Ghibli Museum @ Inokashira Park (10.28.13)

Yokohama! (10.27.13)

Earthquake + Stormy Night (10.26.13)

Aokigahara: "The Suicide Forest" (10.19.13)

On Saturday me and a group of friends left to Aokigahara (lit. “Sea of [Green] Trees” in English), which is located at the northwestern base of the mountain. Aokigahara is given its title due to the fact that the forest stays green throughout the year. It’s a beautiful forest that grew from the volcanic rich soil from Fuji’s last eruption. Besides the forest, there are also tons of caves due to the magma caves resulting from Fuji’s volcanic activity. However, this beautiful forest has a dark secret – it’s the most visited site for suicides in all of Japan – and maybe even the world; hence its nickname, “Suicide Forest”

Each year, Aokigahara claims around 70 lives and about 250 suicidal attempts. Its reputation as a popular location for suicide is the result of a story in which a couple comits suicide in the forest, giving the idea of suicide in Aokigahara a romantic tone. The main cause of death for the people committing suicide is mostly by hanging – but some also use sleeping pills. As a result, if you trek around the forest off the trails, you may see signs of human activity. Our group saw tent materials, strings, wooden boards with Japanese pinned to a tree, bags, etc. The most frightening find was when we were about to leave. While walking through the woods, just after we visited our third cave, we ran into a mangled up noose still hanging on a tree as well as an umbrella that was leaning against the tree.

I would consider us lucky – some people run into actual corpses or skeletons as you may see in this video linked below. (While it does show a skeleton and a pixelated photo of someone who committed suicide, it is really quite informative as to the whole idea of suicide in Aokigahara)

Roppongi w/ Internship Group (10.17.13)

For those that don't know about Roppongi,

"Roppongi （六本木, lit "six trees") is a district in Tokyo that is well known as the city's most popular nightlife district among foreigners, offering a large number of foreigner friendly bars, restaurants and night clubs. Roppongi and the surrounding districts of Azabu, Hiroo and Akasaka are home to many embassies and a large expat community."

For a more relatable context, the internship that I have at the Tokyo American Center is basically in Roppongi. As quoted above, Roppongi has a huge foreigner population. I've never seen so many foreigners in one place since coming to Japan. I think that I saw about 1 foreigner for every 5 Japanese.

Anyways, I go to the Tokyo American Center two times a week, but this past week, our supervisors Wes and Matt took us out to the bars to buy us a drink since that's what supervisors do in Japan (I guess?) and ALSO because Kevin (program director) promised us a drink after the first meeting...

Anyways, other than the plethora of foreigners, Roppongi was beautiful. It had the typical flashing lights of Tokyo, and was seemed to meet the description of having a nightlife. Everyone was out having fun.

Wes and Matt first treated us to a Falafel place -- which is pretty much California's Mexican food of Roppongi. For 500￥ we got a Falafel sandwich, which was freakin' delicious! This is apparently the place to go before / after / during your out at night drinking or going clubbing.

After that they took us to a bar called Geronimo. It was on the second floor of some building which felt quite compact while walking up the stairs, but opened up to a....still pretty small bar, but it was comfortable. In the bar there was a drum that, if you banged it, you have to buy everyone a drink. So Wes went ahead and banged the drum. Our first "drink" was a lemondrop... I finally tried this drink which is so famous for being the top girly shot to take. Honestly, I don't think it could've been considered a "shot" because it tasted like... a lemonhead. For a shot, I could barely taste the alcohol content. It almost tasted like a mixed drink...

After a few minutes following the 'cheers' he bought us a drink of our choosing. Most of us chose a "Kill Bill" which is basically like a Tequila shot with a twist.

Drinking a Kill Bill goes through the same process that you go through with a Tequila shot. While a Tequila shot includes a lime and some salt on your write, a KILL BILL is a Japanese oddity with WASABI on your wrist and TOMATO JUICE shot to chase. I wanted to try it because I was curious, and it was actually pretty...............bad. ._. I don't think the Tequila was so bad, but the tomato juice was just too much for me! The worst part was that the flavor lingered.

After that second shot, we had to buy our own drinks. Of course, being hella cheap, I decided not to buy myself a drink. Luckily one of my UCEAP friends who was there (Dana) couldn't finish her drink since she had both shots that I had prior and she's a MEGA lightweight. I still didn't get very buzzed but it was still a cool experience to get a taste of Roppongi Nightlife and talk with our supervisors outside the work environment.

By about 11:30pm, us interns left the bars while Matt and Wes went to one more before the night ended. Me Dana and Audrey went to a Takoyaki place nearby and had 8 Takoyaki ea. for 500￥/person.

Interestingly enough, beause the trains stop at around 12-1am, people tend to start drinking at 7 or something, so that they can end at midnight.

We took the subway at Roppongi Station to Shinjuku Station where we (luckily) caught the second to last train. at like 12:40am or something. From Shinjuku onwards, we saw 1 person at the station knocked out asleep on the floor and many MANY people on the train sleeping soundly. Ending the night, we got back to ICU at around 1am. I rented a bike from our dorm parents so I wouldn't have to take a Taxi -- because busses stop at around 10:00pm.

Besides the nighlife scene, I didn't see anything else in Roppongi. If I go back, I'd like to go up Roppongi Hills, which is a high-end shopping center area with a Tower that you can view the city from. Maybe stop by a nearby park that I noticed just recently on GoogleMaps, and maybe hit up the bar scene again (but drinks were quite expensive). Only time will tell. Hope you enjoyed the post!

みな

10.16.2013 Typhoon!~

For the second time since coming here, a typhoon has cancelled classes for the day!

Weather was still pretty decent though, since about 1pm it was very bright, but it has a cool breeze. I stayed close to campus though, playing Minecraft with Ryan, Joel, and Victoria, and eating ramen for dinner

Finally booked my flight back home!!!!

KRISPY KREME @ SHIBUYA (10.13.13)

Hello world,

So far so good here in the land of rising sun. The weather has been very interesting, just like back home in Davis... The past few days, however, have been really beautiful and it's been really comfortable at night. Clear skies, Cool temperature, bright moon. Tonight the wind started kicking up while me and my friend Ashley were in Shibuya hanging out and getting donuts (which by the way were freakin' delicious and made me slightly homesick).

The beautiful weather the past few days have made me want to go out and have a drink with some friends on Bakayama, but... I ended up staying in while others actually ended up going. I think it was time well spent though. Last night when they went, I stayed in and played Just Dance 4 with Chris, Amy, Shaw and Eric as well as this AWESOME Wii U game called Nintendo Land. Tonight when another group went to Bakayama I stayed back and watched the latest episode of Korra and a "scary" movie (Resident Evil 1. More action than scariness) with Amy and Dana. I had a can of Strong anyways (Basically a 8% Alcohol by volume version of Mike's Hard) so it was pretty lax. AND DANA MADE ME AND AMY WONTON SOUP!!! Yeah... it was delicious... and it had that home-made feel to it so it was awesome. AWESOME.

Anyways, taking it back a notch to the beginning of today, I woke up today at about 2:00pm after a much needed sleeping in. I was thinking about going to Saitama (Pretty damn far away) to watch a 2 hour firework show in excahnge for ~$30 transportation money but I decided against it. Ashley knocked on my door to see what my plan was and I told her I wasn't going... she didn't really know anyone else who was going so she decided to stick back home too. Our friend Hiro (Also in UCAEP) was hosting it since he was going with a friend. While we talked about potential plans, Eric came out of his room and we talked for a bit and decided to have some Ramen for lunch at Gutara (our school's favorite). While eating our freakin' foodgasmic Ramen Ashley and I decdied to go to Shibuya to stop by the Krispy Kreme there, stop by an arcade, and walk around with the possibility of going to a awesome 100Y Sushi Place (which we didn't end up doing.)

By about 4:00pm we headed to Shibuya and went straight to Krispy Kreme. IT....WAS....AWESOME!! I was so happy to see an AWESOME store of an AWESOME food that I love to eat... DONUTS! I'm pretty sure I made like a squeal of excitement coming into the store because I couldn't wait. They had it all! Original Glazed, Old Fashioned, etc. but with a twist. Ashley ordered 1 Original Glazed (160Y) and I got 1 Original Glazed and -- wait for it -- A GREEN TEA FLAVORED OLD FASHIONED DONUT! Both of them were sooooooo good my mouth was watering... it might have been just because I hadn't had one in a while, but it tasted even better than the ones back home. Actually, I don't think they have Green Tea Oldfashioned anyways, so that was a big plus.

After that we looked for Taito arcade to play / win some stuff. When we got there we played but didn't win squat. I busted $5 trying to get this stupid Shingeki no Kyojin poster and Ashley busted about $12 on this pillow thing (I think) and this pink Alpaca (which she got after 7 tries).

After that, we basically walked around and explored the hell out of Shibuya. We went from alleyway to alleyway (none of which are dark and sketch btw) and looked at all the delicious restaurants that we were passing by. From memory I beleive we passed by like 2 100Y Sushi places, like 5 Ramen places, 2 Katsu places, 2 Donburi places, etc. Neither of us were hungry since we stuffed our faces during lunch so we just kept walking. We stopped by a petstore which I had stopped by earlier in either late August or September and took some awesome cute photos of the cats and dogs who were forced to live in tiny glass boxes. After that photoshoot, we went and stopped by some clothing stores like Uniqlo and some other places.... I am currently looking for a hat (to tame my ever-growing head of hair) since I don't want to get a haircut and also a nice polo since I need one for the internship (but I really could just wear my button-ups)...hmm, after that we tried finding this nice store called Tokyu Hands...but failed miserably. Instead we ended up at this up-scale mall-type thing pretty close to the station which was sort of a grocery store? then it turned into a mall thing, and after climbing some escalters we got a really good view of the Shibuya Crosswalk (BUSIEST CROSSWALK IN THE WORLD) and took some awesome videos. After that I think we just walked aroud and explored for a bit before taking the train home at around 8:30pm.

Like I said before, me, Amy, and Dana watched Resident Evil and Korra afterwards and then after that I went back to my room to do this!

It's 2:36AM now on 10/13/2013 so I think I should go to sleep soon. I'm going to Akihabara tomorrow morning with some peeps at 11:30am so...yeah... gotta wake up. In conclusion though, this day was pretty awesome. Out of everything we did, I think my highlight HAD to be the donuts. Sadly though, the donuts are quite expensive here. The original glazed was 160Y ($1.60) and a dozen is 1600Y ($16.00) but don't be surprised if I start posting pictures of the donuts and splitting a dozen with someone because they were awefully good (ESPECIALLY THE GREEN TEA OLD FASHIONED!!! WEOIFJWOEIJ)

OH! We also passed by Katsuya (Katsu Restaurant) which I REALLY want to return to because I haven't had katsu at a restaurant yet... so there's that.

I LOVE Shibuya. It reminds me of NYC which I also really enjoyed. It's lively and has tons of things to do. I will definitely be returning here in the last 2 months I have in Japan.

P.S. I'm still enjoying Japan if you couldn't tell, so you all don't need to worry :)

Hope you're enjoying my blog posts! If nothing else, it'll be a good memory to look back on when I'm home. (That's actually what motivated me to write my post tonight).

ICU Clubs

Hey everyone. Anyways, this post isn't going to be that amazing of a post. No interesting pictures, or stretched out paragraphs, but rather just some information on this cool new club I joined.... and I guess the other club I'm in too.

I'm in two clubs ICU Hub and Papoose.

Papoose is basically a casual Tennis circle (Circle meaning casual club with no commitments or mandatory meetings) that plays every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. There are about 10-15 of us and we learn the basics of Tennis, hit around, and do some matches with eachother. Everyone (mostly everyone) is beginners in the club so it's pretty encouraging. I joined it because I wanted something active to do... I was going to join the Runner's Circle but I have never been to any of their meetings and I'm not even sure I'd be able to keep up with them. Maybe I'll still join them though.

The other club I'm in is ICU Hub. Hub meaning international hub where people of different nationalities can come to gather and talk and make friends. There has only really been one event that I've been to so far and that was a trip to Asakusa, Tokyo where a huge Temple is as well as Tokyo Skytree (the tallest tower in the world). They have another event coming up in Tokyo Disneyland but I'm not sure if I will be going to that as it is really expensive. I wish that there were more events that were more casual such as Izakaya or 100Y Sushi outings at Sushiro, but oh well. They have lunch every Tuesday and Friday on the field in front of Honkan and they're still an extremely friendly bunch. I haven't recently made it to their lunches though so maybe I should try to more often seeing as that is the only social events they have other than the big trips that happen once a month.

In general the two clubs I'm in are pretty fun. I enjoy Papoose a lot, and ICU Hub gives me a way to talk with Japanese students (albeit in English since my Japanese is わるい. Papoose on the other hand is sort of like what ICU Hub is, but with Tennis.

Other than the upcoming ICU Hub trip to Disneyland, Papoose is also planning a trip to Asakusa, which I've already been to =\ I think I'll still go b/c it should be fun and I sort of want to try riding a Rickshaw since they have those in Asakusa. If I get the chance, I'd really want to go to the Tokyo-Edo Museum as well... we'll see though. I think the places they want to visit are the same places I already went to (Tokyo Skytree, Sensoji Temple)

I still might consider Runner's Club to stay fit and meet some cool people, but we'll see...

Anyways, until next time!

A September Update (10.6.2013)

As you can see i've been pretty MIA in the blogosphere. It's hard to keep up with a blog when it's so much easier just to upload photos to Facebook.

Anyways, for all those who have been wondering, it's been good in Japan. Past 2 (?) weeks.

The weather is continuing to change with the temperature going down and the frequency of rain going UP, but it's a nice change of pace and Japan is still beautiful.

As for school -- everything is okay there as well. Most of my classes are pretty chill. I'm taking 4 classes + 1 internship and most the classes have just writing assignment/group work. BUS 207 which is my Management of Multinational Enterprises class is basically only that -- 2 presentations that you have to do with your group. In IRL 231 which is my America and the World class, we just have to do this role playing thing where we pretend we are different branches of the government and we make policy decisions given certain situations. Last week, for example, we got a memo that mentioned something about North Korea and their nuclear program. It was actually a lot more difficult than we had thought since taking a military path would be (obviously) bad and our economic one would require congresses approval and tax payer dollars.... besides that we just have to write reflection papers as a group about our opinion on Obama's stance on certain foreign policy issues. In ECN 256, which is International Trade we have weekly online quizzes that we can do as a group, an article presentation that I will be doing on Thursday next week, a country presentation based on a country in the world of our choosing, and I think we also have to write a term paper as well as a (maybe?) final exam. It's a pretty tricky class... I haven't been spending enough time on it, but since I'm not going to be doing much on this quiet and slightly overcast Sunday, maybe I'll get to it. My last class, HST 221 is titled History of Contemporary Japan but it's more about the relationship between Japan and Germany in the 19th and 20th century leading up to WWII. :D (super interesting). Problem is, this class is on friday from 3pm-7pm....yes.... a 4 hour lecture.... and so is my BUS 207 class... It's rough, but when it gets tooo difficult to stay awake, or he goes on a tangent, I use my computer :). Anyways, in that class all we have to do is write papers and do a presentation individually.

OH! And I forgot to mention the internship that I got!

Formally, I am a Student Mentor/Intern for the ESM Group in Japan whose goal is to help students get ready for college at the Academic Improvement Center inside the Tokyo American Club near Roppongi, Tokyo. Casually -- it's more of a babysitting gig. Every week, I go to the Tokyo American Club (~1hr15min away) by train, sign in, and wait in a room for students to come in. These students are aged anywhere from 10-18 (2 elementary schoolers, ~4 middle schoolers, 2 highschoolers) and we help them with anything that they might need help with.

While they work for about half the time, the other half we just hang out and goof around. As long as we don't encourage bad behavior (swear in front of them, sleep on the job, etc.) then we're good. I have to do this every Tuesday from 4:30pm-8:00pm for about 7 more weeks, and then all the interns (mostly UC students) meet at the same place on Thursday to go over more important stuff like resume info, interview hints, presentation skills, etc. Since I have to go there 2x a week, every week it costs me about $27 just for transportation (210Y for bus, 290 for train, 160 for subway for just one way, so x4). Thankfully the supervisor guy said he'd reimburse us so... that's good news!

Overall the kids are good kids. The youngest (4th grader) is hyper active and might have ADHD so he's always bouncing off the walls, clamiming he has no homework, and hits people, but he's a good kid. All the middle schooler girls are really wellbehaved and super smart, the 2 middle schooler guys are kind regular middle school guys..always making perverted jokes, etc. The highschoolers are sick. both of them are hella relaxed and either concentrate on their work or just casually talk but they're not loud or anything at all... as you'd expect highschoolers to be. OH and in case you were wondering, they ALL speak English and they're not ALL ethnically Japanese. Most of them are halfies and some of them arent Japanese at all, but have family living here in Japan for work so that's what happened.

The Tokyo American Club (where it's held) is pretty much a PJCC if you know what that is. It's like any "Club" like in the states.... it has crazy expensive membership, a guard for the parkinglot and front entrance, a pool, basketball court, GRAND OLE lobby, I think I saw a hairsalon, some dormitories for living in, etc. so needlessly to say, these kids are loaded, and you can tell by their situation! I mean, they have membership here, and the things some of their parents make them study are way ahead of their league... This one girl in 5th grade is already working on 6th grade work, knows about which colleges she's interested in and knows about what is good/bad to have on your Resume. She's REALLY bright and asked me about the US since she's never been there (but her English is perfect since she goes to an American school in Japan).

We don't get any payment for the internship (other than travel reimbursement) but we do get 2.0 P/NP UC credits for doing this, so I guess it's worth it.

Other than that, I haven't really been up to TOO much the past week and a half. I've been taking it easy. As you can see on Facebook I went to Mt. Takao which was beautiful!! It's one of the most popular climbs in Japan (apparently). But as for the past month, I can't remember off the top of my head -- so here's some photos of places I went to.

Sushiro - 100Y/Plate Sushi Bar!!!

Tokyu Omotesando Plaza @ Harajuku Area

View from a rooftop Starbucks of the streets below (Harajuku)

Probably Shinjuku - from the Starbucks on the roof.

Tried a Butter/Soysauce Churro

Went shopping with some friends and saw a Barbie in a KKK outfit inside a boutique store.

At Tokyo Game Show (TGS) taking a picture with a Sketch ass mog

Hatsune Miku

Japan's Girls + Videogames is to America's Girls + Cars...

Asakusa Trip to Sensoji + Skytree with ICU Hub

Giant Lantern below the entrance to the Temple

AWESOME dragon artwork on the bottom of the lantern.

Fortune for 100Y

Stick your bad ones here.

Ceiling artwork

Photo with some fellow Dialogue House ppl and some ICU Hub ppl. Asahi's Company building in the background (Should look like a full glass of beer.

Tokyo Skytree.

Funny fake-food shop inside the Skytree shopping area.

Monja-yaki with ICU Hub

Triple Decker Monja Yaki sandwich

View from Mt. Takao -- Halfway up

Buddhist Shrine thingy... These gates... aren't so big.

Favorite photo from Takao... a line of Buddhist statues with their own beanies and bibs (?)

Last week I think there was a dorm event, last Saturday I think I played Sardines on campus and Sunday I'm not sure, but I think on one of those days we had a BBQ at the Park nearby campus... it's name was Nogawa Park

But this weekend (so far) I went to A dorm "dinner" which had a 200Y admission fee. They prepared only enough for those who signed up, but about 3x that ammount attended from our dorms, so I was about to explode since I was really hungry. LOL. It all worked out in the end. They had a bingo game and I actually was one of the winners! I got a choco mushroom candy thing.

After that, we went to celebrate another UCEAP student's birthday named Kevin at a Karaoke place. Needless to say it was tons of tun and a bunch of us got drunk, lol.

This past saturday me, some middlebury kids (Monica, Holly, Denisa, Victoria) and my floormate Mike J. went to the Hokkaido Fest which was a Hokkaido food festival in Yoyogi Park. It was absolutely DRENCHED. It was raining the whole day, ranging from a light sprinkle to downpour... it was fun though.

Curry+Egg Bread

Really good Donburi with Rice, Veggies, and Beef

After the food faire we went to the famous Takeshita street (which I couldn't care much for since I've been there 2 times prior) and walked around a bit / exploring the 4-story Daiso.

 After that Mike J. and I branched off and walked to Meiji Shine. I've got to say, Meiji Shrine is one of the most beautiful shrines that I've seen so far. Possibly even better than Sensoji Temple! The entrance was a real grand entrance with a HUGE Gateway (Torii) to walk under and take photos with.... 

the path to the shrine was an extremely wide gravel pathway framed by huge arching trees. We passed by some alcohol that was dedicated to the late Emperor Meiji and finally arrived at the Shrine after passing a few more Torii.

As customs demands, we washed our hands in a very specific manner (wash left hand using right hand, and right hand using left hand, wash mouth with left hand then wash your left hand again, then wash the ladle) to purify ourselves before entering the sacred shrine.

To our left we saw a procession going on. I'm not sure if it was a traditional Shinto marriage, but it's quite possible as events like that apprently happen there often. While at Meiji Shrine, we saw a few other UCEAP people, Julia and Mike S. and talked to them for a bit and let them be on our way. There was a small booth for gifts and of course I had to get some. I saw things such as Charms for good fortune, love, body and spirit, scholarship, traffic safety, etc.

After Meiji Shrine (while it was still pouring rain) we went to Shibuya. I think that Shibuya just might be my favorite district of Tokyo... it has a very New York City feel to it. I was able to finally take a picture with the Hachiko Statue as well as a poor picture of the largest crossing in the world (?) just outside the station.... also....

....I FINALLY GOT MY PHONE! Its been a month into this program but I think better late than never. I feel like I have so much more freedom now, haha.

but Shibuya was awesome... contrary to popular belief it's not pronounced (shi-BOO-yah) with an emphasis on the BOO, but rather (SHI-boo-ya) with a emphasis on the SHI.... It's kind of hard to explain, but anyways yeah.

ILL TRY TO GET THE PHOTOS UP. I'm probably missing something from the last update, but yeah... I got lazy... I'm sorry :(
ANYWAYS, ENJOY!