Archive for November 2008
Kimonos at the Japanese Garden
Hayleigh and her new amazing DS that takes pictures!
Red Japanese maple leaves
My close friend Hayleigh, with her host sisters. Her host mother invited me to dress up in kimono and take pictures at a Japanese garden in Koshigaya.
Cheesu!~
More leaves! I gathered a bunch of them to dry in my travel journal 
Hayleigh-chan~
Hayleigh's host family being adoreable
YELLOW!
Kimono covered bottoms.
the Garden was just gorgeous
Me.
I just finished a ten page history paper. Tomorrow is my last day of work and of school. Two weeks from now, Ieave Japan. To go home, that is. Crazy.
Kamakura in a Day
It was so refreshing to see the ocean again. I've missed it...
Small pond on the grounds of Hase-dera, a temple dedicated to the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva Kannon (from which the Canon brand derives it's name), who is actually neither male nor female contrary to the widely held notion that Kannon is a Goddess, but does in fact represent compassion, love, and mercy.
Japanese maple leaves are gorgeous in the fall.
Figurines inside of benten-kutsu cave at Hase-dera.
Reading the wishes and prayers of visitors.
Happy smiles after seeing Kannon in Kannon-do hall.
A smaller representation of Kannon at Hase-dera.
A little friend at the site of the Great Buddha, or Daibatsu.
Daibatsu of Kamakura. This buddha used to be enclosed in a temple but it was destroyed by either very strong winds or a tsunami, and only the Daibutsu was left standing. It is MASSIVE.
Shopping on Komachi-dori. It started to rain by the time we got to the Kamakura stop on the Enoden line.
Rain and pokadots.
We took the Romance Car into Fujisawa and got on the local back to Shinjuku where we departed. We got the Enoshima-Kamakura Free Pass but the rain made it very difficult to explore Enoshima. It’s actually a much shorter trip than I had anticpated and much cheaper too. I’d like to go to Enoshima and see a beach before I leave but I may have to wait for my next journey here. I’ve got exactly seventeen days to go and it just doesn’t feel like enough time for anything.
Shrines & Temples: Sensoji-tera & Asakusa
Senso-ji is Tokyo’s oldest Buddhist temple, located in Taito-ku’s Asakusa District. The temple is dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy. Kaminarimon, or Thunder Gate, and Nakamise-dori (pretty good for omiyage shopping) are also part of Senso-ji’s ground, and all are equally as infamous. Asakusa, to me, feels like Japan. Many of the buildings, however, are not that only, most being from the 50s and 60s due to the firebombing of Japan during WWII, nothing older survived; despite that, it still has that “old” feeling.
Nakamise-dori around 10am on a Saturday
Adventuring with crew in tow
Looking up at the huge lantern which has an impressive wooden carving at the bottom
Maneki-neko (good luck cats) with SOLAR POWER!
Purification ritual in Senso-ji. You have to wash your hands and your mouth before entering to pray at Buddhist temples.
All dressed up for her shichi-go-san
Bad fortunes are tied up in hopes of them not coming true. I had to tie mine up :3 lol
Incense used for good luck and for intelligence. There is a huge thing of incense buring and you walk up to it and use your hands to waft the incense over your head. This is said to make you smart. I was standing in front of that thing for a good five minutes
I don't know the significance of this particular ritual but its a pole with different colors, each one representing different Buddhist virtues I think. There was a very, very long line for this.
Inside Senso-ji, people praying, lighting cameras, tourists touristing
Kimono shop on another popular shopping dori
Clothing hanging to dry. My absolutely favorite small Tokyo detail.
Oba-chan and her dog near the Sumida River
Side street near Nakamise-dori
Creeepy...
Asking for donations, I think. Yeah, I know he looks like Rayden from Mortal Kombat.
If you go to Asakusa, shopping is best done on the side streets, away from Nakamise-dori. Food is also cheap and DELICIOUS, if you just look around a bit. I had the best curry rice for 500YEN I’ve had in Tokyo since arriving. I also managed to buy loads of omiyage for friends and family for a little under 10,000YEN ($100USD) — and I’m talking about over twelve people. Up next in sightseeing: Nikko (in a Day!), Kamakura and Enoshima (in a Day!), Tokyo DisneySea, and maybe some schoolwork in between
Mayhem in the Karaoke Room
From 11pm to 5am, I karaoked with a group of friends in Shibuya. I highly, highly recommend trying this if you ever come to Japan. It’s a really fun experience. I usually karaoke for about two hours but it’s a nice challenge to try and do it for six whole hours. I took the challenge — and I conquered it!
Step 1: Hydrate yourself! Nomihodai karaoke, or all you can drink, during the weeknight cost us 980 yen. That's about ten dollars for six hours of karaoke plus all the Melon soda you can handle. For alcohol nomihodi, it's 1980 yen, or twenty bucks per person. -- this however is only offered during the weekend at the particular karaoke place we went to
Step 2: Everyone should participate in someway, preferably by joining in with the tambourine and sporadic yelling of song lyrics, as seen here.
Step 3: Cameras must be ready at all times to capture and record mayhem with in the karaoke room. (hide doll optional.)
Step 4: Lubricate those vocal chords!
Step 5: Sing your HEART out!
Like this.
Perhaps a more mellow approach...
Duets are always fun and encouraged
Solo air guitar to unleash the rocker within
Please feel free to bust a move
And finally, group participation is the key to a successful night of karaoke
七五三 – A Celebration of Children
Today, my younger host sister, Mayuko celebrated her shichi-go-san. Shichi-go-san, which literally means, seven, five, three is a holiday of sorts for children whose ages are seven, five, and three. Girls dress up in their first grown-up kimono and boys dress up in their hakuma. The festival itself is meant to bring longevity and good luck to the children celebrating it.
Mayuko looked like a tiny Christmas tree ^__^
Three generations
Mayuko-chan getting fixed up a bit
My host mom, Mayu-chan, great-grandmother, and Mii-chan
Little girl posing for pictures
Everyone was a photog today
More pictures, more posing
Detail of Mayu-chan's kimono. It was gorgeous!
Piggy back ride!
Mayuko reads her fortune
44th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama
After you’ve done a thing the same way for two years, look it over carefully. After five years, look at it with suspicion. And after ten years, throw it away and start all over. ~Alfred Edward Perlman, New York Times, 3 July 1958
It’s very hard for me to express in coherent words how excited I am to be alive right now. I feel filled with a sense of purpose I haven’t had in a very long time. When I return home in the next six weeks, I will hit the ground running in a way I’ve never done before. And I will carry in my heart that idea that, no matter what challenges come my way, I can do any and everything.
Mr. President, thank you. I look forward to doing my part as a citizen to help bring change to our country.
