Farewell Tokyo!

So I am writing this final post of the summer now in New Haven. It's been a week since I left Tokyo, and I miss it a lot.

The final week and half of Tokyo saw a lot of last minute group activities, including onsen, clubbing in Roppongi, meetings with buddies, and the farewell party.

In the weekend of the 7th week, everybody realized that was our last chance at Tokyo-style hardcore partying. I don't know whose idea it is, but as a group, we pre-gamed at the famous Oedo onsen. I believe this is the largest onsen in Tokyo, inconveniently located all the way in Odaiba, but we made the trek to get there. Ray-chan had the prescience to bring a group discount, so we only had to pay 1100 yen per pop instead of 2000 yen. We promptly obtained our yuukatas and sashes and changed in the locker room. So far so good, nothing was out of the ordinary... until, we stepped out of the changing room. The Oedo onsen shocked us with the enormity and selection of the entertainment section between the changing room and the bathing rooms. It was like a mini-city inside of the onsen. Unfortunately cameras were not allowed in the vicinity, so I can only relay this message in words. But the mini-city was filled with restaurants, games such as ninja darts..., hangout strips, and even video games. Groups gathered around in yuukatas, and the sight of it reminded me of Meiji-era Japan.

Onto the actual onsen, of course we had to shower prior to entering, but once we did, we were surprised with a wide selection of pools, baths, and saunas. There was the milk bath, hot bath, cold bath, and even a bath outdoor. There was a dry sauna, and if I remember correctly, the temperature inside was around 80 degrees Celsius, which is 176 degrees. The signage on the wall warned that males should not remain in the room longer than six minutes, but I found that I could not even last six minutes. Colby, on the other hand, was able to hold it out for around ten minutes. I don't know how he did it, but I don't envy him... haha. We relaxed well in the onsen for around 45 minutes before heading out to Roppongi.

Once at Roppongi, we headed straight for clubs. This summer had been unlike the one in 2008 because we partied mostly in Shibuya, and except for myself, the SANC group had not been in Roppongi much. With my enviable knowledge and experience of Roppongi, I decided to take the group to the famous hole-in-wall otherwise known as "Muse." It is a two-floor dance club a little removed from the crossing. Known for a decent music selection, drinks, and a "semi-attractive" crowd, Muse, in my humble opinion, is a must for any foreigner visiting Tokyo. We danced until 3AM, and "we" headed to a .... hotel.





Muse would conclude the adventures for me in the weekend of the 7th week. Drisana and I were both exhausted the next day, so we limited our excursions to a simple restaurant/bar in Mori tower. We reminisced about the previous night and our collective experiences of the summer. It was truly special, especially for me, because we had Tokyo and all of our times to ourselves. We really indulged in ourselves and each other, all at the generosity of the Light Fellowship. Thanks Richard!

The 8th week was the final week, and classes got a little bit tougher. I'll skip the boring lectures because no one really wants to read about that stuff. I took the final on Friday, and it was not too bad. I did a good job of reviewing the materials and covering all the sections that the senseis told me would be tested, and I think I performed ok. Saturday was the speech contest, so I headed home quickly to prepare for my speech after the final. I decided to talk about gay marriage in Japan and relate it to my personal experience conversing with homosexual couples and their issues with Japanese regulations. It was a good speech, and I even got an award! Below is a picture from the speech contest.




Immediately following the contest was the farewell party. All the buddies, homestay families, and senseis came. Nothing notable happened, but everybody was so sad at the end...




Drisana and I had to leave early after the farewell party because our plane was going to leave in the morning the next day. By the way, her mom was somehow able to change her ticket so that she flew with me, and we had a great time hanging out and bonding on the plane. It was a fantastic end to our journeys together and a great recap. Thanks Drisana's Mom!

So this summer was a brilliant success in terms of all the goals I wanted to achieve. I improved my listening skills and Keigo (honorific speech in Japanese). I visited all the places in Tokyo that I missed from my previous trips. And of course I met a great girl. It's true that we are still going very strong after the conclusion of the program, but we both realized and even discussed that our time in Tokyo was special. We had all of our time and energy at our disposal, and that is so rare. I have started work earlier this week, and I took a trip with my colleagues to New Hampshire and Maine. I learned on the trip that I would be very busy in the next three to four weeks, and I think I will reminisce even more about Tokyo then!

Week 7 update

A lot has taken place in the last couple of weeks. Namely, I moved into a new host family because the old one was having some problems. Thank you, Kajikawa sensei! for making it happen so quickly, efficiently, and painlessly.

I don't want to get into too much detail, but at the end of the day, I think I made mistakes; my host family also made mistakes; and what ultimately precipitated our split is the enormous language and cultural barrier between us. Japanese people especially are known to have a penchant for ambiguity and equivocality. I was not too skilled at reading between the lines of communication.

That doesn't stop this summer from being an amazing experience though! I do like my new host family. I've learned the streets around my new host house pretty quickly, and I've adapted to it. The new place is closer to Shibuya, which the SANCers frequently congregate at to begin our nightly adventures. Furthermore, the house is closer to the train station, and as a result, my daily commute to school is significantly shortened. I feel great.

Only a week left though! I will ganbatte next week to make the most out of my remaining time here. But before that, I want to elaborate on some activities that took place in the past 1.5 week.

Sun Academy organized a trip to visit Nihon TV station. We took a tour on the broadcasting floor and even saw news production live! The floor was pretty cool, but let me cut to the chase. The live news production was the sweet part. A famous Japanese soccer player, Matsuda, died that day, and so the news team was shooting a clip to cover this story. Ok, I'm not going to lie. I was almost thinking of rushing the stage with a couple of other students to get ourselves on TV, but that would ruin everything. Haha.

After the tour, we interviewed Masi Oka and Okuda-san. Masi Oka, if you did not know, is the Japanese guy on the popular TV series Hero. I really didn't know much about him, but the man has a 3-page Wikipedia entry all to himself. That's a pretty telling indicator of career success, haha. Wink! Okuda-san is the producer of Spirited Away, one of the best Japanese anime movies ever. It's what got me interested in Japanese beyond the superficial level during my first year of studying it. Needless to say, I was very very impressed. Below is a group picture.




Other than that, Seto Sensei came! He is the second year Japanese language instructor at Yale. The man is hilarious, and he was nice to invite us out to a delicious Taiwanese restaurant. I've been craving Chinese food for a while, and Seto Sensei came to the rescue and relieved me. Thank you Seto sensei! Below is another group picture.