More than a week has passed since I have arrived in Tokyo
I have taken shelter in
my family’s house all of last week, and man, I forgot how strict the Japanese
people can be. I haven’t done the slipper life, bath rotation, or keigo routine
in years so I went through quite the culture shock upon my arrival.
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My family is as strict as their nameplate
makes them appear to be |
Even though my family is strict, they claim that every Japanese person has a “JaPaNeSe HeArT” which makes them kind and refrain from being bad people. This may or may not be true; people are kind because they are fundamentally good people regardless of what their passport says (this topic will be saved for a separate blog post). They did have a welcome party for me with food and drink though. J
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| My temporary room |
It's hot in Japan.Not the kind of hot in Colorado or other reasonably arid climates. It's the kind of hot in which the minute you step outside you want to step back inside. The kind of hot that makes you want to move to Alaska, Moscow, or the inside of meat freezer. The sticky hot climate also makes you susceptible to "swamp butt", which I won't go into detail about.
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Family party group picture. Note the awkward chairs.
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| The earth displayed the weather conditions in real time! |
I took my friend Daiki to Odaiba. Odaiba is an artificial island and a "futuristic business" area of Tokyo, complete with shopping malls, attractions, and tourist traps. It was developed a few decades ago, so it was about as futuristic as futureland at Disneyworld and was very Y2K esque. There was a really cool shopping area, and the corridors were modeled after the streets of Venice complete with a realistic sky. After we finished, I paid too much money for Italian food then paid too much again to ride a giant ferris wheel.
Waseda Orientation
Orientation was hella long! We sat in a classroom all day and received a giant packet of information. There are two international cultural clubs which welcome international students, help them adjust to Waseda, and organizes events/parties/outings. They are called
WIC (Waseda International Club) and
虹の会 (The Rainbow Association) . I wonder if The Rainbow Association is aware that is sounds like a gay pride parade..
WIC and
虹の会 really had their stuff together, and were a great help. They have parties where you can meet a lot of new friends, and will have many events throughout the whole year. If you go to Waseda, definitely sign up for their mailing list.
It felt so relaxing being on the other end of international student welcome events and orientations (I could sit the whole time !!) , as I've been helping leading them at my home university for the past few years.
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| Orientation was pretty much this all day. |
There were different speakers throughout the whole day. It was conducted in Japanese, along with an English translator. Often, the translator had cringe-worthy English skills and it was easier just listen to the speeches in Japanese. It was tough luck for the students who couldn't understand English and had just started studying Japanese, hahaha.
Back at my home college, many of the Japanese exchange students that I've made friends with come from colleges where English is the focus or their major. I was surprised because at Waseda, everyone has non-English related majors so every social gathering in the international exchange club is conducted in Japanese. It's definitely a plus if you've come to Japan to improve your Japanese! When we went to to the government office to register our state-issued ID cards, the translator didn't show up (gasp!), so the club members who took us asked me to interpret what the government official dude was saying for the other international students. I was nervous but I pulled it off, like a boss.
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| Divas of the Waseda International Student House |
These two lovely ladies are the first two people that I met when I moved into my dorm. The one enjoying a carton of orange juice is Eva. She is from Australia, a good cook, and has a cute Australian accent. The girl on the right relieving herself with a fan wearing an uncomfortable facial expression is called Sang Ah. She is Korean but from Georgia. We bond over southern culture, ghetto accents, and honey boo-boo child. Together, we attend orientations and go the supermarket. They feed me their delicious leftovers (which taste amazing) if the convenience store dinner that I buy isn't substantial enough to tide me over until the next morning. <3
Stay Tuned Folks
Tomorrow, I'm meeting an old friend named Katya. She is into host clubs/Kabuki-cho, and is taking me to a host club to meet her "host boy". Apparently outside men aren't usually allowed in Host Clubs, but since she has her host boy whipped, they made an exception to let me in. What am I supposed to do in a host club? It'll be interesting, I'm down for new experiences.
I'll go over my dorm building and other things for my next blog entry, and report about the host club experience.
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