Happy holidays from Japan! I hope everyone had a good holiday ^-^
1st pic: Its Colonel Santa!
2nd pic: The diamond light display in Ebisu Garden Place.
3rd +4th pic: We stood in this massive croud for 2 hours to see the Tokyo Millenario. Its 100-200 lit gates that cover a block and a half of the street by Tokyo station. It was so cold, and there were so many people, but it was worth it!
5th pic: everyone came to my host families house for a Christmas potluck party! I was so full >_< ;;
Hope everyone has a Happy New Year! I'm going to spend it with my host family in Niigata.
later
-Jun
December 30, 2005
December 19, 2005
November 09, 2005
Interesting food
There is always plenty of amusing and downright funny food in Tokyo.
1st pic: Look ma, Bollywood has invaded Tokyo, and they even have their own Masala flavored chips.
2nd pic: Yum, "Asse" chocolates!
2 weekends ago, I went to the Waseda-Keio final baseball game at Meiji-jingu stadium! It was so crazy, loud and fun! Waseda won, ofcourse. ^_~*
1st pic: In the student section of the stadium.
2nd Pic: I've never been to a baseball game before, the field is so big!
3rd Pic: The huge Waseda sign. It says "Let's eat Keio!"
Last week, a group of us went to Harajuku and Shibuya for the day.
1st pic: Had to grab a Marion crepe on my way to Shibuya!
2nd pic: The view at night fromt Shibuya Station, looking at the biggest crosswalk in Japan, maybe the world...about 100,000,000 people cross it every day.
3rd pic: The "America" store! ^_~
October 12, 2005
Last night, my host family took me to the Tokyo Opera City in Hatsudai for a concert! I snuck this picture of the main concert hall. It's so beautiful, and spacious. It was so big, that it didn"t feel like Tokyo at all, cause in Shinjuku, there is never so much space alloted for a building that isn't used to the last inch.
Yesterday, I went to the Tokyo University for Fine Arts and Music for my Arts Practicum class, and toured the different departments. It was so amazing, the work was so gorgeous, its hard to believe people my own age made them. I was really surprised that they have so many arts departments, from metal sculpture to weaving to traditional Japanese lacquerware. I forgot my cellphone, so i didn't get any pictures. I'm going there again next week, so I'll take some then. ^_^
I really want to go to a onsen soon...I think it's cause the weather is turning colder.
later
Jun
The 1st pic is of all the lanterns that were set up right in front of the Takada no Baba station for the festival last monday.
The 2nd pic is the "Big Parfait" at Shakeys last Sunday night. Its 1800ccs of ice cream, brownie, coffee jelly, cornflakes, peanuts, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream, topped off with a sparkle! It took 9 of us just to finish it off!
The 3 rd pic is my host mom at Don Quixote, this giant store, kinda like a mix between Fred Meyer and Costco, but noisier and fun. We saw this super sized bag of Umaibo(a tasty cheeto-like snack) and I had to take a picture!
I'm so lucky! My host mom is a sado(tea ceremony) instructor. I take lessons from her every Monday and Thursday. The 1st picture is the tatami tea room in my building, you can kinda see the heater that heats the water for tea. The 2nd picture is my host mother's collection of tea pots and bowls. the 3rd picture is a almost complete tea set...it's missing a ladle for the hot water...
October 04, 2005
On Saturday, It was a holiday in Tokyo, so entrance to the Ueno zoo was free!
1st Pic: The view of the lake in the middle of the zoo.
2nd pic: A photo of the okapi billboard, since i couldn't get a good shot of the real one...i guess it's a mix of a giraffe and a zebra? or a horse and a zebra? anyone know??
3rd pic:After the zoo we went to Asakasa, a traditional district with a famouse temple, Sensoji.
The road that takes you to the temple is a traditional market. This man is handmaking manju, a kind of cake with red bean paste in the middle.
4th pic: The huge lanterns that mark each gateway to the temple.
5th pic: Me, under the giant golden poo of Asakasa...>_<
Last Thursday, all of the OUS students went to Nikko, about 3 hours away from Tokyo. It was so cold there, and completly foggy.
1st pic: Lunch! Yakiniku, and milk...Niko is famous for cows, and dairy products.
2nd pic: At the Tokugawa shrine, you can pay 100yen and get a mikuji (fortune) If your fortune isn't that good, you tie to one of the strings, and let the wind blow your bad luck away! I got a pretty good luck mikuji, so it's staying with me ^_^
3rd pic: Don't these monkeys look familiar? Yup its the "Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil, See no Evil" monkeys!
4th pic: One of the entrances to the main temple...the buildings are all decorated, and cover in carvings or paintings. unfortunaly you can't take pictures in the interior of the buildings, which are just as gorgeous!
5th pic: we drove up this crazy road with 47 gut twisting curves, to catch this view of the mountain...
September 28, 2005
Last Friday, a group of us went to Hatagaya for the Higan Matsuri. It a festival where the people of the town carry the gods in the mikoshi 8The house like thing everyone is carrying) around the town, and to the shrine and back, for about 7 hours! They stop every 30 minutes or so for a tea and ber break, but then it's back to carrying the mikoshi again. Everyone is suitably genki, and probably a little drunk, but we all pitched in to carry our district's mikoshi around. There is also a selection of food stalls and carnaval like games near the shrine, my favorite being the food stalls where you play a game of chance to see if you can score more food for the same price. At night, as you can see in the first picture, the lanterns are all lit up on the mikoshi, and everyone helps to carry it to it's final resting place before going to a huge hall to binge on beer and fried food. It was a lot of fun, but I was so tired by the time I finally got back home!
From top to bottom:
1st Pic: My first ever nomikai! It has got to be the Japanese college students favorite activity, outside of karaoke. The deal is you pay a flat fee (around 2500yen) and then you can eat and drink all you want for 2 hours. I've never seen so many people get so drunk, so fast! I can't drink, so I think I downed a pitcher of oolong tea and ate my weights worth of nabe, the hot pot like stuff you see in the pic.
2nd +3rd pic: Gorgeous Shinjuku at nighttime, I can't wait to see what it looks like around X-mas/NewYear's.
4th pic: The Waseda University Glee Club, a awesome all-mens choir that sang at the SILS opening ceremony.
September 21, 2005
I am alive and well! I'm all unpacked and moved into my host family's house in Shimo Ochiai, which is about 15 minutes away from Waseda University. I have 3 host brothers! I actually live a a house by myself that is next door to my host family's and head over there most of the time for meals and such. It's weird for me to be in a place just by myself. It's way too quiet and half the time the floor will creak and I'll get scared.
I experienced my first Japanese earthquake on Tuesday night! It was only a level 2 and lasted only a couple seconds, but it was scary! The house was making all sorts of weird popping noises and our poor cat was hiding under the dinner table.
I'm getting used to riding the train everyday, I take the Seibu Shinjuku line to Takada no Baba and walk to school from there. In the mornings, and around 5-6pm, you feel like a sardine in a can, there are so many people. I shouldn't complain though, my commute is only 3 minutes. Most of the other exchange students have a hour to an hour and half commute every day.
The Japanese mosquitoes have already found me, and given me 2 lovely welcoming gifts. >_<
I'm pretty much on vacation right now, except some short orientations in the mornings, I can do pretty much whatever i want ...but classes start on the 30th of this month!
-later
Jun
September 18, 2005
Yum! Melon Soda!
I took this picture with my new cellphone! I ended up getting this phone instead, because they didn't have the phone I wanted in stock. They are both pretty similar, so I'm not complaining. I got it in"Primary Red", and the thing holds more pictures than my digicam!
Here is the break down for how much the phone is going to cost me,
Cost of the phone itself: 1yen
Cost of charger for phone: 945yen
Cost of Opening my phone number: 2890yen
Cost of Monthly service - 50% student discount: 3454yen
In bold are the one time fees for this month, and then the last figure is how much i will pay per month after this month. So for this month, I'll be paying roughly 7290yen, or around US$70.
Time for me to stop playing with my phone, and go to sleep!
-later
Jun
I'm alive!
I'm alive and well in Nishi-Waseda at the moment!
I arrived on Friday, and have been in endless orientations since then. Right now, I'm staying at the Hotel Sunroute, which is right by the Takada no baba station. The university is about a 25 minute walk from the hotel, not too bad since it's all pretty flat.
The past couple days have been kinda hot and muggy, but i'm doing fine. Today was a trip to Shinjuku, one of the busiest parts of Tokyo, even on a Sunday afternoon. Riding the Yamanote line was an experience, I'm really glad there were some Waseda students there to show us the ropes. Hopefully it will be easier tomorrow when I can buy my teiki (commuter pass), then I don't have to buy a ticket every time.
I'm getting a sweet cellphone tomorrow too! Hopefully this one in blue.
I find out who my host family is tonight, and get to meet them tomorrow! I'm excited and kinda nervous at the same time...
Sorry, no pictures this time, since I'm on a public computer, and my laptop is still packed up. ^_^;;
wish me luck!
-later
Jun
September 14, 2005
Tminus 19 hours
The state of my room and packing as of now. Yes, I am aware that I am a lazy butt and need to finish packing...and that it looks like a laundry machine EXPLODED in my room.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
