Week 9 - March 5-11

Hello!

On Monday I went to the Ghibli museum.  I had to reserve tickets in advance as the place gets super packed. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so I just took a few pictures outside. It was very nice! There was a life sized Cat-bus from Totoro for example.

On the roof there was a 'robot' from Laputa.

A big totoro.

On Tuesday I went to eat yakiniku, or cooked meat at an all you can eat place. It was so good and cheap! We could eat as much as we wanted for 1.5 hours for the same price. The restaurant was near Yoyogi station. Very tasty.

Meat!

On Wednesday we had a special day in school where we went to different places with a Japanese volunteer (we each had one volunteer). I wanted to go somewhere with nature and culture so we ended up at an Edo-period park. I was surprised how big it was! It was so strange being in the middle of trees and seeing Tokyo dome so close. There were many empty places where different buildings had stood at some point. All the signs would say that it was burned either in the Tokyo fire or during the second world war. It wasn't the best time to go, since it's been so cold lately! Later in the spring or in the fall this place would have been gorgeous.

 Statue

There were small ponds. This is a turtle!

Old building.

Shrine.

Fox guardian of the shrine.

Plum blossoms as it wasn't time for sakura yet.

On Friday we had an optional class in Furushiki or the art of folding clothes. It was quite interesting.

Our furushiki teacher with a few examples.

Different methods of folding.

On Sunday I went to Disney Sea with my friend Kat. It was the anniversary of the big earthquake that happened last year so we thought there wouldn't be that many people. Oh boy, how wrong we were! All the lines were so long! We didn't go on that many machines because of that. The first one we went to was a carousel, next we did a flight simulator (which was fun!). We also rode the Japan version of "It's a small world", but it was Sindbad instead! We also did a treasure hunt and watched an Ariel show. It was so much fun! There was even a volcano!! Which would randomly make rumbling noises and burst out flames.

 Disney Sea!

Lighthouse

Indiana Jones Temple of Doom!

Me with Jasmine

Agrabah

Under the sea~

Castle landscape

Week 7-8 - Feb 20 - March 4

Okay, condensed the next two weeks into two. Week 7 the biggest thing we did was eat Okonomiyaki and then went to the Ueno Zoo. Week 8 we ate at the Lock up, experienced Hinamatsuri and then finally had another outing with our class.

Week 7:
Okonomiyaki is a Japanese food originally from the Kansai or Hiroshima area of Japan. It is basically a pancake-like food with batter, cabbage and other things like seafood. I liked the shrimp one best.

How to make Okonomiyaki:

1. Smear a hotplate with oil

2. Mix batter and place on plate

3. Smooth until thin

A turned one and a raw one.

4. Turn!

5. Add sauce and eat!!

On Friday after class I went to the Ueno Zoo with Tim and Monique. They wanted to see Panda's and the ticket was quite cheap so I tagged along.

Our spirit animals! I got a bunny of course.

Panda!

Polar bear.

Californian sea lions! 

Sleeping in the sun.

Baby gorilla!

Tiger.

Lion!

My favorite was the red panda.

Picture (C) to Tim as my camera had died by this point.

Week 8:

We went to this restaurant called "Lock-up". It was a prison themed Izakaya. It was a bit of a disappointment! We thought we would actually be scared going in, but we were there for a couple of hours and nothing happened. When we were ready to leave the lights started to flicker and some "scary" music started to play. Some people were running around, but it was quite a disappointment. I think we went there too early. It would have been more fun later in the night.

Lock up Menu.

It snowed again! I never thought it would snow in February in Tokyo!

On Thursday we went to experience "hinamatsuri". We didn't really know what to expect, but it was in an old feudal emperor's apartments which were located in a hotel. The hotel was built around it most likely. There were lots of different types of dolls, but we weren't allowed to take pictures of them. The rooms themselves were also splendid! So pretty. The hotel was very fancy as well.

A display at the hotel.

The fanciest /bathroom/ I've ever been in!

They had very nice pictures on the ceilings.

On Friday we went to visit another campus of Nihon University. This one was the Liberal Arts Campus. We got to watch some traditional Japanese dancing.

Volunteer dancers in their nice kimono's.

Showing some moves!

Kaisa-san got to try on a kimono! 

Looking very local!

Week 6 - Feb 13-19

Hello!

On to week 6! This week we had Valentine's day! In Japan on Valentine's day girls give chocolate to boys and to their friends. We went to eat Korean food again in Shin-Okubo to celebrate anti-valentine's day with friends! It was fun! This time we ate some meat that was cooked in a pan in front of us. The meat was then wrapped in lettuce with other vegetables. It was very good!

Some salad we got to start off the meal. It was spicy so I gave it to the other's.

Some meat and kimchi! 

 We also got some fried rice!

This week we had a school field trip to Kamakura, and old city about 2 hours drive away from Tokyo. The town was very peaceful and full of shrines and temples. First we went to a temple to experience "Zazen". This means that we sat in the cold without our coats on for 2 hours (with small breaks in between) legs crossed and tried to achieve the "zen" state. I wasn't too keen on it, but I guess it was a good experience. After Zazen we ate some traditional temple food, aka rice and various vegetables, pickles and tofu. After eating we toured Kamakura in smaller groups. My group went to a big shrine where we did Omikuji or had our fortunes told. I got "Good Fortune" so I was happy! After our walk with our groups we went to the Daibuddha.

 

Kamakura. The temple we went to first.

All the buildings were old looking at the temple area.

A tree that was planted when the temple was built.

The place we did Zazen.

A bell.

Our temple food. Rice and veggies!

My fortune! Kichi!

We had to tie our fortunes to these strings. The pink one in the middle is mine!

There were random doves in a park nearby.

We went to a secluded shrine in the forest. It was so peaceful!

Daibuddha! It was huge!

On the way back we saw the ocean. Nice sunset.

And this is how you know we're in Tokyo. Tokyo tower all lite up.

After our trip to Kamakura we left the next day for Yokohama! It is the second largest city in Japan and right next to Tokyo! It took us about an hour to get there from home. We stayed there overnight. First we went to China town. We got there so early that all the stores were closed! So we ended up going to Starbucks for a little bit. That night we went to Karaoke at a really fancy place. The next day we went to an amusement park and rode the ferris wheel called "the Cosmo Clock 21"  which is a local landmark.

China town gate.

People doing tai-chi in early hours of the morning.

Cosmo Clock 21 in the night.

Yokohama

Yokohama from the ferris wheel. 

Lots of games...

...filled with cute things!