Found Home

Oh man, a whole semester has come and gone - and it sure has been a pretty crazy semester.  I honestly don't even know where to begin @__@

The start of the semester was exciting - moving into my first apartment and getting to live with Eunice and Minerva! I had a lot of fun arranging and decorating our new space (and I was particularly excited about our wonderfully carpeted floor.) Our apartment saw some pretty good times with friends, both old and new, but our couch didn't have such a good time (it got puked on lol).  I really enjoyed roomie bonding time- whether it was grocery shopping, cooking, guacamole night, or mask day (lol even after the 5th time we did it I still can't get over how ridiculous we look). Near the end of the semester we all got really pretty busy and overwhelmed with other things, and roomie bonding time was cut pretty intensely :\ Hopefully without the stress of the semester, we'll spend some quality time together in January ^^ I'm so happy we made the decision to move into the apartment though- so far during my time at MIT I never felt at home in any of my living spaces, but I feel like I finally found a place I feel really secure and relaxed in <3

Another huge part of my semester was dance- This year I auditioned and finally got into Mocha! Waaaahh I was so excited I could hardly believe it!  It was really intimidating and challenging, but I had a blast dancing with them. After the first couple practices, I actually injured my knee and was out of commission for a few weeks, which was ridiculously frustrating. I literally couldn't even walk for a couple days and which completely pissed me off. But eventually I could lightly dance with my brace on and I even got to dance at World of Dance Boston @__@.  Literally danced on the same stage as Poreotics holy shiiiiit dream come true.  Then later in the semester, I performed at Mocha's annual dance competition Ring the Alarm both with them and with constructs/immobilare (MIT's popping and breaking groups)! We did a pokemon themed set xD. Dancing at RTA was CRAZZZYY. The room was just full of pure hype and energy and dancing in front of such an audience was absolutely incredible to say the least.  I feel like I'm not doing it justice through my shitty writing skills lol.  Anyway, in addition to Mocha, I did another wonderful semester of ADT :). This semester I was allowed to choreograph BTS (my beautiful bbs <3) and even though it was challenging and frustrating at first, I was really proud of what we were able to do at showcase. I also was in charge of the guy choreo (Minerva did girl choreo) for a duet piece (Troublemaker's Now) and had a blast working with them. At first they were p bad not gonna lie lol, but by the end my boys were so hot and wonderful and I literally could cry tears while thinking about their success stories. So yeah - a great semester of dance! Can't wait to push even harder after the break >:D

Another big change in my life this semester was getting into my first relationship! Literally what. I honestly don't know what to write right now (I literally just typed and deleted things for an hour),  so for now I'll just say that I like him a lot and that being with him has taught me some important lessons about how to really take someone else into consideration- things that I thought I already knew but didn't truly understand. Looking forward to spending time together and growing more in the new year :) LOL OKAY NOW ON TO PICTURES. @__@

  

Yay roomies! Home sweet home :) 

Went to check out the galleries at the Institute of Contemporary Art on a class trip! My favorite was definitely this dark room that was completely bare except for a rectangle of projected light on the ground in one corner. You can stand their and cast a shadow while stuff is happening in the background (ex. people and objects are falling from the sky) It's the top, middle one! I stood there for a good 10 minutes probably haha

Weee food @_@ Ate at Yume Wo Katare ("Tell me your dream") for the first time! It's a pretty famous ramen shop and after you finish eating you stand up and tell everyone your dream. It's kind of cheesy but kind of beautiful at the same time. Blackberry and raspberry fro-yo from cafe 472 with Minerva, classic.  Breakfast and milk tea at the apartment <3 Berry french toast at Cafe Luna aka my first date with Eric @_@. Chicken katsu curry at GoGoCurry with Eunice~ Toto ramennn. First time eating at BONCHON YEAH. Padthai at Wagamama with Randi ^^ And last but not least...Thanksgiving asian food waoowww

Top half is Eunice's birthday! We went out for some good ol' hotpot buffet with the boys in suits and Eunice wearing the birthday tiara.  As for cake....we didn't have candles so we threw 21 plastic knives into the fruit tart instead lol. Bottom is BTS bonding dinner + karaoke afterwards! And there's me and Eric the first night we actually talked...I think I just sat there trolling everyone all night. Was a good time. 

Time with friends :) Nate came over and cooked us a delicious salmon alfredo fettacine dinner! Eating at Tatte with Kiaraaa my wonderful co-sales and media for ADT, Yuta the big yellow lump, Weiwei with his new ink (it actually looked p legit for a day), Eric looking like a goober.

Had a blast performing with my BTS bbs <3 Also check out our hot shirts aaayyyyy

MOCHA! I'm so lucky to be surrounded by such kind, inspirational dancers! I felt like I've grown a bit this semester thanks to them.  Had so much fun dancing with them and Imobstructs <33 Also WOD .__. Still can't believe.

Another great semester with my ADT family <3

Looking Up

Ah, time has a funny way of sneaking up on you and then sprinting past before you notice. It's been over two months since I've gotten home from Japan and now I am already more than halfway through my junior fall. I guess before I blog about my semester so far, I want to wrap up the end of my summer, especially since the last few weeks were probably some of the best few weeks of my time there. 

Asakusa and Skytree outing with Kristin and her host family~ The two girls were so cute and the family was so nice!  For dinner they took us out to a famous okonomiyaki place where I learned how to make monjayaki (a more liquid dough than okonomiyaki). Then we chilled and walked around at the base of the Skytree which was super lively - especially at the outside terrace which was filled with people lounging around with the Skytree towering above us.  

Eggplant, how could i not? Fruit tart from Sign to celebrate Tozawa-san's birthday at the office. The boss was out and we spent a good 2 hours sitting around chatting. They talked about marriage/relationships/future family things which was p interesting for me especially since it's not something i usually talk to my friends about. More delicious work day tempura lunches + making monjayaki with Kristin's host family!

Lol more food. Conveyor belt sushi in Shinjuku for Austin's send off.  Eating ramen with Cat before her flight to Cali T_T.  Karaage with the office. This really weird eggplant peach stuff...that was surprising also really good.  More office lunches. MORE EGGPLANT. Ichiran Ramen! Delicious curry. And last but not least, my last lunch before leaving Japan! I thought tsukemen was a very suitable send off meal @_@

Looking up amidst the buildings of Roppongi Hills. Ueno station at night all lit up! Between the enormous skyscrapers in downtown Shinjuku - my friend told me about the place and urged me to go- at night that open area is filled with a bunch of dancers. It took me forever to work up the courage, but I eventually approached a couple of amazing poppers training in the corner. They were really nice and taught me some useful techniques. Also I got to hear their stories! One of them had momentarily paused college to come to Tokyo in order to try to make it in dance. I was really touched haha

Food with friends, drinks with friends, landmarks with friends. 

Lol went on a lunch date with a random guy I met on Tinder. We went to Omotesando aka Beverly Hills of Tokyo. The residential area of Omotesando is beautiful with some really nice architecture+interior/exterior design. We ate at a famous Katsu shop (definitely lives up to its name) and then stopped by a really cute one-man coffee shop. You basically enter a garden entry-way, into a minimalist medium sized room filled with people waiting to get expensive coffee from this suave dude who mans the whole thing by himself. I think he lives upstairs.  Sounds like the life haha

Tokyo tower with Matsui-san and Nouguchi-san after work! Unfortunately the steps were closed off so we couldn't climb hundreds of steps, but I guess the elevator was aight :) It was beautiful!! The inside of the tower is filled with gorgeous blue lights, and when you look out you can see Tokyo all lit up. I think the most interesting thing though was the blinking red lights installed at the top of all of the buildings. You can sort of see them in the bottom picture! So even when the buildings are too far too make out, all you get is a floating layer of blinking red. Some people think it's really ugly, but I found it to be kind of beautiful haha 

I met a caricature artist named Uno-sam in Ueno park one day.  He drew my portrait and I attempted to draw his as well (and failed miserably...) Turns out he was currently unemployed and drawing portraits for free in the park to practice with a bunch of people in the same situation, so I went back a few times to draw with them! We also went to this really hipster cafe and an art exhibit that had some really cool stuff. I even got to ride on his motorcycle lol...definitely the most random encounter I had this summer. He was such a character, a bit strange, but very kind!

The weekend before I left Kristin and I went to a day of dance camp at En Studio! HOLY JESUS was it amazing. We took 4 workshops - Mari, Keone, Mari&Keone, and Jillian Meyers. People were there from other countries just to take these workshops, and after just a few minutes I could tell why. If I thought these people were amazing on video, it was nothing compared to seeing them in person.  I'm just amazed that people can move that way - with so much power, precision, nuance, and feeling at the same time. I was almost moved to tears...but some people were actually moved to tears hahaha. Damn what an experience @__@. Later that week we went to a few more classes, and the last day actually got a bit emotional when we said goodbye to the staff :(  But speaking of emotional...I actually cried when I said goodbye to my co-workers...super embarrassing since I never even got that close to them. But suddenly they were all getting teary-eyed and hugging me D: Weird how connections can be made without us even noticing. On my last night we went to oedo monogatari onsen! It was extremely relaxing and wonderful - soaking in the hot onsen with friends and just breathing slowly while thinking back on my whole summer.  It was calm and refreshing and I couldn't ask for a better last night in Tokyo!

And that's how my wonderful summer came to a wonderful conclusion. I had ups and downs during my three months in Japan, but I think I grew a lot during that time. I became more confident and comfortable with both myself and other people. I learned to be a little more responsible and self-sufficient.  I even went from being terrified of spiders to only mildly terrified. Along the way I met so many inspirational people, and made a lot of great friends I'm really going to miss. Thank you Japan for this learning experience! Until next time ♥

Meat the Coast

Wow what a cringeworthy title.

This beautiful meat is from this heavenly place, a yakiniku place in Ginza. Cat said this was the best meal she had last summer in Japan, so we decided to go have a nice dinner after work one day! Our waitress was able to explain the whole menu in English which was kind of awesome but kind of annoying because she assumed we knew zero Japanese.  Even when I asked her questions in Japanese, she'd respond with English. Then I just felt stupid. But all feelings of linguistic inferiority aside, man that was an absolutely delicious meal.  We many different cuts of meat, but I honestly couldn't keep track of what was what. Cat and I grilled each piece one by one and ate so slowly relishing each slice that our waitress even commented on it lol.  It was pretty beautiful watching the fat melt and cook the meat, so beautiful in fact, that we were mesmerized and didn't realize that it was on fire. Apparently you're supposed to put the meat on the side of the grill so it can cook slowly. We figured that out when another waiter suddenly appeared, turned our fire down, moved our meat to the side, and promptly left without a word.  We had literally been sitting there staring at the fire and taking pictures like idiots (photographic proof found below). But even though our first few pieces were slightly burned, they were nevertheless juicy (crispy) and delicious. Our meal concluded with delicious mochi-like desserts wrapped in fragrant leaves. We spent a good minute or two smelling the leaves while eating our dessert, raving like lunatics about the fresh mountain air... I hope they didn't see us again. I left feeling full, but not too full, and very very satisfied. 満足 - satisfaction AKA my word of the summer.

Beautiful beautiful meat T_T

Us watching our meal getting engulfed by flames and doing nothing about it lol. The lanterns are a random street in Ginza we passed on our way home.

The second half of this post is about Izu! The weekend following this wonderful dining experience, we headed south to the Izu Peninsula to stay at a ryokan and see the coastline. Unfortunately on our way there we were too busy playing word games to notice that we had been on the wrong train for more than an hour. So we got off, switched trains and was delayed by two hours lol. Luckily we made it to our ryokan shortly before the typhoon was scheduled to hit.  We arrived to a wonderfully elaborate meal made up of a billion little things (included a sketchy snail thing) and knocked it back with some chilled sake and hot tea. After spending some time digesting, we donned our yukata and made our way to the outdoor bathes. They overlooked the coastline which was black and ominous at night, but the outdoor deck was cozy and decorated with rocks and fake plants. It was very relaxing sans the moment when Kristin spotted a gigantic spider and we freaked out and jumped into the bath. After our bath we relaxed in our room, playing contact (another word game lol so nerdy) and knocking back a few drinks. I also got my hair braided haha - it felt like middle school all over again.  The next morning we had another beautiful meal and I took a walk with the two Cats (two people named Catherine) while the other two took a quick nap.  The air was humid like no other but I enjoyed the beautiful wild flowers, rice fields, and rocky coastline. By the time we arrived back at the ryokan, we were very damp. However, turns out the bathes were closed in the morning! So we quickly packed up and walked to the train station, still very damp.  We stopped somewhere along the way to see the cliffs and waves, and I was being a grouch about walking so much until we reached the coast and I was blown away by the view. The water was a bright aqua, and it gleamed and shimmered as it broke on the rocks even though it was an overcast day.  Just imagine it on a bright clear day! It was if someone was photoshopping my vision in real time. Crazy. We spent the next few hours exploring the coastline and climbing rocks. The wind was amazing! We sat on the edge of a cliff for a while, watching the waves crash on the neighboring cliffs and being enveloped by the wind.      

The Izu crew! 

The beautiful scenery of Izu- Just look at that water!

たのしかっ「たね」！

Last weekend I went to Tane, a small village in Shiga prefecture, and participated in a bunch of workshops that aimed at revitalizing the community there. College students from many places in Japan gathered at the village and together we designed an iconic bento of Tane, made scarecrows with local children, created play spaces, and tackled issues of animal crop damage. I also participated in a workshop with Keio University students where we paired together with local high school students to design and build easily assemble-able furniture! I forgot to take pictures, but in a few hours we designed, cut, and constructed a chair! That night we had an outdoor barbecue party where I got to talk with my cool coworker and her very attractive friend. I also got stuck talking to my boss at one point, and it definitely made me like him a lot better than before, maybe because it wasn't in a business setting. Then I milled around talking to people here and there while devouring three strawberry shaved ices...

Afterwards I watched 4 hours of TV with my host sister, Haruka-san, while talking about random things (mostly boys lol). I really liked her! She was honest and goofy, and I appreciated her laid back personality. I also really enjoy Japanese commercials, and it amused my host family when I kept chuckling to myself during commercial breaks like an idiot. #foreigner 

At this balln' restaurant in Meguro where I had super delicious curry with Jason and Kristin before going to Tane. Kristin at Ebisu Matsuri right before catching my bus to Fukui lol. Coworkers at lunch smiling for once in a picture because he was trying to mess up my food picture. Food at Tsukiji Matsuri with Korean Sam. Beautiful decorations in Shibuya! 

Liu in the middle looking DAF at lunch. Surrounded by many delicious foods that I'm too lazy to talk about.

Remen (cold ramen) at Fukui! Chicken at Liu's farewell party. Best chicken ever at a place we frequent for lunch in Daikanyama. Tsukemen in Ebisu the night I almost got stood up twice .__. Rockin' vegetable sandwich from this hip new sandwich place! Too bad it took them an hour to make it....Curry at Tane! Green curry from Unice. More curry from the wonderful-interiorally-decorated restaurant in Meguro (Those carrots and potatoes were so soft @__@) and last but certainly not least, AFURI TSUKEMEN from a delicious godsend ramen joint near ebisu station. 

In beautiful Tane! Riding in the back of a truck past fields and fields of rice paddies with a bunch of people who I don't even know the names of. Plopping down our adorable scarecrow. With Hikari-san and Scarecrow-chan! Selfies with Mariko-san (my coworker). Host family's house. Delicious first dinner at Tane! Haruka has a younger brother and twin younger sisters! They were such a lively bunch haha

Top half- fireworks in Yokohama with new and old friends! The guy all the way on the left introduced himself as Mr. Muscle...I wonder if he actually goes by that. But either way, he is super dedicated to his muscles and it shows.  The fireworks were beautiful! There were some pretty cool ones I hadn't seen before, and the show went on for over an hour. Also there were thousands upon thousands of people! The sea of humans was crazy @_@ 

At a hipster little restaurant near work- creamy cheesy orange sauce with bits of ham topped with super soft pumpkin and oranges.  Sounds sort of strange, but they were owning that combo @__@ Probably my favorite of the lot. Also the little salad on the bottom middle was really good! I had it in fukui and the ingredients were super fresh and included sweet yellow kiwis!

Over a month ago now, we spent the weekend at Kichijoji and Shimokitazawa! Pretty boats and sexy stuffed bears at Kichijoji where we enjoyed the Boho shopping scene and the park.  Color-coded boy group performing on the street. Thrifting at Shimokitazawa! The whole place has a nice relaxed atmosphere and if I were to sum it up in one stereotype, it'd be hipster.

Check out that parallel mealage at the bottom. I had Omu-rice two nights in a row, followed by similar-looking desserts. Top was a place in Ikebukuro, and Bottom was at a cute place in Shimokitazawa... spoiler the bottom one wins @__@ Just look at that pan-fried french toast topped with ice cream, banana slices, almonds, chocolate, and powdered sugar. Oh man. 

Man I love the matsuri atmosphere. Beautiful lanterns, dancing people, street food, mixed with the sound of laughter, speech, and music is so wonderful ^^

Chasing Fireworks

I’m currently sitting on an overnight bus, only half an hour away from Fukui.  Watching the outside scenery pass by is calming and exciting at the same time: Traditional architecture with their slanted shingled roofs make up small towns that give way to bright green fields and lush forests.  The whole scene is framed by an endless row of large mountains, dwarfing the already small clusters of houses.  We just entered the city so the buildings are getting larger and larger, but the houses stay the same. It’s super interesting to me to see the juxtaposition of old rustic structures housing beautiful sleek Porsches. Like seriously, what?

Now I am sitting in the dark in the kitchen (it’s 1am and this is the only room I get wifi) thinking back on the day!  It was such a nice break from the city. Driving in the mountains and along the sea, smelling fresh air, and being able to see stars! (Haha do I sound poetic enough yet?) But in all seriousness, it really was a wonderful experience. I arrived at Fukui station looking like a piece of sweat-covered-shit before Shizuka-san and Akari-san immediately showed me to the car, and before long we were headed to Toujinbou! On the way there, I realized they were the famous suicide cliffs we learned about in class….And once we arrived I could see why it is so popular, as dark as that sounds. It’s both scary and beautiful, terrifyingly scenic – but maybe that’s because it was introduced to me within the context of suicide(?). Either way, we trudged around enjoying the view but melting from the sun (high of 97, I kid you not) before driving a little while away for Oshima Island, a small mysterious island where compasses don’t work…(jk, I just googled it and it says that it’s due to the magnetism in the rocks. Sorry to ruin the mystery.) We hiked through the island, which is super steep at first, but gives way to a slightly leveled forest. There really isn’t a better way to describe it than as a “Totoro forest” with little paths, large blue-accented black butterflies fluttering everywhere, and deafening cicadas. Afterwards we stopped at Awara spa, a nearby onsen, basically experienced a rebirth, and journeyed onward to an adorable craft shop/café in a slightly secluded (but also very scenic) area for a delicious curry lunch. Another car ride, several grocery stops, and one ice cream break later, we arrived at home! It was so nostalgic seeing the old shrine almost two and a half years later. Okaasan was the same as I remembered her, slightly goofy and very hardworking and honest. Obaachan was also the same, getting flustered when she didn’t remember my name. I helped out with some preparations (tomorrow there is a summer camp at the shrine for the local kids) and enjoyed a pretty good talk with Shizuka over iced coffee at a nearby café while gazing out at the sea. Before long, it was time for a local summer festival, so we suited up in yukata and hobbled over in our shoes. There were many children and old people, but not many young adults- probably away at school. Either way, I enjoyed learning how to dance bondori and eating yakitori. Then we drove up to another café high in the mountains to watch the fireworks while munching on snacks. It soon became clear that the café was actually really far away from the fireworks, so okaasan loaded us into the car and we literally chased the fireworks. It was pretty awesome, looping in and out of view, as they loomed larger and larger. We were practically under them when the final round went off. With the windows rolled down and the night breeze whipping at my face, we drove along the ocean, homebound. I felt absolutely rejuvenated! When we got back, Obaachan went to go watch a drama, but the rest of us sat around the kitchen table eating fried matsuri food and drinking beer while listening to Akari-san’s bargaining tips (according to her, she’s a pro). After a while, we said our goodnights and headed off to bed. Or atleast I was supposed to go sleep haha.

Reunited at long last :) Toujinbou cliffs and jumping on the bridge to Oshima!

More scenic shots of Toujinbou and Oshima, and of course a few obligatory selfies. See those cool jack-like structures? They are for breaking up waves during storms! 

The local summer matsuri with the beautiful Fukui scenery.  Suited up in our yukata! Beer and fried matsuri food with Akari, Shizuka, and Okaasan. Delicious breakfast of bread, jam, fried hot peppers, omelette, tomatoes, ham, peaches, and plums. @__@ Karaoke before I left! Akari and Shizuka both have really strong voices, and I enjoyed listening to them while Okaasan enthusiastically shook her maracas and cheered. She kind of reminds me of my mom actually haha 

I'm really glad I made the trip to Fukui that weekend. It felt so nice to get away from the city, and I finally got to see my old host family again! I missed their goofy antics and straightforwardness. When I asked them if there was anything they wanted from America, Okaasan simply said "letters".  What an answer! I will definitely write to them when I return home ^^ 

Oh Deer

Damn it's been a while! It's been almost a month I think since I last posted... aka brace yourselves for the onslaught of overwhelming collaged content that's about to ensue.  Actually, four weeks ago I did start typing up a blog, so here it is:

"Last night Kristin and I went to En Dance Studio in Shibuya for a S**tkingz workshop! Lol I accidentally just typed worship...but honestly that would've worked just as well.  They're awesome on my computer screen, but damn , in person it's just mind blowing.  A lot of the other people in the class were also super boss, including apparently Rihanna's choreographer...???"

Apparently that's all I managed to type, but daaamnnnn re-living that moment right now. @__@ Since then, I've taken four more classes, taught by Noppo, Shoji, Tatsuya, and Saya! I actually just got back from my class with Saya and holy shit was it difficult. Her style is house, so a lot of weight shifting, light footwork, grooving, and loose limbs. I was so out of my comfort zone I almost cried, but by the end I was having a blast being awkward but not giving a fuck.  I'm really glad I ended up actually taking these classes! Just being around all of these extraordinary dancers makes me feel super inspired (and admittedly, disgustingly fangirl-ish). It's also been a lot of fun so far and I feel like I'm constantly learning new things!  Now I just need to somehow make my body better at moving....

Food and good company! I had my first real "bad day at work" so me and cat grabbed some delicious food and drink at the yakitori place across the street to de-stress. #workinglife

Kyoto!! Haha I wasn't lying when I said a lot has happened. Beautiful shrines and temples everywhere: Kinkakuji, Kyomizudera, and Fushimi Inari!

Selfies at Kyomizudera with the twins and our nice volunteer ushers. Food, drinks, and the softest mochi in the history of the world. We got to watch as three men pounded the shit out of some glutinous-rice as they made the mochi. It was really entertaining because they worked super quickly, kneading, tossing, and pounding the mixture while rhythmically shouting so no one would lose a hand underneath the hammer. 

Nara! The grounds surrounding Toudaiji are filled with deer who ignore you if you don't have food, and practically maul you if you do. Also there's a picture of the intense mochi-making!

Our wonderful wonderful Sunday trip to Hakone! It was pouring and windy and freezing...but I enjoyed the trip immensely! We grabbed some delicious curry for lunch and were on our way up into the mountains! Wow I forgot to actually include a pic of the mountains, but they were beautiful, take my word for it. We went up by cable car, and at one point you kind of suddenly break out into this clearing where you can see all the onsen water being transported, and the rocks covered in sulfur.  We ohh-ed and ahh-ed like the tourists we are. We grabbed snacks (dorayaki with ice cream!) and froze our asses off eating them outside, half getting rained on. Eventually we climbed the path to the black egg stand, (there is a picture of the path included) and bought our black eggs. They're hardboiled in the onsen water, and the chemical reaction with the sulfur gives it its dark color! There's also some bullshit that if you eat one you will live 7 years longer....so i ate one just in case hahaha. By the time we made a loop around the mountain and went back down, we were soggy and gross aka perfect time for...hot springs! 

Disgusting, sweaty, and fan-girling hard after our workshop with the s**tkingz! Friends, co-workers, food, and drink ^^

Karaage and adorable rice mounds at a hawaiian cafe, tofu salad at a restaurant near our station,  in-between-fried-and-grilled chicken strips near work, I don't even remember eating that ramen but i'm sure it was good, co-workers beautiful curry, my beautiful pad thai, freshness burger & mango smoothie (!!), delicious egg+fish over rice, Ichiran ramen!! (everyone is served in their own personal stall so you really focus on the ramen lol) @_@

And the food continues: Ballin' tsukemen near work (I didn't know the regular dish already came with pork so I ordered a bunch of extra by accident....shit) No recollection of salad happening, Curry dinner with friends in Shibuya, MATCHA ICE CREAM, pork katsu (at the same place as the fried/grilled chicken, takoyaki at coins bar (where everything on the menu is 300 yen....) Eating katsudon with Ryu-san....but it was too fatty and chewy ^^;, Ice cream + mochi + green tea + red bean = @______@ Amazing yasai katsu set at Kichijijo: a place known for its young hipster crowd. After that delicious katsu meal, I was spacey for the rest of the day

Small lake by the temples of Kichijoji, according to Cat, the most feminine groceries ever, post karaoke elevator selfie. boats at Kichijijo, Roommates! Dr. Dre and four Quick Fucks (I made Jesse order so we don't have to say it) Lunch with my Chinese co-worker who doesn't know how to smile for a picture.

Gaming Debut

Oh man, weekends here pass by so quickly! Friday after work, I headed over to Roppongi to chill and drink with friends.  Although I was seriously considering going home and going to sleep, I ended up going to a club called Feria with them and staying until the first train at 5:20am. I was happy to be in a place with deafening music and pulsing lights, but was also thoroughly disgusted by the sheer amount of middle-aged male creepers looking for young female prey. I was also very disappointed by the quality of dancing, which makes me sound like a pompous ass, but hot girls in tight dresses bouncing up and down like oompa-loompas is just depressing. I've been told that dancing in Japanese clubs is often a little more on the non-existent side, but the dance culture here is also supposed to be prominent? How does that work someone please explain. Anyway, I got quite drunk fairly quickly and spent the night happily, not giving many shits about anything. The night ended not so great though, as one of my friends got into some trouble with an aggressive guy who was forcing himself on her, and a bouncer that kicked them out, shouted at them, and slapped the guy several times across the face. The only good part of the story was when she, being the nice person she is, actually tried to help out the guy, claiming that he wasn't just a random guy, but actually "her boyfriend since yesterday". LOL. What a good person, but that jackass didn't deserve her kindness. The bouncer also tried to take her pants off while shouting at her....there is no way we are going back to that shit hole.  

On Saturday I woke up late and after doing nothing for a long time, met up with my friend in Shibuya for some ramen, arcade games, and karaoke.  A very chill and relaxing Saturday for sure. At the arcade we played some DBZ and a lot of otoge (music based games, short for "ongaku gemu") which were awesome- they have so many different kinds! We also played this thing called Dance Evolution - which is basically like Dance Central, but the moves barely repeat.  Most people who play have the dances somewhat memorized before playing in front of people....We didn't. Jesse and I picked two random songs (one girl-dance and one guy-dance) and threw our bodies around in a fruitless attempt to match the dancers on screen. Thank god I couldn't watch myself. By the end, some people had gathered around us watching, and one guy clapped and gave us thumbs up lmao...people are too kind here haha. Karaoke was interesting, we went to a sketchy place with attendants that looked like they hated their job, and we attempted to sing many songs in Japanese. Emphasis on attempted. Then I Skyped with Randi, Weiwei, and Eunice for a while when I got back! It was so nice to see them and talk about stupid things together :) 

Sunday I woke up for a Skype call with my family! My mom kept reminding me every few minutes to get more sleep though >_> which means I probably shouldn't be blogging this right now at 2am...later that day I met up with Kristin and Jesse for a super late lunch (hello 4pm) and some light window shopping. When Kristin left to meet up with her host family, Jesse and I naturally ventured into an arcade again and gamed for a while.  Then we found a billiards place and played for an hour, which felt great! I haven't played in so long...but the concept of actually paying money to play is difficult for me to understand after being spoiled by the abundance of pool tables at school. Either way, I'll probably still play a lot this summer even if it robs me T_T. Guess what we did after pool? MORE ARCADE AW YEEEE. This time for some good ol' DDR (where I learned that I didn't actually have to return to the center position after each note...good to know) For dinner Jesse got katsudon and I got spicy gyudon stuff, which I was pleasantly surprised to find was actually a bit spicy. Spicy food is quite hard to find in Japan. During dinner I also managed to pour a bowl of miso soup over my already water damaged phone, but that wonderfully tenacious device survived <3 We also got punch cards....only 9 more meals there until we get one for free! 

I decided that I need to change my shitty lifestyle, so today was Day 1 of new-Sonya. Aka an independent woman, leading a healthy existence as she lives life to the fullest! I supposed today's attempt wasn't too bad. I woke up early for a short morning run.  What was supposed to be a relaxing 2km jog turned into a frantic 6km run when I got completely lost and ran for a long time in the wrong direction. Long story short, I was late for work, felt nauseous all day, and ended up legitimately falling asleep for 15 minutes during work.  My legs are even sore already. Why is being healthy so hard??

Speaking of my legs (good transition, I know), tomorrow Kristin and I are going to a dance workshop being taught by...S**t Kingz!!!! O__O. It's going to be way hard, but I almost don't even care. I'm just so excited to see them in person and be able to take their class!! WAHWAHWAH. Yes, I'm a fangirl. 

I call this collage, "Parallels". Why, you ask? JUST LOOK AT IT. Bottom two on the left are pricelessly similar, and the middle two aren't too far apart either. The one in the middle bottom is my co-worker who I had lunch with today. Communication was interesting. He speaks Chinese and Japanese fluently and some English. I speak English fluently and some Chinese and Japanese lol. Right pic is a facade of a ramen place that I thought looked p sick. Also it's the only picture that fit that long shape lol. 

A building I thought looked awesome...but doesn't look so awesome in this picture. // Path I ran on this morning during my 6km adventure. // A cat pawing at internet cables(?) // Takoyaki! I went with Cat downstairs for dinner to this little bar right underneath our apartment. Seemed like a super chill place...we are determined to friend the owners! Today we awkwardly didn't talk to them much but sat at the counter. fail. // Middle is the Roppongi friday crew going konbini hopping // POOOOOL. // Really boss MaiMai players who kept scoring above 100%....wtf. // Spicy gyudon and the soup that was almost the death of my phone. // Jesse playing Sound Vortex! 

Catwalk

Whew, last week really flew by @__@ I spent all week working on different models. One was a 1:50 ratio restaurant (aka it was huge and pain in the ass to make) and another was a 1:1000 ratio of a small town (aka it was minuscule and a pain in the ass to make). Besides for that, since Cat has arrived, time passes by quite quickly after work as well. We checked out a yakitori place across the street from our apartment on Monday - unfortunately I didn't get home from work until after 11pm, but thankfully the place was open till midnight~ Their yakitori was super delicious, the perfect blend of lean and fat, of seasoning and grease.  They also had these awesome potato skewers that were drenched in a lake of butter. It was insane, but somehow super satisfying at the same time. Cat decided that if she ever went to jail on death row, she would pick it as her last meal, and she was devastated when they took the plate of butter away before she had finished her potatoes.

Skip forward a bit...and it was Friday! Woohoooo! After a long wonderfully satisfying day of work, I met up with Cat and Daniel in Shinjuku for dinner and adventures.  After eating at a cool place with a touch-tablet ordering system, we hit Kabukicho to revel in the Friday night rush of people. After walking around for a billion years, we gave in to one of the clubs that was trying to get us to come in (haggling the price down of course ^_^). The scene was a little sad, not too many people, and no one dancing except for two girls pole dancing (they weren't half bad and could do some tricks) and one dude in a corner trying to bust some serious moves. The girls left, and after downing some drinks we joined corner-man on the half empty dance floor.  The music was good, the lights were good, maybe I wasn't nearly tipsy enough to not care, but I was tipsy enough to not care about the fact that I cared. Maybe that was sufficient.  After a while, we left, much to the dismay of one of the servers who kept making eyes at Cat. Instead of staying out all night, we decided to go back home and kick back with a good Japanese movie. We picked a Google recommended one, Crows Zero, and bought a bottle of cheap-ass (and disgustingly strong (or was it strongly disgusting?)) sake.  The movie was about a bunch of high school boys forming different gangs and beating the shit out of one another. I think they tried to be deep and kind of failed, but the fighting was good, and so were the pretty faces :) I mean, it wasn't nearly as numerous as in love dramas, but with every character being a delinquent brawler? I'll take what I can get.

Saturday was beautiful.  Mainly because I woke up at 2:30pm. I went to Yoyogi park for a Jamaican festival, didn't actually find the main stage, but walked around and enjoyed the mass amounts of people outside picnicking and playing sports.  There were street performers and food vendors, and the weather was great. Soon I met up with some friends at a British pub, and had my first food of the day at 6pm: alcohol.  After a while, we walked over to Shinjuku to meet up with some more people and go to Ni-chome together, aka the gay district. We went to this ballin' club called Arty Farty (lmao) which was absolutely packed. No cover charge, relatively cheap drinks, good music, bright lights, and a fog machine. Yes. It was leaps and bounds better than the previous night's club, and I got to see many attractive dancing men all crammed into one space. One of my friends who had probably consumed at least 8 beers by this point, got very drunk and spacey all of a sudden.  We left shortly thereafter and slowly walked back to the station. Although my friend was smashed, he didn't fail to stop being entertaining. He offered a couple of guys some Hi-chews, and continued to insist until one guy gave in and hesitantly took one. Apparently he's done this before a couple times and it's the first time someone has accepted his kindness. So naturally he was extremely excited by those events. Also at one point he asked some people "Where is the beer?" while looking for a bathroom. When we pointed out that he meant bathroom, he simply replied that they were the same thing. After dropping him off at the station, we settled down to karaoke from 12am-5am. @_@ I don't know how I still had a voice after that. I finally made it home a little before 6, and of course decided to spend the next three hours reading manga. I actually read a really good one called "Watashitachi no shiawase na jikan" which translates to "Our Times of Happiness." For anyone looking for a good, short read, I recommend you check it out~

On Sunday after a wonderful two hour sleep (nap?) I woke up and headed south to Kamakura to meet up with Kristin and two of her Todai friends. Apparently the trip is supposed to take an hour and 50 minutes, but four transfers and two hours and a half later, I finally arrived!  I met them at a place called Enoshima, a really cute and old island.  Once I arrived at the station, it's a short ten minute walk across a long bridge that leads straight to the island.  Enoshima is steep, with winding streets running uphill, lined by little shops and packed with people.  I was a little grumpy from the long and confusing train rides, but being in such a lively place, surrounded by the beautiful sea, cheered me up right away.. It was a nice change of pace to not be in the city for once.  I met them at a cute seafood restaurant and had a giant bowl of raw-fish-don.  I forget what it was actually called, but I think that name sums it up pretty well.  I met Tomoki, and a girl who's name I can't remember since she had to leave 10 minutes after I arrived.  Kristin kept trying to teach them slang such as "gettin' it on", "hook up", and "thug life".  It was pretty amusing haha. We then went to Kamakura to see the Giant Buddha and walked around with green tea and taro ice cream, talking about random things and learning words like "immortality" in Japanese.  I was very content. Tomoki went home, but me and Kristin went to Yokohama and strolled around some more. The night scenery is quite nice, especially since there is a giant rainbow ferris wheel by the river, and the water melts and mixes all the colors to make it look even more psychedelic. The cityscape is sort of strange and sparse, with random giant buildings popping out of nowhere, making the area seem extremely spacious and open. It was kind of weird and cool at the same time. We settled down at a Starbucks for a bit before heading our separate ways, and on the train home I kept passing out every two seconds. Honestly I don't remember what I did after I got back.  I think I was stupid and read more manga instead of sleeping. @_@ And now that I look at the clock, apparently I didn't learn my lesson then. I've been falling asleep at work all week! What is self control? I don't know.

Jesse carries around his Japanese book to make his bag more full...Cat and her beloved potatoes.  At a Chinese restaurant near our apartment- a wonderful find. Even though it's still Asian food, it felt so good and familiar to eat it. Dinner & clubbing! Lol the two pictures are so similar.

Enoshima/Kamakura day! Big picture for the big Buddha. A really strange tree that I found more interesting than I probably should have. Selfie with the Buddha makes it look so much smaller...ICE CREAM. Gate leading up the island. Walkway en route to island. Trying to koala a large tree. Selfie with a banana tree, and you can see the ferris wheel in the distance! Awesome metal birds that were a part of the railing, then they put clothes on it.  Probably another thing that I find more interesting that I should lol. 

Of course, the obligatory food collage. I actually was strict this time around and there were a lot of pics that didn't make the cut. From top left: Chicken katsudon!!! Mozzerella burger. Margarita pizza. Fancy sushi lunch. (all four of those are work-day lunches) MANGO PUDDING at Hakata Mangetsu in Shibuya. Midnight yakitori. Delicious broccoli/sundried tomato/mozzarella panini I had at Mermaid Cafe lmao. Grilled eel-don - was so good, but the portions were minuscule! Giant bowl of raw-fish-don at Enoshima! 

Drinking boba (famous taiwanese place opened near work!) while model building. Line of drummers at Yoyogi park! SESAME BALLS @_@ Raspberry Lassi I had at a cafe earlier tonight.  I ended up staying there for almost two hours, creeping and drawing random people- it was so relaxing! The star photo: a man walking his cat. Ebisu Shrine. Coworker Shigyo-san and our delicious lunches. Met up with Shirley from my Japanese class for drinks and snacks, she came to Japan with them last year, but is only here for vacation this time. It's sad, but it felt weird to finally talk to her in English lmao. And last but not least, my colony of tiny-ass foam and paper houses. You can't tell from this photo, but I had to perforate each roof so I could fold little dips and rises depending on what house type it was.

Ah, it's actually been almost two weeks since I've blogged...today is already friday! Ready for another eventful weekend! ..or maybe I should just sleep. >__> Good night~

Now Is Forever

Thirsty Thursday, wet Wednestday...tinkle Tuesday? I don't even know if there's a name for it, but sadly enough my dinner tonight consisted of fries, a little ice cream, and much alcohol.  After work (I left before 8pm! A record!!!), I went to Shinjuku and joined some people for three hours of karaoke and drinks...ah feels good to let go after two days of hard work. 

Yesterday I was in charge of drawing the master plan for the Bali resort development.  They printed a large paper full of buildings and I had to drawn a billion trees (literally a billion) and then color in the whole damn thing- it took 10 hours straight.  By the end, my eyes were swimming and my hand was permanently dented where I had been holding the colored pencils.   Honestly I probably would've finished two hours earlier at least, but my boss thought it'd be an awesome idea to distinguish the topography as well as include geographically accurate shadows. @__@ The day finally ended at 9:30 and I set out to get some food in my very empty stomach.  I wandered into a random Korean restaurant and ordered this interesting bulgolgi hot pot dish, and by dish, I mean massive pot of food. I was worried that I'd only be able to eat half of it...but there was no need since I demolished it.  By the end, there was only a thin layer of broth left in the pot.. Recently I've noticed that my stomach has gotten really good at waiting patiently until meal times, when it then turns into a black hole.  It's actually pretty convenient...idk about healthy. Must be because of my super irregular meal times lately.

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I know my eating habits and the details of my internship are really riveting, but I'm pleasantly surprised if you are still reading this post lol. Anyway, I typed that up a week ago (surprise, not really), and since then, I've had another fun weekend! Therefor gg, this is only the halfway point of the post (maybe not even). 

So this weekend, Richard came to Tokyo to visit on his way back to Boston! I met his friend Dan who is also here for an internship (even though we technically had a class together last semester haha) On Thursday we went to Roppongi, ate kebabs, drank beer, and played pool.  It was a glorious and relaxing Thursday night. At one point, we were set on going to Hooters for dinner....but Roppongi hooters turned out looking more like a sketchy black-light bar owned by large men and no female waitresses in sight... Then on Firday, Richard wanted to go to this party called Gaitomo which literally means "foreigner friend" and we ended up meeting some girls there (yay Richard)! (Most of the guys were creepy middle-aged white dudes who were extremely touchy with the Japanese girls. Disgusting.) After a while we asked this one girl named Asaka if she wanted to grab some dinner with us.  She's in the same year as us in college and was super nice. We exchanged contact information and parted ways. I hope I will see her again this summer! It's kind of new for me to befriend absolute strangers at random events, but it's sort of nice, especially since I'm actually using Japanese and she understood me!! (A big cause for celebration, trust me.) 

Saturday was a really good day. I woke up late (good start to a good day) and made my way to Akihabara to meet up with Richard, Dan, and 8 of Dan's coworkers at... a maid cafe! There were cute girls with ginormous eyes dressed up in maid outfits playing card games, taking pictures, and serving people food (while calling them "master"). I think the best part was that every time someone's order was brought to them, the whole table had to make a heart with their hands and chant "moe moe kyunn~" while swaying the heart from side to side and ultimately blasting(?) the heart in the direction of the food. The first time it happened, I burst into hysterics, but I got accustom to it extremely quickly, and before long I was blasting love at all the food like a pro. After the maid cafe, we went to a shop that was filled with 150 different capsule machines! Each was stuffed with different character goods. It was strange to me since those machines always seems to be a sideline commercial endeavor, but here, it made up the whole format of the store. After visiting the biggest electronics store in Akiba, we settled down at an Izakaya, which is a restaurant that serves small servings of food and a lot of alcohol. IT WAS DELICIOUS. Two and a half hours later, I left with a very satisfied stomach, ready for some karaoke. As soon as Dan's coworkers sang the first note of the first song, I was blown away. Some of them were so good I felt like I was at a live concert! It was also fun (and slightly embarrassing) to try to sing some Japanese songs that I've only ever listened to before. It was pretty hard to read the lyrics, and I honestly felt like I was just making up sounds that sort of went with the melody. Kind of like a toddler lol, but they were very nice and applauded me anyway :) After an awkward group photo in the subway, I went to Shinjuku with R and D. We walked, basking in the bright lights, before hitting up an arcade (Richard went nuts over the DBZ game) and taking some Purikura. 

Sunday was Harajuku day! The streets were absolutely packed, and Cat (My roommate!!), Kristin, Jesse, and I slowly waded through the throng of people going down Takeshita Street. Harajuku is such a great place for people watching. Goth lolitas, hot pink sailor uniforms, brightly dyed hair and crazy piercings abound. And on the less intense side of the fashion spectrum, generally stylish and really good looking people. I did a lot of staring. Hopefully those people were flattered instead of creeped out. We wandered through different stores looking at all of the cute clothes, but there was so much and so many stores that I was just kind of busy trying to take it all in. Next time I go, I will actually do some hardcore money-spending on that street. We went to one of Jesse's favorite stores, Up-Start which is pretty sick.  They have a signature design that goes on most of their clothing: a little face that has a pull out tongue.  Some are small, around the size of your thumb, but some tongues can be larger than your hand. It was awesome. We then ventured into 6%dokidoki, a small store crammed with enough color for a whole neighborhood. I ended up getting this earring (in black and silver). I'm so unreasonably happy with my earlobe saying dokidoki that I don't even regret spending $24 on it. We also went into a sticker shop called B-side Label.  The walls are lined with all different designs, ranging from cute bigheaded animals to half naked women with giant boobs. Man, designing stickers all day that hordes of people flock to buy seems like living the dream. @_@

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Currently sitting in my room typing this thing up at 3:30 am.  I accidentally fell asleep, but awoke to a giant yelling match going on outside my window. I watched as an old woman angrily screamed and hit a young man while his wife tried to go between the two, ultimately getting hit instead. She's for the most part calmed down now, but is currently demanding an apology, and getting louder by the second. I really hope she doesn't lose it again, it was kind of terrifying. Speaking of terrifying, about an hour ago, the whole apartment shook back and forth for about 30 seconds. I think it was probably a mini earthquake, or maybe aftershocks from the two that apparently happened earlier today off the coast of Japan. I had thrown open the door in panic, preparing to wake up my roommate, but then it stopped so I slowly closed the door and sat back down. It seems like things have calmed down again (the fight), so I am going to sleep before they start up again. Hopefully those people sort it all out :\

Mexican lunch with a bunch of coworkers! Tsukemen, the beautiful, more mature cousin of Ramen. It's almost the same, but the broth is richer and separate from the noodles and toppings. It gives you so much control over how to eat it! At first I thought it was dumb, but once you start eating it, there's actually a difference. Also the giant bibimbop hot pot dinner I demolished single handedly. Lastly, this wonderful (and creepy) barbie mural at the Mexican place. 

Amazing omu-rice at this cute cafe called Sign. I have a coworker who goes there every day...I might join him on some days. Curry rice with egg and fried shrimp chunks. Kara-age aka fried chicken. Curry RAMEN. Two attractive men and an attractive kebab. Note book I recently bought, that will be filled with one drawing a day. Details in a future blog post lol.  

Akihabara day! I forgot what it's called, but there's this one dish where it's basically just rice soaked in green tea + toppings. Such a good way to get rid of second-day-rice. Ice cream, red bean, + mochi oh my @_@;; Lol awkward subway pic. Capsule shop. Roasting slices of stingray! Awesomely talented two-man group on the streets of Shinjuku. Selfie with the bright lights. And of course, DBZ gameesss. 

Harajuku! Dinner selfie~ mouth watering dessert we had at lunch (caramel fried toast topped with happiness). A giant panda bus that can BLINK. Green people parading the streets... Picture with the shop keepers of 6%dokidoki :D Awesome graffiti wall!