May 17th, 2017 

My second day actually started at 1 a.m. One of my roommate, Jing Mei, arrived in the hotel lounge. And one of the receptionist came to wake me up. I think it might've been to make sure that she was part of the Juniata group? I wasn't sure. I don't think I was in my right might. I was super tired from the first day with all the walking. 

Then immediately after she checked in, I went straight back to bed. I closed my eyes and the next thing I know it was morning, and Jing Mei had to wake me up at 8:30am because I didn't set an alarm to wake up as I didn't know that we were meeting at 8:45 a.m. I rushed and made it to downstairs in time. The rest of the Juniata students were there and so were the professors. I met them for the first time since the last day of school. It was weird seeing everybody from Juniata just out of the blue in Japan. Ha ha. 

I got breakfast from the convenience store: two onigiri. I stuffed myself on the way to the Ryogoku train station with everybody. We head off to Harajuku Station to visit the Meiji Shrine. The trains were all as bustling and crowded with commuters. They all quickly stepped off at Tokyo Station and train became completely empty. The trains in Japan are very safe compare to that of my country and also super clean. The people borading the trains are all very reserved with their own things. They are either looking down at their phone or reading a book or sleeping sometimes, but they DON'T talk. Some teenagers do, but most business workers or people dressed nicely don't strike a conversation up. I find it hard to ask for directions too because the Japanese people don't make eye contact with me most of the time, but when I do ask them for help, they're all very very nice. However, they can also get really angry in a snap. Haruka told me that the Japanese people value harmony, but also brutality at the same time. Personally, I feel that there is no middle ground for Japanese people. They are either being very nice to you or very mean. During my conversation with Haruka on the train, he told me that Japanese people also hides their feelings usually and usually don't say anything. I think maybe, this is part of the culture to being polite? 

I know I knowwwwwww, "When in Roman, do as a Roman do." I entirely excused myself from that quote for the train ride. I mean, it was just too frustrating to be by myself when I can talk to my friends. Although, I try to be not so loud. actually, scratch that, I was a bit loud. not quiet. Ok. That's good.

After walking a little after Harajuku station, we arrived at the Takea Street in Harajuku. 

We decided to come back there later for lunch because we needed to go to Meiji Jingu first. I was super excited to see this because I saw beautiful pictures of this shrine, and it's also one of the must visit toursit spots. 

We arrived at the Meiji Shrine after about 10 minutes walk from Takeshi Street.

 

And I had to take a picture with it. . :D 

The Tori were huge and magnificent in person. Pictures do not do justice to how big and overwhelming they are. We walked on cruchy marble-ish stones and arrived at the Meiji inner Temple. And just before we enter it, we saw huge stacks on sake storing boxes. 

 

Before we enter the temple, we were told to wash our hands and mouth as a cleaning ritual.

 

As instructed, I scooped the water and clean our left hand first then our right, then our mouth. After that, we rinse the handle of the scooper by tilting it to the south. Inside, there were places to pray. There was a wooden coin donation box where lots of prayers throw in the coins as they prays. I threw in 5 yen coins because I was told that they are supposed to bring goodluck. The way to do this is by giving a respect tiny box. Then bow two big times, then clap two times, and then give a tiny bow again. And when we were doing this, I think we have to keep our mind close to what we were praying for. There was a wooden board-like wall surrounding the sacred tree and visitors write their wishes on the wooden tablets and hang them on that wall. The shrine priests then later prays for all the wishes on the tablets. We can see wishes from all around the world. The Meiji Jingu was no doubt very famous among tourists. 

After hanging out at the Meiji Shrine, we deciede to go to Takeshi Street. There we had Omurice! 

I ordered a ladies set: includes a dish, soup, salad, drink and dessert. All for 1300 yen. My dish was Egg with Japanese rice and Cod Roe. I was super super hungry so I finished it clean and clear. haha. 

 

The omurice was rather slimy for my taste. I imagined it to be a bit more bite-able? It tasted great, I found the texture a tad bit weird. The Japanese rice inside was really delicious though. It was seasoned well too. Then the dessert came! My chocolate ice cream! It tasted like normal ice cream dessert that I’ve tried before but I still downed it really fast. We took a selfie with Yang Laoshi as a witness shot of our happy stomaches! Laoshi looks so young in this picture!

We were in Uenokoen at Taito. There we met Prof. Bill Steele. He talked about the history of Tokyo and Saigo Takamori aka the last samurai. After that we went to a few shrines beside Keisei Ueno Station. These were the very few shrines that were leftover after all the fires from the wars. Tokyo is a city build from scratch as a lot of wars before had destroyed everything and all the architectures are new because everything got destroyed. So the few shrines and temples that are left behind are not conserved for heritage.

Out of all the shrines UENO TOSHOGU was the one that got my attention. This shrine was constructed by Todo Takatora in the 16^th century; a shrine dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The shrine follows the Gongen style of architecture, with separate structures for pilgrims and for rituals. They said its exquisite features make it one of the most representative examples of early Edo Gongen architecture still standing in Tokyo. As do most of the shrines, this shrine also have placed to tie bad fortunes if the visitor ever picked up a bad fortune from the fortune box.

 The building that we saw was rebuilt by Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third Tokugawa Shogunate. I’ve only ever read about the Tokugawa shogun and their reign in the books so it was very intriguing to see the traces of these historical figures right in front of my eyes.

The Japanese people also took really good care of old sacred trees. We saw a sacred tree (genus:camphor) about 600 years old. Its age extend way before the shrine was build and is cared by the Shrine guardians.

I find that the Japanese people consider nature and spirituality.

After all the shrine visits, Yang Laoshi gave us cash for dinner. Zixuan, Qian, Qin Yu and I decided to go back to Ryogoku near our hostel to have dinner so that it will be easier to go back. I ate soba for the first time in Japan. I have to say.. the taste was okay. Haha I guess Soba is my least favorite of all the dishes so far.

We bought breakfast for tomorrow at the nearby Family Mart. There we decided to end the day with a can of Mei Ju. This is actually my first time buying alcoholic drink by myself. I’ve tried alcoholic drinks before but have never bought one. It was very exciting to buy alcoholic drinks with friends abroad. We had small talks as we drank the can of Mei Ju. And this is the end of my second day in Tokyo!

Tomorrow, day trip to Kamakura, Enoshima!