Hello all. So this semester I've been teaching English a little bit... it's quite an interesting experience and I never really anticipated doing it before coming here, but I have come to love it! I have several friends who have private students, and with their guidance I found a service online that matches potential students with potential sensei (teachers). Basically native-English speakers post a small profile on a website and then note the locations in which they are willing to teach. The locations are based on the train system, so students living in one part of the city look for teachers living in the same area. These teacher-profiles are then available (for a small registration fee) to Japanese people. It took a few weeks for anyone to respond to my profile, and just when I was ... read more

Hi All, Today I move out of the dorms and into a hostel with Jenny and Annie from the States. I have to admit that this semester has been incredible and I'm not sure if I can comprehend it being over. The past week and a half has been an interesting mix of goodbye's and traveling. It was insanely difficult to say goodbye to the Ayase ladies and for awhile it was so lonely to be the only one left in the dorm. We grew so close over the four months of living here in Tokyo and it seemed unnatural and premature to have to be separated. But then someone pointed out that it is a bit unnatural in the first place to suddenly be immersed in Japan with a bunch of strangers. We had a ... read more

Hello all, It's been awhile since I've updated with a new article, but I've had a super good week and I think I should share it. I think that I have learned to appreciate Tokyo as a city now, rather than being overwhelmed by everything Japan. Over the past three months I have most definitely become acclimated to Tokyo and so it feels like home and things are starting to feel normal. I worry sometimes that I have gotten so used to my routine and my life here that I am forgetting to be a tourist. But this week I did a bunch of things that I feel were what real Tokyoites do, I had so much fun, but it wasn't really sight-seeing or anything like that. I met a lot of Nihongogin (Japanese people) and ... read more

So as preparation for my midterm this week, and also to inform you guys on some Japanese history, I've decided to write a little summary of the Edo-period history, the Edo-period architecture & urban planning schemes, and even some history about the "opening" of Japan to the rest of the world in the seventeenth century. This entry might be a little more boring, but hopefully I can supplment the more textbooky stuff with some photos and stories about what we've seen first hand. I will also try to write about some contemporary social organization of the Japanese workplace as many of the practices are rooted in historical tradition. Basically I have three classes (History of Tokyo, Architecture & Urban Planning of Tokyo, and Social Organization of Japan) which have information that corresponds and overlaps. So I ... read more

Alright, this entry is about a big dinner with all of the IES studenst in Ginza and then another trip to Ginza when we saw Kabuki theater (seperate from the dinner outing). It is a bit dated (as we went about three weeks ago), but the place we went to dinner at is super cool, the Kabuki theater was a really different experience and I have lots of pictures for both. So at the end of orientation week, the IES staff took us out to eat in Ginza, one of the biggest sub-centers of the city. Basically this event was to "welcome" us to Japan and at the same time give us a sampling of how to navigate the train system. It was the first time I had been into metropolitan Tokyo and it was really ... read more