rainy season

Rain rain rain rain rain.

I have never lived anywhere with a rainy season before! It is very, well, wet. I don't mind that, but it's also very humid, which I am not into (for one thing, it makes my hair completely uncontrollable). Japanese summer: not turning out to be my favorite season.

Last weekend I saw Star Trek in the theater. First cinematic experience in Japan! It was more expensive than home, but you get an assigned seat and everyone sits politely through the credits. Very different! I liked the experience and the movie.

Today I am craving mac and cheese. I would kill for Kraft dinner; powdered cheese product sounds amazing right now. Most of the time I love love love food here, Japanese or otherwise, but sometimes I just want something that tastes like it does at home. Difficult to find! The only things I can think of right now that I've had here that taste like at home are a churro at Disneyland and the food at a nearby Indian restaurant (a place I really need to go to again, as it was super duper delish). Plan for the day: figure out where I can find Kraft dinner in Tokyo.

Yeah, you only wish your life was exciting as mine. Getting rained on, watching movie credits, going grocery shopping...life in Tokyo is at all times a life of glamor!

(Also, I haven't forgotten about apartment pictures! I just need to remember to pick up new batteries for my camera.)

Sanja Matsuri

I forgot to post about a very exciting time I had! It was the night before I went to Disneyland, so I think the excitement of that knocked the other excitement out of my head.

I went to Asakusa for Sanja Matsuri, which is one of the biggest, craziest festivals in Tokyo. It's an annual event that lasts three days; I wish I had been able to go to more of it, but I didn't know it was happening until the afternoon of its last day, so I was only able to go for the evening. It's in honor of the three men who founded Senso-ji (see previous entry) and a lot of it revolves around three portable shrines, or mikoshi ("Sanja Matsuri" translates to "Three Shrine Festival").

On early Sunday morning, the three mikoshi set out to visit all of the districts in Asakusa, and then they return in the evening with much celebration. That's what we went to see, and it was very exciting! There were a ton of people there, of all sorts (a sumo wrestler walked past us!), and while it was kind of gross being smashed in that crowd, it was really awesome too. At one point, these dudes rushed at us to, like, part the crowd so they could get to the temple. They were yelling and people were freaking out and we totally could've been so badly injured; I probably should have found it scary or gotten annoyed, but it was mostly just exhilarating. Later we pretty much got carried along with the crowd (and two of us got separated from the other two people we were with) all the way down Nakamise-dori (the vendor-lined street that leads to the temple from the big famous lantern) almost to the temple. One of the portable shrines was not far ahead of us, and we were right behind this float thing that had people playing music on it, so it was super cool. And then we got blocked in by police tape and totally saw some drunk dude, like, getting arrested! Excitement!

Afterwards, we went to Denny's.

(Most of my pictures are a blurry mess, due to the lighting and the jostling of the crowd, but a couple turned out. I include pictures of the cute representation of the event we would soon see that popped out of a nearby clock on the hour, a mikoshi heading toward the Kaminarimon [notice how the lantern is folded up; this is to allow for the huge crowd that would pass beneath it], and the music float - and mikoshi ahead - going down Nakamise-dori.

And an extra bonus video of a couple minutes of our journey down Nakamise-dori. Enjoy Japan, moving picture style!)

東京ディズニーランド

No apartment pictures yet, sorry. But I have an excuse! On Monday I went to Tokyo Disneyland!

It was FUN TIMES. It wasn't super crowded! The weather was lovely! I experienced rides I haven't been on in forever! Dumbo! The canoes (awesome)! I experienced rides I know and love in Japanese! Star Tours! AstroBlasters! The Haunted Mansion (well, some of it was English, but the narration was Japanese)! I experienced rides I know and love in pretty much the same form as in California! Pirates of the Caribbean was so similar it kind of weirded me out a bit. The first skull after the bayou speaks Japanese, there is only one waterfall, and you disembark right after Captain Jack Sparrow gets his treasure, but everything else - the smell, the look and sounds of the Blue Bayou, the temperature, the everything - tricked me into thinking I was in Anaheim. It was jarring to get off the ride and find myself in Japan.

There were some fab eating times too. I had a delish orange popsicle. And I had two churros! A regular cinnamon one and a honey-lemon one! Oishii!

Other stuff! I got to see the Electrical Parade! I got to see a cute live show! I got my picture taken with Wendy and the scariest Peter Pan ever (I think only my mother will know what I'm talking about, but he reminded me of that guy at Nordstrom - replace "Omigod, it's coming to LA!" with "[huge gasp] Did you fly here using pixie dust?!" - only he was terrifying in his unrelenting cheerfulness). I was super lame and wore mini Minnie ear barrettes most of the day!

Maybe the best part of the day was that I didn't get stressed out by other guests! No one was rude! No one shoved! No one got right up on you in line! No one acted like the park was only for them and no one else deserved to be there! The one time some kid bumped into me in line, his mother apologized! Everyone listened to the cast members when told to do or not do something! Even if everything else had been exactly the same as Anaheim, the excellent behavior of the other guests would have told me I was somewhere else. I've possibly been forever spoiled; I foresee being extra annoyed next time I go to Disneyland back home.

The only tragic thing about the day was that Space Mountain was not open. Hopefully next time!

But in general, the day was happiness. I want to go back already! Before I went, I obviously knew that it was close, but it didn't seem real since I hadn't experienced it for myself yet. But now that I've been and know exactly how close to home it is, it will be hard to resist going. If I could afford an annual pass, I would be there, like, every weekend, even if just for a couple hours. ALAS.

Pictures all ended up being of the "Oooh, look at this thing!" variety than the artistic variety, but enjoy anyway. The Pirates line one is total blurry crap, but I include it for the "Dude, it does look like the CA version!" factor.

Konbanwa from Harajuku!

I only have a one-day weekend this week - training tomorrow - but it's been nice. I lazed about this morning (and called the mother for Mother's Day) and then headed to Shibuya for a little shopping and to Harajuku for fish tacos (HAI! MEXICAN FOOD!). I'm in Harajuku still, nabbing some free internet action in a cell phone store. Heading home after this for movies and more laziness. Huzzah!

TOP FIVE STORES IN JAPAN
1. UNIQLO - I buy all my clothes here. They have cute stuff! And good deals! I got a dress there today, yay. It's blue.
2. Loft - If I had the money, I would buy all my home decor here. It is so so awesome! I buy things there every once in a while, and like to look at the cute cute things even when I can't afford them.
3. Tokyu Hands - Not quite as fabulous as Loft, but a little more affordable. And there is still great stuff there! A bunch of my home decor did actually come from there.
4. Kinokuniya - Huzzah for English language books. It's funny because at Kinokuniya at home, I buy Japanese stuff, but at Kinokuniya here, I am like, "YAY FOR ENGLISH!" Tower Records is also good for English books, but I am happier at Kinokuniya.
5. Passport - Um, they have super cute stuffed animals. And I use "animals" loosely. "Food" is more appropriate. They have a super cute tofu character. I might have three Tofu things in my apartment. I might buy more.

Odaiba! Bowling!

Yesterday I went to Odaiba for a little while. It was sprinkling when I got there and dumping rain by the time I left, so it wasn’t really the best day for a trip there. Looked cool though; I’ll have to return another time when the weather is nicer.

Ate lunch there at Red Lobster, haha. Different menu than home, but had the same feel. And a great view looking over the bay back at the rest of Tokyo (check out Tokyo Tower and the Rainbow Bridge in the pic below)!

Went bowling after I got home later. It was super fun! I hadn’t been bowling (except on the Wii, haha) in years. I wasn’t great, but I wasn’t the worst in the group! 3rd place out of 6, yo! I definitely want to go again sometime.

Last day of vacation today! Not sure what I’m doing, but I better make it awesome.

Kamakura, Part Three!

On Monday I planned to hang out in a few places around Tokyo with a friend, but she decided to stay home for r&r instead. I thought about just hanging around a few random Tokyo places on my own, and I got on the train with a vague idea of hopping on the Yamanote Line and just jumping off wherever.

Instead, I ended up in Kamakura again. I really didn’t mean to go! My feet just took me to that train instead of the one I intended to get on!

It was lovely again. It was a bit later in the day than when we got there the day before, so I didn’t have so much time (the sites of Kita-Kamakura will have to wait for yet another day), but I visited the Daibutsu and enjoyed the beach for a while and shopped and had a delicious garlic shrimp plate (and mango juice, yum) for dinner. I went down the coast a bit again and found a beach in Chigasaki and enjoyed that until it started getting too dark, and then I headed home. A very relaxing day!

Enjoy the pictures of my dinner and a random sign at the temple and the Daibutsu. I know I took a ton of pics the first time I visited, but I still took a ton more on Monday. I could not help it! He is very photogenic!

Kamakura, Part Two

...we went back to Kamakura and got on the Enoden line, a little train that goes down the coast and was INSANELY CROWDED, but which would be a charming ride with less people (saw lovely ocean views anyway, even if my ribs were crushed against a metal bar for most of the trip). We rode the whole length of the line, to Fujisawa, getting off and on again at Hase Station (still in Kamakura) to visit THE BEACH.

IT WAS SO AWESOME.

It was pretty much just like the beach at home. Cold! Windy! A little miserable! I was happy that the other side of the Pacific feels just like the part I know best.

The only thing that was different was that instead of seagulls, there were crows. (Have I mentioned the crows here yet? THEY ARE SCARY. They’re gigantic, and I’m terrified of them attacking me.)

There were a ton of windsurfers, so that was fun. And there was loads of nautical crap around which was also fun. And it was super super fabulous to be at THE BEACH.

Wanted to go to the beach in Fujisawa too, but it was not as close to the station as I’d hoped (I think we needed to actually get off the train earlier, but my research hadn’t made that clear). Walked in the right direction for a bit, but gave up and went to Hiratsuka. Wanted to go to the beach in Hiratsuka too, but first we walked in the wrong direction and then we were hungry and couldn’t find anywhere we wanted to eat and then it got dark, so we just went to McDonald’s by the station and then came home.

Anyway, Kamakura! I love it! Next time I want to visit a couple more of the Zen temples and go to the beach and visit the Daibutsu again (there was no time to see him yesterday). And go shopping. There are tons of little shops everywhere, and I’ve been in, like, one.

If you come visit me, I want to take you to my number one place in Japan!