Everything has a purpose or "the purpose"

     Exposure to a different set of classes here in Keio School of Media design has and still is shaping my thinking. I now ask myself more questions "why" and "what is the reason for that".

     It has been almost two months living in Japan. Time is just flying by! The more I look around and think, the more I discover. Many things that seemed strange in the beginning now seem to have logic behind them. Not all, but a lot more, that 2 months ago during those first days. 

     A few things are now clear. One of those I wanted to write about is umbrellas, just like this one: 

     Majority of Japanese people carry those around on a rainy day or when it is expected to rain in the morning. It is hard to find statistics, but it seems like 90% of Japanese have long umbrellas rather than short portable ones. I have asked my Japanese friends a few times about this issue but didn't have a proper answer. I never attempted to search for an answer in the Internet - but no luck. Finally I found a person who was able to figure out the logic. Satoru-san, our professor at KMD, has said that long umbrellas are stronger. It rains heavily during rainy season with very strong wing, thus umbrellas need to handle severe weather conditions. This actually makes sense. =) But why are most umbrellas are white and transparent? Satoru-san has come up with an assumption, that the material they are made of is the cheapest one. Which is also a strong assumption. 

       Overall in Tokyo situation with umbrellas is very interesting. You can buy umbrella for less than a euro and it will last. Many organizations and places have umbrellas in a special basket near the door, so people can simply use it. Some people leave their umbrellas in such boxes near a supermarket for others to use on a rainy day. When entering a building, you can often leave your umbrella at a special umbrella stand. Sometimes near entrances to offices and supermarkets you can find a machine where you insert your umbrella and it covers it with plastic (puts it in plastic bag) so that you don't spread water everywhere. Near entrances to some electronics stores you can find people giving you a plastic bag to put your umbrella while visiting a store. 

Business Cards

OUR MEISHI (BUSINESS CARDS) STORY

      For Japanese people business card has probably higher importance than for European and Americans.   Everyone here has one. Exchange of business cards is a special process.

     You have to hand in a card with two hands, card should face another person, at the same moment you should bow. 

     For the CEMS business projects we had to meet with company top management soon. For that we were advised to prepare business cards both in English and Japanese. Thanks to a friend of Larry, we got a nice deign (two sides, in color, one side features our home university, another side features keio university). Bob has adjusted all designs and put our names. 

     It took us quite a long time to figure out this business cards printing and design issue. Usually students print them in a special place called COOP on campus. They send name, address and other details and in 7-9 days receive a standard Keio University business card.

     As we had a different design, we needed to find another place to print the cards. On top of that, I have only one day to print those out. Larry and Bob have told me about some secret place, where we headed together with Bob on Monday morning. 

     The place was nothing else that someones apartment. An old Japanese guy is working from there: his home-located company prints business cards and other things. Usually, the normal process includes sending him the file and payment, and then receiving the cards by mail in a few days. By we are foreigners (and we needed the cards fast) - so we came directly to his home on Monday morning at 9. 

    This time I was prepared: the files for business cards were on usb. Additionally, last night I asked Japanese friends to write on a piece of paper (in Japanese) all specifications for printing that we needed. Thus I simply needed to hand the guy this paper and a file. 

     So we came to his place, called him and he came down. We have given him a piece of paper and usb, it was fast. He speaks no English, thus to answer us, he took out his smart phone, said something in Japanese and the text appeared in English on the screen. I confirmed everything and he confirmed that the cards would be ready in the evening. 

    In approximately an hour I received an email in English, first sentence said "Translated with software". In the text the guy asked us to confirm the details for printed. We confirmed in Japanese. 

     The whole day we were at school. At around 5:30 I went back to the place and picked up the cards. They were nice. We paid approximately 25 and 32 Euro for 100 cards double-sided in color (different paper).

     That evening I returned back from boxing around 9 and found out that one side of the cards was printed incorrectly. Let me explain. We gave two sets of cards to print: 100 for me and 100 for Emma, our CEMS colleague. Turned out, that my cards were ok, but on Japanese sides of Emma's cards my name was printed. .. We had to act fast, as Emma had a business project the next day in the afternoon. 

     I have checked the file and it was correct, so this was completely printing mistake. I went to Japanese friends and asked him to help me translate an email I was going to send to the guys. In the email I was explaining the situation asking to reprint the cards by 11 in the morning. The situation was more complicated than that, as next morning I had to attend the company meeting. I wanted to ask Ondrej to return bad cards and pick up new ones. He wasn't at home and didn't pick up the phone... Neither did Emma. We discussed the situation with Bob and Larry and agreed, that next morning I will take wrong cards to Bob and put them in his mailbox, and then around 11 he will pick up the new cards. 

     Next day in the morning I did as agreed, took cards to Bob's dorm and left them in the mailbox. Around 9 I received a response from the guy, saying that he was apologizing and was already printing new cards. We called him up to confirm and the deal was set. At 11 our guys went to pick up the cards and Emma received even better cards! The businessman is a really nice person! 

     By the way, one of our friends was really wondering how this could ever happen, it is Japan, things like that do not happen here =) 

METRO IN RUSH HOUR

     I have heard about some non-japanese people who want to visit Tokyo and experience rush hour in Tokyo metro. This sounds so strange to me, especially after we had to go my metro this Tuesday morning. 

     I have seen crowds in Moscow and St.Petersburg, but never have I seen such organized crowds. People line up after another and no one seems to want to go faster and break the rules. 

     Luckily for us, Hiyoshi is the end station, so the trains starting here are empty - possible to get in. People create organized lines in front of every door. The station has metal fence between the platform and rails, fence has automatic doors that open when the train comes. This is done to prevent people from falling during crowded hours. 

     The train gets really crowded at some point and people have to use hands to get in a subway car - otherwise they simply won't get in. This is such a nice feeling, like flying: you can life one leg, then another - you are still standing, the crowd is holding you =). It gets really hot also. Even though it was only 22 degrees this day, everyone was sweating (because everyone is wearing a suit mostly). 

     No wonder they have special cars of pink colors where only women are allowed to enter from 7-9 a.m. This little Japanese girls and ladies were almost smashed in this crowd, smashed against and by guys from all sides... 

CEMS BUSINESS PROJECT: LAWSON

     In the beginning of this semester, all CEMS students were divided into groups and assigned different business projects with companies to work with. Our group has received an internationalization project for Lawson - chain of convenience stores in the country (second largest after Seven-11). 

     This morning we had a first meeting with the company representatives in the company headquaters. We were very warmly greeted by the Head of HR and other colleagues of him. Then the traditional exchange of business cards was done. Two of the company representatives spoke not very good English, however I was really impressed by the Head of HR department: very nice person, with great sense of humor and perfect English. 

     The meeting lasted for around 3 hours, however all the info discussed there is confidential and won't be mentioned. 

     It is very exiting to work on real life issues with such a large and interesting company. Looking forward to our cooperation with Lawson. 

JAPANESE PEOPLE ABOUT RUSSIA

     It is always a pleasure to talk to my boxing team mates about Japan and Russia. It is funny how they all seem to know "pirozki" (cakes), borsh (famous soup), matreshka (doll), Putin, Medvedev and Sochi 2014. I wonder why those things. Russia is so big and has so many interesting cultural things, why do most Japanese people know about pirozki, borsh and matreshka... 

Two Rainy Days

      Last two days it was raining quite a lot and non-stop. So we have used those few rainy days to study and work hard, in order to have great time when the sun comes out.

GYM GREETING RULES

     Visiting training room was fun today. Japanese people are so friendly everywhere, always welcome you and bow. This is not the case in the gym, no one says neither hello nor bye. I have asked a Japanese guy who spoke English in the gym why it was like that. He couldn't really explain, only said, that in the gym if you don't know a guy, you never greet. Sometimes those things confuse me a lot here in Tokyo. 

COOKING AT HOME

     Those days Ondrej and me decided that we will cook more at home. A huge supermarket just opened in the building of our dorm at the first floor and finally we can buy not extremely expensive meet there. 

      We wanted to have a good meal and decided to go for fish with noodles. For that we needed to buy cooking oil. The problem was, that we didn't know how cooking oil was in Japanese. We looked at a shelf with tons of different bottles with yellow slow liquid that looked like oil. So we picked one and decided to ask on the cash desk if it was oil. Of course when paying we forgot to ask what it was...

     We arrived back to our rooms. It was Ondrej's turn to cook. In a few minutes he ran into my room saying that everything is burning on a pan. I didn't see a big problem in it, as our pan didn't have any tefal on it and everything burned quite easily on it. I had to make that moment a history, have a look at this cooking magic: 

    The cooked fish tasted very strange. I have no doubt in Ondrej's cooking skills, but it was something else. I smelled the "oil" and it had a strong alcohol taste... I took a bottle and went down to ask Kotani-san about that magic thing. Turned out, it was mirin, liquid no intended for frying things. We have done a great job again! 

EVENING

     It was my turn to cook in the evening and now I went to the supermarket to finally get the correct oil. At the entrance I saw Masa, our Japanese friend, and we went in together. Finally I got oil, the right one. Then we spent some time cooking and talking with Masa about differences of Europeans and Japanese people.  After I asked him to help me translate one book. That morning on campus we picked up a brochure where all Keio University clubs are listed. There are soooo many of them! An extracurricular activity club here in Japan is called circle, students usually have to pay a fee to be in it. Last two days all members of different circles are running around with papers and leaflets trying to recruit freshmen to join their circles. Everyone can choose a club for themselves, here are some activities they do: many music, theatre and vocal clubs, ecology, economics, law, English, book lovers, yacht, cameras, Russia lovers, card games, sightseeing, magicians, dancing, christian, quizzes, finance, marketing, history, tea clubs, cycling, movies, kaligraphy, detectives, manga, art, programming, trains, astronomy climbing, debating, flower decorations, bird watching, robots, a thousand of clubs for every sport, startups, anime, healthy food, chess, Disney, fashion, games, cooking, salsa, joga, cheerleading, darts, bowling, cocktails, and many more.... 

STARBUCKS

     Starbucks is everywhere, even in Japan. However here is has a slightly different touch. Maybe because of the area that it is located, maybe because of some other reasons. Seemed to me, that we were the only people close to our 25s in the place, others were just young students or school pupils with books and laptops on the tables. The service is a usually good, the coffee is nice and as usually pricey, but the atmosphere is not there. People do the atmosphere. I am not saying here is bad, here is different. Next time I will probably look for a smaller and cozier place. 

BIRTHDAY PARTY 

     Today our floor mate had a birthday. Our Japanese Residence Assistant (RA) have invited us to celebrate to his room. Japanese guys cooked for us and the whole boys floor has gathered in a small Kyohei's room. But there was one girl - Kanae, she was helping to cook. Generally, no girls are allowed on our floor, however Kanae is a Residence Assistant, so she is permitted to stay wherever she wants.

     Food was awesome, Japanese and delicious. It is in Japanese culture to say that the food tastes great to those who cooked it. We have tried lots of Japanese specialties. The best part was eating a cake with hashi (chopsticks).

 Birthday cake

Rice cookers

      Interesting thing was that Kanae has entered the room only once to pick up the dishes, the rest of the time she stayed in the kitchen or in the door to the room, but didn't enter. I was wondering, if it was a tradition or she was just a little afraid of a bunch of guys. When I asked her, she said she had to clean the dishes, that's why she was staying there all the time... I asked Jason to ask her in Japanese, as it turned out, she didn't really feel comfortable in a room fool of some guys from foreign countries whom she didn't know well. Reasonable, but was interesting to observe for me. 

RANDOM PICTURES

 Was taking a run under some bridge today. Found these. Japanese people throw away things in sets or can someon explain this so me =) 

 Kanji read as Hiyoshi. Name of metro station and campus of Keio university. Means "good sunlight"

 Japanese audi

Sun coming out after 2 days of rain

Day 10: Kawasaki-shi adventures

MOVING IN TO THE DORM

      Today I have finally figured it out... Every day, regardless of the day of the week, big and small trucks are parked in front of our dormitory and workers carry millions of boxes inside. Before I was thinking, that some floors of the building were not yet finished (it is a new building and just got constructed). But I was wrong, all the rooms are finished.

      Finally Japanese people explained, that those are transportation companies bringing stuff of the students. Students move in the dorm for a long period of time and their rooms are not as equipped as ours (only bed, a table and a cupboard and a chair). Thus their parents buy TVs, washing machines, microwaves, other kitchen equipment, lamps, chairs and more things. They usually have to hire a transportation company for that because it is really a lot of things. I remember when I was living in dorms in St.Petersburg, it was a little different. =) 

ABANDONED BIKES

      As usually we went for a run with Ondrej. Today we took a new root in a new neighbourhood. Along the way we spotted a garbage place with a few bikes there. Apparently, their owners didn't want those bikes anymore and wanted to get rid of those. We decided to take a closer look. The bikes were not new, on with rusty chain, but still in a great condition. Wow, great success for us! We don't need to by a bike now! That's what we were thinking until we figured out that the bikes were locked. All Japanese bikes have a small lock on the back wheel. So Japanese people do lock their bikes, we just didn't notice the locks before... 

     Having looked around, in a pile of trash we spotted 3 more old bikes. We decided to leave them there. But other 2 newer bikes were definitely still in a good condition and no one needed them anymore. Why do people lock a bike when they throw it away... This is what we couldn't and still can't understand... If someone can explain that to me, please do! 

PACKAGED FOOD 

     Prices in Tokyo are really high. It is one of the most expensive cities in the world for a while. What I found interesting, is that often to cook yourself is more expensive than to buy already cooked meal from a supermarket. 

     In Japanese supermarkets there is a great variety of cooked packaged food in a range from 2-5 euro. From sushi and maki to rice with salads and meat. You simply need to pick one (of many) and heat it up in a microwave. Eating habits here in Japan are definitely different from those in countries I have lived before. Apparently I am not the only one buying this packaged cooked food, as every day supermarkets have it in quite high quantities.

     Around a hundred meters from the dorm there is a place that sells only cooked packaged food. You can choose either from already cooked sets or order a set or a meal and wait around 10 minutes before they will cook and package it for you. Once I picked up a set of packaged rice with meat and salad and wanted to pay. The lady started to explain me something, but with my not yet high level of Japanese I couldn't understand what it was about. Turned out, that the packaged food I wanted to buy was already outdated (if this food is not sold in a few hours it goes to waste). So they asked me to pick another set and threw the initial one away. This is how it should be! Really impressive. 

JAPANESE POLICE

Here is a scene of Japanese police kicking out illegally parked cars. Japanese-style. 

BIRTHDAY PARTY 

     The first unproductive in terms of activities day so far (had to work till the evening). As I couldn't concentrate anymore, I went downstairs to hang out. Today was a birthday of Japanese students, our residence assistant, Kyohei and the people were supposed to gather downstairs in a small room to celebrate.

     The Japanese birthday seems to be a little different from European or Russian one. People were just hanging out and talking and drinking tea with Japanese cakes. The birthday party was supposed to start downstairs at 20:00 and last till 22:00. That is exactly what happened, 5 minutes to ten everyone left the room and went to a park to continue celebrations there. 

     By that time, our CEMS students have all arrived to our dorm and we decided to occupy the small common room downstairs. Kotani-san was awesome as always. He told us stories, that he has been to Prague and to Lisboa, and to Vienna. He said, that in Vienna he stayed all the time in heurigers (traditional wine places around the city). He kept filling our cups with different tea flavors and bringing his Japanese cakes and other sweets. I was wondering, where is all that supply from... Apparently, when Japanese students move in the dorm, the first time they come with parents and it is polite to bring some sweets or presents to the residence chief (in our case Kotani-san). 

     Seems like our CEMS people also liked Kotani-san a lot, as they were impressed by his hospitality and great English (unusual for Japanese person of his age). The phrase of the day by Kotani-san: "Take it easy, guys!" LOL 

DAY 9: Helpful nation

HELPFUL NATION & BAZAAR

     Japanese people are amazing! In our dorm there is a guy called Masa. He is always downstairs helping Kotani-san. And he also helps us a lot.

     Today was the day of announcement of Japanese language placement test results. We could see them at Mita or Hiyoshi campus. We invited Masa to accompany us and he was happy to do that. As usual we didn't know where to go... Neither me nor Ondrej. Not because we didn't know where the place we were looking for was located, simply because we didn't know what place we were looking for. After wondering around, we figured out the location. We found the board with the results: great, level 1-2. 

     We heard from other CEMS student, that today was the day of sale of kitchen stuff  in Hiyoshi International House dorm. We needed some things thus we decided to go there, traditionally not knowing where it was located. Luckily we found an ad in the wall of international office about this sale with an address. We grabbed a random Japanese guy and asked if he knew where it was. He started to search on his mobile. It took quite a while. Then he asked to wait, took our Japanese guy (Masa) and left... In around 10 minutes they came back with a printout of a map. Awesome! Some random guy has done such a effort to help us out. But it wasn't done yet. He said, that he would show us how to get there. Really??? This is not the first time it happened to ask when we asked for a direction, a person took us to a place instead of just explaining how to get there. The place was 10 minutes walking distance from the campus. Outside there were few things for free takeaway (hangers, kitchen towels). Then we were invited to go inside to a small room full of cups, plates and stuff of this kind. Japanese ladies ruling that place (around 5 ladies many years of age) were happy to see foreigners there and were asking where we were from. A young looking energetic woman came to me and asked where I went to school here in Tokyo. I said Keio. She replied that all ladies in the room were Keio graduates and and she had graduated 57 years ago (she said she was 81 now). She was so little but sooo energetic! Speaking quite good English! I was really impressed. 

    We managed to pick up lots of things for our kitchen and paid around 4 Euro for all the things. Now our kitchen was fully equipped and ready for guests. 

GUESTS

     CEMS group hasn't been together in a while, thus we decided to have a dinner at Shimoda dorm. We got some noodles from the supermarket and went to the common kitchen they have. It was a nice evening with lots of laughs. As we were officially signed in as guests, we had to leave at 10. However as usually we didn't want to stop on that and decided to show Celine and Joana (our CEMS colleagues) our dorm and how life goes here. 

     We arrived at Motosumiyushi. Kotani-san has met us downstairs friendly and happy as always. A big group of Japanese students was hanging out in our "hanging out room" and they were happy to see us. The first thing they gave us was some Japanese sweets and tea. Then Kotani-san (as always) brought some more sweets and cakes. The people in the room were quite young (18-19 yo), but we were happy to meet them. Guys were shy and gathered outside the room discussing something. Girls were sitting with us asking many questions about where we were from. One of the first questions of one young girl was: do you have facebook? I said that I didn't use it so often... The guys outside seemed to like Joana very much. The bravest one came and asked us if she had a boyfriend. After a while, another guy was literally pushed into the room by others. He said: "Hello! my name is ..." (looking at Joana). Then he attempted to leave the room, but the others pushed him back in and told him to continue. He continued: "I am 19 years old". He tried to go out again, but they wouldn't let him out. Then he said something else and finally others let the poor guy leave the room. 

     The girls seemed to like us also. One of the girls who asked about facebook came to me with her phone and asked to spell my name so that she could add me (here I couldn't say no...). Now I have a new facebook friend! 

     We stayed for another little while. I was hoping that Kotani-san's whife would come out, but it was quite late and apparently she was already in bed. CEMS girls said, that their dorm was completely different and they would come visit us again to talk to more Japanese people. 

RANDOM FACT

     Every evening around Hiyoshi station after 11 o'clock you can see people queuing. I was wondering why...  In Russia they sometime queue waiting for a marshrutka (a small bus). Here it was different. People were waiting in line for a taxi. The line was moving quickly, but there were around 40 people standing. Impressive.

VIEW FROM THE BALCONY

DAY 7: Japanese Language Test

JAPANESE LANGUAGE TEST

     This morning we had to take a Japanese placement test in order to determent our level for language classes. In orded to come to the test, we needed to register beforehand online. Than we had to remember the registration number, print out a registration form, fill it out, adding the registration number and glueing a photo not older than 3 months. We were also required to bring copies of two sides of our residence card (this is how mine looks like) and student card (here it my student card). Luckily, there are printers and copy machines in every convenience store around. I went to one early this morning. I was able to make copies easily (5 yen per copy) and wanted to print from usb stick... DIdn't work out. I asked the employee of the store to help me, she struggled. Then the head of the store came, but he also wasn't able to figure out how to print the thing... So I left without accomplishing such an important task. 

     To be ontime for he test and print out our documents on the way, me and Ondrej left our dorm a little earlier. However after a few minute of walking,  I realized that I forgot to take my registration number (which was written on a piece of paper). On the way back somehow a folder with Ondrej's documents opened and some of the papers flied away... It was sooooo fun to look at a white guy running around in the middle of the busy crossroad trying to chase some papers that kept flying away from him. In the end we made it: papers were collected, forms were printed out in another convenience store. 

     We arrived at the test place 10 minutes before it's start. Registered. Each student was assigned a seat in a room according to registration number. When everyone was there, a Japanese guy in a suit started his announcement. Regardless of the fact, that some of the people in the room spoke zero Japanese, he started to say everything in Japanese (however translating after to English). The best thing was when he said in Japanese: "those who have never studied Japanese please leave the room and go to another one". =) 

The test was quite difficult from my point of view with a lot of guessing. In had a listening comprehension and grammar part in it. The second part of the test was for more advanced students (composition). All not advanced students were allowed to leave the room after the first part of the test was over. 

BANK

     Opening a Japanese bank account was required. Even though, we are staying here for only 4 months, university staff said, that we might get permission to open an account (sounds promising). 

    We arrived in a bank with a group of international students. The bank was located close to Keio university, thus they had lots of experience dealing with internationals. They counted us, gave us a number and after sometime invited all to come to special backroom. We all were given a sheet of paper to fill out. As usually, only in Japanese. The lady could also only speak Japanese. Lukcily, we had a sample on the table and some of us knew some kanji (so not all of us simply copied gender as female to our forms). We stayed there for about an hour filling in the form. The lady asked, if someone wanted a credit card. Few guys did. They have received another long form completely in Japanese. Lol

     In Japan most of the people have their personal stamp (seal) that they carry around. As we didn't have one, we had to come up with a 4-digit number and our signature to it. From now on it was our stamp-signature for bank purposes. 

      It seemed, that even that people didn't speak much English, they were extremely nice, polite and willing to help. Great experience. 

LIVING IN JAPAN: ORIENTATION FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

     All exchange students had to attend an orientation session about Japanese culture.A very funny a nice lady with perfect English and Filipino origin has told us many interesting things about Japan. Here are few that she has mentioned: 

- girls shouldn't ride a bicycle with knees out (knees got to be facing inside)

- expectations don't always match reality. Don't be biased. Don't expect too much and too high. 

- in general things take a long more time in Japan than in Europe

- Japanese seem to love rules and regulations. They have so many of those. 

- what Europeans consider polite can be different here, beautiful and ugly, delicious and bad tasting are also different. 

- event time vs. actual time. Japanese are very punctual, but some of them live not by actual time, but by event time. It means that next event starts only after another is finished. 

- in the supermarket you don't necessarily have to say thank you. They don't expect that. You don't have to respond to the nice gestures in the stores or to the words. 

- plants in pots  are not allowed to bring to the hospital when you are visiting because it means that you want the person to stay there longer. 

- Japanese people have special envelopes for funerals and for wedding. You are supposed to put money in that envelope. How much money? It is always written on the back of the envelope.

- another tabu is to stick  chopsticks in a bowl of rice. This is done when someone died. 

SIGHTSEEING

     As we were already in the center of the city  and transportation was extremely expensive, we decided to have a look around. A 15 minutes walk took us to a beautiful tower with a great view from the top (which we didn't enjoy as we didn't go up). 

     After visiting the tower, we headed to one of the most beautiful locations in Tokyo during this season : Naka-Maguro metro station. There along the river a garden of cherry trees is planted. THat place is simply amazing! Blooming sakura lighted up with Japanese traditional orange lights. It felt like warm Christmas time, as people were walking around enjoying the view and drinking champagne from glasses. The place is very romantic and many Japanese people came there with their girlfriends. Some have made a picnic along the cannel right on the asphalt.

     Being tired from a long day, we decided to make a stop and eat something traditional. Luckily we had Larry with us who was in Japan before. We found a restaurant that Larry knew ( a chain restaurant) and went it. It was a great choice. TO get to the table, we had to take off our shoes and place them in a special box. From the menu we ordered one from everything and decided to share all meals to try it all. Really amazing meal! Here are a few pictures. Thanks to Larry and a great company! 

LANGUAGE LESSON AND ORIGAMI

     The day was not yet over. Downstairs in our dorm we met some Japanese people and decided to chat with them. After Kotani family came down and brought some tea and sweets. 

     I have asked them about origami. Turned out, that Kotani-san's wife has many books and knows a lot of origami. When I was little, my grandmother brought a huge box of origami paper and a book from Japan. I used to do that often and now it reminded of my childhood. 

     As we had a great opportunity, we decided to study some Japanese with locals. Ondrej who speaks 0 Japanese was wondering about pick up lines in Japanese and was tought things like: "You are beautiful" and "let's go with me for a cup of green tea". Very interesting culture that I begin to fall in love with more and more.

DAY 5: First Sunday in Japan

     In Japanese sunday means a day of sun (like in English). This day of sun was actually the first day in Tokyo so far without sun is´itself. But the e´weather was still very warm and nice. 

     Today the first time I slept in and woke up at 7 and not at five, probably bacause lack of sleep last night. After taking a bowl of rice and a coffee, I woke Ondrej up and we decided to go for a run in an hour or so.

SUNDAY IN JAPAN

     This was our first day of sun in Japan. But there is a big difference with Vienna, where nothing is open on Sunday. A convenience store around the corner is 24-7, so the morning coffee for 150 yen ( 1,2 Euro) I bought there. 

      Kotani San and his family were up quite early and greeted us with sadomasochism's (good morning). Additionally, the people were still moving in to the dorm, even on Sunday. As I have noticed, parents were helping most of the students to move in. Few of them had some tables and chairs with them, so I guess the rooms of Japanese students will be even more equipped than mine. 

     Today we took another running route. To be more precise, I rook a running route and Ondrej a roller-blading route, as he is roller-blading while I am running. We went in the direction of Motosumiyoshi metro station. The area is very nice, people are nice and friendly. Some stare at us as if we were Gaijins (foreigners). LOL

     We found a great small stream with beautiful sakura on the  sides. It took us to a large sports ground with a couple football fields and baseball diamond. There very many Japanese there, many were practicing sports, while elderly people were looking at youngsters competing. THat is a great way to spend Sunday morning. Now I started thinking, that Japanese sports culture is stronger, than I thought. 

SHIMODA STUDENTS DORMITORY

     Before we went there, Ondrej and I decided to visit another dorm (Shimoda). It is an international students dorm mostly, thus the rules there are not as strict as in our dorm. We entered easily by accompanying a random guy that we met in front of the entrance. Than without knowing, in which rooms our friends were, we easily managed to find it, as each room had a name of the student in front of it. There are 4 floors in the building, each floor has a shared kitchen. We arrived at the place around 7 in the evening, but there was no one eating, quite a quiet place. 

      Borislav had a little bottle of rice wine and was kind enough to share it with us. Larry, our colleague from Taiwan, has mentioned that in rice wine you have to look at percentage on the label. This percentage indicates how much rice was washed of at the preparation process. The wines with percentage under 50 are of superior quality' have a different name and cost starting from 10000 JPY. We had a little bottle with 70%, quite a new taste for me. 

RUNNING SUSHI

     This evening we decided to attend a traditional Japanese running sushi restaurant. The place was quite small with a relatively strong fish smell. We all took a seat around a sushi bar. It was a time to do all preparations before the meal. First we had to take a box with powdered green tea and put two scoops in a cup, than added hot water to it. I should call the taste very specific. At the next step we added soya sauce mixed with wasabi to  special plate and opened hashi (chopsticks). Now we were finally set and ready. 

     The sushi were passing by. You would only have to grab a plate of sushi that you liked. Each plate had 2 sushi on it, however the golden plate had one piece of sushi (those were tuna sushi for example). After you are done the staff simply counts your plates and you pay 105 JPY per plate (a little less than 1 Euro). Great experience! I'll come again after I learn all the names of the fish and other ingredients they put on sushi :)

BIKING CULTURE

     Japanese have a very strong biking culture. Many people have bikes, however to see a nice mountain bike or professional bike is rare. Japanese people usually do not lock their bikes. Bikes for Japanese are used as a means of transportation from home to closest metro station or to a groceries store. The distances in Tokyo are really long, thus traveling by bike is not really possible. By the way, buying a car is only permitted if you have a confirmed spot on a parking lot. 

     So everyone has one of those classical bikes looking like this. (Photo). The interesting thing about this, as bicycles are really cheap here, many people leave them unattended, because utilizing them is expensive. So there are many bikes on the streets of Tokyo that belong to no one. Police goes around bikes' parking lots and marks the bikes that have to be removed by their owners (if they are left unattended for long time). If the bike that was marked remains there for a long time and will be removed. As I understand, the bikes can be resold or demolished after. There are few places when it is possible to buy a removed bike. From what I heard, it is possible to get a bike in a great condition for up to 6000 Yen, which is really cheap in Austrian standards, however very expensive by Holland's standards (at least that is what Borislav said). 

DAY 4

TRANSPORTATION

     On Saturday morning our CEMS group agreed to meet in Hiyoshi station in order to go to the Tokyo central park to watch cherry blossoms (sakura). By the way this year is exceptional. Cherry blossoms started earlier than ever before. 

    To find our way from Huyoshi station (in Yokohama) to the center was not that easy in the beginning. The metro and rail systems are connected and are operated by 5 different transport companies. Additionally, there are different types of trains: metro, local trains, express trains and rapid express. The difference is that some of the trains don't stop on some stations, while others make all the stops. Different types of trains are marked with different colors. Additionally, in metro there are special women's wagons, where only women are permitted from 7:30-9:00 in the morning. 

    Some of the intersection stations are very complex with up to 5 levels. It is not so easy to find your way around, especially during the rush hour.

     Upon entering metro, you are supposed to purchase a ticket in a machine. YOu look at the map, pick your route and then pay an amount that covers that rout. If you traveled more or less, that you have paid, while exiting the metro you can adjust the price by paying additional fee or receiving part of your money back. Quite a convenient system.  But takes quite a while to understand though.

     The announcement are in Japanese and English as well as all the signs (and stations names) are in Japanese and English. 

     We were traveling at 10 in the morning of Saturday, the metro was not packed, but there were some people. Even though the weather outside was not that hot, the air in the wagon was really stuffed and heavy. Let's see what will happen in summer... 

SAKURA and CENTRAL PARK

     Japanese people love and enjoy watching sakura. THis Saturday morning half of the Tokyo has gathered in the central park to watch and take pictures of cherry blossoms. There were crowds of people wondering around. Ondrej, my residence mate and a CEMS colleague from Czech Republic has mentioned, that there was  the whole population of Prague here. Many people were sitting on the grass in big and small groups, chatting, playing cards, drinking beer and wine, some were even playing the guitar. The view was really spectacular and we were really lucky to have such a nice day. 

     We have expected to wonder around the park for a few hours and then to return back, however spent the whole day watching sakura and other sights in central Tokyo. We were quite a large group of people, bug had great fund together and managed to get around in those crowds quite well.

Photos by Borislav Slavov

TECH PRODUCTS

    From my previous experience, I knew that Japan is a tech country. But the wing with wifi has brought some doubts. HOwever a trip to a media supermarket has revealed those doubt away forever. The supermarket was 6 floors high. YOu can find anything you want there and the prices are very attractive. I have purchases great Phillips headphones for only 770 yen (less that 7 Euro) and they are of very high quality! Japan, that is why I am starting to love you! 

RESIDENCE ASSISTANCE FAMILY

     I have already mentioned the main guy in our residence who lives here and takes care of all the staff. His name is Kotani San. He speaks Japanese-English and is a extremely nice person. Very friendly and hospitable. Whenever he sees us, he invites us for a cup of tea in his special room. Last night he has invited us for the special tea ceremony: tea with sake. He, as a true Japanese, had a cup of sake without tea, but to be really hospitable, he has given us tea first and advice to put some sake there. He said we should put as much as we wanted, so we did. The tea has killed the sake taste completely, however I assume the effect was there.

     The funny thing about Kotani San, he always gives us tea, but never Japanese tea. The first day he was given some German tea in teabags, today Indian in teabags. I am looking forward to receiving some real Japanese tea from him. 

     This evening after a long day in the center me and Ondrej were quite tired, but decided to go down for some tea with Kotani San. Downstairs we mat his lovely family, his wife and daughter. They all speak English and are extremely nice. Kotani San's wife used to be a Japanese language teacher in elementary school, so we had great time drinking tea and practicing some Japanese there. All of them now live at the 2nd floor of the residence all the time and help Kotani San to take care of the residence. Yesterday 50 Japanese student moved in. We have 11 floors and around 30 rooms for floor, so quite a lot of people will eventually live here.