Kamakura!

Met up with Mom and Dad this morning and we headed towards the station in search of a place to eat. Not finding any place with "normal" breakfast food, we stopped into Excelsior Caffe near by. It's basically a StarBucks with more food options and they were able to get some US style breakfast sandwiches there. After that we headed to the station for an hour train ride to Kamakura.

After we arrived at Kamakura, we headed to Engakuji Temple close to the station and walked around there for a bit. Engakuji is the home of the Shari-den Shrine which is a National Treasure and houses one of Buddha's teeth. We climbed over 100 stairs to get up there and see it!

From there we headed to our next stop which was Kenshoji Temple about 15 minutes away. On the way there we stopped at a ice cream stand and got some sweet potato flavored ice cream. It was pretty good!

Kensho-ji Temple is pretty big and consists of a couple buildings. The gate there was moved from Kyoto and the Hatto hall is the largest wooden Buddhist structure in Eastern Japan. We walked around there and took some pictures and then headed to Kamakura station.

At Kamakura station we looked for a place to eat and took a locals recommendation for a nearby Soba restaurant. After that we jumped on the bus and headed to the Big Buddha. The statue weighs 121 tons and used to be protected by a temple around it until a tidal wave in 1948 came and washed the building away.

After that we took the bus back to Kamakura and then the Train back to Tokyo. For dinner we went to Ootoya and we all got the Tonkatsu. Before heading back we stopped in at Gaba so they could see where I worked and then across the street to the Cozy Corner where we got some good cream puffs that they have there.

Exploring, moving, and Onsen

Met up with my parents this morning at the hotel where they checked out and checked their bags for a bit. Mom wanted to check her E-mail so we went to Temple and used the computer lab there. From there we went to a restaurant that I had visited before in Azabu and I think they both liked the food there a lot.

After that we headed to Aoyama and went to the Honda Welcome Plaza there. There was some kind of bike show going on there and there were a ton of bikes parked out front. Since I thought it a waste to just go there for one thing we started walking around. Eventually we got to Omote-Sando and checked out Omote-Sando Hills and some other shops there. After that we hopped back on the train and headed back to the hotel were we got the bags and headed to Shibaura to meet up with Takehito and check into the guest room there. It was pretty nice and worked out well.

A little later, we met up with Takehito again and he drove us over to Daiba where I showed my parents around Decks and Aqua City. After that we walked the beach and met my Host parents at their apartment. From there we headed to the Onsen and Mom got to try sushi for the first time. I think her fear of eating raw fish prevented her from enjoying it and eating a full piece so I ate all her sushi. After that we went into the Onsen, and although Mom and Dad seemed a little nervous before entering, they were relaxed and comfortable after.

From there I escorted them back to their building and then headed home myself.

Getting my parents from the airport

Got up, cleaned my room and headed to Narita Airport to pick up my parents. They flew in on ANA and had a great flight, with good food. I met them at the Airport with Kamu Kamu Lemon candy, Suicas, and my old Cell phone in case they got lost.
There are a couple lines that go to and from the Airport and Tokyo. The Narita Express is the most expensive around $30. It is the quickest and one of the most comfortable ways to Tokyo from the airport. The Skyliner is another line that is a little slower than the Narita Express but offers the same level of comfort and is about $11 cheaper. I guess the Narita Express costs more, because it goes to more major stations in Tokyo while the Skyliner just goes to Nippori. We wound up on the Keisei line for $10. It took a little over a hour but was a regular train so it didn't have as comfortable seating as the other two lines.
When we got to Tokyo we headed to the Villa Fontaine hotel. It turned out to be a really nice hotel and it's in a good area too. After getting settled, we walked around we went to Caretta Shiodome and checked out some of the restaurants there. I had read about some restaurants online and thought they were in that building, but they were actually in another building nearby. Most of the places there didn't look too interesting so we headed to Issa in the same building as their Hotel. Compared to the other Issa's that I've been to, this one was the worst. It didn't have that great of a view and the service was much worse than it had been in my previous experiences at the places in Shinjuku and Daiba. On top of all that, when the desert came they didn't prepare it correctly so we didn't pay for that and left. Walked the parents back to their hotel and then headed home.

Work and hanging out with Eri

Headed to Takehito's for his lesson and then back home. I adjusted my schedule a bit so I had a little more time to change and get ready for work. Then I headed to Shinagawa, did a bunch of lessons and headed back home. After getting home I changed and then around 8:30 met up with Eri in Daiba. She had never been there and said that it reminded her of Hong Kong. I've never been there but she had lived there for a while so I guess she's right. We went to Issa in Aqua City, but I think the one in Shinjuku is better, cause it has darker lighting providing a clearer view of the city, the one in Daiba had brighter lighting so it didn't take full advantage of the view that Daiba is famous for. After that we headed to a near by game center. Eri accidentally hit the wrong button on the change machine and got a bunch of the "metal coins" for the "Metal Games" which are really lame gambling style games that are no fun, but we had the coins so we had to use them. I'm not sure why most game centers have a floor of the "metal games" cause they are really lame. After that we walked around for a bit and then she had to catch the train home.

Work, and meeting up with friends

Work from morning till night. Then I met up with Mike and Daniel and we headed to the Soba Hachi in Azabu, but it was closed so we went to Azabu Ramen next door, which was really good! After that we headed to Azabu station looking for another place to hang out at but found nothing and wound up in Roppongi. There we hung out at A971 for a bit and then Josh and Ryan showed up and we all hung out till last train.

Work

Worked today. After work I headed home and got some sleep. Saw a poster for the new Indy movie. Movies is one area where Japan is usually behind, sometimes taking longer to to get a movie that is already out in the US. I hope it's good.

Work

Headed to work which started at 1:00 and then back home at 9:15. The weather today was great again. I love spring!

Work on Wensday and school party

Headed to Ebisu today for a quick training session and then to work. Finished around 9 and met up with my friend Charles at Tamachi station. He was waiting for a friend and we all headed out and got food. Although I finished school yesterday some people had their last final today, so there was a school party at Grace. I'm not sure if it was cause it was Wednesday or what, but it was weak! Probably the weakest Temple party yet. After that Josh, Ryan, and I walked around and checked out a couple other places, but being Wednesday it was pretty dead all over so we went home.

Final 4 of 4 the Final Final, Finally

Took the Statistics Final today, and now I'm done with the hardest semester of my life. After school I headed home, did some ironing and fell asleep. After studying like crazy for weeks on end I wasn't really sure what to do with myself. I got a call from my old Japanese teacher's husband, because they were in town visiting her brother, so I headed out to Shinjuku and we all headed to a Shabu-Shabu restaurant. It was good seeing them again, and I was able to meet my teacher's brother and her husbands sister and her husband. Shabu-Shabu is really fun cause they give you plates of meat and vegetables, and Ramen at the end. You cook it all at the table in boiling pots and it's really good. After eating at the restaurant we went to the near by game center and got some pictures taken at the Purikura and I had to make last train so I headed home.

After I got home the weather was perfect so my room mate and I walked around outside and took some pictures around Daiba.

Final 3 of 4

Got up at 9 today and headed to school. I met up with some friends and we studied for the accounting test till it started at noon. After the test I went back home and started studying for the stat test tomorrow. Math is overrated. In life any math that needs to be done is done in a computer to avoid errors and save time/money. After high school there should be no math classes that use paper, cause it's a waste of time. I've heard people say that Math is the universal language but if you've ever seen "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" you'd know that music is the universal language, not math. Anyhow, the sunset today was pretty awesome!

the Frost wedding

When I was here in 2005 I met Daniel and Chieko since they lived in the same building as me and we've been good friends since then and today was the day of their wedding~!
Woke up around 7:00 to get ready for the wedding today. Everyone was supposed to meet in the Lobby at 8:45 but Mike and I moved a little slower than expected and just made it on time. Fortunately, there were a couple other late comers so it wasn't a big deal. From the Hotel we got on a bus and took a short ride to the near by temple. There we got to see Daniel and Chieko before the wedding in the traditional outfits.

From there we went to the Temple for the wedding ceremony. It was my first time at a Japanese style wedding and it was pretty interesting. The couple sat together in the middle with friends and family on both sides. The priest did the ceremony and there were two girls that helped with the drums and a flute type instrument. It doesn't sound like a flute, but I don't know what else to call it. Daniel memorized a long speech in Japanese that he had to say, and the Japanese in the speech was pretty difficult because it was really old school. Then they poured had Sake poured and shared the cup drinking it three sips at a time to finish it. Before we left the temple everyone got a little Sake and some kind of Snack. We went outside and did some more pictures before heading back to the Hotel. The Taxi that Daniel and Chieko took had a section in the roof that opened to allow easier access for Chieko in her wedding hat. When we got back to the Hotel, we had more photos taken and then had the reception.

The reception was on the 12th floor of the Hotel and had a great view of the city. They opened and closed the curtains cued with different music making the whole reception seem like a movie. We had a 8 course meal which filled me up. Some friends and family made speeches and the Wedding Planner lady read a life profile of Daniel and Chieko which was pretty cool. She told about their lives when they were young, how they met, and the different jobs they had. They played a video from Daniel's family in New Zealand which was cool.

Daniel and Chieko wanted me to play the guitar, so I had brought it last night on the train. Unfortunately, the long ride and temperature changes had effected the tuning of the guitar and I had to tune it using the piano that was there. I couldn't get it perfect, but it worked out OK. Before I started playing I explained how the song was one that we made up about the building that we lived in and how we used to sing it quite often in 2005. When the reception had finished Daniel chose the song "Go West" by the Village People to play as they exited, which was hilarious.

At one point they left and changed outfits, but I don't remember when that happened so I'm adding that detail now. After the wedding, the family and a couple friends all met up in Daniel's room and we hung out for a bit before heading back to Tokyo.

Mike and I were both tired and didn't feel like taking a 4 hour train ride home so we took the Shinkansen (Bullet Train). Unfortunately, the non smoking cars were full so we had to ride in a smoking car, but the shorter time in the train overall made it worth it.

When I got home around 8, I had dinner and spent the rest of the day studying for accounting. There is so much material to study, it's bad.

Work and a long train ride

Headed to work this morning. After work I headed back home and then out to Hamamatsu. I was meeting up with my friend Mike at Shinagawa, but he was thinking Shinjuku and then Tokyo so it took a little longer for him to get there. After Mike showed up we hopped on the Tokaido line for 4 hours to Hamamatsu. We took the local train cause it was cheaper then the Shinkansen. We got there about 12:00 and were pretty hungry so we stopped at Sukiya before heading to the Hotel. The wedding was at the Grand Hotel and the special wedding price coupled with the fact that Hamamatsu is pretty country side, we got a good room at a good price that you would never even think of in Tokyo. Anyhow, after that long train ride we were both pretty tired and had to be up and ready by 8:45 for the wedding Sunday so we went right to bed.

Final 2 of 4

International Marketing final today. Before the final some friends and I all went to the sushi place across from school. It was really good and priced reasonably too. I think the went well cause I was able to reference a lot of information that I learned in class and I had just eaten sushi. After the test I headed home, showered and headed out to Roppongi where I met up with Eri. We went to La Boheme, a good restaurant that I have been to before but was also recommended by a good friend. The one in Roppongi was much smaller than the one in Daiba and had a cozier feel to it. Since it was raining all day I picked Roppongi cause I though the Tokyo City View would be good, but it had closed before we got there. Eri recommended Ebisu and the garden there, so we headed to Ebisu and it was pretty cool. After walking around there for a bit we headed to Shinjuku and did Purikura.

Final 1 of 4

The Risk final started at 3 and I got to school around 11. Josh, Ryu, and I all studied till the exam and I think it went pretty well. I was able to finish the test pretty quickly and knew all that I needed to know. All the hard finals are next week. No good! After the test I headed back home and started studying for the International Marketing final tomorrow. It's a Essay based final, so I don't think I'll have any problem.

Study day 2 of 2

No school but I wound up there anyhow and bunch of us all studied for Risk Management till they closed the school at 11. Since we were there all day we ordered a pizza and one of my friends Andrew ordered the Hamburger pizza which is a pizza with burger on top of it. The pizza consisted of two layers of crust separated by cheese and sauce, with the burger patty topping it all off. I don't think it could really be considered pizza. Somehow, they can't seem to make pizza in the same style as in the US.

Study day 1 of 2

No school today. We have two days to study before exams start on Thursday. I headed to school around 11:00 and met up with some other people who were studying for the same test. After making a study guide for Risk I headed home.

Last regular school day of the semester

Headed to school, for my last class of Accounting and International Marketing for the semester. We mostly just reviewed for the final in both classes. That was pretty much the day.

Work, work, and study

Headed to Takehito's for his lesson and then back home for a quick bowl of ramen and then headed out to Shinagawa for work. Shinagawa is a bigger school and all my lessons there book every week. It's crazy. After work I headed home, took a picture of a Lambo in the parking garage and did some study for the bonus accounting quiz tomorrow

Training at work, and checking out a Uniqlo HT in Harajuku

Today I had another training thing for GABA. I think it's great that they do a lot of training to improve quality, but sometimes it can get tiring. The good thing with the training today was that I did it with my friend Mason, so it wasn't a room of total strangers. The other good thing was that they provided lunch!

After the training finished, Mason and I headed to Shibuya and walked around for a bit. I had mentioned some shirts that I wanted which were available at Uniqlo, but we didn't see them there so we headed to the Uniqlo UT shop in Harajuku where we were able to find them. The shop itself is really cool and is three stories of different shirts. All the shirts come in capsules so seeing rows and rows of these capsules looks like something from a Sci-Fi movie. It's really cool the way they have it set up. You can browse through the shirts on a touch screen and select the ones you want to buy, then it prints out a small receipt which tells you the locations of the shirts so you can easily find the ones you want. I grabbed the two that I wanted and we headed back to Shibuya where we met up with Mason's girlfriend.

From there we went to the coins bar for a bit and then I headed back home.

School, new phone and provider, and hanging out

Headed to school like usual. Accounting 2 we talked about the Final coming up on the 21st and that was about it.
After class Ryu, John, and I all headed to Softbank, one of the top three cell phone providers in Japan. I have AU now cause when I got here they were the only ones with the Student discount, but now Softbank has one, and it's better so I switched to them. With Softbank, you can call other Softbank users for free until 9:00 and E-mail's are free, so since many of my friends use Softbank, it will be a cheaper route over all. With the new contract, I got a new phone and I decided to get a new phone number. They let you pick your own number, so I picked a number similar to my home phone in the US cause I could never remember the number on my AU phone. It was pretty cool, cause they were able to transfer all my info from my old phone to my new phone and there was a option to send out a mail to everyone in my phone telling about the new mail address and number. Makes changing providers very easy and convenient. The Phone I got is pretty cool, it's made by Sharp and uses their Aquos technology for the screen. It has a ton of cool options and came with a couple cool demo games including a pretty decent version of Street Fighter Zero.

After that I had international marketing and then headed home before heading back out to Shinjuku to meet up with my friend Eri from work. We stopped at Club Sega and played Mario Kart for a bit and then headed to Rakeru for Omuraisu. From there we crossed over to the east side and headed to Taito Station for some Purikura. After taking purikura we headed to a bowling alley near by. Most of the Bowling alleys that I've been to here have shoe vending machines for the shoes instead of having a person hand them to you which is pretty interesting. After kicking her butt in bowling we walked around the city for a bit before heading home.