Hey guys, I realise this is getting ridiculous! I haven't updated for aaaaages so prepare yourself for a long post ( as usual). To be honest, I am surprised that I have managed to update it as many times as I have done, so, actually, I am quite proud ;)
Hope everyone is well. It is truly freezing in Tokyo and sometimes I wake up expecting icicles to be hanging from the ceiling of my room. Ok, maybe I am being a slight drama queen but it really has been chilly lately.
So, similarly to the last entry I have split the happenings of the last two months into events, places I've been and food I've eaten. Let's begin!
Ladies Club Adventures
(1) Ladies club Luncheon
Wow, it seems so long ago now but in December the Ladies Club hosted the most awesome banquet I have ever been to! When we arrived, we were shown to our seats and then two of the Ladies prepared traditional (and fantastically delicious) green tea with traditional Japanese deserts. Interesting fact; before you drink the tea from the cup, you eat all of the sweets and then you turn the cup clockwise and after that you drink the tea, almost in one go. This kind of green tea also extremely healthy, so I recommend giving it a go, everyone! ;)
So, after a little while the banquet was opened and what can I say? I was one of the most delicious food arrangements I have tried in my life (this sounds fancy and dignified; fact is we all wolfed it down). All the Ladies had gotten up early to prepare beautiful food from all over the world (not going to tell you how often we refilled our plates but let's say nothing got wasted). Here's a picture which does it no justice at all!
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| I have no words to describe it! 美味しかった!!! |
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| Joonas and Simon working on their engineering skills |
Altogether this event was super fun, there were some performances and some speeches and each one of us returned home content and full of good food. The luncheon was held at Rikkyo University's Niiza Campus, which is the one closer to our dorm. It's quite pretty, even if not as nice as Ikebukuro in my opinion.
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| Niiza Campus, the more modern one |
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| view from the big Balcony |
(2) Hungover in Kichijoji and the Ghibly museum
As you can see I have been messing around with the fonts etc. pretending to be some kind of designer when in fact it looks like a child did it. Who cares, I'm having fun :D
So, a few weeks on, the day had arrived for Louisa and I to go to Kichijoji, which has since become one of my favourite areas in Tokyo. It's relaxing and has a really beautiful park, which we were lucky enough to see catch the Autumn colours.
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| Kichijoji in its Autumn glory |
So, after meeting the group and our Lady tour guide, she took us to an apparently famous 焼き鳥 (Yakitori) place for lunch. We didn't have Yakitori though but the lunch set was absolutely delicious (and only 700 Yen so i recommend it!!!).
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| Absolutely mouthwatering! |
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| King Louie, the most adorable King you will ever see (Please disregard my creepy, long finger nails) |
But it was smaller than I imagined and Louisa and I were, quite frankly, disappointed in the gift shop. But all together still a wonderful experience and we had a lot of fun, especially in the little cinema where you get to watch a short film. We got to watch "Mizugumo Monmon" which is a story about some really cute bugs that live in a lake.
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| Got this one from google; aren't they cute :) |
This is the museum from the outside, I'm afraid you can't see it too well but the architecture was lovely! A perfect outing for children and adults alike, so if you are a Ghibly fan, you should most definitely give it a visit!
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| Ghibly museum hidden away behind the trees |
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| Louisa and I |
(3) Home stay visit at Kishigami Sensei's house and the cultural and culinary things we did together
Now, this home stay adventure happened only 2 weeks ago and I have to say that those two days have almost been my favourite since arriving in Japan. Especially culture wise. I am a person who really enjoys museums (Yes, ask my friends, they will be rolling their eyes right now) and until now I had not gotten around to visiting any nor really doing too many activities to broaden my cultural horizon. And that had really been bothering me.
But this all changed when I was invited to stay the night at my Ladies (from now on I will refer to her as Kishigami sensei because saying "my Lady" all the time is starting to sound weird) house. We met in Ebisu, an area I hadn't really had the chance to explore and it is by far, one of the nicest in central Tokyo. We walked to Ebisu garden place and I was stunned at how gorgeous it was! There is even a building that looks like a mini french castle and you sort of just stumble upon it amidst the usual Tokyo architecture.
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| red brick building in Ebisu |
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| Ebisu garden place |
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| the really pretty European looking building at Ebisu Garden place |
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| sneaky pic I tried to take of the lobby |
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| First plate of many |
I must have filled my plate 5 times and then moved on to destroy the cake section. OMG! I have no words to describe the cake section. They had raspberry jellies, crème brûlée,
cherry tarts .... it was insane!
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| it was so beautiful! |
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| Heaven with a crispy surface |
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| cherry tartlet and cheese cake |
This buffet had already made my day ... no forget day, week; but it only got better from here. Kishigami Sensei then took me to a seasonal exhibition on traditional Japanese dolls, hosted for the upcoming festival 雛祭り ("Hinamatsuri") - I'll link you to the Wikipedia page so you can read up on it if you want; this festival is also called "Girls Day" or "Dolls Day" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinamatsuri .
Sadly, it was not possible to take pictures inside but the exhibition was in a very beautiful and traditional building that used to be a noble restaurant but is now used to display art - only thing was it was freeeeeezing and we had to take our shoes off! I do, however, have a sneaky picture of the outside garden area.
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| very pretty, very zen |
After this, we headed back to Kishigami sensei's absolutely stunning house!! The thing most special about it is that while downstairs is very spacious and decorated in a western style, the upstairs rooms are completely tatami and I feel so lucky that I got to stay a night on a real futon in a beautiful traditional tatami room. It was so peaceful and the tatami room itself has the perfect balance and no need for furniture at all. That was the best nights sleep I have had so far in Japan.
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| My cozy bed; I want a room like this when I have a house!! |
I got the whole upstairs floor to myself and even got to have a loooong, hot bath before bed. For people still living at home: you will not fully understand this luxury until you are living in a mouldy student house or tiny flat. A bath is heaven, take my word. Furthermore, one of the tatami rooms had a so-called Kotatsu, a Japanese heated table that is used in winter and keeps your legs nice and toasty while you sit together. Again, so lucky I got to experience this very Japanese custom; wish we had these in Europe. Or maybe not because I would just lie about under it all day.
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| Said Kotatsu (you can also see the super cool paper doors in the background; not so common anymore) |
Anyway, I woke up in the morning feeling refreshed and couldn't believe the stay could get any better until I came downstairs to a fry up. A FRY UP!!!! Pretty sure I died and went to food heaven for a while then. I also probably gained 5 kilos that weekend. As a British person living in Japan for 6 months, I hadn't realised how much I missed proper fried eggs and bacon. I just had to take a picture to document it. Feast your eyes upon these perfect eggs, sunny side up indeed.
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| There is it Ladies and Gentlemen: paradise on a plate ( and yes, I had ketchup with it, stop shaking your heads) |
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| beautiful walk to the station |
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| Koi happily swimming in the stream - sorry guys, no food for you today! |
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| Shrine of the cherry blossom goddess |
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| Awesome view of the city |
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| the quirky little train station; don't know why but I really like this building :) |
Finally, before heading back to the dorm, Sensei took me to an art exhibition on Showa period art and there were some absolutely beautiful paintings. As far as I could tell, there was only one female artist but her paintings in particular caught my attention - she drew Kimonos with breath taking patterns. Wasn't allowed to take picture and I didn't note the artist's name so I can't show you any but she was very talented. After this, we had traditional Japanese sweets and green tea in the cafe of the museum and then I bode farewell to Kishigami Sensei, who is heading off to Singapore for a holiday. She gave me the best experiences and I will never forget her kindness. 先生、ありがとうございました。
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| Delicious tea and sweets to finish a wonderful weekend! |
Kamakura
So, one Sunday in November - I know, very vague but this was 3 months ago for God's sake - a group of us decided to get our arses out of bed and actually go sight seeing for once. It was a beautiful day and we made our way to Kamakura, a place en route to Yokohama that is probably most famous for its 大仏 ("Daibutsu" = Big Buddha statue) and beautiful landscape; plus its at the sea so altogether a perfect day trip. The group consisted of Leo, Simon, Joonas, myself and Angie, who had lived near Kamakura for a while during high school and so knew the area very well and was thus appointed tour guide of the day.
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| blue skies galore in Kamakura |
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| Kamakura gang on the bridge |
So, in Kamakura the best way to get around and see everything is taking a little train that runs along the sea. You can just hop off at any stop and walk around and because it is quite small, you can even decide to just go by foot for a few stops and then you hop back on the train again because your day pass allows you to do that! We went at the perfect time to see the trees change to Autumn colours and basically we spent the day walking around various shrines, going inside the Big Buddha, who was surprisingly small compared to the ones in Thailand and going for a walk along the beach. It was a great outing and for lunch we found this little place that sold cheap Okonomiyaki which was delicious!!
I will now just bombard you with photos of the different places so that you can get an better idea of what I am talking about; well worth a visit if you are around Tokyo and in need of some nature. It's the perfect escape.
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| one of many little shrines dotted around |
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| autumn colours |
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| First time on Pacific sand :) |
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| beach at Kamakura, it was nice to see the ocean again after such a long time |
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| Angie, me (and Simon) playing on the beach |
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| "SHIKI GO" |
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| 大仏様 |
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| Big Buddha from the side, pretty cool dude |
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| お好み焼き lunch |
After lunch, we visited a beautiful place that had various pretty shrines and a platform from which you could look over the area. Although, on the platform, you were not allowed to hold any food above your head because there are many eagles there (it's true, we saw them and they are huge) and they would claw off your hand thinking you'd brought them lunch; as in "Oh thanks guys, I'll have your hand while I'm at it". There was a little tunnel you walked though that apparently made you more fertile (talking about gals here) and altogether it was a beautiful place. But was also quite sad because the shrines in this area were for children who had died and so people would bring these little statues and place them around the place, symbolising the child they had lost.
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| Me taking a picture of Simon taking a picture of the Koi |
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| tunnel of fertility |
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| perfect little garden |
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| one of the statues meant to guide the dead children through water to safety |
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| Pretty |
It was getting dark now, so we decided to head to a little town by the sea side called Enoshima for one last shrine visit and to climb up the light house for a night time view of the surroundings. There, we happened to stumble upon a lovely little french toast place, where we sat outside with blankets and enjoyed the rest of the evening before embarking on the journey back to our dorm. Altogether, this was a really really nice day and I will keep it in fond memories.
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| view from the french toast place |
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| "sea candle" light house, pretty cool |
Philin's Birthday in 3 stages
Stage (1) FRIDAY: Night out in Shibuya
So, to kick off our lovely Philin's birthday, it was decided to go out to a club called Camelot in Shibuya as it was recommended by a friend to be good for birthdays. Before that, we spend the evening drinking in an Izakaya in Shibuya and generally having a laugh. Typical Izakaya pre drinks consist of ordering a lot of beer to start with and food for the table and then moving on to stronger spirits, resulting (unfortunately) in consummation of lots of sake shots. I will really miss these kinds of evenings when I leave Japan as we always have a great laugh and everyone is in high spirits by the time we leave in order to attempt to find the chosen club (not always a simple task, my friends).
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| Birthday Princess Philin wearing the crown we bought her :) |
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| Haruka et moi |
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| Pretending to be drunk salary men who always end up with their ties around their heads ... |
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| ... but Pauly D. is the real pro ;) |
Stage (2) SATURDAY: Sleeping all day and then surprise Birthday party and dinner
As we had been drinking the night before, people were out cold until the afternoon. But as soon as everyone was up, we began the preparations for Philin's surprise birthday party, Shiki style. Eva, who has now perfected the cake making in a rice cooker technique, made a wonderful Oreo- Cheesecake and we decorated it with green icing.
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| a lot of work for such a little thing - but so delicious, well done Eva! |
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| Wendy playing with Joonas' horns ( - somehow that sounds so wrong) |
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| (sneaky Simon), Eva, Ilse, Me , Wendy |
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| the moment of surprise |
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| Happy birthday girl! |
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| Heavenly prawns, so delicious a tear rolls down my face every time I eat them |
Stage (3) SUNDAY: walk in Yoyogi Park and unexpected stalker
On Sunday Anne, Eva, Zoe, Philin and I decided to go for a walk in Yoyogi park to enjoy the sun and autumn leaves. What we did not expect was creepy stalker but more on that later!
We enjoyed all the colours of Yoyogi park and were trying to find the lake but instead ended up at the Meiji shrine, which is kind of joined onto the park. December is a lovely time to be outside in Japan, as there is gold, red and yellow in the trees; I have never seen such beautiful autumn colours before.
When we got to Meiji shrine, we paid a 500 Yen entrance fee to the gardens and were not disappointed; it was a wonderful walk and we took many pictures. I can really recommend it (Wow, I feel like I am giving a lot of recommendations this time). We were also lucky enough to witness a traditional Japanese wedding at the shrine which apparently often take place on a Sunday. The bride wears a beautiful white silk Kimono. So happy I got the see it!
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| Traditional wedding, the bride is under the red parasol |
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| Meiji shrine |
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| view walking into Meiji Gardens, so beautiful |
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| once again, Autumn glory ( - my favourite season) |
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| crimson trees, I almost couldn't believe the colouring, like fire |
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| the selfie (I know, I'm not proud) |
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| World famous, extremely special and important well ( I touched the water just in case it was holy) |
So, what happened after our delightful walk wasn't so delightful at all. A random guy tried to join the girl clan when we were walking over the street in Harajuku and would not leave us alone. Now, I can fully understand that he wanted to bathe in our fabulousness but this was really too much. He followed us all the way to the place where we decided to have lunch (WITHOUT HIM) and proceeded to plonk himself down at the table and order. By this point, we were all so freaked out that we couldn't send him away. This feeling only intensified when he told us all about the weapons he owned at home (he was in the navy, by the way) and how much money and liquor he owned and finally he told us he knew Nicolas Cage...personally. Yeah right buddy. By this time we were all mumbling that we needed to get home and he was kind enough to accompany us all the way to the ticket scanner of our train line, just in case we got lost (yes, very kind indeed). That was one very strange afternoon indeed. We all treated ourselves to Parfait after that, to get over the shock, you know.
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| this was definitely necessary, "Matcha Parfait" mhmmm |
Pre Christmas Stuff ( good English, I know)
Baking German Xmas Biscuits
One day in November, my friend Hitomi was lovely to invite a group of us to her home to bake German festive cookies. I had a great time talking with her mother and friend and later two German boys arrived and it was a jolly group. We made an assortment of biscuits, or "Plätzchen" as we call them in German, for example Vanillekipferl and Zimtsterne. The smell of them baking in the oven reminded me so much of home and Germany around Christmas time which is my favourite season in the country. After they were done, we packed them in bags (and ate half of them while we were at it) and they were so christmassy and yummy. Once again, thank you Hitomi! I had a really great time and it made the season in Japan so much more festive and like home. Dankeschön meine Liebe! :)
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| あつこさん, myself and the finished cookies LECKER! |
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| Kenny, I and Hitomi's lovely お母さん (and cookies, of course) |
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| Weihnachtsplätzchen :) |
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| "In der Weihnachtsbäckerei ..", Vanillekipferlarmee |
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| After lots of kneading and mixing: the finished creations, Merry Christmas! |
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