I’m in Shanghai! haha, just got in yesterday; it’s disconcerting to walk on the right side of the street again. I haven’t had a chance to write in a while due to my mom and sister visiting me in Japan and hasty goodbyes. Last weekend I went to Nikko, which is north of Tokyo and famous for its temples. Kemi, Jess, and I decided to forgo the temples and go to Edomura or “Edo Wonderland” instead.
Edomura is a village modeled after the Edo Period. Tourists can rent a costume to wear, but it was too expensive so we didn’t, but there were little kids running around in ninja costumes everywhere. And all the men had that crazy hairdo. We first went to a lot of ninja attractions which consisted of a ninja haunted house, a ninja maze, a house of tricks, and a house that made no sense in terms of gravity. We tried to get into the ninja show twice, but both times they were full 
the ninja maze
in the haunted house…
the crazy warped house
so much carp!! all fighting for the food
There were also exhibits on famous Japanese wars and a jailhouse where torture devices and people being tortured were displayed.
a guy being beaten along with the unfortunate people who are in line
heavy stones placed on a woman who’s kneeling on a rack made of triangles, looks really painful…
a guy being murdered; I have no idea what the context is since all the descriptions were in Japanese
And we got to watch a water show where water came out of the woman’s fan, tea cup, and head.
After Edomura, we decided to go to a onsen (hot spring) since the train station is called Kinagawa Onsen so the place is famous for them. Unfortunately, according to the ad in the brochure, the onsen we were looking for was called Kinagawa Onsen, which caused some confusion when I asked the guy at the bus stop for directions. In the end, after wasting a dollar on the bus when the guy dropped us off at a member’s only club, we walked to the nearest train station to ask for directions. Luckily, this guy knew what we were talking about, but it turned out the onsen was called something completely different. Oh well. The onsen was pretty nice, only $5, and there was one outside too. It was drizzling so it felt pretty nice. Of course, right before we came in, a class of elementary school girls went in before us, so it wasn’t exactly peace and quiet with all the giggling at being naked. Afterward, Jess and I went back to the station; Kemi decided to stay overnight to see the temples.
There was a foot bath right in front of the station!
When Jess and I got back to Tokyo 3 hours later, we met up with Chris, Adrianna, Chris’s friends to sing Karaoke. We ate ice cream ate this awesome place called Blue Seal. I got mango/banana soft serve, mmmmm. Jess made fun of me cuz this was my third ice cream that day. Japan really has yummy ice cream bars…
The Thursday before this, I had my farewell party from Honda at an izakaya. Since I wouldn’t be here for most of the week after since my mom and sister were visiting, I had my final presentation on Thursday as well. Around 16 people were at my farewell party and since about 5 of them were interns, and they drank a lot of beer, everyone except the 5 of us had to pay at least $80. o_o
When my sister and mom came last week, we went to Hakone and Nagano for two nights and three days. That’s another entry though. Since China blocks almost all common blogging websites, I’m using a VPN client, but it makes my computer blue screen randomly (my comp shut down twice while writing this entry, thank goodness wordpress autosaves…). I’m going to google it now…
