June 14, Things I remember

Trying to compile my blog at this point was a really bad idea. I have everything I’ve written on the trip fairly well organized and ready to be posted, but the trip is a big blur to me now and I’m finding it really difficult to keep my days straight.
Now that I have everything more or less in order I realize that there are so many random memories that didn’t find a place in my blog, and now have nowhere to go since I can’t remember exactly what day they occurred. This won’t do, as it’s these random memoies that are the real essence of the trip for me. And so this post is for as many of these memories as I can recall. My biggest regret is that I didn’t take more pictures.

Anyway, here we go with a segment I’ll creatively dub…
Things I remember!

The Thunder Dolphin:
During one of our last days in Japan a group of us took a trip to an amusement park in the middle of the city. The highlight had to be the giant rollercoaster, The THUNDER DOLPHIN. This thing was plain intimidating. It went above the surrounding buildings and dropped straight down before actually going through another building. I’ve never felt my stomach fly so far out of place before, the first drop literally stole your breath. We all rode it and survived, even Haneul, who almost chickened out but sucked it up very bravely at the last minute.


The Thunder Dolphin


View from the top of the Ferris wheel

Engrish:
God, I love Japan. What a silly, incredible place. As an American I’m used to being disgusted by the surrounding culture, but as an American in Japan I get a kick out of virtually everything I see. This trip reminded me that the world outside of Boone actually isn’t so bad, even through something as simple as a sign in the subway. Which reminds me of a whole other story…


What is that?


An Obamanation


Oh!


What about only drinking at breakfast time?


I like this countries work ethic.
(Haha, they said "do it")

The Sign in the Subway:
So as a group of us were coming back from the bars one night, it struck us that we were surrounded with (potentially free) stuff that would look really awesome in our rooms. Carpeing the hell of the Diem as we were, we had to take the opportunity presented to us. The group who was with me (who will go unnamed) had already helped themselves to some seriously awesome bar paraphernalia, and we continued our raid as we made our way through the city.
As we were getting home I spotted the perfect sign for my bedroom door in the subway station near our hostel. It had some cool kanji and a stopsign, and looked ripe for the taking. I acted quickly and made to peeling the sign off the door, just as I heard someone say “Oh man, were looking directly into a camera”.
We made it back to the hostel without getting caught though. But as I slept my dream self must have had a crisis of conscious, and I woke up paranoid and feeling a little ashamed of myself.
I had learned the other night that everyone in Japan takes their job very seriously and that if there was someone who watched the security camera they would make it their duty to catch me for stealing that sign. Also, as I laid there thinking about it, I realized that I was in a culture I didn’t understand. Not only was I clueless as to what would happen to me for stealing that sign, but I was convinced that I would be caught for it the next time we took the subway. On top of that, the lessons of the past few days (see May 20th) had got me thinking about what it meant to represent much more than just myself. I felt getting caught for something so juvenile would not only demean myself, but would demean my own culture, and would belie my genuine feeling that I was a guest in someone else’s home.
And so the story has an ending of odd karmatic balance. At sunrise, about 4am, I walked to the subway station and reposted the sign exactly where it had been. An early morning worker watched me, obviously confused. He was the only witness to my crisis of conscious.

Sumo Wrestling:
Not that much to be said here, but definitely something I remember. It was a very interesting cultural experience, and by far the most stylized sporting events I’d ever seen. A few people in our group thought it was boring due to the long traditional warm-up stretches before every match. I liked the pace though, it’s a perfect sport to enjoy a good conversation to, and with an intense spectacle every five minutes or so. It was definetly a memorable experience.



711 and Family Mart:
Ah, our home away from home. These convenience stores were a staple of our trip, keeping us supplied with daybeers, nightbeers, water, and snacks. In Taiwan we had a Family Mart across the street from the hotel Flower, which became our store. We visited that place at all hours of the day, multiple times, every day. When we got to Japan we quickly claimed the nearest 711 as our own as well, and spent many hours relaxing on a stoop right across from it (which was actually a flower shop which closed at night). I think it’s safe to say we wouldn’t have survived the trip if it hadn’t been for the 711s that were absolutely everywhere.


Our 711...I miss it


Our stoop right across from 711. It was covered with flowers in the daytime, but they pulled them all inside at night. There's a bench we'd always sit on under those flowers somewhere. After we'd been there a few days they started turning it upside down at night to discourage us from loitering there. We'd flip it back up though, cause it was already ours.

The Secrets and Things that Shouldn’t be Blogged:
We had our fair share of these. None were too horrible, really, mostly just potentially embarrassing. As someone was fond of saying, “Were here to **** **** up”, and sometimes that’s exactly what we did. We were good natured as a whole though, so our mischief was always harmless. If only I could share an example…like the best secret of the trip. If you could guess what that is you probably already know it. Funny shit huh?


"That building was giving out free posters!"

The People:
Far and away one of the best, most memorable aspects of the trip was the exceptional group that I went with. Every member of the group has left a unique impression on me, and I’ll remember them forever.


Taylor and I with some locals who were showing us around the city


Yes, Tara, you have a ticket and I don't. Go ahead, mock me


Taylor and Jake. A bit like the twins from The Shining, don't you think?
"Come play with us"
"there will be daybeers"


Mr. Josh and Mrs. Melody getting some sleep


Meredith and Haneul learn how much fun subways can be in Tokyo

...is that really all the pictures I have? So many great people left out. Sorry if you were, you're still awesome.

I could keep going forever. I’ve taken a lifetime of experiences with me from this trip. This post seems to have some sort of finality to it, as afterwards I’ll have no reason to look back on the trip except for the sake of nostalgia. I know I will though. I have every day since I’ve been back, and I know it will be a long time before the melancholy of the trip being over fades away. I wish I could do it all again. I wouldn’t change anything.

Goodbye world,
-James

May 21, Harley Davidson Japan and Sony Visit

Hello world,

Today was a very packed day. We had two company visits that stood out as some of the best so far. First we headed to Harley Davidson Japan. This was the first company visit I had a real personal interest in, as I love everything about motorcycles. The presentation was one of the most thorough and all encompassing of all the company visits, and answered every question I had about marketing heavyweight motorcycles in an environment that I had imagined to be very unfriendly to such an Americanized product. Despite the completeness of the presentation our group managed to fill a full hour with thoughtful questions.
I’ve noticed that our group works excellently as a team when it comes to impressing our hosts (excluding one unfortunate impression). The majority of us are well prepared with insightful questions, and manage to keep the discussion flowing smoothly. Half of this seems to be driven by genuine curiosity, but mostly it seems that we have a good grasp of exactly what is necessary for us to make a good impression as a group, and so as one of us takes the floor the rest use the time to prepare the next round of questions. The teamwork I observed today was just plainly impressive, to risk sounding overly self congratulating.
But to get back to the motorcycles, the highlight of the visit for me was sitting on one of HD’s newest models, a high performance sports bike. I didn’t like the way it would ride, but it was still very exciting to sit on a $25,000 machine. I also had a nice discussion about it with a very friendly representative. She said I looked cool on the bike. I did feel pretty badass.
Anyway, I’m about out of time, which is a shame because Sony deserves a post all to itself. But to summarize quickly (unfortunately), it was by far the most impressive company visit yet. We took a tour around their showroom and saw some absolutely incredible technology. We saw the camera George Lucas used to film the first Star Wars movies, which was (to sound redundant) very impressive.
Anyway, I think its time to go out for the night.

Goodnight world.

May 20, Missed class and wandering

Hello world.

Yesterday was interesting. The majority of the group, me included, missed class. This wouldn’t have been bad at all if it had been anything like the other days, where we sat in the courtyard for an hour or tried to let everyone pretend we weren’t there, but instead we all flaked out on the first day they had planned to actually include us in something.

Flaked, got lost, missed a train; however you want to put it the result was the same. They didn’t hesitate to call us “lazy Americans”.

In two hours the group who missed is meeting for a morning discussion (read: reprimanding) with Dr. Fox and Dr. Chen. BS will be thrown, but everyone knows why this happened. Even though we had legitimate excuses we are all responsible enough to have been there if we had known it would have been anything other than a complete waste of time.

To explain, from the moment we arrived at the college we’ve been treated like lepers. In past years students have participated in every class, but this year the “American flu” scare has the administration terrified that we’ll spread the flu to their students, so instead of being taught calligraphy and participating in the tea ceremony we stand in the back and watch in silence.

If you haven’t been there maybe you don’t understand how frustrating this is. We watch students in class.

In Tokyo

People ask us what we’ve seen, and until we (unintentionally) took the trip into our own hands yesterday we could only say the courtyard of the girls college, where we sit to pass the blocks of time that had been allotted for things we’re no longer welcome to do.

After three days of this the group was fed up and completely frustrated with the schools horrible hospitality (our welcoming speech was about the damn “American flu”). Our time here is very precious to us, and so no one was overly concerned with rushing to waste it when we couldn’t find the train station (though we genuinely did try). That’s why ten out of nineteen of us weren’t there to meet the twenty Japanese students who arrived for one on one interaction. Calling it laziness is just insulting. It was apathy we were driven to.

I have no desire to apologize to the schools administration, only to their students and our trip leaders. We embarrassed them badly, and shamed our school. All of us regret that. It was a wakeup call that reminded us we represent much more than ourselves. I could care less what the girls college thinks of me, but to think that this has been taken as an example of “American laziness”, (that little quote still makes me angry) discredits our school, and reflects negatively on our undeserving trip leaders, makes me feel a little sick. Only two things could make me feel better: explaining to their school why none of us were there and regaining our trip leader’s trust.

As awful as it makes me feel to admit it to myself, I doubt I’ll be able to accomplish either.

Good morning world,

-James

May 19, Caligraphy class, Tea ceremony, Ernst & Young

After breakfast we headed to the National Taiwan University to participate in calligraphy class, which turned out to not be nearly as interesting as it sounds. The swine flue scare has really limited our interaction with this university. The faculty seem to want to keep us as isolated as possible. So, instead of being actively involved only a few of us actually got to participate. The majority stood in the back of the class and just watched in silence. I got to spend about five minuets attempting it, which was interesting, but I think we all began to realize pretty quickly that this halfhearted attempt to involve us was just a waste of time for everyone involved.

From there we went to tea ceremony class, where we essentially repeated our experience in calligraphy class. The only noticeable difference was that instead of watching the students draw in awkward silence, we watched them go through the motions of a tea ceremony (in awkward silence). Perhaps if someone had made an effort to explain to us what we were watching it would have been more interesting, but we might as well have been watching through a two way mirror. We watched the students pour tea for half an hour and they ignored us.

The day did get better though. The Ernst & Young visit went on sort of like a discussion. Nothing was presented to us, instead we listened while they talked informally about their jobs and what they did at the company. This seemed to go on a bit too long for us, as we were all starving because we hadn’t had much of an opportunity to eat beforehand. It was afterward that our day really improved. Our host treated us to an incredible dinner at a famous restaurant, which was the inspiration for the set of the crazy 88 fight scene in Kill Bill 1. Meagan and I were pretty psyched about it, being fans of the movie. The meal came in five or six courses, and was incredibly fancy and elaborate. Our host payed the majority of the bill (for everyone), which was just plainly awesome.

From there he took a group of us to a bar in Rapongi. The area was more than a little sketchy. Apparently it’s fairly common for tourists to be persuaded into going to a private bar, where they then wake up in the morning with maxed out credit cards. He took us to a bar that made me fear for my credit cards and kidneys, and so I went back after about an hour with Kyle, Haneul, and Meagan, and we headed for our 711 to relax for the rest of the night.

May 17, Arrival in Tokyo

Hello World.

It’s the end of our first night in Tokyo. I miss Taipei already. Not that Tokyo has been a let down in any way, (seeing as I haven’t been here long enough to experience eating dinner and drinking outside the nearest 711) but the hotel flower had begun to feel like home. Taiwan has left quite an impression on me, and now that my stay there has ended I can’t help but be distracted by thoughts of what I’m leaving behind. Even as I am achieving a lifelong goal of mine (exploring Japan) I’ve unexpectedly presented myself with another, which is to return to Taipei and explore what I’ve missed in Taiwan. I’ve come to realize that this trip won’t satisfy any of my curiosity, and will instead only…what’s the word? Provoke it?
I could talk endlessly about what I’ve experienced thus far, and so I won’t, as I’m too exhausted from the days traveling. We stay far too busy to make blogging seem worthwhile. After all, I wouldn’t be getting the most out of the trip if I missed a minute to type on my laptop. So instead here’s a brief summary of the days that have gone unblogged.
To summarize: missed wakeup call, temple, movie, awesome Japanese food, Taipei 101, amazing view, plane ride, arrival in Tokyo to a cozy private room.
Beyond all else the thing most worth noting is how lucky I am to experience this with a group of such great people. As I related to several of them in a moment of random sincerity; they have all been a part of the greatest experience of my life. So thank you, everyone, and good night.

P.S.: Can you tell I’m tipsy?

-James

May 14, Joy enterprises

Hello world,

We all got dressed up today to meet the president and founder of Joy enterprise. After a hot walk through the city we arrived at the headquarters and went upstairs, where we had to exchange our shoes for tiny slippers (for no discernable reason, as we were the only ones wearing them). Then we were ushered into a room that looked like a kindergarten classroom. Our host asked us to “pretend we are 8 years old and that we don’t know any English”, an idea we all took to instantly with impressive ambition. Our hostess arrived and treated us exactly as she would a group of kids, and we played along and genuinely had a blast. We divided into groups and played games designed to teach English to young students and essentially experienced Joy enterprises product first hand.
Afterwards we had the chance to mingle with some employees and discuss the company or whatever came to mind. All and all it was a very unique and involving experience.

May 13, Capitol Building and Karaoke box

Hello world,

It’s the fifth day of the trip, and I’m sitting in a Karaoke “box”. Finding time to write the blog has been very difficult. We stay busy, and any free time I’ve had has been devoted to sleep or exploring Taipei. This is the first time I’ve been able to sit down long enough to reflect on the trip, which has been an absolutely incredible experience. I don’t think I have the words to convey exactly what it’s like to be on the other side of the world with 20 strangers (all wonderful people by the way). I can only say (at the risk of sounding redundant) that it has been absolutely, unbelievably, incredible. I’m surrounded by people and places unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, and I’m constantly finding myself smiling out of nonspecific amazement.

Last night we rented a room at a love motel. Basically a luxurious honeymoon style suite complete with in-suite swimming pool, Jacuzzi and karaoke machine. It was huge, and the ideal place to throw a party. So, naturally, that’s exactly what we did. The group made a quick trip to 711 and proceeded to do what college kids on vacation do best. Afterwards the majority of the group headed to the bars for the after party-party. It was one of the best nights of my life, though I barely made it through.

Which brings me back to today. This morning we made a very hung over trip to the capitol building of Taiwan. After struggling through a long tour we actually did some work and examined a business case at a coffee shop, so let it be noted that it’s not all fun (only the vast majority). Now were here at the Karaoke box, and I’m attempting to tune out blasting music to write a quick blog entry.

Its not working…I give up.

Good night world.

-James