(Photolinked version, 1.26.MMI)
This is almost exactly what I scribbled onto my Handspring Visor and typed into Hiroko's iBook while I was there.
The photos are thrown into a big pile. I didn't take nearly as many as I should have, and many of them didn't turn out. Also, I kind of neglected to take any photos of *people*. Leave it to me.
Arrived. Took a train to the baggage claim, then met Ryou outside the carousel area. Airport was really quiet. Got some cash (¥20000) and a ¥3500 bus ticket. Took the bus to Yokohama(about 2 hours) and then a local train to Ryou's station. Walked about 10 minutes to the house. Everything is tiny here. The hallways are narrow, the stairs steep, and the doorframes come up to my eyes. The shower was unbelievably cold, which turned out to be a matter more of error than culture. The toilet is electronic and has its own room. Met Ryou's parents, tried out my Japanese introduction. The dog, Roku, is a riot. Ryou's mom was eager to hear about me and learn about English. We watched some Japanese TV, bizarre as always, and had dinner(noodles, soup, pizza, potatoes, fried chicken, Pepsi). Fell asleep instantly.
Got up, had breakfast(eggs, ham, rice, pineapple, oj, tea). The washing machine is designed to wash one day's worth of clothes. Walked to another station. The roads here are extremely narrow, and the cars look accordingly goofy. There are vending machines everywhere. Took a train to the university. Met Ryou's friend who was leaving for Texas, then headed over to the school. Saw my first fellow foreigner there. Toured around a bit, then had a rest and a drink(orange natchan). Toured the foreigners' campus, then met up with Ryou's friend Hitomi. Went to a genuine Japanese noodle shop. Real ramen is nothing like the Maruchan I've been eating. There's a machine outside the shop where you insert your money, pick what you want to eat and what extra ingredients you want in it, then get a ticket for it. Seems everything here is automatic. After lunch, I got a Pepsi from one of the 'Boss Coffee' machines. The Pepsi here is huge(500mL). They have a really weird 'Pepsiman' ad campaign going on too. Hitomi left for work. We headed back to the school to meet up with another of Ryou's friends. This girl spoke very little English(or was just very shy) so I didn't really get to know her. We went to a karaoke joint, which was quite nice. Seems that every shop or service here is really out to please the customer. I sang some Beck, Lisa Loeb(with male-to-female voice changer), Queen, and Zeppelin. We then took a train back to Yokohama, parting with Ryou's friend on the way. We stopped at a book/comic/CD/video store on the way home. Dinner was rice, beef, soup, potatoes, and green peppers. After dinner, while Ryou was in the shower, I talked to his mom, straining to understand her Japanese. She fed me all varieties of treats. Ryou got out his laptop; I checked my email and went to bed.
Breakfast was the same as yesterday, but with onigiri. I'm becoming more tolerant of nori. Ryou took me to the school to meet his friends while he's at work. Listened to some KMFDM while waiting. Tatsumi(extraordinary English-speaking linguist) and his girlfriend Yuriko(British-accented Natchan-lookalike) showed up. First, we visited a CD store(HMV, which seems to be the biggest record store chain here). I picked up discs by Hi-Posi, DJ Rodriguez(incorrectly filed under 'easy listening/lounge'), and Pizzicato Five. We walked around Harajuku(teeny-town, really trendy, full of kogyaru and shops that claim to be very 'American'. Oddly, 'Chicago' seems to be quite the buzzword there. Visited a famous toy shop with Flat Eric dolls(the display included a TV playing the commercials) and what appears to be all the rage, a line of what can only be described as sushi-characters. Ate at a Taiwanese restaurant. Walked around some more trendy areas, saw a soap opera being filmed on the corner. Spotted arguably the most famous comedian in Japan standing around, his privacy being completely respected by everyone passing by. Wandered over to a cafe and sat down to coffee(mocha and shaved ice: ~¥1000) while we waited for Ryou. Met Katsuo at the arcade where he works, played some Street Fighter III 3rd Strike. The arcades here are completely different. Each game is in an identical case with unique guts. They're designed to be sat at, and have a level surface on which to put your change and ashtray. Went to Akihabara with Ryou to look for my mp3 player bits. Akihabara was simply unbelievable. Every building holds a multi-level electronics store overflowing with gadgets and devices or an animation/comics/games shop containing racks and racks of colorful product and walls plastered with character art. In front of each of these buildings stand a person(usually an attractive young lady) with a microphone, praising the establishment's goods and prices. In addition, many stores blast popular music from within. Topping each building is a huge, animated, neon sign, sometimes accompanied by a giant TV screen. We visited a computer store to check out the new Apple products(5th floor). The G4 cube is really quite impressive in person. The store that our mp3-player-designing guru frequented offered almost no help for my project. It started to look like an MD would be my best bet. Stopped into a CD shop and picked up the newest Kiroro and Shonen Knife discs, plus a free Shoujo Kakumei Utena poster. Went back to Ryou's house for dinner and sleep.
Ryou had work today, so I went to Sakuragicho with his non-English-speaking mom. We went to a mall containing a music shop(with a ~¥200000 custom Rick 4003[in Mapleglo]), a CD shop(where I picked up the newest Hi-Posi disc[they really seem to be the official group of this trip so far; I end up talking about them to almost everyone I meet]), and a sushi joint(my first authentic Japanese sushi[not too bad]). Then toured a drydocked sailboat that was built to train Japanese navy dudes. Took the train to Yotsuya and was alone in Japan for the first time. Met Ryou, 'Baby', Masae, Yuka, Akiko, and Rie. Miater Donut(which claims to be from Boston) was the hangout of choice. I embarassed the heck out of myself trying to order my own donut in Japanese. All four girls(which over time grew to six girls and a guy) were quite interested in hearing my Japanese, so I got to be the gaijin circus act. From there we went to the bar for the English-teaching-club reunion. It was relatively western-style(save for the sashimi) but unbearably small and crowded(getting up to go to the bathroom was a ten-minute affair involving a dozen 'sumimasen's). I met a few more quite good English speakers, and did my best to fit in despite being the only one drinking pop. People started filtering out to go home or to the next bar, and I took the opportunity to get out of there. Strangely, I saw five stray cats in about an hour. The second bar was a very Japanese arrangement, involving shoe removal and sitting on the floor. Luckily, this time I was seated toward the more mature, less intoxicated end of the spectrum. Had a few more Cokes(nobody around here serves Pepsi) and caught the last train home.
Went into Yokohama with Ryou. Went into a giant electronics shop and got myself an MD player to replace my hopeless mp3 project. MD players and cell phones(much much cooler and more useful than their US counterparts) are pretty much ubiquitous here. Visited an all-manga bookstore. There are so many series, even if I could read Japanese I would have na idea where to start. Met up with Tetsuya and went to a glorified batting center on the roof of a building. They had practice arrangements(like batting cages) for every conceivable major sport(except football, of course; as you may have guessed, football is not very popular in Japan). It being a weekend day, the streets were horribly crowded. Usually there is about one person per block passing out ads, but today they were everywhere, with maybe ten or twenty feet between any two offers. I've learned to take the free Kleenex and ignore the flyers. Luckily a lot of the flyer people correctly assume I don't understand Japanese and ignore me too. The Kleenex here is heavier and more plasticky than papery. It's necessarry to carry some, as bathrooms don't offer paper towels and restaurants tend not to offer napkins. On the way into the station, we saw about 50 people crowded around a public TV, watching the Yokohama high school baseball team. High school sports are huge here and are often on TV at dinnertime.
Today a friend of Ryou's mom drove us out to Kamakura, one of the more traditional/historical areas. Highway driving is pretty scary. In Kamakura, there were dozenscof little shops lining the street. Many streets are primarily for pedestrians and lack sidewalks. Occasionally cars will come by and crawl along as the driver waits for everyone to get out of the way. Stores, in a very trusting gesture, dispay their goods on tables way out into the street, and apparently shoplifting is not an issue. The main attraction in Kamakura is the Great Buddha, which is really huge and has survived earthquakes and tsunamis for a century while everything around it was ruined. We visited it and a hisorical temple of some sort at the top of a bunch of stairs, with all the little dragons and stuff all over it just like you see in movies. Ate dinner at a supposedly western-style chain restaurant, "Gusto". My 'burger' didn't come on a bun and tasted exactly like meatloaf.
Ryou had work again today, so I hung out with his girlfriend/my friend Eri. I thought she was taking me to another historical area to see some old buildings, but instead she took me to "Sega Joypolis", a huge arcade-park kind of place. They had all the latest high-tech arcade games, rides, and attractions. Coolest of all was a huge halfpipe ride that swung back and forth and rotated if you hit a pedal at the right moment. Met Ryou and a few of his friends back at Yotsuya and went to Mister Donut again to wait for everyone else. This time it was all guys. Ordered my own donuts in Japanese again, this time without embarassment. Once everyone was there, we took the train to Yokohama to revisit the batting center. I seriously choked against a machine simulating a famous comic book pitcher. All six of us returned to Ryou's for the night. Dinner was a kind of pancakey thing from Okinawa.
Got up kind of late and hung around Ryou's house, packing and watching a live video of his favorite band, The Yellow Monkey. Had some instant ramen. Gathered all my stuff and went to Shinagawa to meet Eri, then went to Nishiohi to welcome Hiroko home. After hallos and goodbyes, accompanied Hiroko to her house. Met her parents and grandma, and watched some anime. Neither Hiroko nor I had dinner, as she was rather airsick and I had just eaten an awful lot of ramen. Hiroko's parents are hairstylists, and so within a couple hours of my arriving at their house, they were giving her and me deluxe haircut-packages. I must say it was the best haircut I've ever had; hot towels, a shave, a massaging chair... Hiroko's brother Masaki and her sister Eiko came home, and my worries were dispelled: they are quite cool and seem to approve of me. The three siblings share a room, and I'm on a futon(like, a real Japanese one) in the next room.
Went with Hiroko and Eiko back to Akihabara to return my mp3 kit. They told me it might be a problem but I got my money back with no hassle. Next we went to Shibuya to visit one of the biggest anime/manga shops in Tokyo, Animate. It was pretty huge, but their selection of Eva merchsndise(the only thing I really wanted) reflected the show's declining popularity. We parted with Eiko and headed for Shinjuku to see the Escaflowne movie. The theater was in a pretty shady part of town. Of course the film was in Japanese, but I had seen the entire Escaflowne series on the plane ride over, so it made sense to me. Stopped at a Sankusu convenience store to pick up some snacks and Pepsi. One of the guys working there just about flipped out when he saw me and tried to talk to me in English. His English was pretty miserable(typical Japanese high school English), and Hiroko had to translate much of it for me. What I understood was "Where you from! Me, from Osaka! Nice to meet you! We are best of friends! How old? 19!? I 19! We are same! Same friends!" Back at the house, I taught Masaki, Eiko, and Hiroko how to play chess and checkers. Teaching Masaki was an interesting challenge, as he does not know English. Before each game, we both ready our Japanese-English dictionaries.
Got up rather late and had to abandon our plans for karaoke. Instead, we stayed at Hiroko's house for the afternoon and played playstation with the sibs. They were all pretty impressed that I knew the words to all the songs from Parappa the Rapper, I suppose because to them it was all just English nonsense. After I bested Masaki in a few rounds of Gunbarl, Hiroko and I left to meet her friend Yumiko for dinner. We ate at a standard noodle shop, where I had a standard bowl of noodles. Yumiko claimed that I use chopsticks better than Hiroko does. After dinner, we went to see The Perfect Storm(starring Marky Mark, the cultural significance of which was lost on my Japanese companions). The Japanese subtitles were pretty educational for me and more or less a necessity for Hiroko and Yumiko.
Hiroko, Eiko, and I spent four hours at the local karaoke joint. I guess karaoke is kind of a favorite pastime for them. In fact, it seems to be a favorite pastime of pretty much everyone under 25. Both of them are remarkably good singers, and they sang a few songs I knew(read: anime themes). Luckily for me, there were a few Pearl Jam songs in the catalog so I didn't have to worry about singing well. After karaoke, Hiroko and I met another Yumiko and went to chinatown. There we had a horribly expensive dinner at a very cramped restaurant where they make you pay extra if you leave any food on your plate. Afterwards, we stopped at another place so Hiroko could get a chocolate parfait. She claims there are "no parfaits" in the USA. I think she just hasn't been looking.
Went with Hiroko and Eiko to the mall in Ohimachi. Watched them shop for several hours and tried not to collapse of boredom. Entertained myself by reading the horribly, horribly ridiculous Engrish on the clothes and postcards. Came back home, where Hiroko fell asleep on the floor. Masaki and Eiko entertained me until I woke her up. She and I went around her neighborhood and checked out some temples, shrines, schools, and parks.
Went with Hiroko to Shinjuku to meet up with Eri. Bought a few huge manga magazines at the bookstore where we met. These things are several hundred pages and cost about four bucks. Manga is pretty much ubiquitous too, with as many as half the passengers on a given train car(adults very much included) reading manga. Bookstores are full of people standing around reading the newest issues. The funniest for me are the books that try to come off as being very "manly"("manliness" and "womanliness" are still very much concrete concepts in Japan, with distinct divisions for every product from snacks["Men's Pocky" cracks me up{sorry about the nested parentheticals}] to cellphones) by having really dramatic sports comics and the like. Visited a CD store. My first few days at Ryou's house, I kept seeing this commercial for a new CD from some group, and I really liked this girl's voice, but I kept missing the name of the group. The previous night, Hiroko and I saw the song again on a countdown show. I was determined to find that CD at this store. We looked around for about 20 minutes, scanning CD displays and magazine articles, looking for a clue, but with no luck. Then just as we were about to get in the elevator, I heard the voice again. I went back in to the store and looked for the source, and there was a big display right in the front of the store with a TV playing the very same video I had liked. I bought the new single(I never buy singles but if this wasn't destiny then what is?) and an older album. Then it was back to Ohimachi for McDonald's. I must say it's not as good as USA Mickey D's.
Woke up to find that Hiroko's parents were planning on taking us all out to lunch. Eiko was elsewhere studying, but Hiroko, Masaki, and I went with them to a nice hotel in the international/business neighborhood and had the nice, foreign/business buffet. After lunch we went to another of those crazy Sega game centers. Hiroko's dad loaded us up with ¥100 coins and set us loose. I almost beat Street Fighter 3 twice, but was thwarted once by a late continue and once more by inadequate mad skillz. Played a lot more games at Mr. Matsuo's insistence, including what may be the funneist arcade game I've ever seen. It's called "The Typing of the Dead" and it's basically "The House of the Dead 2" except instead of guns, there are keyboards and instead of firing at the zombies, you have to type the words that appear in front of them. Unfortunately all the words were in Japanese and I didn't get very far, but man did it crack me up. Played pool(Hiroko and me vs. Mr. Matsuo and Masaki) poorly. Lost. Hiroko and I went back to the bookstore in Shinjuku to meet Ryou. Had a quick dinner in a standard Japanese restaurant. Went to another CD store, where I picked up a King Crimson CD(ProjeKct X, actually) that isn't supposed to be available in stores. In doing so, got rid of my last few yen so I wouldn't have to change any money back to bucks.
Got up, ate, and left. Took the local train to another station where we caught the Narita Express(super expensive nice train to the airport). Went through the standard airport routine, including waiting forever behind the group of eight people each with eight bags. Left Japan. Sat on a plane and typed this out on Hiroko's iBook.