anthill
This city is a tremendous anthill. It's a mad scientist's wet dream. It's huge and terrible and wonderful and overwhelming. I am alternately crushed and embraced by it.

Tokyo is teeming with people. There seems to be a million jobs-- handing out fliers, opening doors, guiding busses-- but not enough for everyone. Every square inch is occupied by someone. Homeless. Commuter. Advertiser.

The streets are non-linear and unnamed. Every inch of space is occupied with road, house or shop. In every available space, someone or something is living, moving working.

Tokyo is like an experiment gone horribly wrong. The city planning is terrible, the traffic is worse, the directions make no sense. But it works. And it works so well that instead of being awful, Tokyo is magnificent. Tokyo should not be, but it is, and probably only because the Japanese, in spite of the depression in the wake of the boom, are still so damn organized. I respect anyone who can master this language.

Today proved, if anything, that I probably never will master Japanese. Our placement test was a joke. It was either really simple or obscenely difficult. "They test you on a lot of Kanji," they said. "Study a lot." Well, Kanji they did test us on but it wasn't on a scale of easy to difficult. The "kanji" portion of the test was quite possibly the most fun if ONLY because I didn't know a SINGLE one of the 60 Kanji they surveyed us on.

Hm. I lied. I knew two. But the reason it was so fun was the guesswork. I asked myself, "Which of these six does "danger" look like? What would the word for "coincidence" be shaped like? This one looks sharp... could it be 'weapon'?" But none of the kanji (Save one) were those we had EVER learned at UO. And the UO program has, by far, more Kanji than the other OUS programs. So what gives? What the hell was the point of that test except for the already fluent students to flaunt their knowledge?

It was discouraging for everyone. I'm getting tired of sounding like an idiot. Instead, I opt not to talk and I just nod and smile. It's easier because that way I understand them and they understand me. Maybe, as Ryan says, it will be like that episode of the Simpsons where Bart goes to France without speaking a word of French and one day opens his mouth to find he speaks fluent French. Good god, I hope so.

Today those of us with Japanese-only phones (masochistic bastards) figured out some fun features. Everyone with English phones has already figured theirs out. I'm sure that in a month's time I'll know this phone just as well as they know theirs. And I'll learn the Kanji from it, damn it. These phones are so amazing. Yay! The battery life lasts forever. ^^

After the test and the phone session, went school supply shopping (everything so expensive here!) and wandered around both Takadanobaba and Shinjuku. We went to the Virgin Records store in Shinjuku for no particular reason and I discovered that Virgin records has, like, "future bathroom" with awesome toilets, sink and hand dryers. In contrast, I used my first "squat" toilet today. Boy, was that an experience. I managed to do it without peeing on my shoes (surprise!) but the whole time I couldn't help but think that maybe I should be squatting in a hovel somewhere instead of doing my business in a University Ladies' Room. Yeesh.

I've got so many people to meet and so much to do. Thankfully, studying is out of the way. Tonight I shall rest, after the little sleep I got last night. Tomorrow is another day off with a "Welcome Party" (read: drinking party) with the Waseda students in the evening.

I'll just end with a cliche-not-cliche. Each day here holds its own surprises. Today I'm grateful for all the small packs of free kleenex they hand out here. Why do they do it? I don't know but my runny nose says "Arigatou Gozaimasu!"