In Japan - Shinjuku Gyoen

This is the fourth day. There was another general orientation, which I think is pretty helpful although at some time it goes pretty slowly. Thanks to the orientation now I know more about the train system (Pasmo, Suica, Train Pass, their differences and how they work), manners on public transportation and other stuffs. It was especially interesting when our student coordinator explained about chikan (perverts who molest their targets on the train, especially found when the train is fully packed). Not because I find the subject matter interesting, but because the drawing he did on the white board was really funny. A stickman chikan. And somehow the naughty arm touching the but looks very intimidatingly funny. To me. LOL.

The results of the placement test was out. Some people knew the results right after but mine was an anomaly so it took some time for the teachers to decide.

I'm placed in Level 4, which basically studies everything in N2 Japanese language proficiency test. And this was the third time I bragged about this online, but I'm sorry, I was really surprised and thrilled to the fact that I didn't have proper Japanese language classes unlike many people there and yet I was the only one from the group of US newcomers who reached that high of a level. 

Attending Japanese Conversation Table back in college (although it was only a year) definitely helped me a lot. Watching anime and J-drama with no subtitles, too.

Alright, as promised, Shinjuku Gyoen :) I took a Metro subway from Meiji Jingu Mae to Shinjuku Gyoenmae (which literally translates to "in front of Shinjuku Gyoen). It was about a 2 minute walk from the station to the gate. There are two gates: Odeki Gate and Shinjuku Gate. 

I started from Odeki Gate, and the line to the ticket counter was... 1 hour. And I was alone. Poor me have no one to talk to but Facebook because I don't really know everyone in the dorm yet and those whom I know either already had plans or didn't want to go out too early. But the park was worth the wait.

The Odeki Gate entrance. Entrance fee is 200 yen per person, and once you go out you cannot come back in. The entrance was fully packed with people @__@

Even from the entrance you could already see so many sakura trees blooming.

Pretty, right? :)

I took the park map, both in Japanese and in English, because the contents are different. While both have the overall map with pointers, only the Japanese map includes pictures of 7 different types of sakura. The English map gives you descriptions of the park's highlights and history, but it didn't have any explanations on the sakura types.

So while I thought there were only white sakura, there are actually the pink and red ones too. And even if the colors of the petals are the same, the shapes are different. The middle section of the flowers may have different colors too.

Here's pink sakura:

White sakura, pink sakura and the narcissistic me xD

This one has a both pink and white sakura on the same branch. And the pink is of a different shade too :)

There were beautiful ponds inside the park, and as you cross the ponds, you will be greeted with more sakura petals!

There were still some tress that have not bloomed yet, like this one:

But nevertheless, they are still very beautiful.

Alright, enjoy the rest of sakura pictures!

Oh and lastly, aside from the Japanese aspects, Shinjuku Gyoen also has Western style gardens. They're located closer to Odeki Gate, while the Japanese traditional gardens are located closer to Shinjuku Gate. I walked all the way from Shinjuku Gate to Odeki Gate because I missed the French Rose Bed as I came in earlier. I didn't want to miss it, so I decided to walk from one end to the other end. According to road signs on the park, the distance from one gate to another is about 700 meters. So yes, that was quite a long walk considering I had been walking for about 5 hours nonstop by then.

Only to find that the roses are not even budding yet :(

The 'bald' bed rose. Boo.

Okay, time for me to do some readings before the first class! 

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In Japan - Blooming flowers - Yoyogi Park

This is my third day in Japan. We arrived at the dorm pretty late on the first day (if I'm not wrong we reached Ikebukuro station around 6 and walked for about 10 minutes from there to our dorm). The dorm doesn't have a particular name, so I'll just call it The Dorm.

The dorm is pretty decent. Considering it's in Tokyo, the size is not too small. I have a room on my own, which include a mini kitchen (when I said 'mini', I really mean it), a medium fridge and a bathroom. The responsibility to clean everything in my room is solely mine, but that means I have less worries about other people being messy.

I spent the first half of the second day attending a welcoming ceremony, which was a little bit long because the speeches had to be translated into English, Chinese and Korean. Well, the good news was that I could understand about 80% of the speech although I use contextual knowledge to figure some meanings out. After that I met a good ol' classmate of mine. She also stays in Tokyo, but a little farther down. About an hour by subway (which I will sometimes refer as densha some time in the future, accidental or not). We met up at Hachiouji and went to Karaokekan (カラオケ官). Since she has a membership card, we only paid 700 yen each. We spent 2 hours, I ordered iced coffee milk and she ordered iced cocoa milk (each of us had to buy at least a drink). The drinks are 350 yen each, so you could say the 2 hours of karaoke was worth 350 yen.

Then I headed back to dorm. Slightly a little early because I was not familiar with the place and I don't really want to find any troubles by going home when it's dark and it's hard to ask someone for direction.

I unpacked some stuffs, grabbed a bento box for dinner, then looked up for hanami (flower viewing) spots. There was one at Hello Kitty's Town down in Tama City, but I figure it's going to be a little too far if I want to explore Shinjuku Gyouen National Park (voted the best viewing spot) and Yoyogi Park in Harajuku, so I ended up saving Hello Kitty's Town for later dates.

Anyways, the flowers bloom very beautifully, the sky was clear blue and the weather was cool. A little bit warm if you stay under the sun for quite some time. 

I'll start with Yoyogi in this post and Shinjuku Gyouen in the next one:

I don't know the name of the flower but it was very bright and pretty.

The narcissistic me. Teehee.

I'm not sure if that guy was saving a spot for hanami, or is homeless.

Trashes are normally gathered at one place. They still scatter here and there because the trash doesn't fit into the container, but they're still kept close to the designated trash area.

There was a bird viewing spot in Yoyogi Park, but somehow the only birds present were the crows. They're pretty loud, although each of them sings in a different tune. In a way, it was kind of like listening to a crow orchestra.

More trash. 

The sakura flowers I found at Yoyogi Park are white, so when the petals fall it felt like snow was falling.

If you look a little closer, not all of them have bloomed. The sakura bloomed rather late this year because this year's spring has been rather cold. I was lucky because they just bloomed when we came.

A lot of the trees are huge and they spread widely. People brought some sort of plastic-like mat to sit on. Most of them are plain blue in color, but some fancy ones have Hello Kitty or other graphics on them.

Also inside Yoyogi Park lies a dogrun. People came and unleash their dogs and puppies. Kind of like a gathering place for dogs and their owners. The dogrun was segmented by dog size and weight.

There were a lot of activities going on. There was a group of elderly who was doing taichi / taikyokuken there because the park is spacious.

And a number of them play badminton.

In the middle of the park lies a pond and a fountain. 

I sat on a bench close to the pond while drinking cold beer. I'm not usually a beer drinker, but everyone around seems to be drinking beer so I tried to get the same feeling. And you know what? It was probably the most delicious beer I've ever had.

The edges of the pond are pretty flat, so a lot of people decide to set their base there.

Last but not least, festivities come with street foods nearby. Yes, there were takoyaki, okonomiyaki and other stuffs. They sell beer a little bit more expensive (500 yen instead of 300 yen if you buy inside the park). I bought torikawa yaki (pan fried chicken skin), served with kimchi for 350 yen and it was very delicious.

Well, I did say above that I will be posting about Shinjuku Gyouen next, but I forgot that since Meiji Jingu is just next to Yoyogi Park, I went there before I went to Shinjuku Gyouen. So, yes, the next post will be about Meiji Jingu!

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Hanami

Two days ago, after the Ikebana written exam, a friend from my Ikebana classmate told me that she was going to have a picnic (and with the sakura trees blooming around this time of the years, it's kinda appropriate to call it a hanami, right?)

So I was like, yeahhh, I want to do a hanami too! I was thinking of going during the weekend, but my friend reminded me of the nasty thunderstorm this weekend.

DISLIKE!!! :(

Then I was desperate to gather people for a sudden picnic on Wednesday evening.. but most couldn't make it for the picnic. Even on Thursday, it's hard to settle on a lunch or a dinner picnic. So when we were settled at 2 pm, I was so ready for it.

I was all gung-ho about the picnic that I woke up at 8 to make steamed buns. Err.... I followed the wrong recipe (I used the recipe for a sweet manju instead of for steamed bbq pork bun) and my steamer is sort of weird, so the fillings turned out pretty good but the bread part is..........

I

I

I

V

... incredibly out of this world. And what's making it worse was that I forgot to refill the water in the steamer that the buns became... brown. The ones that I took above were still kinda white-ish and good looking. After I tried to reheat them in the steamer (with no water, duh), they became weird. And not yummy :(

OTL

OH WELL PRACTICES MAKES PERFECT. RIGHT!?

Because I was really scared the buns taste really bad, I made crab mayo onigiri too. Luckily, crab mayo onigiri can't really go wrong so I'm pretty confident they're good for other people to eat. Right? RIGHT?

Back to the picnic. Yes, when we first came at 2, it was rather gloomy and windy. We sat by the lake near Japan House and were surrounded by young sakura trees. The weather and the mood got better after a while!

My friend brought pizza slices from Sbarro. You might think pizza and hanami might not be the best combo ever I've never had Sbarro's pizza before so I was happy to have it!

Will be super uber cool to walk on this road with a bf, no?

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