Best of both worlds

Sorry for the delay in new postings... I had two long days of training for my job here, then was kept indoors for a few days because of the rain. Training went well, met some really great people. Apparently, I'm not as cultured as I thought. I'm one of the few who has lived in less than three countries. Ah well, never too late to start!

While Tokyo is one of the biggest, busiest cities in the world, there are also some great spots to relax and feel immersed in nature. It's one of the great things about this city. You cand spend a lovely day in the park, and then walk out into bustling streets and bright lights. I managed to spend time in three lovely parks in the last few days. First was Ueno Park, where the crows are the size of my torso. There was a little zoo inside the park, but we didn't venture in. (Honestly, here's one thing that Philly has wayyy better, so why bother?) There are also a few museums scattered around the park, but we didn't make it in this time. I will go back though. Next was Yoyogi-koen (Yoyogi Park), which is located in the Harajuku section of Tokyo. This park was a lot livelier, with hundreds of people picnicing (doing that soon!), playing music, playing sports, and just relaxing. It was the perfect place for people-watching! Oh, the outfits. I did sneak in one Harajuku Girl photo, even though it wasn't intended for me. Today a couple of us went to Higashi-Gyoen (Imperial Palace East Garden). This park didn't have any of the fluff that the others did, but was a nice place to sit and relax in the sun, surrounded by trees in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world. Ahhh.

Inside Ueno Park

Inside Ueno Park

Inside Ueno Park

...and right outside the park.

Taxi cab

Harajuku Girls

Entrance to Higashi Gyoen

Exploration

So I finally made it more than 500 ft. (or however many meters that is) from my apartment today. I happened upon lots of little shops that sell all sorts of goods and delicacies. The streets are quite small, like little windy alleys you'd find in Europe. Oh, and everyone in my little town of Nishi Nippori rides a bike. If I don't get run over by a bike in the next few weeks, it will be a miracle.

Some photos, finally.

The toilets at the airports had bidets. They even played a musical flushing sound, if that's your thing.



A sign at a Nishi Nippori bus stop, where I live.



Beer in a vending machine!! I've heard about these many times before coming here, but I still stood in awe seeing it in person. Behold.



One of the little alley-type streets by my apartment. There were lots of little tiny shops - mostly of the food sort.


At the grocery store, I didn't know what most of the things were. But they were all cute!



I love Pocky!! They have these at the supermarkets in Chinatown, but not this many different kinds! Yum.


Any guesses as to what this is?

Holy jet-lag!

I've been waking up around 4am each morning. When I say wake up, I mean jumping out of bed and ready to do 100 things. Since the rest of the city hasn't shared my passion for pre-dawn living - literally, I couldn't even find an open coffee shop for hours - I've passed the time by washing dishes (and I only have 3) and rearranging my 2 shelves. Because of said jet-lag, I passed out yesterday for maybe an hour around 6:30pm. When I woke up, I realized I missed my luggage delivery. Yikes! Thank goodness the immensely helpful staff at my company helped me sort things out this morning. When the delivery guy came, the poor guy carried both of my bags (we're talking 90 lbs.) up the 4 flights of stairs to my apt. When we reached the landing, I helped by rolling one of the bags. Then HE thanked ME for helping! Ha! I love the Japanese.

Welcome to Japan! Please don't bring your swine flu

The morning before I was set to depart for Tokyo, swine flu hysteria hit a high. I received an email from my company saying that if anyone on our plane was found to have a fever or flu-like symptoms, we were all subject to be quarantined for 10 days. NOT the way I imagined the beginning of my journey. But highly unlikely. I cracked a few jokes to my mom, and didn't worry too much about it.

After nearly 15 hours of flying, we finally arrived in Narita Airport. We were told that we would have to remain in our seats, as Japanese health officials were going to board the plane to use some type of mass temperature scanning device to make sure none of us passengers was attempting to spread the swine flu to Japan. Eager to stretch my legs, I was mildly annoyed at the prospect of waiting even a little bit longer to get out of my seat.

During the wait, I attempted to distract myself with on-flight magazines. Then I heard the gasps from other passengers and the clicking of cameras. I looked up to see two Japanese men coming down the aisles looking straight out of E.T. (the scary part at the end, where the movie stops being cute for a few minutes). They were equipped with heat-senstive video cameras and were scanning each row. I wanted to badly to take a photo, but I was frozen in astonishment - and I was worried that MY camera would somehow offset theirs, and I would be arrested and deported. (It had been a long day, my imagination was running wild). One of the passengers must have had a small fever, because they kept running back and forth to her, and took her temperature with an actual thermometer. At that moment I really thought I was set to get ushered away in a plastic bubble.

About 2 hours after landing, we were finally informed that we were all welcome in the country. Surreal. I met a few other Americans who were more brave than I, and managed to grab photos, so I will try to post them soon.

Other than that, first day was great! One biru and and amazing plate of gyoza later, I was ready to pass out in my surprisingly comfortable bed. I love Japan.

be a light to the world

I finally got my school assignment! I'll be teaching at Showa Women's University in Setagaya, about 40 minutes outside of Tokyo. Apparently, the founders modeled the school after the private academy started by Leo Tolstoy (yes, the author of Anna Karenina, one of my favorite novels). They "wanted the Academy to be a school devoted to the cultivation of love, understanding and harmony."

Love it.

and begin.

I leave for Japan in just under 5 weeks... 99% excited and just 1% nervous. I really should have spent more time learning Japanese, hmm. I'm going to spend the next month trying to do that, as well as spending time with people who I'm going to miss the most.

Let the countdown begin!