The sun will come out tomorrow ...

Just got off the phone with Fukuoka Fulbrighter Jen. We are lonely in our respective cities and help remedy that by talking nightly – which is exorbitantly expensive. But it will become cheaper soon in a number of ways since we have added each other’s “yu-yu denwa” list which allows us to get a discount for the people we talk to the most, and also since soon (as in within a month :P) we will have internet and IP phones. Then we’ll be able to call practically for free. And hopefully we won’t be as lonely and bored anymore.

That being said, today was a great day. I started my new homestay at the Nishina’s house, and it is a vast improvement; too bad I’ll only be here another day and a half. As though scripted in a movie, the sun finally came out today as I was leaving my old homestay. Though Mr. Nishina speaks really good English, he only speaks to me in English when I can’t understand something, and they are just really nice, sweet people. I’ve been more relaxed here and have had much more fun so far. I’m glad I met them. Nishina is a former Tohoku Dai professor of solid state physics, and his father was a famous nuclear physicist at Tokyo Daigaku and was working during World War II, clearly a timely period for that work.

Oh and tonight Stuart whatever-his-last-name-is (which is basically what the Nishinas and I keep calling him [“shichu-ato nantoka nantoka-san”] because no one can remember his name) came over tonight for dinner. Stuart is a professor that is here on a lecturing Fulbright who, incredibly, my bestfriend Brent Slonecker worked under while at UCSB. You may remember me mentioning meeting him back when I had dinner at the ambassador’s house. He’s a really nice, soft-spoken law professor who doesn’t speak any Japanese; I admire his ability to live here in Sendai alone when he can’t speak Japanese. I think it’ll be nice to have dinner with him from time-to-time, when I miss having sophisticated English conversations (trust me, my conversations with Jen can’t be considered “sophisticated”).

But first, let’s see how tomorrow goes.

My legs are tired.

So in Japanese "mama chari" means like ... old lady bike. most people ride mama charis around. And I am one of them. It is not a mountain bike, or a racing bike, or a street bike, or a trick bike. It's one of those bikes that you sit straight up on with the basket in front. I had a good experience with the bike I used to have in Tokyo, which was also a mama chari, so I looked forward to riding my bike here in Sendai. But this bike isn't that bike, and Sendai isn't Tokyo. There are a lots of hills here in Sendai, the bike's pedal are placed sort of awkwardly, and I forgot how much bike seats hurt your ass when you sit on them. It was a pretty exhausting experience and makes my apartment, which is far from the city and takes a little hill-climbing to get to, less great than it seemed before. Damn.

So other than riding around on my bike, today I dropped a fat wad of cash on the Economics office to pay my tuition. And the guy started laughing at me because I kept making mistakes with the requirements for my enrollment. Sort of embarrassing. And then I looked around to see if I can join a music club so I can start a band, and after annoying this girl in "Minna utau kai club" (the "everyone sings" club), I found out the place I was supposed to go. So all the clubs have their club headquarter rooms side-by-side in these long one-story buildings that look like barracks from Manzanar (and I mean the actual barracks, because these things are made of rotting wood and yellowed glass, and the doors and rooves have about 60 years of rust on them; be sure to get your tetanus shot before joining a club). So I went to this one building at the top of the hill and I heard a promising sound: a bass drum. And then guitars. And bass. And vocals. My goal of starting a goofy Japanese band is right behind those doors. I didn't want to bother the band that was practicing, but now I know where to go. Woohoo.

Literally THIS VERY MOMENT my host father is talking to me. And I'm typing this because what he is saying is pissing me off. Yesterday before I went to bed he approached me about helping him teach a new English class at his school for advanced English speakers. And when I say "help", I mean he wants me to come up with some good business articles for them to read - in other words to make the curriculum and teach it. And then I'm pretty sure his friend Bill (the 50 something "hapless character") wants me to help him teach his class because he asked to talk to me on the phone tonight, but then when I picked it up, it had been disconnected. Oh yeah - and host dad just told me Scottish Elaine really wants to "keep in touch with me" because she wants to me to do financial analysis of her school and give her freakin INVESTMENT ADVICE after I tried to politely tell her I wouldn't yesterday. Aside from the fact that I'm not going to be responsible for someone else's stock portfolio, even if they pay me for it, who the hell do these people think they are? They can tell me all they want that it is too my advantage because I will be able to get to know Japanese society well through these interactions. They can flatter me all they want and tell me "it's unusual to have someone of your caliber here and I want to take advantage of your presence" or that someone like me can really "stimulate the students minds more than normal lectures" or whatever, but the operative phrase will always be "take advantage of your presence". I absolutely refuse to do the things they are asking of me. I owe them nearly nothing, and they will be rewarded accordingly. I have 9 months left here to accomplish 3 things: improve my Japanese, do my research, and explore Japan and Asia. Involved in that is making friends at school and hopefully a band. But teaching English classes and being a part time investment banker/stock broker for some down-on-their-luck adults are most certainly NOT a part of that experience. As it is, this homestay, with all the English speaking and the fact that it is driving me NUTS has only set me back; it hasn't helped at all. So if these people think they are going to be able to use up my time for their own purposes, even if they are really kind people and ask me really nicely, they are dead wrong. Just dead wrong. Maybe this sounds selfish, but you know what? It damn well should sound selfish. I am going to be as selfish as I have to be this year. Time is limited and I have shit I have to get done.

The only person I like is the person I get to spend the least time with - my host mom, who only speaks Japanese and seems to understand that I'm frustrated and don't want to spend my time here as an English tutor. This morning when I was leaving, and my host dad said he wanted me to come to his class today, she told me right before I walked out the door "you can just come straight back home if you want - you don't have to go to his school." My thoughts exactly. And tonight I got to eat dinner alone with her and watch TV with her, which was really nice. I'm glad she's around. Oh, and she's the only person that calls me "kenji-kun", and that's a ticket straight to my heart.

Smile.

I realized about 15 seconds ago that I haven't been listening to enough music recently, or playing any guitar, which is part of what is driving me crazy maybe. Fortunately, tonight I am finally sitting down to listen to Nonesuchrecord's internet stream of Brian Wilson's Smile album. It is being released this Tuesday, about 39 years after it was originally started as a Beach Boy's album. For those who don't know, Smile wasn't ever released because Brian lost his mind, and it became one of the most legendary unreleased pieces of music in rock history; lucky for us Brian finally reworked it and it's being released. Woohoo. It's a beautiful album and, like a lot of Brian Wilson/Beach Boys music, makes me nostalgiac for home and only lets me remember those really good, typically-Californian things: breezy beaches and hot sand, a crockware plate full of mexican food, the smell of the dry, cool night air, running down wide sidewalks and muddy horsetrails, speeding down empty freeways at night. You try finding decent mexican food in Japan; I haven't yet. Hell, there aren't even any decent sidewalks here. But then, I guess it's pretty hard to find good Japanese food in the U.S., so take the good with the nonexistant.

Anyway, I spent most of today just lying around watching TV. Tomorrow I have to go to school to pay tuition (directly to my department and all in cash mind you!) and run a few errands. At least that means I get to go off and be on my own.

Please be my friend. No, not you.

(just a warning; feeling rather frustrated today, so this one is going to begin to approach scathing)

So today I went to my host dad's English class that he teaches at Tohoku Dai. The class was all first and second year students and when I started speaking in English their mouths pretty much dropped to the floor because they thought I was Japanese. In possibly the most awkward situation I've been placed in so far this trip to Japan, "I hope you can help out during the lesson" turned into "I'm going to force each student to ask you a question in English in front of the whole class". Terrible choice. As the kids struggled through their English and I struggled to listen, I kept glaring at my host-dad in a "why the hell are you doing this" kind of way. But it turned out to work out pretty well in the end - they students tried really hard and were all really nice. One guy's question was "do you have a picture of your girlfriend", and when I took my wallet out, everyone in the class was like "oooooooHhhhh' since most people here don't carry around pictures of their boyfriends/girlfriends in their wallets. So I then had to go around the whole class showing everyone as they ooed and ahhed at Hyunjoo's beauty.

After class a few of the girls came up to me and adorably asked me to be their friend. I don't know that I'll actually be friends with them, but it was nice to finally meet some people who are closer to their birth than death.

Right now, my host family's friend Elaine is here for dinner. She, like every person my host family cares about, is an English teacher. She's a middle-aged Scottish woman who seems to be married to a Japanese guy and have some kids. Like most adults here I've met so far, she's nice but not particularly interesting. Here are a couple sterling quotes (and commentary) that should characterize Elaine:

"I walked by Talbots today, which is my favorite store, and I was so disappointed because I couldn't go in because I don't have enough money to buy anything." (gosh, Talbots. Don't get me started on this store. If your mom likes Talbots, sorry, but your mom has poor taste in clothing. And not having enough money to buy a drab, conservative blouse from Talbots is yet another reason to not become an English teacher in Japan).

"They should just build a Disneyland there. Or a golf course." (In Elaine's grating attempt to discuss Japanese economics with me, she kept stumping for increased tourism and that that should fix the economy. Riiight. And she seemed to think that buy sinking hundreds of millions in an amusement park or eating up precious land area with a gamble on a golf course (keep in mind - golfing in Japan can cost hundreds of dollars a round) would be a good investment for the northern regions where tourism is sparse. You be the judge).

"If you look at the income of a university, do you think you could judge how it is doing? .... Well it would be an interesting project wouldn't it?" (This one kind of offended me because she was clearly trying to ask me to somehow do a valuation of the school she works for and figure out how healthy its financial practices are. I politely explained this would take a lot of work, and probably wouldn't be worth doing, at which point she tagged it as an "interesting project." Yeah, interesting if I'm being paid exorbitantly for working 100+ hours a week to do it. High-five investment bankers!)

Tomorrow I get to meet "Bill", this rather unsavory character who seems to combine incredibly offensive sexual comments (I was handed the phone by my host dad to say Hi to Bill and he within 2 minutes he invited me to go out and get some "p***y" with him) with giving Christian sermons all in one package! Elaine called him "a hapless character", which says a lot, and he's currently divorcing his 28 year old wife (he's 55).

This is the slowest week of my life.

My life as a septuagenarian in Sendai

So my homestay hasn't exactly been a party, unless you're talking about a retirement home party. So far i have only meant old people - my homestay parents are in their 70s, and I've had the opportunity to meet other old people as well. I spend my days eating meals, watching TV, watering the garden, taking walks in the neighborhood, and sleeping. I do not want to retire, ever, if this is what retirement is. And my host father, a former Fulbrighter, isn't even retired! He is still a professor at Tohoku Dai! He teaches English, so he only speaks English to me which sucks since, um, I'm here to study Japanese. And he told me he likes to water the garden because it is meditative since he has "a lot to think about"; so far, "a lot" seems to be preparing for the 4 class periods he teaches a week and trying to decide whether his night-cap will be sake or red wine.

I managed to set up my bank account today. I also had the chance to run some errands on campus (get my tuition paperwork and set up my placement test). And I was alone for the first time in a week and it was beautiful. My mind felt like the cage doors had finally opened. See, Japanese people seem to have "over-bearing" as a common personality trait. I can't wait to move into my apartment - it's going to be lonely for awhile, but at least I'll have my own space.

Tomorrow, the gas gets set up in my apartment and I'm going to one of my host dad's classes, so hopefully I'll meet some kids. I miss the Fulbrighters and I miss Tokyo. A few of us are already in the preliminary planning stages of trips to visit each other.

Homestay!

Today, I finished up some business around town with Kazumi-obachan and then left, on my own in Sendai for the first time ever, to meet up with my host family. They are really nice! My homestay father, Yoshikawa Kiyotaka, is an old english professor at Tohoku Daigaku and once did a Fulbright in the United States in 1957 at Indiana University. Amazingly, he took a 3-week long boat ride from Japan to Seattle and then a train ride to get to Indiana back then. I talk to him in English, which while not good for my Japanese, helped me settle into the house better. I speak to his wife, who is really sweet and funny and named Kyoko, in Japanese. Their house is about 70 years old and traditional Japanese style, which is pretty cool. THey have a beautiful garden outside in the walkway leading to the front door. It is relaxing to be back in a traditional style Japanese home again. Seems like Kiyotaka likes to drink quite a bit, so I will be drinking sake nightly while I'm here it seems. Tomorrow, Fujii Sensei is going to help me move some more things into my apartment (he is also a professor at Tohoku Dai and a former Fulbrighter). Things are finally getting underway... Oh, and until I can figure out how to tap into the wireless network here, I might be irregular in my internet usage for about a month.

Blast Off!

I'm in Sendai. Today I bought used appliances and moved into my apartment. Tomorrow, I register as a resident of the city and start my homestay. Pictures of my apartment to come.

Here are the almost entirely Fulbright-applicable lyrics to Weezer's unreleased song "Blast Off!":

Blast off! Up to the stars we go
And leave behind everything I used to know.
Somebody's giving me a whole lot of money
To do what I think I want to
So why am I still feeling blue?
Oh what a time though...

Goddamn, get your head out of your hands.
Here's to all the times we're gonna have.
Cooped up for a year with the
two best-looking babes I've seen all year
Get me another bottle of beer
'Cause I'm feeling fine

Go ahead, waste your head
We've got the time.
I hope you don't object that I
Speak my mind

Don't forget the purpose of the mission,
Or Nomis will be swallowed by its sun.
Each one of you is a top graduate
of the Star Corps Academy
It's up to you reach for a dream
Oh what a time though!

Go ahead and waste your life
I'm still in fear.
I hope you don’t object if I
Crack another beer.

Hold on, who is it here that I see?
Wasn't she a she a favorite bitch in the Academy?
I don't know if I wanna lead on this woman,
You know I've done that before.
She's actually a good girl,
Or at least a cheap ho...

Last night in Tokyo.

Tonight is my last night in Tokyo. I'm driving up to Sendai in the morning and moving into my apartment (though I'm hoping to come back to Tokyo like once a month or so).

I spent the day today running around buying things for my apartment. It is a blessing and a curse to have my relatives here. On the one hand, accomplishing tasks like renting my apartment, setting up my cell phone and bank account, and physically moving to Sendai are made much, much easier by them being here. And I've been given tons of free, used appliances and bedding by my relatives and this girl Aki-chan who works for them. That has saved me a lot of money. I am so grateful to them because setting up life here has been so much easier for me than it will be for the other Fulbrighters. But it's a curse to have them here in a way because it feels like they won't let me try to do anything on my own - even simple things like buying kitchen utensils for my apartment. And they don't seem to think I am capable of living on my own at all! They were even shocked when I said that I had used a rice cooker before (both because I knew how to do it and because I said we use a rice cooker daily back home - which they know since they've all stayed at my house before). Maybe it's because men here are so dependent on women for doing things, I don't know. But it's exhausting. Oh, and one more complaint - everyone keeps asking me the same questions over and over! For example, I think I must have explained at least three times now that everyone in Fulbright is American, that they are going to different cities, that there are both guys and girls, and that I'm the only one in Sendai. I can't figure out if they haven't been paying attention? Or have poor short-term memory? Or are just trying to make small talk and that's all they can come up with? I don't know, but it drives me crazy. Okay. Phew. Got that off my chest.

Today there was a nice and lightly funny scene at my grandpa's sister Aiko's nursing home. She doesn't really remember anything and kept asking if I was Rio's dad and saying Rio was fat. It reminded me a lot of the circular conversations my family has with my grandma back home. I snapped a nice picture of Aiko-obaachan, Kazumi-obachan, Yukari-chan, and Rio-chan (four generations of Wakano women, or Shimizu women I guess) all together. Then tonight, when we went out to eat dinner after leaving Aiko-obaachan, I FINALLY managed to pay for something for everybody. During dinner, I snuck away and told the waitress I wanted to secretly treat everyone and she helped out. Then when I went to pay suddenly everybody saw me (the restaurant was small) and there was Kazumi-obachan trying to stop me. But ultimately, I prevailed. The last few moments of paying were so stressful and rushed that I was all shook up afterward with adrenaline - just from successfully paying a bill. I know, I am lame.

But I can get lamer! Because I just finished building a huge, complicated, beautifully-formatted spreadsheet in Excel for the purpose of tracking my expenses against my stipends. It is truly a work of art. And now here is the off-the-charts dorkiness - I enjoyed making it. There, I said it. I like building spreadsheets. You can blame Wharton. Hopefully some of the other Fulbright kids will be interested in using it.

Smell my face.

Yesterday was an exhausting day, mainly because I didn't get enough sleep the night before after walking home for an hour and a half. We went in for short interviews with Satterwhite and Iwata-san, and our advisors in the Fulbright office. Nothing important was done. Afterward, however, something very important was done - we all went to the bank to .. umm.. "handle" our first stipend. We are temporarily rich.

Afterward, I went shopping in Harajuku with four of the girls, which was kind of tiring and not fun since our group was too big to actually let anyone shop; and people didn't want to split up, so we just sort of compromised by wandering around instead. I did, however, buy a pretty cool t-shirt for a decent price. After getting home, the group reformed and we all went out in Shibuya for dinner at a place Jen recommended this time, this fusion restaurant called "Buttu-Trick Bar" that had a gigantic Buddha inside it. The food was pretty good and affordable so I think everyone was happy. And Jen and I had a ... let's call it an interesting conversation during dinner. We all got some drinks afterward, and, in typical fashion, I ended up drinking at Hub. Jen and I had the strongest drinks on the menu - basically liquid fire in a glass. We were trying to figure out if her drink was called "Stairway to Heaven" because it makes you happy or because it kills you immediately.

We went home and Dave had taken a hilarious picture earlier so we had the idea that everyone in the group would take similar pictures, but by the time we got to their rooms, 40% of the people were asleep, so we just got a few of the pictures taken. I'd explain what the theme of the pictures were here, but I think it would get me in trouble. Let's just say my version of the picture (which was voted to be the best one) involved me and a toilet.

This morning, everyone left for their cities. I can't wait to go to Kyoto to visit all the Kansai people, especially Dave, who was a great roommate at the Daiichi Annex; it's also the most convenient place to meet up with the likes of Jen (who is in Fukuoka) and Lauren (who is in Kanazawa).

The Satterwhite Effect

Blog Pic - Fulbright Office Before After
Originally uploaded by kenji618.

Chipper as the day begins at a bright and crisp 9:30 AM, and ready to die as the day enters the homestretch near 5:00 PM.

I Saw The Sign.

Today was, all in all, an excellent day. The group got closer today both through the sucky and the celebratory.

We started off with our orientation activities. During the morning, our director bored us to death and quite frankly began creeping me out with his shoulder twitches, winking, creepy smile, and Nixon-administration glasses. Everyone's frustration reached a pinnacle when he began to take us through an almost entirely irrelevant and redundant lecture of Japanese political, economic, social, and educational history over the last 50 years. Naturally, by the time we reached our lunch break, we were ready to throw ourselves in front of the Ginza Line subway. We grabbed a quick lunch and came back.

The day was made lighter by two things: first, former Fulbright Fellow and current Fulbright-Hayes Columbia PhD student Dennis Frost was there for the day to offer some advice, anecdotes, and insights. He seemed like a great guy - and actually got engaged on his Fulbright six years ago to his wife Kelly, buying the ring with grant money! He lives here now with Kelly and his son Dominic on his new Fulbright grant. The second thing that made the day tolerable was that Satterwhite, after sensing from our body language that we were disgusted, asked us after lunch "Should I launch into chapter 2 or is this boring" to which we basically responded "for the love of God, stop now." Instead, we spent the afternoon discussing more practical matters to help everyone settle - registering as a foreigner, renting apartments, getting our utilities set up, paying taxes, etc. Things the orientation SHOULD have covered more in depth without our asking I might add. After shrugging off one more Satterwhite attempt at giving us a history lesson (thank you, Laura!) we finished up the talk. Dave Follette has a series of hilarious pictures from the morning when we're chipper and smiling and the last hour of the day when we look absolutely sick and broken from our marathon of orienting (pictures to come).

It seems like Jen and I are the social directors of our group; I mean, everyone was sarcastically apologetic directly to us for not going out last night (and for the record, Dave, Jen, and I had drinks in Roppongi and it was GREAT). Jen and I are suited for the job for a few reasons; not just because we love partying and drinking more (or are at least most outspoken and proactive about it), but also because she speaks the best japanese by far, and because I seem to know Tokyo the best. Tonight I led the group out to Shinjuku to eat yakiniku and do karaoke. We had a really, really great time, and I think it brought us closer to eat, drink, and be merry together. Since my only goal for this orientation was to get close to these nine other people quickly, I was very happy with tonight. We ended karaoke with everyone standing on the couches in our room singing Ace of Base's "The Sign." It was a moment to behold and honor.

Afterward, our train only took us part way home because it was the last train of the night, so some people took a cab back and the other half walked. I chose to walk. After getting kind separated, we were on our way and it took FOREVER. I'm exhausted and I'm going to sleep. Oyasumi.

"Oh great. Well I'm going to go get another drink."

While eating our onigiri and waiting for the rest of the group to show up this morning (I was EARLY), Dave and I were remarking on how all salaryman wear the same 4 things: black suit, white shirt, boring tie, and a defeated look on their face. It's really sad. So overcome with the tragedy of their own lives.

Anyway, today we had orientation which was preetty slow because everyone in the JUSEC office talks REALLLLY SLOOW in English (even the director, who is American). A few good things about today: we had lunch at a really nice Japanese restaurant, they handed us a ridiculous amount of money basically all in cash that I will not disclose at this time as our first payment, and we had a very nice reception at Ambassador Baker's residence that had an open bar and buffet. It was a good time - even though Baker is in the States recuperating from open heart surgery.

The sheer number of coincidences among all of us is kind of crazy, keep popping up. Just naming a few off the top of my head: one of the men who works in the JUSEC office knew Lauren's dad in college; two of the girls have been abroad in Kyoto together before and randomly are here together; two of the guys worked in the embassy together 2 years ago; a professor on a fulbright here is also going to Tohoku Daigaku and one of his favorite students at his home school of UCSB was Brent Slonecker (!!).

I'm getting to be good friends with Jen and Dave ... Lauren and Dan too I think.. and the rest of the group is still very solid. They just .. prefer to sleep so we can go out tomorrow night rather than tonight, which is fine! except we only have 3 days together here in tokyo and I'd prefer to make the most. And I promise the next two nights will be crazy. THEY MUST BE. Especially because tomorrow we have EIGHT more hours of slow, boring orientation. And I don't think they're giving us more money tomorrow.

Fulbright Begins.

Tonight I checked in at the Daiichi Hotel Annex. First, my relatives asked me to eat dinner with them, but I was so anxious to start up this Fulbright stuff, I asked if we could eat ramen, (1) because I haven't had any yet and (2) because it's cheap and quick. So I got here, and I'm rooming with David Follette of Princeton. He's a good guy - half japanese/half white, engineer.. seems really smart. Across the hall is Jen Schwartz (who I already knew - UCLA girl, half/half too), and Anna Hrachovec (Middlebury College). After checking in, and being confused as to where my room was (like Steiny-D at Penn, the numbering in this hotel makes no sense - room 8220 is on the 12th floor while 8820 is on the 8th floor), I found myself locked out. See, if you're sharing a room with someone, you get only one key between the two of you. So after waiting with the bell girl for the other Dave to arrive, I finally got to settle down in my room. We then all went out to grab a beer together, with the exception of 2 of the girls who decided to stay in and sleep off the jisa-boke. The games names are so similar: David, David, Dan, John, Jonathan. 5 Ivy Leaguers, 4 Californians, 2 Minnesotans, 3 Hapas. Aside from our research areas, not much diversity here. But still, it was really nice meeting everyone and they seem like a good, if somewhat, hm, studious group. A couple couldn't even finish their drinks! We're going to have to change that in the next few days.

Tomorrow is orientation and dinner at the ambassador's house. Woohoo. And so begins the Fulbright grant year.

Recently, I've just been lazing about doing absolutely nothing. Though that's all about to change since the grant period starts tomorrow and I head over to the Daiichi Hotel in Shimbashi for orientation and much elbow rubbing with the other nine Fulbright Fellows.

Somehow I've managed to go a month in Japan without going to either karaoke or to eat ramen a single time. I've had some karaoke close calls, but it's been cancelled an unprecendented three times in a row. And I haven't had ramen since I left Korea. Hopefully that will change in the next few days - something's gotta give dammit! Especially since Hyunjoo sent me a picture of ramen tonight; oh god do I crave it now.

Tonight, dinner with Reid and his lovely girlfriend Eri turned into a Lehman party - Corey back from Singapore and his wife, Eric, Mikail, and two of the assistants from office. Lots of beer, meat, hobnobbing, and finance talk out in Roppongi. Yes, it was as good as it sounds.

And today's subject is an inexplicably real quote by my screamo-core highschool classmates Atreyu in the August issue of Meanstreet. I, for one, can only claim to strive to be more metal than metal core.

4 Days to Go.

In four days, the Fulbright Grant period officially begins with the orientation here in Tokyo. I'm very much looking forward to meeting the other Fulbright kids and going out on the town and getting trashed together (assuming they are the getting trashed together types, which there is a good chance they are not. Shit.)

Tonight, I had dinner with one of my sempai from Lehman, Shinji. He took me out to eat yakitori and drink some beers in Roppongi. He paid, using the same excuse Daisuke used the other night ("you're a good contact to have"); hopefully he actually wants to be my friend too. Anyway, it was really nice catching up with someone from the floor; sounds like a lot has changed since I left last year. We also had a pretty funny/sad (if that makes sense) conversation about how screwy young Japanese society is and how there is very little hope for the future unless highly improbable major changes are made. Kanpai!

In other news, it looks like the grocery workers in the OTHER half of my home state have decided to lose their minds after the workers in Southern California did about a year ago. Yes ladies and gentlemen the grocery workers in Nor. Cal. are going to strike too. I'm predicting that like their counterparts in Southern California, they will fail terribly. And I do not, I repeat do not, feel sorry for them in the slightest. Now, let me apologize here. I admit, I do not know the most about the grocery industry, nor do I know the history of grocery labor contracts or even really the current state of things compared to other industries. So I basically know nothing. I'm a tabula rasa when it comes to knowledge of grocery labor. But purely going off of intuition, it seems like getting paid almost $20 an hour to bag Wonder Bread and Fig Newtons and having almost all of your health benefits paid for is a pretty good situation. I would take that (keep in mind this would be what they would get with no strike; and currently they make $20/hour with full health benefits). I would have thought people working at grocery stores were getting paid $10 an hour tops with health benefits reaching the dizzying heights of First Aid kit. But apparently at least one website (a socialist one - go figure) finds making $20 every hour for asking "paper or plastic" to amount to "low wages and brutal exploitation." I don't know, maybe I'm crazy, but that sounds ridiculous.

Song of the day: Little House of Savages (Bows and Arrows / The Walkmen)

Gemini dakara, atarimae deshou

I've noticed recently I have my feet in two entirely separate worlds here in Tokyo, based entirely around my friends. Let me explain.

My left foot is in the world of the university students. University students consider "busy" to be having to prepare for a test, or having class for the day. University students are also very poor. When I go to eat dinner with this kind of friends, we search for a copy of Hot Pepper (a discount publication) to find a discount coupon so we can get the best bargain on dinner. If we go out and drink or to karaoke, it's rare and needs to be planned in advance. Everything is paid for separately. But friendships are not about where you go or what you eat, they're about the people! And I assure, except for when they frustrate me with their talent of being difficult to reach, these are good people.

My right foot is in the world of the investment bank employees. In this world, busy is ... busy. It means having to cut dinner short because you have to get back up to office to finish up more work. But investment bank employees are.. not poor. When I go eat dinner with this kind of friends, typically someone picks up the tab. And typically it's a big tab. Often, if it's a weekend night, we will go drinking or clubbing at fancy places on the spur of the moment. Everything is expensive. But I assure you, these are good people too.

Just thought I'd let you know.

Oh and today I finally watched Battle Royale II. While not as good as the first one, I thought it was much better than the heavy criticisms levied against it. I found it pretty moving at the end too. And was relieved when Nakagawa Noriko finally appeared in the movie. Tonight, I get a haircut. Does anyone know how to translate "Cut it in a short messy faux hawk" into Japanese?

Would you rather bathe in public or spend 2 hours looking at mummified human bodies and organs? How about both!

Since coming back to Japan, there has been a lot of naked body action going on. And not in the typically good kind of way. Friday night, the whole family decided to head down to a local bath house for some refreshing soaking and sauna-ing. Just so you know, there are separate sections for men and women, meaning for the first time in a year, I was surrounded by naked men sitting around in hot water. Fear not: even more than the facial in Korea, this is a very normal activity for men around here (way, way, way, way, way more so in fact - the facial was just in general a pretty gay thing to do, not that there is anything wrong with that). I also got a massage while there, which felt quite good. And, no, it wasn't the type of massage with a happy ending.

Today, I went out with Yukari and her friend Keiko. I haven't seen Kei-chan for 2 years, and ever since last year, I've had the vague feeling she doesn't exactly yearn to hang out with me, but she seemed to enjoy herself today (I think). She isn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she has one of the prettiest smiles on record. Anway, we didn't know what to do after meeting up in Ueno, so after she mentioned this exhibit showing preserved human body parts, we decided that had "Saturday afternoon fun!" written all over it and went to take a look. At first, it was the most gut-wrenching 1,500 yen I've ever spent. Cross-sections of human heads, human torsos, internal organs, preserved limbs, faces, entire bodies, even fetuses and infant children. And all real. Of course, at around 1 hour, you get pretty used to it. And since I was incapable of reading 90% of the Japanese medical jargon written on the display cards, it got pretty boring pretty quickly. But hey, there's nothing like a bunch of shrivelled-up cadavers to make a guy feel good about himself (if you know what I mean).

It also poured rain for hours today, but that didn't stop Yukari's husband Tetsuya from driving his GIGANTIC Suburban through Tokyo at high speeds. An American SUV with the steering wheel on the American side. In Tokyo. Te-chin is by far the best driver I've ever seen. He also parks better than any other human; especially since Japanese people seem to prefer pulling into parking spaces in reverse.

Seoul from the sky

Seoul from the sky
Originally uploaded by kenji618.

Just a portion of the madness that is Seoul from high above in the comfort of a 757. While not the best city I've been to (that still goes to Tokyo), I miss Seoul already.

A dozen pictures of Hyunjoo and me

A dozen pictures of Hyunjoo and me
Originally uploaded by kenji618.

Sorry so many of these look the same; that's what you get when you take your own pictures with your own hands:

1.) Hyunjoo picking me up at Incheon International Airport
2-3.) Eating "the yummiest yogurt in the world" at Red Mango
4.) Eating dinner at Il Mare in Apgujeong
5-6.) After-dinner drinks (soju from an apple) and snacks in Apgujeong
7-9.) Drinking at Skybar Chang (no relation) in Gangnam
10.) Together outside of Coex underground mall
11.) After-dinner ice cream near the palace
12.) Hyunjoo dropping me off at Incheon

Pictures from Seoul

Picutres from Seoul
Originally uploaded by kenji618.

Here are some of the pictures from Seoul, with Hyunjoo at center flanked by her mom and sister Takyoung. Other notables are her dog Enero, and our friends Mijung, Hyewon, Jungwon, Jayun, and Eunkyung (they are all Korean, in case you couldn't guess from those names).

You drive me crazy, but you also make me happy.

I'm leaving to go back to Japan in a few hours. The last couple days in Korea have been pretty fun - I finally got to see Hyunjoo's friends Jayun and Eunkyung, even if only for a little bit, I got to spend some time relaxing with HJ, ate some really good food (calbi, ramyun, and ddokboki!), and got to go out clubbing in Seoul. Korea is so exceptionally cheap compared to Japan - food, clothes, subway, cabs - everything is so ridiculously cheap. I'm going to miss being here when I go back to Tokyo.

Big thank you to the Woo family for being so hospitable. I'll post some pictures when I'm back in Tokyo.

I'm going to miss Hyunjoo. And her sister Takyoung, who said the subject of this entry to me (awwww).

*Addendum: I think I should also note another compliment Takyoung paid to me: "All of your t-shirts are very pretty, but your computer and iPod are the prettiest." Wow, this girl, she knows how to get right to the heart of the matter.