A September Update (10.6.2013)

As you can see i've been pretty MIA in the blogosphere. It's hard to keep up with a blog when it's so much easier just to upload photos to Facebook.

Anyways, for all those who have been wondering, it's been good in Japan. Past 2 (?) weeks.

The weather is continuing to change with the temperature going down and the frequency of rain going UP, but it's a nice change of pace and Japan is still beautiful.

As for school -- everything is okay there as well. Most of my classes are pretty chill. I'm taking 4 classes + 1 internship and most the classes have just writing assignment/group work. BUS 207 which is my Management of Multinational Enterprises class is basically only that -- 2 presentations that you have to do with your group. In IRL 231 which is my America and the World class, we just have to do this role playing thing where we pretend we are different branches of the government and we make policy decisions given certain situations. Last week, for example, we got a memo that mentioned something about North Korea and their nuclear program. It was actually a lot more difficult than we had thought since taking a military path would be (obviously) bad and our economic one would require congresses approval and tax payer dollars.... besides that we just have to write reflection papers as a group about our opinion on Obama's stance on certain foreign policy issues. In ECN 256, which is International Trade we have weekly online quizzes that we can do as a group, an article presentation that I will be doing on Thursday next week, a country presentation based on a country in the world of our choosing, and I think we also have to write a term paper as well as a (maybe?) final exam. It's a pretty tricky class... I haven't been spending enough time on it, but since I'm not going to be doing much on this quiet and slightly overcast Sunday, maybe I'll get to it. My last class, HST 221 is titled History of Contemporary Japan but it's more about the relationship between Japan and Germany in the 19th and 20th century leading up to WWII. :D (super interesting). Problem is, this class is on friday from 3pm-7pm....yes.... a 4 hour lecture.... and so is my BUS 207 class... It's rough, but when it gets tooo difficult to stay awake, or he goes on a tangent, I use my computer :). Anyways, in that class all we have to do is write papers and do a presentation individually.

OH! And I forgot to mention the internship that I got!

Formally, I am a Student Mentor/Intern for the ESM Group in Japan whose goal is to help students get ready for college at the Academic Improvement Center inside the Tokyo American Club near Roppongi, Tokyo. Casually -- it's more of a babysitting gig. Every week, I go to the Tokyo American Club (~1hr15min away) by train, sign in, and wait in a room for students to come in. These students are aged anywhere from 10-18 (2 elementary schoolers, ~4 middle schoolers, 2 highschoolers) and we help them with anything that they might need help with.

While they work for about half the time, the other half we just hang out and goof around. As long as we don't encourage bad behavior (swear in front of them, sleep on the job, etc.) then we're good. I have to do this every Tuesday from 4:30pm-8:00pm for about 7 more weeks, and then all the interns (mostly UC students) meet at the same place on Thursday to go over more important stuff like resume info, interview hints, presentation skills, etc. Since I have to go there 2x a week, every week it costs me about $27 just for transportation (210Y for bus, 290 for train, 160 for subway for just one way, so x4). Thankfully the supervisor guy said he'd reimburse us so... that's good news!

Overall the kids are good kids. The youngest (4th grader) is hyper active and might have ADHD so he's always bouncing off the walls, clamiming he has no homework, and hits people, but he's a good kid. All the middle schooler girls are really wellbehaved and super smart, the 2 middle schooler guys are kind regular middle school guys..always making perverted jokes, etc. The highschoolers are sick. both of them are hella relaxed and either concentrate on their work or just casually talk but they're not loud or anything at all... as you'd expect highschoolers to be. OH and in case you were wondering, they ALL speak English and they're not ALL ethnically Japanese. Most of them are halfies and some of them arent Japanese at all, but have family living here in Japan for work so that's what happened.

The Tokyo American Club (where it's held) is pretty much a PJCC if you know what that is. It's like any "Club" like in the states.... it has crazy expensive membership, a guard for the parkinglot and front entrance, a pool, basketball court, GRAND OLE lobby, I think I saw a hairsalon, some dormitories for living in, etc. so needlessly to say, these kids are loaded, and you can tell by their situation! I mean, they have membership here, and the things some of their parents make them study are way ahead of their league... This one girl in 5th grade is already working on 6th grade work, knows about which colleges she's interested in and knows about what is good/bad to have on your Resume. She's REALLY bright and asked me about the US since she's never been there (but her English is perfect since she goes to an American school in Japan).

We don't get any payment for the internship (other than travel reimbursement) but we do get 2.0 P/NP UC credits for doing this, so I guess it's worth it.

Other than that, I haven't really been up to TOO much the past week and a half. I've been taking it easy. As you can see on Facebook I went to Mt. Takao which was beautiful!! It's one of the most popular climbs in Japan (apparently). But as for the past month, I can't remember off the top of my head -- so here's some photos of places I went to.

Sushiro - 100Y/Plate Sushi Bar!!!

Tokyu Omotesando Plaza @ Harajuku Area

View from a rooftop Starbucks of the streets below (Harajuku)

Probably Shinjuku - from the Starbucks on the roof.

Tried a Butter/Soysauce Churro

Went shopping with some friends and saw a Barbie in a KKK outfit inside a boutique store.

At Tokyo Game Show (TGS) taking a picture with a Sketch ass mog

Hatsune Miku

Japan's Girls + Videogames is to America's Girls + Cars...

Asakusa Trip to Sensoji + Skytree with ICU Hub

Giant Lantern below the entrance to the Temple

AWESOME dragon artwork on the bottom of the lantern.

Fortune for 100Y

Stick your bad ones here.

Ceiling artwork

Photo with some fellow Dialogue House ppl and some ICU Hub ppl. Asahi's Company building in the background (Should look like a full glass of beer.

Tokyo Skytree.

Funny fake-food shop inside the Skytree shopping area.

Monja-yaki with ICU Hub

Triple Decker Monja Yaki sandwich

View from Mt. Takao -- Halfway up

Buddhist Shrine thingy... These gates... aren't so big.

Favorite photo from Takao... a line of Buddhist statues with their own beanies and bibs (?)

Last week I think there was a dorm event, last Saturday I think I played Sardines on campus and Sunday I'm not sure, but I think on one of those days we had a BBQ at the Park nearby campus... it's name was Nogawa Park

But this weekend (so far) I went to A dorm "dinner" which had a 200Y admission fee. They prepared only enough for those who signed up, but about 3x that ammount attended from our dorms, so I was about to explode since I was really hungry. LOL. It all worked out in the end. They had a bingo game and I actually was one of the winners! I got a choco mushroom candy thing.

After that, we went to celebrate another UCEAP student's birthday named Kevin at a Karaoke place. Needless to say it was tons of tun and a bunch of us got drunk, lol.

This past saturday me, some middlebury kids (Monica, Holly, Denisa, Victoria) and my floormate Mike J. went to the Hokkaido Fest which was a Hokkaido food festival in Yoyogi Park. It was absolutely DRENCHED. It was raining the whole day, ranging from a light sprinkle to downpour... it was fun though.

Curry+Egg Bread

Really good Donburi with Rice, Veggies, and Beef

After the food faire we went to the famous Takeshita street (which I couldn't care much for since I've been there 2 times prior) and walked around a bit / exploring the 4-story Daiso.

 After that Mike J. and I branched off and walked to Meiji Shine. I've got to say, Meiji Shrine is one of the most beautiful shrines that I've seen so far. Possibly even better than Sensoji Temple! The entrance was a real grand entrance with a HUGE Gateway (Torii) to walk under and take photos with.... 

the path to the shrine was an extremely wide gravel pathway framed by huge arching trees. We passed by some alcohol that was dedicated to the late Emperor Meiji and finally arrived at the Shrine after passing a few more Torii.

As customs demands, we washed our hands in a very specific manner (wash left hand using right hand, and right hand using left hand, wash mouth with left hand then wash your left hand again, then wash the ladle) to purify ourselves before entering the sacred shrine.

To our left we saw a procession going on. I'm not sure if it was a traditional Shinto marriage, but it's quite possible as events like that apprently happen there often. While at Meiji Shrine, we saw a few other UCEAP people, Julia and Mike S. and talked to them for a bit and let them be on our way. There was a small booth for gifts and of course I had to get some. I saw things such as Charms for good fortune, love, body and spirit, scholarship, traffic safety, etc.

After Meiji Shrine (while it was still pouring rain) we went to Shibuya. I think that Shibuya just might be my favorite district of Tokyo... it has a very New York City feel to it. I was able to finally take a picture with the Hachiko Statue as well as a poor picture of the largest crossing in the world (?) just outside the station.... also....

....I FINALLY GOT MY PHONE! Its been a month into this program but I think better late than never. I feel like I have so much more freedom now, haha.

but Shibuya was awesome... contrary to popular belief it's not pronounced (shi-BOO-yah) with an emphasis on the BOO, but rather (SHI-boo-ya) with a emphasis on the SHI.... It's kind of hard to explain, but anyways yeah.

ILL TRY TO GET THE PHOTOS UP. I'm probably missing something from the last update, but yeah... I got lazy... I'm sorry :(
ANYWAYS, ENJOY!