A long entry about lots of things!

So, nearly a week round again, but it has been a busy week! So on Saturday I’m afraid I missed quidditch practice as I woke up feeling pretty terrible. Bad sleep and, unknown to me at the time, the beginnings of a cold. So I took it easy in the morning and then headed into Tokyo in the afternoon as I was going to hang out with Nicola and Matt! Sooo good to see Nicola since she was visiting Japan 😀

So Nicola, Matt, Shyam and I met in Shinjuku. It was crazy busy because of the rugby but we found each other eventually. We then headed straight for a kushikatsu restaurant nearby. Much kushikatsu was ordered and enjoyed, but the real entertainment factor was the fact Matt and I ordered takoyaki and you have to make it yourself at the table. My god, we were terrible at it, but it was pretty fun! And the non-burnt ones tasted good!

Forgotten kushikatsu as the takoyaki challenge was accepted!

Trying to flip the takoyaki over was sooo hard!

We decided to go bowling after this as there was a place nearby that had a black light floor. Now, I’m usually pretty hit and miss with bowling as I have this weird bowling technique where I unintentionally flick my wrist and make the ball spin. However, usually I get a nice mix of strikes and gutter balls. Well, this bowling alley seemed to have some anti-spin thing going on because nearly all my turns ended in double gutters. I just couldn’t do it! It was so frustrating. I did have good fun though and the others fared a bit better than me.

Can’t believe I am sharing the evidence, haha. I got slightly more in our second game…

After bowling we went to a dessert cafe. Omg finally! I have been wanting to go to one since I got here back in February, lol. So we paid around 1,300 yen for 70 minutes of all you can eat dessert (and curry, bizarrely). They had loads of Halloween themed desserts and the cafe was decked out in Halloween decorations. It was sooo good but we all left having consumed far too much cake, haha.

Creepy Halloween desserts. The purple one was sweet potato!

The orange one was my fave on this plate. Peaches ❤

Nicola and I after our first platefuls, haha.

It was a really lovely few hours! I hope you and Matt enjoyed the rest of your stay and got home safe, Nicola ❤

Sunday was spent in a food coma, lol, and Monday was school. Then on Tuesday it was a kind of randomly placed bank holiday. I believe it was an extra one for this year specially for the new Emperor’s coronation ceremony. I was full of cold at this point but I was determined I would do something worthwhile on this extra holiday day. So Shyam and I braved the rainy weather and went to the Edo-Tokyo museum, which happily had free entry for the day too as a bonus!

As I mentioned above, I wasn’t really feeling very well, and the rainy weather made it worse. Also, my phone was playing up big time (more on that in a minute), which made my mood worse. So whilst I was really excited about going to the museum, by the time I got in there I wasn’t really feeling it anymore. So I didn’t really look at all the exhibitions or read the information properly. So I definitely need to go back sometime! Shyam got some good photos though!

A huge model of the theatres and pleasure quarters.

Festival float of the Kanda Myojin Shrine.

Heavy pole swinging! Nearly got completely unbalanced doing this, haha.

And me being super strong! Fish weigh a lot, y’know!

So we went phone hunting in Akihabara afterwards but I was feeling too tired to concentrate on it properly and my phone wasn’t completely dead yet, so we just went home. Ohoho how I wish I’d bought a new phone. The very next day my phone died completely on the way to school and I was left completely bereft of contact to the outside world. It was very scary! Haha. I spent the majority of Wednesday evening trying to secure a new phone, eventually managing it at Sofmap near Yokohama station. A secondhand iPhone 6s for 19,800 yen, which is pretty decent. What a palava that was!

Anyways, this entry has gotten very long, but just to tack onto the end, because it’s interesting and I want to remember it. The last two days at school we’ve had the annual Culture Festival. My school is a big school so ours lasted over two days. The main theme was the choral concert with all classes in all three grades singing two songs each. The main thing I got from this was even though they’re singing in Japanese, it is very similar to listening to choral concerts back home. My school has great singers too. They all sounded great!

This afternoon we also had performances from the drama club and the brass band club. Both were excellent! I didn’t really understand much of the drama club’s performance but it was basically some take on a dinner date style reality show and all the students watching got really into it. It was a joy to watch them all interacting so well with it. The brass band were superb! They really sounded great and they had a lot of fun with it, with totally well rehearsed cameos of random teachers and students singing and dancing. Easily my favourite part of the two days.

So yes, a very busy week! Quidditch tomorrow, then maybe something on Sunday (plenty of Halloween events on). Then an actual full week of normal school! Though I’m mostly going to be doing fun Halloween-themed lessons, haha. Thanks for reading! Until next time 🙂

A weekend in Osaka

Ahh I’m so late with this blog! So last weekend (yes, a whole week ago!) I finally went to Osaka. My friend, Jess, came back to Japan for a bit, so I seized my chance to go see her before she left again, lol. So because it was a rather last minute decision and it was a bank holiday weekend, the cheaper overnight buses were not that cheap, so I ended up forking out for the shinkansen (bullet train). It was very good to experience it though. So fast and convenient, although not quite as comfortable as I was expecting.

I arrived in Osaka at about 7:30pm and Jess met me off the train. We headed straight to a bar where her friend’s band was playing. They were really good, playing random things like metal versions of Disney songs. It was a fun night! We headed back to Jess’s afterwards and I was amazed by a) how close to the station she was (but literally no noise issues) and b) how big her place was!

We had an early alarm set for Saturday morning as the plan was to go to Jess’s former school’s sports day, but unfortunately it was cancelled at the last minute because of Typhoon Hagibis. Instead we went to abacus class! Yes, I was kind of sceptical about it because I’m terrible at maths, but it was actually really interesting and fun! Plus I got given my very own abacus to keep, which is awesome! In Japanese it’s called Soroban and is still taught fairly widely in Japan, I believe.

Two of the teachers took us out for lunch afterwards, which was so nice of them! We had a very generous Chinese meal set, and then we went to a tea-specific cafe afterwards and drank far too much tea, haha. We then, randomly, ended up going to a blood donation centre. Camila was coincidentally in Osaka for the weekend as well and she wanted to go give blood. So we ended up hanging out with her there for a couple of hours. Jess and I couldn’t donate as Japan doesn’t want UK blood because of the foot and mouth disease business from the 90’s (or something), but we partook in the free drinks and snacks in the waiting room, haha.

Nice view from the blood donation centre too…

We went shopping after this, spending a ridiculous amount of time in Forever 21, lol. They’re closing down so there were a lot of bargains to be had. Predictably, I didn’t buy anything though. We also went to the Pokemon Centre but I’m afraid I have to say I prefer the Yokohama one. Sorry, Osaka! Then, after saying bye to Camila, Jess and I bought some nikuman and shyumai from 551 Horai, which I learnt is a must when one is in Osaka. And oh wow those pork buns tasted amazing! 100% recommend it to anyone visiting Osaka.

Pork buns! I liked the one big one best.

On the Sunday we got up pretty early again as we were heading off on a road trip to have a BBQ in the countryside. Jess, some of her friends, and I went in two cars to a BBQ place North West of Osaka in Hyogo. It was nice and sunny after it had lashed it down with rain all day the day before because of the typhoon, but it was cold and windy, which made for interesting BBQ times. We had a fun day though and I got to practice my Japanese listening skills a lot! Haha.

I spent my last couple of hours in Osaka buying some souvenirs and eating takoyaki, because when in Osaka you must eat takoyaki (and technically okonomiyaki too, but I never had the chance – next time!) Then I said bye to Jess and hopped onto the overnight bus. Just over 8 hours on a coach! It wasn’t the most comfortable but luckily I actually slept for the majority of the journey. Hooray! Was less than half the shinkansen fare, so definitely worth it!

Apparently a very famous takoyaki store in Osaka, so yay!

I stupidly ate one whilst it was too hot, but they were really good!

So yes, overall a very good trip to Osaka. I may not have done any of the touristy things, but I certainly got to see city life from a Kansai perspective. Very different to Tokyo and Yokohama. More chilled out and certainly less hectic. And yes, I avoided the brunt of that awful typhoon as well. So a very good weekend to visit! 🙂

Busy busy Saturday!

So yes, yet another blog entry. I’m definitely on a roll at the moment. Saturday was a nice socially busy day. I started the day with quidditch, as usual (well semi-usual, lol). I got there late again, which, admittedly, was half on purpose. It’s so hot still at the moment and I can’t manage the full 3 hours in this heat. 1 and a half to 2 hours is more than enough. We were joined by some members from the Azabu Stirrings, which was great! Always nice to see them 🙂 Also some new people, who were lovely. It was a good practice.

Some of us then went to Yoyogi Park for the Hokkaido Food Festival, where we had a very varied lunch of different treats from different stalls. I had a cheese dog, the longest chips you’ve ever seen, and a pot of strawberry snow (well that is the literal translation of what it was called, ahem).

My face says it all, those chips were long!

FuwaFuwa Yukiichigo, lol. Was sooo nice!

We left the park about 5pm ish and parted ways with Morgan and Soulef. Our now smaller group of four headed onward to the Tamagawa Fireworks Festival (yes another one!). It was crazy busy! But the fireworks were amazing! Probably the best I’ve seen here. They were setting them off in two nearby locations at the same time, so we got whiplash trying to watch both, lol. Also there were tall buildings all around so we got a very weird vibration sound after each bang. Was very cool!

We left slightly early to try and avoid the mad dash for the train back to Shibuya. It was still busy but I think it would have been a lot worse once the fireworks finished. We said sayonara to Ranil here and our now even smaller group of three went to find food in Shibuya. Well technically Miyu and I were focused on karaoke, but then Nick rather plaintively said ‘I want a burrito’ when he spotted a Mexican restaurant, haha. Great shout by Nick because we also found frozen strawberry margaritas there too. Ahh soo good! As was the guacamole! 😀

I promise it is strawberry! Not sure why it looks so orange…

Yay! my favourite summery alcoholic drink, and Miyu’s first time drinking it.

We chose the avocado and our waitress made the guacamole at our table. Tasted sooo good!

We shared this burrito. I think Nick wanted another one all to himself, to be honest, haha.

Sliders that, according to Nick, were much bigger than traditional sliders, lol.

After we left the restaurant we went to get Tapioca. Or rather Miyu and Nick did. I admitted to never having tried it, but was vehemently sure I wouldn’t like it. I did try some of Miyu’s and, sure enough, I didn’t like it. I am so fussy about drinks! We had time for one more selfie before we all said our goodbyes for the day.

Tapioca selfie – you can just about see Miyu’s red straw there, haha.

So yes, a very busy Saturday, which was blissfully followed with a very lazy Sunday. Got a busy weekend lined up in a few days, so having Sunday to do not much was brilliant! 🙂

Post birthday weekend happenings

So, following on from my very self-indulgent entry from a few days ago, a quick little write up about last weekend.

On Friday evening I had a surprise few hours out with two of my neighbours: Toni and Daneille. Toni and I share the same birthday, so we, along with Daneille, went to Cosmo World in Yokohama together. It’s a permanent amusement park and one I’d been meaning to experience properly, so it worked out well. We went on two roller-coasters and in the mirror maze, as well as chilling out in the arcade a bit. It was a lot of fun! Especially the big pink roller-coaster. Loved it! 😀

Daneille and I totally chill before riding Vanish!

We then went for a very traditional Japanese meal at Hard Rock Cafe, haha. It was perfect actually. Sometimes you just need to eat a massive burger! Bit too noisy in there though. The music was on sooo loud! But it was a good meal and a good way to finish a lovely evening 🙂

Daneille, moi, and Toni. Was a lovely evening! ❤

On Saturday I had quidditch practice, of course. I arrived late as usual, whoops ^^; It was still hot! I thought after my two weeks off whilst my mum was visiting, the temperatures would have cooled enough to make practice more comfortable, but nope! This Saturday is meant to be 29c too. Argh! It’s October now, goddamnit. Anyways, we had a good practice with a few new people. And I got given some presents off Morgan, Miyu and Rich, which was nice!

Morgan and Miyu thought these slippers were hilarious considering what happened to me a couple weeks ago. To be fair, they kind of are! XD

They also made me this though, which nearly made me cry ❤

And Rich brought me peanut butter chocolately goodness back from America, as promised ❤

Yasmine and I left quidditch early as we were going to a fireworks festival later and were going in yukata, which takes a long time to put on. So us two, plus Yasmine’s friends Estelle and Sesin, got into yukata at Yasmine and Estelle’s place. For those that don’t know, yukata is basically the summer version of a kimono. It’s incredibly complicated to put on and I bow down to Estelle’s skills. We then did Purikura (photo booth), which is very popular in Japan. So my first time wearing a yukata and doing Purikura. Ticking all those boxes!

Yes, it automatically makes you have anime eyes, lol.

Yeah my neck looks incredibly weird in this one, lol.

So after getting digitally creative, we made our way all the way up to Kita-ku for the fireworks. It was very busy! But we managed to find a small patch of grass to sit on and watch the fireworks light up the sky. They were very impressive! Japan definitely goes all out with their fireworks displays. I headed off home after this, stopping briefly at Yasmine’s to change out of my yukata. I had a really lovely evening with these three girls! ❤

And Sunday was my first day in a long time were I didn’t go anywhere and got to catch up on cleaning and laundry and things, which was good! 😀

Special Birthday meal

So, picking up from my last blog, my mum left to return for England on my birthday, boohoo. But we had a lovely day the day before! And I was to be treated like a very spoiled princess in the evening, haha.

I had SEPRO during the day, which was great because the other ALTs all wished me happy birthday, and some of the kids did too when I mentioned it in my intro, haha. I really do like SEPRO. I know a lot of the other ALTs don’t, and maybe it’s because it’s all shiny and new to me still, but yeah, I just really enjoy it! 🙂

So to the evening happenings. I got dressed up really nice in a dress! (for the people that know me well, they know that is something of a miracle! Haha). Shyam was taking me to Sirius. This is a French restaurant right up the very top of the Landmark Tower in Yokohama. Big shout out to Miyu for helping me purchase said dress ❤

Landmark Tower – second tallest building in Japan according to Wikipedia.

We had a window table booked for 6pm and oh my goodness the view! That by itself would have made my evening so special. I really can’t describe how amazing it was and the photos we took don’t really do it justice. It was breathtaking! The waiting staff were all very attentive, without being overbearing. It all felt just right and I felt relaxed straight away (I had been worried I might feel out of place as I’m not really used to fine dining).

We chose our set menu first and then ordered a cocktail each. Then we were left to admire the view some more for a bit before the first dish came. Below is the set menu, which I got to keep as a souvenir.

I had everything on this menu except the beef.

The ham was brought over first. It was really nice! Shyam had a vegetarian equivalent (I don’t remember exactly what it was). Then bread was brought over ready for the pumpkin soup, which Shyam was brought straight away. I had the duck first and that was very nice! The pumpkin soup was also lovely! I didn’t think I would like it but I really enjoyed it!

The ham dish. The Mimolette Cheese really complemented the ham nicely.

The duck – the photo doesn’t actually make it look that nice, but it was lovely!

For the main I had the choice of seafood or beef and decided to go for the former. Very glad I did when I saw the beef brought out for the lady on the table next to us. Looked like a massive slab of meat, which I really didn’t want. The Yellowtail was absolutely delightful. Again, not something I’d had before, so a bit of a gamble, but I really enjoyed it!

Then they brought the dessert over, complete with a candle in for my birthday. They also took a photo of us at this point, for a purpose I wasn’t aware of at the time, lol. The dessert was so delicious! Coconut ice-cream and red wine soaked berries are so decadent. Also, there were raspberries! I hadn’t eaten any since my last day in England back in February and they’re my favourite fruit. I actually nearly cried, haha.

Yeah, I look pretty tired but I love this photo! ❤

Then tea and coffee was brought over. I had tea, of course. They also brought over another surprise. The photo they took earlier had been printed out and put in a birthday card for me. An amazing memento for an amazing evening! I really can’t thank Shyam enough. I’ve never experienced anything like it before and I felt so special and thoroughly spoiled. I really had the best birthday evening! 😀

Sorry, that was a very self indulgent blog entry, but I wanted to make sure I kept a nice detailed memory of the evening somewhere. It was a fabulous evening! 🙂

Second weekend with my mama

So my mum had a really great time in Kyoto and I definitely need to go there before my time in Japan is through (should have gone with her, damnit!). We were to have a rather dramatic start to our second weekend together though. In true ‘me’ style, I ended up in hospital again on Friday. Carted off in an ambulance direct from school. So very very dramatic. I was perfectly fine but then all of sudden I got very very sick. Turned out to be a bad infection in my intestines. Not pleasant. So mum’s first duty upon arriving back in Kanto was to come pick me up (and initially pay my hospital bill – I need to start carrying emergency cash on me for these hospital trips >.<).

Our plans for the weekend had to be moved around slightly because of this. I was in no fit state on Saturday to go to the Enoshima Spa. Instead we ended up having a nice slow start to the day. Early in the afternoon we walked to the shrine near my apartment I’d never been to. It’s a tiny, backyard type shrine, and I didn’t take photos, but I’m glad I finally saw it. We stopped back at my apartment again for a bit, and then we went out to China Town in Yokohama.

It was actually only the third ever time I’d been into China Town, for some reason. We had a good wander around and bought a few bits and pieces. Then we walked all the way down to Minato Mirai just as the sun was setting. It was beautiful!

I was feeling a lot better on Sunday and we headed into Tokyo in fairly decent time. I took mum to Asakusa to see the temple and market there. She was very impressed and really enjoyed trying out various street food, including some karaage and cheese mochi.

A rather awkward selfie just outside the temple, lol.

Cheese mochi! I finally tried it, though only a few bites of mum’s one.

We then headed to another yarn shop that mum had listed as wanting to visit. It was nearby in Asakusabashi. She, of course, made another purchase. This time a skein of local hand-dyed yarn. Very nice! The staff were very friendly and helpful.

From here I made a bad decision to take us to Ginza. Really wasn’t the sort of shopping we were after, so after some fruitless walking around we hopped on the Yamanote Line to Harajuku. We did a bit of shopping and then caught the train back. We stopped in a Nepalese curry place that’s in my local area, and had a very nice late dinner. (Yeah. curry maybe not the best thing for me but I only ate a little and it was very mild).

Mushroom and spinach curry, and garlic naan!

Monday, our last day together, was to be a very busy day. We were essentially cramming two days together on this day because of my ills and spills upsetting things. So we got up and out early and headed to Kamakura. Mum wanted to see the Great Buddha and the bamboo gardens at Hokokuji temple, which we dutifully did. The bamboo gardens were very small but very beautiful, so worth the bus ride out. The Great Buddha, or Daibutsu, was as it was when I saw it before, though minus the cherry blossoms. I think mum had a very nice time!

Caves that are tombs connected to the temple.

Mama with a purple sweet potato ice-cream, after I raved on about them.

We went from Kamakura to Enoshima to go experience the spa resort there. Mum really wanted to go, so I’m glad we made it in the end. No photos as you’re not allowed to take any, which was a shame because there is an outside heated pool where we were able to watch the sunset from. It was absolutely beautiful! We could also see Mount Fuji from there. The Spa was https://enoshimaislandspa.com/enospa/facilities/ and it was the perfect way to spend our last afternoon/early evening in Japan together. I definitely want to go there again at some point.

We got back to mine about 9pm and had some sushi and other snacks. Then we had cake and I opened my birthday presents a day early so that mum could be there for it. I got some amazing gifts from family and friends and am truly the luckiest British girl in Japan, haha.

Mum left Japan yesterday lunchtime. It was a bit of a teary goodbye as I left my apartment to go to school, leaving mum to pack up her stuff and find her own way to the airport. She managed fine! We had a great time together and I’m sure the next few months will go by so quickly I’ll barely blink. I’m so glad she came over and had such a great time! 🙂 ❤

First weekend in Japan with my mama :)

Last Friday I took the day off school and went all the way to Narita airport to meet my mama off the plane. She was coming to visit for 12 days and I was very excited since I hadn’t seen her since February! She eventually made it through the arrivals gate after I’d been waiting for about an hour. After much hugging we headed to Starbucks as, to quote mum, ‘I could drink a gallon of tea right now’, so we did.

I didn’t get the full cups in, but they were the biggest sizes available, haha.

Then we, in hindsight regrettably, took the same route back to mine that I’d used to get there, but the trains took extra long and we seemed to be on them forever. Definitely getting mum the limo bus back next week. Much easier for her. She was impressed with my tiny apartment and I was very impressed with the haul of goodies she brought over for me. Tea and biscuits!! 😀

Also note the mincemeat. Mince pies will still happen this Christmas! 😀

After some time to relax, we headed out to Yokohama to get some food. We eventually ended up in this ramen place under Yokohama station, where we had big bowls of ramen each and shared some dim sum. It was pretty good!

Yeah, mum’s looks more interesting cause of the egg, lol.

The next day we headed out, not as early as planned, to Gotemba, where we had a hotel booked for the night. The plan had been to get close to Mount Fuji and take photos and stuff. Unfortunately we a) didn’t arrive very soon, and b) the weather was rubbish, so no Mount Fuji to be seen. Also Gotemba is a bit of a nothing city. There’s not really a lot there. We ended up in a Jonathan’s (family style chain restaurant) for food, and spent most of our time in the hotel. But luckily the hotel was very good!

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel. It was a Japanese breakfast, so rolled omelette, sausage, natto, okra, and various other bits, plus curry and rice. Mum tried most of it and seemed to enjoy it 😀 Then we headed over to Hakone. Or should I say we tried to. The plan had been to get the bus at 9:20am, but no bus turned up until 10:30. There were many of us all very frustrated waiting for this bus to turn up, but eventually it did, hooray! The ride was incredibly scenic and eventually dropped us off by Lake Ashi, where we were going to go on a pirate ship cruise across the lake.

The cruise was about 35 minutes and took us from the top of the lake down to the bottom. We got some amazing photos along the way of Mount Fuji and the Hakone Shrine Torii Gate in the water.

Mount Fuji being all mysterious in the distance

When we got off the ship we went for a wander and eventually ended up in a tiny cafe (only 5 tables!) where we had karaage (Japanese fried chicken) and chips. It was served with cream cheese and ketchup and the combination was surprisingly amazing!!

Yeah, I was a bit eager to eat, so had already started before taking this photo ^^;

Next up was a walk up to Hakone Shrine. We went up several steps and a hill only to find there were a billion more steps to climb to get to the actual shrine. I wasn’t feeling great so we decided to turn back and give the shrine a miss. I will take mum to many a shrine in Kamakura this weeknd instead.

The steps we did climb (there were many many more to the actual shrine).

One last pic of Lake Ashi before we left the area.

We got on a bus then and headed towards Gora Park. It was already past 3pm at this point so we knew we wouldn’t have too long, but what we did see of Gora Park was very beautiful. I’m sure when there are more flowers in bloom it is even more beautiful.

We got a train back to Yokohama after leaving the park, where we met Shyam for some okonomiyaki. Mum had a great time sampling a few different kinds, and they both laughed at me for being terrible at cooking my okonomiyaki. I will never get good at it, haha.

Then on Monday, which was a holiday, mum and I went into Tokyo. We found a yarn shop in Shimo-Kitazawa called Puppy. Mum is a keen knitter, so she was in her element and bought some yarn and was very happy, haha.

We then headed to Shinjuku and to the Government Metropolitan Building, where you can go up to the observation deck for free and get great views of Tokyo. That was a really great experience and I’d love to go again in the evening and get the night time views. Then we went to Harajuku and witnessed a fun music group singing and dancing on the street there, before going to a tempura restaurant for food, which was very nice. We walked back to Shibuya so mum could get some night photos of the iconic crossing, before getting the train home.

Yesterday mum went to Kyoto for a few days since I have school and she seems to be enjoying it. Really wish I’d taken unpaid leave and gone with her now. Oh well… We have lots to squeeze in this weekend, so expect another blog about it sometime next week 🙂

Quidditch water fights, typhoons, and British food.

Ahhh I haven’t updated in a while, sorry! I blame school starting again and life just seeming to hurtle by at 100 miles per hour.

So, briefly, the last weekend before school started was great! I spent Friday night/Saturday with TJ and family. We went to see the Nagareyama Fireworks Festival. So glad I finally made it to a Summer festival. The fireworks were amazing! It was basically two displays in one as Saitama and Chiba prefectures put on a display either side of the river. Saitama won, as they always do apparently, haha. TJ also treated me to Custard Creams and Bourbon biscuits since her dad had brought, like, a suitcase full of them over for her. British biscuits!! 😀

School started back on the 26th August. Well, the teachers were in but the students didn’t start back until the next day. Much lesson planning and English Board content updating happened. I also found out I had to work on Saturday, which was fine, but wow 6 days in a row straight off the bat after 5 plus weeks off was hard! Especially when I then only had Sunday off before another 5 day week again. But I survived it! It was so parents had the chance to come in and see some lessons in action. It was pretty fun really.

Which brings us nicely round to the weekend just gone. So it started out with Quidditch practice, as always. We had a decent turnout despite how hot it was and managed to play a couple of games and do some drills. The best part, though, was the water bomb fight at the end. So epic!

We all got totally drenched, which was the perfect way to cool down. So glad I had the brilliant idea to bring them 🙂 After that some of us headed off to Morgan’s for lunch and board games. It was going great until we played Secret Hitler and I was exposed for the terrible liar that I am. Never playing that game ever again

Sunday was a quiet day playing video games at Shyam’s, awaiting the incoming storm, Typhoon Faxai. It was pretty bad. Apparently the worst one in Japan for years. We were awoken by the storm, and then again by emergency alerts, which are sent through to your phone, telling us areas nearby were being advised to evacuate. It was all very dramatic. But the real drama started in the morning when the trains were all cancelled and people were trying to go to work still. I was lucky that I didn’t have to because of working that Saturday before. But yes, mayhem for many.

We waited until lunchtime before heading out and were able to catch the Keikyu line with no problems at all. It wasn’t quite so straight forward for Miyu coming all the way from Chiba side of Tokyo, but eventually she joined us and we went shopping in Minato Mirai. The usually busy shopping centres were so quiet because of the storm. I’ve never seen it that quiet before.

A very healthy lunch before we started shopping >.>

After we’d had our fill of shopping we walked back to near Yokohama station and went to a British pub there called The Tavern. I’d promised Miyu we would do this as she was craving a meat pie, haha. I have to say this was easily the best British pub I’ve been to here. The decor, the staff, the food, it was all brilliant! I had fish & chips and it was almost like being back home eating them. And Miyu loved her pie so much she wanted to eat it again straight away, haha.

So yes, a very eventful weekend. Now I just have two more days of school and then on Friday I’m going to pick my mum up from Narita airport. I can’t believe I haven’t seen her in over 6 months. That is so mad to me! I can’t wait to see her ❤

A trip to Mori Art Museum

Okay, so pro tip, most museums in Tokyo are closed on a Monday. However, after much searching we found one that was actually open: The Mori Art Museum in Roppongi Hills. So with no other plans for the day, Shyam, Miyu and I decided to go check it out. They had two special exhibitions on: The Science behind Pixar and Shiota Chiharu: The Soul Trembles. So for a fairly reasonable 1,800 yen each, we got to travel to the 52nd floor to the observation deck, which is where the Pixar exhibition is, and get some amazing views of Tokyo as well, plus go up one more floor to see the other exhibition too.

Miyu and I found a bunch of Doraemons near the museum. He’s a very popular character in Japan.

View from the deck – not the best because glass and bad weather, but still pretty amazing!

Some little monsters posing with Mike and Sully.

I think we did a pretty good job of impersonating Mr Incredible here.

Why yes, that is me impersonating a fish believing Miyu was doing likewise ^^;

So as you can probably tell from the above photos, we turned into big kids for the Pixar exhibition. It was, no doubt, a very interesting look at animation and how these popular characters were brought to life on screen, but unfortunately we spent far more time taking photos than reading up about any of it. Very guilty about that now, but it was so fun at the time.

The Soul Trembles exhibition was very interesting. The artist, Shiota Chiharu, is based in Berlin and definitely seems to have a very keen fascination with the macabre. Some of her pieces made me feel like it could be good inspiration to write some dark literature. I got a feeling of emptiness and neglect from a lot of her work. It was very thought-provoking.

One of the first pieces we saw. With the lighting, the room felt very alive.

I loved this room! This is where I felt the neglect. It felt almost post-apocalyptic.

These suitcases were randomly moving, which really added to the overall effect. Made me think of Harry Potter.

So yes, we thoroughly enjoyed the museum! I 100% recommend it to everyone, though they change the exhibitions fairly regularly. We went for lunch afterwards and ended up in this rather nice Italian place. I had a really good lasagne and some Italian bread. Still no garlic bread though ;_;

We walked to an import supermarket in Azabu after lunch and a miracle happened. We actually found halloumi cheese! A feat I believed to be impossible in Japan. We didn’t buy any as it was very hot and we weren’t going straight home, but we shall go back for it!

Halloumi! Yes, it is about £5.70. Sooo worth it!

Shyam also treated us to some British chocolate cause he is the best! ❤

Then we hung out in Shinjuku for a bit in a Jonathan’s. One of the many wonders of Japan are these restaurants where you can go in there, order a drinks bar (all you can drink soft drinks) for like 350 yen and just stay in there hanging out for hours. Jonathan’s is one of these restaurants. So yeah, we just chilled there for a bit before deciding it was time to go home. A very lovely day had by all three of us, I think 🙂

In conclusion… if you want to go check out a few museums in Tokyo, don’t go on a Monday. That is all.

Quidditch birthday and dancing Pokemon.

I’m rather late with this blog but here is what I got up to last weekend…

So last Saturday was the one year anniversary of Edo Quidditch (this is the group name for my Quidditch team) and we celebrated in some style. We started with our usual practice. It was boiling hot so it was a rather um… slow practice, haha. We did some drills, notably a beater drill that was basically a one v one face off with a bludger each. Good fun once I got into it! Then we played a game or two with some tackling practice thrown in somewhere in between.

Then it was time for the Potluck Picnic! We had all made/bought something and had been generously invited round Camila’s friend’s apartment to enjoy the food away from the midday heat. My contribution was some homemade Rocky Road, which somehow survived the journey from Yokohama without melting into a chocolatey mess, phew! Much yummy food was eaten, games played, and heartfelt ‘see you for now’s’ as it was Loan’s last session before she had to leave Japan.

Group pic with our hostess front and centre. Thank you, Dikhita! ❤

After we all went our separate ways after the picnic, a small group of us went to Asakusa to see the Floating Lantern festival. Unfortunately it was rather a let down, with lots of people but not much direction, and so we were on completely the wrong side of the river to see the majority of the floating lanterns. But essentially it is an annual festival where people write messages to loved ones who have passed away on paper lanterns, and then they are set alight and drift across the river.

We salvaged the rest of the evening by heading to a KushiKatsu place in Ueno and enjoying some more yummy food together. We also found a huge panda in Ueno station, which was very exciting obviously, haha.

Sunday was the day we had decided to go see the Pikachu Outbreak parades in Yokohama. It’s an annual event that takes place over a few days and basically Pokemon fever sweeps over Yokohama. There are Pikachus everywhere: huge statues, smaller ones, people wearing hats, tails, cloaks. Just Pikachu heaven, haha.

The big Pikachu guarding Sakuragicho station

Throughout the evening there were various parades dotted around the Minato Mirai area of Yokohama. Mostly Pikachu ones that were themed differently with various light shows and things, but also a dancing Eevee parade! Now, unfortunately, it was incredibly busy, and so the only one we actually managed a decent view of was the Eevee parade. It was awesome though!

We rounded off the evening with some ice-cream sundaes. So all in all a very good weekend! 🙂