Mt. Mitake

Hey everybody,

On Saturday the 20th of November me and my family went to Mt. Mitake (mi-ta-ke) with some of our Japanese friends. The train ride to Mt. Mitake took 1 hour and 40 minutes from Yostuya (yot-soo-ya). One of the trains that we caught was separated into two. The two parts of the train that were separated were joined by a strong magnet. When we got to the station we had to catch a bus to the mountain and then catch a funicular (a cable-car on a track) up the mountain. As we were going up in the funicular it was getting really steep. It took 6 minute for the funicular to reach the other station near the summit of the mountain. When we got off at the station we had a look at the view and had morning tea. We went for a short walk which was really pretty. We finished up and took the funicular back down the mountain. After we went hiking we went to a Sake (sa-ke) brewery. Sake is a sweet rice wine. The building that is the brewery has stood there for 300 years. Inside the cellar it was a cool 9 degrees. The constant cool temperature is to help preserve the Sake. They use top grade rice to make the Sake. The refine the rice until it's really small and they use that to make the Sake. They also used water from a spring that they made in to a well. The well was dug out a long time ago by hand. After visiting the brewery we went to an original Tofu Resturant (I have pictures of that below). It was a really nice day.

Signing Out,
Chloe.




Look at the Leaves



This was my 'Kids' Meal

Look at the set up



My Dad's Sake



Tsurumaki Elementary School

Hi everyone,
On Tuesday the 16 of November Me and my brother attended Tsurumaki (Tsoo-roo-ma-key) Elementary school. We were invited there every Tuesday until the end of their school year. It took us a little under an hour by train to get to the school. We got there just before the bell rang and were literally whisked away by our teachers. I was put in a Yr 5 class. At the school you have to wear special white slippers indoors and our normal shoes outside. They don't have a set uniform which is good. The first thing my class did was read. The teacher gave me two picture books and I tried to read it but I gave up and looked at the pictures. After that they did some stuff and I did Hiragana (Hi-ra-ga-na) which is one of the three different Japanese alphabets. Then the class had English and we played a game were we have to go shopping. After English, Wait... OMG there was just an earthquake as I was writing this. Anyways back to after English they had Recess, but unlike us they don't eat at Recess (Too bad, because I had some recess that we bought at the 7Eleven on the way to school). By the time it got to lunch I was sooooooo hungry. Lunch was Udon (oo-don) Noodles in a spicy-ish broth, a deep-fried potato which I thought before I ate it that it was chicken and the largest piece of apple I've ever seen. We played again after eating lunch. While we were playing one of the teachers spoke to me in English which caught me totally off-guard because everyone had been speaking to me in Japanese all day. When school finished at 3:30pm I was tireder (is that even a word) than I usually am.

That's all for now,
Chloe.

Yoyogi Koen

Hi everyone,
On the weekend (13th and 14th of November) me, my mum and my brother, Kieran went to Yoyogi Koen (yo-yo-gee ko-en) for the day. At Yoyogi Koen we hired bikes and rode around the bike track they have there. It was really fun. We had to stop a lot because there were lots of people crossing the path. On the Sunday we went riding again but it was really busy and there were way to many people on the path. I fell off my bike a few times. One time I fell was when Kieran, my little bro, came up beside me and said "Hi Chloe" and scared me. I rode off the path and fell. All the leaves in Yoyogi Koen are changing colours. There are reds, oranges and yellows. I'll take a picture to show everyone when I go back. There were also a lot of dogs. All shapes and sizes. We even saw a poodle that looked like 2 pom poms stuck together.

Okay, Well that's all for now,
Chloe

DisneySea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Peoples,
Okay, on Tuesday the 9th of November we (me, my mum and my little brother) went to DisneySea. DisneySea is pretty much a water based DisneyLand, although it is separate from DisneyLand. We got up really early to get ready to go. My Dad was going to Tsukuba (Tsoo-koo-ba) that day so we all got up about the same time and had brekky together. We left the house at about 7:30am (which I think is a ridiculous time to wake when you don't have to go to school). The first ride we went on at DisneySea was called the Tower of Terror. It was super scary and of course me being me screamed the whole time. Tokyo DisneySea is the only DisneySea in the world at the moment. The best ride and my favourite ride was called Raging Spirits. Raging Spirits was in the Lost River Delta section at DisneySea. The Lost River Delta section houses pretty much all the Indiana Jones Theme ride. The Raging Spirit ride had a 360 degree loop. That, I think, was the only reason Kieran (my little brother, for those of you who don't already know that) wanted to go on the ride. We watched some shows while we were at DisneySea. My two favourite shows were the Mystical Rhythms and the Big Band Beat (it was in English). We stayed there sooooooooooo late. We had dinner at a restaurant (in DisneySea) called Sullivan's Tavern. We though that was pretty funny. Over all we stayed there for almost 12 and a half hours. We were soooooooooooooo super tired. The next morning I think I woke up at 10am.

That's all for now,
Chloe.

By the way, I have no idea if who's actually reading my blog so if you could comment on it after you read it I'd Really appreciate that. Thanks!!

Saturday (didn't do much), Sunday at Kichijoji and Monday (didn't do much)

Hiya everyone,
On Saturday we didn't do that much. After Lunch my brother and my Dad went to the park to kick around the rugby ball but they were kicked out by the so called 'Fun Police'. They weren't allowed to kick the ball in the park because only kids under 6 can do that which doesn't seem fair. Instead they went to the Imperial Palace East gardens. When they got there the guards said they couldn't kick the ball in there, well DUH! They already knew that. Sheesh. Meanwhile Mum and I sat down at a coffee shop and had coffee and hot chocolate. I had the hot chocolate. It was really nice. You know the foam on the top of the drinks? Well mine had a picture of a neko (ne-ko) on it (neko is Japanese for cat). After that we went to a shop and bought Tim Tams (yes we can buy Tim Tams here). On Sunday we went  back to Kichijoji (ki-chee-joe-gee) to show my dad. We walked around the small lake and showed him the shrine. After that me, my dad and my brother went paddle-boating. They tried to run over a duckie (Note to Self: NEVER EVER let Kieran OR Dad at the controls of a paddle-boat). After we went paddle-boating we went to one of the oldest Yakitori (ya-ki-tory) places in Tokyo. Yakitori is pretty much grilled chicken skewers. I tried one of my mum's but instead I had corn. After we had ice-cream. On Monday we did work. Not so exciting.

That's all for now,
Chloe.

Wednesday-Kappabashi Dori with dad, Thursday-Morning tea and Friday at the library

Hey everyone,
On Wednesday we had another day off and we decided to take my dad to Kappabashi Dori (ka-pa-ba-she door-ee). My dad really enjoyed it there because there was a lot of different cooking things to look at. We walked into soooooooooooooooo many different stores with knives, bowls, pots, pans and every other cooking implement under the sun. We bought a bamboo steamer (no it doesn't steam bamboo, mmmmm steamed bamboo) and a ceramic knife. A ceramic knife is a lot better than the ordinary steel knife because they never go blunt and it doesn't cross contaminate food (basically if you cut up a fish and wash it then cut up a potato the potato doesn't taste like the fish). Ceramic knives are also super sharp. They also add a metal thing in the knife when the make them so you can't sneak one past the metal detectors at airports. On Thursday we went out for morning tea with my mum's friend Sanae (San-eye). We went to the Yostuya (Yot-soo-ya) Atre (part of the train station) to a cafe/bakery called PAUL. I had a massive chocolate tartlet (I decided after that I'd never have a whole one by myself again). It was really yummy (and hard to cut into with a plastic fork). After we had morning tea we went upstairs in the Atre to get hair cut for my brother. That took for-ever. I had my iPod with me but it ran out of battery after a bit (which was super annoying cause I had nothing to do). After my brother got his hair cut we walked down to Yotsuya San-chome (san-cho-may).We walked in and out of shops. We found a video rental store but the selection was limited. On Friday we walked to a library. They had an English section. Mum got some cook books and some other books, my brother got the 3rd part of Lord of the Rings and I got a book that I thought was cool but it turned out to be BORING!! On Friday night there was a small earthquake. It was a bit scary cause the whole building started shaking. Up the top on the 6th floor (the floor we're on) had a lot of swing, that kind of made it worse.

Bye for now,
Chloe

Tuesday

Hi everyone,
On Tuesday we went  to Kichijoji (ki-chi-joe-gee). We were being shown around by one of my mum's friends Akiko (a-key-ko). Akiko grew up around that area and she showed us around. She took us to a really nice Thai restruant. I had fresh Thai spring rolls because I hate spicy food. They were really nice. After lunch me, my mum and my brother went paddle boating. It was really fun. We passed a little boy and his mum and he yelled hello to us (in japanese of course). I got to steer a couple times. The response was slow and I ran us into a tree. I guess I'm not a very good driver. After we finished with the paddle boats we had some ice-cream and we went shopping. I managed to spend 5 weeks allowence on a pair of boots. We walked around the back streets for a while. It was really cool.

That's the end of that post,
Chloe.

Monday, A day off for everyone

Hey everyone who bothers to read my blog,

On Monday my Dad had the day off so we went for a family walk around the Imperial Palace. The walk is 7km and takes as long as a walk 7km takes. The reason my dad had the day off was because there was a Sophia festival (Sophia is the name of the university we are staying at). We decided to get lunch there. I had Yaki Soba (ya-key So-ba) which is fried noodles. It was really delicious. I also had a banana coated in chocolate. that was super yum.

Sorry that's all I really had to say,
Byes,
Chloe.

Saturday and Sunday

Hey,
On Saturday we couldn't go out because there was a Typhoon (tie-foon). Well sort of a typhoon it wasn't a big one it just rained and rained and rained. I thought it would never end. Did you know that in the eye of the typhoon (the centre) there is virutally no wind, the rain is really light and the light is green? Hmm. Don't ask me why, I'll have to look it up and get back to you on that one. Dad was really desperate to watch the rugby match between the Wallabies and the All Blacks so he went out to find a pub that showed it. He came home disappointed because the closest pubs weren't showing the match. Mum started flicking though the channels (I wasn't happy I was trying to watch an episode if NCIS that I hadn't seen) and she found the rugby. Dad was sooooooo annoyed because he walked for one hour in the pouring rain and got soaked (poor Dad). On Sunday the skies cleared up which was good because we were going out for lunch with some of our old friends Mari and Nao (ma-ree and na-oh). They used to babysit me and my brother when we lived in Tsukuba (tsoo-koo-ba). They took us to a Katsu (cut-soo) place. Katsu is basically deep-fried pork. The name of the restruant we went to was called Kimukatsu. After we went to the Katsu place we went out for Japanese ice-cream. I had Nashi (na-she) sorbet and Macha (ma-cha). Nashi is a type of Japanese pear and Macha is green tea. The ice-cream was really nice. My mum had Kabocha (ka-bo-cha) flavored ice-cream. Kabocha is Japanese for... Pumkin. I tried a little bit of it, but I wouldn't say it was my favourite type of ice-cream.

Well, that's all for now,
Chloe.



This is similar to what we ate.



Kappabashi Dori and Friday at a party

Hi everyone,
On Thursday me, my little brother and my mum went to Kappabashi dori (kap-a-ba-she dory) which is a street where you can buy all your kitchen and cooking needs. I saw some super expensive knives, like, really,really expensive almost 1000 dollarinoes (my HORRIBLE Ned Flanders inpersonation). On Friday we went to on of mum's friend's friend's house (an actual house, not an apartment) to a Halloween (they celebrate it over here) party. It was lucky that she and the other mum's spoke english. The kids at the party were all 8 years old and under so I didn't really interact with them. Most of the kids were girls. My poor brother though, at least later on in the party another boy came to play. At least my bro Ki made a new friend. His new friend Keishu (k-shoo) speaks perfect english which is also good. All the other mum's made lolly bags but we made sugar cookies with icing. Yum.

Well there's nothing else to report,
Chloe.

Wednesday night with a big drum

Hi everyone,
One Wednesday we had a stay at home and do school work day.We have a lot of those especially when it rains. On Wednesday night me and my family went to Tiako (thai-ko) drumming lessons. It was a beginners class and a free trail to see if we liked it or not. We caught the train there and I think I got a few odd looks (I don't think you usually see a 12-year-old girl riding a train in trackies and a hoodie). We got there half an hour early. We were escorted into a cafeteria type room and we had to sit there until the lesson. In the boring ol' room there was a vending machine that gave out hot dogs, burgers and other things like that. My mum said that must be a salmonella breeding ground (salmonella is what you get if you have some types of food poisoning). The lesson started at 7:30pm and we walked into one of the studios. Because we were the new ones in the class my dad had to write our names on the name tags in Nihongo (knee-ho-n-go, It's Japanese for, um, Japanese). After the instructor made sure that everyone was there he took us into another room where another on of the instructors conducted a stretching session. After that we went back to the studio and the instructor taught us some basic drum patterns then we put them all together. Everyone took turns on the drums and we did this rotation. After a while he introduced another pattern that they had to play on the other side of the drum. It was really fun. At about a quarter to 9 we went into the advanced class and watched them. They were doing the same rhythms as us but a gazillion (yes I know it's not a real number) times better than us. Our instructor joined in and he was hitting so hard that he broke 3 taiko drum sticks and that's hard to do. It was really loud, so loud in fact that it was shaking the room.

sayonara yon ima (sigh-yo-na-ra  yo-n  ee-ma)
(Goodbye 4 now)

Chloe