Overdue Tokyo trip update

Sorry for the delay in this post. I've been procrastinating to write this post because I know it's going to be a long one. My trip to Tokyo was absolutely amazing. Just thinking back to what a wonderful weekend I had brings a big smile to my face. Here's a brief agenda of what happened last weekend:

Day 1

• Arrived in Asakusa and stayed at Khaosan Hostel
• Went to Sky Bar located on the 22nd floor of the Asahi building
• More drinks at Tokyo 23

Day 2

• Breakfast at Denny's
• Visited the Asakusa shrine and got myself a good fortune :D
• Stopped over in Ueno for a yummy YUMMY sandwich
• Shopping in Shibuya where all the trendiest clothes are sold
• Stopped in Shinjuku to look for maid bars/cafes (failed.. they're actually located in Akihabara)
• Rode the monorail to Odaiba - the futuristic man-made island
  
• Clubbing in Roppongi until 5 a.m.

Day 3 - with 2 hours of sleep

• Went to Harajuku for lunch and shopping
• Visited the Meiji Shrine, one of the Tokyo's major shrines dedicated to Emperor Meiji and witnessed a Japanese wedding!
• Too tired for anything else and got home by 7:00 p.m. to catch up on sleep before work the next morning!

If you're not satisfied with reading just my agenda and want MORE juicy information about my weekend, you can read on...

Day 1 (with details)

Although my phone gave me the weather forecast for the day, I decided to take a chance and hope it was wrong because I really didn't want to carry an umbrella around with me, especially while biking.

Luckily, umbrellas in Japan are like finding pennies on the ground. They're easy to find and when you pick up a random umbrella, no one will look at you funny or suspect you stole the umbrella because basically everyone uses the same type. And chances are, the umbrella they're holding probably isn't theirs either. lol

When I arrived in Tokyo, my worst nightmare came true... it was raining cats and dogs and I was there without an umbrella. :( Luckily, I was able to "borrow" one at the hostel. ^_^

Half of us caught dinner at fast-food curry restaurant. Japanese curry is actually quite different from Indian curry. I don't really know which one I like better since I'm not big on curry, but I'm probably going to have it again some time since it's very popular here. Better yet, maybe I'll learn to make it myself :D

Since it stopped raining after dinner, I decided I need to satisfy my little shopping itch. Sadly, the department stores were closing and so I ended up wandering the streets for a shop to be opened... and I FOUND it!!! :D But my shopping itch wasn't satisfied... so I treated myself to a little something sweet :D

I'm not sure what this is.. but I think it's Japanese pudding with yummy fruits and a thin layer of cake at the bottom. It was MmmMmMmm delicious!!! ^_^






Unfortunately, I was unable to take a picture of how beautiful it was to be on the 22nd floor of the Asahi building because of the rain and reflection of the glass. But for anyone who ever plans on visiting Japan, you should definitely pay a visit to Sky Bar, located in the Asakusa area. It's like going to Panorama without paying the Panorama price for drinks and the view of Japan is so much prettier than Toronto.

Day 1 ended with more drinks at Tokyo 23 Bar, where we got our free drinks for staying at Khaosan Hostel. The bar wasn't anything too impressive, but it was fun just take shots with my "birthday buddy" haha... we're not even the same horoscope!

FYI, in Japan, NOTHING is 24 hours, well, except certain convenient stores such as AM/PM, 7/11 and Lawsons. When a McD says 24 hours, it means that it closes at the 24th hour (midnight). SCAMMERS!






hmmm... looks like details of Day2 will have to wait until tomorrow. It's 2 a.m. over here and I have some brats to take care of tomorrow. Until then.... *meow*

Registered Alien with a NEW Sexy Phone! :D

I'm officially a REGISTERED ALIEN!!!! Thanks Japan for identifying me as an alien!

But being an alien is great because it allowed me to pick up my NEW sexy phone!!!


923SH

• 3.3" Widescreen VGA LCD - I can watch Japanese TV
  
• 5.2 Megapixel Camera
• Digital TV (One Seg)
• Media Player
• microSDHC™ Memory Card (sold separately)*⁴
• Bar (QR) Code Reader - coolest thing EVER!!!! I can scan barcodes!!!!
  
• Bluetooth^®
• IrDA
• Simple Mode
• PC Site Browser
• Global Roaming Service
• 3G High Speed
• PC Mail
• Graphic Mail
• Chaku-Uta Full^®/Chaku-Uta^®
• E-Comics
• S! Appli
• S! Music Connect
• S! Information Channel
• S! Quick News
• Customized Screen
• S! Town
• S! Friend's Status
• S! Circle Talk
• Video Call*⁵
• S! FeliCa (Mobile Suica)
• S! GPS NAVI - now I won't get lost as often :D
  
• S! Familiar Usability
• S! Addressbook Back-up (SAB)

It's an absolute beauty :D

You can email me at irene.fung@softbank.ne.jp
It's like a SMS for me! :D

Hospitable count: 3

So you've all read about the first hospitable story - entire family walks me home.



After this experience, I finally learned my way home from school! My school is situated across the street from Belc Supermarket (ベルク ｽｰﾊﾟｰ, pronouced b-ru-ku su-pa-), which most people know about. My second hospitable count occurred the weekend before this past weekend when I was lost and wandering the streets after a Japanese conversational class. I wandered up to a stranger and asked "ベルク ｽｰﾊﾟｰ はどこですか？” (Where's Belc Supermarket? - B-ru-ku su-pa- wa, doko desu ka?). And just like last time, I didn't understand what she said after I asked. haha... So guess what? Yep! She rode her bike with me to Belc!

Yesterday was even more interesting. After work, I decided to wander the streets of Kumagaa for some sort of community centre (don't know if those exist here) to take some yoga lessons to stay active and meet people. My manager told me it was around this huge karaoke bar. Now, who thinks I got lost trying to get to the karaoke bar??? Well, HA! you're wrong!!! i found the karaoke bar just fine, and along the way I found this really cool chinese restaurant that I must try. Now I can take whoever visits me to karaoke and chinese food! lol

Back to the story, since getting there wasn't the issues, of course looking for my centre was a HUGE issue. I really need to practice reading my katakana. I rode my bike for about 10 minutes around the area looking for a building that could look like a community centre, but found no luck. I resort to asking strangers on the street. I asked a few people if they understood English and then I even started doing yoga positions for them to explain yoga and they just stared at me weirdly and told me to ask the gas station attendant. lol. I almost gave up when I rode past a building that looks a place where I can take cooking lessons. While standing infront of this building trying to decipher a board full of kanji and hiragana, I saw a woman walk by and thought, "what the heck. Last one. If she doesn't speak English, I give up and I'll just ask my manager tomorrow."

So I approached her and asked if she spoke English. SHE SAID YESSSSSSSSS!!!! I got so excited I started talking to her in my regular excited pace (for those who don't know what that sounds like... it's REALLY fast). Poor girl looked SO confused!!! I slowed down my pace and tried to explain community centre, yoga, meet people, learn japanese. She didn't know what a community centre was or of any nearby place to take yoga, so she couldn't help me. She asked if I was chinese, and when I said yes, she started talking to me mandarin. errrr... you should've seen the confused look on my face and my terrible attempt to tell her I don't speak mandarin! lol well we spoke for a good 1/2 hour - 1 hour and she gave me her phone number and might be enroling her 5 year-old daughter into my school for English classes. :D (making a new friend and business, how wonderful is that?) Well, as always, this story ends with me in a lost situation and she ends up walking with me to Belc! :D

I hope I don't ever run out of lifelines to meet wonderfully nice people who'll always take me home! :D

Talk about crazzzzzzy

This entry isn't a personal experience but one of my friends whom I met during training. While I'm experiencing all the sugar and everything nice of Japan, he seems to be getting.... well, you'll see after reading this.

The story of the week:

Crazy StoriesRound 2
Place: My Apartment
ComplexTime: 9:15 a.m., this morning
Scenario: Craziness

My doorbell rings, jarring me out of a sound sleep and out of the arms of one Ms. Jennifer Garner. My first thought: "Aww hell, I overslept...now my crazy manager is going to dine on my face." Surprise surprise, I look at the clock and see that I still have 3 hours before I have to be at work. Well who the hell would be at my door then?

Groggy and confused I open the door in my boxers. But let me tell you, nothing breaks that haze faster than seeing 7 men in blue uniforms and masks standing outside your door screaming in Japanese. They point down the corridor to my neighbour's door 20 feet away and after a completely useless interchange in Japanese, one man runs up and makes "get your shoes" and "get downstairs" gestures. At this point things seem important, so I just run back in to grab some pants and bolt downstairs, coming across 7 more uniformed men running in the opposite direction. At the bottom of my apartment, in the street, there are at least 10 more uniformed figures, all in masks, a fire truck and an ambulance. As they usher me into a nearby building, I see the other tenants fleeing the building, barely dressed and all wearing the same expression of confusion and concern.

Shortly after, a police car arrives, carrying four police officers in Kevlar vests...and after that another truck with 5 men...all in full yellow hazmat suits. Just one of those days I wished I had paid more attention in Japanese class. Thank goodness that two of the JTs live in my apartment, and soon one comes hastily into the adjacent building.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Your neighbour committed suicide"

"Huh." pretty much all I could muster at that point.

After a brief silent interlude.

"So why are they evacuating the building?"

"They think she used a very dangerous chemical, and they can't get into the room where she opened the container"

"Right."

At this point, the JT is noticably shaking, while the rest of the room is coated in a preternatural silence. Tiana comes down after about 15 minutes, somehow managing to sleep through the noise and officials banging on her door.

We wait for an hour and a half, eventually finding out that the girl didn't make it and that it may be just gas that she used...but they're not sure. They urge us to open our windows and to call the ambulance service if we feel the slightest bit sick.

By the time they clear the apartment, it's 45 minutes before I have to be at work. I bathe, dress and rush down...just in time to see the parents as they get the news from the police. It was one of the most heart wrenching things I have seen in a while. They looked so reserved and stoic for a second...then the mother just collapsed into a heap in the street, bawling and crying while the father just stared into nothingness.

I gotta say, I could really use this weekend out of my city.

---------

I don't know if any of my stories can ever top this one.

How's the weather? It's raining, it's raining tonight

A little song I sing to my students to teach them the weather:

How's the weather?
It's raining
How's the weather?
It's raining
How's the weather?
It's raining, it's raining today!!!

Maybe someday I'll make a video of me teaching this song! :)

As random as I am, there's a reason why I started this blog with this song... it's because it's... guess what? raining outside and I'm stuck at home on a Sunday night! :( I know that doesn't sound too terrible, but Sunday and Monday are my days off so it's a huge bummer! Time to go shopping for some RAIN BOOTS! :D

On a happy note, I attended a baking class today and made this:

1. sponge cake

2. Dressed with fresh cream, kiwis, cherries, and peaches

3. Final product - a trifle cake ^_^

My first embarassing moment

こんばんは！(konbanwa) - Good evening!

It's an absolutely beautiful evening in Kumagaya (26 degrees), which is why I'm planning to get lost in my little town tonight. But before I leave for my little adventure, I thought I would share my first embarassing moment... well, aside from CONSTANTLY getting lost, my first REAL embarassing moment.

Ever since I arrived in Kumagaya, I've become a little less afraid of spiders because they're EVERYWHERE! But there was this one spider crawling around my school haunting me all day at school. In the morning, it was hanging from the ceiling infront of my classroom. In the afternoon, it was crawling on the wall behind me distracting my students. And finally, in the evening, during my second last class, I noticed my student wasn't paying attention to me anymore. I turned to look at what she might be looking at, and there it was... the same spider from this morning hanging 2 inches away from my face!!! I couldn't have bounced out of my chair any faster or screeched any higher and louder!

Now, guess what my student did next. Well, of course she laughed at me (who wouldn't?), but what was unbelievable was she grabbed the web the spider was hanging from and threw the spider out the window! It was the coolest yet weirdest thing I've ever seen. Grabbing the web and not using a tissue or cup to catch the spider... oh Japanese people, how you make me fall in love with you more and more each day... <3>

Next weekend... TOKYO HERE I COME!!!!

A sweet gift... 岡山桃

Story of the week:

Before coming to Japan, I swore to myself one of the things I must try is a Japanese peach. Sadly, I didn't do enough research to find out WHERE the best peaches were grown and I almost missed out on trying the BEST peach in Japan!

During the week of training in Okayama, I saw these beautiful peaches that were ridiculously overpriced! (11 000 YEN for 6). I was warned that everything, especially fruits, were expensive in Japan, so I didn't think anything of it. Since I didn't have any lugguage space, I thought I could buy peaches in Kumagaya of the same quality. When I arrived in Kumagaya, the first thing I asked my Manager to do with me was to go to the supermarket to buy some peaches! :D I explained to her my love for peaches and how expensive the peaches in Okayama were. And this is when she told me...

Okayama grows the best fruits in Japan because they have the perfect weather to cultivate fruits.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH~

Okayama is 5 hours away and travelling domestically is VERY expensive in Japan. I'd be spending $400 just to buy some peaches... how insane does that sound?

Well luckily, and when I say LUCKILY, I can't emphasize the LUCK enough, the last day of training after the after-dinner-party, I met some locals (remember from the first entry). I kept in touch with a couple of them because I carried the camera that took the group photo of that evening. So in the midst of our email conversations, I told one of them how disappointed I was when I found out Okayama has the best peaches and I didn't take advantage of the chance to buy and try one. He quickly offered to look for it and mail it to me.

Look what I got in the mail.....

kekeke... I LOVE JAPAN!!!!

Pictures are posted

First couple of days in Okayama
http://picasaweb.google.com/ifung84/TrainingInOkayama?authkey=fDj7M0tG6hk#

Training after-party
http://picasaweb.google.com/ifung84/LastDaysOfTraining?authkey=5gNyQW-wDwQ#

First of many blogs

こんいちわ！！

日本に来てから、二週間になります。素晴らしい所ですねえ と ここで、何もかも楽しんでいます！今まで、岡山と熊谷え行きました。

So to translate... Hello!!

I've been in Japan for 2 weeks. It's a wonderful place and I've really been enjoying it here. I've been to Okayama and Kumagaya.

Impressive eh? hehe... wouldn't it be great if I could write an entire blog in Japanese? I think that's going to be ONE of my MANY goals this year while I'm in Japan! :D

For all the curious cats out there, here's a summary of a little bit of my "adventure" here in Japan! :D

A little taste of Okayama (岡山).

This is where I spent my first week of Japan and also where training was taken place! Fancy huh? hehe... I'm just kidding. Training was taken place in Okayama, but not in this castle.

This is the Okayama castle, popularly known as "Crow Castle." It's situated right across from the very popular and beautiful Korankuen Garden.

Aside from these beautiful scenaries, training was a lot tougher than I had expected. I was basically thrown into a Japanese cram course without knowing it. But when it was all over, it was definitely worth it! The after-party...

We had dinner at a traditional Japanese restaurant and OMG is all I can say about their food. Everything, and when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING, tastes amazing!!! A simple salad from this restaurant tasted like it was from heaven. *drools* just thinking about the food.


After dinner, we randomly met a group of local Okayama-ers? and we hung out with them. Althought we just finished dinner, they invited us to their dinner to have some drinks with them and then offered to take us out to the nightclub afterwards! They were so hospitable!




Wonderful little Kumagaya (熊谷)

Kumagaya is the little town that I'm living in. Now, where do I even begin to explain how happy I am to be living in this town? First of all, unlike all the horror stories of living in a closet, I live in a 2 bedroom (and not Japanese closet bedrooms, we're talking about full-size bedrooms) WITH closets, ktichen, living room, bathroom and fully furnished apartment. Second, I have the best location to teach. My manager is the sweetest person and most helpful manager ever. I had the best trainer to shadow for my first week here. My kids are all really bright and easy to work with (with a couple of exceptions). I live 5 minutes away from work, there's a mall 15 minutes away, and I'm an hour away from Tokyo by train (1100YEN = $11).

Now the story of last week:

The first couple of days, my manager would pick me up and drive me home from work because she was worried I would get lost. (how sweet is that?) By the 4th day, I decided I should become a little more independent and find my way home. I hopped onto my little red bike that my manager gave me, and rode home from school. I had written directions, and I had a drawn map from my manager, yet somehow, with my great sense of direction, I was still able to get lost. It was late, dark, and I was scared. Luckily, one of the first phrases I learned to say is "______ wa, doko desu ka?" (Where is ________?) I saw some guy riding his bike, and I stopped him, showed him my address and asked if he knew where it was. Guess what? Knowing how to ask the question is useless when you can't understand the answer!!! So, the universal language is BODY LANGUAGE! He motioned me to follow him, and so I did! I ended up following him home and waited outside his house for him. Now, you won't even be able to GUESS what happened next because it would NEVER happen in Toronto.

His little son, daughter and wife all came out, riding their little bikes and took me home!!! Talk about a living in a great neighbourhood! :D I LOVE JAPAN!

Pictures of my wonderful trip will be posted soon. Until then, I miss you all at home and keep me posted with Toronto stories please!!!

XOXO