Atsui desu ne!?

The past couple of weeks have brought with them overwhelming evidence of summer. The heat has skyrocketed and the humidity has reached a level that I didn't think possible. Just the other day I read the temperature on the way home and saw that it said 34 degrees celsius. This is equivalent to 94 degrees fareinheit and the humidity here is off the charts. It doesn't help that the schools here do not use air condition and I don't have air condition in my room. Although, I do have two fans in my room that are constantly on and pointed at me. I probably lose about 5 lbs. of water everytime I exercise and when I get through running I probably lose more than that. It has been so hot that I was forced to get a haircut, even though I was afraid to have my hair cut in Japan for the first time. I studied online for some phrases that I might need to know. I even wrote them down and took them with me to the barber shop. I told the owner of the onsen that I was going to get my hair cut and she asked if I wanted her to go with me to translate. I said no and walked over to the barber shop, which is like five and a half steps away from where I live. They offered me a seat and I don't think they realized that I was there for a haircut, but fortunately, Ms. Fujishima came to the barber shop after all and thought she would help me out. This made the process much easier, but they still showed me a book full of Japanese hairstyles, which I did not want anything to do with. I pulled out a picture of myself on my alien registration card to show them how my hair looks short. This seemed to be okay so they had me sit down and then it took a full hour for them to cut my hair. And it was much more expensive than it should have been. But I was glad to have short hair and be a tiny bit less hot than I was before. However, even as I write this update at school, there are small puddles of sweat where my arms are resting on the laptop. They have a fan facing me that swivels back and forth. They were using it earlier in the day, but I guess they decided just to sweat today as it got even warmer later in the day. You would think they would invest in an air conditioning unit for the school seeing as how they are constantly going around saying "Atsui desu ne?"and "Atsui!". I mean seriously, the Japanese teachers carry towels around with them to dry their faces and arms off and their clothes are covered in sweat. Well, i'm just going to continue sitting here pouring water down my throat to replenish the amount I have sweated out.

Trip to Fukushima with the Fujishima Family and Adventures of Mami-chan

On Sunday morning I awoke bright and early to meet with the Fujishima family at the entrance to the onsen.

They had previously arranged a trip for Will and I and told us that it would be somewhere scenic. We had no clue what to expect, but they pulled up in their large minivan and off we went at 9am in the morning. In tow was their two and a half year old daughter, Mami-chan, who is just the cutest little girl in the world. She is always running around the onsen saying "Michael-san" and sometimes she even tries to work out with me. At times she rides her little Hello Kitty tricycle through the old corridors of the onsen and I must admit it is reminiscent of The Shining, but other times she comes in my room and I amuse her with my Shia Labeouf motorcycle toy, which she stole.


We got onto the highway and just kept going and going and going. After we passed Sendai, most of all the passengers were asleep, except for myself and Mr. Fujishima, who was driving. After about 3 hours, including two rest stops, we arrived at a small and extremely traditional tourist village. There were little huts selling souvenirs and they all had thatched roofs. We ate lunch here at a traditional restaurant and I had chicken curry rice, which was totemo oishii (very delicious).



I must mention that parenting styles here are very different, at least from what I observed of Mami-chan and her behaviors throughout the day. It was mostly a lot of planned ignoring and some of it wasn't even planned. After the lunch, we left this area and went to a local castle. This castle is evidently very famous, but it was under construction on the outside so I have no pictures of the exterior. The inside was filled with historical things including real samurai armor, kimonos, weaponry, and souvenirs. It was all quite a trip, especially with Mami-chan running around and trying on the kimono and pitching random temper tantrums.













After the castle we went to a famous street in this town called Dr. Hideyo Noguchi Street. Dr. Noguchi was a famous doctor in Japan long ago, and he is featured on the 1000 yen bill. This street was dedicated to him because he used to have a hospital on the street. But now it has been turned into a coffee shop and we went there for some coffee and cake. I had the most delicious cheesecake and some coffee before walking around outside and seeing the famous street. After this it was getting late and we started our drive back to Naruko. By the time we arrived it was 9pm and it had been a long, fun-filled day trip.

Tokyo

Before I left home to begin my journey to Tokyo, I received a package from Australia with a new stock of protein bars and other fun things (thanks, Dustin!). I had Friday off and the night bus to Tokyo didn't leave until around 11pm on Friday night from Sendai, so I went to Sendai to spend the day. Nicole, who also had the day off, joined me, and we spent the entire day walking from place to place while trying not to spend money. We did end up having Starbucks, shopping around in some overpriced department stores, and watching some live music next to the station before we were tired of walking around (by this time we had been on our feet for about 5 hours), so we decided to sit a while and watch people. I saw some interesting styles. The most memorable was a girl with her hair dyed blonde and with red tips, which made it look like her hair had been dipped in blood.

Eventually, we met up with Will and then Tyler and went to catch the bus to Tokyo. The night bus ended up being much more uncomfortable than we had expected, despite the fancy jeweled lights that decorated the interior. They stuck us in the very back of the bus and the seats reclined less than two inches. We did have an empty seat to spread out on, but with four people and the size of those seats, the only real choice I had was whether I wanted to sit on a seatbelt or have my back impaled by an armrest. The bus stopped and started so many times that it was impossible to sleep and the temperature of the bus fluctuated between air that was slightly too cool and just plain hot. By the time we had arrived in Tokyo, we had all decided to pay a little more and take the Shinkansen on our way back. We arrived at Tokyo station a little after 6am on Saturday morning.

The first thing we did in Tokyo was stop by a little place called Beck's Coffee Shop for breakfast. We then met up with Alda and Justine, who had taken the bus from Yamagata and arrived earlier than us. After drinking some Starbucks we began our long and eventful exploration of Tokyo. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populated metropolitan area in the world. As the city awoke it became more and more crowded. We began exploring by taking the monorail to get a good view of different areas. Then we went to the Pokemon center and then to the Yebisu Bier Garden, where we shopped around and took some pictures. Around lunch time we headed down to Achibahara to eat the best chicken gyro I have ever tasted. There were big slabs of chicken that was shaved off and thrown in a pita. In this area there were many maid cafes, where girls dress up in wild maid outfits and serve food to you. We didn't stop by one of those, but there were plenty of maids outside, in full uniform, advertising the cafes. Next up was Asakusa, an extremely touristy area with many foreigners. In Asakusa we saw Sensoji Temple, which was ridiculously crowded. From there we headed on to our hotel, which was also in Asakusa, to check in and drop off our bags. After a little relaxation we hit Shibuya for some dinner. We crossed the famous Shibuya scatter intersection, where traffic in every direction is stopped to let pedestrians cross in all different directions. There are two large TV monitors mounted on skyscrapers that surround the intersection and one of the world's busiest Starbucks overlooks the area. This location was featured in Lost in Translation. We went to a little restaurant nearby and then headed to Shinjuku before the end of the night. My camera died in the thick of Shibuya, but I managed to revive it a couple of times to take some pictures of the restaurant and Shinjuku.

The next morning we made our way to Harajuku, the center of youth fashion and all things weird. Harajuku street was filled with tons of people, some of which were wearing trendy outfits, and others who just looked ridiculous. We stopped by Starbucks again and then went on a long trek to Meiji Temple, where we were just in time for a traditional wedding that was being held at the temple. As we were walking back some of the Harajuku girls were out in full attire. In Harajuku, the girls dress up in gothic clothing during lunch time and parade around. Some of them looked like they walked out of a Strawberry Shortcake cartoon and others just looked depressed.

After this, we were off to eat lunch. We chose a great place called Journal Standard's Burger Cafe. It is a clothing store that also has a burger cafe. I had the most delicious avocado salsa burger in the world. By the time we were done eating we were all really tired of walking and exploring and we began our journey back towards the station to board the shinkansen and head home. The shinkansen was much more comfortable than the night bus and about 5 hours quicker. It was 9:30pm when I got back home Sunday night. Tokyo was amazing and I can't wait to go back, but for now I am back at school.

The English teacher surprised me with some photos she took the other day when we were out digging up bamboo.