News

It's been a fairly standard week or so. I'm fighting my annual Teacher Cold, so I've been chugging a lot of water and sleeping a lot. It's winter here, usually about 14 C during the day and around 8 C at night. It's still sunny though, which is nice. I have officially been in Japan for 90 days, and I think I have the working visa situation all sorted. I should be able to stay here with no problem for the remainder of my contract. YAY!

NEWS:

• I treated myself to a grown up watch. I really like it.
• I bought tickets to Thailand for Christmas. First solo travel experience coming up!
• When I was at city hall, I found a flyer for free English lessons on Wednesday night. I went, and am now trying to learn Japanese for real.
• DAD IS RUNNING FOR CONGRESS!! I'm very proud, excited, and of course, nervous.
• I have started to take steps to sort out my future. I'm not ready to share yet, I just want you to know that steps are being taken. Actively, even.

That's all. Here's a picture of my watch.

 

Nerds

This weekend I went to Odaiba. It is a man-made island right next to Tokyo, that you access by crossing the Rainbow Bridge. It is full of shopping centers and it takes about an hour to walk around the entire island. When we were there, there was some racecar nonsense happening. It was a neat island, and I think I will go back to see some other things there, especially in the summer when it's sunny. I went with the first guy I met from the conversation website. He said we'll go to an aquarium and then to an amusement park. So I agreed, because as much as I hate aquariums, I love rides. Turns out what he meant when he said Aquarium was "Aqua City Shopping Center" and by amusement park, he meant "Sega's Joyopolis". The first place was a giant shopping mall. Great. Whatever. Walked around, ate, it was fine. Joyopolis was a 3 story arcade. You pay 8 dollars to get in and then each "ride" is 5-8 dollars. These rides are either 3-d glasses wearing things or you sit in a raft and it looks like your going through rapids, but you're really just looking at a computer screen. I mean the raft moves a bit. I guess it was fine, just not what I was expecting. And it was a beautiful, sunny fall day and I wanted to be outside, but we spent the day inside. My favorite thing there though was a Zombie Roller Coaster. The track went around the whole building and there was a laser gun attached to the harness. So as you're going around the track, zombies jump at you and you have to shoot them. At the end of the ride, it tells you what rider had the most hits. I won. 128. Heyoo. After that, he had to go to a meeting so I met Yuka in the party district of Tokyo for an International Party. Yuka found this thing on the internet and wanted to go, so I said ok. There were about 70 people there at a bar for it. I was the only non-Japanese female. I had two lines of people waiting to meet me. Literally, LINES. One was Japanese women who want to improve their English, but are scared to hang out with men. One was men who wanted to talk to a woman. It was a weird experience, but kind of cool I guess. I had the same conversation 75 times. Where are you from? What do you do? Where do you live? How long have you been in Japan? How long will you stay? Do you like it? What food do you like? Are you learning Japanese?

Overall, a good weekend. I have decided that experiences like this are probably really good for me. I'm learning how to talk to strangers, how to be a awkward parties and stay sober, how to hold my own when I'm on my own. It's exhausting, but I think being constantly out of my social comfort zone is really good for me. I hope it helps me in the future.

Samurai last weekend.

Fortune telling stuff.

With Rie last weekend in the tourist district.

Japan.

Odaiba. That's some famous Japanese Character. Not a transformer. (I was sad too...)

Tokyo Skyline from Odaiba.

Fox at a temple on the roof of a shopping mall.

Polar Bears crying about global warming.

My new favorite fruit. Don't know what it's called. It's kind of square though. It's sweet.

 

2 days

Saturday I went to Nikko with Yuka. She is a girl I met online on the Conversation Exchange site. Nikko is a few hour north of Tokyo, famous in the fall for the leaves. There are many temples and shrines and the like. It was a good time. Sunday, I went to Tokyo with Rie, my coworker. It is a holiday weekend so there was a lot to see, as well as large crowds. I had a wonderful weekend. Happy November! Happy fall!

Nikko

Dino Chomp in Nikko

So bright

That's me.

That's not me.

Looking at the waterfalls.

Japan

Waterfall in Nikko

Yuka

Sunset and Dinochomp

Nikko

Tourist street in Asakusa, Tokyo

Rie's first Dino-Chomp

Some sort of Crane parade.

Crane

My fortune. I did two this weekend. They were both Regular. The options are poor, regular, good or great.

Japan

Sign

Mercy and Wisdom

This is a flame that is apparently still burning from Hiroshima's atomic bomb.

Lanterns at a shrine in Ueno, Tokyo.

That's me.

 

Kommute with Katie

 Want to see part of my train ride? Of course you do! This mid-week blog update is mostly so you can ride a train to work with me! Enjoy!

Train-Station Adventures.

Heading home after 9 Halloween Party Classes.

In the Train Station.

I wish you could see how crowded the train was in this picture.
Oddly enough, they gave me plenty of space.

Lunch. I made Potato Chowder and a pasta salad.

6 years, 3 years, 5 years, 4 years, 2 years.

4 year old and my 9 year olds.

A visitor

We started Halloween on Friday, and it will continue until this Thursday. Yay.

Ian came to visit me. He got in on Saturday afternoon and left Sunday evening. It was really good to get a hug and speak English normally.

I'm in shock that it's almost November.

I finally got paid, so I ate fruit and vegetables this week. That was exciting.

Planning a day trip to Nikko on Saturday and a down-town Tokyo day on Sunday. Saturday with a girl I met on the internet and Sunday with Rie, the secretary/teacher/we have private lessons together Japanese lady who works with our school.

Have I explained my school? Ok, there is my boss, Michiko, a 56 year old Japanese woman. She was married to an American guy and has 2 grown up daughters. She started this school by herself 25 years ago. Last year, she hired Rie, a 40 year old Japanese lady. Rie's main responsibilities are to be organized and paperwork. Michiko is great with the kids, but she forgets everything, so Rie does all that kind of stuff. She has a classroom like mine more in Tokyo, and Kerry teaches that. She is a 25 year old American. Then what I do here, in a more rural, outskirt of Tokyo. That's all of the employees. I see Michiko Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays when she has classes here. I see Rie on Thursday for our private lesson, and she teaches here on Fridays. I see Kerry on Wednesdays.

Pictures...

I like their anti smoking campaigns.

They just explain that it's not all about you.

You may be wondering, so I'll tell you. Yes, I did ride the train like that.

Sharing the bridge with Ian.

Friends!

He's better at taking pictures than the dinos are.

Testing out the liquor vending machines.

Sake!

We bought a pillow!

Typhoons

Turns out fall is Typhoon season in Japan. Who knew? Lots of rain and wind. Sometimes schools close. I still have work, but by the time the kids get to me they're full of unspent energy from a whole day off. So, that's fun. This weekend I met a language exchange guy in Tokyo. We went to a food festival and had some sake and food. Then we went to see the largest paper lantern in the world, but it was being repaired, so we just saw the second largest paper lantern in the world. Today I went to lunch and learned some more Japanese vocab. Pay day this week. We start Halloween festivities.

Two Observations: When people read on the trains, their books have covers on them. Like the covers that we had to make in school to protect our text books. These covers are flowery or just brown. Makes me wonder what they're hiding.  I saw the first graffiti that I've seen here. On the side of a bridge. It said "NIPPLE". I actually laughed out loud on the train.

Itty-bitty fantas.

Panda Pancake.

Dino and lanterns



What they were doing at the festival.

Tokyo-tourist district.

That's me!

End of the universe

Beginning of the universe.

Tokyo Sky Tree

A man who defeated dragons.

Tokyo Skytree: largest building in Japan.

Apparently that is a beer factory. It's meant to look like the foam on a beer.

Skytree and Beer.

Itty bitty Sprite

Lunch today. Some sort of famous, traditional something.