Catching Up
12/8/05 (Posted 12/26/05)
Mailing List Entry 4
Well Folks and Folkesses,
I'm Back. With a Brand New Computer! My old laptop broke, and then Apple broke it more when they were fixing it, so I have a new laptop now. There are quite a few things I should mention, and quite a few pictures that will be up in the online version. Because of this, I will be separating everything into 5 sections.
Part 1 – Downtown
I have been downtown. Well, I've been to some areas of downtown, there's a lot I will never have time to see. I've been to Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Harajuku…Mostly Shibuya. Tokyo is big. Really big. I, quite literally, have traveled around to bits and pieces of Tokyo, and I still marvel at how incredibly huge this place is. Kodaira, where I'm staying is small, and while not suburban, I definitely don't see skyscrapers from here, other than a few apartment high-rises, and they're nothing when compared with downtown. There's so much crazy stuff to do there. But everything is absurdly expensive.
My first trip downtown was with Pako, Seosan, Kimchan, and Kim. We mainly just wandered around, but it was fun. We went to the NHK (The big TV station in Japan) Studio tour, and that was a lot of fun.
Me posing with a giant stuffed NHK Mascot or three
The second trip downtown was only to Shibuya, because my laptop was broken, and needed to be taken to the Apple Store, which doesn't mean we didn't go around and do stuff. This trip was with Seosan and Lei-Lei. We went to…give me a drum roll…The Tobacco and Salt Museum! While this sounds boring, it was actually pretty interesting. The first floor is a sort of lobby and gift shop, while the second and third floors deal with Japanese Tobacco brands, and the history of Tobacco and tobacco cultivation in Japan. The third floor is about Salt, and the fourth floor is whatever special exhibition they're doing, which at the time was several hundred-year-old tobacco bags.
A big diorama depicting tobacco preparation Don't ask me why there's a ship made of salt...I have no idea.
The third trip downtown was less exciting, but still a lot of fun. I went with Pako, Chad, and one of Pako's Japanese friends, however, I forget her name because I am a bad person. It's okay though. We just went to the Apple Store, and wandered around a lot. Turns out, Apple broke my laptop while they were fixing it, so they gave me a new one. We also went to Shinjuku to this 9-story bookstore, Kinokuniya, where I got some books for class. It was a good trip, if a little uninteresting.
Download All Pictures from Tobacco and Salt Museum
Part 2 – DisneySea
I went to Tokyo DisneySea with some new friends a few weeks ago. These friends are…Jhun, Vicki (from BSU) and two of Jhun's Japanese friends. I am bad at remembering names. Now, DisneySea is a little different from Disney Land. Basically, DisneySea is for a slightly older audience, which means the rides are better, but there are less Disney Characters running around. It was a whole lot of fun. We started the day off by going on the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride, which had a really long line, but was quite fun. We also went to the 20-minute stage show of The Little Mermaid, in which the plot was condensed in some strange ways. It was basically this: Ariel the mermaid wants to visit land; Ursula the witch tries to convince her to agree to a deal; Sebastian the crab convinces her that the sea is what she knows and is comfortable with, so it is best to stay there. The End. It was odd to say the least. The Indiana Jones (In Japan, just Indy Jones, it's easier to say) ride was quite fun the first time, when you don't expect all the surprises. The most notable ride of the day was the Rollercoaster through the Mayan temple. The attendants thought I was too big for the ride because as an American, I of course am too big for everything. I was, to nobody's real surprise just fine to ride the rollercoaster, so we got to ride twice without waiting, which was a lot of fun. I had seafood pizza for lunch "Under the Sea," which was really cool looking. We had dinner in a nice restaurant there; I had a glass of white wine that was supposed to go very well with seafood (it did) and some seafood Chirashizushi, which was quite tasty. From the window of the restaurant we could see bits of a show going on outside that turned out to be the entire Nutcracker Ballet done with Disney characters. It was a great trip, but I definitely slept well that night.
Near the Indiana Jones Ride, From Left to Right: Me, Vicki, Tamami, Jhun, Ootsu Tamami tries to pretend she's taller than me
Download Collection of Low Resolution DisneySea Pictures
Download High Resolution Pictures and Videos (Note: This is almost a 200 MB file AKA - Really Freakin' Big File)
I may not have enough room on the Ball State server to keep this file up after I start doing other stuff with the website, so get it soon, haha.
Part 3 – Obaasan's
A few weeks ago, my friend Seosan called me up and asked me to meet them over at Ryuen (we just call it Obaasan's) for lunch. I pulled some clothes on, as I'd just gotten up, and headed over to find the place closed. From under the half-pulled-down curtain, Lei-Lei waved me in, so I came in. She works there, part-time, by the way. Seosan and Lei-Lei were there with Obaasan and Ojiisan, eating pizza. I joined them, and after a while we went upstairs where there was an absurd amount of really tasty Japanese food and an ancient Karaoke machine. For some reason, everybody seemed to think I knew every English song on the machine. I only knew the Beatles songs. Granted, half of the songs on the machine were Beatles songs. For a reason completely unknown to me, Ojiisan has an absurdly large number of funny wigs. For another reason completely unknown to me, he likes to put them on people while they do karaoke. I didn't complain. It was funny. We spent most of the day there. Really, it's probably the longest amount of time I've spent speaking only Japanese since I've gotten here, but it was a lot of fun. And they put a picture of us on the wall downstairs in the main part of the restaurant. I am wearing an old-lady-hair wig. I am amused by it.
From Left to Right: Obaasan, Lei-Lei, Ojiisan Yes, I have a picture with the old lady wig too...
No, you don't get to see it.
Part 4 – General Happenings
Really, that's about it. I've been chosen Floor Leader of my floor, which means I go to meetings once a month and get 4000 yen each time. I also have to help decide how the floor funds will be spent, but I've no idea what to do about that. I hang out with friends a lot, as I seem to have a bunch here. Classes are going really well. My personal favorites are my Contemporary Culture class and my Philosophy and Ethics class, which are on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. I'm relatively able to get around on my own, and can even ride the train by myself to a limited extent. I bike to school every day, which is about 10 to 15 minutes each way. I'm mainly just settling down into life here. I like it, although I miss a lot of things about the US, mostly people. No job yet, but I am still hopeful about my financial situation. I should be all right.
Part 5 – The Website
The website will most likely be undergoing some major changes soon, including the implementation of an actual domain name, and probably actual site design by a friend of mine. I'm also going to start a few new sections of the website, including definitely a "Pictures of weird stuff that I find here" section and definitely a "Questions about Japan" section for if any of you have any questions you'd like to ask me. When I switch over to the new Website, I'll make sure to post the URL and link to it from the original site.
Well Folks, that's about it. Hope you're all doing well.
Take Care!
Cory
Well Folks and Folkesses,
I'm Back. With a Brand New Computer! My old laptop broke, and then Apple broke it more when they were fixing it, so I have a new laptop now. There are quite a few things I should mention, and quite a few pictures that will be up in the online version. Because of this, I will be separating everything into 5 sections.
Part 1 – Downtown
I have been downtown. Well, I've been to some areas of downtown, there's a lot I will never have time to see. I've been to Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Harajuku…Mostly Shibuya. Tokyo is big. Really big. I, quite literally, have traveled around to bits and pieces of Tokyo, and I still marvel at how incredibly huge this place is. Kodaira, where I'm staying is small, and while not suburban, I definitely don't see skyscrapers from here, other than a few apartment high-rises, and they're nothing when compared with downtown. There's so much crazy stuff to do there. But everything is absurdly expensive.
Large metropolitan area in
Shibuya
Shibuya (or Shinjuku) Station at night
My first trip downtown was with Pako, Seosan, Kimchan, and Kim. We mainly just wandered around, but it was fun. We went to the NHK (The big TV station in Japan) Studio tour, and that was a lot of fun.
Me posing with a giant stuffed NHK Mascot or three
The second trip downtown was only to Shibuya, because my laptop was broken, and needed to be taken to the Apple Store, which doesn't mean we didn't go around and do stuff. This trip was with Seosan and Lei-Lei. We went to…give me a drum roll…The Tobacco and Salt Museum! While this sounds boring, it was actually pretty interesting. The first floor is a sort of lobby and gift shop, while the second and third floors deal with Japanese Tobacco brands, and the history of Tobacco and tobacco cultivation in Japan. The third floor is about Salt, and the fourth floor is whatever special exhibition they're doing, which at the time was several hundred-year-old tobacco bags.
A big diorama depicting tobacco preparation Don't ask me why there's a ship made of salt...I have no idea.
The third trip downtown was less exciting, but still a lot of fun. I went with Pako, Chad, and one of Pako's Japanese friends, however, I forget her name because I am a bad person. It's okay though. We just went to the Apple Store, and wandered around a lot. Turns out, Apple broke my laptop while they were fixing it, so they gave me a new one. We also went to Shinjuku to this 9-story bookstore, Kinokuniya, where I got some books for class. It was a good trip, if a little uninteresting.
Download All Pictures from Tobacco and Salt Museum
Part 2 – DisneySea
I went to Tokyo DisneySea with some new friends a few weeks ago. These friends are…Jhun, Vicki (from BSU) and two of Jhun's Japanese friends. I am bad at remembering names. Now, DisneySea is a little different from Disney Land. Basically, DisneySea is for a slightly older audience, which means the rides are better, but there are less Disney Characters running around. It was a whole lot of fun. We started the day off by going on the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride, which had a really long line, but was quite fun. We also went to the 20-minute stage show of The Little Mermaid, in which the plot was condensed in some strange ways. It was basically this: Ariel the mermaid wants to visit land; Ursula the witch tries to convince her to agree to a deal; Sebastian the crab convinces her that the sea is what she knows and is comfortable with, so it is best to stay there. The End. It was odd to say the least. The Indiana Jones (In Japan, just Indy Jones, it's easier to say) ride was quite fun the first time, when you don't expect all the surprises. The most notable ride of the day was the Rollercoaster through the Mayan temple. The attendants thought I was too big for the ride because as an American, I of course am too big for everything. I was, to nobody's real surprise just fine to ride the rollercoaster, so we got to ride twice without waiting, which was a lot of fun. I had seafood pizza for lunch "Under the Sea," which was really cool looking. We had dinner in a nice restaurant there; I had a glass of white wine that was supposed to go very well with seafood (it did) and some seafood Chirashizushi, which was quite tasty. From the window of the restaurant we could see bits of a show going on outside that turned out to be the entire Nutcracker Ballet done with Disney characters. It was a great trip, but I definitely slept well that night.
Near the Indiana Jones Ride, From Left to Right: Me, Vicki, Tamami, Jhun, Ootsu Tamami tries to pretend she's taller than me
Download Collection of Low Resolution DisneySea Pictures
Download High Resolution Pictures and Videos (Note: This is almost a 200 MB file AKA - Really Freakin' Big File)
I may not have enough room on the Ball State server to keep this file up after I start doing other stuff with the website, so get it soon, haha.
Part 3 – Obaasan's
A few weeks ago, my friend Seosan called me up and asked me to meet them over at Ryuen (we just call it Obaasan's) for lunch. I pulled some clothes on, as I'd just gotten up, and headed over to find the place closed. From under the half-pulled-down curtain, Lei-Lei waved me in, so I came in. She works there, part-time, by the way. Seosan and Lei-Lei were there with Obaasan and Ojiisan, eating pizza. I joined them, and after a while we went upstairs where there was an absurd amount of really tasty Japanese food and an ancient Karaoke machine. For some reason, everybody seemed to think I knew every English song on the machine. I only knew the Beatles songs. Granted, half of the songs on the machine were Beatles songs. For a reason completely unknown to me, Ojiisan has an absurdly large number of funny wigs. For another reason completely unknown to me, he likes to put them on people while they do karaoke. I didn't complain. It was funny. We spent most of the day there. Really, it's probably the longest amount of time I've spent speaking only Japanese since I've gotten here, but it was a lot of fun. And they put a picture of us on the wall downstairs in the main part of the restaurant. I am wearing an old-lady-hair wig. I am amused by it.
From Left to Right: Obaasan, Lei-Lei, Ojiisan Yes, I have a picture with the old lady wig too...
No, you don't get to see it.
Part 4 – General Happenings
Really, that's about it. I've been chosen Floor Leader of my floor, which means I go to meetings once a month and get 4000 yen each time. I also have to help decide how the floor funds will be spent, but I've no idea what to do about that. I hang out with friends a lot, as I seem to have a bunch here. Classes are going really well. My personal favorites are my Contemporary Culture class and my Philosophy and Ethics class, which are on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. I'm relatively able to get around on my own, and can even ride the train by myself to a limited extent. I bike to school every day, which is about 10 to 15 minutes each way. I'm mainly just settling down into life here. I like it, although I miss a lot of things about the US, mostly people. No job yet, but I am still hopeful about my financial situation. I should be all right.
Part 5 – The Website
The website will most likely be undergoing some major changes soon, including the implementation of an actual domain name, and probably actual site design by a friend of mine. I'm also going to start a few new sections of the website, including definitely a "Pictures of weird stuff that I find here" section and definitely a "Questions about Japan" section for if any of you have any questions you'd like to ask me. When I switch over to the new Website, I'll make sure to post the URL and link to it from the original site.
Well Folks, that's about it. Hope you're all doing well.
Take Care!
Cory