Advertisement
Published: March 27th 2005
NOTE: check previous logs for pics -- they are now up. Plus, pics of my IES buddies will be done on a separate entry for easy reference.
So I've met tons more cool people (I like mostly everyone, haha -- all 40-some of em). Special thanks goes out to Seth, who was here last semester: he gave me a tour around the area, has been really helpful, and hooked me up with the battery charger that is allowing me to share pics with you guys!
Today, I woke up at 6:10AM to attend mass at 8:30 at a small CHAPEL in New Otani Tokyo Hotel -- it's in a 400 year-old garden. I made it around 7:50AM, and waited until 8:15 for Tisa. I hoped she wasn't lost, and didn't decide to bail on me seeing that she was late. I navigated my way to the chapel, where I was ushered to an open seat in the front row. It was a quaint little wooden chapel that seated about 30 people. I think it was non-denominational. There was a pianist, celloist, and flutist (... yes, those aren't all real words). The preaching part was a bit long, but I
felt very welcome. All the visitors were made to stand up and introduce themselves -- at least half were non-regulars, and I found out at this time that Tisa made it a bit late.
There was free coffee and cake after, and I got an Easter egg, so that was cool. Tisa and I walked around the GARDEN for a bit, before we headed off to Shibuya for the day. I guess I became the leader, having done a little research on places to go, and we made it there with no problem. So, we're feeling a lot more confident after the first day of exploring on our own!
At Shibuya, there is supposed to be the world's busiest INTERSECTION. It is busy, and there were a lot of cute girls around. We basically walked around with our heads tilted up to look at all the signs and BUILDINGS. I wanted to have some coffee or something somewhere high so I could get a nice view below, so we stumbled into some Italian RESTAURANT. They served me my latte first, and it was pretty darn good. The pasta was good too, but the portion was on the small
Garden2
Hotel in backgroundside. The view could've been better.
We stopped by a department store, but I've decided I really hate not being able to buy stuff I like. So, I pretty much ran through the place. There was sooooooo much cool clothing -- that were really expensive though (which, for me is 100 bucks for a pair of jeans, or 50 bucks for a belt, or 400 bucks for a sports jacket). But yea, the fashion really is really nice.
We then walked to Yoyogi Park, where the site of the 1964 (?) OLYMPICS were held. There are a lot of PERFORMERS along the sidewalks and paths here, and a number of them are pretty good. There is a MEIJI SHRINE located in this vicinity, which we visited as well. Our "tour" was pretty quick, as there was no guide to give us little tidbits of information... our feet hurt a lot after all that walking, and we basically go to some "interesting" place to look at for a few minutes, take a picture, then leave. After the shrine, we finished at around 3:30PM. I was expecting us to be done at 4. Pretty good guestimation.
Tisa was an
Garden3
Finally -- a pic of me up! awesome companion. But, I can't wait to come back with the French guys and spend more time people-watching! Tomorrow I start the 2-week "Survival Japanese" course. Next stop is Roppongi on Tuesday night -- I'm going to try to organize a large (as in, 80%!o(MISSING)f the IES kids perhaps) group to karaoke that night. I don't know what the room limit is, but I figure 2 rooms will be fine. One room to sing, and one room to sleep. Then we can catch the morning train on Wednesday, to get ready to go on the IES tour of Tokyo at about noon. .
I'm going to study some key phrases and get some sleep for tomorrow. I think tomorrow's entry will be pics of Makuhari, where my school is, and pics of my walk home. Sweet dreams.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.129s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0632s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
anonymous
non-member comment
Hey Hey!
Hey!!! Sounds good so far... getting settled, exploring a bit, meeting people, no signs of King Kong... all good things :) Hehehee...great pictures. Keep 'em coming. I really liked the pictures of the garden and the chapel... gorgeous. We miss you here. I know you're having a one-of-a-kind experience... enjoy it!!! Much love as always. - Tenna