Hello Everyone!

So I made it here safe and sound however the morning after I arrived we went straight to Tokyo so I was not able to post anything, sorry! I just finished breakfast which (while at home) consists of a thick slice of bread and a drink. There are a few different toppings you can put on the bread. There is of course jelly and butter but the Tsunomura's also have a delicious caramel topping! It is not as sticky as the caramel you put on ice cream and spreads easily. Its an awesome way to wake up. Unfortuntaley I do not have a lot of time right now to go in depth with detail on my past few days so this will be a quick blog.

I am staying with Mio Tsunomura and her family for the first three weeks I am here. Mio has 2 best friends - Yukari and Suzuka. Yukari, Mio, Suzuka, and I went to Tokyo for 3 days. The first day we got up early and flew to Tokyo. The plane was not very crowded but still busy. Many people commute back and forth to Tokyo for work by air plane. It seems like a lot of effort but in reality the plane ride is only 45 minutes and you do not have to arrive 2 hours early for your flight like you do in the US.
After we left our luggage at the Grand Prince hotel near Shinagawa station we took the subway to Joypolis.
Joypolis is basically an indoor theme park featuring interactive arcade rides and some small roller coasters. It was a lot of fun but by 7 pm I was ready to go to sleep for the night as I had woken up at 5 am that morning due to jet lag. We got back around 8 and once my head hit the pillow I immediately fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up at 5 AGAIN, its really a defeating feeling, and showered, I will cover this process in another blog, and waiting for everyone else to get up. I didn't have much time to kill as we were out on the bus to Disneyland by 8. This again was a busy day and I was ready to sleep by 9 pm. I didn't bring the right camera cable so I can't upload pictures now but I will later.  The next day I managed to wake up at 6 am, any one seeing a trend? After we got ready to leave we checked out of the hotel and took the trains to Shibuya to leave our luggage in a coin locker. We took the train everywhere which seems cheap at 160 yen (about $1.60) a trip depending on where you are going but it quickly adds up.

Eventually we got to Asakusa which is famous for it's traditional Buddhist temple, Sensou-Ji, which has a road of shops with traditional goods leading to it, this is called the Nakamise-douri. After surfing the shops we went to the temple and doused ourselves with smoke from incense which is supposed to cleanse your body and give you good health. After that we entered the temple and proceeded to what I guess you could call the alter. You toss a coin into an extremely large bin with triangular shaped guards covering it. After you toss a coin in you put your hands together and make a wish. Outside and inside the temple there are many Omikuji stands. You again donate a coin and pick up a large metal container with a small hole in the top and shake it to mix up the numbers and then shake again to allow a, for lack of a better word, stick with a number to come out of the hole. There are drawers labeled with numbers and the number I got on my stick was 15 so I opened the drawer labeled 15 and took a fortune. Right when I pulled out my fortune Mio and friends immediately and in unison went "oooooooooooooooooh...." This was not a good sign. I had managed to get the Bad Luck fortune on my first try! My life! It was a good learning experience though because next to the Omikuji stands there are strings with papers tied to them. When you get a bad luck fortune you must tie it to the strings to get rid of the bad luck. What a day. After that we headed back to Shibuya to pick up our luggage and look at shops for an hour before we headed back to the airport. It was a good trip but I definitely want to go back to explore more. I have to leave in 10 minutes to go with Mio's mom to take her to work where I will get random necessities. Have a good day everyone :)