Day 57

It's now Tuesday and I need to update for 5 days to catch up. I was away for the weekend so this is why there have been no updates. Apologies for these next 5 entries being vague.

So Thursday was my last day of school. It was a nice easy day in class as we started a new chapter learning how to talk about things you want. あたらし　ナイキのくつ　が　いちばんほしです。 Yes I do! Didn't do an awful lot in class though I did do a lot of dancing and playing and general messing around....and coughing and sniffing too. At the end of the class I had to stand up and give a little speech. I thought about doing a dance but decided to just recite Macbeth scene 1 act 1 instead, just to freak people out. And a bow at the end of course. I know Nino took pictures and I think some other people did too so I will track them down and post them on here and Facebook later.

After class most people disappeared (which kinda sucked as the others got leaving dinners) so it ended up just Katharina, Sophia, Rosanna, Ken and I. We went to a little place in Harajuku that Ken and I had been to before which sells Japanese food. Tofu and fish and slime and string and that sort of thing. All served with pickles and miso and soup and rice. It was pretty great stuff and I'm planning on one last visit there before I go home. I had some strange meal set which was nice. Ken and Katharina had the fish set, Sophia the fried fish set and Rosanna...well, she picked the best meal of all! Rather than going for a set meal like the rest of us she picked a smaller side dish. It was still pretty big and would have been enough to had it been edible but it was most definitely far from edible. She ordered tofu with okra, natto and an egg (which was mostly raw) so essentially she ordered a plate of slime. And not good tasting slime either. I felt pretty bad for her even if I did laugh. I tried the natto and the okra though it was not good at all :( In order to compensate for the vileness we all ordered dessert. Macha ice cream and cake. Lush!

Once we left the restaurant we went for a walk down Takeshita Street. It was chucking it down with rain but we all had umbrellas so it wasn't so bad. Laughed at the range of double pants that they do there and spotted some nice looking bags. Of course, when in Harajuku, you must do purikura so we dragged everyone in and took some cool pictures. Ken defiled one of them (lol) but it's still pretty cool and I chose that one to go on my mp3 player. Once we were done we all headed our separate ways. For me it was back to Warabi to get ready for my weekend away and to pray it stopped raining.

Day 56

We went to the baseball again today. By we I mean Katharina, Sophia and Jonna. As last time it was a lot of fun. We were up in the crazy fan section again. It was a lot let haphazard reaching the stadium this time around as we didn't have to wait for Korean food or walk to the metro. We just got the train at Shinokubo and changed at Shinjuku. As it turns out the train we wanted was the same platform so it couldn't have been simpler :)

So we went in, found somewhere to stand though I dont think Jonna could see much, poor thing. Today's game was Giants verus the Fukuoka Hawks. I quickly munched on my dinner and then set about hunting for a giants shirt. I didn't pick one up last time and I regretted it so wasn't leaving without one today. The small shop we passed onthe way in was still there but Daniel had mentioned a bigger place further on so I decided to go wandering to see what I could find. It seems you can walk right around the stadium without having to show tickets or anything, unless you try to break in to one of the seated areas but there's nothing to stop you standing behind said seating areas. I kept walking until eventually I found the mecca of shops. Stupidly I didn't take my camera as I couldnt take pictures of all the shops, nor the smoking area which was like a little glass box in the middle of the shops. Strange. The team cheerleaders were also hanging about and I could have taken pictures with them too but damn, no camera. Sophia thought half of them were men too so that would have been even funnier. Eventually I picked up a #24 Takahashi shirt and returned to the girls.

The game itself was shit. The giants were pwnd. Up until the last innings it was 5-0 but they managed to have a good last round and, has Sakamoto hit his last ball, they could have won as they had 2 men on base but it was not to be. They lost 5-3 in the end :( You suck giants!

One positive of the game was getting to talk a little Japanese to some strange random guys. The other three were all shrugs when he said something but I tried my best to understand and say things back to him. He asked if Japan was enjoyable and I said of course. He asked if we've been to Disneyland and I told him we would go on Friday and then to Osaka on Saturday. He told me to try the food as it's the best but more importantly, to try the beer :)

Anyway, must dash as I'm late for my last day of school. Cheerio!

Day 55

As school is all but done now I decided to spend day 55 exploring Shinjuku a little more. The plan was to head there around lunch time, grab an iced macha latte and a bento and sit somewhere to soak up the sun a little. It doesn't cost me anything to go to Shinjuku on the train, and they have a park there so it seemed like a good place to go. When I was done eating, I could go shopping.

I'm sure you already guessed this but my plan did not go as expected. I didn't pass a combini so I didn't get food but I figured I'd be ok with just the macha. I would have been had it not been 90% ice and therefore only lasted about 1 minute. But you know, I can eat the ice while I soak up the sun....no because Shinjuku park (which btw is just a park) has an entrance fee! WTF! I'm not paying to sit on some grass. So I sat outside the gates eating cream covered ice looking through to the greenery. There must be some pretty awesome grass in there if they charge you to go in.

Once I'd had enough of munching on ice chips I headed back in to central Shinjuku for some window shopping. Most of the shops here are only on one floor of 7 or 8 story buildings so if you go in one place, you can find anywhere between 7 or 30 smaller stores in just one building. You could really spend hours here going in and out of all the little places, not to mention the time you could spend in the big department stores. I headed in to one particular store as I thought it was one of those UniQlo t-shirt in a tube shops. I have a pretty funky anime t-shirt that I bought from there a couple of years ago that could do with updating. The UniQlo place was on the second floor but I noticed what was described as a funky bookshop so I went up to take a look. It was crazy in there. All sorts of weird and wonderful things, and some books too! Great place to look for gifts or just some random things that you don't need but just have to have.

I left that building shortly after and had a wander through some other stores including the Studio Alta. Usually, this building is only used as a meeting place as it's an easy landmark in Shinjuku but today I went inside. Saw lots of cool handbags and clothes that wouldn't fit my leg and ugly shoes and snazzy hats. It was pretty fun. Looking for the bathroom I went down to the basement level. A lot of department stores have food places in the basement...this one had cake. Loads of cake and cute things. Took a quick snap of the cute animal cakes which I'm hoping someone will buy for me for my birthday but I don't hold out much hope really.

I needed to meet the girls at school soon so I left the shopping and walked down to Shin Okubo calling in the Family Mart on the way to check baseball tickets and pick up lunch. I went for a natto onigiri (natto = not good) and a banana oreo bar with green tea to wash it down with. Ah well, the oreo bar was good at least. Met everyone at 5ish like planned. Alberto was there and mentioned going to the travel agents to book Korea. Of course, we had to go but they were going to eat first and we were going to buy baseball tickets so we arranged to meet in 1 hour at.....Studio Alta!! Had they told me the travel agents was above Donki then I'd have met them there but you know, cant change things. Plus we got to laugh at the stupid English phrases on the caps outside SA.

The boys arrive a little after 18:00 and we head down to the travel agents. When we arrived we found Jonna standing outside. 50 million people in Tokyo and we randomly bump in to our classmate. She'd just been in to book her trip to Korea too though she's going at the end of June, and us the beginning. She ended up coming in with us while we booked our flights. I let the boys do most of the arranging though I did chip in with a small suggestion about price. If we return on Sunday we have to pay 7000yen Sunday surcharge. So why not stay an extra day, and we can use that 7000 yen for another night in a hostel, all our food and money needs and probably have change in our pockets too. They saw the logic in my thinking so we're booked now for the 18:20 flight out of Narita airport to Seoul on 5th June returning on 8th June. Woo! Korea baby!

With that all sorted, the boys and Jonna headed to the bookstore and the rest of us girls for curry. Rosanna didn't want to walk because she was hungry so she went back to the station and Katharina, Sophia and I went to CoCo Curry House. Turns out it was only a 10 minute walk from where we were (not so far after all) and was most definitely worth it. I had a vegetable curry which I enjoyed very much. Helped clear out my nose too. Damn cold. It was a huge plate of food too, and for only 650yen. I'd love to go back but I don't think I'll have the opportunity :(

So Wednesday is baseball day. Thursday is my last day of school and I'm going for food in Harajuku. Friday Disneyland. Saturday & Sunday Osaka. Monday...who knows. Maybe I'll go for a hike or visit an onsen or go to kabuki. So much to do and lots of free time to do it now :)

Day 54

I'm still sick :( Really fed up of this cough and cold and headaches :( Goddamn Mexico Flu!

So, as I was feeling like crap I took the day off school and mostly slept. Did some laundry (how fun) and watched a few episodes of Nobuta Wo Produce but mostly slept. Was due to meet Katharina and her sister at 16:50 but managed to fall asleep around 15:00 and woke up at 16:05. Not good considering it takes 50 minutes to get from my room to school if I run and get good connections on the train. I only got one connection (and barely at that...the door hit me as I jumped through...but I got on), the worst miss was arriving at the station to see my train pull up. Even if I ran flat out at that point, I wouldn't get there so I had to just watch it glide away. Somehow I managed to get to my meeting point by 17:00 which wasn't so late so all was well.

Now we get to the reason for the meeting...KABUKI! I don't know why I haven't done this before because it's fabulous! The three of us headed off to Ginza to find the Kabuki theatre via the Tokyo Metro. Of course, as I was late I didn't check the best way to go so I think I took us the expensive and long way but we made it all the same. Finding the theatre was pretty easy, even if they had closed the metro exit that we needed and that I remembered.

When we got there we had to join the queue for 1 act. The thing with kabuki is that it goes on for about 4 hours or so and can be rather expensive. In order to make it more accessible, they allow people to purchase tickets for just one of the usual four acts. We were there in time for act 3 of today's performance and were lucky enough to see the following...

YUDACHI
A dance to Kiyomoto music with decadent mood of the end of the Edo era. The music was originally composed for a drama "Shiranami Gonin Onna," but it is now more often used as a music to a dance version of a scene from a drama "Kozaru Shichinosuke." Takigawa, a maid of the Edo palace, faints away by a hard roll of thunder. Shichinosuke holds her out from a palanquin. After a fighting scene, they make love in a hut.

KANDA BAYASHI
A heart-warming drama by a famous playwright Uno Nobuo (1904-1991) which shows the life of the commoners in Edo in the end of the Edo era. One day at the end of a year, a cooper Tomekichi is suspected of stealing money which the society of nenbutsu prayers has gathered for a year. Though he did not steal, he rented and paid the sum and worked very hard after that.
In September of the next year, the lost money is found and they are reconciled. Tomekichi is not angry as he also doubted them at that time, and thanks them as he could become richer by working harder.

We didn't realise that we had bought tickets to see two acts so it was a nice surprise not to be thrown out of the place after the first one. We were there for maybe an hour and a half altogether for just 900yen (100yen discount for being a student) which is about £6 I guess. It was strange and really not as scary as you'd think. The music was odd and I didn't understand a lot of what they were talking about but even so, I thoroughly enjoyed it, so much so, I'm planning on seeing another show in June before I come home. Maybe I'll even see a whole show from start to finish (if it's not too expensive). Alas, it won't be at the same theatre as they are due to pull it down once this months schedule finishes on Tuesday. I'm very happy to have had the opportunity not only to see Kabuki but to have seen it in the famous Ginza Kabuki-za.

Day 53

Today we were meant to go to Kasai Rinkai park to ride the Honey and Clover ferris wheel and visit the beach. Alas, it was raining so most people decided they didn't want to go :(

I was still feeling like crap and didn't really feel very much like trying to organise something else so we settled on okonomiyaki for dinner in Harajuku. I sent the usual email around and got the usual lack of responses.

I did intend to go out in the afternoon and maybe buy a handbag but the weather was crappy, much like my health and so I was still at home at 16:00. I did want to at least have a look around Takeshita Street before eating so I headed out at this point and made it to Harajuku about an hour later. Strolled up and down weirdo lane for a bit, saw a couple of bags that I quite fancy but decided against buying anything until we've had our trip to Osaka. Planning on doing some shopping there so there's no desperate rush to buy things now. The only thing I do need is a smaller handbag just big enough for my purse and camera that I can take to Disney on Friday. Whatever bag I take to Disney I'll have to carry around Osaka along with my rucksack as there's no time to return home between the two trips so the smaller the bag the better. No worries though, I'll grab something on Wednesday.

Met the girls at 18:00 as planned. Today's company was Katharina, Sophia and Jonna. We knew roughly where the restaurant was so we headed straight there. The place, Sakura Tei, is a strange little place, tucked away behind the Design Festa gallery in Harajuku. Part of the restaurant is outside, under a permanent plastic cover (which I imagine would be very cool in the rain), the other part is indoors where they use the walls as a canvas so they become part of the gallery itself. Unlike the last place we went to, this one had a much more varied menu. Not wanting cheese in my okonomiyaki for the third time in three visits, I plummed for a basic one with added baby stars. Something I wouldn't have thought of to put in okonomiyaki but I must say, it was pretty good^^ though not something to get if you have a soar throat like I did... My dinner came to 750yen which is about a fiver so I'm pretty happy with that. Would definatly come here again, though I don't think there'll be time for another visit. Going to try Hiroshima style okonomiyaki at the end on June when I go on my trip so I guess this is my last taste of kansai style pancake. At least I finished with a good one^^

Day 52

It's so hard to blog everyday, I'm not even sure that anyone reads this crap, but here I am, typing away again. It's tough you know? I don't have a lot of time for anything and the little time I do have I spend keeping in touch with home. I guess it makes up for me not sending postcards.

Day 52 (Saturday) was Hakone day.

I visited this place when I came to Japan in 2007. I would have to say it was one of my highlights of that trip and after a return visit, I love it all the same. Such a beautiful place, and so many fun things to do. It's just a shame I had to spend my time there with Mr swine flu :( Ok sorry, no more mentioning of swine flu. I made this trip to Hakone with Katharina and her sister Sophia. There were meant to be others coming with us but they all pulled out for whatever reason. I'm getting used to that sort of crap from people now. We got the train from Shinjuku at 08:01 and arrived at Odawara about an hour and a half later. When we arrived we needed to take one more train to reach Hakone Yumoto where our "hakone loop" would begin. Not knowing which train to get on we jumped on any one which turned out to be the Romance Car. This is not good. That short 10 minute trip costs 870yen each....if we get caught anyway :) Luckily we managed to avoid the ticket collector and escaped at Hakone Yumoto with our 870yen still in our pockets.

The first part of the loop is the Tozan Railway. It's a very slow rickety train that takes you up in to the mountains. Lots of stops while the train changes direction but you do get a great view of the Hakone woodlands.

We took this train most of its route up to the Hakone Open Air Museum for another return visit for me. I first visited this museum with Brooke, Brian, Betsy and the Essential Honshu crew of 2007. Back then it was raining and cloudy and generally not such a great day weather wise. This year, the sun was out and while the surrounding mountains and altitude lowered the temperature, it was generally a pleasant day. It was really enjoyable to see the things again, and to see some of the things I missed the first time around. No climbing on eggs this time, no rain meant multiple children so unless I wanted to kick them off, there would be no yolk stamping this time around. Found a Sky Hole that I didn't see/wasn't there last time around and managed to go through the wrong way :) Played in the maze, took a footbath, tried to get Katharina to eat a floating kumquat (she nearly did it for 1000yen), climbed the pretty tower, slid down the slide and got a wet arse, skimmed the shop, enjoyed. This time around everything was open as it wasn't raining. Some of the kids climbing frames are really dangerous looking here, especially the one that looks like it cooks children O.o Finally, before we left we had a look around the Picasso gallery. I'm not sure if this was there last time but I haven't been in before. It was pretty damn cool to see so many of his works, even if he was a complete nut job. His art is so strange, some of it is amazing, some it just utter turd (I'm thinking of the plates here). Great museum though, I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Hakone, or even Japan.

The next destination of choice was the sulphur pits (Ōwakudani)and the black eggs. Those who were with me last time or have listened to my endless tales of Japan will know that we trekked all the way to the egg hut only to have the "sold out" sign put down in front of us as we arrived :( Not this time though XD Oh yeah! I got my egg! That's an extra 7 years of life for me. Celebrated finally getting an egg by eating egg ice cream. Om nom nom. No Fuji however, too cloudy.

Another cable car back down the other side of the mountain (the omg kid was hilarious) and on the pirate ship. We were on the green one this time around along with a bunch of random pirate figures. Beautiful views across Lake Ashi and I'm pretty sure I saw the Lake Ashi Monster as we were sailing along. I could have spent all day just sailing back and forth across that lake. It's just fab.

Once we arrived at the other side we departed in search of the trick boxes. I'd promised Mr Davies I'd find him a really difficult one for his birthday and under no circumstances was I going to leave Hakone without one....but the shops were not there. Crap! We walked around and I didn't recognised anything there. I was beginning to lose hope and genuinely believed I'd missed the shops on the other side of the lake but ah ha! Some shops! Not the one's I remember but they had boxes and picked up a 35 move piece. The man and woman in the shop laughed at me for buying it but I told them it was a gift (in Japanese of course...so I win my points today Jonna) so they wrapped it up, took my money and sent me on my way with a "がんばれ" (ganbare....good luck).

After this is was time to head home. We needed to catch a bus but weren't sure which one to get so we ended up walking about a shop trying all the free samples. I bought some Ultra Cider which wasn't so great and we made Sophia try jelly fanta. Poor girl. Not long later we found the right bus and began our incredibly long journey home. But after only being on the bus for 10 minutes I notice the shops I was looking for!! I remembered then, we were meant to stay on the boat until the second stop, not the first one. All those funky shops that I was looking for were here all along! Ah well, I got the box I came for so it's no big loss.

An hour of scenic bus ride later were were back at Odawara Station and then back on the train to Shinjuku. Very long day but a heap of fun. I love Hakone. The only thing that spoiled it was my cold. High altitude plus heavy cold = inability to breathe or in many cases hear. That was uncomfortable for most of the day but I didn't let it get me down and still had a great time.

Day 51

My apologies once again for the late updates. I've been rather sick this week, possibly with swine flu, more likely with regular flu or a chest infection. I jokingly said I had swine flu because, you know, it's funny, but I think some people actually think I might have it and I'm definatly getting some wierd vibes from my fellow guesthouse lodgers. Ah well, whether it's pig flu or just the regular kind, I've been rather unwell but I'm sure I'll get over it.

So back to day 51....Friday. Began the day with school. Popped in to reception to process my finishing dates at school. I'm not sure if I wrote this already but I've decided to finish school a little early to do a bit of travelling. I'm doing lots here already but there's more things that I want to see that I have time to see. I'm working on having a JR Pass sent out so I can go flying around the country on the shinkansen. I'm thinking Nikko, Himeji, maybe to an onsen or down to Kyushu. I can do anything for 7 days so it'll be fun. But anyway, I sort out those details in school, have a little lunch and then go to class...which as usual, is dull.

Katharina's sister has arrived from Germany now so we were going to go for curry after class but everyone wanted to come and maybe the place we were going was too small so it started to look like a bad idea. But as it turns out, Friday was Tang-sans last day of school and he wanted to have a fairwell dinner so we ended up in the usual Italian place. It was nice but I think that'll be my last visit. I don't want to eat at the same places all the time.

Some people wanted to go drink in the park after dinner but I was still feeling like crap, plus I had to get up early for Hakone on Saturday so I just came home and watched the last 3 episodes of Scrubs. Sad to see you go guys and you were just starting to get good again. EEEAAAAAGLLLLEEEE!!!!!

Day 50

Wow! Is it day 50 already? Only 40 days to go and so much still to do.

So I wake this morning after a terrible nights sleep still feeling like crap but I have to go to school as I dont want to fall further behind. Also, I have to go in early as I need to speak to the peeps in the office. I'm coughing and spluttering all over the place and it feels like I've been eating razor blades but I must get on with the day, even if I do have swine flu.

Once I arrive at the office I tell them of my plans to finish school early. I never seem to have enough time to do anything here and there's too many places I still want to visit that I wont make it to if I'm in school until I leave therefore I'm going to finish a few weeks early. I had to give them some lame excuse about why I was finishing but it's not like they can make me go. I'm on a tourist visa anyway so they can't have me thrown out of the country. While I sign the papers to confirm all of this they ask me about the obvious illness I have. "Ah you have swine flu". Maybe, but of couse I laugh and say no. I'm told I must go buy some masks to protect everyone though this isn't so easy as everyone in Tokyo has gone berserk and bought them all as we've had our first confirmed case of swine flu in this fabulous monster of a town. The place they found it is pretty far from school and from home but everyone commutes so far every day I can easily see this spreading around very fast. So I try my hardest to find a mask but only find a crappy thick one in the 100 yen shop. It's the best I can do. I'm doing my best to stop the spread though I must say, they're awful things to wear :(

With that done, it's time for school. I can't talk much due to my swine flu so I get out of doing anything of any significance. I've learned about as much as I want to now anyway. I can tell the time, pay for things, ask for things, ask for directions and understand the answer and have a basic conversation. It's all good.

After class some of us decided to go to Nakano. Seriously, a stupid idea on my part what with the swine flu and all but I went anyway. They've got a pretty funky shopping centre there which I must say was fab. Downstairs is mostly cloths and regular shops. Upstairs is all geeky anime/manga/fangirl crap....and I luvs it! Wandered about laughing at the pictures of Yamapi, Ikuta Toma and co. when they were all 14. Aww, kawaii! Bought me an eye thing from GeGeGe no Kitaro and a Rurouni Kenshin phone charm. Rosanna got some awesome Mario related goodness (which I might go back and buy myself sometime) and Nino bought Ken a Ichigo bankai keychain. Ban....kai!

In our efforts to find the best burger in Tokyo, Rosanna and I tried Lotteria today. It was not good. Mildly better than McDonalds but only by maybe half a point. Mos Burger is still WAAAAYYYY out front.

Um, what else was there.....oh said good bye to Alvaro today as we wont see him again before he goes back to Spain. It was fab to meet you fella! Take care :)

Finally, we may have sorted out our trip to Korea. Need to send the details to Alvaro who will pass them on to his girlfriend but it looks like we're going on 5th June for 2 nights. How cool is that? :)