From station to station

For some time, I really wanted to show you how my daily trip to and from university looks like. Therefore I took some pictures of the stations that I pass almost daily, and a video with a view from a train window :D This is how my way back to the dormitory looks like. I'll skip the way to the station, there's nothing interesting in it, but here's the station from the inside:

This is a really small part of the station, probably, less than 1/20. The place that you can now see is located underground, there are a lot of entrances to the train platforms above and to the several metro lines below. There's access to basement floors of four or five different shopping centres, which are located around the station, and there are at least two underground shopping passages. This is the 2nd busiest station in the world, after Shinjuku station.

I'm travelling to the dormitory by a privately owned line, which covers Saitama district. This area is not realy counted as Tokyo, though, it only takes me 20 minutes to reach Ikebukuro station. You can see, how the area looks like in this video:

Finally, this is my station:

It's rather logical, but as you get further from the city, you can see more of the outside world from the stations.

Sumo

I'm not sure whether anybody of you is interested in sumo fighting, but as I discovered - it's a completely new way to experience the Japanese culture. As I'm not very profficient in this matter myself, I will make it as simple, as possible for you (without any definitions, because I cannot remember them :D). So, there are no weight classes in sumo, there are only rankings according the number of matches won by a fighter. Fighters with a lowest ranking have to start the day, the most experienced fiters enter the ring in the end of the day. The most experienced fighters have a ritual before entering the ring - they clence their face with a paper cloth and throw some salt in the ring - this is the way to "clean"(I mean, spiritually) themselves before their turn, "get into the vibe", and the salt is to purify the ring. The rules are simple - one cannot touch the ring with any other body part than his feet, or to step on the boarderline even a little.
People that are interested in sumo are very diverse - from high school students to executives sitting on the expensive front row seats and just having a good time. Some people are sumo enthusiasts, you can probably hear them clearly in this video:

Second Monday in January -

is comming of age day. It's a national holiday, so everything, except shops and restaurants, is closed. It was a bit unfortunate for us, who wanted to study at university, but found out that almost all buildings were closed, even in the open ones the classrooms were closed. Eventually, we found a bench - it was rather sunny, and finished our groupwork. Well, I had to postpone a walk to a post ofice, too :)

Anyways, in Japan, compared to Europe, young people are concidered to be of age after becommig 20 years old. In order to celebrate it, local area wards invite those, who became 20 from 2 April in the past year, or will be 20 years old in this year, until 1 April, to celebrate it on the 2nd Monday of January. There are some speeches prepared for them, and later on these young people go to celebrate the day with their friends.

This day girls dress in kimonos with long sleeves and guys wear either traditional clothes, or western style suit - what's more common these days. Here are some pictures (of girls, of course, they are more noticeable):

After New Years...

The most of the shops are closed on New Year's day, but on the next day, 2nd January, the big sale begins. As I first thought, they sell everything with a discount, in reality - only clothes and accessories are on sale. Now the good advice - never go to a famous shop or shopping centre on 2nd January. It's very crowded, people gather in queues to enter the shop. I wonder, whether I told you this before: in Japan, they have shop assistants standing near the entrance saying "Welcome!", "Thank you!" and a lot of other things to every customer. This turns into screaming on a first day of sales: "Come to our shop!! We have the best offers!! Don't miss the opportunity!", or something alike. When you  the screams comming from every side, it becomes simply a loud noise :D When I first came to Japan, the economist in me thought that it's a waste of money to hire some people, who are just welcoming customers inside the store. But having some time to think this through, I realized that Japan is a crowded country, they need to hire more people in order to have the employment level high. The second reason is common Japanese courtesy - it's just polite to say "welcome" to a customer, they expect to hear it when entering a shop.

Now, I have found a new purpose for policemen: on the first day of sales in one of the most popular shopping centre for young girls and women they controlled the crowd and helped people get by (that goes on top with helping to find a direction and giving advice about most popular sports in the area :D ).

This picture is going viral now - New Year's sale in Osaka, enjoy:

Christmas

About Christmas - Japanese do not celebrate it. Or at least, not in the way Europeans do it. Now, for us Christmas is merely a tradition, but we should remember that this celebration comes from Christian church. In Japan, almost nobody is Christian - about 7% are Catholic, baptized by the first missioners in late 19th - 20th century. The rest belong to Shintoism or Buddism, or even both. Still, as Japanese people say themselves - there is no national religion in Japan. They are keeping some of the "religious" traditions, but they are not perceived as being religious. Therefore, for Japan Christmas doesn't mean the same, as for other Christian cultures. It is a commercialized event, mostly for friends and couples to enjoy, and for businesses to earn some money. The idea of decorating the Christmas tree was also overtaken by Japan, but in a more global way. By almost every bigger train station there are illuminations - areas, which are practically covered by small Christmas lights. So, many people travel to biggest stations to see the illuminations:

This could be seen by Shinjuku stattion - Shinjuku Northern Lights.

Yebisu atation

Shimbashi

Japanese fact sheet No. 1

Sorry for not writing for some time, all of the exchange students here are burried under piles of work - most of the lecturers prefer to see a group presentation instead of correcting lots and lots of final exams.

So, anyways, there is a thing I wanted to tell about for some time. Do you know that Japan recycles literally everything? Well, every country recycles at least a bit, but here, when moving in, we got a whole pamphlet with information what can be thrown out together. It's ok, as far as you consider that Japan is one of the most technically developed countries, and most probably, pollutes a lot; therefore they have to compensate this somewhere. But you would never expect this:

As you can see, this is a fast food restaurant. Let me give you a hint - this is one of the biggest fast food chains in the world. McDonald's. Even here you have to recycle. As well as in Strabucks, Burger King, and in any other Japanese and non-Japanese fast food chain. Makes me think that Danes, which consider themselves very "green", are not trying good enough :D

The zoo

So, Wednesday afternoon we went to Ueno Zoo. It was realy cold - in the moist country as Japan +9 degrees Celsius feels like at least 10 degrees less than it actually is. But we enjoyed it a lot. This is the main entrance:

As you can see, somewhere in the background are the ticket machines. Actually, in Japan the ticket machines are pretty popular, even in restaurants, especially at the eat-all-you-can types. So, the visitors/customers choose a needed type of a ticket, and then it will be controlled and checked by the staff.

Probably it would be boring to show you all the animals in the zoo, most of them you all can find in any European zoo, therefore, here's the main attraction:

They are even cuter in real life!! Anyways, the panda is a national symbol, and you'll be able to find something panda-like in every souvenir shop. Which there were tens of around the zoo: