Finally in Kamakura

I think I have tried to go to Kamakura at least 10 times since I have been here. It seems like every weekend I make a plan to go, and every weekend something else happens. Good or bad, I was starting to notice a trend, a little while back I just gave up on it and decided not to plan it in hopes that someday I would just "end up" there. Surprisingly that isn't far from the truth. I wasn't planning on going, I was going to go to Hakone for the weekend. When plans fell through we decided to go to Kamakura and I am so glad we did! Kamakura is a beautiful little town on the southern coast of Japan. There are some cool temples and a very large Daibutsu (Buddha) as well as a lot of really cool little surfer shops! We went to a really great homemade soba restaurant for lunch and walked around all day. We finished sight seeing around 6, just in time to watch the sunset from the beach. The sunset was incredible and it was the perfect end to a perfect day!

My First Trip to Disneyland

I LOVE Disneyland. I feel like that sentence should have been written at least 13 years ago, but yes, it has taken me 23 years to have my first Disneyland experience. Now, after stating how much I enjoyed the "land" I feel like I should elaborate a little more on why that is. First, I am pretty sure my reaction would not be the same had I been in the states. There is something about being in a Great American Tourist Destination... in Japan. There is, after all, the character, Belle and Snow White, and so on, all of which are Western actors and of which have very poor Japanese skills, and lets not forget the music, they seem to be able to translate part of it, but apparently the chorus is off limits, yes, all parts of a song that are sung endless amounts of time must be sung in English. Sounds like free English lessons if you ask me. I must say, my most memorable experience at Disneyland was not the rides, while I did enjoy them, I have been to Cedar Point and nothing... Nothing tops those rides! No, it was the Curry Popcorn that I loved the most, well, not the popcorn itself but the massive line that was always forming around the curry popcorn stands. I have never in my life seen so many people waiting for popcorn, and man did it smell like curry. Haha... only in Japan!

An Extreme Adventure in Gaming Technology

Last weekend, actually about a week and a half ago now, I went to the Tokyo Game Show. No it isn't a TV game show or anything like that. It's basically a huge convention held every year to show off all of the latest video gaming technology. I'll admit, I don't play video games and have never owned a gaming system, though after this, I am pretty sure I want the new Playstation 3... and the new Nintendo. The set up was pretty cool, they had huge projector screens to watch the games, some of which had more intricate story lines than movies I've seen recently. And the costumes, well, the costumes were by far my favorite part. There were so many people at the show and there was a place where everyone who dressed up went and people took pictures of them. I mean, these costumes were incredible. Any excuse to get dressed up right? Oh, and this last picture is just for kicks, I'm not sure where else this sign would be acceptable, but hey, I'm not here to judge!

No, I Haven't Dropped the Edge of the World

So I decided that the period of laziness has to end. Not that I have been doing anything of great importance lately, but I have been really busy and have managed to stay away from my computer, partly because my email isn't working and I am really not sure as to how to go about fixing it. I have taken quite a few photos and wanted to post them. I went to follow up training about a month ago and was able to see a lot of my training mates who I hadn't seen in a while. We had conveyor belt sushi for lunch and what I considered an overall good time! That next weekend, Simone had a big barbecue at her house. For Japan, I have to say she has a huge balcony. We actually had two blow up pools in one area! There was a lot of food and great friends, and some one gave Yadira a yellow balloon... Don't ask, I don't know. Ah yes, and then there was Ageha. Ageha is a club/warehouse located on what feels like the other side of Tokyo. I met my friend Rae in Shibuya and a free bus came and picked us up. First, I think I should mention that it was myself and two other girls that went. Second, it was gay night, and third, it was by far one of the most fun nights out in the club I have had in a while. I guess there is just something to be said about going to a club and not having to deal with drunk men hitting on you! The club is huge though, I saw at least two different dance floors and then there is the upstairs dance floor, which is actually on the roof top with a great view of the harbor. The club is literally right on the water. We met a ton of really cool people while we were there. Surprisingly, a lot of guys from Hong Kong and even some people from NYC. Gay night at Ageha coincided with the Madonna concert so I think the international crowd was exceptionally large. Oh Tokyo, you never cease to amaze me!

Azubujuban Festival

Although there were no more fireworks festivals, there was one more festival to go to in Azabujuban. Yes I did have to look that one up because for the life of me I cannot remember it. Even with all of the fireworks festivals I had been to this year I hadn't had the chance to wear my yukata, this most likely being the last time I would be able to wear it this year I seized the opportunity. The festival was really cool. There were tons of people and more foreigners than I would have probably cared to see, though being one myself I really can't complain. The fact that we were right next to Roppongi I am sure only contributed to that fact. The bear with really big... Hehemm, well, you know... is supposed to be good luck. There were also these really talented drummers who would play to traditional Japanese music while people danced in a circle below the stage. I saw the most adorable girl dancing and I had to take a picture of her! Right as we were getting to the festival the marching band was just finishing up. It was really cool and reminded me of my parents so of course I had to take a picture! As we walked I saw all the octopus and wasn't really sure how I felt about it, so like I do with everything else, I took a picture and moved on. By the end of the festival my feet were killing me. Along with the yukata I wore the traditional shoes that go with it. It was the first time and most certainly the last. They may be cute but cute just isn't enough!

Summer Vacation Pt. II

The rest of my summer vacation was really nice, less walking and more photos. On Saturday we went to Yokohama, it was raining when we got there but stopped shortly thereafter. Yokohama is one of my favorite places so far. Located right next to the water, there is a great park that overlooks the ocean and is right next to Chinatown. Chinatown is pretty cool, tons of cool shops and one of the first Chinese shrines in Japan. Towards the end of the night we stopped and sat down to watch one of the street performers, an American with nearly perfect Japanese. I took a picture of him with my cellphone. Come to think of it, all of the photos in this entry are from my cellphone. Anyway, if you are unsure as to what you are looking at, yes that is a surgical glove on his head and yes, he does blow it up so much that it pops while still on his head. On Sunday I went to Odaiba to see the fireworks. We sat right next to the water and listened to music the whole time. Looking back, I'm pretty sad that there will be no more fireworks festivals this year. This is a picture I took of the Statue of Liberty. I sent it to my dad and I don't think he believed me when I said it was a gift from France. But apparently, ours is not the only Statue of Liberty, it is a little bigger than this one though... Monday was a good day too! I met Mia and Istvan (Mia's boyfriend) in Harajuku for some shopping and to check out the Meiji Shrine. While we were there Mia told me that Istvan had proposed over the weekend! Congrats again to both of you, I am sooooo happy for you! Later in the day we went for a walk to see the Prada building, the architecture was supposed to be really cool, and it was, sort of... personally I think the building next to it was much cooler. So we did that and were heading back to the train station when we saw this man walking his four little dogs, I guess that would have been no big deal but the were all wearing sunglasses and it was something I just had to take a picture of. So there you have it, that was pretty much vacation, ahhh, good times, good times!

2 Days in NIkko

Summer vacation has come and gone, but in its passing new memories were formed. Vacation started on a Thursday, needless to say we all wanted to cram as much stuff into 1 week as we could and so bright and early I left my house, setting out for a little town called Nikko. Nikko is about 2 1/2 hours from Tokyo and is famous in Japan for its temples and beautiful scenery. The picture of the REALLY big temple (I tried to stand as far back as possible and still couldn't get the whole thing in the photo) is Rinno-ji Temple. It is the largest of the temples in Nikko. Inside the temple is a large statue of Amida Nyorai, the Buddha of the Western Paradise, on its right, Senju Kannon, the goddess of mercy and on the left by Bato-Kannon, who is known as the protector of animals. All three are lacquered in gold and date back to the early part of the 17th century. All of the temples were truly beautiful. At the bottom of the hill, before we got to the temples was the Sacred Bridge, the bridge was cool, though none of us wanted to spend the money to walk across it! Though really, what I like the most was the vivid blue water the flowed underneath it, it almost looked as though someone had been dropping gallons of blue cool-aid into it! While we were going through our first temple of the day, we kept hearing what sounded like fighting going on, turns out there was some sort of practice going on, I took one photo, but didn't want to be disrespectful, so after watching them for a couple of minutes we quietly moved on. There were so many things going on and I took so many pictures it was hard to decide which ones to put up here, so there are kind of a lot! Oh, and anyone who is doing a lot of traveling and is looking for a fairly inexpensive place to stay that has a cool staff and a good vibe should definitely check out the Nikko Park Lodge, its run by some 2 guys, one is a Zen monk and he does a yoga class every morning, they also serve a vegan dinner every night! So we were in Nikko for only two days, and we tried to fit in as much as possible, we went back to the temples on Friday morning and then headed out the Kegon falls. Kegon falls is the country's most famous waterfall and is what attracts many visitors to Nikko every year. The photos I have up here are from a hike we did in the mountains about the waterfall and lake. As usually, it was pretty hazy that day, so the pictures aren't as clear as I like them to be, then again maybe it just adds to the scenery... who knows! I was a little sad to leave on Friday night, while I was really tired and my feet hurt from all of the walking, there was something about that place that was very peaceful... NOT like Tokyo! Coming back to reality on Saturday and all the people was also a nice surprise though, I think it is good to have a little bit of everything in one's experiences.

Chillin' at Onjuko

I feel it neccessary to put a bit of a disclaimer on this one... here it goes, Materials in this blog post may not be suitable for children under the age of thirteen due to the sheer randomness of some of the photos (not inappropriateness, as some may argue), in anycase, reader beware! Lovely Onjuko beach, located approximetely 3 hours away from my house and interestingly enough, right next to Mexico. Giant cactus in Japan? Nope, doesn't surprise me one bit. The man in the speedo who seems to embrace the things other men would be insecure about, that actually surprised me a little bit oh, and the fake boob that washed up during a really high wave, that surprised me a bit too. All in all, a very good day at the beach. Unfortunetely we did not get in as much time in the water as we would have liked. The lifeguards kept coming over the loud speaker telling everyone to get out of the water,apparently there was a giant storm out at see that was causing the big waves that brought in the fake boob, and there were typhoon conditions which made it dangerous for us to go swimming. We stayed at the beach until there was almost no one left, I am seeing more of a trend everytime I go out in Japan, it seems that the people are all on these internal clocks that tell them when they have to leave, no questions asked, and one minute they are there, and the next, poof! The only ones left are the Americans and Canadians sitting on the beach drinking some beers... oh and wait, here they come, the random foreign guys carrying a boombox, I knew we were forgetting something. And we wonder why they stair at us on the train...