One Last Visit to School

The day after Harajuku, if I remember right we spent the day first going to the post office to mail our stuff off. I managed to successfully ask the kind lady, whom I had become a bit acquainted with because of my shopping serivce, if we could borrow a dollee cart and the post office allowed us to for free. We ended up mailing around 10ish boxes (I think), nearly all of them were shipped by boat. By now my boyfriend has received the contents of our apartment, but unfortunately it took two months to reach us. Two months of waiting with no status update on the post office website. We were so afraid our stuff was lost, but so happy when it all arrived over the course of a few days.

It was so sad to see such an empty apartment after though. I think we spent the rest of the day around town. I remember we went to BookOff one last time and then went to the other side of town at some point to the recycle shop. I bought a Juriano Jurrie onepiece (which, because I have a butt, will have to be worn as a top) and Cecil McBee top. I was tempted to buy a Cecil McBee winter coat I saw there but decided against it in the end. Kiiind of regret that, though I have no idea how that would have fit into my suitcase! I barely got everything to fit int there as it was.

Daniel bought some clothes for himself and also bought one of the Yakuza games from the used and new game shop that was connected to the recycle shop. When we got home though, we realized that it was the wrong one! I went back by myself to see if I could get the proper one. The lady at the counter was very nice and refunded the money for the game. On the way back I ran into the ladies who work at the post office returning home from work and we chatted a bit before I got home.

Despite having paid for a full month's rent, we got kicked out of our apartment a day earlier than we expected. Originally we were going to get our apartment checked out the morning before we left but instead they had to check us out on that Saturday due to the amount of people who were leaving. Luckily for us the guy who checked us out said he could get us a reservation at one of their hostels in Ikebukuro. He was even nice enough to take our bags to the hostel for us aftr he finished his checkouts for the day. This was a great relief considering our plan was to go to Shinjuku, ditch our stuff in coin lockers, and then head to the airport to spend the night there.

Keys taken away, we headed to the university I had attended. I still had the photocopied copy of Chuushingura I had borrowed from my professor, so I needed to drop that off before we left. We got to the school without any major bird attacks, I told campus security I was going to drop off the book and leave, and went in. Dropped the book off, and I took these final pictures of my school before we left.

The last thing we did before we left Yotsuya was give the homeless man who sits next to my school daily all of our change. It was mostly one and five yen coins, but hopefully there was enough in there for him to buy a few meals.

A Final Visit to Harajuku

The order to return home was really shocking. My parents seemed to be in a hurry to get us out ASAP, but we had things to settle. For example, we had to ship all of our stuff off. So, we spent the day packing in a fever. I think it was this same day that when we were done, we decided to go to Harajuku. I was not at 100% though since I was still upset and overwhelmed because of the turn of events. The stores were still closing early, so we only had a few hours to hang around. This was rather unfortunate but I guess not too bad since I was so out of it.

A random advertisement inside of our local subway station.

I did not take too many photos because it was getting dark quickly, but I managed to take these three. One is of the capsule machines and the other two are advertisements for purikura machines.

We went down a side alley I never went down before during my trips to Harajuku. I purchased some cute socks and Daniel bought several funny T-shirts from a nearby street vendor (you know, the kinds you would expect to see in Japan with the Engrish and stuff).

We stopped by a few stores and I was too out of it to make any decisive shopping at the  time. I wish I had bought a few things at the one store we had gone to, like one of those cute white lacy maxi-skirts I have longing for.

When we made it to the end of Takeshita-doori, we bought crepes and made our way back to the train station to go home.

The Beginning of the End

Well, it's all over now. It's been over for quite a few days. On Sunday we left Japan and we won't be able to return to finish up the rest of our year. It's Friday morning now and I'm still suffering from jet lag. I keep waking up at 11 or 12 no matter how late I try to go to bed, only been getting 5-6 hours of sleep the past week due to waking up anxious and worried about this entire mess. Our bad luck just won't seem to stop even though I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something will turn our way soon.

I'm rather sad to have left. I got so used to my Tokyo lifestyle and I just loved living there. It is so hard for me to leave and try to re-adjust to an American one. I miss everything already. The convenience stores, the convenience of Tokyo in general, the arcades, the way people don't get into your business, the fact that food comes to you within five minutes, the signs reading in Japanese, getting to hear Japanese all of the time... There is just so much.

Plus there are so many things I regret not buying before I left. For example, another pack of my lashes and Dolly Wink liquid eyeliner. I did not realize that I had only ONE left eyelash left and three right eyelashes. Unfortunately all of the stores in Narita airport only had Dolly Wink eyelashes instead of my Diamond ones. They also only had the pencil liners for Dolly Wink rather than liquid. It would be really nice if there was a Japanese grocery store here in Boston. There used to be one but I'm pretty sure they have been closed down. Also, I really regret not buying a few more tights before I left Japan. You know, the warm ones that allows you to get away with wearing shorts and skirts in the winter. I have no idea where I could possibly get those here. At the very least I have one, my WC ones.

I guess that this means that this blog will come to a close soon. However there's still some pictures I have left to post up, so I'll still post a few more times before I close it. I also need to write about my hectic last few days. Beyond this blog though, I think I will probably re-start up my Ameba blog (though I write that in Japanese). I am not sure if I will start up another blog in English yet.

In any case, here are some pictures of the road leading to Nerima, which is about ten minutes from where I was living. I took these a few days before the earthquake.

Traffic signs. It was cool that they were in both Japanese and English.

An underpass.

A different angle of the underpass.

Crosswalk sign.

The Bamiyan Chinese restaurant, a sister of our much frequented Cafe Gusto. I wish we had had a chance to go one last time.

A nearby pet store. However, it is unique in that it also doubles as a cat and dog cafe and triples as a karaoke bar where you can have your own private karaoke box or party with the animals. Is this not a perfect way to establish a relationship with an animal you're thinking about purchasing or what? I wish we had had a chance to go just for the experience.

Momotarou sushi restaurant. I always thought the sign was cute.

Scenes From Around Our Neighborhood

Some trees in front of a nearby apartment complex.

In front of that same apartment complex there's a little play area for children.

Tuna and mayonnaise onigiri (riceball)

Yes, adults can drink juice boxes too here.

Sunset from just outside the door of our apartment.

Preparations for putting Christmas lights up, maybe?

The pancake drink is delicious, in case you were wondering.

Come to find out, the building in the above pictures is actually a museum.

The shape of this apartment complex is just so bizarre.

If only we would have looked down where the road opposite to where our apartment is off of leads to, we would have noticed this shrine just a block away.

Just down the road to Sunkus, this is the first house to put up some Christmas lights.

And last, but certainly not least, some cake. On nom nom.

It sucks how early and quickly it gets dark here. I should really carry my camera around with me more though. My cell phone just can't compare.