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June 25, 2004

O HA YO GO ZA I MA SU (Good morning)

Originally sent: 6/23/2004 4:11 AM

Just letting everyone know that I'm fine, soreness aside, and physically in Japan right now.

It's 4:28 AM Tokyo time right now, and I'm still a bit jet-lagged. I sat near the back of the 747 that flew me from San Francisco International to Narita on Monday [US date]. I sat in a window row with just two seats and I was hoping both seats would be mine, but as it turned out I really liked the passanger who sat next to me. She's from Berkeley CA, attending UC Santa Cruz, traveling to Thailand to do a 6-week student ambassador program there, and quite the leftist nutcase. At one point, the two of us tried breaking into the upper first class cabin but it's a little bit harder now post-9/11 - they had some security guard at the door.



I arrived on schedule at around 2pm but it took me a while to get out of immigration and figure out the Tokyo transit system. Also, part of the Tokyo Rapid Line broke down so it took me a while to get out to Dan Morales' section of town. [In case you don't know Dan, he's from New Orleans. He was Harvard '04, but he's taking a year off to study Japanese here.] On the Keisei express train, I talked with a long haired Berkeley, CA man who teaches mathematical 'metaphysics' as well as a Muslim woman from Singapore whose husband is Japanese. The Muslim woman gave me some advice about Malaysia and Thailand (her daughter is in KL studying right now) and also talked to me about Japan, especially about being an ethnic/religious minority in Japan. As we talked, schoolkids in uniforms and emotionless Japanese adults darted back and forth (I am told it is rude in Japanese/Asian culture for people older than children to show extreme emotions in public). The thing that instantly struck me about Japan is that in terms of fashion, they haven't left the 1980s yet... hipster generation et al.

I finally met up with Dan around 4 or so and grabbed dinner with him at a type of Japanese restaurant you normally wouldn't find in the US. We cooked your own omlettes on a large heated grill embedded in your table (the grill is a bit like what they use for Tapan, but smaller). Dan and I shared a Pork & Kimchi and a Beef. Then we came to his dorm. My first brush with a major difference in culture is when I had to take off my shoes upon entering the building. Slippers were required for everyone. He introduced me to the superintendent of this dorm building, who called me 'Randy-san'. Apparantly, this bulding is about a 30-minute train ride away from the university Dan is doing his program at. I remember Dan saying something about universities in Tokyo usually not having many dorms and when they exist, the buildings are often completely separated from school; some colleges don't have any at all. I've been here ever since, mostly because I ended up falling asleep around 9pm or so (we were suppose to go out for drinks). When I woke up, he wasn't here - he had arranged to stay with his girlfriend for the night so I could have the bed:















The sun is up now, so I think I might pop out and explore this area a bit. Then I have to catch a flight to Malaysia, but I'll be back in Tokyo July 16th and staying for a week and a half. Dan will have an sweet apartment then, and I promised him I'd help throw a few parties for the natives. Dan told me that the social life in Japanese colleges is lacking in many ways because most students don't live in dorms, and parties in dorms or even apartments are rare. Most Japanese students go out for entire nights on the town, and there are special restaurant/bars built to host parties but we think there is something unique about the act of hosting that does not translate well into commercial establishments.

Posted by rxu at June 25, 2004 12:30 PM

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