cat /proc/claus

So, one of the things that really ticked me off in my dorm was the lack of an official welcome party. I would see many different people going up and down the elevator and the stairs, and some would stop to talk to me, some would just zip by. Usually, you would think that the non-asians would fall on the first group, and the asians on the second, but this dorm has such a strange aura over it, that the “I wont talk to anyone who I don’t know” people was quite high, regardless of nationality.

Therefore, I tried to set up a welcome party myself. Regardless to say, it failed miserably. I send up some posters around the dorm, and set the saturday afternoon for the party in the multi-purpose hall. To make a long story short, 10 people showed up, and among them, 4 people that I already was acquainted to, and 3 others that did not live in the dorm… shucks.

Anyway, as to say that not everything was in vain, we did found some weird, old hardware on the hall (which is like a big trash heap for the dorm) which were actually working! Including a very useful sound system.

Well, you can see the (few) pics below. The guy in the thumbnail is Ratnesh, one of the few chaps in the dorm with whom I talk in a regular basis.

Ok, here am I, with my endless fight against my pic backlog… I still have two more small albums after this one, but today I’m going out for taking pics again. Well…

Anyway, these are a few pics from my first day in Tokyo University. It was supposed to be a small tour for the new exchange students, one week before classes. I had actually been to touday already, so I knew most of these, but it was interesting nonetheless. This time, the sakura were in bloom, so a sacura covered Akamon is much prettier than one in the winter.

However, besides this pic from akamon, I still need to make a proper set of Toudai pictures, since I missed most of other “touristic spots” at the university while trying to chat with the guides.

I also included in this album three pics of Shibuya I took in the same day. Actually, one pic of the Hachiko crossing, and two of Hachiko’s square. Shibuya is like the “young adult/teen night center” in tokyo. The place where you can find the most fashionable shops and clubs. Not exactly my favorite place in the town, but there you have it. Hachiko is a dog whose statue is like a landmark for the place. As the story goes, in the beginning of the century, hachiko belonged to a professor who lived in that area, and went everyday to shibuya train station to teach in some university or another.

He adopted the dog, and for one year and a half they would go together to the station, when hachiko would go back home, and then return to the station in the evening, to wait for his master. But one day the professor died while at school, and never went back home. So the dog waited, day after day, in front of the station. Eventually people from the neighbourhood would bring him food, and after a few years, the dog finally passed away.

Then they decided to erect a statue for the loyal canine, right in front of the exit gate of shibuya station, where the dog reportedly waited for his master.

Finally, I couldn’t pass this up. In front of Komaba Campus of Tokyo university there is this dry cleaning shop called “Double Face”. Now… really, who would have any dealings with a shop which called itself double face?

Oh well…

The sakura, small falling pink (or white) petals of cherry trees, are one of japan’s “trademarks”, for the rest of the world. The small, delicate flower blooms in the beginning of april (in Tokyo, it may vary for other regions of Japan), and stays on for a very short period, usually one week or two.

For the japanese too, the sakura are very popular, so that every year many groups of families or acquitances get together to make a picnic under a sakura tree (usually drinking themselves out in the proccess). It isn’t unusual to find the biggest and most popular parks in japan completely crowded, without a square centimeter of free space to sit on.

In Tokyo, the most popular “hanami” (as these picnics are called - literally “flower seeing”), happens in Yoyogi park, not very far from where I live. Besides the many picnics going on, people take the opportunity to show their talents (or lack of) in the park.

As for myself, I was invited to go with a group of brazillian monbushou students for a hanami in Yoyogi. The arrangement was made as a welcoming party for this year’s new students, but actually just a few of those (myself included) actually showed up. I took a few pictures during that day, that might give you a general idea of how things went. It was quite fun, actually, although I’m kinda dissappointed at not being able to resume contact with many of the people I met there.

I wish I had hacked photo press to allow comments in albuns, but that is not to be for this album… maybe after I get over with my entrance examination I’ll give it some serious thought. In the meanwhile, click on any of the pictures to be taken to the photo album.

A few more pictures for your enjoyment. This time I’m uploading some shoots from my room. As I said before, it is quite roomy for japanese quarters. It has a specially big balcony. And it has the changeman bathroom, which you must see to understand. Since it still was mid-spring when I took these pictures, you can also see a sakura tree that can be seen from outside my window. By now, all the petals have fallen already, and the tree is quite green. The “Yoda Bed” is another point of interest. Despite its name, I do fit in it.

But the highlight was this:

This small package I found on top of my bookshelf, forgotten. It was so simple, yet so cute and delicate. The japanese words mean “powder of love”. It is a small, sealed paper envelope. Going against my curiosity, I decided to keep it closed, and added to my collection of mementos.

The rest of room has changed a lot, of course, as I spread all sort of baubles and trinkets around it.

Ok… now for the first time I’m actually trying and testing the photopress feature in wordpress. Having to include the pics one by one is a drag… and the album manager is kinda ankward, but it is way better than anything I could have put together in the few minutes I took setting this up. I might try my hand at hacking this someday.

In the meanwhile, you can check the photos I took during my trip to japan. I’ll be putting more photos here in the short future, as I have a backlog of pics in my memory card.