My First Week in Tokyo

Dear Mom and Dad:

Sorry I haven't corresponded so far, Ive been so busy having a good time during my first week in Tokyo. I have gone to shinjuku, harajuku, and shibuya in tokyo already. Tokyo sure is a crazy place. So many people in outrageous clothes and so many people in general. I have been to a few shrines, including tsuruoka hachimangu in kamakura, but I did not see the daibutsu (huge buddha). I already have a few good friends among my KCP classmates, but they are all American. I have yet to really make friends with the korean students and local japanese here, but we have only had one day of real class so far.

My host family is great. Even though I am only living with Tomoko-san, her sister Hiromi-san is staying here this week because of her art exhibiton at nearby yokosuka. Tomokos son, Shin-san picked me up on the arrival day, and he was also the one who took me to kamakura, as well as the place where matthew perry landed. They are all so friendly and interested in talking to me and I have already learned so much Japanese from them. In addition, they are eager to learn english from me, because none of them speak it very well. Tomoko's english is especially limited and Hiromi is fairly good, but my japanese is still better than any of their english.

Tomoko also took me to the aikido hombu dojo, it was amazing and so inspiring to see the calligraphy of aikido that was actually painted by ueshiba morihei osensei. My shoulder is still getting stronger every day from breaking my collarbone 6 weeks ago. On saturday I attempted a forward and backward roll with success, but only across my left shoulder.

So much has already happened in this week, but I have still yet to buy a cell phone. I am waiting for my student id so i can get the discount on the plan. And once I have a permanent Internet connection, I hope to be using Skype.

Anyways Im tired and have class in just under 12 hours so I must go to sleep. I hope my english doesnt seem odd... the longer I'm here the more japanese it seems to become, if that makes any sense.

I was only able to place in to level 3 class at KCP. I talked to tanaka san about this and he said I need to talk to the teachers, but because I am not a fully rounded level 3 student, even if I may know a lot of it as well as some level 4 already, it may be too difficult starting out in 4. But either way I will do my best and Im sure it will work out in the end. Love you and don't worry too much about me, everything is going great!

Joshua