Weekend wrap-up…

Firstly I want to say that I am very happy to see strawberries come back to the supermarket and mandarin prices go down. I love my fruit!!!

Had a long weekend this weekend, actually extra long since I woke up this morning and couldn’t move due to a pain in my chest/back, so I rang school and told them I was sick and stayed at home and did extra study while watching dvd’s. It was actually quite a productive day considering all the extra study I got done. My chest/back is feeling a bit better…I don’t know what it is…maybe it is muscular? I will go to class tomorrow and study lots and lots…

On Friday after a much needed sleep in and pottering around the apartment we went to Shun’s parents place for dinner since I had not seen them or his brother and wife since the wedding. We try to get out to Chiba at least once of month, and even if I can’t go Shumpei will, even if it is just to spend the night to be closer to his soccer games. Dinner was nice, and the newly married couple seemed happy and most of the night was spent looking at photos etc etc… Shumpei’s sister in law Kazumi is so nice…we have only met a couple of times but she is one of those people that does not treat me as if I am foreign….I know I am foreign and that is why a lot of people treat me that way but she is really natural in the way she speaks to me as if I am just like everyone else. I know you are all thinking it sounds weird but with people I do not know well, or anybody that is a little bit older, this is hard to come by.

On Saturday I met Catherine and Tomoko in Shibuya so that we could head out to Yokohama, china town. We couldn’t stay long but managed to have lunch and a little look around but I really want to go back!!

After lunch we stayed in Yokohama but headed over to the shopping area which is also where the big ferris wheel is. I have never actually ridden it, but have ridden the one in Odaiba and I imagine it is much the same. I love Ferris Wheels and while I didn’t know this at the time, when I rode the one in Odaiba it was soon after I met Shumpei, the thing is he is afraid of heights (which I didn’t know at the time). Poor thing, the trip around is like 20 minutes long and I was jumping about, so excited, taking photos of the city at night and he was probably wanting to jump!! I am very happy to announce that I managed to find a jacket that I fell in love with at Banana Republic…I haven’t taken a photo yet but it is gorgeous and exactly what I wanted. I have several coats but it is not actually cold enough for a coat yet but it is getting too cold to go out in a cardigan. It was the only thing apart from lunch I bought all day (although the shops were awesome with lots of imported stuff however I could not afford anything other than the jacket…but am definitely going back if stumble across a pile of money or get rich…because they have shoes and boats in my size which I want to point out is not that big but is here in Japan…I am the cut-off, so most of the time places don’t have my size at all)

We were a bit late getting back into Tokyo since we had to meet friends in Shinjuku at 6pm for a catch up dinner and drinks party. The first place we went to was terrible, but it didn’t matter because we could all laugh about it, but the second place was fantastic…Thanks to Yoga for passing on the details about that one as it is definitely going to be a place we head to again. There was about 12 of us for drinks and it was a really good crowd, a couple of John’s friends who most of us hadn’t met before but it was a great mix. Actually more non-Japanese than Japanese for a change which is rare…We must be quite funny to listen too…we go back between languages in the same sentences…Must be confusing for anybody that isn’t used to it. I will be like in Japanese ” Hey Shun can you get me a drink” and in the same breath turn to cat and say in English “yeah so I was saying about…”

The second bar really really was brilliant. There was three floors in the building, apparently all rented or owned by the same guy. We were in the basement, but above us was the actual bar and above that was a hair salon. On the tables in the basement were prices for haircuts and perms instead of drinks (That is because all drinks were 500yen anyway). We could go upstairs and get drinks but a waiter would come down every so often and take our orders. We were the only ones in the downstairs area and it was just great to lounge around anywhere and talk with everyone and listen to music (Or hiro playing the bongo drums). Because it was kind of dark and had that reddish light that most bars had, taking photos with a flash kind of made the atmosphere change so most of the photos I took were without flash but on a special low light setting. There are more on my flickr but here are a few from the night…

Sunday was spent sleeping, studying and watching movies. The weekend might not sound much but I really did have a great time. One of the best weekends in ages!!! I wonder what is on the agenda next weekend…

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