Various Festivals and Things

This last week or so has been pretty cool. My pictures, start with Rike wearing a mustache, so let us start there:

I have no idea why it is so fuzzy, but you can make out the mustache...almost. She war wearing it for her birthday, I believe is the reason. We all went out for Nabe to celebrate, which was rather tasty.

Anyway, a few days later (Saturday) I went to a Rome/Carthage exhibit with Sho Xiao Yin and Tama. It was depressingly small/expensive, but it was still pretty cool. I am shocked at how much time Sho was able to spend looking at things -- Tama and I ran around this big mall the museum was in once we finished looking around. There were a few interesting pieces I would have liked to take photos of, but I couldn't. Basically there was an unnamed emperor, whom I think was Gaius Claudius, a few frescas of women just doing stuff, some children competing over a prize, and one of Amor (Cupid) and Psyche. I'm glad I went, but I will keep this experience in mind and not go next time. I guess the main interest was I got a new earring, finally (I do not like it very much as it basically looks like a hole in my ear:  

However, the rest of my week/weekend was significantly more fun. On Sunday I went to two different festivals -- Waseda Homecoming Festival, and a Kishimojin festival. The main interest at the Waseda Festival were the cheerleaders: I had only seen them on TV before this, somehow. It was pretty fantastic.

The night festival was way more exciting, as it was filled with food:  

Afterwards there was a pretty cool parade, which is hard to explain even with pictures. There were people of all ages using drums and symbols, holding these shrine things, and twirling weird things on long poles. It was really odd, though, as it went parallel to traffic -- and pretty much was done in a way where the public and the parade people were somewhat integrated. It's really hard to explain, but it was really cool.

Other than that, I've finally gotten my Alien Registration Card and completed my health check. I just need to start planning a Halloween party, get my money from when I was sick (covered by health insurance), mess with my phone plan, get my working visa, get my re-entry permit...and I'm done with bureaucracy and miscellaneous work for the month! Hooray!

Also, shout outs: Mother and Seta, I look forward to receiving both packages!

Here is the gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/DanielisCertus/VariousMatsuriAndThings

Hanko

I don't really have much to say about today, nor do I have pictures. After the nattou I waited a bit, made a decent bowl of smashed potatoes (it was almost more of a stew) and later on went to get a Hanko -- which will read "Shyoru" in Katakana and be ready on Monday. I then headed out to drop stuff off at school, got intercepted by Jesse, who had me accompany him to SoftCell to fix his phone (we decided to call each other before the next tea club meeting), and dropped off my photo with the help of Ben. I picked up some stuff at the Co-Op (Finally got soap and a hand towel! Pretty Pretty brand soap, to be precise). Um...later on I went to a Ramenya (Ramen Shop) with Leo, and just sort of hung around in the lounge. Tomorrow we should go to Karaoke...

I guess I'm reaching a point where it will be sort of silly to update daily. I really am only adding this now because I have been updating around the same time each day so far. I may or may not drop down to a reduced schedule based more on when things happen than on some daily/weekly schedule. We'll see.

Oh, another note, I was invited to Hokkaido in November by Misa and Abby. I may or may not go with them, though, as I might prefer going later in the Winter...we'll see!

Toyama Park

Today I went to Toyama park, and chose not to make a bank account. I didn't take a lot of pictures...not sure why. Here are...all of them:

Afterwards we walked around a bit, stopped and ate, and got very lost.

Though, it was worth it, because we found a Western Fencing Shop! It had Astroboy dressed in a lemee. I want to go back -- it was right near Bunkyou-ku on Mejiro-Dori. Hopefully I can find it again! It was also near a Halloween food shop, or something, so it should be fun to explore in the future.

Tomorrow I was supposed to go to the Pokemon Center, but I think that's being postponed. I may get my Hanko(stamp for documents) tomorrow and open a bank account. Also, probably tonight, I think I will try Nattou - fermented soy beans. It is apparently very hard for Westerners to eat, due to its strong flavor and scent. I will probably eat it over rice, with some blanched spinach and a raw or sunny-side up egg. Also a LOT of soy sauce at the ready. And maybe an alternate meal prepared.

P.S. I'm not sure what format people like for this blog. Do you prefer short daily updates like this, or less frequent long updates like I did in Korea? Do you like pictures embedded in the posts, or on separate albums? Any other ideas? Please -- tell me everything! What you like, what I should change, EVERYTHING! Thanks!

Tea Ceremony

Today has been a long day. It started with grocery shopping, which was very confusing:

The result was I avoided buying meat, and picked up cooking sake instead of cooking oil. Oh well! The food I made later was still pretty good. Everyone in the kitchen/lounge helped me figure out what I got -- Green Onion, Potatoes, Cucumber, Carrots, Cayenne Pepper, Mustard, Cooking Sake, Soy Sauce, and Vinegar.

Afterwards I ran to meet Jesse and Laur for the ICC tour, only to find out it's tomorrow. So, instead, we went to the club office and checked out basically every floor to see what clubs were available. We were greeted rather coldly by everyone, except the Tea club. They told us about their meeting later on, so we decided to go to that, and continued searching. We took a break for lunch, then headed to the Ceremony.

My lunch was "Tanuki Soba," Jesse got "Kitsune Soba," and Laur got "Katsu Don." Pictures are of Tanuki and Katsu (the woman basically told me their Katsu Don was famous so I had to take a picture of it when I was taking a picture of Tanuki. For reference: Tanuki = Racoon, Kitsune = Fox, Katsu = Fried Meat Cutlet, normally Pork as in Tonkatsu"

Tanuki Soba, Katsu Don

The Tea Ceremony was interesting. It was actually more casually done than the Korean ceremony, though this was just practice. Unfortunately Jesse is the only one that took pictures. We got to mix some powdered tea! I think all the tools and the tea were basically the same as in the Korean ceremony, however there was a bigger water boiler. It was pretty fun, and we met some interesting people. I exchanged phone information with a third-year student/possibly the club leader, Asami.

From there, Laur left and Jesse and I sort of wondered around. Eventually he led me to a 100 yen shop to buy a bowl, which was the final product necessary for me to cook. I have taken so many pictures of my food I did not bother this time. I will say it came out alright, better than I expected due to the lack of protein. Didn't do much else -- just some laundry. Though, Damon and Abby finally got phones! Also, they are cooking upstairs now with the aid of a few girls (probably a good thing).

Tomorrow I think Ben, Laur, and I will go to Edo. Should be fun!

Fun day!

Today was opening ceremony, which was long and sort of dull, but was preceded by and followed with fun stuff! Also pictures!

Before the ceremony I walked around with a friend, Misa, and found where the ceremony would be. There was a rather cool clock tower:

Afterwards, I was called over by a friend, Jesse, who wanted to check out the social circles (clubs). We ended up putting our names/e-mails on a mailing list for (what I think was) a Kanji circle, and exchanging phone numbers with someone from English club. Basically the hope is to find members of the club that want to do a language exchange sort of thing.

Afterwards I sort of ran off to meet Ben for the open ceremony. I met his host mother, Kazama-san! She is very nice, and invited me to hang out at her home sometime. I sat near her, Ben, and Leo -- I let him take some photos during the thing. He took like, 4 of himself, and some weird ones of the auditorium. I'll put the more interesting photos up. Though, unless noted otherwise, assume I took each photo.

Me and Leo. He didn't seem happy with this one, but I think he looks fairly cool in it. I believe Leo took the first.

Most of the pictures of the stage are fairly washed out, unfortunately. Leo took the first. The ceremony was basically every professor on stage giving a speech...pretty long and dull.

Waseda Glee club! They were pretty good! Apparently they have a lot more members (over 100). They sung 3 songs after the ceremony. The Alma Mater, a song played during soccer games when Waseda scores, and the song sung when Waseda wins. The latter is almost a hymn, it was very entertaining to hear!

The Waseda Symphonic Orchestra played after the Glee club. They were great and played like, 3 opera overtures so I loved them! Very hard to see.

After the ceremony, Ben, Kazama-san, and I took some photos (I don't have copies of them, unfortunately), and Kazama-san went home. Ben and I chatted a bit with some people, then wandered around, and finally met with a group for dinner. We went to a curry place! It was pretty cheap and delicious. I just got a Crocket curry, but they had an "Otoko Karii" or Man's Curry. I have a picture of it, it was apparently really tasty (I didn't notice it or I would have bought it too!).

Otoko Karii!Group shot! From Right to Left: Ben, Abby, Alex, Damon, Don't know, JiHaen, Yaz

After dinner we stopped at a McDonald's so some could get desert, than phone shopping. Everyone but Abby, Damon, and I left at some point. The three of us wandered around and got Taiyaki, and then some ice-cream...and some more phone shopping. It was pretty fun. I couldn't pick a favorite of these shots (They are actually in reverse order here, but it looks like the right order, doesn't it?):

Anyway, while phone shopping Jesse called so a group of us will be going to some International Communications club tomorrow morning. Could be fun!

Pictures!

Today was somewhat non-eventful as I spent most of it waiting to use an ATM. However, the few events that happened were rather interesting.

After I woke up and got some breakfast (Milk Tea!) I asked Kim for some help with my Japanese. Basically, I wanted to say "The back of my phone is broken. Please replace it." or "Wakareteru no de, Koukan Shitekudasai." So, on my own, I went to the au shop to have it replaced...and was promptly greeted with the English speaking attendant, as I was instantly recognized from yesterday. Oh well. They didn't even replace it -- they just bent it into place, but I guess that's ok as I have insurance for it.

Later on I met some people over lunch - Yan and Hakleh(I assume this is spelt wrong). Pretty interesting, we had a rather long conversation about world politics. It was somewhat surreal as the conversation was long, was in multiple languages, and involved multiple people helping translate without really adding anything besides the translation.

Later on I walked out to find an ATM that would work. On the way I found this, and took a picture specifically for Father:

I hope you enjoy this.

I walked around for a rather long time, checking the area. I was going to walk to Shibuya, but it was rather far away. I think I entered part of the Shibuya area, though? It is sort of weird how the sections are done. I also managed to enter the red light area (twice) by mistake. The second time an Eastern European man tried to sell me a room in a love hotel and "Beautiful, Japanese girls." It was rather creepy and awkward. I took a few pictures of the clean section of Shinjuku (I will maybe go back and take pictures of the seedy part):

This one is of interest because I WENT IN HERE THREE YEARS AGO!!!!

In the end the building with the ATM I wanted was closed. I ended up working my way back to find the Post Office in order to try it again, but on the way I found a 7-11 with a "Ginkou ATM" which worked! So, I guess I could have used any of these at any point and saved a lot of trouble. Oh well! I celebrated my victory with Tempura and Calpis Soda (It is a Milk Soda -- like Milkis from earlier posts, or a plain Egg Cream for new readers). Tasty!

Anyway, I updated my situation from last post in the comments for it: Basically father will try to take care of it, and if he can't then I will have to call. It seems like it was a mistake on the bank's part, though, that should be cleared up alright.

Edit: I almost forgot. Since I can now do the picture thing, I will probably go back and do picture-tours of my dorm, Nishi-Waseda area, and Waseda itself. Like, maybe a full post per each thing sort of deal. I will do other areas like this too, and am willing to take requests (so long as they are reasonable places for me to go and take pictures of). I will try to spread out these posts over periods where I may have little to actually post about to keep the blog updated, so I won't just do a bunch of them now that I have a camera. So, if there's something you want to see, comment and tell me!

Japan!

I am in Shinjuku, Tokyo now! It is pretty cool. I will go through everything now.

The first plane was pretty alright -- it was really tiny. There were only 9 passengers. YYZ was not as exciting as I was hoping for, it was a lot like NYC's airpor (but a bit nicer and less crowded). I did not listen to YYZ until I got into the plane to leave, nor did I take touristy pictures. I would have like to from the plane coming in, though, as Toronto up against the rising sun was beautiful, but I didn't want to turn on my phone while the plane was moving.

I mainly tried to sleep in the airport to mixed success. Though, as some may know, I was planning on meeting a friend at YYZ as we were on the same flight. She was not there -- I looked for her for about an hour and a half. I even asked the front desk about the incoming flights from Philly to see if there was an issue. I searched for her getting on the plane, and when we got off. I even asked one of the team that picked me up at Narita about her. Nothing. I just recently learned that she was the same flight number and time, a DAY EARLIER. Yeah. That's crap, but doesn't really matter now.

Second flight was pretty awful. It started alright, and the people next to me were pretty alright. But the lights were off pretty much the whole time, and I became sick as the plane went on. I managed to listen to some music, watch the entirity of the Billie Jean King Cup(Good job Serena!), and two episodes of Flashpoint(I have been interested in this show as an actor I irrationally adore is in it. He plays Sam Bradley) before becoming too tired and ill to do anything but try to sleep. This was all compounded with two fears that I feel were somewhat rational: 1) Concern for Lauren, who I felt missed the flight, an experience I greatly emphasize with after Korea, and 2) Worry over my Japanese Exam. I felt I was pretty well-studied, but I know and I knew then that I could have prepared more fully. I also, for the first time, felt true pangs at my decision to study abroad for a year. A few may know this but I did not want to go for a year -- I was hoping for a 6 month program. I love the US too much, and can say I will miss home more than I have realized before I got on the plane. However, I also wanted to go to Tokyo and AU does not offer a shorter Tokyo program (that I have found, if you know of one I would like to see it for a laugh). I think the main issue was that I was sick and already filled with various anxieties, but I was and still am slightly nervous about being in Japan for a full year. Added is the fact that my loans have not completely gone through yet. And, as much as I love Japan, there are various beaurocratic tendencies and a few cultural issues that are strong warning signs that I will have issues here, that would not be a problem if I were studying abroad nearly anywhere else (Compounded by the fact that I just travelled to S. Korea and loved it for the few differences that made it very distince from Japan, as well as my ever-lasting love for Italy. Honestly, if I were going to Italy for a year my anxieties would be: I don't know much Italian, and it does not easily fit into my major/career path. I am unsure I would even think about home, because I loved Italy so much last time. I still consider dropping everything and becoming a fisherman in Amalfi. Man, Italy is awesome.) I am totally over most of these anxieties now, and am getting back into the correct: OMG I AM IN JAPAN mindset, but it is a bit hard because my concerns are at least somewhat rational. Not to mention I have been to Tokyo before, and am still a little under the weather. Oh well, once we get through the various forms (I think we are all here so early just so we can do all of our paperwork?), I am feeling a bit better, and I actually start exploring the city I am sure things will look up.

Actually, they have been looking up for the most part since I got off the plane. The group that picked us up, the group that went on the train, and the group that brough us to the dorms were all very friendly and cool (Ones I have met again: Liz and Elliot, everyone else was Japanese, though one of them was at AU last year. We apparently ran in the same circles and just narrowly avoided meeting, somehow?) My dorm is pretty nice, too, as are everyone I met here -- including an AU student, JyuHi, and my roommate, Kim (I find it interestingly coincidental the two people I list here are Korean).

Today was pretty interesting too (though its not over, I think I might be missing an orientation or something now, but I don't have that info). The test was REALLY TOUGH, as it tests EVERY ONE of the 8 levels the school offers (Compare: I expect to be either level 2 or level 3). It was so tough that I actually do not feel very bad about preparing better earlier -- most of the stuff in the exam was well beyond my text book, and the stuff I did know I knew without studying. Maybe some more studying would have helped by essay, but it probably would not have made a difference (Most of it was fill in the blank, where each blank was a character. It would make more sense if you saw it). After the exam, Ben, Laur, Liz, and I all went out to try to get Waseda IDs(got them later, at orientation), and food. I got Hanbaagu, which is the version of hamburger altered to Japanese tastes. Basically: just the patty slothered with some sort of sauce, with some pasta flavored with ketchup, mixed pickle, cabbage, an egg, daikon(I have really missed daikon -- I loved it in Korea!), miso soup, and rice. It was pretty awesome. Though, I am now dissappointed in my Japanese as I feel way more comfortable ordering off a Korean menu than a Japanese menu. Oh well, we didn't cover a lot of this in class (but we totally should). Afterwards was orientation, which was sort of dull, but I got my netpass, ID, and almost rented a phone (rates were too high, though).

Afterwards Ben and I explored campus trying to buy towels (succesfully purchased two), then I came back to the dorms and spent about an hour getting Japanese language to work on my netbook. Turns out it is there and fine -- on IE. I can't get it working on Chrome, for some reason. It's rather confusing.

Anyway, I will post more soon, I'm sure. I unfortunately do not have a real camera at the moment, so I don't have any pictures yet. But, be patient and endure! I will have better, happier posts in the future!