some pictures

Past week has been nice. Nothing overly exciting has been going on, but I have enjoyed myself, and seen friends and studied japanese and gone out for strolls. Yesterday I went to my very first Ohanami, which translates to "cherryblossomviewing".

What is that, you may wonder? Well, it is, as the name very much suggest, a trip to a park, where you view the cherry blossoms! Clever, huh?

I was yet another Sakurahouse Event, and we were about 20 people. It went as follows:

Meet at park, bring snacks. Find big blue tarp which has been laid out, sit on tarp, eat snacks, drink beer. This all took place in Ueno park, which is pretty much the most popular cherryblossomviewing park in either Tokyo, or Japan (I fail to remember which it is....)
On the busy days, like sundays, as many as 100.000 people go there to look at the trees and enjoy each others company, as well as snacks. We went in the evening though, so I couldn't really see the trees in all their splendor, but I plan on going back during this week, just to hang out. I have a video of our gathering, and 1 picture of the trees. But then my camera died (battery committed suicide), and therefore I didn't get a lot of pictures. I'll let you know though, that it is very beautiful, and we had a lot of fun. And you'll just have to take my word for that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUeQaz04cqk

The Picture

Apart from that, here's some random pictures from the everyday life in Japan.

Fish Therapy? Those feet look like they are enjoying themselves!

Homeless mans fortress. No rain shall enter!

One of the many streets of Ueno. Signs and colours!!

Giant Whale!

I see....

Flashing the classic V-sign.

slow week

As I am STILL searching for a bloody job, I have not been very active the previous week. I have spent a lot of time in cafés, studying japanese, and my vocabulary is constantly growing. Which is a good thing!

The other day I went to the Tokyo Museum of Natural History and Science with my friend Alex, and the latest addition Esther from France, and we had a fun day. The whole museum is i Japanese, but we weren't fuzzed. They had lost of nice exhibitions with pictures and suffed animals, so at least we had something to look at!
Oh, and DINOSAUR SKELETONS! I friggin' love dinosaurs!
I didn't snap any photos though, as the whole thing wasnt THAT exciting.

Went and celebrated St. Patricks day with my Japanese friend Yuko last week as well. Lots and lots of cheap guiness! Huzzah!

thats it for now. No exciting photos or videos this time around!

I'm off to drink coffee and read the crazy signs. Perhaps then I will get a better understanding of the world in which I currently reside.

Just sittin' in ma' room

It is time to let YOU, dear Reader, know whats been up the last week.

As some of you may know, I have never really cared about sushi. It's stupid, it's contents doesn't contain NEARLY enough meat, and you have to eat a billion pieces to feel even remotely full. Also, its so expensive, you could risk becoming retarded from bying too much of it. But hark! I got invited to a Sushi-making event by my dear SakuraHouse (they have these different events every once in a while), and I figured, RIGHT! That oughtta be fun, and I will get to meet a few different new people, and see some of my other friends as well.

Making Sushi, step 1: Prepare the things

Step 2: Fill the seaweed with rice

Step 4: Remember to take pictures of step 3, and then clean the knife

Step 5: Just like step 3, just two times

Step 6: Roll.

So I went, I made sushi, ate, had fun, and got hammered (free beer-bar! woooooh!!). Was a really fun night. No, I still don't care about sushi, it can go to hell for all I care, and take all its stupid uncooked fish-pieces with it. Leaving behind only the Cooked Fish, to be enjoyed by the likes of me.

The final product. Good looks but pointless to eat.

We had a pro sushi-chef come and make it. Pro as in, tiny japanese housemother, who was all smiles and glasses´. She was really good at it, made the rolls look all cool and stuff. I decided not to photograph my own creations, as they didn't really look like.... well, sushi.


I promised you earlier to get some pictures of our local bar! So here ye go:

Akira-san, the bartender and pressumed owner of the place

Locals

The bar!

And now for some really bad news:
As some may know, I made good friends with my neighbour Gabriella from England. Yesterday though, I had to take her to the airport and say goodbye, as she is going home 2 months earlier than planned. Why? Well, a very close friend of hers, died the other day. Noone knows what caused it, other than unpredicted, irrational, unfair and random bad luck. His heart just decided to stop beating, while he was in the toilet. Bam. A presumably healthy heart just quit, with no warning. So I spent most of the other day comforting Gabs, and she got a flight booked for yesterday morning.
My heart is with the families and friends of Fred (that was his name), and I am wishing them all the best in these hard times. You should too.




Well, that's it for now. I have my first job today, with some privatestudents! Still searching for a proper job though :(

Volcanoes, Black Eggs and Kitties.

DISCLAIMER:
THE FOLLOWING STORY IS BASED ON FICTIONAL CHARACTERS. ANY RESEMBLANCE TO ACTUAL PEOPLE OR PLACES ARE PURELY UNINTENTINAL AND RANDOM.

SO. I promised an update when something exciting would happen. Well, it's happened, and I, your friend the Blog, am here to tell you what's been going on.

IT ALL started a few days ago. I was looking around the internet for jobs, and a website I use for this particular thing, is called Craigslist, which some of you may or may not or might perhaps know about.

After unsucesfully finding anything to apply for, I went to the "community" section of the site, which is where people go to write stuff like "hey, come to my concert" or "I'm new to tokyo, and I'm looking for people to show me around" or "lets meet for a cup of coffe and discuss the average circumferene of tropical plants".

Well, I found one of these things that said something like "I won 2 tickets for a 1day tour to Mt. Fuji, and since all my friends are working that week, I am looking for someone to go with".

Well, I took my chance and wrote her, and because I'm superawesome and very nice, apparently, she decided to reply to me and not the others who wrote her. So we met the other day, and met for coffee, and had a good day, and then today we met early this morning, sunny shiny beautiful day, and got in a bus of ADVENTURE and EXCITEMENT. And a tourguide who had the worlds most Japanese Engrish accent :D

Rose

The tour took us first off to Mt. Fuji. Very nice volcano, and we went as far up the cliffside as the bus could take us, and we got out (snow?! EVERYWHERE!?), and flinched at the sun as it burned our collective retinas. Well, except for the ones with sunglasses. After having spent some time looking at the impressive and snowcovered volcano, we got back in Das Bus and drove to a nice restaurant where we had delicious lunch (to me and Rose the lunch was included in the price she had won. Didn't pay a dime for anything that happened all day! Other tourist had to pay about 15000 yen for the whole shenanigan! Lucky me ^^)

Going to Mt. Fuji


As close to the top you can get this season. It's climbable in the summertime!

According to the tourguide, a few years ago a wild Beer had been spotted roaming the surrounding forest. Hilariousness.

After the lunch had been violently consumed (i was a hungry beast, with no breakfast in my system), and a small snowballfight (we threw like, 1 snowball each, and then got tired of that), we got back in Die Busse and went to a gondola, which purpose was to take us to the top of a mountain, with an AMAZING view. We could see Mt. Fuji quite clearly from the top, as well as the pacific ocean!!! Also, this particular mountain had a lot of natural hot springs, and the whole mountainside was steaming because it was so hot. This place was very famous for boiling eggs in this bubbly hot natural water. The eggs will turn all BLACK, because of all the sulphuric acids in the water, which apparently reacts with egg-molecules to create the colour black. You should ask someone who knows Science how this works.
The whole place stank of suplhur, but it was really cool to see! I have uploaded a youtube video that shows us going with the gondoliona up the mountain. Quite a spectacular sight.

View from the top. Fuji-Yama to the right. Duh.


A lonely Gondola.

Smokey rocks. And smelly. This picture doesn't smell though.

Also, a Cat on a scooter.

Next stop was a, according to the guide, very famous Rake, on which we would sail a pirateship, which was harbored at a famous Rake Hotel.

We went, we got aboard the pirate ship, we committed mutiny, took control of the ship, and are currently roaming the 7 seas, raping and plundering anything we see, under command of Captain Weakbeard the Dane. Good thing this ship's got wireless here in my Captains Quarters.

Truthfully though, we just sailed around for 20 minutes in the cold wind and blinding sun. See, this is why I don't like winter. Sure, the sun is out, but is it WARM?... NO!! IT'S BLOODY COLD AND ANNOYING!

A piiiiiirate I was meant to be, trim the sails and roam the seaaa

We went ashore and got back to the bus, and then I fell asleep. Woke up again when we were back in Tokyo. And it had been a GREAT day!

Since it wasnt that late, me and Rose (who, by the way is a bellydancer from Jamaica... raaarw) decided to go to a Cat Café. For those of you thinking "hahaha, that sounds like a café that's being run by cats!" I can only say: Don't be silly. There is no such thing as cats that run cafés, not even in Japan. Quite frankly, its a ridicolous and stupid idea. I wish you wouldn't have thought that.

For everyone else, I will say this: It's a cafe that's being run by people, who really really really love cats. So much in fact, that they save money on furniture, except for a few tables and sofas, so that they can buy TRUCKloads of cats, and cat toys and cat-furniture, who will then run around (only the cats, not the toys and furniture) and be all cat-like while you sit and try to drink your coffee. It's hilarious. And the cats are cute. ALL cats are cute. I really needed some feline company, and I will definately go to another Cat Café one day. Apparently there are a LOT of them around.

Sinkmaster, Guardian of Sinks.

Snoutface the Ugly

And their sidekick, Leopardcat the Mischieveous

And then I said my goodbyes to Rose, who is going home in 4 days. And then I went back to Uguisudani and had Ramen, delicious, and now I'm writing this blog whilst listening to Wax Tailor.

'ts been a good day.


and here is my youtube, with the latest videos of Japan and all its deliciousness.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Durontia


drop a comment !

nothing

Has been a very unexciting week.
I went and saw Avatar (again), with a new japanese friend, and had a good evening.



OH, and yeah, ofc the job interview. I think it went well, but I won't know until April. But it doesn't REALLY matter if I get it or not, as it is only every 2nd monday. So that wont be what brings the money home.

I HAVE gotten myself some privatestudents though, 3 japanese women, with whom I'll meet on a weekly basis and teach english. So thats good! ^^

I'll update again when something awesome happens :)