Odaiba and Forth of July

I don't have any pictures of our Independence Day party yesterday because I forgot my camera but we had so much fun! Not surprisingly, Japanese students are just as excited about fireworks as we are in America. I think the craziness of the night may have topped anything my friends and I ever did in high school when those type of fireworks that usually sit on the ground send sparks out were tied to the end of empty boxes so that two people could hold them up to make an arch. This happened a couple of times but the climax was when a few of the Japanese guys choreographed a "fire dance" that involved yelling "crazy awesome" and "Independence Day" words they learned earlier in the day could be used to describe the 4th of July by Americans.

Earlier this week we went to Odaiba, a man made Island near downtown Tokyo. In the late 1800's it was used for defense but now it's used for industry and play time. We tried to see as much as possible taking pictures with Tokyo's tribute to the Statue of Liberty, the 59 foot life size replica of the Anime character Gundum, and at the top of the impressive Fuji Television building. We also when to Miraikan, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Technology. As always, the students took us to eat some delicious food...ramen for lunch and Mexican for dinner! Mexican food is not popular here but there is an El Torito near the Shinjuku train stop and when unlimited chips/salsa and tortillas are involved you can't go wrong. Speaking of food, yesterday in tribute of July 4th we had a traditional American meal at McDonalds and I had the Ebi (Shrimp) Filet-O. It was amazing, if they had that in American I might be more inclined to eat at McDonalds once in awhile.