Time for another post of..What Did I do in the Past Few Days?

and the answer to that is, LOADS of school planned events and preparations for classes.
The first welcome party that we went to was two days ago, and this one was hosted by the WIC and Niji no Kai club. Students were given numbers when we first arrived for the prize draw at the end of the party. A whole bunch of people from my dorm chose the table in the middle with the best view of the stage to mingle and chat until the party started. There were tables scattered all over the hall...but with no chairs. So we ate and drank like salary men at station ramen stores. Except replace the ramen with good quality sushi, smoked salmon, karaage, curry, and more. And we all know that free food tastes infinitely better.

Japanese students in girl's uniforms. They enjoyed this more than they should

月見 was coincidentally also on that night which means "Moon watching day" so we stared at the moon quite regularly that night. No rabbits making mochi on the moon though

The next day, a group of people from my dorm wanted to go to a cat cafe in Shinjuku so I tagged along even though I knew I was allergic. But I wasn't sure how bad the symptoms were so I went there to test it out..

scary cat is scary.

sleepy cat is sleepy

50 minutes went by and no allergic reaction. However 10 minutes before we had to leave, my body gave up and said "I can't take this anymore". So then came the sneezing that had me buckled over until I had to leave the building. Many of the cats were impartial to our presence since they receive so much love on a daily basis that they're probably almost bored of affection. It's a nice place to lounge with cheap iced coffee and a cat by your side though.

The cat cafe wasn't exactly up my alley but Cafe Gusto sure is! Their drink bar is really a great addition to an otherwise average looking family restaurant, and for only 199 yen you can drink whatever you want at the drinks counter. There are a variety of espresso drinks (hot and cold), vegetable juice, tea, pop, orange juice, and even a place where customers can serve themselves soup if you get a lunch meal. With unlimited coffee, it is truly the perfect place to study. 

My purple yam parfait with actual yams, mousse like yam, red bean, ice cream, and bananas! 

This is the cake shop literally 20 seconds from my dorm. They sell the cutest looking mont blancs, chocolate cakes, and even ice cream. At night, the twinkle lights help me find my way home.

The next morning, Lily, Joanna, Ida (Denmark), Sasha, and I had to collect our Student IDs from the SILS building. All of the pictures turned out either yellow, red, or pink. Ofcourse I would look like a drunk pig in mine.

Afterwards, we wanted to check out the Waseda goods merchandise at the nearby cafe. The cafe is adorable, and a perfect place to cool down with cheap iced coffee. They also serve lunch and dessert. 

All the green reminds me home

This is Okuma Garden. We all promised that one day when school starts, we'll meet up here for lunch and have a picnic. 

Found the perfect place for lunch! A katsu don and udon set for only 650 yen. It's also one of the more expensive ones because the average meal there is 500 yen. 

Its also worth noting that many of the Japanese restaurants I've been to so far provide so much food for one meal, its like im in America. Why are the people still so skinny?! 

This is at the opening ceremony that afternoon. Someone told us to dress up formal, but only the Japanese SILS students dressed up. The women wore skirts while the men wore suits. Most sp3 students wore casual everyday clothing, but whatever were foreigners we can do whatever we want!

The acapella group performed at the end of the opening ceremony which was really the only thing worth remembering. Their performance was so interesting to watch, I had to make sure my mouth wasn't open as I watched. Their Jazz routine was awesome, members mimicked the saxaphone, the piano, and the drum with only their mouths as props. 

I can only wish to be as cool as them one day. 

3 Days worth of nearly all food reviews

I paid a 5900 yen delivery charge to send a box of stuff to Canada today. But but but that costs nearly the same price as the stuff inside of it! Scandalous, I tell you. I've got 2 hours left before going to the welcome party held by the two internation clubs: Niji no Kai and WIC, and am currently drowning my sorrows into iced coffee. The glass is too small and half the thing is ice! WHY. This day has to get better. 

Let me post a few pictures of the last few days.

September 16th: Typhoon Day. Shabu Shabu Dinner at Momo Paradise with WIC Members, Patty, and Zoe. 

Dinner was all you can eat shabu shabu for 2000 yen and it was fun and lively with so many students coming out to the event. The typhoon in the morning basically shut us into our dorms so by night time people were itching to go out and have some fun. Except for Patty. She went out during the typhoon with an umbrella and developed what she called more muscle (but pronounced like mus-ko) because of her cute french-glish. This girl has guts.

After going to the game center and playing some taiko games and air hockey on steroids (there were 20 small pucks and one big puck at once!), Patty suggested we go out for drinks with her friend Marc so Zoe and I joined her at an English pub nearby. 

The two drinks at the back tasted like grass. Swiss people are crazy is all I got from that night.

September 17th: 

Academic Orientation day. Much shorter and much more enjoyable than our first orientation. Our dean for the SILS program is French and is compelling enough that I don't fall into a blank daze every few minutes. 

After this I was planning on going to Harajuku for the night with Lily, Joanna, Sasha, and Yana but by the time we arrived at the station we decided there werent enough time before we had to meet a different group of people for dinner at 6. We said goodbye to Sasha and Yana who wanted to go to Harajuku on their own, so the 3 of us lounged at a nearby Dotour for cake and coffee.

Cake and Coffee for 500 yen. I love mont blanc and this cake put me in a happy bliss for the next hour and a half. Ofcourse, Joanna and Lily were good company too so that may have been another reason. If they read this, they'll think I'm being just another "polite Canadian" so maybe I shouldnt be saying any more nice things about them on here.

Dinner was at a really cute and cozy izakaya with random decorations everywhere. Is that a bunny hanging off a chandelier?

Masami (A niji no kai leader) mixing the best dish of the night, the uni bibimbap.

And wowza, he ordered 6 dessert dishes!

This dinner was actually so much fun, I got to know the niji no kai members better and even met some other students I've never talked to before. When the bill arrived, Masami tried to get away with asking a lesser amount from us to pay for dinner but Joanna (being the aggressive girl she is :P) looked at the bill and calculated it so it came to 2,000 yen each. I would much rather come here and try a whole bunch of different dishes than to go for shabu shabu. 

September 18th: 

I woke up early to attend a course information session with Patty and Marc at the SILS building..and it was too early to act like a normal human being. The course information session was conducted by senior students in the SILS program and they advised us about which courses were useless and which professors were sexist towards women and what not. Afterwards we went to the ICC building to ask about wifi for our phones on campus and as we thanked the woman who helped us behind the counter, Marc quietly proclaimed "I like her..." and we laughed all the way out of the building. 

For lunch, I met with Lily and Joanna to go to Harajuku for shopping and lunch since we couldn't go the day before. Actually, it was more for lunch than shopping cause there was NOTHING that we could buy that was in our taste there. Too many frills too little Anne. The prices werent any cheaper than clothes I find at department stores so I don't think its really worth going unless you like childish clothing or fan merchandise.

For lunch we had tsukemen at a place we thought was shady from the outside but as we proceeded in, it was quite nice for a restaurant that was below ground. 

The best. tsukemen. ever. 

and also, the best. piece of meat. ever.

I would eat this everyday if I could but the sodium in that would inflate my face and body so much I'd look like an oompa loompa. 

This is at the meiji jingu 5 minutes away fron Harajuku, and the contrast between hectic teenager town and peaceful temple is so profound that it's almost funny. Merely 100 m away from each other, the temple in my opinion, is a better tourist attraction than takeshita dori. Plus, the tofu ice cream that I had on the way out was really good. 

I said goodbye to Lily and Joanna because they had to collect the stamps that they made previously, and I had dinner plans with Marisa, a girl I knew from Vancouver. Before leaving harajuku, I roamed around the city some more and discovered this breathtaking view from Starbucks.

This entire sixth floor is for starbucks. The price for a slightly more expensive cup of coffee is definetly worth the view and ambiance. 

I left this building for another time and headed for Shinjuku alone. At night. And waited for my friend in an area that I had no clue was known for its sketchy-ness. How should I know? The East Entrance at Shinjuku Station is the biggest and most crowded area! 

While I was waiting, I was first approached by a man who claimed interest in me. It was gross and I rejected. Then two other men joined him and asked all these questions about me that I didnt answer, and after I asked them what this was about, they said they were recruiting workers for a cabaret club. I don't really want to go into detail of what those clubs are like, but I'm assuming theres heavy drinking involved. 

Thank god I got away quickly, the Subway shop nearby was a perfect place to escape all the scary and aggressive men outside. 

At 8:30, Marisa arrived and we had dinner at a chain izakaya. They had touch screens at each table where we could look at pictures and order our menu ourselves! Super convenient and effective. Not to mention yummy.

We chatted for 3 hours over food and beer (only for her) , and planned out how we can send post cards to tv shows to be an audience member. Marissa already bought a pack of 50 postcards so I'll go over to her apartment to fill it out with her sometime soon.

AND VOILA! I covered three days in the time span of 1 hour. My iced coffee is now finished and my body is cooled down from the air conditioning. And I'm ALMOST over the hella expensive delivery fee. Almost. 

Imperial Palace and the Drunk People

Two straight nights of eating excessively will do wonders to your belly. It has grown to be about...lets see, 5 months along in size. Belly expanding, wallet shrinking. Where them maternity clothes at?

I went to Tokyo Station two days ago to go shopping for someone and Sasha tagged along since she's never explored the area. What was supposed to be a shopping trip turned into a food fest (surprise surprise) as every time we looked remotely interested in a food item, the store people would hand us samples. This went on for about 6 stores and ended everytime with us embarassingly saying "thank you" and running away. Classy.

Samples galore! The picture on the right is bread with cream cheese inside, and the one on the right is green tea

GINORMOUS buns

It's Rollcake mom! But yours is better.

My Ebi Chili Bun. It was surprisingly spicy and almost paste like. 

After the food run Sasha and I decided to go into a cafe to drink coffee and chat. We set our eyes on one of the cafes but we realized that there really weren't a lot of spaces to sit except for the counter. When a waiter came up to us to see if we wanted to come in, we kind of hesitated and after careful consideration, said "no thank you". Swiftly walking around the floor, we came to a conclusion that the best cafe around the area would be the one we went to before. As we made our way back, we saw that there were more tables available so we lined up once more. When the same waiter came out to greet us, he sarcastically (gasp! but he's Japanese!) asked us if "the other cafes weren't open". It may not sound like much on text, but boy that waiter had a full on smirk going on. You should move to America, where that's acceptable. JOKING JOKING, Lily I know you're reading this. 

Sasha and I, trying to act passive after the unnecessary comment, proceeded to sit down and talked for about an hr and half  on her home town of Russia and how the political system there is messed up. Putin, if you're reading my blog, stop messing up your country and listen to the demands of the people.

We left the coffee shop feeling rejuvenated, and discussed where we were headed next. Sasha mentioned the Imperial Palace, so off we went! Who knew it was so close to Tokyo Station? It was literally only a 6 minute walk away, and the scenery was completely different despite the close proximity. 

"Sasha, make a zebra face!"

erm, yeah that should do it.

One lone swan.

The palace is in the background, but its very difficult to see in the picture. That area isn't open to the public so all we could do as tourists were to take pictures and stare longingly in the distance

So this concludes my day trip to Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace.

But the crazy stuff came that night. Precisely two hours after I came home from the relaxing trip, I was to meet at my dorm's lounge for the dorm party conducted by the RA and the Dorm Manager, Aya san. 

First off, who knew we were allowed that much alcohol at the party? And why is the pizza so dang good. 

Its real pizza! 

We each had to do a mini introduction in Japanese. It wasn't as scary as I thought, and everybody clapped and laughed at all the right parts. 

Who knew bingo could get this intense. I felt so happy when I won, but it turns out another girl did too and we had to rock paper scissors. Obviously it was all downhill from there. I suck at rock paper scissors. People see right through me.

Ida, the girl in purple, won the grand prize...A BICYCLE!

but Lillian got defeated by the alcohol.

I love you Lillian, really I do.

This concludes my day. Two days ago.

Please standby for the post on yesterday. I have lots to say, but I'm just too lazy.