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.

Forever Tired: The Story of Emma's Life

So incredibly tired for no reason, but it's probably because I have been dealing with Waseda classes, and Earlham classes, and finding work for Earlham next year, and helping out with the freshman events for the club I'm in, and having a real social life, and spending time with my host family, and trying to figure out when we are moving, and yeah. So I'm a little tired, but overall I'm still having a great time haha.

Sunday I went to Niji's hanami event for a little bit, but I was tired/antsy for some reason/had to meet Becky and her brother also so I left early. Walked around the Harajuku area with Becky and her brother and her brother's friends and showed them to this cool cafe and talked. I'm really glad I got to meet Becky's brother, but I had to leave early to help one of my Niji friends with a power point. So from Harajuku I went back to the Waseda area were I met my friend and we went to another friend's apartment to work on the power point. I was translating Japanese for them (at least the best I could). It's weird because sometimes there are phrases that I understand the meaning in Japanese but have difficultly translating into English (also kanji is still difficult..). But I'm glad I was able to help them with it. It's fun working with everyone :)

There was a lion at this fashionable cafe!~

After that I went to another friend's apartment in the area where people who went to the Philippines and Korea and other random friends gathered for a takoyaki party! It was a lot of fun, we were there form like 7 till 11pm. Ate a lot of food, helped with more English translations, and just talked and hung out with everyone. So much fun!~

This is what a takoyaki party looks like!

Today was the first day of classes for the new semester. I didn't have class until 1 so I ate lunch in the Niji lounge and hung out with everyone for a bit.
Class was incredibly boring. I knew a fair amount of people in the class which was nice, but the teacher was pretty boring and the material was like a class I took last semester so during the break (the class lasted for two periods with a break in between) and I went to go check out another class about Patomime which I also have friends in and seems really fun, so I'm going to drop the boring class and take the fun one. So yeah, skipped the second half of the class I'm dropping and got ice cream with friends from my study abroad program and went to the garden on campus and ate ice cream and practiced juggling! After that hung out with Niji people again but started to feel really spaced out so went home where I ate with my host family (which was like the first time in forever since we are always eating out).

And if you can't tell from how poorly written this is I'm pretty tired but yeah!

Samgyeopsal and Purikura

I can't believe I leave Tokyo tomorrow....I'm going to miss it here so much! I'm also pretty sad that I was sick these last few days... :(  there were a lot of people I wanted to hang out with before I left, but I guess I can see them when I get back.

The weather changed pretty drastically today (went from being in the high 40's to high 20's). It even snowed a bit in the morning! Which of course made my cold worse (since I get sick for some reason whenever the weather changes like that...) took some more medicine and rested. But I had dinner plans with friends, so I tried my best to feel better before then.

Somehow I braved the cold (outside and the one I caught) to meet Becky, Miwa, and Kota. We went to the neighborhood samgyeopsal restaurant (4th time) and ate delicious Korean food. And of course the awkwardly cute workers were there and we got to talk to them a bit. And we ended up getting free food again! It was this delicious baked egg dish. Soooo goooood. I love that place. And not just because they give us free food (although that does help. I'm curious to see how long it will go on for). We told them we would be gone for a while though, but that we would come again when we got back! One of my goals for Japan was to become a regular at a local restaurant, and I think I'm definitely accomplishing that there.

After eating we went to a cafe in Harajuku and got cake and talked some more. And then we did purikura after. So much fun! While I was hanging out I didn't feel that bad, but now that I'm back I'm a bit tired/weak...but doing laundry now and want to get started on some packing? Hopefully my laundry will dry by tomorrow...lol

We Can Do Cheese

Thursday I started English teaching again. It's pretty cool to teach English to a jazz singer. I only had one class Thursday but it was over three hours long and yeah...just too much. Went out to eat with my friend Jhanus and some Japanese friends who are in the club we are in (and who also might be coming to the Philippines/Korea with us?)

Friday I woke up and finalized plans for Kyoto and Osaka with my host mom. I'm so glad she helped research travel packs for me! After that I played with building blocks with my host brother. Sometimes when we play together I don't know who is haivng more fun...haha. My host family is in Nagano for the weekend. I could have gone with them but really needed to plan stuff for the Philippines and Korea/save money.
For lunch went to a curry place with Becky called Curry Up in my neighborhood. Some of the best curry I've had here. Next we went to a cafe called Lapaz which is also in my neighborhood. The drinks/cake was a bit pricey, but the atmosphere there is great and the bathroom is crazy (it's all white and has cool architecture  I felt like I was Alice in Wonderland). Got some homework done there thankfully. After that continued to walk around my neighborhood (Harajuku, Omotesando, Jingumae area). Really love where I live. Checked out some 2nd hand shops/thrift stores that had some of the ugliest sweaters I've ever seen. Too bad the best ones were like over $20...oh Japan. Thrift stores here are always thrifty...For dinner we went to this samgyapsul place (kinda like Korean BBQ). Started talking with the workers there which was fun. They ended up giving us free face masks, nori, and put cheese on our dokbokki even though it wasn't on the menu when we asked if they could (at first the waiter was like no we don't have cheese dokbokki, but then the chef was all like you want cheese? we can do cheese). Oh, and before that we stumbled across a vintage American toy shop! Polly Pocket and Barbies! It was a bit creepy though...haha

Delicious cake

This cafe is so cool!~

All the ugly sweaters

Saturday class was horrendous as usual. Afterwards met up with everyone at Dre's to plan for Philippines and Korea. So excited. Haven't bought the ticket yet but know which one I want. We reserved a hostel in Seoul though! These next two months are going to be crazy! Also went to the gay bar (LOL) again with Jhanus and some other friends from our program. Made some new friends and got to see our bartender friend for a bit! After that ate at a family restaurant and went to karaoke. So tired. Went to bed around 6:30, got up at 2 (and woke up like five times in between that). Trying to finish some more homework today so it's not all pilled up later...also going to the samgyapsul place again for dinner? Haha. Today I've been in Japan for four months. Crazy. I've made so many great memories so far. AND MY BROTHER IS COMING TOMORROW YAY!~

The First Few Days of the New Year!

So on the morning of the 1st, I went to do hatsumode (first shrine visit of the year) with my host family. We went to a smaller neighborhood shrine not too far from our apartment. There were more people there than usual; everyone going for hatsumode. In the entrance path to the shrine there was a circular thing made out of rope standing in the middle of the path. By this circular thing was instructions for how to enter. I don't remember exactly how it went, but first we bowed, entered and walked around the thing from the left side to the front again, then you bow again and go from the right, and then there were some other steps but I don't quite remember them. At one point though, we were able to walk through it and enter the shrine. The other day when we were at Toshogu, my host mom had explain that when you enter a doorway or any other entrance to a shrine, you are technically supposed to walk in on one of the sides with the front of your body facing the middle (since the god is supposedly in the middle of the entrance and you don't want to show your back to the god since it would be rude). Anyway, after we walked in we went to cleanse our hands (I don't remember the order either but I think it's left hand, right hand, put water in left and put it to your mouth, then left hand again). After that we walked up to the shrine to make an offering/wish for the new year. First you throw your money in the offering box, ring the bell, bow twice, clap twice, make your wish/pray, then bow once again. I also got an omikuji (fortune) at the shrine as well, the first one I bought in Japan. I got small fortune (sho-kichi), but I think it was a pretty good fortune overall.

Next we headed to my host dad/s dad's house for a family gathering on that side. When we got to the apartment my host mom decided to go buy my host brother a toy so I went with them (there was a furby there for like 7,000 yen which is over $70...) and we got ramen afterwards. Then we finally went to the apartment for the gathering. It was mainly my host dad's dad's siblings (so a lot of old drunk people haha) but they were interesting and nice. My host dad later told me he thinks they are all weird haha. But my host mom, brother, and I didn't stay all that long. It didn't seem like my host mom really talked to anyone there, which made me wonder if they don't get along very well with her or if there is some weirdness towards her since she is the 2nd (younger) wife. But I could just be reading too much into it.

Anyway when we got home we watched a movie while eating this delicious new year's bento. Apparently some of the foods have certain meanings. The only one I remember is there is shrimp because shrimp look like old men I guess (since their backs are hunched over like old men's and they have long whiskers like old men have long beards?). I didn't get to try all of the foods there, but what I did try was delicious.




On the 2nd we woke up early to go do ohakamae, or go before the grave/grave visiting (for my host dad's mom). We rode the train to the city she was buried in where we also met my host dad's sons. I had met the older one before (22) but I had never got a chance to met the 18 year old since he has been busy studying for college exams (college exams are super intense here), so I was pretty excited to meet him. After we said hi (it was really quick, I thought there were be more to it), we all went out to eat. It was a lot of fun getting to talk to the brothers (mainly talked with the younger one, we got along pretty well I think which of course sparked my host dad into half-joikng about us dating in the future lololol).

After lunch my host family and I did some shopping (actually it was just them shopping and me waiting around) I was pretty tired/tired of my host brother crying for no reason constantly (he's a bit spoiled sometimes). Also my host family wants to buy me a designer bag for a Christmas/New Year's gift. We looked around at some, but didn't really find any that caught our attention too much (actually there was one I really liked but it was a bit small...) Also I feel bad about them buying me an expensive bag, and I told them they didn't have to buy me anything, but they want to at some point.

On the 3rd I woke up early to go help out with the mochitsuki event Niji was putting on. It was such a fun event and great day. Although I was outside from 10am till 4:30pm helping with the event, I'm really glad I was able to help out with one of the Niji events (I've been wanting to for a while). So yeah, we got together at 10 and then went to this shed behind a shrine to get the materials (this wooden bowl/stand thing with too hammer like things-real descriptive I know) and pushed them to a nearby park where we were holding the event. After that we set up and waited for people to show up (over 3o did!). To make mochi you pound freshly made rice until it gets real sticky and mucky, then you put flour on that and knead it until it is less sticky and then add flavoring. At first I helped put flavoring on (something sweet called kinako) and handed them out to people. There was also the savory soy sauce and seaweed option(which was delicious) and then another dish made from anko (sweet red bean paste, hot water, and mochi). Everything was so good and I ate so much. It was also really good to see a lot of my Japanese friends I hadn't seen in a while, and I made some new Japanese friends as well! Later on I got to help pound the rice too (I used the heavier hammer LIKE A BOSS, but actually I should have used the lighter one since I probably looked silly, oh well haha).









After we had finished cleaning, and putting the materials away, a couple of us went to a nearby family restaurant to eat a bit. I had plans to eat real dinner at 7 with friends from my program, so I didn't eat too much. After that a couple of us went to the shrine were we borrowed the materials from and did another "hatsumode" there. After that I still had some time to kill so I went shopping (and spent money on things I didn't really need to buy...) and then met up with my friends (Dre and Jhanus) to eat at Denny's in Ikebukuro. Protip: Denny's in Japan does not have real pancakes. There were dessert pancakes, but they didn't really have any breakfast food (except like french toast which was good), but I got the hamburger set (which is like a hamburger without a bun and the one I had had an egg on it-SO GOOD). Next we went to a nearby game center where we played taiko drums and mario kart (so much fun). Then I helped them do some shopping at a 24 hour clothes shop, where even more inside jokes were made (our group has too many). Overall it was a really great day!



Yesterday I met Becky to do some homework/mainly talk at a cafe in Harajuku. Before that though, I made an awesome train track route with my host brother and host grandmother. We really got into it haha. Anyway, most of the cafes I wanted to go to were either closed for new years or crowded, but we were able to find some nice ones to hang out it (though we didn't get much work done. So much work to do this month....). For dinner I met my host family at this delicious shop in Yoyogi. We sat in the upper part of the restaurant (which was a bit small-we sat cross legged) and there was a great atmosphere there. Today I plan on hopefully buying a polaroid camera I've been wanting forever (I also want a Nikon D5100 DSLR if anyone wants to help chip in for that!) and then I have a niji nomikai to go to! Tomorrow my friend Hanley from Earlham will be in Tokyo, so I'm going to hang out with him! And then Monday I have school again :( Oh well, going to enjoy these last two days of break to the fullest!

Breakkkk!

Lazy winter break time. Christmas day I just sat around in my pajamas and watched Japanese drama until my host parents got off work. It was great. Then we opened up presents my mom sent all of us. It was a lot of fun! Still didn't quite seem like Christmas day though..

Yesterday I went to Yokohama with Becky to meet a Japanese friend who lives there. Got some shopping done before we met up with her. Then the three of us went to a restaurant where you could eat on a bed. It was amazing. The food was so good and the bed was comfy. The restaurant was really nice too, had a great atmosphere. We stayed there for like two hours just talking, and eating. After that we went to Shinjuku to meet some of our friend's friends from London (our friend used to live in London when she was younger so she has a super cute English accent).

Today I met my friend Scarlet for lunch at Waseda. We got abura soba which is delicious. Then we went to a cafe close to campus called  Cat's Cradle. It was our first time going there. I really liked it! There were books everywhere that you could read and the cafe was just really cute. I definitely want to go there again! Now I'm just really tired though. The cold weather is getting to me...