Well, I didn’t write up yesterday because I was exhausted. I am exhausted today too but if I don’t write now, I will just keep putting it off and getting further behind. So, right… here goes!
Saturday 09/07/2011:
Maria came to visit me! I was so excited to see her, but unfortunately I did something very stupid… I managed to set my alarm wrong and so I didn’t wake up at the right time to meet her at the station! Fortunately I had given her the address of my hotel and so she had found it using the map app on her phone. I was so embarrassed though when she arrived and I couldn’t believe that I had slept in! I felt awful!
It was so lovely to see her, and I’d missed her a lot. She came up to my room for a little while, and I gave her the presents that mum had bought for her, and the doll that I had crocheted.
After I got ready (because, at this point, I still looked like I’d been dragged through a hedge backwards from not getting up in time), we headed to the train station and visited Asakusa. It was absolutely amazing: We visited the Kaminarimon (the outer-gate of the Sensō-ji, and I took lots of photographs. We headed down the busy shopping street and looked at a lot of the stalls. There was loads of touristy stuff to buy, as well as some more traditional crafts, and a lot of food stalls. Maria was very generous and bought me a Japanese fan and a case as a gift. I bought Matt a postcard – but will probably give it to him when I get home because my Japanese is nowhere near good enough to manage a post office conversation! (I know that he will read this too anyway 😛 So yeah… I hope you like it!) We bought some snow cones and ate those in a little stall, before heading towards the Sensō-ji temple. It was really beautiful. Outside, Maria showed me how to read my fortune. Unfortunately, it was very bad, and I was told that nothing good would come to me in the next few weeks. Eeep!
We ate some fried rice balls flavoured with a bean paste as a snack, and then went back to the train station. We caught a train to Shinjuku, and went shopping!
It was so busy! And there was so much to do and so little time! We looked in quite a few clothes shops, and there were a lot of sales on which was good. I tried on around 10 dresses, but found that most of them were too small, even in the Large size… which is a little depressing considering that I am a size 10 in the UK. I have gone from being a normal weight girl in England to a seemingly obese giant in Tokyo! Japanese women are definitely petite! But yes… I eventually found a really nice (but quite expensive) green dress, and treated myself. We then found a Forever 21 store, and had a look in there. It was massive, with about 4 stories! The clothes were a lot cheaper than in the Japanese brand stores, but also less unique. Maria tried on some clothes, but didn’t buy anything, and I bought a necklace.
We then went to a shopping mall and looked at more clothes. We found this store, with the best name ever… I explained what it meant to Maria because she didn’t know.
We then went for lunch. Maria took me to a really lovely Japanese restaurant that she sometimes goes to with Hiroaki, her boyfriend. The food was amazing, and I think that it was the nicest food I have had in Tokyo so far! I had Sashimi (yes… I know I said that I would probably never try it again after the last time, but I was convinced to try again), over rice, with udon noodles. It was so good! The Sashimi this time was sliced much thinner and had a dressing on it, which softened the flavour a bit. I am now a convert!
After lunch, we went back to the mall, and did more shopping! Maria wanted us to buy something that was the same, and we eventually found a dress that we both liked, that fitted us both! Maria very kindly treated me to mine again, because she is wayyyyy too generous and sweet and just-plain-lovely! I had a pink-cream one, and she had a dark blue, but both had the same design and pattern. Maria then took me to a 300 円 shop, which is, I suppose, the Japanese equivalant to the £1 shop. There was a lot of cool stuff there, and once again, she treated me to a necklace! I am not used to people buying me gifts and so I got very embarrassed, but I really appreciated it!
Before leaving, we went back towards the Shinjuku station. There were a lot of people handing out free tissues with advertisements, which I’ve never seen before. So now I have about 10 packs of tissues!
We went back to my room just as it was beginning to get dark, and freshened up before heading out for dinner. Maria took me to a restaurant that served Okonomiyaki. They cooked it at the table and it was kind of like a performance or show. It was very impressive, and tasted really good. I’d like to have it again before I go back home.
Maria left at around 9.30pm, and I walked her back to the train station. It was so lovely to see her, and I will definitely be seeing her again before I go home. Next time, it would be nice to go visit her and her friends at University. I’d like to meet her boyfriend too!
Sunday 11/07/2011:
Today I went to Kamakura with the UTRIP group. We had to be at the university for 7.20am so it was a really early start. I met up with Anna at the train station and we walked there together. 
Because it was so early, I ended up falling asleep on the bus which was a bit of a shame because the tour guide was telling us a lot of interesting stuff about Japanese history and I ended up missing some of it. I also missed a lot of photo opportunities out of the window to see the Japanese countryside. On the bright side, it meant that the 1 and a half hour journey flew by so quickly! We arrived at Kamakura just before 9am and were given instructions for the day. I was in “Team Dolphine [sic]” and we were accompanied by three students at TODAI.
First, we went to the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine, which was pretty amazing. I did a prayer at the shrine and made a donation to the gods. We then had our fortunes told again. Unlike yesterday’s, today’s was completely positive, and so my faith has been restored in life! Haha.
We then visited a Buddha museum, and looked at a lot of statues of Buddha and gods from various eras. While we were there, we saw a massive earthquake outside the window. We didn’t feel anything, because the building is designed to absorb the shock so as to not cause damage to the statues inside. There was a lot of noise though, and we were asked to go back to the waiting area for a while to make sure that it was safe. We didn’t think too much of it at the time, but later found out that it was magnitude 7.1, just outside Tokyo – The biggest earthquake since I have arrived! That is rather scary!
After this, we walked into the town to get some snacks and cool down in the shade. We bought snow cones again (I had green tea flavour), and then headed towards the train station. On the way, I saw a shop selling a lot of Ghibli merchandise, and was considering buying something for Lily but it was so overpriced!
We caught the train to another area, and then went to another temple (I can’t remember the name at the moment, but if I remember I will edit it into the post). This was also very impressive, and contained a very large Buddha in one of the temples, though not as large as the Great Buddha we saw later.
We then had lunch at a local restaurant. I had a vegetarian alternative because the soup contained Chicken stock, and although I am now eating fish, I still don’t eath conventional ‘meat’. The food was really good, and it was nice to be somewhere air conditioned! Afterwards, I tried green tea flavoured icecream.
After lunch, we headed
to the Daibutsu, or “Great Buddha”. This was magnificent, and is, understandably, a National Treasure. Here is a photograph of me with the Buddha. It is the largest original open-air Buddha in the world, apparantly.
The inside was open to the public for a very small fee, and so I went inside. It was like a kiln in there, considering the weather and the fact that it is made from metal, but it was worthwhile as you were able to see how it had been constructed, hundreds of years ago. I did not spend long inside because of the heat, but I was glad that I went.
We then went back to the bus and were driven to the Misaki Marine Biology Station, owned by the University of Tokyo. It was much cooler there as it was by the sea front, and so I think that most people enjoyed this part of the trip a lot. We were shown around the facilities, and told about it’s history during the war. We were then taken down to the sea front for a group photo (in which I am sure I blinked, because we were facing the sun!). We then walked down to the beach itself, and were allowed to soak our feet for a little while.
We then went to a restaurant for a drink, and a cool down, before taking the bus back to Tokyo.
Once again, I slept the whole way through the journey. I was so exhausted from the heat and the walking! I wish that I hadn’t slept though because now it is 00.37 as I am writing this, and I am not at all tired. Not good news when you need to be up for work in the morning!
When we arrived back in Tokyo, we went for a big group meal. Most of the UTRIP participants went, as well as the volunteer students helping Soeda-san to run the trip. It was really nice, if a little expensive. I had my first sushi of the trip. I then returned to my room, had a shower, and started writing this!
So… that was my weekend.
Tomorrow, the work at the university starts again. I realise that I haven’t actually written much science in this blog, which was the original purpose, but I haven’t done a lot to write about. So I will start writing more about that tomorrow.
Now it’s time for bed. I just hope I can sleep!
pseudopsience 