Who's excited? Me's excited!

So I just found out that I'll be moving out of Ray's English Club (the place I've been staying at for the past month and a half or so for those of you who may be a bit behind) on December fourth, just under two weeks! Now don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed my time here, I like the teachers and the students and the free time that it yields, but I've been feeling as though I'm in a constant state of flux, just waiting to move to Matsumoto and have my own place.

Anyway I should probably fill you in on some of the past happenings before I get too carried away here.

I haven't been doing too much as of late, although I did go to Tsukiji Fish Market (one of the biggest fish markets in the world) and the Imperial Palace (the place where the emperor lives). Tsukiji was awesome and a sight to behold for sure! The area was huge and there were tons of different vendors peddling their fish and other wares. Some of the fish were huge and crazy (they resorted to cutting the blue fin tuna with an over-sized ban saw), but one of the best things was that attached to the Fish Market was another big area reserved for vegetables and fruits (basically a Farmers Market) which had some stuff for better prices than most of the supermarkets including strawberries! I walked around there for a bit then had to go to a sushi shop for some good eats! They had the freshest sushi that I've ever had and at really good prices, it was amazing!

After Tsukiji I headed to the Imperial Palace with Taylor (another one of the teachers) and wee walked around the palace moat and through out the adjoined garden, although we couldn't even see the Imperial Palace itself, apparently the emperor doesn't want to be observed by the public all day every day... go figure. One of the coolest things about the palace area was that it is a huge garden and grassy area smack dab in the middle of Tokyo, which isn't exactly known for it's grass and nature scenery. Actually one of the worst/most inconvenient things about the train system in Tokyo is that all trains go around the palace, so it takes longer and looks more cluttered.

And now back to the move! Fun stuff and I'm definitely looking forward to it. I'm not yet sure how I'm going to get my stuff to Matsumoto, but I'll figure something out. I just have to see if I'm able to re pack it all again, now there's the tough part! Right now I think I'm most excited about having something to do during the day and a place of my own that I can really start to cook in and actually get comfortable. That's all I really have to say now, so I'm outta here!

Paper Wins!

No normal pair of scissors could win against this paper, not to mention the damage it'd do to the rock!

I went to Higashichichibu last weekend with Danny (one of the other teachers). It was about an hour and a half trip to get there and it was a really small place, but it was totally worth it! It was completely surrounded by mountains and secluded from the neighboring town. We watched the people make different parts of the paper and watched them put the designs of flowers and leaves into the paper. After hanging around the 'factory' for a bit we took a walk around the grounds and saw some of the really old equipment that was used. Then before we left we spent over an hour in the shop looking at all of the different kinds of products that they make and it's absolutely amazing to think that it's all made by hand!

After that worthwhile trip we had to get up early the next day too for a trip to the neighboring bonsai village. A couple of the students said they'd take us over there and show us around, which was great because neither of us knew anything about bonsai trees and one of the students raises them. They drove us over there, and I have to admit I was a little worried at times (the streets are so narrow and they drive quite fast for the amount of hairpin turns and people walking in the street). We spent hours looking at all of the trees. some of them were quite young (10-100 years old) but others were over four hundred years old! These older trees were between three and five feet tall and had huge trunks. the trees were twisted and bent in all sorts of cool shapes and designs as well as planted to grow around and over rocks, but my favorite ones were grown around super old, partially fossilized, dead bonsai trees. the old dead parts were white and hard (not even a little brittle) and they had a new/newer tree growing around it following it's shape so that they started to fuse together. They were so cool! Sadly none of the places allowed pictures (but yet we could touch...) since they were basically considered treasures because of the time that they take to grow and the care that they require (here's the site, with some pics: http://members.iinet.net.au/~jold/bonsai-in-asia/japanomiya.html).

Til next time!

Future Boy, He's really Unbelievable!

Before I was merely fourteen hours ahead of the central time zone in which you all consider your home, but being bored with such a pittance of a difference, as the rest of you stood still for one hour, I moved onward through the space-time continuum and am now fifteen hours in the future. Thus I present to you... Future Boy(based on a real TV show back in the day, here in Japan, probably based on someone much like myself)!

I haven't accomplished too much in the last week or so. the main event was a going away party (better know here as a さようなら party) that we held for one of the teachers who had been here for over a year. It was defiantly a good time had by all! We went to a restaurant and ordered in true Japanese party tradition (everyone orders a thing or so that they want and when it comes it all gets passed around). I'll admit that there were some things that I didn't know what I was eating, and some things that the Japanese people didn't know either, but nothing was bad. After spending a couple hours and a decent amount of money there some people left and the rest of us went to a different restaurant where the main course was the booze (sake is gooood). All in all we were out for about seven hours and had a lot to drink, but we sent her off in quite the fashion!

Tomorrow I'm going to go to a town that is famous for making paper and I'm going to check out the processes that they use to get the leaves and such in the paper. I'm actually fairly excited about paper! It should be a good time. Even though this was quite short, until next time...