So I finished my football season. A little less work and a little more free time. Finals are around the corner... ahhhh... Sorry I haven't posted in forever, my computer has been having issues.... actually still is. Hopefully I can get another vlog out when I get more free time... As of right now, I am just stressing about what I am gonna do after I graduate... besides that I've been great... had a great break and saw a lot of friends that I haven't seen for awhile. I am kind of bouncing back and forth because its very very late (or should I saw early). Anyways, let me stop myself before I ramble on. Let me leave you with these pictures from break(hopefully, I'll get back to posting a bit more frequently):

AHHHHH life is so stressful and it's only the 4th week... sorry for the delay... I don't have time to upload the typical picture and or video... Hopefully, when I get more free time, I'll be able to get another vlog up soon or at least some clips from Tokyo that I didn't use (some of you might like it)... Anyways had my first game for football, we won. I am currently getting involved in a lab with one of my engineering professors. Also I am getting resume's and applications ready for who knows what after college. I am gambatte-ing my way through Japanese 150, but it'll be worth it at the end. I guess when I first envisioned senior year, I thought I could just ease up a little bit and focus on football or my postgraduate career. Oh was I so wrong, life only gets tougher for those who want to succeed.

On a brighter note, I think my friends and I from the summer abroad program might be starting up a club at Yale. I guess, we all miss Tokyo in some way, shape, or form. We met up last weekend just as a little get together for sushi. We have so many Tokyo themed plans.... so excited

We'll hopefully I can get a post out once a week-hopefully not this dull (probably wishful thinking). Sorry if this post was boring, but I just wanted to drop in and let everyone know what is going on.

Thanks,

Gabe

Finally another vlog... sorry... been sooo busy

Blog 6? I think... update

As of right now, I am sitting in my room at Yale, waiting for Hurricane Irene to pass. I thought I should spend sometime for a short update to everyone. My experience in Tokyo has been amazing. In one of the pictures below you may notice an actor from the show Heroes. Our class actually went to interview a producer who has produced movies like Spirited Away. Other pictures show me with my karate teachers and teammates, my going away party, and other moments before leaving Tokyo (sorry for some of the repeated photos from my last video). I still have a lot of clips etc, that I need to put together. When I have time to edit, I will be uploading more videos and clips from Japan, so be expecting that.

I plan to actually keep on vlogging or blogging throughout the year. I figured it be a good thing to document one of the turning points in my life. I've been trying to figure out what the next few steps in life will be. Hopefully, documenting my life will somewhat help me with this decision. I think it was a great idea by the Light Fellowship committee to make blogging/vlogging mandatory; it really does help you in "owning" the experience. Enjoy the photos until next time, またね。

Omiyage to you

My omiyage to everyone. Enjoy! Hopefully one day our paths will cross again.

Filler blog

I don't have much time now, but I wanted to let everyone know I finished and am back in America. I didn't really have time to post new things up due to finals and the speech contest. I will probably be posting more and more things as I find more time to edit. Also another thing is that I want to continue this blog throughout the year.

Whats been going on Blog 5.1

Things are going good. Time has been really flying by. I only have two weeks left and then I am back in New Haven for football. School has been getting better. For some reason this past weekend I crashed. I took it easy from going out and just relaxed a bit more than usual. Let's see what else has been going on...

Right now I am getting backed up with a lot of clips, but not enough for a complete video. I may just start to post some of the interesting clips in case anyone is interested... and so that the clips don't go to waste.

Rewon and I got Japanese haircuts, so in the next vlog you'll get to see those. We're planning to try at least give you guys the sense of how Japanese people dress in general etc... Ahh so many things: still have to do Akihabara, eat at this restaurant that serves the same thing sumos eat,  go to a prison themed restaurant, etc... Oh I also randomly talked to my friend from high school who happens to be in Japan, so I'll be meeting up with him...

Anyways, before I get back to homework here, the pictures down below are from the Ueno Matsuri parade and a middle school we visited. Enjoy!

Vlog 5

Blog 4.1

Wow, the summer is flying by. I am almost halfway done. Before I know it, I'll be back in New Haven for football. Tokyo has been amazing so far with all the sight seeing, food, etc... I feel like a summer is really too short. I would have applied for a year, but I had football and other commitments back home.

I feel the program is slowly improving, but my classmates and I all still have our gripes. Nothing much to do about that than just focus on how we can make the most of our time left.

Recently a few friends from the states have contacted me that they are coming up to Tokyo, so I'll probably be showing them around or trying new things with them. I am a bit worried these last few weeks will be lived on few hours of sleep. Its hard to juggle everything, especially, trying to work out and stay in shape with everything that's going on. Ahhh commute is killing me LOL. Sorry if everything seems really random with typos and grammar errors. I am taking a break from studying in the wee morning hours.

Things Rewon and I have planned for possible upcoming vlogs: climbing part of Mt. Fuji, experiencing Akihabara (I think the name literally translates to electric city) culture, onsen (bath house), and the Matsuri festival. We are still figuring out a good system to get these vlogs out on a regular basis.

Pictures: celebrated my brothers birthday on the 6th of July. The first picture is from the party. They ordered 7 orders of ribs, we finished it all... pretty quickly I must add. Towards the end of the photos there are a few photos with my host family. The picture of me standing in between two people with their arms around me next to a motorcycle are my host parents, and the picture at the end is with my host sister who lost two teeth today. They've been an amazing host family so far.

Well back to studying.

Post 4 sort of

Well, it's turning out that these vlogs are gonna be a bit more challenging than we thought. Doing these videos in Japanese and then editing the video with subtitles have been major hurdles. Recently, we've been slammed with a lot of busy work for class (Busy work = no fun). On top of that as you can see in the video we are also taking Karate classes among other things. Rewon and I need to figure out a solid system of taking the video and then editing it.

Since there aren't a lot of words and no subtitles, I'll walk through the video. As I said earlier we are now taking Karate lessons. The teacher is going to be teaching us old Karate. In other words, we'll be using swords etc... Also in the video we see a lot of clips of the subway. That's because most of our time is spent on the subway going back and forth. For me it takes about an hour to school. The commute cost is draining my wallet. It comes out to about $10 each day just to go to school and back. Towards the end of the video a lot of our friends get introduced, from Yale or people we met through our program. There also is a quick shot of some random Japanese people we met. We've meet a decent number of strangers on the streets so far, from college students to a CEO of a company. There's also clips from backstage access at the Kabuki show (props to Josh for opening that curtain like a pro) and a tea ceremony we went to.

Pictures: O ya there is a picture of shave ice from Japan. You can compare it with the picture I took in Hawaii from Vlog 2. They are both the same flavor and toppings. Also there is a "Palette Town" for all you pokemon fans out there.

We'll until next time. Hopefully, I can get these vlogs going.

Vlog3.1 been busy

     Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that the next vlog will be coming out soon. The first week has been rough in many respects. And doing a vlog completely in Japanese will be another hurdle, but it will be uploaded at least by the end of the week. After the first week, I found myself slowly picking up more words and phrases in conversations. However, there are tons of things I can't understand. It's some what frustrating, but がんばってね！(try hard/keep at it) The next vlog will have tons of grammatical errors etc, but it be nice to compare the beginning to the end to see the progress.
     On another note, I have a great host family. They try to take me to places I want to go or take me out to try new food. My host parents are really good friends with a Karate teacher, so I will be taking lessons. Another one of my host mom's friends heard I play American football, so she wants to talk to me to see if I could come out and teach some things to a high school football club. That will be really interesting and fun...Hopefully, my Japanese will drastically improve by then. I have also met the grandparents of my host mom. They are extremely kind and always invite me over (their house is a block away from my host family's). I really feel like part of their family.
      School has been interesting. A little disorganized, however, a good balance that lets you have time to explore and make friends with Japanese people to really dig deeper into the culture etc. I think the best way to learn about the language and the culture is outside of the classroom. I think so far I've made a dozen new Japanese friends or so.
     Anyways, here are some pics you can expect to see in the next vlog or upcoming ones:

Vlog3

I am finally in Japan ;) As you can see by my pictures it has been more of the same hiking, beach etc... in Hawaii, so I waited to do an official vlog (video blog) with Rewon. We got some really exciting things planned ahead; it's a bit overwhelming. Sorry if I am bouncing like a pinball on topics, I'm a bit sleepy. It's really hitting me now that in a few days I will not be talking in English at all. I have no idea what to expect, living with a host family in a new place with different rules and customs. Am I prepared for this? I'm in a weird state of vaction/frantically reviewing mode. I really wanted to do a vlog back in Hawaii talking about fears. I was gonna do a jump off of a 60 ft rock (the one in the picture is about 25ft I think). It was pretty scary--if you don't go on a calm day and aim where you are jumping, you could literally die (there was even an engraving to mark where some died). You can only prepare so much and at some point to get to that next level you just got to do it. Suck it up, put your fear or pride aside and just jump. I wasn't able to do the jump due to the horrible weather, but the point still stands. It may be as simple as taking that first step to talking to strangers with limited Japanese or joining in on an unfamiliar song in a karaoke bar. I need to own the experience. Putting myself into uncomfortable situations where there is no way to turn back is the only way I am gonna better myself.

Vlog 2- Let's Go

So for some reason many of my friends wanted to hike this week. I am using the word "hike" loosely, rather a little bit of climbing and a lot of walking/running depending on where we went. I don't want to get lazy or reluctant to vlogging in Japan, so I figured to vlog in Hawaii to start a habit. Hopefully, I will get used to being comfortable around cameras and the time commitment that comes with editing (especially if Rewon and I expect to do our vlogs in Japanese, which would require subtitles).

First Vlog

First video blog before leaving Yale