The last week, a re-cap

We’ve been really busy since the last entry. Mike has been working hard on his research, and I’ve been touring around Tokyo with two sets of guests, Scott and Meredith and Miso and Peso. Each night, I’ve been totally exhausted, meaning to post, but just too tired to do so. I never really thought that I had any “Tokyo skills,” until I tried to lead four people who’ve never really been to Tokyo around the city for three days straight . . . .

On Monday, we went to Kamakura to see the giant Buddha. The weather wasn’t amazing, but the rain did hold off, mostly. Since the weather was iffy, we didn’t go for the beach picnic option as I had when I went with my mother in October. Instead, we found this great mostly vegetarian restaurant where they make their own tofu. Generally, I am not a tofu fan. I find it cold and rubbery. But fresh tofu here is soft and creamy, a bit like yoghurt, but without the dairy bitterness. So I am getting to like it. The tofu (and the whole lunch, really) at this place was amazing.

We even found a Leonidas shop at which to buy dessert!

Then we saw the big Buddha. Miso and Peso even paid to go inside the Buddha.After that, we went to another nearby temple, Hasadera. From the top of the temple, there was a great view of the white-capped ocean and all the windsurfers and surfers out there.

On Tuesday, we all went to Asakusa to see “old Tokyo.” I’d never been to Asakusa before, nor to Sensoji Temple. The walk from the first gates of the temple to the second, inner gate (about 100 feet) took about 40 minutes because we kept being stopped by groups of schoolchildren wanting to practice their English.

A typical encounter would be something like this:

Students, in a chorus: Hello!
Us: Hello.
Student 1: I am Kenzo Watanabe.
Student 2: I am Mariko Hayama.
Student 3: I am Yukiko Tanaka.
Student 4: I am Hiroshi Yoshida.
Students, in a chorus: What is your name?
Us, very slowly and clearly, each in turn: I am . . .
Students, producing a blank world map and some stickers: Where are you from?
Us, very slowly and clearly, each in turn: I am from . . .
Students, producing a clipboard with a sheet filled with signatures of Anglophone names: Sign here, please!
[We sign, as evidence that we did, in fact, talk to them]
Students, producing folded origami stars, pandas, cranes, etc: Present-o!
Us: Thank you! Thank you very much!
Students: Goodbye! Have a nice day!
Us: Goodbye! Have a nice day!

Repeat.

Meanwhile, as all of this was going on, there was an announcement blaring in the background that was saying something like: “Please talk to the schoolchildren when they approach you. It is very important and will help them to make their English more beautiful.”

We finally made it to the temple. The temple also has a pagoda, which is pretty cool.

For lunch, we went to this great okonomiyaki restaurant. Okonomiyaki is a type of Japanese savory pancake that you usually cook at your table on an inlaid griddle. We cooked ours and they turned out to be pretty delicious!

Wednesday, Miso and Peso left for Kyoto and Scott and Meredith came out to Tsukuba. Meredith visited the school where I volunteer and taught a great lesson on making one’s own accordion books. I have such talented friends! After school, she joined me on my new Wednesday hobby, indoor rock bouldering.

Thursday, I hit the Imperial Palace East Garden with Scott and Meredith. First, though, we checked out Akihabara, the electronics district, where we found this great sign.

Then we ate a choco cro [there'll be a whole post about these coming soon] – and then it was off to the East Garden . . .(well, okay, those shots are actually taken just outside the entry to the garden, but I was very taken with the flowers in this planter. Now, the palace garden:)

I must confess that after such a cold winter, I have gone a little sakura (cherry blossom) crazy. My phone now has a picture of the blossoms above on it, and I’ve bought a travel mug from Starbucks that is decorated with stylized sakura. And the sakura are not even at their height yet.

Friday was Daniella’s birthday, so we had a little dinner party.(this is the box of the cake in the first picture. You MUST click on this picture to open it larger and read the label. It is classic.)

Daniella, who was an elementary school teacher in Seattle, teaches private English lessons here. This is the gift one of her students gave her on Valentine’s Day:

Yes, that is a chocolate wrench. I mean, what else could say “Valentine’s Day” like a chocolate wrench? When Daniella commented that that was a very interesting gift, the mother of Daniella’s student replied that the wrench was symbolic, because the mother hoped that their relationship with Daniella would grow closer and tighter. It’s very sweet, if you think about it . . . (I love the puns!)

Daniella also remains the Ikebana super-star:
Last, check out my fabulous new t-shirt: