pikachu sends out some christmas hugs.

XMAS IN TOKYO!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

today is christmas eve...and it was full of surprises! 

three of my students planned out a surprise christmas party at our school. they brought a bunch of delicious food (including natto sushi, which they took pictures of me eating. silly, japanese!) and one of my students even made a CHRISTMAS CAKE (tradition here in japan)!!! OISHII!!!!!!

p.s. notice how much i look like a teacher, f'real.

christmas is a big couples holiday here. most couples go out for dinner, buy each other gifts, etc...like valentine's day. new years is spent with family. OR, if you don't got a lover you spend it with friends by having a party. 

today i got paid to teach three classes (and each class was basically a free-for-all conversation class), eat lots of delicious food, and get some gifts from some of my other students. all-in-all, i'm pretty much loving my job right now. 

tomorrow i teach four classes and then its my winter holiday! horray!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

happy birthday emperor akihito!

japan's emperor akihito turns 75 today. 

it's a national holiday! on a TUESDAY! most national holidays in japan are on monday, which conviently happens to be my day off anyway. so, this is the first three day weekend i've had.

...then i work two days and have my winter holiday! yes!

nabe party.

december has been a month of too many celebrations.

my american co-worker, wil, departed japan on sunday. last week, my new australian co-worker, john, started teaching at our school. 

for two weeks, there have been a plethora of farewell events for wil. and it all finished with a christmas/farewell/welcome party on saturday hosted by our school. i wasn't really concerned with taking pictures because i ended up posing for most of them (sorry. its been a busy month.), so i don't have any visuals. the party was fun, just like my welcome/barney's farewell last june. it was held at an izakaya in shibuya. a lot of students were there...maybe like 50, and it was pretty cool because i'm at this point now where i knew 95% of the students who attended, as well as all their names, the courses they took, and their english level. i was pretty stoked about that. so many things have changed in these past six months. it was a good night.

afterwards, i took the new teacher and a small group of students out to karaoke. and the way there i had to chat with john about not hitting on random japanese girls on the street while in the company of students. the night got kind of weird after that (full moon, i suspect) but its really not worth mentioning. it was fun, but after two weeks of farewelling wil, i am totally ready for my winter break and kyoto. for real.

HOWEVER, here are some pictures from a nabe party a few of my students had a while ago. nabe is amazingly delicious! its this giant cauldron ontop of a burner that you put all these different vegetables, noodles, and animal intestines in. you eat and eat and eat and drink and drink and drink as much as humanly possible! nabe parties are super duper popular in japan during the winter.

oh, and i am 99% sure that i am renewing my contract for an additional six months.

contract renewal.

my contract in japan expires in june, however i've been given a renewal contract to extend my time here. i have to decide what to do in the next week or so.

i think i'm staying.

i don't know! what do i do?!

this is what my life looks like.

christmas, colonel style y'all!

i was going to go get a bucket 'o chick'n on thanksgiving day (i ended up drinking instead...as every thursday night....with a british dude, japanese dude, and three lovely french snobs), but now i HAVE TO buy some japanese KFC on xmas because the colonel is santa clause. duh!

i love tuesdays.

i love tuesdays! i love tuesdays!

BECAUSE: i teach the craziest japanese people.

in the MORNING, i taught a drunk rich house wife. 

in the EVENING, i taught a beginner lesson that consisted of three adults all in their 50's (basically, i feel like i'm teaching my parents english). this class is always super duper amazing.

WHY YOU ASK?

1. one student is a woman who gives me presents every single week (since july). she's always gleefully prancing into my classroom with some elaborate piece of work that includes a lot of sugar or some exotic japanese treat. i love her!

2. another student is a male japanese lawyer, who was going to quit studying english, but after taking my classes he has decided to continue. yes!

3. the third is another male japanese dude, who every week is a complete RIOT! 

FOR EXAMPLE:

today's topic was "shopping" and the #3 japanese student was buying clothes at a store. he requested, "does this sweater come in any other colors?" 

japanese student #1, "yes, sir. what colors would you like?"

japanese student #3, "SHOCKING PINK OR RAINBOW."

japanese student #1, "i'm sorry, sir. those colors are only for women."

japanese student #3, "WHAT?! then i don't want this sweater!"

japanese student #1, "would you like another color?"

japanese student #2, "oh no. please don't ask him for another color."

i could not stop laughing the ENTIRE CLASS. oh my god!!!!!!!!!!!!!

while reading this, PLEASE keep in mind that these people are in their late 50's. 

wow, sometimes my job truly rules.

yukata.

these are from the summer, but i just got these pictures yesterday.

i'm wearing a yukata, which is a kimono for the summer in japan. all summer long, the japanese wear yukatas for different events. mostly, to watch the fireworks. 

BEEF.

QUARTER POUNDER just opened some locations in tokyo this past week. one of them is a five minute walk from my school, so during a lunch break on thursday i volunteered to grab some BEEF for my coworkers. 

this place is confusing.

so, i'm almost positive that its owned by mcdonald's. it has the double arches, and all. when you go in this place, its so gothic. all the walls are black and it has super low lighting. also, all the furniture inside is black and leather. basically, its a goth mcdonald's.

you can only order a quarter pounder or a double quarter pounder. and you can only order "sets", which includes fries and a drink (only coca cola or coca cola zero). the quarter pounder set is 500 yen ($5ish) and the double quarter pounder set is 600 yen ($6ish). 

super cheap. super weird. 

the mcdonald's in tokyo don't serve quarter pounders, so i think these "quarter pounder" places are trying to test the japanese market? maybe.

when i was taking pictures of this place, so were like five other japanese people. with our phones. haha. i'm so japanese.

thoughts and things.

i just woke up from a nap and have returned from 7/11 with a donut, soy bean flavored chips, and a coca cola. i have some thoughts i'd like to document:

tokyo is the combination of las vegas and new york city, only totally asian. 

because:

everything is 24 hours (vegas)

its a gigantic city, different neighborhoods (ny)

everything is new (vegas)

everything is expensive (ny)

pachinko parlors abounds (vegas)

train system (ny)

super duper expensive/lavish night clubs (vegas)

fashion models, camera crews, photoshooting (ny)

a trillion lights everywhere (vegas)

really small apartments for high rent (ny)

this is all surface, of course. but it may be able to give you an idea of the atmosphere here. who knows, i may retract this later. 

on another note, today i ate mexican food for the first time in six months. um...as "mexican" as you can get in japan, that is. it was around $9 for a small chicken taco, chips, guacamole, and a pepsi. yea, i probably won't bother with doing that again. but it did satisfy my craving for some spice. 

also, i found this used clothing chain called "kinji" afterwards. its a lot like buffalo exchange, only way more clean (of course! i cannot stress the cleanliness of tokyo enough.) there are a lot of used clothing/vintage stores in tokyo. if you ever want to be uber rich, you should invest in some used clothing exchange here. because all these stores really have to import from america (its all american vintage, etc.)

as far as work is concerned, the other foreign teacher (wil) is leaving soon. i've known about this since i got here, so its not really new news to me. although, i am pretty happy to be getting to work with someone new. the new guy is the same age as me and he's from australia. this also means that my contract renewal is coming up...i'm pretty sure it will be this wednesday. i would extend my contract for three more months if they offered me a renewal, but the biggest factor in deterring that for me is the summer (no way in HELL am i working in a suit everyday in almost 100% humidity. i'm not quite sure how i did that over this last summer. i think i was in a complete haze from just moving to japan.) or else i would. 

in america are there soup or bbq chicken flavored chips? these are very popular in japan.

that is all. 

on another note, living in japan has made me really hygenic. 

the japanese LOVE obama!

(sorry for the complete lack of picture quality)

one of my students bought a "I HEART OBAMA" package of mochi (amazing sweet bean treat!) in her hometown for our school. 

...i'm not quite sure why it's the back of obama's head though?

i just gobbled it up, and it was delicious. 

dedicated to dearest diego.

dear diego,

remember when we went to waterfront and asked random people to take pictures of their dogs? ah, sweet memories...for the dog blog! well, i dedicate this post to you my friend. 

love always,

pamela

this is muffin. and every time i see muffin, i say "i want to eat your face, muffin!"

one of my students just adopted muffin. he even let my co-worker, wil, name him.

muffin is a boy, and came with accessories. he always wears two blue bows on his ears and a scarf around his little neck.

side note: the same student who adopted muffin also signed up for a self-study course from me (working one-on-one with the student, but they study at home and prepare the materials themselves). its a course called "news talk" where students choose english news articles and write a summary, discuss the article with me, etc. we have this board to document the students progress with the self-study courses (the schools do self-study twice a year), and we take a picture with them and they write a goal for themselves next to the picture. so, this student wanted to say "my goal is to improve my english, so i can talk to pamela more" haha...

filled with miso soup and cold medication.

after the park hyatt and some big spendin' on a fancy dinner, we met up with some of my friends in shibuya. i met hiro over the summer, actually just two weeks after moving to tokyo. it is hiro's goal in life to be friends with everyone. i love him. he took us to this place called legato on the 52nd floor of a building in shibuya. so fun! most clubs in tokyo (by the way, i still can't believe i actually go to clubs) are pretty awesome, just so crowded. but, legato was just right. 

also, maya and i met rodion the russian (one of the most amazing, craziest fools i have ever met) and he later took us to the most fascinating hole-in-the-wall bar in tokyo. the bar was covered with these vintage glass light fixtures, covered in dust. the owner of the bar was this crazy japanese dude who screamed at maya for taking a picture (i was later told off as well...but that's another story). 

last night was one of the most amazing nights i've had in tokyo. because i feel at home here, now. i hung out with a lot of my japanese friends, made new friends, felt so happy and in control. 

now, i have a cold. now, i am watching every episode of arrested development whilst pumping myself full of miso soup and cold tablets.

dear life,

you rule. i love you with every fiber of my being. thanks for making things so rad.

love,

pamela

lost in translation.

maya and i celebrated genna's birthday with her at the park hyatt's new york city grill. that place was fancy. "lost in translation" was filmed there. the view of tokyo at night was stunning (the pictures could not give it justice). 

ginza.

ginza in tokyo is the complete opposite of shibuya.

except, its still really crowded. i had to wait in a line to get into H&M (although, it was only like a 15 minute wait. when it first opened, the wait was more like 2 hours). 

i didn't take many pictures, but these images inspired me to whip out my phone camera. 

also, everything is starting to look like christmas around here. 

continued halloween theme events.

i started my saturday night after work by meeting up with my friend mika. we went to what seemed to be a UN meeting at this izakaya in shibuya, that my friend hiro invited me to. there were like over thirty people from all over the world: usa (i solely represented, thankyouverymuch), australia, japan, france, canada, italy, etc. on my end of the table people were speaking probably four or five different languages. it was pretty fun. maya met up as well, and then we headed to roppongi. maya's friend had invited her to this club there, and we got on the list. 

everytime i go to roppongi, its always an exhausting night. because 1. i know i'm going to be out until at least 5am (last train) and 2. i'm going to be super overwhelmed by the atmosphere (foreigners, craziness, *ropponginess). and i am always correct, saturday night was no exception. but it was fun!

i did some solo dance moves on the dance floor (note: the picture above), so that was pretty entertaining for everyone. some people laughed, one dude said "you are the most beautiful dancer i have ever seen." 

a bunch of people were in costumes, my favorite was the drag queen in a nazi uniform. 

*ropponginess: drunk foreigners on the street screaming, kabab stands, euro dudes in some skin tight shirts dancing to techno.

disney, too!

tokyo disneyland!

genna and i embarked on a magical mystery day of tokyo disneyland today.

two for one day of magic, please!

and because it was halloween, everyone and their mom dressed up (quite literally, i saw moms and dads in full-on disney costumes). it was so fun! although, lines were everywhere! even for our TWO TURKEY LEGS we just had to have! 

 

scary!

this is my psychedelic ghost costume. 

city life.

i never realized how much of a small-town-girl i was until i moved to tokyo.

since living here, i've had a lot of weird occurrences happen to me....but i like weird, so i welcome it as much as possible.

but, i think i forgot how big of a city tokyo was.

one of my friends here, who i've been hanging out with more recently, is a head designer/co-owner of this fashion line: JULIUS GARDEN he was showing me this website yesterday, of the latest pictures from their last show, and i was like "so, where did this take place?" he said, "oh, during paris fashion week."

and today, i get this email from another friend who invited me to a movie premiere (although, i cannot attend. weep. working...)

its pretty hilarious to be riding on the high rollin' lifestyle circuit with some pretty small wages coming in...but i guess, while in tokyo.

new definitions.

one of my favorite classes to teach is my lowest level english class.  super beginner english! (probably because they have more fun. ah, the classes where the students roll their eyes at me just aren't cutting it anymore. if you are taking classes, any class at all, please appreciate the work of your teacher!)

so, today's class was defining new words and their meanings. 

words like: awesome, gorgeous, going out, brilliant, weird

the picture for "weird" was of two men pointing and laughing at this person who had their stomach hanging out and was cross eyed (i'm not joking!). the men were saying "i don't like him. he's weird."

i asked my student what he thought of the "weird" person in the picture, and the student said "he looks fat" and i corrected him and said "he is chubby" 

my japanese male student said to me "ah, yes! i am chubby!" (no, he isn't.) followed by..."i don't like skinny girls. they are unhappy. they want to eat food but they don't! its horrible!" 

haha. i love students like this. 

daily occurrences.

i pass by this man, everyday. what a treat my life is!

karaoke is fun.

ageo, i love you.

on sunday, after sleeping off the intensity of saturday, i left tokyo for ageo.

my friend genna lives there. the biggest city to ageo is omiya, where i had my initial training when i first came to japan. i met up with her in omiya for shopping. the ironic thing is...of all the shopping in tokyo, i actually found things i wanted to buy in omiya (i haven't found much in tokyo. maybe because there's too many choices.)!

i stayed the weekend with genna in ageo. the first thing i noticed when i got off the train was the smell of trees. i was amazing to actually smell trees. 

so, i'm in love with ageo. 

everything is so cute in this little town.

and i had one of the best weekends since i've moved to japan. it's pretty ironic that it was in ageo, a tiny little suburb of tokyo. 

we ate at this super amazing indian restaurant (with actual indian owners) that played a bunch of bollywood music videos on this giant flatscreen t.v. while we ate, we walked around and i took pictures of things. oh, and we had a pretty amazing time at the karaoke bar (note: the little mermaid's "under the sea" is one of the most philosophical songs that has ever been written. i am not joking.)

thank you for such an amazing weekend, genna!