DAY 2

[I feel I need to make a quick apology about the content of this post.  I mistakenly left my 50mm lens on my camera instead of using the 28mm and as a result my shots are very cramped and very not well planned.  Sorry.  Anyways, without further ado...]




I woke up around 7 this time...a little more normal.
Looked out my window and saw all the students rushing to school.
I still can't get used to that.

Demetri (I'm gonna start spelling it like this now) was still asleep when I got up, so I just did whatever on my computer for the next 2 hours (Reddit/FB/Mabu).

Breakfast is always the same by the way, it's bread, potato salad, and a drink.  It does ok for breakfast, but I have a feeling that instead I might just go to the konbini to get some food instead sometimes.

Today was our orientation.  All of us, which was like around 13 of us, gathered into the lobby and met up with Douglas Griffith (I think that's his last name), the man who would take us to the school.  As it turned out, the school wasn't that much farther off than where I wandered off the day I had to myself.

We entered the lobby of the school and the first thing I saw was this huge bamboo tree with papers on it, all of which had writing on them.  Then it hit me...oh shit, Tanabata is coming up (Tanabata is July 7th).

 I couldn't really read most of them, but I noticed one of them said something very interesting, probably most interesting to someone like Eileen...

We had to wait for some stuff to go down so were were just standing around a tree, and people told us to put our wishes up.  A couple of us did.  I put mine up, too.

Our very brief orientation was held in a random room on a random floor (not really, but it seemed that way to me), and they began to go over some of the things about the program.

I won't go into the details of the program, cuz that's not what this page is all about.

Most of the orientation was given by a Kanno-san.
He was an older Japanese man who was the most fluent I've ever seen any Japanese person here so far.
I don't really have a clear picture of him, but the best way I can describe him is that he looks like Daigo with 20 years put on him.
He's super nice, too.

Anyways, that little thingy took about an hour.  Next came the interesting part, the tour of the school.

Just to be clear, we started out in the Tokyo Film Center.  

I think what we ended up doing was starting on the top floor and just working our way down.

One of the ladies working there told me, "Sugoi kamera desu ne?"
I smiled a really big smile.

On the top floor, we saw a small theater with no one in it, but was still playing stuff on the screen.

Pokemon happened to playing at the time.

It was a pretty interesting little room.

Next we hit up the break room, where students would just go to chill out and pretty much just do whatever they wanted.

On the back wall of the room was a chalkboard, and one section of it was a bunch of signatures from famous voice actors.

The floor below had a small sound editing studio with cool looking equipment.

Along our trip downwards we also stumbled upon a glassed-off room with people in it!

These were aspiring voice actors preparing for a performance they would have later on.

A nearby room was used for storing equipment.

 

And then we got to see all the equipment being put to use by the film students making their own independent film.

We touched upon most of the basic parts of the film school.

But there was more to be seen...

...in the Tokyo School of Music!

This part of the school was also affiliated with the group of colleges that were part of our program.

We pretty much executed the same drill where we started from the top and went to the bottom.

When we stepped out of the elevator I saw something that almost made me laugh out loud...

There was a huge wall dedicated to K-On.

I was too busy giggling to myself to know why this was even here, but I'm just gonna assume that one of the composers from this school wrote something in K-On, or maybe all of K-On.

We then saw two rooms respectively named Live Space 1 and 2.

I didn't take any pictures inside, but they were pretty much the same: a decently sized room with a small stage and sound equipment in the back, each also complete with a disco ball.

Down a hallway were a series of rooms each dedicated to some kind of instrument.

I took a picture of one of them, dedicated to singing.

There were also drum rooms, keyboard room, bass rooms, and guitar rooms.  It was pretty legit, and they told us that we could even use it if we wanted to.

Down the stairs one more level were a few dance rooms where people were practicing routines to music.

There was one last thing to look at on the ground level.  There was a sound board that apparently cost 100,000,000 yen.  I was afraid to look at it, let alone stay in the same room as it.

And with that the school tour was over.  Before we left they even gave us some water.  With their freaken name on it!

After we left the school, we were given a brief city tour, but it's nothing that I haven't already shown on the previous posts.

The tours were concluded and we were left to find food.  All of us decided to look around that same area that I had ramen in yesterday.

Speaking of which, here's all of us...or most, if not all.

I forgot some of their names...but I'll learn them for sure soon enough.

Anyways we eventually were lured into a random Japanese restaurant.  It looked pretty nice but since there were so many of us we had to sit in the back on an elevated platform where you have to sit/kneel at a table and eat.

It took us forever to order since the people at the restaurant didn't speak much English and we as a group didn't speak much Japanese.  But eventually all of us got our orders through.  This meal made me realize how much my Japanese has come along.  I was able to say more things while feeling more confident and I could construct basic sentences.

I ordered OmuRice since I already had ramen yesterday, and most everyone was ordering ramen.

THIS THING WAS SO GOOD.

I'm sorry I keep saying that about Japan food but seriously I love this thing.

If...no, WHEN, I go to a maid cafe, I'm getting this exact thing but with my name on it and a heart.

We went to a nearby bakery afterwards and I saw some interesting breads.

Like these Doraemon and Totoro breads.

And if anyone watched Lucky Star, you'd know what these are:

We were pretty free with time so we paid another visit to the arcade, since some people hadn't been there yet.

It was then that I noticed a sign that said no photography inside.

Whoops.

I played some Jubeat and I'm pro now!

I got A, S, and SS ranks on my songs! I guess you could say I'm an ASS [LOLOLOLOLOLOL...sigh.]

Oh also there were 2 Reflecbeat machines in the corner that I didn't notice the first time I was there.

Sorry, Dennis.

Oh I should mention they were Reflecbeat 2.

Dunno what difference that makes.

The people here that play Jubeat are all pro.

And I noticed they're all like big, teenage girls.

Their hands are fluid.

And so we eventually wandered back to the hotel.

The next few hours were just writing this and doing stupid shit and having conversations.


I went down to go get something from the konbini.
I saw EVERYONE downstairs, and I was just like, "...what's going on?"
Apparently they were going to go eat and someone was about to come up to get us.
So I went back up, grabbed Demetri, and we took off.
Also, this was around the time when 2 new guys showed up (yeah pretty late).
One of them actually plays Street Fighter, holy shiet.
It's about damn time.

Anyways...

We went to a yakitori restaurant.
When I looked at the menu I saw something pretty weird...

I ordered something on a spicy something.
It was quite good.
And if you notice, in the background you can see a small shot of a little something something straight out of Japan.

I felt like ordering something else so me and someone else ordered something called mochi bacon.

This is what it looked like.

It kind of dissolved and the bacon stayed.
Kind of like the consistency of cheese.

Good times with food.
But I gotta get back to the school shiet.

I also forgot to mention.

I have to read 100 pages by tomorrow.

Fuuuuuuuuck.