I'm Back!
So I have been more than a slacker of late (considering it has been over a month since my last post) and more than a few people have mentioned that I must have given up. But today I am determined to get back on track. With that I must say that there is no way that I can really catch up with everything that has happened in the past month. So I am going to start with my sisters visit to Japan. She came in March 21st with her roommate Abigail. The two were here for 10 days, and it was great to have them here, and show them around my area of Japan and explore a few new areas as well.
It was nice and cozy in my apartment.
Tea in my apartment when they first arrived
Sleeping on their futons
Their first weekend here was pretty low key, because they were fairly jet lagged and I had to be to work on Monday for graduation. Saturday they got the grand tour of my region, showing them a few stores, a few shrines and parks.
Sunday we ventured to Narita to check out Narita-san another temple and a really lovely park like area. Surrounding the shrine area there are also a bunch of winding streets with traditional type stores.
Monday, I had to head to school because it was graduation. Graduation was nice, it was very formal but it was surprising to see how emotional both the students and teachers were because I was at the school that typically tends to feel a little colder to me (I can’t even imagine how emotional graduation would have been at my other school).
Tuesday we decided that we would do a road trip up to Kasama. A town in my prefecture that is famous for its pottery. It was a nice drive, and a welcome change since it was in the mountains a little bit (which is quite a change from the very flat area I live in). I found a gorgeous turquoise tea pot. (I hope to make another trip up there sometime and hopefully actually make some pottery myself they offer courses).
On our way back we stopped at an all tofu restaurant. I thought it was delicious! But I wasn’t sure how the girls would take it, but they decided that they wanted to try it. I was proud of the girls for trying everything, and they said they enjoyed most of it all (though I think after that they were tofu-ed out by the end!)
We also stopped in Mito so they could see a few of the last Ume (Plum) blossoms that were out. There is a park in Mito that is very famous for their plum blossoms.
Okinomiyaki in Mito! (you get everything in a bowl raw and then you make your own pancake like item) Delicious!
Thursday we headed into Tokyo. Spent the day exploring different areas of Tokyo. And the girls had found a place where we could partake in a traditional green tea ceremony, which was a bit awkward since it was only the 3 of us, but was a great experience (and something I hadn’t done yet).
night lights of tokyo
Thursday (and Friday) night, we spent in a capsule hotel. Which was quite an interesting experience, but something that you have to do while in Japan. The capsule experience: you come into the building purchase your ticket for the night through a machine, you are then given a key for your locker. You head up to your floor (we were staying at a place that had a woman only floor, because most capsule hotels don’t allow women, they are meant for business men). On our floor we found our lockers, which contained our pjs and towels, and we were also able to stash our things in it. Next we headed to our actual capsules (the small area where we would sleep). Basically you walk into a long corridor that has capsules all the way down, two high (one stacked on the other). The capsule was relatively comfortable and not as small as I had feared (I fit comfortably lengthwise into it). The shower room was then located on the top floor. It was a communal style shower, common here in Japan. Here are a few pictures to explain.
lockers:
capsules
in the capsule:
view from the roof:
Friday we were up early to catch a train to Nikko. Nikko is a town in the mountains north of Tokyo. It is has some of the oldest shrines in Japan in the town. Unfortunately the weather was less than desirable, but it was still really gorgeous.
these are the monkeys that the whole see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil are based off of
Saturday was another early morning, we wanted to head to the famous Tsukiji fish market. Tsukiji was defiantly an experience. It was a lot of chaos for early in the morning. But amazing to see all of the seafood and the organization that seemed to exist amongst tons of vehicles driving around all over the place and hundreds of tourists getting in the way, on more than one occasion I thought for sure I was going to be taken out by one of these men on scooters.
Later that morning we headed to Asakusa to see a market and another shrine. But it was SO crowded because its cherry blossom season, that we didn't stick around there too long.
We then headed to Ueno Park (which is the most famous place in Tokyo to view cherry blossoms). We met up with a bunch of other JETs from my area to partake in Hanami. Hanami is a traditional cherry blossom viewing party that occurs throughout the spring in Japan. People bring picnics and enjoy being outside amongst nature.
There were millions of people in the park. But we had a tarp and made ourselves at home in the part with all of the other Japanese people under the cherry blossoms. It was a great evening. The weather was amazing and the cherry blossoms were gorgeous.
Sunday the girls headed home, but it was a great trip. I enjoyed having them here. And think that they enjoyed it as well (I know that Dev enjoyed the food! Sometimes it seemed like all she wanted to do was eat a different kind of Japanese food, guess she has been deprived living in Chicago!)
Ok I will try to be better about posting. More to come!
