Short Stop in Tokyo

Also, I forgot to mention, I had a three day detour in Tokyo for the JET program job orientation when I first came to Japan two weeks ago. We stayed at a gorgeous hotel in Shinjuku and spent every day going to meetings and presentations to help prepare us for our jobs as language teachers.

While in Tokyo I had some free time and was able to reunite with three of my friends that I made during my internship last summer. As soon as I arrived in Tokyo and was checked into the hotel I ran up to my room to get ready to have dinner with one of the ladies I met during my internship. We went to a very nice restaurant located in a tall building very close to the hotel and had a great time catching up with each other on what we had been doing the past year. I was so happy to hear about how everyone at Toshiba is doing these days.

Two days later, on my birthday, I was able to meet up with two of my other very dear friends from Toshiba. We went to one girl's house to have a takoyaki party. Takoyaki is a food that is made of a batter filled with all kinds of things such as octopus meat, ginger, green onions, cheese, sausage, or mochi; and is grilled on a pan with several spherical molds, so your food comes out in little balls. It is delicious and fun, everybody helps cook it at right at the table! Visiting these girls was so much fun and it was awesome that we were able to fulfill our promise to meet again after exactly one year after my leaving Japan. They even remembered that that day was my birthday and surprised me with a cheesecake!