Mobile: 京都

昨日、大阪の新世界と道頓堀で食べたり遊んだりして、京都に行って、ホステルを見つけた！ホステルは外国人いっぱいいるんだけどみんなは優しそう。

大阪の有名な焼きたてチーズケーキを朝ご飯で食べた。そして友達は親戚の家に行って、私は一人で金閣寺を見に行った。金閣寺はすごい混んでた。でもめちゃキレイ〜

今竜安寺にいる。世界遺産！

Kyoto

Yesterday, we ate and played in Osaka's Shinsekai and Dotombori, then went to Kyoto and found our youth hostel. The hostel is full of foreigners, but everyone seems nice.

We ate Yakitate Cheesecake that Osaka is famous for for breakfast. Then my friend went to her relative's house, so I went to go see Kinkakuji by myself. Kinkakuji was really crowded, but suuuper pretty~

Now I'm at Ryoanji. World Heritage Site!

Mobile: 龍安侍

This is the famous Zen rock garden at Ryoanji (temple).

大阪に着いた！

We arrived in Osaka this morning around 5am!　We were originally going to start in Kyoto and make a day trip out to Osaka, but since our bus stopped at both for the same price we figured we'd spend the first day in Osaka and get to Kyoto in the evening to check in to the youth hostel.

We started out by going to Shinsekai where they have a lot of really good food on these really busy streets. We ate some really good kotsukatsu and takoyaki!　Then we made our way over to Namba to see another street. I forgot the name, but I'll figure it out and post again. I'm in this really strange internet cafe right now. Ayae is looking up the phone number to the hostel so we can tell them we'll be checking in a bit late. It's half a manga cafe and half an internet cafe, but entirely creepy. Our half hour is almost up. We'll see how the rest of this trip goes... =D

good things > bad things

So tomorrow I'll be regretting that I didn't do all my reading and that I went to bed late, but today was interesting and fun and full of good things. Little things, but good things.

good things that happened.

- I went to MOS Burger by myself, but Tom ended up going there too so we ate lunch together!
- I ran into Vinodh and So-ky so I actually got to catch up with them a little bit today.
- Had some imagawayaki from Tobu (department store). Red and white an!
- My next 3 volumes of ハチミツとクローバー came!
- Going to Kyoto will only cost 7500 yen.
- I got some unexpected emails. ^_^ (サンキュー！)
- I found out that Hiroshi Fujiwara goes to Pinkberry's. (hahaha...I also want his IDF album, think its worth the 1400 yen it costs to download?)
- Mariah's new album and Epik's new album are awesome.
- Big Bang interview in Japanese. I promise I'm not a crazy fan girl, it was just hilarious and cute. It actually made me laugh out loud. (Youtube 'Big Bang Gyao' and you'll find it.)
- ラストフレンズ was on today. I love the cast. They're all very lovable, with the exception of Nishikido who plays a very convincing abusive boyfriend. O_O
- Japanese commercials are cute. (Yamapi's Toshiba CM, Oguri Shun's aji no moto CM, Arashi's au CM...they're just...Japanese CMs are something else. Haha.)


good things that will happen.

- Tomorrow is Friday!
- I'm going to see Nobuko!
- I'm going to buy new shoes!
- I'm going to read ハチミツとクローバー！
- I'm going to sleep in!
- Vinodh might hook me up at the Singaporean restaurant he works at in Ebisu! (Haha, that one depends though.)


bad things that will happen.

- I will be tired tomorrow.
- I will feel unprepared because I didn't do all the reading.
- I will be doing homework this weekend as well.


But in the final analysis, the good things win, and that's all that matters. =)

大田原市屋台祭り

This weekend, I went to visit Yuhki again for the Otawara yatai matsuri. Roy and I went, and two of Yuhki and Roy's friends also went. We all stayed at Yuhki's so it was a bit of a squeeze, but it was fun. ^_^

On the way to Otawara, our train got delayed because of heavy winds. It was stuck for an hour! I've never been stuck on a delayed train so long. >.<


The festival is a taiko festival where 9 groups from different villages (Otawara, Okubo, etc.) carry out their yatai carts (that are very nicely decorated, I might add) and play taiko while they go around the area. There are a bunch of people pushing, pulling, and turning the yatai while the taiko players sit inside and play. This is the matsuri that Yuhki's group waits for all year, so it's very exciting for them. We walked with them around the town for a few hours before Roy and I got way too cold and a little bored. (They play the same rhythm the whole day...I don't know how they do it...and in that horrible wind.) So we went to cafe*repo, this cute cafe by the karaoke place and had waffles and coffee. (Kinako/kuromitsu waffles are really good!) Then we went to karaoke for a couple of hours. (They literally do the yatai thing all day!) When we got out around 7:30, I met Kuroha and Chitose (Yuhki and Roy's friends) and we got to see all of the yatai come together and 'battle'. I don't really understand how it all works, but it's really cool to see so many people and the different styles of yatai and everything. There was one girl that looked really, really cool standing on top of the yatai because her clothing was blowing in the wind and her hair was done all cool. Then there was lighting that just made her look really bad-ass in general. XD It was so cold though!!!!


When the drumming was finally over (it took a very long time), we went to an izakaya (drinking place) for dinner. For some reason, my appetite hasn't been very good lately, but the food was great there. I tried 'bakasashi' which is a mix of raw horse and deer!!! I've really been getting my share of strange foods this year.

(これは祭りモードのユウキ!　祭りは最高って...笑)

Anyway, after that, we went to karaoke again. (I'm glad the workers changed from when Roy and I were there earlier that day. Hahaha.) We ended around 4 and then slept in until around 11 or so this morning. The actual, actual matsuri was today, but it doesn't go for as long. When we went out to the street, everyone was so nice. Country people are waaaaay nicer than city people. There was one store that offered us beer and gave us sushi boxes..for free. Yummy!

After watching the yatai battle again for a little while, we stopped at a taiyaki (fish-shaped red bean filled pastry things) stand that's really well known in Otawara. People come from the next prefecture over to get taiyaki from them, and I can see why. It's the best taiyaki I've ever eaten. Filled from the head to the tail with azuki. Mmm...and piping hot.

（面白かった、人のいない電車は）

Then Roy and I headed back here. The train car we were in was empty, which was cool since that NEVER happens in Tokyo. We stopped in Ikebukuro to eat at Latin, my favorite spaghetti place. And now I'm finally back, but tired. I'll upload pictures when I get the chance. (Or energy. Haha.)

吉祥寺

Today, since I didn't have school, I went to go hang out with Yu, who I haven't seen for nearly a year and a half or so. We met at Kichijoji, which was a little bit of a pain since it's far, but it turned out well. Roy came too, since they're around the same age and Roy wanted to make friends, I thought that'd be cool, and Yu invited one of his friends, Kenny, who's also around his age. It was weird being the only girl and the only one not fluent in Japanese, but I it was fun since I haven't really been able to hang out with any guys for a while.

Yu, Roy, and I walked around shopping for a bit while we waited for Kenny, who was finishing all of his job-hunting activities. First, we went to go play pool, which was funny since I'm really, really bad at it. I think the whole time, I only dropped one ball. XD Roy is really good, so his team always won, meaning that I won once. Hahaha.

Afterwards, we went to the park and walked around. It was really pretty, although I wish I could have been there when the cherry blossoms were blooming. That would have been really pretty. Yu and Roy pointed out some boats...they say if couples go on them, they'll break up. Go figure. Along the way, we stopped at the yakiniku place I went to with Yoko and Theo over summer.

Then we were off to eat dinner at an izakaya, which was just eating, talking, and good company. And last, we visited a pachinko place so Yu could try for 'beginner's luck'. No one won, and it was really noisy, but interesting since I didn't really understand how pachinko worked before. (There were these weird 冬のソナタ, or Winter Sonata...I forgot the Korean title, machines that were themed machines from the Korean drama. o_O) Roy and Yu are planning to drop by Sophia on Monday just for kicks. That should be interesting. XD It was a good night~.

弁顕密....何だっけ？

Wow, it's been a while.

Since last time, Roy moved to Tokyo. We went out to play the other day, which was cool since I still miss home and all. (No one's called me Madee in months and months, I almost forgot people call me that.) We just went a bunch of random places, ate, and went to karaoke. I'm really not a good guide of Tokyo. Anyway, it was nice to see him, and it's cool that he'll be around for a while.

Besides that, I've mostly been preparing for school and such. Our first day was yesterday. Here's how my schedule looks.

1. Cultural Encounters in Literature
2. Issues in Chinese Women's History
3. Advanced Japanese 1
4. Philosophical Approaches to Buddhism

Those are all Tu/F classes, except Japanese, which is everyday except Wednesday. I might drop one of the 3 non-language classes if I like History and Theory of Architecture during 2nd period on M/Th. Having a complete day, 4 classes in a row, seems like it could really get to me. But then again, then I'd only have Japanese on M/Th and no class on Wednesday, so maybe it would even out.

I must say, the Philosophical Approaches to Buddhism class seems really intimidating. We're going to study the Benkenmitsunikyoron (弁顕蜜二教論) by Kukai in classical Chinese (but pronouncing everything in Japanese). We're going to be working on individual translations into English. (So, kanji studying finally has a purpose..haha.) By the end of the course we're supposed to have it memorized, and our oral test is to recite it. I don't know how I'm going to do that. It's hard to even get through the title smoothly if I'm not looking at the kanji. It seems really interesting, but also really intense. It's a 400 level course, which is the highest in the FLA (Faculty of Liberal Arts), so it probably won't be a walk in the park. Our teacher is a French guy, but I think he was trained at Koyasan. He can chant pretty well.

Cultural Encounters in Literature seems the easiest. It's my lowest numbered class, a 300 level. We'll see. We were going over this whole idea of 自分探しの旅 (a journey to find yourself), and it got me thinking about this whole being in Japan thing. Very strange ideas and all.

Visiting Yuhki

I just came back from visiting Yuhki in Tochigi-ken. It was just a really short overnight trip, but it was nice to see him. He took me to Nikko. (After all "NIKKO IS JAPAN" according to all the posters I see everywhere.) It's actually sort of gaudy because it's so colorful and decorated, but it's pretty amazing to see since you can go everywhere. I saw the three monkey carvings, with the whole 'see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil' faces. I also saw the sleeping cat and the bird. According to the lady giving an explanation, the cat isn't actually sleeping, but the point is that it is so peaceful there that a cat and bird can live together peacefully. My favorite part was the big shrine area with the dragon on the ceiling. If you make a sound on from under the dragon's tail, it won't come out very loud, but if you go up to where the dragon's mouth is and clap or make noise, it's magnified. It's really cool. It snowed a little bit while we were there so it was really cold, but it was nice to see everything and be in nature.


Later, Yuhki took me to his taiko practice. It's a waaay chill setting and really short, but the kids are really good and the adults are even better. =D It's matsuri taiko so its different than in the states, but you can tell that everyone that does it really enjoys it so it's a great atmosphere. The drums are also really nice. The guy who makes them is a professional and did work on drums for Memoirs of a Geisha. (The shime tightening method they use is sooo much smarter than in the states. A lot less work.) We went out for dinner after that, but I didn't talk much. I was pooped, and as I get tired, my Japanese gets worse, so I'm afraid I might have given them a bad impression of me. =/ Ah well, I guess that can't be helped now.

It was nice to just hang out with Yuhki for a bit though. He's Nintendo Man. He has the craziest Nintendo goods. Today, we just relaxed a bit, went to a Brazilian place for lunch, then headed back to Tokyo, since he's going on a trip to Nara. All in all a nice getaway from Tokyo.


I added pictures to the old blogs and more on flickr, so check it out!

森美術館：ART IS FOR THE SPIRIT

Yesterday (since it is technically very early on Tuesday morning), I went to see the 'ART IS FOR THE SPIRIT' exhibit at the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi. I went there once before for the 'Roppongi Crossing' exhibit, and I think it is one of my favorite museums.

The exhibit included work from everywhere and covered the three parts 'THE BODY' (a lot of portraits), 'THE BUILT WORLD', and 'SPACE'. I was most exchited to see Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol's work. It was nice to see some work by Warhol that wasn't a multi-colored Marilyn Monroe face or Campbell's Soup can. Same for Lichtenstein, since most of the work I've seen by him is the 'comic book' style, it was cool to see some of his paintings and things. There were some Gary Hume pieces next to Lichtenstein's that I really liked, though I don't know much about his other work. They were very solid colored and bright silhouette portraits that used some pretty colors and interesting shapes. Ryuji Miyamoto (宮本隆司) had some amazing photos. (The ones on that site are actually a few of the ones that were on display.) I also really liked a collection of photos of happy children. I know that's a lame description, but since the exhibit book was sold out, I'm going off of memory. I can't remember the title of the collection, but it was done by Nobuyoshi Araki (荒木経惟). Expect some artist posts in my other blog eventually.

There was also a section called 'ANOTHER LANDSCAPE' that looked at the changing landscape of cities as see through contemporary Asian art. Yin Xiuzhen did a really interesting 'Portable City' piece of Tokyo in a suitcase. Ryuji Miyamoto's work was in this section as well. If you want to see some crazy detailing, Manabu Ikeda's (池田学) piece, 'Ark' was also really insane to look at up close.

Overall, it was a really interesting exhibit, though I do like 'Roppongi Crossing' and 'Space for your future' more. (I think that has more to do with the theme of the exhibit than the actual artists though.) Apparently BMW has something artistic going on that involves Roy Lichtenstein, so maybe I'll check that out when it's going on, but we'll see.

We were also able to go to Tokyo City View and see it at night, which was great. I think the view is a lot more impressive at night than it is during the day, though it's also much more crowded and very hard to take pictures. I'll post some up next time I get the chance.





Sorry pictures are taking me a long time, I don't have time to upload right now. (I should actually be sleeping, I'm going to Tochigi tomorrow to visit Yuhki for a day, then we're coming back to Tokyo on Wednesday since he's going on a trip. Crazy~!)

お花見

Yesterday, I went to go see the cherry blossoms in a park in Shinjuku. After eating lunch at an Indian place with my friend and her parents, we went over to the park. It was a lot bigger than I expected and had tons of cherry trees. Dark pink, light pink, almost white. There was an 'Amazon greenhouse', but it was closed. Then a French garden too. I was really surprised at how many people came out, especially since it started raining. My favorite tree was this one that had light pink blossoms and really dark pink ones at the same time. It was really pretty and really relaxing.





After that, Nobuko and I went over to Kameido and went to karaoke for a bit to hide out from the rain. Then we went to get our hair cut. =D I didn't realize how many hair-related words I don't know in Japanese. Like bangs and things like that. I'm glad the guy was really patient when I was trying to explain myself. It's really different from the place I go to in the states. They cover your eyes with a cloth when they wash your hair, two people blow dry (it's so hard not to laugh), then they do this weird head massage thing that feels like they're trying to pull your head off. Haha.

Anyway, afterwards we went to a cafe and Nobuko helped explain why some of the stuff I said didn't make sense and things like that. Oh man, that was an experience. Haha. Pictures later!

読み終わった！

I finally finished reading 小さな王子さま！

It really is a great book. (That's saying a lot considering it still had that much of an impact, even reading it in my 2nd language.) Recommend, recommend, recommend!

I was looking for a new book to read today in Ikebukuro and came across what I initially thought was a new Haruki Murakami book. (It's the same one Yoshikaga Kajiwara has on his blog.) It turned out to be Capote's "Breakfast at Tiffany's" translated by Murakami. Go figure. I'm probably going to take another stab at とかげ (Lizard) by Banana Yoshimoto, but before that I'm going to read the book Rie bought me for Christmas. 大切なきみ (You are Special). It's a translated copy of the book by Max Lucado. It's short like a children's book, so I'll let you know how it goes~

あっちこっち all over the place!

So today I went here and there. It was nice to get out of my apartment for a whole day for once. I had an amazing night of sleep since I forced myself to stay awake the night before and woke up nice and early, did a little cleaning, then left~~

First stop was Ikebukuro for money, then Koujimachi to go to school and get a new ID. Since I had to wait around for an hour I ended up at Tully's with a milk & honey latte reading more of 小さな王子様. I'm almost done! It's a really cute book and I highly recommend it. After getting my new ID, it was back to Ikebukuro for more errands.

I ended up getting a new commuter pass (finally) and a new wallet. Wallets are so expensive here. >.< Especially since it's spring and everything in the stores is a new arrival or some new spring fashion. I ended up with a nice, simple, beige and brown patent leather Comme Ca Du Mode wallet for a bit more than I would have liked to pay, but much less than a lot of the other ones available. (I told a friend how much it costed and she said it was cheap, so I've concluded that Japan is just ridiculous.) Some weird creepy old guy came up to me and was like, "Are you free? Are you meeting someone? Do you have an hour to spend with me?" and crap. I tried the I-don't-speak-Japanese-and-I'm-American tactic with him, but it didn't work, so I basically called Monique, then walked away as fast as I could. o_O Creeps.

I met up with Monique after that and we went to Cafe Du Monde. I think I might be addicted... Followed by an hour of karaoke. I love weekday karaoke prices. So cheap! And Monique is a great singer. ^^ Then we walked around the department stores for a little bit before heading off to Komegoma station to meet Aya. (I picked up the latest CD Data magazine since they have a huge article on Utada Hikaru and a mini issue of Hirai Ken. =D Hopefully I'll get around to reading it soon.)

At Komegoma, we stopped at a combini for food and then went on our way to Rikugien (六義園) to see the cherry blossoms all lit up. It was gorgeous!!! They have a huuuge sakura tree in full bloom that's lit up for a few days this month because of the beautiful blossoms. I'll be posting pictures. It was nice to sit and appreciate nature, eat (Aya brought us Beard Papa's cream puffs, she's so sweet), and chat with friends. I didn't know hanami was such a big deal here. I mean, I know its popular and all, but they have stamps and stuff, kind of like they do at National Parks back home to prove that you went and all that. Pretty intense. Since it was night time, I'm hoping to also make it out to Ueno Park to see the cherry blossoms during the day. We'll see...




Sorry the pictures are so blurry. Since it was night time, it was hard to get the setting on my camera to work...that and there was a breeze and I was cold...which didn't help my unsteady hand. T_T

何年ぶり食べなかったデザート

The dessert I haven't eaten in how many years...

久しぶりにビニエを食べられました！アメリカのデザートなので池袋のカフェがあってびっくりした！おいしかった！
I was able to eat beinets (I really can't spell that word) today! I was surprised to find a cafe in Ikebukuro that has them since it's an American dessert. Yum! (It's Cafe Du Monde...my mom used to make these waaaay back in the day. ^^)

In case you're wondering, these things are square shaped 'pillow-like' desserts that are fried. They sort of taste like donuts but are empty on the inside. They have powdered sugar and cinnamon sugar on them. They taste great! =D

キレイじゃん？

Pretty huh?

日本にいなかった間にこれが咲いた！キレイ〜
While I away from Japan, look what bloomed! Pretty~

ただいま！

やっと日本に戻って来た！飛行機の中にあ、日本に戻りたいと思ったが成田空港に到着して、エクスプレスの切符を買って、東京の悪い点を急に思い出した。

東京の運送は本当に複雑なんだ！私にとってソウルはもっとのんびり！韓国に住んでいる人に言ったら超びっくりさせたみたいけどソウルの方は本当にやさしい。メトロは簡単だし、安いし、そんなに満員じゃないだし。

今成田エクスプレスに乗ってる私はまだソウルにいたい！そう思って続けたら幸せにならないよね。

I'm back!

I'm finally back in Japan! On the plane I thought, "Ah, I wanna go back to Japan," but after getting to the airport and buying my Narita Express ticket I suddenly started remembering the reasons I don't like Tokyo.

Transportation in Tokyo is confusing! To me, Seoul is much more relaxing. When I said that to people living in Seoul they seemed like they were waaay surprised, but Seoul is so much easier. The metro is simple, cheap, and not as crowded. Riding the express right now, I still wanna be in Seoul.

I guess if I keep thinking like that I'll never be happy.

韓国HOT뜨거!

Okay, so Korea is not really hotddeuguh, but the bus was burning up. haha. I bought some pretty good sweet potato fried bread at the rest stop...kinda like sweet potato donuts. XD

Sooo...GYEONGJU!

10th!

We checked into the Gyeongju Tourist Hotel...(soo touristy) and got tourist information from the little booth. We ended up taking bus number 11 to Bulguksa. Our bus driver was pretty cool, telling us when to get off and all since we were confused. It felt much safer than the buses in Vietnam. Bulguksa is a UNESCO World Heritage site. I studied it last semester in my art history class. The four deva kings are at the entrace (one for each cardinal direction, standing on those bad things...I forgot what they're called, but I like how colorful they are. ^^) There are the stairs that lead to heaven and the archway stairs, but no one is allowed to actually use them, you have to go up the side. It has some great statues of Birushana and Shakamuni, and some famous pagodas like Dapotap and Seokgatap. (Stephanie: the 'tap' part of those...tower/pagoda = 塔 = 탑 = TOP...it makes sense now. I was laughing to myself and I'm pretty sure someone thought I was crazy.) Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures of the actual statues in the temple because of preservation and all that. It was really cool to see all the things I learned about and understand what they're about. (Cause I'm a nerd...)

After Bulguksa, we went to the bus stop to wait for the bus to Sokkuram Grotto. We met an old Japanese guy there. He kept trying to get Monique to speak Japanese and stuff. He kind of weirded me out, but it was alright. Good Japanese practice I guess. The bus we were waiting for came over an hour late because it broke down, but we did also meet a guy from Germany and a Korean girl traveling together, so we were quite a strange collection of people going off to see Sokkuram. So up we went by bus to get to the top of Toamsan. There was some great scenery around, and a little bit of snow left. Unfortunately, again, we weren't allowed to take pictures of Sokkuram. It's lit really well and you could see the kongo rikishi (I forgot what it is in English...but these two warrior guys) and the 4 deva kings again. I wish we could have gone inside (there's glass) because I wanted to see the disciple reliefs behind the Buddha statue. The statue itself was really beautiful. It's very peaceful and well proportioned. It has a jewel 'third-eye' on its forehead that's supposed to align with other places (either temples or King Munmu's Underwater Tomb...I can't remember right now) and reflect the sun. So cool. =D I was really excited to see it.

The bus driver didn't want to drive us all back down early, so the five of us ended up hiking down Toamsan back to Bulguksa. It took us only around half an hour (thank god it was downhill) and then we took a bus back to Gyeongju station. It was a really interesting day. The last thing we did was eat dinner: kalbitang (beef soup) at this little restaurant. It's weird, in Gyeongju it's hard to find restaurants but really easy to find places selling 경주빵, this barley bread that Gyeongju is famous for. Since we were beat, we spent the rest of the night watching music vieos on Mnet, then Men in Black. XD

Today!

Today we left the hotel around 9:30 to find the Tomb of General Kim Yushin. We walked pretty far and ended up asking an old man for directions. I couldn't understand him very well, but he was so animated we were able to figure out what he was saying. Gen. Kim Yushin was a general who had a large role in uniting Korea (Unified Silla) after the Three Kingdoms period. His tomb is very simple though. It's a really big, grassy hill with stone relief work of the zodiac animals around it. There are a couple stone tablets with writing on them, but obviously, I couldn't tell what they said. I just wish the grass had been green, other wise it was neat to see. Some of the zodiac reliefs are wearing down, but we noticed on the way back that the lantern fixtures on the street have copies of the zodiac animals on them.

The bus ride back was uneventful save the fact that there was a tv show on KBS that was about how to smile pretty. XD Weird stuff. Then it got really hot and I started listening to 1TYM and laughing to myself. T_T I had my Gyeongju bread and yangpa rings to occupy me. (I like the yangpa rings here, they're like funyuns but a lot less salty.) When we got back, we relaxed a bit and talked to Marie, who's living in the guesthouse with Seri. She's from Australia but is riding the Korean Wave full on. She went to KBS yesterday and met Sweet Sorrow...crazy stuff. She knows A LOT about Korean entertainment. For dinner, we went to a nearby bbq place and had 'neck scruff' to eat. Hahaha, my dictionary is hilarious. Then back to Lovice for patbingsu! Yum!

We leave tomorrow, so we'll most likely just be hanging out until we have to catch our bus to the airport. I'm surprised at how much I didn't buy, but generally I don't think I need any of it. We saw and ate a lot which definitely makes it worth it. =D

韓国はBUSY

Whoo, it's been a busy past few days.

March 8th:

- Coffee Prince
When I was at the police station with Seri, she told me that the Coffee Prince drama coffee shop was near the guesthouse, so Monique and I went to go find it. It's definitely really close to the guesthouse, but unfortunately, it was closed. We ended up just taking a couple pictures, but it was cool to see.


- Lotte World
The rest of the day we decided to go to Lotte World. =D It was pretty cool because when we got there we found out that its some sort of special time where you get 10,000 won off of your ticket. At first it felt like a cheap rip off of Disneyland (you can definitely see the infuences), but after a while you forget about it and just have fun. There are some pretty good drop rides and a fun wave one. I also liked the Balloon ride where you take a fake hot air balloon around the inside of the park. It's sort of like a monorail, but you're hanging instead of attached to a track below. My absolute favorite ride was Aquarius though. When we were in line, we had some fun reading the vandalism on the surrounding area (there are a lot of Big Bang fans who feel the need to proclaim Big Bang's VIPness by writing it on random walls...XD) and the guy working the ride was really funny when he said "something something something angyeong (glasses)" to me and I was like...'I'm not wearing glasses...' Then I realized he was talking about Monique, who I turned to and asked if she wanted to take off her glasses, then the guy went, "GLASSES! FLY!" Hahaha. The ride was weird. There was a seatbelt and a restraining device that was around your hips. (You straddle the ride.) It starts off ridiculously fast and is really fun since it feels like you're flying. ^^ I tried some funny peanut butter squid...not a fan. And some really good Korean taffy. We ate dinner at a nearby pork restaurant in the Hongdae area. We had what my dictionary calls 'backfat', hahaha but it was just bbq pork. Then we found a little waffle/shaved ice place called Lovice where a cute old couple worked. I had my first banana patbingsoo. Best dessert ever. Mmm. =D




March 9:
We woke up pretty late today, but ended up meeting with Monique's friend, Jihyeon. She took us to a restaurant that's popular with Japanese tourists. It was basically rice, soup, bulgogi, steamed egg, and 29 side dishes. I kid you not. 29 side dishes that were all different. Craziness. Then she took us around Myeongdong, a shopping street. We also went to the Traditional Village that was in the area and looked at the way older houses were set up and ate some roasted sweet potatoes. Apparently the princess who lived in that house moved to Changdeokgung, which we saw a couple of days earlier. We walked around the street and Lotte Department Store. There's a lot of cute stuff, but I didn't buy anything...I'm kind of waiting on Gyeongju just in case. We sat in a Coffee Bean for a bit and talked until we went off to meet another one of Monique's friends, Gwi Young. She had brought her friend Hana with her. We walked around Hongdae area together and ended up at a really expensive cafe where Gwi Young treated us to drinks and a big banana pecan waffle. (Nice warm chai latte on a cold day!) After that, we went to N Seoul Tower. Seoul Tower was pretty amazing. The lights were great and when you go up to the viewing area on the very top, the windows are labeled with the other parts of the world in that direction. (Tokyo and San Francisco!!!) The level below the top had windows labeled with important places in Seoul which was cool because we'd actually been to a good deal of them. After a dinner of odeng and ddeokbokgi, we took some pictures in front of a famous theatre and then made our way home.



Gyeongju tomorrow! Sorry I can't expand...it's 1am and we're getting up at 5:30, I'm going to bed!

韓国：Rolling, Rolling, Rolling!

March 6:

- National Museum of Korea
The National Museum of Korea is gigantic. It has all of the development of Korea from prehistoric times, plus art and cultural exhibits. There were a ton of National Treasures in the museum that included things like pottery, statues, and crowns. My particular favorites were the Joseon dynasty celadon pottery and the huge Buddhist painting from Bulseoksa. There was a Miryoku Bosatsu statue that's a National Treausre that was really awesome too. Definitely a good museum to go to to get a crash course in everything about Korea.


- Namdaemun Market
Namdaemun Market is pretty crazy. There are people everywhere on foot, in cars, and on motorbikes. They're selling things like clothes, food, and other items. I bought some Korean mochi and cookies that are great. The mochi has pumpkin and azuki in it. ^^ It's a little too crazy for me, but that's probably because I got my wallet stolen. After I bought the mochi, we walked out of the market and to a couple of department stores, and when I went to buy some shirts, I didn't have my wallet anymore. It gave me the worst feeling in the pit of my stomach when I couldn't find it. Luckily, I didn't lose my passport. After that, we went home so I could figure out what to do about credit cards and stuff. Most of that turned out okay.


- Sinchon
After that, Monique and I decided to go to Sinchon for dinner. (I felt really bad, but I was very determined to not let what happened ruin my trip.) We ended up eating at a restaurant called Heungham Naengmyeon. That was my first naengmyeon, which was good, but kind of bad to eat in cold weather since it's cold noodles.

Today:

- Cafe Pascucci
Monique and I actually didn't know each other very well before coming on this trip, so we have a lot to talk about, which is nice. So before meeting Sohee at noon, we walked around the streets to see what was around and stopped at a cafe for hot chocolate. Good conversation in a cute cafe with yummy dark chocolate. Ahhh~!


- Lunch with Sohee
We were able to meet with Sohee for the day and I really wanted to try samgyetang (Rice stuffed chicken soup). So Sohee took us to a restaurant that served it and I think it's my favorite thing I've eaten here so far. =D According to the person working at the restaurant, it will make us all pretty. XD


- Japanese Embassy
After lunch, we went to the Japanese Embassy to see what to do about losing my alien registration card. We weren't actually able to do anything there, but they told me to get a police report.

- Gyeongbokgung Palace
Next to the Embassy was Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was the main palace of the Joseon dynasty. It's pretty big, and there was a really nice man-made lake/pond that's really pretty. We also saw the 'changing of the guards' that they do each hour. You know how in Europe they have the guys who stand there and don't move no matter what? It's really like that, the only difference is that they're Korean and their outfits are way more colorful. After walking around the palace, Sohee had to go do some things at school, but school, so Monique and I were off on our own for a few hours...


- Changdeokgung Palace (with a tour)
We decided to go to Changdoekgung Palace, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. For this particular palace, you have to take a tour in order to get in, so we were able to get into the very last tour, which was in Korean. So basically, it was a self-guided tour. This palace is HUGE! We didn't see all of it and we spent over an hour with the tour. I'll actually have to review the pamphlet guide to make sense of everything we saw because we moved so fast. Amazing though. It's really nice, I wish I could see it while it's in season and the plants are nicer.


- Cheonggyecheon
After that tour, we headed to City Hall to meet with Sohee again. We went to a creek that's really well known in Korea. It's called Cheongyecheon. We walked right next to it about half of its length. Sohee told us that its a popular 'date course'. I wish I could have seen it with illuminations, but the architecture of it is really nice too. ^^


- Insadong
We went to Insadong following that, which I love. We started out by eating dinner. I had gopchang sundubu. (pig intestine tofu soup) I think that's another favorite for me. Mmmm. Insadong is a big shopping street, but not as crazy and disorganized as Namdaemun. (Almost everything is written in Korean, like the Starbucks, it's the only one in Korea written in Korean.) They sell a lot of traditional items and foods. (OMG the sweets. I'm definitely going back before I leave to stock up on some.) You can watch them make it and there are tons of street vendors selling everything from candy to hot dogs to tempura to odeng. We watched a man make noodles and another man pound mochi, and more men cut up slabs of sweets. My favorite thing of all though was these 3 guys making candy in a little booth. They were very loud and animated. Their sales pitch was to be loud and speak a mix of Korean and English. They were yelling about almonds from California and how they roll the candy around the nuts like "dong dong dong, or in English: rolling rolling rolling!!!" (This is done simultaneously with them giving a demonstration of how to roll it.) And then "Oh my gad!! Whaoo!" XD I was seriously laughing out loud. And one of them reminded me of the waffle-maker in Coffee Prince. Hahaha. Then we walk a little further and these older men are making the same candy in a very dignified way. Insadong is awesome. We ended out the night by going to Red Mango, a yogurt shop that Rie recommended I visit, and sharing a big yogurt. Then we were off to a department store to look at cds. I got Lee Soo Young's 4th album, which I'm listening to now as I type. Ahh, what a good day.


- Police Station
When I got back from the day out, I felt a lot better about the whole wallet situation. I still feel a little weird, but the woman who runs the guesthouse offered to take me to the police station to get a police report about my wallet. So we walked over to the police station and were able to talk about a lot of different things. It was the first time either of us had been to a police station, so we were both a little nervous. And there were a lot of police there. Seri was able to translate everything for me though. She also took a picture of me in the station with her phone. XD What an experience.

That's all for now, more to come!

韓国にいるよ！！！

We made it to Korea safe and sound. (My handy dandy hand-drawn map was great! =D)
We're staying at a cute little guest house called Carpe diem, and the girl that runs it is really nice. The bus ride from the airport was pretty easy too. I'm a little surprised at how easy it is to do things, so far...but there's still a lot to figure out, so we'll see.

After we dropped our stuff off at the guest house, Monique and I walked around the area we're staying in. There's a lot of shopping around, even an American Apparel which I thought was really weird. A lot of neon lights and signs, and a lot of noraebang. (We did an hour of noraebang, which costed about the same as in Tokyo, but if we find more people to go with, it'll be cheaper.)

My favorite part of the day was going to the street vendor on the corner who had a little hut set up out of her van. She was selling mandu, odeng, and ddeokboki, so we got a plate of ddeokbokki for a grand total of 2000 won, which is about 2 USD. XD Pretty crazy. And delicious. So we're definitely going back there if we get munchies at night. Then we stopped at a convenience store for a box of choco pies (we couldn't resist) and drinks. (Chilsung Cider!) Hahaha, oh Korea. This is gonna be fun!

行きますよ、韓国に！！！！

I'm going to Korea!!!!

It's about 12:30am, and I should be sleeping, but I'm a little too excited for that right now. Hopefully this time I'll be able to update you all during my trip instead of doing a big overview at the end. Whoo!!

I'll get to see Sohee again! Changdeokgung, Gyeongbokgung, Insadong, Lotte World, Namsan, Bulguksa, Sokkuram...so much to see. Ddeokbokgi, samgyetang, patbingsu, gopchang...so much to eat. (my specialty... XD) Monique and I will be in Seoul and Gyeongju for the next week. Whee~!

Youth KOSTA

Yesterday, I went to Youth KOSTA Winter Camp with my friends from the Yohan Waseda Church. I originally was really against going because it's kind of awkward, me being Buddhist and all, but my friends all wanted me to go, so I gave in.

It turned out to be really fun even though I was only there for a day. It was a at a place a little past Gotenba by Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately, it wasn't clear, so I didn't get a good view of it. It even started to rain/snow. It was that half frozen type of rain. On the bus, I met a couple of girls who go to Sophia, so maybe I'll run into them sometime when we're back on campus.

Anyway, there was a concert where Aram (Korean gospel singer) performed along with a few of the exceptional singers from the Yohan Church. You know how Japanese people have that stereotype that they can't actually sing? Well, they CAN. There really are some amazing singers at that church, which is part of the reason I like going. I really like Aram's voice, but he has a Korean accent, which is kind of funny, and in a couple of the songs he has some really embarrassing dance moves, but I guess if I just listen it's okay. XD


It turns out that Eden (a girl who lives in the same apartment as me and is in the same Japanese class) went too. =D (The picture above is everyone who was staying in that room.) That was a cool surprise. And I finally got to see Mi Yeong again after a very long time. I met a few other really cool people. I'm having trouble remembering names, but overall it was a good experience. The only thing that kind of scared me was when everyone was praying out loud all at once with their arms in the air. It felt like a cult or something...but after those two minutes, everything else was pretty normal. I went back to Shinjuku with Tomoko, which was cool. (Tomoko, Rie, & me. It's foggy because of my camera lens and the weather.)

鎌倉！

Yesterday, I went out to Kamakura with Aya! I haven't been out there, so it was really nice to get away from Tokyo. I wanted to see Daibutsu, but it was pretty far out of the way, so I'll have to go next time. (Which will hopefully be for sakura season.)


We started in Kita-kamakura at 松ヶ丘東慶寺 (Matsugaoka Toukeiji...a temple). We mainly came here to look at plum blossoms. They're really pretty, but they're just starting to bloom so I think we were probably a few days early. It felt a little weird because most of the tourists there were old Japanese people who like to take macro-photo shots of the flowers, but the scenery was great. There was a cemetery in the back, but unfortunately, Aya and I couldn't figure out who important is buried there since our kanji reading skills aren't up to snuff.


After that, we got a little confused about how to get places and we found a honey shop that's famous for its honey! That was exciting. Then we ended up on a hiking trail. (There are a lot around Kamakura.) At first I was bummed we ended up hiking, but it was actually a nice change of pace to walk somewhere with real, natural scenery instead of flashing lights and crosswalks. Our hike led us to a statue of Miyamoto no Yoritomo. There was a nice picnic spot, but we didn't have bento so we just kept on walking...


We ended up going to Komachi-doori for lunch.　美水 (Misui) was where we ate. Yummy kake set. We were really full and ended up walking up and down Komachi-doori to do some shopping. There are a lot of traditional things in Kamakura, and they have some excellent senbei stores. I had some fresh senbei that they dip for you right as you buy it...so salty! But it does taste good warm. I also bought an assortment of strangely flavored ones. (uni, shiso, shichimi, ume/sugar, spicy, wasabi, etc.) Highly recommend getting some there. We also found a store called まめや, or bean shop. That shop never seemed to be empty. They have different flavored beans, the kind you find in cheap senbei packs and are always left til the end...those, but delicious! My favorite was the kinako one (We tried a lot of samples.) The last thing I picked up was a bottle of Kamakura beer since I hear it's good. I bought a pale ale (星); it was actually really good. Better than Asahi, that's for sure.


The last thing we visited was the Hachiman shrine. There was some sort of ceremony thing going on, which was cool because there was taiko. ^_^ There's also a huge tree outside of this one that is famous. Then we walked around the garden area to look at more plum blossoms. It's so nice and peaceful in Kamakura compared to anywhere in Tokyo. Lastly, we bought some murasakiimo ice cream. (Purple potato! Some ignorant lady said, "I wonder what's so popular..oh! Blueberry ice cream!") Best soft serve I've had. =D Hopefully I'll see more shrines and temples next time, but for this time, it was just nice and relaxing. (Though the train ride home made me tired and irritable.)

Bananas.

Hello all, it's been a while. These past few days I haven't done anything of particular note. I've gone to cafes a couple times to study with Nobuko, had lunch with Rie, Maki-sensei, and Min Jeong, and went out to Shibuya with Aya, but there hasn't been any sightseeing or anything lately.

I did make a strange observation when I was grocery shopping after work yesterday, though. I took a class on Caribbean literature last year and we spent a period talking about the economy, bananas in particular. (You know that 'daylight come and me wan' go home' song? Not so happy.) So basically Chiquita has taken over the banana market, effectively destroying that market in the Caribbean. (And how that leads to a bad economy and things like importing dry milk instead of buying regular domestic milk, selling off the cows and things like that. It's amazing how well banana growers know about the world economy, put me to shame. Anyway...) I knew that last year when I bought bananas and actually felt kind of bad about them being so cheap and everything. So, how is this related to Japan? When I was in the Seibu store I was going to buy apples, but they costed 100 yen EACH (about a dollar). So I look around again to see if there's anything else I might want. 2 oranges are 250 yen. And then there it is, nice yellow bananas. 5 for 97 yen. I was excited for about 20 seconds, then I looked at the sticker and of course, it's Chiquita and I feel bad again, but buy them anyway. Isn't that messed up? I'm conflicted about bananas.

靖国神社＆新宿！

On Friday, I met up with an old classmate from UCI who's teaching English in Akita. He came to Tokyo, so we spent a few hours walking and subway-ing around. We stopped at Iidabashi (where I spent summer going to my Japanese intensive class) and visited Yasukuni Shrine.


Yasukuni Shrine is the controversial shrine dedicated to the soldiers who died in World War II. (Remember a few years back when the prime minister got crap for going there?) It was much more...regal looking than I expected. There's a museum right next to it that has relics and things from that time period. I only went on the first floor though, since the rest of it required a ticket to get in. Overall, it kind of gave me the creeps. Usually Nick and I both go throw money and pray at shrines, but decided not to at this one. Here's a picture of the statue for mothers, who took care of everything while the men were out at war.


It's pretty 'fancy' leading up to the actual shrine since it has statues and things in front of it. The lighting was horrible because of the placement of the sun, so a lot of my picturs are backlit, but hey, what can you do? Anyway, there were also a bunch of statues that I couldn't read, so I'm not sure I got a full understanding of everything there, but there was a Kiwani's fountain that I thought was odd. Tokyo is the first place to have an international Kiwani's Club, apparently, though I'm not sure why they chose to add to all the memorial type things in the Yasukuni Shrine precinct. It looked neat though.


And being the Tokyoites that we are, we met up with friends later that night to go to Shinjuku. (Oh, Kabuki-cho...>_<) We had some awesome Thai food that was nice and spicy, then made our way over to Ikkyu, which is apparently the cheapest drinking establishment in Tokyo. (Don't worry, no one got plastered.) We closed off the night with an hour of karaoke, which was amazing since they had my current favorite song, Heart Station that came out only 3 days before. I made it back just in time to catch the last train home. ^_^

For more pictures, check my Flickr.

台場

Yesterday, I went to Kameido and Odaiba. =)

It's been a while since I've been back to Kameido, but it's nice since I know my way around; I'm very comfortable there. Before meeting up with Nobuko and David (who is currently visiting from Kyoto), I walked around the shops, drank some coffee, and stopped by Book-Off to get another book. This one seems easier than 星の王子様.

I forgot how expensive it is to go to Daiba. Since you have to take the sky train it's a little more expensive than just taking the regular train or subway. Anyway, David treated us to a great Indian dinner. (Naan and curry!!) We also did a bit of shopping. 2 sweaters for 1000 yen...that's ridiculous! XD Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower look really pretty at night since they're all lit up, but I still think Rainbow Bridge isn't colorful enough to be called that. =X


Inside DECKS in Odaiba Park, there's a shopping street that's completely retro. It's decorated as if it's a school (check out the 'cafeteria'), and there's even a restaurant that's cafeteria style, complete with desks. Walking around the shops there was really fun since it has a bunch of character and joke goods. My favorite were the candy shops since they had all the retro candies I like. Botan Rice Candy, fortune candies (the little colored circles), sour powder, whistle candy, neba-neba (sticky) candy...yum! Nobuko got her portrait drawn by one of those little booth people, which I think is a little gimmicky (you know, like the ones at state fairs and stuff), but I guess they aren't that common here. Lastly, we stopped for a couple of drinks, and finally made our way home, just a few trains before the last one. ^^ Overall, a good time. David's not too crazy about Tokyo in comparison to Kyoto, so hopefully he had fun too.