And so it goes...

Today was a no-school holiday celebrating the founding of Waseda. And, on that note, I shall tell you a little of Waseda's history!

Waseda was founded by Okuma Shigenobu in 1882 and, in case you forget this fact, there are statues of him everywhere around Waseda Campus. In fact, his main statue is a common meeting place for students so, even if you do not know his name, you know his face. Anyway, it was founded during the Meiji Restoration and I vaguely recall my history teacher making a point about this. Maybe it was one of the first Universities? Something like that. I feel silly not knowing. Anyway, if you want to know more than that, check out Waseda's home page (here's a convenient link) or you could always go to wikipedia.

here's a nifty picture of
Okuma which we shorten to 大隈銅像
in text messages...i think

Oh, a little story I meant to tell you guys: When I was in Shibuya on Friday (see previous post) I ran into an Earlham friend, Carlos. It was pretty whack. Shibuya is definitly the strangest place to run into someone you know, because it's always full of people (just like the rest of Japan >.<). When I first saw him he was, go figure, looking at a car. Good story, yeah?

Now, onto Today. I went to Ueno and Akihabara. Sounds exciting, yeah? It was nice, but Akihabara was a little bit of a dud. Maybe I just didn't go to the right place? Akihabara is popular for electronics and otaku (anime-fans). And there was a lot of electronics and a lot of anime culture. It was exactly what I expected.

I'm quitting my life as a
student so I can become a maid
and serve tea and cake
to all the Akiba-otakus!!!!!!

So, I know that wasn't much of a post. Better luck next time, eh? Check out my photos on facebook. I should be posting a new album or two within the next 24 hours!

Culture Shock

Culture Shock #1

Instead of writing about boogers, mystical Japanese remedies or plastic surgery (all very interesting subjects) I am going to write about the strange, passive-aggressive/aggressive side of Japan I never actually knew about. Then I'll give you a more interesting 'culture shock'.

I have two anecdotes I wish to relay onto you, my dear readers. The first concerns my Japanese teacher, Itou-sensei, and her fun culture lessons. Her first nugget of wisdom came in the warning of 'not to look at Japanese people in the eye'. You never know when someone is going to stab you. The next lesson we revieved, was a warning not to stand too close to the tracks when waiting for our trains. Why? Because someone might push us into them! But, Itou sensei, why would someone want to do that? Do they dislike foreigners? No, it's because sometimes, Japanese people do it. Who knows, maybe it's stress?

These are just warm-ups. The final Itou-ism concerns the lady, herself. As she tells it, she was on her morning train when the woman sitting next to her fell asleep, and her head dropped onto Itou sensei's shoulder. Naturally, Itou sensei did nothing, that is UNTIL she got off, when she gave the sleeping woman a nudge in the ribs. Ouch!

My next story is just as crazy as the last one. It happened after I crossed the big intersection in Shibuya (the one from the video). A lady had tripped and, from my standpoint, the culprit was her shoes catching on the textured part of the sidewalk (which helps blind people 'see'). When she gets up, she swings her plastic shopping bag (which has something in it) at a random girl. And by swing, I mean bases-loaded-gee-i-hope-i-get-a-home-run swing. Kapow! My only response was 'Whaa?' Seriously, the girl did not deserve to be attacked. I mean, seriously?

That was shocking to me...

Now, something a little more fun:
See? See? Seeee? The one with the pink hair! We call them 'Gyaru' or 'Gals' This is actually a whole range of the 'Gal' style, but my favorite is the ganguro-gyaru, aka the one with the pink hair and white war paint. (In Shibuya, in front of Shibuya 109)
<3<3<3

I want to write a little piece called 'culture shock', but I really want the reader's opinion so...Mom, Dad, please leave your comments (hahaaaa). But seriously, anything you guys and gals want to know about? Anything you've heard you want me to confirm or any myth you want me to....BUST? (I <3 Mythbusters).

If you all have no opinions, I'm going to start 'culture shock' with my breakfasts because, let me tell you...Every morning I get a little culture shock just looking at it <3.

Lydia

Another Week...Gone

Hey! I'm doing it! I'm making another post :)

Again, school the week went by and I do not have much to say on that. It's a little odd, how little I to say on that subject. Right now, my biggest complaint is my [in]ability to do my reading homework. For some reason, my Art History teacher does not give us a syllabus, but expects us to go online and search for it (okay, maybe that sounds a little lazy). Once we find said reading list in the vast web that is Waseda's "Course N@vi" we have to decipher what the heck it says (it really is a jumble of book and journal titles and no dates), and then we have to, somehow, find the readings in the library. Oh, and, there's one or two books for about 35 students. Yeah...not happening. So in the two weeks of school I've done NO reading. I need to talk to the teacher again about how impossible it is to do his homework.

On to the important stuff. Japan. I mean, that's the only reason we're doing this, right? Me, so I can post all the fun, exotic and strange things that surround me and you, so you can read them!

On Saturday, I had my first club meeting. I joined a club called 'Waseda Donuts' a.k.a. 'Wasedo'. After a bit of confusion I managed to meet up with Takero, the co-leader (and a first year, I might add). At first I was afraid I had joined the wrong club, because everyone brought an instrument. There was a guitar, a green clarinet-type thingy, three recorders, an ocarina, a cow bell, a few tambourines, and some cute, kiddie bells. However, once they all started to practice songs like, 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' and 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' I didn't feel so bad. I mean, I still had nothing to contribute besides my madd tambourine skillz, but I managed. Then (and here's where some people got weirded out) we went to a sports center to PLAY WITH CHILDREN (All three of them)! Haha, no, they came to us, and we did 'Halloween' stuff. And by that, I mean we did some makeup, some balloon animals, and a musical jam-session. Just like the real Halloween. Oh, did I mention we ate donuts? Yum!

Is that not the cutest kid ever? His name
is Hiro, and he was wild. He's wearing
a nice, traditional halloween costume :)

After a few hours with the kids, we had a nomikai. That translate to 'drinking meeting' and is pretty much what it sounds like. There was dinner too, but the main event is the drinking. We started at 7:30 or 8, and went until 10:30. It is important to start early, because if you rely on a train or subway to take you home, the last one's leave around 11:30 pm. It's pretty inconvenient, but [almost] everyone has to deal with it. So, at 10:30, we left and split into two groups. One group went home (I think?), the other group did a 'second round'. I was in the second round, but I did not stay too long. I had an earlier train to catch. But, I managed to get a membership card for an 'izakaya' (Japanese style bar), so I'm looking forward to that :) All-in-all, I think it was a pretty good day. I hope they ask me to come back :)

Yesterday I was with the Earlham kids (including the Waseda students who were there last year), we walked through Harajuku, Shibuka and ended the night with monjyaki. Monjyaki looks gross. I'm just going to include some pictures, you can judge for yourself what it looks like. What I really want to talk about is Shibuya. Shibuya is famous for a few things; shopping, partying, the statue of Hachiko and Shibuya Crossing. I believe it is one of the worlds most traversed crossings? Well, I'm sure I'm making this up but, see for yourself what it's like:


I started the video before we crossed, and stopped it before we finished.

So, there you have a little taste of what Japan is like. What did you think? Do you recognize it from 'Lost in Translation'? :)

Here's Haruna making the monjyaki...notice
how runny and icky it looks?
It gets a little thicker as it cooks...but it's still odd.

Well, I'm off to bed. Got to get up early if I want to be able to fit on those trains, yeah? ^_^

-Lydia

p.s. anything you guys and girls want to see? Send me your requests! haha! Thanks for reading and, as always, I apologize for any spelling errors :)

I`ve been a bad girl...

Hey people who read this!

Sorry, by now most of you realize how lazy I am. I have a hard time updating a blog once a week. I hope people actually are checking it, because I made it for you guys! Yay! *insert happy face*I`m just going to do a quick update, I am at school right now.

Last weekend went down like this:

Thursday: Checked out `The Hub` after school. At night, it is basically only Waseda kids, and some foreigners. It`s an Irish Pub, what do you expect? Haha, anyway it`s expensive, smokey and all the good stuff that pubs usually are. I returned home early that night (left at half past 10, got home after 11).

Friday: Did some stuff in the morning (no class), went shopping around Takada no Baba (a big station near waseda). Then, went to Harajuku with some girls. Walked up and down the main st, did a lot of window shopping. I lost my phone, then found it again. It`s all good...I`ll talk more about that night in my next entry.

Saturday: What did I do? I did homework. At night, I met the Waseda kids who were at Earlham last year, and had dinner plus all we could drink. It was pretty awesome, except that the place we went to served us mostly pork foods, and I didn`t eat a lot. On the bright side, I ended up paying nothing. Thanks Earlham! Also, that night was great, because I managed to catch both of my last trains! Yay for not having to get a taxi.

Sunday: I was lazy, until I realized there was a bbq arranged by the club that was helping us at our orientation. I rushed through my shower and managed to meet everyone. Funny note: there was a well dressed Japanese man passed out near our meeting spot. Awesome! The bbq was okay...having to take an hour long train ride to get there was NOT nice. It ended up okay, i ate lots of beef! Finally! Went home, took a shower, did homework.

Okay! Sorry for the cave-man talk, sorry for the spelling mistakes. I hope that satisfies the thirst for knowledge until tomorrow :)

LYDIAAAAAA

First Day of School

As my title suggest, today was my first day at Waseda University's School of Liberal Studies, aka SILS. It was a rough first day, since I had classes from 9 until 4, with only a 50 minute lunch break. What made it worse, was all the rain. I guess there is typhoon weather that has been sending us rain. Anyway, without further ado, I give you...my SCHEDULE!

Japanese 3a (Mon, Tues, Thurs 9-12:10)
Japan Anthropology (Mon 1-2:30; Wed 10:40-12:10)
History of Modern Japan (Mon and Thurs 2:40-4:10)
Art History (of Japan) (Tues 1-4:10)

Yes, I know, it is a lot of classes about Japan but let's not forget that I am a Japanese Studies major. Hopefully by the end of this year (if not by the end of this semester), I'll have figured out a direction I want to go in with my thesis. So far all I got is maybe I could write about social/cultural implications of food. I don't know, that does not really make sense, does it? Haha...I though I would get to take a class this semester that had that theme. It was Waseda's online course syllabus that gave me this idea.


Anyway, back to my day (and maybe about my week?). I woke up at 6:20 so I could shower and be ready before breakfast. I wasn't ready. I left my house about 7:40 and, of course, I did not miss rush hour. Luckily my station is not one of those that hires 'pushers' and by that I mean those men who politely, yet forcibly, push you into the train to make sure the doors will shut. Now, don't get the idea that my train is not crowded, because it is really crowded. Once, I let two trains pass because I was too afraid to get on them, they were so full. I finally managed to muscle my way onto the 'women's only' train. Everything you hear about Japan that sounds something like, "Oh, the Japanese are so polite" and other phrases that follow, you can just throw out the window during the period of 7:30-9:30. I do not know the exact time frames, but you get the general idea. Pushing is not optional, it's mandatory. If you want a place on any morning train, you have to pave your own way. With that said, I would like to say something about being a foreigner in such a homogeneous country...it sucks. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm liking Japan, but people [that don't know me] treat me like an obstacle. In the mornings, people assume I don't know the appropriate way of lining up for the trains, so they cut right in front of me. When I arrive at my station, people try to step around me when I'm walking forward. Once, a Japanese girl asked me where I was going, only to tell me I was, in fact, on the RIGHT train. Thanks!

The fact is, turning this pointless story into one with a point, that no matter how long I am here, I will always be just a gai koku jin, a person from a foreign country. There are plenty of foreigners who have made their lives here, but I am pretty sure that none of them are ever treated 100% the same as other Japanese. Now, I'm sure this happens all over the world, but I have never been on the other end of this. In America I am used to seeing people who do not look like me (Caucasian) and my first instinct is not usually, "Hey, look! Foreigner!" But, again, that's just because I've grown up in a country where I am surrounded by all sorts of different races. I am constantly being told, no matter if it is a psychology class or a pop. culture class, that Japan is an island separated from other cultures by the ocean and because of this they have remained homogeneous. Anyway, I think I'm raining, and I'm sure no one wants to read that.

On to something a little more (maybe not) exciting. One of our last group orientation sessions, we went to Kamakura, which is one of the old Capitals of Japan. If you are interested in it's exact history, please search it on wikipedia, because I've forgotten everything about it! I shall conclude with a few pictures from that day (Friday, September 26th).


I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining a lot. I think it's a mixture of the culture shock process (phase 2: unrealistic observations and other such ridiculousness) and adjusting to a new family and school life/schedule. I am looking forward to my year in Japan. So, please enjoy these pictures of the Kamakura temple and surrounding areas.

Byebye!

Home Sweet, Foreign, Home.

Hajimemashite. Atashi wa Rideia (Lydia) desu. Douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
How are you. I am Lydia. Nice to meet you. (lit This is our first time [meeting]. I am Lydia. Please take care of me)

Here I am. I have moved into my new home and met my family. They are super nice and, because they have hosted so many students in the past (15, my host mother said), they seem more open and playful than your average, 60 year olds.

Here are some quick facts: My mother is a traditional housewife. She does the shopping, cooking and cleaning (Except for mine, apparently. Ha!!). My father is a retired policeman turned 'government worker.' I'm not sure what he does, but he probably is behind a desk all day. My brothers, ages 33 and 29, are both policemen AND they still live at home. Take that, mom!

Right now, I'm chilling in my room, listening to someone play some sort of recorder (that instrument all of us learned in 4th grade). One thing that is similar to my home-stay experiences in Osaka and Tokyo is that the houses are squished together. They are all about three stories high but, using my house as an example, the bottom floor is used for the car. I think my family has a pretty sweet gig: They have a nice kitchen/dining room, a tatami mat room (6 mats in size), four bedrooms (mine, parents, brothers), a sweet entertainment area FILLED with manga, a bathroom and a shower/sink room (i think each floor has this, but I don't use the third floor, since that's where my brother's rooms are so I am not so sure).

Here are a few pics. I don't want to post too many, since it's kind of an invasion of my family's privacy:

View from the top of my house, main street, facing.....right.
My sweet, sweet dining area. You can't see the whole table where we eat, it's hidden by the small counter. This photo is taken standing in the kitchen area. It's a cute little double room. Heeh...
My little room. There's a little closet tucked away in the corner. I managed to shove all my luggage in there!!

Well, there you have it. That's a slice of my new little life. Sorry, no rhyme intended.

School starts Monday, and once I get my class schedule, I'll post that. Until then, I need to find a way and place to withdraw money. Tomorrow we go to Kamakura, then Friday I go to Waseda to have a final orientation/ home-stay language lesson AND get my Japanese cell-phone. I will also try to get the health check so I can use Waseda's gym and other facilities. Then this weekend, I will try to withdraw money, if I have not already done it Thursday or Friday. I am almost out!!

I'm outie!

Lydia

I`m finally here...

...so why has it taken so long for me to write?


Friends,

Today I experienced my first earthquake. Around 7:25, the morning of September 21st, I was in my bed and I was a little confused, but after realizing what it was, I was naturally excited. "Wow! This is pretty cool!" are pretty much the words I said. Hopefully, experiencing earthquakes remains a new and exciting experience, otherwise, well...You know.

So far, I`ve been to the following parts of Toyko:
Higashi-Yamatoshi-a smaller suburb-ish area where our dorm is, and most of the orientation sessions take place
Waseda-The area in and around Waseda University (the station exit is called `Takada no Baba`
Asakusa-A part of Tokyo with an older history; it houses a shrine to a really old Buddha statue, and the pathway leading up to it is filled with great, touristy shops.
Shinjuku- Lots of bright flashing light, various types of arcades and shops
Harajuku- Clothes, clothes and more clothes. I saw a few people dressed up in the extremes of Japanese fashion. Very interesting.

I have not had a long time in all of these places, except for Higashi-Yamatoshi. I`ll write more about all this later, when I`m not sharing 2 computers with 30 students.

Jya ne! (Later then)
Lydia