Went into Tokyo this weekend to celebrate Janet's birthday. We started off with a few hours at the new H&M flagship store in Shibuya. Love it! It has huge fitting rooms and there was even a 20% off everything sale happening at the time. I picked up 3 new tops and a pair of dangle earrings. From there, we headed to Pierre Herme, a fancy macaroon and chocolate shop, for some birthday cake and general chocolate overdose. I also snagged some of my favorite rose macaroons.

After that, we headed off to Alice, a theme restaurants based on the Alice in Wonderland tale. It is part of the Diamond Dinning theme restaurant group. I was a bit nervous about it, because the last Diamond Dinning theme place was Princess Heart for my birthday and it wasn't the greatest experience. However, Alice was definitely a step up from Princess Heart. Great atmosphere, good food, and interesting drinks.

Before calling it a night, we did a 2 hours Disney/Christmas song marathon karaoke session. Awesome, though I fail at remembering the names of popular Christmas songs!

The next day with hit up harajuku and went to an all you can eat desert place called Sweets Paradise. Got caught up in a huge line too, but not as huge as the one that had formed when we left the place. Then we hit up forever21. I'd never been before, so it was an interesting experience. The store was jam packed and I didn't really like it. I found a few things I was interested in buying, but the cashier lines were so long that I gave it a pass.

Then it was off to the main event of the weekend, Cirque du Soleil's Corteo. There was a bit of a panic in the beginning as we couldn't figure out where in the world it was at, but after than mishap, it was smooth sailing. Before the show we picked up some food stuffs, including some rather tasty and fresh melon pan. The show itself was interesting, if a bit confusing. Many of the acrobatic feats I've seen before at acrobatics shows in China but Cirque du Soleil takes them to the next level and with much nicer outfits and a loose story line. One of my favorite parts of the show was a midget who was attached to huge balloons and sort of walked and floated over the audience. It was surreal.

After the show it the plan was to head straight back to Yamanashi, but we ended up at the newly opened Uniqulo shoe store. Both me and Janet enjoy Uniqulo clothing and this shoe store is the first of its kind. I really hope the build more! Its the first shoe store in Japan that I've actually been able to try on my size shoe in all the patterns and colors rather than just a select few. I walked away with 2 new pairs of boots that ended up being 20% off of an already killer good price.

Then, along with my massive number of shopping bags, it was off to home.

Labels: birthday, theme restaurant, Tokyo, weekend

Let's just say I had a busy weekend.....

It started off with visiting one of my old elementary schools. I no longer teach at the school, but all the students bar the 1st graders have had me as a teacher and I currently teach their older brothers and sisters. I went to watch their sports festival. The festival was not so exciting. They get a bit old hat after watching two or three, but I really enjoyed seeing all the kids. As the saw me, groups of them would yell out my name and wave like crazy people. It was really cute.

After spending some time at the festival and talking with some of the kids, it was soon time to head to Otsuki for a pub quiz. While I suck at answering the trivia questions, its nice to get to see people I don't ofter get a chance to see and to meet some of the new people who I haven't had a chance to meet. Was a bit disappointed by the table I was assigned though. It was mostly people I already knew. I was also quite peeved at the fact that I was in the bathroom during one of the few questions I knew the answer too and my group ended up getting it wrong. Nooooooo! The pub quiz had a few interesting new rules/categories this time. There was even a physical challenge. All in all a good time. Never did end up figuring out who won as the quiz ran late and I had to catch a train to Tokyo.

Spend the night in Tokyo at one of my favorite hostels. The Sakura Inn in Jimbocho. Always a nice place and me and Janet ended up having a 4 person room all to ourselves. It was a quick stay though. We got up early the next morning to head to MakuhariMesse in Chiba for the annual Tokyo Game Show. It's been tradition over the past 2 years that me and Janet attend the show together. It's normally held during a 3 day weekend in October, but was held a bit earlier this year. Luckily I checked the website a few weeks in advance or we would have probably missed out! This year we wanted to attend 2 days instead of just 1, but due to the sports festival and pub quiz, it didn't quite work out.

Anyway, the game show was a good time as always. We got there about an hour and a half before the venue opened. Most of the game show is spent collecting 'swag' aka. various free things passed out by different companies either for doing nothing or playing certain demo games. Last year Janet manged to walk away with a decent sized stuff Sonic. Other goods from past years include key chains, mouse pads, cups, bouncy balls, and a ton of game demo CDs. This year it was clear that the swag was a bit lacking. Not as many giveaways and most of the giveaway stuff was fairly average. We did manage to pick up some jewelry, headphones, and a really cool multicolored pen/highlighter. No free game giveaways though, and the demo disks were also really scarce. There also seemed to more people and fewer vendors this year, which meant that most of the good stuff was gone exceptionally fast.

Didn't have much time to spend grabing swag though as I cosplayed this year. I went as Beatrice from 07th Expansion's Umineko no Naku Koro Ni series. I got a ton of compliments on it and had a ton of people ask to take my picture. One person even asked me if I was working for 07th Expansion as their 'booth babe' aka person who passes out fliers for a company while in costume. This got me all excited because I didn't think they'd have a booth, but in the end it turns out they didn't. I even got interviewed by 2 different TV stations. One of which was from Spain. I also managed to meet up with an online friend from Singapore who recently moved to Japan to attend school and was cosplaying from the same series as me.

I also ate at the show for the first time and was impressed by the food selection and quality. Everything but the drinks, which were going for 200yen a bottle, was really cheap too. I got 2 large chicken legs and french fries for 500yen. Couldn't even get that kind of deal at a fast food place and the food quality was significantly better than anything you'd find at a KFC. I'd even go as far to say it was sit-down restaurant worthy. Yum!

After considering stopping in Tokyo for dinner for a brief moment, we decided to head straight home. It was a very long weekend and neither of us were looking forward to work the next day.

Labels: cosplay, TGS, Tokyo, weekend, Yeti

I kept my promise to myself and did not go to Tokyo this past weekend! It must be some kind of miracle!

The plan for last weekend was to watch the newly released Gokusen movie and then head up to Kiyosato to attend the YETI Sayonara party. I was supposed to meet up with Katrina in Kofu at 11 for some lunch and a movie, but she was running late and we bumped the meeting time to 12:30. I ended up in Kofu by that time, but she was still not quite ready, so I headed to the theater on my own. Once at the theater I realized that we would miss the train that would get us up to Kiyosato before the party started. I still wanted to see the movie, but Katrina decided to pass.

I grabbed a ticket and then had a quick sandwich and banana juice at a little cafe near the theater before the show started. The movie itself was only so-so. I was really looking forward to it and I loved seeing Odagiri Ryu as a student teacher but the story line wasn't really that exciting and 2 of my favorite characters, Sawada Shin and Yabuki Hayato, didn't show up in the film at all. I knew that they probably would be in it due to the cast list, but I was still holding out hope of a special appearance of some kind. It was a bit of a let down. There were a bunch of other previous cast members who made appearances though, but after a while the just kept getting all jumbled up in my head and it was hard to tell who was who.

After the movie, I had some time to kill before the next train to Kiyosato so I grabbed a bit more to eat in preparation for all the drinking I would be doing later in the evening. During this time, I realized I wouldn't be alone and that Janet and Miki, both also ALTs in Yamanashi would be on the same train. Once on the train, I had a nice little chat with a woman who works for a flower shop in Kobuchizawa. She was in Kofu to celebrate working 10 years for her company. After our chat concluded, I went to go find my friends.

Once we arrived in Kiyosato, we tried to figure out how to walk to the KEEP, where the party was being held. It wasn't too hard to figure out on the map, unless your name is Miki. The boy couldn't figure out that map to save his life. He kept thinking we should be going the exact opposite direction from our destination. In the end, Morgan came in Karen's car (soon to by my car in about a week) to pick us up.

And yes, you read that right, I'm getting a car! Even though I've lived here for 2 years without one, I really feel it’s about time I got one. I've had to miss out on quite a few things because I couldn't manage to secure a ride, and now I won't have to. I've already got a road trip to Niigata and Kanazawa planed for the summer, with more to follow.

Back to the party......The theme was ganstars/villans. I just worn a white top, black skirt, and fedora but some people really went all out. I also went to the Sayonara party last year, but this year it was held in a different area of the KEEP. The actual party room was more like a barn, but the sleeping areas were really nice and a huge step up from the ones last year. Guess you gotta take the good with the bad. YETI provided some tasty sandwiches and I brought a bottle of white wine to get me through the evening. I had a good time chatting with everyone and enjoyed my evening, but ended up getting really sick and I don't think from just the alcohol either. I was still sick throughout Sunday and let’s just say riding the train back home was hellish. I still feeling a bit under the weather today even and it's already Tuesday. Hopefully I'll start feeling 100% soon.

Labels: friends, Kiyosato, weekend, yamanashi, Yeti