Honey Bees' Travel Log

PARIS... LONG overdue!

2009-12-03T09:43:00.000-08:00

Once again the weekend started off way too early. We had to get to the Ramstein train station before 5:55am and the walk was soo cold. It even rained a bit during our walk. We caught our train and we were on our way to PARIS. First thing we did was check into our hostel. It was a nice, cute little place, better than the floor of a tent the smelled like b.o. We checked our stuff in then began exploring.

We wanted to find bikes because we heard you can rent bikes, but we didn’t know where to find them, so we just took the metro to our first stop – Arc de Triomphe. By the end of this trip we were all pros at navigating the metro system. When we got to the Arc, it was quite a site. We went up escalators to get out of the metro, and as you ascend, you see the Arc slowly growing right in front of you. Very cool. We did the whole picture thing, walked under it, and then decided not to go up to the top. We all agreed we would rather go up the Eiffel Tower instead. So after we saw the Arc, we walked down the 2 mile strip of streets known for shopping – Champs d’elysees. There were a lot of nice things to look at, but nothing affordable… not for me anyway. We walked down one side of the street, stopped at a little café for lunch with the outdoor dining area, it was really nice and quite relaxing. There were a bunch of guys selling/peddling stuff on the streets like fake name brand bags and stuff, and I don’t know much they were selling it for, but it was going FAST. Particularly one smart guy who set up his blanket of fake bags right next to a McDonalds, his bags sold really fast.

On our way back the other side of the street, it started to rain, so we decided it was a sign to go. We caught the metro back to our hostel to chill a bit and wait out the rain, which meant, the perfect time for a nap! Took a nice nap, and when we woke up, the rain had stopped! =) We decided to explore a bit near our hostel, and ended up finding a wine festival that was apparently going on that weekend. However, this wine festival was 10x smaller than the big wine festival at Bad Durkheim, and only 5x less the amount of people… so it was CRAMPED. Walked around, found a nice little restaurant for dinner, had a HUGE pasta bowl. Found our way to the MOULIN ROUGE and the red light district. Everything here seems to be sudden, like you’re walking down the street, you turn a corner and BAM! Red light district and a huge Moulin rouge building! We were going to go in, but apparently there was a dinner party thing going on that night and it cost about 80 something euro to go in… no thank you. Pictures outside were enough.

After the Moulin rouge, we decided to see the Eiffel Tower at night and meet up with our camp friends who are also in paris, but had a different agenda. The tower is AMAZING at night. It was all lit up, and it was beautiful. It wasn’t what I expected in the sense that it was lit up red and white, but it was still quite a sight. There also happened to be a big soccer game that day, and Turkey won, so there was a bunch of Turkish people with their country’s flag running around and just celebrating. Then on the hour, the lights on the tower started flashing and it was like a bunch of stars or something and the lights reflected off the windows of the buildings nearby and the water that was across the street and I’m glad I saw that cuz it totally upped the beauty of the Eiffel Tower. After all that we went back to our cute little hostel and we called it a night!

Sunday – woke up and got ready to see more sights. Started making our way to the Notre Dame and ran into a pretty fountain, which we climbed all over. We walked through a couple of stores, and I found my AMAZINGLY BADASS leather jacket! I was really happy. It fits really nicely and I just fell in love with it. Plus I was cold, so it helped to have it! Got to the Notre Dame, and walked around inside. Since it was a Sunday, there was a service going on inside, but we just walked around it. It was pretty big, and there was a lot of statues and stuff, but I don’t really know much about it, it was just pretty to walk through. After we walked around that, we found “point zero” which is supposedly the “location from which distances are measured” according to wiki. =P

I wanted to go to the catacombs, which is a like an underground cemetery/tomb, but unfortunately it was closed for “renovations”. I found out later it was closed because it had been really badly vandalized. =( That was probably the sad point of the trip cuz I was really looking forward to it. But oh well, I got over it. We went to the Eiffel Tower since it was daytime and got baguettes and had a bread swordfight in front of the Eiffel Tower. We also went up the tower, and the view was amazing. I saw the tops of all the buildings and even found the twin of our statue of liberty! I’m not really sure what it’s called in France, but to me, it’s our lady liberty’s twin. Haha.

After the Eiffel Tower we made our way to a cemetery to find James Morrison’s grave. I have no clue who that is, but Cat, the girl we travel with wanted to go, so we did. RIGHT after I took a picture of the grave, my camera battery died -.-

At night, Julley and I decided we wanted to have our first glass of wine as 21 yr olds. So we went to this cute little place down the street from our hostel, and told the waiter guy that we’ve never had wine before and asked what he recommended. He got his favorite wine for Julley. It was a sweet wine and Julley liked it. I got a rose wine, and it was ok, something that needs to be sipped on slowly.

Monday – spent the whole day at the Louvre. It was beautiful and big and a lot more… WOW than I thought. Saw a lot of famous stuff, but it was so big that of course we didn’t get to the whole museum. We just focused on one corridor area. Then went outside and took pictures and walked down this beautiful park street and it was a beautiful relaxing weekend.

Finally, the longest overdue blog! I would've added pictures... but the blog is long enough already...

Soon I will get Amsterdam, Belgium, and Austria… I’m so behind =(

SWITZERLAND

2009-11-17T08:02:00.000-08:00

Switzerland was just… WOW. Clean air and pure beauty! I could almost compare it to the beauty I experienced in Japan… but different cuz it’s not japan We decided to leave a bit later than we normally do on our weekend trips and left around 7am Saturday morning. Arrived at the train station, Interlaken west around 2pm. The city we went to, Interlaken, means “between two lakes” and it was located right between two gorgeous lakes: Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. We checked into our cute little hostel called “happy inn lodge” and tried to contact our paragliding people. Our plans were to go paragliding around 3pm that day, but due to high winds, they asked if they could cancel and go Sunday morning at 10am instead. We didn’t mind as long as we got to do it, so we were fine with it and decided to just spend our time exploring and walking around and even do some shopping. The Swiss uses Francs, so we had to exchange our money, and the franc is a closer equivalent to the US dollar than the euro is, so while we were walking around I kept getting confused by the prices cuz I would still try to convert it as if it was euro to dollar. Anyway, so walking around was just SO beautiful, we took pictures, tried to find the lake, but it got dark pretty fast and we decided to find at least one of the lakes the next day. It was quite relaxing and we called it a night pretty early.

Sunday, we got up excited for paragliding… even though it’s $$$ to go. We got picked up outside of our hostel, and they drove up the mountains to a town called Beatenberg. It’s amazing how these people are just living on the mountains like it’s nothing, and they all seem to have their own cows… just an observation. Anyway, I think we went up about 2500 ft, give or take some, and we could see soo much from our take-off area. We each had our pilot cuz it was tandem paragliding, and we got strapped in and they even provided us with shoes, jacket, helmet, and all the other equipment we needed. They set everything up, and the three us got into position, and we all took off within 5 mins of each other. I was in the middle, so I was able to get some pictures of Cat, in front of me, and Julley, behind me. Our pilot person had a camera and this huge extension stick thing so he got pictures of us with the scenery, and he put it all on a cd which I later bought. I wasn’t planning on getting the cd, but after looking through all the pictures I figured it’s an experience and this is a memorabilia.

Picture of me and my pilot Anders (pronounced "Andrews"). Words cannot describe the beauty and excitement of paragliding. Next on my list is bungee jumping and eventually sky diving! I was pretty freaked out by the whole thing though, cuz the take-off area is a huge patch of green that slopes off a cliff, and when I was strapped in, Anders told me to start walking when he says go, and then start running when he says run, but not to stop until he says stop. So pretty much I’d be running off a cliff… =/ Anyway, it wasn’t too bad, I did it didn’t I? it was pretty crazy though cuz when he said run, and I started running, I was already getting lifted off the ground, but I kept moving my legs so I was kinda running in the air, and every so often I’d touch back down on the ground until finally we were over the cliff and our parachute caught air, and we were in the sky!

We were in the sky for about 15 mins, we went over some mountains, saw the AMAZING scenery and even went through the clouds! There was a kind of seat attached to me so after all the running and we were in the air, I just had to sit back and I was coasting. Lots of fun. This is just one of my many favorite pictures that I took from the sky.

The landing was even more fun! It was pretty chill in the air and we talked and I had said I’m from California, so right before landing, he asked me if I like Disneyland. Of course I told him I LOVED it, and he said “good, here’s the real thing” and OMGOSH I wish I recorded it cuz it was so much fun, he steered us left and right I guess to slow us down, and it was like being on a roller coaster, but in the air with a beautiful view that’s real and just wow. When we got closer to the ground, he told me to stand up and when he said so, to start running, so I did that, we landed and I was just ecstatic from such an amazingly breathtaking experience. =D

After we thanked them, and paid them and realized how broke we were, we decided to find the lake. Julley’s pilot told her which of the two lakes were prettier, and we took a bus to the lake. With our hostel, we received a vistor’s pass that allowed us on any and all buses within Interlaken for free, so we just hopped on the bus and went to Lake Brienz.

My pictures are the only way I could remotely describe the beauty that lay before us. I almost felt like it was a backdrop that someone had painted, but it was all real, and perfect. Like every mountain, every peak, every tree was purposely placed where it was and it created such a feeling of tranquility and peace. I was happy. =)

We got on a train and came home, and I could close my eyes and just see that beauty. Definitely the BEST place I’ve seen so far. Only bleh is that it gets SO dark SO early cuz it’s winter that it sucks. I thought it was like 7 or 8… and it was barely 5pm… -.- not cool.

Random stuff:
-I still have to blog about paris and amerstdam… I know. I’m working on it, but I figure I’ll work backwards?

-I have about one month left! Not sure how I feel about it… part of me wants to go home, and part of me would rather not…

-I have been to McDonalds in 6 different countries on 3 different continents… and trust me not all of them are as crap quality as the US.

still here

2009-11-02T10:10:00.000-08:00

sorry for not updating. a lot has been going on, just checking in that i'm still here and i intend to update when things calm down for me.

-SHY

OKTOBERFEST!!!!

2009-10-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

So here is the long overdue entry on Oktoberfest. First off I just want to say I updated about Oktoberfest, but I did it on a word document with the intention of updating my actually blog, but didn’t get around to it, so it’s been sitting on my desktop for a bit. And I will eventually get PARIS updated asap!

The weekend began at 4:30am. We left our housing and walked the one-hour walk into Ramstein to get to the train station. Our train was supposed to arrive at 5:55am… but for some reason, it didn’t come. SO we all froze our butts off waiting and wondering if the train would ever come… and it didn’t. So we had to call a taxi and took it to the main train station in Landstuhl where we were supposed to take a connecting train to Munich. After much rushing and a bit of panic, we got where we needed to go and made it on our train. We arrived at Munich, found our hostel, but there were so many people wanting to check in that we decided to drop off our stuff in a locker and go straight to Oktoberfest. Our hostel is called "the tent" and we paid to sleep on the floor of a tent, and it was exactly how I imagined it - a HUGE tent, with mats and blankets (provided) on the floor, and you sleep where you find space! It was quite an experience. When we finally checked in, and they asked us how many blankets the guy who checked us in promised us, I replied "He promised to keep us warm" =D haha we got 3 blankets each!!

When we got there, we just followed the large crowd towards the festival, and it was a HUGE crowd – almost like a migration of people just herding towards one general direction. This place was Wine fest x 1000! We walked around, watched the drunk people stumble, and just explored for a bit. By this time, our group of six separated into two groups of three, which made exploring in the mass so much easier. I had a ½ meter long CURRYWURST and that was soooo amazingly delicious! Hahah and I also had a chocolate covered apple… YUMMM I know for sure I will never find chocolate like this in the states, so I figure I should take advantage of it and enjoy it while it lasts.

We stumbled upon this HUGE hill that we deemed “Pass-out Hill”, and made comments how you’d pass out at the top of the hill and you’d wake up at the bottom. There were SO many drunk people on the hill, but we were there to sit and look out over Oktoberfest and just chill a bit. Here is where we met some Italian guys who wanted to take pictures of us. This is also when I realized my one year of Italian was kinda uselss… =/ Anyway, we had been playing a game where when guys would approach us and ask us for our name, we’d give a different name each time and see if we can remember our each other’s “name”. This time my name was Sharon, and we had an Emma Watson, and Julley was Janet. Ironically though, they asked for our full names so they can find us on facebook -.- so we had to lie again, but I suck at that, but it was pretty funny. Close to sunset, we wanted to go to the Haufbrau tent, which is supposed to be the most famous tent.

We get to the front, and there’s a HUGE crowd of people trying to get in, but apparently it’s full so security wasn’t letting people in. Long story short, 6 girls, 1 kitchen staff worker, a side door through the kitchen, and we’re in! hahah =D it was lots of fun… for a bit. I don’t think I could’ve done that all night… lots of music, food, beer, and drunk people. It was also soo crowded I was done after I walked through once. This really nice guy shared his table with us and got us a stein of beer, which we shared between the 6 of us, and we took pictures and just had fun.

Btw, European guys… all about kissing… BIG no-no! haha some Italian guys we met tried to tell us that they kiss three times when greeting, one kiss on each cheek and one kiss on the lips. CHYEAH RIGHT! After a while, Julley, Cat, and I wanted to leave, and on our way out, we stumbled upon stairs leading upstairs! So we went upstairs, and I liked it a lot better there, sure the people were still kinda drunk, but they were a lot calmer. We met this nice group of people, where the guy is from Ireland, but had been living in Germany for about 10 years and has a family here, and his friend from Indiana? Or somewhere in the states, but has been in Germany for close to 20 years. They get a table at Oktoberfest every year, and when they asked if we already had a drink and we told them we shared one stein w/ 6 people he said “that’s against the law here” =P cool guys. After all that, we decided to head back to our hostel, “the tent” – but not until we got some SCHNITZEL!

I slept in the middle between Julley and Cat and I was warm the whole night =D

Sunday, we went back to Oktoberfest, checked it out in the morning, went on the ferris wheel, did some haggling for some souvenirs, and checked out the church in the center of town. We also stopped by the tent we were at the night before, and grabbed a stein glass as a souvenir! haha we had to to hide it cuz they don't let you take the HUGE glasses out if they catch you with it, but we were slick! =) We also went to a park and just hung out there a bit, winded down our weekend, and then headed back home. On our way home, we stopped by a store that sold the traditional costume things, I don't know what it's called, but we tried a bunch on!

---

Paris was BEAUTIFUL! And I will update about that another time.

Work is becoming routine, although the waking up at 5am part will never be =(

I miss home and everyone at home, and if you sent me something, I promise you will get something back when I can find some time for it. There will be at least a couple of weekends where I won’t plan to travel and can spend that time catching up on things I need to do like returning letters, updating my blog, and uploading my pictures.

Can't believe I've already been here a month!!!

OKTOBERFEST... sorta

2009-10-04T11:45:00.000-07:00

oktoberfest this weekend was AMAZING... more like CRAZY! So many stories, pictures to follow, but I have work WAAYYY too early 2m and will have to update when I have more time.

Going out too much?

2009-09-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

Haven't updated in a while, nothing really THAT exciting to update about. Last weekend, just took it easy and didn't really do anything. Went out with some new Air Force friends we made last friday night, and that was an adventure. Now that we got to know them a bit better, there are two that I deem are the coolest and I feel the safest/most comfortable with. So we went out with them again this past friday night.

Started out at a bar, I tried a double bacardi and coke w/ lime, which was actually QUITE yummy. Then I had my first taste of jager... which I don't think was that bad... I also had a bit of my friend's Strawberry Mofo - all in a not very long period of time. I believe I was buzzed that night. Interesting feeling. I also had my FIRST DONER which was SOOO delicious, and something called Currywurst? That was also delicious... I think the pictures are on Julley's camera. Anyway, so we ended up going to another bar for a bit, then decided we wanted to dance, and ended up at a club. The club we went to is located in Kaiserslautern, aka K-town. There are multiple rooms with different styles of music playing in each room. When you enter the club, they take a picture of you and give you a card - your drink card. Which means anytime you order a drink, you just give them your card and they charge it on that, when you leave at the end of the night, you pay for your card which has the cover (8 euro) and the drinks that you bought. If you lose your card.... I just heard that's a bad thing to do. Anyway, so we got home at like 5am Saturday.... >.<>

By the time I went to bed, it was close to 6am... and somehow I woke up at 8:30!! Of course I went back to sleep and didn't actually get up until about 12/1-ish. Went to the BX, which is this HUGE store that's like a combination of different stores into one... not sure how to describe it, but it's kinda like a higher class Walmart. Anyway, we don't have privileges to shop there b/c we're not military, BUT we have air force friends now, who was kind enough to take us! =D Afterwards, we went to watch a movie... I saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for $4!!! Pretty cool.

Got home, and the aquatics girls wanted to go out. They wanted to come with us the night before, but they work Saturdays so they couldn't, so they wanted to go out tonight, and our air force guys said they'd take them out... so Julley and I ended up going out again... This time we just went to one bar in Landstuhl, and stayed there the entire time. It was fun, I didn't drink at all cuz I figure I already drank the night before. This time though, instead of getting home at 5... we left the bar around 5 O.o We went to one of the guy's house who lived off base and crashed there... 4 girls... 4 guys... interesting night... er... morning. I couldn't sleep, so I ended up doing random things until about 9 or 10am I fell asleep in the kitchen... haha yea... quite an experience!

Anyway, by the time I got back home it was noon and another day was gone. Luckily I was so exhausted I fell asleep early and was able to get back into the swing of things for work on Monday.

Work has been getting better in the sense that the kids know me and are comfortable around me. I love watching them because they are in that stage where development just SPURTS and one day a child isn't walking, and the next day the child is able to take a couple steps to get to you. One day a child isn't using words, and after the weekend, the child comes in and says "Hi". It's an amazing and rewarding experience.

This weekend is the last weekend of Oktoberfest, AND my eurorail pass finally came, so I we will be going to Munich, to see the city as well as experience Oktoberfest. How exciting! I promise to have more pictures! Now that my pass is here, I'll just be going going going and it should be a lot more exciting.

There has been two diagnosed cases of Strep Throat in my classroom =/ I have yet to get sick, and I hope I never do... I don't think I've ever had strep before... so let's hope it stays that way.

Can't believe it's my birthday next week... PLEASE write me! Or send me pictures! I'll put it on my wall and I'll totally write back!

Camp Adventure

ATTN: Shirley Yang

86 SVS/SVY Unit 3270

Box 535

APO/AE 09094

~SHY

First Week in GERMANY

2009-09-15T07:31:00.000-07:00

Alright, here's the lowdown. I changed a kid's diaper for the first time on friday... and gosh they poop so much! O.o really makes a person rethink the whole maternity deal

Military culture is so interesting. Things seem to move at warp speed and everyone seems to get married and start families really early, which makes sense in their circumstance.

Friday night, some of us went to an Irish bar right off base in Ramstein. They serve everything here in really BIG cups... like .5 Liter cups... more like mugs. anyway, I tried something called a "Strongbow" and that was really yummy. It's a dry ale, and is only available in Europe. =(

Saturday was the wine festival. Think State fair but more open drinking and different kinds of food booths. I imagined it to be more like you go around the booths and taste a bit of different kinds, but when I was there... SURPRISE! Not quite what I imagined. So we got there and went to a booth. You order a wine that they have and you pay a 2 euro glass deposit and when you return your glass, you get the 2 euro back, otherwise you can keep the glass. Well they give you the wine in a HUGE .5 Liter Glass. And apparently the alcohol in Europe overall is a lot stronger than the US. O.o The size of the glass of wine... CRAZY

Didn't go on any of the rides or anything, just tried a bunch of foods. Had my first BRATWURST which was delicious, and also HUGE. Also had some chocolate covered strawberries which was soo yummy, the chocolate AND the strawberries! =D very happy

Sunday, we woke up early to go hiking through the Black Forest. We went with the Outdoor Recreation center on base so we didn't have to worry about planning or catching the train, so that was nice. It was less of a hike and more of a stroll through the forest, but it was still very beautiful. There was a waterfall, and lots of green.

After the walk, we got some black forest cake, which I'm glad I didn't get. I tried a little, and I didn't like it... perhaps cuz there was alcohol in the cake. Someone else got a chocolate cake that I tried, and there was a layer in the cake that tasted like pure alcohol. It was pretty strong... We also went to a cuckoo clock place because that area is supposedly known for the clocks, and I almost got something, but as usual, I talked myself out of it. On the way back to the base, we took a detour and stopped by a castle. My first castle in Europe! I have a feeling I will get to see as many castles throughout Europe as I saw temples/shrines throughout Japan! =D

First actual week of work where I am in ratio with the kids, and monday was a rough day.... after the kids stay home with their parents all weekend, they're a bit harder to handle on mondays, but I'll get used to it, just like how I'm getting used to changing diapers and putting babies to sleep.

GERMANY!

2009-09-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

I am now in Germany! And here is my quick update on the past couple days!

Arrived in Germany on Monday, and what was only supposed to be a 1.5-2 hour drive to base ended up being a 4 hour drive because of many road closures due to construction, unclear detours and just making wrong turns. =/ I was pretty exhausted when we finally got on base. Our apartment is amazing, we have 5 people living in a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom fully furnished apartment. As much as I wanted my own room, Julley and I are the two people sharing the master bedroom >.<>

Tuesday, we spent the day trying to get a working visa... but that didn't work out too well, got our badge that'll allow us to get on base, and the person driving us around was nice enough to show us around base and let us know where everything is... not that I remember cuz the base is SO big!

Wednesday was our first day of observation at work. I started observing the class that's 6mos.-12mos. I LOVED that class, the infants were so mellow and it was just a lot of fun. Then we met with the trainer person, and she told me I'd be working in a classroom with 12mo.-24mo. old kids... and I went to observe that classroom and it was just pure CHAOS. Apparently the center has also been terribly short staffed recently, and the room I'm supposedly working in doesn't have a room lead... which is supposed to be the main teacher/caregiver of a specific classroom. No wonder that class is chaotic.

My work schedule has me working M-F from 6am-3pm! That means I have to be ready to leave by 545am.. EVERY... SINGLE... WEEKDAY... O.o Last night I was gone before it even hit 10pm. On the plus side, at least I have my afternoons free

I probably shouldn't compare this trip to Japan, not only because they are two completely different countries, but also because what I'm doing here is completely different from what I did in Japan. But naturally I do compare the two, and after having the amazing time that I had in Japan I have high expectations for Germany. I realize by having these expectations and comparisons, I may not get as much out of this trip as I can, however, as of right now, Germany is nowhere in comparison to Japan, and is not meeting such expectations. Hopefully I'll learn a thing or two and have just as an amazing time here.

This weekend we have a winefest planned, clubbing at a nearby town (apparently it's something that needs to be experienced), and potentially hiking through the Black Forest. Not sure why it's called that, but I guess I'll find out if it happens!

MY MAILING ADDRESS!!! Please mail me! I'll write back I PROMISE! =D

NAME

86 SVS/SVY Unit 3270

Box 535

APO AE 09094

Waking up so early is exhausting...

BACK in the States!

2009-08-29T23:36:00.000-07:00

This blog is for you Stanley. Thank you, I like getting feedback! ^.^

Since I've been home, I have been to Berkeley for a couple days, then went to Socal w/ BB Angela, and two of my sibs. We went to Seaworld and Disneyland/California Adventures! A LOT of fun, and the weather has been BEAUTIFUL! Now I'm back at Davis, and will be here until Sept. 3rd. Started making plans, and here they are:

Sunday: - Lunch w/ Cashnaseda

- Visit Lil Bro + Psi Chi House

Monday: - Visit Cash Office (before 2pm)

- Dinner with my girlies from Japan

Tuesday: - Lil Bro TRACY! (Sac fair?)

Wednesday: - EPSILON!! <3

- Dinner with Epsilon

Thursday: - Home before Bay Bridge Closes! (8pm)

I have random gaps to see people/hang out/eat... if you have a free moment and are in davis let me know! (Stanley, I have time on monday between 2pm and dinner!)

The next time I update... I'll be in GERMANY! =D

BASEBALL!! for real this time!

2009-08-12T07:00:00.001-07:00

So I lied about updating the next day. Not intentionally though. SORRY STAN!!

Giants Game: Yomiuri Giants vs. Yakult Swallows at the Tokyo Dome. Tokyo Giants have the same colors as the SF Giants! =D The game was pretty slow at the beginning… then we scored a run, but like two innings later the Swallows scored a run as well. So to make things more exciting I was trying to predict the end of the game and said there’s going to be a double play, then “my man” #6 Sakamoto (I just picked him to be my man, we had an instant connection =P) will hit a home run and we will win the game. We went into the 10^th inning, and no joke, there was a double play!! Then a HOME RUN! BUT not by my man, it was #9 Kamei (#6, #9, close enough?) It was all very exciting! Now to blog about Japanese baseball culture so that I never forget it… not that I would, but just in case

So to start off, you only cheer when your team is batting and when your team is pitching, you’re completely silent. And they’re respectful of the other team’s cheering. Granted both teams are Tokyo teams so there was a good amount of fans for both teams. There were drums and trumpets and they play music and chant. There’s a different chant for different situations and different players! Since we couldn’t understand what they were saying, we made up our own chant and words to go along with it!

Whenever a team makes a run, each team has their own little thing they do. For instance, when the giants made a run, everyone had these bright orange towels they waved in the air, and when the swallows made a run, all their fans had these little blue umbrellas that they opened and waved around. It was VERY exciting, especially seeing a wave of orange in the crowd.

Ok, Baseball food – AMAZING! Haha but very asian. There were octopus balls (SOOO delicious!!!), and other asian foods, dried squid, etc.

pictures are on facebook, and I will upload a video soon!

camp... BASEBALL GAME!

2009-08-09T08:06:00.001-07:00

alright, I want to update this about camp because I never want to forget how infuriating children can be at times.

Even though I learned a bit of Japanese in high school and we have campers who barely speak English if at all, I'm not allowed to let them know I know Japanese and I have to pretend to not understand them. I was told that their parents send them to camp so they can learn English and if they knew I understood them they would only talk to me in Japanese... well they still only talk in Japanese because that's all they know. Anyway, every week we make expectation posters to match our theme week, and this week was space week so we had shooting stars for the expectations on a huge strip of butcher paper that I painted black. This is our expectations poster.

On friday, I turn around and catch 3 of the campers writing on the black poster! They were writing in Japanese, and I caught one of them writing "baka" meaning idiot. So I didn't think and said to him "HEY! we don't write those kinds of words at camp!" and he just looked at me. I caught myself and said "we do not write on walls at camp... what did you write?" He told me the truth, and his friends did as well. So I had them repaint the walls because Friday is also Camp A presents where the parents come and the campers showcase some of the things they've been working on throughout the week. Well, these 4 boys (they ratted out another boy who had written on the wall) did not take me seriously and was laughing and being totally disrespectful... as usual and I wanted them to understand that I'm not going to put up with their behavior, so I told them they weren't going swimming today, instead they had to stay behind and help me clean and set up the center for Camp A presents. Then I realized I can't trust them to sweep, clean tables, set up chairs and stuff without supervision but I had to write up incident reports for the graffiti so I told them they first have to write an apology letter to the counselors for what they did and their disrespectful behaviors and another letter to their parents explaining what they did and why we're sending home incident reports. Well the complained about it, one of them didn't much english, another didn't know any so they were saying they can't write in english. I told them they could write whatever language they wanted, but they had to write it. At one point they asked why they have to write letters and I replied "well, since you guys like writing so much, you might as well write letters explaining what you did". I thought that was very clever of me btw. Anyway, they would ask "is this ok?" like children often do. I would make comments like "why did you do it? what did you learn? who are you writing to?" I even made similar comments when the kids showed me the japanese letters (luckily I could read and understand it) So one of the kids asked me "how do you know what they're writing?" I looked at him and responded "I know more Japanese than you think". LOL he gave me a confused look and went back to his letter. 45 mins alone with those 4 boys.... makes me want to rethink potential parenthood. Not really... but maybe for like a second.

When I gave the english speaking boys' father the incident report, talked to him, and gave him the letters they wrote, he said "No tv tonight". In my head I was thinking "TONIGHT?! that's it??" Then another mother helped me translate what happened to the mom of the kid who knew no english. When she heard what he did, she pulled at his ear (YES!). Then I told her when I tried to tell him to repaint it, he laughed and was disrespectful, didn't understand what he did was wrong and thought it was a game. Then the mom busts out in chinese that he's getting a beating when he gets home (now THAT'S what I'm talking about!). Not that I'm a fan of physical punishment... but these boys needed it. Anyway, that's my story!

BASEBALL GAME THIS WEEKEND!!!! GIANTS WON!!! w0ot w0ot! Will update tomorrow... too tired.

on TOP of the WORLD

2009-08-03T03:50:00.000-07:00

alright... I know it's been a while since I've updated... but here's my FUJI blog!

Mt. Fuji was definitely one of the things I really wanted to do while I was in Japan, and I had every intention of making it to the top. However, ever since I've been in Japan the people I've run into talking about Fuji made it sound RIDICULOUS! I thought I underestimated Fuji. Sure, I was excited hearing all these stories about the climate, the altitude, the terrain, the possibility of losing my toe nails! O.o At the same time, I began to wonder if it was a good idea to do a sunrise hike. Some of the girls here decided to climb Fuji Sunday during the day with a large group of people, but after much contemplating, I decided the SUNRISE hike is what I really wanted, and I decided that's what I'm going to do.

After work Friday, me and the 5 other people doing the sunrise hike literally came back to the hotel, packed and set off. Straight after work.... I felt kind of crazy doing a night hike directly after work, but I figured I'd have Sunday to rest, rather than doing a hike on Sunday and having to go to work Monday. We arrive at the 5th station at approx. 10pm. The altitude there was about 5000 ft. and that's where you'd start the hike. We layered up our clothes, got our walking sticks and pretty much did what we needed before we started our hike. We began our hike around 10:30pm and realized getting to the 6th station wouldn't be too bad... but from there it'd be a straight shot up to the summit. I wish I had gotten a map... I'm really bummed I didn't, but luckily I did get a picture or the route.

We saw this after we set off from the subaru line, and "this point" is obviously where we were. I took this picture in the morning when we came back down because it was too dark at night and I didn't pull out my camera until the 8th station.

So the climb to the 6th station was not hard at all. In fact it was really nice. Then it began to get really steep, and when we hit the 7th station, we were literally climbing up rocks. It was cold, but I was hot every time I was moving. It was stopping at the stations where I got hit by the cold. My back was pretty much killing me at this point... cold cold air, climbing... yea... but the rest of me felt fine, nothing I'm not used to. When we got to the 8th station, it was 5 of us left. The 6th person needed to go at a slower pace, and told us to keep going. By this point, it was past 2 am and we were wondering if we could make it to the summit for the sunrise. According to the map, once you got past the 8th station, and hit the "original" 8th station, it was 20 mins to 8.5 station and 60 mins to summit. Of the 5 of us that was left, 2 of them had issues with the thin air, and needed longer breaks, but I couldn't take a break, and the remaining 3 of us wanted to make it to the summit for the sunrise, so we went ahead and agreed to meet the rest of them at the top.

We set off and at this point, I didn't feel any pain anymore. I had a mission and I was going stronger than ever. Thank goodness for my walking stick too because the wind was getting stronger, and if I didn't have my stick I might've been blown over the mountain... at least that's how I felt. The last half hour... I saw the sky slowly getting brighter and I KNEW I had to be at the top when the sun came out. No joke, something came over me and I told myself when the sun filled the sky, I'd see it from the top. As a group, we had talked about the sunrise before our hike and agreed that the sunrise would be the same whether you were at the 8th station or the top and it'd be amazing regardless, but something inside me... maybe just because it's me, but I REALLY wanted to be at the top... almost a NEED to be at the top for the sunrise. When the sky slowly became brighter, almost everyone slowed down or stopped to wait and see the sunrise. This is the time when I just booked it. I went off the trail when needed weaved around people, and did what I needed to do to make sure I was at the top. I made it to the top before the sun came up, it was close to 4:50am. I had left the other 2 people during this time, and they were only a min or two behind me and we were all up at the top by 4:50am. The sun came out of the sky... at 4:52am according to the video on facebook. I can't believe I saw the sun physically come out of the clouds, and the sky just fill with light. It was definitely something words and even pictures can NEVER describe.

We got our final stamps, waited at the top for our other 2 friends, who came about an hour or so afterwards and we all took our pictures, happier than EVER! What an accomplishment! We began our hike back down around 7am. The hike down was literally almost completely vertical, switchbacks to help, but it was still difficult. Loose gravel and rocks - again... I owe my life to my walking stick (which was pimped out with stamps at this point =D). On the way down, we thought we were going through the clouds, because it became really misty, almost rainy weather... but then it stayed that way and it was raining. We realized how much we LUCKED out going at night with PERFECT conditions. We saw the sky and more stars than I've ever seen in my life and shooting stars. At one point, 3 of us saw the same shooting star! =D It could not have been any more perfect.

On the 2 hour bus ride back to Tokyo, we all knocked out... we had been up for more than 24 hours, a full work day, a 6 hour hike up mt. fuji, and a dangerous slippery hike back down. When I woke up I was SO STIFF and my back was just in PAIN. I thought I'd be hurting for a while, but we got back to the hotel, and I was tired... but it wasn't as bad as I thought. I went to sleep around 5pm Saturday and I wanted to wake up around 7pm to go to dinner or something... but of course that didn't happen - I slept straight until 3am. Woke up briefly, but knocked out again, and was up again around 7:30am Sunday. At 8am I decided to get up because 14 hours of sleep was MORE than enough. I was expecting to be sore or unable to move... but I was fine. My back was still hurting, but that's to be expected, and my hand was a bit sore from gripping my walking stick too hard? but my lower body felt completely fine. So what did I do sunday? I went SHOPPING! LoLZ

Ate Breakfast, went to a flea market, bought souvenirs for people back at home! Better appreciate! I dropped close to $100!!! And I still don't have stuff for everyone... I'm trying... but not everyone will get something... sorry... college student on a budget =/ like I said though, I'm trying! Nothing too exciting at this point...

The weather was TERRIBLE Sunday, and the three people who went to climb during the day... well they didn't make it to the top, the weather was really bad apparently... and for a while they had to shut down the top of the mountain. Makes me even more glad that I went for the sunrise hike and that I achieved my goal.

oh, and on a side note... I totally farted on top of MT. FUJI =P but apparently so did everyone else I was with! haha

I was blessed on that night and for that I am grateful.

The WHOLE way up I had the song "Superhuman" by Chris Brown in my head, and I literally felt like I could fly. When I was in my zone I had that song on repeat and anything negative was tuned out.

I thoroughly enjoyed my hike, I feel like I overestimated it, it wasn't that bad AT ALL, probably because I lucked out with everything and I'm fully aware of that. If I was asked to do it again, I probably would. It was such a spiritual and amazing experience that I don't think anything in life can compare to it.

To add to an amazing weekend. I am officially placed in RAMSTEIN GERMANY for FALL 2009! I will be leaving SFO on Sept 7, and will return Dec 19! I'm going to GERMANY!! =D

MT. FUJI in less than 6 hours!

2009-07-31T01:40:00.001-07:00

MT. FUJI sunrise hike, here I come! =D

A weekend out of a postcard

2009-07-20T04:06:00.001-07:00

So this weekend has topped all previous weekend, and it was just plain amazing! During the week, Katie, Becca, Lena and I went to check out the park that’s right by our hotel. We stopped by this café and sat and talked and it was really nice. Then we went to the park and walked around. Who knew something so beautiful existed in the heart of a busy city like Tokyo. We were in the park as the sun was setting which totally added to its beauty.

Tuesday - after camp, we decided to check out this festival Ricah was telling us about. I wore the dress I bought for 1000 yen at the japanese hippie festival! To keep this blog short, I'll keep this part short. It was beautiful. Music, dancing, food, definitely not like any festival in the US. Everything was really Japanese style, instead of selling hot dog on a stick, they had octopus on a stick. The taiko drumming and dancing was mesmerizing, and people seemed to just join in, so at one point we did too. That was fun. There were a bunch of lanterns that were lit, which looked beautiful once the sun set, and it was fun just going around trying new things and eating different things.

We went to a scare house type of thing, and I notice in Asia they don't have as many regulations about what you can do to customers. They had things popping out at you, people dressed all creepy and hid and not even jumped out at you, but like crept out and it was kinda spooky. There was a group of japanese girls in front of us that kept getting really scared and would back out, so we passed them, and somehow one of the girls latched onto my arm and followed us through the house. The creepiest part that definitely scared me the most was the last corner, I saw the dude all dressed up standing there, and he didn't move... at all... we walked past him really quickly and I thought it was odd he didn't try to scare us. There were people behind us earlier, but I didn't hear them anymore so I thought the dude scared them and they got left behind. I turn around to see, and that CREEPY dude had been following me and was literally RIGHT over my shoulder! wearing a full-on costume with mask, and it was just creepy. Since the girl was latched to my arm and walking in front of me and behind Hank, I instinctually grabbed her and turned so that I put her between me and the dude. She freaked. Oops =P

The field trip this week was to Zoorasia. Nothing too exciting, just like any other zoo. Except it was ridiculously hot and even the animals were too hot cuz they were all asleep and not moving…

Friday – Mr. Eggplant’s birthday! Everyone (including the campers) made Jeff a banner and surprised him. We also had a cake for him. And after an amazing day at camp what do we do?? GO OUT AT NIGHT! We went to dinner at TGIF’s chipped in and bought him some drinks. Then, some people headed home, others went to Kyoto, and the rest of us decided to do whatever Jeff wanted. He chose karaoke, so we went to Shibuya, found an even better place than the other two, and sang our butts off! A bunch of people are sick, so they didn’t want to stay out too late, and some of us had plans to go to Nikko, so we tried to catch the last bus home, and we made it.

Saturday – Katie, Rachelle, Lena and I headed out to Nikko. This place is amazing beyond belief. Words and pictures will never do it justice. We got a hostel, my first time staying in a hostel, so I was pretty excited. The hostel was HELLA nice, it had a kitchen, the bedroom with 4 bunk beds, a little common room, a shrine, and bathroom. We got our stuff in and decided to explore a bit. By the time we got to where all the temples and shrines were, it was close to 4 and a lot of the places close at 5, so we didn’t feel like paying the entrance fee to walk around for only 1 hour. We explored the free temples and shrines, and then decided to hunt out an Onsen. We asked around for some places with Hot Springs, and we were directed to this one spa that was fairly inexpensive. On the way we came across a concrete block yard and decided to play on it and take pictures. Random, but fun.

We found the Onsen, and it was SO relaxing. 500 yen to get in, 250 yen for a small towel, and you can stay until it closed at 8pm. This place had an outdoor area, indoor area, sauna, and a place to just chill. We had to be completely naked, which was weird at first, but everyone was doing it and it was normal, so it didn’t seem like such a big deal. It felt really cleansing though just to be free and to relax. We stayed there for a bit, but after a while, it got too hot for me, so we set off to go back to the hostel.

Earlier, we had bought two watermelons and each got these huge sushi burritos and had that for dinner. It was very delicious. We also met two guys who were staying in the hostel as well. They were kind of weird… We all wanted to optimize our trip, so we went to bed around 10, and made plans to catch the first bus at 6:30am to head up to the lake and the waterfall that Nikko is known for.

Sunday – we got up to the Lake and it was AMAZING, I can’t even begin to describe the beauty and the fresh air, but I took LOTS of pictures. We went to the waterfall first, and then decided to go on a hike. We set off not quite sure where we’d end up. It was uphill the ENTIRE TIME.

The trail was also 1-1.5 ft wide, and we were literally walking through tall bamboo type vegetation. It was green everywhere. I tripped a couple times of course… almost died… but in the end I was still standing and the least injured. Ironic since I was the clumsiest and tripped the most. Everyone I was with is sick, all stuffed up and slobbering. Rachelle was at the peak of her illness and had a really hard time breathing on the way up, so decided to turn back half way up. That was really unfortunate because when we made it to the top it was SOOO beautiful. I have pictures of where we started from the patch of clearing we ended up at as well as pictures of the patch of clearing we ended up at from where we started.

Instead of continuing on the hike, we decided to head back down and meet up with Rachelle so she wouldn’t be alone waiting for us. When we got back it was only like 11 am!! =D We found Rachelle, had lunch at the lake, and then walked around for a little bit. We caught the bus to the stop where all the shrines and temples were, and we bought the pass that let us into all the temples and shrines and walked around there. There were so many details and everything looked so old yet beautiful. There was even a wedding going on inside one of the shrines. Baller status! Some of the older temples didn’t allow photos to be taken inside which makes sense but it’s also a shame. We headed back to the train station, which was perfect timing cuz once we got there it started POURING. We got on the train and headed back to Tokyo. We had to transfer at Asakusa, so we decided to stop for sushi and ate at a sushi-go-round. YUM. Got back to Tokyo and that was the end of my amazing postcard weekend.

Random moments that won't be funny unless you were there, but I don't want to forget:

-whenever anyone trips or does something clumsy they said "well call me shirley" or "you just pulled a shirley"

-L: does anyone else have seaweed in their teeth? K: yea I do, it's so hard to get out. R: I think it's seaweed... (Lol, no duh)

-S: we should go get more of this sushi burrito for lunch tomorrow. L: will it be open at 6am? K: we should get it tonight (a bit of time passes) S: Oh! we should go tonight! (I was having a conversation in my head and totally missed her saying that)

-Lena almost getting run over by a car trying to cross a bridge... because she thought it was a foot bridge! (you had to be there)

-L: I don't want to cross through here... what if there are thimbles?! (she meant thistles)

-Katie goes into the onsen completely naked like the rest of us... but she's wearing her sunglasses...

highlights of the week

2009-07-12T07:54:00.000-07:00

This past week has been amazing! Things just seem to get better and better! But it's getting late, and I don't have time to update, so I'll list the main things, and come back and update again.

-Ginza! Toy Store!!

-Ueno museum: 2 galleries!

-Presents from campers! =D

-CHINATOWN!!! TAPIOCA!!! FINALLY!

-Landmark tower! amazing view, romantic ambiance, hella fast elevator

-BEACH! lifeguard tower, sparklers, new japanese friends (japanese college students who play american football =D), practicing japanese! "sleeping" on the beach, watching the sunrise, getting back to the hotel at 8, CRASHING

-cute cafe, beautiful park near our hotel (pictures not uploaded)

-HALFWAY through my trip... =(

What a Wonderful Weekend!

2009-07-05T05:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend has been AMAZING! The best weekend so far!

Friday - Just another day at work, glad it was over. When I was checking kids in at the gate, one of the kid's mother came up to talk to me, and said her son has been loving camp so far. I was glad, and I told her her son is a sweetheart and hasn't caused any problems at all, and is a very good kid. She told me she was happy to hear that, and how her son comes home and talks about "banana man, honeydew lady, and another camper's name" I immediately pulled my name tag out and was like oh, I'm Honeydew! haha banana man is the director, and the other camper her son talks about is one of the last remaining japanese kids. This past week, the camper had taken this lady's son in and had been like an older brother to him, which was very nice and sweet of him. So when I found out neither of them were returning next week, I was quite sad. We need more kids like them, and less kids like ones who cry when they get tagged out. -.-

When I got back to the hotel, I was EXHAUSTED, so I took a short nap... a nap that prevented me from getting my lazy butt to the gym. haha. Then, we decided to go clubbing in Shibuya. SO much better than Roppongi! We went to club Atom. When we arrived in Shibuya, there were these two random American guys who came up to us and asked us if we knew where "Club Scramble" was. We told them we didn't, cuz we really don't, and then they asked us where we're going cuz maybe they'd know where we want to go. We hadn't decided yet, so we told them we didn't know, and then they started recommending places for us to go. Sounded like they knew their way around Shibuya, and just asked us where club scramble was so they could start up a convo. Turns out, those guys are air force guys stationed somewhere i forget where but not in tokyo.

Then as we're walking around, people handed us flyers for club Atom, which we've heard of from other people, so we decided to go there. I go to use my limited japanese skills to ask the guys where the club was, so we walked there and found it! It was really nice, there was a cover 1000 yen so approx. $10 to get in, and girls got two drink tickets and guys get none! LoLz, the only sad thing was they didn't let you take pictures inside the club, which was a bummer. Once inside, there were different floors... one floor was just a bar, and it looked like the inside of a cave or something, another floor was a rave, there was a psychadelic floor, and the top floor was the hip hop and R&B floor. Another awesome thing about this place was they had tables reserved especially for girls. There were placards on the tables that said "LADIES' SEATS" and if a guy sat at one of these tables, a bouncer would come over and flash their flashlight on that sign. SO COOL! haha guys were able to stand around the tables, but they couldn't sit there. Before midnight, it was more like a bar... people were drinking, socializing, but nobody was really dancing.

Sometime after midnight though, they pushed all the tables and chairs to the walls, and it became a dance floor! We met some guys from England, which our director got really excited about because he was in England last summer. And I met this one guy named Will, he was pretty cute, had an English accent, and while I was talking to him, I found out he's half japanese half BURMESE! (who'd thunk it right?) grew up in LA, lives in japan, but spent almost the past 2 years in England. He spoke good english, and when he found out I was also burmese, he began talking to me in burmese, and kept saying he's never met another burmese person outside of burma. I'm pretty sure he was gay though... my gaydar kept going off, and I swear I saw him tossling another guy's hair, that kinda made me decide he must've been. He was REALLY nice, cute, and had an awesome english accent. We saw some people dancing on the bar, so we decided to go up and dance there too! So my one friend Katie and I went up there and it was SO much fun! Unlike the girls the weekend before at Gaspanic, I was sober, had all my clothes on, and there was no dry humping involved. It got really hot in there, but it was SO much fun, I gave one of my drink tickets to my director, the one guy that's always with us. We left around 2, and on our way out, we met some more cool people!

The people we met this time were students studying abroad, most of them from UCLA, and they're studying cars in japan or something?? Anyway, they were planning to stay out until 5am when the subways start running again, so after talking to them for a bit, they wanted to find another bar, but we were all ready to call a cab and head back to our hotel. Walking back to the main roads, Katie thought she might need to throw up, so she and I stopped as the rest of the group kept walking. I was standing a few feet from her, alone, waiting for her when a drunk japanese guy approached me and asked me something in japanese. I responded in japanese that I don't understand Japanese, and in a slurred heavily accented english he said "what you doin'?" I said "going home" and he walked on. Later when Katie and I rejoined the rest of our group, I notice the drunk Japanese guy had found my friends and was trying to persuade us to get a drink w/ him. We got our cabs and headed back to the hotel. This night was AMAZING. I'm sad I couldn't get any pictures though.

Saturday - Slept in a bit, then decided to go to Yokosuka for the 4th of July celebration. It was really nice walking around, it felt good to be by the water. There were families there, a bunch of festivities, a Beatles cover band named "Back B

eat" and it was really relaxing. Walked around a bit, people watched, then we went by the stage and danced and enjoyed the music. At 8pm there were fireworks, so we used the sheet we "borrowed" from our hotel, found a spot on the grass and watched the 30 min firework show. It was pretty impressive, and the sound and everything, it was so beautiful. I really started to miss everyone back home right about this time, cuz it's just something you'd do with really good friends, and the people you love, and all I could do was think about you guys. Anyway, the show was really good and after it ende

d we all met up (cuz we had gotten separated). Katie had talked to the band afterwards, and Paul McCartney (I think his real name is Jimmy or somethin

g) decided he'd hang out with us for a bit! So cool, I know. We went to this little Jazz Bar/place.

The Jazz place was soo peaceful, I loved it right when I walked in. It was small, quaint, the music was really good, and the service was just as good. I went to the bathroom and found the toilet paper was scented like roses! so after I used it, my hand smelled like roses. =P We listened and took in the music, Paul McCartney is a REALLY cool guy, and he gave Katie one of his guitar picks!!!!!! Unfortunately, our last train left at 11pm, so we had to leave to catch it. Got home around 1-ish? Not sure, but it was an amazing night, and one of the best 4th of July's I've ever had. =D

When we were heading back, we noticed two shady guys following us on the subway... they kept looking at us and whispering to each other, so when we got off at our stop and needed to transfer, we waited at the platform for them to leave before we did, but at the exit, they were standing there waiting for us! HOW CREEPY! and as we began walking towards the line we needed to transfer to, they began following us again, so someone said something about how we don't want to miss the last train home, and as soon as she said that, we all started RUNNING towards our line. Good thing about tokyo subways, where the transfers happen anyway, is there are so many different transfer lines, and depending on which stairs you take down you either go one way or the other way, so we ran to our line, then while waiting for the subway we all stood against the wall until it came. (It was kinda freaky, yet fun at the same time). We got home, the creepers didn't get on our train, they weren't even on our platform, and that was the end of another amazing night.

Sunday - We decided to go to Yoyogi Park in Harajuku, and it turns out they were having a festival there! Apparently it only happens 4 times a year, and we were lucky enough to stumble upon it today! The park itself was so beautiful, and the festival was like our whole earth festival back at davis! We listened to the music, walked around. We met up with Jordan and her boyfriend (he's doing camp at yokosuka) and some of their friends. Found a place in the park to slackline, which I tried and LOVED. It's a lot harder than it looks... but it was loads of fun... until a park policeman came and told us we couldn't wrap anything around the trees. So we had to take it down. There were old men sketching and painting pictures (I thought of Nanase RIGHT AWAY) and there were people playing badminton, whiffle ball, frisbee, a group of people playing random games, kind of reminded me of IM cuz they all had colored shirts on and it looked like a lot of fun. People were blowing bubbles, and it was just awesome. We walked past this group of japanese people jumping rope... so we joined them! People are so nice, and I loved it! I bought a dress for 1000 yen, and another dress for 1750 yen. One is more my type of dress, the other is more... not really me... but I like it. As we were leaving the park, we saw greasers and poodle skirt people (two separate groups) just doing their thing, dancing to their jams, and it looked like they were having a lot of fun. I notice the performers and people who play music, dance, sketch, perform, etc, don't do it for money cuz they don't have anything collecting money, it seems like they come out every weekend and do it just because they enjoy it. It just makes everything that much more... AMAZING. We saw a guy making animal balloons wearing an Obama mask... no joke, and he was also smoking! He made this cute balloon heart with a pink poodle and a blue poodle on the heart and gave it to this couple! <3>

Afterwards, my roommate Becca and I went to Shibuya cuz we've been seeing signs about a 5 day bargain sale! So we went to check it out! We ended up in 109, where I got SILVER HEELS! After the sale, it came out to 1795 yen! =D I'm so happy! I was really happy that I found silver heels, cuz I've been looking for them forever, and I've decided Japanese shoes are magically comfortable! That's probably how these women can walk in them forever, all the time, even casually when shopping.

Got home, and I'm beat, but I had to upload my pictures and update.

-Kristen aka Ginger is teaching me how to put on makeup! So I did my own makeup Friday night when we went out, and I like how I can control the colors I put on and how much of it I put on! Maybe I'll know a thing or two about make up when I get back!

-I'm TOTALLY in love w/ Japan right now, and I definitely I need to come back!

-I've been here for a month and I'm not sick of it yet!

-My friend found tapioca in Chinatown in Yokohama, so I must go there one day to get some!!!

This Week So Far...

2009-07-01T06:36:00.000-07:00

Today we went on a field trip to a science museum, and it was pretty cool, but it was WAY too advanced for some of these children to comprehend. That kind of sucked cuz I really wanted to walk around and really take in all the exhibits and stuff, but the kids didn't know what was going on, what it all meant, and they just wanted to run around, push buttons, see things happen and move on -.- we had WAY too much time there, and the kids ran out of things to mess around with. At least they were trying things out? I'm really glad today was a field trip day because everyone just seemed to be moving a bit slower. I feel like this week the kids aren't as rowdy as last week, but they're just as taxing... especially since it seems we have more kids who may not be developing normally. We got a new kid today, and he's a really sweet kid, but he seems to have ADHD to the max, no joke. He's extremely hyperactive, short attention, cannot sit still, and does not seem to be able to focus. It's pretty interesting watching him sometimes. Anyway, the week is almost over, then my program will be implemented, and I hope that turns out well.

I just wanted to blog about some random things that I've been meaning to mention:

-Sunday night, my roommate and I went to bed with our blinds open, so I woke up to the sun rising Monday Morning. I realized I still had 2 more hours before I had to actually get up, but it was a BEAUTIFUL site regardless.

-One of the kids a little while ago, told me I look like his weekend babysitter who he claims is really nice. The other day, at the pool, he came up to me with another lady and said "Miss Honeydew, remember when I told you that you looked like my weekend babysitter? I want you to meet her, she's here!" So she came up to say hi and we look NOTHING alike other than the fact that we're both asian -.- LOLZ oh children!

-100 yen stores are amazing! I got some stationary stuff and I found out that I can send and receive mail for regular US postage! Isn't that cool?! If you want to mail or send me something feel free please! everyone else has been getting packages and letters and I'm feeling a bit left out... >.<

To send me stuff, please mail it to:

EWA

Shirley Yang

Unit 9800 Box 300

APO AP 96303-0300

This has been the shortest blog in a while...

Much Love from Tokyo,

Honey

Weekend plus MORE!

2009-06-30T04:19:00.000-07:00

Saturday - woke up to go to kamakura, and what an adventure it was! Started the trip by taking the bus instead of the subway, then transferred to the subway. It was quite complicated, but we didn't get lost! haha We had to be at the giant buddha at 2pm, so we had some time and decided to check out some temples and shrines. The first place we visited was the Tokei-ji Temple. This temple was once a sanctuary for women who wanted to divorce their husbands but could not. In the past, if a man wanted to divorce his wife, all he needed to do was send her back to live with her family and they were considered divorced, a woman however did not have that right. So if a woman needed/wanted a divorce and could safely get to the Tokei-ji Temple, she would become a nun there for a period of 3 years (later reduced to 2 years). After that period of time, she would be considered divorced. Men were not allowed to visit or enter that temple. I thought that was a good historical place. It was also really beautiful and peaceful. There were gravestones and little shrines everywhere, and even though the weather was hot, the temple had a lot of foliage, and many places were quite cool. I loved it. We then visited the Meigetsuin Garden/Shrine. We were told the hydrangeas were in bloom, and that's the place to see it in all its beauty. We began seeing the beautiful flowers before we even arrived at the entrance. Inside it was like a whole forrest of hydrangeas! It was SOO breathtakingly beautiful, so we took advantage of it and took many many pictures. We then made our way to the Giant Buddha to meet up with other Camp Adventure Staff in the nearby sites. I was excited to meet all these different people. At the same time I realized how lucky to be where I was placed and the people I'm working with because some of these people really don't like who they work with, or where they're working. There was tension and people didn't want to hang out w/ people. Crazy, I'm glad I don't have that problem. I went inside the Giant buddha, and I didn't realize how big it really was until I was in there. You had to walk down a very narrow flight of stairs, then back up a narrow flight of stairs into the buddha, and there were people trying to go in two directions so it was quite tight. When we put our hands against the metal, or whatever it's made of, it was warm. Took more pictures, then decided to get some food. It was close to 4pm and we were all starving. Found this little family owned restaurant, where I ordered Ramen w/ Gyoza (potstickers) and egg, and it was DELICIOUS! the gyoza isn't as good as the ones at Osaka Osho (the restaurant we near our hotel, but it was still good. We had been up and walking since like 9am, but we decided to explore a bit more. It felt good to be outside of Tokyo and see the different lifestyle of another area. We found a beach, and walked around a bit more, but it was pretty windy. The water however was not cold at all. Nothing like Ocean beach where the water is always cold, ALL THE TIME. lol. Headed back, and even though we were really tired... we decided to go out of course.

We ended up in Roppongi to go karaoke and met up with friends from davis/sac training who are placed in Zama. The place we went to this time didn't have unlimited drinks, but they had a better selection of American songs. Afterwards, the night was still young, so some of us went to check out some clubs while others went home. It was ridiculously crowded, guys are creepers, and it was just all sketch. We were at a club where asian girls were dry humping each other on the bar wearing nothing but underwear.... O.o I'm over roppongi, not my scene... I'm interested in checking out the clubs in Shibuya, I've heard the atmosphere is different, and the ratio of foreigners is... not as intense as roppongi. Took a taxi home sometime after 2 and didn't go to bed til 3 something... So much smoke, it was quite nasty... and I've discovered my talent for cock blocking. =D haha

Sunday - some people decided to go to a park in harajuku, but I had programming due on monday so I decided to stay in and work on/finish it up. My first time programming a whole week's worth of activities, games, and songs. Each counselor is assigned two weeks to program, and the program is due the monday before that week. I sat myself down and got it done. It was also nice to have that alone time, and I was able to organize and tidy up the room. Luckily I stayed in, cuz it started pouring. I'm sure the people who went had fun, but I'm also glad I had my day to chill out.

Monday - New kids for Museum week! Most of the japanese boys are gone, and we have new kids that are majority girls. The group was much more calm, and it wasn't as hectic as last week. However, we have two new kids who could potentially be somewhere on the autism spectrum. I noticed something, and when I talked to the director about it, I found out that he actually might be on that spectrum. It'll be interesting working with them, that's for sure. We did a lot of things on improv today just because we all had a really rough week last week and didn't have time to prepare for this week, but surprisingly things worked out, and once again I'm glad to have the counselors I have to work with. =)

I'm really tired, so I'm going to call it a night early tonight...

Get ready for a LONG BLOG!

2009-06-23T04:44:00.000-07:00

So Shibuya... walked around, it's like the "hotspot" for the youth of tokyo, still as busy as ever. Ok, maybe a little less crowded, but still HELLA people. Found a karaoke bar that a lot of people were going into, so we went in, asked for prices, and decided we'd do it. it was 1260 yen per person per hour and we got our own little room, and we didn't find this out until later, but apparently it was unlimited drinks!!! we definitely did not take advantage of this, cuz we didn't know... but if we ever go back, we know now. We left around 1:30, I wanted to walk around a bit more, but it was starting to rain, so we got a taxi and left. My first taxi ride in japan! i don't know if i've said it before, but the doors open and close automatically controlled by the driver so people don't have to open and close the doors. it's also really clean inside.

Sunday was raining, so we all pretty much decided to stay in. It was a nice break from all the walking and I think we all needed it. Also finally got my laundry done. 3 machines for a hotel with people living on 5 floors?? that's kinda ridiculous. Had a meeting to get ready for the coming week, and I've discovered songs I hadn't known before but LOVE!

Monday - Somehow today was a LONG day. Some of the kids were the same from last week, but we had a bunch of different kids as well. They are definitely a lot rowdier. During swimming, all the japanese boys decided to try and squirt me with the tiny water pistols. It was pretty unfair cuz they had the only two guns of the compound. But I was able to swim away, and swim under them and stuff. They would plot against me in japanese but little did they know, I understood them (tee hee) so I was always one step ahead! ugh son! haha. I also had two of the older girls put it on themselves to be my protector and help guard off the boys. It was exhausting to constantly be swimming then treading. Good workout. For clubs this week I had a dance club, so I had the kids brainstorm ideas for a dance that they would perform at the end of the week. Of course, the songs they were Camp Rock songs and Hannah Montana songs... -.- Went home that day and updated myself on what's cool in the preteen culture. Made a nice little mix for them to dance with, and came up with possible choreography for the kids. I realized doing this that I have some really young kids in my group, so it had to be as simple as possible but cute as well. It was quite fun. Didn't spend too much time on it, but enough.

Tuesday - Some kids are quite irritating... but I guess that's why they're kids. I left my locker key at the hotel (I was going to say "home" but I guess the hotel is my home for now) and couldn't get to my swimsuit, so I couldn't swim. The japanese boys were quite disappointed, they thought I was kidding. Today was a nice day though so I was bummed I couldn't swim, and to top it off, sitting at the edge of the water, I got SO many bug bites. I swear the bugs here are creepers, they're small little black bugs, not mosquitos, and you don't notice them or feel them. I think one bug bit me like a bajillion times before I finally saw it and killed it. It must've bitten me that much because by the end of swimming I had 2 new bites on my neck (NO JOKE!) two behind my left knee, one on my lower left leg, one on my right ankle, one on my left arm, and two on my right elbow -.- it sucks.

Wednesday - Supposed to be the field trip to Tokyo Disney Sea today (equivalent to Disney California) but it was POURING, so we decided not to go like 30 mins before the kids arrived.I was SOAKED and we realized the kids would not want to do ANYTHING all day in the rain, so we decided to switch today and tomorrow.I was kind of bummed cuz I didn't bring my laptop and the song I had for the club, or more moves to teach the kids since I thought we'd be on the field trip today. But we made it work, and I pulled stuff out of my rear. Plus, I taught the older girls a bit of what I came up with, and they added stuff they wanted to do, and so it was nice. They seem to really be enjoying it and having fun with it. I'm glad.

Thursday - Much nicer day, so we went on the field trip. Miss Sprout and I had the youngest of our group and OMGOSH talk about exhausting, we had one camper that's a major space cadet and if someone wasn't holding his backpack (yes, like a leash) literally guiding him around the park, I swear he'd wander off and get lost.... >.<>

I truly believe disneyland is a magical place. Sure, they charge you an arm and a leg for magic, but it's amazing. It really is like being in another world, another place. The people are so amazing, it's just such a happy place, and the people I went with added to the magic, and it was probably the best way to end a long day worrying about losing a kid. To top it all off, Japan LOVES stitch, and I LOVE Japan for loving stitch! I have never seen SO many stitch items before.. EVER. Disneyland and even the disney store does not worship stitch as much as Japan does, and for that, Japan won me over (their decorations and set ups are also much more elaborate too). I went NUTS and I wanted to buy sooo much! But my friends cut out so much, and I only ended up with three things. I also bought some small stuff for my grandma and others. I found STITCH EARS!!!!! Instead of Mickey Mouse ones that's like everywhere in disneyland, they actually have stitch ears, which i've NEVER seen before, so I had to get it even though it was pretty pricey. I figured it's something I won't really be able to get in the states, and I've been working hard (especially today) so I deserve a treat and I got them. I wanted to get so much more though... but it's ok. One day I will find all that stuff, and if I can't, I'll just have to go back to Tokyo Disney for it.

To end off one of the most perfect nights, I came home and did more camp stuff! No matter how tired I get, or how much I complain about these kids, it's amazing what a smile of theirs could do.

Friday - today, everyone was just tired. On the usual walk back to the center after picking up the kids from the gate, one of the girls said something that really shocked me. She was talking to another girl, and the other girl asked her if she spoke japanese. The girl said she didn't so the other girl asked why not, and the girl said something along the lines of "my dad's british and my mom's japanese. I speak english and not japanese because that's my mom's language and you learn your dad's language, not your mom's" I was literally like O.O the other girl then said something about "Oh, it's because you're also a girl right?" Seriously?!?! That kind of upset me. We have an african american girl at camp that speaks flawless japanese, and she was saying today how she looks like her dad, but her baby brother looks like her mom. I thought that was very cool. Siblings, but one looks african american and the other looks asian.

Panther cubs came up once again to our blitz in the morning and then our club presentations after lunch. They are so adorable! Anyway, the campers in my club asked me to stand in the back while they're performing and do the moves so if they forget they can see me, so of course I did. They did such a GREAT JOB! It was adorable, and they all looked like they enjoyed themselves, so I will consider that a success! hehe

At the end of the day, while we were taking down decorations and putting up next week's, a camper comes back and asks if we've seen his brother (the space cadet mentioned earlier). They usually walk home together, but apparently today he left without his brother, and when he got home, his brother wasn't there. We called the lady in charge of the camp on the compound who called their mom. She didn't seem too worried and told us we don't need to look for him. But we did anyway. The nanny seemed a lot more worried than the mother. We take this kid to Tokyo Disney Sea and back without him getting lost, and he gets lost on the compound. We knew he had to be on the compound because since he was a kid, the guards at the gate would not have let him out by himself. So we looked around, and I asked the camper if he was his brother, where would he go. He said something like "I'd go home, because I don't know my way around the compound." Great. -.- So I asked if he'd go to the pool, or the park, or the pond, but the camper insisted his brother doesn't know his way around, and he's the type of person that would keep wandering and walking around if he got lost. O.o So I asked him if maybe he followed another camper home, who would he go home w/? And we went to that camper's house and asked the nanny if she's seen his brother. The nanny said he wasn't there, but later on we find out he WAS there. He had been in the other camper's room with the door closed and the nanny didn't notice... what a nanny she is. Another week over!

Random things:

- people are ARE polite here! this guy on a bike was passing a pedestrian walking towards him and he bowed on his bike. I thought that was cool

- the girls here still wear heels, even at disneysea. CRAZY huh?? As much as I love japan, I doubt I'll ever truly fit in here because they put in so much effort into their appearance, and I like wearing heels once in a while, but I wouldn't live in them like these girls seem to do.

- It's been almost 3 weeks and I haven't had tapioca. Can you say withdrawls?? I also miss playing MJ w/ my lovers!

- the fruits and vegetables in japan is a rare commodity. Not sure if I've mentioned it before, but it's ridiculously overpriced and if I go broke it'll be b/c of either fuits or stitch items.

I'm LOVING it here! but I miss everyone at home... I wish the two could merge... I can't believe it's been almost 3 weeks already.

On my feet nonstop

2009-06-20T04:52:00.000-07:00

Skip Thursday, just another usual day at work.

Friday - FIELD TRIP!!!! Went to Summerland, a waterpark in Tokyo. The bus ride over, i showed some of the kids the rubik's cube i brought and they LOVED it, they couldn't figure it out though, but it kept them quite on the bus ride. then they were like "Ms. Honeydew, we're starting to feel carsick" so i told them to give me back the cube and to close their eyes, rest them, and not think about anything. they soon fell asleep, so i was able to dose off during the last hour of the bus ride =)

we arrived at the park, and the directors got off the bus to figure out the tickets and stuff, leaving me alone with 7 kids. Well, right when the directors left, one girl stood up and said "Ms. Honeydew, I don't feel good." She looked like she was about to throw up, so I told her to get off the bus and find a bush. She just stood there, and literally right after I said that, she just threw up... all over the seat and the floor. I got all the kids off the bus, cuz the smell itself made me gag, and i told the bus driver. She got a bunch of paper towels and handed it to me. -.- I got back on the bus to clean it up, but it was more than i could take, and i had to fight really hard not to gag... maybe even throw up myself. that's one thing i can't deal w/.... bleh. Not to mention the kids waiting outside the bus wanted to go inside and saw all the other groups (from the other bus) go inside, so I was trying to manage the kids and deal w/ the puke. that was a bit hard. then the other bus driver, the cooler one, Take (ta-kay) came and took over the puke cleaning, THANK GOODNESS.

the water park is HUGE but we only stayed in one small area of the indoor section (cuz there's an indoor and an outdoor area O.O) it was all shallow water, so we didn't have to worry too much about which kids could swim and which couldn't. We also took them to a waterslide which is pretty fun. The funny thing was that there was no lifeguard at the top of the slide. there was a lifeguard chair... but nobody there. so we regulated when the kids can go down and switched off. After lunch, we went to a place called "the thunder room", which is pretty much like a cove with small waterfalls and a HUGE hot tub, more like a hot pool. And every 10-15 mins or so the lights would dim, lights would flash like lightening, we'd hear thunder, and then it'd start to rain over a portion of the room. it was pretty cool and the children LOVED it. They all knocked out on the bus ride home, PERFECT.

That night we went to dinner. Found a cute lil soba restaurant, and had AMAZING food. (Stanley, i took pix for you and will post it on facebook soon) then we were walking around and ran into two random skateboarders. We stopped to talk to them, and it came up that you can walk around the streets w/ open alcohol and it's totally legal. So we went into the corner liquor store and some of us got something to drink just so we can walk around with it. we continued walking around a bit, sat on a bench on a corner of a street for a bit just talking, and then came back to the hotel. We were hanging out when around midnight, we got a call from a friend saying she's planning to go to the fish market and leaving at 5am O.o we decided to go, but we didn't exactly sleep. We ended up talking til close to 2am.... then had a sleepover so we wouldn't oversleep! haha no joke.

Saturday - Fish market 530 am- approx. 8 am. will post pictures later, it was pretty intense. Got back and took a nap, SOOO TIRED. Met up again to go to Shibuya. Walked around there, went to the busiest intersection of the world! i swear i thought i'd get lost cuz i blend in w/ all the other asians here and if i get lost it'd be that much harder for my friends to find me... who usually stick out, but in this crowd, ANYONE could get lost. Walked around and ended up at this shopping center. I wasn't planning on buying anything, but I found this pretty dress that's dark grey, typical shirley dress for $20. I was going to get it, but then my friends had me try on another dress that's a bit more outside my comfort zone. it has color and a bit of a pattern for the skirt part. anyway, that was $15, and it didn't look bad, it's just not something I'd normally wear. My friends convinced me to get it, so i did. I also found this cute little jacket for $20 that's grey and has a removable hood. That was more of a shirley buy, so i got both =D haha I plan to find the forever 21 in harajuku just to see what kind of stuff they have, if the prices are similar, etc. I wonder if they sell more japanese style clothes, or if it's like a duplicate in america. I will find out. =P

Tonight, going out to check out the night life in Shibuya, about to leave soon, so I kinda rushed through the last part of the blog. Pictures will be up later.

CAMP ADVENTURE

2009-06-17T05:53:00.000-07:00

Monday - My first day of camp! I was very excited to meet the kids. We ate at the breakfast buffet that morning to make sure we had enough energy and food in us for the day. At the gate to pick up the kids, we were about 30mins early and didn't really realize it, so the panther cub counselors hadn't arrived yet. Panther cubs are for the younger kids ages 3-5. A car pulled up to drop off panther cub kids, and they weren't there yet, and we didn't know we weren't supposed to check them in, so my director wrote down their names to check them in, but when he opened the car door to get the kids out (cuz the parents don't get out of their car), both girls started BALLING and just crying their eyes out. They were twins, Miho and Shiho (SOOOO CUTE). I went over to help out and I carried one girl out of the car, and then the other girl held up her arms and walked toward me, even though she was still crying. So for a brief moment I had the cutest 4 yr old asian twins in my arms!! But I put them down, and walked them into the gate, and by then they had settled down. *Heart melts* Anyway, fast forward to when we have all our kids. First day of blitz, pretty tiring, and kind of shaky, but not too bad. I can immediately tell who the attention seekers are, who the drama queens are, the good kids, the not-so-good kids, and all that stuff. Just highlighting the interesting moments. I asked the kids why they thought my name is Ms. Honeydew, and one kid made a comment about my skin or something?? hahah I told her my skin is a bit darker than honeydew... and not quite as green. LoLz -.- Then a girl in the other group (cuz we split up the kids into two groups and have two counselors in charge of each group) wrote Mr. Eggplant (another counselor) a card that said "Hello Mr. Eggplant. I don't like eggplants, but I like Honeydew. Have a great summer!" He showed it to me and I LOVED it! I like that girl already! hahah

Then at lunch, we had a kid have an allergic reaction... not to something he ate though. Apparently he's really sensitive to peanuts and just being around peanuts and his face around his mouth had hives all over it. He knew of his own allergies and had benadryl, so we called his dad and let him take his own medicine, which helped almost immediately. Unfortunately for him, he had to eat his snack in another room so he wouldn't have another reaction. That was pretty much the worst thing that happened that day. After lunch, things were pretty chill, we had club time, then swimming, then snack, then closing, and the kids leave. I'm leading the art club, and I had the kids make "rainbow fish" with tissue paper and stuff. The kids were pretty into it, and it was pretty chill.

The fruit plate thing I sketched earlier needed to be colored in, so I was working on it, and some kids asked me if they could help me color it. As reluctant as I was, I let them and just gave them basic instructions. It turned out really nicely, and after work I touched it up a bit and put it up. Some kids drew me pictures already, so I brought them back to my hotel, so I can put it up and make it more homey. It was very sweet of them, and the pictures they drew of all the counselors, we put it around the picture I drew. Everything's looking really good at the center, and I had a good day overall. =D

Tuesday - A lot smoother, getting into the rhythm of things. Swimming everyday is not so bad, but it's been kind of cold because of monsoon season or whatnot. Nothing really exciting. It was raining that night, a storm actually, there was extreme lightening, but it wasn't very cold... and it was quite pretty. Played catch phrase that night with the other counselors, which was fun.

Wednesday - Can't believe it's already been 3 days... it feels like it went by so quickly. Today we had the panther cubs join us for blitz, so they watched us. They are soo cute. =) Anyway, we also had a bbq today. We do a bbq every week for the kids, and it's usually on friday, but since our field trip this week is friday and not wednesdays, we had the bbq today. Pretty yummy, and we get to eat the food too. Today was a much nicer day, probably because of the storm last night, so swimming was really nice. The pool has a retractable roof so that's cool too! haha. After work, I went to work out at the hotel w/ the camp director. I'm glad I have someone to work out with, maybe that'll get me to work out more often. That about wraps it up... field trip friday to a water park!! that'll be exciting! =D

FIRST WEEKEND IN JAPAN!!!!!!!!

2009-06-14T07:58:00.000-07:00

My first weekend in JAPAN! =D

I swear I'm loving this place! Friday night a bunch of us went out to walk around and explore, and we ended up walking through roppongi, but we were all pretty tired, so we didn't really go out. i realize that updating is a lot harder after the fact, and i should probably update as soon as i can so i don't forget details and stuff. oh well, next time i will. anyway, then people went back to the hotel, but 4 of us decided to stay out and walk around a bit more. we wanted to find some bar or something to chill and talk and hang out, but there weren't any of those around our hotel =( so we walked into a 7-11 and tried to ask a guy that speaks no english to point us in the direction of the closest bar/restaurant. he said a couple things i didn't understand, then he said roppongi (we live in hiroo). so i asked him, i'm very proud of myself btw, but i asked him "are there no places in hiroo?" haha and he understood me and said a name of a place and we thanked him and walked down the block and found a place that looked like what he said cuz i couldn't make out the whole word. we went in, couldn't read a thing. it was a nice place, chill vibe, we had to take our shoes off, it was cool. we couldn't read a thing on the menu, i saw something that said "lemon" and i got excited i could read that, so we ordered two lemon juice drinks, and we pointed to some random appetizers. it was SO GOOD, the sauce was delicious. it was some kind of omelette w/ pork in it, and the sauce on top. LOVED it.

Saturday- went to the imperial palace, walked around, it's so big and beautiful. like a bit of nature in the middle of a busy city. apparently the emperor lives inside, and so we're not allowed in, but we walked around the gardens and stuff. met random missionary people, took lots of pictures, all in all, it was relaxing. the REAL fun began. we went to roppongi to check out the scene. it's crazy there btw, it's an international hotspot, and there are people on the street trying to get people to go to their clubs or their bars. anyway, so we ended up in this one place, and it was A LOT of fun, dancing, taking pictures, all that good stuff. some of us wanted to check out other places, and others of us wanted to leave. so some people left, and 6 of us stayed, cuz we need at least a group of 6 people in roppongi at night (it's a new rule b/c of an increase in "incidents" in roppongi) so we went to this irish pub bar place, and there was a rugby team there or something. they were all dressed up in crazy costumes, we saw a pumpkin, skeletons, an "elvis" and other weird looking guys. so of course we took a couple pictures (it's on facebook now) i personally wanted to stay out later, but the last train was at 1230 and everyone else wanted to leave before the last train so we wouldn't have to call a cab or whatnot. kinda wanted to stay out later, but not really disappointed cuz i had a fun night, and i got to see what i wanted to see, so we left. Plus, we had plans to go to harajuku the next day, so i wanted to be rested for that!

Sunday- today, we went to harajuku, to see the people get all dressed up, go to the 3 floor 100yen store (think a GINORMOUS dollar store w/ EVERYTHING) like the daiso at serramonte! that was our first stop. there was literally a WALL of STITCH products! I WENT NUTS! so excited i filled my basket w/ stuff... NO JOKE. i was there for a LONG time. i also had picked out some other stuff, but i spent my whole time there. they had loofas, face towels, hankerchiefs, eating utensils, writing utensils, a STICKER BOOK! (i really wanted that, but realized i'm turning 21 this year, so i put it back) and just soo many other things. I'm not really sure how long i was there, but someone came up to me and told me everyone else had left -.- he then asked me if i was really going to get everything in my basket. i realized i probably shouldn't, that i don't need another stitch chopsticks (although now that i think about it, maybe i do, so i can use one pair, but keep a spare for decoration purposes, cuz the one i use would get... well... used) anyway, so he had my put A LOT of the stuff back, and i narrowed it down to three things. thinking back again though, i should've gotten that stitch coin purse. i really don't NEED it cuz i have one already, but the one i have is leopard print, totally not as cool as a stitch one. oh well, i might go back =D anways, so i narrowed down my choices then we left to catch up w/ the rest of the group.

We went to a temple/shrine place. saw a wedding ceremony, so traditional, so beautiful. prayed at the shrine (my mommy would be proud of me=)) and then went to check out the harajuku girls at this bridge that they hang out at. OH! and i also had a crepe! SOOO YUMMY. people dress in the CRAZIEST outfits, we even saw some stores that sell the type of stuff they wear, and i was really tempted to buy some dress up clothes that i could use for halloween. if i see any sailorscout costume type things i might just have to buy it. =P A reoccurring theme here, but people were tired, and wanted to head back, but i wasn't ready yet, so me and two other girls stayed back, and we walked around some more. there are stores everywhere, but japanese fashion is interesting... so didn't really see any clothes that i like... or clothes that are affordable. just as i was about to give up hope of finding anything, i found a shoe store!!! and to top it off, it was like 2 pairs for 3000 yen so that's like $30 for 2 pairs of shoes w/ tax included (which is like 5%) so i bought two pairs of shoes! sandals that felt really comfortable on, and a pair of gold pumps =D the shoes were 1429 a pair, plus the 5% tax, made me really happy! haha. after that, it looked like it was going to rain soon, so we came back. there were HELLA girls holding forever21 bags so i swear there's a forever 21 there, and i want to check it out to see how different/same it is w/ our forever 21 stores, and see if they integrate japanese fashion w/ american. I'm assuming they do, because i don't really see japanese people wearing american fashion and if they sold just american fashion, they might not have much business. anyway, i definitely plan to return to harajuku, find forever, and walk around some more. there was so much to see, and not enough time to take it all in.

So it was a good thing we came back, cuz it did end up raining. Stayed in tonight, tired from all the walking this weekend. hung out w/ camp friends, talked a lot, bonded, laughed. It's kinda weird for me being the only asian when we hang out. there's another part asian girl, but she doesn't really hang out w/ us. Interesting experience, especially since when we go out, i can spot any of the other people cuz they just stand out, but if they lose me, i totally blend in =P hehehe. anyway, tomorrow is when camp REALLY starts and we get to meet the kids! so i'm really excited, and i should probably sleep now cuz it's almost 1 here.... alrighty then, GOOD NIGHT!

2009-06-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

went clubbing in roppongi tonight =D too tired right now... more stories about my first weekend in tokyo.... 2m... =P

2009-06-11T07:24:00.000-07:00

This morning it was raining on my way to work. Japanese women are amazing. They still wear heels even in the rain. Hella hard core. I've been taking a mental note or and noticing almost all women's shoes since I've been here and I've decided Japanese shoes are either incredibly cute or just plain ugly. I need to find out where the people with the cute shoes get it and go get me a pair or too. It's funny cuz almost all of them wear socks/stockings w/ shoes. I think it's funny, but maybe that keeps it more comfortable so they wear it for everything, even casually. I could never do that, but who knows, maybe Japanese shoes are different from American and it's more comfortable or something. I realize I'm rambling about shoes, so I'll stop now.

I had a really weird dream last night, and I'm going to post it so I don't forget about it. I was part of a friend's wedding so I had to be home for it. There was a wedding tradition where the bridal party is in like a maze of some sort and the bride has to give directions to the bridal party to get them all out, but there's a time limit and as it gets closer to the end walls begin to lower, blocking off paths and ultimately trapping whoever is still inside within the walls of the maze. Kind of freaky, I know. Anyway, I was trying to get out, and she was giving me hints and clues and stuff, and I remember I had to almost army-crawl under a partition that was being lowered, and I finally got out. But as I was walking around the maze, I could hear and I realized there were still 2-3 people inside! O.o I can't really remember what happened then, but I remember that I needed to get back to Japan cuz I start work monday. So I was trying to catch my flight, but something came up that I had to do with Julley I believe, so I pushed back my flight and extended my stay. Then when it came down to it, I really needed to go, but I remember Julley wasn't able to help me. Then I looked at the time and saw that it was 11, but my flight was at 10! So I was freaking out a bit, wondering how I'm going to get back now, and I have work on monday, but I'm stuck in the states. I vaguely remember asking Justin to drive me to the airport, and I think I had some other people try to drive me too. It was almost as if things kept coming up that prevented me from getting to the airport to leave. Ironically, I'm already in Japan. At least I don't have to worry about missing my flight to Japan then. heh.

Today was so much more painting, I took LOTS of pictures, and they should all be up at the end of the week. I'm so proud of what I've accomplished, and the other counselors in my group are AMAZING. Together, we make a pretty cool team. I'm excited to see the kids cuz I feel we're a pretty strong team, we've been working really well together, being incredibly productive, and everything looks so great so far I'm really excited about monday.

I'm so exhausted... I need food... I need cute shoes

Painting Parties

2009-06-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

It's hard coming up with titles for these entries...

Today was just all painting and decorating the place. Everything's finally starting to come together, I totally fell asleep earlier, and just woke up, so this will be a short entry, so I can go back to sleep. My inner creativity/artistic side surfaced and things just turned out really nice! I'm excited to post pictures of the place where I'll be working all summer, and I might do that tomorrow if I remember... have time... or isn't too tired. So yea, nothing too exciting, just painting, painting and more painting! Ok, back to bed for me.

First Night of Exploring

2009-06-09T06:05:00.000-07:00

So tonight I did NOT fall asleep! =) But before I talk about my night, let's recap my day. Nothing too exciting, moved a lot of camp stuff from storage... A LOT of boxes and a lot of supplies. Sorted through all of them and just began organizing and setting up the different areas for camp. Maybe I'll take a picture of it tomorrow. Pretty tiring work, but it was fun when I was able to sort through and organize all the arts and crafts stuff and clean it all up in my OCD way =)

For lunch, we all made mac n cheese and ate together, so that was nice. We got a lot done, went over some songs, and that was pretty much our workday. After work, I got a phone. Apparently you can rent a phone here. You pay a deposit of $60, which you get back at the end when you return the phone, and you pay 3,000 yen for 30mins of talk time. We're not sure if it's unlimited texting within the plan (softbank) so we have to check, but it's free for me to get incoming calls, meaning it doesn't go into my minutes. When the lady helped me activate my phone, she said I had over 7,000 yen worth of minutes, which means someone probably didn't use up all the minutes they bought and now I have them! Sweet! Too bad there's nobody I really need to call or talk to. But anyway, if anyone in the states wants to call me, you just need a calling card, which shouldn't cost too much for minutes, and I'll give you my number and we can set up a time or something ! OR..... we can just set up a time and webcam! But the days are completely opposite and you would either have to stay up pretty late, or get up pretty early....

Anyway, so we went out to eat today, everyone except the three directors =(. We all took a picture in front of the fountain in front of our hotel, which is my profile picture. We went to Roppongi and had dinner at a sushi bar. It was interesting.... LoLz and LOTS of fun. Our chef kept trying to talk to us in japanese, so I decided to practice what I know, and I asked him some questions, and he said a lot, but the only things I understood was that he's not japanese, he's from arabia/iraq or something like that, and he asked if I was japanese, and I said no, then he asked if my friends and I are American and I said yes. He was cool though.

After dinner we walked around and for a 100yen store, which is equivalent to our dollar stores. I found something that TOTALLY made my trip! haha, I found a STITCH RUBIK'S CUBE!!!!! I was sooo excited! =D hehe especially also since it was almost equivalent to $1 yAy!! THEN we went to a place called "Vortex" which is like a huge arcade/casino. Surprisingly, there were quite a bit of older men there playing games and stuff as well as the younger people. There were those photo booth things, so of course we had to do one, and once we can scan it or something I'm sure it will get posted somewhere. There was a crane machine game thing with a bunch of keychain type things, which I love playing, so I tried it and I GOT A STITCH KEY CHAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =D I definitely jumped and screamed for joy and excitement when I won it!

Walking around a bit more, we ran into a DRUNK japanese guy who was HILARIOUS, and also asked me if I was japanese. I said no, then he responded that he was japanese... in japanese... duh? Lolz. Then we ran into him a little later down the street, and it looked like his friend came to get him and was trying to get him home, but he was just rambling talking to us, saying we're his friends and stuff, and he bonked one of the Camp A people on the head. It was soo funny, I understood his friend yelling at him saying "dame!" hahah and he responded that we're his "friends so it's ok". Then his friend dragged him away apologizing profusely. I love understanding bits and pieces of the language.

We found a fruit/grocery store, walked around and found some other cool little stores, then headed back to the hotel. Tonight was fun. I can barely believe I'm actually here. I'm so happy I get to try and use what little japanese I remember, and I love that I found stitch here! Today was a good day, and this is just a dream come true. I can't wait for camp to actually start so I get to meet the kids too.

I do have pictures, but I think I'll post all my pictures at the end of the week or something and go from there.... haven't decided yet. Sleepy.... it's like 10:30pm... haha I've been waking up at 7 and going through my whole day, and I need so much sleep. I've never been so relaxed before. I've been getting enough sleep, in the two days I've been in Japan, my eyes feel completely better, it's pretty amazing. I'm surprised I've been updating everyday too... but we'll see how long this lasts. =D

-SHY

First Day of Orientation

2009-06-08T07:58:00.000-07:00

Not much to say about today, I totally FAILED

Woke up around 7am, tried to buy poptarts from the vending machine for breakfast only to have the machine eat my money -.-

After I showered, I tried using the hairdryer, but it started smelling like a fire, and there was smoke coming out of the hairdryer.... -.- x2

Wanted to go out to eat with Camp A people and maybe even walk around Japan for a bit tonight, but took a "nap" and didn't wake up for 4 hours...... -.- x3

I realized I left some stuff at home... when I re-packed, I must've forgotten to check all the pockets, because one of the things I left at home is my connector thing that'll allow me to move my pictures from my camera to my laptop. -.- x4

Luckily, someone else here has a canon and is willing to let me use her adapter thing... so maybe it's just -.- x3.5 LoLz

Maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow.

Went to the U.S. Embassy today to get my ID badge, and my subway pass, and a lot of information. It was almost too much to take in at once. It didn't really hit me that I was actually here until I had to take the subway home from the compound where I'll be working for the next 10 weeks. The subways are so much nicer, and apparently Japanese people who take the subway home don't talk at all, and it's more like a winding down time and they fall asleep or they kind of just sit there, so when 11 Americans got on the subway, it was kind of hard for all of us to be completely silent. We made a good effort, and it wasn't too bad, so that was nice. The subways are much cleaner, and the crowd size just reminds me of SF Muni, but then again we didn't ride it during the rush, which might be worse. Apparently there are some perverted Japanese men out there that would cop a feel during rush time, so as a result there are female only cars during specific rush hour times. Go figure.

Luckily, we have access to the commissary at the compound, which is like a grocery store that carries American products and what not, and we even get a store credit for $200 to buy food. So we stocked up on a bit of breakfast/lunch foods for the next couple of days. That $200 will help out quite a bit.

Had meetings, talked about expectations, logistical stuff for the next 10 weeks, started planning stuff out, and tomorrow I guess we're going to start preparing and setting up for the kids, so that'll be exciting.

Ok, it's past midnight, and I should probably try to get to bed... so hopefully there will be more exciting posts and pictures next time!

-SHY (tee-hee I just realized it spells out "shy" something I'm totally not ^.^)

JAPAN

2009-06-07T06:04:00.000-07:00

I am officially in Japan!!!

My flight was not too bad, I was able to switch my seat from a middle seat to an aisle seat in the middle section of the plane, and luckily the seat next to me was empty so I had space to move around and stuff. There were a couple of other Camp Adventure people on my flight, and we all found each other right away because of our awesome uniforms. Didn't run into any problems at all, so that was good.

For all the LOWELL people out there: this is how you know it's a small world, I ran into Mr. Shimmon and Mr. Schwarz on the same flight as me to Japan... CRAZY. They were on some school-related trip fro econ or something to interview various people on all the islands of Japan?? Something like that.

My eyes are still bothering me, but they seem better. Maybe because I finally got sleep? Hopefully they'll get better soon.

MORE cool stuff: I saw Lady Gaga!!!!!!! yepp apparently she was flying to Japan and I got a picture!! haha, she's really soft spoken. It was kind of cool. I wanted her to sign something, but I realized I had nothing.

After I got off my flight and met up with people going to my site, we had to wait another couple of hours to collect all the people staying at the New Sanno Hotel, so we were there for a bit. The drive to the hotel is about an hour or so, and we arrived at the hotel around 8:30pm here... not sure what time it is back home. Anyway, I'm so tired, and should get some sleep, just wanted to give an update that I made it and all is well. The hotel is AMAZING and I can't wait to explore it and take pictures of it all tomorrow!! Until then...

-Shirley Honey Yang

I have a BLOG

2009-05-24T23:34:00.000-07:00

yes, I have a blog. now you can follow my travels around the world! yAy =D

I leave for Japan on Saturday, June 6th from SFO! From there my journey will begin!!