Shrines – RITs International Game Industry Course for 2023

day eleven: yuko back from the past?!

no, not actually. today was just a very jam packed day in a short amount of time that it almost felt like the spirit of yuko was guiding us along. we set out for the imperial palace and it was something that i was looking forward to seeing because i knew it had beautiful gardens. so we started our day by taking a train ride and then walking a short ways to the entrance of the palace.

as we began along the path it was crazy seeing just how large some of the stones in the walls were. they were cut so perfectly, smoothed down so nicely, were even taller than me (cries in 5’2″), that i reckon they had to be at least 1.5 tons each. EACH. and there were thousands of these stones littered across the emperor’s property. yeah, apparently the emperor lives there and we were just waltzing around. granted thousands of people visit a day, but shhhh.

once we got to the gardens i was extremely happy because everything was just so pretty!!! i really enjoyed walking around and just taking in the peace and tranquility of it all. i got some lovely photos, and i’m pretty surprised at how nice some of them turned out.

after that we were on our own so about half of us headed down to shibuya so we could hit up a couple stores. me, jess, and skyler once again headed to a one piece store. and yes once again i spent an absurd amount of money. while there we happened to run into maddy, esther, vincent, and brody, but unfortunately maddy got spoiled something while she was looking around womp womp. i purchased some goody’s for myself, my brothers, and my boyfriend, and then we headed over to the mall where the rest of the group was.

as soon as we got to the mall i headed to the nintendo store to look around. i thought maybe i’d find something mario odyssey related, or something adorable that i’d just HAVE to spend money on. i found neither of those things. then i realized that i couldn’t find jess and skyler. assuming they left with the big group i headed over to the pokemon store. i searched high and low for something magikarp themed for my boyfriend but to absolutely no avail. i was truly gobsmacked. feeling dejected i headed back to the train station only to find out that apparently skyler and jess hadn’t abandoned me and were waiting for me at the malls elevators, while i was already at the train station. whoops. after we all got back in one piece 😉 i headed up to my room to decompress.

later that night a bunch of us got together in liam and skyler’s room to watch the first half of the new d&d movie. it was pretty outrageous, kinda predictable, but it was goofy and fun. i really enjoyed watching it with everyone, even though towards the end of the night i was pretty tired.

day four: zen sesh and tea ceremony

we woke up so early today i can’t even THINK. anyway today started out with breakfast at the hotel, and then a bus ride to a zen meditation temple was how we began our morning. a monk guided us through the session where we had two fifteen minute meditation sessions.

i’ve meditated in the past, and honestly it’s not really for me. i feel like my mind is constantly moving, and it’s always too active to just calm down. i always find myself getting bored and can’t really push through that to achieve that zen state. but this time was actually pretty awesome. i felt myself getting into the zone, and really focusing on my breathing and the soft sounds of nature. when i noticed that my mind started to wander i asked the monk to whack me with his meditating stick (i totally forget what it’s called ?) twice in between my shoulder blades. this allowed me to feel more alert, but specifically in regards to meditating. it was awesome.

after that we headed to a temple (but not before accidentally forgetting skyler, whoops) that had 1,001 golden statues. they were all so intricately detailed and it’s said that one even looks like you. i managed to pick up a souvenir for my brother, and then me and jas headed out to the gardens to walk through them and take some photos. yuko still had us on a tight leash and quickly pulled us to the next area on our agenda.

we headed to a similar place near kiyomizu dera temple and walked the streets visiting less popular shrines, while the other half of the class participated in a tea ceremony. at this point i was starting to get a little cranky because i was pretty tired. but i pushed through because, honestly, how many times am i going to be in japan??? when it was our groups turn for the tea ceremony i wasn’t all too thrilled, because i’m not that big of a tea person either… i’m really 0/2 on these huh. the ceremony was lovely though, and we learned about wa kei sei jaku which means peace & harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility, which are the lessons to be learned from making the matcha tea.

following that we had plenty of free time to traverse the nishiki market. i got some beef skewers and they were so. good. ugh. i was hanging out mostly with belle, megan, and katherine and it was really fun! at one point sj got a wagyu beef skewer because he wanted to try it, but was willing to give the rest up to everyone else. unfortunately before anyone could have any katherine dropped it on the ground. it was super funny, but i tried not to laugh since i could tell she felt really bad about it. no harm no foul, but still pretty hilarious.

after that was bowling at round one, and i absolutely demolished during the first game. i played the best bowling game of my LIFE. with no bumpers either!!! unfortunately my winning streak ended abruptly and i never recovered. also me, belle, and megan were all pretty tired, and as lovely as waruni was, we really wanted to just go back to the hotel and sleep. belle won the second game, and in a surprise comeback waruni managed to steal the win from megan in the third and final game. all in all it was a solid day, but i look forward to what tomorrow has in store.

day three: temple run

i’m currently writing this at 9:17 pm, and i swear to god i could pass out at any given second. this long and eventful day started bright and early, meaning i had to wake up at 6 am, which is extremely early for me. i somehow managed to stay conscious long enough to get ready, eat breakfast, sit through a brief introduction with our guide, and then we were promptly on our way.

after a quick bus ride we were already at the kinkakuji temple. it was absolutely breathtaking. just walking into the entrance and seeing the main building was so beautiful. as much as i could have spent an entire day in the courtyard alone, yuko had a strict schedule to keep us on. we were quickly swept away to the main attraction: the golden pavilion. it was constructed in the 13th century and made from solid gold. the gardens and pond that surrounded it were gorgeous, and it was so cute to see the wildlife that lived peacefully there. walking around the entire stone path, at one point managing to lose a couple hundred yen trying to land a coin in a bowl, yuko lead us through the rest of the temple.

next up was the bamboo forest, and i was particularly excited for this one. not only was it going to be awesome as hell, it was also going to be shady and keep us cool from the suffocating heat and humidity. as we were driving there that’s when we all noticed just how many vending machine’s were posted up on almost every street corner. seriously. i didn’t realize japan happened to be the vending machine capital of the world or something, jeez. anyway once we got to the bamboo forest i was actually just floored. it was gorgeous. i could’ve gotten lost wandering around forever. however that was quickly dashed when yuko began dragging us along to the next stop.

following the forest was kiyomizu dera temple which was probably my favorite that we visited. between the traditional styled architecture, the bustling shops and stalls, and the gorgeous view of kyoto once you climbed to the top of the temple, it was just wonderful. as we were ascending the steps, and the hill (??? idk it was an upwards slope of stores) i saw so many things i wanted to buy, but again yuko had other plans. we quickly took a group photo, and headed up the rest of the way to the top of the temple. there was a lookout point that we could see all of kyoto from. the photos really don’t do it justice. once we were done we were allowed 30 minutes to shop around before meeting up for the next shrine. i stuck with belle, megan, and jess for this time and made notes for what i would come back for on our free day.

the final stop with yuko was the fushimi inari shrine. there are over 10,000 tori gates to go through, and that would take over two and a half hours which was time we didn’t have to spare. so instead we took the extremely abridged route, and only went through about two hundred. i liked the omokara ishi part a lot, it was a wishing stone and depending on how heavy the stone felt when you picked it up was an indicator of how likely it was to come true!

to round out the day we watched the demon slayer: mugen train movie, which was pretty interesting since i haven’t seen season one. i sat next to jasmine and kept asking her questions about what was happening and going on. it was very entertaining. then the class made the collective decision to get food at a malls foodcourt where we got to spend our first little bit of isolated time with toshi (my beloved). i got indian and received the largest piece of naan i’d ever seen in my LIFE. belle took a photo of me, skyler, and jess with each of our naan’s, which will stick with me forever.

Day 10

I was very excited for this day because I had heard that the Imperial Palace gardens were pretty. The giant stones that made up the walls were incredible and the koi pond was mesmerizing. I loved the waterfall and all of the trails that surrounded the flower beds nextto the pond. One of the things I was shocked by was the number of times each shrine has burned down. I think the most we had heard was eight times, I don’t remember how many times the Imperial Palace burned but it wasn’t nearly that many times.

After a brief lunch of ricotta and banana pancakes, we all met at the final shrine of the entire trip. It reminded me significantly of the backyard of the house I grew up in with the thick woods aesthetic and the river running through it. Something I was surprised by was the giant row of barrels that once held wine – although I cannot remember the story behind it. While this shrine was not as staggering as the shrine on the cliff or the one with over one thousand gates or statues, I thoroughly enjoyed the simplicity of this one.

Day 9

For the free day in Tokyo, I traveled solo to Shibuya to see the Hachiko memorial statue and the famous Shibuya scramble crossing. I remember reading the heartwarming book Hachiko when I was around 10 in school. At the end I found out that there was a statue of the loyal dog in Japan at the station he would wait at for his owner after he left for work. His owner ended up passing while at work and never came back; so the dog never left. After reading about it, I always wanted to get to see it in real life.

Another place on my Japan bucket list was Shibuya crossing. I’ve gotten to see it in so many different movies and television shows. Fortunately for me, it was right next to the Hachiko memorial statue. Right at the crossing’s peak, it has up to 3,000 people crossing at once. I got to cross it and got to see a birds eye view of the crossing.

Afterwards I walked thirty minutes to get to the Gotokuji temple, known for holding hundreds of lucky cat figures. I knew heading into the country, I wanted to buy one of these figures as well as one for my friend. It was almost overwhelming seeing all of the figures and I enjoyed finding hidden figures that other people left.

Tearful Goodbyes

Saturday was the day that most of our group was leaving. We spent the morning doing some last minute shopping and saying goodbye to people as they left. At noon, me and Jessica checked out of our hotel in Akihabara and jumped in a taxi with Jasmine to head to our hotels. Jasmine was staying in a hostel nearby so we dropped her off first and then headed to our hotel in Asakusa. The hotel was small but all of the staff were very nice and they had a lot of amenities and free drinks throughout the day that made up for my inability to leave my suitcases open for any long period of time because of the lack of space in our room.

We decided to get lunch at a pasta place across the street from our hotel, which marked the first time I’ve ever tried Carbonara before and MAN it was good!! I wanted to get french fries on the side but the waiter must have misheard me and gave me a sausage instead, which I wasn’t too happy about but I didn’t want to try to explain to him that I had asked for something else with the language barrier so I kept my peace. The pasta itself though was fantastic!!

After we ate, we headed to Shinjuku to look at the giant 3D cat billboard and a shrine nearby. The pictures for the billboard don’t look fantastic, but it did appear surprisingly real in person and made me very happy! The shrine was surreal because the grounds were tucked in amongst massive skyscrapers and office buildings, and felt like a little escape from the chaos of the city. We also stopped in at an arcade that we passed while walking back from the shrine and I managed to win two dog keychains for me and Jessica!

Once we were back from Shinjuku, we had to decide what to do with our evening. After some deliberation, we decided that it would be fun to go to an onsen. For those who aren’t familiar, an onsen is a hot spring bath (ours was in the middle of the city, so it was really just a communal hot tub) where you cannot wear a bathing suit. So yes, we sat naked in a hot tub with a bunch of strangers. And honestly, it wasn’t that bad! Once you get in and realize that nobody around you cares, and as long as you follow the rules and are respectful of everyone around you, it’s a pretty chill experience. But I’m not sure if I’d do it again, and definitely not alone!

I will likely combine Monday and Tuesday as they were less eventful than Sunday and Wednesday, but I won’t decide for sure until I write it. We’ll see! Almost there, I still have a lot more to share!!

Culture Day

My day started with brunch with my Dad, who was on a layover, at Denny’s. At Denny’s, I was taking to my Dad about the trip when the person at the table next to us caught our attention and introduced himself as a employee at Gamefreak. We talked for a while and connected on LinkedIn.

At noon, we all met to go to the Imperial Palace and walk around the gardens. Toshi explained the respect that people have for the Imperial family and thus it was a crime to take anything from there. The gardens were really pretty and one area had different species of trees from all over Japan.

After that, we went to Harujuku where we had a lunch at a cafe at the top of a mall. The mall was really fancy looking and had an escalator that looked as if it could be straight out of Doctor Strange.

The next stop was the Meiji Shrine where we walked through a forest to get inside. The shrine itself was impressive but the forest surrounding it was more impressive, in my opinion.

After the shrine was our free time where some of Jessica, Chloe and I went to Shibuya to shop at the One Piece store. We also stopped by the Jump Store and saw the Mewtwo tank at the Pokemon Center.

Last, we ended the day celebrating Fabian’s 21st birthday at the Monster Hunter cafe. The food was extremely mid but I got a delicious drink.

That’s all for today. See you next time!

To be continued…

Broke x2

Today we visited the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo! While we weren’t able to get actual tickets inside the palace, we spent the morning exploring the beautiful imperial gardens. The most memorial portion of the gardens was the koi pond. It was serenely calm, had a small waterfall and various flowers and plants scattered on its banks. Hence the name, there was also koi fish in the pond! I’m continuously awed by their vibrant colors and spent a while just sitting on the bridge watching them. I also made a pill bug friend!

After exploring the gardens for a while, we then headed over to Harajuku to grab lunch. We found a food court that had a really cool decora-themed interior. I got a korean corn-dog and fried seaweed 🙂 I will also never stop talking about the street fashion in Harajuku and I could easily spend all day people watching to observe the fits.

The group then headed to the Meiji Shrine in Shibuya, known for its large Torii gates. We spent some time at the shrine observing the gorgeous scenery and paying respects to the local deities.

After the shrine,Vincent, Brody, Esther, and I decided to hang around the Shibuya area since we were already here. Esther and I were told about Shibuya 109 (a shopping complex specifically for women’s clothing), and we’re immediately eager to check it out. In Shibuya 109 I found my dream store :0. The store was a blend of goth, punk, and skater styles and definitely embodied my dream style. Sadly, everything was so insanely expensive else I could have easily bought out the entire store. I followed them on Instagram though and I will be back someday with more money. Shibuya 109 was still a successful venture and I ended the day with a few new articles of clothing I was super excited about.

Dawn of the Final Week

Yesterday was a little bit of everything, which I wasn’t sure if we were going to get again! We did some shrines, some shopping, and another very cool themed cafe.

To start the day, me and Megan had to do our laundry for the last time. The hotel that we’re staying in charges an outrageous price for laundry service, so we had to lug our stuff to a local coin laundry building and immerse ourselves in the culture. It was really cool! I was dumb enough to forget to take a picture, but they had these machines that did both the washing and the drying so you didn’t have to move your clothes between machines, which ended up working really well (despite us having to run the drying mode for an extra cycle).

Then, we headed to the Imperial Palace to walk the grounds. We weren’t able to get a ticket into the actual palace, but even just the gardens surrounding it were absolutely gorgeous. It’s really weird to see giant skyscrapers behind the small, ancient buildings nestled into the middle of the city. There’s a specific garden called Ninomaru with lots of colorful flowers and a super cool (small) waterfall that you can walk to the top of.

After the Imperial Palace we headed to Harajuku, right outside of the Meiji Shrine grounds, for lunch. We originally tried following Megan to the mall with the Sailor Moon store, assuming that there’d be some kind of food there, but we managed to lose her and ducked into a different mall instead with an entrance that I’d swear is actually just a portal to another dimension. It looks SO COOL!

The only restaurant in the mall seemed very expensive and didn’t look like they’d have anything that I would like, so at the last second me and Fabian decided to leave and head to a small gyoza place instead. I can definitely say that it was worth it – the dumplings were absolutely delicious and super cheap for how much food we got!

After lunch we travelled into Meiji Shrine, with a long shaded path leading to it and other sub shrines in the area. The shaded path was very comfortable and a welcome change from the sun beating down on us. It was pretty standard compared to all of the other shrines that we’ve visited, but I picked up a peace of mind to keep on my backpack.

After the shrine we were sent off on our own, so a group of us rushed to Shibuya PARCO to visit the Pokemon Center (my 6th) and the other Nintendo Store in Japan. I got a pack of card sleeves from the Pokemon store (no pressed coin because they didn’t have any there 🙁 ) and a Korok coin purse and a handful of gummies from the Nintendo store. I really wanted to do the shirt design lab at this Pokemon Center, but unfortunately the wait was a bit too long for me. Once we had our fill, we rushed back to Akihabara for our dinner reservation!

For dinner, we ate at the Monster Hunter Bar for Fabian’s birthday. It was a super cool Monster Hunter themed cafe with drinks and food! I personally got a couple of different drinks and a steak meal, as well as a very cute set of dango. It was the first time I’ve ever tried dango, and it was definitely a lot chewier than I expected but it was still really good! Pavel also ordered this giant beer that Fabian took a picture with for his 21st birthday that seemed as big as him and it was hilarious.

We went back to Liam and Skyler’s room to watch another movie, this time the new Dungeons and Dragons movie, but we were all so exhausted that we barely made it halfway through before we had to call it quits.

Behind again on my blog posts! It’s getting harder and harder to keep up with them but I’m trying my best. We only have two planned days left after this, which is very very sad :C but I’m happy that I’m staying a couple days after to experience a little bit more!!

Invading the (Probably) Emperor’s Home

We met at noon, but beforehand, Brody, Esther, Maddy, and I got McDonalds, which was conveniently close by. Then, we met with the rest of the group in the lobby and debriefed for the day before starting our journey towards the Imperial Palace, where I was told the Emperor lived, or at least previously lived.

We took the subway to Tokyo Station and walked to the Imperial Palace from there. The name refers to a whole plot of land instead of a singular building, and it was a large plot of land.

We first walked through the given paths, which taught us a lot about the masonry and upkeep of the Palace over time. Towards the end of the palace, however, was when the beautiful garden began to reveal itself.

The garden was beautiful and had an arrangement of plants, structures, pathways, and sights, including a small waterfall and a pond.

After our quick tour of the Imperial Palace, we made our way towards the Meji Shrine, a shrine near Shibuya and Harujuku. We got some quick lunch in Harujuku before making our way towards the shrine. After a small, civil dispute within the group, we entered the park towards the shrine, passing through the large Torii Gate.

The Torii Gate Entrance to the park nearby Meji Shrine

I learned that we had to walk on the sides of the pathway because the middle was meant for the gods to pass through, which I thought was a fascinating design based on spiritual beliefs and cultural tradition.

Eventually, we made it to the shrine and I prayed the longest prayer so far, and received a fortune that included a vague poem that I have yet to fully decipher. and realize its meaning. After the shrine, we were let go to do what we liked, so Brody, Esther, Maddy, and I went to Shibuya, where I picked up the My Neighbor Totoro vinyl from one of my new favorite shops: RECOfan. We explored some other record shops and music shops as well, eventually ending out mini-trip to Shibuya with a steak dinner where we had to cook it ourselves.

Tired and exhausted, we made it back to Akhihabara and prepared ourselves for our MAGIC meeting at 11pm (before you think anything: yeah, I know). After the meeting, it was not long before I had fallen asleep.