Meghan은 간다, Meghan ya no esta aqui

Tokyo and home!

Well, I have finally made it home. It was a long trip and frankly kind of exhausting. Including the bus ride to the airport and all of the sitting-around time at airports, I was traveling for about 24 hours. I was really, really ready to be done with my huge suitcases and thinking about where to go next.

But, first: here are some pictures from Tokyo! I stayed with Alina, a friend from college. She has been living in Tokyo for about 9 months now. She came and met me at the airport and we set out to explore Tokyo. First we went to a Buddhist temple. We came around the backside of the temple and saw this:
Inside the temple:
Outside the temple:

A small alley by the temple:

I have a friend (hey Candice!) who lived in Japan for a year before moving to Seoul, and I remember her saying "you will definitely notice the differences between Japan and Korea right away". I didn't think it would be that big of a difference, but I was wrong. This is a very obvious difference, but I had to get used to seeing a whole different language all over everything. Even though I don't understand or speak Korean, I got VERY used to knowing the alphabet and sounding out things when I wanted to. Reading Korean became something that I just did while I was on the subway or otherwise just out in town. Well... I can't even sound out this stuff:
The subway system seems a thousand times more confusing than the Seoul system. For all of you in Korea- be thankful for the simplicity and ease of the Korean subway system. Tokyo has a ton of different lines, which are run by different companies. This means that when you transfer lines you sometimes have to leave the turnstiles and buy a completely different ticket. How confusing! Not to mention that there are different speeds of trains (local, rapid, express), so you have to know what train you are getting on. AND it's expensive. Alina has lived there for almost a year and we had to guess about a few things, or it took us a while to figure out what line to get. Wow!

Well, I've never eaten sushi before and I decided the best place to try it would be Japan, of course. Alina always eats sushi when she is with her friends, and doesn't get it at restaurants, so we decided the best thing to do was to buy some at the grocery store, and take it home to try it out in the privacy of her apartment. This turned out to be a great idea because I didn't end up liking it. Here's the spread- the two dishes on each side are the sushis, while the other things are just miscellaneous sides:
Eyeing the food:
This was the sushi topped with octopus. Alina took the picture and had perfect timing because right after this it came out of my mouth and promptly landed on the plate.
This is the one I didn't eat, those orange balls being fish eggs and me not exactly wanting to eat that:
The sushi that resembled gimbap (the Korean style sushi that has no fish, but it is a roll) wasn't bad, and had raw fish in it and was covered in sesame seeds.

So that was my sushi adventure. It was short-lived and not that fondly remembered.

Alina's neighborhood is SO cute. One thing I noticed about Japan (at least her part of Tokyo) was how green it was. The planning of her little town was done with lots of greenery in mind and it was so nice.


Cute motorcycle in front of the post office:
Tuesday night we went into Shibuya for a concert. I had planned to go to Tokyo to see one of my favorite bands play on their Japan tour. The concert was wonderful, and probably made even better by the fact that I hadn't seen a concert in 8 months. Both bands were great and it was exciting to see them play in a different environment. Anberlin opened, and Copeland was the band I really went to see. Alina and I were able to talk a little bit to James afterward, which was nice.

Shibuya is a very popular area of Tokyo. Lots of clubs and nightlife. Alina told me that the Shibuya crossing is often shown in movies when it is placed in Tokyo. I didn't end up taking a picture of the crossing, but I found this one online:
This is a picture I took of a side street in Shibuya:
One night Alina and I were just out looking around and went to a thrift store. Japan seems really big on the vintage thing, and so there were hundreds of old t-shirts in this store. I kept seeing shirts that reminded me of random people.

Like my dad:
Or my extended family, the Kellys:
Or my friend Will, in Korea:

One of Alina's co-workers is a Thai woman who is married to a Japanese man. Her mother-in-law is Japanese and also works at one of Alina's schools. They invited us over to a real Thai meal, which was very cool:
It was so much fun to be with Alina in Tokyo. I loved visiting her classes. For those of you that know Alina, you should SEE her with her kids- it's SO cute. Her kids absolutely love her, and it was really sweet to watch her interact with them. That was one of the highlights of being in Tokyo with Alina.

I had a GREAT time in Tokyo.

Thank you Alina!
Thank you James!

Well, after a lot of traveling, and a lot of sitting around, and a lot of being mad at my huge suitcases, I finally made it home to Portland. I think I probably stunk, and I needed to brush my teeth, and I was tired and hungry, but I made it! My aunt picked me up at the airport. This is the kind of picture I wanted to show my friends in Korea. This is Mt. Hood, which you can see from Portland on a clear day. I actually took this picture while we were driving out of the parking garage at the airport.
I even stepped out of the parking garage elevator and said loudly: "It SMELLS like Oregon!"

It's warm here (in the 80s), and I'm off today to go shopping!

posted by Meghan @ 9:19 AM