Picking up Mom

Well, I am sitting in the internet kiosk room thing at Narita international airport in Tokyo. I'm waiting for my mom to arrive. Will she arrive? haha, I only say that because I can't be sure if she made her transfer in Chicago, if she is on the right plane, etc. We have no way to contact each other until she comes out of the arrivals gate.

Anyways, I should have lots of interesting posts about our time together. I am really looking forward to showing her around Japan! Right now though my head kind of hurts, but I think it's because of a slight anxiety about meeting my mom, I haven't seen her, or anyone else from my home town for that matter in over 4 months(except Mr. and Mrs. Taguchi who moved back to Japan from my home town after I came here by chance). Anyways, we have a long day of trains ahead of us to get back into Tokyo and get to Sakura Hostel where we'll spend the night before heading back to Gunma tommorow.

From the countryside in Gunma..

Hello everyone, I am still alive. I just happen to live in the middle of nowhere at the moment and thus have no internet access except at the internet cafe or manga cafe.

Anhyways, it seems like I found a place to move to in Isesaki which is about a 5 minute walk from the train station there and thus I can commute to Tokyo or Ota where Miho lives rather easily (however the train to Tokyo takes about 2 hours, but its really cheap, about 15 dollars if you convert from yen)

My mom is comming in just a week or so, so I`m hoping that there are no snags in her travels. It also looks like maybe I will move to my new apartment before she arrives. I am really looking forward to touring her around Tokyo and generally spending time with her. I`ve also started a second job part time just on saturdays teaching English at a school called COSMO. The pay is decent and its a lot of fun. In fact, I think its very similar to GenkiJACS except they teach english instead of japanese. ^.^;

I have been havig a hard time adjusting to my other job though - the kindergarten teaching job - it is so not teaching actually its just a really really giant babysitting job. At least this is how it feels most of the time. Every once and a while though I really like it. Most of the time though I just feel overwhelmed.

*NOTE: This is my second post in one day, so make sure you read my other post (below this one) about my adventure today!
Anyways, I've been hearing this song a lot everywhere here as it's racing to the top of the charts here in Japan. For some reason I like it even though it's not really my type of music. The first time I saw this music video was actually on the side of one of the buildings at Shibuya Crossing (see picture):

The singer is Utada Hikari - the same singer that sings one of the theme songs for Hana Yori Dango season 2 (mom you know the song, it starts with the word arigatou), anyways this song called Heart Station took a minute for me to recognize when I found it on youtube, but at about 1:05 it changes pace and I immediate recognized it. Give it a listen, maybe you'll like it, maybe you wont:
A little note on the translation that is in the video: The one line she says at about 3:29 in the video is himitu no herutsu which can be translated in 2 ways actually and I think it's a play on words. The translator put "Secret Frequency" because they took Herutsu to mean "Hz" as in Hertz - this japanese word is borrowed from english, but Herutsu can also mean a word borrowed from German meaning Herz which means Heart.. SO.. it could be interpretted as Secret Heart OR Secret Station/frequency which is a really good play of words because the song is called Heart Station hehe.. I have to admit I'm proud to have figured that out! haha. Enjoy the song:

Kamakura

Well, today Akemi-san and her friend Junko-san took me to Kamakura - a small town outside of Tokyo that she described as a "mini kyoto" because of its many many ancient temples and shrines and extremely traditional Japanese culture. I must say that it was absolutely wonderful and enchanting. The entire feeling of the place was like I was back in time, not to mention I sincerely enjoyed the pleasant company of Akemi and her friend Junko.
Right: I took this picture for my Mom, this tree was just absolutely amazing looking, the picture doesn't do it justice but my mom would love it!


I was extremely lucky though, as I had the chance to observe a Japanese wedding ceremony - 2 of them in fact - taking place at one of the shrines. Akemi said today is a "good luck" day on the Japanese calender - some days are bad luck, some normal, and some good, today is a good one, so many people may choose to get married today.

Anyways, I also bought an Omikuji kind of a fortune, you pay 100 yen, shake a small barrel, and a stick comes out that determines which fortune you get. Mine was a good one (I've improved, until now I always get so-so or even bad ones - but no fear because if they're not good you just tie them to the tree or to the rope and the bad luck is said to be taken away by the wind - see image below)


I finally have put together another video outlining todays events including a full bit about the wedding that I really really felt moved by, please watch it:


This is also my second last day staying at the Taguchi's house as I'm moving to Gunma from tomorrow night. They have been amazingly wonderful to me and I really hope I can make it up somehow some day! Anyways, I had a really great day today and it was nice to feel enchanted about being in Japan again. The novelty of this trip was slightly rekindled today to say the least. ^.^ Hope you all enjoy the video (see above)

I have been extremely busy lately trying to get everything sorted out in terms of my job and where I will live. Things are still rather up-in-the-air right now. I actually spent a day at ICS on Saturday with a class that I might be soon taking over by myself. I think it will be ok, but the problem is that ICS is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so the closest place I found I could live in is like 5km away. And for some reason there is no train station or anything like that in Tamamura, so going to Tokyo or even to neighboring Oota to visit Miho would be difficult.

Anyways, Miho suggested also looking at another school called OES that has a school right next to oota station (which would mean I could easily go to anywhere in the Tokyo area). So on Tuesday I had an interview and I think it went well, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Anyways, between all the craziness, I have tried to keep enjoying myself.. I went to Shibuya and Asakusa (areas of Tokyo) a couple times. I bought a souvenir in Asakusa, and grabbed a picture of one of the weird stores in Shibuya (see below).


I also have some photos from my last few days at the dorm that I want to upload to here. We ate french style crepe. I really miss Fukuoka lately. *la sigh*


A group shot of a bunch of people at Tomo dorm in Fukuoka. I'm the nerdy white guy in the glasses