Weclome Party

For my welcome party, we went to a restaurant in Shinjuku. We had loads of drinks, sashimi, cooked fish, salad, chicken kebab (yakitori), beef stew (gyuniku), jirashisushi (a mixture of sushi - see below) and ice-cream. All these for less than 20 pounds.

Komaba International Lodge

I finally moved to my new place, where I will be staying for the next 5 months. The building is a bit old, but the rooms are great.

My room


My kitchen


The view from my balcony.


My bathroom (a bit small).

Ikebukuro

On a visit to Ikebukuro, I got to see another traditional festival, with loads of live music. The rythum and the beat that they can keep on is amazing.

I even went to an art gallery where I met two of the painters.

Ginza

If youy want to go shopping, then Ginza (and Omode-sando) are the places to go. Both places are full of brand shops.

Karaoke

Yes...Ka-ra-o-ke (カラオケ) is big in Japan.

Roppongi

Roppongi was crap but atleast I got to see the Mori Gardens and the Mori Building.

Nedujinja festival

On sunday, I went to the Nedujinja festival, just north of Ueno. Basically, it was a massive parade of 3 small shrines (like the one in the pic below) and a big one carried by 10s of people.





The parade finished at the temple, where there was LOADS of food :) The pic below is of takoyaki; octopus cooked in a mixture of flour/egg/spices/etc.



At the end of the day, we went to the local hill. Apparently, 10 years ago, you could see Mt. Fuji from there. While we were sitting there, an old guy asked us if he could take our picture from the back. It turned out to be 8 of them in a "photography" class that were on a course. They must have taken 10-20 pics of us... VERY strange.

Shinagawa to Shimbashi

On Saturday, I did some sightseeing. I walked from Shinagawa through Hamamatsucho to Shimbashi... it took me about 6-7 hours to do the lot :) :) :) I took loads more pics, but I am too lazy to post all of them.

At the entrance of a small park near Shinagawa Prince Hotel


Shinagawa Pier


Zojoji Temple with the Tokyo Tower in the background




Hmmm...well, it's modern art at the Hara Museum...

Live Jazz Night

Almost as good as WTF :)

6 hours of walking...

Ok..so on Saturday I decided to walk from college to Shibuya, and through the yoyogi park to Shinjuku. Needless to say, it took about 5-6 hours, but it was worth it. The park was amazing.




Next to the park, one can find the Meiji Shrine, where I was lucky enough to see a traditional ceremony.





At Shinjuku, I went on th 45th floor of the Tokyo City Hall. The view was amazing :) :)

Shibuya by night

Shinsei Bank

So... I needed to open a bank account for the 6 months I would be in Japan. I went to Shinsei Bank at 3pm, and by 3:15pm I left with an account and a working debit card...

IN LESS THAN 15MIN...

Basketball World Championship Final at Saitama Arena

Ticket to the Basketball World Championship Final: 19,000 Yen

Train Ticket from Ueno t0 Saitama: 900 Yen

Casio Camera: 38,000 Yen

Seeing the National Team of Greece play in the final: Priceless

P.s. Kwsta, I stole your idea :P

Nasu Village

For my first weekend in Japan, the guys organised a trip to Nasu, the second most popular resort for people living in Tokyo. We stayed in a house that was in the middle of a forrest...

...slept on tatami...

...had bath in a hot spring...

...and had a great outdoors bbq.


And the following day, we went to a "cow" park to learn how to make butter and milk :) :)

Japanese Food

You will either like or hate Japanese food. The first picture is of a noodle soup with milk and mince meat (it was actually very nice), and the second of raw horse (a bit bitter).