Showing posts with label sunset. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sunset. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

06.04.2013 - Yushima Tenjin Shrine + Bunkyo Civic Centre

Hello all!
I know I broke my, oh so sincere, promise of a blog post a day. But! I have lots of great excuses. 
1) my foot was really injured!
2) I had to practice for & take my shodan (first degree black belt) test! (Which I passed)
3) I was tired?

Today I decided to go to Yushima Tenjin Shrine, which is well known for it's Ume (plum) blossoms.
Plum blossoms bloom a few weeks before cherry blossoms, so they signal the beginning of spring in Tokyo.

They (apparently unlike cherry blossoms) smell really good, so the whole shrine smelled like perfume and looked to nice and it was 20 degrees today and it was awesome.

there was some sort of oragami display going on there.
lady with a trained monkey!

Yushima Tenjin enshrines the god of education, so all these are messages/prayers from students who want to pass the entrance exams into good universities in Tokyo (or anywhere)
The paper cranes are for extra luck!




And then, since I was already in Bunkyo (that's one of the 23 wards of Tokyo) I decided to head over to the Bunkyo Civic Centre as the promised me a good view of Tokyo.
And since I got these late-ish I decided to stay to enjoy the sunset!

Unfortunately for me it was a pretty overcast day which means the sunset wasn't outstanding and I couldn't see Mount Fuji, which is roughly where the sun was going down.


Tokyo SkyTree is now one of the few observation desks I haven't been to.

Between when that photo was taken the the sunset I went down to the ground floor and looked around and art gallery where a lovely old Japanese man followed me around and translated all the descriptions for me, which made me experience all the better!

Came back upstairs to this.



And then to round of a great day I stopped my the Hombu Dojo and picked up my certificate!



Monday, October 22, 2012

22.10.2012 - 2 months in japan.

 Hello all!

let's start off today with one, single, gratuitous self portrait since I felt pretty today.


And now, for something completely different...

the larch.

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I've lived in Japan for 2 months! What!

Madness, honestly, it's mental. I can't even believe it somehow.
Things I've learned
- my family is the best family
- japanese is the hardest language
- I need to own more things with cats on them
- japanese food is amazing
- living on your own is hard as shit
- it's also scary as shit
- I will never live in a house without an oven again as long as I live


yeah, there's more I'm sure but that's what sprung to mind!


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Woke up to go to my Japanese lesson, but when I got there no one was there.
Spoke briefly to a man who spoke no English and although he was clear on the fact that there were no lessons, I have no idea why. It's not a national holiday, no one mentioned anything last week… bit odd.
Also I'm not sure how to go about telling them I can't come on Friday because I won't be here (more on that in a paragraph or so!) which is a shame since I'm meant to inform them. Huh.

I skyped with Magnus for a while, he's the coolest.
Jesus I love my family.

Did some laundry like the grown up I apparently am.

Went to Hiro Station to make sure I could get there, it's where I'm meeting my boss on Wednesday for the demonstration the company's doing.

From there I went to Minato to go to Nissin for some stuff. Successful trip, got everything I needed and even stuck to my list!
I feel so mature when I made a grocery list and then actually pay attention to it.
ha.

I took my camera with me on the aforementioned trip, didn't take anything special until I was literally a block from my house, but here are some photos of some things and... stuff.


shinjuku station


roppongi station

roppongi station





yotsuya station

yotsuya station


anyway, I came back right as the sun was setting over my alley and took a few photos I really like.
I love golden hour/sunset, though I doubt there are many photographers who don't!




Sadly I can't go to the dojo tonight because I washed all my gis this morning because it was sunny and beautiful but apparently while I was out it poured here, briefly, but briefly was enough to soak them through again and they won't be dry until tomorrow midmorning I don't think.
They' certainly won't be dry by 6.20 this evening, which is when I have to leave my house to make the latest class.
Boo.

I'm planning on going to the afternoon class tomorrow, which I haven't been to at all since I got here. I've heard it's often the smallest classes as well, so that'll be nice, if it's true!

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Made vegan cookies using only flour, sugar, applesauce, vegan chocolate chips, an avocado, and a toaster oven. Boom.




Also boiled up a bunch of pumpkin some of which I ate for dinner and some of which I plan on making Black Bean & Pumpkin burgers out of for dinner tomorrow night.





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Now, about not being here.
On Thursday morning I'm going to be taking the train to Nikko, where I will spend the night and then be coming home on Friday evening.
My sort of plan is to spend Thursday in Nikko exploring and looking at the shrines and then on Friday going to the Lake Chūzenji area to hike and see the changing leaves.
People come from all over Japan to see the fall colours there, it's terribly famous.
One of the things I have a really hard time with living in Tokyo is the lack of nature in general. Yes, the parks are lovely here and there are a few where you can really just feel calm but I lived on a farm/in the woods in NS!
I never though I'd think this, let alone write it for all to see, but I miss hiking and being in the forest.
So I'm really really really excited for that!
I'll be taking my camera (of course!) so I will come back with heaps of lovely photos for you.

I hope you all have a good day and a pleasant tomorrow.