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November 01: Banzai! I'm back home, happy and energized. Thanks for all the messages you nice people left for me and my beloved "guest blogger" and his, *ahem*, one and only entry (na-shy na daw sya). We really appreciate them. (: I can tell you more about my Japan adventures thru the photo album (soon, I promise) but let me just list down some random notes first:
ï My mom, Calvin and I stayed with my dad in Amakubo, the Foreign Scholar's Residence, located within the University Campus. Papa is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Tsukuba, where he also taught from '94-'97, and will be staying there for a couple more years. It wasn't our first time to the city so Calv and I already knew our way around and spent the past 2 weeks doing the rounds of our favorite haunts -- Ishimaru, Seibu, and Wondergoo, haha.
ï I couldn't write here nor answer e-mail since the nearest net cafe requires a membership fee on top of their regular rates. My main reason for wanting to go online was so I could write to Arn, but I figured that I'd be spending almost the same amount if I talked to him for at least 5 minutes everyday using phonecards so naturally I chose the latter. (:
ï Tokyo is an hour away from Tsukuba by bus (more if you get caught in rush hour traffic) and is a good place to go to only when you have lots of Yen to spare. The bus fare alone is enough to cause a dent in your budget (2500 Yen = P1250!) so going there twice was enough for us this time around. I was supposed to go a 3rd time to have lunch with my friend, Sophia Univ student Jenny but we couldn't make our schedules work (sayang ano, Jen?!).
ï Because transportation (like everything else) is so expensive in Japan, most residents rely on good ol' bicycles to get around. My dad bikes to his College everyday and so did my brother when he was studying there. They used to have a spare bike that I could use but it has since been discarded so on this visit I had to rely on my poor legs and feet to get to wherever I wanted. At least the constant exercise gave me an excuse to eat all that lovely Japanese food, mmmm.
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