Sunday, December 13, 2009

Tokyo

I watch the show "Sazae san" sometimes on Sunday's to help me with my Japanese. At Fuji Television there is a whole store dedicated to the show. I bought a pin for my Rotary blazer there.
Fuji Television
Venus Fort. The beautiful outlet mall in Odaiba.
The view from one of the top floors at Fuji Television.
Harijuku
Ichi Mara Kyu. This is where many of the young girl fashions are.
The view from our hotel room in Tokyo.
Our hotel room in Tokyo.
The night electrical light parade at Disney Land.
At Minne's house.
Me with my honey popcorn and Pooh bucket.
The Candle Light show. You can't see very well but that is Mickey and Minnie.
Our room at the Tokyo Disney Land Hotel.
Night at the Tokyo Disney Land Hotel.
Fuji san
Early on Tuesday morning my host parents and I drove to the Nagasaki airport in the town of Omura. At the airport my host mother and I caught the plane to the Haneda Airport in Tokyo. On the airplane ride I was anxiously awaiting for my Rotary trip to Tokyo to begin! The airplane ride though was quite an experience because I got to see Fuji san! It was so beautiful! From the Haneda Airport we took a shuttle bus to Tokyo Disney Resort. The trip was supposed to take an hour but the first sight of our first destination was of this huge castle like building. At first we didn't realize it because the trip was supposed to take longer but it was our hotel! The lobby was decorated so fancy and there was Disney things everywhere. Once we left our bags at the desk we headed for the Disney tram to take us to Disney Sea. Disney Sea was so lovely the entrance part of the park was decorated like Venice Italy. Inside of the amazing buildings that made it look like Italy was Disney Sea's hotel. For lunch we kept walking straight over to the part of Disney Sea that was built like America's water front. We stopped for lunch at the New York part of the water front and ate at the New York Deli. We proceeded to do some shopping and went to the other part of the American water front which was Cape Cod. We then watched the show the Legend of Mythica. It was performed in the water right in the middle of the whole park. It was a pretty amazing show. One thing I really wanted to do was ride the Venetian Gondolas. So we rushed right after the show to take a place in the long line for the gondolas. I thought it was worth the wait. I really felt like I was in Italy riding a Gondola with the scenery. I think the people who were paddling the gondola were giving a tour of the Italy part of Disney Sea but I didn't quite understand what was going on. Later that night many people had returned home so I was able to enjoy many of the rides because the lines were so short. I was too scared to go on the big rides by myself though. At the end of the night we watched Disney Sea's Christmas show. It was so pretty. The name of the show was Candle Light Reflections and it was the last year that they were doing it. All the Disney characters came out on these boats with tons of candles and the candles were the only light in the park until a big glowing Christmas tree emerged from the sea. It was such a pretty show. Finally at the very end came fireworks and the fireworks were so amazing! I enjoyed Disney Sea so much because it was more of a grown up version of Disney Land. Also the scenery was so amazing and in some parts of the park I really felt like I was in Italy and then in others I really felt like I was in America. The next day my host mother and I got up early and began our day at Disney Land. We walked straight out of our hotel to the entrance of Disney Land because it was so close. Earlier we could see people lining up at Disney Land from our hotel room before it opened. First we went out to breakfast and I had a Mickey Mouse pancake. Then right away I went on many of the rides I wanted to go on. It was early enough in the morning where many of the lines were pretty short. It was so cool because many of the rides were changed for Christmas. The Haunted Mansion was changed to be like the movie "The Night Before Christmas" and the ride It's a Small World was changed to have many Christmas decorations and the music was Christmas music in different languages. While I waited in line I got to munch on some honey popcorn. Everyone in Disney Land and Disney Sea had these buckets filled with popcorn that they put around their neck. I didn't buy one at Disney Sea because I wanted the Pooh bucket at Disney Land and inside of the bucket came honey popcorn it was so good! They had so many other flavors of popcorn at both parks because it was the main snack to have. There was soy sauce popcorn, honey popcorn, curry popcorn, chocolate popcorn, strawberry popcorn, black pepper popcorn, and caramel popcorn. We met my host mother's friend at Disney Land because she did not live to far away and she had been to Disney Land many times so she was our guide for the day.We went on more rides and ate lunch. At night there was this amazing parade that consisted of lights. It was so pretty and I was surprised how many floats they had. Once again the night ended with an amazing display of fireworks. My host mother and I returned back to our hotel exhausted but before we went to bed we stopped by the hotel store one last time to pick up some more souvenirs for people. I have noticed in Japan it is very import to give gifts to people and my host mother got so many souvenirs to give to many people she knew! It was so nice. In the morning we woke up early to get all of our stuff packed up. We had two boxes of souvenirs that we sent back to Nagasaki! We then went and had breakfast at this restaurant in the hotel with an amazing buffet. It was delicious. After breakfast we left and went to the train station where we took the train to Shinagawa in Tokyo. The train had so many people on it and many people had to stand for such a long time. After arriving in Shinagawa we once again gave our bags to the front desk and headed out to go visit Shibuya and Harijuku. I loved the energy of Tokyo and the fashions in Tokyo. The trains however seemed very confusing and it seemed to take a long time to get from place to place. My host mother told me that you had to be really careful about what train you get on because you could be in real trouble if you got on the wrong one. I really loved Harijuku because there were so many shops with such cool fashions! One thing I noticed about the fashions in Japan is that many of the stores especially in Tokyo carry the same clothing or the same fabric but different pieces of clothing. For example, I bought a dress in Fukuoka and then later in Nagasaki I went to a store where there was a skirt and it was the same pattern as my dress! In Harijuku there was an H&M, a Forever 21, and a Kitson. There were so many people there especially in Forever 21. The Forever 21 in Tokyo seemed more upscale than the other ones that I have seen and I was really amazed. The next day it rained so much so we couldn't do much sight seeing. We went to Odaiba. In Odaiba there was an outlet mall called Venus Fort. It was the reopening day so it was supposed to have really good sales. The inside of the mall was so cool. I will post a picture of it. We didn't stay very long because I was tired of shopping so we went to Fuji Television where most of the stuff I watch on TV takes place. We were able to see the studio where all of the talents come to perform. At the time however there were no talents performing they were only preparing the stage for the show that night. We also went up to one of the top floors and we saw Tokyo's skyline. It was so pretty but the view was a little bit blurred because of the rain. I was even able to see a little bit of the Tokyo tower. That was our last stop before we took the train back to the Haneda Airtport and then left Tokyo for Nagasaki. It was a wonderful Rotary trip to Tokyo!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Birthday Celebration


Nawael came to Nagaski with her friend from school the day before her birthday so since we had the day off we all decided to get together and celebrate. Both Chelsea and Yuka came too. First we all went out to eat. We went to a soba restaurant and my meal was soba and tempura. Then we went and spent the rest of the day doing karaoke. Here is the picture that we took at the mall where they have tons of Christmas decorations up. This mall is also where the train station was so this is where we all said goodbye.

Sasebo

Here we are at the Huis Ten Bosch train station.
The Huis Ten Bosch hotel.
Yesterday I took the train to Sasebo with the other exchange students Nawael and Chelsea. Chelsea and I got on the train at around 10 in the morning and then Nawael got on 30 minutes later from her town that she currently lives in. On the way to Sasebo it was nice to be able to chat with them about our exchanges and stuff that we were experiencing or having a hard time with so far. About an hour later we then arrived in a town called Haiki where our friend Yuka from ROTEX picked us up to go teach us a traditional Japanese fan dance. We are supposed to be performing this dance on the 20th of December at the Rotary Christmas party/orientation. There was another girl there too learning the dance with us. She is going to be an exchange student next year. We practiced the dance for about 40 minutes. It was fairly easy because the movements in the dance repeated over and over again. It was a good thing that it did not take very long to learn because we were all so hungry. We took the bus to the mall in the town I think we were still in Haiki. Both Haiki and Sasebo are smaller towns than Nagasaki. We ate at a restaurant which had many options for everyone. I ate an omelet with shrimp and spinach in it. After lunch we were able to shop around for a bit and then we walked to catch a shuttle to the onsen in Sasebo. The onsen a Japanese hot spring. We all took a nice long hot bath. There was both an outside one and an inside one. I preferred the outside one because we could see the view of Huis Ten Bosch which is a residential style resort modeled after a Dutch town. We could mostly only see the hotel of Huis Ten Bosch but the hotel building is amazing! I asked my host father today if we could go and he said yes! I can't wait to see more of Huis Ten Bosch. We also enjoyed the dry sauna and the steam room. However after a while it got too hot and my head started to hurt. By the time we were finished though it was almost time to catch our train back home. After the train arrived back at the station my host mother was there to pick me up and we went out to eat at this restaurant called Afternoon Tea. It was a cute little restaurant and in a way it kind of reminded me of a restaurant in New York City, which was nice. I ordered the pasta set so I received pasta and a roll. The set also came with a piece of cake of your choice and tea of your choice. They had so many options. I chose chamomile apple tea with a small piece of banana bread. It was nice to sit there and enjoy my dessert and tea while listening to Christmas music. It seems as though these days any place with Christmas music I find myself feeling more at home and finding comfort in it. This week I was at Starbucks twice and it was so nice to sit there drinking chamomile tea and listening to the christmas music!

Omura

Making soba.
Making mochi.
This picture was taken on the restaurants deck. The sea is in the background, it is a little hard to see in the picture.
My host family took me to a town called Omura a while ago. The town is right by the sea and the Nagasaki airport. In Omura we went to this restaurant and ate the buffet they had. We got to sit out on the deck and there was a great view of the sea. After lunch we wandered over to the ice cream shop where they had homemade ice cream. I had sweet potatoe ice cream it was so delicious. The flavors of ice cream here are all so unique. One kind of ice cream they have every where in Japan is green tea. There was also a homemade bread shop we went to as well. They had sweet potatoe bread so my host family bought some and it tasted so good! There were so many people gathered there at this place in Omura. It had a green house, ice cream shop, bread shop, restaurant, vegetable shop, some stands for various foods, and a small petting zoo. After enjoying our ice cream we watched some people make mochi and soba. Soba is a noodle made from buckwheat flour. Soba is served differently chilled and hot. When it is chilled it is generally served on a bamboo tray with a type of soy sauce that you dip it into. Hot soba is often served as a soup. I have only eaten chilled soba so far. The way to eat your soba is to slurp the noodles! Next my host family stopped in to buy some fresh vegetables and then we drove home.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Oden Party



Two weeks ago my host family and I went to one of their friends houses for an oden party. Oden is a Japanese dish that the Japanese like to eat to warm up in the winter. Inside oden is usually konnyaku, boiled eggs, radish, tofu, mochi, and fish cakes mixed in with a soy broth. It is really hot broth so it warms you up quickly. People like to eat oden with hot mustard. A big pot sat over a hot plate with all the ingredients boiling and we could take out whatever we wanted to eat. They also had pizza delivered for me but I really like oden so I didn't eat much of the pizza. The apartment was downtown. People in Japan call those apartments "mansions." The view was so beautiful because of all the lights in Nagasaki.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Kimono Show


Second group of contestants.
Turning around so the judges can judge the tie in the back.
Tying the back and putting it all together.
Getting there kimono ready to put on.
Most of the contestants. My camera couldn't fit everyone in.
The kimono show I went to was more of a contest. From what I could tell it was based on who put on the kimono that fastest and who had tied it the best in the back. The show started out very boring with long speeches and then we stayed for two rounds of the competition. There were so many people competing I will put a picture up of all of the people who were competing. I don't have much to say about it because we only stayed for a little while so instead I will put pictures up to show everyone.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Shimabara

At the Rotary meeting doing my speech.
The view from the top of Shimabara Castle.
Shimabara Castle
On Halloween I spent the day heading up to Shimabara where the Rotary district was having a huge meeting. The drive was very long it took two hours. However it was very pretty most of the time because we drove right by the sea and then in the mountains we drove under these trees that made a green tunnel. I drove up with my first host father and the other exchange student who was going to go to St.Paul next year. When we first arrived we quickly checked in and then left to eat lunch and do some sight seeing. They thought that we would be bored just sitting through speeches at the meeting. First we went out to lunch. We ate Shimabara's famous dish called Guzoni. It had stewed vegetables, mochi, and chicken in it. I didn't really like it but the mochi was good! After lunch we went to see the Shimabara Castle. Inside the castle it was like a museum with old stuff displayed that people use to use. There was a rule of no pictures allowed so I wasn't able to take a picture of the old dishes, money, and samurai wear. The top of the castle though had an amazing view which I was able to take a picture of. Next we headed over to the volcanoe museum where we learned about the eruption of Mt.Fugen in 1990. We went to the virtual theater where we experienced tremors and hot blasts. After the museum we went back to the district Rotary meeting and waited a long time and then finally I got to do my speech! I was so nervous. I have to say though I missed Halloween and was a little homesick.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Nagasaki International Festival

One of the performers at the park by the bay.

Learning the song on the koto.
On October 25th I went to the Nagasaki International Festival it was small but I enjoyed it. I went with my two friends who are also exchange students. One is from Canada and one is from Mexico. However only the girl from Canada is a Rotary exchange student. Outside and inside there was a small flee market selling things such as clothing and dishes. There was also many food stands. I had some Indian chai tea. It was delicious. I also tried some more borscht but this time it wasn't very good so I threw it out. There was a St.Paul and Nagasaki sister city booth and much to my surprise there was a poster with a few pictures of me on it! I found it amusing. One lady came up to me and my friend and said "please come play the koto." So we followed her over to the Japanese instrument. It was so hard because it has so many strings and a couple of nice ladies taught us how to play a famous Japanese song on the koto. We were at the festival to watch a Mexican dance so while we were waiting for the dance we went to the nearby park which is my favorite spot in Nagaski because it is right by the water and there are palm trees. It is beautiful. At the park there was another event going on and there were performers doing amazing stunts and there was also a couple of clowns that we watched. When we returned to the Nagasaki International Festival we watched some Kendo, Japanese traditional dance, a group playing kotos, and the Mexican dance. I really enjoyed the Mexican dance and it was to one of my favorite songs that I learned at Spanish camp!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Cosmos


This field of flowers is only like this in the fall. This picture was taken a while ago.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Random Pictures

Persimmon is my new favorite fruit. In Japanese it is called kaki.
The heart stone at Glover Garden. It is supposed to bring you happiness if you find it.
Temple
Chinese Temple

The heart stone by the river.
The first time I made tamago yaki all by myself.
My tea ceremony set case.
My tea ceremony set.

Teaching my host family how to make a burrito!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Takengei

This is part of the Wakamiya Inari jinji.
(The shrine where the bamboo festival was held.)

This is the mochi that I caught. The red and white represent happiness.
These are the three sticks of bamboo they were performing on.

The two year old climbing the first stick of bamboo.
Last night I went to a bamboo festival. The festivals name is Takengei. At the festival there were three long sticks of bamboo. The first person to climb up one of the sticks of bamboo was a two year old followed by a forth grader! The next person to climb up was an adult and he hung on the bamboo and did crazy things on them like hanging upside down. Then another person came up and they did a duo act. This time they used two pieces of bamboo. It is hard to explain so I put some pictures up for you to see. The performers were wearing fox costumes. Once at the top of the bamboo sticks they threw mochi (rice cakes) out into the crowd. The last performer threw a live chicken out into the crowd! I caught some mochi and when I got home from the festival I ate it. Out of all the foods that I have eaten in Japan mochi has come to be my favorite!