Weekend in Roppongi

I went to the Roppongi neighborhood twice this weekend, once with a group of friends on Friday night to just go out and again with someone on Sunday night to the Mori Museum. I will preface this entry with the caveat that I forgot my camera (yes, both times) and did not take any pictures. However, that may not be entirely a disadvantage, given the usual activity that goes on in the district under discussion.

Roppongi is like any U.S. city's Chinatown (I know this is Japan) in reverse; it is where all the Westerners live. Accordingly, everything in the area caters to Western needs: Western restaurants, clothing shops, bookstores, etc. I had been warned that it is also a bit of a meat market: Japanese women converge in the area to meet gaijin men and Nigerian dudes accost Caucasian men to persuade them to go to their clubs and peep shows.

This became evident when I arrived at Roppongi Station a good 15 minutes before my party and decided to have a look around. I was fortunate enough to make it out of the station and across the street before the first of perhaps 20 dudes solicited me to “go upstairs… real Japanese women… hot and steamy… do you like leather?... anything you want… fulfill your fantasies…” By the time I made it to the end of the street, I was on the phone to my friends begging them to hurry up.

When my friends arrived, we decided to go to Outback's Steakhouse to experience the local cuisine. The party consisted of approximately 12 Taiwanese students, one Japanese student, and me. Everyone formed a protective boundary around me as we walked down the street, but evidently the Nigerian Brotherhood has seen this tactic before as they penetrated the force field with ease. It doesn't help that I am a foot taller than everyone else. The most ridiculous aspect of their solicitations is that at this point I had been subjected to an equal number of moderately drunk (i.e., 1 pint of beer) Japanese women leering at me.

Outback's was great: they didn't serve any dishes with rice; the waitresses spoke better English than I do; and we engaged at least 3 times in the Japanese tradition of singing “Happy Basuday” to patrons who may or may not have actually had a birthday that night. It's the same song in English, but you clap through the whole damned thing and the Japanese can't make the th sound in “birthday.” Fortunately, my friends brought their cameras and shared their photos, which can be found in the photo gallery.

We had intended to go to the infamous nightclubs in the area, but we eventually wasted the entire night at Outback's and left prompted afterwards so as to catch the last train of the night. This may have been for the better given what I have heard about aforementioned nightclubs, because I did not want to spent the rest of my life soaking in a vat of penicillin.

Sunday night was much more tame. Roppongi slows down on Sundays and actually might be deemed “inhabitable.” I went with Ashley, also from Taiwan, to the Mori Museum to see an Annette Messenger (French) exhibit that was as Catholic as the Pope. I was sure that I was going to end up explaining all of the esoteric Western/Christian elements inherent in the pieces only to discover that she understood it better than I did.

The museum's admission ticket includes access to the roof on the 53rd floor, which gives a stunning panoramic of Tokyo. It's so nice that I will eventually return just to take pictures.

Miscellaneous Notes:

I am leaving for Kyoto in like 2 hours, where I will be through the following weekend.

Recent Weird Food

Here are some culinary masterpieces that I have been able to choke down and keep there:

Green Tea Ice Cream

Shrimp-flavored Corn Chips

First Day of Business School classes

I have been attending Japanese language classes for about two weeks now, but today was my first B-school class, "Corporate and Business Strategy."  This is my replacement for "Managing Across Cultures," the ill-fated class with Professor Grossberg if you have read my previous posts.

When I walked into my new class, I introduced myself to the professor who knew who I was.  

-"You're from Chicago, right?"

-"Yes, how did you know?"

-"You're the big guy.  I have heard about you.  I was also on the admissions committee."

He heard about me?  News can't travel that fast.  

In any case, class was good; met 6 or 7 new students.  Two of the exchange students were in the class; they had transferred from "Managing Across Cultures," too.  They were not fans either; in fact, they reported that Prof. G has built a reputation on campus as being disagreeable.  So see, it's not me.

Sundays in Yoyogi Park

This was a comparatively uneventful weekend for me as I stayed in Tokyo while everyone that I knew went to Chiba (about an hour train ride east of Tokyo) for the Tokyo Game Show, an annual video game exhibition. Seriously, everyone went to that damned thing.

In any case, I took a stroll through Yoyogi Park, which houses the Meiji Shrine amongst other things. Just when I was prepared to crown Central Park the “weirdest park of all time,” I walk through this one.

Check out the sweet pics to the right.

Be Careful What You Wish For…

You just might get it. If you have been following my blog, the post titled, “One-Month Anniversary” reports that I miss “acrimony with other city dwellers.” Well, last week I got some. When I reported my class schedule to Chicago GSB, my coordinator at the International Office reported that I was one class short for complete credit in the study abroad program. Accordingly, I signed up for an additional course, but one week late. I attended the second scheduled class, but to my chagrin no one was there. I then consulted with the Waseda Business School's Program Office to discover that class in fact was slated for that day and no cancellation was reported. Logically, I contacted the professor to insure that I was properly informed:

Hello Prof. Grossberg,

I attended your "Managing Across Cultures" class yesterday in Room 609, but no one was there. I assumed that that particular session was cancelled or rescheduled. I did not attend the previous class, so any information that was relayed at that time, I did not receive it.
As I have signed up for this class, please let me know if the class is still in session and its location and time.

Thank you,

Matthew Drane

I thought that my query was reasonable and well written, but the professor evidently disagreed evidenced by the two e-mails that I received in response:

Dear Matthew,

There's always one. I told my class at the first meeting that we would not be meeting yesterday because it was Yom Kippur, and asked them to tell anyone of their colleagues who intended to join the class that there would be no class on Oct. 9, and under no circumstances to go to the office to ask where I was. So obviously you did not hear it from any of the many students who attended the first session. We will meet on schedule next week, Oct. 16, but I suggest you stop by my office (room 502, 5th floor) before then to sign up, since you don't seem to be "in the loop" with your fellow students.

KAG

and...

I just took a look at the class sign-up sheet and realized that you were in class on Oct. 2. How could you have missed my announcement that there would be no class on Oct. 9? I must have repeated it at least 4 times, and even joked with the class about hoping that everyone got the message. KAG

I attempted a response, but I was at school using a Japanese keyboard that Chicago GSB's mail server did not seem to recognize. When I arrived home later that day, I discovered this third e-mail regarding the second e-mail that he had sent:

Dear Matt, My apologies. This email was sent incorrectly. Please disregard, and come see me in room 502 next week.Rgds,KAG

Nevertheless, I lost my everlasting mind. Here's how a gentleman says, “F@%K YOU!” Kindly note the discriminating use of the semi-colon:

Dear Professor Grossburg,

You must be kidding. It is in both of our interests that I not come to your office.
As you have properly deduced, I was not in class on October 2nd. Your class was not under consideration until a coordinator from my home school informed me that I needed to enroll in an additional course, a message that I received on October 4th.

That “there is always one” arouses suspicion that the fault of miscommunication lies with you. Perhaps the conspicuously outmoded word-of-mouth method of relaying critical information is inappropriate for business school, particularly one of Waseda University's supposed caliber. If you are going to send me two caustic e-mails unprovoked, be a man and stick to your guns; do not send me an apology afterwards.

Given the clumsy and unprofessional manner by which you have handled this correspondence, I suspect that there is nothing about business or management that you can teach me. Moreover, I have elected to drop your class for another. What qualifies you to teach “Managing Across Cultures” if you cannot manage your own classroom?

Kindly refrain from contacting me further in any manner. Should you insist, I will deem it an act of provocation and will relish the opportunity to seek remedial action that I judge to be suitable.

Sincerely,

Matthew Drane

I get so tired of the scorn and childish antics of "academics." I am putting them on notice.

Cultural Notes: 笑み (Smile) Differences in Facial Expressions between U.S. and Japan

I unearthed this gem from the internet, which explains why nobody smiles in Tokyo:

In the United States the emoticons : ) and : - ) denote a happy face, whereas the emoticons :( or : - ( denote a sad face. However, Japanese tend to use the symbol (^_^) to indicate a happy face, and (;_;) to indicate a sad face. When participants were asked to rate the perceived levels of happiness or sadness expressed through the different computer emoticons, the researchers found that the Japanese still looked to the eyes of the emoticons to determine its emotion.

"We think it is quite interesting and appropriate that a culture that tends to masks its emotions, such as Japan, would focus on a person's eyes when determining emotion, as eyes tend to be quite subtle," said Masuda. " In the United States, where overt emotion is quite common, it makes sense to focus on the mouth, which is the most expressive feature on a person's face."

Japanese Advantage in Detecting Liars?

The results also suggest the interesting possibility that the Japanese may be better than Americans at detecting "false smiles". If the position of the eyes is the key to whether someone's smile is false or true, Japanese may be particularly good at detecting whether someone is lying or being "fake". However, these questions can only be answered with future research.

Sounds too scientific for me. Here is my hypothesis:

One-Month Anniversary

This last Saturday was my 1-month anniversary here in Tokyo, Japan. Here's what I miss so far:

-Skim Milk
-Free ATM withdrawals
-Acrimony with other city-dwellers

Saturday Night Dinner

A friend here had a birthday, so we went to a "yakitori," a Japanese BBQ restaurant. Here's what I ate:

-Liver of something

-Chicken Ass (specifically the chicken's tail, but it was introduced to me as the former)

-5 different Nigiri-Sushi (raw fish)

-A few miscellaneous, unknown items

-6 Krispy Kreme doughnuts

I wonder where all this fits on the chart above?

Giants Game: 野球 ("baseball", pronounced "yakyuu")

I went to the Yomiyuri Giants game here in Tokyo with my business school colleagues as relief from our stressful first week of classes. See the game coverage in only 105 pictures in the Photo Gallery to the right!!!

Language Count

Languages used in Japan: 3

Japanese
English
Portuguese

I spoke to a man in Portuguese today since he spoke neither English nor Japanese. Portuguese is especially popular in Japan; for example, ATM's are usually available in Japanese, Korean, English, and Portuguese. I have heard quite a bit of Brazilian music in restaurants as well.

One of my Japanese language professors is from Brazil; she was delighted when I told her that I practiced Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Sensou-ji Shrine (金龍山浅草寺) & Asakusa Shrine (浅草寺)

Sensou-ji Shrine & Asakusa Shrine

The Sensou-ji (浅草寺, “shallow grass temple”) and Asakusa Shrines (also the 三神様, pronounced Sanjin-sama, “Shrine of the Three Gods”) are coincidentally located in the Asakusa (浅草, “shallow grass”) neighborhood of Tokyo. I went with some of my colleagues from the Business School.

The Sensou-ji is Tokyo's oldest and most significant Buddhist temple, dedicated to the Bodhisattva Kannon (the Goddess of Mercy). The legend is that two fishermen brothers found a statue of Kannon in the Sumida River in 628 AD, an article that the village chief instantly deemed sanctified and for which he began remodeling his home to properly house. Historical records indicate that the remodeling began in 645 AD, making it the oldest temple in Tokyo. Off the record, a 17-year gap between the discovery and the remodeling does not strike me as “instantly remodeling” but please consider that people lived life slower in those days.

Unfortunately, the original was bombed during World War II, so the temple today is mostly a replica. Since the History Channel has moved away from their usual 24-7 coverage of WWII to focus on more important historical gems like “Ice Road Truckers” marathons and “UFO Hunters,” I was completely unaware of this fact.

The Asakusa Shrine is a Shinto shrine adjacent to it that commemorates the efforts of the two brothers and the village chief. Evidently, there is no conflict having Shinto and Buddhist shrines on the same grounds.

Additionally, the temple grounds have become a popular site for carrying out important Buddhist and Shinto traditions, including the Sanja Matsuri festival in May, which commemorates the three previously mentioned persons in May for about 4 days, and selling useless souvenirs to tourists which lasts for about 361 days, commemorating the opportunity to sell people things they normally wouldn't buy and at a premium price.