JAPAN 日本 <3

[SNOW ♠]

so finally got around to doing this. so here are the pictures that i took while i was studying in japan for a month. obviously, these are not all the pictures i took. i actually took over 200 photos, but that's gonna take too long for me to upload and get them here for all of you to see. so i just handpicked a few. for those who have my facebook, all 200 photos have already been uploaded on there, so feel free to check them out if you want to and haven't yet.

so basically, me and eight other friends who study japanese as their minor in uni got scholarships to learn at a university in tokyo, japan for a month. well, more like three weeks since it's a short-term course--and boy did they stuff in a lot of info in three measly weeks--and we had a whole week to just do whatever we want plus the weekends when there were no classes.

so we had four days until classes started after arriving. during our first full day in japan, one of our professors from thailand came and took us to look at the route we'll be taking to school and which train to take and stuff. he studied at this same uni that we were going to study for years, so he knew how to get there and how japan works and everything. so after he showed us the route, we started to explore ikebukuro for the rest of the day since that's the city we have to change trains at every day.

so we had lunch at this place where they sell 'tendon' which is tempura on rice. it's really really good. like, i never liked eating tempura before cause it's all oily and just...bleh after a while. but here it's really good. like, THIS IS REAL TEMPURA YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. THIS IS HOW TEMPURA IS SUPPOSED TO TASTE LIKE UNLIKE SOME CRAP YOU FIND OUTSIDE JAPAN. yeah, that.

then after that we went to explore sunshine 60 which is a mall there. lol, i was like, thinking of durarara the whole time. like, i wonder if i'll run into celty or see vending machines flying around xD but yeah, i like this mall, it's really nice with like four floors and the prices are affordable. don't go into seibu, which is a mall you can enter through the ikebukuro station. that place is freaking expensive. it gives you tax refunds though, unlike sunshine 60. but still, if you want to save on money don't go there. or eat there. or in any mall, period. the food in the mall are like 1000+ yen which is like...around 10 dollars up per person. restaurants outside the malls are normally half that price.


so anyways, we are going into sunshine, and then suddenly...UTAPRI!!!. they were advirtising the idol shirts that were about to be released soon. see all the girls that are crowding around taking pictures? naturally, i stopped my ground and went to join them, lol. but three of my friends followed too since they knew utapri, while the rest were like, 'what in the world. i don't get it.'

so when we're in sunshine, we explored the different shops for a bit and then split up into two groups. one went to explore the other floors while my group went to the sunshine aquarium where we looked at fishies and sea lions. and there were other stuff too. yeah, it's a pretty nice aquarium. the entrance fee is i think 1800 yen per person or something. i think it's worth it.

the next day we went to ginza and harajuku. ginza has all the expensive brand name stuff and all, so i wouldn't recommend to shop there unless you really have a lot of money. but whats worth going to ginza for is loft. their loft store there is huge. my friends and i stocked up on so much stationary there. i don't know if you guys have it in america or not but it's basically a store that sells electronics, stationary, make-up stuff and a little bit of everything. thailand has it, but japan's waaaay better.

as for harajuku, takeshita street is definitely a must walk. there's a lot of people during the weekend like in this picture, so i recommend going during the weekdays instead. there are loads of shops to look at. the evangelion store is here too for those of you who are fans of that anime. it's worth checking out. also, be sure to try the crepes here. they are really good and well known in japan.

we also went to azakusa and visited the temple there. it's a must visit and is really pretty with all the little shops on the path that leads there. it gives you a very japanese feeling.

the university also took us to do a tea ceremony where we like, learned how to do tea and all that. i can't show you any pics though, since they all have me and my friends in it and i shouldn't show my friends' faces on here without their permission, y'know. but yeah, it was a great experience and we learned the procedures and even made our own tea. and we got to eat expensive sweets too, lol.

and some of us anime lovers tackled animate! it's like five stories of anime stuff. you'll find pretty much everything here. here's an utapri section, gintama section and k project section. i thought of vy and stella and ayu when i saw these so yeahhh. there are many more sections too.

we watched fireworks in yokohama and saw pretty guys and girls in yukatas walking around as couples. <3 the fireworks are really beautiful.

me and three of my friends also went to hakone. if you like nature then you should go. it's expensive to get there, but it's worth it. if you have time then spend a night or two there so that you get to see everything and maybe even mt.fuji if you are lucky. we went curising on these ships. look, pirate. shame on him though. he doesn't have an eyepatch like yoite does. we also took the cable car. nice view is nice.

and we did a bunch of other stuff and went to a bunch of other places like shibuya, akihabara, ueno and the like, but guess what, i'm too lazy and my fingers are tired SO THIS IS ALL YOU GET. <3

oh, and i just want to say that i got to see these guysperform live. they came to sunshine 60 to promote their next single. a lot of other artists do that as well since i stop by sunshine a lot and there got to see them. but these guys, LEAD, were great, k. THEY WERE CUTE, THEIR DANCE MOVES WERE COOL AND I LIKED THEIR SONGS. their live performance was impressive even though short and a lot of fangirls were there and the v.i.p fans got to handshake all three of them and some of them came down the stage crying, lol. i couldn't take pictures of the event though cause japan's really strict about these things. like, there were people in suits walking around holding signs that said 'no video and pictures allowed.

YEAH, I'M DONE NOW.

[/size][/blockquote][/justify]

[vy]

...gintama and k-project. i f***ing hate you.

btw...love the pirate outfit. but yeah shame no eye-patch but maaaan that outfit. can i have it in red please? and dang it snow. at least show me pictures of ueno park. i heard it's sooooo pretty.

[ARI ♏]

holy gee, you went on some adventure, didn't you snow? ADVENTURE TIME WITH SNOW IN JAPAN \o/

loved all the pictures- Japan is just such a neat place. and my goodness, that is one nimble sea lion. and lookit all those utapri boys posing for the camera. planning a career in modelling, perhaps?