Hi everyone! It has been a slow past few weeks here in
Tokyo. By slow I don’t mean that I have been bored in any way. I simply mean
that I have not done much that felt was worth writing about on this blog to you
all. I want this blog to be full of the highlights of my journey through my
life in Japan, but I realize that I won’t always have exciting stories to tell
every week; especially when I make a place my home for an extended period of
time. Recently I began feeling like Tokyo really is a home to me. I have restaurants
where I frequent and the staff know my name. I have favorite places where I like
to go relax or nap when I have a few hours with nothing to do. I know the
fastest ways to get places and I know the most convenient ways to get places. I
have enough friends that I never go a day without getting invited to do
something. I truly feel like there is a place for me here in this city. I have
spent the past couple weeks simply living life. I’ve gone to school, written
essays, hung out with friends and continued exploring the city on my
rollerblades. While these are not the most exciting stories to tell, I do not
regret the way I spent my time recently at all. It has been relax and fun. It
has felt like a real life for the first time for me, not just my time studying
abroad. That being said I have done a few things that are worth sharing on this
blog, and I have a few pictures that I want to share with you all as well. I
wish I had more to share, but I promise my time has been well spent!
Local Matsuri
Since the last time I posted on this blog the first exciting thing to happen to me was the local festival in my neighborhood. I was completely unaware that there was going to be a festival, but as I began to see preparations around some of the streets near my house I became suspicious and started asking questions. This festival was for a shrine a few streets back from my apartment (about an 8 minute walk). If you didn’t know it was there (like me) then you would probably never even see the shrine. While the festival was much smaller than the Kanda and Sanja matsuri that I went to previously, I had much more fun at this festival. It had a much more local feel to the events and felt more traditional overall. The other two festivals I have been to are some of the most famous in Japan. Attending those festivals is definitely a worthwhile experience, but going this smaller festival was more of the Japanese matsuri experience I have been looking for. Since this was the local festival for my neighborhood I was able to experience much more of the festival activities throughout the weekend compared to the other two festivals. I saw great performance, ate good food, and played fun games. As always it’s hard to explain festivals so I will show you all what I experienced!
ZOO
The next exciting activity I did was a week later when I went
to the zoo with some friends. The zoo we went to was Ueno Zoo, which is the
most famous zoo in Tokyo known for its giant panda exhibit. We spent the day at
the zoo and Ueno Park (the zoo is actually inside the park). It was my first
time going to this area of Tokyo so I was pretty excited to go. Ueno is a
really nice place to spend the day on the weekend. It’s peaceful and has plenty
of relaxing activities and good food to make a memorable day. The zoo was
fairly standard as far as zoos go (aside from having Japanese snack foods
available on the inside). Since theirs is not much that needs to be explained
about the experience…Here are some pictures of some cute animals!
For the most part those are the only singular activities I
have done recently that are worth talking about. However, there are plenty of
small things I’ve done the past few weeks that I want to share with you all.
Alone they are not so exciting but together they give you an idea of how I spend
my time while I’m here in Tokyo. So without further delay let’s begin the next
section that I like to call “Exploring Tokyo”!
Exploring Tokyo!
Exploring Tokyo!
Here is the view of my schools most famous building from one of my classroom buildings
This is the ramen from the ramen shop near my house. Its super delicious and has been featured on Japanese television a few times. Only 5 people can eat at a time but it is well worth waiting for.
I went the a burger store near my apartment the other day for the first time. These burger eating instructions were the first thing I saw when I sat at my table.
Here is the burger! The shop is called island burger so they put a little palm tree on top. It was actually really good. I'm generally pretty picky with burgers, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one
On my way to the zoo I saw this place from the train station. From what I could see it is a place you can pay and fish in these little ponds. It seemed like a pretty fun thing to do! A lot of families were there spending the day.
Famous shrine in Ueno park that has been depicted in traditional Japanese artwork
I dont cook often here in Japan, but i did the other day. Here is the dinner I made together with my friend. I made the pasta from scratch just like i learned in Italy! I'm getting pretty good at it.
You see a lot of strange things when you walk around the more popular areas of Tokyo. Here is a man and his stroller full of cats (that for some reason dont run away) on the streets of Harajuku.
I go rollerblading often around Tokyo. The other day me and my housemate Aldo made the trip from our building to Tokyo Tower. It was a really fun trip that took us around 20 km to finish!
Pretty much a Japanese Eiffel Tower
Japanese green tea tiramisu. It was divine.
While I was wondering the back streets of Harajuku I found a really nice cafe that served some delicious coffee and yummy doughnuts.
I go to Yoyogi park at least once a week here in Tokyo. It's just a really nice place to relax and have fun. Playing badminton, frisbee, baseball and playing with bubbles are the most common activities you will find here. My particular favorite is napping.
Outside of Yoyogi park near Harajuku station is a pretty famous takoyaki shop. Takoyaki are fried dough and goodness with octopus in the middle. If you ever come to Japan you should really try it!!!
Well everyone that's all I have for you unfortunately. I know it was not too exciting, but I really am loving my life here in Tokyo. Every day I spend here is a happy one. I'm so blessed to be a part of this program. Thank you all for reading my adventure thus far. Its not over yet though so I will be sure to make a few more great stories to share with you all. Thanks for reading!
