Reunion Part One (J, T, Mildred)
-------------------------
     It had to happen. We live so close, and yet we hadn't seen each
other for months. Something had to give. Or rather, somebody had to give
us a reason to get together. That's right, it was the "Return of the
Jersey Boys." Er, uh, plus some chicks. See, back in April, Brother Rice
and I kicked around the idea of meeting up. Easter was coming up, and
that meant that many school were getting off for a week or so. At first,
I was to grab T and we'd both visit Jay when I was off from school. But I
got my driving privileges curbed by the all powerful force that is Mom.
So the plan was altered so that Jay would come down to Princeton the
following week. This also had the added benefit that Tony would be on
vacation. The only snag? I was back in school. But no matter.
     Time moved forward to April, say, 21st or so. I come home to a
message on the answering machine from a somebody who I did not expect to
hear from. Mildred was coming down to visit Princeton. It seems she had
narrowed her choices down to Princeton and Harvard. Now don't get me
wrong, I was happy for her and all, but as one who got what I like to
call the "Ivy Snub," I was like, "Woah..." Real Keanu Reeves moment for
me when I heard the message. As it turned out, she was coming next week,
and since I live in Princeton, maybe we could get together and hang out.
And so I said YES! Which was really fortuitous, since Rice & Smoove would
also be in the neighborhood. It would be like a mini-reunion.
     So the fated day arrived: April 26. And that's when the fit hit the
shan (who says these things anymore?). Everybody kept getting lost. First
Jay took a wrong turn on Route 1, going north in stead of south. Ah,
well. I've done that several times myself, so I can't really judge. That
wasn't too bad, though, since he still arrived like five minutes before
school let out that day. Which for a Wednesday, was 1:39. Now Tony just
made things difficult. First he says he'll be done mini golfing in the
morning so that he'll meet us at 2 PM. Then he calls at 2:30 to tell us
he has to drive his friends home. Of course, Jay & I demand restitution,
so we're like, "Dude, just bring your girl with you." And he's like,
"Okay. We're coming." Which caused Fried & Rice to immediately shout back
"No wait, ASK her if she wants to come."
     So finally, Tony and his very nice girlfriend make it over and we
spend some time looking over photos while waiting for Mildred to call. It
was fun to look over photos and poke fun at Sleeping Tony, Tony playing
Puzzle Fighter, and of course, T-Smoove in all those photos with those
lovely ladies... Anyway, Mildred called and save T from anymore torment
we could put him through. So we drove up to meet her at the front gates
of the University like we said we would. And we wait. And wait... and
wait... And finally we give up and go home to wait for her to call again,
Which she did. Turns out that even with a map of the campus, "Lady Ivy"
still managed to walk off the wrong edge of campus. So we go & pick her
up, and have dinner in a nice Japanese restaurant. And it was good. And
then I left for my vacation on May 5. First stop, the mother country.

Things I Learned in/about Taiwan
----------------------------------------------
     1. Although Hong Kong cinema is often stereotyped as the gun-toting
or kung-fu action flicks, the dramas and comedies that come out of it are
not that bad either. There were two that particularly caught my
attention. One was about a blind guy and his life as he dealt with being
blind, his father's over protectiveness, and a tenant in his building,
Joyce. It's a romance, so you can guess what happens. The other movie was
quite a comedy. The main thread of the movie, to me, was a man who finds
the surrogate mother of his child and proceeds to treat her real nice so
that the baby is born healthy. However, he doesn't tell her that his the
father, so she just thinks he's some random nice guy. But there are so
many other subplots that only make it even funnier.
     2. Department stores can be vertical. In the states, when somebody
mentions a department store, we think of like Sears, or Walmart or
something. Big stores that have a variety of stuff. In Taiwan (and japan,
as I later found out), these giant superstores take up not only city
blocks, but several levels, some as tall as fourteen floors or higher.
Each level is dedicated to something different. There's a book level, a
food level, and of course, a kid's clothing level.
     3. Taiwan has the best/worst drivers in the world. New York is
notorious for it's crazy drivers. But none of them can hold a candle to
even the most inexperienced driver in Taiwan. This is a land where Green
means go, Red means Watch Out For Crossing Cars While Going Through
Intersection, and Yellow means Red Will Come Up Soon. And yet, nobody
gets into an accident. If there is a space between cars that you could
just barely fit through, with only inches to spare of each side, they'll
get through without a scratch. And that's like anybody who's driving a
car, not just the taxi drivers. Add in the fact that the road is flooded
by millions of motor scooters, and it's absolutely buck wild.

Reunion Part Two (Laura, Joyce)
-------------------------
     So May 10th rolled around, and I was like, "Lukas, you slacker, you
only got till Friday in Taiwan. You should really call the Taiwan
people." So that's what I did, and we (being me, Joyce, and Laura)
decided to meet the next day. Course, it wasn't that easy. Since they
lived in another city, I was required to take a train over to visit them.
Not a big deal really, but then it occurred to me that it was a train in
Taiwan, which meant I wouldn't be able to read any of the signs.
AAUUGGHH!! But luckily, Mom came to the rescue, bought me a ticket, and
explained to me which stops to get off on and what stations to listen
for. So even though I was really nervous on the ride over, I made it
through okay.
     I arrived in Shin-Tzu with no problem, so I called up Joyce on her
cell phone, and they said they'd be there in a little bit, so I got some
lunch and waited. I've never been more thankful for the numbered value
meal system at Burger King. Instead of trying to say "Big King Extra
Value Meal" in Taiwanese, all I had to do was say five in Taiwanese and
hold up as many fingers. Which saved me from starvation that lunch, since
I would have been otherwise too embarrassed to even try ordering.
     When they finally arrived, we walked around a bit in the city,
shopping whenever the desire arose. Got a little bit of anime stuff, but
it was mostly "Sentimental Graffiti," this obscure girl-type anime that
someone from Princeton wanted me to pick up for her. Sorry, guys, no
Giant Robo. We walked around a bit more, and Joyce got a shirt for her
mom (the upcoming Sunday being Mother's Day). And then we went and played
some video games. Hehe, we tried some of the craziest stuff. There was
this Rowing simulation game, and we tried it twice, but we failed
miserably both times. Then I tried Time Crisis II, since it was one of
the only games that I recognized, but I had a bad run on that one. Didn't
even finish the first stage. Then I tried the Dance Dance Revolution.
It's so hard, but it's so addictive. And then we went to the sticker
booth and got one of those sticker things, but not really, since we
picked the wrong booth and it only came out as a set of regular pictures.
And then I had to go home. ::sniff:: That Friday, I left for Japan.

The Wedding to end all Weddings
-----------------------------------------------
Saturday was the night before the wedding, and the father of the
groom invited all the family on the groom's side to a big traditional
Japanese dinner. And I mean traditional. First, you go into this tea
room, where you have like a very shallow bowl of tea (which you must turn
three times clockwise before drinking) and what I guessed to be the
Japanese equivalent of a Flintstone Vitamin. Then You actually go into
the really dining hall, with the low table that means you sit on the
floor and everything. Then you have the actual dinner, with like fifteen
courses. But it was Japanese portions, so like each course was like two
mouthfuls only. And since my notorious Little Uncle was there, he made me
drink all my water in one gulp so that he could give me a glass of beer.
He's a twentysomething, so he's cool. i don't know how to describe it, it
was just so... so... cultured...
Sunday was the wedding itself, bright and early at 10:30 AM. The
bride was a Japanese Christian (which only make up 1% of the Japanese
population), so the wedding service was in a Chapel with a Priest and
such. The reception afterwards was the big deal. There were like a
hundred people at the lunch banquet afterwards, and yes, everyone was in
a really nice suit, which meant yes, I was in a tuxedo. To get in, you
had to sign your name in the guest book, which proved problematic for me
since I can' write in Chinese. And even when they figured out who I was,
they had registered not a Mr. Lukas Chen, but a Mr. Luck Chen... The
meal, like the dinner, had like twenty courses, and we had like five sets
of silverware. The bride and groom had three different getups. First was
the wedding type, with the white dress for her and the tux with tails for
him. Then they disappeared for a little bit and came back in traditional
Japanese regalia, with nice looking kimonos and an impressive
hairdressing-slash-headpiece for her. Then they disappeared again, and
came back in a really good looking evening dress and tuxedo (minus
tails). It was really extravagant. But most importantly, the serving girl
for my table was all shades of cute. Man, I wish I could speak
Japanese...

Things I learned in/about Japan
--------------------------------------------
     1. It's really really CLEAN. The airport was totally spotless. The
subway and train stations, while a little worn-looking, did not have
nearly as much dirt or grime as the Cambridge T service. Even the outside
streets seem cleaner.
     2. Japanese are really into details. Ya know when you stay at a
hotel, and you want to go to sleep, so you have to get up and turn off
all the lights? In the hotels in Japan that I stayed at, there was a
little switch on the bedside stand that turns off all the lights in the
room at once. In all the public places, like the subway and train
stations, there were special tiles built into the ground with bumps and
ridges so that blind people could find their way around. They give you
two pillows in the hotel. Standard, right? Well, to facilitate most
preferences, one pillow is soft and one pillow is a little harder. Well I
thought it was cool, so there! And the bellboys won't accept tips.
     3. The arcades are a practically a different species from U.S.
arcades. First off, the games all worked on 100 Yen coins. With
conversion rates nowadays, that's just a little less than a dollar a
coin. Expensive, yes? Almost half the attractions were sticker booth-type
machines. Most of the rest were gun-types or simulations. What do I mean
by simulation? There was one where you had to dance (already talked about
that one), one where you had to play a set of electronic drums, one where
you had to play and electronic guitar, one where you played a part of a
piano keyboard, another for the rattle-shaker things, even one with
turntables! I went through Time Crises II here with a guy in a business
suit, and he was actually a really good shot. The most surprising game?
"The Typing of the Dead." That's right, somebody ported over a version of
"House of the Dead" where you had to type a word on the computer in order
to shoot a zombie. It was obviously made for the Dreamcast, cuz I could
see the character sprites with Dreamcast consoles strapped to their
backs.
     4. The taxis are really cool. Most of the vehicles are not a garish
yellow, but a spiffy black. The driver (which is on the right side of the
car), usually wears a really nice outfit, as opposed to Gus in a Hawaiian
T-shirt in New York. They open the door for you with a little device on
the dashboard that pops the rear door open. And they're almost all
high-class Toyota models.
     5. Japanese commercials are really short. Almost every commercial
was only ten seconds long, but they packed so much more of a punch.
Humorous commercials are usually employed, not like the artsy-fartsy
Prudential commercials you see here (you know what I mean, the ones that
try to sound intellectual and shit). My favorite? And old man and a
twenty something face off through smoke. Suddenly, the old man's hand
shoots out, brandishing a set of chopsticks. The younger guy leaps up,
his own chopsticks outstretched. Close-up of a grill, where a pair of
sticks grabs a steak and lifts it up, after which another pair of sticks
comes down on the grill and shatters! Far shot of the scene: they are on
a beach, complete with volleyball players, the younger guy lands with the
steak, looking all cool and stuff. Letters appear on the screen. "LOVE
BEER?" cut to some card shot of a can of beer and the info stuff. Cut
back to same shot of young man in landing pose, just as a volley ball
hits him in the head and he drops the steak. Absolutely hilarious.
     6. One of the "fashionable" things in Japan for girls to wear are
leg warmers. What do I mean? Well, imagine a thick knee sock, like the
ones Soccer players wear over their shin guards. Now make it even longer
so that pulled up, it would reach like the top of the thigh. Now scrunch
it all down so that it's all bunched up on the shins. The result, a
legwarmer-like look. Apparently, it's been "in style" for like five
years. I don't understand it, but whatever.
     7. They only have like 12 TV channels. The entire time I was there,
two of them didn't work, leaving only ten channels. One had Japanese
Baseball all the time, another had Sumo Wrestling, another was CNN, and
another was the Japanese equivalent of QVC with commercials. That's only
six free channels. I'm so glad I didn't go there to watch TV.
     8. It's actually really hard to find Anime stuff. Try to find some
"Darkwing Duck" merchandise here in the States. It's pretty hard, huh?
Similarly, finding anime merchandise for a series that's a few years old
is equally hard. So sorry guys, no big haul of anime swag for me.
     9. I can't tell the difference between the Subway systems and the
Train Systems. Okay, so the Bullet Train was very very different, but
beside that train, they were really alike. Both types of cars run on
wires suspended above the cars, Both look like subway cars, they even
both feed into the same stations!

Reunion Part Three (Yukiko, Sugandhi)
---------------------------
     Not wanting to repeat the rush-rush scenario from Taiwan, I decided
to call earlier, so instead of calling the day before, I called two days
before. Again, I had to take a train to meet my fellow Harvardites in
another city, but this one was easier, even with the requirement of
making line-transfers, because there were many signs in English. So the
Ride over was pretty uneventful.
     So what did we do? We walked around on a Boardwalk-reminescent
complex, complete with wooden bridges and a seaside Ferris Wheel (Which
no, we didn't ride). We failed to any anime merchandise, but that
probably because I didn't want to buy any Trigun manga. We got stuck in
an eccentric merchandise store, with like Austin Powers life-size
stand-ups, and Alligators built into the floor, and Chuckie Dolls, and
lots of weird stuff. We went to eat at some Beef-On-Rice specialty place
for dinner. Cheap and good food, although I had to get an Extra-Large (of
Regular, Large, Extra-Large), to fill me up.
     After that, we went to Yokohama Station, where we did a sticker
thing again. Although we almost didn't, because Su-Chan kept messing up
when trying to write the date and I had to step in and save the day by
erasing everything. We had some additional fun listening to some street
performers sing about losing their wallet on the subway and making fun of
some groupie girls and their clapping talents. That was when Yukiko and
Su-chan realized they need to buy some shampoo, which sent us on a little
adventure looking for just the right brand of shampoo, in a teeny travel
size, matching conditioner, some body wash (as opposed to soap), and a
discussion over which is better, separate shampoo & conditioners or my
personal favorite, the 2-in-1. Then we went on a mad quest to find some
ice cream, but with Baskin Robins closed, we had to settle for some
milkshake from Mr. Donut.

News Boxers
------------------
     - So what did I buy when I went away? A Chinese kung-fu type shirt,
an Eva book, a Coke bottle with Coca-Cola written in Chinese on it, A
short kimono (in that it only goes down to my waist), a hand-held set of
prayer beads, a Studio Ghibli movie on tape, and a dancing pad w/
software for my computer. Not much, huh?
     - On the trip back, I had the worst luck. First I almost lost my
book bag in the Taipei Airport (almost), then Mom lost her passport when
we tried to get back into the U.S. (she had dropped it on the plane).
     - Yukiko & Sugandhi are on there senior trip right now, to the
northernmost island of Japan (I forget the name). Wish them good luck!
     - Got an invitation from Josh to go to his Graduation Exercises on
May 20. But dude, I just got back today. I'm sorry I couldn't have made
it. Nice picture of you driving a Power Vehicle, though. Can't tell what
it is, but i makes for a great Senior Picture in the yearbook.
     - Also got a Postcard from Mildred from Cambridge. yep, leave it to
Lukas to get mail with a Double Ass Bug in the stamp (AssAssIn bug? Ah,
ferget it...).
     - Taiwan's new President got sworn in, and yes, he's a Chen. Now
things should start going my way, with an uncle in international
power...
     - Definitely Goin to John Hopkins. Got confirmation letter and
everything. If you folks who are going there, now's the time to tell me.