Tokyo love

Today we went to Harajuku, Asakusa, and Shinjuku. We met Yokota-san's aunt and uncle, Eriko (sensei's friend from when he lived here), as well as Yuichi (who was an exchange student at ETHS last year and his friend. We started at the Meiji Shrine and saw a traditional Shinto wedding. The procession was very beautiful. After that we split up and hit the streets of Harajuku. We experienced many unique outfits and crazy hairstyles. The streets were extremely crowded but we managed to make our way back to our meeting spot where we then departed for Asakusa. In Asakusa we went to a Buddhist temple which was huge. We were interviewed by students from Tokyo University who were studying tourism. Then we went to Shinjuku and experienced shopping in a Japanese department store. We had dinner at Mos Burger, a famous burger joint in Japan whose menu we used to study the food unit in J2 last year. After that we went to the 45th floor of a Japanese government building. The view was amazing, we were able to see all of Tokyo.
~ Gabi and Laura

Torii gate at Meiji Shrine

Balloons for kids who came to celebrate "shichi-go-san," a day to pray for girls who turned 3 or 7, and boys who turned 5 in the last year. We used them to locate our group throughout the day.

A panda for "the kids."

Shinto wedding celebration at Meiji Shrine

Another great day in 日本. Went to Harajuku early in the day and it was already packed full of people. Plenty of great opportunities for filming and photography. Didn't see as many people in crazy clothing as I had expected, but I met plenty of friendly people, including a shopkeeper who let me take his picture. Not sure when I get to give my site report, but I've got a mental list of what I'm going to say. Not so sure I'm looking forward to the LA tomorrow. Didn't really have any time to study since we were going everywhere.
Ben "Strow" Ostrow

Takeshita road, famous for fashion and displays of fashion, or other crazy clothes

One of many chuckle-worthy English, kind of, t-shirts

I'm happy to say we didn't loose anyone today in Tokyo! We took lots of trains and subways and walked through throngs of people to view an amazing array of Tokyo life, culture, and architecture. Good thing I had a helium balloon tied to me earlier in the day because apparently I was much easier to spot in a crowd with the bobbing balloon attached to my backpack. As a response to the lack of time time study, Yuichi, how about the 13 hours on the plane and 5 hours on trains yesterday :-) ?

Asakusa temple

Talking with college students

The newly built, and tallest in Japan, "Sky Tree."

Night view of Tokyo from 45th floor of the Tochou (governmental buildings) in Shinjuku)