Wish Club so far....

Aujourd'hui je suis allee me baigner dans une riviere. C'etait tres fun et tres cool et j'ai decouvert une ferme sur la colline pres de celle-ci.

Je reprends en anglais...

That was a brief interlude, aided by fellow CSer Sebastien who is also staying at Mochan's.

And for the benefit of the non-French speakers, we went swimming in a river surrounded by hills, and I found a secluded farm, hidden in the hills. Check out the photo of me on the amazing bridge over the river.

In the evening, we watched yet another crazily long fireworks display. On the way back, with much wooping and clapping, we cheered a guy on a wall with a guitar and were briefly taught a traditional Japanese song. It certainly made that guy's day.

However, by the end of the day, the divide in our group was apparent. Seven French meant that they stick together and speak French. On the way back, we stopped to pick up a new guy. Jelmer, a Dutch CSer I first met at Yuji's, passionately claims "I can't take it if the new guy is French!!"
The new guy enters the bus: "Ello, my name is Laurent...."

See also the picture of Mochan. He loves us foreigners - we're another collection alongside his collection of cowboy hats.

Monkeys and Mountains

Today, I went with a fellow CSer (an American who has been living in NZ and Australia) to Mt Takao, a popular hiking spot about an hour away from Tokyo. It was very much a follow-the-trail walk but the views were fantastic, we got to go to "Monkey World" and riding the chair lift was pretty fun. The Japanese couple we went with even bought me some snacks and a mini-present as it was my 21st birthday. Key chains for mobile phones are very popular and I got a pair of kissing monkey heads. Yeah, that's right - kissing monkey heads ie. one for my boyfriend and one for myself. I had a feeling they were trying to set me up with my American friend. Earlier that day I'd paid for my fortune at one of the temples. I received the best fortune ever - apparently I'm not going to get any diseases but travelling with older guy is good for me, apparently.

That evening I went to the Wish Club meet right next to Tokyo Tower (see photo).

Wish Club is run by a Japanese guy called Mochan who in Shizuoka, a city nar Mt Fuji and organises events for travellers. I'm currently listening to him cooking, surrounded by foreigners as I type this. He says everything very loudly, very stretched out and shouts "WOOOOOAAAHHHH" a lot. He likes photos.

"Photo, photo! Japanese tradition!"

EARTHQUAKE and INTERVIEWS and COFFEE

After a fairly quiet day which involved not much more than laundry and a stroll round Roppongi, I met my first interviewee off the site interpals.net. I was slightly nervous as I had already had a message from a Japanese guy warning me that many other Japanese guys use the site to find girlfriends. And M, the guy I was meeting, had explicity stated that he liked meet girls.

I needn't have worried however as he turned out to be a very shy, very intelligent guy who I managed to do the longest interview ever (over 40min) and that was already after talking to him for at least 20minutes. In a way, this kind of meeting was perfect for my project which invovled questions like "Do you ever meet people off the Internet that you don't know?" - kinda answered itself! Also, it illustrated just how different someone can come across online as comapred to face-to-face. Whether this is a difference in the projection of one's self or merely a flaw in the medium is still to be established - I'm inclined to a suggest that both play a part.

I went to bed knowing that I had a busy day tomorrow - THREE interviews between 1.15 and 7pm as well as a 9am start.

I only slept for 30 minutes. This was mainly due to being squashed between two guys - one who just kept rolling closer and the other that kneed me in the bum everytime I tried to move. Just as I was about to drift off, the whole room began to shake.

I've often considered what an earthquake feels like. Describing the room as shaking is exactly what happens but fails to capture the moment properly for those who have not experienced it. The best way to describe it is to imagine what it would feel like if the room you were in was picked up and put on the back of a truck going down a dirt track. Apprently it was a 6.4 but I doubt it was that strong where I was staying. There was no visible damage although reports of collapsed roads and buildings elsewhere circulated.

After my earthquake experience in which I'd almost jumped up and down in excitement (pointless as the room was already enabling such actions!), I got up to meet my CSer friend Julia at 9am for her last day in Japan. She made me my very first cup of coffee which I am sure probably did me a lot of good. I met a lady for lunch (she took me to my first udon restaurant - yum!), a student for coffee and another lady for coffee. By the end of the day, I liked coffee. Well, I liked the iced extra sweet stuff they sell. I doubt coffee snobs would let it qualify.

Nevertheless, despite near-poisoning myself with caffeine, I was semi-hallucinating by the time I got back to Yuji's. I also fell asleep onto some poor Japanese woman on the subway. Gent;e nudging gave way to small shoves before I realised what was going on.

Couchsurfers united

My day began where yesterday left off. My host and I left the bar pretty late and then giggled our way to her apartment until about 4am by which point, my consciousness gave up on me for good. A very late morning and I got up to meet several Couchsurfers for a walk from Jingu Bridge (full of crazies and costumes and combos of both) to the Meiji Jingu shrine and a picnic in Yoyoge Park. It was a massively international bunch (France, Syria, Italy, US, Japan, Canada, Germany) and I got a couple more interviews, despite the rain that began to chuck down as I enthusiastically asked about culture.

Highlights:

Watching a beatboxer do noises to guys doing stunts on bikes. They can bunny hop and ride their bikes upside down on one leg. Awesome.

A pretty delicious Chinese dinner.

Oddities:

Five guys in black leather with Elvis quiffs, dancing to fifties music in the park. I thought the Japanese were supposed to be self-conscious?

A dog in sunglasses.

Low moment:

Standing up to leave the park and realised that my legs were really brown - not because I was tanned but because of the amount of dirt stuck to them.

Flags and Fireworks and Fangirls of a random Latin singer

After a catch-up on sleep morning, I was invited to go with Audrya, a lady staying at Yuji's, to a "park" (patch of grass) nearby where she taught me to twirl "fairy flags". It's kind of like poi for those of you who are familiar with people swinging around balls on chains.

I then travelled to R's for the Tokyo Bay fireworks display. I was pretty confused as to why setting off at 3.30pm was necessary for a 7pm start. Until I saw the thousands of people crowding the streets and stations. The majority were dressed in yukatas (cheaper, lighter versions of kimonos) with a type of flip-flops. These bizarre shoes have a wooden base and two heels, one at the back and one in the middle and so the wearer can rock back and forth as he or she so desires. Personally, I look at those shoes and envisioning myself falling to my death. I'm still not over the Sony Building incident.

We arrived at R's apartment, apparently her second-home. Not only did it have a breath-taking view of the river and the city but the table was pretty soon filled with a delicious Japanese meal. Rice, sushi, seaweed, eggs radishes, salad, okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes) as well at delicious fruit to finish. Top that off with fantastic hospitality and another interview, and to be honest, I thought the evening couldn't get any better...

But erm, the fireworks.....well, I'm kind of lost for words. The Japanese love cute. They give everything smiley faces. Including their fireworks, which grinned and swirled and flowered their way across the sky. The display went on bombarding my senses for over an hour. I watched fireworks shimmer and sizzle above the river and the illuminated bridge, the most awe-inspiring backdrop one could imagine. The entire sky to the right of the display glowed an orangey-purple, thick with the smoke from the sheer quantity of fireworks. And watching was only part of the fun; the explosions made the ground shake with the eachos that reverberated of the high-rise buildings. Amazing.

I then had to rush off to meet my host for the evening who wanted to go to party to celebrate the birthday of Juanes, a Latin singer from Colombia. The conversation wavered crazily between Japanese and Spanish, with topics such as "Which haircut suits Juanes best?" Just as I was leaving, I was obliged to paint my hand and print it on a flag and write Juanes a very special message so that they could give him the handprinted flag at his next concert. Dedication, devotion or derangement?

My host then took me to a very swanky bar where I got into an involved discussion with the barman (through her translations) about why Japanese people have covers on their books on the train. Apparently, books show what kind of person you are. And they show what is in your mind and what is in your mind is private and strangers should not be allowed to know this. I could go on but I want to end on the note of...what does their choice of title cover show about them?!

August 7th - Giant Buddha!

Today, with the German brothers requesting to accompany me, I set off to Akatsuka. Only two stops away on the tube but then a 1.5km walk (in this humidity, you’ll find that uncomfortable, trust me), we reached an amazing giant Buddha. Check the photo. Just “magnificent”, as an old Japanese guy remarked to me. We then trekked round the botanical gardens next door, admiring the exotic plants. Or as I was, admiring the shells of the crickets that hung in clusters underneath leaves. There were some pretty impressively camouflaged moths that make a clicking noise as they beat their wings. Also, the butterflies here are gigantic – on the size of small birds or bats.

We then went to Ikebekuro because the guys wanted to look round the electronics stores. I personally find one electronic store pretty much like the next. But these stores were often department stores and I have to say, the toy section is amazing. I wish I were a kid in Japan. I really, really do. Crazy robots, amazing fancy-dress costumes, stacking toys that you can put in different combinations, cushions shaped like Russian dolls. Plus there’s a hold lot of things you didn’t know you wanted (and don’t really need), like covers to go on your car key, lego USB sticks and donut cellotape dispensers. The guys were pretty absorbed so my day pretty much ended in Ikebekuro.

Tomorrow, it’s time to go things alone. Although I will go to their friend’s fireworks party…she invited me after all!

Interview # 3 and #4

(Once again, I warn you - only read if you're interested in my project)

The same themes came up in both interviews, namely the difference between what one says face-to-face and what one says online and the difference between the “individual” Western people and more group-oriented and “harmonious” Japan – it amazes me that they actually use exactly the same terms as found in books and papers.

When talking to #3, she told me how blogs were used to express emotions she wouldn’t particularly message someone about and that only her close friends could read it. #4 told me the same as well, giving me the terms honne (what someone actually thinks) and tatemae (what they actually say). The Internet, she claims, is shifting the relationship between these two concepts, allowing tatemae to be more easily expressed. However, #3 expressed a concern about the Internet how it “makes us more shy” because we say things online to one another but not face-to-face. Therefore, perhaps the Internet is reinforcing the honne and tatemae in face-to-face communication. Interestingly enough, #3 only expressed these opinions after I switched off the recorder. “Your project…the Internet stuff….you’re asking me about all the bad stuff about Japan.” I’m going to need to examine people’s reactions to the changes the Internet has brought about in greater detail.