First Few Weeks

Well three weeks have passed since my arrival. Not sure how that happened...
Haven't had much time/energy to keep the blog updated, so here are some photos from the past few weeks.

Still having fun making panoramas of things. This is the view from my host family's house.  It's a two story house and my bedroom is on the second floor. This photo was taken from a small balcony connected to my bedroom.

Some Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) on campus, back when they were in full bloom.

 

Tokyo International University (TIU) campus

 

 

A park not far from campus

My fellow Japan Studies Program (JSP) students and I went together to the city hall to apply for our green cards. Afterwards we toured around the Kawagoe area a bit.

Gardens inside Kitain-temple

Also inside Kitain temple, these statues are supposed to be representations of the 100 disciples of Buddha. Each one has its own unique features and personality.

 This is the Kurazukuri, or warehouse style mud covered buildings.  They were built with tiled roofs and thick walls plastered with mud to be more resistant to fire.

Headed to Tokyo with a friend on a quest to get headphones and see the city a bit. On the way we encountered this ad.

 "It tastes like Seattle"

 Testing out some headphones.

 One of the aisles in the headphone section of one of the biggest electronics stores in Tokyo.  The selection was a bit disappointing, but I managed to find a good pair. ;)

A life-sized whale sculpture near a park in Ueno, Tokyo.

The next day, the JSP students went to a park about 30 minutes by train from campus to do some hanami, or cherry blossom viewing.  The weather was great and the blossoms in full bloom.

Last weekend, I went into Tokyo once again for a music festival.  The event was held in Odaiba, Tokyo, which is an artificial island in the middle of Tokyo bay.

 

 The strange building with the ball in the middle is a television studio, Fuji-terebi.

This is where the concert was held, near a museum built in the shape of a cruise ship.

In search of lunch, we encountered a large robot.

This is a Gundam robot from a popular cartoon series. This statue was built a few years ago.

Back at the festival. 

 

There were only two performers that I was familiar with.  They performed later in the day.  For the meantime we hopped from stage to stage listening to different bands.  Most of the performers were from Japan, but there were a few bands from the US and the UK.

 The reason I bought a ticket to this festival in the first place was to see Mouse on the Keys. We managed to get a good spot and their performance was great.

Here's a video I took of their encore.  The sound quality isn't so great though...

After it was all over, we headed back to the Gundam to see it all lit up.

I wish I had more time to write more in-depth about what I've been doing, but it seems like my school schedule is going to be keeping me busy.  I'll do my best to keep this blog updated with photos and updates. As always, feel free to leave any questions or messages in the comments.