Month: August 2018

On Monday, 08/20, the Dartmouth LSA+ students had the pleasure of meeting Ryan Goldstein, our senpai and a Dartmouth '93 alumnus who is currently practicing law in Japan.

We met Ryan Goldstein and Professor Dorsey bright and early at 8:00am in front of Matsuhidai station and rode a bus to the sumo stable 佐渡ヶ嶽部屋 (Sadogatake). On the way there, Ryan gave us a quick introduction to sumo, explaining the basic tactics of the sport (getting to the belt being key) and emphasizing how difficult it was to make it to the top and stay there. He told us that the ranking of the athlete was important, as it would determine their salary, when they practiced, whether they stayed in a 10-person/5-person/3-person/1-person room, etc.

We got to 佐渡ヶ嶽部屋 a bit before 9am, and then we had the chance to watch the morning sumo practice. We watched as the sumo wrestlers of lower rank practiced first, and then another group of higher ranked wrestlers go next. After Ryan received the okay from the sumo coach, we took some pictures of morning practice.

Once all the wrestlers finished practice, we had a chance to eat chankonabe (ちゃんこ鍋), a famous stew made to help sumo wrestlers gain weight. It was delicious and pretty heavy. Not all of us managed to finish our bowls, but as a group effort, we managed to eat most of it. Afterwards, the sumo stable even treated us to watermelon.

We hurried to leave after finishing eating so the sumo wrestlers could eat too. They let us eat first, and they did not eat until we finished. However, we still had some time to take pictures with the sumo wrestlers. We took many group photos, and I also got a picture alone with two sumo guys (as did some other students).

After the sump stable, we boarded the bus again to go visit his law firm in Tokyo. On the way we asked Ryan some more questions about sumo, and he explained many interesting aspects of a sumo wrestler life and some of the controversies to us. On the last half of the ride, some of us fell asleep, perhaps thanks to the ちゃんこ鍋.

When we got to his building, we all went to use the bathroom first, and then Ryan treated us all to Starbucks before we headed up to the 25th floor of the building, where his firm was located. There, he led us into a conference room. The views from there were gorgeous! Ryan explained the surrounding area to us, such as the gardens of the Imperial Palace Building and the famously expensive Imperial Palace Hotel.

Then, he told us about his time at Dartmouth - he did the study abroad while at Dartmouth as well and how he interned for the company Sharp in Japan. While interning was lonely and not too fun, afterwards he decided still wanted to study Japanese - as paraphrased: there are much worse things than being lonely and while being lonely he could study Japanese or do other things. Thus, before he went off to Harvard Law School, he studied Japanese at Waseda in Japan on the Tokyo Monbusho scholarship. He encouraged us to persevere in studying Japanese too, and let us know we could reach out to him about Japan-related things. Ryan also shared with us his experience being a lawyer in Japan - and a sort of celebrity, as he has appeared on TV and in journals before. He also runs a ramen shop called Gakuramen in Burlington, Vermont.

Ryan's stories and advice were very inspiring and entertaining, and we are thankful that he is continuing the Goldstein internship opportunity for Dartmouth students. We are also grateful that he took time out of his busy schedule to bring us to watch sumo morning practice and share with us his experiences learning Japanese and being in Japan.

___

*Note: From 08/10 - 08/18 we were on the Kansai trip. Instead of writing a blog post for this, I will be making and uploading a video soon. Look forward to it!

After classes and lunch on Friday, 08/03, Dartmouth students went to Odaiba in Tokyo. Odaiba is made up entirely of reclaimed land - it is a man-made island. More than that though, it is a popular shopping and entertainment district. Many Japanese people go to Odaiba to shop and relax, and there are many popular date spots including a Ferris wheel and malls.

Some Dartmouth students who had bought museum tickets earlier went to the Mori building Digital Art Museum in Odaiba during the day. The pictures they took there made for some great Instagram posts!

I went with some other Dartmouth students to look around the malls. We went to DECKS Tokyo Beach mall and wandered the stores there. There were a lot of interesting things, including Daiba 1-chome Shoutengai and a takoyaki museum. We also spent a little over half an hour in the Daiso there. Afterwards, we went to look at the other mall Venus Fort before going to Oedo Onsen Monogatari.

When it became evening, we met up with 7 other Dartmouth students at Oedo Onsen Monogatari. Oedo Onsen not only includes huge indoor and outdoor onsen, but also a foot bath and indoor amusement such as arcades and food stalls. Maxine and Serena, Dartmouth '21s who are not on the LSA+ but happen to be in Japan, joined us. After getting wristbands, which we use to buy food and such within Oedo Onsen, we changed into the yukata that came with the entrance fee and entered the park.

After looking around the inside part, we went to look at the outside foot baths! It was beautiful, and since Oedo Onsen was having a lantern festival promotion, everything was brightly lit. There was also a sections with a bunch of wind chimes and festival games. Some of the Dartmouth students walked in the "Japanese Garden" themed foot bath, which Oedo Onsen claims to be a bath "paved pebbles stimulate your foot as you walk." Many of the Dartmouth students found it fun but mildly painful. Their feet were indeed stimulated though.

Next, we went into the onsen part of Oedo Onsen. It was huge compared to the other places we have been (in Nikko and Apa hotel), and there was an indoor portion and an outdoor portion. There were also two saunas and two salt baths. It was very refreshing, and some of us spent almost an hour there.

Once we got out the onsen, we went to buy and eat food. Since it was already 8pm, many of us were very hungry. They had Japanese food, ranging from tsukemen to okonomiyaki, as well as Korean, Chinese, etc. foods. I had the okonomiyaki, and it was delicious. After dinner, many people got deserts. There was ice cream, shaved ice, and more.

When we all finished eating, we hurried on home, since Odaiba is an hour or two from where some of the students lived. It was a fun and busy day.

On July 29th, the Dartmouth LSA+ students, Dorsey-sensei, and I all set off to go to Nikko. Let me copy Kimberly's introduction of Nikko from 2 years ago - though slightly edited, as she puts it very well:

"Nikko is located in Tochigi Prefecture, which is not too far from Tokyo. It is home to several famous sites, including Kegon no taki (華厳の滝、Kegon Falls) and Tōshōgū (東照宮、Tōshōgū shrine complex, which was built by Tokugawa Ieyasu and bears his remains). [Note: There is a mausoleum in the temple, but it is not believed to bear his remains.) Here are some maps for reference!

"

We met at Tobu Asakusa Station at 8:30am on July 29th (Sunday) and took a limited express train to Nikko. After arriving at Nikko around 11am, we left our backpacks in coin lockers and headed towards Lake Chuuzenji to see Kegon Falls. We took a bus, and I and a few others napped on the ride.

When we got to Lake Chuuzenji, it was a bit cloudy, but the weather was nice. We ate lunch first at a shop near Lake Chuuzenji that offered items with some of Nikko's famous "yuba" (tofu skin). I had a curry set containing a small serving of curry and a small serving ramen, as did some of the LSA+ students and Dorsey-sensei. I loved tofu skin since I was young (Chinese dishes use it as well!), so Nikko was a sort of paradise for me.

Afterwards, we went to see Kegon Falls. We looked at it from a free observation point, and then rode an elevator 100meters down to the base of the falls. Kegon Falls was very beautiful and majestic, but 5 minutes after we got to the base observation point, it started pouring - really hard.

We tried waiting out the rain, but it didn't stop. So, after Kegon Falls, we skipped wandering around Lake Chuuzenji, and headed to a Japanese inn called Oedo Onsen Monogatari. This inn is actually a chain, and it is famous for its hot springs. The inn also supplies its guest with a yukata to wear while there.

We stopped by the station again to catch a bus there. While we waited, we looked around the shops nearby and ate delicious snacks such as maple honey-ice-cream and fried yuba manjuu. One student, Sydney, was joining us later at the hotel (her dad was in Japan), so I took a picture of Dorsey in front of the Tobu Nikko station pointing to the stop of the bus that goes to Oedo Onsen Monogatari inn.

When we got to the inn, everybody rested until 6pm, when we met up to do karaoke. Sydney met up with us right before karaoke and sang with us. Dorsey-sensei sang with us as well! Afterwards, we all went and ate dinner at a buffet style. After dinner, we hit the hot baths, and then some of us did karaoke again before going to bed.

The next day, we woke up bright and early to eat a buffet-style breakfast and then checked out of the hotel by 9:45am. We left our bags in a coin locker again before going to Tōshōgū.

At Tōshōgū, we saw the 三猿 (sanzaru) or three wise monkeys. Their names are mizaru, kikazaru, and iwazaru - a pun of saru and the phrase "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." We took some pictures in front of them, mimicking the pose. We also saw the famous and adorable nemurineko ("sleeping cat") and some other extravagant carvings.

After Tōshōgū, a couple of us headed over to Shinkyo Bridge. There were chimes hanging right before the bridge, and they not only looked beautiful, they sounded beautiful as well. The bridge itself was also stunning.

Once we finished looking at Shinkyo Bridge, we hopped on a bus back to the Tobu Nikko station area. There, we had lunch and shopped around until around 4pm, before meeting up with everybody at the station to catch our train back to Tokyo.

We got to Tokyo around 6pm and headed to the restaurant Casablanca Silk in the Marunouchi building next to Tokyo station. There we met up with a bunch of Dartmouth alumni who were in Japan. There were several '18s and more recent graduates (I knew some of them!), but also people who had graduated 15 years and more ago! We had a lot of fun talking and eating. Everybody left before 9pm to get back to their homestay families, but some of us added each other on Facebook once we got back. It was a good way to end the Nikko trip.