Last week jitters

(No I'm not referring to that last week of 90 day court-required rehab that leaves your entire body in tics for that first snort of horse or boot of skag)

The last week in Japan has been busy with everything and everyone getting it all together before I leave the year abroad. It looks like everything will be fitting in my suitcase(s) so I don't have to panic about. I don't have to, but it doesn't mean that I won't.

Tuesday I went into the Hosei International International Centre to give my final (crap) speech (ie: "thank you very much everyone. I had a great time in Japan and thanks to your help I enjoyed it all very much. I learned a lot and won't forget it" ) I signed some last papers and gave back my student ID. "Why?" You may ask. I don't know. This is another fascinating unsane (different than "insane") Japanese practice of not being able to keep your ID cards. Because heaven forbid you pose as a student and save the 200 freaking yen on your horrible excuse for a "student discount". Then I had a goood chat with Hiroko about the good times at Hosei. I generally like the people who work at the Baylor International Centre, but I wouldn't mind to add Hiroko to the staff. We took a picture on her camera and somehow ended up like this. Good times.



Also on Tuesday I had 2 last lessons with a couple of my students. I'll definately miss them and the feeling that someone thinks of me as a teacher. (it's such a power trip)

Oh, and on a random note. This summer in Tokyo has been really mellow. I was always told by everyone, "just wait..". But I've waited and it really isn't too bad. There was a really humid and hot week or two in there in June, but last week was like 20 degrees (68 for the anglos). And the night usually is quite cool. Sure...it's the humidity of a hungarian midget wrestler's armpit, but not as hot. So Tokyo summer gets a C in summer grades. Whereas Minnesota generally gets an A and Waco gets about a B+. (note: waco gets this high purely for the sun. after living in Tokyo where a sunny day is only available indoors my pale skin needs some vitamin D)

2 days ago I got a haircut and....hairs were definately cut. Once again my english system mind mistook 1 inch for 1 centimetre. And I thought I was completley metric friendly. I consider it a small bump on the road to complete conversion. (side note: metric names are really sterile and beige compared to their english system counterparts) Anyway, this lady who cut my hair had some bizarre accent that I couldn't understand at all. For example the word 大丈夫 (daijoubu meaning "ok") sounded like だいじぇーぶ (daijeibu). So I just kept on saying "yes" and "sure" to whatever she suggested. I thought I could leave Japan and just get one more haircut without problems. But no. Oh well. I've always secretly wanted the hair on my arms to be longer than my head.






Some pictures of the fireworks the other night.


Toei Shinjuku line/Keio New line station at Shinjuku.

Kaiten, Asakusa and fireworks

Last Friday I went to Kaiten Sushi with one of my students. Kaiten sushi is the sushi that comes around on a revolving belt. Then you count the waitress counts the plates for the bill. I'm not a huge sushi fan but it was fun all in all. I had kept on meaning to go to this kind of sushi resturaunt since I got here but just never have. Actually I think it's the first time I even went out to eat just sushi.




The whole shrimp


the whole squid


the menu


as impressive as that is, there were three of us eating.

Then on Saturday I went to Asakusa to have some good old fashioned Tokyo fun. I went to Asakusa sometime in October for the culture day festival. But it was really crowded and too many people so I had always wanted to go back. It's a fun place. I didn't really notice that before because of the massive amounts of people. I went to this Tempura place that was really good but it was nothing but old ladies working there. And for anyone who has been to Japan knows that the species of Japanese old woman is one of the rudest besides the French employee. I was sitting on two cushions because they were like that when I sat down and this old bird grabs ones from underneath me and says that I can only have one because it's the rules. Then she asks what we wanted to order. I guess in a country where everyone is pretty polite, it's tolerable to have these rude creatures elbowing you to get a seat on the train or pulling your seat out from underneath you.


The strange gold thing in the sky


Kaminari-mon. The gate to the temple at asakusa.


The main shopping street


a pagoda


A side street with an amusement park in the background


mural at the station


it's sideways because I forgot to change it but you can see the fake construction worker waving his orange stick. what you couldn't see was the real person behind him doing the same thing. hooray for employing useless people to do useless jobs on useless construction projects to not have unemploment.