Family visit

Welcome to Japan, family members. 

We found a Peter Rabbit themed cafe in Jiyugaoka.  Yaaaaay!!

We found some craft shops for Chez. 

Yaaaaay!

We ate choco banana in Nakameguro.

Yaaaaay! 

We went walking in a pretty park. Yaaaaay!

We wondered around Shinjuku. Yaaaaay! 

 On Saturday, we rented bikes and cycled to Shimokitazawa. Then, on Sunday, we went to Yoyogi park to see people doing hanami.. just before the sakura had really started to bloom. Hmm #morebluematsthanflowers. There was an antique flea market on and we met up with Freddy. Yaaaaay!!!

Kyoto

Last weekend I took a night bus up to kyoto to see the city and spend time with Florent.

Staying at an AirBnB apartment made me realize how much I miss being somewhere clean, normal and quiet. I'm glad that I'm soon to move out of the notoriously disgusting Sakura sharehouse where I've been residing the past 6 months. It's finally time to quit the travellers dreamife and move from my hostel-like accommodation into a place I can call home.

We spent three days walking around, seeing shrines, complaining about being cold, eating, listening to live jazz, shopping and riding local buses. 

After a stressful two weeks of apartment hunting in tokyo it was the perfect break from the anxieties I had slowly been burying my head in. 

A drunken brawl

Witnessed outside Bar Flat, Yoyogi. A fight, a screaming woman in heels, police interference and the end of a friendship. Perfect recipe for your Saturday night's entertainment.

10,000 days 10,000 nights

After the worst week of rain we woke to a strangely beautiful Saturday.

Motivated to make the most of it, we sent a last minute message to anyone we could think of asking them to join us in Yoyogi park. 

Amazingly, almost everyone we messaged turned up. Florent brought his game of Settlers and I bought a hula hoop. We got two large tubs of our favourite new dessert, Banana Pudding, from Magnolias bakery in Harajuku. Due to the customary sayonara-sale lifestyle of gaijins in Japan, I had inherited a handy, colourful new picnic blanket which I laid down  alongside the famous pond in the middle of the park and watched as our friends slowly filled it.

On Monday, I celebrated my 10,000th day birthday. I mentioned this in jest to my work colleagues as I left the office. The next morning, Takeda-san brought in a mini-birthday cake for me. It was incredibly sweet and thoughtful. Suddenly we were trying to figure out everyone's birthdays in terms of seconds, days, weeks, lunar cycles, leap years and any other measurement we could think of.