Traveling to Japan and roaming Tokyo

I haven't been able to post because I haven't had the time to post a blog or Internet, but this will cover everything so far.

My way to Japan was VERY smooth - everything went on time. Airplanes were very cramped and not very comfortable. I don't sleep at all on planes. But it was okay. I got off the plane and realized, "My Japanese isn't as good as I thought it was." I didn't expect it to be so bad, but it really sucked. However, it was okay and enough to get by.

My homestay family was VERY helpful and I found out I have no curfew, which is good. My first meal was Sashimi and it was delicious, even though I'm generally not a big fan of fish, especially raw fish.

The following day, I had an orientation at TUJ, which was basically blatant information, nothing new. After our information session, we got to roam Roppongi, where I finally had some Gyuudon at a Matsuya. It was CHEAP - 330 yen for a bowl. Afterwards, we went to a Don Quixote, a Japanese Wal Mart basically, just a little raunchy. They had a plethora of erotic underwear - for men and woman, one brand name being "Black Man".

That night, I was bored and I decided to roam Shibuya alone. Here, I discovered that my Japanese is really not up to par. Forming a sentence to ask a question is no problem, but understanding the directions I get is HARD, I'm left to say nothing but ”わかりません”。

On Saturday, we went out to Shibuya again as a group. At this point, it was much easier as I did not have to get directions anywhere, and if I did, I'd just ask my Japanese tour-guides who spoke English. Later that night was another story. Me and a group of 15 other kids from Ontakesan, in Ota-Ku, went down to Gotanda to do Karaoke at Big Echo. We had a blast there, until we saw one of our fellow classmates, who had decided to get drunk, started vomiting all over the place. Luckily, he waited till the last song, so we wrapped up and left. As we were checking out, we found an extra 5000 yen charge. Yes, we were charged a 5000 yen clean up fee. But among 16 kids, it was easy to pay off. As I returned with the Ontakesan group to their dorm, I found that I was going to be charged 2000 yen to stay over, and I did anyway.

The morning after, on Sunday, there was an Ontakesan Kodomo Festival. They were making Omochi and selling Omochi soup for 100 yen. As I moved on, I saw a huge audience watching a FIGHT. It was KAMEN RIDER fighting evil villains for children. All the fights had a recurring theme - Kamen Rider fights the bad guys and starts winning, but then the tables are turned, and Kamen Rider is beaten up, but his friend jumps in to save him and thus the cycle starts again. It was very exciting to watch, however my camera ran out of memory as Kamen Rider was going to do his Full Charge.

Later that day on Sunday, I went to Odaiba with my Homestay parents to a popular Ramen place. It was very delicious. Though I'm Muslim and not supposed to be eating pork, I must say, Japanese pork, 豚肉, is so lean and so delicious. Apparently in Japan, pork is considered to be healtheir than beef. This place was popping. It was basically a strip of Shopping malls. According to my homestay parents, it's a hip place for teens to go on dates. While there, we also went to a Sony Dream Theatre, which was an interactive technology museum, mostly with stuff Sony has been developing, I guess.

Monday was a waste of a day. I went back to TUJ for a mandatory orientation. It was the head of Office of International students spewing the same shit for 5 hours, no lie. Just running in circles telling us obvious bullshit like "Don't do this, don't do that". Yeah, I know I'm not supposed to steal bikes, and I can't even ride a bike anyway (本とに). He did go over the trips available, which did seem interesting, especially the Hakone trip that I can't go to because it's the same night as K-1. And because K-1 rules, there's no chance I'm skipping it for a Hakone trip, especially since I already got RINGSIDE tickets (23000 yen, for real).

Tuesday, I had no class, so I went to campus to work on this blog more (not having Internet and playing catchup with this blog sucks because it's now Friday) and then went to Suidobashi to find a store that sold kickboxing gear. Long story short, boxing gloves are too expensive here. Everlast gloves that sell for 80 dollars in the US are selling for 22,000 Yen in Japan, about 220 USD.

Wednesday, I went to SILVER WOLF GYM, the gym of K-1 MAX CHAMPION, MASATO. Did you guys know? Masato rules. I didn't meet Masato, but I saw all of his trainers and met Susumu Daiguji, one of his main sparring partners. He was a nice guy and spoke some English. I got the paperwork and everything and filled it out that night. He said that as long as I paid my months in advance, I wouldn't need to do any EFT or pay the joining fee.

Thursday, I didn't have class until 3:45, so I went to Ueno park for a robot festival. It was pretty small, just some Gundams and Honda

s new robot, Asimo. Seeing Asimo was very interesting until Asimo got stage fright and there was some technical issues. Later that night, I went to Setagaya-ku to go to SILVER WOLF GYM because MASATO RULES and... I wasn't able to withdraw the gym tuition because it was 7:00 PM and they don't do International withdrawals that late. ざんねん.

Now today, on Friday, I am going to a Sake-Tasting Event in Roppongi run by Temple. It seems pretty interesting. Now that I'm caught up to date, I'm gonna include what I did on the next entry.

OSU (Not Ohio State - OSU is a Martial arts term for PUSH AND ENDURE)