Sayounara Nihon！

Last day in Nihon – up early soaking it all in. Okaasan just left for work (she’s very busy today!) and I’m up waiting around for my other host brother to leave so I can say my final goodbyes (he’s going on a day trip to Kamakura (done that!))

I’ll be taking the Narita Express from Shinjuku directly to the airport and I’ll be leaving tonight around 7 PM… and arriving in Canada… today at 11:45 A.M., half a day before I technically left 😀

I’ve never really had to deal with jet lag, so we’ll see how this goes…

さようなら日本全文でありがとううございました！！

花火 (Hanabi) Season!

It’s Hanabi season in Japan which means countless nights of beautiful fireworks in the sky!

The Kanji for Hanabi (花火) is pretty cool:

Hana (花)– means flower

Bi (火)– means fire

 

Went to Hanabi in the middle of Tokyo with the swim team crew on Saturday and went to Hanabi on Sunday at the Tokyo Racecourse with the host family (wearing a traditional yukata!)

Check the Picasa Web Album for pics and vids 🙂

Densha FAIL

This works if you do it right… I swear…

Japanese Michael Lookalike

One of the guys on the swim team, Tetsuro, looks JUST LIKE Michael Jackson:

 

See what I mean? 😀

I LOVE Japanese people. And Michael (R.I.P)!!

Departure Thoughts

Lately, whenever I think about my departure from Nihon, I feel a deep, true sadness.

…

Visit to Tokyo Tower

Its design is based off of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, however, Japanese style, they took it and made it better 😀

At 333 meters (1,091 ft), it is the tallest self-supporting steel structure in the world and the tallest artificial structure in Japan

13 more meters high and 3,000 pounds less.

Check out some pics on the PICASA.

Japanese Bar-be-que

I went to a barbecue with some Japanese friends today.

Wagyu was involved. 😀

John’s friend Fumi-san invited us to a park in Kichijoji where we barbecued it up with a large group of his work friends (needless to say, this was the closest I’ve ever been to a salarymen part in my life).

Hilarity ensued.

After we were done grilling shrimp, pork, steak, scallops and some wagyu cubes we made yakisoba (with beer?)

One of the best parts of the day was the 20 or so minutes where Fumi-san attempted to catch one of the many (Japanese) pigeons scavenging around for food (Fumi is in the YELLOW shirt):

I love this place.