5/19 - Tuesday

Here's the second full-day in Tokyo. Flat Danny finally had his picture taken from our room looking out at part of the city.

Time for Posting Again :-)

Sorry about the last few days of not posting. I didn't get lost ;) We've once again been running around like crazy for days. We've been leaving by 9am and staying out until the wee hours of the morning.

I bought my internet card for the day (obviously) and should have more time to post later on. Can't wait to show some more of my adventures.

5/18 - Monday
Here's some pictures of one of the main buildings where we are staying:




Random City view near the Meiji Shrine:


Shinjuku area at dusk:


Shinjuku videos:

Shinjuku Tokyo from Joshua Belliveau on Vimeo.

Shinjuku Tokoy from Joshua Belliveau on Vimeo.

Food pics from sit-down Japanese style restaurant:





That's all I have time for now. I'll try to get caught up more later, but we won't be back to the hotel until late again. Sorry :(

BTW, food here is amazing... Asia is amazing... can't wait to come back one day.

5/17 - Sunday - On to Tokyo

I'm writing this post at 7:40AM on Monday in my room in Tokyo. We finished our travels yesterday. Tokyo is an hour ahead of Taipei, so 7PM our time is now 6am the same day at home. Here's a random picture from the in-flight map:


Here is what we were served in-flight:


And if I haven't mentioned it yet, the recycling programs over here seem to be pretty advanced (picture below). Of course, another thing I don't think I mentioned is that there are HARDLY ANY trash cans around. I guess it's because they don't walk around with food and drinks, but for us it becomes a big pain when we do... lol.


Another neat thing is the use of cartoon characters in official things. For example the in-flight safety video or on this customs document in Japan:


The in-flight cameras are really neat. I took a video of the downward view and recorded our landing:

Landing in Tokyo from Joshua Belliveau on Vimeo.

After landing we had to take a train from the airport to near where we are staying. There were a lot of rice patties along the way:


We made it to the hostel. What a walk!!! We took the subway to a place near where we are staying, but we had to roll our luggage around 1/2mile before we got to the room. We even had a few bag's wheels break. Luckily mine was not one of them. Here's a map of the campus where we are staying:


The Japanese, as we've been told, are a very formal and rules based society. As such, they separated our group; girls are on the 7th floor, boys are on the 3rd. No food or alcohol is allowed in the rooms either. Strangely enough, we do have a small fridge though, so I guess I need to look into that rule.

BTW, I'm not sure if I ever mentioned the cockroaches and rats we saw in the street in Taipei outside the hotel. Well, I finally managed to capture a picture:


Also, I now have internet in my room (for a fee). What a relief!!!