It Tokyo Long Enough To Notice

(That We're In Japan)

[tokyolongenough]

Another Final

Our last day in Japan. We all went to the supermarket and went a bit mental with buying stuff. I spent out £25 on just sweets and biscuits for myself... We spent the afternoon packing and tidying up, and quickly realised that we didn’t have enough space in our suitcases to take everything. Which was actually fine, because I wanted to buy myself a new suitcase anyway. 

We met good old Kazuya and his girlfriend Inori for our final meal, at a seafood izakaya:

There was a little grill on our table for us to grill our own food. Here I am eating a little fish:

And here is Shion’s first taste of sake (Japanese rice wine):

I got myself another Kazuya sausage photo to add to my collection:

Whilst eating dinner, there was a show on TV about a little and a grandma having a crying competition - seeing who can make themselves cry first. We all got into a slightly competitive spirit, trying to make ourselves cry (using the smoke from the grill to help):

We were all laughing too much to cry though. 

Farewell Kazuya and Inori - hopefully the next time we see you, it’ll be for a very special reason:

Sigh, I can’t believe it’s time to go back to England again. I doesn’t feel like we’re here on holiday, and are returning back ‘home’. It feels like we’re having to put a pause on our Japanese life to do some stuff back in the UK, and having to wait until we come back again. Hopefully, it won’t be as a long a wait as before. 

It’s been weird being back in Japan. When we first arrived back in England two years ago, it sort of felt like our time on Japan had been a dream, one that we wouldn’t be able to return to. But coming back here has made me realise that it’s always going to be here, and our friends are still here and still want to hang out with us, and it’s still just as an amazing place as ever. So I don’t actually feel so sad to leave this time, because I know we can always come back and just pick up right where we left off. 

This time in Japan has been that bit more... special than last time, because of this cute girl:

She’s going to hate me saying this, but when we were here for the year, and she didn’t come out and visit, it kind of felt like the year was incomplete. I always enjoy being in her company and she really is one of my most favourite people in my life, and I really felt her absence last time. So this time, having her here for two weeks has made me very very happy, especially because she now lives in Scotland and I’ll rarely get to see her. Sure we text and stuff, but it’s not the same as hanging out in person, and where is there a better place to hang out than in Japan? No where. So thank you Shion, for coming to stay with us, making the experience 10,000 times better. Hopefully we’ll come again soon:

And again, thank you Japan for keep giving me great experience after great experience. It’s not over, I’m sure. 

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Pen Pineapple Ojisan

Shion thinks that Tanaka-ojisan really looks like the pen-pineapple guy. I can definitely see the resemblance: 

Haha. 

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New Year’s Day

For New Year’s Day, we went to the Tanaka-san’s place. They live out in Saitama, about an hours drive from Tokyo. The Japanese celebrate New Year’s Day with lots of food and drink - it’s like their Christmas Day. And yes, lots and food and drink was prepared:

Here is Erica’s mother’s cousin making some ebi-fry:

We got some good tips about what to do with the leftover oil. Baba, Erica and Shion’s grandmother, revealed that she sneaks into a nearby park at night, digs a hole in the ground, and buries it. Haha. 

Erica, Shion and myself made a massive pile of inarizushi:

Maybe that photo doesn’t show how big the pile was. Everyone time someone saw it, they let out a “wooahh!”. 

 Here’s Shion with Mama’s cousin’s baby:

She was really cute. Very smiley and docile. And she really reminded me of one of my favourite children at the nursery I work at. I swear she has the exact same face, just 3 years younger. 

We ate and ate and ate, so much so that I was beginning to fall asleep on the sofa. We had to get up and go for a little work around the local area:

We visit a little shrine, our first of the new year:

Back at home, we played bozumekuri, a game we always play at New Years:

It’s a simple card game. Everyone takes turns in picking a card from the piles. If you get a bozu (bald man), you have put all your cards in the middle of the piles:

If you get a hime (princess), you get to take all the cards from the middle of the pile:

Whoever has the most cards at the end of the game wins. It’s really just a game of pure luck, but everyone gets really competitive playing it. It feels like such an injustice when you lose all your cards, but you feel so smug when you get all the ones from the middle. 

For dinner, we just continued eating lunch. It was literally just a day of eating, drinking and gaming:

Fun, cosy times. 

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NYE

Today was the girls’ Big Shopping Day. They’ve been planning to go on a big shop and buy loads of things for themselves (and maybe some stuff for friends). I can only shop for a little bit before I get mega bored, so I left them to it whilst I went and sat in a coffee shop and did some work. I was sat there for 5 hours before they finally came and declared they had finished. I got loads of work done though. 

We all then went to do a finally purikura (I’ll maybe post the photos later) and have a final play of some arcade games: 

We then decided to see out 2016 in the only way we really could - with some hardcore karaoke. As it was a special occasion, we decided to dress up. The girls wore schoolgirl uniforms:

And I wore a box of fries outfit:

Shion couldn’t resist wearing the outfit as well:

We did the karaoke slightly different to how we normally do it. Almost every time we go, we each select songs that everyone will be able to sing together. But this time, we each took it on turn to sing our own favourite song, usually whilst the other listened. For some reason, whenever it was my turn to sing, that was when the karaoke worker decided to come in a give us drinks and food. It was a little bit embarrassing whilst I was wearing my potato fries outfit:

Here’s Shion bashing out a Rihanna song:

We didn’t stay until midnight though (we were there for three hours, and it was already expensive enough as it was!), so we saw the new year in back at the flat, embraced in a group hug whilst listening to Auld Lang Syne. Farewell 2016, it was a year to remember. 

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Orbi

Shion has a little bit of a cough, so she bought herself a face mask:

She said she felt like a bandit, but so many people wear them here when they have a cold that I barely even notice them anymore. 

We got some nice bread of the bakery at Takadanobaba station:

I think it’s the nicest bakery in our area - it always has such a tasty looking selection of bread. I don’t know why Erica’s looking so angry about it.

We were on our way to Yokohama to go to the Orbi exhibition. I had read about this from a very small article on Time Out Tokyo, and wasn’t really sure entirely what it was, but it sounded cool. It was described as a partnership between BBC Earth and Sega, with interactive activities, so it sounded quite cool. 

Outside, there was a photo opportunity: 

So, inside it was like a science museum, all about the animals of planet earth, with various exhibitions. It was made by the same team that produces the Planet Earth series for the BBC. The first we did was go to the animal petting area. Here’s a meerkat:

A tortoise:

A rabbit:

A Chibi:

And some owls:

I actually find it hard to believe that the BBC Planet Earth guys would condone this petting area. The animals’ containers were quite small, and the owls were even chained the branches, not being able to fly anywhere. Not very nice for them, and not very natural. 

The rest of the museum was much more pleasant. There was a massive interactive aquarium screen to find out some fishy facts:

In fact, here’s a video of how it worked:

Here’s Shion under a virtual waterfall:

Erica and Shion as pandas:

Shion menacing a giraffe:

Shion running with the beasts:

One of the exhibitions was a sort of challenge to see if you could move as fast as some animals. A camera would record you trying to move like a stated animal, and then slow the recording right down to show you how fast the animal actually moved. We first of tried a grizzly bear shaking its fur, but Erica wasn’t in the shot for some reason:

We then tried to mimic a humming bird’s wings. Very difficult:

Shion being one with the penguins:

Shion and I on a virtual flight over Africa:

All of us riding on a giant polar bear:

Shion running amongst the animals:

Shion being a elephant:

It was actually really fun, and worth a morning trip out of Tokyo, especially if you’re into nature documentaries (it seems the whole world is in love with Planet Earth at the moment). 

We were there for a good four hours, and so were feeling rather hungry for lunch. We went for an okinamiyaki:

It looks like a pile of sick, but it tastes very good, and it’s really fun making it. 

We then headed back to Tokyo to do a little shopping. We went to Tokyu Hands in Shinjuku because Erica wanted to buy a new suitcase, but they didn’t have the one that she wanted. We all bought a little something for ourselves - I got a cool lunchbox, Shion got a tea-strainer thing, and Erica got some wooden forks and spoons.

For dinner, we went to a place called ‘Sweets Paradise”. I don’t know how I haven’t discovered this place before. It’s in the My Lord department store in Shinjuku station, and is an ‘all you can eat” dessert place, except it does savoury food such as pasta and salad as well. In fact, it’s select of food was really great, and we got our monies worth: 

We might have got too much...:

But it was worth it. For some reason, the place was playing songs from a boy band called X4 on loop, and showing their videos on loop. They were a really cheesy boyband, straight from the 90s. Very humorous to view whilst eating dinner:

I feel like we’ve been eating non-stop since Christmas. Might need a bit of a break tomorrow...

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A Lazy Lazy Day

Today was literally all about eating and sleeping. The girls went for a little shopping trip in the morning down the road, and I met them for lunch at our local Mos Burger. We decided to hit the Mos hard and just everything that we wanted, including multiple burgers, chips, onion rings and chicken:

The girl behind the counter even laughed at how much we had ordered. But we managed to demolish it:

We were all feeling rather stuffed after:

In fact, so stuffed, that when we got back to the flat, al three of us snuggled up with each other on the single bed and took a two hour post-food nap. Three people in a single bed may sound uncomfortable, but it was actually very cosy, and one of the most refreshing naps I’ve ever had (I don’t nap very often though). 

When we woke up, we were ready to have some tea and cake that we bought earlier:  

My chocolate cake looked too pretty to eat, but eat it I did:

After the nap and a nice hot drink, we were up ready to head out to dinner:

We met our friend Jade, who was an old high school friend of Erica’s from the UK. She’s actually Malaysian, but recently married a Japanese man, and has been living here for just over two years. In fact, we were still in the country when she first arrived, and she came to stay with us for a few days. She wanted to try the Seirinkan pizza that I’m always going on about:

She said she preferred the marinara pizza to the cheese one. I think Shion agreed. It’s because it has more instantaneous flavour, whereas the cheese one is a little more subtle. But I think it’s the subtlety that makes it so good. Oh well, each to their own. 

After dinner, we went for dessert in this nice little café that had long window seats, where people (mostly couples), could lay down with a blanket. As there were five of us, we didn’t get a window seat, but we were cosy enough: 

I realise that this blog has mostly become the “let’s watch Shion eat” blog. Maybe I should start a new blog of just Shion eating different foods. Hmmm.  

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Namja Town

We woke up this morning to a nice clear view of Fuji-san, so we went up on the roof to take some photos:

It just never looks right in photos. It looks really small in the photo above, but in reality, it’s much bigger. 

After showering, having a little breakfast and doing some work, I realised that the girls were being really quiet in the next. I had my suspicions of what they were doing, which were proved right:

There’s a lot of snoozing going on at the moment. But we’re on holiday I guess. 

I woke them out and we headed out for the day, getting a nice warm drink to wake them up on the way:

We went to Sunshine City in Ikebukuro for lunch, and found a nice pasta place:

I was happy that they did a nice vegetarian option, with no sneaky bacon or anything. Tasty tasty. I think I could have eaten another bowl of it. 

Erica had some work to do, so she went off to a café for a few hours, whilst Shion and I went to Namja Town:

I had always wanted to go to Namja Town, but always kinda put it off, because I was never really sure what it was. Even now, having been, it’s a little hard to describe. It’s a sort of theme park/ arcade/ food court. They have attractions, but they’re not like rides, I guess they’re more like games. Little hunts and quizzes and stuff like that. The first thing we did was a monster hunt, that was a lot like Pokemon Go:

You get given a little device, and then have to search the theme park for a monsters, and then catch them by reeling them in, like fishing. Shion’s wearing that paper hat to indicate that she had put a bet on that she could catch of a couple of rare monsters. I didn’t bother betting for some reason, but we ended up catching both of the rare monsters, so she doubled her money. 

We played a zombie game, that turned us into zombies:

Another game was a quiz-type hunt, where you have to place a cat on pedestals and then answer questions:

Sadly, the questions were all in Japanese, with some hard kanji that Shion couldn’t quite recognise, so we just had to guess most the time. Although we got a few correct, we completely failed. Never mind. 

There were plenty of other games and even a few actual rides. I can’t be bothered to explain them all here - you’ll have to go and experience them for yourself. Its a nice way to spend an afternoon:

I should have said before that when Shion put a bet on, it wasn’t with real money, but these card board coins you get given when you enter. On the way out, you use the coins on a spinning wheel to get prizes. As we had lost most of  our coins, Shion was only able to have one spin:

She won (I don’t it’s possible to not win), and selected herself a prize:

Ya, so Namja Town was pretty fun. I highly recommend:

For dinner, we met Yumika, the daughter of one of Mama’s friends. We had met her a couple of times when we lived in Japan, and it was never enough. She’s such a lovely person. We went for dinner in a little place where her dad was a regular:

She’s so friendly and smiley - even Shion said that after spending only half an hour with her, she felt like they had been friends for ages. She doesn’t speak any English, so it was a good opportunity for me to practise my Japanese, but you know, after several high balls, it gets kinda hard...

There were a couple of ‘end of year’ work parties on the tables next to us. One of the parties featured an employee who wore a Spiderman mask for the whole evening. He creeped us out a little  - he would often just stand and stare. We suspected he was quite drunk. As their party was wrapping up, Spiderman spied us, and wondered over for a little photo (I knew a person like him wouldn’t let the sight of gaijin just pass by):

This the sight of a salary man hitting it hard at a work party.  Compared to some UK office parties I’ve been to, he was very tame. 

Time for one last photo with Yumi-chan, one of the nicest, loveliest people I’ve ever met:

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Sushi, Spa and Lobster

Erica had some work to do in the morning, so Shion and I headed down to Ginza to do a something. However, we left a little late, and ten realised we didn’t actually have time to do it, so we got off the train and went back the way we came to go and get some lunch (I won’t say what we were going to do, because I may still find time to do it later on, but I’m not sure - I’ve so much to do, and such little time left!!). 

Shion had never been to the iPad sushi place, so we went there for lunch. I’ve already said loads about it, so instead of saying any more, I’m just going to leave this video of Shion enjoying some sushi: 

After lunch, we met up with Erica at Toshimaen, to have a sort of spa afternoon. There's a large pool-type-thing, but it isn't really a swimming pool, it's more for doing exercises or doing those water massage things. When we were in there, there was a little water exercise class going on. It felt a little awkward to be there, because everyone was being so quiet, so we went outside, where there was a sauna and a hot tub. We aimed to spend a full 12 minutes in the sauna, but just couldn't do it - it's so hot in there. I think we only managed about 8 minutes. The hot tub outside was quite nice though. Erica only stayed in it for a few minutes before she went off into the onsen section by herself. Shion and I didn’t fancy going to the onsen, so we just hung out in the hot tub in the garden. Erica and I have been here before, but also in the winter. Apparently, in the spring (and especially sakura season), the garden is really beautiful, but when we were there, it was mostly just full of naked trees. Still quite nice though. 

Shion and I were getting a little hot in the hot tub, so we got out and reclined on some nearby deckchairs. For a few moments, it actually felt like t was the summer time and we were basking in the sun next to a pool somewhere, but then a skin returned to it’s regular temperature and we started to feel the cold, so we quickly jumped into another hot tub. We tried to have another go in the sauna, but this time only managed about 3 minutes. I don’t how people can last for like 30 minutes, or even do yoga and stuff in there. Next to the pool-type-thing inside the building, there was a bucket shower - a large bucket that filled up with cold water, connected to a rope. Tug on the rope, and the water comes gushing down on top of you. I stood under it and let Shion pull the rope - blurgh. It’s such a shocking experience, but probably better for someone else to do it for you, like ripping of a plaster. Shion then stood underneath it, but she didn’t want to get her hair wet, so she had to an awkward lean back, and I feel she didn’t get the full force the cold water. Next time!

We finished with going into a stone steam room. As we entered, there was a couple in there, and the boy said to us “welcome” (in the manner of a shop assistant), and the girl got embarrassed, saying “shut up, shut up!” They left about 30 seconds later. Ha. 

In the evening, we met Mama’s old school friend, Yasuko, to have a Red Lobster dinner: 

It was very nice to see her again, and very nice to have Red Lobster again. It’s always so tasty. In the guy’s toilet, scribbled above the urinal, someone had graffitied (in English) “time is on my side”. Not sure what that’s about. Strange thing to write as you’re peeing. I hope the staff don’t think it was me!

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Boxing Day

We pretty much spent the day travelling back to Tokyo on the coach. For lunch we all got obento. Shion got herself a steaming hot corn dog:

The coach was nice a spacious, with plenty of stretch room:

Shion and I watched a film on the way back, The Shallows. Not only was it not very good, but I was getting a little bit travel sick watching it for some reason. I normally don’t get travel sick. Maybe the film was just so bad it was making me ill. 

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Christmas Day

As ever, I had a really bad sleep on Christmas Eve. But this time, I don’t think it’s because I was excited for Christmas Day, rather that our room was crazy hot. The room had under-floor heating, which we had no control over, and with with people in the room, we all got really sweaty and uncomfortable. I ended up watching Home Alone 2 at 2am in the morning. Which is still an enjoyable way to spend a sleepless evening. 

We were excited to get up in the morning and have our breakfast. We wore our Christmas hats down to the breakfast room, gaining some giggles from the other guests:

Breakfast was 5 courses, starting with salad, then soup, then french toast, then pizza and finally a nice yoghurt. Delicious stuff:  

After breakfast, we went back to our room to open presents. We decided to put a ¥1000 limit on each other (about £7), so whilst it was a rather modest haul, it was still very nice:

We also got stockings (provided by Mama for myself and Erica, and then I got one for Shion), filled with lots edible goodies, which is always welcome on a Christmas morning.  

After the excitement of presents, we spent an hour of CHristmas morning doing what we each love most -  I watched a film on my laptop, Erica glued herself to Japanese TV:

and Shion took a nap:

We then headed out for a Christmas walk. Shion swapped her full-sized Christmas hat for a mini one I put in her socking:

There was no snow, unfortunately, but we saw some pretty cool icicles:

Really, look how long it is:

Christmas Town was much quieter than the day before (I guess because it was a Sunday, and most people staying over had to return  home), so there was a bit more space to move around and do stuff. We went to a fancy hotel for some photo opportunities:

Took a little walk to another church:

Dinner was a much easier affair. We were able to just saunter straight into a soba place, for some tasty tasty Christmas Day soba:

We ended the day with a relaxing onsen. Actually, we had an onsen the day before as well, but I forgot to mention it. Cosy cosy. 

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Another Christmas Eve

Three years ago, when we were living in Japan, we went to a place called Christmas Town to spend Christmas Eve and and Christmas Day. We enjoyed it so much (it was probably my best Christmas ever), we decided to go back this year. This time, we had a Shion with us. Here she is modelling her soft soft soft fleece thing with a soft soft soft hat that Erica’s dad’s wife knitted for her:

Cute cute cute. 

To get to Christmas Town, we had to get a coach from Ikebukuro. Whilst the girls were in the toilet at the station, I spied some funny signs outside: 

Japan never fails to have a funny sign or two lingering around. Are these intentionally funny? Quite possibly. But most of the time, probably not. 

 When we got to Christmas Town, we did some ice skating:

The ice rink was a lot more pimped up than the last time we were here. Then it was just a frozen pond with a small shack handing out the skates, but now they had built a permanent structure that served drinks, and the ice rink had chairs for people to sit on and be pushed/ steady yourself whilst skating:

After the skating, we were getting a little hungry, so decided to check out the dinner situation. We tried several restaurants back in the town, but they were all either fully booked, all had massive queues outside. It was really, really busy there, way more so than last time. Probably because it was gaining popularity, but also because Christmas Eve was on a Saturday. We went on a desperate hunt to find somewhere for dinner:

Erica and I traditionally have Chinese food on Christmas Eve, and we went to a Chinese restaurant in Christmas Town last time. Erica asked there this time, but the only thing she could do was put her name on the waiting list - there was about 20 groups in front of us! We decided to browse the shops for 20 minutes and then see how many groups had passed, and then judge whether we should just give up on a restaurant dinner, and resign ourselves to eating a convenience store dinner, eaten in our hotel room. After the 20 minutes were up, only 3 groups had gone by. We had to accept that there would be no nice Chinese food on this Christmas Eve. 

Instead, we went up to the church area, to check out all the lanterns and lights and things. It was was pretty as before: 

Everyone was waiting outside the church, we assume because they wanted to get good seats for the Christmas Eve service. But when the doors of the church opened, a just-married couple came out:

It was a little awkward, because they just stood there for several minutes as photos were taken of them (by their photographer), with about 300 random people looking on. Crazy that they would schedule their wedding for that moment. But maybe they were into that. 

We weren’t able to get seats inside the church - we didn’t even bother, loads of people starting running into the church to get a seat, so they clearly cared a lot more than we did. But we suddenly realised that well over an hour had passed since we had tried the Chinese place, and now there were loads of people up by the church... perhaps we just might be in time to be the next in line. 

We hurried back down to the restaurant, and what d0 you know - a Christmas miracle - we were three groups away! We had to wait another 15 minutes or so, before we were given a cosy little table in the corner: 

A Christmas tradition kept in tact. 

After dinner we went to take some photos next to a couple of Christmas trees:

We then finished up the day by snuggling in front of a fire, by the massive tree, with Christmas songs playing over the PA, drinking hot rum drinks:

I've said before that our last Christmas here was my favourite ever, and whilst it’s too soon to judge whether this one tops it, I can definitely say that that video above marks my favourite Christmas moment ever. I’ve never felt more Christmassy. A warm fire, Christmas songs, tasty beverage, pretty lights, massive tree and two of my most favourite people in the world for company. 

Yeah. A lovely Christmas Eve. Sigh.  

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So Much Food

We went to meet Erica and Shion’s grandmother, Baba, today for lunch. We were supposed to go to Daikinsan (a restaurant owned by relative of theirs), but when we arrived, it was closed:

Baba then said she wanted to quickly pop in to see her friend just down the road, so off we went. We went into her friend’s house (a rather old lady) and kind of awkwardly sat there for 20 minutes, whilst Baba and friend chatted old lady stuff. The friend started to give us lots of drinks and food-treats (to take home), which was a little more awkward. We eventually said we’re heading off for lunch, and the friend decided to come along with us. We went to a restaurant she knew nearby, that for some reason put a plate of bananas on the table at the beginning of the meal:

After a very delicious meal, we were all very stuffed, but Baba’s friend kept trying to order more food for us (she succeeded in getting some hot cakes in), and more drinks, but we were far too stuffed. Listening to Baba and her friend talk was very amusing - a good mixture of silliness, slight craziness, and a bit of cunning, In fact, I think they had the other guests in the restaurant laughing too. Here they all are after the meal:

Fun times. 

After that, we headed off to Kichijoji to do some Christmas present shopping for each other, and then do a couple of hours of Christmas Karaoke - where we sung nothing but Christmas songs. Fun fun fun. 

In the evening, we made Christmas dinner (as we’re not going to be around on actually Christmas Day):

We were all incredibly stuffed and sleepy. But that’s what Christmas is right?

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Christmas Disney

So, after Shion arriving just yesterday morning, and still being a bit tired, we decide to go to... Disneyland!:

Despite getting there nice and early, there was still a big queue to get into the entrance. But, once we got inside, we played the Disney game just right, not really having to queue that much for anything (35 minutes was out longest), and we were able to go on every single “ride” (there were some ‘attractions’ we missed out, like Goofy’s Paint House, or whatever), about 24 in total. It’s because we were smart with which rides to go on when, and when to get the fast track tickets. We downloaded an app that told s the queue times of each rides, which was very handy. And even with managing to pack in all the rides, it was still a leisurely day - we had a relaxing curry rice, and then a not so relaxing canoe ride (we had to actually row the canoe ourselves!). Here are some photos (but not too many, as we were too busy enjoying Disneyland to be taking photos): 

We bought along the heart glasses from out hotel in Okinawa, and then decided to ride the carrousel that was decked out in fairy lights. It was a trippy experience: 

A little girl kept staring at us, wondering what we were up to, so I gave her my glasses to try on, but she didn’t seem that impressed. 

We were quite excited to try the glasses on during the Electric Parade, but sadly, 20 minutes before the start time, they announced that due the extreme wind, the parade had been cancelled! The weather was pretty good for most of the day, but in the mid-afternoon, it really poured down (luckily we were under a covered queue at that point - in fact, we didn’t get wet at all during the day). The rides were still going though, so we just used the time to finished up on the rides we hadn’t yet go on. Then, about half an hour later, they announced that the fireworks were cancelled too. Which was a bit of shame, but we’ve all seen them before, so it wasn’t too bad. 

All in all it was a lovely day - Disney done right:

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I Just Can’t Get Enough

Erica went to get her hair cut, and as I walking around the streets outside the flat, look who I bumped into:

It’s Shion, my brand new shiny sister-in-law. How gleefully happy I was to see her:

When we were here for a year last time, Shion was one of the very few people that I would have loved to come and visit, but she unfortunately didn’t have the time. So yes, I am now very happy that we get to spend some time with her at Christmas, especially because she lives in Scotland now, and I haven’t seen her since the wedding. 

As I said, Erica was getting her hair cut, and then meeting her old animator boss for lunch, so Shion and I up to to Shinjuku for some fun. Of course, the first thing we did was a spot of purikura:

I will never get bored of purikura. 

We had then planned to go to Slappy Cakes in Shinjuku station - a place where you can fry your own pancakes at the table, but when we got there, it had closed down and become something else!! Sad times. Instead we went to a tempura restaurant. I’ve been once before, right at the start of my year here, so I couldn’t really remember much, except that it was tasty. We were given seats at a counter in front of the chefs. There were a couple of signs up saying no phones, so we didn’t take any photos. Which was a shame, because we watch the chef take a live eel out of a tank, skin it (whilst it was still alive), chop it up, dip it in batter, deep fry it, and then plonk it on my plate. That might sound gross, but it was actually incredibly delicious. 

After lunch, we headed to the closest karaoke place. We had only been there for about 15 minutes, before Erica was able to join us:

Karaoke is another thing I’ll never get tired of, and it’s fun doing it with different people, because they select songs you wouldn’t normally chose. 

After karaoke, we were wondering what to do next, but the answer was clear of course - more purikura! We had to get some with all three of us, of course:

We then had to be on our way to meet Kazuya, Minao-chan and Kanae-chan in Hibuya, for the Tokyo Christmas Market, but we were a little early, so we took the opportunity to take some photos with some illumination:

We eventually met up with the rest of the guys:

I’ve been to a few Christmas Markets in Tokyo, but this is the best yet. Probably just because of the size of it. It wasn’t exactly massive (compared to some European markets I’ve been to), but it wasn’t bad, considering it’s in Tokyo:

Apparently, this thing (whatever it is), the largest of its kind in the world:

Here’s a photo of Kazuya eating a sausage:

You’d be surprised at how many photos I have of him eating sausage. I might turn it into a collection and open an exhibition one day. 

After the market, the suggestion of dinner was floated, but Shion was feeling really tired (she landed just this morning!), so me and her went home whilst the others went off for food. As soon as we got on the train, she fell fast asleep:

Haha. Better get all the sleep she can, we have a big day ahead tomorrow...    

[tokyolongenough]

Not Enough Kyary

We headed to Harajuku today, where we had lunch in a Neal’s Yard Remedies café:

I had always thought that Neal’s Yard Remedies and Neal’s Yard Dairy were part of the same company, just doing different produce, but apparently they have nothing to do with each other, other than being based in the same location (Neal’s Yard, obviously). Interesting. 

We then popped into Kiddy Land for a little look at the toys:

Interestingly enough, there are very little children in Kiddy Land. It’s mostly adults, probably hoping to recapture their youth. 

The main reason we wanted to go to Harajuku is because there’s a new Kyary Pamyu Pamyu exhibition going on in a nearby museum. I’m still quite a fan of her’s, although she hasn’t released any new albums since I was here last (other than a ‘best of’. The exhibition was mostly about her CD covers, which are always fun:

It also included props from her music videos, that you could ‘try on’:

Careful not to wake Kyary up:

Try and catch a Kyary:

Fun stuff. I thought Erica wasn’t really enjoying it so much, because she’s not as big a fan as myself, but when we left she that she loved it. 

On the opposite side of the street, there was a fairly new Kyary Pamyu Pamyu café, so we thought we’d continue the theme and get a sweet thing and coffee from there. However, unfortunately for us, the café is closed from 16:30 - 18:00, which is when we were there. Oh well, we’ll go back one day. 

We still had a craving for a sweet thing though. Luckily, Harajuku is famous for crepes, so we treated ourselves: 

One of the best puri kuras I’ve ever done was a Kyary Pamyu Pamyu one in Harajuku, so we tried to find it again, to try and continue our Kyary theme, but the booth had seemed to have gone, possibly replaced with one called “Katy 2″. There was a massive queue of people wanting to try it, so it might be pretty good. I’ll try and check it out at the quieter time. 

[tokyolongenough]

A Rouge One

I woke up this morning and boiled an egg. The kitchen got a little steamy, and revealed an ancient message on the mirror:

It’s hard to see from the photo, but that’s the remnants of my last few days in Tokyo from two years ago. There’s a mirror pen here which Mama used to write the schedule on the mirror. The mirror is clean now, but the ghost of the writing remains. Just to the left of the writing there were the drawn faces of myself, Bruno, Shion and Mama as well, but they were impossible to photo, due to the light. It feels so weird - really like the past two years never happened, we never went away.  

Anyhow, later in the day we met Kazuya to go to the cinema. Can you guess what film we were going to see?:

Ya, the new Star Wars film, Rouge One. Here’s Kazuya with a storm trooper:

It was pretty good. 2016 has been a really crappy year for films, so it’s refreshing to finally see one that gets it right. Kazuya’s review?:

I don’t know why the thumb isn’t higher. We didn’t discuss it. 

The title for the English version is Rouge One: A Star Wars Story. But all the posters over here, in English, say Rouge One: Star Wars Story, missing out the “A”. Now, a lot of Japanese people struggle with the concept of the word “a”, and often miss it out in their speech and writing, because they don’t really understand how to use it. But you would think, on the official poster, they would have the correct grammar. It’s no wonder Japanese people struggle with the word, if the people who actually speak the language isn’t even even using it. 

After the film, Kazuya went home and Erica and I went to do some work in a café. I treated myself to a Christmas special of hot milk with rum. Erica thought it was disgusting, but I quite liked it. On the way home, we saw a nice illumination display at Shinjuku:

Although we keep forgetting to bring our glasses from the resort. We’ll have to just leave them in our bags, ready for a good illumination opportunity.  

[tokyolongenough]

More Cats

We met with one of Erica’s old animator friends today. As we were waiting for her at Shibuya, we saw a couple of interesting sights. First of all, we saw this big fat man talking really loudly on a street corner. A couple of teenage boys were watching him with amusement. After we looked again a few minutes later, several more boys were stood watching him, taking photos and videos. We drew quite a crowd. We wondered whether he was famous or not, but it didn’t look like it. It seemed like he was just a crazy guy, ranting some stuff, and the boys were finding it funny. 

The second thing is a common sight in Tokyo that I really find funny each time I see it - two girls greeting each other. They always spot each from a few paces away, and then call out each other’s names whilst rapidly waving their hands. They sort of rush towards each other, and look like they’re about to hug, but then stop just a few inches from each other. You can see a certain energy emitting from both of them, like they really really want to embrace - express their happiness at seeing each other - and yet they can’t quite bring themselves to do it. I see it so often. It’s both funny and sad. I think I’m quite a physical person - when I like someone, I hug them. But these girls remind me of magnets of the same polarity - trying to touch each other, yet some unseen force is stopping them. 

Anyhow, Erica’s friend, Saki-chan, suggested we go to a cat café in the area. I know we just went to one like two days ago, but we likes cats, so why not? This one was one of the better ones we’ve been to. First of all, you can wear some cats ears, if you feel the need. I did feel that need, but no one else joined me for some reason:

The second thing that was quite cool was the bird cage-style things they had hanging everywhere for the cats to sit on:

Some of the cats were wearing Christmas costumes as well, which was very cute (although we failed to get a proper picture of them). One cat looked like David Bowie:

Because of his eyes, you see. Although as a massive Bowie fan, I shouldn’t be adding to the myth that he has (.....had....sniff sniff), different coloured eyes, it’s just that one pupil was bigger than the other, giving off the illusion of different colours. Aaaanyway, cats: