Tokyo Thus Far

 

I’d like to think that it didn’t take me very long to write an entry since being here.  It’s only been 3 days, and they’ve been very busy days.  So far we are living in a hostel until we discover who are host families are, which we will find out on Friday.  But there are some people who will have to stay even longer in the hostel as most families are on vacation as Silver Week is coming up which is basically a string of holiday’s right after the other in Japan. 

Right now we are being shown around Tokyo by Waseda students who are a part of an international student club called the Rainbow Club which they keep reminding us is not a “gay club”.  I just find it hilarious that because of Rainbow being in the title they assume we will automatically jump to it being an LGBTQ club.  Which isn’t a stretch really.  So far I’ve been to Shibuya, Harajuku, Asakusa (which is where the hostel is) and Waseda. 

Shibuya is nuts, there’s so many people and they’re all moving so quickly.  The buildings all have either huge advertisements on them or there are large t.v. screens constantly screening more ads.  I really enjoyed it though, most people I talked to before I left kept warning me about the crowds.  As if I didn’t already know.  But honestly it’s not that bad, it’s different that’s for sure but oddly enjoyable.  There’s something to be said for going with the flow of a city and constantly having something new to look at.  I’ve finally taken pictures as well, at first I felt kind of bad about taking pictures not to mention it felt kind of silly to take pictures of something I’d be seeing for a year. 

Harajuku on the other hand wasn’t as exciting but I think that’s because we went during the early morning.  Nothing was really open and there weren’t too many people dressed up hanging around just commuters.  There was this huge park though in Harajuku that had a shrine in the middle, it was truly beautiful  How they managed to have such nice large trees in the middle of a city is incredible, not to mention how beautiful the shrine was. 

The people I’ve met are all interesting, to my surprise there’s  no real set type of people here.  There’s all sorts of students, from engineers to education majors.  Tomorrow I have my Japanese placement test which no one is looking forward to, but later that day we are also going to go to Karaoke which I am definitely looking forward to.  Oh and by the way, just for all those others waiting to turn 21, I have lucked out in being able to skip my 20th year :)  Beer and the like are pretty cheap here and no one hassles you.  I haven’t been carded once, not to mention our hostel has a vending machine that sells fruity alcohol drinks, beer, and shots.  I had my first Japanese beer last night, Sapporo.  Although I think I chose wrong as almost every Japanese student I asked recommended other brands such as Asahi which I thought was more the equivalent of our Budweiser. 

Anyways I need to at least study a little bit for my test tomorrow/get sleep so hopefully this is good enough for now.  I hope to have pictures up at some point when I have a good enough amount.  I hope everyone else is having an awesome time!  Ganbatte!