http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Eman/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Eman en-us Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:38:41 +0000 Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:38:41 +0000 You don't measure a year. You cannot measure a year. I just spent 10 months in Japan learning Japanese hands down the hardest thing I have ever done and the biggest change I've gone through. I was a student and a mentor. I was a younger and older brother. Very much a child yet somehow found an adulthood. I felt more isolated and more included than ever before. I was mute and deaf then flu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/Setagaya/blog-420359.html I did my last improptu sightseeing of my time here in Japan today to one of the few places I knew I had to go see before I even got here Yasukuni Jinja. It made the news a few times recently because of controversies over who is enshrined there and who made visits. The second who was former Prime Minister Koizumi who made official visits to the shrine to give tribute to the war dead enshrined http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/Chiyoda/blog-419073.html Going away parties are going to become pretty commonplace this next week my last week at Japan but I don't think that any of them will be as touching as the one with my circle and my best friends in this country.We met up for a larger Fair trade event in Tokyo pretty big and participation was countrywide. Schools came from as far as Shikoku not the main island of Japan which was impressive. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/blog-417556.html I'm just going to keep a running entry of my circle. It's easier that way. Please keep checking this time to time because I ultimately want to get all of my experiences down with this amazing group but I will never be able to. I am in a Fair Trade advocacy group called Cafaire. We are a recognized circle by Waseda and try very hard to spread the word about Fair Trade and get the Japanese who http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/blog-412810.html Host mom had some guests over last night a man and woman from Okinawa and it made me remember how different Okinawa was from Tokyo. Everything they did contrasted with the proper Japanese conservative of this city. The guy big round faced chubby guy walks in with a bright hawaiian shirt and shorts. They don't wear those in this city. Shorts are pretty rare although its plenty hot. The wo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Okinawa/blog-412338.html I've been negligent in posting. Lots of pictures to get up but I don't think I will get to them tonight. Things have been busy really busy. As time is ticking down to my return home less than 4 weeks and my parents coming here less than 1 week I've been trying to get ahead of some things and do as much as possible in my short time left here. Seems like every night I'm coming home around http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/blog-411879.html It's a song its a fruit its a SakuranboOr Japanese cherry not to be confused with the sakura trees which are just cherry blossoms. But like the sakura trees its a seasonal item pretty unique to Japan that the Japanese can't get enough of. We took a day trip to Katsunuma in Yamanashiken. It was foggy in the morning when we left but as we got to Katsunuma the fog lifted and we saw the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Yamanashi/blog-407430.html There is a country wide organization in Japan called the Ramen Kyoukai or Ramen Cooperative that many well known Ramen shops belong to and that promotes Ramen across Japan as if it needs it. There is another word in Japanese Kyoukai it means church which I think is more appropriate for the followers of Ramen in Japan. Although Ramen is my number 2 next to soba I've gotten to like it http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/Setagaya/blog-405835.html Here it is the Yanks vs. Sox Laf vs. Lehigh but Japanese style the Spring meeting of the two most prestigious private universities in Japan Waseda and Keio. After being shut out of tix for the fall matchup I was pretty pumped to get my hands on these. I wrote before that Japanese baseball's cheering and fans were a little ehem different then America. I said this from watching the Gia http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/blog-404267.html I've written before about the Japanese and their fear of germs but with the spread of Swine flu known here as Shingata Influ New Strain Flu. We are in the highest gear of quirky germaphobia. So why do we call it New Strain flu instead of swine flu To not turn people away from pork. Now in analyzing the Japanese mentality this was not a good move. First NEW tends to invoke fear here. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/blog-401058.html Host fam up to no good again. About a month ago host mom shows me a brochure tells me to save May 18th. Its to a hotel in Kamogawa Chiba Prefecture2 hours from Tokyo called Arabianart an Egyptian themed hotel but really turns out to be more of a large bed and breakfast. We spent the weekend there. I had no clue why host mom chose this place its pretty out of step from the gigantic 4 s http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/Cairo/blog-399692.html Let me preface this with fair trade red wine is delicious and I just drank my fair share of it. Was out with my fair trade circle today with a bunch of other circles from tokyo. Had a great time talked about how bribes from importcompanies to 3rd world country governments interfere with fair trade in japanese drunk. So I guess the languae is coming along well. I love my circle.Anyway on http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/blog-397465.html Just returned from Japan's nothernmost island Hokkaido. It was a bit chilly but beautiful with one of the most charming towns I've seen Otaru. Host fam planned this one so as usual we did lots of running around hitting 3 different cities in a span of four days. Plans included a beer factory a crazy resort a zoo lavender farm and then Otaru. Before getting into the details the even http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Hokkaido/blog-396474.html I woke up today and thought to myself...why is my voice all scratchy This isn't normal. Then I realized that wow...I think I just hit a milestone in my language study. Went out with the circle at 130 in the afternoon yesterday and came back at 10pm that night. No english was spoken. And I talked enough to burn my voice out a bit...now that is cool.Today was the big welcome for the new stud http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/Minato/blog-394148.html Host family has been up to no good recently. Like springing second row Blue Man Group tickets on me 20 minutes before the show starts in Roppongi and taking a weekend trip to a beautiful place in Naganoken called Karuizawa. Karuizawa to Tokyo is like Nantucket to New York and Boston its the nature place the rich people go to get away from the heat. It isnt summer yet so Karuizawa the town was http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nagano/blog-393524.html In the fall I put up a post about the momiji japanese maples changing colors and what a big deal it is. The spring equivalent are sakura trees cherry blossoms. Around the first week of april all the trees in Tokyo pop at the same time and the Hanami flower seeing begins. I'm pretty sure its the drastic changes in these two trees that coordinate with the seasons that explains why Japanese p http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/blog-389369.html The Tokyo metro area by most measures clocks in at around 12 million people who's main protein source is fish although this has been changing as McDonalds etc. has been colonizing the world. It makes for the biggest fish market in the world called the Tsukiji Wholesale Market a 40 minute train ride from my house. This is the market responsible with providing ALL of Tokyo either directly or i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/Minato/blog-386323.html This entry is going on a month overdue. I've been occupied in the exotic land of New York for a few weeks and haven't gotten this up. But since I am going back to Japan tomorrow I figured I get this long colorful entry done when there really isn't much else to do. Once I get back to Japan I know there will be plenty of things to do and people to catch up with not to mention reimmerse myself http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-382816.html Today was clear cold and my food poisoning had all but gone away so took a day trip to go see Mt. Fuji up close. Have some great pics of the mountain from far away in Tokyo and had some semiclear views from Hakone but today was focused just on the mountain. In reality we were still about 30 mins to an hour away from the mountain when I took the up close pics but it's so big that distan http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Shizuoka/Mt-Fuji/blog-374827.html When you are japanese or in Japan going to Korea is the thing to do. Tokyo is closer to Korea than any other country so close in fact that it takes longer by plane to get to Okinawa than it does to Seoul. Korea is cheap dirt cheap. I've never been in a country before where the dollar bought anything. Japan's yen is very strong compared to the dollar and the times I was in Europe the excha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Seoul/blog-374148.html