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| Fun at the beach! |
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| Me and Diane out to dinner! |
Time just keeps getting away from me, and I must confess, updating my blog is always on my "to do" list. As you may have noticed, somehow, some way, it always gets pushed to the next days list. I am going to try and remedy this, though, I promise! Part of my excuse is that I've had visitors here and been out and about exploring, so once my stream of visitors slow down, I'm sure I'll have much more time to post! :)
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| Standing up at our table! |
Speaking of visitors, its been a great month and awesome for my friends to see my life here, along with getting to do all of the touristy stuff straight away and learn as much about the culture as possible! My friend Diane was broken into the Japanese culture straight away, as our first night out for dinner with some of my colleagues, we arrived at the restaurant and we had to take off our shoes and sit down on the floor! It made for a fun experience here for sure, and always followed by some great food.
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| Trying to be like Buddha! |
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| One of the shrines |
On one of my days off, Diane and I decided to explore Kamakura, a small city just under an hour south of Tokyo that is sometimes called the Kyoto of Eastern Japan. It has many temples and shrines, and even the second tallest buddha in Japan, almost 45 feet tall (13.35 m)! It was built in 1252 and definitely a sight to see. We visited a handful of other shrines there which are all very impressive, and its definitely a place I would like to go back to and explore some more. We were pleasantly surprised that Kamakura had a beach and of course made our way down there and spent some time walking in the water...which was SO warm! Considering the heat we have had here, it didn’t surprise me at all, and I’ve made note...next time I head to Kamakura in the heat, I need to bring along my bathing suit! One thing I've learned to appreciate about the Japanese is their plastic food presentation outside of restaurants. At first I found it silly, but considering the fact that many times now, when no English menus are available, the waiter or waitress often leads me to outside so that I can point to what I want. They put GREAT detail in the plastic food displays and it really looks real. Everything I've ordered off of the "plastic menu" so far comes out looking darn near exactly what I pointed to! This doesn't surprise me at all, considering the fact that the Japanese are very articulate, and have come to really appreciate them having the plastic food displays EVERYWHERE!
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| Plastic Food! |
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| A real Geisha |
Going to Disney was one of things on Diane's list of things to do and since I love Disney as well, I was gladly willing to go! They have two Disney Parks here, Disneyland Tokyo and Tokyo Disney Seas, and we opted for Tokyo Disney Seas, "Where Adventure and Imagination Set Sail." It made for a fun day, with many different themed ports in the park. I felt back in Europe as I walked through Venice in the Mediterranean Port, Morocco as we wandered through Arabian Coast, and on my East Coast road trip this summer in the American Waterfront which focuses on New York and Cape Cod. I felt the most at Disney through Mermaid Lagoon, which has an "Under the Sea" playground with rides, etc that was incredible! I thought there would be much more of an Asian flare at Disney, but it felt very American, and everything was in both Japanese and English. From being at the park for the day, I came to the conclusion about two things: 1. The Japanese like to match
2. They go all out when it comes to anything
Everywhere I turned, there were groups of people who either had on matching tops, or hats, or full outfits! I guess it makes it easy to find your group, and it was quite the norm there! Many people were all decked out in Disney gear, and let me tell you something, these people don't skimp. More people than not had on at least some Mickey ears and some people had as much Disney paraphernalia on as possible. They sported everything quite proudly, and the big souvenir popcorn holder that goes around your neck was a bit hit as well. I guess that's their idea of a full Disney experience! 
I've now coached two volleyball games with my middle school girls and we are 2-0! We have another two games this coming week and they are such eager kids who want to learn as much as possible, so it makes it fun to coach. I think my highlight of the week with them actually took place off the court. We were riding public transport back to our school from an away game. As a general rule, you line up on the platform at the marked spots where the train doors will be, of course without pushing or shoving, to reduce the time that the train spends at each stop. Once on the train, people are quiet on and if its around rush hour, don't expect much personal space at all. There really are "people pushers," men in white gloves who push people into the subway cars if need be. There is no eating or talking on cell phones, however, if you want to be like the Japanese, you either need to be on your phone texting the whole ride or sleeping if you are lucky enough to get a seat. You have to make sure to suddenly wake up right before your stop, because that's what they do! I'm trying to paint the typical picture here so you can envision a bunch of middle school girls jumping on the metro, psyched up from a win, and hanging out with their coach outside of the gym. When we got on the train, it was towards the end of rush hour, but still quite busy, standing room only. The girls were chattering away with each other, asking me tons of questions about everything under the sun, and just being kids, oblivious to the quietness of those around them. At one point, I wasn't sure if I should try to quiet them down or let them continue on. I contemplated it while observing the others around us to see if they seemed annoyed (they didn't), along with making eye contact with the other chaperone, a native Japanese mother. When she smiled and nodded and non-verbally communicated that the girls were perfectly okay, I just enjoyed their company. It turned out being a great 35 minute commute with a lot of laughter and getting to know the girls off the court, what I love most about coaching. I really do feel so blessed that God has given me the opportunity to touch lives and be a role model for kids, and feel completely in my calling of life. What a great place to be! :)
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| Me and 3 other teachers |
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| Me Diane in the Pacific! |
Going to Disney was one of things on Diane's list of things to do and since I love Disney as well, I was gladly willing to go! They have two Disney Parks here, Disneyland Tokyo and Tokyo Disney Seas, and we opted for Tokyo Disney Seas, "Where Adventure and Imagination Set Sail." It made for a fun day, with many different themed ports in the park. I felt back in Europe as I walked through Venice in the Mediterranean Port, Morocco as we wandered through Arabian Coast, and on my East Coast road trip this summer in the American Waterfront which focuses on New York and Cape Cod. I felt the most at Disney through Mermaid Lagoon, which has an "Under the Sea" playground with rides, etc that was incredible! I thought there would be much more of an Asian flare at Disney, but it felt very American, and everything was in both Japanese and English. From being at the park for the day, I came to the conclusion about two things: 
Everywhere I turned, there were groups of people who either had on matching tops, or hats, or full outfits! I guess it makes it easy to find your group, and it was quite the norm there! Many people were all decked out in Disney gear, and let me tell you something, these people don't skimp. More people than not had on at least some Mickey ears and some people had as much Disney paraphernalia on as possible. They sported everything quite proudly, and the big souvenir popcorn holder that goes around your neck was a bit hit as well. I guess that's their idea of a full Disney experience! 
I've now coached two volleyball games with my middle school girls and we are 2-0! We have another two games this coming week and they are such eager kids who want to learn as much as possible, so it makes it fun to coach. I think my highlight of the week with them actually took place off the court. We were riding public transport back to our school from an away game. As a general rule, you line up on the platform at the marked spots where the train doors will be, of course without pushing or shoving, to reduce the time that the train spends at each stop. Once on the train, people are quiet on and if its around rush hour, don't expect much personal space at all. There really are "people pushers," men in white gloves who push people into the subway cars if need be. There is no eating or talking on cell phones, however, if you want to be like the Japanese, you either need to be on your phone texting the whole ride or sleeping if you are lucky enough to get a seat. You have to make sure to suddenly wake up right before your stop, because that's what they do! I'm trying to paint the typical picture here so you can envision a bunch of middle school girls jumping on the metro, psyched up from a win, and hanging out with their coach outside of the gym. When we got on the train, it was towards the end of rush hour, but still quite busy, standing room only. The girls were chattering away with each other, asking me tons of questions about everything under the sun, and just being kids, oblivious to the quietness of those around them. At one point, I wasn't sure if I should try to quiet them down or let them continue on. I contemplated it while observing the others around us to see if they seemed annoyed (they didn't), along with making eye contact with the other chaperone, a native Japanese mother. When she smiled and nodded and non-verbally communicated that the girls were perfectly okay, I just enjoyed their company. It turned out being a great 35 minute commute with a lot of laughter and getting to know the girls off the court, what I love most about coaching. I really do feel so blessed that God has given me the opportunity to touch lives and be a role model for kids, and feel completely in my calling of life. What a great place to be! :) 
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