hallooweeennnnnnnnnn

so I originally started the previous post with the intention of making it halloween but then I went off topic about the stupid typhoon and I just decided to split them up. But yay for 2 posts!

Halloween is coming up soon!!! I know you're probably like: "umm, yea. duh Tiff," but like being away has made me miss it/ get more excited about it. And yes, Japan has been advertising Halloween.  And I was like SO excited to see that pretty much all of the bakeries and patisseries were doing 'Halloween' specials - but like Japan takes pride in celebrating the seasons so they're using their seasonal vegetables.

So there are sweet potato and chestnut flavored things everywhere with the occasion image of a pumpkin slapped on a cookie or slice of cake - but no cinnamon spicy goodness =( I don't want to sound like I'm complaining about the food because I love how Japan caters to each season by showcasing what foods are at the peak of their harvest, but Halloween = pumpkin spice in my heart <3

Anywho, I wanted to talk about how Japan has been incorporating Halloween into society. I've become really fond of this fast-food chain called 'Freshness Burger" lately. Yes, it is super fresh AND super yummy =) But look at the wrappers they serve your burger in! so cuteee <3

And most of the major department stores/Target-esque homegoods stores have displays where they sell costumes and candy - there's also this one place called 'Don Quixote.' I have no clue why it's called that, but it's pretty much like a huge Spencer's. They have a lot of Halloween stuff, a good portion of it imported from the U.S. but that also makes it more expensive =/ Yea, I don't know why they have a penguin in a Santa hat as their mascot either, but that's Don Quixote. 

Here is the Halloween menu from Baskin Robbins - they have flavors with names like "The Candy Man," "The Witch's Trick," and "Magical Night." There is a pumpkin pudding flavor, and I'd like HOPE that it tastes like a pumpkin pie, but I wish there were pumpkin spice lattes (or I wish I had an oven to use so I could make my pumpkin chocolate-chip muffins...). Okay, and it is pretty cute how they made that orange choux look like a pumpkin with chocolate ice cream in it.

My mom sent me my box of clothes that I had packed before I left a little earlier this week. I had her stuff my eskimo costume in there as a back-up because I have an idea for a costume, but I'm just scared it's not going to work. I'm helping plan this Halloween party with one of the directors from CIEE. It's just something to celebrate the season and to get the host families to come out and meet other CIEE students.

And since I've been going through baking withdrawal, I've decided to make pumpkin-spice rice krispies for the event =D Rice krispies were surprisingly hard to find in Japan... I actually like to legit do research and SCOUT out the foreign foods markets in Tokyo. But I am proud to say that I found them, and even more exciting - PUMPKIN SPICE!!! <3 ahhh, I like cried a little on the inside when I saw the jar of pumpkin. It was awesome though - the store I found has a huge variety of import foods and household goods so I felt a little connection to home as I walked through it. It's in this part of Tokyo called 'Azabu,' which has a lot of foreign consulates located in it. But it was funny because I saw so many foreigners there - like I saw ginger kids running around with Japanese kids. IT BLEW MY MIND haha. but seriously

So I'm not going to lie...  the box of Rice Krispies kind of freaked me out... like Tony the Tiger is still on the Frosted Flakes box - but nah dude, it's just straight up katakana on this box. No Snap, Krackle, or Pop =( I actually walked past it the first time I went down the cereal aisle because it was so inconspicuous.


But yes, I did a trial run for one of our planning meetings and they were super-awesome. I'm so excited to make them for everyone on Saturday =)

... typhoon day

sooo yea... so much for being 'on top' of my posts. But after typhoon day... oh yea, the 'typhoon' came 2 days after my last post. I would rant about it, but that would include wayyyy too many curse words and ALL CAPS sections so i'll just give you the abridged version:

- I get a text from my program director the night before to watch the news to see if the trains stop running because classes would be cancelled
- I got up, showered, ate breakfast and all that jazz
- I see that there are delays on some lines from the TV, but not the JR lines that run to school
- I get another text from the program director saying classes haven't been cancelled
- I go to the station and make the commute to school
- As I expected, there were delays; Keio was delayed 20 minutes
(Here's the best part)
- I get a text AS I am walking up the platform to transfer that says that 1st and 2nd periods have been cancelled... I ONLY HAVE 1st and 2nd periods those days
- I am gross, getting pushed from people who are flipping shits, and I am LIVID
- THEN: Tokyo stopped running ALL of the trains
- I got stuck in Shinjuku for 4 hours...
- Luckily, I found a friend who was also stuck so we explored Shinjuku
- We ended up meeting a bunch of people later and went to karaoke

~ The end

yea... it was a 'fun' day... like it was actually kind of, sort of funny after I calmed down and figured that I might as well relax somewhere to come up with a game plan to kill time. (In which, I totally spotted a Starbucks from 3 blocks away - WIN) I started taking pictures of the mass panic that it caused too.

The first picture is of the fallen late slips that the train attendants hand out if the trains are delayed. They began to litter the floor and get sweeped up in people's shuffling.

This one is a little hard to see, but the woman with the green arm band has 2 sets of late slips in her hands and is screaming out to the crowd to apologize for the 'inconvenience' that the temporary stop in rail service caused. Poor lady though... people were legit freaking out AT her and pieces of paper were flying everywhere.

And since I had SO much free time on my hands, I went around and got all 3 late slips (Keio, JR, and the Marunouchi subway). yea... I had a lot of time though haha.

Oh, but did I mention the sun came out like around noon? It was a BEAUTIFUL day from like 12:30 ~ 1:00 p.m. on; like 75-ish degrees, clear skies, the whole shebang of the words 'beautiful day.' There were mini gusts of wind, but still... I saw that the typhoon did actually cause damage across other area of Japan though - my grandmother apparently carried a chest up to the 2nd floor by herself? I don't know... But she, like Japan, did not take mother nature lightly. I guess I didn't think twice about what 'could' have happened because I was so used to hurricane season back home. But like COME ON Tokyo - I SO did not need to make all of that effort and walk around Shinjuku looking like a hot mess for 4 hours.

And this was the next day... can you SEE how sunny it was? Chyea.... and Keio still managed to be 10 minutes late. Whatevs... That day has infamously been dubbed 'typhoon day' by everyone and I will hopefully never have to experience another mass-chaos with the trains.

But then I went out that night and found these people =) I think they were recruiters for a manga-cafe? I don't know... I just felt bad that they had to wear those for their uniforms hahah. But I'm not going to lie... I kind of, sort of, really want to buy one before I come back home. I have a picture in the 1st album with a whole rack of costume-onesies. I see a girl in the dorm wearing a Cheshire Cat one as her pajamas from time to time. I don't know which one I'll get, but I am SO going to rock one around my apartment when I get back to Philly <3

trains... the rumors are true

I know, like WHATTTT? another post the next day? Well I am super excited to announce that for the FIRST time in the history of me being a college student: I HAVE A DAY OFF. Ahh, omg like seriously I didn't think it was true at first. And it just HAPPENED like that - Jochi just GAVE it to me. I have my RPH251 (religion) class Mondays and Thursdays, IBE316 (economic policy), HST251 (history) on Tuesdays and Fridays, and Japanese 3 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. MASS-EXCITEMENT (as if you couldn't tell by the all-CAPS parts). But yea, I'm pretty pumped. 


Anywho, the point of this post is for the train commute I take to school in the mornings. Like I'm sure you've heard of the hired 'pushers' and 'pullers' on the platforms... Well they legit exist. They have their little while gloves on and are prepared to DO WORK. My neighbor Naoko posted this video and I laughed so hard I started tearing up, but it's no joke. 

I get pushed and squished and shoved every morning. There is NO meaning to the term 'personal space' during the morning rush hours - like I was all up in some dude's armpit for 10 minutes this morning. I also got elbowed in the nose on Monday, but that guy actually said he was sorry for that. Yea... awesome... I like pray to myself that no one gets on at the next and that people will get off, but of course that's just my wishful thinking...


But another thing I wanted to note is my actual commute. My commute usually takes like 45 minutes total, which isn't bad in my opinion. I had originally only posted the Tokyo Metro (subway) map, like thinking I'd take that or something. But I actually take a private line called Keio and then transfer to the JR (Japan Railway) system. So my commute is this: 


Musashinodai -- take local to --> Chofu -- transfer to express --> Shinjuku --> transfer from Keio to JR line in the station --> go to next stop, Yotsuya, which is where school is. 


The ride between Chofu and Shinjuku is always the worst. I always wait for the express because the 'rapid' is SO not a 'rapid;'  it only skips like 4 local stations along the way... But yea, that whole notion of politeness and modesty STOPS with the trains. Old people and housewives with shopping bags will run you down at any time with no regrets so they can get a seat. And like I've found out that wearing heels is a strategical move. Because I am like normal height here ( <3 ), I can face my head up towards the ceiling of the train and like kind of, sort of, but not really breathe IF I wear heels that day. So it's either wear heels, or look down the entire time to try and find a pocket of air to claim for myself. 


I think this is where the trains are the reason for the majority of my mystery bruises... not that I doubt I got some while just trying to function normally, but I think I can target the commute as one of the many possibilities. And as much as I've like freaked out within this post about the commute, it really is only the mornings that suck. And Keio. They've been late for the past couple of days due to the rain and upcoming typhoon. It's like SUPER ridiculous for trains to be late in Japan and station masters even have notices to give to people so they can prove that the trains WERE actually late. Keio needs to step their shit up. 


But besides the mornings and Keio, I can honestly say I LOVE the public transportation here in Japan. It is so easy to travel anywhere within or outside of the city because people rely on it so much. And the morning rush hours do have like 1 advantage; it's that the trains run so often that if you miss it, another one will come within 3~5 minutes. Ooh Japan... your dichotomy between politeness and respect in society and the insolent attitude towards morning commutes will forever puzzle me... Maybe I'll be super on top of things and have another post up again soon <3 

oh yea... I came here for school...

So I know I’ve done a sucky job at keeping this updated… But orientation is FINALLY over and I’ve started classes!! Well yay for the orientation part being over… ugh, classes. I’m taking 4 classes for the semester, which is weird because they’re 14 week terms – not the usual 10 like I’m used to. Whatevs, I’m happy with all of my classes =) I’m taking a religion class (I know, like WHAT?) titled ‘Religion, Culture, and Society,’ an international business class titled ‘Economic Policy, and a history class titled ‘Development of Japanese Civilization.’ The one I’m most surprised about is the religion class. It’s more or less about how religion is interpreted in society, especially within the context of Japanese culture. It’s interesting taking classes with both other exchange/international transfer students, and Japanese people.

The classes are all taught in English, besides my Japanese language course of course, but it’s been pretty cool to see the different teaching styles and such. Today was only my 3^rd day of class, but yea fml for my Japanese… Thursday was our 1^st day and we had a quiz on Friday. And I had another one today. Oh, and btw’s I have another one tomorrow. I guess I’d rather have like little mini-quizzes than one HUGE test that counts for a large percentage of my grade, but ugh…

I got placed into Japanese 3 though… I seriously thought I had failed the placement test though. Like I couldn’t get a couple of the kanji in the ‘beginners’ section and my mini-essay for the writing portion was SO dumb. They asked to write about the difficulties of learning a foreign language and how you have learned to deal with them. I knew I couldn’t compose something like I would be able to in English, but I got a good like 2-ish paragraphs out. The person reading it must have been like WTF though, because I basically wrote this:

“I went on a summer program to Nagoya once and they made learning fun. Making learning fun is a sure way to get people to want to learn a foreign language. That program made it easy for people to learn and I had a good time.”

I stretched it out as best as I could, but yea… I can only imagine what the grader was thinking while she was reading it haha. I mean I’m happy I got placed into a good level, and class has been going well so far. The only thing I’m like intimidated by is the kanji (characters) because that is SO my weakness.

But I’ve gotten to meet new people, both Japanese and other international peoples. I joined a ‘circle’ (club) called SISEC, which is an acronym for ‘Sophia International Speaking English Club’ (I think that’s what it stands for… not sure… But yea, they had a Welcome Party last night at a restaurant and it was super fun! It was at Ninja Izakaya, which may or may not be affiliated with the Ninja restaurant in New York City, but it was pretty cool nonetheless. I wrote a blog post about ‘group culture’ for the Drexel blog, so maybe I’ll just copy and paste that entry later. So either check that out if you really really really want to read it or just be on the alert for a new post soon. I promise to try and be better about updating since orientation is over. <3