Explore!

Location | Tokyo

Yesterday was the start of a wonderful day! First we went to Nezu, an old part of Tokyo. There we had a wonderful walking tour by a world renown architectural historian, Hidenobu Jinnai-sensei. It was the best Tokyo tour ever! I got the see parts of Tokyo that I probably would have never seen if it wasn’t for him.

We started out at Nezu station. We got there a little early, so we left the station to walk around. Leaving the station, I was in the middle of our group when this guy (non-Asian) who is handing out flyers, steps into the middle of our group to purposefully hand me a flyer. The flyer is for ENGLISH CLASSES. So I proclaim loudly “BUT I SPEAK ENGLISH!” and walk away… Talk about random. All Asians are Japanese in Japan I guess…

Anyway, we met up with Professor Hidenobu later and talked about the different types of residential and commercial districts. Especially the concept of machiya, having a commercial facade on main streets and inward you have smaller (and shorter) residential homes. The buildings are narrow in the front, but are long and extend toward the back. That’s why they’re called unagi no ne doko (the place that eels sleep).

From there we went to Nezu shrine, a shinto shrine supported especially during the Tokugawa/Edo Period. The shrine has many torii, which were very low. It is explained to be like that of a tea house entrance, where it’s like entering into another world. In this case, to celebrate the spirit of the fox god (kitsune).

Nezu Shrine's Torii

After leaving the shrine, we went through the residential areas to see different types of homes. There were many buddhist temples and it was very peaceful. It really made me want to live in Japan. We went through Yanaka Cemetery, the cemetery where the last Shogun is buried. The link to the Yanaka website is interesting, it’s filled with lists of cemeteries and famous people buried.

Residential Street in Nezu

After Yanaka Cemetary, we walked into a residential shopping area. We stopped by buy some croquettes to eat. Then we walked to another shrine near Ueno Park. This was smaller than the one at Nezu. We made our way down the street to go eat lunch at a small place near the train station.

When we finished eating, we chatted for a bit and then said goodbye to Professor Hidenobu. Some of our group decided to go to Akihabara to look around. We got on the JR Line, and we were minding our own business when this old Japanese man came up to Bryan and decided to grab his ass!!!! Then Bryan was like “WHOAA” and the guy walked by us then turned around and started to sing an, apparently, old song about a tanuki. He then started patting Bryan’s stomach and all of us were like “um, wtf is going on!??!?!?” and laughing incredibly nervously, yet hysterically. Akiko also said that the old man was wearing a sign around his neck that said he was a “safety guard” for elementary school kids!! How creepy!!!

We arrived in Akihabara and went to an anime/manga store and to check things out. It actually wasn’t that big to me, but they had a very wide selection of doujinshi from various artists.

After this, we crossed the street to go to a store that sold electronics. There I got a Zeroshock camera case. I probably should’ve purchased by electronic dictionary case there as well.

When we finished checking out Akihabara, we split up some more. Some of us decided to go to Omotesando again and go do some shopping. Shivali, Kris, Heidi and I ended up going to Harajuku to look at the stores. Harajuku is definitely not my style when it comes to clothing. It’s a lot like Hsimending or Shilin in Taiwan, but I think Shibuya is closer to Hsimending and Harajuku is more similar to Shilin.

After this we went back to the hotel and met up to go out to eat. Suma and I were exhausted so we ended up staying in and eating onigiri. I’m glad I stayed in though, because my feet were aching and I was in total pain.

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Building Tokyo. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Location | Tokyo

Today I woke up incredibly sore. My ankles are really sore from all the walking that we’ve been doing. I’m glad that I’m forcing myself to walk, but now I have blisters on my feet and my knee is starting to give out. This is the sign of aging!!!

Anyway, I woke up around 6:30am because Suma had to go to the doctor to get her stitches removed. She came back because the ER was… closed… weirdly enough. So we had breakfast ~ and I had the best… THREE … croissants ever! There was other really good food too (like the fish and rice!)

At 9:30, we met up in the lobby and left to go to Ueno Park. At Ueno we walked in and it was just such a beautiful place. Some of the trees had blooming sakura blossoms. Apparently they were a differend breed than the ones that normally bloom in late March. At the park there were tons of people and their little dogs. There was one guy with a stroller and three dachshunds sitting in the stroller… There was also 3 dachshunds dressed up and barking… They had a cart to sit in as well. Anyway, we went up to the Museum of Western Art and then all went back to go into the Tokyo National Museum to enter into the Horyuji Homotsukan. Unfortunately the exhibit was closed, but we saw the building and it was really nice and soothing.

Museum of Western Art

After that we went into the Honkan and looked at all the old Japanese art. It was really interesting to look at all the art, but I was so sore that it was tough to enjoy it. I really liked the Ukiyo-E though. My favorite is definitely the famous tsunami wave.

Famous Tsunami Wave

After the museum we met up with some other people (we had split off) and went to Ameyoko Street. There I got distracted by the UFO claw game. So then 5 of us got split up and we ended up at another ramen shop. We ordered ramen and then went on a walk through Ueno again. At Ueno, Heidi wanted to play with these stray cats that this old man had. The old man kept trying to give us the cat…. After that we went to a Shinto shrine and I got a cool charm for good health. After that we went to meet up with everyone again.

We then went to Asakusa to see Senso-ji. The street in front of Senso-ji was amazing~! There was tons of food to eat include monjyu and kibi-dango! Soo yummy We went up to the temple and got fortunes as well. I got a “half” fortune! That is not good and not bad -____-”. I left it at the temple tied to the fortune bar (whatever it’s called, I’ll look it up later).

Senso-Ji

Afterwards we walked down the street to senso-ji again and I got kibi-dango and a manekineko (beckoning cat). Then we took a ferry from the Asakusa docks and went down the Sumida River to Odaiba.

View from Odaiba

Odaiba is an awful place. Ok, I guess it was kind of cool to see, but it was really depressing. Basically it’s a bunch of gigantic buildings that they thought would be popular, but turned out to just suck in general. There was a sort of nice nature-y part and good views of Tokyo from across the bay. There was also a mini version of the Statue of Liberty. We went to the Fuji-TV Building and rode up to the round sphere observatory. There wasn’t much up there except the view of the city and some cardboard cut-outs of different Fuji-TV stars.

Fuji-TV Building

Afterwards we rode the shuttle/train back to Shiodome and changed trains to get back to Akasaka, where our hotel is. Unfortunately we lost Ariela and Dragana in the shuffle and they never showed up to ride the train back with us.

Later we went to Shibuya and ate at Kyomaru restuarant. We had yakitori, Korean pancakes, gyoza, and some other random stuff. After dinner we went to wait for Ariela and Dragona, but they didn’t show up again! So we left again and went to Karaoke at Big Echo. There Bryan showed us all up on his mad karaoke skills. Then we went to a bar that was a hole in the wall — called Shot Place (or something like that). Of course EVERYONE had to buy a drink, so there was me in the corner drinking a 400 yen coke.

Karaoke Time!

Afterwards we were going to go to another bar, but we were exhausted, so we got into taxis and came back to the hotel. More updates and pictures to come!!!

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Building Tokyo. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Location | Tokyo

Hi everyone! Greetings from the very awesome Tokyo!!! I’m having a blast with my new friends and just chilling around town.

So yesterday I flew in on a 14 hour flight and got here around 4pm. We then took a 1 hour train to Tokyo’s Ueno station and switched trains to arrive in Aoyama Station. The picture on the left is of Bryan B and Ariela staring in awe a the vending machines on the train we took. So then we got to our hotel, the Hotel Asia Center in Akasaka. After checking in and all that good stuff (I’m rooming with Suma ^^v), we went to a random pub-like place down the street and had yakitori, ebi-chile, wonton soup and other various pub foods. Of course, I was the only person with the non-alcoholic drink . Anyway, we got back to the hotel because we were going to wake up at 5am to go to Tsukiji Fish Market.

So this morning, I woke up at 5:20, since my alarm didn’t go off, and then got ready to leave for Tsukiji. Tsukiji was just amazing with all the giant fish and people running around and trying to run you over if you were in the way. Yep, almost died a few times by just sticking my foot out in the pathway of a quick-moving mini-truck. The left is a picture of a tuna selling warehouse. Shivali and I walked through the market and checked out what people were selling. It was really interesting to see what kinds of fish there were… We even saw a cut-fish with what was left of it, its head, nailed to a board. The fish was still moving… oooooh. Then we encountered a lost Kris and we went off to find a place to eat. At first we got in line, but afterwards we thought we’d go somewhere else. Then we went back in and went to a small place where we ordered the jyou-sei gentaku (???) set meal. It had different pieces of sashimi over rice and a sweet tamago (I forget it’s formal name) and we all had tea and there was miso soup. I was so excited to be able to order in Japanese!!!

Sushi Meal in Tsukiji

So after eating we had to wait for everyone else in front of the subway station entrance. There were two (young) guys drinking beers and smoking. This guy came up from the subway (just a regular citizen) and said to go the guys that they weren’t supposed to smoke there. They apparently were blatantly standing in front of a sign that clearly said “No Smoking.” The guys just told the random guy to go away… hehehe…

After Tsukiji we went to Tsukiji-Hongan-ji, a buddhist temple that really doesn’t look like a buddhist temple. It was very interesting to see how people prayed. What you do is, you go up to the incense table and bow to Amida Buddha. You offer some money to the box and then you take some incense powder and toss it into the smoking flame. Then you pray (just by putting your hands together) and then afterwards you step back and bow again.

The strange thing about the Tsukiji-Hongan-ji is that there was a shrine to Hide, the famous rock singer of the late nineties. Apparently his funeral was held there in 1998. It was really interesting to see all the things left at the mini-shrine, notebook filled with messages, art work, a Hide doll!! I’m amazed at how attached people were to Hide.

Then we made our way over to the Nagakin Capsule Hotel. Though it looks really cool, because it’s an awkward kind of building, it was really dirty looking as well, because of it’s age.

Bathroom of the Capsule Hotel

After Nagakin, we made our way to Ginza, which is a famous shopping district. Since everything we pretty much closed when we got there (which was around 8:30/9am), we walked around looking at the buildings, like the Hermes, Gucci, Mikimoto, etc buildings. Ariela and I ended up looking at stuffed animals in a window and the store owner came to open the store and was trying to get past us -____-” it was pretty random. So then Brian T wanted to get some coffee, so we went to Starbucks. After that, we went to Mitsukoshi to meet up with Suma. We ended up going downstairs to the food courts to check out all the tasty foods!! I got some curry bread and choco-pan (bread with chocolate pudding in the center). The curry one was amazing!! So after that we went to Iti-Ya, a shop that sells stationary. Talk about awesome selection! I got a few pens and an eraser. Yay, I’m happy to have my thin pens.

After Ginza we walked over to the Tokyo International Forum, this amazing glass building designed by an Italian architect. It’s basically just an exhibition hall, but the building itself is a site to see. We walked this really long ramp to get to the top (7th floor). Seriously, no steps, all ramp!! Looking down was really cool. There was also this random wall that said “push” and it turns out it had a door carved into it for and emergency exit. Talk about a weird place to put an emergency exit… no one really noticed that it was until I looked up and saw that it said exit. Weirrrrd.

Tokyo International Forum

After that we walked over to the Tokyo Train Station. The station turned out to be really old and dilapidated. It really doesn’t fit in with the rest of that area because it is a weird western style architecture. From there we got on the JR Train and went to Shibuya!

I was so excited to go to Shibuya because it’s my main area of study!! Seriously, so many cool looking people and then we walked out into the Hachiko Exit/Plaza. OMG I LOVE SHIBUYA!!! We walked out into the crosswalk which all the cars stop and the pedestrians just fill in any direction. We walked in a weird direction into a street near the famous 109 store. We were trying to find a place to eat and ended up at a small restaurant across from the Tokyu Hands store. It served Chinese-style food, mainly ramen. We also walked by a Taiwanese restaurant earlier (YAY!). Anyway, I had the Chinese-style ramen for 390 Yen. So cheap! (like $4.50ish). Coming out of the restaurant, we saw some real ko-gals. Some REAL UGLY ko-gals/ganguro girls… Hehhee… they really should get rid of that style… it’s soooo ugly!!! Then after that we didn’t have much time, but we walked around for a bit and ended up in a CD store. Then back to Hachiko Plaza to meet everyone again.

Hachiko, Loyal Akita

From there we were to walk to Omotesando, a famous shopping street filled with high-class stores. We ended up walking to Yoyogi Park — the site of part of the 1964 Olympics. It was truly an impressive buliding and looked really pretty. It had some good views of “regular Tokyo” instead of “tourist Tokyo.” From there we walked by the Meiji Jingu Garden/Park and the giant wood Torii (or front gate). We walked into Omotesando and saw awesome buildings like the Omotesando Hills building (by Mori, the leading building developer in Japan), we saw the Chanel and Oriental Bazaar Buildings. We then went down to the end of Omotesando towards the Prada building. The Prada building was cool because of the dressing rooms. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures on the inside. The dressing room is cool because it has a glass door/wall and when you go in, you hit a button on the floor and the glass becomes shaded so you can’t see inside.

After Prada, we were set free to do whatever. Shivali and I ended up walking down Omotesando to the Oriental Bazaar store. I got a coin purse and some other goodies from there. We then went down to go through Harajuku. It is an amazing place, but I feel like we went at the wrong time, there weren’t that many people and plus we were just exhausted from all the walking we had done!!! After that we walked back to the Chiyoda Line and took the train to Omotesando (the end of the road) and then changed to the Ginza line and got back to Aoyama!! So here we are, back at the hotel!

I can’t believe the first day is pretty much over! It’s so cool that I’m actually here and that I had a really good first day! More updates soon. I’m going to upload pictures and the map stuff in a little bit so look out for them.

Lots of Love~!

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Building Tokyo. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]

Location | Ann Arbor

I’ve chosen a topic for my trip to Japan. It’s going to be focused around the Shibuya Subway Station and the square outside of the station. I want to focus on the people and how people use the station. I also want to look into the above ground and below ground culture. Sounds abstract eh?

Anyway, I’m excited to go to Japan. More on my topic later!!

[This entry was taken from my old blog, Building Tokyo. Formatting may have changed when moved to Explore!]