What a Week!

Hey Everyone!

I had an amazing week here, Japan continues to leave me in awe everyday. OK well I guess I'll first start out with class. Class has been pretty easy this week, with not a substantial amount of work yet. Next week should be a bit more difficult, but still nothing Earth shattering yet. It is really nice to get this break from Tufts because I know I'd be swamped if I was there right now. That being said, the academic discussions that happen in class are a bit less intellectual than I expected, but hey, can't win 'em all right? We did see my favorite Japanese movie in my cinema class this week (Ikiru, go watch it now), so I'm really excited to discuss it on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, we got the day off so my friends and I decided to take the opportunity to visit Osaka for more sightseeing. We decided to go to DenDen Town, which is largely regarded as the electronics district of Osaka. It was definitely an informative and interesting trip. We spent the first part of the day actually at a zoo a few blocks away from DenDen town. This zoo had everything: tigers, elephants, giraffes, penguins, koala bears, you name it. Some of the animals were a bit dirty though. Nevertheless, it was really cool to see a zoo right in the middle of the city, for a second we all forgot we were in the city to begin with! As for the electronics themselves, there was a lot of cool stuff. There was everything from speakers, computers, TVs, video games, and many other things. I think the only thing we were nervous about was what store was selling bootleg items and what wasn't, but I think you could usually figure that out depending on the store's decor and what not. Moving on, we went to a delicious okonomiyake place that evening, and then for strictly research purposes only, we went to a cafe where all of the waitresses dress up like French maids, just to see what it was like. It was kind of a blur. We went in, and the first thing we noticed is that it was so normal, everything was so non-chalant, making it almost kind of sad. It was sort of demeaning to the waitresses, but I think the weirdest thing about it all was that the other guys who were eating there seemed so normal. Nonetheless, we got an awesome picture together (which I wish I could show you, but I cant because I don't have a scanner :-( ), had a delicious melon-soda float (melon soda is my new favorite drink) and took off. It had been quite a busy day, and it was now time to head home. Oh by the way, the picture at the top screen was an awesome shot I caught of DenDen town in its entirety. Hope you all like it!

That brings me to this weekend. This weekend was a lot of fun, and probably my favorite since I've been here. Friday night I went to a club with a group of 10 kids (see picture for some of them) and we had a great time. I myself met bunch of Japanese guys who I hung out with for a while on the stage. The night itself was pretty crazy, as the large group of us danced until the wee hours of the morning. I wish I could embellish on this more, but to sum it up it really was just a great evening of fun and debauchery, and I hope to hang out with that group of kids again. Saturday night I met up with my buddy from Tufts again and his group of friends, and we went to an all you can eat dinner. It was a bit pricy, but considering we could eat as much food as we wanted, I couldn't really argue. Just to wow you all the kids I hung out with over the weekend come from all these places: Boston (me, duh), Texas, New York, Hawaii, Washington DC, Georgia, Italy, Ireland, Lithuania, Australia, and the United Kingdom. How about that eh?

OK so I think that is going to do it for me for this time, I hope you all enjoyed. As always feel free to drop a line, I enjoy hearing from you all. I'll do my best to update a little bit more this week, things got a little hectic though so my apologies. Oh and for fun, I want to introduce you to my best friend that I've met in Japan. I don't know his name, but I do know he is always happy. Haha see you next time!