Really getting to know Japan

It's been a little difficult to find the time to be able to update lately. I no longer have free internet, so I seek refuge in cafes that have it, though it's hard to motivate myself to get out of the house before a certain point and thus I find I usually only have an hour or so before needing to meet people. Today though, I only have plans for dinner, and though all the smoke around me is making me nauseous, I need to write things down before I forget it all.

These past 2 weeks or so have been good. Tokyo is a really interesting city that is definitely not meant for everyone. I've had good times seeing the sights of the city, from a beautiful park to the busiest Starbucks in the world. The city at night is wonderful, with all of the lights and people, it's hard not to enjoy the splendor of it all. I've also met some great people through the lovely Oberlin student I stayed with and through Jazmin. Everyone has been super nice and polite and seemed to genuinely want to get to know me and why I was here visiting Japan.

Ready for those things I haven't loved. It's sort of ridiculous, and I'm sure people will disagree with me, and to each their own. First off, I'm broke, and though I knew Japan would be expensive, I didn't realize how much so. In basically 2 weeks I've spent close to $500 and that's with cheap housing and consciously thinking about what I ordered at meals. There is no weekly pass for the train and so on train fare alone I spend close to 10 dollars a day. What I would give for that $14 weekly pass on the LA Metro right now? The train is nice, and rather convenient, you can really get just about anywhere. And it's efficient, which is rather necessary in a city with so many people. It is a little creepy though, how people line up at almost the exact spot where the doors will stop, board the train and ride in almost complete silence. It's really not cool to answer your phone on the train, and no one shows any emotion. They all ride, either whispering quietly with a friend or lover (unless it's late and people are drunk and somewhat louder), reading, texting, or with earphones in. And though I'm totally content to listening to my earphones on the train, am I really the only one who wants to tap my foot to the beat or nod my head? Apparently I am, and believe me, people look at me so funny for it. I don't think I could really ever live in a place that doesn't dance, it's too essential for my being.

Public transportation is good though, and most people have bikes, which I didn't know anything about before I got here. Yet outside every home there is usually at least one bike and it's common to see masses of them outside train stations or outside restaurants. That was a really exciting thought, and really great to see people riding their bikes, until I realized that bikes have free reign of both the sidewalk and the street, which as a pedestrian can be somewhat infuriating when the sidewalks are already full of people (who can't decide if they want to walk on the left or right side of the street even when there's totally a line down the middle signifying a divide of some sort, whether it's coming and going, or bikes and pedestrians I'm really not sure). You also can't take your bike on the train or the bus, which is sad, but makes some sense. The trains here really do get quite packed, which I have experienced first hand, and so bringing a bike on the train would really be a nuissance for others and limit the amount of people they could shove on the train.

And in the end, though I personally have been fortunate not to have experienced it, as precise as they would love the trains to be, it's not uncommon for there to be delays due to "accidents" better known as suicides. On average, once a day someone will jump in front of the train to end their life for various reasons that can include providing for one's family. And though it's not as big of a deal here cause there isn't really a hell that people believe in, it's still unnerving that people are so numb to it. Can you imagine the poor train driver? or the clean up crew? Talk about therapy.

But I don't like ending things like that, so I'll briefly say a bit about the people I've had the plesure of staying with. The first 4 days I spent with the family of a current Oberlin student in the Conservatory. They were really nice, and took care of me, from making food I could eat to driving me to the train station, and once paying for my dinner. Their English wasn't bad and I really enjoyed staying with them. My days there mainly consisted of working on my paper, eating, and drinking lots of tea (perhaps my favorite part of life here). I also met the father's parents, who were some of the cutest old people I've ever met, though I did feel slightly awkward after finding out grandpa had served in the war, a war that my father's father fought in the pacific, and which claimed the lives of some family members of my mother's in the philippines. A less than ideal situation, but one that was handled as best as could have been. Again, those one on one interactions have really made my time here and I won't forget the lovely people I've met, but there's still more that I've come to understand as not for me and we'll leave those for another post.