Oh my me!

The primary reason (laziness excluded, of course) that it has taken so long for this post to be made is the same reason that I now have an appreciation for the affordability of Japanese health care. I went in to the doctor on Wed. the 22nd, because my right eye had been quite painful all day. What I found out was that I had accrued some cornea damage, and that they were worried it might be infected. They gave me some eyedrops and I came back the next day, and apparently they were alarmed that it had gotten worse so they sent me to the Tokyo University Todai campus hospital, where I received all sorts of antibiotics, in both eyedrop and pill form. As I said, they were a bit alarmed at this stage and so I was to come in the next day, with the understanding that I might need to stay there if it continued to worsen.

Luckily, however, the next day I showed promising signs of recovery, and was allowed to go home after further examination and distribution of medicine. For most of this time I was to be seen walking around with a jerry-rigged gauze eyepatch, as the patch made it easier to just open one eye, and I was still a little photophobic. I was still coming in for a checkup every day, and continued to recover admirably. I was eventually allowed a day off from the hospital, and after the next (most recent) checkup I was allotted a 5-day window before the next one. At this point I am walking around with both eyes open, almost totally recovered. The right eye is still slightly blurry, so small print is sometimes difficult if it isn't too close, but it is still getting better every day and my worries have pretty much fallen to nearly zero.

The doctors were extremely nice and helpful here. I still haven't even paid for my last visit to the very first clinic, as they wanted me to get over to Todai as soon as possible. All in all, this ordeal has cost me probably in the ballpark of $5-600, including medicine and doctor visits, all without any kind of insurance. They apply insurance after the fact here, so the overall cost is likely do drop to an even more dramatically low price. My last checkup barely even cost $15 (1200 yen), less than the usual co-pay back home.


my eye's current condition

also, as the title of this post states, eye in japanese is "me", pronounced may





Sad to say, I don't have all that many pictures from this last week, as my looking around was at a minimum. I was able to go to sumo though, despite my condition, and got some pictures and videos of that.























2 Sundays ago we also participated in part of a Shinto festival, dressing in... interesting attire whilst shouldering a portable shrine (oh my aching shoulders).
I have to run off to class now, but I'll keep updating this with anything I may have forgotten. Sayonara

Karuizawa






















These are pictures taken from the bus window on the way to Karuizawa, our first real glimpse at the more rural Japan. This trip provided a nice breather from Tokyo, but was truly a beautiful area in it's own right. We were able to see a small waterfall, walk around a volcanic park, and visit an On-sen spa.

Our bus left at around 1, and it was to be a roughly 3 1/2 hour bus ride from dorm to dorm, and we were to stay from Saturday afternoon until Monday afternoon. We were treated to a varied meal in the dorm building (which is owned by the school) with the Japanese students who accompanied us, and then we were free to end the night however we desired. After a group trip to the 7-11 for snacks and drinks, a night of card/party games ensued. The next morning we were off to a small waterfall, with a nearby trail area as well.























below are pictures of the trail's "stairs of death", which were a bit challenging for our groggy bunch











Lunch was "master-crafted" soba noodles, which were apparently very good if you liked them at all. Sadly, many of us did not care for them in the slightest, myself included. They were cold, and the sauce smelled of preserved animal organs, ripe for student dissection. On to more pleasant things.

After lunch we went to Mt. Asama's volcanic park, which was spectacular, though we were given far too much free time for how hot it was there. In addition to the natural features, there were several Buddhist and Shinto shrines in the area to look at.






















After this trip we went to the On-Sen, that is the public hot spring bath. Yes, that kind. It was incredibly relaxing, and welcome after a couple of days of busing around and sleeping on beds even less comfortable than the ones at our main dorm. We left the spring weighing significantly less than when we got there (sauna was involved) and headed back to the dorm for a similar night to the first. The next day was essentially a strip-mall day, with some ridiculous clothing shops (The Bathing Ape Pirate Store, with a sign featuring, well, a pirate ape), and more importantly a bowling alley, where we spent most of our 3 hours. Then, sadly, it was time to head back.

The school week didn't provide anything particularly noteworthy, though we seem to be on our way to befriending this store owner how lives a couple of blocks away. One of the most "Japanese" moments so far was the purchase of a coffee cup which came with a Batmobile toy... that was a windup... and magnetic:

On a related note, Alrae has some of the best sayings, as evidenced by the end of the video.
Yesterday (Saturday), we went to the Tokyo Game Show, which was an enormous video-game convention. It took an hour and a half to get to it by subway, but it was well worth it. 3 huge halls filled with people and kiosks, with cosplayers left and right. It was a blast. I'll let the pictures talk for themselves.






















































I have to go now to get food before helping to carry a portable shrine for today's festival, I'll try to get some pictures of that as well. Later.

Catch-up

Rather than continue to recap with an elaborate day-to-day, I've decided to summarize up until the current state of things, since I will be without my computer for most of this weekend anyways and don't want to have THAT much more catch-up to do.

I have since visited Akihabara, the Electric City. This place is kind of the visually archetypal modern Tokyo one thinks of, teeming with skyscrapers, huge video advertisements on the sides of buildings, and tons of people. We went here essentially to browse massive stores (think entire floors devoted to toys) and to just walk around seeing what we could come across. We got a meal in one of the major skyscrapers, in a restaurant with the strangest decor I have seen. The walls were made to look like a cave, the windows had bars on them, and there was a chandelier hanging from the ceiling.





















The food was very good, I split my breaded chicken with my friend's sushi+rice, both of which were excellent and relatively cheap. 3 of us ordered $7 glasses of sake (we figured we had to shell out to try a quality example sometime), and it was delicious



It was served traditionally, filled to overflow into the box it is served in. It was delicious, and made us a little silly for the remainder of dinner. We consider it a worthwhile, albeit infrequent investment.





I also have a picture of our dorm building from the outside, just of the entrance, but given the crowded nature of the city it is hard to get an all-encompassing picture.










In other news, classes have started. Most of the classes are once a week, with Japanese language class every day and our study abroad seminar twice a week. Japanese language class is going well, we seem to be learning pretty quickly, and the teachers keep the classes interesting (a feat with 90 minute classes). Japanese Literature + Performing Arts is a little dull so far, but I am giving the teacher the benefit of the doubt because for our first class we hadn't yet read anything to discuss, so it was very much an introduction class period and little else. We have a class on Japanese business practices, which while striking me as an uninteresting subject is being taught in such a way that I can pay attention without much trouble. "Cool Japan" sounded like the most entertaining class, but for the moment we have a very soft-spoken teacher who does not seem super confident of her English skills, making paying attention somewhat of a chore.

Study Abroad Seminar is pretty interesting so far, talking about sustainability and Japan. So far we have been talking about what resources Japan has, and whether or not it is a practical place to live in a long-term perspective, often relating our discussions back to compare with our places of origin (we have people from different states, a Bahamian, and a Chinese student on our trip). Japanese Religion and Politics seems pretty interesting so far, and it comes with several excursions. These include carrying a portable shrine for a local neighborhood and observing various Shinto and Buddhist rituals. Sadly, our history class is a bit tedious, as it has so far consisted of a lot of poring over historic economic figures.

I may have omitted a class or two, but I am currently getting underway with packing for our weekend excursion to Karuizawa. This includes hot springs, rural settings, and a chance to finally get to spend some time with Japanese students, since 12 of them will be accompanying us on the trip. There is also a bowling alley and movie theater nearby, so we might take advantage of that (though movie tickets here are exorbitant)

While I am thinking of it, I am holding here the most delicious pop I have had while here, maybe ever. In the background you can even see a few other empty cans of it, between the desks of Joe and I. It is most similar to Sprite, but a little less carbonated and with a subtle caramel/vanilla flavor.

Other than what I have already mentioned, the only thing else I have to add is that we (the students) are planning a trip to climb Mt. Fuji next weekend. It was supposed to be a part of our trip, but we were told that it was impossible because this year we arrived after the time before which amateurs can climb. However, we have discovered that this is not precisely the case. The difference is that we can no longer use the rest stops, and have to climb continuously, making it about a 5-6 hour trek. Our plan is to do this, and do it right, which means arriving at the peak at sunrise. I have faith in our perseverance. Pictures will be forthcoming.

Saturday-Sunday

Saturday

This morning we went to the nearby Nezu Shrine, a mere 2-3 minute walk away










The above pictures are from the entrance, and the ones below are part of the extensive interior


















It had a bunch of smaller shrines, in addition to the larger building in the pictures, surrounded by rolling foliage as in the last picture. We had a large enough group where we didn't go into the main shrine, as it would probably be a bit to ask of the caretakers, but we walked around the rest of the park set aside for it. Unsurprisingly, our group eventually deteriorated into calling the park animals by Pokemon names, after which we decided it was probably time to go.

We went to get a late lunch from a nearby restaurant which turned out to be excellent, in contrast with the proficiency of my chopstick handling skills. It was a delicious chicken +
cashew combination, with a side of rice. Our waiter knew a refreshing amount of English, which rounded the experience out to a very pleasurable one. He was also the first and only waiter to accept a tip from us so far, so interpret that however you will.

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful for everyone except for Alrae, who had the honor of being the first person to miss the midnight subway.

Sunday

Sunday was a festival day (of some sort, we weren't really able to pick up the details), which provides us an excuse to go out and wander the city. Which we did. We went to a "Brazil Day" festival area, with some Capoeira performers, food, and most importantly, extremely effective handheld fans which they handed out for free (it's HOT!). After a while, though, Joe, Michael, and I got tired of aimless walking and separated from the group in our quest for food. This turned out to be our best decision of the trip thus far.

We made our way to "Shakey's Pizza", a pseudo-American pizza place with bizzare pizza flavors, ranging from calamari to marshmallow to banana. The icing on the cake however (or pizza) was that from our (air conditioned) window seat we had a great view of the passing shrines. Apparently the street we were overlooking was the main street for this part
of the festival.





















The overhead street pictures are from a pedestrian bridge








The evening was a little uneventful, largely filled with playing cards: we had to get up early to go apply for our Alien cards so that we don't have to lug our passports around with us everywhere. I have to leave for class now though, so I'll finish catching up another day.