April 8th 2010 ... Quarter Century and Happy Birthday Buddha

The day in reverse order, perfect end to a perfect day
Ebisu Yokocho for drinks and singing in good company


Sankeien Garden in Yokohama with Nathalie, Simon and Co.




















Chidori ga Fuji
In the am I went to the Yasukuni Shrine and around the Budokan, following one of my student's recommendations. It was absolutely beautiful!







I probably had one of the most relaxing birthdays I've ever had! Masa and I opened presents and cards at midnight Thank you! Unfortunately Masa had to work. I got up at 10am, had a leisurely breakfast and went to the Yasukuni Temple and Chidori ga Fuji, the moat around the Budokan (arena), it was exquisite! You can rent little boats, so that is what we will do next year. Then I went to the Swiss Residence for lunch with Nathalie & Simon and family, the three of us went to Yokohama to the Sankeien Park with Simon's sister and bf. Unfortunately we only had an hour at the park but it was gorgeous! Masa took me to a really nice Italian restaurant and ordered a special chocolate birthday cake, so sweet. We went to this traditional Japanese little indoor alley, Ebisu Yokocho, and had some plum wine. A guy came around playing the guitar and we sang Beatles etc. with him. Much better than normal Karaoke.

B-day-Easter-Hanami (picnic)

After party

Champagne

Gavin and Masako

Simon and Nathalie

Gavin and Konen

Hanami

Yoyogi Koen



Amy and Taka

Amy and Sarah

Cheese

The view to the sky from our tarp.

Yum yum





the fountain in Yoyogi Koen (park)

Easter Weekend

We went to Shimbashi, the SALARYMAN district, where all men in black suits drink after work. After walking around we went to a German Music bar/restaurant, sort of mini cabaret with opera and musical, that had been recommended to me by a student. Unfortunately the bar closed at the end of March, but about 10 singers had a small party, they invited us in and treated us like royalty, they sang beautifully and had us join in for some German songs. Masa sang a Time to Say Goodbye with the others and they had me sing some Shumann. Haha. They showered us with bread to take home and other small gifts, Loewenbrau towels and t-shirt haha.

Then we took the train home and went to a tiny local international bar that was playing dance music: ABBA and Love Generation etc. We had a blast, everyone was dancing, it felt like a cozy home party everyone introduced themselves, very fun.

Saturday I worked 8 lessons back to back a little crazy but all good. In the evening we went to our friend Hiroshi's party in this new building, Architectural Body http://www.architectural-body.com, very Fung Shui and cool, 14 different colors all kinds of angles, more later. The people were mostly in their 40s and BU, MIT, Tufts or Harvard alums. We had some very good conversations and they were very accepting and interested despite me being the only foreigner and half their age.

Hanami time is here ...

Can't get enough of Meguro River, probably one of the most if not the most beautiful cherry blossom viewing spots in Tokyo

Free Cycling around the Outer Gardens of the Imperial Palace

Kabuki-za last performance in March, the building will be torn down in April.

Roppongi Art Nuit Blanche

The big white thing

The white bubble people dancing

rainbow silks

a big monster/robot

the beauty of nature and human advancement

Crazy about SAKURA in Shinjuku Gyoen

Rachel and Masa in front of Tokyo's empire state building

Not sure if these are plum or cherry but I am pretty sure they are plum, because they bloomed much earlier than the cherry trees which are gorgeous now.

Masa and I attempted going to the St. Patti's Day parade, but only caught the tail end of it, because we got caught up visiting some parks and scouting out locations for my Birthday-Easter-Hanami (picnic)


Sunset in early March from our balcony

My routine breakfast, minus the strawberries. I love reading the New Yorker and drinking green tea, occasionally green tea lattes a la Argo.

Thank you for all the cards and more!

Some early cherry blossoms.

My little Bonsai from the kit, thanks Hannah C.

General update:

• We have had a few minor earthquakes which scare me just the same, especially the one on the February 17^th in the am, I woke up to the bed shaking. March 13th the whole building was shaking at night.
• Rice field art. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1198381/Bizarre-spectacle-giant-crop-murals-covering-rice-fields-Japan.html Thank you Hannah W.
• I had my first two chance meetings this month, I met a coworker at Starbucks in a different neighborhood from where we work and two friends from Suffolk in my neighborhood after work a couple of Fridays ago.
• A few points about the Japanese culture which I discussed on the phone in detail with my aunt: WW2 is completely hushed up, it also seems difficult to admit trivial mistakes, I am finding the culture of not questioning and blaming others a little challenging.
• One of the biggest surprises when I arrived in Japan was that people don't walk their dogs, they put them in dog strollers. Just google "dog strollers" for an image.
• I finally figured out why the unemployment rate is so low in Japan. In places where in Germany and the US you would have one person working, Japan has 10 workers, for example at a construction site to direct traffic.