When in Tokyo..

We'll start with the day I went cherry blossom viewing, shall we? Great!

Our school, Meikai, had its opening ceremony on Friday and we all had to dress up. Some of us wore brightly coloured dresses and shirts, but we quickly realized that "dress nicely" in Japan means wear a black suit for both men and women. Griffin, with his 6'5" stature and his vibrant blue/green tie combination, was quite a standout. The ceremony itself was pretty boring, but I stayed awake because they kept making us stand up, bow to the speakers, and sit back down. After the ceremony, I went with two girls to Ueno park to see the sakura (cherry blossoms), which are a really big deal here. I kind of though to myself, 'yeah, they're flowers, they'll be pretty. I'll enjoy this,' but the sakura surprised me. They are truly one of the most breathtaking things I've ever seen because they are so overwhelming in numbers.. it was like trees full of cotton candy or snow.. I don't know. But it was beauuuutiful. And just as the sakura viewing was a great experience, so was the people-viewing. When the cherry trees bloom, all the salarymen get together and sit under the trees on big blue tarps drinking sake and eating obentos (boxed lunches). We wandered around Ueno for a while longer and saw various themed strip clubs and karaoke bars. At a certain point, some of us met up at Nishi Funabashi to look for a traditional Japanese-style bar, and we stumbled upon a small snack bar on the second floor of a building. The seats were all red crushed velvet and only women worked there.. they were all dressed nicely and extremely hosbitable. When we sat down, one girl (Rin-san) informed us that it was a set fee for the whole night of eating and drinking, and that the price was $30 per person. Since we only had an hour and a half before the last trains home, we told them no thanks, we'd come again some other time. But THEN (and here's where the night started getting awesome!) the owner of the place (an older woman) noticed me and started talking about how beautiful and charming I was in Japanese. She ended up giving all of us a $20 discount solely because she thought I was pretty, and staying there was one of our better decisions thus far. All of the waitresses and other customers were eager to talk to us in Japanese and English, and Rin-san sat with us the whole time and gave us her email address at the end because she wanted to become friends with us. Adorable. And good Japanese practice! Unfortunately, I missed the last train home AGAIN, so Reggie and I stayed in the train station playing solitaire and going into various 24-hour shops until 5 in the morning when they started back up.

The next day I finally got to see Rebecca, my best friend from Rochester, who just got here a few days prior. We met up in Harajuku and stayed there for most of the day and night.. we ate some of the decadent crepes for which Harajuku is known, and we spent a while walking through the park looking at the sakura and playing frisbee. The park at Harajuku was insane because there were so many overly-styled people playing sports, juggling, and dancing around half-naked (and drunk). A good time was most certainly being had by all. When Rebecca and I were playing frisbee, most of the people who passed by either greeted us or actively joined in, which was great and kind of unusual. One Japanese fellow walked by us three times before he asked me for my number.. and then my name. (Don't worry mom, I didn't give him the right one.) At the end of the night we both took the train home to our prospective areas so we could go to bed early and wake up the next morning.

Sunday was the infamous penis festival. Nine of us from IES went together, and it took us a long time to get to Kawasaki by train, and an even longer time (and a forty minute walk) to figure out where the festival was. Sooo worth it, though. I got separated from the group soon after we got there and instead met up with Becca and one of her friends from Meiji Gakuin. We ended up right in the midst of the parade, walking alongside the chanting trannies carrying the large penis pedastals. As I do, I was dancing exuberantly, and one of the parade guides told me I could go carry the pedastal with all the she-men. It was really exciting! I learned the chant and everything.. and then Becca and her friend got to help carry it for a while too. The penises were carried to a large shrine and set down.. meanwhile, in the shrine's courtyard, vendors were selling penis figurines, bandanas with pictures of sex positions, and penis shaped lollipops. There were cross-dressers everywhere, and for the first time since I've been here it wasn't uncommon to see white people. Gaijin were taking pictures all over the place.. to the locals this parade is a yearly event, but to us a penis parade was quite a novelty. I met up with the IES kids after Becca left, and we walked around the temple area and saw the turtles there. We went home relatively early because we all had homework to do before our first day of class.

Classes started on Monday, and I have only had Japanese so far. The class goes from 9am until 12:10pm, and there are only seven people in my section so it's a lot of speaking and one on one time. One of our senseis is really great and the other one we have on Thursdays and Fridays so I can't really formulate an opinion yet, though she seems a little too happy and slightly cat-obsessed. We have no class on Wednesday, but I will be working at an elementary school in Myoden on Wednesdays from 8:30 to 3. I met with an IES coordinator and my supervisors at the school on Monday to work on some logistics and figure out what I'd be doing there more or less. I'm going to be helping the kids (from first to fourth grade) with English, and teaching 10 or 15 minute lessons to some of the classes. I will be spending recess and lunch with the kids as well.. the teachers there told me to bring my frisbee when I said I liked to play.. so it can't be all that bad! If anyone has creative ideas on how to engage Japanese children, let me know. But the teachers said that the kids would like me regardless becuase I was lively and pretty (that has been getting me pretty far here, I guess..)

I am about to go to a traditional tea ceremony, which should be really interesting.. there is a chanoyu club at Kanda (the other school I will be taking classes at) and we are joining them for one of their meetings. So I should probably go. But I'm so happy that I finally got this entry done. Woo! Peace out.