Edo Museum and Karaoke

Orientation Day 7:

Today is Saturday which marks exactly a week since I left Hawai’i!

Dang it honestly feels like I have been in Japan way longer than I have, which is strange. The week went by slowly thank goodness, but it was full and busy. I think because of our constant meetings, group orientation and sightseeing journeys it has felt like we have done so much in such a short period of time. I can say that I am a little more at ease with my surroundings. I can saw that most of the time I know where I am going. Thank goodness I have a decent sense of direction and good visual memory skills because there are no obvious marked street signs here like we have in Hawai’i or the mainland. At this rate, I hope to be comfortable with more areas of Japan.

Well, what was scheduled for today was a group excursion to the Edo Museum. In the morning our group met to take the denshya. As a very large group of 29 plus, we are quite a site to see. Very intimidating and loud in the subway I’m sure.

For a few hours we toured the museum looking at reconstructed small models of what cities and living areas were like back in those times. kimonos, Kabuki, printmaking and other arts from that time were presented. It was very insightful and quite interesting since I honestly don’t know a lot about Japanese history. (If you look at my facebook profile picture now that was taken at the musuem. The picture is of me trying an interactive model of carrying water back in those days. :P )

I realize I am really interested in rekishigaku, history because it tells me what a culture’s past was like. I found this day very interesting!

After the museum we went back to Waseda University and had to grab a quick lunch at the 7/11 convini nearby since we didn’t have much time before our 1pm nihongo classes. We had yet another 4 hour language intensive session. This time we had an outside activity that we had to complete and report on. We went into the streets to ask questions at the convini and a honya (book store). It was quite an interesting experience. For this activity we came upon an interesting book store on campus. It was like a small book/coffee shop that had a them of ryooko (travel). My group spent some time in there chilling and checking out the books. I ordered a wonderful iced chai and read about Hawaiian history and a book about visiting Hawaii. Yes I could read a book about specific locations of Hawaii in Japan. Pretty sweet!

Anyway, after we had a fun presentation and Q & A period, our session was over.

We went back to Sakura Hotel to rest for a bit and get dinner at 7:30pm. When the time came I wasn’t hungry but I went to walk with them anyway. They went into a Japanese food chain curry place which I was told was delicious. (sidenote: I find it interesting that at restaurants, if you do not order something they think something is wrong or strange. Since I came to “hang” with the group and not eat I had to explain to waiter that I was currently full. As more costumers came in I felt that I was taking up precious space and a seat so as a courtesy I went outside to wait with some friends who had finished eating. I guess hanging with friends in restaurants without ordering food is not a good thing :( I will try not to do that again ha.)

After dinner we got back to the hotel. We were going to go out somewhere, but a few girls and I ended up not going . We ended up spending our evening in the hotel lobby/cafe area talking with some of our other fellow Japan Study group friends. It was midnight by then and a crazy friend of ours suggested that we go do early morning karaoke, 1) because who doesn’t love karaoke? ha 2) because it is cheaper during those times. Yeah so as you could of guessed I went. It ended up that we did karaoke until 4am. Yes 4am. Crazy? Yep. So that day I ended up going to bed at 5am and like a silly person I didn’t pack my suitcase like I was suppose to....SO getting up “late” at 8:20am, I had 10 minutes to pack my suitcase and bring it downstairs...Yay me ha. I got it done of course and all was good.