Imperial Gardens: my transcandental escape.

On Wednesday, we had the chance to go to the Imperial Gardens. it is an amazing place for pictures! and they are HUGE. we were in there for like 2 hours, and we didn't even see the whole place yet. they are also very pretty, calm, and well, something like a place mentioned in my transcandelist post. after that, we went to a really cool fountain place. It reminded me a lot of City Creek in Salt Lake City (one of my favorite places in the universe). it was so amazing to see the beauty of these gardens (see, I sound transcandentalist again). my favorite one is the one of me with the skyline in the background. it was a great adventure!

again, the size amazed me. it was big enough to fit a whole entire city in there, and it is only a teeny tiny piece of Tokyo (just to give you an idea how big Tokyo actually is). In the city, there is absolutely no space. everything is crammed together, the streets are packed, and the subways are usually packed. in the Imperial Gardens, everything is spread out, there's a little stream with a waterfall, and lot of trees and flowers, and grass. for the first time ever, I actually saw grass in Tokyo. even at other parks, there are trees, dirt, and tons of weeds, but absolutely no grass. it was a lovely getaway from all the commotion and chaos in Tokyo! it was peaceful. I got what I wanted: a taste of simplicity.

{by the way, I am not really big on transcandentalism. I've just been under a lot of stress and adjusting, so I kind of went all transcandentalist. but in real life, I am not usually like this at all!}

more updating: we went to our LDS ward party (we are in an English-speaking branch) and there's actually more girls there than in my old ward! yes, I come from Provo. Where LDS Churches are all around the corner. The Land of The Mormons. but I did not have very many people my age in my ward! In fact, only 2 other girls went to my school. I was in a Sunday-school class with only 3 other boys my age. it was so small, the boys that were 2 grades younger with us had to combine with our class. but here, there's a lot of girls, and I've already met more than were ever in my old ward! it is really nice, except most of them are leaving for the summer and I have to go back to what I was facing in Provo. see, some things are similar.

one of the issues is food. our family would die without it. Mom and I used to go to Costco at least 2 times a week, the food ran out so fast. my brothers, who both look like 8 year olds, act like 2 year olds, are actually 9 and 11 1/2, but eat like 16 year olds are some of the reason all our food goes down the drain. if I go too long without food (usually 2 1/2 hours), I go crazy. luckily, Mom is a good cook and would always bake cookies, make dinner, and replenish the pantry whenever it even showed the slightest decrease on food supply. here, you can't buy anything in bulk. everything is so expensive, and the supply would last us for 1 day, tops. so, we have to go shopping like every other day, and even that food isn't enough. I guess I'll come back as skinny as a rail! I miss our food, but hey, it's only 4 months! oh, and I haven't eaten anything too odd yet. we've only had: bananas, pineapple, spaghetti, ramen noodles, fried rice, pancakes, Frosted Flakes, Japanese Cheetos (there is a very significant difference between those and American Cheetos), Yaki Soba (noodles and pork in this really good sauce), Mabo-Tofu, and sushi. sooner or later, I will have to eat fish-eggs!