Bought the tickets for 3 days of table tennis in Yokohama when Cory comes.
JAPAN
Graduation Day
Today was graduation day for the Itakura Junior High third graders. It was actually a really well done ceremony. Koujou-sensei perfected the elusive triple-bow -- He bowed to the stage, then to the school flag, then to the audience. Also, apparently they play Pachobel`s Cannon EVERYWHERE for graduations. That`s gonna be stuck in my head for a bit. Strange to see a graduation 10 months after my own. Video after the jump and more on my Qikstream.
Read MoreGraduation Time
It's getting to be time for the kids in Elementary School and Junior High to graduate. The ceremony for the junior high is this friday and the elementary schools will be next week. Last week, however, there was an impromptu "goodbye 6th graders" ceremony at the east elementary school.
Read MoreDad's Visit
Well it’s been forever since I updated the blog – a combo of being overwhelmed with work and overwhelmed with how much there was to write about in the trip. So to get things back on track , I’ll give a synopsis of the trip.
On Thursday, Dad showed up in Japan while I was still at work and navigated his way from Narita to the hotel with the help of my Japanese “Please return to his mommy at Peninsula Marunouchi” cheat sheet.
I had to stay back at work and then wait for the internet guy to install my fiber-optic line which ended up being a more elaborate process than expected. There was a cherry-picker, installation of myriad boxes, and two installers – a guy who connected everything and a woman who stood in the street, watched, and periodically shouted “daijoubu!”
Read MoreOn Socializing, Shisha, and Shimokita
Somewhere over the past five years I've developed an obessesion: smoking shisha. I had resolved that this taste for the tibial resulted from the group of happy Muslims that I surround myself with with their Muslim music and Muslimness and such (that's for you, Neha). But then I realized that Ishan, Alex, Cory and I were having emotional lounge sessions around the hookah when some of us were still 17 in Heights 315.
FLASHBACK!
Read MoreI take it back...
Xmas is here:
Read MoreTokyo Excitement
This was a pretty great weekend. I aimlessly went in to Tokyo assuming something would be going on and I could meet some friends, and, sure enough, Ian called around 10 Friday night and asked what I was up to. We met under the Spider at Roppongi Hills and, after 5mins at a Chinese restaurant, left for Shibuya with Mayumi, Kaziya, Kota, Shun, Nao, and Sarah. Mayumi is Ian's girlfriend, Sarah was a Parisian girl in Japan to learn Japanese, and all were unknown to me. But we took the train to Ebisu and roamed around getting to know each other before going to Womb.
I'm never surprised anymore at how nice Japanese people are in general. After a couple conbini (convenience store) beers and a short walk to hachiko, we were all getting along swimmingly, talking about girls, hip-hop, and everything in between in the sort of hybrid Japanese/English that seems to come out in these mixed groups. Nao and Kota had been to Madlib the week before in Tokyo, and I tried not to let my jealousy destroy the conversation. But we shuffled in to Womb by about 1AM and had a great time listening to the Minimal/Techno/House mix that echoed throughout the club, featuring Swedish House-duo, Minilogue. It was a better mix that last time at Womb with Jon, Michelle, Rosie and Dave.
Read MoreJapan So Far...
Just a quick edit of the random video I've taken on my digicam so far.
Making Christmas Snowflakes in the 4th Grade
I had my laptop in class to play Christmas tunes so I seized the opportunity to take some video of the class with PhotoBooth:
It's Not Beginning to Look Like Christmas at All
Well, I'm officially in a Christmas mood.
This entire month I teach about Christmas to every kid in town from kindergarten to 6th grade.
I had my first lesson today with the 3rd graders at 東小学校 (Higashi Shougakko, East Elementary School). It pretty much entailed trying to talk over a bunch of rambunctious kids who knew sadly little about Christmas. They were, however, entirely impressed by the pictures of Santa from around the world that I brought in and finally quieted down when I gave them some pictures to color and put on the Rat Pack Christmas album -- music as necessary as ham on Christmas.
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