Hi everyone. Whenever I say everyone I mean my like 3 dedicated followers and all I can think of is "Welcome to my Ted Talk." Anyways I'm still getting caught up on the writing. This post is about Aug 12-18.
So Monday through Wednesday the school cut the power literally forcing the people to take a break because the Japanese work way too hard. There was like a great plan of Disney Sea monday, then climbing Fuji on tuesday and resting on wednesday... but unfortunately none of that happened. Disneysea was going to be too crowded from the holiday and then Fuji had bad weather and no buses. It is surprisingly really hard to plan a trip to climb Mount Fuji but stay tuned because IT WILL HAPPEN. I did not spend like 3+ hours looking up bus routes and info for nothing!!
Plan B- Shabu Shabu + Festival!
On monday Danny and I ate some shabu shabu at a place in shibuya. It was a little expensive (~$28) but it was all you can eat vegetables/tofu/noodles/rice to put into the soup, soft drinks, and ICE CREAM. But you do have 90 minutes to down it all so eat fast friendos. Then our dormmates joined us and took us to 'CITTA Festival. Literally everything unexpected happened at that festival. We were walking around listening to this DJ playing to a crowd of people and walking around the food tents and we see like Fire shooting out from a different part. So we walk there and it turned out to be a show of like traditional music, fire, an aerial dancer, pole dancers?!?, drummers, flag wavers, and a guy on stilts?!? It was really fun though but super out of the blue.
Mori Art Museum
On Tuesday I went to Mori Art Museum in Roppongi with Danny and our dormmate Marius. There was an exhibit by this japanese artist who had moved to Germany. The theme was like innerconnected lives, death, and the skin people wear. The string pieces were really nice and I wish I could've seen how it was made. She had a lot of dark work too though like lots of burnt objects and mud and death. We also got udon at this place nearby. I tried duck udon because why not and it was real good udon 5eva!
Put Helene on the Giants
On Friday I went with three of my labmates to a batting cage. Lol I was definitely unsure about this because I have never played baseball in my life. But you gotta say yes to life sometimes. They were surprised I had never been to a batting cage because they were saying "But America is famous for baseball!!" It had a nice LED screen letting you know when the ball was coming but I was so bad still. You can see me missing/ karate chopping the balls in the video. It took me like 45 swings to finally SOMEWHAT get the hang of things and hit the ball better. Also I was soo sore the next day from 60 swings haha. My labmates were all great though. This is me hitting balls coming at 70 km/hr and they were doing 120 km/hr. There were also some arcade games there so we played air hockey and a drum game too which were really fun!
Saturday aka Eat Food All Day Day
On Saturday Danny and I tried Okonomiyaki (japanese savory pancake). It was pretty good but I have to say Banh Xeo (vietnamese savory pancake) is still my #1 pancake. Later in the day we also went to Odaiba beach with some friends but there are no pictures for a reason. The water was so dirty and green it made me miss California so bad. Lmao all the kids were swimming in it still but we were saying that is just a healthy boost to their immune system since everywhere else is so clean in Japan. I put my legs in the water but I'm scared I'll come back with an eleventh toe. Then at night we said farewell to Matteo our french friend which stereotypically involved lots of cheese haha.
Hakone
On Sunday I went to Hakone about 2 hours away from Tokyo with my doormmates Sara and Marius. It's known for it's nature and onsen (hot spring baths). First we went on the Tokaido Road hike to get to Lake Ashi. Apparently it was this ancient road that connected the former capital Kyoto to Tokyo. I didn't get any pictures mainly because it was so HOT. I was literally dripping sweat. We stopped at this 400 year old tea house in the middle of the hike and everyone was probably like these disgusting foreigners with all their sweat.
After the hike we took a paddle boat shaped like a goose around the late. LOL it was sooo funny coming back. After we come back we say Arigato gozaimasu (literally the one word you say every day) and then the dock owner said something like "Nihongo ga jozu desu." And then I was just frozen in panick because I was scared she asked a question and all I recognized was nihongo which means japanese. And then Sara is like "Oh! We have to get our stuff we left!" And I was thinking like but she just said japanese something something. So then we all awkwardly shuffle backwards while smiling at her. And I jokingly said LOL MAYBE SHE SAID OUR JAPANESE WAS GOOD. And then Marius actually looks up the word jozu and that is literally what she said.
After all that sweating we ended the day in an onsen near the Hakone station. So you can't wear anything in an onsen and it is separated by gender (that's why no pics). It was definitely awkward in the beginning to be completely naked around a bunch of strangers, but I got used to it and it was really nice. There were 5 or 6 different pools, a cave, and a sauna all surrounded by nature. Some baths were almost too hot so I really really enjoyed the cold bath haha. There was one milky bath that was really nice though but so full because the temperature was perfect. People were sleeping in it lol.
Ok that's all I will try to be better at posting but y'all know me. ANYWAYS SMASH THAT LIKE.
Comments