It's been an ASDFGHJKL; summer.
Okay, since that wasn't so coherent, I shall attempt to organize my thoughts in an easier-to-understand manner.
And now, in no particular order, a list of the reasons why I have so much love for Tokyo.
1. All-nighters
Affectionately known as オール (ooru) in Japanese, this is what most of my weekends ended up being since trains stop running around midnight. With my fellow Sun classmates and Japanese buddies, we embarked on our night adventures, usually in Shibuya, the hip spot where all the young people hang, or Roppongi, the foreigner-frequented district. We club-hopped, met random people, and kept ourselves busy until we could catch our respective trains home, which was around 5 am. But some of us didn't last until then.
Exhibit A: Brown-san and Stein-san at a ramen restaurant in Roppongi during our first-ever オール。
Exhibit B: Ohta-san and Brown-san (again?!!?) sleeping in Shibuya like real locals. Or should I say, HOMELESS locals.
I think you can really discover the heart of a city at night, and Tokyo certainly proves that. I'm going to miss being forced to stay out all night (OH, THE HORROR!) until the sun rises, eating a breakfast of soba noodles while waiting for the first train back home.
Speaking of trains...
2. Tokyo's ridiculous train system
And this map only shows the subway system. There's also JR lines, private lines...
I have to admit, the first day I had to travel solo from my host family's home to school, I was SCURRED. Not scared, SCURRED. I had to get from "Higashi-ojima" to "Yoyogi" (see if you can find them on the map haha). I somehow, miraculously, got the hang of transportation the end of the program. No longer did I have to clutch my worn and torn map, wondering how on earth to make sense of all those colors and all those lines.
And rush hour?
Luckily, my commute wasn't as bad as the picture. The line I used didn't need pushers. Nevertheless, the commute was tough the first week, packed in the train car with salarymen and salarywomen and schoolchildren like a can of sardines, hoping to God that some creepy old man wouldn't take advantage of the conditions and feel me up. My host mom equipped me with the appropriate reaction just in case. It involved grabbing the offender by the front of his shirt and spitting some incredibly rough-sounding Japanese. My host mom has experience so I trust her judgement.
3. The food.
Confession: Before coming to Japan, I wasn't really a fan of the cuisine. I liked sushi well enough, but I didn't know about anything else.
Now I like practically everything. Everyone knows sushi, but there's also ramen, katsudon, and my personal favorite, udon. Udon are this thick noodles, served either hot or cold. My favorite is udon with pork. I really don't know why I love it so much since they're just noodles.
Lunch is amazing here too. A 定食 (teishoku = "set lunch") comes with the entree, a bowl of rice, miso soup, and some assorted little pickle things I never know the names of but taste good. You get all of this
for under 1000 yen.
OH. I also made friends with a sushi chef at a kaiten ("revolving sushi restaurant") we frequented in Shibuya. It was love at first sight from his end ever since I uttered one Japanese word daijoubu ("It's okay.") which convinced him I was fluent in Japanese. The next two times I went, I always caught him shooting glances my way. The last time, I finally got a picture with him!
I'm never. Ever. EVEREVEREVEREVER going to buy the so-called sushi Durfee's sells again. Bleccccch.
4. The buddies!
The best part of Sun Academy, besides its prime location, is the buddy system. The first day, we were all paired with a local university student, but we all ended up just hanging out together. They came in for visitor sessions every Friday, where we talked to them about the topics we learned that week in class, but the real fun occurred outside the classroom.
We did various things, like...
hanging out in Shibuya
taking a cruise in Yokohama,
staying out all night,
having sleepovers at Ray-chan's apaato,
and just being kawaii (cute).
Even though a lot of the buddies spoke fluent English (and we ended up speaking in English sometimes...oops!), there were a great resource for learning how young Japanese people speak. I learned a lot of useful slang words like maji?!?! ("Are you serious?!?!) and yabai! (I still don't really know what this means but it's something along the lines of "bad" but the "good" kind of bad...? My host mom said it's like what Michael Jackson was going for with his song "Bad.")
But I digress.
We all became great friends with the buddies and they all helped make my time Tokyo that much better.
And last but certainly not least...
5. My host family!
I'm going to miss them terribly. It was probably the thing I was most worried about before coming to Japan. I had to spend 2 months with a family that I got along really well with or didn't. It was a complete hit-or-miss situation.
I'm so happy to say that I lucked out. I couldn't have asked for a better host family. I thought I wanted a cute little brother or sister but that didn't end up mattering in the end. We formed a happy little unit, me, Jun-san, and Hide-san in our cozy little apartment in Edogawa.
There were the birds as well. By the time I left, they hadn't really warmed up to me, but at least I didn't care so much when they landed on my head and tried to eat my hair.
Choko-chan on my homework...Is the excuse "The bird pooped on my homework" useable?
Momo-chan doing what he does best: eat.
Since both of them worked late (Jun-san works at Pfizer, Hide-san works in building maintenance), dinner was usually served around at 9pm. But it was so worth the wait. Jun-san was such a good cook that I looked forward to dinner every day, with which we would all enjoy a refreshing beer together. This is PROBABLY how my love for Japanese beer first started...
Jun-san and Hide-san had a wonderful dynamic between them. Even though Hide-san is 13 years older, they still seem like brother and sister. They're also complete opposites: Jun-san is outspoken and loud while Hide-san is quiet and a bit shy. I loved watching Jun-san beat up on Hide-san haha.
I was also surprised at how cool they were. They came to expect me walking home in the morning on the weekends and sleeping the day away. Also, they put up with the crazy situations that I always seem to find myself in, like getting a ring stuck on my finger (?!!?). Jun-san found it appropriately funny and drove me to the fire station, laughing all the way there and back.
Seriously...
how did that even happen!?!?
The last night, we went to a sushi restaurant.
The next morning, they walked me to the train station. We hugged and I promised to come back to see them. I wasn't expecting to cry, but seeing Jun-san's tears made me tear up. They had told me once that since my real parents are in America, they'll be my parents while I'm in Japan. I'm going to miss them so so much.
But I can't be sad. I'll be in Japan until December! Here's to hoping the next 4 months will be just as eye-opening, thrilling, and ASDFGHJKL; as these 2 months were.
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