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Published: November 29th 2007
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Tama
Illuminations were in full and festive swing "Samurai and the Beekeper" - S. Lawson, 2007. This term was coined by our friend Simone and it gave us all a good laugh. Its meaning is explained below ...
Thursday Nov 15th Travis' University had a party in honour of their English teachers. Travis had to give a small speech in Japanese. He was nervous (as the students say "doki doki") but the speech was well received! The party was great - a nice spread of food and drink and when we finished we were given packages of leftover food to take home! Travis found himself taking the train home with the Dean of the University, and the Macrobiology Professor, both of whom were good English speakers. It was a funny train ride home.
Friday we went to Tama to view the Christmas lights display. Then we enjoyed some Nabe at an izakaya with the Lawson twins. Nabe is like Shabu Shabu - hot broth that you cook meat, veggies, and noodles in at the table. It is great for a cold night! It was delicious.
Saturday Travis' had a field trip to Kamakura. Michelle also went. There were about 40 students and six teachers (seven including
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Sleigh and reindeer - the translation of the katakana on the sign behind - Se-N-Ta I-Ru-Mi-Ne-Shi-N.
santa illumination! Michelle). Kamakura is beautiful! It has a lot of nice hiking trails and temples and is especially nice in autumn. As the day progressed the group broke into smaller groups, until Michelle and Travis were leading 8 students through a long hiking trail on the way to a 13 meter high Buddha -
Daibutsu. After that we enjoyed some delicious cookies then took the Enoden train - a rickety old, slow moving train line, described by one of Travis' students as being loved by "densha otaku" which translates to "train nerds" - from Kamakura back to Fujisawa. In Fujisawa, we met up with 3 other teachers, and about 10 other students and headed to an izakaya where we enjoyed some drinks and dinner. Then of course we headed to Karaoke. It was quite a different experience to do this with students! We were treated to some J-Pop songs and we had a hilarious time, and for once, we managed to make the last train home!
Sunday the two of us headed to Shinjuku-gyoen which is a large park / gardens near Shinjuku. We brought a picnic, and Travis fell asleep resting his head on Michelle's leg. An old man
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The girls show their appreciation for the hot packs. was taking pictures and asked if he could photograph Travis sleeping and Michelle said yes! He was very nice and we all had a laugh after Travis woke up! From there we headed to Kinokuniya - Japan's largest bookstore - and purchased volume 3 of a manga (translated into English) that we are both reading. The manga is called Death Note. We figured it would help us to enjoy our experience here if we could consume some of the sub-culture. Manga is very prevalent in Japan, as you see men and women reading it on the train, in convenience stores etc. When our students find out we are reading Death Note they can't believe it!
After we picked up the manga, we continued to the Park Hyatt for wine and cheese and to watch the sunset which was stunning. Park Hyatt was made famous in the movie "Lost in Translation" as it's the hotel that Bill Murray is staying at. We had our wine and cheese in the same bar that he sits in with the piano!
The next weekend we had Friday off for a national holiday, so Thursday night we headed to an izakaya in Sagami
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Nothing says Christmas like a huge Hello Kitty blow up doll keeping watch over the festivities! Ono with Bob and Gabrielle, Simone, and Matthew. We had a blast! Friday the two of us took our first day off from working and being tourists! We did nothing and it felt great - we needed that day off!
Saturday we went to
Odawara which has a beautiful castle with scenic grounds. While we were there we took the opportunity to dress up like a Samurai (Travis) and an old fashioned fancy Kimono (Michelle). For 200 ¥ You put on the costumes and walk around the castle courtyard for 15 minutes or so. It was hilarious! Travis loved playing with the sword, and many people asked us if they could get their picture taken with us in it?!?! We were like "Uh ok?!". We don't know why we were so popular, but it was hilarious.
Another funny story about the pictures is when Simone saw the picture of Michelle she thought Michelle looked like a beekeeper! Simone said she is going to start a band called "Samurai and the Beekeeper" and when they pass through Toronto on their world tour, that she "might" be able to arrange back-stage passes! Too funny! Both of us had a good
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Not the best picture, but bottom right you can see Nabe - the bowl is split into three sections. Each section has a different flavour of broth. We got spicy, soy, and collagen (which is good for your skin). laugh at this, hence the name of this blog entry.
After the two of us finished our Odawara adventure, we continued on to
Hakone. Although it was a beautiful clear day in other parts of Kanagawa, by the time we arrived in Hakone the clouds had rolled in. Rotten luck. We took a few cable cars through an eerie fog up the mountain. Michelle was disappointed, since both times she has travelled to Hakone Fuji-San has not been visible! Boooo! We had a fun day nonetheless.
Sunday we joined Simone, Kerry, Su and Yuko in
Kichijoji. We really like Kichijoji. On this visit we also checked out
Inokashira Park with its peddlers and performers. It was a beautiful sunny day to check out the fall colours and enjoy a stroll in the park.
We are nearly at the end of our adventure (less than 3 weeks left!) in Japan and we can say that we absolutely love Japan. It is going to be hard to leave. Our teaching contracts end on December 16th, after which we are going to spend a few weeks touring other parts of Japan. On our itinerary is Nagano, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima and Fukuoka.
Nihon University - English Teacher Party
Travis and the Dean who can speak English pretty well. We have tentatively booked a flight to Bangkok on January 5th. In Bangkok, we'll get our SE Asia visas sorted out and begin the next leg of our journey. It's bittersweet, since we really love our time in Japan and our friends and students, but on the flip side we are of course excited to check out other countries!
Thanks for reading, we hope you all are well!
Michelle and Travis
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Kevin
non-member comment
wicked
Hey guys! Once again another awesome blog by t-bone and maam. That dog is really scary....its looks like it has puppy anarexia. I feel sorry for it... Im glad in one picture trav is see through because sometimes, hes really not a pretty sight. HAHA! Love you both, Kev