Japan Trip Archive

First it’s my Japanese practice and note for 06.09.2009, too lazy to write another post for it so it’s inserted here~~

まずは、拍手ありがとうございます～
日本語の勉強は、最近難しくなります。。敬語を勉強しています～　例えば、「いる」、「来る」と「行く」は「いらっしゃる」になる～「食べる」は「召し上がる」に変化します～全然覚えられない。。。たいへんです～
今年十二月の日本語試験を参加したい～もっと勉強しなければいけないと思います。

First of all, thanks for the claps~ recently the Japanese lesson I’m studying involves a lot of honorific form, such as ‘iru’, ‘kuru’ and ‘iku’ becomes ‘irassharu’ when talking about superior person like teacher or boss. There are also other rules to remember when using honorific form and I’m having a hard time remembering them XDD;;;;. I’m planning to take the Japanese proficiency test in December but I think I need to study harder if I’m going to do that. ^^;;

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We wasted a bit of time on the first day because of misunderstanding between me and the taxi driver (although, it was a good chance for me to practice Japanese conversation XD), so I vowed to myself XD not to get lost or waste time on the second day.

Since it’s my first time visiting Kyoto, I’m not sure if the route I planned was the most efficient one (it probably isn’t) but we did get to see everything that I put on the schedule~ yay~ We get around by the city bus and our legs on the second day.

City bus information:
The bus system in Kyoto is pretty easy to use. Every bus stop has all the stops the buses will make listed on there with the bus schedule. Each bus ride costs 200 yen, so if you are planning to take the bus more than twice, it’s better to buy the day pass.

The day pass looks like this:

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The hotel we stayed in was behind Kyoto station, so we had to go through the station~ luckily we didn’t bring that many things.  There was a karaoke place near the hotel XD reminds me that the youtube group (you know who you are) should all go to karaoke some day XD. 

Anyways, after we put down our luggage we headed out again to start the sightseeing.  Because I planned the schedule I can do whatever I want, so the first stop was the Shinsengumi museum XDDD. We wanted to save time on the first day because we arrived in the afternoon so we decided to take a taxi to go there.  

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I’m still in Taiwan~ but I just came back from my trip to Kyoto, Japan~ sorry for not replying emails and messages~ XD; too tired when I was in Kyoto~ I went with my mom and step dad. It’s my first time traveling to Japan on my own~ it was a lot of fun~ I have to thank my mom for trusting me to plan the trip~ XDD I learned a lot from planning the schedule, buying tickets for transportation to getting around in Kyoto using my insufficient Japanese XD.

I have to write things down before I forget all of them XDDD;;;.

The first day when we arrived at Kansai airport~ we were given masks cuz we came from USA and they were afraid about swine flu~ so after we picked up our JR train tickets I took a picture on the train with my mask~ XD. The mask is a bit too big XDDDD.

ps. I finally get a hair cut!! yay~~

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Since yesterday, I’ve been cleaning up my computer hard drive because I’m running out of space. I can’t believe how many junk I have on my computer…and they took up a lot of spaces. I remember the times when the hard drive was less than 1G XD; this just shows how old I am I guess…=_= oh well~ anyways~ some more photos I found from my trip to Japan a few years ago. Too much writing for me, so forgive me for incorrect grammar and spelling errors~

I was going back to Taiwan for a visit during winter break with my friends and we had to change plane at Japan. So we thought~ why don’t we stay in Japan for three days since we have to get off the plane anyways~ XD So we arranged transportation and hotel and stuff (mainly by one of my friend cuz she’s older and knows more stuff XD). Didn’t have many photos cuz I didn’t have a digital camera back then~

We stayed at Ikebukuro which is near Tokyo. The “hotel” was not really like a hotel, it was more like a big house with lots of rooms. You take your shoes off before entering the hall; sharing the same bathroom with other guest like living in a dorm~ and the room we had was super small. After putting our luggage down, we have just enough space to lay down. You’ll have to step on each other to get out of the room XDD.

It was interesting running around Tokyo with a map and elementary Japanese conversation skill~~ we took the subway from the airport to Ikebukuro and we couldn’t really understand the announcing on the the subway. Lucky for us, an ojisan saw how confused we were and tried to help us. The problem was, he still speaks in Japanese~~ eventually we told him that we are trying to get off at Ikebukuro station and he said~ oh! that’s like the stop after the next one.

After getting off the subway,we dragged our luggage from the station to the hotel…and it was weird dragging lots of lugages in the middle of Tokyo…well, not Tokyo but Ikebukuro. After we checked in we were too tired to go to restaurant for food so we went to the 7-11 nearby and grabbed some bento~

I kinda forgot the order of the things we did on the trip, but went to Shibuya and visit a toy store~got lost on the way and tried to ask for directions but a lot of the people doesn’t want to talk to us maybe we look too much like people who doesn’t know much Japanese XD but eventually a really nice grandma helped us, of course she doesn’t speak English~ so it’s a mix of basic Japanese (like “go left” and “after 3 blocks”) and body languages. Then we went shopping in a 100yen store, basically it’s like a 99 cents store in US.

Waiting for the subway~ was very tired…

We visit Asakusa and saw some temple/shrine~

I think this was where all the people would gather around the incense burner and have the smoke “cleanse” themselves.

And we saw some girls dressing up like geisha, or maybe they are geisha~ I’m not sure~ ^^

and I took this picture of my friend~ with random people in the background~ and the nice policeman taking pictures for the grandma~~ ^^

We also visit the Fuji TV building and saw someone shooting a show but I’m not sure what show was it.

The Fuji TV doggie~

They have some fake set and props where you can take pictures~~ XD The little screen in the back showed what it really look like on the TV show~

Then we walk some more and got so tired again…so we just ate dinner at a small Ramen store on the side of the road. But I have to say that even though the store is so small and doesn’t have a lot customer, the Ramen was really good.

here’s a picture where our legs were sore and feet hurts from too much walking so we were massaging when we got back to our room. Do you like my socks~~?

The next day we went to Odaiba to see the Tokyo or Toyota(I forgot) car show. And we went to a shopping mall to eat dinner but all I can remember was the waiters/waitresses were afraid to speak in English so none of them want to come and ask us what did we want to order…of course they didn’t say this in front of us but I could hear them telling each other to come in the back..haha….

The rainbow ferries wheel at Odaiba

oh well, overall it was an interesting experience and I regret that I didn’t take more pictures (with my friends’ camera)~~ ^^

Yesterday morning was too cold…and it reminds me the trip I took to Hokkaido, Japan. It was me that enforce this idea that we have to visit Hokkaido in winter~ because we could see all the pretty snow-covered fields and stuff. I was stupid; living in the mid-west before I should’ve know that pretty snow view only exist on postcards…== anyways, it was ok cold for me but it was crazy cold for my cousin…and our tour guide was..to put it in a polite way, interesting… it’s a long story of how interesting he was, so I’m just gonna ignor and not mentioning him for now.

I am too lazy to organize photos and other stuff in the right timeline order…so they will be random and not in particular order.

If my memory is correct…this was the first day we arrived at Hokkaido and we were taken to a small town that was famous for making clocks. The picture is what the guide called “complimentary coffee”, but I’m not sure about it…I think it came out of the registration fee~ XD puahaha~ the coffee was good and you could take the cups home with you. I have no idea where I put mine…should be in a pile of random stuff in my closet.

I always look forward to Japanese food~~ this was our last dinner of the trip. One thing I always feel that I’m missing out on is the sashimi, or the raw fish. Cuz I just don’t like the texture..all soft and smooshy..

This is a undergound food plaza we went to. I so badly want to get a bowl of rammen…but the schedule was for a buffet. I guess a lot of tourist doesn’t see ramen as a suitible meal for the price they pay to come on the trip. So I forced my cousin, her boyfriend and my mom to promise me that we’ll have to at least eat a bowl of ramen before we leave Japan. This pic is me standing in front of a ramen sign and wishing I was eating it…

randomness, this is a breakfast at a hotel that was by a volcano lake. It was snowing outside and I can feel the cold….and the food I got quickly became cold cuz I sit too close to the window…

yeah….I forgot the english word for the substance that’s yellow ,smell’s bad and is hot…anyways, I will update this once I remember what it’s called. This place is called the “hell valley”, I guess it’s because the heat, the smell, the hot spring and all the crows that flys around the valley~

RAMEN! YES!! So I forced my family not to eat the dinner that was scheduled one night and we all went for a walk around the hotel~ and what do you know, the famous “ramen street” of Hokkaido is near by~~ so I randomly picked one of the stores that looks cozy and went in~

after eating the best ramen I had in years~ I discovered a trophy on the counter. And it said the store was the winner of Hokkaido ramen contest. Lucky~~~

One of the day went to a temple and I think there was a traditional wedding going on~

the following video is when we all gone crazy and went to a 7-11 near the hotel and get a lot of snacks…it was mainly my idea cuz I’m crazy

all my speaking is chinese but I’m not saying anything interesting~ I’m just introducing all the food we got

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