Shibamata: day trip into the shitamachi(old town) of tokyo

There are actually several neighborhoods in Tokyo that are still very traditional where you can experience Edo, or old Tokyo. Some are very touristy and super crowded, but I found a shopping street in Shibamata that turned out to be a fun leisure afternoon. There weren't a ton of foreign tourists, and it wasn't too big of an area. perfect way to spen the warm afternoon.
This is where Torasan, an old Japanese comedian from post war to around the 50's or 60's, is from. There's a famous statue that everyone takes photos in front of.

This is the entrance to the Shibamata Shitamachi (old down town)

Like I mentioned before, all the shops are really old and don't sell the junk touristy gifts. Each shop is famous for one specific thing.

We went to the famous Takagi-ya and had dango for a snack. This is charbroiled dango with shoyu ajitsuke and nori. Laurel had the dango with tare on it. they were pretty good.

Torasan's famous tora-ya dango.

Making fresh senbei in the back of a store.

A street performer twirling a box shaped cup on an umbrella

Balancing a bowl-full of water on his chin.

This was the craziest tree I've ever seen. It was spread out all around the temple.

Each needle is carefully sorted and shaped.



We saw a family scrubbing a statue.

On our way back, we strolled through Meiji Shrine. It's really quiet there and the trees are amazing.

They had an ikebana exhibition.

Japanese bar codes

Japanese cell phones have the capability to read a special barcode call QR codes. They are squares of dozens of small squares. When you take a photo of this code with your photo, it directs you to the website or saves the email address. You see them everywhere:
On billboards.

On graves.

and on chocolate.

We were bored today after school so we started messing around with calligraphy in my dorm room.

This has to be my favorite beverage in Japan. The juice in the carton that only costs a dollar! I was talking to my Japanese friends and they said that Japanese people don't like buying those because they are too big. They would rather buy the plastic bottled (more expensive) version that is about 3 quarters of the size since you don't waste it if you don't drink it all. I guess I have the "American" mentality of getting my money's worth.

We got an email from our university saying that if there is even one case in Japan of the swine flu, they will shut down all college campuses in tokyo! ...someone said maybe the train system too.

Tokyo isn't very Japanese

Before coming to Japan, I had hoped that our neighborhood would have old traditional homes and cool gardens. It is the exact opposite. All the houses are modern and lack the visual aesthetic attraction of traditional Japanese homes. Below are some pics of previous trips to Japan and the neighborhoods I hope to wander through again.

Dorm Welcome Party

Yesterday, the dorm held a welcome party for us. We had some yummy takoyaki.


fresh sushi

a mountain of chicken karaage.

our table.

Went to izakaya for a dorm mates birthday. They had a karaoke machine in the room so we decided to take advantage of that. our dorm mate guntank sang all his favorite gundam songs.

Went to a famous ramen place for lunch. We had to wait in line for 45 minutes, but it was THE best ramen. The noodles had a smokey taste.


Went to service at Tsukiji betsuin for the English seminar.

Their hondo is HUGE. The ministers are really nice and they invited us out to dinner, but we had to pass.


23 of our friends went for all you can drink at the Tequila bar again. Some of us drank a bit too much and had to make a few stops on the way home.

TV isn't working!!

so I tried to watch tv in my room and the signal is too weak. A friend told me that if I made an aluminum foil antenna it would work, so I stopped at the 100 yen shop today and got some foil. We used almost the whole small role and squished together a large antenna... After spending a really long time adjusting and fitting it, we found out that it would only work if I stood on my balcony and held it the antenna in the sky.


I stayed up to 3 last night and ended up waking up late for my ONE class that was at ONE THIRTY in the AFTERNOON. I woke up at 8 for breakfast, and then fell asleep and woke up lat e for school. I didnt want to waste the day so I rode into Shibuya, ate at the cafeteria, hung out, and then went to the bar for happy hour with some friends. I'm still mad that I didn't go to school because I actually did my homework.