A Walk Down Candy Lane

So the last few days saw a return to normalcy in terms of actually having to GO to school, instead of sleeping late and seeing cool places, though I did some good sightseeing this weekend.

Spent another Thursday afternoon at TIS; this time I helped kids in both Paul (one of the other 6^th grade teachers) and Fiona’s classrooms with PowerPoint presentations they were doing on various brain disorders. I’m quite jealous of the kids, because they each get their own MacBook laptop. All Ossining High School gave us was 15 bomb threats, security guards that looked like famous singers and actors, and the freshman pit. Oh well.

The kids were actually doing quite well on their PowerPoint presentations and were learning to do good, quality research on their own. The prize moment of the afternoon, however, was when one of the kids, out of nowhere, just screamed out “ADHD IS SO COOL!” Yes, Andrew, yes it is.

Friday night was sweet because we went to this amazing Hawaiian burger chain in Gotanda that we found out about from a friend. It was really nice to actually have a real, American-style sandwich (besides Subway), because most of the sandwiches here are extremely weird, made with white bread (with the crust cut off, oddly enough), and have tons of mayo all over. So, it was a nice change, especially for the people who had burgers, since they were infinitely better than McDonalds, or even Mos Burger (the Japanese equivalent of McDonalds).

Yesterday, a bunch of people went to nearby Kamakura with TUJ, which is supposed to be really cool, but since I didn’t really feel like going with a group of 40 people (and because we had planned to go as a smaller group in March), I took a trip to nearby Kawagoe. People here always wonder how I find out about all these places, but it’s really as simple as using a guide book or just typing in “Tokyo Day Trips” into Google. It’s amazing what you can find!

Kawagoe was about 30 minutes away from here by train. I had heard that there was some cool stuff there, so I decided just to go and worry about the details later. Luckily, I found an English map and guide in the train station. The guys who gave me the map were very nice and, of course, asked me where I was from (EVERYONE in Japan asks where you are from, no matter what; asking what your job is/marital status, etc. is strictly off limits, so asking where you come from is the default small-talk question when you meet a stranger). I first headed off toward Kitain temple, a large building dating from the 18^th century. There was also this beautiful pagoda right near by that was quite a sight. I went inside the temple and happened upon this group of Japanese woman (and one man) in the middle of a painting class in the temple. The painting “master” was this old guy who looked like he came straight out of a Kurosawa film: bald head, large, imposing eyes, bushy eyebrows – it was cool. There was also this big statue of this fat man and people were touching and rubbing it; supposedly you get good health for the body parts that correspond to which ones you rub on the statue. I could make a bad joke, but I'll restrain myself. There was also this really cool collection of 500 or so stone Buddhist statues near the temple, all which had a different expression on their face. Some were really funny to look at and it was quite amazing that the same guy (supposedly) actually made all of them!

After the temple, I walked over toward the old Edo part of town, an area with tons of buildings that has been preserved fairly well from the Edo period, including surviving a few really large fires. The area was extremely cool to see, because all the buildings looked very traditional with the thatched, sloping roofs, sliding doors, and huge windows. Of course, the area was quite touristy, for example these guys that offered to pull you around in rickshaws for some exorbitant amount of money, but I hadn’t really seen many historical buildings (save the shrines and temples) yet, so it was nice. By far the best part of that area was so called “Candy Lane”, a winding road of shops that just sold various (and sometimes weird) types of Japanese candy. I really can’t describe (partly because I have no idea what it was) all the types of candy there were, but to give you an idea, I saw a whole bunch of crazy stuff, ranging from the tame: bean paste patties, dried fruits, and rice cakes to the weird: mayonnaise flavored corn nuts, dried sardines (candy? I think not), fried octopus balls, etc. By far the best item was this amazing snack I bought from this little stand on the side of the road. It was a waffle-type thing, shaped like a fish for some reason, that had melted chocolate inside. Usually they have bean paste in them, which I don’t really like, but this was like hitting the jackpot. It was amazing. And it was only 100 Yen (about 80 cents).

There was also this really cool guy who had a bunch of spices, like orange peel, chili powder, and sesame seeds, and for 500 Yen (about $4.30), he would mix them all together into some new sort of spice concoction that tasted nothing like any of the ingredients he put in. Another cool shop I came upon was this store that a bunch of antiques imported from around the world, including these really really cool wooden model cars and airplanes. I was curious, so I asked the guy where they made and he said in China. Odd, I thought, for such antique (and American-looking car). Then I asked when it was from and it turned out it was made LAST YEAR by this Chinese company that had been contracted by an American company to make old looking model cars and planes to sell to the Japanese. So much for antiques!

So, it was a fun and leisurely afternoon nonetheless. It’s also another option for a day trip that I can do with my dad when he comes, though the list of things I want to do with him is getting pretty lengthy at this point. I’ll have to narrow it down to the best ones.

Today was pretty eventless. I wandered around Hibiya Park for the afternoon, which is a nice little park in the middle of metropolitan Shimbashi in Tokyo. They had a bunch of booths for the Tokyo Marathon, which was held for the first time ever today. The route looked extremely daunting, though not longer than any other marathon, I suppose. I got some nice pictures of the lake and some flowers in the park, as the lighting happened to be quite nice since it had just cleared up after raining the entire morning.

Hope all is well with everyone! I can’t believe how fast it’s all going and I miss you all!

Jaa mata nee!

Just for reference, the first picture is of a small temple I came upon in Kawagoe. The second is of the 500 Buddhist statues in Kitain, the third is of a candy display in Kawagoe, and the fourth is one of the lakes in Hibiya Park.