Chanchan in Japanpan: 散歩　さんぽ(sanpo)

散歩means a walk. As in, today I went for a walk! I explored the area that my dorm is in since I really only know how to get to the grocery stores and the train stations. It's a nice little area! Very residential, lots of people with dogs, lots of people on bikes, lots of very cool houses. Some houses are contemporary style and some are ancient! They look like they could be movie sets for samurai films. It's a pretty little town!

This is the front entrance to my dorm, there is a pin pad where you enter the code to unlock the door. Technically if we have guests they have to leave at 10pm but we are free to come and go as we please! (Curfews are typical for dorms in Tokyo)

This is my entire building. My room is on the left side, and it looks directly across the way and into someone else's room. A little bit different than the view from my dorm at UVM.. maybe I'll draw a picture of mountains and tape it to the window..

Some streets have sidewalks, some don't.

There are a lot of schools around my dorm and a few little parks as well. This man had an Akita! (I miss my dog..)

On my walk around the neighborhood it occurred to me that I'm actually living in Tokyo! But because I'm not in the bright lights, big city bit, it doesn't really feel like I'm in one of the biggest cities in the world. I really am a foreigner here (so many people seemed confused as to why a blue eyed girl is walking down their streets! The best part is that they think I can't understand them.. No one's ever said anything mean, they just call me a Gaijin. and usually it's just the little kids). Mostly the area around my dorm is all residential, but after a couple left turns all of sudden the quiet streets all open up into a busy intersection. Back to the bright lights and big city.