Teacher Jared... Ha... Seriously...

I am now an official substitute teacher! My first substituting experience took place last Friday taking the place of one of the playground supervisors. My day was full of keeping the children from destroying each other and keeping as much sand out of their mouths as I could. I was mostly successful with the first one but we're working on the second task... This school has been a good experience thus far. I was invited to go to Sichi-go-san with S's class which is the ritual performed on the three, five and seven year olds (Sichi-go-san's literal translation is three-five-seven). Most of the kids got dressed in Kimonos and we went down the block to a Shinto temple. The priest performed a beautiful ceremony to bless the kids "so they grew and listened to their mommy and daddy." It was pretty cool to be able to see this traditional ritual and get a small taste of the Shinto religion. I love the look and feel of the Shinto temples and I'm surprised by how many there are around town.

Another cool thing about the school is it's location. It is right in the shadow of the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. One of the tallest buildings in Tokyo, this is just an overall sweet building. It is mostly offices but has a bunch of upscale shops and restaurants inside. I appreciate the building for it's architectural value. I don't know much about that kind of stuff but I like know what I like when I see it.

Tokyo From 60 Stories

After a lot of frustrated map reading and muttered curses, I found my way to a part of Ikebukoro called Sunshine City. I really didn't know what was there but I had just heard that it was a neat place. It turns out that Sunshine city is a huge mall inside of a skyscraper. (I've realized that pretty much all of Tokyo is a mall. It really is a consumer's paradise.) After following signs written in characters with sketchy english underneath (Ha I absolutely love the English they use here.)

I made my way to an observatory 60 floors up in an elevator dubbed one of the worlds fastest.

I only peed my pants a little.

When I got there and unstuck myself from the floor of the elevator, the view was positively overwhelming and exciting. My main thought while up there was something along the lines of, "Wow, I have a lot of exploring to do between now and February." Every bit of Tokyo is absolutely gorgeous in it's own way. It has such a uniquely human feel to it and I love it more with every step I take down it's streets. The pictures hardly do it justice but at least you can kind of get a feel for the depth and expanse of this city.

Asakusa

The original Asakusa shrine was constructed in 1649. It has since been torn down and rebuilt multiple times since it's founding. The story of the Asakusa Shrine is an interesting one. Three fishermen were fishing (surprise) on the banks near where the shrine is located today. When they hoisted their nets, the found a statue of Kannon (the Bodhisattva of Mercy--the deity alleged to have great powers in purifying people and granting them true happiness). The village chief enshrined the statues and the three men were henceforth worshipped as deities. When we visited, there were people everywhere.

The street leading up to the shrine was lined with bustling shops filled to the brim with gold and red, tacky souvenirs and visitors. There is a sharp contrast between the Asakusa shrine and the Meiji shrine in terms of commerciality and belief systems. It is a beautiful piece of architecture and is one of the few buildings in the area that survived the Tokyo air raids of 1945 and has since been dubbed and Important Cultural Property by the Japanese Government.

My favorite part of the buildings would have to be the enormous lanterns that hang in the gates. The lanterns read, "Kaminari Mon" which translates to "The Gate of Thunder." I'm also a big fan of statues and this shrine was bursting with awesome examples to look at. There are many Buddha statues around the shrine and there are four different sculptures of gods in the Kaminarimon that are actually quite freaky to look at.

Shibuya

After a short train ride from Harajuku, our next stop was Shibuya. This place (along with a lot of other places too, as I'm finding out) is huge! I was blown away by the Shibuya crossing which is directly outside the train station. When the crossing light goes green, the whole intersection becomes a blob of moving people and there are no rules. Just get to where you need to be before the light goes red. Oh, and don't get trampled. I was told that I was there at a relatively relaxed time so it wasn't as packed as it usually is. I was still blown away. I'm definitely going back as soon as I figure the trains out.

Harajuku

After our visit to the Meiji Shrine, we went through Takeshita street in Harajuku. This street is where all of those darn teenagers get their outlandish clothes and where youth culture has it's roots. One way of describing this part of Tokyo is by saying that the city is just one huge mall. There are shops everywhere. This was also where I did my best to jump the language gap and order something at Mcdonald's. Thank heaven for pointing and grunting.

Meiji Shrine

After recovering for a day or two and dealing with Jet Lag, my aunt and I hit the town. Our first stop was the Meiji Shrine, located in Meiji-jingumae. The Meiji Shrine was a gorgeous first stop for us to make. Located in one of the hearts of Tokyo, we stepped out of the blaring hustle and bustle of the streets and took refuge in a wooded sanctuary where people have come for centuries to feel peace and tranquility. On the road to the sanctuary, we saw several workers raking the gravel, creating a pristine walkway in a practice that demonstrated the precision and dedication that permeates this culture. The gate in the picture is called a Torii and are made out of Japanese Cypress. The Torii symbolize the roost of the mythical bird that woke up the sun god Amaterasu from her cave every morning. When you pass through a Torii, your heart is cleansed and your mind is purified. Toriis separate the divine from the everyday and when you walk through, you leave the everyday and enter a holy place. (Just a bit of cool trivia) We learned that the shrine had been bombed during WWII and had since been rebuilt. Near the entrance, HUGE chrysanthemums were growing. The chrysanthemums represent the royal family and are tended very carefully resulting in a vibrant bloom. Inside the courtyard of the shrine, there was a whole wall of prayers written on wooden planks and hung up to be sent heavenward.

I made it!

I have arrived in Tokyo! After twenty hours of flying through three cities, my plane touched down at the Tokyo Narita International airport last night at nine PM local time. After working my way through Immigration and dealing with a lost bag, my uncle Nate located me and we took the bus into Tokyo. Talk about sensory overload. I was overwhelmed with the sheer enormity of things! After hurtling through the streets of Tokyo at I'm sure at least 400 MPH, we arrived at Shinjuku station. Shinjuku is the largest train station in Tokyo and there were people everywhere. I guess it was hardly busy because my uncle told me it wasn't full at all. I'm so excited to get in the midst of things. We went to a Mcdonald's near Shinjuku that was on the fourth floor of a building. It was sweet! Now I know why people call big cities, "Concrete Jungles." It is a fitting description. We walked through canyons of buildings decorated by millions of dollars of ads. Space is precious here in Tokyo, and seeing a piece of wall without an ad on it is a rare occurrence. We made our way through the checkerboard of suited businessmen into the actual station. We boarded our train along with every other living soul in the city and went one stop to the Yoyogi station. The station is right in our neighborhood and it's about a ten minute walk to the house. The neighborhood is just gorgeous. After crashing that night, I woke up this morning at about 10. We ate breakfast and then I took "I" and "N" to the park. What a cool park! There were a whole bunch of baseball players which surprised me. We played soccer on a sand lot surrounded by huge trees and really cool play equipment.


I'm just so excited to be here! I'm off on my next adventure so I'm signing off until then.
Peace
jared