Shane-anigans

Classes? What classes?

shane-dorsey

Days: 22 – 54 (January 28th – Feb 28th)

I’d be lying if I said I was doing anything above the bare minimum as far as school goes over here. But hey, the first 2.5 years of law school were a grind, I’m heading home in a few months to spend my entire summer locked in a room studying for the bar exam, and then after that I’m treated with working for 50 years. Cut me some slack, life’s too short.

After getting settled into life here, furnishing my apartment, adjusting to a weekly routine, etc., I’ve had time to really explore Tokyo and the surrounding area. I eat out for the vast majority of my meals (don’t worry, the food I’ve had so far deserves its own post!), and a decent amount of my time is spent seeking out and/or popping into new restaurants that I happen across.

I’ve joined Anytime Fitness here for my gym membership, and there’s one just a few minutes walk from my apartment which has been incredibly convenient. I also make it a point to get out on a run one or two days a week, along with a few friends from my program who have started something of a run club, where we meet up and explore different routes around the city.

Run club often turns into walk club depending on what time we get started on Sunday mornings

The first weekend in February myself and a group of friends from the program did a quick overnight trip to Yokohama, just southwest of Tokyo – about an hour’s ride on the metro. Yokohama is known for having a vibrant Chinatown, which made it the perfect destination to kick off Chinese New Year.

After arriving in Yokohama, we took the fastest elevator in Japan to this viewpoint atop the Landmark Building. In the distance is Tokyo, but I must say it’s hard to tell where Tokyo stops and Yokohama begins.
In the evening, we took to the streets and checked out the Chinese New Year Festival.
There were traditional Chinese dance performances, along with plenty of firecrackers. Like more than enough firecrackers.
At dinner that night, we were served 10 courses at a traditional Chinese restaurant. I didn’t know what the courses were going to be, or else I would have objected to this here: Shark Fin Soup. I tried it out of curiosity, and to me it was just chicken noodle soup. Sorry dad.
My friend Jack here loves the Japanese beer “Asahi.” Sometimes he’ll buy one of every size, as if he were Goldilocks, sampling his options.
After drinking aforementioned Asahi beer, we ended up in a “bar” that many people would probably just refer to as “some woman’s apartment.” I do not remember who this person is. I’ve been told we talked for 2 hours.

In addition to overnight trips like the above, I’ve also been checking out plenty of things to do within Tokyo itself. Some friends and I went to a professional soccer game between two of the top Japanese League teams. The game was played in the Olympic Stadium that Japan used to host the 2020 (really 2021) Summer Olympics.

We bought tickets to sit in the fan section for one of the two teams: “Vissel Kobe.” They had some really cool chants, and I think we definitely drew one or two confused looks from those around us.
My friend Zaid, returning from a beer run.
While at the Olympic Park, I got the chance to see the official torch that was used for the 2021 Games. Isn’t that cool mom???
I always knew I would make it to the Olympics someday. I just didn’t realize I might be 4 years too late.

Occasionally, the Temple Law Japan program will sponsor some events for us. One of the highlights so far was a group trip to the National Sumo Stadium, where we watched some championship sumo bouts.

We each picked a different wrestler to root for throughout the tournament. My guy is the one wearing a man-thong; he went on to win the whole thing.
Isn’t he a hunk, Mommom?

Speaking of Mommom, I obviously had to miss her birthday on February 10th. I always hate to miss any birthday celebrations for the family, but it sounds like she didn’t miss a beat.

I know a margarita hates to see her coming!

To make up for it, I attended someone else’s birthday party:

They love a good national holiday in Japan. Here I am celebrating the Emperor’s birthday – unfortunately my photos didn’t turn out great, but in the building in the background is Japan’s “royal family” before the Emperor’s address to the public.

Snow, snow, and more snow

I know – I already posted once about a ski trip this winter. But the quality here is so good that I’ve since made two additional trips.

Myself and a group of friends made the journey to the Nagano region of the main island for a weekend-long ski trip in the middle of February. In 1998, Japan hosted the Winter Olympics there amongst a few different resorts in the region. Our group went to the town of Hakuba and rented a nice airbnb for the weekend.

The Downhill Ski event was one of the Olympic events hosted at Happo One (O-nay), the resort we skied at for the weekend.
This region of Japan is known as the “Japanese Alps,” because of the mountain range in the area.
I successfully avoiding having to interact with any of the guys beyond me here (ski patrol). Always the sign of a good weekend on the slopes.
Frame of reference for snowfall: this is in the village at the bottom of the mountain. This tunnel led to a restaurant in the home of one of our neighbors next-door to our rental. They have to dig it out every snowfall or no business. What a life.

One of the great parts about traveling is realizing that the world isn’t so big after all. Way back at the beginning of my program here in Japan, I discovered that I went to college with the cousin of one of my friend’s in my class here. That friend, Jake, came and visited for a week and we squeezed quite a bit in, including a day trip to a ski resort.

The resort, Gala Yuzawa, has had nearly 40 feet of snowfall this season.
My buddy Jake
At times the amount of snow is overwhelming. But mostly, it’s some of the most fun I’ve had all trip.
The Shinkansen (Japanese word for “bullet train”) takes you from downtown Tokyo Station straight into the base lodge of the Gala Yuzawa resort. Within an hour an a half, I had left my apartment and was waiting in line for snowboard rentals.

Jake also wanted to fish, so we chartered a boat and took a trip out into Tokyo bay. We caught 2 fish in 4 hours.

On the water
The jet lag eventually caught up to Jake. Apparently the fish got it pretty bad too because it felt like they were also asleep.

What I’ve been consuming, media-wise as of late

Feels like a section such as this might help give you all a fuller idea of how I’m spending time when not out exploring and traveling, so why the heck not:

Music

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to listen to at least one new full album per week. The past few weeks I’ve given a full listen to Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black as well as The Stones’ self-titled debut album from ’64. Taking suggestions from any and all genres!

TV

I don’t have a ton of time to sit down and watch much TV these days, but a couple of big shows are back for follow-up seasons and I make time when possible to tune in. I devoured Severance season 1 in time to watch each new episode of season 2 as they’re released each Friday. The White Lotus is also back for season 3, another show I’ll be looking forward to each week over the next couple of months. This season is set in Thailand, which is pretty great because it’s been getting me excited to travel there for spring break in a week. Expect a nice long blog post for that trip afterwards.

Reading

For the better part of the past year, my time allotted to reading has been almost entirely consumed by Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives series – a high fantasy epic not short on word count, with each book coming in north of 1000 pages. I just finished book #4, Rhythm of War (he has published 5, out of a planned total of 10 for the series). I discovered the series through “BookTok,” the side of TikTok about all things books, and have been hooked since.

I’ve moved onto Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary (for a second time, it’s that good), as well as John Grisham’s The Firm. Like my new-album-discovery journey, I’m also soliciting books suggestions!

One response to “Classes? What classes?”

  1. pioneeringinternet2bb3db9c07 Avatar
    pioneeringinternet2bb3db9c07

    Amazing! All of it is amazing

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