Tokyo

All I can say is....oh my gosh, I LOVE TOKYO!!! Al and I had the best time ever in Tokyo and now we both want to move there. We were only there for 48 hours, but it was the best 48 hours! I'll start from the beginning... We flew Asiana Airlines, it was a 2.5 hour flight. They gave us food, wine, movies and didn't charge us for our bags!! We arrived in Tokyo at 3 p.m. and proceed to take the monorail to the JR station, from there we were supposed to arrive at our stop and navigate to our hotel which was only 6 minutes away. Well, Al and I got totally lost. We didn't have the JR information and only had the subway line info. So we end up at the right station after an hour. Then we exit and try to navigate through the city to our hotel. We ask a couple of people where to go, they were very friendly. We end up meeting this totally nice guy, Atsuto, and he helps us get to our hotel. It only took us 2 hours!! We enter our room, which is very small. (Please see video). We take our new friend out for coffee as a thank you, and decided that we all want to go out to dinner. (We stayed in Shinjuku, a really sweet part of town). We go for Udon and Shashimi over rice. It was by far the best dinner we've had in a long time!! And it was only $7 each! Turns out, the area where we were was part of the "red light" district, but I didn't notice that at all. Everyone was rocking 80s style, so watch out, it may be coming to the US soon... Al and I wanted to go out dancing, so we asked Atsuto where to go and he suggested a club called Camelot in Shabuya. He couldn't come with us, as his girlfriend would be very angry with him! (LOL!) So Al and I went and had a blast! Camelot was full of foreigners and natives. And when I say foreigners, I mean from all over the world, not just North America. (That is the first difference between Korea and Japan, there are foreigners from all over the world there, not so much in Korea). They have areas with tables for just ladies, so there's somewhere to sit. And they won't let you take pictures in the club because they have their own photographer taking pictures. So that wasn't cool, but they were playing all of the jams! Al and I totally got down, but realized that our moves are super rusty! So I need to start working on them again. We stayed out till 4:30 a.m. and had to be up by 9 a.m. to do all of the sightseeing we wanted to do.

We were out of the hotel by 10 a.m. the next morning and headed straight to Harajuku! It was a really beautiful day and we did a ton of walking around. There are so many different types of people there. All dressed totally different. And all shapes and sizes, which is very unlike Korea. The people are ten times more friendly and I'd say better looking. The guys there are tall!! Which is always a plus in my book. We saw some Harajuku girls and guys, but not as many as we'd hoped. We went and toured a temple/park and it was so huge and beautiful. After that we ventured to Asakusa to see a really amazing temple at dusk. I got some really good video there. It was very breathtaking. And there was a shopping bazaar all the way to the temple, where I got two beautiful wall material posters. After a long day, Al and I decided that we wanted some sake and sushi. So we went back to the hotel to change and ask the concierge where the best place to go was. He had no idea, so we ventured back to Shabuya and found a great place. We had sushi, chicken wings, and edemami! It was a really great place and we decided right then and there that we want to live in Tokyo!! Its a must! It was really difficult to come back to Korea after that. The food is so much better in Japan. But the cost of everything else is just so much higher there than here. So, we'll see what happens next. But we are planning another trip there soon!

Earthquake!!

So we had a small earthquake the other day. It was only 3.1 and lasted like 3 seconds. But it was really funny! Most of the Canadian teachers had never felt one before, and neither had some of the Korean teachers! But being a seasoned earthquake vet, I assured them that it was no biggie!

There is so much to talk about...One of my friends from Townsend happened to be traveling through SE Asia, so he hopped on over here to Korea and I had such a great time with him! His name is Alex, which was really funny when we hung out with Alexandra too! We finally started doing some sight-seeing, went to Seoul Tower, where they have a teddy bear museum!! I can't wait to go back and check it out (I love you bear!). We also went to Insadong, which is this amazing area that has a ton of street vendors and cute cafes. Alex and I got a delicious waffle with ice cream and fruit on it. Its all the rage here. It was delicious! On Monday, we all went to watch the Superbowl in Sinchon at Beer O'Clock. They were serving chili, so of course I had to check it out. Well, it was super packed and we got the last table in the house. After the Saints won, we decided that it was time to get out of there. So as we were walking to get a cab, we decided that we were all going to have just one more drink....(Alex, Alexandra, one of her teaching partners, and a Korean friend). Well, we went to this silly bar and proceeded to stay out till 4:30 a.m. on a week night. What a great idea. I met the bartender and he speaks perfect English and Spanish (he's Korean). So I was trying to practice my Spanish on him. He's married to a Mexican woman, but she's still in Mexico and they aren't going to see each other for another two years. Crazy, I know!

This weekend, Al and I are off to Tokyo and we couldn't be more excited! We're only going to be there for 48 hours, but I can already taste the fun! I really can't wait to see some temples and walk around the Harajuku area. I will start a picasa site to upload all of my pictures.

Well, that's enough for now....teaching is going well, but its report card time and I had 8 classes of 8-12 students each. I had to write at least 6 sentences for each, and they couldn't all be the same because the moms' call each other to compare. And we were instructed to write nothing negative!! So it was a task and a half!!