Studio Ghibli Museum

I wish the museum could be my house. Really. With the glass dome roof and the sprial staircases and the huge, open central hall and the brightly painted theatre and the character-themed stained glass windows and the rooftop garden and all the surrounding greenery. Visitors aren’t allowed to take photos of the inside, but the [...]

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Ageha & Alice

Ageha This weekend I stayed over at Lauren’s, after being politely evicted from my host family’s apartment to make room for their other guests. Friday night after grilled cheese sandwiches (which absolutely merits mention—do you know how long it’s been since I had a grilled cheese sandwich?) and Hairspray, we prepared to go out clubbing [...]

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Cake Buffet

“You know what I really want to do right now?” I said to Will, as we tried to make our evening plans to “hang out” a little more specific. “I want to eat my weight in cake. This is probably not a good idea.” And it wasn’t a good idea. It was THE BEST idea.

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The Monkeys Have Their Eyes on Your FACE

If your idea of a dream vacation involves having your fingers gnawed off by sacred deer and your eyes scratched out by monkeys, then Miyajima might be the tourist destination for you! Seriously, though. This past weekend, I went with half the CIEE group to Miyajima, an island near Hiroshima (we went to Hiroshima first, [...]

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Oh, Tokyo. So Much Strange, All the Time

This city. MAN. Sometimes I think I’ll be perfectly happy to leave it come the end of July, but other times, I just can’t imagine any other place in the world that can manage to be so utterly baffling and completely delightful all at once. Yesterday morning I watched a woman practice ballet on the [...]

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Soba, Stick-thwacking, School Visit

I am sick, and it feels like there is an army of very tiny but very strong people inside my head marching and stomping and slamming battering rams into the back of my eyes and shooting flaming arrows down my throat (and I blame this comparison entirely on watching Lord of the Rings last night [...]

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The Lock Up

Here’s the thing: if you ever visit Tokyo, you are going to a themed restaurant. I’ve decided this for you. It is essential. Also, you will love it. As soon as Nondie, Gary, Julia, Erin, and I stepped out of the elevator, into the darkness of the haunted prison-themed Lock Up, a man in prison [...]

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Sumo

Monday night before last, right after returning from Sendai, I met Rachel, Gary, Will, and Nondie at the metro station near my host family’s apartment and showed them back to my place, where we cooked takoyaki for three hours, played Spoons and Chinese Poker until midnight, and stayed up talking way longer than we should [...]

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Golden Week

Eek! I have a lot to catch up on from the past week of fun and relaxation. I had off from Monday to Thursday for Golden Week, a.k.a. series of Japanese national holidays from April 29 to May 5, a.k.a. mass exodus from Tokyo, a.k.a. omg everyone in Japan is going to go travel to [...]

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Vital Dose of Cute

I had a very surreal walk to the train station this morning on my way to school. Today is a national holiday in Japan, and though Sophia doesn’t acknowledge it, all the office buildings that surround my host family’s apartment do. I’m used to the area being much quieter on the weekends, but today the [...]

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