Time has slowed down. That is ever since two weeks ago when classes began. BOOOOOOO!!!! Ok ok, I guess it’s not necessarily a terrible thing. I mean the rate at which we were drinking was sometimes a little too much for me. Just a couple of weeks ago we went to the wealthy city of Roppongi, mainly known for its 24 hour night life and extremely rich population. Not really sure if people don’t go home because the trains don’t run past twelve or because people like partying, but I know when we finally got tired at 3, we ended up in a three story McDonalds until the sun came up. Actually we do that at least once every weekend, no wonder everyone is kind of sick around here. Definitely got scolded by my mama though, "you're there to study, not to go clubbing!" hahahaha if I wanted to really study I would've stayed in the hells of Berkeley :)
Which reminds me, compared to what they do to us at Berkeley, the courses here are pretty easy. Admittedly, I am taking fewer classes than usual so I can focus more on the travel/experience part of Japan, but I am learning a lot about Japanese history, religion, and language in my classes, which was my initial goal. Japanese, by the way, is ruining my ability to speak English. Since Japanese uses a different word order, I am beginning to change the way I speak in English. It’s really annoying. The good side is my class only has 3 people = private tutoring! Oddly enough, with the exception of Kabuki (wasn’t really my thing) and language, Tyler and I are taking the same courses (and we both get Mondays off=more traveling, guess it’s not that odd). Since Tyler and I usually don’t have the same schedule at Berkeley, it’s interesting being in the same classes. To sum it up, he knows everything. I'm not even kidding. The senseis know he is a history major, so they always ask him to explain things, and he never fails. The students here keep telling me I am dating a genius, and I tell them, of course I am!! muwahahhaha
One thing I’ve begun to realize is that Japan is full of contradictions, as every nation is (guess I was naive and wanted to believe it was going to be perfect here). Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Japan, but I can't help but notice these things. For example, everyone here is super polite, but it’s usually when they have to, i.e., work. People don’t really seem to help each other out in normal circumstances. Also, subtly is emphasized, but you will see middle school girls with their uniforms raised up a lot higher than they should at that age. Actually, scratch that. Many women of all ages wear things like that. I really don't know how they do it, it's always raining here. I actually kind of commend them for that, because it gets really cold and wet. The crowded cities are also pretty interesting. Last weekend we visited the gaslamp district of Shibuya, which has A LOT of …ahem…porn shops and hostess clubs. Once again, not saying America doesn’t have them, but for a country that emphasizes rules and politeness, it was kind of surprising. I suppose all this rebellion stems from the same concept of when a teenager is extremely sheltered and then they go to college and go crazy with partying. I guess Japan just needs to go college sometimes.
Recently we’ve been planning a trip to Korea because we have a few days off in the beginning of November. It started out as a small group of 6, which is quite ideal, but we decided to invite everyone because we felt bad. Let me just tell you, I’m never doing that again (yes, of course I still will), but next time, we’re going to give them a lot less time to decide. 13 people is big group to travel when we have no means of communicating (cell phones won’t work there) and when only a couple us are able to speak Korean. Blaaaaaaaahhh! Nonetheless, it should be a pretty exciting. The group we're going with is really fun to be around, plus I don't know if we'll have another opportunity to go to Korea.
Here are some pictures from recent adventures:
Yummy Korean food!
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| Of course we have to Karaoke in Japan! |
Some weird things here:
left: fish suck the dry skin off your feet/ right: "ass clinic counseling" hahha
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| Hello Kitty everywhere!!! |
Within the next couple weeks we’re going to do a lot of things (Disneyland, homestay, more shrines and temples, and of course, more clubbing). It’s starting to hit all of us that our time is limited here, so we’re really trying to make the best of it. Though, while doing so, we’ve been stuck in perpetual sickness and are going broke. Just kidding! Kind of… |
| Tokyo Tower! |
By the way, people keep asking me if I am having a hard time eating things here because I don't like seafood. The answer is absolutely not. No worries, I thought I was screwed before I came here too. But it turns out that the restaurants here either have seafood, all other Japanese food, or American food. It's so oishiilicious!!! I'm really turning Japanese.....
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