Tokyo

I still haven't had time to get my pictures ready to upload because I have been spending a lot of time in the afternoons working on my homework and I tend to go to bed at 9PM so I can wake up at 6AM (That is, I go to bed at 6AM Utah time so I can wake up at 3PM Utah time... not really that different than my normal sleeping schedule. ;)

So last weekend in Tokyo we went to the Square Enix store... it was a lot smaller than I expected, but they did have a lot of merch. They have a gigantic Sephiroth in the floor which is pretty sweet. I got pictures and video.

We also went to Akihabara, which would have been much better if my brain hadn't been fried from the train trips up there. Many of the shops were already closed when we got there, but it was pretty freakin' cool. We went to Super Potato which is this gigantic retro game store and we walked around a bit.

After that we hung out with my friend from junior high named Bryce. He has oddly been in Japan for a while... we haven't seen each other since I lived in the dorms at the U. His girlfriend Akiko is really cool... they're awesome together. I told Bryce they should make some babies.

We had dinner together at some place called Sazeria or some such... it was an Italian/Japanese restaurant. They had good food, free refills (apparently not common in Japan) and melon flavored soda. After that we got ice cream at a conbini (Convenience Store) and I bought a calling card and left Julie a voicemail. Then we sat in the park chilling for a little while and talking.

After that we went back to the Hilton. At one point I had thought I lost my camera because my backpack had been open but nobody told me and I couldn't find it, but then I finally found it.

On Sunday we went to Harijuku and saw all of the oddly dressed people, and then saw a shrine whose name I cannot remember, walked through a flea market, and then went to the Meiji shrine. The Meiji shrine was cool. There were a ton more of the Harijuku-jin over on the Meiji bridge.

We got maybe a quarter of the way in or less before a big group of Japanese students came up to us and said they wanted to speak English with us for a school project. It was fun. We talked all the way through the shrine and they showed us how to purify ourselves and explained all of the lore surrounding the shrine. We got to see a couple of wedding processions.

On the shinkansen ride back from Tokyo we ran into a couple of other people from the program and we all went back to Habikino together from Shin-Osaka station. The busses weren't running anymore, so we had to walk to the dorms and it was late and we were all tired. We got in at about 12AM.

The next morning I realized that I had slightly injured my right foot. It's possibly slightly sprained, but it is ok. I just need to take it easy for a few days and I am wearing my boots to give my ankle support.

That's it for now.

They gave us a welcoming party today and it was pretty cool, but short. Tomorrow there is an excursion to Shitennoji Temple which should be fun. There will be tea drinking and Japanese sweet eating.

At some point I will hook up with my friend John who lives near Kyoto.

More later.

- Terry