三田祭 Vacation: Kamakura （鎌倉), Shimokitazawa (下北沢）, and more of Tokyo...

I just uploaded additional random photos from my past couple of weekends on facebook, and realized that I've hit photo 100 in my "Hanging out in Tokyo" album. Sitting here in my tiny little room not even 200 square feet, and after keeping myself way too busy for the past couple of weeks (not sure how!), I've finally had time to organize my photos from these trips and the meetups, and reflect! (How deep. Very Janice like :P)

So, two weeks ago it was Mita-sai. So in a nutshell, every university has a little festival celebrating itself every year. So Meiji university has "Meiji fest", and Waseda university has "Waseda fest." I'm not sure whether it's a Keio-specific thing, but Keio has multiple campuses (so Mita, Hyoshi, and a few others), and they seem to organize these festivals by campus. So, hence the concept of "Mita-sai" or Mita festival. But if you were to ask me what they do at these festivals, my answer would be "eat, hit on girls, and chill." Seriously - I was told by many fellow Keio students to avoid the festival at all because it's just a zoo in there. But I caught glimpses of it when I went for a free concert at Mita campus, and thought that it's basically a smaller version of Richmond night market (with just the food part, and none of the selling of the cheap "made in China" useless gadgets and / or Hello Kitty toys). :)

Anyway, so thanks to Mita-sai, I got a whole week of vacation two weeks ago and took the opportunity to do a little bit of travelling and exploring. So the first day of Mita-sai vacation, I went with my dorm mate to Kamakura. Again, incorporating a little bit of wiki-intelligence in my not so sophisticated blog, Kamakura used to be the capital of Japan during the Kamakura shogunate, from 1185-1333. So, it's definitely a city with a lot of history to it.

As a Christian, it's actually really hard to get overly-hyped up about visiting temples, but unfortunately, that's what you basically see all over Japan. Anyhow, we went and visited an (apparently) famous temple (I forget the name), had an amazing ramen for lunch (the soup was yuzu-based. yuzu is basically an asian grapefruit...), and stubbornly went to the beach despite the fact that it was pouring and super windy that day.

Kamakura's right along the edge of Japan so we really wanted to enjoy afternoon tea right by the ocean...and despite the fact that our umbrellas were literally breaking apart from the wind and rain, we insisted on visiting the coffee shop that we picked out from the touristy book. That's quite some persistence right there! I really thought I was going to catch on to a second cold that afternoon - but thankfully I didn't!

In Kamakura-area, there's a little island called "Enoshima", and it's quite a romantic spot cause you can walk over to the island via a little bridge while looking off into the ocean with the sun setting in the background. Ah romantic indeed. But there was no romance for me. Oh well, next time maybe!

It was beautiful. The sunset was amazingly stunning.

Even though there was no romance for me that day, my dormmate and I picked up a bottle of red wine on our way home, and she made a delicious beef stew for the both of us. It was a good day nevertheless. For interested travellers, Kamakura is about 30 minutes away from Yokohama station, and I highly recommend for those that like history, culture, and natural scenery!

Couple days after our Kamakura-trip, we went to Shimokitazawa. I know - the names are such a mouth-full! Shimokitazawa is a little town four stops away from Shibuya in Tokyo. It's a very neighborhoody part of town, with lots of little boutique-y stores targetting the younger crowd. I like it a lot as a shopping spot, as I find some of the more famous stations, Shibuya, and Shinjuku are either a) too pricey therefore I can't afford anything or b) the fashion's too CRAZY-O. So as much as I think Tokyo has way too many shopping destinations, I haven't found a good place that I like walking around for my own personal pleasure until I visited Shimokitazawa for the first time.

But more importantly, I literally felt like I had so much food that day, it terrifies me to recollect what I had.

Quick run down of the food list that day:

1) taiyaki : Japanese pastry that's shaped as a fish with, depending on what you want, custard, red bean, etc in it

2) niku nigiri : so a piece of meat wrapped around grilled rice ball (okay i'm not making the food sound very appetizing) -->

3) gyoza : <--

4) at izayaka: i think at least 20 skewers (between the two of us), and beer. it was this super duper ghetto place at the corner of the street, with an open store front packed with smoking middle-age salary men and foreigners with Japanese friends...emphasizing the latter part. So we were brave to even have tried walking in there -->

5) chestnut waffle : so yummmmmmmmm <--

Don't judge me now!!! A girl's still got to eat, and I hardly ate that day during the day (deliberately). :P

And apart from these two little trips, I have had many guests visit me from New York this past two weeks. Pretending to be the "Tokyo-insider" that I am not to my New Yorker friends has not been easy. But thanks to them I finally have seen parts of Harajuku and Omotesando that I haven't seen, experienced the craziest izakaya experience ever, and checked out where they filmed "Lost in Translation" at the Park Hyatt. :)

I realize that my blog entry is getting a tad too long - but just have to share one last thing!!! So I was walking around with my New York friends two weeks ago, and they found this izakaya place in Roppongi called "Inakaya-ya". When we walked in, we saw these two men in the traditional Japanese uniform, sitting behind a grill with all the various vegetables, meats, and seafood laid out right in front of you. To order, you had to talk to them and say "I want three skewers of beef, two plates of shitake, etc." What's even MORE cool, is that after they've grilled it, they'll hand it to you via this super-duper big and long "pedal-like" scoop with the finished products on it as we were all seated around these two guys. It was definitely one of the coolest experiences I have had so far in Japan, but of course, spectacles such as these do not come at a small price!

Life in Japan : 慶早戦、日光、そして日本での色々

Sorry that it's been a while since my last posting - but it's been an interesting few couple of weeks and I'd like to share my experiences with you!

慶早戦　(Keio vs. Waseda ) http://picasaweb.google.com/janice.in.japan/102009KeioVsWaseda##

Two Saturdays ago, I went to my first college baseball game here in Japan with all my friends from my dorm. In Japan, there's what's called the Tokyo Big6 Baseball league. According to our trustworthy, handy-dandy Wikipedia, the six universities are Hosei, Keio, Meiji, Rikkyo, University of Tokyo, and Waseda, and before the establishment of Nippon Professional Bseball, the Big6 League was largely considered the highest level of baseball in Japan. Okay, that's enough wiki for today! :)

The ongoing rivalry between Keio and Waseda is highlighted by what's more commonly known as "早慶戦” (Soukeisen), but given that I'm a Keio student, we call it "慶早戦" (Keisousen). However, we all went to the game that day assuming Keio would probably lose because Waseda's known for the strength of their baseball team (not sure what Keio's known for?...apparently Keio's known for rich and hot boys. there's actually the term "keio boys" haha! have yet to discover whether that's true though :P) Anyways, got carried away. The reason being Waseda would admit students based on their athletic abilities, whereas Keio does not - i.e. you need to be smart to get in, and if you happen to like sports as well, go play sports. Apparently. Either way it sounded like an excuse to me because Keio was the chronic loser, but regardless, it was quite a spectacle for sure!

According to the ojisan that sat beside me (yes, I have a tendency to start talking to anyone within 2 metre radius around me), in Japan, there's a very special "応援の文化”aka "The Art of Cheering" that one needs to adhere to. The pride exhibited by both schools in each respective section was truly spectacular. I mean, I've been to yankees game (and yes, not a Mets game), Canucks games, and what else...maybe that's it - and of course, you feel the passion of the crowd cheering for either team. But the passion and energy demonstrated that day far surpassed anything that I've experienced to date!

To kick of the games, each school had to sing their own anthem. And what's truly honorable (or so I think), in the beginning, I heard towards the end of Keio's song and dance, we chanted "Waseda gambattekudasai". So I asked the ojisan beside me - cause I thought I heard it wrong - and apparently, in Japan, in addition to cheering for your own team, you need to cheer for your competitor as well. I guess you could call that being honorable?

Furthermore, in addition to having a little band equipped with drums, trumpets, and trombones, etc, there were cheerleaders doing their little song and dance, and boys dressed in uniforms running around (all over the place) directing the crowd on how to cheer at each particular moment. Notable practices included the need to stand for the duration of the time that your team was batting, and cheer for each batter using the directed chants. Things like "Fight Fight, Hit Hit, Waseda wo taose". Some of the English chants didn't really make a lot of sense to me - but whatever!

Also, everytime our university scored, we had to put our arms over the shoulders of our neighbors, and sing our Keio song together. It was the first time since I've been here that I've felt Keio pride. Keio scored 11 points that day, so I sang the (bloody) Keio song 11 times. Keio literally crushed Waseda that day, and won an impressive victory (11 to 2). Throughout the game, we kept on singing " 早稲田を倒せ” or "Waseda wo taose" meaning "Let's beat Waseda" and Keio did it! Woohoo to Keio!

日本 is 日光 http://picasaweb.google.com/janice.in.japan/112009Nikko#

It was "Culture Day" last Tuesday, so I took a trip to Nikko with my dormmate, Christina, and we stayed overnight at a neighboring hot spring town called Kinugawa.

Both of us didn't want to stress out over visiting every possible scenic attraction possible, and wanted to take a leisurely approach to our first trip out of Tokyo, and as such we left for Nikko Tuesday morning by heading over to Asakusa station to take the direct train to Nikko.

The temperature (out of the blue) fell to about 0 degrees celsius that day (I think) so it was surprisingly cold when we got to Nikko. As such, even though I thought I was equipped with my hat and scarf and big puffy jacket that I brought with me from New York, I was definitely freezing my butt off that day!

Our first stop that day was Lake Chusenji and Kegon Waterfalls. These scenic points are situated in "Oku-nikko", about 50 minutes by bus from Nikko. The bus had to travel through what's called the "iroha-zaka winding road" whereby there's 48 sharp curves to get to Lake Chusenji. Coincidentally, according to one of the touristy books that I read, there's 48 sounds in the Japanese language, and as such iroha-zaka has special meaning to the Japanese.

When we finally made to Lake Chusenji, it was mid afternoon already, and when we stepped out of the bus, it started snowing! Holy smokes. The natural scenery of the Kegon waterfalls, and Lake Chusenji was really serene. It was nice to get out of the city and enjoy the beauty of the outdoors. And of course, one cannot forget 紅葉 (kouyou), but seriously, I've gotten my fair share of beautiful leaves in Vancouver during the fall (and of course, the fun task of clearing the drive way) so really wasn't feeling too warm and fuzzy towards the leaves.

We stayed at 鬼怒川 (Kinugawa), a famous hot spring destination a few stations away from Nikko that evening. In the past, whenever I stayed at a hot spring ryokan, there's usually a little vibrant town around it, with many little souvenir shops lined up around all over the place, with pockets of restaurants and cafes all over the place. But not so at Kinugawa! It was literally dead quiet at night, with hardly any stores open and even though we searched high and low in the surrounding area, we were only able to find one ramen place that was open at like (freaking) 8 p.m. at night! So I had this saying, that the city "Kinugawa" is so boring that even the ghosts there would get mad! (If you break out the chinese characters of Kinugawa, you'll get what I mean! ;))

The following day, we visited world heritage, Toshogu - this shrine / palace? (i dunno) - anyway this building that is glittering with gold on the outside. Apparently, it's what the Tokugawa Shogunate built for himself...I don't know my history so I'm going to leave this at that!

It was a fantastic trip, but I think I caught a (very) nasty cold from being out and about. And as many of you have told me in the past, I've always believed that "sickness is the weakness of the mind", so I tend to not deal with early symptoms of a flu / cold...and now here I am coughing my lungs out while blogging. :P My dormmates have been taking good care of me so I'm not having one of those "I want to be a baby and somebody please take care of because I'm sick" moments...

Looking forward to making more friends, experiencing more of Japan. Feeling very blessed and lucky to be here - and looking forward to watching a kabuki this Saturday! woohoo. Have to get better before then! Cheers!

Life in Japan : The adventure begins

Warmest thank you to everyone who actually reads my blog! I try to make it as entertaining as possible (believe me I try hard!), so as to present an interesting perspective on this foreign country called Japan that I now temporary live in.

Life has been good. Or, rather I've been getting used to the Japanese way of life here. Morning subway rides don't freak me out anymore, as I've the learned the trick of being "passively aggressive" amongst intense grave-looking salary-men (and women). It almost feels like being at war every morning as everyone in the station is very calculative and looks at each other suspiciously in the eye - wondering whether...you're catching the 7:59 express or...the 8:01 local train. This is seriously too much drama for just taking the darn train.

As I try to recollect my life since my last entry, I've experienced many random occurrences which I will loosely categorize as my "adventures" Let the adventures begin! :) (Notice the plural!)

So two weeks ago Monday, it was sports day. (uh-huh, you heard me right! The whole country gets the whole day off just cause)...nice! I went with New Hope Tokyo to this picnic at Sakuragaoka Park in the outskirts of Tokyo (I think. Cause it took me three subway transfers + and a bus ride...really lost track of where I was by then!) Funny thing was on my way back from the picnic, I was waiting at the bus stop for the return bus. When I walked up towards the bus stop, an old lady (say in her seventies) was already standing there. Just as I was making myself comfortable, another old lady (say in her eighties) came up to the stop. (Yes, it's definitely an aging society here!) She asked me (in Japanese) whether the bus has arrived, and then before I could even say anything, the other lady that was already at the stop jumped in and said that because it was the holidays, the bus schedule changed. And then a lot of very Japanese old-lady back-and-forth went on as I stood there blankly. Then, the lady in her eighties couldn't stand the wait, and hailed down a taxi. And also invited the two of us to join the ride to the station! So out of the blue, I found myself sitting in a cab with two gray-haired ladies, smiling pretentiously all the way to the station. It was quite an experience. :)

I've noticed a few things quite particular about the people here. They seem to like to gift-wrap everything like 5,000 times. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration. :P But yes, everything is wrapped in a wrapper inside another wrapper and overall it's covered in paper and taped 5 different ways. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Take my dinner below as an example. This is already a mild example.


So yes, my salad was already in a STURDY plastic container, with the dressing separately held in a packaged bag so seriously one needs not to be concerned with the remote possibility of a leakage. But, the attention to detail got a little out of hand, so my salad had an ice pack TAPED to it, and then the whole thing was wrapped in a plastic bag and then TAPED again. And then everything is placed in a bag, and usually that's taped too. Oy, so much work!

And, another phenomenon here is an obsession with cell phone texting. I've always been a blackberry user, so all this texting is actually really hard for me. But cell phone texting here is an art - and I'm serious. Don't ask me why a duck, sun, and a waving hand (literally a moving hand!) show up in the same message. So confused. hahaha - but it's actually kind of cute if you read it. Now, I do it myself too!!! Totally a "fob"! :)

Oh yes, can I just share one more thing? It's total Hello Kitty land here! I bought Bausch & Lomb contact solution the other day...and guess what it came with? A Hello Kitty pouch! how cute! (Admittedly I bought the solution BECAUSE of the pouch, but figured that's the only way I'll be able to accumulate Hello Kitty random goods). But could not help but think, SERIOUSLY, you don't need to lure me to get contact solution with Hello Kitty pouches! But whatever.


I think I'm going to save some random thoughts for another time. Just as a "sneak" preview, I'm planning to head to Keio v. Waseda baseball game next week (woohoo!) so stay tuned!

Life in Japan : One Month Anniversary

So, I celebrated my official one month anniversary in Japan (what a thing to commemorate) today with a visit to a local hair salon.

I've been staring at my rather messed up, weed-like hair for quite some time now. And then everytime I walk out, you see these japanese girls walk by you and FOR WHATEVER reason, doesn't matter how crowded the subways are, doesn't matter whether it's pouring rain or 30 degree celsius scorching hot - seriously regardless of the external environment, they manage to keep their picture perfect make-up, with their hair arranged in an orderly fashion, walking the streets of Tokyo.

Total what the heck. I mean at the end of the day, I'm a girl too and I do think about trying to make myself "presentable" - but I'm clearly still a kindergarten student in the school of "human presentation" in Japan.

So, today, after a few hours of studying (i tried anyway), I decided to pay a visit to a hair salon, randomly picked from one of the ads that I picked up from the station. I walked in wanting just a hair cut and...I walked out with a perm too. Dang. I think it's the feeling of "kuyashii" - which in Japanese means one feels defeated but refuses to succumb to such feeling...(hm, I shouldn't be writing dictionary.com definitions - I feel like my definitions really don't add to explaining anything...!!!) Blah.

I apologize - Narcissism alert below. :P But, just thought it made sense to post it just to prove I did it! Next step is to master the art of make-up here. So why was I here again? haha...I hope it's not here to turn myself into a potential trophy wife. Lol.

Life in Japan : Typhoon No. 18

Typhoon No. 18 was here yesterday. And I took this picture from my balcony yesterday when the typhoon swept over.

Seriously? Doesn't the word "typhoon" suggests something a little bit more...disruptive??? I mean, it was a little uncanny to have all your classes cancelled when it's really sunny out. Made absolutely no sense!!!

Janice's first experience of typhoon in Japan - is WTH, WTH, WTH, and more WTH? (WTH = what the heck!).

It was pretty bad in the morning. I left for school with my dormmates early Thursday morning, only to find out that Keio announced that all morning classes were cancelled that morning at the station. I was soaked when I got home. And unfortunately caught a stomach flu while I was out and about.

It all of a sudden became real sunny in the afternoon, precisely when the typhoon was hovering over the region. Weird heh?

Life at Keio

I have never been an exchange student in my life - and have always envied someone who has had the opportunity to live / study abroad. I guess I'm a good example for anyone who may be interested in hopping on a jet plane and going to some foreign land (Not that I'm ENCOURAGING this - there are obviously responsibilities one should attend to before throwing everything aside!)

So anyways, I went to the Keio Welcome Party for international students yesterday. It was quite a sight. I felt like I was at an U.N meeting as oppose to being in Japan. I just have to post this video because I think it's ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS. They did a little bit of a song and dance as part of the "program" and effectively was a monotone song that was a tad too long repeating K_e_i_o K_e_i_o K_e_i_0. You get the point...

It was the same night that Tokyo lost the race to Rio to host 2016 Olympics. Nobody in Japan seemed to care though. I saw the most beautiful Tokyo Tower Friday evening though - glittering with the most beautiful lights I have ever seen...in Japan. (ha! I have to qualify everything I say..teehee). But it was beautiful - wished I could take a photo of the sight but it was raining and I was already running late to the party. I'm glad Tokyo didn't win though - the city's chaotic enough trying to contain its own people - not sure it needs more!

Life in Japan : Third Week

Goodness gracious. I've been here for three weeks already? That means I'll be here for a MONTH in no time!!!! (how enlightening..haha!) Yes, counting the number of days that I have been here, and it's precisely three weeks.

It's been quite a three weeks. I've been through some ups and downs - there were moments of laughters and tears. I'm not trying to be emotional / sentimental - because this blog is not meant to be Janice overwhelming friends in North America with entries soliciting pity - because at the end of the day, I consciously chose to be here and despite some of the initial challenges that I have faced so far, I am confident that God has brought me here for a reason - and I shall return home being a stronger person!

That aside, so. Let me start with school! (dang...) Life as a student kind of sucks. I think it was awesome being a student at UBC. Classes were 50 minutes each, and before I had the opportunity to zone out into space, classes were over by then. But not so in Japan, or in Keio. Classes are 90 minutes EACH. HOLY SMOKES. For someone who has severe symptoms of A.D.D., 90 minutes is terrifyingly long.

I have "core" courses which I was placed based on the results on my placement test from two weeks ago. They run three times a week - tues / thurs /saturday from 9 - 12:15 in the morning!. Seriously - classes should NOT be happening first thing saturday morning. Apparently it's because the campus is too small and they have insufficient number of classrooms. It sucks regardless. But the ONLY good thing about a saturday morning class is that you wouldn't have to endure the pain of rush hour densha. Yesterday (Tuesday), I really thought I was going to catch on to H1 cause somebody in my cart SNEEZED, and let's just say we were all a tad too close to each other than I would like. Not the most pleasing feeling, but it sure does make New York subways, despite the smelly un-air conditioned platforms, more preferable as at least when I took the subways in New York, it was never butt-close to anyone. Anyways, I think I've ranted long enough about the denshas - just be glad you guys don't need to be travelling in them!!

So anyways, the ride to school is exhausting so by the time I get to school, my shirt's all damp with sweat, my hair's messed up like a crazy lady, and my face covered in sweat. Who would be in the mood for class by then? sheeessssh.

On to the classes - so yesterday, during one of those 90 minute sessions, I ACCIDENTALLY (I repeat - accidentally) zoned out, and right at that moment, the professor turned to me and called my name. It was the worst feeling. (Almost as bad as being in a pitch and your M.D. turns to you asking for back up and you don't have it).

Dee-dee-dum-dum. Yeah, being a student...enough said!

Moving on. So Saturday, I had the biggest snafu since I've been here. I was exhausted after three hours of class but ended up hanging out with my dormmates at Shibuya after class. I was planning to visit a friend's fellowship that evening, and so instead of going home and then heading out to Tokyo again, I elected to stay in the "city." (Just imagine I live in New Jersey - and commute into the city's a bit of a pain...I need to find someone in Tokyo that I can just borrow a bed just in case I miss midnight trains...)

So anyways, I TOTALLY screwd up the station name. I was suppose to get to A_KA_ZA_KA (赤坂), which was literally two stations away from where I was. Instead, I travelled half way around Tokyo metropolis on the JR train, and went to A_SA_KU_SA (浅草). It was the most embarrassing moment EVER!! (It's worse than taking the Q train to Brooklyn...cause it's not as easy as taking the same train back!). After much turmoil, I finally made it there - but I spent two hours on the train, and exhausted all my train money. Thought I would never make it home that day...

Other notable things - portions here are INCREDIBLY (I repeat, INCREDIBLY) small. My presence really noticeably increased the national average height here. (teehee). Because we only get 45 minutes lunch break (stingy!), we all have to grab lunch at the school cafeteria. And yesterday, I looked at the picture on the wall and pointed to this "chuu-ka-don" (aka Chinese rice? Basically rice with mushy veggies and meats on it) because it looked kind of good. Turns out it was this teeny little bowl with toppings not exceeding half of my palm. My face went green immediately. At this rate, I either get really fat from eating too much rice cause there's nothing else to eat anyway, or I get really skinny cause the portions are so small and I walk so much now! I sincerely hope it's the latter.

And one thing I noticed about myself. Once a banker...you're a banker for life! I miss using excel and running models. (nerd alert!!) So I found myself using excel to help me to optimize my course schedules, running pivot tables to help me budget daily expenses...kind of crazy!!!

No more exciting touristy stuff yet - but definitely keeping this blog going!

Gakko no Hajimari : Start of School

School started today! (insert sad cries & booing sound).

Yes, it really kind of sucks. I got up at 6:45 a.m. to get to school today at 8:45 this morning, only to find that the "entrance ceremony" was postponed until 9:30. dang. It was not a pretty commute - let's just say rush hour densha (subway) is probably one of the worst things so far that I've experienced in Japan. You are squeezed BUTT CLOSE to the person beside you, and the air conditioning isn't that strong - so let's just say it's really not a pretty sight.

So, anyways, the first day of school was effectively orientation (so like the Vice Principal gives a long-winded speech, followed by another lengthy discussion by the head of the Japanese Language Center, etc...it was just talk after talk) and you get your textbook, and materials, divided by level. I already have homework for my Saturday class! Life is so awesome! (sarcasm). :|

I was exhausted by noon when orientation ended, and man it's HOT here in Japan. It feels like it's still July / August here...and I don't know whether it's the early start or the heat, I absolutely just collapsed after orientation.

I was scheduled to meet up with my supervising professor for the very first time this evening. It kind of felt like going for my first job interview - you hope for the best but plan for the worst (or at least that's how I used to handle interiews!) Surprisingly, and thankfully, everything "kind of" worked out - I had a candid and good conversation with my professor and he's getting me involved in an externally funded (actually a New York based consulting firm) research project on cross-border M&A, investigating the factors that drive cross border between Japan and other countries (i.e. China, EU, America, etc). Right down my alley - and really very timely given my situation.

After our little chat, my professor invited me and couple of his other students along for dinner - it was one of those situations that you totally can imagine. Rowdy Japanese restaurant (seriously you can SMOKE inside a restaurant?) and we had beer with really awesome home-made Japanese food.

I already have seminar tomorrow (that's were all the master students need to prepare a little section on their thesis and all other participants are suppose to give comments etc) - and I need to start on my Japanese homework for my Saturday class. The realities of going back to school is seriously kicking in. :(

Hitting Life's Reset Button : Arrival in Japan

I have FINALLY arrived in Japan.

Finally. Finally. FINALLY!!!

And, despite the fact that I thought I prepared myself for drastic changes - transition from being employed to a poor student, from living independently in my shared apartment to a 500 square feet dormitory, and from living in the capital of the world, New York to just outside of (I guess) second capital of the world, transitioning from the North America-way of living to Asian-way of things is a bigger change than I had originally anticipated.

I've decided to convert my "Janice and the New York City" blog to "Janice and the Land of the Rising Sun" blog (how creative!! :...) It's funny to look back at my transition from Vancouver to New York, and now to Tokyo / Yokohama, Japan. Hoping for many good things to happen...well, it's always good to be hopeful! :)

Alrighty, here we go. Hitting life's reset button at the juncture of turning 26.

I arrived at Narita on September 9th, 2009. It was a long flight. I forgot how far asia is from north america. Being quite "geographically deficient" as one friend has once described me as, I had lost the sense of the magnitutde of the pacific ocean. Once I got to Narita, the commute to my dorm took another 2 hours. First an hour and a half on the limousine bus to Yokohama City Air Terminal, and then another 45 minutes on the cab. Thought I would never get to my dorm - but eventually I did! (insert flashy "good job" tag lines travelling across a powerpoint screen). Oops, (old) banker problem!

The first couple of days was extremely busy. MEXT orientation, JLP enrollment registration, Japanese Placement test - boom boom boom. Things just happened one after another. I was exhausted by the time the test was over. Thankfully I didn't disgrace myself by ending up in a beginner class (I mean - seriously, Japanese was my MINOR for crying out loud...)

Let's talk about the fun stuff! Couple interesting observations since I've gotten here: man reading porn on the train (yew), I'm clearly ABOVE AVERAGE in terms of size (yes Pete - I am the godzilla roaming the streets of Tokyo), the streets are unbelievably clean, the nation is obsessed with conserving energy and garbage separation (flammable, inflammable, bottles, cans, etc), and people are just (whether sincerely or insincerely) always polite and apologetic. I think I must've apologized 5,000 times the first week I was here - apologizing because I'm a foreigner and half the time I don't know what the Japanese ppl were saying to me, apologizing because I'm just a bigger person so I take up more room on trains, apologizing because...just BECAUSE! You start sentences here saying "gomennasai..." or "sumimasen..." (both means I'm sorry).

Moving on to fun places that I've visited! I went to Shinjuku to get my cell phone - nice shopping area. I went to Akihabara (where all the otaku (aka geeks) gather) to pick up a printer - nice electronic place but I'm not a geek. Went to Yokohama - went and wandered around the station, to China Town, and Minatomirai. Went to Shibuya for lunch with dormmates and karaoke. Went to Roppongi (Roppongi Hills, Tokyo Midtown - awesome fancy shopping malls). Been to two hot spring spots already. And, am planning to go to Ueno to check out the park and the zoo.

I've checked out two churches already - New Hope Tokyo and Grace City Church (Redeemer Church Plant). New Hope Tokyo's awesome - filled with foreigners! A little bit more charismatic than I would like for my liking. But oh well. Grace City Church is Redeemer's new start up church - the pastor's awesome friendly - but it's still very new. Hope to find a suitable church very soon.

I'm not used to writing blogs - so I realize my blog's kinda boring (sorry!!). Got to work on the writing skills, but pictures are worth a thousand words, so please check out my photos! Check back often and I will keep you guys posted with fun stuff in the Orient.

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