Ropponji Hills

This building, the Hyatt Regency Hotel of Ropponji, Tokyo, Japan not only marks one of the most impressive shopping districts of Japan, but was also a milestone in my travels. Just a 20 minute walk from our apartment, Ropponji was our playground, our backyard, our dinner table, our meeting place. In short, Ropponji was our stomping grounds. We made a lot of great friends here, practiced our Japanese in a relaxed, social atmosphere, and danced the night away.

Aside from that, Ropponji is a beautiful place architecturally speaking. It is a newly developed area and quite possibly one of the most expensive places to live in Japan. Up until my last day in Japan, all of my excursions to Ropponji had been at night of course. However, the day before leaving this beautiful country, I had the opportunity to see first hand and in the daylight just all that Ropponji has to offer aside from great clubs and excellent restaurants.

There are great cultural events going on in Ropponji such as museums exhibiting history's finest artists and architects like LeCorbusier, events in the courtyard celebrating Mexican culture, serving tapas and brews such as Corona, Dos Equis and more, and quite possibly the world's greatest, most efficient and beautifully designed movie theater.

Water flows down the walls as you walk through this culturally enriching and aesthetically pleasing district.

Thousands of people traverse the wide open courtyards of Ropponji Downtown district whether it be on their way to work, shopping, to visit a museum, or simply take in the beauty of this space.

There is unique and monumental artwork all along the streets of Ropponji Hills. They have really taken the idea of the bench to another level designing pieces of colorful art (such as in the picture below) rather than your average, small, basic bench.

We headed back to the apartment for a feast of a dinner prepared by one our Japanese friends, Eriko. It was indeed our last supper together. We finished dinner in time to head back to Ropponji and watch Oceans 13 on the big screen. The movie was in English with Japanese subtitles. The translations weren't that great. We realized just how hard it is to convey jokes and sarcasm in one language to another through translation. It loses something in the process. In the movie theater, we were the only Americans and as a result, the only people laughing at all the jokes in the movie.

On the way back to the apartment, we found a park and had a 3am jungle gym session. I felt like a kid again.

Ropponji was probably my favorite place in Tokyo. I had a lot of great experiences there and will never forget those times.

Bandori Festival

This weekend we went to a festival at Zosoji Temple near Tokyo Tower (Japan's smaller but equally stunning Eiffel Tower). Japan has several different festivals, especially during the summertime, to celebrate different things such as the first blossoming of sakura in the spring. This particular festival we went to was a dancing festival. People usually wear yukata (summertime kimono) to such events. Although we frantically searched the streets of Harajuku and Shibuya to find a store that sells yukata hours before the festival, in the end, we were unable to find the store.

Upon arriving at the temple complex, we slowly began to take in all of the events going on; people dancing in circles in slow, graceful movements, others eating a meal, and others sitting on the steps of the temple as spectators to the drones of dancing people below.

Before we had enough time to take everything in, we were quickly pulled aside to embark on a special and private tour of the temple complex. Due to the great connections our teachers have, we were able to enter the private tomb of the emperors of the Zosoji era, a tomb opened only once a year for a special occasion. We heard all about the history of the era and deceased members of the imperial family (all in Japanese of course).

The tombs and headstones were massive and impressive!

But even more massive were the mosquitoes! There must have been a horde of mosquitoes living in that locked up tomb. The second we entered, they latched onto our legs and left the largest bug bites I've ever had in my life. Marks I'm still recovering from weeks later.

Next, we ate lots of food and drank some refreshing Japanese beer. After loosening up after a few beers, it was time for us Americans to take a stab at Japanese festival dancing. There was one tower in the center of the area where 3 people were playing instruments. Also, up in the tower were workers of the temple who led the dances. And finally, below on the ground level were those brave enough to attempt the bandori (night dance). The music was catchy and the dances easy to pick up on.

The dancing lasted into the night, long enough for us to see the beautiful Tokyo Tower lit up in the distance. And as the night went on, our dancing became don don (increasingly) better.