Old School

Last night (Friday), I went to a Dean's Reception for the foreign students and September freshmen at ICU. Everyone was divided into groups based on Japanese animal names; there was actually someone from my dorm in my group ("Snake"). Thankfully, there was little by way of speechifying, but a good amount by way of free (though not always decent) food. There was also a quiz (participated in by group) testing our knowledge of ICU; we won 1st place, and got the spiffy prize bag. We divided the loot back at our table, using the democratic method of rock, paper, scissors to solve any conflicts over who wanted what. The bag contained an ICU sweatshirt, an ICU T-shirt, two ICU mugs, and several ICU folder-things. I ended up with a mug - not bad.
Today, a Saturday, I got up and headed to ICU - a somewhat abnormal move for a non-school day. I had a reason, though: LAMBS (the samba group I'm in) was going to have a parade. Our drum banging outside the D-Kan (basically, the student union) was cut short, however, by a man who told us that people were taking the SAT II in the Honkan (main hall). I don't see why a Latin American percussion ensemble couldn't relax the test-takers as they tried their hardest, but somebody must have disagreed. So, that activity was cut short.
I also went to Jimbocho today. Jimbocho is a short strip of used/old/antique booksellers situated near the Akihabara area. I discovered that one can easily drop a lot of money there through first-hand experience - I went to one store and was persistently presented with new items to gawk at by the owner/employee, and I apparently am not good at resisting these sorts of pitches. In the end, though, I got plenty of cool stuff. To whit:
- A map of Edo (old Tokyo) from the Edo Period (pre-1868)
- A ______________________ (this might be a "half-"present for someone who reads this blog, so its specifications will not be revealed for the moment)
- Three journals on the Russo-Japanese War from the period of said war (1900s or so); one journal contains some sort of map, possibly of the conflict area
At another store, I found old issues of Time magazine which I also purchased. Yet another store had some old Life issues, which I bought as well. I bought the magazines before everything else, but I had looked at the Russo-Japanese items (as well as a smaller version of __________) before that.
I got some prescriptions filled at a drug store today, and that itself was interesting. I was expecting that I had been directed to some Eckerd's-type place, but I instead ended up in a small pharmacy. It stocked not only pills, but all sorts of health supplements - roots, eel, etc. It was like a "fusion" pharmacy.
At dinner tonight, I found out that I could have gotten my Nintendo DS for a cheaper price at a place right near ICU. Damn. However, I was also reminded (not by that misfortune) that the Tokyo Game Show starts this week. It will last four days, with the last two days only being public-access. Apparently Nintendo doesn't typically participate, but, oh, well. I think I'll go anyway.
My plan for tomorrow is to go see the place where the famous 47 ronin of Japan are buried and to go to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. The latter actually falls into something I need to do for a class, but...more on that later.