Golden Week is upon us

If I'm not mistaken, today was the first day of Golden Week in Japan. I've mentioned it before, but Golden Week is a bunch of national holidays that happen to be at the same time and many Japanese get a week-long vacation. Sensei made the mistake of telling us that for most people Golden Week is 11 days of nothing; Sophia students only get three or four days off. I should familiarize myself with what holidays are being celebrated, but I'd rather party.

Since we had today off, we went clubbing in Roppongi last night. Roppongi is um... well it's not the nicest place in Tokyo. Lots of clubs and bars, and many Nigerian immigrants working as bouncers for those clubs and bars. There are a few nice restaurants and a high-end mall was built a few years ago to make the area less seedy, but it's still one of those places. (Aside: The dean of the exchange students ended his welcome speech with, "And for the love of God, don't go to Roppongi.")

When you party in Japan, you party hard. Trains stop running from around midnight until five or six in the morning, so unless you've got a car or want to pay for a taxi, you're out all night. We got to club Gas Panic at around 1130pm and left the next morning, sun rising, at 5am. The scene in Gas Panic was a mix of Japanese, gaijin, and creepy chikan (pervert) salarymen. I went clubbing in the same area a few years ago and I don't remember running into salarymen, so I was a bit taken aback to see older guys in suits taking shots and dancing (if that's what you can call it; it was closer to seizures for most of them).

In America if you want a drink you go up to the bar or find a hostess, but in Japan the hostesses hunt you down and make you buy drinks. Seriously, the bartenders and hosts were fairly aggressive with drink orders. Staff members would troll the dance floor throughout the night with laminated mini-menus on their lanyards, pushing people to buy drinks. The guy serving the seating area was trying to get all the tables to buy bottles of champagne.

A few little things throughout the night made me go, "What?":
- The bartenders did a karaoke version of some old Japanese pop song and held up a poster of who I assume was the original artist.

Sorry for the bad quality, but you get the idea.

- Way too many people knew how to do the Soulja Boy dance.
- They played Avril Lavigne's song "Girlfriend," and every single person in the club knew the chorus. Every. Single. Person. It was hilarious.
- There were Japanese hip-hop boys that put up a hardcore front, but the second you bumped into them it was, "Sumimasen!" and they would bow politely. So gangster, those guys.

EDIT: You can smoke in Japanese clubs. NOT GOOD. We spent five and a half hours in smoke and the fog stuff they spray on the dance floor. I left the club smelling like cigarettes, and I had an ashy taste in my mouth from all the second-hand smoke. It's been two days and I'm still coughing.

We have school the rest of the week, but on Saturday we'll be taking a day-trip to visit the area Tama lives in. I forget what we're doing, probably sight-seeing or a festival of some kind, but it should be fun.

I'll have to do another dorm post soon. I haven't been doing anything of much interest lately, just school and wandering around my favorite shopping spots.

I'm always surprised to learn what is appropriate and what isn't in Japan. On Tuesday, I was sitting in my poli-sci class, listening to the three girls behind me gossip in Japanese. Granted, our class is about 70 students and that kind of behavior usually goes unnoticed in such a large class. They were in their own little world at the back of the class, not even trying to hide the fact that they weren't paying attention to the lecture. In America most kids have the sense to at least fake taking notes or seem inconspicuous, but these three Japanese girls were pushed away from the table, no pencils in their hands, not taking notes. Professor Anno made comments about people being too cool for his class, referring to the girls, and they didn't take notice. About halfway through class, Anno stopped the lecture completely and asked them to stop talking.

Maybe it was just those three girls, but I have never seen students so rude to a professor before. If I'm bored at Creighton, I usually bring my take out my laptop and go on the internet rather than interrupt class. You know a prof is boring at Creighton if more than half the students lugged their computers to class. (In fact, I have yet to see someone bring a laptop to class; I suppose the trains are too brutal for such a sensitive and expensive thing to be brought along for most people.)

I get lazy between contact changes, so I wore glasses a few days this week. I have stereotypical emo glasses -- thick black rims, rectangle lenses, etc. If I can find the cartoon version of myself my brother whipped up I'll post it. Anyway, girls don't really wear glasses (megane) in Japan. I've seen a few older women sporting spectacles, but the high school and university girls don't find them fashionable I guess. I've only seen nerdy otaku (geeks) wearing emo-style glasses.

I noticed I got a few more looks than usual when I wore glasses. This band was performing on the street in Ikebukuro (a typical activity to create buzz for a new band or artist), and Saniya *swears* the lead singer gave me a look. The type of look was not specified, but I assume it was one of "Oh my gosh GAIJIN wearing GLASSES AND A BACKPACK ew." Guys my age on the train also gave me such looks. I'd go off and swear at them, because I'm an American damnit and I don't put up with that crap, but I'm sure they wouldn't be able to understand.

Aside: Prof. Anno was talking about the immunity that representatives from other countries receive. "You can't just arrest the Chinese ambassador or the German ambassador or the American ambassador... actually you can't arrest an American, ever." The Americans in the room chuckled at the acknowledgement of gaijin smash.

Today, my mission is to find tampons. The girls say you can't find tampons anywhere (I don't know I haven't been looking myself), mother says she bought some at a convenience store, and the internet doesn't say much of anything. We shall see.

Baka Gaijin

Normally I would not comment on the behaviors some unfortunate gaijin display, as I am sometimes a baka gaijin myself and I am still learning about the little things in Japanese culture.

However, the disgusting behavior some of the male foreign students exhibit and their attitude towards Japanese women annoys me to no end.

Now, perhaps I just happen to meet and befriend the wrong people. This in no way is reflective of all the male foreign exchange students, but it seems to be a trend among the ones I know. You know who you are:

MOST FEMALES IN JAPAN ARE NOT GEISHA. STOP ACTING LIKE THEY ARE.

I am personally appalled at how some of the guys look at the girls here. Yes, they are lovely and feminine and very polite. True, most of them will be nice to you if you go up and talk to them. It's the culture; they're trying not to be rude.

However, you should know better than to take advantage of this. It doesn't make you cool to have a little black book full of names and numbers to busy your nights and weekends. Stop assuming they'll do whatever you want just because you ask them to. If you want a quiet, submissive woman to dote on you for a while, go to a hostess bar where they're paid to do that. Don't expect the exceptional, well-educated women of Sophia University to be your call girls.

Have some respect and some class. You make the rest of us look bad, and I don't appreciate it.

Asakusa and Interactions with Natives

I haven't posted in a few days, but I have some interesting stories to make up for it.

Yesterday we finally made it to Asakusa! I first went to Asakusa in 2005 with Micheru and Ted-san so naturally I had to go back again. The main attraction is the temple, but the sidestreets around it and the main road leading to it are good for picking up snacks and miyage (travel souvenirs). It's kind of a tourist attraction so I expected to see a few more gaijin than normal, but I was still surprised at how many natives were there. It wasn't a particularly nice day, a little windy and drizzling, but lots of people still showed up to pray/eat/buy/etc. I found a little charm that had the typical school backpack. It was so cute but I didn't buy it... I should have.

The more I interact and observe Japanese around campus, the more I go, "DUH I knew that they did that in (Sailor Moon, Crayon Shinchan, Soko Ga Shiritai, etc)." Clubs here are hard core. If you're a member, club is practically your life. The athletic clubs practice five to six days a week and practice as if they're official school sports teams. Most of the other clubs meet two or three times a week to sing, practice, dance, or hang out. And God forbid you join two clubs, how can you split your loyalties that way?

Saniya tried to join the Saffro Family club, which is like a gospel chorus. They get together and sing a few times a week, and seemingly try to imitate African-American church choruses. If I can get the short performance video Natasha took at a meeting I'll post it. After the first practice, Saniya came back to the dorm complaining that all she did the whole time was "sit on the side with the other first years and watch the older members learn new songs." She didn't sing but five minutes, and the older club members let the first years go home after an hour and a half out of pity/mercy.

I suppose it's a form of hazing -- first years have to put up with all kinds of crap to show their dedication to the club. It's a privilege to be a member of a club, you have to prove you're worth being a member. I got an email from my Folk Song club saying something like, "We have band practice today at 5pm at Sophia. First years can bring snacks and drinks." Translated properly, that means, "Show up at 5. Bring food (minions)." I ignored the email since the people who recruited me know I'm not that good at Japanese and they usually email me in English if I need to know something. But I did think about buying some food and taking it just to show some good will. I know, I'm a terrible gaijin.

I've talked about lunch at Sophia before, but I don't think I mentioned the weird sex segregation that occurs. At lunch, the lounge where we eat is filled with almost all females. Before the lunch rush I might see a few guys come in and eat quickly, but I never see boys in that room most of the time. Saniya says she sees them go to classrooms during lunch. My big group back home is about 1-1 male-female ratio, and I hang out with whoever, whenever they're free. In Japan, I have only seen boys and girls hang out together a handful of times. It's usually a group of girls chatting or a group of boys standing around being cool. I have no insight as to why this happens at the university level. Clues, anyone?

Next time, maybe another dorm post.

Dorm Series: Dining Hall

***Note about last post:
I reread what I wrote, and it sounds slightly negative. I think the culture of keeping up appearances, looking cute and nice on a daily basis, is a good thing. It kind of sucks for me at Sophia because I don't dress up as girly and I look kind of sloppy, but in general I think it's something a lot of my American peers can learn from. You don't have to look like a model everyday or spend an hour doing hair and makeup in the morning, but you shouldn't go around looking like you just rolled out of bed either. It's probably just another sign of conformity, but I like it better than Creighton where it seems like some girls try to out-ugly each other.

I'll start my dorm post series with one of my favorite places -- the dining room! Yay food. I realize it might seem lame to do posts on such mundane, everyday events like eating. Too bad. Breakfast and dinner are served Monday through Saturday; we're on our own on Sundays and national holidays. There is a set menu for each meal: an entree, side dish or salad, rice, and soup. Shoyu and some sort of pickled vegetable are by the iced tea and ocha (green tea).

When I come into the dining room, there's a sink and a ticket board on the right wall. Each resident has a ticket on the board, and you turn that in when you grab food.

I live in A105, so this is my ticket.

I grab my ticket and drop it off in a little container in the same shelf area were the main food is. Grab a tray, grab my individual servings of the entree and side dish, and move on to rice.

In the picture there's nothing set up, but there are usually containers of bowls for soup, rice, and tea cups. There's a jar of chopsticks, shoyu, and saucers for shoyu or pickled veggies. Tea and rice are also in this area.

You can sit at the little wooden table if it's open, but most people sit at the tables. It's a very small dining area to service a few dozen residents, but it's okay.

The sink and stove area where the girls are in that photo is open for residents to use. There are pots, pans, knives, and cutting boards under the sink. If you use it, you wash it. I'm not sure who controls the TV during meal hours, but it's usually tuned to some crazy Japanese game show.

When I'm done eating, I put my tray with all the dishes I used on this shelf.

I've never seen more than three older women in the kitchen at one time, either cooking or washing dishes. They make great food compared to the dining halls at Creighton; it's practically home cooking. I'm told dinner is better than breakfast (I've had breakfast twice). I'll have to try to get them something at the end of the semester.

I'm not sure how I'll illustrate my daily commute, because any pictures of the train would just be of the person smooshed up next to me. Seriously. We'll see.