Tokyo Ramen Expo: Komazawa Koen

Went to a national ramen festival in komazawa olympic park...apparently thats where the olympics where held in 1967 or something.

Sorry the photos are so dark. I took my small camera because it was rainy.
These are all the lines for the 50 or so ramen stands. The festival chose the best in the nation to come and showcase their flavors.

Another pic of the small ramen stands. We waited for 45 minutes!!

Tonkotsu hakata ramen. It was THE best ramen I've ever had. Tonkotsu is made from bones and the milky color comes from the bone marrow. The cook strained each serving of soup and fresh noodles and garnishes were set on top. The pink ginger was a great touch.


Today, I was suppose to go to the Japan vs. Belgium soccer game, but it was raining so we decided to go to a friend's house in Meguro.
This is the river that turnes bright pink during the spring with cherry blossoms.

This is Meguro River during Sakura season.

night out in tokyo

We went out for a friend's birthday party and ended up staying out all night.

my dormmates. (photo from curtis)

fish fins. they were good.

Shibuya..5 in the morning

The intersection was empty. i've never seen the green car from across the street since it's always so packed.

rainy morning in aobadai.

Waiting to be let in at the dorm. we made it just in time for breakfast at 6:30.

My Hashi Movement

I've noticed that a lot of ppl in Japan carry their own chopsticks. Known as the "My Hashi" movement, there has been a recent popularity in using your own hashi when eating out. We went to an izakaya, and one of my friends pulled out hers. I'm going to a ramen festival this Saturday, and they are requiring you to bring your own. Our cafeteria even has plastic chopsticks instead of bamboo.

You can find plastic or wood hashi, and they usually come in a cloth carrying case.

window shopping.

It was very warm out this afternoon, so a couple of us decided to go walk to omotesando/harajuku which is literally around the corner from our school. Went window shopping and saw a lot of expensive clothes.

Sugamo: Grandma's Harajuku

On Sunday, I went with a few friends to Sugamo, also known as the Obaachan's Harajuku. Laurel wrote "Almost everyone shopping there was over the age of 65. With stores completely filled with grandma print linens, canes, and their famous red grannie panties, it was understandable why almost everyone that got off my train at that stop was old. A lot of street food though, omiyage places, traditional and specialty foods. "

Gokon

One of my Japanese friends asked some of the exchanges students if we wanted to go to a gokon, or a Japanese group blind date. It was a lot of fun, but an interesting experience at the same time.
1. Our friend Ryohei and his friend Momoe organized the night. When we met everyone in Shibuya, we didn`t speak to each other the whole walk over to the restaurant. We actually didn`t interact until we did introductions at the table.
2. The boys and girls initially sit across from each other, and then ask each other questions in a line.
3. Later, they wrote everyone`s name on a piece of paper and did this cool ladder thing to figure out seating arrangements.

It was a lot of fun, but very organized; just like everything else Japanese.

It's here.

The first case of swine flu has hit Tokyo. We might not have school for a week. Tonight, I saw a guy wearing a mask in the bath!

Sanja Matsuri

This past weekend, I didn't have time to post because I was out at one of Tokyo's largest festivals held in Asakusa. It's called Sanja matsuri and thousands of ppl come to see the mikoshi and the yakuza who carry them.
This was friday evening. We got really close on some small mikoshi.

Ending their route at the Asakusa shrine.

There were so many street food stalls. Everything from chicken steak, thai noodles,


We did the goldfish game and laurel and her friends caught one, I didn't. However, the guy gave me a small one, which happened to be the only one that died the next day.

Sunday: We arrived at Asakusa in the afternoon, and found that all the streets were blocked off. It was wierd walking in the middle of a large tokyo avenue. We were lucky and saw one of the mikoshi on their route. Laurel almost got knocked over when the big crowd turned around the corner.

7:00 Waiting for the mikoshi to arrive at the Asakusa gate. There were thousands of ppl.

The mikoshi stopped in the middle of the intersection, twirled around, and then continued on.

We moved on to the shopping street and waited for the last procession. We ended up getting a great view of all the neighborhood mikoshi carriers.

It was a bit scary watching hundreds of ppl come down the street with the big mikoshi.

Two yakuza got into a fight right in front of us.

Spectacular sight.


This is a youtube video of the same festival.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=ja&v=d4-PRjCedFE&gl=JP

Horo-Yoi-Zakura: My Three Goldfish

These goldfish were given to me by Laurel and Candace who won them at the Asakusa Festival which I will post many more photos tomorrow. I brought them home, bought a bowl, food, and everything, and then the next day Yoi-chan had floated to the top. My Japanese friends got upset when I flushed Yoi-chan down the toilet and I insisted that we do that all the time in America. They insisted that the tap water wouldn't work for the goldish so, I decided to let them go.

We walked to the park around the corner and let the two survivors (Horo and Zakura) go in the pond. Zakura kept coming to the top and looking at us.

R.I.P. Yoi-chan

Horse Sashimi!

A couple days ago we went to our secret standing bar, and had horse Sashimi. It was sweet, but didn't have much flavor.

This is what came out for dinner at the dorm. kaisendon!

99 yen grocery store?!!

Today I took a different way home and stumbled upon a grocery store that sold everything under a dollar! I got snacks, sushi, pop, and everything each for 99 yen. I ended up going back two more times to show my dormmates. I was surprised that they didn't have any generic food, and the fruits/vegetables looked fine.

Hot day in Tokyo.

It was around 80 degrees today in Tokyo and I barely made it to school because I was so sweaty and gross. They didn't AC in our classroom so it got really stinky in the end. Also, there was a lot of pollen in the air and my nose was running all day. Thankfully Japanese advertising allowed be to obtain a large collection of pocket tissue.

Mother's Day

Went to Higashi Rinkan and met Noriko, my old manager from Panama Hotel.

This is Chloe. She was born in Seattle.

Noriko took me to her Auntie's place for Mother's Day, and we had some delicious Japanese sweets. They were beautiful.


They had a really nice house and we spent the afternoon in their loft-type room upstairs since it was about 80 degrees today.

Golden Week 2: A day at the spa

Went to a Public Bath today with a few friends, and it turned out being like a spa.
This was the outdoor Rotenburo bath. Everyday, they choose a famous natural hot springs and emulate the minerals in the water. It was raining outside, so it felt really nice sitting in the hot water in the cool air.

This was the indoor bathing area. There was another large pool, and some jet tubs that massaged your feet and shoulder. I could have laid in there the whole night.

This is another photo of the jet tubs. The big metal thing behind their heads are nice and cold.

This is the outdoor bath that has a pebble bottom to massage the feet. In the far back are two stall where you can sit under a VERY strong/slightly painful waterfall to massage your back.

There were three saunas too . There was one regular one, a minty air one, and a salt sauna where you can rub your body with salt to cleanse/lose weight. It was really relaxing in there.

After you get out of the bath, the custom is to drink a bottle of milk.

There's a special "manly" way to drink it. Legs spread shoulder width apart and one hand on your waist.


All the pics above are taken from the internet and are not mine.

GOLDEN WEEK: Odaiba, Kids Kabuki, Yoyogi koen

Went to the Hawaiian Festival at Odaiba today.

The inside looked a lot like Caesars.


Manoa DNA!! They were actually really good.

So many people brought their dogs.


Went To Hatchobori to the Teppozu Inari Jinja for their annual festival featuring a kabuki performance by Elementary school kids. The event was pretty small, so it was kind of nice. The costumes were really cool too.

These three kids did some kind of traditional dance.

The play.　　 The youtube clip is of the same play ,but a different cast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFHHZhjVVqE

It takes a lot of practice to learn the speech and dance of kabuki theatre. These kid were amazing.

Lastly, five little boys performed a traditional skit.

Their voices were really high so it was cute.

Of course they had festival food...my favorite.

Takoyaki.


Later, we went to Yoyogi Koen to meet some friends. Passed through a flower festival in Shibuya koen.

Ryohei.

Lolo-chan

Kat-chan and Bea