Monday, October 30, 2006

Oh.

I had just found the website of my older brother's school in China where he taught a couple years ago (Alex, if you are reading this, STOP READING AND EMAIL ME!) and I had a picture of Suzhou. I showed it to my host dad, who was standing next to me, and I said to him 'Isnt it pretty' He said he 'doesnt believe pictures'. He then subsequently admitted to me that he doesn't like China.

Oh.

That's kinda awkward.

Peter

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Sweet!

I just got out of the shower after a really nice 2.5 hour ride! It felt great to get out and ride a nice long ways.

Teikyo won the game (11 to 1), and so I will go again tomorrow to cheer them on, but first I will go an elementary school baseball game, and watch some of my friends from the neighborhood!

I am now off to sleep.

Peter

Bliss.

I went for an hour long night ride last night! It felt amazing to go out riding, and even better because it was a really cool night. Then I came home and watched Japanese TV. There was this relatively new popular 'horror' movie on, but I spent about half of it laughing my ass of. And I understood most of it too!

Exams are over, and today I am off to a school baseball game. The entire school has to go!

Go Teikyo!

Peter

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Relax.

I went for a nice bike ride yesterday after tests. It was slow, and it felt great! Then I played soccer with little kids. And then I didn't study for today's tests.
Took tests today, came home, played a little more soccer, and not I off to calligraphy.

I am still fairly wound up, which is why I am taking the 4th of from school to go hang out at Waseda, and taking the 11th off to go harvest rice!

Peter

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

A whimsical little update.

I was walking to the station this morning and I passed this man who was also walking to the station. He was holding his umbrella under his left arm, ( it is really hard to hold an umbrella like that and still have it stop the rain!) and had a mirror in his left hand. In his right hand, he had an electric razor and was shaving as he walked to the station!

Today was the first day of mid terms. I had Japanese history and Classica Japanese.

I am easing the pain at an internet cafe which has free ice cream.

Peter

I am also working on my Halpern papers as I eat!

Sunday, October 22, 2006

This and that.

They is this other foreigner who lives in my neighborhood. I had seen him several times before, and I say him last night and had the guts to talk to him. He is Dutch, and has been living in Japan for 5 years working at the Brain Science Institute, which is cognitive science. We chatted for a while, and he gave me some links that he said I might like. He lives about a minute walk from my house. I find that the older foreigners are more interesting to talk to. I guess it is really the other kids that bug. Actually, I bug myself.

I went to Yokohama today to hang out with a friend. He hung out for a couple hours. I had fun.

Peter

I bought a new wheel for my bike, and will make all the little fit changes soon.

I am also going to start working really hard so that I can meet the early admissions deadline at Reed. A whole college application in under 24 days!

Friday, October 20, 2006

Why do they sicken me so?

The thing I fear most in life is being seen by the Japanese people around the same way that I see other foreigners.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Misinterpretations.

I went to see the school nurse today about 2:15 because I wanted to ask her a question, but first I had to look a word in my super dictionary: 双極性うつ病 soukyokuseiutsubyou. It means bipolar disorder. About lunch time, I was sat sitting and realized that I hadnt been in my usual depressed mood during PE (pingpong) but had been in almost hysterics. I have picked up a little from Foreign Studies, and if you think you are sick, fear the worst and see a doctor as soon as possible (more on the book later)! I probably misinterpreteted it as bipolar, when it is probably just that my usual depressed self is always alone, and when I finally get some exercise with other people, it makes me happy.
I walked into the nurse's office (the characters 保健室 hokensitsu mean preserve, health, and room) and we started chatting. Pretty much the next thing I realized, is that we were walking to the station and the clock in the front of the school read 5:30! I was really really glad that I had a nice talk like that, and she said she was too, because I was the first male student (exchange student or not!) where she had had a long discussion like that! We really talked all over the map (China, England, bipolar disorder, anorexia, my hobbies, her family, just to name a few!)
One thing that has been mentioned several times in conversations with several people is how very traditionally Japanese I am. When I say 'tradionally' we dont mean like Shugunate era, but several generations ago. The nurse said that they way I think is very similar to the way she thinks, and people in her generation think. I am secretly a 57 year old Japanese woman? I kinda hope not.
Misinterpreting Foreign Studies: I am wondering if I see so much of myself in the book, or if reading the book has caused me to reflect on my own life, and compare it to the book, and probably make several jumps to create connections to the characters. I wonder what my life would have been like if I had never found the book on the shelf at a dingy bookstore which an English teacher told me about.

I dont think I have bipolar anymore, just standard depression.

Peter.

ps. I was gonna (as a joke, because a couple of my closer friends said it would be hilarious) ask the nurse if she wanted to go to an Izakaya with my after school (translate the menu my way: raw beer and fried bird!) but I figured that I shouldn't drink when I think I have a cold. Or maybe its tuberculosis!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Confession.

I am gonna say it because I want to say, and I think it needs to be said. The thing I miss most about the US, is (no offense) not my family. The thing I miss most is Veloshop. They are some of the nicest people I have ever met. I miss bikes. I miss cyclocross. I started crying looking at pictures of the last Cross Crusade race. I wish I had friends like that here. I wish I was in a community like that here. If I did, I wouldn't be so sad.

Veloshop is the coolest group of people I have ever met. I have never felt so included in my life, and I miss it greatly.

I miss you all!

Peter

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Taiikusai

Busybusybusy and tired and stressed, so I will keep this short, but today was the high school sports festival! It was pretty fun, lots of different games and stuff, cheering, and no classes. No times were recorded, it was basically about who won. I took third in my heat in the 200, which was fun, and in the 1500, I lost the sprint to advance to the finals against one of the best atheletes in the country! How many people can say that!

Peter

Monday, October 09, 2006

The Refraction of Culture.

My name is Peter Loewi, and I live in Japan. I left the US about a month before my 17th birthday, and have since spent the past 6.5 months living in Tokyo. As any idiot can guess, living in Japan is much different than living in the US, especially since I have grown up (hear that Japan, I am an adult!) in the US. Unfortunately, I am 17, and Japanese 17 year olds are, well, not adults by the American sense of the word, or for the Japanese sense of the word either. But I am not a Japanese 17 year old! So why I am being treating like one?
Ladies and Gentlemen, I now present to you the concept of 'The Refraction of Culture".
In physics, you have the the refraction of light, and (for those of you who dont know about it, I cant explain it very well, so please go ask one who does know! sorry!)
Take the exact same principle, but treat culture like a river. All of the people from the culture are in the river. All of the places and things and facts about that culture are in the river as well. I am on the bank, looking in to the culture. But, do the refraction of culture, I see things differently than the people in the river, and the reverse is also true. The people in the river see me differently than the people around me see me. So which is really? The really me is the really me right, forget about refraction. So why arent they treating me like I should be treated? Why arent they letting me do things that I should be doing? I hate not being in charge of myself. Its my life, why dont I have responsibility for it?

I always knew I was a poor swimmer.

ps. If you havent read Foreign Studies, by Shusaku Endo, I think now is the time.

Not looking good.

My Bunkasai is over, and it went pretty terribly. It wasn't nearly as relaxing as it should have been. I came home from it, and went for a really long walk after dinner. The mother in my host family (I dont know why she left the house, but she was out) found me sitting on some stairs near the house. She had seen that I wasnt in a very good mood at home, and she started asking me about it there. We argued/fought for well over 2 hours and it didnt go well. She keeps blaming me for all of my problems. I try to explain about the whole culture/river thing and she kept saying that I was just using the same arguement over and over and over again.
She told me that she thought that maybe I should go back to the states.

How ever my relationship with that family ends, I doubt it will be good.

I am really fucking stressed out.

Peter

Thursday, October 05, 2006

A Double Whammy!

Or actually, like a quadruple, but thats even better!
Discussing a book with my mom (the same one that almost got me kicked out), and we came across a metaphor. I discussed this metaphor with my host mother (I hate calling her my mother, because she simply isn't) in Japanese. The metaphor had to do with a river. The river is a metaphor for a culture. My host family is in the river, and I am trying to come in, but am still outside of it. I then used physics to explain the next part! In Japanese! Because the things we are seeing are in the water, and my family and my surroundings are in the water as well, I see things differently, because I am outside of the water! I am outside of the culture, while my surroundings are in the water/culture.

And to top it all off, it has given me a way to start my third and final paper for Halpern!

Peter

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Yes!

Remember that cute girl I talked with in the last post? I met her again today, and this time I had my cell phone! I asked for her mail and she gave it to me! And I got the characters in her name right!

Peter

Monday, October 02, 2006

Wow!

Today had it's ups. During the very first homeroom, my teacher comes in with a letter from the teacher of the international course, asking me to miss my two least favorite classes to practice for the play! That was amazing. I chilled after school, and then I came home and went for a run. I was out running, and I ran into this REALLY cute girl who I had met several times before, and we talked for a nice long time. I asked her for her mail address, but I was out running, so I didnt have my cellphone on me!!! Saiaku! BUT! She has a friend at Teikyo, and is coming to my bunkasai!!!!!!!!!
In other news, I found a comic that fits very well with how I view my school here.
http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF099AD-Truancy_Bot.gif#168

Perry Bible Fellowship is the funniest thing ever. And I am almost completely serious.

Peter

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Trying to fight for what I don't know I want.

I hate being by myself. And yet, I can't stand to be around any of the people that I have met thus far.

So, what do I do?

Peter