Harajuku Girls

My host family took me to Tokyo today. We went to Harajuku - for those who don't know this area was made famous (well to some anyway) in Gwen Stefani's song Harajuku girls. My host sister is 15 and is quite stylish (I gave her a Lucky magazine, but she dresses way cooler than anything in the mag!). She dressed in the Harajuku fashion with knee socks and a dress that looks sort of like a fancy maid - all black and white. As we were walking through Harajuku - tons of people stopped to take her picture. And she simply wanted a picture with me! She took me to a photo booth place that makes pictures really tiny on little stickers less than an inch big. I have some, so I will show you how cool I look next to her - ha!
It was a lot of fun - tons of people hard to move around - and very touristy. First time I saw people who spoke other languages... lots of Germans and Brits there.
We also went to a giant mall called *Sunshine City* where I bought some Hello Kitty stuff. However - I bought a pen that's not really a pen - not sure what the heck it's supposed to do - oh well. It's cute anyway!
We also did a bit of shopping at a department store called Seido. Very fancy - maybe like a Harrods. My host father bought me a japanese translation book - I think that was a hint ... actually it was very kind. We've both been struggling with the language although they do speak english better than I speak japanese!!!!
Ah, that reminds me. Last night I went to Cram School. That's what they call it here - it's a supplementary education course where they teach english. My family took me so I could speak to some of the students there. It was actually fun, but of course because of the language problem, I didn't know that was why I was there until the english teacher asked me to stand up in front of the class!!! Each student was told to ask me a question - and some were reprimanded for not speaking to me. The teacher said "This is a wonderful opportunity for you to speak english..." They were very shy - but those who spoke to me were wonderful with the language. English is a required subject here in Japan - I believe students have to take it for six years in school - but many don't get the opportunity to use it in real life very often.
Which reminds me - as strange as it sounds, this trip is going to make me a better spanish speaker! Every time I try to think of the word in japanese, the spanish words comes to me first!