Brent's Blog

Brent's Japan Adventures, Part 3

12:37 PM June 20th, Tokyo; 8:37 PM June 19th, Arizona
We just finished touring the main local government offices of Tokyo. It was pretty generic a tour, but considering it takes two fifty story buildings and 17,000 people to keep just the city government of Tokyo running is really quite impressive, we also went to an bservation deck near the top of the taller building, I was hoping to see Fuji-san, but the view was limited due to smog. After the observation deck we went to lunch at the caffeteria, the system there for buying food was forgien to me (see pictures). Right now we are on our way to a Shrine after another stop to shop. I've been told where we're shopping is close to Shinjuku (also where the government offices were) so perhaps I'll get a chance to find some neat electronics stuff.

8:20 AM June 21st, Tokyo; 4:20 PM June 20th, Arizona
Crap, no chance to get electroncis stuff, we didn't even get to see Akihabara, which means I didn't get any chance to buy a pink Nintendo DS. And now we are on our way out of Tokyo to Mount Fuji for the day, and we're not returning to Tokyo. Yesterday after the government offices a government official joined us for the rest of the day, he spoke very good English so he told us a lot of neat stuff. We went shopping in an open air market again, I didn't see anything too exciting, a lot of the stores were selling American products like shoes and shirts, but at about twice the value of the goods back home. Then we visited another Shinto shrine. This was one of the coolest experiences I've had during the whole trip because it was a small shrine and we spent three hours there. The people at the shrine had prepared lots of activities for us and the priest (he asked that we call him Guji-san) told us some basic information about the Shinto belief system. Then they gave us a chance to play the drums like they do in a festival. They then served us a snack, which was entirely unexpected but very welcome. After the snack they had us do a craft activity in which we made bowls from paper and dried leaves (it's cooler than it sounds). Then we attempted to sing some songs together (kinda painful, but fun).

8:48 PM June 21st, Hakone; 4:50 AM June 21st, Arizona
Ok, Mount Fuji was really cool we hiked there for a couple hours to a crater that was formed in the last eruption. The clouds were awesome and the winds were constantly blowing them not just overhead, but also all around us. If it was a clear day our tour guide informed us that we would be able to see the Pacific Ocean. After exploring Fuji-san we drove to a lake that was surrounded by mountains and rode the tram up to the top of one of the taller mountains. It was foggy again, so my pictures didn't turn out very clear. We have yet to see a clear day in Japan, but I suppose that's a good thing, with this humidity high temperatures could be a pain. After the tram ride and some hanging around in the arcade at the base we traveled to Hakone which is in the same mountain area. Tonight we are staying at the Hakone Guest House, which is a traditional Japanese guest house, with tatami on the floor and shoji for walls. They were kind enough to let me use their internet connection, but I've heard the next place we are supposed to have interweb is in Kyoto next week. I hope the family I'm staying with this weekend has a connection I can use (they emailed me back I would assume they do) so perhaps I'll be able to post some more this weekend.

¶ 4:56 AM

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