An Exhausting Week

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I think that my euphoria over arriving in Japan finally wore out sometime near the beginning of this week. I haven't quite hit that "depression period" that I'm told I will experience while abroad, and I hope I never get there, but this week really has tried my patience.

There were problems with communication between the teachers, students, and director of the program, and the third year class was not being handled very well for the last several days. Several of the students (including me) wrote to notify the director, and hopefully things will be settled by the beginning of next week. One can only hope.

Anyway, since last time, I have done quite a lot, and learned something new every day. On Monday, we had a free bus tour of Tokyo, with the stipulation that our class group pose for brochure photos for the tour company. I guess it was a good enough trade, if a little tiring after two and a half hours of looking excited and posing for photos. The tour itself was not that impressive, given that many of us had been to most of the places on the tour, and knew all or most of the information the tour guide was telling us. I was impressed by how good her English was, though. We went to Asakusa, the Imperial Palace (well, in front of it), and Odaiba, where we were abandoned, er, I mean, where the tour ended. We drove through Akihabara and Ginza, which was a shame, because I actually wanted to get out and see those places. Whatever. It was just tough that the tour ended on Odaiba, a man-made island out in Tokyo bay, from where we had to make our own way home. It took me over two hours to get home from the time I started heading toward the Odaiba monorail to the time I stepped into my host family's threshold. And I didn't take any wrong turns.

Then, on Tuesday and Wednesday I was sick. I'm still a little weak, probably because we were walking around on that tour and it was raining and I didn't have an umbrella half the time.

Wednesday was neat, though. We had a guest calligraphy teacher come to our class and give us a calligraphy lesson, and by the end of the class, we all had a piece of calligraphy to take home.

Today's culture class featured another guest speaker, by the name of George Kunihiro. I thought the juxtaposition of Japanese and English names was a little strange, but that's really his name. He spoke at length and in great detail about the architecture of Tokyo, seeing as we are going to Roppongi Hills tomorrow, a place famous for its architecture and expensive shops. I don't remember one of the details, but one of the things that really grabbed my attention was his treatment of the structure of Tokyo's sidewalks. I had been noticing this since the beginning as well, but just now realized how different it is from America. In Tokyo, almost everywhere you go, there is a set of walkways elevated above the streets, allowing for safe pedestrian traffic, and a better view of the city. Just last week I noticed both of those factors. I usually walk on the elevated sidewalks, to avoid traffic, and then, one time, when I was walking along the street-side sidewalk, I couldn't navigate at all, because I didn't know where to cross the streets and I couldn't see where I was heading. Of course, such a feature would be ridiculous in Chapel Hill, or anywhere in North Carolina, but it Tokyo, I can see that it is very convenient.

Hopefully, Roppongi Hills turns out to be as interesting as Kunihiro-sensei made it sound.

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