Japan 06/07

Mitaka Matsuri + english camp

2006-09-17T08:58:00.000-07:00

The new fashion this Autumn ?
And I thought metallica was hard.
Respect +1

Here's a few photos from a festival held in Matsuri, and also an english camp in atsugi.

2006-06-12T18:28:00.000-07:00

AUSTRALIA｡BEAT JAPAN!!!

Australia beat Japan in a 3-1 comeback victory to win their first Fifa World Cup match ever!!
I was the only person I know of cheering for Australia, but who cares, we did it.. FINALLY!!

Asakusabashi Matsuri

2006-06-11T06:52:00.000-07:00

Today I went to a Matsuri (Japanese traditional festival) in Asakusabashi. The highlight was definately the carrying of the many different omikoshi's by the various shintou groups, the largest of which weights roughly 4 tons. The food was also really great, and the company of course!

Jya ne,

Dom

Chilling

2006-06-07T04:41:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Sorry I havn't updated this blog in a while, but I've been really busy lately! (and also the fact I havn't really taken my camera with me since last time).
Heres some photos from a getogther some rotary exchange friends had the other night.

Things that have happened since last update

-Went to an Australian resturaunt in Shibuya 2 times,
-Visted Ikebukuro/sunshine city(60) and Adams school,
-Played darts a few times,
-Saw the DaVinci code in Japanese
-Had Taikusai (like a PE day) ; our class managed to win volleyball
*went out for dinner to celebrate
-Ate Ramen a few times!

Sorry, I can't really be bothered to go into many details but I will tell y'all all about it in due time.

Shibuya

2006-04-30T06:07:00.000-07:00

Hachiko is the coolest dog in the world.

These photos are of Shibuya over 2 days.

Asakusa And Akihabara

2006-04-26T19:27:00.000-07:00

Heres some photos from asakusa and akihabara!!
This was for an introduction day to the International club at school.
After visiting the temple we had some really beautiful Japanese Ramen in a nice little resuraunt in one of the backstreets. Later on I was amazed to find out how cool some of the fashion in Akihabara was, I was led to believe Akihabara was a technology-only type of place. I had my photo taken with the pirate by a photographer for Marie Claire Magazine which was really cool (fingers crossed, maybe it will be in next months issue).

ClubDay

2006-04-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a special day to introduce Myojo clubs. Clubs are very big part of the Japanese school culture with a minimal of 75%+ of school students taking up at least one. They vary from Train club (which has one member) to dance, right through to International Club. I ended up joining two clubs, basketball and International club (Which I had no choice in, but I like it anyway). Later that day I was invited by a friend from Germany to come to a blues-rock concert in Akasaya. Akasaya is a very popular section of Tokyo for music, food and in particular foreigners.

Today’s photos: Fashion club members (on the far right is Maria, one of two German exchange students) & Carlos and Phoenix (Carlos is on the bottom, he's from Mexico)

Near Myojogakkuen

2006-04-05T01:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we visted my new host school for a brief indroduction to find out about subjects and to work at the path I'll take everyday. It's a bit of a journey; to get there you start with a bike ride to the station, then a 40m train, followed by 10 minute walk. The walk is the part I most enjoy... here are some photos from the river we crossed (above).

Haraji-ku

2006-04-02T01:07:00.000-08:00

konichiwa!

Today I went with my host sister and her friends to Haraji-ku, which is 'the' place to be if you're under the age of 20 and looking to find some funky new clothes. We walked around for a few hours and grabbed some lotteria (a fast food chain similar to macdonalds). Then we went to one of the many photo parlors in Haraji-ku, which are really scary if you've a foreigner and have never witnessed one.
Something I noticed today is that trains have a tendncey to make you sleepy.. I have no idea why, they're loud, they shake and they're full of people.

Orientation

2006-04-01T01:30:00.000-08:00

Here are some overdue photos from the PIEE orientation. It was so cool, I loved it, I want to marry is.

Bikes

2006-03-31T19:28:00.000-08:00

Here's a photo of the masses of bikes parked outside a shopping centre close to my house. Bikes are cool. Everyone should ride bikes. Everyone does ride bikes. no problems here. There's a lot more bicycles then you can see in this shot actually, they went behind me and around the corner from where i took to the photo from too.

2006-03-30T19:56:00.000-08:00

Here's a photo of the 'local' sega world. These arcades are massive; I stress the word local because sega world is so common, it's the japanese equivilent of a local supermarket in Australia. Sega world seems to be one of the afternoon hang-out areas for school kids, but it cost too much money for me so I'll probably stay clear for a while.
On another note, i figured out that there are more vending machines in Japan then there is people in NewZealand.

This morning I woke up too late to join in the host father and he's siblings trip to the park [to see the cherry blossum trees] which is a shame, but I think there'll be plenty of time for that during rest of spring. Today I figure I'll go for a long ride untill the host-sister comes home from school, and then we can go to the movies (In Japanese.. woa).

That's all for now! Cya

kakoiiyone

2006-03-30T05:30:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,
I just got back from my host sisters school-district concert. It was crazy. The first half was a little boring with only classical music but then, enter half two, wow. The 2nd half was a collection of Classical Disney tunes (Japanese are completely crazy about Disney) jazzed up a little... well A LOT. They had some crazy disco balls and funky lighting, and, wait for it, cheerleaders; what kind of classical concert would be complete without a bunch of cheerleaders to lighten up the atmosphere. We were then invited into the action and sang along to aladin's 'a whole new word'. cool.

Earlier today I went shopping for a little while, then spent a few hours with the host families grandparents. They are 80 and 85 years old but can still ride a bike, crazy hey? The grandfather showed me how to build a proppeller.. which is handy in case one day I ever need to build a plane... .

That's all for now,
Ciao