The day before yesterday I went to downtown Shinjuku to meet a new friend, Haru. He's a 26 year old guy married to a Chinese lady and has a 4(?) year old son. We chatted for awhile and I helped him with his English. Nice guy :)
Today Ran was busy, so we didn't get to go eat ramen. I'll see her next Friday maybe. I spent the day answering messages and planning my week instead.
Tomorrow I'm waking up early and spending the day in Chiba!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Exploring
Last Saturday I went to the Izakaya place again with Toshi. Toshi says it's not an Izakaya, but actually a korean-style yakiniku restaurant. haha :p
I haven't done anything too significant this week. Just more hanging out with my roommates and exploring the area around my house. Today I went to the library with a roommate. I read a few kid's books. It's only about a 5 minute walk from home, so I think I'll go there tomorrow too.
Last night at about midnight I decided to go on a walk and get myself lost. I walked down all the scariest streets I could find. I walked down a lot of pretty creepy alleys. On one street I walked past a group of rough-looking guys wearing black and red uniforms. Maybe a gang?
I did manage to get myself lost, but it seems hard to truly get lost here in Tokyo. There are maps on many streets and if you walk for long enough you'll eventually find a train station that you can use to get home. I found out last night though that many of the train stations are closed at night :(.
Living in a big city like this is quite fun and convenient. Everything I need is a 30 second walk from my house. I don't need to store any food. Walk a little further and there are all sorts of interesting shops to be found.
I've explored most of the area around my house, so I want to go to some other, bigger, areas of Tokyo next. Preferably with a friend. I don't have friends around here other than my roommates, don't have a job and I'm not a student, so it's a little hard to make new friends.
On Friday I might be meeting Ran (Another friend from Florida) for Ramen. On Saturday I'm planning on going to a big mall in Chiba with one of my language exchange friends that I've been talking to on Skype for a few months.
To make new friends I can talk to random strangers in restaurants, go to a club or a bar, or make a post on Mixi (Japan's facebook). I decided to try the Mixi route. I made a post earlier and soon had maybe a hundred messages in my inbox. I was very surprised. Learning English is popular here. I spent the past few hours answering them all. I don't want 100 friends, just a few! I'm going to be really really busy :(. Hopefully my Japanese will improve at a faster rate though.
I haven't done anything too significant this week. Just more hanging out with my roommates and exploring the area around my house. Today I went to the library with a roommate. I read a few kid's books. It's only about a 5 minute walk from home, so I think I'll go there tomorrow too.
Last night at about midnight I decided to go on a walk and get myself lost. I walked down all the scariest streets I could find. I walked down a lot of pretty creepy alleys. On one street I walked past a group of rough-looking guys wearing black and red uniforms. Maybe a gang?
I did manage to get myself lost, but it seems hard to truly get lost here in Tokyo. There are maps on many streets and if you walk for long enough you'll eventually find a train station that you can use to get home. I found out last night though that many of the train stations are closed at night :(.
Living in a big city like this is quite fun and convenient. Everything I need is a 30 second walk from my house. I don't need to store any food. Walk a little further and there are all sorts of interesting shops to be found.
I've explored most of the area around my house, so I want to go to some other, bigger, areas of Tokyo next. Preferably with a friend. I don't have friends around here other than my roommates, don't have a job and I'm not a student, so it's a little hard to make new friends.
On Friday I might be meeting Ran (Another friend from Florida) for Ramen. On Saturday I'm planning on going to a big mall in Chiba with one of my language exchange friends that I've been talking to on Skype for a few months.
To make new friends I can talk to random strangers in restaurants, go to a club or a bar, or make a post on Mixi (Japan's facebook). I decided to try the Mixi route. I made a post earlier and soon had maybe a hundred messages in my inbox. I was very surprised. Learning English is popular here. I spent the past few hours answering them all. I don't want 100 friends, just a few! I'm going to be really really busy :(. Hopefully my Japanese will improve at a faster rate though.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Izakaya
The past week it's been raining and snowing a lot, so I've mostly been staying home and hanging out with my roommates. I've still managed to explore a decent amount of Tokyo though. This week was Ueno, Akihabara, Iidabashi, Shinjuku, and Roppongi. The streets and stores are very crowded, especially on the weekends.
In Ueno I just walked around and admired the scenery. Ueno has lots of museums and a zoo. Ueno is one of the poorer areas of Tokyo, so there were a lot of homeless people walking around, especially in the park.
Akihabara is famous for it's electronics, anime, and maid cafes. This is the nerdy area of Tokyo. Me and Toshi went to a giant electronics store there called Yodobashi-Akiba. Maybe the biggest in the world. Its 9 stories tall with each floor being about the size of a Best Buy. Lots of interesting stuff. Especially the phones.
In Iidabashi, me and Toshi went to Toshi's old university (Hosei) to study. I recorded a short video from the top floor of Hosei University (26 stories up I think). I'll upload it later. After that we visited a famous Shrine that I forgot the name of.
I went to downtown Shinjuku with another new friend (Aki). We went to a very big bookstore called Kinokuniya. Its 9 stories tall and two stories underground (11 floors total) with each floor being about the size of a Barnes & Noble. There were three elevators and each elevator had an elevator girl working in it (I guess to make them run more efficiently). They sounded and acted like robots. Looks like a really boring job. I bought a 3rd grade level kid's book to read and practice my Japanese.
Me and Toshi also walked a bit around Roppongi Hills. I recorded a video of that too which I'll upload later.
A couple days ago I met another Korean roommate named Hyou. She's one of the happiest and most enthusiastic people I've ever met. For some reason it's also easier to talk to her than even Japanese natives. Fun to talk to. She's studying Japanese in school and has three part time jobs. Busy! One of her jobs is at an Izakaya (similar to a restaurant) in Ebisu. I've never been to an Izakaya before, so she invited me and my other roommates (Just Masaka and Ri came) to celebrate my first Izakaya experience today at her work. It was probably one of the most enjoyable restaurant-type experiences I've ever had. The food was just ok, but the people working there is what made it special. It was almost like we were celebrating my birthday in some 5-star restaurant.
I got lost in Ebisu for about 30 minutes trying to find the place. I was about 20 minutes late :( ). The manager of the store was waiting at the entrance for me. They reserved a table for us near the back of the restaurant (I guess maybe the tables are normally shared among strangers). When I entered, Hyou gave me a litte hand-made poster welcoming us and wishing us a good experience (or something to that effect).
Masaka and Ri arrived about 10 minutes later. Hyou and Hyou's co-worker (I forgot her name, Chikaro?) cooked the food on the table in front of us. Nabemono. Me, Masaka, Ri, Hyou, and Hyou's co-worker all chatted together. The manager a little bit too. Everybody who worked there was quite cheerful and seemed like a big family. Looks like a fun place to work.
After we got done eating and saying goodbye, Hyou's co-worker sprayed us with some kind of perfume stuff outside.
I wanted to take a picture of the poster thing, but I lost it somewhere on the way home :(.
Masaka will upload the other pictures to his Facebook later.
In Ueno I just walked around and admired the scenery. Ueno has lots of museums and a zoo. Ueno is one of the poorer areas of Tokyo, so there were a lot of homeless people walking around, especially in the park.
Akihabara is famous for it's electronics, anime, and maid cafes. This is the nerdy area of Tokyo. Me and Toshi went to a giant electronics store there called Yodobashi-Akiba. Maybe the biggest in the world. Its 9 stories tall with each floor being about the size of a Best Buy. Lots of interesting stuff. Especially the phones.
In Iidabashi, me and Toshi went to Toshi's old university (Hosei) to study. I recorded a short video from the top floor of Hosei University (26 stories up I think). I'll upload it later. After that we visited a famous Shrine that I forgot the name of.
I went to downtown Shinjuku with another new friend (Aki). We went to a very big bookstore called Kinokuniya. Its 9 stories tall and two stories underground (11 floors total) with each floor being about the size of a Barnes & Noble. There were three elevators and each elevator had an elevator girl working in it (I guess to make them run more efficiently). They sounded and acted like robots. Looks like a really boring job. I bought a 3rd grade level kid's book to read and practice my Japanese.
Me and Toshi also walked a bit around Roppongi Hills. I recorded a video of that too which I'll upload later.
A couple days ago I met another Korean roommate named Hyou. She's one of the happiest and most enthusiastic people I've ever met. For some reason it's also easier to talk to her than even Japanese natives. Fun to talk to. She's studying Japanese in school and has three part time jobs. Busy! One of her jobs is at an Izakaya (similar to a restaurant) in Ebisu. I've never been to an Izakaya before, so she invited me and my other roommates (Just Masaka and Ri came) to celebrate my first Izakaya experience today at her work. It was probably one of the most enjoyable restaurant-type experiences I've ever had. The food was just ok, but the people working there is what made it special. It was almost like we were celebrating my birthday in some 5-star restaurant.
I got lost in Ebisu for about 30 minutes trying to find the place. I was about 20 minutes late :( ). The manager of the store was waiting at the entrance for me. They reserved a table for us near the back of the restaurant (I guess maybe the tables are normally shared among strangers). When I entered, Hyou gave me a litte hand-made poster welcoming us and wishing us a good experience (or something to that effect).
Masaka and Ri arrived about 10 minutes later. Hyou and Hyou's co-worker (I forgot her name, Chikaro?) cooked the food on the table in front of us. Nabemono. Me, Masaka, Ri, Hyou, and Hyou's co-worker all chatted together. The manager a little bit too. Everybody who worked there was quite cheerful and seemed like a big family. Looks like a fun place to work.
After we got done eating and saying goodbye, Hyou's co-worker sprayed us with some kind of perfume stuff outside.
I wanted to take a picture of the poster thing, but I lost it somewhere on the way home :(.
Masaka will upload the other pictures to his Facebook later.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Nothing too special to report today. I woke up, packed my stuff, and moved to Shinjuku.
I spent the day just getting to know my roommates. Interesting people. Sometimes I can understand everything they say, sometimes I can't understand anything. I'm glad I can at least communicate somewhat decently :)
So far I've met two people from France, two from Korea, one from Spain, and one from Taiwan. The rest are all Japanese. Lots of people live here; maybe about 30?
No plans yet for tomorrow.
I spent the day just getting to know my roommates. Interesting people. Sometimes I can understand everything they say, sometimes I can't understand anything. I'm glad I can at least communicate somewhat decently :)
So far I've met two people from France, two from Korea, one from Spain, and one from Taiwan. The rest are all Japanese. Lots of people live here; maybe about 30?
No plans yet for tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Yesterday night I got hungry and went down to the local convenience store to get a snack. I found some chocolate flavored potato chips.
These are actually fried french bread chips covered in chocolate. Delicious :)
This morning, we woke up, ate breakfast, and left for Kamakura.
Kamakura was interesting. Old shrines and temples all over the place. I'll upload pictures to facebook later.
We stopped at a famous ice cream store there and bought some ice cream (Toshi said it's made using sweet potatoes?). Obama ate there too on his trip to Japan. Good ice cream :)
On the way back home we stopped at a dollar store. I bought a bar of green-tea soap and some fish jerky. The fish jerky was good, but not as good as beef jerky.
I just finished eating dinner. We had fish, chicken kebobs, rice, and vegetables. Dessert was rice cakes, but I don't care for those much so I passed on the dessert :p.
Ken has to work tonight, so we aren't going to see him.
Tomorrow I'm moving to Shinjuku.
Good night :)
These are actually fried french bread chips covered in chocolate. Delicious :)
This morning, we woke up, ate breakfast, and left for Kamakura.
Kamakura was interesting. Old shrines and temples all over the place. I'll upload pictures to facebook later.
We stopped at a famous ice cream store there and bought some ice cream (Toshi said it's made using sweet potatoes?). Obama ate there too on his trip to Japan. Good ice cream :)
On the way back home we stopped at a dollar store. I bought a bar of green-tea soap and some fish jerky. The fish jerky was good, but not as good as beef jerky.
I just finished eating dinner. We had fish, chicken kebobs, rice, and vegetables. Dessert was rice cakes, but I don't care for those much so I passed on the dessert :p.
Ken has to work tonight, so we aren't going to see him.
Tomorrow I'm moving to Shinjuku.
Good night :)
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Sorry for the late update. I've done a lot of things this week and don't want this post to become too long, so if you want more details on anything, e-mail me.
I left for Japan on the 31st. The plane flight was long, but not boring. I had my entire row to myself. The plane flew over the north pole, so I was able to view some nice scenery.
I was supposed to call my friend Toshi as soon as I arrived in Japan and then meet him at Shinagawa station. After I landed and went through customs, I couldn't find Toshi's phone number (even though I had just used it to get through customs), so I just headed straight to Shinagawa station instead. I luckily didn't have many problems getting from Narita to Shinagawa. I could not find Toshi in Shinagawa station, so I decided to use a pay phone to call my sister to get Toshi's phone number for me.
It's kind of a long story, but I used the phone for less than five minutes and was charged about $150. Ridiculous price and no warning at all. Still trying to get that resolved. I called Toshi and he found me at the pay phone. He was there waiting for me for two hours :(. We went to his house in Yokosuka and slept. (I later found his phone number inside my passport)
On Tuesday me and Toshi went to Tokyo. I went to my new guest house to sign my contract. Toshi had a meeting somewhere else. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to understand anything the landlord told me, but I actually understood almost everything :). After I signed the lease, I chatted with my new roommates for a couple hours. Nice people. I'll post pictures and more details later. After that I took a nap and then left to meet Toshi at Shinagawa station and go back to Yokosuka. Then we ate dinner and slept.
On Wednesday me and Toshi went to Sensouji in Asakusa to celebrate setsubun. Hard to explain, google it :). Many famous people were there to throw beans into the crowd. I only caught 3 :(.
After that we went to Roppongi to buy a cellphone and do some sightseeing. Pretty place. We saw some of Japan's olympic figure skaters being interviewed there. Then we went home and slept.
Other things we've done:
-Explored sougenji. It's a temple/cemetary near Toshi's house. Toshi's family and ancestors are buried there. Toshi showed me the Japanese ritual thing that they do every time they visit their graves.
-Went to Shizuoka to see some kawazuzakura (a kind of cherry blossom tree I think) and Mt. Fuji.
-Hung out with Toshi's friend Ken in Yokohama. We drove around in Ken's Toyota Majesta. Really nice car. Yokohama was very pretty too.
Yokohama:
Today me and Toshi explored Yokosuka by bike. We went to the memorial of a ship (forgot the name) and a big multi-story department store among other places. For dinner me and Toshi's family went to a kaitenzushi restaurant. At this restaurant nigiri, sushi, soups, fruits, drinks, and desserts go around the restaurant on plates on a conveyer belt. Each plate is about $1.00. After you're done eating, you drop the plates into a slot machine type thing to win prizes.
Tomorrow we're waking up early to go to Kamakura, a place famous for it's temples and giant buddha statue. After that we will probably go to Yokohama to hang out with Ken again. Maybe we'll go ice skating too.
Here's a short video I took showing the restaurant we went to:
Pictures can be found on my facebook page :)
I left for Japan on the 31st. The plane flight was long, but not boring. I had my entire row to myself. The plane flew over the north pole, so I was able to view some nice scenery.
I was supposed to call my friend Toshi as soon as I arrived in Japan and then meet him at Shinagawa station. After I landed and went through customs, I couldn't find Toshi's phone number (even though I had just used it to get through customs), so I just headed straight to Shinagawa station instead. I luckily didn't have many problems getting from Narita to Shinagawa. I could not find Toshi in Shinagawa station, so I decided to use a pay phone to call my sister to get Toshi's phone number for me.
It's kind of a long story, but I used the phone for less than five minutes and was charged about $150. Ridiculous price and no warning at all. Still trying to get that resolved. I called Toshi and he found me at the pay phone. He was there waiting for me for two hours :(. We went to his house in Yokosuka and slept. (I later found his phone number inside my passport)
On Tuesday me and Toshi went to Tokyo. I went to my new guest house to sign my contract. Toshi had a meeting somewhere else. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to understand anything the landlord told me, but I actually understood almost everything :). After I signed the lease, I chatted with my new roommates for a couple hours. Nice people. I'll post pictures and more details later. After that I took a nap and then left to meet Toshi at Shinagawa station and go back to Yokosuka. Then we ate dinner and slept.
On Wednesday me and Toshi went to Sensouji in Asakusa to celebrate setsubun. Hard to explain, google it :). Many famous people were there to throw beans into the crowd. I only caught 3 :(.
After that we went to Roppongi to buy a cellphone and do some sightseeing. Pretty place. We saw some of Japan's olympic figure skaters being interviewed there. Then we went home and slept.
Other things we've done:
-Explored sougenji. It's a temple/cemetary near Toshi's house. Toshi's family and ancestors are buried there. Toshi showed me the Japanese ritual thing that they do every time they visit their graves.
-Went to Shizuoka to see some kawazuzakura (a kind of cherry blossom tree I think) and Mt. Fuji.
-Hung out with Toshi's friend Ken in Yokohama. We drove around in Ken's Toyota Majesta. Really nice car. Yokohama was very pretty too.
Yokohama:
Today me and Toshi explored Yokosuka by bike. We went to the memorial of a ship (forgot the name) and a big multi-story department store among other places. For dinner me and Toshi's family went to a kaitenzushi restaurant. At this restaurant nigiri, sushi, soups, fruits, drinks, and desserts go around the restaurant on plates on a conveyer belt. Each plate is about $1.00. After you're done eating, you drop the plates into a slot machine type thing to win prizes.
Tomorrow we're waking up early to go to Kamakura, a place famous for it's temples and giant buddha statue. After that we will probably go to Yokohama to hang out with Ken again. Maybe we'll go ice skating too.
Here's a short video I took showing the restaurant we went to:
Pictures can be found on my facebook page :)
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