Jenfifi's travel blogs:
- Peru: Trekking the Salkantay Trail to Machu... 2008
- Tour de Europa 2007-BAR TRIP! 2007
- Hawaii! 2007
- Korea! 2007
- Spring Break 2007- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2007
- Spring Break 2007 - Singapore, Singapore 2007
- Spring Break 2007- Tanjung Pinang and Palau... 2007
- Spring Break 2007- Bangkok, Thailand 2007
- A semester abroad... 2007
- 10 days in China for business and... 2006
- Cleveland, July 2006 2006
- 4th of July 2006 in Chicago, IL 2006
- Summer of 2006 in New York City... 2006
- Mom, Aunt Sandy, and I do Paris. 2006
- Carnival Cruise through to Colon Panama, Belize... 2006
- New Years trip 2005-2006, Quebec City, Quebec 2005
- Couples Ocho Rios, Jamaica: December of 2005 2005
- An SA trip to remember! 2002
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Chris's observations on day two...
Entry 2 of 112 | show all | print this entry |
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Konnichiwa,
Day 2 was a whirl. The day began at 7 am when Jen and I tried to hunt
down a cup of coffee. Although we hear there are 500 Starbucks in
Japan, it turns out coffee is a delicacy and is quite rare outside of
touristy areas. We were unable to find anything so we settled for
some water at a 7-11 (which are on every other corner). A
representative form the university came to pick us up at our temporary
housing around 9:30 and took us on a walking tour to the campus, which
is about a 30 minute walk. The weather was unseasonably beautiful at
about 65 degrees and sunny. The campus is located in a upscale
neighborhood with very few Gaijins (i.e. foreigners). Nonetheless,
nobody bats an eye at our presence. The law school is separate form
the rest of the Temple campus by about a 9 minute walk. The
enrollment for the law program has quadrupled over the last 5 years,
so they renovated four floors in a really nice office building, so the
campus is ultra modern and very nice.
After checking in and purchasing our books, we had some spare time to explore, so we walked around the neighborhood and found a small café. Turns out a small cup costs about 500 yen (approx $4.5), and does not include refills.
Afterwards we went back to orientation. All of the
instructors here are very passionate and dedicated to what they do
(and very academics focused). The program ended around 6:15 pm and
then the university treated all 87 students to an all you can eat and
drink feast at a really nice traditional Japanese restaurant. The
food was unlike anything I have ever seen. It was predominately raw
fish but there were also some vegetables I have never seen, some kind
of cured beef, and prawns on a stick that still had their shells and
heads on. I didn't eat much but it was a great experience. (Jen
declared it was the best meal she has had since being abroad.
Apparently the fish is really fresh here).
Before sitting down we had
to take our shoes off and then sat on little mats around a table that
sat ten and stood only about two feet off the floor.
At dinner Jen
and I made some new friends then went to a little Japanese bar. It
was very small with only 10 stools and was tended by the owner and his
76 year old mother. The owner, Torre, was a very pleasant and
agreeable 50 year old man who spoke a little English and seemed to
enjoy our patronage.
One of our classmates is fluent in Japanese, so
we had a lot of fun asking him to how to say things in Japanese, and
then trying to repeat them to our host. He took it in good humor, and
his mother got a chuckle out of it too. (BTW she stayed until we left
at around midnight, although at around 11 she bowed her head at the
bar and took a nap). We all sang karaoke, and Jen was serenaded by
the only other patron, a 70-year old Japanese man who didn't speak any
English.
It was so much fun. We all walked home (which we were able
to find without too much difficulty.)
The tradition and culture are ever present here. I am overwhelmed
with how measured, efficient and honest the culture is. While there
are twice as many people per square feet, there seems to be twice as
much space in public areas than in NYC. And everything is immaculate,
even the garbage trucks!!! I'll document all my other observations in
another email.
To check out daily pictures, check out
http://www.photos.yahoo.com/jenniferbrace.
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| 2. | Chris's observations on day two... - Tokyo, Japan Jan 10, 2007 (  7 ) |
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