Welcoming a Blessing

A quick congratulations to Matthew and Amy Olson who welcomed their brand new baby boy into the world. Jonathan Turner Olson was born on Wednesday May 28th, 2008 at 7:30pm and weighed in at 8 pounds 7.6 ounces and 20.5 inches long. All the best wishes, luck, and love in the world for their new bundle of joy!

Michael Jackson-Ryu: Shinku Hadouken!

Undoubtedly the highlight of the day came in the form of a guy busting a move just oustide of Harajuku station, where all the Harajuku girls and cosplayers gather. At first I thought he was just a regular guy passing through the crowd, but he soon proved me wrong.

Creating some airspace with arm movement he cranked up his i-Pod and started a dance routine I can hardly describe with words. Kyle and I watched in awe and we deducted it had to be some sort of Michael Jackson music he was listening to. His white i-Pod had a red smiley face painted on and it was carefully tucked into his belt.

Just as it seemed he was all out of dance moves he called forth the inner strength and powered up to do a hadouken. But it wasn't just any regular hadouken. It had to be a super Level 3 MAX Shinku Hadouken! We were going to stay longer and watch the guy, but we couldn't hold our laughter in any longer.

It was like looking into an episode of Street Fighter: The Later Years. What happened to Ryu after he was done winning all the tournaments...? Why he's dancing on street corners in Harajuku of course! If we see him outside of Harajuku again I fully expect him to be doing a hurricane kick!

Sensō-ji, Asakusa

Another temple ill-fatedly destroyed during the World War II bombings but later restored and rebuilt. It's an ancient Buddhist temple easily recognized by it's giant lantern by the entrance gates. The walk to the temple was preceeded by a large market place area with many exciting tourist and souvenir shops. Asakusa actually has several shrines and temples in the surrounding area but unfortunately I didn't have time to visit them all. There was also a sketchy looking amusement park and a lot of outdoor restaurants that looked amazing. Definitely going to have to come back and visit here when I need something to do. But perhaps the most important spot to visit is the Asahi brewery which is located across the river from Asakusa station. Oh well, next time!

Yoyogi Park Performers

Just outside of Yoyogi Park a rock band entertained the crowd. The drummer was kick ass but the girl on the tenor saxophone was disappointing.

Yoyogi is pretty large-- it has like four different entrance gates, a garden, a cycling centre, a track and field area, a bird sanctuary, and continuous water fountains in the ponds. Strolling through here there were many people walking through the trails and also others riding their bikes. There was also a group of maybe 10 girls with pom poms practicing cheerleading or some kind of organized dance. Kyle convinced me not to take any pictures since it may have implied I was a perv. Now that I look back on it, good call Kyle.

Harajuku - Meiji Temple

Today's spots for exploring and wandering were definitely the most fun I've yet to have since arriving in the Tokyo area. Met up with Kyle early this morning at around 11:00am so we could get the most out of our day. Our first destination was Meiji temple since it is literally 5 minutes away from Harajuku station.

The weather wasn't that great today (it's been raining for the past few days) but it still wasn't bad walking around Tokyo. It's probably better it be cool and damp than extremely humid and smelly. Meiji shrine was impressive to say the least. The courtyard was huge and I was lucky enough to visit while a traditional Japanese wedding cermeony was taking place. It must be a tiny bit awkward to have a bunch of stranger tourists go paparazzi on what's supposed to be a sacred ritual. Unfortunately, I too went camera crazy as they were passing through the shrine's courtyard.
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First Week Complete!

Photo above: east side of Shinjuku station on a Saturday night.

Yay! I survived my first real week as a teacher! I can't express how much relief that is, since I had a slight fear of being completely overwhelmed by the students and the amount of work I am trying to adjust to. I must say I have honestly met some of the cutest kids on the planet and it's such a privilege to be able to interact with them.

The amount of hope and joy that fills their eyes is unbelievable to witness since they are still so young and innocent. The majority of the kids are so eager to learn and excited to be studying another language. Looking over the curriculum is astonishing because they learn vocabulary and advanced sentence patterns that I don't ever recall studying while I was in elementary school. The high school students are looking to expand their thought processes and hope to be able to express more complex concepts, emotions, and relative issues in English. It's impressive to see them apply language structure they study for 5 minutes in class and be able to relay it to their everyday lives.

Meeting the student's parents after classes is enlightening as well. Most of them are ecstatic to hear about what was studied in class and they even want to help out and be involved with homework assignments. However, we'll see if they're still all smiles in a couple of weeks after I fill out student evaluations. Haha.

My Suica

So I now possess a remarkable piece of plastic that's probably one of the most convenient things I've ever had. I picked up my Suica yesterday and I must say I've already fallen in love with it. "Suica" stands for Super Urban Intelligent CArd and it's used as a train pass throughout the Greater Tokyo Area. With this card I can pass through each station without buying any tickets as long as I have enough money on the card to get me through the next station. I simply swipe my card through the ticket gate and it records where I enter, and then accordingly deducts the correct amount of fare it costs at the station I exit from.

At the train stations there are also several vending machines and convenience stores that can accept a Suica as a payment method. It's metallic so I dont' even need to remove it from my wallet for the ticket gate to recognize it. I can just simply push my wallet up against the scanner and I'm good to go through the next train station. Did I mention it's a rechargeable card too? Best thing ever.

Such a simple concept yet at the same time so conveniently complex. Mind boggling but I still must proclaim: Suica for life!