books and beer

Our building is being freed from the scaffolding! EEEK! They are still taking it down on the balcony side of our apartment, so we still have construction men and random guys walking past and above our balcony, BUT will only have to keep the curtains closed for another week or so... yay! AND the weather is getting better and spring is coming and I'm so excited! Our stay in Tokyo is perfectly timed to avoid the worst part of the year - the hot and humid city summers. Cherry blossoms will be out this month which is awesome, as we have two sets of visitors coming soon! So exciting. Plum blossoms are out and about, but I haven't been to any parks or good spots to browse and look and admire. Plans are under way for a cherry blossom picnic in a park, but let me tell you, this is something that has to be planned in advance. Almost every person in Tokyo is gunning for a spot on a blanket in a park under cherry blossoms, and apparently you have to go super early to claim your square blanket area - parks are packed and people stay through the morning, afternoon and evening, picnicking, eating, drinking and taking in the beauty of the sakura.

The week was not busy. We were kind of on a post-Olympics low, wondering what to do with our mornings... but it was all good. Teaching, running, teaching, volunteering and hanging out with Nao - these things have occupied my week, and volleyball volleyball volleyball and sore muscles have taken up all of Steve's time. I have some teaching stories to share, but want to snap a few pictures of the little devils that I teach on Wednesday afternoons before I blog about their less than appropriate vocabulary.

On Wednesday Nao and I went to a little talk given by John Wood at the Tokyo American Club, a quite posh and exclusive (and expensive) social club in Shinjuku. John Wood is the founder of Room to Read, a really neat charity that builds libraries in developing countries. He's the author of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, and he talked about his journey from high paid executive to social entrepreneur, library builder, fundraiser, school-raiser and publisher... it was very interesting. It sounds like a great foundation, and there are chapters all over the world - something neat to get involved in for sure. And, it's a book I'd love to read, but with three (books) on the go right now so I had to exercise restraint in buying it at the post-talk event - Beers for Books. It was at a fancy hotel not far from our place, and there were TONS of people there, including a few Japanese celebs. After two beers, one conversation with a stranger, and mega giggles over the part about Japanese beans in the BFG (I had it in my purse and read it to Nao on the sidelines), we ditched the par-tay to get some grub, ending up at a chain izakaya (pub) for cheap, greasy food. It wasn't all greasy; we had tempura (yum), tuna sashimi (yum), some sort of giant bean things and potato-cheese patties... not the epitome of health, but it was all good, as was the beer that we washed it all down with. Beer and books? I like.