Little Letter

I got a letter from one of my students today, a 4^th grader!

It was a little note (in Japanese) about how she loves to study English.

In the envelope was the letter, some drawings and some pressed flowers. It was so sweet!

But I felt so bad because I had her in class today and she was just so eager to speak in English it was almost disruptive. She kept on jumping up to answer questions and the other kids were getting annoyed. So another little girl told her to cut it out and she teared up a little. I felt so bad cause I had to keep going on with the lesson. Poor kid.

Kurejito Karudo…….SUWAIPU!

Kurejito Karudo…… SUWAIPU!!!

Well for those of you who are not familiar with this "adorable" little trick Japanese children like to play on each other and TEACHERS such as myself, I will tell you about it.

The kids put their hands together, like in prayer, and run up to you, wedging it in your rear. Sometimes a cute little phrase accompanies the act. "kurejito karudo…SWAIPU" (credit card….swipe). Sometimes no phrase is necessary; the act is funny enough on its own. Anyway, I had my first experience with this the other day.

A very enterprising little boy set out a carefully planned trap and caught me hook line and sinker. I was outside waving goodbye to the kids and they gathered together in there walking groups(the kids don't take buses, but gather in groups of students walking in the same direction and a parent comes and picks up the group and walks them both to and from school) So I was waving goodbye and a little boy stopped. He turned around and removed a notebook from his bag. Smiling slyly, he chucked it in my direction and it slide just past me. I bent down to get it for him I should have been suspicious) just as I bent down he CHARGED for my butt, hands clasped. I stud up just in time and did not get it too bad, but yeah. MAN it was weird. They told us about it at the orientation and I knew about it from before. But for some reason, I never thought it would happen to ME! That little boy was SMART! I got it from a little girl a day later!!!! EEEK! And I have heard that boys have it a lot worse. The kids grab them in another place as well!!!! Not Joking!

Welcome to Japan, where the kids molest there teachers!

Another variation is the kanchyo. This one is carried out slightly differently. The fingers form a gun.

Sleepin in the Park with 200 Japanese in yukatas

Lately Sophie and I have been having some pretty crazy adventures together exploring Tokyo.

Yesterday we set out for Odaiba and the Tsukiji fish market. In the afternoon I found out the fish market would be closed because it's a holiday, so we decided to just go into Odaiba and come back.

Odaiba is a manmade island in Tokyo bay built in the mid 1800s. It was used as a military fort for some time until the early 80s when privet developers began to convert the island for recreational, residential and commercial use. But the project never really go of the ground because not long after they got started the bubble burst and the Japanese economy experienced a rather severe recession. But in the late 90s they again began to work towards recreating Odaiba. Now it's quite the place to be seen. It has nice views of the bay and the Rainbow Bridge at night, there are tons of shops and restaurants and other sites like a massive ferris wheel, museums, so on. Well we traveled out there mainly to visit the Oedo Onsen. I read about this place ages ago and had to visit. It is an onsen (Japanese hot springs) theme park of sorts. It is themed in the Edo period (the height of Japanese culture)

Sophie and I wondered around the many impressive (and themed) shopping areas, and board walk. The weather has been beautiful here and it was the perfect day to be outside window shopping and sitting at a café on a board walk looking out at the Tokyo bay. We had an awesome time we did not want to leave and ended up wandering around for longer than we had intended. After shopping around we sat out on the board walk looking at the Tokyo sky line all light up, drinking wine from a can and eatin cheeseburgers.

At around 10pm we decided to head over to the onsen and because it was getting late we decided to stay for the night there. For about 15 more dollars you can sleep at the spa, I was not really sure what that meant, or what kind of facilities there would be, but we just went anyway.

You enter the onsen (the building is really cool looking) and immediately remove your shoes and pay about $15.00. You are taken to a room were you select a yukata (Japanese robe) to wear. Everyone is in these robes, it really adds to the atmosphere!!! Then the men and women separate into changing rooms. You get a locker and you take off your clothes and change into your yukata. Then you enter the main building which houses many different shops, restaurants and games themed around the Edo period. I must admit I found this part a bit cheesy and staged, but it was really fun anyway (*also, we were the ONLY foreigners!!). It feels like being on a movie set. Everyone is in themes costume it's kind of cool, but also really corny, but the Japanese LOVE themed stuff, so it's no surprise. Anyway, you can enter the baths from here. Men and women bath in different complexes. The bath houses were amazing. Really amazing! Sophie and I got a bit freaked out by the nakedness of it all, but you get over it really quickly. There is a whole set of rituals you perform before entering the bath. First you bath yourself at these vanities were you sit on a stool in your own lil stall and shower off, clean yourself thoroughly (even brush your teeth!) All of the products are provided (towels, toothbrush, soap, face wash, shampoo, EVERYTHING) after that you may enter the bath. There were a series of different baths (not sure what they all did, the signs were in Japanese) some had jets, others tiny bubbles, some water was yellow, some pools white. We bathed in all of them and then we went to the outside baths, which are set in a Japanese garden. It was so awesome!!! Then we hit the sauna, and steam rooms. In-between baths you can take a dip in an icy cold bath to cool off (otherwise it all just gets too hot and it's hard to enjoy it), after that you shower off AGAIN. There were also tons of massages and other treatments you can get done for an extra charge. After that we went into the locker room where all the women were drying their hair putting on makeup, whatever. Again lotion, hair products blow-dryers were all provided.

The whole thing is SO WONDERFUL and relaxing. I LOVED IT!!!!!! Like I said, we spent quite a long time sightseeing and window shopping around Odaiba, that it was probably 10pm before we got to the onsen. The onsen is open all night, but no one may enter between the hours of 2am and 5am. So Sophie and I decided to stay all night (the onsen is not a hotel though). We had dinner and drinks in one of the restaurants and by 2am we were tired so we went to the resting room. This is where the story gets funny. So there is this HUGE tatame mat room in the complex. They turn out the lights in there after 12, and people sleep there, just on the floor. We did not figure there would be too many people doing this, but by the time we were ready to take a lil nap the place was packed. Image a HUGE tatame mat room full of snoring Japanese people sprawled all over the floor wearing nothing but yukatas. It was HILARIOUS. Well we found a little spot on the floor and joined them. I felt like a refugee or something. It was just so unlike anything I had ever done before. This was a really nice place. Image you visit a nice spa, or mall or something and everyone just decided to crash in one of the back rooms cause they don't wanna go home. Its not like it was just drunk young people out for a bender, there were grandmas and little babies and everyone all sleeping together. It was at least 200 people. It was so weird, but great at the same time. It was hard to fall asleep at first. People were snoring babies crying and the floor was hard. But we managed to get some sleep. Just as I was falling asleep a huge wooden and paper room divider fell on my head! (We were sleeping in the mothers and children section, and some guy in the main area snuggled up to the divider) I could have killed him! Anyway we woke up at about 5:30, and went back into the bath. It was so nice in the morning. A lot less people, and the air was cooler outside. I was so great! We got dressed and headed back into the city.

But our train ride home is quite long (Odaiba is in the south, we live in the north) so we decided to stay in Tokyo for the day. By this time Sophie and I were SO tired. So we decided to go to Ikerubukuro to a park there and take a nap and then walk around the area. So we bought some breakfast and a mat from the $1 store and looked for a park. Tokyo does not have an abundance of green spaces; the best we could find was kind of a dingy courtyard with a bit of grass on the sides. But we pulled up alongside the bums, literally. Some of them came over to talk to us. I my experience homeless people in Japan are VERY different from the States. They tend to be REALLY friendly and jolly; they NEVER ask for money or food and get kinda touchy if you give anything to them. We hung around for a bit, snacking and whatever and then we laid and took a nap!!! HAHAHAHAH We slept for a few hours and woke up and got lunch. We walked around Ikebukuro which is a really neat area; I would like to live there. And now I am home again. I have been away from my apartment for about 30hrs! I had an awesome time.

Masks

The Principal at my current school makes Noh (Japanese theater)masks as a hobby. They are absolutely beautiful. He has made dozens and they are hanging all along the walls at the school. I love them. I have such a thing for masks. He carves them and paints them, I think its so cool. I want to learn about the art from him, he is really into it so maybe he will help me to purchase a set, I would like to buy one or a few, over the course of my stay here. They are going to be expensive, but it is totally worth it.

Below are pictures of my visit to another one of my principles houses. We had a wonderful lunch and her family was so nice and her son and his wife had just had an ADORABLE baby!