大学生活 － Part 3

I meant to write Part 3 a lot sooner, but the past week has been a blur. This is the third and final "大学生活" post. To be honest, creating the title of a blog post (or of any article of writing) seems to be the hardest part. You do not want it to be boring, but at the same time you also do not want it to be cheesy. Clever and relevant is the key. Yikes, now I am just rambling on and on and you guys are probably wondering when the heck I am actually going to be talking about something interesting.

Okay, so if any of you have forgotten, 大学生活 translates to university life. In a previous post, I talked about the importance of student organizations. Before I came to Japan, I was really interested in joining the basketball team here at Sophia. By the time I arrived, the season was almost over and if I decided to join, then I would have to leave before the end of the next season. Plus they practice 5, sometimes 6, days a week. I just do not have the time for that type of commitment. However, there are also several basketball clubs. I was finally able to participate in one of the events, and I have to say I had a fun time. There were some pretty skilled players and some that were just there for fun. I liked the overall atmosphere of the group so I am considering joining.



<=== Mt. Fuji!

This is the view of Mt. Fuji from the roof of my dormitory. The picture was taken just after sunset. I did not actually take this photograph, but mine did not turn out as good as this one did. Although the view of Mt. Fuji is awesome, I actually prefer going up on the roof after dark. I love seeing the night skyline and the lights all around and the trains going by.


Last week, I also had the opportunity to play Futsal for the first time. Futsal is a type of indoor soccer that uses a smaller ball and a smaller playing field. There was about 20 people from the SISEC group that showed up, some played and some just watched. The coolest part about this was that the field was on the roof of a 10 story building. We could see the skyline for miles, it was so incredible. By now you must have figured out that I love city skylines. I was too busy playing Futsal to remember to take any pictures, and I know people love pictures so I will throw in a random photo.


Random
Photo
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This is SISEC. We had just finished drinking at an Izakaya. If you look very carefully you can see me just to the left of the tree in the middle. (If you click on the picture, it should open up another window to get a larger version of the image) I am actually looking away from the camera to my left. If I remember correctly, one person had a little to much to drink and fell to the ground.

Anyway, I have a few midterms this week so I am going to abruptly end my post.

大学生活 - Part 2

Ever since joining the student organization SISEC, I have made a lot of new friends, and have been able to participate in some pretty remarkable events.

This past weekend, I decided to participate in an event hosted by a different student organization known as GL-Net (Global Network.) It is another organization aimed towards communication between Japanese and international students. The event was a day trip to Kamakura, which is roughly 50 km from Tokyo.

Oh yeah, for all the American readers, that is about 30 miles. I have become accustomed to using liters, kilometers, and even the Celsius scale. Living in a country that uses these forms, I have since become dumbfounded as to why the U.S. still uses such bizarre units of measurement.

Anywaaaay, back to the day trip===> Kamakura is famous for its numerous temples and a popular beach. One of the most recognizable places in Kamakura is the temple that hosts a giant buddha statue, known as Daibutsu.

This is me standing about 15 meters (I MEAN 50 FT!!) in front of the Buddha statue.

Oh and before you say anything, I have already had several people ask me if I am getting skinnier, and the answer is yes, I am. Despite eating about 4 times a day, I have lost 10 kilograms (22 pounds) since I have arrived. Although, I think I have finally leveled off and will maintain my current weight.

Back to the Buddha.... Since I had known about this statue/city for years, I am glad I took the time to go on this trip.

The next temple had a traditional Japanese garden in it. This is one of my favorite photos so far. You have to recognize how much time and effort goes into every little detail of these temple designs and gardens, in order to fully appreciate them. If any of you find this interesting, take a look into visiting Anderson Gardens, in Rockford, Illinois. I have been there and it really gives you the feeling of actually being in Japan. Wait, I just realized it is now November. Andersen Gardens is closed and will re-open, late April 2012.

Being in a place like this really makes you feel like you are traveling back in time. I really enjoy learning about world history, and ever since coming to Japan, my interests in history have risen. One of the classes that I am currently enrolled in at Sophia University, is called Japanese Literature. For the past month we have focused our class around The Tale of Genji. It is often described by many scholars as the world's first novel. Of course, I am reading the English translation (although even Japanese people have difficulty reading the original text.)

However, the highlight of my day was something many of you may find pretty boring. I saw the Pacific Ocean. Up until then, I had never seen any ocean with my own eyes (Aside from the window of a plane, 3 seats to the left.)

It is slightly hard to see, but the coastline is behind me.

I have plenty of other pictures and stories about this day trip, so if anyone is interested in hearing more, let me know and we can talk more about it.

Actually, there is more that happened in the past month that I would like to talk about, so I am going to make, my 大学生活 posts into a trilogy.

I will write Part 3 tomorrow....

大学生活 - Part 1

Almost a month since my last post?

I apologize to all of the diehard followers of my blog (bwahaha yeah right.) My excuse is that I am having to much fun to give a hoot about my blog.

Regardless, my life here in Japan is steadily progressing. The words that I used for the title for this post translate to college life. What I have come to realize, is that the most important aspect of college life in Japan revolves around the student organizations that you belong to. To some extent, this is similar in the United States, but I really feel like the students here put their heart and soul into the groups that they are involved in.

Two weeks ago, Sophia University had a three day long school festival. At this festival, many of the students organizations hosted food and beverage booths in order to raise money. There was also a main stage that displayed the talents from various groups like hip-hop dancing, acapella, and many others.

While it was nice that I had 3 days off from school, helping with the festival was hard work. Ever since joining SISEC, I have been involved in weekly meetings and events. For the school festival we hosted a booth selling tapioca. I help all three days with setting up the tent, decorations, and selling the tapioca. We were very successful, selling roughly 3000 units in 3 days. We completely sold out before the end of each day.

Aside from helping out selling tapioca, I also had the chance to try many of the foods and beverages that other groups were selling. At the end of the third day we all went to an izakaya to celebrate a job well done.

Izakaya is the most common type of drinking establishment here in Japan. The one we went to, had about a $25 entrance fee. Sounds pricey, but actually it was a great deal. For 3 hours it was all you can drink, and they constantly bring you food to snack on. Actually, it was more like a feast. The tables were really low to the ground but the floor is recessed so I could still put my legs under the tables.

Wow, sorry to suddenly change the subject, but I forgot to talk about Halloween. I felt like a kid all over again this year during Halloween. For my costume I combined the mask from the immortals in the movie "300" and the outfit of the grim reaper. The readers who already have me added on Facebook have probably already seen a hundred photos of me in this costume, but for those of you who don't....

Yes, this is me, and yes I am at a convenience store reading a manga (comic book).

To start out the night, my dorm hosted a Halloween party. We all had food and drinks and then some of us did a tour of the neighborhood. I had a fun time scaring people, and just casually decided to read some manga, while the store attendants watched in horror.

At around 11 PM, I hopped on the train, still wearing my costume, and headed towards Shibuya to meet up with some people and then go to a club for a night of dancing. Halloween in Japan does not have as many participants as back in the States, so as I walked through the train stations I received the stares of petrified pedestrians. Not everyone was freaked out, because every few minutes or so, some random people wanted to take a picture with me. Most of the time, people would ask me to take off my mask to see my face, and when I did they were almost more shocked to see that I was a foreigner than actually seeing me in a mask.....ha.ha.haaa...

A little after midnight, I arrived in Shibuya and met up with my friends and then we headed to Club Asia. The headlining event at the club was a performance by Yasutaka Nakata, who is a member of the electronic duo Capsule, and the producer of one of the biggest pop groups in Japan called Perfume. There was also a female hip-hop/pop duo, called HaliCali, that performed and I managed to get front row. The club was packed and the music was great.

There is still a lot that has happened over the past month that I want to talk about, but I got homework to do, so I am going to write a part 2 tomorrow....

To be continued....