Feels Like Summer!~

Weeks are literally flying by now. At least I'm feeling better now. My cold is still lingering on a bit though >_<....

Anyway Thursday after work I  went to some cafes with my friend Monique in the area that I live in. It was such a beautiful day! I also got to meet Becky's mom and her little sister for a bit which was nice. After that I took a walk through Yoyogi park which is seriously my favorite park ever. Was there three times in the past four days haha. The roses there are beautiful! Also took a 30 minute walk home. Yay for exercise! So hard to find time to exercise here. Although I do walk a lot (and my shoes have taken a beating...literally bought new shoes like a little over a week ago and they are already falling apart...)









Friday went to a cafe with my friend Shiori and did some planning for the sports festival event we are having. Also did purikura and Mario Kart with her and another friend named Zui! Friday night there was also a nomikai for Niji no Kai. So much fun! One of our friends is literally the lightest light weight I have ever seen. It was so funny. Like, I can't even properly describe how funny he is when he is drunk. He just sits silently and stares at nothing for like three minutes and then would just look at someone at start smiling and laughing. Okay, so it sounds a little creepy when I write it down, but it was hilarious. After drinking I went to play darts with some friends and became friends with this awesome guy who had been studying abroad in California for a year! It kinda sucks since I keep meeting new people that I really want to be friends with, but there isn't much time left before I go back home...






Saturday I went to an Okinawa Festival in Yoyogi park with Shiori! Good food, music, and interesting vendors. After that we met our friend Miki and Tokyo Sky Tree. We didn't go to the top, since it's pretty expensive, but we shopped around there. The area is pretty huge actually. We went there since we had planned on going to this firefly festival at the river by Sky Tree (apparently lcd lights are put into the river to make it look like there are fireflies there?...) but the tickets were sold out sadly...After that though we rented some horror movies and had a movie night at Miki's house! So much fun but I was pretty tired.

Today I had practice for my mime class skit with my group members. We present tomorrow! I hope it goes well...I don't really like speaking or performing in front of others though but oh wellll.
Also went to a picnic with some friends in Yoyogi park today! The weather was so nice! Ate, drank, and just was lazy for most of the afternoon. A perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I had never actually been out and around in the Harajuku Yoyogi park area on a Sunday before though. Suuuper crowded. I finally got to see the rockabilly group that goes to Yoyogi park every Sunday to dance though! So interesting haha.

Had dinner with my host family, and then went to a neighborhood park with my host mom and brother. It was actually a lot of fun. Just played around on the jungle gym and swings for a while. And then after that since the weather was nice I went jogging for the first time in forever! Jogged both the longest and farthest I have ever jogged before! 2.3miles in 20 minutes! Haha slow, but still I'm satisfied.

Well super tired and don't want to do this mime thing tomorrow, but I'm going to do my best!

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

Cat Cafes and More!

Yesterday morning our Japanese class session was cancelled due to rain (although I don't think it actually rained that much). It was nice to have a morning off, although I didn't see the email until after I took a shower. Even so, I had time to register for classes and take a quick nap. I won't bother writing what classes I registered for (since I might not be able to take them due to it being lottery) but I'm hoping to get the classes I want. After registering, Becky and I headed over to Waseda to eat lunch with the JS associate from Earlham. We left a bit early to make sure we got there on time and good thing we did. For the most part I've been able to get from the hotel to Ikebukuro station pretty well. But we usually walk around with a bigger group of people, or at night, so we got a bit lost. Thankfully after that we were able to easily find our way.
It's weird riding the trains every day here. I've gotten used to it, but the stations can be a bit intimidating, especially when it's rush hour.

At Waseda we have Japanese language class orientation. We were all half asleep for it. There was also a short orientation session after that just for JS people. Once we were done with orientation we had the rest of the afternoon free. So a couple of Team members and I decided to try and find a cat cafe called Nekobukuro in east Ikebukuro. We saw the building once at night, so we thought it would be easy to find again. Somehow, however, we got lost. We ended up asking this old man for directions, but still weren't able to find it. After some walking we just decided to go to a different cafe. It was 200 yen per 10 minutes, which is somewhat expensive, maybe, but we wanted to check it out anyway. They asked us if we understood Japanese, and we do, so we were able to enter. We took off our shoes before we entered and put on slippers they had for us. And then we entered the land of cats.

Actually it wasn't as amazing/exciting as I thought it would be. Most of the cats were asleep, and they were so used to being pet that they weren't excited by people at all. They were still super cute though! And one of them actually licked my fingers! It was interesting to watch the other customers too. Some people were sleeping, some were reading manga, and only a few people other than us (mainly couples) were actually petting/looking at the cats. Soft music was in the background, and it was pretty quiet there. We only stayed 20 minutes. I can't wait to check out more cat cafes in the future!

For dinner a couple of us went to kaiten zushi. My first sushi in Japan! We went with a Waseda assistant and another club member. I've meet so many Niji no Kai members here it's hard to remember them all haha. Anyway, the kaiten zushi place was pretty reasonable and quick. For those who don't know what kaiten zushi is, basically there is a conveyor belt that plates of sushi go around on. Most plates were 120 yen. I don't remember the names of anything I ate, but it was all delicious! I sat next to the new member I meet and she explained how to get tea, and that I could ask for something specific if I wanted. I ended up eat 7 plates (14 pieces)! I was really hungry. It was interesting to note that once the sushi goes around a certain amount of times, the workers throw it away!

After dinner a couple of us went to a department store like place called Don Quixote (Donki for short). We wanted to buy alcohol to have a small nomikai (drinking party), so our guides took us there. It was really interesting! There were about 7 or 8 floors of the most random stuff. For example, boob pillow. I bought umeshu (which is Japanese plum wine) and a popular drinking snack which is basically dried squid. I got to talk a lot with our guides which was really nice.
When we returned to our hotel we had a small nomikai with Team members and one of our guides in one of the hotel rooms. It was a lot of fun! We mainly just talked, drank a bit, and ate some food. And I still went to bed at a reasonable time!

Today we had more orientation. For most of it we were supposed to go around to different stores around Waseda and look at prices, kanji, etc. For lunch we ate at a place called Nan and Curry where we got nan and curry. It was so good! But I got so full so fast.

Today I finally got my host family information! I'll be living with a dad (who is a company president!) and mom (who is a company worker) and I'll have a 5 year old little brother! I'm only 40 minutes away from school, so I'm still pretty much in the downtown area. I wanted to live further out in the country, but oh well. I'm a bit nervous to meet them on Sunday! I hope everything goes well. And I need to buy a gift for my 5 year old brother. Crazy.

Instead of going out with the JS group tonight I met one of the Waseda students who studied abroad at Earlham last year. Me and another girl here who goes to Earlham got gyudon (meet on rice) with him for dinner. It was my cheapest meal here yet, 280 yen! It was a lot of fun talking to him (in Japanese!) and catching up with him. He told us that our Japanese was really good, but we still have a long way to go. He's building is on the same Waseda campus that our is, so we will be able to meet with him often throughout the year! After dinner he took us to a game center since we wanted to do purikura (photo booth). The part of Ikebukuro we were in was pretty busy for a Thursday night. It's crazy how many people are here! Purikura was fun, but all of the options you have are timed so we didn't get to decorate all of them, but still the pictures are pretty great.

We told him about how we tried to find Nekobukuro the other day but couldn't, so he showed us where it was since we were close which was really nice. We didn't go in to play with the cats, but there was a pet store outside so we saw some cute pets. Even though we didn't hang out for very long (we all had to get up early in the morning) it was really great to see him and I'm glad he showed us around. Hopefully I'll be able to hang out with him and some of the other Waseda students who studied abroad at Earlham!

And I tried to skype with my mom tonight, but since she can't use technology very well at all, we weren't able too. It would be nice to talk to family members, but I don't really have the time. I need to pack still to send a bag off to my host family, so until next time!