Another night in Shibuya

So after an entire week of being enslaved by The Hunger Games series, I finally mustered enough willpower to put down Mockingjay and head into town. I'm so glad I did.

I guess this is also as good a time as any to discuss my feelings about not having any sort of cellphone signal in Japan...

It sucks. I hate it.

It's hard to make plans

I'm forced to be punctual

I hate not being able to make phone calls or text

I love not having to check my phone for calls or texts

I'm forced to adventure

It's easy to get lost

It's great. I love it.

In any case, since I didn't make any plans before last night, I decided it was too late and too much of a hassle to make plans, so I decided to head into town by myself. Before leaving, I was determined to make use of all the useless coins I have lying around in my ashtray, so I went to the train ticket vending machine to see what would happen if I inserted twenty 10円 coins into the machine and canceled the transaction. To my dismay, the machine did return two 100円 coins, but twenty 10円 coins. At least I tried.
A few more steps and I find a soda vending machine. I try again, but the machine spits my 10円 coins right back at me. I give up at this point, trying to think of a better way to get rid of these obnoxious coins.

Why am I so annoyed by the coins? Money is money, right? Yea, except the lowest denomination of bills here is a 1,000円 bill. That's somewhere between $12-$13 dollars, folks. Anything smaller is coins. 500円, 100円, 50円, 10円,  5円, 1円. So. Many. Coins. I guess I could just hold on to the 500円 and 100円 coins (since they're worth slightly more than $5 and $1 bills) and not worry about the other ones until I dump a big pile of coins at the currency exchange on my way back home, but for strange reason I can't even put my finger on, I feel an urge to arrive at the airport with no coins. OCD?

As I shove the 10円 coins back in my bag, I get to the train station. Ahhh, the train station. About a minute away from my apartment in Kawasaki, the train station is smack dab in the middle of the line that runs between Shibuya and Yokohama, so I can get to either place in about 20 minutes. Then, from Shibuya I can get to the most popular places in Tokyo in about 20-30 minutes -- Shinjuku, Asakusa, Akihabara, Ikebukuro, Roppongi, Hongo, you name it. Not to mention that it gets me to work in 20 minutes in the morning. Plus, it's not on Yamanote line, which runs in a circle between the busiest parts of Tokyo. That's not to say I haven't been on my share of crowded trains, but at least every now and then I get to sit down on the train.

Now I'm on the train. Allow me to expand on my previous statement -- I was able put down Mockingjay for all of 10-15 minutes, the time it took to get between apartment to the ticket vending machine, to the soda vending machine, to next train to Shibuya. As soon as I sat down on the train, I dutifully proceeded to glue my eyes to the addicting book all the way into Shibuya.

Finger in the way of the lens. Pro.

I love Shibuya. Tall buildings, bright lights, delicious food, people from all over the world, big crowds. It's truly epic. As I'm exiting the Shibuya train station, I have no idea where I'm going. I'm totally lost, and I love it. I wander down the streets, following the largest crowd of people, when I hear a dude singing and playing the guitar. I stop and listen for a while. Good stuff!

Nerd heaven

Next step: find something delicious to eat or something fun to do. Or both simultaneously. I continue wandering through the streets when I see a Taito Station. My (not-so) inner nerd does a victory dance. I've been to a handful of other game centers, one in Akihabara, one by Toritsu Daigaku, a few secluded but incredibly cheap ones in Shibuya, but this one by far takes the cake. The place is packed and there's a line to play virtually every game. Not that I want to humiliate myself in front of these bona fide Otaku.
I simply watch in amazement and fascination, finding more enjoyment in spectating a few rounds of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 than I would any sport ever.
Getting owned at DDR. Gaining tremendous amounts of respect for the people who seem to so effortlessly pound out absurd patterns while playing every kind of rhythm game you could possibly imagine -- from Guitar Hero, to Drum Mania, to Pop 'n Music, some DJ game, some game with a three dimensional cube, the list goes on and on. I was trying to figure out a way to take videos of them or something, but I didn't wanna be any more creepy than I was already being by staring at them with my jaw on the ground. I tore my eyes away and explored the less popular sides of the arcade, the ones with the pachinko and this crazy typing game. Yes. I played it. Yes, it was awesome.

Next step: find something delicious to eat. Once again, I wandered through the streets having no clue where I was or where I was going. I find a bogus Asian food & bar place. I run across a Calpis vending machine and buy the famed soda.
First time trying it. It has a unique taste that simultaneously reminds me of Orange Fanta and cream soda. Delicious.

Somehow I find myself walking down a narrow street full of wasted Japanese men in suits dragging themselves back to the next bar or to the train station. Some were passed out on a benches or on the ground. There were also more tall, blonde people than I'm used to seeing around Japan. Trying to figure out where they were from and what they were up to (maybe there's a fun club nearby?) I hear a guy say, "You know...in Poland we have a saying...'Just DRINK!'" I chuckle and continue walking down the street.

A few steps down, I find the most packed restaurant I've ever seen. A ramen shop, relatively cheap for Shibuya. 500円 for a bowl. Last time I ate ramen in Shibuya I shelled out 1000円. I was excited, expecting to find this bargain ramen as delicious as the one I had last week. Nope. Half the price, half the quality. Oh well. I chugged down the rest of my calpis and a beer, and I'm on my way.


By the time I get back to the parts of Shibuya I recognize, it's already 11:30pm and there are hordes of people heading back to the train station to catch the last train home. Since my station is on the same line as Shibuya my last train is a little later, but many people will travel more than an hour to get home. I see groups of people half-supporting half-carrying their trashed friends, groups of girls with bagfuls and bagfuls of new clothes, and drunk Americans with their salmon or faded green shorts, sunglasses, and plaid shirts talking loudly and making a scene. Classic.

Before long, I'm on the train back to my apartment, and my eyes are glued to Mockingjay. I had an awesome night in Shibuya. A really awesome night.

Lots to talk about!

Whew! It's been a while since I've written a blog post. Just last week I finished the MIT VFT course and the next day it was my first day in lab at Canon. I've been loving every minute of my experience here. Take a look!

Probably my favorite thing so far has been eating all the delicious food, like this takoyaki...

Or this epic, legit teriyaki beef... Or this amazing smoking clam thing at my welcome party for my lab (the craziest, most extravagant meal I've ever had, btw...it was fantastic.

Or this delicious fish thing.

I've also done a fair bit of sight-seeing, like going to Odaiba to see a toy show, this giant Gundam, and the Statue of Liberty...

I even got a chance to go see the shrines and temples in Kamakura, one of the old capitals, and experienced a Zen session! Unsurprisingly, I was terrible at attempting to sit still for 30 minutes, and my feet and back were killing me by the end...

Can't forget about all the cute dogs I've been seeing all over the place...

Overall, it's been amazing getting to know Japan, and have been incredibly fortunate to have a bunch of people to hang out with, many of whom have gone way out of their way to show me tremendous hospitality.

From my Tokyo University friends...

to my MIT and VFT friends...

to my lab mates and various other great friends...I'm truly blessed. Thank you guys!! I'm truly looking forward to the next 2 months.

I'll also have to be better at jotting down and sharing "me being an awkward foreigner" anecdotes. Because there are tons of those.

東京へようこそ

The first 16 hours in Tokyo were awesome!

After 16+ hours in the air I was very relieved to stretch my legs and see Tokyo. The flight arrived at Haneda airport about an hour early, so I got my bags, got through customs, etc. super awkwardly by smiling, nodding, saying "hai, hai" and "sumimasen deshita" a bunch, and neglecting to fill out most parts of the forms I was given since I can only kind of read 300 of the approximately 2000 most commonly used kanji. But somehow I made it through, bought some yen, and met Kaseda-san, a Tokyo University student who came to pick me up from the airport.

Some quick background: Tokyo University, or Todai (from Tokyo Daigaku), as it is known, is widely regarded as Japan's best university by far. To get in almost 100% of the students attended juku, or entrance exam cram school, alongside attending their high school, and studied their butts off to earn the kind of entrance exam scores necessary to get into Todai because, unlike American colleges, Japanese schools base their admissions almost entirely on high school grades and entrance exams. In any case, these students are wicked smaht.

My Japanese teacher for this MIT Japanese class (shameless plug, take 21F.562+21F.563, aka Very Fast Track Japanese, or VFT! Yes, it's 21 units, but it's definitely worth it and you get an entire HASS concentration in one semester), Yuka Akiyama, managed to get us in contact with a handful of Tokyo University faculty and students. In fact, one of the course's requirements was to Skype with a Tokyo University student every two weeks, which was a great experience and incredibly useful. Thanks to this relationship Todai students and faculty came to visit us at MIT in March, and now we get to spend time learning Japanese on their campus getting a little taste of their life.

In any case, I had met Kaseda-san when he came to MIT in March and was very excited to see him again, not to mention incredibly grateful that he came traveled 40+ minutes to pick me up from the airport. Besides helping me traverse the maze of the Tokyo train and subway system, Kaseda-san also pointed out a few things that I should be mindful of when I'm going to board the train, seeing as I was all over the place: when riding the escalator, stand on the very left so people can walk past on the right (is this a thing in America? It should be lol); when a train arrives, you must stand in the marked areas (away from the door) until no more people are getting off the train. Seemingly small things, but being the complete ditz that I am, I'm sure I will continue to be oblivious to such things for the remainder of my stay, and thus hope not only that I can actually get used to them, but that being a spaz won't get me into any trouble.

After an hour or so of riding a variety of trains, Kaseda-san dropped me off at my hotel. It was super cool! Take a look: (actually, I'll post pictures and videos later, taking off to explore now)

Having purposely not slept on the airplane to try to avoid jet lag, I went to bed exhausted at 2:30am and woke up quite naturally at 7am, at which time I packed my things and carried my 100lbs of luggage a few blocks down to another hotel, where I will be staying until the 9th. Of course, I got lost and managed to turn a 10-minute walk into an hour walk. I asked a lady for directions and understood her directions, but then failed to understand the rest of what she was saying at 100mph. Seeing my perplexed expression, she said "wakaranai", said something about English, then showed me to the door of the hotel. The front desk, however, was nowhere to be found, so I asked a random guy in the building in very awkward Japanese something along the lines of what I should do with my luggage. Of course I didn't understand any of what he said, so I freaked out for a few minutes, then decided to find some internet and try to get my bearings. Miraculously, I found an open WiFi network, of which there aren't many in Japan, and got a hold of my sensei on Skype.

Sensei came to my rescue, took me to the front desk, helped me find a convenient store to get breakfast (holy cow, 7-Eleven food here is delicious!!), and walked with me to class on Todai campus. ありがとうございました!

Japanese class was fun; it seems like it'll be a lot of work, but at least I can now legitimately focus all my attention on Japanese (as if that's not what I did all semester anyhow, har har har...). We're doing 3 hours of class every morning at 9am, then we're free to do whatever in the afternoon.

Today, for example, a handful of Todai faculty and staff, all of whom came to MIT in March, treated us to lunch, which was very kind of them. It was great seeing them, and the food was great!

Now we're taking off to go explore Akihabara, the nerd capital of the world. Couldn't be more excited!

Gettin' ready to go!

こんにちは！

Can't believe I'm gonna be in Tokyo in less than 24 hours! This is truly surreal.

Right now I'm chillin' in O'Hare waiting for my flight to Detroit. From Detroit I fly for 14 hours to Tokyo's Haneda airport, where a kind Tokyo University student is coming to help me find my way to Tokyo University's campus (thanks Kaseda-san!).

For the first two weeks I'll be finishing my MIT Japanese class from this semester (we tried to cover 3 semesters-worth of material in one semester but didn't quite finish, so we're covering the rest of the material in Japan), then spending the rest of the summer working at Canon in Shimomaruko. I'll be living in a single in Kawasaki, which is only a 20 commute to work.

I'll try to put up a bunch of pictures and stories here, so stick around!