Toride here I come!!

FINALLY I know where I will be living and teaching during the next year.

Toride City in Ibaraki Prefecture in the Northern Eastern part of the Greater Tokyo area.

Toride City is probably a pretty boring pace. It will most likely have everything I will need (I HOPE!!), but overall it’s probably kinda rural/suburban. But who knows, maybe I will be pleasantly surprised.
Toride is a bedroom community of about 113,475. It is on both the Tokyo subway line (the Chiyoda Line ) and on the commuter train system line (the JR Joban Line).
By commuter train its about 40 min from Ueno station and all that eastern Tokyo has to offer such as the burrows of Royogoku (Sumo town) Akihabara (the electronics district) Asakusa (Old Tokyo) and Jimbacho (a district famous for its book shops).

Even though Toride is probably going to be industrial, suburban and blahhh, I am THRILLED to have received this post because of its close proximity to central Tokyo. I will have a quiet place to come home to and work in, but in the evenings and on weekends I will have tons of time to explore Tokyo. There is SO much to see, let me tell ya!!
I definitely did not expect to be placed anywhere near Tokyo. I really thought I would be posted to some place far FAR from civilization. And this would have been OK with me. What is most important to me is that I have the opportunity to see Japan and teach. But I feel really lucky to have been placed in Toride because I am a city mouse and really do love the hustle and bustle. I made a list of all the things I wanted to do while I was in Tokyo for my week long training session. This list was getting longer and longer and I was beginning to feel a little sad cause I felt like I would not have enough time to see and do everything. Now I don’t have to worry about that!!
There are 52 weekends in this year. I will be able to do a fair amount of exploring during that time. Though I have to say, I lived in London for 4 years and there is so much of London I never saw (I sure tried to see everything though). Anyway, a year is not enough to know Tokyo, but its better than the week I though I would have. I am really looking forward to it.

Here is part of my "to do" list for Tokyo:

1. Visit the Yushima Tenjin shrine for the Kami of Learning. This is a shrine that dates back to 458 BC. It is often visited by students who pray for success with there entrance exams. I figure I should pay my respects and start things of right by clapping my hands and ringing the bell for the god of learning.
2. Visit Ryogoku which is a suburb of east Tokyo that is ruled by all things Sumo. The major sumo stadium is here as well as many sumo stables and sumo restaurants.
3. Visit the suburb of Mitaka. This is going to be a VERY important excursion. It is where the Studio Ghibli Museum is located. I CAN NOT WAIT to see it.
4. I definitely want to see a baseball game, and a sumo match, AND I wanna check out Keirin. Keirin is a track cycling race. It’s kinda like horse racing but with guys on bikes, you still bet though. (there just so happens to be a stadium in Toride)

More adventures to come. I can not wait till I am writing you about what it is like to actually be in those places!!