Fun Marketing by Dominos

 

So Japanese domino's has started a "Coupon Festival"

and how this thing works is when a "characteristic" fits you, you can get 25% off on ur pizza.

But a lot of these are ridiculous characteristics that you either don't have or the last characteristic "Kindness"is one of the criteria that anyone can possibly have .

People will have to Tweet or post on their facebook to receive the coupon.

I thought the criteria suggested by the company were fun and playful which makes you chuckle when u read them. The design also fits with the concept. 

Very Japanese and a cute play on the American Comic style.

Check their website!

 Below are the criteria:

 

25% off if u wear glasses

Retro place "Motosumiyoshi"/ Fish Food On Parade

 

Some of my zemi friends and I went to Motosumiyoshi station 

last week to go eat at a restaurant that only serves fish.

Let me explain to you about Motosumiyoshi.

Actually I know nothing about this place but what I noticed is that a lot of the stores look very retro.

What I mean by retro is I can feel that most of these stores are made in late 1970s to 1980s.

The signs and designs really makes you feel like ure back in the days 

(although I was never born then).

 

I've also noticed a lot of the stores in Japan like to name their store something foreignsounding.

Like Leona.

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After few minutes of walking we found our restaurant of the night.

It's called "Fish's Kitchen". Kind of cruel but haha great. Click here for the restaurant info 

You can see bunch of sign that tells us what they sell. 

I bet no one ever reads this.

Aerosmith concert was just AMAZING

 

First concert in Tokyo.

First time in Tokyo Dome.

First time seeing Aerosmith.

Some of my friends might wonder why Aerosmith?

Well my friend of friend of mine (who is now my friend) has generously decided to give me this ticket as a gift as she couldn't go. Who would say no to a legendary rock star concert?

Especially when you have amazing seats?

 

So this is the ticket I received.

And I got to go to the concert yesterday. 

30 dollar agenda and LOFT

 

It's shopping time now!

And when christmas is approaching it means that it's almost end of the year.

Which means I will have to go buy a schedule book for next year.

I am a "plan" freak and I really like having things organized and planned 

and I really need a good planner to have a good year.

This year I was using muji planner but found out that the schedule book itself was too big and 

the space for each day was just too little.

So I decided to go to LOFT which is a store that has

really "anything" you can think of.

  

This is the picture of the store. And this section only sells schedule book.

 

I did quite a bit of research before I came here but when I stepped into the store again I was confused to which one I should use. 

Food Food Foood #3

Welcome to my Food Blog!

Just kidding. Well I've noticed I usually only take pictures of food when I go out now.

Someone even asked me if I've taken a picture of every single food I ate in Japan.

No, obviously not. Well... actually maybe all the food I ate outside. Just maybe.

Below is some of the fatty fatty things this country offers that I ate in the past few weeks. Enjoy!

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Tsukemen.

つけ麺. Tsuke means "dip" and Men means "noodles"

So how u eat it is like u dip ur noodles into the soup.

The soup broth is usually fish. Very tasty! But it cools down too fast (I think)

 

Noodles

  

Thick Soup.

 

Dip dip eat! $8

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Conbini (Convenience Store) sweets.

Japanese desserts in these conbini is justt excellent!

It's usually very high quality and very affordable. I am totally addicted.

 

A man's sweets is the title of this dessert.

This is a cream puff with chocolate crusting with more melting chocolate on top of it.

VERRY GOOD. 

but I had cream all over my face because this thing exploded when I took a bite into it. Boo-

 

Yuummers  It was like $3.

It's christmas all over in Tokyo

 

Right after Halloween ended in Japan, everywhere is suddenly totally ready for Christmas.

Although most of the population in Japan is not christian, everyone loves partying and good food and a lot of people celebrate Christmas here.

Below is the scenery of Shinjuku in the end of November.

 

The famous LOVE monument. This thing is everywhere.

 

Pretty trees.

Marketing Competition

In our zemi many people take part of contests and competition.
And with the help of our prof, few of the people in the zemi and I have decided to take part of a marketing competition taking place in Kobe.

The url to the competition is here.

The concept of the whole competition is to create a marketing plan on how to sell these pants from a specific brand. The company can receive new ideas from young undergrads and for the participants we can brush up on our english skills and business skills and receive attention. I'm really fortunate to take place in a opportunity like this and I'm really pumped to win this thing. We already had our first screening and got chosen to present in Kobe (A city close to Osaka). Stay updated on how we do at the competition!! (I feel like im jinxing myself. haha)

 Below is one of the snacks and food we had while we were vigorously trying to think of a brilliant marketing idea.

 

Caramel Potato Snack.

 

Package of the snack. $1.50

 

Pork Belly BBQ rice. $3.5

 

Musashiya Ramen $6

Top 200 Universities presented by Keio (Times Higher Education)

While I was waiting to talk to my prof, some girl came by us posted and this list on the bulletin board.

"Top 200 Universities in the World"

My friend and I took a close look at it from curiosity.

 

Food: Monjya Yaki: In Tsukishima

 

I have posted about monjya-yaki before on this blog.

BUTT 

where i ate it was in Yokohama. Which means it's not the real place to go eating mojya.

My friend's mom took me to a real monjya-yaki place in Tsukishima and I have to say this place was 10 times better then the other.

I became very full and very happy.

Below are some of the pictures.

 

シークワーサージュース. Made from japanese lemon-ish thing.

 

Grilled asparagus and mushrooms.

 

And this is my mentai-ko, mochi monjya. Excellent line up. 

It's festival time!! Dance practice everyday!!

Keio University has a festival called Mita Festival every year.
It is one of the biggest school festivals in Japan and collects around 200,000 people each year.
While mita festival is going on, there is no school for a whole week for preparation day, the actual festival which is 4 days and take down the festival day. I have participated in the preparation day and the actual mita festival this year and I am really happy I got to be part of it.

The reason I got to be part of this big event is because  I joined the dance club called revolve.
Keio has several dance clubs but I got to join this particular one with a help of a friend of friend of mine.

We practiced every Saturday and had many other practices when it was close to the event date.

Revolve has several genres (hip-hop, girls hip-hop, lockin, poppin, house,  and punkin) and I joined the hip-hop genre.

Below are the pictures of our practice and of the actual festival.

 

Midnight practice in shibuya from 12am-6am. Japanese ppl are hard working ppl. 

(Including myself :D)

 

We also practice in the cafe after they close the stores.

 

This is our circle hang out place. 

Soba (Buckwheat noodle) Making!

 

One of the reason why I am really glad/happy that I came to Keio University for exchange is because of the amount of facility and groups that is there for the students. 

Because people at this school have pride and love for their school even after they graduate, they still consider themselves as Keio University students.

And one of the groups organized by Keio Uiversity grads hold events every month for exchange students. For this month they held a soba making lesson for 300 yen :)

Soba is japanese noodles. It looks black/grey and its thinner than udon but thicker than soumen.

You can eat it either hot or cold and its very popular among the japanese.

I have made udon at home several times but never soba because you need special soba powder to make it and I was very happy I can learn how to make it just few min from my apartment! (They actually held the lesson at our apartment lounge :D)

 

So these soba making ppl came to our apartment lounge to teach us!

 

These are the materials you use to make soba.

Shinbashi/ Shabu Shabu/ Friends from Canada

 

I have visited Shinbashi for my first time last week. 

Shinbashi is known as the holy land for all working men (according to my friends) because of the amount of food stores and how all the stores are somehow business man related 

(e.g. suit stores, gambling stores etc.)

Shinbashiwas actually very close from my school (maybe like 5 min train) but I never got the chance to visit before. But last week I got to go because my friends from Canada came to visit me and another friend. The "another friend' who came that night was someone who I also wanted to meet for a long time so I was super happy to go out and have dinner with everyone.

We had all you can eat shabu shabu (Japanese hot pot) that day and it was truly amazing :p

 

I got to the station a little bit early so I decided to walk around and take pictures of the area.

Korean Restaurant and fun time with older friends

 

I went to a Korean Town callled "Shin-Ookubo" two weeks ago and had one of the tastiest food.

First of all the reason I got there is because I posted on twitter "I want to eat some hot food, does anyone have any suggestions?" And then my friend's friend, where we were only twitter friends retweeted my tweet and got an unexpected amount of replies. And then she organized a mini party where people who wanted join can go to dinner together.

So after school I went to the dinner party not knowing anyone except for two ppl.

But at the end of the dinner, I ended up talking way too much and I had a great time spending some time with the new older friends I made that day. (I was the youngest) 

Below are some of the pictures I took of korean town and the awesome korean food I ate that day.

 

This place is seriously a lloot bigger than the korean town we have in Canada.

Halloweeeeeeen!

Yes I know its already been 14 days since Halloween.
I will start updating more! I promise!! :D

So actually on the day of the Halloween I really didn't do anything because there is no culture in Japan to go trick-or-treating. Actually I never knew this but its apparently only big in north america. So instead of going out on Monday we went out on Saturday, 29th.

On the day of the 29th I had maybe 5 min to dress up because my watch was totally wrong (BOOHOO I totally missed out on the fun part of halloween). But we made it to our station on time to take the train to shibuya station which takes around 30 min. But badd idea changing at home. Because not a single person was wearing a costume on the train it was pretty embarrasing. (I hear "ooo~ look at those foreigners") It's probably because its still a)5:30pm and becuase b)people change at shibuya or whereever the club is located and not from their local stations.

But we had fun. We first went to a club called Axxcis and partied there and then moved to another club called club Camelot, where girls get in for free if u wear a costume. And this is where the culture shock happened because in japanese clubs.. ppl dont dance. They jump up and down and face the same way. weiiiiirdd i totally freaked out when all the guys just jumped up and down towards the stage. (I would say it was almost like a concert)

At the end we got tired and took the last train back home which was around 12:00pm.
yes japanese trains ends super early. Once we miss the last train we will have to wait until 5am.

There were some troubles here and there but this year's Halloween was definitely a special one!

 

My friends and I at our local station.

 

Our friends at Shibuya.

 Our friends walking in Shibuya.

Yes I've been slacking.

For all those readers out there (my mom and like two other friends)
I'm sorry for the late posts (´・ω・｀) (<-note my asian sad face)

I still havent even posted about halloween and for Christ's sake its already nov.12.
Lazy me did not change when I moved to Japan.

Stay posted!

I shall update around Monday when all the craziness has passed.
Actually from next wednesday I have one week and a half of no school because its festival time at Keio Uni.

Yup sounds ridiculous but great news for me!!

See u later~

Keio-Waseda Baseball Game

 

Sou-kei sen. 

It's a baseball game verses Keio University and Waseda University.

And it's one of the biggest baseball games of the year.

  

 This may be the third time you've seen a picture of this stadium if uve been keeping up with my blog.

I've been to this Jingu Stadium three times already in the past month.

Ah- I never knew I liked baseball this much.

Family Warmth

Last Sunday,
I got to visit my friend who I first met when I arrived to Japan because it was her sister's and her mom's birthday. Although none of them noticed that I have lost a siginificant amount of weight (12 pounds dude!) I had a lot of fun just relaxing at her house surrounded by her mom, dad, sister, and grandparents. It's been exactly two months since I've left Canada and I think I am missing some family love.

Just talking about useless things u did today or sitting in the living room doing really nothing is what I think I miss the most. Although being in a atmosphere where I can experience new things everyday is exciting, it does get a little bit tiring.

This may be the first negative post. But it's not like I am completely sick of being here. It's just I missed something like this and I felt very comfortable eating good home food.

Thank you S family!

 

The best Bavarian cream I have ever had.

 

Fruit tart was amazing as well!!

Making Sweet Potato Dessert

 

So I made this wonderful tasty dessert called "Sweet Potato"

Technically its just sweet potatoes mashed and put back in to a sweet potato form again.

Buttt it has tons of butter and sugar which makes it super tasty and unhealthy!

Below is my way of making it :)

 

All you need is bunch of sweet potatoes.

Egg, sugar, butter and milk!

Zemi Fun: Basketball and Party

 

On top of debates, cases, and business classes we have sports games and parties at the zemi I am in.

Last week we had a basketball game at Komazawa daigaku station.

I really haven't played basketball since the last time I practiced at my Japanese school so I was really pumped. It was fun sweating and running around minus the twisted ankle.

 

Big park beore we got to the stadium.  

My 2nd Baseball Game in Japan.

On Tuesday. I went to the baseball game AGAIN!
Why again you ask. It's because its so much more fun watching it here then in Canada/States.

Yes there are more free prizes, more hot cheerleaders, more space within each seats for MLB but the mood and the team work within the fan is just soooo amazing here.

 

My friend lined up from the day before to get these seats because it was the last game of the season. Thank you!!!!

 

Convenience Store dinner.  $4