These pictures are of my first week here in Japan. The morning after we arrived one of our head teachers picked us up and showed us one of the ways to get to work. The first picture is of the college that I am currently working in and the week was more for us to get adjusted to our new environment. Mainly we stayed in the SkillUp room and talked with the students that came in. The SkillUp room is where all the TA’s and English teachers stay in; students come in anytime and hang out there, sometimes they do their homework or they fulfill their weekly conversation. Each week the students need to talk with one of the TA’s for at least 15 minutes. On top of that we grade the students’ weekly diary entries which are usually just answers to a prompt that they are given at the beginning of the week.

On Friday another one of the head teachers took us out for dinner. We went to a 回転寿司 (kaiten sushi) which is a place where the sushi is served on a converabelt. Usually I’m not someone who likes fish but I have to admit, I genuinely enjoyed this sushi. The third picture is one of the sushi that I had – the fish was tuna. On Saturday I went to the Kanda festival with Rachel and a friend who was my Japanese tutor back at Wesleyan. Pictures 4-6 were of the main area where the festival took place, and the picture of the long piece of paper was my fortune that I got from the fortune teller. The fortune says that I received the best luck. Later we all went around looking for my tutor’s dad to see his performance. While searching for him, we stopped by stores along the way and bought some souvenirs. His dad was the head of his area so he was leading the carrying of the big statue (picture 7+8). My friend gave me one of the overcoats that the people in picture 8 were wearing. When his dad saw me wearing it he called me over and then I started carrying the statue with everyone else. Honestly that statue was so much heavier than I was expecting – afterwards I got a bruise on my shoulder from the weight. But nonetheless I was super happy to participate in one of the biggest festivals in Japan. Towards the end of the day my friend and I went to grab some dinner and afterwards we just walked around Akihabara. The night life in Japan is really nice because of all the people out and the lights that the stores turn on and how it lights up the streets (the last picture).

I’ve noticed that I tend to plan things last minute so as of writing this I have no clue for what I will do for this coming weekend. I think the main thing that I still need to get used to is understanding that I am carrying more money than I think. Since back at home I mainly pay with card, I don’t carry many bills or any change at all. So when I have a pocket full of change I need to make sure how much I actually have. For example there is the 500 yen coin which is equivalent to about $5, but since I just look at it as regular change, I dismiss it as just regular change. But that is something that over time I’ll get used to.

On Sunday I spent most of my time relaxing and just walked around Higashi-Koganei. That was my first week here in Japan.