Thursday, June 26, 2014

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~

1 comment:

  1. hehehe sounds like fun!!!! also good manga @-@ i was real sad :(
    also being safely drunk sounds really fun hehehehee
    sounds like you've been going to lots of cool places and having lots of fun in a safe way which is awesomeeeeee <3

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