J2 – Gary Comes to Japan! Part 5

After Kyoto, we had but a scant few days left where Mitch and I had the same days off…. We made the most of them though! On the 20th we managed to get to Tokyo Dome; mostly for Gary to enjoy the Moomin Cafe, which is pretty adorable. I have to say, it was much better this time; I think they were better staffed? We also spent ages in the park nearby (even though it was raining!), and relaxed. Have some Moomins!

Took Gary to the best cafe in Chiba; The Third Wave

Look at this home made apple pie!

Can you spot the raccoon? It’s about two streets down from us!

And we made it to the dome

The park in the rain was lovely and quiet

Daww

Hi Mitch!

I love the perspective in this shot. Gary looks even further away than he should

Moomin Time!

Gary seemed pretty darn pleased

I don’t know what turned up at this point but it must have been edible

I surprised the guys by asking for a cake and a wee celebration…. Didn’t realise they were going to make the entire place sing and give them hats though! Once they got over the embarrassment they seemed to enjoy it 😛

They totally misheard Gary’s name on the phone, but never mind 😛

My best impression

The next day was a bit more varied; we started at a cat cafe in Asakusa; then Mitch ran to work and Gary and I walked about the crazyness that is Asakusa. Definitely a great place to go for sightseeing with the shrine, the Skytree, the shopping street and the crowds.

We arrived! Love this river view.

The Tellytubbies style giant plant bowl was still there!!

What a view

Boo!

Mitch getting some strokes in

Gary’s first cat cafe!

Just look at that paw

This little guy loved Gary’s sugar packet. And that is NOT a euphemism before you go thinking about alternate words for cat….

More Gary love

It’s not floating; there’s glass; honest!

Gary in the crowds

First ice cream of the day

Darn cool dragon to wash your filthy hands and mouth before you go near the shrine

Ceiling dragon

Impersonating

Second ice cream! this one was sweet potato; delicious!!

The evening was filled with theme. First we met Mitch, our friend Linh, and her twin sister Thuy in Harajuku, and headed to the Kawaii Monster Cafe. It was amazing and weird all at once. The staff were all dressed up like Cyberdog shop assistants and we sat in a mushroom booth. I cannot do the place justice with my words; so here is the link and some piccies: http://kawaiimonster.jp/pc/en/concept/gallery.html#!/1

The food was so colourful!

Rainbow pasta!

The monster-go-round

At one point they did this weirdly half assed dance thing which would have been awesome with more than two staff members haha

Jellyfish bar

Sorry for the blurryness, but check out the weird bunny

Me and the twinsies! Linh left, Thuy right.

We shared this monster; it was delicious

From this crazy and cute, we walked over to Shibuya for some crazy and scary; a bar called Lockup. It’s a prison themed bar with crazy drinks and silly food and it was pretty cool. I think with more staff it would have been great as the place felt a bit empty, but the principle was great! At some point the staff let the “criminals” loose and they come and scare the living daylight out of you by rattling the bars of the cell that serves as your room. The police staff come and save the day eventually, but not before you get to scream a bit! The toilet was probably the freakiest though…. I went to sit down and this speaker I hadn’t even noticed starts giggling and telling me terrifying things. I literally didn’t even pee; I screamed and pulled up my trousers before I realised there wasn’t anyone there! I warned the girls, so next time we all went together haha. Anyway; check out the cool drinks!

Look at the eyeball… and Mitch’s drink is purple and came with candyfloss!

My drink was a test tube set 😀

Ghost pudding

Worm…?

That day was pretty full of stuff! The last few days Gary was here I had to work 😦 But One day he came to the mall and bought some glasses 🙂 And the day before he left I had off so we could hang out a bit and play pool, as well as get him packed and stuff.

When we went for sushi, the chef made us two tiny tiny egg sushi! Two grains of rice a piece; so adorable. No idea why he made them! He just handed them over!

Gary at our fave Thai place; with the melon

Mitch made croquettes; they’re amazing

On the last day we went for pool. It was lovely and relaxed.

I made us a sign at the pool place.

Also we had french toast.

And that was pretty much it for the Gary holiday! We stayed up all night before he left because he had a super early flight. I slept at about 5am and then went to work, and the guys hung out at the airport until he had to say sayounara.

I’ll leave you with a picture of some hilarious game themed lube, and what we ended up doing with my Maple leaf tree.

Best lube bottles I have ever seen

J2 – August In a Nutshell

August was quite a sociable month all-told; plenty of evenings out with friends. We also bought ourselves something we have been umming over for a good few months!

Mitch and I finally went to a local cafe called Fukuro (owl) on the 3rd, and it was a really nice little place. Chatty owner, good coffee and super reasonable prices. Adorable cups too!

On the 4th I went out with my work colleagues (the 3 that entered the company at same time as me). We went for all-you-can-eat okonomiyaki, which was incredibly delicious and I really want to go again!

Delicious!

The 6th was great. I hadn’t had a single day off with Mitch in July, it was all evenings. So I requested the first weekend in August off in order to go to a firework display with Mitch. In the UK, I’m used to fireworks coming with coats, glowsticks, freezing fingers, and hot cocoa. In Japan, fireworks are a summer thing! You sweat like crazy, eat okonomiyaki and drink. We did two of the three 😛

We spent the day on a huge walk around the area first, hence the sweaty. It was about 35 degrees all day, not a cloud in the sky and humid as heck. I didn’t know my forearms could sweat but there you go. That’s Japan summer for ya!

Got to wear my pretty dress today 🙂

Breakfast!

First park on our walk; very cool. Well, actually we were baking by this point.

Handsome man

A really out of the way shrine

This set of stairs was wonderful, until I very nearly walked headfirst into a giant spider…

Gorgeous scenery

Sitting at our spot ready for fireworks!

Ended the evening with games and drinks with a friend ❤

 

After coming home to a rubbish sofa every night for about 5 months, we finally decided to buy an absolutely overpriced, ridiculously comfortable, mahusive beanbag. Best decision we ever made. Made our house so cosy, and way more homely. Immediately felt like we’d properly settled in.

At the shop, sitting on one beanbag, watching the other get wrapped 😀

While wondering around the mall, we stumbled across this amazing Taiko display. The power in these people was astounding!

Taking this massive thing home on the bus

And the train

Home!

On the 20th, we finally managed to go to a huge temple near my work that we had been meaning to visit for months. It was even prettier than we thought! Massive grounds, gardens, and even a pretty gazebo thing over the lake. We sat in it while it was raining and watched the fishies 🙂

The temple was filled with these critters!

Mitch took this one, it’s a beaut.

Later that evening we were invited to a new friend’s house in Narita. It was great! I met Theresa in my shop and we went for lunch a few times, now dinner! She has a gorgeous house, and some of her friends came too. Homemade lasagne! We also went for karaoke all together a few days later 🙂

Karaoke!

 

Let me leave you with some photos from my favourite photo album title ever: “Mexican with a Kiwi” 😀

Super fancy place to go for mexican

J2 – The Merry Merry Month of May

Been making quite good use of my days off recently. Have to say though, working 9 hour days on my feet with 3 hours of commuting is not all that awesome. But it pays ever so slightly more than the minimum wage that was all England offers graduates, and technically I am making use of my degree (again, something few people manage to get to do in the UK).

I have a few interesting things from work to show though; my new glasses, some lunch that Mitch has been making me and so on 🙂

AMAZING cardboard fort in the mall in which I work

seriously gotta moisturise; working hot plastic is taking its toll on my hands

Mitch-made lunch

Morning boost that I seriously needed

More lunch!

Didn’t get a bento lunch today, but enjoyed this cafe with my Kindle 🙂

Finally all my various badges and stamps arrived! Now everyone knows my name and that I can speak their Language

My new “mens” glasses. Screw ridiculous gender labels yo.

One of the first days off Mitch and I went on this lovely walk to a local play park he’d found. It’s the kind of amazing park that would have been taken down so fast in the UK because it’s actually fun! (Read: doesn’t live up to health and safety standards that mean kids can’t climb trees these days…) We took a bento lunch and then played our hearts out. The climbing frame climbs all the way up a huge hill, there’s a big structure that would probably kill you if you fell off, and 15 foot rope nets that make the only way to get from ground to hill. That park might even be as good as the two I loved so much as a kid in Germany!

We mooched over to a nearby mall afterwards, played some games, bought some work clothes, and even ordered a foam futon under-matress thing which was so very needed after a few sleepless nights.

Gorgeous river that the park is next to

Lunch!

Beard Mitch

Starting out

About to climb the hill

Mitch coming along

The top of the hill!

We took purikura! Mitch’s Beard got all elongated haha

Games in the mall

The next day we went to Tokyo station to meet my friend Karen. Despite passing through the place a lot, I have never actually explored the area. It’s glorious! The station looks like they plucked it right out of the UK.

We went for burgers and then ended up wondering around a few parks and the Emperor’s palace grounds. It was far prettier than I expected!

Mitch and I went home via Akihabara to get a rice cooker and have a mosey around a few shops. I also got to pop into a JINS in which my friends were working and say hi!

The station building is weirdly westerm

Our giant burgers!

Hi Karen 🙂

Equally massive pancakes

Hidden but pretty shops

Part of the palace grounds

Awesome samurai statue

Park 🙂

So happy with the new addition to the family! Welcome, rice cooker

May have spent loads of money on more of these!

The 3rd I spent in Harajuku with Amy and Erin. It was really good to see them again after not having seen them since Uni a year ago. We got some delicious food and moseyed about. They actually came to stay the night too, as they were going to the airport the next day and we live quite close 🙂

The food was glorious.

Tasty smoothies

All local farm ingredients ^_^

Obligatory purikura!

Been a while since Harajuku crepes 🙂

Rooftop locker terrace?!

 

I have also been lucky enough to come to Japan at the same time as my old Amity leader returned from her year abroad in the UK, meaning that she has invited me to dance in this year’s few performances! Which is awesome, since before I only had a few months but I loved it. It’s sad not to have Marlene, Nadja and Julia with me but it’s still great to be back there. Nostalgic as heck going back to my old uni!

My uni!

First practice 🙂

We ate this little guy. No it wasn’t a weird re-entry sacrifice. Yes, I did start from the head.

On the 13th Mitch and I went to a local attraction; the Keisei Rose Garden. It was stunning. There were thousands of roses and the day was so sunny I burnt! We had to cut it a little short for my Amity practice later than night but as it is so close we will definitely be going again. About half an hour away! Lot’s of them were named after people I love 🙂

First glimpse of the upcoming roses

Ticket and map 🙂

Look at that sky!

They had cool rose columns

Look at them all!

Named after my Grandmama

Look how ROUND this one is?!

Some lovely old Japanese ladies offered to take our picture 🙂 And all in Japanese! They didn’t try any English or tell me how “great” my Japanese is after one word or two. Thank you old ladies!

Named after my Niece 🙂

“Shropshire lad” just made me giggle

These ones were sooooo red

Teeny tiny roses too

Wildflowers at our picnic place

The view for our lunch

Lilies! My other Niece 🙂

MAny many fishies

Purple roses 🙂

My mum!

The Beverly

Mitch’s mum!

Lunch was yummy

We wanted to buy this plant but didn’t >.<

And I thought I’d leave you with some well overdue pictures of the house in which I live! Enjoy 🙂

Front door (with integrated safe for parcels!)

To the right of the front door, the sink/bathroom area

Wet room is so fun

Wee sink

Our crazy electric loo! Still not a fan of the butt squirt, but love the warm seat

Washing machine, leading into the living room (front door is behind me)

Living room

View from the back of the living room

Our deadly steep steps

Spare room/ Mitch’s office

Bedroom

Bedroom from the other way

When it’s really rainy, the steps to the main road are a waterfall!

Some flowers on my walk to the station

I’ll update again when I next have some interesting stuff to say!

Cheerio~

Meerkats and Odaiba

On the 14th of June, we had a whole day trip to Odaiba, and it was magnificent! We started in Asakusa, checking out the view of the Sky Tree, playing around in a random bowl of greenry art installation thingy, and jumping on a boat to the island. Definitely the best way to get to Odaiba is by boat.

Asakusa atmosphere!

Mitch popping up in the big green bowl

Bowl selfie

It felt like a different world in there

Kinda tellytubbie-ish

Window to the city

It looks pretty from the outside too!

It’s massive!

We got on a boat just like that one!

Sky tree reflected in the beer building

Pretty river feelings

My love

Random humans plus river scenery.

A pirate ship!

Selfie 🙂

The first thing we did was check out the beach area, as there was actually a little bit of sand and sea to play in which was really nice. And then on our way to the shops there was a couple walking their meerkat…. And as if a pet meerkat wasn’t cool enough, it was dressed as a fairy 😀 Definitely one of the coolest animals I have held.

So city, but so coasty.

Nice to get out toes out

Grass! Very rare for Japan.

Mitch being all cool.

One of the best moments of my year abroad!

Yes, fairy meerkat!

The main goal of the day was actually to buy tickets for Cirque Du Soleil’s Ovo, which we had noticed was playing there last time we went. Once we got the tickets we spent the rest of the day enjoying the museum and the random pretty sights around the island. The Ferris wheel was really pretty!

Ovo tickets!

Mitch playing with the weird seal

This interactive display at the museum came highly recommended and it was definitely fun! you get your own little circle monster thing and you wonder around doing activities to make it more monstery

Lunch!

I bought this because it is the cutest yellow thing I have ever seen.

Beautiful scenery

Arcade time!

Love my purikura

Daw

The inside of the shoppping mall gets all roman all of a sudden and it’s quite fun really

Freaking love Baskin & Robins

See, pretty rainbow Ferris wheel and the moon 🙂

Gotta love Odaiba. Always something new to find!

And here I leave you with a picture or two of a couple days later when Bekah and I met up with our old housemate, Sakiko. It was really lovely to see her ^.^

End of May and Some Very Beautiful Humans

Marlene introduced me to a band called Gotcharocka; a Visual Kei band. Basically they have incredible style, somewhere between punk and goth and a whole lot of awesome. We went to a concert at the end of May with Olivia and Nadja. It was one heck of an experience, I can tell you that.

What I learnt very quickly, is that fans of bands like these are very much fans. All of a sudden, we were the only few people NOT doing the dance moves that everyone somehow knew. It was very bizarre but also very cool. I took a couple of photos during the concert, even though it’s forbidden hehe. The whole evening was very fun; look how pretty we all were!

Makeup!

Look at us all ready

IT was in Harajuku, we got crepes 😀

Queue time!

This building is actually pretty cool

The concert!!

Marlene even got a pick

Glowy bracelet 😀

After the concert

May have bought some pictures of the band members

This is the kind of style

Purikura!

Post concert piccie

Dinner with the ladies

Love this picture

Marlene looking awesome

Purikura!

My favourite band member became my lock screen background 😛

The next dose of lovely humans came went we went to something called a BL Cafe (boy love!). The idea is that you go and hang in the place that they have themed as a school, and you get to enjoy the atmosphere of all these cute boys who have adorable crushes on each other. It’s another bizarre, but pretty satisfying experience. You can even pay a little extra for a cute scene where the guys act out a little almost kiss scene. I definitely recommend it 😛

The menu!

The kissy scene menu

Members card!

School theme

Cream and Pocky for the kissy scene

We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the staff, so I asked if I could take a picture of the Pocky and snuck him in the background. But he clearly posed for this photo didn’t he

Fancy bathroom!

You’ll be glad to know that’s not it for pretty boys; next blog, Mitch arrives!