I started the day late because I wasn’t feeling well. I went to Shinjuku to do some more shopping for people back home, then went to the post office to get boxes to send stuff home in. Dinner was in Roppongi again, followed by more Christmas/souvenir shopping.
[Read the rest!]Towering Over Tokyo

First full day back in Tokyo. I looked around at electronics stores, went to the tourist info center near Tokyo Station, then went to the Tokyo Tower, missed out on some fireworks, got overcharged for “meh” yakitori, and wandered around Shinjuku a bit.
[Read the rest!]First Night in Kyoto

I made it to Kyoto; discovered a few things about buying shinkansen tickets, ate some delicious food in Kyoto, and some not-so-delicious food.
[Read the rest!]Makes Me Want to Eat My Phone!
I went back to Nagoya for more wandering around. I found an international market that sells oatmeal, and some fake plastic candy to stick on my phone. I also found the dictionary I’ve been looking for!
[Read the rest!]Gettin’ Busy.
Classes are heating up. Things are getting more intense and busier, with full weeks of regular class, JBPP, and electives. Also, I learned something interesting about how to deal with big electronics stores in Japan. And we learned how to answer phones politely.
[Read the rest!]ごろごろ and 電子辞書 (Gorogoro and Denshi Jisho)

It’s Saturday, and for once it’s not raining. It’s not really sunny, but it’s not raining. I’ll take what I can get. My electronic dictionary is dying, so I’m off to Nagoya to buy a new one, among other things.
[Read the rest!]It’s Saturday, So It Must Be Nagoya.
It’s Saturday. No classes, and it’s beautiful outside. So I went to Nagoya to do some shopping for some much-needed necessities. No photos on this trip, because I didn’t take my SLR with me. It was too heavy to carry around while I went shopping. I needed to buy sheets, a wireless router, and after
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Busy day today, with ups, downs, and a Krispy Kreme sighting. I started off at 9:30 by running to Ikebukuro to buy a suitcase. Ugh. But I did find one. It’s not the best one I could find, but it was the right mix of cheap and not too shabby. Then breakfast, which was more
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Akihabara So on to Akihabara, or Akiba as everyone calls it here. First, I stopped at Asakusabashi station again, as I transferred from the subway to the JR line. I had a wait, so I took some more photos of Asakusabashi station: Asakusabashi platform: Roof detail: Signal lights: My train came in, and I made
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Leaving Sendai Finally made it to Tokyo. A brief synopsis of the day: First, a jar of KitKats. Yep, a glass jar full of KitKats. Never seen one of those! I got up early to make my 10 a.m. checkout, went to the station, and made some calls overseas to the family. (Hi family!) I
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It’s Saturday in Osaka, and time to go see more stuff. This will be my last full day in Kansai, so I want to make the most of it. I got up at 8 a.m., slowly got my act together, and made sure to get to the Osaka Aquarium (Kaiyukan) by 10:00 a.m., when it
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Last night in Hiroshima I tried to do laundry again. It’s not always easy to find a hotel that has coin-operated washers that work. Even though the 5,000-7,000 yen a night business hotels tend to have them, they aren’t always in the best shape. I give you the hotel I stayed in last night as
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Big day today! For starters, I woke up at 7 a.m. On a Saturday. Can’t help it. Then I did laundry at the laundromat next to the QuickMart. I lead an exciting life! Laundry was completed without much incident. Wandering in Nagoya Then I set off for Nagoya. This time the trains worked! At first,
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