Oh, what fun trips you have!

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So... What have I been up to?

Well, I've actually done quite a bit. It really doesn't feel that way to me, but it's true. My thoughts are still being occupied by the issues over which Japanese class I'm in. I found a productive way to deal with it though: I distract myself by studying. Lots and lots of studying. I think it's paying off. The only question is, did I get a 90% or above on Today's test? That really is the determining factor. Ah well. Shigataganai. Nothing I can do until Monday.

Well, what have I done? I think it was last weekend when we went to Akihabara. That’s the electronics district of Tokyo, where you're supposed to be able to buy almost any electronic device thing. I wanted to check out an electronic toy store, but I'm in the habit of being shy (eck, so not like me) and I didn't want to ask if there was one. I went with Maria and Kate, both cool people. Maria was totally out of place for the area, though. Akihabara has electronics, video games, manga, and porn. That's about it. None of these things really interest her. I, on the other hand, was having a field day. (no, not with the porn part... though I did take a few pictures of the buildings).

We went to Akihabara because Maria and I both wanted to purchase electronic dictionaries. They're very expensive, though. Running up to four-hundred dollars-ish. We got ours for under two hundred, but it doesn't do all the really cool things (like talk to you or let you write kanji out on the screen or work as an MP3 player). It does, however, have a setting that lets you put the instructions into English. This really is the most important part. Wait, I lied, the ability to use the stylis to double click a kanji and give the hiragana reading is the most important part. Anyway, it's way convenient, as long as I'm going from Japanese to English. If it's English to Japanese I often just use my paper dictionary. Its definitions aren't in Japanese.

Anyway, after we bought the dictionaries we had free time on our hands. What to do? Well, we walked up and down the street a lot. We didn't go into many stores for a variety of reasons. One, we didn't see anything we were particularly interested in, two, we were afraid there'd be naked pictures, and three, Maria really wasn't interested in doing anything animevideogameelectronic-ish. She's starting to bug me a little. She can be way judgmental, and comments on everything. It's always "why is so and so doing that?" or "That's weird!" or "look at him!" and I'm like, "okay, whatever." She doesn't just sit back and observe. Really, if you want to learn about a culture just shut up. Sit back. Watch. Listen. Don't think about it, just see it. She came here for two weeks as a speed tourist and thinks she knows all about everything. I lived here for six weeks. I wasn't a tourist, I was living here. I'm sure I'll learn a lot more this time, but during my last stay I had a chance just to see and take things in. That's really the best thing you can do. I'm tired of people saying how strange or weird or different Japan is. Think about it for a second. We are the strange and weird ones, not them. They're all doing what they're supposed to. We're the morons out of place. That's why the Japanese people stare at us. Not because they're perverts, but because we're different.

*sigh* people are bugging me. As much as I enjoyed the Akihabara trip, it showed me how much I missed my friends. They would have loved that place as much as me and would have been dorky just like me. I like taking pictures, even back home, I'm tired of people rolling their eyes at me because I want another shot. I'm tired of people saying they don't want to go into a store that I want to explore. It's getting aggravating that no one shares my interests.

Anyway, on the bright side, while we were there we visited what is called a Maid Cafe. What is this, you ask? Well, it's a restaurant where the waitresses dress up in very cutsie, anime-esk maid outfits (oh yes, just like those pictures). Needless to say, it was an interesting experience. There were like a gazzilion "no camera" signs, so I don't have any pictures inside the restaurant, or really anywhere else. They had people advertising on the streets, but they all yelled at you and hid their faces and such if you tried to take a picture. Anyway, it was fun to hang out and watch the girls work, and just see a more peculiar side of Japanese culture. I'd like to go with some people who'd have more fun with it next time. Kate was great, but Maria keeps commenting on how perverted some of the Japanese people are. -.- Don't really care. Relax, take in the experience. That's what makes it fun.

Hmm... what else? Well, I had my first two field trips this week.

The first was for Politics, and I went to the Yasukuni Shrine. This is an interesting place all of its self. I'd really like to take Ian there. The shrine is dedicated to "those who have died in war for their country and sacrificed their lives to help build the fundament for a peaceful Japan." Pretty much all the souls of dead army guys are enshrined there. It's a controversial place, though, for a couple reasons. The first is that some big names from WWII were enshrined there. So when ever important people go to pray for the past warriors, they are also praying for "Evil bad guy people." (my words, not there’s.) Anyway, even though there's controversy, and the whole shrine area is freaking gorgeous, that's not the fun part. Oh no, the fun part is the museum.

Consider every right wing, Christian, America-can-do-no-wrong nut, and then make them Japanese, Confushist, Budhist, Shinto, and whatever else we wanna through in. The entire museum is about how all the battles/war Japan has ever fought were caused by other people and just done in the defense of themselves or other countries. I'm not saying that Japan was at fault for everything that happened in its war past, but come on. No one is completely blameless. The museum states that Japan didn't consider joining WWII until after the oil embargo, and then only to allow it to gain necessary resources, and only after they did everything in their power to avoid it, and us evil Americans just kept demanding more until even after Japan met their first few demands. Japan could give no more and had to defend itself against our evil ways. Anyway, I'm being sarcastic, but this museum wasn't. And the diction they used! Oh. My. God. It was wonderful. By wonderful I mean horrible, but wonderful still. I'm a literature nut, and this just took the cake. It was such obvious propaganda, you couldn't help but be skeptic. It's like listening to people say why the Iraq war is a great thing. You just want to hit them over the head. Except this wasn't my problem, so I could let it be funny. In that "Wow, if people actually believed all this I'd be quite disturbed" sort of way.

Makes you wonder, don't it?

Anyway, they didn't allow cameras inside, so I don't have any pictures of the museum. I'll tell you though, they have some great stuff in there. Not tons or anything, but they have some original WWII stuffs, and old uniforms and guns and swords and armor. It's just really cool.

The next fieldtrip was this Thursday for History. We went to the Edo History Museum. Edo is Tokyo's old name, before the Meiji restoration back when the Shogun controlled the empire. (no, you don't have to understand all that, I just want you to know how smart I'm getting.) It was much more touristy, but also a different sort of fun. For starters, you could take pictures. This is where I felt more touristy than most people. On the bright side, I love my teacher even more because she was a little dorky, too. (I have the same teacher for both classes. She's a very nice lady with a long, unpronounceable Russian name).

This didn't have any cool, disturbing controversy, it just displayed some artifacts and a lot of models of what life was like way back when. The models were really cool. They were like detailed little cities with tons of people and houses and shrines and stuff. We had a guide lead us through with a laser pointer and describe each scene and its significance. I didn't learn much factual stuffs that would help me for a test, but I got a visual representation of what we'd been studying in class. That's cool in and of itself.

Yeah, so those trips plus studying.

Oh, and I watched several seasons of the 4400 TV show. I use a website that lets you watch a lot of shows for free. I finished all of that show that it had, so I'm on a break from TV now. It was actually useful. I have trouble focusing on my work without background noise or something. I used to use Pandora.com, but because of lenience restrictions it can't broadcast radio to Japan. This is sad. Very sad. So now I just throw on a couple shows in the background while I do my homework and I half watch, half practice my supplementary vocab lists. Did I tell you? I was so tired of not being able to talk that I started making my own vocab lists, in addition to what we learn in class, where I add any words that come up in class randomly, or any words I'm curious about, or any words mentioned among friends that I don't know. It's not a short list, but I memorize about a page a day, and review everything prior to that, so I'm retaining most of the vocab rather well. It's not stressful, just consistent, and it really helps for test times because I don't have to cram the night or two before, I've been working on the vocab all week and have it down pretty solidly. I'm taking the night off because I worked really hard last night for the test and I just want to try to relax. I was going to go out and party, but I didn't know who to go with. This is the problem with not feeling comfortable with anyone. Ah, well.

I've decided I need alone time. I don't know how it will work out, but I figured it's a start. So, tomorrow, I'm going to Yokohama chuukaga, or Yokohama China Town. All by myself. It's outside of Tokyo, I don't know, one to two hours away. I figure I can leave around nine and still get there with most the day ahead of me. Dad wants me to get him those Chinese massage ball things that you can learn to twirl in your hand without them touching. That's my goal tomorrow. I don't know how to say it, but I'll bring my dictionaries, and some homework for the bus rides, and just enjoy myself and wonder around for awhile. If I get bored, Shibuya is on the way home. I don't know what's there but I know it's a big area. I'm so bad with the district names, I'm trying to make a vocab list for them, but so far Akihabara is the only one on it. Ah well, soon enough I'll fix that.

I hope everyone is doing well in America. If you haven't already given me your address you should. Don't worry about me, I'm really doing fine. This is just a nice place to vent frustrations.

ja ne,
Lynda

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Photos

Akihabara Girl
This is one of the girls on the street advertising that turned away when I tried to take a picture. I felt rude taking one anyway, but I wanted some sort of reference.

Classmates
Us at the Yasukuni Shrine waiting to find our teacher. That's Katelyn leaning on the pillar

Sensei
My Politics/History teacher. She's pretty cool, I think.

Edo Museum
Just one of the model things that they had around the museum

Edo Museum
Halley taking a picture of a cool picture scroll you can see in the background

Edo Museum
The tour finally finished!

Edo Museum
Me in front of a replica building based off those after the meiji restoration

Yasukuni Museum
Pretty much the only picture I got, out in the lobby

Sensei
See, I said she was a little dorky ^_^

Edo Museum
When I first stepped over the glass I freaked because I thought I would fall through >.<

Comments

[David Corey]

Haha... yeah...
I have a very distinct feeling most countries in the world blame other places for thier problems... it's politics. The maid cafe sells pictures after you've been buying drinks for a while. It's another way to fun the maid-lovering way. xD If you didn't know Edo was the old name for Tokyo before the Meiji restoration I will cry... o.o! I don't know much more than that, but I do know that. No wonder my myspace ran out of bandwidth... o.o; you were listening to it like a radio... xDD Oh well... till next update! x33 <333