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9-20-02
Today I slept 10 hours so I woke up feeling sluggish but rather refreshed. I was inviting to go on this Tokyo walk, so that was my plans for the day. Ann came down and explained that her friend never found the north gate either since it does not exist. Today she was planning to meet with her at Ichigaya station at 3pm. I said that if I could make it that I would go. So only three of us from the dorm went. We met up with other ppl from other dorms, and I met a lot of Betty's friends, and they all went to the same university together in Canada, in Vancouver. So our first stop was a shrine. Now when you first go into the shrine you are suppose to clean yourself. You hold the thing in your right hand and dipp the water in your left hand, and take a sipp from your left hand, then spit into the rocks. Then you put the thing in left hand and drop the water into the right, and then the middle. I believe this is how you do, but I think that I may have done it wrong. So I got to see a ton of good luck charms, and I could have gotten my fortune for 100yen, but I was afraid that it would be bad. One could have purchased a 1,000 paper cranes because of the old myth that it takes a 1,000 paper cranes to make ones wish come true. Next to the shrine was a museum that held a Kamikaze plane. This is were a girl from France started talking with me and a girl from CA. The girl from France is staying in a host family, and was telling me about Harujuku and the bizzare fashions, i wanna go.... We walked into the area that was were they performed the tea ceramonies. Their were all of these HUGE fishes!!! Then stop was the Keio garden, and I met a girl from Germany. We all were discussing how Japanese class does not prepare one for Japan. At Keio garden they had a huge sports complex. We went inside and they were having a keno toranment. This was sooo cool. They were all in their sleek black uniforms that I was informed, are expensive. This was the highlight of my day. I could have sat and watched them for hours, it was sooo fashinating. We then went to a shop nearby to get lunch, and I bought some rice balls "onigiri" and what I believed to be water. In the middle of the rice balls were different things, one I didn't eat the middle cuz it looked like meat. One of the rice balls was fine, and the last one was awful. We sat in the park and had a picnic. I also tried some sort of Japanese potatoe that was very good. We all introduced ourselves, and then we headed off to the bathroom. The girls handed me some tissues since you know Japan does not have paper towels, ummmm no.... the other reason was that their was no toilet paper.... yeah... Next stop was the Imperial palace which was a long walk from where we were. The girl from France and I were talking a lot, and she was telling me about how she backpacked across China, and how strict their laws use to be against ppl who messed with foreigners, so no one harmed them. She said that she wants to backpack across South America, and that no one will do it with her. I dunno I kinda want to do it now.... It sounds like sooo much fun. We got to the Imperial palace and it was close since it is only open 2 days a year. Then she annonancedthat the tour was over. I was kinda perplexed since I thought that they were going to take us back somewhere close to the dorms. She guided us to Tokyo Station and Betty and I took the Tozai line back home to Kawagurazaka, something like that and then we took the Yaraicho exit. Once I got home I started trying to figure out my cell phone once again, and I attempted to translate the manual and I was all ready frustrated at the first line. The girls and I ended up talking a lot that night since TV was blah. Later they went to the 100yen store and I decided to go to sleep. Minori said that she would go to Harujuku with me, so maybe tomorrow.
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