Tokyo Summer Wave 東京: August 2009

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.