Well, I guess this will be my last official post in the land of the rising sun. No words can really describe what I have experienced here, so I will just leave it at that. There is one more thing I managed to fit in before the dreaded packing/moving out days. Tokyo Sky Tree. I went with Haruna, the best e-pal ever, and while we didn't get the opportunity to go to the top-most level, I am glad I went and had this last hurrah on the one of the tallest towers in the world.
We were meant to meet up with Lindsey and her friend from Nagoya there, but got there early and had lunch. The Sky Tree boasts an entire mall at its base including a floor just for restaurants. As I have not had the pleasure of trying it yet, we went to have okonomiyaki. I have heard it described as a Japanese pizza, but it's not really an accurate description. Yes, it's made with dough and has a sauce spread on top, sometimes with cheese added, but that's where the similarities stop. It reminded me more of a giant pancake with a bunch of delicious stuff mixed in. They mix it and grill it right in front of you. Some places let you make your own. The one we went to did not have the latter option. But that's fine, I am sure I would have really messed it up anyway.
Here is my tiny plate and spatula. The metal part of the table in the background is pretty much a grill and when they finish making your okonomiyaki, they place it on the hot surface and it stays warm as you eat it. Good thing, it was so big, it took us forever to finish.
Nice and hot and fresh.
We got the shrimp, of course.
Yummy.
Afterwards, we wandered around the mall for a bit until Lindsey called. Her friend had not quite made it so we wandered around some more. We headed outside to find the Sky Tree looming above us.
Of course, Lindsey was the first to notice the Studio Ghibli store, so we went up to the second floor to check it out.
Giant Totoro.
It was starting to get dark (it gets dark so early in Japan) so Haruna suggested we start heading to the Sky Tree. Lindsey still had to wait for her friend, so she stayed in the Studi Ghibli store (not that it was a hard thing for her to do...) and we headed out.
The bast of the Sky Tree.
An hour-long wait to get tickets. And this was a weekday. Imagine if we'd gone on a weekend. o_O
The lobby area had a long row of different artist renditions of the Sky Tree. Some were odd, some were interesting. This is, of course, the basic model.
Knotted rope. My personal favorite.
Made me think of a teardrop.
Ummmm, I don't know...
Either futuristic, or retro.
Double helix...or Fruit-by-the-Foot
Ikea lamp.
*shrug*
Palm tree trunk.
No idea.
Also kinda looks like something you'd find in Ikea.
Somebody got lazy...
And finally, we made it to the ticket counter and into the elevator.
Very cool decorations in the elevator.
Now in the lower observatory. This is slightly higher than the tallest point in Tokyo Tower.
I kinda like how the long exposure made little circles. Looks like some artist took a stamp and made their own version of Tokyo Tower.
Of course, my best shot turns out crooked. -_-
Anybody remember this? We passed by it on the bus boat during the Tokyo Tour. It seemed like ages ago.
Christmas decorations. The character with the star-shaped hair is named "Sorakara" and she is kind of the Sky Tree mascot. A literal translation of the name would mean "from the sky" but even Haruna couldn't say for sure if that's what it really meant.
Standing on a glass window, looking down to the bottom.
I started feeling really tired and sore, so I decided to skip out on the top level (I'd like to come back again with Skylar during the day to see it) and head home.
More cool elevator decorations.
That's it. The next time you hear from me, I'll be back in the US of A. Good-bye Japan!
I have had the worst luck with this blog post. I intended to spend the entire Saturday after returning from Nikko to filter through the 300+ pictures I took and post them. Saturday morning found me running to the toilet every hour or so due to a possible food poisoning. So Saturday turned into a sleeping marathon...between toilet breaks anyway... I had decided that if I didn't improve on my own by the following day, I would go to see the doctor. I was able to hold down dinner that night, so that was a good sign.
And luckily, by Sunday morning, I was feeling well enough to continue the plans I made with Haruna and LoLo. I'll get to that later.
I found out during class that one of the other IES students got sick right after the Nikko trip and Ramsey, who's been here for a semester before us, explained that we likely were not used to the meat there, as the same happened to him the first time he ate during a trip like this one. We're both fine now, but I had almost made it through this whole semester without getting sick. Sigh.
So when I was finally able to find the time to begin uploading the pictures, Blogger informed me that I had reached my upload limit (1 GB) and needed to start paying if I wanted more. Have I really posted that many pictures? I suppose I really shouldn't be that surprised...>_>
But it meant having to find another server to upload my photos, and link them here. No big deal, except Blogger will only allow me to link one photo at a time. By the time I finished uploading and linking each picture from Nikko individually, I had gone to two other places with Haruna, and a third with Lindsey and Hannah. So I had even more pictures to upload and link.
I also had some videos I needed to edit and cut, which caused my laptop to freak out and freeze. The video was saved, but the blog post (though I am absolutely sure I saved it) had not been saved recently, and I was forced to restart the browser to open up some memory for the movie editing to work more smoothly. When I re-opened the blog, half of the pictures had not been saved, so I had to re-post them all over again...one by one...
I know what some of you are thinking...why not just post them on the new server and link the album on the blog? Because I am kinda OCD with my pictures and blog and want them all to be consistent and in one place. Also, you all are actually taking the time to read this, so I'd rather make it easier for you even if it means more frustration for me. Don't feel bad, I do it to myself, but feel better about it in the end.
And now...finally...I am able to actually start typing. Because I was so delayed, this will be another mass posting of several different things I did since I last posted.
Part 1: Thanksgiving in Nikko
Well, we didn't really celebrate Thanksgiving in Nikko, since they don't celebrate this holiday in Japan, though the trip did happen to coincide with it. I don't think I have ever gone a year without celebrating Thanksgiving, so it was weird to do something else other than sit down and eat turkey and stuffing with the family. I actually missed it a lot.
The IES Student Council were kind enough to set up their own Thanksgiving dinner held the previous Thursday. But with the samurai paper due the following day, I couldn't squeeze in the time to go. :/
But back to Nikko. This is a famous small town that many tourists visit and is located north of Tokyo. It took us between 2-3 hours by bus to get there. (I lost track when we made a pit stop for almost an hour to have an early lunch.) It is most known for Toshogu Shrine, where Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate, resided. This would be our first stop.
One of the gates in Toshogu Shrine, leading down a long hill and into a small village where you can eat and shop for omiyage.
A look back into the walkway to Toshogu Shrine. From left to right: Sherry, Fa-chan, LoLo, covered by Jordan with the camera, Amy in front of him, Ramsey, then Shawn in front of him.
The famous 5-story pagoda on the shrine grounds. The top of this pagoda reaches the same altitude as the top of Tokyo Sky Tree. Note that this includes the added altitude of the mountain it sits on. I don't know whether they were trying to emphasize the altitude of the pagoda, or the Sky Tree, but I sure am impressed with how high the Sky Tree is. (I would later learn from Haruna that it's 634 meters high.)
A close-up of the pagoda's architecture.
Following Hannah and Malia through one of the beautiful walkways.
I don't know why I love these gates so much.
Kouyou, or fall colors, were starting to dot the landscape. It is especially noticeable with the momiji (Japanese maple, my favorite tree). They turn this amazing crimson color that the camera could not even come close to picking up. You will see my later attempts as the trips goes on.
The hill down to the village.
More bad fortunes tied to the trees.
Getting into the main grounds.
Yay for telephoto lenses!
An attempt at picture-ception. I am taking a picture of Ray taking a picture of Hannah taking a picture of Malia, taking a picture of...me again (?) taking a picture of Josh taking a picture of the thing with the bells in the previous picture. Hmmm, Ray had it all set up, you'd have to ask him.
The kanji reads "Toshogu" and the symbol at the top is the Tokugawa family crest.
These waterways were found everywhere on the shrine grounds. Ancient irrigation system perhaps.
Not sure what these are, but I thought it was cool-looking.
Traditional Japanese wedding. I was really excited to see this, but didn't take more than this one picture due to the fear of being seen as a creeper.
Famous carvings of the famous monkeys. You can't really tell now, but you'll see in a later picture.
Yup, based off the well-known Buddhist doctrine. In Japanese, they are known as the Sanzaru, or Three Monkeys.
More gates! And Lindsey in the foreground here with her blue hoodie up. It was pretty chilly, especially at this altitude.
Purification fountain.
When the Japanese first learned about elephants, they'd only heard them from a distance, and never saw them. So, there rendition of the elephant in these carvings is a little odd, but the shrine is famous for them.
Lindsey though these were old barrels holding alcohol. No idea, but seems like a pretty reasonable guess.
A part of the shrine climbs up the mountain, with a total of 207 steps to the highest point. Yes, I counted. It also made the castle I climbed during the Kanazawa trip seem so insignificant. But at least these steps weren't 16 centimeters high. The stairs did not continue without breaks to the top. Here is the first set.
Looking down at the second set.
Looking up at the third. While it is kinda the final set, there were more steps later to the very top, but only sets of 5 or 6.
I am thinking, paper Christmas tree? Probably not, but it greeted us near the top.
A view of the forest from the top.
Getting a glimpse at others braving the stairs.
We went counter-clockwise around this statue at the top of the steps.
Going down...so much easier than going up.
The sleeping cat had something to do with the Tokugawa family, but I can't remember what.
Close-ups using my telephoto lens of the white gate you saw earlier, and other things as we backtracked to the entrance.
Near the entrance again, and looking at a gate to another shrine. If we had the time, we'd have gone in to explore that one as well.
Leaving Toshogu to make our way to the hotel. More beautiful scenery to watch from the windows.
This is a famous hotel in Nikko, and much larger than the ryokan we stayed at in Kanazawa.
There was a separate section with 2 western style beds. Lindsey called dibs pretty quickly.
View from our balcony.
Trying to figure out the tea set.
Yummy.
Anko treats.
I think this had to be my favorite yukata design.
Dinner is served buffet-style. Here are Henry and Garrett waiting for others in their group.
Yeah, I got the crab. And sushi. I can see you shaking your head there, Skylar.
And I kinda went overboard with the dessert, but there were so many different types, I had to try them all. All delicious, of course. (The green ice cream is matcha tea flavored...so good and so hard to find in America.)
Once we finished dinner, we headed straight to their onsen, or hot springs. The baths are fed from natural hot springs underneath the ground. I wish I could have taken my camera, but I am sure that is frowned upon. >_> But the setup was really nice. The place where you bathe first had stalls separated by walls so you didn't have to bathe while another naked person sat next to you. There were also several different baths to choose from, some with different herbs or oils added (think Spirited Away), and we tried each one. The outdoor ones were really nice. The cold air is refreshing with the steaming water.
We bought some cheap wine at the konbini and witnessed the joy that is watching Lindsey get drunk. I felt slightly tipsy, but I think my regular wine drinking has made me a bit more resistant. At one point we found ourselves in Josh's room and watching as he wondered around a Minecraft version of Hogwarts made in 1:1 ratio. We found the Chamber of Secrets. Even the basilisk's body was down there. So awesome.
Morning at the hotel.
The waterfall in front of the hotel that we never noticed last night.
From here we rode the bus to our next stop. The trip is only 2 days so we only had 2 things planned for the day before taking the long ride home.
Our first was Ryuokyo Ravine, where you can hike up and down the mountain side on these questionable-looking wooden steps and see some amazing waterfalls and kouyou scenery.
At the entrance to Ryuokyo Ravine.
I started realizing that I needed to stop complaining about the immense amount of stairs I have to deal with on these trips. Because then I encounter one with worse stairs. -_-
That bridge in the background...we'll be crossing it later.
Hannah, Lindsey, Ray, me, and Malia on the bridge I mentioned earlier.
From foreground to background: Jordan, Hannah, Janel, Sherry maybe, and possible Henry or Garrett, it's hard to make out.
Another abandoned hobbit hole.
We'll be crossing this little bridge later too.
Crossing the second bridge to get back to the original side with the entrance. There is Lindsey on the left taking a photo, Ramsey in the center in the far back, Dr. Friday (the IES director) looking at his camera, and Josh's shoulder in the foreground.
I started wondering why this area looked so familiar.
Then a few steps later we're at that first waterfall. That trek felt like an eternity. I am surprised I was still able to move the next day.
Henry and Janel heading up the steps to the entrance.
As Lindsey and I made our way back up to the top, we looked down to noticed many fellow students at the bottom of the ravine. With only 30 minutes before lunch at the restaurant, and my slow ass, we decided we had seen enough of the ravine to skip that part. It also gave us some extra time to shop in the gift store.
Lunch consisted of this little gas stove with a porous stone slab to grill on. Reminded me of home. My family did something similar with an electric grill.
We all had to wear these giant white bibs, like the one Hannah has on in the background here. I thought it was kinda unnecessary (I don't need one eating lobster...not that I eat much lobster anyway...) but the spatter from the meat made me reconsider.
This delicious meat will later be my biggest regret of the trip.
With Malia's special diet needs, she got to have seafood instead. I was kinda jealous.
Table setting for another large group. The food was displayed in giant bamboo. So cool.
Ray was our cook for the day. Don't blame him for my food poisoning. No one else got sick at our table, so it was just me and my apparently sensitive tummy.
Garrett...modern art, or messiest eater ever?
After lunch, we headed to our last stop, the Nikko Handicrafts Center, where we would try our own hand at wood carving. Before the trip, we were given a choice of which design to carve. Some designs were pretty elaborate and none of us had any idea just how challenging it was even with lines to guide us. The Nikko-bori carvings are part of Nikko's traditional history. It would be sort of an extra job that the carpenters would do.
My design. Luckily, not one of the harder ones.
One of the pros showing us how it's done.
My first few cuts. The dots where the flower pistols (or is it stamens?) are located were carved by the pro with a different tool. Too advanced for us newbies.
The finished product. Before the white lines were cleaned off.
The second floor had a museum displaying some pretty impressive pieces, all hand-carved. Here is Shawn admiring the pillar.
What's this?
Oh, a tissue box. o_O
The following are different phases in the progress of making the above Buddha head carving.
A view from the museum.
More beautiful kouyou while leaving the Handicrafts Center.
I wish I could see streets like this everyday.
Once the Sky Tree came into view, we knew we were going to be back soon.
The following are pictures stolen from Dr. Friday's collection.
And so ends our final big trip for the semester. Perhaps not a very traditional Thanksgiving, but one I'll remember for a very long time.
Part 2: A Cat Cafe? Only in Japan.
So what is a Neko Cafe, exactly? I wasn't totally sure myself until I went. Not as common as the maid cafes, but still definitely a part of Japanese uniqueness. Something like this would fail miserably in America. I am thinking it works here due to the typical Japanese lifestyle. They have limited space for their homes and having pets isn't always possible. So how do you get your fill of cute cuddly animals? Pay someone else to let you play with their cats. It seems silly through American eyes, but it works well in Japan. This particular Neko Cafe we went to has been around for quite some time. They started with one kitty. And I am sure there were at least 10 in the room when we visited.
It was also pretty expensive, considering you're just coming in to play with cats, and sure, the drinks are unlimited and the snacks are all-you-can-eat, but for the hourly fee that you pay, you'd never make up the difference. Though the cats were pretty adorable. Just kinda...dull. I think we came during nap time. But, I don't regret the experience. Yay for kitties.
Haruna petting Figaro.
This is Birt and we were fortunate enough to come during his birthday.
Kinako.
A warning to the bad kitties?
Anko on the left, eyeing...I have no idea...this kitty was not listed on the website.
Birt again.
LoLo petting Doraemon.
Aisha.
Haruki.
Sugar, the first kitty.
Kuririn.
Mystery kitty.
What is mystery kitty looking at?
Anko again! They chased each other all over the cafe.
Aisha again.
Mystery kitty has kinda a mystery mustache.
Doraemon, doing what cats do, sit on all your stuff.
Purin.
Kantaro.
Haruki.
Mocchi.
Figaro.
Posing next to Birt. At first I wondered why I looked thinner than usual in this picture and then remembered my food poisoning session the day before. That lost weight won't stay lost for long, though. -_-
More picture-ception goodness.
They gave us treats to spoil the cats with.
They had these notebooks that you could write and draw in during your visit. LoLo drew the Nyan Nyan cat later.
Ok, so the welcome sign should have been posted first...oh well. I took the picture as we left. The sign says the first hour is 1000 yen, and every 15 minutes after that is 250 yen. That's weekdays. The prices that follow are for weekends.
Part 3: Party Time!
On Friday, I was invited to a party for one of Hannah's coworkers. She works for a company called CosmoBridge part-time, teaching English. Since we had to leave right after samurai class, I did not have my camera with me, so all of these were taken on my phone. The phone actually takes decent pictures, but my Nikon has spoiled me, so I still feel I need to apologize for the lack of quality. Sorry!
How did I get the glowy Mickey ears? No idea. Some random Japanese guy put them on me and that's where they stayed. The girl on the left is Moe, the birthday girl. The theme of the party called for maid costumes. I didn't have one, but Hannah and Lindsey did.
This is Lindsey sober...
Still sober.
Angry rice man is angry cuz we're about to eat him.
As a final note about the party...as we were getting ready to leave, Moe gave us all party favors, and when she got to me, she said, "You have really big boobs." Yes...yes I do...>_>
So...this is the impression I make when I meet new people? >_<
Part 4: Tokyo Tower
Haruna has been so awesome to invite me to all of these places I should have seen ages ago. I can't believe it's taken me THIS long to get to Tokyo Tower. Oh well, I had a great time and some great conversations with Haruna.
We wanted to see Tokyo Tower at night, as they light it up in a fantastic UT color theme. (I am expressing what little spirit I have for my school here...) So before that, Haruna took me to Odaiba, which, according to Wikipedia, is a man-made island in Tokyo Bay. That's pretty cool. Anyway, there was a very large mall, the Rainbow Bridge, and the famous Fuji Television Network station. Surrounding the mall was a boardwalk of sorts, where Haruna and I wondered (originally, to get a view of Rainbow Bridge, which looks rather normal during the day, but lights up nicely for its namesake at night) around to discover these street performers (on the boardwalk...so...boardwalk performers?) giving a free show. We saw the tail end of one and were lucky enough to catch the second one when it first began.
Rainbow Bridge...without the rainbows.
The first performer. He gave the random audience members all gloves of different colors to wear. They were meant to represent the Rainbow Bridge.
Am I going to see a bunch of cute Japanese guys play tug-of-war?
Damn, I guess not. But this is cool, I guess.
Yeah, ok, that's pretty cool. But can they play tug-of-war anyway?
Damn, guess that means the show is over.
Wait a sec, did I just appear in New York? Nah, there are still Asians everywhere.
This is Performer Syo, or so it said on one of his cases. Loved his bright orange hair. And what a cutie! It wasn't hard to decide to sit down and watch his entire performance.
It's easier to just post the video that I took and edited together instead of explaining everything he did. Some of it was kinda cool, but his flexibility and his string and...is that a spool?...trick was pretty awesome. He switches to a smaller one at some point and throws it super high to try and catch it. He fails the first time, but is able to do it on his second try. I learned that it's REALLY hard to follow a falling object with a camera. Also, he's pretty good with the cup and ball, and yes, you are hearing a DDR song somewhere in there. Lastly, when I published the video, the end went black for some reason, so I tried again. It still ended up black, just not as much. I decided to (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ and just post the second one because my laptop takes forever publishing a video and I am tired of feeling like I am never finishing this blog post. The last part that is blacked out is of him making a second attempt at his final balancing act, which was more successful than the first, but not that much different anyway.
Interesting looking statues.
Giant Coca-Cola Christmas tree. Those are lit screens, not pictures.
The Fuji Television station is also open to the public. They have omiyage shops and a giant sphere at the top of the building that you can go up to and get an amazing view of Tokyo Bay. Here are the steps leading up to the entrance. Yeah, Fuji handles One Piece. I am hearing a lot of jealous gasps.
I think what makes it worse for you One Piece fans is that I have never seen the anime, but here I am anyway. :P
Fuji Television's mascot, I believe.
A view from one of the windows inside the sphere.
The ceiling of the sphere.
Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower can be seen in the distance. This is a famous view, and I saw a lot of it on products, gifts, and postcards.
A giant touch screen, allowing you to scroll in 360 degrees to see what life used to look like in Tokyo before it became the giant sprawling city that it is.
That large, curvy building is a well-known hotel, and Haruna used to work there, actually.
One of the few selfies that I don't look too terrible in.
Hey look, Syo's still doing his thing down there!
Haruna explained to me that this was a famous set on the network, but I am not familiar with it myself.
Famous television people.
Other famous stars who have visited here and who you may or may not recognize.
A better angle to get a full effect of the ad.
More One Piece awesomeness that maybe I will one day understand.
The Fuji Television building. You can kinda see the sphere that we went to in the shadow there.
It started to get dark so we rode the train to the station closest to Tokyo Tower (I can't remember which one).
Haruna hasn't been to Tokyo Tower since she was a child, so we were both just kinda winging it. We followed it til we reached this impressive temple gate, wondering if we should go through it. You can see the tip of Tokyo Tower peaking up from behind it. But then we saw signs directing us to go around it.
Getting closer!
Another selfie. We ended up blurry, but I still kinda like the effect.
Telephoto lens got to come out to play again.
That white, disk-like shape is the Special Observation Deck.
This is the Main Observation Deck, complete with a cafe, a gift shop, and glass sections so you can see underneath the floor.
Arriving at the entrance. Why is there a display of wolves? No idea, but it was pretty.
"All I Want for Christmas Is You" is VERY popular in Japan it seems, and it's been playing everywhere, from the konbini, to the mall food court, to the bookstore, to..Tokyo Tower. I have been singing in my head it all week.
Entering the main lobby. I thought the little logo was cute.
The elevator had some distracting lighting effects.
Views from the Main Observatory.
Tokyo Sky Tree. It's almost twice the height of Tokyo Tower. 634 meters. Tokyo Tower is 333 meters.
Peering through one of the glass panels.
Our feet as we looked down.
A bigger glass panel.
Ah, now Rainbow Bridge lives up to its name.
You have to pay extra to get to the Special Observatory Deck. I figured it's my last two weeks, I should just do it. So here we are in line, waiting to get on the elevator.
Rainbow Bridge from the top floor.
At night, Tokyo doesn't look too different from any other big city, really.
Remember that ferris wheel in one of the pictures from the sphere in the Fuji Television building? Here it is, with the telephoto at its highest zoom.
It had started to rain, so it was hard to get a clear shot of the Sky Tree.
More rainbow lights.
As we left, there was a light show on the outside of the Tower.
I recorded this video, but didn't record very long since it was still raining and neither of us brought our umbrellas.
And finally, I can put an end to this long overdue blog post. I hope I didn't bore you too much with all the nature shots and stuff. Tokyo Sky Tree, here I come!
