J2 – Sam and Mikayla come to stay, and a bunch of other things
I left off in mid May, and have been a very busy bee since then! Allow me to fill you in on my exciting adventures in J-land, in this episode oooooffff…. Maisy in Japan!
We have been exploring more and more of our home town, and recently found that our local mall has an aquarium! Sharks, eels, and some crazy fish with a unicorn horn. Pretty cool! Also most recently, I got my first S rank (highest score in Japan isn’t A, it’s S, for special) on my favourite arcade game! And I am actually better at this game than Mitch; and that has never ever happened before 😛
On the 24th of May, we met up with Mitch’s Milton Keynes friend Rei, and his friend Rob. We had a really great day! Spent the whole time in Akihabara trying to win adorable plush toys from arcades, then had dinner with my friend Linh (from JINS!), in Shinjuku. We ate Chinese and discovered that ordering waaaaay too much food is not just a thing we do in the UK 😛
The next morning, I had to get up for work as usual at 9am, but I was too hot at about 7. So I turned on the aircon, which is directly above my head….. and very VERY quickly had to dodge the giant freaking cockroach that fell out and nearly landed on my head!!! It was the most horrendous two hour early alarm I have ever had. We had to catch the damn thing and then work up the courage to pick it up and throw it out. It did’t even die when I smashed it repeatedly with my Dr Martens boots… BLEH. We have netted up the air con and I have been traumatised ever since. I actually still have trouble sleeping; especially since another one turned up recently and we don’t know where it came from but I had to catch it and spray it. Have a picture.
GROSS
At the end of the month, we decided to head back to Ikea and try and get some black out curtains. trying to sleep past 6am with blaring sun is very difficult! And with my days being so dis-aligned, (bed at 1am, wake up at 9am for work 11-8pm), sleeping past sunrise is essential. We didn’t buy them, but we did find a very hilariously named shop, a Sylvanian Family cafe, and the most amazing retro backpack.
Just before Sam and Mik came, work had a little party. It was all well and good, but I could only stay an hour to get the last train, and the food was intestines… So that was the most expensive hour of my life! I had to pay 3500 yen for a couple of drinks and a bit of a side dish. Probably will sit the next one out >.<
So on to the main story! Sam and Mikayla arrived on the 1st of June 😀 It was soooo good to see them! We had a really nice two weeks. Even though I only had a few days off, and some were taken up with Amity practice, we still got some good time together.
We messed around where we live and discovered the most ridiculous water fountain, which literally shoots about 15ft into the air, ate lots of sushi, Sam bought many many pairs of glasses, we went shopping in Musashi-sakai, where Sam and I always used to hang out, and played some silly games 🙂
Since saying goodbyes to Sam and Mik on the 14th, we have had a few adventures. We finally visited the local coffee shop we always walk past and it is wonderful! The guy who runs it built the entire inside by hand, and makes the most delicious coffee and food. Will be spending a lot of time here when I can!
I also passed the exam JINS runs for doing people’s eye tests 🙂 So that’s good! Afterwards I went to Meguro to see Mitch at work! He found a job teaching English in an international school in Tokyo 🙂 He seems to enjoy it and Meguro is a nice place.
Finally, the last of June’s adventures! Mitch and I went to Tokyo Dome with some friends 🙂 There’s a lot there; rides, shops, cafes etc. We went to meet my uni friend Ella in the morning, and then go to the Moomin cafe in the afternoon with Linh! It was a lovely day 🙂
So that about wraps up the last six weeks! There were a few other meals with friends in there but I have no photos 😦 But meeting my friend from Amity who wants to be a diplomat to chat about the result of the referendum was cathartic. It was great to see her!
I’ll leave you with some pictures of around and about again 🙂 Cheers!
Maisy In Japan 