Blog Entries From Japan!

Here is what I wrote over the course of while I was in Japan for the Ursinus summer Program:

5/27/10

My trip to Japan has been an absolute blast, so far. My first week went by pretty smoothly, with very few faults to complain about. I think the only thing that I absolutely couldn’t stand was the condition of the hotel that we stayed in during our first night here. I was already expecting it to be small, based on what I’ve been told from friends and teachers alike, but there was hardly enough room for me and my bags. I had to jump over my luggage just to get to and from the bathroom. It also didn’t help that the entire hotel smelled like cigarette smoke, despite being a non-smoking building.

Now that I’m finished whining, I can talk about everything good and fun about my first week’s experience. We had a fair amount of free time to kill before boarding the train to Sendai, so one other classmate and I went exploring Sendai. During this time, we managed to explore three different arcades, or “game centers”, and see what they look like for ourselves. I can safely say that even if most of the games are the same as the ones we get in arcades in America, the atmosphere is completely turned around. The arcades in Japan are multi-storied, organized by the genre of the games. Instead of large crowds of friends gathered around each game just trying to have a good time, I saw silent virtuosos showing off their articulation in rhythm games and button-mashing prowess in fighting games. They made no noises whatsoever, but the machines ringing and buzzing like nothing I had ever seen or heard before.

After a two hour-long train ride, which was pretty quiet, we all met our host families. Naturally, we were all a little nervous, but we finally cooled down after the initial introductions. My first host family consists of an Australian dad, a Japanese mom, two elementary school-aged boys, and a kindergarten-aged daughter. I think because of the dad’s western roots, we were able to hit it off immediately. The family and I have a lot more in common than I would’ve guessed, especially in terms of movies, music, and TV preferences. We’ve been getting along really well, and it’s really interesting discussing the differences that exist not only between America and Japan, but also between those two and Australia.

I think I could get used to riding the bus and the train to get to and from the campuses, but since the dad is able to drive me to and from school, I’m not going to complain at all. I was a little nervous that the language classes would be more difficult, but it’s pretty much all just review from grammar sections that I’ve already completed back at Ursinus. The lectures have also been pretty interesting, so far. I think my favorite part was learning about Ryoma Sakamoto, a samurai who had a hand in bringing an end to the Tokugawa dynasty and kicking off the Meiji restoration.

Mostly, I just love interacting with the family and their friends. This past Sunday, I got to join the kids as they watched cartoons during the morning, and got to join the parents and their friends as they drank and had dinner together. I’m really hoping that the rest of the trip goes as well as it has been so far.

6/3/10

Well, my time with my first host family has finally come to an end. I know I’m really going to miss those guys, since we had the greatest times together. I really loved playing games with the kids, talking to the mom about Japanese culture and customs, and watching TV with the dad. I also really liked all of the things that we all did together, almost like one big family.

One day, after picking me up after classes, we all went to see Matsushima, which is a sort of collection of small islands just off the coast of Sendai. A few days prior, the dad had described it as exactly the kind of place he was originally led to believe lied in the heart of Japan. Looking at this slice of natural beauty from any angle on any kind of a day is something that I feel like everybody needs to do if they are ever given the chance. While there, also, we visited a rather large shrine, which had many impressive statues and carvings lining its grounds, right where so many soldiers had been laid to rest. It was a very quiet, very serene place, where the only things you could possibly hear were the footsteps, the wind, and the occasional ringing of the bell from the monks’ temple nearby. In spite of all of this, I actually found it to be a very comfortable and relaxing atmosphere, one that I feel like I could really grow used to. It was during this trip that I first learned about a famous samurai named Masamune Date, who was the first feudal lord of Sendai, and had one of the coolest-looking sets of armor I’ve ever seen in my entire life (apparently, it was the main inspiration for Darth Vader’s look). It was a really good day, and a really good learning experience, as well.

The next weekend, while the dad was at work, the mom took the three kids and I to Ishinomaki in order to visit the Shotaro Ishinomori Manga Museum, since I had mentioned that I was a big fan of Masked Rider, which is a long-running TV action show based on a series of graphic novels he wrote during the 1970’s. Apparently, the two boys were also pretty big fans, so that was just another reason for all of us to try and spend some time together. We spent our time at the museum learning more about the man and his various works.

That night, I just hung out with the dad and his friends as we barbecued one of Sendai’s most famous well-known dishes, cow tongue. We were all having a good time, talking about all of our experiences that we have had in Japan so far. Of course, it was much more of a learning experience for me, since each one of them had been living there for about ten years. I got to learn about more of the things that you aren’t likely to learn about in school, like where to find the best sushi in Sendai, and how to best avoid getting in trouble with the police.

I had some great memories with my first host family, and I hope that I have some more memorable experiences with my new host family. I just moved in earlier today, and I’m really enjoying their company so far, but let’s see how these next ten days or so progress.

6/10/10

I think by now I can say for certain that my favorite of all of the lectures we’ve been to have to be the two pop culture lectures that Professor Long held. Seriously, who wouldn’t like a lecture in which you learn by watching movies and cartoons? Every lecture from Professor Akiba has been really informative as well, and his quirky personality really made paying attention that much easier.

I’m also happy that we’re finally finished with classes today. Yes, the lectures were really fun and the language review was incredibly helpful, but the part of the trip that I’ve been looking forward to the most has been the tour. I just can’t wait to start moving around and exploring! I will admit, though, that I really liked staying in Sendai a lot. I’ve really enjoyed hanging out with the members of BRIDGE, learning a few moves from the Kendo and Judo clubs (as well as getting tossed around and bruised by them), and learning new aspects of Japanese life with my two host families. That being said, however, I always feel like I have a very tough time staying in one place for too long. One of the reasons I liked going to Matsushima and different museums all the time with the class and with the host families was because not only was it a learning experience, but also because I was able to take in more surroundings than just the ones that I had started to grow accustomed to.

Speaking of the host families, I can say for certain that staying with my second one has definitely been an entirely different experience from staying with the first one. Whereas my first host family had its roots further dug into more western customs with some influences from Japanese culture, my current one seems to be about as modern-day Japanese as you can possibly get. I like that, though, since it makes my experiences with my first host family seem like a bit of a transitional period, while my current one is more of the real deal of what I expected to be introduced to before I arrived here. During this past week that I’ve spent with them, I’ve been learning more about things like table manners and household customs. During long car trips, the dad has been teaching me a lot that I didn’t know about the events that took place during the times that samurai were still walking the streets (as opposed to Scion xB’s and Nissan Cubes). Even though the mom doesn’t speak a lick of English, she has also been teaching me about the sword fighting techniques employed by some samurai, since she used to be part of a samurai-style dance troupe that incorporated various sword-wielding styles into their routine. It scares me to think that she could easily slice me into ribbons if she ever felt like it.

Tomorrow is the day in which we all get to dress up and join all of our host families for dinner at a fancy hotel not too far from here. It’ll be cool to see my first host family again, but at the same time, I’m also wondering how the two families will get along with each other. On top of that, both of the Japanese classes of our group will be presenting their skits/songs in front of everybody, so we’ve all been prepping for that during the time that we have between language classes and lunchtime. Since my group is singing Aladdin’s “A Whole New World” in Japanese, and I’m the only male in the group, guess who’s going to be carrying the team by singing Aladdin’s part.

6/17/10

Well, it’s been a little more than 3 days since we all said our goodbyes to our host families and took the bullet trains out of Sendai so we could explore strange, new lands and go where no man has gone before. Well, okay, more like several temples and other various locations around the Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Tokyo areas. Before I get into what we’ve seen so far from travelling, I think I should just talk about my last few days with my host families.

At the big, fancy graduation party back in Sendai, we got to meet all of our first host families again, as well. My first was there in their entirety, while only the dad from my second was able to come. Despite this, the night was still one to remember, and in a good way, to boot. The two families (or, who was there from them) and I just had a great time talking about the different experiences I’d had at their houses over the course of the past three or so weeks. The night wrapped up with a big dinner, and both of our classes doing their skits in front of all of the families and all of the teachers that have been lecturing us throughout the school portion. Once again, we all said goodbye to our first host families, and went back to our second host families’ houses for the last few days that we have to spend with them.

The next night, my host dad took the entire family (tenants included) out to karaoke at a friend’s bar, not too far from the house, and I was one of only about four people singing more than once. After I had sung about 5 classic rock songs, everybody was asking me if I could sing in Japanese. Since there was really no way out of it, and I hardly knew any popular Japanese songs, I just picked a couple of older Japanese cartoon themes that I knew. I’ll admit, though, it was pretty exciting singing the theme song to Space Battleship Yamato in front of a crowd. Everyone thought I did a really good job, and that really made the night for me.

As far as the tour has been going, though, we met our tour guide, Naomi, on Monday, just after we got off of the bullet train. After visiting a couple of temples, we checked into our hotel, the Co-Op Inn in Kyoto. I’ll admit that I was pretty hesitant about it at first, seeing as how our little one-night stay in Hotel New Ueno wasn’t exactly the most welcoming, I half-expected this hotel to be much the same. It’s not very often that you hear anybody say this, but I’m so happy I was wrong. The Co-Op Inn is a very comfortable place to stay, and I have yet to have any problems here. Seeing as how this is our last day in Kyoto, I want to try and keep it that way.

I think so far on the tour, my most memorable experiences happened in Nara. The first thing that happened was getting to see all of Nara’s wild deer interacting with all of the people, completely free to move around. The second was getting horrifically sick, and being forced to use one of the squat toilets at a temple for the first time (remember, it doesn’t matter what country you’re in, McDonald’s food is still McDonald’s food). The last one was getting to see the world’s largest Buddhist temple. That was definitely an amazing sight.

6/25/10

As I type up this last journal entry, I’m at home, lying down on my bed, and still trying to catch up on my sleep from a rather nasty case of jetlag. The fun is over, the carnival has come and gone, but I can still taste the sugary bits of cotton candy stuck between my teeth that have been left there, so to speak. Lots of memories left to ponder over, and so little time left in order to do so. Well, time to get to work.

Our tour concluded with some of the significant locations that we have visited yet, including the very large Himeji Castle, and many famous locations in and around Hiroshima that relate to the 1945 atomic bombing. Some of the places included in this portion of the tour were the Atomic Bomb Museum, and Atomic Bomb Dome, and the Peace Torch just outside of the museum. I can definitely say for sure that that day was not an easy one to swallow. Sure, I was really happy that I had the chance to visit all of these locations and learn about what happened on that day, but it would still make anyone feel rather uneasy at the very idea that something of this scale actually did happen, and that it could very easily happen again in the not-too-distant future. Then, again, I suppose that one of the key points of all of these sites and museums is to remind everybody of the kind of threat nuclear arms really pose, and remind us of just what will happen if anybody on Earth ever decides to use them again.

Alright, now, it’s time to cheer up a bit. Let’s talk about what everybody was looking forward to the most during the tour: Tokyo. By this point in the trip, it seemed like everybody in our small group was of the mindset that we had done so much walking and learned so much in such a short time, between classes and tours, that it was time for a little break.

My first day in Tokyo, I went to a shopping center in Nakano, where basically all I for about four hours was spend money on old robot toys and Japanese heavy metal CD’s. That’s pretty much all there is to say about that little excursion, but right after I got back to Ueno, I met up with a friend of mine, an Ursinus alumnus who’d been living in Japan and training under a well-respected martial arts master for about a year. We walked through Ueno’s parks for a while, just catching up with each other, when he suggested giving me a tour of Shibuya. I didn’t know anything about Shibuya, so I went along with the idea. While we were there, I got to walk through the world’s busiest intersection, and try out guitars at a shop in town. I can now say with confidence that the rumors about Fender’s Japan branch making exceptionally high-quality axes are completely true. I think what I liked the most about Shibuya, though, had to be the fact they within the town limits, there is a Denny’s. I hadn’t eaten Denny’s food since the one back at home went out of business almost ten years ago, so I was ready to scarf down a Grand Slam faster than the speed of sound. Despite this, I was pretty surprised to find that they didn’t have Grand Slams, or even any American style meals. I was just a little let down by this until I saw that the Japanese Denny’s’ dessert menu items were all alternative takes on American desserts. The two of us stuffed our faces full of ice cream, honey, and Cocoa Puff-topped pancakes, and neither of us regretted a single yen, or bite. After we said our farewells, I headed back to the hotel to get ready for the next day: Akihabara.

From my experience, if anybody’s ever heard of Akihabara, then they will tell you that it’s the geek capital of the world for one of many reasons. There are stores everywhere in town that sell things like computer parts, old video games, DVD’s, comic books, and toys, as well as a lot of items that are probably best left out of something that a teacher’s going to be reading in the near future. I planned ahead to meet another Ursinus student whose been studying abroad at the train station, and she served as my tour guide for the day. Along the way, we saw many interesting sites that evoked all sorts of different emotions in me, like excitement, nostalgia, embarrassment, and absolute disgust. I was also introduced to one of the best kabobs I’ve ever eaten, and the thought that it came from a street cart still manages to blow my mind. Overall, the day felt like something of an enlightening experience that I’d like to get more of next time I come to Tokyo on my own.

On our final, full day in Japan, 6 of us all coordinated a trip to Tokyo Disneyland, which we counted on lasting at least the entire day. We all woke up early in the morning, caught the train, and found ourselves able to spot the giant castle from about half a mile away. I was pretty surprised to find that it really wasn’t all that different from Disney World in Florida, except that it was much, much more condensed, and the fact that the movie “Lilo and Stitch” is overwhelmingly popular there. Despite this, and a bad rainstorm that lasted the first half of the day, we all had a terrific time, and we all managed to find something that we really liked about the day. For me, it had to be hearing “Zippity Doo Da” and “Small World” in Japanese, which was something that I knew my family would really get a kick out of when I told them about it later on.

I wish I could’ve stayed maybe just another week, even a few more days would’ve been fine, but all good things need to come to an end, I guess, in order to make room for more good things. Still, I definitely plan on returning to Japan at some point in my life, hopefully with my friends or family, so that I can be the tour guide, this time. I just have to keep reminding myself that even though the carnival has come and gone already, it’ll never go away forever. The carnival always comes back around again.