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Night view of the Shibuya crossing hang-out area.

Click here! This is a video clip Jonathan took on a walk-thru of this narrow alleyway of restaurants in Shinjuku.

Oh, this shop wasn't ramen. I remember now. This was a yakitori shop, Yakitori is fried meat served skewered on a thin stick, like a shishkebab. Very delishus.

Heading from Shibuya into Shinjuku. Shinjuku is famous for one of its narrow streets that are lined with ramen shops. We stopped at this shop for lunch. The pot in front is filled with pig innards. It's parts that are used to flavor broth. If you want to, though, you can also order up a bowl of the soup itself and eat it.

Here's an interesting gentleman we ran across in the train station. Difficult to say exactly who he is or why he's dressed that way. Just another one of the unique and beautiful people in our world.

Crossing the street in Shibuya.

At Shibuya crossing. Believe it or not, this crossing is sort of famous. People come and hang out here and wait to pick up chics or meet other people. Only problem is, there's no where to really "hang out" here. It's just a crosswalk. Do people just keep crossing the street over and over? It's a cool place to people-watch, though.

Here are photos from a recent day trip into the Shibuya/Shinjuku area of Tokyo. These places are what you typically imagine when you hear the word, "Tokyo". Bright lights and LOTS of people!

At the local "Menards" - between the two-by-fours and the lengths of chain: supplies for building your own home butsudan, or family altar.

You can buy little houses for those lovable cockroaches that are part of most families here in Japan. These luxurious homes come furnished with a bed of poison! Mu-wah-ah-ah.

After the show, a ska band was playing out in front of the stadium. They were pretty good.Click here to see some exciting live footage of the game and the band.

The token picture with the mascot. I don't know the mascot's name. He was headbanging during the ska band show. That was pretty funny to see.

Instead of hot dogs and pretzels, you can buy salted soybeans (called edamame). They're very delicious and healthy.

The end of April we went to a baseball game in Makuhari. It was the Chiba Lotte Marines playing against the Seibu Lions. The Marines one. They're kind of like the Yankees. They have all the best players so they're basically gonna automatically win every game so it's more fun to root for the other team. Japanese baseball games are pretty much exactly the same as American ones. Except they don't have the wave or any loud organ prompting cheers. We had a blast, though. One of Jonathan's students gave him tickets and the seats were really close to the field.

Last but not least, the orchestra club. This orchestra is 120 members strong. They are considered the best in Chiba prefecture. And they are, in fact, quite good. They were invited to Germany last year to play a few shows there. I've only heard them play big, booming numbers, though. And their technical skill doesn't reflect a huge level of love for the art. So I'm my feelings are a bit mixed about the orchestra club, but either way it's a great experience for the students. Other clubs include cheerleading club, calligraphy club, naginata club (a ancient fighting sport for women which using long thin sticks), kendo club (another fighing sport), brass band club, drama club, musical club, chorus, tennis, basketball, etc. Clubs can practice for 3 hours or more after school and the usually meet for a good portion of every Saturday as well. About 95% of students take part in clubs. It's a bit on the ridiculous side how much they make them practice, but it's this way all over Japan.

Mandolin and guitar club. Cute white hats. Click here to see sample video clips of some club performances.

This is the koto club. Koto is a traditional Japanese instrument that has plucked strings. It can have a very melancholic sound.

Students who are assembled and waiting for the fun to start.

At the start of every new school year, the students have a bukatsu something something. In English, Club Performance Day. Clubs, or bukatsu, is what the Japanese call after school activities. They have a full day of showcasing the various clubs for the incoming ichi nensei (1st year students) so that those students can decide which club they want to join. Here's a group of students walking to the gym before the performance begins.

(CLICK HERE to see a video interview with two of my high school students, Kazuyo and Haruna!) As you all know, I began a new job at Chiba Joyshi Koukou (Chiba Girls High School) at the beginning of April. I love it. The students are fabulous and the other teachers I work with are really supportive. It's a great environment. It's challening and motivating and I come home feeling tired but happy. This student is Hiroho. Shes 16 and will be going to Missouri for a year as an exchange student in August. She comes to visit me in my office everyday.

This is a guitar that Jonathan found in the trash on sodaigummi day (big items trash day). As you can see, it was pretty dusty and dirty. It was missing parts and of course the strings were unusable. It's a 1978 Greco which is an exact replica of Gibson's electric guitar. I don't know much about this stuff, so whatever I just said is what I remember Jonathan telling me. Anyway, it was a cool find and Jonathan got it cleaned up real good. Now he calls it "The Love Gun".

Here's the spic-n-spanned version. He washed it off and put new strings on it and bought replacement parts some of the stuff that was missing or broken, like the pickguard.

During the first week of April, it is popular among the Japanese to partake in "Hanami", or cherry-blossom viewing. They are beautiful and abundant at that time. At parks all throughout Japan parties and groups of people stake out their spot for the day and enjoy drinking and picnicking and (for the older folks) singing traditional Japanese folk songs. This year it was a bit windy and cool during hanami, but we still had a nice time. Here is Jonathan with a couple friends that he knows from when he was in Japan before.

A random, weird MSN ad. It says "Hot Circle Challenge". Hmmm.

In early April, Jonathan's friend, Alex Oana was here in Japan with his band. They were playing some kind of concert benefit in Tokyo with Mandy Moore. As the story goes, apparently, they were flown into Tokyo stayed two days, played on stage for 20 minutes and then flew back to Los Angeles. Ah, the life of a rock star. Alex isn't in the band. He's their producer or sound mixer or something. Unfortunately, we showed up to the show late and missed the whole concert! But we ran into Alex just before his bus pulled away from the stage doors. Here are the two lads displaying their chumminess.

I made dinner. Lil ol' me. Stuffed bell peppers. Yummy.