Sorry for the delay in updates. These past few weeks have been quite busy. Picking up after the last post, I got my hair chopped off. I went to Sakura hair cut place a few minutes from the dorm. It was the best experience ever. The people were so nice, they washed my hair twice and so thoroughly, they gave me a cappuccino, and there was the cutest dog ever. They also gave me a head and neck massage. It was around $50 but totally worth every penny. It was great and my hair came out cute. That Friday I went out to dinner with a few people to a Korean BBQ. It was a lot of fun.
That weekend I traveled to Gunma, a prefecture about 6 hours north of Tokyo in the mountains. I worked with a high school English camp for 3 days. There were about 40 student assistants and around 350 Japanese high school freshman. We took buses up with the kids. The hotel we stayed at was way up in the mountains completely isolated. I was the first one to walk into the hotel and immediately was reminded of "The Shining." The hotel was so reminiscent of that hotel. We were the only ones staying in the hotel so it was really cool. I roomed with my friends Amanda and Sara. Our room was really big and pretty nice. All of our accommodations were paid for, in addition to the 20,000 Yen we were paid (around $200) for the weekend. The meals were absolutely delicious, as well.
The goal of the camp was to help the high school students become more comfortable speaking English. Their ability ranged from not knowing much English at all to speaking it very well. We did different activities with them and workshops in which each team would get points. The very first group I worked with was a lot of fun so I decided to hang out and give them extra help all weekend. The students also had to work on tv commercial presentations on a "product of the future" that they would compete to have the best one. I spent a lot of time helping my group with their presentation, which they did on Pixie Dust, giving you the ability to fly. We spent hours perfecting their presentation. The presentations were to be judged by the assistants, and then the top 8 would make it to the finals, which would be performed in front of the whole camp and judged by their teachers.
Well as I had hoped, my group made it to the finals. All weekend when we had been practicing, they ended their presentation by saying "This commercial is presented to you by Kaho and Taro." Well, during the finals, much to my complete surprise, they changed the line to say "This commercial is presented to you by Kaho and Taro and supported by Melanie." Needless to say, I started crying. They were the only group to do anything like that. Not only that, but out of 78 groups, they ended up winning!! It was one of my proudest moments ever. My group was so awesome. I felt like such a proud mom. I ran up to the front and gave them all hugs. And they didn't just win the presentations...but they also ended up getting the most points out of all of the workshops so they basically won everything there was the entire weekend. The other assistants dubbed me "teacher of the millennium," which I was proud to accept.
It was actually really hard to say goodbye to all of the kids. I got tons of pictures of everyone. As we were saying bye, my group gave me a little cellphone charm and said "Don't forget about us". It was so great. I got their email addresses to try and keep in touch with them. It was one of the most rewarding weekends ever.
What else has happened...this past weekend Friday was pretty laid back. Jon and I just went to an izakaya the next town over. Saturday So and I went to Asakusa and visited the Temple as well as going to Japan's first amusement park. It was so great and decrepit and
old and amazing. The rides were so corny but they were so fun. The weather was all rainy, but I didn't let that ruin my time. We then went to dinner, which was delicious. The night ended fairly early so when I came home, Jon and I decided to go to karaoke from 11pm - 3am. It was so fun.
Sunday Jon and I went to Yokohama. I went on the world's second largest ferris wheel which had a wonderful view. We also went to Chinatown. It was definitely awesome.
This past week I ended up going to karaoke 3 times. Only once was late at night...the rest have been after school. I love karaoke. It makes me so happy. I have been going out to lunch with some friends during the weeks as well. Today I went to visit Tokyo Tower which is a huge tower right by my school. It is actually larger than the Eiffel Tower. I want to go back again at night sometime before I leave. I have been working hard and diligently to cross activities off of my list of things to do before I leave. This weekend, hopefully more will be crossed off.
School this past week was very crazy and stressful, but it's all been paying off. Except for psychology, which I'm doing decent in, I have like a 98% in all of my other classes. Quite exciting if you ask me.
One more week until my birthday. My best friend here, Nadra, her birthday is the day before mine so we are planning a big get together with all of our friends.
Three weeks until I have to leave. This place has honestly become more home than my actual home ever has been. I love everyone here. It's sad because everyone is finding their apartments and slowly starting to move out of the dorm, which is not OK in my book. They all need to stay here and hang out with me. They can't leave until I leave. At least when I come back to visit, I will have tons of places to stay.
Ok, that's enough for now. I hope I covered everything.
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