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.