07/17 - Lost and Found

Elevated ground

looking down on the city

playing an actor

With no work on the docket anymore, today I headed off to have some fun and check some things out with Aykut and my dad. We went to Shinjuku first to walk around and head to a destination I’ve wanted to go to for a long time. I’ve already spent quite a bit of time in Shinjuku, but considering the station is the busiest in the world and has about a million exits, and the surrounding area often seems just as busy as it is inside, there’s always more to find. One cool thing I spotted was an MLB Café. I had no idea something like that existed in Japan and almost certainly would have eaten there if I had not been with two lovely gentlemen who don’t care about baseball about a hundredth as much as I do.

The destination I’ve been waiting to visit is the New York Bar, in the Tokyo Park Hyatt Hotel. The bar and restaurant is super nice, is located on the 52^nd floor of the hotel, features an astounding view, has delicious drinks and incredibly accommodating staff. However, the real reason it’s a destination for me is that it is the setting for many scenes in one of my all-time favorite movies, Lost in Translation. We needed to get some directions from a different Hyatt hotel in order to find the Park Hyatt, but the walk was very nice. It took us past the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and through some cool city parks and plazas, some very cool architecture and some of Tokyo’s biggest broadcasting buildings. When we got to the hotel we went in and discovered there was still some work to do. The place is like a convention centre and there was a big on-stage performance going on in one part of the massive lobby. We asked for directions and found the hotel lobby area, up one floor. The atmosphere was immediately lovely once we went up. Aykut commented about how even the carpeting was incredibly plush and bouncy. We had to take two elevators to get up to the 52^nd floor, as you have to walk through a second lobby and by some really nice lounges and a restaurant on the 47^th floor to get to the exclusive elevator to the New York Bar. When we got all the way to the top we were greeted by three different women standing in front of a panel of windows showing off the amazing view. We discovered, unfortunately, that Aykut wouldn’t be allowed to stay because he was wearing shorts, but they still offered to show him around the bar before he left. My dad and I stayed and had one drink before rejoining him downstairs on the 47^th floor. We both ordered a Dark and Stormy, which was very tasty and enjoyed the surroundings. The place is pretty exquisite, but the layout is not exactly what you’d expect from the film.

For supper, the three of us went to Ikebukuro to meet Aykut and I’s PC, Satoko, for supper. Aykut needed to get some letters from his students he’d forgotten at the school and was relieved to be getting them back. Our quartet went to the restaurant I’ve been to and written about twice before, Gottsui, the place with the rubber chickens and the crazy staff. This time our entertainment came in the form of me requesting a rubber chicken for our table and from the place’s new drink promotion. The promotion involved rolling a die to get a deal on a whiskey and coke. There were three potential outcomes, one for rolls of 1-6, 7-9 and 10-12. However, the Japanese on the poster was incorrect and the concept was so counterintuitive that Satoko spent a full half hour discussing it with our server. We couldn’t believe how long it took before we finally got our drink orders in. It was a moment fit for Lost in Translation. We all had a nice meal and it was fantastic to spend a bit more time with Satoko, even if it was thanks to Aykut forgetting something and us all having to do a bit of running around to meet up. 

After supper we all went to the batting centre in Ikebukuro and hit some balls, played some crazy air hockey, and made my dad play the drumming game Aykut and I enjoy playing for the first time. The air hockey was crazy because after a goal with one of the normal size pucks about 40 smaller pucks all came flying down onto the table. The team of Aykut and Aengus won the air hockey matches, but at least Satoko and I are the best in the batting cage, and while Aykut is getting pretty professional, my dad needs a bit more fine-tuning before he can say he's perfected the art of virtual traditional Japanese drumming. 

07/16 - Bittersweet Symphony

All good things must end

let’s remember the summer

we shared together

 Aykut and I started today the way it would carry on, in a bittersweet fashion. We took the train to work together for the last time and did what we have done many mornings this term and went to the Vie de France in Ikebukuro Station to grab a pastry or snack and some water. We have built so many things into our routines and running joke but we felt it was absolutely necessary to go to Vie de France, listen to the 80s music they play every morning, for Aykut to inspect the pitas while I checked my hair in the mirror and finally for me to fill my water bottle from their jugs. All staples of our life in Tokyo. Then, just as we did on the first day of the term, we took a picture, this time holding our receipts up proudly because of how much we've discussed receipts this term and how the cashiers always say "reshito desu". 

“Bittersweet” is a fantastic descriptor, so I had to teach it to many of my students today, on the last day of classes. I had such a great term teaching, that I really didn’t want it to finish, and heartwarmingly, my students all seemed to feel as strongly as I did. For the last day, my two colleagues and I joined our classes for a few big “parties” during the day. We had a lot of fun playing games, chatting, and reminiscing about the term with the students. We also had some big events, like an idiom matching game, a quiz about the teachers, and an activity I made up where the students had to draw us on whiteboards and then play “Pin the Tie on the Teacher”, in the style of “Pin the Tail on the Donkey”. Some of the drawings were absolutely hilarious. We all had to take pictures of the students’ depictions of us.

At the end of each sessions we took pictures with our students and almost every student gave us a card or a gift. There were some tears shed as well. A few very things that happened. For one, my hilarious student Keisuke brought me some Topo, which is a Japanese cookie snack as a farewell gift. It was pineapple flavor and he wrote a message for me on the box. I was talking to my fellow teacher Simon when he came up and said he couldn’t stay any longer and presented me with the gift. Then he said “I think this flavor is NOT delicious” with a huge smile. Both Simon and I cracked up and asked him why he was giving it to me then. He said the design was nice so it’s good for a gift, but it’s not delicious. Another awesome student of mine, Mune, really wanted to bring beer or sake for the “party”, but I had to tell him he couldn’t as we weren’t allowed to have alcohol in the classrooms. Persistent fellow that he is, he brought non-alcoholic beer for us to share. I laughed when he took it out of his bag. He cracked open a can and many of the girls were either shocked or laughing. One of them asked “How is it?” “Uhhhh…..BAD!” was his reply.

The day at school was a ton of fun, but also very draining and emotional. It was really great to see how important Simon, Aykut and I have become in some of the students’ lives, but also a little bit crazy considering we have all know the students for such short periods of time, Simon for about six months total and Aykut and I for just under three. I really wished I could come back and spend more time with all my dedicated students, especially because it has been difficult to explain to them why I can’t come right back for the fall term on account of their ever-increasing but quite low English levels

After cleaning up our classrooms, taking down all our pictures, decorations and study aids, it definitely felt bittersweet, like we were tearing down something that took almost three months to build in just under an hour. I always feel though, as I wrote about yesterday in my haiku as well, that once you’ve made a connection with a person, they, or a part of them, will be with you for life.

Following our last day we went to meet up with some other teachers, and our awesome PC, at the Ikebukuro Seibu Department Store Rooftop Beer Garden. It is on the roof of the 8 floor section of the massive store that is itself inside Ikebukuro Station. The rooftop was actually a little underwhelming, since you basically just have a view of tons of concrete all around you. It was nice to see some familiar faces though and celebrate the end of term, even though it was as humid as being in a Ziplock bag filled with yogurt on the dashboard of a car at 2 PM on summer’s day.

Just to make things as Japanese as possible, we capped the rooftop beer garden night off with a super short trip to the batting center, it was closing, and some karaoke. It was like the holy trinity of things/places Japanese people drink that Westerners never would.

07/15 - Absolute Gents

Once you make a friend

no matter what will happen

they are yours for life

Today I gave every student that came to class a Maple Cookie from Canada. I had my dad bring over a box when he came and it was definitely worth it. After all, it was much more trouble for him than me. The students loved them. Most of them loved the taste, almost all were raving about the nice maple smell and even the ones who didn’t care for the taste that much still loved the opportunity to try them. A couple students I actually offered a second cookie to just because of how overly into them they were. I felt bad introducing them to something they could only have one of and couldn't buy without taking a huge trip abroad.

Although the maple cookies were a hit, I wasn’t the one who gave the best gifts today though. After work I went for supper with my dad and three students from my final class of the day. The three of them form an interesting study group, meeting after class most days to help each other. Two I have talked about before, my 62-year-old character of a lovely old man, Toru, and the 32-year-old Tax Accountant, Naoto. The third is their good friend and helper, Ryuhei, a 20-year-old student. He really helps the two older guys, providing explanations in Japanese when they need it, showing great patience and learning important points from class and studying them so he can assist them when they struggle. It was truly a pleasure to spend the evening with the three of them. My dad got a kick out of all of them, as they really are super entertaining and incredibly kindhearted people. We laughed so much throughout the night. Before we all went to an Irish Pub to have a Guinness and share a little bit of my dad’s, and by extension and the power of family my own, culture, the gentlemen showed off two very important aspects of Japanese culture. The first was they gave some gifts. Naoto, the 32-year-old gave me a beautiful Takeo Kikuchi, a famous Japanese designer, bow tie. It was a beautiful gift but the reason he gave was even more beautiful. He said that the bow tie was red and white because those are the colours of both the Japanese and Canadian flag and that he had selected a bow tie because it opens the heart. I was touched. Then Toru, the 62-year-old, allowed Ryuhei to present me with a Sensu, a Japanese fan, while he presented one to my dad. It was fantastic the way he let Ryuhei present the, surprisingly expensive, gift, on account of he didn’t have the means to buy a nice present on his own. I was blown away and my dad was even more so, considering it was the first time he had met these fellas. A little later they started doing something that I am now realizing is very common in Japan. They started praising me and saying what they liked about me, what they enjoyed about spending time with me, how I had made learning English fun for them and thanking me for all I had done for them. I returned the gesture and told them how great it was to teach them, how fantastic their effort was, and most importantly how much I always looked forward to my last class of the day with them. It was a beautiful experience and like so many other people that have been so nice to me here, I’ll never forget them.

07/14 - Chill Monday

We both know this school

let’s enjoy it together

then I’ll smash sushi

Today for my final Monday of work I had the pleasure of spending some time with great people throughout the day. On top of my students, I spent time with my Program Coordinator, my colleague Simon, my good friend Yoshi, Aykut, and my father.

The most interesting part of any meeting today was that Yoshi was a student at Rikkyo University, so he was visiting his alma mater in order to visit me. I met him in Vancouver two years ago, so I thought it was really cool when he posted a few months ago to let me know the school I’d be teaching at was in fact the one he’d graduated from. We met in front of the school store, in St. Paul’s Plaza this afternoon. It was cool that I could pick such a specific, out of the norm meeting point with a friend here in Tokyo, that we both knew well from different points in our life. We went for some food and walked around campus a bit. I was actually able to show him a couple places he didn’t know and showed him the building I work in, which he didn’t know of beforehand either.

After work Aykut and I met with my dad and we did some shopping before taking him to the sushi place I’ve been several times and took Aykut to last week. We went shopping at the Parco department store in the station, which is my favourite store in the world now. Aykut and I both bought shirts in one section, except there was a small issue, the fact that they had no fitting room there. Aykut asked where the fitting room was and the guy said it was downstairs. But we couldn't take the clothes downstairs. So it basically made no sense. I ended up covertly trying on the shirt I liked after realizing I couldn't get much of a sense of what a polo looked like over top of my dress shirt. The shirt was super cool and a good deal, like a lot of stuff in Parco, so I decided just to buy it and not change back into my dress shirt. The clerk was very accommodating, cutting off the tag for me and making sure the stickers and things were off the shirt. The whole thing looked pretty funny though and my dad and Aykut cracking jokes about it while taking pictures did little to divert attention away from me. 

After shopping we headed to the sushi joint, where the line was on the good side for the place. This time we got our own booth in a new part of the restaurant I hadn’t sat before. Everything was typically excellent. My dad enjoyed the atmosphere and the food thoroughly. Everybody loves the place. I’ll be sad to no longer be so close to it every day in just a few days.

07/13 - Sport Tourism

Oh the places you'll go

all over massive Tokyo 

with your pops in tow


Parks posts pilgrimages

pushy palace promenades

past pretty packed



Today my dad and I headed out to check out some cool tourist spots in Tokyo. We have a habit, when we are in a new city together, of jamming lots into our days, in order to see as much as possible. It's kind of tourism as a sport. It's not that we don't appreciate each place and rush through, it's just that we figure we can rest and relax when we're done and we should make the most of the days in a cool locale. We have jammed tons into short trips to Paris and Prague in the past. Today, even this weekend in whole, we did tons of Tokyo.

First up, we went to Ueno Park. I hadn't been there before and it was a fantastic place. The large park is full of different museums on all sides, some sports fields, a huge fountain area, and a zoo! We went to the very old and beautiful shrine in the park, walked around, and enjoyed some pizza and an ice cream.

Next it was off to Asakusa, to add to our list of temples and shrines. My dad must be trying to make up for lost time as he just went to Rome and the Vatican, went to mass with the Pope and now has visited several temples in just his first few days in Tokyo. Not bad for an atheist. Luckily for him, after the huge temple we headed to Don Quixote, because they have a very cool looking location in Asakusa.

When we were finished we headed to Tokyo Station so I could show my dad the older style station and the Kitte building next to it. We had a much needed cup of tea and a sandwich in our dear friend Cathal's favourite spot, Maranouchi Reading Style, then did a little shopping.

To finish off the day we walked around the Imperial Palace, and found the massive spirit festival that was on. Tasuku and Yoshi had told us about it the night before, informing us that it was very neat but so full of people. They were not joking. In the wide lane way that leads up to a statue it seemed there was about as many people as physically possible smushed between the rows of lit-up lanterns. Still, people continued to stream in. The place was kind of like a beautiful version of the Richmond Night Market, with less space and about ten times the people. It was very nice to see but so hot, cramped and difficult to move amongst all the people, so we didn't stay too long. We fought our way out, grabbing a snack just before the end of the row, and headed home. It was a jam-packed day but we saw some fantastic things and covered a lot of ground, walking and on trains.

Today's first haiku references the Dr. Suess classic "Oh the Places You'll Go". It seems to fit considering the type of day, the craziness of being in Tokyo with my dad and the fact I loved Dr. Suess as a kid. Fittingly, I made today's first haiku rhyme and for the second I went with the alliteration route, starting every word with my favourite letter. P.