Week 5 - Feb 6-12

Hello,

Week five, we made a class trip to the Edo-Tokyo Hakubutsukan, or Edo museum. Edo was what Tokyo was called before it was renamed the Eastern Capital in 1868.

There were lots of miniatures of old Edo and other old things.

Miniature of Edo.

Old screens.

A Japanese "carriage" on the left and some fish on the right.

A pretty hand painted screen.

Miniature.

A painting of Samurai's.

Full sized Edo period room.

Full sized Edo period room of childbirth apparently.

My favorite! Wood cuts.

Old printed books, apparently the literacy rate was around 98%, I was surprised. 

With all the Kanji people have to know...

 Pretty painting.

Another miniature.

B Class.

We also went bowling and to Tokyo dome this week! It was fun, even though I haven't bowled in years. Near Tokyo Dome there is a mall called LaQua where we went exploring after bowling.

Bowling with Japanese volunteers.

Tokyo Dome. It's a baseball stadium.

LaQua near Tokyo Dome.

Cute things in Village Vanguard.

Studio Ghibli things at Village Vanguard.

Moomin Cafe!

Rilakkuma Store

Week 4 Jan 30-Feb 5

February is almost over, but being so busy I haven't had a chance to update!

Here is week 4 aka January 30th to February 5th.

On the 31st we went to eat Korean food. We ate hotpot, we got the non-spicy kind since I'm not too fond of spicy food.

Hotpot

Closer look

Sides, mostly cold vegetables

We also ordered this

Hotpot when it was nice and simmered

Spicy!! Didn't try it.

This week was Setsubun or the "Bean-throwing Festival" on the February 3rd. Setsubun is the day between winter and spring and people go to temples and shrines to throw beans at people dressed up in demon masks to drive away evil spirits yelling "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi" which means: Demons out! Luck in!

My classmate オレリアン as the demon.

On Sunday we made a day trip to Roppongi, because there was a "good" Scandinavian restaurant. I didn't really care for it much, not much of a selection and super expensive for very little food. The restaurant was so popular that we had to wait for 40 minutes for seats. So we went for a walk to a nearby museum.

Museum, I can't remember the name of it

Scandinavian restaurant "Daisy"

My lunch.

We also walked around for a bit in Roppongi hills. Roppongi is the most "western" place in Tokyo and it sure felt like it. There were more western people there than I've seen the whole time I've been here.

We did manage to see Tokyo tower!

Week 3 Jan 23-29

My third week in Tokyo was very busy! Lots of school and fun after school.

On Monday it actually snowed! I never thought I would see snow in Tokyo, but I guess we brought the cold weather with us.

 Snow in Tokyo!!

On Tuesday we made some omurice (by we I mean, Tim made it and we ate it :).

Yummy!

I haven't really talked about school much. Classes are divided to morning and afternoon classes. Morning class are all basically the same for B class, studying Genki II. Afternoon classes are divided into mandatory JSLP classes and optional classes. JLSP classes are basically Japanese culture study, while optional classes are Reading, Writing, Grammar and Listening. I chose everything except reading. We have 5 JLSP student and 2 JLS students in our class.

JLSP students!

On Friday we visited the "Life Safety Learning Center" where we got to experience a 7.0 earthquake and a typhoon. After many small earthquakes (and yes they happen nearly daily) a 7.0 earthquake was quite scary!

Earthquake! Abunai!

Typhoon.

On Saturday Candy, Tim and I headed toward Tokyo Dome. Somehow we managed to end up in Harajuku instead! We tried to find the Square Enix store and ended up walking to Harajuku instead.

Street

We stopped by a Sega gaming store.

Strange game in Sega store.

There were tons of people in Harajuku!

I just had to take a picture!

On Sunday we made some food again with Tim, Candy and Kaisa! Mabo tofu this time. It was really good! A bit spicy... But I survived!

Getting things ready.

Tofu added to the meat.

Add a little green onions.

Potato starch.

Mixed spices.

And dinner is done!

It was very good and easy to make!