三孔

Blog, I’ve missed you! I now find you very intimidating; you radiate such resentment over the way I’ve abandoned you! How can I make things better? At what arbitrary point might I start again without feeling that my attempts at repairing the rift between us are wholly inadequate? With pictures, perhaps? You do so hate [...]

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Nekorobi

Since Tristan is no longer on a boat, but rather, in Tokyo, we got to hang out and cross off another important item on my list of things that really must be done before leaving: we went to a cat cafe! We were at first led astray by my silly assumption that, of course, if [...]

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Ageha & Alice

Ageha This weekend I stayed over at Lauren’s, after being politely evicted from my host family’s apartment to make room for their other guests. Friday night after grilled cheese sandwiches (which absolutely merits mention—do you know how long it’s been since I had a grilled cheese sandwich?) and Hairspray, we prepared to go out clubbing [...]

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The Monkeys Have Their Eyes on Your FACE

If your idea of a dream vacation involves having your fingers gnawed off by sacred deer and your eyes scratched out by monkeys, then Miyajima might be the tourist destination for you! Seriously, though. This past weekend, I went with half the CIEE group to Miyajima, an island near Hiroshima (we went to Hiroshima first, [...]

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Soba, Stick-thwacking, School Visit

I am sick, and it feels like there is an army of very tiny but very strong people inside my head marching and stomping and slamming battering rams into the back of my eyes and shooting flaming arrows down my throat (and I blame this comparison entirely on watching Lord of the Rings last night [...]

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Cake Is Wonderful. Vegetables Are Wonderful. Vegetable Cake Is…

The story of my Saturday—like any good story of a Saturday, I’m sure—begins on a Tuesday. Lunchtime Tuesday of last week, despite having sworn to never ever have anything to do with the International Students Club again after being disappointed on one too many occasions by their disorganization and poor communication, I nevertheless found myself [...]

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Just Some Guy Out Walking His Turtle

One of my favorite things to do in Tokyo when I don’t have anything else going on is take long walks. I’ll pick a direction and see how far I can get in some allotment of time, stopping anywhere along the way that looks worth exploring. I’m always hoping to find something interesting, and the [...]

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Golden Week

Eek! I have a lot to catch up on from the past week of fun and relaxation. I had off from Monday to Thursday for Golden Week, a.k.a. series of Japanese national holidays from April 29 to May 5, a.k.a. mass exodus from Tokyo, a.k.a. omg everyone in Japan is going to go travel to [...]

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In Which I Woefully Miss Vegetarianism

On Friday, my Japanese class ends at 10:45. I don’t have Gender & Societies until 3:15. This leaves me with a break that’s the perfect amount of time for mini adventures in the closer parts of Tokyo. Last Friday, I copied a rough map from the internet and headed off to Shibuya. It took just [...]

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Catching Up

Here’s some other eventfulness from the past week that I needed to catch up on: The Hanami Never Ends Last Saturday, my host family went over to a small but well-organized hanami at the local park. We met Akiko-san and Naoko-san’s mother and had lunch there. I had edamame and yakisoba, steering clear of the [...]

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