Day 3: End of Tokyo Orientation and the best pork cutlet I’ve ever had

The second and final day of Tokyo Orientation was held on Tuesday, 7/26. Breakfast was the same as yesterday, with a few changes – among them was an “omelet” consisting of steamed, not scrambled eggs, in which pieces broccoli and carrots were embedded, and cut into bite-sized squares (think size and shape of tofu). After breakfast we were split into 6 groups, 2 for each school level (Elememtary, JHS, SHS), in which we sat through four seminars designed to teach us how to approach speaking, grammar, writing, and vocabulary for our respective grade levels. The biggest take-away for me was to remember to tailor my activities to the ability of the students with the primary goal of getting them to communicate in English. Whether or not the English is 100% correct is not too important. Each seminar gave examples of specific activities we could implement in the classroom to accomplish this goal, and a discussion on how and why these activities can be successful and how they might be applied to different lessons. 

Lunch was unremarkable (rice with curry and Japanese-style vegetable soup), except for the fact that the tables were set with forks and … knives? When does a meal of curry and soup ever require a knife?

Dinner, however, was a different story. Tuesday’s dinner was not provided by the Orientation, so we were on our own. I met up with Antony, my iaido sempai who lives and works in Tokyo, who took me to a place called Suzuya for tonkatsu (pork cutlet). Suzuya is within walking distance of Keio Plaza, although I couldn’t tell you how to get there due to my poor sense of direction, unfamiliarity with the area, and getting a bit distracted by the light rain.

I ordered the house special tonkatsu, which comes with white rice, and a small dish of pickled vegetables that serves as a palette cleanser. To eat this special tonkatsu, you first have about half of the pork and cabbage accompanying rice as usual. When you get to this point, you put the remaining pork and cabbage into your bowl of rice and are given a pot of hot tea to pour over the contents. Lesson of the day: tonkatsu isn’t proper tonkatsu unless it comes with a giant mound of cabbage.