First of all, what an amazing day to be a blue - a 3-0 defeat of Liverpool was just the ticket! It seems that the 8-odd million spent on Andrew Johnson at the beginning of the season seems a good bit of business now- how much has his valuation risen in 3 games? Bring on Wigan!
But enough of that- lately I have been seeing in Japan a sort of seperation which I never really saw in China and Japan. What I mean is, it is really obvious to see people of different backgrounds congregating together in the same place. For instance, the majority of my Korean friends all live in a town in Tokyo called "Shin-Okubo". Here, the majority of the signs promoting cafes, restaurants and supermarkets are in Korean. Korean produce is widely available, and when you walk down the street, it is more common to hear Korean language other than Japanese.
It doesn't stop there either. The Starbucks, Macdonalds and other western cafes / restaurants are usually teeming with western people during dinner hours. Seemingly every day, a new starbucks or Macdonalds opens somewhere else in order to cater for the masses. I was thinking about this the other day as I was sipping my cafe Latte - why can't I go to a Japanese tea house? I discussed this with my student - "wouldn't it be a good ldea to have our lessons in a Japanese tea house"?, I said. A reply came back along the lines of, but Starbucks has great tables, a great atmosphere, and delicious cake and coffee.
This is all true, but it isn't what I want to experience whilst I am here. In fact, I am not even too sure where the tea houses are- In Seoul we knew where the traditional houses were, but in Tokyo, I am yet to come across such a place. I came to Asia to experience Asia, not Western influences on Asia. I wouldn't want to particularly live in a "little England town" in Tokyo if there was such a place.
I'm thinking I need to get out of Tokyo for a while in order to reaffirm why I'm actually here.....perhaps Hakone....
