catch up time!

Sorry for not uploading any updated photos. I am currently uploading them to photobucket. It's currently 10:15PM and I plan on sleeping at 11 so I see how much I can type and upload before going to bed.

Thankfully, the weather lately is really nice. It's been sunny during the day and a bit chilly near the end but it's manageable. Okay, time to update!

Christine, Jessi, Yasu, Yumi and I visited the biggest temple in Tokyo. I forgot where it was but I have nice pictures to show. =) You had to walk a bit to reach the temple but the atmosphere around the temple was welcoming. There were a lot of trees and, of course, a lot of big nasty spiders with big nasty nets. I could never live a life of a homeless person in Japan knowing that some nasty bug might crawl up on me. But anyhow, here are some of the pictures that I took from the famous temple.

Upon entering the huge park

Picture of the entrance

Walking towards the main gates

Entrance to breathtaking scenery... BEHOLD

Final shot of the awesome clearing

We finally arrive at the inner gates

Cool beans =)

I want a lock like that...

A panoramic shot of what's beyond the gates. This are is divided into a north, south, east and west entrance/exit. This picture was taken at place similar to a "plaza."

South Gate

We saw a wedding ceremony shortly after passing through the temple doors. We also saw these wooden blocks hanging on hooks and found one that was particularly interesting. =) We decided to buy one for all of us and we all took turns to write down our little hopes. I ended up drawing everyone but myself. Christine decided to draw me and apparently I have an extremely long face. But anyhow, hopefully things turn out well for everyone.  

結婚式 - Wedding Ceremony

I lol'd so hard at this. お金欲しい！！！ - I want money.

A tablet split amongst friends.

o_o How big is this?

Here's a scale. =)

Forgot to add this: After we left the temple, we decided to visit the uber busy street in Shinjuku with the four-story crazy, Canadian equivalence, "Dollar Store." We gradually wandered into the infamous condom shop in Shinjuku and I have pictures to prove that Christine went in there to buy condoms. =) There was a superman condom in there which could probably wrap my water bottle and still be a bit loose with many inches to spare. On the package --- "For big strong men." It costs around $7. I left shortly after we left the condom shop because I needed to pack.

=)

I also took a few pictures of the airport before leaving Tokyo. I don't know if I will be able to visit again given the current situation I am in. However, it would be nice to meet up with everyone once more. Again, I felt overwhelmingly sad parting ways with mother but I just kept it to myself so she wouldn't have to worry about me. I called a few days after so everything is okay.

Colorful people

A crazy busy street in Harajuku

Yasu being cool. We forced him to wear that hat, lol.

Byebye, expensive Shinjuku. =(

What mother and I last saw together at the airport before we parted for different destination

It took awhile to break through the shell of must-not-speak-Japanese-because-I-suck, but I guess it finally cracked and I'm inevitably forced to speak only in Japanese. Communicating is still quite difficult for me but at least I am making progress. =) It seems like some of my vocab is slipping so I need to review it a bit more. It's strange because if I were to read it, I'd understand it. But I have no idea if someone were to randomly use it in a conversation. Comes to show I need to talk more and look at the book less, lol. I don't know, maybe it's just me. Today, I went to the University to help the Foreign Exchange Students extracurricular club and it was mighty fun. I met a lot of nice people. I still find it extremely difficult to remember Japanese names, let alone Japanese vocab. Learning names is like learning more vocab, I guess. But anyhow, today, I chopped onions and diced apples and helped with whatever that was possible. I must say, I finally understand how Japanese people feel when they try to mingle with a bunch of English speakers. You sort of lose track of the conversation and then you just drift a bit, lol. Everyone just talks so fast and the conversation doesn't really pause anywhere to let my disabled brain process everything. In the end, I just zone out trying to follow the conversation, lol. It's not on purpose but I guess it would be a bit of hindrance to constantly rephrase things if the second party does not understand.
In those situations, I usually try my best to include them in conversations, hoping they don't feel excluded. I am extremely glad that there were people in the club who did the same thing. It was my first time participating in a school festival and I was very glad that I did. Today is probably the first day upon arrival where I felt overwhelming happy. Thanks to all those who were willing to cope with my incompetence. At the end of the day, everyone decided to go out for drinks because Azu-chan is leaving for her trip soon. Azu-chan is one of the club members. I also met a lot of other amazing people but I just cannot remember all of their names. I ended up missing my last bus stop so I took the train with Shutto-san who also is a member of the club. He's really outgoing so he was easy to get along with. (Thank god) I also talked to 3 other girls a lot but I also forgot their names... -sigh- I ALSO talked to this one 18 year old sports jocky guy who plays baseball (go figure) and really outgoing. Unfortunately, he left shortly before we set up our tent outside to sell gyoza (ie, dumplings). I think his nickname was Pocchu but I have a feeling I am completely off on a tangent... Anyhow! He was cool too. Hopefully I'll meet him again tomorrow when I visit the University again. But anyhow. today was an extremely eventful day! I'm glad I went and met such wonderful people. =) If you somehow manage to reach this blog - Thank you very much. お世話になって本当にありがとうございます！！！