Previous days, fun fun fuuun!

Thursday;
I changed like five trains to get to the Takahatafudo station and I still don't know where until Charlie met up with me and his friends and we walked to a big bridge and sat under it. That's when I remembered I was near the Tama river since I had been there last week with Said, Yuka and the others. The weather was mighty fine and the sky was so beautiful on top of that we had a picnic in the dark and did some small hanabi. It was so cosy and even though my Japanese is still very unawesome I managed to communicate somehow with the people who could not speak English there.

It was my first time meeting Charlie and he's leaving soon for Växjö. It's a bit interesting since I'm from Växjö and he lives in big Tokyo and decides to go to small Växjö of all places. He was so funny that day and he and a Australian girl called Nimo talked about "How I Met Your Mother" and Charlie asked if it's normal to say "Have you met ...?" when introducing a new friend and Nimo replied that it's very common yes. Then when Charlie got drunker he kept saying "Soooo... have you met Charlie?" and I laughed so hard, haha.

I really enjoyed drinking, hanabi and nice talks under that bridge. Charlie, me, Shotaro and Nimo are going to play basketball in Gotanda on Sunday and then go to izakaya with other people.

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Yesterday the school party at KAI took place. It wasn't that amazingly fun but the food was really good and I overate it eventually so today my stomach is so bloated. After the school party we went to an izakaya called Alps and we sat there and talked and it was a bit sad to get a summer vacation now because all of my dearest friends are leaving for their own countries. However, they're all coming back obviously but still... 3 weeks without seeing my lovelies! Anyhow, I'm still pretty glad to get a summer vacation because now at least I'll be able to sleep properly and not like four hours a night only.

Me and Kibe had some deep serious talk about love and stuff yesterday, aaaah. Typical right, we both kind of felt like the whole love-thing is so typical these days and that people are not serious enough. Glad to have someone who feels the same tho.

Today is the big fireworks in Japan and I'm going there with some of my friends and I'm going to wear yukata again, wohaaaa!

Upcoming week!

There's a lot of things happening lately and the coming week (that is today actually since it's 1:02 AM in Japan now) and I thought I would let you guys know beforehand so you know what you can expect from this blog the coming week. First of all I'm getting my 夏休み (= natsuyasumi, = summer vacation) this Friday and it's lasting from the 30th of July to 22nd of August! Sooo..

Wednesday (28th of July);
* Midterm exams!
* Cho's birthday party @ our favorite Korean izakaya
* Buy a birthday present for Cho
* KARAOKE!

Thursday (29th of July);
* Meet my internet-friend Ryosuke and celebrate hanabi with him and his friends

Friday (30th of July);
* School party - celebrating the natsuyasumi!

Saturday (31st of July);
* The biggest hanabi-festival in Asakusa with Nana and some other friends

Sunday (1st of August);
* Hang out with Nana, probably bigass shopping and enjoying the natsuyasumiii :)

Cafétalk

Today me and my friends went to a café somewhere outside of Shibuya and we enjoyed ourselves and talked. After that we walked around in the area and loads of Japanese people were having mini BBQs with their friends on a field and we walked past that field, suddenly in the middle of the field someone starts playing BIG BANG's song "Haru Haru" loudly and I went all batshit crazy and just screamed "BIG BAAAAANG!!!!" haha, so retarded.

Anyhow it was a really nice day. Also, I walked home from Ikebukuro and apparently me and Frankie live quite close measured in Tokyo-metres. I bought yoghurt, bananas, carrots, curry and something more so now my refrigerator is fuller than ever.

Izakaya in Shinjuku a Friday night

Olivia invited me to an izakaya which her American friend Josh had organized and we were all in all nineteen people! There was a nomihoudai of course and new dishes that I hadn't tried before were coming in. Also, we ordered bibimbap, but as always I ordered the wrong one so it was the vegetarian version gahhhhh. It was a really nice evening since I got to talk to and meet new people and I used my Japanese more with some people because they could barely speak English. The Americans did sakeban (I think it's spelled like that?) which is when you take the sake-shot glass filled with sake and you drop it into a glass of beer and then you drink it together - it's THE bomb.

At 10.30 PM I headed home because everyone else headed for a club in Roppongi and I did not feel like clubbing to be honest. After only three drinks I was ready to hit the floor but I managed to get home as always and it was mighty fine to get home at 11.30 PM and fall asleep.

Today I'm going to hanabi with Lishan and I have my own yukata and everything so I'm really looking forward to it.

Photobooth picture series #1

I feel like I haven't updated in a while. Since I'm really trying to keep this blog alive by updating as often as I can, preferably every day, I get all stressed if some days pass. I created this blog because I want you guys to experience Japan and my journey as well as I wanted to have this to read in the future and remember good memories. However, these days I'm in school every day and we will have a summerbreak soon - I'm sure it's going to be loads of fun even tho I'll miss some people who go to their home countries during the vacation.

I myself have made a list of things I want to do in Tokyo during the summer break and I think I'm going to post the list I made and I'll do it later. One of the most exciting things is probably the fact that I'm going to SUMMER SONIC 8th of August. I'm really looking forward to it since my favorite band BIG BANG are going to perform on the big stage. But other acts will be interesting as well - K'NAAN, Monkey Majik, ONE OK ROCK etc. :)

Anyhow, I looked through my photobooth recently and found some pictures I thought I could post here in order to fill out the blog kind of. Mostly because I don't want to make a single entry without pictures aight. Oh before I post them I just want to let you guys know what I'm going to do this weekend. Tomorrow I'll meet up with Olivia and her friends in Shinjuku and go to a bar since one of her American friends is having a party, I think they'll head for a club later but I have to stick to my budget so I'm going home I guess. On Saturday me and Lishan are going to a hanabi festival and I've even bought a yukata in Harajuku for the festival - 4000円 for the yukata, with EVERYTHING included, shoes, etc. On Sunday I'm going to a café with Yuka, Said and the whole gang and I'm sure we'll have a great time ♥

Anica's picture series of doom;

So, as many of you know the heat in Japan is insane and this is exactly what the heat can do to people like me these days! Every day I go to school I feel like a sweaty disgusting pig :( also, I always get extremely exhausted when it's too hot so I almost end up falling asleep in class - not because the class is boring or anything, it's really interesting, I'm just so insanely exhausted... and tired.


When I saw this picture some days ago (it was taken like two days after I arrived to Japan and my hair was the natural curly hair) and the first thought that came to my mind was "WOW THAT HAIR WOULDN'T HAVE SURVIVED THIS CLIMATE :)".


Japanese delicate dessert. We love them, everyone does. However, I myself am on a diet now. Now some of you might be like "!?" but when I mean diet I don't mean the don't-eat-diet. It's more like I eat something small for lunch, drink a lot of water, walk frequently and eat a good dinner and NO sweets, only one ice cream a week. I've been consuming ice creams like no tomorrow since I came to Japan.


How my hair looks these days, it's just too loveable ♥ However, I'm almost sure I'll dye my hair black soon because it costs way too much to dye the roots at a hair salon every month and I'm so not going to re-dye it myself since it was an extreme failure last time.


I bought a polaroid camera at Donki and the film is quite cheap compared to western standards. I've already taken some pictures and I LOVE IT, I've always wanted to have one and now I finally have one - 5000円! Going to take a picture or two at the hanabi and then probably retake a picture in photobooth so you guys can see it.
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That was it for this time. I hope you enjoyed the picture series from photobooth.

Koshigoe beach, Enoshima

Sunday morning me and my Korean friends took a train to Enoshima to meet up with Said and Yuka and some of their friends. We went to Koshigoe beach and enjoyed a really nice day there. The weather was perfect now that Japan is out of the raining season and the sun was extremely intense. The water cooled us and we tanned ourselves - the Swedes got red and the asians got brown, of course. I met a new friend named Tony - half Swedish and half Thai. Apparently he had been in Tokyo for six month studying at a language school in Takadanobaba.

When the restaurants turned into clubs at the beach we realised it was our time to head home. However, we went to an izakaya before that and enjoyed a great deal of different Japanese dishes and mild cocktails.

I had such a great time with everyone and today was a national holiday since it's the Marine day in Japan so I went to Harajuku with Yuki and studied for my upcoming midterm exam. I can now read and write 10 kanji! :)

誕生日パーチ

Today Stephanie, me, Hana and Rina met up in Steph's apartment in Ikebukuro and enjoyed a very spicy, yet extremely delicious Korean meal! We ate kimbap and something that sounds like 'doppoki' when you pronounce it but not when you spell it. Rina cooked for us and it was her first time to cook the second dish but it was still so good! Stephanie has got the most amazing view from her apartment on the 12th floor and she can even see Shinjuku from her balcony! We were supposed to watch scary Korean movies together but I had to leave earlier to fetch the subway on Oedo line to go to Shinegota and meet up with Kim to go to her house for a birthday party.

Even though I was completely full after the meal at Stephanie's house Kim had cooked Korean food to and she told me to eat so I think I won't need to eat in a week or so. Korean people are so nice all the time that it's hard to say no to them, besides Korean food is waaaaaay too good! I think it's my favorite to be honest. I do like Japanese food too but... there's just something about the Korean food that makes it better. Anyhow, I met really nice and interesting people and there will be a party next week too so I'm looking forward to it. I guess next week is going to be a bit packed because we'll get a summer vacation until 20th of August next week! It feels a bit weird since we haven't even been in school for a month yet, I'd rather go to school to be honest.

OH BTW, good news! Everything with CSN is in its order now and I'm getting my first loan-money on Monday.

パーチ！

(Pictures taken from Stephanie's facebook, they don't belong to me)

Yesterday I went to an izakaya/nomihoudai/karaoke with 25 people from school, one of my favorite teachers (Naito-sensei) and some staff from school. It was basically loads of fun and Lishan and I sang Lady GaGa's "Paparazzi" I think... yeah, I think I don't remember to be honest. They poured beer into us, gin&tonic and god knows what more! Alcohol is really a part of the Japanese culture, whilst we in Sweden (and West) really aren't open about the fact that we drink a lot. We even try to hide our bags from "Systembolaget" in Sweden. However, in Japan it's natural to see a girl or a guy holding a beer on the street an early Monday morning - not a big deal.

After the event with school I, Kibe, Sou, Cho, Lishan, a Korean girl that is friends with Sou and someone else I think went to Shibuya to meet up with Said and Yuka. We planned on going to a small bar and while at the bar Cho paid for the drinks but I pretty much only drank water. A little later we just took some stairs down and went to a club that Said's friend owned and we met a lot of interesting people there, once again Cho ordered drinks for us. A Japanese had a really nice style so I told Cho to tell him and the guy got really happy haha... I love how spontaneous Tokyo makes me. Also, two Japanese girls sat next to me and as soon as they got to know I was Swedish they started screaming out of joy. They even speak some Swedish with a really good pronounciation and apparently they had been to Sweden and they were interested in getting Swedish boyfriends. So, as usually in Tokyo we exchanged phone numbers and got all happy about meeting each other. However, now as all other times I just wonder how, when, and what I should say if I contact them? Haha.

I missed my last train home - I friggin' hate the fact that the subway stops at midnight! So, me, Lishan, Sou, Cho and Kibe went to our favorite izakaya in Shin-okubo and stayed there until 5 in the morning. It was really nice tho and Lishan was so nice for staying with me all night, a real friend! The night at the izakaya was nicer than usual because the manager who is Sou's room mate came to us and talked with us and he was so happy to meet me because apparently he had never met anyone before who is Swedish and it was an honour to him. He also commented twice on my eye color and how fascinating it was.. up until now I've never thought Asian people thought it was a big deal but I've slightly come to realize that they do think it's special, haha. Not that it really matters but it's always interesting to compare West and East.

Shopping @ Shibuya 109

Today I went shopping at Shibuya 109 with my Singaporean friend Lishan, she also goes to KAI. Since tomorrow is nomihoudai with school I figured I'd buy something nice to wear tomorrow. I ended up spending 15000円 on a nice vintage-looking black tight lace-top that I can wear for some shoulderless dresses or tops that I have, I think it will make a perfect combination. Other than that I bought a black jumpsuit-dress! Now some of you might think that I'm having too much black stuff but ever since I came to Tokyo I haven't worn anything but white or blue... I simply don't have any black things in my closet anymore, so I figured why not? I guess it wasn't that perfect of a choice since the summer season is just days away. However, I also bought a black eye liner and a red cap saying "AFRICA BRASIL" - gotta love Japanese slogans?

Also, Lishan introduced me to bubble tea at the 8th floor and I simply LOVED it. Gosh, it's definitely my new crush... I had a strawberry bubble tea. Next time I'll go for the milk ones, tehee. Well, I also bought a new set of earphones since my third pair got broken. The new ones are insanely pretty and they costed 1300円 on the Shibuya 109 bargain in the Chiara store. I'll put up a picture of them in another entry!





Yesterday I walked all the way from school in Shin-okubo to home in Itabashi. It took me about 3 hours to get home walking in the humid weather and the soaking sun. However, I must say I enjoyed it and as soon as I came home I feel asleep (5 PM) and woke up 7 AM in the morning and got ready for school. I forgot to mention that I issued my Alien registration card yesterday and I look like an official retard on it! :)

Anyhow, looking forward to tomorrow / today's (it's 12:28 AM in Japan) nomihoudai/izakaya/karaoke-evening! Naito-sensei will be the activity leader and she's like my favorite teacher, it'll be so much fun. Steph is going to make me so drunk tho, haha!

Ways to avoid the raining season... impossible

I went to Tokyo Dome's attraction park today with Sou, but since the weather SUCKED we only rode two of the attractions. A really creepy roller coaster and the Paris wheel! After that we went to a game hall and played Tekken. Sou won over me three times and no one ever wins over me when it comes to Tekken so I was majorly disappointed, haha.

Anyhow, since the weather pretty much ruined the day we went back to school to study and I did my homework and it was all fine. A fun thing was when Kibe came and I told him I missed him today while being with Sou, but in Korean and all the Korean people went all crazy hahahaha "AAAH A GAIJIN SPEAKING KOREAN"-reaction kinda. Sou's reaction was priceless too, haha.

Me, Sou, Hana, Kibe, Frankie and his girlfriend went to the izakaya we went to last time. I think they ordered like ten bottles of soju but since it's a Tuesday I didn't really drink anything beside soda and ate some awesome spicy korean food, I love that food omg. However, things got a bit out hand and Frankie bought chocolate to his girlfriend in the middle of our izakaya evening and she ended up opening all of the packages and stuffing them in Sou's mouth. It was hilarious. However, the time flew and afterwards Sou followed me to the Shin-okubo station but Frankie's girlfriend bought ice cream to us first and we ate it on the way. Haha, so sweet! ♥

Dropping your pants while jogging around the imperial palace

I didn't take any pictures today because my bag was simply too full with things and it was raining heavily too. However, I met up with Yuki today in Shibuya and headed for the Imperial Palace where we were going to jog around. Some things came up pretty unexpectedly and the first thing was that we apparently went to an adidas-store because they had showers and lockers and we paid like 600円 for that. Now, this is what I love and hate about Japan - you pay for such a simple thing as a shower. But the thing is also that they fill the prices with other juicy service, for instance we got a coach that stretched with us for like ten minutes. I died laughing because it was so unexpected and he was so nice and all, but still... and the showers had free schampoo and conditioners and body wash. You also got free body lotion and access to a blow dryer.

Now, imagine jogging around the imperial palace when it's raining like never before. My first thought was "ah, well it's fine... I've been jogging in this weather before". Jogging in the rain was definitely no problem, what was a problem though was that my pants fell off in the middle of the street because I hadn't been able to knit them that well. It was impossible to keep them on so I simply ended up holding my jogging pants while jogging. It was quite an experience... jogging around the imperial palace holding your pants while it's raining. Haha, I'm still laughing.

After that Yuki treated me to korean dinner, since he promised me he'd do that because I passed IB. Once again I ate the vegetarian version of bibimbab!!! I FAIL, I love to eat that with meat but somehow I always manage to order the wrong one.

Yokohama

I visited Yokohama yesterday with Sou, Frankie, Frankie's girlfriend, Hana and Tablo oppa yesterday. The weather was insanely perfect since the sun was shining and it was freaking hot, even though it's still the raining season. Yuka and Said met up with us when we arrived and we just walked around in a very European-looking part of Yokohama. Yuka explained to me that the reason that part looked so European is because many businessmen who live in Japan for work want to feel at home so they paid for transformation. I simply think it's sad because the best thing would be to get used to and appreciate the beauty of Japan instead of trying to recreate another boring Europe on the other side of the world. But I guess that's just me.

Afterwards we walked through Yokohama bay and we spotted a middle-aged man taking professional pictures of a doll and touching it in a very uncomfortable way. Everyone got a bit scared and we took several pictures of his otakuness! Yuka was like "I don't want him to touch that doll!" haha. However, we headed to a game center and took purikura pictures because it got too hot and we managed to take purikura even though we were eight people.

Yokohama Cosmo World was something I really enjoyed experiencing. It's like an amusement park with only a few rides and we rode two of them - the pink roller coaster and the Paris wheel. The Paris wheel gave many of us excellent photo possibilities and I think Said took the best advantage of them since he is an amazing photographer.

In Japan it gets dark at 7 PM and we realized we might have to head home soon but instead we just went to the other side of the bay and sat, talked, enjoyed the view. I really had a lot of fun today and me and Yuka have already planned for us guys to meet up soon again to have a BBQ, hanabi and wear Yukata! Haha, I've been persuaded to buy a yukata now and Yuka's going to go with me when I buy one :)