Sunday, November 29, 2009

Saturday, November 28, 2009-

The day in Tokyo with Rotary friends:
Ayano Baba- Rotex, Japanese, age 21, current Tokyo college student. The nicest, most inclusive person I've met here in Japan!
Amberly Thompson- Current exchange student, Canadian, age 17
Max Beard- Current exchange student, American (Jacksonville, Florida), age 18
Anaïs Verderi- Current exchange student, French, age 17
Simon Sigier- Current exchange student, French, age 17

OUR DAY IN TOKYO
Asakusa and the Kaminari-Mon (aka Lightning Gate). That is a gigantic Japanese paper lantern hanging in the center. It was hanging proudly as we thankfully had great weather all day long!
Sorry Amberly! Haha but I couldn't find a different group photo = ) Hahaha
Left to right: Max, Ayano, Simon, Amberly, Me, Anaïs
The gate you can see in the distance is where we took the two pictures above. That means that as you pass under the gate and into the temple grounds you enter one of the best places in Tokyo to buy authentic, cheap, unique Japanese souvenirs. The smells of rice cakes, sweet fried pies, and temple incense combined with the bustling crowd, noisy shop keepers, and excited tourists (into which category we certainly found ourselves) made for one of my most memorable impressions of Japan so far.
One more, larger gate through which you pass to enter the temple
Anaïs and I standing near the incense stall. The incense is there to wave over your head and shoulders to help cleanse your mind
Anaïs being Anaïs!
Amberly was hilarious today. She found an awesome (and super cheap) panda hat in one of the stalls and proceeded to wear it all day long. We now call her our prized panda.
Ayano took us to a delicious Okonomiyaki restaurant where we sat on the floor around two large skillets built into the table. We made Okonomiyaki, which is an egg, veggie, seafood, meat combination of flavor that you drizzle warm sauce on the top of. It's fantastic!
Harajuku District. It is basically THE place to go for young, bizarre Tokyo outfits. Por ejemplo: One girl all in bright neon green, including her bag, boots and even tall spiky hair!
Christmas decorations (and sales) are in full swing here in Japan. They love the holiday as much as many Western nations nowadays.
Because we were in a hurry to catch our train, our dinner consisted of McDonald's. It was my first time in Japan and a very different experience from back home. My new favorite thing on the menu is called Shaka Shaka Chicken. It's a big, flat chicken patty that you combine with seasoning salt in the bag. Seal it up, shaka shaka shake it, and enjoy. Tasty!

Thank you for sticking through to the end of these endless posts! I hope you enjoyed the photos- Sam

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