Monday 29 December 2014

First days in Japan

We have been now in Tokyo for 3 days. Our flight arrived to Narita airport 27th of December, half hour late from schedule, but this time it felt tike the whole flight took much less time than before. I even managed to sleep two hours in plane which is pretty spectacular for me since I barely ever am able to sleep in anything which moves.

Tip for people coming to Japan and thinking about money exchange: do it in Japan. We got some money in cash as a christmas present and I'm so glad we didn't rush to change it in Helsinki-Vantaa airport or any other location in Finland. The airport offered a course of 126 yen / 1 euro. In Japan the airport exchange rate was 146 yen / 1 euro. a Huge difference, saved money right there.

(Another tip in finnish, since I know it to work in Finland, but not sure about other countries: Toinen hyvä tapa vaihtaa rahaa todella hyvällä kurssilla (verrattuna Forexiin sun muihin suurempiin valuutan vaihtajiin), varsinkin jos haluaa vaihtaa suuremman summan kerralla, on ottaa suoraan yhteyttä omaan pankkiin. OP:llä, sekä Nordealla on ainakin niin kutsuttu "matkavaluutta" palvelu, jonka avulla voi nettipankissa valita toivomansa määrän vierasta valuuttaa, vaikkapa 100 000 jeniä ja pankki veloittaa suoraan tililtä summan euroina. Nordealla valuutan noutopaikka on oma konttori, OP:llä voi valita oman konttorin tai Helsinki-Vantaan lentokentän noutopisteen välillä. Minimi aika vaihdlle on 24 tuntia ja kurssi on todella paljon parempi verrattuna muihin (itse kun vaihdoin, kurssini oli 143/1, kun Forex olisi tarjonnut samana päivänä 134/1). Siirrosta menee n. 10 euron verran palvelumaksua riippuen summasta.)

We didn't hurry too much out from the plane and were lucky enough to walk right to the passport check in. That was were the fun begun. We first tried to ask from an airport employee who directed the passanger traffic, where to excatly go when we didn't want to register as tourists, but to get the Residence Card. She didn't know right away, but put us side from the line and after a moment ordered us back to the same line with others. After walking about 20 meters in a line, another emplyee comes and asks "how long time". We response "one year" as it stands in our visas. The employee tells us to wait again side from the line and goes to another female employee. She asks her "doosuru" (japanese meaning "what do i do") so that even we can hear. After a moment of husstle, showing our passport, COE and visa tags for multiple people (for some people twice) we were guided to a line which said "recidence card". I couldn't help but to think why was it so hard in the first place.

It took only few minutes and it was my turn to go to a register. A female employee took my papers and with few word instuctions told me to watch to the camera and give the finger prints. All that went in a pretty same way as it goes when you come as a tourist. Then she kindly told me to wait for a little longer and soon my Recidence Card was printed out. I'm glad they used the same picture as in COE, becouse I for sure didn't look very sharp that moment after the flight. I moved along and it was Mikko's turn.

Our luggage were already took off from the luggage line, since it obviously took much more longer time from us to get though all the paper work. Everything was here and undamaged. The person in Customs seemed as surprised as the employees before when told that we were staying for a one year. I'm starting to wonder if it really isn't that common as I though it was?

We choose the JR Keisei-line as our transportation to Nippori, becouse Skyliner had just left 5 minutes ago and the next one would go after an hour. It was really nostalgic to arrive to Nippori. It was the first station I arrived when I first came to Japan and it looked still excatly same. Our journey continued with Yamanote-line to Shinjuku and from there by Chuo-line to Koenji before reaching our destination.

Koenji is amazing. I promise to load up photos very soon! Nekotalo is amazing too. The room was really much bigger than what we had expected and also warmer. Our landlord was there to show all the manners and machinery from our apartment and then we singed the contracts. Water, electricity and gas bills would come separetly from the rent so we also made contracts for those. I wait anxiously how we are going to sort those down for the first time ^^.

Exhousted we were. And quite frankly I haven't really got over with the jet lag yet and experience a lot off tiredness, nausea and dizziness even after these few days. I'm so glad we came here so early, it would have been pitty to go to school feeling like this! Well, jet lag like this usually goes way in 3 to 5 days, so keep thumbs up for me.

Mata ne!

ps. We found out that the City Hall is not open from 29th of December to 4th of January becouse of long New Year holidays. So we can't go to register our Residence Cards or get the health insurance. For anyone doing this, a small tip, estimate the days so that the office is actually open, becouse we will be in a quite hurry when it opens ;) (RC has to be registered in two weeks from landing)



Fuji-san



Sunday 21 December 2014

6 days

I'm terribly sorry about not posting anything for nearly two months, but here we can go on again. I was awfully clumsy and poured some water on my computer nearly 6 weeks ago and well, this was the time they took in Germany to fix this thing. I was really lucky to react super fast and flip my laptop around, so basically nothing vital or expencive went broken. Instead I had just really long waiting time and 6 weeks without computer on top of that.

It is 6 days now untill the take off. My emotions are suffeling from super excited, happy and overwhelmed to anxious, nervous and "not wanting to go". I still remember the ordeals you face when moving to new country from the time I moved to Sweden and yeah, not all those experiences I wait really keenly. But going we are and in the middle of all this packing and last time shopping and husttling, I try to also find a moment for my self just to relax. I now try to tell thrpough the changes that has been happening during the past two months.

Go Go Nihon! and COE

After the last message I blogged about, we went again many weeks without hearing nothing untill it came. The copy of my Certificate of Eligibility (COE) which would grant me permission to apply visa. I received the COE copy in e-mail with working permit papers and with the school bill for the first 6 months. When I paid away the bill, they shipped out the real COE by air mail. It took couple of days the papers to reach us but it was super fast when compared to some shippings from Japan to Finland. The ackward part was a little mistake from GoGoNihon's side, they sent wrong persons COE copy for Mikko. We don't know how they made the mistake, but gladly it got fixed really quick and our real COE's were sent out together (as we have the same address). But it sure was odd for a second.

Yoshida Institute

With the real version of our COE there was also other papers about our new school, Yoshida Insitute. The school had attached really nice info booklet and also a map how to get to school. With the papers there were also our school's pincipals personal info, what we needed to fill in our visa applications in Embassy.

Visa pending and Embassy

To apply student visa to Japan from Finland, you need one passport photo, 23,5 euro in cash (has to be the exact amount), your real COE and of course a passport. The Embassy of Japan is a small place with quiet athmosphere. You will fill in your personal info when entering the Embassy and after that you can continue to do your business with the counselor. We received a visa application form and started filling it out. I was glad that I had checked out multiple small info beforehand becouse the form includes for example questions like "your becoming address in Japan", "the landlords personal info" and if you had visited Japan before you have to be able to write down the dates of the trip.

There was quite amount of hussle in the Embassy when we left our applications, so the counselor suggested that I would come to pick up our visas next day and so happened. All went really smoothly, they called be around midday to tell the best time to visit so that I would not have to wait for long and it was really empty at that time. I dealt with a very nice gentleman, who went all the papers through with my one by one. I have heard before that people have had problems with GoGoNihon for not telling them for example about residence card, but I feel it kind of odd that their embassy haven't took care of that becouse we sure got very straight and clear instuctions what to do from the moment we would leave Finland, all the way to our new home address in Finland. I was wished happy year in Japan when I left.

Savings

It all turned out better than I ever expected. My last salary will come in January so it basically comes tax free and it is all extra for the budget. We made the last calculations about the monthly expected budget and I have to say that this care free I haven't been for years. We honestly don't really have to worry about money much as long as we won't go completely overboard with shopping. It is an awesome feeling, maybe a little bit hard to decribe, but when you have been living about two years thinking every euro you use, how could you pinch in more cents... Yeah, it is awesome feeling to think that I will finally be able to think something else than "can I afford to do this", I can just do it. It has been so much swet and tears on a way, but I really believe it will be worth it. I already couple of weeks ago went to a bank and changed some euro to yen because we are expecting the first month to go pretty much with cash since opening the bank account takes some time.

Moving

Like told before, we have been selling our things in flea markets and already collecting things together since summer, but this November and December, now we are talking about some insane months. We have gone through all our things. I have given to charity over 10 bags of clothing and shoes, some furniture went for free to people moving to their first homes. It is actually pretty hard to get rid off stuff. Really, believe me... It is so time consuming and same time really hard. We luckily have relatives who can take some of our belongings so we didn't have to rent any sort of storage. Now we have basically only boxes left, all the furniture taken away except the bed we struggle to give away (nobody wants it...). And piano, we still have the piano becouse I insisted to keep it as long as possible since we can't take it with us, surprise surprise! Tomorrow is the day we have plannes to have the apartment empty and be able to clean it from the floor to the ceiling. Only minus is that I'll be working last day tomorrow and it's a lot in Mikko's hands to get this thing finished. In our plans we won't return here after tomorrow and so we can spend the holidays with our families without any moving stress.

I would like to write more, but more comes later, sorry for all the mistakes in my english, this is one fastly done post! ;)

Monday 27 October 2014

2 months left!

Today there is only 2 months left until our take off. The last month was rough between waiting to get some good news about job situation and doing some one-day shifts as a bartender and studying Japanese. Though the last mentioned received terribly small amount of attention between everything else. I have now settled down all the arriving details with our landlord and now we are only waiting for our visas. They should send then COE data for us in the end of next month (November), so that we can do the last payment (payment for 6 months of school) and after that receive our real visas from the embassy here in Helsinki.

I have been forming a bucket list for Japan for a year now and been able to gather plenty of interesting cafés, restaurants, city areas and also events that I would like to see in Tokyo, but also in other places in Japan. We already know where our holidays (two weeks at the time) are settling, so if we just have enough money we want to visit Osaka during spring and maybe Kyoto at the autumn. We also have a list of our family members as well as some friends that are planning to come to see us while we're there. My greatest concern is that we're too busy with school to actually guide people, but that is left to be seen in January. The school comes first after all.

I miss Tokyo so much and I can't even express how excited I'm to get there so soon. Piece by piece we are having everything done for the trip. I already stopped my contract with the gym I've been using due to two months expiration time and also arranged our internet to end few days before leaving, after all we're going to hand over the apartment keys days before actual depart so that we can spend some time with our families.

Here is some autumn pics I took few weeks ago <3











 






 


Friday 3 October 2014

Go!Go!Email

I want to keep you updated for how all the things work with Go!Go!Nihon, so during this day I received an e-mail from them giving me more instruction for how to plan the trip. It was pretty nice, informative message listing up what all has to be done before jumping to the airplane, when is the best time to arrive to Japan (if arriving at night you may not be able to get your key right away and need to stay in Hotel so on so on), what to study beforehand if you are starting the beginner course, a list of the places to search for accommodation and also a word about health insurance. 

For us most of the knowledge was right now pretty useless since we already have booked our flights, arranged apartment and we are applying for intermediate course. Even so it was very nice to receive a message from Go!Go!Nihon for a while because when we are mostly just waiting all the time for different things, you almost feel like you have been forgotten and that of course is not the case. From my personal opinion, I would get to the business especially with the apartment a little bit earlier than 3 months before arriving, but because Japan seems to be a country where every this kind of a thing is handled “one month before arriving” (like the visa will be issued one month earlier as well), it seems that for normal agencies for apartments applying this close is ok. “-- most housing agencies do not allow reservations earlier than 1 month prior to your arrival.” That’s the exact thing what was written in the e-mail. That also explains why our landlord was a little bit hesitant to reserve for us since we booked our apartment 1 year before arriving…

I wish to write a lot of more about Go!Go!Nihon and the experience with them when we actually are in Japan and the process is over. But as my travel journal, it is kind of fun to read later when different things happened, don’t you think? For now, thanks for Go!Go!Nihon for helping us out!

Harajuku (Tokyo) 2012

Thursday 2 October 2014

Autumn and JLPT4

The autumn has finally really arrived, the leaves are turning red and yellow and the weather is colder, though it’s still warmer than it usually is during fall. I’m a big fan of all the foliage colours and it always makes me just want to knit something warm and paint a lot with bright colours. Too bad I haven’t really had time for those things. For few weeks now I have been running from job interview to another and actually I managed to get contract with two companies which hire extra workers for grocery stores, cafes and bars. There is no such a thing as a minimum hours in a week, so it’s really mostly about luck and how volunteer you’re jumping to the metro and getting to work whenever someone calls you. I have done this couple of years ago and it’s easy as long as you don’t do any other plans you need to keep. And the variety of places you will work in is actually quite fun.

Japan… I don’t know how many times I have already written that it is getting closer. An obvious fact, but I guess writing it up makes it easier to wait ^^. I have been a huge fan of this blog called GaijinPot, very nice articles about different phenomena in Japan. One of the most interesting ones was this post about the “UchiSoto” culture in Japan. Reading that made me see the Japan little bit differently and also I had a great wake up experience about our last visit in Japan. It made me really see the natural reason behind the help we received and why we were treated like we were. I recommend reading that, it’s not that long.

From the subject to another, I’m actually really proud of myself for completing the first Kanji Book. I’m still going to do the reviews about the chapters (always after every 4-5 chapters I think) to check that I actually am still able to do even the kanji from the beginning. The next book will be little bit different to study because with this Book 1, I decided right from the beginning that I would study every kanji from that book no matter if those ones weren’t on the kanji list for JLPT4. In this point I guess I have to point out that for JLPT tests there doesn’t exist a real kanji list anymore. After the test was renewed few years ago they dropped all the official material out, leaving the situation hanging on those very flowing sentences about one’s skills (see them in on this blogs page “Project data”).

But because many people feel that it’s really hard to study without any base, most of the people still use these old kanji lists which you can still find from the web. Here is the list where I have based my estimation about JLPT4 kanji (the list is cumulative with N5 kanji too). One reason why I decided to read the whole Kanji Book 1 including all the 251 kanji (even when I circle out the lists kanji there comes only approximately 170 kanji from the book 1 and rest from the book 2) was that the list is old and not valid, though it still gives you a quite a good glimpse what is to be expected.

Cheers
Acha

Roppongi (Tokyo), 2012

Öland (Sweden), 2010

Friday 19 September 2014

100 Days!

Yeah, so today there is exactly 100 days until we will get to the airplane and fly to Japan. Our apartment is already strating look like someones moving because we started to pack books and such already. We know that expesially December will be very busy and probably we don't have even much time to do packing and that is crazy because we have to think so many things already now! For example our apartments contract is expiring 31th of December, but due the fact that we don't have much time to do moving and leave the key close the date we are flying, we already have to do it about two weeks earlier. It's all for work. The December will be always the busiest month from the whole year since we both have something to do with retail business (though my job situation is not much clearer than before, I should get the information during next week).

But since this is 100 days until Japan -post, I try to write more about Japan and japanese language ^^. I'm very close to finish off the Kanji Book 1 which includes 251 kanji and after that there is not that much to go to have the whole amount for JLPT4 (we don't have to discuss about the other goal okey, please...?). Minna no Nihongo is completely other thing. It's massive amount of info, but I think the harder part is the selective reading in the beginning. We have been using different book series for the beginner parts but we wanted to purchase the book 1 as well to make sure our knowledge maches the expected (in our school they have used Minna no Nihongo serie in beginners course). But it's really frustrating time by time because so much you already know, but there is always something new in every chapter (or then the new thing is only disagreeing with the earlier info).

This is maybe the first time I have actually been worried that our level is not enough for the intermediate program. There was no sense to applicate for beginner program and our contact from Go!Go!Nihon thought this is the best program for us, but yeah, I still wonder. The others have been in Japan for 9 months already, talking and using japanese. And then we come with our knowledge made up from the tv series we hear and grammar books we read. It's not very comparable. I don't mind working my ass off to get the situation balanced but I for sure am worried that what if that is not even possible. I guess if we are too much behind we will just drop to the beginner (damn I hope not).

But here is something usefull for instance. Our real "savings versus how much we think we're going to spend in Japan during 9 months" -plan. So this is actually the estimation how much we will have saved in total in January, but since it's such a short time, it's going to be pretty correct.
I have to point out that all the amounts are just estimations and tried to be estimated too high (only rent is basically precise)!


Savings minus
- Public transportation for 9 months // 900 euro
- Phone and internet bills for 9 months // 900 euro
- Rent for 9 months from one person // 2700 euro
- Food for 9 months from one person // 1800 euro
- School for 9 months from one person (all costs + insurance, exaggerated) // 5 000 euro
-> Free money for entertainment for each month: approximately 320 euro

ps. I finally got a new computer and blogging is actually enjoyable again ^^
pps. This post has been changed (+ pictures added later 18th since the blogger for some reason didn't publish the last version about it...

Helsinki 2013
Linnanmäki (amusement park) 2013


Friday 12 September 2014

Question time!

I got over the flue super fast. I guess that was all thanks for sleeping that much. The past few days I have been wondering a lot about Tokyo, maybe because soon it's only 100 days to go. Moving is starting to be very near and the list about things to do gets shorter all the time. I want to make sure I actually write an answer for myself about these questions buzzing in my head so I've decided to list those questions in here and answer to those in Japan, a small ordeal for myself. And I hope these little questions and in future the answer to these help others because I've had some trouble finding answers for some of these :). I'll keep the full list on "Project Data" page.

Here are the first ones what I have been thinking during the ongoing week:
Will my look draw that much attention? (because I didn't pay much notice for that last time)
Do I start to feel it annoying that people don't acknowledge my Japanese language skills?
Will people actually start to acknowledge my skill?
Will I face look-related special treatment or troubles with basics like doing mobile phone contract?
What is going to be the hardest thing to get used to our new life during the first month?
Will I receive negative attention about my weight?

For the last one I can comment a little bit. I'm considered completely normal in Finland and I don't find myself really as "fat", but knowing that in Japan people are in normal scale thinner and the ideals about "being fat" are lower, I'm kind of scared to be thought as a fat person there. For only the trip I have made a decision to lose 3 kilos (to be 60kg), but that doesn't bring me any close for those super thin Japanese people, so I'm a little bit scared. Last time I didn't really face any problems, but I noticed that when I had to pick the size L instead of S in cloth shops, it already in a short period affected my thinking. We will see what happens~

ps. I finally ordered new computer and then I can get rid off this one! Yey!

Shibya (Tokyo), 2012



Tuesday 9 September 2014

Job worries

This week is going to be very intimidating because my work contract ends (determined maternity leave substitutement) after this week's Sunday and due to staff reduction consultation we had earlier on this Summer in my company, my contract can't be continued to the of this year like it was first planned to do. Luckily there is still one good option that might happen. The place where I work can hire season help for the upcoming Christmas, so there might be a chance that I can be hired for that. If that would be the case, then my new work contract would start from 1st of October. There is only one and that is that those season help contracts has to be first offered for those who had been fired due to staff reduction and of course, they might take all the places.

So every day I go to work and I'm terrified to hear my superior to tell me that all the places were taken because for our saving for Japan, that would be a catastrophe. I know that with my attitude I believe I can get some job, but I'm a little bit too honest person. I wouldn't dare to leave out a fact that I can only work for three months and that has already been reason for Mikko not been hired for one company (gladly he got another job with relations). So thumbs up people! ;)

I have also been sick since Saturday and after work I have been mostly sleeping. The pause from the work would do good for my kanji studies and Minna no Nihongo though. And I need to get healthy again, there is so much to do! It's so hard to believe that after this month we already have to cancel our gym memberships (2 months term of notice) and some other contracts as well. Japan is already so close!

 Shibya (Tokyo) 2012 & Asakusa (Tokyo) 2012


Monday 1 September 2014

Productive day

Today has been a very productive day. I begun the studying the first thing in a morning and continued 6 hours with a breakfast break. The result was 24 new kanji learned which helped me to fill the gap what the last weeks of August left. So now I'm once again in a right speed, but my right hand disagrees badly with the entire writing practice I have done today ^^.

I spent some time yesterday watching videos from different Youtube bloggers (who blog about Japan) like Rachel and Jun and Kanadajin3. I find it interesting to hear different experiences and I have to say that some of the tips they have given, if we would have known those when we first time visited Japan, some things would have been much easier. So I warmly recommend following those channels, especially Rachel and Jun are very nice to follow.

Some of those videos raises questions of course. One video told that Japanese don't use any deodorant and of course when you compare it with our culture in Finland it sounds really weird. One of our friends has been in Japan as an exchange student and she has confirmed this info for us earlier, but it still feels odd. In Japanese culture there is also plenty of rules about behavior that are very important but if you don't know those rules, you might break them but no-one will note that up for you.

The culture of ignoring misbehavior in order not to misbehave yourself is pretty interesting and gives a lot to think about. For example during our last visit in Tokyo, people in trains would just sit quiet doing their own things, just like in Finland. Speaking in a phone in a train is considered highly rude and there are signs that tell you not to speak in your phone in a train. However, if someone does this, nobody really says anything, they just maybe give you a bad look and continue what they were doing and that is a complete opposite what would happen in Finland. Here someone would shout that someone to shut up or at least would mumble to a closest person how irritating that one person is being.

I'm highly fascinated by this twist in Japanese culture. I often feel like some of the Finnish melancholic attitude comes from complaining out loud about everything and people tend to hang on with the unequal and bad happenings so long that they forgot to move on. I look forward to see the difference since in Japan it sometimes feels like they let go about things even too easily and move on.



Sunday 31 August 2014

Long story

I haven't been able to write for a while, a reason for that is that me and Mikko took off 22th of August and drove all the way to the northern Finland to first meet Mikko's mother who lives in Vuokatti. We made a stop on my grandfather's grave in Savonlinna and arrived to Vuokatti at 3am. We had lovely time and I took quite a lot of pictures. At Sunday we continued our way to Muhos which is close to Oulu, one of the biggest cities in Northern Finland. There live my grandparents from my mother's side. The weather was rainy almost all the time, but we had few moments without it as well and that time we used in the forest, picking blueberries.



We also had a great completely thoroughly rainy horseback riding experience. We contacted Sirpa who keeps a stable in Muhos with adorable Icelandic horses. Either of us had rode Icelandic horses (oh fine, me when I was something like five and barely remember) and it was delightful experince! The new gaits like tölt were really interesting and the trip was awesome. We went one hour (half of it in a pouring rain which wasn't so nice but experience itself) in the middle of nordic forest, galloped and had plenty of fun with tölting. When we arrived back to the stable I had literally about half a liter of rain water in my boots and we were completely wet. Gladly we expected something like that and had something warm and dry to put on ^^.



 
On Friday, After 8 hours of driving back to Helsinki we were exhausted, but at least bunnies were thrilled to see us. Our dear friends took care of them while we were gone. The idea about relaxing comeback didn't last too long because we had to start to do preparations for Saturdays bunny exhibition in Pyhtää. So when the morning sun started to shine we were already in a car driving to Pyhtää. It took about 1,5 hours to get there but when we were there we were happy that we left because it was great to meet our friends from those circles. We usually don't meet those people outside of the competitions. We didn't have much expectations from our bunnies, but they did very well and received some prices as well. We were so proud!

It's maybe unnecessary to say that we didn't spent that much time with Japanese on a way. While driving we did learn ne vocabulary but kanji studies were left aside. I'm glad to have this day as well as tomorrow completely free to study and take back the lost time. Mikko got accepted to school as well and now we are just waiting for COE for both of us and of course trying to improve with Japanese!


Tuesday 19 August 2014

Flea market

So last Sunday (17.8) we were in the park flea market selling our unnessecary items. The weather had been really unstable for the whole last week so we had our doubts but luckily the day was all sunny and warm. This time we took our small table with us because last time we had problems with arrangin stuff any reasonable way. The day took off really busy and we did a lot of selling. We had some design items with us and we actually got the price from them what we were asking for (which was kind of surprising). After 14pm the groud suddenly vanished and we had some items we very so sure to sell left in our hands. Luckily we can still give them away against couple of cents for our friends. Our total was little bit over 130 euro, we are happy with that!

Last week wasn't really productive when I think about Japanese. I really feel bad for it, but I was terribly tired. Not any new kanji learned, I really struggled with Minna no Nihongo aswell. Sometimes I really doubt can our goals be acchieved but nothing good comes out doubting that. I'm so glad that I have my last holiday week starting from Friday, I really need that!




Tokyo Memory

It was really hot day, last days of July 2012. Our original plan was to take off from our Asakusa hotel and head off to Chiyoda but because we did miscalculation with the trains we eneded up very much more far from the park we than what we planned. I have problems with the sun, have always had and I started to feel it getting me again so we took a fast stop in a Combini, but it already had effected to me too bad. We couldn't continue walking in the sun but didin't know where to go so we just decided to take first stairs down thinking it was a tunnel for subway.

It was one of our surprising experiences in Tokyo. We didn't find a subway but an underground shopping center with different small stores almost like a small labyrinth right under the office building area above us. We stopped in a small bakery and had awesome strawberry cake made almost only from whole strawberries and whipped cream. There I also saw first time the luggage bag which later on would be my most expencive purchase from the whole trip (since we ran out of bags in Kyoto ;) ). We were able to stay inside long enough for me to feel better, but it was already too late to continue to Chiyoda so we headed back to Asakusa and spent the evening there. I wish to go see that place again soon!

 
Tokyo Railway Station
 
Tokyo Station 100 years old
Short animation "Passage of Time"