july 6

We woke up at 745a and I start getting ready. we meet mika at 9am and check out and leave our bags. The night before we found pepsi drinks with starwars bears as the prize. We bought a bunch for akiyoshi sensei. We gave the drinks to the hotel staff because we didn’t want them. We left for sumiyoshi taisha. The oldest shrine in japan. It is the headquarters for 2300 shrines across japan. I I like the huge giant trees. The are really old and they have rope tied around them.. they reminded me of inuyasha.

We left for lunch at the aquarium and had donbori – rice bowl. I had pork and ramen seto. It’s a bit wearing when we have to go where b picks because he can’t eat pork or beef. Whatever. Then we went to the aquarium kaiyukan. It was really cool. My favorite was the jellyfish and baby penguins. There were two whale sharks and gigantic sting rays. It was cool. We left at 3p to watch the IMAX show. We wanted to see the dinosaurs, but for some reason it wasn’t playing. We watched the 3D aquarium instead. It was still cool. Narrated by Johnny depp and kate winslet.

Yesterday I bought an electronic jisho (dictionary) it was a bit expensive but I want to keep studying japanese. I think It will be a great resource. Now I can buy manga too! Sweet!

I fell asleep toward the end of the show. I couldn’t help it. Then we went to the gift shop. Cute stuff. Then we left for a jr office to reserve shinkansen back to Tokyo. We went and had some ice cream at hep 5 there are so many people every where and it was so humid. We went back to the ryokan and got our bags and we met mika back at the station. Then we went to shin Osaka. We gave mika a billiken and a kaiyukan coin. She said goodbye before we went thru the gate. She was so nice to us. We also did a purikura. On the train and time for sleep.

We got back to Tokyo and I went to akihabara and tried called the capsule for directions. It was frustrating. I went out showa-dori exit and took a left. He said 5 minutes, but I think it was more like 10. eventually I found it. Then I went to the 9^th floor and dropped off my bags. The capsule doesn’t really have a lock. The door to the capsules does. I got a locker for my stuff, but my bag is too big and needed to be in front of my capsule. The man at the desk explained the rules that the top floors were for girls and that shower and computer were on the 10^th. Inside the capsule was a tv with about 10 channels and a radio and alarm. Then sleep.