Wednesday:
Wednesday was my host mom's birthday. We went out to a nice Thai restaurant in our neighborhood. For her birthday I got her this beer bottle with a lot of like herbs(?) inside and when you add beer and hot water then refrigerate it and then wait a day or two it turns into another drink or something like that! It was nice to eat dinner with my host family and talk to them in a while (since I haven't had much time for that recently) but it's times like this when I realize that while I love my host family and am very grateful to them, our personalities and life-styles(?) are pretty different. And although while I feel bad that I don't see my host family as much as I used to, we did spend a lot of time together in the past and I want to see my friends as much as possible since I may never see some of them again (I don't like being made feel guilty for this though which I feel like my host family sometimes does...)
Thursday 7/4
Thursday was my last day of English conversation with my student Mariko-san. I'm really going to miss my lessons with Mariko-san. It was a lot of fun working with her throughout my time studying abroad, although I always felt like I was getting paid too much for barely doing anything. I'll get to see her one last time on the 24th were we will have a little goodbye party/celebrate a friend's birthday party.
That Thursday was also the day I was one of the organizers of Niji's English Study event that they hold every month. This month's theme was about how to date a ryugakusei (study abroad student) and cultural dating differences between Japan and America. We made a video/"drama" for it which was a lot of fun! We also did a power-point presentation that I had way too much fun making. I was kinda sad since it was my last event that I helped organize for Niji, but I'm glad I've been able to be as involved as I was in Niji! Since it was 4th of July we wanted to do fireworks, but since it is pretty much impossible to do fireworks in public places in Tokyo, we weren't able to T_T But we did go out to eat at a Big Boy's (my first time there) for a friend's birthday!
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| My friend and I, the main organizers of the event! |
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| Filming for the event! |
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| Us getting ready to present! |
After class on Friday I went to a cat cafe in Ikebukuro with some friends! OMG let's just talk about how cat cafes are amazing. And the one we went to was especially great. We paid a 600 yen entrance fee (about $6) and there was no time limit. You could stay as long as you wanted and play with the cats until your heart's content. And the cats were so cute! And friendly! A lot of them were sleeping, but you could still pet them. So soft~!!! My favorite one was a orange persian(?) that looked like a muppet. So cute. I also got to feed it!
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| Me and my favorite cat~! |
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| Inside a cart cafe! |
After the cat cafe we took purikura (my 17th one I think) and then got ice-cream and Baskin Robbin's! We then parted ways and I ate dinner with my host family, but didn't stay up too late since I was going camping the next day with some friends~!
Saturday 7/6
Camppiinnnggggg! I can't remember the last time I went camping like that. Every summer Niji has a camping trip, but since it happens after most foreign abroad students go back home, the organizers of last year's summer camp decided to take some of us to go camping!
So I got up at a semi-early time and went to the meeting place where only me and this guy, a member of Niji, was at since everyone else was late/coming at a different time/using a different train. I'm kinda glad it was just the two of us though! This guy had recently come back from studying abroad in America, so before I hadn't really gotten a chance to talk to him. And we talked a lot! I think within the span of a day we became pretty close friends!
Eventually some of the other members met up with us and we went to the camp site after shopping for that night's dinner. The camp sight was beautiful! Surrounded by mountains, trees, and nature in general. The rooms were pretty basic, no outlets and lots of bugs. There was a nice area for us to BBQ in, and there was a river running by the campsite as well! Also there was a live turtle for some reason haha.
After putting away our luggage the five of us who were there changed into our swimsuits and went swimming in the river! There was this really beautiful area with a waterfall and a pretty deep pool that we were able to jump into! The water was a bit chilly at first but it felt so nice to go swimming again! I loved just floating on my back, looking up at the canopy of trees. There were also fish in the pool as well (some of them would nibble? on my legs lol)! Right as we were finishing up the rest of the group arrived, so we ended up swimming again!
After we swam ourselves out and got dry, we did some fishing! Two of the guys who were in our group brought fishing poles, and a worker at the camp site gave us bait! One of the girls crafted her own fishing pole from a short stick and fishing wire (it was hilarious when she actually caught something)! One of the guys had trouble catching anything, but when I used he pole to try I caught a fish in like literally less than 30 seconds. It was hilarious. As the guys continued to fish (they wanted to catch a fish for every person in our group, and they did!) The rest of us went to set up for the bbq!
The bbq was great! We grilled vegetables, meat, made yakisoba, marshmallows, and even grilled the fish we caught! After it got dark we did some fireworks too! The rest of the night was basically a drinking party. At one point the Japanese members of our group gave the study abroad members a glass cup with personal messages written on it (except one of them accidentally broke my cup so I got a vodka bottle instead lol)! I was so touched that I started to cry a bit! It was really nice of them to do that!
As the night grew on a couple of us decided to go look at the stars. There weren't too many lights around so we could see a lot of stars! We even say two shooting stars! So pretty!~
After looking at the stars for about 30 minutes, we headed back to the camp sight, drank some more, and then when to bed (although it was a bit hard to sleep with all the bugs and the heat).
Sunday 7/7
The next day we got up early and headed back to Tokyo! When we got back we ate some soba, and then a friend and I came back to my house were we showered, rested, and then put on our yukatas (a summer version of the kimono) with the help of my host mom. So why were we wearing yukatas? That's because we were going to ride the noryosen with Niji! Basically the noryosen is a large boat that goes around Tokyo Bay. Oh, and also it is a nomihodai too so you can drink as much as you want!
Riding the boat was a lot of fun! Being in a yukata was hot and a bit hard to walk in, but I'm glad I bought one! Bringing it back to the states with me, though I don't know if I'll ever get to wear it again. I was pretty tired, and a bit tipsy, by the end though. I really wanted to take purikura since I was finally wearing a yukata, but everyone was being slow so we didn't have the time to take one...but still a great night/weekend!
Monday 7/8
Had dinner at home? Didn't do much that day haha.
Tuesday 7/9
Tuesday night was Eat Everything Off the Menu at Saizeriya night! For some reason my friends and I decided it would be fun to order everything off the menu at Saizeriya (a family restaurant). About 30 people came (some of them I didn't know though lol) and we did order everything for the most part! It was a lot of fun and my stomach was so full.
After eating we went to a nearby park and ended up having a super fun water fight! The police told us we were being too loud though so we had to stop haha. My clothes were still wet riding the train home!
Wednesday 7/10
Had class all day and then went to a friend's birthday dinner! But before that took purikura! My 18th one! So close to my goal of 20!
Thursday 7/11
Thursday was definitely one of my favorite days here in Japan. From 8:30 am to 8:30 pm I was at Tokyo Disney Sea!!!!
So we got there just in time for the opening of the gates. I was so excited. I don't think I've ever been at an amusement park from morning to night! And Disney Sea was great! It impressed me in so many ways! I felt like I entered a different world. The entrance of the park looked like a seaside town in Italy. There was also a lifelike volcano (part of an attraction) that just blew me away. There were so many different sections of the park too! An American Waterfront section that looked like old-time America, a Little Mermaid sections, an Aladdin section, and so much more!
At first it was just me, and three other friends, though another one came at around noon. We got to ride so many rides, see shows, and eat food. It was deadly hot outside, but most of the rides waiting areas were inside. We rode so many I can't even remember all of them haha. Though my three favorites were the Indiana Jones ride, the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride, the Aladdin 3D show (the 3D was amazing!), the Findind Nemo Turtle Talk (you can have a real time talk with the animated turtle from the movie. How they do it in real time is crazy! And it was hilarious), and the Tower of Terror. Most of the rides were pretty short, but waiting in line was actually fun! First of all the decorations for the rides (and the waiting areas) are all out. Seriously Disney is intense with the decorations. Everything is like perfect. I also had a lot of fun just talking with my friends! I'm glad there were people who were able to go the whole day with me~!
As it got later just me and another girl remained (everyone else had plans) to watch the night show. I was pretty exhausted and thought about going home early too, but I'm so glad I stayed. The night show was amazing and so pretty! And it made me feel really nostalgic too, especially since Disney was such a big part of my childhood. The day was so perfect that I felt like crying. Really just a great day.
Friday 7/12
After struggling through boring classes I actually studied a bit with friends for some of my finals! I went to the main Waseda library for the first time since I've been here!
Also went to the student run obakeyashiki (haunted house) which was pretty good for being student run!
Saturday 7/13
Saturday was also a pretty great day! Went to get pancakes with two of my friends (who went camping with me!) at a popular Hawaiin breakfast/lunch place in Omotesando! We ended up waiting an hour and a half in line! Longer than I waited in the lines at Disney! The food was really good (though I'm not sure if it was good enough for the wait or the price lol). The friends I went with though were hilarious (one of them was one of the guys I got close to over the camping weekend, we joke together all the time now haha).
After pancakes I ended up walking to Shibuya with one of my friends (the other one had to leave) where we took purikura, number 19! That night was also Niji's Farewell Party, and since we had some time to kill before hand we ended up riding the Yamanote line full circle (something I've always wanted to do). The whole circle is about an hour (we napped haha).
The Farewell Party was separated into 2 parts (I went to both). The first party was food and watching the goodbye movie everyone made for the study abroad students (my friend Shiori started to cry so of course I started to too). Although no alcohol was served the tension was really high and everyone was having a good time! One of our friends was wearing a shirt that had the phrase "MORE THAN BEST" on it, so we kept making fun of her for it haha.
The 2nd party was a drinking/dance party until 4 in the morning. I was kinda sad at the beginning, since farewells are no fun, and didn't drink as much as I wanted since I was pretty tired, but had a lot of fun dancing and talking with friends! Ate udon at 5 in the morning with Shiori and another friend. Haha.
Sunday 7/14
Sunday Shiori and I and some other friends were supposed to go to the Ghibli Museum, but since we were dead from the party we ended up not going (someday I'll go!) Slept in until about 1:30 and did nothing the whole day. Tried to study but didn't really happen haha.
Monday 7/15
Had my Pantomime final exam. It was multiple choice, but not a normal multiple choice exam. Some parts were a bit hard. I've given up on grades this semester though. No motivation for school anymore. Senior year is going to be so tough.
Although my head hurt from the exam and I was exhausted, I went with friends to a huge, famous festival called Mitama matsuri and Yasukuni Shrine. Though I have mixed feelings about Yasukuni, the festival was really nice! There were so many lit up lanterns in a row, more than 30,000 and 40ft high, so pretty! And the food was really good. But it was SUPER crowded, so the lines were long and it was hard to walk around. I really like Japanese festivals though, so I'm glad I went!
Tuesday 7/16
Had another final exam today, but wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. After that I went and bought souvenirs for friends and family back home and then had dinner with my host family. Still so much I need to do before I leave...ugggg. I'll keep doing my best though~!
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