My Tokyo Getaway...

Numero Uno:
Thank you Jus for making my birthday weekend the BESTEST!!!

Friday morning woke up early, got extra cute for my trip, and loaded my luggage onto the back of my bike...YES, the back of my bike! I asked the postman to take this picture...He seemed a little confused at first. I wanted to say, "What, you never been asked by a vain American to take a picture before?!" Too bad he didn't get those fly gold heels in the picture...Oh well. Jus and I met in Harajuku/Shinjuku and had lunch at WOLFGANG PUCK EXPRESS! Yes, mom I do really like that restaurant, hehehe! The food was aight. It was nothing like the Wolfgang on 25th and Peachtree! So of course I had to tell Mr. Puck about it and he promised that he'd do what he can. Then we walked around the shopping district in an attempt to shop for Jus. We only found a belt from Benneton that matches a shirt that I had found for him in Fukuoka so it wasn't a lost cause. I got to open my B-day gifts when we got back to the house. Let me just say that it will be virtually impossible to top my Bday gifts. So I'm going to start looking for his ASAP!!!
My flight, a Bathing Ape t-shirt, another t-shirt from Himeji Castle, a pin from Hard Rock Cafe in Saipan, a Kanji book, a Sudoku book, the Jungle Book in Japanese (to practice reading), a Godiva birthday card, and a Coach bag! Yes, you read that correctly...And not an Osan, Korea knock-off either! That boy done good!!! That evening we went to Vanilla, which was cool.

Saturday Jus showed me around the base after the model fair. I got to see the ships (from the car) and we went to the NEX. That evening we met up with a friend of mine from my Alma Mater (HAHAHA, feels funny referring to college like that). We found an all you can eat pasta spot called Tabasa on Takeshita Street (famous teen pop culture/shopping area). Inside was like a hip hop Applebee's. The walls were covered with hip hop memorabilia and hip hop and R&B were blasting on the speakers. It was kinda like eating in a club!

Sunday, we got up at the butt crack of dawn. Meaning before the sun (that rises super early here), before the chickens, before anything! So I was dazed, confused, and delirious for the first few hours of the Friends and Family Cruise on the John S. McCain...Even after the super nasty coffee (that's the military for ya!) I was surprised to see so many Blacks and Latinos (plus Filipinos who look Latino). On the ship we toured a couple of areas, handled some steel (see me for pictures...teehee), ate, and watched an air show done by the planes on the Kitty Hawk. One of the jets broke the sound barrier but we missed it b/c we were on the bridge quietly laughing at people getting chewed out for being off course. There was also some kind of engine malfunction. I later found out that it was something that happened often and wasn't at all serious from one of the guys who fixed it. Later in the afternoon there was a cookout on the Helo Deck (I think). Hamburgers, bbq chicken, bratwurst, lobster tails. Earlier at lunch there was fried chicken, fried shrimp, and King crab legs. The navy does big things for company! I wanted to eat in the "messy deck" (as it was referred to by one of the little kids on the ship) with all the enlisted folks because it was quite stuffy and colorless in the officers' wardroom. The bbq got rained out though...Come to find out there was a typhoon approaching Fukuoka that I missed since I was in Tokyo. There were tree branches and debris on my balcony when I got home and the nearest big tree is across the street! Jus and I played Taboo for the remaining few hours of the cruise b/c he had already shown and explained the whole ship and there wasn't much else to do. After he got off work (early) on Monday, we took the train to the airport and parted ways, sadly...

I went to my second school today. When I got there it was pretty empty and principal was doing his daily jog. His English is great. He used to be in charge of the English teachers at my board of education! After showing me around the school, we sat in his office drinking orange juice and discussing the relation between culture, civilization, and technology (didn't know your girl was so deep did ya?!). Then he took me on very short tour of the city so that he could show me the inland Sea of Araki. This picture is in the middle of the city. Weird right? He said that when he was younger he used to sit on the beach and watch the ships disappear over the horizon, which led him to leave home for college...Well go to Tokyo. Then he came back to take care of his parents both of whom he lost just last year. Strange because traditionally it's the oldest son who takes care of the parents and he's the baby. It was kinda sad listening to him talk about it because he sounds really sad (as anyone would I'm sure). After my lil tour he dropped me off at the station...AT 11 AM!!! So I sent a text to my co-worker who's on his second year here to ask if folks usually go to the board of education if they finish school stuff early and his response was that he can keep a secret...So I went grocery shopping, got some lunch, and took my tail home to straighten up and take a nap. At about 7 pm I went to dinner party thrown by the woman whose class three of us taught at last month...I thought that it was going to be just us and her but when we got to the restaurant there were about 25 older people who take English for fun...Great, just when I thought I was going to have a peaceful dinner. Thanx to beer and shochu I had no such luck. After a few rounds those folks were all revved up and ready to chat. Even after cups and cups of tea (which I'm assuming had little to no caffeine in them) I'm exhausted! Tomorrow will be spent giving my self introduction over and over so at least it will be a no-brainer day. I'll post the foolishness (pictures) tomorrow after I figure out why they look a little blurred on my screen...how do they look on yours?