The Catch-up Post

In the interest of chronicling some of the adventures I have been dragging my feet on, here is a quick recap of some of the adventures I have been on. Consult your local Davis personally for more fleshed-out stories and anecdotes.

Sanja Matsuri

By request of the professor from my Japanese Religions class, everyone had to make time to go to the Sanja Matsuri when it occurred during the middle of May. The trip was worth it though since it is one of the biggest festivals in Tokyo. Consult the Wikipedia page for more official details.

Crowds outside the main gate to the temple/shrine grounds

Cute kids playing a drum of some sort. It was only being used as a display piece when I came across it.

One of the buildings that house the Buddhist altar in the area

Without going into too much detail, Shinto is the native religion of Japan and one of its main characteristics is that there are thousands of deities that people can choose to worship and they each have an altar where they are said to reside. A public matsuri is held at regular intervals, annually in this case, and everyone goes to party and venerate the deity of focus at the festival. For the purpose of mass exposure and to increase the excitement of the event, the deity is moved from the permanently-fixed shrine into a portable shrine that is paraded around with much fanfare.

Preparing the mikoshi for carrying

Parading it around

Ghibli Museum
The Ghibli Museum is the one place I wanted to go way before I came to Japan. It is a museum dedicated to the works of Studio Ghibli, a well-known, highly regarded animation studio in Japan. They don't have quite as much recognition in the United States, but hopefully they will pick up steam in more places around the US.

The museum was a very kid-centric place with a very whimsical and wandering architecture that was easy to get lost in. With winding staircases, tiny doors and tunnels leading to you rooms you did not expect, it was a very memorable building itself besides housing all sorts of memorabilia and life-size creations from Japan's most beloved animated films.

They didn't allow photos inside the museum, but I was able to sneak a couple of photos as well as take photos of things on the outside.

This is the sign outside of the museum. The museum is located in the middle of a large park/wooded area west of Tokyo primarily because Hayao Miyazaki, the writer/creator/director of the films is a super-environmentalist and a big fan of nature.

Standing next to a life-sized Totoro inside a ticket booth. This creature is the most iconic figure from the studio and absolutely every person in Japan recognizes who he is.

Clandestine picture of a catbus. Another character from one of the movies. It's meant for children to climb in/out/on it.

This is me standing next to a life-sized statue of a robot from Laputa: Castle in the Sky. I feel intimidated.

YMCK
This is a music group in Japan I earmarked to see in concert soon after I came over. It's hard to describe what the music sounds like, but the group consists of three members who create their music using old Nintendo and Game Boy hardware. Hey, look. It's a link to one of the videos they play behind them at concerts.

Their instruments are vocals, two usb keyboards and two Macbooks.

Good times indeed.

Jonan-Sen
The Jonan-Sen is an annual athletic festival held for fun and enjoyment between Jochi Daigaku (Sophia University) and Nanzen Daigaku (Nanzen University). The weekend was filled with all manner of competition in swimming, running, basketball and such, but my main concern was in track and field.

The day started at about 7:30 am at a local track about 4km away from the university. Since we were hosting the meet this year, the entire track team had to go and set up for the festivities while it was raining outside. After the set-up and the arrival of the other school, the formalities were underway with speeches from alumni and then everyone prepared to run.

I ran in the 5k race and it was first in the day. After the first 5k filled with only ten accomplished runners who finished the race in less than twenty minutes, I was in the race with the rest of the long-distance track runners from both teams and alumni who wanted to relive their college days at a competion. Despite my *ahem* training, I was one of the slower runners in the lot, but at least I finished. Couldn't get any photos of myself since I was running, but I'll have to poke around and see if anyone else has a few.

Nonetheless, here's some pictures of events later in the day.

It was only raining during the set-up and 5k race. This 100m dash was nice and dry.

A fuzzy, unprofessional picture of a long jumper.

Another international student on the team who's running a relay just for fun.

A selection of people from the team posing for a picture.

After all that fun, there was the ending ceremony (we lost a majority of the events), the tear-down, heartfelt speeches from graduating seniors who will not be around for any more Jonan-sen festivities, and the after-party. Hooray for sports, I guess.

Enough of that random smattering of Davis activities. If I ever manage to get around to it, look forward to the grueling task of climbing Mount Fuji, a giant robot, and other fun things.

--Davis

The pictures of curiosity

I'll just leave these here...

The beach!

The current weather in Tokyo has been nonstop rain for the past four days. Once it starts, it takes a while for the rain to stop again. However, it is not always raining and there are days when it is a perfect summer day for lounging around outside and going to the beach.

Even though Tokyo is near the ocean, the few areas of waterside open to the public aren't suitable for swimming. Chemicals, jellyfish, lack of sand, I'm not sure. Instead, on a recent trip to the beach several people from my apartment building and myself went to Kamakura, down past Yokohama and about an hour away from central Tokyo.

The train was a bit tedious since it required changing trains at least three times, but it was worth it to finally make it down to the beach.

Hooray! Ocean!

Now, being a simple boy from Kansas, this type of event is still a novelty to me. In fact, this brings visited beaches up to three different locations in my lifetime. One was in southern California, the second was south Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, and now I got to see the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

Some of my traveling companions

Cute kids playing in the sand!

Carp decorations floating in the wind leftover from a recent Boys' festival. I forget what they are supposed to represent

The crows here are terrifying and not afraid of people

The beach isn't the only thing to see when in this part of Japan. After spending time in the sun and surf, many of us went to see the Dai Butsu, the second largest statue of Buddha in Japan.

The threshold into the temple grounds

From afar

Up close

Another angle

Two panels in the back open up...

...So you don't suffocate while inside the hollow statue

A sign on the interior detailing construction

Most people come to see this tourist attraction...

...but there is still room for those who just need to sit and relax.

...Perhaps buy a trinket or collectible so the temple grounds can remain open

Nonetheless, it was a good time for all. I spent all day in the sun and yet I barely got a sunburn at all. I will have to make a point of going down again so that I can soak up the waterfront atmosphere before returning to a landlocked existence for an indeterminate amount of time.

Hopefully more stuff will show up here without an extremely long wait period in-between. Until then...

The Post About Garbage

Two weeks since I last updated? Where has the time gone? In an effort to put up more content until I have more time to do something a bit longer, let's look at something mundane.

Trash disposal is complicated in Japan. Each piece of trash needs to be examined and analyzed in order to determine how to dispose of it properly.

These bins are in every building and common area on the campus of my university:


Instead of quickly tossing the garbage into a catch-all container, the trash has to be separated into burnable garbage, non-burnable metal garbage (soda cans), non-burnable plastic (food wrappers and some bottles), and P.E.T. bottles (standard soda and tea bottles). For lack of extra land, there are not many landfills. In this school setting where food containers are the most common waste, paper will get burned and everything else will get recycled when it can.

Sorting becomes more severe when it comes to residential areas. In the apartment building where I live, I am expected to sort all these items into separate bins: burnable paper and chopsticks, plastic waste, PET bottles, metal cans, glass, food waste, cardboard milk and juice cartons, batteries, clothes, newpapers, books, and a couple more I can't think of right now. You can't just cheat and throw everything into a bag either. City residents are required to put trash into clear bags for pick-up and a fine is given out if the garbage is not sorted properly. This is a bit easier to discern since there are two pick-up days per week and different items are picked up on different days.

I guess since I am only a temporary resident in Japan, I get the abridged version of the sorting regulations. Here is a New York Times article I ran across while looking up stuff: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/international/asia/12garbage.html

Perhaps such policies will get adopted across the US once there are no more spaces for landfills. Who knows.

The Cherry Blossom Viewing

In real life, the Sakura trees have finished blossoming several weeks ago. However, with the magic of the Internet, I can still tell all about my experience with the Japanese custom of Sakura viewing with many pictures and such.

To set the scene, the Sakura tree is also known as a Cherry Blossom tree (no cherries, though). When it flowers, it produces delightful pink petals for about two weeks.

Sakura outside my bedroom

The act of hanami, which is literally "flower viewing", is an activity that has been around since at least the 8th Century AD, according to Wikipedia. In the olden days, it was used to determine when to start planting crops as well as to provide an occasion to have a celebration. Nowadays, everyone uses the occasion to go to an area with several Sakura trees close together and just eat, drink, and have a good time.

Behind the building I stay at, there is a walking path that is lined with Sakura trees on each side for about four blocks. When the trees were at full bloom on the weekend, there were dozens and dozens of families having picnics, taking pictures of the blossoms, or buying items from the vendors at this prime hanami location.

Early morning Hanami

Being a fresh-faced foreign exchange student curious about the customs and celebrations going on around the city, I soon found myself included in the planning for a hanami party. A couple of friends from the same apartment building and some Japanese students from the university to provide direction would ensure good times for all.

However, it would not do to party at the local haunt filled with the neighborhood families. Instead, this party of students agreed to meet up at one of the busiest hanami locations in Tokyo, the area outside the Imperial Palace.

Long story short, two international students along with myself could not find the larger group of revellers we were supposed to meet up with. Instead, we opted to follow the crowd on a long walk in the middle of Tokyo to admire the cherry blossoms.

What a crowd it was

Enough of the idle chatter. Let's have some pictures:

Sakura spilling out over a major road

I only count three trees here

Close-up

A picture of myself? How did this get in here?

My traveling companion enjoys the view

Popular spring pastime

The public is allowed to rent canoes...

...for obvious reasons

Families eating under the Sakura

Dressed for the occasion

However, the entire country gets excited for nature-related festivities because the beauty is fleeting. This is the Sakura tree outside my window as it currently appears:

No more blossom-related festivities for another year, but that's what makes it so special.

The School Life

As of this coming Tuesday, I've been in Japan for four weeks and have attended school for the past two. Now that I've been here and have gotten used to the surroundings and am accustomed to getting from point A to point B, I'm starting to get into the routine necessary for school.

What about the school? For those unaware, I'm attending Sophia University, which is its name in English, although the locals know it as Jōchi daigaku. It is a Jesuit university located in central Tokyo and has many different government buildings and international embassies nearby. It has courses for many different subjects (economics, law, etc.) but I believe it specializes in the Humanities and International Studies. According to the Wikipedia page and the random opinion of a banker I had to do business with, it is one of the top private universities in Tokyo. Fancy stuff.

I guess I remembered to take a photo of one of the buildings. The writing is the name of the school.

The classes are set up in a way that I'm not familiar with. There are six class periods a day and every single class is at least one and a half hours long with most classes meeting only two times a week, either Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday. That means that everyone has breaks in between classes and the lunch period at the same time. It can get pretty crazy, especially since the campus is so small. It takes about three minutes to walk from one end to the other With about fifteen buildings packed into this small piece of land in the middle of the city.

As far as classes that I'm taking, I wanted classes that would fulfill major requirements but weren't too difficult since I'm only here for a short while and want to enjoy my time while I'm here. However, since every class has to fit into a small selection of class times available, I ran into a lot of scheduling issues. But then again, so did everyone else I met. In the end, the classes I am taking are: Japanese II, Japanese Religions, Basics of Macroeconomics, and Japan and the World: Business and Economics.

The Japanese class is a standard language course except it is an exeption in my course schedule since it meets five days a week instead of just two. This means that while the standard Sophia undergraduate would get Wednesday off since not many classes are scheduled during that time, I still have to show up.

The Macroeconomics course looks like a standard lesson about how money works. Simple enough. The Japanese Business course is just what it says. It teaches the history of business in Japan and what that means to the rest of the world. Since it is a low-level course, it is treated more like a history course and less like an economics course. However, by the end of the course we will be discussing the "Financial Crisis of 2008" along with any new corporate scandals in Japan that are likely to show up during this semester. Finally, the Japanese Religions class is about religion in Japan. Although there have been only three lectures so far, it has covered some interesting topics about how many different religions are represented and the society as a whole is accustomed to practicing all of them whenever a specific event occurs. Although I never really new about it until I got here, I guess it is common for a Japanese person to be born with Shinto customs, have a Christian wedding, and have a Buddhist burial. Consult me if you want to hear more about it.

School is not only about studies and learning, so I am involved in at least one club with several more potentials if I ever get around to going to the meetings. Although I have rarely been athletic in the previous 21 years of my life, I have somehow found myself on the Track and Field team after being persuaded by a friend with similar interests and an effective recruitment party. The club is pretty laidback since practices are only three days a week, but it is still pretty intense for me since I am a man of computers and reading rather than a man of physical activity. Though it is tough, I have met many Japanese students in this manner and I get plenty of practice speaking in Japanese while all of my classes are full of international students and native Japanese who are fluent in English. Hopefully I'll manage to return to the US in one piece, but we'll wait and see what happens. Stories of personal injury are more interesting than the story of a healthy person anyway.

But that's the story of the real reason I'm here. I have to go to school at some point. Hopefully I won't be bogged down by classes since I could have stayed in Kansas to do that. Also, good grades.