Catching up on the Japan journal
Oops, I forgot to update for a few days (too much action!) so I've gotta play catchup a little bit. Here we go! This entry's definitely a little bit long; please bear with me as I try to bring things up to date.
(Pictures used in this post are taken from Dori's Facebook photo album, which you should definitely check out.)
Sunday morning, we woke up and went to the Shinjuku Hilton (a very posh and fancy place) to meet several of our Japanese friends who attended Georgetown as exchange students. One of the girls, Fumie, is going back to Georgetown to get her Masters degree in Foreign Service (after which she'll probably become an excellent ambassador), and all of her friends decided to throw her this big going-away party at the Hilton's buffet. The buffet had tons of ridiculously fancy and delicious food, mostly Western style with a Japanese twist. Dori and I ate an unhealthy number of little cakes (things like "Camembert Cheese Cake" and "Melon Crème Brûlée"). Much to our chagrin, the price tag came to a hefty 6000 yen per person, but at least the food and the company were great.
Afterwards, I was dragged along on a group shopping expedition. Shirt shopping ain't so bad. I got some nice pants (which I need to pick up later since they're being tailored for me) and a nice shirt.
Here's me trying on a shirt that I ended up not buying.
Also, I should point out that the stores in this department store (department stores consist of several different small brands in one big store) have absolutely ridiculous names. Here's the full list of names, though it might be a bit hard to read here:
All of the store names are absolutely ridiculous. Some of the better names:
- OZONE ROCKS
- unlogical opinion
- quoi? quoi?
- √g
- SM2 ehkä söpö
- LaZY SWaN
- Heather
I mean, seriously. What the heck. These names are either insane, awesome, or both.
We said farewell to our Georgetown friends and headed to Sophia University, a really nice Catholic University in central Tokyo. We walked around a really lovely park (with a little pond and lots of little bridges, and benches and bridges under canopies of trees), through Dori emerged with over a dozen bugbites all over her legs. :o(
We then went to a nice wooded, elevated path that overlooked the university's baseball fields, with lots of shade and little benches spaced at regular intervals. It was very beautiful. (Now it's time for the "very important announcement.") I decided to choose that place to propose to Dori, and now we're engaged to be married! Yay! Dori was very happy.
Afterwards, went to Japanese mass at St. Ignatius Church on Sophia's campus, and tried our best to keep up with the prayers (which I don't have memorized in Japanese). We then bought neat Japanese Christian postcards from nuns in a little adjoining shop.
After this, we met our good friends Aki and Keiko in Shibuya, right next to the statue of Hachiko, one of Tokyo's famous landmarks. If you don't already know about Hachiko, read the Wikipedia article; it's a really sweet and great story.
The four of us went to an izakaya called Sakura (after being persuaded by a polite yet enthusiastic representative of the establishment), and we drank tons of delicious drinks and ate yummy food in celebration of Dori's and my recent engagement. It was a wonderful time; I love being able to spend time with good friends when I'm abroad.
When we got back, Igor had returned from racing, so we hung out with him and drank the champagne that Dori received on the airplane.
Monday, off to Mitaka!
On Monday, we went to the Mitaka no Mori Ghibli Bijutsukan (Mitaka Forest Ghibli Museum), a museum dedicated to Studio Ghibli, and all of the wonderful animated films made by Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. The museum was laid out like a mysterious mansion with lots of hidden passageways, winding staircases and very interesting architecture, and was filled to the brim with information about the animation process, as well as lots of materials from various films, like original storyboards for all of the Ghibli movies, stained glass windows with Totoro and other popular Ghibli characters, and more.
We spent a long time there, but unfortunately, no pictures are allowed inside, so the only photos we were able to take were outdoor ones. Still, I'd highly encourage anyone who loves Miyazaki's movies to go. It was magical.
Afterwards, we walked through the nearby Inokashira Park, and followed a small river back to the station.
That night, we went to Ginza (the super-expensive shopping district) and browsed around in the oldest department store in Tokyo, Mitsukoshi. We even bought a couple of small things! I saw a regular-looking leather jacket that cost nearly 20,000 yen (~$2000). I did not buy it.
We went to a really good ramen place for dinner, and got back to Yokohama, only to find that Igor wanted us to meet his friend, Yama-chan, who's lending us his cell phone while we're in Japan. Well, it turns out that he was stuck at work, so we never got to meet him, but we did get to enjoy delicious drinks at a small bar called "Picnic," nestled somewhere in the back of a field in rural-ish Yokohama. Their mashed potatoes were surprisingly good.
Tuesday (today)
This morning we got up and were going to go to climb Mount Fuji, but it turns out we were too late- the buses there only leave at certain times and we'd missed them all. So instead, we decided to go to the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum, where we (among other things):
-bought lots of old-timey Japanese candy
-tried to solve riddles and got beaten by elementary schoolers who were quicker thinkers than we
-tried out hand at some Japanese carnival games and managed to shoot down from delicious candy and toys with a pop gun
-each ate two bowls types of delicious ramen, one from Fukuoka and one from Sapporo
-participated in an epic janken (Rock-Paper-Scissors) tournament, in which we were once again beaten by elementary schoolers
After a great time at the museum, we went into downtown Yokohama, where we walked through Yamashita Park, along Tokyo Bay. We played some frisbee, and also checked out a few famous monuments, like the statue of the Angel of Water (presented to Yokohama by the city of San Diego, which made Dori quite proud) and the statue of the "Girl Wearing Red Shoes," a famous landmark commemorating an old, local children's song. Pictures of all of these things to come soon.
After this, we walked through the Motomachi and Yamate districts, two areas that were primarily inhabited by foreigners once Japan opened up the port of Yokohama in 1859. Dori and I found a hippie-type store and she bought a really cute skirt.
Finally, we went into Yokohama's Chinatown and got delicious ice cream (our two flavors: cherry blossom and black sesame) as well as a delicious baozi filled with char siu. （「チャーシューまん」 in Japanese.） We headed back to Igor's and relaxed with some peach wine.
(Pictures used in this post are taken from Dori's Facebook photo album, which you should definitely check out.)
Sunday morning, we woke up and went to the Shinjuku Hilton (a very posh and fancy place) to meet several of our Japanese friends who attended Georgetown as exchange students. One of the girls, Fumie, is going back to Georgetown to get her Masters degree in Foreign Service (after which she'll probably become an excellent ambassador), and all of her friends decided to throw her this big going-away party at the Hilton's buffet. The buffet had tons of ridiculously fancy and delicious food, mostly Western style with a Japanese twist. Dori and I ate an unhealthy number of little cakes (things like "Camembert Cheese Cake" and "Melon Crème Brûlée"). Much to our chagrin, the price tag came to a hefty 6000 yen per person, but at least the food and the company were great.
Afterwards, I was dragged along on a group shopping expedition. Shirt shopping ain't so bad. I got some nice pants (which I need to pick up later since they're being tailored for me) and a nice shirt.
Here's me trying on a shirt that I ended up not buying.
Also, I should point out that the stores in this department store (department stores consist of several different small brands in one big store) have absolutely ridiculous names. Here's the full list of names, though it might be a bit hard to read here:
All of the store names are absolutely ridiculous. Some of the better names:
- OZONE ROCKS
- unlogical opinion
- quoi? quoi?
- √g
- SM2 ehkä söpö
- LaZY SWaN
- Heather
I mean, seriously. What the heck. These names are either insane, awesome, or both.
We said farewell to our Georgetown friends and headed to Sophia University, a really nice Catholic University in central Tokyo. We walked around a really lovely park (with a little pond and lots of little bridges, and benches and bridges under canopies of trees), through Dori emerged with over a dozen bugbites all over her legs. :o(
We then went to a nice wooded, elevated path that overlooked the university's baseball fields, with lots of shade and little benches spaced at regular intervals. It was very beautiful. (Now it's time for the "very important announcement.") I decided to choose that place to propose to Dori, and now we're engaged to be married! Yay! Dori was very happy.
Afterwards, went to Japanese mass at St. Ignatius Church on Sophia's campus, and tried our best to keep up with the prayers (which I don't have memorized in Japanese). We then bought neat Japanese Christian postcards from nuns in a little adjoining shop.
After this, we met our good friends Aki and Keiko in Shibuya, right next to the statue of Hachiko, one of Tokyo's famous landmarks. If you don't already know about Hachiko, read the Wikipedia article; it's a really sweet and great story.
The four of us went to an izakaya called Sakura (after being persuaded by a polite yet enthusiastic representative of the establishment), and we drank tons of delicious drinks and ate yummy food in celebration of Dori's and my recent engagement. It was a wonderful time; I love being able to spend time with good friends when I'm abroad.
When we got back, Igor had returned from racing, so we hung out with him and drank the champagne that Dori received on the airplane.
Monday, off to Mitaka!
On Monday, we went to the Mitaka no Mori Ghibli Bijutsukan (Mitaka Forest Ghibli Museum), a museum dedicated to Studio Ghibli, and all of the wonderful animated films made by Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. The museum was laid out like a mysterious mansion with lots of hidden passageways, winding staircases and very interesting architecture, and was filled to the brim with information about the animation process, as well as lots of materials from various films, like original storyboards for all of the Ghibli movies, stained glass windows with Totoro and other popular Ghibli characters, and more.
We spent a long time there, but unfortunately, no pictures are allowed inside, so the only photos we were able to take were outdoor ones. Still, I'd highly encourage anyone who loves Miyazaki's movies to go. It was magical.
Afterwards, we walked through the nearby Inokashira Park, and followed a small river back to the station.
That night, we went to Ginza (the super-expensive shopping district) and browsed around in the oldest department store in Tokyo, Mitsukoshi. We even bought a couple of small things! I saw a regular-looking leather jacket that cost nearly 20,000 yen (~$2000). I did not buy it.
We went to a really good ramen place for dinner, and got back to Yokohama, only to find that Igor wanted us to meet his friend, Yama-chan, who's lending us his cell phone while we're in Japan. Well, it turns out that he was stuck at work, so we never got to meet him, but we did get to enjoy delicious drinks at a small bar called "Picnic," nestled somewhere in the back of a field in rural-ish Yokohama. Their mashed potatoes were surprisingly good.
Tuesday (today)
This morning we got up and were going to go to climb Mount Fuji, but it turns out we were too late- the buses there only leave at certain times and we'd missed them all. So instead, we decided to go to the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum, where we (among other things):
-bought lots of old-timey Japanese candy
-tried to solve riddles and got beaten by elementary schoolers who were quicker thinkers than we
-tried out hand at some Japanese carnival games and managed to shoot down from delicious candy and toys with a pop gun
-each ate two bowls types of delicious ramen, one from Fukuoka and one from Sapporo
-participated in an epic janken (Rock-Paper-Scissors) tournament, in which we were once again beaten by elementary schoolers
After a great time at the museum, we went into downtown Yokohama, where we walked through Yamashita Park, along Tokyo Bay. We played some frisbee, and also checked out a few famous monuments, like the statue of the Angel of Water (presented to Yokohama by the city of San Diego, which made Dori quite proud) and the statue of the "Girl Wearing Red Shoes," a famous landmark commemorating an old, local children's song. Pictures of all of these things to come soon.
After this, we walked through the Motomachi and Yamate districts, two areas that were primarily inhabited by foreigners once Japan opened up the port of Yokohama in 1859. Dori and I found a hippie-type store and she bought a really cute skirt.
Finally, we went into Yokohama's Chinatown and got delicious ice cream (our two flavors: cherry blossom and black sesame) as well as a delicious baozi filled with char siu. （「チャーシューまん」 in Japanese.） We headed back to Igor's and relaxed with some peach wine.