Konichiwa: February 2007

4 months

(Jan 24th)Let's see...well Wada (the man that bought us groceries and randomly takes us to dinner) has since taken us to the Park Hyatt (where lost in translation was filmed) for dinner and tea, we felt like celebrities! Then he took us to supposedly the "best" hair place in all of Japan to get our hair done, but none of the hair samples matched the blonde in my hair and they weren't used to doing foreigners hair (AND they didn't speak English, AND it was $400), they were booked anyway so Wada made us appointments the next week somewhere else.

The next week Davy, Sarah and I went to get our hair done, I got my normal highlights and layers, Sarah got hers cut and Davy got his straightened...mine cost $300 and Sarah's cost $100 and Wada paid for it all!! He wasn't even with us, but he called ahead and told them that he had us covered! It is so nice getting a hair cut here, when they wash your hair, they give you a full on head massage! AMAZING! It took 2 of them to straighten our hair, haha.
I taught myself Katakana, which is one of the Japanese systems of writing. It's symbols reading foreign words, it helps being able to read things in restaurants now, and in the grocery store!! It's nice to feel like I've accomplished something here..too bad I still can't speak or understand much..oh well, baby steps! ;)
I can't believe I've already been here for 4 months, I wonder what I'll do when my year here is up..maybe Australia for 6 months? any ideas?! I've met so many amazing people here who have taught me so much about life and helped me realize there is so much to see in this world and textbooks can only get you so far..I asked my students what they would wish for it they had 3 wishes and I assumed it would be the normal "tons of money, lots of nice cars, a huge house or a vacation..." but they all completely surprised me! They wished for things that they could all accomplish on their own! They wished for things like, "to live in another country" (check), "I wish I could go traveling" (check), "I wish I had foreign friends" (check), "i wish i could speak another language" It made me feel so lucky to have the opportunity to live/travel to the other side of the world. I'm definitely not happy with myself for knowing next to NO Japanese though..It's so difficult to find time to learn, when i spend everyday teaching English!
(January 28) Sarah and i hung out with Wada again, Davy moved back to New Zealand, so we were very nervous about being able to communicate with him! He brought a Japanese girl, Tomoko, who could speak a bit of English though. He took us to the Tokyo Dome hotel for a crazy expensive tempura dinner! Then we went up to the 43rd floor for cocktails. Damn, this guy wines and dines us like crazy, we are straight up SPOILED! I feel like we are taking advantage of him but he is the one that calls us, i mean he's a married 55 year old man with nothing to do but make Gaijin friends and spend money on them! haha. He likes teaching us Japanese and learning English from us.
(Feb 5th) Sarah, Stephanie and I went to Odaiba the other day. Daiba means "fort" (in case you were wondering!). This man-made island was made to look like the 22nd century with space age buildings, electric cars and fantasy shopping malls. We saw the world's largest ferris wheel, had a nice buffet lunch at little hong kong and went to the Tokyo mega web, which is a gigantic car showroom featuring cars of the past and the future. We "drove" a car that all you have to do is push a button and it steers and runs all by itself. Venus fort was a shopping mall with mock fountains, balconies, plaza, restaurants and chapels with painted ceilings..made to look like Italy. We also walked along a little beach which made me miss home just a bit. We went in this crazy haunted house and screamed like babies bc people were chasing us yelling something about suicide and us being their teacher..haha weird.
We went out for and Italian dinner to say goodbye to Sara and David, who moved back to London..the original 4 split up already :(.
(Feb 12) Last week Sarah and I met up with Wada and Toru in Futakatamagawa (haha, i know!) and he took us shopping! Spent $200 on a shirt for me and $500 on 2 skirts for sarah, this man is crazy!! Then he took us to dinner at a curry restaurant. He then drove us to meet up with Tomoko, and we had green tea ice cream..interesting to say the least.(Me, Tomoko's dad and Sarah)

(me and Sarah with Taru's parents and Grandmother)
Last night we met up with him again and he gave me a present..in the bag was a complete new outfil, a shirt, cartigan and a skirt! Then he drove us to Tomoko's house, where we had a HUGE japanese dinner with her mom, dad and brother, taught English, learned Japanese, took a bath (it's custom here to fill the bath, let the visitors use it first, then the family..all with the same water! so we wash ourselves in the shower first then bathe in each others bath water..HOT! haha) then slept over there. we woke up, had a huge breakfast of rice and fruit and more japanese foods then Wada and his wife picked us up to take us to toru's for lunch. His family was so cute and so excited to have us over. They could speak very little Japanese, but we managed to communicate.

(Me, Toru and Sarah)

(Toru's mom serving us lunch)

(Delicious rice and seafood..YUM!)

We had a great time! it was so cool to see the inside of a japanese house and get nice home cooked meals! what an experience though..i don't even know how to really explain it!