The Last Day

No pics today; my go-between for uploading images is MIA after our most recent excursion...


Woke up at around 10am today. Struck out for Nakano on my own around 11am. Ended up in the wrong part of Nakano, but thanks to the help of a convenient store owner and a future foreign exchange student, I ended up in the right place. My destination was Nakano Broadway, which I'd heard about online prior to the trip. Nakano Broadway was a massive mall, and the shop I was most interested in was Mandarake, a store with space on 4 floors. There were tons of vintage and new comic books and action figures there, though I was most interested in the Transformers they had. They had quite the collection of Transformers, some I never thought I'd see. Unfortunately, their price tags matched their rarity, so I left empty-handed, but it was still cool to see.

After that, I went back to Ikebukuro and wandered around the city streets to places I hadn't checked out before. As I walked around, I realized just how great a city Tokyo is (or at least this district). It's calm, peaceful, clean, and safe. I never once felt worried about my safety walking the streets of one of the biggest cities in the world, yet I wouldn't want to walk the streets of Pittsfield alone without a pocket knife or something. It's a whole different environment over here, and I'm really going to miss it.

After my wandering, I went back to the hotel around 5pm to hang out for a while, because we had to meet with Professor Huang at 6:30. He basically just told us what's going to happen tomorrow.

About half an hour later, myself and three other guys took a trip to Palette Town. This was a waterfront shopping district and is home of the famous Tokyo Ferris Wheel and Rainbow Bridge. The train ride there and back was awesome, because we got to see Tokyo in all of its electric glory lit up at night. Rainbow Bridge was cool, but wasn't completely illuminated tonight.
At Palette Town, we went into the main shopping center, which was pretty cool. It was stylized like Italian architecture on the inside, and the ceiling was a false sky that changed colors now and then. We went to Seiryumon, an upscale Chinese-style restaurant. I ate an awesome stir fried chicken and cashew dish, along with a glass of lychee juice (which was pretty good). I also tried some jellyfish that one of the guys ordered.

From there we went to the ferris wheel, which was lit up with changing neon lights. One of the guys, the one whose computer I normally use to upload pictures and do my blog, decided that the ferris wheel "didn't interest him at all," so he stayed behind while the rest of us went on it. It was worth the admission price. It's the highest ferris wheel in the world, and from it we got a great view of Tokyo lit up in all directions. After that we looked around for the other guy, but couldn't find him, so we went back to the hotel, taking in one last look at Tokyo at night.

Overall, it was a great end to a great trip. Tomorrow we leave at 10am for Ueno, then on to Narita, where we'll take off for home at 4:30pm.

Thanks for reading my blog; I hope you enjoyed seeing some of what I saw. For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook, expect a ton of pics once I get home.
Sayonara!

Tokyo

This update will cover the last two days in Tokyo. Loaded with pics this time.

Yesterday we started off the morning with a trip to the Meiji Shinto Shrine and Japan's version of Central Park. It was pretty cool, though I'm a sucker for Shinto shrines. In fact, I got a miniature Shinto shrine that college students apparently are supposed to put on their desks for luck with studying.

From there we took a walk to the Imperial Palace of Tokyo, where the current Emperor and his family resides. It was neat, but we couldn't really get close to it.

After that we went to Ueno, another district of Tokyo. There, we finally saw some cherry blossoms.

We also saw the statue of Saigo Takamori, who was the true "last samurai" of Japan (not Tom Cruise).

From there we went to the Tokyo National Museum.

There was some cool artwork and artifacts, as well as a garden in the back. I was happy to see swords made by Masamune and Muramasa.

We then went to the final stop on our Japan trip itinerary: the Kaminarimon Gate and Sensoji Temple.

The temple was particularly cool because it was built in 628 AD.

And that was it for our itinerary stuff; we were on our own. Me and two other guys ended up going to Shibuya to check it out, and had dinner at a small (and very good) ramen shop.

After that, we took the subway back to Ikebukuro and called it a night.

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Today I got up around 8am. Left with ten other students to go to Akihabara. We went to a large electronics/book store there. I bought a couple of volumes of Bleach manga, since they were about $1 each. After that, a few guys left for Ueno and the rest of the group wanted to go to another manga store. I walked down a main street of Akihabara for a while, but there were mostly just restaurants there.

After about half an hour, I decided to go to Ueno myself and see if I could find the other guys. I arrived there a little after 11:30 and decided to check either the Science Museum or the Ueno Zoo. Ended up going to the zoo; it happened to be one of the three days a year that it had free admission. Ueno Zoo is Japan's largest zoo, and there were literally thousands of people there. After 15-20 minutes of wandering around, my 1337 bounty hunter skills paid off and I found two of the guys from my group. Eventually met up with the third guy and we spent about 2 hours at the zoo.

After that, one of the guys went off to the Science Museum while the rest of us traveled to Sengakuji to see Sengakuji Temple, where the 47 Ronin were buried.

We got to see the well where Oishi washed Lord Kira's head before placing it on the grave of his master, Lord Asano.

After that we went back to Ikebukuro. One guy went back to the hotel, so myself and the other guy headed off to "Sunshine City," a massive, 60-story store/entertainment center with a really ghey name. The elevator to the 60th floor was pretty sick, though, and went so fast that it made everyone's eardrums pop.

We didn't check the building out, just went right to the top floor, where you could look out large windows and get a full view of Tokyo. It was pretty crazy: 360 degrees of city into infinity.

It was like looking out on Coruscant in Star Wars.

We went back to the hotel and hung out for a little while, then I went out to eat with 8 other people. We stopped in a place that looked good, but it ended up being pretty horrible. The menus were computer pads all in Japanese, and we couldn't figure out what anything was or how to actually order it (not to mention they didn't really do much in the way of customer service there). After receiving several random drinks and some extremely terrible shiskabob-like chicken, we pretty much left our money on the table and ran out of the restaurant. It was pretty expensive, too. Ended up eating a much more satisfying meal at the ramen place we'd eaten dinner at the first night here. From there we went back to the hotel, and that was it for the night.

Tomorrow is our last day in Japan. Hopefully I'll get some good sightseeing in.

Day 8ish

Brief update, pics will come some other time.

Went to the Toyota manufacturing plant and museum. Watching the robots weld the cars was pretty cool. At the museum they had a demonstration for an "i-unit," which was crazy. I'll get pics up later.
After that, we went back to Nagoya to get our luggage, then departed for Tokyo.

Arrived in Tokyo around 6pm. This city is pretty incredible, and we've only seen a small part of it so far (Ikebukuro). Our hotel, however, is pretty lame. Literally just a youth hostel. Our room is four bunk beds and a little floor space. Showers don't include towels, so I will have to go out and buy one later. I don't think I will spend much time at the hotel.
Wandered around with some other guys for a while, finally ate dinner at a place where you grill your own meat on a charcoal grill in the middle of the table. That wasn't filling, so we went and got some excellent ramen at a street corner restaurant. We went and checked out a Bic Camera, which is kind of like Target except covering seven stories. I picked up a Transformers Music Label Soundwave there (working mp3 player that turns into G1 Soundwave). After that we went back to the hotel for a little while, then wandered the streets again for a while. Returned to the hotel at around 11pm and called it a night.

Today we're touring around Tokyo. Again, I'll try and get some pics up later.

Days 6 and 7

And I'm back to updating.

Day 6 we left Kyoto for the last time at 7:50, traveling by bus and train to Iseshi, home of a bunch of Shinto shrines. We dropped our luggage off at our ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese hotel, then visited the inner Ise shrine.

This place is the most sacred Shinto shrine in all of Japan; kind of like visiting the Vatican. People aren't allowed inside the inner sanctum, but it was still a pretty cool experience.

After that, we checked out the shopping area in Iseshi, which was basically a tourist trap. From there we went to the outer Ise shrine, which is dedicated to kami of the harvest. This was also pretty cool.

We then returned to our ryokan. We had the entire place to ourselves, and it was a really interesting building. The inside, with little lighting and all, looked like something out of Ninja Gaiden. I wish American hotels looked more like this. We all wore kimono-like outfits (I wore my sword as well) to dinner, which was a traditional Japanese feast; it was pretty good. That was pretty much it for the night as we were all tired.

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Yesterday we ate a traditional breakfast at the ryokan, which was also good. We left around 8am and went to Toba, where we visited the Mikimoto Pearl Museum. It was all about how pearls are formed and cultivated and used. There was some crazy expensive stuff on display, as well as a gift shop with jewelry that cost more than two years' worth of college tuition. We also watched a pearl diving demonstration, which was interesting because the divers wore little gear, including no gloves or flippers, even though they were diving in freezing cold water.

After that, we went back to Iseshi. We visited the famous site with the two large rocks in the ocean tied together by a giant rope. It was a little smaller than I expected, but impressivce nonetheless. There was also a rock behind it shaped like a frog.

From there, we returned to the main city. Myself and a few other guys went to lunch at what turned out to be a really good Japanese restaurant. I ate sashimi, which was pretty good, even the raw octopus. After lunch, we went back to the ryokan, collected our luggage, and departed for Nagoya.

We arrived at Nagoya around 6:15pm. The hotel we're staying in is pretty nice. Me and three other guys decided to go look for food around 8pm.

We wandered the city streets for a while, taking in the sights. Nagoya is one of Japan's largest cities, so it was pretty cool.

Eventually we discovered "Things on Sticks," a hotel restaurant. It wasn't really called "Things on Sticks," but since that was what was being advertised, that's what we called it. We went in and ate there, and it was a great time. Basically, you sat at a table with a fryalator and you fried things on sticks to eat. Or not eat, in the case of the fried and battered grapefruit. We were there for about an hour, and when paying time came, we were handed a bill for about $135 (about $30 for myself). It was worth it, though.

After eating, we needed to find an ATM, so we went back to wandering around on the streets. We checked some convenient stores to no avail. Things got strange when we were approached by a man on the street asking us if we wanted "all we could drink and beautiful women for 17 minutes." We politely declined and continued onwards. Somehow we'd ended up in the Red Light District. At one point, a pimp came rushing across a street towards us, asking if we were "looking for anything...special." I enthusiastically replied, "Yeah, we're looking for an ATM!" The look on the guy's face suggested that this was not the answer he expected, but he told us about a 7-11 we'd overlooked. We thanked the nice pimp and went to the 7-11, where we finally found a working ATM. On the way back to the hotel one of the guys tried to stealthily take a picture of an obvious prostitute. Unfortunately, he forgot to turn the flash off. We also saw some Japanese kids dancing in front of glass windows and breakdancing and stuff, which was pretty cool, but one of the guys started to wander off in search of a bathroom so we just went back to our hotel and called it a night.

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Today we're checking out the Toyota factory and then traveling to our ultimate destination for the trip: Tokyo.

Day 5

Last night we ended up wandering around Kyoto in a group of 9 looking for a restaurant on a side street. We finally found one that might have been closing, but they served us anyway and were very polite. We didn't understand any of the menu, so we managed to just order "what was popular" there. It turned out to be some kind of Japanese-style omelette, and it was very good. I turned in for the night afterwards because I was pretty tired; what with all the power walking and running around getting to buses and trains, I'll be in better shape than ever when I get back home.

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Today we left at 7:25am to go to Himeji Castle. It was pretty impressive, moreso than many European castles I've seen (on the outside, anyway). There were some artifacts on the inside, and we climbed to the top (the 6th floor) where we made offerings at the Shinto shrine there. On the way out, I noticed that some cherry blossoms looked ready to bloom; hopefully we'll get to see some before we leave.

After that, we left for Hiroshima. It started to rain just as we got to the atomic bomb monument, which was the remnants of a town hall that was decimated by the explosion. We then went to the museum, and it was a very depressing experience. You really don't think much about what happened when those bombs were dropped, but this museum showed the true horror that nuclear weapons unleashed. Particularly haunting pieces were a chunk of stairs with a "human shadow" imprinted on it, as well as some watches stopped dead at 8:15am, the exact time the bomb went off.

From there we took a train ride and then a ferry ride to the island of Miyajima. This is where the famous red Shinto torii is that you see in all the pictures. It was low tide, so we didn't get to see it submerged, but it was still impressive.

The town there was filled with Shinto shrines and temples and such; this really felt like a look into the old days of Japan in this place. We went to the famous Shinto temple of Miyajima, which is called one of Japan's greatest treasures. Afterwards, some of us went wandering the town and ended up getting steamed beef buns at a small restaurant. The service was great and the food was crazy delicious. One of the most interesting aspects of this town was the fact that a whole bunch of deer wandered the streets and everything, not bothered by people at all.

We left Miyajima and took a long ride on the Shinkansen back to Kyoto, arriving close to 10pm. I walked a little ways from the hotel and found a noodle bar, where I ordered a particularly good beef curry udon soup. From there, I went back to the hotel.

This might be my last blog/picture post for a while. Tomorrow we're staying at a ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese inn, and I highly doubt they'll have internet service there. I don't know what the internet situation will be with our other hotels, but I will attempt to update whenever and however possible.

Tomorrow we check out at 7:50 and leave for Iseshima, where we will go and see the famous Ise Shinto shrine, which is the most important Shinto shrine in all of Japan.

Day 4

Last night's trip to Kiyomizu Temple was one of the coolest experiences of my entire life. The temple was massive and lit by spotlights and hundreds of lanterns. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of Japanese people gathered there to participate in several Buddhist/Shinto rituals. I participated in some of the rituals myself, which was pretty cool. Afterwards, myself and a few other guys ate at a small restaurant where they served tofu and noodles.

After the temple, we walked down a busy Kyoto street and checked out some shops. Two of the guys in my group bought kimonos, while myself and the other guy bought some more practical souvenirs:

And that was pretty much it for last night.

Today we left at 8:30 to go to the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. Unfortunately, visitors aren't allowed inside, so we just looked at the outside.

From there we went to Nijo Castle, which is where the Shogun stayed during visits to the Emperor. It was impressive outside, but even moreso inside. There were some excellent screen paintings, and the nightengale floors that I've read about frequently in books about the ninja (I only set the floors of three times, which was a feat in and of itself, but I would've been a goner if I'd been a real ninja). Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed inside.

Our next stop was the Kyoto International Manga Museum, which was all about Japanese comic books. You could take comic books out from a massive selection (in many languages) and read them anywhere. I think there was some historical stuff, too, but I didn't find it. There were lots of cosplayers hanging out in the courtyard outdoors.

From there we made a brief trip to the grave of Nobunaga Oda, one of Japan's greatest military leaders. It was a small, out-of-the-way grave, which was surprising.

That ended our itinerary for the day. We split up into groups to go explore central Kyoto. My group of seven decided first to go get lunch. We ate at a small restaurant, where nobody spoke English. We had to point out what we wanted in the shop's display, and I think the waitress was frustrated with us. The meal was pretty good though; I had ramen noodles (the good, real kind) and beef and vegetables.

After our lunch, we wandered some massive shopping center. There were all kinds of stores and restaurants. It was pretty crazy. We stopped in one particular store that was the craziest of all, probably. It was like Spencer's, only more ridiculous. They had everything: food, clothing, electronics, a Boba Fett action figure signed by the guy who played him in the movie, and even candy bras.

After a looking around a little more, we decided to head back, wandering the streets of Kyoto as we made our way to the hotel. On the way there, we heard...bagpipes. We then witnessed something we never expected to see in Japan: A St. Patrick's Day parade! Complete with sheep, bagpipes, and an "Enjoy Guiness" sign.

We got back to the hotel and have down time until 7pm, when we plan on going and finding a place to eat. Tomorrow we get up really early to leave at 7:25am for Himeji Castle, another place I've always wanted to see.

Some other observations:

It's really warm here, probably mid-60s. It rained a little yesterday, but it was clear and sunny today. Hopefully I'll be a little tanner than snowman white by the time I get back. Japanese people are, as usually described, very polite. They also put up the peace sign pretty much every time they're getting a picture taken.

You will never go thirsty in Kyoto. There are vending machines every few yards. Unfortunately, I don't know what most of the stuff is. I do recognize Coke and Fanta, though, so it's all good. Vending machines here are pretty cool. They sell bottles of hot tea, hot coffee, and hot chocolate, and it's literally hot. I also saw one machine where it gives you your chosen drink in a plastic cup filled with ice. We need these things in America.

Also, the Japanese will make everything green tea flavored if they can. They have green tea ice cream instead of chocolate, and they even have green tea Kit-Kat bars.

Another interesting thing I've noticed is that quite a few Japanese people wear the traditional clothing (kimonos, etc.) around in the streets.

I'll have more observations in future updates.

Day 3

Today started off with breakfast at 7:30am. Had fruit salad, croissant, mango juice, and vegetable fried rice.

Our first stop was Kinkakuji, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. I've seen this in movies and books, and finally I got to see it in person:

After that, we went to Ryoanji, a famous Zen temple, and checked out the rock garden and landscape gardens:

After that we ate lunch at a small restaurant in Kyoto. I had beef something or other. I'd honestly rather not know what it was.

From there, we went to a Shinto shrine in Kyoto, as well as a forest place that was filled with monkeys. They were wandering around like we weren't even there and stuff.

After the monkeys, we went to The Temple of the Heavenly Dragon, another famous Zen temple. It was pretty cool:

Then we went back to our hotel for a quick break, where I am now (using my roommate's laptop so I don't have to deal with that ridiculous Japanese keyboard).

We're going to go out on a lantern tour later this evening, which should be interesting. I don't know if I'll do much sightseeing aside from that, as I'm pretty tired still.

Going to go look for dinner after I post this.

Days 1 and 2

So technically it's been two days since I left, and they've been an exhausting two days. Left at 5:30am, took a 14 hour flight, then spent the rest of the time running around between trains and finally getting to Kyoto at about 9:30 Japan time. Fortunately, there were no snakes on the plane.
Japan is pretty interesting, the little I've seen of it (we've spent almost all our time indoors/in vehicles). Kind of forest-y like New England, but with different-looking trees and stuff. They also have a lot of houses that are designed like the old temples and castles, with the distinct roof and all.
The first thing I bought was a Pepsi, which came in a strange bottle-like can. If they had Pepsi in World of Warcraft, that's what it would look like.
It's weird not being able to understand most of the writing here. The computer keyboard is a pain to use, too (we don't have wireless so I'm using a hotel computer). Hotel room is kind of small, but at least I'll have a bed to sleep in.
That's really about it for what I've done so far. Tomorrow's when the real fun begins.

Leavin' on a jet plane

Heading off to the airport at 5:30am today. Hopefully I'll get some good sleep on the plane. I sure hope there are no snakes on the plane, because there are two things in the world that I'm afraid of. One is mobsters, and the other... is snakes.

Anyways, when we get to Japan it'll be 3pm Friday or something like that. We're going to change money and stuff at the Tokyo airport, then take a train ride to Kyoto. We'll end up at the hotel between 8pm and 10pm, so we really won't be doing much until Saturday. This is probably a good thing, considering I will likely be mad tired.

I will try and post an update when I'm actually in the hotel in Kyoto. Considering that I will probably only be using my iPod to update, I doubt updates will be extensive or have pictures. Expect tons of pics on Facebook when I get back though.

First

I'm going to use this blog to report on my trip to Japan. I will likely update once a day, if possible.