Japan Misc

There has been a lot of cool / random / strange things I've seen here in Japan. The following have been filtered out for your entertainment.

もったいない！

If something falls onto the train tracks it is a very bad idea to try and retrieve it yourself. Instead ask a train attendant and they will whip out a grabber claw and pick up what-ever-it-is-you-dropped. While this lovely bottle of unopened tea was not mine, I was highly tempted to ask someone to get it for me.

Ouch.

Flavor your food with pig boogers after sticking your chopsticks into this.

Another bathroom sign. Just in case you were confused about how to sit on a toilet.

This is an arm!

I don't know why it's like this, but Japanese language classes here in Japan are flat out boring some most days. The combination of 90 minute class (vs. USC 50 min) and teachers that ramble on and on put me to sleep make class very unbearable at times. So... I have to find ways to entertain myself.

Sometimes drinks come affixed with a freebie - in this case a Miffy strap. Found at my local supermarket for a marked down price of 100 yen.

Hoffman Hall 3rd floor cafeteria.

 Moving on to some food... here is a lovely specimen of curry, complete with an onsen egg!

Close your eyes! It's the cutest, and sexiest, Japanese character out there! Rilakkuma (relax + kuma (bear)) is my newest fixation and I have already accumulated a collection of Rilakkuma goods. I think our personalities match well.

Oh my goodness - so scandalous!

Now for Elizabeth's favorite... Capybara-san! There are a few variations, and this one is actually called White-san. Capybaras are the largest rodents in the world and in Japan they have been cute-ified to the max. The Capybara featured here was saved won from a UFO catcher and doubles as a tissue case.

These are some strange shaped watermelons - a snowman/gourd, a square, and a normal one. I wonder how they got that way and if they taste any good..

The mushroom made the bullet super-sized.

When you go to school in Japan, sometimes you stumble upon awesome things in the trash.

I want his pants. D:

Finally, here is my future boyfriend. Bunnys on his backpack, bunnys on his pants, and a bunny (the same as the butt bunnys) on his plastic bag.

Hisashiburi! It's been a while.

The semester is coming to an end. We have 1 week (well... 4 days) left of class then finals start on Friday! Since a lot has happened between now and my last post in June (sorry..) I'll share the big highlights.

Hiroshima
We had a mandatory trip with CIEE to Hiroshima for a weekend. It was quite the experience cramming 60 foreigners into the Shinkansen in about 1-2 minutes flat (trains wait for nobody). I felt a little sorry for the Japanese people who were (un)fortunate enough to reserve seats in the same car as us. (60 Americans = loud!)

 Bunny and musubi dinner on the Shinkansen! Took about 4 hours.

The first day we went to the Peace Museum and got to hear from an atomic bomb survivor. Random note: the prime minister (?) of Afghanistan happened to be visiting on the same day. I tried to look for him but we were ushered inside before he came out. (But one of our staff got a picture of him!)

After the museum and park we had the option to look around some more or go to a castle. Out of the whole group, only 3 of us (me, Elizabeth, Shannon) decided to hang back. Elizabeth wanted to find eye drops so we went down a street full of shops and happened to discover that Taito (one of our frequent UFO catcher stops in Akihabara) followed us to Hiroshima.

The arcade and the spoils. Don't tell!

And purikura of the non-castle gang.

At night we ate okonomiyaki (savory Japanese pancake-like thing) and later watched Japan lose to the Netherlands during the World Cup. Apparently Japan doesn't do sports bars - we tried in vain to find a bar with a TV but ended up with conbini snacks back at the hotel.

 Hiroshima style okonomiyaki - yummy and filling!

 Snack for the game.

The following day we went to a little island called Miyajima for progressive snacking which is famous for its giant tori gate and deer.

 From left to right, top to botton: deep fried momiji manju (cheese in the middle!), the best oyster I've ever tasted, super soft sweet potato, grilled squid legs.

Hair Cut
With summer in full swing and the rainy season around the corner, I was ready for an overdue haircut. I looked up a place in Harajuku that had staff that spoke English so explaining what I wanted went very smoothly. My hairdresser even gave me a massage and offered me something to drink - nice Japan!

In honor of EDeng because I didn't make this one my facebook profile pic.

Origami Museum
The gallery was pretty small (like 1 small room small) but it was free. There were some crazy cranes and we even got a free demo. This lady whipped up a rose, fish, Christmas tree (complete with a star at the top and mini Santa), and... a dog (?). There was also a room where we saw people making origami paper, and we took home instructions for origami "kiss lips."

Photo from google but we managed to make them ourselves after much pain.

CIEE Farewell Party
I can't believe study abroad is coming to a close. There were some really nice videos and speeches, but what was really exciting was the food. And smuggling home a giant bottle of unopened oolong tea.

It's strange to think that this was the last time I would see a lot of CIEE people, but we have to go our own ways eventually.