Halloween halloween halloween and Kamakura

I met Tiffani and Robbie on the platform of the TY line in Shibuya. All three of us wearing our costumes ready for the night. I had eaten a kebab so was full and sobour. They had been drinking and had no dinner, so were drunk and hungry. Whatever state, place or time, I love my Ibaraki crew.

Halloween in Shibuya on a Friday night was a ridiculous time and place to be. I managed to meet up with a very old friend, and by old friend, I mean someone I haven't seen since I was around 8 years old. Amy-Jo, who managed to track me down via the internet. She's really awesome, and it was nice to meet her friends. Good to make new (or old sort of) friends/contacts in London for when I return. I guess... right?

We went to a club called Unit, where Masaaki (aka Anchorsong) was playing a gig.. I actually just realised I will be going back to the same club this weekend for a Fat Freddys Drop gig... hmm. Anywho, it was free entry for those wearing a costume. We left shortly after Masaaki's set, after getting a call from Robbie about the craziness in Shibuya. We took a cab down there, and wondered around the night admiring all the costumes.

At Macdonalds at 3 in the morning, I bumped into another old friend I hadn't seen in a long time. Ben Stuart-Smith from Mill Hill School. We had a nice little catch up chat. It turned out he had flown into Tokyo only a few hours prior, so was probably having a massive head-fuck let alone bumping into me. What a mad coincidence. I had actually been getting a little sad that I never bump into anyone I know in Tokyo. I know that sounds like a tall-order, but its such a famous city, and so full of tourists, it felt inevitable.

In our massive group of my friends mixed with all of Ben's, we found one of the clubs remaining still open, I think Club Asia, a very cheesy club where I've only been once before for a crappy foam party. Man what a waste of money.

I took the first train with Tiffani back to where we were staying in Koenji. A great little gem of a guest house she discovered, where I have decided to try base myself on any possible trips to Tokyo. Tiffani and I had booked two nights in a sweet little tatami room. I had arrived there on Friday before setting off into the night in order to check-in and set-up our futons. This seemed to be a good call as we were both completely shattered. I slept until Saturday afternoon. When I had woken Tiffani had already left to meet a friend. I spent a solemn day alone, wondering around Koenji, eating delicious street food and watching live music playing on street corners. All during a heavy rain which somehow complemented my exhausted mood.


Tiffani messaged me just as I was finishing a coffee and a small plate of falafels in a quaint vegan cafe I had wondered upon. We returned to our room for a final rest before meeting my friend Alice and her boyfriend for a nice quiet drink. After they left to catch their last train, we went to a Mexican restaurant for 2am nachos. Spending time with Americans is causing me to slowly develop an appetite for Mexican food. In fact, I notice a significant difference in my stomach size when I've spent time dining with my ex-pat American friends, and when I haven't.

On Sunday, Tiffani and I left our Koenji guest house to meet JJ in Yokohama station. The three of us spent a very fun and giggley day in Kamakura. JJ, who is slowly becoming one of my favourite people here, had just purchased a "selfie-stick" - a device used for taking egocentric photograpgs from an iphone - what a definitive item for the modern age.

We did some typical touristy things in Kamakura, including visiting the Kamakura daibutsu, and having an awesome soumen lunch (cue reference to my so many men joke) - a woman serves soumen noodles by shooting it in small bite-sized chunks down a piece of bamboo with running water, you have to grab the noodles with your chopsticks - pretty weird, but very fun experience. After Kamakura we grabbed some coco ichibanya curry in Yokohama and got some pirikura shots. We then made our way to JJs for a fun little sleepover.

On Monday I met up with Taka in Shibuya and had a nice day wondering around until I had to eventually get on my bus back up to Katsuta.

Thoughts on my new scalf head-wrap style?

this cute little guy;

We found a stand selling candied grapes;

Love to the big Buddha, aka.. Kamakura Daibutsu

Drunken Duck Halloween party 2014

The Mito duck throws an excellent Halloween party. As with last year, they really went all out. Around 150 people (my guess) dress up in full costume, American style (meaning that a lot of effort is applied). The entire bar is decorated, and a marquee is erected to create more party room. The staff were absolutely wonderful, and a few friends showed up I didn't expect to see. All in all, it was a great night. There's something about being in costume that allows people to feel more confident,  come out of their comfort zone and be more friendly, which creates an awesome atmosphere and a really silly time.

Reunion

At the Yokohama Oktoberfest I arranged to see some old friends from Bristol:

From the same masters course, Michi is now working at a pharmaceutical company up in Iwaki, Alice is working at the French embassy in Tokyo, and I..... well, I'm still doing what I consider to be "gap year stuff".... hmm. In fact from those I've kept in touch with from my masters, everyone seems to have "made it in their career" in some aspect or another. I really need to play catch-up. Anyway, no bitter feelings, I'm inspired and motivated by the hard work and success of my former peers:

How can you not love these people? I can't wait to see those I spent so many fun Bristolian nights with slowly ruling the world.

Murrays Halloween partay

Scottish Chris, who lives in Fujishiro, threw a great halloween house party last weekend. The cool thing about being in a group of people predominantly Japanese and American, is that people make a huge effort when it comes to costumes. Can you guess what everyone is?

Pictures all taken by Francesca:

Robbie decided to give me a mini birthday shout-out. I pretended to be embarrassed whist secretly loving the attention:

Everyone found this guy really annoying for various reasons:

Freddy turned up dressed as an Ebola researcher:

Hopefully more people will upload photos from this party which I can steal for my own personal memory bank, aka. this blog post.

supplies

My friends threw me a surprise birthday party. yay! Always wanted one, it was so nice. I spent the couple days before it trying to figure out if anything had been arranged because people were being unusually flakey in my attempt to make plans, but I didn't want to assume anything was being planned, as I could be setting myself up for a fall. everyone waited at Robbies flat whilst I went for dinner with Riley. We had planned to go to the Duck for a couple drinks, but first she wanted to go by his place to grab a much needed wig-cap for my Halloween costume, and then, surprise. We had some cake and a couple drinks at Robros, and then went down to the duck where there was more cake. So, all in all, a lot of cake was consumed. Ironically I never got the wig cap, so was unable to wear my orange wig at the Halloween party we went to the following night.


Thanks team! Wish there were more pictures:

ALT Soccer Tournament

For a group of 20, we hired two mini-vans to drive across Japan from Ibaraki to Nagano. There, we took part in the ALT Kanto soccer tournament. It was a very expensive weekend, but it was well worth it. You might say it was a highly enjoyable weekend. You might just.

After volunteering to play for the Tochigi girls team, who needed a couple extra players, I learnt that my true calling in life is in fact soccer. For the first time having played, I discovered I'm a natural. I was also told by one of the less intimidated girls from one of the other teams that I play "aggressively". I scored two goals in two separate games, and had a very fun day.

In the evening, everyone who was a part of the tournament partied on down and I met some genuinely cool Alts from different parts of Japan. Although I've never been a lover of sports related events, it was one of the few things that filtered out a lot of Japanophile-otaku-weirdoes, and thus left a large group of relatively normal, nice, friendly people. How relieving, a home comfort I had almost forgotten about.

Anyway, I can count on Tommy's girlfriend, Mamina, to take a shit-tonne of photographs so that I don't have to strain my precious fingers by typing words which could otherwise be told through other means:

To quote "Withnail and I"; GET IN THE BACK OF THE VAN:





Aren't road trips just the best?:



Pre-game genkiness:





Warming-up on Saturday morning:



In the end, it didn't matter how hard we stretched. Our entire bodies were in immense pain for most of the next week following the tournament:





Riley and Yukiko lead the cheering:




The Ibaraki boys team having a meeting before their first of many defeats:



If John Dicks is there, you know its going to be a good time:



Many of the American players in our team had also never experienced soccer. luckily a photograph is something that captures a momentary still-image, creating the false illusion of talent:




Looking proud after realizing they are coming last:



Yukiko offers comfort to her injured boyfriend, AKA laurence:




Although he subscribes to the philosophy that "its the taking part that counts", his eyes say otherwise. Chris Gilbert, football hooligan:




Danyo wonders when the humiliation will be over as he looks for emotional and physical support:



well, we lost, but at least our haircuts are still great..... but were they really?:





Saitama super crew. AKA Saiborgs:




Have you heard of "zooming in"?:




After realising that he might not be able to pursue a career as a professional football, in his desperation, Gilbert turns to being a gigalo:




Everyone was pretty tired after a whole day of playing sports. We sports pretty hard you might say:




Those mini-vans doe: