Imperial Palace Because Danielle is such a nerd for castles, moats, and stone walls (and apparently has nothing else to talk about as of late since she’s been a bit occupied with work lately before the New Years), I thought I’d talk about my visit to the Imperial Palace of Marunouchi. Talk about a complete 180 switch from busy city Shibuya to Holland-inspired Marunouchi. And of course, the palace was right outside the beautiful brick-built Tokyo Station, one of the busiest and oldest stations in Japan. Which is a beautiful trip all in itself, as you can hopefully see in my photos. It almost reminded me of Chicago, in a way, with the windiness and drizzilyness and wide open with tall buildings and fountains and everything. Was so refreshing, so open, and so pretty. I learned that almost every part of the Imperial Palace was built with protection in mind (as most castles are, I suspect). There were two moats (ohori) for extra protection, huge stones for the outer/inne...

Osaka Guess who took a shinkansen (bullet train) to Osaka on a business trip for 4 days? And guess who got to try Osaka takoyaki, okonomiyaki, and kushikatsu at Dotonbori? And guess who got to trek around Osaka Castle grounds?! :D I’m so lucky. ;___; Since I’m a nerd for Japanese history – or more specifically, the Sengoku period – I had a blast in Osaka, visiting Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s Osaka Castle (it’s more touristy than I pictured it, but I learned a ton and got me some great souvenirs anyways), getting to see letters written by Nobunaga Oda (couldn’t read them, but the calligraphy is unbelievably intricate), and also checking out the beautiful paintings depicting the Osaka Summer Campaign. I learned that Osaka Castle was originally built in 1583 under Toyotomi, but was burnt down during the Osaka Summer Campaign in 1615. It was rebuilt from 1620 – 1629 under the Tokugawa Shogunate, and then later on restored under the Meiji...

Shuwa, Sign Language Here at Hippo, we learn how to introduce ourselves in many different languages. I, myself, have tried French, Spanish, Chinese, Swedish, among others. It's been said that a multilingual person doesn't turn anyone away – they enter relationships with an open mind and eager heart. Just recently, as my Hippo group did their rounds of introductions　- getting their language practice in - one member did an introduction in a language that blew me away. Shuwa = sign language. I was so impressed with his introduction that I made him repeat it multiple times over so that I could get it right, too. (So sorry, thank you for your tolerance and for letting me borrow your shuwa books!) As I'm ashamed to say, it never really occurred to me how different Japanese sign language and English sign language was. But it makes sense, right? Different alphabet, different body language = different sign language, too. It was neat to notice some of the similarities betwe...

Fuji   Took a drive to visit Mt. Fuji! I felt so nostalgic being on a highway again, but it was weird seeing all the trucks drive on the (slower) left side of the road! There were a few toll ways on the way there, but it was no problem, thanks to ETC (Japan version of American iPass). On my way there, I also passed up the Naval Air Facility Atsugi base. While driving, I could see a bunch of airplanes, helicopters, and even a few jeeps with soldiers in them. I learned that there are a bunch of American bases in Japan - 84 USFJ facilities to date. The USFJ was formed after World War II, when Japanese Navy and Imperial Army were decommissioned, and the U.S. Armed Forces took over their military bases. I learned that nowadays, Japan doesn’t have an army of their own but instead pays the US for theirs. The closer we got to Fuji, the higher we drove up the mountains, and the higher we went up, the more my ears would pop! Of course, Fuji was beautiful. We really lu...