Sushi, Gundams, and hundreds of fish

こんにちわ！

Ok so I’m officially recovered from Fuji-san. Actually I could claim that by about Friday, maybe Thursday. It was a pretty intense couple of days though. Especially during zori making because it was so difficult to get up and sit down while crouched over making the shoes. I’m pretty sure I covered all of that in my last post though.

Wednesday, I didn’t really do anything that I recall. Though the days are all blending together and I’m tired so I very well could have done something very fun for all I would remember. Was that Shibuya day? Yes, it was, I remember now. Charlene, Leslie and I headed to Shibuya for sushi at this conveyor belt restaurant. Totemo oishikata desu! (it was very delicious – in past tense!). After, Leslie headed home, and Charlene and I explored. We checked out Loft, a big department store that had all sorts of random awesome stuff. I got little gifts for Mom and Zack. I bet you can’t wait until I come home now huh? We then wandered, stopping at random stores. We went to a book store that had a whole floor dedicated to manga, with people lining the aisles reading them right there. Too bad it was all in Japanese… There was an awesome secondhand store, shoe stores, hat stores, everything.

We headed home relatively early though. It is important to note that whenever you see movies that take place in Tokyo, you almost always see one particular crossing that has thousands of people crossing it everyday. Well, guess who’s been there and crossed it in Shibuya? Yeah, etc. We then headed home.

Thursday was a little more relaxed. I had a test on Friday so I couldn’t do much, but Charlene and I went to Musashi-sakai station to do some brief shopping at the デパート (depaato or department store) and then headed back to her dorm to do some group studying. I was home by 6:10, and chilled/studied more. So much studying in my life! Is this really summer? Wait, yes, it’s extremely hot. Definitely summer.

Anyway, Friday was epic day one of this weekend. We had some stress to release after the test (which went all right I think) so Charlene organized a trip to Odaiba, a small island across the rainbow bridge near Tokyo Tower. Last minute, Anna decided to join us so we waited up for her and were off.

We bussed, trained and then monorailed our way over (the monorail was awesome btdubbs. I got mad pics. Sorry for my slang but I shant change a thing about it) and were soon at our destination. We basically wandered aimlessly around the island, taking pictures, before reaching one of our checkpoints. Odaiba is known for the large Gundam figure featured there. The thing is huge! It was so awesome. There were food vendors around and a nice beach and a huge robot, just chilling. Every half hour, music would play as it lit up, spewed smoke and moved its head around. Needless to say I have a a lot of pictures and a few videos. I find videos to be the best way to document my stay here. Unfortunately they take forever to upload, so I will wait until I get home and have the time to upload some of them. I’ll get into that later though.

So we wandered more, and continued, and it rained so we took shelter. There was a small mall like thing we ducking into and we ended up checking out the Toys R Us. Yeah that was there. I caved and bought a Full Metal Alchemist puzzle. I can’t wait to get home and start assembling it! Anna got kids chopsticks and the Hungry Caterpillar in Japanese for her little nephew.

We decided to head to our last destination, the onsen there. As mentioned before an onsen is a bath where women and men (separately of course) bathe together. All in the nude of course. It was less awkward the second time around, and we lounged around enjoying the hot water. Also, we were given yukata’s to wear (like robes) and there was a little shopping area to explore. No one was wearing shoes, but the floor was very clean. It was inside, but decorated to look like it were outside. It was really cool. There were little restaurants, and games to play. We got some pictures taken in a photo booth (those things are CRAZY complicated in Japan. The photos are time of course, but you choose backgrounds quickly too and then you can draw on the pictures with a bajillion different marks, also limited time, and you have to pick the pictures you want to choose etc. Needless to say, my first few attempts at getting it right had failed due to the rapid fire Japanese instructions. I will get it right though!) and then it was time to leave.

We didn’t realize how late it had gotten. It was already 10:30 and I had told Kuzuhara-san I’d be home before midnight. It was going to take a least an hour and a half to get back to Musashi-sakai, where we’d have to walk another 45 minutes to get back to ICU as the busses had stopped. It then took 10 minutes to walk to the dorm where I had left my bike and I was home by 1:00am. I managed to call home before then to explain and apologize, so it was ok, but stressful. We apparently had gotten the very last bus (whew!) and were crammed in like sardines with the other Japanese. Not fun, but all a part of living in Japan.

I went to sleep soon after. This morning, I got up at 7:30, and left home at about 8:15 to meet Charlene and Anna for our next big adventure. We bussed to Musashi-sakai, and took the train all the way to Tokyo station, where we transferred to the line that would take us to… *drumroll*… the Tokyo Sea Life Park! It was a nice, but affordable aquarium. It was unfortunately agonizingly close to Disney Sea and Disney Land Tokyo, but that’s neither here nor there.

The aquarium was great! We saw all sorts of sakana (fish) and penguins and, well, more sakana. I took videos and pictures and my goal is (providing I can figure out the software) is to make a music video out of it. Maybe later though… We fulfilled Charlene’s long time dream of riding on what may be the largest ferris wheel in Japan, or at least Tokyo. It was a great ride with a wonderful view. Then, Anna and I were really tired and kinda wanted to bail on Charlene after, but I decided against it. Anna took off (she’s staying in Japan all year, she has time to see it all) and Charlene and I headed for Tokyo Tower.

The trip was short, back to Tokyo station then on another line whose name I’ve forgotten to a station near the tower. We walked over and gaped at its size. Tokyo tower looks a lot like the Eiffel Tower, but is apparently like 13 feet taller or something stupid like that. It was brilliant though. We took the elevator up and spent an hour or so on the upper part of the main deck just looking and taking pictures (or Charlene was as my camera had pooped out on me – again). Then we went to the lower level and got to stand on a clear piece of glass where you could look down to the ground. Charlene was a little scared due to her fear of heights (but today was tall things day Charlene!) but she braved it out and got a picture.

We went down to the bottom for a quick dinner and headed out (we were sure to be much earlier today so we could catch the bus to ICU). The trip was easy and I was at ICU by 8:45, with my bike to ride downhill home and the south gate still open. Now I’m here, typing this. I’ll post it tomorrow though, and the pics might take a while. I need to sort through them as I’m sure I took at least 200. Ugh. Later. I must sleep now.

さようなら！