this blog is a tiny timemachine.
i spent a ridiculous and amazing chunk of time in Tokyo from September 2007 'til February 2008. i went to Sophia University in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward and stayed with a hostfamily in Kawasaki. now i'm here to tell you all about it.
why didn't this blog begin eight months ago? i have a hard time balancing living and observing. i observe enough to report on later in my university major of journalism. the time i spend behind a notepad or behind a camera is time spent in the third person. i chose to live in the first person, and it benefited me.
so after long days of living and commuting (which i would say is the opposite of living in japan), i really did not have time to collect my thoughts onto a journal with any regularity. these memoirs are a bit late, but through saved trinkets (i am always the packrat for receipts, documents, and the like), letters to friends contemporary with the time, and a memory which is pretty great, i hope to recreate a deal of my trip for your enjoyment, and for my sake!
this may be a chronological nightmare, but no worries. i'll write about the different things that happened during my months there, all about the different neighborhoods of tokyo and other japanese cities i visited, about specific things of interest, and about things i learnt and people i met!
here's a quick brainstorm of what i'm planning on writing about.
•my decision to go to japan
•preparations
•trials of applying and scholarships
•acceptances and orientations
•traveling to japan!
•first impressions
•first commute home from the airport
•my host family!
•school orientation
•living in Kawasaki
•all about Sophia University
•on exchange students
•on japanese students
•the commute :C
•education in japan
•culture of trains
•WHAT I LOVE ABOUT CONCRETE (&plastic)
•women's fashion
•umbrellas
•SARs masks
•bookjackets
•depaato
•sound trucks
•quitting time music
•outdoor music in general
•interesting vehicles (feat. the yaki imo man)
•bikes!
•pachinko
•vending machines
•sweets, the non-existence of
•cigarettes in japan
•keitai living
•coppers
•pointless supervisors
•extreme style
•pink lights on escalators?! amazing.
•on working, and drinking, and drinking more
•culture of drinking; reefer madness
•television variety shows
•exaggerated reations (AH SUGOI!!)
•what i learned in anthropology class
•on the japanese language, why we love it
•kanji
•i got a denshi-jisho (&so do you)
•shinjuku-ku
•chiyoda-ku
•akihabara
•ginza
•ikebukuro
•minato-ku
•shibuya-ku
•shinagawa-ku
•kappabashi
•the bay, the beautiful bay
•showa kinen kooen
•our begi shokudo (vegan café)
•restaurants
•nikko
•kamakura
•nagano prefecture
•the awkward and rewarding onsen
•kyoto
•nara
•the shinkansen
•an orderly protest (sans riot)
•namco namja town
•karaoke
•the izakaya
•missing your shuuden
•don't forget your omiyage
•coming home
i'll touch on these and more! photos, but of course. i swear it will be interesting.
see you soon.
love,
tom
