MY YEAR IN JAPAN!!

Me: sitting in the Hotel in L.A for Pre-Departure Orientation…my DAD on the side of me trying to get out of the picture…good job DAD! This is what we call: “business casual” lol!! J

Jill (left side of pic)- my roommate in Tokyo and Tomoko (right)- my very 1^st friend in JAPAN! Yay, I guess I’m capable of making friends after all!! LOL…Us in the airport (only waited for 4 hours in this room!)

Finally in TOKYO!!! This is an underground tunnel! We decided to venture out into the city the first night instead of going to seminars!!! I know, great start huh? That’s Tomoko and Terren

We went to a club on Saturday Night..well it was kinda a club, but we were just happy that they played American music!! Tomoko is in Blue, Terren in Black..LOL Tomoko turns BRIGHT RED when she drinks as you can tell!! J

Sunday Night: We went to Shibuya. This is where American movies are usually filmed! (Lost in Translation, The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift, Matrix) It’s 11:00 AT NIGHT on a Sunday and look how many people are still in the streets…it was like this until 12:00 when we left.

Shibuya is a crazy place…

look what I found. Sooo random that I had to take a picture of it!!! Those are really talking CONDOMS!! LOL

There was also a fight in the streets. I don’t know if this happens very much because within 30 seconds (no joke) there were over 20 police officers and 5 guerilla men there to break it up and arrest the guy. I had to be the typical tourist and take a picture… but then I got in trouble and we had to go away… see that guy’s arm on the left, yeah?? He yelled at me in Japanese and pushed us away! Oops..

This picture is also from SHIBUYA! It’s a 2 story Starbucks!! We sat up there for an hour and people watched…this is where I took the picture of the street! This is when I thought: Japan isnt going to be so bad, they have all the stuff we have in the US, some of it is even better!!! BUT THEN…I moved to my “city” and got a big SLAP in the face! I got tricked… Sanjo isnt a city…it’s a town at best!

Last Dinner before we left! I guess the girls in the back were trying to get into the Japanese spirit or something throwing up the peace signs!!! Off to my “city”!!!! Tomoko is going to Shizuoka and Terren to Aomori!!!

Tokyo @ Night from 51 stories up

August 3, 2006, Thursday

IM HERE!!!!!!! The day started out bright and early at 8:00 a.m. I didn’t sleep very well because I don’t have an alarm clock and so I woke up every hour to make sure that I wouldn’t oversleep and miss Paul’s pickup. First we went to the City Hall to get our Ginko Cards (alien registration) and then to the bank to open up my own account. Then onto lunch and my Nichu School (2^nd school) which is my base school that I will visit twice a week. The guy was pretty nice but didn’t seem to speak English considering he was an English teacher. Interesting… At 6:30pm we went to the Language Salon where I met two really interesting people and learned a lot about Yukatas (summer kimonos).

The first was a lady who dressed me in a Yukata, remember left over right because right over left means that you are dead. She says that the back of the neck turn men on so make sure in Autumn and Spring that Yukata is pulled firmly to the neck. Another sweet spot is the akiles tendon so if you let men get a peak and slightly lift the Yukata, it is like you are flirting with them. Also, don’t show any of your chest b/c only fat and old people do it. Fat people do it because it elongates your neckline and makes your face look slimmer, and old people do it just because they are old. They say that small features on your face and to have a small face (whatever that means) is beautiful. They say I have a small face, so I guess I’m BEAUTIFUL! (…but we all already knew that!! J/k) Another fad is that young girls are tanning bright orange style and dying their hair bright blonde, and wearing white lipstick they are called Yamamba. I also learned that if I want to impress men to say: Oh-nik-i-yu for thank you because it is a word that only princesses say, so they will think that I am royalty and be really impressed! If I was trying to impress Japanese men than I might give it a try… but since I’m not really interested, it’ll just be something fun to know! Also when you where traditional sandals, don’t put your toes all the way in, your heel should be hanging out the back because they give you blisters between your toes. AND since its been giving people blisters since the beginning of time the Japanese have made it part of their tradition…those crazy Japanese! The craziest part is that when we were leaving she gave me the Yukata to borrow for the ENTIRE summer so that I could go to festivals and wear it!!! She is going to teach me how to tie the Obe correctly next week at Language Salon. I can’t believe how generous people are! I felt awkward accepting such a gift….I mean who does that?? Who gives a complete stranger a 400$ (probably more!) YUKATA w/ all the trimmings!!?!

The second lady was named NAOMI. She asked me to have lunch with her tomorrow at 10:00a.m and of course, I said yes. I think I’m going to take her some See’s Candy, I’m sure she will enjoy it. She is really nice and has 3 kids. I love her son’s name Ryushi –dragon star – pronounced Ru-Si in Japanese. (Remember for my son’s middle name possibility). She is also taking me to the YamadaDenki (electronic store) so that I can get a digital translator. I’ll write more about it tomorrow.

Here are pictures of the Sanjo and Nagaoka Fierworks..I don’t really remember which one is which but you get the idea.

For some reason, the fireworks (Hanabee) look really small in the pictures but truuuust me, they were huge. Some of them took up the entire sky! K I don’t know how to explain it. Umm…the ball they shoot up was supposed to be the biggest in Japan..It was a ball 6 feet in diameter. I guess you can actually see a replica of it and it looks like the size of my car but I didn’t see it, so Ill just have to take their word for it!

-These are all shot off on the other side of the Shinano River, which is the longest river in Japan.. You can see all the people sitting along the edge of the river!

I included this picture b/c I knew MOM would have a fit! LOL..look at how much this melon is! It’s the equivalent to something like a cantaloupe or something. Damn near $20.00 USD!!!

The language thing is REALLY hard! I always feel lost and my head hurts from concentrating so hard. I listen soooo carefully just to see if I can pick out a word or two and get the jist of the sentence! I’m sure I will write tons more about this but I’m tired now and have to wake up early to go to lunch!! Goodnight.

Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Update: Today was 105 degrees!!!!!!

I bought a car and a cell phone (the number is:08031915558) just in case you want to make a super duper long distance phone call!

This is my car…I wish I would have taken a picture standing next to it so that you can see how small it is.. It is a yellow plate which means the engine is less than 600ccs (whatever that means)…the guy at the dealership kept saying: MUCH different than Mustang, NO POWA (power)!

but I wanted this one.. ITS PINK!! But it was 50$ more a month…oh well..

Friday we danced in the Sanjo Festival. I know it may be confusing but Im the one in the middle...and these ladies were 5'2 sooo I'm crouching wayyyy down.

The past two days we have been working at Osaki Camp to teach kids the value of volunteering and international studies. It is so cool, but kinda tiring. All we do is talk to kids all day and help them with English, then cook lunch with them and play games…and the best part about it is that we get paid for it!

This is a Somen drain. We had Somen for lunch obviously. Soo..here’s how it works. These handy-dandy guys set up the shoot! They attach a hose at the top and send water down the shoot like a water slide…

The old lady at the left puts the Somen noodles into the shoot and the people all line up w/ chopsticks and try to catch noodles as it goes down the Shoot.

Yummy…OH! And also we carved our own chopsticks and bowls from bamboo. It took about an hour in order for mine to somewhat resemble anything like Hashee!!

This poor student had the very end spot! Needless to say, he didn’t really get any noodles b/c they were all picked off by the time they got to him…sooo sad, now I know why Japanese kids are soooo skinny (cuz they have to fend off their classmates for their food, only the STRONG SURVIVE!!!)

LOL…since Japanese kids always throw up the peace sign. I tried to show them how we do it in CA. The backwards GANGSTA GANGSTA sign..doesn’t really look all that gangster-ish but they got a kick out of it and posed like this for the rest of the pictures!!

Things have been so hectic. We get up at 7:30ish every morning and work til 5. But since we just got here, we have been doing tons of errands so usually we don’t get home til 10 or so. Needless to say, I have not really set up my apt the way I want to yet. I still need to pick up my car tomorrow and then after that I can drive around all by myself, get lost, and hopefully eventually find my way home! I actually got home somewhat early today at 4:00p.m and was soo tired that I crashed for a couple hours. I’m still waiting for my internet to get here. It is taking FOREVER!!! I just applied for it on Saturday and it usually takes 2 weeks but since Obon is this week, it may take 3. So I am looking at getting it around the 22ndish.

Jenny and James (the other 2 ALTS) get here tomorrow. I have to find my own way down to the City Hall before 11:30a.m. and since we all know how I am with directions, I’m thinking I’ll probably leave super early because I have to walk there in heels, 100 degree weather, 90% humidity, and with the help of 0 street signs. Apparently they don’t believe in them here, just like they don’t believe in stopping at red lights – but that is an entirely different story!

Reminder: buy Stephen nice hashee and geenbei (even though he is an Ass)

Think of something to buy Jeffrey