1998.08.12 WED

Just got back from Tokyo yesterday - I've been kinda busy since then, so sorry for not having written earlier. In any case, here goes!

The bus ride was loooong. From about 9:50 at night until about 7or 8 in the morning I was on a bus. I had printed out something to read, but it turns out I pretty much printed only the odd pages of the story - just as well, because they shut the lights off after about 10:30 anyways so I wouldn't have been able to read anyways. In any case, by the time I arrived at the bus terminal in Shinjuku, I was so tired that I forgot my luggage, so we ended up spending about an hour and a half getting to the other side of Tokyo to get it back. After all that was over I was so tired from the lack of sleep on the bus that I spent the next three hours or so just sleeping.

That night was a bit more interesting, though. We went to Akihabara, the electronics district of Tokyo - supposedly, this is the place where you can find just about the best deals in Japan on electronic equipment and CD's. There's actually a similar place here in Osaka called 'Den-Den Town' (denki is the word for electricity, if that helps clear up the reason why they call it that) which is somewhat comparable. At least on the day I went, Den-Den Town was a little bit better, if a little bit smaller. In any case, it was raining, so it wasn't all that fun, but I did get to see some interesting stuff. Didn't buy anything, though - it was a biiiit too expensive for me.

It was pretty interesting staying with my host family, though. They live in the Setagaya Ward of western Tokyo, which I just heard today was considered 'the rich section' of Tokyo. Before I came, Chieko-san kept telling me that their place was small and that I'd have to forgive them for the lack of privacy. I'd had this vision of a one-room apartment about 15 feet square with a separate bathroom and kitchenette - ended up being a pretty darn spacious apartment. (Which, by the way, is known as a 'mansion' in Japanese - I guess it might be a 'mansion' compared to the studio apartments which seem to be the norm...) In any case, I didn't have a problem - meals were great, everyone was really nice to me, and if I couldn't figure out what they were saying in Japanese, everyone knew English, having lived in New York for seven years.

Oh - this is the way the living arrangements were. Chieko Yamashita lives in Nara prefecture - I'm pretty sure I mentioned her in an earlier letter. In any case, her son Masanori lives with her in Nara, along with Hae-san, her mother. During summertime, when Masa is out of school, the family is reunited in Tokyo, where the father of the family (I can't read the name yet, and I was too shy to ask ^^;) lives, along with Ayako, their daughter. Ayako studied in New York for eight years - alone for the first year, before the rest of the family came along. ANYWAYS - I didn't get my own room in Setagaya, but I didn't really expect one anyways - ended up rooming with Masa. Everyone in the family's pretty cool anyways - don't really talk much, but neither do I, unless there's something to talk about. Oh, and Masa and I have a lot of common interests, like in music and books and stuff, so it ended up great!

Other than that, life was pretty much cool - the apartment was a five minute walk from the Roka Park train station, which in turn was about fifteen minutes from Shinjuku - one of the two BIGGEST train stations in Tokyo. The next day, I got to find out how the train system in Tokyo was different - in addition to the JR (Japan Rail, but no one ever SAYS that) train stations, there's also a subway system which is REALLY cheap. Cheap means you pay 190 yen (right now, about a buck fifty US) to go near abouts anywhere in the city. That day, I went around the city finding out about neat stuff - ended up going to the Imperial Gardens. Didn't get to enter the Emperor's Palace, but I heard from a lot of people that it was pretty boring anyways so I wasn't too worried. In any case, the Imperial Gardens rocked - really impressive.

After that, headed to Ueno Ward, where the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Gallery was. Pretty neat stuff, there - turns out that of the six galleries there, three were currently in setup for exhibitions which opened the day AFTER I got there. Oh well, the fourth was pretty neat - I'd always thought that the Japanese color sense was a little less developed than the western style - I was a bit wrong on that. The paintings there were really impressive.

After leaving there, stopped in the science museum and checked out the exhibit on the dinosaurs of Gondwana. (Supposedly, all seven continents were once combined, and split apart - first into two halves, then into the seven continents we have now. The southern half is now called Gondwana - I have NO clue where they got the name from.) It... was pretty neat. Everything was in Japanese so I didn't really learn anything scientific that I hadn't remembered from American museums, but the names of the dinosaur species were WAAAAY diff from what I learned, so... I think I missed something.

Thursday, Chieko-san and Masa took me to Asakusa Kannon Temple - pretty big temple, a lot different from the others I'd been to. Most likely, if you ever see a picture of a REALLY big red lantern, it's the one in Asakusa - really famous historical site. Next on the trip was a stop at the Tokyo Tower. Most likely, if you ever see a picture of a REALLY big red tower, it's the one in Tokyo. (C'mon, you had to see that coming.) It's not quite so tall as the CN Tower in Toronto, but a third of a kilometer isn't exactly SHORT either. It was actually kinda funny - they had a sign saying 'Admission Booth for Foreigners is inside' - but on the sign outside, they had the words 'plus tax' written in English. Anyways, there was too much smog that day to see Mt. Fuji from the tower, but every year on New Year's Day, all businesses in Tokyo shut down to make sure that everyone can see the mountain.

Next, I just wandered around the Shibuya district for a while, because I was meeting up with Joe over in Mitaka city later, just outside the Tokyo city border. Joe and I went to Japanese class together in high school - he's a loooot better in Japanese than I am, and this is actually his second or third time in the country. Anyways, he took me to this place where they serve 'rotary sushi' - basically, plates of sushi are placed on a belt which goes around, and you can eat what you like for about a buck a plate. Most rotary sushi places weren't good, but this place was great!

We spent the rest of the night watching videos - I finally saw Hudson Hawk - and I ended up getting back to Setagaya the next day at about one or so. I forgot what happened then, but I'll remember here in a bit - and I'm kinda tired now, so I'll finish it up next time. Until then!