I am terrible at this

Sorry I have not updated in over a week.

Basically I've just been doing whatever, mainly classes. Last weekend I decided to stop using the dryers, since they don't dry, and ended up with this: This week I am using the balcony/dryers outside...and the hangers for my shirts, I guess. Next week I might try the laundromat down the street, since honestly both the washers and dryers in the dorms sort of suck. I am pretty unsatisfied with these dorm facilities: Washers, Dryers, Bathroom Sinks, Showers, Key Holes, Locked Top-Floor Balcony/Windows, Pillows, Lack of Oven. Basically I appreciate that my dorm is rather cheap, but that's primarily because they're all doubles -- junk should work well. All in all none of it is that big a deal, but it is sort of aggravating - especially since there is a monthly utility fee and I am not satisfied with the various waterworks in the building. Oh well. Somewhat related -- sometime in the next week I'm going to try to get my iTouch connected to campus wireless. Apparently there is a blog with instructions, as the tech people here just turn anyone trying away.

Um...things of interest last week: My Level 2 course is rather difficult and I am feel behind in it, but I hope to catch up. My Kanji course is too easy, and I will either switch or drop. I failed to get credit for my History of Math course as a Philosophy course and will need to contact the History department for it and my Japanese History course -- this may prompt me to drop phil as a major and try for phil and hist minors, as I have about equal credits in both fields after this semester, and am slightly annoyed with the phil department at the moment over this. Thursday was a TYPHOON DAY which I spent doing basically nothing. BUT I SURVIVED MY FIRST TYPHOON! I also went to an International Student Party...which was good in that I got free food. Also, isn't this men's barber shop thing awesome:

This weekend I did some fun stuff, too. On Friday a few of us went to an arcade (Jason, Wu Chiang, and Megan) where we got an attendant to help Jason win Wu a bear, and I blistered my hands playing the drum machine with Megan. I got to play the Lucky Star theme song as well as Tank! The Cowboy Bebop theme! It was awesome.

Saturday night Ben and I went to Nichome, the sort of gay district of Shinjuku. It was kind of...really small and lame. It was maybe two~four blocks, depending on how you count it, and it was mainly tiny one-room bars and sex hotel things. We ended up going to this club, that kind of picked up and was fun after about 11, and a bar called Usagi (rabbit) where there was a cosplay event. At Usagi I got creepily stared at by a worker dressed as a pirate, then we conversed with some drunk middle-aged locals/regulars. At the club we danced with some various groups -- most notably these two, probably straight, girls. I am rather satisfied with this club experience solely because they played Daft Punk (One More Time!! Though I would have been more impressed/excited with something off of Alive 2007 or with Superheroes or Digital Love) and not Kanye West's song that samples Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. But....other than that, basically the people dancing were doing one of two things: Trying to show off their poor dance skills to pick up guys, or just sort of grinding against their boyfriend and making out. It was rather disgusting and I could not have stayed much longer than we did because of that. Oh well, sometime I will go to Roppongi to one of the clubs that plays bad-90s pop music. I basically can't see any way a club like that could not be loads of fun.

Sunday I went to Yokohama in a rather large group, which was enormous fun. It is a harbor, and home to China Town. Basically we got there, walked around taking pictures of the pier:

After the pier we went to an International Food Festival thing, which means I got to have a delicious Peruvian Burrito filled with Chorizo, a Mango Smoothie, and Indonesian Fruit Tea!

Soon afterwards, we went to China Town...which resulted in a lot more pictures and really delicious dinner. Some highlights:

After all of this we got some Anman (adzuki bean filled buns) and walked around the pier area at night. Basically, what I came to Tokyo for:

   

I'll update later with a full photo-gallery.

Edit: http://picasaweb.google.com/DanielisCertus/GamesYokohamaStuff#

Folk Village, Itaewon, and Night Life

Yesterday was an extremely intense day. I woke up around 6:30am, and we were all on busses by about 8. We went to a traditional Folk Village -- of which I have over a hundred photos. In it, buildings were set up to be like a traditional peasant's house and a traditional rich man's house, as well as various shrines, mills, performance arenas, and a Buddhist Temple. There was even an amusement park with a Viking Section (didn't go), and a Haunted House (did go, it was...alright. Really long.) Early into the trip I met my buddy(Sue) through SISS and some of her friends(Jin Tsu and Chon Ye, maybe. I probably butchered both of those), I pretty much stuck with them for the entirity of the Village.

While here we got to see a traditional music/dance performance, which was amazing -- I have a few videos of it, but they don't do it justice. The traditional outfits are all colorful, and they have various hats on their heads -- one with a few colored pompoms, like a clown, one with a giant flower, and one with large streamers. It was like something out of Dr. Seuss.

Afterwards we got to see a traditional tight-rope walker guy. Apparently what he said between crossings was hilarious, and the show was a mix of comedy/suspense. Sue translated some of it, so I can vouch it sounded pretty funny, but it's really not the same as knowing the meaning as he speaks. Oh well.

We went to a Traditional Wedding Ceremony, which was sort of interesting. The man and woman didn't really touch or get very close at all during the procession, and the whole thing was fairly short. Not my favorite part, but it was alright.

It was pretty cool hanging with Sue and her friends (and some of my friends), they were very helpful and sweet. Also, two of them speak Japanese (Better than me, Sue's major is Japanese), so I can get even more practice.

When we had some free time, we checked out the haunted house -- already noted somewhat of a dissappointment, and the Buddhist Temple. The Temple was amazing -- even the path to get there was great. We had to cross a river, and it was surrounded by woods, and the gates and buildings were all magnificent. I can't do it justice through describing it, nor do my pictures do it any justice. It was amazing.

Afterwards we went back to campus, and a fee hours later I went out with a group (Rommy, Ara, Juin, Steph) to Itaewon. Itaewon is the foreigner's district. It has pretty much everything not Korean. A lot of things were American, but the mix of countries was still rather wild. For example, there was a Turkish ice-cream vendor working the street. We ended up going to an Arabian restaurant, as it's Rommy's favorite (Rommy, Ara, and Juin led us around since they have lived here a while. Rommy and Juin for some numbere of months, Ara wasborn and raised here.) It was really good, and pretty cool. It was something of an authentic restaurant, the staff all spoke arabic and such, which was rather surprising considering the lack of foreigners I've seen before this.

Later in the night (we stopped at the dorms than left) we went out to this Night-club district near Sinchon. I really wish I knew what it was called, but I don't. I'll try to find out. It was crammed with restuarants, bars, and clubs. Extremely bright and vibrant, it was amazing. We ended up going to a bar for a few hours, and then a nightclub.

The bar was not especially interesting, but the nightclub was really cool. Thumping beat, strobe lights, a laser light show, blacklights, and fog machines were on the dance floor (and pretty much everywhere), and the bar was littered with clear monitors with LED's in them with a menu(They changed color too!) the whole thing was an awesome first clubbing experience.

A lot of interesting stuff happened in the night club, as I'm sure is standard, so I'll try to avoid getting into too much detail. However, it is of note that there were craploads of foreigners, and gay Korean guys. The first because we met a few (we ended up dining with one and her Korean friend after the club), and Steph was nearly picked up by an American In-Fighter (and some of his friends, though they also tried to pick up Ara for a while, and Juin before Rommy stepped up). The latter because I was hit on by a plethora of gay Koreans. One even danced with me for a while, and then tried to buy me a beer (There was some misunderstandings going on. At some point in the night I think he sent a friend to ask if I was gay, though I couldn't hear the guy so well and didn't know they were affilliated, so I didn't really answer. Later we found him at the bar, with the friend he sent nearby, and he sorta punched his hand in the air like we did when we were dancing. I did too, he punched a beer into the air, Rommy did too, as we thought he was just sorta doing a cheers to us for dancing with him. Then the guy ordered a beer and tried to call me over. It was all rather awkward). For the record, just about every Korean there was at least as awkward a dancer as me, if not more so. Which, to anyone who has seen me dance, certainly must be hilarious.

All-in-all, it was a pretty cool night, though I was exhausted from it. Today I should be going to the Electric Market, finally, with Steph and Zach. Tomorrow classes start, so I'll probably go out a bit less often/subsequently have less to say.

--Daniel