out and about by 6:30-7 and it’s getting on to rush hour by that time. But it was dead here. Nothing open, nothing to explore. So after eating we went to visit some sites that didn’t require being open to see. We set off to see Hachiko, a statue of the most famous dog in Japan that’s located in Shibuya but we discovered that we could get an all day JR pass for 730 yen and we just couldn't pass it up. So since it was free to go everywhere in the Tokyo area, we decided to stop by Harajuku first because it was on the way. Harajuku is known as a fashion spot of Tokyo. Not for it’s high model fashion, but for its unique street fashion. It’s the known hang out spot for the crazy Japanese people dressed in cosplay and hair 3 times the normal size. It’s known to have an active nightlife because of these frequent goers. However, seeing as how it was still 7 in the morning, nothing was open. We did have a good look around though, and the stores are gigantic, 10x the scale of American ones! After getting lost several times on our way back to the station, we decided to come back to it later.

We continued on to Shibuya from there, the fashion district of Tokyo, which is one of the largest fashion capitals in the world. Our train was delayed though. A Japanese person had committed suicide on the tracks. Talk about shock. I had heard that Tokyo has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, but to have it happen in the first two hours of being in the city? On our line? Either it was a really big coincidence, or this is so frequent that we just experienced a regular occurrence. After you realize how frequent suicides are in Tokyo, the preventions Japan takes to preventing them seem more noticeable. I didn’t really pay any mind at first, but then I started noticing the walls put up around the tracks in almost every station that close and open with the train doors, the “happy bird” replica that plays at the station to give a less city like atmosphere, even the music that plays to announce the train coming is supposed to be an “uplifting” noise to get your mind off of depressing thoughts (though I found it quite annoying actually). It’s really crazy to know they need to put so much effort in just to decrease the statistics.

When we finally got to Shibuya, it was about time that the shops were opening up anyway so it was perfect timing. One of the first things we did was take the epic walk across the famous crosswalks. It’s one of the busiest crosswalks in the world, sporting five crosswalks connecting a four way street. Being in the middle of one of Tokyo’s busiest districts, when the walking man turns green, it’s like a swarm of people mashing together from all directions. Then I got a white mocha from the Starbucks that is located across from it. It’s always advertised in the background when showing this famous scene so I had to get something hehe.

I took this from the top of said Starbucks. Watch the madness unfold ;)

From this point on, we discovered the amazing stores that the Shibuya district houses. We spent a good two hours in Forever 21. But this was not like the dinky, one room Forever 21’s that you see in the States. There were no racks packed together, or articles of clothing and jewelry messily strewn about. This was Japan run, five floors of amazingly cute, cheap, women’s clothing, with a sixth floor just for accessories. We were taken hostage haha. After making it out of there, our wallets considerably lighter, we shopped around a bit more; hit H&M and such. We also got a free “3D” picture done outside of Shibuya 109 where we looked like we were on a tight rope over an ice glacier type thing, which was pretty cool. We then went in search of something to eat. Shopping is hungry work! So we went to look for something good but affordable, where we could sit down and rest after shopping/traveling all day on 2-3 hours of sleep. So what better place than MOS Burger? Lol The Japanese burger place that is second most popular in Japan, lagging behind only McDonalds in sales. I found out later that MOS burger stands for Mountain, Ocean, and Sun. We originally thought it was because it was saying that it served things from all those places; “everything under the sun” type deal; but it really only sells burgers, so the name is a bit of a mystery. The name used to be MOST delicious burger, but the T somehow got dropped, probably due to Japanese pronunciation. I actually prefer it over McDonalds. The typical burger is like, a beef patty, plus a sloppy-joe type substance, with a tomato and mayonnaise (the Japanese put Mayo on everything).

When we left to finally visit Hachiko, two Japanese people stopped us right before the crosswalks. They started talking to us in Japanese and asking us where we were from and held up this paper bag and asked us if we had ever heard of it. We told them where we had come from and no, we had never heard of this “fukubukuro.” They told us that near the New Year, Japanese stores start carrying these paper bags that can have really cool things in it, even a couple of hundred dollars. They asked us if our countries did this during the New Year and what we thought of it and then they were like, could we borrow you for a few minutes? And they started pulling out this video camera. And we were like, “ummm…” *thinking of our 2 hours of sleep and increased exhaustion from shopping* “suuure, I guess?” So we got interviewed on film about the fukubukuro and it will be broadcast on Japanese TV on the 5^th of January at 7:20am. It was pretty exciting! We even got free hugs from these Japanese people who were giving them out. And when we asked them why they were giving out free hugs, they replied that they just wanted to connect with foreigners and Japanese people alike.

Free Hugs! Isn't it adorable?

Okay, I'm going to put a break here in the Tokyo Adventures. Stay tuned for part 2!   \(^-^)/

Word of the Day: 電鉄、でんてつ。Dentetsu, literally Electric Railway. This is the kind of train I ride at home, which is different from a subway (Chikatetsu) or the JR line (Japanese Railway). The JR is the line that spreads across all of Japan. If you visit Japan for 30 days or under you can get a JR pass that goes all over Japan for just 200 dollars!

それではまた次回！

Surgery, Kouyou, and Ikebana!

Two Sundays ago, I went with my host family to my host sister’s field hockey match. Even though I couldn't understand the penalty calls I think the rules were basically the same as they always are, though I am a novice when it comes to sports. I did, however, manage to get some really great action shots of her playing! Afterwards, we went shopping with Rie (my other host sister) and my host mom in Sannomiya and ate lunch at a really good Italian place (I had tomato pasta that was really good!). Then we did some shopping around for clothes and I have succeeded in going one step closer to becoming Japanese! ;)

That Monday, I had the morning off, so I went to the hospital to have the bump on my face checked out. It’s been developing for a couple of months and it didn’t seem to be going away so I thought it best to make a plan to get it removed. It turns out that Japanese hospitals are amazing! I was registered as a new patient, saw the doctor, made an appointment for the procedure, and had a blood test done, all under 2 hours! The hospital was much better run than American ones. Everything was in order. Every desk gives you a waiting number slip and the consultations are quick and effective.

I helped my mom with her students again that week. We played a game with cards that had the past, present, and future forms of verbs on each of them. They all have a suit on them as well: clover means you take the pile, triangle means nothing changes, heart means you have to put all your cards down, and the last one means you can ask anyone in the game for 5 of their cards. I won! It was really fun. ^^

I skipped out on my Friday afternoon classes to go to the hospital with my host mom and have the surgery done. It was kind of a surreal experience. There were no less than FIVE doctors operating on me. And they started before schedule, which would never happen in America. They numbed my face, which felt like someone was cutting my face open but afterwards all I saw was bright light as I listened to this weird, depressing music that they put on in the background. It was something like titanic mixed with some other tragic defeat of a hero or something. It almost felt like I was dying lol. But it was quick and done in 30 minutes. The Japanese doctors were surprised that I could speak Japanese (as all Japanese people always are even if you can only say hello), so it was fun to listen to them talk even if I didn’t understand the medical jargon.

I caught this really graceful crane!

The following Sunday, me and three other ryuugakusei were taken to Kyoto by the Japanese friends we made a couple of weeks ago; the ones we had a sort of get together with that was originally only E class members but my teacher invited me to. We went to go see the changing colors of the fall leaves, (kouyou) which is amazing because Kobe and Kyoto are surrounded by mountains. So you can see different colored trees pan out across the scenery. It was truly beautiful. But there were SO many people! The streets were overwhelmingly crowded - just a sea of human heads. Everyone had come to see the turning of the leaves. While we were there we also went boating on the lake! It was really fun. We split up into twos and threes and took a boat. I was actually pretty good at it having done kayaking and row boating before so I was teaching my friend how to turn, go backwards, forwards, etc. We walked around a lot after that looking for shrines that we could go into but it was getting to like 430 and most of them were closing. But we had a nice scenic walk! After that I was thinking of going home early because I had a test the next day but light up night was starting soon so I decided to stay. They talked me in it! They even paid for me because I had run clean out of money. But I’m glad I stayed because it was so pretty! We paid to enter this walled off area that had a bunch of trees with lights underneath them that just lit them up spectacularly.

The Red Momiji (Maple Leaves)

They even had Take! (Bamboo)

Tuesday was such a great day! Tuesdays are usually awesome anyway because we have a short Japanese day and no afternoon classes. Tuesday’s also the day that we usually watch a Ghibli film (Miyazaki films are referred to as “Ghibli” here) so it just makes it all the better.  We’re currently watching “mimi o sumaseba” or Whisper of the Heart as it’s known in its English version.  It’s not a very well known one internationally but it’s really cute and is really popular among young Japanese girls. It’s about a girl named Shizuku who reads a lot of books and notices a pattern in the library cards. The same boy’s name keeps popping up: Amawase Seiji. So while curious about this mysterious prince of books she meets a boy her age that she finds absolutely infuriating. He teases her and calls her lyrics she made “corny.” But he happens to be the grandson of this shopkeeper she made friends with. She finds out that he wants to quit school after middle school and go to Italy to become a great violinmaker. His parents are dead set against it, but they finally agree to let him try out his talent on the condition that he apprentices there for two months. She thought it so admirable that he already knew what he wanted to be. And he told her that she should take writing more seriously because she had written a version of the song "country roads" and made it "concrete roads" and it was really good, he thought. So while he's gone she decides she wants to find a talent of her own and she starts writing a story about this doll that's in the shop: a fox carved out of wood. She gets in the mind set that she has to finish this story by the time he gets back after the two months so she works furiously day and night, forgetting about her studies. And when she finishes she realizes that she rushed too much. She saw Seiji getting farther and farther ahead while following his dream and that she was falling backwards. The shopkeeper is the first one she lets read it because it was about his doll. He tells her that her story is very good: rough stone that has a jewel inside that she now needs to polish. Seiji comes back and tells her that he's decided to try and be a violinist maker. He's going for 10 years but he'll be back. They both promised to work as hard as they can to aspire to their dreams and one day be together. It’s an adorable love story!  I highly recommend it since I don't think many Americans have heard of it.

Anyway after Japanese we had a special Kansai accent class with the Japanese students that had taken us to Kyoto on Sunday. It was kind of a practice teaching exercise for them and really beneficial for the few of us who were lucky enough to attend. The accents in Japan are much more drastic than those in America I think. It’s not just different intonation that differentiates them but completely different words and conjugations. For instance to say “must watch” you would usually say “minakereba narimasen” in standard Japanese. But in Kansai ben (the suffix ben means accent) you would say “mina akan.” You drop everything after na and add akan. For negative endings too, the conjugation is different. Instead of ~nai they say ~hen. So instead of “minai” (I don’t watch), they say “mihen.” They also end sentences differently, with combinations of ya, wa, and de and have specialized Kansai/Osaka words like “dekai” (really big), “akan” (bad/no good), bochibochi (so-so), etc. Kansai ben has slightly different intonation as well. They tend to make a lot more words have a rising intonation. So like the morning greeting “ohayoo” (good morning) which is usually said with flat intonation for “yoo,” is pronounced with an upwards intonation; the same with “arigatou” (thank you).  It was really interesting and helpful to learn somewhat formally. I had picked up a lot of the words already, but the conjugations and such are things that need to be learned in rule format to really use accurately.

I also had tutoring which was an amazing success this week! I usually only have two people who come consistently but in addition to them, I had six other girls come! Four came in a group, they were all freshman and all very shy and quiet, not used to voicing their opinion on anything. Then I had my two regulars, a friend of one of them and a random girl who came by herself just to get an essay fixed quickly before handing it in. It was quite a weird essay too! She used a lot of hard words that were right but sounded like she had copied them from something. Actually, at least half the essay was quotes; except she didn’t use quote markings. She would say like: blah blah blah, said Disney. It was about the Disney company and their production rate and stuff. Really weird.

But out of all of the students who came, my regular is still my absolute favorite. She’s such a riot! In juxtaposition with the new Japanese girls who came, I really noticed how much more outspoken and almost Western she is compared to the others. She’ll blurt things out and input her opinion while using all sorts of frantic body language to get her point across. But she knows so many random facts that when she tells them to us conversationally, no one will have ever heard what she’s talking about and she’ll start doubting her information and thinking she’s been lied to. “MY MOTHER LIED TO ME ABOUT THIS TOO?!?!”

I’ve also noticed a HUGE improvement in her English since the first time she came to the tutor sessions about a month and a half ago. Her essay this week was really good. She’s really getting a feel for the language and she’s getting so good! She was the one who talked the most out of all eight people! She said she’s been watching a lot of American TV (she found Hell’s Kitchen on TV and loves it! XD) and studying English every night. It’s really paying off! Even in her actions, I can tell she’s not quite as sheltered and held back as other Japanese people I’ve met. I brought ritz crackers for everyone to share and she ate like half of them haha. I was happy to give them to her! But usually, Japanese people take like one and then they’re like, “Yeah… I’m full…” I like her way better though! =)

When I got home, my host sister had gotten back from America! She had gone to visit the host family she had stayed with when she did study abroad 10 years ago. She brought all sorts of omiyage (gifts) back for us: letter blocks for Mama’s English class, travel bath and body works hand sanitizers that have these rubber travel cases, a doggy toy for Tiff that he absolutely cannot be separated from, various candies, etc. She even brought me back skittles and chewy sweet tart candies so I can take them to my next tutoring session! We spent a good part of two hours talking about what she had done and looking at her pictures. All the pictures made me miss home. The snow and one level shopping centers, snow angels, shots of her Thanksgiving dinner.

On Thursday I was lucky enough to happen into an Ikebana (flower arranging) lesson from a real master! The Art History class was having a demonstration lesson from the top president of one of the top ikebana schools in Japan and I heard and kind of just jumped on the band-wagon. He was such a wise old Japanese man. He told us that he really doesn’t like the translation of ikebana as “flower arranging” because “ike” can have three different kanjis associated with it: 活け, to arrange; 生け、to live; and 埋け、to enhance. Therefore, the job of ikebana is really to enhance the life of the flowers and arrange it in a way that gives it new life. And “bana” (hana) while usually referring to flowers, is really anything that is beautiful. So branches, leaves, even people can also have their own beauty and that’s why more than just flowers are used in ikebana. When the Japanese do ikebana, they make sure that all the flowers are happy and facing upward, like they would be naturally to grow towards the sun. He said you have to make all the flowers and plants happy. And as the artist, you have to find what’s most beautiful about the flower or branch and enhance that part of it. So if it has a really interesting bend then you should arrange it so that it’s apparent.

He also explained that how in japan, they dont like thinking about winter because its usually associated with death. Instead, when it becomes winter, they are already thinking about the spring. And when they write Christmas cards and wishes for the New year they always mention something about Spring. They are always looking towards the future and towards the new beginning. That’s also why everything in Japan starts in the Spring, around April, like the school year and even the fiscal year. We also found out that Japan always looks for things in odd numbers. He said that they always think of the one left over from even numbers as a hope for the future. So things are always found in odd numbers and they avoid even numbers because there will be nothing left for the future. He said that even tea sets and such usually come in sets of 5. Even though Japanese tables are made for four, six people. The speaker was so amazing! He’s been to around 35 countries all over the world teaching about ikebana and the tradition behind it.

So we were given chrysanthemums, small yellow flowers, and red leaved branches to work with because Japan is currently celebrating “Kouyou,” the turning of the autumn leaves. It was really fun to think so artistically and I think my group’s was my favorite!

That's all for now! それではまた次回！

Word of the Day: 紅葉　こうよう "Kouyou" or the changing of the Autumn leaves.