… or Everybody’s Japanese. My classes have started! My first two days of Japanese class have gone by so fast! Yesterday I walked into my new classroom, meeting the other students for the first time. So it was introductions all round, and telling everybody where I’m from, what’s my age, what are my hobbies, etcetera. Of course everything in Japanese, so that was quite a task for my first lesson. I started a week later than the others, so I also had to try and make sense of what the lesson was all about.

Fortunately we use the Minna no Nihongo textbook, which is completely in Japanese, no English whatsoever, so that wasn’t any help either. Based on my entry test, I was also allowed to skip the first book, so I started in the middle of some new material. However, everybody understood the challenge of starting mid course, so I got a lot of help, and I’m studying like crazy to (re)gain my missing knowledge. Because my major problem right now isn’t the grammar, but my lack of vocabulary. So glad I brought my previous textbook with me to Japan!

After my first day in school, I left the building a bit dazed and confused, since I had been pushed pretty hard. I therefore promptly walked the wrong way when I left the school building. Luckily a classmate had to go that direction as well, so he directed me to a station (unfortunately not the station I wanted to go to) and we took the train to Shinjuku together. There I transferred to my right train, and I was finally on my way home. So my way back took me about 45 minutes, while it would normally take 20 minutes max. But hey, what’re you gonna do, at least I got to know one of my classmates a little better .

Today went much smoother, classes started with Kanji practise. Kanji are the Chinese characters used for writing, where every symbol is a word. This is of course a bit of a hassle, but fortunately I already knew some of the basic ones (1-10, river, Japan, and some more), and I’ve been placed in a basic class, so this first lesson went like a breeze. After that we had more writing practice, only then focussed on grammar and sentences, so Kanji aren’t mandatory for that. This also went pretty well luckily. As we finished textbook lesson 28, we continued with lesson 29 and I could follow pretty much everything. Only missing a word here and there. Gee, studying actually helps!

I was also able to get my teacher and classmates to laugh with a stupid joke by the way. We were doing exercises and the word karaoke popped up in the textbook. So our teacher asked us if we know what it was, and of course everybody knew. However, everybody started joking a little like “ah no idea, what is it?” You know how it goes. So after a while I asked the teacher “Misete kudasai” or “could you please show it to us?” After which he replied laughing that he doesn’t do karaoke. And then he added, wisely, unless I drink a lot of sake. Which was pretty funny, because who hasn’t been down that road before?

After school I wanted to go to Akihabara, but first I arranged my monthly metro pass. I can now travel freely between my house and school, for about 36 euro / month, instead of 21 euro / week, so that works out great. After I got my pass, I went to Shinjuku, to transfer to Akihabara. However, I got out at the wrong side of the station. And once you are out of the ticket gates, you can’t just walk in to cross to the other side. So I had to take the long way round. But I never knew it would be such a long way! It took me about 30 to 45 minutes to get to the other side of the station. And I took the direct route, which even featured the conveyor belts often found at airports, which allow you to move a bit faster to your destination.

Though I did find some interesting parts of the station this way, which I would’ve never found otherwise. I suddenly ran into a small fountain like thingy, which featured a small mountain with water running from it towards a miniature lake. Very nice. And outside I ran into the winter decorations of one of the hotels around the station. I believe it was the Keio Plaza hotel, but I am not sure about that, gomen nassai.

I finally managed to get to the train going to Akihabara, in order to continue my search for a prepaid cellphone. And guess what, I found one! Unfortunately then I realized I forgot to bring my passport, so I couldn’t buy it… Argh, another day without a phone, but at least now I know where to get it. So if everything works out ok, I have one tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Even though my hangover from Saturday was severe, I just couldn’t resist partying on Sunday. Why? Because my house mate and fellow party boy Michel talked with one of his Japanese friends, and she and a friend were waiting for us at a coffee shop (the coffee kind) near Shibuya station. So I dragged myself together, got ready and off we went to meet the girls. We found the coffee shop easy enough, and now we were off to the club. Funny thing was, the girls normally didn’t party in Shibuya, so we had to decide where to go. Guess what, atom it was again!

Boy was I glad we went there again. The music was still god awful, but the women were even prettier than the night before! My jaw almost dropped a couple of times. But of course our company wasn’t too bad either. Going out with Japanese women turned out to be an interesting experience. Dutch women tend to stay around you when you go to a club in a small group. However, Japanese women have no trouble at all with disappearing without saying a word. Only to find them half an hour later, smoking a cigarette somewhere.

Fortunately, this goes the other way around as well. It is absolutely no problem if you leave them alone for a while, chasing other girls. They will patiently await your return, although of course they would talk to other boys when they get the chance . Pretty interesting look on things and on the whole, partying with Japanese girls rocks.

Although, of course, they really can’t dance, so you have to adjust your strategy to incorporate that fact. Since the usual dance moves don’t really work if the other person has the rhythm of a wooden stick. The trick is basically as follows, don’t do any flashy moves to the girls, just stick with clapping your hands (alone, or together with the girls), jump around like an idiot and surprisingly, tickle them in a toying fashion. Once we started doing that, they really got into it. Do realize, however, that you’ll be dodging tickles for the rest of the evening. But it provided a nice playful way to “steal” hugs and such.

We left atom around 5 in the morning to try and find something to eat. To the ramen shop! We had some great ramen for only about 3 euro a person, after which we slowly made our way to the station. At the station we said our tearful sayonara and on to a well deserved sleep it was. Michel and me arrived back home around half past 6 in the morning, where I immediately crashed and burned. Or, as the more civilized call it, went to sleep.

So I’ve been going out in Shibuya for the last couple of days. Shibuya is a very busy part of Tokyo. The famous crossing you see in all the pictures and movies, where people cross the street diagonally, is situated there. It is quite an impressive sight, once the light turns green, about 3000 people walk to the other side simultaneously. I’ll try to get a good picture of this as soon as possible.

Outside Shibuya station there’s also the statue of a dog. But not just any dog, this is Hachiko, Japan’s most faithful dog. The story behind the statue is that Hachiko and his owner were very close. Each day Hachiko would accompany his owner to Shibuya station, and wait all day for him to return. However, one day the owner got sick and unfortunately died before he could return home. Poor Hachiko kept on waiting for his owner for about 10 years, until ultimately he passed away as well on March 9 1935. Of course such a display of love and dedication left a mark with the Japanese people, and to this day people come to visit the dogs statue and pay their respect. It is also a very convenient meeting point to find your friends by the way .

I went to Shibuya with one of my fellow residents Paolo. A nice guy from Naples, Italy. We met his friend Nino, who is from Sicily, and went into town. Unfortunately none of us had any idea where to go, so we first we ended up at a crappy restaurant. After that we went for drinks and ended up at a severely funny, but also very tiny bar. Some drunk Japanese people were singing karaoke, or at least tried to, and that was about it.

So we had a drink, but when we got ready to leave suddenly the people became a little more interested in us. One guy started chatting with us, trying to get us to sing for just 200 Yen per song. When that didn’t work, they send in the one woman present at the bar. Unfortunately for her, she was pretty unattractive, although she had some very nice bigguns. Anyway, we asked for the check and got a nasty surprise. Apparently we had to pay 1000 Yen (about 6 Euro) to just sit down at the place. So we had to pay 1600 Yen each for just one beer. Ah well, you live and learn. Although my Italian friends were clearly unhappy about that, so there was a lot of fuck this and fuck that going on for the rest of the evening.

Saturday it went a bit better. We went to Shibuya again, but this time a new resident, Michel from Stockholm, Sweden, came along. He invited his Canadian friend, whose name I keep forgetting, and we went to a pub. After the pub we went to a real club, Atom. I must say, clubbing in Tokyo is very very funny. Basically Japanese people have no idea how to dance, so they just copy whatever we do and think that’s the way to go or something.

So we spent most of the evening making up silly dance moves, like pretending to pass each other basketballs, or “lifting weights”, stuff like that. Dirk would love it, because they actually copy it too. We pretty quickly gathered quite a crowd around us of Japanese people trying to copy our moves. The sillier the better it seemed. Unfortunately no cameras were allowed inside, so unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the club.

The club itself was pretty nice. It had 3 floors with different music on each floor. One hip-hop and rmb floor, one “rave” floor, but it sounded more like an apres ski hut to me and finally a psychadelic floor. What, a psychadelic floor!? Myesh, with some nice tunes as well. It was empty at first, however, so we spent quite a long time making fools of ourselves at the rave floor. Which was brilliant, as long as you ignored the god awful music . We got home around 4 I think, and now I’m here trying to get rid of my hangover, because the current plan is to go out again tonight, because it’s a national holiday tomorrow, so everybody parties.

Hi all,

I’ve finally got my gallery up and running. So far I’ve uploaded only the pictures from my journey to Tokyo. However, I’ll add more pictures tomorrow. Now I’m off into town, Akihabara (gadget city) here I come!

It holds the universe together . . .

and slowly pushes it apart.