Buddhas, and flowers, and pork! Oh my!

The only problem I have with my experience in Japan is that I'm doing so many amazing things here that I don't have the time to write about all of the amazing things I'm doing!  I guess of all the problems I could be having here, that is a pretty insignificant one.  

Ok, the last two days:

The students at the middle school to which I was assigned were still taking exams all day on Friday. Our wonderful new best friend Paul is a math teacher at Ito Gakuen school and he offered for me to come to his school and teach his math lessons in English!  Naturally I said yes!!

Ito Gakuen was built seven years ago and it shows: the hallways are spacious, there is an Olympic sized swinging pool on the fourth floor, it receives part of its electricity from the solar panels on the roof, and every room has a curved hydraulic chalkboard!!  

Truly the Mercedes of chalkboards, it comes with a little hole in the middle of the chalk ledge where you can push all of the dust which is then collected into a tray for easy disposal!!  The whole thing can be moved up or down about 4 feet to allow smaller students to reach!!  

As a side note, I love the how the Japanese continually improve things that in America might been seen as "good enough for government work."  This chalkboard is one example.  Crosswalk signs that have a little thermometer style timer (like a download progress bar on a computer) to let you know how long it will be until you can cross or whether or not you truly have enough time to dash across the road before it turns red again. 

Teaching math lessons in English was truly extraordinary, but the most remarkable experience was the teacher observation I witnessed. Paul and I went to observe a new Geometry teacher. In America, our observations consist of 1 administrator. But in Japan this poor woman was being observed by me and 11, yes 11, other teachers!!  I was stunned!  But even more interesting is what this means for the rest of the school. Paul informed me that that means there are 11 classrooms with no teachers. Well surely they have orchestrated the schedule to allow for all of the teachers to have their prep block at the same time?  No!!  There are 11 classrooms filled with kids and no teacher. I had to see this for myself.  I did.  I saw 30 3rd or 4th graders quietly studying by themselves. I would have taken a picture to show you but Paul said it wasn't allowed. You'll just have to trust me on this one. 

After school got out we all met in the hotel lobby to go to dinner together.  We chose Ichiro Suzuki's recommendation: a quaint little fried pork cutlet restaurant. 

Here is the chef and the lovable Paul!  Inside the restaurant the walls are covered with Ichiro's souvenirs. 

We were seated in this private and traditional back room where we started our first course: sake!!

The menu was on the wall. This is no fast food restaurant though. There are only a few dishes and each is listed on a stick. Here's Paul demonstrating:

Paul said to try the best, and Ichiro's favorite.  

Now I've eaten a lot of really good food in my time. This is now in my top ten. You sprinkle the "special salt" on the exposed pork and then stuff your face.  Absolutely scrumptious!

On Saturday we woke up, met some of the students from the adult Ed English class, got on a train, and headed for Kamakura. 

Kamakura is a seaside town known for its massive Buddha and copious hydrangeas.  The crowds can get intense at times so we headed for the hydrangeas first. 

These greeted us in the train station and despite their appearance, they are not fake. :)

The weather was fantastic, the crowds light, and the flowers in bloom!! A trifecta of beauty!

After enjoying the flowers we went to the giant Buddha called Daibutsu.  The whole thing is made of bronze and was built inside a hall in 1252. Now it's in the open air because the hall was washed away by a tsunami in 1495. 

It was hot and we were thirsty so we stopped at the 7-11 to get snacks and headed to the beach!

Now being the fairer-skinned individual that I am, I don't normally like the beach. However, a cold beer, some fish jerky, fried purple potato things, a cool ocean breeze, and good friends make it hard to resist. 

After the beach we walked up to the biggest and most beautiful temple so far: Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū. 

Again we were able to see a wedding here, and this time we were a little closer. 

We ended our Kamakura trip by strolling through the shopping district. I'm so happy that there is another person on the trip who can understand the pain and suffering I endure from the sun. Luckily they sell designer umbrellas so you can look fashionable while avoiding those harmful UV rays!

This whole trip has felt like going on a tour of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory: "Little Surprises around every corner, but nothing dangerous. So don't be alarmed."  If I hadn't been with Paul I would have totally missed this last one:

Umbrellas where the water beads up in patterns, like flowers, music notes, and other designs. 

Ok, I'm done for now. Today we are going souvenir hunting at a flea market and then to the studio Ghibli museum.  I need to get ready!

"Lucky day!"

I really need to be better about writing this blog, because when I finally sit down to write it I have too much to tell. I'll keep setting my sights on once a day but no promises. :)

Yesterday was probably the least eventful day I've had since I got here. I went to school and participated in many different lessons. I even got to sit in on a Kanji class!  After that I came back to the hotel, had 7-11 dinner and everyone was calling it a night so I did too. 

A couple of people have expressed shock and disbelief that in this land of delicious food I would be eating at 7-11. Here's why:

Hotdogs slowly rolling in their own crapulence, this is not. :)  also, it's terrifically priced!  But enough about that, I need to start talking about today because there's a lot to get to. 

We started the day off by going to the Shinagawa city offices where the board of education and the superintendent of schools are.  The building is pretty old and kind of feels like you're stepping back about 50 years. I don't mean that in a bad way. I feel like they've found a system that works for them and if it ain't broke...

This is right outside the offices and can kind of give you a feeling of what I mean. 

When we went inside we were greeted by a standing ovation of the workers in the board of education! I wish I could have taken a picture but that obviously didn't feel appropriate. 

Going in to Superintendent Nakajima's office I was as nervous as if I were about to have a very important job interview. You could just feel the gravitas of this man and it only got more intense as you got closer. We were representing our country, our city, and the 30 year old sister city relationship and we didn't want to do anything to mess that up. 

Luckily, Nakajima was super friendly and welcoming, just like everyone else here!  They brought us tea and he gave us presents:

A black/red/green/blue pen/pencil

And a swan he said was made by "handicapped" children. 

A truly remarkable man. We posed for a group photo (Nakajima is between caroline and me, the other man is Is the assistant superintendent and a fine gentleman as well) and then moved on to the Shinagawa International Friendship Association's office which is in the building right next door. 

At this point it was about 11:30 and everyone else had to go back to work....  Everyone but ME!!  :). My school is doing examinations for two days and I was told that I would just be in the way if I were there. I took this opportunity and ran with it!!

In my down time I've been hunting through my lonely planet Tokyo guide book for things to do and I picked a random district and went for it. My choice: Ginza!!

For those who don't know, Ginza is Tokyo's Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills, and Champs-Élysées.  There is incredible wealth here but mingled in between it all are shops, restaurants, and palaces that have been here for hundreds of years. 

I successfully navigated the subway (which is still surprisingly challenging for me) and immediately headed for Hibiya-Kōen. This has to be the most beautiful city park I have ever seen in my life. I won't say any more. Just look:

Kitty!!  What are you doing?!  Oh I see, protecting us for the deranged onions that sometimes prowl around. Or at least that's what I'm assuming this sign is telling me:

After that I visited Hakuhinkan Toy Park and bought presents which I can't show you here for obvious reasons. But here's the bag:

After this I decided I should check out the older side of Tokyo and found my way to a quaint little shop called Takumi which has been here for more than 60 years. 

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but the place was filled with gorgeous antique ceramics and textiles.

I had my fill of "old" Tokyo and wanted some "new" Tokyo so I went to the Sony building. The first four floors are basically an exhibition hall for all their latest tech. 

Again, these pictures don't really do the place justice. Lets just say the gorgeous young ladies speaking perfect English had me awfully close to dropping $16,000 on this 65 inch 4k tv. Luckily, I got out just in time. 

My last stop in Ginza was Itoya paper crafts.  It was filled with handmade paper, journals, notebooks, handkerchiefs, fans, etc.  Sadly, this is the only picture I took inside. 

At this point I was getting a little tired and had to head back but I had to stop and get one of my new favorites. I'm not sure what its called but its friend, filled with curried meat, and cost about $1. 

What a day!!  Every one brings new exciting things around every corner and I love just jumping in not knowing what I'll see next. For instance, this: the most adorable frigging thing you can imagine. 

Yes, I asked permission to take this photo and yes I'm packing her and the dog in my suitcase and bringing them home with me.