Last Days at YCC

I'm writing this from my office in YCC (Yokohama College of Commerce), in my last hour of work here. It's been a great experience, I learned a lot, but I'm excited to be flying home to Boston on Tuesday!



Above is Jacqui, Ross, Stu and I on my birthday, in the skyscaper district of Shinjuku. Below -- YCC !!



Me, in a manga cafe, playing some crazy and delightfully incomprehensible Playstation game.



And here's a little something I took on Carrie and my last day teaching - a little incognito train footage (I had the hanging camera around my neck but left it filming). This is what our morning commute looks like, taking the 7:56 train from Naruse station ...



I've lived and traveled in a lot of different countries in the past five years, but it never gets hard to leave. We've had some great times, Japan, I'll miss you !!

Doraemon

Who is Doraemon? Doraemon is a "gadget cat from the future". According to Wikipedia, in March 2008, Japan's Foreign Ministry appointed Doraemon as the nation's first "anime ambassador." I'm not sure what that means, but he certainly is ubiquitous throughout Japan.

I was recently in a small English section of a bookstore and to my delight I found volume one of the Doraemon manga, translated into English! (with Japanese as well). So now I'm reading about how this little robot cat comes to save the comic's hero from a lifetime of loser-dom. It's very cute.

Here's a scan of one of the first panels, again courtesy of Wikipedia:



This is where Nobita, the main character, first meets Doraemon as he comes out of a desk drawer. Doraemon's first words are: "It's me. Did I upset you?" Nobita, being something of a spazz, is indeed pretty upset to see robot cats coming out of drawers.

Doraemon, you are a cool cat.

I often find my students doodling Doraemon on their English papers - Doraemon, and for some reason, a very gentlemanly looking frog with a necktie.

Stu in Japan

This morning as I raced out the door at 7:47 to catch my 7:51 bus down the road, I bid a sleepy and sad farewell to my good buddy Stu. We had some sweet times in Japan - so glad he could make it!!



Here's Stu at an Okinawa themed bar the other night, with smooth beer and Okinawa tempura vegetables (ゴーヤ - go-ya, kind of like eggplant, and some beans). And of course, Japanese reggae and groovy times. The bartender even gave Stu a free shot of Okinawa whiskey since it was his first time in Japan! What a night ~ safe flights my friend!

anatomy of a manga cafe

Stu is in Japan !!!

At long last my good friend Stu has crossed the Great Ocean, the Pacific one that is! And he's here exploring Tokyo with me. Today we went to a 'mangakissa' or manga cafe, after work.

Manga cafes are more than just places to read manga, though there's always a huge manga library with aisles and stacks upon stacks of books to read. Also: magazines, books, DVDs, PS2 games. Our room had a two seater couch, this computer that I'm typing on, ambient lighting and music, and a nice big TV to play Playstation (we've been playing Guilty Gear, he's owning me) - basically a sweet place to crash with your friends for a few hours and treat like your living room at home.



And the single rooms have massage chairs! Way back in 2006, my friend Rachael and I stayed in one of these manga cafes for the night in Kyoto when we couldn't find a hotel. Some even have showers, didn't see that here, but we got a hamburger and curry delivered right to our little cubicle.

For me, this is one of the iconic places that makes Japan, though it might seem at first very similar, very different than America.

me gustas tu

This song has been in my head all day:



Me gustas Japón, me gustas tu. (that's Japan in Spanish!)

Today is Carrie and Ross's last day here in Yokohama College of Commerce, it's a beautiful cloudless sunny blue blue day, but man - a sad one. I've been carrying my camera around and filming at random moments, within the next few days I'll throw some of them up here so you guys can see what it's like to walk around my school. Two more weeks of makeup classes for me (for students who failed the term) and then -- back to Boston !!! :) I'm getting excited.

Today's Japanese word - いろいろ　-　iro-iro - means varieties. The word is two repeating syllables, and individually いろ (iro) means color. "Color-color" brings to mind a whole bunch of colorful things - a variety. Apparently Japanese has a lot of these double repeating syllable words, anyone know any more?

a weekend with Sir Bennett Baldwin

A couple weekends ago, my good buddy Ben came over from South Korea for a weekend in Japan.



We learned several important things.

1) Ben is capable of eating a helluva lot of sushi.



2) Hot dog sushi is delicious.



3) The ancient city of Kamakura (capital of Japan from 1185–1333) has a very large Buddha.



4) According to the fortune I bought at Hase-dera Temple, now is a fortuitous time to buy armor, a harness, a cow and a horse.



5) Even halfway around the world, you can still meet cool people from Boston like Mandy.



6) There is apparently a "party train". This will remain forever a mystery, we didn't board it.



Speaking of mysteries, Ben and I also went clubbing and stayed out at Roppongi all night. But we didn't bring cameras, so that story will live on only in the tales we tell our children in the years to come ... Ben, come back to Japan again soon.

I moved to Japan!!

Hello from JAPAN!! I still can't believe I'm here, honestly. :P

Flight was great, made friends with a couple of college kids who were part of a Philipino dance troupe (though they were Japanese) on tour in America, and they helped me practice my terrible Japanese - it's a little less terrible now! After the flight, my company helped me navigate the intense mesh network of trains that is the greater Tokyo metropolitan area, and after a short walk from the train station, I arrived at my apartment.



That's the entrance-way, with a little galley kitchen. I sleep directly above the entrance-way, if you can believe it.



This is the main room of my place, with mid-afternoon light. The computer-looking screen is actually my TV, which has all kinds of special features which I have no idea how to use. Exciting to look at though.



From the other direction. The first time I saw the loft I jumped with glee, no kiddin.



On the ladder, which is a scary place to be half-awake from jet-lag in the middle of the night, heading to the bathroom. No injuries, so far so good.



The crowning prize - a toilet that squirts your butt with water. What else could I need? Maybe an air dry button, I'm still trying to figure out if it has one ...

Right now I'm heading off to downtown Tokyo, all the teachers hired this semester with my company have a seminar for the next two days to get to know each other and the company curriculum, will post more when I get back. :) Miss you guys