Going Home

It's Sunday night in Tokyo... I can't believe I'm going home tomorrow. I don't think it's really sunk in yet. That said, I haven't really stopped moving for the past week, which is why I haven't done a blog post.  This may be my last, so thanks for sticking through this long! I'll let my pictures do most of the talking for this post -- check out the Facebook album here for the adventures of my last week.

On Monday through Wednesday I was up at Oze with the group from school, SISEC. About 70 people total went on the trip so it was quite the adventure. On Monday we left in the morning and had about a four hour bus ride to the lodge-type thing we stayed in for two nights. Monday afternoon we played in the river some then had a delicious barbecue -- the meat was soooo good. On Tuesday we headed up the mountain to a ski lodge, where people were grass boarding/skiing -- it was so cool! I didn't even know that that existed. We went up the mountain in a cable car then did some hiking around at the top. After eating lunch some people headed down to ride "go karts," and when the rest of us finally made it down we found out that it wasn't go karts but this really cool luge thing. And by cool, I mean something you would definitely have to sign a waiver for in the US... it was pretty dangerous. We sat in this little cart on wheels (no seatbelt) and rode on a pavement track down part of the mountain. We could get going pretty fast and some of the turns were pretty sharp -- one person even ran off the track into the grass. But, it was a ton of fun! Definitely a unique experience.... haha. Wednesday was spent cleaning, resting, and packing before heading back to Tokyo in the afternoon!

Thursday, I had lunch with the CIEE summer students to answer any questions they had, and then began the task of buying a baby present for my homestay mother, who had given birth to a baby girl on Monday! Let me just say I'm not looking forward to when all of my friends start having babies -- it was a very stressful experience. I went to Babies R Us, which has about 30,000 different varieties of baby bibs/hats/blankets/toys/you name it. But, in the end I finally decided on something suitable and then headed over to visit my homestay mom in the clinic! The baby process is a bit different in Japan -- the mom stays in the clinic where she gives birth for about 5-7 days to get more rest and taken care of, since the dad usually has to keep working after the baby is born. But, both my homestay mom and the baby are healthy and doing well, and the baby is SUPER ADORABLE and super tiny! The average length for a Japanese baby is about 3000cm, and this one is 2700cm, so it's small even by newborn standards. But, she has a full head of hair and is super super super cute!

the baby!

Family :)

Friday, I had my tutoring session with a woman I've been working with who is super sweet. She wanted to take me out to lunch, so we ate together and she gave me this amazing present of this thing called a hanko that the Japanese use to sign their name. She gave me one with the kanji for my first name, the first character of which apparently means apricot, which I never knew! It was a beautiful present and will be a great keepsake from Japan. Friday night was the CIEE farewell party, where there were various presentations on our summer experiences and then we had a dinner and a last chance to mingle together. It was great to see everyone all together one last time! After the party, a bunch of us headed out together for a last night out in Tokyo -- it was a lot of fun!

Saturday, I headed over to see my homestay family one last time. When I got there, they gave me a present of a beautiful yukata, which is a summer-style kimono. The mom helped me get dressed in it, and the daughter got dressed in one too. We took lots of pictures and it was a lot of fun! They are an amazing family -- even though I only saw them a few times it was really hard to say goodbye, but I hope to see them again one day in the future! I wore my yukata for the rest of the day and went to this cool drumming festival in the streets of Shinjuku before going to a farewell party for my Japanese class. Both of our senseis came and it was great to see everyone one more time -- we had kind of split in a daze after the last final. But, we had a good time over drinks and got some closure to our "shinkansen Japanese" semester of having class together 5 days a week, bright and early at 9:15am.

Sunday (today) I woke up pretty late and did some packing before heading out for some last minute shopping and a last dinner with some friends. We found this cafe on the 13th story of a department store with a great view of the surrounding area, and had some delicious galettes (which are like crepes but apparently a bit different). After dinner we wandered around the store some before heading home -- now I'm in my room and am about to pass out for the night! In the morning I have to finish packing and clean before heading to the airport. I'm too tired right now to be reflective, so I'll probably post one more time once I get back home. Thanks for reading!!

Disney Sea

Yesterday I went to Disney Sea and it was ahhhmazzzinggggg. I'm a huge Disney person -- my family used to go every year -- and I was super excited to check out a new Disney park. That said, I probably should have prepared ahead of time a little better -- when confronted with the new and unfamiliar park map I felt pretty overwhelmed, but once I got my bearings I became the official tour guide. It was two of my friends' first Disney experience (ever!), so it was really fun to see their reactions at all of the wonders of Disney -- from the overall atmosphere of the park to the amazing detail in each ride or attraction. My friend and I got "Minnie ears" to wear around for the day -- they were really popular and almost every girl (and a bunch of the guys) were wearing some type of cute headpiece. Typical Japan!

I'm kind of a theme park junkie, so this post will probably come off as a review of Disney Sea. The day had several highlights. First, I introduced my friends to the joy of the "Single Riders" line -- in the US, everyone knows the system pretty well so the Single Riders line is often pretty long, but in Japan it was pretty infrequently used so in several rides we pretty much walked to the front of the line. (Then, they take one individual as a seat becomes available - for example if the ride had a row of four seats and there was a party of three, they would take a single rider to fill the row. Efficiency!)

Next, the rides were pretty fun but there weren't any awesome thrill rides (which I guess is true at Disney in Orlando as well -- most of the thrills are at Universal). My favorite ride was probably the Indiana Jones ride, where you're in a big car on a track and it takes you on a bumpy journey ending with you speeding to avoid the tumbling boulder. It was pretty entertaining, but all of the speaking was in Japanese so I didn't get the intricacies of the ride story line--  I didn't know that Indiana had been studying Japanese in his spare time! The ride was pretty similar to the mummy ride at Universal -- some of the scenes were oddly similar, like when you spin around in a room as bugs pour in from the walls. Not sure if a designer crossed over from one company to the other or what...

Also at Disney Sea is a "Tower of Terror" ride -- I was pretty excited to go on this because Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios in Orlando is one of my family's favorite rides. But, overall I was disappointed -- the story line for this one was a lot lamer and the drop wasn't as far, although I do think they take you up and down an extra time to make up for it. But, they did have a cool special effect where  they show your car's reflection in a mirror, then take your shape and turn you into a ghost. It was pretty neat. This site talks more about the ride and has an awesome picture of the tower lit up at night -- so spooky!

The finale to our day was Disney Sea's Fantasmic show -- which was, for lack of a better word, absolutely fantasmic. I went to a Fantasmic show in Orlando a long time ago, but it's been a while. But, word on the street is that Fantastmic @ Disney Sea is one of Disney's best shows -- and it didn't disappoint. The harbor of the park was transformed into an epic battle field between Mickey and some well-known villains as Disney characters sailed around the edges in boats dancing and singing to the crowd. The centerpiece of the show was a giant LCD cone screen that Mickey or another character stood on top of while scenes from the movies played on the screen below. The show was incredible -- all of my most wonderful childhood movie moments were rolled into one 20-minute show as scenes from Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, Cinderella, etc were played out on the big screen. Disney really knows how to rub it in.

I haven't walked leisurely around a Disney park in ages -- now when my family goes to Orlando we usually do (all five) Disney parks in one day, so we pick and choose our favorite rides before moving on tot he next park. But, yesterday at Disney Sea we had a lot of time to just stroll around and admire the scenery. The details that Disney puts in their rides, attractions, shops etc are amazing -- it really does feel like you're transported to another world. We had perfect weather yesterday and it wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be. It was a perfect day! Now, I'm having a lazy day today before beginning my last week in Tokyo tomorrow. Can't believe it! See all you NC people soon!

Mt. Prometheus and more of Disney Sea

Me and Raja!

Mickey's amazing boat float, during an earlier show

The rainbowtastic finale to Fantasmic

Girls at the end of a long day!

Nara and Kyoto

Oops, didn't realize I hadn't posted since Monday~ a lot has happened since then! I didn't end up going to Fuji - we decided it wasn't worth it with the typhoon/99% chance of rain - so I spend Monday-Wednesday finishing up my exams and projects. I finished my anthropology project on Wednesday night, and that officially marked the end of my semester! Onto senior year... can't believe it!

It's Friday night and I'm back in my dorm after an exhausting two-day trip to Nara and Kyoto. I left Tokyo Wednesday night by overnight bus, which actually wasn't too bad - I was super tired so I was able to sleep the whole way, and the bus was even darker than my room so it was a pretty good sleep. I got to Kyoto around 7:30am Tuesday morning and then took a train to Nara, which is well-known for all of its temples and shrines. I'd actually never been before -- when my family was in Japan three years ago we were supposed to go, but the afternoon my dad had planned for us was the same one when I found out I had a shellfish allergy (after eating seafood for lunch)... needless to say I couldn't make the trip.

But, this time I made it to Nara pretty early Tuesday morning and went to drop my bag off at the hostel before beginning to explore the area. I walked SO much today and yesterday - I should probably get better sandals. But anyways, I spent most of Tuesday wandering around looking at the different shrines and temples -- they were absolutely beautiful, so just look at the pictures! One thing of interest was at Todai-ji where there is another big buddha statue, and one of the temple columns has a hole at the bottom that is the same size as the buddha statue's nostril. If you can fit through the hole, supposedly it aids you on your path to enlightenment! It was a tight squeeze, but I eventually wriggled through and a very nice gentleman took some pictures for me. It was quite the experience! My favorite thing of the day were the lanterns at the Kasuga Taisha (Shrine) -- there were both bronze and stone lanterns, hundreds of them, and they were absolutely amazing.  Check out my Facebook photo album for lots and lots of pictures!

Todai-ji

Wriggling through the nostril hole!

Kasuga Taisha lanterns~~

Obsessed

Favorites!

Toshodai-ji

Later in the afternoon I got pretty tired so I went back to the hostel to take a nap. I met a girl from London who spent two weeks visiting a friend in Tokyo and is now traveling around Japan for another two weeks -- we bonded over the joys of solo traveling and then I passed out in my super comfortable bed until dinner time. For dinner, I wandered around looking for something to eat until I found a picture of something appetizing outside a restaurant -- I went inside and ordered it, and then when it came I realized it had some unknown bits of what I presumed to be seafood. I decided to eat some of it anyways -- big mistake. After dinner I was able to walk around more and see some of the sights that were illuminated at night, but when I got back to the hostel I started to not feel well. Later at night I had another allergic reaction -- something about me and Nara I guess.... But, I made it through the night and felt fine today, so things could be worse I guess.

This morning I woke up, packed up, and headed from Nara back to Kyoto (about an hour by train). I didn't have much of a plan, so I got a map "eigo no chizu" (English map) and started exploring. I came to Kyoto with my family before, and my dad is a great tour guide so I figured he had shown us most of the interesting places. The first temple I went to, I can't remember the name of, but it was apparently the biggest wooden building in the world. I lost my map there, so after that my plans were pretty much shot... But, after a lot of wandering around I made it to Ginkaku-ji, or the Silver Pavillion, which wasn't as awe-inspiring as the Golden Pavillion (also in Kyoto) but was still really pretty. I also wandered through the Kyoto Imperial Palace Grounds, which are now surrounded by a big public park. You can't go into the actual palace grounds, but you can get closer than you can in Tokyo! I saw some royal roofs, at least.

The giant wooden building~

Ginkaku-ji

Delicious lunch - blue cheese pizza!

Once I was sufficiently tired out I headed back to Kyoto Station to take the shinkansen home. Let me just say, a 3 hour bullet train ride is definitely > a 7 hour overnight bus ride. But, it takes bus rides to really make you appreciate the shinkansen I guess. (For reference, Kyoto -> Tokyo is about twice as far as Boston is from New York City, but you can make the bullet train trip in less time than it takes to drive from Boston to NY!) I made it home to delightfully cool weather in Tokyo, and am now resting up before another full day of walking tomorrow -- I'm going to Disney Sea! So excited~~ details to come!

Nikko

This weekend I went on a somewhat spur-of-the-moment trip to Nikko, which is about two hours north of Tokyo by train. In the middle of last week I booked one night in a hostel, packed early Saturday morning (after watching HARRY POTTER the night before!) and set off on a solo excursion up to Nikko. I read somewhere that "you haven't seen beauty in Japan until you've been to Nikko," and this definitely proved true. It was an amazing trip and I discovered the convenience and joy of traveling solo -- it was so nice to be completely on my own schedule for a whole weekend!

Saturday morning I left my dorm to head to Nikko. I didn't time the trains well so it took me a bit longer to get there than I thought it was going to, but I finally made it by around 1pm. The hostel owners picked me up from the station (so convenient!) and drove me "home" to get settled in. My room was super cute -- tatami style with a delightful little futon and my own TV. I hadn't really watched TV in months!

My adorable room!

After I got my bearings and a map I headed out to the World Heritage Shrines and Temples of Nikko. The hostel owners had cautioned me to bring my umbrella, but I pretty much always carry one around anyways to use as protection from the sun (not that it's helping with my freckles/sun burn...). Sure enough, as I was walking towards the shrines it started to rain, and by the time I was almost at the entrance it was absolutely pouring. Japanese people were fleeing to their cars to head home early for the day, but I chose to wait it out under a vending machine's protective awning. Finally it let up enough to make walking around somewhat tolerable, so I headed to the first shrine and got my tickets.

The stairs turned into a waterfall...

The shrines and temples were absolutely amazing. First I went to Toshogu Shrine, which is the mausoleum of the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate. The shrine is one of the most elaborately decorated in all of Japan, as normally shrines have more simple architectural designs. But, the shrine was beautiful, and it was kind of cool to see it in the rain. It was also much less crowded than normal, so that was a plus!

The main gate at Toshogu

So ornate~

At Taiyuinbyo Shrine

After Toshogu, I walked around the area looking at the other shrines and temples. Also in the complex are Rinnoji Temple, Taiyuinbyo Shrine, and Futarasan Shrine. See pictures below! Rinnoji Temple is currently undergoing renovations until 2021 so the main temple building is covered by a huge scaffolding structure. I could still go inside though (but wasn't allowed to take pictures!), and the main attraction was an altar featuring three huge statues of Amida Buddha, Senju-Kannon, and Bato-Kennon. (Here's a picture -- not sure if it was taken legally or not!)

After getting my fill of historical Japanese architecture I headed back down the town's main street to get some food for dinner and breakfast. I walked past the Shinkyo Bridge ("sacred bridge") -- the mist rising from the river due to the recent rain made the bridge absolutely spectacular to behold. It was one of the prettiest things I've seen so far! After taking lots of picture and oohing and ahhing as passersby gave me strange looks, I kept walking and eventually found some ramen for dinner and groceries for in the morning. Then I headed home to relax in my peaceful room and study some for my kanji final on Monday!

Rinnoji Temple covered by scaffolding :(
 

Shinkyo Bridge!

Sunday morning I woke up, packed my bag, and got ready for another day of exploration. The hostel owners were so nice -- they offered to meet me at the station later with my bag so I didn't have to carry it around or pay for a locker! Once we arranged the details, I headed out to walk to the nearest bus stop to take a bus up the mountain. It was quite the ride -- as we got near the top the road got pretty curvy and I had to sit down on the floor of the bus to keep from falling over. But, finally we made it to the top and I headed to Kegonnotaki (Kegon Falls), which is supposedly one of the three most beautiful waterfalls in Japan. I don't doubt it -- it was amazing. I took an elevator down to the main observation platform and was absolutely blown away by the scenery. I don't think I've actually seen that many sizeable waterfalls but I think they're one of nature's most beautiful creations. Moving water is hypnotic -- I could stare at it for hours!

Kegonnotaki :)

Me and the falls!

Lake Chuzenji~

After taking lots (and lots) of pictures I headed back up the elevator to get some food before walking around more. For lunch I had yakisoba with yuba (dried soy bean curd), the local specialty. I don't think there's anything particularly appetizing about the word "curd" but it actually didn't taste like anything -- kind of like tofu but a better consistency. After eating I walked to the beautiful Lake Chuzenji, relaxed in the shade, and eventually headed back down the mountain. Toshogu Shrine is one of the most famous in all of Japan, so I had decided I wanted to go back and see it while it wasn't raining. I'm glad I did -- I was able to explore more leisurely and I got the extra ticket to see the famous nemuri neko (sleeping cat) carving as well as go up to the shogun's actual tomb. It was quite the hike up several flights of stairs -- everyone was out of breath by the time you finally get to the tomb, but of course there was an ocha (tea) vending machine at the top... I also noticed the "three monkeys" carving for the first time, which is where the "hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" phrase represented with monkeys supposedly originated. See below!

The monkeys carving!

Toshogu complex~

nemuri neko~

Five-story pagoda!

Finally I decided I was all shrine'd out so I headed out back past the bridge again (still pretty!) and down to the train station. I collected my bag and began the trip home -- I had checked the train schedule ahead of time this time so my trip home was much smoother and quicker. No long layovers in train stations! I finally made it home by about 8 or so and ran/had dinner /did some studying before getting in bed -- then I woke up at 4am to watch the soccer game! Obviously I'm slightly disappointed with the result, but it was a great game and I'm also really happy Japan won. It means so much for the country and women's soccer here! Then, my kanji final went better than expected so overall it's been a great past few days -- I'm supposed to climb Mt Fuji tomorrow, but a typhoon is headed this way so who knows if we will make it up... I'll keep you posted!

Nagano and Matsumoto

As promised, here is my post about my weekend trip to Nagano and Matsumoto! Sorry that this post is so long >.< probably just my mother will read the whole thing. As of now,  I am all caught up on blogging, but unfortunately I'm just going to get behind again as the next few weeks are going to be super crazy -- I go home in about 17 days, and in the meantime I have trips planned to climb Mt Fuji, go to Nikko and Nara, and go on a giant camping trip with SISEC. Also, my homestay mother is having her baby in the next week or two so I am going to visit them as well!

But I digress. Back to Nagano and Matsumoto -- we headed to Nagano first by way of an early morning shinkansen. I didn't get us reserved seat tickets in an attempt to be a little economical, but then we found out the hard way that they let people stand on the shinkansen if there aren't enough seats available -__-''. But, we were able to sit down after a few stops, so it wasn't too bad.

When we got to the station, we stored our overnight bags and began walking to Zenkoji, a famous Buddhist temple. You may remember that Nagano was the site of the 1998 Winter Olympics -- one of the first things we walked by was one of the platforms where they presented medals! It's condition has worsened a bit since then but it was still really cool to see -- I may or may not have taken advantage of my ignorant gaijin status and taken a picture or two on the medal podium :). We made sure to continue our walk quickly after that!

On the medal podium ;)

Nagano!

Despite the heat, we finally made it up the slight hill to Zenkoji -- it was amazing! There were tons of people walking around and the architecture was really beautiful. We were looking around in awe for a bit when a Japanese lady ran up to us and excitedly asked if she could show us around -- she was a volunteer tour guide! She gave us a lot of really cool information about the temple, and we were admiring one statue when she frantically tugged on my backpack and said something about "the governor the governor!". At first I thought she meant the statue, but then I realized that she was pointing to the stately Japanese man on the other side of the statue -- the governor of the Nagano prefecture was there with his family (this guy)! We were really lucky to bump into him and even more lucky that we were with someone who could tell us who he was!

Zenkoji~

After lots of bowing and konnichiwa-ing we continued exploring the temple. Our "volunteer" guide talked us into paying the (small) fee to go down into the "Kaidan Meguri," loosely translated as the path of Buddha. It's a dark tunnel that you walk through in search of the "Key to Paradise," which is the closest point to the main altar that the general public can access. Since we were following the voice of our guide she told us where to touch, so we took the easy way out to enlightenment. Still, it was a really cool experience as it was literally pitch black!

Beautiful!

After we had our fill of temple scenery, we headed did some more exploring of the streets then made our way back to the train station to head to Matsumoto for the night. We had a relaxing train ride there and got to the station just in time for the shuttle to the ryokan we were staying in for the night. The place was REALLY nice -- we had great service and a delicious dinner before relaxing in the hot spring baths later at night. We were exhausted from our day of travel so we retired to our futon-style beds pretty early!

The view from the top of a dam near the ryokan ~ breathtaking

Dressed in traditional yukata in the ryokan :)

Matsumoto Castle!

いいな~~

The next morning, we woke up and had a hearty breakfast in the ryokan dining room before heading out to explore the area. Our main destination was Matsumoto Castle, but we also checked out some shopping streets and local specialty foods. The castle itself was beautiful -- we decided not to go inside, but the scenery outside was amazing! We took a lot of pictures and relaxed with some snacks before heading back to the station to go back to Tokyo :(. I actually just remembered this now -- that same night we had dinner with my homestay mother and daughter! They were really excited to meet my boyfriend and we had a great time playing together despite the language barrier. They are such a great family. I also picked up the cups that I made the first time I stayed with them -- pictures below!

Actually the cutest child alive

My masterpieces!

Our little family :)

Shrines, With a Side of Gardens

I still have one post to write about my weekend trip to Nagano and Matsumoto, but as this week coming up will be pretty boring with finals I'm going to take this opportunity to get caught up on everything that happened this past week!

Monday and Tuesday were pretty much just consumed with writing my 6,000 word paper for my NGO Management class. Thankfully I was working in a group -- we had the option to do so, but some people wrote it by themselves. I have no idea how they pulled that off! Tuesday afternoon I really wanted to take a break from my paper and go for a run, and right as I told my groupmate "I need to go run now before it starts raining," it started pouring (of course). But, I decided to go for a short run anyways, and got thoroughly soaked/looked ridiculous but provided substantial amusement for all of the Japanese people making their way home from work. But it was worth it -- runs in the rain are the best!

On Wednesday we had our final CIEE group meeting to talk about our last few weeks of program and departure plans, etc. I can't believe I go home in less than four weeks -- the time has flown by. Talking about all that really stressed me out, but (thankfully?) I also had the paper to deal with. But, we finished it up right after the meeting and emailed it to the professor well before the 5pm deadline! After class my groupmates and I went out to dinner to celebrate -- we had yakiniku, which is delicious.

On Thursday after class I made my way (not uneventfully, I got pretty lost several times) to the Four Seasons Hotel near Ikebukuro to see some fireflies! Japan is really big on firefly viewing and though I missed the prime time earlier in the season, the Four Seasons was advertising firefly viewing up through July 10th, so I decided to check it out. It was worth the adventure -- the garden was beautiful and the fireflies were really cool!

The bridge surrounded by plants where the fireflies like to breed

Part of the garden~

Walking through the waterfall tunnel!

On Friday after class I headed to Meiji Shrine to explore with a friend -- I went here three years ago with my family but hadn't been this trip. Like everything I describe on this blog it was also really beautiful, but interestingly they had this fake facade support around the main shrine building. Apparently it withstood the March 11th earthquake but needed structural reinforcements, so most of the building was going to be covered until at least September.

One of the entrances to Meiji Shrine

The main shrine building, covered by a supportive fake facade (made to look like the real thing)

The main gate

Saturday (yesterday) I had plans laid out to go shopping, but I decided it was too hot to leave the dorm and ended up having a lazy day. I went for a long run once the afternoon's head was past its prime and then went to dinner at this delicious Italian restaurant with a friend. It's close to our dorm but I hadn't been there yet -- oishikatta!

Today I was woken up by a pretty big earthquake -- it was a 7.1 up near Fukushima so they evacuated the plant, but down here it was only a 2 or so. Still, it was the biggest shake we've felt in a while. In the afternoon I headed to Hachimangu Shrine to check out the Tomioka Hachimangu Antique Flea Market that is held a few times a month. The shrine was neat and it had a really pretty garden with my favorite red archway tunnel things (haha, just look at the picture below). The flea market was also really cool -- the vendors had everything from authentic samurai swords to kimono fabric to old rusty bells. I didn't get anything today, but I think it will be held one more time before I leave, so I may try to get something then!

People buy a fortune, read it, then tie it to a fence outside the shrine to make sure it comes true

The main shrine building

In the shrine's garden!

So serene~

After the flea market I headed to the Kiyosumi Gardens which are on my guidebook's list of top 10 gardens in Tokyo. That distinction is well deserved, as the gardens were absolutely spectacular. The family who started the gardens collected ancient rocks from a lot of different places, and a big lake was in the center that reflected all of the trees and flowers back up at you. It's hard to pick but this may be my favorite garden so far -- if you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of going to shrines and gardens, taking pictures, then calling them beautiful on my blog. There are still so many to see and so little time!

Kiyosumi Gardens aka paradise