Robin’s blog

Whistle While You Work, 7/16

nobody@vox.com(Robin) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:42:10 -0700

This day is Thursday. This was to have been the day for the Asahigaoka baseball team to play in the big tournament, but rain earlier in the week caused this game to be postponed until tomorrow, Friday. This day, Thursday, would have been the perfect day to see the team play in their big game, because the all school festival begins tomorrow and goes through Saturday. The entire school, both students and teachers, has been working tirelessly for weeks, if not months, to prepare for this annual festival. If only the baseball game could have been played today, the entire school could have turned out to see the team play and everyone could have been free to participate in the festival on Friday and Saturday. Alas, it was not meant to be. It is a disappointment for the students because they won’t be able to cheer on the baseball team and for the baseball team, as they will have to miss a part of the big festival.

When Nobuyo and I arrive at school today, there is a beehive of activity already. I set up in the teacher’s computer room. Takase Sensei saved my life earlier in the week by changing the settings on my computer to allow me access to the internet while at school, enabling me to work on uploading my photos to my blog library and to post entries to my blog. Takase Sensei’s generosity and helpfulness are gestures I will never be able to adequately thank him for, no matter how hard I might try. This internet access has allowed me to stay current with the hundreds of photos I take and thousands of words I write and thoughts I try to manage. If only there could be a more fitting phrase than “Thank you” I would most surely use it.

With a bit of work done, I decide to just head out into the hallways and see where my footsteps take me. Outside in the open courtyard, I can see through the windows that there are entire classes putting the polishing touches on their dance routines to be performed tomorrow. All this activity is irresistable and I go outside for a closer look and to hear some of the music they will be dancing to. The music seems to run the gamut. I hear Japanese and American pop music and more traditional Japanese music. These students are creative and talented and they have put their full hearts and efforts into their routines. I can hardly wait to see their actual performances on stage tomorrow. There is even a group of boys practicing a complicated jump rope routine that includes bouncing basketballs while jumping rope and doing push-ups while jumping rope. For those classes not practicing routines in the courtyard outside, there are groups of students in the hallways and classrooms working in perfect harmony on the décor of their classes in preparation for the two days of festivities. It is heartwarming for me to see our American students working and dancing and laughing right alongside the Japanese students to achieve a common goal. These Japanese students have opened their arms and their hearts to us and we Americans have opened ours to them. It feels right and it feels good.

While Bill and Tiffany and CJ practice their dances, I see Greer and Akane working on the haunted ghost house their class is sponsoring. There are “bloody” handprints everywhere and ominous messages are written on newsprint and black plastic is draped to form darkened hallways in the classroom. Kiyo tells me there are some girls working on this haunted house who are so frightened just working on preparing the house that they are in tears. This should be a very frightening house!

Other classrooms are transformed into lounges and stores and cafes selling everything from cotton candy to cake sticks. The themes are incredibly creative and the amount of work that goes into each classroom requires teamwork and diligence. I am struck by the way these students work in such perfect harmony to reach their common goals and I pause to be thankful our students are here to be embraced by these Japanese students and to be so lovingly and completely made a part of the monumental effort. My heart is full to the brim.

I wonder out loud, with all this activity, how in the world the work would have all gotten done if the baseball team had played and the school had been emptied out to attend the game. I know, though, that for these particular determined students, they would have pulled it off. There is enough single-minded focus and sheer determination to get anything done at Asahigaoka High School.

At three o’clock the principal, Kouchou Sensei, would like to take me and Cathy for a coffee and pastry. We leave promptly at three and begin our brisk walk down the hill and away from school into the surrounding neighborhood to the lovely little Moulin de la Galette, a short walk away. The walk through the neighborhood affords me the opportunity to see things as only a walk will allow. There are sweet little gardens and courtyards, old traditional Japanese houses and new modern buildings. It is sunny and cool and perfect for walking. Once at the café we enter and order our coffees and pastries. I chose a flaky yuzu sweet, because yuzu is a Japanese citrus fruit that I love and you can’t just find that easily back home. There is a distinct European feel in this lovely little shop and it is a place I could easily see myself lingering for a long time, and visiting often, if I lived in this neighborhood. We go to the very back of the café to sit. The entire back of the shop is a wall of glass, floor to ceiling, at least one story off the ground. It gives me the feeling of being in a treehouse, because there is a lush stand of tall, cool trees growing high and right up to the wall of windows. This place and Kouchou Sensei’s company are a lovely repast and we all sit and chat and learn a bit more about each other. Time stood still for a bit.

Back at school, there is still much hustling and bustling. I’m doing more exploring and I’m anxious to see more of the festival preparations. It seems I am never quite sure where I am in this big, wonderful school, so I am always surprised to find myself in a place I’ve never seen before. This particular time, I see a door at the end of a hall and catch a glimpse of Greer’s curls. I decide to investigate and I am richly rewarded.

Inside the door at the end of the hall, I see the chorus assembled for rehearsal on the far end of the room, their director at his podium and Greer sitting at a desk to watch. Greer’s two talented and precious partners, Akane and Michiko, are both members of the chorus and I sit with Greer to witness this rehearsal. The pianist begins. All eyes are focused on the director. I am not prepared for the power and real majesty of the voices when they come. Although I don’t know what the words of these singers mean, their talent and heart and their faces so earnestly focused on their director and the quality and perfect harmony of their sound has touched me. My mouth literally drops open and I bring my hands instinctively to my face and tears roll down my cheeks. I forget to breathe. I am thankful to be in this place with these fine students and their kind teacher and I am grateful for the blessing of the sheer and unmistakable power of music to evoke such emotion.

Nobuyo and I eventually go home and find Mama Gon has prepared another magnificent feast for us! There is bounty of the sea on almost every dish. One plate is heaped with squid and whole pinky, heads on shrimp! There is another plate of tomatoes and broccoli and cheese. There is a steaming bowl with rich red tomato-ey broth and enormous chunks of chicken and vegetables and fresh chopped parsley on top to complete the dish. There is rice. Another bowl is filled with fresh steamed soy bean sprouts, very healthy! I sit down with these generous, lovely people and after we give thanks and pause to acknowledge our good food and good fortune with our “itadakemasu” we all begin to enjoy the pleasure of each other’s company and this fine and delicious food that has been so lovingly prepared for us. I have come to see Nobuyo’s parents as a loving team when I see them together. Nobuyo’s father, whom her mother calls “Yo chan” (Nobuyo is “No chan”) never fails to leave the table to don his apron and begin cleaning up after dinner while her mother, self proclaimed “Mama gon” lingers at the table with Nobuyo and me. It is a pleasure to watch this family and to witness the respect and affection they have for each other and I feel their love. I so enjoy watching the aproned Chibas in the kitchen together and referred to them as “Team Chiba” which resulted in laughter all around.

Yo chan has brought us cake tonight, beautiful individual slices of light, whipped cream layer cake with peaches and kiwis in the middle and a strawberry on top. We find we have all somehow saved room to thoroughly enjoy this treat. Once dinner is over, the day has caught up with us and it’s time to head upstairs to bed, but not without the bottle of cold mugi cha that Mama Gon hands me every night on my way upstairs. I am convinced it is one of the reasons I sleep so well, but the main reason for my sweet dreams is a feeling of complete and total contentedness from being in this spectacularly lovely place with these lovely and giving people whose kind spirits make us all want to be more like them.

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Goodbye Tamanoyu Hotel and Noboribetsu, 7/15

nobody@vox.com(Robin) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:06:07 -0700

I set my alarm to wake up for a shower because I didn’t trust myself in this comfy futon with its freshly laundered pressed linens to wake on my own. It is raining and gray ourside, the mountains are shrouded in foggy, hanging clouds. I go down to the shower room to find 3 Japanese ladies in yukata in the outer room, drying their hair after their morning bath. Now I have it on my own. After my shower I look out to see the milky bath being peppered by rain and it is irresistible. The bath is warm, the rain on my head cool and this is heaven. The Japanese often murmur “Gokuraku, Gokuraku” while in the bath and that means bliss and this is bliss.

Breakfast in the dining room is another sensation for the eyes and tastebuds! Presented in the lovely Japanese way, there was sashimi, pickled vegetables, seaweed salads and green salad, an onsen egg poached in a bowl and meant to be eaten in one bite, soup with small and delicate little black shelled mussels, and my daily bowl of rice with natto. This breakfast is delicious and satisfying.

After breakfast we all get together in the lobby at 8:30 for a mochi making demonstration by the hotel staff, but this is more than a demonstration, as we get to actually pound away at the mochi to participate in the process. The large drum shaped wooden bowl with the concave top held the mochi ingredients and it would be our jobs to take turns with the large wooden mallet and pound away on these ingredients, turning them into a gummy glob. One by one, we were to pound ten times each, as the standing staff member coached and encouraged us with cheers and the kneeling yukata clad woman turned the product in the bowl. The funny part is that the comical coach is counting to ten and when he gets to about eight, he starts over with three, effectively making our turn pounding into more like twenty pounds, which we all thought was hysterically funny. Once our mochi was “done” it was taken to a counter and pinched off into individual pieces and rolled in a sweet soy powder and plated for us to enjoy. This is the most delicious mochi I have ever eaten and it is still warm from our pounding when it was served. We all eat our fill and the rest is packaged for us to take with us.

Our bags are loaded onto the bus and we are escorted one by one by this friendly staff to the bus with umbrellas. Once we’re all on the bus, it pulls away from the hotel and I look back to see the staff all waving and bowing to us in the rain.

We take the expressway back instead of the scenic route we’d taken to get to the onsen hotel. We make a stop at a large rest stop, complete with convenience/souvenir shop, the clean bathrooms we are used to by now, and coffee vending machines offering more combinations of different types of coffees than I could ever have imagined. It seems we are back in the city of Sapporo before we know it.

Our next stop is the Winter Sports Park, Okura, which turns out to be very close to Asahigaoka High School. The bus parks and we cross the street to the long ride up the steep, tubed escalator that delivers us to the park. This park is the site of the Winter Olympic ski jump competition and we are fortunate today, because the ski team is practicing their jumps. We all stop for photos at the base of the jump and stand awestruck as we watch jumper after jumper whiz down the jump and fly, airborne, for what seems like forever before they land perfectly at the bottom. I am amazed at how extraordinarily dangerous this sport is and it looks even more dangerous on the snow free green artificial turf. It looks like it would be somehow more dangerous should someone land wrong without the benefit of a cushion of snow.

Nobuyo gives each of us a ticket and we hop onto the ski lift to the top of the jump. At the top, the views of the city of Sapporo, all misty and grey, are glorious. Up high like this, we also have a view of the skiers as they slide over to the perch and then let go to zoom down the slope. I wonder how in the world they ever get the nerve to let go and what would happen if they lost their concentration. It’s hard to tear ourselves away from watching the spectacle of these skiers. After a while, we tear ourselves away and board the lifts for the trip back down to the base.

Now it’s time to visit the Winter Sports Museum and it is filled with memorabilia, photographs and displays. More than that, there are lots of virtual events for us to try and we try our hands at ski jumping, speed skating, figure skating and cross country skiing, to mention a few. We all have a great time trying these events for ourselves.

We are summoned for lunch and all head outside to enter another building for a special lunch the school has planned for us. The restaurant is lovely and we are seated at four top tables with a large griddle in the middle. At each place we find the apron we are to put on and plates of sliced raw lamb and vegetables, which we are to cook on the griddle, and bowls of rice and soup. There is a piece of fat that we grease the griddle with first and then we begin cooking. This tabletop cooking is called yakiniku and we all enjoy ourselves immensely as we savor each delicious bite.

It seems the school is right around the corner from the Winter Park and it isn’t long before we are back to school. It’s time to wrap up the school day and we talk about the next day. Tomorrow, Thursday, was originally scheduled to be a day when the entire student body went to see their baseball participate in the tournament, but rain has delayed the previous games, so this game will be played during one of the festival days and our students won’t be able to watch their team. Instead, the next day, Thursday, will be a work day at school and students will practice their dance routines and finish decorating their classrooms.

When Nobuyo and I finally leave the school, I look over to see a double rainbow peeking through the gray clouds. By the time I get my camera, I only see one rainbow and I shoot it anyway. What a meaningful end to this day and to this visit to Noboribetsu.

Mama Gon, Nobuyo’s mother, has another lovely and delicious dinner ready for us when we walk in the door and we sit and feast on the dinner that is centered around peppers stuffed with ground meat and vegetables. I had brought some of our hotel’s little manju cakes back to the family as a gift and Yochan, Nobuyo’s father, poses with the box of manju.

This has been the perfect end to the perfect day, and I sit on my floor chair with my laptop on my lap to write about it, but wake up in this sitting position to realize I had almost instantly fallen asleep. I am not meant to write tonight and I ease into the futon that has been prepared and fall instantly asleep again with a heart full of gratitude and joy.

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Splish Splash We Are Taking A Hot Springs Bath, or Welcome to the Hotel Tamanoyu 7/14

nobody@vox.com(Robin) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:09:27 -0700

The lovely futon in my room proves comfortable beyond belief and I wake up to see the daylight peeking through my curtains and I am just sure I have slept through my 5:30 alarm clock, or that I haven’t set it properly. That is not the case as I remember where I am. I am in the “Land of the Rising Sun,” the early rising sun. I think it is officially daylight at a little after 4:00AM, and as it turns out, I still have almost another hour to sleep, so I turn back over until I hear my alarm. Another breakfast fit for a queen, that will be our joke this week, is awaiting me after my shower and we are off for another day of adventure with our Sapporo friends. Today will be a short day at school, because we will leave on a chartered bus after second period for Noboribetsu and the onsen, or Japanese hot springs bath, at Tamanoyu Hotel.

071411CalliRoom

After our customary 8:25 meeting of all exchange students in the call room, our American students split off for a class in calligraphy. We are all very excited to be able to try this for ourselves, as we have been admiring the work of the Japanese students.

071405CalliDemo

We are taken to the calligraphy classroom and greeted by the smiling teacher who proceeds to school us in the technique of this beautiful art form. We are shown several characters and the teacher patiently and slowly demonstrates how each character is drawn. Afterwards, our students may choose one to try.

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We are each seated at a station with a felt pad, metal weights, a heavy (stone?) ink container and plenty of practice paper. We find out quickly how difficult it is to achieve a lovely character as we try for ourselves.

071407MarahCalli

The teacher floats around to each of us, encouraging and complimenting all along the way.

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After we practice our characters as many times as we’d like on the practice paper, we are given three white boards trimmed in gold to “paint” our characters on so that we may take home a lovely souvenir of this lesson. The pressure is on to do well on these lovely boards and I believe most are satisfied with the results under the tutelage of this gracious teacher.

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071420MyBigBrush

When we’ve completed our three boards, we are taken to the back of the room where our calligraphy sensei demonstrates on a large paper how to draw characters with a huge, mop-like brush. She loads the brush with more ink than you can believe and draws the characters for us first before giving each of us a go. I love these large, chunky characters, as they have a very organic look, more rustic and the result is wonderful. We are all very pleased to have been lucky enough to try this calligraphy for ourselves and to have such nice examples to take home to our families.

Soon we are summoned to the front of the school where our chartered bus and professional bus driver await. We must say our thank yous and goodbyes to this gentle calligraphy teacher and be on our way to our exciting adventure at the Japanese hot spring bath, the onsen, in Noboribetsu.

071421LeavingToOnsen

Once downstairs, we pose together for the obligatory photo and board the bus where the students sit two by two in seats from the back of the bus to a third of the way to the front of the 40 passenger bus. Of course, the adults, Tomomi, Nobuyo, Cathy, Kouchou Sensei (principal) and I sit in the front.

071422OnBus

The drive out of Sapporo gives us an opportunity to see more of this beautiful city and I am happy for the chance. The countryside outside Sapporo proper proves breathtakingly beautiful.

071423RoadToOnsen

We are traveling in the mountains on mountain roads and bridges and through mountain tunnels. Hokkaido is truly gorgeous.

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Nobuyo and Tomomi have planned an exciting, well conceived excursion for our enthusiastic group. Our first official stop is at a super little Japanese rest stop, but it is not like the state line rest stops we are accustomed to. Oh no, it is truly Japanese through and through with little vendors selling food and a gift shop with local wares, snack foods of all assortments and souvenirs.

071425GirlsAtRestStop

I can’t forget to mention the clean and well equipped bathrooms, complete with state of the art Toto toilets. This particular rest stop is known for its potatoes on a stick and we have heard about them and are looking forward to them. As it turns out, these are actually 3 potatoes, larger than a golf ball, almost baseball sized, on a chopstick sized stick. The potatoes appear to be made of grated potatoes and flour, kind of hush puppy like, and they are fried to perfection and they are absolutely delicious.

071424Lunch

Nobuyo has brought us each delicious lunches and we all sit together and eat our lunches and potatoes on a stick and it is pretty divine and oishii!

071426HokkaidoFields

Back on the bus, I marvel at the countryside. The rural farms are perfect and neat and tidy and there are crops growing in rows on teepee type structures and rice fields and all sorts of crops I can’t identify. Eventually, we pull begin our approach to Lake Toya, a large caldera, or crater, lake created by volcanic activity.

071427VolcanoMuseumToya

We stop here in the town of Toya to visit the Volcano Science Museum. We enter and the Americans are given headphones with English to wear during the video presentation about the Mt. Usu volcano’s history, even feeling the tremors during the viewing of the reenactments. Thanks to monitoring of earthquakes that proceed a volcanic eruption, no lives were lost in the last eruption of 2000.

Once back on the bus, we are on our way to Noboribetsu and our hotel, Tamanoyu. We have heard much about the Japanese hot springs baths, onsens, and I am anxious to experience this for myself. The little resort town of Noboribetsu reminds me of Red River, NM where I snow skied for the first time. It is tucked into the forested mountains with hotels, little shops and hilly little streets.

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071432OnsenHotelEntrance

Our hotel is a small boutique hotel with traditional Japanese sensibilities. The hotel staff seems focused on serving the hotel’s guests impeccably, with guests’ comfort and pleasure always at the forefront.

We are greeted by the staff outside the Tamanoyu Hotel and once inside, the first thing we see is a row of slippers to change into before entering the lobby itself. I’m accustomed to the Japanese tradition of leaving your outside shoes outside, but for the uninitiated, it is an interesting and sensible and practical custom. Back at Asahigaoka High School, we all have inside shoes for the high school, leaving our outside shoes in lockers with a little carpeted interim area between outside and indoors. In Japanese homes, shoes are left outside, facing outward, before entering.

071433OnsenHotelLobby

There are more slippers for changing into to go to the toilet area homes and we find that so here in our hotel as well. Still, here, it is striking to see so many slippers lined up facing in the right direction for us to slip them on and step inside the hotel.

071434OnsenLobby2

This hotel is quintessentially Japanese through and through and I cannot think of a more perfect place to be or more perfect people to be here with. Our principal, Kouchou Sensei, is here with us on this trip and he was a schoolmate of the hotel owner in high school.

071435OurRoom

Ordinarily, high school students would not be staying in this hotel, but an exception has been made for our group, a special concession because of a special relationship between these two gentlemen, both are indeed gentle men. We are shown to our rooms via the single elevator and down low-lit hallways to sliding wooden slatted doors that reveal our room doors.

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Outside the doors are signs with our names written on them. Special touches everywhere you turn. Once inside, we remove our slippers, as these rooms are tatami rooms.

071440NobuyoMakesTea

A low Japanese table with four cushioned backed chairs around it sits in the middle of the room. At each place is a small plate with a wrapped manju, a cake with the hotel’s name stamped on it. I sit and eat mine right away, before Nobuyo prepares and pours our tea. Cathy and I are delighted to see how the Japanese women make an art out of folding and tying the cellophane manju wrappers. Even refuse is made beautiful!

071447WalkToHellValley

We are meeting our students downstairs to walk to the Hell’s valley area, an area with no vegetation and steam rising all around from the springs and the smell of sulphur, much like rotten eggs. This walk is only a few blocks through the little village and the manager encourages us to wear wooden geta, which a few of us, includ

071445GetaOnMe

These getas give the calves a great workout and I am apprehensive about walking down the hill to the valley itself, but holding on to the rail I forge ahead, not about to miss a photograph opportunity at the bottom.

071452DinnerAtHotelOnsen

Our group is free to shop around the little stores before we are to congregate again for dinner on the second floor. We freshen up before dinner and meet in the tatami dining room with its low tables and cushioned chairs.

071461HotelMgrAndPrincipal

While we are there, the owner, kouchou sensei’s friend comes over to greet us and chat for awhile and we thank him for sharing this special place with us.

The tables are set with cloths over our food that, once removed, reveal a feast for the eyes and the palate.

071458Appetizer

There is a plate of stunning appetizers, beautiful in its simplicity – a shell with its animal skewered in it, 2 single large green bean type items, a custard, a single coral colored shrimp, and pickled radish. Another plate holds corn, asparagus and a tomato for grilling on the grill before us.

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071460SweetMisoPorkPot

There is a big black covered pot over its own fire for each of us and this is a cabbage and pork and sweet miso dish that is cooking itself while we start with other food. Another plate reveals garnished sashimi.

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071462DinnerSashimi

Our smiling, amiable waiter brings a large rectangular lacquered box full of skewers of meats and we are asked to choose any three to cook ourselves on our personal grills – pork, river fish (with heads removed just for us, in case should we be offended by them), chicken, sausages, squid, shrimp and scallops.

071470IceCreamWithCaramel

The two sauces in the partitioned dish are balanced and delicious. There is, of course, rice and soup, as no Japanese meal is complete without them. For dessert there is perfectly ripe melon and sweet fresh cherries. To top that, and only for us, there is yet another dessert – this time cold and oishii and icy ice cream with caramel sauce on top. We are satisfied in every possible way and grateful.

071472AfterDinnerFireworks

The Japanese students have brought hanabi, fireworks, and it is dark now, so we all head outside into the misty night to the empty lot across the street from the hotel to entertain ourselves with the colorful, brightly burning fireworks. I’ll never forget the laughter and comradery we all shared.

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071476OnTheWayToHotSprings

It is getting late, but we have yet to experience the main attraction, the onsen itself. Cathy and I go back in to get a head start and end up having the bath to ourselves. In our room to change into our jinbei, little pink wrap tops and loose fitting drawstring outfits, we find the futon fairy has been in our room and the table and chairs are gone and four inviting futons with crisp, fragrant linens are in their place. We know we have that to look forward to after our soak in the bath.

The outer room is well appointed with every possible amenity from lotions, to toothbrushes, to brushes, face creams with and without collagen, dryers and anything else you could require. We change into our towels and head into the shower room, There are little wooden stools to sit on and all the cleaning toiletries in the world for us to use to bathe by these hand held showers before heading to the baths. There is a hot spring bath in the shower room, but we are headed out the glass door to the outdoor bath, a milky looking bath in a rocked grotto walled area with nothing but bamboo slats and the night sky above us. As we sink into the hot milky bath, I couldn’t help but think of the Liebowitz photo of Whoopie Goldberg in the bathtub full of milk, only her face showing.

Too soon, we hear some of the students entering the outer room and decide to let them have it to them selves. Once changed back into our jinbei, we head back to our room and I almost collapse onto my futon, feeling literally drugged by the onsen experience. I fall asleep immediately, only to wake up to remove my contacts when Tomomi and Nobuyo come in.

071469CutestEver

This is our second day together. We are fast friends already. This is an experience, this onsen, with these friends, we will never forget. We will hold this in our hearts.

071474OurHotelWindowLove

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Arrival at Asahigaoka High School, At Last 7/13

nobody@vox.com(Robin) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:07:57 -0700

071301BreakfastAtNobuyos

This day begins with greetings from Nobuyo’s mother and a Japanese shower. Delightful! Upstairs to get myself dressed and ready for the day. Then, I go downstairs to an inviting aroma and a table filled with a delicious breakfast fit for royalty. Itadakimasu. There are eggs and sausages and ham and vegetables, miso soup, rice and natto (I love it now that I’ve eaten it the “right” way!), fruit and a potato cake. I sit, in heaven, and consume it all happily and with thanks. I sit with this warm, smiling family and think what a wonderful time this is. Go chisousama deshita.

It isn’t long before Nobuyo is ready to go. This family walks us down and sees us off, smiling and waving as we drive off. We must pick Kiyo up from the subway station on the way to school. He is waiting on the sidewalk for us and we are off to Asahigaoka. We will go to the izakaya close to school this evening with several members of the faculty for dinner and drinks and we are all looking forward to it very much.

It seems like much of the city is built into hills, much like San Francisco and I see as we approach that Asahigaoka High School is situated on a hill, too. It is an imposing building, looming large and modern on the side of the hill above the surrounding neighborhood. It is a striking place. We enter and leave our street shoes in lockers and change into our indoor shoes while we are in the building.

The students are to meet us in the call room at 8:25 and we go there to be briefed on our day.

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Kiyo shows me his desk in the teacher’s big open office area where each teacher has a desk with a computer. This high school is the only one in the area whose teachers all have computers. This office area is impressive and I am introduced to and greeted warmly by arriving faculty.

Down in the call room, our students are arriving two by two, much like Noah’s Ark. These partners seem perfectly and completely at home with each other already as they enter laughing and smiling.

071314GreerAndPartnersAssembly

Greer’s group is like the Three Musketeers, with Greer’s two partners sticking to her sides like glue. Where you see two of this threesome, the other is not far away. It warms my heart.

Before long, I hear a long, loud “Greer” and Aya comes running in to the room and she and Greer hug like old friends.

071303GreerAndAyaAgain

Aya’s week long visit to us during the January 2008 visit of our Sapporo friends was our introduction to the wonder of this exchange program and I hug her hard, too, and we are all so happy to see each other again after so long!

There is an all school assembly at 8:55 to introduce our students to this school. Kou Chou Sensei introduces our group in front of the entire student body, now seated in front of us on the gym floor. Cathy and I are to say a few words in Japanese. Bill is to say a few words on behalf of our students, and each of our students is to introduce themselves in Japanese. I have been well prepared by Hideo (thank you!), but I am nervous to see the entire student body seated on the gym floor. Greer is that nervous she gets when I think she might cry, but her adorable partners Akane and Michiko are right there to help her and she does her introduction perfectly with the other students when the time comes, as do they all. We are very proud of everyone!

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Cathy and I are allowed to move about freely to observe the classes and Xalen, the American ALT, here with the JET program is allowed to accompany me. I am grateful, as he is oriented and knowledgeable and he speaks Japanese and has easy rapport with the students and faculty.

Relieved to have our speeches over, it is time for our students to split off with their partners to shadow them for their classes. This is the day our students will present information about themselves to their partners’ classes. Greer will present twice, since she has two partners, Michiko and Akane.

071318GreerAndMichikosClass

Her first presentation is with Michiko in Home Ec class. This is a double period and the teacher graciously allows Greer the time to make her presentation. The class is invited up to the front of the class to see the photo album

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Greer has put together to show the Asahigaoka students. The students are a good audience, responding with oohs and aahs as they listen to Greer and look at her photos.

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They were all eager to see the album afterwards, especially the girls with the prom photos.

Once the presentation was over, everyone moved next door to the huge and professionally equipped kitchen where they suited up with aprons and kerchiefs.

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This room could easily be the set for a televised cooking show and the teacher has spent time going over the instructions for the recipe that the students will prepare today, warabi mochi, a delicious Japanese sweet treat. The students break out into stations where they seem to automatically know what to do without any strife or tension. Each station works beautifully and cooperatively as a team. The students begin measuring and stirring and mixing and then cooking and stirring on the stovetop.

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Others mix the brown sugar and honey that will be used as a topping for the mochi. The mochi in the pan comes together in a sticky mass and when it is time, the contents are dropped by the spoonfuls into bowls of water. After a while, ice is added to the bowls. Then the mochi pieces are drained of water and dropped into the brown powdery dish to be tossed around and coated before being placed into individual glass bowls and drizzled with the topping. Everyone then moves to tables to serve the warabi mochi and iced tea. Sensei brings big bowls of macha, hot green tea, to me and to Greer and we all sit and feast on the delicious mochi and tea. Afterwards without words, the students go about cleaning up.

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Before long, Xalen and I are summoned to Nobuya’s room where Bill, Tiffany and CJ will present themselves to her class. Bill needs my laptop for his PowerPoint slideshow. His presentation is great and the photos of his family and activities are so interesting.

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After Bill, Tiffany and CJ stand up together to tell a bit about themselves.

It’s lunchtime now, and Nobuyo and Tomomi and Cathy congregate in the open area with tables to have our lunches.

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Nobuyo presents me with lacquered bento boxes wrapped in a lovely fabric. Inside one box Obaachan has made two delicious onigiri for me, one with ume and one with salmon, and I eat them with gusto.

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In the other box is a little sausage, cheese, a lovely tomato and some broccoli and there is a boiled egg. I thoroughly enjoyed this lovingly prepared lunch.

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After lunch, it’s time for Greer to present her album to Akane’s Japanese class. Xalen and I go in to observe and I take photos, of course. Greer does a great job and goes into more detail now that she is more comfortable. This class is attentive and before it is over, we have a moonwalker, chalkboard artists and a marriage proposal.

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Near the end of the day, the entire school congregates in the gym again, as the Asahigaoka baseball team has made it to the playoffs. If it doesn’t rain, the team will play on Thursday and the student body will be able to go watch them play, as it is festival prep time and after this week, the one month long summer holiday will begin. It turns out, the students will be very busy continuing their studies and working with their various clubs, but it is the summer holiday nonetheless.

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Once everyone is in the gym, the baseball team processes in. There are speeches on stage and a lovely student with a gorgeous voice offers a song. The cheerleaders come in and flank the students on both sides of the gym. I can’t say exactly how many cheerleaders there are, but the team will be well cheered.

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These cheerleaders always go on to win competitions and we have seen videos and know first hand how well choreographed and synchronized this team is. They are baseball cheerleaders. Different from our football and basketball cheerleaders. There is chanting and singing and dancing, all to prepare this baseball team for victory on Thursday. Once it is over, the team must feel really pumped.

After school, the ICC, International Communications Club, conducts a wonderful tour for our students, beginning in the tea ceremony room.

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There the tea ceremony club is waiting to do a demonstration for us. We are ushered in and seated on the floor in this beautiful Japanese style room. Tea ceremony in Japan is an art form and I can imagine it takes much practice and study to perfect this beautiful ceremony.

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We are presented with sweets and the girls in this club do a beautiful job of demonstrating the tea ceremony. It looks like a dance the way each movement is so careful and precise.

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There is a proper and specific way to perform each and every movement. We are served sweets and tea.

From the tea ceremony, the ICC leads us to the demonstration by the Calligraphy Club.

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The members here demonstrate calligraphy. They work, standing, on the paper on the floor and the finished products are really works of art.

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The Biology Club is next and we find several students waiting for us there. We go in to unwrap bugs, some alive, that the class is using for a project.

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I look over to see Greer with a snake slithering up her arm and ask her to hold it nearer to her face for a good photo, and she willingly obliges.

Our ICC guides now take us to the welcome party they’ve made where treats and beverages and the families of our partner students are waiting. Two of the ICC members are emcees and they lead us through the program where the principal and vice principal speak to us.

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I even say a few words, as does Bill. The parents of our partner students are warm and loving. Our students are in for a treat for the next week. There is already a lively rapport with our students and the Japanese students after only one day together. I am trying to imagine how close these students will be at the end of this week. There is a generosity of spirit that is palpable in this room and I know we are in for a special time here in this city with these people. From here, the families will take the students home, where big doses of magic will happen over the course of the week.

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Cathy and I will be with members of the Asahigaoka faculty for a special dinner at an izakaya in the neighborhood and we have all been looking forward to it for a long time. It’s dark and rainy when we reach the restaurant, Irohanihoheto. Nobuyo has written this seven syllable name down for me, as there is no way I could retain otherwise.

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At this izakaya, Kiyo, both vice principals, Tamayo, Tomomi, Nobuyo, Takase san, Cathy and I sit down to what will become course after course of delicious and beautiful food and refreshing beverages served by an attentive and thoughtful staff.

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We end up ordering several varieties of yakitori, mochi wrapped in bacon, pork, beef and chicken butt. Yes, that is how it was described to us and since neither Cathy nor I had ever had chicken butt, we felt inclined to go for it. It was an experience I will savor and enjoy retelling.

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Delicious! We also had French fries and a tofu with fish flakes appetizer, edamame and plates of gorgeous sashimi. This night with these fine and generous people was marvelous in every way.

I was so satisfied after the food and company of these fine people, I almost fell asleep on the way home. Once at home, we were greeted warmly by Nobuyo’s charming parents and I almost immediately fell asleep on the comfortable futon, there and turned down by Nobuyo’s gracious mother. I feel right at home. I have a prayer of thanksgiving for the safety of our group and the memories we will make this week.

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Sapporo Bound, At Long Last 7/12/09

nobody@vox.com(Robin) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:38:23 -0700

The alarm goes off early, but there is much to do if we’re to leave this hostel by 6:45 and get to the airport on the express train from Asakusa station to Haneda Airport. We cannot be late, because we know our group of friends from Sapporo – students, their families, and Asahigaoka faculty will be waiting at the airport to greet us! We have been waiting for what seems like forever for this one moment!

Of course, before we even leave the hostel some of our growing teens are inquiring about when and where their breakfasts will come from and they are told this breakfast will come from the airport, but it will come. We haven’t failed to offer a meal yet and we promise not to start today.

Our bags are zipped up. Cathy and I count 7 students and now we are off for our last walk through our sweet little neighborhood of Asakusa, past the amusement park and Sensoji temple and Nakamise Dori. It is early, but we can tell this is the hottest, must humid day yet and we are all dragging suitcases that seem twice as heavy as they were when we arrived. We arrive at the subway station and just know there is an elevator to the Asakusa line. We all ride down in an elevator, taking three trips to get us and our luggage down. No. The Asakusa line is up there, but not up there where we just came from. A different up there. An up there that requires climbing three flights of stairs. Now we’re up and we learn we have to cross the street, go down a block and go down more than one flight of stairs. We go down with those big old bags, ba bump, ba bump, ba bump. The sound echoing on those subway walls. We are all drenched by now, the morning showers a total waste.

Now, would we have preferred to have sprung for a shuttle? Might we have chosen to forego the pleasure of this last walk through Asakusa? If you’d asked us then, we’d have said “yes.” Now, though, I think it’s one more thing to be proud of. We got ourselves and our heavy bags to the station under our own steam. Another notch in our belts. Another story.

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Once on the train, it seems the commuters are now exaggerated versions of the commuters we’ve seen for three days. Those yellow pumps the red sequined bow and blue ankle ties really pop. That backpack seems as big as that sleeping boy. Is that my daughter slumped over sound asleep in this train?

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Once we arrive in Haneda and go through security and clear our check in at the counter with the smiling JAL attendant who takes time to find seats for our group to sit together even after I assure her it is daijobu, our hungry members are even hungrier. We split up, some going to the familiar and comforting Starbucks, others to McDonalds and some of us to the diner where we choose from American or Japanese breakfasts.

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This flight on JAL from Tokyo to Sapporo is a treat compared to the Delta flight over. This is like going to the Ritz after the Super 8. This is our reward for schlepping those bags up and down all those stairs. The service is divine. The instructional pre-flight videos are entertaining. I’m seeing for the first time the take off through the pilot’s eyes. Maybe lots of flights have this feature on the big screen, but I have never witnessed this and it is great.

Our group is excited beyond words to get to our destination and to meet the friends they’ve only, so far, communicated with by emails. CJ and Tiffany are anxious to see their partners from their November trip again. We get off the plane.

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We make our way to the baggage claim area. We can see our smiling friends, both old and new, through the glass and we want to get to them.

Finally, we are here! Smiles and laughter and introducions. It goes quickly and the families who’ve all come to greet us disperse.

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We are on our way to our homes with our families we’re so happy to see! Cathy and I go with Kiyo and Nobuyo and Tomomi and have our first meal in Sapporo at a wonderful restaurant at the airport. We all dine happily on yakisoba and revel in the fact that we are finally here after all this time of planning and anticipation! We are finally all together and it is wonderful!

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It seems we just saw Kiyo yesterday and Nobuyo is absolutely beautiful and warm and kind.

Kiyo takes us to Nobuyo’s home where her parents and her grandmother are waiting with warm and welcoming smiles. Look at the photos of this family and you will be able to see the warmth and kindness in their eyes.

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I have a sense immediately that I am home here in this home. These lovely people are my family. Their home and their hearts are open to me for as long as I am here and should I ever want to come back. I take a moment to realize the fact that each of the people in our group must surely be feeling this same way right now.

Kiyo and I are ushered in and my bags are carried up to my room and we are invited to sit in the living room where we are offered coffee and the most delicious, light cheesecake I’ve ever tasted. It is perfect refreshment after our journey.

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We sit and visit for quite some time before Kiyo takes his leave.

Nobuyo graciously gives me a tour of her family’s lovely home and orients me on how the shower works, knowing I wouldn’t be already familiar with it. She shows me the bathroom upstairs and then my room.

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Nobuyo’s home is built at the top of a steep hill. This room feels like it is on top of the world, as its big windows look out on the neighborhood and all of Sapporo beyond!

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I get myself settled in my room and take a quick shower and change to remove the day’s efforts from myself. Soon, dinner is announced and I go to the table to find the most beautiful and delicious dinner ever. Nobuyo’s mother is an excellent and creative cook and in the Japanese style, the food is as beautiful as it is delicious. Look at the photos of the steak and potatoes and carrots and egg and wonderful salads (and Sapporo beer, of course!) Look into the eyes of this family. I feel most welcome and thoroughly welcomed.

After dinner, I go to my room to find the futon has been magically made up for me. Breakfast will be at 6:30 in the morning and we will leave at 7:00. Is set my alarm for 5:30. The fresh, beautiful linens are so inviting and I am drawn right into them where I sleep the best, most restful sleep I’ve slept in a very long time.

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You Can't Always Get What You Want, but if You Try Sometimes, You Get What You Need

nobody@vox.com(Robin) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:34:20 -0700

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The time in our little Spartan and folksy hostel has given me pause to think about many things. The lobby is communal and much like a college student center with all the young people from all over the world meeting to congregate there until all hours at the end of a day. There are people traveling in groups and people traveling solo. Some want to connect with others. They are receptive to new things and inclusive. I was there late one night, about midnight, and there was a group forming of young people who were about to get on the “tube” as one young girl called it, to go to Roppongi for karaoke.

The staff at this hostel is friendly and they are able to answer any possible question and make suggestions for anything you could ever want. They were responsive, even before we left Atlanta, to questions about everything from details about how to get from the hostel to Haneda to when the deposit would be charged. They offer a wellspring of information to travelers from around the globe and they do it in English for me.

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I’ll never forget the first time we parted our curtains in our room at Sakura Hostel and found we were looking out on a decades old, sweet little amusement park. You can’t just order that kind of amazingness in a catalog.

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Could we have used a bit more floor space in our 2-bed bedroom? Yes. Did we make it with the two square yards we had? Yes. My alarm clock worked well on the bed next to my pillow and my toiletries were handy at the end of my bed.

The bathrooms are across from the elevators and they don’t have doors, there are only ¾ length curtains parted in the middle, long noren things. They are as clean as clean can be. There are toilets. There is a shower or two, depending on which floor you are on. There is a vanity with a mirror and sinks and electrical outlets. Towels are not automatically provided, but you can rent one for 100 yen. There is a bathroom for men and one for women on each floor.

Frugal. Waste not. There are no lights in the hallways until you step into them and then, the lights come on automatically. They don’t stay on for a long time, but they stay on long enough. You are handed a stack of sheets when you check in, a fitted one, a flat one and a pillowcase. Take them up with you and put them on your bed.

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The walls and ceilings in our hostel are all concrete. Bare concrete. I think the ceilings in our room are about 12 feet high and I was amused to look up and see the buttoned padding and wondered if it was there to protect your head in case you decided to take a big jump from the bed in a wild and crazy moment.

I believe our students have stayed at some of the finest resorts in the world, resorts where there high thread count sheets and downy comforters and someone to take your order poolside and spritz you with water when you get hot. They’ve stayed at places with 5 star dining and butlers and drivers and room service, of course. Staying in a place like this, a place foreign to many of us and our students, can teach you a lot about yourself and others. Yet, I never heard a single one of our students comment negatively about a single aspect of our no frills accommodations here at Sakura Hostel. On the contrary, our students put their arms around this place in this wonderful country and they embraced it wholeheartedly. This has been a most excellent adventure. This is a place where a bit of independence is a marvelous and safe thing. You can learn plenty about yourself, others, and the world in this place. Here are a few things I’ve learned or had reinforced for me:

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People are more important than things. If your heart is open to others, others will be open to you.

If you need help, there are people who will rush to your aide without your having to ask for help. I hope we will all remember how often this happened to us while we were in Tokyo. I hope we will all be inclined to pay it forward when we see someone who looks confused or distressed. Someone who looks lost.

If you need help, you can find it. Someone will offer or you can go ask.

You can get by with a lot less than you think you need.

Places like Sakura Hostel, and being there with friends, teach you the difference between wants and needs.

It doesn’t take long to find a new friend.

You will find what you are looking for, so look for the good. Look for evidence of good wherever you go.

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If something trips you up, let it go and move on.

You might not get what you you think you want, but if you try, you will get what you need. Sometimes those two things are one.

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Electric Town, Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto 7/12/09

nobody@vox.com(Robin) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:23:44 -0700

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We have arrived at our last day of touring in Tokyo. It seems we have been here at Sakura Hostel, in this city, for more that four nights and three days. Faced with this reality, our little group decides to have breakfast at Family Mart, the ever-present Japanese convenience store. You cannot walk two blocks without passing either a Family Mart or its equivalent, Lawson’s. They are, to me, like T. J. Maxx and Marshall’s. Virtually indistinguishable.

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We end up with fruit filled rolls, banana juice, rice balls, milk tea, fruit and only the photograph knows what else. We are well and thoroughly nourished and ready to make it up as we go. We haven’t been to Akihabara, aka Electric Town, yet and we want to be there. There is the 8 story electronics store in Akihabara. There is the Tokyo Anime Center and the five story Anime/Manga store. We buy our day passes for the

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subway and take the train to Akihabara where we proceed to do a bit of walking in circles before finally finding the Mecca for Anime lovers.

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We all gamely go in to the center for the experience and then only the hearty Anime lovers stay for the retail therapy and the rest of the group, me included, go on back to the

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Yodobashi Electronics mega store, but not before stopping at the obligatory Starbuck’s for chai latte, jelly coffee and cheesecake. The pause that refreshes.

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The boys went on to Yodabashi and Greer and I shopped in the stores across the street. Because it is out of the realm of possibility to not wear anti-perspirant for one day, and because Greer had forgotten hers, we stopped in a convenience store to purchase some Japanese deodorant. A practical and necessary souvenir. From there we found our way back to Yodobashi.

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We stopped on every level from the top where it is totally golf – I know, not electronics, but there you are. We took some great photos of ladies’ golf gloves with the tip of the fingers out to allow for long nails. There is the food court floor. There is the toilet floor. You may think, hmm not electronics, but Japanese toilets are indeed electric.

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We ended up resting on stools at the counter in the curtained room next to the restrooms. We weren’t sure what that room was for, but it came in handy for closing your eyes for a minute while waiting for the 2:30 rendezvous time when we would all meet back together again, Anime lovers and others alike.

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Well, since it’s 2:30 and we haven’t eaten lunch yet, we are on a mission and we don’t have to go far. We exit the store and there after one turn is a sushi restaurant. It is crowded and we split our group, 4 at a table and the rest of us at the sushi bar. The bar is a great place to sit, as we have an amiable sushi chef with a great sense of humor and it is fun to watch the preparations.

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We end up ordering more sushi than we think we can possibly eat, but somehow we eat all but two or three pieces.

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Even the hearty appetites of the boys won’t allow another bite.

Once our tanks are full again, we think it is possible to go on and go on to Ginza we did. We are getting good at this Tokyo subway thing and it’s too bad, since it is our last day here of touring and all this knowledge and comfort of the system would have come in handy three days ago. We ride with the silent, sometimes sleeping commuters to the Ginza station.

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I remember the Ginza from my trip to Tokyo as a teenager. It was the swankiest place I’d ever seen at the time, but we all raced to McDonald’s for a Big Mac back then, as there was no McD’s on Okinawa and we were starving for American food. It turns out, it is still one of the swankiest places I’ve ever seen, but for upscale atmosphere, I prefer the Omote Sando area and its shady boulevard feel. We all pose for a photo in front of Mitsukoshi Department Store and then split up for a later rendezvous in front of the store.

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Greer and I go in together. Handy for her in case she finds something she wants to purchase. We are both surprised to see how incredibly crowded the store is. You can hardly maneuver through the throngs.

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We go right over to the Tiffany store to browse, then we ride the escalators up all the way to the 8^th floor so we can work our way back down. Greer is mortified that we look so much like the tourists we are.

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She wishes out loud we didn’t have our backpacks and cameras and I wish silently it hadn’t been so long since our morning showers.

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It is Saturday afternoon and the street outside the big stores is closed to traffic and has become a big pedestrian street. This street is filled with fashionable people. These people look as though they just stepped out of a stylist’s chair. No one has ever even glistened from the heat, let alone sweated profusely. Watching people here is the most entertaining thing I’ve done since watching the people in Harajuku two days before.

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We are tired and satisfied and so we decide to make our way back to the train to transfer to the Asakusa line and head for our little home away from home. The now familiar Nakamise dori is bustling with activity, so many of us decide to shop around one last time before we leave the next morning for Sapporo. Back at Sakura Hostel, we finally rest for a while and then, amazingly, hunger strikes once more.

Without the energy or inclination to search for something different, we seek out our favorite ramen shop and our friend behind the counter there. More tired than hungry, but knowing we should eat, Greer and I opt for an order each of gyoza, the little pork and vegetable dumpling that is boiled first then grilled on one side.

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We mimic the old man next to us and mix the sauces on the table to dip our gyoza in. Delicious!

It’s back to the hostel to gather our things together, repack our bags and get ourselves ready for the next day and the journey to Sapporo and all that awaits us there. We fall asleep thankful for the wonders of Tokyo, but with the knowledge that the best is yet to come in Sapporo!

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"I Like Big Buddhas and I Cannot Lie" 7/10/09

nobody@vox.com(Robin) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:18:04 -0700

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Our group comes together in the hostel’s lobby and the consensus is that we need a proper Japanese breakfast. We know we need to be back at the hostel to meet the guide that will take us to Kamakura for our all day adventure there by 8:30. But, we need food. Not McDonald’s. Not Family Mart. Not toast from the lobby. The helpful staff at the desk is more than happy to suggest and give directions for the buffet at the Blue Wave Inn, an area hotel. The trip to the Blue Wave Inn is a short walk and it gives us the opportunity to see another part of Asakusa we haven’t seen yet.

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Asakusa is just waking up. The delivery trucks are arriving at businesses. Our little neighborhood is yawning itself awake and we are there to see it.

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We round a corner and there is the Blue Wave, a beacon of waiting breakfast.

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We get excited. We are going to be able to sit down and enjoy the atmosphere of this nice little boutique hotel. Parties of nine are not always easily accommodated and we have to split our group in two.

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The dining room is modern and the lighting is flatteringly low and glasses and china tinkle as we are seated.

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The first thing I see is a dish that looks like potatoes, but turns out to be cooked turnips or radish or some similar root vegetable. There is a big dish of tasty mussels in a nice sauce. There is a nice plate of smoked fish. Two kinds of soups are offered – miso, of course, and a scallop soup. There is the ever present breakfast salad with Cesear and soy dressing and those lovely little cucumbers and the most beautiful and perfect looking tomatoes I’ve ever seen. Sticky Japanese rice, as always. There are little individual omelettes and tiny brat like sausage links, toasts and croissants, too. There is an assortment of juices – tomato, grapefruit, orange and iced teas and iced coffee.

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I don’t know what I am getting into when I help myself to a little cellophane wrapped container, much like a slightly larger version of our individual jelly and jam ones. It is on a round, partitioned dish with seaweeds, pickled vegetables and tiny hard pickled fruits with pits in them. I realize, though, when I peel back the plastic and see the tiniest of tiny packages of mustard and soy, that I am staring an individual serving of natto in the face!! Hideo, I finally get to eat natto the right way! The way you like it. And, you are right. It is delicious! Totemo oishii!

We are all very happy and full and that happiness comes at a price of only 1200 yen per person.

We get back to the lobby of the hostel by 8:25 and our smiling guide, Izumi, is already there. She has taken the long train ride from her home near Narita Airport and walked to our hostel.

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Like little ducklings, we follow her to Asakusa station and we all board. As part of our tour, Izumi purchases all our train tickets for the day. We board the train for Shimbashi station, where we change trains for the hour or so long ride to Kamakura on the Yokosuka line.

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Once in Kamakura, it was clear we are no longer in a metropolis and that is exactly what we want. It is nice to be out of the city to experience the smaller town. In Kamakura we change to, as Izumi called it, a “cute” train and we travel to Hase, a small village, for the first part of our day.

We signed up for this day trip to see the statue of the great Buddha in Kamakura, but like everything else in Japan, what we would get was far greater and more special than anything we could have imagined. It was magical. That is Japan.

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Our first stop in Hase is the Hase Kannon temple. This Buddhist temple is built on the side a small, forested mountain and it is surrounded by the loveliest of well-tended gardens. There are thousands of hydrangeas planted on the mountain along a hydrangea trail, all in full bloom. The trail follows a path of stairs that goes up, up the mountain.There are men tending and dead heading all along the way. From the vantage point at the top, the view of the town and the Pacific Ocean is gorgeous.

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One of the most moving places on the grounds for me is a large “alter” that is dedicated to children who have died before their parents. There, what seems like hundreds, maybe more, small statues are placed and lined up in rows. Each one is placed in honor of a child who has gone before his or her parents from miscarriage, illness, accident or abortion. There are offerings of flowers and prayers for the departed. The sight of all these little statues standing in their rows moves me to tears. I will never forget the sight and how it made me feel.

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Outside the temple, our students reverently complete their now familiar hand and mouth washing before going to the temple. It makes me proud to see them honoring and being so respectful of the traditions of another religion and culture. They seem pleased to be able to feel comfortable with these traditions.

Inside the temple is the statue of Juichimen kannon, a large wooden statue with eleven faces, the better to see all around. In another area of the grounds we see the seven gods that sail every new year. Three of them are from India, three are from China and only one, the one holding the fish, is from Japan. Also at the temple site, there are little trinkets blessed at the temple to give help with almost anything you could desire. I buy a small brocade pillow shaped one with an owl stitched on it for Greer to help her to have successful studies.

Just around the corner, there are more choices and I purchase a trinket that is blessed for the sole purpose of preventing dementia, although I am thinking perhaps I should have had it five years ago and that maybe the ship has sailed or at the very least the anchor has been lifted out of the water.

Izumi is an excellent guide. Her English is beautiful. She seems to know exactly how to let us explore and how to gather us together again to move on and we, somehow, never feel rushed or hurried.

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We leave the grounds and head back to the main street, passing groups of school children on the narrow sidewalk where we are forced to walk single file. At one point, we stop to buy several rice cakes being prepared street side on a grill from a vendor who grills them, brushes sauce on and then places a sheet of seaweed on before passing the crispy cakes to us. We are slowly, but surely, making our way up this gently inclining little street toward the main attraction, the big statue of Buddha, all the while being drawn into the sweet rhythm of this little town and her people.

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Plants have been intentionally planted to obstruct the view of the great Buddha, the kotoku-in, so that only when you walk around the shrubs, your view is filled with the white courtyard and the great Buddha sitting in his serene pose at the end of it, his great size dwarfing the mountain in back of him. This Buddha was cast in bronze and completed in 1252.

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Initially, there was a wooden temple structure built around him and it was destroyed by storms and rebuilt several times before it was destroyed by a tsunami in 1495 and Buddha has been sitting unsheltered since then. Buddha is 11 meters high, 93 tons.

This Buddha is awe inspiring and tranquil and he seems perfectly suited to this place.

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We make our way back down the street toward the train station, past the shops and vendors, past the sweet shops selling the adorable little bird shaped cookies that Kamakura is famous for and back to the train station where we board the train from Hase back to Kamakura proper, where our special lunch is waiting.

Once off the train, Izumi leads us across the street and down a walled alley to a little “hole in the wall” restaurant where we part the noren curtains, leave our shoes in cubbies and enter the tatamied restaurant.

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This is a restaurant whose specialty is okonomiyaki. Izumi has recommended this place and described it and our adventurous group has declared it perfect for us. Okonomiyaki is a kind of Japanese pancake or crepe of sorts. It means literally “as you like it” because you can put anything you want in your pancake. We are given our choices of fillings with most choosing the special of the house with fish, pork, beef and chicken in it. What we get is a good sized bowl each with our meats of choice and cabbage, onion, sticky potato, vegetables and a raw egg on top. We are instructed to stir our ingredients in our bowls very well. The large griddle in the center of the tables are oiled, we empty our bowls onto the griddles and proceed to cook our okonomiyaki until they are brown on one side and then we turn them over and brush them with special sauce, which is apparently “the secret” ingredient. They end up looking a little like potato pancakes and they are completely and totally delicious!!

Now, back to the train where we head to the relative metropolis of Kamakura. We will visit a Shinto shrine now after the two Buddhist temples of Hase. This shrine, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine, was founded in 1063 by Minamotono Yoriyoshi.

Kamakura feels like a Disney village when we get there. It is a lovely town in every way, both size and ambience. It is bustling in the way a small town bustles. There is a sophistication about it. We pass shops of every size with every ware you can imagine.

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There are smiling rickshaw drivers. School children. We make our way to the first of three toriis, gates. The wide graveled path to the shrine is flanked by trees and runs right down the middle of the street. The walk is peaceful and when we finally reach the shrine it is quite impressive from below because it is built way up on the side of the mountain. There are small alters and shrines all over the grounds of this shrine, but the jewel is reached by climbing what seems like a hundred steps.

We have become comfortable tossing our coins into the slatted boxes at these shrines and temples, bowing once, twice, clapping twice, praying, bowing again.

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On the grounds is a pond full of carp and koi, but what is immediately spectacular about this pond is the enormous blooming lily pads. They are several times larger than your average lily pads.

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We find ourselves totally enchanted by a little girl with a bag of turtle food squatting at the edge of the pond and looking up at us and babbling away in Japanese, her little face so sweet and her little eyes so earnest and imploring.

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To sit in the moment with her, unrushed felt so special. I found myself able to completely enjoy being aware of how magical this place and this little girl were.

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We pulled ourselves away from the shrine grounds and Izumi took us back through Kamakura alleys to a lovely little street of shops. She went ahead to wait at the end of the street and we wandered in and out of the shops. We stopped to buy candy. We decided to buy ice cream cones – twists of vanilla and ben imo, the purple sweet potato ice cream. You can’t get that at Bruster’s.

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Finally, it was time to board the train back to the big city of Tokyo. Back to Shimbashi station and a train change to the Ginza line that would take us back to Asakusa station.

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There is a festival in our little neighborhood and people are dressed up in their summertime yukata and milling about in the little stalls of Nakamise dori. This is the Chinese lantern plant festival and people everywhere are holding their plants. Extra stalls have been set up to sell Japanes festival food.

There is a kind of circus atmosphere and our kids stay and linger to soak it all up and shop and snack. I wander back to the hostel to rest after another completely full and satisfying day. A minute of closed eyes and air conditioning is in order.

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It isn’t long before the students are looking for dinner we decide to go back to the ramen shop of the night before, drawn back as much by the charisma of the friendly proprietor as for the deliciousness of his noodles. We find a ten year old boy in the shop tonight with his family.

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He wants to try out his English on our kids, but he’s too shy at first, running to the bathroom when Tiffany approaches him. In the end, we are all talking to him and he to us. He is a golfer and he is gorgeous. He ends up walking us back to our hostel by himself, his parents still on their stools with their dinner. That is the kind of place Asakusa is.

This turns out to be another day that exceeded our expectations in every way. I had signed up for this day trip to Kamakura with a guide from the Tokyo City Tour website, not knowing what to expect. What we all end up taking away are memories we couldn’t have dreamed possible of places that will be with us always.

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What's a gundam? 7/9/09

nobody@vox.com(Robin) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:50:34 -0700

I don't believe anyone in our mighty little group slept beyond 4:30AM. I think the sun must officially rise somewhere really soon after 4:30AM, because it didn't seem like long before we were all assembled in the lobby and ready to go find breakfast with protain. Sakura Hostel breakfast consists of "all you can eat and drink, self-service bread and jam, coffee, tea, instant soup." No thank you. For me, that spells that kind of hungry that comes from all carbs within 30 minutes of consuming them. That is a mean hungry. A hungry that might hurt feelings.

It is drizzling and forecast to contine drizzling. It is grey out. What should we do? What place comes to mind when you are considering your first breakfast in a new land and special place? It has to be McDonalds! By the time we come to this remarkable decision and step out into the day, the rain has ceased and we won't see any rain for the rest of the day. Slowly, but surely, the clouds will come to part and we will end up with a beautiful first day in Japan.

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Our neighborhood is sleepy as we make our way toward McDonalds. Past amiable homeless gentlemen who greet us warmly, their dog tethered beside them. Past shopkeepers sweeping the pavement in front of their shops. Into McDonalds where the counter clerk turns the menu over to the English side as we approach. It seems our dinner at Dennys has played out and we are all pretty hungry. We order our McThises and McThats, pretty much what we are used to seeing and eating at a McDonalds at home, but somehow even better, tastier. Some of our group seemed surprised to find the egg was actual egg on the McMuffins with egg and sausage. Everything was quite tasty.

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We sat outside for quite a while, it being early and all, while some went back for iPods, etc. to the hostel and we waited for their return. A little Japanese man chatted us up, speaking no English whatsoever after the initial "Hey you" that got our attention in the first place. What he was trying to tell us was not to go to Shinjuku, because he kept repeating "Shinjuku dame" over and over.

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We will stay away from there, we tell him. For iced tea, we are asked to choose between "mild tea" or "lemon tea" and when it arrives, the iced tea cup is about the same size as a senior coffee at home. Greer will have to stop at the Family Mart convenience store for a 2 liter water to last her the next few minutes.

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Back to the hostel, we got ourselves organized for the day and decided to entertain the anime lovers in our group with a trip to Odaiba to see the enormous gundam. We were off to our local subway station where for 710 yen per person we bought a day pass for the trains and we went all the way to Shimbashi station on the Ginza line before we got off and after LOTS of walking around the subway station and going up flights and flights of stairs, and asking directions more than once and not being able to find the word "monorail" in the phrase book, we finally made it to the monorail station and rode the monorail to the first Odaiba station.

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If we'd known we would have ridden to the second station and saved ourselves a long walk, but the scenic route turned out to be nice, if a little warm, and we were able to see lots more that way. As a reward for our long walk, we lingered at the gundam before turning ourselves around and back to the station. The monorail to the park was lovely and we got some wonderful views of the harbor and bridges.

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I wouldn't have chosen to go to this destination on my own, but after having seen it, I was happy to have gone.

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The gundam is an enormous robot in Odaiba koen that will only be there for a very limited time. He is very impressive, but this visit to see him seemed almost like a pilgrimage for our anime lovers in the group and it was great to see them enjoying it so much. This big gundam was one of the most quintessentially Japanese things you could ever imagine. It seems he is lit up at night and his head moves and there is mist rising. That would be a sight to behold! There were lots of

Japanese people there taking photos of him with us.

I think he is about 25 feet tall. In the same koen (park) there is a replice of Lady Liberty and we got a kick out of posing with her.

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I think our group deserves props for getting on board with my constant photo taking and now I hardly notice their expressions of exasperation and they line right up and smile for me.

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Back at Shimbashi station, we decided to go to Shibuya and walk to Harajuku to see the Harajuku girls. Shibuya is home to the busy intersection, I think the busiest in the world and we jumped into some action down on the sidewalks. Andrew and CJ bought finger socks that I was sure couldn't possibly fit, but they proved me wrong later in the day when they changed into their new socks at the cafe at Mieji shrine (or is it temple?). Shrine, I'm sure.

Before long, we decided we didn't know enough Japanese between us to get good directions to Harajuku, and when the going gets tough, the tough find lunch. We were just hungry enough to be very decisive and we went down the first flight of stairs to the Miami

Cafe.

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The Miami Cafe had a very Italian slant, which I thought was unusual, but it was cool and pretty and the offerings looked delicious. Greer and I split an eggplant and ground meat pizza. With a description like that, how could you not be curious enough to eat it. We're not sure what kind of meat was ground onto our pizza, but we finished it and it was delicious.

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I got a salad with a perfectly balanced soy dressing and the best little tiny and crispy cucumbers ever. We wait way too long to pick them in the states, I guess. There were a few other varieties of pizza ordered and all were delicious.

Full and happy, we were ready to tackle the rest of our day.

We made our way back to the station and decided we might have

had an easier time of it finding Meiji and its neighbor, Harajuku if we got off at Omote sandoo station, which we did. Wow! That is a beautiful, upscale neighborhood! I wish we'd had more time and been less sweaty and bedragled and that I had just won a really big lottery right before we left for Japan, because then I'd have loved to shop and shop at the upscale stores. As we walked down the street toward Meiji, we passed hoards of beautifully coifed and trendy Tokyo residents. Not a single person we passed appeared to have ever sweated in their lives, or at least that day. The boulevard to Meiji was shady and gorgeous and upscale and we were all happy to be there.

Walking onto the grounds at Meiji shrine and through the massive wooden torii was like walking into a forest in the mddle of Tokyo. A perfectly groomed, old growth forest with wide paths and canopied with trees to create 173 acres of shady wonderland in downtown Tokyo. We took tons of photos and finally arrived at the shrine, where we took the ladles of water in our right hands to wash our left ones, then in our left hands to wash our right ones, then we ladled some water into our left hand and sipped from it and spit it out. This is to clean your hands and mouths before praying. We all offered alms and prayers and enjoyed the beauty and serenity of the place before moving into the lovely gift shop and cafe with vending machines where we refreshed ourselves with drinks and frozen treats.

By this time, we were totally exhausted. The kind of exhausted where you think you shouldn't have gotten so far from home because you honestly don't know how you'll get all the way back on what you have in your reserves. We just started walking and putting one foot in front of the other until we were back at Omote sando station and we found our train and made our way back to Shimbashi. Is it really possible to have done all this walking in just one day? Our first day in Tokyo? Hadn't we been gone at least two days worth of walking?

It is easy to understand why so many Japanese master the art of sleeping on the train, as I could easily master this art, but the when to wake up for your destination station is something I couldn't leave to chance. We made it all the way back to Asakusa station and back to the hostel. Most went to their rooms and collapsed. I had photos to load. I know how easy it is to get behind. (I'm writing this post the next evening, putting myself officially behind and wondering how I'll get the next day's post done.)

Bill and Tiffany and Jamie came to the lobby to find me. Hunger had overridden exhaustion and they needed food. Everyone else was out for the count. We wandered around the corner of the hostel and decided to try a little ramen shop, just a counter with stools, and it turned out to be a divine decision, as the proprietor was full of personality and he recommended delicious and lovely bowls of ramen and we were happy and full when we left. The meal was one of Bill's dreams come true and he savored every slurpy bite and it was a treat for me to watch someone so unabashedly enjoying something so much!

I fell into bed at around 9:00 to get a good night's sleep. Knocking on the door at 10 woke me and there stood Greer and Tiffany, ready for their feeding after their nap. I was cranky. I went out into the night with them, anyway. A lovely girl from Yorkshire, England who now lives in Tokyo directed us to an izakaya that stays open until 4AM, one that I'd have never have felt comfy walking into and in we went. Off with the shoes that went into little lockers. It was smoky in there. And dark. Full of locals. We pushed to button on the table and the waitress came to take the girls' orders of fried corn cakes, fish on a skewer and tako yaki, one of my faves from Okinawa! The food was cheap, 1320 yen total, and delicious. I was the finally hit the wall kind of tired and had to force myself not to cry out of sheer lack of steam, but I was happy afterwards to have finally been to an izakaya with these girls. I can sleep back in Atlanta. What a martyr :)

After a wrong turn, we make it back to the hostel. It's bedtime, again. The perfect end to this day.

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McDonald's is your kind of place...7/9/09

nobody@vox.com(Robin) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:48:25 -0700

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I think most of our crew was up and/or had been up since before that because of the time difference/change. Except Greer. She would have slept until tomorrow if someone hadn't turned lights on and started busying themselves with something. Get up. It's time to go out into our first full day in Tokyo!! Yes, we started it at McDonald's. The next entry is full of details...

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