Stopover in Japan


As I mentioned in my last post, I traveled after my internship in Singapore. Since the internship began before the end of my spring quarter classes, the 10 weeks were over by mid-August. Our fall classes didn't start until the end of September, however, so I had lots of free time! I have no idea when (or if) I will get another six weeks off, so I had to take advantage and travel.

Another classmate and good friend of mine was interning in Tokyo over the summer, so before I used my free flight back to the US (provided by my company) I made a six-day stop in Japan. My buddy was living outside central Tokyo, in an area called Warabi. Central Tokyo-ites think of Warabi as the countryside, but it's far from green pastures. My friend's apartment was within walking distance of the train station, convenience stores, and dozens of restaurants. The metro is a straight shot to the central station in just over 30 minutes.

I arrived on a Saturday evening and stayed through Thursday, sleeping on my friend's floor and mostly exploring the area around Tokyo by day. I've seen most of the touristy things in the city, so I wanted to get out to the surrounding areas. I toured Tsukuba University and the nearby mountain with him and another guy who both studied abroad there while in undergrad. Another day I also met up with colleagues from the Tokyo branch of the company where I interned; I had worked with them on one of my projects, so it was great to finally meet them in person.

Since these posts are nearly half a year behind, I'm keeping them short on description and heavy on the pictures. I also am starting up winter quarter classes today and want to try and finish the summer posts soon. I'll wait to post this and the next ones to spread them out, so stay tuned for Colombia! Here are some photos from Japan:

These first two are actually from my initial trip to Singapore in June, when I had a long layover and transferred from Narita to Haneda. On the way I stopped in Ueno for some quick sightseeing.



The rest are from my 6 days in August:

Old bell tower in Kawagoe, about an hour
outside Tokyo

Street in Kawagoe with traditional candy shops

Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine

Temple in Kitain Park

Love to see the bball hoop!

Mile plus long walkway to another Hikawa
Shrine, this one in Omiya, Saitama

Front entrance of the shrine

Another day I hiked to Mt Takao, which is only an
hour by train west of Shinjuku Station

More from Takao; its a quick getaway if you want
to escape Tokyo for a hike

More hikers on the way back from Takao

View from the office where I visited some of the Tokyo branch employees;
the office is in Roppongi, and that's the Tokyo Tower strait ahead

I went with my friend and another of his buddies to the
Yebisu beer museum in Ebisu (not sure why they spell it differently)


The temple at the the base of Mt Tsukuba

Starting our hike; it was nearly 90 degrees (32
Celsius), although still cooler than the week
prior, when temperatures topped 100 in Tokyo!

View from Mt Tsukuba


Tsukuba University, where my friends studied abroad 10 years ago

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Training in DC and Prep for Georgia

Image
As mentioned a few posts ago, I took a new job back in the US starting in mid-January. I flew back from Japan to my hometown in Ohio at the end of December, arriving just in time for New Year's. My initial contract in Japan ended along with 2020, so it didn't make sense to start a new one for a week or two in January. This way I was also able to spend time with my parents and my sister and her husband (who live nearby) before moving to Washington, DC. In addition to family time, I had a lot of administrative tasks to take care of before the move; my new job is with the government, which involves a long, at times frustrating onboarding process. I had to fill out several HR packets, arrange temporary housing for my training in DC, decide on consequential things such as life insurance and thrift savings plan contributions, and choose my healthcare plan. By the way, why is healthcare so complicated here?! The electronic form listed over 200 healthcare options to chose from! After e...
Read more

Finishing Osaka, on to Tokyo

Image
I've covered some of the great food Andrew and I had in Japan, so now let me move on to whatever else it was that we were doing between meals.  Two posts ago I touched on Osaka, the second largest city in Japan and our fist stop in the country. Osaka is in the Kansai region of Japan, which also includes Kobe and Kyoto Osaka city proper has about 2.7 million people, but that is only a fraction of the true number.  Citing population based on city limits can be quite misleading.  Take my hometown of Columbus, and Cleveland, another city in Ohio, as examples.  The population of the city of Columbus is over 800,000, while Cleveland's is less than half that.  Take a look at the metro area, or the urban core plus surrounding suburbs and commuter towns, and the comparison is flipped: Cleveland is substantially larger than Columbus. Back to Osaka - while the city itself only has a couple million inhabitants, add in the urban sprawl and surrounding ...
Read more

My Dad and Uncle Visit Korea, Part 1

Image
Even before I left for Korea last November, my dad had mentioned that he might try and visit me.  In the past he has suggested trips only to say that it was just a hypothetical later on.  So when he finally booked a flight for a visit in the summer I was quite surprised.  Both he and my uncle flew in to Seoul on the 31 st of July and then also went to Japan together for four nights.  Here is a recap of their visit: My uncle (far right) and dad (second from right) were headed to Seoul! Korean public schools get over a month off for summer break in late June and August.  On the other hand, the private institutes (like the one I work for) often have much shorter breaks.  During the summer break from public school parents sign their kids up for extra classes at our school, so we actually are busier!  What a great vacation for the students – a full day of English classes!  My break was four days long (well six if you coun...
Read more