The last two days were fairly uneventful. I said goodby to my very drunk German friend at night, and to my suprise found the uw girl awake at 7am eating breakfast. I meat Kate's parents and we went to Nara together. It was an interesting trip because I didn't have anything planned and I didn't know Nara at all. We did see the biggest Buddha in Japan and wandered around the nara national museum for a while. We meat up with Michael and had lunch. An uninteresting Oyakudonburi. On the way to the station I finally found some Mellon fanta for Simon. Sadly I also lost the walking stick that I climbed Mt.Fuji with. The stick would have been hard to carry back so I guess its alright.
At night I slept in Michaels home stay family's house. Its in a small town called Komada. About an hour by train outside of Kyoto. The house, or actually houses, there were 2 if them, were very nice. Apparently a lot of the tables inside could be national treasures of in a museum somewhere.
The family was great. The dad worked selling medical computer equipment to hospitals. He didn't talk much, but apparently was very funny when he did. I couldn't really understand him. The mom was great. She spoke English, but didn't like to. As a result I could practice my Japanese, but when I didn't know how to say something I could switch back into English for help. There was also a 26 year old sister, who looked like she was 20. Apparently she worked in an office somewhere. I learned from another Japanese girl that I meat with Mathias named Iya that those girls are called OL or office lady.
It was really cool to be forced to speak Japanese. I had a lot of trouble understanding, but I learned a lot very quickly and remembered a lot of my old sentence structures. It had been a very long day of trekking about so I got really tired and went to bed early.
The final day of my trip was super low key. We woke up late had breakfast and were planning on going to a flee market at a Temple. However Michael decided he wanted to go to a get to know you party for Doshida students. I gladly followed him. The kids I met singing Karaoke were really cool, so I figured the rest would be as well. I wasn't disipointed in that regard. However it wasn't exatly the way I wanted to spend my last day. We just played language games all day. At night I went shopping for some final gifts to bring back to the states. It took a bit longer than expected. \
I finally got back to my house at 7:30ish after michael had finished all him homework due on Monday. We had dinner and talked for a bit. It turned out the dad had gone to Seoul on business trips a few times. We chatted about that for a bit, then I decided it would be a good idea to pack.
On my way to packing I got a bit sidetracked my Keyan and Lars asking for a 6 hour itinerary to see all of Seoul. I quickly wrote one up for them and went back to packing. Then went to bed.
The only notable thing to happen today is the fact that my backpack went from being regular sized to oversized and that I was .5kg off having to pay an extra 100$ for my bags. Dogged a bullet there :)
Anyway I'll be back in the states soon so unless I think of more things to write about this will be my last entry. I'll probably post some reflections in the next few days, but other than that this is it. Good By.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Oh the people you'll meet...
The day of crazyness.
Today started out last night. I got into my hostel after a day of traveling and meet one of my roommates. A crazy German guy named Wolfgang, just like Mozart. He was in the country studying supply chain engineering and economics or something like that. He asked me for help planning out a nice list of things to see the next day. I told him some temples and went to sleep.
Just a note, don't eat at Big Boy in Japan. Their impression of Hamburgers sucks.
The next day I woke up early to go meet Tomo. I threw on a UW shirt and went to catch the bus. At the bus stop I ran into another UW student (my 3rd random run in on this trip). It turned out that Wolfgang and the girl from UW were getting on the same bus. I was kind of having a conversation with both of them, then the bus came. The last I saw of those two Wolfgang was just leaning over to introduce him self to the girl.
I went and meat Tomo at the train station after 40min of transit. We precoded to go a crazy amount of temples. Starting at sanjyusan something or other moving which had a thousand unique statues of Kannon.
Then we went to Kiomizudera. There were like 15 different places you could wish in that temple. The first was a stone that you had to walk to in the dark. It was pitch black and then there was just this stone in front of you. You wish on it and then move on. It was really cool. I'm rarely in a completely dark area. Next Tomo asked me if I had a girlfriend. I thought it was a bit of a strange question, but went along with it. Apparently there are these two stones where if you walk between them with your eyes closed you'll be granted happiness in future relationships. I managed to make it all the way across. Who knows that that means. The coolest part of the temple by far was the main shrine. We got really really lucky. Apparently the shrine is only open once every 25 years. There was an image of Kannon inside and a rope that was linked to it so you could shake hands with Kannon. From there it was the standard Kiomizudera temple sightseeing.
Tomo proceeded to take me on a crazy tour of West Kyoto where we saw 4 temples in a half hour. I totally forget the names of all of them. We also had a Japanese desert at a famous desert place called hageshi I think. It was very good. There were 3 different types of Mochi balls that you could eat. Finally we made it to Ginkakuji. The silver pavilion. It was just as nice as I remembered and this time I got lots of pictures.
Finally we went to the Gion district where the Geisha or the Geiko in Kansai-ben are known to be. I didn't see any, but Tomo took me to a very nice Herring Soba reastraunt. It was the first really good Japanese food I'd had in a while sadly. Curses crazy eating schedule.
As we were heading back to Kyoto Station on the subway I ran into Michael and his friends. It was a great considioince. I quickly said goodby to Tomo, thanked him for an amazing day gave him is Omeyage and meat the first College aged kids that I've really liked in a month. About 14 of us went to go sing karaoke. It was great fun. After that we went to eat some Japanese Korean food. It wasn't really Korean, but it was good anyway. One of the girls in the program has a sister that goes to the UW as well. Hopefully I'll be able to meet her. Shes just a freshman this year.
On my way home the buses stopped running. I got off a Kinkakuji and had to walk from there. I ended up walking the wrong way. Thank god I could speak a bit of Japanese. I asked a guy in a 7-11 for directions. It worked out well. I got home at 12:17 about 15 min after all the doors in my hostel were locked. Thankfully my German friend Wolfgang was right inside. Right inside the front door with 2 empty bottles of Sake, a half empty bottle of Whiskey and a very drunk girl from the UW lying on the couch. It was the best snapshot of a relationship that I've ever seen.
With that I went to bed.
Today started out last night. I got into my hostel after a day of traveling and meet one of my roommates. A crazy German guy named Wolfgang, just like Mozart. He was in the country studying supply chain engineering and economics or something like that. He asked me for help planning out a nice list of things to see the next day. I told him some temples and went to sleep.
Just a note, don't eat at Big Boy in Japan. Their impression of Hamburgers sucks.
The next day I woke up early to go meet Tomo. I threw on a UW shirt and went to catch the bus. At the bus stop I ran into another UW student (my 3rd random run in on this trip). It turned out that Wolfgang and the girl from UW were getting on the same bus. I was kind of having a conversation with both of them, then the bus came. The last I saw of those two Wolfgang was just leaning over to introduce him self to the girl.
I went and meat Tomo at the train station after 40min of transit. We precoded to go a crazy amount of temples. Starting at sanjyusan something or other moving which had a thousand unique statues of Kannon.
Then we went to Kiomizudera. There were like 15 different places you could wish in that temple. The first was a stone that you had to walk to in the dark. It was pitch black and then there was just this stone in front of you. You wish on it and then move on. It was really cool. I'm rarely in a completely dark area. Next Tomo asked me if I had a girlfriend. I thought it was a bit of a strange question, but went along with it. Apparently there are these two stones where if you walk between them with your eyes closed you'll be granted happiness in future relationships. I managed to make it all the way across. Who knows that that means. The coolest part of the temple by far was the main shrine. We got really really lucky. Apparently the shrine is only open once every 25 years. There was an image of Kannon inside and a rope that was linked to it so you could shake hands with Kannon. From there it was the standard Kiomizudera temple sightseeing.
Tomo proceeded to take me on a crazy tour of West Kyoto where we saw 4 temples in a half hour. I totally forget the names of all of them. We also had a Japanese desert at a famous desert place called hageshi I think. It was very good. There were 3 different types of Mochi balls that you could eat. Finally we made it to Ginkakuji. The silver pavilion. It was just as nice as I remembered and this time I got lots of pictures.
Finally we went to the Gion district where the Geisha or the Geiko in Kansai-ben are known to be. I didn't see any, but Tomo took me to a very nice Herring Soba reastraunt. It was the first really good Japanese food I'd had in a while sadly. Curses crazy eating schedule.
As we were heading back to Kyoto Station on the subway I ran into Michael and his friends. It was a great considioince. I quickly said goodby to Tomo, thanked him for an amazing day gave him is Omeyage and meat the first College aged kids that I've really liked in a month. About 14 of us went to go sing karaoke. It was great fun. After that we went to eat some Japanese Korean food. It wasn't really Korean, but it was good anyway. One of the girls in the program has a sister that goes to the UW as well. Hopefully I'll be able to meet her. Shes just a freshman this year.
On my way home the buses stopped running. I got off a Kinkakuji and had to walk from there. I ended up walking the wrong way. Thank god I could speak a bit of Japanese. I asked a guy in a 7-11 for directions. It worked out well. I got home at 12:17 about 15 min after all the doors in my hostel were locked. Thankfully my German friend Wolfgang was right inside. Right inside the front door with 2 empty bottles of Sake, a half empty bottle of Whiskey and a very drunk girl from the UW lying on the couch. It was the best snapshot of a relationship that I've ever seen.
With that I went to bed.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Shoot THEN move
For some reason that quote comes to mind when talking about today. It was basically a day of travel, but I learned a very important lesson about traveling that I thought I knew, but just needed to try out anyway. Never travel in the middle of the day.
The Kawaguchiko youth hostel although very nice had really shitty beds. As a result I woke up around 9:00ish even though I was still sore and tired. I fell in with Kyle (yesterdays not Jessy guy) and Jessy and we decided to take the train to Kyoto. We left at 12 and got in at 6. Now theres not a lot I can do in Kyoto. I should have stayed in Kawaguchiko for a bit longer, even if it was raining. Oh speaking of that no Fujikyu Highlands due to the rain either. Damn rain...
Well thats about it, I did some reflecting today and forgot all the life lessons I'd figured out. Oh well, I've got more time on the trains in the future. It looks like my crazy day of going from Kyoto to Narita to Seattle will work out as well. I just have to get up at like 7:00 in the morning. Not even that big of a deal.
Well tomorrow I'm going to meet Tomo and possibly see Michael it looks like it will be a good day.
The Kawaguchiko youth hostel although very nice had really shitty beds. As a result I woke up around 9:00ish even though I was still sore and tired. I fell in with Kyle (yesterdays not Jessy guy) and Jessy and we decided to take the train to Kyoto. We left at 12 and got in at 6. Now theres not a lot I can do in Kyoto. I should have stayed in Kawaguchiko for a bit longer, even if it was raining. Oh speaking of that no Fujikyu Highlands due to the rain either. Damn rain...
Well thats about it, I did some reflecting today and forgot all the life lessons I'd figured out. Oh well, I've got more time on the trains in the future. It looks like my crazy day of going from Kyoto to Narita to Seattle will work out as well. I just have to get up at like 7:00 in the morning. Not even that big of a deal.
Well tomorrow I'm going to meet Tomo and possibly see Michael it looks like it will be a good day.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
A wise man climbs Mt.Fuji once, a fool climbs twice
Wow, I'd have to rank today as the third or fourth hardest day in my life. The only things above it were swimming 80x100 on the 1:20 when I was 17, swimming 20x100 sprint on the 1:30 when I was in 8th grade and climbing up high divide in the middle of summer. If it was in better shape climbing would have been a snap. However I haven't been in climbing shape for the last 4 years. I climbed anyway...
The day started out well enough. I hooked up with two brother from Illinois named Jessy and Shawn. They were really cool guys. Jessy works for video game company as an animator and Shawn has his masters in Economics and works in a pet store :). They were great climbing partners. We all kept up with each other really well. Shawn way almost always head because he had done track in College, but I was close behind most of the time.
We got to the Mountain at 10:30am. On the way up I talked to a crazy Russian American guy who has been in Japan for 2 years just hanging out on his parents money. He originally wanted to learn Japanese, but got kicked out of school by the Yakuza headmaster because he was Russian. It sounded like he had just wandered East Asia ever sense. The night before he tried to climb all the way up Mt.Fuji but got lost near the base and ended up spending 10 hours in the woods at night. He got 2 hours of sleep and went at it again. As I said crazy.
We got started right a way and had easy going for a while. At some point in time it got really hard. Thats when I found out the people I was hiking with thought this way a day hike. One of them didn't have a coat, neither of them had ponchos or enough water. Thankfully I had extra water, but they had to buy the ponchos for a steep price on the Mountain.
We continued hiking. For 4 hours, I think the final count was ~1000m in 6km. Just slightly hard. We had to scamble over rocks for more than half the time. It didn't help that the trail was basically closed down due to the Mountain being out of season. At the 7.5th station we realized we had a choice. Either climb the Mountain all the way or make the last bus back. We choose to go to the top. What followed was pure elevation gain for the next 3 hours (we had already hiked for one).
We finally made it to the top. The view was pretty amazing. Although it was mostly clouds. I got some pictures, not enough because I could barely think. You can get altitude sickness at 3776m and I think I did a bit. At least I felt a little hazy. Shawn and I hiked to the real summit, but Jessy was feeling sick enough that he threw up and stayed behind. The view worth it only to say that we've been to the top of Fuji. Up at the top we ran into this 60 year old man who said he hiked Mt.Fuji every week. Apparently he was trying to get used to altitude sickness so he could climb the Himalayas. He was a beast. We got to the top around 3ish, and the hike around the crater took about an hour. When we got back to Jessy he was shivering. Not good. We gave him the rest of the water, made him put on a rain poncho and we started walking. He warmed up pretty quickly, but I had a bit of a scare.
The walk down was quick, but scary. Basically you slide all the way down on loose gravel. Thats right slide 6km down. We also had to race against the daylight. We had a flashlight, but neither Jessy or Shawn had real cold weather gear and I realized I forgot my jacket at the hostel. I could have sworn I packed it. I gave us until 6 before the sun went out. I was about right. It was at 6:30. Thankfully at that point we were far enough down the mountian that it was actually getting warm again. We only had to walk about .75km in the dark, over a mostly flat surface.
Finally we got to the parking lot knowing full well the bus had left about 3 hours ago. (It was about 7 at the time). I checked my phone, and to my surprise I couldn't get reception. Everywhere else on the mountain I could, even the summit. Thankfully these two guys from Tokyo also had come down at the same time. The 5 of us split a cab down the mountain. I think they were more than happy to split the fare 5 ways. Each of us only ended up paying 20$. Not that bad for an 45min long cab ride.
Anyhow I'm dead tired now. I think its time to chill in an Onsen and sleep early.
The day started out well enough. I hooked up with two brother from Illinois named Jessy and Shawn. They were really cool guys. Jessy works for video game company as an animator and Shawn has his masters in Economics and works in a pet store :). They were great climbing partners. We all kept up with each other really well. Shawn way almost always head because he had done track in College, but I was close behind most of the time.
We got to the Mountain at 10:30am. On the way up I talked to a crazy Russian American guy who has been in Japan for 2 years just hanging out on his parents money. He originally wanted to learn Japanese, but got kicked out of school by the Yakuza headmaster because he was Russian. It sounded like he had just wandered East Asia ever sense. The night before he tried to climb all the way up Mt.Fuji but got lost near the base and ended up spending 10 hours in the woods at night. He got 2 hours of sleep and went at it again. As I said crazy.
We got started right a way and had easy going for a while. At some point in time it got really hard. Thats when I found out the people I was hiking with thought this way a day hike. One of them didn't have a coat, neither of them had ponchos or enough water. Thankfully I had extra water, but they had to buy the ponchos for a steep price on the Mountain.
We continued hiking. For 4 hours, I think the final count was ~1000m in 6km. Just slightly hard. We had to scamble over rocks for more than half the time. It didn't help that the trail was basically closed down due to the Mountain being out of season. At the 7.5th station we realized we had a choice. Either climb the Mountain all the way or make the last bus back. We choose to go to the top. What followed was pure elevation gain for the next 3 hours (we had already hiked for one).
We finally made it to the top. The view was pretty amazing. Although it was mostly clouds. I got some pictures, not enough because I could barely think. You can get altitude sickness at 3776m and I think I did a bit. At least I felt a little hazy. Shawn and I hiked to the real summit, but Jessy was feeling sick enough that he threw up and stayed behind. The view worth it only to say that we've been to the top of Fuji. Up at the top we ran into this 60 year old man who said he hiked Mt.Fuji every week. Apparently he was trying to get used to altitude sickness so he could climb the Himalayas. He was a beast. We got to the top around 3ish, and the hike around the crater took about an hour. When we got back to Jessy he was shivering. Not good. We gave him the rest of the water, made him put on a rain poncho and we started walking. He warmed up pretty quickly, but I had a bit of a scare.
The walk down was quick, but scary. Basically you slide all the way down on loose gravel. Thats right slide 6km down. We also had to race against the daylight. We had a flashlight, but neither Jessy or Shawn had real cold weather gear and I realized I forgot my jacket at the hostel. I could have sworn I packed it. I gave us until 6 before the sun went out. I was about right. It was at 6:30. Thankfully at that point we were far enough down the mountian that it was actually getting warm again. We only had to walk about .75km in the dark, over a mostly flat surface.
Finally we got to the parking lot knowing full well the bus had left about 3 hours ago. (It was about 7 at the time). I checked my phone, and to my surprise I couldn't get reception. Everywhere else on the mountain I could, even the summit. Thankfully these two guys from Tokyo also had come down at the same time. The 5 of us split a cab down the mountain. I think they were more than happy to split the fare 5 ways. Each of us only ended up paying 20$. Not that bad for an 45min long cab ride.
Anyhow I'm dead tired now. I think its time to chill in an Onsen and sleep early.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Mt. Fuji
Is barely visible 20km from its base. Other than that the Fuji-Kyu is amazing. I'm staying in a town called Kawaguchiko which is the base camp for a lot of hikers. Fuji-san is about a 7-8 hour climb from the 5th station about half way up the mountain. I think I'm going to do it tomorrow. I'm actually kind of disappointed, I wish I had one more day here. Theres a lot of really cool things around the base of the mountain that I want to see, but don't have the time for. After hiking I might try to hit up some of the closer spots, or maybe see them before heading off to Fuji-Kyu Highlands on Thursday.
Anyhow enough about planning. Today was actually kind of boring. I started out in Tokyo checking out of my hostel at 9:00 sharp. I wanted to go see the imperial palace and do one more round of shopping in Harajyuku. There was a coat that I saw that I wanted, but it was 150$. I thought it was to much when I first saw it, but I realized if I was going to climb Mt.Fuji it would be nice to have a light outer shell.
As I was walking to the subway station I realized how much junk I was carrying with me. Then I realized what time it was, and decided it wasn't the best decission in my life to start my travels with a giant backpack and a secondary backpack smack dab in the middle of Tokyo rush how in the busiest station in the world. Thankfully the Odakyu line, the one from my place to Shinjyuku wasn't that full. I somehow managed to fit my backpack into a locker without knocking over to many Japanese people as well. After that I just missed one train on the Yamanote line (one of the most popular lines) because it was to full before I managed to get on a nice semi empty train.
From there I went to Tokyo station to go see the Imperial Palace. To be honest it wasn't all that impressive. Granted it was still kind of raining at the time, but there wasn't much to see. I think it was templed out after visiting Nikko yesterday and so some green space in the center of downtown Tokyo didn't to much for me. I got some pictues, but only went to 2 of the four famous sights there. The other two were a gate and a statue. Neither of which I was that interested in.
Next up I wandered around Harajyuku for a bit trying to find the coat store. Thankfully I couldn't find it. 150$ is way to much to pay for a coat, even a fairly nice one.
That basically concluded my day. I took a very long train ride from Shinjyuku to Kawaguchiko, and bummed around here from 6 to now. I experienced my first real Onsen,which was cool but not amazing. There were like 6 different pools, but it was all indoors and felt very manufactured. The Sauna was fun though. Overall I'm glad I did it even though it wasn't amazing. Dinner was amazing though. It was the first meal I've had here that was filling. Super nice. Anyhow I'm going to get to bed early. I've got a big day tomorrow. I hope my feet are up for it.
Anyhow enough about planning. Today was actually kind of boring. I started out in Tokyo checking out of my hostel at 9:00 sharp. I wanted to go see the imperial palace and do one more round of shopping in Harajyuku. There was a coat that I saw that I wanted, but it was 150$. I thought it was to much when I first saw it, but I realized if I was going to climb Mt.Fuji it would be nice to have a light outer shell.
As I was walking to the subway station I realized how much junk I was carrying with me. Then I realized what time it was, and decided it wasn't the best decission in my life to start my travels with a giant backpack and a secondary backpack smack dab in the middle of Tokyo rush how in the busiest station in the world. Thankfully the Odakyu line, the one from my place to Shinjyuku wasn't that full. I somehow managed to fit my backpack into a locker without knocking over to many Japanese people as well. After that I just missed one train on the Yamanote line (one of the most popular lines) because it was to full before I managed to get on a nice semi empty train.
From there I went to Tokyo station to go see the Imperial Palace. To be honest it wasn't all that impressive. Granted it was still kind of raining at the time, but there wasn't much to see. I think it was templed out after visiting Nikko yesterday and so some green space in the center of downtown Tokyo didn't to much for me. I got some pictues, but only went to 2 of the four famous sights there. The other two were a gate and a statue. Neither of which I was that interested in.
Next up I wandered around Harajyuku for a bit trying to find the coat store. Thankfully I couldn't find it. 150$ is way to much to pay for a coat, even a fairly nice one.
That basically concluded my day. I took a very long train ride from Shinjyuku to Kawaguchiko, and bummed around here from 6 to now. I experienced my first real Onsen,which was cool but not amazing. There were like 6 different pools, but it was all indoors and felt very manufactured. The Sauna was fun though. Overall I'm glad I did it even though it wasn't amazing. Dinner was amazing though. It was the first meal I've had here that was filling. Super nice. Anyhow I'm going to get to bed early. I've got a big day tomorrow. I hope my feet are up for it.
Monday, September 15, 2008
First Day alone
Well today was my first real day alone. It was interesting. I got up at 9:00 and went to Nikko, a temple complex I thought was 40min outside of Tokyo. It turned out it was about 2 hours away. So much for planning. I took a very nice JR train there, and paid dearly for it. Although the seats were nice enough to nap in so it was totally worth it. When I got there I spent 20min walking up hill to the temples because all the buses were full. Today was a national holiday so everyone and their mother was out and about. The temples were nice, but without any English guides I couldn't really understand what was going on. I got some nice pictures though. I'll post those up on facebook later tonight. Sadly there wasn't any photography allowed in any of the cool places so I only got the outsides of lots of the buildings. Over all though I'd say it was worth the trip. It was a nice break from the city. It was great to see some of Japans natural areas. Although I guess I'll be seeing a lot of that for the next few days.
The on the way back I stopped off at the Gaman-Ga-Fuchi Abyss that Olga recommended. I totally see why she did. It was the perfect counterpoint to all the temples in Nikko. This was just a small place with lots of little Buddhas in a row. It was a nice end to the day.
The way back at that point got a bit interesting. As I was taking the 40min walk back to the train station I ran into a friendly Japanese school boy. We tried to talk in Japanese for a bit, but it didn't work out. He wanted to talk about baseball and the Mariners, which I can't understand when its talked about in English and when he was taking about some pitcher that I didn't know the name of with a very thick Japanese accent I just got lost. Nice guy though. Thankfully I ran into a bus headed for the station about 15min into my walk. I got to the station at 6 or 7ish. I forget exactly when now. I looked at the schedule and saw the next train wasn't for an hour. Dejected I went to go buy a ticket only to find out another train was leaving for the station I wanted to go to in 10min. I couldn't believe my good luck. I happily got on the train. One hour later I remembered something Ms. Alexander had told me when we were going to a school in between Kyoto and Osaka. “If want you can take a local train from Kyoto to Tokyo, it will just take you 16 hours”. Thats when I realized I had gotten on a limited express. One level faster than a local train. An hour and a half after that I arrived back in Tokyo. I've got to learn to plan better. Anyway that was about the day. Tomorrow is going to be spent in transit mostly. Although I'm going to try and visit the Imperial Palace, and maybe do one last shopping run to Harajyuku if I have the time. Possibly no blog updates for the next 2 days. I don't know the amenities in my next hostel.
The on the way back I stopped off at the Gaman-Ga-Fuchi Abyss that Olga recommended. I totally see why she did. It was the perfect counterpoint to all the temples in Nikko. This was just a small place with lots of little Buddhas in a row. It was a nice end to the day.
The way back at that point got a bit interesting. As I was taking the 40min walk back to the train station I ran into a friendly Japanese school boy. We tried to talk in Japanese for a bit, but it didn't work out. He wanted to talk about baseball and the Mariners, which I can't understand when its talked about in English and when he was taking about some pitcher that I didn't know the name of with a very thick Japanese accent I just got lost. Nice guy though. Thankfully I ran into a bus headed for the station about 15min into my walk. I got to the station at 6 or 7ish. I forget exactly when now. I looked at the schedule and saw the next train wasn't for an hour. Dejected I went to go buy a ticket only to find out another train was leaving for the station I wanted to go to in 10min. I couldn't believe my good luck. I happily got on the train. One hour later I remembered something Ms. Alexander had told me when we were going to a school in between Kyoto and Osaka. “If want you can take a local train from Kyoto to Tokyo, it will just take you 16 hours”. Thats when I realized I had gotten on a limited express. One level faster than a local train. An hour and a half after that I arrived back in Tokyo. I've got to learn to plan better. Anyway that was about the day. Tomorrow is going to be spent in transit mostly. Although I'm going to try and visit the Imperial Palace, and maybe do one last shopping run to Harajyuku if I have the time. Possibly no blog updates for the next 2 days. I don't know the amenities in my next hostel.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Gaijin Smash
Well I'm done with the program finally. Over all it was a lot of fun and I'd do it again. I need to really reflect and write about everything that I've learned here. Its a lot and not just about architecture.
The last day was really relaxed. Our presentations were at 2:00 so I went over to Harajyuku and Omotesando and did some shopping for things I didn't need. Then I ate at the same reastraunt that I ate at the first time I visited Harajyuku street back in 2005. It was a nice morning.
Presentations took 3 hours and just dragged on. Everyone did very well. I bombed mine by getting flustered at a messed up slide. Should have checked and prepped harder. Lesson learned I guess.
The night we had our final group dinner, Shabushabu. Also fun, we got some good pictures. After dinner it was time for Ageha the largest club in Asia. In short it sucked. Lots of techno, which I don't really know how to dance to and on top of that the people the people weren't very friendly and I couldn't really talk to them. On top of that the cover cost 40$, and half the people I went with I didn't really like. The fun part was getting Wey into the club when she forgot her ID. We ended up waiting in the losers line for like 15min while the Japanese bouncers freaked out about being polite. In the end we all got in with out even a bribe. Wey did have to be my girlfriend for a night. It was kind of funny.
We got back from the club at 5am and had to wake up at 8:40am.
Today was death. At least the morning. A few of us went to this cool preschool that has won a million and one architecture awards. We met the architect , he was a cool if not a bit eccentric guy that always wore at least some form of blue. It was the first building I liked in Tokyo though. It has a nice function to it, as well as a pleasing form. I really need to post pictures to describe it.
We got back at 4:00 and I checked in. Then I went out to Harajyuku again. Its Sunday here so Harajyuku was hopping. That was litterly a rave in the middle of the street at 6:00pm. Afterwords I took a long train over to the Imperial Palace which I didn't get to see because it was closed. Next I went over to Shinjyuku and got some dinner. I went to Omote yokochyo otherwise know as Yakitori Alley and had some Yakitori and a drink. I met this cool British guy who was teaching English over here near Mt.Fuji. We talked for a bit then went out separate ways. I went over to Golden Gai for a few minutes afterwords. Its this big alley with literally 60 small bars in it. Its supposed to be crazy at night but because its a Sunday it wasn't very interesting. After that I went back to the hostel and am now done with the day.
Oh I need to remind my self to talk about Gaijin Smashing tomorrow. I totally forgot about the title of my post.
The last day was really relaxed. Our presentations were at 2:00 so I went over to Harajyuku and Omotesando and did some shopping for things I didn't need. Then I ate at the same reastraunt that I ate at the first time I visited Harajyuku street back in 2005. It was a nice morning.
Presentations took 3 hours and just dragged on. Everyone did very well. I bombed mine by getting flustered at a messed up slide. Should have checked and prepped harder. Lesson learned I guess.
The night we had our final group dinner, Shabushabu. Also fun, we got some good pictures. After dinner it was time for Ageha the largest club in Asia. In short it sucked. Lots of techno, which I don't really know how to dance to and on top of that the people the people weren't very friendly and I couldn't really talk to them. On top of that the cover cost 40$, and half the people I went with I didn't really like. The fun part was getting Wey into the club when she forgot her ID. We ended up waiting in the losers line for like 15min while the Japanese bouncers freaked out about being polite. In the end we all got in with out even a bribe. Wey did have to be my girlfriend for a night. It was kind of funny.
We got back from the club at 5am and had to wake up at 8:40am.
Today was death. At least the morning. A few of us went to this cool preschool that has won a million and one architecture awards. We met the architect , he was a cool if not a bit eccentric guy that always wore at least some form of blue. It was the first building I liked in Tokyo though. It has a nice function to it, as well as a pleasing form. I really need to post pictures to describe it.
We got back at 4:00 and I checked in. Then I went out to Harajyuku again. Its Sunday here so Harajyuku was hopping. That was litterly a rave in the middle of the street at 6:00pm. Afterwords I took a long train over to the Imperial Palace which I didn't get to see because it was closed. Next I went over to Shinjyuku and got some dinner. I went to Omote yokochyo otherwise know as Yakitori Alley and had some Yakitori and a drink. I met this cool British guy who was teaching English over here near Mt.Fuji. We talked for a bit then went out separate ways. I went over to Golden Gai for a few minutes afterwords. Its this big alley with literally 60 small bars in it. Its supposed to be crazy at night but because its a Sunday it wasn't very interesting. After that I went back to the hostel and am now done with the day.
Oh I need to remind my self to talk about Gaijin Smashing tomorrow. I totally forgot about the title of my post.
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