Janessa did Japan
Ohayo gozaimasu!
Strangely enough, I am indeed blogging in the morning, a time of day I rarely see here. I have to be up this early (9 am!) because I must help Janessa pack up and take her to the airport. Sigh, our two-week reunion is drawing to a close, and while a rather substantial part of me would love to jump on the plane with her and see all the people and places I miss back home, having had Janessa here allowed me to catch up on much of the news I'd missed since being in Tokyo and gave my a lovely slice of familiarity to hold on to for the remainder of my stint in Japan.
Like the first week of Nez's trip here, the past week was full of fun and adventure (and-oops- one major disappointment). I have Nez here riding shotgun with me again, so I'll let her begin by telling you about her day in Sengawa.
Hello! To catch you up, Sengawa is the name of the part of Tokyo where Jen works. She had a short day so I rode into work with her and met her fellow Nova teachers (a nice bunch, our Jenny is the only girl!). After exploring around Sengawa a bit and sitting in the local Starbucks listening to Jen's iPod (how I will miss that thing again when I leave!) I went back to Nova. Since Jen had another hour of work left I figured I would be sitting by myself reading but fortunately no one in that branch was working particularly hard that day. I had Jen as well as her workmates Kee and John to entertain me. After the 'work' was done for the day, we headed out for a Sengawa branch party. After some curry, it was off to sing some karaoke! It was a definite hi-lite of my trip, some of the guys really got into it, and the Japanese staff were very cute singing their favourite J-Pop tunes. Jen insists that I didn't really sing but she's so lying! I gave it my all during the group numbers and she and I even teamed up for what can only be described as a haunting rendition of 'Desperado'.
The next afternoon Jen was working again but Greg wasn't so he took me to Asakasa to find a shrine. We never did. I think Greg's navigatory skills were off that day. We did find a Starbucks and after some rather comical ordering woes, we got to just sit around and drink coffee while dishing our respective dirt on Jen. Then we came home and made Jenny a lovely dinner of stir-fry and gyoza (A favourite of mine here).
Saturday was a wash. For real.... it rained all day and Jenny had to work so I scrapped my plans to go looking around parks and watched Tommy Boy instead. Jen's roommate Alyce returned from her vacation to Thailand and Cambodia to find a strange girl (me) sitting on her couch surfing you-tube. Anyway, Alyce is a winner and had some great stories and pictures from her travels. I made Jenny and Alyce some dinner and we watched 'Lost in Translation' which Jen made all the more entertaining by blurting out 'I know where that is' about every 5 minutes.
The best part of my trip was visiting Chris and Amanda in Chichibu. After spending the better part of 2 weeks in Tokyo it was refreshing to see forests and mountains and water. The train ride out to Chichibu is full of breath-taking views and I honestly would never have believed that so many trees could co-exist in a country with so many people. I really didn't get to properly catch up with Mands and Chris when they were home for Christmas so it was great to spend time with them in their element and see how much they really do love it here. We ate okinomiyaki, played some Trivial Pursuit (80's edition), and explored some of Chichibu's top attractions. Oh! We saw monkeys! For real monkeys! Jen and I saw one right beside a 'monkey crossing' sign on the way up some mountain and Amanda was all bummed out that she didn't see him (apparently she has seen no monkeys in her time here). So on the way back down we looked in the same spot and there was a family of monkeys (or at least a group... I suppose they could have just been friends). We stopped the car on a somewhat blind corner of the twisty mountain road and I jumped out to take pictures (Jen thought I would for sure by hit by a car... how would she explain that one to Sue? Run down while photographing monkeys). And then it was back onto the train to Tokyo... I'll let Jenny explain to you Tuesday's plans as well as its reality.
Since yesterday was Janessa's final full day in Japan, we wanted to give her a taste of authentic Japanese culture. Of course, nothing in Japan is more culturally stimulating than Sumo. Fortunately for us, the January grand sumo tournament had just gotten underway. Sumo tournaments are run round-robin style by division. On each of the tournament's 16 days, each wrestler has one fight against another wrestler in his division. The lower level sumos square off first; the highest level wrestlers don't begin fighting until late afternoon. With this in mind, I decided that we could hold off on getting to the stadium until later in the day.
We started our day by heading out to Odaiba, a new-ish land-reclamation development in Tokyo Bay. Its buildings are oddly-shaped and futuristic, their concrete and glass still bright and shiny, but foreshadowing their looming datedness. Odaiba will look like crap in 20 years. However, yesterday, with its bright blue sky and sunshine, was the perfect day for getting a great view of the whole thing by riding the Tokyo Giant Sky Wheel, a ferris wheel that was the tallest in the world until the London Eye openned. Nez has a bit of a fear of heights, but with encouragement she managed to climb that rainbow and get through the ride without any form of panic attack. After the ferris wheel, we headed to another of Odaiba's more famous attractions, Venus Fort, a shopping mall "designed for women" (because most malls are designed for men?). Upon entering Venus Fort, one is meant to feel as though they have been taken away to the streets of an Italian village. There are renaissance statues and fountains aplenty. However, the mall's most striking feature is its ceiling, accross which the "sun" sets and rises every 2 hours, giving the feel of perpetual twilight.
After buying candy at the creepy mall, it was time to cross the city to Ryogoku, where we would be just in time to catch the major sumo action. But when we approached the ticket gate, we made a terrible discovery. All of the unreserved (read: cheap) seats had already been sold out. This being only the 3rd day of the tournament, and a regular working day, I'd not figured on that happenning. Alas, at the very end of Nez's stay, my tour guide credentials were shattered. We did still manage to see a few of the earlier fighters hanging outside of the stadium but that was about it. Although disappointed, we salvaged our evening with a quick trip to Shibuya for some people watching and then headed back to Bubai for our last night of sisterly bonding until the summer.
Strangely enough, I am indeed blogging in the morning, a time of day I rarely see here. I have to be up this early (9 am!) because I must help Janessa pack up and take her to the airport. Sigh, our two-week reunion is drawing to a close, and while a rather substantial part of me would love to jump on the plane with her and see all the people and places I miss back home, having had Janessa here allowed me to catch up on much of the news I'd missed since being in Tokyo and gave my a lovely slice of familiarity to hold on to for the remainder of my stint in Japan.
Like the first week of Nez's trip here, the past week was full of fun and adventure (and-oops- one major disappointment). I have Nez here riding shotgun with me again, so I'll let her begin by telling you about her day in Sengawa.
Hello! To catch you up, Sengawa is the name of the part of Tokyo where Jen works. She had a short day so I rode into work with her and met her fellow Nova teachers (a nice bunch, our Jenny is the only girl!). After exploring around Sengawa a bit and sitting in the local Starbucks listening to Jen's iPod (how I will miss that thing again when I leave!) I went back to Nova. Since Jen had another hour of work left I figured I would be sitting by myself reading but fortunately no one in that branch was working particularly hard that day. I had Jen as well as her workmates Kee and John to entertain me. After the 'work' was done for the day, we headed out for a Sengawa branch party. After some curry, it was off to sing some karaoke! It was a definite hi-lite of my trip, some of the guys really got into it, and the Japanese staff were very cute singing their favourite J-Pop tunes. Jen insists that I didn't really sing but she's so lying! I gave it my all during the group numbers and she and I even teamed up for what can only be described as a haunting rendition of 'Desperado'.
The next afternoon Jen was working again but Greg wasn't so he took me to Asakasa to find a shrine. We never did. I think Greg's navigatory skills were off that day. We did find a Starbucks and after some rather comical ordering woes, we got to just sit around and drink coffee while dishing our respective dirt on Jen. Then we came home and made Jenny a lovely dinner of stir-fry and gyoza (A favourite of mine here).
Saturday was a wash. For real.... it rained all day and Jenny had to work so I scrapped my plans to go looking around parks and watched Tommy Boy instead. Jen's roommate Alyce returned from her vacation to Thailand and Cambodia to find a strange girl (me) sitting on her couch surfing you-tube. Anyway, Alyce is a winner and had some great stories and pictures from her travels. I made Jenny and Alyce some dinner and we watched 'Lost in Translation' which Jen made all the more entertaining by blurting out 'I know where that is' about every 5 minutes.
The best part of my trip was visiting Chris and Amanda in Chichibu. After spending the better part of 2 weeks in Tokyo it was refreshing to see forests and mountains and water. The train ride out to Chichibu is full of breath-taking views and I honestly would never have believed that so many trees could co-exist in a country with so many people. I really didn't get to properly catch up with Mands and Chris when they were home for Christmas so it was great to spend time with them in their element and see how much they really do love it here. We ate okinomiyaki, played some Trivial Pursuit (80's edition), and explored some of Chichibu's top attractions. Oh! We saw monkeys! For real monkeys! Jen and I saw one right beside a 'monkey crossing' sign on the way up some mountain and Amanda was all bummed out that she didn't see him (apparently she has seen no monkeys in her time here). So on the way back down we looked in the same spot and there was a family of monkeys (or at least a group... I suppose they could have just been friends). We stopped the car on a somewhat blind corner of the twisty mountain road and I jumped out to take pictures (Jen thought I would for sure by hit by a car... how would she explain that one to Sue? Run down while photographing monkeys). And then it was back onto the train to Tokyo... I'll let Jenny explain to you Tuesday's plans as well as its reality.
Since yesterday was Janessa's final full day in Japan, we wanted to give her a taste of authentic Japanese culture. Of course, nothing in Japan is more culturally stimulating than Sumo. Fortunately for us, the January grand sumo tournament had just gotten underway. Sumo tournaments are run round-robin style by division. On each of the tournament's 16 days, each wrestler has one fight against another wrestler in his division. The lower level sumos square off first; the highest level wrestlers don't begin fighting until late afternoon. With this in mind, I decided that we could hold off on getting to the stadium until later in the day.
We started our day by heading out to Odaiba, a new-ish land-reclamation development in Tokyo Bay. Its buildings are oddly-shaped and futuristic, their concrete and glass still bright and shiny, but foreshadowing their looming datedness. Odaiba will look like crap in 20 years. However, yesterday, with its bright blue sky and sunshine, was the perfect day for getting a great view of the whole thing by riding the Tokyo Giant Sky Wheel, a ferris wheel that was the tallest in the world until the London Eye openned. Nez has a bit of a fear of heights, but with encouragement she managed to climb that rainbow and get through the ride without any form of panic attack. After the ferris wheel, we headed to another of Odaiba's more famous attractions, Venus Fort, a shopping mall "designed for women" (because most malls are designed for men?). Upon entering Venus Fort, one is meant to feel as though they have been taken away to the streets of an Italian village. There are renaissance statues and fountains aplenty. However, the mall's most striking feature is its ceiling, accross which the "sun" sets and rises every 2 hours, giving the feel of perpetual twilight.
After buying candy at the creepy mall, it was time to cross the city to Ryogoku, where we would be just in time to catch the major sumo action. But when we approached the ticket gate, we made a terrible discovery. All of the unreserved (read: cheap) seats had already been sold out. This being only the 3rd day of the tournament, and a regular working day, I'd not figured on that happenning. Alas, at the very end of Nez's stay, my tour guide credentials were shattered. We did still manage to see a few of the earlier fighters hanging outside of the stadium but that was about it. Although disappointed, we salvaged our evening with a quick trip to Shibuya for some people watching and then headed back to Bubai for our last night of sisterly bonding until the summer.
posted by Jen @ 6:49 PM
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