Blogs from Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, Asia - page 10

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Asia » Japan » Tokyo » Shinjuku August 5th 2009

After two fully-scheduled days of orientation in Tokyo, all JETs part at Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku and head to their designated prefectures. Our work schedule is quite hectic (in a positive way! Of course!!^^) and it's now 10:15pm in Japan. Despite that I'll have an important day tomorrow to meet my school teachers, principal and vice-principal, I would like to take a few minutes to reflect on the events that happened and people that I met during the orientation. We received warm welcome upon arrival at Narita International Airport. I didn't feel too nostalgic or over-excited when left Vancouver. I knew that I was in a peaceful state of mind, so satisfied and blessed to be in where I am right now. The orientation was absolutely well-organized, that it covered a range of topics from ... read more
Robed in Yukata
At the top of Tokyo Gov Building
Outside of Canadian Embassy in Tokyo

Asia » Japan » Tokyo » Shinjuku August 4th 2009

So far my stay in Tokyo has been pretty amazing. The JET panels have been very informative for all the new people coming in and here's been lots of time at night to explore the city. I managed to meet up with a girl going to my prefecture yesterday and we decided to take a couple hours and go see Tokyo Tour. Considering it was my first time riding the Japanese rail system it was actually pretty painless. Thankfully we were going at an off-peak hour so there was none of that crazy sardine can subway riding you see videos of on YouTube. We did see a kid wearing a trucker hat with the logo 'Ladies Ride Free' that we couldn't stop laughing at hahaha I have a feeling I'm going to be seeing a lot ... read more
More Prayer Idols
Zojo Ji Temple
Buddhist Statue

Asia » Japan » Tokyo » Shinjuku August 2nd 2009

As first nights in Tokyo go, this one could have been a lot worse were it not for the superior organization skills of the JET team. They made arrival/getting settled an easy brease. Honestly, the only hard part of this entire process so far was getting out of Toronto. Due to various technical errors, our flight wound up being delayed by 4 hours. We spent that entire time just sitting on the plane, waiting. It was ridiculous. And after all of that the pilot announces that they had to call in new pilots for our flight because we'd been sitting there for too long and their contract hours were up. Ugh. I slept most of the bus ride over from the airport to the hotel but what I did see was very tall, very neon and ... read more

Asia » Japan » Tokyo » Shinjuku July 29th 2009

Hi again! Two Saturdays ago we made the seemingly un-long but actually long journey to Tokyo, Japan. All in all, including the bus from Buyeo and the train into Tokyo, the travel time was 12 hours, pretty outrageous for a 2 hour flight. Allll worth it though. Tokyo exceeded any expectations I had. I didn't think anything could tie Vienna but there it was. It is hard to pin point exactly what it is that makes Tokyo so special; maybe it is in the little things like the perfectly paved roads, tree lined streets and buildings, overall cleanliness, friendly people and eclectic food. Jonathan was pretty disappointed that there weren't any robots. The first night we made it to our hotel. We really lucked out because the hotel was in an amazing location downtown and quite ... read more
Harajuku
Fuji
Hot Spring

Asia » Japan » Tokyo » Shinjuku July 24th 2009

From my journal this morning: "It's been a trying couple days. First night I stayed in Ueno First City Hotel. Somehow, it was both nicer and shadier than I expected. The logic of the $90 night price tag was that I'd be so jetlagged and tired after the long trip, I'd appreciate the comforts of a real hotel for one night, before downgrading to the dirtier hostels. The place was easy enough to find, the hotel staff, friendly and helpful. While it was nice to have my own shower, my own room, the abundance of serious looking low to mid-level Japanese businessmen and the complete lack of English-speaking tourists made me feel alone. The room was (perhaps typically) small with an efficient use of space. The TV had ten Japanese channels, plus 3 or 4 "pay-tv" ... read more
DSC01953
DSC01954
DSC01955

Asia » Japan » Tokyo » Shinjuku July 13th 2009

13 LUGLIO Ci scusiamo per il ritardo, ovviamente siamo presissimi da un'infinità di cose da fare! Dopo il "caos" del giorno precedente, abbiamo deciso di bilanciare un po' e scelto come meta due quartieri che, sulla carta, sarebbero stati molto più tranquilli. UENO Decidiamo di iniziare con Ueno, il più vicino e comodo poi per arrivare alla tappa successiva. Quel che subito distingue il quartiere è il suo grande parco, una delle attrattive principali che decidiamo di affrontare subito per approfittare dell'ottimo sole (anche troppo, un caldo umidissimo!). Grazie alle svariate cartine e alle indicazioni del parco, non è difficile muoversi tra gli ampi corridoi di alberi curatissimi. Anche qui, infatti, notiamo la cura incredibile per ogni dettaglio del parco, seppure gli spazi molto più ampi lascino meno spazio ai particolari. Dopo pochi minuti di cammino ... read more
Piazzale laterale tempio
Toori
Tempio nascosto

Asia » Japan » Tokyo » Shinjuku July 12th 2009

Dopo le fatiche del viaggio, prima vera giornata da bravi turisti! MATTINA Abbiamo dormito poco, probabilmente causa del Jet Lag, e alle 6 eravamo già belli svegli. Per non girare in strade deserte, abbiamo fatto passare un paio d'ore tra relax, computer, tv orrenda e organizzazione della giornata. Intorno alle 8 siamo usciti di casa. Come obiettivo, girare un po' tutto il quartiere in cui abbiamo l'appartamento, così da avere una visione generale della zona e iniziare ad assaporare un po' l'aria della città, non disdegnando qualche acquisto per la casa e il pranzo. L'atmosfera è davvero splendida e tranquilla, molto classica. Nonostante le case siano ammassate l'una sull'altra, e i fili della corrente sembrano essere tirati a caso e ovunque, domina una sensazione globale di tranquillità, ordine, compattezza e funzionalità. Abbiamo ovviamente fatto qualche foto, ... read more
Numabukuro 2
Numbabukuro
Heiwanomori Koen

Asia » Japan » Tokyo » Shinjuku July 11th 2009

Eccoci qui, finalmente con il primo aggiornamento direttamente da Tokyo. Ma iniziamo dal principio. Dopo esserci imbarcati a Milano Malpensa, il nostro volo parte puntuale alle 21.45. Dodici ore di viaggio paiono non passare mai, dormire è difficile, ma per "fortuna" lo schermetto personale permette di passare un po' di tempo. Grazie alla telecamera sulla base dell'aereo e alle informazioni gps, è divertente seguire l'avanzamento del viaggio. Inoltre, io, Raffaele, sono riuscito a vedermi due film interi. Il primo, 17 again (in inglese), almeno accettabile. Dopo ho avuto la sventura di vedermi Dragonball Evolution (sempre in inglese), uno dei film penso più inutili della storia. Tagliamo le 12 ore di viaggio e passiamo all'arrivo in aereoporto. Tutto si svolge abbastanza facilmente, passiamo per il controllo passaporti e otteniamo rapidamente il visto di soggiorno. Per una incr ... read more
L'interno del mini-monolocale
Macchinetta
Macchinetta e Tucci

Asia » Japan » Tokyo » Shinjuku July 10th 2009

After a fantastic flight during which I watched 5 movies I was met by Kimberly at Narita airport. She said she could tell the plane from New Zealand must have landed since there was an influx of cheerily dopey people that sounded like Murray from Flight of the Concords. We rushed to catch the express train to the city, and before I knew it I was sipping champagne and admiring one of the best views of the city from the Peak Bar in the Park Hyatt. I had a fantastic time sampling cocktails and yummy food, catching up with Kimberly as the sun set and the lights went on around the city. Simply beautiful.... read more

Asia » Japan » Tokyo » Shinjuku June 29th 2009

Well today has been a long day. It was 5am when we left the Coast and had an uneventful (thank God) trip down to Brisbane airport. The flight left pretty much on time at 8.45am and we were pretty impressed with the service of JAL. We checked in using the web the day before and picked our seats. Justin got to sit by himself. We were fed a few times on the flight and generally well looked after. We arrived at Narita airport about 5.15pm and had to take a airport limousine (read bus) to the terminal. Once through customs we purchased the Nex and Suico cards we would be using the next couple of days. The Nex is used to take us from the airport to Tokyo and the Suico card is used on the ... read more
Sign on platfom floor of station
First of many vending machines
At Shinjuku




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