on the road again...

TODAY: First earthquake that I was like, OK this is for sure an earthquake! Ha ha, I was eating lunch in a newer building but definately felt the shaking! Pete said it woke him up and shook him hard. So Either he lives much closer to the epicenter than Waseda, or the building I have Ainu in is more structurally designed for earthquakes. (Which, lol, "earthquake" and "confidence" are homophones, they're both said 'jishin' although maybe intonation is different?)
YESTERDAY: Got the Xmas presents for the family sent off! Now to start on Xmas cards/letters!

EARLIER:
So I actually managed to take myself out and about the past little while! 2 gold stars for me :)

I  went to Kamakura and Enoshima last Thursday. Started the day early, and bought a return ticket (Kamakura Free Pass from JR East) from 'Baba eki, and got on the Yamanote to Shinjuku, where I was supposed to transfer to the direct line out to Kamakura.... but it wasn't running that morning for some reason. So I had to hop BACK on the Yamanote, and get to Shinagawa, where I then transfered to the local train to Yokosuka, which has a stop at Kamakura. So instead of it taking less than an hour to get there, It took almost 2 and a half :(. But I got there by 11-ish and had a wonderful time just wandering around various temples and shrines. I like shrines better I think. I WAS disappointed that I couldn't take pictures at my favourite place. Its got a bunch of statues that have "ferocious" faces on that are supposed to be the judges at the gates of hell or something. But mostly they just looked pretty funny. I did pay to go inside the big buddha again, but I forgot you can't go up to his head and look out from his eyes, you just walk into his belly. Which sounds cool when I phrase it that way, so I guess it coulda been worse. By no means did I see every temple and shrine there, I think I could've easily spent another day there (I didn't get to the beach either!) but I wanted to take the trolley to Enoshima and watch the sunset there, which is supposed to be fantastic. And Ezster had highly reccommended Enoshima too... which means I will have to go back. Because of clouds, by the time I got there the sunset was blocked. And everything was already shut down more or less at 5pm when I got there. Sort of disappointing. But I had gotten most of my Xmas shopping done!
And Saturday (i think) I went to Rikugien Korakuen, which is a famous garden in tokyo, to see some fall colours. And an illumination (so I was there a loooong time OMG like 6 hours???) But my camera still wasn't charged after Kamakura, so I need to figure out how to get those pics off my cell phone at some point. BTW, tokyo is STILL MOSTLY GREEN and I dont think it's dropped below 10C yet. :D This is CRAZY and AWESOME! And everyone looks at me funny bc I'm still in early fall clothes and they are in like 3 layers and scarves and toques! And Haru keeps our room at like 24-26C at all times, so I'm in tanks and shorts in the dorm... next winter will be painful if I get too used to this.

Starting to research alternate housing options over the last few days. Hopefully I'll have some luck soon!

Miss you (you know who you are)
-J

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Gates of the Imperial Palace with Raymond, Yumi, and Yasu. I've lost my favourite picture of this day 

actually :(

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The Palace! Hopefully I remember to go see it again on one of the 2 days a year it is open!

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2010.09.23.liberty!

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2010.09.26.fromTTharbour

So this is apparently what I do when the alternative is studying

Aaaand right now I SHOULD be studying for a summary test I am not in any way prepared for.
HOWEVER, I would much rather do a miny update here:
I've been enjoying girl-dates with my gal pals here lately :)
I took Leana to Afternoon Tea in Shinjuku the other day. Which is always delicious and one of my favourite places right now. It's a chain tea shop (and "lifestyle" OMG the linked in goods they sell... fuwafuwa!) but it doesnt feel all gimmichy. Its just kinda lovely. A nice place for some chill time. (Not to say that I've forsaken Oolong, which remains the teahouse of my heart)
And today Fee and I went to this really really sweet korean bbq place right above the Lawson down the street from my dorm. We got a set of veg, and one of meat, to share. It was alllll sooooo good, even with our lack of culinary prowess! I am still REPLETE I tell you!

Yeahmm, still working on the uploading of pictures thing, really I promise! 

Also-

I called my aunt Holly the other day, it was good to be able to talk to her a bit. Mom has been with her for the last couple weeks, so I got to talk to her as well. So while I am not aching to go home, I hope they know that they are in my thoughts every day, and they remind me why I travel and that I should enjoy everyday to its fullest. I'm gonna try to work on that, since lately I've been pulled into the vortex of school life, even though its not all that challenging here.

Miss you all, but not enough to come home just yet ;)
J

uh... hi

so raise your hands if you thought i was going to do a good job of this blog thing?


and now put them down, cuz you're being silly both ways!!! I will TRY to make this a more usual occurance I guess, but well. good intentions and all.
If you want to know what I've been up to, open a guide book to tokyo and flip through a bit of it. yeah. that. lol. I will at some point perhaps be more explicit about my exploits but dont hold your breath!
And the photos are coming in some format or other, but i want to sort through them i guess. or something that makes me sound not quite as lazy as i have been about them :)
Tomorrow I'm getting out of tokyo for the day with fee, we're off to see Nikko and hopefully some beautiful fall foliage. (Because I didnt know far enough in advance about the break to book a trip to Kyoto DDD:   )