Asakusa, Ueno, Japanese Test, Mushi Kingu and more!

Me and Asuka at the Zoo

Me at Asakusa

The Tokyo tour at the Museum

My cell phone

Sorry that it has been awhile...I think that when I move to the room upstairs I have an internet cable to myself, but I am not sure. If this is the case, there will be more posts!

I have been doing a lot since my last post! Today is the first afternoon I have had off in awhile! It has been non-stop events!

After a long and complicated process, I finally got a cell phone. Talking about cell phones in Japanese was challenging for me, but luckily one of the Waseda students was there to help us out. My phone (as you can see from the picture above) is basically the most technically advanced thing I have ever owned. AND....it was the cheapest phone (ZERO yen) and dubbed the "old person" phone by one of my Japan savvy school mates. Let me tell you what it does:

• Goes on the internet


• Takes pictures (with a better "resolution?" than most cameras


• Takes movies


• Sends email (text messaging...kind of)


• Can automatically send and recieve other peoples phone # and emails by touching the phones


• Can give directions when lost (navigator?) I can also see where other people in my phone book are in Tokyo


• Rape alarm (not that it is a problem where I live)


• Japanese-English, English Japanese, Japanese, and Katakana dictionary


• Chat feature
  
  

And I am sure it does much more, i just dont know how to use it. And my monthly bill will be lower than the plan I had in the US. Cool, huh?

Enough of the technobabble- here is what I have been up to:

On Sunday, Asuka and I went to Asakusa and Ueno Zoo, which was SOOOO much fun. Asakusa, as Asuka explained it, is THE most popular shrine in Tokyo. Because it was a holiday, there were a ton of people there, but it was worth the crowds. The enterance is marked by a big red lantern, and then you head down a long path with tons of shops before you arrive at the shrine. At the shrine itself, you can pay 100 yen to get a fourtune. If the fortune is bad, you tie it to these metal tree like things. My fortune was Okay, so at the new year I have to go back and burn it.

Then, Asuka and I went into the shrine and threw a 5 yen coin in and "prayed" (I am not sure what exactly we were doing). After this, we headed to Ueno to visit the zoo. The zoo itself was built in about 1882 so it is very old, but all the attractions and cages were well constucted and good homes for the animals (I think Nina would approve!) They had every animal imaginable, and it was fun to visit the gift shop (which had every cute thing imagineable!!!!!!!)

On Monday, we went on a Tokyo tour with our Waseda buddies. So, we split off into different groups and toured specific areas. My buddy knows I like history, so we (plus Su and 5 other Waseda students) went back to Ueno to visit the National Museum, which was basically the coolest place I have ever been. However, I dont think the others in our group were having as good of a time as me (when we got to the China section I was running around frantically looking at everything). We didnt have enough time to see the whole thing, so I am definately go back later and make an entire day of it. I might have to go alone, because I think the only person who would spend the day there with me is Sonya, and shes in Argentina.

Next, we went to Su's place of choice, Harajuku. Basically, if you dont know, this place is known for expensive shopping and people who cosplay in public. Although I didn't see any cosplayers (I guess they come out on Sunday) I saw a lot of expensive clothes. We also visited a store called "Kiddy Palace" where they had every cute thing imaginable. It was very fun!

After this, all the groups met up and we went to a "Shabu Shabu" restaurant. Basically, you have raw meat and veggies that you dip in a nearly boiling pot of water at your table and then eat it. Although it was a bit expensive, it was very delicious.

I dont know if I said so before, but I had to take a Japanese placement test to determine what class I was to take. I scored surprisingly high (most of my peers were a level lower than me...) so I am a little worried that it will be a little hard. We'll see....I also signed up for classes, although I wont know for sure what class I am in until next week.

Tsuki-chan really enjoys this anime called Mushi Kingu (insect king) and watches it constantly. Basically, it is the next thing in Japan (on the level of pokemon. There is also the prequal Kyoryu Kingu, dinosaur king, which he watched also). In addition to live bugs, he also has several mushi kingu bug action figures. I played with him one evening, and we have become friends! While he had 5 mushi kingu to my one, it was very fun. He was also quite impressed with my card tricks (especially the one Megan taught me!) and decided to try one himself. Basically, he showed me a white plastic airplane, and then made me close my eyes (for about 5 minutes!) when I opened them, he had colored the place blue with a marker! (it was so cute, he even had the marker all over his hands!).

I have yet to take a picture of the family, but I promise to take one soon!

Thats all for now!