Classes Start Today!

Classes start today! I am taking "Topics in American Advertising," "Media Economics," "Creating Values in Business," "Japanese Literature After 1945," and Japanese (Level 3R).

Yesterdizzle, I was surprised to hear a Sylvie Vartan song used in a TV commercial, and yet even more surprised to find out my host family knew who she was, and then they were surprised I knew who she was. Go fig.

「いのちの名前」と「ふたたび」

I like both these songs!

Locked Up

So here is a more legitimate update.

The past few days have been incredibly fun, and I've been meeting a lot of people. A few days ago, several friends and I joined the Waseda International Club (WIC) on a trip to Odaiba. It takes over an hour to get there by train, but the view from the monorail is great! There were maybe 20 kids in my group, and after having a picnic with food bought from a convenience store (Japanese convenience stores have many more choices of things to eat than American ones), we visited the Fuji Television Station (my host family's son also works there). We also saw a guy exhibiting his trained monkey. I don't like monkeys.

After returning to Takadanobaba Station, several of us joined a combined WIC and Niji-no-Kai (the name means Rainbow Club, but it's really an International Communications Club) for a Nomikai (which is like a drinking party). After the place closed, we all went to a park to mingle for a few hours, before being asked by the police to leave.

The next day, I went to Harajuku for the first time with my friend. It's a pretty cool place, and I think so far it's my favorite place in Tokyo. You have one street with most of the big brands: Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Armani, Bvlgari, etc. But then the side streets are filled with interesting little shops and boutiques like an entire store dedicated to Tintin. I thought I'd get my haircut in Harajuku, because this is the place to go for haircuts apparently, but I was too intimidated by all the hair salons.

The next day, I did get my haircut around Takadanobaba Station. I had no idea what the woman cutting my hair was saying, which was kind of awkward. But she gave me a good haircut (costing about 5000 yen - average price I think).

Later in the evening, I went with my two friends and two Japanese girls to an Izakaya (place where you can order drinks and order food) in Shibuya. It was a very interesting place...to say the least. It was monster prison themed, and the hostesses (as in Restaurant hostesses) wore "sexy Policemen bondage" outfits. We also were handcuffed and then led to our table, which was behind prison bars. Every so often the place turned off all the lights, and Japanese men dressed in Halloween masks would come around and try and frighten everyone.

After leaving this place (called Locked Up), we went to a club in Shibuya because we missed the last train. And so we "clubbed" for 5 hours before the next train came.

Karaoke and Killer Bees

I did karaoke for the first time yesterday, and lo and behold the videos for some of the songs were American cities, including New Orleans! Weird.

Also, Japan has these rad killer hornets that are about 4-inches big. Saw some in Shinjuku park yesterday!

Opening Ceremony (and not the store)

Yesterday was the opening ceremony for the Waseda SILS Program. It was held in the Okuma Auditorium, which is 125 year-old building with a clock tower. The number 125 is apparently special because the founder of the school and twice prime minister Okuma Shigenobu believed people could live to be a potential age of 125. I also finally found out that there are 240 kids in my program, most are some sort of Chinese.

Before the program began, I visited the Theater Museum on Waseda's Campus with my host family. It was a recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theater or something, and contained a lot of translated plays and stage artifacts from the past 100 years.

It was free and very boring.

ありがとう

I really like this song.

Here are the lyrics and translation:

誰もが気付かぬうちに　
何かを失っている
ふと気付けばあなたはいない　
思い出だけを残して
せわしい時の中　
言葉を失った人形達のように
街角に溢れた野良猫のように
声にならない叫びが聞こえてくる
もしも　もう一度あなたに会えるなら
たった一言伝えたい　
ありがと　ありがとう
時には傷つけあっても　
あなたを感じていたい
思い出はせめてもの慰め　
いつまでもあなたはここにいる
もしも　もう一度あなたに会えるなら
たった一言伝えたい　
ありがと　ありがとう
もしも　もう一度あなたに会えるなら
たった一言伝えたい
もしも　もう一度あなたに会えるなら
たった一言伝えたい　
ありがと　ありがとう
時には傷つけあっても　
あなたを感じていたい

Everyone loses something
Before they even realise it
Suddenly I realise that you’ve gone
Leaving behind only memories
Amid the happiness, we lost our words
Like dolls
Like all those stray cats on the street corner
I hear a silent scream
If I could see you one more time
I just want to say one word: Thank You, Thank You
Even if I get hurt sometimes
I want to keep feeling you
At least I have my memories to comfort me
I’ll always have you here
If I could see you one more time
I just want to say one word: Thank You, Thank You
If I could see you one more time
I just want to say one word
If I could see you one more time
I just want to say one word: Thank You, Thank You
Even if I get hurt sometimes, I want to keep feeling you 

FIRE

A house across the street caught on fire, and partially burned down last night while I was out with friends. Crazy.

Apparently arson is the number one cause of fires in Japan (or at least Tokyo).

Jupiter

This song was on the TV this morning, and the melody is based on a Holst (some English composer who died in 1997) song. The girl playing the piano is Korean, and has 4 fingers.

OH!

MY PLANE IS BOARDING! I'M HEADING TO JAPAN!

These posts should now become slightly more relevant and scintillating.

SO HOPE I MEET SCARLETT JOHANSSON (Lost in Translation style)!

PS: Why don't airports have plugs? Honestly.

What the Heck?

ARGH. So I would lose my wallet within days of leaving. Thankfully the only thing I really lost was the wallet itself (a nice silver Marc Jacobs one, supposedly no longer being sold). My GWID, Debit Cards, and Metro Card can all be replaced at least. I also took some cash out of the wallet, so I don't think I lost a ton of money (something less than $40 I think).

Still...very....very...frustrating...

Actually, these past few days have not been the greatest. Aside from a continuation in a string of stupid, vapid friendship issues, it's now raining, so I can't retake my driver's test. I now have to wait a year to retake it. CURSES.

There is somewhat of a silver lining though. Literally, silver, as in the color of the wallet. In trying to determine whether or not I could rebuy the wallet in Tokyo, I discovered that there are like 17 Marc Jacobs stores spread throughout the city. Why there are so many, God only knows. I also happened to find out who I should e-mail if I were interested in working in one of those stores. I can legally work part-time, 28 hours per week or 8 hours per day (during vacations), according to my handy-dandy International Student's Handbook. Hmm.

On a completely unrelated note, I just exchanged $243 dollars for ¥20000 yen, which is kind of lame because I basically paid $20 more than I should have. I didn't even get small bills, I got two ¥10000 yen bills. Also, it's scary that a few months ago it was roughly ¥100 yen to $1 dollar, and now (as of today) it's ¥90.475 yen to $1 dollar.

FOUR DAYS

   

Wow! In just FOUR DAYS I will be travelling across the world to Japan! I've been preparing for this since the end of Freshman year, and now I cannot believe it's so close. I still have so much to do too! Haven't even started packing, and actually I still need to find a second suitcase.

While I am glad to finally be going, I do think I will miss some aspects of New Orleans. Especially since I reconnected with so many people over the summer. The image in this post is of my street and house, I'm assuming from the 1920s. It's funny how not much as changed aside from landscaping.

Ponyo! ポニョ！

It's funny that I saw this before going to Japan, but highly appropriate. I had read some mediocre reviews, but I was very impressed by the film. The music, the animation, and the story were all well done. While it doesn't compare to the older Ghibli films, it was definitely better than the last few movies released by the studio. My only little qualm was that "Bonus Jonas" and "Miley's Little Sister" had a remixed version of the theme song at the end of the film. Auto-tuning is never acceptable.

GWU

I never would have thought I'd be having second thoughts about studying abroad, but I am really going to miss e'r'one at GW. Spending these past few days in DC has really been a breath of fresh air, and I kind of wish now that I was spending Junior year here.

I am looking forward to Tokyo, though with a kind of nervous excitement. I can't wait to meet new people in Japan, but it scares me that when I return I'll only be going to school for one more year with my friends.

I'll just have to work hard keeping in touch with everyone this year! And make sure not to repeat any of the mistakes from last semester!