Three days in the making

Let my start by saying I love Japan. The past five days have been incredible. I really had no idea what to expect but this has surpassed anything I could have imagined. Japan has been one adventure right after another...

The campus is beautiful. Really green! There is a distinct smell, which I was told was from the humidity. There are trees everywhere ...and cats too. Crows make a lot of noise in the morning and the bugs are bigger. But generally everything else is smaller--cars, food servings, shelves in the grocery stores. The dorms are really nice, pretty big four room suites, each with a window leading to a balcony, a common room, kitchen, laundry/shower room, and bathroom. Our fridge is pretty well stocked with the essentials. Milk, OJ, yoghurt, and left over bento.

Friday we had a three hour placement exam in the morning. It wasn't too bad. We find our tomorrow our placement. I can't believe that I actually have class again. Byebye summer.

Saturday was the busiest day of my life. I don't think we'll be doing that again soon, but it was quite the experience. Left the dorm at 10:00am and took the bus and train to Shinjuku.


We walked around a bit and ate at a small noodle shop. You had to decide what you wanted from the plastic food examples outside at the front of the store, and then buy a ticket at a machine and hand that to the chef. He made it right before your eyes. My soba and fried veggies were really good, and pretty cheap too. It isn't impossible to find inexpensive food, you just have to look and compare prices a lot. Though, there are rarely vegetables in things. No one eats salad as a meal, and if you wanted to, it would be smothered in mayo. I've completely given up on trying to be vegetarian and have eaten a fair amount of fish and seafood. (...and I must admit, it's really good. sigh)

After eating we walked around a fair amount. We even crossed the busiest intersection in the world (you know, the one from Lost in Translation). Went window shopping and into a department store that apparently gets cheaper as the floors go up. I bought some nice postcards and a CatBus (think Totoro) keychain for my keys. We then walked to this beautiful park that had a waterfall with red ear slider turtles in the water surrounded by plants of all types. At the bottom there was a flea market where I bought a shirt for less than a dollar and a cute dress for $5 (photos soon, I promise). We walked to a temple with huge white stone archways and someone got her fortune told.

We walked around the main area of Shinjuku some more before heading towards Kabukicho. It was a smaller area with fewer tourists which was nice, though there were still a fair number of people milling around the streets shopping. We finally found Club Code on the fourth floor of this random building and went to a Hip Hop/Rap/Break-Dancing Competition that we had heard about the night before from performers who were practicing in the street near the arcade in Musashi-Sakai. We watched for a couple of hours and saw a few dance offs.


Next we went to the second largest Tanabata Festival in Hiratsuka, which was another hour or so away from where we were on the train. We stuffed our faces with everything from tako-yaki (octopus) to corn on the cob (which cost almost $4!!) to unagi on a stick (eel-my new favorite food, it melts in your mouth!!). It was a lot of fun wandering around in the masses of people, estimated over 3 million. The decorations were beautiful, paper of every color flying all over the place. The train ride home was a bit of an adventure because we had to make sure to get back to campus before it stopped running. We caught the last one in the nick of time and it took us around 2 and a half hours to get from the festival back to campus.


So let me recap: crossed the busiest street in the world at Shinjuku, explored a huge department store, romped around a public park, shopped at a flea market, visited a temple, watched a Hip Hop Dance competition, and experienced Tanabata. This was an amazing day. I probably walked for a total of ten miles too.

Today (Sunday) was much more chill. Slept in and took it easy. Walked around the area near ICU and ran some errands. Chatham cooked the most amazing walnut-mustard salmon with cabbage and carrots... It's raining right now and time for me to head to bed before 8:40am class. But rest assured that I am having a wonderful time and missing everyone from Pomona and Chicago. I wish you could be here with me.

I've landed

and am one day in. All I can say is whoa.

and this:




the fact that I can't rotate this adds to the effect...

To Do in Japan...

Seems like a logical thing to post before I leave, and I like lists. So here is the first of many to come...

• Dance my ass off at some amazing concerts. (I miss good shows. )
• Spend an entire day not saying anything in English. (I have no idea how likely this is, but it sounds like a good challenge.)
• Plant a tree. (I just saw the movie The Fountain and it made me like trees even more.)
• Get my haircut. (I'll have to wait a few months for this one.)
• Get a tattoo? (Does this make me a tool? What if it's my middle name in Japanese? Would that be worse? I've also thought about just getting a circle, which would be a different representation of my middle name. Maybe, I really don't know about this one.)

and if anyone has a suggestion for a hotel I should stay at the first night before registration I'd greatly appreciate it! o_O

What’s in a name?

Everything. Language has power. To deny that means you are forgetting what it’s like to be a kid. My parents decided that they wanted my brother and me to have Japanese middle names. The names were meant to maintain some connection with our roots, to serve as a direct link to my Nisei grandmother and my family wrongfully detained in WWII concentration camps. As I grew up it functioned as a tool to empower myself, a simple word I could use to prove my Japanese-ness, despite misleading hair and eyes. After giving my spiel on how my Japanese-American grandmother named me, invariably the next question I get asked is what Mariko means. For the past twenty years, I responded “bouncing balls” which changed to “a bouncing ball” or “ball of energy” to avoid snickering from sexual connotations.

So that’s where this blog’s name comes from. I haven’t quite decided if I am going to go by my English/Spanish first name or Japanese middle name in Japan. My first doesn’t translate poorly and it might be a little easier to explain. On the other hand, I have had plenty of practice over the years detailing my family tree and I might realize some deeper connection with what I hope becomes my second home. (Alternate meanings I have found for Mariko so far include “true reason child” and “circle”, but I’m not sure those make much more sense to me than “bouncing balls”.)

I'll use this blog to share my stories of studying abroad in Japan. I’m not quite sure what to expect, but I guess I’ll find out soon enough… On another note, here's a quote that I've been thinking of, and it kinda relates to this post: “Look little you in the eye. Each time you encounter a child.” – Kimya Dawson