Hysteric Glamour

It's been a week since I updated this so... I figured I should update it.
Somethings I've noticed this past while:
Everyone in Japan seems to love Crocs and not notice how utterly horrible they are. They bejewel them and everything. I hope whoever reads this knows what they are as I will not be posting any pictures of Crocs on my blog. :)
People here fight over who should sit down. It's the opposite as in Vancouver. People try to give up their seats and then the person they try to give their seat to wont sit down and they argue back and forth as to who should sit. It's very amusing to watch.
So it's summer and the Japanese are in full swing for summer festivals. I've been to two so far. Both were packed full of people, small stalls lined the streets with food and drinks to buy. People are all wearing their yukatas and kimonos and hobbling down the streets in their geta. (Geta are the traditional sandals worn with kimonos) It's fun to watch them get drunk because those shoes are hard to walk in! I went to a matsuri last Sunday with a fellow teacher and a student. It was a sight to be seen for sure! It was in Azabu-Juban near Roppongi. The area was packed with people. The main street was lined with little food, games and drink stalls. There was even a stall selling Moet & Chandon for the more distinguished tastes hahaha. The teacher I went with is not very familiar with Japanese cuisine. We decided to have okonomiyaki from one of the stalls. The Japanese describe okonomiyaki as a 'pancake', there is nothing pancakey about it aside from that I think flour and eggs are used. As I've been told there are two kinds of okonomiyaki, Kansai and Hiroshima. I've tried both before and Hiroshima is tolerable if done right. We had Kansai and it was not done right. My poor friend was terrified as to what he was eating:
"What is this?"
"It's okonomiyaki dude, just smile and eat it"
"what is in it?"
"How should I know?"
"This is terrible"
"I know"
"I dont know what I'm eating"
"Neither do I"
The conversation went on like that in hushed tones for the entire duration of our meal. It was terrible. Events like that I like to call 'dinner roulette'. It can be good, it can be terrible and you're most likely going to lose.

Today, I'm off to another festival with my friend Eriko. I'm not sure where it is but I'm sure it'll be fun!

Straight Burger - a Burger Joint Slogan

Straight burger - no chaser. This burger joint, Lotteria, offers a ten patty burger for the ultra low price of 900 yen. My coworker tried to get me to eat one. I wouldn't know where to begin!
I'm honestly not sure why I'm updating this blog but I am. I'm alive. Work is keeping my on my toes as always. I have to work tomorrow (normally my day off) but oh well. I'm turning Japanese and working myself to death. Funny how that goes. I also went to h.o. for a workshop this week. It was nice to meet some other teachers... one's I had not met before. Some new and some experienced. I'm getting more comfortable with teaching and I think my coworkers are pleased with me. This week has been fun with teaching children. I got to introduce them to the games 'Mother May I' and 'Pin the tail on the donkey'... and with the idea of "show, dont tell" for teaching children I got to be pretty goofy which always makes the day fun. My plans for the brief time I have off this week include: Teaching my friend Japanese, and looking for a good English book to teach someone else English and going for a nice Indian curry. Pretty tame, I know.
I got some good news that I might have company coming to visit me in October. Which is fantastic! I would love the oppportunity to show off my new city and the great places I've become acquainted with!

My Short Trip to Asakusa

So on one of my days off last week I took a quick peek around Asakusa. It was my third time there so forgive me for not taking too many pictures. It was also raining very heavily. The pictures are of: an alleyway by the Sensoji Temple - this is my favourite picture of the bunch and if you look carefully you can see the Tokyo Sky Tree in the background, a couple side streets leading towards the temple where there are a lot of shops where you can buy souvenirs and the like, the gate leading into the main area by Sensoji, the Kaminarimon and a picture of the Tokyo Sky Tree which is currently being built. Sorry for the brief descriptions of the pictures but I haven't figured out how to line up my captions with the pictures... yet!

Yoyogi Park, Harajuku and Shibuya Pictures

So here are some pictures of what I did on Tuesday -- I went to Yoyogi Park in Harajuku and then wandered down to Shibuya.

The above picture is of an enterance way to Yoyogi park. There is a big shrine in the park and is really popular among tourists and foreigners. We fit right in.

This is the view of Harajuku station from a pedestrian bridge.

This was taken in Yoyogi park. It's a huge park.

This was taken in a mall of sorts on Omotesando (a street in Harajuku) Chanel, Bvlgari and all those places were in this mall...

A view of Shibuya from a pedestrian bridge.

Nobody's Ugly after 2 a.m. - a T-shirt

So here are a bunch of pictures of the Tanabata festival I went to and some pictures of Route 16 - a.k.a. "California" (It's right beside the American air base so there are a lot of English shops and what not)

Your Mother is Developer - a t-shirt

So! I finally have internet! What a gruelling ordeal that was! Took ages and ages.

But rest assured I am alive and relatively healthy! After my birthday weekend I think my health took a major beating! My students took me out after class on Saturday and we proceeded to drink for a good five or six hours... maybe longer. They were all really sweet and pitched in to buy me a traditional Japanese fan (I'm always bitching about how hot it is here hahah)and they gave me a champagne toast and everything. It was really sweet!
On Sunday I drunkenly welcomed NTT into my home to install internet which was entertaining... and then I went to Yoyogi park to see some teachers and continue drinking. It takes a lot out of you -- drinking in 35 degree heat. I went to bed at 10 that night and spent the next day lounging around. It was a very nice birthday weekend. My one friend gave me a 1.8 litre bottle of Japanese sake... I named it Koshi and it lives in my fridge. I'm far too scared to open it.

Let's get on to the goods now!! Pictures of my travels!

The top picture is of the shrine in Omiya where I was at first.
The second is of a street in Omiya.
The third is of Ueno (one of the wards in Tokyo)during training a bunch of us went there and explored a bit, had some traditional izakaya food... and beer. :)
The fourth is of the traditional izakaya food - apparently when you eat the tiny squids they explode all their juices and gunk in your mouth. I did not try them.
The fifth is of Hibiya Park (also in Tokyo) we went on the search for Oktoberfest but apparently we missed it by one day. Shucks!
The sixth is of a building in Roppongi - the ward where all the foreigners go. I had to check it out!!
--> Blogger has somehow put them in reverse... the building in Roppongi is top right and Hibiya park is top left and then it goes down in reverse from there! My apologies I will hopefully figure this out sometime!
So those are all the pics I'm going to upload for now... I have plenty more but I need to put them onto my computer and all that jazz... I hope you enjoyed them!