Live from Japan (part 2)

So much to say and not enough time to talk about it. I feel like days are fast-forwarding here. There’s so much I see and yet I can’t find time to talk about it. And what would be the point of talking about what I notice with my host family. In the French version of this post, I got carried away a little in trying to explain what the feeling of Tokyo is. So I’ll try to make it shorter or else people won’t read it. And also, Miyako-san and Aika-san don’t like it when I spend too much time on the computer. Aika-san explained that when I was doing that, they felt like I wasn’t comfortable here or something like that. This is absolutely wrong. I don’t think I can’t be more comfortable than right now, considering I’m in a totally different country. Miyako-san and Aika-san are wonderful, warming and comprehensive. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to explain to them how much they make my stay easier here in Tokyo. It’s kinda strange to say that after 2 days. But just tell you how much I would be lost without them.

So today was orientation day. Basically, they give you test to check your level of Japanese. Then they explain to you how the school work, the rules. How you should treat your host family. Like I would spit in their face for what they’re doing for me. It was long and boring. End of the day at school.

Then comes the tourism part. Julien, my brother, Emrich, a French guy we met today, and me went to look around the school. And there comes the weirdest feeling I ever had in a city. Most people will agree that Tokyo is huge, colossal. Over 30 million people roaming in a city not bigger than my hometown. I can’t tell how it feels like. It’s like one of the biggest city in the world and but still have a feel of a nice little village to it. The city has this kind of really fast beat to it but still is really smooth. How can I explain that? You’ll see office worker rushing to eat between two cigarettes while young people walk slowly and take their time. Everyone seems stressed and cautious about everything, but you’ll never see a chained bicycle. They have “pusher” to make sure people would get in the train and compact more of them to save time, but everyone sleep in the subway while they are riding. I don’t know if you get what I’m saying. I guess... no... not guess... You have to be here to know what I’m talking about. You will find on the same corner, a little convenience store with a old manager that doesn’t even speak Japanese well and a gaming center full of noise, music and screens showing new games, with light everywhere, people screaming. I don’t think it can’t get weirder than that in some way. You’ll find small shops lost in the alleys that make you think that you’ll probably lose your kidneys if you try to go in there. Right next to it, you’ll see this sweet park with a lot of trees. And right next to this park, an office building for Apple or Panasonic. It’s... weird... I can’t find any other word really.

So anyway, we went touring. Try to recognise and memorize the streets. But not the name, mind you, for now they all look the same for me. But simply be comfortable. We stumbled on a pachinko house. We first thought it was an arcade. HAHA! How wrong. Pachinkos are slot machines houses. Except that there slot machine is in fact played with little metal balls and you have this kind of switch you have to turn to make them go around and try to put the balls in a hole. It’s really strange. We never figured it out by ourselves. One of the staff showed us how to play. We didn’t win. Well maybe we won, but we don’t know.

And when talking with other French people there, which means a lot in fact, we all came to the conclusion that Japanese obviously don’t like foreigners. Ok. Let me explain. When you walk on the street people will make efforts to not look at you and when they do you can feel this “What the fuck are you doing here?” stare. In the subway you’ll never have to be compacted with others cause they make really great effort to ot touch you. If you sit somewhere you can always be sure you’ll have empty seats on both side of you. If you are in the subway during rush hours, people will try to close each other before you. If you want to sit somewhere who someone just have to his ass a little too make you someplace, forget it, Most of them won’t move and if you finally make them move they’ll change place. It’s seems horrible just like that. But I don’t feel hate from them really. It’s not hatred; it’s more like they are uncomfortable with you. Like they don’t know how to react... Oh I got it! They look like they are dealing with wild rabid animals. So they seem both uncomfortable with you and afraid of you. Which will manifest itself in something that look like hate but isn’t hate. I’m not annoyed by this. Simply we noticed it quickly.

Ok so just before I leave. Quick facts:
Japanese eat a lot but are never fat. Fat Japanese are rare occurrence honestly. In fact I still don’t remember seeing one as for now. I’m considered to be a big eater in my country even for men standards. But here I look like a girl on diet.
A meal will cost you around 850¥, roughly 8$us. The meal is huge, you never give any tips. SO basically you eat a lot for almost nothing.
Subway can cost you as much as 12000¥ every month. More or less, 120$us. Often people will pay double of that. Honestly moving in Tokyo cost you a lot.
Strangers will come to you and often gives you card of bars or pubs so you can go with them and drink. Just yesterday happened thrice. We were advised to not follow them. GUH! Cause I usually they’ll drink with you and you’ll have a good time, but as soon as you are drunk enough you will wake up jawless and cloth-less in an dark alley.
Japanese physiognomy, so far to me, says that they have a kind plain face, their teeth are never right, for a majority. Japanese are not fat, most are really slim but have beefed thighs. Guys all seems to have a natural v-shaped torso, but they never look like they are doing exercise on a daily basis.

Ok that’s about it for today, have to go to school. I like the subway really. I don’t know why but I do.

Cya.