DWAs galore!

Hello all. Welcome to one of my last blogs. :) It's been fun!

Anyway, today was very minimal. This morning, I got up and had some breakfast. Then Grandma and I headed out with Masato to go do something special for my little baby brother, stop at an electronics store, and visit another temple. The electronics store was disgusting. They had 16 gig iPod Touches for $100!!! I kid you not. Everything there was stupid cheap. ;)

After the electronics store, we headed to a temple close to the house here. I think this one was one of my favorites. It was absolutely beautiful and had the biggest Buddha I've seen! At the temple too, there was a koi pond. There was this small wooden railing kind of thing, and if you knock on the wood, all the fish will come swimming up. It was amazing! Check it out in today's video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtFrFqI0oe4

Big dinner with everyone tonight for our last night here. Should be fun. Gotta go now! Thank you notes to write. :) See you soon!

~Kilani

I didn't write yesterday.

CA- January 16, 11:50 p.m.
Japan- January 17, 4:50 p.m.

Hello all. Sorry I didn't write yesterday. Way tired! So let's play a little game of catch up. ;)

Yesterday was a pretty chill day. :) Grandma and I went to see Tokyo Dome (where the Tokyo Giants play). Well first, we walked around the outside of the "Big Egg" and had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. Afterwards, bummed that we couldn't go inside the Dome, Grandma spotted a banner advertising an International Quilt Festival going on. We seriously bought tickets to the quilt thing just so we could go inside. :D Funny funny.
After we were done at the Dome, we jumped on the subway to go walk around where Grandma and MKBS were born and raised in Harajuku. We visited her cousin too! Then 6:00 rolled around and it was time to go meet Eri at Shibuya Station. Once we found Eri, it was time for dinner. We went to a tonkatsu place that was delicious.
Once we were finished with dinner, we left to go find the venue of EB's concert. It was a neat little place. Three bands played, EB's band was second. It actually reminded me a lot of when TSK played at San Jose Skate. Anyway, Steve (Bischoff), I hope you're reading! The drummer for the first band, I kid you not, had his cymbals up WAY higher than mine. :D

Today was another low key day. Grandma, MKBS, and I went to Sunshine City. Sunshine City is actually a 60 story building. We did a little shopping in the mall area before heading up to the 60th floor observatory. It was incredible being able to look out over Tokyo from so high up. Also, in the observatory, there was an exhibit called "The World of Wall-E" and it was adorable! Lots of prints from the movies, activites, displays, etc. It was cute.

Now, I'm just sitting up in our room, chilling out. MKBS is making dinner and Grandma went over there to watch sumo. So I'm just waiting for Grandma to come back. So yeah. I think that about does it for me. See ya.

~Kilani

Sorry, no video today. But here's yesterday's. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEAnT9rf9Bk

My hat is cooler than yours.

Today, I went to Tokyo Disney! It was so much fun! We rode Space Mountain (twice!), Splash Mountain, Peter Pan, those horrendous tea cups, Pooh's Honey Hunt, Star Tours, and that's all I can remember off the top of my head. I'm sure there were more though. :) It was fun. The best part? I got a new hat. :D I don't know why I like it so much. It's quite comfy. Looks silly though. Don't laugh! Well, you can laugh. I laughed. ;) But yes. This Disneyland was a lot like ours... but smaller. AND THEY DIDN'T HAVE INDIANA JONES!!! :( Epic fail on their part... but it's ok. :D We actually rode Splash Mountain... but it was FREEZING out. Well, the temperature itself wasn't bad, but there was a harsh wind. Good thing we didn't get wet. Turns out Ai is afraid of water rides and the ocean and such; but today, she decided she wanted to brave Splash Mountail. Mayumi and I went along for moral support... and she was hilarious. Ai asked me to sit next to her, so I did, and wow! She's a screamer. :D

But anyway, I think that about does it for me today. Tomorrow, we're going to see EB's band, Pelotan, live in concert. Should be cool. :D

Catch a glimpse of my new hat!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPYKYSWy6DE

Ok, goodnight all!

~Kilani

I think I've had more tea on this trip than ever in my life.

CA: January 14, 4:48 a.m.
Japan: January 14, 9:48 p.m.

Go figure, now that the trip's almost over, I'm finally more or less used to the time change. :p

Anyway, hello one and all. We've returned from Kyoto and it was a great trip! I wrote a short blog when we got there...

California- January 11, 9:21 p.m.
Japan- January 12, 2:21 p.m.

Ok, so we’ve arrived at our hotel, the Kyoto Tower Hotel, and as of right now, I don’t have internet access. That’s totally ok! No worries. I’m just writing a Word document and I’ll copy paste the blogs later. Anyway, just a quick hello. We’re heading to the Kyoto Toei Movie Land at Eigamura Studios. Right now we’re just chilling in the hotel for a few so I can charge the battery in the camera for a little bit. :P Anyway, you might not read this until Wednesday sometime, but I wanted to write before I forgot everything that happened. OH! To get to Kyoto, we rode the Bullet Train. J Apparently there are three different trains of three different speeds (basically). We took the medium speed one and it was very cool! :D Anyway, NOW we’re leaving. See ya.
---------------------------------------------------

The movie studio was really cool! Saw a lot of different sets and such (though I didn't know what they were from). I met a samauri who let me hold his sword (I have photo evidence), and I saw a HUGE display all about the different varieties of (don't laugh) the Power Rangers! That was my favorite part of the place. Totally geeked out and took many, MANY pictures of it. :D

Day two in Kyoto was fun. We did another all day bus tour and it was really nice to see all the different stops. Our first stop was at The Golden Pavilion, which was a shrine kind of place that was totally painted in gold/gold leafed. It was absolutely beautiful. While we were there, it started snowing! The other day, when it snowed in Tokyo, I didn't actually see the snow. When it snowed at the Golden Pavilion, not only did I see it, but I was in it! That made the sight even prettier.

After the Pavilion, we went to the Kyoto Imperial Palace. As you may or may not know, Kyoto used the be the capital of Japan. The word "Kyoto" actually means "capital city." So we saw the Palace in which the emperor lived when Kyoto was the capital. Now that the capital is Tokyo, no one lives in the Palace, and we were actually allowed into the grounds. "Tokyo" means "new capital."

Once we were finished at the Palace, it was off to the Kyoto Handicraft Center for a buffet lunch and some shopping. Lunch was absolutely delicious. The buffet included of MANY different items. Some of the big ones included: curry, shrimp sushi, vegitable tempura, and, of course, rice.

When the time rolled around to begin our afternoon tour, our fisrt stop was the Heian Shrine. The buildings came off as having sort of a Chinese feel (I thought), but they were beautiful nonetheless. At the shrine, we were allowed into a huge garden area (not open to the general public) that was absolutely breath taking. Turns out, they filmed a small part of the movie Memoirs of a Geisha in that garden.

Later, we went to the Sanjo-Sangendo Hall. In this hall, there are 1001 images of Buddha. There are 1000 statues (that stand at average human height), then one massive Buddha statue in the dead center. At first glance, I just thought it was a small, mirrored room filled with Buddha statues, but I was sorely mistaken. Technically, there were three statues missing. One in each of the three Japanese National museums. Luckily for us, 998 images of Buddha was just as mind blowing.

The last, and my favorite, stop was the Kiyomizu Temple. This temple is high up on a hill, from which you can see a sweeping view of Kyoto. Being high up on a hill, it was a bit of a climb to get there, but it was well worth it. I'm not exactly the religious type, but this place (as well as all the others) made it very easy to appreciate all the value and beauty in it. It was absolutely amazing.

Today was our last day in Kyoto. We had to check out of the hotel at 10 this morning, but our train didn't leave until 2:30. So to kill time (and see more of this beautiful city), we walked over to the Tijo Temple. I think I heard something about this being the largest temple in Kyoto. While we were there, we saw many monks. What nice guys. ;) After the temple (and some pretty cool birds you'll see in the video), we walked back to Kyoto Station to browse arond the shops and have some lunch. After lunch, I had a massive ice cream cone. Soft serve green tea ice cream. Yum!

ChaCha mentioned I haven't talked much about the food, so I'll try to do that a little before heading to bed. This place cracks me up. The day we got to Kyoto, we went to an Italian place for lunch, but there was no real Italian food. It was all Japanese! That same night, we went to a Chinese food place for dinner, but was there Chinese food? No! It was all Japanese. By no means am I complaining about that, I'm just saying. :) I have actually had a lot of different foods here (and I think Keiko is to thank for that, she's a great cook). Dinner has been at the house here every night (with a few exceptions), and it has consisted of many different things. I think my favorite meal so far has been the katsu curry that MKBS made. :D Otherwise, I've had some other curry, sukiyaki, sushi, ramen, McDonald's, and some others. :) I must say though, being the ramen nut I am, my favorite ramen is still that at Ringer Hut. While all the ones I've had here have been good, I'd take the Ringer Hut ramen over any of the three or four I've had here. I'm surprised! Oh well. :)

Here's a massive spam of videos I couldn't post. The last one is long and terrible quailty. The quality went down hill after I compressed it (as do the rest, this one was just worse because of the length). Tomorrow? TOKYO DISNEY with Mayumi and Ai (Mayumi's daughter)! Stay tuned!

~Kilani

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8k4tM7_bds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRVZkt0kF04
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5ixWMcHfLM

Greetings from the land where toilet seats are heated and hailing a cab is frowned upon.

California- January 12, 3:54 a.m.
Japan- January 12, 8:54 p.m.

I've been in a public bathroom three times since I've bee here... and two of those times have included a soundtrack. Not to be graphic, but follow me on this. You sit down on the toilet, and I kid you not, the toilet starts expelling sounds of running water. Sorry, just found that to be a bit odd. :p

Anyway, today Grandma and I took an all day bus tour to see all Tokyo has to offer. Ok, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get my drift. :)

The tour we went on was from 9:00-5:00 and included five different stops. Stop number one was at Tokyo Tower. "Standing at 333 meters high, this self-supporting steel tower is the tallest in the world. On a clear day, you can see Ginza and Tokyo Bay from the observatory. If weather conditions are favorable, you can even see Mount Fuji. At night, the illuminated tower is a must-see." Ok, I'm not going to lie. That's not a direct quote. I edited it a bit... ;) Grammatically speaking.
ANYWAY! I think this was my favorite stop of the tour! You'll be able to see some of the view from the observatory in today's video. Mind you, that's only one small portion of Tokyo though. The ovservatory was a full circle (er, rectangle), and you could see Tokyo from all sides. We just filmed from the side where you could see Mt. Fuji. :)

Our second stop was at the Happo-en garden. At this garden, we were able to experience a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. Not only that, but the garden itself was gorgeous. And hey, it was a great day to get married. We saw at least 4 different wedding parties while we were at the party. Our tour guide said there was something along the lines of 10 weddings scheduled to take place in the garden today. Craziness!

After we were finished in the garden, we headed to a restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel for lunch. It was delicious! The meal was prepared right in front of us as a Japanese style barbeque- cooked on a lava rock (direct from Mount Fuji) grill! Since we were in a large group, we all sat at tables of five or six. Grandma and I shared our table with a couple "on holiday" from Austrailia and a man in Tokyo on business from Munich, Germany! They were all really nice.

Once lunch was over, we headed for the Imperial Palace and the Nijubashi Bridge. In Japan, there are only two days a year in which the public is allowed into the Palace: January 2nd (to wish the emperor Happy New Year) and December 23rd (to wish the emperor Happy Birthday). Seeing that today was neither Jan. 2nd or Dec. 23rd., we weren't allowed into the palace... or even onto the bridge! Oh well. We were able to take pictures of the main enterance to the palace (at the end of the bridge), and we could also see the old Imperial Palace. Despite the distance, it was beautiful.

In order to get to our last stop, the Sensoji Temple, we took a "sightseeing tour" down the Sumida River. For a little less than an hour, we were all on a boat heading down the river where we could "delight in a mix of Tokyo's continual redevelopment, combined with the atmosphere of the good old days of Edo." The water was a little choppy, but the boat ride was fun. We passed under 12 bridges! All of them were so different from each other.

Our final stop with the tour was the Sensoji Temple. Once the tour finished at the Sensoji Temple, we were supposed to go back to where the tour started, but we would've had to pass the house in order to get there. Thinking it was silly to have to back track, Grandma and I said our goodbyes and hung out at Sensoji on our own. We did a bit of shopping before catching the subway and train back here to Ikebukuro. Then we had a nice dinner, took yet another train, caught a cab, and came back to the house. :)

Tomorrow, I leave for Kyoto with Grandma, MKBS, and Gigi for two nights. I'll take my computer with me, but I can't guarantee I'll have internet access. If I am unable to post, goodbye! See you all here on... Wednesday. I think. Until then (if not sooner), peace out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqZnxO2u7rg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y258/girldrummerchick/037.jpg

I am becoming a professional about riding the subway and train with no hands.

Ok, the title sounds a bit weird. I just mean I can stand on the subway and train and not hold on to anything... while it's in motion. I still have both my hands. Make sense? Oh forget it. :p

Anyway, today was a pretty chill day. I went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum with Grandma and Gigi. That was fun. :) The museum was all about the history of Tokyo and such. I found it quite interesting. Afterwards, we had lunch together then went to go see the company Gigi owns. Cool little place. Turns out Gigi, Masato, Keiko, and Mayumi all work there! Talk about a family business. ;)

Grandma and I decided that since we didn't have much else to do today, we'd go looking for the skateboard shop Kakoa asked me to go to. I think Grandma and I had a misunderstanding because we wound up in the wrong city and the wrong store. She apparently just thought I was asking to go to ANY skate shop for Kakoa... so we went to the one she went last time she was here. After explaining to her that there was a specific store I wanted to go to, we started a wild goose chase.
Now might be the time to add that the weather today was absolutely terrible. It was quite cold and poured rain pretty much nonstop. Believe it or not, it even snowed. That's right, you heard me. Ideally, it wasn't the best weather to be searching for a store in. Seeing we had slim to no clue where this store was located, we made lots of friends and got lots of excercise. :) For the sake of time and energy, I'll just say we were FINALLY successful. Made up for all the lost calories when it was dinner time. Mariko-ba-san made katsu curry! Yummmmmmmmm. :D

I don't think I'm going to blog or make a video tomorrow seeing that the events are not something I really wish to discuss. Don't try to change my mind. You won't succeed. Perhaps unless your name starts with a "cha" and ends with a "cha." However, even in that case, I won't blog or make a video. I'll just tell her personally. Until the day after tomorrow, take care all! See you soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ncjCCuDjQQ

Calirofnia: January 8, 3:44 a.m.
Japan: Janurary 8, 8:44 p.m.

Hello fellow bloggers.

I guess that term is not correct considering I'm the only one blogging. Oh I know.

My Fellow Americans:

Today, we ventured out to the Asakusa district to visit the famous Senso-ji temple. It was absolutely gorgeous... and quite the experience. The temple itself has two large enterance gates you must first go through. Between the first and second gate is a long stretch of walkway with lots of little shops on either side. You'll be able to catch a glimpse of these shops in today's video. ;) At the temple, we prayed, threw money, inhaled some kind of holy smoke/insense, and walked around. It was unlike anything I have ever seen.

After we were finished shopping and walking around Asakusa, we headed to Uyeno to go to the Uyeno-Eki Hard Rock Cafe. :) At Hard Rock we met up with a new character to our story, Mayumi. Mayumi is Mariko-oba-san and Gigi's daughter; Masato's sister; ChaCha's cousin. So we (Gigi, Grandma, Mayumi, and myself) had "dinner" at Hard Rock. Mayumi had a bacon cheeseburger, I had a Caesar salad, and Gigi and Grandma shared a side of fries. :)

Once we had finished eating, it was time to further my experience with public transportation. This morning, we rode the subway to get to Asakusa, but we took the train and a taxi to get back home. :)

I'm sure there's much more detail I could give, but it's hard to explain a lot of it. I know! Yall can just come see it for yourselves. I promise it'll be worth it. ;)

Peace!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORC-n4qpipg

You'd think this thing would come equipped with some smilies...

California: January 7, 4:55 a.m.
Japan: January 7. 9:55 p.m.

Woo. Ok. This won't be very long, but I wanted to jot down a couple things since I've kind of been failing at this. ;)



For starters, let me fill you in on the people here. First, we have Mariko-ba-san and Gigi. They are ChaCha's aunt and uncle; grandma's sister and brother-in-law. Then we have Masato and Keiko. Masato is ChaCha's cousin, Keiko is his wife. They have two kids: Kento and Eri. Grandma and I are staying in Masato's (huge!) house. Mariko-ba-san and Gigi live right next door. :)



Japanese people drive on the right side of the car. And by "right" I do in fact mean WRONG! It's totally trippy! Yesterday, when we were heading from the airport to Masato's house, I sat in the front seat of the car... on the left side. I'm not going to lie, it freaked me out a little. I totally felt like I should be acting like the driver or something. ;) I guess being on the wrong side of the road made it easier to know it was ok for the stearing wheel to be on the other side of the car. :p

Another thing about Japan is that they have the strangest street signs. And they use the metric system! Don't ask me about the weather, it's in Celsius! Means nothing to me! :p However, I can tell you the weather has been nice. I was expecting it to be much colder than it has been, but no. I think it was colder in San Jose! Go figure that one out. (No, don't go there. Over THERE! Good, that's better. Now stay.) (No wait, come back. There's more to read.)

Since we were just on the topic of driving, I'll continue with that. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like a vast majority of the drivers on the road are women. Now, that's not like a scientifically proven fact or anything, just a simple observation I made over the past day and a half. You can't necessarily quote me on that either, though, because I've been observing 10,000 other things along with the drivers.

Today was fun! I went to an outlet mall and (you'll never believe this), COSTCO! Eri's boyfriend... crap, I forgot his name. Grandma's asleep so I can't ask her... we'll call him EB. So EB came to the house around 10:00 this morning and drove Grandma, Mariko-ba-san, Keiko, Eri, and me to the outlet mall/Costco. They were in the same general parking lot/vacinity so it was easy. :D Shopping was fun. A lot of the stores I saw in the outlet mall are the same as ones we have at home (i.e. Adidas, Coach, Bose, Nike, Quicksilver/Roxy, etc.). Costco was identical to ours! That really surprised me. Frankly, I was a little disappointed by how "American" the Costco here really was. The layout of it was exactly as ours at home, they sold all the same stuff (with the exception of a few Japanese items which only differed from the ones we can get at the Japanese grocery store at home because they came in bulk), and even had the same exact menu in the food stand place! O.o
Moving on. I made a purchase at Costco! Well, ok, story time. So while I was browsing around Costco, I went down the ONE aisle that seemed semi-different from those at home, and I found a HUGE pack of ramen snacks! I love ramen snacks so I considered buying this bulk package of them. Come to find out, it's a pack of 30 individually wrapped packs. After thinking for a moment, I concluded I was not going to eat 30 packs of ramen snacks while I am here... nor was I willing to take them back home with me. I decided not to buy it. In my attempt to exit this particular aisle, I found something even BETTER than ramen snacks. I found a bulk package of my favorite SPICY OSEMBEI! (ChaCha and Bud know which one) At home, we buy them in packs of 6. At Costco, I bought them in a pack of 20!!!

After we were finished at Costco, it was time to begin the 45 minute drive back to the house. OH! I forgot to mention, while we were driving to and from Costco, I saw Mt. Fuji! It was gorgeous. Anyway, Grandma needed to go to a clothing store of some kind near the house here, so EB dropped us off. I thought everyone was going to go, but no. Nonetheless, I went with Grandma and Mariko-ba-san. We went inside the store and asked the clerk for what Grandma was looking for only to fine out that this particular item had been discontinued. Bummer. We then walked around the store for a few minutes and decided to blow that popsicle stand. The store being only about a five minute walk back to house, we began walking. On the way we stopped at a drug store. It cracks me up at how many things here are written in English. Unfortunately, 99.9% of those things written in English are not grammatically correct. :p Anyway, we stopped at a drug store where I bought a couple things that will make ChaCha and any other member of the Louis family laugh. And by Louis, I mean Louis, Silveira, Donnelly, and Gomes. ;) After the drug store, we continued down the road and stopped in a little convenience store where I bought two packs of Koala Bear chocolate cookie things and a bottle of Fanta Fruit Punch. Woo! All day today, I spent about 2,000 Yen. After I was all proud of my accomplishment, I remembered that 2,000 Yen is only $20. :p

Well, that's my day in a nut shell. I'm going to bed now. Goodnight!

OH, Smalls had mentioned something about live footage. Well I can't promise any of that, but I can give you videos! It's my goal to blog and make a video every single day. We'll see if that actually happens. Anytime I put a new video up, I'll post the link on here. :) Easier than sending yall out searching for it. ;) Goodnight!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI29cTEh0ao
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnUNjru3uQ8

MY PAGE WENT... FOREIGN!

WHOA. So I came on here just to type a quick (and official) hello from Japan... and the whole thing was in, dare I say it, Japanese! O.o Absolute absurdity. Is that even a word? I'm still on California time... and it's 3:35 a.m. in California right now. It's also 3:35 a.m. in Oregon, Washington, and parts of Canada right now too. Just so I can be all inclusive.

Anyway... here's my quick hello to let everyone know I'm still alive: hello, I'm still alive.

Now I'm going to bed. Goodnight, all. Stay tuned!