Welcome to my blog that I kept while I was in Japan. I also kept another project blog at thesupersparkle.blogspot.com. That one’s mostly about the project I did while I was in Japan. This is where all the good stuff is. Be sure to check out my PHOTOS PAGE on the right where you can look at the 1400 some photos I took of my adventures.
Right now I’m trying to figure out how to fit everything into the luggage I have + one addition. I can’t believe it’s already over. Time just goes by tooo fast. Always. I’ve almost lost it a couple times the last few days, crying that is. I’ll be on the train and tears will come, or I see people I’ve spent the past 6 weeks with leave and tears will come, or I walk into an exhibit and they come. I don’t know what I’m being all teary about. It’s definitely a different feeling being here, when my classmates aren’t around as much. They made this trip really special. We were all very different, but we came together for the most part and I learned a whole lot from everyone. I’m also going to miss this place so much too. To just walk the streets and be with all the people and feel a part of this place. To fall asleep on the trains, I did it again today…and slept past my stop, so I just got off and got on going the other way. I love it. To eat the food here…nothing will quite compare. To have all this transportation at your disposal…so much to do and see all the time. all the toys, and electronics, and cool gadgets, and crap…I didn’t get to the Sony Building today. booo…i’ll have to leave it for when i come back…the great clothes and shoes and umbrellas. Everything is so special. This has added so much to my life. I’ve found out many things about myself.
The first is that I LOVE, with caps for emphasis ADVENTURE! I love getting lost, b/c I never ever really feel lost, I always know that sooner or later, something will look familiar. It’s just a matter of staying cool and not getting frustrated. I loved trying all the new things here…from bathing in onsen, to eating tongue and heart and raw squid and octopus.
I love staying up late here. The nights go by really quickly. And there’s nothing better than catching the first train with all the other sleepy heads.
I can say that regardless of how other people view me, I really feel a part of the people here for the most part. I feel as though I’ve learned how to be a part of this society and the way things work here.
So here’s to Japan and my short time here. I will never forget this as long as I live. And it will always live on in the future. In my memories and in my photographs and in my new relationships with people I would have never met otherwise.
Living here, has been like living in a dream. It’s very magical and surreal, how it looks like familiar things, but behaves in a completetly foreign way. It’s like my life as I knew it was frozen in time and I’ve been living in the future.
Well it’s back to reality for me tomorrow, after one last trip to Shibuya. One of my favorite places. I think I’m goign to meet some people for lunch there. And then on the way back to the station I’ll walk across Shibuya crossings and say farewell for now. I will be back…soon I hope.
Goonight friends and goodnight Tokyo.
it’s the easy way to blog.
Well I just deleted the post I just wrote by accident, the post I had spent a half hour writing…and it’s 2:11 in the morning and i’m tired, but I’ll try and recap again…even though this really blows.
Alright so I was saying how I can’t believe how fast everything has gone by. Living here is very surreal as it doesn’t quite feel like real life. It’s like living in a dream. It’s quite strange and you just won’t understand fully until you come here yourself. I’ll try my best to explain and make you feel as though you’ve been here though. Or at least help you relive my adventures.
So anyhow I’ve been having a really amazing week, well except for my camara having technical difficulties on the day of our show. We had our final show last friday, and we all went out again for a last big feast and karaoke. It’s been great for us all finally having the time to relax and hang out and just have fun in Tokyo, without stress and deadlines and working all night long with no sleep.
So yeah my camera broke, got confused, went crazy, who knows. But it took a few pictures when I didn’t want it to, didn’t take pictures when I tried to…the lens won’t come out and even when the camera is off the power light is on. So I had to get another camera naturally. It would have been nice to have done some research beforehand, but i didn’t have my computer all weekend, as it was locked up at school, and so i had matt with me who helped give suggestions and i ended up getting this sanyo camera, which has been great. The best part is the response time. It’s super quick. It’s not the best lens, but it’s got a beautiful screen on the back, it’s super compact and it’s made in japan, so it should last. But I broke my rule and got a camera that does’t take double A batteries and of course the batteries ran out the other day…so I’ll need to get a backup sometime soon.
All right so about the last couple days and such.
It’s really amazing how close you can get to a group of people in just 6 weeks. Perhaps it’s the fact that we’re all in this new place that helps bring us together also, but it’s been great fun getting to know everyone on this trip. We’re all quite unique, but we now have this experience which we will share forever. I’m going to miss everyone alot…it’s going to be weird in 2 days.
So I’ve been staying up all night the past 2 days. We had a final gettogether last night to say farewell to those leaving today…which was most of the group. Me and Mia after final hugs to everyone, caught the first train at 5:09 am out of jiugouka. she headed for home and I headed for the skiji fish market. It was probably not that great me being so tired there…as there are workers riding these crazy go-kart, truck thingies…and they go tearing around everywhere, yet no one crashes? it’s amazing….their reflexes are almost perfect….must be the video games or something. Anyway the fish market was great…there was fish and squid and shrimp and crab and squish everywhere. Huge tuna being cut up, things crawling and swimming and squirting and so many colors and textures. It was great. The pictures don’t do it justice. And it was endless, just rows and row and columns and columns of fish and squish and etc.
So now I’m off to studio ghibli again tomorrow. I can’t wait to see those exhibits again. It made me tear the first time i saw it.
This entry just isn’t as good as the one that was deleted, but i’m exhausted now, so it’ll have to do…i’m going to try and upload pics before i sleep too.
well i guess i’ll be seeing you all very shortly.
sayonara.
so I feel like blah, but at least I have a comfy bed to sleep it off in. sleep makes everything better. goodnight. i miss you all!
So I’ve been working pretty much non stop the past couple of days well into the wee hours of the night on my project, but today I got to take a break, b/c we were going to a baseball game. Just by chance I wore my orange and black ‘Most Likely to Succeed’ T-shirt and guess what the colors of Tokyo Giants team was…you guessed it. orange and black, so it was perfect. I wanted to get some sort of souvenier so I got an adiddas wrist band with #7 on it for good luck for the team…and the #7 player turned out to be awesome. Well at least in the beginning he appeared to be awesome. Well before I get to that, let me tell you about the game.
So the game was at the Tokyo Dome which also apparently is a part of some amuzement park as there was a ferris wheel and roller coaster and rides right outside. So the game cost 2100 yen (approx $21) which wasn’t too bad and the food wasn’t that bad either I got a bowl of noodles, some edamame, and a beer for 1000 yen…which was almost the cheapest dinner I’ve gotten so far. So we go sit down and we’re kind of nervous because we weren’t exactly sitting in the giants section and both me and sensee wore orange shirts just by chance and so everyone probably thought we had worn them on purpose for the game. But it was cool, people don’t get all rowdy and booing like they do in the states. Instead everyone sings songs. In fact a different song for each player that goes up to bat. Songs in between those songs, and songs when the teams switch on the field and songs when the cheerleaders come out. It’s really fun, cause they really get into it. Well at least the giants fans really got into it. The other teams songs were way weak in comparison. And so these songs you can listen to on some of the videos I took and will be uploading shortly. So it’s hard to see but the songs are also accompanied with clapping and syncronized dancing of the baseball fans…they really get into this here. It was awesome! We didn’t get to see it, but they say that if the team’s relief pitcher gets called in towards the end of the game, he gets driven to the mound via convertable like miss america or something. That would have been crazy, but the singing and dancing and watching the beer girls all over the place were good enough. Oh yeah there’s also this other custom that if you get a home run, the mascot gives that player a stuff animal mascot, which the player then proceeds to throw into the audience.
So that was my Japanese baseball experience in a nutshell. I would elaborate more, but the pictures will tell the rest of the story. Pay no attention to the picture of me and my arm though in one of the pictures…I hate it when it looks so huge in pictures…for some reason my arms always look a lot bigger than they are in real life, at least i hope that’s the case…I’ve been losing weight since I’ve been here, not gaining it. uggggh, i think being surrounded by tiny Japanese women day in and day out is started to get to me. I tried to find a pair of jeans once…big mistake…it was quite a depressing experience. at least i can fit their shoes. i’m going to bring home one pair of high heels for no more than 2000 yen ($20) and learn how to walk in them. i’m gonna be all fancified once i start working again. no more tshirt and jeans for me….well once my account recovers from this trip.
Alright well that’s all for today…hope you’re all doing well in the NC of the US of A. hurricane’s are doing well this season I hear. wed? the big day i think? I’ll be cheering for our boys here in tokyo!!! i think i can download the game on itunes…i might just do it for 1.99 although i wish i could go.
Later taters, Sharon
Hello there! I can’t believe my time here is almost up. It has been going by super quick, but each day has been jam packed with adventures and cool things to see and experience. So in the end it’ll feel like a 3 month trip fit into just 6 weeks. So I know I’ve gotten behind on my blogs, but it’s just so hard trying to write them when I get home, because I’m exhausted and I end up falling asleep in the middle of them, so I have all these unfished ones waiting for me to finish and upload. I’ve started when I get time during the day to be on a computer to finish them up and upload them, so check back throught the blog to see if you missed some. I’m trying to keep the chronology correct.
So anyway I guess I’ll just write about yesterday. I had the morning to work on my project, I have a lot of illustrations I’m doing for it, and I’ve been shooting to have that part finished by tomorrow, so I’ve been working every free moment I have on that…and there’s another blog I have to keep for that project, so there’s just so much work to do on top of all the tours we have and then fun times we have scheduled also!
So anyway we were all meeting up at Shibuya’s Hachiko Square, which is the place to meet people in Shibuy and then we headed off to Steve’s photography exhibit near Omottesando, for his closing reception. His work was really great, and it was packed at the exhibition. and there with lots of sake and sushi and snacks for all! His wife also made a surprise appearance all the way from NY, and so it was really cute seeing his face when she showed up…he made us all teary eyed. It made me miss everyone back home alot! I can’t wait to see everyone!
It was also one of the guy’s 21st birthdays so we had a whole night of karaoke and party planned. So after the show we all headed back to Shibuya got some eats and then headed up an elevator to the karaoke place. Pretty much it’s an entire floor with rooms. We got the big room, since we had quite a group and so we all piled into a room with benches all around, a TV, 3 microphones, 2 tables and tambourines for all. So we originally signed up for 2 hours which was about $25 a person with unlimited drinks. But we ended up staying an additional 2 hours after that, because we were having so much fun! We sang so many songs, it’s amazing I still had my voice by the end of the night. We did get kinda nuts by the end though. I remember someone knocked over a glass, I think I hit Tom in the mouth with the microphone, I got elbowed or something in the nose, feet were getting stepped on, and then some people were getting Japanese people from other rooms and bringing them in to sing with us. It was just a super fun time, well minus the casualties. And I think we succeeded in giving Matt a proper 21st birthday celebration in Japan, even though he was already legal as the drinking age is 20 here.
Since we stayed past the time when we could ride the trains home…they stop running at 12:30…we went to this other place for some dancing and hanging out and then caught a taxi home, well close to home, there was a lot of traffic, so we decided we’d walk the rest of it, but were super hungry so we went to eat some late night food, which was delicious, and then got some ice cream for the walk back to our home in Akasaka.
It was a great night! and I will definitley need some people to go out and do karaoke with me, when i get back to raleigh. Singing is fun people. Rock on.
And that’s all for now. Laters.
I’ve been busy with work, so I haven’t had a chance yet to catch up…just not enough hours in the day. But I’ve uploaded some pics, so that should keep you fine folks busy for now. There’s a link to the photo pages under the links section on the right…see it…it says PHOTO PAGE!!!. So go check it out. Haven’t had time to color correct anything…so this is just raw photo…but you should get an idea of what i’m seeing here in Japan.
Enjoy!
Well I:m meeting a friend from school here in a few minutes across the street, she:s studying in Kyoto for a few weeks, so we:re going to take a little adventure to Nara I think, which is a little south of kyoto to see the giant buddah statue and deer that bow at you. Or so they say. Anyhow I just spent 15 minutes with the nice Japanese guys at the counter of this internet cafe place, trying to communicate that I just want to use the internet for a little bit. And these little cafes are awesome. For a half hour it:s 200 yen and I get all the free drink I want…mmmm milk tea is my new favorite, and internet and magazines and books and there are all these different packages you can get. There:s one with a lounge, where you have TV, internet, PS2, and dvd player. then another option with a massage chair, and another option with a couch for up to 3 people. So you could come out with your friends and drink unlimited coffee or whatever and play games, watch movies, etc all night long cause it:s 24 hours.
So anyhow I:m sorry everyone for not being able to post. I have a lot of entries saved, but I get so tired when i get home, i end up falling asleep before I:m done. \and I:ve been in Kyoto the last couple days, without computer and internet, so this is the first in 4 days I:ve been able to check email and stuff.
I:ve seen some really amazing temples here and yesterday I went to Arishiyama to this new museum called Shiguredeon or something like that and it:s all interactive. The theme of the museum is some Japanese poetry. When you walk in, you take off your shoes and put all your stuff in a little locker, but they let you take pictures of everything. And so I took some little camera video of my time there. Then you walk down this hallway and come to a counter where they hand you a modified Nintendo DS and a stylus. You have 20 minutes to use it. Then you walk into this main room and there:s a grid of screens on the floor which everyone walks over. \right now is a giant map of Kyoto and so there are 2 buttons on your DS. One is to zoom, and the other brings up this bird who will take you to a place you want to go. You choose from a list and when you hit it the bird circles around your feet and flies around the map. You follow it and it shows you the place you selected. Then you can zoom in and see up close the place. It:s like google earth but interactive. Then night time comes and all these chinese characters light up in the night sky, they represent some kind of protection of kyoto or something. Then this game starts that you play with everyone else who:s there. The grid each has a different card with different illustrations and poems and then on your DS it shows a card and you have to find the card on the grid, stand on it and click the DS. If you got it right, you get another card to find. You do this for about 5 minutes, and everyone:s scurrying around the floor. Me and an older Japanese couple and 2 younger Japanese couples, and some older Japanese men. It was fun sliding around in our socks. The lady guide who was helping me understand how to play, said I got second place in the game.
But anyway I:ll write more in a little bit, must meet my friend now.
Miss you all lots!!!
That’s right folks, that just about sums up my first Friday here in Tokyo. So every week our professors take us on a field trip in Tokyo. Today we went to Akihabara, which is the electronics part of town…where you can find mainly all things electronic at supposedly very good prices. So when we got there, sure enough it was electronic store after electronic store. I don’t know how they all stay in buisness, one right next to the other like that, and each with 6 floors of merchandise. So that was neat walking around that place for a while, I think we were looking for a memory card for someone, and someone else got a camera. Hmmm interesting field trip. So after a couple hours of being toured through all these stores, showing the kinds of goodies you could bring back with you, including everything from video games, to media, to cables of all shapes and sizes, cameras, mp3 players, and laptops half the size of my 12″, we were quite tired and ready to eat.
So we were taken to this really neat soba restaurant..or at least that’s what I think it was. It was delicious! And I learned some more of the customs of this place during dinner. You usually get a warm towel when you first sit down to wash your hands with and then the only really stressful part is the ordering. Especially when you can’t read the menu. Luckily I was sitting with 2 Japanese students and so they helped me out. Pretty much you can’t really go wrong with anything you get. YOu know you’re going to get noodles and the soup, so it’s pretty much the toppings and whether you want a cold or hot version. So I got some mushrooms in mine, which ended up being a wise choice. They were delicious as well. Near the end of the dinner, the waitress came back and brought with her what looked to be just hot water, but thanks to my Japanese guides, I was told this is the water that the soba noodles were boiled in, and it’s meant to be put in your soup towards the end to give a different taste, or some drink it alone like tea. I tried both and they both did add different tastes to my palette. So yay for yummy soba. It is one of my favorites right now.
Alright so after late lunchies, it was time head over to the part of town where the Sumo was taking place. It was a little decieving from the outside, but once inside it was a really huge room, with the sumo ring in the center. We were up in the rafters of sorts and the more expensive seats you get your own tatami mat, so you pay more to sit on the floor with your shoes off. Go figure. Supposedly the center of the ring is a sacred place as well, the mound made out of clay and the sumos throw salt down on the ground as part of the ritual. There’s also men in traditional dress, who perform parts of the ceremony, I think one of them hit a gong or something, or maybe I’m making that up. I did have a glass of sake and some pocky snacks. Ok so for the fight. Well this thing had been going on all day I think. But we got there, when the good and final fights were about to happen. So they all come out in their sumo outfits, and get in a circle and then bow and walk out and then it starts. Two by two they come down to the ring and start the fight. It’s not your boxing match by any means, it looks to focus more on mind games, and throwing salt that actually fighting. Then it’s really strange, but they taunt each other. They’ll get into their fighting stance/squat and then lift one leg and slam it down and then the other. And then they’ll wait a little while and you’re waiting in suspense and then one of them will just walk away.
So they can do that if they’re not ready, or they don’t feel pumped up enough, so they go back to their corner and yell and the crowd cheers and they throw more salt and get back into postion. After this back and forth a few times they finally go at it and it’s intense and over in a matter of moments. The first one to get pushed out of the circle, or get pushed down on the ground looses. And that’s it. They bow, the loser walks away, the winner bows to the guy in traditional garb, I guess he was the ref, and that’s it. But it gets really exciting because you never know who is going to win, and it gets suspenseful, cause you don’t know if they’re going to go throw more salt or fight. There was a favorite sumo, who was a Bulgarian, he was really young, like 20 or something, and it was an exciting match. But he lost. Maybe next time young Bulgarian.
So then after the sumo, we went out to eat and then there was a festival supposedly happening in Asakasa, but it started to rain on the way and by the time we got there, everything had packed up. It was some famous festival that would be going on all weekend…having to do with shrines being carried through the streets and it was some festival also, so I ended up going to it on another day. But to end the night, people wanted to go bowling, so I thought sure why not. So at least I can cross that one off my list. Not much to say about that, it’s pretty much the same experience no matter what country you’re in. And so that was that.