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Well I know that I sent an email to everyone earlier today, but I am so excited about how nicely today turned out that I wanted to write about it before I forgot everything that happened.
Well it started out rather badly because I was horribly lost in the train system. In Tokyo, several companies run several railroad lines, and there are good ones that get the contracts in the center of Tokyo, and then there are the really dumb ones that get the outskirts of Tokyo. I had to go on a dumb one. When I asked some of the information booth people how to get to my stop, twice they had no idea where it was and had to look it up. Eek. Well all in all I was on the train for about 3.5 hours this morning.
But then I went to an amazing picnic! Mochan is a couchsurfing.com enthusiast who loves to meet travelers. He hosts parties for locals and internationals about once every two weeks. His parties are called "Wish Club." He also owns a bus that seats maybe 20 people so that he can take all of his beloved tourists on little sightseeing tours. This guy has it going on. And he had a voice like the announcer guy in Iron Chef. I brought Dagoba chocolate (recommended by Ben) and dried cranberries. Both were very popular.
(guess which one is mochan)
At the party, I met Linda from Berlin. We are going to be in Nara at the same time, and we are staying at the same inn! We agreed to take a day trip to Osaka together one day. She is travelling around the world.
I also met Keiko, who I really enjoyed quite a bit. After the party, Keiko and I went to Yoyogi Park. I really enjoyed that park. To get there, we went past the Harajuku shopping area, where super trendy Japanese youth culture struts its stuff. That was fun to watch. I took videos of people while I was walking down the street. In Yoyogi, there were so many people. I heard a Japanese jazz band with a female Japanese singer and two drum groups. There were people practiciing juggling and others practicing dance routines. We also went to the tail end of a Sri Lankan festival and ate some overpriced Sri Lankan food.
kids playing drinking games
Keiko told me about the "Gothic Lolitas" a group of kids that hang out out at Harayuki who look like sexy Emily-esque Goth girls. I told her about the book Lolita.
Keiko and I are going to meet up again when I come back to Tokyo. Her partner Karhim is from Mali. He really likes Karaoke. I guess we'll be going to some karaoke. Yesss.
After my disastrous morning getting back to Zama was a piece of cake. Yay. Now off to another island.
Love
Sarah EStelle
Well it started out rather badly because I was horribly lost in the train system. In Tokyo, several companies run several railroad lines, and there are good ones that get the contracts in the center of Tokyo, and then there are the really dumb ones that get the outskirts of Tokyo. I had to go on a dumb one. When I asked some of the information booth people how to get to my stop, twice they had no idea where it was and had to look it up. Eek. Well all in all I was on the train for about 3.5 hours this morning.
But then I went to an amazing picnic! Mochan is a couchsurfing.com enthusiast who loves to meet travelers. He hosts parties for locals and internationals about once every two weeks. His parties are called "Wish Club." He also owns a bus that seats maybe 20 people so that he can take all of his beloved tourists on little sightseeing tours. This guy has it going on. And he had a voice like the announcer guy in Iron Chef. I brought Dagoba chocolate (recommended by Ben) and dried cranberries. Both were very popular.
(guess which one is mochan)
At the party, I met Linda from Berlin. We are going to be in Nara at the same time, and we are staying at the same inn! We agreed to take a day trip to Osaka together one day. She is travelling around the world.
I also met Keiko, who I really enjoyed quite a bit. After the party, Keiko and I went to Yoyogi Park. I really enjoyed that park. To get there, we went past the Harajuku shopping area, where super trendy Japanese youth culture struts its stuff. That was fun to watch. I took videos of people while I was walking down the street. In Yoyogi, there were so many people. I heard a Japanese jazz band with a female Japanese singer and two drum groups. There were people practiciing juggling and others practicing dance routines. We also went to the tail end of a Sri Lankan festival and ate some overpriced Sri Lankan food.
kids playing drinking games
Keiko told me about the "Gothic Lolitas" a group of kids that hang out out at Harayuki who look like sexy Emily-esque Goth girls. I told her about the book Lolita.
Keiko and I are going to meet up again when I come back to Tokyo. Her partner Karhim is from Mali. He really likes Karaoke. I guess we'll be going to some karaoke. Yesss.
After my disastrous morning getting back to Zama was a piece of cake. Yay. Now off to another island.
Love
Sarah EStelle