Advertisement
Published: November 10th 2007
Ikebana
The ancient Japanese art of Flower Arranging. I don't think it's supposed to get you this excited.Alright. It has actually been so long since I wrote my last travelblog, I had to go back and read the entire thing again to see what I'd written about. I can't believe it was three weeks ago I went to fuji q highland. I hope I can remember everything I did between now and then.
Well I suppose the next thing after Fuji Q was Halloween. For the weekend before Halloween Shani (another Tsuru/UCSD student) and I made a trek out to Tokyo to meet friends and find a club where you could get in for free if you wore a costume. As well, we searched for the Yamanote party. Yamanote is one of the Tokyo train lines, and rumor had it that there was a big party going on in one of the sets of cars.
We actually found the train in the first station we went into after eating dinner, but unfortunately it was two platforms over, so we were unable to ride it. We could tell it was the right train because it was full of drunk foreigners yelling out the windows. We then proceeded to spend the next hour and a half trying to
Halloween in Tokyo!
Clockwise, from me: Billie (as a guy from My Chemical Romance), Shani (whose costume I could explain but it's not worth it, trust me it was interesting), Mami (pirate), Lizzie (gypsy, but you cant see her costume), Courtney (pirate), and Jenny (Chun-li, from Street Fighter). chase that specific train - though we were unable to find it.
Our theory is we couldn't find it because everyone got off and went to the same club we were going to, which has a 3,000 person capacity. Our timing was excellent, and we arrived there right at midnight, which is when the trains stop running in Tokyo. So, naturally, we spent the next six hours dancing. The next train wasn't till six, what else would you do? Honestly, that is one of the more authentic Tokyo experiences one can have. That, or sleeping in a MacDonald's after you're done with the club. That is an INCREDIBLY common occurrence in Tokyo.
So then three days later of course we did Halloween again, in Tsuru. On the 8th, 9th, and 10th, Tsuru U held their student festival, so we had Thursday and Friday off. Now a student festival sounds like a real good time, and is a fun idea, in theory. The idea is a festival is put on by the students and all the clubs and teams set up stalls and activities and there are performances by music circles and such. In a place like Tsuru, though,
Taking part in a Lingerie Ad
Mami posing with the lingerie girls. Do I make this look a little like a Monty Python sketch? everyone is a member of a club/team, so that means everyone is working while the festival is going on - which means not many people are walking around enjoying the festival. A little strange, but still entertaining.
Courtney Smith once more graced Tsuru with her presence, and was gracious enough to bring along some REAL parmesan cheese (NOT EASY TO FIND IN JAPAN) so that I could make Italian food for my friends. Thursday night we made chicken scallopini, pasta with pesto sauce, and garlic bread for twelve people. Now this is fairy common for myself, but I am VERY proud of this because three people made this dinner in a kitchen that is roughly four feet wide, equipped with a two-burner ("burner") electric range, and a microwave that can be an oven. Dinner for twelve people! It was a feat.
Friday Shani and I went on over to my homestay family's place to make chicken parmesan, with my home-made sauce and actual parmesan cheese. Fortunately, a friend of theirs brought over FIVE BOTTLES OF WINE. Needless to say, once more we were a little late for the last train back to Tsuru, so we ended up staying
On The Train
We didn't look strange at all. Especially me. Dead ringer for Rivers Cuomo, but doesn't do me a fat load of good since Weezer ain't so famous in Japan... the night at my homestay family's home, where the conversation quickly turned to making fun of me. JUST LIKE MY REAL HOME!
Really, Wednesday was the start of a grand adventure for me and Shani. We had the aforementioned events, and Saturday we woke up nice and early so we could go pack our bags and get ready to head out to Tokyo for the remainder of the weekend. We made it over in time to meet Courtney (she'd gone back to Tokyo Friday morning) and head over to International Christian University's student festival! This is a private college in Tokyo, which is bigger and fancier lookin' than Tsuru, yet somehow the festival managed to look fairly similar to Tsuru's - only bigger. It DID have an excellent dance performance, though. Not something I'm normally into, but apparently it was the big event for the evening.
That evening I FINALLY got to go to a jazz club in Tokyo. This is something I've been trying to do since I got here, yet somehow I have not been able to. It was very fun, very classy. Also, hearing a Japanese woman singing Cole Porter songs is very interesting (still
Halloween in Tsuru!
Somehow I managed to make an ACTUAL costume for Halloween in Tsuru. classy). She did really good, but still slipped a couple "rearry"s in there, and I had a hard time keeping quiet. Afterwards, Courtney, a japanese friend of ours, and I managed to stay up till roughly 4 am playing Uno. That was an interesting decision.
Sunday, Shani and I woke up early and met our friends to go to Studio Ghibli, which is a famous anime studio. If you know the movies Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away, or Howl's Moving Castle (the three most recent films, i believe), that studio made them. It was interesting, but turned out to be the Studio Ghibli Museum, and it was set up a little more like a theme-park than an actual studio - which shani and I were expecting.
So we left our friends a little early to.... go to Waseda University's student festival!!! Waseda is another private university, and is enormous. We made it to the festival and it was CRAWLING with students. Walking along the stalls you had to push through the crowd to get anywhere, and it was so loud you could barely talk to each other. INTERESTINGLY, their performances were terrible. We watched a bit of what
Chubby Bunny
The ol' Chubby Bunny contest. I managed 8 marshmallows in my mouth. I think I have reached my marshmallow quota for the next year and a half was going on on the stage, and it was extremely unremarkable. I think there's some sort of inverse proportion law going on here...
Anyway, we were so exhausted on Sunday that Shani and I did not have the mettle to take the two hour, four change ride back to Tsuru, so we stayed Sunday night in Tokyo. Monday morning we got up bright and early to make it back in time for our 10:50 am class. We somehow had the magnificent timing to run into our teacher for the day's classes on the train back to Tsuru! That's always fun explaining you were coming back from Tokyo and then stumbling a bit in class...
So after that weekend I've been laying low a little bit. This weekend has been pretty calm, and that is fine by me for now. I've been practicing my bass a lot lately in preparation for the show on Saturday. Should be interesting. I don't know if I'm going to take video of it. Maybe a song or two. I had been asking my band-mates who they expected to sing these tunes, and (I should have guessed), when we practiced last Thursday they asked
Halloween in Tsuru!
The eternal question can finally be answered. Who would win in a bout between a dead fencer and a sexy pirate. (dead fencer, duh). me to sing. Now I'm ok on bass, but I have not practiced singing and playing before, and not sure how quickly I can learn.
After hearing them "sing" these songs, I think it might be worthwhile to try my hand at it.
As far as classes go, they are ok. I am able to understand more and more of what my professors are saying for my literature classes, though the reading has not gotten much easier. I had to talk to my professor for the children's literature class on friday, and she explained to us how we're going to be evaluated since we leave early.
We are to read two or three picture books and write a report on them. How long you ask? Well, a page or so will be fine. Now, I understand that it's all in Japanese - BUT STILL. This seems a little ridiculous, but I am not about to complain! This is an EXCELLENT form of evaluation, as far as I'm concerned 😊.
I must apologize for the lack of pictures here. I didn't take any to show practically half of this blog! But, it's been three months, and I'm
Tsuru's Gakuensai (student festival)
Our friends performing and looking cool at the student festival little pictured-out. In fact, as much as we love it, we are a little exhausted of the program. I love being in Japan and speaking Japanese (i'm ALMOST able to actually have a conversation on the phone!), but we have been doing classes since August, and that has been wearing us down.
in fact, right now is the time when I need to start planning my (magnificent) return to San Diego. I register for UC classes on Wednesday, and I still need a place to live whilst I take said classes. If anyone knows anyone who needs a roommate, let me know!
We are at about T minus 4 weeks on our time here in Japan, though. People have started counting down the days (which is obnoxious and not helping me learn japanese at all). It will be very interesting returning to the "real" world and "regular" life......
Advertisement
Tot: 0.071s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0412s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
emily
non-member comment
what do you mean? burn Judy and Mary's nicotine jet makes perfect sense to me