More than my 20 bucks (2000 yen)'s worth

This is going to be a long post; I can feel it already. Was debating whether if I should post this or not but after getting home at 3:30 am and getting this done at 5:00 am... I had it done and it felt like a waste not posting it.

Today, I went to the Japanese hot springs but that isn't what I am going to write about this evening. Today, there was a party happening at the Dormitory, it was someone's birthday, Raphael, a person from Mexico who I've never really met though I have seen around. His party would start at 9:00 pm on the roof of the dormitory, I wouldn't get there until 11:00 pm since my last blog post after sitting outside and mooching a wireless connection to post pictures and make the photo album (and here I am again :)

There were lots of people at the party when I got there. The roof was pretty crowded, a stereo was perched on top of some steps outside on the roof blaring music. People were having drinks and meeting up with friends, I ran into a lab mate that was on her way out that told me about a 7:00 am meeting at the lab (though I wasn't expected to come). I had the chance to meet up with a few friends too.

I had a good time up there meeting people, exchanged cell phone numbers and e-mails so we can keep each other informed if anything was going on. Security (ie an old man in uniform) came up to the roof after finding out about the party to shut it down. It was about midnight when that happened and so it was time to relocate. We would meet downstairs and then figure out a new place to go. I heard that we would have plans to head into Downtown Sendai to hit a place.

I made my way downstairs with a group of people gathering outside. It seemed that about 1/3 of people at the party assembled downstairs, the rest likely decided to retire for the night. As for me, I woke up from a nap, I've never experienced Japanese night life before so I decided to give it a shot. I didn't really know anyone, but what the hey, it seemed like fun.

12:00 am. I caught a ride with Raphael and his girlfriend into downtown Sendai. We hadn’t picked a spot to go yet but decided to head there and then decide. In the end, after much waiting we decided on hitting a bar... an *all you can drink bar*. I have never seen anything like this before in Canada, but I have heard about these things in Mexico and South America. The tab was 2000 yen. Going out to drink really isn't my thing, but I can drink a little so I decided to stick it out and hanging out with these people and headed towards the bar.

We walked along a narrow street lined with shops and lit signs coming out of 4~5 storie buildings. The streets were littered with men in suits, dolled up girls and gruffy looking youths. The men in suits were hawkers, going up to people walking by asking them if they were up for a drink. These guys are probably paid by bars to bring people in. The rest were just people on the street looking to have fun.

One very good looking girl ran up beside me. She wasn't dolled up or as flashy as some of the other girls walking around. She wore a light brown/tan coat and all I could really see was her face. She walked along side me quickly (I was taller than her and my strides were bigger) and asked me if I wanted a "massage." I told her that I was busy and with a group of friends. She stepped closer and gently grabbed my arm and told me that it would "feel good". In English those words could easily be made to sound dirty but in Japanese they don't. I reassured her that I was with the group of friends also walking down the street. She was disappointed, but I waved, smiled and was off to the bar.

We got to the bar and waited outside the elevator and send out a few scouts to check for space and if it had people in it. I thought that it was funny how particular party people are about going to a place that was busy, but "too busy." There was space for the crew of about 12 and we headed in. I was taken aback by all the smoke in the bar. I don't smoke, I really don't like the smell either but I took it in stride and went in.

We were seated in a corner of the bar. Very cramped. Most of the people in the group lit up a cigarette... I could already feel myself time my breaths to inhale before puffs of smoke came out of other people's mouths. The drinks came and holy crap, these people really drink. Chris, a person from Sweden got annoyed with the waiter when he thought he was joking when he asked for 5 gin and tonics. So many people at the table were drinking white Russians that we were brought an entire pitcher. I took a sip of a white Russian, holy crap, it was strong, way too strong. I switched over to a grapefruit juice.

The night progressed, people were pouring each other drinks and consumed with their own drinking. They started singing Karaoke too. As for me, I became bored after an hour passed. It was 2:00 am, it was time for me to head back home and maybe catch a cat nap and hit the morning meeting/presentation for the heck of it. I paid my tab, gathered my coat and was off.

This time I didn't have the luxury of hitching a ride. I'm about 2.5 km away from home so time to the beat and head home. I wasn't entirely sure of where I was so I started wondering around to see if I could find any land marks I could recognize. I saw a few and started making my way back home.

A girl runs up beside me again, I could see her through my peripheral vision. She said "You're that person from last time again." I knew exactly who it was. "Do you want a massage? It'll feel really good" she tells me. I stop and tell her that I just came back from a hot spring today and was already quite refreshed. She runs around to my front puts her hands on my waist, steps in, looks me in the eye and speaks in a silent but kind sounding voice that "she'd do" it with me and it'd only be 6000 yen (70 bucks). I slide my hands into my pockets to find my wallet-- I wanted to make sure that I wasn't about to get my pockets picked. I was quite shocked as all this was happening. She gently grabs me by the arms, my hands come out of my pocket and she holds my hands and tells me that I am very "cute" in a sweet sounding voice. I smile at her, she almost pleadingly asks me if I was interested in that massage. I tell that I wasn't while trying to let go of her. One hand is free, I start to walk around her but she doesn't want to let of my hand, she asks me if I was sure and told her I was and my hand slips out of her fingers. I smile and give her a wave as I walk off and she winks back at me. I would start my 30 min walk home still in a state of shock.

I wasn't shocked because a hooker approached me (not that I'm used to it or anything), that wasn't the reason why I was feeling so unnerved at what happened. The girl that approached me was very nice looking even though she was wearing a decently large coat over her, I could feel myself caught in her stare. She was persistent, but not pushy. She was kind and polite and even friendly with a wink even after being rejected as I walked away. I was stunned as I walked away and spent the next 30 mins walking home thinking about what had just happened.

There are people on the streets in Japan everyday in downtown during the day passing out tissue paper packets with inserts with advertising on them. Though passing out advertising to people on the streets sounds like a simple job, but it isn't. It takes a good amount of courage to go up to strangers only to be often rejected and a certain inner strength to not be discouraged. I've seen many out there that look discouraged trying to pass out advertisements to these people. Yet this one young looking girl had the guts come running out at me, not once, but twice. There are probably other examples I could give but it's 4:45 am and I need to sleep sometime.

I was amazed... someone as good looking with her character could easily capture the attention of any guy, even really nice guys. She was resilient, seemed exceptionally kind and friendly. She could easily be with any nice well off young man. She seemed like a person that could have a lot of potential... she had a really strong charisma. It felt like a waste to have a beautiful girl like her working the streets like that.

Thinking back on it, I would have liked to have told her that she had more potential than working the streets or atleast talked with her to figure out what was her story. I was too busy thinking about trying to get myself home to get some rest for that morning meeting... that I never made it to.

Hanami in Japan

Hanami in Japan is a big event in Japan. It is when the cherry blossoms start blooming. There are entire parks in Japan with nothing but Cherry blossoms in white and pink. The cherry blossoms came out around the 3rd week of April for us in Sendai so all the clubs setup a ton of lunch parties under the cherry blossoms. In total, I went to 3 and I've got pictures from 2 posted here... didn't have many pictures from the first.

The second cherry blossom party I went to was with the lab I would be working at-- the Nanotech lab. From what I heard, the people from the lab sent out a bunch of 4th year students to camp out at the park where we would be doing the cherry blossom picnic to claim our spot since really good spots are hard to find, especially when the the trees are in full bloom.

The group is pretty darn large but the people are really friendly. I had a great time with these guys talking and taking back a few beers with them. A few of the reserachers I met with had the chance to do some research in Canada and the States and their english was pretty good. I did learn from them that some of the airlines in Japan offer a "birthday ticket" which is a really cheap ticket for you to travel anywhere in Japan or nearby for really, really cheap.

There is a lot more I could type out... but I am working off an unsecured wireless internet connection in the middle of the street in the middle of the night. I've been here for about 2 hours and my butt is getting pretty darn sore from sitting out here. I spent the first hour setting up the pictures for you guys to see instead :P

I'll do some more real talking later :)

Enjoy!

Still alive and kicking

I am alive and kicking.. just that my internet connection is not. It crapped out a few days ago after using it for all of 2 days. 6 other people in my dorm are having the same problem and the tech people from the cable company have been hard at it... but to no avail. I was really looking forward to doing reserach and stuying Japanese online (really!).

Today, I begin my quest for a cell phone in Japan. At first I thought that I could get away with life without a cell phone... but that would be so `UnJapanese` wouldn`t it? (argh I can`t find the correct apostrophie on these Japanese keyboards... posting from a Library computer!).

Cell service here from what I have heard cost on the order of 6000~7000 yen, about 70 to 80 bucks a month. Rather pricey compared to Canada. Golden week is comming up next week, meaning that I am going to have the week off to do some travelling.

I`ll post some pictures when my internet connection goes back up :)

The Russian Cure for a Cold

It works for a cold and it's my Russian friend's (Misia) nightcap:

1. 1 glass of vodka
2. A pinch of lemon
3. A few spoons of honey

Mix together and take a shot.

mmmm Vodka

Well I didn't have the honey on me nor the lemon, so I had vodka right up with Misia. Mmm yeah, that's the good stuff that keeps them Russians warm in the winter. I could feel the glow from the inside after the shot. Aside from a slight cough, I almost feel cured!

Aside from that. Misia dropped by to poke around on my internet connection and trade a few stories. Apparently there is a band of 3 girls in Russia called "Viagra" (spelt totally differently in Russian... well looks differently in their language) , renowmed for their skimpy outfits. We had a couple of good laughs.

Awesome guy and he's a giant- 2 meters tall. It's hilarious hanging out with him-- Japanese girls have the most stunned look in their faces when they see him. We've had a few change their mind from stepping into the elevator with him. Too funny.

Picture Album

It's 4:50 am. I can't sleep and I have a sore throat. I'll just work on this blog instead :P. Allright so some of you might be wondering what's with the really, really long posts over the last "week." Actually it's a collection of summaries I've been writing in the mornings on my computer while I was jet lagged(ie me waking up at 5:00 am and typing away for several hours). So finally after getting my internet conncetion yesterday, I just back posted most of my summaries which turned out to be really, really long. So to save you the trouble of reading everything I've been up to (and for those of you that got a few of my e-mail updates while I was running around Japan) you need not read everything (well except for the April 16th entry which is kind'a interesting :P).

But if you're looking for the express verion of what I've been up to check out this short photo album... enjoy!

Finally, internet!

4:00 pm. I finally go online from my room as opposed to the other times I go online through latching on to unsecured wireless connections around the neighbourhood. One time, I was out from 8:00 to 9:30 (pm) sitting at the bus stop downloading a weeks worth of e-mail though a wireless router while surfing the net and dropping a line out to friends and family at home.

Now after getting connected, speeds from the residence is slow... ridiculously slow! I'm talking about slow enough that I'm going at the speed of a 56k modem while I'm connected through a cable modem. Ridiculous. I'm paying about 3000 yen/mo for this connection and from the flyer, the connection was rated at 10 mbps. Ouch. I knew about the speed problem but I didn't know it was this bad.

There exists other ISPs over here but the other popular serives go through ADSL. The problem of that is that the phonelines here go through a switchboard meaning ADSL connections are impossible short of getting your own phone lines independent of the switchboard. From what I have heard, that isn't a huge problem however the problem is that the Japanese require that you get a *license* to have a phone line and that costs 75,000 yen (approimately $800) when you give up your license, you aren't refunded this money... though licenses are transferable (ie you can buy them from other peopl... Summary here.) Looks like I'm stuck with what I've got for the time being.

More than just translation

About 10 days later, my jetlag is starting to wear off. I no longer awake up in the middle of the night fully awake, but now wake up about half awake where I can just shut my eyes again and fall back asleep. The only problem about doing that is that I wake up in the mornings tired. This is supposedly bad since I lose alertness during the day. According to the Times magazine we have sitting around here, sleeping in extra is a bad thing when it comes to alertness. But anyways, on to other things...

Last week, I was dubbed the Japanese to English translator for the international hour event held yesterday at an internal exchange center. The event was run by the @home volunteer group, a group of university students that are interested with helping out and interacting with exchange students. Over here, the University term for Japanese students started last week making this the first event for the @home group of the year... meaning that a lot of first year students wanting to learn more about clubs that came out.

My Japanese is far from perfect so acting as translator on the fly was rather funny. I couldn't care too much about being in front of 100 students and making a fool out of myself however because a) most of them don't know me, b) most of them didn't know English and c) I'm used to making a fool out of myself in front of large crowds :). Anyways, there were some interesting moments when I was caught off guard with some weird words coming out of the Japanese announcer's mouth where I could only give him a weird stare and a shrug. Everyone laughed so it was all good.

The students that came out to the event were very friendly and very eager to practice their English too, despite being shy about having not so good English. Most of them didn't like learning English during high school and didn't learn it well during that time, yet they were eager to come out to try conversing in English with exchange students (as I probably noted before, through we had an international crowd of exchange students, most could speak English). It was also not very useful learning a language when I was in school, both with French and Japanese; everything you would learn was considered over polite, formal and very clunky to use... but in defense for the school, how else are they supposed to teach you from their position? I found that the international students from places like Poland, Nicaragua, Columbia... etc probably learned English because there were English influences around them rather than from only a classroom environment; it shows when they speak.

I was again amazed at the amount of work the @home students put into the event. They spent about 1.5 hours before the event making Japanese desserts called dango from scratch to give as food during the reception after the presentation was over. Again there were about 8~10 people helping out which is amazing in terms of turn out (more came out later on to help out) and most of them stayed to about 7:30 to 8:00 helping clean up after the event was over. They are exceptionally meticulous when it comes to cleaning too. They were down to the point of scraping off name tags that fell to the floor and pulled out a vacuum to clean out the room before putting the tables back into the room.

In the mean time, I gave a couple of first year economics students an explanation of why I liked differential equations... I was amazed to find out they LEARNED some elementary differential equations for their *entrance exam* into university. When I wrote something like y' = cy + a (where c and a are constants), they nodded at me and told me they remember studying something like that... though they didn't really understand it at the time (I didn't understand differential equations until I saw it a few times in different courses!).

Actually, that isn't the whole of the story. I was just glossing over some of the more juicier tid-bits... Anyways, lets back track a little shall we? After translating the introductory speeches I walked off to the side where a Korean girl (with eye catching blue contact lenses) energetically catches my arm for a sec to compliment me on my humorous translation (I figured that I'd give the exchange students a good time by twisting what the speaker was saying a little)... something to the effect of:

Her: Wow your Japanese must be really fluent, that was amazing!
Me: Thanks, but I'm not really that fluent; I've still got a lot to learn...
Her: Oh come on, you're just being humble... (more flattery ensues :P)
Me: Not really... (and I digress into other conversation)

Actually, I was more amazed that a person from Korea had such fluent English. But anyways... There was another set of presentations left to do, I was going to be introducing the Aikido martial arts performance to everyone and translating what the students were going to be doing. During the presentation the 2 girls (the economics students) were staring at me while the Korean girl stood beside them. I overhear the Korean girl in Japanese saying "do you want to meet him? Do you want to meet him?" Was I already getting prepped up for a setup already?

So after the presentation, I get rushed by the 2 Japanese girls, flanked by their Korean friend who goads me on "hey, since your Japanese is so good, why don't you practice your Japanese and perhaps some English with them?" (my 6th sense tingles...). I start speaking in English to see how good these students are in English to try and lay off the Japanese at first. The Economics girls can't speak much so I switch over to my (basic) Japanese to speak with them... right after I do that, the Korean gal goes "seee, his Japanese is really good, why are you hiding it" with glee. It gets more interesting...

The Japanese students introduce themselves to me... they're both wearing name tags right off to the sides of their busts. So they point to their name tag and stick out their chest for me to get a better view... of which? I really do not know (sweat drop!) I end up telling them I studied Engineering Physics in Canada... the girls chime in that I must be brilliant or something... they tell me that they're bad at math. Ah ha! I thought, perhaps I could talk about some math to cool them off or something?? So off I go saying that I thought understanding math was "beautiful" and that it would be something really applicable for them in their economics field... hence my little tutorial on differential equations... which they've seen (as mentioned before). Despite my broken Japanese trying to use mathematical terms they understood what I was getting at and enthusiastically (hyperactively?) thought that I'd make a great teacher. I get the sinking feeling that I'm fresh meat? Really, there's only so much flirting I can handle at once. It will be interesting to see what happens if I run into meet them again...

Anyways, after all that, I helped out with the cleaning arrangements and then I left at about 7:30 ish and the cleaning up operations were starting to wind down. These students from the @home club are amazingly hard workers... but they seem to have a lot of fun with this club however. More power to them!

Japanese Club Meeting

I still got jetlag.. I'm awake and need to do something! Anyways...my first free day without guides nor a set schedule, except for the meeting in the morning that is. I run down to the local "Family Mart" one of those Japanese convenience stores about a 3 minute walk away from the dorms to grab 3 rice balls; 2 for breakfast and 1 for a snack. I meet up with Sergio and we hop on the bus and are on our way to meet up with Momo who is going to take us to the meeting.

The meeting was very interesting; actually I was amazed. The group leader is quite revered (not in the Kim jong-il sense). The leader arrived at the meeting a little late and the students broke into a cheer and excitement as he arrived (especially from the girls); almost as if he was a celebrity. The second one arrives and he gets the same reaction I get the feeling that the students of this club are quite tight together.

We head into a meeting room, one with tables arranged into a large rectangle. The 2 leaders sit at the head and the rest of us file down along and grab a seat. The meeting starts with introductions from the international students.
We stand up tell them our names and then say a short blurb about ourselves. The leaders do the same and in the interest of time (there were 30 students at the meeting) we skip the rest of the introductions and get on with the meeting (note: 30 students came out to a meeting on a SATURDAY!).

The meetings run in Japan are done similarly to the student meetings I have seen while I was an undergrad in university. The leaders would direct the meeting with a few opening remarks and then pass control over to each student to report in on what they've been doing. The one big difference I noticed at this meeting is that the Japanese students are very emphatic. They would say things like "I did [etc etc] and it was very hard but I got the job done" or something like "I met up with the international students and did [etc etc] and they seemed to have a good time" or something to that effect; they seem to like using many positive qualifiers in addition to what they have to report. About an hour pass after the students report in (lots of reporting in to do) and then we move into a Japanese style meeting room (we sit on the floor).

getting into the room
sitting down

The second half of the meeting comprised mainly of planning. They had a lot on their plate to do. The new term was starting meaning they had to organize student drives, international student events, pamphlet production and more. I was very amazed to see how active these students are. When asked when they had spare time to run events over a series of 6 days, it was amazingly easy to get 5~6 volunteers to every event. I remember in most of the meetings I used to sit at, work would be distributed to people instead of the other way around. They are also very attentive too when it comes to listening to each other. During the entire meeting, although there were people talking in the background, not once did we have to tell other people to simmer down.

The other things I noticed about the Japanese students is that they are very energetic and they laugh, a lot! Every 5~8 minutes the entire entourage would end up in some kind of group laugh after something funny happens or is said; they are quite comical. Sergio, who studied public health in his own country in Nicaragua tells me that this is exceptionally healthy (perhaps this is one of the secrets behind their longevity?).

I take up a small assignment from the club to help them communicate to the international students. I'll be acting as translator to help them direct events in English for people that can't understand what they're saying in Japanese. Although we have an international group of students (many who I have not had the chance to meet in depth so far) it seems that the common language denominator which everyone has studied to some degree is English.

The meeting ends after 2 hours and the students stick around for another hour to hang out and chit-chat. For a while... the meeting was quite amazing; 2 straight hours and nobody was worn down. I have a few new friends that want to contact me via e-mail! Damn it.. I need an internet connection in my room and that's going to take me 2~3 weeks for the internet company to install.

My Empire for a Plug!

Jet lag sucks but it doesn't hurt to wake up really early in the mornings. I spent an extra hour in bed in disbelief that I was awake so early. Perhaps I could lie in bed a little longer and pretend to wake up somewhere more reasonable... perhaps I might fall back asleep again?? I spent an extra hour in bed... I didn't fall back asleep but it began to get brighter outside. It was time to get up.

A plug, a plug! My empire for a plug!

The last time I charged my laptop was in Canada, 3 days ago. I haven't been using my computer that much but with the batteries down to 50% it was time to feed my mobile machine. The only problem is that in Japan, nearly all electrical plugs are of the 2 pronged variety, not the 3 pronged type. I was quite shocked to realize this, thinking that my laptop would become useless here because I couldn't plug the sucker in despite making sure that my power supply could handle the minor voltage and frequency difference (the power in Japan is 110 V @ 50 hz as opposed to 120V and 60 Hz in Canada). I did learn, however that all was not lost! An adapter could be found and I did eventually find it during my excursion to downtown Sendai... a little more about that now.

9:00 am, meeting time at the lobby. We were greeted by the volunteer group that would take us to downtown for our alien residence registration, bank account setup and health insurance setup. I had to write down my name countless times on many forms, over and over... the ordeal was quite stressful since we couldn't make any/many mistakes else we would have to toss the application form and anew. The one part about Japan that is different from Canada is that you have to write your last name first then your first and middle name afterwards. I had to pause several times over and over to make sure I got the order straight. I did manage to fudge a few forms and had to redo the application. How annoying.

We were met up with a few volunteer students from the university that helped the many international students along the way for the applications. We went from building to building signing up forms and etc. The only one annoying part is that they have my official name down wrong... everything went by so quickly that I didn't really have the chance to correct it... and after it was wrong on one form the error propagated through. The mistake isn't a show stopper but it was just my middle name (it sounds the same but was written differently), the next time I have to move out of this place, I will correct this problem since I have to go back to these offices and have my address and etc changed.

We then had a long lunch at a Japanese restaurant. Some of the international students from Central America didn't know how to use chopsticks so it was amusing watching them learn. Reminds me of the first time I started using chopsticks when I was about 5 or 6 or something in that ball park. But enough of that... on to more important things... shopping.

Our first stop after the lunch was to the Japanese equivalent of a dollar shop, called a 100 yen shop. I went ballistic running around buying things. I walked out with about 20 different items including coat hangers, chopsticks, bowls, cups, waste bin, seaweed and etc. Food and things are so cheap there that if I played my cards right, I could eat for less than 5 or 6 bucks a day (the Costco run I did with friends in Hawaii comes to mind here as we were able to eat on a 10 day trip in Hawaii with only 7 bucks a day.. but I digress). The only things I'm missing are pots and pan, it's annoying to know that you have food at home that you can't cook!

Sergio and I get invited to a meeting for an international support club run by the Japanese university students tomorow. We are to meet in front of the university hospital at 9:50 am.

After that, it was back to the dormitory we go...

Leaving Narita and Arriving in Sendai

I spent a chunk of my time hanging out with the other students in one of their rooms. I was with the Brazilian/South American entourage. I could only laugh when one of them said that she needed her Naruto anime fix (heh that bought back memories of when I was totally glued to anime... not as much anymore for some reason). It got late (by Vancouver's standard) so I fell asleep by about 10:00 pm (Japan time). I was up, however, at 1:00 am.

Jet lag sucks (well sort of, not really) but it sucks when you have an appointment at 9:00 am and you wake up at 1:00 am. I didn't think about it like that at the time but I knew that I wasn't in the mood for sleeping. So I went for a midnight stroll around the block for a good hour or so and then made my way back into the room. There isn't much around the Narita airport within walking distance. Most of the building it seemed, were airplane service related... not a single store in sight (like it mattered in the morning). I was stuck in what was like the industrial heart of a city.

When I returned to my room, I managed to take a nap and woke up somewhere at about 7:30 am. 9:00 am came eventually. it was a long wait because there wasn't much to do in the hotel room and it was off with the exchange students to Ueno (I think) where we would head off on our separate ways. We exchanged e-mails and went off on our separate ways. 2 hours later, I would finally arrive in Sendai with students from Bolivia, Nicaragua, Columbia and a few other places and finally arrived at the Sendai station where we were greeted by a house wives volunteer group that helps out international students. We were shuttled back to the international dorms. We had a quick orientation of the place, got some paperwork done and off loaded our luggage into our rooms (more on that later) and we were done for the day. I met up with a few other international students living at the dorm, one of them "Andres" from Puerto Rico (I think) directed us to a little a take shop nearby where we could grab some dinner at a reasonable price (490 yen... about 6 buck in Canadian). After that I retired to my room exhausted... tomorrow we would get registered as "alien residents”, get health insurance and a bank account. By 10 pm, I was asleep unfortunately I'd be awake by 4 am.

Touch Down Japan

JAL has great service. After checking into the airport I got to stick around at their "Sakura" lounge. After being greeted by an attendant I made my way into the lounge which was stocked with free drinks, tea and snacks... none of which I ate since I had other things on my mind... mainly trying to get my iPod mini chalked up with music and ready to keep me entertained for my 9 hour flight to Japan.

With about 1 hour left before take off time, I spent most of it editing the ID3 tags which the iPod is so dependant on using to categorize music. Unfortunately, my music in that respect was a mess (never had the need to organize the ID3 tags before) so off I was on the quest to organize enough music before dumping them onto the iPod. That never really happened, because I was too engrossed in fixing the tags that I barely had enough time to pack up my laptop, power cables, wires and external hard drive before having to make a mad dash to the boarding gate as they sent out their final boarding call. I did make it to the gate with no problems at all.

I boarded my plane right in front of one of the rear door exits on the starboard side. I was flying "economy class" though somehow my luggage was bestowed with the luxury of "executive class/priority luggage." My heart nearly skipped a beat when I remember checking in thinking that I too somehow managed to get bumped up into an executive seat... but alas that was not to be.

I made my way back to my seat where I was greeted by a Chinese looking business man sitting in the middle... not decked out in a full suit but wearing slacks and a shirt. A younger Caucasian found his way to the isle seat, I had myself a window seat.

The Chinese businessman was exactly that after he introduced himself to me and the other person sitting opposite to me. His name was Paul, probably the most talkative and friendly Asian business man I've ever met. I have the impression that most Chinese business people are secretive money grubbing people with the sole purpose of grabbing the most profit as they possibly can. I was rather amused to find that this character to be quite difference, friendly, outgoing, polite yet frank and willing to share about his experiences about his work.

From what I learned about this Paul character, he originally studied genetic engineering in university, later did an MBA and was off doing property management and investing work... very interesting field of work eh?). This man apparently owns a Chinese newspaper distributed in the lower mainland, does real estate in Asia and was off on a business trip for the opening of a new food court and vice president of a family run company which he and his brother works together on (take this with a grain of sand by the way, since this is all talk). Paul does offer some interesting tips, mainly traveling abroad and living in foreign countries for 2 to 6 months is a great experience to open one's eye to the rest of the world. In that respect, I took comfort that I would be doing my masters here for the next 2.5 years or so and that I would become more infused with "culture."

Ben, the person sitting on the isle seat did his undergrad in economics and was going to be studying at a university just south of where I would be studying in Sendai. Ben spent the last 2 years living in Japan I believe, I don't remember the details exactly, but his Japanese was better than mine! I would learn too that he was another student coming from BC to Japan on the same scholarship as I.

The flight was uneventful. The attendants kept us well watered with snacks and food and the rest of my time was spent either sleeping, flipping through random movie channels and then reading research papers on my laptop (however using a laptop on an airplane was quite awkward because it was so cramped). My butt eventually went flat then sore but fortunately the flight was over before it went dead.

Arriving at customs at Narita airport was most interesting. I ran into a large entourage of students with bookmark like tags stuck onto their jackets (the same one I would have to wear to identify myself as an exchange student to the people designated to pick me up after I left the baggage claim area). The large entourage of students were Brazilian students, I could not speak a Spanish though they could speak back to me in a form of broken English. I did meet up with another student from Montreal whom studied Physics (Photonics) by the name of Jer. I was quite happy to see another physicist in the group.

When most of us assembled together, we had people from Venezuela, Columbia, Nicaragua, Spain, Brazil, USA, Morocco, Canada and a few other countries that I can't name off the top of my head. Quite the group. Most of us stayed over at the hotel nearby the airport for a night before heading off to our respective universities.

My uncle and cousins also came out to visit me at the airport. It was great to see them again since the last time about 6 years ago. My cousins have grown up a lot! We caught up over a late lunch (they hadn’t eaten since waiting for me) and it was nice to talk to them for a while. I had a Tonkatsu lunch (deep fried pork cutlet) and then made my way back to the hotel for the evening.