Tokyo Tokyo Tokyo

Well...Saturday morning Maria and I woke up way too early to catch the shinkansen to tokyo at around 7:30am. We both slept on the train, but its so comfortable and roomie...I love the shink. We aarrived around 9:30, it takes a little less than two hours to get to Tokyo from Nagoya. We hopped on the train to Ueno zoo. We were so excited to see the panda and all the animals, but once we got to the zoo there was a giant sign that said the panda had died in april. sad. we were not happy. but luckily i think there is one other zoo somewhere in japan with a giant panda...i hope! We wandered around the zoo for a couple hours, that zoo is huge. It has two parks connected by a monorail...remember when we lost chad there haha nice. We did get to see the cute little red pandas tho, which were definately my favorite. It was post-mating season so there were lots of little monkeys everywhere, too cute. We bought lots of souvenirs and finally got some soft-serve ice cream. yes. After the zoo we went to Ikebukuro to meet up with matt who decided to join us for the weekend. Ikebukuro has lots of large department stores and shops....me, shop? never. anyways, we went to wendys for lunch....delicious....then hit up tokkyu hands, a large department store but they have literally everything you can buy. On the top floor they have an area called Nekobukuro which is an area where you can play with cats...so we did that, but the cats were not cute...mainly just fat and lazy, i was quite disappointed but all in all it was a hilarious experience. After wandering and relaxing at a cafe we met up with maria's friend Nozomi from college, but who lives in Tokyo and who we stayed with, for dinner in Shibuya. We went to a little izakaya that randomly had graffiti all over the wall, which was an interesting twist. The food was good and cheap and then we wandered around the city. As we were walking we ran into a street festival, i dont know i guess the japanese in tokyo decide to have random street parades and such whenever they want. We couldnt find a pub to go to since they were all packed, so we ended up at a cafe-like place for drinks. After that we shipped matt off to a capsule hotel and we took to train back to Nozomi's apartment, which is about a half hour outside tokyo. In the morning we got up showered, etc. and met matt in harajuku around 10:30. Supposedly on sunday mornings the crazies are out and prancing around harajuku, but we only saw a few that morning. We walked to a shinto shrine in harajuku that was massive and quite beautiful and we got to see a couple wedding parades through the shrine grounds. Then we went shopping and bought lots of interesting things along the main streets in harajuku. We ate lunch at an italian restaurant and got crepes on the street, which is the trendy thing to do now-a-days in harajuku. Then we got the train to take us to Sanrio Puroland, better known as Hello Kitty World, which is outside the heart of tokyo city. We had the best time here, I cant even explain how much fun it was. We got to actually meet hello kitty, a life-long goal finally fulfilled, and some of her friends. We took a boat ride, kind of like Its a Small World ride at Disney World, but with sanrio characters. We saw a show and a parade with princess kitty and her beau daniel and many other characters. We got to tour hello kittys house and sit in her car. And then there was shopping. I bought way too many hello kitty things, but maria bought more so I dont feel so childish :)Hello Kitty rocks, lets be honest here. After hello kitty world we ate dinner at a ramen restaurant and headed back into shinjuku for some ice cream and street wandering. Then home for bed. On monday morning we left the apartment early to go to the newly opened H&M in Ginza....it opened on sat, the first one in japan....when we got there we saw a line about 1 mile long down the street to get into the store. So we scratched that idea and decided to go to some other stores before meeting up with Dave, an Irish jet from Guma who is friends with Maria. We ate lunch and headed to a buddhist temple in another part of tokyo. There were so many shops full of traditional japanese-esque things, finally, and I bought a kokeshi doll, japanese wooden dolls, and kimono kitty accessories...hello kitty dressed in a kimono, she is the best one! The temple was huge and we got to see the giant lanterns, cleanse our souls in incense, and get our fortunes, which were not too promising unfortunately. After the temple we went to see this golden statue along the river or as its more affectinately called the golden poo because it looks like poop. Ill post a picture because you must see it, its quite entertaining. After that we headed back to shibuya for last minute wandering and shopping and then Maria and I went back to Tokyo station to catch our 8pm shinkansen bound for Nagoya. We accidentally sat in the smoking car on the way home, which was unpleasant but not too bad I guess. When I got home I was wrecked and am still tired from being on the go. But Tokyo is the coolest place in Japan and I cant wait to go back in two weeks for some museum hunting and more shopping! I need a halloween costume :) If anyone comes to visit we must go to Tokyo, there is really no place like it. I hope all is well in the states! Let me know whats new or shoot me an email anytime! Lots of Love from the far east! xo

Handa Koko School Festival

Konnichiwa all! Sorry i havent blogged in a while, Ive been busy and blah blah, anyways...Well teaching is going really really well so far! Ive mainly been doing a self-intro lecture where I tell them about me and wisconsin and show them lots of pictures and then give them a quiz that they can work on in groups with easy questions and what not. Most students are quite shy but I get the occasionally odd questions about my personal life...like if I have a boyfriend or a husband...in one class they asked if I had a husband and I said no but no one heard me and then I wrote 22 on the board to tell them my age but they all thought I had 22 husbands, haha woops...and when i plan on getting married. They are quite comical. At Handa, Kawai-sensei's class has been giving speeches about young japanese culture, which are quite interesting but ridden with grammer mistakes, etc. I have been doing a lot in her class...every class i give the kids a vocab quiz where i read the words in japanese and they write the english ones and listening to their speeches and correcting their pronunciation and grammer. With the third years I am able to do a lot because they can communicate in english, where the first years cannot express their opinions and ideas in english yet, which is rather difficult for me. I like teaching tho and I hope Im good at it, we'll see I guess. I left off on wed when I went to Taketoyo for the first time...on thursday of that week after classes I had english conversation class. There are two sweet older ladies in that class that bring me things...one brought me jam and tickets to hello kitty world...and they other oda-san alway invites me to come to her house and touch her cats, haha i think i may go this weekend. They are throwing me an enkai, drinking/welcome party, at the beginning of october which I am really looking forward too! One of the younger women in the class asked me to teach another english conversation class on wednesdays to younger children, which I was pleased about and am going to do! on friday, sept 5, at Handa was the school festival! In the morning I went to Kariyado Hall to watch the band perform, and the dance team, and the martial arts clubs. It was really enjoyable to watch all the students in a more fun environment where they were talking and more relaxed than at school. At lunch time I went out with the english teachers and had miso kattsu, an aichi specialty, which is basically breaded pork with miso sauce on top. Its qutie delicious. Lunch with the ladies is always interesting, they talk about other teachers and tell me all the gossip. After lunch we went back to the hall to listen to a lecture by a famous mathmetician...which was all in japanese...and i fell asleep for most of it...woops. I wasnt the only one sleeping, most of the students were as well. But to be fair I heard it was actually really interesting and many of the students enjoyed his lecture. After school on friday I went to my first japanese class in Higashi-Betsuin, which is in Nagoya, with Maria and Annie. It was earthquake day, since september is earthquake season in Japan, so we learned emergency vocab, how to call the police, parts of the body, etc. It is a really helpful class run by some japanese teachers who are extremely helpful, although they wont speak english to us, which sucks but i guess it will help me learn in the long run. After class we met up with some older jets and Kaz our japanese friend for some karaoke until the last trains. We decided to take it easy for the weekend since most of us are still tired all the time for no apparent reason! Saturday I went into school for the festival...yes school on a saturday. It was quite fun tho. All the classes decorated their classrooms and created different activities for us to participate in...like one class turned the room into a gameboard for a napoleon inspired history game and another class had giant pools full of bubble solution and had me get into the pool and made a giant bubble around me, it was pretty sweet. The cooking club also made "restaurants" with different foods for us to try for lunch...I had the hamburger which wasnt all that bad. Then I went to a traditional tea ceremony and the students served me green tea in yukatas and i ate the bean paste thing they fed me...yum. After that I watched the koto players, the koto is the japanese harp, and i learned how to play the cherry blossom song on it! After that Kawai-sensei and I visited more classrooms and talked with the students who were so excited to see me there and attempted to talk to me in english, which usually failed...but smiling and a thumbs up works for me. After the festival I met Maria and Annie in Sakae for dinner. We ate some pasta and garlic bread, no mama mias but it wasnt all that bad. After that we met up with some other jets and went to a promotional bar for some japanese vodka. The bar was open on both sides so it was fun to watch all the people walking by and staring at the large group of foreigners in the tiny bar. We went to another bar, the hub, which is a foreigner bar as well and ran into some interesting mexican men who tried to pimp us out to japanese men...odd. We called it an early night again and Maria came home to casa Lauren for the night. It was nice to have someone else there, it gets quite lonely living alone. In the morning I took her to the school festival again just for fun. All the teachers and students enjoyed meeting Maria and seeing that I actually do have a friend in Japan haha they were concerned about me. We wandered around the school, got some mountain dew (so delicious), and watched the dance team perform their hip hop. Funny side note...the music the dance club dances to is not censored at all and all the rap songs are full of swear words and bad slang, but apparently they cant understand american music so no one knows what they are saying but me. ha. After the festival Maria and I went into Sakae again for some shopping and wandering the large malls Sakae has to offer. We met Matt for dinner at Shooters, the American Bar, and ate lots of food...quesadillas yum...and other various delicious foods in big portions! Its nice to eat somewhat western food every once in a while instead of rice. Monday I went to Utsumi and had my first class there. It went really well. The students are lower level but much more talkative and interested in what I was saying. I think that might be my favorite school so far, all the students and teachers really make an effort and I cant wait to go back there to teach. I taught more classes on tuesday at Handa and went out to dinner with Maria and Kaz at night. Maria and I have decided to have weekly dinner dates to lessen our lonliness haha. We went to some amazing Italian restaurant with correct spaghetti and pizza, it was the best food ive had yet. Kaz helped us buy Shinkansen tickets for Tokyo for the weekend, thank god. Its good to have someone who speaks japanese with ya, it makes the process much smoother instead of me pointing and shouting random japanese words at the poor woman. Not that that has happened often...eh. Wednesday I went to Taketoyo for Sports Day. I watched the students race and compete in other events all day in the heat. I wasnt feeling to well after that, the heat really can take its toll on you here. But I got to meet some students and the principal introduced me to the school. There is an American exchange student there named Willy from Washington St, I havent met him yet but hopefully we can be buddies! Wednesday night I met up with the other english conversation class Im teaching with the woman from my thurs class. I taught four 13 year old girls for an hour and LOVED it, omg they were so cute. We talked about disney and stitch for like the whole hour..I can relate better to the 13 year olds lets be honest. And after that I taught three 10yr old girls and one boy for an hour and they were equally as cute. I cant wait to do more with them, mom is sending some games so I think those will be fun to play with the kids! Japanese children are adorable, there is no other way to explain it. Thursday I only went to school for two hours and left at 11 for our Kencho meeting at the prefectural board of education in Nagoya. I met Maria for lunch beforehand, by lunch i mean mister donuts, and then we went to the meeting. At the meeting we got to meet all the older alts in aichi and learn some more information about upcoming events and important crap in september and october. I learned about a soccer game at the beginning of october between nagoya's team and tokyos which I decided I wanted to go to! It was a short meeting and then after everyone went to the Hard Rock for half-price food and drinks. I stayed for a couple hours then had to head back into Agui for english class. During class we talked about the supposed earthquake that was supposed to hit Aichi last weekend but never did thank god. Instead it hit hokkaido pretty badly, but I havent heard much news about it. I always learn a lot about Japan from them, they tell me where I have to visit, what I should do, etc its nice to have them for support too. Friday I did some teaching and listening to students speeches for the competition coming up in two weeks...then I went to Japanese class and learned how to say some basic phrases, etc and more and more is coming back to me so hopefully by december ill be able to carry on a conversation. I went back to Akaike with Maria, we had dinner, and then hung out until we went to bed early because we had to catch our early Shinkansen for tokyo!! Tokyo deserves another post simply because it is the greatest city ever. hands down.

Domannaka

OH I have so much to tell you all! Well last I left off I was going to my opening ceremony speech in the gym...it went really well! I didnt trip, or fall, or forget my speech! I jsut gave the same speech I gave to the teachers about me, so it was short and sweet! Kawai-sensei says I have really good japanese pronunciation, but we'll see, my first japanese classes start on friday so im hoping i can learn more vocab and verbs so i can communicate with people better! Anyways, after my speech on wednesday i sat around and did nothing of course..but then after school I went to Akaike to have dinner with Matt and Maria. Maria cooked us spagetti and it was amazing! She is a wonderous cook and i love going to her house for dinner! Then we watched a movie and called it an early night since we were all tired and had to get up early for work...so responsible i tell ya. On thursday night I had my english converstaion class in Agui! I met them around 8 and our class consisted of reading parts of a book about Japan. I learned a lot about the origin of the name Japan and the flag and also the difference between Nippon and Nihon, which im still a little unclear on..i think Nippon is more official and governmentally used. But yea, so we had class for about an hour and a half...everyone in the class is just so sweet and the old guy, Roy, loves to interupt and tell us odd facts or question me about state flowers haha who knows, but i really enjoy them! On of the older women eeko oda brought me a bag full of hello kitty stuff cuz i told her i loved cats! And then she invited me to her house, so I think I will go to visit her next weekend! After class we went out for tea again and just sat and talked about japan and wisconsin, it was quite enjoyable. But then the rain started and didnt stop all night, it was pouring and pouring and thundering all night! On friday morning the trains were all delayed due to the rain and there was major problems in Okazaki, which is near me but not too close, with flooding and houses collapsing etc...not good. So friday morning it was hectic around the school, but as I am paid to do I just sat at my desk and did nothing! Friday after school I met up with the other jets at Oasis 21 in Sakae for dinner. We went to another izakaya, but I didnt eat (I ate ahead of time to avoid the greasy, fried food) so we just drank kirin and sake...then the ladies--maria, me, annie, and deanna--headed to a club called i.d. for the night. We decided to miss our trains and stay at the club all night, not too bright. The club is sweet tho, it has 5 floors, each with a different genre of music playing...we hung out on the hip hop floor of course! There were lots of other foreigners there, so we didnt feel so out of place. But after 3 hours of dancing we were tired, so we walked to matt's apartment and crashed there. On saturday we slept in and had doughnuts for breakfast at mister donut...i love that place! After lunch it was still pouring and I decided to still go to Sakae to watch the domannaka in the rain. The domannaka is a dance festival in the streets of sakae and a tons of dance teams participate in a competition...it is too much fun to watch. They wore very traditional clothes and make-up and dances despite the cold rain! After the festival I took the train home to change and pack clothes to stay at maria's and then hopped on the train all the way back to sakae to meet everyone again. We went to another izakaya (a much much better one that has amazing wings and fried cheese...yum) for a going away party for an older yet. I got to meet some new older alts that I haven't met yet which was fun! After dinner and all you can drink (nomihodai) we went to the hub, which is a foreigner bar in sakae. We keep seeing the same foreigners everywhere so we finally go a chance to meet some other people on different programs and here in japan for other various reasons. After the hub we decided to miss our last train and go to an all night dance club instead. We headed to club Mago, which is a well-known club that many famous djs have come to. But that particular saturday night it was techno music night, and oh my lord it was awful. It was a small club, too smokie, and continously flashing strobe lights...it was not good. But we met some interesting people there and this one sweet girl named Miyu who we hope to keep in contact with! So at about 5am we left the club and walked to the station, since the subways dont start running until about 5:45am, ugh. Tom, an alt from Wales, and I went back to Maria's and slept until about 2pm on Sunday. After our nap we went back into sakae to watch the dance festival again. It was beautiful out and there were crowds and crowds of people there watching! We ate lunch at a Hawaiian Korean BBQ restaurant called Yummy...I think the restaurant was a little confused with what kind of food they were serving...but we had delicious cheeseburgers so it was alright with us. After the dancing was over we wandered around the rest of the festival, there were stages with people singing and tons of little tables with different foods. We ate some yaki-soba and listened to music and then called it a night. I came home and went to bed. Monday morning I got up early since I had to find my way to Utsumi high school for the first time. I got off the train at Kowa station and followed the students to the bus and then rode with them to the high school. I gave a speech to the teachers and to the students and then they let me leave early at 12:30, which was fantastic. I rode the bus back with the students, who were asking me a billion questions and so excited to see me, but our mutual language skills are crap so it was hard to have a conversation. Since Utsumi is the lowest school in Aichi prefecture I will most likely be having trouble communicating with the students and teachers, who speak little english, if any. After school, I came home ate some lunch, called mom and dad :) and then finished planning my classes from tuesday. Tuesday I finally got to teach at Handa, I had four classes--two first year and two third year classes! The third year classes went very very well, Kawai-sensei is easy to teach with and has amazing english skills. All the students were excited to see my pictures and asked many questions...like if I had a husband or a boyfriend...and broke out of their shy shells for a while! I really enjoyed teaching my first day and I think it will be a good year! The students at Handa are really bright and eager to learn. After school I had english club and listened to the students speeches for the speech competition at the end of Septemeber. Their speeches are all so funny, one girl is reading the very hungry caterpillar! After school I caught the train back to Sakae again to meet Maria for dinner at Los Tacos, I really really miss Mexican food. It was a fun little hole in the wall restaurant, but they had delicious and cheap tacos, burritos, and nachos...just what I needed! After dinner we went to a coffee shop for some iced tea and just relaxed until we had to catch the trains back home. This morning, wednesday, I had to go to Taketoyo high school, my third school, to talk with the teachers and arrange the class plans. The train ride was easy but then I had to walk a half hour to school in the extreme humidity through the rice fields! I got to school all sweaty and gross, but thats to be expected in japan. Im probably going to sit around and do nothing for the rest of the day, but everyone here is really friendly and the lady in charge of me, Kume-sensei, is so sweet and helpful! Tonight I am going to relax and clean my apartment, maybe do laundry, although my washer smells funny eh. Tomorrow I have two more classes at Handa and I'll probably be giving my self-intro for the first two months of classes and by then I'll be sick of talking about myself! I hope everything is going well back in the states! Miss you all so very much! Much Love!