Just the other day I was thinking how I’d like to take a trip, but probably won’t because I don’t want to spend the money and stuff. Hong Kong and Seoul were awesome last year. But then I talked to my parents on Monday and guess what…
I’m heading to China next Friday. Haha, yep. I’ll be there for about two weeks to help my Dad with some work. Should be a pretty sweet trip. I’m going to Beijing then maybe some other cities from there. It’s good timing since I don’t start the full-time position until later in June, and I’m pretty free right now. Had to cancel a few of the lessons I’m teaching, but luckily I was able to arrange that. I don’t know how much time I’ll have to do sightseeing while I’m over there, but I’m sure at least the weekends should be free.
I wonder how much Mandarin I can learn in a week and a half.
I went to the Statue of Liberty for the first time on Friday. No, no, not in New York. This is a replica statue they have in Odaiba. It’s not as big as the real one, of course. More on Odaiba later.
We showed up before opening at 5:30, hanging out in the lobby with a decent number of middle aged salarymen, all waiting to enter paradise as well. Matsushita-san opened the place up and gave us a wave. He was telling some of the staff (Kanda students) that we’re the ones responsible for popularizing Y’s with the foreign students and probably Kanda students in general. Amazing. The place was probably busier that night than ever, since April is the start of the academic and fiscal year, meaning there were a lot of companies having welcome parties for new staff members. All of the private rooms were full, every table was packed, and even the counters were populated by tons of young Japanese workers all wearing the same suit. We weren’t able to get the usual middle counter, but I guess it was permissible this time. Steve and my friend Jini were the only ones who had never been to Y’s before, and they were both very pleased I think. It’s hard not to be.
After the Penis Festival, we headed up to Ikebukuro to go to Namjatown, the “Golden Saucer” of Tokyo. In addition to the usual zones like Gyoza Stadium and Ice Cream City, there was a Cheesecake Expo going on and some other new stuff. It was great to see the mayor and the Namderbirds. Going with a big group to Gyoza Stadium is always a good idea because that way you can try a lot of different kinds of gyoza (pot stickers/Chinese dumplings). There was an awesome one made with a beef filling that I don’t think I’ve had there before. We walked around some of the amusement areas that I’ve never looked at before, and they were kind of interesting. Not interesting enough to pay for, but they were free so it was all good. After Namja we went across the street to The Lockup Ikebukuro location, giving the visitors a taste of a weird Japanese theme restaurant/bar.
It’s finally time for me to get around to documenting the past few weeks. A big highlight was the unusually high number of visitors. It seems like everyone and their mother decided to come visit right around the same time. Actually Blanchard’s mom did come to Japan, but they were in Kyoto. But at least the “everyone and their mother” line kind of works. But I digress. Luckily, I had a lot of free time to hang out with people, show them around, go to sightseeing-type places, and all that stuff. I got to play tour guide and went to more places in Tokyo than I think I have the rest of the year combined.
The first one we went to was called a 
