So I met again another friend who I've known since like Grade 2.
Her and I and bunch of other girls were pretty crazy back then and we had fun time together today eating dinner and talking about the past and what's happening right now.
I'm hoping to see her more because she also goes to Keio University as well.
And for dinner she took me to this Ramen place where is really popular within Keio students.
The place is called 麺場ハマトラ ”Menba Hamatora" where they offer these black noodles.
I didn't know why it was black but she told me that there was some charcoal in these noodles.
(It is very common to mix edible charcoal in food in Japan)
Overall it was very tasty and think. I really do love ramen!
So I went to Yokohama right after my 6pm class to visit three of my York Uni Japanese friends who coincidentally is all in Tokyo right now.
We ate this food called Monjya-yaki.
It was my first time trying this food because Monjya-yaki does not exist in Osaka (where I am from) because we have something else called Okonomi-yaki.
My comment towards this food is
It's good. Like out of 10 I will rate it 7.
It does not make me full. You need to eat like 3 of this to be full.
It looks like barf
But anyway I would like to explain the process of making this Monjya.
You first get this batter for the monjya and you dont mix it.
And put only the vegetables and meat on the hot table you use to cook this pancake thing.
Btw this is for okonomiyaki.
You then mix around the vegetables and meat with ur spatula.
Close up of the veggies and meat.
You then pour in the batter and ure finished!!
And you have this barf looking thing and ure done !?... really..
I was really surprised when my friend told me this is it.
Because it really looks like someone just pu...
As you can see the okonomiyaki on the left looks hmm much more tastier.
But it was good!! I really liked it when I ate it.
Ppl who come by tokyo should try monjya yaki one time. It really is a fun way to eat with your friends.
So picking courses has been an awful time.
I ended up from deciding to take 7 courses to 13 now.
It sounds like a lot compared to the 5 courses I take at York but each class is only 1hour and a half.
But although saying that 13 is quite a lot with all the homework and tests.
The reason why I have added few courses to torture myself is because I wanted to be part of a "Zemi".
Zemi is a
seminar of around 10 students studying/researching an area of their major the professor is particularly interested in. So in the business faculty you can take zemi on corporate finance or strategic management for example, and in the faculty of law you can take zemi on family law or french law and so on. These seminars usually begin in your third year of college and finish when you graduate. This means that if you pick a crappy zemi (translation: crappy professor), you’re not going to have a good time at all. (Taken from http://ezzgoestojapan.wordpress.com/ because I'm so lazy to explain myself)
Long story short I can study tons about marketing/advertising/design, make lifetime friends, and live the normal life of a Japanese student. People say the friends u make in ur zemi is someone who u contact even after u graduate because you spend so much time with them doing research, presentation, and just purely having fun.
I am REALLY REALLY looking forward in the experience I am going to have at the zemi.
(Thank you for the prof who offered me to join his Zemi)
Let's post-pone my job searcing for now (altough I did find one place I would real like to go).
And work hard at my zemi and this club I am joining (I will write about this maybe sometime later :D)
So for the past few days I have been doing/going to
Welcome Parties
Class
Sleeping
Shopping
Cleaning my room
1. So there are buncch of welcome parties for us foreigners to get to know some of the other exchange student and the Resident assistants and japanese students interested in foreign ppl. Its usually all you can drink but I have been good at controlling myself :D
Shimoda Welcome Party
Potluck Party at Hiyoshi International House
Bingo at the party
2. I also went to my first class this Thursday. Actually some school starts in October and we are one of the faster ones to start out of the other Japanese universities.
The three class I took sounds like a breeze... I hope I will be learning a lot though and just the work load is kind of light. Will update more about this on another post.
3. Sleeping
So there was a typhoon that hit Tokyo two days ago and I was told by my whole family tree (Seriously cousins, aunts, grandparents, everyone) to not step out of my apartment. So I didn't and I'm glad because I saw dead birds, leaves, branches everywhere the next day. And some ppl couldn't go home because trains has stopped.
So what I decided to do for the whole day was read my new manga series I bought "Buddha" by Tezuka Osamu and sleep.
4. Shopping for food. Almost everyday I go shopping for cheap food.
But like everything in Japan, Japanese vegetables are really really expensive. For example two tomatoes for 3 bucks. Small small lettuce for $2. And some of the vegetables may be priced the same but the portion is very small.
I really feel like I am going to survive off bean sprouts, cabbage, and mushrooms for the whole year.
My girls shopping for food.
5.Cleaning my room.
I clean and clean but my room is like a war zone everyday.
My roommate invited me to go with her since it's an once in a year event.
I've been to Jump Festival at Makuhari Messe but never go to go to a Game Show so I didn't know what to expect but I jumped on the train and after two hour ride to Chiba Prefecture I have arrived.
Three words describing this event:
Hot
Guys
Crowded
No, the place was not filled with "hot" guys.
It was a bunch of guys (I rather not describe them) and occasional girls who are in their cosplay stuffed into the stadium.
My friend said she bumped into this one guy and his arm was wet..like wet from sweat!
Buttt
ignoring these factors I really enjoyed the mood and the games. I love how each company has their own way of displaying. I wish I knew more about what was going on because I've noticed that I am more of a comic/manga type of person and didn't know what the hype was in the gaming world.
Overall it was an interesting experience and would recommend it to anyone who was ever into playing The Legend of Zelda on N64 to someone who currently still plays Call of Duty on their ps3.
Tokyo Game Show Billboard. That day the temperature was 32 Degrees.
Interesting parent and child.
Ticket. The original price was 1200yen but because
I am a foreign exchange student I got in for half price! ($7)
Panels
Street Fighter x Tekken display
Hot girls holding game stuff.
Me taking a picture of the guys taking pictures of the hot girls.
Cosplay. Some were good. Some were nah-
Playing Soul Calibur 5!
Saw 千原ジュニア&河本in LIVE!! I probably got most excited here!!
Toriyama Akira's slime. slime slime. Dragon Quest is everyone's favourite.
And when going out of the stadium we passed by this wall full of msg to Japan for the earthquake.
So I decided to draw one as well. Fail drawing of a Canadian girl.
Ganbare Japan! Game really is a treasure of Japanese sub-culture.
I really hope for the best for everyone in Touhoku as well.
Below are also the two vidoes I took.
First one I'm trying to get the mood of the place but it got little bit crazy because I was spinning around
and
2nd video is a lil concert they had and Otaku (geeks) holding on to their pen light and chanting!
So although I can only spend 8 dollars per day (650yen) on food,
I've been eating out a lot because I'm never at home.
These are some of the food I ate in the past two weeks.
I went to Asakusa!
The place where all tourists goes.
It was my second time at Asakusa but compared to 7 years ago the place looks a lot more smaller but still very very beautiful.
This is called a saisen bako where people throw in money to ask for god for something.
e.g. good luck, good health, getting a boy friend.. haha etc.
Wonderful design.
My friend and Asakusa!
People waft their head (sometimes their whole body) under the smoke to become smarter.
Ice cold beer would have been great with hot hot temperature! (32 degrees)
Asakusa street by night.
HUUUGE shaved Ice with condensed milk and strawberry!
Rice Crackers.
Spinning washroom doors.
Everything is automatic!
Big shit-looking monument near asakusa.
I also went to this temple near Tokyo Tower.
The incense.
People wash their hands before entering the temples to cleanse themselves.
I also did some omikuji which is like a fortune telling paper you can buy at temples.
You first pay 100 yen into this little slot.
A lot of the paying systems in Japan is based on trust.
You then shake this metal box which will have a stick in it with a number.
You then look for the same numbered box and take out a paper.
Tuduh! And this is mine :D I will have a good fortune for rest of the year!!
Some cute rabbit wood things.
And actually before visiting the traditional side of Japan we also went to Pokemon Centre!
It was not as exciting as it would have been when I was actually in to playing Pokemon but looking at the screaming kids I got to revisit my childhood. I totally did not recognize more than half of these Pokemon though..
Why would they put the english pokemon logo in the front of their store?
