Shibuya and Cockroaches on Crack

THERE IS A COCKROACH IN MY ROOM. I REPEAT, COCKROACH IN MY ROOM.
What do I do?! I was staring at it while it was climbing the wall right next to my bed and it just fell. Where is it crawling now?? It's driving me crazy. If I see it again I will kill it. No more merciful Anne, you are dead Mr. Cockroach. I will not sleep knowing theres a live cockroach in my room, ready to slither into my mouth when I'm sleeping. NO. NEVER.

Might as well blog as I wait for it to come out...(Show yourself you filthy insect!)

I'll distract myself by telling you guys the tale of the game center addict.
Ever since I was young my sister and I would flock to the nearest game center whenever we had free time to roam around a shopping center with the family. We would pretend to look into some of the clothing shops but we both know where our hearts really lie: at wherever the UFO catchers are.

Oh hello Lily. You may know her as the writer of another blog, http://wasedawithwu.blogspot.jp. I love her blog. I look forward to it every morning and when its not uploaded I feel this strange hollowness in my heart that I can't quite describe. But man, you gotta control that UFO catcher addiction! or should I say the pokemon addiction? She spent 5,000 yen that day on the machines but I don't blame her. The machines keep giving the player false hope whenever it seems as if the toy is gonna fall...but it never truly does. I know because I spent 1000 yen that day trying to get a pillow or my dorm

This one as a matter of fact! 

She only spent 300 yen. Look at this girl, boasting her prized pillow in front of me. 

     This is the Big Box. It is home to a bowling alley, a swimming pool, a gym, numerous restaurants, a game center, and clothing stores. From monday to fridays, Women can play a round of bowling for 350 yen including the shoes. Strategic marketing or just sexist?

After wasting the equivalent of one good chirashi don at a sushi restaurant, I made my way back for a 2 hour rest before I was to meet more of my other friends for a night out at Shibuya. 

I was supposed to meet another friend from Vancouver so that we could go together but along with bad timing, bad communication, bad location, BAD PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING (mostly on my part), I had to leave the station without my friend after 40 minutes in fear that the 30+ other ppl waiting at Shibuya would be worried. With no cellphone and no line of communication, I recommend never ever to make plans with anyone and meet at a major station. I'm so sorry Katherine! 

Once I got there, everything became even more chaotic. The crowd was MUCH larger than I thought and it became very clear that all of us wouldnt be able to fit into one restaurant. We seperated for just over an hour to eat dinner with our mini groups and explore Shibuya before meeting at a nearby Starbucks to decide on what to do after.
                                                                       

Rotating Sushi!

Medium Fatty Toro

                                                          Fatty Toro. It looks like all fat!

Oh how I love kaiten zushi (rotating sushi). Joanna and I shared the sushi plates so that we can try larger varieties of sushi. It seriously melts in your mouth. Its like chewing on marshmallows. You chew once, and the rest melts.

After meeting at starbucks at 9:30, the group decided to stay in tact until we found a bar that could accomodate us all. There obviously werent any. When we asked one of the pub waiters if we could all fit into the restaurant, he looked incredibly amused but understandably troubled. We finally decided to give up on this big group thing and seperated into two groups: The people who wanted to have a drink or the people who wanted to go to a club. I was clearly in the drink category so about 7 of us within that group went into a nearby pub. I was never one for beer but the Japanese people's obsession with beer as the main choice of alcohol was making me curious.

                                     
                                            But I chickened out and got a Frozen Grapefruit Beer.
                                                         
It was definetly a crazy night with all the people involved, but I was glad that I ended up with the people that I was most comfortable being around. Lesson of this blog post: Never try to coordinate a successful outing with more than 10 people. Oh and always carry a cellphone. And don't be tempted by game centers. And don't drink if your face gets red after half a drink. Wow, lots learned. Take note.
                                            

*The cockroach is still roaming the premises. Spotted it once, but when confronted with a metal bar the cockroach went warp speed and Usain Bolted away. 

The Dancing Adventures of the Non Coordinated: Obon Festival

It's 9:21 am and its raining elephants and monkeys because of the the typhoon...no more jogging at yoyogi park this afternoon.

Let me think back to the night of the day before yesterday and then yesterday itself.

My friends and I went into a shrine 5 minutes away from our dorm on the way back from ordering stamps for official documents when coincidentally...we found out that there was an obon festival that night!

Sasha and I squeezed our way into the large group of dancing women in yukatas and waddled around before each dance to get the choreography right. I was a mess. Thankfully, a local elderly woman helped us learn the dances faster and by the end of the night, we were able to memorize the choreography and even try to put our own twist to the dances. That is to say we were kind of getting silly with it. LOL sorry!

                                                       
                                            This squid was tempting me all throughout the night

                                                             And this waterball thingy

But instead I got okonomiyaki! Its a savoury pancake batter filled with cabbages and ham, and topped with bonito flakes, tonkatsu sauce, mayo, and egg. 

National Health Insurance and first time cooking

I know there are many people that have the mental capability to write row after row of information on each post, but that clearly isn't me. 

So, continuing on. Yesterday was Registrating for National Health Insurance Day. Just like the day before yesterday, the fun stuff comes later. Although now that I think of it, had I not been sitting around so many awesome people that day at the office I probably wouldn't have a lot to say in the following blog posts. It would have been more pictures of me sitting at cafes.. me alone at the supermarket..or me watching tv..

*shudder*

Anyways, I was fortunate enough to meet a lot of cool people that day (Foreign and Japanese people included), and after the boring 3 hr process we went to eat lunch at a cafe. Since our group consisted of around 10 ppl and the cafe only seated 25ish in the non smoking section, we took up the whole middle area. Kind of embarrasing but 30 minutes in, I didnt care how loud we were. I just YOLO-ed it and went full on loud Anne. I dont know how I was born with such a loud voice but among other Japanese people I probably sounded like I had a microphone chip in my shirt. 

The Niji no Kai members who helped us around Shinjuku

    The Waratte Itomo building behind!

I went home that day around 3:30 and rested for about 2 hrs before going out to buy groceries for a group dinner with a few friends. I think I mentioned this before, but the grocery store is my amusement park. I spent close to an hour there and found discount sushi, croquettes (which I obviously bought), all kinds of mochi, and wait what am I doing. I cant possibly list all of the things I saw, it would take milleniums.

I left the store carrying a 2 kg bag of rice, a box of hayashi rice mix, yakiniku sauce, pork, and my beloved croquettes.

Dinner was yakiniku with onions, oyako don, seaweed salad, rice, miso soup, croquettes, and this red bean bun dessert thingy. The oyako don was the bomb and everybody kept hurling compliments at the girl who made it, who prior to making dinner, kept commenting on how terrible she is at cooking. Well, Joanna. You are a gifted child.

View from the kitchen window right next to my stove

Can i conclude by saying the people at my dorm are the best? The wifi works well, the kitchen is big and pretty, and my room is purple and spacious. Before coming, I looked at my dorm pictures online and thought..."well this looks like crap". But I'm happy to point out that it is definetly. not.  crap. 

J-Cat and Yummy in my Tumtums Sushi

Have you ever tried sushi that was so incredibly sweet you wonder if the fish was diabetic all its life? 

Well, I have. Today. At a small sushi shop near Takadanobaba station.

I had just finished my J-Cat test which determines what level of Japanese you are so you can take the appropriate classes on registration day. 

My score was Japanese level 4 out of 8....I'm average it seems. I'm half Japanese and I'm average within the international students. This is a dishonour to my family LOL

oh well, I "rewarded" myself for doing so averagely by having sushi for lunch. My friends all have different times for the test so I was alone and wondering around town. 

After lunch I found my favourite clothing store しまむら almost right next to the restaurant and roamed around. I resisted buying any clothes because the money I want to use for personal purposes still havent been sorted into my own bank account yet. 

So as of now it is 1:22 and im sitting in Dotour where it is so cool its almost cold and DUN DUN DUN, no wifi. I'll save this to a draft and upload it later, but for now I'll enjoy my black iced coffee. 

         But dang its almost done now

*btw, I wrote this yesterday. I've been lazy and done a lot since...oh no i hate recalling what ive done! i cant remember

**all i know is that after I wrote this blog I was walking home and a man asked me if he could take a picture of my feet and toes for a website. Uh, no thank you creepy man. 

Ikebukuro: Sunshine City/Namja Town

So I bought underwear...and its just my luck that almost everyone I hang out with at one point ask what's in my UNIQLO bag. Oh you know, guy I just met, underwear cause I dont have any.

Now let me recount what I did and where I went in the past 2 days, starting yesterday.
Yesterday was supposed to be a day I reserved for being completely and utterly bored. Orientation was 7 hours long, which included boring presentations and organizers only repeating what was in front of us which is neatly packed in a gazillion ton orientation book. When I say a gazillion ton, I MEAN a gazillion ton.

After those gruesome 7 hours, I reallly wasn't expecting to go anywhere. Maybe roll around my dorm, watch tv in the lounge. But some other friends of mine weren't ready to end the day on a boring note (god bless em) so we decided to go to Sunshine City in Ikebukuro. Mainly for Namja Town and Gyoza City.

These are called "丸い餃子” which in English is essentially "Round Gyoza". They taste like Deep fried Xiao Long Baos and I couldn't have asked for a better pre-dinner meal they were so good.

After we went around Namja town, we went back to the main floor and realized to our surprise and amusement that a girl group called Juice=Juice was doing a media event/mini concert in the middle of the mall. Never have I seen so many middle aged men wearing member's names on their T-shirts and waving like lunatics. Wait, did I try to continue writing my blog without even mentioning the ridiculous name of the group?! But you know, I actually never knew that Juice=Juice. I thought Juice=High calories.

                                                                Girls in skimpy outfits.

OK wait. maybe I'll seperate this post into two. I'm kind of tired, I'll explain later :P

Day 1

Day 1 of Japan? Check. Moved into dorms? Check. Underwear? CANNOT CHECK.
WHERE THE F IS MY UNDERWEAR.
Great, I'm gonna have to go for a quick walk around my dorm to buy underwear from the nearest store that sells it which I vaguely remember, is a store called "Donkey| something.  It's 6:55 am and I gotta start my day off searching for undergarments.

Yesterday was the "meet as many people as I probably can" day, and I can safely say that everyone that I have met or talked to have been so nice I began to wonder what it is about foreigners that come to Japan that make them so easy to talk to. I met a few people for dinner (tempura don and cold udon set) and went on my first grocery shopping trip in Japan. Let me tell you this, if you are going to be visiting Japan, grocery shopping is one of those irreplaceable pleasures that can NEVER be skipped on the itinerary. I bought a large carton of iced coffee, a huge bottle of water that cost me only 88 cents, miso paste, soy sauce, salt, and a sweet potato. Had i have been more hungry, I would've bought all of these that money could buy

(last nights dinner)

As for my dorm, it looks something like this.

(Sodai Ryou/Waseda University Student House-North)

Yeah, it looks pretty awesome. I had low expectations before coming but I'm happy to say its roomy and...purple!

Plus, everytime I go out the door I have to switch my name tag from green to red to show people that I'm out. I plan to be as red as possible in the upcoming days.

Time for the "Lasts"

So I am now at the point in time when i can start counting down all of my 'lasts'.

You know,

The last time I ride on transit in Vancouver

The last time I eat an alaska roll from sushi town

The last sit-at-home dinner with my family (Mom made me tsukune!) 

And a last goodbye to my friends.

Its not the end of the world, I know. But what can I say? I'm overly sentimental.

(Final homey meal prepared by my mom the chef :) ありがとう！)

Anyways, I've also began to pack. And boy oh boy is it full to the brim. I'm bringing along one large suitcase, one small suitcase, a backpack, and a handbag. 

Almond nougats, Maple syrup, Beef Jerky, and Pork Floss for my Grandma

And my own blanket and sheets cause I dont trust the one my dorm gives me :P 

But daayyyum it takes up a lot of space.

This last week went by so fast I dont feel like I even have the time to get excited..

Where did it all go to?! Now I'm only left with worry.....and more worry

(Oh and on a side note-I got the JASSO Scholarship worth $12,000! Which on top of the $2,000 I got from UBC will total $14,000 in financial assistance and I think I'm gonna cry of happiness)