Life with Michelle: Spring Break 2007: Japan

Two weeks before Spring Break, i recieved a phone call from my parents asking if i wanted to go to Japan. Of course at the time, i was thinking to myself, " Are you guys serious?" Haha.. I guess you can say it came up as a shock to me that they would ask this so suddenly, out of nowhere! At first i thought that they were just making fun of me or something just pulling my leg about it, but i guess knowing my parents, if they ask to go somewhere very soon, it's most likely that they are serious.

So the plan was to stay for about 8 days, 5 of which was to be on a tour, and the last 3 days would be just to mess around. Now the tour says that it is a 5 day tour however, they include the day that we arrive to Japan as one day, and the last day when we depart as another day. So in reality the tour really was only 3 days.

SOOOOoooo off we go April 14, Saturday, Just when school ended.
(I realized that i took massive amounts of pictures, and because there are so many, i'll just give you the gist of each day or thing that took place)

This was the offical first day of the tour. The tour that we went on is called Signet Tours, unfortunately the tour that we went was for Cantonese speakers. So essentially i don't really remember any of the names of some of these places =/ so i'll try my best to describe what is what haha...

Day 1: First, we went to where the King of Japan lives, I guess you can just think of it as some what like the Buckingham Palace of Japan. We werent able to actually go in, so all we did was just walk around the front and take random pictures of nothing haha

After visitng this for about an hour or so, it was off to a new location : Asakusa Kannon Temple. This is just mainly where almost all tourists go and see. This location also has a street inside where this temple is, called Nakamise. This street is probably a mile long or so, and it consists of little venders selling snacks and little souvenirs.

This is me and my dad. What we are doing is trying to put the smoke onto ourselves because it is said that you will get good health haha i think anyway.

That following night, we were given a free night to just explore the city on our own, meaning without the tour itself. The city that we got to go that night was Shinjuku.

Of course, the first thing my parents and i went to was one of the local super markets at Keio Plaza down where the subway area was.

I must say, the presentation of everything in Japan is really awesome. All of the vegetables, fruits, fish everything is soo neatly packaged and so clean! Everything just looks so fresh. Since our tour guide hyped up the deliciousness of the fruits, we decided that we would get ourselves some strawberries. AND boy they were indeed delicious. It was super sweet and soft, that when you bit into the strawberry, it was almost as if it melted in your mouth. Indeed very tasty.

After the supermarket, one of my dad's friends lives in Japan, so we called him up to hang out with us and have dinner.

Day 2: First, Meji Shrine. Here we got to see of course the Shrine. For some reason that day, there were a lot of students on a fieldtrip. We got to see the Shrine, people threw coins and made wishes, prayed, and did other things. One trandional thing we did was where you were there was a a station where there was water and a bunch of spoon like sticks, what you were to do was to first pour the water on your left hand first, then the right, then sip the water and spit it out. Haha i forgot why this is what we had to do, but i think it's for good health.

There is also another part where they had this thing that they called a Ema, almost like a wishing tree. This "tree" had a bunch of hanging wooden boards with wishes written on them.. This location also has another area where they have marriage licenses made. We were able to go in, but all we could do was listen to the drums beating, didnt really get to see much because it IS a private ceremony.

Next: Tsurugaoka Hachimangu's Shrine in Kamakura.

Not only did we get to see the shrine itself, this little city had little souvenir shops. We were told by the tour guide that we had to try the ice cream that was Purple. Even for lunch, the dessert we got was Green Tea ice cream, so we were able to eat real green tea ice cream, and late found out that the purple ice cream was a purple yam ice cream.

Next up: Great Buddha of Kamakura. This is the second largest Buddah in Japan. It is said that this buddah was originally in a large Temple hall, but what was destroyed by a tsunami centuries ago. So then as a result the buddah was always left out in the open. This buddah is pretty big, so it's pretty scary to think about how this was hit by a tsunami, i mean if a tsunami hit now, you would be dead in seconds.

Day 3: First, Odawara Castle. All we did here was go in the castle, and look at all the old swords and army gear that they saved up.The castle is bascially kept as a museum for tourists. Camera's werent allowed inside the castle, so i only took a few pictures of stuff like the view ouside.

Next: OFF TO THE HOT SPRINGS: HOTEL NEW AKAO
This was probably the only thing i was really looking forward to in terms of the tour.
We got the Japanese experience through this fab hotel. We wore a Yukata, basically the Japanese robe, not a kimono, we had dinner where we had to sit on the floor where each person has an individual table of food, and of course the Kareoke.

After dinner, we went back into our rooms to find made beds on the floor. The room itself was pretty cool. We view of the ocean, and we heard waves crashing into the rocks down below. That night we all tried the whole Hot Spring experience. It's basically like a jacuzzi but instead its the ocean water heated up into a swimming pool.

Day 4: Mt. Fuji. Because of the rainy wheather in Japan, we were unable to actually see the mountain so boo to that. But we still went up whe cable cart and got to see the a dead volcano while going up. There was a lot of smoke up in the air, and still it was FURREEEZING up there. We walked all the way to the top of some point just to get boiled eggs that were said that if you ate one, it would add seven years to your life. The egg is actually boiled from the lava down below, which then when the egg is finished boiling the egg turns out to be Black. Another special thing here was that we got to try wasabi ice cream haha.. it took us forever to find out where they were actually selling it. But success.

After the cable cart, we went on a boat ride around Lake Ashi, one of Japan's biggest lakes. On this boat ride, we are suppose to get a better view of Mt. Fuji, but again it was extremely cloudy and we saw nothing haha... The best time to see Mt. Fuji they said was during the winter. Spring is definitely the worst time if you want to see it.

So after a busy day at the mountain, we drove back into the city, and they took us to a shopping mall called Venus Fort, in Odaiba, which popularized form young teens. Japan is obsessed with small dogs, so i took some pictures of the pet store, they even have a little store dog clothes store, with costumes and everything. It's pretty crazy.

That night we ate All you can eat HOT POT

And that Concludes the Signet Tour

The next day we said our goodbye's to the rest of the people on our tour, and we were off to Tokyo Metropolitan. The ride from Narita Hotel to the Metropolitan Hotel was about two hours long, so that day we left early and checked into our hotel at around 12. We didnt do much that day, bascially just walked around the city going into shopping malls and resting in the hotel.

So the next couple of days we met up with my dads friend, and he took us around.

First up, the inevitable China Town. China town took us about two hours by subway, it was super long.

After that, off to Akhibara! I guess as you can see, the majority of the photos are from the Subway. Akhibara however is basically "Electric City" Everything Electronic is found here, even home appliances like washing machines.

Then RAMEN for Dinner, this place was probably one of the best Ramen places ever!

The Next Day HARAJUKU

For some reason that morning, we werent that hungry, but we went into a little cafe shop and bought all these pastries to eat for breakfast haha it was good too.

That day we went to Harajuku, it fell on a Saturday, which means MAD PEOPLE on the streets. In this photo if you can't tell this whole street is full of people walking

Sushi for lunch. This sushi was like that one sushi place in Pasadena. I dont remember the name but, i just remember that they put sushi on this conveyer belt and you p ick whichever dishes you want.

A Huge Bakery

Crepes!

Going Back to.. ehh i forgot where we went, but this part of town is usually where all the clubs are. And we took some picture of the "Eifle Tower" of Japan haha. I tried taking pictures in the subway, but unfortunately you cant tell that there were massive people squeezed in to fit.

Then for dinner we went to eat Korean BBQ

As a result of this day. Massive Shopping

And thats the end of the trip...

The following is some of the fun stuff i saw there, or rather what i thought was pretty interesting/cool.

The Best TOILET in the world, Heated seat, even has a little sink in the back that has water come out automatically after you flush.

Here are the functions: Well i think from the little illustrations it's pretty self explanatory. But just incase, the orange botton is to flush and the last botton is a dryer. The others you can just guess for yourself.

I actually miss using this toilet. I got to use this toilet in every hotel i stayed at! Even most of the restaurants had these toilets. I think this picture however is probably the most craziest ones because it has a dryer. The "old" version has no sink in the back and no dry button.

i think they have this here in the states, but i found it pretty funny, Japanese Pervs haha..

I just liked the picture of this old school Coke Cup and this Cherry Coke can

Salmon there is sooo friggin orange, and soo delicious

Reminds me of a Christmas Story

At the resturant you make your own green tea, the facit has boiling hot water come out of it. And you put in the powder.

Subway Map, Ticket, Small Magazine Stand

Pachinko! Look how many basket this old guy has. Crazzy. Everytime i walked passed these places, they were filled with people just gambling away.

So in Japan, you really dont see any trashcans around the city. The only thing you see are recycling bins. If you do have trash, you're suppose to just hold it until there is somewhere that HAS a trashcan. I think its cool how they DO recycle and keep everything clean.

Alright this is my Japanese Drama section.

Hana Yori Dango

Hanazawa Rui's CAR! Too bad its only a poster. Its a Sweet car though.

Ebisu Garden Place hahahaha

We happen to just pass it when we were switching subway buses... we were in such a hurry to catch the next bus that those were the only things i could take a picture of haha lame.

Bambino: Alright i just found this out when i got home because i watched the first few minutes of Bambino. But anyways this is the spot where Matsumoto Jun's character Bambino first came to tokyo. This is actually what he sees once he gets out of the subway entrance. its uncanny haha oh except my photos were taken at night, whereas in the show its in the morning.