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[tokyochameleon]

A few random photos from my last trip to Tokyo, back in May of 2014. Most photos here are from Ueno.

[tokyochameleon]

just some random photos from Japan that i found looking through folders today. some of these are pretty low quality because i took them on my old softbank phone. click pics for more info!

[tokyochameleon]

Reverse culture-shock and thoughts about Japan

I returned to America back in late December, and of course I've missed Japan since I've been back in the states, but I wasn't really hit by it until a few days ago.

Another thing I really miss is the honor system there. Sometimes I caught  myself feeling anxious and paranoid that someone would try to steal my things, or I'd have to keep a close eye on my belongings or whatever. But really, the only people you have to watch out for are other foreigners (unfortunately)   :T I would hear about my classmates leaving stuff on the trains by accident, and just very casually saying "It's whatever, I'll just go get it after class. I've never had an issue getting things that I left somewhere. It's happened a lot." Danny even said he left an umbrella out at his share-house for a few months and when he came back it was still there where he left it. 

More things I miss about Japan that I generally never experience in the US: -The extreme cleanliness of EVERYTHING. It got to the point where if I even just saw a wrapper blowing in the wind I felt extremely off-put because seeing any kind of garbage lying around was so rare. -EVERYTHING WAS SO ORDERLY?? Getting around the train stations was so nice. Everyone stood on the left side of the escalators and walked on the right side. There was hardly ever anyone breaking this order. even when it was extremely crowded, people would form lines to get on the trains. Never once saw any buttheads cutting in front to get on the train, people would just wait for the next one if it filled up. -Speaking of trains... oh my god the trains. I didn't think such a perfect train system could exist. The trains came frequently and were always on time. Clean, quiet, fast. -I don't know how to explain this one, but it has to do with personal space boundaries? In America everyone seems really uptight and easily agitated if that boundary is broken. There's always some kind of tension, I've experience, when walking around or taking any kind of public transit. I don't want people near me and people don't want me near them. In Japan though (at least on the trains, possibly other places too) I never really felt that same kind of tension. If the train filled up people had no hesitation to sit next to someone else, or stand next to someone else, or push through a crowd of people. Might have to do with the overcrowding of trains during rush hour, since that's something everyone has to deal with there at one point or another. I always experienced it during my morning commute to campus, and I personally didn't mind it that much (sometimes I would stand next to a really stinky person though and that was unpleasant). -Quietness. For the most part everyone was pretty quiet, you rarely saw people talking on cell phones in public. Even if it was really crowded and they were talking to friends they would keep it down. Every now and then there'd be the typical obnoxious teenagers, but that's to be expected anywhere. -Food. And probably not the kind that pops into everyone's head, haha. I really really miss the McDonald's and 7-11s there. 7-11 in Japan actually has some really good, cheap meals. I was on a tight budget, so convenience stores like 7-11, Lawsons, and FamilyMart were places i went to frequently. They were also open 24/7 (most of them anyway), so if you had any late-night cravings you could just walk down to the conbini for a quick, cheap snack. -cheap health insurance.

Granted, Japan has its downsides too, and I'm sure with extensive living there a lot of what I find endearing now would lose it's wonderment down the road. A few things that I struggled with while I was there might seem kind of obvious, but the biggest issue I had was feeling extremely alienated. The first month was very hard for me to get through, but became MUCH easier to manage when i began making friends. Also, the other foreigners (Americans) that were with me in the dorm were uhh... unpleasant to be around, to put it VERY nicely. Think typical college students being loud and drunk in a residential neighborhood. Because of this the locals around Ontakesan HATED us- had to deal with a lot of nasty glares, which made the alienation aspect of the experience a lot harder to deal with. Surprisingly though, the language barrier was not something that bothered me. I can't really think of any time that it became an issue (but learning some Japanese made picking out food a lot easier, lol). ALSO FINDING GOOD COFFEE WAS NIGH IMPOSSIBLE.

Uhg ok I took this post way further than I meant to. There's so much more to mention, but it's impossible for me to get my thoughts organized enough to articulate them, and this post is long enough already. All of this was basically just to lead up to me saying that after I graduate from Temple, maybe a year or two after that, I was thinking of moving to Japan for a few years. They have some language schools in Tokyo that will sponsor your visa if you go to learn Japanese. After that, who knows! All I know for sure is that I'm not done with Japan, and it will be in my life again in the near future.

[tokyochameleon]

augh sorry it's been ages since my last update!! school has been getting kinda nuts. i feel like i hardly have any free time. studying for japanese quizes/tests takes up most of my time, and since the commute to and from school is about 2 hours there and back, it makes me feel like i have less time lol.

i don't think i can really say everything i've done since my last major post, but hopefully these photos are self explanatory for those moments.

i was able to make friends with a guy, Danny, from my drawing class.. he's lived here for a few years and i've been hanging out with him, and he shows me all the COOL THINGS. i feel like i've kinda graduated past the "WOOO FOREIGN TOURIST" mode and more into an integrated feel, haha. doing less touristy things and more normal person things. and it feels better   e_e a few weeks ago he invited me to his share house to make pound cake and hang out, and it was just a nice experience being able to hang out with some Japanese people. i bonded with one of his housemates over the show Bones, lol. i mean, since i've been here i've either just been by myself, or hanging out with Tatsu (or other AMERICANS) and it's just really refreshing getting away from that for a bit, i guess.

also i was able to order from a mcdonalds, and i understood the lady when she asked what i wanted to drink  T3T;  but i was too afraid to answer lol. so i guess my japanese is getting a little... better?? i'm already looking at old posts i've made and feeling stupid about some things i've written in japanese. augh.

yesterday after class Danny invited me to hang out with him and a group of his Japanese friends... apparently they do an "arcade night" every now and then. it was... interesting  XD   they don't speak much english, so interacting was interesting! we all seem to share interests though, and they were really nice. one girl (Sakura?) is really good at playing those UFO catcher games and won Danny a cute pair of pink alpaca earmuffs. we all played a bunch of Jubeat/Pop'n Music/MaiMai/Sound Voltex together, i had a blast   T-T

hung out with Danny today in Kamata and renewed my phone's prepaid plan (it ran out like 2 weeks ago, lol). got to experience purikura for the first time, too. IT WAS PRETTY FUN?? i'll have to post pictures of it later! but it made our eyes super big, it was STRANGE.

augh ok sorry this post is all over the place, i'm tired and just trying to get words/thoughts out. GOODBYE FOR NOW I GUESS.

[tokyochameleon]

Pachinko Story

Yesterday, after a pretty terrible day (mostly just stress/anxiety stuff), I accidentally caught the wrong train to Jiyuugaoka instead of Gotanda, which is the way I take to go home. Since my friend Tatsu lives in Jiyuugaoka, I decided I'd just go hang out with him for the rest of the evening.

We went to the arcade close to Jiyuugaoka station and played some Taiko no Tatsujin... we wanted to play medal games too but Tatsu was out of medals, and we didn't want to pay a buttload to get more medals. So he decided to play a pachinko machine see if he could get lucky. We sat down next to an older (maybe 40yr?) Japanese guy who had a bucket full of medals, and was just sitting there smoking with a stack of 100 yen coins. Tatsu started playing, and every now and then the Japanese man would motion to Tatsu's pachinko machine, giving him little tips here and there.

After Tatsu's machine ran out of balls, we were getting up to leave, when the guy said "one more! one more! lucky number!" and motioned at Tatsu's machine. he tried to explain it to us (well, to Tatsu, since he knows Japanese), there is a slot machine-like part of it that scrolls different coloured numbers, and if the numbers are red that means... we have to keep playing or something. IDK exactly, it was confusing to me haha. Tatsu didn't really understand at first either, but the guy put a 100 yen coin in our machine and told us to keep playing. Tatsu tried to pay him back but he refused. So we sat there any played a bit longer (it's really not that exciting by the way, haha. I wanted to go do something else). there was another younger (maybe mid 20s?) Japanese man that was kinda hovering around us who was conversing with the other man and showing Tatsu (what I guess) were pachinko tips on his phone. 

Somehow Tatsu kept getting LUCKY NUMBERS though and it started to get annoying! I mean, we were laughing and having fun, but I was obviously irritated by Tatsu's good luck. The older Japanese man looked at me and said "not happy?" then turned to Tatsu and said "she not happy?", I laughed and shook my head, and he just BAWLED with laughter. As we kept playing every now and then the older Japanese guy and I would exchange looks, and he'd kind of giggle and I'd just shake my head and smile. Whenever Tatsu got lucky numbers the older man thought it was the most hilarious thing ever.  XD; I could see the younger guy looking at me from the corner of my eye every now and then, it kinda felt like he wanted to say something to me, but I didn't make eye contact because I was nervous (since I don't understand or speak Japanese).

Finally I convinced Tatsu to play more Taiko with me. The older man wanted us to keep playing, but Tatsu said he was done. It was a really nice experience, I wouldn't have minded to stay and play more, but the smoke from the cigarettes was starting to really hurt my eyes. I'm glad that I was finally able to have an interaction with someone from Japan that isn't a store clerk! It really ended the day on a good note   c: 

(PS. we also won a decent amount of medals, but we put them in the medal bank for another day!)

[tokyochameleon]

look, it's me

[tokyochameleon]

as i was going through these photos i realized it was mostly BIRDS. i didn't even post 70% of all the bird photos i have haha.

anyway, last bit of photos i took while at Ueno Zoo. it was pretty amazing   c:

kinda sad that none of the photos of the reptiles really came out (they were all warped and blurry from the glass)- also my camera ran out of battery towards the end of the trip, so i didn't really get many photos of the hippos/rhinos/okapi/giraffes :C

OOP GUESS I'LL HAVE TO GO BACK. darn.

[tokyochameleon]

went to Ueno Zoo a few days ago! here is the first set of photos... i mostly just wanted to post the cute signs in this upload, but for the next set i'll post more actual animals haha. it was really fun!!

[tokyochameleon]

went to Mushisha a few days ago, finally! had my eye on this place pretty much months before i even came to Japan, haha. the store was AMAZING. really small, but FILLED with so many cool beetles! and they were HUGE. like, the size of my hand (the hercules beetles were even bigger than my hand...)

my favorites there were the dorcus beetles. i was admiring one in the tank, when one of the store attendants came over, picked up the tank, opened it, and started poking at him. got him all mad, it was so cute. he was pinching at stuff, and then he let me touch him  :D   oh man it felt so cool, and he could press up against my hand lol. such an angry beetle. it was amazing  TuT;

most of the large beetles there were crazy expensive... like 50-500$. they had some cheaper ones there anywhere from $4-20. uhg i wanna go back, it was so cool..

[tokyochameleon]

Ah man I'm really envious of you! I want to ask how much it cost but I'm sure the answer is a lot! I'm really looking forward to all sorts of updates about your time in Japan! I have so much appreciation for their culture and just like the buildings in general sigh

ahhh yes it is very pricey... not just the trip itself, but living here is expensive too. food costs a lot, clothes cost a lot, taking the train costs a lot...  XD;   i've mostly been living off of 100yen shop items and going to the grocery store around 8pm when they put certain food items on sale.

and yes the buildings here are amazing, i love all of the architecture... not just the traditional stuff, but even the more modern buildings are really adorable and interesting. i'm not even into architecture at all so that's really saying something, i think!  :3

[tokyochameleon]

It's the food loving Anon again, now with an actual tumblr account! and another question! This time not about food, or at least, not only about food. First question! Have you had any awkward moments caused by cultural differences yet? And secondly, Isn't it crazy how much some food can go for? I heard watermelons, and not even BIG ones sell for like $60 USD

hey there again!!

uhmmm awkward cultural moments... hmm... i guess nothing that's really stood out too much? i mostly just feel like i'm in everyone's way 90% of the time, which makes me anxious   XD;  and uhh, i guess being smashed onto the trains? if you're not expecting it it can be a little unsettling, because there have been many moments were i have literally been mashed up against about 5 guys and it can seem pretty intimate. 

and yes fruit is CRAZY expensive, i think i actually saw a watermelon for sale was about $80usd   :T   i've seen apples and peaches and stuff going for about $10 for one...

for my fruit though, i've just been buying some canned sliced peaches, which are only about 98yen (like a buck), and some jello cups with random fruit slices. not sure why they're so much cheaper, but i need my fruit, so i'll take em   XD;

[tokyochameleon]

oh my god dude i love this!!  that clair is the cutest, and i love how you coloured it! :D

this is pretty dang accurate, walkin around with my grocery baggies and being happy at everything   c8

your backgrounds are so lovely, i can't get enough of this  ^^   thank you so much man!!  <33  this was a great thing to come home to after a hot day in class   :D

A Seely Chameleon in Japan for a Seely!

[tokyochameleon]

gwahhh damn the upload limit. i have SO MANY PHOTOS. i'll just have to make a big random mashup post later with all the other photos that didn't make the cut.

yesterday Tatsu and i traveled to the Pokemon Center and bought a few little thingies. after that we went to Tokyo Skytree and farted around there for a while. photos are pretty self explanatory!! i need to get to bed, night everyone~

[tokyochameleon]

ok not many updates because classes have started and my week has been BUSY! but here are some photos compiled for where i've been this past week. i have more but the upload limit got in the way- i'll upload more later  :3

most of these photos were taken in Shinjuku, Akihabara, and Ontakesan. if you enlarge the image you'll get a little description of what it is/where it was taken. i've started to become addicted to the music games found in the arcades, specifically MaiMai, Jubeat, and Pop'n Music. Tatsu and i also played this pretty fun shooter where you're in a jeep and you shoot at bugs and stuff- he thought it was shitty but i had a lot of fun with it haha (he also died first, what a loser).

i've also been to Asakusa and Ueno since my last update, but i was a dummy and left my SD drive in my computer. if the weather permits, i'm going to try and go this weekend (today, hopefully)! other stops on my list for the next week are Pokemon Center, Tokyo Skytree, and hopefully Mandarake and Don Quijote in Akiba (and of course more arcades).

classes are going really well so far, i'm especially enjoying my Japanese class! i think i'm pretty good at reading hiragana now, i'm trying to self-teach myself katakana before we reach it in class just because the class is moving very quickly. it's fun though.

i guess i'll go brave the elements now- it's a bit rainy, hopefully it won't get any worse!

[tokyochameleon]

last two days have been interesting!! went to Tatsu's part of the neighborhood in Meguro-ku and walked around there. waited with him to get his phone, which took a LONG time. it was after a long day of orientation, plus i was hungry, so i got a little grouchy haha. it didn't help that the 3 guys we were hanging out with weren't that nice- they were actually pretty rude towards Tatsu. they put us both in worse moods   >:T

after that we ditched them and went to a nice little restaurant and got a beer and some sort of octopus/omelette type thing and that made us both feel better   XD

i found my way back to Ontakesan on my own, being confident about traveling the subway boosted my morale. got a good night's sleep.

YESTERDAY i went to Shibuya with a new friend i met at the dorms, and we kinda explored around there for a few hours. i also got myself a phone, from SOFTBANK! i love it. now people can actually email-text me haha. then i spoiled myself at a little bookstore... got a REALLY nice book with all kinds of bug pictures and info (which i'll hopefully be able to read in a few months), and a children's beetle book i got to help me practice my hiragana and katakana. i also found an AMAZING DQ monster encyclopedia for Bowrll   :D

i'm supposed to go on a group-trip today, so i'll take lots of pictures and update again later   ^^

[tokyochameleon]

here's that huge cicada i found yesterday in Ontakesan! considerably bigger than the ones i've found in the US. they make similar sounds but every now and then they make a noise that sounds like a dying screaming animal and it's pretty bizarre.

i found this one already dead and in pretty good shape, missing park of its leg but otherwise in good condition! the wings are extremely sturdy and kinda feel like wire.

can't wait to see what other kinds of bugs i find here   C:    this was just from the first day!!

[tokyochameleon]

as promised, here are some PHOTOS! didn't get to take as many as i wanted to when we were in bigger parts of the city today, because i was with a group and didn't want to keep them waiting. i'll most likely get more pictures when i'm traveling by myself or with Tatsu.

we have orientation for the next few days so i doubt we'll get to do too many interesting things yet. today we went to the ward office to register our residency and pick up health insurance. not sure exactly what's going to be covered tomorrow   :Oc

by the way, the little sandwich dinners they have at 7-11 here are AMAZING. they look pretty underwhelming (i got them because they were cheap), but WOW do they taste really good??? i wasn't expecting that at all  *3*;;  i'm gunna head back out at 8pm to get them on discount. ALSO the cold coffee drinks and custard buns here are amazinggggg. AH and i found a giant cicada today and took some pictures, but i'll upload those later.

starting to feel a little jetlagged. it's only 7:20pm and i'm feeling sleepy   XD;   just need to stay up a teensy bit longer...