Hi!!!
Just felt
my first earthquake. Pretty cool. I was checking my email when my dad pointed
it out. The TV shook back and forth and the water on the desk showed little
tremors. At least it wasn’t giant. This was the first of many, my dad says.
I’ll make sure to keep a count!
Okay, I’ll
try to sum up the last few days quickly. Friday we visited the Skytree tower,
an amazing steel structure that rises a whopping 634 meters above the ground.
An amazing place.
Later we
met up with the students and headed to Iidabashi. There we went to the
Koishikawa Korakuen stroll garden. Even with the dreadful heat we managed to
make our way through the beautiful walk, taking tons of pictures and sweating
off at least thirty pounds.
Dinner was
at the JapanBall Hall of Fame, a small noodle shop hidden in the streets of Central
Tokyo. The game that followed was noisy and filled with people. They have many
intricate cheers that include banging together hollow plastic bats. I, of
course, bought some and joined in. In the end, the Yomiuri Giants won 4-0 over
the Hiroshima Carp.
Saturday we
got up early and went to the train station. It was about an hour or so before
we got to Kinugawa Onsen. A bus took us to Tobu World Square, a theme park
dedicated to creating 1/6 size of world monuments. Very exiting (there will be
pictures soon).
From Tobu
we went to Toshogu shrine, a beautiful site built in the 17th
century. There was amazing woodwork and beautiful paintings, much of it
recently restored. We visited the temples and bought a fortune told by the
gods. My luck will go up like blooming flowers, if love comes I should not be
affected by others, I should travel soon… and many other bits of advice. Again,
pictures soon.
The next
morning the students had a lecture on Japanese folklore monsters early in the
morning. I, however, spent my morning hanging out in the hotel room. Lucky me.
At one
o’clock we were due in Harajuku, a famous shopping and youth culture district
(if you’ve ever seen Japanese people dressed in crazy outfits, this is where
they’re from). We traveled down the crowded streets and shopped in some
fabulous stores, including one in which I found a great back-to-school outfit
(Franny, you would approve).
Monday we
learned about the challenges of the Edo period and how the rulers coped with
such problems, many of them similar to the ones we experience today. In the
afternoon we went down to the site of the first railroads in Tokyo, and Azby,
our wonderful guide, enlightened us about the growing of the black market
happened in cavities underneath the tracks and in the surrounding alleys. Today
they are filled with bars, noodle shops, and everything else you can think of.
Yesterday
we went to the Edo museum, a really cool place filled with artifacts from
centuries ago. There were also models and life-size recreations of buildings
from the 19th century.
After lunch
we went to Akihabara, a bustling streetmarket town. There were stalls filled
with everything imaginable, including some squid jerky (YUM! no joke!). We
ended by having a delicious bite of burger in Shbuya (the menu included a “Fruit
Burger” with half a mango).
If you
would like to hear a more detailed description, just send me a message. My
Picasa link is
I hope it
works!
-Georgie
@:)
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