Day 2: Let's Visit Sophia University

As the title implies, one of today's main events consisted of visiting Sophia University, the school I'll be studying at as part of this trip. But before I get to that, I think I'd prefer talking about the surrounding area, which might be a tad more interesting than the school itself.

Yotsuya

Sophia University is located in Yotsuya, just a quick jaunt away from the train station used to get there. Aesthetically, the area itself is pretty modest. The area has some nice greenery that can dot the streets quite a bit at times, but overall it feels as though it mainly keeps to itself. Nothing is especially flashy or grand, which is fine, but that's probably also why the area is one of the more obscure parts of Tokyo in the western world. It's not a side of Japan that screams for attention, basically. Although that said, some of the shops are still charming nonetheless. I managed to find a camera store that was selling really old 35mm ones for under $5. The nostalgic lad in me is extremely tempted to go back soon and buy one. I really love the looks of those old cameras.

I ended up eating out with a couple of the other students on the program, mostly because we didn't want to wait in line at Sophia's cafeteria, what with all the other gaijin going with us taking their sweet time. We opted for a little hole in the wall instead. Nicely decorated, but pretty small, the place probably couldn't house more than 40 at a time, as evidenced by the fact that the staff also had complete strangers seated next to each other while they dined. I personally ordered a pork meal of some sort, although the complete named eluded me due to Kanji reading issues. It was a tasty meal for the 850 yen that it cost. Although I only took one blurry picture of it in the style of Danny Choo, it was a nice hodgepodge of pork and vegetables mixed in with a tasty sauce of some sort. Side dishes included the iconic bowl of rice and another bowl of various leafy vegetables. All of the food was fine, so no complaints.

The visit to the restuarant did, however, highlight a troublesome issue that I was afraid would crop up during the trip. It has nothing to do with the city itself; Tokyo is a damn fine place and you won't see me complaining about it. Instead, it has more to do with the people also on the program, or at least the American students going with me. It turns out that very, very few have any actual experience with Japanese. I guess it's actually not necessarily that per se, but rather a lot of people's attitudes in spite of that. Maybe it's an ego thing, but I wish there were more people on this trip who had at least studied some of the language so that I could have somebody to relate to on that level. I want my adventure to be one where my verbal skills get at least a bit better, but when I'm stuck in a group of people who basically improvise by pointing a lot and saying only the most basic of Japanese requests from a guide pamphlet, I feel constricted, as though my time during those instances is going to be defined according to how well I can swallow my embarassment, for lack of a better phrase. Again, somewhat expected, but not an ideal situation for someone like me who came to Japan to get practical fluency experience, which is precisely why I'm glad the schedule dramatically opens up in just a few days so that I can just operate on my own as often as I can. It's often when I'm alone that I get to know and experience the new place best. Everything is raw and it's then just up to you to go look for the awesome nooks and crannies. I did it for Boulder and I sure as hell intend to do it in Tokyo.

The whole thing has made me resolved to try my damndest to come back to Japan with people I know who really appreciate the language and already know me as a person. I think having a really good dynamic with other people is necessary for these sorts of trips and while I got lucky with Australia, I feel like it will be less so on this trip. Going back to Tokyo with a bunch of friends, even if it's their first time for many, should just allow for funner times since you can skip the phase of awkwardly getting to know each other and just dive straight into making a beeline for the hot spots in Akihabara, Shinjuku, and the like.

Sophia University

Okay, let's leave the quasi-existential ramblings from Yotsuya and move on to intial impressions of Sophia University, since today was also the first time I visited it. First thing first to note in terms of aesthetics is that much like the surrounding area, Sophia University's campus is a bit on the bland side. It's definitely designed to be practical first and everything else later, probably because space is limited in Tokyo. As such, the wide open quads that are common to US campuses is traded in for tallness in the buildings. There are at least 11 different buildings on campus and it seems to be that having 10-plus floors is the norm.

The interiors of the buildings aren't particularly special, either. They look largely like typical university insides, nothing more and nothing less. The doors naturally slide side-to-side instead of being pushed and pulled to open, but that's to be expected in Japan. Only remotely interesting quirk I've heard thus far is that girls' bathrooms are on even-numbered floors, whereas guys are on the odd-numbered ones. Not terribly thrilling, especially since I'm pretty certain some US schools have a similar setup, but ah well.

I'll provide impressions of the faculty and students when I've had more exposure to them, although now's as good a time as any to say I thoroughly enjoy being around native Japanese people. The one's I've met are all really nice and polite. The girls are cute and sweet and the guys have a good sense of humor. One of them even told me I looked like a famous Japanese wrestler just minutes after clearing customs at Narita. I'm satisfied knowing my hair has made an impact on the Japanese people.

Shinagawa

Aftering hanging around Yotsuya and getting into orientation mode, we all went out to Shinagawa to go eat out on a boat as celebration for our arrival. Probably one of my favorite moments during that phase of the day was actually just arriving at Shinagawa itself. Karma might have been working in my favor after finding Yotsuya to be anticlimatic, as Shinagawa's station was a pretty thrilling place. Looooots of people walking out and about every which way and the station is really huge. When a train arrives at that station, it feels as though everyone makes a mad dash for the nearby escalators. To say it was a real spectacle doesn't do it justice. But none of it felt overwhelming at all, as it was one of those moments where I got a much-cherished glimpse into ordinary Japanese life. To think that there are people who go through that place day in and day out is nothing short of amazing and, really, it makes me envious.

Dinner on the boat itself was a really fun experience. Ceiling height issues aside for a 6' 1" guy like myself, the food was all really good and new dishes kept streaming in continuously for a few hours. The boat went out on one of Tokyo's prominent rivers which goes by a number of landmarks. For an otaku like myself, the highlight was clearly passing the life size Gundam. I only got to see it from the back, but to know that it actually exists is seriously awesome. The sights all around were superb, though, and the photographs I took back that up.

Besides sight seeing, the main event for the boat ride was karaoke, which was extremely fun. There was a nice mixture of Japanese and English songs, with people singing everything from Utada Hikaru to Queen. My two favorite songs that came up, however, were the Evangelion theme and Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," both of which humorously appeal to different aspects of my nerdy being. I'm not a huge fan of Evangelion itself at all, but I've always liked the theme song for it and know that it's extremely iconic, so seeing it be sung by someone I actually knew was extremely entertaining. "Never Gonna Give You Up" was equally enjoyable, especially since I actually took part in a duo for it. My singing voice is definitely not in its prime anymore, but the opportunity to play such a maligned song on the Internet was nothing short of bemusing.

Going back to my hotel in Asagaya was entertaining since that involved going through the Shinagawa station again, with it still being as busy as ever. Apparently the time we were going back corresponded to the time that most of the businessman actually go home, which surprised me. It wasn't that late that we went back, but I guess I had never thought they would drastically deviate from the standard 9-to-5 schedule, if only because I never really contemplated it. Naturally, the trains themselves were a bit packed, but not as much as they can notoriously be. I'm told that will be rather common once we start commuting to Sophia in the morning, though, so huzzah?

Other Happenings

Naturally other things went on, too, but for the sake of time and giving me some time to sleep, I'll only briefly cover them in passing. Maybe if I have another opportunity, I'll discuss them later. We'll see. But here are the other main events.

First off, since today involved liberal amounts of train useage, we also got our train passes for the duration of the trip. It's a pretty simplistic affair if you only go for the basics. Basically, you go up to whichever station you know you'll use as your starting point consistently. From there, you have a map which shows all of the other stops in Tokyo on the map and how much it costs to reach them from your current location. Using a touch screen terminal, you then buy the pass and pick your starting and ending point for the route you'll use the most. In this case, I got a pass which lets me use the trains from Asagaya to Yotsuya without any extra charge for leaving the stops in-between, if I'm inclined to do so. You therefore only have to pay a set fee depending on how long you intend to use that route. For me, it came out to 7300 yen, with 500 of that being a refundable deposit. Thankfully the program covers those costs. The card itself can naturally be used to go to other stops. You simply have to either add extra money to the card ahead of time so you can be debited at the stop or just get a separate ticket for the occasion. Using the tickets can be a bit cumbersome, since you actually have to use them twice. If you don't see the ticket come out of the check-in machine at the walkway, then things become funky since you can't leave until you consult staff. I got lucky and had one of the group leaders fetch my ticket for me after I didn't think twice about grabbing it back, but still, it definitely wouldn't have been fun to deal with that if things had turned out otherwise.

Okay, I need to seriously make things concise, so the next two items will be way less wordy so I can go sleep.

First off, one of the few group members I do get along with well invited me to go get tickets for the Studio Ghibli museum this weekend. I had totally forgotten about the place, but I was thoroughly pleased that some reminded me of its existence, as I am quite the fan of some of Miyazaki's movies and have heard secondhand that the museum is a great place to visit. Apparently tickets have to be bought in advance of when you actually want to go and in Tokyo, only one place, I'm told, actually sells them. However it turns out, it should make for a hell of an adventure.

Oh yeah, also ended up walking back to my hotel, Hotel Amisuta, on my own tonight in the rain. I knew the route well enough since it's really straightforward from the hotel and I also do a good job of keeping an eye out for specific landmarks, but there were a few times where I still felt I was almost lost since I still need to become familiar with the area. Thankfully, those worries were for naught; a familiar-looking Denny's, of all places (if sensei is reading this, she'll totally appreciate it), told me I was on the right track. Originally I planned on exploring the area a tad after dropping off my stuff, but the lateness made me decide I should save it for when I'm more awake. Thankfully the scheduled events for tomorrow actually end a lot earlier than before, so plenty of self-adventuring should be in my future.