Welcome to my blog.
This blog is mainly for my family & friends to keep track of me while I’m in Japan, but I guess it can also serve as a source of info for those thinking of going on a university exchange. I’m going to be an exchange student in the Waseda SILS 09-10 program.
If you have any more questions, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll answer! If any fellow Waseda exchangers have a blog and want to swap links, let me know!
Shinjuku Gyoen
Since I didn’t go with the international club to Mount Takao to see the changing leaves, my friend and I went to the nearby Shinjuku Gyoen to see them instead for 200yen. It was soooooooooooo pretty!
When we first got to the park, we decided to sit on the grass and eat lunch first. We splurged…by buying more than normal from Family Mart hahaha.
You know what I like about Tokyo? Having a huge and beautiful park in the middle of a skyscraper area.
We were planning on going to Tokyo Tower, but we didn’t want to go until it got dark, so we walked around Shinjuku a bit. We wanted to see what Kabukicho looked like during the day…before we venture there at night. So sketchy. We’ll definitely head back there at night…with a bigger group…preferably with a male present. We did come across a few host clubs though…with some hosts that I approved of. Maybe when/if I have some spare cash…
After we made our way out of Kabukicho, we stopped by a Hello Kitty store that I’ve been meaning to go to. I wish Hello Kitty stuff wasn’t so expensive and so…pink. Not a fan of pink.
Tokyo Tower
So after Shinjuku, we met up with a couple more friends and made our way to Tokyo Tower…finally. We’ve tried to go three times before, but it just never happened.
On the way there we came across the Zoujouji temple, so we stopped to have a look. Once again, I love being in Tokyo where you can see both old and traditional mixed in with the modern.
After that we finally walked towards Tokyo Tower!
After some yummy crepes, we bought our (expensive) tickets and went to the top. Sooooooooooo pretty at night! I could just sit there and stare out for a while if I wanted to.
And to top off my visit, I had to buy a Marimokkori riding Tokyo Tower. It was a must!
Afterwards, I separated from my friends and met up with another friend who I haven’t seen in a good year or so. She’s leaving Tokyo soon, so we got together for dinner & dessert in Shibuya (Negishi & Parco)…and free Arashi fan club pamphlets! Yum and yum. And now I’m exhausted, my feet/knees are killing me, but it was an awesome day.
Asakusa & Ducky Duck
I don’t have class on Thursdays, and I promised myself that I would use Thursdays to explore around Tokyo. Sadly, I hadn’t actually done that…until yesterday! I’ve been wanting to check out Asakusa for a while, so I decided to finally get off my butt and go.
I started off with the typical tourist route and headed straight to Sensoji.
Nakamise shopping arcade
They sold a lot of random things here. There was a lot of “Japanese” stuff like cheap kimonos, yukatas, fans, swords, lanterns, chopsticks, etc. Plus keychains, bags, food, toys and JE stuff(!). I wanted to buy stuff for people back home, but I’ll hold out on that until next year.
I also made my way over to Kappabashi-dori, but I just walked by pretty quickly. It was really quiet, which was nice, but the fact that I was the only tourist on the street at the time seemed really intimidating with all the shop owners just staring at me. Yeah I’m weird like that. I want to go back and buy some plastic food though…it’s SO cool. Sadly, I also didn’t get to take photos because my camera decided to run out of battery.
After I made my way back to the Sensoji area, I wandered around the small streets surrounding Sensoji. So many cool shops and things like that. It was pretty fun just getting lost in the streets. My feet got tired after wandering for about 5 hours though, so I decided to head back home. I’ll definitely go back to check out what I missed another time.
Later that night my friend and I met up with a couple Japanese girls we met back at the Halloween party at the Canadian embassy. We met up at Shinjuku station and ate at a cute pasta & cake restaurant called Ducky Duck. It was really good because I got to speak a lot of Japanese. I also realized my speaking skills don’t suck as much as I thought they did. I’m pretty sure my Japanese was really broken, but it was still a nice confidence boost knowing I could communicate 80% of the time without much English. Maybe I just get nervous in class and around my cute study partner haha.
Nippori & Bowling!
Despite the fact that I’ve been here for 2 months already, I haven’t explored Tokyo nearly as much as I’d like to, so it was nice when a friend of mine offered to take us to an area we haven’t been to at Nippori station. It was dark and a little cold, so we didn’t spend much time there. There are apparently a lot of little shrines scattered around the area, so maybe I’ll check it out during the day when there’s more light, and when the map I’m following isn’t so fail.
Mmmm…meat…courtesy of our “tourguide” haha
The different types of barriers to prevent people from jumping on the tracks never cease to amaze/amuse me.
After we decided that we had grown tired and cold, we decided to retreat to bowling at Big Box. We also managed to bully my guy friend into doing purikura with us. SCORE. I came in 3rd both times. I guess I’ve gotten rusty, considering I haven’t been bowling in like 3 years. Nonetheless, it was fun to watch my one guy friend try to be all masculine in trying to beat us girls. He came in 2nd during the first game, but he got all serious and came in 1st during the second game. Silly boys and their egos.
Afterwards, we went to a nearby sushi place for dinner. Surprisingly, it’s only the second time I’ve had sushi since I’ve gotten here. It was really good though, but I agree with my friends – salmon tastes better in Canada.
Okay so I realize I don’t blog nearly as much as I should, but what can ya do? Now that I’m sitting at home on a Friday night trying to rest and stop an incoming cold, I can finally give a decent update…broken up in parts of course
早稲田祭 aka Waseda School Festival
School festivals here are a big thing. Makes me wish we had this much school spirit back in Toronto. I mean, U of T likes to cheer on their teams and stuff (sometimes…) but it just doesn’t compare to the amount of school spirit Waseda (or probably any other Japanese school) has.
Festivals = food. Lots and lots of (student made) food.
Kimchi okonomiyaki
Overflowing 400yen yakisoba. The guy kept asking if my friend and I could handle more. He obviously underestimated our eating power.
School festivals = raising money and advertising for school circles/clubs. Some clubs had slightly more “creative” advertising than others.
The one thing we were really looking forward to was the Mr. Waseda competition. Cute boys being paraded around for my pleasure? Yes please! Sadly, it turned out to be a very scary body building competition put on by the barbell circle. At least the boys looked normal when they were flexing near the overdramatic lighting.
In front of Okuma Tower
End of the festival Sunday night. Amazingly enough, I managed to accidentally run into a friend that I didn’t think I’d see in this crowd.
We checked out some of the dance performances, half naked dancers (that’s actually what they were called), a gothic lolita fashion show, the manga club (how gaijiin of us), a-capella groups, the shamisen circle, and the last part of the One Piece voice actors performing in front of Okuma Tower.
Considering we went clubbing all night at Ageha (for 1500 yen off the price thanks to a friend’s friend!) in between Saturday and Sunday, it was a pretty tiring but really fun weekend.
Alright, after this blog I’m officially caught up!
Tuesday was a National Holiday here (Culture Day I think…) so we got the day off. It was also my friend’s 20th birthday (making her legal drinking age in Japan!) so we headed to Disney Sea! It took us just over an hour to get there, and it was a little expensive, but it was totally worth it. We also caught the last day of their Halloween Festival, which was pretty cool.
On the Disney Resort train…Mickey everywhere!
Waiting in line for the Indiana Jones ride
I went with two other people, and the three of us all hate free falling rides, but for some reason we made a last minute decision to go on the Tower of Terror. It was fun, but holy crap, I haven’t screamed that much in a while. Everytime they dropped us and brought us back up I kept screaming “WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY????” and my friend kept saying, “AGAIN??”. The whole ride consisted of us screaming and laughing at the same time. There was nothing to hold on to either, so my friends were clinging to both my arms and we were huddled together as much as we could be. Fun times. Seriously fun times.
Now I just need to make my way to Disney Land.
So I was temporarily sidetracked by a lovely gathering in my dorm’s kitchen, and now it’s day 58. It’s nice having so few people on my floor…makes things intimate. Can also makes things too intimate…but you know…give and take. I luv my dorm.
Anyway…Halloween! Anyone who knows me knows that Halloween is like my favourite holiday. It’s not as widely celebrated in Japan the way it is in Canada, but at least with the concentration of foreigners in Tokyo, I can get my Halloween kicks.
The Friday before Halloween, my Japanese friend (who was on exchange at U of T last year) invited another Canadian friend and I to a Halloween party at the Canadian embassy. Halloween in Canada? Yes please! They had Ginger Ale! Real Canada Dry Ginger Ale! I didn’t drink any though…I opted for Asahi instead since it was free. Japanese beer at a Canadian party? Yes please. And like at every party with food, my friend and I raided the food table to make sure we got what we paid for. Now that I think about it…I ate mostly Japanese food (ie. sushi). Go figure haha.
Saturday, my plans were just all over the place. First, I was supposed to go clubbing with some people, but then that fell through. Then I was supposed to go to a friend’s place for dinner, but then that fell through. Then I was supposed to go to another friend’s place for dinner, but then plans changed and I ended up going to a bar & a club with another group of friends. As my friend J would say, “LMP!”
I can’t remember the name of the izakaya we went to, but it was pretty good, and a decent price considering how much we bought. Afterwards we made our way to a club called Magnetic. One of the girls I went with had a friend who was doing a set a midnight, and he put us on the guestlist. Cover was 4500yen with a free drink and a free shot of tequila, but we got in for 1500yen. Sweet deal, if you ask me. Much more expensive than clubs in Toronto…but 1500 is really cheap for Tokyo…especially on a night like Halloween. The club was TINY. Like…take my dorm room, double it, toss in a bar, and do that for 5 floors and there was the club. It was really cool though because the whole thing seemed more like a big house party rather than a club. And for some reason, they were selling curry on the top floor…but man it was sooo good. We stuck around until just after 4, then went to catch the first trains of the day.
On Sunday I was supposed to go to the big Waseda-Keio baseball game, which I bought a ticket for, but we had to meet up so early and I couldn’t get myself out of bed, so I had to pass on it. Thankfully it was only 500yen. There will be another one in the spring, so I’ll go to that…but not after a night of clubbing for 5 hours.
NEXT!
So my friend and I are totally into shrines & temples, so we decided to spend the day in Kamakura and Enoshima. We bought the Kamakura/Enoshima Pass for the JR train. It cost ￥1,970, it’s valid for 2 days, and it gives you transporation to and from Kamakura/Enoshima, plus unlimited use of the local trains in Kamakura and Enoshima. We only used it for one day, but we definitely used the trains enough to make the ticket totally worth it.
Like all tourists that go to Kamakura, we started off at the gigantic statue of Buddha, aka the 大仏(dai butsu). We also got to see the inside of the statue, which was pretty cool if you’re a nerd like me.
Then we stopped by the nearby 長谷寺(hasedera), which has the biggest wooden statue in Japan or something. I wasn’t allowed to take a photo of it though. I accidentally took a photo of another statue that I wasn’t supposed to, and our day pretty much became difficult from then on, so I deleted the photo to make the bad karma go away haha.
There was a small grotto with a bunch of statues of benzaiten. Very cool.
So cute!
After a small break, we went back to the train station to make our way to the 銭荒い弁天 (zeniarai benten). They say that if you wash your money in the water at the shrine and spend it, it will come back to you two-fold. We only washed our coins though, because you’re supposed to let the money dry naturally, and I didn’t really want a wet wallet. However, because of misleading Japanese maps, and our ability to go the COMPLETELY wrong way when there’s an obvious sign in front of us, finding this shrine took a lot of work. We seriously had to work for our money…which included climbing the steepest hill I’ve ever climbed in my life. I know Kamakura is a mountain town…but still. I was dying. And then it started to rain from this point on. I think the deity at 長谷寺 was mad at us for taking pictures of it.
Old school train that took us to our money-washing journey of DOOM
If only this photo showed you the steep hill we climbed to reach this point
About to wash our coins
We also bought お守り (protection charms) from here. A Shinto priestess strikes sparks over the charm to increase it’s power or something.
For luck with money! Sadly, I don’t think it’s working.
Hello Kitty! I don’t think it does anything in particular…and I sort of spilled iced tea on it earlier today…”
So afterwards, we decided to make our way to the train station to find the next shrine we wanted to check out. After wandering through small neighbourhood roads, we decided to follow some people who looked like they knew where they were going. We were wrong. Very wrong. We ended up at a shrine with so many stairs that we both wanted to cry. Nice view though.
The roads and fences look old school, but people in Kamakura are LOADED. So many huge houses and luxury cars.
From the top of the neverending stairs
After wandering around a huge train station, and being given the wrong directions more than once, we finally ended up at our next destination, the Taya Caverns. It was REALLY nice here. The caves were basically carved by monks and it was used as a place for meditation and spiritual training. We got a candle at the front and used it to go through the caves. Sadly, no pictures allowed. But I took a picture of the front of the cave.
Quick shot of a hasekannon statue. We wanted to go see it, but it was up a steep hill, and it cost money to go in. We’ll check it out the next time we return.
We ended up stopping by a bunch of other shrines, but they all cost money to get in. On top of the money we spent getting into the first few shrines, we didn’t want to keep paying to get in. It wouldn’t have been too bad if entrance was 100yen for each shrine/temple, but everything was 300-400yen, which builds up really fast considering the number of shrines and temples in the area. We’ll have to go back and check out the places we didn’t get to.
So after that, we made our way to Enoshima (where we once again took a wrong turn…it seemed to be the theme of the day)
The birdies outside Enoshima station had rain coats!
Enoshima shrine. Since we got here pretty late in the day, most of the shrine was closed and we didn’t get to see everything. Another thing I’ll have to return to see. Also. Stairs. Holy crap there were so many stairs. This picture shows just one of the 5+ long staircases that we climbed…and we didn’t even go to the top.
View from Enoshima Shrine
We finished off our day with むらさきいも ice cream, which is basically purple sweet potato ice cream. SOOOO good. And then we had dinner at First Kitchen. Nothing like topping off ice cream with junk food!
It looks white here, but it was really purple.
First Kitchen!
Okay…next!
Blogging fail! D:
I kept telling myself to update this before I forgot everything…but then I didn’t. My bad.
Well a lot has happened since, so I’m going to have to break this up again. Here we go!
My friends and I had some business to take care of in Shinagawa, and then we decided to check out the Imperial Gardens. It was a bit of a crappy day, but at least it wasn’t raining. Sadly, a lot of the gardens had closed off areas so we probably didn’t see everything we could have seen. At least admission was free.
Old guard house
Tea House
Afterwards, we ended up in Ginza where I realized just how poor I really am. Or just how ridiculously high of a price other people will pay for things. I did, technically, buy something though! But it was only a couple of pairs of leggings from Uniqlo…which is sort of like Old Navy, so it doesn’t really count.
We had originally planned on going to Tokyo Tower but then by the time we had finished in Ginza, it was too late. We’re supposed to check it out tomorrow though, so hopefully it won’t take me forever to update with that.
Onto the next!
Whoa, blogs two days in a row? No way.
Anyway…
Today I went on a field trip through Waseda’s International Community Center to Chichibu in Saitama Prefecture. Originally, I wasn’t picked to go when I applied, but there was a cancellation so I got to go. Sweet deal.
Today is the day Waseda was founded 127 years ago, so we have today off…and for some reason the school is closed tomorrow too. Probably because we had class on the last national holiday. Anyway…instead of sleeping in (and going to Disney with everyone else) I had to wake up at 6:30 to leave for Saitama at 7:45. Sadly, everyone else on my floor didn’t bother sleeping until at least 2am keeping me awake, but I digress…
There were a lot of different people on the trip, which was a nice change from the SILS people I see everyday. There were a lot of grad students, and surprisingly, my friend and I were the only Canadians and another friend the only American. There are usually a lot of Americans wherever I go. But anyway…
We made a quick pitstop on the way to Saitama. I wanted to take pics of the place, but I realized I forgot to put my batteries back into my camera after I finished charging them. Thankfully, I was able to buy batteries at the resting station…which I discovered don’t come in size names like AA, AAA, etc. I think I had to get size +3 or something like that. After that, we made our way to a farm to make soba! The farm we were at had other things like a strawberry house, grapevinces, mochi making and mushrooms, but pretty much everything was closed except for the soba making stuff for us. It was really cool, but I can appreciate handmade soba that much more after making it myself (well not exactly myself…we were in groups of 4, but still). At one point we lost our tray of soba, which was weird considering you can’t really lose a tray of soba. It turned out there was a mix up with the group next to us and we managed to find our soba. Oh man it was good. Really filling too.
Before
After
We had some free time to roam around the farm, which had some really nice scenery.
Grapes!
After the soba farm, we went for a 3km boatride along the Nagatoro Gorge. I wasn’t expecting to be in such a small boat…I guess I’m used to Toronto boat tours where you’re basically in a yacht haha. It was really cool though.
We came across a shooting for some TV show. Sadly, I didn’t recognize anyone
The water was really shallow, and we passed by big rocks at a really close distance.
After the boat ride, we got to walk around a little shop area. Lots of nice things…didn’t buy anything though. Okay I lie, I bought soft cream because it was cheap and I wanted ice cream.
On the way back, we watched most of Howl’s Moving Castle, which is so much more interesting when you know Japanese history (not to say that it isn’t already interesting).
And now I’m exhausted. But it was nice to get out of Tokyo. Disney would have been cool, but there’s no way I would go out to the inaka of Saitama on my own, so it was definitely worth it.
I fail at blogging. Anyway…
Last Friday some friends and I went to a friend’s apartment to do some cooking! My first time actually cooking in Japan. We were soooo happy.
Before
After – Yakisoba with onions, mushrooms, eggplant, tomatoes and shrimp, korokke & peach tea
The next day, I woke at 4:15am (>_<) to go to Tsukiji Fish Market. The famous tuna auctions are only open to visitors between 5:00am and 6:15am, but we managed to catch the last 10 minutes or so of the auction. I have no idea what was said, but tuna was bought and carted off. The market area is really scary. There are big carts zooming around everywhere. Tourists aren’t allowed to get in the way of business, so we were trying to make sure we were never in the way.
After the tuna auctions, we went to look for the area with all the sushi restaurants and we came across a really nice Japanese man who showed us where to go. He’s done a lot of travelling around the world and he speaks English really well. He showed us where the expensive places were and where the “economic” places where. Being a group of poor students, we opted for the economic restaurants. Sadly, I wasn’t allowed to take a photo of my food, but I had a rice bowl topped with fresh salmon and tuny belly. Soooo good and only ￥1300 (compared to ￥3000). The miso soup that came with it was like the best miso I’ve ever tasted in my life. I also bought myself a Hello Kitty Tsukiji keychain on the way out.
After Tsukiji, we came back home to rest for a bit. I’m pretty sure I slept from 9am until 1pm. It felt good after sleeping for like an hour the night before (long story). Afterwards, I met up with my friends again to head to Yasukuni Shrine. There was supposedly an autumn festival going on, but there was nothing really festivaly when we got there. Maybe we showed up too late or something. But we checked out the Yushukan (the shrine’s museum). Considering my background in Japanese history and Yasukuni itself, it was interesting to see how things were written and presented in the museum. Sadly, this was another place where I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. I definitely want to go back there earlier in the day when stuff isn’t closing.
A Noh stage!
Yushukan
After Yasukuni, we decided to walk around, but we didn’t find anything really interesting so we made our way to Ikebukuro for dinner & to take a friend to Sunshine City since she missed it last time we went. We went to a ramen shop for dinner…holy crap it was so good. Best ramen I’ve had yet. And since my friend is a vegetarian, I got some extra meat! I’m such a carnivore.
We headed back to Namja Town with one thing in mind…
Ice cream – Hokkaido milk ice cream with a package of pudding (more like custard) and caramel in a crepe cone. Whoa damn this thing was good.
And there’s nothing quite like topping your ice cream off with dessert.
We split this baby 3 ways, and hot damn it was good
Oh, and I made my way to the Hello Kitty store
I’m heading to Saitama tomorrow for a field trip (while everyone else goes to Disney *cries*). I’ll try to actually blog sooner so I don’t forget all the details like I did this time.
