relax Sunday

I met up with Ayaka today! I'm so happy she finally returned to Japan. I've been waiting for her since March haha. We went to Harajuku today along with my friend Ivan to do some shopping. I wasn't able to buy much because I couldn't really find anything I like, but the main point was to catch up with friends anyway.

sweet potato fries
We went to eat at a Hawaiian restaurant in Harajuku.

I ordered a Hawaiian salad.

and for fresher breath and healthy teeth, chew gum for 15-20 minutes after a meal. I found this salt tomato limited edition gum at a Lawson the other day and picked it up. While it sounds gross, it was actually pretty good. You can taste the salt and tomato, but it was definitely not overwhelming. As for fresh breath, though, nothing beats mint.

Walking down Omotesando, we bump into a group of people dressed up for some reason I don't know. They were taking pictures with people.

and we stopped by a piano store, where I discovered Ivan played the piano for the first time.

The busy and crowded Takeshita-doori.

After shopping, Ivan had to go on a date<3, so Ayaka and I headed to Ueno Park to walk and chat.

lily pads! so pretty

These koi fish are definitely demented. They were so huge and they ate bread, which these Chinese foreigners were feeding them, even though there was a giant sign right next to the pond telling people not to feed the fish.

ageHa

I went to ageHa last night: the biggest club of Tokyo. It was actually my first club experience in Japan because I never got around to it, since I was traveling out of Tokyo every weekend. Anyway, it wasn't so great. The place was really big-that's for sure-but there was no atmosphere. There were a lot of people, but everyone seemed to be sleeping, nobody was dancing (unless swaying left and right is dancing?), and for some strange reason, everyone was facing forward on the dance floor. I've never seen this at a club before. Nobody was talking to each other and everyone was just looking at the DJ. Not to mention, the music sucked. There were four or five sections to the place (including one outdoors with a small pool, which was nice), which were supposed to have different themes, but they all played the same stupid house music. It would have been fine if one of them was like that, but all of them were the same! So I don't get the difference; it's just a different location.
The entrance (cover charge) was pretty expensive: ¥3500, which I feel was a rip-off since drinks were also pretty pricey for the amount of alcohol in them. There were ¥700 shots and ¥900 beer/cocktails, and while they sound cheap compared to New York, they were so watered down, I was able to handle a couple of them.
However, aside from everything, I like to believe that if a place sucks, the people you go with make up for it, and it did to some extent. I tried to enjoy myself all night by dancing and going against the clubbing standards (such as facing the opposite direction as everyone else), but eventually just went to sleep before the night was over. If trains were running, I would have left a long time ago.

to start off the night, we went to an izakaya in Shibuya.

Kai, the sake master.

From Shibuya, there is a shuttle bus that takes you directly to the club.

I left around six in the morning and took the train back home. Kai and I were both really tired, so we fell asleep on the train and actually missed our stop. We went so far ahead, we were almost at Omiya lol. So we took the reverse train back and Kai, for some reason, decided to sit on the priority seats. I was to tired to care, so I took the other priority seats across from him and just laid down there, since the train was empty anyway. A stop or two later, I hear an old lady ask, "どうしたの？" (What happened?), so I immediately sat up and apologized. And that's when things started getting weird. Out of nowhere, this guy just runs to us and sits down next to me, pretending to sleep. At first, I didn't bother, I just closed my eyes again, but then I felt him inching closer and closer to me, so I got up and went to sit next to Kai. But that guy just didn't get it! He then kept asking us "大丈夫？" "もう死んじゃったの？" (Are you okay? have you died?) etc. It was so freaking annoying. I ignored him and got some peace for a while until I heard some other passenger across the seat snicker. I wondered why at first, but all of a sudden Kai just got up to get off the train a stop before our stop. I was so confused, but when I looked down, I realized he had thrown up on the train. -.- So I followed him out, where he continued to throw up on the train tracks. And while all this was happening, that guy followed us out and started smoking! and offered it to us! I was speechless. I had no clue who he was or why he was following us, but he introduced himself as Youichi, 32, from Warabi. As if I cared! I just wanted him to leave us alone.
When the next train arrived, we got on once more, and I wondered when I was going to get home. When we reached our station, Kai and I got off, and thank goodness that guy didn't. However, as we were walking toward the stairs, that guy started running after us inside the train. I was so freaked out that I started running also. I was so afraid that he would get off the train and start following us back to the dorm, as well, but thankfully the train doors closed.
Even writing this, I have no clue what happened. All I know is that I took out my camera to shoot a video because I needed to confirm the reality of everything.

all-night karaoke

So another thing we do in Japan because there is no train service at night is all-night karaoke. I haven't talked much about this because I like to sleep at night and be home, but I haven't done a lot of either of those since I've arrived here in March. Anyway, so when it is necessary to stay out or if you have missed the last train, one of the things you can do is karaoke all night because it's cheap and you don't really need to sing. But last night was not for any of those reasons. Last night was done on purpose for fun.
I went to izakaya with a couple of classmates from school first. They had ¥60 drinks-can you believe that? But you get what you pay for. The cocktails were 90% juice and the other option was beer, which I don't really like. But when that happens, the only thing you can do is drink a lot lol.

they gave us these tiny cans of beer as we waited to be seated

乾杯！

LOL

After that, we headed for karaoke. Because they didn't want to stay out all night, most of them went home and ended the night there. But for the rest of us, we merged with another group of people who also happened to be drinking at the same place and sung all night. Since I like karaoke, time just passed by really quickly.

jangara2~

I went to じゃんがらラーメン again and ordered a つけちゃん tsukechan this time, which is a tsukemen ("dipping noodle"). Basically it's dried noodles that you dip in a sauce.

It was so good!  There were a LOT of noodles, though, so for the first time since I've been in Japan, I was unable to finish my food. I tried my best!

After ramen, we went to karaoke at Pasela Resorts again because I wanted the giant toast again. Even though it's just a loaf of toast, it just makes me happy seeing it. I lied again, though, and told them it was my birthday because I wanted special service. Sure enough, they give you a cracker with whetever message you want towrite on it along with my favorite kind of candles (the ones that burn like fireworks). They also took a picture for us and gave each of us a copy.

It just so happened to be my friends' one month anniversary, too. :D

robot restaurant

So I've finally come around to trying out the Robot Restaurant~ I found it by chance several weeks ago and have been waiting for the right day to try it. Coincidentally, I have a project to do for Japanese class, where my group decided to do themed restaurants, so this is the perfect excuse to come here! hah

Anyway, there are three shows every night showing at 19:00, 20:30, and 22:00, so basically, it's an hour and a half show. It costs ¥5000 per person and comes with a snack box.

So the first thing you see is this giant dinosaur figure outside the restaurant.

The place where you purchase tickets to the show is across the street. There are also lockers here for you to put your stuff.

We arrived a bit too early, so just waiting around for the show to start.

The interior of the place was brightly lit-no kidding. There were lights everywhere!

There were also mirrors everywhere, including the ceiling.

The actual restaurant is downstairs of the waiting room. As you walk down, it's like walking through a circus. Everything was so overdecorated, with flashing lights, revolving disco balls too big for the place, and tacky colored animals.

And when we finally reached the place, I realized it was just a tiny room surrounded by computer screens. 

  

My snack box of edamame, tamago, fries, sausage, and katsu.

Pork cutlet sandwich. The ratings for the food: 0.

The show was divided into four or five different performances. I think the theme changes every couple of months or so, but most of what we saw were dance performances and robot wars. There were a lot of equipment used throughout the show and it was interesting, but it was definitely a guy's show. The girls were all dressed so skimpy and it became more and more so as the show went on.

They gave us time in the middle to take pictures with the robots. Everyone wanted pictures, and so, we, who couldn't fight, were only able to take one. =/ 

And my conclusion on this Robot Restaurant: it is not a restaurant!