Blogs from Saitama, Saitama, Japan, Asia

Yo Like I said, trying to start doing shorter posts. (In the interest of making things more frequent.) This is one of those. Omiya Omiya is dangerous. Last week was Golden Week. I'll explain it more in detail later (don't get your hopes up. It'll be another post), but suffice to say it's a big holiday in Japan. With no school. Anyways, Wednesday (day 1 of 8) I found myself with nothing to do and no housemates to hang with. So, following the advice of Okaasan, I jumped on a train and headed down to the next station towards Tokyo: Omiya. Omiya is to Newnan as Miyahara is to LaGrange (Try to remember those SAT days.) In otherwords, Miyahara is kind of sleepy with little to do (although, to its credit it does have karaoke and ... read more

Apologies Sorry for the lack of updates it’s been a rather busy few weeks. Anyways, on to week one’s adventures. Out of Tokyo Monday morning I was met by two girls for Seigakuin’s European-American culture department, Harumi and Yuki. After short introductions, and my instantly forgetting of their names (this becomes quite common), we headed off for Ryogoku Station, bags in tow. Now, it should be said that Japanese trains are not good places for clumsy, luggage-laden gaijins. As we hit transfers at Akihabara and Ueno, I found myself deathly worried that I was going to take a turn too quickly and slam my backpack into someone. Thankfully, the trains weren’t excessively crowded and I managed to make it to Miyahara Station without causing an international incident. Stepping out of the train, the girls led me ... read more

I went to the John Lennon Museum but it was closed for the day, so I explored the expensive shops in the area instead. Gabe dropped me off and we had an Autumn Latte before he went to work. I had lunch at my favourite little pasta restaurant in Warabi. You can sit there for hours drinking free coffees, so I did just that. I decided to go shopping in Ueno the next day. I was looking for boots and found exactly what I was looking for! I also bought souvenirs and lots of great clothes, including a sweet dress for Willow. Gabe took me to his favourite Mexican restaurant for dinner and introduced me to the American owner- the first I'd seen in over a week! But even he didn't understand my hybrid accent. The ... read more

Haha! the gaijin nemisis is back on the radar!! Sanae's been on holidays for the past week from work, and as I don't have any morning lessons we've been enjoying a sloth-ish life sleeping in until 11:30am and staying up until 4:00am eating Ice Cream, gossiping, making plans for the summer and practicing dance routines. You know the usual kind of stuff you do in Japan in the early hours of the morning. Tonight, to vary the routine, we met up after dancing, paid a visit to her parents, and then tottered off to the public path for some relaxing, cleansing happy times. What does this have to do with Gaijin nemisis? I hear you ask urgently, anxiously waiting for the news. Well, I'll tell you. After the public bath it was still quite early (for ... read more

As of today I have no more morning lessons! This is a little bit bad as it means I need to get more private students (or risk facing possible bankruptcy in September) but it is mostly good because it means that I don't have to go to work in the mornings!! Hurrah! So on the eve of my 6 week summer (morning) holiday in Japan I have decided to go ahead and write myself a list, or a small guideline on how I will be spending my Summer abroad. I will not under any circumstances leave the house in the middle of the day for tourism or sightseeing as I will quite possibly melt into a human puddle on the road. I will instead stay at home and eat chocolate truffles, accented by a chilled glass ... read more