My Slideshow

and here's the youtube link to the same video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eDrcLl1ys4

The end of this journey

I'm home. It's been over a year since I started this crazy adventure and I'm finally back. As some of you may recall, I'm not supposed to be home quite yet, I'm supposed to be in Thailand. Unfortunately for me and thousands of other people, there were huge dangerous protests going on in Bangkok right around the time I was supposed to fly in and they shut down the airport, so I cancelled my flights and my tour was cancelled right around the same time. As you can imagine, this was a bit of a hassle for me, I had to cancel all my flights, find new ones, and be put on hold more times than any normal person can handle (I am not abnormal, I just couldn't handle it). I was supposed to fly to Bangkok on December 4 and back to America on December 20, I ended up flying to America on December 8 instead. This of course meant extra time in Japan.

As some of you may have read in my previous posts, I was planning to spend the last week or so of November traveling and that's what I did. After that I stayed with my friend Eimilly for a few nights, I couldn't ask her to let me stay four extra nights, but I stayed one extra and then just did a little more traveling... works for me! I ended up going to the places I'd originally planned, Matsushima and Nikko in November, and then Hakone in my last extra days since I hadn't ended up having enough time to go there before hand. All three places were beautiful and truly made me appreciate up until the very last day how extraordinary Japan really is. This is what I saw while looking out the window on the way back from Hakone:

Matsushima, one of the three views of Japan, really was breathtaking. The islands there were just so cool and I took a cruise around the bay to see a bunch of them. They shot out of the ocean in so many interesting formations and had beautiful pine trees growing on top of many of them. I also crossed a long bridge and got to walk along the paths that filled one of the bigger islands. Matsushima also had amazing food, I think I mentioned this previously, but Japanese people tend to identify particular cities or regions with particular foods. Matsushima is known for its oysters, which my students had told me, and its cow tongue, which they hadn't. I tried both and they were both quite delicious, although I only liked the fried oysters, the steamed ones were not for me.

I spent what I thought were my last traveling days in Nikko. I stayed in what could quite possibly qualify as the scariest hostel EVER, it was on a back road, perched on the side of a cliff, run by a nice but slightly creepy old Japanese couple, and filled to the brim with junk, as an example I will present you with the masks hanging in the lobby:

Nikko itself was beautiful and beyond the cliff where my hostel was perched was a river with many flowing waterfalls, and beyond that were lovely snowcovered mountains. Nikko is known for some of its shrines and temples. The one it is best known for and that I decided to visit is Toshogu Shrine which is actually a large and very ornate masoleum. This shrine is also well known for having a stable that displays the carvings of the see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil monkeys that are still so popular today. While I was in Nikko I also visited Kogen Falls, a very high rushing waterfall on the top of a very cold mountain. Apparently there are supposed to be monkeys living on the mountains in Nikko but I didn't see even one and I was a little bit disappointed.

I spent two days in Hakone and then came back to Tokyo for my last day so that I could pick up my luggage and say goodbye to my closest friends. Ivan, Eimilly, Eimilly's boyfriend, and I had a picnic in Yoyogi Park to end my year. The park was filled with yellow gingko trees and just like when I went there last year, the foliage was spectacular. Eimilly and Yuki, her boyfriend, had made us really lovely japanese foods like onigiri (rice balls with fillings, e.g. tuna salad) and sushi rolls and other splendid things. We had a lovely time eating and throwing leaves at each other and being joined by a random drunken guy from South Dakota, overall, it was the perfect ending to an extraordinary year.

And now I'm back. I'm just now recovering from jet lag, it took 3 days before my ears unblocked from the pressure on the plane, and I haven't gotten up the nerve to try driving again because it's been raining non-stop since I got home. Still, I'm so so glad to be back with my family and now I'm just waiting to see my sister who is still at school and my friends who are scattered around various states. I will of course be job hunting some more, but right now it's nice to just relax and enjoy being back in a world where I fit in.

The top ten

I am officially done teaching English! It's crazy to think a year has gone by already, when it seems like just yesterday I was stepping off the plane feeling completely bewildered and lost. I don't feel lost anymore, but I don't feel like this is home either. There are some people who come to Japan and feel like they fit in here, like this is where they belong, but I don't feel that way. Living here for the time that I have has been so incredibly amazing, I've seen and experienced so many new and interesting things and I feel quite sure that I have changed as a person because of those experiences, but I think if I stayed here for too long I would lose the admiration I have for Japan and its culture. My highest level student wrote to me in a card, "You have adjusted perfectly, it seems to me, and have kept a good balance of working and playing. You are not a visitor, or sightseer. You have lived here. That's important." Her message made me really happy and I am glad that she does not just see me as a tourist, because I certainly don't feel like one. Some people have mentioned experiencing "reverse culture shock" upon returning to their home countries from Japan, but two of my friends have told me that it really doesn't take long at all before things that are different from Japan seem normal again. I don't think it will take me long to adjust back to the way things were "pre-Japan" but there are some things I will miss, these are the top 10:

10) The crepes from Harajuku

9) Standing to the left on escalators to let people in a hurry get by

8) Receiving omiyage (souvenirs/gifts) whenever people come back from a trip

7) Always removing our shoes at home and at traditional style restaurants

6) Hot cocoa in vending machines from October-March

5) Reliable public transportation, specifically, the trains.

4) The beautiful shrines and temples that are all over Japan

3) The random acts of kindness from Japanese people that I meet. Just two days ago an old man and his wife paid for my entire meal at my local sushi place.

2) My bike, Clementine. Yes... I named my bike. I sold her yesterday. Clementine, I will never forget you.

1) My amazing friends, whom I will also never forget.

I still have about two weeks left before I leave Japan, but if a year can go by so fast then two weeks will literally be nothing. But hey, a lot can come from nothing.

All good gifts

I'm sorry I've been slacking on my blog lately, I haven't ventured out into the city much or done anything particularly exciting as of late since I want to try and save some money for my travels. I have 3 DAYS of classes left, YESSSSS!!!! I will miss my students, well, some of them (especially the ones who gave me presents!!), but I'm ready to move on to something new and of course I'm ready to see all my friends and family back home! I have been checking higher education job sites like crazy for the last few weeks and have applied to a few jobs already, so I'm hoping that getting a head start will help me to land a job not too long after I get back to CT, but heaven knows what could happen with the terrible job market these days.

For the time being I'll just focus on the more near and certain future which includes lots of packing and lots of traveling! I'm so incredibly psyched about my trip to Thailand and I'm also pretty excited about the time I'm going to spend just traveling around Japan a bit more. I'm going to visit Nikko, Hakone, and Matsushima, the last of which is another of the three views of Japan (in my post before this I spoke of Miyajima, one of the other three views). A few days ago I went over to Akihabara a.k.a Electric Town and bought myself a new digital camera which will be reimbursed to me as a Hanukkah present from my parents when I return. I am now the proud owner of a beautiful white Casio Exilim EX-Z77... looking back at this last sentence it sort of sounds as if I've given birth to a camera, well, you get the idea. So now I'll be able to take pictures of all the beautiful places I go without lugging around my 100 pound lump of metal considered by some to be a camera.

I mentioned in the first paragraph that some of my students have given me gifts. I should also mention that two of them have treated me to meals! One student took me to a lovely traditional style Japanese lunch at the Tokyo Dome Hotel. The meal had maybe 5 or 6 courses and each one was presented absolutely beautifully, which of course is the Japanese way, everything from food to gardens needs to be aesthetically pleasing. My other student and I went out for Thai food in Ikebukuro, we'd gone to the restaurant once before with Jenn, but Jenn could not come because she ended up flying home last month for surgery on her wrist and is currently residing in Georgia. My student and I had a good time together though, she is really a lovely person, I'm definitely going to miss her. In addition to my meals I've received a traditional Japanese bag that the first woman who took me to lunch bought for me, some lovely hand made stationary and paper holders, and today one of my students brought me a GORGEOUS hand painted ornamental fan. I'm seriously in love with this fan, I had been thinking of buying a nice one for myself but I just couldn't bring myself to spend the money on something like that, but now I'll have this one, which is so much better because it will have the memory of my student attached to it.

My absolutely beautiful fan:

This weekend I'm going to farewell parties for two of my friends and the next weekend is my party. Saying goodbye to everyone is going to be sad, but knowing I'm coming home to so many amazing people certainly makes it a lot easier. I am just counting down the days! One month and six days to go!

Photos that go with the previous post

The A-dome

Sadako and her crane

A crane of cranes

Just a few of the cranes

The Cenotaph

A beautiful mural at the Youth Hostel

YH Mural

Hiroshima YH Mural

In front of the torii gate

With my friend and a deer

Walking toward the shrine and torii gate

The gate at dusk

Better late than never...

This is now my second (or maybe third) attempt at trying to finish this post over the past two weeks, it just seems that every time I sit down to finish it I am bombarded by distractions, these distractions go mainly by the names of Facebook and Youtube. I also happened to come across a great position as Travel Abroad Manager at one of the SUNY schools that will be opening in January, so I decided to apply for it, which resulted in the slightly more productive, but far less entertaining distraction of writing a cover letter and updating my resume. But that's all done now and I'm finally going to tell all of you about the trip I took about 3 weeks ago to Hiroshima and Miyajima. Of course, I've done more things since then, but nothing pops up in my mind as being blog worthy besides my trip, which was amazing, so I definitely don't want to hold out on my dedicated readers by failing to give details.

Since my memory is starting to fade a little, I'm going to look through my photos to help jog my memory... for once in my life I actually remembered to take my camera and to actually use it! So, first I took the Shinkansen into Hiroshima. When I left Tokyo it was beautiful out, but when I reached Hiroshima four hours later it was all crappy and rainy. I decided to think of the weather as "setting the mood" since my first stop was the A-dome and Peace Memorial Park. After getting off at the bus stop I immediately saw the dome looming over the trees. I walked over to one side of the dome to get a better look and came across a group of western students (American I think) standing in front of the fence. I decided to take advantage of English speaking people while I had the chance and asked one of them to take my photo in front of the dome. Immediately after she took my photo I was hit on by a weird Japanese guy. I thought this was incredibly inappropriate considering where we were, but he asked if I'd take a photo with him and I agreed because the girl who'd taken my photo a moment ago had done a bad job and I thought I might be able to crop out Creepy McCreeperson if this one turned out better. After he got his photo with me he gave me his contact information (I did not ask for this) and I gave him a fake number, which I normally would feel bad about, but in this case I just wanted him to leave me alone.

I continued on around the dome. The building itself was mesmerizing, I just could not stop looking at it and I think I took far more pictures than what was actually necessary. It's just amazing how a place can be beautiful and terrifying at the same time. In front of the building was a big plaque explaining what had happened, but if a picture is worth a thousand words, then the A-dome itself is worth a million. The dome is located alongside a river and I walked down the path and crossed a bridge into the peace park where the Children's Peace Monument and Memorial Cenotaph are located. I went over to the children's monument first. The monument is a giant bell with a statue of a girl standing on top with a folded paper crane rising above her. The statue was modeled after the story of Sadako Sasaki, a little girl who suffered from leukemia brought on by the radiation of the atomic bomb. Sadako believed that if she folded a thousand paper cranes she would get one wish, to be cured. She died, at age 13, before all the cranes were completed, but her friends and family continued making cranes and the movement spread. Now, children from all over the world send cranes to the peace monument and many of them are put on display in waterproof cabinets that surround the statue. From there I walked over to the cenotaph which is covered by a large arch. If you stand directly in front of the arch you can see the A-dome through the center and the peace flame that stays continuously lit. By this time my shoes were completely soaked because it had been raining the entire time, so I headed in to the Peace Memorial Museum to dry off. The museum, as I had expected, was not an easy thing to experience. I saw scale reconstructions of Hiroshima before the bomb and the very little that remained of Hiroshima after the bomb. I saw models of people with their flesh melting off their bodies and a stone step with a white body sized mark where a person had been instantly burned to death while sitting outside the library. I sometimes have difficulty imagining and fully comprehending the terrible things that have happened in just the last 100 years. Going to places like this, like the Holocaust Museum in D.C., Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and Ground Zero, make history real for me and they are what remind me of how important it is to remember what's happened in the past and to learn from those mistakes. It's a shame that not everyone has the opportunity to visit these places, I think maybe if they did then there would be greater motivation among members of society to enforce change in how things are done today.

After I left the Peace Memorial Museum I decided to head over to my youth hostel. I am a big fan of HI (Hosteling International) so I had booked a room with the Hiroshima HI Youth Hostel a few days before my trip. I had to take a bus and then walk up a big winding hill to get there, which was a bit of a pain since it was still raining, but the hostel was comfortable and on the first night I was the only female guest so I had a big room all to my self. I also had the bathroom to myself. It is rather common for hotels and hostels in Japan to have a public bath area, so, just like at the onsen, all the women bathe in the same room in front of each other. I've been to several onsen at this point so I'm not too uncomfortable with the whole nudity issue anymore, but I have never actually gone to one without a friend, and being the only gaijin in the room has the potential to be a little awkward, so I was quite happy that since I was the only female at the place there was no one else in the bathing area.

The next day I took a ferry out to Miyajima, a beautiful mountainous little island that is overrun by small friendly deer that come up to you if they think you have food. Miyajima is most famous for Itsukushima Shrine and its floating torii gate. The torii gate does not actually float, but it is built in the water so that at high tide it appears to be floating. The large orange torii gate with the shrine and mountainous backdrop really is quite breathtaking and has been designated as one of the three most scenic views of Japan. The shrine itself is also quite extraordinary because it is built on beams above the water. As I was standing on the boardwalk of the shrine taking pictures, something crazy happened, I heard someone say my name. As I was traveling alone and hours away from Tokyo, one can understand why I would be rather shocked to hear someone calling me. I turned my head and standing next to me was a friend from college who I had not seen since we graduated. I had known she was in Japan teaching for another big eikaiwa (English school) but I had no idea where she was living and we had made absolutely no plans to meet up, so running into each other on this tiny island was truly one of the strangest things I've experienced. She was there with her Japanese co-worker and I ended up spending the rest of the day with them and doing much more on the island than I ever would have had I not run into them. First we got lunch at a little restaurant that I never would have discovered since it was off the main route and then we decided to climb the island's highest mountain, which I was planning to just go up to via cable car. The view from the top was spectacular and there was a very old and very beautiful shrine at the peak that I really loved and would not have seen had I come up by cable car. The entire day was wonderful with great weather and great company. At the end we came back down the mountain by cable car which we had to sprint to in order to catch the last car in time. At nightfall we got to see the floating torii gate being illuminated, it was lit so beautifully that it seemed almost as if it were glowing.

On my last day in Hiroshima I decided to do one more thing before getting lunch and taking the shinkansen home. I settled on visiting the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art because it was very easy to get to by cable car. There were some interesting exhibits and I actually just wish there'd been more to see because I got through the gallery a lot faster than I thought I would. As I left the museum and began walking down the path towards the road I stopped because I suddenly realized there were about ten cats meandering around the little area I was standing in. I'd noticed before that Hiroshima seemed to have a lot of strays but I hadn't quite realized the extent of the situation until that moment. Normally I absolutely love cats but being surrounded by that many wild ones is a little unsettling, on a side note, Hiroshima cats have abnormally short tails, so that was a little strange too. After getting some Indian food for lunch (Japan has absolutely amazing Indian food) I headed back to Hiroshima Station and took the shinkansen back to Tokyo.

I took the next two days off for Yom Kippur, which I spent a ridiculous amount of money on for tickets to services and a seat at the breaking of the fast, but I'm glad that I did. Living in Japan as a foreigner you feel exactly that, foreign, so sometimes it's nice to go back to what's familiar. One thing I've really come to be thankful for, especially since moving to Japan, is how being Jewish brings culture and tradition into my life. Japanese people have such an incredibly rich culture full of cherished rituals and festivals and it's made me realize that a lot of Americans don't have that. Luckily for me, Jews do, and I feel really thankful that I'm not missing out on the opportunity to feel connected to others by following customs that have existed for thousands of years and keep our identity as a people (the CHOSEN people) alive.

Go Fish!

Last Saturday evening I received a voice message from Jenn. I was expecting her to call me back about some plans for the weekend, instead she informed that she had fallen off the ladder to her loft, which is 8 to 9 feet high. Luckily, a friend of hers was there to take her to the hospital... unluckily, she broke both her wrists and got a black eye. I stayed at her apartment for the weekend to help her out, but she actually was/is functioning quite well despite having ridiculously limited use of her arms and hands. Since the friend who was with her at the time of the fall was actually visiting from America, we didn't want to make him just sit around, so we actually ended up doing quite a bit over the weekend despite Jenn's injuries. On Sunday we went to Shibuya for ramen from my favorite ramen shop (the one where I took my parents) and then we went to Harajuku to see the rockabillies and cosplay (the people wearing crazy costumes). That night we hung out with some people at Jenn's local favorite, K's Cafe, and while we were there we decided to stay up all night and go to Tsukiji Market first thing in the morning.

Tsukiji Market is a huge, famous fish market in Tokyo and if you get there early enough you can watch the tuna auctions. I had heard about it quite a bit before but I had never gotten around to going because frankly, I'm not a morning a person. Staying up all night was definitely a better idea and going with other people was good too. We left Jenn's apartment around 4:30 to 5 am and caught the first train. It took about 20 minutes to get there but finding the actual market was a bit of a challenge. Jenn knew the general direction of the place but not where the specific building was so at one point we stopped and I asked a woman, in Japanese, "Where is the big tuna?" because I didn't know the words for auction or market. She pointed us in the right direction and we knew we were in the right place when we had to start praying for our lives. Tsukiji Market has a reputation for being quite dangerous and rightly so! As we walked into the giant warehouse speeding fish carts of death came careening towards us from all directions, it was terrifying. We walked along, dodging the carts and following people who looked like they knew where they were going, because we still hadn't actually seen any fish. Eventually a man told us where to go and when we arived we were pretty surprised. In the guide books and excerpts online it is normally made to sound as if there is a viewing area set off to the side specically for tourists... this is not exactly accurate. There are actually just big open doors, like the giant garage doors at a car dealership, they have signs on the side of them that say DO NOT ENTER, we stood on one side of the door and the fish lay on the other side. We were kind of in the way but busy workers just ran and drove around us, apparently used to obnoxious tourists standing near their fish. Now let me tell you about these tuna... they were ENORMOUS. Picture an elephant, now a picture a fish the size of an elephant, that's what these tuna looked like. Okay, so I exaggerated a little, but seriously, these fish could eat you whole... if they weren't dead... It was amazing and we were standing right next to them, I could have the kissed one of them had I developed some abnormal fish kissing desire, or if it were my birthday (I apologize, only people who went to my camp will understand that). In another part of the market we also saw lots of other exotic varieties of fish and seafood, some of which were still alive. I used Jenn's phone camera to take lots of pictures since I hadn't brought my own camera and I will try to post some soon.

Tomorrow I leave for Hiroshima! I'm really excited about this, it will be the farthest from Tokyo I've gone since coming to Japan and I'm traveling alone so it should be an adventure! I'll let you know how it goes when I get back!

A weekend in the country

Most of the teachers who work for my company (including me) get Sunday and Monday off, so since it was a national holiday this past Tuesday we had a long weekend. To take advantage of the extra time off, a group of my friends and I decided to go on a camping trip in the Okutama region on the border of Tokyo. A lot of Americans don't realize that Tokyo is not actually a city, but a prefecture, so while part of it is made up of major metropolitan areas, there are also extremely rural, mountainous areas that are still technically part of Tokyo as well. Okutama is located within these beautiful green mountains and it only takes about an hour and a half to two hours to get there from Shinjuku Station. We stayed at a campsite called America Camp Village in a lovely little log cabin with a river running next to it. Truthfully, our weekend can't really be called "camping" because the cabin was fully equipped with a full size refrigerator, stove, microwave, tv, and beds; I think it would be better to just refer to it as "a weekend in the country" (which, by the way, is a Sondheim song that is now stuck in my head). I was extremely thrilled to sleep in a real bed for an entire weekend, since back at my apartment I sleep on a fairly uncomfortable futon that is only about 1.5 to 2 inches thick. I was also happy to have other people cooking for me, though I did contribute to the meals by washing dishes and helping to cut vegetables. On the first evening we played some games and talked for a while, we also went for a little walk to check out the area. At the other end of the camp ground we came across a group of college age Japanese guys playing the Japanese version of break the piñata. One of them held a big stick and wore a bag over his head while the others sat on the side and shouted directions at him so that he could try to break a melon lying on the ground. We stood by and watched their numerous drunken attempts until we finally heard the guys shout "Yatta!" - "Alright!" signifying that one of them had finally pierced the melon. After heading back we headed to bed. There were 6 girls and 3 guys on the trip so the girls slept upstairs in the beds and the guys slept downstairs on futons. This separation resulted in endless girl talk and I felt like I was 12 years old again at a sleepover party, it was a lot of fun.

On our first full day in Okutama a bunch of us decided to try a HUGE assault / obstacle course at our camp site that was built along the side of a mountain. It was an amazing course with rope ladders, zip lines, wooden bridges, and tons of other stuff. Some of these obstacles were practically suspended off the mountain in some areas, if that sounds dangerous to you, it's because it was. We would NEVER have been allowed to do a course like this in America, because within one week someone would be suing the camp due to injury and/or death. Not only were we not wearing any protective gear, but it had also been raining so everything was extremely slippery. Add the slipperiness to the barbed wire conveniently located beneath a number of the obstacles and it was just a lawsuit waiting to happen, good thing this is Japan though, not America, because the course was AWESOME! It took over an hour to complete and was quite the workout, but it certainly gave all of us a sense of accomplishment once we finished! That night we relaxed and watched some movies, for those of you who haven't seen Iron Man, you should check it out. On our last day we visited an onsen down the road from America Camp Village. It had both an indoor tub and an outdoor tub that looked out over trees and mountains. It was really beautiful and fun going with friends, though it still took me a little time to get used to being naked in front of so many people since I had never been to an onsen with more than one friend at a time before this. After the onsen we took the train to Mitake where we had Chinese food for lunch. In case you were wondering, Chinese food in Japan is not quite like Chinese food in America, but there are some similarities. I was fond of the restaurant because they gave us Coca Cola in glass bottles, which in my opinion adds some rustic charm to a place. After lunch we took a bus and then a cable car/train on a really really steep track up Mount Mitake. The view was gorgeous and we arrived in the late afternoon so we got to see the mountains in golden hour, my favorite time of day. I was sad to return to the city, but when we got back we had dinner at a fairly authentic and pleasantly quirky American burger restaurant, so at least that made coming back to the endless buildings and air pollution a little bit easier.

On a bridge in Okutama

Our cabin

Dressed up for the matsuri (last post)

Posing with the world's cutest little girl

My matsuri

This time of year, late summer/early fall, is a very popular time in Japan for festivals. These festivals, known as matsuri, are celebrated in different ways depending on where you go, but many of them include the carrying of portable shrines around neighborhoods. This weekend, I got to take part in a small matsuri and help carry a shrine. This is not an activity that gaijin normally have the chance to take part in, but my friend Eimilly is dating someone from the neighborhood, so he invited her and she invited me. It was an amazing experience, but one I do not want to repeat any time soon!

I woke up early, or earlier than I'd have prefered on a Sunday, since I had to be in Naka-meguro, where the festival was being held, by 10 am and it takes me an hour to get there. When I arrived, however, I discovered that the first hour or two was really just a time for socializing in front of the little restaurant where everyone was meeting to get ready. Jenn, her sister, and her brother-in-law also came to take part in the festival and while we were all standing around waiting for things to get going we were introduced to lots of people and offered enormous amounts of fruit. At one point we were led by some people to a blue tarp that was laid on the ground and instructed to sit, which turned out to be a little awkward since no one else came to sit with us. Eventually we got up and of course immediately after doing so everyone else went to sit down because it was time to eat some special sticky rice with red beans that is traditionally served on special occasions. Shortly after eating the rice, Eimilly and I were summoned to go get changed. We went to the back of the restaurant and had various items of clothing thrust at us by the mama-san. The traditional clothes included happi, a lightweight cotton jacket that wraps around like a robe, a sash called an obi, and a strange pair of white shorts that were impossible to put on without assistance. We were definitely "assisted" though, I felt like a doll being dressed by a little kid as multiple women tugged, pulled, and tied my shirt and shorts. The shorts seemed to have been specifically made to sag in the butt but be tight everywhere else and based on the women's actions they needed to sag in just the right way. After what seemed like ages of being manhandled by the mama-san, Eimilly and I finally emerged from the restaurant in our clothes and two toed sandles called tabi. A moment later though we were called back into the restaurant to have our hair done by the mama-san. After experiencing how rough she was while dressing us I was not particularly thrilled to know she was about to get hold of my hair. I became even less enthused as I watched her do Eimilly's hair first, in addition to nearly brushing her scalp off, she also latherd Eimilly's hair with 3 giant fist fulls of palmaid. Now, Eimilly has short straight hair, so that's pretty easy to work with, but anyone who has ever witnessed the long curly nightmare that is my hair, knows that it is NOT easy to work with. When I sat down in the chair and took my hair down all the girls in the room oohed and ahhed over it, and even the mama-san seemed surprised, but that didn't stop her. After a moment of thought she got to work and remarkably after 5 minutes, a handful of bobbypins, and a disgusting amount of palmaid my hair was good to go. She tied on a headband and that was it! Eimilly and I went and presented ourselves to Jenn and her family who sadly did not end up taking part in the festivities because they had tickets to see sumo later in the day, but they did get to see us all dressed up and take lots of pictures! (Don't worry, I will post the photos soon)

Finally our whole group walked across the street to where the shrine was being kept. I hadn't realized until then that there were actually other groups meeting us from adjoining neigborhoods, so over all it was quite a significant amount of people. After a few minutes we all gathered around the mikoshi, our portable shrine. When I say "portable" please don't equate that with being "easily carried" because moving this thing was anything but easy. It was not that big, maybe the size of an oven, but it was made of gold and supported by long crisscrossed beams, so it was insanely heavy. According to Eimilly's boyfriend it weighed about 2 tons, that is possibly incorrect, but I don't think he was too far off. We all found spots to carry the shrine from, then we lifted it up and we were off, chanting and marching our way down the narrow streets. We chanted different words, I couldn't hear all of them and sometimes they changed, but a lot of times it just sounded like SA SA SA, so that's what I said. I was told that at most matsuri people chant WASHOI, but we didn't for some reason. After a few minutes we made our first stop, since it was such strenuous work carrying the shrine we would stop periodically to be provided with food and, more importanly for most, beer. I felt ok at the first few stops, but it didn't take long before my shoulders were ready to fall off. As we walked down the streets we would sway the shrine back and forth, but whenever we passed a business we would stop and wildly bounce the shrine up and down in front of the building to bring good luck and prosperity to the business. This was great fun, but it was difficult to avoid having the large beams smash into my shoulders as the shrine bounced around. I also tried to help support the weight of the shrine by resting it on my shoulder, but I could only do this for minutes at a time since it was so heavy and also killed my shoulders. The parading of the shrine went on for 4 or 5 hours and despite the pain and exhaustion it was really an amazing experience. I have never seen people be more spirited and enthusiastic about doing something together, even at the very end not a single person seemed to lose enery or motivation, they were all so extremely positive and focused.

After the festival was over a group of us went to a local onsen to clean off. It was nothing like the lovely onsen I visited in my area, this one was indoors, old, and crappy. After washing off in the shower area Eimilly and I climbed into the tubs. A moment later an old woman approached us and in Japanese started interrogating us about whether we had washed off properly before getting in the tubs. As I have mentioned before, cleanliness is extremely important when bathing in onsen and apparently the woman proved that point. After asking Eimilly (who speaks much better Japanese than me) three times if we had washed off she decided we were clean. Eimilly and I ended up only staying in the water for a very short time because it was so hot, hotter than my local onsen I think. After getting dressed we headed back to the restaurant where we'd all met in the morning and had a big end of festival meal. All the food and drinks were free and eveyone was extremely friendly. I finished the night by meeting back up with Jenn and going out for karaoke, so all in all it was a very tiring, but very spectacular day!

More things I've come to expect - for my mom :-)

- If I go to a store then every single person working there should welcome me as I walk through the door.

- If I am walking down the street there will be at least two trucks (most often garbage trucks) that will "speak" to me over loudspeakers as they drive by

- If I am standing near something even remotely cute every girl or woman who passes by will comment on the cuteness (I once watched two girls proclaim "kawaiiii" - "cute" about a bush in a park)

- If I watch a Japanese person eat they will inevitably do everything humanly possible to keep from physically touching their food with their hands, even sandwiches and chicken wings.

- If I ask my students what their hobbies are I will always have at least one student who includes drinking as his or her (more often his) number one activity.

- If I need to throw something out then I will have to carry it with me until I find a vending machine or a convenience store, they are the only places that provide proper trash / recycling bins (good thing there's a vending machine every 10 feet!)

- If a store sells an item that I like, e.g. cranberry juice, then I should stock up because there's a 95% chance that they will stop selling that item by the next day.

- If I see a dog it should be wearing a t-shirt or sweater (depending on the weather).

That's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure I'll come up with more later on.

Adjusting to normality

It recently occurred to me that things here don't seem as weird as they used to. Of course, there are still plenty of Japanese oddities to keep me amused, but just the feel of everyday life in Tokyo doesn't seem as distant or foreign anymore. What was once a new and interesting thing to see, like the yakiniku stands coming out in the evening or the wannabe thugs break dancing in front of my train station, is no longer new but just endearing because it's become part of life (but the thugs do still make me laugh). It's amazing how I've come to expect certain things that I never even knew existed before traveling to Japan. Here are a few things I've come to expect:

- If it is raining everyone MUST have an umbrella and there should be either an umbrella rack or a machine providing umbrella "condoms" outside of EVERY store or restaurant

- If I am thirsty there should be a vending machine within a 10 foot radius of anywhere I stand (yes, I exaggerate, but only a little)

- If I am walking on the street in front of my school then there should be instrumental show tunes or Disney movie songs playing over loud speakers at all times for no particular reason.

Despite those expectations, I am always seeing and discovering new things, so Japan never gets old. On Monday I went to Shinjuku with Ivan and saw my first Japanese transvestite / transsexual people, or as Ivan put it "She-he's". They were all just standing around showing off their ugliness... now I know that not all transvestite/transsexual people are ugly, but the ones in Shinjuku ARE. I asked Ivan if they were hookers, but he said that prostitution is illegal here, so I don't really know what the purpose of them standing there is... apparently it's a daily event.

I also made an interesting discovery while at my local movie rental store the other day. On previous visits to the store I had noticed that while there is an adults only section, based on some of the dvd covers I'd seen there seemed to be random bits of porn scattered around in the normal sections as well. On this last visit, however, I happened to see the cover for a movie that I actually own, Almost Famous. I was shocked, because at first glance of this Japanese cover anyone might think Almost Famous was some sort of soft core porn, it was ridiculous and really had very little to do with the actual storyline. It occurred to me then that all those bits of porn I'd seen around the shelves were actually just normal movies that had purposely been given covers to make them more (very much more) related to sex. It's amazing to me how a culture that is often seen as being so traditional and conservative actually has an entirely different side to it that revolves around sex. You see it not just in movie stores, but in newspapers, magazines, manga, and of course the ever intriguing love hotels. I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised considering I myself attended a Penis Festival earlier this year, but it's still something that I had NOT expected and that continues to occasionally catch me off guard.

AMERICAN COVER

JAPANESE COVER

I just wanna dance!

I had a great night out last night / this morning. It was a friend's birthday so a big group of us met up by Hachiko (the dog statue) in Shibuya to go to a bar and then go clubbing. I was really looking forward to the club because I love dancing and I hadn't been to one in a while, not since that dreadful night with James and his girlfriend at that shit hole GasPanic... god I hate that place! Thankfully, this night was WAYYYY better. When the evening first started off I felt a little uncomfortable because I really didn't know many of the people I was going out with and those I did know I had only met briefly at other events, even the birthday boy I'm not really close friends with. It turned out fine though because I just started chatting with the people I didn't know and they were all really cool, I also talked to a bunch of random people at the bar we went to, so that was fun. I had a few people talk to me because of my tattoo, it's funny the amount of attention it attracts here, at one point I turned around because a cute guy from New Zealand was literally poking me in the back because he wanted to know what it meant (it's a Chai - the word for life in Hebrew... having it is kind of sacrilegious, but I don't care).

Later on my closer friends who I actually do know showed up, so I was really happy to see them. One of them had just flown in from visiting her family back home in Washington state so she was incredibly jet lagged! After everyone had arrived we left the bar and headed to Pure, a club that I particularly like because the cover charge is 1,000 yen less for women and it's "nomihodai" - all you can drink! I had a great time dancing, I danced for a while with a guy who works as a body guard for Japanese diplomats, etc. so that was sort of cool and I appreciated the fact that he was willing to actually dance with me rather than just try to grope me the entire time. Later I unknowingly started to dance with a creepy groper and I was actually really impressed because one of the security guards just saw the look on my face and immediately asked me if I was okay. I said I was and then I just pushed the guy off of me, that felt good! We danced all night and into the morning until they stopped the music and turned on the lights, then a bunch of us went to complete the sacred post-clubbing ritual, eating breakfast at McDonald's. When we reached the steps up to McDonald's there was a tiny old woman shuffling about and speaking to us in Japanese. None of us knew what she was saying and she was clearly a little out of touch with reality, so when she addressed me directly I just said in Japanese "I'm sorry, I don't understand" she looked at me and started to pass by but then all of a sudden she hit me on my back! It didn't hurt because she was so small, but I was pretty shocked since it's not like I have random Japanese women slapping me all the time. We decided she hit me because a) she didn't like my low cut clubbing shirt, b) she was insane, or c) all of the above. After McDonald's I went home and collapsed into bed and didn't wake up until my stupid doorbell / visual security system randomly started going off for no reason, I'm still tired, I think that I might actually go back to sleep for a while now... we'll see.

An Okinawan Friday night

On Friday night I went back to the Okinawan place that my former co-worker took me to. I had been meaning to go back but had been afraid to return by myself since my Japanese is so terrible. Most sensible people, therefore, would conclude that on the next trip I took someone else who could speak Japanese fluently, but in fact I took my new co-worker who knows NO Japanese besides konichiwa- hello, and kampai - cheers, two important words, but they can only get you so far. When we got there we barely made it through the door, because the tiny little restaurant was packed and there was nowhere to sit. As we stood in the doorway trying to decide what to do next, some people noticed us standing there and kindly moved down to make room for us to sit. As we walked in I literally heard the word "gaijin" float around the room, everyone seemed so surprised to see us.

As we went to sit down I wasn't sure if the people who had moved over were going to acknowledge or ignore us, but to our delight they initiated conversation. Of course, the first question every foreigner gets in Japan is always "Where are you from?" after establishing our respective nationalities we will usually explain that we're English teachers and it goes on from there. Our neighbors were so friendly and inviting, they shared their food with us and even bought us drinks at one point. They spoke very little English, so I had a great opportunity to practice my Japanese and I was actually able to understand some of the things they said to me if they spoke slowly enough. The woman sitting next to my co-worker told me in Japanese that her childhood friend had been from England and I actually acted as a translator to tell my co-worker what she said, that was pretty awesome. One guy, an incredibly drunk university student, came down to our end of the table just so he could talk to us. His English was no better than the others' but he and my co-worker seemed to hit it off and they chatted for a while about sports and music. The mama-san, owner of the place, also came over to say hello. She recognized me of course and gave us a sliced dragon fruit to share.

This Okinawan place has lots of regulars and you can tell who they are based on their bottles of alcohol. All along the wall of the restaurant are shelves with decorated bottles, the bottles have the names of the owners written on them in gold and silver and many are decorated with charms and little figurines like you'd see on a key chain. When people finish off the bottle they just refill it and put it back on the shelf when they leave. Several of the people we were sitting with had their own bottles with little cartoon characters dangling from them, leave it to the Japanese to make even drinking cute.

My co-worker and I stayed until about 1 in the morning, but since we had to get up for work the next day we eventually decided to call it quits. We told our new friends that we will return next Friday, so both of us are really looking forward to that. We are both thrilled to have somewhere fun to go on a Friday night that is only a five minute bike ride from our school. The Mama-san also charged us very little for the amount that we ate and drank, so saving money is always a plus too! I wish I had found out about this place sooner, but now I will definitely have to take advantage of it.

Jam (and jelly) packed week

I know it's been a little while, but these last couple of weeks have just been so jam packed that I have not had the energy to actually sit down and write about them. I woke up a little earlier than usual though, so I'll do my best to fit everything in before I have to go to work.

So last Saturday our new teacher arrived from England. He seems like a really nice guy and he appears to be very excited about working with us at Takashimadaira. He arrived at our school the same day that there was going to be a huge fireworks exhibition so I invited him and the sub-teacher helping him with the transition to come watch them with my students, Jenn, and me. None of my students actually showed up so it was just the four of us. We climbed to the roof of our school and had an AMAZING view. The fireworks did not start until about 7 pm, but there had been hundreds of people milling around the streets in Yukata (traditional Japanese robes, sort of like lighter, cheaper versions of kimono) since about 4 pm, so we knew that the riverside where they were actually being held would be packed. The fireworks were spectacular and there were ones I'd never seen before, including a few in the shape of Hello Kitty's head... the whole stereotype about the Japanese obsession with Hello Kitty is not too far from the truth. The show lasted for two hours, when it was over we tried to find an izakaya to get some drinks at but they were all packed and you couldn't get in anywhere without a reservation. It was so extremely strange having so many people in my neighborhood since usually it's so quiet and empty! We ended up getting some food and drinks at Sukiya, a chain beef bowl place down the street from where I live. Afterwards the guys took the train back home and Jenn stayed over at my apartment where we stayed up late and watched Terms of Endearment like the true girls that we are.

We slept in the next day and then got some sushi for lunch. I went to the welcome / farewell party for my co-workers after that and it was a lot of fun. A bunch of of students came to the party and some of us went out for karaoke afterwards. We had a choice of two karaoke places in the area and we ended up at the one that I hadn't been to before. Really though, most karaoke places look pretty much the same on the inside. We ended the night with my amazing choice... Living on a Prayer - Bon Jovi, best group karaoke song ever, it's true.

Not so much during the work week of course, but I did go out to my kaiten sushi (revolving sushi) place with all my co-workers for the first time! I was very excited to bring them there and they all seemed to enjoy it. It was the first time I ever sat in the booth section at the back of the restaurant since I'd never gone there with so many people.

On Saturday I went to what I thought was going to be a party with Jenn and some other people, but there were actually only 4 other people there, one of whom I really don't care for so much. I was exhausted because I'd gone out with a friend the night before and ended up missing my last train, so I'd gotten very little sleep as a result. I was very relieved, therefore, when we called it an early night and Jenn and I went back to her place to crash. We got up the next morning and went to Enoshima for my now ex-co-worker's Sayonara Beach Party! It was a little bit cloudy and not too hot, so in my opinion good beach weather, nevertheless I still got a bit sunburned even while wearing sun block. I also was stung by three jelly fish! I'd never been stung by a jelly fish before in my life, so I guess they wanted to get their revenge. They were impossible to see in the murky water and they hurt a lot! I had a huge red welt on my back and two smaller ones on my arm and leg, all of which are still visible on my body two days later! Despite the jellies, I still had a fun time and we went out for Italian food afterwards so it was a nice ending to the day.

Yesterday I went indoor rock climbing with my friend Eimilly and her friend. It was a lot of fun and I definitely want to go again at some point. Granted, my arms feel sort of like they're going to fall off today, but I've been stretching them and that's helped. Well, time for work now, hopefully it will be another fun week!

Dragons and dolphins and bugs, OH MY!

Oh my goodness, I can't believe that July is already over! Time could seriously not be going by any faster! Last week I handed in my official letter of resignation and I know that the next 4 months are going to whiz right by so I'm already starting to anticipate "the end" of this adventure. Speaking of which, my co-worker just finished his last day with our school yesterday! He's going back to university in England and we're getting another British guy to replace him this Saturday. I'm going to miss my old co-worker, as he's very cool and he helped me a lot over the last eight months. Last night after work he took me to this awesome Okinawan restaurant about a five minute bike ride from our school. We ate SOOO much food and we each had multiple drinks, but because the owner knows him she only charged us each 1500 yen (about $15)!!! It was great and I tried a few new foods. The first food was this really unpleasant and bitter vegetable called Goya mixed with eggs, tofu, and spam (the latter were nice, just not the Goya). The other new food was an awesome looking fruit called Dragon Fruit, the skin of "the dragon" is bright pink and scaley... the name is fitting, right? The inner flesh is what you eat, it's white with loads of little black seeds and it comes right off the peel. The dragon fruit was good, it had a rather subtle taste, but I was mainly just excited to be eating something that was A) Very exotic and B) Named after a mythical creature! I was particularly happy because my co-worker told me the owner said I was welcome to come back, she said this to him in Japanese, but she gave both of us gifts of some canned beverage as we were leaving and walked us out. I do plan to return, though I'm a little nervous since, unlike my co-worker, I can't speak Japanese, but now I have even more of a reason to practice and someone nearby to practice with at least a little bit.

My awesome dragon fruit!

On Monday I went to yet another fun and interesting place with Jenn, Tokyo Dome City! This is a large complex with a big dome where baseball games are played, restaurants, shopping, a spa, and an amusement park! Of course, Jenn and I came for the amusement park. We expected that we would have a good time, but the park totally exceeded our expectations. It had an absolutely amazing roller coaster. This coaster had huge drops, freakishly scary turns, and towered high above the buildings of Tokyo. What was the coaster named? The THUNDER DOLPHIN... because god knows nothing is scarier than a noisy porpoise. We rode the Dolphin three times and also went on a number of other rides multiple times because there were virtually no lines. The price was really good and the park is only 25 minutes from where I live so we are definitely going to return to TDC. I also would like to see a baseball game there, because while I'm not really a fan of baseball normally, I've heard that baseball games in Japan are really spectacular mainly due to the ecstatic fans.

Posing with some cartoons

Help?

The THUNDER DOLPHIN!!!

This Saturday there is going to be a really big fireworks display on the river near my school. Since I teach until 8 and the fireworks (hanabi - flower fire) start at 7, my students and I are going to go watch them from the roof of my school and then I'm going to walk over to the river once my students leave. I've invited Jenn to come watch them too since on Saturdays she teaches in Ikebukuro, which is not too far away from Takashimadaira. On Sunday we're having our farewell / welcome party for my old and new co-workers so it should be a somewhat busy and eventful weekend... just 2 days to go!

Sushi in Zushi and other marvolous things

Yesterday I went with Jenn and Ivan to watch a beach concert in Zushi, one stop away from Kamakura. One of my students is a FANTASTIC musician (T-cophony) and he was performing, so I wanted to see him play his guitar. Unfortunately, the map he sent me was kind of terrible and the beach was farther away than we'd anticipated so we got there late. My student was opening for the other bands so I was freaking out that we'd miss his performance, luckily we made it in time to see him do his last few songs so I was very relieved. The rest of the bands were really talented and all of us had a wonderful time. This was my first time going to a beach in Japan and the one in Zushi was lovely. It was lined with rolling green mountains and the water was absolutely perfect. None of us brought our bathing suits but we waded a bit and decided to come back on a Monday sometime in August. The beach was very crowded and while the majority of beach goers were Japanese there were also a lot of guys from the U.S. military soaking up the sun. I think that there's a military base not too far from that area so I wasn't too surprised to see them there. The beach is lined with little open air bars and restaurants and at one point when we stopped to look at a menu, a big military guy noticed us gawking at the words (we were trying to make out the katakana) and helped us out by calling the owner over and asking in Japanese what food was available. The military guy's Japanese was very good so we were pretty impressed, especially since members of the military have a somewhat negative reputation for not taking much interest in learning the language despite being stationed in Japan.

(this is Zushi Beach - I took the pic from someone else's blog)

On the subject of learning Japanese, I was somewhat unhappy to learn that last Friday was my last Japanese lesson since I only get six months worth. I will do my best to practice what I've already been taught and build up my vocabulary. I'm still pretty terrible about speaking and I get really nervous whenever I try to communicate in Japanese, but I have started being able to sometimes pick out bits and pieces of conversations that I hear, so that's kind of cool. When the military guy asked what there was to eat at the restaurant I realized that I actually understood what he asked, in fact, I probably could have asked it myself. The problem a lot of the time is that I forget the words when I actually need them and also understanding whatever the answer is, but I actually understood most of what the restaurant owner said on this particular occasion.

This week will mark 8 months that I've been living in Japan. I am required to send a letter by Thursday informing my company of whether I plan to renew or resign at the end of my contract in November. While I do plan on going home to America at the end of this year, it was a much more difficult decision than I had thought it would be. For some reason it hadn't occurred to me that I might actually make friends in Japan who would be difficult to leave at the end of the year, turns out, I have. The thing I keep reminding myself of is that there are plans I have for when I come home and while I am so extraordinarily glad to be here in Japan, I am not so passionate about teaching and I know that there are other jobs that I am better suited for. Still, as a guy I met recently phrased it "I've caught the travel bug" and knowing that I have to eventually come home and quit exploring new places is not an easy thing. I have hopes for more travel and eventually a job that incorporate traveling into my duties, however, so I should survive. For now, I still have 4 months left to see new things and visit new places. I want to go to Hiroshima to see the Peace Park and Miyojima to see the floating torii gate and all the little deer (shika). I also plan to visit Nikko and possibly Okinawa, and eventually, once my contract ends, THAILAND! I am very excited about Thailand, I am quite sure it will be amazing.

Disney Sea photos and stuff

Hey guys, thought you might like to see some of the photos Jenn and Keisuke took while we were at Disney Sea. I've posted a few of my favorites here on the blog, but you can see them all at this website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16084122@N00/sets/72157606099994702/

Jenn also sent me a couple of videos, so you might enjoy those as well:

Riding a Gondola:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2889484648842417268&hl=en

Japanese Tower of Terror:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6310399271619019398&hl=en


Jenn and I being "perky" before the Aladdin show:

Keisuke and Cruela, possibly one of the funniest pictures I've ever seen:

Jenn, Aki, and I heading home on the monorail:

Hey Mickey!

The last few days have been really good and I've been keeping quite busy. On Friday I went down to Shimbashi, where Jenn teaches, and went to an izakaya (Japanese style bar/restaurant) with her and some of her students. They were all really nice and one of them worked for Phillip Morris, so when we sat down he reached into his bag and pulled out at least ten packs of gum and a few packs of cigarettes. Jenn and I don't smoke but we took some gum, I still have two packs in my purse. After the izakaya Jenn and I headed to K's Cafe, a little "American" cafe not far from where Jenn lives. We met up with our friend Dan to have some drinks in celebration of the Fourth of July. I had work the next day, but I decided to stay over at Jenn's apartment and then just catch the train back in the morning since I didn't want to have to rush to catch the last train that night. We hung at K's for a while and talked to some Japanese girls who kept asking us WHY? Why did you come to Japan? Why do you like Japan? Why is New York so great? Why? Why? Why? It got annoying because they kept asking the same questions (mainly those three) over and over. When we got back to Jenn's apartment it was so incredibly hot, I am so relieved that I have an air conditioner that actually works!

On Saturday I worked and then that evening I went home and cleaned like crazy because James and his girlfriend were coming to visit and asked if they could crash at my place for the night/morning. Of course I said they could, but as usual my apartment was a complete wreck so I was scrambling to get things back to what normal people would consider a civilized standard of living. After I finished cleaning I got ready and just barely caught the last train to go and meet them in Shibuya for a night of clubbing. By the time they arrived at Hachiko (a dog statue that is the central meeting point of pretty much anyone who visits Shibuya) it was already 12:45 am and I was ready to go out, but they were hungry so I took them to the really good ramen shop down the street. Then we tried to find the club that James wanted to go to. It was called Nuts and though I'd heard of it, I had never been there and had no idea where it was. James had not written down the address and all he had was a picture of the map that he had taken with the camera on his cell phone. He refused to stop and ask for directions, we wandered around for over an hour, and we never found Nuts. At one point we passed a bowling alley and James half suggested that we go bowling instead. Needless to say, I was not fond of that idea. I had come out specifically to go clubbing and that is what I intended to do. Finally, I suggested that we head back toward the main part of Shibuya and just find a different club. This, however, was no better than being lost in the middle of nowhere because James and his girlfriend refused to pay a cover charge any higher than ¥1000. The standard cover for most clubs in Tokyo is at least ¥3000 and as usual, you get what you pay for. We ended up at a club with no cover called GasPanic. I hate GasPanic. I'd been there once before and I didn't like it then either. The guys there are really sketchy and I'm always being chased by either the one creepy guy that I really don't want to dance with or a Gaspanic employee trying to get me to buy another drink. I ended up just sitting down for the majority of the time because on this occasion the guy I'd been dancing with had started sticking his tongue out in such a provocative way that I'm sure had I opened my mouth to cough (or gag) he would have started making out with me within half a milisecond. Gross right? Finally we left, took the train back, and crashed at my place. The one plus of the night was I had barely drank any alcohol at all, I don't even think I made it through one can of beer, so getting up the next day was significantly more pleasant than my usual post clubbing wake up experiences.

That evening I went to my co-worker's little wedding party at a yakiniku place a couple of stations down. It was fun and while I was there I met a Filipino guy who's been living in Japan for the past 13 years. He invited me to a barbeque his friend was holding on Tuesday (yesterday) and also told me that his wife owns a summer home out in the country and invited me to come spend a weekend there sometime next month maybe. At the time I wasn't sure if he was saying that just to be friendly or if he really meant it, but on Monday evening I got a call from him asking if I still wanted to go to the barbeque. The time of the barbecue actually worked out perfectly with my schedule, so of course I said yes!

On Monday I went to Disney Sea with Jenn, James and his girlfriend, and two of Jenn's friends who are both Japanese managers for the company we work for. In Florida's Disney World there's the Magic Kingdom, MGM, Epcot, etc. In Japan there's Disneyland and Disney Sea. It is named Disney Sea because the park is literally built right along the coast and on one side of it there's actually a dam to keep the real sea from drifting into Disney Sea. The park is gorgeous and just like every other part of Japan, it's immaculately clean. We had a really fun time, there was just one little thing that caught me off guard. I experienced some pretty blatant racism... from Mickey Mouse! As we walked through the entrance gates we saw a bunch of the characters greeting people and I asked Jenn to take my picture with Mickey. I walked up to him and waited for him to finish having is picture taken with some Japanese women, but when my turn came he turned and had his picture taken with some other Japanese girls. At first I thought he just didn't see me, but after he did this several times I just gave up and walked away. Obviously, not having my picture taken with racist Mickey is not the end of the world, but it was a bit of a shock. I mentioned it to Jenn and she agreed with me, but we didn't bring it up anymore because we didn't want to offend the Japanese friends we were with. Overall it was a really fun time, and I am completely obsessed with the Tower of Terror, it's the best ride ever!!!!

Yesterday I went to the barbeque I mentioned before. The barbeque turned out to be on a lovely rooftop apartment right down the street from Tobu Nerima Station, the place I biked to last week. It was a really fun time and all the people I met seemed really friendly. The majority of guests were Japanese and we did our best to talk with each other, there were also a few English speakers there, but I was the only one who was not fluent in Japanese. I feel so embarrassed, or maybe even guilty, when I try to speak to Japanese people because while I AM studying Japanese, I know that I could be studying a lot more. What it basically comes down to is the fact that I'm lazy. Still, I am slowly making progress and chatting with people is very helpful because it helps me practice and remember vocabulary. In addition to meeting people, I also ate some really fantastic food. The woman hosting the party either owns or works at the yakiniku restuarant where I met my Filipino friend who invited me, so she is obviously a good cook!

Things have really been looking up lately, so I'm quite happy about that. I was thinking about the months I've spent here and I realized just how busy I've been! I love the fact that more often than not I'm out doing stuff with friends or going to interesting events or places. During the week I tend to stick around my neighborhood, but on the weekends I'm out and about and I love it. I hope that life continues at about the same pace for the remaining time I have left here, if it does everything should be just fine.

(Please note the Minnie Mouse ears I'm wearing. In America you can only wear mouse ears if you're under the age of 10, in Japan females of every age wear them, so Jenn and I joined in the fun!)

A better day

This last week I struggled a little bit, nothing really major happened, but various circumstances just put me in a slightly less cheerful mood than I'm used to. I'm feeling better now though. This weekend I went and saw a play written and directed by one of my cast mates from Ring Round the Moon, some other people from my show were there, so it was nice seeing them. Then last night I met up with Jenn in Ikebukuro and we went out for Thai food. Jenn also had a pretty tough week, a lot more difficult than mine actually, so we spent a lot of time talking. Before we came to Japan, our trainer in Canada told us that a lot of people struggle after they've been in Japan for about 4 months because it's not so new and interesting anymore, so the excitement starts wearing off and people feel depressed. Jenn and I both decided that this is what's happening for us, it just took a lot longer to hit us than it does for most people. I'm glad it worked out that way, because it's rather easy now to tell ourselves, ONLY 5 MONTHS LEFT! That's really no time at all considering we've been here 7 months already, 7 months that seem to have flown right by! It's July for goodness sake, how did that happen?? Actually, I think another reason I was a little down this week is because this is the first time in 10 years that I am not spending my summer at camp. Obviously I knew this time would eventually have to come, but 10 years is a long time, it's longer than some of the campers have been alive, so not even being able to visit is difficult. I sent a care package to some of my friends there with all sorts of crazy toys and candy inside, so I hope they enjoy it. I also hope that it actually gets to the camp... whenever I mail anything from here I worry that it will get lost somewhere along the way.

In order to keep myself in a better mood it's essential that I keep myself busy. Since I don't actually teach any lessons until 6 pm on Tuesdays, I've decided to try and use those days for exploring. Last week I went out to Harajuku and visited Meiji Shrine, since somehow I had not actually visited it yet. Today I decided to ride my bike out to a train station called Tobu-Nerima Station. I hadn't actually been to this station since my first week in Japan and I was curious to see how long it would take me to bike there from my neighborhood. For those of you who came in on this blog after I first arrived in Japan or if you just forgot, I stayed in an incredibly awful hotel, called Weekly Mansion, during my first week in Japan. While I was there I had to take a train from the station near my hotel to Tobu-nerima Station, where I then caught a bus that took me to my school. During my first week, when I was still extremely disoriented, confused, and jetlagged, I accidentally got on an express train that went by my stop and took my straight into Ikebukuro. My hope for today was that it wouldn't be too long of a bike ride because then whenever I wanted to go to Ikebukuro I wouldn't have to transfer trains and it would be a little bit cheaper. It ended up taking me maybe 15 to 20 minutes to bike to Tobu-nerima, however it was slightly uphill on the way there, so it took a bit less time to get home. It takes me about 2 to 3 minutes to ride over to my local station and then about 25 to 30 minutes by train to reach Ikebukuro, so unfortunately Tobu-nerima is not really so convenient. What IS convenient is SETY, a 5 floor shopping center right across from Tobu-nerima, which I had completely forgotten about. I had passed it every day during my first week, but I never actually went inside, so today I decided to. In Japanese department stores the bottom floor is always devoted to food (gormet food) and then as you go up each level you find clothes, appliances, etc. SETY was similar except that it had a food court, a Starbucks, and a movie theater on top! I was particularly excited about the movie theater and went up to check it out. I didn't have time to actually watch a movie and I have never in my life gone to the movies alone, but perhaps in the future I'll make an exception. I was quite disappointed to find that there was not a single poster up for the Sex and the City Movie. Instead, Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda seem to be taking the stage, although neither of them are actually out yet. I was also surprised to see that August Rush was playing in one of the theaters, because it came out ages ago and I'm pretty sure it's out on DVD already in the states.

I think that's about it. This weekend I'm going to a party for my co-worker because she's going up to Hokkaido (northern part of Japan) to celebrate her wedding ceremony. The actual reason I went to Ikebukuro today was to get her a present. It should be fun and I'm sure I'll post about it sometime next week. Until then, take care everyone!