hello, hello

I know it's been awhile.

But, you see, being in love with life takes up a lot of time.

Kinkaku Shrine! Look how shiny.

View of Kyoto from Kiyomizu Temple.

We are ninjas. We are at a ninja restaurant. We go big or go home.

WHALE SHARK!

At the awesome aquarium in Osaka - that's the whale shark behind me!

Epic hike through hundreds of gates/tori in Kyoto.

Pretty picture, right?

My fellow exchange students in front of the gate in the water, enjoying a brief vacation/tour of Japan.

Approaching Miyajima, aka: Jurassic Park. (Not really even where they filmed it, but I swear it could have been.)

The famous Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo.

At the Lock-Up, a prison-themed restaurant.

Crea Mall at night.

The Kawagoe Matsuri (street festival) in all its crowded, float-filled nighttime glory.

Cell Phone Photo Diary

Japan as witnessed by my phone:

Tokyo Game Show / Akihabara

9/18/10

• Purple poofy skirt + Mesh shirt = Me = Maybe overkill.
• Spider bite.
• Game show in Tokyo. Enough said.
• Most crowded train ride of life. Sardines in a can is accurate to the t.
• Long, long wait to get into game show.
• Way, way more people than expected in Game Show.
• Light and cameras and crowds and games and noises and craziness.
• Dressed up people everywhere.
• Perverted men and scantily clad women in the same convention does not equal happy gaijiin.
• Stupidly brave decision to leave the Show, hop on a train, and hope to end up in Akihabara. The words, "Let's get lost!" definitely left my mouth at some point
• Success. Akihabera, hello hello.
• Electric City: Bright and crowded and the amount of staring directed in our direction was ridiculous to the point of annoying.
• More anime shops than can be described.
• Adventure into the mother of all adult shops. Emerge traumatized.
• AWESOME, SUCCESS.

Things I Love Thursday

Picture Edition!

ALSO LOVING:

my host family; Japanese food; rain after 10 days of hot humidity; Kawagoe; ‘rolling’ sushi bars; almost knowing my way around Harajuku; Skype conversations with my family (and friends!); Samurai Champloo (look at me! I have a favorite anime. This makes me a cool kid.); understanding bits and pieces of the conversation going on around me; milk tea from the vending machine; after dinner chats with Yuki-chan; photo-booths (!!!).

TOKYO

TOKYO

On Saturday (your Friday), a group of us JSP students went into Tokyo to look around and go to a concert. It was pretty much amazing, and we definitely plan on going back. We didn’t do much in terms of actually sightseeing, but we did get to simply wander around Harajuko.

The concert was also one of the most insane things ever. First, everyone else was dressed to the nines. You will see what this means in the pictures below. It was a VIsual K concert, which pretty much (as far as I know) means that the band consisted on men in elaborate, ornate drag. The crowd was amazing too: insanely... organized? They all knew the ‘hand-dance’ they were supposed to be doing during each song. And they all had matching flags they whipped out and during one song and matching fans for another.

In conclusion: Awesome.