Since then...

To my blogspot.com readers, I am now a blogger for DiversityAbroad.com for the time being so the style and direction of my posts will be slightly different that what is normal. But keep reading :).

I haven't stopped since that last post. Not once.

After that post we soon found out there was wireless in the Hotel Los Capitanes in El Valle (Run by a very friendly German named Snr. Manfred), we just had never bothered to check in that particular area. Our time, however, was limited and I've had little time to be on any computer, much less my own.

I went to the town of Farallon near El Valle. The point of the "drop-off" was to force us to learn how to put ourselves out there, to navigate Panama on our own... if just for an afternoon. We were to go in twos and threes and be sent to different cities. Early in the morning we took a private bus (and by bus I mean a van not too much bigger than a typical minivan) and headed to the entrance of El Valle, the bottom of the mountain.

Oh, El valle by the way is inside a dormant volcano. Cool eh?

Anyways, we got to the bottom and took different public buses to our respective cities. The way the countryside "el campo" bus system works is that the bus will stop anywhere between the two places written across a decorative windshield, as long as you remember to tell them to stop.

Price ranges from .50 cents to 1.50+, depending on the distance. For instance, Becca, Theresa, and I hopped on the bus labeled Panama (for Panama city) and Antón, and we just had to remember to tell them to stop at Farallon, which was between.

Farallon (this is hearsay from Aly the program director) was once a place where soldiers were and during the invasion, US soldiers bombed the place _______ (insert adverb for LIKE CRAZY) and even ended up bombing some their own US soldiers in the process. The Farallon we were visiting was what had been built on top.

Our goal was to learn about that location's history, jobs, flora, fauna, quirks, and other aspects (written hastily on a sheet of paper). This meant our first TRUE Spanish-speaking experience with no training-wheels except our own size in numbers for support. The three of us prepped ourselves a little by speaking in Spanish to each other, but soon we were to test our abilities.

After the first experience (talking to a gardener and then a Hard Rock café officier), it wasn't that bad. Parts of the area had been greatly commercialized and there is now a very nice area called Hoteles de los Camarones. We weren't in Farallon yet. So sent from gardener to hotel cook to HardRock staff to fisherman on the beach to local tiendas to increasingly older natives until we met what I could only describe as the village elder. We talked to him to get most of our information (José I think was his name? It's written here somewhere...) and then spent the rest of the morning/afternoon resting on the beach (though our stuff almost got swept away by the ocean by a randomly strong wave... we were adequately soaked) and eating a nice large lunch at Rancho Rio. I had fried Yucca for the first time and fried platanos of the green variety. The batido (milkshake) de mangos was also quite delicious. (Our group spent the most money... thanks SIT! :D ) After navigating our way back, getting taken advantage of by the bus driver (he charged us an extra 25 centavos each per person but no worries, he also helped us find our way back), and debriefed, we had a relatively relaxed night/next morning.

The next day we got to meet our host families for the time being while I'm in the city. My mom is Senora Eva, and I have a brother named José. Speaking solamente in Spanish for 2 hours was one of those most draining experiences mentally I've had in a while. Después I lost the urge to continue speaking in Spanish at all, even for practice. But the afternoon was spent doing a similar activity around El Valle. To improve our abilities in observing, we were supposed to go to different places and practice various exercises of observing and participatory observation. That plan... failed. It began raining so hard none of the groups (my group included myself, Becca, and Andrea) could even pull out a notebook, but we got to see many exotic animals at the Zoologico El Nispero anyways! (Our adventure was a tad bit more of a success than the other groups... whose location had closed because of the rain). I saw a capuchin monkey up close for the first time and pet its foot. Saw a conejo pintado and a tapir for the first time (check them out on google, it'll boggle your mind). The tapir can only really be described as a horse/pig. It sure was friendly though. There were also birds that repeated our calls...

I have hundreds of pictures to share and limited bandwidth so I hope these few pictures will hold you over (scroll to end to see them).

The next morning we had to leave El Valle. After the 2+ hour drive back, we had talks about security, tropical diseases, safety concerns, and other "good things to know" for Panama that took about 3-4 hours with various speakers. Although they were all very interesting, it was un poco exhausting listening for 4 hours straight. Oh but we had something to look forward to, because after that, we were going to the University (our language school) to be tested on our Spanish abilities!... yay...

After lugging our stuff out of the bus up the stairs, we reveled in the invention of air conditioning and did (thank goodness) group interviews rather than the planned single interviews due to time constraints and lethargy. Despues, we all parted ways and went home with our respective families.

José picked me up in his Skoda (and extremely nice) car :) and we set off to go meet su novia Michellin and Margarita. If you thought understanding a teenager was tough (due to mumbling/speed/etc) understanding a teenager in a different language was pretty much impossible. My habilidades de español took a serious hit as they gradually decreased with my increased tiredness. After a quick stop at home to drop my stuff off and shower, we were off to a Panamanian festival (which according to José, was not so typical of Panama). Although completely wiped, I did get to hear classical music of Panamá and watch some music/dance. Then José (after dropping off su novia) and I went off to a placed called 'Causeway' where I saw a gorgeous skyline of Panamá. (I had sleepily forgotten my camera, but I'll be there again, don't worry). Finally I came home and collapsed.

El domingo (Sunday) after a wonderful breakfast by my Panamanían mom, we took a tour of areas around us (Vía Argentia, Via España, y Via Uruguay), learned how to navigate the Diablos Rojos (the local name for their 'bus' system... which is actually the same as the countryside bus system except on methamphetimines), and shopped at Albrook mall (and got a cell phone!). On the bus system by the way, is a bunch of school buses (that have been completely painted over by decorative graffiti that have locations around the city written on them. You hop on (it's 25 cents to any location that it goes to) and yell for a stop whenever you want to get off. It's great :)

I spent from 5'o clock onwards until 9 building a dresser that mi madre de panamá bought for me and finally sat down to breathe. :)

Important things to note about studying abroad, or perhaps just life in general that have been reinforced through the recent days.

I was taught about the "w", which is the pattern that studyabroaders go through. As in the shape of a 'w', you first fall down in happiness where culture shocks makes everything unhappy and just... not right, followed by a second spurt of renewed strength, and then another fall, followed by continued growth. I gotta say, it's extremely difficult not being at home. This is my fourth month away and it's finally taking a hit. Prepare yourself mentally; have some pieces of home to go to when you need it (for me, episodes of Friends or the Office works pretty well) and communicate with people at home when you can. And most importantly, remember that the shape of the 'w' always means you'll eventually go back up. :)

Put yourself out there. I will admit I've felt rather fake to myself to who I am in my most normal state, but I do this with my furthest goal in mind: to learn Spanish. Unfortunately for me this also meant sometimes providing the wrong impression to mis compañeros, but luckily with a group like this who you truly are is difficult to hide for long. Put yourself out there as scary and daunting as it might be, as little Spanish as you know, or as shy as you "normally" are (remember who you are is somewhat of a fluid concept).

And I've started to keep a journal (handwritten of course) I find it easier to keep track of my thoughts and take a little bit of the weight off my mind. Just an idea.

Always present yourself as best as you can. Including dress. I stopped and looked at myself today and said "wow". Even I wouldn't have been keen on being friendly with me at that moment. Dress smartly (in 92 degree heat) of course, but how you smile and look makes a huge difference.

Hasta later.

Tim Soo

P.S. --edit-- Sorry to all, it seems the image function isn't working here or on diversityabroad.com. If I get it to work in an internet café or otherwise, I'll be sure to post pictures.

Panama

Ok. I have very little time to recount everything on a keyboard that doesn´t really have the same conformation as in the states... (i can´t really find the `at´ key)

okay so i came home from japan. the trip to the airport was REALLLLy though carrying over 160 lbs in 4 bags... i just took it a little bit at a time. i left gifts for the lab in the morning and i wish i could post pictures but again.. not much time.. i´ll make up for it later

on the narita express i was planning on paying with my pasmo card (I never could find the ticket station) and had to buy another one... the other times no one seemed to care! i i think it was mainly cuz the train was so full though.

anyways the flight home wasn´t bad and i made it back with little jet lag though it was very odd leaving at 4 pm and arriving at 1 pm the same day. yay for time travel

my time home was awesome. i wish i got to spend a little bit more time with the family but i just really was committed to making any impact i could on the incoming freshman before i left. i spent a lot of the time meeting with friends and doing some inspire slash premajor slash prehealth advising (no one else showed up for their table around me until much later aat orientation) and did the best i could with seeing everyone. i got to see my little cousins too. matthew talks more now>! though his favorite words are still ones involving bathroom happenings.

okay trip to panama

finally got all settled (still hadn´t completely finished the papers.. but ah well... i finished them eventually) and set off for the air port. it was hard saying bye to the family again but it was okay.. i sat at the atlanta jetway for 2 hours before we actually took off b-c of the weather and because of it i missed my flight to panama from houston

i landed right as they took off. but i just made some calls to SIT and to home and it was okay. continental put me up in a 400 dollar a night hotel room and gave me 26 bucks for food (which i used for two HUGE meals. nom nom).. see being nice and patient with the stressed out airport lady really pays off sometimes

next morning i took the first flight out to panama at 9 (after a nice long rest.. seriously a blessing in disguise) and landed around 1.. i spent most of my plane ride dozing and editing my papers.. after i landed and haphazardly filled out the customs and other forms.. i got through and saw my taxi driver Rahul holding a sign with my name on it. I spoke what little spanish i could still speak without sounding horrible and we were off.

my japanese keeps creeping into my spanish and a couple times i said Hai instead of Sí but about an hour later we got to the bus station. Rahul took me in and i bought a ticket on a minibus to El Valle.. the ride was 4 hours... the price? 3.50. nice eh? anyways the ride was not sooooo fun as we were COMPLETELY packed for a lot of the way (if you think japanese trains were packed you have no idea).. it was a ride through the mountains and rain and finally after an entire long day of travelling i arrived at 6 pm in the rain. needless to say i was completely soaked.. including my luggage. but hey.. i was there :)

last night and today were just logistical things and everyone on my group is really coool. becky, becca, brooks, danielle, lily, andrea, teresa, katie, laila and aly (the last two are the program directors).. so 2 guys and 7 girls... lots of estrogen flowing around. but still cool. the semester is really just like one lonnggg non stop work filled vacation if that makes any sense but i can´t wait

my internet usage will be limited but i´ll try and keep posting.

tomorrow we´re getting dropped off in the middle of nowhere to try and make our way back to camp just to make sure we know how to travel in panama... cool eh?

hasta luego

love all

tim

Coming to a Close...

As my time here in Japan wanes down, my amount of work increases. (I was about to write that "my busy-ness" level increases... but it seems it'd be spelled like business level... anyone else ever realize that your "busy-ness" is your business?)

I'm spending most my time doing various things in lab, and going home to work on those papers. But then again, what is life if there isn't room for fun?

It's been a week since we last left our heroes and I must say not a whole lot has happened. During the weekdays, I get back from home late so I don't go out a whole lot, but I'll summarize anyways.

In lab, I finally got everything together to run my histamine assay. Each time I run the protocol it costs over 1000 dollars. That's USD. Crazy eh? And I'm doing it twice. I suggested not worrying about it and spending all their money but man Japanese people are nice. The entire protocol went from Tuesday to Friday and during my free time I worked with other people doing Cord Blood cell extractions, continuing the mast cell from peripheral blood protocol (entire thing takes 6 weeks), and RNA extractions to name a few. It's FUN :).

On Saturday, Hashimoto-san and Orihara-san took me out again. We met up in Machida and went to Yokohama. And boy is Yokohama gorgeous. But first things first.

Machida is one of my favorite places in Japan. Very open and chic.

In Machida, they took me to an Okinawan style restaurant. Now, Okinawan people have the one of the longest life spans in the world with lots of people living to be over 100. And when a Japanese person tells you that someone else as a long lifespan, that's saying something.

We ordered a noodle bowl, a taco rice (it was really good and really did taste taco-ish. How did Mexican food influence Okinawa?

Our Menu. We ordered the two bottom lefts and the top right.

We shared our food (it seems pretty common, no one really worries too much about being germaphobes. I guess when you assume the country is clean, all the people must be clean too :). ) After lunch we hopped back on the JR line for Sakuragicho, a station after Yokohama.

We got off and I was pretty amazed. Everything was beautiful. The architecture in that area was just breathtaking. THIS was the Japan I had had in my head when I first arrived. Sugoi, ne?

First stop was the Landmark Tower, one of the biggest shopping-type areas in this place. The inside was HUGE. Kinda put the Mall of America to shame (sorry David). In terms of square footage, maybe the Mall of America was bigger but this mall is definitely nicer. There were at least five floors (maybe 6) and it stretched on for a while. Everything was completely gleaming and everything seemed.. well surreal. Everyone else seemed fairly nonplussed by this. Seems this is kinda normal for Japan.

When we first walked around I saw a queue (a word UK and Japanese people use a lot instead of saying 'line') that was just in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't 'til we went up a floor that I realized the line had extended all the way downstairs to get into the Pokemon store. Walking past those kids was nuts! It's like the day the Ipod is released outside an Apple store, 'cept the voice frequency is about 10 times higher.


My camera scope couldn't really catch a wide enough view of the mall, but here's an idea of what the mall was like at least in beauty.

I'm not sure why the ceiling came in like that, but hey, it's pretty. :)

In one section of the mall there was a Motomachi Street (not really a street but a collection of stores) that were selling Yokohaman things. Yokohama was the first port opened to the Western world and thus they have a lot of Western good and are known for it. The local jewelry was all gorgeous (and expensive).

A spiral escalator. We probably have some in the states, but I don't remember seeing one before. It's cool!

After going through the mall we walked out and I saw this. Not sure what it is but it sure looked cool. Evidence to the architectural greatness that is this area of Japan.


We happened to walk out just as a street show was starting. So we sat down to watch. To be honest, nothing he was doing was actually that impressive. Most all the tricks and skills he was exhibiting I could do just as easily (jugglings, diablo, coin magic)... granted I've never done it in front of an audience. The audience however was AMAZED. Perhaps we just learn more weird talents than Japanese people do? But not to discredit him at all, because he was VERY entertaining. I couldn't always understand what exactly he was saying and it was still really funny. He walked over to a girl who had been holding his jacket (he had thrown it over there before) and put it on... just to take it off dramatically two seconds later to prep for his trick. lol. This picture is of 6 volunteers holding him up on a rope. He didn't really do much on it, but he kept making the volunteers do really funny stuff (for example, at one point they all held hands and looked up into the stars dramatically).

About an hour later the show and we headed for a SeaBus to take us to the actual city of Yokohama. (No pictures from the boat ride. Sorry). I did take some night shots before we got on the ferry though.



Pretty eh?

Afterwards, we walked through this mall-type place in Yokohama for a while and explored/shopped until dinner time.

Also very pretty.. :)

On a pit stop to the bathroom, I saw a "kids toilet" room in between the men and women. It was really short and had their own little sink and toilet room. Kawaii.

We went back to Machida and went to an Okonomiyaki restaurant after a quick stop at Tokyu Hands (a REALLY REALLY cool department store). Look up okonomiyaki if you have no idea what it is.

We started with a little salad with the most amazing dressing on it. Apparently the dressing is called Karamiso. We asked the waiter where to buy it, but apparently they make it themselves. Soooo good.

Next we had this beef and cabbage thing. Also very good. The beef tasted like the same cut of beef from Chinese beef noodle soup 'cept grilled. Nom nom.

And lastly, our okonomiyakis. There was actually a third... but it seems I didn't take a picture of it. We had one hiroshima style, one Osaka style, and one green onion on. You'll be surprised to hear that there was kimchi in all of them. Apparently that's common in okonomiyakis. The kimchi influence is spreading. AHH.

After our amazing meal (twas a great day for food), I hopped on the train and head home.

Oh by the way, there is this used bookstore called BOOKOFF near where I live. Actually there are two near me, but at one, they had English book that I think they were trying to get rid of, b/c they were in a small corner in the store. Well, I hit jackpot. I bought a couple Harry Potter UK version books for 400 yen and a Garfield book for 100 yen. Who cares if I already have all the HP books, it was four bucks!

On Sunday, I went back to Machida (I wanted to explore Tokyu Hands more) and bought some really cool rubik's cubes (a 2x2x2.. if you can imagine it) and some stuff for Panama (they have great travel stuff! Imagine the typical Japanese tourist and then you can imagine why they have such a good selection of travelling goods). At one point I wanted to buy a book. Well this moment was a HUGE breakthrough for me b/c using my dictionary I slowly put together a question I wanted to ask the clerk, walked around for about 30 minutes nervously trying to get up the courage to ask, and then did it. Man, it was a great relief when I could finally engage in a conversation... well pseudo-conversation. But still. It was a level I conquered.

I got home relatively early on Sunday and just crashed for a couple hours (I didn't end up going to go see Batman, which just came out in Japan). Woke up and finished 1 of 9 papers. (Don't worry, I've worked on all of them, just haven't finished them yet). I ended up not sleeping that night and went into work on Monday... I was newly reintroduced to caffeine. One latte kept me awake for a day, even though caffeine generally wears off in 4 hours.

Yesterday (Monday), I spent most of the day making the four hour trip to abd back from Nihon Medical University to pick up some antibodies I needed from Okayama sensei in preparation for the next Histamine assay... which I started this morning.

Oh before I did finally get to sleep I went with Nakamura-san to Shinjuku to check out some massage chairs. And let me tell you, Japanese massage chairs are SOOO much better. The sensors figure out where all your body parts are and adjust accordingly. It really feels like you're in a really big bear hug b/c the chair massages every part of you. Your hands, forearms, biceps, shins, calfs, thighs, back, neck, feet... everything. And they're cheaper here too. (Something Brookstone doesn't want you to know about).

Oh and we figured out that my chinese kanji name changed into Japanese becomes Sosean (So-say-an) as opposed to the chinese (soo-shi-an).. pretty close eh? I really wonder how much of Japanese is ONLY Japanese. As in could Japanese people today even talk to those Japanese people before the Chinese and Western influence?

Oh and my mom wanted to see my new haircut. :)

Oh a couple things I realized from the weekend. 1.) My haircut turned out to be a lot better than I thought once I figured out exactly what her directions were for styling my hair and 2.) Japan really is a heck of a lot more fun when you have a tour guide. :)

Sunday

Day 3.

I had designated Sunday as my 'catch-up' day as I still had much work from the week that I hadn't finished (Panama stuff mainly).

Well, that didn't really get done either.

I slept in for a while and finally got a haircut. I walked in and asked for a haircut. She kept asking me things saying "shampuu" and motioning, but I just said I wanted only a cut. I motioned that when my hair was short that I spike up my hair, but she took that to mean I spike all of my hair. All in all, the haircut itself wasn't one of the best, but I hadn't expected it to be since I just wanted to see how she would cut it w/o my input (I wanted a Japanese style haircut). Watching her cut it, however, was very cool. These stylists definitely knew how to handle Asian hair well.

The rest of the day was spent doing laundry, reading, running, logistical things for when I go home, and making a healthy dinner. (Grilled chicken salad) Around 8, a bunch of people from the building were going to go and set off fireworks in Yoyogi Park. At the time I wasn't really up for it but I didn't want to be antisocial either so we head out.


We came across this sign that seemingly means "don't try and run into the train really fast" and played off the fact that he looks like he swimming. So they wrote "do it at the beach." Unfortunately for these unwary translators, the entire group took it with a slightly different connotation. Ahh, to be in a foreign land.

So we got there and fireworks started going ablaze. Apparently Yoyogi Park is a popular place to set off fireworks because we definitely were not the only ones. The pictures below are all with slow shutter speed; unfortunately with all the light pollution, it made the night look like daytime once the shutter speed was jacked up.

Chris, also known has "Hand of fire" Boy.


In between fireworks we also did some light writing. This ones particularly cool b/c Jose stayed in the spot just long enough to have an image of his silhouette in the picture. (He was trying to write Jose... and failed)


Viki did a much better job, though she didn't get to finish the second half of her heart after the second "i".


Ericka did well too, 'cept that she started writing an "a" before she realized there was a "k" in her name (hence the odd looking 'k')


There were some people not from the building there, too. But I think they were all at least from GABA (English teaching school)

We'd forgotten if we had super powers. Here's Chris testing his out.


Our Super Saiyan powers. Yep, still good.

Our onlookers were amazed. *cough*


This shot is particularly awesome. It caught a couple fireworks going up at the same time.


And.. this one is particularly hilarious. You can see the firework's path as it left his hand and went straight for the group in front of him. Sorry guys.

And even better, see that big light? There's a person in that. The firework didn't shoot off so it just kinda stayed in his hand until he ran away...

By the way I keep referring to 'he' but they're all Chris, which doesn't say much because the two Chris's were the only fireworks launchers. (For the most part).

This is where it gets even more ridiculous. Chris and Chris each took a roman candle looking thing with about 20-30 shots of fireworks in them and were fighting each other. (i.e. paintball on drugs). Made for a cool picture though.

This totally could be a real life Anime battle.

I had work today, so I needed to be going. I waited a bit for everyone else and we headed back. As we walked, there was a guy who knew Spanish and as I was speaking to him, I said "Hai, hai" instead of "si, si." My Spanish and Japanese are starting to merge. Look out Panama.

We managed to catch the first train... but once we got to Shibuya our train home had already left. Twas 12:30 and we had no way home. Now, it wasn't really that far away, about a 3 mile walk. The others (Monday being the start of their weekend) took missing the train as a sign and wanted to go out for drinks. So we compromised.

We split a taxi where Sandro, the guy who knows German, English, French, and Italian completely fluently, revealed that he was also fairly competent in Japanese. I barely had time to comprehend what the driver was saying when Sandro was already conversing. Dang.

Anyways the compromise was we'd split a taxi to the halfway mark (to Sangenjaya) and those who wanted to go could walk and those who wanted to drink could go to the bar there. For some reason I felt like running so I ran the last mile + change home... :)

Until next time,

Tim Soo

Check again

Friday's post accidentally got removed but it's back up so scroll down and read it in case you missed something. :)

Tim Soo

Saturday

After that long night, I had a slow start on Saturday. I abandoned my plans to go shopping in the morning and instead slept in until I was supposed to meet with Orihara-san, Nakamura-san, and Hashimoto-san at the train station.

It was hot.

There aren't too many pictures here b/c I had forgotten to charge my camera the night before, and it had already been dying. So I did w/e I could :)

I left around 2 something for our meeting up at three and even with just walking a little ways to the train station, I was drenched in sweat. I was glad I had brought a handkerchief. Going to the fireworks festival had been planned for a while I think, as had the blues thing from the night before. Both events were relatively close to each other, I just had to get back to Machida station.

I met up with them around 3:30 (I was late) at Machida station and we set off to a department store. I have to go back to Machida to go shopping. Sure it cost 4 bucks and 45 minutes just to get there, but it was much less expensive than anywhere in central Tokyo. I shopped for a few things and then they took me to buy a jinbei (which I then wore for the festival). Quick culture lesson. At festivals, it's traditional to wear yukatas (robes with the bow on the back) or jinbeis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinbei). They were all in there yukatas and they bought me (fighting all my protests) a jinbei. On the back it says golden fish, which I'm told is an awesome thing in Japanese culture (they're rare in Japan?)

Machida is also home to the largest 100 yen shop (though things inside do often cost more than 100 yen) in Japan. We stopped by there to buy some tape for our tarp. Then we were off. We hopped back onto the train after a ways walk and headed to the Atsugi station. As we got closer and closer to the field slash river area that was designated for watching the fireworks, it started getting crowded.


In the Greater Toyko area there are 35 million people. And as I walked with Kanami, I was talking to her about Shu-he Fukada... two seconds later we ran into him. 35 MILLION people. How is that possible? We stopped to document the rarity... plus you can see us all dressed up. :)

Once we saw the field, it was crazy. In total there were half a million people there. We got there a solid hour or two early and it was still packed.

The food, however, rocked. I'm a simple person. I don't need fancy food or proper utensils. This was my kind of food. It can only really be described as a Japanese carnival. There were tons of vendors making all types of culinary food food, shaved ice, cotton candy, drink stands, to name a few. Among the food stands, there was baked potato and corn, steak on a stick, fish on a stick (the entire fish skewered, it was VERY popular), Osaka style okonomiyaki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki), lo mein (it's actually something else, but I forget what they called it and it kinda resembled lo mein, dumplings, etc etc. The line of vendors didn't end. And since I hadn't properly eaten in a while (missed lunch Friday, didn't eat too much at the Jazz thing, and hadn't eaten since then), I made up for it and bought steak on a stick and okonomiyaki. All four of us returned, set up our tarp and we spread out our goods and shared :). Twas yummy.

Click Me! (just to give you an idea of the number of people.)

Now we had some time to pass since we had gotten there early, and I had a deck of cards. I learned a very awesome and simple card game. Not entirely sure what it's called, but it was cool. It goes like this. You deal out all the cards + one joker mixed in. The goal of the game is to get rid of all your cards. The only way to get rid of cards, is by pairing them. So right when the game starts you pull out all your pairs and then proceed in a circle. When it's your turn, you pick a card from the person who just went without knowing what the card is, hoping that that card will pair one of yours so you can get rid of more cards. Since there is one joker, that means one person is going to be left a sitting duck with nothing to pair, praying that someone will accidentally choose the joker from their hand and relieve them of that burden.

Seems simple enough right? And like a game of complete luck? That's what I thought. Yet somehow I managed to lose the first three games. lol. They enjoyed that. Even when it looked like I was going to win first, I somehow managed to lose royally. Oh and in one round, the joker kept going around the circle. Meaning if the person I'm taking from has 3 cards and only one of them is a joker, how did I end up getting the joker 4 times in a row! (Not to mention the fact that the person after me kept getting the joker from my hand). Maybe there's a conspiracy... the game KNEW I was Japanese.

Afterwards I amused them with some magic and then the show started.


The entire fireworks show lasted 1 hr 40 minutes. Nuts right? It started out slow and didn't really light up the night sky, but gradually got bigger and bigger. To be honest it wasn't the biggest set of fireworks I've seen, but definitely one of the best. They had a much wider variety, shooting up smiley's, saturn's, ones that changed colors, then spun, and then did some more tricks. At one point, they even spelled out SONY in the air. It'd 've been really impressive if they could have pulled off some kanji.

One of my favorite shots of the night

Oh and you know you're with a bunch of science folks when a firework goes off and they yell out "hey look an epithelial cell!" or something to that effect. In the videos you'll also hear lots and lots of "Sigoi" meaning "great!!!"

The entire event was fairly well organized. After the show was finished, that's over 500,000 people to get out of there at one time, and granted it was slow at some points, it was a very efficient process. They added trains to the train station and I think we made it to the point where we could walk normally in about 15-20 minutes.

They all know how much I like ramen... so we went in search of a ramen shop. By this point, I'm sweating through my jinbei but very much enjoying the night walk. I'm spending a lot of time learning Japanese as we see things I don't know words for and as I get used to hearing more and more Japanese in a non-lab sense (I learned the word for centrifuge before I learned the word for help). Most places were closed and I kind've felt bad that we kept searching (I knew they were doing it for me, and I didn't have the heart to tell them I wasn't hungry anymore) but we found one and waited in the queue. For the first time in my life, I had wonton ramen. Okay so really it was just a salt-based ramen with wontons in it. But hey it was good.



Oh and I found actually chinese hot oil in that place! But I was told putting it in my soup was odd. Shucks.

I learned a lot about Japanese superstition that night though (through some VERY awkward moments). We were all stuffed to the brim and there was one dumpling left so I suggested Hashimoto-san and I split it. Well it was a potsticker so it wasn't easy to split. When it was partly split open, I held one side and motioned for her to pull the other side and suddenly a got an astounding "::gasp:: No" from all sides. Apparently pulling food apart with two people is seriously taboo b/c Japanese people do that with the bones of the deceased. You're also not supposed to drag the tips of your chopsticks off the edge of your plate. At least in American, pulling apart bones and such means good luck right? Wishbone?

Another similar situation. I crossed my fingers at work and said "good luck!" and they were confused. Though this one is not as well known, crossing your fingers is like saying "Bad bad evil spirits! Yelch." Or something like that. Just another negative superstition in Japanese that means good luck in English. Hmm.

The number 4 superstition is also in Japan too b/c like Chinese, their word for four has the same sound as the word for death. Dum Dum Dum. So some hotels have no 4th, 14th, 24th... floors.

After we finished up our ramen, we headed back to the train station for home. It was a while before I made it back, but they all waited for me until I left. It was like having my own aunts and aunt-cousins (Kanami is only 28/29) in Japan.

And then I went home.

Friday

--edit-- Sorry this post got removed when I edited it so I'm reposting.

Welcome to a succession three posts that will be my weekend. :)

First of course, I'll get you up to speed.

Thursday I drafted my final protocol and spent most of the day extracting genes from gels and learning more of the vast world of techniques. I can't help but feel like I'm forgetting something, but no matter. I don't think Wednesday or Thursday were that exciting (non-work wise).

Work has become much busier, in that I'm rarely sitting down for more than 20-30 minutes a day! Tis awesome (makes the day go by faster).

My Japanese is picking up too. For the most part as long as the person isn't speaking too fast I can generally figure out what they're saying by picking out select words and verbs. Also, sometimes I feel like I could be completely deaf and still understand them. VERY much of the language is just intent and hand motions.

For example, Hashimoto-san has been training me for a while, and she doesn't speak English, but now it's a rare occurrence that I don't understand her. Cool eh?

Oh and Reiji finally left for good, at least for me anyways. He's moved further north in Japan and won't be back to visit until after I'm gone. Sad...

Good-bye Salute!

Oh and I had a new treat the other day. Apparently these are unique to one part of Japan. It's like a red bean little ball that's packed very very tightly inside what can only be described as a rubber balloon. You take it and poke it, and the outside pops off leaving you with a yummy dessert. :)


Okay, Friday. Had a meeting to discuss my project, learned how to genotype (well I already knew how, but it was cool learning it in Japanese!), and did some data analysis. But that's not the fun part.

Around 5, Nakamura-san and I headed out. Tonight was the night we were going to go see Hiramatsu Satoru, Nakamura-san's Piano teacher Auzai Takaaki, and Yagi Nobuo play at a livehouse called L'Assiette (little cafe with a small performance area). They're known for hosting top jazz/blues players. We left the lab and set off on a bus for about 10+ minutes (it was packed being a Friday), then hopped onto the train for another 30 minutes. We arrived at... the stop after Machida station (I forget...) and met up with her brother and her brother's wife, who knew preliminary English.



Oh by the way, if you're uncomfortable with awkward silences, don't come to Japan. It has nothing to do with language either, it's just when everyone is that polite, no one wants to take action for certain situations (meals, leaving, meeting).

Twas cool though. We had ridden on an express train away from the city, and were technically still in Tokyo (on the Yokohama edge), and it seems my scope of Tokyo still wasn't completely accurate. Shinjuku, Shibuya, Tokyo, Ikebukuro and all that are like NY city. And where I was right then was like a... suburb of sorts, in that the streets were a bit more relaxed, it had more of a homey feel (instead of a cut throat one you get from passing tons of people in Shibuya). Originally I was going to get a haircut then, but the place that Nakamura-san suggested wasn't going to have available hairdresser/barbers until a few hours later, so my hair would have to be cut another day... (it was getting long!) and instead just waited for the show to start.

A fancy cheese and chicken "pizza". Twas yummy.

Satoru and the older gentleman Nobuo played harmonica and Nakamura-san's teacher Takaaki played piano. The piano player wasn't particularly impressive, not anything Ben couldn't have done just as easily, but then again the piano player was just giving the blues progression as background.



The harmonica players were quite ridiculous though. Satoru is about 30-40 years of age (I can't gauge Japanese people's age at all; I mistook a group of med school students for middle schoolers once) and still has the show-off-y type of style, but can do a lot of neat tricks and riffs. The older, shorter guy Nobuo could do amazing solo work very very high up on the scale. His sound was much cleaner and at some points it really did sound like a trumpet, though I don't think he was actually any more skilled or had more harmonica experience, just a style thing, I guess. Plus he was funny :P.


By the way, Satoru's wife is from China so he could speak Chinese. It was interesting. I spoke to him in Chinese, he spoke to Nakamura-san in Japanese, and I spoke to Nakamura-san in English. Hey, whatever works right?

If you wanted to see what it looked like...

After about 30-40 minutes and some food, they started. I sat in the very front of the small cafe. They played harmonica-ized versions of popular songs. I knew all of them in the first half actually. The song selection included blues versions of: Someday my prince will come, Take Five/My Favorite things mix, What a Wonderful World, Stand By Me, etc. I've included some videos for your listening pleasure... unfortunately the sound quality isn't great. These are some of the great moments of the night.

An example of the Nobuo being funny and the harmonica dudes just messing around.


Wicked eh?


Some of the intricate solo work I was talking about earlier.


He wasn't really great at piano but twas cool hearing him sing Stand By Me.

The entire performance was about two hours with a break in between but it went by quickly. It became very lulling towards the end (though I fall asleep to pretty much any music). After the performance we took some pictures (and one with the group) though they're out of focus. (My camera had died so we used Nakamura-sans, but I don't think it was on the correct setting).


All in all, it was very enjoyable, but I wouldn't say the talent was really that high compared to people in the states, not that I've heard any harmonica players before. Just by listening to the audience, it really seemed that musical talent was a much more impressive thing in Japan. When I told them I played a little bit of violin, piano, drums and guitar and sang, they were completely shocked. When they heard recordings of Emory A capella, (Nakamura-san wanted the band to hear) they couldn't believe that we weren't a professional group on tour and making money. And the piano player slash harmonica-ists were good, but I don't think they were great enough to warrant as much popularity and as many shows as they do in the States, but then again blues is a states thing right? I dunno. Either way, it was still VERY good and exciting.

Afterwards the night ended and I headed back on the train for home. I was reading Harry Potter to pass the time. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that the express train didn't stop and my stop and I ended up going 6 stops too many. So I had to get off, go backwards, and eventually made it home :).