Now graduated, Jeff is entering the real world. Completely financially cut off by his parents, living on his own, follow Jeff as he enters a whole new chapter of his life.
There hasn't been a post because I've been busy experiencing Japan while I still can! I was going to blog about my time here when my family visited, but I dont' have enough time to go through the hundred of photos that we took.
A short picture-less recap. We went to a Seibu Lions Baseball game, ate lots of good food, and traveled to Takayama. Takayama is a more traditional place and we stayed in a ryokan there. A ryokan is a traditional Japanese hotel. It was fun, and I hope to eventually be able to post about it, but I'm realized I only have 12 more days in Japan, and I don't have the time to post about it yet.
In fact, the next two weeks, especially the last week, I will be exploring Japan until late at night. The last traveling week, I'm not sure if I'll even have access to the internet, as I'll be jumping from city to city in Japan.
However, even if I come back to the states, I'll make sure to blog about my experiences. Although I know I have some faithful readers that want to be updated on my excursions, but understand I can't experience life here if I'm blogging about it :).
I will try and at least write about my experiences while I'm here, and then add pictures later, or include separate blogs with pictures. Keep checking in!
---------------------------------- One month ago, I stepped off the plane at Narita Airport armed with 2 semesters of Japanese language instruction, a handful of Japanese guidebooks/dictionaries, and a naïve confidence of my communication abilities. Although I realized that I was far from fluent, I was sure that I could easily get in a cab, check into my apartment, and get dinner, at the very least. I was wrong.
The Taxi Ride Nearly sideswiped by the automatic doors of the taxi, I hopped into the taxi with a map, pointed and stated “Tokyo Weekly Mansions Onegaishimasu.” He then stared at the map blankly, obviously not understanding where to go. After he said a string of incredibly fast Japanese (much faster than the audio recordings played for me in my college classroom), I gave up understanding and repeatedly jabbed at my map saying “Koko! Koko!” It took an hour for him to find my apartment complex, which I later discovered to be a 5-minute walk from where I called the cab.
The Apartment After running into the automatic sliding doors (a rough way to figure out that they open up slower than the ones in America), I reached the lobby of the apartment complex and tried to check in. Emphasis on tried. I thought the payment had been worked out before I came. I was staying for 2 months and my college was taking care of all the major finances. There was an obvious miscommunication when they asked for a 5-figure deposit when I had little else but a few coins with holes in it. (It took me a week to figure out that they were 5 yen). I was never taught the vocabulary necessary to communicate the fact that the rent was supposed to have been taken care of before I arrived, and that I didn’t have enough money on me yet. Eventually after 5-6 phone calls to various people, the situation worked itself out.
The Dinner At this point, I was starving and craving notoriously delicious Japanese cuisine. I walked around Akasaka overwhelmed by the numerous restaurant choices. Eventually I settled on a decent looking place that ended up being a Yakitori restaurant. I strolled in, was greeted by a loud “Irrashaimase!”, and took a seat at the counter. Ready to put into practice a phrase I knew I’d use countless times, I asked,
“Eigo no menyu ga arimasuka?” “…Iie.”
Oops. My plan backfired. The menu was in all Japanese, with no pictures, I really had no idea what to order. Luckily the chef saw my confusion and pointed to his recommendation.
Unfortunately for me, I was soon served up several skewers of chicken gizzard and liver. I promised myself I would try new foods to completely immerse myself into Japanese culture, but was hoping it would be more of a transition. While I chewed on my stick of chicken gizzard, I contemplated the difficulties of my journey thus far.
Many of the grammar, vocabulary, and culture points I learned in the classroom proved useless when I arrived. What is taught in a classroom in a year, let alone in many years of studies can only demonstrate a very small aspect of Japanese language and the culture that is so interconnected with the language. I’ve been here for one month already and feel I still have so much to learn. I’m starting to understand that only by coming to this fantastic country can one really understand the intricacies and eccentricities of Japan.
For the next 2 and a half days I'll be in Nagoya and Takayama where I won't have any internet! I'm on vacation with my family, but I'll be back Sunday to put up a post!
I arrived at Ueno Zoo a little early, so I waited around and ate at the only place open. PIZZA.
At 9:30, the zoo opened, and it was perfect because they were feeding all the animals. All of them were active and moving around. The most famous animal in the zoo is the Giant Panda. The picture is blurry cuz they wouldn't allow flash. Red Pandas Lion eating a piece of meat chained to the ground. Reminded me of Jurassic Park with the goat and the T-Rex. The monkey was copying the kid. Tiger! Gorilla! Penguins A bunch of other animals. Soft-shelled turtle The park had some really beautiful areas.
On 6/23 the guys and I decided to go to Tsukiji Market. Tsukiji Market is Japan's famous fish market. Unfortunately the auction starts before 5:00 AM so you have to wake up to catch the very first train in order to catch any of the auction.
Brad, Spils, my fraternity brothers, and Julian, the German neighbor, decided it was a good idea to party all night and just go straight to Tsukiji Market. They actually had a blast, but were completely exhausted when they arrived. I decided not to go because I was planning to be out all day because it was one of my last shopping weekends in Tokyo.
I woke up at 4:45 to catch the first train. The only people who are up at this hour are ambitious joggers, or drunk people who missed the last train...
I arrived at Tsukiji Market and soon enough spotted these drunkards.
After a bit of searching, we finally found the fish market! The Auction.
After that we headed straight to a sushi restaurant where we had the freshest sushi in the world. Except the guys were a little tired.
Delicious!
Afterwards the guys went home to sleep, and I went to Ueno Zoo.
I'm so behind on my posts! This post deals with my travels to Yokohama. I went on June 16th or something like that. I don't even remember.
It was a really fun trip! USC Alumni and fellow co-worker Jonathan Fan was the one to invite Brad and I to meet some of his friends. Yokohama was beautiful and the weather was perfect.
Famous Landmark Tower. Tallest building in Japan...I think. This is a ferry station. It had a large grass field on top of it! One of the many date parks in Yokohama. Yokohama is also famous for having the biggest Chinatown in Japan. Haha! They had these things all over. Little baby pandas chained to a bottle or a rock or something. It was so sad!
Yokohama is a beautiful trip, and if you're living in Tokyo, it's definitely worth the time and money to get to Yokohama. One place I didnt' get to go to and I really wanted to was Hakkejima Sea Paradise. It's basically an aquarium theme park. They have a huge theme park and rides and everything. Maybe another time...
