One Month in Tokyo!

Posted on 27th Oct at 6:56 AM

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Well, I intended to post a weekly blog about my experience in Tokyo but I've been so overwhelmed with Japan that it hasn't happened yet. This post is just text, I'll have pictures with the next one, sorry!

I am currently studying at a Japanese University in the Kanagawa region, super close to Tokyo. I live in a dorm with some other students and I am a scholarship recipient. I've been attending an intensive Japanese language class and Japanese Business. Other than school, I've been exploring around Tokyo a bit as well.

My hometown is pitifully small compared to Japan, so when I first arrived I was overwhelmed by the sheer atmosphere of Japan for a good two weeks. When Japanese students asked me how I liked their country so far, I'd just say "It's huge....and small..." The buildings are so tall compared to Oregon, but everything is so close together! The streets are so narrow too, but I think it's really pretty here. There's always plants poking out around the houses.

My dorm is about a 10 minute walk from the University. It's an older building (for Japan at least), built in 1975, right next to the train tracks. The first floor has a TV room, industrial kitchen, and a computer room. The second and third floors are dorms and laundry rooms. My room is a standard room. Two bunk beds, four cabinets, and a four desks. My roommates are a RA named Satomi and a Mexican girl named Pamela. I was the second person to choose a bunk (Satomi lives in the dorm year-round) so I chose the bed that has the top bunk used for storage. I sleep light, so I wake up when people move... The bunks are nifty, we get curtains and a light inside them. My mattress is a futon, which has been surprisingly comfy.

There's about 25 of us foreign students living at the dorm for our three-month study program. There's about five students from Oregon, three from Ireland, one Canadian, one Singaporean, and the rest are from Nebraska. We are all at different levels of Japanese, so people tend to speak English in the dorm (The Irish are brand new to the language). Japanese students come visit the dorm pretty often because of how close it is to the University. Nearly every day, there's Japanese students visiting, so I get to practice my Japanese. However, there's a 9 pm curfew for the visitors. There's a curfew for us exchange students too, but that's just when the front door locks. At 11 pm we have to enter a code in order to get back inside, which is no problem.

The kitchen is pretty interesting. There's a hot water machine, three rice cookers, three microwaves, one toaster oven, and six gas stoves. The stoves require one 10 yen coin for 5-8 minutes of gas. The exchange students all have their own box to keep their dishes (We're issued one cup, knife, fork, spoon, bowl, plate and a pair of chopsticks) and communal fridges/freezers. It gets really busy in the kitchen around 6-7 pm! I've been exploring different things to cook here. I'm vegetarian, so sometimes it's pretty hard to find edible things. I can't get instant noodles because the broth is often fish or meat. If my stomach didn't get mad at me, I'd buy them. Japanese bread is weird too. Perfectly square.

The University feels pretty fancy. They have 9 different buildings, but my classes are only in two of them. The walk up to the University is pretty cool too. There's vending machines EVERYWHERE. I have four hours of Japanese almost every morning, level J3. Including myself, there are four of us in the class. I'm in the upper level in my class, the majority of what we're learning is pretty easy for me. There's two teachers, Akagi and Nagashima. Nagashima is a young lady with a very cute voice, but she's a very strict teacher. She used to play video games a lot when she was younger, haha. Akagi is middle-aged, and lives alone with his cat. He likes Doraemon a lot, and he keeps bringing us snacks and sweets. He's my favorite. He's really funny too.

Business class is 1.5 to 3 hours, one to four times per week. It's taught by various Professors and Doctors, completely in English. I have to write a paper for each longer lecture, which is going to be annoying in the future. The first one isn't due for two weeks, but I want to get it done soon. So far, the classes haven't focused too much on /business/ per se, but they are still interesting. I've been taking good notes in class. A lot of the students fall asleep in the classes though...it's right after lunch and it's usually just a teacher talking about a powerpoint, so it's understandable. I keep myself awake by doodling stuff. However, this winds up getting the attention of anyone around when I show my notes after class hahahaha.

Another part of the Business class is visiting businesses. So far I've been to the Panasonic headquarters and Futabaen. Everyone knows Panasonic. It was an interesting tour, but it was mainly showing Panasonic's products and their ideas for the future, not so much the business aspect. I went to Futabaen yesterday. That was really cool. Futabaen is a shinise or really really old business. Futabaen is a kimono fabric dying business. It currently employs 14 craftsmen, who hand dye fabric specifically for kimonos. My class went on a tour of the business and also got to experience hand dying fabric. The business owner's family had run the business for several hundred years. He gave us a brief history of his company and explained the economical difficulties they have been having, as well as the strategies they are exploring in order to maintain business.

All the students bought stuff in the shop, to help out.

There's also a Culture class, but the program through my University requires you to choose. While Culture would have been cool, it feels like the Business class is talking more about the culture, so I don't feel like I'm missing out. Apparently there was an "Otaku" class. Everyone came back to the dorm to say I should have been there, but halfway through telling me, they stopped and said "Owait, you probably know all that already" (And I already did >>;;;)

The area I'm in is super close to the famous areas of Tokyo. It's 15 min via train to Shinjuku. About 20 to Shibuya. There have been some cultural trips with the dorm as well. I went to Kamakura and saw old temples and the Giant Buddha. I'm going to Hakone to visit a hot spring for a weekend soon too.

So far I've only been to Akihabara once- I met up with my longtime online friend in person for the first time (We've been online buddies for about 7 years), and we went to the Gundam Cafe. About a week after that we went to the GoodSmile Cafe. That was pretty awesome. I intend to go to Akiba this week and explore the fun cafes~

I've also been to Tokyo Disneyland. I left the dorm with three friends at about 60 am, and we rode trains for an hour to get to Chiba. We went on a national holiday, so Disneyland was PACKEDDDDD. However, it was still tons of fun. Disneyland has its Halloween theme up right now, so we got to see the Halloween Parade! I'm going to Tokyo Disney Sea next Wednesday with all the girl RAs from the dorm because I have a 9-day break (but the rest of Japan doesn't!) so it should be pretty empty!

One thing I have been surprised about is alcohol tolerance in Japan. You can buy alcoholic beverages in the convenience store and drink them outside (even while you walk!) and it's not strange at all. There are quite a few Izakayas (kind of like a bar, but a restaurant as well) which have nomihoudai, aka all-you-can-drink. For about 3000 yen you can have two hours of alcohol. People get pretty drunk. However, they generally get drunk around 10-11 pm, so they can catch the last train home. I've gone to two drinking parties so far, but apparently my tolerance is pretty high because I always wind up being the sober one (Not that I'm complaining, I prefer being able to think so I can get myself and my friends home). Karaoke has been fun too. I've been to one of those so far, with some of my Japanese friends. It was hilariousssss.

Anywho, it's about 11 pm here now and I have class tomorrow at 9. I have all next week free, so I should update more with photos and other things. Let me know if there's anything you'd like me to cover!

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