Back in the 'Bu

I'm back in Chichibu for the day, using Chris and Amanda's laptop which thankfully defaults its web settings to English. I'm thoroughly enjoying my 'weekend' after my first full week teaching. Work has been going really well so far. I teach in a small Nova school in a neighbourhood called Sengawa (which literally translates as "hermit river", although I've yet to see a hermit or a river). Sengawa is a rather swanky neighbourhood with multiple cafes, tea shops, an organic food store, a crepe stand and, to my great delight, a Starbucks. I'm one of only 4 teachers at my school and my classes are usually one-on-one, which I really like. I basically get paid to just chat with some really kind and interesting people. My favourite class to teach is called Voice, which is really just a conversation lounge for students of all levels of ability. My job is to introduce a topic for discussion and to keep the conversation going. It's very fun and I get to learn so much about Japan.

Although I really like my job, I was still very happy to have yesterday off. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day, absolutely perfect as I was looking forward to exploring more around Tokyo and my new home town of Fuchu. In the morning I went in search of the forest in Fuchu that a student had told me about. The forest turned out to be more of an arboretum, but it was beautiful nonetheless, with walking trails, fountains and sports fields full of kindergarteners. I'm very happy to have found it, I think I'll be going back often. It's a nice respite from the bustle of city.

In the afternoon I ventured into Tokyo and decided to check out Ueno Park. Ueno Park is a massive area that's home to a half dozen museums, a seventeenth century Shinto shrine, a Buddhist temple, an amusement park, fountains, a boating pond and a zoo. It's also home to a sizeable proportion of Tokyo's homeless population. Japan is, overall, a very prosperous country and I really haven't seen much poverty since I've been here. It was a jarring contrast to see people sleeping on benches amongst the tourists and upwardly mobile Tokyoites, to see tarps draped in the bushes just feet from beautifully preserved shrines and museums. Unlike at home, the homeless people didn't beg; they just sat, seemingly unnoticed by the passers by.

I spent the better part of the afternoon at the Tokyo National Museum. While my education has exposed me to a lot of Western history and art, I have to admit I'm rather clueless about Asia in general. After visiting the museum, I'm inspired to change that. I saw many beautiful paintings and artefacts and got just the slightest introduction to the long and rocky relationship between Chinese and Japanese culture, particularly in regards to religion. I've got lots more to learn!

Sumo!

Hey all,

So I finally found an internet cafe! Unfortunately, it defaults all websites to their japanese versions and I can't figure out how to change it to English, so I hope this works!

Today was very fun and exciting. I went along with 4 other new Nova teachers to watch sumo. There are 6 15-day long sumo tournaments every year in Japan, three of which are in Tokyo. Luckily,Tokyo's in the middle of the September tournament now. We got to the stadium at around 11:30 and were surprised to find it practically empty. Checking the schedule, we found out that the lower level matches happen in the morning, with the big show starting around 4pm. Fortunately, at around that time they opened the Chanko lunch hall up. According to my nifty guidebook, Chanko is "the tasty stable boiled potpourri for sumo wrestlers". Basically, it's chicken soup with a bunch of odd vegetables in it too. So I ate like a sumo wrestler :)

After lunch we took a sumo break and explored the streets around the stadium. We happened upon a little shrine and cemetery nestled in amongst the buildings (something that's quite common here). Japanese often leave little gifts, incense, food, etc for their relatives at their grave markers. It's all very reverent. I noticed a little building set apart from the other graves, so I thought I'd check it out. I was a little nervous that this might be a private area and not a proper place for me to visit, but I thought I'd check it out anyway, making sure I was extra cautious. Inside appeared to be small stacked compartments, which I assumed at first were for cremated ashes. Looking closer, I noticed that many of the compartments had pictures of dogs and cats on them. Apparantly Japanese pets are well taken care of in the afterlife, as well as this one.

Anyway, back to Sumo. By the afternoon things really started going. The stadium was full of people, including the most foreigners that I've seen in one place since being in Japan. We met one very high-class woman from New York City who apparantly flies to Tokyo every year for the tournament. We also saw many of the earlier, lower ranked wrestlers hanging out in the stadium after their bouts, still wearing the ceremonial dress (the robes, not the little loin cloth thingys) and smelling oddly of baby powder. More than one was rocking out to his ipod.

The last match of the day featured Asasyoryu, the only wrestler to currently hold the sports highest rank, yokozuna (which basically means grand champion). Asasyoryu has won 17 tournaments. No other active wrestler has won more than one. He didn't disappoint either, winning his bout, although his challenger put up a good battle. I didn't really realize until I saw them up close just how strong and muscular the sumo are. These guys are crazy built, as well as very flexible. The tournament runs until Sunday, I'll let you know who wins it all. My money's on the yokozuna.

School's In

Hey guys,

I'm back in Fuchu after my awesome weekend in Chichibu. Monday I began training for my new job as an English teacher. It's been going pretty well so far, although as with any new job it's a bit intimidating at times. I have one more day of training left, then two days off, then I begin teaching in my regular branch on Saturday.

My training is taking place at a large school in Shinjuku. As I mentioned before, Shinjuku is sort of the Western edge of Tokyo proper. So far, it's the furthest I've been into the city. While I've seen a glimpse of the Japanese countryside and am settling into life in the suburbs (which are very different from suburbs at home- no subdivisions, no SUVs, lots of little local shops), today was my first experience navigating the big city. I went with Adelle, who I'm training with, to find a 100 yen shop (dollar store) so that she could get a watch while waiting for hers to be fixed. It wasn't a very difficult task but I found it odd that the store was located on the 8th floor of a building. I'm so used to sprawling strip malls, but they don't make very much sense in a city with a population density of 5500/km2. Crazy, eh?

Over all I'm still doing very well. I'm surrounded by english speakers at home and at work so I always have someone to talk to. The most difficult thing right now is being without a phone or internet (I'm using Karen's computer now, but it's not the same as having my own). I'm feeling a little disconnected from the outside world, seeing as I can't understand the news on TV or just pick up a news paper. I'm still on the lookout for a good internet cafe. Once I find one of those, you should be hearing from me more often :)

Hello from Chichibu!

So I'm actually in Japan. Craziness. Anyhoo, I'm very sorry that it's taken so long for me to post here. The past three days have been perhaps the most hectic of my life, there's been so much to take in. Here's a quick rundown of what I've been up to so far.

My 13 hour flight to Tokyo got a little longer by being delayed an hour and a half. Once we were finally in the air, however, the flight was surprisingly enjoyable. My beautiful new iPod kept me company, the food wasn't half bad, and I finally got to see Strictly Ballroom. When we landed, the 7 other Canadian nova teachers on my flight and I were thankfully met by a rep from the company. In addition to the 8 of us, another 50 teachers from around the world flew into Tokyo on Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately, due to our delay, the timing was a bit tight for us to get our connecting planes, trains, and buses to our apartments. I was sent running with Sean from England and Adelle from North Carolina to catch our bus to Chofu, where we were met by more Nova staff and caught the train to Fuchu.

My apartment building is about a 10 minute walk from Bubaigawara station. The first thing I saw coming out of the station was the ubiquitous Golden Arches of McDonalds. However, everything else about the walk from Bubai to my new home seemed distinctly japanese. The streets are narrow and filled with tiny shops selling mostly food, flowers and electronics. I was relieved to discover that my neighbourhood seems much more like a suburb than a massive city. I could even hear crickets.

My apartment was likewise a pleasant surprise. Although it is smaller than most in Canada, it's certainly not as small as I'd feared. My bedroom is actually bigger here than back home. I'm sharing my apartment with 2 roommates, Alyce from New Zealand and Karen from Toronto. After dropping off some of my stuff, the three of us, along with Adelle (who lives in the same building as me) and her two roommates Stephanie and Amber went to the restaurant next door for sushi (actual raw fish sushi, my first ever!).

Thursday morning Karen took me to the grocery store. I avoided everything in boxes, seeing as I had no idea what anything was. I'm planning on buying one every week though so that I can find out.

In the afternoon Amber took Adelle and I into downtown Fuchu to register at the city office. Although part of greater Tokyo, fuchu is considered a city itself with about 300,000 residents. The downtown has beautiful wide tree-lined boulevards and a large Shinto shrine. It also has 2 Starbucks. A grande caramel cappuccino tastes the same in Fuchu as in Waterloo.

This morning I set out from Fuchu to visit Amanda and Chris in Chichibu. The first leg of my trip took me to Shinjuku train station. Shinjuku is one of the largest shopping and business centres of Tokyo proper. Very much the stereotypical bright lights and skyscrapers image of Tokyo. More people pass through Shinjuku station every day than any other station in the world. If you've ever seen pictures of the people pushers cramming commuters into trains in Japan, that's at Shinjuku. I was definitely scared, seeing as I had to change trains there, but it actually went surprisingly smoothly. 2 hours and 3 trains later, I was winding through the mountains Northwest of Tokyo. I don't know if I've ever experienced as big a contrast in scenery in such a short time. The countryside around Chichibu is breathtakingly beautiful. Rushing rivers cutting through mountains capped in clouds and covered in evergreen trees. However the best part of Chichibu was definitely seeing Amanda and Chris. I'm so lucky to have such great friends so close. In the afternoon Amanda had to teach a Kindergarten English class, which I got to sit in on. Kindergartens in Japan are like Canadian preschools combined with kindergarten, so the kids range from 3-6 years old. Amanda's class were 4 years olds, and perhaps the cutest 4 year olds I've ever seen. So funny.

And that pretty much takes us up to now. The past few days have been a little overwhelming at times but overall, life in Japan has treated me well. I'm looking forward to exploring more!