Blogs from Chiba, Japan, Asia - page 13

Now that there's only one day left here, I've finally got the time to do a last update before I get home and that "reverse culture shock" I've heard about happens. Maybe I'll ask my parents to keep track of it and see if I actually go through any of it. The last week of classes, I was a little bit of a bad person. I had my finals for classes, and after the oral Japanese final, I just skipped the last 2 classes (History of Tokyo and Japanese review). I was just ready to be done. But that worked out fine. Thursday was the oral for Japanese and after I finished, I went to IES. It only took 10 minutes and I was first, so I had a lot of time to kill. I feel ... read more

Well, I've officially got a month left here. I've taken all the midterms too, since my last one was Monday. I'm not doing as poorly as I thought in Japanese, so I'm grateful for that. Extracurricular activities have been rather sparse - IES only had one activity, a calligraphy class, which I cannot do. But this coming week more than makes up for it. This weekend I'm making another trip to Yasukuni for History of Tokyo, which, if not enlightening, will be enjoyable. We've got class as usual on Monday, with Jissen and an area study. But I usually go to Art and Society of Japan, which I'm missing in order to go to the Diet for Japanese Society. I have absolutely no problem with this since, as nice as the Art teacher is, her class ... read more

Arrived in Tokyo at 8.30am and made our way via the train and underground to our hostel, which was about an hour away from the airport but quite central to Tokyo City center. The hostel was great and the people there seemed quite friendly. Our first day (Monday) consisted of checking out what was in the immediate vicinity and planning what else there was to do. After a good nights sleep we headed into the city center to explore. We checked out the Imperial Palace and gardens, which was very pretty. We visited the Diet Building (which is similar to the Houses of Parliament) and then walked through Ginza which is where all the designer shops, the bright lights and the advertisements on buildings are. We also managed to visit Ueno Zoo which wasn't as good ... read more

Happy Halloween everyone! It seems like we've been celebrating it here in Japan for the past week, that it's hard to believe that the day has actually arrived. Dressing up in Japan was a riot - they sure love their costumes!!! The Scooby Doo gang was a hit - although Shaggy was nowhere to be found....he was probably off someone doing what he does best.... Other than that - things are moving right a long here on the big island. I woke up with one of my friends about a week ago to watch the first game of the series at a bar in Tokyo.... went to a traditional tea ceremony with on of my colleagues from work....and attempted backpacking in OZE only to be shut out by a typoon, and then sit squished in what ... read more

I did a lot of things, actually, and feel bad about not giving them their own headings. But two specifically were awesome so they're going to be what I write about. On the 10th of this month I got to go to a very special tea ceremony. According to Kudo-san, this is something not done often and many Japanese don't get the chance to participate in one. But luckily for us IES students, one of the host mothers is a tea ceremony practicioner, professionally. She goes to Kyoto frequently just to perform the tea ceremony, so she got high marks. I had class that day so I met Okasan and the rest of the group at Funabashi station, and from there we walked to Sato-san's house, where she would perform the ceremony. Her house is built ... read more