Weekend!

Wow, what a weekend. I'm still recovering.

Somehow I ended up with no classes on Fridays, which is really nice (I guess it makes up for the fact I have class on Saturdays...somewhat). I was able to sleep in and take my time getting ready. I even had time for some yoga and tai chi! I meet with a friend to exchange traveler's checks which was a relatively easy process (I don't even think they checked my id...lol). After doing a bit of shopping, we meet with friends for lunch at the Waseda Co-Op.
Later a friend and I decided to head to the Niji lounge to hang out there. The Niji members have been so nice and helpful towards us, and are all pretty awesome people. Since we want to become closer with them, we thought that spending time in their lounge would be a good start to building more friendships. It was a bit awkward at first (I mean, basically anything I do with a Team member is awkward). But I'm so glad we went. We meet some new members, and later ended up playing a couple of different card games with one of the 3rd year members we've hung out with before a couple of times (my friend's cards were super tiny which made it even more fun). I definitely plan on hanging out there again!

That night I went out to dinner out with host family at this super delicious little place about 5 minutes from where we live. I can't remember then name of the restaurant (It's all in Kanji), but I've walked by it almost daily since it's on the way to the station I use. I've often wondered what kind of food was there, so I'm really glad I actually got to eat there. I think I need to be more active and actually check out all of these awesome cafes, restaurants, and stores I've been taking mental notes of. I've never really been a "regular" at any place back home, but I think it would be a good way to get more involved in my community here.
Anyway, dinner was seriously delicious, possibly the most delicious meal I've had here. The first dish was some beef thing (I honestly can't describe it any better), there were warm peanuts (warm!), gyoza with like hijiki in it?, an omelette with gorgonzola cheese, and some delicious pork. Jazz was playing in the background, and I told my host parents I'd like to go to a jazz club/cafe sometime. We also talked about disco clubs haha (apparenly my host dad used to often go when he was around my age). Back at the apartment there was more drinking and I helped my host mom practice some English.


Saturday I had my one Japanese class (boring), and then I headed off with some friends to meet Niji members for the Welcome Trip. We all gathered around Tokyo Dome and then seperated into small groups to do different things. I was a bit sad to be separated from Team members, but it was nice getting to know some new people in my group. Our group went to the Tokyo Sky Tree (briefly and we didn't go up it really), where I had really good kakigori (shaved ice with milk in it). Then we headed off to Funabashi. For some reason I thought it would be more in the country side, but the city was well...city-like. The inn we stayed at was pretty awesome though. It was super old fashioned (tatami mats, shared bath, yukata, etc.) and the architecture and decorations we traditional Japanese styled. I ended up using a Japanese style toilet for the first time (which I never want to use again) and then I realized there was a Western styled one I could have used...

Dinner was delicious (though I wasn't sure of what half of it was) and ridiculous as well. The Team was reunited and we just started acting crazy and were laughing hysterically. We definitely felt like we scared most of the Japanese people at our table haha.

After dinner we went to the shared bath area, which was a little awkward especially since it was my first time going to one (and super crowded), but the bath was so relaxing!~ Later in the night we all played games and started drinking (there were 135 of us there by the way). It was so much fun. I didn't get to hang out with everyone I would have liked to, but I had an amazing time with those I did hang out with. I brought playing cards, so we ended up playing Kings together too! Overall I drank way too much and feel dead tired now, but it was worth it!

I have a Japanese test tomorrow (uggghhh) so time to study for that!~