Monday, July 23, 2007

the last weekend

For my last weekend in Japan, I went to Tokyo with some friends. Keiko had invited us to join a booze cruise type of boat party that some of her friends from college were having so we did that on Sunday night. Everyone I was with had brought yukatas to wear. I didn't buy one since I'm leaving Japan in like six days and I didn't want to spend the money.

But before the boat party, we walked around Asakusa, the neighborhood we were staying in, and visited Kaminari-mon temple. It was super crowded!!
This is the entrance:

This is the long, long shopping arcade that led to the temple:

Pagoda and other stuff from the front porch area of the temple:

Then we went back to our place and everyone got ready for the boat party. Here's how they looked:

Somewhere around 50 people got on a motor-powered, Japanese style boat for the purpose of drinking, eating and celebrating. The boat drove us around Tokyo for about two hours I think. During that time, we drank beer and cooked okonomiyaki at our tables.



















After we got off the boat, nearly everyone went to a bar for a little more drinking and partying.
The next day, a few of us went around Tokyo for a while.
Even on Monday afternoon, Harajuku is super crowded.

I guess that was it. Next weekend is my going away party. Then I'll be back in America.