Wednesday, September 17, 2008

What I've done

This week from Japan- more adventures in Tokyo. And a long weekend.

This Monday was a holiday in Japan that roughly translates to ‘Respect for your elders day’ and so I didn’t have school. The holiday is basically a day you give presents to your grandparents. Which is kind of nice. I spent the day with my host mom and it was pretty fun. I went to a hobby store and bought two kits to make necklaces for my host mom and sister and we had Ki-ten sushi (sushi on a conveyer belt), which was strange and delicious.
My weekend has actually been pretty busy. I went to Tokyo on Saturday with two girls from the JSP program and our Japanese baby-sitter Tomoki. (Who, after we called him that, refused jokingly refused to read the signs or tell us where we were going.) We went to a huge art/ artifact museum called the Tokyo National Review. There are four buildings in that museum but we only made into two of them. The museum is located in Ueno province, prefecture, I’m not really sure what you call these districts in Tokyo I visit. Regardless, Ueno is also the name of the station near this neighborhood. Which is apparently the zoo and museum neighborhood. There is a huge park and there are about twelve or so museums in this park along with the most popular zoo. Surprisingly this was an area in Tokyo that is relatively calm and free of the city bustle.
The museum was awesome and once I figured out you could take pictures without flash I took a ton. Look to my flickr photos for the museum art. The first building was an ‘Asian review’ and there was artwork from Egypt, Afghanistan, Iran, China, and Korea starting from 700B.C. It was a cool collection. I especially liked the Indonesian shadow puppets. The second building was the review of Japanese art.
I love Japanese art. A lot. More than all the other Asian countries, even China (which Japan looked to for inspiration and culture.) I don’t really know why, except that Japanese aesthetics are flawless.
After the museum we went out to dinner in Shibuya because we were going to try and find a club and go dancing there. We ended up wandering into a random tiny Shibuya festival. Which meant that people were dressed in traditional garb and chanting and there was this giant samurai dragon paper float thing that glowed. Finding a restaurant in Shibuya is an on-going challenge. We all sort of fell into the idea of getting pizza and after circling the same few blocks we finally found the restaurant “Shakeys” (mostly with the help of our trustee P.A.) Ironically this restaurant was on the second floor of the convini we went to before we started our long and winding search. Also, turns out that the pizza chain was American although I had never heard of it. We also saw an Outback Steakhouse. Which was weird. There were a lot of Gaijin in this particular restaurant but the pizza was decent and it was a fairly cheap meal. I sometimes miss cheese. There is cheese here but it’s really expensive and nobody really eats it. Except on the rare pizza.
After dinner we wove back through the streets of Shibuya to the strange back alleys where the clubs were located, and where the love motels were. Clubbing is a tricky adventure since we all wanted to catch our last train, which left sometime around midnight. It’s sort of a Cinderella dilemma with the Tokyo train system. We found the club but it looked super sketchy so we opted for a bar instead. Going turned into one of the two experiences I have had so far of being called a ‘gaijin.’ The first being on a train back from Ponyo when a group of High school boys got onto the train and immediately started whispering and laughing. And then the bravest of the boys sat down in one of the seats next to me and the boys all looked at me and then laughed. And since the only relatively strange thing in this corner of the train was me, drawing, I figured I was their source of amusement. The brave kid motioned for his friend to sit even closer to me and the other kid did, reluctantly. And then the group all laughed. I just sat there, pretending to draw, feeling more and more awkward. More whispering, more giggling and then the brave kid said with a very Japanese accent “Hello” and I said hello back and then everyone laughed. And then brave kid whispered in English “Nice to meet you” to his friend and everyone giggled and then he looked at me and said it again. So I said “Nice to meet you back.” “Yatta!” the kid exclaimed and the group broke up into laughter. I looked at the girl across from me doing her make-up and she gave me a bland smile. It was a weird experience.
In Shibuya, at the bar, we wanted cheaper drinks so we opted for the bar in the basement. As we edged into this tiny room a group of Japanese people eating dinner looked at us in surprise and started a chorus of “Gaijin” and “Nice to meet you” and then to our Japanese baby-sister “Nihon-jin?” It quickly became evident that this bar was not a bar, or at least was a closed bar. Which was embarrassing. Also, Japanese people should put up closed signs and lock doors. The bar upstairs was really nice though. Completely non- sketchy and pretty. After a couple of drinks we ran for our train and made our way home.

Sunday was TIU’s dance club dance expo in – Shibuya. I really dislike this part of Tokyo but I keep coming back. It’s kind of frustrating. This trip, though, we were absent a P.A. and had to make our way to a different tiny club in a much more locals only location using only a vague map written in Kanji. It was a mess. But we did eventually find it. Which I chalk up to our asking for directions and a quick visual memorization of the street kanji.
The dance expo was split into three parts, each group doing a different dance each set and in between a D.J would come out and play and people would dance. And by people I mean only the Japanese boy and a random girl. Maybe. Which was confusing for my friends and I. We assume there was some kind of social rule that we didn’t get. We danced anyway. Good times. I have some blurry pictures from that event as well. We got to the club at 2pm and left around 6pm. The guy that came with us opted for home but the two other girls (Keisha and Jessica this time) and I went on to do a little Karaoke before heading back.

So today I just chilled with my o-ka-san and bought some bead kits to make her and my host sister a necklace. It was relaxing after the crazy Tokyo activities that are fun but tiring.

I think on Thursday I will update more on the difference between Japan and America. Although I will say this – there has not been any point in this adventure when I have wondered if I have even left the states. Japan is like no place I’ve ever been and it’s constantly thrilling.

Love to you all <3

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