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Published: January 9th 2010
The New Year's Crew
Everyone gathered together around 11:30pm before heading into the club for the New Year's celebration. Good timesPsyche! But I bet some of you believed me. But no, I’m still here and still alive after our winter holidays. I will say this first; check out all the pics and the vidz because this is by far the juiciest blog I have put together yet. Whether you’re looking for majestic views of Kyoto, party pics, karaoke videos or live monkey romping, we have it all here today. Something will get you interested and hopefully ignite that desire to come visit me here, since I know everyone of you would love this place! So I’ll get right to the stories,
First of all, Happy New Year and let’s get crazy in 2010, the year of the Tiger! That’s right Steve, nothing but tigers everywhere you look. We finished off 2009 with a sweet Christmas party at work, where I was dressed at Santa on Christmas day and had a special kids lesson where we learned Christmas carols, decorated wreaths and exchanged presents with each other. It was good to be at work that day, since it distracted me from what I was missing at home with the family and the epic tradition that is known as Dinner #2, 3
Me and Junior Maiko!
Posing with a crew of Maiko on the streets of Kyoto. These little Geishas in training were adorable and sometimes 4. But I was thinking of you all and the students loved seeing pictures of you all in my class. The next day was a regular work day, but immediately after we set out on a night bus to Kyoto, the former capital of Japan, 7 hours west of Tokyo. Known for it’s numerous temples and historic locations we were psyched to get our true ‘foreign sightseeing’ activities on.
So Dave, Neil, Rob and I somehow managed to find our bus out of the thousands that depart from Shinjuku station and arrived in Kyoto at 7am on Sunday the 27th. After dropping our bags off at Sparkling Dolphin Hostel we set out to hit some of the most famous temples in all of Japan. Over the four days we saw a lot of goodness, including Kiyomizu Temple, my personal favorite due to its location and the amazing view it provides of all of Kyoto, nestled in the surrounding mountains of the city. Other favorites were Kinkaku-ji Temple, the golden Temple, Ginkaku-ji, the silver temple that isn’t silver, and Sanjusangendo Temple, famous for its 1001 life-sized and bigger golden kannon statues. The highlight of the trip was most
Golden Temple!
Dave, Me, Kimie and Neil out front of Kinkaku-ji Temple in Kyoto. Super dope likely the monkey park, located outside the city to the northwest in Arahiyama, on top of one of the smaller mountains. After having a few baby monkeys latch onto our limbs we quickly found out how angry the mama monkeys got, and had to shoo away any hungry little critters looking for food or an escape to the human world. We stuck together as a crew and ate amazing food (my favorite new dessert being a triangle shaped soft pastry filled with different flavored sweet beans, called Yatsuhashi), took in a lot of sights, and of course hit up some of the better bars and clubs along the main strip in Gion every night. Sure sometimes we went of on ‘solo missions’ but it was all understood so long as we met up at the local convenience store as the sun came up.
So after sleeping so much on the trip (pssshhhtt) we made it home on the 31st just in time to head out for the big New Years celebration in Roppongi, the foreign meet market of wonders. We had a crew of about 12 people and we went out to a smaller, more posh club downtown and
Okonomiyaki Dinner Fun
The usual crew and some friends eating some okonomiyaki in Ikebukuro on a day off. did the usual all night activities, with an extra countdown for New Years at the very beginning of the festivities. It was a perfect end to a week of non stop adventures and the sleep the next day was one of the deepest of my entire life. So from the 300 pictures I took from the trip I posted some of the best ones and explain the story behind them a bit. So check out the comments for some more details of the trip.
After I realized I actually made it to 2010 in one piece I managed to fit in one more day of sightseeing in Ueno, known for its classic park and numerous museums. I recommend the Western Art Museum, Science Museum, and the half-day bike tour that takes you around Ueno and the famous Tsukiji fish market. So after a few wild adventures I came out alive with a bunch of new friends, a whole bunch of ideas for the next trip, and an actual excitement to get back to teaching and hear from my students and learn about their holidays and stories.
This is running long so I’ll just say enjoy the videos and
Sunshine City!
Standing at the base of Sunshine City, the second tallest building in Japan, in Ikebukuro pictures and the first one to forget their New Year’s Resolution wins!
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Couzin Kristen
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You got me!
Way to go Mr. Man! First thing I thought was, "Oh, crap, what did Sloan do to get fired? He's such a nice boy!" Glad it's bogus! Nice pics! Love, your Cuz