*January 2010* Itako, Tokyo, Yokosuka, & Kamakura

Tokyo

January brought cold weather but really fun times with friends that didn't stop us from going out and enjoying Japan!

Before going to London I had invited a lot of friends out for a New Years Bash after we were all back in the country and over our various jet lags :) I wanted to enjoy dinner, costume karaoke, and go clubbing all of which I assumed other people would want to do too! :) I was right!

About 25 people showed up for the event! The evening started in Roppongi at an Italian restaurant called La Boheme. It is a nice little chain restaurant in Tokyo that is great for parties! We enjoy dinner once we all located the restaurant! It took us awhile to find it! We stayed there for about 2 hours enjoying Italian food and wine and other various cocktails! We then paid (that was a joke, no kidding it took forever to collect all the money) and walked to the costume karaoke joint about 10 minutes down the road.

I must tell you that karaoke in Japan is much different than any other country I've experienced it in. In Japan, you are assigned a room and are allowed a minimum of usually an hour. You have couches, cushions, a TV (or more), and an electronic box which holds all of the songs that you select and enter into the TV...then the magic begins UNLESS YOU ARE DOING COSTUME KARAOKE! At this particular venue, we had our room (for all 20+ people) and about 200 costumes available to us! I also had a coupon for wine and sake for everyone. Needless to say it was a very entertaining two hours! Check out the pics on the link below!!

We then went to an awesome club in Roppongi near Roppongi Hills. The club's name is Alife. It is a club that caters to westerners but is not limited to foreigners. We had a blast dancing until 5 in the morning then enjoying ramen before all heading home to our various cities! Needless to say it was a lovely BASH and a great way to bring in 2010 again in Japan!! :)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yokosuka & Kamakura with Emily and Erin!! <3>

A little information for you :) Yokosuka is south of Tokyo about one hour via trains. It is the home to one of the US Navy Bases. It is a beautiful area with the ocean near by, good shopping, and great eats!

Kamakura is a town south west of Tokyo about one hour. There is alot of history here including many temples and The Great Buddha. The Great Buddha of Kamakura (Kamakura Daibutsu) is a bronze statue of Amida Buddha, which stands on the grounds of Kotokuin Temple. With a height of 13.35 meters, it is the second tallest bronze Buddha statue in Japan, surpassed only by the statue in Nara's Todaiji Temple.

The statue was cast in 1252 and originally located inside a large temple hall. However, the temple buildings were destroyed multiple times by typhoons and a tidal wave in the 14th and 15th centuries. So, since 1495, the Buddha has been standing in the open air.

We enjoyed Kamakura very much. We walked a lot and had a great lunch! We happened to stumble across this adorable cafe and eat a western style lunch of soup and sandwiches! We then walked around some more and headed back in the early evening.

We went out to dinner in Yokohama on Saturday evening. We were all pretty tired after dinner and decided to go back to Josh's apartment and call it a night.

On Sunday we enjoyed the US Navy base. Josh checked all of us in and we went and enjoyed lunch at Chili's. We then did some shopping and had Starbucks together. We took a nap and then headed home to our various apartments about 6:00.

It was a lovely weekend spent in Kanagawa prefecture!!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Itako

The end of the month was very fun! I have an elective class at Hinode for both 2nd (US 8th grade) and 3rd (US 9th grade) grades. I am the primary teacher and can teach the students about pretty much anything! My students really wanted to know about American junk food. I chose two dishes that we could create, eat, and clean up in a 50 minute period. We made Mac-N-Cheese and banana splits! The students and I had a great time with this class!

You can check out all of the pictures in the link below!! :)

To see ALL of the adventures from January click here!!
----> http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=2036959&id=54500082