A bit late with this post but here we go!!! Hi everyone!!!
As the the title says, some days before and after South Korea the weather was getting better and better. It wasn’t necessary anymore to use a lot of winter clothes! Some days before my volunteer program in Tohoku (the Tsunami affected zone) I could walk around Tokyo with just an umbrella, short pants and no winter gloves, the snow and the gray atmosphere changed to a nice happy green and I could watch more nice activities in the parks. Here is a picture of a very special day I had with Mirai at Shinjuku Gyoen
These days I had a very relaxed schedule. My volunteer projects were not as demanding as the ones in Setana and because of this I could do more sightseeing in Tokyo… By the way, I could finally take a picture with Hachiko as Erlin asked me to!! :D
2 very important things happened during these days, the first was that I could finally train Karate!! I trained at the JKA, one of the most important Karate associations in the world from the Shotokan style. This was a dream come true for me and a very important one… Training Karate was the main reason of my interest in Japan and this journey, so training here was just amazing! I was in the JKA for around 1 month and I have to thank so much to Akemi and Noriko, they helped me a lot when I wanted to join this organization. Something related to this experience made me really happy: the Karate training I had in Costa Rica was as good as the first class ones… Finally I could train Karate in Japan!!! :D
The other important thing was that, thanks to the backpackers I met in South Korea I joined the site CouchSurfing (and another social network in Japan) which helps finding people who can offer accommodation for a few days or just go out and have some drinks and some intercultural experience. Thanks to this site I could met very special people in Japan: Tina (my first host!) Mari, Yuko, Tomoko, Kaori, Yukiko, Mehmet, Akiko, Henry and Mika. I had super nice times with them and I could also visit some other nice neighborhoods in Tokyo. This experience also changed my thoughts about how to travel. The next time I set foot out of Costa Rica I will Couch-Surf as much as I can, you get to know more places and more interesting people!!!
Another fun activity I could do was to play soccer with some friends from ICYE. I had a minor injury in my ankle that day but we had a super nice lunch, the match was very fun and at the end of the day we had some drinks and a nice happy hang out… Here some photos from that day…
I could also visit some important people those days, like my Japanese teacher from Costa Rica! She was waiting with a delicious Sushi and tea. It was very nice to meet my Sensei and I gave her a shirt (with Costa Rican slangs) from all the friends that assisted the Japanese course, it was a nice and fresh afternoon!! I also visited Akiko’s house (who is about to finish a 1 year volunteer program in Costa Rica) and her mother and sister (Michiko and Ayako) prepared a super delicious lunch, this day I tried cold ramen for the first time and it tasted great! We talked a lot about cultural stuff and had a really nice afternoon :) Here some moments from those days…
I also visited Akihabara with Seo and Yu and hang out with Hina, Sabina and Kitou a couple of times. Murano’s family (my first host family in Japan) took me to a very special restaurant for a nice lunch for my farewell celebration (my time staying with them was over) and I was involved in some nice activities with my friends from Ueno, one of them was a special dinner at a temple where Yoshito and Shimpei were the main chefs of the night, they cooked some delicious Japanese food for us… I was also in a Japanese television program related to soccer, as soon as I find the video I will shared it with everyone :D
The post became bigger than I expected, soon I will tell you about my final volunteer programs in Tokyo and about a very special place I really love: Yokohama!!!
Be happy :D !!!!
