Japan: The land of stray cats. And gold phones?

 

 

I realize that my last blog entry was in no way sufficient, it wasn’t even a good excuse for a blog.  But time has been short, events have been many and all the while I’m trying to be the best host daughter (?) I can be.  Which I hope explains why the last entry was so short and hardly explained anything at all.  I suppose I was hoping the pictures I put up on facebook would be sufficient but it doesn’t really work that way.  So in the spirit of Japan I humbly apologize.  申し訳ありません．

Now it’s time to make up for all that, although I’m not exactly sure what I’ve already talked about and what I haven’t mentioned.  To sum things up since I last attempted a post I’ve moved into my host family’s house and they’ve treated me wonderfully thus far.  I was able to spend about a weekend with them without much interference from orientation, but this past week I’ve seen less of them which I’m sure is a good sign. 

As some of you may know I’ve been pining over the beach all summer.  Most likely I’ve annoyed all of you with my incessant chatter.  I finally made it there!  Our orientation took us on a day trip to Kamakura which is probably about 2 hours away from Tokyo.  While there we were able to see an amazingly beautiful temple, as well as Zaibatsu, a huge statue of Buddha.  Those were some sights to see, even if they seemed a bit touristy.  If you check out the facebook pics you’ll notice I went a bit slap happy with the scenic photos.  I also had the pleasure of having sweet potato ice cream for the first time in my life and I have to say it was delicious.  It was purple which isn’t what I would expect and also didn’t taste too much like sweet potato. 

And then…..then there was the beach.  Ah the lovely beach.  I had no idea there was one nearby nor that we could go to it.  If I had know that best believe I would have brought my swimsuit with me.  Even so dipping my feet in the water proved to be enough to hold me over for now.  After that we headed back to good ol’ Tokyo where I discovered the problem with being legally allowed to drink that no one ever mentioned to me.  You spend a lot of money.  Now I don’t mean to scare my parents (don’t worry I’m not blowing all of my money on booze) but I figure I’m not going to have these moments again so I might as well join in all of the fun I can.  The fun just happened to be at the Hub (affectionately known as Habbu) during happy hour.  I was a little nervous the whole time though because that was the first time I called home saying I wouldn’t make it for dinner and I wasn’t sure how late I should stay out.  I ended up coming back home in the middle of an elaborate dinner of roll your own sushi with the two daughters and their respective boyfriend/husband.  I kind of felt like an ass, but things were fine.   

The next day we spent doing some exercises for orientation, which all in all wasn’t that bad.  Later on that day we again went back to the Hub (claro que si) and once more enjoyed happy hour.  Although this time I wasn’t worried about coming home early, in fact that morning my host mother told me that since it’s friday I should go out tonight and have fun with my friends.  So that’s exactly what I did.  After a few drinks we went to do karaoke for an hour which was so much more fun than I thought it would be.  I actually sang a song by myself!  I feel very accomplished now.  Then (due to my pushing) we took purikura, an addictive magical box which is bursting with so much cuteness it couldn’t work anywhere else but Japan. 

Saturday turned out to be just as eventful.  Ah Saturday, a day that will go down in infamy.  That was the day I was lucky enough to receive my very own Japanese keitai (cell phone)!  Before we go any further I have one very quick complaint.  Why the **** can’t we have kick ass phones like this in America?  I am the proud owner of a totally over the top gold phone.  Gold!  When they showed us which phones we could choose from I knew it had to be the gold one.  Sure I’ll have another red phone, a black one, a blue one, but gold??  When will I ever have a gold phone again?  Not only that but this phone cost nothing at all and it’s a million times better then any phone I’ve ever had.  The screen can flip around and fold back down so you can take pictures and watch T.V.  The camera on the phone is amazing, honestly I’ve never been so excited to own a cell phone.  Now I’m just in search of some cell phone straps that are worthy of such an ostentatious phone.

The day just got better from there.  Well kind of.  I think I managed to scratch my eye perhaps 2 days ago and Saturday it was getting kind of aggravated.  Now things are looking better though and if by tomorrow it’s still bothering me I’ll probably ask my host mom to take me to the doctor.  But I didn’t let that keep me down.  After the cell phone meeting we had a small orientation created by niji no kai club members concerning Waseda which was followed by another nomikai.  I don’t know how to translate nomikai other than to say it’s basically something where you pay a door fee (20 bucks in this case) and drink as much as you like.  They set this one up in the cafeteria with a bunch of other study abroad students and niji no kai members.  They also had us play bingo which was fun but I’m curious as to who thought it was a good idea to play an aggravating game like bingo while drinking.  You’re only happy if you win and if you’re card sucks……well enough blood gets shed when the players are sober let alone when drinks are involved.  Still fun though.

After all of us lost (except for Robert who got an alarm clock) we crammed as many free cans of fruity alcohol and asahi beer into our pockets and left for the park.  That was basically where nearly all the people in the cafeteria later converged and eventually I lost the people I originally came with.  Which was absolutely fine, I ran into a bunch of random Japanese students and due to the lovely inhibition-free state I was in I was able to speak without all those nasty nerves getting in the way.  And do to the wonderful invention of cargo pants with bottomless pockets there was no need to restock drinks at the convenience store. 

Tomorrow is a different story however.  Tomorrow is my first day of classes and while I’m not really that nervous yet we’ll if that changes once I get out of class tomorrow.  To prepare I bought a notebook today and with my new handy dandy cell phone I believe I’m set.  For now that is.  The only thing I am worried about is how many books I’ll need.  Fingers crossed they won’t cost that much.

Wow this turned out to be longer than I meant it to be.  That’s pretty much it for now I suppose.  Until next time~