Harajuku to Shibuya

Wow, I have been way too busy. The Japanese Language Proficiency Test is coming up next weekend, so a lot of my free time has been spent studying for the test. I'm not sure how I'll do though...

Anyway, I spent last Saturday (November 20) at home relaxing. Sunday (November 21) I met up with Natsumi and we met up at Harajuku.

Naturally we went shopping at the famous Takeshita Street, known for its cheap stores and stylish customers.

We went in and out of a bunch of stores, mainly in search of a hat that looks decent on me.

Boy, finding a hat that you like is a lot harder than it seems. I guess my head is a lot smaller and maybe a different shape? Hats like berets didn't fit me very well, and I didn't really like how a lot of the more "poofier" hats looked like they were swallowing my head. A lot are just plain too big. Unfortunately, I didn't find a hat I liked, so we started heading for Shibuya. Not by train though, mind you. Come to find out, Shibuya and Harajuku are actually pretty close to one another. So close, in fact, that you can walk from one to the other~

However, we did find one store I liked that I will definitely want to check out in the future when I get the chance. It was like a cheaper version of Liz Lisa.

We saw a temple along the road. I was a bit surprised, especially since it appears to be just a parking lot.

There wasn't much there as you can see in the above photos, but we did spot these little Buddhas just inside the gate. They looked so cute with their little ponchos! I wish I knew why they were wearing them. I'm guessing that Buddha statues need to keep warm too.

Since neither of us had anything to eat, we got hungry and stopped at a McDonalds. It looked a lot more hi-tech inside than most McDonalds do, and even had electronic scrolling text on the walls. I ordered chicken nuggets, some French fries, and a large size milk shake. It's surprising that they actually had medium let alone a large size for a milk shake. At most McDonalds, they give you no choice and all you can get is a small size.

Shortly after we sat down, something rare happened: The woman who sat down next to us started talking to me. People in Tokyo rarely just start up a conversation with a complete stranger. She told us about how I think she had studied abroad in America and used to know some English but now her English sucks and it was so nice to talk to two girls since she has two sons our age. She actually wasn't a Tokyo woman at all though; she and her husband were here from Yokohama (I think it was). Before she and her husband left after getting their drinks, she was even nice enough to give us some candy.

After we left McDonalds, we headed to Shibuya 109 where I continued the search for a hat. The difficultness of my search continued, and we ended up going through several more stores.

Eventually I settled on this one from SpRay.

I also bought this leopard print cardigan too. I've really, really been wanting one of these. It's so comfy and cute! So glad I managed to get one for half the price I would have been expecting to pay for one at a different store.

My feet were starting to hurt pretty bad (I was wearing my boots), so after we left 109 we looked for a place to sit down for a bit before deciding what to do next. We ended up sitting down at Burger King, which incidentally was the first time Natsumi had ever eaten at a Burger King! I only got a melon soda since I was still stuffed from the milk shake and food from McDonalds, but Natsumi ordered some snacks.

Originally we were going to go to a school festival, but by that time it had already ended and my feet were hurting and I had homework to do so we decided to take purikura and head home.

I really need to get me one of those purikura albums so I can start pasting mine in.

The Days Just Fly On By...

I guess the last time I managed to sit down and write was last Sunday, though I never actually got around to writing about what I did that day. Good thing I have my Twitter to remind me.

I went to Yoyogi for a trial lesson. I thought it went well, but I guess not since he never called me back.

After the lesson, I went to Shibuya because I read on TRALALA's blog that they were selling two adorable coats on discount. Since I don't have a jacket or coat that covers my butt, I decided I needed to test the long one out. When I walked across the famous Shibuya Crossing, I noticed Darth Vader was on the advertisement space of 109, and that was kind of funny to me.

I wasn't sure how I would like this coat, but I ended up getting it. It was just so adorable. Unfortunately, it's not as warm as I thought it would be. It'd be fine if I wore long sleeves underneath it, but I don't really own any shirts with long sleeves. Whenever I get the chance I should probably hit up Uniqlo or somewhere like that so I can get some cheap long sleeve shirts.

Sunday night I redid my eyebrows a bit. No pictures of that, but looking back at them now a week and a half later, I need to redo them again. Sigh.

Monday came and that means the beginning of another long week of school. Here's a picture of my breakfast, which I purchased in the little convenience store in the cafeteria.

And here's my lunch.

Unfortunately, I ended up getting rained on when I went home since I didn't bring an umbrella. Not fun to return home cold and wet.

I had noodles for dinner to warm me up.

On Tuesday I wore my new coat along with skinny jeans for the first time this year. I wanted to wear my pumps with them, but realized that was a bit impossible for me because not only was I late but since one of my feet is bigger than the other, my foot can't manage to stay in one of the shoes while I walk. I need to figure out a way to remedy that. orz

I had the first half of my mid-term exams for Japanese. I think I thought that the test went okay, though I didn't realize we were being tested on particles, so I guess I wasn't too confident on it.

Wednesday was my day off.

So I took a picture of my brunch: Weiners and rice. Don't think nothing too much exciting happened otherwise.

Thursday was the second part of my exam. I had to use all of my extended time just to finish it. Too much writing!!

That day though I discovered a new food: Ham in katsu sandwich! I think there's mayonnaise in it too, which I'm not so sure I like or not.

Also got to enjoy some mini-oreos.

Friday was good. Went to the club and got to chat with my new friend Natsumi. After lunch time was over, a whole group of us headed to the cafeteria to play cards.

Recently it seems I've been having really good luck with the game we usually play, though I didn't manage to win when there was like ten people playing. Eventually they all had to go to class though and I ended up heading home soon after myself.

I managed to snap a few pictures of the nearby scenery from the train station (and one side of my school) when I headed home. The changing leaves are so pretty.

I know I only made it to Friday, but that's all I feel like writing about for now. I'll update again later today maybe. (・∀・)ｂ

End of the Week

Earlier this week I discovered Twitpic, so I haven't been taking many real photographs over the course of the week. Instead, I've been taking a bunch of pictures with my cell phone since it's the only way to update my Twitter when I'm not at home. Unfortunately they're not the best quality.

On Wednesday I finally managed to catch up on my kanji reviews. On Thursday I did some laundry and then met up with Daniel at the nearby arcade.

Akihabara & The Weekend

Let's see...we last left me off on the final day of my long weekend. School was pretty much same ol' on Thursday and Friday. That is, tiring and leaving me energy-less. I don't think I'll ever get used to waking up so early. On Friday I had a trial lesson with someone new. Technically I was on time, but I made a mistake on where we were supposed to meet and I was a bit late to the lesson. ><; I hope that didn't reflect too badly, because even though he paid me despite it being a free trial, he still hasn't contacted me to schedule a second lesson yet.

Daniel and I decided we should start doing some more sight seeing again (though I guess Daniel got his fair share since he got to see the Gundam on Wednesday!), so we headed to Akihabara. Daniel took me to some of the places he visited on the tour his school hosted.

I managed to get a shot of this small shrine in the compact little shopping area directly under the JR train tracks. It's amazing how many little shops were jammed packed in that little place! You could buy any electronic part you could ever dream of in there.

Drink Review

So I decided to be a bit adventurous today and try out a few new drinks. First, on the right we have Protein Water by Suntory. I like their lemon drink, but this one I don't like so much. It's kinda milky and incredibly sweet. I've tried to force myself to drink half of it but don't think I can handle anymore.


On the left, we have Collagen 10000 + Vitamin C. It's a drink with the sole purpose of enhancing a woman's beauty. It says "delicious collagen" on it, so I figured I'd give it a try since I've been pretty scared/skeptical of jelly drinks. It surprising wasn't bad! The drink is made by Lotte, which manufactures a lot of sweets, so it was kind of like drinking grape-tasting candy. It has a ton of vitamins in it too, so I think I might start drinking one daily.

Next I need to find a good protein drink. T-T

And Things Start Turning Around

So, the tutoring went much better than expected. He spoke a very good amount of English, and I guess his weak point is listening, so he just wants to have free talk. Hell yeah, getting paid 3,000 an hour just to talk! (・∀・)ｂ But even better, I actually got paid for my trial lesson, which was a pleasant surprise.

Yesterday was Halloween, so we watched Rocky Horror Picture Show on Daniel's laptop and then he made me play Fatal Frame II. It was kinda scary. ><

As such, given I had such a bad week, some retail therapy was in order.

Sabina complained I don't post enough pictures of myself, so here's a picture of me. I would've taken a full body shot, but I don't have a full length mirror so that's impossible if Daniel's not here to take the picture of me. '-' But what I wore was Daniel's flannel shirt with a tanktop underneath and belt on top together with shorts and leggings and boots.

So, off to Shibuya I went in search of a plaid shirt of my own. After searching through every single brand in the the whole building, I came out with this!

It's super cute and I love the fur trimmings. It's supposed to be a onepiece, but I'll probably wear it with shorts and leggings. Maybe with my fur vest too. = 3=

I also found Doritos in the basement of 109! So, I got them. They mostly taste the same as American ones do, just not as...cheesy? I think American Doritos are much more...intense?

Headed home and met up with Daniel at the train station. We headed to Nakau for dinner since I was staaaaarving. I nearly actually ate all of my katsu-curry for once. After that, we headed home and I discovered I got my paycheck for my translation work! I got 4,000 yen. Yaaay~!