Life never ceases to be boring, if you make efforts to keep yourself interested. At least, that’s how I feel after the last three months.

I mentioned near the beginning of the year that I’d be leaving my job with American Language School in West Tokyo to move on to other things. That all went very smoothly. The woman who replaced me is a lovely, lovely human who I hope is enjoying herself in her new position. I haven’t received any desperate phone calls from the office asking if I can come in to help, so I’m assuming things are going great! Saying goodbye to some of my students was emotional. Saying goodbye to some of my other students was, honestly, a relief. Thankfully, the ones I had the strongest connections with I’ve been able to keep in touch with. I’m still on good terms with management at the school, too.

While I had written on this blog a few times about my feelings regarding my teaching job, there were a number of factors that went into my decision not to renew my contract. One of the biggest factors was a family plan that would take up most of the month of June and the first few days of July. If you followed along on YouTube at all, you’ve likely already seen some video footage.

My family went on a month long trip to Europe. We explored Italy and Croatia, and got to meet distant relatives for the first time. My father competed in a worldwide swimming competition (and got 10th place in the world for his age group!). We rented a sailboat and island hopped around the Adriatic, stopping in the evenings at beautiful harbors to eat delicious food and enjoy the summer. It was a whirlwind trip and an incredible series of experiences. I’m still in the process of completing videos of our fun.

Milna, Croatia, on the island of Brac. The first place our sailboat stopped. Absolutely gorgeous!

To finance my trip and my anticipated period of unemployment that would inevitably follow, I sold my car (in the US) in spring with the help of my family. I had some cash stocked up to help make the transition to a new job easier, but knew I needed to find a new position by the end of July. As much as I wanted to get going and start working right away after arriving home from my long vacation, jet lag and and a brief sickness got the best of me. I suppose it was just my body’s way of reminding me that having a few days of staycation following a vacation are very important.

Over the last 6 months, things have really picked up on the activity front for me here, though I didn’t blog about it. For about a 2 month period in spring, I worked with a Tokyo based law firm helping with some stateside liaising and document checks. My agreement with them ended when I left for Europe, but through their connections, they (totally on their own) set me up with a job at Tokyo University one day a week. I met my former employer and their connection at the university for dinner and drinks (AKA “an interview”) one evening. This was followed by an interview with the managerial staff of the department interested in hiring me at the University. It all went well, and I secured a once-weekly position doing editing work. It’s great, but one day a week doesn’t pay the bills.

Japan’s payment system operates a little differently than the US system. Paychecks are delayed by a month. For example, if you begin work on the first of April and work full time through that month, you are not paid for that month of work until the end of the following month (May). Keeping this in mind (along with my slowly draining bank account), I knew I had to find something by the end of July, or I’d be in deep trouble.

I got lucky. I sent one resume and one email to a listing I saw online. The listing was for a data entry job, and it was close to home. The listing used words like “flexible” and “part time”. I figured it couldn’t hurt to chat with them and see what they needed. If we could come to an agreement, it would be great. I figured I still had other options, if absolutely necessary.

I went in for an interview and had a great time. To make an increasingly long story slightly shorter: they hired me. 4 days a week. 9 hour days. And it’s definitely not data entry.

So, what’s my primary job now? I work for a beer importer! The company imports beer from all around the world. Delicious, delicious beer. I’m split between two divisions of the company. One of my jobs is to work with the company’s owner/COO to manage branding and planning activities. This so far has involved preparing presentations for him, monitoring promotional activities, going to events, and checking out sales data to start forming marketing plans. I am thoroughly enjoying myself and learning a lot in a very short period of time.

A summer rooftop pool party I went to last weekend. Free of charge, with a guest. Because my boss asked me if I could make it. Life is sooo hard. Just terrible.

In addition to these jobs (which have me working Monday-Friday, 9-6 or later), I’ve also been doing more and more media-related work this year. Some readers may be familiar with the JapanesePod101 series, or other language study services provided by the same company. I’m now working for them on a very part time basis to produce video lessons and to provide voice support for audio lessons.

The video lessons I’m doing are to teach more natural English phrases to people who have already been studying for some time. There are a few free sample versions available for viewing on their official YouTube channel, but the full package is a subscription service. My role in all of it is pretty small; they set a time for me to come in to film a few lessons at a time (from 7 AM, ARGH). I show up and try to stay awake and energized. They put a script in front of me, I read it, they edit it a few days later, and then give it to people. Feedback has been good. They tell me I’m their only host that nobody has written bad comments about. Huzzah! I’m contracted to do 25 lessons with them, and we’re at about the halfway mark.

The voice recording work I’m doing for the same company is fairly easy; I sit in their teeny little studio and read vocabulary words into a large microphone. Occasionally I also work with a native speaker of another language to be the English support for individuals learning something else. For example, most recently I worked with a native speaker of Arabic. My voice is the one saying things like “When you want to express that you like a food, try saying…” For the most part, it’s easy work.

I also have an online editing job. I do it when I can. Pretty self explanatory.

Lastly, and most recently, I have one new media project on the horizon working with NHK. I met with the producers of a show a couple weeks ago, and things are now in progress for…something! I don’t want to say too much here and risk counting my chickens before they’ve hatched. News will be announced when news is available.

So! That’s how season 3 of ArishaInTokyo starts! I realized today that I’d forgotten completely my 3 year Japan Birthday. July 19th marked the date! My, how much has changed. I’ve been reading through a lot of my old posts in the last few days and have wanted to write something, but wasn’t sure where to start. I guess this is it!

I hope that everyone has had an amazing summer thus far. Mine has been fantastic. I’m very, very excited about the latest turns my life has taken, and I’m excited to be sharing it with all of you. While I’m afraid I won’t be writing much about my experiences with students, the last few weeks have shown me that my new positions are going to be anything but boring. I’m busy, but not in a way that makes me feel frustrated. It seems as though these changes have been for the good!

I have a lot to get caught up on, blog wise. There are draft posts sitting on my wordpress account just waiting to be finished off, plenty of pictures to share, and more videos to be made. My hiatus was a good one. It was absolutely necessary! I’m looking forward to making the next year the best year yet.

Thanks for reading, as always! Have a wonderful week!

Tokyo summers are hot. I learned that 3 seconds after stepping off the plane at Narita airport one year ago in the middle of July. I’m re-living that experience again now. A few months ago I was priding myself on my ability to cocoon myself in my heated room and snuggle into a nest of blankets when I slept.

Now I’m just trying to maintain arctic levels of cool in my abode so I can get ready for work without having to take two showers.

One of my adult students talked at length with me recently about summers in Japan. The summer here is hot in a soul crushing, sweat gland-wrenching, sticky, messy, disgusting sort of way (for us foreign folk, at least). For the majority of the summer, the temperature stays between about 80-95 degrees Fahrenheit (29-34 Celsius). Humidity is high – 80% humidity was common during my stay last summer.

What my student explained to me was about the transitory period between the rainy season and the summer. At the end of Japan’s season of rain (which isn’t really all that rainy), there’s about 10 days of ungodly, maddening heat combined with body enveloping humidity. It’s brutal. I’ve been going to work in shorts and flip flops and changing at the office because if I don’t, my clothes are drenched in sweat by the time I walk through the door. Today we experienced temperatures of 98 degrees with high humidity, and as a result, they entire city walked around mumbling “atssssuuuuuiii” (it’s hoooooot) to one another today.

If nothing else, it’s a good conversation topic, and one that everyone agrees on, which the Japanese tend to like.

The air feels thick and heavy, movements are sluggish, and I find my appetite decreasing as the days get warmer still. The A/C runs at full blast whenever I’m home, and it’s only a matter of time before our noisy insect friends the cicada begin to chirp nonstop for a few weeks straight.

Summer is probably the most uncomfortable time for me in this country, but with the season comes plenty to do. This is the season for fireworks, for little town dances and climbing Mt. Fuji. It’s for having beach BBQ’s with your friends and having drinks in the park. Summers here may be horrendous, especially for the foreign crowd, but I like to think we make the best of them.

And if all else fails, there’s always popcorn, movies, and a good air conditioner.

Hey, hi, what’s up.

I made it!

My bag did not.  I must wait another day for it.  Le sigh.

So yeah, Japan.

WEE!

Okay, so I’m not really packing up as I write this – I’m sitting in the Portland airport waiting to catch my next flight.

I read the post I wrote when I was heading to Japan for the first time last summer. I was anxious, full of excitement, extremely apprehensive, and ultimately, absolutely terrified of what I was going to find and what was going to happen to me when I got off that plane on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

This time around, things are different. It’s a little bizarre to think that I’m taking less things even though I’m coming for a much longer period of time.  I packed two giant suitcases on my first trip over; this trip I’ve brought just one giant suitcase and a smaller carry-on-ish sized one.  There was no frantic packing.  If anything, I procrastinated.  I sat around on my computer finding more exciting things to do than pack and attempted to will my things to get into my bags (it didn’t work very well, for the record).

I arrived in PDX this morning to find my flight to SFO had been canceled – canceled yesterday, in fact.  Why I wasn’t notified I have no idea, but I headed to the ticket counter and stood there half-asleep while four equally stumped women tried to re-book me.  I just let them deal with it, enjoyed my standing nap, and walked away re-booked, bags re-routed…so now I’m waiting.  And debating whether I want a nap or a coffee.

Riveting action here, folks!

With any luck, sometime in the next few hours my luggage and I will be on a plane to Narita.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

This blog post has been brought to you by boredom, sleep deprivation, and PDX Wi-Fi.  I’ll try to be more coherent in the future.

Continued from Part 1:

These posts are pretty image-heavy, so in the interests of saving your computer a little bit, please click the “Read More” link.

(Kyoto) Here we did mostly the same things I did with Gram back in the summer – we visited the Imperial Palace and the Golden Pavilion during one day, then checked out the famous Fushimi Inari shrine the next.

The old Imperial Palace grounds were specially open at the time of our visit, and tons of people were wandering.  There were vendors outside the palace, and as we cruised around, an old woman came up, grabbed my arm, and said “COME TRY THIS!”  She brought me to a booth where a woman gave me a couple of sample size treats made from rice flour.  She waited for me to try, and once she realized I liked what I was eating, she walked away, satisfied.  Well.  Okay then.  I love moments like those.

We got to Kinkakuji at the end of the day, so we just cruised around the temple pretty quickly.

You may have seen Fushimi Inari in the movies or in photos – it’s a short train ride out of Kyoto, and quite a hike to the top of the hill.  The day was pretty warm, and we flaked out before we made it all the way.

This was our last stop in Kyoto.  Our dinner that night was at a pasta place in Kyoto station.  We were “sentenced” to our meals before getting on the Shinkansen back to Tokyo.

We didn’t get back to my apartment until about midnight that night, so we slept in the next day and took things pretty easy before heading to Senso-ji for some sightseeing and shopping.

We did a little shopping in this area – Mom and Dad wanted to get some gifts for friends and family back home.  I took them next out to my favorite place – Odaiba.  We enjoyed the view and got dinner overlooking the bay.

Our last stop for the day was at a bar in Shibuya.  My parents saw this place on Anthony Bourdain, and when they found out Taro brought me here one night, they wanted me to bring them too.

They got a kick out of the teeny, steep stairs leading up to the second story.  I look like I’m 50 feet tall in this photo, which is very exciting for me.

The next day was our last full day in the city.  We moved out of my apartment and checked into a hotel in Shinjuku.

I had an interview that day, so I left my charges to explore Shinjuku while I was away.  They checked out the observation deck of the Metropolitan government building, and wandered around some gardens.  I was so glad to find that they were able to make it around on their own.

When I returned to the hotel a few hours later, we headed about a block away to visit a few izakayas high up in one of the skyscrapers in Shinjuku.  We enjoyed drinks and finger food while overlooking the city.

The next morning I headed back to my office to say goodbye to my coworkers and return a few things.  I got a bit teary-eyed when my boss walked me back to the station in the rain.  It was a rough day, to be sure.

The weirdest thing about my family being with me was having someone to talk to at virtually all times.  I was so accustomed to not speaking, or to just thinking out loud to myself (when at home), but having other people to verbally communicate with was very, very bizarre.

My parents really, really enjoyed their experience and I’m glad they got a taste of a wide variety of the things Japan has to offer.  It took them a very short amount of time to understand why I love it so much, and they both agreed that Tokyo was amazing.  They’ve had nothing but good things to say since their return, and I think they’d both like to come back someday.  I’m so glad they kept an open mind and were willing to try so many new things.  I know there are a ton of pictures here, but they took close to 700 over the course of a week and a half!  They loved their trip, and I’m glad I got to share life here with them.  I’m sure they’ll be very receptive to returning.  My younger brother is already making plans for the things he wants to do in the future.

Since this (and the following) post are very image-heavy, and I don’t want to crash anyone’s computer, please click the “Read More” link below.

After the conclusion of my internship, I had one day to recover from the madness before hustling to Narita airport to pick up my parentals.  They were very, very excited to visit me and let me play tour guide/translator/daughter/cat wrangler.  For the first time in the history of my family’s vacations, they wanted to play each day by ear – we’d scheduled trips and hotel stays in other cities, but left our activities for those days open.  While they had some ideas for what they wanted to do with their time in Kyoto, Hiroshima, and on Miyajima Island, it was up to me to plan their time in Tokyo.

This post ended up including almost 60 pictures, so I’m breaking into two – check out both parts for the full recap.  Due to a combination of laziness and in the interest of keeping these posts short and concise, I’m going to let the photos do most of the talking.  If you want more details about anything, just leave a comment or email.

Their first day started with a lesson on how to operate my kitchen.  Waking up to breakfast cooked every morning was wonderful. Thanks, Dad.

I’d made Monday’s game plan a tour of the place I knew best: Shibuya.  They were eager to see the famous crossing in front of the station.

We stopped for coffee at the Starbucks across the street while I explained where we’d go and what we’d see for the day.  They were already making interesting observations about the city, and both seemed excited to continue on.  I took them up past the 109 building and through some back streets to my old office building.

Next we headed toward Yoyogi park and Meiji Jingu.

Next we were off to Harajuku, Takeshita Dori, and Omotesando.

We stopped for food and some more reflection on their experiences after just one day in one small part of the city.  I took them back through Shibuya at night so they could see how different the same streets appear once all the lights come on.

We spent our evening peeking into shops and getting drinks and dessert near the station before heading home at around 8 or 9 PM.  After a day walking around Shibuya, my parents were pretty beat.

Day two was a little slower – we cruised around my neighborhood for a while, then headed to Akihabara to my favorite ramen place for lunch.  Then, we were off to the Edo-Tokyo museum, which I mentioned in a previous post.  They wanted to get a history lesson, and really enjoyed checking out the artifacts.

We hit up Ginza and the Imperial Palace to check out the place where the run was held.  Ginza is one of my favorite places at night, and that night was no exception; it was a beautiful evening.

The next day we packed up and headed off to Tokyo station to get Mom and Dad’s JR passes, then bought tickets to head to Hiroshima.  They were stoked for their first ride on the Shinkansen.

After arriving in Hiroshima, we walked a couple blocks from our hotel to find the Hiroshima peace memorial park.  It was eerie and I felt like my body temperature dropped several degrees when I entered the grounds.  It was a pretty heavy thing to experience.  We followed this visit with drinks at a nearby Italian restaurant and drinks at the top of our hotel.

The next day we visited the peace museum.  Again, while historical and interesting…not the happiest place on earth.  After Hiroshima, our next stop was Miyajima Island, which was a train ride and a ferry ride away.

We arrived at the perfect time of day: just as the sun was setting.  It was a gorgeous, gorgeous sight.

My parents wanted to stay in a “traditional” ryokan while we were here.  While these places do feature a traditional Japanese housing style, they’re also pretty luxurious.  They’re called Ryokans, but I find myself referring to them more as Ryotels…

The hotel stay included breakfast and dinner.  Dinner was a 10 course meal consisting of a wide variety of Japanese foods.  Much of it was as new to me as to my parents.  Our server was kind enough to explain to me what everything was so that I could tell my parents exactly what they were eating.  I think we tried everything, but found we liked a few things more than others.  This was also Mom and Dad’s first time trying sake – I’m still not sure if they liked it.

Following dinner, we headed back to our room to don our robes before moving downstairs to the “relaxation area”.  Free massage chairs were setup for our use.  It was a great way to end the night.

The next day consisted of sightseeing, hiking, and a little bit of shopping.  We visited Itsukushima Shrine, then headed up for a 2km hike at the top of the island.  Amazing, amazing views from up there.

After our hike, we headed back down to the main part of the island to do a little bit of shopping before hopping on the ferry back to the mainland and catching the shinkansen bound for Kyoto.

Check part two for the rest of the trip!

I’ve been doing a lot of scribbling of notes lately, and thought it was high time for an update. I neglected the blog a bit recently due to becoming very busy with a variety of things! But it’s time we caught up. I won’t put everything I’ve been writing into this post because it would become a novel, but to recap:

I have a little over a month left here. I can’t bring myself to say “my last month” because I know this won’t be my last month here. I know I have to return to the states after my internship for evaluations and paperwork (plus, it’ll be the holidays), and I can’t change that. But I have a ticket back on January 4th. I’ve had it since the day my “return flight” was booked. I didn’t anticipate using it initially, but with every day that passes, I feel more and more as though
this is the place where I should be.

Of course, with that statement comes many questions: Where will I live? Where will I work? Can I make enough money to support myself and pay student loans? What will I achieve by moving here? Why Japan? How do I know I won’t love some other place just as much?

Research (which I’ve been doing a lot of these last few months) only reveals so much; many jobs I’d be able to apply for in the states I can’t apply for here because I’m not fluent in Japanese, and that’s a requirement for many positions. I might be otherwise capable, but the language barrier does present a challenge. I’ve had the opportunity through my current job to meet and speak with a wide variety of people in very different industries. There are so many interesting potential careers out there. How do I choose? I’ve always thought I knew pretty well what I wanted to do.

I’ve never really considered teaching as an option until recently. I know I don’t have the patience to wrangle adolescents, and I lack the confidence to teach adults. But I’ve been around small children a lot lately (at festivals, at the zoo, etc.). This might sound silly, but little Japanese kids are disgustingly adorable. They’ve also been the only people who unabashedly look at me or ask me questions. Their innocence and genuine manner makes me melt. I had a little boy come up to me at the embassy event and ask me (in Japanese) if I knew where “the circus clowns with the funny blue makeup on their eyes” were. I was amazed. Of all the people to ask, why me? He didn’t seem at all concerned to come up and question me, despite me being a foreign stranger. I felt so happy! When I heard a tiny girl exclaiming to her Mother on Odaiba: “that dog is cute, huh?!” I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face (though I tried).

It’s moments like that which have lead me to start researching children’s teaching jobs. I’ve also had the chance to speak to people with teaching experience. The responses have typically been: it’s great. The kids are young, but interested and enthusiastic (as long as you are).

But why Japan? Why not another country? How do I know I won’t love somewhere else? What if I love Europe, or find Australia interesting? How do I know? I guess I don’t. Does anyone?

What I do know is that there are a huge number of things I love about this country. I love how easily reachable everything is; how I can sleep on the train and nobody looks twice. When I can’t sleep and it’s 3AM I can go for a walk in my neighborhood and feel safe. Every person I meet has a new, interesting experience that is uniquely theirs. People are, for the most part, polite. I can find just about any food I could possibly want (and even some food I don’t!).

This isn’t to say that Japan doesn’t have its problems. There are things I dislike, but every country has its issues. I’m poor with Kanji. Problems with the economy, a declining birth rate (and rising elderly population), and troubles with the public education system are just a few examples of very real issues. It’s easy for me to overlook those things right now just because I want to stay here so badly. These are all issues that can affect my future should I choose to remain. But there are going to be issues in any country. Why not stay in a place where I feel safe and happy? Why leave? This place feels like home.

When I told someone recently that I feel like I “fit” here, the reply I got was: “Why? You don’t look like anyone. Don’t the stares bother you? This is so unlike home.” It’s more than just looking the same to fit in. It’s a feeling – that I’m on the same wavelength with the people around me; that I finally feel I have purpose and direction. I looked like everybody else in high school and college…and I never felt like I “fit”. I was constantly striving to be someone acceptable – trying to mold myself to whoever I was trying to impress.

It has been almost effortless here. I know I can be shy and tense when still getting to know people. But I’m finding more and more that I am able to do something I’ve never been able to do – be vulnerable. Whether I’m singing Bohemian Rhapsody at the top of my lungs at a bar in Roppongi at 3 in the morning (it was so fun), eating a fish head (it was actually pretty good), or sleeping on the last train home (so soothing), I can’t help but feel wonderful knowing that for once I’m putting myself out there on the line, not just the person I think others want me to be. It’s relieving in a way, to know that there’s no act I have to keep up depending on the person I’m with. Maybe I’m a little more relaxed in one situation than another, but it’s always me. I’m still learning that vulnerability is okay. For a long time, I made every effort to fly below the radar – keep myself away from others to minimize the chances of getting hurt. But now that I’m putting myself out there and taking the risk…I feel so, so happy.

I suppose this post became a novel despite my best efforts. Oh well. Lest I continue to wax poetic about my future…let’s focus for now on the past and what I’ve been up to since my last post.

I had the chance to share my experience with a guest and long-time friend for almost two weeks. We checked out some of the interesting things Tokyo has to offer. I had the chance to visit the Edo-Tokyo museum.

It’s a 6-story building with a wide range of artifacts and information detailing the history of Tokyo. The atypical architecture made it especially cool; you start by taking an escalator to the top floor, then work your way down.

This is the bridge at the dimly lit 6th floor of the building. Crossing it takes you to the exhibits – swords, pottery, and miniatures of old palaces are just a few examples of some of the interesting things you can find here.

The 5th floor stage area is the setting for a number of different live shows. I happened to catch this – a woman playing a traditional Japanese instrument called the Koto.

Another day brought us to Yoyogi park, which is very close to my office. We walked around Shibuya, grabbed Starbucks and some Freshness Burgers (YUM), then checked out the Sri Lankan festival. It wasn’t quite as exciting as I had hoped it would be, but we had the chance to see a few minutes of some traditional dancers:

Just down the road in Yoyogi park are some less traditional dancers:

Yes, that’s right. This is a group of Japanese people dressed in black leather with greaser hair. And they were dancing to rockabillyish music. I’ve come to this area on Sundays before, but haven’t seen them. It was pretty entertaining to finally check it out!

Just a couple minutes’ walk away on the bridge next to Harajuku station is the (in)famous Jingu Bashi. This is the place where you can wear just about anything you want, and not only will you get away with it, but people will take your picture. Oh, Japan…

I should apologize for my crappy pictures in this post – I thought if I just took stills from video it would turn out all right…but I guess not.

I also visited the zoo at Ueno park (I shared some pictures from that area in a previous post), headed back to Odaiba a couple times for fun and for a Mexican festival, and worked.

We’re getting into crunch time at the office. The run is just a couple weeks away, and Pink Ball not far behind that. My computer has quickly become covered in post-its because suddenly there’s so much stuff to stay on top of! Forgetting even one thing could mean the foundation misses out on a donation or loses a valuable volunteer. I still make mistakes and it stresses me out a bit, but apparently somewhere along the way I ‘ve learned to get over it, fix it, and move on. So far, so good.

The run is on the 17th, and the ball on the 30th. We still have so much to do! It’s fun, if getting crazy. On top of that, we’re moving on Friday! Aaah! The phrase “so much to do, so little time to do it” has never been truer. Naoko and I were talking about this on the way to the station last night. Even though times like this are stressful for us, it’s good to think back about why we’re doing it in the first place. What’s a few weeks of stress and planning and maybe a few sleepless nights? We’re ultimately doing this to help people – people who face significantly more stressful situations than planning an event. And when I think about the hundreds of women all this work is going to benefit…it’s all so worth it.

Well. I seem to be in a rambling mood. I wanted to get a new post up because I know it’s been a while since the last one. The rest of this week will be busy – we’ve got two volunteer orientations and a move to take care of, and it’s only Tuesday! Sleeping and eating are big excitements for me now. So I think I’m going to do both, now that I’ve wrapped this up.

I promise not to let so much time pass before the next update!

I think Tokyo is spoiling me forever.  And so are the people in it.  I don’t know if I can accurately describe just how fantastic my weekend was. I went into it with virtually no plans, but it all worked out for the best. I’m a terrible person for not taking photos of my activities on Saturday – I was more focused on enjoying my evening than taking pictures.  But I do have pictures from Sunday. To recap:

Saturday I attended the Brazilian Festival with a friend. It was a giant awesome-smelling barbeque with live bands, gorgeous women in swimsuits, and tons of foreigners. I really could have followed the steady stream of foreign people to find my way to the event. The weather was great – it’s finally starting to cool down a bit, and these summery-autumn nights are wonderful. Billy Blanks of Tae-bo fame was at the event promoting some doughnut-y food. I don’t want to know how he made the decision to go from fitness guru to junk food enthusiast. I enjoyed meat on a stick, a couple of live bands, and fantastic company. We grabbed coffee-cardio-dinner-coffee-dessert+conversation and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I wish all my Saturday nights were as nice.  I haven’t felt that happy in a long time.

Sunday I lazed around for the better part of the morning. I took a few pictures of the new apartment for anyone who is interested. It’s certainly a change from Akihabara, but I love it here (aside from the occasional yowling catfight at 5:36AM).

I now have an actual kitchen area and a place to sit and eat! Oh, the luxury!

I’ve got a decent amount of storage in this pantry/refrigerator/shoe storing section of the kitchen.

The new kitchen! Now with counter space! And a feeble “spice rack”! The kitchen sink also doubles as my bathroom sink (it’s the only one in the apartment).

I still have a separated bath and toilet, thank god. No more super toilet…but it’s not like I really used all those features anyway.

This is the bedroom area. There’s sliding doors to separate it from the kitchen if necessary. The flooring in this room is tatami mat. I kind of like it, but I hear it can be difficult to take care of.

The bed-desk-tv setup. My tv only gets a handful of channels here, but I don’t watch much television, so it’s not really an issue. The bedroom has a large window and the door to the balcony, so there’s great light during the day. If I look out the window next to my bed, there’s a nice garden area:

I had a hard time sleeping my first night here just because it was so quiet, I think. I had become so accustomed to the noises of Akihabara. In a way I miss the “white noise” of the chuo line. It was more pleasant to hear that than the aforementioned cat battle.

Lastly, here’s my closet. There’s more space than I have stuff. Tons of storage here. I could probably hide several bodies if necessary.

This place is located between two stations on different lines, but it’s a bit of a hike to either one. The area is very residential. An older man out for a jog a few mornings ago actually smiled at me and said “Good morning!” (in Japanese). I felt so fuzzy.

I got out of the house in the afternoon and headed back to Odaiba (where I visited the Gundam). Today I took a different route – the Yurikamome line. It felt like a little amusement park ride. The trip takes you over Tokyo bay and winds through futuristic looking buildings on the way to your destination. I couldn’t believe how beautiful the weather was today! I really enjoyed this part of the trip. Here is a horrible, horrible picture of an otherwise glorious view.

I had originally planned to attend a shindig today at Odaiba, but somehow things didn’t pan out. I either forgot/misunderstood key information or got out to the island too late, but I won’t complain. I ended up with a fantastic afternoon in the sunshine. When I got off the train I just sat and stared out over the bay for probably a good half hour or so. I hadn’t been prepared for such an aesthetically pleasing experience and I was stunned. The view from where I was sitting was nothing short of amazing.

I feel like I want to bring everyone I know here and make them sit and appreciate it.  I actually had to force myself to get up and do something else because I would have been totally content to just drink in that view all afternoon.

Odaiba hosts a lot of quirky, interesting things (like the Gundam). The place where I was sitting was next to a smaller-scale replica of the statue of liberty. I don’t know why it’s here.

I walked down to the waterfront where people were fishing, walking, chatting; it was so charming. Charming isn’t usually a word I would use to describe Tokyo, but today I didn’t even feel like I was in the city – being on Odaiba was like being on another planet (with a bunch of Japanese people).

I didn’t actually have an agenda once I got there. I walked back to where the Gundam was (they’re beginning to take it down, although it’s still standing), filmed a little bit of video, and had a bite to eat.  I watched the footage later and it’s not really enough to make a video with.  Too bad.   The nearby “Aqua City” shopping area was fun to browse – there was a movie theater inside. I got a little too excited when I saw they had Taken (with Liam Neeson) playing in English, but there were only two showings today, and I had missed them both. Maybe another time. Liam Neeson is just so cool.

I thought the afternoon was nice, but when I walked out of the shopping area at night, I was amazed yet again.

Odaiba has quickly become one of my favorite places in this city. Tokyo is beautiful in ways that Oregon never will be. They’re on opposite ends of the nature/city spectrum. I never could have imagined that I would like this city as much as I do. Parts of last night’s conversation discussed changing attitudes toward the city over time. Who knows – maybe next month I’ll be bitter and jaded and hate this place. But for now, I just can’t get enough. Every time I leave my house I make myself take a risk in some small way. It’s really paying off. I worry that I’m being spoiled by being here and playing by my rules – going where I want, spending time with who I want; making my own decisions. The independence is glorious. People sometimes embark on a journey with the intent to “find themselves”. That wasn’t on my list of things to do when I left the states, but I think I’ve stumbled across myself here in Tokyo.

I read somewhere on the internet a phrase that really sums up what I feel right now: “If this is life, I’ll take a season pass.”

I’ve been MIA for the last couple of days! Internet connection from our hotel/ryokan in Kyoto was poor, as expected. We spent one day in Osaka and most of that was spent either sleeping or sweating outside, so now I’m reporting in from my apartment in hotel where I am now flying solo. I’d like to get everyone caught up on all of our activities, but it’s late so I will recap one day from where I last left off.

Gram found out about a place in Nagoya called “Ran no Yakata” and mentioned that it was an orchid garden. We didn’t have anything else planned for the day, so we went to check it out. It was very, very beautiful and hard to believe it was right in the middle of the city! A large atrium and outdoor gardens housed hundreds (maybe thousands) of flowers with orchids as the focus.

Outside this entrance/atrium area were these large water boxes with water-happy plants living inside. Pretty neat!

There was a small photo opp carriage where we took a picture inside.

After our visit to the gardens (I have video of that I’ll put up later) we headed back to the station to catch the Shinkansen to Kyoto. Here’s what my Shinkansen ticket looks like.

The big bold characters at the top say Nagoya -> Kyoto. Under that is the date we left and the time, followed by the time when we arrived in Kyoto. The next line is the name of the train we took and the train’s number. Then the car and seat number. In this case, I was car number 11, row 2, seat D (and a no-smoking car). The next line shows how much this ticket cost (about $57). These tickets are checked when you get on the train. Riding the Shinkansen is very pleasant. It moves quickly and quietly, and there’s a TON of legroom. A woman pushes a cart with treats up and down the train as you travel and you can bring your own things on too. Today a businessman was in the seat next to me and he brought on a huge can of beer and some fruit. I think I might do that next time! It would make the trip even better.

Gram went to buy something refreshing and decided to try this:

I don’t know what a Pocari is or why one would want to drink its sweat, but if you ever get the chance, don’t. The have commercials that say it replenishes nutrients and refreshes you but it really does taste sweat-like. Or at least, that’s what I would imagine sweat would taste like if I ever drank it. And it’s weirdly salty. We got rid of it promptly after purchasing it.

Upon arriving in Kyoto, we took a taxi to our hotel/ryokan. Surprisingly, when we checked in we were told to leave our luggage at the front desk, remove our shoes and exchange them for sandals. Then we were lead into a back bar area where we were served a cool treat after coming in from such a hot day.

The front desk staff guy brought us a cold towel for each of us followed by a cup of green tea and the jello-like substance in the background. It was delicious. I asked him what it was, and he said it was made from “uzu”. I don’t know what the English word for it is. He described it as like an orange, except yellow. It was extremely good and even Gram tried it and liked it and ate the whole thing. We were then taken up to our traditional style room.

This is the living room area of our hotel room. The rooms are separated by sliding paper doors. I took a quick video of the hotel room before we left so you can all see the whole thing soon. This room doubled as our bedroom. While we went out for dinner, the hotel staff came in and put our futons down. The futons are kept in a closet in this room.

Honestly, I got the best two nights of sleep in Kyoto on these futons. I don’t know if it was the futons or what but I slept GREAT and wasn’t too hot or too cold or anything. The futon cover was very soft and comfortable.

This was our home base for two days for our adventures in Kyoto, which I will write about next time. It has become very late in Tokyo and tomorrow is my first day of work! I am very excited to begin and am looking forward to getting settled in to a new life here.

I will write again tomorrow after work!

Also, I posted my first YouTube video of our first day in Tokyo. This is the video footage from our trip to Meiji Jingu, The Imperial Gardens, and Senso-Ji Temple. I’ve never done video before and never edited video so I know it isn’t super awesome, but just doing that video helped me learn a lot so I look forward to improving the next videos I make while I am here. If you type “arishaintokyo” in the search box at YouTube, you will find any and all videos I have posted. I hope you enjoy!

Today I’m reporting from Nagoya. We took the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) from Tokyo Station to Nagoya station this afternoon and have been checking things out on foot here. Yesterday was a VERY busy day. We took a walking tour in Hase and Kamakura. These are small towns outside of Tokyo where we visited some really neat shrines and temples. We also got to eat an authentic Japanese lunch. It was exhausting to say the least, and when we got home yesterday after figuring out how to get home from Tokyo station, my head was pounding and I passed out around 8:45. The mugginess really takes it out of you, even though it was only 75 or so for most of the day and rainy. Anyway, let’s recap!

Hase:

Our first stop on the walking tour was to the town of Hase, where Hase temple can be found. Hase is a Buddhist temple on a hillside. It was misty and rainy and very surreal to visit. Everything is very green, and again, the architecture was very beautiful. Here is the large red lantern at the entrance to Hase temple.

Once inside, before approaching the stairs leading up to the main part of the temple, there is purification area where the same purification ritual I described for Meiji Jingu is done. We did it again here and declared ourselves very pure after two days in a row of this!

We proceeded up the stairs to an area where there were hundreds of little statues called Jizo. These Jizo statues are usually purchased by parents who have lost a child (either by miscarriage, or the child died after it was born). The statues are then placed here at the temple so that the spirit of the child will be assisted in the afterlife. It’s sad to see so many of them. There was another section of these statues across the path from the ones pictured.

Also at Hase is a cave area. In the cave are statues of Buddhist deities. Visitors can purchase, light, and place a candle in front of these deities and say a prayer. This cave was very dark and eerie. The candlelight only increased the surreal effect of the place.

At the top of the stairs is the main part of the temple. This temple features huge, beautiful gold images of Buddha and Kannon (the goddess of mercy, same one from Senso-ji temple in the last post). Again, unfortunately I was not allowed to take pictures because the sites are sacred. The statues were HUGE. Kannon’s statue was probably 2 stories tall. The legend says that it washed up on the shore of a beach and it was shining. That’s a pretty big object to just wash up on a shore…but who knows? Here’s a picture of the top half of the statue I found on Google. Someone was daring enough to take a picture despite all the staffers and the signs that say “No photography.” I am not so bold.

The architecture here, as I mentioned, is very beautiful. The intricate roofs and brightly colored pillars stand out from the scenery, but also fit in very well. The area had an otherwordly quality about it.

Our next stop on the walking tour was just a 15 minute or so walk from this temple. We went to visit the Great Buddha statue. And wow, was it great. And by great I mean huge. Here’s the gate leading to the temple. On the right side of the gate is a statue with open mouth saying the syllable “a”, our tour guide explained. This is the first syllable of the Buddhist sutra, and represents birth. The statue on the left has a closed mouth, and is saying the syllable “n”, which is the final syllable of the sutra, representing death. As you pass through the gate, therefore, it is symbolic of being alive – you are between birth and death. Pretty neat. I know the statues are hard to see in this picture, but they are inside the gate columns.

Once inside, you are greeted with this:

It’s hard to really show how huge it is without actually being there. Here’s a picture of me in front of it for some perspective. I am standing directly underneath it and am 5 feet 4 inches tall.

It’s pretty awe inspiring to see. I had seen pictures of it before, but never really understood how big it actually was! Our tour guide gave us some information on just how this huge thing was constructed. You can see horizontal lines across the statue. Each piece was carefully molded and completed, then the next piece would be added directly on top. You can go inside the statue and get a look from there. I went in and took a picture, but it isn’t very exciting. Mostly just cool to think you’re inside this giant, hollow Buddha.

After checking out the Great Buddha, we went to a nearby restaurant for a Japanese style lunch. Mmmm.

I just realized how totally unappetizing the stuff on top of the rice looks, but I can assure you that it was very tasty. The rice had scallops mixed in, and was sticky and steamed in that bowl. There was chicken and a soy wrapped tofu piece, which was pretty good (the thing in the yellow dish in the top right). The blob in the blue dish up there was a spongy thing that I took a bite out of it. We were told what it was, but I can’t quite remember. It was soggy and I wasn’t really a fan, so I just left it and shut my mouth. In the flowery blue bowl was some chicken. In the bowl in front of us are noodles and veggies – very tasty, if a little salty. Accompanying this meal was water and tea. Gram I stopped downstairs after this to get an ice cream (they called it “soft cream”) from a shop. We headed back to the train station and checked out the small 100 yen shop there where I bought a crappy pair of sunglasses (my current sunglasses are broken) and Gram got an umbrella. I was finishing my ice cream cone and took a bite from the cone only to have the remaining vanilla ice cream spray on the umbrella stand in front of me. Luckily nobody but Gram and I saw it and we cleaned up the small mess. We’ve been getting good at doing at least one embarrassing thing every day! It was pretty funny. The ice cream just melted too quickly in the muggy heat!

We boarded the train back to Kamakura and headed off for our last stop of the day at Tsurugaoka. This is another Shinto Shrine (like Meiji Jingu). Since it had been raining the ground was very slick. I was wearing some flip flops that had good cushion for walking, but the soles were really worn down, so I slipped probably about 6 times on the way to the Shrine. Thankfully I did not fall all the way. On the way we saw rickshaws! You can hop in and they’ll take you around the city for a fee. We did not participate. These guys were very fit, though. They also had hilarious tan lines.

Once we got to Tsurugaoka we were starting to realize much of our tours were showing us similar things in different locations. There was a purification area, an area to receive your fortune, and the main shrine where you throw money, clap your hands, and make your wish. It was, however, beautiful to look at.

This was our last stop on the tour for the day. We did some shopping at a street in Kamakura, and then boarded the train back to Tokyo Station. Tokyo Station is HUGE. We exchanged Gram’s rail pass voucher for her actual pass thanks to the help of our wonderful tour guide. The station is under construction, and so things are not where they are usually located. After the tour our guide took us around the station to where we needed to be. Then we had to find our way back to the hotel, which took a while. I asked one of the station staff. She told me I needed to get to “Otemachi station”, and from there I could get on the correct train line. I thanked her and went on my way. What I neglected to ask was which train would take us to Otemachi station. I consulted maps, checked, and rechecked, and finally we hopped on the Marunouchi line to Otemachi. It was a very long walk. I still don’t know how the fashionable girls do it in their heels all day every day. We were exhausted and we had decent walking shoes on. We crashed that night once we got home. My head hurt from reading signs and asking and thinking. There was a moment in Tokyo station where I felt the panic rise and I wanted to lose it because I didn’t know the answer to my problem and it was driving me crazy, but I took a step back and remembered that breaking down would get us nowhere. Thankfully it paid off.

Tokyo Station has zillions of shops and restaurants. We went in search of a suitcase for me because I needed something to carry a few days’ worth of clothing and other necessary items for our travels elsewhere in Japan, and there was no way I was going to take my giant suitcase with me. We found this suitcase, bought it, and wandered around a bit more. Here is a picture in front of a shoe store in the station. The shoe stores here are out of this world. Every time I see one I am amazed. There are more shoes in these little stores than I see at any department store! I got a pair of super cushion-y sandals for about $30 at the station and they have been great.

Another store downstairs in Tokyo station is this one. A perfect example of the “Engrish” you see on a regular basis in Japan. This store sells luggage. Beats me how they came up with this name, but I just had to take a picture of this one!

On our way home from the station yesterday we had some experiences with the packed Tokyo trains. This wasn’t quite rush hour, but many, many people were heading home after the work day. Gram turned around and snapped a picture of this train as it left the station.

We’ve been having a pretty good time so far. We enjoy taking pictures of the silly things we encounter, and one of the foods we’ve been snacking on lately is this:

Not quite cookie, not quite cracker, these “Digestive Biscuits” make me wonder if they’re really supposed to be doing something for your system or not. I wonder if they have Activia-esque commercials for these in Japan? I have yet to see any.

Here’s another funny Engrish sign we noticed today just outside of Nagoya station. Sure, we know what they were going for, but they really need to run a spell check one of these days.

Today in Nagoya we went to visit the Noritake gardens and factory. I had no idea what Noritake was until Gram explained it to me. It’s a very famous china producing company. They make some really amazing things, and we took the factory tour to see how it all comes together. I was skeptical at first, but it was actually really cool. I gained a respect I never had for china ware. Suddenly you realize why it’s so expensive when you see the work that goes into creating each piece. It was pretty amazing. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures of ANYTHING inside the buildings. Instead, here’s a blurry picture of me applying a band-aid to my foot on a bench in the garden.

Lastly, here’s a picture I forgot to post from Tokyo. This picture was taken just downstairs from my apartment. This area is Akihabara, electric town, where my apartment is located. You can see the neon lights of the city – the view from the balcony of my apartment looks right down the street. Pretty cool!

That’s all I have for today! I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Tomorrow we’re getting on the Shinkansen to Kyoto for two days. We’ll be staying in a ryokan there (a Japanese style inn) for two nights, and I’m doubtful that there will be internet access. On Saturday we’ll head to Osaka and stay in a hotel, where I’m guessing there will likely be internet access, but if that fails too, I’ll have internet again at the latest by Sunday, when I return to my apartment in Tokyo.

I’ll write again as soon as I can!

EDITED TO ADD: It’s about 12:30 AM here in Nagoya, but I thought I would add that I found a way to convert the HD videos into a format that is more easily editable, so hopefully I will have some video footage from the last few days to accompany my next post!  Stay tuned.

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