SANJA Festival@ASAKUSA

*Edited : Info added on the fish game

The foreign students support club in my university arranges activities and trips nearly once each month to famous places inside or close to Tokyo.

This month's activity was visiting Asakusa (浅草) to see the famous SANJA MATSURI (sanja festival 三社祭).
Actually this was not my first time to Asakusa and sensouji(浅草寺) since we went there last year, but for today, it was my first time to see a Japanese Festival.
(Most festivals in Japan are rather religious celebrations).

It was really an interesting experience.
The place was crazily crowded... smells of food being cooked/grilled/fried is filling the place..traditional matsuri games for kids..kakigooriかき氷....and of course, a lot of omikoshi!神輿(portable shrines)
All these things would make you feel the matsuri(festival) atmosphere!

On the way towards sensouji ..kiosks and shops on both sides. They sell interesting nihonppoi stuff..so if you want to make your room so, this is a good place to buy such stuff!

Since it was a traditional festival, it felt OK to put on the hachimaki (I once was told that putting such hachimaki with Japan flag on it is not very much appreciated, since it has something related to the WW and being an extreme nationalist or something... but I took the advantage of being a gaikokujin and pretended that I don't know! :p )
One old man that I encountered even told me 「お！日の丸、、かっこいいですね！」　="o!Japan's flag, that's cool!"
I'm not sure if he meant it ^^; But anyway, I have my own meaning for putting on the hachimaki, and it has nothing to do with history ^^

Carrying omikoshi

Before I come and see everything, I was thinking that it would be nice to participate in carrying one, and take a picture too...but after I saw with my own eyes how heavy it looks and how many people it needs to be carried..I changed my mind!

I posed here last year w

Actually seeing this and remembering that senseouji is a Temple and not a Shrine has "corrupted" my information a little at first.
I know that the festival is a Shinto matsuri so I was thinking why would there be a Shinto matsuri in a Temple.
Then I realized that this festival does not belong to the sensouji, rather it belongs to the nearby ASAKUSA shrine , which was built to honor the people who built the sensouji.
lol Am I making it any easier this way?

The traditional fish game. 金魚すくい(SAKANA SUKUI)
The principle is that you have to catch a fish with a tool that is made of thin paper that melts easily in water, so you have to be quick.
I saw a lot of happy kids walking proud with their caught fishes put in a plastic transparent bag.




The Anpanman(الرغيف العجيب) mask is so cute, I wanted one just to stick to my room's wall, but... cough! :p

So now! What is a festival post without...VIDEOS?!
I took a lot of videos and I want to share some, so you can FEEL the matsuri!
(Sorry for the low quality, I had to make them smaller in size so I can quickly upload them..Also I don't think that you want to download a 2 minutes video of size 200MB !!)

Carrying the OMIKOSHI (In this festival, 100 such omikoshi are carried to begin touring the town) :



Gotta see this one! :
Kids can also participate by carrying a smaller and lighter omikoshi.
They were really cute!

That's all for the SANJA MATSURI!
I hope it was informative and enjoyable~ comments people! ^_^
K-chan logs out!

My Golden DAY - Re-living memories + a first meeting

Today was such a wonderful day.
During the whole golden week, I've gone no where... nowhere worth mentioning; and the weather was not encouraging at all. It had been either rainy or cloudy in a very gloomy way.

But today was such a full day, a real golden day.
Sunny and warm. Just looking out through the window would move you to get dressed and go out.
I don't like unplanned go outs, so I spent like 10 minutes planning what to do, where to go and how to go! But the day ended with a nice unplanned surprise :) Follow on with me!

As an engineer, I was looking for the most efficient way,in terms of cost, to reach my destinations utilizing my monthly pass as much as I can.

At last I decided to go first for a walk near Tameikesannou station(溜池山王駅), to bring back memories of last year's summer!

I walked beside the ANA Hotel, where we were staying.. "ohisashiburi~"

Stared at this shrine.. "oh! I remember you!"

And wondered about these 2 jidouhanbaiki(自動販売機) which are still in their places.. I used them to buy a bottle of juice last year, I remember that clearly..

I thought: "There should be a 24hours McDonalds if I turn here", and there it was.
I remember the place very well! We used to walk here a lot in the humid nights of Tokyo summer =)
Each time I pass by a building or anything thing that I remember from that time, it becomes like : "Hi! I am back as I promised!"
I was really happy to walk there! A happiness with a small hint of NATSUKASHII-ness, since I miss those youth exchange program days~.

The tameike sannou part is over now.
Next, I was planning to go to Akiba, to buy some stuff and to,again, re-live some memories.
I went there from Ocha no mizu station. But before that I had a small walk near this station..ocha no mizu is really a nice place~ with a small river/stream of ocha water :p

ocha no mizu..literally !

After arriving to Akiba -which is only the next station after ocha no mizu on the sobu chuo line- I headed to Yodobashi Akiba and spent most of the time there.
I got myself the 8MP Canon IXY 910IS DigiCamera and some other stuff..
Although the Sony cybershot ones where attractive..but when it comes to photography, I prefer to choose the name with longer history in photography.

High quality pictures on this blog from now on~~

We are not done yet!
The nice surprise was waiting~
When I came back home, I was about to open my room's door when I noticed that the horizon was very clear and that I could see some mountains.
I saw these ones before, but the thing was that today was clear enough that I could see mount Fuji.
I grabbed my mobile phone, rushed to the 7th floor of the lodge and there was the wonderful view.
At first I wasn't 100% sure it was mount Fuji. But given that it was further than any mountain I could see, yet bigger than anyone of them. + It's symmetrical shape + It's exactly where it should be direction-wise ..I became positive it is Fuji!
ドキドキ!! ..ワクワク!! is the best way to describe my feelings at that time.
Taken by my 3.2MP mobile camera, the pictures are not good! But I hope they can deliver at least a small part of the idea!
There are 2 pictures. The first is the original one, and the second is an edited one to make it easier to see.

The original picture - probably wont be able to see it

I edited the contrast and sharpness of the picture so if you look well you can see its upper part. (pointed to by an arrow) It's hiding behind the mountains to the front
Of course It was much clearer to be seen by bare eyes

This last picture is one got from the Internet. It's a view of Fuji from Tokyo Tower. I should go there next time the weather is clear..

This picture is NOT taken by me

This picture is NOT taken by me

Of course Tokyo Tower is much higher than my lodge building (duh!) . It's the highest in Tokyo Actually. So you can see more of Fuji san.
Also given Tokyo Tower's location with reference to my lodge, Fuji will be seen a little shifted to the left with reference to the mountains in front of it. And this is what you will see if you compare the 2 pictures.

....What I am trying to do here is to prove that the 2 previous pictures are for the same thing. i.e. what I saw was indeed Fuji.

...A verryyyyyyy long post for a veryyyyyyy nice day.
Hope you enjoyed it~ I expect comments! ;)

3 in 1

To the right is my favorite 柿ピー, a mix of nuts and KAKI NO TANE (KAKI seeds).
Down you can see my rail pass.. I finally got my self a rail pass for one month which will allow me to use my route unlimited times during this 1 month. (I use the Inokashira, Ginza and Marunouchi lines to go to the university everyday)...the metro trip is a COLORFUL story..I think I will talk about it in some other post,,,I am developing an obsession with Tokyo Metro ^^;

Actually this pass made a big difference! It saves me trouble of buying a ticket at each station! + It's a good deal if I compare it with the price I pay for one month on the normal tickets..I also included Shimokitazawa in my route where I will need to go often for shopping.
I have this crazy idea of going one day and getting off at each station on my route to discover the area..

To the left is the Tuna Mayonnaise(ツナマヨ) ONIGIRI. T-sensei mentioned it multiple times in his blog, so I was confident when I bought it for the first time. I like it~

Actually my first meeting (better expressed as 初めての出会い　ｗ) with this tuna-mayo onigiri has its own story too:

Once I went out to have dinner a little late. (Late for dinner in Japan means after 7:00. I went at 9:00 pm)
I found that all the near by restaurants are closed, even my usual last resort, the McDonalds.
When I stood in front of it and realized that it was closed, I recalled some memories from last year when I was here for the youth exchange program. The same thing happened once when we(the Jordan delegation) decided to go eat out and found that most restaurants were closed.

Anyway, I went back feeling down and decided to stop by a KONBINI (convenience store) to get anything for dinner. I noticed there were ONIGIRI of different types (Different fillings). I looked for the Tuna-Mayo one and there it was! I also got another one with Salmon-Wasabi filling.
....And they lived happily ever after .. 笑
I owe the onigiri a lot~ =p

I am now 1 month old in Tokyo! kore kara mo ganbarimasu!

Golden week.. and some pictures

Today arrived a little earlier, so I had a small walk in the campus before the class starts and took some pictures.

People are now preparing for the golden week holiday. (I made a post about Golden week last year. Click here to read the post).
The question you will hear the most these days is: "Golden week ni nani wo shimasu ka?" = "what are you going to do in the golden week?".
..For me, I don't know! .. but I should go somewhere, it's a shame that I have been here for nearly 3.5 weeks now and the furthest place I went to is my university ^^;
..And yea tomorrow is a holiday. It is SHOUWA NO HI, and it's the first day of the golden week.

KOI NOBORI in campus
KODOMO NO HI is coming soon

A registered one!

Went to Meguro ward office, and got my alien registration card :)

Clueless? --> See http://www.tokyo-icc.jp/guide_eng/proce/02.html

Twitter ♪ ... and some keitai talk

A new addition~
I like the twitter idea since sometimes I feel like sharing a small idea or thought, but feel that it is not worth a full blog post.
Twitter will be the place for these thoughts from now on.

...Away from the Twitter talk, I FINALLY got myself a mobile phone~ I should have done this much earlier but I was concerned about more important things.

I like it! Very Japanese-like.
The menu can be in English but as a proud nihongo student, I kept the menu in Japanese!
( ^_')b

In Japan there are 3 main mobile phone operators (Wikipedia mentions 4 operators but I've never heard of the 4th one):
-NTT DoCoMo
-Softbank
-KDDI au (This one's logo is co much similar to the Orange mobile operator in Jordan and other countries). See the picture below :

I made my contract with Softbank since it has been attracting so many users recently with their convenient price plans.
The great thing is that I paid nothing at the time of the contract. The handset price will be paid in parts over 24 months.

Finally beacame a real nihongo GAKUSEI

Today was the first day of the nihongo classes.
Based on the results of a placement test, I was placed in level 3 (out of 5 levels), which is good, I think.
I will have classes every day from 1:30 ~ 5:00 divided to 2 periods, except for Wednesday where there is only the 1st period and it finishes at 3:00.

This is my desk with my name on it in Katakana and Kanji. I am glad because people are starting to use this kanji for my name when they send me an email.
The class is fun. We are 11 students and there are 9 SENSEIs to teach us and they are assigned to the classes as 1 sensei/period.
The funniest part is the conversation challenge, where the teacher puts you in a certain situation(for example imagine that you need to take a day off tomorrow, go to the teacher, tell him/her and explain your reasons....) and all is video taped.
The fun starts when all students are done and playback time starts! Everyone would start laughing at their selves and their mistakes,(especially the politeness mistakes, and believe me, I am a pro in this type of mistakes !! XD ).
That's all for the nihongo class. I really like it so much! ^_^

Yasuda Auditorium standing high in pride

A Nice view. It's near a Japanese folklore museum.It is on my way to the station


A Mosque that I see when I go walking to Shimokitazawa; a nice shopping area with reasonable prices

That's all for today.

Rain in Japan..A different story

It can rain in Japan in all seasons.
That's what I realized today.
Seeing how it rains often recently and remembering the TSUYU season in summer last year.
So rain in summer, rain in spring. Winter and fall should have rain by default ==> JA~~N , rain can fall in all seasons of the year in Japan!

So, given the above information, you can guess that umbrellas are very essential to every one living in Japan.
You might imagine the relationship between an umbrella and an individual to be so close to the relation between a samurai and his katana :p
..Actually umbrellas have their own story too!

I just finished reading an interesting page (VERY interesting actually), about rain and umbrellas.
You will see the different types of rain falls, and different types of umbrellas as well.

It also includes some cultural notes.
Please check it out :
http://www.tjf.or.jp/eng/content/japaneseculture/14rain.htm

Internet in my room

Now that's great! Finally I can use the internet in my room. Notice the bandwidth I have below :D

This is approximately 60 times the bandwidth I used to have in my home back in Jordan.(I used a 128kbps line). And near 3 times the maximum bandwidth you can get there(2Mbps).
Not to forget to mention the nice price I pay per month, I pay 2730円 per month (= JD16) ^^

桜、、大好き～:: Sakura~ I love it so much~

*Note* I added links to the Japanese terms I used. Please click them and see what they mean. And for your convenience, I made them open in a new window/tab! :p

Today was such a full day. It is the week end and I can't just sit in my room doing nothing.
The weather was sunny and warm..that was great! So I went out for a walk and luckily found some nice sakura trees that are still fighting for survival!

I think anyone who sees me will guess that I am seeing Sakura for the first time, because I took like 3 or 4 pictures of each sakura tree I pass by! Actually I think that I have no problem in traveling all over Japan and taking pictures for all Sakura trees! I just love this tree so much... a new OTAKU category : sakura otaku(^_^)

At noon time, I was supposed to go to the AKAMON to meet S-san ;a participant in the Japan delegation that came to Jordan last September.
I haven't tried to go to the Hongou campus alone so far, so today was my first time and it was such a big success!^^
This is the Tokyo metro map.

All I had to do is to go from Shibuya station to Akasakamitsuke station by Ginza line(orange), then change to the Marunouchi line(Red) and go to Hongou san choume station. A walk for 7 minutes then here you are in front of the AKAMON. You can see on the map above.

This is a good chance to introduce a great website that tells you about all the possible routes from a source to destination, then the decision is up to you (according to cost, time, number of transfers...). Click here and try it! (Press the "english" button after you open the page).
I think it will be very useful for anyone new to Tokyo metro.

The AKAMON (Red gate). It is one of the Tokyo University gates. This one is very famous..more famous than the main gate itself. A lot of people come and take pictures of it.

There, S-san introduced me to a group of friends and we did OHANAMI. I was really glad to do my first OHANAMI in TOUDAI Hongou Campus!
The sakura trees were in their HAZAKURA state(when it starts loosing blossoms and leaves start to grow), so with each breeze a sakura snow falls on us.
That was really fun, thank you minna!! ( ^_')b

OHANAMI

Sakura on my way back near my lodge

On my way back, I entered KOMABA KOUEN(Komaba park) for the first time. Its a park near my lodge.

I discovered some sakura trees that look like they had their MANKAI(full bloom) yesterday. I took some pictures but they weren't good because it was a little dark.(I wish I had entered this park from the beginning!!!).
So I decided to go there tomorrow very early in the morning and take good pictures before the blossoms disappear.

Other pictures I took today that are worth posting :

Shibuya Crossing..one of the busiest crossings ever.


This is in Shibuya too..Do you recognise the girl picture on the building? :D
It is the Sensei from the drama, GOKUSEN..lol some of my nihongo class students will definitely download this picture! ;)

And now I am in the lounge where we have free and fast internet, blogging about today.
Wow I really write much (@_@)..but you know.. I want to enjoy blogging while I still have time to do so!
See you next post!

うるさいな～ カラスさん！:: You are so annoying~ Mr. crow!

Hey again! This time's story hero is KARASU san, or Mr. crow!
Tokyo has a lot of crows. I once watched a program on TV about how they are considered troublesome because they keep missing up with and getting out food remains from the garbage.

They are as big as a cat, and I heard from the same program that there were incidents of crows that attacked babies.

Every day every day they start performing their "Concert" from the very early morning before any other bird starts singing.
But somehow, I feel thankful for KARASU san.. you know why?
Because I wake up everyday at 5 am before my alarm clock starts ringing ^_^

jaa mata ne!

A new adventure!

A "wireless-ly" blogged post.
10:40 pm, Dubai airport
This is only the start of a new adventure with challenges as big as a mountain is.
more to come soon!
一生懸命頑張ります!( ^_')b

A song dedicated to my family and friends :




K-chan