Tokyo Handbook
This will be long, but don't worry, a good chunk of it is photography.
Some things have happened in the past two weeks. Orientation is over, as is my first week of classes. I've got a healthy mix of foreigner-only classes (Japanese language every day, "Japanology", Japanese Culture and Society, and Asian Politics) as well as classes that normal Japanese people take and are quite hard because, well, it's in fluent Japanese (Korean movies and dramas, Ethnic groups in Russia, and the Society and Culture of the Spanish Speaking World). I have no days off outside of weekends, but on Fridays and Mondays I only have one class, so they are considered skippable for the sake of a 3-day weekend here and there.
This is what school is like:
1 Ayano, Yuri, and Atsu in the Spanish culture class
2 View from one of my Japanese classrooms
I've hung out with a lot of NCCers, you know, the ones studying abroad here and the ones that used to study abroad there. Some Kanda kids came over, I visited Yokohama with Eri, gone out for dinner, stuff of that nature.
1 At an Asian Fusion Restaurant
2 Figuring out how to get Vicky home.. it involved like, 2 transfers and was crazy complicated. Later I found out that there's a subway by my apartment that goes directly to her stop
1 At Ousanbashi
2 Yokohamaaa~
Besides NCCers, I've been attempting to make new friends. It was a pain in the *** at first, because I was without phone. But I got one yesterday, and the world is right again. I've seen Ayano a bit outside of class, as well as her friends, and I've been talking to the other international students more (some of them, like the Chinese ones, are so good at Japanese that hanging out with them gets me the same practice as hanging out with a Japanese person), plus some of the Australians and French and Korean guys in my guesthouse.
Last weekend I went to Kyoto! It was an Amanda adventure, a Saga-Arashiyama adventure, and a natsukashii adventure. I spent the weekend with Beehn, and she showed me around the area she lives in (Umahori) as well as where she used to live last year (Chiyokawa). The day after that was Saga-Arashiyama and Monkey Mountain with Amanda, Ashley, and Jackie, and I'm sure many of you have seen the pictures on the internets and read all the other blogs. It was a good time, and I even got to show Amanda where I lived 2 years ago (Nishioji)! Man, where I live right now is so much better than Nishioji haha. Our final day was spent eating out, getting ice cream, and watching movies and crazy Japanese TV. She comes to Tokyo next weekend, and yeah, I can't wait.
1 Come on, she's the cutest
2 Listening to Kyoto musics
1 Arashiyama Bridge
2 What's she doing in Nishioji?
So yeah, then this past week was classes. And since Wednesday, Pixie-face has been visiting our city, so I've spent the past few nights with her and others. We walked from Shibuya to Shinjuku (the long route.. paaaaainful legs by the end of the day), ate at Shakey's, did Purikura, went to a restaurant owned by the parents of one of the members of Arashi (Pixie's idea, of course), and karaoked last night.
1 What's she doing here?
2 Shakey's crazy pizza
1 Pixie and Aiba, together at last
2 Everyone's here just to see Pixie. Even Tsuyoshi - he was taking the picture
And then, finally, today I explored more of Tokyo. I went to a bunch of out-of-the-way places, and it was completely worth it. First I went to a crazy Soka Gakkai temple that was either a spaceship, a castle, or a samurai helmet. Yay vaguely Buddhist cults! Right by that was the headquarters of the Freemasons in Japan, which I wasn't expecting, and as a fun bonus Tokyo Tower was right there too. Then I went to Hama-Rikyu Park, maybe the most beautiful park I've ever been in. Seriously. Then I ended my day in Ginza: playing with the toys at the Sony Building, seeing the Toei Headquarters (the company that brought you Dragonball in all its incarnations, Sailor Moon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Digimon, among others), and eating at the Wendys that I ate at 2 years ago where I first found out I loved Melon Soda.
1 Ahhh the crazy Soka Gakkai building
2 Only 2 minutes away. Creepy? You tell me
1 The Tokyo Tower peeking out from the Masonic Lodge
2 Hama-Rikyu Park
Some things have happened in the past two weeks. Orientation is over, as is my first week of classes. I've got a healthy mix of foreigner-only classes (Japanese language every day, "Japanology", Japanese Culture and Society, and Asian Politics) as well as classes that normal Japanese people take and are quite hard because, well, it's in fluent Japanese (Korean movies and dramas, Ethnic groups in Russia, and the Society and Culture of the Spanish Speaking World). I have no days off outside of weekends, but on Fridays and Mondays I only have one class, so they are considered skippable for the sake of a 3-day weekend here and there.
This is what school is like:
1 Ayano, Yuri, and Atsu in the Spanish culture class
2 View from one of my Japanese classrooms
I've hung out with a lot of NCCers, you know, the ones studying abroad here and the ones that used to study abroad there. Some Kanda kids came over, I visited Yokohama with Eri, gone out for dinner, stuff of that nature.
1 At an Asian Fusion Restaurant
2 Figuring out how to get Vicky home.. it involved like, 2 transfers and was crazy complicated. Later I found out that there's a subway by my apartment that goes directly to her stop
1 At Ousanbashi
2 Yokohamaaa~
Besides NCCers, I've been attempting to make new friends. It was a pain in the *** at first, because I was without phone. But I got one yesterday, and the world is right again. I've seen Ayano a bit outside of class, as well as her friends, and I've been talking to the other international students more (some of them, like the Chinese ones, are so good at Japanese that hanging out with them gets me the same practice as hanging out with a Japanese person), plus some of the Australians and French and Korean guys in my guesthouse.
Last weekend I went to Kyoto! It was an Amanda adventure, a Saga-Arashiyama adventure, and a natsukashii adventure. I spent the weekend with Beehn, and she showed me around the area she lives in (Umahori) as well as where she used to live last year (Chiyokawa). The day after that was Saga-Arashiyama and Monkey Mountain with Amanda, Ashley, and Jackie, and I'm sure many of you have seen the pictures on the internets and read all the other blogs. It was a good time, and I even got to show Amanda where I lived 2 years ago (Nishioji)! Man, where I live right now is so much better than Nishioji haha. Our final day was spent eating out, getting ice cream, and watching movies and crazy Japanese TV. She comes to Tokyo next weekend, and yeah, I can't wait.
1 Come on, she's the cutest
2 Listening to Kyoto musics
1 Arashiyama Bridge
2 What's she doing in Nishioji?
So yeah, then this past week was classes. And since Wednesday, Pixie-face has been visiting our city, so I've spent the past few nights with her and others. We walked from Shibuya to Shinjuku (the long route.. paaaaainful legs by the end of the day), ate at Shakey's, did Purikura, went to a restaurant owned by the parents of one of the members of Arashi (Pixie's idea, of course), and karaoked last night.
1 What's she doing here?
2 Shakey's crazy pizza
1 Pixie and Aiba, together at last
2 Everyone's here just to see Pixie. Even Tsuyoshi - he was taking the picture
And then, finally, today I explored more of Tokyo. I went to a bunch of out-of-the-way places, and it was completely worth it. First I went to a crazy Soka Gakkai temple that was either a spaceship, a castle, or a samurai helmet. Yay vaguely Buddhist cults! Right by that was the headquarters of the Freemasons in Japan, which I wasn't expecting, and as a fun bonus Tokyo Tower was right there too. Then I went to Hama-Rikyu Park, maybe the most beautiful park I've ever been in. Seriously. Then I ended my day in Ginza: playing with the toys at the Sony Building, seeing the Toei Headquarters (the company that brought you Dragonball in all its incarnations, Sailor Moon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Digimon, among others), and eating at the Wendys that I ate at 2 years ago where I first found out I loved Melon Soda.
1 Ahhh the crazy Soka Gakkai building
2 Only 2 minutes away. Creepy? You tell me
1 The Tokyo Tower peeking out from the Masonic Lodge
2 Hama-Rikyu Park