Sarah's Japan Enikki, Week 3, Jan. 21-27, 2006
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Monday, January 30, 2006
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Sarah's Japan Enikki, Week 1, Jan. 5-15, 2006
Woooo, here is the first installment of my Janterm trip journal + pictures!! I divided it up into three sections, one for each week. I am calling it my enikki (絵日記) because that word means picture diary which is exactly what this is.
Sarah's Japan Enikki, Week 1, Jan. 5-15, 2006
Sarah's Japan Enikki, Week 1, Jan. 5-15, 2006
Sunday, January 22, 2006
update #5
Wheeee, back in Tokyo (Asakusa, in our ryokan). The rest of the group has left and now it is just Kathryn, Sarah K, Milin, Fred and I. We are freee of IES's jurisdiction and the annoying people! yaay!! The ryokan is a very cute old building though very veeeeeeerryyy cold (I am currently freezing my hands off ahhh). brrrrr
The sayonara party Friday night was so sad, when I had to say goodbye to my host mom and Nanase I started crying. My host mom was crying too... ahhhh. They were so amazing. I almost want to change my plans to study abroad in Japan just to stay with them. And also to come back to this crazy crazy place of course.
The rest of the week, who knows. I think I'm about to go to Harajuku and check out the freaks (hahah) though. Kathryn and I also hit up Shinjuku last night but we only really saw Isetan.
That's really all, may post later, may not. Fly back 27th!
The sayonara party Friday night was so sad, when I had to say goodbye to my host mom and Nanase I started crying. My host mom was crying too... ahhhh. They were so amazing. I almost want to change my plans to study abroad in Japan just to stay with them. And also to come back to this crazy crazy place of course.
The rest of the week, who knows. I think I'm about to go to Harajuku and check out the freaks (hahah) though. Kathryn and I also hit up Shinjuku last night but we only really saw Isetan.
That's really all, may post later, may not. Fly back 27th!
Thursday, January 19, 2006
japan update #4
Okay! Last night in this internet cafe place, and I have only 10 minutes left (unless I pay for more, hmm). Yesss, okay sooo, birthday. 20!! woohoo. After a day in which NO ONE MENTIONED IT AT ALL (except for my friends, because I reminded them) somehow at dinner they brought out Kirin beer and Coke and toasted me!! (the beer because Japan's drinking age is 20, although it's gross and I only had a few sips) what the heck people!! How could you let me spend the day all sad that no one noticed (I only mentioned it once or twice but still) and then RANDOMLY BUST OUT with something like that!? insanity!!
The Hiroshima Peace museum reallly pissed me off. It had an agenda and it was so biased. I was maaaaad. I'm not saying the bomb was the best idea around, but Japan was NOT going to give up unless some sort of drastic measure was taken. THEY WERE NOT! No matter how weakened they had become, they were determined to fight, and if the bomb hadn't been dropped, tedious fighting would have ensued for who knows how long because of their stubbornness. I researched this for a paper I wrote awhile back, so I'm not just making this up. And guess what, nuclear weapons aren't going away. Nope! Once again, not the best idea, and I hate the thought that they may be used someday for widescale destruction, but they're also important technology that we need to keep developing.
But then we went to Miyajima, the best place ever, and I got another arrow and petted some more free-roaming deer. And saw the floating torii and a bunch of cool shops. I wanted to ride the gondolas and see the monkeys, but alas, we did not have time. :<
Time to go! Tomorrow we go back to Tokyo and have the farewell party! But then I stay on in Tokyo starting that Saturday, and I also don't know about internet access then, sooo. I'll write... whenever!
The Hiroshima Peace museum reallly pissed me off. It had an agenda and it was so biased. I was maaaaad. I'm not saying the bomb was the best idea around, but Japan was NOT going to give up unless some sort of drastic measure was taken. THEY WERE NOT! No matter how weakened they had become, they were determined to fight, and if the bomb hadn't been dropped, tedious fighting would have ensued for who knows how long because of their stubbornness. I researched this for a paper I wrote awhile back, so I'm not just making this up. And guess what, nuclear weapons aren't going away. Nope! Once again, not the best idea, and I hate the thought that they may be used someday for widescale destruction, but they're also important technology that we need to keep developing.
But then we went to Miyajima, the best place ever, and I got another arrow and petted some more free-roaming deer. And saw the floating torii and a bunch of cool shops. I wanted to ride the gondolas and see the monkeys, but alas, we did not have time. :<
Time to go! Tomorrow we go back to Tokyo and have the farewell party! But then I stay on in Tokyo starting that Saturday, and I also don't know about internet access then, sooo. I'll write... whenever!
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
japan update #3
What up, I am in Hiroshima. We are staying at the Hotel New Tachibana.
In an internet cafe, so I get more than the scant ~15 minutes I got at the IES offices before people lurking the computers made me cave in and finish up, though this means I have to actually pay to use it. Whateva, if I paid for an hour, I am using up that whole hour.
Kyoto was not all that great, but it's not the fault of the city, but our tour, which was horrendously boring and only took us to like five thousand temples. Oh god, make it stop! Make it stop! I don't care about temples! We didn't get to go to Gion, and we didn't get to go to the shrine with the bunch of red torii that Sayuri runs through in Memoirs of a Geisha. Honestly, if we didn't do that, what point is there to Kyoto?
Also, it is barely a city. It is nothing like Tokyo. Liek, seriously, it is more like a large village. I was most confused. Perhaps I wasn't seeing the right parts, though, I don't know.
Oh, but I tried the public bath in our hotel!!!!! I did it!!! Yessss!! Naked in a room full of other women! I did iittttttt :DDD Honestly, if you know anything about my modesty, you know how hard that was for me to do. And so I had a very nice long conversation with two of the other girls on the trip. While naked. So strange, so strange. And yet I am still proud of me. Public bath! yesss
Tomorrow, my birthday, shall be spent crying, as we are visiting the Hiroshima Peace Park museum & A-bomb dome and whatnot. I'm glad to have a respite from the TEMPLE FEST by going to a museum instead but seriously? Going to be depressed like what. Ah well. Janterm doesn't equal a good birthday for me, and I should just learn to deal with that.
Oh, and deer temple today in Nara!! Deeeeer temple!! :D The deer rocked, too. deeeeeeeeeeeer ♥
In Kyoto at Kinkakuji Temple I saw a guy who struck me as looking a lot like someone I knew, so I took a picture of him to show to that person later. Only when I looked at the picture later, he was looking straight at me. So I suspect he knew what I was doing. But oh well, I'll never have to see him again, I figured. WRONG! He was IN NARA at the deer temple at the same time today. What the heck, man. I can understand if he was following a similar schedule/tour type thing, but at the exact same time of day? At the same place in huge temple complexes for me to see him again? Craaazy. Kind of freaked me out, really. weird, weird things!
Time is almost up soooo, byebye!
In an internet cafe, so I get more than the scant ~15 minutes I got at the IES offices before people lurking the computers made me cave in and finish up, though this means I have to actually pay to use it. Whateva, if I paid for an hour, I am using up that whole hour.
Kyoto was not all that great, but it's not the fault of the city, but our tour, which was horrendously boring and only took us to like five thousand temples. Oh god, make it stop! Make it stop! I don't care about temples! We didn't get to go to Gion, and we didn't get to go to the shrine with the bunch of red torii that Sayuri runs through in Memoirs of a Geisha. Honestly, if we didn't do that, what point is there to Kyoto?
Also, it is barely a city. It is nothing like Tokyo. Liek, seriously, it is more like a large village. I was most confused. Perhaps I wasn't seeing the right parts, though, I don't know.
Oh, but I tried the public bath in our hotel!!!!! I did it!!! Yessss!! Naked in a room full of other women! I did iittttttt :DDD Honestly, if you know anything about my modesty, you know how hard that was for me to do. And so I had a very nice long conversation with two of the other girls on the trip. While naked. So strange, so strange. And yet I am still proud of me. Public bath! yesss
Tomorrow, my birthday, shall be spent crying, as we are visiting the Hiroshima Peace Park museum & A-bomb dome and whatnot. I'm glad to have a respite from the TEMPLE FEST by going to a museum instead but seriously? Going to be depressed like what. Ah well. Janterm doesn't equal a good birthday for me, and I should just learn to deal with that.
Oh, and deer temple today in Nara!! Deeeeer temple!! :D The deer rocked, too. deeeeeeeeeeeer ♥
In Kyoto at Kinkakuji Temple I saw a guy who struck me as looking a lot like someone I knew, so I took a picture of him to show to that person later. Only when I looked at the picture later, he was looking straight at me. So I suspect he knew what I was doing. But oh well, I'll never have to see him again, I figured. WRONG! He was IN NARA at the deer temple at the same time today. What the heck, man. I can understand if he was following a similar schedule/tour type thing, but at the exact same time of day? At the same place in huge temple complexes for me to see him again? Craaazy. Kind of freaked me out, really. weird, weird things!
Time is almost up soooo, byebye!
Sunday, January 15, 2006
japan update #2
Just a short update, as there are children shrieking only feet away and I'm about to go shopping in Ikspiari and play putt-putt golf with my host mom, sister, and sister's friend. I don't know when I'll be able to update again because tomorrow we leave for Kyoto/Hiroshima/Nara and I don't know about internet access there. I'm not really looking forward to going... besides the fact that I really like the routine I've settled into here in the Tokyo area (not to mention my great host family), all the group things so far have been an irritating, exhausting game of 'how can we avoid people we don't like but who insist on following us around hanging out with us.' It has been most tiring, and has only left me completely frustrated and even less willing to let those people tag along. If you knew them, you would understand why. They are on my list of 'Things that have dampened this trip so far.' =_____= Luckily, that list is mostly overtaken by the list of things I -do- like, which almost makes up for it. Like some of the cool things I've bought, which include an arrow from Tsurugaoka Shrine, a hilarious dish sponge with a FACE ON IT, a Tokyo Tower model... etc.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
What up, I'm here in Japan. On Sunday I went to Tokyo DisneySea (the adjacent park to Tokyo Disneyland, with a bunch of new rides, including INDIANA JONES THE BEST RIDE EVER OMG OMG) and yesterday to Tokyo Tower (duty as a CCS fan = fulfilled). Yesss!! :D Oh, and my host family is amazinggg, my room is tatami with a futon, it is like sleeping in a cloud! And the family is so nice, I really like them and I hope they don't find me completely irritating either. I'm keeping a journal which I'll type up when I get back, so you can hear more then. It still doesn't seem like I'm in Japan... despite the, you know, Japanese and Japanese people and whatnot. I don't know if I'll ever be convinced. Anyway, it is just about time for class, so I'll perhaps post later when I get a chance.
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