Shibuya, Shinjuku & old friends

After my first week teaching, I was able to have a great weekend of exploring and seeing old friends.

On Sunday, I went to Shibuya for the first time and met up with some old friends. Shibuya is one of the busiest areas in all of Tokyo and there were tons of tourists from all over the world.

I met up with a family I met in St. Louis. A few years ago, I met a little boy during the summer from Japan who was new to my school. He did not speak any English and was very shy. I decided to learn a little Japanese so I would be able to talk to him and try to make him feel more comfortable at school. 

I ended up growing quite close to this little guy and his parents too. During the school year, little Kaz was in the classroom next to mine so I was able to see him very often. It was pretty common that I would be asked to come into his classroom to ask him to do something his teachers couldn't relay to him.

Little Kaz would constantly tell me my Japanese was horrible but I kept at it. Over the course of the year, I started a friendship with his parents. They appreciated my effort to learn Japanese for their son and would constantly ask me to consider moving to Japan to teach English. I wanted to but was hesitant. 

During little Kaz's going away party is when we really discussed the idea of me moving to Japan seriously. They reccomended schools near their home in Tokyo for me to apply to. They wanted me to continue being Kaz's teacher. 

The biggest highlight for me in my effort to learn Japanese came during lunch on Kaz's last day. I was taking Kaz's parents down to the kitchen to get lunch when Kaz's dad leaned over to his wife, pointed to the tuna and said, in Japanese, "what the hell is that?" and I responded, in Japanese "don't eat that"

Fast forward to now and we're reuniting in Tokyo, just like we had talked about. We agreed to meet at the Hachiko Statue in Shibuya. I got there first and waited. Being a white guy, standing near the statue, a lot of tourists asked me to take thier picture. 

We met up and they took me to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. I don't know how America doesn't have something like this. I think it could be very popular. It's such a nice system. After that, we explored Shibuya, stopping in shops here and there to buy Kaz a toy or two. After a couple hours, we headed to a huge toy store in Shinjuku. I needed to get a couple things for my cousins so it was perfect. 

After a few hours, we parted ways. We are planning on going ice skating sometime soon near my city. That's what Kaz is into right now and he wants to teach me to ice skate. Kaz still doesn't know any English, but he would keep asking his dad if we could stop somewhere so he could play with him. 

This was such a cool thing for me. I could have never imagined that meeting a 4 year old Japanese boy in the suburbs of St. Louis would turn into all this. I can't wait to see them again and I consider them my host family of some sorts.

After we parted, I stayed in Shinjuku for a little while longer. I went to Tower Records and when I walk in an idol group named Appare! Harajuku is performing. As they performed, every member of the audience did their dance moves with them. I have never seen anything like it. The song wasn't bad either. (please see the end of this post for the song)

 I ate dinner at Inoki Saka Bar, a restaurant owned by famous pro wrestler Antonio Inoki. The walls were plastered with pictures of Inoki and his theme song played on repeat.

I continued to explore Shinjuku and ended up in a little strip of bars called Golden Gai. Each bar can fit like 8 people max. I found out later that a friend of mine from St. Louis was also in Golden Gai, just a couple bars over. How strange is that?

The next day, I explored around Fujisawa City, the main town in Fujisawa. I mostly explored in thrift stores and bought some cool wrestling stuff on the cheap. In the train station is a fast food restaurant called Becker's. It was pretty shocking to see my last name in big bright letters in a random town in Japan. I didn't eat there, but I will.

Please enjoy Gimme Mimi Darling by Appare! Harajuku