News from Alex

This is coming from Nihon, land of the rising sun, most likely known as Japan aka land of the rising electronics. The Red Sox rock. Ok, the Rays beat them in the ALCS so go Phillies. The time difference is perfect for watching; the postseason game starts at 8:30 am and ends around 12 am to 1:30 pm. Perfect for my school where lunch is 11:56 to 12:32 and the games are in the later innings and we see the action live. For example, Ryan Howard hitting the 455-foot home run. ASIJ is so amazing and an awesome place for Red Sox fans.

I am doing this blog for homework. You cannot get good gum anywhere in Japan. There are many ways to get cold in Japan. One way is to climb Fuji-san without a jacket. Another way is to ski without wearing ski clothes, run around in the mountains only in shorts, catch a hot (if a cold makes your temperature get hotter would a hot make your temperature get cooler)?

The final way to get cold is to go canyoning. Canyoning is going through canyons wearing a life jacket and falling down waterfalls. I went canyoning with my Boy Scout troop and it was really cold. Our group started out on a river going slightly fast; we rode the current for 100 meters, then we came to a 20-meter waterfall. I was wearing a harness and the guides lowered us down about 10 meters and let us fall. It was really scary. Then we floated for 20 meters and came to another waterfall but we had to jump of this one. We then had to do one more waterfall but going face first backwards. Then we had the option of jumping 15 feet into the water.

We then took a bus back to the place where the city bus picked us up. Then the bus dropped us off at the Shinkansen station and I took the 2-hour ride back to Tokyo Station where we took the JR line (Japan Railways) back to Shibuya station. We walked through the Shibuya crossing and to our place in Shoto, which you can find on Google street view.

The trains in Japan are always on time. You must take a train if you don’t have a car. Even though most people don’t have a car, the traffic is bad. Once or twice every week, the traffic slows our bus down. On Thursday we were late by 31 minutes because of traffic and our bus was one of the first to come to ASIJ. Normally we get in at 8:20.

The ASIJ cross-country season is over. I ran a 3335-meter course (2.1 miles) and my best time was 17.59. A very good time. Today I went to the cross-country pool party where I ate only 3 slices of pizza. I enjoyed cross- country but we had too many practices.


Alex