Roppongi Hills and Yokohama

Great weekend, starting all the way back on Friday. It was a public holiday, meaning in the morning the trains were DESERTED -- we actually got a seat on the first train! I only had Japanese class, since my professor had canceled my anthropology class to stay home with his kids (who didn't have school). After Japanese, I got lunch with some friend and hung out before the SISEC meeting, which was packed as usual. After the meeting we picked up some stipends from CIEE (dinner/bottled water stipend for May, and commuter pass stipend for the next three months) -- pay day! A big group of us then headed out towards Roppongi Hills. We took the subway there (my first time), and walked through a park with really cute playground equipment that also had a slide made out of metal rollers. Of course I had to go down it, even though it had just been raining -- I had hoped my friend who went first would have mostly dried it off, but such was not the case. It was worth it.

Garden at Roppongi Hills

Next, a rather damp me and the rest of us made it to Roppongi Hills, which was amazing. Roppongi is an area that can get somewhat sketchy at night, but Roppongi Hills is a giant complex complete with high-end shops, a movie theater, performance space, park, TV studio, etc. Google it. We did some shopping, walked around inside and outside, and a few of us walked a Chinese yo-yo performance -- there were lots of kids watching, and I took lots of pictures of both the kids and the performance. He was really good. After the performance, the group headed home, but I went back to campus to meet some other friends to go out for dinner. We went over to Shin-Okubo, which apparently is where a lot of Koreans live, and spent about an hour walking around trying to find a place for 20 of us to have dinner. Everywhere was really crowded since it was a holiday, and we had not made a reservation. We ended up splitting into two groups, which made it easier to find a place. I ended up having a delicious Korean dinner -- my first time with authentic Korean food I believe -- and it was a lot of fun. More friends showed up later so we kind of took up the whole restaurant. The tables were in the low-lying style where we sat on tatami mats, which is always an adventure for me, but I made it work. We were there for a few hours and finally left when the restaurant owner basically told us that they were closing, so we needed to pay and go home. It was a lot of fun.

Chinatown in Yokohama

Saturday morning a group of us headed out to Yokohama to do a picture scavenger hunt/walking tour with SISEC. I was in a group with the other Wellesley student who is on my program, so we took a lot of "Wellesley pictures." Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population, so there was a lot to see. We spent about four hours walking around different areas and taking pictures. We ate lunch in Chinatown, walked around there some, and then headed down to the port before making it back over to Landmark Tower, which is a 70ish story building with a great view of the city. The scavenger hunt was really entertaining -- before lunch we didn't really take many pictures, but once we ate we got a little more serious about it. Some of the items were to hug a stranger, take a picture with a group of tourists, and take a pictures with a group of guys (each guy was 50 points). So, we creeped out a group of Americans and ended up in a big group hug, swooped in on a group of men waiting outside a hotel after a wedding, and three guys from DC -- I was trying to talk to them more about the US, but the group kept moving. We also made a pyramid of people (I was at the bottom...), took a picture with someone's pet bunny, and attempted to spell out "SISEC" in the grass -- we attracted a few curious glances, to say the least. It was great.

SISEC Pyramid!

The group of 70+ SISEC members met back at Landmark Tower around 5:30pm, and we decided to eat before heading to the top of the tower, so we could see the view at night. I ate at an okonomiyaki place which was absolutely delicious. Next was the tower -- the elevator moves at 750 meters / minute, so we were at the 69th floor (273 meters up in the air) in a matter of seconds. It was a beautiful view, although some of the Japanese students were telling us about how there are normally a bunch more lights (as I have discussed before). Still, it was really cool to see, and the city lights seemed to go on forever. It was great.

Wellesley <3 at the top of Landmark Tower

Friends at the top of Landmark Tower

After the tower, a group of CIEE students headed off to Shibuya to find some place to hang out, and I was originally going to join them but then decided to head home to sleep, because I have a long week ahead of me. I found out on Thursday night that I got a spot on the bus to go volunteer in Tohoku from May 2nd to May 7th. I will be going up to Hanamaki in the Iwate prefecture (which is as far north from Fukushima as Tokyo is south of it), and will be doing relief work for four days. I leave at 10pm on Monday night, spend the night on the bus, and then start work on Tuesday morning, so Tuesday will be a really long day. I believe our first priority will be to clean up the school to get it ready to open again, and then we will move on to cleaning up some houses. We will get more information once we get up there. I have been mentioning from the beginning of this blog how I have wanted to do relief work, so I'm really glad this opportunity worked out. Since Tuesday-Thursday is a holiday in Japan, I only have to miss one day of class to do four days of work. It should be a great experience, but both emotionally and physically very challenging. As I have mentioned before, being in Tokyo it is easy to forget about the destruction up north, but for the next five days that will certainly be at the forefront.  I am going to chronicle my experience as much as possible, but since we will be working with refugees there are various privacy laws to keep in mind. At any rate, I should have cell phone service and will be updating my parents and sister while I am up there, so check in with them if you are worried!

Flyjin

I can't believe it's already Thursday night! This week has flown by but I am super exhausted. My classes have been relatively uneventful and I am looking forward to the weekend and next weekend's Golden Week holiday. On Monday I had Japanese class in the morning, and then lunch with a bunch of Japanese friends -- we got our food in the cafeteria and then took it to a nearby classroom, which was great because we actually had space to move our elbows. Seriously, the cafeterias are so crowded at lunch it was insane. But I had my delicious lunch and then economics, which was basically a review of a class I have already taken at Wellesley. After classes were over two of my friends and I went to do some shopping in Harajuku, where I made my first real purchases other than food. I got a super cute floral backpack and also "blinged out" my phone (see below), so now if anyone was considering taking me seriously they definitely won't. Harajuku is fast becoming our favorite place for shopping, and I can't wait to take my sister there! (Start saving your money now.)

My phone~

On Tuesday I had my usual classes (Japanese and super-boring anthropology), and I was pretty exhausted so I came home right after school and did some work before going to sleep early. I still really like the topic of my anthropology class, but we don't do very much in class. That said, we have an interesting homework assignment for next week (comparing Avatar to Princess Mononoke, a Japanese anime film), and the professor cancelled class for Friday, so overall I'm pretty happy with the course.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was a beautiful day. It has started getting really nice during the day but still gets pretty chilly at night. Yesterday I had Japanese in the morning and then we had our (last!) "orientation" meeting in the afternoon. The first part was actually really interesting -- we met with Dr. Slater again and he talked about a lot of unique Japanese social characteristics such as the ideas of uchi and soto -- i.e. the concept of "insider" vs "outsider." One of his most interesting points was discussing the difference between "maturity" in the US vs Japan -- at home, you are considered "mature" if you are an independent, self-sufficient adult who can make their own decisions and knows how to interact in social situations. In Japan, however, being "mature" is seen as recognizing that you actually are dependent on others, and so you must take responsibility for your own actions and how they affect others. Pretty interesting distinction. Also, Dr. Slater mentioned the term "flyjin" (pronounced fly-jean) -- it is a play on the word "gaijin" (guy-jean), which means foreigner in Japanese, and "flyjin" is (jokingly?) being used to poke fun at all of the foreigners who fled Japan after the disaster. I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that people still thank us for staying here or for deciding to still come, and that hasn't changed.


Yesterday I didn't get home until pretty late after my NGO management class, so I did some homework and then went to bed. Today was also a really long day. I had Japanese in the morning, then had lunch with some friends -- I came in late and they told me to sit in this chair that was basically in the middle of everyone, so I was bombarded from all directions by Japanese for about 30 minutes. Immersion. After lunch I had economics where we had another in-class problem set, and then later at night there was a volunteering information session. Peace Boat and Second Harvest Japan were both there to talk about what they have been doing, and how we can get involved. I unfortunately can't go volunteer next week during Golden Week, but I am looking at dates later in May.


Nothing too exciting to report from this week -- but these next few weeks should be great. Saturday I am going to Yokohama with SISEC, and then next week I have Tuesday-Thursday off from school so I am going to Kobe and Osaka! I am visiting our family friends and also am trying to meet up with one of my high school teachers, who is currently teaching at an international school in Osaka. Then, the next weekend is my BIRTHDAY!!! It's on a Friday (Friday the 13th!), and my birthday is also normally during finals period at Wellesley -- so I finally get to have a real celebration. AND this will be my first time ever celebrating my birthday in the time zone where I was born. SO EXCITED! Have a great weekend everyone!

Easter!

Happy Easter! It's so weird to be in Japan during an American holiday that I usually celebrate -- I'm normally bombarded by Easter candy and decorations in stores starting before Christmas (basically), but I haven't seen anything similar here. I did manage to eat a Reeses today but that was the extent of my American-style celebration... Today was a pretty chill day as I woke up really not feeling well, so I slept for a while more and ended up going to a late light lunch around 4pm. We ended up at McDonalds (typical Americans?), where I had a normal chicken sandwich and then a "banana cake" mini McFlurry -- it was pretty freakin awesome. The McDonalds in our area is inside of a supermarket, so we also did some grocery shopping. I got a new box of cereal and a bunch of fruit, so I'm pretty stocked for breakfast for the next two weeks. I ended up going out for dinner later and split a delicious pasta/rice/tonkatsu (pork) dish with a friend since I wasn't that hungry. It was super oishii (delicious). We also went to a bakery to get dessert, so overall today wasn't the most healthy day for eating, but hey it's a holiday right!? I got this strawberry shortcake thing which was really yummy. I feel like I say that about everything I eat here, but it's true -- everything is so good!

Dinner! Noodles, pork, and rice with egg! Nom

Easter dessert -- packaged with easy-open box, ice pack, and individually wrapped spoon

Yesterday I hung out in the dorm most of the day because it was pouring outside for most of the day. I got some work done and it finally stopped raining around late afternoon so I left with some friends to go to Takadanobaba for dinner. I thought we were just meeting a few people but we ended up running into the giant group that was gathered for the SISEC event, so we went with upwards of 40 people to a restaurant for light food and drinks. It was an overload of Japanese but I've been trying to use more of what I know in conversation (which is still not much). After taking one semester of Japanese before coming here, I felt like I was at least a tiny bit prepared, but now getting here and being in actual social situations I feel vastly underprepared. Its really overwhelming but I learn something lots of new things every day so hopefully within the next few weeks I will start to feel better. Thankfully, I usually have about four human dictionaries with me at all times, since most everyone on my program knows more than me -- they have been really helpful :). Overall though, the SISEC event was really fun and I've made several good Japanese friends!

Friday (two days ago) was also a great day. I had Japanese in the morning and then an early lunch with some friends, and then went to a SISEC meeting which was mostly in Japanese with the occasional English translation. I'm really bad at approximating, but there were probably at least 60+ students in the classroom where the meeting was held, so it took a while for everything to get settled down. The meeting was mostly in Japanese with the important events also translated into English, so we got the information for the upcoming events for the next few weeks (ice skating, Yokohama tour, cooking party the day after my birthday!). The meeting was kind of overwhelming--they wanted all of the exchange students to sit in the front--but it was nice to see some familiar faces.

After lunch I had my anthropology class, which I still really like, but most of the learning is definitely going to take place outside of the classroom... class time has not been productive, to say the least. But, we have an interesting assignment for next week which will soon be posted on my class blog, so in all it was fine.

Friday night was a "girls' night" as we sent the guys off to do their own thing and a bunch of us girls went to Omotesando for dinner. We at at this place called Eggs 'n' Things, which is apparently a chain in Hawaii, but it had super delicious American breakfast food. I got chocolate chip pancakes, and last minute decided to add whipped cream, which turned out to be a quality decision. We spent a few hours at the dinner place and were never pressured to leave despite the line of people waiting to be seated -- thank you Japanese service. We also sat outside and it still gets pretty chilly at night, so we were all provided with an individual blanket to use at our seats. Amazing.

Whipped cream... with some pancakes on the side

After dinner we walked to Shibuya to this little alleyway lined with tiny bars on either side -- we picked one and went up to their second floor where the seven of us filled up the whole space (the ground floor was the same size). Unfortunately, my camera was dead, but it was a great traditional Japanese experience and was really relaxing. We had great conversation the whole night and it was really good company. After an hour or so we left the bar and walked around Shibuya a bit more before deciding to head back to the dorm, as we were all pretty tired from our first full week of class.

In all, I had a pretty chill weekend, mainly since I wasn't feeling well for part of it. Some of my friends visited Tokyo Tower, which is definitely at the top of my list of things to do next. My mommy mailed me an Easter package which I can pick up tomorrow -- yay thanks mom! I'm excited for some American candy :) Time for sleep -- tomorrow begins another full week of class!

Getting My Edjumacation

I am almost done with my first full week of classes and I absolutely love all of them. I have never been this excited about actually going to class -- but it's a good thing I'm so enthusiastic about it here since there is so much else to do in Tokyo. On Wednesday I had Japanese and then an afternoon walking tour of the Yotsuya area, which was absolutely amazing. My tour guide was a really cute Japanese lady and, after the now-routine "Why did you come!? Aren't you worried!?!!?" introductions, gave us lots of interesting information about the area within walking distance of our campus. We started out by the university playing fields, which are in what used to be the moat surrounding the castle grounds, and ended up at the Imperial Palace, which I had actually already visited last time I was in Tokyo with my family in 2008. Tokyo is absolutely beautiful and it is so interesting to see the modern buildings juxtaposed with the zen gardens and sakura trees. It was a great (free) tour and I really enjoyed exploring the area around the university more (which I hadn't done that much yet).

Nijubashi Bridge on the Imperial Palace grounds in April 2011 (left) and July 2008 (right) -- notice any similarities?

After rushing back to campus from the tour end point, Wednesday night I had my first NGO Management seminar -- I'm gonna let the others finish, but I think this is going to be my favorite class *of all time*. The professor is the CEO of Second Harvest Japan, and he is a very charismatic speaker who is really knows his stuff. We had a great class yesterday talking about the differences between NGOs and NPOs, and also got into what makes a "bad" NGO. We talked about the issue of capacity and how too much money coming in too quickly can actually hurt an organization if they don't have the resources to handle it, as the excess funds could lead to waste, corruption, etc.  I could write a whole blog post about the class but I'll try to check myself here. DidImentionI'mreallyexcitedaboutthisclass.

The only downside about the class is that it is from 5-8:15pm on Wednesday nights, so after eating dinner I didn't get home until around 10pm. But, I had pretty much finished my homework so I was still able to get a good night's sleep before waking up on Thursday -- which was a great day. The train commute was not bad at all (I barely broke a sweat on the train) and then Japanese was semi-interesting (I'm still relearning things I know) and I was really productive between classes. For anyone who is interested/stalking me/obsessed with blogs, I'm keeping another blog for my anthropology class on the earthquake. We were all required to post about our experience with the earthquake on 3.11, and then we read our other classmates's posts about it -- so I got several firsthand accounts of Japanese students' experiences, which was really interesting. I am really excited about that class as well -- I mentioned that on Tuesday a group from Japan Action for Refugees came to give us a notice about an information session, which I went to this afternoon. The session was rather long -- I actually arrived kind of late because I wasn't given the exact location for the meeting, and after I walked in with a few other American-looking people they decided to present information in both Japanese and English (thankfully). I am really excited about this opportunity and, if all goes as planned, will be going up to northern Japan (still far away from the reactor) during the first week of May to do relief work. We will be working on getting the school in the area open again and then clearing debris from houses. It will definitely be exhausting both physically and emotionally but I am so thankful that I will get an opportunity to help.

After the information session I headed back to the dorm with several students and we got dinner at one of our regular places before heading home for the night. I had a very relaxing night: I finally put my suitcases under the bed, rearranged everything on my shelves, and caught up on pictures (and blogging). I finally feel settled in to my room (my bed is actually the most comfortable thing ever) and rested physically even after a long week of class. There was actually just a medium-sized aftershock while I was typing this post. I'm pretty used to them by now, but it still makes my heart race every time the slight swaying turns into definitely noticeable shaking. Not to freak my parents out or anything. I can't believe I've been here for almost two weeks -- it feels like I just got here, but also like I've been here forever. But, there is still so much to do and so little time! I think I am finally going to do karaoke tomorrow night -- can't wait!