Hanami time

First batch of cherry blossom pictures! I have a ton more, but I haven't finished going through and sorting and resizing, so I'm going to do a couple different posts.
These first two pictures are from Ueno; I have a lot of pictures from Ueno since my friend who's a photographer was with us and took pictures of us all day, haha.


These last ones are all from Shinjuku Gyoen; my friend and I went and had lunch in the park last Thursday. It was a little windy and the cherry blossoms weren't in full bloom yet, but it was really nice anyway. The weather has finally been warming up, so it was great to be able to go outside and have lunch with blue skies and cherry blossoms.
Along with the Ueno photos, I also have some pictures from Chidorigafuchi and Yasukuni shrine, and also Nakameguro. Chidorigafuchi is probably the prettiest place in Tokyo for cherry blossoms; they line the moat surrounding the imperial palace and are just gorgeous. I'm going to try to go there again this week with another friend, since I heard you can rent boats during the day and ride under the blossoms out on the moat, which seems like it would be super fun, plus the view from the moat is probably even more fabulous than the view from the path along the moat : ) Anyway, I went there this evening with a friend to see the night view with the cherry trees all lit up, then we went down to Nakameguro to meet another friend and have dinner near the Meguro river, which is also a really nice cherry blossom spot with a good night view.

Check out my super bargain coat! This is all you're getting for now because it's late and I need to go to sleep, but I figured I'd go ahead and post these before I forgot. Enjoy!

Happenings

I went home for Christmas, and it was very nice. So nice, in fact, that I wished I had stayed longer when I got back to Japan! January was a fairly tumultuous time, since the cafe I had been working at closed and I had to find a new job quickly, and also for the first couple weeks of January my friend Kat from high school was visiting, so lots of things were happening at once.
I went ice skating with Kat at an outdoor rink in Minatomirai, near Yokohama. It was super fun, I hadn't been ice skating in a while but I picked it back up quickly and we had a great time. It was super cheap too, only 1000 yen for entrance + skate rental. I tried to go back a couple weeks later with another friend, but unfortunately it was closed due to bad weather, so we ended up just having dinner and doing some karaoke instead.
I also went to see Kabuki theatre with Kat, for the first time since I've been in Japan. We went to the Kabukiza theatre in Ginza, which is really cool-looking. I have pictures, which I will post to my photobucket account eventually. We only saw one act (full Kabuki plays can run for four or five hours!), since that way it's cheaper and less time-consuming, and also you can rent earphones with English explanations of the action. I recommend it for the next time anyone visits me here ^.~
We also visited the beer museum in Ebisu, where you can get a sample tray of four different types of Yebisu beer for only 500 yen. We split the cost and shared the tray, so now I can definitively recommend different types of Yebisu beer, haha. The museum has all sorts of weird beer-related items for sale in the gift shop, including beer chocolates and beer jelly. Kat bought some beer chocolates as a souvenir, and I tried one, and it was... interesting. Not bad, but kind of weird.
I managed to get another job by the end of January, and I'm working there now. It's an English conversation school similar to Gaba, except that you get paid (a very small amount, but at least it's something) for lessons that you don't teach, and the general atmosphere is overall much better. The students are all women, and of the four locations three are very close to me, so it's been pretty good so far. Right now jr high school students are on break here, I believe, so at the moment I'm not doing the jr high teaching; I think that the new school year starts in April. I'll probably look for another part-time job in the meantime, just to cover my bases and make sure I have enough for rent and train fare and hopefully a little extra for shopping and going out, &c.
Speaking of shopping and going out! I went out with some friends last weekend; we went to my friend Junko's house because she has a Wii and a karaoke game as well as Wii fit. We did a bit of karaoke and a bit of Wii bowling, then in the evening we went to the big Marui sale in Ikebukuro. I wasn't planning on buying much, if anything, since I'm pretty poor at the moment, but I found the greatest bargain while I was there! I spotted this nice white coat, and since I've been wanting a new coat lately I went over to look at it, to keep it in mind for when I got some money again. But! Then I spotted the price! Only 3000 yen, marked down from an original price of over 17000! So I went ahead and bought it, since it fit perfectly and looked fantastic, and bargains like that are a rare beast indeed here in Tokyo. I will endeavor to get someone to take a picture of me in it and post that to my photobucket as well. An epic bargain like that ought to be documented, haha. (Also, it really does look fantastic on me ^.~)
I've been taking advantage of cheap and free things to do lately. Last Sunday two of my roommates and I went to the annual Japan Media Arts Festival, held at the National Art Center in Roppongi. It was really interesting; there were some cool short films as well as photography, and some games, and there was this one exhibition where there were a bunch of pipes set up like a harp and bubbles were released that created music when they hit the pipes. There was another exhibition where you could play with your cell phone; there were two screens, one on the ground and one on the wall. On the ground screen were lures with the names of the players; if you went to the web address displayed you could type in your own username and a lure would appear on the bottom screen with your name. Then you used the buttons on your phone to move your lure and try to catch a fish. If you caught one, a fish would appear on the screen on the wall with your username and swim around with all the other fish that other people had caught. And the best part was, the whole exhibition was free, haha. I'm glad I went, it was really cool.
I also went that night to all-night karaoke with some other friends. There's a place in Shibuya where you can get "free time", which is basically midnight to 5am, for only 1000 yen. You can bring in your own drinks, too, which is great because the drinks at most karaoke places are a bit on the expensive side. So we sang all night, and then I almost lost my voice. I was worried at first because my job involves a lot of talking, but it ended up being a good conversation starter in my lessons. Almost everyone in Japan loves to do karaoke, so when I mentioned I lost my voice doing too much karaoke, that immediately got the students talking and asking questions, which is a good thing.
Anyway I'm going to head for bed now! If I remember anything else cool from the past couple months I'll try to post again, and it might take a while but eventually I'll get some pictures up too. Ja mata! (until next time!)

The beach

No pictures of my place yet, but I started a photobucket account to post pictures of the beach. I'll just stick new pictures into this account instead of directly into my posts, because it's much easier (for me!).
http://s431.photobucket.com/albums/qq32/genkiplus/
Go there to see pictures of my trip from a couple months ago to Enoshima beach. I'll add some more pictures (I have some more on my phone that I haven't put on my computer yet, of random stuff like a show in Roppongi Hills and a tiny octopus that my Japanese teacher here ate as a snack) later, but for now it's just Enoshima. Check it out!

Out and about

No pictures again this time... I don't have good lighting in my room so I need to take them in the daytime, but lately I've been out all the time!
I've been pretty busy over the last week; I started a new job at a conversation cafe, and I've just been out and about. My roommates threw a welcome party on Tuesday, which was very nice and also very fun. We took out the screens separating my room and Hiroshi's room to create one big space, so everyone actually fit, haha. Plus there was the balcony leading to the roof. I finally went up there, and there's a pole to hang laundry, but I probably won't be using it much since it's easier to just hang it in my room than to go all the way up to the roof.
Thursday I started at yet another conversation cafe, then afterwards I went with my roommate Naoko to a magazine launch party. Nylon magazine started a version for men, and Naoko is friends with one of the editors.
Tomorrow is a Japanese lesson, then after is a barbeque at my new boss's place. Free food \o/ Hopefully there will still be some left by the time I get there! It's officially starting around noon, but my japanese lesson lasts till 3 so I won't get there till much later.
Apparently Kanda (where my new job is located) is right near a huge bookseller district! I will definitely be checking that out sometime soon. I heard there are even some English-language stores in the mix.
Speaking of English books, I joined a book club here too. The founder is the same woman who runs the Democrats Abroad and organized the Obama support meeting I went to a couple weeks ago. I went to my first meeting on Wednesday, and luckily managed to land myself next to some other people who also had not liked the book we read for this month. We were few, but we were vocal in our distaste, haha. I also met a woman there who teaches yoga here in Tokyo; I may try to head by her studio at some point. I'm still planning on joining a gym, but it might be cool to try out some yoga...
Anyway I guess that's it for now; I'll try to remember to take some pictures tomorrow before I head out to my lesson and barbeque.

Moved!

I'm all moved into my new place in Shinjuku! It's pretty good so far; I haven't finished unpacking yet since I was out all day yesterday, but once I finish I'll take some pictures and post them up here. It's a very old, traditional house; my room has sliding doors made of rice paper separating my room from my roommate Hiroshi's room, and sturdier sliding doors leading to the hallway. There's glass covering the rice paper though, so it's not so bad. We've got one of those fancy toilets with a bidet and seat-warming capability for the winter, lol. I finally met the mysterious third roommate as well, and he seems fairly cool too. We talked for a bit yesterday, but unlike the other two this one doesn't speak English, so it was a pretty broken conversation!
Anyway I should get back to unpacking; I want to run out and get some food pretty soon too. Apparently there's an Indian curry place nearby, I might check that out.

Moving

I'm moving this Saturday, up to a share house in Shinjuku. I won't be living alone anymore, but Shinjuku is a much more convenient location, and my rent will go down as well. I'll have a room in a house with three other Japanese roommates. I'm hoping to get some good Japanese practice in, having Japanese roommates.
Speaking of Japanese, I signed up to take the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). I signed up for level 2, which is above my current level, but I'm hoping that by December when the test is held I will have brought myself up to a point where I may have a shot at passing it... It tests only kanji, vocab, reading, grammar, and listening comprehension - no speaking - so hopefully it will be okay. If I can get a level 2 qualification that will open up so many more job opportunities here. Starting next year, the test will be held twice a year instead of only once, so I'll have another opportunity in July... but by that point I'm not sure how useful it would be, since I'm not really planning on staying another year after this one.