Nagoya!

Half way in and I have finally gotten out of Tokyo! There are tons left to see in Tokyo granted but this was a lot of fun!

So it was the 上南戦 this past weekend meaning the weekend where 上智大学 aka Sophia University and 南山大学 aka Nanzan University battle it out through all their sports departments. It switches from being held at one school to the other every year but luckily this year it was at Nanzan so I got to go to Nagoya with the Shorinji Kempo club! And I even performed a little thing with the other first years! It was nervewracking and I was so nervous but luckily I got it overwith on the first day and once all however many buses that departed from Sophia University got there, everyone separated into their respective groups. I don't have any pictures of the tournament but Sophia's Shorinji Kempo won! (though Sophia lost to Nanzan winning in 14 sports compared to Nanzan's 17)



So to start, a non-nagoya related picture: Bokkumbap near 新大久保駅 (shinokubo station) in Tokyo. Heart shaped! and it was after a quite delicious serving of sam gyup sal. The restaurant had 4 types of kimchi in the center of the table. We finished them clean. It was really good. I miss korean food even more now.


ガンちゃん and me- Gan is from Vietnam but she studied in Japan in middle school and is a full time student at Sophia University. Her sparring in kempo was amazinggg.


We passed by 富士山 (Mt. Fuji) on the way there! But it was a bit cloudy...


Another one. Clouds were so thick! :/


The sea!!


Another picture from the bus..


Yon-sama お弁当 (obento) coming to your nearby 7-11 (in Japan) 6/13-15.


The hotel room desk. That's a water boiler/humidifier! Everything at the hotel was so efficient. (see pictures below)


Sink and bath tup water were one and same so you just pulled the switch to change it to either. It was nice taking a shower while standing up for the first time in two months...
The toilet (not pictured) would fill with water only after you sat on the seat after which you would then be able to flush.


Everyone had their own rooms. It was a bit narrow but comfortable.


A Yukata to use (similar to pajamas?). They had an 温泉 (onsen) there at the hotel! I found that it was much like the bath houses in Korea but with one of the onsen actually outside and without the sauna rooms and the playing/watching tv/eating/cracking eggs on people's heads room.


The girls of the club. They all look pretty and really nice (and they are) but all of them are quite capable in the kempo department!


There seem to be a wide variety of kitkat bars here that are not sold in the states. I think I've also seen strawberry chocolate flavored, green tea, black sesame seeds... this one has powdered/ground soybean (きのこ) and it was yummy.


A specialty of Nagoya: 味噌煮込みうどん (miso-nicomi-udon or miso-stewed-udon). A bit salty but yummy! Usually the soup part of udon isn't so dark but it is here because of the miso. The noodles are a little harder as well.


Ayame and Karin (sempai-s) Eating and cellphone-ing. I don't understand cell phone slang. It's quite confusing.


Tomoko and Mariko! (also sempai-s...)


A shinto shrine in Ossu, Nagoya.


Apparently very good luck!


The group (group F!) consisting of some people from Sophia University's Shorinji Kempo club, some from Nanzan's kempo club and some from Sophia University's 合気道 - aikido club! Nanzan's Shorinji Kempo club took us sightseeing. It was surprising how the school rivalry so quickly dissipated (/didn't exist at all) and everyone got along really well.


A shop selling sweets and Nagoya specialties-- I bought いうろう (iurou) here, which had the consistency of mochi (rice cake) but made with rice, flour, and sugar, as a おみやげ (omiyage - souvenir) for my host family.


たこせんり- a cracker like base with octobus flavor and a fried egg with various other fillings and sauces. Flavorful and crunchy!


A Yen per Gram shop. Interesting concept, no? There were different sections and you bought clothes according to how much they weighed. Some sections it was one yen per gram, others 1 yen per 2 grams or .5 grams, etc. It probably doesn't show well but the tops on the maniquins were priced at 3 yen each (equivalent to about $0.03 if you make $1 equal to ￥100)!


Pizza keychain! They had those machines where you put in coins and you get a little toy much like the ones in America but often they're keychains or cell phone keychains and they're so cute! The machines are called ちゃかちゃか something or other (chakachaka) because of the sound it makes coming out of the machine. I think the feel for this one is you try and get all the different kinds of pizza toppings...


Daisuke, a fellow first year, being attacked by .. something.


Crepes! There are a lot of these in Tokyo too and they're not easy to pass by without buying anything. Soooo good and lots of toppings like fruit, ice cream, pudding, cream, chocolate/strawberry syrup... etc.


Doesn't this burger look good?


Lots of different kinds of desserts. I didn't try this one but I could definitely live in Japan just to eat all their sweets, especially the Japanese ones...


もだん焼き (modanyaki)- Hiroshima style. It's yakisoba (noodles cooked in a pan) but made like okonomiyaki/pancake like shape. Looked yummy!


Continuing the walk down the market. I only took pictures of the food previously so you couldn't tell where we were.


Posters alerting customers of the store's sale...


Anyone want a hair extension? If you can see, there are many lines of different color hair extensions hanging on the wall for you to choose from...


After eating まんじゅ (manju) (see below)


The round things with sticks in them had red bean paste inside with a pancake like outer layer. Yummy!!


They had bubble tea here!! I got milk coconut tea. I think I should have tried matcha green tea frozen or taro or lychee or mango or .. yummm.


Purikura with 12 people. crazy.


At the arcade. You take balls and throw them at targets on the screen!


like so~
looked fun!


At the top of a department store.


It smelled really good passing by. All in the open too! How embarrassing if you ended up burning something or messing up...


Bucket sized parfeit - also well known in Nagoya. It cost 4,200 yen (about $42.00)! but split between 12 - it was down in minutes.


Close ups...


mmmm :D


Finishing up!


Tired and full...


From Nagoya station...


Elevators of the Toyota building with two boxes for people to stand in. Weird, no?


As close as I got to 名古屋城 (Nagoya castle) (from the early 江戸時代 Edo period, having some relation to Tokugawa Ieyasu and before him, Oda Nobuhide (?) ).

Anddd with that... I end :)