These last couple of months

Ok, so I haven't written here in a while - a long while. Therefore this post will include a lot of miscellaneous bits and pieces from my recent months here in Japan. I'm sorry for that, but for those who want to be more up to date on my journeys in Japan can follow my tumblr - I'm better at updating that page.

Last year Mount Fuji became a world heritage, and most people here in Japan are proud of that.

I am very glad to have been lucky enough to visit Mount Fuji (Fuji-san). A few weeks ago my dear friends of the Toyama family brought me on an adventure! The original plan was to get up really early to go to a fish market/festival, but due to previous bad weather, the event was cancelled.

I had been with friends and stayed up late the previous day, and figured I wouldn’t be able to get up early enough for the festival anyway, so when I woke up on that day I had no idea what adventure was waiting.Turned out that the Toyama family had plans, great plans! They wanted to take the car to visit Fuji-san. The weather was great and the feeling of being that far above sea level was refreshing.

So now I have been here for about 3 & ½ months, and I have about 8 more months left.

Asakusa

I've done a lot, visited a lot of places and kept myself busy for most of the days. For instance I visited the Edo-Tokyo Museum where I got to hear some traditional japanese music played by some nice ladies. The instrument is called koto (箏).
I've tried to partake in as many activities as I have had time for and one of them was an orienteering organized by SAGE at Tokyo Tech. That was a good way of getting more used to the Tokyo train system and to see a bunch of new places.
Like Asakusa. There really are a lot of people in and around Tokyo. Wherever you go... I personally don't mind, but some days maybe - especially when thinking of the trains - you wish that there would just be a little less people around.

I have also gone with friends to various events and places. Like the Tokyo Motor Show in Big Sight, Odaiba. Which was loads of fun! The next event I am hoping to go to in Big Sight is the Tokyo Internatioal Anime Fair this March.
We got to see soo many cars, bikes and everything that has anything to do with motors. Tokyo Big Sight is really amazingly large. And there were several wings to explore. 

There have been parties organized for us international students, and there have been class trips. We have visited Fujitsu, Asahi brewery, Asahi glass and the city of Atami.

The days during the semester are spent in school. In different classes or in the laboratory. So when the short winter break finally arrived I immediately took the opportunity to get out of Tokyo for a few days. First I went to Takayama, Shirakawago and Hidafurukawa. It was nice to experience some snow, because in Tokyo there's no snow. It's quite unusual I hear.

I made a little christmas collage from that three day trip.

I came home on the 24th of December, spent the whole night videochatting with my relatives back in Sweden to celebrate christmas with them. And the next morning I left for Atami together with the YSEP people.

First stop was the Asahi brewery where we even got to drink fresh beer (!). See the nice christmas tree they had in the factory?

Then we got to spend an evening, a night and a morning at a really nice hotel in Atami, a city about an hour from Tokyo. Most of us enjoyed the onsen - some of us enjoyed it three times. We were given a really nice dinner, and attended a few lectures. The most interesting one was given by the mayor of Atami!

In the next post I will write more about our visit to Atami.

After returning from Atami I went together with some friends to Tokyo Disney Resort! Specifically DisneySea. It was a day of adventure, rides, screams and a whole lot of laughs.
It was my first time visiting a Disney resort, and I had so much fun. I didn't expect it to be as fun for people above the age of 20, but man was I proven wrong.

We went to DisneySea on Dec 27, so after that there were a few days where I didn't have many plans. I went to the Shinjuku Gyoen to enjoy the nice winter weather in Tokyo. I made another winter collage here. It looks a little different from the other winter collage, right?
I also went shopping, went exploring and enjoyed my free time in Tokyo. I'm looking forward to the next break, when I am planning to go outside of Tokyo again - hopefully to Kyoto and Nara.
I also went to the Tokyo Tower! Now I've been up in Yokohama Landmark Tower, Roppongi Hills and the Tokyo Tower!

Ameyoko street in Ueno

New years was celebrated in a traditional japanese way. I spent it together with my japanese family here (Toyama family, that I mentioned earlier), and I also met friends from my laboratory to go to the Meiji Jingu in Yoyogi park.
On the new years night I got to ring the gong, and then we went to a shrine for hatsumode. The following days were spent eating lots of great food and cakes, while meeting a lot of very nice japanese people. I'm super thankful for the opportunity to spend new years with my japanese family here, and for the fact that they actually treat me like family. Most japanese people I've met so far have been really nice to me.

So.. now I've briefly told of the highlights of my stay here these last months - in the country with few trashcans and English speakers, Japan.