ikea + first japanese friend

this week, we trekked to ikea to pick up some things for our new apartments. i got two plates, two bowls, a towel, two little pillows and a regular pillow. my new things have been working quite nicely. the ikea here was exactly like the one in portland, of course so it kind of felt familiar except for there only being japanese people there besides my group. i had swedish meatballs for lunch. i've never had them before at an ikea but it just seemed like the thing to do... after ikea we headed to a discount store called don quixote where i got a little hair dryer for 12 dollars and some various groceries for very cheap. it was a load home to say the least. but good news, we found a shortcut through the park and up some stairs that saves a good five minutes off the walk so that's been a nice change!

kim and i were wandering around the area snapping photos earlier this evening near the park and a friendly japanese lady introduced herself to us. she was very outgoing and after seeing that we were trying to capture some sunset photos she offered showed us a cool view point on a little bridge near her apartment a couple blocks away. (the view even can include mt. fuji on a clear day which i hope to catch in the future). her name was kako and she was maybe 50-ish and spoke very clear english. she works translating english books into japanese, freelancing for USA today and a japanese news paper, teaches english, works at an organic store; seemed like she did a little bit of everything! after we got some photos she invited us up to see her apartment and accepted her offer.

we got to get a glimpse of how a real japanese person lives. she offered us tea and crackers. then we started talking and getting to know a little about her. she seems quite progressive, eats all organic, studied at a prestigious university in tokyo and spent a year in seattle during the 70's when she was 20 working on her english. she showed us her shinto religion area in a traditional room with tatami mat floors. the whole place was very interesting, cozy and inviting. then she offered us some snacks and we had some seaweed, sautéed carrots with rice, and miso soup; a typical assortment of what one might eat for breakfast here. it was very japanese. the whole meeting was totally random and totally awesome. then she asked if we would surprise some of the people she teaches english to and come to their lesson this week to help them practice. we are happy to be invited and i can't wait to see how it goes and meet some more japanese people. it is a great way for us to see some japanese culture first hand.

after that, we headed to the drug store and supermarket. kako came along for the walk and helped us translate some food products. it felt like we had a guide. it was awesome! maybe we will have her over to our apartment for some american dinner or something... we'll see. this was a great little surprise to my week. it is for this sort of thing that i really wanted to come to japan!
above: me at the park near our apartment at sunset.
above: cute little flowers at the neighbors house.
above: the view from kako's window showing tokyo's skyline in the distance.

as always, photos... HERE