new year's in tokyo!

122908 mon 10:50pm

shinjuku, tokyo!!!

i’m in tokyo!!! in shinjuku! great location!!! and this hotel is only a twenty minute walk away from the shinjuku JR train station. and along the way are streets chockful of shops and eateries and people and everything!!! i went out at 5pm and got back a little after 10pm. everything basically closed between 9 and 10, but the lights, which turned on by dusk, were amazing!! definitely rivaled new york’s times square... and i’m only mentioning shinjuku’s lights.

i ate a quick dinner here in shinjuku, and i had a craving for crepes, but i couldn’t find them for some reason! SO... i went to harajuku! besides, i wanted to go there when shops were actually open!!

and it was great!! i realized there are four crepe shops on that small street of takeshita! so i got my crepe fix hehe. but i didn’t expect to SHOP!!

yes.

i finally shopped in japan!! in harajuku, no less! :)

speaking of which...

i just gotta mention the japanese girls’ fashion. i... can’t stop staring!!! everyone kinda dresses in the same crazy, cool fashion!! but everyone still looks different!!

i realized there’s a basic formula: short skirt over tights or knee highs. and high heels or knee-high boots. cool yet cute top (almost always flowy). tops can layer over one another. pretty coat. simple jewelry. hair: straight and sleek, or naturally colored and wavy, OR wild crazy and unnatural vibrant color. it’s SO hot!! i want, just for one day, to wear just as awesome an outfit so that i could pass for a japanese girl!! :D

but i often see extreme cases of the japanese affinity for fashion. i saw these girls wearing a weird, new kind of high heel... where there’s NO heel but, instead, a wedge that starts from the front of the foot to like the middle of the foot! so that when a girl walks, she can’t walk normally with the heel coming down to the ground first... it looks soo uncomfortable. and they walk so slow... but no one seems to think it’s ridiculous. cuz it’s fashion!

speaking of girls walking... i noticed that a lot, if not most, of them are pigeon-toed... as in they walk with the front of their feet coming inward. really interesting. cuz it’s like all of them! so weird. cuz i haven’t seen a group of people do something so unnatural all together! did they just see each other doing it and decided to follow suit?? or is it a form of attractiveness for them?? regardless.. it’s interesting.

you know what else is interesting??!??

the japanese writing system!!! i’m getting familiar with katakana... and it’s pretty exciting for me!! cuz i can now recognize the symbols with the sounds... and i got SO surprised the first time i read something!!! haha. it was “ramen.” and today... i read “karaoke” and “lion” (or rion, haha). and i got SOO excited! hahah.

and... last thing.

i’ve been eating meat. cuz... like last weekend... i ordered the wrong thing, and i got rice and beef in a bowl. it looked gross. and instead of having to go through the hassle and/or miscommunication of trying to get another bowl ... i just ate it. it was ok. i felt like i had to drink a gallon of water to get the disgust off my mouth afterwards. but whatever.

i’m not really making a big deal out of it. i figure i really can’t put too much control into what i eat these days just cuz i know i’m bound for miscommunication everyday i’m here.

also, when i went out to eat okonomiyaki two nights ago, there was pork in it. and instead of troubling others, i just ate it all.

and todayyy... i ordered curry for dinner, but i didn’t realize the curry had beef in it. soo... yeah i ate that too.

but it’s not as if i like it. i really do feel disgusted when i eat it. i’m still never gonna order food that i know has beef or pork, but if i find either in my food, i won’t go crazy. i’ll just try to find dessert afterwards asap! haha.

we’ll see what kind of food tomorrow will bring. hehe. but oh. i probably don’t have money for food anymore. i spent it all shopping today! hahah. maybe it’s a good thing...

ok one last thing. this hotel has tv!!! my first time watching japanese tv!!! soo interesting! i’m currently watching a program with happy fashion models showing the latest fashion trends! hahah. the models are sooo prettyyy. and omg... japanese fashion is amaaazinnggg!! i love it!!!!

123008 tues 9am

i just washed in the public bath!!! whooaoaa!!! that’s a first.

there’s a small foyer for slippers and wet towels. then a bigger room for many sinks, mirrors, and lockers. and through foggy sliding doors, was the bath: there was a huge shallow pool full of hot water, and along two walls of the room were individual places with a stool, a small bucket, a movable showerhead, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and mirror.

it wasn’t a big deal. there was only one other person in that big room, and we didn’t pay attention to each other. the most i saw of her was her back. i didn’t mind it at all. it was actually pretty warm, and i enjoyed myself. hahah. and it’s old-school japanese, so i’m experiencing culture!!! :)

11pm

oh my goodness, i’m so tired. i was out and about for eleven hours today!! i went to:

1. tokyo tower

2. asakusa

3. shibuya

i checked out tokyo tower and was really tempted to go up on it. but i also saw the long line for the elevator and the tickets... and i decided to put it off for another day. it’s usually open from 9am, and i asked if it was open on new year’s day. so that maybe i’d be one of the first to get there since i’ll be awake all night anyway. and i got an answer that excited me. not only is it open on new year’s day, it opens at 6am! so yes! i’ll definitely be there!! i had worried what i would do in these first hours of the new year... especially since i most probably won’t be spending it hanging out with people... so i was really excited that i would have something to do!! :D and FURTHERMORE!! i can’t believe how lucky it would be! i’d go up and see the first sunrise of the year!!! :D

i’ve been recommended by three different people on three separate occasions to go to asakusa (pronounced ah-sock-sah). so i was really excited to go there. i went not knowing what to expect. i was just looking for a temple. and boy!!! i found it and then some!! (aside: i found it not asking anyone! i just followed my instincts.) i saw the kaminarimon gate and was in awe. i took pictures. i walked through this gate and was FLOORED!!! the asakusa marketplace is amaaazing!!! (i think the name is nakamise.) just one long narrow stretch of specialty shops!! full of food and souvenirs and trinkets and everything!!! holy cow!!! it’s so pretty too!! i could not not not stop taking pictures. and omg it was SOO packed and crowded that you could hardly walk straight. which was fine, because every little store beckoned to me anyway. there were soo many tourists and foreigners. but the majority of the people were japanese, assumedly not from tokyo... and everyone apparently has the same taste and they know what’s good. cuz they would all line up for the same foods! so i definitely followed suit... i tried everything that had formed crowds. haha. omg. yummy! i had anko cakes, fried anko cakes, rice crackers, rice crisps, and kibi-dango! the last was my fave.. mochi on a stick and covered by a sweet brown powder, yum!

at the end of the shops was the other gate to the temple... and that area was soo fun!!! soo many people. in the middle of the courtyard was a big box burning with incense, and they all knew to waft the incense towards them; i followed suit. and all around the courtyard were stands with drawers. and they all knew how to retrieve their fortunes from them; i followed suit. that was really cool.

first i paid 100 yen. then i shook this metal hexagontal prism to get a wooden stick out of it. and then i checked the two-character writing on the stick. i found the drawer with the matching characters, opened it, and took out “my fortune” from it! there was an english translation of the fortune, and i read it. it was very generic, obviously, but at least it was positive! (“good fortune in future.”) i kinda chuckled at some of the things it said. smiled at some. frowned at others. i took a picture. here are some of the things it said, haha:

“you still can’t distinguish jewels from stones... you’ll come across lots of difficulties and become sad. what you hope will be completed just like flowers bloom on old branches... your wishes will be realized in the end. a sick person has to be in bed for a long while, but will not lose life. the lost article will not be found. the person you are waiting for will come but late. building a new house and removal are half fortunate. marriage is not so good now, but will be good later. making a trip and employment should be stopped.”

haha, crazy!! i reeeally don’t get that last part.

interesting going up sensoji temple. everyone apparently knew to throw in money through these huge grates... all i heard was clink clink clink. and to bow with hands together and pray. interesting. and then i walked around the streets behind and around the temple... very very quaint and old tokyo. some parts seriously looked as if they could’ve looked like that like 200 years ago. so that was cool.

i really enjoyed myself in asakusa, and i went to shibuya next... because that first time i went, shops were closing or closed when kat and i got there, hehe.

ohhh my goshhh!! talk about contrast from old-school asakusa. was i EVER glad i went.

WHEW!!

so... gary, my fellow geos trainee, told me that he visited new york after living in tokyo for a year, and quite frankly, he found that new york UNDERWHELMED him. i could kinda imagine how that could be possible, but i really didn’t understand.

but tonight... i understood.

holy cow!!! shibuya is crraaazzyy!!!

lights lights lights!! sounds and crowds and fast and cool! the EPITOME of cool and fun!!

all the buildings are so gigantic! but the shops are tiny! which means lots of shops!!

i went...

to shibuya 109.

holy cow. it’s an eight-story building of shops strictly for young women. as if that isn’t cool enough, the stores themselves are THE coolest shops i have EVER ever seen in my LIFE!!!

i’ve mentioned this over and over already. but.

JAPANESE FASHION IS AMAZING!!!

i can’t even begin to describe how cool and sophisticated and cute and trendy the fashion is. i can’t. anything is an understatement. colorful! anything goes! (so long as it accentuates beauty!) and the girls definitely know how to wear the look. i was definitely wishing that i was a tokyo girl. oh wait. forget “harajuku girls.” i wanna be a shibuya girl! haha.

i didn’t shop though. cuz i already spent my shopping money at harajuku, ha. but it’s okay. i probably cannot pull off anything from shibuya 109. haha.

and then i went back to the hotel. and that’s it.

when i wake up, i have a long 36 hours ahead of me, so i really need my sleep tonight.

by the way! tonight, i decided that i wanted to go to the imperial palace sometime this week. i checked it out in my japan guidebook, and i found out that it’s closed on mondays, fridays, new year’s eve, and new year’s day!!! i’m in tokyo this week basically monday to friday. wednesday (tmrw) is new year’s eve, and thursday is new year’s day. soo today was the only day i could have gone!!! oh just my luck!! grrr. i think the other gardens and the museums have the same schedule. oh well... i’m coming back during prime garden-strolling season anyway!!

010109 thurs 8pm

i am EXHAUSTED. going to sleep NOW.

010209 fri 9am

OHHH MY GOODNESS!!! i had eleven hours of sleep, and i still didn’t want to get up!!

new year’s eve and new year’s day were craaazzyyy for mee!!

i had a FULL day new year’s eve of walking and sightseeing, had LESS THAN ONE HOUR of sleep (inadvertently in a temple!), and another FULL day new year’s day of walking and sightseeing.

and i had an awesommee time!!!

new year’s in japan is AMAAAZZINNGNGG!!!

wed dec 31st. new year’s eve.

1. ueno

2. omote sando / harajuku

3. meiji jingu shrine

4. asakusa – sensoji temple!!

1. i’d wanted to go to ueno because i knew all the museums and a popular park are there. but of course, all the museums are closed this week! but i went still because chihiro, with whom i’ve been emailing everyday since i got my phone!, recommended to me the street market there: ameyayokocho (or ame-yoko). so i went. and was overwhelmed again!! holy cow. SOOO MANY PEOPLE!! it’s a tiny street full of shops on the side, like the nakamise market at asakusa, but they sell meat and fish also. soo many shops for meat and fish. and nuts and dried fruits and rice crackers and hot foods and bags and shoes and perfumes and little trinkets!!! golly gee. i walked the whole street (at turtle speed cuz people were like sardines in there!), and i only got a cream taiyaki (meh, it’s better at koriyama!) and a giant takoyaki (i’m sure there’s a name, but i don’t know what). THAT was great!!

i walked around ueno.. i went to the park and took pictures. it was QUITE a lovely day. blue sky. and the withering yellow reeds in the big lake were a nice contrast. it’s a huge park, and ALL the museums are actually located there.. so i went to at least the tokyo national museum, where the most i did was take a picture. haha. but it took me almost an hour to get to that museum (next to a huge courtyard with a big fountain), and i went back to find the subway.

then i went all the way to roppongi to check out the roppongi hills building. it’s HUGE. very tall and shiny!!! haha. but it’s a very high end area, so i didn’t do much. the most i did was ask for information about temples and shrines, just in case there WAS a really big one in the area.

i went to meiji jingu shrine so that i could compare and contrast with asakusa’s temple. it was 4 o’clock new year’s eve, and i was torn between a buddhist temple and a shinto shrine. so.... meiji jingu shrine... is intense!!! there are three massive gates leading up to it, and it’s a ONE-MILE walk on a wide, sandy, pebbly road through the woods!!! intense. i walked it... thank goodness it’s amply lit (the sun had already set) and there were a few people walking with me. i got to the main shrine, and threw in some coins to the... pit (haha) and prayed to God. it was interesting, but i imagined a more festive midnight on new year’s... soo i decided to go to asakusa.

but before i went, i saw that like four blocks of omote sando had stalls and stalls of street vendors selling hot food!! yummm!!! there were: takoyaki, soba noodles (traditionally eaten before the end of the year for long life), taiyaki, those small round pancakes, chocolate-covered bananas (those seem to be popular, and i wonder if there’s symbolism there), many versions of okonomiyaki, octopus on a stick, potatoes, o-sake (hot sake), and hard-candied fruits!!! oh my goodnessss!!! the variety and the festivity were almost overwhelming!! i couldn’t help myself... i got okonomiyaki, another cream taiyaki for the day (better:), the small pancakes, o-sake, and a chocolate banana!!! haha, whoa. yeahh... i just wanted to try EVERYTHING!!! ok maybe not the octopus on a stick, haha. oh and although the o-sake was sweet at first sip, i couldn’t down my whole cup.. i just didn’t like the alcohol taste. hehe.

finally, after 7pm, i went back to asakusa for new year’s eve midnight.

010309 sat 7:30am

[continuing...]

when i got there, i got worried that the festivity wouldn’t be so big after all. there were only a few people walking towards the temple with me, and some people were walking out! but then again, when i got there it was only 8pm, and i was relieved to find that before the temple, there were lots of people lining up to pray at the top. and i walked around and found that ALL AROUND the temple were stalls and stalls of little shops selling fooood!!! basically all the same things from meiji jingu / omote sando.. i guess these are all the traditional things people eat on new year’s. and it looked as if they were all just starting their cooking and baking and making their specialties!! cuz as i was walking, all the vendors were looking at me as if i was a potential first customer, haha. soo... i figured that with all these seemingly hundreds of shops, thousands of people were expected. so this festivity was gonna be big!!

so i was excited. but it was only 8pm! and i had four hours BY MYSELF until midnight. so what did i do?? i of course tried out food!! even though i was like still full from eating and nit-picking at meiji jingu. haha. the soba did NOT look appetizing... but i got it (for an overpriced 500 yen) just because it’s traditional haha (i am soo easily manipulated!)... and yeahhhh, in that case, looks were definitely not deceiving, haha. i also got the chocolate-covered chinese pancakes on a stick (haha) and a hard-candied clementine (mmm, so good!!). so i was stuffed. but the eating whiled the time away, haha. and i just kept circling the area... store-watching and people-watching. there were indeed thousands who ended up coming and patronizing all the shops.

by 11pm, i joined the crowd that had formed in front of the temple and behind the guards who were holding up a sign of some sort. and there i waited until midnight, haha. thank goodness i had a phone which provided me with some kind of entertainment. otherwise, i would have been crazy bored there amidst all these strangers whose language i didn’t speak. aww. haha. whatever, it was cool. everyone seemed so happy and excited and feeling everything i felt the hour before new year’s midnight. :)

fri jan 1st. new year’s day!

i kept checking the time before midnight cuz there didn’t seem to be a countdown. but by 11:58, you could feel the energy. and when midnight finally came, i heard one of the guards speak, and the crowd cheered (albeit a little toned down than i’m accustomed to, haha). i heard a couple of people cry out, “happy new year!” hehe. and then i felt myself being pulled forward by the sea of people!! apparentlyyy... they do even MORE praying at the top!

i was one of the first to be allowed into the temple just a couple of minutes after midnight, and oh my goodness! it was crazy!! THAT was the craziness i was waiting for. people RAN to the coin pit and zealously threw their coins in, and all i heard were jingles and tinkles, and it RAINED silver and bronze all in front of me. hahah. and immediately after throwing in their money, everyone bowed their heads in prayer for a few seconds then calmly struggled their way out of the crowd and towards the stalls of food!! but that crowd seemed to never diminish. people just kept coming and coming. the courtyard and nakamise market, which was all lit up, seemed just as thick with people at 1:30am (when i left) as it was at 11pm. crazyy. and of course the food areas kept filling up too with hordes of hungry people, hehe.

i don’t know how i whiled away yet another two hours of walking around the area. but i did! everything seemed even more lively after midnight! i had forgotten about the bell ringing actually... but i came across it! pretty interesting. the bell was huge! probably my height. and it was rung with a big, wooden bar that was held up horizontally by two ropes. and it was on a high platform so that the people who rang the bell had to go up some steps. they all took turns ringing the bell so that there were probably 108 people chosen to do so (looked like they were officials). (they ring it 108 times to destroy the 108 desires that cause people to do evil, according to buddhist belief.) the bell was rung probably every 30 seconds or so. it was loud! and each time, the people cheered! hehe. it was pretty cool.

i’m so glad i got to experience that new year’s celebration!! :D

i kinda didn’t want to leave, and i made one more circle. and in doing so, i finally encountered the first real geisha i’d ever seen!! well actually, there were two. and they were just standing there talking with an older woman, as if they were about to go somewhere or do something. and they were decked out in full geisha attire: white faces and backs, beautiful kimonos with obi, the white socks and slippers, and the big black wigs. they were beautiful. i couldn’t stop looking. i wanted to take a picture, but i was too close, and i didn’t want them to notice since i know they’re sacred people in japan. but haha... when they walked away, i followed them and i took pictures from the back. haha.

so after that, i finally left.

and here’s my side note. my hotel has a 12:30am curfew!... and i was NOT going to come back to the hotel by 12:30, ha. soo... i decided that i was gonna stay out new year’s and just return to the hotel at 6am, when people were allowed back. but. chihiro’s plan of saving me money by checking me out and then checking me back in the next day made it so that i couldn’t return to the hotel until 4pm!! sooo.... that’s why i was a little worried for myself. one, because i didn’t know what i was gonna do between midnight and morning. and two, i didn’t know if i could stay awake for 30+ hours!! i knew tokyo would SOMEhow keep me entertained during the day, so the former fear was actually greater! haha.

oh my gosh, thank GOD i had my japan guide book because it proved to be indispensable on this trip! and here is where i read that in tsukiji is the biggest fish market in the WORLD, and that a lot of tourists actually go there as early as 2am to watch the fish being unloaded from the ships and then sorted into the shops. soo... i headed for tsukiji! only ten stops away from asakusa.

i got there, and there was a temple by the station, where bonfires were being kept lit by guards or policemen. i asked one of them where the fish market was, and he replied: “one street [point]. closed. 31, 1, closed. temple. open.” hahahha. grrreeaatt. so i figured that it was one block away, but it was closed for new year’s. but at least the temple was open! so i actually went to the fish markets just to see the street. and yup... pretty silent! so i went back to the temple, cuz it was like 3-ish, and i didn’t really want to go yet to the next thing on my itinerary. haha.

the temple proved to be a God-send. wow. God is definitely watching over me. first of all, all the shrines and temples i’d visited prior to this one (and i’d visited lots already! haha) didn’t allow people inside, much less have seats inside! and this one not only allowed visitors in, it was open the whole night – with the heat on, and i saw that a couple of people were sleeping inside even!! so it was a place where i could rest in comfort and warmth! there was a bathroom, and i washed and freshened up there AND i charged my camera (which has been my most prized possession throughout my trip). by 4-ish, i was sitting down on one of the seats, quite glad for the minutes of rest. i had thought about going over to tokyo tower at 4 o’clock, but i decided that that was too early for the 6am opening. and i really didn’t want to freeze outside waiting on line, so i decided i’d try to get there by 5. at 4:25, i closed my eyes hoping to catch maybe 5 minutes of sleep. and i woke up at 5:15. and THAT was too late. i RUSHED to tokyo tower.

i got to tokyo tower by 5:45. and oh my goodness. i realized that i should have been there BEFORE 4! probably even after leaving asakusa! because the line wrapped ALL AROUND the base of the tower when i got there! apparently... THOUSANDS of people had my same idea of watching the first sunrise of the year from the top of tokyo tower. haaaaaaa. but in hindsight, i’m not upset that i got there too late for the sunrise because what i saw was definitely just as beautiful, and i only waited for an hour, whereas had i been there at 4, i would have waited perhaps two hours or more. in the cold.

it was freeeezzinng waiting outside for an hour! and i was there by myself. again... thank goodness for my phone!! cuz while i waited, i started emailing my friends happy new year. :)

i actually went up only to the main observation deck of the tower, around the middle. but that was plenty!!! i got there at 7:10, twenty minutes after the sunrise, and it was GORGEOUS!!! the sun had basically just flooded the sky with gold and touched all the buildings in tokyo with warm light. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, soooo GLAGICAL!!! hahah. :)

gorgeous! beautiful! amazing! :D to see all of tokyo around me beneath a cloudless sky and bathed in the first minutes of sunlight. and the sea shimmering in gold reflecting the sun. it was such a beautiful sight to behold!!!!

i couldn’t stop watching the beauty around me. i took countless pictures while making the circle from east to north to west to south. and i stopped to look southwest... cuz there, in all his majestic grandeur, quite clear and white with snow, was mount fuji! (or as they call it here, fuji-san.) i took tooo many pictures, haha. i ALWAYS get way too excited when i see for the first time something that i’d heard about all my life. and this was no exception. it was my first time seeing the symbol of japan!! and it was absolutely perfect. i could distinctly see the mountain against the clear sky that became blue within the hour of sunrise. i felt so lucky! cuz i hear that on cloudy days, fuji-san is not so visible. wow, what luck! to not only see the sun and the first morning sky of the year in this amazing way, but to also see mt fuji on the first day of the year! :D

i didn’t want to leave, but by 10am, i reluctantly made my way down, to perhaps eat at the food court on the second floor. but on my way, i realized there was a SKY CAFE on the floor below the main observation deck!!! and it was nearly empty!! what luck!! soo... i got a dorayaki and coffee (my first meal of the year at the top of tokyo tower! and for the amazing price of only 500 yen!), and sat down at the booth facing south. it was an amaaazinngg view to have while eating breakfast. all of south tokyo in front of me; rainbow bridge to my left and fuji-san to my right. wow. i couldn’t believe my luck! haha. there were a several people milling about, but not so many that i had to give up my seat for a diner. so i stayed there for an hour and a half!!! just emailing friends. organizing. and most of all... watching the view. :) even if my day had ended after that, it would have already been an amaaazing start to the new year. :D

i could’ve stayed there the whole day, but i still had some things on my agenda, so i set out to go do them.

i next went to ginza! apparently tokyo’s most famous shopping district for the past century or so. i got there and found.... that EVERYTHING was closed for new year’s. ha. but there were still quite a few people walking about. for what, i don’t know, haha. so i just stayed long enough to walk one of the big streets and take pictures, and then i headed out for meiji jingu again.

i had planned on visiting the meiji shrine on new year’s day originally, and it was a detour that i visited on new year’s eve. but it was a good thing that i did because i learned the way to the shrine minus the crowd (doing so with the THOUSANDS of people at meiji jingu on new year’s day would have been a nightmare!). i was also able to compare the place on new year’s eve and new year’s day. talk about night and day!!! wow. new year’s eve was a trickle of water to the deluge on new year’s day!! it was literally a pilgrimage of hordes of people, as if something deep inside the woods was pulling them all in. those gates received hundreds of people every passing minute! there were so many people that while it took me only like twenty minutes to reach the main shrine the day before, it took an hour and a half to reach it the second time! because the guards kept the crowd organized by having us go up to the shrine in groups. so i think i must have stood among the crowd for a good hour waiting. and every time we were allowed to move, we moved like 20 feet. this path is a mile long!

when i finally reached the shrine, it was just like the buddhist temple. it rained silver and bronze in front of me as people threw coins into the coin pit. the only thing different was that immediately after they threw their coins, people clapped their hands twice and bowed their heads as if it was the third clap.

so yup... for this new year’s... i experienced how the religions of buddhism and shinto in japan celebrate. it’s been VERY very cool!!!

i was sooo glad to leave meiji jingu though haha. of course after the shrine, there were all these stands to get fortunes and new year’s paraphernalia which i didn’t understand. but i just wanted to go get food! hahah. went back to omote sando and got takoyaki, yakatori (chicken on a stick with yummy sauce!), and chocolate taiyaki. i later walked more on omote sando and got a banana chocolate mille-feuille crepe! yummmm!!

and this is so sad... after that, i didn’t know what else to do, so i went to shibuya hoping that shibuya 109 (the store strictly for girls) was open. it wasn’t. so because i wanted another crepe, i went back to harajuku and got another one!!! yes. even though i was running on less than one hour of sleep within the past 30 hours and i could’ve gone back to the hotel already, i just HAD to get another crepe!! aaahh!! omg. my crepe appetite is insatiable!!! haha.

i eventually got back to the hotel by 7pm. i had THE most delicious bath... where i soaked for a long while in the hot pool. [sigh] sooo good for my aching muscles. i went to sleep by 8 and slept for 11 hours!! yay! :D

010309 sat 5:45pm

11-28 lions mansion #302, koriyama

i’m back!! yay! :) and i HAVE to finish my journaling for my last day! that was the most social day i had in tokyo!!! yay!

by thursday, i basically had checked out all the major areas of tokyo... well the ones i wanted to check out: asakusa, harajuku, shibuya, ueno, tsukiji, and roppongi. i of course also checked out tokyo tower and shinjuku! (basically my home in tokyo, aww. :) so i was good!!! i actually only had one more place i wanted to go cuz chihiro recommended it, and that was odaiba, but she said that the night scene is great, so i had decided to leave it off for nighttime. soo.... i had the whole day it seemed to loaf around and maybe revisit my favorite places... which are asakusa, shibuya, and harajuku!! :) but i wanted to see something new... so i decided to follow my japan guide book’s recommendation.

i had thought about it, but had told myself to do it if i had the time. and it turns out i did... SO... i went to mount takao!!! it was less than an hour west of tokyo on the express keio line. i followed the directions in my book word for word! haha. and it was great!!!

i took the cable car to near the top of the mountain... and up there was a great view of what i assume was tokyo and the surrounding cities. it was pretty cool... it was all civilized... it was only near the mountain that i could see some greenery. crazy. at that level of the mountain also were food stalls of course! i saw sake being poured into a wooden box that had a picture of a cow on it, hehe. but the box was the only enticing part haha. i instead got toasted mochi on a stick and an azuki bun. both yum. :)

then i just followed the general traffic of the people walking on the path going up. i saw that on the map, there was an area that said, “you can get a fine view of mt fuji from here.” and i seriously hoped that that was where i was headed, haha. my luck was kinda great because really there were many trails and areas that i could have ended up in, but indeed(!), i had gone the way towards the overlook! :)

i thought i had left the temples behind in tokyo. but ha. it seemed that there were even more on this one mountain!!! my gosh. first of all, how did they build all these extravagant, lavish, wonderful buildings on top of a mountain??? and second of all... who was ambitious enough to think about building temples on a mountain!?? haha. but it was cool... i definitely took lots of temple pictures. i am ALL templed out!!!

i kept trudging up the steps and the inclines and the dirt paths where a thin rope was the only barrier from a very steep way down down down the hills full of trees. ha.

and finally i reached the summit!!! basically the same view of the cities on the east. and on the west... was glorious mount fuji!!! gorrrgeous!!! oh my goodness.. if i had thought the view of mount fuji from the top of tokyo tower was beautiful, well this view was even more so! because it was more natural... fuji among lesser mountains. and fuji is for some reason the only mountain covered with snow and practically symmetrical... it just looks... superior!! i took even better pictures than the ones from tokyo tower because of the setting and fuji’s larger size from that vantage point. it was just beautiful!!

i took lots of pictures. and i asked some japanese folks to take a picture of me. they were all very very nice and tried their best to take good ones, haha. aww. when they left, i heard a man ask if the pictures were okay in perfect english and with a british accent. i looked his way, and it was an old man with a friendly face. i said they were ok, and he asked if i wanted him to try. i figured why not. so he took the picture, and ha.. fuji still didn’t come out. but it’s okay.

the man and i struck up a conversation probably just from the delight of finding someone with whom we could talk!! yes, it was definitely a GREAT change from the past few days in which i talked to NO ONE. yayy. :) we chatted for an hour and a half, just whiling the time away. and before i knew it, the sun was setting!!

after i had taken my pics of mount fuji, i actually had planned on going back to tokyo and check out odaiba. i hadn’t planned on staying til sunset! but there i was... the sun ready to go down before my eyes and right behind mount fuji. everyone apparently had the same thought of taking pictures right then also. and it was somewhat comical how everyone was prepared. it was absolutely perfect. the sun gently went down, and fuji’s silhouette against the orange-yellow background was.... WOW. amazing. beautiful. gorgeous. awwwesommeme!! there were a few melancholy clouds above fuji also, and they were trimmed with a GOLDEN lining. sooooooo beauuutifuull!! i could not stop taking pictures. sooo beautiful. they’re absolutely my favorite pictures i’ve taken here in japan!!

everyone started heading back down after they’d taken all the pics they wanted of fuji-san. i took the chair lifts down... which was absolutely wonderful! because we were high on the mountain and below us through the dark of night, we saw the lights of the distant cities at the base of the mountain. sooo beautiful! :)

i got back to shinjuku by 7pm. i thought about going to harajuku again to get some crepes, haha. (yeah... i can’t seem to find them anywhere else!) but i stopped myself. i decided to just explore more of shinjuku. and get some SUSHI!!!! i realized that i hadn’t tried sushi while i was in tokyo, and when i thought of that, i instantly craved it.

so i walked around looking for a sushi restaurant like the other one i saw the other day: it was a standing sushi bar, with good-looking sushi for really affordable prices. and what luck!! i found not a restaurant like it, i found that exact restaurant. hahah. it’s called standing sushi bar, haha.

that was a really enjoyable time. you do indeed stand at the bar... and you just order from the sushi chef, who’s behind the bar in front of you. :) and like 10 seconds later, your order is there in front of you on a green leaf. hehe. it’s exactly like that new york restaurant, sushi yasuda, that sofia and i tried out last summer. or sushi yasuda is just like this, hehe. the difference is that sushi yasuda was like $4 and up per sushi piece. and here, it starts at 75 yen (app. 75c)! and the quality of the sushi.... is .... mmm mmm mmmmmmmmmm!!!!!! SOOO GOOD!!! probably better, even!!! for a $15 meal of 15 pieces of sushi, i had a meal that someone in new york would have paid $50 for. sweet!!!

i liked the atmosphere of that place. whenever someone came in, the sushi chefs would shout out and say hi, especially if the person was a regular. there was a girl (who was a bit drunk) next to me, and she gave me one of her slightly-grilled salmon pieces because she said she was too full. hahah. and she tried to speak english with me. aww.

the sushi was amaaazinng. i loooved the slightly torched salmon, the slightly torched flounder fin, and the slightly torched scallops. yuumm! haha, maybe i just like slightly torched, eh?? haha. it was cool cuz the chef just took out a blowtorch and blazed it right on that raw fish meat! haha, i took a picture. i also took a picture of my first temaki, which is rice and fish rolled in a cone of seaweed.

luckily my sushi chef was reeally really cool. he was like, “sure you can take a picture.” he spoke little english, but he tried to speak with me. i was so sad that i found this place on my last night. :( when i go back tokyo, i’m definitely gonna visit that same sushi bar!!! :D

and that was basically it!!!! i went back to the hotel, took a nice hot bath, and went to bed. :)

but i fell in love with tokyo!!! i looooooved it!!! because of new year’s and staying awake that whole night and because of the language barriers and the loneliness of a major holiday, these five days were probably the most exhausting vacation i’ve ever had!! but it was probably THE most rewarding traveling experience for me!!! not only did i prove even more to myself that i could survive in a place where hardly anyone speaks my own language, i did so alone AND had an amazing time with all the discoveries i made, including the new year’s traditions and the different tokyo areas and mount takao!!! i am quite proud of myself!! :D

my typical day

122308 tues 10:45am

it’s the emperor’s birthday! yay. it’s funny that it’s observed as a national holiday and yet most people here haven’t even seen a picture of him. i asked chihiro what his name was, and she was like, “haha, you know, i don’t even know!” hahah. (i read in one of my japan books that it’s akihito, and it’s now his 20th year of reign.)

anyways. i’m glad for another day to relax and do some errands and TRY OUT FOOD!! hehe.

i just had a cream taiyaki for breakfast (oh i love it!) and it’ll be yet another three hours til lunch (i’m craving that kaiten sushi), and i’ve already done more laundry, organized some papers and cleaned the apartment... so what’s there for me to dooo?? hahah. journal. (btw, so sad that i’m planning my day around food! haha.)

hmm... let me journal about my typical work day.
i have to be at the school between 11:59 and 9pm. but i usually wake up by 8:30. even without my alarm. and even if i only have 6 hours of sleep. grrr.

i take my time to shower and get ready. i really don’t know which direction my balcony faces, but if i wanted to, i can watch the sunrise AND the sunset, haha. opposite each other across the panoramic view, of course. i mention that cuz it means that when i open up the curtains (the first thing i do every morning) my room is bathed in beautiful sunlight (when it’s a sunny day). so i’m usually very cheerful getting ready, singing along to whatever song my itunes plays.

most of the time, i have in my fridge some pastries that i’d bought from max valu. so i toast one of them and boil some water for green tea (yum:). and i eat and drink. and then i’m ready most of the time before 10am. sometimes, when i’m craving cream taiyaki, i wait to eat and just stick around until 9:55 so that i can stop by the taiyaki shop (probably 3 minutes away by bike) to pick one up cuz it opens at 10, haha.

before i leave my apartment, i make sure everything that can be turned off is turned off AND unplugged: my laptop, the toaster, the water heater, all the lights.

my bike is in the bike parking area outside of my apartment. i unlock the lock, put my bag and lock in the basket, and i’m off. because it’s winter, i’m always dressed in the following: stockings, jeans, socks, uggs; tank top, dress shirt, sweater, down feather coat with hood (and sometimes hat), gloves. (it’s freezing to bike otherwise!) (i change in my teacher’s suit and shoes once i get to school.)

if i don’t stop by the taiyaki shop, i can get to the school in 15 minutes. sometimes i take the bridge if i feel like i want a workout (cuz of the incline). most of the time, i take the way where i have to cross a group of 10 (ten!) railroads. sometimes i have to wait a couple minutes there with a bunch of other bikers and cars cuz a train will cross. once i cross, it’s very bumpy! i really don’t think it’s good for my bike’s tires. i also have to share the tiny road with the other cars, so it’s always an experience.

i park the bike in the bike parking area, and i get to the school by 10:30. chihiro also usually gets to the school by 10:30, but half the time, i’m there first. and i open up the school: turn off the alarm, unlock and turn on the automatic glass doors, unlock the manager’s office, turn on the computer, all the lights, and the heater; and log in for the day. i then change into my teaching clothes. (for the whole week, i wear and re-wear one business skirt suit, which i bring on tuesdays and bring home on saturdays to wash. i just change my dress shirt everyday.)

so i’m usually settled by 11. if i have a class at 12, i concentrate hard to lesson plan for that class. if i don’t, i’m more relaxed as i lesson plan for the day. whatever the case, i’m very prepared for my classes. whatever break i have between classes is used to lesson plan or do paperwork. oh and fooding, haha.

the school is located in a really big open shopping center. it’s like a huge rectangular U with the cars parked in the middle. the geos side is two stories. and there’s a supermarket (max valu) downstairs and next door. and so usually after my first class or 1-ish, i go to max valu and buy some food: usually a tuna rice ball, a pastry i hadn’t tried before, and something chocolatey to snack on for the day.

so i go through my day. i hardly ever interact with either curt or yuriko cuz i’m so busy with my own classes. most of the days have 7 classes. thursday has 4. and most days, my last class ends at 9pm. i have to do some paperwork after, so i’m usually done by 9:30. by then i’m soo hungry, so i go to max valu immediately after and buy something for dinner (they have all sorts of ready-to-eat packages). if i know that i don’t have pastries at my apartment anymore, i usually buy a bargain pack of pastries that haven’t been sold and which they prepared at the end of the day. (5 or 6 pastries for ¥300. a bargain when some pastries cost ¥160 or higher!)

then i eat back at the school while i go online!!!!! something which i look forward to the whole day!!! haha. chihiro also stays for HOURS after 9pm cuz she still has loads of work to do. so we kinda silently keep each other company. i sometimes stay until chihiro calls it a day. by 11pm. ha. (there was a time when we stayed past midnight!) we lock up the school together, and i say, “see you in ten hours!” haha.

and then i bike back home through the very quiet streets, although there are always a few people out. i’m somewhat tired and cold (and hungry if i neglected to eat), but very happy that the day is over. and i’m always always listening to my songs in my shuffle. i wouldn’t be able to go through that night bike ride otherwise! (i sometimes even sing, haha.) there’s this stop light that takes forever to change for me cuz it’s across a major 4-lane road. and if it’s a clear night, i inevitably look up and i gaze at orion’s belt and think happy thoughts and i silently send a message to jordan. :)

right before that light changes for me, i search my shuffle for a really upbeat song (usually lady gaga or taylor swift, haha) so that i have a happy song to get me through biking past the graveyard once i turn the corner to my street. haha.

i get through it. park the bike. i can take the elevator, but i take the stairs to the third floor. most of the time, my heart’s still racing from the graveyard, haha... so i turn on my laptop immediately and play a song before i turn off my shuffle, so that i’ll have NO moment of silence, haha. i eat if i hadn’t yet, wash up, maybe journal, and then go to sleep! usually by 12 or 1.

and that’s my day!!! :D