Monday, May 12, 2008

The Beginning
Greetings All! For those of you who didn't catch my last post, what follows is the beginning of my account of my internship in Japan. I am using this blog as my journal and will be posting posts such as this as often as possible. A post every day is preferable, but knowing me not to be expected. Enjoy!

Friday, May 9th - Arrival Day
After a very long day of flying I finally made it to Narita International Airport in Japan. My plane landed at around 3:30 in the afternoon, but my body thought it was 2:00 in the morning. Well, to be more precise, my body had no real idea what time it thought it was and thus decided to complain until I decided to do something about it. Feeling groggy but hyper after a couple cups of coffee I attempted to make my way through immigration, baggage claim, and customs. Thankfully there were no major complications in immigration or customs, and my bag was one of the first ones off the plane for a change. The trip was actually getting off to a great start.

My next task was what ended up being the most difficult thing I had attempted to do since finals week: using a Japanese pay phone. Truthfully it wasn't that complicated at all. The directions were in english and they walked me through every step quite clearly. But, when your whole body function is 14 hours out of sync any small task becomes equivalent to dividing by zero. Thus said, it took me three or four tries to get it right. But, when I was finally able to talk to Iwaoka-san, my contact at my internship, it was all the more and impressive thing.

So, riding on the high of successfully using the pay phone, I walked up to the wrong counter to buy my bus ticket. The nice woman behind the counter pointed me to the correct one. I then left and walked to another counter which was not the one she pointed at and was therefore the wrong one again. I was again pointed to the correct counter, this time getting it right. My bus fare was ¥3,500, the equivalent of around $35. An expensive bus ride, but it was a whole two-and-a-half hour trip through the winding streets of Tokyo suburbs. So, it was worth it. I enjoyed the scenery and listened to my music to keep myself from falling asleep. I feared that if I fell asleep I might not wake up to get off the bus. I sleep hard. This was, of course, a completely irrational fear because my stop, Sakado station, was the last stop on the bus and the driver would have roused me. Still, it was best for me to stay awake on the bus ride in order to get my body into the rhythm of Japanese time.

I was greeted at the bus station by the 75-year-old chauffeur, errand “boy” and janitor for New Life League, the organization I will be spending the next six weeks working for. I’d say the gentleman’s name but it escapes me at the moment. And that brings to the surface what is probably going to be the most difficult thing about my stay here in Japan, the names. There are so many people working here and all of their names sound very similar to my western ears. Names have always been an issue of mine and the foreignness of these names isn’t making it remembering them any easier. Anyway, He-who-shall-be-named-later took me out to eat and to the supermarket before taking me to the New Life League offices where I would be staying. This was very kind of him considering I hadn’t had a real meal in over 24 hours. The kindest thing was that he would not allow me to pay for any of it. I tried, but my tries were in vain.

Once I arrived at the New Life League I finally met Iwaoka-san in person, and was introduced to Chieko-san, one of the New Life League administrators and one of very few other people in the office who speaks English. Chieko-san is an extremely nice person and her first task was to give me a tour around the facilities. She showed me the printing shop, the binding room, chapel, design center, kitchen, and various other locations. She also introduced me to my co-workers in the design center and I then promptly forgot every one of their names. I was introduced to four or five other people that evening including Mimi-chan, a rather large puppy that the New Life League is taking care of for the time being. At the end of it all I went back to my room, which was much larger than I had expected it to be, and crashed for the evening.

Saturday, May 10th
It rained all day. I mostly sat in my room and read books to pass the time. There wasn’t much else for me to do. At around 11:30 I went out to explore the area despite the rain, but only lasted about an hour before I was cold and soaked. I got an idea for the area though. It’s mostly houses out here. There are businesses that line the higher traffic areas, but it’s pretty rural for the most part. Well, as rural as a suburb of Tokyo can be. Most of the houses have a small garden next to them where they grow produce. After shopping at the convenience store the night before I can understand why. Everything here is much more expensive than in the states. Even a small meal at an local restaurant can run you upwards of ¥1,400. That said, I didn’t purchase anything while I was roaming about. I had planned on trying to find a plug converter for my computer cord so I could use my laptop, but wasn’t able to even find an electronics shop. Thus, I spent the rest of the day after my walk watching Japanese television and reading books.

Sunday, May 11th
I woke up at 7:00 AM to get ready to go to church with a man I met on Friday night. His name is David and he works in the print shop on the first floor. He’s an American who came over to Japan over 25 years ago to teach English short term but then never left. He’s not a terribly talkative fellow. Riding in the car with him to church felt a bit awkward because I was forcing the conversation the entire way. I eventually gave up and decided to just sit back in his brand new car and enjoy the scenery. There is one thing I’ll give the people in this area of the world credit for, and that is utilizing every inch of their space. They really pack everything in here.

Church was fun. David goes to church with 3 other people from New Life League: Iwaoka-san, Chieko-san, and a man name Demalla (not sure of that spelling). Demalla is a man from Uganda who also works in the print shop. They all go to an international church about half an hour from the office. It was a very cool experience. The worship was in both English and Japanese, but the sermon was in English only for the most part. All the bible readings were done in both English and Japanese. There were more than 5 different nationalities present, and worshipping among them all like that was a very cool experience. The most amazing thing happened at the end of the service. The pastor was getting ready to say the closing prayer when the elderly Norwegian man sitting next to me shot up and started screaming at the top of his lungs in a language I’d never heard before. He went on for about 2 minutes before he stopped. There was dead silence. Nobody seemed to know what had just happened. A few seconds later the man said a few things in English and sat back down again. The pastor, not really knowing what else to do, went ahead and closed with a prayer. I went out to lunch with him, his two sons, a kid named Joel whose parents are missionaries up north in Sapporo, and David. At lunch we discussed what the Norwegian man had done and came to the conclusion we thought he was just speaking a heartfelt prayer in Norwegian. I talked to the pastor later in the day and he informed me that he had learned through another member of the church that the man had actually spoken in tongues. Because if it wasn’t toungues it definitely wasn’t Norwegian.

Following lunch, David took me back to the church where he had gospel choir practice for a few hours. That was entertaining. Apparently there are some gospel performers from the U.S. coming over to Japan in a few weeks to do a concert and there are about 300 people form different Japanese churches who are preparing to sing with them in the choir. Sounds kinda fun. I stumbled my way through the practice. I’m not going to perform with them, but I figured why just sit to the side when I can sing along.

From there, David, the pastor, and I ducked out early to go prepare for the Global Day of Prayer meeting at a community center about 15 minutes away. On Pentacost Sunday every year there are prayer meetings all over the world that meet. It’s the largest single organized prayer meeting in the world. David’s church was taking part in it and was running the meeting for the Tokyo area. The meeting consisted of people from more than 10 countries doing individual prayers with a group prayer at the end. It was a blast. I’d never taken part in anything of that sort before and it was quite amazing. I don’t really know how else to describe it. I gotta say, this was the most culture I’ve ever experienced in one day.

Caesar1280's Anime Ticker

.hack//Legend of the Twilight, Air, Air: The Movie, Akira, The Animatrix, Appleseed, Aquatic Language, Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror, Beck, Black Lagoon, Blame!, Blood the Last Vampire, Bokurano, Burst Angel, Castle in the Sky, Cowboy Bebop, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express, Egao, FLCL, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala, Gankutsuou, Gatekeepers, Genshiken, Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society, Gin-iro no Kami no Agito, Grave of the Fireflies, Grenadier, Haibane Renmei, Hellsing, Highlander: The Search for Vengeance, Hikaru no Go, Howl?s Moving Castle, Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade, Jyu Oh Sei, Karas: The Prophecy, Last Exile, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, Midori?s Days, Milennium Actress, Mushi-shi, My Neighbor Totoro, Naruto, Naruto: The Movie, Nausicaa, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death And Rebirth, Ninja Scroll: The Movie, Other Worlds, Paprika, Perfect Blue, Pet Shop of Horrors, The Place Promised In Our Early Days, Prétear, Princess Mononoke, Read Or Die, Read Or Die: The TV, Samurai Champloo, Samurai Seven, Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal, She and Her Cat, Spirited Away, Steamboy, Tide-Line Blue, Tokyo Babylon, Tokyo Godfathers, Trigun, Voices of a Distant Star, Witch Hunter Robin, Wonderful Days, Wrath of the Ninja, X

Anime I've Seen - .hack//Legend of the Twilight - .hack//Sign - 5 Centimeters per Second - Air - Air: The Movie - Akira - The Animatrix - Appleseed - Aquatic Language - Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror - Baby Blue - Beck - Black Lagoon - Blame! - Blood the Last Vampire - Bokurano - Burst Angel - Castle in the Sky - Cowboy Bebop - Cowboy Bebop: The Movie - Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express - Doorbell - Egao - FLCL - Fullmetal Alchemist - Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala - Gankutsuou - Gatekeepers - Genius Party - Genshiken - Genshiken OAV - Ghost in the Shell - Ghost in the Shell: Innocence - Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society - Gin-iro no Kami no Agito - The Gokusen - Grave of the Fireflies - Grenadier - Haibane Renmei - Happy Machine - Hellsing - Highlander: The Search for Vengeance - Hikaru no Go - Howl's Moving Castle - Innocent Venus - Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade - Jyu Oh Sei - Karas: The Prophecy - Karas: The Revelation - Last Exile - Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi - Midori?s Days - Milennium Actress - Mushi-shi - My Neighbor Totoro - Naruto - Naruto: The Movie - Nausicaa - Neon Genesis Evangelion - Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death And Rebirth - Ninja Scroll: The Movie - Other Worlds - Ouran High School Host Club - Paprika - Perfect Blue - Pet Shop of Horrors - The Place Promised In Our Early Days - Prétear - Princess Mononoke - Read Or Die - Read Or Die: The TV - Samurai Champloo - Samurai Seven - Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal - Serial Experiments Lain - Shanghai Dragon - She and Her Cat - Spirited Away - Steamboy - Tekkonkinkreet - Tide-Line Blue - Tokyo Babylon - Tokyo Godfathers - Trigun - Trinity Blood - Vampire Hunter D - Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust - Voices of a Distant Star - Witch Hunter Robin - Wolf's Rain - Wonderful Days - Wrath of the Ninja - X Total: 93

Anime I Haven't Completed - .hack//Roots - Ah! My Goddess - Angelic Layer - Avenger - Baccano! - Bamboo Blade - Basilisk - Binchou-tan - Black Cat - Bleach - Blood+ - Boogiepop Phantom - Case Closed - Le Chevalier d'Eon - Chobits - Chrono Crusade - Code Geass - Coyote Ragtime Show - D.Gray-Man - D.N.Angel - DearS - Death Note - Dennou Coil - Desert Punk - Digimon - Dragon Ball Z - Ergo Proxy - Eureka Seven - Excel Saga - Fighting Beauty Wulong - Final Fantasy Unlimited - Flag - Freedom - Full Moon - Gantz - Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Gintama - Glass Fleet - Great Teacher Onizuka - Gundam Seed - Gundam Wing - Hayate the Combat Butler - Hellsing OVA - Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - Ikki Tousen - InuYasha - Jigoku Shojo - Kage Kara Mamoru - Karin - Kino's Journey - Love Hina - Loveless - Lovely Complex - Lucky Star - Makai Senki Disgaea - Marchen Awakens Romance - Meine Liebe - The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Mononoke - Monster - Moon Phase - Mr Stain on Junk Alley - Naruto Shippuuden - Negima?! - Negima! - Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion - Nerima Daikon Brothers - NHK ni Youkoso - Night Walker - Ninja Nonsense - Noir - Peacemaker Kurogane - Pokemon - Prince of Tennis - R.G. Veda - Ragnarok - Rec - Red Garden - Robotech - Romeo x Juliet - Rosen Maiden - Rurouni Kenshin - Saikano - Sailor Moon - Samurai Deeper Kyo - Sci-fi Harry - School Rumble - Scrapped Princess - Shin-chan - Shingu - Shion no Oh - Shuffle! - Shrine of the Morning Mist - So Long, Mr. Despair - Solty Rei - Sousei no Aquarion - Speed Grapher - Spice and Wolf - Super Milk Chan - Tales of Phantasia - Tenchi Muyo - Tenjhou Tenge - Texnolyze - The Third - Tsubasa Chronicles - Urusei Yatsura - Venus Versus Virus - Welcome to the N.H.K. - Winter Cicada - X-1999 - Xenosaga - XxxHolic - Yu Yu Hakushou - Yume Tsukai - Zero no Tsukaima - Zipang Total: 116

Manga I've Completed - Cowboy Bebop - FLCL - Manga Messiah - Manga Metamorphosis - Q*Ko-chan - Saiyuki - Shirahime-Syo Total: 7 Manga I Haven't Completed - .hack//Legend of the Twilight - Black Cat - Blame! - Chobits - D.Gray-man - Darkside Blues - Death Note - The Demon Ororon - Desert Coral - Disgaea - Eureka Seven: Gravity Boys and Lifting Girl - Fruits Basket - Getbackers - Hayate the Combat Butler - Kamunagara - Legal Drug - Love Hina - Loveless - Megatokyo - Naruto - Negima - Read Or Die - Rurouni Kenshin - Tactics - Trigun Maximum - XXXHolic Total: 26

Anime I'm Currently Watching
Samurai 7, InuYasha, Samurai Deeper Kyo,
Boogiepop Phantom, and Shrine of the Morning Mist

Manga I'm Currently Reading
Read Or Die, Hayate the Combat Butler, and Megatokyo.hack//Roots, .hack//Sign, 5 cm per Second, Ah! My Goddess, Angelic Layer, Avenger, Basilisk, Binchou-tan, Black Cat, Bleach, Blood+, Boogiepop Phantom, Case Closed, Le Chevalier d'Eon, Chobits, Chrono Crusade, Coyote Ragtime Show, D.Gray-Man, D.N.Angel, DearS, Death Note, Dennou Coil, Desert Punk, Digimon, Dragon Ball Z, Ergo Proxy, Eureka 7, Excel Saga, Fighting Beauty Wulong, Final Fantasy Unlimited, Flag, Full Moon, Gantz, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Gintama, Great Teacher Onizuka, Gundam Seed, Gundam Wing, Hayate the Combat Butler, Hellsing Ultimate, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Innocent Venus, InuYasha, Jigoku Shojo, Kage Kara Mamoru, Karin, Kino?s Journey, Love Hina, Loveless, Lovely Complex, Lucky Star, Makai Senki Disgaea, Marchen Awakens Romance, Meine Liebe, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Mononoke, Monster, Naruto Shippuuden, Negima?!, Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion, Nerima Daikon Brothers, NHK ni Youkoso, Night Walker, Ninja Nonsense, Noir, Ouran High School Host Club, Peacemaker Kurogane, Pokemon, Prince of Tennis, R.G. Veda, Ragnarok, Rec, Red Garden, Robotech, Romeo x Juliet, Rosen Maiden, Rurouni Kenshin, Saikano, Sailor Moon, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Sci-fi Harry, School Rumble, Scrapped Princess, Serial Experiments Lain, Shingu, Shuffle!, Shrine of the Morning Mist, So Long Mr. Despair, Solty Rei, Sousei no Aquarion, Speed Grapher, Super Milk Chan, Tales of Phantasia, Tenchi Muyo, Tenjhou Tenge, Texnolyze, The Third. Trinity Blood, Tsubasa Chronicles, Urusei Yatsura, Welcome to the N.H.K., Winter Cicada, X-1999, Xenosaga, XxxHolic, Yu Yu Hakushou, Yume Tsukai, Zero no Tsukaima, Zipang

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