Inside Student Blogs » Naomi Ganon

From Far East to Midwest

Naomi Ganon — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:33:45 +0000

I apologize for the late entry. Well, I am back in my hometown Kansas City, Missouri in America and I am already planning for my next trip back to Japan. I was fortunate enough to spend an extra three weeks there after the IES program ended with my boyfriend. We went to Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Nagoya and back to Tokyo during that time and we had lots of fun! But it wasn’t long enough in my opinion! =(

Since I’ve been back I’ve been missing a lot of the Japanese culture — my host family, the food, the people, the fashion, etc. Reverse culture shock has hit me hard! I can’t let it slow me down though because I need to graduate this year. I will return to you, Japan! As for now ganbarimasu yo (I will do my best)! Mata ne!!!

Magnificent Nikko

Naomi Ganon — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:36:30 +0000

My host family was kind enough to drive my roommate and I out to Nikko for a day trip. =) No wonder everyone recommends going there! It is absolutely gorgeous! It is a nice change of pace from the busy city-life of Tokyo. As my roommate said, “I finally feel like I’m in Japan”. Seriously, if you ever get the chance to take a day trip out to anywhere near Tokyo go to Nikko. I promise you will not regret it. Not only is the scenery beautiful, but you get to see the place where the Tokugawa shogunate resided. Now how awesome is that?

A Day In Kamakura

Naomi Ganon — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:36:52 +0000

Yesterday a group of us went to Kamakura kudos to IES sponsoring it. It was very hot and humid throughout the day, but that did not stop us from enjoying the temples and having fun! Kamakura is known for its temples and shrines, and I would highly recommend anyone to spend a day there if they are in the Tokyo area. It is definitely worth the trip out there!

Roppongi Hills

Naomi Ganon — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:53:46 +0000

Sorry this was a little late! Midterms have been keeping me busy.
Anyways, my Pop Culture class went on a field trip to Roppongi Hills last weekend! While the place is very modern and has a beautiful view of Tokyo Tower, the layout is very confusing. I suggest grabbing a map of the place before wandering around because I almost guarantee you’ll end up getting lost and frustrated without one. (The place has a postmodern design so that is the main reason why it creates a lot of confusion for a lot of people.)
It is definitely a place to go just for the experience and to see Mori’s colossal work, but I would not recommend trying to buy any money there unless you are willing to spend a lot.

I left my heart in Okinawa

Naomi Ganon — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:24:24 +0000

Okinawa was absolutely wonderful. I would highly recommend anyone to take the plane ride out to this amazing island. The food was delicious, the people were super nice, and who doesn’t like the beach? The only downside to the whole trip was that it was raining off and on the whole time we were there (stupid typhoon season), but that didn’t ruin our fun. It actually added to it! =)

Akasaka is not Asakusa

Naomi Ganon — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:50:59 +0000

So my roommate and I decided to go to visit one of the many tourist spots in Tokyo — Asakusa. However, at the train station we made the mistake of mixing it up with Akasaka and did not realize it until we got there. It was not a bad mix-up though, Minato City turned out to be a very cozy and very nice place! And we ended up going to a shrine anyways — Hie Shrine. In the end, it turned out very well. =)

Happy in Japan

Naomi Ganon — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:42:17 +0000

As life in Tokyo/Chiba has started getting more and more familiar, I have to admit that I’m starting to miss home a little bit. However, that doesn’t hide the excitement of going to Okinawa in two weeks! Can’t wait!

Mt. Fuji during Golden Week

Naomi Ganon — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:40:17 +0000

For those of you wondering Golden Week is like a second spring break for the Japanese. No, actually, it is a collection of four national holidays during a seven day period. So to make things easier they take a week off. It’s one of the busiest traveling seasons for Japan, but that isn’t to say that everything is closed. Just government offices like the post offices.

For the first three days of Golden Week my roommate and I took a trip to Hakone which is one of the best places to see Mt. Fuji real close-up. It was very cloudy on the first two days we were there, however. The weather cleared up on the day we were leaving, just our luck. But we had fun, nonetheless. We went to our first onsen/open-air hot spring. That part was a little awkward for the both of us, but luckily the onsen wasn’t too busy; there was only one other lady there. The rest of time was spent traveling around to different spots in Hakone like Gotemba and Gora. I would definitely recommend using the Hakone Free Pass if you plan to see Mt. Fuji anytime soon, it saved us a lot of transportation money in the end.

The rest of Golden Week was spent in Tokyo. My homestay family went overseas for vacation so my roommate and I were separated to stay with two different families. I really enjoyed my stay at my other homestay’s house, I will have to go visit them again soon!

Life in Tokyo

Naomi Ganon — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:22:09 +0000

Life here in Tokyo has slowed down a little bit. With the start of classes most of us have been tied down to our studies and haven’t explored outside the Chiba prefecture on the weekdays. On the weekends, however, we always manage to venture to the Tokyo area for numerous reasons. As you can see from my photos, Shibuya is the place to be. There is also Ikebukuro which has a large shopping mall called Sunshine City that also has an aquarium, observation room, a food theme park (called Namja Town), and many more things! I’m sad to report that the aquarium was a big let down, but I cannot wait to go back and check out the food theme park!

Golden Week is this week! I’m off to Mount Fuji for a few days!

Narita Taiko Matsuri (Narita Drum Festival)

Naomi Ganon — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:42:44 +0000

The Narita Drum Festival was a blast! Narita itself is a very cute village outside of Tokyo, which was a nice change of pace from the metropolitan lifestyle. The Temple was absolutely beautiful, and we even got to join in the Temple’s daily service: the Goma rite. Basically it’s a Buddhist service where every one can attend and is conducted several times during the day to pray to Fudomyoo, the main deity of Naritasan Temple. The main priest burns Gomasticks with various burn offerings in order to extinguish human’s earthly passions and to bring us to a higher state of mind. I guess part of the rite is where one of the priests suddenly grabs the public’s bags and “throws” them into the fire in order to symbolize this. (It was pretty surprising the first time because I actually thought the priest was going to throw people’s bags into it!)

I tried to stick around for the main event at the Great Main Hall, but it doesn’t really help that I’m short and there was a massive crowd. I watched part of it though and it was pretty amazing. They had an eight-year old playing and when they interviewed her she kept talking about how much fun playing the taiko was for her. It was too precious. =) The event itself was pretty intense; I never realized how much energy is required to play this kind of instrument! Power to all the taiko players out there!