Endo-Ryo and Foreigners

Without a doubt, one of the largest differences between this trip to Japan and my last one is my living arrangements. The way one behaves with a host family and in an apartment is entirely different. On top of this, Endo-Ryo is a special living situation- a 3 bedroom, full bath, kitchen, living room, and dining room in a "mansion," as opposed to others who either have homestay or live in dorms-- where they are fed (unless it's the women's dorm), have a dorm manager, have curfews... But, I suppose, what makes Endo-Ryo the most unique is undoubtedly our landlady, Endo-san.

Endo-san is the antithesis of what you would expect in an old Japanese woman. Quiet? Oh no, think again. Meek? Anything but. Kind? Uhm... well... I'm pretty sure I could tall stories about Endo-san all day and I would not exhaust myself. She mocks us, tries to con us out of money, treats us like children, pries into our business, comes in unannounced, and is simply not the happiest woman to be around. Endo-san has the authority to come visit all the time because she is supposed to clean our common areas-- not to say she has done anything but take out the trash. On top of this, she has an annoying amount of storage left in the house- closets, bookcases, shelves full of her things. Still, it would appear that past residents have had far more problems with her than we have. Overall, we are pretty cleanly, heading warnings from previous residents.

Still, the mansion is great- from the balcony, we can see the ferris wheel at Odaiba, the fireworks at Disneyland, a river, wide fields... Not to mention, it is in a convenient location. On top of this, I love my roommates, SeungYe and Hannah. While all of us are, in our own ways, antisocial at home, it is working out splendidly. It is also amazing how many foreigners are in the area as well- Hannah and I have seen to creating our extensive (politically incorrect) catalog:

African Steve- Tall, lanky guy that hit on me a few weeks ago and started the naming of foreigners.

Blonde Sally- A woman we saw waiting to cross the road on a bike

Arabian Al- A nice looking Middle Eastern Guy that often is at the station at the same time as us

Nigerian Pete- Possibly the same person as African Steve; eyed Hannah up.

Lanky David- A tall guy that we saw at the station in Gyotoku

Model Craig- One of those guys you expect to see in an Abercrombie ad

Bernie Mac- He looks like Bernie Mac.

American Mary/Sue- Hannah and I

Strong-looking Anthony- A guy with poofy blonde hair on the train that was beefy

Yep- True Story. As fun as it is to name all the foreigners, I think it truly speaks volumes that we CAN name the foreigners-- people that would simply blend in to any crowd in America become something novel, something mezurashii (Yep, 'novel' in Japanese). This has no exception when it comes to either Hannah or I either- whether it's simple, interested stares on the trains, heckling by other English speakers on the street, or people going out of our way to avoid us, there is never any lack for feeling different. No amount of hair dye, brown contacts, style change, and tanning will help it either- from our noses to our face shapes, we are incapable of blending in. One of my most interesting collisions with being foreign happened the other day, on my way home from working with my host mother at her bread shop. A seemingly normal man in his 50's passed us on the street, and, as is customary when you meet people's eyes, he greeted us. However, apparently one greeting did not suffice- suddenly this man was in my face, standing inches from me, fear gluing me in place. "Hello! Good morning! America! Hello!" Over and over again, the chain of broken English greetings inched him closer and closer to me, to the point where he was almost touching me- my host mother pulled me away and we walked home, but the experience shook me. "It's because you're a foreigner- you're cute and you're a novelty." My host mother told me, "That brings out strange men like him." Normally, I don't mind sticking out of the crowd, but here, some days I feel like I would do anything to blend in.

Most likely, from here on out, blog posts will be themed instead of day by day descriptions. I get too far behind. @.@

Weekend 1 in Tokyo- Shinjuku and Shibuya

So, with my infinitely awesome skills of updating everyone on what I'm doing, I'll update here about last Saturday and Sunday.

Shibuya

So, the roomies and I decided that it was time to explore. The three of us disembarked to Shibuya and, me, feeling pretty awesome about being to Tokyo before, took the reigns on leading them through the stations. For the record, from Tokyo station take the Yamanote line towards Shinjuku to get to Shibuya. =]

That went pretty well, but my problem with... er... disorientation got the better of me out in Shibuya itself. Haha.

So, the three of us went to First Kitchen and ate our potato/pasta sets (mmm... carbs with a side of carbs?! AWESOME!) and then split up to shop. The most interesting things were:

1) CUTENESS EVERYWHERE!- Alright... so, I think the reason I love Japan is because it is so f$@*ing adorable. Everything from headbands to socks, signs to toilets are downright addorable.

2) MJ and Obama- While Hannah and I were walking around, we found two statues in close proximity... one of MJ and another of Obama. Also, a lot of store fronts had MJ music playing, etc. o-o;

3) Banks?- It appears, for the record, that finding an atm that takes an American Visa is more of a feat than originally imagined. Pretty much, the post office, 7-11, and Citi bank are the only consistent places that take American issued debit cards. Furthermore, it's not the easiest to use credit cards most places. Interesting, non? Hannah and I ended up getting lost, thanks to my map dyslexia, leading to number 4.

4) Seedy Sex Shops...o-o; Some things never change, I guess. When I got us off the beaten path from map dyslexia, we encountered some interesting shops... the most amusing of which, by the way, had two signs that cracked us up- one said "So fucking cheap" (in regards to vibrators) and the other "We love toys that fuck." That is soooo awkward. Yes, it said it in English. o-o;

5) Pallette Town!?- So, on the way back home, we encountered a huge beautifully lit ferris wheel. I can't say I've always been the largest fan of ferris wheels, but I really, really want to see the view from this one. It's the tallest one in Japan. Definitely on my list of things to conquer while I'm here.

Shinjuku

On Sunday, Hannah and SeungYe were tired and, well, I was out a camera cord. Seeing a chance to get to return to Shinjuku for not only a camera, but also to see all the places I knew so well from 6 years ago warmed my heart. I set out right after getting off the phone with Steve on what I figured would be a short jaunt. Well, I ended up being out for about 7 hours. It was truly an interesting day.

On my walk to the station, I made eye contact with a colored man who was, naturally, a foreigner. Knowing how much I dislike being stared at by other foreigners, I kept my eyes to the ground, although still rather surprised to see a foreigner in my quiant town of Ichikawa-shiohama. When he passed me, I noticed him looking at me out of the corner of his eye, to which I naturally looked up. "Hello." He said, startling me. "Hi." I respond. He stops and grins from ear to ear. "Where are you from?" He asks, his eyes doing a ridiculously obvious and slow full body scan of me. "New York." He grins and says "I'm from Africa. You're a beautiful girl. What is your name?" I laugh nervously and say "Kara, what's yours?" I extend my hand for him to shake, feeling awkward about it. He then paused an awkwardly long time and, after a few beats of awkward silence, he grinned, shook my hand and said "Steve." (To which my obvious thought is wtf) He then decides that this is a good time to "exchange numbers," to which I decide it's a good time to lie about not having a phone. But, he "lives around here," his company is right by the station, and we will surely "meet again." Woo. ><

After my encounter with African Steve, I ran off to Shinjuku and decided to find the Yotsuba Camera shop, a very famous one in Japan. Ok, holy shit, those cameras are expensive. I set my spending limit at 10,000 yen (100 dollars) and I don't think I could have even bought a camera bag in there for that little. Disheartned, I began to walk around Shinjuku in hopes of finding the building I used to go to class in. Well, I ended up finding a lot of interesting things due, once again, to map dyslexia;

1) Olympic Pep Rally- I ended up at the Tokyo Municipal Gov't buildings and they were holding a... pep rally (?) for the Olympics (to host in 2016). There was a man giving a speech, banners all around [They all say "Because it's Japan, we can do it! New Olympics!"] and then on the next street up, there were all these children dance performance groups, performing in honor of being a hopeful for the 2016 Olympics. It was... interesting. Japan REALLY wants the Olympics. DESPERATELY. These banners are all over.

2) I found a Costume Museum! It was Sunday and, thus, closed, but I will totally go back ><;

3)I... walked... to Shibuya ward... >_>; I found a lot of cool buildings and think I actually saw more of Shinjuku than I did when I went there everyday 6 years ago.

4) I found where I used to go to class, but it had become really run down. It was a little depressing. A lot of the shops I used to go to were gone. A ramen shop, a book store, and a few restaurants that I truly enjoyed have gone out of business. A lot of graffitti was on all of the signs in the area. The bank where I exchanged all my American money at was out of business. Yeah.

5) I ate Indian food! I had a conversation with a Japanese waitress before going in and ensured that I could eat something... it was really, really good food. Considering I mostly eat rice and seaweed at home, it was very nice.

6) I found a garden on top of a department store! =D

On my way back to the station, my map dyslexia worked out for the best again. I was all turned around and went by a Nikon shop. I thought that I wouldn't be able to buy anything and that cameras in Japan were simply expensive, but I went in anyway. There was only a small digital camera section, but, there it was- and it was perfect. Sure, second-hand and pink, but it was the Nikon Coolpix S60 10 megapixel face-recognition, touch screen camera that retails for over $200 in the states- for exactly $100. I love my camera- and just when I'd given up on getting one too! I felt so proud of myself, buying it in Japanese and everything. I really think I'm starting to get acclimated to Japan again. It's truly nice.

Alright... now to blog about the next 7 days ;p