25/10 Kimono, shopping and Yamanote Halloween

When someone says Japan, what are the images that usually pop up first? Sushi, pop culture, samurai and kimono are all things that are commonly associated with this country (according to my non-fact-based assumptions). So when I came here, I of course wanted to experience all these aspects! (Well, except for the samurai part. What would that even mean? Getting your head sliced off by a cosplayer?)

I didn't think I'd actually get a chance to ever wear a kimono, but the staff at the university are really nice and seem to do their best to make sure that every student gets to experience as much as possible. So when A and checked out the notice board a couple of weeks ago and saw that they had posted about a kimono-try out session, we didn't hesitate even one second before we made the arrangements!

Because A and I both have a bad sense of direction, we decided to go early. The place wasn't that hard to find but we still had to walk around looking lost for a bit before we found it. Which means that everything was going as planned. :D

We had expected this to take at least an hour, but as soon as we got to the right floor and met the ladies who were going to help us, we were all just kind of thrown into it all. No welcome phrases or chit-chat or anything like that before we started. That doesn't mean that they were rude though, they were all nice! Just felt kind of "Oookay, so was this it?" after it all ended.

Don't trust old ladies with cameras... Most pictures turned out blurry and unusable. I hadn't fixed my hair at all for this, even though we went out to buy accessories the day before. We kind of expected to have some time to get prepared before putting the kimonos on, but oh well!

In case you're thinking that I look kind of stiff - I was! The ladies kept commenting about it too, but I just couldn't relax. Something about the air... And the fact that you know that you're being looked on (although v(^_^)v pictures don't count!) always make me uncomfortable. Huah.Well, as long as I have pictures of me wearing kimono!

The "underwear" for the kimono.

After this, we went to Sunshine City (in Ikebukuro, where the kimono pictures were taken as well) which is a mall with lots of cute clothing stores! I kept cursing myself for not bringing enough money, but we're going there again soon, so I'll be prepared next time. :D And do I even need to mention that we had crepes again? (We were at Harajuku the day before and ate crepes there as well. Oooh why is it so good? It's just a pancake stuffed with ice cream and whipped cream!) We walked around the mall for at least four or five hours and still don't feel like we've combed through every part! Nevertheless, we were starting to get tired and wanted to go home and drop off some stuff before we headed out for the legendary Yamanote Halloween Celebration!

On the way back to the station, we got this:

It's a huge single takoyaki ball! Normally you have several small ones on a skewer, but this was just one single enormous ball of goodness. *_* Mine was curry flavored.

Got home, got ready in five minutes and then went out to Shinjuku to meet up the others for the Halloween train party. So what is this Yamanote line celebration anyway? It's a tradition with a short history, having started about four years ago? (I'm not sure about this fact, heard something about it being started in the 80s but I have no idea, so don't take my word for it!) The point of this festivity is to dress up, get some alcohol and then ride the Yamanote line all way round being squeezed to almost-death together with other dressed up people drinking beer on the train. I heard that last year and the year before were pretty big, but this year wasn't that impressive at all. Almost all of the people I saw dressed up that day (usually only foreigners) were from my student exchange programme, so that was a shame. I heard though that something went horribly wrong last year, so this might be why not a lot of people came this year. Nevertheless, it was still packed.

Police everywhere! I was surprised they actually took measures against this, so it must mean that it's been quite a big deal before. They didn't let us on when the first train arrived and held warning-signs saying that any people proving to be a threat to the safety would be punished, so it was taken quite seriously. Also, see that some people have super system cameras? I read later (will post link) that these guys were from 2chan (!!) doing reports on the event.

1. My fellow JLSP coursemates, today dressed up as FinnMan, GerMan and JapanMan to save the day!
2. The heros and I!
3. We had to get off at one point to switch trains (I thought the Yamanote line went round and round without stopping?), at which chaos ensued and people split up everywhere and started to go different ways. When we got out at the station and waited around, regular salarymen and 2channelers took their chance and snapped a couple of pictures. By the way, I was squeezed right beside a guy with a bigger-than-normal video camera before getting off here, I think that he was probably from 2ch as well?
4. People, people, people everywhere.

I lost A and the group I got on the train with after the first stop already. Luckily I had FinnMan, GerMan and JapanMan to follow around, they really stuck out from the crowd so I kept looking for them whenever we moved about. After a while, we all decided to get off at Ueno (where we went to the zoo I wrote about) and go to a bar. I wasn't really feeling for going, so we parted ways there. While I was waiting for the right train to come, a couple of policemen seemed to recognized me and made a comment about why I was being left out. How did they even manage to recognize me?! I didn't dress up or look particulary out of the ordinary. Hm. Anyway, so on the way home, I bumped into a couple of other exchange students and a random fellow foreigner dressed up as Mario. He looked the part! If anyone's interested, here's an article about the event: http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=6868 Most of the costumed people you see on the pictures on the site are JLSP:ers!

The day after, I heard that JapanMan got drugged and collapsed when he was on his way home from the bar, so he had to spend the night at a hospital. (He's alright now!) I mean, of all places in the world, Tokyo is the one place you wouldn't expect people to do things like this, right? Urgrh. Good thing I didn't go... Because some people got stalked on their way back home too. They were luckily a whole group (guys and girls mixed) so no one was harmed or molested.

So after having experienced the Yamanote Halloween, I don't feel like I have a need to go again. The crowds! And it was not even as lively as the years before but this was much worse than the usual morning rush. I'm certainly not going to ride a sardine-packed train like this on my free will again! :D;;;

22/10 Food adventures with the D class: Korean food

"So how about having some Korean food together next week?"

We had somehow started talking about food in the middle of our writing class a couple of weeks ago, so after sharing our food stories with eachother, H-sensei came with the suggestion as quoted above. It was really spontaneous and we all agreed that it was a great idea. :D

Tokyo (sort of?) has a Korea Town, which is located in Ookubo. Going there, I was quite surprised to see that lots of signs and such were written not only in Japanese, but in Korean as well! You rarely see any other languages on ads and the like except for Japanese and some random Engrish, so this was really interesting.

1. Softbank (mobilabonnemangsprovider) ad with Korean text written on it.
2. Not really related but spotting this gave way to a lengthy conversation about fanatic Christians. What do they mean by 'world revival' anyway? Shouldn't it be something about the doomsday?
3. This mural was just right by the station. Er... It looks kind of nationalistic, so does this have any undertones of racial discrimination? Considering that Ookubo has a large percent of Korean inhabitants.

We went to a restaurant not far away from the station and made ourselves comfortable. We got there before the lunch rush so it was really peaceful and quiet. I haven't actually tried Korean food until now, and let's say that, after this food adventure, I'm left longing for more!

I've already forgotten the name of the dish I had, but tasted good. Soft, soft layer of half-minced meat (kinda like yakiniku?) on top of glass noodles. Topped with onion and leek. Mmm!

We had our own little booth, sitting by a low table enjoying our meal. :D Clockwise starting from the left: I-san, who works at the reception in the annex where we study. C-kun, who's already on his second or third year in university even though he's only 18 years old. Exactly how many grades did he jump?! Next, the always smiling H-sensei, she's so kind and lovely! And then Sv, who seems to be a real gourmet. Knows a lot about fonts and was the guy who I discussed Yokaj Studio's choice of font with a couple of weeks ago. I should ask him more about it some time. Lastly, O, fellow SU:er!

Yay, I actually show up on pictures once in a while!

The second best thing about this food adventure (first is the delicious food) was that H-sensei treated us to it! Woah! She's so kind. I hoped I didn't order anything too expensive and I also hope that it's actually the school paying for it and that H-sensei didn't use her own money. >_< That'd be so nice and thoughtful of her.

On the train back to school, I heard people speaking Korean on the train! Now why would this be surprising? I hear English now and then in the train as well, so what's the big deal? The thing is, there's still a bit of discrimination going on in Japan when it comes to other Asian ethinicities, particularily against Korean. There are several reasons for this but I do not intend to go into details. Some events which have led to this has to do with the World Wars, Japan's colonization of Korea and North Korea randomly kidnapping Japanese people on the streets. Even though there have been Koreans living in Japan, for more than four generations, most of them can't get Japanese citizenship. It's crazy and unfair, especially for the later generations of Koreans who've been living in Japan for all their lives, who identify the Japanese culture and customs as their own. So this is why I was surprised to hear Korean spoken on the train, because I've heard that a lot of Koreans hide the fact that they're not Japanese so that they won't be shunned by society. And the guys who were speaking it didn't look like tourists either. It might be a bit silly but I really liked hearing it, I kind of felt proud of them as well.
In case this is sounding overly-negative against the Japanese, I'm not trying to throw dirt at any country or anything like that! I just want to bring up these issues as well. In fact, I think I'm gradually starting to fall in love with Tokyo (but not the trains! Never!) but I want to keep myself aware that problems do exist too.

Anyway, since I'm actually still catching up, this was last Wednesday. Tomorrow, we're going out to eat together again! This time at a French restaurant to celebrate Sv's birthday. Should I pay for myself even if H-sensei offers to treat us again? I don't know what to do! @_@

In M-sensei's Japanese Studies later the same day, we got to try swinging a Kendo sword! An important aspect of this sport is, among other things of course, the yelling. It sort of works like a technique to intimidate your opponent with, and also gives yourself some mental power up. I had never thought of it before, but another JLSP:er drew a parallell to all the screaming you see in shounen manga where people always yell when doing their techniques to the yelling in Kendo. Makes sense!

M-sensei instructing one of the girls on how to swing the sword. Check out the salary man in the background.

Most of the people who walked by stopped to take a look. If more people had passed by I bet we'd form quite a formidable crowd! Japanese people seem to tend to line up and form crowds for everything. If someone starts lining up or if a crowd seems to form, it's not that strange if people who just happened to cross ways line up or join the crowd too. But I think it's quite a natural reaction, it happens a lot everywhere else.

I'm almost up to date! Two or three more entries and I should've caught up. :D Look forward to my next post!

21/10 Singing Happy Birthday on a roller coaster

Last Tuesday (21/10), we went to a café in Suidobashi (where the Tokyo Dome is) to celebrate A's birthday. :D The Suidobashi area houses a lot of baseball-related shops and restaurants, I suppose it's because most people who come here do so to watch baseball matches in the Dome.

The restaurant/café we went to was no exception. Some of the items in the menu had baseball-themed names going on and the interior was strongly influenced by the sport as well. It was very spacious, the lights very slightly dimmed and the walls were covered with pictures of baseball players and random English newspaper names.

We had desserts! Tasted as yummy as it looks like. I had the mini pancakes (they were really mini) which were really good with the jam. Kind of tasted like lingon?

While eating, I kept thinking that I should match the other people's eating pace so I wouldn't end up having to poke my fork around in nothing. And it was then that I made the discovery that Japanese girls take it really slowly when eating! One of the girls had waffles (looked delicious) and once she'd start on a new piece she'd cut it into super-small-less-than-bite-size-sizes. I was on my third mini pancake when I noticed that she still had 3/4th of her dessert left. So somehow, we managed to stretch something that would take 30 seconds for me to eat into 30 minutes. Amazing! It's not like they wouldn't be able to eat at that speed, so I wonder why they do this? I suspect it has something to do with not wanting to be seen as a glutton. I ate really fast in the beginning so I wonder if people have that kind of image to me now? Oops. ^^; But I really admire how the Japanese girls are able to hold back when it comes to these things! Now when I think about it, I observed something similar when I was eating out with E in Ikebukuro. We were checking out some restaurants and saw a couple of girls eating in one of them. It seemed like they had been there for a while. E and I pondered a bit on where to eat but ended up going to that restaurant after a 5-10 minutes deliberation. As we sat there, I kept hearing how the girls clinked with their forks and knives, so they must've still been eating. By the time we finished our meal they were still working on theirs! Wow.

Anyway, back to topic! Suddenly the staff at the restaurant (they were all wearing baseball player and cheer leader outfits) came out with a surprise birthday cake and sang a song for A!

Awkward and fun, that's the way it's supposed to be!

Guess what we did after that? We went to ride a roller coaster to celebrate the occasion. Can you say random? :D

The Thunder Dolphin. Photo nicked from the official website. We rode when it was dark outside so we got to see lots of pretty lights when were thrown around in a cart senseless. :D As far as locations go, this must be one of the best roller coasters in Tokyo!

Once again I cursed myself for not thinking about what I had gotten myself into when I buckled myself in one of the seats, thinking that this little belt wouldn't keep me away from falling down to a sure death. Luckily it turned out that it wasn't only the belt, but the standard (although a bit small) pull-over-your-head-buckle-security-thingy as well. While the carts slowly rolled up the tracks, as you see on the picture, everyone burst into singing Happy Birthday for Amy! Now this is a really awesome thing to do! :D How many people have had a birthday song sung to them on a roller coaster? We timed it perfectly and had just finished singing when the carts had reached the top. AND THEN CAME THE FREAKING NOSE DIVE!

I thought I'd die for sure. Again. Man, this isn't good for my heart...

18/10, 19/10, 20/10 Ikebukuro and sign-making

18/10
Tired from the day before, E and I allowed ourselves to sleep until we woke up. And guess when we did? At 13:30!! It seemed it was a much needed 11-12 hours... So because we woke up so late, we didn't get ready to leave until at 15:00. We were going to Ikebukuro again, to check out the place E wanted to see, the Ikebukuro West Gate Park. :D It's not a park per se, but more like a gathering spot mostly made of concrete. Afterwards, we went to the huge Sunshine City shopping mall to get something to eat. We had crepes, of course. ♥

They actually had a small slice of chocolate cake in the crepes! Awesome. :D But still doesn't beat Harajuku's. And I love the robot sticker E has on her camera!

19/10
I haven't mentioned it here before, but I had talked with a couple of the other exchange students about doing something for Amnesty's World Day against Death Penalty. I'm not usually the one to take part in something like this, but this time, I thought, why not? I am against it after all and Japan still has the death penalty. They pride themselves in having a law against war, but at the same time still practices the penalty of legally killing people. Dubbelmoral much? Anyway, so on Sunday, I went out with A and met Sv and D to make some preparations for the event. We bought (or D bought...) large sheets of thick paper and markers and we proceeded to go to Sv's place to make signs. Don't worry, it wasn't for a demonstration or anything like that. We were only going to take pictures of ourselves holding the signs and then send them to Amnesty.

Doing this took longer than expected and we were unable to take pictures on the same day because Sv and D had other plans to attend to. The rest of us went home. E had to go back to Ninomiya a couple of hours later so I walked her to the station.

20/10
This Monday marked my fifth week in Tokyo. I can't believe time passes so fast and it's even harder to believe that half the course had already gone by. The first couple of days after coming to Japan were the slowest, probably because everything felt so new and the impressions kept rolling in. As the weeks went by, Japan went from "woah oh my god!" to a daily life-thing. I still don't think I can live here for a longer period of time (except when going to Tokyu Hands and wanting to get all these cute home decoration goods!) but I'm starting to think that I can somewhat handle the life here. As far as appearances go, I blend in with the crowd, but then I have this constant fear that everyone expects me to be able to speak Japanese fluently because I look Asian. And when it turns out I can't I can't help but think that people get disappointed. Of course, they never show it and they most probably don't even think like that, but I think I have a little bit of an inferior complex to the Japanese because I'm Chinese... But I shouldn't! And no one ever should! Be proud of yourself no matter how you are! My ethnicity is a large part of my identity, and I don't want it to be a reason for shame or any negative thoughts. I am me first and foremost!

So getting back on the main road after this sidetrack... After classes had ended for the day, we took the pictures for Amnesty. And you know what? I had spelt dödsstraff as DÖSSTRAFF! And I didn't even notice it until O pointed it out! What the hell was wrong with me? Now all the Swedes who saw that are going to think that I can't spell. Urghhhh. (I also couldn't help but think that they would think that I can't spell properly because I'm not Swedish. Oh, silly thoughts. They wouldn't, right? Or would they think that I am a Fjortis and therefore can't spell?! Oh gosh please don't let it be like that) It was too late making a new sign but we used tip-ex and made DÖSSTRAFF to DÖDSTRAFF instead. It's still missing an S but didn't look as bad as having no D. I still haven't gotten any pictures but I will put them up as soon as (if) I get them.

17/10 Ueno Zoo

I don't think I've ever been to a zoo, if Skansen doesn't count. But then again, all I ever saw in Skansen were dirty flying rats (read: doves) and a bunny or two. And a couple of turtles. Do they have elks there?

On Friday the 17th, some of us JLSP:ers + E went to the Zoo in Ueno, the oldest zoo in Japan, established in the 1880's. During the second World War, there was an instance where they had to put the larger animals down, due to fear of them escaping and becoming a threat to humans if something happened to the zoo.

Zoo just right ahead.

I took a couple of pictures in the beginning, but stopped after a while. Partly because of lack of battery, but also because I didn't see any point of taking pictures of animals in cages. I'm not trying to sound like an animal activist, I mean, if I didn't go to the zoo, I would've never had the chance to see so many different kinds of animals in real life. Some animals had pretty spacious living habitats, while others, such as the elephants, polar bears and zebras, didn't seem to have near the amount of space they needed.

1. The popular Lesser Panda. Looks more like a stuffed animal. So fluffy and cute that you wouldn't believe it was real.
2. Tilting its head to make a nice portrait for us.
3. A memorial corner for all the lost animals.
4. Gathered around a small glass case which is connected to the cage you see behind it. Was it otters? Can't recall. @_@
5. A thousand cranes by the memorial corner.
6. Interesting-looking leaves on a fake-looking tree thing.
7. She kept walking back and forth, as if she was defending her territory from the spectators.
8. Gorilla. At one point it punched the glass window and gave everybody a scare. It also tied a bandana to its head in an effort to charm the audience (?).

We checked out a bunch of other animals, some very bizarre-looking and some less intimidating ones. After going there, I don't think I'll need to go to any Zoo for a long time. @_@ Zoo-meter reached the top level.

Took a picture of the beautiful crepuscular rays that we saw that day. I think I see some anticrepuscular rays (the dark ones) in the top right corner as well! Nicest sighting of the day. :D

In the evening, we went to a nomikai at the cheap izakaya in Shimotakaido and had a pre-birthday celebration for A! Some of the volunteers were very sweet and gave her gifts and presents, amongst those a cute custom made little cake which she came over and shared with E and I later. Thanks A. ;w; That was so sweet of you even though it was your birthday cake!

Happy 2Xth Birthday Dear A. :D

15/10, 16/10 Karaoke debut!

15/10

E's adventures in Tokyo continued. On Wednesday the 15th, we got out together cause my classes didn't begin until at the afternoon. The day before, I had given E "homework" to do, which was to prepare for her first day all by herself in Tokyo (well, not really, but something like that)!

In the end, she wasn't able to find the stores she wanted to go to and we cursed at how the address system works in Japan. Though when I think about it, their way of doing it might actually be more logical (dividing into blocks and numbering them) than giving them random names like Alhagsvägen or Kvarnhagsvägen.

The sunset was really nice when I got back to the apartment.

I've noticed that some type of clouds (really fluffy cumulus humilis and mediocris and stratocumulus) seem to be more common here in Japan. I think the humidity here helps form these clouds easier than in Sweden. I noticed that too when Yokaj went to Bristol, and it was really humid and hot there as well. Speaking of clouds, I have now been a member of The Cloud Appreciation for a year! I haven't come very far in my cloud spotting, but I'm constantly keeping a lookout for types I haven't seen!


!6/10
Went to Karaoke for the second time in my life (into my fifth week in Japan) and I actually sang something! I was supposed to meet E at Shinjuku after school, but discovered, for t he worse, that I had taken my keys with me. Thus she couldn't go out until I came back. ^^; So I went home to pick her up and we headed to Shinjuku, thinking that we'd have loads of time to sing our hearts out at our debut!
... But we couldn't find the place. We had been walking around for an hour and it felt like we had gone to every direction possible. We could've just hopped into one of the other many karaoke places, but because of my not daring to go somewhere I haven't been to with others, E got dragged around with my insecurity. ^^; Luckily, A came to our rescue and showed us where it was! (It was so close to the station that I got ashamed of myself!)

We sang for one and a half hour (cheaper before 18:00 on weekdays, so we only stayed until then) and I found myself thinking that, hey, this karaoke thing is pretty fun! :D I can't sing for 5 öre and my tones are flat, but it doesn't matter! For my karaoke debut, I sang some Sambomaster (Sekai wa sore wo ai to yobundaze), L'Arc (Stay Away), Sparta Locals (Yume Station), Tokyo Jihen (Toumei Ningen) Peter Bjorn & John (Young Folks) and even Ego-Wrappin' (Tengoku to shiroi piero), I was so surprised to find that they basically had Ego's whole discography on the list! Also, not to forget the Spice Girls song we sang together all three. XD I thought I would know them but I barely recognized the melodies...

So yes, I now know what I have been missing out all this time! Though I'm still not ready to sing in front of so many people yet. Need to go agaaaain! I've even prepared a list of what to search for next time. :D

14/10 Rain and curry

So came the first morning when I had to go to school and leave E home alone. Class went fine and I met up with E at the Ichigaya station afterwards to have lunch at the school cafeteria. Oh so glamorous, Tokyo life...

We were thinking of checking some places out or even going to IKEA, but the rain stopped us and we had to make up new plans on the spot. After much consideration we decided to go to Ikebukuro. It was especially an interesting place for E to check out because of a certain drama. :D But when we got there, we realized that it would be impossible to walk around without an umbrella (which we of course didn't bring...). We couldn't go to the West Gate Park, which was our goal, but we checked out some stores in the immediate vicinity, like Muji. They actually sell food in the Japanese Muji! Mostly dried food and curry (Japanese are crazy about instant curry, there are so many types to choose from! It twouldn't surprise me if there was a story exclusively selling packets of instant curry) which we don't get to see on our side of the globe at all. Next to Muji there was this little corner of the building selling European and Western candy! They even had Haribo, hehe.

Not being in the spirit to get all soaked up, we headed home and watched some drama instead. And had instant curry. And anpan, most probably.

Nam nam.

13/10 So easy to spend money at Tower Records...

Monday the 13th was a public holiday, so even if it was a weekday you can't expect the streets to be empty. E and I decided to take an easy day, so we had a lazy morning and then headed out to Shibuya. Our main stop of the day was Tower Records, one of the largest record chains in Japan (and the States?). The good thing about Tower is that they sell indie stuff as well as more mainstream music, and they mostly focus on Japanese music. In HMV (the other big CD DVD movies chain store) on the other hand, it's mostly Western music. As E and I listen to our fair share of Japanese music we decided to go to Tower Records.

And maaan. There's so much I want to buy! I think I can spend half a day there just combing through every shelf and picking things out. They didn't have some things I wanted to get, but I imagine you can find that in smaller, more specialized stores. I got:

1. Katteni Shiyagare + Ego-Wrappin' - Vermouth Flowers. I've been wanting this for so long! I adore the title track to bits and one can never have enough of Ego-Wrappin'. :D
2. Special Others - Uncle John. Special Others are too groovy for their own good. I want to see them live!
3. Spangle Call Lilli Line - For installation. The first Spangle album I listened to, and it still remains as my favorite work of theirs to this date. Relaxing, down-tempo mellow-pop with a dash of electronica. Urgh, I sound so pretentious...

Then we decided that it was time for some Starbucks. Shibuya's Starbucks is famous for... its location, I suppose. It's the first thing you see when you want to cross those huge zebra stripes, located at the first and second floor . It was my first time at a Starbucks and I've been swept off my feet by their mango passion frappucino! :D :D :D Oooh so delicious! I now realize why everyone's raging about Sweden not having Bucky! Come on, bring it!

E and her coffee cream (what was it again?) frappie with jellies in it. They called that bun thing a cinnamon role, but it wasn't like our kanelbullar at all. Although I have to admit that it tasted good. :D And to think that it actually came in a decent size!

My first Starbucks (I feel so grown up and sophisticated!). The sunshine was great that day.

I don't remember if we did much else that day. Probably walked around some more and got some anpan on the way home. A great and relaxing Monday, in other words!

12/10 Akiba and dinner at a local teishoku restaurant

So because E hadn't been to Akiba yet ("What?!?!") we decided to make a stop there and let her taste the Otaku-culture. :D We went together with A and met up E's friend who we were with last time E was here as well.

We split up in Akiba and A and I went to look for a CD. Going to a lot of stores, you can't help but notice that most of the people inside are men who look like Densha Otoko in varying sizes. We went into this store with several floors filled with anime CD, DVDs and... adult things. They're always on the top floor for some reason. So when A and I took the elevator to the CD album floor another guy squeezed in and pushed the button for the top floor. Eh. It just felt strange seeing a person like this fully knowing what kind of intentions he has. Especially when it comes to these things...

We found the CD and walked around looking for computers and cameras. Shopping for electronics in Sweden always feels like such a big affair, with mental preparation and getting into the mood and everything, whereas while in Tokyo (especially Akiba), I get the feeling that it's just an everyday, spontaneous thing. I think it has to do with how electronics stores look like, as I've mentioned before in my blog. Most of the stores here selling electronics are packed and products are put on, often, un-fancy racks. Low ceiling and entrances without sliding automatic glass doors and stuff like that. Really different!

Afterwards, we headed to Shinjuku to check out some more stuff. The electronics stores here as more like the Swedish ones, but still have a different atmosphere. (Durr, I'm in a different country!) We had crepes at Shinjuku and they were noooo way as good as the ones in Harajuku. Ikebukuro crepes come close but Harajuku's are the best! How about starting up a crepe business in Sweden E? It might work! Crepe Karaoke-kan!

Night time came and we felt that our bellies needed some kind of reward after a day of walking around, so we went back to Shimotakaido to have dinner. That was actually my first time eating here, and by then I had been staying for a month! Can you imagine? We went to an old, mysig and relaxed Japanese restaurant which seemed to be run by a couple who where in their 70s. It had a home-ish kind of feel to it and they serve delicious miso-soup! Of the few people who ate there, most of them looked like the same age as the couple themselves.

The tables and the seats looked like this. I think the Sazae-san anime was playing on TV. Also, note the pin-up posters! They've probably been on the wall since the day the restaurant opened. The washed away colors really give a nostalgic feeling which furthered enhanced the atmosphere.

Me having katsudon. Love it!

We also got free towels because we were foreigners. :D Such hospitality. I really liked it there. Felt very Japanese and comfortable and cozy.

On the way home, I think E and I bought anpan again. Ahhh this sweet addiction! Red bean paste! In bread! Winning combination! Makes me want to drink Mom's 紅豆糖水 though. ;__; I miss it.

Most of our nights E and I spend together watching drama and playing games. Sometimes we'll just throw a spontaneous Mario Kart or a Mario Party party. I'm so lucky to have friends to play games with! :D Although it almost never happens when E isn't here, so you seem to be the driving force! Utan Problem Att Locka Hit Spelsugna Utbytesstudenter!

11/10 - Tokyo Game Show

This is what everyone's been waiting for - the Tokyo Game Show! The doors opened up for the public at 10:00 in the morning on Saturday. By then, the convention had already been going on for two days, but those were closed to people in the business only.

We got to the convention hall Makuhari Messe by around 11:00, it wasn't terribly packed but you could still see where the stream of people were heading towards. Some of us hadn't gotten any tickets yet, and had in mind to buy them at the site. But while we're heading towards the venue, this guy came up to A and M (or T?) gave them his tickets because he said he couldn't stand the crowds! Talk about luck. :D

And you wouldn't believe the how long the line to enter the hall was! I filmed a little video of a tenth of it, or less. It was at least a several hundred meters long and at first I though that the huge building we saw when we first got to the grounds was where TGS was housed, but it was actually located some place totally different than that. With this said, it didn't take long at all to get enter (20 minutes of line-standing?) because the line moved pretty quickly, which came as a surprise. Lines in Tokyo, at least in the subway, is a hell to go through because you move at an ant's speed. This was more like a normal pace walk.
1. Huge TGS billboard!
2. What was with this yellow ranger guy? No one really cared about him...
3. This was not the building we headed for. To the left, on the steps, you can see the tail of the end of the line. To the right is the same line, but after a couple twists and turns...

When we entered the venue, we were knocked by the incredibly loud volume of music and announcements and presentations. Every booth wants to overpower the other, so it's no wonder that the volume was so high.

As for the event itself, it wasn't as packed as I had imagined it to be, but that doesn't mean it wasn't packed at all! The hall was kept dark and there were people walking everywhere. Our group decided to split into two to have some free time to walk around. A, S, E and I originally headed for the Square Enix booth at first, but then we saw Mirror's Edge at the EA booth and decided to stand in line to try it out. It turns out that S has a friend who's working as a programmer at DICE! Cool. So anyway, the line looked pretty small but it still took at least half an hour before we actually got to enter the booth! And by the way, TGS was filled with cheerleader-looking girls wearing short short skirts who tried to reel attention to their respective booths. Also, they had an earthquake simulation platform (very similar in structure to the one I experienced a couple of weeks ago) and apparently there's a series of disaster-prevention games. Wow... I heard from the others that you could try the simulation with two cute Japanese girls with short skirts and low cut shirts so you could see some juggling action. <_<> Tokyo.

1. Flashy lights and screens everywhere. That screen over there was running trailers over and over again. We could barely hear each other talk! Sign to the right: Mirror's Edge Taiken Corner (Experience Corner).
2. You can't see the booth very well but it was something like this.
3. Guess which "booth"! It was more like a field of Square Enix's products. I got their Event Book and it's as thick as a magazine. They had a toy's corner, glass display cases with various goods, their OWN SCREENING THEATER and several Taiken Corners!
4. Zoom in of two of the most well-known Squenix mascots. I wonder if the porings from Ragnarok Online were inspired by the Dragon Quest blob? But then again it isn't that unique of a shape so it's probably a coincidence. Want to bring back the Chocobo home though!

1. Gyakuten Kenji!!! It was packed with people all the time so even though I really wanted to try it I didn't get to. It was so crowded that I couldn't even see inside. Read some reports later and it turned out that the booth was decorated as Edgeworth's office! ;___; Gaaah I should've gone! Damn you TGS for closing so early!
2. More Capcom stuff. :D
3. A small part of the Squenix hood. The two new Kingdom Hearts games and Final Fantasy Dissidia. As expected from Square Enix, even their booth is cool!
4. One of the display cases with assorted goods. That box with Amano Yoshitaka's art looks yummy. Also, note the Sora figurine to the left! Waaaant!
5. DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY POTIONS! They go on sale on the 19th of December, dammit. Urghh. I'll be back in Sweden by then. 6. Limited Dissidia PSP. *__*

1. The World Ends With You cosplayers! The cosplay section part of TGS was held semi-outside, in the space where you have to walk to get to the other part of the venue. We didn't check it out that much, the games were more important!
2. A small part of the convention.
3. More people. The crowds were alright as you can see.
4. The Level 5 booth! :D A, E and I went there to try out the latest (and last?) Professor Layton game, even though the second one hasn't even been released in English yet... We stood in line for another 30-40 minutes and got 15 minutes playtime or so. Oooh, I hope the second game gets released soon, I can't wait! Layton is as charming as usual, mysig design! (By the way, I think we should substitute lagom with mysig, or does anyone have a good word for it in English?) Grabbed Level 5's brochure and there's this other game that looks so lovely and wonderful as well. No wonder because it is a collaboration with Studio Ghibli!
5. Probably someone important.
6. Presenting a new console. It was so whacky at the end when they played a video showing how this console transformed into a robot and flew to space or something along those lines. Huh?

1. Laaayton!
2. Little Big Planet. :D
3. Can't wait to play Dissidia.
4. The cosplay grounds.
5. At Taito's booth (which was really cute, to tune in with the Cooking Mama feel I suppose), they had these small round tables placed everywhere with four DS:s each on top. You could try the new Cooking Mama and Space Puzzle Bobble (Bubble Bobble over here) games. I want to play more Bubble Bobble! It's one of those games you easily get addicted to.

After some more walking around, we decided to go home. There was still an hour before TGS would close for the day, but we decided to leave earlier to avoid the worst train rush.

So, my impression of the first TGS; Huge and grand. But most of the time was spent waiting in lines so we didn't get to try as many games as we would have wanted to. It wasn't a "oh my god I'm actually here?!"-feeling but in the end it was good fun with good company! There's a lot to see and hear and experience, I certainly felt that a second day was necessary in order to try everything. Maybe next year!

10/10 Hakone field trip

I really shouldn't stay up so late every night, even though I know I have to wake up early the next day. But somehow, I always manage to convince myself that it's okay to sit another five minutes in front of the computer. Five minutes become ten, and then fifteen, twenty and... you see the point.

The night before the field trip to Hakone wasn't an exception. Despite the long day (classes starting 09:00 and then coming home around 23:00 after the baseball game) I just seemed to get drawn to the computer. As a result, when I woke up the next morning I only had five hours of sleep. Wouldn't make for a very photogenic face-day, but oh well!

So what is this Hakone place? To put it short, it's two hours from Tokyo and has very, very beautiful nature. Yeah. Ask Mr. Wikipedia for more information!

For this field trip, every JLSP:er got paired up with their own Buddy-san, a Japanese volunteer with whom you would spend the whole day with. I was a bit nervous upon knowing this fact, because:
1) Spending a whole day with someone you don't know just screams awkward silences.
2) You know how social I am...
3) I could only communicate in Japanese with my Buddy.

But he (SN-san) turned out to be a really nice guy, he could even speak Chinese. But alas, since my Mandarin Chinese sucks we couldn't communicate that way. It was kind of a bizarre feeling though, a Chinese not knowing Chinese and a Japanese who knows "your" language. I have to note this down, might be fun for a short story...

1. Around 0730 in the morning, all gathered around the bus that would take us to Hakone.
2. Äkta field-trip känsla! A had let everyone know to bring their DS:es for the bus ride, so we killed time by playing Mario Kart, a group of 8 people or so. I thought I was good before but I got totally beaten out all the time...
3. Bathroom break halfway through the bus ride.
4. Me and my Buddy SN-san! Our glasses match.

Once you get out of Tokyo, past the highways and express ways, another Japan steps in. Fields and forests everywhere. Very pittoresque and lovely. And the closer we got to Hakone, the more nature we saw. Deep valleys covered with trees, small, Miyazaki-esque roads and houses, no sky scrapers as far as you could see, great cloud views... it was too beautiful! You could almost touch the silence and peace with your hands. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from the ride, I didn't sit beside a window and pictures taken inside a bus wouldn't be very interesting to look at anyway.

Our first check point of the day was the Hakone shrine.
1. A small torii (gate) a bit to the side from the main entrance. Had a feeling of fakeness over it for some reason. Like something you would see in an amusement park.
2. Oyasumidokoro - a place to rest. An ice cream cone breaks the atmosphere.
3. Me and Amy doing our lion impression!
4. I really like the contrast between the reds and the greens.
5. Tall, mighty trees. The air was very clear and fresh, I remember.
6. Another point of view.
7. And we're here!

I don't think I need to say it but Hakone shrine and its surroundings was an extremely beautiful place. Except for the torii in the first picture, the shrine had this peaceful, unpretentious, still feeling to it. And how come the Japanese can make red and green work so well together?

1. There was a wedding ceremony, of course.
2. Big spoon and I.
3. They sold fortune strips (omikuji) here! At most, if not all Japanese shrines, you can buy a strip of paper with your fortune written on it. The fortunes can be bad or good, and it has advice and such written on them regarding several topics, like health, love, travel and financial situation.
4. I bought one! Guess what I got? 大吉! The best fortune you can get. :D Now I can feel safe for the rest of my trip here.

After the Hakone shrine, we moved on to the next check point, the Sekisho. In the Edo area, you had to get through the sekisho (immigration checking point) in order to enter or leave Tokyo.

This gate was probably constructed not long ago, it had this new-ish feel to it. Didn't feel very genuine. @_@

We got to check out a museum where they had torture devices used on the people who where prohibited entrance on display. It wasn't all that interesting actually, so let's skip it and move on to lunch and beyond!

1. What we ate. The university paid for everything!
2. Meaaaaat!
3. We went to ride a pirate-sightseeing-boat after lunch. I can't say I liked the boat itself very much as it felt like some kind of amusement park ride. Total opposite from the atmosphere at the shrine.
4. This is what you get for not listening to the pirates! Yarrr!
5. Two glasses-eyed pirates. My buddy looks like he's plotting some evil plan on taking over the world...
6. Oooh look out Satoko-san!

After this, we went to ride a gondola to reach Owakudani, where they sell smelly black eggs. We saw Mt. Fuji on the way up! Everyone was saying how it was zannen ("unfortunate") that the top part was covered in a cloud, but I was happy because it was the first time I sighted a cap cloud (also known as Altocumulus Lenticularis)! Yay!

1. Not a very good picture, but here's my proof! And what's a better match than Fujisan itself?
2. What in the world... Is that... Hell?! (Turned out that there was some construction work going on there. Or is that where the black eggs areborn?)
3. We had to stop halfway to ride another gondola to reach the top. The placed where we stopped at was called 早雲山, Sounzan, beautiful name! If only the place looked as nice as it sounded though...
4. The view was breathtaking.
5. My favorite picture of the batch. That's Mt. Fuji in the background.
6. One more!
7. And another one, posing with the mountain!

After spending some more time walking around, we headed for our bus and went to the last checkpoint, which actually got changed to somewhere else due to mysterious circumstances. They drove us to a tourist mall place instead, which wasn't very interesting. By this time, everyone was tired and some of them skipped looking in the mall altogether and just went back to sleep.

And so, we took the bus back to Shinjuku. People were much more tired compared to the morning trip, I think most of them slept the whole way back. Must be nice being able to sleep in a bus! ;_; I would've loved to catch a few Zs as well.

Getting of at Shinjuku, I picked E up (who had been waiting for an hour for me! >_<) and she was very thoughtful so we agreed to make it an early night, so home we went. On the way back, we bought yummy yummy ice cream and E introduced me to anpan! I'm totally in love with it! So yummy! :D

Next post, TOKYO GAME SHOW

9/10 - Baseball at Tokyo Dome

Almost right after we came to Japan, I was invited by another JLSPer to go watch a baseball game with the others. I'm really grateful to have such initiative-taking coursemates, without them I would probably not have been able to experience as many things as I've done now. I'm not a very big sports fan, I mean, I'm not even big on watching sports on TV and let's not even mention sports games! But this was one thing I've always wanted to try; watching a game (of something, anything! As long as it's not hockey...) live on a big stage getting pumped up with everyone, feeling the rush of adrenaline through your veins and getting carried away by the atmosphere.

... Okay, so it wasn't that exciting, but it was still relatively fun! Baseball can almost be said to be Japan's national sport, there's way more people interested in it than, say, Sumo, which says a lot.

Anyway, I had forgotten about the invitation until a couple of days before the match would take place, and it came as a nice surprise as something to look forward to after our first "major" test (which went fine by the way, I was one point away from getting a perfect score!).

So after spending some slooooow time at school, we headed to a burger chain called Freshness Burger (oh, Japan and English...). Now here comes a phenomenon I want to write about, number plates in fast food chains! Take a look:
Usually a customer gets a small tray with their drink on and a number plate beforehand while they wait for their food to get ready. In Sweden, you would, most of the time, just stand by the counter and wait until you get your food and then feel really nervous about the long line forming behind you. The Japanese are so organized that they even hand out number plates at fast food places. I think they play a pretty big role in how everything goes so smoothly in the lines, it's so convenient. As expected from the country of benriness! Oh and by the way, they have a different view on sizes here i seems. That cup of latte (why the hell did I order latte anyway, I don't even usually drink it @_@;;;) was supposed to be medium size, but after asking everyone else, we all agreed that it would be considered a small cup in every other country. Do Japanese eat and drink less than everybody else? How about the guys, at least? I mean, appetite-wise, they generally eat more than girls, right? (Arrr feminists don't jump on me!) How do people manage? And why do I feel silly for feeling proud about being able to eat a lot? :D
The interior of the place. Please note that silly guys are not part a part of the set. Oh, and see how the store's all geared up for Halloween? Look at this!
Almost every store I walk into has some Halloween-ish decoration going on. I didn't think it would be this big of a deal in Japan, but I guess it's just another way of making money.

So after having our burgers (so small! I miss the burgers from the street grill in Högdalen, eat one for me Yosh and Kajfa!) we headed for the subway and we happened to walk past this building:

So flat.

The game was held at Tokyo Dome, one of the major arenas for sports and concerts in Japan. I've seen so many live performances from there (downloaded, of course, hehe!) that it felt slightly surrealistic seeing it in person. As usual, nothing looks very grand in pictures, but I assure you it was huge!


We had seats on the second floor (they only have two "floors" in the Dome so sitting on the second floor means that you're pretty high up) and to get there, we had to stand and wait in quite a long line. Tokyo is full of lines. I think I must've spent some significant percent of my stay here just standing in line for something.

Once the queue started moving it didn't take long until you got inside. They had a handbag check just right before but they seriously don't check it very thoroghly, so you could've easily brought something dangerous inside, if you're that kind of a person!

Look at the stairway on the third picture. There was this group of people doing some boxing training there. Strange place to practice your punches at. Oh, and if I remember correctly, most of the salarymen turned their heads away when I took this picture. They're so shy, as if they didn't want to leave any proof of having gone to a game of baseball! I'd understand if you were to take a picture in Akiba and otakus would turn their heads away, but here? Hm.

Let's move on to the game itself! As mentioned in a previous entry, we went to see the game between the Tokyo Giants and the Yokohama Baystars. Since we're all hip and cool Tokyo-citizens, there was no second thought on who to root for! We seemed to share this sentiment with most of the people who went to the game, which comes as no surprise seeing that the Dome is Tokyo's home arena. I didn't take a lot of pictures during the game (almost none at all) as it turned out to be quite uneventful.

The Giants in white and the Yokohama-ers in blue. See the huge adboards? One of the JLSPers told me that if a homerun hits one of these boards, the sponsoring company has to pay approximately one million yen extra to the venue or something like that. The reason for this is that if a ball hits your ad, you'll get more screen time on TV which indirectly makes it a commercial spot.

As you can see on the pictures, the seats were all half empty except for the Giants side. Despite the fans' energetic cheering (they had a theme "song" for every batter! Talk about ambitious), the Giants lost pretty badly. Yokohama Baystars took the lead in the first couple of sets and the Giants never caught up to them. If I remember correctly (it's been more than a week now) we lost 5-8 to Yokohama. All in all, the game lasted for almost four hours but I never really felt bored. I don't have any particular interest in baseball and if I had been born Japanese, I probably wouldn't make the effort to go watch a baseball game live, but as a tourist, I think this made a nice experience and I'm glad I got to taste this side of the diverse Japanese culture as well!

Something I noticed during the game was the girls walking around selling drinks. Every time they rotated spots with eachother they would bow first and then announce the price. Bow! You can't mistake this action for anything else other than Japanese. Some of the girls bowed pretty half-heartedly but this just shows how orderly and how respectful people are to each other in this country. Also, even though people seemed to get drunk it never got chaotic. Everyone sits nicely on their chairs cheering for their team, although some of them a talk bit louder than others, so I found myself quite surprised of the fact that when it was time to leave, there was trash lying about on the seats. In any other country I wouldn't give it a second thought, but this is Japan! Made me think that the Japanese might have things in common with us Europeans and Westerners. :D

But then again... It wasn't really that dirty. Haha!

So after the game, we went up to this sky scraper:

Taken before the game

to see if we could get in for free to check out the view from the top floor. It's a hotel, so we didn't expect much but we actually made it to the top! Some of us didn't make it further than that, though. To fully enjoy the view, you had to enter the bar and order a drink or two, a couple us went home. We still got to ride the glass elevator, so view, we got! I only took a video so I don't have any pictures to post.

And that concludes Thursday the 9th of October! We got home by twelve and had to wake up six hours later to prepare for our second school field trip - a bus tour to the beautiful Hakone! I had to do some other preparations that night so I didn't get more than 4-5 hours of sleep. ~_~ Speaking of sleep, I haven't gotten much while being here. I average on six hours a night on weekdays, but I try to catch up on weekends. I really love sleeping but there's so much to do so I always end up going to bed by 0100~0200. It has a bad influence on my health I think... Oh well, won't be keeping up with it for so long, less than two months to go until I return to Sweden! Which brings me to my next point: I think I've entered the homesick period. I long to go to IKEA to have some meatballs and Chinatown even though it's not really related to home. I miss the spacious areas in Sweden and I'm dead tired of feeling like I'm in the way of everyone and the fact that it's ALWAYS SO CROWDED everywhere. It's on nights like these, when I have time to reflect on my situation, that the homesickness hits me the hardest. Right in this very moment, I really really REALLY feel like I want to go home, I miss the weather, my family, my friends' company, my parents' food... just being in Sweden! Despite these feelings, it doesn't mean I hate it here, I absolutely don't. I think I like Tokyo and I don't mind being here. I think homesickness can coexist with these feelings.

Oh, if only Doraemon's Dokodemo Door existed for real. ;w;