Rin in Tokyo: 2011.10

10.24.2011

今週一週間忙しいぜい！

今週のスケジュール

火曜：カープ最終戦！

水曜：バスケ大会！（めっちゃ久しぶり）

木曜：なし！

金曜：コンパ！

土曜：ゼミ説明会・ハロウィーンパーティー！

日曜：早慶戦！

野球・バスケ・野球！
スポーツの秋だぜ♪
楽しみだな〜

I've completed something that was on top of my to do list.
Visiting Shinjuku 2 choume, a church street like place in Japan where all the Gays/Bi/Les/ and straights go to have fun at night.

I actually wasn't expecting to go out that night because I had dance practice that day but I ended up bumping into my friends who were heading there on the way back home from the practice.
I was covered in sweat and wearing baggy pants and baggy t-shirt.
Totally not clubbing outware but decided to go because I didn't want to miss the chance!

Shinjuku really is a night city. Too many people but very lively.

Walking around my neighbourhood Hiyoshi.

This is the view from my window.

I was always curious what is up on that little mountain/hill thing on the

left so I decided to take a walk one afternoon.

I first had to find a route to go up.

Walked around the other side of the mountain and I found several streets.

Zemi Fun

Yesterdays dinner with my zemi friends :) $9

So school has not been so intense because I really haven't handed in anything in yet but many things has been happening outside of normal class. One of the things that keeps me most busy is the Zemi activites. (Please refer to my previous post on zemi in september if you don't know what a zemi is).

We have zemi meetings every mondays and thursdays and on top of that we have activites like Zemi presentations where other zemi and our zemi joins to present. We also visit companies to hear their first hand experience and what it's like working in a real business world. We also have fun activites like playing softball together and next week is going to be a basketball game. Woo Hoo!

I really think I am learning a lot, not quite about design but business which I always took interest in.

Everyone in the Zemi is very nice and active people and I'm thinking of making great friends here.

Keep posted on the things I do here!

Harajuku and Shibuya

So its been a month and a half since I came to Japan.
And all I've visited is Harajuku and Shibuya.
I really haven't gone to other places yet because a lot of my friends likes to meet up there.
But its good! It's a small area but there is soo much to do and I've went to Harajuku twice this week and got a lot done!

--

On sunday I went out with my exchange friends to go halloween shopping.
Halloween isn't a big event like it is in Canada but we decided to go to a club on the 29th to celebrate it.

We went into a shop called BODY LINE which is located on takeshita dori at Harajuku to buy our costume.

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/bodyline/

As you can see (if you click on the link) not everything looks like halloween costume because most of these clothes are worn in regular terms (i.e. the victorian themed dress, maid costumes. aka Lolita clothes) and for cosplay purposes (ppl trying to dress up as anime characters).

And out of these I chose.... ;) This will be updated when the time comes. hohoho

----

And now today I went to Harajuku and Shibuya again to meet a friend who I met volunteering as a translator this year at Anime North.

We talked for 8 hours and did holy lots of things.
Talked , ate at a buffet, watched a movie, shopped, and sang karaoke.

Funfunfun but not so much fun for my wallet.
But why did I work so hard in the summer time?!
It's for myself to get the most out of my exchange. So no regrets!! (I'm trying to convince myself)

Cake buffet. There was every type of cake you can think of!

This restaurant was located at the end of takeshitadori on 3rd floor.

The price was $16.

Movie: Dog Police

I went to the movie theatre at Shibuya, right beside the 109 building.
Since movies on wednesdays are 1000yen ($12) for women it's a pretty good deal.
(I think the original price for an adult ticket is $20.)

The movie I watched is called DogxPolice and its about a dog and a police.
I actually didn't know anything about the movie but my friend and I just randomly hopped in because we had time.

Long story short I was balling my eyes out for the whole show because
a) sad things happens to the dog in the movie
and
b) I miss my coco so much.

It's really embarrassing to cry in a Japanese movie theater because its really dead silent.
I heard noone talk, shuffle, sneeze, cough through out the whole movie except for me sniffing.

Ahh-- I think I'm more dog-sick than home-sick.

This is the poster of the movie.
It's action/drama/suspense/a lil bit of love at the end.

This is the trailer of the movie.

Field Trip to Nippori and Art events

I'm slowly catching up on my events.
I went to Nippori and Nezu area with my Art Workshop class last Monday.

The whole area is called shitamachi which still has a lot of the old building from the industrial era.
Many people still have hands on jobs in that area and it was a lot of fun walking around with my friends enjoying the old style city.

We first got off at Nezu Station to walk around the area.

Tofu shop. I love these kanji characters that looks like logos.

I found a lot of these bicycles that seemes abandoned.

This one even has flowers in the basket.

Detective ad.

To Do list Update

And the list shall grow...

~~Try Japanese Bar (Izakaya)~~

Eat 鯛めし

Eat some good Pork Cutlet トンカツ

Manga Cafe

~~Class Reunion~~

Fuji Rock Festival

~~Johnnys Store~~

Arashi Concert

Volunteer for Tsunami Relief

~~Eat Monjya Yaki~~

~~Go to Akihabara~~

Meet all my friends in Japan

~~Japanese Magic Straight Perm~~

Get a part time job

Go on an internship

Okinawa

Japanese Clubbing

Backpacking

Comedy Show

Try Street Snap

Maid Cafe

Go to at least one restaurant that got introduced in Arashi shows

Eat Sardine Soba にしん蕎麦

Eat at Caprichoza カプリチョーザ

Eat Horse Sashimi 馬刺し

Tokyo Modern Art Museum 東京現代美術館

Go watch a TV show as one of the audience

Go to the temples around my house area

Eat Tempura Rice Ball 天むす

Eat Blow Fish Sashimi ふぐ刺し

Eat Fish Sperm (sounds disgusting i know) 白子

Try getting a decorating nail in Japan

Japanese Gay Bar オカマバー

~~Go up Tokyo Tower~~

Takarazuka 宝塚

Go see AKB48

~~Go see Sky Tree~~

Go to Aiba's restaurant

Climb a mountain (Mt.fuji)

Arashi Bar

Niconico cafe/ Niconico Bar
Go to Tokyo Disney Land / Sea
Watch Japanese Musical (Cats)
Ghibli Museum
Host Club
Kamakura/Enoshima
Imperial Palace
Nippori Station
Hakone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakone,_Kanagawa)
Yoyogi Park
Shinjuku-Gyoen (for Hanami Plum blossom viewing)
See a Bunraku performance
Visit Tokyo-Daigaku
Ueno Zoo/ Aquarium
Tokyo Bay Boat Cruise
So-kei Sen Baseball Game
~~Watch Pro Baseball Game~~
Cake Buffet
アフレコカフェ
Visit the Canadian Embassay
Go to Hiroshima
Cat Cafe

Yagami Festival

I went to one of the six festivals Keio has, called Yagami Festival 矢上祭.

It's still pretty hot in Japan (Yesterday was 28 degrees) and so was the day of the festival.
There were students everywhere and because Yagami campus is more for computer and science people a lot of the booths were related to those topics.
Watch the video and you'll get the mood and atmosphere of the festival.

Posters promoting the yagami festival was placed everywhere.

I wonder who makes them and how much effort is put into these things.

Posters to promote each booth.

銀座で嵐会 / Fanmeet in Ginza

This blog is going to be written in Japanese!

If you're really curious what it's about just look at the pictures and u'll see ;)

はい！私はジャニーズのグループ嵐が好きなんデス！

とあまりこのブログでは触れていなかった私の秘密を

今回の嵐会を機会に告白してみました（もうバレてたって？）

以下オタクっぷり満載の投稿となってるのであしからず＾＾

Frozen Gyoza

I tried making gyoza ~~because Sho did a commercial on it~~.

It's easy as 1,2,3 and its pretty good considering the price and all.

It was fast (6minutes) and it's only $3.

Sorry this was a stupid post.

10.11.2011

Japanese Baseball Game is intense

So on October 9, I went to a Japanese Pro League Baseball Game.

My friend from Hiroshima took me to a
Hiroshima Carp vs. Tokyo Yakult Swallows game.

My first comment towards Japanese game is

EVERYONE IS SOO INTENSEE.

I've been to quite a few MLB games in Toronto and I was just at a Boston vs. Yankees Game in August but I've never seen such unison between people who've never met before.

Please keep in mind that Japanese people are also very reserved and keeps a lot to themselves. But this baseball game definitely defy the common knowledge on Japanese people's personality.

My friend lined up from 3pm to watch the baseball game that starts at 6pm.

Thank you so much M! I joined in at 4pm.

Keio Welcome Party and Izakaya(Bar) with my exchange friends.

There was a Keio Welcome Party on Friday.

And this is probably the most exchange students I've seen in a while.

They probably came for the free food because that's why I was there.

School Spirit

School in Japan is filled with school spirits.

They have oktoberfest type of festival called Mita Festival which cancels one week of school.

A baseball game that everyone actually goes to.

And many other events that involves the whole school.

This goes the same with Japanese High School as well and I am impressed with everyone's effort in joining all these clubs and circles and working together to form this one big thing.

I visited this club building where all the club rooms are put into this one room.

Here's a video I took.

AKB48 - Japanese Idols

Japanese Idols culture is very odd.

And I say AKB48 is one of the oddest one out of the bunch.

First of all AKB48 is a girls idol group that started out in the area called Akihabara in Tokyo Japan.

Akihabara is the "Holy Land" for all geeks out there who enjoys anything from anime, cosplay, games and electronics.

And in this holy place, this guy created a theatre that shows dance and singing by these idols called AKB48. The concept of this idol group was to have an idol that feels close to you and not like someone far away that you can never reach. And how the creator of this idol group made this concept true was by having more than 50 people in this group.

It's odd to have the members changing so frequently and to have so many ppl that some of the members just seems more like back dancers then part of this actually idol group.

Another surprising thing is that this idol group has rankings withing in the group.

I'm not sure if my information is correct but from what I remember, if one buys a cd it acts as one ballot and you can vote on which members you like. Some ppl buy like few thousands cds to just support this one member. The reason why they need to vote is because there is a limit to how many ppl can sing one song. It's really absurd and brutal if you think of it this way. Because all these cds are sold and made but noone really listens to them.

These are their music videos. Don't watch the first one if ure in the public.

The first one kind of disturbs me..

Food Food Foood #2

Ootoya. Lunch meal 620 yen. $7

My Zemi Experience (Mostly food pictures...)

So I have officially joined this studying group called a Zemi (I talked about it few posts back).
And I've already went to two sessions for this zemi.

My first ever experience in participating in a Zemi session was this so called "Company Visting" which doesn't happen quite often.
What we exactly did at this "company visiting" was
1) The marketing department of this famous company and the Zemi met up at this very aesthetically pleasing building.
2) Then some of the students from the zemi did a presentation based on a given case that was handed out before hand. The presentation was pretty good and I was amazed by the quality knowing the limited given amount of time they had to work on this project.
3) We then received free samples of their new products (yogurt) and some cellphone strap.
4) There were some mingling time at the end of the session for some ppl who are thinking of entering that company.

Overall it was really interesting because I've never been in a Japanese business atmosphere before. Where in my opinion was much more proper and organized then the ones in Canada. Little bit too structured in my opinion but it was a great experience.
I am also really glad I brought my suit to Japan.

After this company session I go to join the Zemi members for Uchiage (打ち上げ) which is the name japanese ppl call for "Yayy were finished let's partyyy!!" type of dinner.
We went to a hotpot place and had beer and food. I also had to do a little introduction but everyone seemed really nice so I wasn't too nervous in doing it. (There are around 40 students in this zemi)

This is a building called Shibaura House.

http://www.shibaurahouse.jp/information/

Interesting magazines on the table.

This shibaura house can be used by local artists, business people,

activists for events and as a workspace.

Free yogurt. Yeayy

The yogurt itself had no taste (actually a lot of japanese yogurt are like that) so honey is attached on the top so the consumers can make the choice.

This is the hotpot we had after the meeting.

Beer. They call draft beer as "Raw"beer.

Rice porridge with the leftover soup.

Just pour in the mixed eggs and rice and ure finished :D

And after the second session (which was yesterday) I got to go to a Zyoshi-kai (女子会) which is a all girls gathering/chit-chatting about anything and drinking (Yes Japanese have names for everything.. lol). I have gone out with my friends and ate before in Canada but I've never really went out to drink with only girls so it was a lot of fun. Also the food was really good. The bar style restaurant called Izakaya is everywhere in Japan and that's what we ate last night as well. (Some of my Canadian friends should know if you have ever been to Izakaya Guu on Church Street).

Raw beer again.

Marinated konjac. It is "arge starchy corms, used to create a flour and jelly of the same name. It is also used as a vegan substitute for gelatin." taken from wiki. I really enjoy eating konjac.

Grilled ox tongue with green onions.

Different parts of meat on a stick grilled. My favourite type of izakaya food.

Fried Nankotsu (gristle)

Hokke (Atka mackerel)

Potatoes and sausages.

Shio-Yakisoba. Salt fried noodles.

Man~ everything was so tasty >< b.

It was also one of the members birthday.

!Happy Birthday!

10.02.2011

Shopping with my uncle : Akihabara

Since my uncle from Osaka is here in Tokyo for work, he made some time to meet me.
Today was probably the most fun and exciting day because of all the shopping I did.

I first bought

an electronic dictionary/translator.
The reason why I bought this was because I really need to know how to write some kanji because I am terrible at remembering these chinese characters. A lot of my sentences sound very childish because of the lack of kanji used in a sentence. This thing also tells me how to pronounce some english words which I need sometimes as well. haha

I bought this at Yodobashi Camera at Akihabara.

We then went to another shop and my uncle bought me a 16 inch tv.

The tv can act as a monitor and it's lighter than my macbook pro 13", so I can bring it back to canada after my stay :D I really have to thank my uncle and his family for all of this wonderful present T_T