Blogs from Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan, Asia

You don't measure a year. You cannot measure a year. I just spent 10 months in Japan learning Japanese, hands down the hardest thing I have ever done and the biggest change I've gone through. I was a student and a mentor. I was a younger and older brother. Very much a child, yet somehow found an adulthood. I felt more isolated and more included than ever before. I was mute and deaf then fluent. This blog is a nice decoration, but it only scrapes the surface. For everyone who read this in the past 10 months, commented, and tried to feel what I felt, and see what I saw, with me, thank you. Friends and family, thank you for your support. I can't wait to see you face to face and tell you even more ... read more

In my mad rush to the beginning of winter break, I didn't put any posts up. The photos and stories just built up. Then in my mad rush to party when winter break began, I didn't publish anything. So this is the start of a long string of posts...Boroichi is one of the signature events in Setagaya. It is a two day long flea-market that happens december and january 15-16. If you can imagine it, its at Boroichi. Every type of used and new goods, plants, animals, food. It was incredible and only a 5 minute walk from our house. I spend about 3 hours there on December 15 and didn't see the end of it. Before I came to Japan I looked into Setagaya and boroichi was number one on the list of things to ... read more

Went shopping today with my host mother. I had told her that I liked food and wanted to learn about Japanese cuisine. All she told me was "tabemeno, ikimashou" (Food, lets go). I guess she understands the way I think because in no time we were heading to their supermall, an 8 floor behemoth with 2 grocery stores, a drug store, electronics store, homegoods store, and Starbucks. Yeah, they made it over here. I bought deodorant that I hope is unscented, index cards, and folders. Then we hit the food. First grocery store: Dry goods and bottled drinks. Japanese love dry goods. They had everything pre-packaged, dehydrated, canned, and ready to go. Toast spreads, chocolate, fish crackers, tofu bites, you name it they have it. Of course, everything was in Japanese so I could only decipher ... read more

Today was my first day at Waseda for orientation. It's about an hour away from my house. The students there seemed very friendly, but very American. Most of them are living in the dorm, which is very close to campus, but I'm glad I chose to live with the host family instead. I will definitely get to use more Japanese. It seems that the few students who chose to live with host families are the ones that are more serious about the language. I really hope I'm right about learning more with the family. That's the reason I'm halfway around the world. We had a campus tour today too. The campus seems very haphazardly laid out. I will get lost this week, no doubt. We got tons of orientation materials and forms, and our class choices. ... read more