Smack my Bitch Up - Guy's t-shirt... walking with his WIFE

For such an epic title to this entry... you'd think I'd have more to say.

Another week has gone by and life in Japan is still great.

Today (Sunday) I had to go in and work. It was a good day, quieter than normal, I taught two classes and spent the rest of the day tying up loose ends which was really nice.
Recently, I have made the acquaintance of another gaijin living in my town. He's really nice and into the same things as me! He's from Rhode Island and is an assistant language teacher at one of the public schools, he moonlights as a DJ though and is hoping to make it big in Japan. How cool. I know a pseudo celebrity! Get this: he can speak fluent flawless Japanese AND he can read a lot of Kanji!! I envy him! Gotta keep practicing eh?
So, since I have tomorrow off, my friend Jay is coming over and I'm cooking a traditional Canadian dinner of chicken alfredo... it's going to be grand if he ever shows up. I suspect he is lost in darkest Tokyo! Uh oh... I fear I'm gonna have to go on a search and rescue mission.
The upcoming week is a bit busy as I have to go to headquarters and learn some new things to help me with my new added responsibilities. I'm feeling the pressure because I need to do well with my new responsibilities in order to prove to them I'm worthy of staying for another year.
No pressure, no pressure... No, pressure! hahahaha punctuation.

Cant Stop Grind - Cant remember where I saw it

I was at a street festival a few weeks back which was a hot bed for Engrish t-shirts, I wrote down some of the phrases I saw in my note pad on my iPhone which is where I keep getting these hilarious titles. Hope you're enjoying them.

This week is supposed to be quieter for me as all kids classes are cancelled but instead of that I have seven classes today (the maximum). Tomorrow is a national holiday though (Respect for the Aged Day I think?) so I dont have to teach tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the break in my week as I also have to come in on Sunday.

Last weekend was another busy one.
On Saturday one of my students took all the teachers and staff at our school out for Teppanyaki. Wow was it ever good! We had a FIVE course dinner! The chef was really funny and treated me like a celebrity or something because I had never had teppanyaki before. He moved things around and kept asking me questions, I think that made the other foreign teacher a bit mad.
On Sunday I walked around this park near where I live for a couple hours and got some massive blisters on my feet because of it lol. After that I went to a karaoke party hosted by a student and my old coworker. It was fun but really long! Around 3 in the morning we called it quits.
On Monday I went to the Great Japan Beer Festival in Yokohama. It was amazing! There were over 250 beers to try there, and you can sleep well knowing I tried my hardest to drink them all. Might have got about 50... in hind sight I probably should have kept a tally. I went with my old coworker and we ran into a student there which was very amusing for us. We ended up meeting a bunch of cool people who brew beers, got their business cards and one brewery invited us to drink on the docks with them after the festival, which we did for a while. Since we were in Yokohama (has one of the world's largest Chinatowns) we went for all you can eat Chinese food.

The pictures I put up are of Yokohama (the building where the Beer Festival was held- no idea what the name is), for some reason a robot was handing out all the awards to the winning breweries and finally... my glass of beer on the ceremonial block of ice that melts. I had more to put up but they have been lost somewhere in cyberspace for the time being. Will post once they arrive.

Cheers!

Titty & Co. (On someone's purse)

Long time no blog.

I've been relatively distracted lately and have yet again been neglecting my blog.

I have been given more responsibility at work. Yay (read exasperated sigh). I will soon get to be one of the many people who die from karōshi. (overwork) haha. I am in charge of more business related things, making sure people sign up to do studies at home and explain to head office why people aren't. I didn't want this responsibility. Enough about work.

On the fun side of living in Japan... It's been summer this past little while that I have not been blogging (duh!) and I have been taking full advantage of the weekly festivals that have been taking place all over Tokyo.

Recently...
I went to a takoyaki party that was held in the middle of a punk rock bar in Kabukicho, in Shinjuku. Some guy closed down the entire bar for a private takoyaki party (fried octopus balls) with only 15 guests! It was quite the sight and really fun.
I went to the Tokyo 2010 Brazil Fest in Harajuku. It was amazing! Great dancers, people were everywhere... the music was great. It was a very hot day though so I did not stay long. I have pictures on my phone but not on my computer. I will post some pictures soon.
I went to Odaiba and saw the future! A friend and I went to the Toyota building where they showcase all their cars and what not. We were able to simulate the race track they test their cars on in a big theatre, learn all about hybrids, see future cars and... ROBOTS!!! We also went to a place called.... Venus Fort (I think), the entire inside was built to look like some courtyard in Italy. I took a lot of pictures... they just aren't up yet (sorry again). My favourite part about Odaiba was sitting on the beach and watching the sunset. Fantastic!
I went to a BBQ (again) on the Akigawa River (again) and it was pretty fun. I was the only foreigner there and most people couldn't speak any English so I was using a lot of Japanese the entire day.

So there's a little update about what's been going on. I will try to remember to update more often and hopefully post some pictures of my adventures!

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.