Bridal Show

New York City - Career Tracks

The Smith College Career Development Office (CDO) took a group of us down to NYC to network with alums and other professionals. My group was the "Sustainable Foods" track, and so we went around to different businesses dealing with some aspect of sustainable food.

One of the locations included The Green Table at Chelsea Market, where they serve local and organic foods including delicious cheeses from New York State.

It was interesting seeing the different career options and thinking about where I could end up in a few years. Although, I'd rather not live in NYC. It was a huge wake up call to go from the fairly clean Tokyo to dirty, smelly New York City.

We finished up the evening at an alum's townhouse on the Upper East Side. There we ate dinner, drank wine and sparkling water, and chatted with fellow Smithies.

Last Day in Tokyo

I've returned to Tokyo. Only for one day, but I didn't waste my time here! Today I went and ate great Indian food, did hours of karaoke, and ate a green tea parfait. All of my favorite things to do in Japan.

Tonight, I FINALLY met up with Chie, Yuka, and Ayako, my Japanese friends that I met in Alabama. We went to "Dessert Paradise," an all-you-can-eat pasta and dessert restaurant. I'm so full... 

Kyoto

Since I'm in Japan, I figured I might as well head into Kyoto and see my friends from last year when I studied abroad at Doshisha University. Although it's expensive, I got a JR pass in America and was able to take the shinkansen round trip from Tokyo to Kyoto. 

My first night there, I got together with some girls from my Joint Seminar class and we did a sort of 女子会, girls night out, and went to karaoke, Oosho for gyoza, purikura, and karafunea for parfaits. It was so nice. It was like being back at school again in Japan.

On my second day in Kyoto I went to Ohara to visit Ohara Kobo, where I interned for two months in the spring. Ohara is so beautiful. I got to see everybody and even baby Yu, who was born when I was in Ohara and is now big and SO cute.

On Thursday, I went to karaoke on my own, since all of my friends were busy. It's kind of embarrassing to go to karaoke alone but I see salarymen doing it all the time. Like, I'll walk by a room and there will be a 50 year old salaryman inside singing enka or something.

Next, I coincidently ran into a friend outside of the library at Doshisha, and she invited me to an okonomiyaki party at her dorm. A girl from AKP this year also went.

Finally, on my last day in Kyoto I met up with my host mom at her cafe and she treated me to lunch and we talked for a long time.

I finished up the day by meeting up with current AKP students (about ten of them!) for dinner and drinks. It was so interesting to hear the differences between last year's AKP and this year's. People aren't really having that great a time this year and two people have already quit the program. I don't know what the difference is. It seems like a lot of problems are related to homestays, though.

Sunshine City

I finally explored around Ikebukuro. Even though I'm staying here, I haven't really gotten a chance to walk around the area except from the station and back and when I get lost. Today I went to Sunshine City with two girls I met in my hostel and we ate a Western lunch and went to karaoke. There really is a lot to do in Ikebukuro besides be surprised by the number of love hotels in the area.

Since I wanted to eat ddeokbokki, we went to dinner in Shin-Okubo, Korean town and ate spicy food and drank makori.

Tokyo Day 6

Today I went to Odaiba, home to a fake Statue of Liberty, two huge malls, the maritime museum, the Fuji TV station and many other attractions. Later I took the ferry to Asakusa where I went to Asakusa Jinja and met up with Ayana for Indian food. Here are some pictures :)

New York City? No! It's Odaiba's Statue of Liberty! (??)

Venus Fort mall on Odaiba Island

Fuji TV Station and Ferry Terminal on Odaiba

View from the ferry

Tokyo Tower

Asakusa Temple

Tokyo Days 3,4 & 5

View from Tokyo Metropolitan Bulding

On Thursday I went to check out the 電力館, or TEPCO's energy museum in Shibuya, but when I got there I found out it was closed! There wasn't that much info regarding the closure but I was bummed because it would've been really beneficial for my research...

Instead, I ended up going to Harajuku. I thought it would be crawling with cosplayers but to be honest I only saw two or three people in full-on lolita regalia.

Later in the day, Ayako suddenly mailed me saying she was available, and so later that night we met in Shinjuku for SHABU SHABU.

The next day we met up again and went to a hip hop dance performance with some of her friends.

Today I finally got to go to the Ghibli museum. My favorite movies are Howl's Moving Castle, Sprited Away, and Castle in the Sky. I got to see original drawings from all the movies and everything in the museum was so pretty.

They don't let you take pictures inside, but even the outside was cool:

The robot from Laputa!

Later in the day, Ayana invited me out to dinner with her dad to eat at her uncle's newly opened restaurant. Everybody has been so incredibly nice!

Tokyo Days 1 & 2

On my first full day in Tokyo I went to Ginza with another girl from my hostel room. We checked out the paper and art supply store, Itoya, and the Imperial Palace. Many people run the three mile loop around the palace and consequently we saw a lot of runners.

Next, we checked out Shibuyaand its famous crosswalk. We spent time chatting in the Starbucks that overlooks the crosswalk and it was a nice evening.

Statue of Masashige

Nijubashi Bridge at Imperial Palace

Shibuya cross walk - Famous for always being incredibly packed. Interestingly there wasn't much traffic besides advertisement trucks.

Today I went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observatory. I felt a little awkward going into the big government building because I didn't notice any other tourists going in, but once inside there were signs to direct people to the elevator. Before going up, security had to check my bag, and then I crammed into the elevator with some other tourists. The observatory is on the 45th floor. It was so high that my ears popped.

Next, I walked around Shinjuku...a lot...


The directions I got online were wrong, or I misread them or something. Regardless, Shin Okubo is not a short walk from Shinjuku, and I ended up walking around in circles until I asked a police man where to go. Eventually I made my way to the Korea Town of Tokyo and stopped for a kimchi chige lunch. It was so good, and everybody else in the restaurant was speaking Korean, so I'm pretty sure the food was legit.

I ended my day in Akihabara, the electronics district. The way I imagined Akihabara and the way it actually is are totally different. For some reason I didn't imagine it being so dingy and full of men. I swear I saw only five females on the streets while I was there, and all of them were with guys. I guess that's to be expected with the overload of "moe" and maid cafes going on there.

View from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observatory

Lunch in Korea Town at Shin Okubo