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!