Had another amazing yet incredibly busy week. So much I need to do before leaving. Hopefully I can get everything done haha. Currently dying right now though (SO TIRED), so I will write a real post later.

Beer Gardens Are Amazing~!!!

So today I climbed a mountain and drank a lot of beer. Which means I have an amazing day. But also super tired. Anyway, here comes a condensed summary of what I did think week!!

Sunday:
So after I was lazy for most of the day/didn't know what to do with myself I was finally relieved of my boredom around 6 when I when to a friend's birthday party (the third one that week lol). It was held at this semi-fancy restaurant in Shinjuku, nomi/tabehoudai for like 2 hours. Which means most of us got a little tipsy. But anyway, the party was a lot of fun and I got to hang out with some friends I hadn't seen in a while!~




Monday:
had lunch with Becky and Keiks, made plans to go to Enoshima~!
After class met my host family and we went to a beer garden in Shinanomachi. My first beer garden. It was wonderful. Okay, so a beer garden is basically just drinking outside for two hours (all you can eat-drink) priced at a slightly higher cost that going to a restaurant. But it is just great. The one we went to had music, lanterns, and a waterfall. Just a wonderful atmosphere. I've been drinking too much lately though, so I held back on the all you can drink part...



Tuesday:
Class then dinner with my host family at this crab bar in our neighborhood. My host family is like always drunk.

Wednesday:
After class got coffee with a friend in Shimokitazawa, went back to Waseda to watch a dance performance that two of my friends were in, then got dinner with some of my friends on my program. Had a really great talk with Becky and Lucas. We just talked forever and got to learn a lot about each other. Sometimes it is hard to have such conversations in Japanese. I dunno, it was just a really great dinner.


Thursday:
Had my English conversation job. I have said this before, but I seriously get paid for doing almost nothing. I should be paying her sometimes I think. She makes me delicious lunch, she is so much fun to talk to, and this time we ended up singing jazz songs together!! So we are actually having a little party at the bar she owns next month where us students will be performing! So I might be singing??? Haha.
After work I met Becky to exchange traveler's checks together since we still has some left (yay for money!!! I am going to miss having money haha), and then met some friends to do shisa near Waseda.

Friday:
After class (slept through 1st period, 3rd we did absolutely nothing) went to karaoke with Shiori and two other friends from my program. So karaoke is a lot of fun, but I actually kinda suck at it. We then preceded to the game center where we took purikura (only 4 more till my goal of 20!) and played some games.
Friday night was also the last official Niji nomikai that I was able to go to! ;_; Not that many people were there, and a lot of my friends couldn't come, but it was a lot of fun! I got to to the kampai (cheers) call at the beginning which was pretty awesome, and drank a lot with friends. Just yeah, a great time!!



Saturday:
Saturday I met my friend Scarlet for lunch and then we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and saw two exhibits there. One featured the winning photos of the year from Newsweek magazine (?) which was really moving and depressing and sorta made me loose faith in humanity/made me so grateful to be born in the circumstances that I was. The other exhibit was about the development of photography in Japan during the late 60's which was pretty interesting.
After eating dinner together we went to Ueno to see our mime professor's mime performance for class.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was blown away. Seriously, I never knew mime could be so moving. There was hilarious mime skits, ingenious mime skits, a dark skit, and a really sad mime skit (I seriously shed some tears). I'm so glad I was able to go.

Sunday:
Today I woke up early and met two friends to head off to Takao-san, a mountain an hour away from Tokyo. Originally more people were supposed to come, but I'm really glad it was just the three of us. I had a really amazing day. The weather was beautiful, and the trails weren't too crowded. We played in the river a bit and talked a joked around as we hiked the mountain. Our main (?) reason for going though was to check out the beer garden there, which was accurately called beer mountain instead. Much drinking, eating, and laughing ensued. We also somehow managed to tipsily walk down the mountain as well (thank god the path we took was actually a road). Fell right asleep on the train. About to fall asleep right now. Looking forward to another two busy weeks ahead of me!~

Birthday Parties and Whatnot

Is it sad that I can't remember what I have done in a week unless I look back at my planner? I think I have too many plans...haha.

Sunday:
Takoyaki party with my host family and their friends. When I go back they want to give me a takoyaki maker. Which is pretty awesome, but tako (octopus) and some of the other ingredients aren't regularly found in super markets...lol.

Monday:
After class got dinner with some friends at this yakitori restaurant in Takadanobaba. The atmosphere there was really cool, but the food was just okay. Even though there were Japanese friends there who could perfectly read the menu, we somehow ordered raw innards...haha. They weren't as gross as I was expecting them to be. One of our friends couldn't really handle it though.

Ri-chan on the verge of tears.

Tuesday:
Tuesday was my best friend Shiori's birthday!!! For lunch we went to this place that served white curry. We weren't really sure why it was white, but it was pretty good! (the taste wasn't all too different form normal curry. but it had cheese on it which was wonderful).

After eating lunch I met another friend to go shopping and prepare for the party we were having for Shiori. Since we didn't have time to hand make a cake, we just bought some sponge cakes from the store and decorated them, which actually took forever since we had to whip the cream into cream by hand. Literally took like 30 minutes haha. 

Anyway, the party was really fun! Stayed up until about 3 or so; everyone just crashed at that friend's apartment. Managed to get up to make it to my 9am class. 

Wednesday:

Was half-asleep through the classes I went to, and then went home early to sleep.

Thursday:

Lunch with Becky, sleep.

Friday:

Class, and then preparation for the sports festival that was on Saturday, and then class, and then was lazy until 6:30 when I met a friend for dinner. She took me to this really delicious and cheap gyoza place in Harajuku/Omotesadno! Did some shopping after that. Was pretty exhausted the whole day for no reason though, so went home early to sleep.

Saturday:

The day of the sports festival! Since I was one of the organizers (also the one who created the event) I helped set up from the early afternoon. It was super hot and muggy that day (thankfully the sports festival was inside a gym). I think the sports festival went pretty well (we called in NIJILympic lol). First we had the groups play duck duck goose (where the loser has to go into the middle and dance), then we did this race where two people get inside a round cardboard thing (that we made out of cardboard. lol) where they had to crawl from one end of the gym to another, and obstacle race, and finally dodge-ball! Everyone seemed to have fun which was good, since we weren't actually all that organized with what we were doing haha. 

After the sports festival we went out to dinner to celebrate a friend's birthday. So many birthdays this month!! 

Sunday:

Slept in and have just been lazy the whole day. Tried to sort through my winter clothes, plan on getting rid of a lot. Packing is going to be horrible...

Also going to another friend's birthday dinner tonight. My money is going by so fast...haha.

So I thought I had accepted the fact that I'm going home in less than two months. But I don't think it has really sunk in. I have a feeling I'm going to be a bit depressed for a while when I get back. Because I'm already pretty sad now. I'm glad I'm going to Yosemite for a week though. It will be a good place to take some time to relax and adjust back to America. I know I can always come back and may be able to meet the great friends I've made here again, but it wouldn't be the same. Anyway, be prepared for a pretty sad Emma when I get back. I think it might be hard to talk about my time here when I get back too. Which will suck since of course everyone will ask about it. I can't exactly explain why it will be hard to talk about, but I have a feeling it will be.

Anyway, I've been having too much fun here lately! I'm going to enjoy the rest of my time here as much as possible before I leave! 

This Week I Learned That Even If You Are Tired, Good Things Will Happen When You Do Things. Haha.

Another crazy week. Slept ten hours last night but somehow I'm super tired still. It's a beautiful day outside, though since I'm have a takoyaki party with my host family I probably won't get to go outside much. lol

So Monday after class I had plans to go out to eat with a friend. At first we were just going to have a girls night out, but we invited one of our guy friends to go with us since he was free. We went to Shimokitazawa, an area I've been wanting to check out for forever. Kinda a hipster area, but there were a lot of cute little shops and cafes. I want to go back! The three of us ended up eating and talking at this cute cafe/restaurant on a side street hidden away from the more popular areas. We ended up talking there for a couple of hours; we had so much fun! I mean, I see these friends on a regular basis, and it's always fun hanging out with them, but it was especially fun that night! So much girl talk. Haha.

So cute!~

After that we stopped at a hookah bar and continued to hang out!~ I really love my friends here!

Tuesday after class I went to a friends house with a couple of people to watch the Japan vs. Australia soccer match! It was mainly guys there, so the tension was pretty high haha. Looking forward to the world cup!

The guys standing up for Japan's national anthem. lol

Wednesday was a pretty long day (have 6 hours of class ugg) but after class I went out to eat deep-dish pizza with friends in Kanda! I was so tired that I was considering going home (also I have been out a lot recently so I haven't seen my host family for a while), but I'm really glad I went! Pizza in Japan is a bit different from pizza in the US. The toppings can range from a variety of weird things (corn), and is usually pretty expensive. But this deep-dish pizza was supposed to resemble authentic Chicago deep-dish, so I was looking forward to real pizza. And oh my god, I was not let down. The pizza there was so good. So good. So good. OhmygodIwanttoeatitrightnow.

Cheeeeese!

My pizza. It was by far the best tasting out of all of the ones everyone ordered!

After eating pizza we still wanted to hang out, and it was still early, so we drank some cheap beer at an izakaya and then decided to head back home. Since we ate a lot we walked a bit before riding the subway, and on the way to the station we found a little park, so of course we played around there for a bit! Swings are so much fun!~

I can get pretty high on swings. lol

After we tired ourselves out at the park, we ate ice-cream and finally headed home. Definitely another great memory to add to the list :)

Thursday was a pretty busy day. In the afternoon I had work, English conversation with the lady who runs a jazz bar. I have really grown to love that place. It's small, but the atmosphere is great. I always feel comfortable there among the shelves of records and alcohol. Haha. And I really like Mariko-san a lot, the lady I teach. I sometimes feel bad, since I don't actually feel like I am teaching her anything and I get paid for it and she makes me lunch and she usually plays a jazz song or two on the piano while I'm there as well. But our lessons are always a lot of fun. I was feeling a bit down that day, but talking to Mariko-san really lifted my spirits! I'm going to miss working with her!

After work I met a friend, Nacchan, who I hadn't seen in a while for cake. She took me to this really cute cafe in the Waseda area. To be honest while we were talking I couldn't really hear her that well since there were a lot of people talking there, and also I was suuuper tired for some reason so I was spacing out a lot. But it was still a lot of fun. Nacchan is one of the chief helpers for my study abroad group, but since she has been busy with work, etc., it had really been a long time since I had seen her. But even though it had been a long time, and even though I'm not as close to her as I am with some of my friends here, I feel like I can talk to her about almost anything usually. But sometimes I can't. I dunno, it's hard to explain, but I think I kinda look up to her sorta like an older sister.

Nacchan and cake!

After we finished eating we walked to this little garden behind Waseda and sat there and talked for some more. I wanted to hang out longer, but she had class and I, sadly, had another English lesson to go to. So I really don't want, or need, another English teaching job, but my host mom's friend had asked if I could help with her 6 year old son's English homework, so I couldn't really refuse. So I went to her house and helped her son with his English, he was not enthusiastic about it at all no matter how interested I tried to make it. But after about 15 minutes, after he had finished the his homework, we ended up going to my host family's house to eat and drink. I was sorta confused since the lesson was supposed to be an hour, and also because the woman had this Argentinian guy over at her house who came along with us who I assumed he was like an old friend of her's since they seemed pretty close but she had actually just met him the day before. lol. Anyway, to say the least it was an interesting day.


Friday was the Tokyo night hike that I had planned! Last month we did the Yamanote-sen hike, and since it was so fun I decided I wanted to plan another one! Sadly the friend I planned it with couldn't come (Shioriiii!), but at about 9pm, myself and 7 of my friends headed out! The route was from Waseda to Tokyo Sky Tree, Sky Tree to Tokyo Tower, and Tokyo Tower back to Waseda! It was so much fun! We messed around a took a lot of pictures along the way, so it took a bit longer than it should have, but the time worked out perfectly since we got back right when the trains started running again.
Our first goal was Sky Tree, but before that we took a nice break in Asakusa and Sensoji Temple! I had been at this temple before at night and was glad to be back again. At night all the shops the line the street before the temple are closed, but the lights are still light up. It's so pretty! And since no one was around, we ended up taking a lot of silly pictures
like this:

and this:

and this:


Also it was really funny because the omikuji or fortune stall at the shrine was still open so we all decided to get one! I got daikichi, or the best fortune!!! My first time getting one! And then like almost everyone else got kyo, or one of the worst fortunes! I'm going to treasure my daikichi forever~! lol




And then we made it to Tokyo Sky Tree!

Tokyo Sky Tree pose!

From Sky Tree to Tower it started to rain a bit, and most people were getting a bit tired/legs were starting to hurt. Unexpectedly, I wasn't really that tired and my legs didn't really hurt that much!
At around 3am we made it to Tokyo Tower, which everyone pretty much agreed that they like more that Sky Tree.

Tokyo Tower!~

After taking a break at this park by the tower, which involved swinging on swing sets lol, we headed back to Waseda! We decided to head through Roppongi on the way back, which was really interesting to say the least. Roppongi is a night life area, and we were walking through it on a Friday night at 4 in the morning. The party was still going on. People were drinking, throwing up, laughing, crying, and all sorts of things. It was quite a different world than the quiet streets we had been walking on before. I regret not taking a picture.

Soon the sky was starting to get lighter and the birds were waking up and we were getting closer to Waseda. The last 40 minutes were a little tough, tired and feet were a bit sore, but it was nowhere near as hard as the 11 hour Yamanote-sen hike. Looking back on it now, I have no idea how I did that. Crazy haha. But anyway, at around 5:20 we made it back to Waseda!~



I went home, took a shower, and you would have thought that I would have just slept all day, but in fact I had plans to go to the Ueno Zoo! Crazy I know, but at 10am I woke up to get ready to go to the zoo. Surprisingly, I wasn't as tired as I thought, or should, have been, and my legs weren't in any pain!
When I first woke up, I was considering rescheduling the zoo trip, since a lot of people I invited couldn't go and two out of the four who were coming (myself included) had just done an all night hike. But I'm so glad we went yesterday! Like I love animals, so I knew I would like the zoo, but it was way more fun than I thought it would be!

Zoo group!

A lot of the animals were really active, which was awesome! I think the best part was when we went to see one of the bears, and it came up to the window and stood up and starting scratching its back right by the widow!! Crazy!

A picture of the bear my friend took!

We were at the zoo for like four hours! We also started the habit of mimicking animal statues we saw:







After the zoo I went home, had dinner with my host mom and brother, and then for some reason stayed up till like midnight, and then finally went to bed. Haha.

It's actually the rainy season here now but the weather has been pretty sunny. 

It's weird to think that it's summer break in America now. 

I had a pretty busy but amazing week. Long post coming later~! 

Play Ball!

Woke up at 6:40 to meet everyone at 7:30 to line up for seats for a baseball game that started at 1. Haha. Pretty long day but had so much fun! Baseball in Japan is such a different experience. So many cheers and so much excitement! Sometimes we would be focused so much on cheering that we wouldn't even watch the game! Everyone was pretty exhausted though (and got sunburnt) but even so a great way to spend a Sunday!








Also went jogging for 25 minutes straight when I got home! Yay!~
Have a pretty filled up week coming up, but excited to hang out with friends as much as I can before I leave! Wish there was more time for my host family though. And for school work. Haha. Anyway in a pretty good mood right now. I don't know what is going to happen in the future, or what I will do with my life, but I'm so lucky to have such amazing friends right now and to be having such amazing experiences!!!

Annnnddd It's Already June.

Let's not talk about how it is already June...

Anyway this week was pretty normal. School, hanging out with friends, getting into a 2 year anniversary party at this Umeshu bar. Wait what? Oh yeah, so that was pretty awesome actually. 

This is what a semi-swanky party looks like at a bar

Okay so I had had plans for a while to take a friend to this Umeshu bar (still don't really know the real name, just we all call it the umeshu bar) I had been to a few times before. So the two of us arrive at the bar, and to our surprise a party was going on! So we sorta hovered around the door for a while wondering if we could get in. And since the door was glass, we were noticed haha. Anyway so this guy comes out and we tell him that we didn't know about the party, blah blah blah, and he tells us that the two year anniversary party of the bar being open was that night but since we came all the way there he told us that we could get in for 5,200 yen for all you can eat/drink. And they had some like super rare/expensive umeshu that was all you could drink as well. We responded that since we were college students that was a bit expensive to which he told us we could then get in for 4,500. We still weren't really sure about spending that much money, so we left the building and talked about going somewhere else. But in the end since we had finally come there, and we both had money and didn't mind spending it that night, we went back in.

So here we are at this semi(?) exclusive party. And since it was all you could drink/eat we did exactly that, drink and eat. Since we both really like umeshu and food, we were pretty happy. We were especially happy about the expensive/rare umeshu that we got to drink since it was pretty delicious. There was also live music going on too! We also ended up talking to a lot of random people (got so many business cards that night) and were even a part of their commemorative photo (even though we had nothing to do with the bar haha). We also learned that the guy who had told us to come in was the owner of the place! As the party was ending we decided we really liked one of the more expensive umeshus and thought we would ask if they had any for sale. Sadly we were told that they didn't have it for sale, but then the owner was like, "Why don't you take home this bottle for free!" At first we did the whole, what nooo we can't take it for free thing, but in the end we actually got to take this more than halfway full huge bottle of umeshu that costs around 3,300 yen a bottle!!!

The owner, my friend, me, and umeshu!~

So even though it was a bit pricey to get in, we ended up getting a free bottle of umeshu! I'm so glad we went that night! Haha :)

The next day I didn't have class (thankfully) so I went out to eat a late lunch with Becky in Harajuku at our favorite pancake place Sunday Jam! I got the Green Pancakes which included pancakes, zucchini, avocado  pesto, garlic butter, and sauce. So. Good.

Just looking at the picture makes me want to eat it right nowwww!

Friday I had class, which is becoming so hard not to skip. Let's just talk about how usually I would have summer vacation right now, so going to class when the weather is beautiful is so hard. It's also hard when the class you have to go to is pretty much complete bullshit. One of my one credit Japanese classes is such a mystery. Literally, no one in that class has any idea what the hell is going on. We once had to graph what we thought a chameleon's feelings would be...yeah. But the teacher is super nice so at least there is that.

I had plans to go bowling later in the evening with friends, but I was free after 2:30 so I just hung out with friends in the Niji lounge. And then we started playing hide-and-seek. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it before, but one day I just decided I wanted to play hide-and-seek, and since then sometimes when we are all free we just play hide-and-seek in random places around campus. Sometimes we even play in the club room, which is hilarious, because there aren't real places to hide to everyone just hides in the silliest ways and the person who is "it" just pretends not to see them. Hilarious.

Sometimes we play outside!

When we play inside we have to get creative like this.

And this.

Even when we play outside we have to get creative!

This was the most intense hiding place/position ever. 

Since we played hide-and-seek a couple of times we worked up quite an appetite, so we went to eat abura soba which is probably pretty bad for your health but incredibly delicious. I'm going to miss abura soba so much...
And then we went bowling!! I was pretty exhausted by then, so I didn't play my best, but it was a lot of fun!
And since the game center was on the floor below the bowling alley, we took purikura too! My goal was to take purikura 20 times in Japan!

I'm pretty sure this was either the 15th or 16th time!~

After hanging out there for a while we somehow had energy to walk to Shin-Okubo and eat papingsu!~
Pretty great start to the weekend!
Tonight I'm having dinner with people from Earlham and the professor who will be teaching our comps course next semester!
And Sunday is the famous baseball game between Waseda and Keio!

Oh! And did I ever mention I'm doing another night hike in Tokyo!? This time I planned it! We are walking from Waseda to Tokyo Skytree, then to Tokyo Tower, and then back to Waseda!~