Back to Sophia

It's my first day back to Sophia since meeting my family, and I'm on my own to get there by the trains. Surprising to me I somehow was able to get on all the correct trains on my first try and was able to make it there on time. How I did that, I'm still unsure. The trains weren't even that crowded today.

Today we had orientation on our goals for Japan, and they tried to tell us to be realistic, and our expectations out of Japan and how to adapt to the cultural differences, and we discussed what we had noticed thus far. We paired up in our groups and got to share stories and discuss on this.

After this, everyone went downstairs to buy their cellphones, the most basic phone Softbank (the smallest major cellphone company in Japan with Docomo and AU KDDI being the popular ones) had to offer.

Everyone is glad to have their new keitai (cellphones)

I had told my family I wanted to get an iPhone while I was over here because they are super cheap (they are also from Softbank so I can talk to my friends cheap). I have to wait though to get my Alien Registration Card and my Student ID before purchasing it though, so my family gave me an old J-Phone/Vodaphone (what Soft used to be), that belonged to Roberto when he first came, for me to use in the mean time.
(I'll post a pic of that cellphone soon)


My group members Kathryn and Zack in the middle and our adopted group members on the sides Jim and Gina.

After that we went out around Yotsuya in search of lunch. We finally settled on a noddle shop and they had awesome tempura, sooo good.

Go where the Japanese go! Just look at them, they know it's good!

After eating we caught a train out to Harajuku and browsed around.We saw some really weird stores and some bad Engrish like "Hide with Spread Beavers" (Which is a band formed by Hide after X Japan split apart). I also found a Ronald McDonald shirt having him say in Japanese, "Japanese people eat rice." Found even weirder stores like Go To and Condomania. We went into a masqerade costume shop and it was crazy.
(Pic of the main street of Harajuku to come next time I go)


The building here can get weird

We also found the best dessert snack ever, crepes filled with everything from ice cream to cheesecake, even chocolate chocolate creme cake. Everyone in the group loves them and we can't understand why we don't have these in the US.

We found a restaurant bar at one point and they had something called Hoppi Set, which is beer and sake together (later I found out the beer, Hoppi, had like no alcohol in it, it almost wasn't beer). We tried them and we liked it.


We eventually started heading back around Harajuku.


Views from the Bridge near Harajuku Eki

We eventually got back to the train station and that's where another adventure happened for me. As lucky as I was in the morning, it did not follow me today. I made it to Shinjuku fine, and same with Shinyurigaoka but that's where I ran into a problem. See, from Shinyurigaoka, the trains split into 3 lines. I now no my stop Satsukidai is the first stop on the Tama Line on the Local train, but I got on the Local train headed for Odawa, and didn't realize till I was a half-hour away from Shinyurigaoka. I finally studied the train map and found my mistake, so I got off, hopped on an express train back to Shinyurigaoka, and got on my correct train.

The trains can get complicated!

If you think it ended there, think again. Satsukidai has two exits, mine is the South, but I exited the North not knowing their was a second one (only thinking this later), and had no clue where I was. After wandering around I decided to go back to the eki (train station), and I found the second exit, and it was more familiar, so I finally got home. My host family knew I got lost but that was ok. I know my trains spot on now. We ate dinner, and I went to bed after a shower and some TV.

Weekend with my family.

The next day I woke up and we had breakfast, the chocolate cereal I got. Before beginning the meal we say itadakimasu, and afterwards we say gochisousamadeshita, both implying thank you for the food. They showed me how to walk back up to the train station, it's all up hill >_<, and showed me something weird on the way up. It's a open veggie stand completely on the honest system.

They took me back to the train station we drove from on Friday, and they showed me the video store in it. They then took me back out to the mall were the grocery store was, yeah there a lot of grocery stores in malls here, and I got to see around the mall. they showed me a big book store, and a place for video games, and I tried to get a new lime green Nintendo DSi there, but they said they would take me to a place where I could get a discount. We met back at a Colonel Sanders statue in front of the train station, where nearby a street performer was juggling and riding a giant unicycle. My host family was really surprised when I told them my grandfather had made chocolate soda's for the Colonel.

We went back home and ate lunch, some noodles and gyouza (pot stickers). They were really impressed with how well I could use chopsticks. We later took the car to the other place, but they didn't have video games, just PS3s for the Blu-Ray player in it. They got me there though an internet through AC hook-up so I could have internet in my room.

We then went to another electronics store, Yamada, where I got a points card after getting my DSi, I got almost 1000 yen back, so I used it towards a 3000 Nintendo points card so I could download the Japan train map app for it, but it still isn't out yet, have gotten since then some games like a weird Wario Ware that uses the DSi camera and a weird Katamari Damacy game that is like Tetris. It was cool with the points card because downstairs they had a slot machine game where I could gamble my points, in this case the 20 points I got back from the Nintendo points card, and it gave me back 41 points, but you could only play once.

We ended up getting lost coming home but eventually made it. Japanese streets are scary...
We ate Lasagna for dinner and I went to bed sometime after that.

The next morning came and again we had breakfast, I have never had this many consecutive breakfasts. We ended up going to another area of Tokyo with some malls, and they were having a festival there.



I know stairs are a pain, but this is kinda ridiculous...

They took Alice to play so I got to wonder around the two malls. In the first one I found a music shop called HMV, I found another book store and another video game store, I found a sports store with a giant TV showing the Japanese marathon that was going on that day and it had a giant Tweety Bird outside, and I found a an electronics shop where I got to look at all the cool Japanese cellphones, and they are cool.


I left that mall and went to the other one where they had a lot of cool things. The mall itself was cool it had a big ferris wheel ontop of it.

Other than that it had a waterfall in it, I found some Lego pastry chefs, a surf shack, a big Gundam, some weird manga (comic books), an authentic Indian restaurant, and a closer look at the ferris wheel.







Outside I saw some traditional Japanese buildings surrounded by the more modern Japan, a small police station, and I even noticed the birds were tagged.





parking is very limited here.

I went back to the first mall to meet back up with them and found more weird things like a self playing piano surrounded by sakura.


I met back up with them and we had lunch at the mall, I got teriyaki pork cutlets over rice and they were delicious.


My family then surprised me by taking me bowling, since I told them I bowled when we were at the supermarket. They were impressed when I bowled a 169 and had gotten 6 strikes.



I wear a size 29cm in Japan

We went back to their house afterwards and had a Japanese dinner. On the way I saw a great view of the city and I got to see my first Torii since being back.


Japan is so much fun, and this is just the beginning.

Meeting my Host Family

We got up the next day and I went downstairs to call my family and my girlfriend with the 5 min calling card that came with my iNext travel insurance card from CIEE. It was long but let everyone know I was safe in Tokyo and it was nice to hear people's voices.

I went back upstairs and packed up my stuff, and John and I went downstairs for breakfast. The breakfast here was good too. We then took our stuff back to Sophia to and had some more orientation and how to speak to introduce ourselves to our host families.

I was in the group to meet my host family later so I had some free time, so I went around the Yotsuya area with a friend, Roy, whom I'd been talking to before over AIM. He was looking for wrapping paper, and we eventually found an office depot with some. He got Jelly bean wrapping paper for his Jelly Bellys, pretty good find especially considering they only had 6 different wrapping paper designs.

I saw this driving on the road on the way there...

We then went back and went to meet our families. We were paraded in front of all of them in this big room, and it made us very nervous. Zach's family made him a welcome sign, wish I had a pic of that. It was finally my turn to introduced myself and I finally met them. It was a little awkward at first, I wanted to speak to them in Japanese, but I was way rusty and nervous, and they spoke to me in Japanese and it was difficult to understand. But we talked a bit, and they are very nice.

The dad is Italian and works for the Italian Embassy, but he know Japanese very well, and knows English, his name is Roberto. He was a study abroad student with a host family the first time he came here, which is why I think they decided to host a student. The mom is Japanese and can speak and understand some English as well, her name is Mayumi. They both came to the University to meet me. The other member is a 2 year old, soon to be 3, girl named Alice (pronounced Aliche or Ariche in Japanese, who is just so kawaii (cute)).


We got on the train, to go to their home, and it takes about 45min to an hour to get there from school. We stopped at the grocery store and they let me pick some food and some cereal for breakfast. We then got into their car, and went to pick up Alice from Mayumi's mother's apartment. We then drove to their home, which is a nice mansion condo,

and they made me feel at home. It's very Japanese style, a place for shoes at the entrance, a small area with tatami mats, and a whole shower room next to the bath which you don't shower in. The place is kinda small, but it is nice. They also have internet which I'm happy about, got to get online later and talk to people and check my email.

My room is kinda small, but it's nice, don't plan on spending too much time cooped up in here.


I gave them my gifts and they really like them, they've been using them and putting them out since I've been here. In case you forgot from my post below, I got them a Louisville Slugger mini-bat with my a message from me on it, a couple Derby glasses, a Purdue Train blanket, and some Bourbon and Mint Julep chocolates. Roberto likes the Bourbon ones, they said Italians love all chocolates, and Mayumi likes the mint ones, being a big fan of mint ice cream, just like me... I'll have to get me a box of the mint ones when I get back, they are fantastic.

I told them I was into anime and manga and they showed me some manga that Roberto had helped translate years ago into Italian.


For dinner we had Italian, we had salami and thick Italian cheese, along with Italian crackers, olives and salad. I think we also had some raviolis after that. They even let me have some chardonnay with it.

We then watched some Japanese TV, which is just as strange as you might think, probably stranger, especially the commercials. I got tired earlier that day, so I headed for to bed soon after wards.

First day in Tokyo

We woke up the next day at the hotel at Narita airport, went upstairs and had breakfast. I had a little taste of everything, even the fish which was decent, and they even had french fries for breakfast... but the best thing they had was this bread that was pretty much cinnamon rolls turned into a loaf of bread.

We then went downstairs and formed into our small groups, and I got paired with Zach, Kathryn, Shenice, Alicia, Remi, and Oh Ji (whom we later named are group after, the Genki Ojii-sans), who all are just completely awesome people.


We rode the bus from Marroad at Narita Airport to Sophia University (Jouchi in Japanese). It took 3 hours with all the traffic, but it was ok because we got to get to know each other in the group.

We picked our group name (see above), and we got to see a lot of cool things going into Tokyo, like the Tokyo television building

and the Tokyo Tower



...even he couldn't believe how long it took

We finally got to the campus and we met our groups sempai (upper class student).

We locked our stuff away and she showed us around the university. Showed us the buildings, the cafeterias, the convenience store, and book stores. I got curry and spaghetti for lunch, weird combo, and a flan snack at the convenience store.


We went back to building 11 and had a little orientation over what to expect coming up and over the guidelines that were in our handbook. We then went to our hotel, Tokyo Green Palace hotel near Sophia University, and dropped our stuff at our rooms, and I got a new room mate for the night John who is in group B so I don't see him much anymore.

CIEE then took us on the trains and we went to a nice traditional Japanese restaraunt for dinner. We had to sit on the floor in the seiza position (on your knees on the pillows) but most of us switched to Indian style.

It started off with just hotplates of meat and veggies,

some shrimp puff chips, and some chicken and french fries, but as the night went on they kept bringing more and more food, till we were past full, like sushi, and tofu, and eggplant, and so on...


Later that night my group and some others decided to go out and karaoke. We asked the people at the front desk where a good place was and they showed us on a map. We got there, and we had our own private room to sing it out, with two mics and a tamberine. We sang Journey

and some Bohemium Rhapsody, Thriller, some Japanese songs, and a little Red Hot Chilli Peppers. We ended up drinking a lot of sake.

There was a a group of Japanese business men next door and they were crazy, dancing around.

We went back to the hotel after that and I got to go online for a bit and shower off. I then went to bed anxious, for the next day I was going to meet my host family.

Saying my goodbyes and going to Japan

It's finally here, and I'm set to go to Japan. I stayed up all night to try and sleep on the plane and adjust better. Everyone could not get ready quick enough, I was so excited. At 6:30 we got everything pack in the van and headed for the Indianapolis airport. on the way it was really foggy, I was afraid it might cause problems, but it cleared up by the time we got there, and made for some awesome and beautiful sights on the way up.

When I got to the airport, everything went so smoothly, the airport is awesome and is extremely simple unlike the Louisville one. I also learned my Passport had a swipe area which I didn't think it had. Even a bigger surprise is the my girlfriend, Chris, came to say goodbye to me when she had told me she wasn't. It was a nice surprise and I got to say goodbye one more time and be with her for a short bit. She gave me a cute little charm for my backpack which is still where she put.

I met up with the other Purdue student, Aaron, who was easy to spot in the lobby, and all our families talked for a bit and we took some pictures.


I said all my goodbyes to my dad, my grandparents, and to my gf, and I went through the security gate. It went very smoothly, I was very impress with the airport. I also came across something that made me laugh.

I'm not in Tokyo yet....

I met back up with Aaron at the gate, and we finally got on the plane. We were sitting together on this plane ride and talked the whole way to Detroit. Once we landed we took a small train to our gate, how awesome is that!


We decided to get some lunch before boarding and walked around the terminal. We decided on pizza, but the place was closed. We ended up eating at a sub restaurant, and it was tasty but expensive, guess I had to get used to that. I got the 3 cheese steak.

Gourmet PB&J... wtf mate

We finally went back to our gate, I was carrying my heavy backbacks the whole time ><
I saw this near our gate, the water would flow in all different directions.

We finally boarded the plane and I prepared for the long flight, and it was long XP
I slept 3 times, about 2 hours each, and the rest of the time I was either reading my book, Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk the guy who wrote Fight Club, or I was on my PSP listening to music most of the time since the movies were to quiet, me being next to the engines. I was able to watch Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny all the way through, great movie, and I watched the beginning of Wanted and Pulp Fiction. I also played Guitaroo Man which is an excellent game. Surprisingly my PSP battery didn't die on the plane, so I didn't even need to take out my laptop. I'm glad I had some stuff to keep me entertained the on flight movies looked bad, best one I saw them play was Twilight, and I didn't feel like watching it though what I saw looked interesting. The food wasn't that great on the plane, but it had to do. We finally were able to see Japan after just 12 hours, we got there early, and I was so happy. It was so great finally getting off the plane and arriving at my destination.

The airport there didn't go as smoothly as the Indy one sadly, but Aaron, Matt who was also on the CIEE program who was on our plane but didn't see till then, and me made it through there ok, and we met up with the CIEE people in their bright yellow shirts. They took our bags to be shipped to our families.

After that I met up with Hiromi, who had arrived on the same flight 5 days ago, and who is setting up a great Fuji climb for us. We took a shuttle to the hotel, and I was so happy to take a shower right away. I was able to meet up with a bunch of other CIEE students there and we all introduced ourselves, and surprising enough, I still remember all their names. I met up with my roomate for the night, Zach, who is also in my small group now for the CIEE orientation. A bunch of us then took a bus to a mall and had dinner, I got shouyu-ramen and it was good.

We then returned to the hotel, and I was happy to finally get some sleep.