It's a mooooooviiiiieeeee!

Total Recall

Today, my facebook status says: “August 10: the worst day of my life.” Here’s why: I overslept two hours. On the way to Narita Airport, I got rained on more than I had ever gotten rained on in my entire life. (Yes, the cyclone has reached Japan too.) I missed the 9:40 Limited Express so I had to take the 10:40 “Super-express” to the airport. Well, it was neither super nor express. The train was over ninety minutes late. Despite hearing sincere sounding apologies from the train radio, I did not really grasp what the “tame” of the train’s delay was – the reason why it was delayed. I was too nervous to make a significant effort to understand. Later on, I told everyone it was due to an accident. But I was lying. I had no idea. Long story made short, I got to the airport at 1:19 for the 1:20 flight to Sri Lanka. It was the only flight that was not delayed that day.

After a nervous collapse resulting from overtly ambitious plans to meet more than five friends in Sri Lanka in the next three days, I was told to call Sri Lankan airlines. The next flight is on Thursday. The cheapest flight back to New York on the same day was $3200. So, I decided to take the next flight to Sri Lanka. On the train back toward Tokyo, I got too exhausted for the city that REALLY never sleeps. I was weary, feeling down and not worthy the magnificent city of Tokyo. So, I got off at the first stop: NARITA town. I struggled out of the station (no escalators, no elevators, three pieces of luggage). First, I thought I should just crash on the street. After all, I’ve seen many successful Japanese businessmen to do so. But then, I decided to make the additional few steps toward the well-lit “COMFORT HOTEL NARITA.”

At the reception desk, the receptionist asked me for how long I was planning to stay. Despite very limited resources in my bank account, I just handed him my credit card, simply saying: “Until the next flight.” I got into my hotel room and fell asleep immediately.

It’s 9:02 PM and I just woke up. In a way, I feel like Murakami’s Kafka. Alone in a tiny hotel room, with no internet, and no watchable TV, I have a plenty of time to contemplate. At least until the next flight. I have no idea what to do in Narita – or if there is anything to do. I am little scared to leave the room - scared to find a Japanese businessman lying flat on the street in front of the hotel.

With little to do and plenty to recount, I might as well just take advantage of my misfortune. There is much that has not been told about my stay in Tokyo – the host family, the Sun Academy, the study time, and the party time, the studio and the street in front of it. Please, be prepared to read more thoughts on the life in Tokyo than I knew I have ever had. I will be spreading my wisdoms with more intensity than it takes Japanese children to feed pigeons in the Ueno Park and with more loquaciousness than it took the Japanese stewardess to express her sense of pity for my missing the flight. As Chaucer’s weary travelers in the Canterbury Tales, I am more than willing to share what was good (and bad) in Nishishinjuku; here we go…

ON PARTYING

We study hard and party hard. I am sure that every Yallie has heard some kind of variation on the same theme. We try to think of ourselves as the cool overachievers – who know to study but also to party; who are just amazing. In Tokyo, we definitely lived to the motto. Besides our study attempts (and there really were many), we have intensely explored what fun Tokyo had to offer over the summer. And please be sure, it had to offer much.

We went to little bars and then we went to big bars. We went to Karaoke dingholes and Karaoke cathedrals. We went to private parties and BIG clubs. We partied in Roppongi; we partied in Shibuya. We partied on our own; and we partied with the buddies, the teachers, and strangers.

Although often in a not so contemplative mood, we have also made a few observations while on the search for good times. First, we have learned that our Japanese counterparts do not know the limits to their party imagination. They like to dress up and dress strange. They like to dance on their own. The rules of no-PDA apply even after sunset. Techno rules it all.

Partying in Tokyo is an exercise in urban planning and communal experience. Entertainment district are extremely well organized – some clubs even provide public transportation for their party—goers. Tokyoites seem to like doing fun things together. In an order. Dinner – Karaoke – Bar – Club. The nightlife is as disciplined and organized as the daylife. Everything seems to be planned and organized to avoid any possible disasters, or more specifically to avoid any sense of something going as it should not be. Whether mega-clubs in Roppongi, or little bars in Harajuku, everything is perfect to the last detail. Just like everything else in Japan.

ON LINGUISTIC PROGRESS

Few hours ago, I was having a dinner on my own in an Italian restaurant in Narita Town. After ordering my meal, I was complimented on my Japanese by a pair of Japanese women. Soon they started talking to me, praising my spoken Japanese. I was very surprised to hear that. For the past year, I have been under the impression that I was the dumb kid in my Japanese class. Before coming to Japan I could not imagine forming a coherent Japanese sentence. And here I was, in a random Narita restaurant, conversing in Japanese without being aware of communicating in a foreign language.

The summer has been extremely helpful in improving my language skills. I have learned the kanji know-how. My listening skills improved dramatically; my speaking skills stopped making me feel like Yale’s ultimate shame.

I do not really know why the dramatic shift has taken place. I have several theories. Obviously, being exposed to the language for at least three hours a day has made a huge difference. Nevertheless, I believe that the reason lies in a strange understanding of how different Japanese language was. The previous sentence sounds sort of meta – but please, let me make myself understood.

I think that a major change occurred when I stopped seeing Japanese as an adaptation of a European language and started accepting it as a completely different linguistic system. Before coming to Japan, I was constantly searching for similarities between the languages I know and Japanese; after all, I thought that since I know other languages, mastering Japanese should be a piece of cake. Well, I was wrong. Japanese grammar and vocabulary is so unlike any language I know that trying to learn Japanese within the context of Indo-European languages is fruitless. Once I reconciled myself with the uniqueness of Japanese, the language started coming to me much more easily. I stopped searching for precise English/French/Czech equivalents for Japanese words and grammar terms; instead, I just started accepting them on their own. Kanji is no variation on romance alphabet – instead it is a pictorial system that works under different premises; Japanese honorific forms do not stand for a modification of French tu/vous – instead they are a representation of society that has developed set of grammar structures to reflect its unique social hierarchy.

As such, I am excited about taking Japanese at Yale after I come back. I already know that it won’t be the same struggle as it was before coming to Japan. I have already made the most challenging step in learning Japanese; I have already understood that Japanese is not some kind of English dialect but an independent language system that is beautiful in its uniqueness.

ON THE SUN ACADEMY

I loved the Sun Academy. The teachers were incredibly nice and caring people who paid enormous attention to each student’s personal progress. At Yale, I often felt that each student’s unique needs were not really taken into account. L1/L2 Japanese is an extremely challenging program that does not really take into account the inequality among its students. For instance, I, as someone who has never taken any Asian language, have been taking introductory Japanese with Kisho Watanabe, who, born in Japan, spoke Japanese at home, or with kids from China who already knew all the Kanjis. Please, don’t get me wrong. That’s completely fine. I’m sure that each student had his/her reason for taking Japanese- whether to learn Kanjis or to learn to speak the language, every student took Japanese, pursuing a different goal. Nevertheless, I had to start from scratch. At the Sun Academy, I felt that the inequality between students was taken into account. The teachers were very responsive to help each student with what he/she needed most help with. Furthermore, they did so in an extremely non-chalant manner; they never made anyone feel to be lagging behind.

Moreover, the Sun Academy teachers completely devoted themselves to make sure we maximize our progress over the summer. They kept reminding us of the language pledge, despite the seeming futility of their attempts. They spent more time on correcting our homework than we did writing it. They put more energy into class time than our constantly falling asleep selves. They had an incredible patience with us – whether we were coming late, whether we were dressed inappropriately for extracurricular events or whether we did not seem to care pretty much about anything. They organized great things to do after school. They hung out with us in their free time.

I must admit that I was first little unsure as to whether I picked the right program but after two months at the Sun Academy I cannot really imagine the other programs being any better. Although I cannot speak from personal experience, somehow I sense that the incredible amount of personal attention and care that we have received in Tokyo could really not be matched anywhere else.

travels with Troy

Kamakura and Enoshima

Keeping up with the 韓国人

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In Search of Coffee Time

“Suave molecules of Mocha stir up your blood, without causing excess heat; the organ of thought receives from it a feeling of sympathy; work becomes easier and you will sit down without distress to your principal repast which will restore your body and afford you a calm, delicious night. “

Coffee is magic – and one does not have to hold Talleyrand’s verbosity to appreciate the supernatural drink. It makes many men happy. It makes many men thoughtful. It keeps us all up (and going). Most of all – coffee is a communal drink. It tastes better in the company of others. Whether among my friends or fellow cafficionados in a random café, I am glad to enjoy the pleasant excuse to spend time with others, the excuse that coffee so generously offers. With a sip of tasteful coffee, in a nice coffeeplace, I think better, study better – and, perhaps most importantly, feel better.

Without a Japanese family (as enjoyed by my fellows in Hokkaido or Kanazawa), I have often felt “out of touch” with the Japanese culture. Please, do not get me wrong – spending time with other Yallies has been a blast. We cook for each other; we go out with each other; we study together. Nonetheless, recently, Tokyo began to feel like a big US Embassy Housing Compound. It’s sort of Japanese but not really. A little bit like a roll of sushi with peanut butter; sashimi with apple sauce or plum wine in a Budweiser can. In an attempt to compensate for the absence of Japan in Japan’s capital, I tried to watch Japanese films. Soon, however, I figured out that I did really not have to come all the way to the Land of the Rising Sun in order to watch Miyazaki’s newest release. Then, I tried to go out to Japanese bars and clubs, but found myself surrounded by American marines and German tourists. Hanging out in the Shinjuku garden proved equally fruitless – when attempting to converse with fellow gardeners, I often overlooked the fact that the many Japanese couples were more interested in conversing with each other; more specifically, in my search for meaningful friendships, I found myself blocking romantic attempts between the girls and boys I encountered in the peaceful settings of the Shinjuku garden. Well, too bad.

Many of my fellow Bulldogs in Tokyo seem to have resigned to their peanut-butter-sushi status. Whether indulging in regular “Top Gun- Rocky – Home Alone” movie nights or participating in an expat’s favorite activity, Beer Pong, many Yallies seemed to be reconciled with the diet version of Tokyo that many of us have long been complaining about….

Well… not me. With father Hope and mother Invention, I decided to embark on the epic search for genuine Nippon. Hopeful and inventive, I tried to syncretize my love for koohi with attempts to get out of the apple-sauce-sashimi bubble. And the fruits of my search have proved sweeter than the Peach-juice-infused-Chicken-breasts that the two Matts cooked two days ago.

Following recommendations in my city guide, I decided to study in a different Tokyo coffee place every day. In the search for a place to study, to rest, and to learn about Tokyoites, I found myself discovering a great deal about Japan – or at least about my perceptions of the great Archipelago. In the search for perfect coffee time, I have made friends with like-minded kids from Tokyo while at the same time observing that what I most enjoy about Nippon, Japan’s ability to borrow things from other countries, put them together in a fascinating mix while adding a certain contour of its own. In the search for coffee time, I experienced for the first time my own version of “Tokyo – Je t’aime.” Well-caffeinated and geared up to explore, I began to take pride in the city in which I have spent the past six weeks; I began to feel ready to put on a Japanesque variation of the famous New York City T-Shirt, ready for the my own version of

I ❤

Tokyo

Finding the right coffee place begins with the search for the coffee place. Seeking a site of respite has proved as interesting as enjoying a cup of coffee once inside. I have learned that the best coffee places in Tokyo are not the dazzling well-known establishments in Ginza or Roppongi. Instead, I found the most interesting people and the best coffee environment in little “dingholes” – small gems hidden in little street of Shibuya, Naka Meguro or Shinjuku’s Golden Gai. Likewise, my fellow Tokyoites seem to enjoy the intimacy of a familiar place – not a chain but an independent establishment, not an overwhelming European style coffee but a friendly Kissaten. In fact, I would argue that the best places are the ones that are the most difficult to find. Concealed from the sight of ferocious Shibuya 109-consumers, often hidden in little basements or not-so easily accessible upper floors, these places are a little bit like their regular customers – not so approachable at first sight, but ever more honest and enjoyable once discovered. Or even better – like the super-complicated Japanese alphabet with its four different writing systems, Japanese kissaten, once discovered, provided a satisfaction equal only to deciphering a sentence encrypted in Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana and Romaji characters.

Visiting Tokyo coffee places can offer interesting insights into Japanese aesthetics. Whereas coffee places in Prague and Vienna dazzle the visitors with lavish art-nouveau décor and the Parisian cafes with classic simplicity, Tokyo kissatens are post-modern in the literary sense – constantly redefining the definition of modern aesthetics, exploring the relationship between the West and Japan, referring to the past while questioning the present. Shibuya’s favorite, Café Zarigami is a great example of a “post-modern” coffee shrine. Upon entering, one is overwhelmed by raw references to the long passed industrial age – pseudo-rusty pipes run from the floor to ceiling serving as a vestige to a time where it all might have begun (at least from a perspective of a modern Tokyoite…). Wooden bookshelves contain French classics as well as contemporary Japanese novels. Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis lies next to Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore; Proust’s In Search of Lost Time on the top of a Ozu’s Tokyo Story DVD. Meticulous high-tech speakers play Astrud Gilberto’s lounge music. Imitations of Le Corbusier’s chairs next to tatami pads, and most of all – the delicious coffee that only adds the missing element to the 5D experience.

In their eclecticism, Tokyo kissatens might epitomize the beauty of modern Japan – the country’s ability to take in what is good and make it even better. Somehow raw rusty waterpipes do not intimidate but draw one’s interest. Somehow Brazilian lounge music does not sound cheesy but inviting. Somehow the piles of great books do not appear superficial but genuinely intellectual. Somehow the mishmash of a Japanese café does not look like a mess but like an interesting experiment in post-modern syncretism.

Maybe, the Tokyo kissatens stand for Tokyo at its best. Like Japan’s wild capital, they bustle with creative energy – which may not be immediately palpable but IS nevertheless; creativity that springs from the respectful borrowing from other cultures while adding a Japanese element. Like Tokyo, the numerous little coffee shrines do not open themselves up easily; but once they do, they are as warm and tasteful as the coffee they sell. So next time, you come to Tokyo, just let the suave molecules of Mocha stir up your blood, while wishing your fellow koohi aficionados a friendly “itadakimasu!”

Party-sensee, take it easy

For those impatiently awaiting a new sequel to the Nishishinjuku’s Brave New World series, here’s a quick update on what’s been going on in the hood – who’s been rising and who’s been falling, who’s in, and who’s out, who’s become like totally smokin’, and who’s become like totally not.

Hailey seems to have turned into the new sex-bomb – at least as voted by the Sun Academy’s faculty. She replaced Mint who’s been trying really hard to re-establish herself (even purchasing, upon Heidi’s mean encouragement, a bright colored cap titled as “B.O.M.B.). Well, zannen desu. Hailey’s steeping up on the sex-appeal ladder has been more frantic than Stan’s attempts to recruit as many Nishishinjukes as possible for his Beatles-extravaganza. Hailey has been just smashing and dashing. Party-sensee started to refer to her as “ero-kawai” – (for those uncognizant of Japanese colloquialism: erokawai means erotically cute….whoawhoawhoa, Party-sensee, take it easssssyyyy…..). The conservative Republican-sensee started employing Hailey as an example of inappropriately dressed young lady, when she referred to her as “sexy-sugiru” – the little verbal addition “sugiru” usually stands for something that is “too much” – such as tabesugiru , to overeat or takasugiru, too expensive. In this case, Hailey was referred to as WAAAAAAYYYY too sexy. We should keep an eye on Hailey just to see where her star is rising. As of now, she can’t really rise that much higher.

Talking about Mint, one shouldn’t forget to mention that recently she’s been having insomnia issues. Whether from too much fun or too little sleep (wait….or from both?), Mint seems to have been having a certain difficulty staying awake during class time. Oddly enough, even upon being questioned by the caring teachers, Mint has been responding with a simple one word “DAIZYOOOOOOBU” often returning to the sleepy land of the light blue manga sky. Some, however, have been getting little worried about Mint’s incapacity to stay awake, especially after she satisfiedly slept through a visit to the Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Some have overheard Kajikawa-sensee murmuring for herself “one of these days, I’ll hit the girl really hard.” Well, let’s hope she won’t. We don’t really wanna see Mint take another tumble, do we?

Some of Nishishinjukes have been making dramatic progress in Japanese. Many are capable of forming extremely complicated and meaningful sentences. One of the most skillful ones appear to be Devin, Benny and, here we go again, Mint. Devin is now capable of saying “When I enter the bed, the sleep arrives.” Benny can say “After I eat, the hunger goes away.” Nevertheless, Mint seems the most linguistically talented – now she can say “Watasi wa sitsumon zya nai desu – I am not a question.”

Well, enough is enough. This week, kudos go to Hailey for becoming Nishishinjuku’s new sex idol, to Devin and Benny for making dramatic advances in Japanese and, not to forget, to Mint for being a total

B.O.M.B.