Customer Service
I have a lot to write today in lieu of not writing much for the last two days. But since I have to get up at 6AM tomorrow and it's already 10:30, I should probably curb my blabbermouth rather than blather on as usual. I think I can concisely say a few things though.

After getting a *decent* night's sleep the last two days, I've been feeling less stressed. Granted, I still don't have any "me" time, but I'm usually too busy enjoying myself to care. It's only when I get really tired (like now) that I become frustrated. This week, even if busy, will be refreshing because I only had today's classes and Friday's Japanese class left to attend. It works out nicely because last week MONDAY was a holiday so this week I'm only attending the remainder of last week's classes plus Friday's inconsequential Japanese class. Whee!

I'd like to say I get those three days off this week but, of course, I don't. Tomorrow the Oregon group is going to Nikko, a mountain town, to sightsee. Thursday I may go job seeking at modeling agencies or perhaps get together with a fellow photographer to do some portfolio shots.

Wednesday. Now, Wednesday I've scored me a tiny part-time job. A friend hooked me up with a group of older Japanese who want to practice conversational english once a week. We meet on campus at a cafe and chat for an hour. They are three much older Japanese, a man and two women between the ages of 50 and 70. I think it will be a fun learning experience and it pays rather well... Forty dollars for one hour. On top of that, Wednesday I will be meeting with a Waseda professor who is conducting a research project to study cultural interaction between Japanese and English speaking people. The pay and hours aren't great at all ($8/hr and ~25 hours over 3-6 months) but I think that for the small amount of time it requires, it might be worth the effort to participate for the sake of experience. And really, two hundred dollars is two hundred dollars regardless.

But gosh, I do hope my fat self can get at least one or two modeling gigs to pay the rest of my prospective traveling expenses. That's all I need. Just one or two gigs. I can't give up on it before I start... even if I do have back fat and I'm not the "perfect anorexic" the agencies seem to want. BAH. Wednesday I AM getting to the gym.

Anyway, I digress. Today I want to chat a bit about Japanese Business Etiquette and how different it seems than American Business Etiquette.

For one thing, whenever you enter pretty much ANY Japanese business, you are greeted by the staff with a shout of "Irrashai!" ("welcome") When I say ANY business I mean businesses including quick-e-marts, bars, gas stations, whatever. As an American, I never know quite how to respond. Properly, there is no response but I feel that when spoken to I should at least acknowledge the speaker. It's also rather intimidated to be shouted at from numerous directions by numerous employees in large shops and repeatedly assaulted with "IRRA-SHAIIII" from the more exuberant market-type employees. I feel as if they're trying to pound me into buying something.

Secondly, it's interesting to note that in Japanese shops, a customer is always referred to as "okyakusama" (honorable customer) rather than "you." In Japanese, it is extremely rare to refer to another person as "you" (anata) rather than using a title, first name or family name. In shops it is no different.

Despite the crazy city, crowded sidewalks and psychotic bicyclists, Tokyo's trains are always running on time. If, for some reason (suicide, earthquake, mechanical difficulties), your train is late, the station workers will write you an excuse note to take to work/school. If only my bus did the same.

Even service vehicles like taxis and tour busses are made fancy for the honorable customer. Taxis seats are adorned with grotesque doily seat covers. Sunday our bus to kawagoe not only had seat doilies but also had two variety of light fixtures resembling chandeliers and rainbow ceiling lighting. POSH. If you come to Tokyo and are planning on traveling by taxi cab, you should also be aware that you do not open the door for yourself. Taxi doors open and close automatically. To touch them is probably considered rude and stupid on about 50 levels. I bet it happens all the time.

So you see all that I'm learning here in Tokyo? It's such a fun place. Overwhelming, but ecstatically fun. I'm not really homesick except for missing greenery and the company of friends to share these experiences with.

While I may not have any "free" time, I do find that I have enough time every day to realize how happy I am to be here. While I do feel as if my speaking Japanese has hit a wall (especially since we're not learning anything new in class), my vocabulary and kanji are improving. Most of all, however, my listening is improving every day. I understand great quantities of spoken Japanese. I guess my own speaking will come on its own. I've repeatedly been told by my host family and Japanese classmates that I've already improved... but I really can't hear it. If anything, I think I've become very good at things I had already learned but couldn't use at all. In this respect, I'm becoming much more fluent but am consciously unaware of the changes since the curriculum is still review.

As time goes on and we begin to learn more difficult things, I'm sure the language will make more sense.

Oh! I almost forgot something crucially important! One great thing about living in Tokyo is that you're close to everything almost everywhere. Restaurants, convenience stores, post offices, liquor stores, whatever. In my neighborhood, you name it, we got it. Within 10 minutes walking distance. Within 25 minutes walking distance there is at least 10 of everything. No diggity.

So I noticed that there are a few video rental places around here and even that one of them appeared to offer CDs. That's right, in Japan it's kosher to rent CDs. And copy them. Artists recieve royalties per rental so any MP3 ripping you do on your Y100 to Y300 rental is absolutely OK.

On a whim today I filled out an application for an account (such simple Japanese there!) and rented/ ripped my first CD. I would have rented Two Towers but all the videos and DVDs were out. Alas! On top of that, I discovered LimeWire, a Kazaa alternative for the Mac. So far I actually like to better. (Go figure, it's for mac and uses Gnutella... Unix roxxors) SOOOOO.... in a matter of weeks I will be a master of J-POP. Karaoke, here I come!