on top of the world
saturday, 14 june 200815h05
i'm now having a café au lait in the sky room on the 22nd floor of world-famous architect philippe starck's building "la flamme d'or". the room's very cool, a bar-type sitting arrangement along the wall -- the wall being a massive window that provides spectacular views of the city. too bad i'm here by myslef. this is exactly the kind of place you want to share with a travel companion: after a long day of sightseeing, you take a coffee/beer (if they had a large mcdonald's coke here, i'd get that), you sit here, enjoy the vistas and try to identify the landmarks in the horizon. on the upside, being by myself gives me a chance to catch up with my writing -- especially since i'm away from my computer.
back to the day of my arrival: having dropped off my bags in my room, katsu and i went to get something for dinner. we ended up in this ramen place, very local, which i liked. i was supposed to accompany him to meet a couple of his friends but, being all tired and jet-lagged, i decided against it. i said goodbye, then walked around the neighborhood before heading home. although roppongi seems to be the ex-pat hangout borough, i couldn't help but be surprised by the number of mcdonald's and starbucks around there. even more surprising, though, is the presence of so many local places free of gaijin or foreigners... and the fact that even in the american chains few people speak english. it seems that, although tokyo's been unafraid to embrace the american capitalistic values, it's still reluctant to yield to the anglicization (is that even a word?) typical of the most fashionable tourist destinations (do you hear me, cancún and bali?). good for them.
the next day i woke up and walked to grips, where i'll be teaching. the school is only a 20-minute walk away from my place and, even in spite of the rain, it was a very enjoyable walk. i met prof. koichi hamada (yale professor who hooked me up with this tokyo teaching gig) and my 10 students. just like my roommates, they are also from all over the place, mainly countries in south/southeast asia and africa, and a couple from japan. i tried to be very nice and asked them to send me an e-mail telling me about their interests and the reasons why they're taking this course. given that the class is so small, i think i could tailor the material to suit their interests, which would make it much more appealing and enjoyable for them. i already got a couple of their e-mails and it's funny they address me as de la garza sensei... and it's particularly funny because most of them have worked for policy institutions or government offices like the ministry of finance of their own countries, and they must be at least around my age. but even professors here address other professors as sensei, so i wonder if they'd feel awkward if i asked them to just call me adrián.
later that day, i got to meet a lot of the staff and walk around campus. koichi introduced me to otsuka-san, the director of the program, and sonnobe-san, who got his phd from yale about 15 years ago. then sonnobe-san introduced me to a lot of other profs, all of whom are impossibly nice. i also met the administrative assistants and they are all extremely helpful and seem to go out of their way to make sure i don't need anything. i have my own office and there's a fitness center in the building, so it seems like i'm all set to spend the next 6 weeks here. there's even a community center in the building and, for a fee of only 1,000 yen/month, you can get all-you-eat/drink snacks, coffee, and tea!
and speaking of coffee, i'm done with mine, so i'm off to ginza now for some window-shopping! :)
i'm now having a café au lait in the sky room on the 22nd floor of world-famous architect philippe starck's building "la flamme d'or". the room's very cool, a bar-type sitting arrangement along the wall -- the wall being a massive window that provides spectacular views of the city. too bad i'm here by myslef. this is exactly the kind of place you want to share with a travel companion: after a long day of sightseeing, you take a coffee/beer (if they had a large mcdonald's coke here, i'd get that), you sit here, enjoy the vistas and try to identify the landmarks in the horizon. on the upside, being by myself gives me a chance to catch up with my writing -- especially since i'm away from my computer.
back to the day of my arrival: having dropped off my bags in my room, katsu and i went to get something for dinner. we ended up in this ramen place, very local, which i liked. i was supposed to accompany him to meet a couple of his friends but, being all tired and jet-lagged, i decided against it. i said goodbye, then walked around the neighborhood before heading home. although roppongi seems to be the ex-pat hangout borough, i couldn't help but be surprised by the number of mcdonald's and starbucks around there. even more surprising, though, is the presence of so many local places free of gaijin or foreigners... and the fact that even in the american chains few people speak english. it seems that, although tokyo's been unafraid to embrace the american capitalistic values, it's still reluctant to yield to the anglicization (is that even a word?) typical of the most fashionable tourist destinations (do you hear me, cancún and bali?). good for them.
the next day i woke up and walked to grips, where i'll be teaching. the school is only a 20-minute walk away from my place and, even in spite of the rain, it was a very enjoyable walk. i met prof. koichi hamada (yale professor who hooked me up with this tokyo teaching gig) and my 10 students. just like my roommates, they are also from all over the place, mainly countries in south/southeast asia and africa, and a couple from japan. i tried to be very nice and asked them to send me an e-mail telling me about their interests and the reasons why they're taking this course. given that the class is so small, i think i could tailor the material to suit their interests, which would make it much more appealing and enjoyable for them. i already got a couple of their e-mails and it's funny they address me as de la garza sensei... and it's particularly funny because most of them have worked for policy institutions or government offices like the ministry of finance of their own countries, and they must be at least around my age. but even professors here address other professors as sensei, so i wonder if they'd feel awkward if i asked them to just call me adrián.
later that day, i got to meet a lot of the staff and walk around campus. koichi introduced me to otsuka-san, the director of the program, and sonnobe-san, who got his phd from yale about 15 years ago. then sonnobe-san introduced me to a lot of other profs, all of whom are impossibly nice. i also met the administrative assistants and they are all extremely helpful and seem to go out of their way to make sure i don't need anything. i have my own office and there's a fitness center in the building, so it seems like i'm all set to spend the next 6 weeks here. there's even a community center in the building and, for a fee of only 1,000 yen/month, you can get all-you-eat/drink snacks, coffee, and tea!
and speaking of coffee, i'm done with mine, so i'm off to ginza now for some window-shopping! :)
posted by adrián at 21:23
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