Golden Week and After~

For my Golden Week break, I took a small trip to Seoul, Korea~!

I did a lot of sightseeing with my brother for two out of my four days there. I got to see some palaces, museums, the Nam San Tower and river, Lotte World, and various other places such as Gangnam and Myeondong. I also happened to come to Korea while it was hosting its friendship fair. So many countries were present, selling their national cuisines and products.

Korean Palace

Korean Palace

Because everything is cheaper in Korea than in Japan (taxi rides too), I ate a lot of Korean cuisines (such as cold noodles, and rice flakes), and did some shopping with my friend from high school who is studying abroad at Yonsei University. She took me around Korea for the rest of my stay there. We explored Dongdaemun, Ewha, Hondae, and Sinchon (where I stayed). I noticed that she become more mature after studying abroad. Anyways, we both are enjoying our semester abroad!

After returning to Japan, life just continued as it did for me before coming to Korea. The only change would be my hair and my ear. I got 2 earlobe piercings on my left ear in Korea for about 6 dollars. Back at my pediatrics, she does the same kind of clamp style piercings for 20 dollars each.

Getting a haircut in Japan can be cheap, but I believe that you pay for what you get for. Thus, I went to a well reviewed Hair salon with some English speaking stylists. I went there by bicycle (I got it fixed for 3,500 yen when I bought it for 8,000 yen…) and ended up getting mislead by one of the workers at the Family Mart near the salon. After an hour of getting lost, I ended up unknowingly returning to the same exact Family Mart. This time, the other employee used her iPhone to teach me the right directions.

When I got to “Assort”, I mostly used Japanese and occasionally used English to convey what I could not express in Japanese. Although the cut did not turn out the way I wanted it to, I got along well with my hair stylist. He offered to give me a free touch-up cut in 10 days. Although I was not required to pay tip in Japanese hair salons, I did so anyways.

My salon!

I had to meet my friend the same day I cut my hair. Since I came by bicycle, thinking I would have enough time to park it back at my dorm and then take the train, I ended up leaving it parked by the closest train station. My hair stylist told me that as long as I come back for it within 24 hours, the police won’t take my bike away. The next day I came back for my bicycle after class and tore the pink warning letter that the police issues when you illegally park your bicycle. On the way home, I took a different route since I wanted to meet up with my friend in Shibuya.

I always biked pasted Shibuya on my way to Harajuku and thought it would be easy to get back to where I lived from there. Well, after going deep into Shibuya, getting out was quite difficult because it is so densely populated and big. When I asked the employee working at a Family Mart there for directions to Meidaimae, she told me that it was impossible. I should stop asking people working in Family Mart for directions.

After heading in the wrong direction, I eventually was directed the right way to Meidaimae. On the way, I eventually got to a familiar street, the one I take to get to Harajuku. From that point on, I did not need to stop every 5 minutes to ask for directions.

Everything else that happened this week was nothing out of the ordinary~ so that’s it for this post!

-Sampson

Week 4 in Tokyo

I have been in Tokyo a little over a month now. Studying abroad here has been a great experience for me. Although it was difficult applying for Meiji University and scholarships with having classes to focus on, it all paid off at last! I expected myself to enjoy living in Japan, but I did not expect to enjoy it so much that  I would seriously consider living here one day. I already have a bank account here as well as several point cards too that I will bring back to America to remind me of the good time I had here.

Golden week has just begun in Japan. It’s a week with several Japanese holiday such as the Emperor’s birthday and Children’s Day. For Meiji University students, we only get 2 days off, in addition to our weekend, while students from other schools and workers get a full week off! We rarely get holidays off here in the Japanese academic calender. I realize how much I took American holidays for granted after coming here. For my holiday, I plan on visiting Korea while I still have the opportunity~

I got to visit  Tokyo University a few times because my friend works at a convenient store there. Tokyo University is Japan’s Harvard. It is really big and grandeur as expected of Japan’s top university. Besides students who study there, I saw many high school students and various people like me who are just visiting the school. It is distinguished by its Japanese style gate, where people often take pictures at.

the Lawson convenient store at Tokyo University where my friend works

I went to a Omatsuri, or festival last Sunday at Koenji, a station away from my school campus with the Meiji student who went to New Paltz last semester!  There, I got to see many performances throughout the area-from magic acts, comedy, juggling, diabolo, Chinese Opera, acrobatics on the street along with people enjoying the weekend with their friends and family. There were even performers from America and Canada at the Omatsuri. Despite being a festival,  it still felt fast paced because there are so many performances that all lasted half an hour. It was impossible to see everything we wanted to see in a day.

More of a Dancer than a Magician~the first performance I saw

More of a Dancer than a Magician~the first performance I saw

I do realize the order of this post does not flow right, but a lot has really happened. I am still processing everything I saw! Also, I already have a problem with my bicycle. I need to replace one of the tires already~It should be fixed by my next post!

-Sampson