Disney Sea and more

I have way too much to write about. I just had the busiest, most exhausting, most rewarding, and most fun time since arriving here. There is not enough time for me to detail everything; even if I had unlimited Internet access (which I don’t) and spent hours writing (which I won’t) I know I would miss details or my weekend. All the same I need to try putting this all down so I don’t forget too much. I’ve been so busy I haven’t journaled in three days, and I journal basically every day.

I have to start all the way back at last Wednesday. It was the last day of testing. I took Science and another English test. I felt much more confident on my science test than last time, but did worse. Funny how that works. I could definitely read more and answered more questions, but I guess I’ve forgotten a lot of chemistry. The second English test was a breeze. I nailed the listening portion. So I was feeling pretty good already when we went out for practice on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon. Usually by the time we get out to practice it’s dark. But since school ended early it was clear and warm(ish). Much better running conditions. Nomura and I talked while we ran. We always do now. I’m becoming much better friends with him. Besides my host mother, he’s the person I talk to the most here. Then, my day got even better. After practice I was invited to play basketball with the track team.

Needless to say I was ecstatic. I had been waiting for this moment for three months. “Yes I want to play. I’m okay at basketball. I used to play at home with my friends.” We went to the local gym because there are zero public courts in Japan. Well, I think there are some in Tokyo somewhere. With 36 million people there’s pretty much everything. But not in Ushiku, which is where my school is located. So we rode our bikes over to the gym and paid for a two-hour chunk of court time. There were 13 of us. We would form three teams; play round robin, then re-devide teams. I pretty much dominated the court. Except for a few kids, no one knew how to play. In Japan, either you are a basketball player, or you are not. Kids don’t dabble in various subjects. That is for elementary school. By the time you’re in high school, you have a set number of activities and you’re expected to devote your time to those. First comes school, which is taken as a job. Next come club activities. So if you’re not on the basketball team, chances are you probably rarely play basketball. This getting together to shoot hoops business is a special occasion. We just finished testing, so everyone had tons of time. No one is going home to study on the last day of finals in the U.S. It’s the same way here. But next week, they’ll be back at it. It was a very fun time. I now know that when people do hang out, I’ll be invited. It’s just that it doesn’t happen very often.

Thursday was my Japanese class, so a late day. Friday was supposed to be my aikido class but I couldn’t go. I realized that marital arts are something I really want to do, so I will join a class, but this week didn’t work out. It’s just as well, because Saturday was the earliest I’ve woken up so far. I got up at 4:30 to catch the first train out of Tsuchiura station. 4:30 is way too early in the morning to wake up. But it was totally worth it. I took the train about half an hour to Kashiwa station where I met up with 6 friends. Then we took a different from Kashiwa to some other place with a Japanese name. We transferred trains there, and then again, and then again. Each train got more and more crowded and we all stood for the vast majority of the trip. But that’s okay, because we just talked the whole time. Everyone was full of excitement and by the time we arrived at Disney Sea theme park the sun was up and the sky clear and blue.

Disney Sea is something I don’t believe exists in the U.S. although I’m not sure. It is a lot like Disneyland, except all the various areas are water-based. There was the Mediterranean Harbor, Arabian Coast, Ariel’s Castle, American Waterfront, and others. I’ve never been to Disneyland, so this was all new. It was very strange. The buildings were so carefully constructed to represent these different places. I felt like I was in New York, or the Middle East, or the Congo, except that it was cold and everyone was Asian. My friends kept saying, “There are so many foreigners.” But no, actually, pretty much everyone was Japanese. First we all headed off to the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride. The line was long, even just minutes after the park opened. I didn’t mind waiting because it gave me a chance to talk. A talk we did. We chatted all day. I like this group of kids because I can really be part of the conversation. I fit in. Hazuki kept asking me, “Do you understand” or “Do you know…” Actually, most of what we talked about was whether or not I knew various Japanese pop icons, or American ones. That and the differences between Australian English, American English, and Japanese. Hazuki was an exchange student in Australia for one year, so he sometimes uses English expressions I don’t know. Stuff like, “How are you going?”, instead of how are you doing. He also insisted that Americans should pronounce their t’s.
“Why do you always drop your t’s?”, he asked.
“I dunno.”
“See! Right there. That should be I don’T know.”
It was ironic to be lectured on my pronunciation of English by a Japanese person, especially because the Japanese are notorious of not being able to pronounce English words. Hazuki’s friend, Ayano, lived in Georgia with her family during middle school. She’s one of the few Japanese I know who can pronounce words; she has no accent at all. Actually, she has a faint Southern accent, which is also funny. So she was usually on my side and helped me in explaining to Hazuki that Australian English is stupid. It was a point he was slow to catch on to, and was a reoccurring theme throughout the day.

The ride was very fun. It was much longer than a regular roller coaster; although I have to say I prefer those more. I’ve never been on a Disney ride before, and I didn’t realize how much of it is a show. The moving robots and intensely realistic caves and giant bugs were cool, but not something I need to ride over and over. Once was enough. After Journey we hit up the Little Mermaid kiddies’ coaster, which was exactly as much fun as it sounds, Indiana Jones, which was my favorite, and then walked over to Tower of Terror. We met lines wherever we went. Even at the little popcorn stands there were half hour lines. Somehow, we had a bazillion fast passes and skipped lines at Tower of Terror as well as some other rides. Without a fast pass the line was over two hours. With the pass it was about a fifteen-minute wait. Tower of Terror was pretty cool. It was essentially the Giant Drop, except in a dark building and had a whole storyline attached. It was so fun that we went back in the evening to ride it again just before closing. I have to say, riding it at night was so much cooler. Right at the top you can see the whole park lit up. I really liked the ride, but everyone was terrified. I can tell these kids are not the daredevil type. In the picture taken during the ride, all my friends had expressions of terror. I was sitting the in the middle with my hands up and grinning. I think The Raging Bull would kill them. Still fun.

The whole park was better at night. There was a volcano in the middle that periodically spewed fireworks and constantly oozed fog lit with spotlights. Next to the volcano was a giant pond with a pirate ship. At 6 pm we watched a show on the water. It was a story about a water spirit fighting a fire spirit. The water part was neat, with a giant moving fountain. But the fire part was so much cooler. There was a metal dragon with 6 legs instead of wings. On the legs were fire canisters that shot fireballs timed to music. It was the most spectacular pyrotechnic show I’ve ever seen. At the end the volcano shot a giant fireball. Very cool. After the show we went on some more rides, and then hit up Tower of Terror the second time before leaving the park around 10 pm. Then a two and a quarter hour train ride put me home around 12:30 am. That is by far the latest I’ve ever returned home in Japan. It reminded me of being back in Evanston. I was so tired from spending nearly 22 hours talking and walking. I could have slept the entire Sunday. But it was not to be.

I woke up at 6:15 on Sunday to catch the 7:15 train to Tokyo. At Nippori station I change lines and rode that train to Shinjuku. Then I transferred to a private train line and changed trains one more time before arriving at some University in Tokyo. There were tons of foreigners on the train. It was the largest number of foreigners I’ve seen in once place. We were all there to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). This wasn’t the real JLPT. That is in two weeks, this was a practice test. They’re changing the format of the JLPT for next year. This test was a trail run. They wanted feedback on how difficult the test was and I even got paid at the end. That was pretty cool. The test felt really good. I had a solid handle on all the sections. My studying really paid off. I could read almost all the kanji and I aced the listening section. I would imagine that listening is my strongest section compared to the other people taking it. Most foreigners in Japan, at the least the English ones, teach English. They live by themselves and use English all day. Even the other Asian ones usually live in communities with other people from their country. My immersion has definitely boosted my listening skills. It’s the one thing you can’t study on your own. But even on grammar I did really well. I feel very confident for the real test in two weeks, and I know what I have to work on. It’s given me my motivation back. For a while I feel like I’ve flat lined the last few weeks and I lost my motivation to study. Without grades or homework, if I lose my person drive then I just stop. This showed me how far I’ve come and gave me new purpose.

On the train to, around, and from Tokyo I read Confucius Lives Next Door by T.R. Reid. It is incredibly fascinating and has been the most useful book about Japan so far. He’s an NPR journalist and lived in Tokyo for 6 years. I actually passed the neighborhood where he lived, which was pretty cool. What’s interesting about his book is how he outlines what is culturally Japanese in a clearer way than I have encountered. Something I’ve struggled with here is determining what is Japanese, and what are individual characteristics. When my host mother does something I find strange, is it because she’s Tomoko or because she’s Japanese? This book is helping me see the underlying reasons behind the culture and why they do the things they do. He argues that it all comes back to Confucius, and that the Japanese aren’t even aware of how they have been influenced by his works. Basically it’s all about group dynamics. Social harmony is the ultimate goal. So many things that I have taken as Japanese, hard work (including studying), talking around difficult or embarrassing subjects, good manners, and the obsession with rules, are explained by this all-powerful desire to maintain order and social harmony. It is fascinating stuff and has helped in allowing me to figure out what is acceptable and what isn’t, and why some of the things I’ve done have been considered offensive. I’m glad I’m reading it.

After the test I did some Tokyo travel. I figured, I’m in Tokyo already, I’ve spent the money on the train ticket, why not enjoy it? So I hopped a train down to….well I forget now but the name wouldn’t mean anything anyway. It was a neighborhood with lines of shops. I’m not a big shopper. I don’t really like department stores and I don’t particularly like spending lots of time shopping if I don’t have a purpose. That being said, a day now and then of wandering in a new place looking at stores can be fun. I’m not a fan of big stores, and fashion is not my thing, but the lines of small shops were neat. I avoided all the clothing and shoe stores, and found some cool stuff. One place sold handmade chopsticks and pottery. Another store was frog themed. Everything they sold was covered in frogs. I found a used bookstore with a book of Peanut comics in Japanese. One place sold fountain pens and quills. I was really tempted to buy a feather quill, but decided against it. I spent a few hours there, and then took a train home because I was thoroughly exhausted. Two full days of walking around and seeing new stuff was enough for me. So today I slept in, biked around a bit, read the newspaper, watched TV, and took a nap, a relaxing day. I felt a bit lonely in the morning but I just reminded myself of the 20 hours I spent with friends on Saturday and felt okay. I’m looking forward to a slow evening at home and an early bedtime. And thanksgiving is coming up! Awesome. That’s all for now.