Tokyo Baby!!!

To be honest, I didnt really like Tokyo the last time I was here.. I could see what the fuzz is all about, with technology and modern architecture and all those crazy colours everywhere.. But even though it is impressive, I didnt feel that good about it. But now, something's changed. I dont know what exactly, but I find it beautiful. A cleaner, tidier and more quiet version of New York (with asian people). In the few hours that I had free for exploring, I walked around in the shopping area, with all the fancy expensive shops and in the financial district, where the businesses are. I was quite amazed by the modern architecture and by how clean the place was.. The streets were quite wide, it gives you a sense of comfort, you can see more sky between the skyscrapers. And it wasnt noisy. I was very surprised.. In the same area in New York, you got a sense of chaos.. noise, fast rhythms,garbage, the jungle of the big city (i love NY, I wouldnt have it any other way). But Tokyo seems more.. civilized! I dont know why Im surprised, it might be a cosmopolitan city, but its still Japan. People are clean, quiet and civilized. This is such a unique country.. such a fascinating culture.. I want to kick myself for hesitating so much on taking this job! I really would miss out on a lot of things if I didnt take this opportunity to come back to Japan.

My host family is just adorable..! Two boys, 10 and 11 years old, so happy and energetic and always up for a laugh, I loved them immediately! Especially the young one, he is such a funny character.. his body language is amazing.. the older one is more serious, very polite and he is treating me like a gentleman would,opening the doors and trying to make my life more comfortable. And we play nintendo wii all the time. Its great!!! :) The mum is so sweet and helpful, i feel like we bonded a lot (after seeing each other naked at the japanese hot springs- hours of fun)! Even though her english is not so good, with the help of the dictionary we exchanged life stories.. she is so caring.. and the host dad.. oh! the host dad! One of the best looking japanese men I have met so far, fluent in english, very polite and social AND he works for the japanese version of NASA as a flight controller for spaceships. isn't that amazing? He travels to the US all the time to exchange info with the americans on space issues. isn't that amazing? (i ask again). Im so impressed..This is one of the coolest families I have ever had (and I ve had about 30 in my life!) The bad news is that Im only staying with them for 3 days and then I ll move with another family.. these 3 days are for staff meetings and orientation and then the group is coming and hard work begins again.. half of the people are the same as the last group and half of them are new. The last group was a lot of fun, I hope this time it will be the same.

One more thing I have to write is that we (the staff) flew from Osaka to Tokyo (that was the day there was a plane accident in Narita, so we had to land to another airport). The airline was japanese, but small and I dont even remember the name and the flight was so short we practically started going down the minute we got up in the air (seriously, when the flight attendant announced we were descending,we had been on the air for only 10 minutes). Anyway, the point I wanted to makes was that, the airline was small, the flight was short but the plane was super modern, comfortable (plenty of space between seats) and it had individual screens that were actually touchscreen! I didnt get an individual screen for my 10 hour flight to the US with DELTA and Alitalia and I get a cool touchscreen with an unknown airline for 1-hour flight! The weird facts of life I suppose..

Oh and today, as I mentioned before I went to the On Seng with my host mum. It was fun and really relaxing. Again, I had a small cultural shock with all the nudity but I quickly got used to it, walking around naked around other naked people of the same sex isn't as bad. I would say its liberating. I wish we had hot springs in Cyprus! I think I would go at least once a week.. But it really isn't part of the cypriot culture and it probably never will be, so I should stop dreaming.

Thats it for now. If you have time, check out the blog of the organization Im working for!

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