ここで書かないでごめん m（T＿T）m

I know I've been horrible about updating this blog since school started but as most of you know, they've had us running around everyday doing something! The bright side of all this is that I have lots of pics for you guys! Unfortunately blogger is not very cool and does not have the proper interface to share lots of pics..So I had to make a seperate photobook for you guys! I'm still gonna use blogger for the pics when its just a couple, but on Friday we went to Nagano-ken (its a different prefecture about 3 hours from Tokyo) and took tons of pics! The reason I went all trigger happy with the camera on this trip was cause all you've seen so far is concrete loving Tokyo and I wanted to show you just how varied Japan is. I feel I almost forgot this myself!!! (笑）Nagano-ken is a gorgeous prefecture in the middle of Japan and is up in the mountains (it's a great skiing location in the winter!) :

So our first stop was in an old village named "Narai"..This little village has a huge history but it has remained a famous tourist spot because the architecture has been kept as it originally was during the Edo Period. This village is probably my favorite site that I have seen so far!! Next, we went and visited Matsumoto castle which is famous not only for its black, ominous exterior, but also for its preservation. It's one of two castles that still maintains their original wooden interiors and external stonework. The outside of this castle was amazing but the inside was a death trap. This castle is quite tall and our program director told us we had to climb to the top of the castle...Apparently she had a death wish on us as accending each floor required you to tackle extremely tall, steep steps that looked more like a angled ladder than stairs. Not only do I hate heights, especially when Im climbing 80 degree ladders 20 feet up, but I managed to screw up my right leg trying to scoot down one of these "stairs" and haven't been able to walk right since! Thank you Matsmoto castle（￣へ￣） Despite my complaining like a little girl, the trip was tons of fun and the places extraordinary. Sometimes its overwhelming to see these types of historical places, especially since American history cannot compare in the slightest (They have over 1000 years on us). Anyways, feel free to check out the pictures here:

http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff276/Japanna7/Narai%20and%20Matsomoto%20Trip%209-24-10/ 

Lastly, I would like to leave you with this engrish little gem...This is just too funny to even comment on..ENJOY:

 じゃ、今日、クラスを始めるから頑張るよ！！！

 ~Lee       

 ヘ(^_^ヘ)  haha this smiley is doing the thriller dance!!!

Opening Ceremony 2.0

I know this post is a little delayed but as promised here are some photos from our trip the the Kamakura coast.
First we went to Inoshim a small island covered in lush vegitation and numerous temples. We spent about 4 hours hiking around the tide pool beaches and up through the temples and pathways. This island very much reminded Leanna and I of Hawaii and to top it off they were having a hawaiian celebraion complete with hula dancers on the center of the island. This picture was taken from ahuge observatory on the top of the island looking towards the coast.

Next we went further along the coast to a very famous temple which houses and enourmous budda statue as you can plainly see. The statue is so large in fact there are rooms you can visit inside of the staue.

The final picture was taken out the side of the train or our ride home. All in all we spent 12 hours out and about hiking, walking, and having fun and even though it was tiring it was a lot of fun.

we made it!

So Trav and I finally made it to Hotel Sunroute at Takadanobaba, where our school is at. Tonight we are going to dinner at Shakey's with the rest of the CSU IP students. The bus that picked up most of the students at the airport was supposed to arrive at 530pm but got delayed so we are meeting at 7...Although I feel bad for the group, the delay gave Trav and I some time to explore the area and the city here is amazing!! There are tons of shops, department stores, arcades, restaurants..you name it! We haven't seen the school yet but hopefully we will be going there tomorrow..which means pics for you guys! Trav is feeling a little sick though so there is a small chance we might have to take it easy tomorrow...Send Trav lots of get well thoughts so he doesn't have to suffer through orientation!!

black pancakes!!

Look what Trav found for me!! It's a kurogoma flavored pancake sandwich!! It was absolutely delicious and the flavoring was just perfect, not overpowering and just enough goma seeds...= ) SOOO GOOD!!!!

渋谷で〜〜

soo much to write about!!! So yesterday my bestie from CSUMB, Gabbi, came to visit Trav and I in Shibuya which was tons of fun!! We are in the same major and graduating class at CSUMB, so she is also studying abroad in Tokyo. The highlight of the day has to be the purikura we took. For all of you who don't know what Purikura is, it's a very Japanese way of taking pictures with friends..that's about the best I can do to describe it without showing you what the pictures look like:

So basically, you pay about $5 to go into this little photo booth where you pick out what kind of photos you wanna take and usually they have you do silly poses with funny backgrounds and whatnot. After you finish taking the pictures, everyone piles into this little booth where you get to write on the photos and add all sorts of crazy stuff (as seen above ^_^ ) Then, once your done doing that, they print the photos on sticker paper. People have purikura photobooks, but typically you stick the photos on your keitai (cell phone) or whatever else you wanna decorate...Its tons of fun and we plan on doing lots more purikura! I also have been taking lots of photos and random video for you guys! Here's what I got from our day in Shibuya:

We also finally met Hachiko, the iconic dog statue that is also one of the most popular meeting places in Japan: 

There's a sad story that goes along with this statue: 

In 1924, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo took in Hachikō as a pet. During his owner's life Hachikō saw him out from the front door and greeted him at the end of the day at the nearby Shibuya Station. The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Professor Ueno did not return on the usual train one evening. The professor had suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage at the university that day. He died and never returned to the train station where his friend was waiting. Hachikō was loyal and every day for the next nine years he waited sitting there amongst the town's folk. Hachikō was given away after his master's death, but he routinely escaped, showing up again and again at his old home. Eventually, Hachikō apparently realized that Professor Ueno no longer lived at the house. So he went to look for his master at the train station where he had accompanied him so many times before. Each day, Hachikō waited for Professor Ueno to return. And each day he did not see his friend among the commuters at the station. - Wikipedia

So that's everything from our day in Shibuya with Gabbi-chan! Our orientation for Waseda begins on Tuesday so you might not be hearing from us for a few days. Im gonna try and post some over the weekend though so keep checking back!!!! 

じゃね〜〜

MY NEW FRIEND

Japan, being a place of infinite wonders and unlimited technology has just produced the greatest thing i have ever seen A TOUCH SCREEN INTERACTIVE VENDING MACHINE. When not in use the 40 inch touch screen HD monitor follows you around with large animated eyes and interacts with people around, then when someone approaches the menu you see in front of me appear. You then select any number of drinks which move to a large cloud floating on screen and after swiping your train pass or inserting poney then fall off the screen and into the bin below. As if this wasn't already cool enough an onboard computer and camera uses a complex array of software to figure out your gender and age based on your face structure and references that to your drink order to supply marketing data. They hope to advance this technology even further to use the facial recognization softeware to identify you so the machine can call you by name. SO AWESOME!

If you were wondering who the girl in the bottom pictures is that is Gabby. She is a friend of Lee and mine from Monterey and is studying abroad here in Tokyo as well. We met up with her today is Shibuya and spent the day exploring, it was a lot of fun.

Well lee an i are exhausted so i will have to post more about our adventures tomorrow, along with perhaps the funniest EN-GRISH marketing we have found yet .

Meet cute little 台風９号 aka Typhoon #9

We finally got our first rain since we've been here and of course Japan went all out with a typhoon! We knew it was gonna be rainy today due to a typhoon in the area, but what we didn't realize was that this typhoon was headed straight for Tokyo. Unaware of this info, we tried to go out exploring since it was cooler out, only to be drenched within minutes and forced back home defeated. The only bright side to our trip was that we bought some awesome umbrellas for a great price! We made our retreat in the neck of time though, because after about an hour of being back home, our first official typhoon warning sounded. One really remarkable thing about Tokyo is that they have these PA systems that are wired throughout the whole neighborhood. Their most used purpose is for playing a nice melody at 5pm everyday to let the salary workers know their workday's end is fast approaching. Where I lived last time they played John Lennon's "Imagine" but I don't recognize the song they play here. Ill have to record it sometime and post it!!  However, today we learned that these little PA systems also serve a much more important purpose, they are also our warning system! A nice little chime is sounded to let people know that an announcement is about to be made (much like at a school in the US) and then a lady kindly lets everyone know what is going down, whether it be a typhoon or some other impending doom. I managed to get part of the announcement on one of the videos I shot...Needless to say, I was once again like a kid on x-mas! Trav was a little nervous letting me out on our balcony with crazy winds and lightning right above us, but I had to get you a video of it! Also, keep in mind this would have been the day we landed had we not changed our tickets! Luck has really been on our side!!!

I also snapped some photos while I was playing storm chaser on my balcony (^_^):

All in all, this was a pretty nice change from all that hot weather!!!

Trav-kun and vending machines

Good morning!! Here is a random video I took last night while Trav and I were walking to our little supermarket, "Maruetsu Petit" ..It really is random but it has Trav-kuns and vending machines in it, so I thought I'd post it anyways!

We also snapped a quick shot of the temple we live next to..We wanted to take more pics but a weird car was following us and pulled over right behind us and, since we were in a small ally, we figured that was our cue to leave...

We also have a typhoon crossing the island today so we are finally getting some rain and cooler temperatures! So with that in mind, Trav and I are gonna try and do as much exploring as possible today....keep an eye out for new pics!!!

It's a quiet Monday night...

So after a fun and busy weekend, we decided to take it easy today..But we did discover some amazing kurogoma aka black seasame flavored mochi (MY FAVORITE!!!) ...Yup, out of nowhere the best flavor in the world started popping up everywhere! Japan is notorious for this! Things have a way of changing instantaneously and simultaneously here, usually in response to a small change in the season/weather..One day there won't be a certain flavor, color, or article of clothing in sight and then the next day, everyone has it..I've always wondered how it is that everyone in Japan seems to get that memo and knows to coordinate!!! There must be a site that says, "Ok everyone, temperature is finally gonna drop tomorrow so you are all gonna wear floral patterned scarves..and whoever doesn't will look like a tool"...okok, they probably don't write that last part but it sometimes feels that way...I, completely unawares, will still be wearing my shorts when everyone else and their mother are wearing skinny jeans and boots...I need to figure out how to get this memo!! Or maybe it's an innate sense that only Japanese people have?? who knows!! On a completely unrelated note, Trav and I found this amazing building that had some pretty neat architecture. We managed to sneak in a few pics!!

It's still crazy hot here so we haven't been doing much outside..We typically try and find awesome buildings like this one to cool off in before we venture out again...But the heat has brought on some good things, such as my latest obsession with this spunky and unbearably cute kitty:

Ya, shes pretty much the cutest animated cat you will ever see! Her name is Chi and she's from a popular manga here titled, "Chi's Sweet Home". This story is so cute I could puke rainbows whenever I read it! I've even thought about translating the series if anyone's interested. This is, believe it or not, the first manga I have ever read and Trav's  been helping this addiction by sneakily going out and buying the manga for me!!

well it's gettin a little late over here..So I think I'll leave you all with this:::::

WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!! <3 <3

and you thought kitties were the highlight of my week...

Well they still are!! I <3 Kitties! But this is definitely a close second:

Just as my tummy was beginning to accept the fact that it was gonna be deprived of "heart attack in a box" American pizza, I go and give it some Dominos! But this isn't the shitty pizza from the shitty American dominos..This is Japan dominos! Apparently the American CEOs don't come near their Japanese counterparts cause this pizza is ggggggggoooooooooooooooooooooooooodddddddddddddddddddd!!!!!!!!! No cardboard tasting crust or week old ingredients here..Japanese people have too much pride to let their pizza get that crappy...However, this little jem of a pizza set us back approximately $23 (thanks partly to the terrible exchange rate)....and to think that's probably the cheapest pizza you'll find here!! Most of the pizzas at dominos are about $25-45 bucks depending on what crazy toppings you get...We always play it safe with cheese and pepporoni but you can add crusteacans, hot dogs, corn, cracked eggs, bitter melon, anchovies, and mayonase if you'd like!!! And now Trav and I are gonna go have a full belly coma...じゃね！！