Mt. Fuji, Tokyo and orange juice with rare cheese flavour

After Osaka it was back to Tokyo to wrap up training, sign contracts and say goodbye to new friends. I didn't get too much sightseeing in because we were in meetings until six at night and then had to leave at seven the next morning but I did enjoy myself.

Oh but what I'm not telling you about was the vending machine we passed that sold Tropicana orange juice with rare cheese flavour... It smelt really weird but didn't taste too bad. However I only drank about half of it and then gave up. My juices and cheese just don't mix. 



Okay but on from that. The trip back to Tokyo was beautiful. In case I haven't mentioned before, I looooovve the bullet train! The sky was clear and I sat by the window that faced the sun and watched the coast go by. What made this train trip different was that I finally got to see Fujisan! It has never been clear enough before for me to see it! The picture doesn't do it justice, but it really was breathtaking!

In Tokyo we stayed in the Asakusa district which was where I stayed last time, but this time I got to stay in the most beautiful hotel with a view of the city! There was also a new tower from last time I was there. The Tokyo Skytree shadowing the Asakusa distict and the Sensoji Temple.


Finally after hours of just staring outside while signing paperwork I got to go to the Temple! This would have been the second time which was a good thing because by the time I got there it was closed... but I did get to view the grounds which were gorgeous as always! The pagoda was really pretty against the dimming sky.


After wards my welsh friend Rhiannon and I went to Shibuya which is like the really cool place to be in Tokyo but it was dark and I was pretty tired so the pics aren't that good so... So there you have it. Training is at an end. School starts next week and now I'm moving into my place. Next time on 'Sarah Goes to Japan,' I'll take you to Otsuki to see where I'm living!

Health Checks, Love Hotels and Earthquakes

This is my first post from Japan! I still can't believe I actually live here! The plane ride from Vancouver to Narita was blissful as I had three seats to myself and stretched out and slept part of the way. Once in Narita there was an Interac person waiting for us and I got to meet a lot of awesome new people! When we got to the hotel the power was out because it is in the area that is currently having the rolling power outages. That's the reason we didn't stay in Tokyo... not the radiation. I met up with some people and we went into town to explore and found a cute ramen shop to eat dinner where I felt my very first earthquake! Okay it was more of a tremor. And it only felt like riding inside a train except we were in a noodle shop. It was really bizarre.

Had an amazing sleep since I had been up for about 32 hours and woke up in the morning to a very Japanese breakfast (I really need to adjust to the food) and two more tremors. Apparently there was a slightly bigger one while I slept. Apparently I was that tired!

But enough of Narita. The next morning we drove into Tokyo to catch the shinkansen (the bullet train) to Osaka. I had just enough time to have a Japanese Starbucks caramel machiatto and gush about the really awesome sakura starbucks mugs before we caught the train. (But I'm going back for those mugs)

The train was awesome! We got to ride the nozomi which is that fastest of the Japan trains. Last time I only rode the second fastest which is the more affordable option. However lugging over a 100 lbs of luggage around was exhausting and I'm really sore now for it. We didn't do much after we finally got to the hotel here. Just went to this pretty cool department store that housed every electronic possible and out for udon.

Today was the first day of training. Got to see some example lesson plans and get an idea of what the classroom setting would be like but I'd half to say the highlight was the health check. (note: sarcasm) For the health check we had to go to a hospital and get poke and prodded for a while. We gave blood, urine and good view of our naked upper half. The nurse kept gesturing to my shirt and I nodded and lifted it a little but she gestured higher so I lifted it around my neck but she kept gesturing. I didn't think I could get my shirt any higher until I realized she wanted my bra off too. Good thing I wore a brand new one today!

Later a few of us went looking for the aquarium and failed but we did get some great exploring of Osaka in! It's a pretty neat city but I still like Tokyo better so far. We did however find out how to get to the aquarium for later. I led us out thinking we could walk there but no luck. We did come across some  famous sights though and a row of love hotels so the night wasn't a total waste! Nah, it was a lot of fun!



Now I'm in my tiny little hotel room where there is about a foot of space between my bed and everything else drinking milky tea! Soon I'm off to bed!

Oyasumi!