Teacher's Pet

As many of you know, I am an English teacher over here for an English Speaking Society (ESS). I have taught two lessons so far, and the students are great. They really want to learn, so it makes teaching easy.

Anyway, when I arrived for my second week of teaching I found 3 of these waiting for me. She picked them at her parents' house and thought I might like to try them.

It is a persimmon. I had no idea how to eat it, so we had a discussion on the proper way to eat it in one of my classes. Apparently, you are supposed to peel it and eat it like an apple. I just cut them open though and eat them like slices.

They aren't bad. Here in Japan a lot of people have persimmon trees. While walking to school I often see crows swoop down and pick them off trees. I was not sure if humans were supposed to eat them. But, we can and they are pretty tasty.

Meeting Hiroshi

So, for almost a year now, I have had a pen pal named Hiroshi (above) here in Tokyo. Hiroshi is studying to be a Japanese teacher to non-native speakers. We have been exchanging emails and correcting each other's grammar. He has been a big help. I like to try out new grammar I learn on him to make sure I am using it properly.

Anyway, when he found out I was coming to Tokyo, he asked if he and his friend could show me around. So we met at Shinjuku Station, and from there, decided to go to Odaiba!

Odaiba is near the bay, so there are a lot of bridges. It also is home to Palette Town and Venus Port. Those are amusement parks, where you pay for each ride rather than admission itself (which is awesome).

Huh!? How did I end up in New York? There was a miniature version of the stature near the board walk. Hide (hee-day), Hiroshi's friend, gave Hiroshi a history lesson about the statue. Apparently, he did not know it was a gift from France.

On the board walk we saw this

Such a sad wittle bear, so I givesed him a hug.

The bears are called solar bears. They are sad about global warming. Is it wrong to give them a hug, then? Too warm perhaps?

After the boardwalk we went here:

Fuji Television's headquarters. It is home to Quiz Hexagon II (and many other tv shows like Tokyo Dogs, a cop drama, and One Piece, an anime). Inside the dome they had a tribute to Quiz Hexagon II, so we went up to see it. From the dome you can get a pretty good view of Tokyo on a clear day, but unfortunately, I cannot control the weather (yet).

This is Yaguchi. She is a former member of Morning Musume (you know, when I went to LA). She is on the show. She does pretty good, especially since she has had only a high school education. Other members on the show have college degrees and still don't get that many of the answers.
Here is me with some of the dresses PABO wears. PABO is part of the Hexagon family. Before Tsuji joined, Satoda (part of the group) was pronounced "BAKA" of the show.
Here is the dome head on. I wonder if it is safe up here during an earthquake?...

The Hexagon Family in cartoon form! (thank you Kevin A. for introducing me to the show. I got you a gift).

After visiting the tv headquarters, we went to Venus port and ate yakiniku. It was so good. Thin slices of meat, marinated, and then cooked right at the table. Oh it is making me hungry now.

After lunch, we took a boat ride to Asakusa (say it 10 times really fast. It is fun).

Asakusa has a pretty famous shrine (Shinto) . It is often crowded on the weekends, but thanks to the rain, it was not too bad. However because of the rain, we were not able to go to Ueno Park. Well we could have, but the rain was getting stronger. So after a quick stop in Akiba, Hide and Hiroshi made sure I got safely back to Shinjuku station.

I had a lot of fun. Thank you Hiroshi and Hide! I hope you had fun too!

Oh my! has it been awhile

Hello all!

I have done a lot in the last month. Below are a few pictures.

I won the pair to HANGRY whose name happens to be ANGRY. I some how managed get an octopus as well. At one of the welcome parties, another exchange student put it on my head and told me it suited me. I became known as the strange foreigner which of course made it so they had to have their picture taken with me. It was fun. Plus the octopus is pretty cute. I know I will be remembered at least.

I went to Sanrio Pureland (Hello Kittyland as I like to call it). I am a bit old for it, but it was filled with cuteness.

You can't see it well, but Tsuji-chan can be seen here. She also loves cute things. If you don't know who Tsuji-chan is, I will forgive you, but she is pretty well know here for being stupid. She is the "BAKA" of a quiz game show, and therefore, gives hilarious answers. I love it. I talking about questions I can answer! But she is also very adorable. I love it!

Let's see, what else? Oh I went to a natural disaster simulator. I got to experience a "shindo" 7 earthquake. Here they give out the vibration measurement (the shindo scale) and the magnitude. The shindo scale ranges from 0 to 7. So 7 is the strongest earthquake. Basically buildings fall and roads crack at 7. It was 'fun' I guess. We had to escape a smoke maze and put out a fire too. We got graded on how we responded to each disaster. I got all A's. I am now prepared for earthquakes and fires! Hurray!