This is why I never update:

Yes, I actually have four other blogs, all of which I'm constantly updating, thus leaving this one going to waste...... or so I would have you believe. The truth is that I have been pretty busy, and possibly putting off the act of writing about everything that has gone on since school ended for the term.

Let's recap: Finals finished, I said goodbye to all my friends going home or traveling, and set about moving into my apartment full time. I was also preparing for my Mom and Marie's visit to Japan. They arrived jet-lagged and sick (poor Marie!) and we quickly went back to Yotsuya to rest up for the coming weeks.

That night I fed my mom yakitori, some of which was RAW CHICKEN!!! Yes, believe it or not, sashimi grade chicken is damn tasty, and not detrimental to your health (I actually thought it was sashimi, and ordered it thinking it was fish... sorry mom?)

Marie started to get better, and we went to Kamakura to explore the old temples and see the Giant Buddha (大仏). I took them to Shinjuku, Kabukicho, my favorite bar, and a cat cafe.

During my time in Osaka, I had become very indebted to two families there (my host fmaily, and the family that ran the small school I worked at), so we rode down to Osaka so I could show Marie and my mom the city and introduce them to the people who had made my life in Osaka so wonderful. Our first night in the city, we went to Chibo, an Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き） restaurant I love. It was very good, but I was starting to feel slightly feverish, and my stomach was bothering me. Ignoring the increasing calls of "YOU ARE GONNA GET SICK, BUDDY!" that was body was shouting at me, I took the ladies to Karaoke. It was my mom's first time in Karaoke box, and she sang quite a bit. By the time we left, I felt wretched, and for the rest of the night I was feverish and in pain. Luckily, the fever broke in the middle of the night (I woke up drenched in sweat, but otherwise feeling okay), but the stomach pain was still there, and throughout lunch with the family that runs the school, and dinner with my host family, my stomach was killing me. It didn't start feeling better until we got back to Tokyo, and by that time my mom only had a couple of days left. We had a nice final dinner, and did Print Club Photos (プリクラ）and the next morning I took my mom home.



I took Marie to Feria for Vday dinner and drinks, it was empty and very nice, but no dancing! On Sundays they only have the restaurant and the top bar open. Unfortunately, I never got Marie back there for some dancing, but I will make that up to her when I get back. Asides from Vday, I didn't really have any great plans, but I really wanted to take Marie somewhere special and uniquely Japanese before she went back home. Something we had talked about before was going to a Hot Spring (温泉） together, so we went to the JR travel office and booked a night at one of the most beautiful hot spring resorts I have ever seen. The place had private gazebos, with private baths, sauna, etc, and it was just awesome. The hardest part however, was the traditional Japanese breakfast. Have you ever tried eating a whole squid, crab, cooked fish, rice, and other assorted seafood at 8am in the morning? It's a test for the stomach of anyone who claims to love Japanese food. I will take my fish over-easy next time.


It was really tough watching Marie go through security and down the escalator at the airport. It was so incredible being able to share this country with her, and I got very used to her being with me in this environment. Now that she isn't here, everyday, no matter where I go, I am reminded of her, and homesickness is an even more occurring part of my everyday life. You really don't realize how much little things matter when you are so far from home. I feel like the life I have here is SO SO different from my life back home. Mostly alone, constantly playing baseball, as opposed to being with Marie and my friends from home and fire fighting. Not to say I don't have friends here, it's just different. I miss my old life...


Things have also been getting better here though, not all negative. Every day I spend with the baseball team I feel more accepted, and I feel like I am (however slowly) improving my ability on the field. I hope, that by the time I go home, I will have a very close group of Japanese friends, as well as a strong, accurate arm.


In less than a month classes are starting, so I am going to be pretty damn busy soon, and hopefully these last three months will fly by.

Kagaya Video!

Here is the video my buddy Mark took of our most bizarre journey to Kagaya

Basically, it is owned by this guy, and this is how he brought us the menus (drawn in crayon)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkKjarbO5eI&feature

Long time!!!

Well we are in finals week here at Jouchi. All I can say is I want to go back to "pretend" school at Bennington. No final tests, no ridiculous history instructors etc. I would rather write a final paper any day over taking a test. Regardless, it is still sad to see the semester come to an end, because this means all my friends who were only here for part of the year will be going home. I hope I'll get a chance to meet them again sometime. As for me, I will be in Tokyo for the long haul, staying for the whole spring break (until April 12th!!!). For the first weeks of break, my mom and Marie will be coming, and I get to take them around to all the places I've grown to love here in Tokyo. So excited!!!!! After they leave, Baseball starts up again, and I will be devoted to that for the rest of my break. ちょっと大変だけどね。

On another note, I've rented an apartment! It is right in Yotsuya and about 5 minutes from school. SO convenient! I even have my own Kotatsu! In case you don't know, Kotatsu are about the most wonderful creations ever conceived by the Japanese. Basically a table, attached to the underneath is a small heater, and there is a blanket attached to the table as to keep the heat inside. The dangour is that these tables are soooo comfterble, people sometimes fall asleep under them, only to awake hours later realizing that they have scooted all the way under the table so only their heads are out. This of course leads to colds, and a lack of doing home work or other tasks. Ahh, but nothing truly says "winter" in Japan like the kotatsu.

wacky adventure!!! OR: How to sleep well on trains!

Alas, the new year is almost done, and it is about time to welcome in the old. Or something like that.

Christmas is already behind me, and thank god. Quite the lonely one I must say. I wont go into to many details, I'll just say that eating Christmas dinner alone in McDonalds is not my ideal way to spend the holiday. However, I did have a fun night on the 26th (27th?) and quite the adventure.

I started out the day going to baseball practice with Ojihara and Tanaka. We were the only three that showed up, so after throwing the ball around and practicing our swings, we decided to clean the field and get lunch. They took me to this wicked good ramen place, in some back alley of Kabuchi-cho, where for 750 yen you can chose 1, 2, or all 4 heaping toppings of pork, veggies, garlic, and pork innards (?) to have with your already ginormous bowl of super thick ramen. Needless to say it was filling.

After that I met up with Gea and went with her to Micky Ds (I did not eat... just coffee). We wandered around Shinjuku and played UFO catchers (like those rip off claw games, but somehow more easy looking and harder to win) and then my all time favorite: Elevator Action Death Parade. We had some time to kill before Korey's bday celebration possibly house party extravaganza (lots of time since the time, place, and event itself were all still TBA), so we decided to have a drink at this classy lil joint called Kuimono Coconeel.

OH BOY, let me tell you. We got there at 5:45, the place had just opened so we were the first customers. I started out with Tanquery and Tonic, Gea with I don't even remember. While we were having our first drinks, and our food, the bartender (I have named him taro, for lack of actually asking him his name) was taking out these giant, square ice cubes (rubic cubed size) and shaving them into spheres. We finally found out what drink they were for when I asked for his recommendation, and got Earl Grey Liquor with a giant ice sphere in a rocks glass. Quite fantastic. Annnnnnyways,

More T&Ts, fancy drinks, Chocolate pies, and a couple hours later, our friend mark showed up and joined us before we eventually headed out to the now in progress house party. On the train there, Mark and I were comparing who had better headphones (to Lady Gaga, Poker Face, a classic) and I was taking mine off and putting his one and off and on and off and on and then we got to our stop and we got off and my vision was blurry and.... wait... where are my glasses? No where on my person... oh fuck a duck.

My glasses fell off while I was enthusiastically ripping and shoving head phones on my head, and were now on the Tokyo metro 10:55 train bound for god-knows-where. Yippee. Thus, slightly blind, quite buzzed, and very full from Ramen, Deserts and cheese platters, I stumbled off to the lost and found (to report my glasses) and then to Korey's.

11:00: arrive at Korery's (friend's) apt

11:15: get wrecked by Korey in beer pong

11:30: find kotatsu and crawl underneath

11:32: get away from kotatsu because the Japanese kid next to me is throwing up... on himself and kotatsu

From this point on I really stopped thinking about time, but I am pretty sure we were at Korey's until at least 12:30. Finally the guy who actually owned the house wanted us out, and we wanted to go out, so it was off to Roppongi to Club Ferrier (possible name of the club, because of the lack of glasses I didn't really pay attention to anything ten or more feet away from me).

The club was pretty fun, pretty basic for a club I suppose, danced around for quite awhile until one of us realized the 4th floor was deserted and we could move our entire gang up there for our own personal dance floor. We danced around some more, and suddenly it was 5:00 am and we were leaving. I don't really remember being tired until we got to the gyro place, and by the time it was 5:30 Mark and I stumbled to the trains.

It was most likely the worst train ride of my life. The goal was this: Depart: 5:35 Roppongi>>>Ueno>>>Home @ 6:31 - Total travel time 56 minutes (@ 730 yen)

What actually happened: Mark and I fell asleep on the train. We went an hour past Ueno.
(6:45)

Went back to Ueno (7:45) Mark and I go separate ways at this point. My train does not leave the station until 8:00. I fall asleep waiting for it to move. I wake up, an hour (give or take a couple min) past my stop, in the countryside. I swear I heard a cow moo when I got off the train. (now 9:30)

Finally get home, at 10:30. In summery: Total travel time Roppongi to my house: 5 hours.


I slept all day.


For any parental figures that may worry: 1.I found my glasses. They are probably cleaner than before I lost them.

2. I spent the day after recuperation at an aquarium. It was pretty and educational. I saw dolphins and a fish with a really long squiggly nose.

3. After that I have been at home with my host family (and manic 5 yr old host brother) doing my HW that is due after break.





OH and Happy New Years! I am going to Nikko for three days with the host fam.


see Nikko: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikk%C5%8D,_Tochigi

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Title says it all folks. I've never been good at keeping a diary, journal, or any sort of blog. I just don't really wanna write on the darn thing unless the spirit moves me so to speak.

Anyways, over this past weekend our wonderful group of CIEE space cadets ventured down to the edge of Japan to visit Hiroshima and Miyajima. We left Tokyo at around 6:30ish on the infamous bullet train (日本語なら『新幹線』だな). Flying on the tracks at about 150mph, stopping at each stop for about a minute at the most, we reached Hiroshima at 10:30 (it would take 10 hours to drive). The following day we toured the Hiroshima peace museum and park, heard a talk from a professor about why the USA actually dropped the atomic bomb, and lastly we heard a first hand account from an atomic bomb survivor. Thanks to Middlebury Japanese Language School, I've had the privilege of hearing three such talks (now four) to date. Each account has been so different, and so moving in their own ways. You can look at pictures of Hiroshima, see the flattened houses and the inexplicable flatness of the devastation that took place. But when you hear first hand from someone who was there, someone who was burnt so bad her skin melted and was hanging off her arms, someone who watched her friends and family die, someone whose own father couldn't believe it was her because her face and body was so badly burnt, you forget about the need to drop the bomb. Nothing politically motivated can justify such a horrible, wicked thing. And you feel sick, that mankind can conceive of something filled with such viciousness.

But the sadness is replaced with an even deeper fear at the realization that the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are pebbles compared to what our country has now. Consider this:

People about 1 mile from the hypo center in Nagasaki were pretty much unaffected by the blast and subsequent radiation. However, if a Hydrogen bomb were to used on Washington D.C., the following fallout would result (depending on wind direction) in the entire eradication of the eastern seaboard. Goodbye NYC, Philly, Boston, etc. That is how much radiation would be released from one of these newer bombs.

I didn't really set forth to talk about this, I meant to talk more about our night after the tour of Hiroshima, and Miyajima the next day. But alas, the mind wanders.

I went to hospital with a fever. You would think that would mean that I had a temp of 108°F and was hallucinating, but no. I had a temp of 100°, and I went to the hospital. This is the norm in Japan appearntly, that when you are sick, you go to the hospital. yippie? only took three hours for them to stick a q-tip up nose to see if I have Influenza A, or as I know it, SWINE-OHMYFUCKINGGAWWWD-FLU. Luckily, the test came back negative, but because I had only had the fever for three hours, the doc said I should come back the next day, cause it could be too early to tell for sure. Low and behold, one day and another three hour wait later, the new doc says that because I had been taking Tamiflu, there was no reason to test me. The solution: treat it as if you have swine flu. Just to be safe.

And here I am, third day in. House arrest. Confined to my room.

Come Tuesday, when i am free, I wont want to leave! Its gonna be like Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemption, I am too used to these walls! I wont know what to do on the outside!

Maybe I will become Hikikomori.... (see link) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori

Lunch

After baseball, if I don't have class (or I'm not going X_X), a couple of first year students on the baseball team and myself will eat lunch together. Most likely we are all still wearing our uniforms, quite sweaty, and exhausted. Lunch also has an unspoken routine: we put our shit down at an open table and head to the sink to wash our hands. We look at the display of food and muse out loud what we are going to eat. After we eat, we usually buy ice cream. Lastly (my favorite part folks), we rock paper scissors to see who will clear all of our trays full of dirty dishes. We never do this when I eat with other exchange students! Why is that? Personally, I think that ending lunch in this fashion adds some excitement to the meal.

On another note, please enjoy this commercial for the phone company that I am using

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyF5kNjGTO8&feature=related