Skip to main content

Day 24- Bastille

Day twenty four of our trip to this country half way around the world. Unfortunately it is almost time for us to leave it all behind. I’ve done most of the things I wanted to do but there are one or two goals I had that will not be possible due to time constraints. These will require a second visit. Today however, I did manage to accomplish one of the most highly anticipated items on my list- Explore the city of Tokyo. I woke up at seven o’clock in the morning, far too early if you ask me, and departed from shin Osaka to Tokyo station. This was not my first time in the city but it would be my first time wandering the streets and actually experiencing the city rather than just passing through. The group decided to break up for lunch after depositing our bags in the hotel. Most went back to the station to eat but I, being the enterprising sort, took to the streets. When I happened upon a rolling sushi location I was delighted. These places had proved to quick and cheap in the past so why should this one be any different? I would come to regret that line of reasoning as this was one of the most expensive sushi places I had seen so far. The food was delicious but at prices three to four times the places I’d tried in the past it was not worth it. after being shocked by the sushi place I moved on to the science museum where the plan was to meet up with the rest of the group. I got there just in time for our entry and explored the museum with those of us who also made it on time. There were several entertaining sites like the dinosaur exhibit and moon rock, but the most entertaining was watching people fight in the group chat about nothing important. I left for a quick pit stop at the hotel before walking around the city some more. First I went to the imperial palace. It was not open when I went and so I had to walk around it and enjoy the scenery around the moat. Afterwards, I proceeded to Tokyo tower where due to a lack of yen following an incident at a rolling sushi place, I did not have the funds to carry me to the top and still eat dinner that night. I opted for dinner and took my pictures from the base of the tower. Feeling somewhat tired from the busy day I had just been through I decided to forgo my previously planned visit to the grave site of the forty seven ronins. I ended up postponing this until the next day after that day’s activity. To finish out the day I went back to the hotel and spent the rest of the night until 00:30 working on my essay before going to sleep. Day twenty four proved to be an unforgettable addition to my trip here to Japan. 

image loads on my device in edit mode but disappears when viewed 
t
Tokyo tower

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to SS314: Language, Culture, & History

Welcome to our class blog for Language, Culture, & History! We are one of the classes in the study abroad Japan program, a partnership between Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Osaka Metropolitan University. During our five week summer course, we will collaboratively author this class blog to document our adventures in Osaka and across Japan. 

Day 5 Recap: Shrines, Castles, and Submarines: Only in Osaka

      After getting acclimated to Japan and a few days of classes, we finally had a free day. I started my day the right way by sleeping in. Of course, the fun didn't start until later tonight, as we'll get to that.     Getting a not-so-traditional Japanese breakfast of donuts and coffee with my friends, I met up with my parents at our hotel as they have recently arrived in Osaka. First, we go visit the nearby Namba Jinja shrine. Not to be confused with the more popular Namba Jinja lion shrine, you can learn more about it in my travel guidebook entry. Regardless, we took in the scenery, did a prayer, and my mom gave me a charm for luck. Juxtaposing ancient Japan with not so ancient Italy, we stopped by the nearby Ferrari store to get a picture with the Formula 1 car.     Moving on, my family requested that I show them around Osaka castle, making it my third visit to the beautiful site. We didn't go inside, as we saw the line and decided the outside is fine enough. Every tim

Day 3 Recap: Karaoke and Sushi in Japan

       Since this day was a school day I woke up around 7:30 and ate one of the in-room sandwiches and headed to the train with my roommate Race. There were about 3 hours of boring math lectures but after that, I got to eat curry at lunch which was amazing. I've learned that even though the food here is extreamly diffrent from what we have in America, it is just as good if not better then American food and actually reflects the culture of Japan really well. After our writing lecture, we got to listen to a lecture about the Japanese language. Some of the stuff we learned was how to say please or excuse me, "Sumimasen", let's go, "ikou", and thank you, "Arigato."       Next was the English cafe, for this we met with a bunch of students trying to learn English and spoke with them to help them practice. I talked with a guy who is writing a paper on using enzymes to protect plants from diseases, he wasn't that good at English so it was a little hard