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. 

Ume blossom season in kairakuen, Mito, Ibarocky

This banana tastes a lot like cake.

Another Ibaraki #throwback karaoke party

And this time I was accompanied on the Hitachi express by none other than Gbro, a fellow Ibaraki ALT-alumni. Oh the good old days in the inaka.

What ensued? The same old nonsense.  Causing a fuss in Mito station as a 10 man strong drunken gaijin posse, Lawson onigiri fails, nomihoudai chugging, peace sign selfies with a random group of university students you met for 5 minutes but have somehow already got their Line account details, belting out the same karaoke classics in all their glory, cross dressing, Neil Young harmonica solos and of course a taxi ride to a Chinese restaurant in daikomachi from the Duck at 3 in the morning. Actually, I decided to skip that part in favour of passing out on Daniel's couch. Quite right old girl.

The bath house partyyy

A party at an abandoned sento in Komae  (or an 'about-to-be-demolished' sento), which got shut down early by the incredibly polite police. It wasn't the police involvement which annoyed me, because plans to move elsewhere were already in place, it was that my favourite indie-brit-pop inspired Japanese band "The Fin." were told they would be arrested if they played...and deciding not to fight for the music and be sensible...so they didn't play.

My reviews:

Melt-banana: im not sure on the exact genre but you could call them experimental noise punk...or something . Not really my thing but definitely very wild Japanese alternative music and a worthwhile experience.

Hikashu: bloody fantastic.  Frank zappa vibe..fun dance music, would 100% see again...probably gonna track them down and become obsessed by them from now on.

Boy age: totally rubbish.

This was followed by gyoza and a nomihoudai shisha party in a Shimokita basement bar.