Trains and College

I've meet many different people in my stay. Many people with many different cultures. Call me narrower than a pick, but I can't say that I really ever experienced such an exposure to different cultures anywhere in the states. Maybe it's just that I was just as different as the next white guy; I mean there are a lot of us so perhaps I never really ever felt that experience to be subjected as a fellow minority. The gaijin are everywhere. Some try to feign their acknowledgments of other gaijin as if they truly do not want to be recognized as an outsider. Some are just as loud, and obnoxious and as the stereo type goes, and maybe some just play the harmonica when they get bored walking around Ikebukoro. =P I like the fact that when someone knows English they are more than willing to help or simply talk to me. They don't even have to be a gaijin. --



My next day I wake up too early for my own good jetlagging self. It was easy, I couldn't figure out how to change the air conditioner the night before, and so I just fell asleep and woke up in a layer of sweat. That day I was suppose to head to my university in Machida. It would only take me a good hour and a half by train. I left immediately to the train station holding a small memo that contained my entire route to my school. I either got incredibly lucky guiding myself around the train stations, or it just so happened to be a rather enjoying time to think that it was difficult to find the trains, which it probably was – I really don't remember. The trains are just about the most quiet time so far in Japan, it's just about the only needed time I can get by myself. Everyone on the trains seems to be doing one or more of the following five things while on the train: reading a book, listening to an Ipod, sleeping, looking at their cellphones, or starring at me, but maybe that's just because I'm also starring at them trying to notice what they are doing. When I am able I love looking outside. There is so much to see, sometimes its buildings with some of the most interesting signs ever, other times it can be nature, but I have so little time to notice it all.

Getting lost is probably the most fun ever. And the thing is you know that everyone around you knows that you're lost. One day I was looking at a map trying to figure out how to get where I was going, and some guy walks up to be and in a very fast accent asked me, "where you looking for?"

"I'm looking for the Fuchinobe station."

and he explained to me in really fast and broken English how to get there, I continued to nod my head at him and just respond I understand. I truly did not understand him... one bit. But that's okay,I figured out how to get places by myself somehow.

Machida is a fantastic town. It is much like Lawrence in the sense that is overpopulated by students. My first time in Machida was rather difficult to navigate. I think I mistook my college for a church, but eventually I prevailed and made my way to my destination. The college is just about like KU expect everyone smokes rather than just about everyone. In fact everyone in this country has easy access to smoking, all you have to be able to do is have enough muscle to press a button on a vending machine.

Just about as soon as I got off the bus I heard the the most terrifying, soul shrieking screams. They were coming from the top of a building, and I wanted to make sure everything was okay. I head up towards the building and notice people in a shell of body armor, wielding their crackling bamboo swords. Then I remember of course that I am in the land of Japan. The land of SAMURAIS. ( I still have not seen a samurai in my stay in Japan.) Oh I forgot to mention, nearly every building in Japan has escalators. They`re pretty nice, they don't make my legs hurt. So getting around campus is zippy because this country is built tall, not wide.

Every so often I'll hear birds chirping around Machida. But I'm getting suspicious that this bird calls are actually recorded bird calls. I always experience hearing them in the exact locations, and I remember them being the exact same bird calls, I don't know maybe those birds like that spot, or maybe they're playing an awful, terrible trick on me. Other than that, I really don't encounter too much wildlife, which is rather disappointing. My host sister, who happens to have lived in Kansas for some time says that Kansas is like a natural zoo.” Animals always roam freely.” I smirked at her when she told me that, “That's because we are the HOME of the FREE, bitch.” (this pompous quote was probably never uttered by me. Apparently I just wrote it down in my personal log though. )

Sometime soon I want to head to a zoo, which is probably like any other zoo. Thats it for this blog, Next blog I will focus more on individuals that are in my life in Japan. That will be a good one.

So today I went to a Indian festival in Yoyogikoen. The music and the food was great. I learned a lot about Mango Ice Cream. Also if you wanted to Indian clothing, that was the place to be, they had entire dresses for like 600 Yen. I pretty much want to go to Indian now.