Thanksgiving, A busy week

Believe it or not, Notre Dame does love me every once and a while. I basically spent this amazing weekend all on her tab.
It all started last Friday. Mallory, Marla, Kevin, and I all hopped on our 新幹線 in 名古屋,　東京 bound. We all managed to grab seats right next to each other on the train ride there (and back too, but that's for later) which was a real plus. If you ever ride any form of public transpo in Japan, you'll soon notice the eerie silence that often befalls the train/bus that you are on. No one speaks on these things except for in a whisper. So when 4 Americans board the train, you know that there is bound to be a turning head or two. Special thing about the ride though, out of the left windows we all spied Mt. Fuji! It was amazing! The snow-covered pinnacle rose up and over the clouds to our side many kilometers away like a connection to god. Below the clouds the massive form spread its weight over Japan like an enormous sumo wrestler, its form that of a long and flowing kimono. Truly inspiring! I captured some video.
We arrived tired and full of luggage but that was not the end. We met up with Bill Mora, alumni and main coordinator of this event, in 東京駅 where I discovered that I had left my $80 ticket back at Nagoya! (oops!) and had to sweet-talk the 駅店員 into giving me a new ticket free of charge (not normal really). So that was convenient. I was eternally grateful that I did not have to ask Bill to pay for another ticket for me! whew. After leaving the station he took us on a quick, somewhat awkward, tour of the immediate area with his two kids. The kids were not the awkward part. Taxis, his general countenance, etc. He finally led us to a restaurant in a mall with a giant spider statue outside of it where we had to wait for about 50 minutes before being seated. Mr. Strange decided to peace out on us for about 40 of those minutes while we were waiting and he left us with his daughter (she was like 4 and spoke English and Japanese, very cute). It was an Italian meal, the first non-Japanese meal that I had had in some time.
After eating he lead us outside where Kevin met his host dad and, strangely, departed with him while Marla, Mallory, and I all went to this other guy's house for what we had guessed would be just getting us all situated before I too left to go to my host fam's house. Not so. It ended up being a small welcome party with some pumpkin pie and drinks. My host father turned up (ND alum too) and soon conversation was flowing. Mr. Man got a little tipsy towards the end though and kept telling us the same story about the main man that started up the Japanese language program at ND....again....again....and again. He's an All-American, just-call-me-Jim, ND graduate,worked-at-the-FBI, loves football, beer, and speaking and laughing in the biggest, booming voice as he can conjure up kind of guy that made all of us a little more comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. Marla, Mallory, and I all felt a little bad for Kevin afterwards....oh well, "Bingo, Bango, Bongo!"
My host fam was all Texas. They were in Japan for a year and neither spoke much Japanese and their son Christopher was a spoiled bum. Either way, it was incredible to wake up the first morning to sounds of football on the internet and someone else speaking English. I felt like I could be home!
That day we (M,M, K, & I) all headed out to do a little sightseeing that turned out to end without accomplishing much really...seriously, time was wasted.
That night though, no time was wasted, at all. We arrived at the Foster's home around 4pm for the main event! Turkey, stuffing, salad, mashed potatoes, gravy, they were all laid out before our eyes! I ate so much I felt tipsy. There was even pumpkin pie to be had! I conversed with the alums and their Japanese wives throughout the evening, was disappointed by one tipsy alum when he tricked me about a possible internship, and sang Christmas carols with Mr. Foster towards the end of the night (turns out he was a Glee Clubber himself. Times were a little different when he was in it and he had quit his senior year because they would not allow him be in club with long hair!)
After the reception M, M, K, a ND kid studying in Tokyo named Jake, and I all headed out to a bar. We stayed there for about an hour...maybe 2, before heading out to a club Gas Panic (yeah....don't go there if you can help it) The night was a success! All's well that ends well and I made it back to my host family's home safe and sound...around 3AM. hehe.
I woke up around 9:20 to the sounds of football and Notre Dame's win--woot!--oddly refreshed. All the ND kids headed out to meet Mr. FBI in his fancy military-only hotel restaurant for breakfast; a buffet the likes that were a sight for Japanese-food-sore eyes: Omlets, hash browns, cereals, orange juice, bacon (pork and turkey), scrambled eggs, grits, you name it. We stopped for a second at a gift shop and then headed out to do some more sightseeing.
The second round of sightseeing was much more productive. We said our goodbyes and then headed out to Tokyo tower. That was soo cool! Most people don't know it but Tokyo Tower is actually taller that the Eiffel Tower. It really does look smaller though. The frame is built of thinner material I think, which gave it a really light, frail feeling. There was also a lobby/building under the center of the tower so it was not able to create the amazing sense of immensity that I experienced when I visited Paris and stood directly beneath the tower. Also the line to ascend the elevator to the top would have taken us about an hour or 2 to wait through...so we left the tower.
Next we headed to possibly the biggest and best Chinatown in the world (I suppose, save except the biggest one...yeah, think about that one). Wonderful foods, mid-day drunks, crowded streets, wonderful food! We ate moon cakes, these deep-fried, sesame seed-covered, red bean paste-filled morsels, some real egg-rolls, something similar to a pot-sticker, pork-filled steam buns, and...well, maybe that was it, but there was a lot of food going around. It was really amazing. There were streets going out left and right from the center road, but our time was limited and that center road was so long that we didn't explore them. I suppose there was where "Made in China" was something that we all looked for in our souvenirs!
After a couple hours there, it was back to the Shinkansen for us; homeward bound. I mentioned that we all we able to sit together on the way back too. Unfortunately the train was so full that we all sat on the floor of the car...for...two...hours...
I'm still tired.

This week will be really busy for me. I just registered for next semester's classes (which went really well thanks to my amazing dart time), I have a presentation in my Culture class on Thursday(on fish), a presentation in my business class on Friday(on Japanese and Chilean business relations), and then a take home test due the same day in the same class (that however should not be too difficult). So yea, busy.

A stack of souvenirs and a desire for shoes and a night out in 金山。