Independent Travels and Good Food

Before I begin this post I thought it necessary to mention that it occurred to me that since this is a blog about Japan (for the time being), I should try as much as I can to share some of the language/culture with everyone. So, I will be including the translations of specific words and things in kanji/hiragana/katakana to show you all what it looks like (if you do not already know).

Okay, so my new friend Kyri and I made plans to visit Ueno Park
[上野公園] which is about 35 minutes away from where we are staying to view the cherry blossoms before they were no longer in bloom. It appears that this was the best park to do so because these trees bloomed the best. Using the handy-dandy trip planner the program staff gave us we charted our course last night and anticipated a great time. Thankfully it only required transferring to one other train which was rather reassuring. Of course, the weather had to be the only uncooperative factor in this endeavor and instead of the nice 50°+ partly sunny weather we were promised we dealt with a slightly dreary atmosphere. But to put it in perspective, it could have been pouring rain and much colder.

After a nice little walk through the park we then explored the surrounding area. Near the train station Ueno offers much to be had in the way of cute trinkets (so many key chains!!!), expensive merch (like this really cool purple sports jacket I wanted that cost ¥13,000 ≈ $138), and plenty of food. We sort of stumbled our way out into other nearby towns and found ourselves at the Yushima Tenman-gū  Shrine [湯島天満宮], a Shinto shrine, where a wedding happened to be taking place (which made Kyri's day because seeing one is on her Japan bucket list). After a little prayer for safe travel and small purification rite (washing of hands and mouth with purified water - what you are supposed to do before entering some shrines) we started to feel a bit on the hungry side, especially since we both only had convenience store [コンビニ] bread pastries and juice. We happened upon this small corner restaurant in which I ordered the BEST ramen I have ever tasted. It is called miso ramen [みそラーメン] with yummy noodles soaking in a savory soup with bean sprouts and sesame seeds with a little piece of beef on the side. Both of our dishes were so good we basically ate in silence save for our slurping sounds of joy. It's pretty funny because we actually ate so fast we were tired when we finished. Included below is the wondrous location and my meal :]

In a matter of 5 hours we had completed our first independent travel day, me with a few trinkets, both of us with food in our bellies and smiles on our faces. And now . . . 勉強する時間!!! For those who do not speak Japanese that means it is time to study. With our placement test on Monday I am hoping against hope that my stores of information will have a sudden resurgence and refresh my memory so that I do not make a fool of myself. I really need to test well here, not only for my pride (lol) but so that I can truly progress and have evidence of said progression to bring back with me to the States. I know that I am not the best at retaining information and what little I do has served me well thus far but now is the time to really test my mettle. So with that, I ask you all to wish me luck and send some positivity my way!