Sun in an empty room

It's been a while, I know. Much has been happening and I haven't had much time or motivation to update. Let me try to recall what all has been happening....

I left off on Wednesday. If I remember correctly, I don't think I did anything on Thursday, however, I could be wrong...maybe it will come to me. Friday night my friend Keith and I went to Shibuya and found an awesome Punk Rock Bar called Garage Land. They had lots of free posters which I of course took to decorate my room. We hung out there and talked for a while. We wandered around the city for a while and then saw a sign for some random place that had cheese fondue. This was around 11:00 as we were heading back to the train. Well needless to say, our interests had been peaked and our stomaches decided that we had to find out what the fondue was all about. We went up to like the 7th floor of some random Sega building and ended up at an Isakya (sp?) which is a place that serves drinks and food. The place was super fancy and awesome. We didn't have very much time at all if we wanted to catch the last train so I had to try and tell the waiter that we had to hurry....it took a little bit but he finally understood what I was talking about. Needless to say, we got the cheese fondue and it was spectacular. We also got this delicious meat dish that we split. I hadn't really had any cheese or meat since I had been here so it was a great treat. They also served us an appetizer that was around $5. I told them I didn't want it, but they said it was required of everyone. It was some caviar and fish gelatin dish. I tried it and almost threw up. It was gross...but oh well, the meal was definitely worth it. And we luckily made it back to the train in time.

Saturday I went with Jon to Ikebukero. It was a pretty awesome place. They had fun shops and I ended up getting a really cute purse for less than $10. For lunch we went to a place that had Okonomiyaki, which is like an omelette/pancake thing. They give you a bowl with all of the ingredients, you mash it all up and then cook it at the table. It was so delicious. The food in this country is just so great. That night Jon and I, along with Becca, Daz and Dave walked to the next town over and ended up finding a Moz Burger which has delicious hamburgers. It was a semi-chill night with some random drinking.

Sunday I went on a school trip to Kamakura, which is about an hour and twenty minutes from Tokyo. It's a pretty big tourist area with a beach. I dragged my friend Kyle along with me. Neither of us really had any money and none of the ATM machines would accept our card. We finally found a post office that was open which is very rare for a Sunday, but thankfully it worked and we had some money. We wandered around the town for a while and then headed to this big shrine where there was a festival with Samurais on horseback doing archery. Unfortunately, it was so incredibly crowded that we could barely see anything. Instead we went and sat by the gorgeous pond with tons of huge Coy Fish. Keith decided to come and meet us. The entire day was pretty stressful and confusing because so much time was wasted sitting around waiting for the rest of the groups. Kyle decided to head to the beach while Keith and I continued on with the tour. We took a bus to the Giant Daibutsu Buddha. Oh my god, it was incredible. It was humongous and spectacular and breathtaking. For the past year or two, in my wallet I have been carrying around a little coin with the Giant Buddha on it for good luck. It was amazing being able to see it in person. Truly amazing. We then went to another temple with even more huge Buddhas cast in gold and silver and beauty. The temple overlooked the water and it was beautiful. After the temples, we left the group and headed back to the main part of Kamakura to meet up with Kyle on the beach. Unfortunately I had just missed sunset, but oh well. The beach was filthy, but it was partly due to the Typhoon that had just happened. Luckily (sort of) it was dark so I didn't have to see what all I was stepping in. The beach was magical. I was there with two of my close friends in Japan, standing in the Pacific Ocean in Japan. I started crying because I am a loser. We laid in the sand for a while stargazing. It was a great moment for me. After we were too covered in sand, we decided we had enough and went to 7-11 to buy a bottle of wine to drink while we were finding a place for dinner. We ended up at a sushi conveyor belt place. Despite the frustration earlier in the day, it ended up being a nice trip.

Monday we had the day off from school, thankfully, due to National Respect for the Elders day...or something along those lines. I spent the day relaxing and then went out to dinner with Jon, Lucas, Becca, Paul, April and her friend. We went to the most incredible place called Alice in Ginza. It is an Alice In Wonderland themed restaurant. Oh my goodness, it was great. The waitresses were all dressed in the Alice costume with thigh-high tights. The food was all based off of characters and symbols from the book, such as a sushi roll shaped as a caterpillar, a french-toast like dessert shaped as a card house, a pizza that looked like a Heart Card, a dessert tart like a bunny, etc. Not only did everything look amazing, but it tasted spectacular, as well. The decor was all Alice, of course. The food wasn't too expensive either. There are a ton of theme restaurants around Tokyo and I want to go to all of them. I love those kind of places.

Tuesday was back to school and since then I have just been hanging around. I have had a lot of tests/quizzes and so far I am doing quite well, despite the fact that I have had no motivation or study habits. Japan is not conducive to my scholastics. I spend all of my time socializing and I have no regret for that.

I have another busy, exciting 3 day weekend coming up. I am also planning a trip to Kyoto, Nara and Osaka for the first weekend in October since we have a 4 day weekend. I have taken it on myself to plan the entire thing for as cheap as possible. I have planned out where to say, how to get there, where to go and how much everything costs. I typed up a whole itinerary and according to my calculations, the entire trip (except food) will be less than $175. That is an amazing price. I still have no idea who exactly is coming with me, but regardless, I will be going. Keith has a friend that lives in Osaka so she will hopefully be able to show us around that day. I will post the itinerary later on.

Anyways, my fingers are now tired and I have to load more hundreds of pictures. That is all.