I hope you are all doing well. I see that Oberlin is supposed to be in the mid-70’s this week, a fact of which I am very jealous. Osaka continues to range in the 40’s to 50’s during the day, and alternates between somewhat cloudy and rainy. It was sunny on Monday when I got up in the morning, so taking that as a sign that it would be warm, I made the poor choice to wear a sun dress and a light jacket to school. Big mistake—no sooner had I arrived on campus than it clouded over and began to rain, even with some snowflakes mixed in. Sigh. The rain ceased after a little while, but a frigid wind continued throughout the day, making the walk back home pretty painful. I will not be so fooled by the weather again! It’s supposed to rain again from today through Friday, and will hopefully clear up this weekend in time for no other than the famous O-hanami! O-hanami is the celebration of the arrival of spring as signified by the blooming of the cherry blossom trees, which are famous in Japan for being very beautiful, ubiquitous, and short-lived. (The name literally means “Flower Viewing.”) More to come later on that event, once it has happened.
Anyway, the point of this post is to talk about my trip to Tokyo! I will make this entry an introduction to the trip, with a description of our daily activities, and will post separately about our main sightseeing activities so as not to tire my readers and myself.
As previously mentioned, I was in Japan’s capital from last Monday afternoon until Friday night for Kansai Gaidai’s week long spring break. I went with 3 of my friends who are participating in the same program, and we stayed at the Khaosan Samurai youth hostel in Asakusa (浅草), an area conveniently located in the center of Tokyo. We did not come with very many concrete plans; we had previously discussed a few of the places that we definitely wanted to see (the Tsukiji fish market, Akihabara, etc.), but other than that had not figured much of anything out in the way of scheduling or transportation. That proved to be lucky in a way, since the uncooperative weather would likely have likely upset our plans anyway. Monday and Tuesday were, if cloudy, at least reasonably not cold, but Wednesday and Thursday were both extremely wet and rainy. Also, I caught a cold on Monday. It was not too bad, mostly just a sore throat in the morning and a runny nose, but it was still annoying. Thank goodness for the number of free pocket-sized packs of tissues handed out on practically every block (advertisements from anything from restaurants to blood donation services). In spite of the setbacks I think the vacation was still a success. Maybe we didn’t get to see as many famous spots as we had hoped, but I think we still got to see some interesting things, and I also appreciated the chance to relax with my friends without having to worry about classes or commitments with my host family.
First I will introduce the characters, since I haven’t specifically spoken about my friends much here previously. From left to right, photographed here are Ryan, Emily, Alex, and of course yours truly. These three are the people who I probably spend the most time with at Kansai Gaidai. They are all top quality people, and I am happy to say that I did not get tired of any of them during the whole trip, as I am often prone to doing, in spite of sharing nearly every hour with them.
Ryan and Emily are both Oberlin students in the same year as I, but I had never really interacted with them before besides exchanging a few words here and there. We took a semester of Japanese together a year and a half ago, but all I really knew of them then were that they were the people who always did awkwardly hilarious skits together whenever we had to act out dialogues. (Ah, those were the days.) As such, I am glad that I got to spend this semester with them, as it turns out that I like both of them a lot, and I’m happy that we have gotten to be friends. I can’t keep up with their geekiness, and conversations in their company frequently revolve around detailed discussions of computer games and anime (Japanese animations) that I have never even heard of...Nonetheless, they both also know a lot about Japan and Japanese history, and they are a lot of fun to be around. Emily has always been really friendly to me, and we are able to relate in many ways. She also has a sharp sense of humor, and has come up with apt nicknames and accompanying rants for several of the weirdos who frequent the Kansai Gaidai lounge, such as The Pokemaster, The Creeper, and Darth Blobbular (actually I’m not sure if the last one was her or Ryan). Additionally, she provides much prompting and complementing to Ryan’s abundant and amusing stories. On his own, Ryan is usually not that talkative, but he has proven to have a vast store of knowledge of anything related to computers, the Internet, and Japanese history, in addition to many other topics. And, as previously mentioned, he possesses far more than his fair share of hilarious stories, as a result of which I am not sure whether, given the opportunity, I would be extremely excited or extremely terrified to meet his family and the residents of the surrounding town.
I met Alex during orientation week for this program, and since then he has been my constant companion in my travels around Japan (as you may have been able to tell from name-dropping in earlier posts), as well as in my Japanese literature class and in other more mundane activities at school on a day-to-day basis. He is in his third year as a world literature major at Simon Fraser University in his hometown of Vancouver, Canada. Being the only non-American in our group, he often defends and cheers for Canada in conversations, in spite of their weaker dollar. He is also able to participate in Emily and Ryan’s nerdy conversations rather more than I am. Besides Canada, his interests also include Calorie Mate, a Japanese snack that he originally discovered in a computer game at some point, and which provides consumers with lasting energy and balanced nutrition in substitute for a meal. It usually come in “block” form (those Japanese sure know how to use language to market food), photographed above, and whose appearance and texture (and taste) are somewhere between a piece of shortbread and a dog biscuit. You can also buy Calorie Mate in jelly and liquid forms, and they grow increasingly gross (or, I mean, um, nourishing) as you go through the flavors. But I digress. Not limited only to Calorie Mate, he is somehow able to eat copious amounts of food, such as in his and Ryan’s “man contests,” yet remain somehow skinny. (Wait, I think I’m still off topic.) Anyway, he is always very nice to me, and provides much witty commentary for our situations. He is another person that I am glad to have grown close to over the semester thus far.
We first decided about a month ago that we would be going to Tokyo for our break, at which point I began to research Tokyo youth hostels online. There were some sketchy-looking ones for as cheap as around $15/night, but I wasn’t so sure that I trusted them. We settled on the Khaosan Samurai because of its high rating across several websites, and although at $30/night per person it was twice as much as some other hostels, it was still very reasonable, and it turned out to be a really good choice. We shared two rooms on the third floor, which were small but clean and comfortable, and each included a bunk bed and a desk. There were toilets down the hall and showers and vanity sinks on the floor below. Also on our floor were a kitchen and lounge, complete with a large flat-screen TV and a number of DVDs free for watching, a refrigerator, utensils and pans for cooking, and even plates and cups and dining utensils. I could see how one could easily live there quite cheaply and comfortably for a long period of time. Again, everything was very clean and new. I was thoroughly impressed. Another perk was the free wireless internet. Other guests at the hotel included some European college-age backpackers, a young married couple from England, and a random group of five middle-aged German ladies who we observed sitting around in the lounge area eating microwaveable corn-on-the-cob.
For meals, we usually ate out at a restaurant for dinner wherever we happened to be, which somehow frequently seemed to be areas with the most expensive restaurants, and for breakfast and lunch we usually snacked off of items bought in a grocery store or at conbini (convenience stores, including 7-11). It turns out that the onigiri (rice balls, often with some kind of filling, and wrapped in seaweed) from 7-11 are quite delicious. Hmm...
For transportation, we did a good amount of walking, but we also managed to navigate the intricate subway system pretty successfully. There were many more routes than I was able to keep track of, and in addition, half were owned by the Toei Line, and half were owned by the Tokyo Metro Line. What is the difference, you ask? Well, I’m not really sure. The two halves are not extricable from each other, and there is no way to tell them apart on the map except by checking a key in the corner, but you have to pay for each of them separately, and sometimes different entrances to the same station only service one of the two lines. So, that provided additional confusion particularly when we were trying to transfer trains, but it all worked out in the end. Prices varied, but I would estimate that it only added up to about $8-10 or so a day on transportation.
In spite of our best efforts to get an early start, I think we never left the hostel before 10 am. Most attractions close at around 5, so we usually migrated back to the hostel at around 8 or 9. But, like I said, it was relaxing, and I had a good time. I wish I were on spring break again. Is it really over already?
On Friday, Emily and Ryan decided to take public transportation back to Osaka, which is much cheaper than any other mode of transport, but also took about 10 hours and involved many transfers. They left at 10:30 in the morning, leaving Alex and myself an additional day to wander the city before catching the night bus to Kyoto at 11:45 pm.
Alright, this post is getting long so I will end it here, but I hope it has been enlightening and entertaining to you, and I will write more soon.
As if you needed any enticement to return for the sequel to this post, I will leave you with yet another teaser photograph to study. This gem is an ad for a male escort service that Alex and I spotted in Kabuki-cho, a seedy neighborhood in Shinjuku. Sorry the faces are a little hard to see, but I think that amid the “Casanovas,” mustache-man merits contemplation. (Click for a larger view!)
I think that dude in the middle of the "bottom" is Clay Aiken! Another tragic showbiz outcome...
ReplyDeleteHi Mariko,
ReplyDeleteAlways special when you can be around people who can make you laugh. They sound like a great group to travel with!