Summer vacation part 1

So last summer we finally got to spend a decent amount of time back in the UK. 3 and a half weeks, to be precise. The majority of the flights were very expensive, so we took a slight gamble and booked the much cheaper China Eastern flights that go via Shanghai. So many people online were advising against them, but it was really the only feasible way for us to get back. And actually, the flights were fine. Fairly basic compared to other airlines, but they did the job and were comfortable enough. Plus no major delays as far as I remember.

When we finally touched down in Heathrow, Shyam went south to his mum’s house, while I went north to my mum’s. I took an epic 5 hours bus ride up and arrived in Norwich at around 1am. It was some way to round out an already epic journey. That first cup of tea back at my mum’s tasted wonderful!

The first week and a bit was spent in and around Norwich, catching up with family and friends. Lots of dog and cat cuddles, walks around National Trust properties (including unwanted wasp encounters), introducing mum to Korean food at a restaurant called ‘The Kimchi’, seeing the Barbie movie with my younger brother and getting burgers at the legendary Zak’s afterwards, and attending Norwich Pride Parade. i also got to eat some of my favorite homecooked meals, including one of my faves, my mum’s amazing moussaka!

On my second Monday back in the UK, mum and I drove up to Manchester so I could finally see some of my friends based up there. I hadn’t seen most of them for 5 years! So I crammed in seeing several people in just one full day and two half days. It was hectic but I’m so glad I did it. It was so lovely catching up with everyone. Also very nostalgic to be back in my university city.

I spent the next four days back in Norwich, which included seeing more friends, plus having a clear out in my bedroom there as per my mum’s request, haha. I also went to the beach with one friend and we played crazy golf. It was so fun! Even if it was incredibly windy.

On the Monday I said a sad goodbye to my family and hopped on a train down south to go and spend the last week with Shyam and his family. First time to Brighton since I was a child. It’s a very cool place! Shyam’s family are all lovely and it was so nice to finally meet them and spend time with them. I got the grand tour of Brighton on the first full day, including walking the length of the pier and indulging in the arcades.

On the Wednesday we got the train up to London for the day. I finally got to meet one of Shyam’s good friends, who we had lunch with in China Town. Then in the evening we met up with Shabz after she finished work, which was amazing! We had Mexican food in this lively place near Liverpool St. station.

The next day we went on another daytrip, this time to Eastbourne. Where I got to meet another of Shyam’s good friends. It’s fairly similar to Brighton, but not quite as cool, haha. I got to have a rather expensive 99 ice-cream here by the beach, as was one of the things I most wanted to do during our time back in the UK.

The last two days were spent in and around Brighton. I got to meet and have dinner with another dear friend of Shyam’s, who I had been looking forward to meeting. She’s lovely. We also did a big shop in Tesco to get all the essential goodies to take back with us. You don’t realise how important some food items are to you until they’re no longer readily available, lol. Then on our last evening we, including Shyam’s family, had a fun meal out at Pizza Hut, rounding the trip out nicely.

We left Gatwick in the morning of Sunday August 13th and arrived back in Tokyo late on the 14th, via a rather lengthy layover in Shanghai’s very boring airport. It was a long, knackering journey, but worth it!

It was a wonderful 3 and a half weeks back in the homeland, but that was only part 1 of a rather epic summer vacation 2023. I’ll be back (hopefully) soon with part 2, where my fangirlishness will shine through once again, haha.

Late Spring/Early Summer

I’m back with another catch up blog from last year. This one will take us from April 29th to the beginning of July.

First up, I decided I wanted to try something a little different and when an opportunity popped up randomly on my Facebook feed, I just decided to go for it. It was an organization that runs English camps for elementary school kids. They started up after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011 to help kids in the affected areas. So they recruit volunteers alongside some paid staff to run the camps. They cover your transport/food/board/etc. and give you a nominal ‘reward’ for volunteering. In return you commit to 2 days, 1 night looking after a load of kids, playing games with them, and encouraging them to speak English.

I took the shinkansen from Ueno to Utsunomiya very early on the Saturday morning. I met the organizers and the other volunteers there. A mix of people from the Philippines, Egypt, India, Indonesia, and maybe more countries, I’ve forgotten. Then all the kids came. There were a lot! Once they (and we) were all sorted into groups (I was in the pink group and got to wear a lovely pink bib), we got onto coaches and made the two ish hour journey into the mountains on the edge of Gunma. Lots of games of rock, paper, scissors, singing, arm-wrestling, thumb wars, etc. happened on the bus, lol. The kids were so cute.

We stayed at what was essentially a youth hostel/activity centre. There was a huge restaurant area, library, work centre, gymnasium, outside playground areas, surrounding woodland, a sento (communal bath), and of course lots of bedrooms. I can’t remember the course of events well over a year later, but basically we played games outside and inside the gym. There was a traditional raising of the flag outside at 5pm, which was interesting. There was a buffet dinner in the restaurant. We had a night walk in the woods. There was a pretend bonfire in the gym with dancing.

Then it was time to go to the bedrooms to set up the futons. I was then made aware that I was going to be solely in charge of seven girls for the night. It was a little bit alarming as my Japanese is still rubbish, but it mostly worked out ^^; So my seven charges and I set up the futons in our tatami room. It was very lively! They were 8-10 years old and full of energy still. Then we had to supervise the girls going to the sento, which took ages. Then finally I had to try and get them to go to sleep. It took forever!! Eventually they were settled and I was able to go to the sento myself. The most relaxing, most needed bath, haha. Then I crept back into our room and got to bed myself.

I did not get much sleep though! The girls woke up at 4:30am. I heard them chattering and moving around and tried to ignore them, but one of the delightful angels stood over my futon and shouted ‘Cathy, okiiii-masu!!’ (wake up), and my few hours sleep were done. They had folded up the futons, got dressed, and brushed their teeth by 6am. We were supposed to wake up at 6am, as the girls in the room opposite had done (I was so jealous of the volunteer supervising that room). Luckily I was able to take them over to the gym early and they ran around in there with some of the other early risers, whilst I sat on the floor bleary eyed.

We had a buffet style breakfast in the restaurant. Then there were more games in the gym. Then a million and one photos. It was at this point I started feeling sick. I had a terrible headache and had to rush out to the toilet to be sick more than once. I think the lack of sleep coupled with all the loud, rowdy running around didn’t work too well with my not-so-great health. This resulted in me not being able to travel back in the coach with the kids. I went in a car with a couple of guys because I was worried about being sick in front of the kids. I was really sad as I missed out on the last part of the camp and being able to say goodbye to the kids.

Overall it was a really fun, if tiring experience that got somewhat spoiled by my dodgy health. I would love to do another one, but I’m worried I’ll get sick again. Maybe later this year once the weather cools down again. I’ll see how my health is doing then.

May passed by with a mixture of school, game days at various friends’ houses, and other miscellaneous trips out doing various things. Then on June 2nd, a rather ferocious typhoon hit whilst I was at school. Two of my co-workers and I managed to get stuck at one of the Disney hotels whilst trying to get home. The trains had stopped and we decided to wait in the hotel until we could get a taxi to take us to a station where the trains were still running. Loads of people were doing similar, so it took a while until a taxi was available. But we were in nice, cushy surroundings at least, haha.

Later in June, Shyam and I went to an Ethiopian restaurant in Naka Meguro called Queen Sheba. It was my first time to try Ethiopian food and it was so delicious! The couple that own the restaurant are really nice too. They catered for Shyam being vegetarian and also helped me out loads with my spicy food issue. I recommend it very highly!

Then on July 1-2, Shyam and I went on another camping/rafting trip with Mike. This time with Zeke and Matthias. We packed into Mike’s car with all the stuff and headed to Kami-Nagatoro in Saitama. We had a cabin with bedding provided this time, so not quite as much gear crammed into the car, lol. Mike had also booked out the gazebo/picnic area in the centre of the camp ground for our stay. So we had lots of space!

We spent the Saturday down by the river. Lots of -terrifying- swimming (the current was pretty strong) and lounging about, chatting, drinking, having fun. Then in the evening we had a barbeque in our picnic area and then toasted marshmallows on the campfire, of course. It was really chill and nice (apart from the bugs that kept pestering me in particular, I swear!). Then we made our futons up and got some needed shuteye. The most funny thing was during the night, Matthias got fed up with a couple of the guys snoring and opted to sleep in the car instead. So when I got up the next morning and went out to the loo, I just saw his legs sticking out of the car, haha.

On the Sunday we had breakfast very early as we were scheduled in for rafting at 9am. It was an excellent rafting trip. I really enjoyed the one the year before, but somehow this one was even better. Our instructor was super fun and had us doing some crazy things. At one point we all stood on the side of the raft and just fell backwards into the water. It was hilarious! We also stopped at a waterfall and got some nice photos. It was a super fun time!

After rafting we showered and got packed up. Then we headed to a pizza place nearby that did yummy wood-fired pizza. It was just what we needed after two hours rafting. Then we had the drive back to Tokyo. All in all it was a super fun weekend!

And that’s that for this blog. Next time will be about the epic 3 and a half week trip back to the UK.

Spring flowers!

I’m back! Less than a week later!! So this entry is going to be photo heavy about a couple of trips to see some beautiful flowers during March/April last year.

So in late March last year, Shyam and I went back to Showa Kinen Park. We went there for the autumn leaves in the November before and decided we wanted to go back during cherry blossom season. So we did the same thing again. We got there early, rented bikes, and had an amazing few hours cycling round the huge park. Only this time the colours were varying shades of pink (plus some green, yellow, red, orange).

There was also a bit of a Dutch theme going on, with some big clogs and a myriad of brightly coloured tulips.

I really love this park. Spring or autumn, it is just wonderful. I’m not a fan of cycling since I had a bad accident when I was a child, but I love it here. Dedicated cycle lanes, amazing surroundings, and just a brilliant sense of freedom. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone that comes to Tokyo.

The other trip was one I made during the second week of April last year. I had a random day off school, so met with a friend and went to Nezu Shrine’s Azalea Spring Festival. If you go there on the weekend during the Azalea Festival, it is far too busy, so getting a random weekday off was perfect! It was absolutely wonderful! I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life. Apparently the azalea garden is over 300 years old.

There were still a lot of people there, but it wasn’t too bad. I loved how the azaleas seemed to be both uniformly positioned and not at the same time. It really was a wonderful sight and one my photos don’t really do justice.

So, nearly done with this entry. I just have a couple of bonus photos for you. I’m so lucky to live in a really green area friendly part of Tokyo. There is a manmade pathway that stretches around the whole of the ward, which has lots of trees, flowers, water features, etc. on it. I often go walking on it with my friend who lives nearby. We actually even had a regular jogging session along it for a while last year (until it got too hot). The bonus photos are from one of these sessions. I absolutely love the last picture, capturing three different colours of leaves at once on a warm spring day.

Okay, that’s all for today. Until next time, when I’ll have some tales and photos from late Spring/early Summer.

New apartment, new job

So it’s been a while. I went to update a couple of times a while ago and Word Press was being weird. But, better late than never! I’m actually typing this on my brand spanking new iPad (with cheap keyboard attached) from a cafe. So yay for being able to write whilst on the go now. Last time I said I’d be back with a blog about two big changes that happened in my life in February/March last year. So here goes!

So first, I moved to Tokyo! After four years living in Yokohama, I decided it was time for a change. Also, Shyam and I wanted to finally move in together. So we started the long, difficult, expensive process of moving apartments in Japan. We found an estate agent that catered for foreigners and had a lovely agent that spoke perfect English. She took us round several apartments. We thought we found the perfect place but our application was rejected. Apparently because we weren’t married. So back to the drawing board.

We were on a deadline as the lease on my place was up on the 4th weekend of February and I didn’t want to pay another renewal fee (an extra month’s rent!). So we quickly scheduled more viewings and eventually found a place. It was a pretty amusing viewing experience. Our agent couldn’t find any parking nearby, so ended up parking on the side of the road and daren’t leave the car. So Shyam and I went up and viewed the property alone. It was already dark and there was no electricity in the apartment, so we had to look around with the flashlights on our phones.

It was big! The space inside was much better than anything we’d seen in our price range before. It’s a 2DK, which means two rooms, plus a diner/kitchen room. The two rooms were good sizes and the diner/kitchen was long and very spacious! There was also a built in dishwasher, which amused us very much. The only really bad thing about the interior was the bathroom sink. It looks like a mini urinal. Very bizarre and not really useable, but we make do. The location is also perfect! A bus stop right outside, 15 mins to two different train stations, a huge park opposite, and loads of nearby options for supermarkets and restaurants/cafes.

So we immediately asked our agent to put an application in for us. This time it went through and we were soon starting the mammoth task of moving in. Because we were both still working at our Yokohama based schools until the end of March, Shyam decided to stay at his place for an extra three weeks until school finished. I didn’t have that luxury, so I had to commute a bit further than usual for a month, but it was okay. I found a reasonably priced moving company and got all my stuff boxed up and moved easily enough, including bed, washing machine, fridge, etc.

Shyam didn’t have big appliances to move, so we (mostly me), rather laboriously, gradually moved it using suitcases, lol. I moved in the fourth weekend of February and Shyam joined me three weeks later. It was fun exploring the new area and slowly setting up a much bigger space. We bought a double bed new. We found a solid kitchen table with four chairs for 5,000 Yen and a sofa bed for free on a sayonara sale group on Facebook. And gradually added other furniture and storage as we went.

Another nice feature of our place is that it is south facing. So in the afternoon we get absolutely loads of sunshine! (Maybe not so good in the hot, humid summer, but it is very lovely. Please ignore the untidiness of the photo below and admire the sun drenched rooms, haha,

So on top of moving apartments, we both changed jobs. We had decided before Christmas that it was time for a job change. For me, I knew I had to change schools for April because we can only stay at the same school for three years. So I thought I might as well try and get a better paying job. Happily my friend wrote me a brilliant recommendation for a job at his old company and after a fairly lengthy process, I got a job with them. I also managed to get Shyam a job with them too. It was still teaching, but now at private schools with higher pay.

So I actually got my school placement after we moved apartments. And unfortunately it ended up being quite a hefty commute. I now have to travel on two trains and a bus for a total commute time of nearly 1 and a half hours one way everyday. It’s not too bad though and actually quite common here. Also my school has a lot of no lesson days and if we don’t have lessons, we don’t have to go in. So it’s pretty nice. Plus the school is lovely! I teach second grade in high school. So 16/17 year olds. They’re nice but pretty immature, lol.

I should finish up here. I’ll just finish with a quick note about leaving my old school. I was there for three years. I got to see my first graders go all the way through junior high school and graduate. From little, excitable 12 year olds to serious but still lovely 15 year olds. They were great students! Graduation day was a teary affair for me. Saying goodbye to all the teachers I’d grown close to over the years was hard. But I’ll always remember them. I also received some lovely flowers and letters from both students and teachers.

Thanks for reading! I’ll hopefully update more quickly next time. It will be a photos heavy entry next time.

Two late winter coastal trips

So in February last year, I managed to fit in two trips to the coast to take in some breathtaking sea views. The first was in the Izu Peninsula and the second was the Miura Peninsula.

I went down to Izu during the second week of February last year and met up with two of my fellow BTS fans. We had primarily got together to see the Yet To Come concert at the cinema, but we were also going to be staying down in Izu at one of the girl’s place there and make a weekend of it. So first off on the Saturday we saw the concert at the cinema in Numazu. It was really fun! We took our ARMY bombs (light sticks) and bucked the Japanese trend of being completely silent by dancing in our seats and singing along quietly, hehe.

The next day we drove out to the Jogasaki coast and had a lovely walk. Despite being mid-February, it was so warm out we left our coats in the car. There were some truly breathtaking views along the way, plus a very cool suspension bridge.

About a week or so later, Shyam and I finally got out to the Miura Peninsula. I had been eying going there for ages and we finally took our chance to go on a Sunday daytrip down there. It took about an hour and a half from Yokohama station by train and then bus. That area is called Jogashima and it is extremely remote. A very wild part of Japan that made me think of Kirrin Island in the Famous Five.

When the bus dropped us off, we were a bit unsure where we were supposed to go. Initially we walked down this remote road that took us past a very haunted looking but actually semi occupied industrial building. Then we found a dirty bit of beach that was full of rubbish. Definitely fit the (not quite) abandoned building next to it. We quickly retreated and retraced our footsteps and tried a different route. We eventually found our way to Jogashima Park. It was beautiful but incredibly windy! It was a beautiful garden area that tapered off to a lighthouse on a cliff. The scenery was very dramatic, made more so with the high winds of the day.

We walked from there along the coast line. Although for some of the walk we were kind of enclosed in this path with high hedges either side. It was a fairly lengthy but fun walk, which took us from one side of the island to the other.

The other side of the island had a few shops and houses, so it didn’t feel quite so wild. It was still incredibly windy even though we were lower down now. There was a fun walk out across some bridges where if you didn’t time it well, you were going to get soaked by the high waves. Very exciting!

Overall it was a fun, exciting day out, with lots of beautiful scenery and fresh air. Thoroughly recommend it if you are in the area. And I’ll be back soon(ish) with my next update, where I’ll talk about two big changes that happened in my life.

Christmas and New Year 2022/23

So I’ve managed to let myself get more than a year behind with this now. But I am determined to keep documenting all the important moments during my years in Japan. It’s mostly for myself to look back on in the future. It’s important to me to carry on. So this will be a bumper addition taking in all of last winter vacation.

So school finished for the year ahead of Christmas Day for the second year in a row, which was nice. The joy of the 25th landing on a weekend. Shyam and I celebrated the day at a friend’s sharehouse. They have large kitchen and dining facilities there, so we had a party of around ten of us. Shyam took on the bulk of the cooking, bless him. We couldn’t get hold of a turkey due to a shortage, so we had two chickens instead. His potatoes roasted in goose fat stole everyone’s hearts. I think my mince pies went down pretty well too, but not as much as the apple crumble and, most importantly, custard, haha. It was a fun time with delicious food.

Things got a little frantic after Christmas Day. Shyam and I had booked last minute flights back to the UK as he had important family stuff to sort out. So on Boxing Day morning we met at Haneda airport and flew out to Vietnam, where we had a long layover, but not quite long enough to leave the airport. So we splurged and went in a lounge. It was a novel experience. After a long time, we boarded our flight to Heathrow and thankfully slept through much of it.

Mum and Adrian were waiting for me when we arrived, so it was a slightly tearful farewell with Shyam and then the long drive back up to mum’s house. It being a year ago, I don’t remember details well ^^; but the six days I was back with my family involved seeing my two brothers, my dog and cat, and a couple of friends. But mostly just chilling and eating all the food I’d missed. Nearly 4 years away had flown by but it still felt almost overwhelming to be back. It wasn’t long enough, but I was thankful it even happened.

The last two photos are my mum’s homemade quiche, which I adore, and a second Christmas dinner but had on New Years Day, and with an actual Christmas cracker! (Almost impossible to get in Japan). Thank you to Adrian for cooking that one!

On the morning of January 2nd, mum and Adrian drove me back down to Heathrow as Shyam and I were heading back. We couldn’t stay any longer as I was scheduled to have a surgery on the 5th. Crazy winter, haha ^^; I very briefly met Shyam’s mum and sister at the airport. Both seemed lovely and I was glad to finally meet some of Shyam’s family in person after us having been a couple for years. Goodbyes were said and then Shyam and I hopped on our first flight to Helsinki. We had a short layover there, finding a Burger King that did halloumi burgers! Then took the long flight to Haneda.

I had only one full day between arriving back and my hospital admission. I unpacked my suitcase and repacked a smaller suitcase. Shyam and I spent the day together and he won me a stuffed fox to take into hospital with me. I named it Aki because it has a leaf on it’s head and Aki is Japanese for Autumn, hehe.

I also took an important photo of my haul of goodies I brought back from the UK. You don’t realise how much you love eating certain foods until you can’t easily get them anymore, lol.

Then on the morning of January 5th, I was admitted to hospital to have surgery to remove fibroids. The hospital didn’t allow any visitation so I was alone for nearly a week. It was very hard. But I was prepared for it. I had a good book and my laptop and my new bullet journal I had started. I was allowed to go into this lounge area to make phone calls, which was fine on my first night. But the next day I had my surgery and I wasn’t well enough to get to the lounge for the next 2 days.

The food was hit and miss, as you would expect. In Japanese hospitals it’s rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I remember after 4 days dreaming about getting some bread and then I finally did get some, haha. The worst meal was scrambled egg with tuna mixed into it. I never want the misfortune of eating that again. But overall I can’t really complain too much and the staff took great care of me, helping me a lot even despite the language barrier.

I was let out on the following Wednesday morning. So nearly a full week in there. Apparently the same procedure in the UK would see you in hospital for two days max. I’m not sure how they manage that because I couldn’t even get out of bed for two days, but yeah… fibroids successfully removed and my doctor took great delight in showing me photos. It was disgusting.

I had a few extra days off to recover and then was back at school teaching the following week. So ended my very busy, up and down, winter vacation. I’ll, hopefully, be back soon with the next installment. Going to hopefully speed through 2023 and finally get up to date soon!

November adventures

I’m back with another catch up blog. This entry will contain many vibrant autumnal photos as well as some cool action shots. My November 2022 was pretty awesome!

So first, at the start of the month, Shyam and I went to Showa Kinen Park in West Tokyo. I’d been bugging him to go there for ages and we happened to go just when the autumn leaves were at the height of all their pretty colours. It’s a huge park with dedicated cycle lanes and you can hire bicycles at two of the park’s gates for a reasonable fee. I’m not much of a cyclist due to a bad accident when I was a child, but I really enjoy cycling in parks (away from cars). This experience was amazing! And the autumn leaves made it even better.

There’s a huge lake at the park with boats available to hire. Plus various food places to buy the usual street food fare: yakisoba, long french fries, ice-cream, etc.

The park also hosts a beautiful traditional Japanese garden. The vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows made it even more beautiful. Autumn is my favourite season and this park was a real treat for me.

A few days later I finally got to experience something I’d been wanting to do for years. I’d organised a small group of friends to go to Forest Adventure in Yokohama. It’s a treetop high wires adventure course. Something I’ve been keen to try since before I came to Japan. So I finally made it happen. The price was reasonable and it took about 2 hours to do the course. The zip wires were fun and the course was super difficult in places. Overall I think we all enjoyed it a lot.

Later in November, Katy and I went to a free cultural open day in a convention centre in Tokyo. There were various booths set up from different prefectures, promoting their local specialties. Also booths from different companies promoting their wares. We got to collect a lot of different freebies (if we signed up for their social media). There were also some demonstration booths for various Japanese culture. We tried calligraphy, watched some sword fighting, and got to hold a sword in cool poses too. It was a fun hour or so.

The kanji I wrote means love. The lady said I had good form. I can’t see it myself as it looks super messy to me. Anyways, that’s all for this time. Slowly but surely getting caught up.

Rafting and birthday fun

I’m back! And nearly a full year behind again ^^; I must, like really must, endeavor to actually get caught up over the next few weeks. This entry will be about our camping and rafting trip last year and the wonderful surprise birthday party I got to enjoy the very next day.

So last September we had a long holiday weekend (Friday/Saturday/Sunday) that just happened to coincide with my birthday (on the Saturday). So Shyam and I went with three of our friends on a camping trip for one night. We went to Minakami in Gunma and, because of the heavy rain forecast, stayed in a cabin rather than in tents. We set up a gazebo outside the cabin and just about managed a bbq and board games under there despite the heavy rain. It was very atmospheric.

We slept fairly snugly in the cabin on various airbeds/mats/etc. It wasn’t the most comfortable, but we managed okay. Then the next day (my birthday, and also Ali’s birthday! – my birthday twin 🙂 ) we went rafting! It was soooo fun! My first time to go white water rafting. It was quite a bit more lively than it should have been because of all the rain we had making the river higher and faster. Luckily it had stopped raining, so it was perfect conditions.

As you can see from the photos, the river was very rough, but we still jumped in and had a swim at one point. It was quite difficult because the current was strong and it was very cold, but it was still fun! The rapids were so exciting and overall it was an amazing experience!

We had lunch somewhere after that (was it pizza? I forget ^^; ) and then drove the long journey back to Tokyo. Rafting and camping was super fun!

The next day I was expecting to go out for a birthday meal with just Shyam. He had me believe that was what was happening, but what actually happened was he led me to a restaurant where 7 of my friends were waiting to celebrate with us. It was a lovely surprise! It was a lively, I believe independent, burger restaurant. The burgers were very nice. I got some lovely presents. And Shyam had baked me a cake. The burger place also brought me out a special birthday dessert. So I was thoroughly spoiled for sweets!

It was a truly lovely evening and I can’t thank Shyam enough for organising it. And all my friends for coming. Surprise birthday parties are lovely 🙂

Until next time…

A tale of two theme cafes

I’m back after a couple of months. This time I want to write about two theme cafes I went to last summer. Japan is very big on theme cafes and generally I don’t go to them because the food is overpriced and bad. But, I decided to make an exception for these two for various reasons.

First up, and I’m outing myself even more now as a huge BTS fan, is the Bora Café in Shin-Okubo. My fellow ARMY (BTS’s fanbase) friend had come up to Tokyo for the day and this was very firmly on the list of places we wanted to go. Bora is Korean for purple and it’s a colour very much synonymous with BTS. They had decked the café out in purple, of course, as well as putting up pictures of BTS, playing their music videos on a TV, and adorning the place with the groups’ Line Friends’ characters, BT21.

They had a special menu, which included a Dynamite donut, lol. So we ordered a couple of food items and drinks and had a very pleasant 40 mins or so soaking it all in and playing with all the cushions.

The second theme café was a Stranger Things café. It was a pop up in a Pronto café in Shibuya for a few weeks. We had to prebook tickets as it was very popular, but it was worth the hassle. Because it was in a Pronto, the food and drink prices were actually reasonable compared to the average theme café. They did a very good job on the interior décor and the menu was pretty decent. Overall it was a very fun experience.

Both cafés were only temporary, so I’m glad I went to them whilst I could. This was a very short, picture heavy entry. Hopefully I’ll be back soon with something a bit more substantial.

Late spring/early summer

I’m back with another blog, finally! Sorry for the completely unimaginative title. I just couldn’t think of anything more interesting. Actually, before I start this entry for real, can we just laugh at the fact this blog is called ‘a year in Japan’ and I’m now into my 5th year here. It’s such a common story among foreigners living here. We all plan to come for a year and find ourselves here years later. The unique pull of Japan.

So the first part of this entry is me paying homage to Yokohama. I recently moved form Yokohama to Tokyo, so I’m starting to miss it a bit. It really is a wonderful city. On this occasion, back in April 2022, my friend Miyu and I went to Minatomirai (the port area) on a beautifully sunny day and got lots of lovely photos together and apart. It was a very fun, chill kind of day out.

There was a flower exhibition on outside the red brick warehouse. We were impressed by this use of jeans, haha.

Next, one day in May, Shyam and I went to the Sunshine Observatory in Ikebukuro. It’s not your typical observatory. Yes, there are grand sweeping, panoramic views of Tokyo. But there was also an interactive theme park of sorts. It was called Sky Circus. I say was, because I’ve just found out it has been changed into something completely different now. It was very cool anyway. Lots of cool mirrors and tricks. Things to interact with. Plus they had these extra VR attractions that we didn’t try, but they looked fun.

Last but not least for this blog, we have Shyam and I going to Ueno Zoo. It took some doing as for the longest time it was almost impossible to get tickets because of the restricted numbers of visitors allowed during the pandemic. But we got there in the end. We saw all the animals except the giant pandas (you had to enter a special lottery to be able to see them). We also rented a swan boat and had a ride out on the big lake. It was a very uncomfortable experience as they were clearly not made for our giant foreigner bodies.

After the zoo, we found a beer festival of sorts going on nearby and couldn’t resist going in and soaking up the atmosphere a bit. Also, purchasing some classic ‘long potato’, hehe.

Then for dinner, to round off a lovely day, we went to a vegan ramen restaurant in Ueno station called T’s Tantan. It was very good! Finding meat free food in Japan for Shyam can be very challenging at times, so I’m always happy when I find new places that do good vegetarian, or in this case, vegan, food.

Okay, that’s it for the post. We’ll move into July 2022 and beyond next time. I will get caught up! Even if my entries are kind of sparse and mashing a load of months together. Once I’m caught up, the quality of the blog should hopefully rise again. ^^;