Stupidity and the randomness that Japan (or luck) can bring you

Yesterday, I finally decided on the class I want to replace with Adachi's culture class. I decided to take Takahashi's class since it would be a different experience than what I normally take back at home (Japanese or Engineering usually) and that I could find out more about Japanese Business and what all cultural things related to it.
I was in a hurry though to get to class and catch the next bus, so I rode my bike to the station and forgot to lock it.

Bad decision really on my part. I returned to the station and it was gone. I searched for 2 hours in the area around the station and everything, but it was gone. However, somewhere in my mind said I would find it eventually.....and sure enough what prediction that can bring.....

The next day, I told office Iijima san about what happened and she made me file an official report with the police. She said Usui-san was on vacation until Monday, but I could borrow one of the school bikes until Monday. So, after what seemed to be an hour shifting through all the bikes the school owned (which were a lot), we found one in good condition and I borrowed it. For about five minutes. Sure enough, once I had parked the bike and went on to class, I found my bike parked, right near Chea Moi at school. The lock was still in the basket. I was baffled at this. I rushed back to Iijima to tell her about the good news, and locked my bike after the incident.

Yoshiko thought some youths probably took it, but I figured someone else must have mistook it for their own bike. It's kind of hard to do that because my left handbar was flipped upside-down from clipping a pole, the seat had a hole in it and the basket was kind of torn. Doesn't sound like something that would get easily confused with another bike. Anyway, the randomness of Japan kicked in again and it seemed just a coincidence that the same person that took my bike was a student at the same school as I am. Japan is NOT completely a crime-free country, as you should watch yourself if you're in unfamiliar areas. You should also as general practice keep your property safe, no matter how busy you are. Yes, it's true that you can leave things in the basket of your bike here and go into a grocery store and come out with your stuff still there, but it's better safe than sorry.



(The area around the station)

Big Earthquake in Tokyo, Small Japan

Today something happened that was unusual in the sense because it was something I never experienced before. An Earthquake. Sure, I experienced one during the Kunigawa new student orientation, but nothing is more different (and kind of scary) experiencing one in one's own home. It was going on midnight to Thursday (and getting back to staying up late on days I don't have school) when I felt some small tremors. Normally, it's my heartbeat or me rocking in my chair that makes me think that there's an earthquake, but I know I can always check the string pull on my room's lamp to see if it is twitching. Chances are, if it is, I know there's an earthquake, even if I couldn't directly feel it. But, the tremors kept getting more violent and stronger, but would eventually stop. However, around the time I decided to go to bed (around 2AM) a strong 5.0 on the JMA's earthquake scale was felt in my room. I wasn't really asleep yet, but when strong vibrations where felt in my room I got dressed as quickly as I could and got up and ran for the door to hide in the doorframe. In Indiana, which is a place that RARELY gets earthqukes, I remember well when we had earthquake drills in elementary school. At the time, I thought "why the hell do we practice for an earthquake when we don't even get them in the first place?". But, now, if you ever move to a place that has them, you have something to use.

The mecca of all things pop-culturally around the world, Akibahara

On the 5th of May, Keleih and I along with one of the students we met at Hakuoh Yuuhei and some of his friends all went to Akibahara in Tokyo. I was excited because this was the first time outside of going outside of Tokyo that I would be going to Tokyo and that is was the world capital of everything Geeky, Akibahara.

From the time I started learning Japanese, I always wanted to go to Japan. But, when I found out about Akibahara from some articles I read when I was a Sophomore in high school, I really wanted to go there. I always imagined a place that had many stores dedicated to anime, manga, and video games, places dedicated to the audio/visual nuts, and places with really cheap electronics. As much of that guess, it was true. Also, to have a chance riding on the famous Yamanote line (okay, well it's not that famous, but it does connect all the major areas in downtown Tokyo together), I knew it was going to be awesome.

When arriving in Akiba (from here on out, it will be shortened to what the Otaku call the place), you'll see a sign right after getting off of the Yamanote line that reads "Electric Town exit". Essentially, that's what Akiba is, a part of Tokyo where you can buy cheap electronics. Now, speaking for myself as to someone that has been there several times, I would suggest going away from the station to get the best deals on merchandise. The duty free shops are for the people that can't speak Japanese, but to really get the best deals, you have to either have a native (or someone that knows Japanese) show you around or know Japanese yourself. I came looking for a R4 in Japan at this time and I went to the first store I remember that was openly selling the device for which was around $100 dollars. But, this device online sells for half that price and even other stores had it down to $70 dollars, but these stores were much farther away from the station, the one I bought mine at was a stone's throw away from the station. So, in short, to get the best deals, try to shop at stores farther away from the station and away from all that duty free crap.

Anyway, there was many places to shop at! We went to a place called Animate first and I picked up some figurines. This store was non-stop in terms of anime merchandising. There's everything from manga, anime DVDs, figurines, towels, keychains, cell phone straps, stickers, pens, what would be the equivalent of porn, posters, and too many things to mention. We later checked some gaming stores, and there is too many to mention. Some specialize only in old-school gaming while the others are more like modern gaming stores. There's even one where you can buy the old circuit boards and parts for arcade machines and basically create your own arcade! There's also a store called "Gaming Hollywood" which imports US consoles and games. Of course you'll have to pay a premium, but if you didn't bring a Japanese console with you to Japan, you'll be much appreciating this store. Just to note that handheld gaming systems are universal, so games you do buy for the DS and PSP will work on the American version of the handheld (PSP UMD movies however are region encoded so be careful when purchasing them).

I next got to finally play some DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) at a Game center (the Japanese word for arcade) in Akiba. I had a whole bunch of Japanese watching me (as they were taking a rest from playing from earlier) and I could feel that I haven't played the game in a while so I was really tired after just one go.

Before we left, I got to go to the most famous store in all of Akiba (thanks to Fred Gallager's MegaTokyo), Gamers. Gamers is a store that specializes in anime, manga, and video games, with floors dedicated to certain pursuits and hobbies. Just the amount of stuff in the building astounded me. I bought a majority of the figures that I have now at that place, but anime DVDs tend to be on the expensive side (plus, it's kind of not fair that most anime DVDs do not have Japanese subtitles so you cannot use them to learn Japanese without watching them many times over and over to catch what they're saying), so I did not buy any DVDs or videos. You can find Gamers very close to the station, it's the south exit after taking the electric town exit. You should know if you've taken the right exit because you should come out to an L shaped street.

It's an amazing place, and if you are into the geeky pursuits, I would highly suggest going there. Outside of shops and such, however, there's not much to really do. There are maid cafes, but they are very popular and usually have waits for them. A new phenomenon is with performances by "famous" maid cafe employees and other services where they put on a show and performance (sing and dance) for their fans. This can get pretty wild sometimes as the die-hard fans are really into the music and the singers and such. But, if you aren't really into the anime/manga/video game scene, then Akiba might not be the exact place for you. Yes, there are many shops selling electronics and such, but there are way more stores for the geeky pursuits than one's that would cater to a non-geek. But, if you want to experience an interesting part of Japanese subculture, I would suggest going here.

A note about the June 7th Akiba massacre that left 7 people dead:

I wasn't in Akiba at the time, but Keleih was there the day before, and luckily she wasn't there the day that it took place. I think the international media would have taken it more beyond what it was if a foreigner was also slain during the massacre. However, the response of the people on the street was almost instantaneous and very profound. To experience some random happening that left people injured or dying myself, I know how the first responders have to react to grasp the reality of the situation at hand.

Much of the International and Japanese media blamed the killer on the fact that he was formerly obsessed with the pursuits of a Japanese otaku and that he thought he was fired a few days before he went on this rampage. Much of the otaku culture in Japan is concentrated in Akibahara and online at popular websites as 2channel. Mostly, people that are going to commit a crime sometimes post what they're about to do on such websites (or other blog and cell phone posting sites) and usually hope that they are going to be caught before the crime takes place for the sake of the potential victims. This seems really self-defeating in a since coming from my background, but perhaps because these people feel they have nothing left to really live for and might as well take someone down with them, I think they also fear about the consequences of their action on other people.

This action caused police to take more a look at these websites and have arrested several potential "copycat" killers from their supposed threats made on websites such as 2channel. Japan has quite a few social problems like anywhere else in the world, but they're less pronounced than many other places until events like the akiba massacre bring the problem back into the forefront. And this is a testament that needs to be realized not just in Japan, but in the world in general, if we ignore society's problems, we are all going to feel those consequences in the end.

Shrines, Tea Ceremonies, and Golden Week, oh my!

(The shrine we went to)


So, this week marks the REAL start to the Japanese Holiday (or holidays) called Golden Week. It consists of a week because of several holidays that are right after the other one. It actually starts with Showanohi "Hirohito's Birthday" celebrated on April 29th. But, on Saturday it is the true start of the holiday.

We (all the exchange students we hang out with except for Kyu) went to Usui-san's house in Ashikaga. After everyone arrived, we ate dishes that were prepared by some of Kyoko-san's (Usui's wife) English learning students. It's impressive how much of a hold they have on English in a little less than 1 to 3 years.

After that we went to a Tea Ceremony. We entered a traditional style courtyard for houses that specialized in Tea Ceremony and were led to building to have the Tea Ceremony in. Apparently, this was just for the formalities and not the full part of the ceremony. I remember reading from somewhere that you actually get part of the tea leaves and you have to wisk them by yourself. The entire ceremony could last nearly an hour. However, we were handed the tea already pre-made and ready to consume. We weren't there nearly as long.

The steps go something like this (from yesterday):

-Handed a piece of sweet candy or some other sweet food to consume because the green tea will be bitter.
-Handed the bowl and bow to thank the person that brought it
-You place the bowl to the left of yourself and say "I'm going to [drink] before you." (this is a ritualistic polite phrase when spoken in Japanese and does not express well enough in English)
-You place your left palm underneath the bowl, and with your right hand on the right side of the bowl, you turn your bowl in your hand left (towards you) twice.
-You are ready to consume!
- Once you're finished, turn the bowl right (away from you) twice and (tea ceremony rooms use a certain tatami mat style) place the bowl in front your line on your mat to symbolize the fact that you're done with the bowl.
-Bow again to thank the person that will receive the bowl.
-Bow to thank the guests and the hosts.

It's a pretty formalized process.

After that, we went to a shrine. This was my first time going to an actual shrine in Japan. Shrines and Temples are of different religions or beliefs. In Japanese, Jinja (shrines) are associated with Japan's native religion Shinto. Shinto is animistic in the sense that practitioners believe that everything has a soul or spirit (plants, people, animals, natural features like mountains and waterfalls). According to shinto, when you die, you have the ability to eventually become a god. Temples (otera in Japanese) are associated with Buddhism. Buddhism deals with what happens after death, and Shinto deals with things that happen during life, but either one can also deal with the other one. It started raining, so we didn't get to actually go into the central shrine hall, but were able to go up to the offering box and pray. We also got a shrine fortune from a box on the side. Everyone except for Rin got some form kichi (luck) from the fortune. I'll translate what my fortune said for a later time.

We went to a temple after the shrine. Here, you get to announce to the spirits that you're going to make an offering by taking the hanging rope and ring it against the the bell. The temple was having a Matsuri for Golden Week, so lots of shops and stalls were all around. Keleih tried a fish capturing minigame, there were tons of good food, and a group of guys we saw earlier in the day were street dance performing 60's/50's rock songs were just some of the things at the temple that day.



(This was the group of street dancers dancing to 50's and 60's rock songs. They also all had matching slick 50's hair styles, just like Elvis).


We returned to Usui's house after that and snacked a bit until Keleih, Yoshiko, Brian, and Usui got back from taking Keleih to a pharmacy. Most of us tried this crazy Sake that smelled like rubbing alcohol. It was pretty strong. Yoshiko was a little drunk from just a few shots! xD She's just right about having smaller organs. Anyway, after that, we left Usui's house for the train back to Oyama. Tomorrow is "KEITAI GET!" day, so I won't be stuck out of the loop anymore with everyone else that already has one. Wish me luck!