Lauren in Japan

random pictures of what ive been up to lately...

オメデトウ ( ^ _ ^)∠☆PAN！

Its finally March and spring, yea!!! so i bought my thailand tickets and we booked our hotel, 7 nights at a brand new hotel opening in March, and im ready for a vacation in the sun! i have been up to too much trouble in the last two weeks, just lots of parties and fun, cleary no working hard of any kind :) two weekends ago, on friday the 21st two of the JETs were dj-ing at a club in Nagoya called RBase, so i headed there for an evening of drinking and music. of course i had too much fun and ended up staying out all night, but on the plus side i got to eat a kebab from the delicious turkish restaurant that only opens at 1am. on that saturday i watched some shark attacks with some male friends, cuz who doesnt love a good shark attack, and ate some more kebabs while shopping in Osu, which is the hip, trendy area of Nagoya, cleary where i belong. and then i went out for dinner for my friend Joe's bday party. joe was in my japanese class at madison and lives in japan as well, not on JET, so it was really nice to get to see him and catch up with all the other wisconsinners in japan. on sunday was our practice hanami party at Nagoya castle. the plum trees are in bloom and it was a perfect time to sit under them and drink some alcohol during the middle of the day. there were about 10 or so of us, some gaijin and some nihonjin in attendance, and we had lots of food and plum wine for everyone to enjoy. after the festivites we headed to an okonomiyaki restaurant, which is kind of like japanese style pancakes which are delicious and in no way related to anythin resembling american pancakes or any other food that we eat for that matter...it is a must eat if you ever come to japan, especially in Osaka. it was quite the busy weekend, but i had tons of fun and cant wait for cherry blossom season to come, which i already know will be my favorite one in japan. last week was exams at all the senior high schools, so i had a week of no classes, but i got to read some books, correct some english, and answer loads of questions the teachers had about english grammer! on monday night i went out to dinner with steve, matt,and dave aka the chita gang. since they all live near me we go out to dinner once in a while at this chinese restaurant in asakusa. on wednesday night i went with one of my english teachers, todo-sensei, who is about my age, to a dinner in kanayama. we met up with about 20 other first year japanese english teachers who i knew from a seminar i participated in at handa a couple months ago. it was a traditional restaurant and we at sashimi, Nabe, which is japanese winter stew, and a whole fish-it was literally just put on a grill and cooked, hilarious-which i think it was some kind of sucker fish but it tasted quite yummy, and load of other foods. they were all so friendly and had amazing english so i had a great time, one of the teachers had even studied abroad in wisconsin when she was in high school, so i got to reminisce with her about cows, miller beer, and the brew crew. that may be the first time anyone ive met in japan has known where wisconsin is...woot woot! it was really nice to go out with the teachers and get to know them better! i had asked katsumata-sensei if i could go to Utsumi for their graduation, so on friday i got to go and watch the third years graduate! there were a group of third boys who i always sat on the bus and train with, always asked me how to say inappropriate words in english, and nicknamed me hermione from harry potter-oh how they will be missed! next school year will not be as fun without them! but i got to leave school at noon after graduation and proceeded to go home and sleep for the rest of the day, it was glorious. then i met a group of us in sakae for some indian curry at a restaurant called akbar and then we went to st.james gate for a pint before catching the last train home. we always go to st.james gate and they have come to know us there and i also have a rather large crush on the bartender...no worries i have it under control. on saturday i had to go to school for graduation at Handa. i wore a suit...in japan everyone wears black and white, no color, to the graduation but some teacher wear kimonos. first is the procession of all the third year graduates-who wear just their school uniforms, no gowns-then everyone sings the national anthem, which i do not know so i stood there awkwardly whilst bowing to the japanese flag. then a student comes up and gets all the diplomas for the graduates from the principal and sets them on a table. the students are not called up individually during the ceremony, but receive their diplomas back in the classroom after...japan is a very group-oriented society and they all graduate as a group without individual recognition or honors. then the principal makes a speech to congratulate the graduates, and he wears a tux with tails, which made my already adorable principal even more so. then one of the special guests makes a speech as well...handa is one of the most prestigous high schools in Aichi so there are lots of important guests who come. then one of the third year girls goes on stage and gives a thank you speech to the principal and the poor girl couldnt even speak cuz she was crying so hard.then everyone sings two really old japanese songs...handas ceremony is very traditional because it is so high-level...one that sounded like aud lang syne but with different words, so i just sang the words to that song instead. then they sing the school song, which i almost have down, and by this point all the girls and parents are crying again. after that a second year boy gave a farewell speech to the third years. then everyone walked out while the teachers gathered around and clapped and high-fived the graduates. some students came and took pictures with me and many of the other teachers before they left the school. all in all the ceremony was very nice, a little too sad for me, not to mention the excessive bowing at all times...literally stand up, bow, sit down, repeat...but i will miss the third years at handa and hope i helped some get into the universitys they wanted! i dont teach the second years at handa, so come april i will get a whole new batch of first years and third years to teach! after graduation i went to hanako's brothers house for a Hina-Matsuri party. Hina-Matsuri is the Dolls festival that celebrates girls in japan. everyone with daughters sets up these huge displays of hina-dolls in there house, its absolutely stunning to see the dolls all set up on tiered display stands. her brother has two daughters and one son-hayate-, who is 2, and who are all adorablely cute! her mother made tons of food and we ate mango cake. even her grandpa was having fun talking to us...her family is what we call gaijin friendly and they neither dislike us nor are afraid of us, which is rare, haha. after the party we went to a club in nagoya called JBs to hear this DJ called Tiny. it was apparently 70s-chic night cuz everyone was dressed too cool for words to describe. all the jboys were in full swing, with glitter gloves to platinum jackets, and can only be summed up in one word...fabulous. japan is at the peak of the fashion world and the way everyone dresses here never ceases to amaze me. on sunday i met a big group of peeps for a Nagoya Diamond Dolphins (no that is literally their name) basketball game, oh yea the japanese play basketball...not like NBA style, more like high school style bball. needless to say, the game was hilarious. everytime the home team got the ball some stang techno-hyper beat music would start to play, EVERYTIME, and sometimes they threw in a little offspring, pretty fly for a white guy, which was a nice touch. there was a guy from mexico, a few black guys, and the token white guy on the team, but all in all it was not the best bball ive ever seen...the other team was much better and had this dude who should have been a linebacker as there center. after they lost they all stood in a line and bowed in apology to the audience, awesome, and of course we boo-ed, it was necessary trust me. japanese sports are wonderful and i cant wait for baseball season to start here! this week is more laid back and this weekend maria and i are heading to tokyo to celebrate nozomi's birthday...which will be fun and crazy, since the world baseball classic is going to be going on at tokyo dome and the city will be jammed packed even more so. I predict spring is going to be my favorite time in japan and march is going to fly by, but im going to keep doing everything and anything i can to make use of all my time here soaking in all japan has to offer! im missing everyone at home and hope you are all doing well...i hope to update some pictures documenting my escapades soon! much love xx　ﾎﾟｯ(*ﾟ.ﾟ)(ﾟ.ﾟ*)ﾎﾟｯ

One more year...

I finally finished the Twilight series, my new amazing obsession, so now i am able to function again on my semi-normal level! seriously those books were so addicting, i could do nothing but read them! so clearly i survived snowboarding, but barely. it was not a pleasant experience for me and i doubt i will give it a go ever again, so done and done. i enjoyed the Gero trip tho, it was so nice to actually see snow and i had a lot of fun meeting people from Gifu. it was an enjoyable weekend getaway. next year i think ill hit up an onsen way up in the mountains and stay away from the winter sports! the weekend after the ski trip, the last weekend in january, maria and i went to toyohashi to visit Nozomi and her family. i met her parents and her mom taught us how to make the special, declicious kind of green tea used for tea ceremonies and cooked us the most amazing sukiyaki, its like a sweet stew that uses lots of soy sauce and brown sugar. i only stayed the day and then i had to go back to Handa for Sunday because i went to a shrine with kawai-sensei and her twin daughters for the mochi throwing. this is an event where people stand on a platform and chuck rock hard mochi at you, a lil dangerous and the people literally get crazy, i dont understand its just a rice cake, chill people. anyways, that was fun to take part in despite the bruises i received from the tall man jumping on me to steal the mochi. then that night my friend hanako took me to a sushi restaurant, not the fancy kind but the kind where it comes around and around and you can pick the ones you want. not really a big fan of sushi but i tried some and found i like most salmon sushi, esp yaki cheese salmon, and yellowtail. hanako has fallen in love with sushi boy so i forsee many trips there in the near future, we went back already on v-day to give him chocolate! the first week of february was busy, and i think february is going to be a busy month for me. on the 5th i made the big decision to stay another year in Japan! yea so ill be here until july 2010 at least which give ya`ll more time to visit me and me lots more time to figure what i will do after jet, scary. then on that friday the 6th i went to my first concert in jpan, Fall Out Boy! it was amazinggggg, i have never been to a crazier concert before. we figured it would all be gaijin there but we were like the only 4 there and when the music started the japanese just jumped and pushed and were all up in our grill, it was madness. they love to jump and pump their hands in the air, unfortunately most do not have any rhythm and could not understand the songs but it was still amusing nonetheless. i loved it and being so close to pete was wonderful, the venue was pretty small so i got to see him up close and scream inappropriate things at him cuz i was the only one who could speak english ha! then on saturday was the Hadaka Matsuri, better known as the Naked Man Festival and what a treat it was. we went with a big ole group of foreigners and watched as the men wearing white loin cloths paraded through the streets. all of them were so drunk off sake and chanting, and i saw way too many butts for my liking, and not nice ones either. all in all it was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon and something truly unique to this country. it is actually quite a religious festival...what happens is there is one naked man and he is in the temple so we dont see him and all the other men chase him and touch him to give him their bad luck and all the men pass out ribbons, etc to people for good luck. i got nothing else from it than butt so the religious effect was lost on me. on sunday it was our friend yuka`s birthday so we went out for lunch in nagoya to an eel restaurant and i gotta say i love grilled eel, its delicious. after lunch we shopped around and went to an aussie bar, red rock, for drinks and dinner. all in all a festive weekend, one of the best thus far in nagoya. the next week we had wednesday off but on tuesday i came down with a mean cold and didnt go into work! i had a fever of 103, highest ive ever had...good thing i went to the doc and got some meds and got a sick day, in japan they like to make you use your paid vacation if you are sick, lame. so on tuesday night i was feeling better and went with maria, briana, and annie to osaka and stayed in a little hotel with a bed, tv, and kleenex...you put it together...and then on wed we went to spa world all day and enjoyed the asian baths and got swedish massages, i love japanese onsens! it was nice to have a day off, although for the next couple weeks i will have nothing to do at school, no teaching cuz the year is ending and there are tests, graduations, etc. this last weekend everyone finally came down to handa to visit hanako and me. we went to a yakitori, chicken restaurant, and ate and drank, then karaoke, and then everyone stayed at my tiny apartment but we all fit! then on valentines we hit up the sushi-ya for lunch and then went out to dinner at a fondue restaurant in nagoya called switch. we had scallops, soup, shrimp, rice balls, cheese and chocolate fondue, oh it was soooo sooo good, no melting pot, but still oishiiiii! after dinner we went to the hub and ended up staying out all night, go figure and took the train home in the morning. then i slept for 5 hrs got up and went back into nagoya for some sunday ice skating...the rink was small and i can skate suprisingly better than i thought (andy can attest to how much i usually suck at skating) but there was no music on the rink and no nachos, pretzels with cheese and all the deliciousness of the pettit, sad. then we shopped around osu, ate turkish kebabs, and called it a day. another crazy busy weekend! today i am buying my plane tickets for thailand for the end of march, 8 days, 7 nights! im really looking forward to it! the rest of this week is quite calm, few classes, and next weekend is busy again with dinners and drinking and on sunday we are doing a practice hanami party (the cherry blossom sake parties in april) under the plum trees that are starting to bloom! part of my fun has been overshadowed by the departure of one mr.favre, the love of my life, but i think i will survive, but it may be touch and go for a while. i love japan, but i still miss my sportscenter and chipotle. hopefully no one is too devastated by my decision to stay another year and let me know if you wanna come over a visit, my cousin meghan is coming at the end of june so im looking forward to showing her my other country for a while and you are all welcome! oh next month in nagoya is the penis festival so be ready for some more interesting stories coming your way, japan never ceases to surprise me! also if you are bored there is a website called something like japanese people will sleep anywhere, its hilarious and so, so true. much love xxxxxx

Jpanese Winter

hi hi. well, being back in japan is nice except for the cold. clearly its not as cold as good ole wisco, but the lack of central heating or any heating for that matter makes it quite unpleasant. i sometimes sleep with my coat on, but soon winter will be gone and it will go back to being nice and warm! winter in japan is very peaceful, although more and more people are out taking advantage of the sale season, which i must say is absolutely wonderful. After shogatsu everything goes on sale and i have been shopping like a mad woman and buying nice dress pants for 15 bucks, insane. besides the massive amount of shopping ive been doing, ive just been catching up with everyone after their winter breaks. finally back into the swing o things. lots of casual dinners and getting accustomed to japan again. last week was a really difficult week for my base school, Handa koko. my supervisor's mother passed away and a third year student got hit and killed by a train at my train station on wednesday. that was really hard for everyone to handle and such a shock to everyone. i didnt know the student, but anything like that can have a pretty strong affect on a person. his funeral was this weekend along with all the third years college entrance exams, so i cant imagine what a stressful time its been for them. on to a more upbeat topic, last week we had a kencho meeting and got the low down on re-contracting, which i have decided to stay another year in japan because there just isn't enough time to accomplish everything in one year. most everyone else is staying as well, which will be good for me. on friday i went to a friend's birthday party and we all had quite a good time, and stayed out all night again haha. on saturday i went to a theatre audition with maria, for this musical the Nagoya Arts center is putting on, in english of course. then we found ourselves a new, actually traditional, irish pub in nagoya and then went to see Body of Lies at the theatre. On sunday i got up super early, well at least for a sunday, to go to this private kimono exhibition and got to see amazingly intricatly designed kimonos, which were around 30 to 60,000 dollars, totally expensive but definately worth the price. clearly i did not buy any, but looking was a special experience. then we had some mochi, a tea ceremony, and got to see the traditional tye-dying techniques and products of Arimatsu, a town outside of nagoya and very famous for shibori, or tye-dye. we also got to go to a sake brewery and see how sake is made and taste 4 different kinds, which were all quite delicious. now i understand a little bit more about sake, but we were all in agreement that the brewery was more like a torture chamber and just glad to leave with our lives. As for this week, its a pretty easy one. We have a mid-year seminar on wednesday and thursday with the ALts and JTE (japanese teachers of english) which will be pretty boring, but something to do i guess. this weekend im off to Gero for the annual ski trip with the Gifu jets, and i will be attempting to snowboard so just hope i make it back with no broken bones! also there are a lot of natural springs around the area, so im really excited for that. thats all for now. much love from the east. xx

Happy New Year

Re-starting the blog in the new year, mainly for susan, but clearly you all are dying to know whats new with me, cuz im kinda a big deal and all. Just got back to Japan after two weeks of vacation. On December 19th I left out of Tokyo headed for Frankfurt to meet up with my mom, dad, aunt rita, and grandpa in Frankfurt where my uncle Mark currently resides in a town called Rodenback. I arrived that night after my 12 hour flight, stuffed myself full of cheese that mom had brought me and went to bed. The next couple days we relaxed and wandered around the area, went to kaiserslautern, trier, and luxembourg and enjoyed the christmas markets, drank gluhwein, beer, and ate loads of delicious brats. unfortunately rita had to head back to south africa early but in her place we got my cousin kayla, a fair trade if i say so myself. we picked kayla up in frankfurt in our rented mercedes van, classy, and walked around, shopped, ate more brats, and rita and i hit up a murukami museum, which is no less than bizarre that my favorite japanese artist is nowhere to be found in japan, but has a museum in frankfurt, go figure. Then we left for Paris and those four days were nothing short of fabulous. I have never been to Paris and can say that everything you hear about Paris doesnt even come close to the real thing. As predicted, I feel in love. We got in on christmas eve and went to mass at Notre Dame with the other 10,000 people who had the same idea. It was beautiful, one of the only times i can remember staying awake the whole mass, although my other companions cant say the same. On christmas we took a morning tour around the city in a mini van, stopping at le Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame, and Monmartre. Apres, we went shopping on the Champs Elysees and went to the Christmas markets on the street. All in all a wonderful christmas in Paris. The next day while kayla, grandpa, and mark went to Normandy and mom and dad off to the Invalides, I went to the Louvre and spent a short four hours running around trying to see everything, but getting my fix of Davids before I left the creme de la creme of museums. then i headed to the Orangerie that houses a pretty good collection of impressionist and post impressionist art along with two oval rooms with 8 huge paintings of Monets water lillies, absolutely stunning. Then met up with the rents and wandered around the latin quarter and stopping at a cafe for some french beer. the next day, saturday, i headed to the D`Orsay musee for some impressionist art viewing and probably could have stayed there all day, without a doubt the best museum i have and most likely ever will go to. then met up with the others for some shopping at Galaries Lafayette and other stores to search for non-existant bargains, it is Paris after all. at night mom, kayla, and i went up to the top of le Tour Eiffel, which was beatiful with all the lights but the beauty was over shadowed but the extreme coldness of the evening but totally worth it. on sunday we packed up to go back to germany, hit up a few last stops like the Hard Rock, some souvenir shops, and the latin quarter for one last panini and gyro, and headed out. back in germany we took a couple more adventures to see a castle in hiedelberg and shop in speyer. then in was back to relaxing, watching movies, eating, and playing numerous amounts of mexican dominoes. on new years eve we participated in the german tradition of lighting off fireworks at midnight, which was something new and exciting. but i did get to go on base for a day and eat some delicious delicious taco bell, oh how i had missed it. then it was time for me to leave, so on jan 2 we did a little last minute shopping and sight seeing in frankfurt and also ate a last brat and slice of pizza hut and said goodbye and flew back to japan. as of now i have still not gotten over my jet lag and have gotten a mean cold and am now more homesick than i have been yet :( but i shall live i think. its a new year and i plan to make the most of my time in japan and soon enough i have to decided whether of not to stay another year! hope all is well and much love from me!xx

DOB

still alive and kicking in japan! so i left off with tokyo, well afterwards i was beat as we stayed out all night and partyed way too much. On monday it rained all day and I went to Utsumi to teach a couple classes. The bus ride there and back is a bit nuts, I ride it with all the students and they both attempt to talk to me and talk about me in japanese....if only they knew that i can understand most of the things they say! On tuesday I was back at Handa and finished up my lesson on visiting the doctor, which was actually helpful since the temperature dropped suddenly here and most kids are sick with colds. After class I made my way on over to Akaike to visit Maria for dinner-we made some delicious chicken, noodle, pepper thing and watched 27 dresses, a typical girl date night. On wednesday I went to Taketoyo and taught 2 classes-one class was really bright and we played a couple games and I brought candy to bribe them into playing and it worked! I have a tiny crush on this old little senseis there that I teach with haha. After class I had ego conversation to teach to the little ones. For the first class, which is 6 girls around 10, we played candy land...which they loved...as I knew they would. I also enjoyed playing, didnt land on mister plumpy so everything was a-ok! Then for the second class we played one round of candy land and then I taught them some food vocab, they need to get ready for junior high school next year where they will actually begin taking english classes. One of the girls brought me a present--a pencil with stitch on it and a dangling stitch for my keitai, she is so adorable...I bought her a couple stitch things to thank her! After class, Tomei-sensei, the lady who I teach the convo classes with, took me to an Italian restaurant where we had pizza and pasta and raw octopus! which is actually really delicious, i hate to say it but i actually liked it! She also took me to meet her family, I have really found some amazing people here who treat me like their daughter and am so happy I have them. On thursday night I had my enkai, drinking party, that my thurs night english convo class threw for me! We went to this japanese restaurant called surprise and they had a whole menu planned out for me! we started with salad and then came the sashimi, slabs of raw fish...I managed to choke down a few, the salmon i find tasty but the rest is a bit difficult to keep down. Then came the GIANT bowl of fish heads, yes heads of fish with the eyes, the teeth...everything on it. I eventually got past the face and decided to try and it was delicious, no joke! I just kept eating them despite the amazingly disgusting factor of eating around the eyes and such. Then we cooked our own chicken stew-like thing in a pot on the table and ate some odd egg pudding thing, there was way too much food and of course way too much consumption of beer! And i had the worst experience ever in the bathroom...I walked in and the BIGGEST spider I have ever seen was crawling around on the wall and I screamed so loud, ohhhh it was so not cool. That scarred me for life. On friday, as I tried to recover, I went to school and listened to Kawai-sensei's third year class speeches about japanese culture and did some japanese studying. At the end of the day we all went into the gym to listen to the student council presidential candidates speech, he was really nervous and a bit sick...all of a suddent midway through the speech he just fainted and hit the floor and no one went to help him, so he just got back up on his own and continued on with his speech...as I sat in the back of the gym laughing hysterically cuz i just couldnt hold it in. then I went to nihongo class and had some fun, i tried to spice things up a bit by making up weird answers to their question...they were laughing, either at me or with me, either works for me! Then I went to marias for our friday night mcdonalds and sleepover party. We slept in on saturday and decided to hit up Aeon Mall in Kanayama for some lite shopping...bought a couple flannel shirts and a plaid scarf, nothing too exciting. Afterwards we met up with the boys under the tv tower in Sakae for some classy outdoor drinking, and then went to a deliciously authentic indian restaurant for curry and proceeded to drink more on the streets, yet again so classy. and then I finally got to see Joe, a dude from my japanese classes at madison who lives in Nagoya, which was really fun! Then I headed home with Maria for the night since Handa is too far away and I was far too lazy to race to catch my last train home. Sunday Maria and I met up with some of the others for a soccer game in Nagoya--we got to see Nagoya Grampus v Tokyo Verdy...it wasnt a great game, as their level of play was nothing near that of world cup soccer, but at the last second nagoya finally scored a goal to tie the game and to remain in second in the league! It was nice to get a little dose of sports after being deprived of football for this season! I bought a jersey of the foreigner on the team, Johnsen, i thought I owed it to my swedish ancestors! anyways...after that I just went home to clean and get ready for the next week. This week is exam week and it has been just a pure bore! Monday I did absolutely nothing at Handa but I got to leave early, so I decided to go into Sakae and meet maria for some shopping...spending money is my therapy :) I also had to take my computer in to get looked at since Im pretty sure its dying and time to get a new one...ugh. Yesterday I also did nothing but talked to Kawai-sensei and she was teaching me japanese which was fun and katsumata-sensei, my supervisor, for a while to pass the time since I had no classes. For dinner I went to Agui to eat at Eeko Oda-san's house, a cute lady in my thurs english class. She had been inviting me for a while to come over so I thought I would take her up on her offer! She cooked me a delicious dinner...more fish with the eyes, etc, but I dug into that sucker and ate it...and it was good! I think my fear of fish is finally over! I got to met her husband, her daughter, and her one year old granddaughter, who is adorable and would make the perfect girlfriend for Louie. She also has 4 cats, which of course I loved and one of them kept jumping on the table and stealing my fish! Now I am just finishing up my day at Taketoyo after having a crazy class with these boys who kept asking me for my phone number and to send them an american girl, of course I offered Ashley and told them she will be coming in the mail soon! haha! Hope all is well in the states, its a bummer about the crew brew but they made a good run! send my some email updates with the crazy happenings in wisco, miss you all and as always lots of love from jpan! Oh and i found this story on BBC today...some crazy dude swimming nude in the moat of the imperial palace... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7656537.stm check it out!

Jpan Madness

ah so sorry with my slacking on the blog updating...eh. so the monday after i got back from tokyo i went to Utsumi and got to teach a class...I really like Utsumi because its a lower level school and the students are way more energetic and actually get involved in the class, which really helps me out with my teaching. The rest of the week I pretty much just went to school and either taught a couple classes or just sat around and did the usual reading of books or reading anything and everything i can possibly find online! some days I have two classes, some I have five so who knows. At Handa high I have finally moved on from the self-intros and got to teach a lesson on going to see the doctor, which was pretty fun and the students were semi-interested which is a plus. They didnt stare at me blankly the entire class, which is progress let me tell you. Maria and I were wrecked from tokyo tho and I still havent caught up on sleep from it. We met up for a little dinner date as usual...we do that once a week to keep the other from pure lonliness! That weekend, Sept 19-21, i went to nihongo class on friday as usual and learned some colors, shapes, body parts, etc...i really enjoy the class, the teachers are so sweet and helpful and its really helping my ability to survive in this country.After class friday I went to marias to hang out and watch movies...just a casual night in. On satuday we slept in late, which was wonderful, and then hit up Osu Kannon where there is a large temple and a bunch of shops and resturants and then we met up with some others for dinner at an izakaya. Then Sunday we finally went to Nagoya Castle, which was beautiful, although it rained the whole time we were there. I had to leave early to come back to Handa to teach english class to the wee ones and then Kaz and Maria met me in Handa for dinner at Mos Burger, which has cheap and delicious burgers, japanese style. On Monday I had no school at Utsumi because they had exams so I went to Handa Koko and they were so happy to see me, it was really cute! The principal came to talk to me and tell how happy he was to see me there because Handa koko is my home...too cute. I taught an all boys class with 40 boys and they were just hilarious, asking me all sorts of odd questions. ON tuesday we had no school because it was a holiday so I did some shopping, met up with Chris in town, and Maria for dinner at a little italian restaurant where we have become the token foreigners who eat there. Wed and Thurs were teaching classes as usual and then on friday on my way to japanese class i had to buy shinkansen tickets for tokyo and I did it all in japanese...i was sooo proud of myself haha! Then I went to class and got taken aside and taught extra verbs cuz im clearly one of the best students, but no the class is so much fun and the ladies who teach are just wonderful. So after class some of us went to the Vertex for drinks, which was nice until we got the bill and they charged us a night fee and a drinking fee and a large group fee...it was more a hassle than anything. Then i came home and got up at 6am on saturday to meet Maria at Nagoya to leave for Tokyo! We ended up getting on the train around 7:30 and we were on the train, in our seats, and all of a sudden the ladies voice came on and alerted us we were headed to Kyoto, which is the opposite direction from Tokyo and we couldnt get off! Just when you think you are doing ok in jpan it knocks you down again, but we eventually made it back to tokyo! When we got there I went off to the museums and Maria met up with Nozomi and the gunma jets for sumo. I went to three museums...oh yui you would love them! I went to see the John Everett Millais exhibit at the Bunkamura Museum, which was without a doubt the best exhibition ive ever seen and they had one of my favorite paintings, so i was just thrilled to be there. Then I went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno and saw the Vermeer and other Delft Dutch painters around the same time...also excellent, they had some vermeers i have never seen so its always good to learn a thing or two! Then I headed to the Tokyo National Art Museum and just had enough time to see the Japanese art--some jomon vessels, kimonos, old buddha statues, ukiyo-e prints, and modern paintings. It was all in all a great afternoon well spent looking at art in japan! Definately the best day so far. I met up with Maria and the rest after to go to dinner at TGI Fridays, which was delicious and filling! Then we went to a club called WOMB...yea dont know...and then gas panic...not the one we went to in roppongi but there is another smaller one in shibuya which was fun, since we stayed out all night until 5am or so. Then we went back to Nozomis to get some sleep until around noon on sunday. After that we attempted to go to H&M again and failed as the line was still down the street, seriously these people are crazy. Then we wandered around ginza, did some shopping and i bought some of that amazing chocolate that they have in the department stores in Ginza...ohhh it is sooooo good! Then Maria and I got back on the shink around 6pm and made it home by 9 ish. Its always a great time in Tokyo, im sure ill be going back as soon as I can! xxxoo much love from japan and I will update this bad boy asap since I have some more stories for ya'll!