It's been a while! I am BACK in Japan, round 2!

So after my 5.5 weeks in Cali I returned to Japan and stayed with my friend's Alana/Ryan for a day (the second night I was with Nayo and Chaki, at Chaki's working till morning). You will hear the results of that eventually... :)

So that Friday I trained it up to Omiya to train for my new position (same company, but now that I work in Kanto, things are done different, and I will also teach kids, so I had to).

This training group was great! We all got along (for the most part, a few...INTERESTING personalities, which caused minor drama...I tried my best to keep some things in...) and went out quite a bit. First Saturday night out, we headed out to a rooftop party near Omote Sando, which set the week off right, with everyone getting a taste of the Tokyo party life. I think everyone had fun! This kicked off a week of a busy stressful (for some) week of training, but I think everyone did great! No one cried, everyone learned a lot, and we all rocked our demo lessons, and stayed somewhat energetic throughout the week! So of course, on the last night, we partied!

Thanks to Chaki getting us on the list, we all had a great night at Club Asia in Shibuya. Due to alcohol and the smoke in the club (welcome to Japan, hell, welcome to clubbing!) we had people leave the club early, not able to re-enter. The 3 that stayed behind, got to see me go up on stage with Chaki and do Stay Faceless, maybe for the last time... Glad they saw it! Back stage in the VIP I got to see and surprise the Dex Pistols (they know I lived in Nagoya, and when I told them I live in Tokyo now, they were shocked I made the move), met and talked to Verbal from m-flo/Teriyaki Boyz (also got a pic with him) and the most random surprise guest was Surkin! Dunno why he was there, but took a pic with him and was shocked to see he didn't do a THING, but show up, then leave! Haha! Morning came and we returned home.

That evening we headed to Odaiba to eat, and check out the giant Gundam! Damn was that thing amazing!

The next day I took 2 others to Akihabara to look for some electronics, but oddly enough I met up with my friend Jason from Nagoya and his friend Tam. So random. They ended up hanging up with us till the end of the night, which ended in Koenji, drunk in the rain, unable to see the festival (Awaodori) that we went there to see! It ended up a great night just hanging out, and eventually led to a Hub (popular bar for foreigners in Nagoya, but the one in Shinjuku was all Japanese, besides our group) then back home to prepare and clean for our move to our new schools!

We woke up and had to clean, sign our "legacy poster" and get all of our stuff downstairs and ready, in our suits, EARLY....


...in a typhoon...

Yeah, this was a tough morning.

We all said our good byes and headed to our respective schools.

I arrived at Kawasaki station and was met by my new manager, who is SUPER SWEET and gets the manager job done, without having that "manager-like" presence. She took me to the school, introduced me to staff, and then took me to get registered to the city of Yokohama, where I live! We then went to my apartment, where the assistant manager picked us up from a cafe (to stay out of the rain) and I carried all of my stuff up (I felt bad for her having to load it into her car! It was heavy!) and saw my apartment for the first time!

It is about the same size in total compared to my old apartment, maybe just slightly larger. The room itself is smaller than the old one, but from the entry to the room, is much larger and spacious, and my balcony is actually functional! But with a view of more apartments...

Plus it is waaaay convenient! Post Office and supermarket across the street. Convenience store and another supermarket 2 minutes to the left. Large Supermarket/Department store and an electronics store about 6 minutes away. Station is 5 minutes away and next to it...an Ohsho (my fav CHEAP Chinese food place!).

My office is even more convenient! Another Ohsho nearby. Next to a Yodabashi Camera, upstairs from Krispy Kreme, in a LARGE department/shopping/restaurant store. Across the station from a Bic Camera, California Pizza Kitchen, and LAAAARGE shopping mall. All of this without officially leaving Kawasaki station. I need a month to learn this area...

So far work has been great! I observed classes my first day and taught two classes yesterday (my second day). I did an interview on my first day, and she signed up! I did the same thing 3 years ago at Chikusa. Full circle. Today is my third day, and I will teach my first kids class (they are 2 years old!). I have been warned about a boy in particular, and he just happened to be in the office yesterday. He was crying with his mom, grandma, older bro and sis, and I got worried. He saw me, I talked/played with him and he got all energetic and started laughing! On his way out and down the hall, he shouted "Tommy-teacher is interesting/funny!" in Japanese. This made all of the staff smile and laugh, and me relieved...Today I teach him... Let's see how THAT goes!

So far so good here in Kawasaki/Yokohama!

Oh, my camera USB cable is at Ryan's so I can't upload a lot of pics, but when I upload them I will upload some good pics from the past 2 weeks. There are some good ones!