My fellow exchange student, the aussie, had invited me to go watch a football game with him and his host mother. I'm talking of a football game here, not that pansy rugby-with-armour Americans play.

We arrived at the station to see the stadium looming before us, and as we walked out, some crazy university student ran at us waving her hands and shouting "Hellooo!!". We though she couldn't possibly be shouting that to us, and mostly ignored her, immediately afterwards wandering what the hell that was. It might seem obvious she was greeting someone else, but from my experience at the Tokyo university festival Japanese university students occasionally do that kind of stuff. At the stadium we were assaulted again, this time by supporters of the two opposing sides, Keio university and Wasuda university, who did their best to make us buy their cheering equipment and support their team. Apparently my friend's host mum had some reason to support Keio, so we went with her judgement, and each bought a pair of inflatable sticks which to whack against each other.

The game started with some formalities such as singing the schools' songs, and presenting the flags of the opposing sides. The first half started well, with Keio scoring two goals in a row, and we stood up and joined arms to sway and cheer and gloat. From then on it was downhill, with Wasuda scoring two goals before the half was over, and our cheerleaders vanishing mysteriously.

Luckily they reappeared for a show during the half time, at the end of which the guys in front of us shouted: "Arigatoo!!!" They were too late to save the day though, as during the final moments of the game Wasuda scored another goal. Despite 3 minutes extra time, the end result was defeat, leaving us sobbing miserably with the Keio university students.

I went two other exchange students, one from Hungary and one from Germany, the Aussie's host mum, who has turned out to be a very kind person always willing to take us to interesting places, and a person who I recall being the host mum of either the Hungarian or German.

Inside the university we were assaulted by friendly university students, no doubt attracting even more attention that usual with three foreigners in Japanese school uniform. In typical Japanese festival style, there was a wealth of stalls selling your typical Japanese festival foods, from octopus balls to okonomiyaki to a crushed iced slushy type thing.

We wandered on, following the sound of drums, and ended up at a Taiko show. 

Unfortunately, and quite predictably, the sound really doesn't convey the booming awesomeness of the thing. I've heard Taiko from a CD before, and wasn't interested for too long, but it really is superb live.

Next we found a crazy dance being performed by some university students, and some old very professory looking foreigner.

Finally, we walked into the famous silhouette of Tokyo university, where we found a bunch of Japanese rascals playing music which might have been good were it not for the side motive of trying to make anyone who dared go within a hundred metres deaf.

We saw a curious scene around this policeman. A somewhat old, bald man with kanji written on his face and eyebrows thickened with what seemed like felt tip first shoved at my friend and then entered the taped off area. The officer in the picture dragged him back and threw him beside a wall, where he continued to lie clutching his cell phone. 

Nevertheless we continued our sightseeing in the electric town, somewhat hindered by the size of the crimescene, apart from which, Akihabara seemed to be fairly normal. I did notice a larger amount of cosplayers than usual though. Lunch was had at Mos Burger, a Japanese style burger restaurant which serves Japanese size yet exceedingly good burgers.

After sufficient wandering and wondering, we headed to Harajuku, for I think that no Sunday in Tokyo is complete without a tour of the day's eccentrics.

The eccentric population was particularly high today. Perhaps it is better to visit later in the afternoon.

 
I usually try to ask for permission to take a picture as well as whether or not I can post it on the internet, which makes taking pictures sometimes difficult due to the amount of tourists.

Voter apathy is common in Japan, and because (if I correctly recall) Japanese campaign law forbids the use of the internet at a campaigning tool, candidates blast their messages from on top of vans like these. Generally you only see a few, usually older people, listening to them.

On our way back home we stopped at Shibuya, where we found a large crowd gathered outside a magazine store. We thought there might be a famous person, but moved on for a visit to my favourite arcade and the Shibuya Apple Store. When we returned however, we tried to see what all the fuss was about; some famous model apparently. Just as I had manouvered myself to one side of the crowd, the model pushed through the crowd with her bodyguards, running right past me. I had my camera on hand, but it was all over far too soon.

During my stay here I have only seen two other exchange students since the initial orientation, an Australian and a Dutch fellow, whose English speaking host mum had kindly offered to take us to Kamakura for the end of the weekend. We spent Saturday night at her house, haunted by her promise of a Zen Buddhist meditation session early next morning. "You guys can sit in Sazen (sitting on your knees) ok right?" she said. "Yes, but it does usually involve a never before experienced world of pain and suffering." we said. Unfortunately her Japanese mind (and knees) were unable to comprehend the doom she was sending us hapless gaijin into.

We woke up at 5:30 and hopped in the car, a form a transport which felt quite odd with the almost always more convenient option of taking a train. Arriving at the relatively small temple I really appreciated it's genuine beauty, the genuine monks cleaning the entrance (makes for a very "tempely" atmosphere) and the absence of tourists, most likely driven out by the rain or uninterested in the perhaps relatively insignificant temple.

The temple as viewed from it's garden.

This is a picture of where we meditated, though I don't really feel it conveys the atmosphere I experienced, probably because I didn't get the lighting settings on my camera right.

Outside the temple we took of our shoes and went inside, where we put on a hakama, before seating ourselves in what appeared to be a "waiting corridor" of some sort, looking out into the temple garden. Luckily it turned out we had cushions to sit on, significantly more comfortable than the wooden floor of Kendo practice. Finally we seated ourselves in the main room, having first been taught how to enter correctly, with some other Japanese and a French backpacker. The whole lesson lasted for about two and a half hours, which included pauses for instruction and practice on various aspects such as posture, breathing and concentration.

Despite the cushion, it was predictably painful. I tried to relax and just sit on top of my legs, hoping I would either get used to it or my legs would go numb. Numb they went, as I realised when I could no longer move my toes nor feel anything when I tried them during a pause in the meditation. Possibly the most painful part of the whole ordeal was practicing a cross legged position after my legs had been numb for a long time. This posture required getting up and shifting the cushions around, which was amusing yet difficult as I shuffled my two useless lumps of flesh, formerly legs, off the cushion; never before had my legs been so utterly numb. And never before had I experienced such furious pins and needles in my feet as the blood started to flow again in the cross legged position. Previously I could not have thought possible that the sensation could reach such levels of pain, it was like someone was peeling the skin off my feet and clawing at them with their nails. Soon the cross legged posture had my legs numb again.

Apart from the pain, it was, as far as meditation sessions go, a very interesting and real experience, and the memory still brings the sound of the rain outside and the appropriately tranquil atmosphere. Of course this is all looking back on it, and frankly I won't be needing another meditation session too soon. My exchange student friend's host mum was completely enthralled by the whole experience, while us gaijin were happy congratulating each other on surviving, and comparing the curious forms of pain we experienced. Nevertheless, I'm extremely glad I participated and I think it was the most interesting part of the visit, and definitely the one I will most remember.

Before leaving we took a stroll around the temple garden.

Bamboo. 

The graves of a very important historical Japanese family the name of which I forget. Apparently, after completely destroying their rival family to the last member, they became afraid of their malevolent spirits, and thus built a load of temples to appease them.  

Next it was time for a lunch of tempura soba before heading off to our first big temple. This one had other tourists as well.

This is the path to the temple between two roads. Apparently in ye olden times people would stick to either side of the path, its centre being reserved for the gods. Note how one of the statues has its mouth closed and the other has it open, that has some deep symbolic meaning too but I forget. 

Check out those American tourists getting excercise! Har har har, ain't I funny?

Those are barrels full of sake donated to the temple. There's the real secret to meditation folks, and who put their finger into my photo anyway? One of the particularly interesting things about this temple were the fortune telling machines. Shiny white metal boxes into which you pop a coin and get your fortune. I preferred to get it done the traditional way, letting a temple girl take my money and give me my fortune. Apparently my plans for marriage are doomed. Damn, my uncle had asked me to bring back a nice submissive Japanese wife to balance out for our family's women who seem to be getting a bit too modern.

 
At the temple we also bumped into a wedding ceremony between a Korean and Japanese couple, and were thus able to hear some traditional instruments being played as they came in.

The next temple was more spectacular, situated on a hill with a view of the Pacific Ocean. The first level of a temple was a beautiful garden, apparently an attempt by its creators to recreate heaven. Now that's ambitious.

The next level up was full of these little statues. Apparently each one of these represents a baby that didn't make it out alive... 

Tucked in the corner was this graveyard. 

At last the actual temple. Inside was a big statue of a buddha but you weren't allowed to take pictures of it.

You could follow another path a bit higher to look at the temple rooves.

The day was drawing to a close with only one more place to visit. A huge statue of a Buddha that was once inside a large temple, the only thing recovered after a tsunami.

Before the tsunami it was covered in gold leaf, the remnants of which you can just see up close in some of the crevices. 

With the day's sightseeing done, we headed back to the hotel for a nice bath and a very exciting time watching a ridiculously close game of women's volleyball in which Japan lost to Serbia by one point. You wouldn't believe how disappointing it was.

The next day we headed to Enoshima island via the Enoden, a famous local train line.

The island was fairly touristy, but there were plenty of street vendors selling various marine delectables. We had lunch in a nice alley restaurant. This time I had cold udon tempura, perfect for a hot summer's day. For desert I had an small ball of ice cream and anko (Japanese sweet red bean paste.) in a thin waffle. Then, after a short walk it was time to head back home.

On the way back we played "I spy with my little eye." in the car, and despite the protests of the Australian fellow and I, the host mum insisted on sharing the chocolate by giving a piece each time to the person who guessed correctly. This, naturally, ended up in me and the Australian giving each other very obvious clues and essentially passing the chocolate between the two us, while the other two were completely ignorant of our little scheming, despite our frankly atrocious acting: "Oh wow! How did you guess?" Not even the Australian's monstrous blunder when he pointed at his eye for me and then said "...something beginning with 'i'." to which I quite innocently asked "Don't you mean 'e'?" "Err... yes." Hysterical laughter followed, but our poor victims we're still in the dark. We were going to tell them about it, but thought it safest not to.

For those of you studying Japanese or planning to study, what that post doesn't mention is the book I used: Japanese For Busy People I. I didn't exaclty "choose" the book, it was simply required for the course. However, despite the sometimes annoyingly obvious orientation towards business people, I found it a very good book to study by. Having now studied with Book II of the series, I can say there is a lot less vocabulary directed specifically towards business people, although that may also be due to my Book II being a newer edition than my Book I.

Book I I studied completely in Finland, and it laid a good base for getting to grips with the language. Book I introduced no kanji whatsoever, only hiragana and katakana. What I really liked about it in comparison to other methods I have seen is that the language is immediately useful, rather than the "A cat exists." kind of sentences all to common with beginning Japanese. It also does a good job of familiarising you with the somewhat unusual word order for sentences. Book II then I feel, really opens up the language, going into a variety of useful grammar and acquainting you very well with the -te -ta and other plain forms as well as the ways in which they can be used. It also includes practice for 160 kanji.

One reason the series receive my seal of approval is because I have been able to compare it to the teaching method issued to exchange students by YFU, my exchange program. This system, the "Kumon" involves the student ploughing through piles and piles of repetitive work sheets, which are then sent to a teacher by post for checking, and who then sends you a new set of worksheets. I gave the system a good try, but the repetitiveness is exceedingly de-motivating, and the system lacked a coherent way of teaching grammar, instead providing some tantalising tidbits in the corner of the page regarding some new little thing you were just presented. It's also quite annoying having the occasional exercise in tracing hiragana when you're at my level. The series also had a habit of having exactly the same text for about 20 worksheets in a row on which the exercises were based. Most of my fellow exchange students didn't bring any study material, but the fact that they have gone to buy new textbooks from Japanese bookstores is a testament to the failure of Kumon. So, now you know one way you shouldn't study.

As you probably expect, my Japanese has improved ridiculously during the time I've been here, something I would put down to about three reasons. First is that I've stuck to the same studying method for most of the time, which has allowed me to make steady progress into more complex grammar rather than floundering in the basics. I think this is actually a very important point, because if you change your method of study it is likely that the other method teaches things in a slightly different order. This means you will either not be able to full understand everything you study with your new method, or you will find that it teaches you things you already know.

The second reason is that I am not expected to participate properly during lessons at school, because obviously I have no hope of studying chemistry in Japanese. This means that I can have as many as four or five hours a day to simply study Japanese. Personally I am always happy to study on my own, because it allows me to take time doing things I find difficult and not linger on things I find easy. It also means I can study in a way which I know works for me, rather than in a way the teacher insists will work for me. The grim truth is also that you cannot really hope to "absorb" grammar from conversation and listening to people around you, not very quickly anyway. Rather I have noticed that studying grammar for a few hours and then putting it into use as soon as possible is by far the quicker way. I for example barely noticed the difference between the words 'shaberu' and 'shaberareru' before I read from my book that the other means "speak" an the other "can speak".

At school I also have so called "private lessons" with idle teachers. These are exceedingly useful when used as conversational practice, especially as the teacher can point out any mistakes I make and, should they speak English, I can ask them on vocabulary. And despite living here my chances for a solid hour of conversation are not particularly high. Occasionally though, especially at the beginning, the teacher might insist on grammar, in which case I would waste my time writing something simple like interrogative sentences, something I would have thought they knew I was able to do on account of having asked them questions in Japanese.

The third reason for my drastic improvement is the most obvious: I live in Japan, go to a Japanese school and stay at a family which speaks only Japanese. When I came to Japan I could not wait to practice the little Japanese I already knew, and while my initial efforts often floundered miserably, I was not at all shy about trying my best. But once again you cannot really hope to magically absorb speaking skills either, you simply have to pluck up the courage and use what you know to talk to people. I know this is much more difficult to some than it is the others, but I cannot imagine another better way. Although I said grammar is difficult to learn merely through listening to others, speaking with people, especially ones who are patient and interested is a great way to pick up vocabulary and learn to understand and to speak more colloquial language. Not to mention that being able to substitute the textbook's speaking exercises with real world conversation and being able to put newly learnt grammar straight to use also makes advancing through the textbook that much faster.

It might seem from what I have said that the only way to learn Japanese is to come here, which may be true should you wish fluency. However, I can also say that I was thankful for every single hour of studying I did in Finland, and that I would not have wished to begin my studies in Japan. In the same way I can tell everyone studying Japanese that the more effort you put into it the easier it will when or if you ever have the chance to visit Japan and practice your language. I also cannot imagine any better motivation for Japanese studying than the rewarding feeling of being able to put that studying to use.

___________________

In other news, I am leaving tomorrow for a four day trip to Kamakura to check out some temples, so look forward to a nice big update and plenty of pictures. If you have questions about my post on Japanese feel free to ask, and don't hesitate to tell me if there is something I should have written more about. 

Monday afternoon at school provided us with the abrupt entertainment of watching the outside PE classes scurry for shelter from a furious rain shower. Little did I know then that this was only an appetizer for the weather to come. Later that evening after dinner, the rain began, and continued hammering the windows all through the night.

In the morning I woke up to the same rain, strong as ever. It was incredible how much water I had on me after a short skip between my host family's two houses for breakfast. Never in Finland had I experienced rain as strong as this. As I walked to the station my shoes were immediately soaked and the rain was making a huge racket on the umbrella. 'God I hope the wind doesn't pick up and drive the rain sideways.' I though. On the train on my way to school then I saw trees swaying frantically in the wind. Sure enough, during the wet but nevertheless quite exciting walk to school my umbrella collapsed into a tangle of metal and plastic.

At school all classes were delayed for an hour while we waited for late teachers to come to school. Unfortunately all four train lines I take to school were operating as normal, if somewhat more crowded than usual. The rain continued throughout to the early afternoon, until which the school scallywags had a field day opening the windows of our classroom (on the fourth floor) and sending everyone's papers flying while the curtains flapped wildly.

Here's some folks waiting for the lessons to start while they dry their clothes. The rest of the day was hot, sunny and oddly humid. Apparently a typhoon this time of year is quite a freak occurrence, with most of them occurring around September. As a big fan of novel weather however I'm certainly not complaining.

On another note, now that I've got these current events related posts out of the way I'll be writing a proper post about what it has been like learning the Japanese language and my experiences of it here.

The "saloon" was just around the corner, and I had brought along a silly little picture on my cell phone to aid the... what do you call em? Haircutter? Stylist? First my hair was washed, something which wouldn't really be worth mentioning were it not for the silly little tissue paper they placed carefully over my eyes, presumably to stop any stray droplets of water. The absurdity almost had me laughing. After my hair had been washed the haircutter/stylist/hairwasher said "Otsukaresama desu" which pretty much means "Good job", something usually said to your pals after some hard excercise or a day's work. Despite knowing that this was just another quirk of the Japanese service industry treating the customer as a god, the slightest patience of whom is to be praised, it did feel oddly patronizing, especially as all the other staff also congratulate you on bothering with the difficult task of letting someone wash your hair.

The best thing however, was that at one point the main haircutter/stylist fetched a cute young girl to give me a head, shoulders and upper back massage, which was a exceedingly pleasant surprise, as there is nothing like this in Finland that I know of. The price of the whole shebang was also only around 2200 yen if I recall (Do your own calculations.), almost half as cheap as the the place I usually went to in Finland, with results as good if not better. I also no longer see why you should bother going to Akihabara to pay much more to have your fingers massaged by a girl in a maid outfit when you can get a perfectly satisfying, proper massage from a perfectly good looking girl at your local hair salon, with a complimentary haircut thrown in.

...and that is probably the longest bit of writing I will ever do about me getting a haircut. 

Now however, I have two weeks with loads of free time. This is because it is now the week before test week at my school, and all clubs are taking a break, including the Kendo club. Next week, test week, is also club free, with every day ending at 11:40 so those poor Japanese students can go study all day and all night. Last Sunday then I wen't to Harajuku once more, the previous Sunday having been a YFU orientation day.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera's memory card at home, so I only had the camera's internal memory. This would have been suffice had I realised how to decrease the whopping resolution of the pictures, but try as I might I could not figure it out, which meant I could only take so many pictures. Only upon returning home did I realise I could have taken pictures with my perfectly adequate mobile phone camera. At home I also figured out how to change the resolution after about three seconds of fidgeting. God damn I hate being an idiot sometimes...

Unfortunately I don't real have pictures of the eccentrics today, as they were all gathered in the shady corner being oggled by an annoying number of tourists with huge cameras. Whenever any of them would pose some fat american (Don't you just love how nobody cares about prejudice against American tourists?) would shove in so their friend could take a picture. So instead I headed off to Yoyogi park for the first time, and bumbed into some of these fellows.

Another of Harajuku's Sunday spectacles is the congregation of so called "rockabillys", who dress up in leather, do their hair and put on a show. I had heard of these guys before and I wasn't expecting it to be very good, but I actually found them to be brilliant entertainament.

I swear it didn't even sway in the wind. 

And what better car for these eccentric scallywags than a pink cadillac? 

From there a followed a path on the left of the park which was crowded with lots of bands, most of them quite good. (Unlike the not-quite-so-skiled rapper I saw outside Shibuya station; felt a bit sorry for him when he said thank you into the microphone even though nobody even gave him a glance... then I found it amusing.) The interesting thing was that there would occasionally be two bands right next to each other, playing at the same time, which it seems results in a discreet yet furious battle with some volume knobs. I know my right ear was bleeding after passing them.
A nice band composed entirely of drums and barrels.

 
Also found these hippies painting the canvas for their new peace tent. 

 
Yoyogi park seems like a great place to go for a picnic, hard to believe a place like this exists in the middle of Tokyo. 

And finally I bumped into these girls on the bridge on my way back. Needless to say I made the most of their offer. As did a tall nerdy fellow who sort of stood in front of them with a petrified look on his face until one of the girls hugged him nervously while he stood there with his arms straight.

Wandered around the bit taking some pictures and looking around stores. If you're a big fan of of anime/manga you will find so much here. There are loads of shops large and small with all sorts of otaku goodies and electronics. Some of the stores have many floors as well, one which I went to had about seven if I correctly recall.

Some magazines from the said store. I really think it's quite extraordinary how manga and anime appeals so much to males with its cuteness. You could say it's breaking free from gender stereotypes, or you might think it's just the product of the sick fantasies of sweaty nerds. I know I have readers to support both views so it would be great to hear your ideas on this.

The shop's adult section, not going there (not with my give away high schooler's uniform anyway.) It wasn't really isolated at all from the rest of the shop, there was just a sign on the wall telling you to stop if you were under 18.

Most people familiar with Japan will know that Akihabara is famous for its "Maid Cafes", which are essentialy somewhat expensive cafes where you are served by cute girls dressed as maids. You would imagine these places are full of socially challenged otaku, and you could be right, but upon stumbling upon the one advertised above (yes! I just happened to find it,) I was surprised to notice the long que to get inside was at least a third females, with many of the guys looking perfectly normal. Japan is funny in the way that it isn't that definite whether things like this are targeted towards guys who want to see pretty girls, or towards women who want to see cute girls.

This cafe was in a random building I decided to walk into, a building which was just bursting with interesting and occasionally pointless stuff. The only way to go up the floors was up a cramped escalator. Occasionally the top of the escalator would be so crowded you wouldn't have space to get off, which was interesting because the escalator didn't slow down to compensate.

I was relieved to find out that my insecurities about being the only one with an unnatural love of pirates we're unfounded. 

In the same building, I think I know some people who would go crazy for this stuff.

Check out the Akihabara gallery for a few more pictures.

For the non-japanophiles who read my blog, Harajuku is one of the better known places in Tokyo, the Harajuku bridge and the eccentricly dressed teenagers that frequent it being particularly well known through their occasional appearance in foreign media (and Gwen Stefani's music video.) It is also right next to Yoyogi park, the Meijijingu shrine and the fashionable Omotesando shopping street.

The second major street is the alley-like Takeshitadôri, which is more popular among young people, with plenty of clothing shops catering to youth fashions and subcultures such as Gothloli and the like. For some reason it also has loads of stalls selling crepes, rolled up into cones and filled with ice cream, chocolate, fruits, berries, cheesecake, cheese (note the difference) or even prosciutto ham if you fancy a savory option. 

Check out which country's design brand is on Harajuku Fashion Joyboard 11, heh heh.

Everything is happening in Japan! Have you bumped into a skateboarding dog recently? The dog would put his/her front paws on the board, push it for some speed and then hop on. Unfortunately this is the only picture I have with "Harajuku Girls" in it, but I will be sure to put up more soon (next Sunday.)

As in the future I will probably be taking many photos around Tokyo, I've decided to organise my photo gallery regionally, with all new photos going to their respective categories. From now on I will also tag all the articles that go with the photos with "Harajuku Photos" and so on so that you can easily find commentary for the photos as well. I've also put up some pictures of my visit to Akihabara, will write on that later ^^