Ohayo. Ohayo. New Jersey.

I just got back from a trip to Tokyo for my birthday.  All I can say is that Tokyo is one hell of a huge city.  Tokyo’s actually more of a conglomerate of miniature cities with no singular downtown area, all connected by a web of crazy public transportation.  There’s a gajillion (for reals) different subway/train/bus lines all across the city.  A friend of mine said that he could just spend hours on the Yamanote Line (runs in a circle throughout the city) and just watch the different crowds get on and off as it clips through Tokyo’s many neighborhoods.  A great idea for my next trip.  In Tokyo, I stayed with a friend from Seattle who is a JET in Nagano.  He introduced me to the quirky Shimo Kitazawa neighborhood.  It has my new favorite spot in Tokyo…this great little French café that serves good wine, which I had been hurting for since coming here!  Another little gem in Tokyo is the Omotesando area, home to many high fashion boutiques and fun cafes, and an Aveda store (!).  It has a beautiful avenue lined by gorgeous trees.  This, coupled with the crazy Ralph Lauren White House-esque store and sleek Japanese architecture, makes Omote-ando visually tantalizing (Lonely Planet, eat your heart out).  While in Tokyo, we mostly neighborhood-hopped between Asakusa, Roppongi, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya, and Ueno.  We went to parks, saw shrines, and a Picasso exhibit.  I was there for five days, and probably could have tacked on another couple just to get an even more engaging fix on the city.  It’s big! 

Shibuya

I did have another food adventure.  There was this restaurant we had walked by several times and it always smelled so good.  I couldn’t figure out the name of the restaurant but saw “dozeu” (どぜう) printed on one of the entry banners…probably just meant “welcome” or something to that effect.  So one morning, we decided to take a gambit and check it out.  First thing I noticed was the throng of Japanese people waiting for a seat…usually a good sign.  As we were being seated, I noticed that everyone had these little hot pots at their tables.  I looked in and was surprised to find dozens of little amphibious looking fish roasting in this little pan.  Hmm…this can’t be the only thing they served, right?  Well, actually, yes it is.  They have variations on it though!  You can get them in a soupy egg omelet dish as well.  The place seemed really popular so we went ahead and ordered.  It wasn’t that bad.  I just had to pull a mind over matter to not think about the fact that I was eating these little fishies whole…bones, organs, and all.  Yum.  I also ordered some tofu they had made there in the old fashioned style.  Turns out that I hate old fashioned tofu.  I did some research later and found out that “dozeu” was the name of the fish we were eating.  Ah…now it all comes together.   

dozeu, dozo...

On my birthday, we took a 30 minute train over to neighboring Yokohama.  I wanted to go here specifically for its Chinatown.  Yokohama has the largest concentration of Chinese in Japan, thus the best Chinatown.  The weather turned out to be pretty gloomy, so we didn’t get the chance to explore the city as much as I had wanted.  Before we made our way to Chinatown, I caught wind that there was a Cezanne exhibit in the main museum.  What luck!  First Picasso, and then Cezanne.  I found it to be quite fitting.  In spite of the rain, we made our way over to Chinatown and explored the shops.  We stumbled into this little bar that I absolutely loved.  The bartender was an older lady, had to be around 60-ish, and happened to speak pretty good English.  She played us some Beatles and told us a little history about the bar, all while putting some curlers in her hair.  Awesome!  My friend took me out to what is supposedly the best Chinese restaurant, and the best part was that we were the only foreigners there (that’s how you know it’s good).  It was good to hear some somewhat familiar Chinese again, but boy am I rusty!

 All in all I had a great time in Tokyo.  The last time I was there, I was jet lagged out of my mind and could barely tell ramen from udon.  This time around, I had my wits about me and a decent grasp of the language.  Still, it’s a bit big for my tastes (you can milk the understatement from that!), but a pretty awesome place to visit.  Once I was able to get around on the metro/trains on my own, it felt like quite the accomplishment.  Probably the best way to get a grasp of the immense population is to take the metro to Shibuya during rush hour.  The subway is so crowded the attendants push people on and you’re cheek is pressed up against the glass door.  Then go out of the station to the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world.  You can watch as the crowds start to line up on the five sides waiting for that green light.  Once it hits, pandemonium ensues.  And this repeats every five minutes, just as busy each time.  Certainly not recommended for those who hate crowds.

He’s my new car.  He’s a healthy 9 years old and a little blue Toyota fashioned to look a little bit like a Mini, but he does fine without the pretention.  We’ll be zipping around Hokkaido together.  Vroom. 

I’ve been making some major headway with my high school students over the last couple of weeks.  At the suggestion of one of my students, I started an email address specifically for them to email me.  I know many of them are really self-conscious of their English abilities, so the email would give them an alternate avenue to practice their English skills.  Several students have emailed me and I think it’s a hit!  If anything, they really appreciated the gesture as they were all really excited when I announced it in class.  I’ve also began eating lunch with them.  Not only is it much more entertaining than eating alone in the teacher’s lounge, but it has given me a good opportunity to chat with them and get to know them on a level outside the classroom.  We’ve discussed movies, travelling, and music.

Speaking of music, one of the students insists on teaching me how to play the guitar, so long as I bring my viola in sometime for a small concert.  I also mentioned that this one Japanese band had caught my interest, Spitz.  He said that he knew how to play a couple of their songs and would teach me on the guitar.  Awesome.  Speaking of Spitz, another of my JET friends had suggested that I check them out and learn the lyrics to one of their songs as a way to hammer down the Japanese accent.  I watched several of their videos thanks to Youtube and it turns out that they’re pretty great.  Apparently they’ve been around for over 20 years.  I think of them almost like a Japanese U2, although I don’t think they’re as prolific.  I mentioned them at my last eikaiwa and one of the members freaked out with excitement.  She had just seen them in concert the previous weekend and her son has been obsessed with the band when they first started back in the late 80’s.  Here’s one of my favorite songs by the band: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B4DJAQHxVI

I’ve been trying to watch more and more Japanese music videos and familiarize myself with more Japanese bands, mainly to use as a talking point with my students.  Since I don’t have a tv at the moment, this is my best pop culture avenue.  Talking with the students, they’ve been pretty excited that I know a couple bands and songs.  Next I need to learn how to play and sing a song so I can really wow them.