There are two explanations for the movements that I just felt as I was just sitting and typing emails to friends and family back home. Explanation number one: Due to my hunger (I'm waiting for Lauren to come home so I can eat dinner.), my brain is playing tricks on me. More specifically, I imagined the movement that just traveled up through the floor, through my cushion, and wiggled both my body and computer ever so slightly. Explanation number two: We just had an earthquake.
Let's hope the everyone else is ok; especially in taller buildings. I live on the first floor of my apartment building.
Yesterday from 3-6pm Lauren and I volunteered after our classes for the first annual (biannual?) Hands On English Open House. We had seven student volunteers show up to help us out. It was a lot of fun even though we only had one visitor. Luckily, her father was also looking to take lessons in order to keep his English up to par. They just returned two weeks ago from Europe. The little girl was only five years old, but Lauren and I were shocked when we discovered that she could read on her own; we often get excited about this kind of thing.
At the open house we watched a 30 minute video clip from the Cartoon Network show Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends. I don't know why I didn't watch this show more when I was home in the states. It's hilarious. The episode we watched was called "Who let the dogs in?"; not to be confused with the Baha Men hit that rocked the charts way back when I was in middle school. We also sang songs (I'm a little teapot, The banana song, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, etc.), played card games (Go Fish because it makes them talk, Spoons, and War), and did a turkey craft for Thanksgiving. It was really nice to hang out with some of my students outside of class. Mao (my student) and his sister Megumi (Lauren’s student) joined us. We played Hot Potato together and it was really fun. They are both really great kids; very inquisitive and silly. I taught Lauren’s older student named Yukina how to play war and even though she had to leave early, I think she won.
At the end Hiroko passed out homemade peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies and ordered five pizzas from Pizza Hut. We had way too much food, so Hiroko gave us “doggy bags” as my family would call them.
Random teaching stories from this week: (1)Rather than expressing feeling with the typical “I am happy/sad/so-so.”, I decided to teach Ririka a wider array of emotions this past Saturday. I asked her if she was feeling angry, surprised, or silly. For each, I demonstrated an exaggerated imitation as I pointed at the Garfield poster. It took her some time, but she eventually fell back to the well accepted standard: “I am happy.”. I had her ask me how I was feeling and when I couldn’t decide, she pointed to “silly”. I repeated in agreement saying “I am silly.” My students know me so well, either that or I look like Garfield standing on his head wearing a mask with a big human nose and thick, black rimmed classes. (2)I was going over Eiken (a standardized English test for native Japanese speakers) practice questions with Mao this past Friday. Every time he would get a question correct he would hold his hands up in the air and cheer. The first time he cheered, rather than saying “I’m a grand prize winner!”, he said “I’m a grandpa winner!”. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing just before correcting him. He also thought it was funny and continued to say it despite it being absolutely ridiculous. My students are the best.
On Wednesday, Lauren and I took a day trip to Roppongi to do a few things. First, Lauren had to cash a check that she had received from her father that was drawn on a Japanese bank. Let’s just say that it took a lot longer to take care of then we expected. They wondered why Lauren came all the way to the Tokyo branch to cash the check (they were suspicious) and she simply told them that she was following the directions on the check; it was written that she come to the Tokyo branch. Crazy. Next, we made our way to Bongsen, a Vietnamese restaurant that our friend Min Soo works at. He served us for lunch and we chatted with him as much as we could. He was very glad that we came to visit him. He wouldn’t let us pay so we left him a surprise note on the table that said “We <3 style=""> He liked it; he told us so in an email he sent to our phones after we left. Before leaving for work we walked around Roppongi. It is known for being home to some of the most upscale stores and housing complexes in all of Tokyo. If you live in an apartment in Roppongi Hills, you’re paying close to $9000 per month for a two bedroom apartment. Lauren who was helping me by looking up prices found a four bed apartment there for $26,000 per month. Evidently the deposit for the apartment includes the first four months rent. No thank you.
Roppongi Hills Tower
Bike parking anyone?
Random Shout Outs: I would like to congratulate my mother and father on their 30th wedding anniversary, which they celebrated today! Thirty years! Sheesh! I would also like to wish my dearest mother a HAPPY BIRTHDAY (yesterday)!
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