ただいま

I apologize for my absence over the past 2 weeks, been very busy lol, yes thats all you get :).
Im now back in sunny England *sarcastic*
What is there left to say other than that was the best 5 weeks of my life probably, ive met so many people, seen so many places, tried so many things, its just been unbelievably good fun. To anyone i met there who is reading this, you are all awesome thanks so much! Ill be going back next year, probably to Nagoya to study at university there, make sure you keep your eye out on here! Ill probably post some more photos and things over the next few days. Ill make a normal post tomorrow about goings on and stuff.

写真

Heres the pics that were meant to be in the previous post, theyre a bit random, so bare with me.


The Eiffel Tower The Tokyo Tower


Ah Initial D Arcade 5, this is MY game, i won every race, even beat 2 japanese guys, im THAT good :D


Tekken 6, its been out here since the end of last year, but is still not out in Europe or America, released this autumn i think. Very good game, a definate improvement over its predecessors, the downside: all japanese people appear to be experts at it...


Blazblue: An amazing arcade 2D fighting game, made by the creators of Guilty Gear, (same vein as street fighter) (next 2 pictures)


Black Wii! Do want


This is the NEW Ferrari California, VERY RARE, and VERY nice. This one was seen (by me :D) in Roppongi, the best thing about roppongi in my opinion...

俺の海の日

Well Sunday night was certainly an epic adventure. We decided to try clubbing in Roppongi, which seemed to have a good reputation for that sort of thing, but when we got there, IT SUCKS, theres just africans promoting strip joints everywhere, sucks. It just does, and what few bars there are are full of westerners, i didn't come here to drink with americans thanks, id have gone to america to do that. So we gave up and walked to the Tokyo tower, and spent some time in there. Then we went to Akihabara (it was about 10pm by this time) on the train. When we got there we spent 3 hours in Club Sega, playing various games, Tekken 6, BlazBlue, Guilty Gear, Initial D (a drifting racing game in which i won EVERY GAME I PLAYED), Taiko tetsujin, Street fighters 2 and 4, and lots more. When the arcade closed we went and had a kebab, because me and Nicolai like kebabs and we stumbled upon a place. Then we had a wander to Ueno park and sat in there for a while talking until half past two. Then, as we (slightly drunkenly) realised that we had missed the last train and would have to wait three hours for the first train, rather than repeat fridays nights, sleep on the beach, then under a bridge, we thought wed try a challenge and try and walk to Takadanobaba from Ueno park so we could get the first train from there, which means we save a lot of money on the metro. Now for those of you who aren't familiar with Tokyo, ITS A LONG WAY, about 10KM (look on google maps), Would we make it in time? Would we ever make it? We had 3 hours and we took that challenge. Our epic 3 hour walk, non-stop i might add, took us from Ueno to akihabara (again) to suidobashi and the tokyo dome, to ushigome, to kagurazaka, to waseda and finally takadanobaba, we arrived at shortly after 5.10, missing the first train by 6 minutes. But we certainly had a great time.

I got up at noon today and, as it was Nicolais last day, we went to Akihabara again, to do some shopping (both window and the normal variety) I got the most awesome tshirt of all time, those of you who know me will see it soon and their eyes will explode. K-on! and Tengen toppa Gurren lagann manga (both awesome) and the new GazettE album.

More Weekend madness

As you know i havent posted this weekend, since wednesday i think, ive been very busy! On thursday we went to the mitama festival again, in the evening of the last day this time, which is when all the festivities happen. Bon-odori dancing, lots of food stalls, like takoyaki, yakitori, chocobananas (mmmm) drinks etc. it was a great evening, i really like these festivals theyre so much fun :D


On Friday night, loads of us went to Makuhari in Chiba, we bought loads of fireworks, (and beer :D) and had a great time, though the lighters we had werent particularly good, and it was a bit windy but it was a great experience, at one point there was about 30 or so of us there, from all over the world, did get quite drunk, and after everyone left we slept on the beach, then it started to rain, so then we slept on benches outside the station until the first train at 5am (which seems very popular here, theres always people asleep outside stations before they open) Unfortunately i have only one photo from this, i didnt take my camera to the beach, which turned out to be a good choice, as matt's is now broken. lol.

Then, i slept all saturday until 4.30pm (3rd week in a row hah) then in the evening we went to Kichijoji, which is about 4km south of Kamishakuji, to arestaurant where Matt's friend works, was a really nice restaurant, seemed quite posh, but it wasnt expensive at all really. One thing we did notice was how big Kichijoji is, there are LOADS of shops and stuff there, so we will definately be going back there at some point. But one thing happened in the evening, we were waiting for the trains to leave, and they were 20minutes delayed, it was supposed to leave at 18.51 but was still there at half 7, when we finally got going, it seemed that there had been an incident at higashi-fushimi, there were police and ambulance crews everywhere... and body bags, not a pretty sight. Not sure what happened though, the signs just showed "a dire incident"
on a lighter note look what i spotted :p

And finally, today is Nicolai's last day so i can see something being done this evening, but dont worry theres no school tomorrow as its Umi no Hi (ocean day)

Ginza

After the gundam, we decided to go to Ginza, as it is on the way back, we got off the Yurikamome at Shimbashi and walked to and around Ginza and for those who dont know Ginza (銀座）it means silver seat and is where all the upmarket shops are, Dolce, Dior, Tiffany's etc. Very bright, nice architecture, spent 2 or so hours there, got back at nearly midnight, and i had a test this morning...

Flowers and Gundams

An example of what we do in our lessons, this was to explain how to use のに, craziness, we have great fun.

Anyway, after school yesterday me and Matt, (the others obviously weren't manly enough for it) did a free flower arranging class and we got to keep what we made, so i couldn't see why not, i have no i dea how ill get it home, but ill try, heres my masterpiece, i could be a professional hah.

Then in the evening we went to the Gundam (again, for the 3rd time) and managed to catch the show, at 8pm, all the lights go off and you get a show, smoke, lights and lasers, and the head MOVES! yes only the head, but it moves at least, was a good show, i got some videos etc, that i may upload.

日本の生活と栄養

Just for anyone whos interested, and because nothing particularly interesting has happened today
thought id do a post about Japanese food, and general living-here stuff, in comparison to England (obviously i by know means know everything this is just my take, so you elitist jack-offs can kiss my ass)
Shopping here on the most part seems to take part at convenience stores (コンビニ） scattered about, the most notable ones i suppose would be Lawsons, 7/11 and that SunKuss (or however its spelt) and at large department stores that have everything, like the one here in Tanashi called Asta.
Also if you're feeling cheap, or a little short of cash, theres a lot of Y100 shops around, which we often visit for breakfast and general stocks.


Ive lost count of how many of these cartons ive drunk so far, but im pretty sure its 1 a day if not more, only Y105 for 1 litre, which is a very reasonable price indeed. Yum
These crisps are the best crisps ever, you dont get many in a pack, but then they do only cost about Y50. They actually have cheese dripped on them, and taste like pizza, they are heavenly.

For dinner me and the guys often go down to Asta at about half 8 ish because they slash the price of all the sushi and chicken and stuff. You can get a large amount of good japanese food, for under Y450. Bargain.

If you like manga, then look no further than the local Book Off, which are absolutely HUGE, and have large sections where you can get manga for Y105, which i have, i might add, taken advantage off, they also carry CDs, DVDs and games too.

Note* : If your wondering why everything is Y105, not 100, even in Y100 stores, its because of the Japanese consumer tax, TECHNICALLY the items are Y100, but your paying the extra 5 as tax... sucks, well at least its 5%, not 17.5% ey?

PS. Watch out for lamp posts. haha, humourous story, We were walking back from somewhere, i dont seem to remember where, last night, and Matt sees a girl in a ramen shop smiling at him, so he smiles back, and walks straight into a big red, fire hydrant sign pole. Cut his eyebrow good, how we laughed. I guess the moral of the story is, never smile hah.

Imperium part 3 - Revenge of the... oh forget it

SO after walking to the North end of the palace on our lap of chiyoda, we went to the みたままつり。(mitama festival) Which is a celebration from 13th - 16th July at the Yasukuni shrine for the sould of those who died in WW2. Here are (some) of the pictures





The Yasukuni shrine. そう言えば, has been quite controversial in recent years...








Then we went around some other places, たとえば
The National Diet building, in which the LDP took a hammering in yesterdays election, and yes we did stand in the middle of the road to take this picture.

The Nippon Budokan - Ill play there one day... ONE DAY. Which today was Host to some big wrestling thing.

Imperium 2 - The Empire strikes back

Heres a 360 movie i took from on top of the little hill at the palace.
Thought id give it its own post to give you a better picture.

Imperium

So today after school we went to Chiyoda-ku. The very centre of Tokyo, to the Imperial palace grounds, hibiya park, kitanomaru kouen, yasukuni shrine and the Diet building. We walked an entire lap around chiyoda at least (about 8km we walked today). The weather was nice today, sunny, slightly windy, humid. Here are some pictures of the amazing imperial palace and its grounds, i was stunned at the contrast from new, city buildings to thousand year old temples and parks within meters of each other. Its really was stunning, everything was immaculate, the lawns, the trees, just everything really, i took 113 photos today, so here are just a few. Ill make a post after this one about the festival and kitanomaru park.

Shinjuku

So after the Odaiba expedition, we went to Shinjuku, to go to the 8-bit cafe, which im pretty sure you can guess what goes on there, by the title, you can drink, eat, and play classic games. But it isnt particularly large, and by the time we got there (1am) it was full so we basically just went around shinjuku for the night, stopping in a bar etc. Here are the pictures from that, today im just chilling, should do some work, but oh well.





This is the temple in Shinjuku near kabuki-cho




with matt jumping into frame lol