I can hardly believe that I am writing about my final night in Japan. This semester has definitely gone by the fastest out of all of them. Being in Tokyo, going through the interview process at Goldman, meeting tons of new and fantastic people, living with my host family - the list goes on and on... It has truly been an incredible experience.

My last day in Japan was pretty hectic (hand to cancel my health insurance, close my bank account, go fulfill gift requests). Something that really surprised me was how easy it was to cancel my health insurance here in Japan. I know another TUJ study abroad student who had an awful time canceling theirs. I basically walked in, told them I was returning to the US and that was it. First, anything involving the government never goes this smoothly. Second, Japanese society loves tons of arbitrary paperwork. Both of these elements were lacking... maybe I caught them on a good day? Canceling the bank account wasn't too much of a hassle either - however I had to do the entire process in Japanese. Regarding gift requests, well.... I'll have to explain that one when I get home =p.

My last night in Japan happened to coincide with my host dad's 68th birthday! We spent the first half of the night celebrating (I even have pictures!). There was a ton of delicious sushi that we used for temaki (I will do a post about sushi after I get home explaining this). It was kind of funny because instead of the traditional green tea we had coca-cola to drink. So odd! It was absolutely delicious. The sushi was followed by a small birthday cake and green tea.

I hadn't really intended on going out last night because it was Hirao-san's birthday, and I felt like it would be nice if I spent some time with them since I am leaving in (... 6 hours as of this post). However, they both said that since it is the last night I should go to see my friends in Shibuya. This made me feel less guilty, so I let everyone know I would met them at our traditional spot - Hubs. My entire plan was to go and see everyone for an hour or so, say my goodbyes then come home and get a good nights sleep. Oh how things never turn out the way they are planned. Everyone insisted that I stay out and party all night and catch the first train home in the morning. I was actually fairly reluctant but somehow I was convinced to go to Club Camelot and spent my last night in Tokyo with my friends doing what we do best.

At about 5a.m., once we were done at Camelot we went to get Soba Udon at a place called Fuji Soba (it's right near center-makku in Shibuya if you ever want to go!). A bowl of steaming hot udon at 5 a.m. is surprisingly refreshing. After the bowl of udon Nicky was still hungry, so we went to the kabob place right around the corner.

It was very odd walking around Shibuya at 5 a.m. this time since I knew that I wouldn't be coming back any time soon. After all the nights of staying up until first train, this one was definitely different. I will really miss that part of Tokyo -- I can't wait to come back and see what kind of new and crazy fashion styles the Japanese pop culture comes up with.

Once we got to the station everyone said their goodbyes and made the walk to their respective trains. We even had some Japanese girl take a picture of us - this is an awful picture of me since my eyes are closed and I have no idea why my arm is over Cliff's shoulder, but it doesn't really matter since I'm hyaku pacento (100%) positive I'll see everyone again.

Overall this semester has been an incredible experience - regardless of my opinion of TUJ, Japan is a wonderful country with a lot of things to see/do/experience, and I'm sure I only barely scratched the surface.

Until next time Japan... sayonara.

For 3.5 hours my buddy Tomas and I walked around Chidorigafuchi(千鳥ケ淵) - the huge park surrounding the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. It was also probably the last day of the cherry blossom season, as there was quite a bit of green coming up on the trees (as you'll see in the photos). This incredibly scenic area was joined by the most beautiful weather I've seen in Tokyo so far - about 65, low humidity, sunny. Talk about a great way to round off the cherry blossom season.

Today also was my first real trip into photography. I had briefly messed around with the settings on my camera, but never with the purpose of setting up a specific shot or effect. Tomas is a photography nut, and brought his $2,000+ camera... talk about getting shown up! He gave me a lot of great tips though, and seemed fairly impressed at how some of the shots were turning out from my point and shoot. I took well over 300 shots during the walk around the park, and I've posted around 100 of them, largely unedited other than some minor cropping on a few of the photos. The rest of the post will be broken down into the secquence of pictures on my web album, so if you have that open while reading, it should hopefully make this post a bit more interesting!

We started out at the Hanzomon entrance to the park, where the bulk of the cherry blossom trees are. It was very apparent that we were at the end of cherry blossom season, but there were still a decent amount of flowers left on the trees. I can't even begin to imagine how beautiful this area is when the trees are at peak bloom - it has to feel like you're walking through some kind of fantasy land.

Pictures 1-60ish

As we entered the park proper, we were greeted by this statue in the middle of a water-area. It really seemed out of place to me as this kind of art reminds me more of Italy and the Renaissance, and not Japan. There were also 3 or 4 pigeons camping out on the statues which was hilarious. I especially like the one who is asleep on the statue's head. Fat little birds! (Note: There is one shot that has a bunch of white spots against a blue background. This is my attempt at catching the peddles falling off the tree.) Around the statues is a large pathway that is lined with cherry blossoms (Sakura - 桜). You can see there are still a fairly decent amount of people doing hanami, although the numbers are down quite a bit from about a week ago.

Hanami is a pretty big event in Japan-- the best translation is "cherry blossom viewing" except it is more akin to having a picnic under the sakura, drinking, singing, and having a great time with friends and family. Ueno park is particularly well known for how crazy the people get with hanami.

As we walked along the path we came to an area overlooking the river and sakura. I really wish the sky wasn't overcast in that direction because it would have added some fantastic contrast to these shots. There are tons of pictures on the internet of the river + riverbank + the sakura that line it. None of my shots of this area really came out that well, but I didn't want to emit them all as this is one of the cooler scenic shots.

Pictures 60ish-110ish

As we were walking, Tomas made an interesting comment about how this park flows really well with the city proper. There are streets that go through the edges, which helps blur the line between park and city. It was a pretty interesting observation, especially since while you're in the park you can't hear any cars, sirens, or other common city noises.

We finally came to the huge, and I mean HUGE field area of the park. I hope some of the photos are able to express just how large this area is, because it was really terrific. It was also perfectly manicured --- さすが日本！There is a picture of a single, unimpressive tree - the reason for this picture is because it was the most green tree I had ever seen; it was so bright that it almost looked neon! There were way fewer sakura, but the ones that were here were in full bloom. Accordingly, Tomas and I took advantage of this by taking a ridiculous amount of pictures of these two trees. This is probably my favorite picture of the day:

From 千鳥ケ淵

We continued walking and were able to see some traditional Japanese architecture, which caused me to nerd out for a bit because I love old Japanese architecture.

From 千鳥ケ淵

This photo is way overexposed, and needs a lot of photoshopping and editing, but I think it has some awesome potential.

The gate was also pretty neat due to how big it was. It would have been awesome if we would have been able to go inside and see the architecture... oh well.


Photos 110ish-End

We had made the transition from Chidorigafuchi park to the Imperial Palace grounds at this point. If you have seen my pictures from the '07 Japan trip, this area will look a bit familiar. When going through the album, you will notice a long string of pictures of sky scrapers. If you cycle through them fast it will give you a panoramic 180 degree view of where I was standing. I'll stitch all these images together later and post it as one gigantic image.

Tomas was extremely eager to take the famous bridge + palace picture, so we headed to the spot were you can get the view needed. He was psyched to say the least when I pointed it out to him. Of the pictures I took, I think that the best one is:

From 千鳥ケ淵

Again... damn overcast sky in that direction! The colors in this one pop out the most in my opinion.

There are more pictures that are overexposed, and need some photoshop love, but I think a lot of these pictures came out pretty well.

Picture 163 is probably my 3rd favorite picture. If only that couple wasn't standing there, it would easily be my first. I have a feeling I'll be able to do some photoshop magic though since I have other pictures from this exact spot to fill them in with.

Picture 167 is pretty neat as well, despite the sun being crazy bright.

I have to get one of my Japanese friends to explain picture 176 to me. The sign is basically counting the number of dead people - from what, I'm not totally sure.

Overall, today was awesome. The fact that classes are over and I had zero stress while walking around this beautiful park was the icing on the cake.

Just uploaded a bunch of pictures to my hanami album in picasa - it was kind of overcast so there is poor contrast in most of the pictures between the sky and the cherry blossoms. Some of the shots came out pretty nice though; I'm going to do actual hanami on Sunday, and the weather should be great, so expect way more, and much better pictures then!

Also, I should be uploading some of these to my deviantart page: http://heijoshin.deviantart.com/art/Akasaka-Sakura-159279592

Not sure if you need an account to view, but figured I'd link anyway.

I generally try and stick to the motto of being on time, all the time *waits for 1-liner from Grandpa*. However, last night my tardiness ended up turning into one huge adventure.

Cliff, Chinami, Yuka, John, and myself were all going to Ikebukuro (池袋) last night to hang out and get dinner. This was all pretty standard operating procedure, and basically followed the same structure as my previous posts; the only caveat is that we had some freaking delicious, and I do mean delicious, ramen -- go to the bottom of this post if you want to read more about that. But I digress, back to the real story.

At 11:00pm the "we're closing the store, gtfo" music came on, so we packed up our things, and started heading back to the station. I looked at my watch, and it was around 11:15 by the time we had reached the station, bought our tickets, and parted ways. My route to get back home from Ikebukuro is this: Ikebukuro -> Akihabara -> Asakusabashi -> Inzai Maki no Hara. Entire traveling time is about 1hr 15min, which isn't too bad, however we were starting to get close to shyuden, or "last train." Pretty self explanatory - it's the very last train at the station for the night. By close, I mean danger zone close. I was running through all the stations so fast to catch the next train that I probably would have been drafted by an NFL team due to my speed (remember when I hunted you down that one day Kev? something like that). Normally I would be pulling some hilarious looks from the Japanese for this much running, but I'm pretty sure they've all been there before. As I am gliding down the stairs of Asakusabashi station I see the last train of the night pulling away into the distance. I was now faced with a decision: Dish out $150 to get a taxi, or stay in Tokyo for the entire night -- and lets be real, there isn't really any decision part in that since there is no way I'm spending $150 on a cab.

I had a 3 main plans: 1. Stay at a cheap love hotel/ capsule hotel 2. Go to a friends house 3. Find a cafe/bar/etc. that was open all night. I called up Cliff and told what had happened and what my general plans were. However 2 wouldn't work due to my relative position in Tokyo. Cliff suggested an internet cafe in Akihabara. Genius. This was a great mix between option 1 and 3. Off to Otaku-country I go!

By the time I arrived in Akihabara, it was around 12:40am. The place was like a ghost town; it was extremely eerie truthfully. I've been to Akiba 3-4 times so I'm used to it being ultra-crowded and lively. I decided to take advantage of this and walk around taking pictures and explore a bit before I headed to the internet cafe. The pictures will be under the "Akihabara" album.

The only things open at this hour were: McDonalds!, Conbini, Internet Cafes, and Don Quixote. I stopped into McDs and bought a coffee (holy crap is Japanese coffee strong) to keep me up until the next morning.

Oh, and I forgot to mention I have a Japanese chapter test the next day at 8:40am. Win.

After drinking what the Japanese refer to as coffee, I started my search for a good internet cafe to spend the rest of the night at. They all happened to be tucked in a 1block corner of Akihabara for some reason.

Walking into the Internet Cafe (IC from now on) was a funny experience. You could tell they didn't get too many white guys, but the guy at the counter was really cool about it; I could tell he was happy that I spoke Japanese (I feel like this is a reoccurring theme?). I told the guy that I wanted to rent 4 hours worth of time (It was like 2am by this point), which normally would have been $10. However, since it was a weekday night I got a special package, so it only ended up costing me $4.50 for 4 hours...nothing costs $4.50 in Tokyo. The guy explained to me how everything works: You get your own private "room" with a reclining chair, computer w/tv, internet, games, and anime/manga rental. This is a damn good deal if you ask me.

I hoped on the elevator and went to my room on the 5th floor. It was kind of like walking into an office building and seeing a ton of cubicles except the walls went all the way to the ceiling, and there were anime/game posters everywhere.

I spent the next four hours studying/doing homework/chatting with people on Facebook. When I was leaving the sun had already signaled that the new day had begun, so I grabbed the next train to TUJ.

RAMEN!

For those of you curious about the ramen I had, it was called Chyoshyuu-men. This is basically ramen that has extra pieces of pork in it. This particular ramen-ya (shop) used a pork-fat based broth that was absolutely delicious. Definitely going back to this place next time I"m in 'bukuro and hungry.

It has been a couple weeks since my last update -- the gap was due to having all of my mid terms and projects to do. However, now that those are all taken care of the updates should start being a little more frequent (plus the weather here is starting to be very nice which means I'll be more inclined to go explore).

I think I'll start this post off with this youtube video of the club I went to last night: Club Atom



I'm pretty sure this video explains everything you want to know about the club, so here is a bit more color on my night.

Last night I found myself with two options: Option 1: Stay home and relax // watch tv. Option 2: Go to Club Atom. I left my fate in the hands of a 500 yen coin (the traditional Kevin & Keith "damn, we can't make a decision" method). As the fates would have it, the coin came up heads which was the "go to Club Atom" side. Unlike last time at Womb, I didn't get very dressed up at all. I threw on my classic Have Heart tee, some jeans, and my sambas, grabbed some cash and was off.

The train ride into Tokyo was pretty boring, but I did make a couple observations about my fellow 11:30pm passengers. It was a pretty clear split between drunk salaryman and kids going out to party. All of the salarymen were asleep while the party-goers were sending out text messages as fast as their fingers could type them. Even though I was on the last train into Shibuya it was so packed I had to stand... I guess this shouldn't be too big of a surprise since it was Saturday night. When I got off the train in Shibuya I headed straight for the club.

Shibuya is so incredibly lively that I can't really convey it into words. Once I turned down the street that Atom is on I knew it was going to be a crazy night. There were probably 60-70 people all standing outside of the club. While waiting to get inside I met an english ex-pat named Kris who is here teaching at some university. He was on his way out of the club right next to Atom, and when asked how it was he pretty explicitly stated, "It was shit mate.. definitely stick to Atom." After this brief chat I got in the que, and readied my ID and $$$ for the cover. Again, unlike the seedy clubs in Roppongi, you have to show ID at the door to get in (20 and older). Cover is $10 before 11, and goes up to $30 after that; you also get 1 free drink if you're a guy and I believe 2 if you're a girl. There are lockers on the first floor, but they get filled up pretty quick. Once you get up to the club (it's on the 4th floor) there is a guy who will check your coat for $5.

Once I checked my coat I started working my way to the dance floor. It was just as packed as the video makes it look. From the front of the dance floor all the way back to the bar it was super crowded. Since I wasn't there to get drunk I just headed straight to the dance floor.

I have to say that the DJs here absolutely fantastic. There were 4 that rotated throughout the night. I think they did 30ish minute sets 3x each. I believe it is these same 4 DJs every weekend, which is not a bad thing at all as they were freaking fantastic; they got the crowd involved, had a huge variety of trance/house/hardstyle/etc., and did an overall great job adding to the experience. DJ Hosaka is probably my favorite as he played a lot of vocal trance + house mixes of rock n'roll. During his first set, he opened up with a crazy mix of Nirvana's "Smells like teen spirit" which caused the crowed to go nuts. This was followed by "Sweet Child O'Mine" which I had never heard turned into a trance tune before, but damn was it awesome. I ended up singing the song to this Japanese girl I was dancing with. There were probably another 15 rock songs that I sang along to as well. The Japanese got a kick out of watching me rock out - I even encouraged this group of Japanese to sing along with me -- hilariousness. I should also note that out of probably 1,500 people I was 1 of 4 foreigners, which is great.

At the end of the night all four DJs came out and autographed some CDs and tossed them out into the crowd  which I thought was pretty cool. Definitely going back.

This Shibuya adventure is a bit more wild than the last one was. I went to Club WOMB, which is one of Tokyo's best known clubs, from about midnight until they closed at 6am. 

Today I went on a guided tour of Akihabara. The tour guide has been living in Japan for 6 years, and does research about this particular area of Tokyo, and is an "otaku," which is basically an anime/manga fan.

We learned a lot about the history of Aki on the tour, and how it developed the unique culture. Basically, back in WWII it acted as the black market for radio parts. Small shops would be set up and sell radio parts that were taken from anywhere really. However, the entire area was destroyed, and had to be rebuilt. Right next to the main station gate there is still a huge shopping area that sells very niche electronic parts - if you gave MacGyver 10 minutes in there he could probably build a space ship, powered by anti-matter. There was also a lot of home security stuff and things like spy cams.

We then went across the street to 世界のラジオ会社 (I think the last 2 kanji are wrong, oh well) which translates to the "World Radio Company." It is so named because back in the day the top floor was used a a show room for NEC's latest technology. The building now houses tons of anime/manga/collectors shops. There was one particular floor dedicated to these resin-joint dolls. The doll itself cost $750 minimum, then the clothes/hair/eyes were all very expensive as well. Apparently this is hugely popular in Aki, and people will carry their dolls around with them; some cafes even offer doll sized tea sets so you can have lunch with it. The tour guide explained that it has become very popular with men recently as well. Who knew?

We then proceeded to walk around a bit outside, and headed over towards "Man's Mainstreet." It is so called because it is filled with maid cafes (which I will get to in one second), and stores that sells all sorts of unmentionables. There were also quite a few arcades here as well - some of them were really interesting actually. There was one in particular that stood out because it was 100% dedicated to retro games such as atari and super nintendo.

The next two stops were maid themed. The first was a maid barber shop where, for the low, low price of $100, you can get "the shittiest haircut of your life" according to the tour guide. Basically it works under the idea of anti-talent, which means it is not about their ability, but rather that they are giving it 150% effort. I don't really understand it, but apparently it's very popular in Aki.

And now the maid cafe. Admittedly, I had wanted to visit one at least once while I was here (my host family's younger son even said that I have to go at least once). First, you walk up 2 flights of narrow stairs (would fail U.S. fire codes - no questions asked). I was the first one to go inside, and had this "what the ..." moment, because about 5 feet in front of me was a 18(?) year old Japanese girl wearing something that looked like a mix between underwear and a swim suit. This girl then said "okaeri, goshyujin-sama" which is something along the lines of "welcome back, master." I'm not sure if "master" is the best translation, but the whole point they are trying to convey is they are your "maid." Regarding the swimsuit, according to the sign today was "at the beach" day. The interior looked pretty much like a regular cafe.

 The sitting down and ordering was fairly normal. Then came the "service." I ordered a cream soda (melon soda, which is freakin' delicious, with ice cream). So the girl brings it to me, but instead of just putting it down on the table for me, she gets down on her knees, and holds the drink up to me, and has me drink the first part of it while she holds the straw. The tour guide got something a bit more extravagant though -- the girl brought out a tray filled with various ingredients. They were: Natto (this will get its own post) wasabi, caramel, milk, soda, ketchup, soy sauce, and a few others that I forget. The maid then had him stand up, and play 3 rounds of Japanese rock-paper-scissors with her. If he won, he got to pick 1 ingredient. However, if he lost she picked something. He won the first round, and picked the soda. The poor guy lost the next two rounds though and ended up with a natto, caramel, and soy sauce soda. On top of this, since he lost two in a row, the maid got to smack him! I have to give the guy credit though, he drank the entire thing. As his reward, he got to take a picture with the maid. (side note: you can't take pictures in maid cafes generally w/out spending a decent amount of cash). This was a really hilarious experience, and if you are ever in Japan, I highly recommend it. Here is the link to the maid cafe I went to: http://cos-cha.com/event.html (its all in Japanese - obviously).

If you want to sit and actually eat at a maid cafe, it will be fairly expensive. The food is pretty average, but what you are paying for is the "service." The more you order, the more the maids will talk to you, and play with you. You can even get point cards, which keep track of how much you spend, and at certain point levels you can get rewards from the maids.

They also have a huge variety of maid cafes as well. They do not all have girls in maid uniforms. There are butler cafes, cross-dresser cafes, and just about what ever you can think of. Some of the more popular maid cafes can have hour long lines!!!! Some of them also offer what is called "soul comfort" which means you pay like $100, and you get to sit down with a maid for 1 hour, and just talk about what ever you want. Apparently this is supposed to make you feel better - I guess if you are an otaku who games and watches anime 24/7, getting to sit down and talk to a cute girl in a maid outfit for an hour is worth $100?

After the maid cafe, we went to a few other buildings. One in particular was named Don Quixote. It was home to a very famous maid cafe, as well as AKB48 Stage, which is where pop idols come and sing. It was really crowded since there was a performance going while we were there. We also went to an anime art gallery, and besides the fact that all the art was of scantily clad anime girls, I was really impressed at the skill level. I am by no means an expert on art though; paintings ranged from between 2.5-4.5 thousand $.

That pretty much concludes the tour. It was a very interesting experience, and I highly recommend going to these places at least once - even if you aren't into anime/manga/maids(lol) I can almost guarantee you'll laugh at least once.

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There is a chance I'll be going on a camping trip in two weeks, which should be fun.

 This week is going to be very busy though, due to a lot of projects coming due, and tests, so I probably wont post too much. Hopefully I'll have something really entertaining to post after this weekend.

I had something very interesting happen this morning while waiting for the train, which was my inspiration for writing this post. I bought a drink at one of the vending machines, and finished it while waiting in line for the train to show up. There were about 6 people waiting at the same spot as me, in a neat line, which looked something like this ::: - I was one of the middle dots. I went and threw my empty can away, and when I came back, I went to the back of the line, but noticed the person behind me hadn't moved up. He then turned around and said, that I could have my spot back. This may not be a big deal, but I have never seen anyone do anything like that in Philly, NYC, or Cleveland... Which leads me to my post, about how to not look like a stupid foreigner when traveling around Japan.

If you ever are in Japan, there is one thing you will be doing a lot, which is walking. When walking in Japan, there are some things that you need to be aware of, or else you will be wondering why you are getting dirty/weird looks from the other people on the sidewalk. There are exceptions to all these, but their purpose is to be a basic outline.

First, make sure you are always walking on (your) left side of the sidewalk. You'll notice that while you're walking, everyone that is going the same direction as you will be on the left hand side. You won't get arrested or anything if you walk on the right, but you will bump into someone every 5 seconds, and have a bunch of frustrated Japanese looking at you.

Second, do not jaywalk. If you are waiting at an intersection to cross the street, and the crosswalk signal is not the little green guy, do not cross. For one, this will get you stopped by one of Tokyo's finest, and you'll have to produce either your passport or alien registration card. If, however, you see a bunch of Japanese crossing when they aren't supposed to, feel free to walk with them. There is one particular corner on the way to school where everyone seems to get stuck at, so people ignore this rule all the time and cross. I always wait for a Japanese to go first though -- maybe I'm just paranoid.

Third, don't eat and walk. I have yet to see anyone walking down the street munching on a cheeseburger or taiyaki. I really have no idea why this is, but I just know Japanese don't eat and walk at the same time, so you shouldn't either!


Now on to train etiquette. Inevitably you will also ride a train at least once while in Japan. I love the public transportation here. It is on time... all the time. And you can get anywhere in Tokyo for a fair price, and quickly. However, there are some "rules" to abide by on and around the trains.

First and foremost, you are not supposed to talk on the trains. I'm pretty sure every foreigner, and Japanese has broken this one at least once (I'm up to about 4 times now >.<). From what I've noticed, the younger generation of Japanese talk with their friends much more frequently than the older generations. This talking rule only applies if the person you're talking to is also on the train though; absolutely no talking on the cell phone though. There is a sign every 10 feet probably saying something along the lines of," please put your cell phone on silent mode, and refrain from talking while on the train."

When you are waiting for the train, do not stand directly in front of the door when it arrives. There will be between 1-50 people getting off at your stop, and when they are getting off they do not expect there to be someone standing in front of the door - if there is someone, the people leaving the train will be like, "what the hell?" Just stand off to the side, and once everyone has exited the car, then you can enter. It's kind of silly, but a) it makes things work really smoothly (especially at super busy stations) and b) you will really impress the Japanese!

This should go without saying, but if you see an elderly/handicaped/pregnant woman, let them sit down...

All of this stuff is what I believe the Japanese would bundle in with "meiwaku," which is a term that can broadly be defined as not causing the people around you trouble. I will update this more if/when I think of or see more interesting things.

P.S. I also *finally* posted the pictures from my karaoke/pool adventure. They're listed under ”友達” (tomodachi - or friend(s) in Japanese). 

I'd like to start off by saying that I must have jinxed myself regarding the weather --- there is now about 3" of snow on the ground! When I got home tonight the first thing I said to my host family was ”オハイよ州みたいよ" which translates into something along the lines of "this is just like Ohio." They got a kick out of that and laughed.

I spent most of the day in Shibuya with my friends Cliff, Chinami, and Yuka. Cliff is a study abroad student here at TUJ, and also has aspirations to be an investment banker after he graduates. Chinami and Yuka both attend Musashi University in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. Cliff and I met them through Temple's culture exchange program; and we figured going and hanging out in Shibuya would be a good way to get to know each other.

First, a bit about Shibuya. This is the place to be if you are into fashion, nightlife, or Japan's youth culture. Shibuya station is just as huge as Tokyo Station, and sees something like 3 million people per day. The streets are lined with fashionable places to shop, karaoke buildings, and places to eat. It's super lively, and a ton of fun. It can also get expensive if you aren't careful. Now, on to my adventure...

We started out by going to this 6 story "game" building. One floor was similar to an arcade, the next floor was a bowling alley, then a billiards floor, etc.. We played 2 games of pool first: The teams were Chinami and myself vs. Cliff and Yuka. Neither Chinami or Yuka had played pool before, so Cliff and I had to use our awesome (read: poor) Japanese to explain the rules. I have a feeling that something around 80% of communication is from body language may have played a part in this, but we managed to finally get all the rules explained and taught them how to use the pool que. By some stroke of luck, Chinami and I managed to win both games (she played better than me the second game, actually haha) - but if you know me, you know I'm terrible at any kind of pool other than speed pool (Kev and Conor - I'm not sure they would enjoy speed pool here. It is way too rowdy).

We then headed downstairs to bowl. The bowling alley was pretty cool; it was light by black lights, and had glow in the dark wallpaper, and lights all over the place. It reminded me of a birthday party I had way back in the past. We switched up the teams for bowling, so it was Yuka and myself vs. Cliff and Chinami. I am glad that I decided to go into finance instead of professional bowling, because I would be one poor bowler! My score was the highest at 96, then Chinami, Cliff, and Yuka. All the scores were actually in the 90s, which to me is pretty damn good - until you compare those scores with the 150+s grandma puts up... shyoganai ne (It can't be helped). Bowling was a ton of fun though - and cheap!

After bowling we decided to go get something eat. Cliff knew about a certain style of Japanese resturaunt, and after about 5 minutes we figured out that it is an ikezaya. So we went to the nearest one to eat. Basically at an ikezaya (it might be ikizaya, I forget) you get your own little room, and have a little lcd screen where you can order food from, and they bring it out for you. The particular one we went to was 290yen for everything (around $3). The best way to describe how the food comes out is family style. They just bring a plate of what ever your ordered, and everyone shares. We bought kimchi (Korean dish - don't ask what it's made out of), Sushi, Salad, Tamago (egg), chicken, and some other stuff.

The topic of conversation was pretty random. It is a very unique experience talking with people your own age in a foreign language, and have them speak to you in your native language. Basically Cliff and I would say stuff in Japanese, and they would respond in English. You definitely start to appreciate being able to express the same idea in multiple ways though. We ended up talking about movies, and in order to figure out movie we were talking about we had to describe what happened in the movie. One of the funnier examples was probably the explanation & acting out of various horror movies. I also mentioned that I had seen the move "Black Rain" by Kurosawa, which is "kuroi ame" in Japanese - which is what I said. For some reason that I still don't know this was hilarious to Chinami and Yuka. They said it was a funny combination of words - but it makes me wonder!

Following dinner, we went to karaoke... I was half-way skeptical about it since I can't sing to save my life, but it ended up being really fun. It was really funny because we kept trying to pick songs everyone else would know, however the other people ended up not knowing the songs. We managed to find some common ground with Michael Jackson and the Beatles. I think one of the funniest songs we sang was Thriller, since it was accompanied by a few of the dance moves. The most difficult was definitely ABC by the Jackson 5 -- we all kind of gave up on it about half way through.

The karaoke room was probably 12'x15, and the outer wall was lined with booth-style seating, and then there was a table in the middle for drinks and the mics. In the front of the room is the tv where the lyrics are displayed (it was like a 40" LCD - legit). There was also a phone so you could order stuff, and two tablet-pc esq things where you chose the songs from. Along with my bowling career, I will forgo singing - however karaoke is a lot of fun.

The entire day which started at around 2 and ended at 10ish cost only $30, which is not bad considering the variety and amount of things we did.

I will post pictures tomorrow, but for now I'm going to go get some much needed sleep!

Following are some of the most frequent questions people have been asking me about my life in Japan so far. Hopefully this answers what you want to know!

Q. What is the area around TUJ like?
A. TUJ is basically located in the middle of downtown Tokyo. It is in the Minato ward, which is about a 15 minute or so walk from Roppongi. According to the TUJ Study Abroad orientation, Minato has the biggest foreigner population of all Tokyo's 23 wards, but you wouldn't know it. The area directly around TUJ is mostly office buildings, with a few apartments scattered about. There also happens to be this awesome family owned fruit shop like 2 minutes from campus where you can buy みかん (mikan: mandarin orange) for super cheap -- and they're absolutely delicious. Despite being in the center of Tokyo, the streets aren't super crowded like you would think. Compared with Shibuya or other high-traffic areas, Minato is pretty laid back.

Q. What are the classes like?!
A. Well, this answer is going to depend on the class really:
 - Risk Management is quite difficult due to the teacher going way outside of Temple's requirements for the course. The teacher is focusing heavily on finance (which I'm psyched about), however he moves extremely quick in order to make sure he fits everything in. This is troublesome because he will not even explain key points and just assume we understand them already. It's still an extremely interesting class though if you're interested in finance.
  - International Trade (Economics) is far too easy for a 3500 level college course. We spent the last 2 weeks reviewing comparative advantage, which is a real bummer since that topic is super simple. I got a perfect score on our first quiz without even studying o.O (pretend you didn't read that last part). I really hope this class gets more interesting since I love economics.
 - Advanced Japanese is very.... very difficult. It is quite a bit more intense than Advanced 1 at main campus. The teacher's vocab quizzes are a hybrid grammar, vocab, knowledge of Japanese sayings quiz, which makes them quite hard. The first test is on Monday (Feb. 1st), and unlike econ, I will be studying a ton. I'm against taking difficult classes though - I'm ready to take on the challenge.
 - Professional Development strategies is a course that all Temple Business majors have to take. You basically learn how to make resumes, cover letters, and act professional. Thanks to all the support I've gotten over the years, especially this last year, this class is really not very mindblowing. You meet for 1 hour a week, once a week. The guy that is teaching it is the head of the MBA program at TUJ though, so it's cool getting to know him. Still going to try and make the best out of it, and try to squeeze some new info out.
- Managerial Accounting is with the same professor as the one who teaches my Risk Mgmt. class... so needless to say it is difficult. However, he is staying more withing the confines of what you are supposed to teach for this course so he isn't flying through the material. I'm really enjoying this class though, which makes me feel like a huge nerd -- who likes accounting?

Q. Is Tokyo really that expensive?
A. Yes and no. It can be as expensive as you want to make it (i.e. going shopping in the Ginza district every weekend; Ginza is like Fifth Avenue in NYC... except an entire ward). You can also spend a lot of money at the vending machines that are all over the place. Japanese money is deceptive since the small 100 yen coins are worth about $1, but they don't feel like it since it's about the size of a dime -- stopping at a vending machine costs 120 yen minimum... this adds up. If you try and eat and do stuff like the locals, you will be okay. You get hit with a lot of expenses at the start of the study abroad program: health care, cell phone, commuter pass, books, etc.. After that though, you can pretty easily keep your costs down. I will do a separate post later about this.

Q. What is the weather like?
A. The weather has been between 40-60, and has only rained 1 or 2 days so far. The weather in Tokyo seems to be slightly warmer than the weather in Chiba (where I live).

Q. How is your host family?
A. They're incredibly nice. It is just the host-mom, dad, and me most of the time; on the weekends though, their grandchildren stay the night. It is a lot of fun having a 6 year old show you up with their Japanese skills. The host mom has cooked every night since I've been here -- all the food is delicious. I also went shopping with my host parent's youngest son, Kohei, the other day. That was a really fun experience since he works in Shibuya, so he loves outrageous clothes. He particularly likes this furry red fedora. I'll get a picture of everyone as quick as possible.

I hope this answers most of the questions I've received over the last couple weeks. If you have any more, just post them in the comments and I'll reply.

P.S. Expect a bunch more pictures after this weekend!

P.P.S. What do you think of the new layout/design?

A ton of new pictures were just added (64 I think?) to my web album. Go take a look!:

http://picasaweb.google.com/devgru8/Asakusa#slideshow/5430568139620479570

Now that I finally have a real camera, I'll be taking an unnecessary amount of pictures. I'll try to integrate them into the blog, but the link to view the entire album online is:

http://picasaweb.google.com/devgru8

Yesterday I went to Akihabara (so that I could buy a camera for really cheap). Akihabara, or Aki, is basically any computer/anime/video game/collectors items nerds paradise. Since I probably fall under a couple of those categories it was highly entertaining.

When I got off the train I took the exit that would take me away from the main part of Aki, and I'm glad I did, because I found a store that was selling the camera i wanted for 50% off, but I digress. I walked around for about 30 minutes without finding anything else very interesting, other than the electronics store, so I ventured toward what people call the "Electric City." It is so named because of the hundreds of electronics stores packed in a probably 8 square block radius. Some of the buildings are 7-8 stories tall, with each level selling a different toy -- floor 1 has TVs; floor 2 has cameras, etc

All of the electronics stores are cool, but not what makes Aki so insane. The anime/manga culture that this place facilitates is really interesting. For those of you who don't know: Anime are basically Japanese cartoons. It is short for "animation," and pretty popular. Manga are Japanese comic books, but they are a bit different than American comics, but I'm not a big enough expert to give specifics. I'm really not sure how to describe it, but I couldn't help but laugh when I saw the life-sized statues of anime girls accompanied by a voice recording trying to get guys to come into the store.

This is only outdone by the girls wearing maid outfits every 50 or so feet trying to get customers to come into one of the many maid cafes. A maid cafe is basically a cafe, but all of the waitresses wear maid outfits, and roleplay. They'll sing, dance, and do other goofy stuff for the customers.

As my main mission was buying a camera, I didn't really do anything other than go into the camera shops, so I'm not able to add anything else.

Japanese food (日本料理) or nihon ryouri is absolutely delicious. Most people are familiar with things such as sushi or ramen, but that barely scratches the surface of the myriad of tasty treats that Japanese eat every day. Being that I am not a picky eater I have really enjoyed all the food my host family has prepared me so far.

My first night here we went out to eat and I had a nice bowl of ramen, accompanied by some gyoza. Ramen is basically noodles in a bowl of broth (mine was shoyu or soy sauce). Along with the noodles you usually get some seaweed, slices of meat, and veggies. When you eat your noodles, try and forget all the rules your mom told you about not slurping your soup, and be as noisy as possible. Gyoza are just dumplings, and can have a variety of fillings. Incidentally, a nice bowl of ramen is what got me really sick last time I was in Japan. Hopefully I don't lose any more battles to this tasty dish.

All of the breakfasts I've had are surprisingly "American." An egg, hash browns, toast with jam, maybe a piece of ham. Nothing really out of the ordinary other than the fact that I've actually been eating the most important meal of the day.

I forget what I ate the second night here.

My third night we had what looked like spaghetti noodles, that had a paste made from fish eggs and miso soup. Surprisingly it was really good.

Last night we had gyoza, and a huge selection of other Japanese dishes. It is really difficult to remember everything since there are generally 8 or 9 different things on the table for dinner. Accompanying the gyoza was miso soup, and these black beans which were incredibly sweet. I would venture to say that you could almost eat them as dessert. The crowning piece of this meal had to be the cow tongue though. They described to me what it was in Japanese before I ate it. I told them I'd give it a try, and true to my word, I did. And it was quite delicious. It had the consistency of very dense ham, and had a peppery taste. I really suggest trying it at least once. We also had mashed Japanese sweet potatoes, but they weren't quite as awesome as American sweet potatoes.

Tonight we had another very Japanese dish, and I have already forgotten the name of it. Everything was covered in a sponge-y bread type batter, and in a brown broth. There were different veggies, and and seafood inside of the batter, which you dipped into Japanese mustard (Note to Kevin: Even I thought this mustard was spicy). Yet another outrageously delicious dish.

I also got to meet my host family's son a couple days ago, and his wife tonight. They are both extremely nice people, and I had a ton of fun chatting with them. It seems like everyone really likes the gift I bought them, as every day the grandchildren get it out and have me explain the different places to everybody. Tonight I spent at least an hour looking through it with my host family's daughter-in-law, and figuring out how to describe each picture in Japanese. She was really amazed at how huge and diverse the U.S. is, and after really taking time to look through the book with her I'm a bit amazed too. I think it might be something you take for granted living their your entire life. I think her favorite picture was one of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fran when there is a huge amount of fog covering it. My favorite has to be a picture of one of they hot springs in Yellowstone.

School starts tomorrow... this is going to be a very busy week. Hope everyone is doing well back in the U.S..

Today was my first excursion into the city, and as the title suggests, I got quite lost. Luckily, getting lost in a foreign country is incredibly fun (for me at least... your mileage may vary). Now, on with the recipe!

Going from my house to the Inzai Sation was really easy, as my host-mother went with me, and she told me the station I needed to exit at (Mita Station). This is just a straight shot on the Asakusa-line, so it was nearly impossible to screw up.

As soon as I got off the train the fun began. First, I should say that in Japan there are no street names to go by (there are exceptions). Second, in the TUJ handout there is no map from how to get from Mita Station to the campus. Needless to say, I was pretty damn lost before even leaving the station. I'm not sure why, but I figured I should be able to find the school without asking for directions.... right?

Maybe if I was Bear Grylls... After exiting the station I decided to walk down the main road for about 15 or so minutes while looking around for any sign of TUJ. While strolling down the street I noticed the sign for the Mita Police station, but more on this later. After my 15 minute walk, I realized that this was not an effective way to find the campus (not that I really thought that when I started), so I went back to Mita Station to start over.

Upon returning to the station I started searching for some kind of map, and after about 5 minutes I managed to find a map of the surrounding area. On the map there were two important landmarks: 1. Police Boxes 2. Keio University. I figured if I did get lost and could at least get to a police box, they could help direct me to the school (which turned out to be correct). And Keio University happens to be like 3 minutes from Temple's campus, however the map cut off right at Keio, but I didn't know this yet.

So, I went to the nearest police box, and in my best Japanese said that I was lost, and looking for Temple University. The officers just laughed which gave me the feeling that I was not the first student lost and looking for Temple's campus. He proceeded to get out a gigantic map, and show me where we were in relation to the campus, and how to get there. With my new found information I figured I was in good shape, and trotted off after thanking the officer.

Wrong, yet again. Apparently the right turn I took wasn't "right" enough. Basically I went diagonally right, instead of 90 degree right. So I continued on for about 25 minutes in this direction, and finally said to myself that I need to turn around and go back to the crossing. Luckily, the Mita Police Station I mentioned earlier was at this crossing! Lucky for me there were 2 officers walking out of the station, so I approached them, and again in my best Japanese told them I was lost and looking for Temple's campus. The one officer produced a map, and gave directions. I thanked him, and then I was off!

Confident with my new directions, I started down the correct road and made my way to the next turn. My next turn happened to take me to one of the few roads in Japan that actually has a name - Sakuradori (if I remember correctly). After walking for 5 or so minutes, I came across one of the TUJ buildings, however it was the incorrect one. Luckily the building I needed was just down the street, so I proceeded to school and checked in.

Total time being lost: 2 hours

Some things to note: During orientation today, they made Japanese police officers seem like ruthless, heartless, and quite mean spirited to foreigners... After speaking with about 8 officers over the course of the day, I must say that my experience was completely different, and they were all quite nice and helpful. I'd like to contribute that to me using Japanese when speaking with them, however I could be wrong.

I have a feeling that this is just the first in what will be a very long list of "I got lost in Japan" stories. If I had to place a bet, I'd say that it will be this Sunday when headed to the hombu dojo for martial arts.

皆、

あけましておめでとう！皆は楽しい年といいだね。

Happy new year everybody. I hope you have a fun and productive year!