Once again, huge backlog...

It's been over a month but I am hoping to quickly update what has happened. This is basically what I wrote for my monthly update earlier.

On 12/19 I went to a bounenkai (end-year party) which was quite interesting because I actually met a lot of people I had never seen before. While I don’t think any of them will be very helpful regarding my research it was still nice to just relax and meet other people. I was a bit surprised how popular nijikais (literally, second parties) are though and how people are adamant on going even when they are obviously drunk out of their minds. This does lead to some interesting stories afterward though, especially when you are obligated to help a sempai home and make sure he doesn’t pass out on the side of the street.

Christmas Eve was spent with friends. We had a very small gathering/party in my apartment. Nothing really happened but sometimes it is nice to just hang out and relax. One of my best friends (JJ) from high school stopped by for a few days after Christmas and I was glad that I had the opportunity to show him around Japan a bit. We only went to a few of the bigger places in Tokyo but we had a great time, especially for the co-op gaming again =P

My kenkyushitsu (research lab) surprisingly did not have its own bounenkai; according to my tutor my professor stopped having them after girls joined the program, no idea why. Also, with theses deadlines coming up, many people did not have time. However, in its place we had sports day instead. One afternoon of ultimate Frisbee, basketball, fulsal, and badminton instead of a night of drinking. Quite a surprise but I had a great deal of fun and I am pretty sure that it was a unique experience as well.

New Years with Keaton, May, Courtney, and Matt was really fun. There were just so many things that we were able to do. Let’s see, we went to Sensouji in Asakusa, sampled the food vendors and had toshikoshi soba (new years soba) at Harajuku while waiting for the New Years countdown, braved the massive crowd at Meiji Jingu… May’s bright red coat amazingly allowed us to pick her out from the crowd when they showed us on the huge screen. The actually countdown was a bit anticlimactic because we were a bit confused about what was suppose to happen. For some reason I expected there to be bells/gongs so I did not realize that the countdown was over after they finished beating the drums. Plus, there were so many people and we were so far away that we could barely hear anything. Still, it was fun and I hope that my prayers come true, haha. Packing five people at May’s place was quite interesting as well. We visited Nezu Jinja on New Years and went to see the emperor on the 2nd. There was a huge crowd but it was obvious that most of the people there were of an older generation. We barely saw anyone our age; I think there were more foreigners there than Japanese youth. The little kids there looked like they were dragged there by their parents and seemed bored, especially since they couldn’t see anything in the crowd. I did feel sorry for many of the shorter old people there who were standing on their tip-toes and desperately trying to get a look at the emperor. They obviously cared a lot about the event and we heard “banzai” (basically, long live the emperor) many many times. While we waited for quite a bit of time in the heat (despite it being a cold day there were so many people we could see heat waves), it was a worthwhile experience and I can now say that I have seen the emperor of Japan in person.

After we exploring Ueno Park with Chiara and her boyfriend, Keaton was nice enough to host me for a night in Toyohashi. We went to Nagoya the next day were I was able to meet up with Marie and explore the city. It was absolutely great to see Marie again and I hope I have to opportunity to see the rest of you guys again sometime soon. The highlight was probably Nagoya Castle, which I would recommend to anyone who has some sort of interest in Japanese sengoku history. Despite being an Asian History major, I felt slightly embarrassed that I did not know enough about the period. Still, it is a really interesting period that people should read about if they have the time.

After coming back from break I went on a day trip to Kamakura and Yokohama because I was trying to help a friend finish a seishun 18 ticket (available for holiday periods, for 2300 yen you can available all you want on non-rapid Japan Railway trains). I also had to finish my IUC (Japanese language school) application which I thankfully turned in yesterday. Oh, and I officially signed up for a full marathon in April along with a friend here. Going to have to train but since it is my first marathon I will be happy with just finishing it.

My wallet has become alarmingly light, though I constantly remind myself that I am no longer a poor college student and that I am here to experience Japan, which means sometimes I have to splurge. I am sure that I will remind myself over and over again next month too when I go to Hokkaido for the Yuki Matsuri along with some many other Fellows, along with other planned events.