Snowboard - a way to pretend one's cool, while the body aches like hell.

First week of inter-semester break...

...and I left Tokyo as soon as I could. Invited by Aya-chan, my Japanese tutor, and myself inviting Ben along, the 6 went for a 2 days 2 nights skiing trip in Nagano, Mandarao resort. Of the 6 of us, me and Ben were the only snowboarders and oh dear, was it painful. Fell a couple of times, esp. when trying to learn new moves, and what awaited us the 2^nd day were stiff and sore all over bodies. Not to mention colorful bruises here and there. Oh the price of fun, and fun did we indeed have.

My skiing in Japan has been the most enjoyable skiing trip I ever had, for 4 reasons:

1. The resorts were extremely nice facility-wise. Everything worked and the snow was good while the days were unbelievably sunny.
   

2. The slopes and courses were so plentiful, 2 days was still not enough to explore all of them, and mind you, I'm still limited to green and blue lines (beginner-intermediate) only!That's Japan for you, a country 80% made of mountains.

3. ONSEN. There's absolutely nothing so enjoyable like a long, hot spring bath after the longest day of freezing and falling. And feeling so dizzy after that.
   

4. I had a snowboard buddy, of the same level as me. It wouldn't be half as nice if I didn't have someone to snowboard along with and so, luckily Ben and I matched in almost everything.

What I found hilarious was how, in that below-zero-Celcius climate, I got sunburnt. Never ever happened to me before.

I also enjoyed the resort for its “Japanese” feeling. There were absolutely no white people, everyone to the last person was Japanese, something I was quite surprised to see. Oh, except for Ben of course and a really really random French guy called Bruno (oh did I crack when I heard his name...), who just had to happen to work for the same hotel we were staying at.

Another notable part of this experience was the opportunity to see Japanese skiing fashion. I shall devote one separate entry on Tokyo youth fashion in general, but here I just wanted to note one thing – even for skiing, Japanese girls still try to look absolutely perfect. Notwithstanding the myriad falling and tumbling dangers, all the wind and snow, Japanese girls on their skiis look as if they were to go on a date – full make up with the cutest skiing costume one can imagine (lots of white, pink and baby blue). For guys on the other hand, they slide without their hats, to expose the fantastic hairstyles, all supported with unknown amount of hair-gel to withstand any wind and speed. Lots of chains, belts and other gadgets hanging from their pants as they conquer the snowboard courses.

I was impressed even with the borrowed snowing clothes - never wore anything this cute/matching!

Curry rice is THE popular dish at skiing resorts. And tasted so delicious, probably bc everyone is starved like hell after they reach the break point. Ben and I fell asleep after that, right at the table ;P.

I truly regret forgetting to take a photo. And I wish I can ever become just half as attractive while wearing baggy skiing costumes or over-sized jacket and tumbling like a ball.

Finally, the thing that really caught my attention was the staff of the hotel/hostel we stayed at. Reeking of tabaco (I had to wash every single piece of my apparel after I got home to get rid of the ubiquitous tabaco stink) , the whole place was run by a manager who always looked like he just came out of an all-nighter at a countryside club, and by a bunch of his assistants, who might as well have been some failed teenager Japanese rap band. All of them wearing baggy trousers and hoodies, speaking super so fast and casually, as if they couldn't be bothered. One of them was even half-American, none of them older than 20. That's really unusual service, I thought, and the (low) quality corresponded accordingly with the (low) age of the staff. They were esp. interested in Ben, given how he was the only white guy in probably the entire resort.

Well, given that kind of management staff, no-one expected any luxuries whatsoever, but that was fine – the price was cheap and we never stayed there anyways, snowboarding away the whole of two days. And we always had something to laugh at.

Amazing how slow it looks, whereas when I did this, it felt so fast! Still a beginner, after all.

Finals at Todai.

A nudge from a dear friend and I realize, it's time to revive my in-passe blog. After my fantastic New Year experience in January at the host family, Tokyo welcomed me with “finals time” schedule. I had a whole month to prepare for my Japanese final exams and two oral presentations, so of course I took it “slowly” (read procrastinated all I could).

Todai Japanese classes at Hongo campus, as much as well-planned they were, had very weak execution, that left a lot to be complained about - little consistency, not very well trained staff, lots of time wasting, are just among many of my quibbles. Compared to Harvard or Princeton Japanese classes (undoubtedly the very best out there), I have to say Hongo ones were very much mediocre. Hongo campus “intensive” Japanese classes, offered from basic level 1 (those who have never read hiragana) to level 5 (those who need to hone their almost-perfect Japanese) were not intensive at all, and speaking in all honesty, I'm sure I could have learned more if I just went for same level, regular Japanese classes back at Harvard.

Komaba campus also offered Japanese classes, however:

1. the level was abnormally high (for students prepared to do academic research in Japanese)

2. the classes were once a week without homework, which meant more a joke than a class
   

But one thing I could never obtain at Harvard as I did here is the listening and speaking opportunity, an advantage stemming purely from my very presence in the very country.

So there is indeed a trade-off and my conclusion is: I need to study by myself here more than I ever needed anywhere else. That in itself is a huge test of my self-discipline and motivation. And the constant attractions and temptations of fun that Tokyo has to offer, are not helping me at all!

End of semester party for Hongo Japanese classes. Lots of food.

I also realized, that I have reached the impasse period, where learning new things are terribly difficult, because the only things left to learn are very advanced points. The basics of basics are taken in, expressing simple things, describing ordinary life-style has been attained. Now is time to talk about economics, politics, news, novels etc etc. The really important stuff. And so, also the boring stuff.

Funny thing though - ever since I came to Japan, my Chinese has not deteriorated (!), the reason being that huge percent of all of the foreign students are Chinese. So along with struggling with Japanese, I am unexpectedly exposed to lots of Mandarin speaking as well (and Chinese karaoke as well!). Oh, irony.

Current level: around JLPT 2 (Japanese Language Proficiency Test – an equivalent of English TOEFL), 1 being the highest. Hope to take at least one such test before I leave.