すげぇ！

I wanted to know what the Japanese word for "Dayuuuuum!" was. Apparently it's "Sugee!" the more masculine version of "Sugoi!" which is something like "awesome" or "cool." My little old teacher heard me using it and was scandalized. I guess I won't be using it...in front of her.

It's my new favorite word because it accurately and succinctly describes my first week in Japan. Every day I go out exploring, I realize just how big of a city Tokyo really is.

First, you have Ginza, where you go if you have takusan okane (lots of money):


Then, there's the Kabukichou, Tokyo's red-light district:


There's also Akihabara, the place to go if you want to buy the newest electronics and/or get pampered in a maid cafe:


If that's only the first week, I'm excited for what the next 7 weeks hold. I feel like I shouldn't be this comfortable just a week in, but I already feel like I'm settled into a routine: wake up, eat breakfast, catch the train, go to class, have lunch, explore, go home, eat dinner, do homework, take a shower, go to bed. Aaand repeat.

And the train situation? I don't even know what I was worried about. Yes, the morning commute sucks because everyone's actually packed in like sardines in a can. And yes, because I have no sense of direction and can't properly follow the arrows on the numerous signs, I always get lost WITHIN the station. But other than that, all good!

It feels like I never have enough time. Unfortunately, homework is my lowest priority right now. I feel like talking with my host family is a better use of my time than doing homework about oh-so-useful things like waiting time differences between the sexes and the difference between ghosts and phantoms. I mean, really? Hopefully, class will pick up and become more interesting next week. Also, I'm the only girl in the third-year class, so the teacher always asks me, the token jousei (lady), what I think. It seems like I'm expected to have a different opinion than my male classmates, but almost all of the time, I agree with them. Maybe it's a culture thing, thinking that males and females should have drastically different opinions?

Outside of class, I've already had some...interesting encounters.

On Tuesday, after taking in the view from the observation deck of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, I decided to sit down for a bit to rest my feet. There I was, just chilling with the others, being the gaijin (foreigners) that we were, when I notice some random ojiisan (old guy) take a picture of me from behind. My confusion heightens when he stands directly in front of me and takes a picture. He was about to walk away until I greeted him with a confused Konnichiwa. I tried to ask him why exactly he was taking a picture of me when he said "Nihongo ga jouzu da ne!" (You're really good at Japanese!) and tells me that I'm a pretty lady and that yellow looks good on me (I was wearing a yellow dress). He then proceeds to sit down and we have a conversation that consists of him asking how old I think he is and me trying to flatter him by saying he looked 30 (such a huuuuuuge lie haha). He calls over his friend, and their wives and it becomes a party.

Three salarymen were passing by, and seemed interested in our little group: a bunch of gaijin talking to an old guy in Japanese. The old guy called the three guys over, and that's when things got interesting. The old guy eventually left, but we all had a pretty lengthy conversation with the salarymen. They seemed eager to talk to us. We even got business cards from them. It was a weird, albeit fun, experience. It's nice to see how eager Japanese are to get to know foreigners, at least in my experience so far.

I think it was after this that I fully embraced my status as a gaijin. Yes, I stick out like a sore thumb, but there's no use trying to run away from the fact. Whenever I get stared at, I tell myself that it's because they secretly want to be friends with me. Who wouldn't? Srsly.

I'll leave it at this for now. So much to say, yet such a short attention span!