MATT IN TOKYO: Archive

Last Day

I know I haven’t blogged at all lately, but that’s because I haven’t done anything overly exciting! I am going home to Australia today. A week earlier than originally planned, but I am pretty homesick and I have ran out of my holiday money! I do have some photos to share, but my cameras are packed away in my suitcases. So if I am feeling motivated I will post them maybe later...

Oct 3rd

Sep 21st

Yes, I am still alive.

Yes, I am still alive. I have just been really lazy with blogging. But having said that, I haven’t really had much exciting stuff to blog about.. Tomorrow Michael and I are going to Tokyo DisneySea. Which is like Disneyland, but better! If I’m not feeling too lazy I will post photos on Tuesday :P

Sep 18th

Tama Lake & Sayama Park

Today was such nice a nice day. The weather was like a nice Spring day. Pretty sunny with a nice cool breeze. I think it was only around 25 degrees today. So I decided to explore around Tama Lake and Sayama Park, which are in Michael’s area. So it only took me a few minutes to get there by bike. I visited Tama Lake a few times last time I was in Japan, and I loved it there. It was just as...

Sep 14th

Craaazy & Laaazy

My weekend was pretty crazy. On Saturday Michael had to work at the university to fill in for Lindsay (another Australian guy that works at the kindy with him). So I spent the day shopping for our party supplies and cleaning Michael’s apartment. We had a lot of food, and a lot of alcohol. The little party consisted of me, Michael, Pat, Lindsay, and two Japanese girls, Kikko and Miki. We...

Sep 13th

Sep 10th

Sep 9th

Pokémon Center & Ueno

Today I decided to venture into the city by myself. I was a bit nervous at first because I was so confused about the train lines and what trains I had to catch. There are so many train lines here in Tokyo and you have to get off at different stops and swap over to another line so many time just to get to your destination. Getting there way easy, coming home was not… I got on a few wrong...

Sep 7th

Sep 6th

7 tags

Sep 5th

Day Two - Shibuya & Harajuku

Last night I went to bed at about midnight. I was tired, I could feel it, but I didn’t think I’d be able to get to sleep because my mind was racing. Thinking about Japan and planning what to do in the coming week. But after about 5 minutes I was dead to the world lol. Michael and I woke up at 8am and got ready to leave for a big day out in the city of Tokyo. Our plan was to go to...

Sep 5th

Sep 3rd

Sep 12th

Okonomiyaki yummy!

Yesterday I worked in the kitchen again. We made soup and jam rolls. It was particularly fun in the kitchen and everyone was in a good mood, including me. I had such a bad sleep the night before, but I woke up with so much energy. Obaachan had decided to go out for dinner with Michael and I, and some other teachers, for a “goodbye” thing for me. but because Obaachan is so random, she...

Sep 10th

Tama Zoo

Yesterday (Sunday) we went to Tama Zoo. It’s not too far from here, and was only $6 for adults to get in. It was such a nice place, and a nice hot sunny day for it too. The zoo was huge and very “natural” looking. The animals were a lot more visible than the zoos I’ve been to in Australia. And they didn’t look so bored and lifeless (just hot and bothered). ^ a lot...

Sep 6th

Nearly home time...

In a week I will be heading back home to Australia. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone, but other than that I am really not happy about being in Australia. Japan feels like home now, and I really enjoy the way of life here. I have been helping out in the kitchen again this week (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are the only days food gets made in the kitchen) and Obaachan wants me to...

Sep 5th

Asakusa and Bowling

On Sunday we went to the Asakusa district in the city. It’s allll the way near Disneyland, so it took us about 5 trains to get there, but it was worth it. We went there to go shopping for souvenirs and presents for people back home. I ended up spending about $200 and had a sore arm from carrying all my shopping bags! ^ behind this temple thing was streets of hundreds of little...

Aug 31st

Tokyo DisneySea

We went to DisneySea on Saturday, which is next to Disneyland. And in my opinion, DisneySea was a lot better. Everything was much prettier, the scenery/theming was a lot better and the rides were funner. We went on the Journey to the Centre of the Earth first. It was a scenic rollercoaster ride. it was going pretty slow the whole time then at the end was this giant realistic robot monster and...

Aug 31st

Puroland, Fireworks and Karaoke

On Wednesday we went to Sanrio Puroland: the home of Hello Kitty and other cutesie Japanese characters. We only went because Michael’s boss got us free tickets. It was pretty boring for us, because it’s mainly for little kids and families, but it wasn’t too bad.. It was very colourful and happy there. The best part was the hot cinnamon roll we ate, and the 3D Rally film (the...

Aug 27th

Working & the Summer Festival

So all last week I worked at Kodomo Gakuen. Michael’s boss asked if I would be interested in helping out in the kitchen and also setting up for the Summer Festival on Sunday. He even paid me for it! Working in the kitchen was fun. I was with Obaachan (obaachan means grandma/old lady) and Susan. Susan speaks English so she translated a lot for me. The bus drivers and other workers also...

Aug 23rd

Kawaguchiko: Fuji-Q Highland

I should’ve posted this blog a week ago, but I’ve been busy all week working at Kodomo Gakuen with Michael! His boss paid me for it, but more about that in another blog… On our last day at Kawaguchiko (last Friday) we went to the theme park, Fuji-Q Highland. It is full of scary rollercoasters and other crazy rides/attractions. The weather was poo and I was still in a LOT of...

Aug 20th

Kawaguchiko: Mt. Fuji

We caught a bus to the 5th station on Mt. Fuji, which is 2,337m above sea level. This is where the climb starts and it’s just above the clouds. It took about an hour for the bus to get there (seriously, that is how huge the mountain is. It doesn’t look that big in pictures, but it really is MASSIVE in real life). It’s a shame that Mt. Fuji was covered in clouds the whole time we...

Aug 15th

Kawaguchiko: Day 1

On Wednesday morning we headed to Kawaguchiko for a 3-day trip. Kawaguchiko is a town at the bottom of Mt Fuji. We had booked a room to stay in at a backpacker’s hostel for 2 nights. We caught a bus there, which took about 2 hours to get there. It was about 10am when we got there and we couldn’t check into our room until 3pm, so we dumped our luggage there and went exploring. We done...

Aug 14th

Earthquakes and FOOD

This morning there was another earthquake in Tokyo. It reached a magnitude of 6.4 at the epicenter. It was at about 5:10am, and I woke up during it. It didn’t seem that bad to me, but I was half asleep at the time so who knows. Michael had jumped out of bed and stood in the doorway. Tomorrow we are going to Kawaguchiko, where Mt. Fuji is. I really hope there is no earthquake there.....

Aug 10th

The giant book page

Michael cleaned out his room today and was going to chuck out a bunch of old books that were left at his apartment when he moved in. But I kept them because I thought they’d come in handy to make something arty. So tonight Michael and I made a huge piece of artwork using pages from the books. We ripped the pages to bits and glued them on a giant map of Tokyo I had bought here. ^ the...

Aug 9th

Earthquake?

Michael just left the house to go for a run and the whole house started shaking like crazy! It lasted for a minute or two. I think I just experienced my first earthquake in Japan.

Aug 8th

Metropolitan Building

Yesterday we went to Shinjuku in the city to buy our bus tickets to Mt. Fuji this week, we also walked around for some sight-seeing and went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. At the building we went to the very top (floor 54 or something) and the elevator was oddly fast and smooth. It made my ears pop. At the top they have big windows to look out and see the WHOLE of Tokyo city. It...

Aug 8th

Sensei for a day

So yesterday and today I went to work with Michael. He works at Kodomo Gakuen (a kindergarten/school. Hard to explain what it really is) and it was LOADS of fun. At first I was really nervous and scared because I didn’t understand what was happening because nobody spoke English (except a couple of the kids), but I got used to it and had a lot of fun playing with the kids. They called me...

Aug 6th

Lake Tamako

Michael has work all this week starting today. So I will be alone, unless I go to work with him. Today I done my laundry, had some lunch, then went exploring on my bike. I went places I was familiar with, but then came home to quickly refill my drink bottle and was off again. I just went a random direction and ended up finding Lake Tamako. I’ve seen Lake Tamako on Google Earth (satellite...

Aug 2nd

Watch

My video of our day at Disneyland on Wednesday.

Jul 30th

Summerland

After having a good night sleep after Disneyland, we woke up (not so early this time) this morning and went to Summerland, a water park with rides and all sorts. Including a huge wave pool. We had sooo much fun, and it was great to get wet after living through this heat lately. ^ after we dried off ^ this was my favourite part. The huge bucket on top of this water playground slowly...

Jul 29th

Disneyland

So yesterday we went to Disneyland and it was FUN. We took our umbrellas expecting it to rain, but it was nice and sunny and hot all day. Perfect for Disneyland. We woke up at 5am and got to Disneyland at about 8:30am, we finally go in sometime after 9 and ran STRAIGHT to Space Mountain to get a fast pass, turns out the line wasn’t that long so we just lined up and within 15 mins we were on...

Jul 29th

Ikebukuro, Ice Cream City and Akihabara

Today we went to Ikebukuro in the city so we can go to Sunshine City, a big building full of shops, and the great “Ice Cream City”. Ice Cream City is inside an indoor theme-park kinda thing called Namja Town. It has all games and stuff in there, but we only went there for the ice cream… They have hundreds of different flavours. Including crab, squid, tulip, salad, cheese, shark...

Jul 27th

Trains, Harajuku and Meiji Shrine

Today we ventured into the city to Harajuku via train. This was my first time catching trains in Japan. We had to catch about 3 trains to get there, but only took about 30 mins all up. The trains get really packed here.. We had to stand up. It was a really HOT and sunny day today in Tokyo. So I was boiling and sweaty all day. Also, there weren’t any of the usual bands and crazy Harajuku...

Jul 25th

More Shopping & Big Boy

So I ended up going to Hard-Off and stuff, and I found myself a second-hand lens for my camera! It was only $15 but it works a treat. I took some photos with it and they came out pretty good. The weather was really nice today. It was the first time I’ve seen a nice sunny sky since I was in Australia. It was really hot, but better than the humidity we’ve had… It felt like Spring...

Jul 24th

Rain Rain Go Away

Today was a bit of a blah day, there isn’t much to do when the weather is bad. We went to the 100¥ shop again today. I bought a couple of stuff, then went to Book-Off and came home for lunch. At about 4:30pm we rode to Kumegawa so Michael could go to the gym. The sky was blue for a change, you could see some of it through the clouds and it was kind of sunny. So I put on my shorts and...

Jul 23rd

Jul 22nd

Aviation Museum Excursion

Today I went on an excursion with Michael, his co-workers and his students. He works at a kindergarten, but these kids are a little older. I don’t exactly understand how the kindy works, but the age range is from around 3-6 years old (I think…) We woke up at 7am and left the house at about 8:15. Went to the school and I met Michael’s boss, Encho, who was very kind and spoke some...

Jul 22nd

Aeon Mall and Tokorozawa

Today Michael and I caught a bus to Aeon Mall. A gigantic mall full of lots of cool shops and places to eat. We had lunch first in the food court. Some yummy corn soup, salad and a bowl of plain rice. Even simple boring food like that is so much yummier here. Shopping was a lot of fun. The shops here are full of such cool crazy things. I bought a MINI harmonica keyring (yes it makes noise), a...

Jul 21st

Costco and Rain

Today our plan was to do some food shopping and stuff, but Susan, one of Michael’s co-workers, asked if we wanted to go to Costco with her. If you don’t know what Costco is, it’s a huge warehouse thing where you buy things in bulk for cheap. Some of the things we bought: giant tub of Jelly Belly jelly beans giant box of oats giant tin of diced tomato It was pretty fun, I...

Jul 20th

ZOMBIE ATTACK

Tonight Michael and I got attacked by zombies… Well not really, we played a board game called ZOMBIES. ^ Zombie and dead Michael ^ our players shooting a zombie ^ my player. I won the game because I made it to the helicopter pad first. ^ Michael lost, so the zombies came after him. The end.

Jul 20th

I cannot ride a bike...

I had a good sleep last night, even though I was sweating like a pig and sticking to the futon mattress. I woke up about an hour and a half before Michael came home. We showered and got ready to go out. We done some laundry and then rode our bikes to the main street and went shopping for some bits and pieces we needed. Michael showed me some of the “off” shops, which are second hand...

Jul 19th

Day 1

So I arrived safely in Narita after a very long and BORING flight. It was freezing cold on the plane, had turbulence pretty much the whole way there, and I was really uncomfortable. I think I had about 2-3 hours of sleep on the plane. Also, the plane food was actually good. I had vegetarian meals by special request, which meant my food was better than everyone else’s and I got my meal WAY...

Jul 18th

It's nearly time...

In two and a half weeks I will be in Tokyo! I am so excited. This blog is so all my friends and family can see what I’m up to during my stay in Tokyo, Japan. I will be gone for 7 weeks, though I wish it was much longer..

Jun 29th