Japan Day 18- Abnormal amounts of conveyer belt sushi

Three words describe how amazing today was. Those words are conveyer belt sushi. This was quite possibly the best food experience I have had so far. My friend Tom had 18 plates of sushi, followed by Steven with 14 plates, then Justin with 8 plates, and Tyler and myself having 4 plates. This food was absolutely amazing, and quite possibly the best sushi I've ever had. The other portion of my day was spent in the classroom, so cbs is definitely worth noting!

Hiroshima, A Somber Place

This is the Hiroshima Memorial. This houses a museum and gardens all dedicates to the events that took place. Walking through these ground will be eye opening to any individual no matter how stoic or callous they may be. As you can see the grounds are well taken care of and it is very clean. If you are ever in Japan. This needs to be one o your stops. My camera is filled with pictures of the exhibits.

Kyoto, and the Shinkansen Hikari

On our way to Kyoto, we took this magnificent piece of machinery there. This is the Shinkansen Hikari Super Express. This is the 3rd fastest train in the world clocking in at about 230 Km/h. It was a very smooth ride and I was really happy to get some pictures of it for my friend Brad back home. 

This is the entrance to one of the temples we go to see within our first few hours in Kyoto. It was fantastic. We hiked a good while to the peak of a hill where there was a temple that was absolutely stunning.

Harajuku and Karaoke

Harajuku is a jam packed shopping paradise for anyone, you can find all of your retailers there and you'll spend all of your money too. We went there today, specifically I wanted to go so I could find a hat that my friend had purchased the previous week. I eventually found it with actually little to no effort thanks to Jason. By chance we jsut ran into a store and he said "you can probably find it in there". Crazily enough it was on display right outside the door. At any rate, most of our day was spent in Harajuku shopping for ourselves and for our loved ones back in the United States.

International Student Party!

 

 

Today was all about the International Students Event that Yusuke had planned out for us.

At around 7pm we all met at the Bunkyo Civic center right above the Chuo station. 

It was a great opportunity for us to integrate with Japanese students and them with us. It was a tremendous amount of fun meeting up with other students and sharing stories and getting to know their interests. I really hope that I will be able to maintain contact with everyone I met.

An American's Japanese Life XII

May 26, 2015

        It seems that I am no longer able to sleep past 8 am. Every time I try, I get some news or announcement saying that I have to be somewhere at a certain time early in the morning. Truly I am not mad at that. Rather be doing something in Japan because I can always get me sleep later. Time is the most valuable resource I have and I can't afford to waste it on something such as sleep. The reason for today's early morning call was because we were going on a trip to the historical site in Japan known as Hiroshima.
      In order to get to Hiroshima, we had to once again catch a train. This time we were on the train for about ninety minutes. Once we got to the city, we went right to exploring. The first place we went was to "Ground Zero". That was the very spot (Hypo center) that the A-bomb blow up over. At that very spot was the Hiroshima Peace Memorial which stood in that place prior to the explosion. The building was just in ruins with only the infrastructure left barely intact. Hiroshima left the building in that condition to serve as a memorial to what happened on that day.
      We walked across the street to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The museum had a large array of artifacts from the day that bomb drop spanning to several weeks afterwards. Each artifact had a story that was written underneath it and a lot of these stories were really sadden to read. One story that really hit me was this story of a boy who, after getting exposed to the bomb, was so thirsty that he drank the puss from his wombs. There were stories like this all over the walls of the museum. Another one was a step that had a shadow actually burnt into the stone. In the middle, they had this model that showed the blast radius of the bomb and it showed everything that was engulfed in explosion.
      The museum had such an impact on the group that we had a debate over the logistics of war and who was in the wrong. Eventually, our debate came to an end and we went off to explore more of Hiroshima and get some food before we get back to the train station. We met up with the rest of the group that stayed in Kyoto and headed back to Tokyo. Today was a day not of amusement, but of reflect and understanding.

An American's Japanese Life XI

May 25, 2015

          Today started of very early in the morning, and by early I mean 7 am. It was earlier than I wanted to get up. The reason behind it was because it was a travel day. Where are we travelling you may ask, to the city of Kyoto. Getting there was no walk in the park through. It took about three hours of riding on a train to get there. This was not a normal train that we were riding. It was the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line, which is the third fastest train in a world.

      After taking enough pictures from the train window, I decided to get reacquainted with an old friend named sleep. After waking up and discovering that I am still on the train I realized just how long of an island Japan is. I use to think that since it scales small in comparison with other counties that travelling across it would be not as hard. I was so wrong. I felt like I was on the train for an eternity. For us to be travelling that fast for that long and still not have made it yet, changed my views of the size of this once "thought to be small" island.

    Upon arrival to Kyoto, the first thing we did was walk to a Shogun Castle known as Nijo Castle (Nijo-jo). It is this huge castle built back in 1603 and served as the first home for the Tokugawa Shogun. This place was huge with three buildings and many gardens inside. We were allowed access inside the shogun's living quarters. The design was nothing less than beautiful. Totally expected for a shogun. The most interesting thing was that the floors of the place were to produce a noise similar to a bird chirping. They are called the "Nighting Gale" floor.

       The next stop on trip was to the new Hostel, or the place that we will be spending that night in. It was an okay little place. It reminded me of being back in class with the community’s showers and everything. A few of us from the group went on a hike after moving in. At first I was hesitate to go, but in the end I am happy I went. The hike lead us up a huge hill and past a giant graveyard to approach this shine/ temple area. The temple overlooked the city of Kyoto with somewhat of a protective type of feel. The area was so tranquil that it actually caused me to fall asleep while I was sitting down. That also might be because I was tired from the whole day of travel. We left just moments before closing time. So far, it’s a good day in Kyoto.

Eccoed horrors of the past entry 16

Today we went took an adventure to a very dark part of Americas past, it was one of the hardest places I have ever gone to. We woke up this morning met Dr.V and went to Hiroshima where exactly 70 years ago 150,000 lives vanished in less then 10 seconds with after effects of 350,000 total lives gone from the long term effects of radiation left by the terrible A-bomb. We started out at the A-bomb dome where the A-bomb exploded over, it is kept in the exact same conditions that it was found after the massive explosion. This building was physical proof of the terror that happened that day, it was chard and crumbling with the skeleton of the dome still present. It was almost frightening being in the presence of this building to see the horror of it in person. I felt like I could see the whole thing happen right before my eyes, how much panic I would be feeling right before my body was disintegrated by the molten blast of the bomb. After this experience the flood of emotion was not even close to being quelled. After we were done at the A-bomb dome we went into the museum that exhibited even more of the horrors that this day brought on, as soon as I passed through the entry way which was designed to simulate what it might look like to see Hiroshima after the explosion from the A-bomb dome, I was in a mood of sorrow for all the lives that our military brought to an end that day. There were figures made to look like children with their skin literally melting off their bodies from the heat of the explosion, there was a chard tricycle and helmet from a child who was just enjoying his or her life and one of the most grizzly things was the ashes of a human being that settled on the steps after there body was disintegrated by the fire of the bomb, a complete human living their life was reduced to nothing more then a pile of ash. It is so ugly what human beings are capable of, we can be the most dangerous living organisms on the face of this planet. All in all It was a terrible thing what we did to the Japanese people but something had to be done to end the war, however i'm not sure if an a-bomb was the best choice. life is such a precious thing, to take it away in such a magnitude is a very ugly thing, I just can't get over the thought of there had to be a better way of doing it but I cant give an answer to what that could have been. all I know is that 70 years ago 150,000 innocent lives were taken away in a matter of seconds, God rest the souls of all who perished on that horrifying day.

temples and palaces entry 15

 

Today was a very new kind of day. Most of it consisted of riding a train to Kyoto, which was actually pretty cool. We woke up at 7:00 got some food and then met with Dr.V in front of the hostel we followed him to the correct train station and got on the 3^rd fastest commercial train in the world. We started out and got up to 180 miles per hour. This acceleration was very smooth, so smooth you didn’t even really feel it. The train ride out to Kyoto was truly beautiful, there were mountains everywhere all covered in greenery it was like driving through a dream, and then we drove by the one the only Mt. Fuji. This was truly a sight to behold it was like a towering giant among the plains of Japan. I can’t recall ever seeing a mountain quite that high before. Truly a once in a lifetime sight, pictures can’t really capture the sheer majesty of the wonder that is Mt. Fuji.

After a very pretty scenic train rides we finally arrived in Kyoto. This is a city that I was most excited about seeing because of all the traditional wonders as well as the new form of the city. We walked around a bit and found ourselves a palace, which was way cool. There were so many beautiful gardens and rivers running around it and various statues commemorating certain things about the palaces history. The inside of the palace was huge and was equipped with nightingale floors, which were designed to prevent ninjas from killing people after sneaking up on them. Every step I took the floor would make I high-pitched squeaking sound, it was a really cool thing to see.

After the palace we went to our hostel and got settled in, after we got everything squared away we went to a huge shrine area at the top of a mountain, after walking through a crazy graveyard. We could see pretty much the entire city of Kyoto. After that we went back to the hostel and grabbed a bite in the café. After that we did something that will probably be one of my favorite memories of this trip, a few friends and I went up on the roof and stared at the moon a sky for a while, we had a lot of good conversations and just had a really good time it is something that I have wanted to do for a while now. All in all one of the best days in Japan so far.

The Process of Progress: Chapter Fourteen

Bonding Time

A Day in Harajuku

Since being in Tokyo, Sundays have taken the form of being a day of relaxation, perhaps an opportunity to get away from the work side of the trip. This is time to take care of personal issues and find a sense of serenity. This Sunday, I began my day by being notified that we had to move to a different room once again. So in the rush of things, we moved our belongings to the girls’ room whose was located only one floor below us. After doing so, I decided to catch up on laundry as my clothes began to pile up and I was starting to room out of clothes for the upcoming week. My roommates chose to be patient and wait for me to finish my laundry before we started our day. We had a very busy day planned, so as soon as my laundry was finished, we rallied up the troops and headed out. Today, we wanted to do some more shopping in Harajuku. On our visit to Harajuku, we had not nearly enough time to explore all that we wanted to explore. Our first stop was the Nike store. I absolutely had to go to the Nike store to see if they had gotten some Air Jordans that were released on the previous day. As it turns out, they had sold out just hours before I got there. That kind of dampened my mood, but I remained optimistic. As we walked around Harajuku, we took so many pictures and made so many memories that we will never forget. Justin saw a hat online, and he was determined on finding it in Harajuku. After searching for several hours, we found the hat in a very small store for a very inexpensive price. All in all, Harajuku was an extreme success and turned out to be quality bonding time for my roommates and me. After Harajuku, we met up with my buddy in the Tokyo Dome Center Food Court to grab a bite to eat for dinner. Tonight was the night I fell in love with Japanese food! I had udon for the first time, and I can honestly say this is my absolute favorite(I seem to say that about something different every day).

The Process of Progress: Chapter Thirteen

Let's Party!!

 

Today is the big day that we’ve been planning for a while. My buddy Yusuke and I had been coordinating an International Party which would be a fellowship amongst Chuo students and TnCIS students. The purpose of the mixer was for both sides of students to gain a greater understanding for each other’s native customs and cultures. The mixer was to be held at the Civic Center that we had previously visited to observe the overlook of all of Tokyo. I was extremely happy to be able to converse with so many Japanese students. I had no idea that these students were from all over Japan and not just Tokyo. In fact, I met one student who was from China and she spoke both fluent English and fluent Japanese. I found that to be extremely amazing because mastering not only one but two languages is extremely challenging. At our tables, we were tasked to design a Japanese style fan which was supposed to enter a contest. The contest idea fell through but it was still very cool being able to come up with ideas for the fans. Tom was in my group, and he is a free-lance artist, so of course, in my opinion we won the competition.