Weekend!

Happy Sunday! It's a cloudy but pleasant Sunday morning in Tokyo and I am killing time before going to the airport to pick up my boyfriend! He is visiting for the week and I could not be more excited :). I'm also excited because I get to stay 20 minutes away from school for the week, but that's just an added bonus. We have a great week planned!

The last few days in Tokyo have been fun as well. Thursday I had my normal classes and then after class I went to do some shopping in (guess where) Harajuku! I finally found not one but two pairs of shoes that I liked and that fit, so it was a pretty successful afternoon. After shopping I went to this area called Hiroo to meet some people for dinner. The American government hotel is in Hiroo and a lot of foreigners in general live there, so it almost felt like home -- there were foreigners everywhere. We had dinner at this Mexican place which was really good but kind of expensive given the portion size. I had two teeny "burrito" that were basically just meat wrapped up in a tortilla, but it was still nice to have something other than Japanese food for a change!

Oishikatta!

On Friday classes were uneventful and I headed home after class to take a nap in preparation for going out that night. A bunch of us were planning on going to this event at a club we had been invited to on Facebook that had a good deal. We headed out to the club in Roppongi around 10 and hung out with some friends in the area before going in -- it was a lot of fun and I really liked the music, but they let in a ton of people and it got way too crowded. Earlier in the night my friend had been raving about the kebabs he had eaten in the area before, so I decided to try one around 3am -- it really was super delicious.

In the club!

First light in Roppongi... ~4am O.O

By the time we headed home around 5am it was already really light outside -- the sun comes up really early here since there is no DST. I was in bed by 6 but couldn't sleep that late since my curtains let in so much light -- I got up around 11am, puttered around and ran/showered, and then took a long nap in the afternoon before going to a new place for dinner with some friends. We biked to and from dinner, which was an adventure because one of my friends hadn't ridden a bike in a long time, and I always end up with a bike that is too small for me -- you have to sign out the bike and get the key inside the dorm, so I can't look at the bikes to decide.. But, we all made it back from dinner in one piece and then I hung out in the kitchen for a while with some people who were having Chinese hotpot for dinner. It was a nice, relaxing night in but I didn't go to sleep until late since I had taken a long nap earlier! But, of course I couldn't sleep that late this morning, so I've just been packing and hanging out in my room since I woke up. It's almost time to go the airport -- I'm so excited! Unfortunately it's about a two hour trip there, but it's definitely worth it! Time to finish up packing and then head out! Matane~~

Tokyo Heat

It's Thursday morning in Tokyo and I'm getting ready for school. One of the things I do every morning is check the weather, but there's not really a reliable internet source for the weather here. For example, one site I looked at said a high of about 85 today, while another said about 105 with the heat index. But, I don't need the internet to tell me that it is going to be HOT today - it was super hot yesterday and today is supposed to be the same. I know being from NC I'm supposed to be used to the heat and humidity, but in NC I am driving around in air-conditioned cars and walking from one ice-cold building to another. Here, I have to walk 15 minutes in the morning heat and then get on a muggy crowded train. It's not the most enjoyable way to start off a morning but I guess I'm just going to have to get used to it!

This week has been good so far. Monday was another friend's birthday (we actually have three Monday birthdays in a row in June), so after class we had dinner at a yakiniku place. "Yakiniku" basically means grilled meat - at the restaurant you have a little stove thing in front of you and you grill your own meat! It was super delicious and I became quite the pro at grilling. After dinner, I headed back home to do some homework and get to sleep early.

The Yakiniku grill!

Tuesday morning I got ready for school and ended up walking to the station with three other people (normally it's just one other). As we were walking, we were talking about how the commute the previous day had been especially bad when we rounded the corner to the station and saw... a madhouse. Apparently there was an accident on our train line somewhere, which means all the trains have to stop for a long time and it causes huge delays. To get into my station, you have to walk up some stairs, across a hallway, and then through the gates and down more stairs. People were overflowing all the way from the actual train platform out through the front entrance. It was crazy. This actually has happened one time previously this semester, but I was staying at the hotel with my parents so I didn't have to take the train to school. It was really hot and I already knew I was going to miss my quiz at the beginning of Japanese class, and since our sensei doesn't let us make them up I decided just to take the morning off and rest in my room.

Later Tuesday morning I headed back to the station, which was clear by that time, and went to school for lunch and my afternoon anthropology class. We actually had a pretty interesting discussion about electricity conservation, which is being stressed heavily this summer. After class I headed back home to go for a run. I ran to the river again, which is pretty much a straight shot from my dorm. On the way there, I engaged in a tug of war over sidewalk space with myself, a biker, and a fence (I lost, the fence won) and got a pretty nasty bruise from that. On the way back, I actually managed to get lost some how - I'm still not sure how it happened, but I eventually found something that looked familiar and made my way back home. It was pretty hot but it was still a good run. I picked up some food for dinner at the grocery store and spent the rest of night doing homework (actually being productive for once!).

Wednesday (yesterday) was super hot, as I mentioned. I had Japanese in the morning and then had the rest of the day free before my 5pm class - I had done my homework the night before for once and there wasn't an organized CIEE activity that afternoon. So, I had lunch in the cafeteria (oishikute yasui - delicious and cheap!) and then headed to Ginza to explore. Ginza is the super high-end shopping district of Japan, so I was pretty much just window shopping. I went to the Mitsukoshi department store, which is pretty famous and has 12 floors and two towers of wondrous consumer goods. I saw some shoes for $100 and others for $4000, and that was probably just the low end. The basement floor is a "food garden" that is actually pretty reasonably priced, and I got some souvenirs to take home. Then I walked around the rest of the store gawking at the prices, but I didn't feel as out of place since I was carrying at Mitsukoshi shopping bag :).

After I had finished my mental list of things to buy when I win a bajillion dollars, I headed back to school to print my homework for class and relax outside. It was really hot (have I mentioned that?) but it was nice in the shade. Then I had my NGO class, which was pretty interesting, and I came home with some friends and had dinner at the ramen place. (It has a name I guess but we all just call it "the ramen place," so it will continue to be called that in this blog. Then, I spent the rest of the night stressing about my final paper for that class - my professor originally said 12 pages, and since all university students think in terms of double-spaced pages it didn't seem too bad, but yesterday he revised it to at least 6000 words, which is closer to 20 pages double-spaced. Ah. Time to get started... thankfully it's a group project, but we still need to get moving on it! Time for school now though~ mata!

Tanoshii Times

SO here we are again, a week since my last blog post and I have to apologize again for not posting more frequently. But, this week was a ton of fun so get ready for a long post. But first, a side note:  I realized a few minutes ago how second nature Japanese is becoming - my vocabulary is still very limited, but the words I do know come to mind readily - such as when I was just talking to a friend from Wellesley and asked her "tanoshikatta?" ("was it fun?") without really thinking about it. Ah. Although I've been frustrated at times, it's good to see progress with the language study, but at the same time I was thinking about how I will barely use Japanese once I go home... but I just decided that I'm going to keep using some key phrases and get other people to learn it, so, American friends, get ready to learn some nihongo (Japanese)! First lesson: "tanoshii" means "fun," (so the title of this blog post is "Fun Times"). There will be a quiz.

Okay, back to this week. Last weekend was our trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima, so it was a pretty exhausting weekend. But, there was no rest for the weary as I had to wake up bright and early Monday morning for class. Thankfully classes weren't too eventful, and then in the afternoon it was my friend's birthday so we went to shabu shabu for dinner (think Melting Pot but Japanese-style). It was DELICIOUS - you get unlimited meat so I think I pretty much ate a whole pig - and we had a lot of fun. After dinner, we had some drinks then went to this arcade/pool hall, where the guys all played billiards while I lounged around and took a bunch of pictures. It was a lot of fun and definitely a quality Monday night.

Everyone playing pool!

The birthday dinner group :)

Tuesday was, finally, a relaxing day. I had only missed one Japanese class all semester, so I decided to take the morning off and caught up on picture uploading/talking to friends. I made it to school for my afternoon class but then came home right after, so I was only out of the house for around five hours total. It was a nice change of pace from leaving at 8am and getting back after 7pm or later. Tuesday afternoon I went on a long run to the river and back, which went really well. I've been running as much as I have time and am really enjoying getting back into it! I spent the rest of Tuesday night straightening up my room and doing homework. I also caught up on some sleep, so I was ready for the rest of the week.

Wednesday I had Japanese in the morning, and then had lunch before going with a group of CIEE people to visit the U.S. Embassy. I thought we were doing a sort of tour, but turns out it was more of an information session about careers - I'm not too interested in the foreign service but it was still interesting to get some information and hear everyone's stories. There were six staff members on the panel, and two of them were actually from North Carolina! After the panel, I went back to school to get ready for my NGO class. We got our midterms back, and mine went really well - thankfully coaching SAT prep for Let's Get Ready had kept me in the practice of writing timed five paragraph essays, because there had been two of those on the midterm. After class I went to our favorite ramen spot with the two CIEE students who are also in the class with me, which was a lot of fun. The staff all recognize us and are always really friendly. It was a good day!

Thursday started with a lesson test in Japanese but then got much better when THE BRUINS WON THE STANLEY CUP!!! I pretty much only follow hockey around playoff time but I was still thrilled for Boston to win the championship. I wish it had happened last summer when I would have been able to go to the parade! Thursday afternoon I headed home early and went for a run before heading back to my homestay family's house for dinner! They had invited me over to show them my pictures from Hiroshima and Miyajima, and I also had an omiyage (souvenir) to give them. It was A LOT of fun - they are really an amazing family. We had tacos (YUM) with cheese and lettuce and salsa and home-cooked beef. It was amazing. Then we had a giant plate of fruit for dessert. Oishikatta (it was delicious)! After dinner my homestay little sister spent more time being adorable as she put one of those fruit cushion things on her head and also pretended to be a reindeer and/or Santa Claus. I can't wait to see them again!

Actually the cutest child in Japan, not to mention the world.

Dessert! Noms

Friday was a rainy day and was relatively uneventful. In my anthro class in the afternoon we had an "earthquake evacuation drill" where we had to exit our building, walk across campus to another building, and then go up five flights of stairs before talking about it. Then we walked back across campus to our original classroom... but it was useful overall. After class I went with a friend to Harajuku, where I did some shopping before going home. I was thinking about going back out to meet with friends but I ended up just lounging around the dorm. My friend had downloaded game 6 from the NBA finals so I watched the end of that and then the postgame celebration - it was really exciting and I'm still SO glad that Dirk and Dallas won and Bronbron lost... maybe next year!! Ha.

Saturday I woke up and got some work done before going to Ueno in the afternoon to try to find some new sandals. It was another rainy day which meant Ueno Park was pretty empty, so I decided it was an acceptable time to make a mess while eating a corn on the cob and got one of those from a street vendor. It was definitely worth it. After eating I sent out to find some shoes, but everything either had too high of a heel or they didn't have a big enough size. The search continues... Saturday night was another quiet night and I did a lot of reading before hanging out in the common room and catching up with friends. I was pretty worn out from the past few weeks so it was good to have a weekend doing nothing... and then today, Sunday, was a really long day!

Jelliesss

I woke up early this morning to leave the dorm at 9:30am to head to Enoshima, a seaside town, for a SISEC event. We thought we were going to be really late but actually weren't the last ones to arrive, so we were able to get some lunch while waiting for the last few stragglers. Once everyone was there, we headed to the suizokukan (aquarium). I can't remember the last time I went to an aquarium in the states but I've been to two in Japan so far... but they have both been really cool. Before we went in, we did introductions and I had decided that jellyfish were my favorite fish, and the jellyfish exhibit there did not disappoint - they even had carolina blue jellyfish! It was really cool and we saw another dolphin show, although the one in Kobe was more impressive.

Girls by the water!

Taking a picture of the group right as a wave hit - love it!

After the aquarium we went out on the beach to hang out. It was overcast but not entirely chilly, and the water was actually bearable once you got used to it. I just put my feet in but some of the guys went pretty far out. It was a lot of fun and we got some great pictures in the waves. After spending a while there, the group decided to head towards the "Sea Candle," an observatory, but me and some friends decided just to go home. It was too cloudy to have any kind of a view and we were looking about a 90 minute trip home, so we decided to call it a day in an attempt to get back and have a somewhat productive night. Upon getting back to Nishikawaguchi we were disappointed to find the ramen place was closed, but we had some delicious okonomiyaki instead. I got home about an hour ago and have been stressing about blogging ever since, but I finally got it written! I really will try to post an entry midweek, but I'm looking at another busy week... my boyfriend is coming to Japan next Sunday, so I need to get a lot of work done this week! I only have about three weeks of classes left - can't believe it! Time needs to slow downnn... matane~ :)

Hiroshima and Miyajima!

My blogging is getting less and less frequent and for that I apologize! Time is flying by and it feels like I have just posted my last post before a week has gone by and I still haven’t found time to write again. I am finishing up an amazing weekend – I just got back from going to Hiroshima and Miyajima with CIEE. But first, let me talk about last week. My last post was Saturday during the day before going out with friends later that night. I took a nice long nap so I was pretty energized for the night. A big group of SISEC people went to a club in Shibuya – in all there were probably at least 15 people that I knew going. The club was a lot of fun but it was pretty small – still, we made it to about 3:30am before trekking over to the next door McDonalds for a sandwich and nap before getting on the first train around 5am. I was finally in bed by 6am and passed out until about noon on Sunday, when I woke up and lazed around/did some homework before falling back into bed pretty early.

A group of us before the club!

During the week, nothing too exciting happened but it was still a good week. On Monday, I had my classes then did some shopping in Harajuku before getting my hair cut at this amazing salon - it was definitely my best hair cut experience to date. The staff spoke English and I saw in this chair that pretty much reclined horizontally while they washed my hair and then massaged my head. Then, I was really pleased with how the hair cut turned out, so overall it went really well! Tuesday, my classes were uneventful then I went for a nice long run once I got home – I have gotten back into running about twice a week recently, and it has been going pretty well. Wednesday was my NGO midterm, which my classmates and I studied a good bit for so I was pretty prepared and it went well overall. On Thursday, after classes I went to a park nearby school to hang out with some friends, and we ended up going to an izakaya later that night, where we had some good food and drinks. It was a lot of fun and I was still home by 11, so I went right to bed to get ready for the weekend.

My hair cut!

On Friday, I had classes then left in the afternoon to go to Hiroshima and Miyajima with the CIEE group. In the afternoon, we left from campus to go to Tokyo Station to take the shinkansen up to Hiroshima. Our nozomi shinkansen train was super fast and comfortable – we made it to Hiroshima in just about four hours – but when we got to the station in Hiroshima it was raining. But, we didn’t have far to go to the hotel, so we packed into the street car and set off for the hotel. Hiroshima is one of the few cities in Japan that still uses street cars, so it was pretty cool to get to ride in one. We only had a few stops to go, and once we got off the street car we were only about a 10 minute walk from the hotel, so were in our rooms by 10pm or so and were able to run any errands we needed to run before turning in early to get ready for the big day ahead of us. The money on my prepaid phone had run out so I needed to get a new card -- very important.

Street car in Hiroshima

Saturday started out dreary and drizzling, but it actually cleared up and turned into a beautiful sunny day. We had a buffet breakfast in the amazing hotel restaurant – it was on the 15th floor and had a spectacular view of the surrounding area, including the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. After breakfast, we left the hotel and walked over to the Peace Memorial Museum that was built to commemorate the victims of the bomb and continue to advocate for peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons. We had a few minutes to explore the exhibits downstairs before going to watch a film about the experience of the mothers of victims from the bomb. It was a pretty heavy film and started the day off on a somber note, which continued as we spent the rest of the morning wandering around the museum and seeing the exhibits. It was a personal experience for all of us and being there is hard to put into words, but I will say it is definitely a place you should visit at least once if you go to Japan.

Girls in Hiroshima!

View of Hiroshima - the atomic bomb dome is over to the left

After the museum, we went on a walking tour of the Peace Memorial Park. By that time the rain had gone away and it was a beautiful sunny day, so we got a lot of great pictures. The park is really well done and is a beautiful memorial to the victims. Monuments in the park include a cenotaph housing the names of all the victims, a flame that will burn until all nuclear arms are decommissioned, and the museum itself, and the atomic bomb dome, which was pretty close to the hypocenter of the bomb but remained (comparatively) pretty intact. All of these elements lie in a straight line -- it was beautiful.

The cenotaph in Peace Memorial Park with the eternal flame in the background

After walking around the park, we had obento for lunch and then had the amazing opportunity to hear an “hibakusha,” or someone who was affected by the bomb, speak. The woman, Matsubara-san, was a school child at the time of the bombing and was working outside helping the government to demolish houses for a fire break when the bomb hit. Her story was really emotional and it was an incredible opportunity to hear her speak in person. There are currently about 70,000 hibakusha still living in Hiroshima, but of course that number is continuously declining. She seemed to be in pretty good health, and although it was hard to understand her English at times, she said a lot of interesting things. She concluded by talking about how the hibakusha won’t always be around to fight for peace. She passed the “torch of peace” on to us and urged us to continue fighting against the use of nuclear weapons in the future. It was really moving and definitely got us all thinking.

Later in the afternoon we had free time to explore Hiroshima more. A group of people went with our tour guide to Hiroshima Castle, where they explored the castle grounds and got to try on samurai and period costumes. But, instead of the castle, I went with several people to explore the “hondori,” which is a covered arcade lined with shops. It was incredible, and I definitely did my part to stimulate the Hiroshima economy -- I did more souvenir shopping this weekend than I had done in the whole semester combined. After shopping, the whole group met back at the hotel to go to dinner at an okonomiyaki restaurant. Okonomiyaki is a type of pancake made with flour, cabbage, egg, meat, and whatever other toppings you want, and it originated in Hiroshima so is a big part of the culture there. The dinner was delicious and a lot of fun – we all sat around a big grill and watched them make our food. After dinner, we split off to wander around the area some more, either shopping or just seeing the sights. It didn’t rain the whole time we were outside on Saturday – we really lucked out with the weather.

Shopping in the hondori!

Sunday, however, was a different story. We woke up to rain and it rained steadily the rest of the day. But, we didn’t let that stop us from enjoying the beautiful Miyajima Island and Itsukushima Shrine. We left the hotel around 8:15am to take the bus to the ferry to get over to the island. I had been to the island before so I knew what to expect, but as we pulled up alongside the island with a view of the famous Itsukushima torii (gate) for the first time, the boat almost tipped over from all of the people on that side of the railing taking pictures. (Not really, but it was fun to see everyone run to one side to take pictures. Myself included.) It was rainy and foggy but some of the pictures actually turned out pretty well!

Coming up on Itsukushima Shrine

When we got onto the island, our tour guide took us to some places of interest before heading over to the shrine, which is absolutely beautiful. The shrine has been recognized as one of the “top three most scenic places in Japan,” so it’s definitely worth a visit whenever possible. We actually had the amazing opportunity today to see part of a Shinto wedding that was going on in the shrine. It was really beautiful and we saw part of what I think was the “vow ceremony” before the bridal party moved to an outer part of the shrine to watch a performance of traditional dance. The costumes were amazing and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience – we were really to get to witness it.

A traditional dancer dancing in front of the bride and groom

After our tour of the shrine finished, we all split off to explore the island on our own. A group of us walked out into the marshy area to the actual gate – it was low tide so you can walk pretty far out in the sand. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the streets of Miyajima, trying the local momijimanju (mapleleaf shaped waffle type things with various fillings) and oysters – both of which the island is famous for. Despite the rain, it was a lot fun, and we all got some good omiyage (souvenir) shopping done. I also did this thing called "Dr. Fish" where you put your feet in a pool and this special type of fish eats all of the dead skin off your skin. It sounds gross but it was really cool - it tickled a lot and left my feet noticeably smoother and feeling better. And it was pretty cheap - $5 for 10 minutes! Definitely worth it.

Out by the shrine!

Watching the doctor fish work their magic

But, eventually the rain took its toll and most of us got back to the ferry station a few minutes before our scheduled meeting time of 1:55pm. After that, there were five different means of transportation between us and getting home – the ferry, our bus, the shinkansen, the JR rail trains, and then the walk from our home station back to the dorm. But, I finally got home around 9:30pm and have been getting ready for the coming week ever since! This weekend flew by and I can't believe it's already the middle June. (I know I say that like every post, but it's true.) Today's my sister's 19th birthday -- happy birthday Ally! I'm not even sure if she reads my blog, so guess we'll find out... finally off to bed now! Oyasumi!

June...???

The week since my last post has flown by -- I can't believe it's June! When I last left you, I was about to venture into a Japanese kitchen for the first time -- it turned out to be pretty successful. With my homestay mother's assistance, i made "nikujaga" which is "a Japanese dish of meat, potatoes, and onion stewed in sweetened soy sauce." It was pretty delicious. Below are some pictures showing the steps of making it, and in all it took us about 90 minutes to make. I didn't realize until we were done, however, that it was dinner for the next night... so I had to wait another 24 hours to eat it :(.

The sliced vegetables!

Meat and vegetables in the pot

Hope you like onions...

Finished product!

Last Sunday was my last day with my homestay family and it was absolutely amazing. (There will be a quiz later on about how many times I've said 'absolutely amazing' in this blog.) We woke up early to more rain, but my homestay mother had special plans for us to go to a ceramics studio and throw our own pots! So, Hanae-san (the mother), Kohaku-chan (the four-year-old), and myself got out our umbrellas and trudged to the bus stop to ride over to the area where the studio was. It actually took us a while to find, but we finally got there and it was such a cute little shop. I'm pretty sure the owner lives in the back, and the store was half shelves with things he was selling, and half his studio where there were two potter's wheels, the table, and the kiln. We all squeezed inside and set about to "learning" how to throw -- it was a lot of Japanese so I basically just copied what the sensei did and they threw in a few English words like "faster," "slower," "thin," and "thick" -- which I know how to say in Japanese anyways... but, after a few good attempts and lots of corrections I finally made two little cups, and Hanae-san made two bowls. Kohaku-chan made two plates by hand (not on the wheel), and she was really cute while doing it. The ceramics studio was a lot of fun and was a great bonding experience. The clay was too wet to paint, so we selected our colors, and the sensei is going to paint and fire it, and then we pick it up later. I'm excited to see the finished product!

Making my cup!

Ready to be painted and fired!

The rest of Sunday was a great day with the family. We had lunch in the area and then walked to this shrine whose god is the protector of "car safety," so people can drive their cars up and park them in front of the main temple. It was pretty cool. The street outside the temple had lots of vendors giving out samples, so we got lots of little dessert treats for free! It was a great way to end the afternoon before heading home (and the rain had let up soon!). Sunday night we finally ate the meal we had prepared the night before, which turned out pretty well if I do say so myself, and then after dinner we did origami as a family at the table. It was amazing. I made a few simple things myself (a heart and a hat), but the parents pulled off some pretty amazing folds. They ended up giving all of the finished products to me as a present, which was really sweet. In all, I had an amazing weekend with my family, and everyone else I have talked to had a positive experience as well. We have enjoyed living in the dorm together, but it was really cool that we could still get a taste of what living with a Japanese family would be like. My family invited me back for dinner any time, and of course I am going to go see the baby when it is born! I can't wait!

Origami!

I was really sad to leave my homestay family, and unfortunately I had a week of midterm tests to look forward to... but overall, last week went pretty well. My Japanese midterm took up three days (the oral, writing, and reading/grammar), and my econ midterm on Thursday went pretty well. On Friday, my group for my anthropology class was in charge of leading the class discussions, so that was an adventure considering our professor can barely get people to participate for the full 90 minutes. But, we decided to go around the room and have everyone talk about their homework assignment, and with some discussion interspersed here and there it actually lasted the whole class!

So, last week was busy with school but I also managed to have some fun. On Monday, I actually had to go to the doctor because my finger was infected -- at first I tried going by myself but later went back with someone from the CIEE staff who is fluent in Japanese. They gave me antibiotics to take with food, so my finger is fine now, but it's pretty strange -- the last time I was in Japan, I got an infection around the same fingernail! It's never happened at home, so I'm not really sure what is going on... but thankfully the Japanese medical system is pretty efficient so it didn't take too long to see the doctor, get my prescription, go next door, and get the pills I needed. But, hopefully it won't happen again! 

Wednesday is when I have my long break between getting out of Japanese at 11am and having NGO management at 5pm, but this Wednesday we had a meeting about our upcoming Hiroshima trip! We are all really excited for it. Next weekend (June 10-12), we are going to Hiroshima and Miyajima (the island with the famous orangey shrine in the water). It's a CIEE-sponsored trip, so all of our costs are covered, and it should be a great experience. I've already been to both places so I know what to expect, but in our meeting we talked about what going to Hiroshima and Peace Memorial Museum there will be like -- it's a lot to think about.

Both Thursday and Friday I went out with some friends after classes -- on Thursday we went to an izekaya and did karaoke again (the same place as the previous week), and on Friday I went to Harajuku to eat at Eggs 'n Things (which I have talked about earlier in the blog). While we were waiting for dinner to start and walking around the Harajuku area, my friend and I actually stumbled upon something really cool -- a making candy demonstration in this store called "The Candy Artisans." We happened to be there right at the beginning when they were pouring the melted sugar, and watched all the way until the end when they produced tiny candies with bunny faces on them. It was pretty incredible -- they start out by mixing the colors, cutting up the slabs of different color and then making the bunny face in a big tube -- then they stretch it out so it gets tiny. It's kind of hard to explain, so pictures are definitely necessary!

Mixing the colors

Rolling out the candy

Making the shape

It starts out as a big cylinder like this...

Then gets pulled out!

So the finished product looks like this! Amazing!

Later on, dinner was a lot of fun  -- I had the special omelette with corn, pastrami, and spinach. It was DELICIOUS. After dinner, we walked around Harajuku and did some shopping, before wandering over to Shibuya and walking around some more. We went into this super high-end Ralph Lauren store that had $1000 jeans and $250 umbrellas, and were lounging around in there and playing a price-guessing game until we felt like our presence was no longer welcome... but by that point we were all pretty tired so we headed home to get some rest before Saturday. A bunch of us are planning on going to college night at a club tonight so it should be an adventure! Earlier today, I walked around Akabane, which we pass through every morning on our way to school, but I hadn't actually gotten out and walked around there yet. It was a pretty nice area -- I didn't walk too far away from the station but I did some shopping and found some super cute shoes on sale! Now I'm just in my room resting before tonight... it's going to be another longgg night! Mata!