Hi you guys!

Well, after a very long flight (10 1/2 hours!), we arrived in Tokyo last night.  Tokyo is a very big city and spreads out for miles.  It took us an hour to get to our hotel from the airport!  After I checked into my room, I went down to our meeting room and met a very nice Japanese man who took me and 3 other teachers out to dinner.  This gentleman was a Fulbright scholar (same program as the one I'm on) in America about 30 years ago.  He went to college at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the US.  Then he came back to Japan to teach linguistics, the study of how languages work.  He took us to a nice restaurant close to our hotel where we ate tempura.  Tempura is fried fish and vegetables with rice (always!). After dinner we came back to the hotel and I unpacked and went to bed.  I was pooped!

 

This morning I got up at 4:00 am and went with some friends to the Tsujiki fish market.  Do you remember the market from the video we saw?  It was amazing!  There were so many kinds of fish and other sea creatures for sale.  I will post some pictures for you to see eels, crabs, lobsters, oysters, clams and so many other kinds of fish.  Then we went to see how the fishermen auction off their fish to restaurants and grocery stores.  It was very busy and lots of fun.  Some friends and I stayed near the fish market to have sushi for breakfast.  The sushi chef was very funny & very nice.  It was a little strange to eat fish, rice and seaweed for breakfast but I really enjoyed it!

 

We spent the rest of the day sightseeing.  We visited the Diet, which is like our capitol building in Washington, D.C. and a very beautiful Buddhist temple.  We also saw the home of the Emperor and some very modern office buildings.  Tokyo is a very old city mixed with a very new city.

 

I have lots more to tell you but it will have to wait.  I think about you often and miss you.  I know you are having a great time with Mr. Gildehaus.

 

Sayonara for now,

Mrs. Calkins