2001-08-19 - 4:45 p.m.
Ask and ye shall recieve: I found Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread, for the unenlightened) at the supermarket, hiding in a little corner. I also found what I thought was peanut butter (and may well pass for peanut butter in Japan) but when I opened the carton it turned out to be a substance which looks exactly like caramel, and tastes like it too but a little more peanuty. So upon returning from the store I made myself a sandwich consisting of this off brand of Nutella, and faux peanut butter on the thick Japanese white bread which they promised us at orientation would make us quite fat. I washed it all down with a glass of milk that turned out to be whole, because I had no idea what I was buying. A surprise around every corner.
After my second aerobics class on Friday evening, Lynn and I went to Denny's for dinner in search of an American meal. If you ever start to lament the globalization of American food chains, remember this -- if you walk into Denny's in Japan, you won't exactly be on the next culinary flight back to middle America. The menu is, shall we say -- eclectic? It consists mostly of Japanese food with a few shout-outs to the chain's original cuisine -- a club sandwich, french toast, pancakes. But then there is an interesting array of foods that fall somewhere in between -- the green tea and spinach smoothie; the vissychoise (sp); the ceasar salad with fish flakes; the ice cream sunday topped with three cream puffs (I got that). I saved the Denny's chopsticks as a souvenier.
Saturday was spent with some JET friends in Ueno Park in Tokyo, a massive park which contains several musuems, temples and shrines. On our way into the National Museum, we saw about 200 rather disheveled men sitting on pieces of cardboard on the ground in exact rows, facing forward toward nothing in particular. Ueno Park is home to a lot of Tokyo's sizable homeless population, but this display was puzzling. On our way out of the museum an hour later, we heard what sounded like a folk concert -- guitars and tabourines, even a keyboard. As we got closer to the music, we saw that it was the homeless men singing, being led by several people playing instruments and waving crosses. The lyrics became clearer -- among the Japanese words, a "hallelujah" here and a "Jesus" there. These were Christians! As we walked past the scene, we saw a dozen other people scurrying to set up food under a nearby tent. From what we saw, it seemed like these men were singing for their supper.
Further alond in Ueno Park, we stopped at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, where there was a fabulous exhibit on American furniture designers Charles and Ray Eames. After a long day of mueseum hopping, I returned to Ichikawa with Lela where we watched some American TV I brought over on video tape (Sex and the City and 90210) and went out for margaritas at the Crazy Cactus, a Mexican place owned by a guy from LA.
My vacation is coming to a close. Monday through Wednesday, I'll be at the Chiba Prefectural orientation. Starting Thursday, I'll be visiting 2 junior high schools a day to help students prepare for English speech contests. That continues on through the week of the 27th, and then Monday the 3rd of September is my first day of school.
Three weeks down, 49 to go!
