Week 3

Hello again. Classes have gotten well under way, which has made for even less time in my dorm room. This was a good week. As planned, I went to the taiko festival in Narita. We ate eel for lunch (pictured right) as soon as we got there and then walked around the temple at which the festival was centered around. We also attended a Buddhist ceremony, in which the monks lit a fire, chanted, and then collected people's bags to be held near the fire for good luck. Pictures were not allowed, so I don't have anything to show in that area. After a tour of the temple and some more free time, they had a performance in front of the temple. I recorded a couple songs. Sorry about the one I uploaded, I was at the back of the crowd and there was a lot of movement behind me. I had a hard time keeping it steady.

I was also planning on going to view the cherry blossoms in the park on Sunday, but they were all gone by Saturday evening. Instead, we just hung out in the park for a few hours and were bitten by many mosquitoes.

Then, I had my second full week of classes. I'm taking History of Tokyo, Pop Culture of Japan, History of Japanese International Relations, and of course Japanese Language. I have two or three research papers and about the same number of presentations. With the exception of Japanese, the classes only meet once a week for two hours and forty minutes. This usually makes for a large reading that I forget until the night before, which works when the classes and readings are shorter. Here, however, it's been costing me in sleep. But, I am adjusting to the schedule, slowly but surely.

Last night, I went to a costume party in Harajuku (a ward in Tokyo). It was pretty much everything you'd expect from a costume party in Japan. It made for a highly entertaining evening. For those who have seen the Calamari Wrestler, the man with the bottle on his head below may look familiar. The man who stuck a can to his head was at this party, sticking a can to his head. After the can, he upgraded to a bottle, the contents of which he poured into a cup provided by one of the other people he was up there with. Whipeout was playing in the background the entire time they were on stage. It was quite an experience.

Week 2ish

Sorry about the radio silence, I haven't spent much time in my room in which I was not doing homework or sleeping. Much like the other IES kids, I spend most of my time in a building on my campus in which Japanese students will come and hang out with foreigners in order to practice their English. Last Saturday, we went to Chiba Park and saw some of the Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) which are in bloom for about two weeks. Last Sunday was right in the middle of this for the Sakura around here. Recently they have started to fall off the trees, which kind of looks like snow if you get enough together. On this coming Sunday, I'm going to hanami, literally "flower watching" but it's what watching the cherry blossoms is called. I hope to get many more pictures there.

Last Wednesday, a friend of mine heard that some J-pop star was going to be at some sort of signing in Shibuya. We decided it would be an interesting experience to go. As soon as I got off the train, I discovered that my camera was dead, so I have no evidence that this occur ed. However, I did see the world's busiest intersection. It seemed like a slow time of day, and there was still a sea of people every time the pedestrians got the green light. I plan to go back with a working camera sometime.

Today we are going to a Taiko Drum festival in Narita (where the international airport is located). I will probably have plenty of pictures from that as well. I also had a request for a picture of someone in a kimono, so I hope to find someone today who won't mind being photographed. That's all for now.

Week One

After a week of PowerPoints and tours, orientation is finally over. The campus is good and the students seem to be very friendly. My first class is a history class this Friday. Really nothing much more to report on the academic front.

A friend of mine from Denison is studying at Waseda University, also in Tokyo. We met up yesterday and walked around a sort of marketplace in Asakusa, also in Tokyo. Her host mother is an English teacher and was taking some of her students there and asked if we would like to tag along. Afterwards we went to Shinjuku, one of the larger stations. We went up to the observation deck, for lack of a better term, and looked out at the city. It's pretty ridiculous just how big Tokyo is. The visibility was good, and I could not see the end of it in any direction. Upon looking at these pictures again, I'm surprised that I have managed to not get lost yet. I'm sure my day is coming soon, though.













I plan to start taking my camera out with me more. I'm sure if I had been doing this, I would have posted more frequently already. Sumimasen.

I guess that is all for now. I will just leave you with one last video which was taken in front of a ramen shop. I thought it was neat.