Day 40 - part two Halloween party #2

Hey everyone!

After the failure of our trip to the owl cafe we luckily had a Halloween party to look forward to later in the evening.

As is common with Japanese parties there was a main party and an after party.
The main party was held at Womb club in Shibuya with after party being held at the much smaller Trump room also in Shibuya.

The event was named Fantasia and fittingly it was suggested that party goers dress up in Disney themed costumes, however any costume was fine.
This gave me a great excuse to don my Alice costume for the second time! I was definitely determined to get some good use out of it before it had to retreat into the wardrobe until it became relevant again!

ready and raring!

I was hoping that we could attend both parties but as I have found to often be the case with Japanese parties, it started early. Really early. 6pm to be exact!

We got back from the owl cafe in the evening and not only did we all want time to get ready, but of course a session of pre-drinks was called for! The first party not only started early but it finished at 1am! By the time we were ready to leave it was not really worth heading to the first party as it was also pretty expensive so we decided to just go for the after party at Trump.

The main party at Womb was 3500 yen at the door or 2500 yen on the guest list. That's just over 20 quid at the door and a still pretty steep £15 on the guest list. The after party was 2500 at the door and 1500 on the guest list! These parties were certainly not light on the wallet! I suppose it was just as well that we only went to the Trump Room!

Luckily my dorm has a common area in one of its buildings and it is often used on Friday nights as a meeting/pre-drinks lounge!
After everyone had arrived and had their fill of alcoholic beverages - as always I had to go with plum wine - we started to make our way to Shibuya.

I was glad that my friend from my Comprehensive Japanese class was also able to make it!

When we got to Shibuya we headed to a bar for - yes you guessed it - more drinks! We had a bit of time before the after party started so we chatted over our drinks for a while.

At the bar!

While we were at the bar the Japanese couple sitting next to me and Charlene started talking to us. They asked us about where we had come from and what we were doing in Japan. They were very friendly and we had a pretty interesting conversation.

Onwards to the club!

This club was pretty cozy. In a really nice way. You went in and the club rooms were a couple floors up. There were two levels. If I remember correctly the lower level stank of cigarette smoke, making the top level my room of choice!

When we paid for our tickets we quoted a name given to us on the even page which I believe either got us a cheaper entrance price and/or a token for one drink at the bar.
The tokens were pretty cool, they looked like gold pirate coins!

I really liked the Design of the Trump room. The lighting was a nice warm glow and there were sparkly chandeliers and cushy red seats around tables. I really liked that this club had lots of seating, sometimes its nice to take a break from dancing to chat -or slur- with some friends or meet new people! And it is never a bad thing to take a load off your heels (although I was cheating with some good old flats that night).

The bar

As you can see the decor was pretty quirky!

Pants on the head, could it be the new trend? 

As you entered the room the bar was to your left. The room was a long and relatively narrow rectangle shape. It was certainly not very big and had quite a cozy feel to it. In the center part of the room there were tables and seats at the sides. At the end was the dance floor and with the Dj in his own little area, complete with some dancing companions.
It was a very small club so naturally the dancing area was pretty squished.
I think the people there were predominantly, if not all, university students. However, not necessarily all from my university.

Yohoho, a pirates life for me!

Redeemed my doubloon for some China blue

Even my drink was blue!

Alcoholic drinks are MUCH cheaper in Tokyo than in London. Not only this but they don't skimp on it either, if you ask for it strong, they will make it STRONG. Definitely a change from paying around £8 for a clearly watered down drink, as seems to be the usual in London clubs.

We went up to the very squished dance area and managed to find somewhere to slot ourselves in. A Japanese student came up and started talking to me but gradually got a liiittle to close for comfort so I slipped off to get a drink. But I am glad I did because it was then that I was able to meet someone really awesome!

As the party was coming near to its end some of my friends wanted to leave. I didn't want to go!!
But I said my goodbyes and we all headed back out. After a bit of chatting and logistics some of us went to catch a taxi back but me and a few others decided to stay a bit longer to chat.
I forgot my coat upstairs so I went back in to get it and say my second round of goodbyes. After that we went to McDonald's were we hung out until we could take the first train back home.

Overall I think everyone had a really great night (I know I did). I'm really glad everyone could come!

This had definitely been my favorite night so far!

Happy (belated) Halloween!

Day 40 part 1 Failed trip to Kiba!

Hey everyone!

I am going to be splitting this post into two as they cover two very separate outings from the same day!

On October 30th Amy, Zoe and I were planning to go to another Halloween party but before that we wanted to check out an owl café.

We headed to Kiba to try out an owl café called 鳥のいるカフェ (tori no iru cafe). Little did we know that only disappointment and crushed dreams lay in wait for is.

The problems started as soon as we left the station. We spent quite a while trying to find the cafe using the very ambiguous map available on cafe's website. After a while of searching and feeling like we were getting nowhere we went inside a convenience store to ask one of the workers for directions (much to the amusement of one of the customers).
A very friendly worker gave us directions and we were back on our way. We had only just left the conbini when he came jogging up to us and offered to guide us there which was very sweet! However the cynic in me guesses that anything would be a good break from sitting behind a till for hours on end.

He was very friendly and we got chatting. We were walking back the way we came! Turns out we had already passed it, but it was no surprise that we missed it because when we arrived at the destination, this is what we saw:

Crushed dreams

It was shut! Not only was it shut but stuck to a lamppost just outside the shop was a poster about a missing bird! I hope they've found it!

We thought it couldn't get any worse, when Amy when to get a drink from one of Japan's abundant vending machines. Surely nothing more could go wrong right?

We found this creepy little vending machine alley and when Amy went to use one... it didn't work!

We decided to get out of Kiba before anything else could go wrong! There was clearly nothing for us there on that day! Perhaps we will try again to find better luck, who knows!

It was almost funny how badly our outing went, the poster of the missing bird really topped it!
We certainly don't have any plans to go back soon!

But it wasn't a completely ruined day because we still had the Halloween party to look forward to.
I will cover Halloween in part two of this post.

That's all for now!

Day 45 - Niji no Kai Halloween party

Hey everyone!

I have got a massive backlog of posts so you will have to forgive me as I will be posting on some rather outdated topics!

October 26th was Niji no Kai's annual Halloween party!

I was really looking forward to the Halloween party and as I may have mentioned in a previous post, I had my costume ready to go!

Costume ready and waiting

Remember Donkihote? Donkihote is the big shop that sells a huge variety of stuff at pretty cheap prices. Amy and I both picked up our costumes from here as they had a pretty big selection of Halloween stuff.
In fact Donki usually stocks a range of seasonal products for all your celebratory needs in a section at the front of the store.

I thought that with my blonde hair and short stature Alice in Wonderland was a no-brainer so I picked up my favorite looking Alice costume. Donki not only stocked a variety of costumes but there were usually a few different designs for each one. Amy decided on a cute witch costume.

My costume included the blue dress, white apron and a headband, unfortunately the white tights were not included so I had to make a frantic trip back to Donki to pick up one of the last pairs!
I also bought some Disney brand Alice in Wonderland themed nail tips to go with the costume!

I obviously couldn't lug all my nail varnishes to Japan so unfortunately haven't been able to do any nail art since I arrived here so the Alice nail tips were a good substitute. It didn't come with glue so I had to quickly run back into Donki on the night of the party to get some, so if you buy any make sure you check if it has the glue!
I had never used stick on nails before and was a bit nervous about how they would turn out but I was really impressed. they are pretty easy to use and look good, the only advice I would give is to make sure you buy a good glue, if you don't they will tend to come off more easily!

Here are some obligatory selfies of me in costume (excuse the messyness, they were taken in the morning after the party!)

We met up at Takadanobaba and once everyone had arrived we made our way in a huge group to the station.

I hadn't managed to have time to stick my nails on so Shereen helped me to stick them on using her by-far superior glue while we were on the train.Not a recommended place for doing such an activity!

Faces of concentration (Amy's pic)

The party was really fun! Everyone was dressed up and some people had put a lot of effort into their costumes!

It was a really good chance to meet and talk to the Japanese students. We met so many new people!

There were tables covered with snacks and drinks were available too. 

Near the end of the evening there was also a costume contest but unfortunately as I was queuing up for the loo at the time I missed the winner! (fail!)

I would definitely recommend the joining Niji no Kai to any prospective Waseda foreign exchange students. They have a wide variety of events from seasonal parties, days out in Tokyo and longer trips where you can experience Japan outside of Tokyo. There are always lots of fun activities and the members are really nice so it's a good circle to join if you want to make new friends. A good thing about their events is that if you are usually a shy person, the activities help you get involved and overcome your shyness.
I met lots of new people at the Halloween party and it was great getting to know them! The only thing from there on after exchanging Line ID's and or Facebook profiles is to keep in contact after - which I am afraid to admit is something I need to work on!
It is much easier to talk to people during Niji no Kai events because the atmosphere is always good but once the events are over it is hard to have the confidence to keep in contact outside of the events. This is something I definitely want to change!

Dopplegangers! (Amy's pic)

Amy and I met two girls who were wearing slightly different versions of our costumes so of course we took some photos together and got to talking. 

Scary!

As you can see some people really did well on their costumes. The girl in the picture above did all the special effects makeup herself! Not only did she do her face but she also had fake wounds on her arms!

A cute spin on Sully and mike!

The girl in the Mike costume above had cute little Mike feet covers on her shoes!

Cookies and crisps and sweets - oh my!

As is rather common with Japanese parties it ended pretty early so a bunch of us were hoping to go on to a second party. Unfortunately it didn't quite work out and we ended up ambling around Tokyo for a while until some of us eventually gave up. Stomachs feeling a bit empty we headed into a restaurant to curb the hunger pangs.

At the restaurant

Unlike some of the others, I wasn't feeling so hungry - probably scoffed too many cookies! - so I ordered something small....

...NATTO! If you haven't heard about natto it is kind of like the Japanese equivalent of Marmite, only not in taste. You either love it or you hate it! Natto is actually fermented soybeans, the beans are a light brown colour and have a kind of viscous slime that keeps them together and it emits a fairly strong fermenting smell.
The natto that I bought came with a packet of mustard to go with it. I know I am not really selling it here and for foreigners it may be a little too different from what they are used to but if you have the chance, I would definitely say give it a go.

You can see the stringy sticky substance amongst the beans

I had actually tried Natto before coming to Japan, however it was a long time ago and I had forgotten how I originally felt about the food so I wanted to try it again. Now to contradict what I said earlier, I found that I neither hated nor did I have any overwhelming love for the snack. The fermented flavour is quite strong and could perhaps be likened to a stinky cheese. So if you think you can get over the slimy texture and you like stinky cheese, this may be the stuff for you!
I have never found textures an issue for me but the taste was definitely an acquired one. I feel like if I eat Natto more I will get used to it and I think it will grow on me. So have challenged myself to eat more Natto in the hopes of educating my taste buds! After all isn't it better to try to like everything? Surely that way your life will be more pleasant, even though you may find it harder making a choice at restaurants!

We then headed back home, it was already the morning of 27th so it was probably about time to get some shuteye anyway!

Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts in the comments!

That's all for now!

Day 44 - Catching up in Ikebukuro

Happy new year everyone!

I hope you all rang in the New Year with some good grub, drink and some great people by your side!

Today I will be catching up on an older post!

On October 25^th Amy and I met up with Rebekah and Maisy - friends from our home University who are also studying in Tokyo - for Rebekah’s birthday!

We all met in Ikebukuro and headed straight to a kaiten zushi (conveyor belt sushi) restaurant for dinner!

The atmosphere of this Kaiten zushi restaurant was pretty good.
Similar to the kaiten zushi restaurant we visited before, the orders are placed using a mounted touch-pad device.  The layout of this restaurant and with it the eating experience was very different though. Unlike the first restaurant where you are seated in rows, the seating arrangement of this one had more of a diner feel where you had booths. Each booth held around 4 people. 

I would say the seating of this restaurant was much better for eating with friends as you could all sit together making for easier conversation! The only downside to this was that the touchpads were only on one side of the booth so while two people could order with ease the other two would be left to make requests or lean over to use the device. As we were all friends this was of course not a problem but it meant that those on the further end of the booth couldn’t see the pictures too well) and either had to lean over to grab their dishes or ask someone else to take it for them (the menus and conveyor belt were also on the same end of the booth under the touchpads.

This kaiten sushi restaurant had another difference. Instead of the sushi arriving directly in front of you on a little carriage where it waits for you to take the dish and the empty carriage back to the kitchen, this restaurant uses a conveyor belt system like the one you would find in Yo Sushi!

obligatory photo with the cake!

Before coming Amy and I bought Rebekah a cake from Cozy Corner (a nice Japanese cake shop chain) so we had our first experience of ordering a birthday cake at a Japanese cake shop! They had lots of different flavors but we went for the good old strawberries and cream option. After some short consideration over how Rebekah would be spelt in katakana  we got a little chocolate plaque made saying happy birthday in Japanese. One really nice thing about Cozy Corner is that not only do they give you give you your desired number of candles with the cake but they also ask you how long you need the cake to keep for so they can put the appropriate number of ice packs in the box to keep it cool.

After giving Rebekah her cake and a bit of catching up it was time to start ordering the food!

Hamburger sushi!

 On Maisy and Rebekah's recommendation Amy and I tried the hamburger sushi. It was pretty good, the burger meat on top was more moist than you would expect so its not like sticking a bit of McDonald's hamburger on the top of some rice.
Actually, Japan distinguishes between two kinds of hamburger.

A ハンバーガー - prounounced hanbaagaa - is what would usually come to mind if you were to say the word hamburger.
However, ハンバーグ(hanbaaGU) is simply a thicker burger patty. This is usually eaten with a sauce drizzled on top alongside some vegetables.

Hanbagu picture taken from  http://www.skylark.co.jp/gusto/

Every so often a chance to play a game would come up on the touchpad. I was lucky enough to win one! If you win the waitress comes over and gives you a coin which you can use in the gatcha gacha machines (toy vending machine) near the exit.

Now I will tease you with some more photos of the sushi we ate.

Scallop nigiri

Salmon mayo nigiri

look at all that mayo! That's gotta be good for the heart!

After we had eaten our fill of sushi we paid a visit to Animate, a huge multi-story shop that sells anime and manga related products. It was my first time going into one of Japan's big anime stores so it was pretty interesting to finally see what they are like.
There were so many products, some were pretty unusual:

Shingeki no kyojin.... salami sticks?!?!?

 At the moment Shingeki no Kyojin is a pretty popular anime and so there were lots of related products. However, one really curious product was the huge shingeki no kyojin salami stick! I guess the idea is that you can feel like a giant eating an innocent human being as you munch on this oversized salami as shown in the coloured picture above?! Either that or you can use it as a weapon as the manga drawing suggests!
Come to Animates and you can get your very own edible human victim-come-bashing stick for only around £8!

According to Maisy and Rebekah this shop is aimed primarily at girls, so most of the customers there seemed to be women.

I suppose the swimming anime Free can attest to the fact that it is a female orientated anime store

They even had an omiyage section with character related sweets and noms

THIS CREEPY ANIME WAS BACK TO HAUNT ME!

For some unknown reason this hideously creepy anime seems to be popular in Japan at the moment. I can't quite fathom why though! I suppose some people are drawn to the vulgar feel of the characters but it just makes me cringe! The anime is called こびとづかん　kobito dukan for anyone who is interested in feeling awkward!

More disturbing products!!!

Yes! Yes! Yeees! 

We found this advert particularly amusing so I couldn't help but take a snap!

As you can see, the store is pretty big...

...and by big I mean huge!

When everyone was done perusing Animate we went to Book Off.

I really love Book Off! Book Off is a chain of shops that sell a variety of second-hand goods. You can buy books, magazines, comics, CD's, DVD's, games, game consoles, game accessories and even trading cards! That's not even everything!

a selection of magazines and comics

PS1 games!

Heaven for the retro gamer!

There are some Japanese PS1 games I have wanted since I can remember so no doubt I will be returning when I have more time to conduct a more thorough investigation in the PS1 aisle!

Milky Way Cafe

Although we had already eaten our fill at the sushi restaurant we couldn't resist trying the fare at the Milky Way Cafe. This Cafe sells Constellation Desserts which each correspond to a star-sign. We had passed the Cafe before and the display food was pretty enticing.

The atmosphere in the Cafe was really nice and you could get a good view of Ikebukuro at night through the windows.

The dessert menu

There was a dessert for each star-sign. I of course ordered my corresponding dessert, however the others just picked what drew their interest. To be honest they all looked so good, I don't think you could go wrong!

 Not only do they do impressive looking deserts but they had some really enticing drinks on offer and I am afraid I couldn't help myself from ordering a particularly fancy blue iced drink. I don't know what it is about blue liquids that look so enticing. You'd better not let me near your loo cleaner!

The place mats had horoscopes written on them! The only issue was that the dates for each star sign seemed to be a bit off! But I am sure you all know your star-signs anyway!

My glorious drink!

I certainly don't regret my drink purchase. It was a really refreshing flavoured slushie and presentation was so cute. It certainly put a smile on my face!

Maisy's dessert  

Rebekah's dessert

My dessert

 I can vouch that the desserts taste as good as they look. Mine came with fruit, cornflakes, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, shortbread cookies, ice cream, profiteroles, chocolate coated biscuit and a chocolate churros-like stick.

Afterwards we went to a game center to try our hand at some UFO catchers and a bit of DDR.

This guy was playing DDR blindfolded using the invisible arrow setting! I can only guess that he didn't want to see the panels underfoot light up?!? 

Maisy's reaction!

While we were standing around a business man walked past and gave Maisy his UFO catcher win. She got herself a Chopper plushie and perhaps also an admirer!

Maisy imparted some sage UFO catcher advice onto me an Amy. If you ask the workers nicely enough not only will they switch the winnable product to your preferred choice but they may also make it a lot more easier for you to win!
There are a lot more tips on how to UFO catcher GET but I plan to cover this in a separate post.

I had a really great time and I was really glad that we got a chance to meet up with Rebekah and Maisy.

I look forward to the next time we hang out together.

Well that's all for now~