Tokyo Day #2 and Arrival in Sendai

We were supposed to get up at 6 the next morning, but most of us ended up getting up earlier beacause of jet lag. Big J turned on the radio, and right away we heard rajio taisou (radio excercises). These are basically light stretches accompanied by a calming piano tune that many (older) people in Japan do every day. See if you can spot the elderly people doing the rajio taisou in the picture above. We had done these in San Jose every morning, so we kind of took part in the hotel room as well.

We had a few choices for breakfast that morning (all of which were free for us :D), but, since we were in Japan and all, we decided on a Japanese restaurant called Kagari that had a breakfast buffet. It was the right choice.

After breakfast, we went to the Tokyo American Center (where pictures are not allowed). There, we listened to 4 people in the foreign service talk about their work for about an hour and a half. This may sound cheesy, but it was something of a life changing experience for me. What they were describing sounded like something I would love to do, and I`m definitely going to consider it as a future occupation.

turns out Tokyo is crowded

Next, the JUSSE and Okinawa Peace Scholars students went to the YFU Japan office to meet ambassador Okawara. We got there, went into a conference room, and listened to the good ambassador speak for a while. However, I`m afraid I didn`t pay too much attention. I was busy going over my little speech again and again in my mind to make sure I had it down! Finally, after about 15 minutes of the ambassador talking, I was called to the front. I gave the speech (remembering too slow myself down ;) ) and presented the plaque. I was quite nervous, but everyone said that it didn`t show. We ate lunch afterwards, and the YFU office had a very nice meal catered for us.

After lunch, we had about an hour to walk around the neighborhood we were in. This was like giving water to a parched man in the desert since we weren`t allowed to leave the hotel to explore. We were in Roppongi, which is one of my lease favorite Tokyo neighborhoods. All the same, though, it as nice to be able to freely walk around.

We got back to the hotel around 4 and just chilled for a while, playing cards in Skyler`s room. Caden left (because his host family lives in Tokyo) a bit after an episode involving him leaving his passport in the room after checking out. After a bento dinner, we decided to go ahead and do karaoke at the place on the 47th floor. So, we got a room with 8 or 9 of us splitting the hourly charge of $84 >.< It was so much fun. From the Backstreet Boys to Seishun Amigo to Kanye West, it all went down with a breathtaking panorama of Tokyo at night right beside us.

The rest of the night was also very fun.

The next day was the day we were to go our separate ways (i.e. go to the cities our host families live in). Everyone was pretty sad about parting, but also excited about finally getting to meet the people who would be their families for the next 6 weeks. 3 other students going to Sendai and I got to go there with the shinkansen (bullet train)! I far prefer traveling by train to traveling by plane because you get to see so much more. What really struck me on the trip was just how far out the Tokyo metropolitan area spreads. It`s not sprawl, in the convential sense, either, as what you continue to see is high density, mixed residential/commercial development. Oh, Susi, I finally read Ender`s game. Yes, it was awesome.

After about two hours, we arrived in Sendai! It was a really great moment, because all of our host families were waiting right on the platform with welcome signs and all that good stuff. After taking a couple pictures, we all went out for tea. I talked a good deal with my host dad and sister. My host dad, Yoshiyuki, is a software engineer at a company called Fujitsu. He really likes basketball and used to play in his younger days. My host sister, Maasa, is 16. She`s going to America for a year-long exchange in August. My host mom had to be somewhere at that time so I didn`t really get to talk to her. My family is really nice.

I`ll try to update this more, btw (seriously, though, it takes a really long time on this computer)