1001 fotos of Tokyo Tower

This day, the trip started a bit late (5pm), but thanks to this I could sleep longer after the really long day yesterday :D

Do you see the Tokyo Tower? ^^

Temple + Tokyo Tower

Together with Jasmine-san, Hisato-san and Risako-san, I went to Tokyo Tower. On the way, we came along Zozo-ji, a big Buddhist temple. You could see it from far away, so huge was it. In front of the temple, we saw a performing monkey. I have to say that I'm not a fan of trained animals, I like them in the wilderness, where they act naturally and don't dance for people.


When we finally arrived at Tokyo Tower, there were some tuned cars which looked pretty good. Of course, I had to take pictures :D As you see, many cars in Japan have anime or manga figures on them. During my time here, I saw some similar cars on the streets, especially in Tokyo.

I want this! :)

The Sweets

Unfortunately, an accident happened some time ago at Tokyo Tower, so they told me. Therefore, the top floors were not available for public. So we just went inside to buy some souvenirs. Next time, I really have to check the condition of the tower first, before I go there ;)

We did it!
(C) Jasmine

At the shops inside the tower, you could nearly buy anything, it wasn't limited to goods from Tokyo Tower. So I took postcards and sweets :D


Afterwards we tried to take good pictures of us with Tokyo Tower in the background, but it was really hard because of the light situation. In the end, we found two helpful women who took the pictures, a big Thank You at this place ^^

Hisato-san had to leave us, so the three of us went along the streets for a bit sightseeing. For dinner, we went to MOS Burger, a fast food chain like McDonalds, Burger King & Co.

The MOS Burger, French Fries and a Coke = tasty dinner ;)

A Burger is always better
with friends :)

There I ate the MOS Burger of my life :) It was one where they used fried rice instead of the bread and inside I had a deep-fried sea food mix. It was really delicious, I can recommend recommend this one :)

Afterwards, we walked just a bit and went home.
The End of the Day :D

The way from the station

Tokyo Tower Picture #1: In front of the Prince Hotel

Tokyo Tower Picture #83: Mixed between leafs

Tokyo Tower Picture #397: Is a storm coming?

Tokyo Tower Picture #649: The bright side of the tower

Tokyo Tower Picture #650: The bright side of the tower #2

This car would be nice too :D

Tokyo Tower Picture #926: tiny man in front of Big Tokyo Tower

It's already Christmas? ;)

Things that are more beautiful in Japan: Gully Cover

Doraemon !!!!!

Tokyo Tower Picture #1001: The last one of this day

A day with AIESEC (literally)

(C) Jasmine
and for the other pics of this post too ^^

Today, I went to my first Local Committee Meeting (LCM) of AIESEC SP (Saint Pauls University). I am in AIESEC since 2009 and I attended already many LCMs. So to be honest, I really didn't expect much. Just a chilling event.

At 1pm I attended the LCM and as in the LC Leipzig too, the LCM didn't start at 1pm as planned :P I mean, we are students in AIESEC, why should we be on time? ;)
The whole LCM was in Japanese, but I could understand about 60% of the sentences. Luckily, AIESEC has many abbreviations which are used in every country like LCM, TM, MC, EP, TN, COM, etc. Regarding this, AIESEC is a bit weird, but thanks to it, I could follow the LCM by using the abbreviations with the words I understood and put them in context ^^

The topics were a mix of speeches, working in a group and little Q&A sessions with members from the national team (MC) of Japan and also former AIESECers who took some leadership roles. Really impressing, how many people attended :)

It was also interesting that some speeches and the working in groups really fit together with their content. The central theme was why AIESEC was founded and which goal we still carry on from these times. So we answered questions like "Why did war occur?" or "How can today's youth do something against the occurrence itself?" It wasn't that hard for me because when you are in AIESEC you actually heard this questions often and answered to it. But anyway, each time I learned something new from others ^^

I hope you could understand this, it is hard to explain for me. If it's not interesting, you can just skip it ;) The pictures are better :D

The Q&A sessions with the MC members and former AIESECers were also a new experience because I felt that even the fact that I traveled around half of the globe didn't changed that AIESECers are passionate for their work and do this really energy and time-consuming work because they want to do it. Sometimes to make a difference in the world, sometimes just because they are curious about things they don't know and want to to try out. And regarding passion and spirit, I think AIESEC Japan has clearly more of it than Germany :D Not because the Germans are unpassionate but because the Japanese really go all out in the things they want to do :)

After this, we split up in groups and I went to the group with the Incoming Exchange team (ICX, they are responsible for raising a traineeship in a company for people who want to come). And there were also members from other teams as well, because Jasmine, the Taiwanese intern, held a presentation about her work and experiences in Japan. Most impressive for her were the colleagues because they invited her so often to parties and she had a really good time with them. :)

The last parts of the LCM were some short speeches about upcoming events and to celebrate the members who had birthday this month. So for some minutes, the whole room was filled with energy and joy. I cannot really describe it, but in these few minutes everyone just celebrated with such a passion and energy, I have seen rarely. I don't know yet if this is normal in Japan, but I would bet on it. Japanese people seem to have this ability to be extreme in more than one way. Nevertheless if it's the strong politeness in daily life or their extreme power in celebrating and enjoying life. I think, I will really enjoy this time here more and more ^^

The best way to describe Japanese people is maybe the motto: "Work hard, party harder". Important: With "party harder" is not excess meant ^^ This is also a typical AIESEC motto, but from what I experienced, everyone here live with this philosophy. Sometimes more, sometimes less ;) In my opinion, this is one reason why Japanese people can and do working so hard. Through this level of celebrating, they can relieve stress and the bad feelings that stirred up over the day. Just a thought of mine ... :)


After the LCM, many of us went for dinner in a restaurant near the university. It was a nice and comfortable place, we ate and drank, so the usual stuff :D I talked with many people. learned much more about the Japanese people and their way of thinking. Even Maruta-san came, so it was a really nice evening.

Thanks this time to AIESEC SP and everyone who attended today. It was a wonderful day, I enjoyed it a lot and will come back for another LCM :)

Harajuku + Shinjuku

Takeshita Street

Today was a public holiday, so I spent the day with Jasmine-san, an intern from Taiwan, and Tsubasa-san, the current VPCOM of AIESEC SP. So we met about 1pm in the district Harajuku to go shopping (again, I know :) We went to the Takeshita Street, the most famous street in harajuku for shopping clothes. Because it was public holiday the normally crowded street was even more crowded. When I compare this to Germany, I would say like at Christmas Market :D

a real flood of people ;)

Takeshita Street has dozens of little and big stores, some companies have even two stores in this street. We went into various stores, but actually only I bought something.

No, not for myself, it will be for a another person. The name will be revealed when I come back to Germany (*cough* Christmas *cough*) 

Cool day with cool people ^^
(C) Jasmine

Thanks to Jasmine-san and Tsubasa-san who helped by giving me the critical advices ^^

Our afternoon snack was Crêpes filled with various things like ice cream, fruits or sweet sauce. Japan has a really diverse food culture :)


The next station was something more cultural, so we went to the Meiji-Shrine. When you can image a big Japanese temple within a forest, that's Meji Jingu :)

It was really peaceful there which was a good contrast to the crowded street we experienced before.
The temple is dedicated to the Emperor Meiji himself and many famous people visited this place. If you want to know who exactly, just check the barrels at the entrance, their names are written on them ^^

The entrance

Until now, I don't know if the barrels were empty or not. If they were full, there would be a good stock of Sake (rice wine) and (grapes) wine :D

Hours of walking - nothing can stop us! :)
(C) Jasmine

After this visit, we went to Shinjuku. Why? Was just a spontaneous action ^^

Shinjuku - a very colorful city in many ways :)

Business advertisment
in Kabukichou :D

I finally saw the (in)famous Kabukichou, Asia's largest red light district, so they say. But don't worry I was there at daytime, so there were just empty streets with no "business" around ;)

Only the pictures on the building showed what I can expect during business hours :D And of course, I was told that it can be dangerous during night, so it's maybe not a good place to hang out ;)


Our last station where we went was a café to talk a bit and, more importantly, to eat some very interesting cakes. This was my first time I ate cake made of weet potato. It was sooo delicious! ^^ Japanese people really know how to make unique and tasty food. Here is food more than the sum of its ingredients ;)

Thanks again to Jasmine and Tsubasa for this fantastic day and these interesting talks. I learned a lot about the Japanese and Taiwanese way of working and after-work-celebration :D And I taught about the German Way ;)

Green Tea and Sweet Potato Cake
a perfect combination ^^

For example, the Japanese people work really hard and from morning to evening. Afterwards they often to go into restaurants or bars with clients and/or colleagues. First it sounded so exhausting. But think about it, a good way to let the stress/steam from the work out, is to go and drink a bit. Not too much of course. Relaxation after work is a definetely a point where Germans lack. One more reason for the new German #1 illness Burn-Out oO

And so ended a wonderful day ...

Finally at home, I could take barely a shower, before I fell into bed. But the last three days were totally awesome and full of new impressions. Coming to Japan was more than the right decision, it was a step into a new life :)

More impressions of this day:

Why has Japan a Café Nescafé and not Germany?
Or I haven't found it yet ;)

a normal Street in Harajuku

found at a building
do they mean Bruce Lee?

Döner Kebab!!!!
But I haven't tried it in Japan until now :(

Wine in a temple
The same tradition all over the world :D

Meji-Jingu

I should really try this too ...

Good to see that people here can show what they think
but I really don't know against what they demonstrate oO

Skyline of Shinjuku

Why do they have a demon there?
And why does it seem that he grabs his ... ah, doesn't matter ;)

Mmmmmhhhh ....

Kawagoe - an old city with much food + Korean Town

Kawagoe - at first pretty normal

When I first heard that Kawagoe is an old city, I imagined that all buildings would be in an ancient Japanese Style and everything else would also look like its coming from the past. But in real, it was just a normal and small city with some old houses from a previous era. But still beautiful :)

so much !!!!

The trip today was in summary a food shopping tour. Usually, I don't like shopping tours that much, but this one was special. Because nearly every store sold food and for this, they had samples from most of the things you could buy.

Always with style - onions in wine

It was awesome to try so much new food, from spicy stuff over onions in wine to sweets. The last ones contained mostly sugar but also different kinds of taste like green tea. Of course, I bought some "examples" :D


To refresh ourselves, we bought some cucumber on a stick, it was very funny to eat it. If you think about it, it's better than anything else against thirst. Over 90% are water, it's healthy and it doesn't melt you away. And because you chew it, it's even better against thirst ^^

Cucumber on a stick - awesome Japanese food invention ^^

Grilling Onigiri - is it really so easy as it looks?

After "shopping" / eating more samples, we had lunch and bought some grilled Onigiri with some kind of chipping, made out of fish. Because of this fish chipping, it was very salty and hard to eat without blowing the half of it away with my own breath :D

The final result - Grilled Onigiri with fish chipping
(don't know a better name for it :D)

The Crew ;)

A few minutes later , we went to a shrine with a high bell tower. It's famous but unfortunately I don't know the name anymore and right now I'm to tired to search for it ;)
 
In this one, I prayed for my first time in Japan with the correct gestures. Some of you know that I'm not religious but I do believe that everything in the world is connected, also in a spiritual way. That's why I still think that a bit help from above can just help ;)



We also went to another big temple which is famous for its big gate, but I also forgot the name oO
At the same time when we arrived, a wedding ceremony was held, so I could see more of Japanese culture ^^ But to be honest, I didn't saw much, just like everyone was standing outside and some priests walking around.

I was most impressed by the little tunnel out of these wooden plates where everyone can write their wishes on. Unbelievable how many people were here and entrusted their wishes to this place :)

The tunnel

After more sightseeing and shopping we went to Korea Town of Tokyo :)
You really see there that Japanese people love Korean things. Maybe like Germans love Asian things in general ;)

Tasty, right?

At first, we had dinner in a restaurant. I don't know if its a Korean thing, but we had this hot plate, you see in the picture, and on it we, or better said the waiter, fried the pork meat and the Kimchi (kind of vegetable). We also ordered some additional stuff and it wasn't expensive. So really something I have to remember :D An it's another proof that Japanese love meat, it was so crowded ;)

And this is how you eat it
more pictures of the food are at the end ^^

Goods, Goods, Goods

We went after this to a store where mostly CDs, DVDs and goods from Korean singers and music groups were sold. The target groups seemed to be young girls, because you saw in general only pictures from male singers. But I know Korean stuff, especially the music, or better said the male singers, are very popular in Germany, so I made some extra pictures for our female readers ;)

More like a gallery, than a shop, am I right? ;)

 

The ground floor from above

At last, we went into a Korean supermarket, which was also crowded. Again, a proof that Japanese people looove Korean stuff :D I thought about buying something, but in the end, I hadn't found something. Maybe next time :D

The Korean Supermarket

Great district, will come again ^^

After this looong but also exciting day, we went home and when I was at home I just fell into bed :D
Because I took more photos than I could read, here more impressions of the day:

Never saw the tree of the Pomegranate (dt. Granatapfel) before

As always, I'm impressed by the Japanese style of painting :)

vending machine - the advertised manga comic actually
take place in Kawagoe :)

More Food - More Samples :D

I really didn't know what to pick
I want everything ;)

And more samples
Man, you can whole meals just by taking the samples ^^

Part of our dinner - glass noodles and some meat and vegetables

The white stuff is made out of wheaten paste

Rice with Vegetables and Cheese on the top :)

Korea Town - a normal day ;)

Dammit, what should I pick?