80's party

Went to an 80's party with all my school friends... it happened to be across the street from school. the bar was really nice.
Kinda embarrassing walking through a high-class restaurant in cut off jean shorts and a no-sleeve t-shirt.

Ueno and Ebisu Garden Place

Reese's little sister Jenna came along with Laurel and I on our friday afternoon adventure to Ameyoko dori in Ueno. It was a cool neighborhood of long shopping streets filled various flea-market style shops.

Later that night, they were selling boxes of ikura for 10 dollars, and 40 prawns for 10 dollars....so cheap.
Kaisendon- maguro, salmon, negitoro, ika somen, scallops, and IKURA....all for only 7 dollars.

I wanted to eat everything on this menu.....note the abnormally cheap prices.

hot yaki manju and white peach ice cream.

Fresh mochi grilling on the side of the street.


Later that night, we hopped on the train to the lavish Ebisu Garden Place to see a big rock thing from Hanayoridango .

This place was fancy.

View from the top of Ebisu, looking towards shibuya/daikanyama/shinjuku/ikebukuro.

Val in Tokyo!

Saturday: Went to Yokohama Chinatown with Laurel and Val. We had conveyor belt dim sum. pretty cheap and it wasn't bad.

Shoronpou: soup filled dumplings.

Val felt at home here. :)

Lots of people around us were speaking Chinese and the streets were abnormally clean.

Of course we had to run into a parade. Laurel and I were talking about how we are always so lucky and get to see some cool shows. processions/parades/street performers...

Lion dance.

this was cool....some lady walking on stilts.

Nomihoudai

The original plan of the night was to go out and then sleep by futako-tamagawa river...but it downpoured....so we slept on the yamanote train for three hours. I got home at 11 the next morning.

After two hours of sleep, I headed over to Noriko's for dinner. Her auntie makes THE best gyoza! I was put to work and wrapped.

Chloe was born in Seattle. She came to Japan a couple years ago.

chips and salsa, gyoza, salads, pastas, steaks, nishime, AND sangria.


Monday: we had a cool guest lecture in class about Japanese textiles. This guy screenprinted by hand this huge clothe mural of Asakusa's sanja matsuri. The patterns are made from paper and are hand cut.

Long roll of cloth for kimono. The white patterns are made using a rice glue to act as a repellent when dipped in the dye. Then the cloth is rinsed in the river and the glue washes off, revealing the elaborate patterns. This roll of cloth was almost 3000 dollars.


Tues: Went to Shin-okubo to their Koreatown. Cheap and tasty korean food. All you can eat for 15 dollars.

tired...

went out all night and got home at 10 o'clock this morning. Took a two hour nap and went to a dinner party...i'm tired.

i'll post pics tom. :)

Afternoon stroll in Daikanyama

It was nice out today, so my friends and I decided to go to Daikanyama and look around. It ended up being filled with small trendy shops and cafes....many looked pretty pricey.

We walked by a Subway and saw noticed their new sandwich. It's Japanese style with roasted chicken and gobo salad. looks pretty tasty.

I've noticed that many fast food chains have different items on their menus here in Japan.
Mcdonalds: Bacon and Potato pie. these are goooooood.

And their Ginger Pork sandwich...not that good.

New Drama

I'm watching a new drama about a guy and his little shiba puppy. I want that dog.
Here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEmHV2i1MX8

Okayama, Beach, Kurashiki

I spent this past weekend in Okayama, visiting my Auntie. Right when I arrived, she took me to her friend's Korean restaurant for dinner. It was tasty.

Her friend, Miyamoto-san, took us over to his other restaurant acorss the street that he has for parties. He designed the interior...it was amazing.

My Auntie lives in Seto-cho, right outside of Okayama city. In the back of her house, she has another corridor that was used as a haiku dojo. It was very spacey.

Breakfast.

Old papers/books in her house.

I took a walk in her garden after breakfast.

Okinawan lion statue.

After breakfast, we headed off to Kourakuen, Okayama's gem. It's known as one of the top three gardens in Japan.

This moss gets raked daily.

The timing was perfect. The iris garden was in bloom.


Maple.

Looking down from the top of the hill

Bamboo grove.

Winding river.

Looking up from the river.

After walking around Okayama, we rode the bus about an hour to the Inland Sea, where we spent the night at a hotel. The beach was beautiful. The sand was mostly clear/pink quartz.

hehe.

Laying on the beach.

Auntie!

Sunset.

We ate at a buffet for dinner....it was THE best. steak, dim sum, sushi, shrimp....everything was so good. This was round 1.

Round two.

Round three and four were mainly the shrimp dim sum and steak.
I spent two hours in the Onsen/Rotenburo...they had inside baths, outside ones, and a sauna too.
This was the view from my room.

Blue ocean, yellow sand.

Miyamoto-san took us for a drive along the coast. We stopped at his friend's hotel along the way where we had coffee. Amazing view of all the little islands.

Seto-Ohashi bridge.

Kurashiki old town.

so many shops.

hanging slippers.

What would shikoku be without sanuki udon?? from the udon capital of japan. I accidently ordered the jumbo size(thinking it was Japanese jumbo), but it ended up being 3x the size of a normal serving....

Went to Kibi-Ji; a temple in Kibi, from the town of Momotaro...hence Kibidango.

Huge Pagoda.