“They don’t have that here”

When I moved to Japan, one of my concerns was being “cut off” from some of the things most familiar to me; familiar foods, familiar places, even familiar people. I was worried I’d be unable to find something I really needed, or wouldn’t have access to things I really enjoyed (hi, Hulu!). What I found was that I didn’t miss those things I thought I’d miss so much. One of my first quests was to find tortillas, but I found that tortillas weren’t something I couldn’t live without, so I stopped searching. I’m sure they’re out there somewhere in Tokyo, I just didn’t make  enough of an effort to find them. Now that I’m back in my hometown I find that I miss having only that one small inconvenience. Sure, I didn’t have tortillas, but there was so much more I did have.

Those rice cracker snacks that Naoko introduced me to during my first week in the office? They’re probably in most grocery stores in Japan, but here? No way. I get pangs of anxiety when I look at the level of remaining eye makeup remover I bought before I left the country; there is no equivalent of that foamy-face-washy magic in stores here! If I want a good bowl of ramen? I’m out of luck. My stomach growls for a giant bowl of the stuff (as well as entertaining and awkward conversations with the chef from my favorite place in Akihabara). There’s no trains, subways, or even buses in my town. There are no good places to sit and people watch, no quirky cafes, and all of those amazing people I came to know and respect are half the world away.

This isn’t to say Oregon is bad. Here is where I have my family, an oven, my car (which I rarely use anymore), mountain views, and a few cats to harass (when they aren’t making me sneeze). I mentioned in a post several months ago how Oregon and Tokyo are on different ends of the beauty spectrum. I still believe that’s true, but it has become increasingly clear where I place my personal lifestyle preferences on that spectrum. I found a photo I emailed to myself from my phone this summer. It’s from my favorite place in the city – the dock at Odaiba at sunset.

Yeah, we don’t have that here. But until I return, I’m trying to make the most of what is available here that you can’t get there…which really means I’m going to be sure to eat a ton of reeses pieces.

Nine below

Transplanting myself a couple of times over the last several months has forced me to re-adjust in a number of ways; I’ve adjusted housing situations, transportation options, and even what foods I eat. I gained a new perspective on the word “heat” when I moved to Tokyo in the middle of summer. And now I’m getting hit in the chest (literally) with the polar opposite in Oregon.

The cold is absurd. It’s stupid. I say this because there’s no reason it should ever get this cold in a place where humans dwell. We should not be here and be surviving. Even our appliances have started to realize this. First, the hot water heater in the garage went. Then, early this morning, I woke to my Father rushing into my room and grabbing my tiny $9.99 heater to use in the garage to heat the furnace because it had frozen (and thus, ceased to function). This is where I have to draw the line. I had perfected the art of turning my room into a cocoon, and it was stripped of me! Oh, the humanity! We are using a heater to heat our heater. My head almost exploded in the act of typing that sentence.

Water runs perpetually from the sinks in the bathroom my brother and I share to prevent the pipes from freezing and cracking. We shower next door at my now deceased (may she rest in peace) Grandmother’s empty house because there’s no hot water and a repair guy hasn’t been able to come out to fix our on-demand hot water system. When I walk outside, it physically hurts to breathe the air into my lungs. I wear scarves and jackets and breathe through the wool to heat my oxygen before sucking it in. I am now a perpetual nanook.

And despite all this, the planet hasn’t had the decency to at least give us some nice snow to look at. I swear, the earth is smirking at me. I sit inside on the couch chugging coffee from my David Letterman mug and stare out the picture window in our living room. It looks sunny and gorgeous out there. It really does. Then I cross the room to the kitchen and peer at the thermometer we have reading the outside temperature: 9 degrees below zero (that’s -22 Celsius for those of you who use non-ridiculous units of measurement) .

I think I’ll stay inside with my nice, warm laptop computer. At least one of us has a hibernate function.

Recap: Pink Ball 2009

I’ve been lazy about finishing the video from Pink Ball, but there’s really no excuse not to put up some stills from the video and explain.

Pink Ball is a big fundraiser gala; different from the run in that it’s a black tie event where people are supposed to come and spend massive amounts of money, eat exciting food, and be entertained. The run and the ball were very different beasts to plan. This year’s ball saw about 210 participants attending. We organized somewhere around 100 prizes, entertainment from Taiko group Gocoo (again, yes, they’re great), bands provided by Janica Sims of J-cast (she’s fabulous), and a “surprise” performance by magician Cyril. Everything ran very smoothly, so most people working (me included) got to enjoy a little of the entertainment. I have pictures of nearly everything, save for Cyril’s performance (My boss instructed me to slay anyone taking pictures during his act, to be honest).

I spent the morning at the office wrapping up a few loose ends and cleaning off my desk because Pink Ball was my last day. Francesca and I had to wait around for our programs to arrive (they had been stuck in customs, as you may have seen on my twitter feed from that day). A few more last minute packages came in, I had a few things to prepare, but then we were off to the hotel. By the time I arrived, most things were setup. My only job was to guard a box we had prepared with hundreds of thousands of yen for caterers, the band, etc. So I sat and filmed/took photos. These photos are almost all stills from what will eventually be in the YouTube video. Richard the Irish designer definitely caught me filming myself. Oops.

These are photos from setup. The registration table:

Silent auction (and the corner of the jaguar on display):

This is the multitude of gift bags we had prepared for the guests to take after the party ended. I think most of the attendees completely forgot to pick them up (thanks for the tasty drinks, Bacardi!).

This Jaguar was part of a live auction package. It was combined with a couple of Tokyo hotel stays. The winner would get to take this Jaguar for the weekend. Sounds fun and all, but where in Tokyo can you drive this car like it’s supposed to be driven?

Rehearsals for MCs, speeches, etc. all took place a few hours before the actual event. My boss spent most of his time in here looking very worried. He’s the one at the right of the stage looking like he’s breaking into a panicked run (he probably was).

The ballroom was completely ready when I arrived at around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. The Westin Tokyo (the hotel where the ball was held) did a really amazing job preparing everything.

The star room (opposite the ballroom) played host to a band and the open bar prior to the ballroom being opened. I didn’t spend much time in here.

Live auction item descriptions were setup for guests to peruse before the live auction itself.

We had a wide variety of silent auction items available; everything from these “luxury products” to services and gift certificates for tons of awesome, awesome places. I found myself questioning the “luxury” aspect of some of the “luxury products”, but as long as people bid on them, I had to keep my mouth shut.

My boss organized one of his makeup artist friends, Teddy Lim, to do hair and makeup for performers and for people getting portraits taken. He snuck Naoko and I into the lineup too (sorry it’s blurry, he was moving fast):

Once we established that everything was prepared (and guests started to arrive), we changed into our attire for the night and got to relax, amazingly. There were very few mishaps (that I knew about, anyway), and they were quickly and efficiently dealt with. I was pleasantly surprised with how much of the evening I got to experience.

I received a backhanded compliment from the guy from the diamonds company (“you look beautiful! I’m surprised!”), but Naoko assured me he meant well, though she could see how in English it does sound a little mean. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. A band played in the star room at the beginning of the night. We ushered everyone into the ballroom after about an hour, where Gocoo played, and their amazingly passionate leader, Kaoly, gave a speech. Gocoo and Tawoo worked with us on a number of events. A couple of their members are breast cancer survivors, so they really identified with the work RFTC was doing, and they were happy to help. Fantastic group. I can’t say enough good things about them.

Our MCs for the night, Jason and Janica, did a fabulous job. Both were bilingual, and Jason was so inadvertently hilarious I couldn’t help but like him. I heard him in the volunteer staff area saying “I’m worried my hair is too pointy!” When he’s not doing MC gigs, he is a cheerleader coach at a high school. Mmmhhmmmm. By the end of the night he was trying to give out dance lessons to drunk guests. Sheer magic, I tell you.

Mark Ferris (our auctioneer for the event) did a fantaaaastic job. I saw the video of the guy who did the auction last year, and it was over in about 10 minutes (there were about 10 items). This year’s guy was energetic, funny, and wasn’t afraid to harass guests into bidding. We had some really interesting prizes; trips to Beijing to stay at a summer palace, a stable tour from a sumo legend, and that Jaguar/hotel stay package I mentioned earlier. We also had a last minute donation of a helicopter ride to and from Narita airport. Crazy!

All in all, a fun, interesting event to attend. I didn’t really do much on the actual night. I was finally able to busy myself once everyone went home – taking everything down was a pretty quick and painless process. Taro, Naoko and I were due up at the top floor bar for the afterparty, but unfortunately when we finished at around 2 AM, the bar was closing down. Too bad. But it was yet another unforgettable experience.

I did try to sum up my feelings about the whole internship when I was alone in the volunteer room, but the sound is really, really horrible for some reason so I doubt I’ll put this bit in the video. But it was nice to have a bit of reflection about the experience. Quite the whirlwind.

I had some actual photos and some more video from the event, but I’m having a hard time finding them on my camera. I’m not sure what happened, but the only images I can find are from a couple of the ladies at the event and one of the jaguar. I’ll keep looking and see if I can find them and get some better quality photos up. Bummer.

As I mentioned, this was my last day of work. It was surreal and I still can’t believe the whole thing is done and over with. As some readers may know, I’m back in the states at the moment. I won’t lie; I didn’t want to come home. The last few months were like nothing I’ve ever done before, and the time I had was far too short. A lot of things changed in that small period of time, but I think ultimately they were changes for the better. Coming home has been a bit of a shock for me; so much about life here just doesn’t mesh with my personality anymore. Maybe that’s good, maybe that’s bad. I’m still not sure. But either way, I’ve made plans to return to Tokyo at the beginning of 2010 for a much longer-term stay.

I guess that about finishes up the posts about the internship. Wow, there it goes! It’s done and over with! It all feels like a blur right now, and I think in some ways it was a blur when I was working, too. I remember reading complaints from people about working occasional overtime in the states, and then I’d laugh to myself and look at a clock in the office that read 2:00 AM. Strangely enough, I really, really miss it. It was so easy to complain about not having enough sleep or not having enough time to do the things I want to do, but I found that I thrive on that sense of purpose. I need that pressure all the time to get up in the morning and motivate me to do things. Since I’ve been back I haven’t been the same. I’ve done nothing but apply to any and all jobs (including plenty of crappy seasonal ones around here) just so I’ll have something to do. It’s driving me crazy! Sure, watching TV shows and sleeping in is great to a certain extent, but I have to have something to do.

I’m working on securing employment in Tokyo for next year, and until then just hanging around at home with my family. Things could always be worse! For those who are interested, the blog will still be updated. My parents came to Japan for about a week and a half after my internship concluded, and I have tons of photos to ramble about. I’m also going to put up some “home for the holidays”-ish stuff. I have to find things to do! So keeping the blog updated is one way to go about it, I guess. I’ve tried to confine my snark and short non-blog-worthy musings to my Twitter feed, and may do an occasional blogtv show here and there (trying to convince my brother to join me). So I’m still around! YouTube will be updated with the same stuff that gets posted here, I think.

Thanks for reading about this experience. It was a life changer in many ways for me, and I can’t wait to get back.

Recap: Run for the Cure/Walk for Life 2009 & Dance for the Cure

As promised, a real-real update! It’s about time I write about the happenings from the run. There’s only so much about the day the YouTube video can convey. I was going to do a play by play, but that might be painfully long. So I’ll go for the highlight reel version instead.

I woke early and headed to Hibiya City in the morning to help with setup. Tents, banners, sponsor boards, signs, and products went up. We organized a small army of volunteers to stuff the goody bags for the participants.

Participants started to show up around 9:00. We were still unprepared. We had a challenge with the t-shirts this year. 1,200 t-shirts were printed for the anticipated 1,200 participants. However, the closer we got to the run, the more we realized we were going to be well over the number. We had expected about 1,000 people to register online and via company group registration forms, and then about another 100-200 people on the day. Instead, we had about 1,300 people register online, and another 240 people register on the day. Needless to say, we were short t-shirts. We’d already contacted groups that sent their registration forms late about the possibility of not receiving t-shirts or receiving an alternate t-shirt, but we just didn’t have the inventory from past years to cover this amount of people, and we didn’t have the time or budget to print additional shirts from this year.

In an attempt to make up for this, we had to put together several different kinds of goody bags for the participants – special non-t-shirt bags…bags for people with alternate t-shirts…you get the idea. I was responsible for spending the previous several days counting, recounting, and adjusting t-shirt inventory for every new group registration form that came in. Taro and Naoko had made previous jokes about me being the “counter” for the office in the past, but it went to a whole new level right before the run. I told them that if nothing else, by the end of the internship I’d definitely know all my numbers. The night before the event, I had it all set – who would get what, and how many, etc. On the day, of course, it all went to hell. There just wasn’t adequate time to go over the specifics with the volunteers.

I manned the group registration booth for the first part of the morning, switching between yelling at volunteers behind me for certain t-shirt sizes and answering questions every three seconds from the clearly-out-of-her-element Japanese girl at the table next to me. Once the group registrations had wrapped up, I firmly took over for her and watched a visible sign of relief appear on the faces of the next several people in line. We were well behind schedule due to the fiasco at registration, but thankfully most people were understanding and remembered the reason they were there.

After things started running more smoothly, someone came and got me from the registration table and hauled me off towards the Imperial Palace. That walk was so gloriously refreshing after clambering around in the madness that was registration all morning. People had already gathered at the starting line and immediately started asking us when the race was going to start (we were about 45 minutes behind by this point, I think). We began assembling the groups of runners (one 10K, one 5K, one 5K walkers). I put together the start/finish line and hauled it up to much cheering, only to be shut down not a minute later by the guard at the Imperial Palace screaming at us all. I called Taro asking what the hell he wanted me to do (he was still at Hibiya City managing the madness there). We ended up taking down the banner, although I think Richard the Irish designer got some photos of it while it was still up. It was kind of infuriating to have people coming up to me (who had seen the pissed off guard) asking if I’d put it back up so they could take a picture. Uh, no. You’re not special. And they were Japanese, so I knew they understood what the guard had been saying too.

Taro appeared out of nowhere and started herding remaining participants into their appropriate groups. He had me get the cheerleaders to start the first group, and off they went.

Taro had me push the starting times forward for the next groups, and then we had a glorious couple minutes to breathe. I’m still amazed at how not-mean Taro was despite being the most stressed out person on the day of the race. It was an interesting comparison to make…I’ve seen other bosses in the states screaming at their employees in similar situations…but I’m glad Taro isn’t that kind of boss.

I held the finish line ribbon while people ran through. That part was easily the best part of the experience. Although we’d started almost an hour and a half late and there had been mix-ups and confusion, almost everyone passed through that finish line with a smile on his or her face. I may have gotten a little bit sniffly.

It was a great end to a hectic afternoon. Taro sent me back to Hibiya City to help with what I could there, but it was thankfully under control by that point in time. There was food and drink, entertainment, and raffle prizes. The cheerleaders who started the race performed, and we also had a gospel group (I missed it because I was still at the course, but I’m told it was great). Our taiko friends Tawoo spent about 10 minutes performing. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of taiko. There’s just no way to experience it but live.

It was extremely loud in Hibiya City because of the tall buildings surrounding the plaza. The echoing boom from the drums was drawing salarymen out of their offices to come and gawk at the giant, bizarre pink spectacle taking place here.

Taking down everything took considerably less time than putting everything up, thankfully. Naoko and I headed back to Yurakucho station in a delirium from lack of sleep. I still remember laughing madly with her on the way there and on the train. We both headed home to try and snatch a couple hours of shut-eye before the all night party in Shibuya. I went home and collapsed immediately. I woke up to her phone call a couple hours later, but cannot remember for the life of me what I said to her. When I spoke to her later that night, she said “Alisha, you were in another world when I spoke to you. I don’t know where you were.” At least she called and got me out of bed so I could drag myself to Shibuya. I’m so glad I made it to the Dance for the Cure part of the day!

This was the first ever Dance for the Cure. Organized by the awesome Ubdobe, this was a fun-filled night of awesome music, great food, and various other entertainment. Ubdobe (pronounced Ooh-boo-dough-bay)’s “leader”ish guy Yuuk did an amazing job organizing everything. He too, was surprisingly calm the entire evening…but then again, his event went extremely smoothly. He even had time to harass me about being tired. Everything was very, very well done (at least, from my perspective behind the RFTC table).

4 fantastic bands performed that night. The genre was mostly funky/reggae-ish music. I can’t say enough good things about these artists. I was so pleasantly surprised! I got the chance to speak with this woman, Keyco. She spoke some English, but I mostly just listened to what she had to say in Japanese – she was a lovely, super-talented woman. I wish I’d purchased her CD that night…there’s none available on her website as far as I can find. Next time she has a show in Tokyo I’ll have to hit it up!

Our MC for the night was “VJ Chris” of MTV…I have absolutely no idea who he is, but he was from MTV, so that meant we got to use their logo on our promotional stuff. Hehe. Gocoo (the “parent” taiko group to Tawoo) performed along with belly dancer Kiki. Super cool.

Other random performers included a guy doing a glass ball balancing act (think David Bowie in Labyrinth, only with less spandex and glitter), full body massages, and nail art. Fantastic food was provided by Lauren, former owner of Fujimamas (now operating To the Moon and Back Catering). Every time I meet her she’s so mellow and pleasant. Awesome woman.

It was a really fantastic night, despite being dead tired. Taro brought me a Heineken around 2 AM. He always has a sense of humor. While we didn’t really sell much stuff at the table, some proceeds from the event went to the foundation. About 200 people showed up, so Naoko and I handed out 100 copies of PiNK as they exited…at 6 AM. There were a few people who were hilariously drunk, but fortunately everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I think it was a success in terms of an awareness-raising event. Lead singers (males) were yelling about how much they love boobs right in the middle of their songs. Unexpected hilarity! But hopefully effective.

I watched the sun rise in Shibuya that morning on my way to the station. I crashed on the Fukutoshin line heading home, but magically woke up at my stop. I don’t really remember the walk home. I slept harder than I’ve ever slept that day. I didn’t wake up until 11PM Sunday. It was an exhausting experience, but worth it when you consider how much we raised and (hopefully) what it’ll mean to some families out there. The run generated about 7.6 million yen, or about $84,000. Woo! Record breaking for the foundation.

Two weeks later came Pink Ball, but that’s for another post. The run was quite a day. But I’m glad I got to be a part of it. I’ll do the Pink Ball recap soonish!

Real update on the way

I know, I know, I’ve been a horrible travel blogger. But October was the busiest month of my life, and November has finally cooled down enough activity wise for me to start putting the last few weeks together into some coherent, understandable form. There’s a new video up on YouTube with my recap from the run, but of course it doesn’t really capture everything that occurred that day. It was a blur…but I’d still like to try and put down on paper (or digital paper, I guess) what I experienced.

I’ve got stuff from Pink Ball too. And stuff from my adventures with my parents. The amount of photographs is actually a little daunting. I’m just being lazy! Hehe.

But anyway, to make a long story short, I’m alive and well aware of my poor neglected blog. There will be a real update very, very soon. In the meantime, I have been using Twitter a lot – I added it to the sidebar of the blog a couple months ago. It’s just so easy to make updates that way that require no context…but they’re not really Japan-related things all the time. Also, I’ve done some sporadic BlogTV shows from Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima, and expect to do a couple over the next few weeks as well. So yeah, check YouTube, check Twitter, and I’ll have something less sucky up here within the week (since I’m not an intern anymore )!

I know, grumpy updates suck, but…

Maybe someone out there can find humor in my grumpiness:

I’m reporting live from work after a crisis situation the likes of which I haven’t had to deal with recently. I’m staying late again and made a cup of crappy convenience store soup for dinner (in a mug). I got one sip of it before the handle broke off and I got soup all over my slacks. I am now hungry, whiny, and smell strongly of minestrone. I’m sure everyone on the Yamanote line will love me tonight. It’ll probably just be a further excuse for gaijin to have a bad rep. My apologies to the foreign community in Japan. You can blame me if you don’t get a seat on the train tomorrow. Maybe at some point I’ll look back and think this is funny, but for right now…ugh.

Also, to the person who found my blog while searching for “appropriate response to irrasshaimase”, the correct response is nothing. If you responded every time someone said it to you while you were out shopping, your head would explode. This is a fact. I’ve seen it happen to unwitting tourists just looking to have a fun afternoon in Harajuku. They’re gazing happily at the myriad of trendy merchandise, nodding to every person that calls out to them, and BAM! They turn into a melting, weeping, shivering puddle of humanity with only the strength left to pray that the tiny Japanese girl with the shrill voice will STOP yelling about how much the fantastic new tights in her shop cost. Graphic, I know. But I feel it’s my duty to educate the youth.

Workers are programmed to say it every 8.6 seconds if they are not helping another customer. Don’t be fooled by lazy people who create their own variations on the word such as “rashaimaaaaseee”, “maseeee” or even just “eeeeeee”! They’re all out to get you. Save yourself! Don’t respond! Play deaf! Until you need something.

That’s all. I’m going to try and will a freshness burger to appear on my desk.

Storm on the horizon…

Ever get the feeling that something bad is going to happen to you? I’m feeling like that now.

Yesterday on my way home from work, my boss and I were descending some stairs to get to our train. On the very last step I caught the heel of my shoe on the hem of my pants and tripped myself. There were flailing limbs and some amazing acrobatics, but I landed on my feet next to my boss, who looked bewildered but was laughing. Whew.

Today I repeated this twice in Omotesando. There are these areas on the ground all over Tokyo with textures on them. This is supposedly to help blind people navigating the city (these are usually found at train stations and street corners to define where to go). But I suck at walking on them – the lines and bumps they put on them are just tall enough to mess up my footing. I nearly ate it twice this afternoon while wandering around.

Thus, I feel I have cheated my due humiliation long enough. I don’t know when, and I don’t know how, but I sense that somewhere in the near future I am going to publicly humiliate myself.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

I was in Omotesando today doing some filming for a new video! I still need to gather some more footage, but I’m excited about this one – it’s one I’ve been thinking about doing for a while. I actually planned this one out rather than just winging it like I usually do. I think the result will be much better. I’m looking forward to putting it all together!

Today was my one day off this week – it was a crazy few days. My boss told me that after the run I ought to take the following Friday off. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself if I’m given a three day weekend! I’ve got to start planning now! Any ideas are welcomed.

Thinking of starting a separate “ArishaInTokyo” twitter feed – I’d rather not use my old one, although I’ve been posting updates on it.  But having a new twitter might increase my nerdiness tenfold.  Would anyone out there be interested if I did start one?  My internal debate continues!

That is all.

Work, kids, travel, and waxing poetic

I’ve been doing a lot of scribbling of notes lately, and thought it was high time for an update. I neglected the blog a bit recently due to becoming very busy with a variety of things! But it’s time we caught up. I won’t put everything I’ve been writing into this post because it would become a novel, but to recap:

I have a little over a month left here. I can’t bring myself to say “my last month” because I know this won’t be my last month here. I know I have to return to the states after my internship for evaluations and paperwork (plus, it’ll be the holidays), and I can’t change that. But I have a ticket back on January 4th. I’ve had it since the day my “return flight” was booked. I didn’t anticipate using it initially, but with every day that passes, I feel more and more as though
this is the place where I should be.

Of course, with that statement comes many questions: Where will I live? Where will I work? Can I make enough money to support myself and pay student loans? What will I achieve by moving here? Why Japan? How do I know I won’t love some other place just as much?

Research (which I’ve been doing a lot of these last few months) only reveals so much; many jobs I’d be able to apply for in the states I can’t apply for here because I’m not fluent in Japanese, and that’s a requirement for many positions. I might be otherwise capable, but the language barrier does present a challenge. I’ve had the opportunity through my current job to meet and speak with a wide variety of people in very different industries. There are so many interesting potential careers out there. How do I choose? I’ve always thought I knew pretty well what I wanted to do.

I’ve never really considered teaching as an option until recently. I know I don’t have the patience to wrangle adolescents, and I lack the confidence to teach adults. But I’ve been around small children a lot lately (at festivals, at the zoo, etc.). This might sound silly, but little Japanese kids are disgustingly adorable. They’ve also been the only people who unabashedly look at me or ask me questions. Their innocence and genuine manner makes me melt. I had a little boy come up to me at the embassy event and ask me (in Japanese) if I knew where “the circus clowns with the funny blue makeup on their eyes” were. I was amazed. Of all the people to ask, why me? He didn’t seem at all concerned to come up and question me, despite me being a foreign stranger. I felt so happy! When I heard a tiny girl exclaiming to her Mother on Odaiba: “that dog is cute, huh?!” I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face (though I tried).

It’s moments like that which have lead me to start researching children’s teaching jobs. I’ve also had the chance to speak to people with teaching experience. The responses have typically been: it’s great. The kids are young, but interested and enthusiastic (as long as you are).

But why Japan? Why not another country? How do I know I won’t love somewhere else? What if I love Europe, or find Australia interesting? How do I know? I guess I don’t. Does anyone?

What I do know is that there are a huge number of things I love about this country. I love how easily reachable everything is; how I can sleep on the train and nobody looks twice. When I can’t sleep and it’s 3AM I can go for a walk in my neighborhood and feel safe. Every person I meet has a new, interesting experience that is uniquely theirs. People are, for the most part, polite. I can find just about any food I could possibly want (and even some food I don’t!).

This isn’t to say that Japan doesn’t have its problems. There are things I dislike, but every country has its issues. I’m poor with Kanji. Problems with the economy, a declining birth rate (and rising elderly population), and troubles with the public education system are just a few examples of very real issues. It’s easy for me to overlook those things right now just because I want to stay here so badly. These are all issues that can affect my future should I choose to remain. But there are going to be issues in any country. Why not stay in a place where I feel safe and happy? Why leave? This place feels like home.

When I told someone recently that I feel like I “fit” here, the reply I got was: “Why? You don’t look like anyone. Don’t the stares bother you? This is so unlike home.” It’s more than just looking the same to fit in. It’s a feeling – that I’m on the same wavelength with the people around me; that I finally feel I have purpose and direction. I looked like everybody else in high school and college…and I never felt like I “fit”. I was constantly striving to be someone acceptable – trying to mold myself to whoever I was trying to impress.

It has been almost effortless here. I know I can be shy and tense when still getting to know people. But I’m finding more and more that I am able to do something I’ve never been able to do – be vulnerable. Whether I’m singing Bohemian Rhapsody at the top of my lungs at a bar in Roppongi at 3 in the morning (it was so fun), eating a fish head (it was actually pretty good), or sleeping on the last train home (so soothing), I can’t help but feel wonderful knowing that for once I’m putting myself out there on the line, not just the person I think others want me to be. It’s relieving in a way, to know that there’s no act I have to keep up depending on the person I’m with. Maybe I’m a little more relaxed in one situation than another, but it’s always me. I’m still learning that vulnerability is okay. For a long time, I made every effort to fly below the radar – keep myself away from others to minimize the chances of getting hurt. But now that I’m putting myself out there and taking the risk…I feel so, so happy.

I suppose this post became a novel despite my best efforts. Oh well. Lest I continue to wax poetic about my future…let’s focus for now on the past and what I’ve been up to since my last post.

I had the chance to share my experience with a guest and long-time friend for almost two weeks. We checked out some of the interesting things Tokyo has to offer. I had the chance to visit the Edo-Tokyo museum.

It’s a 6-story building with a wide range of artifacts and information detailing the history of Tokyo. The atypical architecture made it especially cool; you start by taking an escalator to the top floor, then work your way down.

This is the bridge at the dimly lit 6th floor of the building. Crossing it takes you to the exhibits – swords, pottery, and miniatures of old palaces are just a few examples of some of the interesting things you can find here.

The 5th floor stage area is the setting for a number of different live shows. I happened to catch this – a woman playing a traditional Japanese instrument called the Koto.

Another day brought us to Yoyogi park, which is very close to my office. We walked around Shibuya, grabbed Starbucks and some Freshness Burgers (YUM), then checked out the Sri Lankan festival. It wasn’t quite as exciting as I had hoped it would be, but we had the chance to see a few minutes of some traditional dancers:

Just down the road in Yoyogi park are some less traditional dancers:

Yes, that’s right. This is a group of Japanese people dressed in black leather with greaser hair. And they were dancing to rockabillyish music. I’ve come to this area on Sundays before, but haven’t seen them. It was pretty entertaining to finally check it out!

Just a couple minutes’ walk away on the bridge next to Harajuku station is the (in)famous Jingu Bashi. This is the place where you can wear just about anything you want, and not only will you get away with it, but people will take your picture. Oh, Japan…

I should apologize for my crappy pictures in this post – I thought if I just took stills from video it would turn out all right…but I guess not.

I also visited the zoo at Ueno park (I shared some pictures from that area in a previous post), headed back to Odaiba a couple times for fun and for a Mexican festival, and worked.

We’re getting into crunch time at the office. The run is just a couple weeks away, and Pink Ball not far behind that. My computer has quickly become covered in post-its because suddenly there’s so much stuff to stay on top of! Forgetting even one thing could mean the foundation misses out on a donation or loses a valuable volunteer. I still make mistakes and it stresses me out a bit, but apparently somewhere along the way I ‘ve learned to get over it, fix it, and move on. So far, so good.

The run is on the 17th, and the ball on the 30th. We still have so much to do! It’s fun, if getting crazy. On top of that, we’re moving on Friday! Aaah! The phrase “so much to do, so little time to do it” has never been truer. Naoko and I were talking about this on the way to the station last night. Even though times like this are stressful for us, it’s good to think back about why we’re doing it in the first place. What’s a few weeks of stress and planning and maybe a few sleepless nights? We’re ultimately doing this to help people – people who face significantly more stressful situations than planning an event. And when I think about the hundreds of women all this work is going to benefit…it’s all so worth it.

Well. I seem to be in a rambling mood. I wanted to get a new post up because I know it’s been a while since the last one. The rest of this week will be busy – we’ve got two volunteer orientations and a move to take care of, and it’s only Tuesday! Sleeping and eating are big excitements for me now. So I think I’m going to do both, now that I’ve wrapped this up.

I promise not to let so much time pass before the next update!

I’m being spoiled

I think Tokyo is spoiling me forever.  And so are the people in it.  I don’t know if I can accurately describe just how fantastic my weekend was. I went into it with virtually no plans, but it all worked out for the best. I’m a terrible person for not taking photos of my activities on Saturday – I was more focused on enjoying my evening than taking pictures.  But I do have pictures from Sunday. To recap:

Saturday I attended the Brazilian Festival with a friend. It was a giant awesome-smelling barbeque with live bands, gorgeous women in swimsuits, and tons of foreigners. I really could have followed the steady stream of foreign people to find my way to the event. The weather was great – it’s finally starting to cool down a bit, and these summery-autumn nights are wonderful. Billy Blanks of Tae-bo fame was at the event promoting some doughnut-y food. I don’t want to know how he made the decision to go from fitness guru to junk food enthusiast. I enjoyed meat on a stick, a couple of live bands, and fantastic company. We grabbed coffee-cardio-dinner-coffee-dessert+conversation and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I wish all my Saturday nights were as nice.  I haven’t felt that happy in a long time.

Sunday I lazed around for the better part of the morning. I took a few pictures of the new apartment for anyone who is interested. It’s certainly a change from Akihabara, but I love it here (aside from the occasional yowling catfight at 5:36AM).

I now have an actual kitchen area and a place to sit and eat! Oh, the luxury!

I’ve got a decent amount of storage in this pantry/refrigerator/shoe storing section of the kitchen.

The new kitchen! Now with counter space! And a feeble “spice rack”! The kitchen sink also doubles as my bathroom sink (it’s the only one in the apartment).

I still have a separated bath and toilet, thank god. No more super toilet…but it’s not like I really used all those features anyway.

This is the bedroom area. There’s sliding doors to separate it from the kitchen if necessary. The flooring in this room is tatami mat. I kind of like it, but I hear it can be difficult to take care of.

The bed-desk-tv setup. My tv only gets a handful of channels here, but I don’t watch much television, so it’s not really an issue. The bedroom has a large window and the door to the balcony, so there’s great light during the day. If I look out the window next to my bed, there’s a nice garden area:

I had a hard time sleeping my first night here just because it was so quiet, I think. I had become so accustomed to the noises of Akihabara. In a way I miss the “white noise” of the chuo line. It was more pleasant to hear that than the aforementioned cat battle.

Lastly, here’s my closet. There’s more space than I have stuff. Tons of storage here. I could probably hide several bodies if necessary.

This place is located between two stations on different lines, but it’s a bit of a hike to either one. The area is very residential. An older man out for a jog a few mornings ago actually smiled at me and said “Good morning!” (in Japanese). I felt so fuzzy.

I got out of the house in the afternoon and headed back to Odaiba (where I visited the Gundam). Today I took a different route – the Yurikamome line. It felt like a little amusement park ride. The trip takes you over Tokyo bay and winds through futuristic looking buildings on the way to your destination. I couldn’t believe how beautiful the weather was today! I really enjoyed this part of the trip. Here is a horrible, horrible picture of an otherwise glorious view.

I had originally planned to attend a shindig today at Odaiba, but somehow things didn’t pan out. I either forgot/misunderstood key information or got out to the island too late, but I won’t complain. I ended up with a fantastic afternoon in the sunshine. When I got off the train I just sat and stared out over the bay for probably a good half hour or so. I hadn’t been prepared for such an aesthetically pleasing experience and I was stunned. The view from where I was sitting was nothing short of amazing.

I feel like I want to bring everyone I know here and make them sit and appreciate it.  I actually had to force myself to get up and do something else because I would have been totally content to just drink in that view all afternoon.

Odaiba hosts a lot of quirky, interesting things (like the Gundam). The place where I was sitting was next to a smaller-scale replica of the statue of liberty. I don’t know why it’s here.

I walked down to the waterfront where people were fishing, walking, chatting; it was so charming. Charming isn’t usually a word I would use to describe Tokyo, but today I didn’t even feel like I was in the city – being on Odaiba was like being on another planet (with a bunch of Japanese people).

I didn’t actually have an agenda once I got there. I walked back to where the Gundam was (they’re beginning to take it down, although it’s still standing), filmed a little bit of video, and had a bite to eat.  I watched the footage later and it’s not really enough to make a video with.  Too bad.   The nearby “Aqua City” shopping area was fun to browse – there was a movie theater inside. I got a little too excited when I saw they had Taken (with Liam Neeson) playing in English, but there were only two showings today, and I had missed them both. Maybe another time. Liam Neeson is just so cool.

I thought the afternoon was nice, but when I walked out of the shopping area at night, I was amazed yet again.

Odaiba has quickly become one of my favorite places in this city. Tokyo is beautiful in ways that Oregon never will be. They’re on opposite ends of the nature/city spectrum. I never could have imagined that I would like this city as much as I do. Parts of last night’s conversation discussed changing attitudes toward the city over time. Who knows – maybe next month I’ll be bitter and jaded and hate this place. But for now, I just can’t get enough. Every time I leave my house I make myself take a risk in some small way. It’s really paying off. I worry that I’m being spoiled by being here and playing by my rules – going where I want, spending time with who I want; making my own decisions. The independence is glorious. People sometimes embark on a journey with the intent to “find themselves”. That wasn’t on my list of things to do when I left the states, but I think I’ve stumbled across myself here in Tokyo.

I read somewhere on the internet a phrase that really sums up what I feel right now: “If this is life, I’ll take a season pass.”

I move, therefore I build muscle

Today I actually moved! I said goodbye to Akihabara and hit the road for my new home. Today Tokyo experienced some typhoon action, and I decided there was no way I was going to drag my huge, heavy bags through it. I opted to have my bags picked up by a local shipping service, and they’ll bring them to my new place tomorrow. It was only 2700 yen (somewhere in the neighborhood of $27), and I thought that was a small price to pay for my sanity.

The guy arrived at my apartment to pick up my bags literally three minutes after I walked in the door. I needed time to throw some clothes in another bag and grab my toothbrush, soap, etc. I just grabbed stuff from a suitcase without really looking at what it was. I think I ended up with like 5 shirts and no pants. The slacks I had on were drenched by the time I got to my new place (an umbrella was virtually useless today) so I changed into the one other pair I had – yoga pants, thank god. I just wanted something dry. I promptly crashed.

I’ll head to the supermarket (YES) tomorrow to stock up my new kitchen so I don’t have to eat horrible convenience store pasta anymore. I’m probably waaaay too excited to live in close proximity to two supermarkets. But I really miss cooking. Now the question is what I want to make first! It’s unfortunate that ovens aren’t really a part of the apartment scene here. I would loooove to make some bread or parmesan chicken. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

I’ll put up some pictures of the new place soon. I’d like to take them during the day because this new place has big windows and the light is very nice. I’m crossing my fingers I won’t get caught in another monsoon tomorrow. I worked up a sweat carrying my laptop and two shopping bags stuffed with toiletries and a few other miscellaneous items. I was feeeeeeelin’ the burn but I just kept thinking about how good it felt to be in the rain again. I didn’t have an umbrella. It was just a drizzle by the time I arrived at my station and it was actually really pleasant and refreshing. Ahh.

Anyway: pictures of the new digs soon. I posted a new video up on YouTube to share a little bit about what I do for anyone who is interested. There’s an office video in the works too, but it’s slow going. I’ll be sure to make the next update soon!