Tokyo, yet again!

What a splendid rainy evening to continue writing my travel journal; I am coming to you live from one of the I-House´s comfy leather chairs, ears filled to the brim with the beautiful sound of rain hitting the roof and balcony from beyond the open door. But it is not rain or roofs I sat down to write about, but my latest spring break trip, this time to Tokyo.


After my amazing trip to Kyushu and spending some nice relaxing days at the dorm inertia drove me yet again onto a night bus on its way to the big city. Stepping off the bus around daybreak I met up with Svanni and Björk as we had decided to make a day trip to Kamakura, a rough hour away from Tokyo station.

Not even complete lack of sleep could prevent me from enjoying the quiet atmosphere of this small seaside town.  We stumbled upon a huge statue of the Buddha which the other girls would probably describe as mediocre as it is not the biggest one in Japan but for me it was quite impressive, I even managed to make a small trip to the inside of this content man´s belly.
Stepping into the sunlight again mine eyes caught those of a squirrel dancing around on a nearby rooftop and my attention span was thus diverted from the magnificent Buddha to a tree where I stalked the poor squirrel.

After around 15 minutes I lost the squirrel so we kept walking around, eventually taking a train to Enoshima, about 10 minutes away. There we explored the huge temple, complete with escalators, and ventured into some caves by the ocean level. It was quite magical, especially when we got small candles to better see the darker parts of the cave. Having explored Enoshima quite thoroughly we made our way to the monorail and went back home.

The next day was spent exploring some more, this time with Svanni's classmate, a very nice Chinese girl named Kohi, equipped with one of the biggest digital camera I have ever seen. Among other things we saw a carnival, played some games, had the most awesome dinner ever and missed our chance riding the Ferris wheel because it was a bit expensive.


The day after that we marched down to the Ghibli Museum and had a blast!
Ghibli is the company that produces very famous anime films such as Spirited Away, Kiki´s delivery Service and Ponyo! ... well, if you don´t know.... you don´t know.
Anyhow, it was a child´s dream; the house was made up of weird corridors, random bridges between floors, memorabilia from the movies, a theater where we saw a movie about samurai mice ^^, and much much more.

The main purpose of my going to Tokyo though was our ski trip. Kin-chan (my teacher) had booked a trip for us up north in Manza where we tried our hand at snowboarding. Neither me nor Svanni had done this before, Björk had more practice but with skiing, so it was up to Kin-chan to guide us. She was such a patient sensei, I think it took me two or three hours just to stand up and not fall straight back down on my face. This is hard work! Especially when you have completely no idea what you are doing. After a while I got the hang of it and actually managed to slide down pretty fast a long bit of the way and keep from falling, before I came to a fork in the road and almost slid down the advanced course, panicked and threw myself to the ground. I escaped any broken bones but had a very nice adrenaline rush as I was going too fast for someone who doesn´t have a clue how to stop.... :P

In the afternoon we put the boards away and slipped into the Yukata provided by the hotel. Thus dressed we made our way to the onsen, filled with its lively customers, and spent a few hours sitting under the moon and the stars, chatting and resting our very tired muscles. After some mojitos and weird dreams we took to the hills again the next day, ready to give them hell. Well, the girls went down a few times but my oshiri could take no more beatings, as I had used it as a cushion for my many, many falls the day before. It still hurts to sit down...
A complete, perfect retreat from the noise of the city in great company, trying something new... what more could a person ask for.

I love Japan. <3

Next, I am planning the mega, crazy, dreamy Asia trip I am going on with Svanni in a few days. I think it would be best to share the details after I get back, just before the next semester, as I probably won´t know where we´ll end up until we get there. Contentment finds me when traveling, and I have been dreaming of traveling around Asia for a long long time. Why dream if you aren´t going to put them into reality :P

Until next time!
-Travelgirl.