TOKYO: Episode I

In October I took a trip to Tokyo and had a nice little adventure. Here it is broken in to three parts because it is a little long.
Episode I:

In august of 2003 I landed a job in Denver teaching English at an international language school. The first month I was there, thirty high school kids came to Denver from Hachioji (a western suburb of Tokyo) for a one-month study holiday. Pictures of them can be seen in the “Denver” section under the link “My Students” (or click here) I finally got the chance to see them again last month.

They had traveled to Denver with several teachers and a chaperone name Sayaka. I had kept in touch with Sayaka for the past few years and she called the students to arrange a meeting, and helped me find my way to the school.

It worked out really well. They are all going to college next year, and some of them decided that they wanted to study English as a result of their trip to Denver. One of them even decided to quit pursuing an art career in favor of language (wise career choice kiddo)!

While at the school we ate together and played games like hangman and some other stranger games like this picture where everyone sits in a circle and leans on their neighbors lap.

Then another person removes all the chairs.

The sitting group becomes a human table.

At least until you fall down. Don't try this at home if you have bad knees or concrete floors.

It was very rewarding to see all of these kids again; more than two years after I first met them. Some of the shy ones were much more talkative now, so that was good to see. I was a little embarrassed that I couldn't remember everyone’s names. I just told them, "I'm OLD! Please forgive me!" They didn’t buy that excuse though; I guess I should be lucky that they don’t consider me that old. My middle school kids in Osaka are calling me はげ (baldy).

More on the Tokyo trip tomorrow. Also, my Xmas list will be published soon so don’t spend all of your money.
Ta ta
Erich von Meatleg