I had to go pick up my Foreigner Registration Card at city hall last week, and went with my host mom. It went really well, but I look like a terrorist. My host mom was showing me the Hina Matsuri dolls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hina_Matsuri). There was a guy from a cable station video taping it and asked if he could get us looking at them like we were interested. So that's the second time I'm on tv in Japan.

We had Temaki zushi My host mom prepared everything. It looks similar to this (this is not their house):

Its a big thing of sushi rice and various ingredients, like different fish, duck roast, octopus, etc. You pick your favorite ones, get a sheet of nori and some rice, and make your own sushi. Its really good. I ate so much.

Its strange being here. I'm so easy to pick out of a crowd. Whenever I see other foreigners, there is always this sort of unspoken rule where we should acknowledge each other with a nod or maybe even a hey.

I checked out this school called HAL institute of Technology in Nagoya a couple days ago. It was really cool. Here's the commercial for it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep3uLEEjUgg The school offers CG animation, video game development, computer programming, IT stuff, and music. It was so cool. I definitely want to have a career in video games in the future so when I get back home, Im gonna take more courses in animation at DePaul.

I went to Toganji temple and saw Nagoya's Daibutsu. Its a huge buddha statue. I took some pictures that Ill upload soon. It was amazing.

Everything is going well here but there are some things about America that I miss. You'd think its fattening food, but Japan actually has alot of it. Especially bread. There are bakeries and bread stores all over the place! Its so good too. But I really miss things like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiHaqCFQLxA .

Ok, until next time.

National Japanese Television!

Hey, so in my previous post I had a picture of me being interviewed. I have a link to the actual broadcast! Its really crappy cause my friend recorded it on his digital camera from the tv, but its still cool. He only kept the parts with my friends on. Its also pretty hilarious. They were just asking what sorts of things we like about Japan and what not. We also get Japanese subtitles! They use them just to make it funnier from what I hear. You can also see in the corner some Picture in Picture of famous japanese people watching us and laughing! Cool! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqkbOOpsvZM

PICTURES and other stuff!

If you can, please send me some emails. I like reading about what's happening at home!

Here are some of my pictures from Tokyo! Theres more from Nagoya too.

Here is the menu for Japanese Wendy's. Note the shrimp sandwich. I ate the Curry Tonkatsu(Pork cutlet) sandwich.

We went to Ueda Park for a day and saw some Chinese acrobats performing. They were all really talented. This guy had a giant ceramic pot on his head.


I think they were a family. This might be the younger sister. Those are her feet by her shoulders. She kept looking right at me, it was kinda creepy, but made for a good picture.


Heres the guy again. He balanced on top of chairs stacked at least 25 feet in the air.


We went to a few museums in the park to look at art and history. Along the way I saw an old lady with pink-purple hair. I didnt think people would believe that old lady's dye their hair crazy colors, but heres proof.


This is near our hostel in Asakusa.


Japanese people like their socks. Also taken at Asakusa.


This is just an average night in Shinjuku. Look at how insanely crowded it is.


The rest of these are from Nagoya. Theres a store in Sakae that sells nothing but robots. This guy was standing outside of it:


This is an example of what your average Japanese guy wears, especially in Nagoya. Its pretty scary.


There was a Chinese festival in the park in Sakae. This is a dancer, you can see her face in the center.


There were also Lion Dancers. The came out into the crowd. It was probably the coolest thing ever.


And finally, this little guy was just standing in the center of the pigeons, screaming. Haha, I had to take a picture.

Tokyo!

I went to Tokyo for 4 days and just got back! I stayed at a youth hostel called Sakura Hostel In Asakusa Tokyo. (These aren't my pictures, just found them online. Mine aren't transferred yet.)

Asakusa was great. There were tons of people everywhere. Most were tourists, from all over too, even from other parts of Japan. The hostel was really clean and the staff was very friendly. They liked us a lot because we spoke to them in Japanese (they all spoke English as well). We tried to do as much traveling around Tokyo as possible. The city is massive. There are various districts that each offer something different. We met my friend Masako in Harajuku. We went on Sunday and that is when all the high school kids go out and dress up in the most insane fashion ever.

We then went to a Kaiten Sushi place, conveyor belt sushi, and ate so much food. It was really great though. Afterwords we walked around Shinjuku. I have never seen so many people in my life. I used to think that Chicago during the Taste was crowded, but its nothing in comparison to Shinjuku. The next day we went to Akihabara, which is a district that has electronics. It has electronics everywhere. There are stores for anything you could want. The coolest part is that are used electronic stores so you can get everything really cheap. I was with a group of almost 16 people, so i couldn't look around at my leisure. The even better part of Akihabara was while we were randomly walking in the street, we got stopped by some Japanese people with a video camera. They were from a tv show and interviewed my friends and I in Japanese. They just asked us why were were there, and what the best parts of Tokyo were. It was so insane!

All of the food I have eaten so far as been the greatest ever. Although at the Kaiten Sushi place, Mike (the guy standing next to me in that picture) wanted to try a new sushi that looked like a brain. We asked Masako what it was and she didn't know. She thought it was uterus or something. Mike ate it and almost vomited at first. But he said it was ok. We later found out that it was fish sperm. Its apparently a rare delicacy... gross. We also ate at Wendy's. I had a Tonkatsu curry sandwich! It was a fried porkcutlet sandwich with curry, and it was amazing. After that we went to the bakery where i bought a giant Hokaido Milk bread. it was the best thing ive ever eaten.

There was alot of fun times. We were only there for 4 days, so we missed alot of stuff. On the last day we ate in Odaibo, it was great. That area is right on the ocean and very pretty.

Yes, thats a small verison of the statue of Liberty in the Background. It was pretty funny. We took the bus home at around 11:30 pm and got to Nagoya at around 6:30 the next day. The bus sucked, but it was the first time I ever saw Yamanba fashion. Heres an example:Yamanba comes from the words Yama Uba, which means mountain hag. In Japanese folklore there she is a crazy old woman that lives in mountains and forests that preys on travelers. When she gains the travelers trust, she eats them. There were 3 girls dressed just like the one in the left of this picture on the bus. Apparently its an everyday thing. They were pretty interesting.

So I will have pictures that I took up as soon as I can. Ill write again when i have more interesting things to say. Bye! Also, its lie 50 degrees here. Stay safe and warm in the blizzardy weather!