shy is "in" in japan

after teaching today, another 30 students through the door, i had to do my own practice. i am used to practicing before i teach, but it has not been possible. it's so hard to have the strength after teaching a 3 hour mysore class, many students practicing intermediate. i intended to navigate shibuya for more shopping, but i could barely walk & all i could think about was noodles. so i wandered into the nearest place, not hard to do, and they handed me an english menu-how did they know? anyhow, i ordered the lunch set, cause that's always the best deal-a rice, egg & scallion thing with a side of noodle soup and pickles for 800yen-around 6.50. couldn't even finish it. tokyo is NOT expensive. i'm telling you! stuff yourself silly without emptying the wallet.

i had no energy whatsoever. when i teach mysore, i adjust constantly, and maybe that's a bad thing for my body, but i just can't help myself. i want to help everyone. so i had to catch the #64 bus to my temporary home to nap, which did not happen because of internet conversations, but i did rest up enough to get to my microsoft "private" at 730 in the evening-god that's so late to do yoga. i was nervous, as usual, the big building kind of intimidated me-it does not take much. but it was fine. afterwards, i joined zen & his lovely wife (who i am going to do a language exchange with), yuka & eriko for dinner in shinjuko, a multi-asian cuisine place. we started with thai, chinese & indonesian, and followed with 2 rounds of very impressive indian dishes. yummy, and not japanese at all. it was fun to stay up so late, as tomorrow is moon day and i have the day off-i can get up whenever i please! i may follow yuka to her class a half hour outside of tokyo just to explore. who knows. i may just wander into the same ramen restaurant we went to last week. i have decided not to plan too much here & have been taking it all just day by day.

i just set up another yoga workshop in a town called nikko 2 hours on the bullet train outside of tokyo with a teacher who trained in australia. she will host me & bring friends in from tokyo to entertain. it should be really fun & interesting. january 4-6. it's kind of interesting that i am suddenly able to hang out with all of these strangers, many who do not speak english, and not feel uncomfortable. that is not like me, who is usually painfully shy. my shyness is accepted here in japan. it's like they understand it.

shy is "in" in japan.