Monday, October 16, 2006

Japan: City Rife

06/15/2006

After spending the night before doing laundry (stupid dryers didn't work at all) and then packing, I woke up and carried my bags down to the lobby to meet up with a bunch of sleepy LBATers. Another rainy day awaited us as we took our Mega-Taxis to the airport. Of course, Noriko was there to see me off on another tear-filled farewell. Unfortunately, Andy had apparently shipped his ticket to Tokyo... to Tokyo so Masuda-sensei had to help him sort things out. After an uneventful plane ride, we arrived at the hustle and bustle known as Tokyo.

Once we got to Tokyo we were immediately whisked off to a smatter of sight-seeing. The first place we went to was a nice park. It was pretty wide and had a lot to see (including a very smelly place that was supposed to be water). Also had a wicked looking old tree. Quite an interesting park because surrounding it, you could see the tall buildings that define a large city like Tokyo.





Andy and Sara had the wrong time that we were supposed to meet at the bus though, so they were late and we had to rush to get to lunch in time (lunch was on a boat called バンデアン (vingt-et-un [21 in French]). This was a nice little 2-hour lunch/cruise around Tokyo bay. The food was really good and pretty westernized, so it was a nice change from the 和食 (Japanese food) we'd become so accustomed to. After lunch, we wandered around the ship taking pictures and just enjoying the scenery. Unfortunately, it started to rain a little bit, but it never got too bad.




We left the port and went to our next destination, the temple at あさくさ (Asakusa). This is a particularly well-known temple in Tokyo that I hear gets crazy mad around まつり (festivals) or special events like New Years. I can believe it. I've got a picture of what it's like to walk around the shops around Asakusa that I'll post later. In any case, on this particular day, it was dreary and raining, but there were still a good deal of people around.



After leaving Asakusa, we arrived at the place we would be staying during our duration in Tokyo: The National Olympics Memorial Youth Center by 代々木公園 (Yoyogi Park). The place is nice and dirt-cheap. Not nearly as nice as the Seminar House in Fukuoka though. We didn't get any people to take care of our linens or anything and the bath time is shared by everyone in the center rather than just the LBATers. In addition, they had this insane habit of kicking us out of our rooms and making us move time and time again. For instance, we had to vacate our rooms only 2 days after we arrived. The reason for this is because there's so much demand for the rooms there.

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