Koto-Ku Community Festival Wow! It seems like just yesterday that I was writing my last blog post, but yet it was really 2 weeks! I have been told it has gotten a lot colder in the U.S., so I should probably tell you I've only worn a light jacket once so far...And that was when the latest typhoon was offshore and pulling wind down from Russia. Otherwise, it has been amazing weather here. As always, I've been doing a lot, but I will talk about one thing I really enjoyed. I worked at a Hippo booth at my community festival. The festival was held over the weekend a week ago at Kiba Park near my home. The park is quite large and known for the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art, but mostly it's cool because it has a suspension bridge over a canal in the middle. The event was quite exciting for me as it was also my first Japanese festival. I want to say it was a mix between a flea market and a trade show. There were many tents set up in many different areas. Booths varied a...

One Month in Japan Today marks a month since I came to Japan. It really has gone quickly and some how I knew it would. I figured after I'd been here for awhile everything would start to settle down, but it hasn't quite happened yet. I feel like I always have a full calender and from what I've seen from people in Hippo this is a normal occurance. I'm partially excited because there is so much to experience and only a year to do it in, but also starting to feel the wear and tear. Sadly, the weekends are far to precious to catch my breath. This past weekend was once again an extended weekend due to a holiday on Monday- there tend to be quite a few. I personally think it's because people work so hard with so much overtime that the holidays are built in to help them survive. Personally, my weekend was jammed back with brass band concerts, sightseeing, and festival. Outside the Asakusa Shrine One Weekend On Saturday night, we attended one of our usual club...

Impressions Having never been to Japan before, many things were immediately new to me. While I've spent the last few days talking about the major changes I've been going through, there are many small ones that are what makes Japan so much fun. So today, I'm going to talk about some of those little things. Of course, Japan (and even Tokyo) is very diverse and I'm sure each thing I say will be somewhat contradictory. The first thing I have to mention because it is raining today - clear umbrellas are  soo  popular. I had seen maybe one before arriving in Japan and on my commute to work this morning I have already seen about 500. I would say they are more popular among young people with an alarmingly many among men. I saw some on sale at Don  Quiote  on my way in for ￥398, so I might have to pick one up on my way home... Another thing I was taken aback by was the amount of technology is cars. For the most part, the same vehicle could be found in the U.S. from t...

My Host Family During my year in Japan, I stay with at least 2 different  long term  hosts as well as the potential for many  short term  hosts when I take business trips to different locations or visit different cities or go on an exchange. However, for at least 2 of those families, I have the potential to become a more indepth family member. The family I am currently staying with is the Katsuki family in Koto-ku (near the bay on the Eastside of Tokyo). My family members include my dad, mom (hippo nickname, Jasmine), host brother (Hideyuki, hippo nickname Gamon), and host sister Sena (she does not live in the home and I have not yet met her). My host father works for the Asahi Beer Company (no, it does not mean free beer). He works a lot! Most nights he doesn't get home until after 10 pm. All of last week, he was on a business trip to Thailand and Vietnam. My host mother does not have a traditional job, but she does a lot! Not only does she take care of the ...

Food I made one rule for myself when coming to Japan. I would try everything at least once no matter how bad I thought it would be. However, I've already come to modify that rule to I'll try  almost  everything at least once (I'm not so brave when it comes to fish with their heads on). The largest problem was that I really hadn't had much Japanese food before arriving in Japan. So, when everyone asked me exactly what I liked or didn't like, I couldn't tell them anything. This meant that I told them I was willing to try, which led to almost a challenge to find things for me to eat. Within two hours from being off the plane, I had one of the members in my hippo club running to find something special. He bought natto, which is a fermented soybean product. I was already feeling a little nauseous from being on a plane for so long and here I was asked to eat something even Japanese have a hard time eating. In the end, I did not like it, but I did promise my fa...

Arrival In Japan What an experience! I'm Michael Gobin. I will be the 2009-2010 LEX Intern in the Tokyo Office. LEX America has been telling you a lot about me, so I won't take a lot of space on introductions. I will be contributing to this blog a couple times a month over the next year. However, my mentor here in the office is gone on a multi-country adventure for the next week, so I will be spending those days contributing more often. I'll try to paint a picture of what my first few days in Japan have been like. Even though I spent 14 hours on a plane headed to Japan. It wasn't until I took those first steps off the plane that it hit me like I walked through a curtain that I was in Japan. First of all, it was immediately warmer. Kana went from being an equal language in places where it mattered, to everywhere with English only as a back-up in the important areas. Most importantly though, I became completely illiterate and that's when I knew the adventure h...

Half Way The arrival of March marks my halfway point through my Year-Long stay in Japan. In the past six months I have made more language discoveries than I am even aware of. Japanese, Thai, and Korean have started sneaking their way into my dreams at night and are invading my thoughts throughout the day. It's a transformation that I didn't consiously make but one that comes with the nature of being in this language rich environment I call home. In the past 6 months I have had countless opportunities to meet people from all over the world and all over Japan. Recently I gave a presentation at an elementary school where students from Thailand, Korea, and England participated in our activity. At the end of the school visit, the guy from Korea came up to me and asked "nan nen gurai nihon ni imasuka?" "how many years have you lived in Japan?" Although it is a fairly simple question, I was thrilled at the way it was worded. At the time he asked me that, I ...