So, long since the last part of “Go Go Tokyo!” a LOT has happened. And a lot of it I haven’t written about at all. But, I thought I ought to delve deeply into a few points like school and classes while grazing over the general life experiences to answer questions such as “What was Christmas like in Japan?” as well as those crazy questions like “Oh man, did you get a Japanese girlfriend?” or “Did you find the used panty vending machine?”… Okay, maybe not so much that last one.
Hey Jon, what’s your problem? Why aren’t you writing in your blog often? Well, that’s because I tend to go into long, thick description of things (in case no one noticed) and take quite a while hacking at the keyboard to convey my feelings just-so about my time here. In reality I wanted to put much, much more on this blog – like a short post every day or two if possible – but I too am quite saddened by my inability to do so. Another factor in this is one you can take light in – I’m having so much fun in Tokyo that I have quite literally almost no time to write on here. Finally, the HTML editing and such as well as (especially) the photo editing I have to go through to put pictures in my blog is honestly quite a painstakingly drawn out process.
But, moving on to more important matters I thought I’d talk a bit about Sophia University and my classes. Honestly it’s not like I have all of the best things to say. Taking light in the fact that semester one is out and semester two is soon upon us I will go ahead and elaborate some on my schooling though. First off, I have received my grades for last semester and they are looking quite surprisingly wonderful! Which…well…surprises me. A lot. I sulked and sulked throughout the semester worried about the horrible midterm grades I was getting and in the end for four classes I got three Bs and one A. I’m blown away! But not complaining. My classes last semester included: Visual Methods in Anthropology, one of the most fascinating and interesting classes I have ever taken; Cultural & Social Anthropology, the class instructed by the most misandrist female I’ve ever met; Japanese, the most boring Japanese ever with one pissy teacher and one strange happy one; and Japanese Linguistics, the most boring class I have ever had and the first to ever actually put me too sleep repetitively. With as bipolar a selection of classes as this you might be able to understand my reaction to life at Sophia Univeristy.
Sophia University from the station
The only class taught in Japanese was the Japanese class – which by the way, I don’t know a proper level to list for it but it’s shown as “M2″ and sits at level 4 out of 6 levels total. I even had to write a report in Japanese for that class. It was tough and in the end it definitely helped improve my Japanese skill though one teacher was just irritating and nagging. I was originally placed in a faster moving class but decided to drop down to the slower moving for a number of reasons – primarily an issue of credit transfer. C & S Anthro. is not really worth talking about. Honestly, the information in it was just grazed and the instructor really pushed the idea of simply knowing authors names and how one negated the last and so on. The professor of Japanese Linguistics was truly a funny guy when he was trying to be, but 90% of the time he droned on in a monotone voice that was like NyQuil paired with booze. Just two grades; both take home papers. If you know how to copy word for word from a book it’s no problem! Saving the best for last we have Visual Methods. Like I said, one of the most amazing classes I have ever taken. We often spent our time analyzing magazines (especially Japanese ones) of every possible genre and origin and taking into consideration the use of language and visuals to convey a particular feeling upon readers. We discussed lots of interesting points of linguistics, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Lots of new big terms and concepts of these. My final grade was heavily based on a rather rough (in my opinion) 20 page final paper.
That all said I’ll move on briefly to my general idea of Sophia. For the most part, I’m not very happy with the university. I’m happy to say “Hey, I went to one of the top schools in Japan!” and also to know that alone could help quite a bit with obtaining a job in Japan or America in the future. But I don’t care much for the mood there and the way of thinking. Quite frankly the rich elite kid atmosphere isn’t the one for me. In the end I feel these people all think the same way as anyone else except they just have more money and fancier handbags. Not to mention a general social structure throughout Tokyo that I’ve seen so far is that of girls hanging out with only girls and guys hanging out with only guys – that being, the distinct separation of genders and roles. This is something that most certainly stops happening in America around middle school, I think, and for me has been perhaps one way or another the most difficult difference impeding my progress with life here.
While at Sophia during my first semester I joined two clubs. In fact I left one about half way through and joined the other at about the same time. The first of these was 歩こう会 or The Walking Club and the second was (is, I suppose) 写真部 or Photography Club. In the first club I was met with a number of issues primarily linked with social structure and Japanese thought process not really fitting well with mine. In the Walking Club I joined them for just one trip to a place called Hakone, a resort town near Mt. Fuji. Though Hakone was packed with tourists, the trip was lots of fun, tons of food and alcohol, and the coolest looking Japanese-style bath I’ve been in. After no longer going to Walking Club meetings I started to attend Photography Club meetings along with the photographer who I mentioned in a previous post about fashion photography. (On a side note, him and I no longer talk.) This club was very laid back and didn’t do any traveling or gatherings. They all seem to be more of a gathering of friends than of a club of shared interests. This coming semester I don’t intend to join Walking Club again and am not strongly considering staying with Photography Club. I’m going to look for more options in sports clubs such as kyudo (Japanese traditional archery), soccer, or tennis. Gotta stay fit! As for classes, I’m going to try to work it out so that I am taking only two – intensive Japanese and a cake-walk.
The inn we stayed at in Hakone
The beer towers we quickly demolished.
The view from the Hakone inn
So, actually, the situation regarding me leaving the Walking Club also has a bit to do with a question I mentioned above that I’m often asked: What’s Jon’s love life like these days? And though most of this is primarily personal to me, there is a bit of general info that I can at least bring to light. Not always feeling too ready to throw my personal life onto the web though. I mentioned in a previous post (probably Part One) that I was greeted by a rather bouncy girl upon arriving in Tokyo. Well, this girl quite quickly “fell in love” with me. I could write for hours probably on the hypocrisy of her and this whole situation. In order to kind of avoid that I’ll simplify it all here. A friend of mine (who arrived with me the same day) liked her though it turned out she liked me. I had very little interest in her from the start. As I gradually began to realize her flighty nature I grew even less interested in her company and even the sight of her and her actions would make me angry because of the way she objectified foreigners and acted like a pervert. (I guess in just the same way there are foreigners objectifying Japanese girls too. Especially with statements like “Do you have a Japanese girlfriend?” She puts the whole situation back in balance.) The obvious way this links to the Walking Club is that she is a member. So I ditched the club also to be able to avoid having to see her on a daily basis. To be honest after that I’ve not seen her but once or twice. Chances are this is also because if she sees me she likely avoids me before I catch sight of her – that’s the way she rolls. So with that! Ended those days.
Later on I realized I was chasing another girl I would never be able to have the affections of. Perhaps she simply wasn’t interested in having a boyfriend or something. I spent Christmas with her (which is a big deal in Japan) and we went to see the Sophia chorus along with a few friends. You’d be pretty amazed to know about the place I actually went to to eat Christmas dinner! A jail-themed restaurant called The Lockup where they scare the crap out of you during your meal. About this time I made a good friendship with the girl’s friend and since then she has definitely been one of the best Japanese friends I’ve made since my arrival here. Nothing came of the girl I hung out with around Christmas and we haven’t really talked much since then. I began to realize I was chasing girls and love instead of simply enjoying the other qualities of life and waiting for love to find me. I felt pretty bad about all of this, to be honest. But, unfortunately, I didn’t act on these thoughts until later.
So, on New Year’s Eve I went and partied big city style at a club in Roppongi. I brought in the New Year to some amazing house music (which seems to be the most common and popular in Tokyo), a little bit of alcohol in my system, screaming loud with tons of unknown people at the club, hand in hand with a girl I had just met.. That’s ominous, but not to say the whole time wasn’t fun. We exchanged contact info and were officially a couple just a week later. The feelings of being the chaser again returned this time accompanied with the guilt of having made a choice while under the influence of alcohol. So throughout this relationship I was covered in such a shroud of gray feelings toward it and a mild longing for perhaps another person still in my heart. I realized day in and day out my feelings for this girl weren’t changing or growing. After a heavy conversation with her in which she opened my eyes to many things while at the same time portraying more traits in her I was happy to be rid of, we stopped “dating” just a few weeks after it started and haven’t talked since then. This was coming up on the end of the semester (the last week in January / first week of February) and the weight of the stress of knowing I was dating a girl I had no feelings for was gladly lifted. I managed to squeeze my final papers and exams in and finish with quite an amazing feeling of release.
I was happy to be wisped away to the Kansai Region of Japan the very next day during which I truly had a huge self realization and finally put into action my desire to live and enjoy life traveling and seeing and enlightening myself not being concerned with the thoughts of others about who I am or constant worry of having/chasing a girlfriend. This little bit is definitely not enough to accurately describe my feelings throughout the Kansai visit and I had actually intended to write a whole separate series of entries about the trip. Again, consider the number of pictures I have though…
The bullet train that wisped us to Kansai
Feeding the greedy deer in Nara
The most awesome shop and owner ever!
Kyoto Fushimi Inari Shrine - thousands of gates!
Glico Running Man sign at Dotonbori, Osaka
A bit of a set back during the spring break after my return from Kansai left me sitting around watching anime until late and not waking up until the middle of the day. But I was happy doing it. I ended up not going to Korea (uh, for reasons…) but also realized I was wasting away my days sitting around when I could be getting up early, eating dorm breakfast, getting exercise, and going out for walks around parts of Tokyo. During this time I realized how much Tokyo has to it and MAN is it amazing! I was left just speechless by most of what I saw. I did a lot of walking and bike riding. (Did I mention I bought a bike!?) Saw the Tama River in the south, winding Tokyo streets, rustic back alley houses with equally antiqued bikes, small shrines stuck into little nooks, the hidden beauty of eastern Tokyo (Old Edo) inside the Yamanote line, an Inari shrine with probably 100 torii (gates), humongous Tokyo University’s amazing architecture and recognizable centerpiece clock tower, festivals and their food and smell that greets you from far away, the huge Yakata graveyard with its many cats and the Tokugawa family grave, the early 1900s look of the Arakawa line train, and a visit with my friend to Odaiba to have some fun and chat over the night view. (Some of these involved riding a train then walking a lot.)
Kanda Shrine, Tokyo
Ochanomizu Station, Tokyo
Then my dad arrived in Tokyo. On a few of the days he was here we did many things I had never done – so it was like a joint first experience. We rode the Yokohama Ferris wheel, saw Tokyo from the top of Mt. Takao, checked out a night view of modernly beautiful Odaiba, and even got to walk down to the Pacific Ocean’s edge in Kamakura. I felt like he got a very good view of my town – Tokyo – before heading home. But Tokyo is so huge that it would take a lifetime alone just to see it all and many more to appreciate it.
Yokohama Bay from the ferris wheel
Mt. Takao - these kids LOVED my dad!
Kamakura and the ocean shore
Odaiba, Tokyo - most beautiful at night
After my dad left I started seeing my old friend a bit more often, though by this time she had moved back home (which is much farther from Tokyo than where she was – in Tokyo). The same friend who I hung out with in Odaiba and who consoled me from long before about issues with “Christmas time girl”. Honestly, though we had always thought of eachother as “just friends” (and very good friends too), I think we both deep inside had a stronger longing for eachother from long before. And so, just before taking my next big trip to Kyushu and Okinawa (by this time the first week in April; I’ll put up a post about that sometime… maybe), we became a couple. I think I couldn’t be more happy with it and in no way do I feel any regret. At the same time I also wouldn’t have minded staying as the closest of friends forever. My love is still there either way. I think at this point I’ve become a babbling lovestruck mess to you guys so I’ll close here!
Well, thanks a ton for reading so much! I really do hope it was able to keep your interest and I think I’ve managed to answer the above questions and then some. Even if most of this was just general, the primary points were school life, love life and just life! Oh, and about the panty vending machine, I’m still on the hunt for that. Later guys!
Nice shot, dad! Hahaha! (Okonomiyaki is delish!)
Writing from Koganei, Tokyo, Japan | April 12, 2009
