The Brotherhood from Ueno…

Hi to everyone from Kesennuma!!! I’ll tell you about my voluntary work around here in a future post…

Ueno is a very nice area in Tokyo. The place where I was staying is near the main park which is huge and there’s a lot of fun activities on weekends, it has a zoo with a couple of very lazy pandas. There’s also some art and science museums in the park and you can get to Akihabara in a 30-minute walk. Ueno has an interesting commercial zone where you can get almost anything with acceptable prices (compared to the rest of Japan). For me Ueno is one of the best spots in Tokyo!

Before and after my travel to South Korea I moved to Ueno temporally because of a host family change from ICYE (the cultural organization where I’m working). Thanks to the contact I made with Shin-Chan (Miho) I could stay at this new home. Here I had excellent and fun experiences, this was one of the best places I stayed in Japan and all thanks to the new people I met and whom also hosted me!!!

The apartment’s brotherhood is formed by this group of people…

From left to right: Hiroshi Mc Knight, Miho Shin-Chan, Hallic, Miyuki Boom Boom and Yoshito Justice!!!

With this team I had very interesting conversations!! I learned some not so formal Japanese vocabulary (like bon-kiu-bon, niku-nikushi), I cooked my first Miso soup in Japan with the help of Yoshito, Hiroshi told me about the Japanese people’s feelings and fighting spirit, snowboarding tips and how the Japanese working system is related to a lot of cultural stuff and why Japanese people work so much. I also participated in my first military “survival game”. I had to take some notes about how to approach to Japanese girls (so different from Latin America!) and how the boyfriend-girlfriend relationship works here, this was taught by Miyuki and Shin-Chan. I had my first hair cut in Japan by the hand of Boom Boom and we went Karaoke together which was a super fun experience!!! I could say that every night I stayed in Ueno we had a unique cultural exchange experience!!!

   

Thanks to the brotherhood I got in touch with more interesting people around here! I met a family of musicians and artists that where so kind to me and reminded me how you have to really seize the day to reach the most important goal: be happy and work for other people’s happiness! Here we have a very funny picture of almost everyone, with Sonorous (who gave a signed Aria Soundtrack CD!! :D ) and the small and cute Roha and also a picture from the graveyard located near the place where I was staying (not related to the family but I like the photo)…

 

I will share some very refreshing links and videos from this family of artists!

The first one is from Osamu, he’s a graphic designer and sometimes a music video producer. This is the link to Osamu’s website, he also has a YouTube channel and here’s a musical video that I like… The music was made by Yasuki and Yoshitomo whom are also part of the family…

Sonorous’s songs really touched my feelings, her voice and compositions are super nice!!! She took part in the soundtrack for the animation Aria and she has a cute baby (Roha from the picture) :) Here one of her songs…  Heart Touching…!

Yasuki is a super nice guy and he’s also a music composer. He’s work is very original! I had sometime without hearing something so different… This is his website and a video from his band (the video was produced by Osamu)…

Also formed from the family and brotherhood is the musical group called Wassyoi. Excellent!!! I have no videos of the band (I couldn’t find any on the web) but this is the band’s site!

Sorry,  some of the sites are in Japanese :P !!!

After travelling to South Korea I stayed around a month in Ueno, it was an excellent time and after this month I took the decision of traveling around Tokyo as a backpacker so I could stay in new and different places and meet more people! Even during my backpacker time I occasionally visited my friends at Ueno where I have a new home now (while the brotherhood lives here!). Some final shots…

 

 

 

This blog post is dedicated to the brotherhood and the unique moments I had (and will have) in Ueno!!!

I have to thank this people so much for all the help in so many situations!!! We still have a last mission to complete in this travel: conquer mount Fuji!!!! :D

Arigatou!!! Pura Vidota Hiroshi, Shinkai, Yoshito and Miyuki!!!! :) Together forever!!!