A Bit Crackers

Oops. I guess I left you all hanging on the rest of my Japanese trip. That was pretty uncool of me. Well, in case you didn't know, the rest of the trip was phenomenal and I, in fact, made it home alive. Since September I have been nannying in Iowa City a couple days a week and doing handiwork and/or house work and/or yard work for a couple people in Iowa City. The rest of the time I am in Des Moines doing crafts with sister Jenny and applying for jobs. Now, the real reason for this blog post is because of a terrible truth to which I just becamse conscious.
So, I just realized my family (myself certainly included) is actually crazy. It didn't hit me until I shouted down the block to the neighbor, that what I was doing was not an every day occurrence. Mom put her bird feeders out a couple days ago; she'd stopped feeding the birds for a couple months because the varmints had all taken over and the birds quit coming. So we carefully positioned this one feeder so the squirrels couldn't get to it. Well, she looked out the window this morning and wouldn't you know, there was a squirrel eating the suet. Without thinking, I ran to the front door and hollered at the squirrel. He ran halfway up the tree and stopped - waiting for me to close the door so he could go back to the suet. Well, I wouldn't have a squirrel make a mockery of me, so in my red union suit (yes, I wear a union suit to bed. Butt flap and all) I ran out and climbed up the tree after the squirrel (which I totally almost caught) to let him know he was not welcomed. I was just about to climb back down when I hear "KATIE WALTERS!" from the other end of the block. It was my mom's neighbor Janet. At this point I still did not see my actions as unusual. It was when I shouted, "Hey Janet! Just chasing a squirrel up a tree," that it hit me.
So yup, there's my big realization for the day. My family (I say family because Mom definitely did not think it was weird) is f-ing nuts.

So Much Happening!!

Sorry for being so behind on the blogs! I've been running around so much I've hardly had time to sleep these past few weeks! Here's a catch-up on what's been going on:
Camp is over; it ended a week and a half ago. Very bitter sweet saying good bye to, not only all of the kids, but all of the counselors too. August 15th, the day before everyone took off for their respective homes in the states, we celebrated Lora's birthday (the girl with whom I shared a classroom) by going to Hakone. The city was beautiful, and had we utilized our free boat cruise passes and swam in the river, the trip would have definitely been worth it... but we went to this spa instead (and blew another forty-some bucks just to get in) in which thousands and THOUSANDS of people crammed into decorated hot tubs full of "coffee", "red wine", "sake", etc, etc to enjoy "exotic" bathing. Of course the "coffee" and such was nothing more than colored/scented water, but everyone else seemed to really enjoy it, so I pasted on my best smile and looked back on my childhood with the deepest regret and sympathy for having drug Mom and Dad to all of those crappy, people-packed amusement parks.
After everyone left for the airport on Sunday Aug. 16th, Hank and I packed our bags and headed back to the Embassy housing compound where a mother of one of my campers had offered to keep our bags and let us stay as long as we need during our extended stay - VERY nice to have a home base like that. So, the two of us made a rough draft of what we would be doing over the following two weeks, and set out bright and early Monday morning for Hiroshima. When we got there we headed strait for the island of Miyajima where there is a shrine gate in the water that looks like it is floating at high tide, and you can walk up to it at low tide. We hiked around the island all day, and decided to make it home for the night. We found a plastic tarp on the beach as well as a partially assembled party tent, so we put the tarp under the tent and settled down for the night.
In the morning we woke and caught the ferry back to Hiroshima. We visited the Peace Museum (honoring the A-bomb) and spent over 6 heart-wrenching, eye-opening hours in the museum before we headed out to the peace memprial park and the rest of the town. After a big dinner of a noodle dish Hiroshima is famous for (the first real meal we'd had since we left - it'd been PB&J's and granola up until then) we set off on the impossible two-hour task of finding a hotel.
In the morning (after finding a supprisingly decent hotel and getting our first full night's sleep in four days) we loaded up bright and early again and jumped on the train to Shikoku, a large island on the south-west-ish side of Japan. There we met up with a fellow named Kelsey who let us stay at this English school/international exchange center for three days. It was SUCH a nice place, and he and his boss (who owned the building) were SO incredible. Our first day there we swam in the pool (yeah, it was really, really nice) and explored the town. We were in the town of Takese and were two of three white people for many, many miles. It was such an eye-opening experience to be treated so differently. People all stopped and stared when we went by, and the few people who spoke English were quick to run up to us and ask why we were there. Apparently not the place tourists often find.
The next day (Aug 20th) we caught the train to a near-by town called Kan-onji and hitch-hiked our way to the foot of a large mountain to hike up and see this incredible temple called Umpenji (worth googling if you have a chance). Umpenji is also something not many travelers do. We were the only people hiking - a rather difficult hike at that - and were one of the very few at the top (there was a cable car system to get up there too, but we preffered the hike). While we were wandering through the hundreds of large buddha statues and admiring the temple, a man who was pilgrimiging to 88 temples on Shikoku (a common feat for dedicated Buddhists) who told us about the history of Umpenji. Apparently before 800AD a Japanese monk traveled to China and brought back Buddhism, starting it atop a mountain near Kan-onji. We were at the very first Japanese Buddhist Temple, and we didn't even know it!
It is time for me to get a move on the day. I have hardly begun to tell you about our adventures, but I will do my best to get another post up MUCH sooner than I have been.
So sad to see we have less than a week left here!!! I am not ready for this to end.

Yoyogi

Whoops! I forgot that I had made this video. We haven't been to Yoyogi park in a couple weeks, but I thought I'd better go ahead and put this up here so you can get a taste of it anyway. Enjoy!

FUJI!!!!!

So, like many, one of the things I really wanted to do in Japan was hike Mt Fuji. This weekend I finally did it!! Wow, what an absolutely exhausting, fantastic time it was, too! We left Hiroo (the prefecture in which we live) at 6:15 on Friday night to get to Shinjuku station in time to get our bus to Fuji. The bus pulled up to station 5 on the mountain at about 10pm and after we bought our walking sticks and got all suited up in our under-armor it was nearly 10:30 on Friday night before we began our hike. It started off pretty easy, but we quickly learned how fast a mountain can change. It seemed at every switchback was a completely different kind of climbing. There were times when it went from slippery gravel to garden sized lava rocks to full-on hands and feet vertical rock climbing! Lena and I stopped around 4:15am to sit down and watch the sunrise. Hundreds of people around us had the same idea. We stayed there for about an hour - it was all WAY too beautiful to risk missing a second! I took probably two dozen pictures of the sun coming up. I literally felt like I was in heaven it was so fantastic. After the sun was up we finished up to the top where Hank, Shirley, and Rebecca were waiting for us. It was crazy how many people were hiking all at once. I mean there were thousands and thousands of people on that mountain. Before we left I was really disappointed in this because I knew beforehand how crowded it would be. I was upset that this beautiful natural experience would be ruined by thousands of tourists, but once we started climbing, I really began to appreciate how awesome of an experience it was that ALL of us could share such an incredible event together. We got to the top and I got a victory hot chocolate before we headed back down. Going down was much faster, but MAN did it kill the knees! We were all sure our toe nails had fallen off and I was sure I would never walk again my knees hurt SO bad! But we made it, and within a couple days I was good as new again.

Sunday was great as well. A few of us went to the Harajuku area to a flea market - LOTS of fun treasures there. Then I went out to a cool little Chinese restaurant with Ronald for dinner. It was really neat; we got to pick out our own fish (a really cute red one that I felt bad killing) and they friend it up and brought him out scales, fins, eyes, and all. I was surprised at how good the fins were, and I even ate my very first fish eyes! I was ready to gag over them, but they were actually probably the best part! I wish I'd had a camera because the restaurant was so nice, and there was literally a skull, a jawbone, and a razor sharp spiky spine left on the plate after we ate - I wanted to document it, but you'll just have to take my word that I gnawed every last scrap of meat off of the bones. Then we met up with Hank, Shirley, and Rebecca and went to Tokyo Tower. I vowed to myself on the bus ride to the New Sanno the very first night I arrived in Tokyo that I would NOT waste my money on the miniature Eiffel Tower/tourist trap, but I was swayed into going and regret every one of the one thousand, six hundred, and eighty yen I wasted there. Oh well. It was more time spent with my friends.
So, our second to last week of camp is well under way. The kids are still crazy, but I have decided, since the summer is nearing its end, I really don't need to enforce rules anymore. Yes, it sounds bad, but the kids have more fun, and I am less stressed. So if they want me to throw them in the pool (I have literally had over six kids climbing up my back, arms, head, and chest at every moment we have been at the pool this week - just wanting me to throw them. Great workout with all that extra weight!) or if they want to get out all of the blocks, dolls, books, and animals and have a hay-day, that's fine with me. Only seven days left with the little buggers!
Thanks for checking in on me! I hope I'll have more for you soon!

Making the Most of Time

Wow! Time is absolutely FLYING by over here! I cannot believe we only have two weeks left with the kids. Last weekend was a blast. Hank, Jeff, Shirley, and I caught the overnight bus to Kyoto on Friday night. It poored all day Saturday, but we did not let it slow us down. Our first stop was a huge flea market - tons of fun stuff I wish I had room to carry and money to buy! On our bus ride to the flea market I met a really nice woman who was on her way to a 'Mothers for World Peace' conference. It was a long bus ride so we spoke for quite some time. Apparently they have these conferences once a year in some different city in Japan. They've been going on for over 50 years, and thousands and thousands of Japanese mothers come from all over the country. It was really cool.
Anyway, after the flea market we headed to the Golden Paviaian (the one that has been the desktop on my computer for the last five months). Despite the rain, it was absolutely gorgeous. We walked around the grounds and found a place to have a traditional Japanese tea ceremony - the perfect place to duck into to get out of the rain! It was very nice and the little desert we had had a picture of the golden pavilian baked into it, and it had two tiny gold leaves on it that we ate!
Next we went to the Nijo Castle. Wow. The wole thing was surrounded by a moat, and there were two palaces inside, one of which was surrounded by yet another moat. We spent hours in the Ninomaru Palace (the Shogun's palace) it was absolutely mind blowing how intricate everything was. There were SO many incredibly interesting aspects to such simple arcitecture. I'd say the most interesting part was the floor boards. Nightingale Fooring was a kind of flooring used to alarm people of intruders. Metal cramps are fastened into little nitches under the floor boards, so when any weight is applied to the board (ie someone walking on it) it tweets like a nightingale! It was really cool because each board had a little bit different of a sound, so you could tell how fast someone is going, or how heavy they were.

From the castle we hustled to teh Arashi Yama Monkey Park. Oh my goodness. It was a little bit of a hike, but those monkeys were SOOO cute!! I thought about snatching a tiny one and smuggling it home (I think they would really get along with Olive!). We got to feed them, and the best part was when a baby monkey started playing with my toes. His momma saw him when he started climbing up my leg, ran over my foot screaming, and snatched the monkey right off of me. I felt pretty special.

Then we saw some long-boats paddling down the river and stopped to see what they were up to. I was SO excited to see that they were lining up to watch an ancient practice of fishing. It was a form of fishing I learned about a few years ago in which a small flock of cormorants are tied to a boat via a metal ring around their neck. The birds go down into the water to catch a fish, and when they come up the fisherman pulls the rope they are tied to, flinging them onto the boat, and the fish they caught is forced out of their mouth into a bucket on the boat. The bird is thrown back into the water and they just go over and over again - boom, boom, boom, one after another, catching fish incredibly fast. It was really something to see. At first I felt really bad for the birds, but apparently they actually have a ranking order among them that the birds actually recognize - it seems like they really take pride in this sort of fishing.

Sunday was pretty full as well around these parts. We went to a little cafe in the morning and took off for a ropes course to check it out and see if it would be ok for the day camp kids to go to for a field trip. Then we walked around the Yoyogi area for a few hours trying to find this Samuri sword musuem (everywhere we stopped to ask dirrections pointed us further and further from where we were supposed to go... very thoughtful). We finally found it, and thought it was small, it was PACKED with interesting history.

Another blog soon to tell you about this weekend (Aug 1-3). Whew!

Fun Weekends!

So this past Friday (the 17th) was Jeff ‘s big 21st birthday (one of the only other two counselors from Iowa). We went to TGIFridays in Roppongi for dinner which actually, quite surprisingly, made me feel like I was at home. Embarrassingly enough, I really felt like I was on Westown Parkway… Is that weird? The food was exactly the same, but the prices were about tripled, but $25 for four cheese-sticks and one drink was worth it to see Jeff so happy. Jeff must have been feeling ok after the two giormous strawberry daiquiris the group got him because he decided he wanted to spend the rest of the night singing karaoke. We got a room at a cool little place and had a blast.
Saturday morning Shirley, Lena, Rachelle and I took off for Niko. It took a couple hours longer than we thought it would to get there, so we didn’t get to do the temples on Saturday, but we did go to an onsen (a hot spring public bath). It was an absolutely relaxing and incredible experience. We stayed in a really nice, very Japanese hostel. There was a shoe rack where we left our shoes at the door and plenty of nice bamboo sandals for us to wear inside. There was a really cool shrine on the balcony upstairs, and a very nice kitchen and living area. A couple American guys stayed with us. One was from Pittsburg and the other from just north of Cheyenne, Wyoming- a fun little connection that was (Jenny).
We got up a 6 on Sunday to be sure we would get to see everything we wanted. We took the first bus up to Lake Chuzenji and Kegon Waterfall. The waterfall was beautiful, but the lake was even better. We hiked up a small mountain until we came to a clearing, and wow. I honestly have no words for how beautiful the valleys and the lake were from up there. It was just SO refreshing to be out in the wilderness. We didn’t see a single person for two and a half hours. No roads, no sidewalks, no buildings, or car horns, or stinky city air. It was just the bamboo and us. It was perfect. We headed down and ate lunch (ok, I guess it was more of a brunch at 10:30 than a lunch) by the lake. We walked around and looked in some of the shops which was really nice. Nikko is known for woodwork, so I really enjoyed looking at all of the intricuate pieces and meeting the artists (well, communicating with them as best I could). After that we hopped on the bus and headed to the Toshogu Shrine to see the “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” Monkeys. I was quite surprised to see that they were actually only a foot or two tall and were just carved with another dozen monkeys into the side of a small hut amongst all of the beautiful ornate shrines. I really cannot figure out how they became so famous, or why someone picked those three of all the monkeys on that hut… very interesting. So after we checked out the garden and shrines we headed back to Tokyo. On one of our train transfers we stopped for dinner at our first sushi-go-round. All I can say is I need to find one of those MUCH closer to here, and someone needs to hurry and jump on that idea in Iowa stat.
So, now it’s back to the grindstone. The kids are basically all new this week. I think they are really downsizing the American Embassy, and A LOT of the families are moving back to the states, so we only have a few return embassy kids, otherwise it is all Japanese. We are fully booked this week (actually overbooked) both morning and afternoon, but the kids were pretty good today (except for three who literally screamed the full time they were there – the morning kid screamed an hour until his nose began to bleed… which strangely did not calm him down. And one of the afternoon kids screamed until he puked… four times, I got him over the garbage can about half a second before he started. I guess I am getting used to that stuff) So, hopefully it will be a good week.
Hope you have a good week too!!

No Time for Blogging - Sorry!

So, last week I had my first bad experience with ordering something off a menu completely blindly. We all went to Ginza to a five story toy store to get baseball tickets (awkward place to buy them, I know, but the concierge said it was really our only choice), and decided to find a fun place for dinner while we were there. Ten of us crammed into one booth in an Okinawa food restaurant (the difference between that and Japanese I have no idea). I pointed at something in the menu, expecting noodles, maybe squid or something. A plate of squiggly clear-ish things came out and I was excited to eat whatever it was. I took a bite –the taste identical to bacon, but the texture was like thin hard octopus. I ate a couple more bites and decided to pass the dish around the table to see if anyone else could figure out the awful porky taste. No one had a clue (and only a couple could swallow the stuff) what it was, so I tried to communicate with the waiter who smiled as he grabbed his ears and said “Porka! Porka!” I asked him if he meant pork ears… I ate deep fried pig ears for dinner.
Last weekend:
Friday night (the 10th) the Marines (who have a living quarters on the embassy compound) put on a big BBQ/ party for all of the summer hires. I didn’t even know they had a place on the compound, but they had the bash in their bar, and the whole place was really nice! (I may or may not have entertained myself outside for a while catching frogs and making a live “toad-em pole”… my record was 4.)
On Saturday we went to Yokohama. First we went up the Landmark Tower. It had the fastest elevator in the world – 69 stories in under 40 seconds. It was almost like taking off in a plane! And what a beautiful view it was from the top. We could see so much of Tokyo, and even despite the fog we could see Fugi! After that we went to an art museum which was featuring Parisian art from the 16-1800’s. I am pretty sure I enjoyed that stop more than anyone… I think they all waited out front for at least half an hour for me and I even skipped one of the large rooms! Oh well. After that we went where everyone was excited to go – China Town. I had some good new food, but other than that it was basically another big reason for people to try and sell needless “novelty” crap. I had spoken to one of the guards out front of the New Sanno before we left (I’ve befriended quite a large portion of the staff here) and he had suggested we hit up the Landmark Tower as well as Hakkeijima Island (a manmade island). A man at the tower stopped me and asked if I had been to the island, and when I told him I hadn’t he pulled out a pen and paper and wrote down each train we would need to take to get there as well as the fare for each transfer and the time of each train ride. It was absolutely awesome of him, but I have been finding that whenever you ask for help here people REALLY go way above and beyond to make sure you are ok. So, anyway, we got off the train one stop past the one the man had suggested and wound up on a HUGE beautiful beach full of groups of your Japanese people (almost all of who were shooting off fireworks – a regular summer pastime, I guess). We got some food and drinks (and of course fireworks of our own) from a convenience store and busted out the sheets we’d taken from our hotel, and spent the night on the beach. It was the most perfect night I have ever had. Around midnight four Japanese college football players came and started hanging out with us (they had been to California to train for football- since it is not such a prevalent sport here- so the spoke a little English), and I don’t think I have ever had so much fun! We didn’t realize that the sky would be completely lit up by 4am, so our sleep was a little short (like, I was the only one who got more than 30 minutes), so we enjoyed our first Japan sunrise (I guess now we know why they call it the land of the rising sun), caught the first train back at 5:30 (and got home after 8), and slept most of Sunday.

Better Weeks

Sorry it has taken me SO long to put up another post! We have been incredibly busy, and there have been some bad vibes in the air, so I wanted to wait until that was cleared before I wrote a blog – didn’t want that to dampen all of the exciting news I wanted to share.
Last week’s kids were a lot tamer than the previous week, and our numbers were down (only a couple less kids, but every one less makes it that much easier). Some kids stay for multiple weeks, but we were very, very sad to see a few of our favorites (I can say that because no one here will know I was using the “f – word”) leave. One of the counselors actually cried she was so upset to see one of the girls go.
I have been hanging out with Ronald (“Chef Ronlado”, as the Camp A staff likes to call him) a little bit. He came with our whole gang to Yoyogi Park last Sunday. It was terribly rainy, but we found a relatively dry spot under some trees to have our picnic. I really enjoyed walking around the park despite the rain, and we wound up buzzing back to Shibuya to have some Starbucks in a three-story coffee shop overlooking the Shibuya intersection. It was really nice.

This past weekend was also a good one. We spent the fourth of July on the navy base in Yokosuka. I thought it was particularly cool because Dad was stationed there for a small while when he was about my age!! There was a festival with bounce houses and a petting zoo and the like, but I enjoyed
leaving my group behind for once and taking a long walk around the harbor. Then a Beetles cover band performed, and man was that a blast! They were REALLY good (in fact, they have been featured in quite a few movies, including Vegas Vacation). After the concert I hollered at “Paul McCartney” to tell him thanks for such a good time, and he ended up coming to watch the fireworks with my friend Becka and I. After the fireworks a bunch of us (“Paul McCartney” came too) went to this tiny hole-in-the-wall jazz bar in Yokosuka. It was easily the best 4th of July I have ever had! Then Sunday we went back to Yoyogi park. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the best afternoon I could have hoped for! A world peace festival was taking place just across the bridge from Yoyogi so we hung out at the concerts there and I walked around for an hour or so by myself after everyone had gone back to the park. I stopped to listen to this really cool band when this girl came up to me and handed me this little thumb-piano sort of thing and told me to play along. I started dancing with her and playing (she insisted I was an excellent player, but I assured her I had no idea what I was doing) when one of the lead guys in the band came out and grabbed me and pulled me up in front and told me to play into the microphone. After a little convincing I did and surprised myself with the tune I came up with to go along with the rest of the band. It was really cool! After some more time walking on my own I went back to the park to join my friends. I brought my harmonica and played for a while when a group of Japanese people asked us if we would like to join their group for jump roping. We had a blast, but after I stopped the jump rope twice, I decided maybe I’d be better off watching.
This week was another good week with the kids. Without our old favorites the room was significantly quieter, but it was good. I have been trying to figure out the Japanese air. Three of us girls (myself included) have had raspy voices since we’ve gotten here. Also, I am light-headed about 75% of the time. Like, day in and day out the world is spinning, and sometimes I have to close one eye to see strait. I am also perpetually exhausted. These “symptoms” are also very common among the Camp Adventure staff. Some wonder if it is a difference in the altitude that is effecting everyone, but I argue that people from California and Iowa would not have the same symptoms if that were the case, and the altitude is not that different anyway. I think there must be something in the air. Or maybe since it is such a huge city and there is virtually zero greenery, there may just be a low oxygen content which is making us all dizzy… Dr Katie is obviously quite clueless on the matter.
Anywho, thanks again for keeping up with me!! I will try to be much better about blogging next time!

Not So Awesome Kids

This week of campers left quite a bit to be desired. If constant biting, pushing, hitting, and screaming isn't enough, it was topped off by the lack of a common language. English is not a first language for most of the campers, but now we are getting campers who don't know a single word of it! How do you stop someone from screaming and hitting when you can't tell them "no"?! ... Especially when (s)he is 3! Oh well. Tomorrow is Friday, and we'll all be ready for next week after a couple days' rest.
Tonight was pretty fun. The day camp counselors went to Disney Sea after work, so the CDC (those of us who work with kids under 5) counselors stayed after work to swim for a while, and when we got back to the hotel, I had a date! We eat a lot of our meals at a restaurant downstairs at the hotel, and I have spoken with one of the chefs a number of times in passing. Yesterday he asked if I would like to join him for coffee sometime, so tonight we went for a walk and had some coffee. Ronald (that's his name) is from Mauritius, a small island country I was embarrassed not to have known about. Since my date I have been researching the country and am absolutely fascinated! ... I hate to say that I have two web browsers open right now, one for my blog and the other for plane tickets to Mauritius. Anybody up for a vacation this fall?
I am off to bed - 11:30, and still not tired... perhaps a late night double shot of espresso wasn't the best idea?

Week 2: Said and Done.

Whew! What a week. Our first week of camp with kids went wonderfully. We had thirteen campers (all 3-4 years old) in my classroom for the morning sessions, and only 6 in the afternoon. I think that was the perfect break into camp so we could establish what we’d be doing and really get to know each other in a work setting before we get into the big numbers (We’ll be up to about twenty in a couple weeks). We take the kids swimming and to the park every day (morning and afternoon switch between the two) and between that and art projects and snacks the day is pretty full. There are only a few really spoiled kids (the ones that cry about everything we do because it’s not their idea or they’re afraid to get dirty), which is nice as I expected a lot more (I figured Embassy kids would be spoiled). The girl I work with in my classroom, Lora, is a very good worker and the two of us keep the classroom running pretty well.
(These are pictures of our room - I am pretty proud of my tree idea most of all)

I certainly have not let the weekend slip away. We walked around town Friday night, and I met some cool skateboarders – of course I asked if I could borrow a board and made a fool of myself trying to do tricks on the brick street, but I felt pretty cool when would even try a trick. A bunch of us had a slumber party in one of the girls’ hotel rooms and after three hours of sleep, we got up at 4:30am to go to a fish market. Supposedly, 90% of the fish bought in Japan is sold at that market between 3am and 8am every morning. I think we missed the real rush since we didn’t arrive until about 5:30 or 6, but it was REALLY cool to see how fast everyone was moving, and all of the different fish, and the whole backstage of where my food comes from! Only four of us were brave enough to stick around afterward for breakfast. I had raw cuttlefish tentacles, egg sushi, a snow crab hand roll, and a tuna hand roll for breakfast. I was a little disappointed because I think it was yesterday’s fish, not fresh from the fish market as we had hoped, but it was still pretty good. After breakfast we walked around the outside of the market where a whole farmers market of fish was set up for blocks around. We tried tons of free samples - a lot of completely unidentifiable things… some of which were better than others. After a nap we headed out to Shibuya, the largest intersection in the world (woo hoo…?) to do some shopping. It was not the highlight of my week, but it was fun. Then, after some dinner (yay oatmeal!) a few of us headed back to Shibuya for some clubbing, which turned into our first night of karaoke! I was a little sad because, apparently, karaoke in most Japan is all private. You pay for a room for a certain amount of time, and your group all just sings to one another. So, we didn’t get to see any Japanese karaoke, and we didn’t get a chance to publicly embarrass ourselves, but we did have a really good time. Hopefully we’ll be able to find a public karaoke sometime.
Today they say a tropical storm is moving in, so it is all rain all day. This works out well for me so I do not feel bad about having to spend the whole day inside doing programming for camp. Yes, I came all the way to Tokyo to do more Camp Adventure homework. Oh well. It’ll be nice to just stay in for once, I suppose.
I hope everyone is well – thanks for keeping up with me! Please enjoy this video I made of the fish market yesterday!

Whoa! Just heard a huge crack of thunder! This is our first Tokyo thunderstorm... I think it sounds a little different over here... maybe.

So this is the first week with the kids. Monday was... well, it as good after the first fifteen minutes or so when I got kicked in the face twice and punched in the eye. Luckily that girl is not in my room, so I didn't have to deal with that any more. All of the kids (3 and 4 year olds) in my room are SO cute and they are really good. I am extremely impressed with how independent they all are! Everyone gets their food and cleans up from snack/lunch completely on their own, they all keep their bags, bathing suits, extra shoes and clothes and lunch bags organized, and they even get dressed into and out of their bathing suits on their own! They're three!

More later, I have to program a couple weeks of camp before Friday, and I am a little behind...

What A Weekend!!

This weekend was fantastic!! It started with an evening walking around the Roppungi area (VERY huge party area) on Friday night - we didn't get wild, or even stop for a tea, but we did some good exploring and got a good idea of what to do Saturday.
We got up bright and early (9:00 we took off, but that's pretty early for a bunch of college kids/grads) and navigated the train station to the Imperial Gardens. We walked around the whole palace and had a blast walking the gardens and learning about the construction and history of the area. Most of the group got tired and wanted to head home, but a few of us (Hank, Alena, Lora, and myself) had to keep going.
After a few hours we came upon the boats Hank had read about, and decided to take them for a spin - at 5 yen per boat for a half hour we couldn't pass it up!
We enjoyed a relaxing paddle boat ride and headed back to Hero-o to get ready for the night.

Saturday night was not quite as calm as Friday. We checked out the party scene in Roppungi and did a little partying of our own. We were careful though to not miss the last train (12:14am) of the night, as we didn't want to buy a cab and needed to get up early to be on the road again Sunday!
Sunday we went to Harajuku. Girls dress up REALLY crazy and just walk around and pose on this bridge... I don't think there is really any rhyme or reason to it, but I guess Sundays that's just the thing to do. Harajuku is also a VERY huge shopping area - like hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people crowd onto one street and.... shop. I don't really know what all the hub-bub is about, but it was really cool to see (albeit a little clausterphobic).

Then tonight (Sunday) after we got back I went out to dinner with Toyoko (my second cousin once removed). I was SO excited to meet her, and we had a fantastic time! We went to a restaurant called Gonpachi. It was WAY swanky! I guess that is where the past prime minister took George W. Bush. If that doesn't tell you how nice it was, then maybe the fact that I sat next to Hinano Yoshikawa, a very big television and movie star in Japan, at the sushi bar will give you a hint. It was the most delicious food I think I have ever had, and I tried so many new things that I absolutely LOVED! The only thing better than the food and the atmousphere was the company! Toyoko was absolutely delightful!! She was so much fun, and I cannot wait to hook up with her again!

Ah! I need to get to bed! Tomorrow is the first day of camp with the kids. In case I don't make it, thanks for keeping up with me!

Working Hard

This is my roommate, Jordan, and I being extremely cool in our hotel room.








On Tuesday we went down to the Roppongi district for sushi, which was phenomenal! Japanese sushi definitely has something on Iowa sushi. I was surprised at how different the ginger was too! The ginger was SO good! I thought I liked pickled ginger, but this stuff is in a whole new league. After dinner we went to "Vortex". It was a big arcade, but we were the youngest people there... and we're all between 19 and 28. Most of the people there were older men, one of whom I showed here. He was wearing the face mask that many Japanese wear while he played a crane game - attempting to catch a teddy bear.







This is the garden in the US Embassy housing compound where we work. It is SO beautiful! There are tons of perfect shrubs and flowers. This is one of the two ponds. It has a ten foot waterfall and two little fountains. It's really nice because it is right outside of the classroom I am in, so it's a beautiful view for me!



This is the "before" shot of the room we are working in. This is the dress-up/ kitchen area. There are about five different centers that we set up (reading, building, arts and crafts, and puzzles). We have totally redone the room and are in the process of decorating it with posters and fun stuff now. Yesterday (Wed for me) was our "painting party". We spent 12 hours painting posters to decorate our rooms, and I think we may need to dedicate today to the same thing.
This is my super cool US Embassy ID. It lets me onto any embassy or military site in the world!!! (Until August 31st). The Japanese people who took the picture thought it was pretty funny... I guess maybe people don't give the camera a thumbs-up every day?



A beautiful shot of our lovely hotel room. Jealousy is a natural reaction upon seeing this.







This is part of the gang posing in front of a giant pot sticker/wanton outside the first Japanese restaurant at which we ate called Osaka Osho.










This is right after we landed in Tokyo. On the left is Jeff, one of the only three Iowans, and on the right is Lena, a sweet Californian girl.

Sorry these are so out of order. This Blogspot thing is not the easiest to work... it's actually kinda' annoying.