Adventure To Make Kusadango! 草団子！

Alright~ On July 4, I went to all sorts of places having one main goal in mind: make and eat kusadango. Dango is a traditional Japanese treat where you put small balls of rice cakes all skewered on a stick. The rice cakes (dango) can have flavoring or coloring into them and some might have toppings on them. Type "dango" in Google Images and there you will find them. But kusadango has green tea flavoring in the rice cakes making it look green and taste like green tea. Then you put Japanese sweet black beans on top *Mouth starts to water...*

So we (my family) woke up early to meet all of my mom's students at a train station around 9am. This is when our adventure begins! (Check out the pictures to below to see what I did) :D

Haha! First thing that caught my eye in the train station! It's Kamen Rider!!! My favorite super hero in the whole wide world! They are making a movie with all the characters from the Kamen Rider series and the Power Rangers series with a hero versus villain plot in mind. Flipp'n cool :P

First place we visited was Iwasakite. This is the first huge western-style building built in Japan. It also happens to be the founder of Mitsubishi companies' house. This house is priceless, a national treasure to Japan.

Then we went to Ueno Park, walking distance from Iwasakite. Check out the green plants behind me in the picture! Ueno is such a cool place, huge park and famous for their tropical fruits.

In Ueno Park, we came to Pagota No Daibutsu. A little golden Buddha sits inside this funny-looking dome building. It reminds me of something from Dragonball :P

For lunch, we found an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant! Wha-What?? A buffet?! Yup, check out the menu and see how many I ordered? Two of each kind, lol.

Halfway through eating all the fish in this restaurant :P My favorite? Crab liver... so good, no joke!

After we met up after lunch, we head to a place called Shibamata. Shibamata is in Tokyo but far from the stereotypical tall buildings and hi-tech place. It is a traditional Edo period town famous for their dangos and a movie actor, Tora-san. Tora-san is famous for being in "Otoko Wa Tsuraiyo" ("It's hard living a life as a man"). He made over 40 movies for that movie series in his life time. The movies are about a man who goes on adventures almost always broke looking for love and other funny things. For more information, go here: http://www.japan-hopper.com/2007/08/04_221087.php

Lets check it out!

Me holding a plate of unfinished kusadango. Behind me is a picture of Tora-san.

First thing we checked out was how to make wakashi. Wakashi is a highly decorated Japanese sweet usually meant to be eaten during a tea ceremony. The teacher taught us different techniques and created seasonal wakashi flowers. It was a lot of fun, sort of like playing with Playdo but you can actually eat it! :D

Here is my wakashi of Kiku, Japan's national flower.

After we finished making wakashi, we went to another place to go make our own kusadango! Yes! Here's me standing in the streets of Shibamata with the finished product!

To the left is the kusadango (which was really tasty with green tea) and next to it is the wakashi.

After finishing our afternoon snack, we visited Taishakuten Temple. The details put into the buildings here are crazy!

Here's a shishi (guardion lion)

The details are mind-blowing! All done by hand!

Then we walked to the Edo River. A spacious and green place!

Some people playing baseball in the distance.

After hanging out at the river, we went on the train and arrived in Asakusa famous a HUGE temple called Sensouji. The picture shown here in only the entrance... O.o

And we finished the day by shopping in the souvenir shops right in front of the temple. What a day!

:~Status Update~: #3

What's up everybody! ?

It has finally become the last month I will be in Japan. How's your time in Japan so far Leo? 楽し〜いよ！(It's a lot fun!) 

It is still tsuyu season (raining season) so it doesn't get too hot. It has been raining a lot and now I'm kind of getting tired of it... When it does get hot (around 90s), it is really humid. Tsuyu should leave sometime in the middle of July.

This week starting from Tuesday was 期末テスト(semester final exams). Since I'm a 'foreign-exchange student' that will only be in school for a month, I did not have to take the exams. That means I have Tuesday through Sunday off. Whoo! Some of my classmates where like "I hate you! You are soo lucky" or "I need a break too, no fair."

So what have I been doing? Mostly getting this blog updated but usually shopping or going somewhere I haven't been before on the bicycle. Here are other things as well:

Fujimoto holding a magazine with Axe samples. I met and hanged out with him two years ago when I went to middle school. He changed soo much! He had glasses and didn't spike his hair at all. When I first approached him this summer, I said "なんでかっこつけてるの？" meaning "Why are you showing off (to the girls)." :P

So what does Axe have to do with anything? Well first off, all the guys were crowding around Hirota (the kid that bought the magazine) and the guys were taking out the samples and smelling it and rubbing it on each other and stuff. I thought it was hilarious so I had to take a picture to remember that. 

Second, I wanted to talk about Japanese guys eliminating body odor. So apparently, they don't use deodorant sticks much. After P.E. or playing sports during lunch, the guys will come in the classroom and unbutton their shirts. Some of them pull out these moist sweat-absorbing tissues that leave a faint clean smell. Then they all grab a body spray. Some are stronger than others but for the most part they aren't overwhelming like some American brands. But what is bad is that they close the doors (so girls can't see in) and EVERYBODY sprays on a whole freak'n butt-load! Like I'm not even kidding. I can't stand there for more than a minute so I change into my uniform real quick and get out. What do they need to use soo much?? :P So then I saw this Axe advertisement and thought "Geeze, if a one guy uses that in America and stinks up the whole room then, what will happen if the Japanese gets their hands on it?"

So there you have it, a little body odor rant by Leo.

One of the days off I visited Temple University: Japan Campus. Temple is originally located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and has a campus in Rome as well. My mom and I just went there for a campus tour. It didn't really impress me much but the location is great! Everybody there has to speak English which makes everything easier for me.

I visited the Internet Cafe again. This time I had a discount coupon which lets me stay there for 3 hours for 500 yen (normally it would cost 1,200 yen). After I finished uploading pictures from my phone and checking every single e-mail, I still had 2 hours left. What am I gonna do?? Signs and on the desktop had the new Monster Hunter game that I never saw or played before. So why not give it a try? After like 20 minutes trying to sign up (reading kanji is really hard :P ) I finally got an account. I logged in and started playing. Here is my character I created:

His name is 'Shue' and you can click on all these pictures to enlarge them.

Sorry for the quality of this picture but here he is in 'battle mode.' Just 'hunted' my first 'monster.' I wasn't very impressed by this game because I have played MANY online games better than it. Graphics were all right and maybe because everything was in Japanese made it a turn-off for me... But this game is really huge right now in Japan, and I'm thinking it's like the new Final Fantasy.

Trains! Fast, efficient, and fun to ride! Here are a couple of pictures:

Posing in the train. Why am I wearing those clothing? Because they are my pajamas and I was going to spend the night at the Olympic Center and didn't want to bring extra clothes. Plus I gotta represent my school!

Not that crowded. And yes, I have been on a train where they pack you in like sardines...

My little brother, Dyllan, sleeping on the train. Japanese people are very busy people so they need to rest whenever they can. I wish I can take pictures of other people but some people falls asleep in the funniest ways ever. One time there was this guy about his mid 20s sleeping with his mouth open. On top of that he was taking up two seats and his belly was showing a little. And then I bursted out laughing when I saw that his pant's zipper was undone, lol! :D

Kanagawa Prefecture! 神奈川県！ Part 2

After sightseeing and walking around for a long time, we arrived at the Youth Hostel we are going to spend the night at. It looks like a normal house from the outside but in the inside has a very cool wooden-style going on. A Youth Hostel is a cheap place for young backpacking people can stay at. They also provide breakfast and dinner. Here are some more pictures:

The entrance and dinning room.

The room my family stayed in. Two beds and enough floor space for two futon beds. Tatami matted floors feel very nice.

The living room with a huge manga collection.

Here are a couple of mangas I like. -Top Left: Touch (A romance) -Top Middle: Jungle Emperor Leo (Tezuka Osamu) -Top Right: Dragonball (Teen Fighting) -Bottom Left: Detective Conan (A mystery/investigation) -Bottom Middle: Yamato (Space/Science Fiction) -Bottom Right: YuYu Hakusho (Teen Fighting)

On the roof of the Youth Hostel. The building has 3 floors plus the roof. A very pretty view of ocean.

At the Yuigahama beach. Lots of seaweed and fish on the shore. Not the best beach I went to my still nice.

I was surprised to see Blowfishes washed up on shore. Can you see it here?

The coolest shape for a うちわ (fan) :D

After hanging out for the night and the morning, we left the hostel to go to Chigasaki where my mom wanted to visited. Why does my mom want to visit there so badly? Because her favorite band, サザンオールスターズ, came from that city. Streets are named after them, buy souvenirs with them on them, and foods featuring their names and such.

Here is a picture of them.

My mom's ultimate goal for going to Chigasaki is to visit this famous 'C' statue. In one of Southern All Stars' music albums, they used this statue as their cover. If you click on this image to make it bigger, you can see that I am pointing at a cool looking island in the distance. It is also said that if a couple stands in this statue, they will get married :P

Posing in front of a huge Kuwata Keisuke model (Main singer in Southern All Stars). Originally I was going to take my shirt off to look like him but my mom stopped me :P

After finishing, a two hour train ride and we were back home. ああ、つかれた！(Ahh, I was so tired!)

Kanagawa Prefecture! 神奈川県！ Part 1

For the June 27 ~ June 28 weekend, I went to Kanagawa Prefecture which is right under Tokyo Prefecture. Inside Kanagawa, we went to Kamakura which is famous for its Buddhist Temples/Shrines. Check out the pictures for more details!

Entrance of Hase Dera (Temple). What a beautiful place!

Hase Dera itself.

Inside is a huge golden Buddha. There were Buddhas everywhere!

At Hase Dera, there are lots of Ajisai. These flowers only bloom in Tsuyu, the raining season (June/July). It's a seasonal flower like Sakura/Cherry Blossoms.

A close-up of an Aijisai flower. They are soo pretty! :D

View from the top of the mountain next to Hase Dera. A city surrounded by mountains...

... and ocean, it's a very nice place to live! This is the beach, Yuigahama, that I went to later.

鎌倉の大仏　The Great Buddha (in Kamakura). I tried to make it look like he is holding my head, did it work? This statue is 13 meters tall (approx. 43 feet).

For 20 yen, you can get inside the Buddha statue. Very hot inside! It also feels bigger inside than the outside O.o

At the entrance of the Buddha statue, posing with しし (guardian lion).

Tokyo, Here I Come Again!

Alright, my mom's students from ACC has finally arrived on Thursday (June 18). Since her students are here to study abroad, she teaches them 4 hours a day on weekdays and takes them somewhere on the weekends. I get to tag along to help my mom and this time visit Tokyo again!

It was June 20th, a Saturday. First, we had to get to Yoyogi where the Olympic Center is at. My mom, brother, little sisters, and I all went to the trains for the hour-long ride. Halfway through the ride we got off at a station to meet our guide for the day. Our guide's name is Yabe, and he helped my mom last summer in the same program. He's Japanese, and loooves talking. He wouldn't stop and me being the type of person to ask a lot of questions, our ride seemed to go by quickly.

We assembled our group with 11 students and us. A total of 17 people. しゅっぱつ！(Lets go!)

First we went to the Edo Tokyo Mueseum in Ryogoku. They also had a special exhibition for Tezuka Osamu so I went to see that as well. (They have a life-sized mechanical Astro Boy moving around! My geek appreciation was to the max!)

I'm on a boat! Actually it's called a 'Water Bus.' The weather was nice and the wind felt soo good! :)

A cool building I saw on the boat. Just felt like sharing...

Park called Hamarikyu made in the Edo period. Very spacious and green with old traditional Japanese buildings.

In front of the Tokyo Tower was a monkey performing. It was soo cute! :)

Looking down 150 meters from the ground in the Tokyo Tower. Yabe made me take the stairs (for the second time in my life) and it's 600 steps of sweaty exhaustion.

The Tokyo Sky Bus. We toured in Tokyo, Tokyo (The main capitol of Japan! My first time) where you can see the Emperor's Palace (which was AWESOME) and many Japanese government offices are located.