Weekend Adventures

Sorry about the lack of entries of late! It's been a few days since I've really had some time to sit down and write down about all of my adventures over the last few days. I've been taking a lot of time for sightseeing and for various activities with the academy, often finding myself getting into the guest house without a lot of time to sit at the computer. However, the good news is that I have plenty of updates on some of the things that I've been up to. Ideally too, I hope to be able to update a little more frequently in the various weeks.

This weekend on Saturday we had a wonderful trip around Tokyo on a bus tour. Unfortunately for me, I had been so tired from all of the sightseeing and walking around that I accidentally woke up at 9:00am - about half an hour from when I needed to be in Kudanshita. Darn! So, trying to make the most of the day, I woke up, ate my asagohan, and set off to see the Imperial Palace myself. After an hour ride on the Tokyo Metro into Tokyo Station, a short walk suddenly took me into the area of the Imperial Palace gardens. Much of the Imperial Palace is actually restricted from the public, like many of the palaces, castles and government houses of the world. Finally, after making my way through the gardens I came to the Sakura Gate of the Imperial Palace, which is the closest you can get to the actual palace itself. Japan is still ruled by an emperor, Emperor Akihito, but mostly as a figurehead. It's interesting how, at the continual frenzied storm of Toyko, the Imperial Palace sits silent as a type of eye of the storm and set apart by its natural enclosure of walls and trees.

After checking out much of the outer palace, I decided to make the walk to Tokyo Tower, which is part observatory and mostly broadcasting tower. Also unfortunately, I underestimated the distance from the palace to the tower as it took me almost an hour to get to the Tokyo Tower on foot. Even more unfortunately, I got caught in a very severe thunder / rain / hail storm and finished my walk to Tokyo Tower completely drenched. Finally, at long last, my luck turned around when I suddenly heard from behind me a familiar "...Matt?" It was one of my classmates, Steve, as he showed up saying "hey, I thought that it was you! What are you doing here? We wondered what happened to you!" After explaining my situation, I was happy to learn that, out of all the chances that could have been and places in the vast city of Tokyo, that I had met up with my class. Accordingly, I was able to finish the Tokyo tour with the class and make it to the top of the tower (for free, I might add). The following photos are from the top of the tower in a 360 degree view so you can see just how vast the city truly is:

Tokyo Tower I
Tokyo Tower II
Tokyo Tower III
Tokyo Tower IV
Tokyo Tower V
Tokyo Tower VI
Tokyo Tower VII
Tokyo Tower VIII
Tokyo Tower IX

The next day, I set out for Harajuku with some classmates of mine to explore the area a little more and to check out the madness that occurs on Sunday. There were many people out and about in the market areas, browsing shop to shop for sales and for the coolest t-shirt, shoes, books and more. Even among the clothing, I was occasionally reminded that, even half way around the world, I'm never too far from home it seems.

You may have read about the craze in Tokyo for the new iPhone 3G, the first incarnation of the iPhone to be released in Japan since the entire mobile network is on a 3G band (versus the standard 2G / GSM network in the States). At the flagship store for Softbank, the mobile company that secured the Apple contract, people were lined up for days to get their hands on the iPhone, which was available in America over one year ago for the first time. Needless to say, it was funny to see it on CNN and to think "hey, I walked right by that today!"

I'll admit that this entry hasn't been my most inspiring blog entry to date, but with so much that has happened in the last few days, it's hard to capture it all into a single post. However, there are a lot of things happening this week alone, including a special visit tomorrow to the Ghibli Museum, which was set up through the school and normally requires months of special reservations for tickets into the Studio Ghibli! For those of you that are unfamiliar with Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki - the creator behind such films as Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and My Neighbor Totoro - is easily Japan's premier animator and a true genius of his craft. The collection of his works and animation studio, Studio Ghibli, is housed in the famous Ghibli Museum. I'll be certain to take a lot of photos tomorrow.

Ideally, I hope to be able to get to an internet cafe in the near future to write a longer and more inspired entry. But for now, things are indeed going well and are only getting better!

Mata Ashita!