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!