Update 3 :B-day

It is my BIRTHDAY!!! Whoot.
I am 21, BTW.
Wish me a great year.

Update 2

Sorry. I said I would post my adventure in the Kansai region last weekend but it is now Wednesday.
Well, ... two things have sort of happened. One, I have mid-terms next week and two, my family is in town, most of them anyway, and the rest coming shortly. So everything is kinda of heck-tic for me this week. Top it of I am climbing a mountain this Saturday, so that might also cause things to back up.
m(_ _)m ごめんどうさい。

Well, see when I can. Bye,

Update

I haven't really posted anything in awhile. . . and I probably won't until the weekend. I just had a really run-around week first researching for a presentation then trying to fit a two week trip in three days. I went to Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka last week (Nov.1-Nov.4) because I had a break from classes due to the university's cultural festival. So I'll write about my trip this weekend, I mentally tired right now. Sorry.
Well, see you next time.

Today 2

Today is Halloween and I had the day off from school. It is also the day of the pre-festival for the Sophia Festival (cultural fest.). So at 4:30 me and a group of friends went to the pre-festival. There was a fashion show, dance contest, and a pop band acting like a rock band called Guest live. One had blue hair, another had kabuki paint mask, and the only time they touched their instruments to pose. After the festival we went and got tomato soup ramen. I had the egg ramen. Finally, (and definitely the best) an old man sitting on the front porch of my dormitory smoking said I had an anime voice. Cool right!?
No pictures this time it wasn't allowed.
Oh, I found an English pub as well.

Intermission

Now this entry is just random things I noticed about Japan and the Japanese.

1. Not every bathroom has soap, paper towels, or hand dryer. Of course, the bathroom in my dorm and school has those things, even the new fancy hand dryers that actual work, but public places do not.

2. A lot of people ride bikes and many of those bikes have two child seats on them. I also so a teenage girl ride a bicycle with a baby in the basket.

3. I personally haven't notice many Japanese staring at me, commenting on how tall I am, and none of the restaurant's waitresses clapping their hands because I can use chopsticks. Some do avoid eye contact though.

4. I don't think I am as tall, compared to the Japanese, as I originally thought.

5. They are obsessed with fried food, they fry any thing, and are especially fond of fried chicken. I think they eat as much fried chicken as they do fish.

6. Seven-a-eleven in Japan is a not a real seven-a-eleven, I mean it is a connivence store, but it's name is cover to lure in unsuspecting foreigners.

7. Plenty of girls where short skirts and short shorts. In fact, you can tell which grade a girl is in based on her skirt. The shorter it is the older the girl. No joke.

8. The Japanese don't really have the same kitchen like we do in the states. I mean they don't have a actual oven and some don't even have dishwashers.
So here is a picture of my cook-top in my dorm in the kitchen.

9. In Japan there are two subway systems: 1) JR and 2) Metro.

The JR is not really a subway, most of the lines are above ground while the Metro has lines that are so far done it reminds me of the subway in London. 

    

Tokyo: Asakusa- Asakusa Shrine

This shrine is considered separate from the temple however, the shrine is on the temple grounds. The shrine is dedicated to the fisherman brothers who were commanded by the gods to pull the Kannon statue from the river. The shrine was built by the 3rd Tokugawa shogun: Iemitsu.
There is a huge festival held annually in May.

The entrance of the shrine, you can see from here that is it is small in size.

Wired green(bronze) thing.
No idea what it is but it looks important.

One of the guard dogs. This one is actually cute.

The inside of the shrine, sorry the picture is bad I took it afar.

Something I saw in the metro underground which I thought was cool.

Tokyo: Asakusa Around Sensouji Temple and the Festival

  Here are some pictures of around the grounds of Sensouji Temple. Kinda random, I know. There were several small "halls" but the information about them was in Japan.

This hall, I actually know a little about this one. The picture below is of the Yogodo Hall which was built in 1994 in order to commemorate the birth day of the monk who establishing the temple succeses. This temple has the Bodhisattva Kannon and twelve other protective Buddhas. Each of the twelve Buddhas symbolize a year of the original Chinese zodiac cycle. My protective Buddha is Dainichi.

Here are some more pictures.

I stumbled upon an area of the temple that worked as a memorial site.

There are many tablets that have people's names on it I don't think anyone is actual buried here.

This one of Japan's first social worker.
Helped people in need her entire life,
during the Meiji Era.

This is a grave. I don't remember who.

 The final picture on the right s of a famous Kabuki actor dressed as his most popular role.

Anyway, while I was there the Temple held its Dancing Golden Dragon Festival. The festival is held twice a year, as the legend goes, on some 18 day of some month 1000 pine trees sprouted up as a golden dragon descended from the sky flying to the forest. I have no idea why and the dragon was never seen again. Sounds sorta like a ghost story, you know. Said in a scary voice, "Now on the 18th of every month in the dead of night a shimmering golden light in the shape of dragon can be seen. But anyone who sees the light disappears into the forest never to be heard of again."
I got videos and picts. this time.
But before the video of the small festival are some pictures of the route the dragon float took.

 
Now for the videos: (Two of them are the same but I couldn't decided which one was better.)

Next is a Shrine, and the final episode of Asakusa.