January 13-15 (Fri-Sun)

The first few days went by fast. On Friday we had our first day of 'school' as we had interviews and a placement test. All the other Finnish students were placed in the beginners class as they've never studied Japanese, but I get to see what class I'm in on Tuesday.

On Saturday I went to vote in the presidential election with Kaisa and Kimmo. This was the first time I went somewhere other than school on this trip. The Finnish embassy was in Minami-Azubu, a place we certainly would have never visited if not for the election.

Finnish Embassy in Tokyo

After we voted at the embassy we decided to walk to Shibuya (the nearest large station, aka skipping one train stop). Right near the embassy was a park so we decided to walk toward that. We ended up at the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library. We walked in and had to leave our things in a locker. We got passes to wear around our necks at the front desk (we assumed they had something to do with the computers).

Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library

After the library we walked to  Arisugawanomiya Memorial Park. It was strange to see so much space after all the buildings in Tokyo.

Arisugawanomiya Memorial Park.

 We ended up walking for 1.5 hours and using different embassies, such as the Czech and Croatia embassies, to navigate through the area. We also spotted our first shrine.

Random Shrine in Hiro-o

Soon after we ended up at a university (not our own) which had a really nice campus. There were a lot of high school students, checking the place out. They might have been there for entrance exams? Isn't it about that time of the year? After the university we landed at another shrine.

Shrine steps, Torii gate and Kaisa

On Sunday we ventured out to Ueno Park with all the Finnish students. We didn't really know what to expect, but there were a lot of middle school and high school kids around.

Ueno Park

Ema at Ueno Park Shinto shrine

Ema are small wooden plaques bearing prayers or wishes at Shinto shrines.

Shinto shrine alter

Torii gate

They were burning something in the middle of the shrine

Inside of shrine

There wasn't really much to see in Ueno park since we didn't go to any museums or the Zoo. Instead we walked around and looked at shrines. After leaving the park we went to Akihabara, but we went in the wrong direction and didn't really see the electric district much.

School starts on Tuesday with an opening ceremony and tomorrow we go around Ichigaya (where our classes at Nihon Daigaku are) and Shimo-Takaido (another campus near our apartment complex).

So until then, おやすみなさい.