Resuming Regular Broadcast!

Hey people of the internet it's me, just interjecting that I will be back in Japan and blogging regularilly as of Wednesday, March 30th. Look forward to it and if you've got any questions I can help you find an answer for comment away!

Back in Canada

I'm going to be back in Canada until the end of March, more details as they arrive and hopefully this'll change back to my coverage of my trip to Japan to study and not remain a chronicle of me wishing I was back there.

An Amazing Story About an Amazing Tree

So I went to the incredible and ancient city of Nara. While I plan on putting up some of the great and in many cases funny images of my hyjinks there this was a story I wanted to share with all you folks on the internet.

This tree is known as Garyu no Ichiigashi, which is a a collossal tree which collapsed during an enormous windstorm some time around 500 years ago. This massive 5.3 meter in diameter tree appeared to have died but miraculously managed to retake root and sprout branches from the exposed roots. Through it's incredible spirit and will to live this mighty tree still lives today, 500 years after its collapse and has flourished into an incredible landmark set into the botanical garden at Nara.

Fundraising in Umeda

I spent about 3 hours yesterday helping local students and teachers affiliated Osaka Gakuin University. We were raising money for the victims of the Earthquake and Tsunami, it was a lot of fun and really amazing to see so many people open their hearts and wallets to help their fellow men. Unrelated to that it was also amazing to see so many different kinds of people and fashion, Umeda is a pretty incredible place.

Making up for lost time...part 1

It's been a while since I uploaded any real snaps to my blog so here's a real photo storm light on the words for those of you fond of the photographic arts (or what I can pull off with my samsung.)

so starting with Shibuya!


Pakuchi Burger (still in Shibuya)


Kansai pictures in the next post.

Earthquake

As I'm sure everyone who follows this blog knows, Japan was rocked by a massive earthquake yesterday afternoon. I'm posting to let people who I don't have on facebook and are curious know that I'm totally fine, I was in Osaka when it happened.

I'd like to post 2 things really quick, the first one is that this isn't going to effect the frequency of my posts and I'm not going to try and foccus on this horrible disaster through them, this is a country of fighters and I'm not going to join the media storm of people tunnel visioning at the destruction. My hearts and thoughts go out to the dead, the injured and the lost but at this time I will make it my goal to strive forth and continue to live and experience Japan as a visitor and eager learner.

Lastly I'd like to call a great tweet I read to the world's attention...
http://i.imgur.com/eGSKJ.jpg

see you all in the next post!

Harajuku

Harajuku and Shibuya are kind of the youth districts of Tokyo, technically speaking Harajuku is part of Shibuya although it's also kind of way crazier than the rest of Shibuya. Harajuku plays host to the Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park; an urban park with a large Shinto shrine in the dead center.

Pictures bellow...

It's kind of Interesting to see how much of the plant life in Yogi park is evergreen compared to other parks in Tokyo like Shinjuku-cho park.

Also took me by surprise how few crazy people I saw this trip to Harajuku, last time it was a real Gong Show.

Tocho, Top of Shinjuku

Headed up to the Tokyo Metropolitan Building or as it's more commonly known Tocho. It's got a great view from the 45th floor (the whole building is about 799 feet tall) and affords awesome views of downtown Tokyo particularily Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku and Ebisu. It's one of the tallest buildings you can climb in Tokyo without paying and it has an aweome view. Decided to stroll around Shinjuku and saw some awesome signage and ads.

For those who are curious, Tocho was designed by famed architect Kenzo Tange who also designed the Yoyogi Stadium in Tokyo and the Hiroshima Peace Monument. Tocho was built in 3 years (1988-1991) and held the title of tallest building in Tokyo until 2006 when the Tokyo Midtown Tower was built.

Bellow are some shots of the view.

Korean BBQ...it's not just for Korea anymore

We hit up all you can eat Korean BBQ in Akihabara and minds were blown. Like we ate more Kalbi then I care to imagine. If you're not hungry now this is liable to change that.

We had Cream Anmiya for dessert was awesome! (now you know the name Bart find it in Calgary!)

Release Dates are for Chumps

So I bought a 3ds yesterday, not entirely because it won't be out in the west for another 3 weeks but there's also wanting something to do on the train other than read my kindle (productivity is so 2009 XD) but yeah it's a pretty cool piece of equipment. Picked up other stuff too on my pillgrimage to the nerd holy land of Akihabara.

It's still freaking me out how quickly the Tsukuba-Express gets from Asakusa to Akihabara, it's pretty easy to take advantage of and it helped us get back for dinner (which was rediculously good) it'd be nice to see Calgary expand its city transit but I guess I shouldn't say anything until the new line is done.

Included are a couple more snaps of our misadventures.

Arrived in Japan

After a long trip I'm finally here! No paypal yet so don't ask me to pick you stuff up for a couple days. Basically my thoughts on matters are that the Skyliner train we took from the airport is like 800 times better than the Narita train we took last time, well worth the 2400 yen it takes to ride.

That said it was still quite the epic struggle getting all that stuff to the Hostel (which has barely changed one Iota since last I was in the land of the rising sun.)

It's also deceptively cool here or it was when we landed there was snow on the ground in narita today's nice though it's like 10 degrees outside and sunny.

I'm hoping to have some more informative posts, this is just an intro kind of thing.Still have 4 days left in tokyo so I'll leave you with some snaps of the adventure thus far bellow here.

More detailed/better posts later.