Heading Home

Looks like I'll be heading back to Toronto much sooner than I expected. It was only under extenuating circumstances that I wanted to leave Japan over... and it appears that time has come. =*[.

Moment of Clarity

God, I can't believe I didn't re-download this earlier.

"Thank God for grantin' me this moment of clarity
This moment of honesty
The world'll feel my truths..."

Call the Doctor

Where to start? This was probably my most interesting weekend in Japan to date yet no amount of words or coherent sentences can justify all that has happened in the past 40 hours or so. I guess some of my highlights were shopping at LaLa Port & Laketown, to Chanko Nabe dining for dinner, and ending the next night with a long conversation on a train station platform in Koshigaya Laketown.

Dr. Mario was also clearly one of the best parts. Music to my ears and virus counts... trash talking which was surprisingly above average... Peach Tea cures all.. or was it the cause? Random thoughts flowing everywhere is an undersatement to say the least. And I'm feelin' just fine. Let's just see what happens now to the neighbour's cat and the goldfish's memory.

Old School Parties

Had a little time to reminisce over a few pictures taken earlier this year and I couldn't help but laugh at some of the things I was looking over. While I don't really miss Toronto as a city all that much, I do miss some of the people. Even though Kyle and I still get together and chill on a couch on a weekly basis here in Japan, this picture makes me miss the parties we used to have. At the end of the day though it simply comes down to this: I'd still rather be here in Japan than back home in Toronto. At least for now anyway!

Pictures and Names

If there's one thing I've learned over these months of working with children is that their innate ability to captivate adults is unquestionably something to be experienced rather than explained. With that said, I'm going to make an attempt at explaining a few funny, random, and sweet moments.

The picture above was given to me by a student who had to quit my lesson for personal family reasons. On her last day she gave me a sealed envelope of a picture she drew. It's of me and her, and although I'm clearly a woman in the picture it was still touching. She wrote our names in English, and also her Japanese name in Katakana. Off to the side are a diamond, star, and heart; some of the shapes we just recently learned about in class. I'm going to miss this 6-year old =*[.


This next one is definitely more on the random side. Using pirates, sailors, and a whiteboard for one of our English activities, my high school students came up with the most ludicrous team names I've ever seen in my life. On the left are the "Banban Sailors WOW" and to the right lie the "Nacching LION is so COOL Pirates." Yeah. Exactly. How can you not get it?

My next anecdote unforuntately doesn't have any picture evidence but nevertheless is one of my favourties. One day, one of my 10-year olds and I were practicing animal vocabulary, along with "like" and "don't like". He boldly said: "I don't like skunks," a grammatically perfect sentence. When he came to write the sentence on the whiteboard, he wrote "skanks" instead of "skunks." As you can imagine, I almost collapsed to the ground laughing at what he had done. I'm so proud of my students. For those of you wondering, yeah, I did eventually correct the written sentence. Haha.

Hondoji

Went over to Kita Kogane again to visit Hondji Temple since it's only 15 minutes away to see for myself the magical Fall colours that are starting to overtake the usual green.


I like these maple leaves better than what I'm used to in Canada. They're much more subtle and balanced which to me makes them a little more attractive for the eye. Maybe if I spend another 23 years here I'll start missing the ones back home.


While I was taking a picture here another random Japanese group asked me if I could take a picture for them. The problem is they see me with a SLR camera and automatically think I'm good at taking pictures. Maybe I'm average, but I do not know how to use a regular point and shoot anymore. After taking the picture they always thank you, but I can honestly tell they want another one. I don't see wy veryone can't just switch over to SLR's. This would clearly solve the problem. I'm just saying.

Another Random Sunday

After another epic session of overnight karaoke my friend Irene and I recharged ourselves on two hours of sleep. We headed into Harajuku (typical but w/e!) to rendez-vous with some of her friends from Toronto who are currently visiting Tokyo on vacation. After wandering Omote Sando Hills for awhile we made our way over to Ginza to do some more exploring and to meet up with another one of the networked friends.


Dinner took place in Tokyo at an izakaya and we all headed over to Ed's place later for his house warming party. I didn't mean to be an ass, but I showed up with three people, two of which I had only met a few hours ago. It was good old fun; random and spontaneous, a common theme for weekend outtings.

First Piece of Literature

When I was packing for Japan the only real English book I brought over was a reference textbook titled "How to Teach English" by Jeremy Harmer. It serves as a pretty decent paperweight and masterfully collects dust. Yesterday afternoon I finally picked up my first English book over in Kashiwa for my own pleasure.

It only cost ¥1200 so I think it was a steal considering the Canadian (and global) economy is failing left, right, and center. The book has been more than a delight so far but it could also be the masquerade of not having engaged in any means of challenging English over the past 6 months or so. Yay for Engrish!

Autumn Colours

Colours have slowly been changing from green to red/orange/yellow/brown and some parks are starting to look spectacular. It's sort of funny since I never really appreciated the season changes back in Toronto but for some reason when I'm outdoors here it's a big deal.


Unfortunately when I arrived earlier this year it was too late and I had already missed out on Sakura (cherry blossom) season. Hopefully, when it rolls around again in Spring I'll be able to experience it in full effect.


Going along with the "red" theme H&M in Harajuku had their grand opening on Saturday and kicked it off with a red carpet party. There were masses of people lined up around the blocks and police officers were hired to bring them in group by group.

Shimo is #1!

During my lessons some of my older students always ask me where my favourite place in Japan is. I usually uninspiringly respond with "Kyoto" since I know that's what they want to hear and it's something they are familiar with. If I had to pick a place in Tokyo though, I think Shimokitazawa is officially the coolest.


The only downside I find is that it's a little far from where I live and it's way too easy to spend money while there. Chotto dangerous! Had to force myself away from fashion. Came across so many cool shops and neat things that I couldn't resist spending money on. Ended up buying a man-purse from this place followed by shirts and jeans from another. The store is called "Grapefruit Moon."


This is an Italian style cafe/restaurant with a very interesting name. Didn't have the chance to try it out but I'll definitely re-visit it in the near future. There are also lots of yaki-toris, izakayas, and an okonomiyaki joint that kick some serious ass.


Inside of a music, book, and random accessory shop. This place was pretty huge and I love how they setup their music sections. Everything kind of looks cluttered but at the same time it really is displayed nicely and merchandised well. A lot of the music on demo was of the Underground type and it sounded extremely hip. I actually would consider buying more CD's here if they weren't all ¥3000 or so.

Art in Kashiwa

Went by Kashiwa last week to do some shopping and to my delight there happened to be an art festival taking place displaying the works of Kashiwa Art School students.


Art and music are one in the same so of course there had to be a musical number provided for the ambience. From what I could make of it the band was jazz and they jammed out to several songs.


It's amazing to see how the mind of an artist works. I imagine they are able to construct an idea of what they are trying to create and step by step put it together as a single finished product. I'm also jealous since I couldn't draw to save my life and my artsy factor is pretty miniscule.


Canvases were set up along the entire street outside of Kashiwa station and their respected artists were either creating or putting the finishing touches on their pieces of work.


It's days like this where I'm glad I carry my camera around everywhere. I constantly remind myself what country I'm currently in and how anything can spontaneously happen at any given time. Thanks art people for giving me a few more memories!

Historical Election

Where were you when history was made several hours ago when Barack Obama was elected as the first African-American president ever of the United States of America? I was in Japan of course and the news coverage of it here in Tokyo is making headlines left and right. The official announcement made while I was still at follow-up training in Zushi and there was a collective cheer as most of the group I was with are Americans and Obama supporters. The Republicans have been in power for something like 30 years? Obama's message has been loud and clear and the results show the global support he has.

When January 2009 rolls around and he's officially put into power we'll see how fast policy changes are implemented and if he can truly stop the war in Iraq. The people have spoken and it looks like hope is in the air.

It's time for a change... Yes we can!

Off to Follow-up Training

Tomorrow morning I'll be heading off to Zushi for an exciting two days of follow-up training. It's likely going to be a chore, but it'll be nice seeing a few friendly faces from my initial training group. Zushi is located right near Kamakura and not too far from Yokohama. Too bad I likely won't have time to see either of them!

Round 2 JR & Ikea!

As some of you know the last time I tried to casually enter the JR train station at Minami Funabashi with an excessively large Ikea package in hand it didn't turn out so well. Ed, Kyle, and I tried carrying my sofa home one Sunday afternoon back in September and got horribly rejected upon being spotted by the JR station master. This time around Ed and I entered with a slightly smaller box and succesfully got through the train station gates. Take that Japan!


This time around we had a solid gameplan. Yuki was able to run some interference and ask the station master on duty for random directions whilst Ed and I stealthed through the gates with our large box. I'd say it flawlessly worked. The actual package contained four chairs and the table itself so you can imagine how large it was.


About 4 hours from the purchase, this is the end result! Not to shabby if I can say so myself. Assembly was more or less simple as Ikea instructions and technology are for the most part very user friendly. My arms and hands are sore as hell, but it was nevertheless another crazy fun day in Chiba/Tokyo!