Candle Night

I really want to see the Rockabillies and crazy Harajuku fashion people who hang out at Yoyogi park, but they are only there on Sundays! I was so excited for last Sunday to come, but then it did and it rained. It rained all day. A lot. Sad!

So I decided to go anyways but found that no one was there, as I had suspected. Wouldn't want to get our picture taken with our makeup dripping now would we. But, I did stumble upon an Earth celebration because apparently it was the Summer Solstice. (It was also Father's Day, but it wouldn't be Father's Day in California where my Dad is until really late that night for me. I wasn't neglecting my Dad. promise.)

But Harajuku was pretty much boring. I walked through Yoyogi park and no one was there save for a few old people in ponchos doing tai chi or something. But I found myself at Yoyogi station and spontaneously decided to go to Roppongi just because I knew that the Oedo Subway line at Yoyogi would get me there. Here's the grand Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in all its grandness!

It's crazy how tall it is. It disappears into the mist a bit. And then just outside that is this funky spider-like statue that reminds me of a Miyazaki film. Oh! like the old guy who works at the bottom of the bath house in Spirited Away! I don't know. I took a picture because it's famous. And also huge and creepy.

The main reason I decided to jump on the subway to Roppongi is because I was missing American food. I didn't think that was even possible!! American food is icky!! Well, compared to Japanese food it is.

Roppongi is like the gaijin mecca of Japan. It's the mother ship that no one told me about. I'm like ET. Totally got left behind there. All the store clerks and cafe staff speak at least a little English, you can get hot dogs and giant slabs of steak here, and there are a ton of gaij around every corner. So, naturally, I got a bagel.

Doesn't that look like the tastiest bagel in all the world?!! Maybe just for me because I have a crazy love affair with bagels and I've been separated from my love for so long.

All and all, I don't think Roppongi Hill is all that interesting. I mean, Mori Tower is pretty cool because you can go up to the top and get a 360 view of Tokyo, but I didn't do that because it was raining and so cloudy I wouldn't have been able to see anything. Mostly Roppongi Hills is just a really huge, fancy shopping mall with nothing but designer stores. It's great if you want to buy a $300 purse, but I didn't so much.

So I went back to the station, which is connected to Roppongi Hills, and was about to buy a ticket home when I saw a sign that said, "Tokyo Midtown ↓" so off I went to see what this Tokyo Midtown was all about.

Turns out, it's another huge shopping center that has an underground walkway connecting it to Roppongi Hills. Only it's cooler. Yes, definitely better. I don't know why, I just like it better. Probably because I happened to go there right in the middle of a huge event.

Seems I stumbled upon "Candle Night," which is this huge even where people light candles and turn off the lights for a few hours to conserve energy. I think it was in honor of the Summer Solstice. People were writing their wishes on the outside of these cups and then putting a candle inside of them.

I decided to stick around until night when they were all lit up. Also, they were having some live music. This girl with a really beautiful voice was singing ballads. Her name is Kumaki Anri and I bought her newest single that had these three songs on them, the first three songs she sang that night: kimi no namae, inori, tsubasa.

Yesterday I was near Ginza and I actually heard "kimi no namae" playing on a big TV screen as I was crossing the street so I guess she's kinda popular? I really liked her in person; her voice is really angelic and kind of sucks you in, but I'm not sure if I like her recorded songs that much. It's the same songs, but she was so much more captivating in person. (I also was really excited that I understood almost all the lyrics of the song "kimi no namae." Yay! Although, that probably means that her lyrics arn't that original since I knew all the vocabulary...)

And here's what the candles looked like all lit up. My camera isn't that good with night shots, but it still looks really pretty. The mist is so thick that the huge building in the background is half invisible. haha. That band of light continues up quite a ways but you can't see it.

I tried to take a picture with flash, but it just got all the rain drops falling. I think it's pretty cool though. Looks like snow.

There's something kind of magical about having thousands of candles around you. Also, the fact that they continued to burn even after being continuously rained on is somewhat poetic, no?

You actually had a pretty good view of Tokyo Tower from the grass where the candles were so I took a picture of it through the trees. It came out blurry so I was going to take another one, but the second after I took the picture, all the lights went off!! I was so lucky!! I guess Tokyo Tower was also participating in Candle Night by turning off the lights and saving electricity. Literally, the second I hit the shutter button the lights went off. It's was really quite spooky. Just stumbling upon a huge event like Candle Night is kind of spooky. I really am just the queen of coincidences. Guuzen-sama. ^^

Everything is called Aoyama

Yesterday, I went to 青山学院大学 (Aoyama Gakuin Daigaku) which means Aoyama Academy University. It's redundant, but Aoyama Academy also has a high school and middle school and so on and so forth. Everything is called Aoyama something. There is an Aoyama street, and Aoyama coffee place, and Aoyama blablablahlsdfsldfkj. Even in Nakano there are things called Aoyama something or other. On my phone, when I type out Japanese messages, if I just push "a" then my phone will suggest Aoyama as the first thing.

Anyways, it is a really pretty campus, especially since it's right in the middle of Tokyo. It's between Shibuya and Harajuku. My friend, Akane, showed me around. She used to go to Aoyama, but she just transferred to my college!! Yay! But I might apply to study abroad at Aoyama in two years so she gave me a little tour. It's really pretty. I like it a lot.

More importantly, apparently Aoyama Gakuin Daigaku has the top rating in all of Japan for food services. The food is so tasty!!! And really cheap!! I'm told that salarymen even stop by for lunch because it's so good and cheap. haha. That's reason enough to go to Aoyama, right?

Afterwards we walked around Omotesando and Harajuku. She showed me this really weird place called "Oriental Bazaar." The place looked ridiculous and housed ridiculous things. Mixed in with the nice traditional Japanese stuff like pottery, fabric, purses, and charms were these things:

They're made out of the same crape material as the other traditional Japanese key chains, but they're hamburgers and hotdogs!! What the hell? So very odd. But really, what did I expect when the outside looks like this:

Then Akane had class so she went back to Aoyama and I just walked around Harajuku again and found myself back at the station. Right next to the station is the famed Meiji Shrine and since I was there I decided that now was as good a day as any to check it out. Here's a picture of Harajuku from the pedestrian crossway that goes over the streets. The small building on the left is Harajuku Station.

Then, just turn slightly to your left and TADA! green!

That's the entrance to the Meiji Shrine. It really looks like the gate to a different world. Right behind me are skyscrapers and rushing vehicles. 信じられないよね。It's unbelievable.

As soon as you enter, the temperature drops like 5 degrees, it gets really quiet really quickly, and you really are in another world.

The path is gigantic. It's so wide, but that just makes everyone seem that much farther away. Then you come to a little bridge overlooking a stream. It was so serene.

Somewhere along the way there was a map, but I wasn't interested and just kept wondering, but if you guys ever visit and don't want to get lost, have no fear, there are maps. The place is HUGE.

So next up was the wall of sake. It's really kind of pretty, but mostly enlightening. Them olden people liked to get wasted. haha. No, I'm sure there's some sort of significance to all the liquor, but it's written all over wikipedia I'm sure and I didn't feel like stopping to read the signs. Make your own significance. It works better.

So I finally make it to the main Shrine and I see this family taking a picture outside the gate. Three of them were in the shot and they made the young boy take the picture. sad. So, I first asked them if they spoke English or Japanese (they spoke English) and then I asked them if they would like me to take their picture. They said, no, it's ok, but would I like them to take my picture. Not gonna lie, that was my ulterior motive for offering my picture taking services. Here's the pic:

The guy was really weird though, in a funny way. He said that he would take my picture, and take one with him in it because he's traveling the world and inserting himself in everyone's pictures. haha, whatever. ok. So here's the quirky guy and me at the Meiji Shrine:

Then me and the quirky guy and his family said our goodbyes and they entered the shrine and I went to go wash my hands again. I'm getting super pro at washing my hands for the gods.

Here's a picture of the shrine. It was a really cloudy day, so the shrine looks like it's glowing, no?

And right next to it was the place where you get your fortune. I never get my fortune at any of the shrines or temples, did you notice? I don't want to know. I just took a picture of it because I thought the tree looked like the Totoro tree. The whole thing looks like it's glowing, even the ground.

I bought a charm before I left. This one is supposed to protect me while I'm traveling. Handy. I travel A LOT.

Then I chilled outside the shrine, at a different entrance, and, I confess, looked at a map. It looked like it was going to rain soon, so I thought I should get where I want to go as soon as possible. Basically, I just didn't want to go anywhere I'd already been, so I found a tiny path on the map and decided to go with that one.

Just when I was about to leave, the same guy and his family walked by. The guy said, "well now that's an interesting picture," and said I should take a picture of me there. I said ok, handed him my camera and his wife, I assume, piped in, "just do what you were doing naturally, just reading." But of course the whole situation was kind of weird so the most natural pose I could come up with was this:

That's pretty much the way I looked when they were walking by except I have this awkward smile on my face. They were a very weird bunch, but I liked them. Apparently they were from Singapore.

So here's the path I chose:

I took a picture of myself on it because I was the only one there. I thought that was really cool. I really forgot I was in Tokyo. It was completely covered by the treetops,

it was quiet and cool, and there were no people around. I even saw a cute little butterfly.

But then the tunnel opened up and I was reminded that, yes, I was in fact in Tokyo.

It became pretty clear to me that this open green area was kind of like a local secret. There were a few people sprinkled along the lawn just chilling out, having a picnic, or whatever. All the crowds were elsewhere. So I joined in and laid on the grass.
This is what I saw when I laid on my back:

And this is what the tree saw when it looked down:

Then this little bird came really close to me! To give you an idea of how close he was, I took this picture WITHOUT ZOOM.

Then it started to rain so I got out my handy dandy umbrella and continued walking around. Here are just some random shots of the grounds. It's so serene!!

I am at a crossroads. Story of my life.

Then I finished up the day with some ice cream. It's called 抹茶金時アイス or Maccha Kintoki Ice cream. It had two little balls of mochi and red bean in it!! Perfect way to end a very traditional day.

Lucky Discoveries

I'm still really sick, surprisingly, but I'm getting bored. I can't stop coughing, but I REALLY don't want to be in my apartment anymore. I'm in Tokyo!!! How can I spend the whole time in bed?!! (Even if it is a futon and not a bed and the futon is in Tokyo, which is really cool) So I drugged myself up and forced myself to go out.

I didn't do much at first, just walked around the area around my apartment, you know, getting to know the place. And to my great surprise, right around the corner, litteraly, is a cute little temple! It's actually not that little. It's kinda large.

Here's the entrance. Behind me is a super market and convenience store. Haha. Crazy juxtaposition.
Then you walk in and are greeted by this lovely thingy:

Along with this thingy:

And then this thingy, which seems to be the main part of the temple because people kept going up the steps in the back and praying and lighting incense and candles at the thing in front and praying.

Then there's a giant bell thingy:

And a large, ermmm, probably about 8ft tall statue thingy:

And right before you leave, this place that looks like a cemetery of sorts:

So I keep saying "thingy" because I have no idea what these things are or their significance. So I walked up to the guy who was selling charms off to the side next to the main shrine thing and asked where the hell I was. He looked at me funny and said, "tera desu," which means "It's a temple [stupid]." I added that last part. Anyways, I then explained that I was from America and had just moved to the area and I was tankenshiyo-ing, or exploring. (haha. yay Japanglish!) Then he gave me less of an "ahou-ka?-look" (that means an "are-you-an-idiot?-look") and started explaining things in really easy Japanese and I had absolutely no problem understanding him! I understood EVERY WORD he said!! That usually doesn't happen to me. Usually I just understand most of it or enough of what they say to get the general meaning of the sentence, but this time I fully understood everything he said!! Yay for small victories!!^^

But what's really weird about this whole thing is that it turned out to be a temple that people go to when they or their loved ones are sick. Crazy guuzen going on here. (guuzen = coincidence) So I bought this:

It's a little charm that's supposed to make me feel better and guess what?!!! After a while, I realized that all the sudden I DID feel better. How weird is that? I'm not going saying anything about my beliefs, but isn't it a little strange that I've been sick for almost two weeks now and all the sudden at feel-better-temple falls in my lap and the charm I buy makes me stop coughing? May the guuzens continue.

So instead of going back home, I keep tankenshiyo-ing. So I went out the opposite entrance to the temple that I had come in and crossed this cute little road right there where the little white lines are and found this great park!

Isn't it cute?!! It's really big too. It even continues across the street. The great thing about Nakano is that besides the park, the whole place is filled with trees! Here's the view of the street from a crossing bridge:

The whole place looks like this! Anyways, continuing on with my little tanken, this is the park on the other side of the street:

There's this little green pond with a ton of old guys fishing in it! Cute!

And I'm not kidding about there being trees everywhere. Look at this road. It's just a random road in my neighborhood not at all associated with the uber green park I just showed you:

It's really a nice place to live. Very residential. If I were to chose a place to live in Tokyo, this would be it, and I know I DID chose Nakano to live in, but I really just chose the cheapest apartment I could find and it just happened to be in Nakano. Another guuzen, a happy guuzen. ^^

But there is one area of Nakano, it's a really large area of Nakano, that is really close to my apartment that is filled with stores. It's like the shopping district of Nakano I guess and it starts at Nakano station and goes north.

Looks like this at a VERY unusually uncrowded time. I don't know why there aren't more people there; it's usually pretty filled with people.

It's called Ai rodo, or Love Road. Also cute, deshou?

Here's a little shop I found. The charm was really working, so I just kept shopping. Those look like flip flops, but they are really hard candy!! Crazy!! Needless to say I had to enter.

And enter I did and found these guys:

They were making the candy right in front of me! It was so cool!! This one looked like tiny lemon slices. While I was watching them, this nice lady gave me a sample of a strawberry one.

Also cute!!! I live in the cutest place ever!! I might go back and buy some stuff right before I leave as omiyage...

Then right across from that candy store, which is called papabubble by the way, is this weird little shrine looking thing. They're really big fans of juxtaposition, these Nakano people.

Here's another shot of Ai Road so you all can become very intimate with it. Or because I was having fun taking pictures every 5 seconds.

So this charm was really working wonders or I was just feeling a lot better from being outside or whatever, and decided to go to Harajuku to buy my sister these glasses that she wanted and go to Shibuya to shop at Loft to get my mom these pen/pencil combo thingys that she wanted. So I'm at Nakano station buying my ticket when I see these guys at the corner.

Sorry the angle's bad and the sound isn't great and you can only see the one guy, but tough. Also I'm not really holding the camera all that steadily but I wasn't watching the camera, I was watching them. haha. Also, I'm kicking myself for not filming the song they did earlier because I kinda liked it better. It was more upbeat and they were both playing the guitar. I don't know why the guy in front put his down for this song. Anyways, right before they sang this one, they were explaining that they have a live soon in Harajuku, but it was too fast for me. So, and I'm super proud of myself for this one, after this song, it was their last one, I went up to the guy in the front and told him that I don't really understand Japanese that well, so I missed the time and place of their gig and would he please write it down for me.

He was so happy!! He was super cute and just elated that I would want him to do that. It was so funny. So he wrote down the place and time, they are playing at アストロホール (Astro Hall) in Harajuku at around 6:00pm on June 20th. I also asked their name and he got really happy again. They are called 遊吟（ゆうぎん）"yuugin" and which I think means something like a troubadour or wandering musician or something of the sort. haha. I asked him if he had a CD, and then he got really excited and spoke Japanese really quickly but I think he said that he didn't have one with him today, but I could get one at a store either now, or in the near future. I think they had just put it out or are just about to. Then I said goodbye and he shook my hand with both of his, looked me right in the eye and said "thank you" really earnestly. haha. I think he was new to Tokyo. I really hope I can go!

Then I finally made it to Harajuku. This is the famous Takeshita street:

Where I did not buy my sister glasses because I couldn't find any. Instead I bought these earrings:

They're cute, right? Then I walked from Harajuku to Shibuya, went crazy in Loft and spent a ton of money, but also got to check off a lot of people on the "have to buy present for list," so all in all a pretty successful shopping trip. Then I went home, and when I was walked back to my apartment, all the sudden I couldn't stop coughing again. People were kinda staring. oops. But I got home and shoved my face with medicine and cough drops so I'm ok now. I guess the charm has a time limit. Like cinderella.

So let's recap, shall we? I luckily discovered:

-a temple for curing sickness

-a wonder charm that temporarily cured me so I could have a really nice day

-a cute little park, complete with pond

-a super cool candy shop

-a really good, undercover, indie Japanese music group with a cute, uber earnest guy (and also my future boyfriend)

-nice earrings

Today was pretty lucky. (^-^)