Setsubun

So today I went to the Shinto shrine in Osu Kannon to celebrate Setsubun; the Shinto holiday on the last day of winter according to the old Japanese calender.  Setsubun is basically a celebration of the coming spring and for the wish of good fortune and happiness in the coming season.

So en route to the shrine, I got separated from my group due to the large crowds, but this worked in my favor.  I actually ended up being right next to the oncoming parade of the Treasure Ship!  I was able to get great video and pictures of the beautiful ship passing by with Shinto priest and Maiko (shrine maidens) on board.

Once I rejoined my group, we made it to the main shrine, which had a large platform set up where people could toss beans from it.  During Setsubun, you throw beans to scare away evil spirits and say "Oni soto, ungaii uchi!" which means "Out demons, in good luck!".  And people below the platform had bags or hats to catch the falling beans in.

I wanted to throw beans myself, but it costs 3,000yen! So instead I bought a lucky bamboo branch with beans tied to it.

Despite the large crowd, it was definitely worth going to and seeing.

Pokemon Center and Sakae

So, Sakae is the Tokyo of Nagoya.  It has all the main shopping and high end stuff one could want.  First off, the Pokemon Center.  Though no as big as the one in Tokyo, it stills offers a lot of the same stuff and is an awesome place for anything Pokemon. I spent waaay too much there.

Then, to my delight, there is a Ghibli store next to the Pokemon Center! I an a Ghibli addict, I cannot leave a Ghibli store without buying something. My goal is to fill my house with as much Ghibli as I can, much to the dismay of my suitcases.  Today I bought a Spirited Away water fountain, simply because it was awesome.

Then for the thrifty, there is Book-Off. I love Book-off for two reasons. 1. Everything is used and thus cheap, but still is good shape (especially the games, some look like they're new!) 2. You can find some pretty rare, old manga and games there. I bought a Japanese Pokemon Silver version for the GameBoy Color for a mere $3.  I was also lucky to find a good collection of Tales of the Abyss manga, hoping to read it for good Japanese practice since I already know the story line from the game.

Then there's shoes.  Sadly, my normal sized American feet (size 7-8) are HUGE for Japanese women's feet.  So I often find cute shoes that I cant wear, which is depressing.  But, I did find some cute leather moccasins with leopard print that did fit.  Basically I need a large, which can be hard to find sometimes, but they do exist!

Clothes, tons of clothes. But the best place I found was what I like to call "Little Harajuku".  Basically I was wondering inside this mall. Until I reached a floor FULL of lolita, goth lolita, and other very niche styles of clothes! It was super cool! Most of the stuff is uber expensive, but if you browse around you can find some reasonable stuff, considering that lolita clothes always run high in prices.

So far those are my favorite places in Sakae

Nagoya Castle and my first dance club

So now classes have started and I'm finally settling down into my new home and town.  Nagoya is much smaller than Tokyo, but it has it's charms.  I do like the less people thing, and thus less crowded trains.

For a class field trip we went to Nagoya Castle, which was beautiful.  The only downfall is that it's winter so the grounds weren't very green.  However, I hope to go again during the cherry blossom season - it'll be gorgeous then!

This Friday I joined a large group from my dorm to a dance club in Sakae.  This was my first time ever going to a club, and I had a blast!  I was a bit nervous at first. With the scary looking bouncers peering down at my small, mortal being.  But ladies got in for free, which was nice. We put our belongings in a coin locker, and hit the first of the five floors of the club.  The club was very nice, since I've never been to one before I have nothing to compare it with, but I'd say it was a very nice place.  Each floor played different music, so you could find one you liked and stayed, or switch it up throughout the night. I explored every floor and stuck with 3rd floor as my favorite.  It played rap/hip-hop, which is the best music for dancing in my opinion. And so I danced the night away for a solid 3 hours. By the time I left by body was crying on the inside.  But it was so much fun, everyone had a good time I think.  I will likely go again.  The only downfall was the smoke, I'm allergic to cigarette smoke so once it got thick my eyes were burning and my throat was sore.  But I ignored it as best as I could.

Today I'm going to the Pokemon Center in Nagoya, and I can't wait!!!!!!!!!

New Places and New Faces

Hello everyone!

It has been awhile since I posted, being home for the holidays was great.  But now I'm back in Japan.

I now live in the city of Nagoya, attending school at Nanzan University.

So far I find Nagoya to be much quieter than Tokyo, though I miss the Tokyo excitement   But I'm sure I'll find fun things in Nagoya as well.

I live in a dorm now and it seems very fun and lively; lots of international students from all over the world!

Class starts on Wednesday, so I'm still in the adjusting stage.

Trying to find the train station, grocery store, and all that good stuff.

I'll keep you posted!

Last Day in Tokyo

Today marks the end of a short chapter in my life.  I am currently trying to figure out how I am going to fit everything that I have purchased these past 3 months into one suitcase.  We'll see how that goes.

I am very grateful to have this experience.  Last night at the goodbye party, it was hard to say goodbye to everyone, even though some of them I will see again.  But we will never meet under these same circumstances again, as study abroad students.  Many are going home for good, some are happy about that, others not so much.  I and a few others will return as year-long students, but I am the only one switching schools and city.  I am looking forward to moving to Nagoya, a whole new experience awaits me there!

But for now I am just super happy to go home and see my family and friends - 3 months without them has been the hardest thing I had to overcome.  But I have no regrets.

See everyone soon!

The End is Neigh

It's hard to believe that I only have one week left here in Tokyo.  So this weekend I finally went to a place I have always wanted to go to, Harajuku! The fashion heaven where the clothes are amazing and the prices don't kill your wallet so badly (unless you shop like me and buy like....15 things.. XP)

At first I wasn't fond of Harajuku - it was crowded, a creepy guy kept pinching my arm, telling to sell me something while I was on the phone; I had to run away to get away from him.  Then there are the big scary African guys who will also call you out to try and sell you something.  They're are a bit intimidating  but usually if you walk quickly and don't respond you can get by them without harassment   Now if you are a foreigner (not of Asian decent)  like my friends and I, you also run the risk of random Japanese people talking to you.  Which can be fun, or creepy, depends on the situation. As we are girls, Japanese guys wanted to take pictures of us.  It didn't bother me really, but for others that can be really creepy.  I just accepted the fact that I am a novelty here in Japan, and thus something exciting for those guys to talk about to their friends.

But the shopping is great.  If you want something interesting and unique  Harajuku is the place to go.  Mainly Takeshi Dori (I think that's how it's spelled - something along those lines) street.  It's one street with a huge sign in front of it (hard to miss).  It's narrow and crowded, but there's enough stores packed into that one street to easily spend a whole day there alone.  I went to this Lolita shop and got a very cute Victorian style blouse for my steam-punk costume that I'm currently working on - and two tiny top-hats and a tie.  At Forever 21 I bought a lot of cute sweaters.  There are Forever 21s in America too, but the Japanese ones carry different things.

After shopping till I was dropping.  I met up with some friends of mine to go karaoke.  This was my first time going karaoke, and it was so much fun! I highly recommend it.

All in all it was a great day.  Now time to spend my last week here finishing school and saying goodbye to all of the friends I have made.  Thank goodness they're all on Facebook.

Nikko

So for my school's last field trip we went to Nikko; a town north of Tokyo that is famous for its temples and waterfalls.

Our first destination was the Toshogu shrine and temple.  This area was the home of the once powerful Tokugawa Shogunate that ruled Japan for many years.  This place is unique as it has both a Shinto shrine and a Buddhist temple right next to each other.

The shrine is breathtaking.  The intricate carvings and woodworking is astounding.  How these people built such complicated structures before any modern technology baffles my mind.

This place is a must see for any architecture or wood carving enthusiasts.  Or anyone who just likes pretty things. I took nearly a 100 pictures there alone.

For that night we stayed at a really nice hotel that had a natural onsen (hot spring).  At first getting naked in front of a bunch of other people can feel daunting  but since everyone else is naked, it doesn't really feel so strange after a while.  Of course the men and women onsen are separate.  The water feels greats and they put special bath salts in some of them to make your skin feel really soft.  I really like onsen.  Though I don't know if I can convince my family to go to one, lol

The following day we went to a natural ravine.  It had a beautiful waterfall, but boy it was a climb! My legs were pretty sore after that trip.

Then we went to a wood-carving studio where we each got to carve a design into our own little wooden mirrors   I did the monkey design, though I gave him a scar to look more cool. Because scars are always cool, lol

And an earthquake just happened while typing this blog.  It was the strongest one yet!  Rather scary, but nothing fell off my shelves so it wasn't too terrible.

Anyway, today I went to Asakusa to paint my own lantern! It turned out alright I think, though not nearly as pretty as some other people's.  I just wrote my kanji name and painted the sides red.  A very traditional look.

Only three weeks left here in Japan, before I go home for Christmas break.  But I'll be back here in the spring.

Time flies by so quickly!