another day in harajuku

we found out there was a shrine right behind the harajuku station so we went back.this is a wishing tree. you write a wish and the priests read them aloud during their ceremonies.this is one of the jingu bashi girls. this is her weekend escape costume.takeshita dori at sunset. it`s takeshita not "take a shit"...
and these are some of the kids from my school. they were in a speech contest. 2nd from the right is sayaka. she came in 2nd place.
i`m very homesick right now. don`t really want to talk about it.

going to get a cell phone and the internet at home hopefully this week. within the next month for sure.

gayle`s wedding is in 3 weeks. her mom emailed me and asked me to write something to be read at the reception. it`s making me miss her a lot. we`ve emailed some pretty sappy stuff back and forth. growing up sucks.

maybe having pizza tonight for dinner. there`s a pizza hut just down the street from our apartment. ahhhhhhhh pizza hut.

the definition of massive

so we ventured into tokyo. every train station is like a city in itself. there is no "downtown". city centres are surrounding the train stations. pictures really don`t do this place justice.

my favorite places so far are ikebukero and (sorry jennifer) harajuku. i love harajuku. and it makes me hate gwen stefani even more. they have the best shops and the best prices and i saw more lip rings there yesterday than i have seen the whole time we`ve been in japan.right beside the harajuku station is a square where teenage girls hang out on the weekends all decked out in their gothy best. from what i understand, they are the outcasts and bullied kids at school and so on the weekend, they get together and celebrate their outcastness. no pictures of them, but soon.

it`s been raining so much. typhoon season and whatnot. and the rain doesn`t stop people from doing anything. i`ve seen old ladies in their rainsuits holding umbrellas while they ride their bikes to the store. it`s just what you do.

darren isn`t going to be teaching in tokyo. we figured it out and the commute was just too long (at least an hour and a half on the train and then some time on buses) and they were giving him no support at all with finding the schools and introducing him to staff. he wasn`t feeling comfortable with the whole thing.

met some people... 4 other alt`s in asaka. 2 from the states and 2 from new zealand. also met john from australia. he runs an english school. been here for 7 years. he`s as old as darren. they talked about vision streetwear and the golden days of skateboarding.

well, more pics if it ever stops raining.

sorry etc.

hey all y`all... things have been slightly crazy for the past couple of weeks. i have just finished my first week at school and i think it went very very well. i am very tired of introducing myself though. i printed out a bunch of pictures of my family and of edmonton and stuff and showed them to every class that i had (i have 11 classes). anyways, the funniest thing. i had a picture of daddy that i was showing and i asked the kids to guess who it was. one kid guessed it was steven spielberg. a couple more thought it was santa claus. daddy is famous at gochu jr. high!!

so... no internet at home yet. no pictures really to post yet anyways. i promise that we will work on that. promise promise.

haven`t cried for like a week. good on me!!

bought us some bicycles. mine is orange and d`s is silver. both have very handy baskets on them (no, not handi like handicapped, handy like useful...). i ride to work everyday... business like clothes and everything.

darren is going to be teaching elementary in tokyo starting on the 19th. i think he will be amazing. tired, but amazing.

more maybe next weekend...

love and miss you all!!!!!!