Since begin October the anime of Death Note has started as well. Produced by MadHouse it looks as it will be a very interesting show to watch with great artwork and hopefully very true to the manga.

A synopsis from Anidb :

Light Yagami (Or Raito) is an ace student with great aspects who`s bored out of his mind. One day he finds the Death Note a notebook held by a shinigami (Death God). with the Death Note in hand, Light decides to create a perfect world. A world without crime or criminals. However when criminals start dropping dead one by one, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer.

The manga is sometimes a little complicated because of the very well found mindgames the 2 main character are playing with each-other but it’s really a fantastic manga to read. I recommend it.

After the last class we all went to the classroom where the graduation ceremony was held. From every class there was a student who held a little speech about how he/she experienced their time in Japan. After the person finished his speech the director called to students the give them the graduation report. When every student received his/her report we went down to the first floor to enjoy some drinks and snacks.

Emails and phone-numbers were exchanged, pictures were taking. Everybody said goodbye to each-other. Teachers and students wished each-other the best.

It was a great month and I will always remember the time spend with everybody.

Thank you everyone

Here are some people that I got to know and who I’ll always remember:

Vikii and me, Kan Ki and me, Sam Shay and me, Azusa friend and me, Shiori and Aiko, Yuki and Yasuka

After that we went to Roppongi where we met with Yuki’s friend Yasuka. Both really nice girls. Sam, another of the Belgium students in Japan, would join us later. So we went to an Izakaya with the 4 of us. An Izakaya is a typical Japanese restaurant. The place is divided in several small rooms where you can enjoy you’re meal with a lot of privacy. You order you food for the whole group. So everybody can eat a little bit of everything, very nice and cozy. Great fun.

After diner we finally met up with Sam. After a lot of running around ( trains stop running at midnight so he had to run from the last station to Roppongi ) we wanted to go somewhere with music, alcohol, people, more alcohol,…. Unfortunately neither Yuki or Yasuka knew Roppongi very well so we ended up in a Mexican style restaurant/bar where we stayed until around 5 o’clock.

After meeting with Ken we headed direction the Imperial park with normally is open for visitors ( not entirely) I totally forgot that this weekend is Obon. So the park was closed this weekend. Too bad because it’s a very nice park, I remember it from 2 years ago. So to give you a idea I will put some pictures from 2 years ago here. The garden must be without a doubt one of the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen. Big, quiet, clean and very relaxing to walk around with. An ideal place to visit if you want to change from the normal Tokyo atmosphere.

So as the park was closed we headed towards Ueno. When you take the park exit in Ueno you’ll find a “street” where lots of tiny shop are located not far from the exit. Really a good place to shop for souvenirs and some nice Tshirts. I bought 2 tshirts with “神” which means “god” and one that say’s “負けないぞ” this means “I won’t lose”. After that we went direction Ueno park. It’s a nice park but there’s not that much to see expect the national museum and a few other things but as I came here 2 years ago we didn’t stay long.

So we agreed on meeting around 13h to take the train to Odaiba. Unfortunately we should have gone much earlier. When we arrived at Odaiba we got off at the wrong station. Poor planning from our side, so we decided to walk around and see if we could find the event on our own. After walking around for quite some time, we asked a guy but we didn’t quite get what he was trying to say. So we decided to walk in the direction he showed us and hoped we would eventually arrive at the event. At that time a major thunderstorm broke lose over Tokyo with so much rainfall that we were soaked in 1 min time. While hiding for the rain a typical ‘otaku’ passed by and we had the perfect guide to show us the way. We asked and he showed us the way through the rain to the station where we needed to take the train and get off 2 stops further.

When we finally arrived at the place of the event, it was about 15h00 we saw 2 of my other classmates who told us that the event stopped at 17h so most of the people started packing and some of them where already going home. This is something that I find typical about Japan. Most of the shops in Japan are open until late at night but events like this often close really early. So not much time left so we went straight for the cosplay floor. On events like these lot of people dress up in their favorite hero or heroine. Cosplay is really a piece of art here in Japan. Not like the American or European cosplayers.

We saw some really cool people with really cool outfits. But we also saw some disturbing one’s. More pictures here

The fact that only men are allowed to play kabuki is also a interesting thing. Before women where allowed to play but because of rivalry among the other male artists women where forbidden to play kabuki. From that time on young boy’s played women parts. But that led to homosexual feelings among the male players so the Edo bakufu made a rule that only adult men could play kabuki.

I wasn’t the only one who toughed that 3h was too long. Almost half of the group fell asleep halfway the play. Some others escaped during breaktime ( wished I toughed of that ). Again taking pictures was forbidding so no pictures of the kabuki play sorry.

After the kabuki play we were free to walk around in Ginza. We went to see the Sony building, where you can see the latest gadgets and new stuff. After that we went looking for the biggest Apple store ( according to Sam ) but with no adress this took a long time and we only found it by pure coincidence. After that I had to get back to the station to return home. Later that evening I agreed to meet a friend of mine called Azusa. I met Azusa 2 years ago in Belgium on the train from Brussel to Leuven. I just started studying Japanese and was reading in my grammarbook when she came up to me and introduced herself. We exchanged emails and kept in touch. At that time she was studying in Maastricht, Netherlands and she was doing some sightseeing. When she finished her year she went back to Japan, but she came to visit Europe again last year so we decided to meet in Leuven. So now it was my turn to visit her.

When I arrived ( a little late ) she and a friend/co-worker where waiting for me at the exit. After introducing me to her friend ( who’s name I shamefully forgot ) we went to an iyazaka. An iyazaka is a restaurant where you have a room for you and you’re group apart from other people. After looking at the menu I decided to let the girls choose what we were going to eat. And I’m glad I did because it was delicous. It was a really fun evening with a lot of talking and a lot of laughing.

I started by walking around the station area but soon I found myself in streets with nothing but small shops. That’s not what I came to see so back to the station. Actually to find the real shopping centrum all you have to do is follow the women. And lets be honest, with all the pretty Japanese girls here that’s a fun thing to do. But other than shopping there’s not much to do here. But the crowd is impressive.

Something interesting is the statue of Hachiko. It’s a statue of a dog just next to the exit of Shibuya station. It has a rather sad history. Many years ago, Hachiko alway’s went to pick up his master who came home from work at Shibuya station. The dog did so for years. When his master passed away, Hachiko still went everyday to Shibuya station to see if his master would come home after work. Hachiko did this every day for the rest of his life. After his death, he got a statue to reward him for his loyalty and friendship for his master. Now the statue is the favorite meeting place for people who gather at Shibuya.

There are 2 more typhoon passing by Japan. Typhoon NR 8 and NR 9. Typhoon NR 8 is headed (or has passed Taiwan) and NR 9 is headed over Okinawa. According to the last weather-report NR 7 has slightly changed directions.  The typhoon is now headed for the ocean instead of passing over Tokyo.