An action packed Wednesday

I cant express to you how yummy this gelato is, I'm dead. Dead. 

Blueberry cheesecake on top and roasted chestnut and pumpkin on the bottom. Before handing me the gelato, she gave me one more flavour to sample, so I got some complex mix of greentea, azuki bean and kinako.

(This is at Pariya, in the basement of the Tokyu department store at Shibuya) 

I did almost nothing today as I slept through most of my morning, tired from Disneysea the night before. I lazied around for around 3 hours before getting my butt out of the dorms and here I am. At Shibuya about to go to the movies alone! Well it is Ladies Day afterall (1000 yen for women). 

Its called 抱きしめたい, a love story between a sick girl and a guy who still chooses to be with her. Criiinnngggeee, its so typical of a story. But its a Wednesday and I'm bored so give me mercy. 

Yamanashi Onsen Trip with the Peeps

Never in my life when I came here, did I think that I would actually become so close to actual Japanese students at Waseda. Many exchange students end up leaning towards people that speak the same language as them, and truth be told I do too. But because those same english speaking friends I have also make an effort to hang out with Japanese people (sometimes more than I do), I end up going out with Japanese people more and more as the semester progresses. 

In early January, I was asked if I wanted to go on an onsen trip by one of the niji guys and 4 other people. It was meant to be an onsen trip with a cozy group of 6 people, but because two of the people in that group couldnt make it and potentially some more, he ended up inviting another 8 to make a total group of 15. He spent a lot of time and effort preparing for it, and it was a really great trip. We spent one night at a ryokan in Yamanashi prefecture with a perfect view of Mt. Fuji from our room.

                   Our all girls room

Lunch: ほうとう (Houtou). Which to this day I still have no idea what it is, but essentially its thick home made udon noodles in a thick broth and lots of veggies, including pumpkin! 

We then walked to Tsutaya to grab movies for later that night and came out with Inception, an hour long special of Japanese "real" horror videos where ghosts make an appearance in home videos, and a romantic comedy-esque Japanese movie. We watched all of them including Ted, a movie that one of the guys brought. The Japanese horror clips were especially fun to watch. We crammed 15 people in one tatami room covered with futons and watched in total darkness, screaming in sync. It was also my first time watching Ted, and although it was as expected, very crude humour, I enjoyed it more than I'd like to admit. And I also enjoyed the Japanese romantic comedy movie more than I'd like to admit, inappropriate jokes included. 

Oops, skipped too far into the night. I can never blog in order...

Anyways, after Tsutaya we went to the ryokan which was a lot prettier than anyone expected. It was 8,800 per person a night, breakfast included. The onsen was also a lot more luxurious than we thought and could almost battle Oedo Onsen on the enjoyability scale. The outside bath had small bridges that connected to four different baths and it was surrounded by snow. We had a snowball fight at the onsen, which i dont think one can say quite often. I dont think I can enjoy an onsen without snow anymore...its the perfect balance of hot and cold. We could also hear screams from the guys side, and as we speculated, they were having a snowball fight also. 

Since dinner was im an hour, we only had a quick dip before meeting the guys at the dining hall. Dinner was all you can eat shabu shabu!

After dinner we were supposed to onsen again, but since we wanted to rest our stomachs before baring them again, we rented a room for an hour long ping pong match. You'd think an hour is too long for ping pong, but no no no. We all got really into it and many were actually very good. Now that I think of it, the people who went on this trip were all very open to sports and although some of the girls may look girly, they're all very adventurous and willing to do anything.

The guys were joking around and used their slippers as rackets, thinking that going against the girls team with normal ones were gonna be too easy of a match. They lost and were forced to do 15 push ups. 

After that it was onsen time again, and when we came back we all met up in one room for drinking and movies and puzzles. 1000 pieces to be exact. At first, we were like puzzles?! Really?? 

And then we proceeded with piecing them together for the next 4 hours. It may sound ridiculous, but this was also part of the fun we had that night. 

Hell yeah we finished it. The planner of the trip, receiving the honour of finishing the last piece of the puzzle. The last one piece of the one piece puzzle. 

After that we watched movies and then slept all in that one room, everyone dozing off at around 4:30-5am ish. We woke up 3 hours later for breakfast groggy eyed but ready to eat. 

Ryokan breakfast is awesome as always. Unlimited coffee and orange juice included.

You may think its a little over doing it, but we onsen-ed again, this time going to the top floor for a different onsen bath. This one had a huge window view of fuji san right by the bath and it was very picturesque. Too bad theres no pictures!

So I'll give you guys this one instead. All the girls in shower caps.

I think the guys beat us in the photo contest though...

Trying to decide what to do after we checked out, we decided on visiting a cheesecake store nearby to look for souvenirs and lounge around.

"Do a cheesecake face!"

The new york cheesecake. Not as good as my mom's, but still plenty good.

After finishing the heavy dessert, we headed out for some fun in the snow right by the lake. By "fun in the snow" I mean violently pushing each other until were all soaked and our hands and faces blushed with colour. 

Since we still had an hour to kill before the bus left for Shinjuku, we rode the ropeway up the mountain. It was the perfect day for it, blue skies and mildly warm.

Oh boys.......what are you doing. 

If you throw the plates through the ring, you'll be blessed with luck in the love realm. 

A view just like Canada.

Once we made our way down we took the bus back to Shinjuku. If you thought this trip would end with us going home straight after, you're underestimating our college student energy capacity. 

We all headed for Niji Volleyball right after, some of us actually bringing volleyball wear on the trip itself to prepare. Sporty people unite! 

This was a great ending to the trip. All the guys showed off their spiking chops and it was admittedly, very impressive. I haven't played volleyball in roughly 3-4 years and I forgot how much I loved the sport. I hope we have more of these events in the future!

As always after Niji events we headed out for Saizerya dinner where we ate for 2 hours, and although we said goodbye to most of the people there, I visited the Hoshien lounge (an international dorm) for more socializing. No drinking for me, just chatting.

I got home at 11:30 and clocked out at 12, the earliest I slept in a while..

It was a really fun trip all in all, and I'm immensly greatful for all the people I've met so far! 

Kamakura and Enoshima

Have I reached a new low on the lazy scale?
This is my friends post on Kamakura and Enoshima, where I went yesterday. It was a great break from the Tokyo city life, and she writes a hell of a lot better than I do with nicer pictures. So here you are!

http://julianneinjapan.tumblr.com/post/77255682068/kamakura?og=1&fb_action_ids=10203369027883255&fb_action_types=tumblr-feed%3Apost&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B493646410747217%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22tumblr-feed%3Apost%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

Happy Valentines!

Valentines Chocolate Making Party x 2!

Since one of the monthly general meeting and nomikai fell on Feb. 14 this year (on purpose or not on purpose), Sachi one of the leaders of Niji arranged a night of making chocolates at a rented kitchen space. 

It looked a little something like..this!

A crispy chocolate exterior and a melty ganache center. 

My Canadian chocolate and chocolate head. One of my friends actually ate the little man..to be fair he did look a little like him. 

After the party I headed off to Yujiro's place to make some more chocolate, this time for ourselves to eat. By that point the insides of my stomach were swimming with chocolate and the thought of eating more of it made me a little queasy. But I persevered! 

生チョコ. Essentially ganache chocolates

We also attempted to make chocolate fondant cake but it turned out a little..mushy.

But chocolate is chocolate and it still tastes good no matter how it turns out.

Being the great host he is, Yujiro also made us spaghetti to go along with the chocolate. He's a great cook and constantly holds food parties for people with various themes like nabe parties, takoyaki parties, chocolate fondue parties..but this was my first time going to one of them! (So honoured)

This is his tomato and eggplant spaghetti, while the other is seafood.

And here are some bonus pictures:

Susuga (Day 3)

Day 3:

I can never understand how anyone could be hungry at 7 am in the morning. Especially when we feasted on so much food the night before! Maybe my digestion is just really slow. 

Because my friends were complaining about their empty stomachs, we made it down to breakfast in a hurry for another round of eating.

This time it was Western style! Most people liked the Japanese one more as they didn't like the texture of the egg, but the IKEA scrambled eggs that I get back at home prepared me well for oddly textured eggs. It took me years to get used to it those..

The general plan for the day was to relax and sleep after breakfast, grab lunch, and then head out for another afternoon of snowboarding. But after breakfast I felt energized and didn't feel like sleeping anymore. Too bad I was the only one that changed my mind..so I went with one other niji guy up the gondola, and discovered another route that took us all the way to the top with an additional 2 lifts. How did I not discover this before?! The slopes were steep, but believe it or not, it made falling much more fun as we tumbled down carelessly. We tried our hands at the mogules and we stumbled down that one too, barely using the snowboards. 

When we got to the bottom I was having a major stomach cramp so I decided to head back early. I was the only one back so I soaked alone in the public bath and it was bliss. Pure bliss. No worrying about other naked bodies in the room.

After that I ate the 7-11 sandwich I bought before I came here for lunch, and lazied around in the comfy futons for around 2 hrs, and my friends joined me for another 2 hours after that. We discovered flappy bird during our futon talks and the rest is history. 

Dinner was tonkatsu, siu mai, pasta salad, and this vanilla pudding that we all agreed we wanted seconds and thirds and fourths of. Before going nightboarding we took 30 min off to digest our food. 

Once at the slopes, I realized that about half of everyone in that one course were from niji. Everytime I made it to the bottom there would be at least 3 people there that I could ride the lift with. It was so much nicer in the evening. Less people, less snow.

At the end before we left I got ambushed by people in my group and they stuffed snow up my back and pinned me to the ground...the walk back was, needless to say, very uncomfortable. 

Looking back, this trip was loads of fun and I wish I could go again next year. Who knows, I might take the plane back to Japan just for the next susuga trip.

Susuga (Part 2)

Day number two started off with an early morning alarm set at 7:30 am for breakfast. Breakfast was Japanese style comprised of salmon, miso soup, rice, raw egg, and natto if you were brave enough. I ate the natto as well, and I'm

sorry for anyone who smelt my breath that morning. Sorry not sorry.

Right from the get go, I decided to ride the gondola all the way up the mountain with 3 japanese students and Lucy, my friend from England and a skiier for the day. While up the mountain, we watched several lovey dovey commercials that takes place at a ski lodge. Apparently its popular every year, and each one is about the same theme: a girl and a guy who has mutual feelings for each other, flirting heavily on the mountain. Theres one scene that takes place on the lift, and one of the guys there desperately wanted to reenact it and so I succumbed to the cheesiness of it and learned the dialogue, doing the "skit" on the two seater lift. Very very embarassing. Very.

The course itself was a blast to ride through, and there werent many people up there to block your way. The powder was so soft that even if you did trip, it was like falling into pillows. We went through this course two times before heading back for lunch, where we had curry. 

They also allowed seconds or thirds!

After lunch was more boarding with a different group of people, and an hour break in between where I bought coffee and talked with one of the girls there. She's going on a dinner meeting with a producer and a famous announcer from Nihon Television! I believe its because they contacted Niji no Kai for interviews in the past with foreign exchange students and am recently pursuing another interview thats similar to it. Since shes one of the leaders, shes the one to contact to discuss further details regarding it. 

Mid break picture!

After the break we headed out to the slopes again, and although I promised myself I'd practice my turns I chickened out and did my usual slide and break and slide and break until I reached the bottom.

Dinner was yumyums. 

It was some sort of chicken dish with cheese. Pigging out after an entire day out in the slopes is honestly the best reward.

I had an option to go night boarding with people as well, but looking out the window and watching the blizzard scared me out of going. Which turned out to be one of my biggest regrets as I found out the next day that night boarding is actually so much fun and definitely worth braving the cold for.

So instead I played cards with whoever was left, went into the hot bath with people (yes, buck naked), and slept until Shakira from Lucy's phone woke me up the next morning

Oh Lucy-Please let us sleep

Susuga Snowboarding Trip (Part 1)

My my my, its been long since I've written anything. Shout out to Julianne for motivating me to write here again, her blog is what I aspire my blog to be like. Its perfectly written and most of her adventures are mine also.

Heres the link: julianneinjapan.blogspot.com

I spent the last few days in Niigata Prefecture, snowboarding with the Niji no Kai circle. They hold this trip two times an year, and this particular time there were 53 people participating, most of whom were Japanese. More time to practice Japanese I say! The lifts+gondolas are a perfect opportunity to hold conversations with people you don't usually talk to, and lets just say that I had quite a few amusing talks during those 5 minutes up the mountain. Inappropriate Shiritori anyone? 

The meeting time was 8:30 pm to take the night bus to our lodge in Niigata. I had lots of time beforehand and so I spent that afternoon lunching with some Japanese and exchange student friends at a place that one of the guys had an eye on for awhile near Takadanobaba Station. It was very cozy and the perfect place if you wanted to lounge with some girlfriends. Not to mention the lunch set was absolutely gorgeous!

My aburi salmon and avocado don set.

I just had to sneak in my lunch in this post it was worth mentioning. This meet up was actually comprised of everyone thats going on the one night onsen trip in a few weeks time, and an opportunity to get to know some people in the group that we had never met before so its not as awkward when the time comes. I didn't really get to talk to the two girls that I personally don't know, but no matter, they both went to the snowboarding trip and I had a great time talking to them about all things girly. 

The bus ride there only took 3 hours, and once we got there we were greeted by heavy snow. 

This is the tatami room I shared with 12 other people that night. 

Despite having an early morning wake up call, we laid on our comfy futons and talked for a little over an hour before sleeping. We were shushed (politely) by the Keio students next door to us, so alas we slept.