Mired in a sea of Kanji

So, this is my first actual experience of an Asian educational system. And I've learnt, rote learning is their god.

Lucky I'm not a hater of mindless repetition, or I might actually die. In class, we listen to one sentence from the text, then without looking at the book, the teacher asks one of us to regurgitate that line, letter for letter... each particle counts!

So, it's really a test of short term memory, more than anything. Then the teacher writes the sentence on the board, putting only the particles and blanks the rest, and another person has to say the sentence, just by looking at the particles. Then, we discuss what each particle denotes, and why x verb uses y tense.

Then we look at any pertinent grammar structures, making sentences to show we understand them. This is the actual hard part, because we're not allowed to make 'simple' sentences. Usually, students make sentences about politics, or health system or environment. Now that's all well and good, but the vocabulary needed to support making such formal sentences is phenomenal. And I'm totally not there. So some of us sit there, going 'huh', while the Taiwanese, Korean and Chinese students keep spouting complex kanji compound words.

But, said Asian students can't actually speak Japanese very well. Oh, the irony. Their accents are so thick, I can't really understand them. But I did get complimented by the teacher for my accent! She asked me whether I had lived in Japan when I was little, haha. I guess it's rare for a learner of Japanese not to have a strong accent. Guess I just have a good ear for these things.

So I'm basically learning how to write formal, academic Japanese. And doing alot of kanji practice to catch up with the other kids in the class. Our teachers are very strict with kanji, so I can't be lazy... which is good. At Sydney, the teachers are so laid back I never feel pressure to study. Here, I have a feeling my Japanese is going to improve alot. Hopefully, by the end I'll be able to read novels and newspapers without too much trouble.

In other news, Orange Range, one of my favourite Japanese groups is playing at Keio University, at the school festival. This is totally awesome, as I've always dreamed of going to their concert. So it's very fortuitous that they're going to play here! Very, very excited.

I've sort of just hidden at home, studying, so don't really have any exciting things to report. I'll be going to Karaoke with my neighbour, Yuki from Berkeley and Aya from Denmark, tonight.

Today, I'm just going to chill because I've finished my homework! We have to write it on 'report paper' which has the Keio logo on it. Lol.

School has landed

Today was Class Guidance and Course Registration Day.

The first thing: we got homework. Due tomorrow. 4 pages of kanji. It's freaked me out already.

The second thing: Registering your courses at Keio is harder than finding heart shaped Pinky. Okay, that doesn't work. It's harder than getting Justin Timberlake tickets.

We get fifty million pieces of paper, and to register for a class, we have to get the stamp of the professor in charge. And we have so many limitations to what classes we can take. It's all in this huge book we got - but the information isn't actually all written there, but in the various bits of paper we got. It's the most disorganised, crazy system I have ever encountered. We got a 2 hour introduction, but I still don't understand.

But homework, and school on Saturday. I am not happy. But, happy Moon Festival.

但愿人长久，千里共婵娟。

Azusa and Nomihoudai

Almost sleep walking, I got out of bed to go to Yebisu Garden Place, home of the famous scene in Hana Yori Dango (a Japanese drama)!!! I admit, I was a teensy bit excited, denoted by excessive use of excamation marks.

Yebisu Garden Place

So, what exactly is this place? It's a complex of shops, department stores, restaurants and all things trendy. And where is the obligatory HanaDan shot?

Ta-Da! Actually had to wait to take pics, because there was this weird model guy posing...

And then, we went for okonomiyaki, a sort of Japanese pizza type thing.

Mm... okonomiyaki at this high-class place, called Chibo. Well, not high class, but high up, on the 38th floor of the Yebisu Tower

And then, that night, I met my friend Azusa, who had come from Nagoya to play tennis in a tournament. We met up at Shibuya for dinner at Venturo Tokyo, an Italian restaurant. Where I had a glass of Rosemount Semilion Chardonnay. So hisashiburi!

Azusa and me

Azusa is very cool, she works at Meiji Seika, a very big food company in Japan. And she brought me some as-yet-unreleased products!!!

Meiji Selected Milk Chocolate, some weird Halloween Chocolate eggs, and apple flavoured gummy lollies. They say sample on the back! I'm connected, man.

Azusa wanted to meet some of my friends, so we all went to nomihoudai with the boys, who wanted to go clubbing. And then we played 'Have you ever...' - a true insight into these as-yet-unfamiliar boys' sexual habits. Eww! '

Azusa's reaction to the crazy boys. Yvonne looking very Japanese.

Also found out a bit more about Japanese habits, too. And a few choice words describing said haibts. Teehee.

Oh, and a final treat...

Rob kissing Ben, in a game of Truth or Dare.

Yokohama

Again, apologies for delayed posting. (Not that anyone's really following this blog, lol) I kind of got sidetracked...

Anyway, I'll pick up from the day before last. Ah, Yokohama, a lvely seaside city home to Japan's acclaimed Chinatown, and of course, standing at 105 metres, the world's tallest Ferris Wheel.

Cosmo World Ferris Wheel

Here's what it looks like from inside out.

From left: Me, Aya, Ben

Actually, at this point, Ben, who is scared of heights (how ironic, since he stands at 6 foot 4, you'd think he's gotten used to it), was gripping the rails and forcing that strange smile. Lol!

So this is Chinatown.

It ain't like any Chinatown I been to. First, it's verrry clean. Spick and span, no rubbish anywhere, and it doesn't smell! Not of food, not of rotting things, not of anything. It was like a Chinese theme park, really. And the last bit of evidence was; char siu cost 12 bucks. 12 bucks!!!

We ate 'Chinese food' for lunch. I had some weird-ass sweet chilli prawns, that looked exactly like the model outside. Amazing!

The 'real' thing

The model

But all in all, a fun day despite the decimating heat.

And you ask, why didn't you post this on the day? We-hell. I got back, exhausted, and I was having a chat to my neighbour, Berkeley girl Yuki. We were totally bonding, gossiping about all the boys in our dorm (as girls do). So happy that we didn't notice the time. Until, lo and behold, at 12:40 am, my doorbell rings. I open it cautiously and three boys are standing there.

What the? It's 12:40 am! Phil, Ben and Rob say they're coming back in 15 mins(!) with beer from Marufuji, our local ghetto supermarket. So I'm still like, 'what the?'

True to their word, they're back with a vengeance and start doing unspeakable things with my kitchen utensils. Phil in particular was very wasted and spouted some of the most memorable quotes ever. If you'd like visual evidence, please check out Facebook, as I was laughing too hard to take pictures. And so, after alot of merry-making, I checked the clock and it was 4 am... I needed sleep, fast. Everyone left, except Rob. Who seemed a bit dazed and confused. Eventually, I got him out.

But the next morning, I get out of bed, and the first thing I do is kick these mega cans of Asahi. Ouchie. And then, there are some mysterious slippers left in my room. Someone, come claim them!

School is looming

Today was the beginning of the serious stuff. We got the results of the placement test back, and had a 15 minute interview with an academic advisor.

So what of it? I was placed in 3G, which is the second level of the second highest level. Well, there are four levels, 1 being beginners and 4 being advanced. Within those levels there are sub levels. You can't enter level 4 in your first semester of Keio, because then you would have nowhere to go in the second semester. To be honest, I was pretty shocked at my placement, because it means that I'm able to take the JPLT Level 1 exam, which is the highest level and means you are a completely fluent Japanese speaker, which I don't feel at all. I did really badly in the 'expression' part of the exam, though with only 42/100, but I did alright in listening, with 73/100 and reading with 80/100.

It looks to be pretty difficult, because the classes focus on academic Japanese, such as essay writing. But the good thing is that I'll be able to take classes for normal Japanese students, which will be a good chance to meet some Japanese people. The bad news is I have school on Saturday!!! Argh!!! My schedule is Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat. But I will probably take a class on Monday afternoon, as well.

Tokyo Tower, on the way to Keio University. Note how blue the sky is! It's like Sydney!

Statue of Hachiko

So, this is the famous Hachiko at Shibuya station, a meeting place for people going out in Shibuya. The story goes that Hachiko was an Akita dog owned by a professor, who always waited for her master at the station. However, the professor died, but Hachiko kept coming everday to the station to wait. To celebrate such loyalty, a statue of Hachiko was erected. Though, to actually meet someone there is counter productive, because on the weekends, there's SO many people around the statue, you would never find your friend.

Tomorrow is Yokohama, because I kind of want to buy a mooncake, it's my first Mid Autumn Festival by myself, and can you believe there are no Chinese people in my dorm?! Actually, I lie, there's one person, but I've actually never met them. So... I'll have to have a little cry by myself, eating my moon cake.

Yatto, karaoke and Asian Engineers.

Sorry, no post for yesterday because I stayed over Nobu, the boyfriend of my friend Yuki's house.

But first, I had to go for another round of Japanese bureaucracy, known as opening a bank account. Somehow, although my passport and my alien registration both have my name written in English, Keio University decides to put my Chinese name on my student card. So the bank people wanted me to get an inkan, which is a stamp with your name that is used by Japanese people for official things, instead of a signature, which is not really used often. You can buy an inkan almost everywhere, and they're pretty cheap for most of the common names. So, really, there's no sense of security using a readily available stamp as proof of identity. But finally, I persuaded the bank to let me use my signature. I'm banking with Sumitomo Misui Bank, one of the bigger banks in Japan, and I got to choose what type of ATM card I wanted. Of course, I chose the fingerprint scanning one, where instead of a PIN you use your fingerprint. How awesome is that? Especially for me, because I tend to forget my PIN, but I'll never forget my finger!

Anyway, after that, we took a trip to nearby Ginza, which is the upscale, brand name, super expensive part of Tokyo.

We first went to Itoya, which is 9 floors of stationery, which is my kind of heaven. So I bought a few pens and a diary and things like that. It's totally crazy, because we saw a pen that cost 26500 dollars (Australian).

So, after satisfying me, we went to the Apple Store to gawk at the new iPods.

Apple Store, Ginza

Phil and me in Ginza (notice how I finally figured out how to rotate pics)

We also went to the Sony Building to marvel at the super duper high res TVs, and we played this game where we had to kick soccer balls into the different goals assembled there using different shots, like 'goal kick' and 'inside kick' and 'chip kick'. I am proud to say, I got all 3 in 3 tries, which is more than I can say for all the guys! We got a folder and stickers for our troubles, too.

Then it was time to go out with Yuki, and her boyfriend Nobu and some of his friends, Sasaki-kun and Yamashita-san and girlfriend, Erika. So, we met around 8:30, and went to sushi.

Yuki and Nobu

After that, we hit Cote D'Azur, a karaoke place, for some serious singing. And my first nomihoudai, all you can drink!

Sasaki kun, Nobu and Yuki

The boys were really amusing when drunk. They danced to Seishun Amigo, as well as Daite Senorita. And pretty well too, they got all the moves down. I just kept drinking and drinking... until Nobu started to throw up, and we all left around 4:30 am.

Got back to Nobu's tiny, tiny room and literally crashed onto the sofa, and fell asleep in about 1 second. Haha. Freaked out Yuki, too. After bumming around for a while, I went back to my dorm at 3 pm, and went out again, this time to see a band called Asian Engineers in Shibuya, which has kind of the same music as Orange Range. It was super fun, with all the upbeat songs and swaying around. Although, I was feeling slightly under the weather from the excesses of last night.

Live venue, Shibuya Duo.

Also performing was this all girl group called Perfume, who did para para dancing type chereography. But the freaky thing was all the guys who could do every single movement and sang along to the songs. They were more amusing to watch than the group itself.

Okay, now to bed early for my academic interview tomorrow.

Harajuku Girls

Today, of course, was sweltering again. In my mind, Tokyo is a cloudy, smoggy city, where the sky is always covered in a film of white. But today, the sky was as blue as Sydney, although the air was still heavy with humidity. But I felt a little at home with the bright, blue sky.

So at around 11, we set off to Harajuku. Today being Respect for the Aged Day, it was a public holiday and the main drag of Harajuku was very, very crowded.

(I still don't know how to rotate photos) Takeshita-Dori

I went with Ben, from Melbourne and Robert, from Toronto. So these two white guys were very nice to put up with me and my ducking into various tiny stores. Ben, especially, is over 190 cm, so it was very amusing to see him within a sea of Japanese teenage girls. Especially since I went into one of those stores that sold celebrity photos, and Rob and Ben were the only two guys in this tiny space crammed with girls.

So we walked around Takeshita-Dori, gawking at the costumes and craziness, as well as the girl Japanese manbags. Here's Ben with one:

And here are some of the costumes sold on Takeshita Dori:

Amazing huh? And of course, by this time, we were starving and wilting in the heat, so we decided to get lunch on Omote-sando, which is an upper class, tree lined shoping area near Harajuku. We went to Goemon, a fusion pasta place. The pasta was unexpectedly, really, really good! The tomato, basil and mozzarella pasta was some of the best I've had in a long time, and definitely the best I've had for the price (1560 yen for the half and half set). The flavours were very distinct and strong - really lovely. The other pasta is crab and shimp spaghetti in a cream sauce.

Half and half set
Ben and me in Goemon

Afterwards, we made the obligatory trip to the bridge that links Harajuku and Meiji Jingu Shrine, otherwise known as Freaky Cosplay Bridge...

Robert and me on the bridge across Harajuku, with Harajuku station in the background.

Robert and me with death gown girl. When we asked her for a photo, she pointed at herself, looking surprised, and asked "Me?"

But she was very nice and did strange poses for us... close up, her lipstick was a bit smeared, which actually gave her an even scarier look. I keep wondering, in the 34 degree heat, how did she keep her make up from melting off?

There were heaps of other cosplay, from the gothic Lolitas to some dude wearing a horse head mask.

These guys were so awesomely colour co-ordinated, there was a line to take pictures with them, just like Disneyland characters! Though I'm sure they'd hate to be compared to Disney. They all do cool posing stuff when we take pictures, and they're pretty nice, actually. But still a bit scary and overwhelming. The funny thing was, when Ben went to take a photo with them, they look up (and up) at him and said "Oh, so big" and looked kind of freaked. Haha! We somehow managed to surprise these people...


For a total change, we walked into the park that surrounds Meiji Jingu shrine, one of the nicest shrines in Tokyo, because it's such a huge difference from the chaos of Harajuku. Entering the beautiful green area, dappled in the sunlight, gave me an instant sense of peace. It was really relaxing and lovely.

Torii of Meiji Shrine



Washing hands in front of the shrine

So, it was a totally exhausting, but really fun day. Tomorrow, I'm going out with a Japanese friend, Yuki and her boyfriend Nobu and staying over at Nobu's house.