I haven't posted in a while (seeing as I'm back in America), but I wrote this up for a friend visiting Tokyo, and I thought it might be useful for others.

First of all, the Ninja Restaurant - the food is expensive and in small portions, but it was one of my most favorite places. We probably paid between 5,000 and 12,000 yen per person. The decor is really fun, the service was great (even a magic show), and they called me princess...
It's in Akasaka in the same building as the Akasaka Prince hotel, on the bottom floor, door's outside.


If you want somewhere to relax or be outside, I recommend Inokashira Koen (which is also where the Ghibli Museum is). It's super pretty, with duck boats, snack places, lots of adorable Japanese kids, etc etc. I definitely think you should go to the Ghibli Museum. You have to buy tickets in advance for a particular day and time, and you can buy them from Lawson conbini at their little ticket machine.


Odaiba was one of my favorite, favorite places - it's a manmade island that looks like future-town, but still has beautiful greenery. There's a huge ferris wheel, a huge arcade, a mall, and various other fun things. You can take the seabus (a boat, Japan, the word is boat) from Hinode


ALSO the Seabus leaves from Asakusa port, so if you wanted to make a day of it you could go to Asakusa. It's super touristy, but in a good, fun way. There's the long line of stores in front of the temple which sell traditional Japanese stuff, including toys and candy and delicious foods. The temple's pretty big, and there are pretty buildings all over. It's a great place to buy souvenirs for you or people back home, too.


If you want to do more normal shopping stuff, Harajuku is the place. I went there almost once a week, just to hang out and wander around. Also, if you go on the weekend there are bitchin cosplayers and gothic lolis. Also there is the Meiji Shrine, and if you're not sick of seeing shrines already this one's pretty nice. I think there are often weddings there too, if you want to see a traditional wedding.


Um, for nighttime fun, Roppongi is fairly bitchin. It's pretty western, but that can be nice if you've been in Japan for a while (there's also a great Mexican restaurant there). There are a lot of clubs and bars, as well as a really nice movie theater, museum, and great view of tokyo tower.


Since you are nerds in Japan, you can go to Akihabara, haven for video game, anime, and other nerdy shops. There are also maid cafes if you want to swing that way.


If you want to do Onsen, we went to one in Azabu-juban that was fairly cheap and empty, so we could have a good time. It's open Wed-Mon, and the addy is 1-5-22 Azabu Juban.
There's also supposed to be a nice one in Takaido that's a little fancier... I never went, which is absurd, since it was 2 stops away from my homestay.



..... phew. Okay, those are all the funnest things I can remember from my time there. But mostly you just have to go out and have fun, because Tokyo is amazing!
Oh yeah, this website:
http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/

Is an amazing train route website. You just type in your origin station and where you want to go, and it tells you how to get there multiple ways, how much the fare will be, and how long it will take.

Since last I wrote, not too much exciting stuff has happened. Since classes were ending, there was way too much school work getting in the way of doing fun stuff.
The rainy season finally broke (for a couple of days, at least), so I went out with my friend Seamus for a lovely day by the riverside near his house. We had fun wandering around and sticking our feet in the river, and generally being outside and soaking up sunlight.

In between that and fireworks, I think I just did a lot of shopping and general hanging out, but I'm blanking on that, really.

On Saturday, there were the Sumidagawa Hanabi, the Sumida River Fireworks, out near Asakusa. Throughout Tokyo, about a million people were expected to show up and watch, so we figured we'd throw ourselves in as well. We all got dressed in traditional Japanese clothes, which were yukata for the ladies. (Yukata are like kimono, but made of cotton so they're easier to wear and less hot) Speaking of heat, it was ridiculously hot and humid, and there being a million people didn't help. Our group all eventually found each other, and we bought a plastic sheet to sit on and set up camp near some porta-potties and a fence. David said that to get a good seat, you probably had to've been there for weeks. So all in all we had a great time, sitting on our sheet and eating and drinking and generally carousing. The fireworks finally started at 7:10, and we could see about half of them through a hole above the porta-potties and below a bridge. Even if they were a bit disappointing, the night as a whole was amazing, and a good ending party for our great Japan adventure.

I've got pictures up, including ones of my daily walk to the train station in my hometown of Kugayama.
Here they are:
http://picasaweb.google.com/notwearingwords/Tokyo
And the fireworks ones:
http://picasaweb.google.com/notwearingwords/TheLastHurrah

I leave the house tomorrow at about 9:30, going with Miho to nearby Kitchijoji station. There I'm going to catch the Limousine Bus, which is much more bus than it is limousine. The bus will take me and my super duper luggage to Narita (a two hour trip), where I should be there in plenty of time. My flight leaves at 3:30, which means I get into Atlanta at 3:10 (going back in time!) and Charlotte at about 6:30.

Well, here we are with two weeks left to go. Seems crazy, but it's kind of hard to think about with all the school work piling up. This week is the last full week of classes, and finals start next Wednesday. I'm not too concerned about them, just have to make myself sit down and concentrate on work for a while.
So, last Saturday(I think) I went out with my lady friends to celebrate a late fourth of july. I went over to Camille and Kelly's dorm and we had a wonderful hamburger and snack dinner there, then headed to the river nearby. We bought a bunch of sparklers and little fireworks (totally legal!) and played with them by the riverbank, as well as a number of other Japanese people. It was lots of fun, and hopefully we can do it again before we leave.
On Sunday it was my friend Ryan's birthday, so we went and tabehoudai'd (all you can eat) at a... meat cooking place, then went on to a billiards bar, which was lots of fun.
On Wednesday I went out with a group to go see the Museum of the Future in Odaiba. It's got a lot of cool sciencey and robot stuff there, and we spent a good few hours wandering around and being amazed. That evening, we went the last two acts of a kabuki play based on Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night.' It was pretty amazingly awesome, and I hope I can see more kabuki before I go home.
On Thursday I set out with my host family to go to a resort near Nagano. It's an onsen (hot spring) resort, which was not too crowded and very classy. There was an outdoor spring there, which was amazing, since it was cold outside. I'm determined to go back sometime when it's snowy outside, cause I know that'll be awesome. We also ate great food, including real Hibachi grill food, which is actually called Teppan-Yaki. We also discussed the fact that 'hibachi' doesn't really mean anything in Japanese, except for a little heater maybe. At any rate, it was very good. We came back Friday.
On Saturday David, being amazing, managed to get a group of sixteen of us tickets to the new Harry Potter movie! We went and saw it, and it was very enjoyable, without giving you my real review. Afterwards we headed over to a HP exhibit in a nearby department store. They had a lot of really cool props from the movies, including all main characters' wands and brooms. There was also, of course, a room full of swag. I held back and just got a folder.
Sunday, despite the fact that there was a typhoon forecast, Seamus and I decided to go to Yokohama to try and catch some fireworks. Turned out the fireworks were canceled, but all we saw of the typhoon was annoying mist and strong wind. We tried to enjoy ourselves anyway, by riding the huge ferris wheel and going to China Town for dinner, but there was a very creepy air about the place. We figured it was coming from the creepy, Scooby-Doo-esque amusement park that the ferris wheel was contained in.
Pictures are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/notwearingwords/Tokyo

Since last I wrote, rainy season has started in Japan, which is both a curse and a blessing. It's a curse because, well, it rains almost every day and the humidity is pretty overbearing at times. It's a blessing because the temperature has finally gone down, and in my non-air-conditioned room, that's awesome.

    The Saturday before last, I went with some friends to an onsen, or hot springs bath.  We went to Azabu Juban, near Roppongi, which is famous because it pumps in actual mineral water from a spring somewhere. It was a lot of fun, more fun than bathing should be. Also, the bath was so, so hot- over 45 degrees when we got there, but after a little coaxing with cold water, it got down to a balmy 42 degrees.

    Last Thursday was the Harry Potter World Premiere in Roppongi. Some of us went after school to go check it out and see if we could spot any celebrities. The red carpet started from the street, then went inside a small arena and made a circle. We managed to find a spot from which we could see a corner of the carpet, and were pretty happy with that, but soon! A man came over with a handful of something, and all the Japanese girls were screaming and running off towards the arena. We picked them up- (I thought it was a bookmark...) and followed the girls, and turned out we just got tickets into the arena! Now, this isn't really as exciting as it sounds. There were a thousand plus people in there, and our section was right in the middle, where we could see neither the red carpet or the stage at the front. We waited around for a while and listened to the Japanese MC pump everyone up. First celebrity was a woman from the US show 'Cold Case,' strange enough. She was the only American there. Then there were some Japanese celebrities, one with a tiny hat, whose interview got cut off by the screaming that happened when Daniel Radcliffe got there. He and the producer were the only ones actually there from the movie, all the others were just random Japanese celebrities. Dan walked around the red carpet a couple of times, seeming quite nice and signing a lot of autographs. After a while of this, he and the producer appeared up on the stage. Note- the stage was visible to my taller friends, but not too me. So all pictures of it are a result of me holding the camera above my head and snapping blindly. They talked through an interpreter for a bit, and also tried out their Japanese, which was cute. Then we all yelled out a spell, a giant white light appeared behind us, a puff of smoke appeared on stage, and Dan and the producer were gone. They also shot streamers into the crowd. After that, our group went and got some dinner, then made fools of ourselves in front of the giant HP ads outside.

    On last Saturday, we happened to see that there was a Toy Fair in Odaiba coming up. So, of course, we went to check it out. It was in Odaiba, in the Tokyo Big Sight convention place. I got there late, after struggling to find an operational, international atm that was open on a weekend. The show was pretty interesting, basically consisting of a lot of companies with booths showing off their newest toys. Highlights were a giant Gundam, complete with smoke, lasers, and dramatic music, a mouse playing a piano for no discernible reason, and the fact that there will apparently be a Tamagotchi movie coming out this winter.

    Other than that I've mostly been shopping around, trying to finish up on gifts and my own stuff, like dishes. There are a lot of papers and tests coming up soon at school, so that's keeping me busy too. One of those papers is for History, in which we had to interview a Japanese person who was alive during World War II. I interviewed Miho's grandmother, who lives next door. I figured that some of you would be interested in that, so I'll send out the paper, or the condensed version, when I get it done.
 

PS: Pictures are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/notwearingwords/HarryPotterWorldPremiere
For the HP Premiere, and here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/notwearingwords/Tokyo
For the normal Japan stuff.

So I've finally psyched myself into writing the Disney writeup (it's much less magical after you've left Disney.)
So, last Wednesday was my birthday, and to celebrate a group of seven of us went to DisneySea. Disney Sea is a unique theme park (unlike normal Tokyo Disney), so we were all excited to be going there. We approached on the Mickey Monorail, all of us sporting childish grins. There's nothing quite like going to Disney Land (Sea) to bring out the kid in everybody. Since we were going on a Wednesday afternoon, the park was not crowded at all. The longest we had to wait in line was probably for Tower of Terror, and that was only about 15 or 20 minutes. Most rides we just walked through and got on.
Aside from being called Disney Sea, the park was only loosely sea-themed. It's split up into themed sections, which have real names that are not as descriptive as mine. You enter in Mediterranean Harbor, which is the boring part with no rides, only shops and restaurants. We then walked to Aladdin Land, which now that I think of it should be a desert and not in Disney Sea at all. In Aladdin Land we rode a double-decker carousel and saw a show involving the genie. All the Disney guys at the genie show were very concerned that we wouldn't enjoy it, since it was in Japanese, but Genie translates pretty well. Also in Aladdin Land was the Sinbad ride. It's pretty much like "Small World" in that you get in a boat and sail smoothly past singing animatronics, but it was much cooler than Small World. For one thing, the animatronics were very impressive and smooth, and for another the song was amazing, all in Japanese except for the chorus, which culminated in 'Compass of your Heart!' Needless to say, we were singing it the rest of the trip.
Next was Indiana Jones Land. First there was a roller coaster- it was very short, but had a loop in it! And I went on it! And it was a lot of fun. Next was the actual Indiana Jones ride, which was probably the favorite of everyone. It was another get-on-a-boat ride, but in a car, and you got slung around a bunch. Also there were animatronic Harrison Fords talking to us in Japanese along the way.
Next was Tomorrow Land, which was the most sea-intensive part of the park. They had a 'Weather Control Ride,' in which you sit in a big room and your seats move around. Apparently we stopped a typhoon from hitting Tokyo by exploding something in the middle of it. Also, according to Camille, "We died! We're heroes!" There was also a bumper-boats type ride there, but it involved no actual bumping, just swirling around a set path.
After that was our favorite place, America Town! It seems that seeing a big group of Americans in America Town is a big spectacle, so we got looked at a lot and even had our picture taken. We rode the Tower of Terror there, which I have to say is a lot more impressive-looking than the original. After that we returned to the Mediterranean Harbor to watch BraviSEAmo!, a water show. It was pretty exciting stuff, especially Mickey talking in Japanese. It was getting pretty late then, so we went on one more whirlwind tour of our favorite rides, then headed home.
As far as other birthday celebrations, we had a birthday party for me here at home on Sunday evening. I invited three friends, and some neighbors and relatives came over as well. It was a potluck party, so I made some chili and biscuits, which happily turned out well. We also had pizza, sushi, some home-made yummy rice-sushi stuff, french fries (thanks to David), Frog-eye salad (thanks to Camille), and Ice cream (thanks to Seamus). There were also cookies and cake. Of course we all ate way too much, but we had a great time. I also received some omiyage (gifts) from the neighbor/relatives, including two fans and a set of handkerchiefs.
Pictures for Disney are all here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/notwearingwords/TokyoDisneySea
and pictures for the party are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/notwearingwords/Tokyo

Since Odaiba, I've had a lot of midterms (with one yet to come), but I also managed to do some stuff. Last Saturday I went with some guys to a restaurant named 'Ninja' in Akasaka. Ninja is, of course, a ninja-themed restaurant. It was as awesome as you can imagine a ninja-themed restaurant would be. All of the waiters/staff were dressed as ninjas, and the restaurant itself was amazing. You had to go in through a winding corridor, ducking your head and yelling 'Nin nin!' to make drawbridges come down. We were giggling like schoolgirls. The food was amazing, which was good, because it was also very expensive. We had a great time.
The Sunday following Ninja I went to nearby Inokashira Park to try and study for my upcoming history exam. It was a beautiful, perfect day, and I ended up doing a lot more walking and admiring than studying, but it was still a productive day.
Four days of midterms later, or this Friday, we went to the Ghibli Museum. For those of you who don't know, Ghibli is the studio that produces movies like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and My Neighbor Totoro, to name a few. It's been called Japan's Disney, but I don't think it's as far-reaching or evil as Disney is. The museum itself is something, with a lot of fantasy-architecture. Unfortunately, there was no picture-taking inside, but you'll have to take my word that it was awesome. There were a lot of exhibits on how animated films are made, as well as a catbus playground for kids and a huge statue of the robot from Laputa on the roof. There was also a theater which played the film "Mei and the Kitten Bus" while we were there. It was suitably adorable.
Saturday was a much calmer day - I went shopping in Shimo-Kitazawa in thrift stores (I found a 70's patchwork dress that I'm still thinking about buying), then went to a concert for my friend David's choir that evening. The concert was very good, a collaboration between Sophia's choir and Tokyo University's choir. It also included a Japanese rendition of Handel's Messiah, which was pretty much the same as in English except we didn't stand up during 'The Hallelujah Chorus' and they sang 'earth' as 'easu.' But all in all it was a lovely concert.
Tomorrow I have my last exam - an open book, open notes Lit exam- then it's my birthday on Wednesday! We're planning on going to DisneySea, and I am ridiculously excited.
Pictures are here, as always:
http://picasaweb.google.com/notwearingwords/Tokyo

I have a cold... IN JAPAN.

I was in an earthquake this morning! It was very exciting. I woke up at about 7:30 out of a very nice dream because there was a loud motorcycle outside. After a couple of minutes I could hear a weird clicking noise that sounded like it was coming from the house, and then I felt my bed shake! It was a very gently rocking back and forth- nothing fell down or anything. The bookshelf made a little noise and that was it. It was pretty cool. I was grinning, but I did go to sleep after that.
When I asked Miho and Toshi about it later, they laughed at me because I was all excited. Miho said it was probably a 2, and Toshi hadn't even woken up. He said maybe a 6 would be exciting! He also assured me that I'm very safe in my room, just don't try and venture into the dining room, where there's a glass-paned cabinet full of china.
Anyway, that was my exciting earthquake story.

So, last Saturday I went with Seamus to Odaiba. Odaiba is a man-made island in Tokyo bay, and it's super. It's officially my new favorite place in Japan. I took the subway in, and the stop I got off at was the Tokyo Teleport Station. I'm pretty sure when you get to Odaiba, they should say "Welcome to the world of tomorrow!" dramatically, because that's the feeling you get there. The most noticeable part of Odaiba is probably the huge ferris wheel. It goes up, I think, 200 metersish and has cars in all the colors of the rainbow. The day we went happened to be a wildflower festival, where people could come and pick from a field of wildflowers to their heart's content. The weather was perfect, and it was all very utopian. After taking a ride on the ferris wheel, we went and wandered around the Toyota design studio, which had crazy chairs and a robot, among other things. We also went into Tokyo Leisure Land, which is a huge warehouse building full of arcade games, gambling, etc. It was pretty crazy in there. There were animatronic pandas and cows that you could ride around the building. Very creepy.
After a good deal of wandering around, we decided to take the seabus (a boat) back to the mainland. It was a lovely ride, and nice to see the ocean for the first time (even though we happen to be living on an island). Other than that not much exciting has happened.
Next week is everyone's midterm week, so this weekend is just going to be studying and maybe one dinner out together. But after that week it's my birthday week! And we might be going to DisneySea on my birthday. I'm super excited.

So let us talk about ofuro, shall we? Ofuro gets translated as a bathtub, but it really is much more magical than that. Ofuro can mean both the bathtub itself and the room that the bathtub is in, which includes a shower usually. The ofuro is deeper than a bathtub- it reaches up to my armpits. It's also longer, I think. I know I'm short, but I can sit with my legs fully stretched out with only my toes peeking out of the water.
Also, in order to save on hot water, the Japanese shower/ofuro operate digitally instead of manually. Before you want to get in the ofuro, you press a button on a control panel (we have one in the kitchen and one in the ofuro itself) and tell it to heat the water up. Ours is heated to 42 degrees Celsius usually (which is where I get my Celsius to fahrenheit knowledge) which is about 105 degrees fahrenheit. This is super hot, but just enough so that you're not uncomfortable. You also set the shower temperature at the control panel, not with knobs at the shower itself.
So, first you go into the bathroom and take a shower. There's no stall, just the whole room with the bathtub and a door to separate the rest of the bathroom. All the showers I've seen have been the detaching head sort, and there's usually a little seat too, so if you want you can sit down and take your shower.
Traditionally, you would just have a bucket and a spigot, and you would soap yourself up, then fill the bucket and douse yourself. In our ofuro there's another holder for the shower head down low, so you can sit and still not have to hold the shower head. After a quick shower, you then can get in the ofuro. Even when it's super hot outside, the ofuro somehow feels good. Keep in mind that this is everyone's ofuro, and in our house the water is kept there for about a week before it's drained and filled up again. So after a few days it might get kind of dirty, and then I rinse myself off again afterward.
The ofuro is just that perfect feeling when you're not quite ready to get out of the warm shower, but you're finished washing. The Japanese ofuro is kind of a technological beast that I still don't understand even remotely. I know the buttons for on and for hotter/cooler and that's it. There are all kinds of jets and filters and crazy stuff inside the tub itself, but you kind of get used to them.
Anyway, that is my diatribe on the ofuro, which I will sorely miss when I return to America.

Well, looks like rainy season is starting.

It's easy to get lonely here. I didn't really think about that when I was planning this trip. Mostly I was thinking about estrangement from boyfriend and friends and family. Of course they're a big part of the lonlieness, but there's other stuff too.
It's just hard to be in a place where you've known no one for more than two months. There are no familiar faces for me, at least in Tokyo. Most of the time it's fine, and I'm happy here, but sometimes the lonlieness can get too heavy. I know I can't come back here unless I come with a friend or a boyfriend or a husband. All the making your way and discovering new things and making mistakes would be a lot easier if there was someone waiting at home who really knew you and could give you a hug and share old memories. I've gotten used to my life here, and I like my life here, but everyday I think about going home. I want to go home, really.
The first night I got here I was exhausted, put in a home with strangers in a strange bed, with a language I could barely speak. I was convinced that I was never supposed to come here, and that I would never make it for four months. But of course things got better. It was inexpressably comforting to be put in a room with a hundred other students in the same situation as me. It's comforting to go to school five days a week and be spoken English to and to exchange stories with other students.
I am happy here mostly. I'm looking forward to being home in another couple of months, but I know I'll miss being here once I'm home.

So since last week was Measles week, we decided to pack up and travel to Kyoto. I went with four friends, all of whom happened to be guys, which meant that I got a room to myself in our hostel.
Instead of the Shinkansen, which is about $200 round-trip to Kyoto, we chose to take an overnight bus, which was about $80 round-trip. The bus left at 11 and got to Kyoto at about 7 in the morning. It was probably worth it for the $120 we saved, but I do hate sleeping on buses. Luckily I took a sleeping pill, so I did get 4 or 5 hours of sleep on the way over.
After getting in and settling at our hostel, we set back out to start tourist-ing. We went first to Ginkakuji, or the Silver Pavilion. There's no real silver, but it's a really beautiful place on a mountainside. There's a nice zen garden there too.
From Ginkakuji we walked down the philosopher's walk to Nanzen Temple. The philosopher's walk is famous because a philosopher once walked down it every day to go to work. Maybe. It's about a mile long, and is quite pleasant.
Nanzen was slightly less impressive, but we didn't have to pay to get in. At Nanzen the most interesting thing was a large brick aquaduct. It looked just like the Roman ones, but we couldn't figure out what it was doing there. After Nanzen we headed over to Gion to shop and then see a show. Gion is famous for its geisha, so there were a lot of tourists there hoping to see one. We did catch a glimpse of a lovely geisha running down the street. There were people gathered around tea houses like paparazzi just waiting for one to come out. At Gion we wandered, then attended a show at Gion Corner. It's a show put on for tourists, and has a variety of short traditional Japanese arts displayed. They had a tea ceremony, koto music, a flower arrangement, court music and dance, a comedic play, a maiko dancing, and a scene from bunraku (puppet) theatre. It was really quite nice, if overly touristy, to see all this stuff in bite-size chunks. We then returned to the hostel and retired at about 9 o'clock, since we'd slept on a bus the night before.
On day two we started with Kinkakuji, the famous Golden Pavilion. It really is beautiful, and no wonder everyone comes back from Japan with a picture of it. From there we headed over to Ryoanji temple, famous for it's Zen Garden. The garden was nice, but rather small and not worth the 500 yen. The area around the temple was nicely landscaped, though, so that made it worth it. After getting a little tired of temples, we decided to go to the International Manga Museum. It is as exciting as it sounds. It's inside an old school building and has all kinds of little interesting exhibits, as well as tons and tons of manga you can read. After the museum we stopped and got some okonomiyaki (a batter with all kinds of veggies and meats in it, cooked like a pancake). It was super delicious. That evening we hung out on the roof patio of the hostel and generally enjoyed ourselves.
Day three began with the Fushimi Inari shrine, well known for its long walkway covered in innumerable torii gates. We walked up the path a ways, and it was really incredible. But the whole path is a 4 hour walk, so we only did a little, then headed out. We went to Nijo Castle next, where the Kyoto shogun used to live. There was a tour inside, where the building had 'nightingale floors' which squeaked a bunch when you walk on them to warn of intruders. There were lots of nice screen paintings inside, and gardens outside. We were all pretty worn out after that, so we basically just wandered around aimlessly.
I got to meet my friend Amy from Texas for dinner Friday night, and that was really great. Afterwards, we boarded the overnight bus again and headed back to boring old Tokyo.
(Actually, it's pretty good to be back.)
Of course, there are many many pictures located here.

5/14/2007

So, first things first, in this update you're going to get an exact copy of the e-mail sent to all Sophia students on Friday afternoon:

Dear Exchange Students:
Sophia University has decided to cancel all classes (undergraduate and graduate) from Saturday May 12 to Saturday May 19 due to the spread of the measles. All club and circle activities(both on and off campus) will be suspended from today(May 11) through Sunday(May 20). For details, please refer to our university website. http://www.sophia.ac.jp
Overseas Liaison Center, Sophia University

So, um, yes. A whole week off because of an outbreak of measles, which apparently they don't get immunized for in Japan. It's fairly ominous news, but it also means we get a week off! So I'm going with a few friends to Kyoto tomorrow evening (we're taking an overnight bus instead of the very expensive Shinkansen).

Okay, so since I last wrote... the weekend after Golden Week I went with my host family to Tokyo Jidai Park. The admission was free that day due to some business related to Green Day (Green Day used to be a holiday during golden week, similar to Earth Day, but in the last couple of years it was changed to Showa day to celebrate the late emperor). It was a lovely park and a beautiful day... and it's always nice to see grass and trees again.
Then there was a week of school which was fairly uneventful, except that Tuesday was my friend Seamus's 21st birthday. I went with him and some others to go to dinner and karaoke, and we had a blast. On Saturday everyone else was out with a club, so I went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. The museum is inside the former home of Crown Prince Asaka (I think), who was prince during WW2. It was a really beautiful house built in an art deco-type style. The exhibit was 'Taisho Chic,' which included a lot of pictures depicting the emergence of modern women in Japan. Outside the museum is a large garden, featuring a Japanese-style area where there's a wooden bridge and HUGE koi fish. I stood around with some other people and watched them splash around and fight each other, after which one swam away to the other side of the pond to pout.
Yesterday I went out to Akihabara in search of a rice cooker for Thomas and I (his graduation/birthday present). It just happened to be some kind of festival day, which was a stroke of good luck. The main street was shut down and maybe 4 or 5 large groups in different colored and designed happi coats were marching all over, carrying big palaquins. It was a lot of fun to watch, though there didn't seem to be any kind of order to it- it was less a parade and more people just wandering around.

So tomorrow we leave for Kyoto on the overnight bus... we're staying in a hostel for the two nights we'll be there, so all four of us are in one room. It should be exciting.

5/3/2007

Hello everybody... this week is Japan's Golden Week, so we didn't/won't have school on Monday, today (Thursday), and Friday. It's called Golden Week because there are four holidays in the same week. The holiday's aren't anything particularly special, but most everyone in Japan gets the days off.
On last Sunday I went with friends Camille and Kelly to go see Tokyo Tower. If you don't know, Tokyo Tower is a transmission tower that was constructed based on the Eiffel Tower... basically it looks exactly the same except that it's a little bit taller and also in Tokyo. It was quite the affair, since the place was very crowded. The line to get in was about an hour long, but we finally got up to the observatory. The weather was perfect for once, so you could see off into the hazy horizon. The view is fantastic, and there are many pictures of it in my flickr. Tokyo is surprisingly short in most places (not Shinjuku), apparently because of earthquakes.
On Monday we went on a day trip to Nikko to celebrate our day off. Nikko is about two hour's train ride north of Tokyo. It has a big temple/shrine complex in which the Shogun Tokugawa is buried. The temples there are amazingly ornate and look more Chinese than Japanese. It's also the birthplace of the three 'Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil' monkeys. There was beautiful scenery around, and it was very nice to see trees and grass again after being in Tokyo for so long. Again, the weather miraculously cooperated and it was warm and sunny the whole day. We wandered around and through the temples, occasionally stopping inside to listen to a priest/ess talk about the history and significance of it. In the first temple we went in, there were three huge (3 meter) gilded statues of Kannon. The other temples didn't have anything so big, but they were still interesting to look around.
We headed back home and after some train trouble and very nice train employees, ended up at home.
Other than those trips, there hasn't been much going on. I'll probably spend the rest of the holiday shopping and homeworking, and maybe doing some karaoke too.

There's also a new album for pictures of Nikko here.

4/25/2007

There's been a lot of school going on lately, so I haven't done too much exciting stuff.
We did go to Roppongi on Friday night to bum around town. We got to see Tokyo Tower all lit up again from Roppongi Hills and theeeen... we went to karaoke! It was a lot of fun. The karaoke place had cute little rooms that were tatami matted... and while the tv wasn't playing songs it played a drama.
Then, as a small world kind of thing, a guy named Ram came up and asked us for directions... turns out he was from Israel and was taking time off in between his military service and college. He's from Nattaniya, where I've totally been! He was surprised. And then I said I'm from North Carolina and he said he had a pen friend in Waxhaw a while back... just hearing Waxhaw in the middle of Roppongi is kind of strange.
Anyway, otherwise I've just been shopping after school mostly. Today I went with a bunch of people to go play DDR in Akihabara. It was loads of fun, and apparently I can still play pretty well even though it's been like 2 years.
Oh yeah, and on Sunday night my host dad took me out for a car ride... Tokyo is so different by car than by station. Of course, Japan's roads are super scary and I still never want to drive here, but Tokyo is very nice at night. It was also fun to laugh at the people walking for once.

4/19/2007

Hello! Nothing of note has happened lately, but I got a few questions about food, trains, and such like. I thought I'd map out a typical day in the life of me in Japan.
I usually wake up around 9 (except wednesdays, when I have an early class) and eat some toast or cereal for breakfast. Then I walk to the station (only about 3-5 minutes away) and get on my first train, bound for Meidaimae. After about 7 minutes, I switch trains in Meidaimae (this was where I had my first guys-pushing-people-into-trains experience) and head for Shinjuku. There's another 5-10 minute ride, then I switch in Shinjuku to a JR train bound for Yotsuya, where Sophia is. That's another 5ish minute ride. All in all it takes about 35-65 minutes to get to school in the morning, depending on how lucky I am and what trains I catch.
Then I go to school for a while. I usually eat lunch with some other American friends in the school cafeteria- curry rice, soba/udon/ramen, or a convenience store junk food lunch. There's also another cafeteria with American food, but it's farther away. After class I either stick around and go shopping or studying or just head home. At home I'll call Tom (if he's still up, or even if he's not) and then work on homework or just fool around online.
At around 6:30 or 7 we'll eat dinner- my host sister, Miho is a very good cook, and she makes all kinds of Japanese food. Everything I've tried has been good, even tuna and eel. I usually have hot tea with breakfast and dinner, which is very good when it's cold like it is now.
I usually go to bed pretty early, at around 9:30 or 10.
Yep, that's it. Now I have to go to bed, cause it's about that time.

4/16/2007

I had a pretty lazy weekend. On Saturday I went to Asakusa in the afternoon, which was very nice. Asakusa is a district and also a shrine in that district. In front of the shrine is a long line of shops selling all kinds of things, mostly traditional food, clothes, toys, etc. Walking down the road I bought and ate dango, or little dumplings made of rice flour dipped in some kind of savory sauce and then put on a stick, and some other thing that I don't know the name of, but was delicious. People watching was fun, too- there were lots of foreigners, as well as old Japanese ladies and younger women in kimono, and cute Japanese families. I didn't go into the shrine itself, since I've been there before and it was super crowded, but it was a nice way to spend an afternoon.
On Sunday I mostly hung out at home, but I went out to have dinner with friends. We met in Roppongi (where there was also a lot of foreigners) and found a random Mexican restaurant, which was actually really good. Then we wandered around Roppongi for a while before finally heading home.
School's been going well, classes seem to be fairly easy, and I think Japanese is at the right level.

4/14/2007

I started school on Thursday and I've been to three of my four classes so far (yeah, I'm being lazy and only taking 14 hours... but Japanese is 5 days a week for 90 minutes a day, so it should totally count as more than 4 hours!). School is great so far, it's nice to be in a room with a lot of other people who are in the same boat as you.
My Japanese teacher is very nice and cool - the first day we couldn't do much because it was all review and straightening out registration, but yesterday was fun. We went over all the kanji we're 'supposed' to know (oops) and learned some new ones. She had a little story about all the kanji, which should help us remember.
I also had Japanese literature and modern Japanese History on Thursday. Japanese lit seemed cool, and I know a couple of people in that class. I know a bunch of people in Japanese History. The teacher's a German guy, which should be interesting when we get to World War II.
I have my last class on Wednesday morning, which is taught by Anne Allison, who wrote one of my textbooks from last year... weird. Speaking of which, I bought almost all of my textbooks yesterday. Ugh. That was a lot of money for not that many books.
I wandered around Harajuku and Akihabara recently, and that's fun. I'm probably going to try to go to Asakusa today, even though it'll be madly crowded. I think a bunch of us are going out tonight on the town, which I haven't done yet (since I've been going to bed at 9:30 or 10 every night).

4/10/2007

I start school on Thursday, so this is my last break before class.
On Sunday I went to Harajuku with Michelle, who is a Georgetown student who studied abroad at Sophia and has since graduated and got a job in Okinawa. We wandered around the shrine there and saw the big crowds... lots of foreigners in Harajuku on Sundays. On Monday there was an exchange student dinner, which was fun. I met up with some friends I'd made our first day and we went out after the meal to Akihabara to shop around.
I registered for classes today, and I'm taking Japanese 2, Japanese Literature, Japanese Civilization after 1880, and a Japanese pop culture class. Super-Japanesey, right? But they're all in English except the language class.
Oh, and I finally got a cell phone today! It's an AU prepaid phone, for anyone familiar with Japan's cell phone companies.
I have another day off tomorrow, then school! I'm pretty ready for it to start, since I've been out of school for a long time.
Hope everyone had a good Easter and ate plenty of Cadberry Creme eggs for me!