If you recall, I joined the school's Wind Orchestra Club. It's been a lot of fun to play, even if it's with a small group. In celebration of the start of the semester, the University Student Association set up a series of performances from various clubs on campus. It's a good way for groups to promote themselves while also putting on a show. There was a stage set up outside the main student plaza where everyday clubs would perform during the lunch period. Only three rehearsals after I joined, it was our turn to play. Even though we didn't have that much time to prepare, I think we did quite well. All of the Japanese students in the club are really great musicians and the music wasn't anything difficult so we were all able to play our parts relatively effortlessly. 

The only issue we ran into was we didn't know which group members would actually be there to perform. It wasn't mandatory and some people have other obligations during the short lunch period so there are valid reasons to miss it. The music we are playing is written for a whole Wind Orchestra, so if we are missing some instruments, it could mean we are missing some really important parts of the music. Luckily, we ended up having more people than we anticipated so we had a full sound which was really neat.

Few notes about my experience in the club so far for those interested. There are a lot of differences to how the Japanese students practice versus what I'm used too. For example, not only do they always use a metronome when practicing, but they use the old school wind-up, rod moving back and forward metronome. I'll be honest, I don't think I've ever actually seen someone use that style of metronome since everyone I've ever encountered just uses a smartphone app or in some cases (like in Marching Band practice) a dedicated electronic metronome device. I find it quite humorous how every few minutes they have to wind up the metronome as if that problem hasn't already been solved. On the flip side, they almost never use a tuner. The only time we did any sort of tuning was right before the performance, that is it. I think this may be that they are taught to rely on their ear more than a tuner, which is a good thing in my book.

For your entertainment, I have acquired some videos of our performance. They were recorded on someone's phone, so the audio quality isn't the best but it's good enough. I am the second on the right if you are having trouble finding me. If you are looking at this on a phone, tapping the video will most likely take you to another page. I apologize for the inconvenience. Please enjoy!

Our next stop was Nijo Castle, which is was built in 1603 and was the residence of the Shogun until 1868. It's one of many UNESCO Word Heritage Sites in Japan.

Another brief Japanese history lesson. Back in the day, at the top of the social hierarchy was the Emperor as you may expect. However, under the Emperor was the Shogun, who was basically the country's military leader who was appointed by the Emperor. However, though the Emperor was technically in charge, the Shogun was the person really calling the shots. The Emperor was more of a figurehead. I'm simplifying the whole system because it a bit complicated and I don't really understand it all that much, but that's the basic idea. That whole system ended in 1868, which was the end of the Japanese Edo period and the start of westernization & modernization in Japan.

With that in mind, the people who resided in Nijo castle had much power than the people in the Imperial Palace, generally making it the more important location out of the two.

This was much more interesting in my opinion. One of the best parts is that you were allowed to go inside the main castle building. There were no photos allowed inside, so I'll do my best to describe it here. You had to take your shoes off and you walk in the halls looking into various rooms. Many of the spaces were waiting rooms for guests, and they all had different animal related themes such as tiger or crane. The wallpaper in the room would correspond with the animal. Interesting side-note, tigers are not domestic to Japan, so when they built the castle in 1603 and made the tiger room, they had no reference of what a tiger actually looked like. They did however have imported tiger hide, so they basically improvised and designed what they thought looked like a tiger. Pretty neat!

Some of the other rooms were designed with a certain purpose, like a meeting room and such. They had mannequins dressed up as Samurai and the Shogun in some rooms to help portray what occurred there. It sounds a lot creepier than it is, trust me it was really helpful. 

Last thing about the inside. The moment we walked in, we noticed a bird chirping noise and were very confused. That confusion didn't last long because one of the first signs you see explains what the noise is. Over time, the nails holding the floorboards down have gotten loose which results in them rubbing against the wood whenever you take a step which creates the sound. It's really cool, and the sort of thing you don't generally see mentioned when discussing big landmarks like this.

At this point, we were starting to get hungry. My mom had found this place called Nishiki Market that was apparently quite famous. Let me tell you, this place was wild. There were so many people trying to get through what was essentially a narrow alleyway. In every direction there was a vendor of some sort, and the majority were selling seafood. I unfortunately didn't get too many pictures, so you'll have to use your imagination a bit.

If you remember, I was briefly at this temple during my last Kyoto trip. However, due to time, I wasn't able to explore the whole thing. So I was looking forward to seeing the rest of it. Turns out I was really missing out!

As a reminder, the whole district where it's located is centered around the temple itself. All the roads loosely lead up to it. Once you reach the top, you can see the the outside of the temple and walk around to your hearts content. Here are some pictures of that.

Now onto the other famous temple in Kyoto. This is the one with the hundreds of red gates that take you up the mountain. This place was packed, with hundreds of people slowly going up. As you're walking through, the amount of gates really is quite staggering. 

And just like that, our Kyoto adventure came to an end. I had to return to Nagoya for a few days to go to class while my Mom went on her own journey in Hiroshima. We met in Nagoya a few days later and then both continued on to Tokyo to continue our escapades.

I mentioned we planned very little, there is one big exception to that which is the Ghibli Museum. For those unaware, Studio Ghibli is Japan's most respected and well known animation studio. They've been around for more than 35 years and have made some of Japan's most iconic films such as My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away, the latter of which was the highest grossing film in Japan for almost 20 years. I'm a big fan of the studio, having seen all of their movies, so going to the museum was a no brainer.

I had to buy the tickets ahead of time, which was a slight challenge since they are highly sought after, but I managed to get them with some luck. The museum opened in 2001 and is located in Inokashira Park in Mitaka. The entire surrounding area is nothing but nature, which is entirely by design and gives the whole museum a very unique backdrop.

Sadly, no pictures are allowed inside the museum, so all my photos are of the outside. The museum consists of several exhibits relating to the Studio and is filled with original storyboards, concept art and actual hand drawn frames from the films. As a fan, it's fascinating seeing all the little details about how the films were made. There is another exhibit about the principles of animation with some really amazing showcases of how animation works using fast moving figurines. I hope that makes sense, it's a bit hard to describe without photo reference but I guess that's the point, you have to see it for yourself. 

They also have some rotating exhibits. You are able to watch a short film produced by the studio at the in-house movie theater. The film playing when we were there was Koro no Daisanpo which is about a lost dog trying to find his way home. It was very cute and was easy to follow even without knowing Japanese. The other limited time exhibit was about a show call Future Boy Conan. While it wasn't made by the studio, it was directed by Hayao Miyazaki (who is one of the founders and main contributors to Studio Ghibli) and is a foundation to a lot of his later works. 

Lastly, there is the café and gift shop both of which are great. The gift shop has a lot of neat exclusive merchandise (some of which we bought) and the café has a surprisingly large selection good tasting food. They also have several neat photo ops throughout the park, the standout one being the life sized statue of the Robot Soldier character from the movie Castle in the Sky on the roof of the museum. 

All and all, it was a great experience. I think even my Mom, who has very little knowledge on the studio and it's works, seemed to enjoy it. Luckily, this is not my last interaction with Studio Ghibli for this trip. They recently opened Ghibli Park just down the road from my university and I got tickets to go in July. I'm very excited and I'll be sure to report on it when I go. Again, I only have photos from outside, but I hope you can appreciate the unique architecture of this one of a kind museum.

Back in Shinjuku, my Mom discovered the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. As boring as that sounds, it's actually really neat because the 45th floor is an observation floor open to the public. It allows you to get an overhead view of the city, which is quite amazing. Downside is, the line to get in is quite long. We waited about 30 minutes, but luckily it was shaded so it was no big deal.

Once we got to the floor, it was much nicer than I was expecting. It almost felt like a mini club or something. They had a café in the center where you could buy drinks, food and Pikachu plushies (because Japan). They even had a piano where anyone could jump in line to play a peice, and some amazing players were providing a nice musical backdrop to the floor. I didn't take any pictures of the floor itself, I was too pre-occupied with the view out the windows. It really gives you a sense of how massive Tokyo is, it just keeps on going and going.

Next up is Shibuya, which may be one of the most famous spots in Tokyo. This is the location of the famous Shibuya Scramble, this massive intersection where thousands of cars and people cross in a chaotic coordinated rhythm. It's one of the most busy intersections in the world and watching the hoard of people stop and go is mesmerizing. 

Another famous site here is the Hachiko statue. For those unfamiliar, the story of Hachiko is a classic Japanese story about the loyalty of the titular dog. For us Americans, you may have seen the movie Hachi: A Dog's Tale with Richard Gere which adapts the story in a language we can understand. In fact, that's one of my friends favorite movies and I don't even think he's seen half of it. If that's not loyalty, I don't know what is. The statue itself is right outside the station and we had to wait in line to take a picture, but it was well worth it to show our respect to this oh so loyal companion.

Lastly, Shibuya is also a big shopping district with many big name stores having a location here. Places like IKEA, Swatch, Nintendo, Ray Band etc. all have big flagship stores here. We explored some shops and such. Realistically, it's not that much different than other districts in Tokyo, but everything is sized up for sure.

Our final stop on my last day in Tokyo was Yokohama, which isn't in Tokyo. Whoops. It's a coastal city about a 45 minute train ride from the Tokyo. It's Japan's second largest city known for several things such as it's expansive Chinatown and botanical gardens. However, our goal to go to the Cup Noodle Museum (I hope that's pretty self explanatory). Even though it was all in Japanese, it was still a fun place to check out. It had neat displays of all the different sorts of Cup Noodle products and a lot of it was chronicling the life of Momofuku Ando, the inventor of Cup Noodles. It was actually quite refreshing to just go into a museum that I knew nothing about and just learn some interesting things. 

We then watched a movie in the nearby theater on a whim to round out our trip there. The whole thing was very impromptu, but it was fun nonetheless.

Oh, one last note. This had to be the windiest place I've ever been too. The gusts almost knocked us over multiple times, it was ridiculous.

That wrapped up my Golden Week. I said goodbye to my Mom as I returned to Nagoya. It was a really great week and in hindsight we did a lot of stuff! In the moment, it didn't really feel like we did all that much, but writing this all out and looking at all the pictures convinced me otherwise.

Just to wrap up, here are some other miscellaneous things we did that didn't fit anywhere else.

We all know Pokémon right? Even if you don't know anything about it, I'm sure you've at least heard of it. It is the most popular media franchise of all time, and it started in good ol' Japan. If you thought Pokémon was popular in the States, you haven't seen anything. Almost every store has some sort of Pokémon stuff like figurines, plushies, snacks, clothing etc. However, the pinnacle of it all is the Pokémon Center, which is the main official store for all your Pokémon needs in Japan. There is one in most major cities, and as a fan of the series myself, I knew I had to go.

So we went to the Pokémon Center in Kyoto & Tokyo and it's filled wall to wall with plushies and merchandise. Each one was different and some had massive lines to even get in. For people who don't care about Pokemon, feel free to skip this part.

One thing we did was walk into a Daiso store whenever we saw one. Daiso is the most popular chain of 100-Yen stores in Japan. This is their version of a Dollar Tree or such. The main difference between this and Dollar Tree is that Daiso is actually good. I actually bought a lot of basic supplies there when I first arrived like plates, cups, silverware etc. However, for the most part, we didn't go there to buy anything we go to look at all the funny English. 

Japan is already obssessed with plastering English all over the place. Apparently, it makes something look more "premium" if it has English on it. It basically boils down to signs everywhere having open-ended statements that are hilarious. For example, a restaurant may have a giant sign that says "Good Food Here All Time", and you chuckle and keep walking. Daiso (and similar stores) do this all the time, resulting in some comedy gold. Everything there is a "nice" and "beautiful", it's so funny. Here are some my favorites. Enjoy.