May 27, 2008

Tokyo (JAPAN)

Tuesdays are seminar days in my laboratory. The lab seminar is a weekly event whereby my lab's 15 Japanese graduate students (including one German and one Iranian), the laboratory professors, and I pile into a conference room while research papers are presented. Although the research journals being cited are always written in English, the presentations still proceed in Japanese, which detracts from my getting much out of them. Unless I find a particular subject interesting, which is usually only 25% of the time, I take out my Japanese flash cards and quietly "better myself."

Laughs inevitably arise as other Japanese students take hold of my cards to see what kind of words I am learning. (I am probably not the only one fending off boredom during these 2-3 hour seminars.) Today's highlight was the Japanese word, BUNBURYOUDOU (文武両道), which translates as something like the "sporting and academic way" - basically someone who is entirely focused on studying and taking part in physical activities. I use the word to describe my Tokyo Tech soccer teammates, whose lives revolve around their academic studies and our soccer team. (Being the arrogant American that I am, I also like to include myself in that category, but I doubt I am fooling anyone!)

After the seminar finished, I went back to work on my research project. I have accumulated enough data to swamp the super-computers of Langley, and I am currently in the process of manipulating the numbers with MATLAB. Fortunately, my professor and I get along well and he frequently checks on me so that I do not get snagged by anything.

At 16:00 I got dressed out for soccer practice and ran over to the athletics field. As a team, we spent 20 minutes raking the ground so that it would be playable after last Sunday's mudfest. This was a grueling process that felt like forced labor, but nobody complains in Japan, and neither did I. Practice then went on for a 2.5 hour stretch, but stringing passes together was impossible because of the uneven ground - it's path was as unpredictable as a ball rolling down stairs. Instead, we played games where the ball needed to be juggled. For example, we had one drill where it was 6v3, starting at the half-way line, and we had to score without letting the ball touch the ground. After practice ended, we had an obligatory 30 minute muscle-training session that inevitably leaves me sore for a couple days.

After our final team-meeting, I ran back to the locker room to get changed and clean myself as best I could. I had plans to meet Eric, whose family are visiting from Hong Kong and invited me out to dinner, at Shinjuku's New South Exit at 20:00. I squeezed a soapy gel onto a rag and scrubbed my body in record time before dashing to the Ookayama train station. I used my mobile phone to access Jorudan's website, where I figured out the timing of my transfers, and sent Eric a text that I would be 15 minutes late.

We had dinner at a classy TONKATSU (とんかつ) restaurant that served Japanese-styled fried pork, shredded lettuce, pickled vegetables, a variant of miso soup, and unique GOHAN (ご飯). The prices on the menu dictated the kind of clientele dining here, so I felt somewhat bad about being dressed in jeans, sneakers, and bearing a backpack. However, I am a student, so it doesn't really matter.

After Eric's father bought us all dinner, we posed for a picture together near the lobby of the building. Several of my friends went out for Krispy Kreme donuts afterward, but I was still in need of a shower and a rest after a long day.