Sayonara Tokyo, Konnichiwa Kyoto

April 10 10:35am

Guess where I am right now? I'm on a Shinkansen! That's a Japanese bullet train! They go at approximately a million miles per hour and are really nice on the inside. Nothing really happened this morning. I woke up at 5 to take my morning shower before we set off for KYOTO at 7! Getting to Tokyo station was a struggle during rush hour with all of our luggage, but somehow we managed to not get swallowed up in the sea of people. Lugging suitcases up and down stairs was a pain in the ass and I legitimately worked up a sweat haha. Okay I really want to eat my obento (super cute boxed lunch) now. I'll blog about our adventures in Kyoto later!

April 11 9:54am

Guess where I am now? A bullet train! Again! This time to Hiroshima. But I should probably take this time to finish up Kyoto day one. So after getting off the Shinkansen yesterday, we hopped on a bus that took us to our hotel. Turned out they didn't have any rooms ready, so we ditched our luggage in the lobby and took a trek around Kyoto. We saw loads of people wearing traditional yukatas so I sniped a bunch of pictures. We also saw two women who were completely made up with white faces and red lips so we asked them if we could take pictures with them. After walking around on the streets, lightning Mike led us to this awesome hill with streets completely jam packed with people and lined with tourist traps. I bought my parents these two really cute stone Jizos (protector of children). And a necklace that we got engraved with "日本 2012". A lot of shopping, two ice creams, and one cucumber on a stick later, we arrived at the top which was another temple. The cherry blossoms were beautiful, and we walked around just taking in the view of the city beneath us. Right before we left, we went to this place that had three streams of water coming from the mountain. It's supposed to be the purest water and you wash your hands and then drink it. In order to gather the water we get these long sticks with cups at the end. It was pretty awesome. I followed lightning mike's lead and drank directly from the communal cup. The water was cool and refreshing, and it did not "taste like chicken" like mitchell had said.

Then we headed back to the hotel and at this point I had a really intense stomach ache. Actually I'm not sure if it was my stomach, it was more like a pain in my abdominal region, but moving on. We finally made it back and I laid on my stomach for a good 45 minutes and felt a little better. Then we went back to the Kyoto station and climbed the giant staircase to the 8th floor for some ramen. I shoved my 肉入り down like my life depended on it and effectively brought back my stomach ache. Did I mention that I have an obnoxious cough too? Needless to say, I was beyond relieved when we opted for karaoke instead of a 3 hour hike. Karaoke was fantastic, but I didn't sing. I sort of regret that now, but I had a lot of fun singing along and obnoxiously shaking one of the tambourines they provided us with. We took a scenic night route back to the hotel and I literally crashed. I woke up at 2:30 still in my clothes and contacts haha. So I took a (disturbing) look in the mirror, took my contacts out, and re-crashed.

We're almost at Hiroshima now! Ahhh!

A traditional wedding ♥

Totoro !

Mt. Fuji from the shinkansen window :)

Just Peachy

Japan Day 3 !

Today we went to Kamakura to see old temples. The first place we went to had a ginormous green cast iron Buddha. We swarmed the place snapping pics like crazy, and we even got to go inside the giant Buddha! Afterwards we got ice cream (green tea, macha!) and walked to hase-dera temple which was on a giant hill filled with different kinds of flowers. The flowers weren't in bloom yet, but it was nevertheless breathtakingly beautiful. There was water flowing from bamboo shoots and koi swimming in the pond. We spent a few minutes following this particularly fat one, trying to get a good picture. Before we ascended the steps leading to the temple, we went into a cave filled with little statues that you can buy. I put my 300 yen in the box, wrote the names of my family and extended family, and jotted down wishes for their health and happiness. Then I found a nice nook in the wall for it, and we exited the tunnel. We walked up the steps (making sure to keep to the left!) and ended up on a landing filled with rows upon rows of little stone Jizo statues. Jizo is the protector of children and each statue represents one unborn baby. Mothers who miscarry or loose their baby early in life can come to the temple and place a stone Jizo among the thousands that already exist. It was both depressing and awe inspiring looking at those statues.

Eventually we got to the main landing with the beautiful temples that housed two gigantic gold Buddhas. Sadly we weren't allowed to take pictures, but take my word for it, they were awesome. After climbing yet higher and getting an amazing view of the town and shore, we descending a billion steps and headed back for Tokyo station. I bought peach water from a touch screen vending machine (!!!!!) and it was so delicious that I drank the whole thing in a matter of minutes and screwed myself over for the hour long ride back. Halfway into it, I had to pee really bad and spent the last half hour concentrating on not exploding. Finally we made it to the station, and I made a beeline for the nearest bathroom. Lucky for me, there was only one western style toilet (the others were the Asian squat kinds) so I held it for a few more minutes before taking the longest pee of my life. It was great. Anyway, we finally made it back to Asakusa. We grabbed dinner (after walking in and running out of a smoke filled restaurant) at a cute noodle and gyouza place. I got a big bowl of tantanmen which is the Japanese equivalent of dandanmien. It was different, but oh so delicious! I ate the whole damn thing and drank all of the spicy soup too :) my stomach was not too happy with me. Anyway, then we headed back, snagged some wi-fi, and called it a night. Somehow in my sleep I managed to do a 180 even though I was on the top bunk and it was minuscule. I'm just glad I didn't fall off. A successful day 3 I'd say. Ja mata!

Lightning Mike !

Catching Sakura

Octopus on a stick!

Ahh I completely fell asleep last night on my phone right before I was about to blog! We're on a train bound for Kamakura so I thought I'd take advantage of the hour-long ride and catch up. So yesterday was the first full day of Japan! It was absolutely amazing! I started the day off right by making a trip to the local konbini (convenience store) and got myself a cute cake sandwich with red bean paste and cream. It was deliciousss. I also bought my first onigiri and ate it on the train ! It was filled with spicy veggies and meat. Since then I've had two more (salmon with mayo and dried salmon) both of which were also amazing. The first place we went to was Ueno for a famous cherry blossom park. It was so beautiful and packed with picnic-goers and tourists. We got to do this water thing where we took a little cup with a long handle, filled it with water from a fountain, and then poured it onto our left hand, right hand, and then back into your left to drink it. The lady in front of us spit it out, and that seemed pretty legit, so we followed suit. We also got to pour water on a little Buddha's head and pray. Afterwards we wandered around and got to take pictures with these Japanese hippies. They were lounging around with booze, and this one guy had dreadlocks, so I went over and snapped a pic of them. They posed for me and then beckoned us over to take a pic with them haha. We also got pictures with some other random people. We ventured across a street to a long walkway lined with food stalls. The air smelled sooo good! We took a leap of faith and tried a stick of grilled octopi. It was so scary to look at since you could see every little suction cup on their tentacles. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it, but at least now I can say I ate a whole octopus off a stick.

Can I be him? Please?

The hippies! (and their booze)

Then we hopped onto a train for Akihabara, the electronics district! After yet another delicious meal (this time curry rice) we explored some stores and looked for an arcade. We thought we found one and walked straight into a casino. It took at least a minute in that smoke filled confusion before I realized that it wasn't even close to an arcade and we hurried out. We also ventured into some underground place filled with people who were duking it out with cards (yugioh-esque cards, not regular playing cards). After that we finally found an arcade and managed to waste some money on a crane machine. Next we went to Harajuku! It was jam packed with (a lot of really attractive) people. I was looking forward to seeing the crazy cosplayers that I've heard so much about but I only saw one or two that were out of the ordinary (and I managed to snag a pic of one!) , for dinner we had 回転寿司 (kaitenzushi). It's sushi on a big conveyor belt! We just sat there and grabbed a plate whenever we saw something we wanted, it was fantastic. Then we met up at Condomania (the condom super store) so we could catch a train back to Asakusa. We explored a bit before we had to get back to the hostel. We saw some big Buddha statues and went to a playground that was apparently chained off. Whoops. We also found another arcade ad played a couple rounds of taiko drums! That was mostly it for yesterday....l'll write about today, tomorrow. Good night ! Oyasuminasai!

Conveyor belt sushi!

On the streets of Akihabara!

Our stack of sushi plates

Found one :)

Konnichiwa, Nihon!

日本に着きました！We're finally here!! I decided to keep a journal of my trip so I don't forget anything. :)

2:20pm:

Hello Kitty plane !

Right now we're over the ocean (and the clouds) only half an hour away from Tokyo! It's 12:25 am or maybe it's 1:25 pm. How do you count that anyway? We're obviously not in america anymore, but we haven't arrived yet. Being on a plane completely screws up your perception of time. On the plane ride I watched two movies: The Allure of Tears (a really good Chinese movie) and New Years Eve. I also unsuccessfully started The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Hugo but my short attention span prevented me from getting more than 20 minutes into either. That accounts for about 6 hours of my 14 hour flight...what did I even do for the rest of it? I think I spent most of it drifting in and out of a weird semi conscious state. Sleeping on planes is so difficult.

"Our flight will be in Narita airport in a few minutes" just came on the PA! Aahhhhhhhh holy shit okay they also said to turn off phones. Bye!

We've landed! Also I'd like to add that the girl behind me didn't get up the whole trip. She literally did not pee for 14 hours, but drank a lot. What kind of bladder is that? I'm jelly.

Above the clouds :)

12:16am:

Our hostel with the orange curtains! 

Now I'm at the hostel in Asakusa! And they have free wifi :). Being in Japan is wild. Everyone is so kind! Today we got settled down in our (minuscule, but very cute) hostel, we went out to explore a beautiful temple in Asakusa that had ginormous lanterns before taking the subway to Shibuya! It's kind of like the Japanese Times Square according to mr. Mitchell. It was とても賑やか！Very bustling and lively. The streets were lined with countless restaurants and shops that were piled one on top of another. It was completely packed (with people who all dress really well) and there were really talented street-side bands performing originals (I got a demo CD!) As soon as we got there, we decided that our first priority was getting food since we were all starving. After awkwardly asking around, we eventually got herded into a ramen shop by a pack of high schoolers who were punching and kicking each other. I think they found it extremely amusing that we asked them where we could find the best ramen. Anyway, they did not let us down holy shit the ramen was delicious! I got a spicy kind with bamboo, sea weed, pork, leek, eggs, and other delicious unnamed things. The noodles and broth were so rich! Yumyum. After shamelessly stuffing ourselves, we browsed a few shops, all of which were blasting extremely explicit songs haha. Literally as soon as you walk in you just hear "fuckshitniggahfuckshit". I guess it's because they can't understand it haha but it was oh so amusing for us. :) After that it was time to meet up with the group and take the subway back to Asakusa. On the way home everyone was dropping like flies. At one point me and Nicole were the only two on our side of the subway car that were awake. Everyone else was out cold including some strangers and this one guy who seemed to be sleeping on his feet. We got a little lost, but eventually found our way back. Now I'm tired as hell since I haven't slept in almost two days straight, so good night!

First meal in Japan ! So goddamn good

Sexy Zone ♥ 

How to order your ramen

Poolproof! Landed a free CD nbd. I even used my Japanese (and lots of sign language)

Temples in Asakusa! Everything was lit up at night, it was gorgeous

自動販売機！Japanese vending machines are definitely the best. I'm obsessed with these things.

Desu Time!

First of all, blogging from my phone at the airport so excuse the lack of formatting. My destination? JAPAN. AHH so excited! I haven't blogged in 2 weeks, and I probably can't type that much in half an hour, so here it is summed up in a few concise sentences. I finished a lot of art projects, did a shit-ton of unnecessary assignments, and had my last indoor competition! I didn't think I was going to be sad to see it end, but when itkor said bye to us, I actually had to hold back tears.

Ahhh okay now we're in our seats ! さよならアメリカ！日本に行こ!!!!

On the plane !!

Mask project, mold cast from my face :)