Haven't had an entry in awhile. I've been really busy lately, and I'm going to have to rush this one.

As I write this entry, it seems as though the rain is putting to end a very strange week for me.  So I will just recap various events that occurred this weekend.

Forgive my poor writing skills. I haven't had the chance to write in a long time (especially in English). So it will take months for me to write good, solid entries.

Wednesday 9/26
    Returning to my dorm is about a 1 hour travel from school everyday. By using an express line (which skips unpopular stops), that 1 hour can be cut to 50 minutes. However, on this day, when my friends(other abroad students) and I were returning from school, we forgot to take the express line. So we came up with an idea. We'll get off at the next express station, and then get on the express line from there. This resulted in a station named Mizunokuchi.
    From the big buildings, Mizunokuchi looked like quite an interesting place, and thus, since we had quite a bit of free time, we decided to look around.  We checked out the electronics store, the game center, and the local bowling area. Then it became dinner time (and this is where the strange events begin).
    My friends (Viktor from Sweden, and Chris from Malaysia) and I were waiting to sit down at a local cafe when a strange woman appeared out of nowhere.  She seemed very interested in us (likely due to us using English).  Then, out of the blue, she basically asked us to teach her English, offering to pay for our meal.  Considering how awkward it felt, we declined, and proceeded to be seated.  Then for some strange coincidence, she got seated beside us. Considering how uncomfortable I was at that point in time, I tried my best to ignore her.  But, maybe 10 minutes into our meal, this woman taps me on my shoulder and randomly hands me fish.  Yes, you heard it correctly, FISH. Like a small bowl of living fish. Why? I have no clue. She offered it to me as a gift, and generally I would consider it a really sweet gesture if it hadn't been for the timing and the whole situation.  Not wanting to hurt this sad, lonely lady's feelings, I accepted.  Within 10 more minutes, she started offering me like the most random things : postcards, Valentine's cards, etc.  She's pulling all of these things out of a bag (at one point she pulled out a vase full of flowers), reminiscent of Marry Poppins.
    She was asking quite personal questions, and it felt like she had stalker written all over her face. As soon as we finished our meal, we were ready to up and out.  However, she had piled a few gifts on me, and considering all the guilt I had at that point, and considering common courtesy(the gifts she gave us), we picked up her tab before we left.

Thursday 9/27
Spent my birthday in Akihabara.  Went inside the dirtiest building (named Love Mercy) you could ever imagine.  Helped some friends buy their cell phones (yes my Japanese is good enough to do that).


Friday 9/28
Celebrated my birthday with some friends at a karaoke bar with a nomihoudai (all you can drink alcohol). We went from 11pm to 5am. I had initially planned having 6-8 people. We ended up having 10+ and it got kind of lame.  There would be a 90 minute queue for songs. By the time the song you selected came up, you wouldn't even feel like singing it anymore, or worse off, you wouldn't even be in the room.  The first two hours were pretty fun, but the last three were kinda whack. Our room became a complete mess (Ice cream and bear all over the table, people drunk and dropping glasses). I retreated to another Karaoke room for the last hour to relax and get away.


Saturday 9/29
Went to see fireworks today.  Fireworks shows are quite amazing in Japan (in comparison to the US).  However, they're just too long. I was absolutely amazed by the first 10 minutes, but for the next 50, you're just waiting for the grand finale(which did not disappoint).

After the fireworks, we went bowling. I'm awful; threw a 48 (yes, you heard that correctly). I was bowling my first ball with my right hand, and my second with my left by the time the game was over.

Hajimemashite, my name is Jeff, and I am participating in the University of California's Education Abroad Program in Tokyo, Japan.  This blog was created for the purpose of promoting both the Japanese program and Education Abroad in general. For prospectives students being linked from the Center for International Education website, please feel free to leave questions.

Now those things aside, let me tell you a few things about myself.  I am a Computer Science major at The University of California, Irvine, and my host University for the upcoming year will be the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Prior to arriving in Japan, I had about 4 months of Japanese language, so to say that my Japanese is poor would be an understatement.  My knowledge of Japanese culture/pop-culture? Moderate at best.

Over the course of the next year, I will be relaying some of my notable experiences in Japan, whether they concern academics, social activities, or pop-cultural discoveries (in all likelyhood, lotsa of Jpop cuties).  I will try my hardest to be honest and accurate when I write these entries (blogs in general tend to bring out this "look at how cool my life is" sort of exaggeration).

Well then, jya.


-Jeff