Hugo

You're so vain I bet you think this blog post is about you.

The unknown side of the Golden Gai

The space between two buildings in the middle of the Golden Gai, Shinjuku.

The place of nightmares.

Falafel

Here's one way that living in Tokyo beats Ibaraki: food.

I no longer have to crave western food, tokyo has everything. This includes one of my favourite cuisines: falafel and houmous.

I had "almost-as-good-but-still-pretty-far-from-the-actual-thing" falafel in Shibuya with some old Ibaraki chums.

Anchorsong

Anchorsong at Moon Romantic with a live string cortet.

Absolutely insane. 

I love it when Masaaki and I are in the same city at the same time. He's the only friend I know who is always moving between London and Tokyo. Masaaki is a Japanese person who works in London, I'm an English person who works in Tokyo. Perhaps crossing paths was inevitable?

The support act Young Juvenile Youth was also awesome.

Great night great music.

I also got a free poster yay! I just took a shot of it from my bed. Not moving.

Old homies

A couple of weekends ago I went up to Ibaraki to spend time with my old crew. We did the stuff we usually do, go to the Drunk Duck in Mito...spend all day watching TV in Robbies flat. Go out for a nice meal, and then get blasted at karaoke and do all our routine tracks. Special mention goes to Daleth for being on perfect form and helping me sing our favourite ELO tune together, Robbie who will whip a harmonica out of nowhere just in time for that Neil Young classic, Daniel for being a teenage pop sensation, Vince for having a voice as smooth as Sinatra and Hana for just bring there...all the way from New Zealand.

I missed Riley a lot. 

Vince, Daleth and JJ will be leaving Japan over the next couple of months. Although I am not in Ibaraki anymore, so don't see them so much, it's going to break my heart just that little bit. 

However, there are still a few old friends staying here and some who have also moved to Tokyo. But I must admit, if none of my old Ibaraki friends were hanging around, I would feel entirely lost and homesick without my japamily. 

Cruising

Cruising around Tokyo with Florent and our bikes. We did a round trip just short of 28km out southwest from our sharehouse in Sendagaya. From central Tokyo we made it all the way down to the Tama river which divides Tokyo from Kanagawa prefecture. What a great way to see the city.

My legs felt like jelly in the end.

#salarymanlife

The Sunday morning 6am yamanote train is suprisingly busy. I actually couldn't get a seat.

Here's the biggest shock: no one is drunk.

These are all people who had to wake up and go somewhere with a real purpose.

Personally, I'm on my way to Haneda international airport. I'm taking a business trip to China.

I don't think the excitement of this will kick in until I get onto the plane.
I should probably focus on catching the flight for now. See ya x

Photographicals

From his analogue camera, Daleth (one of my best friends in Japan), has been taking photographs of his experiences.

Luckily I was able to share a lot of them. He developed 5 roles of film, and brought them round for me to see.

Looking through Daleths photographs on the day of his birthday is such a beautiful experience and the root of which an ephiancy has planted itself in my head and shook up an earthquake in my heart. It arrowed me to my love for him as a person.

When he returns to the states in a few months. Hmmm. Yea, I'll be pretty sad.

Here's some of my favourites, from which I snuck a few picures of to post here.

PRAYLETH

Celebrating this guy's birthday tonight.
Do ittttttt.

Karaoke-mito style

Back in ibaraki gonna ibarock-out

It's a reunion weekend with Hana being back. What beautiful timing for the 3 day weekend. Robbie chipped his tooth last night on Daniels shoulder. 

Another unconnected out of place stupid sentence

No full stops

All full on

Full of crap

Vegan tepanyaki

Finding a restaurant in Japan that caters to vegans is a bit of a nightmare.

Finding a restaurant in Tokyo that caters to vegans is a gastronomic delight.

Last night I went for dinner with my vegan chum Freddy.

In a panicky rush an hour before our movie began, we luckily stumbled upon an underground vegan tepanyaki izakaya in Shinjuku.

We had a delightful meal, and then watched the new Star Wars in 3D at the imax Toho cinema in Shinjuku. Freddy had booked us really great seats. What an awesome night.
A boring blog post for you, a well kept memory for me.

Lucky Bag

At the start of the new year, shops in Japan sell 'Lucky Bags' also known as 'fukubukuro' (福袋) . As copied and pasted from Wikipedia, this is when merchants make grab bags filled with unknown random contents and sell them for a substantial discount, usually 50% or more off the list price of the items contained within. This is a 'fun' way of getting rid of old stock and making a fun game for shoppers. 

I wasn't planning on buying anything in the new years sales as I already have way too much stuff cramped into my very small room as it is, but when I was out on a bike ride with my awesome housemate Florent*, we stumbled upon one of our favorite shops, The Village Vanguard, selling lucky bags at the front of their shop and couldn't help ourselves.

We decided to invest in a 3500 yen lucky bag and split the cost and contents. We cycled home fast and excited like children on xmas eve, having agreed not to open it until we got back. 

We decided to take pictures of the process of opening and discovering the contents of our lucky bag. Were we lucky or not? I'll let you be the judge....

Before opening:

Opening of the Lucky Bag;

A peek inside:

Item 1; A neck warmer. We agreed Florent can keep this as he just lost his scalf:

Item 2; A hot drink thing. I was pretty excited about this because I was planning on buying one anyway for work. Thus, it was decided I would take this one:

Item 3; an awesome stuffed toy:

Item 4; a birthday themed photo album. How specific, this will have to be used for a birthday present. Probably for someone who doesn't read this blog.

Item 5; a punch bag. This will be donated to Sakura House (where we live):

Item 6, the last item; a bathtub themed fridge magnet. Another donation to Sakura House:

So, lucky or not? What do you think?

Florent* As pictured below: