robbieinjapan.com

Some of you have been asking for my mailing address here to send me mail, packages, etc. and I’ve finally figured it out, so here it is:

Willing Setagaya #209
2-20-21 Shimouma
Setagaya-ku
Tokyo 154-0002
Japan

So feel free to send your fanmail and packages there. Also, I just got finished responding to all the comments on my last post, so go take a look at the comments section for the previous post to see my response.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve been pretty busy. This past week, we had a very large kanji test. For those of you who don’t know, kanji are the written Japanese characters taken from Chinese. They are the ones that look complex and of which there are thousands. Me, I can read maybe 800-1000 or so and can write considerably less from memory. This is okay though since I have my computer and cell phone which automatically enter the characters in for me when I type in their pronounciation as long as I can recognize which character is the correct one to use. Often, Japanese people themselves have trouble remembering how to write characters especially as computers and cell phones become increasingly common.

Technically, the Japanese government recognizes 1,945 characters that every Japanese person should know to be literate. This means that newspapers and other publications that use characters outside of these 1,945 also write the pronunciation of the characters above them so that people can understand. Children’s books and manga (Japanese comics) often write the pronunciation of every character next to the character since children are still learning how to read. This makes it nice for foreigners like me because I can read these texts without having to know every character and without having to look up the words in a kanji dictionary (which can be annoying)!

Interestingly enough, this means that Japanese people can’t fully read newspapers and other texts until they are in high school. You may think this is annoying to have to learn so many characters and it is. But, there are some advantages I think. For example, if Japanese were written in its phonetic alphabet (the same one used to show the pronounciation of kanji), it would be very difficult to decipher. Perhaps this is because I’m used to reading Japanese with kanji and not accustumed to reading sentences written entirely in this phonetic alphabet, but I think the use of kanji really does make it easier to split up the sentence and understand it, especially since there are no spaces in Japanese. The kanji also lend themselves to their meanings since they are made up of different “radicals”, different parts which have their own meanings. I can look at a kanji I’ve never seen before but say, “oh, this must have something to do with some sort of vehicle” because it has the “vehicle” radical.

Anyway, I had to study roughly 100 kanji for the test which came from the readings we’ve been doing in our textbook. For the test, they gave us sentences and we had to either write the kanji or write the reading/pronunciation of the kanji. There were 25 kanji we had to write and 25 kanji we had to write the reading/prounciations to. I received the test back a couple days ago and I did alright. I got 48/50 because on one character, I switched one of the radicals, writing ??instead of ? for the word ??. If you don’t have Japanese characters installed for your browser, you probably won’t be able to see those characters, but don’t worry. The other point was taken off because I simply didn’t see one of the places where I was supposed to write one of the characters. A shame, too, since it was one of the easier ones to write, and funnily enough, I had gone over my test just for the purpose of making sure I hadn’t missed any places where we were supposed to write characters. Oh well, I suppose I can’t complain about a 48/50!

So recently in class, another one of our projects is that we had to write an 800 character paper which we will later turn into a speech that we will present to the class. The topic of the paper had to be something exemplary of our home country but not very well known. Well, I’ve gone to a Quaker school for 13 years, so I decided to write about Quakerism. I guess technically Quakerism originated in England but I think it’s been around in America long enough to be considered something interesting about my area back in Philadelphia. I actually used this as my speech topic four years ago or so when I was back in America going to Saturday Japanese school. I won first place that time so I figure it must be an interesting topic to Japanese people!

When I was doing research on Quakerism in Japan, I found out that there are actually Quakers here in Tokyo. They apparently meet every Sunday for Meeting for Worship near Keio University’s Mita campus (the campus I go to school at). Also, the person shown sometimes on the 5000 yen bill (Nitobe Inazou) was a Quaker. So I guess Quakerism did have some sort of impact here.

Yesterday after class, I went with some friends from my Japanese class to karaoke. I think most people in America know that karaoke is pretty popular in Asia. It is true, there are karaoke places everywhere. Usually they are multiple floors with many rooms per each floor. I suppose they must make a lot of money. This was my second time going to karaoke. My first time was also with people from my class maybe a few weeks ago. They don’t really have the same thing in America. This past summer when I was in Boston, I went with my friends briefly to a karaoke place, however, it was a place where everybody was in one huge room and there was a live band to play behind you so I suppose it was a bit different. Also, I had to leave with my friends before I had a chance to do a song there.

Usually how it works in Japan is you and your group get a small room with a tv screen, speakers and a couple of microphones. They have thousands of Japanese songs to choose from and also a good selection of English songs, as well. There is also a phone in the room that you can use to order drinks, food, etc.

My friends and I sang mostly Japanese songs though for me, at least, it’s somewhat difficult to read Japanese that quickly in order to keep up with the song! It was fun though and we stayed there for about two hours. Since it was before 7:00 on a Thursday, it was very cheap. 500 yen per person for two hours ($4.31). The first time I went was on a Saturday night pretty late to a really popular karaoke place so it was something like almost 3000 yen per person for 3 hours (close to $25). As you can see, the price varies quite a bit and karaoke’s popularity allows them to charge that much!

It’s not something that just young people do, either. When I was there yesterday with my friends, there weren’t many people since it was a week day and it was early but we did see a group of maybe 8 or so people in their 70s or 80s who were going to do karaoke. Also, when we left and were paying, we noticed a surprising number of people who were there by themselves. Perhaps they were practicing so they could show off to their friends later? I don’t know.

Anyway, for next week, I don’t have classes after Monday because it will be Keio University’s cultural festival, similar to the high school cultural festival I went to a couple weeks ago. So I’m looking forward to that and the small break that I will get. As for now though, I still have to go to class tomorrow on Saturday morning…

So apparently they celebrate Halloween here. Well, somewhat at least. Leading up to October 31st, many stores had signs out that said “Happy Halloween” and there were images of ghosts, witches, etc. just like in the United States. The local florist down the street from my dorm was selling small pumpkins for the holiday.

I say they celebrate it somewhat because there is no trick or treating custom here like there is in America. I think the trick or treating part is the main aspect of the holiday in the United States though I recently read a news article that said more and more people in their teens and 20s are dressing up and throwing parties so perhaps the holiday is shifting to a wider age range now. But anyway, in Japan, the main way it is “celebrated” is by costume parties thrown by young people in cities mostly I think. Even then, not many people do anything for it since I think it is a relatively new holiday for Japan.

I wonder though how something as strange as Halloween was able to make its way half way around the planet to Japan. It originally came to America from Ireland but that was because large groups of immigrants came to America and brought the holiday with them. In Japan, there is no large immigrant population of Americans who bring the holiday with them. So I guess Japanese people simply saw Halloween depicted in American movies or heard about it when studying English and American culture and thought it seemed like a good idea.

In any case, I signed up for a “conversation partner” at Keio University. Basically, they match up foreign students with a Japanese student to practice Japanese conversation. I had my first meeting with my partner the day before Halloween and he invited me to a Halloween party he was throwing. He said it was a costume party but I didn’t have a costume and he said it would be okay to go without one. When I got there though, I noticed that nobody was wearing a costume. Oh well, so much for the “costume” party.

Recently I made a very good purchase I think. I bought an electronic Japanese-English dictionary off of Amazon.co.jp, the Japanese branch of Amazon.com. In class, I realized that my book dictionary wasn’t cutting it. For example, in our reading, we had the sentence: ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? If your browser can’t read Japanese characters, that’s: minamiafurika no aru shuzoku ha, doro wo katame, kusa de yane wo ootte, ie wo tsukutteita. doro no ie ha, taiyoukousen wo sakeru no ni tsugou ga yokattakara dearu. This means something like, “South African tribes make houses by hardening mud and covering the roofs with grass. The reason for this is that for avoiding the rays of the sun, mud houses’ properties are ideal.” My book dictionary doesn’t have words like “solar rays” and so forth, so my new electronic dictionary allows me to actually understand what’s going on in sentences like above.

This was the first time I actually ordered something online to be delivered to my place here in Japan. I think they were having some special since there was an option for overnight shipping for only 300 yen (almost $3). I ordered the dictionary at around 10pm on Tuesday, so I guess they processed the order on Wednesday and shipped it to me then. On Thursday, my phone was buzzed so I picked it up and sure enough, the delivery guy told me he had a package for me. So I told him to wait and I went downstairs, put on my shoes, then went to the door and opened it to sign for it and finally get my dictionary.

It’s nice because not only can I look up Japanese and English words but I can also use it to look up Japanese kanji (characters). I won’t bore you though on how this process is actually done though I will say it involves choosing the radical in the word and counting the strokes.

Also, this past weekend on Thursday and Friday, I went to a koukoubunkasai or a high school culture festival, in English. These are pretty popular in Japan and are done by all high schools and colleges, I believe. It is a time when for a couple of days there is no class, and the students put on various performances and activities usually associated with the clubs they belong to. Keio University also has a bunkasai coming up which is later this month.

The name of the school is Komaba Gakuen…

The high school was actually pretty close to where I lived. It was only one train stop away. The reason I went to this high school was because I know a Japanese high school student who goes there. I met him through one of my other friends here in Tokyo. It was interesting to see a Japanese high school and to see all the kids in their uniforms running around. My friend and I watched various performances in the gymnasium done by the dancing club, gymnastics club and cheerleading club. Their mascot is the “fighting gorillas” apparently.

So the friend who I met the high school friend through is Alex who grew up in America but is half Japanese, half American and is living in Japan currently, working. He can speak fluent Japanese though when people look at him, I don’t think they recognize him as being Japanese or being able to speak Japanese. Of course when they look at me, they don’t expect me to be able to speak Japanese at all. I think we were the only two foreigners there at the high school except for maybe one other guy I saw at the very, very end of the culture festival. We got a lot of looks and kids saying “Harro!” (Hello) to us. Alex actually overheard one girl say to her friends as they passed by, “gaijin ga iru” (There are foreigners here!) and they all looked over.

This is probably caused by the fact that we were at a high school culture festival where they aren’t used to seeing foreigners on the school grounds. Elsewhere in Tokyo, nobody really pays me much attention. When I walk into restaurants, the waiters don’t try to speak to me in English or anything, they speak to me in Japanese the same way as to every other customer. Before I came here, I thought I would get more attention by being a foreigner but it seems that in Tokyo, there are so many foreigners that most Japanese are desensitized to it. Perhaps during my vacation period, I’ll go out further into the country and then we’ll see.

While I was at the festival though, Alex and I were talking to two girls who went to the school, and we were talking about our nationalities and Alex mentioned he was half Japanese and one of the girls said she was, too. She looked full Japanese so we asked her what the other half was and she said her Mom is Mexican. I was so surprised, I asked her if she could speak Spanish and she said yes. So I started speaking to her in Spanish and she was actually pretty good. Interestingly, I didn’t have any trouble switching to full Spanish despite speaking mainly Japanese for a lot of the time that day and of course since I’ve gotten here to Japan. I think I’ve been speaking Spanish for such a long time and at an advanced level that it’s been pretty well stored so I don’t have to worry so much about losing it. It reminds me though of when I was in Mexico and I had been speaking Spanish for most of the time and one of the kids there asked me how to say some particular number in Japanese like 84 or something and I just could not remember how to say it for 5 minutes even though it was one of the first things I learned in Japanese. I think though it had something to do with the fact I pushed Japanese out of my mind while being in Mexico and I’m not used to switching from thinking in Spanish in my head to Japanese. Here in Japan, I have had the opportunity to speak Spanish to a student in my dorm from Argentina, so I’ve had more practice going from Japanese to Spanish.

Anyway, the half Mexican girl and her friend were part of a group doing a haunted house at the culture festival in celebration of Halloween and one of the girls was holding a mask which I thought was pretty funny so I told her to put it on and I took a picture of them.

Actually when I look at the picture now, I can see that she does look half Mexican… I guess at the time I just assumed everyone at the high school was full Japanese.

We also found a room for “America/UK”. The English class at the school had split up and some of the students had gone to Brighton, England and the others had gone to Seattle, USA for a month and did a homestay program there while attending a local high school. They had photographs up and I found the following one pretty funny.

As you can see, it’s labelled “America Taxi”. You can probably tell that it’s not really a taxi by the color. If you look closely, you can see there is white text painted on it. I tried to get this text but it was too small to capture. It basically says things like “Judges Beware!” and other messages about how the American law system is corrupt. I wonder what all of the Japanese high school students think of our “taxis” now… haha, also consider that Japanese taxis have such things as GPS navigational systems and have had doors which automatially open and close for customers since the 80s. Oh, and I suppose most importantly, Japanese taxis have drivers who speak the native language fluently. While taxis in the US are pretty bad, the car in the photo above is even worse!

After the bunkasai on Friday, Alex and I decided to walk around Ikejiriohashi (the name of the place we were in) to get some lunch. We ended up passing by a Domino’s Pizza place. The thing about Japan is that the pizzas are extremely expensive. Most of the large pizzas are priced between 3000 yen and 3500 yen ($26 and $30). Admittedly, they have a lot of interesting toppings on them, but a large pizza in America would never be $30! Even with all the toppings!

That’s one of the main things I miss from America. Pizza. It’s been my favorite food ever since I was a little kid and when I am in America, I usually eat it at least once a week. Here though, it is too expensive and there aren’t many pizza places around so I’ve only eaten it this one time the past month and three weeks.

They definitely have their own idea of pizza here though. For example, I’m looking at one of the menus I took from the Domino’s pizza and on some of the pizzas, it looks like they put raw fish, shrimp, smoked salmon, raw ham, among other things.

Yeah, Alex and I stayed away from those. Besides the fact that those pizzas cost more than $30, it also seems a bit too strange for us. We decided on the “Simple Meat” pizza which had tomoto sauce, cheese, pepporoni, ham and parsley. It also was supposed to come with corn, but I asked for them to leave it off since I didn’t like the thought of corn on my pizza. It cost us 2000 yen for a large which was one of the cheaper pizzas. Actually, they had some sort of special where if you did take out rather than delivery, they took 20% off, so it was actually only 1600 yen (about $14). There were no tables or anywhere to eat there, so we had to take it out. Well, in Tokyo as you know, space is limited and the buildings go right up to the sidewalk which is then right up against the street.

I remembered we had passed a jinjya (a Shinto shrine) a while back so we walked back there and went in. It consisted of a small space with grass, trees, stones and the small shrine where people could go up, throw some money in, pray and then ring the bells. We sat down somewhere and ate the pizza. At some point, one of the guys who worked there or took care of the place came by to move some things and I thought he was going to throw us out but he simply said to pick up our trash when we left. That was nice so I threw in some coins at the shrine. I also took some pictures…

This jinjya was tucked in between high apartment buildings which surrounded it on all sides.

Closer up to the shrine.

I’m not sure why but my camera’s shutter speed slowed down considerably which was leading to blurry pictures. So I thought maybe it just wanted me to turn on the flash and it would go back to a faster speed. It was getting dark out at the time. I took this next photograph with flash but as you can see it is darker than the previous photo probably because I was too far away for the flash to really make much of a difference and the camera probably had different settings for interpreting color when using flash rather than not flash. I included this photo because it gives a different feel of the place.

That’s all for now. I’m planning on taking photographs soon of all my favorite places around my dorm once I get a nice sunny day when I’m free.