Japan Day 7....

This is the most memorable day of the entire trip for me. I don't think that I have ever had more fun in my life than I did on this day. First Charles, Chad, and I met Miyuki and Sami at the metro station at Yoyogi-koen. Our adventures began with a trip to "Little Edo." The area is named "little Edo" because the buildings are still fashioned in the same manner as those in the Edo era. Some of the buildings are still there from that time as well. We toured a local home that was made into a museum to see how the people of this time lived.

The house we went through was really amazing, but the one thing that suprised me more than anything was the staircase. They were so small and very steep. I kid you not, each step was about 1/3rd the size of my foot and I have small feet. Everything was so small compared to even me. The ceiling was low and the beds were small. I guess it goes to show how the Japanese people have changed over the years. Even the girls that were showing us around were bigger than the people of the Edo Era it would seem. So even a small American like myself was enormous inside of these little houses. The next place we visited was a museum which displayed the winning parade floats for the "Little Edo" yearly festival. These floats take about 8 years to complete and are shown during the parades. The floats are huge (about 20 - 25 feet tall). They were exquitely crafted though. Every detail is taken into account down to the hand carvings on the sides of the float. After we left this museum, we went to a local candy shop. As it turns out, the Japanese seem to like their sweets. The Japanese sweets are a little different from ours, but not much. The names and flavors are really the only differences in the candies in America and Japan. One thing I cannot recall seeing anywhere though, is a candy bar. I don't think I saw one the entire trip. I guess that is a purely American thing. Chad and Charles tried the Yam flavored ice cream, but I just didn't have it in me to have any sweets this day. A littl elater we went to a local food vendor and had Udon for lunch. It was so good. While we were eating our lunch the girls and I engaged in some origami. I think it suprised them that I could actually do it. It was a lot of fun. I still can't make the crane to save my life, but they could. After lunch, we went to visit one of the local temples. It was really beautiful and well kept.

After a short visit to the shrine we left "little Edo" and went to a Karaoke place. As it turns out, those girls can really sing. I mean they sing amazingly well. After about an hour of Karaoke, we went to a local place and had Okunomiyaki. The girls made reservations to take us, because apparently it is a very popular place to eat. Needless to say it was very tasty. One of the more interesting things about this resteraunt is that yo cook your own okunomiyaki. They bring you the ingredients and directions of how to make it. Needless to say I had to try to do it. I got to cook one and they said I did very well. It was so much fun. Ohh and for those of you wondering, this is okunomiyaki.

After we finished eating we went back for more Karaoke. It was so much fun. In Taiwan I never sang Karaoke. I would never sing it in America, but here I did.

And just to give you an idea of how well these girls could sing, a short video clip.

The funny part is that we had the most fun on the only rainy day of the whole trip. You know you had the best day of your life when you are walking home in rain so heavy your socks are wet from the rain on the sidewalk after you umbrella explodes and you are still smiling and laughing about it. And yes, my umbrella really did explode, but I don't want to waste blog space telling you about it. Tomorrow morning we leave. I really do not want to go back :-(

Japan Day 6...

Day 6 was basically a free day for us. While I do not have any pictures from this day, it is not to say the day was not full of activity. Chad, Charles, and myself went to Shinjuku to do some shopping, and I got to play DDR in Japan. That makes three countries I have played DDR in. Chad has videos, so at some point I am going to try to post them on here when I get a chance. After some light shopping and walking around Shinjuku, we returned to the olympic center. I took a breif rest and got some lunch, then I went for a walk. I walked around the local area where we were staying. I must have walked for about four hours. I just wanted to see what the area was like. I ended up taking the metro back home after the walk though. Saturday was also used for doing some laundry because it had to be done at this point. Also, we got in contact with the girls we met at Gakushuin and planned to go out with them tomorrow since we had one last free day before we left back for the states. Lastly, I packed and cleaned the room so I didn't have to do it Monday morning before we leave. Our scheduled time to depart the Olympic center is 5:30am Monday morning.

Japan day 5...

It is now Friday, and we have two major business visits today. Our first visit is to Harley-Davidson Japan. First and foremost, I want to mention that I was very impressed with the presentation given by the people from Harley Davidson. One of the most impressive aspects of the presentation was not just the facts about the business, but how Harley-Davidson tries to create a community of it's riders. They sponsor activities and gatherings around the world. Furthermore, Harley-Davidson Japan, still has a growing market even though they are a large bike with a fairly hefty price tag. A more interesting fact about this situation is that Harley-Davidson has few return purchasers. The company attributes this fact to the fact that the bikes hardly ever wear out and the customers hang on to them even after their riding value has deminished. So, this fact means that a person buying a Harley-Davidson rarely has to buy a second bike. Furthermore, Harley-Davidson has not suffered any declines with the recent recession according to the gentlemen we met with.

Our second visit for the day was to the Sony Headquarters in Japan. Sony first gave us a tour of their show room. We were not allowed to take pictures in here, but we did get to see their newest projects. Some of the items we got to view were a 200 inch HD projection screen. Talk about a big, clear TV. We also got to see some of their video camera equipment, both newer and a little older. We also looked at their slow motion photography camera, and I got to kick a soccerball at a target then view it on the slow motion camera. I actually hit the target, barely. We also, looked at the new rolley (as much as I want one $400 USD is too much for my taste). We also got to see their newer projects that involved solar panels. After our tour of their show room we went to see a presentation they had prepared for us. Needless to say, I was less than impressed by their presentation especially after seeing their show room. I really feel like Sony did little more than rehash what the public already knows about the company with a little bit of company history in their presentation. One interesting note that I gathered from these two visits is that Sony seems to promote the better and more powerful product which works in some cases. Harley-Davidson promotes the community and life style that comes with their product. Both of these companies are very strong and well-known companies world-wide. I think it just goes to showw that the marketing strategy used by a company has a lot to do with how well the company fairs, because in the case of both of these companies a lot of their products tend to be rather pricey. Even with a fairly steep price both companies still tend to continue make profit even through recession. After completeing our business visits for the day we had the rest of the evening free. Needless to say I called it an early night. Lack of sleep seems to have caught even me at this point.

Japan Day 4 ...

Our next Day began with a visit to Hiro-sensei's kimono shop. We all got to try on kimono's and yukatas. All of the kimonos and yukatas were very pretty. Also, we learned that there are different styles of kimonos and yukatas for men and women. After our brief stay at the kimono shop we went around the area for some site seeing and shopping before going over to the Edo Museum. Something else I want to take time to mention is that we were allowed to try on these kimonos and yukatas due to the kindness of Hiro-sensei. I would like to give thanks to him and all of his shop workers for their kindness and allowing us to try on such elegant, traditional, japanese clothing.

Our next stop as previously mentioned was the Edo Museum. The Edo Museum is a museum of Japanese history from the Edo era. The Edo era was a time in Japanese history when tokyo was known as Edo. The museum itself was huge. It contained many models, reconstructions, and historical items from the time which show how the japanese people lived during this era. There was so much to see in the museum. Unfortunately I can't put all the pictures in one blog.

After finishing our tour in the museum, we went to see the Sumo matches. While I loved the museum, it did not compare to how much I enjoyed the Sumo tournament. The sumo tournament went on for 14 days from 8:00am till 8:00pm every day. It was absolutely amazing seeing these huge Sumo wrestlers having their bouts. There were two active Yokozuna at the tournament. For those who don't know, a Yokozuna is a reigning champion in sumo. it is the highest title that can be offered to a sumo wrestler. Since the beginning of the sport of Sumo there have only been 64 Yokozuna, therefore getting to see two of them was a very special memory for me. In the video I put on here, the one in the brown is the Yokozuna and he shows exactly why he is a Yokozuna. I stayed until the end of the tournament, but I think that most of the class left well before then. Sumo has a lot of history and ritual involved in the match. I do not know all of the rituals involved, but I do know that most of the students that I talked to at Gakushuin all liked Sumo. My only regret is that I did not get to stay for the whole ending ceremony. I would have loved to have seen it.

Japan Day 3 ...

Our day started today with a trip to visit a local shrine. Little did I know just how wonderful this day was going to turn out. Upon arriving, we first visited the local information center with Yamamoto-sensei. Needless to say the first stop at the shrine is the gate. The gate is called the lightning gate. I has statues on both sides of the gate(you can't really see them in this picture). The statues are supposed to be the guardians of the gate, and there are a total of four of them per gate, two on the front and two on the back. The shrine was actually a very interesting visit for sever reasons. The first reason being the massive amount of culture that could be experienced here.

Secondly, there was a huge market here. Also, you just don't see these types of things anywhere in the states. While at the shrine there was a huge market with almost every kind of souvenir imaginable. A little farther in there was an area for fortune telling called "Mikuji." I decided to have mine done, and as it turns out my fortune is good.

After visiting the shrine, we went with Yamamoto-sensei to see the empirial palace. The Emperial palace was really pretty, at least what we could see of it. We weren't allowed to get very close to it. I did get some really nice pictures of it though.

After a very brief stay at the emperial palace, we then had a quick lunch and then returned to Gakushuin. We were meeting the students from Gakushuin for a class followed by going out to see the areas around Tokyo in groups. As it turns out, our class together was the Japanese students helping us write our name in Kanji. Each of us was paired with two students to write our names.

Later after we learned to write our names in kanji, we broke up into groups and traveled out in the areas in and arounf Tokyo. I went to Akehibara. Needless to say, this area was right up my alley with all the electronics and nerdy things that could be found here. The girls who took us out, took us to a maid cafe, serveral elctronics stores, several anime/manga stores, and finally out to eat.

Special Thanks to Akane, Natsumi, Miyuki, Maya, and Sami for the wonderful night out.

Japan Day 2...

I actually ended up staying in the Olympic center on this day. I was feeling rather sick, and as it turns out there was a nice little sinus infection that went though most of our group. The good news is that, none of us have come down with anything serious (a.k.a. the swine flu). On this day I missed another visit to Gakushuin and a lecture by Dr. Fox. I really hope that he isn't mad about that. We also had a visit from one of the high ranking employees from Ernst and Young. Unfortunately due to the swine flu scare they had to come visit our students instead of us visiting the company. All-in-all the class seemed to have fun on this visit from what I heard from the other students. What all did I miss out on, I guess I will never know.

Day 1 in Japan...

Well, our first official day here and things are interesting to say the least. The area kind of reminds me of the big cities in the US. Kind of like how I picture New York only with fewer beggars and much cleaner. Okay, so our first stop was the all-you-can eat breakfast at the Olympic center where we are staying following by a briefing in the meeting room which I have yet to photograph for the daily schedule. After the business is done, we get on the Metro, much more difficult than the Taiwan subway, to visit the Meiji Shrine. The Meiji Shrine was erected in commemoration of the Meiji Restoration, a very important part of Japanese history in which trade opened up with the rest of the world. This Shrine is absolutely amazing. It is so beautiful. The shrine is surrounded by a large natural "reserve." I want to say park, but that doesn't really describe it. The area is basically a wooded area with creeks, woods, and several commemorative and decorative items interspersed. We only got to go to the see the shrine, we didn't have enough time to go in the shrine itself. Either way, I am so glad I got to see it.

Our second stop for the day was Gakoshuin University. This college is very beautiful, but it also serves as a high, middle, and elementary school as well. Well, I should say that it has these other campuses directly attached to it. Furthermore, this is the school where the emperial families attend. Lastly, this college is an all women's college. Our first visit here is to get aquainted with the students as well as observe some of the cultural classes offered in the school. This school has a cirriculum which incorperates a large amount of japanese history and culture. We observed the flower arranging class before heading off to complete some of our other obligations for the day.

For dinner we went out with Ericka and some of her friends for a traditional Japanese meal. Ericka is a local who had come to ASU for a brief visit. She is a friend of Dr. Chen and Dr. Fox. Several of her friends are graduating soon or have graduated and are lining up big time business and marketing jobs all over the world.

Lastly, we took a stroll through the red light district, guided by Dr. Chen. Let's just say it was interesting. Needless to say, I think that I will avoid such places at night for the rest of the trip. Now to get some much needed rest.