HIIIII!! I'm back in Tokyo!! And have been for a little over two weeks!! Prepare yourselves for the epic Anna-attempts-to-recap-the-last-seventeen-days-in-one-entry post!!
(Note: This entry was written in three sittings over the course of two days, so, you know... Enter At Your Own Risk. For serious this time.)
Saturday, 29 August
After touching down in Haneda Airport (Tokyo's other airport, aside from Narita) on our way back from Hokkaido, we (James, Katie, Kim, Nora and I, plus Geoffery, a guy Nora and I knew from SCJ that also happened to be involved in the HIF program) braved the subway/metro/monorail/I-don't-even-know-what-form-of-public-transport-we-were-using to get us close to James/Katie/Nora's apartment complex, which was then followed by us attempting to navigate the taxi we took to said apartment complex. After finding the apartments, we got the three that were actually LIVING in the apartments moved in while the other three of us awkwardly hovered around outside. Once they were all moved in, Geoffery, Kim and I stashed our stuff in their rooms so we could spend the night. We watched a movie (Garden State, I think... I don't actually remember, I passed out halfway through) and then crashed for the night.
Sunday, 30 August
Left the apartments at 10-ish in the AM to meet by host family (the Endo family) at Global House on campus because I didn't actually remember if we were supposed to meet at 11 AM or 1 PM and I figured it would be better to be way early than way late. Walked over to GH with my luggage, but it was locked, so I stood around outside, waiting for a while until one of the dorm advisors let me in and helped me get the bag I'd left there to store over the break. After I got all that taken care of, I realized that I actually wasn't supposed to meet my family until 1:00 o I settled in to hang out until they came. Miho (one of the SCJ helpers) came to hang out with me, as did Max, one of the GH dorm presidents (I think), who proceeded to tell me an epic tale about the rabbits in the moon that make mochi and are cloned from a genius bunny named Balthazar. I think. It was very strange, but highly entertaining.
Eventually Okaa-san (Yoshie, the mother figure) came to pick me up and drop off the bike that they're lending me to use to get around campus (and will be the center of several other tales-to-come in this entry) and take me back to the house. She brought Yoshiko with her, which confused the hell out of me because I'd initially been informed that there was a mother, a father, and a grandmother in the family I was staying with and Okaa-san and Yoshiko look to be about the same age. I shrugged it off and figured I'd get it explained to me soon enough. They took me out for soba on the way home (it was DELICIOUS) and complemented me on my proper tea-drinking method. After I told them that I just imitate what the people around me do, they instructed me in the proper (Japanese) way to pick up chopsticks. It was pretty entertaining. Then we went back to the house where I met Otou-san (Tomo, the father figure) and Obaa-chan (Hiroko [I think], the grandmother figure). We got me moved into my washitsu (tatami floor room) that is, incongruently, armed with a Western style bed rather than a futon. Whatever, I like it. I crashed for a few hours before dinner, which was quite an experience. I don't think the story will sound quite as good being told two weeks later, but I'll do my best to fully capture the UTTER SHOCK involved in this dinner.
As I said above, I was told that I was going to be living with a mother, father, and grandmother, meaning I was expecting to be one of four people at dinner.
Instead, there were ELEVEN of us.
I kid you not.
As Madeline so aptly described it a few days after my initial arrival, it's "like one of those houses out of a storybook with a giant family that always has people coming and going!" It's not LIKE that, it IS that. I'm of the opinion now that it's totally awesome, but at the time I was just overwhelmed. On top of Okaa-san, Otou-san and Obaa-chan, there was also Yoshiko and her husband Yuichi, friends of the family that LIVE with the family (Yoshiko helps out around the house and Yuichi works outside of the house but lives with the Endo family); Fumiko (I THINK that's her name), another friend of the family who has been having some medical issues and is living with the Endo family for the time being; Christopher (not sure if I spelled that right and who just goes by Kuri-chan because he doesn't like the way his name sounds in Japanese), a Frenchman who is on his third round of staying with the Endo family; he initially came as a student and is now here on a tourist visa (I think... although I think he's doing some work at a French restaurant too... hmmm...), but living with the Endo family; Ibun (again, not sure on spelling as I've only ever head the katakana version of her name), a student from Taiwan; Yowakimu (REALLY not sure about that spelling--in fact, I'm almost SURE it's wrong... I blame katakana), a student from Sweden; Nao, a Japanese student living with the Endo family; and Asako, another friend of the family that is currently living with them. I also think Okaa-san and Otou-san's daughter showed up at some point too, but I actually still don't know her name. ... Awkward.
The whole thing was a little overwhelming, but is now about par for the course. I went to bed pretty early after that.
Monday, 31 August
Hung out around the house mostly, I guess... OH!! It was pouring down rain (TSUNAMI!!), but I had to pay my Japanese National Health Insurance (one of the things we have to do to stay in Japan for a prolonged period of time) before the end of the month, so I wandered out into said rain to the nearest convenience store (yes, you can pay your health insurance at a convenience store--in Japan, they really are CONVENIENCE stores). I got lost both on the way there AND on the way back, which is really entertaining to me now given that I was within three blocks of the house the whole time. Whatever, the directions were vague, and I was kinda blind given that it was RAINING. Other than that, though, I pretty much lazed around and caught up on some much needed rest. I had a little freak-out in the evening on account of my being totally disoriented and feeling a little cut-off from people (traveling will do that to you, I guess), but Okaa-san got me totally calmed down, and then we watched Hikaru-no-Go (an anime that I'm familiar with in passing--and, yes, that one's for you Daniel Poore) for a while before Ibun came and usurped the television for Buzzer Beat, a drama that's apparently a big deal in Japan right now on account of it starring Yamapi who's kind of a big deal actor over here. Apparently. (I dunno, he's pretty and all, but I don't see what all the hype's about.) Then it was BEDTIME!!!
Tuesday, September 1
I had an appointment on ICU campus in mid-afternoon so Okaa-san showed me how to get to school from the house. It involves a 20 minute bike ride (from the house to Asagaya station), a 10 minute train ride (From Asagaya station to Musashi-Sakai station), and another 20 minute bike ride/10 minute bus ride (from M-S station to ICU) depending on whether or not I have the bike on me (again, stories to come). Met/chatted with various folks on campus before I headed home for another lazy evening, although Okaa-san had to come pick me up at Asagaya and show me the way home.
Wednesday, September 2
Woke up and got to school early to pick up ID cards etc, as well as for Matriculation, which was totally pointless, even if I did get to meet Andre and Adrian who are adorable and EXTREMELY attractive respectively. Then there was a welcome luncheon after which I headed home for (as usual) a low-key evening.
Thursday, September 3
Would have had a lazy morning except I forgot to tell Okaa-san that I didn't have to leave until 12:00 for the orientations that I wound up all but sleeping through anyway. More importantly, though, I GOT MY BIKE CONFISCATED. See, people leave their bikes in so many random, in-the-way places that if you leave your bike unattended for too long the cops take it to the bicycle equivalent of an impound lot. Apparently I managed to find one of these illegal places to park my bike and THEY TOOK IT. It was frustrating, but I didn't have time to deal with it on Thursday; the resolution of this story will follow.
Anyway, after the fail-orientations were done, I went to the club orientation with James et al. Several of the on-campus clubs gathered and either performed or showed random movies to try and get us to join their clubs. It's actually because of this that I'm joining the Koto and Soul Run clubs (traditional Japanese harp and traditional Hokkaido dance respectively). Anyway, it was entertaining and tons of fun. Wandered around the club booths after the performances were done before catching a bus back to M-S station. And that was the day!!
Friday, September 4
Left the house a little later than intended but still got to school in a reasonable time frame (thanks to my needing to use the bus on account of my bike having been confiscated) for the continuation of the (still useless) orientations. Hung out through most of the morning stuff, then had lunch and went to another round of orientations. After those were done we went to club orientation day 2, which almost got me to join the aikido and ikebana clubs before I realized that that would probably kill me with too much stuff. That ran late, so I just headed home after that for dinner and bed.
Saturday, September 5
Went to a Kabuki (traditional Japanese theater that, to this day, is performed by all male actors) performance at Ginza theater with a student from Germany that had stayed with the Endo family a few years ago and his girlfriend, as well as Okaa-san. It was pretty interesting, right up until I made the mistake of sitting down, which let me fall asleep through a chunk of the performance. I blame the old-fashioned Japanese which meant that I was understanding even less than usual. It was still pretty cool though; I managed to wake up for about the last 20 minutes to enjoy the final big reveal (although I have no idea what we were revealing) and appreciate the ending and all that it entailed, along with the costumes/makeup/music. Fun stuff!! Then Okaa-san took us to a cute little cafe nearby before we headed home.
Sunday, September 6
The day of hanging out and pretending that I was being productive. Also the day that I told Okaa-san that I'd gotten the bike confiscated and she explained how to get it back. Which I attempted to do the next day. With little success. But more on that below.
Monday, September 7
REGISTRATION!!! Wen over to school to sign up for the classes that I wanted to take for the semester, which entailed a losing battle against ICU's internal computer system and was only salvaged by Erica swooping in to save me/explain what the heck I was doing wrong. After that was done I was GOING to go to the Meet and Greet with some of the regular Japanese students, but I was feeling tired and lame so I bailed and went in search of my bike. Which is an epic tale. Let me tell it to you:
I took a bus back to M-S station to try to decipher the sign telling me where my bike was. After THINKING I'd gotten it figured out, I went out to the north exit and wandered in what I thought was a northerly direction for about twenty minutes before I realized that I wasn't where I thought I was and turned around to head back to M-S. (I also ran into Hou-san from Hakodate while I was lost which was pretty entertaining.) Once there I checked out the sign again and realized that there was a bus that would take me most of the way to the impound lot. I checked the kanji for the stop I needed to get off at. I recognized the last three characters (橋-bridge, 下-under, 車-car), so I figured I could recognize when to get off. Apparently they slapped on those last two characters and they were NOT in fact a part of the bus stop's name, so I wound up at Mitaka station instead of the impound lot. I found another sign explaining how to get to the impound lot and wound up on ANOTHER bus, but this one took me right up to the place, so I didn't have to think too much about it. Once there, I explained what was going on to the officer in charge who told me where my bike would be. So, I headed over there intent on finding my green bike.
Only my key didn't fit any of the green bikes on the lot.
I went over the place two or three times but didn't find anything. Once I'd finished that up and figured out that I wasn't going to find it, I went to talk to the cop again to see what he thought was going on. He concluded that the bike had probably been stolen. With that disheartening news, I headed back to Asagaya station.
Where I my Asagaya station GREEN BIKE was waiting for me. Turns out the bike at M-S is silver. *facepalm* Which is why I had to go back the next day...
Tuesday, September 8
FIRST DAY OF CLASSES!!! Went to Japanese from 10:10 in the AM where we did the usual first-day-of-class stuff (course explanations, self-introductions and the like) until class ended at 12:40. Ran to the cafteria and grabbed some food before I hopped on a bus to get me back to the bike impound lot. The same cop was on duty and looked a little doubtful when I showed up for attempt #2 and gave me a bunch of grief when we found out that my bike actually WAS there in the first place. Whatever, it was good-natured and I couldn't find it in me to care because I HAD MY BIKE BACK!! (It only took me a few minutes to find it now that I knew it was silver and not green, and then there was just paperwork and stuff and then I was out of there) I then proceeded to ride back to school through the afternoon heat with no water. Which turned out to be a poor plan, as you will see in a moment.
Once I got back to school I still had about forty minutes before my 3:00 class started, so I went to the cafeteria where I found and hung out with some of my friends that are in the grad school nearby. Apparently I dragged them out of some deep and meaningful conversation to joke about Katherine owing me her three firstborn children and how much Greg (?) does (or does not) know about Japan and it's festivals. It was actually pretty fun, if a bit random. After that I wandered off to my Modern Japanese Literature class where the prof spent about an hour and a half explaining the syllabus and writing it on the board because she hadn't made copies because she didn't know how many people were actually going to be joining the class. After that she put on Suna no Onna (Woman in the Dunes) which is based on the book by Kobo Abe of the same name. It was VERRRRY odd, not that I got to see most of it... I started feeling really sick about halfway through it and had to leave early--heat exhaustion. NOT FUN. Dragged myself back to M-S station via the bus rather than the bike because I was so tired and pretty much went straight to bed after I got back.
Wednesday, September 9
Felt significantly better, but still a little lethargic. Dragged myself to school again for Japanese and my Intro to Japanese Society class (which is going to be the class that I love to hate. Seriously, WHY am I taking a sociology class? It's SO NOT ME. Whatever, it'll be entertaining to say the least.) where I proceeded to make a TOTAL fool of myself by a) proclaiming my undying love for anime, b) informing everyone that Americans think that all Japanese fly gundams everywhere and have secret superpowers/identities, and c) told everyone that I actually have a Japanese soul and was just born into the wrong body. *facepalm* I blame the microphone the prof kept shoving in my face (right up until she realized that I could talk loud enough not to need it). This unnecessarily embarrassing escapade was followed, entertainingly enough, by a health exam, which was just short of a simple excuse for public humiliation. (Not really.) It involved routine height, weight, sight and hearing check-ups, as well as a blood sample and was required for all new and study abroad students. The whole thing took about an hour and a half, so I was SOOO glad to have James to chat with while I waited. We also made some new friends whose names I promptly forgot, but who helped James with his Japanese HW (because he was doing said homework like the good student he is. And I am not.). Then, as usual, it was back to the house and into bed!!
Thursday, September 10
Just a regular class day, which was going to involve me being in class from 1:15 to 7:00 PM, but my second professor ended class early, so I was only there until about 5:00. I was deciding between two classes, one that would be in a more convenient time frame and one that sounded more interesting. I chose the latter, which unfortunately sealed my fate of not being able to eat dinner with the family for ANOTHER night of the week. :( Whatever, the class is cool and I'm pretty sure it'll be worth it.
Friday, September 11
A vaguely stressful day that was TOTALLY worth it. Classes went fine, as did my meeting with Zenora, but I managed to lose my bike key which threw my WHOLE DAY into chaos. Once I got over that fact and decided to move on and deal, I proceeded to accompany Nora and Lisa to my house for dinner!! James, Katie, and Kim came by a bit later, having been awesome and come by bike form ICU rather than by train as Lisa, Nora, and I did. There were introductions all around, and then we had okonomiyaki (a Japanese cabbage-pancake-like dish), which was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. Katie played the piano for us, and there was some awkward milling around, but I think people enjoyed themselves, which was good. For my part, I had TONS of fun.
Saturday, September 12
Had another day of transportation!fail on my way to Lisa's house for yakiniku (essentially Japanese barbecue) with the other Pomona folks, as well as several of Lisa's host mother's friends. Once I managed to get there, however, there was tons of chit-chatting and milling/hanging around, as well as a few rounds of bingo, and rounded out by fireworks!! The most exciting part of that may have been the Anpanman glasses; they're like those glasses that, when use to look at light though them, you can see little rainbows radiating out of the light, except instead of rainbows, they were little Anpanman faces (you can google it if you want to see a picture). It started raining about halfway through the fireworks though, so we had to bail. I was going to have to walk to the train station, but one of Lisa's host mom's friends offered to drive me to the station, and Okaa-san came and picked me up at Asagaya which was really nice. Then it was home and bedtime!!
Sunday, September 13
Slept in a bit before I headed over to Shinjuku to refill my phone card and hang out at this ADORABLE little coffee shop down that way that we found before we went to Hokkaido. I'm under the impression that it's actually a chain, but I haven't seen another one yet, so... Anyway, did some Literature homework there while I drank my Annin Swirkle--basically a Frappucino, but in the most DELICIOUS flavor EVER. That took up most of my afternoon, and then it was (you guessed it) back home for dinner and bed.
Monday, September 14
Class. And.... yeah. Class. :P I SERIOUSLY don't think I did anything that day. Wow. Fail.
Yesterday; Tuesday September 15
Class, first Koto club meeting (administrative stuff mostly), and my afternoon class getting canceled after James and I had been hanging out in the library during the 2 hours between lunch and class, even though we could apparently just have gone home. *sigh* It DID mean that I got to make a fool of myself attempting to ride tandem with Lisa on her bike though... James is NEVER gonna let me live that down. Then I came home and started writing this blog entry in an attempt to avoid my homework. Um, I think that was it... YAY!
Normally, at this point I'd tell you guys all about what I did today, but today was just too EPIC to be put into the same entry with the rest of the last two weeks (plus, my legs hurt), so I'm going to leave this entry off as it is right now. (Also, some of the stuff on the end there got REALLY short-shafted because I'm kinda tired... I may have to fix that at some point. But not now. Now I'm going to head to bed. Or something.)
WHEW!! DONE!! I'm impressed that you made it all the way through that...
~ Anna
I MADE IT! (Hahahaha.) Also, OMG your host family is clearly in its own anime. And Oxford's freshers' week is coming up in a couple weeks, and apparently their club fair thing lasts literally four or five days. I'm so excited. Even if I am going to join about 47 more clubs than I have time for. :P
ReplyDeleteI know, right? The family's SO ENTERTAINING. Also, CLUBS FOR THE WIN. Speaking of which, I should go write my entry on Taiko. LOVING your blog, by the way... I should go comment on that too. Hm. YAY STUDY ABROAD!!
ReplyDeleteOkay, let me tell you that I don't think all Japanese people fly gundams.
ReplyDeleteI KNOW they fly gundams. :P
:D