New York and Toronto trip

Its been almost a week since I've been back in Japan from my NY and Toronto trip. I've been putting off updating this blog because I didn't know where to start from. Too many stories and exciting things happened for me to be able to explain it all so basically just photos and video clips will have to do.

The trip was great! Short, but I made the most of it. We spent the first few days in NY visiting Motozo's Aunt and stayed with his parents. Saw the house that Motozo grew up in and visited the near by beach and a beautiful huge park! They say New York was going through a heat wave, but it still doesn't compare to Japan's Summer.
The outing to the Yankee's baseball game was rough though because of the heat. Just sitting there in shaded stands was almost unbearable. But a great first time experience at a baseball game.
We ate great vegan food and ran in Central Park (this was a huge priority for me!) and in the process cheered Motozo's friend doing a triathlon race on the same day in the park. I really love NY! Its exciting and very interesting! Last time we visited in the winter(freezing!) so it was great to walk around a bit more and run in the park in day light this time.

New York Album

The last few days I went to Toronto by myself while Motozo had business meetings in 6-7 different states. It wouldn't have made much sense for me to follow him around, so I visited dear Joey and his family. Charissa is absolutely lovely and Jason is adorable! I was surprised that Jason gave me a little hug when we meet at the airport. This was only the 2nd time we met and the first time he was too young to have remembered me. My nephew is such a clever little boy who's seems to understand everything you ask him or tell him. He says individual words to get his point across and he's a doing a pretty good job of communicating. Joey so kindly took a week off work for me and showed me around. We did the touristy thing, visited the CN Tower (the worlds tallest building) and Niagara Falls. We rode the boat and got real close to the falls. It was so beautiful! At Joey's and Cha's house I enjoyed running around their neighborhood early in the morning. It was actually quite cold in just my running shorts and shirt (I miss cool Canada) and Joey gave me a tour around the neighborhood and drove me to Whole Foods (awesome organic store!) and Lulu Lemon (best yoga clothing store!) where I stocked up on some hard to find ingredients in Japan and yoga pants.
Thank you Cha and Joey for your generosity! I truly enjoyed myself there!

Toronto Album

A few videos of everything.

Triathlon race in Central Park.



Motozo's dip in the beach


CN Tower
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Niagara Falls boat ride


Mine


Speed boat ride


And thats a speedy and short version of my trip.

As for my life in Japan, I went back to my old job the Gym for kids to teach for a month. I work from Mon-Fri 5 1/2 hours a day for a Summer School program that also incorporates a 30min yoga class for the kids. The 4 1/2 hours that the kids are under my supervision, we basically run a preschool/kindergarten type day.
Its been nice to get out of the house and have something constructive to do.

I also hired a private Japanese teacher who I meet twice a week and she'll teach me Keigo (formal business Japanese). She's a really nice lady and it feels like I'm learning from a friend rather then a stiff teacher. I hope she can teach me a few things and help me not forget what I've learned so hard in the past 6 months at Japanese school.