5.4 downtown Osaka

I got back to Kyoto around 6am, took a nap for a couple hours, and then took the train to Osaka to meet 2 of my Japanese friends M and S. They took me to see downtown Osaka, which was very lively and colorful. The place kind of reminds me of the movie "Tekkonkinkreet"! I love how unique it looks there..so vibrant, so whimsical.

There's always fugu (pufferfish) around in Osaka! Look at this huge fella.

It was too crowded that day so I didn't get to see the view from the top of the tower, but this is the Osaka tower!

We also walked around this place that's pretty much the Osaka version of Akihabara. There were a lot of anime shops everywhere.. very otaku.

Later we went back to Kyoto and went to an izakaya where another friend was working at. The food was really good there! A few others came for dinner too- it was good seeing all of them again.

5.3 Ikebukuro (last day in Tokyo)--> Yokohama

After a final short jam session with L at her apartment, we headed off to Ikebukuro to meet with her boyfriend K. We had a good lunch at some Italian restaurant, played a couple games at the arcade, and went to a maid cafe. I guess I really have to go to Akihabara to get the real maid cafe experience because the one in Ikebukuro felt like a really normal cafe.. The maids didn't pay much attention to us either (perhaps because we weren't guys). The desserts were really cute though!

I left Tokyo around 4 and went off to Yokohama to meet my friend A(her family lives there so she went back home for Golden Week). Thanks L for having me over in Tokyo! :)
A took me to see Chinatown, which is one of the things that Yokohama is famous for. Having been in Chinatown for many, many years, the Yokohama Chinatown isn't anything too special to me. Compared to Oakland and SF Chinatown, Japanese Chinatown is so CLEAN!! There were a lot of people there and shops had very Asian designs.

After walking through Chinatown, we went to the well-known park in Yokohama, where there was a beautiful view of the sea and the small theme park. The park had a lot of carefully designed flower arrangement plots! I took a lot of pictures there, but here are a few:










After the park, we went to the small amusement park. I wanted to ride the ferris wheel, but there was a 50 minute wait so we went on the water slide instead. We thought the water ride was not worth it after the first drop, but then there was a bigger second drop that we hadn't expected! Fun times :)
Yokohama is so beautiful! Yamanashi was total countryside and peaceful, Tokyo was lively and very metropolitan, but Yokohama was somewhere in between those two extremes.

At night, we went to A's sister's bar, and around midnight we took the night bus back to Kyoto.

5.2 Shibuya

The famous crosswalk in Shibuya. Looks so nice at night (right).

After Yamanashi, L and I went back to Tokyo. L had some work to do so I explored the streets of Shibuya. Since it was Golden Week, the streets were bustling and packed with people. I dared to venture into Shibuya 109, which turned out to be a popular shopping building for young women. I went through each floor, walking around in a circle (the cloth stores were all next to each other in a circular arrangement), barely able to move, hearing all the workers with their annoyingly nasal voices scream things about spring/ Golden Week sales. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here's a picture of a building with cool graffiti.

After L got off work, we stopped by for a little at Harajuku, but since it was kind of late most of the stores were already closed (or closing).

5.1 Yamanashi

The night after I arrived in Tokyo, L and I took the train to Yamanashi, the countryside. L's friend's host family invited us to stay over at their place there and they took us to see some awesome sights. I love how green everything was! It was definitely very different from everything I've seen so far in Japan.

Host mom and dad's house was a pretty big, traditional Japanese home (first time being in one!). The place they live at has a very calming atmosphere. For lunch, they took us to eat Yamanashi udon :)










Host dad was a civil engineer, so he showed us a path that he made before. We were heading toward Mt. Fuji, but we stopped at this woody area to see the path that he made.

The area near Mt Fuji was pretty chilly, and combined with the stark trees of the woody grove it felt kind of like autumn. Apparently, there are still certain sakura that bloom at this time of year!

We also stopped by a popular tofu place, where we had sample of different flavored tofu!












We parked in front of a really big supermarket, where we could see a clear view of Mount Fuji! I can't believe people who live there can see this everyday.


The market was one of the largest markets I've seen in Japan so far. It smelled like Safeway when we first entered, which made me nostalgic for cheap and abundant US groceries.. There were food samples there too.. I tried some very good steak, a piece of whale meat (I felt bad afterward though..), coffee, and basically anything there was.


Before heading back to the house, we stopped by a temple called Sengen, and I must admit, it was the best temple I've seen so far. Even though Kyoto has a lot of nice temples, this one was 1) not crowded 2) was old= more authentic 3) traditional-looking 4) gave me a real sense of Japanese culture. I loved this place.

Host parents- they were so nice to us!!

For dinner, they cooked us a wonderful Japanese meal (tonkatsu, rice, cabbage, miso soup, tofu...), and took a Japanese bath (as opposed to shower). We stayed overnight there, and in the morning (after a really good breakfast!), host mom drove us back to the train station so we could head back to Tokyo.

4.25 Gingakuji and bar hopping

I celebrated my 21st birthday by going to Ginkakuji (the Golden Pavilion) with a group of people, and at night we went bar hopping (a lot more people came). Good times! I'm thankful for all the people who celebrated with me.

4.24

In the afternoon, I picked Beanss and C up at Kyoto Station (they came to visit Kyoto for a couple of days). We ate dinner with the rest of the building mates on the 10th floor of Hankyu Department, and late at night my building mates surprised me with a maple sponge cake for my birthday. It was scrumptious *-*

4.23 - Kodaiji

On Friday night, I met up with a couple Japanese friends from 2 years ago and we went to see the lit-up temple called Kodaiji. It was a bit hard to take good pictures there since it was dark, but I managed to get a couple good shots.

The colors are just breathtaking. The trees were lit up with different colored lights and you could see their reflection clearly in the dark pond.

The "light-up" itself was a bit disappointing- it was like having Christmas lights placed on the floor of a zen garden.. I guess it's interesting!

4.22 Shakeys

Couple of friends and I went to Shakeys, which was an all-you-can-eat pizza place supposedly popular in SoCal. The pizza wasn't too bad, but of course, Japanese pizza can't compare to the pizza back home! It was strange that they served curry and rice at the place, and even stranger that they made dessert pizza! I tried the one with custard, a piece of brownie, some whip cream and jam on it... I think Japanese people should just stick with regular pizza..
Afterward, we went to the arcade for a bit- I wish the US had cool arcade games!

4.18 Fushimi Inari

On Sunday, I met up with some Japanese friends for lunch and they took me to see the Fushimi Inari Shrine, which is well-known for its long path of tori (the red columns). It was quite a long hike just to see the paths and we didn't reach the top, but it was definitely worth going to see it! I found it amusing that the names of the companies that made (or sponsored?) the tori were written on the tori, though.
I kind of expected it to have a more traditional feel, but the tori looked like they were newly painted. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful place.

4.30

Golden Week was April 29 - May 5, which means I had one week off from school...which means more traveling!! Since I went to a concert on the 29th, I decided to take the cheaper (but much, much longer) way to Tokyo on the 30th with my friend A. 8 hours..from ~10am- 7pm. We passed by a lot of rice paddies and green countryside places like this!
The stop was called Notogawa, but I think it's in Shiga (city next to Kyoto). What beautiful scenery..
After about 7 hours of riding the train, A went off to Yokohama since her family lives there, and I took one more train to Shinjuku Station where I met up with my friend L. It's so good to see her again! Feels like we just met yesterday :)
We had dinner and some delicious cake at a cafe in Shinjuku.
We walked around a little and L showed me Sunshine City, which was a very lively part of town with blindingly bright billboards (hence the name "Sunshine City").