So my internet completely died in my apartment, so I’m writing this at work…

Anyway, my first weekend in Japan was very tiring. On Saturday, I visited Waseda University, and on Sunday I went with a couchsurfing group to tour around Asakusa and Harajuku.

Asakusa is famous for the Sensoji temple and the two big red lanterns that hang opposite of each other. This huge street connects the two lanterns, but it’s filled with tiny shops and is super crowded with foreigners. I would know, I accidentally went to the wrong lantern to meet up and if I didn’t run through the side street, it would’ve taken me 15 minutes to get from one side to the other… I would show you pictures, but of course, my camera had to die that day.

I realized in Harajuku that Japan can be really… weird. Harajuku is famous for cosplay (see here), and there was a woman wearing long black trenchcoat and a thin see-through gossamer shirt, so basically, she was complete naked. Also, we passed by a group of street performers. There were about 5 guys and one girl, all dressed in black doing some 1950s dance move over and over again. Frankly, it was kinda repetitive and boring, except that every so often they would throw up a beer can (and beer would rain over all of them) or drink from a glass whiskey bottle. Later, we noticed when they discretely refilled the whiskey and beer cans with green tea, hehe. When we passed by again on the way out, they were all talking to policemen…

In total, I spent around $25 on the subway in two days; it’s expensive. It’s not a flat rate in Japan, they charge you on how far you actually travel. From spending so much time on the subway, I noticed a few things:

Of the people on a typical subway car:
55% are texting or using the internet on their cellphones
35% are sleeping (I’m impressed on how they keep upright while sleeping; I still sway sometimes)
10% are reading
People text like crazy in Japan (and I thought the US was bad) because you aren’t allowed to talk on the cellphone on the train.

Also, 90% of women have their hair dyed brown! I swear, I was the only female with black hair on that subway car.

Also, I saw this funny sign on the JR line:

Here are some funny no smoking signs: http://www.oneinchpunch.net/2007/07/22/japanese-smoking-manners-a-gallery-of-unintentionally-funny-signs/

I really like the skiing one