A View From the Top

So life has been pretty routine for the past few days, which is why I haven't really posted much -- basically because nothing much has really happened, save going to classes and stuff. Also, supposedly on Tuesday morning around 3AM there was an earthquake around the Tokyo area. Now, I woke up and heard people talking about it but kind of thought it was a dream. Nevertheless, it did happen and kinda freaked me out a little bit. The funny thing was, the only news service that reported it was CNN; no Japanese newspaper had any word of it. I guess that shows their frequency here. Still, it's kind of scary the first time and will probably freak me out again if it happens in the future. But I guess that's life in Tokyo!

Classes seem to be going pretty well so far, though I really only like my Japanese and Asian Business classes. The Int'l Marketing class I'm taking is a bit of a disappointment, since the professor, while very nice, is extremely dull and doesn't really know much about the field. Other than that, all is well. I visited the Tokyo International School on Wednesday to figure out how my internship was going to go. Going there was really like a breath of fresh air. It was basically a huge, colorful mass of kids running and playing and screaming and all in all just made me want to be 8 again. So I met with the Vice-Principal and we decided I'd help out with 6th grade. Great -- the puberty years.

I met with the two teachers that I'm going to help and the first thing one of them said to me was "Are you good at dealing with naughty boys?" to which I was responded "Uhh..." to which she responded "Because I tried to get them to stop putting lead in the microwave today and I couldn't." Sounds fun, right? But I'm sure it'll be a good experience especially because I'll be dealing with a totally different group of people than a bunch of college kids. I'll be going in for around 3 or 4 hours a week and helping teach Japanese and Science. They wanted me to help with Arts and Crafts until I drew them my rendition of the Tokyo Tower, which kind of looked like a giant toothpick with hair and 3 legs. That idea was shot down quickly.

This afternoon I went on another excursion down to Shinjuku to go to the top of the TMG building, which supposedly has great views of Tokyo. Well, they didn't lie. I could pretty much see the entire city, save for the outskirts due to some fog. It's pretty unbelievable how sprawling Tokyo really is. I mean in New York, you have the five boroughs, which are kind of all spread out but in Tokyo it's just a huge, freakin' mass of STUFF. Quite worth it! After that, I went to the nearby Hilton to kill some time before meeting friends for dinner and saw what "high culture" in Tokyo is like. In case you were wondering, high culture is an $190 9-course dinner at a French restaurant. Totally chic! I also went to the Keio Dep't Store, which was more like a mass of food vendors giving free samples to everyone. Quick tip: if you want a free meal in Tokyo, this is about as close as you are going to get. The short list of what I sampled is: gyoza, dried fruit including: cranberries, kiwis, strawberries, kumquats, a little cookie thing, chocolate, chocolate-covered pecans, etc. Quite the treatment. I bought some pecans. I felt bad.

Tomorrow night, TUJ is running a program about Japanese Culture including a performance by this amazing Koto (Japanese guitar) player, an appearance by Miss Sakura Blossom (yeah, I know), and a lecture by this guy John Gauntner who is THE authority on sake. He's even bringing 6 of his favorites for us to try. Should be great! Saturday is supposed to be rainy, so I'm thinking of going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where I hear they have a great temporary exhibit on Van Gogh and stuff like that. Sweet. Plus its 75 Yen (around 85 cents) for students to get in.

Anyways, don't forget to comment and keep in touch! Hope everyone is enjoying my travels because YOU AREN'T IN JAPAN AND I AM.

Jaa mata nee.