October Wrap Up

My updates seem to have gone from once a week (once upon a time, right? haha) to once a month......

Which means there's a lot of catching up to do!

First things first was the long weekend a few weeks ago. It was great as I got to see Kara, who I haven't seen since graduation in 2010.

Our original plan was to visit an onsen I've been looking forward to for a while, but I figured that since onsen were plenty around Japan, it would've been better to take Kara out to a more special place.

You guessed it!

Nikko.

You might be wondering why the heck I'm always visiting Nikko, but it's pretty hard to say no to scenery like this.

My past two visits to Nikko were concentrated around the temples, so this time, we took the opportunity to visit the famous Kegon waterfalls and Lake Chuzenji.

The main point of the visit was to see the kouyou (紅葉, red autumn leaves), but unfortunately we were still too early to see many red leaves.

We were still lucky to have great weather on our trip up to Nikko though, as it wasn't raining and the weather was cool enough for a long sleeved tshirt and an optional jacket. Many other tourists were also enjoying the weather in boats all over Lake Chuzenji--Kara included.

We also left Nikko after having some delicious yuba-based foods.

During the trip, I also learned that apparently monkey poop is a "famous" product of Nikko (don't ask me why...)

The next big event was a fabulous fireworks exhibition in Tokyo. This was my last event with Bong before she moved to Gifu, so it was a bit of a bittersweet moment.

After fireworks, we ended up going to a yakitori place and then a Matsuya for some post fireworks, pre-moving food.

Following Bong's move was a week of reunions though. I got to see the mother of the family I stayed with in Akita during Golden Week.

And, as usual, I got to try delicious Japanese food in the presence of great company.

Following this reunion, I actually got to meet Seiko again and finally meet Sze Yen in person. Sze Yen and I were actually in the same department and had similar classes, but never actually met while in college despite the relative smallness of our departments.

It was also my first time having monajayaki, which was delicious--especially the cheese flavor!

The most recent major event was actually in Saitama--the annual Kawagoe festival.

I had been warned of the sheer size of the festival, but I don't think anything could have prepared me for the Kawagoe matsuri.

This festival is one of the largest festivals in Saitama and spanned several streets and blocks within a quick walking distance from the Kawagoe station, which meant tons of food stalls as people pushed their way through to see the beautiful floats that make the Kawagoe matsuri so famous.

The floats were beautifully made with plenty of beautiful colorful fabrics and gilded polished wood. I feel like one float would've been exciting enough on its own, but there were at least 15 floats all over the area as they moved about to represent their particular district.

I think this properly wraps up most of my October, and hopefully my next update won't be a month away....

Till next time!

August Sum Up

Wow, for shame--it's been nearly a month since I updated this blog even though a TON of things happened since August 7th.

1. Comiket Summer 2012
2. My birthday
3. My dad visiting--which probably deserves a post in and of itself, considering all the places we went to.
4. Fireworks

But, first things first, after our trip to Nikko, I needed a two day rest just to get rid of the swelling in my feet.

Soon after, though, a group of us went on to conquer the 2012 Summer Comiket.

That, in and of itself, was an incredible challenge, especially for the claustrophobic. Comiket took place at Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba and, even with the huge convention center, everyone and everything were jam packed into this gigantic comic and cosplay fest.

This was also my first visit to Odaiba, and I was incredibly excited to see the life-sized Gundam that so many celebrity personalities I follow had been to along with Rainbow Bridge, which lit up beautifully at night.

I was also lucky to celebrate my birthday by starting the day with cake and then going to Kushiya Monogatari in Shinjuku. Why is Kushiya so great? Because it combines all of my favorite things:

Fried food + meat + seafood + desserts.

Everything on Kushiya had already been skewered, so all we needed to do was dip it in the breading and stick it in the deep fryer.

Needless to say, it was delicious, although the buffet also ended up, regrettably, being a competition for who would eat the most skewers, which left me thinking about how undelicious everything was if it came back up.......

The next major event was my dad's first time in Japan. With only a week, I couldn't take him to further places, like Kyoto, so we primarily explored Tokyo, Misato and then made a day trip out to Nikko. The visit was off to a pretty tough start though. UA78 was delayed at least 4 hours due to storms close to Hong Kong.

My dad was surprisingly resilient and actually came out of customs with a smiling face. I know I definitely would have disembarked looking ready to punch some UA if I was delayed for that long (laugh).

The original plan was to take my dad to experience Japanese conveyor belt sushi, but with the unexpected delay, I figured it'd be safer if we grabbed a meal of soba at the airport before heading home.




Over the next few days, we visited several major tourist spots in Tokyo, including Asakusa, the Imperial Gardens, and Tsukiji. There were some places that I had never visited before either, so it was fun revisiting old favorites while exploring new ones.

As you can see, my dad really liked Tokyo Sky Tree, haha.

We also went to Nikko, which I had in mind since the first trip there.

With this trip to Nikko, we went into Toshogu Shrine, which I skipped last time since it required paid admission. As pretty as the shrine was over all, I won't deny that I was rather disappointed by the nemuri neko, also known as the sleeping cat. While cute, for something so famous, it was tiny, and I nearly missed it on the way to Ieyasu's actual tomb.

Another Japanese tourist explained that the cat was famous because the tomb was supposed to be quiet and peaceful enough for a cat to sleep in.

With all the tourists going in and out, I'm not too sure how peaceful it actually was though...

Distractions aside, the workmanship on the shrine was incredible. Japanese shrines tend to have a simpler approach, but the intricacy of Toshogu was amazing and I felt it bore a great resemblance to old Chinese-style architecture.

Unsurprising, since Japan is a country famous for its cultural imports. Toshogu shrine simply reaffirmed the fact.

We also got a chance to eat Nikko's specialty yuba, bean curd, cuisine.

My favorite place during my dad's visit was probably the Tokyo Metropolitan Building.

Tokyo Metropolitan Building has Observation Decks on the 45th floor, and the best part about these was that going up was free! I timed our trip so that we would be able to visit the observation decks at dusk, just in time to see Tokyo begin to light up in the dark.

After my dad made his return back to the US, my next order of action was to attend the Misato fireworks show.

I was fairly excited for these because

1. From experience, fireworks in Asian always majorly trumped those in the US and
2. I would be seeing friends from college whom, I realized, I hadn't seen for about two years.

It was definitely fun seeing old friends while mingling with new ones, so the fireworks seemed extra bright and fun that night.

And, of course, what better way than to end summer (and this post) with a bang?

Till next time!