Green Eye Goo, Izakayas, A Park

For the last six days or so, my husband and I have had a terrible cold. We've spent our first few days of work hacking up phlegm and leaking snot, and I haven't a normal speaking voice in about five days. It's a wonder my students can understand me well enough to complete the listening comprehension exercises. We've purchased some medicine, but it doesn't seem to work very well. Oh, how grand it would be to have some NighQuil…. If I weren't worried about Japanese laws, I'd ask someone to ship me some. Oh well, we'll get better eventually. In addition, my eyes have become seriously bloodshot, and one morning I awoke with dried green goo around my eyes. Sounds healthy doesn't it?

Anyway, my significant other and I were off work on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we spent our free time wandering around parts of Tokyo. Yesterday we went to Ikebukoro and ate an izakaya. An izakaya is a bar/restaurant in which patrons go in, remove their shoes, sit at lowered table and order a variety of dishes to share with friends. Sort of like tapas I guess. We went to an izakaya on Saturday night with another American instructor and three Japanese staff members, and that's when I saw all the gross food. Those girls ate chicken hearts, squid guts, raw horse meat sushi, and skin from the backside of a chicken, among other things. My husband and I stuck with regular old chicken skewers and sushi, both Saturday night and Tuesday afternoon. I used to be grossed out by sushi with large chunks of raw fish on top, but it turns out I like it and can eat it just fine. After seeing some of the other food here, raw fish is nothing.

On Wednesday we wandered around a park near Tokyo Dome and took a few photos.


My husband calls this his fish whisperer photo.





Here's a tree that looks Japan-y. A bonzai tree, perhaps? Is that right?





A quaint old bridge. Fascinating, huh?




The park also had a fake temple, a waterfall, a rice paddy and some cherry blossom trees. We didn't spend much time there because we had planned to go to the amusement park beside Tokyo Dome, but alas, it was closed. Today it was back to work teaching English. Tomorrow is our (da da dum) one week review. We shall see how it goes.

Until later...