Fun and Exciting

Yesterday was quite the day. So we started off the day with the group as it was still part of our orientation. We took the train to Shibuya and got off at the station famous for its statue of the dog Hachiko. This statue is dedicated to an Akita who, so the story goes, used to walk to the station everyday to wait for his master to come home from work. One day his master did not ome home due to the fact that he had died from a stroke in a hospital. Even though his master never returned, Hachiko continued to wait at the train station every night before walking back home. Eventually Hachiko died (in 1934) and a statue was erected in honor of his loyalty.
Shibuya is a large shopping area, home to what is supposed to be the busiest intersection in the world. We spent a couple of hours there looking around before heading to Asakusa for a festival. We took a boat ferry. It was a very long trip. The main street of Asakusa was extremely crowded as people gathered to watch the parade that went by. I realized then just how short I am when I couldn't see over the heads of everybody. Eventually my friend Ani put me on her shoulders so I could take pictures. I ended up playing camera woman for everyone. The Japanese got a kick out of it. We then wanted to see the shrine, but my other friend Christine and I seperated from the rest of our group and couldn't figure out how to get over to the shrine. So we went up to Denny's and seriously had the best ice cream sundae in the world. It was a chocolate lover's dream come true.
After coming back to the dorms, I got ready to go out with Ani and Christine. We had decided to meet up with someof the students from Akasaka International Hotel (another place where TUJ students are staying) and then go to Roppongi. It was the first time we were going to try to navigate our way through the train system. We were pretty successful and only got lost a couple of times. We only needed to ask for help once. That actually ended up being a good thing though because I was kind of the designated asker. So I discovered that I can actually get directions in Japanese (with lots of hand movements). It added to the very short list of Japanese phrases I've actually used here. We finally made it to Akasaka and then went to Roppongi. A lot of the dance clubs there are free admission, so it was really nice. The cost of the trip for us was only the 310 yen we used to get there.
Yesterday my roommate finally came back. She's very nice. She and Christine's roommate showed up while we were gone for orientation. When we came back they were so excited to meet us. It was very cute. She speaks a little English (more than my Japanese) but isn't fluent. So it should be a good arrangement where she'll get to use more English and I'll get to use more Japanese. Especially since she's friends with Christine's roommate and Ani's rooommate (who showed up today) and when they hang out they speak to each other in Japanese. They made us dinner tonight and it was really good. Hopefully they'll teach us how to cook Japanese cuisine so when I get back home I'll be able to cook it!

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