Mr. Tako Mr. Fuji and Hot springs.

So, with my seminar we went up another mountain- Mt. Takao (Takao-san.) It was a lovely day and the trees were in full autumn colours which was very pretty. I have kept the photos to a minimum on here because it was incredibly touristy so there are loads of people in loads of my photos.

Yesterday was my dorm's winter trip to Hakone, which is a spa town and we were going to an onsen (hot springs) theme park. On the coach we suddenly realised how close we were to Fuji-san and how there is an amazing theme park we need to go to!
Unfortunately I couldn't exactly get off the coach to photograph him so I just had to make do with this. It was really pretty and we drove right round to the other side, or a bit to the south, I'm not sure. The snow line was different anyway.
For 15 pounds I got a coach journey, entry to the park and a buffet lunch. Of course being surrounded by beautiful onsen in the mountains the highlight of the day for Japanese people is the buffet lunch. Out of respect for Japan, the Emperor and the rising sun, I stuffed my face before heading off to onsen bliss. Although the park had themed onsen, like coffee, wine and matcha (all very strong colours which I'm sure would stain your skin) I ended up spending the entire day in the naked section of the park, soaking in lovely hot water outside in the freezing cold, looking at the sky and trees. It was brilliant. Everyone also folds a little towel up on top of their head which is hilarious and is supposed to make you smart (according to legend) but it was nice and cold when the rest of me was really hot. I can't wait to go to an onsen in midwinter in the middle of nowhere and I want it to snow whilst I'm just relaxing.

Unfortunately I looked like a prune for a good 2 hours afterwards but it was so worth it.

Autumn Hike Part 1

Minna-san! Konnichi wa! So last night as a flat we went to Karaoke and did that until 3am. It was very fun but possibly not the best idea as today the plan was to get up early and go hiking. It is a day off for some reason, and the woman in charge of the dorm- Kumi-san organises a regular hiking trip to different places. Yesterday it was raining horribly and I was really hoping that it would be cancelled but the email never came to cancel it, so I went which turned out to be a good thing. I dragged myself out of bed and met Kumi-san at the main building with my flatmate and 1 other person. The other 13 people who had registered for the trip had all decided not to come due to the dodgy weather. This was a case of less is more because we could all talk more. We went on the train for about an hour and a half to somewhere really rural and met some previous residents of the dorm who joined us- they were all very nice. It might be best if I let the pictures do most of the talking. I have taken about a million so here are just a few. I have had to split the post into 2 parts because it said there was an error when I added too many photos.

The place we went to was called Akano and the mountain had a shrine called Gongen.
Slippery slope. Be careful ne!
We had actually gone up the wrong way to get to this point and had to go back down again but it was pretty none the less.
Group photo "HAI!- CHEEZU!"
This is Kumi-san. She is a lovely woman who is so friendly and laid back. She is also very interested to listen to things I have to say (including the story of the boy who told me his name was poo.) I think I will go on future trips because it was a really nice atmosphere.
This was near the top, where the red leaves started showing.
This is my favourite photo of the lot. I haven't had time to edit any of them yet though so I would crop out the little bit of yellow tree on the left hand side.
Peckish? This man was. It was right on the top. We all stopped and had our picknick a bit before (it might not have even been 12 o clock.) I made riceballs with seaweed and sesame seeds mixed in. Yummy.

Also at the top was a huge bell which you ring and can hear it reverberating for minutes and minutes afterwards.
Scroll down for part 2!

Autumn Hike Part 2

Ok here is the rest of the trip. Here is the view from near the top. It is looking out to Tokyo but you can't really see properly.

At the end once we were nearly back, we went to a park, where there were lots and lots of Kouyou trees. Kouyou means crimson leaves and is when the leaves turn red during Autumn. Ideally I would have liked to be in Kyoto for Kouyou but didn't have time.
After all that we went for Tempura which is like battered fried stuff. I had Japanese national vegetables which was really really delicious.

Shibuya, Hebuya, Theybuya, We all buya.

Having not done very much sightseeing earlier in the week I went to Shibuya and Harajuku with a Japanese friend who showed me around. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of Harajuku because we kind of just walked straight through it to get to Shibuya but it looks like a really cool area and I can't wait until I have a part time job so I can go shopping for lots of nice clothes (not too crazy ones though.)

Shibuya is famous for above all others, its crossing known as "Scramble Crossing." I tried to find statistics about how many people cross each time but for some reason it doesn't seem to exist. Oh no, wait I've just found an estimate of around 1000 people cross each minute.

Shibuya is famous for above all others, its crossing known as "Scramble Crossing." I tried to find statistics about how many people cross each time but for some reason it doesn't seem to exist. Oh no, wait I've just found an estimate of around 1000 people cross each minute.

We went and sat in the Starbucks (one of the busiest in the world- I use this phrase quite a lot now.) The view was brilliant and I did so much people watching. We were there for more than 3 hours just watching the crossing. And chatting obviously. Apparently it was quite a quite time to go and watch it though because it was a weekday and on a Saturday is when it truly "comes to life" although I'd say it was rather lively in the weekday.

Yokohama aka. Jokohahama

As part of my seminar, we had a trip to go to Yokohama. Yokohama is Japan's second largest city but there is no gap between Tokyo and Yokohama so if they are counted as one city (which they are if you look on any satellite photo map- it is all just one huge grey smudge,) it becomes the largest city on earth. It took us an hour and a bit to get there and the first thing we did was go up "Landmark Tower" which is Japan's tallest office building. This was confusing because in Japanese, office building is shortened to "biru" which is short for building too but it is not the tallest building.

I thought to save time, I would combine a photo of the view and my new favourite drink:
This is a Matcha Ratte (Latte). Matcha is tea ceremony powdered Green tea. It is possibly the tastiest thing I have had since I have been in Japan. You can luckily buy matcha everything and I think I will miss it when I leave the country. I am going to bring back some sachets of it so I can make Matcha Ratte in England.
The lift in the tower is actually the fastest in the world, and goes at 750 metres per hour, which I realised is almost a kilometre per hour! Amazing. My ears did pop.

Why did you go to Kyoto? To eat the delicious Tofu. Why did you go to Hiroshima, for the delicious Okonomiyake. Why did you go to Yokohama? To eat the delicious shark. I have no idea if this is a local speciality or not, but I certainly didn't try it.

This is my new best friend, Chinese Father Christmas.

It looks like I missed the autumn colours on the trees because all the leaves are now lying on the ground, but they still look pretty.

Another reason to go to Yokohama may be to take your pet for a walk. If you have pet dogs, why not put them in their pram and push them around for a relaxing rest. (Unfortunately I have been unable to photograph this so far but give me time.) You could also bring your pet pig for a walk or throw your rabbit around.

This was the view from the sea bass (I think it was supposed to say Sea bus, because that's what it said in Japanese but they must have used the wrong dictionary entry.)

At the end it got quite dark and it was time for us to go home, so we took the long route on the train so we would be able to get seats. I am so used to never finding a seat on trains because they are always so busy so we avoided any busy routes. All in all a very satisfying day. Followed by Nabe (a Japanese winter dish which is like a kind of stew cooked in a big pot -nabe means pot,) at my flat with my flatmates. Excellent.

Living for The Weekend

This weekend I took part in another event involving international culture and school children but this time the children were smaller. We played lots of games, but my favourite involved me and 3 other international students wearing a basket on our backs and running round to avoid the children who had to try and get paper balls into the basket. It was hilarious, especially when they got hold of the box and pulled me and one other student practically to the ground.

Another highlight was when I was teaching some phrases to introduce ones self in English- some people kept confusing "My name is" with "Mayonnaise" but the best one was when the children were all telling me their names and one boy said "My name is Unko" I was just as impressed by this as by all the others, so I said well done, you're very good etc, until the other adults and Japanese students were looking embarrassed and signalling me to move on. I later found out that he had introduced himself to me as "poo" but I just hadn't realised because it could just be a name or something. That was quite embarrassing but hilarious at the same time.

On Saturday night, me and a friend went to a place called Odaiba. This is a man made island in Tokyo Bay. When I hear the word man made it makes me think of something they did in the 1980s but it was actually made in the 1800s to fight off the invading Americans. It took us 2 hours to get there because I live right in the west and had to go accross the entire city to get there but it was worth it. We took a monorail across the Rainbow Bridge, which spans the bay and was expensive but really fun.
First thing you see when you get off the monorail is a mini version of the Statue of Liberty. The yellow spike behind the bridge is Tokyo Tower- something else I haven't really seen yet.

We had icecream- Green tea and vanilla- yummy.

We tried to get up a tall building called Fuji TV but it was closed because we got there too late- that means I have an excuse to go back.

There were lots of shops and restaurants. The restaurants looked really posh as they all had amazing views of the city. We saw some very posh receptions being held in some of them and I don't think they were in my price range.

There were so many boats arount it was really pretty- I quite want to take a tour on the bay at some point- I have a whole year so I probably will.
This one was my favourite photo from right down by the waterfront.

Mr. Fuji

I'm quite pleased because on my way to and from uni, I can see Mt. Fuji if it is a clear day andnot hazy at all (it is very far away and only visible because it is so huge.)

In Japanese Mt Fuji is called 富士山 which is pronounced fuji san. This sounds like Mr. Fuji, but the san means mountain in this case but I still like to think of him as a person. I told someone at uni the first time I saw it and they seemed to think I was trying to pass any old hill off as Japan's most sacred mountain. I think you can agree there is no mistaking him with his snowy hat on top.

There are unfortunately lots of wires and stuff but that is just how Japan seems to be everywhere- some of the dodgy wiring looks quite dangerous actually.

On my way home I go past this wooded green area and I decided finally to stop my bike and go and take a look inside (I can't quite read the entire sign so I'm not entirely sure if I am allowed in and I asked a passer by who also didn't know, so I just went in.)

It was really peaceful and a million miles from the small town centre where my uni is, let alone the hustle and bustle of Tokyo centre. There was lots of Bamboo and I think one day soon I will go there and have a proper look because I was too scared of being arrested to stay longer than 5 minutes. I also needed to get home because I was really hungry.

I played tennis again yesterday which was quite tiring but definitely fun. I feel quite sorry for whoever gets paired up with me because I managed to get a fault 8 times when it was my turn to serve in doubles. Thankfully my Japanese skills have expanded enough to let me say "I am so bad that it is very embarrassing." Although the Japanese people all assure me that I'm very talented which I highly doubt because they also told me I am fluent in Japanese which is very nice of them but not true. Afterwards we went for noodles which was nice.

All You Can Cake

On Friday we had the day off because it was our university festival. We decided to go to a nearby part of Tokyo where there is good shopping and lots of restaurants because the festival is apparently better on the weekend.

On our way through a very noisy shopping centre with music blaring out everywhere we happened to stumble upon a shrine and graveyard just to one side.

As soon as we entered the gates into the area it became so peaceful.
I let my servant carry my shopping bags...
This is where you can wash your hands before you pray
I was going to pray but then decided I would rather take photos, especially as I had no 5 Yen coin which brings good luck.
There is no litter in Japan, I think it is all cleaned up by this guy,

Then we jumped back into the 21st century and found the restaurant. It was called Sweets Paradise. It was basically an all you can eat cake buffet where you have 70 minutes to stuff your face on spaghetti, Curry and loads of different cakes. I had 1 plate of proper food and 2 full of cake. Oishii. They also had lots of different tea so I had some nice ones which reminded me of home, although I do still like green tea.

Hungry?

They had all sorts of cake but the most interesting was Matcha Cake. Matcha is powdered green tea used in Tea Ceremony and the cake was very tasty.

Then the next day I woke up with the biggest food hangover where I felt both hungry and bursting full at the same time. It was so worth it though.

Festival! i.e. Feast

This weekend it was our university festival which is called Ikkyosai which is the chinese reading of Hitotsubashi festival which would be too difficult to pronounce I think. Lots of students get involved with this and run stalls selling different types of food, including lots of international cuisine. Some of my friends were running a bar inside a classroom which was actually really nice. There was a Casino, there was wrestling, jazz bands, rock bands, choirs, it was really nice, the atmosphere was really good. What many people may not realise is that for Japanese people, a festival is all about food. It mostly involves going round saying how delicious all the food stalls look selling different delicacies. I had lots and lots of Korean food and have decided I want to be a food tourist and go to Korea just to have the super spicy food. Here are some photos of when the festival spread out into the main road "University Avenue."