Asakusa to Odaiba
We went on a Sunday, so it was completely packed and the smells from the roadside stalls were delicious!
Omikuji (おみくじ） is something I do every time I'm at shrine/ temple. Its a type of fortune telling, in which you make a little offering (usually 100yen) and you get your fortune. It ranks from Daikichi (大吉）(Good fortune) to Daikyou (Bad fortune)大凶. It does depend on the temple/ shrine itself. If you unlucky enough to get 'bad' fortune, you can tie it in the provided spaces and 'leave your bad luck behind.'
They usually also have personalised sections in the fortune sheet, such as; love, work, health etc...Some places like Meiji Jingu will have their omikuji in the form of poems.
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| With the crew: Henri, Chris, Benjamin, Jenny, Irene, Patrick and Jin (Photo: Irene) |
Close to Asakusa, is the soon to be open Sky Tree. Apparently people have started reserving tickets up to 5 months before...
After loitering around the Asakusa area, we boarded the Water Bus, bound for Odaiba. This was the first time I had taken the boat and also gone to Odaiba. A day of firsts I guess! The boat heads down Sumida River which has a grand total of 26 bridges in a span of approx 27km. Something to do on the boat: wave to people and pretend you're on the Titanic! It's pretty interesting to wave at people on the shore~ One of my furendos was a compulsive waver! It was super windy so in a lot of the photos, we all had crazyy hair.
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| With the Rainbow Bridge (Photo: Irene) |
Once you get to the island, one of the first things you'll notice is, you've come to New York!!! (Cue: ♪ In New York~ Concrete jungle, where dreams are made of. ♪ )
Yea that is a miniature Statue of Liberty.
There is this cute like 'Showa' themed arcade/ shopping town in one of the buildings and it was where I found this. I think this was near the Takoyaki Museum. Which definitely reminded me of Namja Town in Ikebukuro!!
Loves ♥
Labels: Asakusa, Japan, Odaiba, The Crew, travels
Friends. No alcohol. Mexico. Shrine. Beer
(Warning IMAGE HEAVY!) So I've been living up the fun life here in Japan for just over a month now... I can't believe that its really been so long. I don't want it to ever end! I am very much enjoying the friendships I've made with people that are on exchange here at Hitotsubashi. It's much a cultural diverse campus, with people from France, China, Finland, Germany, Korea and many more!!!
There was recently a welcome party for exchange students held by my university (never mind its about a month after we've started) and after that the after party was at this Mexican themed bar near the uni. It was such great fun and it gave me the chance to wear my new Forever 21 dress (I am so in love with F21). The food was awesome even though I had to wear this...
There was recently a welcome party for exchange students held by my university (never mind its about a month after we've started) and after that the after party was at this Mexican themed bar near the uni. It was such great fun and it gave me the chance to wear my new Forever 21 dress (I am so in love with F21). The food was awesome even though I had to wear this...
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| The cute little sign means I can't have alcohol cause I'm underage! |
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| Some of the fabulous girlies I've met! |
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| The fantastic people I live with/ hang with! (Benjamin, Jenny, Jin, Henri, Patrick and Chris) |
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| My new favourite dress! From F21! ♥Asymmetrical + cut out ♥ |
Then last week Thurs (26th) for my Explore Japan class we toured around the town we live in, Kunitachi and the Suntory Beer Factory. We visited the Yaho Tenman-gu (谷保天満宮) located around a 5 min drive away from the main university campus. Most of the believers go to the shrine to wish for better luck in studies and protection. Many of the wishes included; "Getting into my first choice university", "getting onto the track team""getting a boyfriend". (I'm only joking). The special part of the shrine was that you actually had to go down the stairs to get to the shrine. Usually in Japan, you have to climb stairs to get the shrines/ temples because the the closer you are to the sky, the closer you are to the celestial beings as obviously the Gods are in a much more elevated position than us, human folk. The story goes that they built the shrine before the main area was actually developed so at the time the Yaho Tenman-gu was actually more elevated that the main road, but due to modern development in the area, the main road became higher than the shrine!
The two guard dogs of the shrine
After this we made our way to the fantastic Suntory Beer Factory in Musashino. (West Tokyo) Our teacher organised this tour, where we could take a peek of how they produce their famous Suntory Premium Malt beer. Using malt and hops from Czech and around that area, combined with natural mineral water from a underground water aquifer it creates their famous beer!
Then on to the taste testing we go!
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| (The ExJp crew: Jacob, Chris, Benjamin, Henri, Jenny, Patrick and me) |
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| The Suntory ads! Kimutaku and Takeuchi Yuko ♥ |
That was last week! Woooo holiday time!
Love,
Δαφνε
Labels: Beer, Explore Japan, Hit-U, Japan, Kunitachi
Cherry. Blossom. Viewing
The long awaited second post of this blog is finally here! I've been slightly busy with choosing classes at Hitotsubashi university and seeing some old friends. Also it's been Hanami or Cherry Blossom viewing season.
From the very knowledgeable Wikipedia "A cherry blossom is the flower of any of several trees of genus Prunus, particularly the Japanese Cherry, Prunus serrulata, which is sometimes called sakura after the Japanese (桜 or 櫻; さくら)"
From the very knowledgeable Wikipedia "A cherry blossom is the flower of any of several trees of genus Prunus, particularly the Japanese Cherry, Prunus serrulata, which is sometimes called sakura after the Japanese (桜 or 櫻; さくら)"
Yes the same Sakura from Naruto or Card Captor Sakura.
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| Sakura or Cherry Blossoms (most likely the Somei Yoshino) at Shinjuku Gyoen |
So when the sakura petals fall as they are destined to coat the skies and the ground with a different type of snow. Sakura are sometimes used to represent the fleeting life because they bloom gorgeously for a week and then they wilt.
Hanami parties are really popular in Japan, and people get really serious about picnicking under the snowy white trees. For the short period of 2-3 weeks people will wine and dine with family/ friends/ co-workers to enjoy the evanescent sakura blossoms. People can get super rowdy at these gatherings and one time I saw someone had 2 Asahi beer kegs set up with a beer tap. Pity this particular park a that we went didn't allow alcohol, and were strict enough that they checked your bags upon entry... So over the these 2 weeks I've attended 3 different hanami parties, at Komazawa Park, Daigaku Dori in Kunitachi and Shinjuku Gyoen.
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| Left: The queue to get into the Gyoen (on a Tuesday) Right: Picnicking under the trees |
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| Sakura at Komazawa Park |
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| Sakura in Kunitachi |
So this was the last two weeks of my life whilst settling into my dorm and living with the best bunch of people ever!
Love,
Daphne
Labels: Cherry Blossoms, Hanami, Japan, Kunitachi
Japan. Tokyo. Hitotsubashi
So I'm a little late in starting this blog, but its take me some time to really settle into dorm life and uni hasn't even started yet, so it might take a few days before there are steady posts! Here are some snippets of my life as it is now....
1. The cherry blossom in Hakone, when I went to the famous onsen town.
2. My dorm mates (Luke, Jenny, Chris, Tim and Henrietta)
3. Karaoke with Jenny and Henri'
4. Sushi for breakfast at the famous Tsukiji Fish Market
5. My dorm room
6. The big Buddha at Kamakura with Erica and Shouhei
7. Gorgeous strawberries for only ¥ 300 ($3-4AUD/ USD)
8. Mt Fuji from Gotemba (border of Shizuoka and Tokyo)
Love,
Daphne
Labels: Dorm life, Japan, travels
Name: Daphne or Duffy
My heart, it races is inspired by a song and I decided to share with people what things that make my heart race, be it good or bad. I'm still relatively new to blogging but I do vlogging which can be found on youtube. 
Get a bf 