Tokyo, Exam and Winter's Approach

Hello and welcome back to Lauren’s blog. Last time we heard about my Toyama and Nagoya adventures. This week, we’ll be looking into Tokyo, my medical exam and Winter’s fast approach.

So this past weekend, a mess of us ALTs went up to Tokyo to celebrate the birthday of one of our own. We left right after work on Friday and were in Tokyo by ten that night. Not letting the late hour stop us, we went out to this themed restaurant called Arabian Rock.

The first thing you noticed as you climbed the stairs, the restaurant was on the third floor, was the music. It was the music from Aladdin. Then, we opened the door and found out that the staff were dressed up in “Arabian” outfits. And by that I mean they looked like they’d stepped off the set of some weird harem movie.

So we sat down and ordered. The first thing to appear were the golden eggs. These are given to everyone. They’re just hardboiled eggs that have had their shells painted gold so really not that exciting. Actually most of the meal was pretty normal. The food was good and we were all wound because we were in Tokyo.

Then dessert came. Or rather, the birthday boy’s dessert came. They suddenly turned off the lights and then played some crazy song and we’re all wondering what’s going on when a guy dressed like a genie shows up. But not just any genie. Oh no. This is blatantly the genie from Aladdin. He came in with a piece of cake. None of us expected it and were all dying of laughter by the end. We got some awesome pictures out of it. I’d show you but this site has changed and I haven’t figured out how to put pictures up yet.

After that we went back to our hostel. Which was a capsule hotel, something I’ve always wanted to stay in. It wasn’t the normal kind of capsules, I was slightly disappointed, but more like wooden boxes stacked on top of each other. They were surprisingly comfy and the place was cheap so I have no complaints.

The next day we went to Harajuku. My group, we’d split up into several, started off at the shrine. I can’t remember what the name of it was. There we saw tons of kids dressed up in kimonos. There’s a custom in Japan where kids go to shrines on their 3rd, 5th, and 7th birthdays. And so there were tons of these adorable children running around all dressed up.

We also ended up watching a wedding procession at the shrine. We, and the other tourists Japanese and foreign alike, began snapping pictures. It was awesome. While we were at the shrine, I bought a charm. Mine’s for good luck. I might buy some for other people if I manage to make it to a shrine before I come home.

After the shrine, we went out into the main part of Harajuku. The first thing we saw was a guy who said he’d sing your national anthem. Emma was the first to put him to the test and got him to sing the Australian national anthem. Which he did. We were impressed. Deciding to see how good he was, Colin got him to sing the Irish national anthem. Which is in Irish. And he did. After much applauding, we moved on.

Harajuku is a shopping district. It’s also where you can see all the weird fashion trends. Sadly the crowds were too thick for me to get pictures of any of the outfits I saw.

I did have fun shopping though. I bought some Christmas presents and some sweet tights for myself. Yes, I’ve started wearing dresses and skirts a lot here. And tights and leggings. I now have a collection of weird and wonderful tights and leggings.

Eventually we headed back to the hostel to get changed. We all brought fancy outfits and got dressed up. I wore a dress and the new pair of star tights I bought. Then we headed to the New York bar in the Park Hyatt. If you’ve seen the movie Lost in Translation, you know what I’m talking about. The place has an amazing view of Tokyo. It’s also super expensive. Which is why I only bought the one drink. Still, my Bellini was good.

After that, we moved on to dinner at a Shabu Shabu place. Shabu Shabu is where you have a big pot of boiling water and you dump vegetables in it and swish thin strips of meat around until they’re cooked. It’s very tasty. We also did a 90 minute nomihodai (an all you can drink time period). That part might have been a mistake for me.

We went back to the hostel and changed again. This time into clubbing clothes. Then we were off to Womb, one of the most popular clubs in Tokyo. The cover was super expensive (about 40$) but it was an awesome place. While I was there, I had to leave a bit earlier than the others as I had drank more than was good for me, we watched what was basically a circus act. A woman in a leotard wound herself up and around a thing of cloth and would pose. This was done over the stage some 15-20 feet in the air. It was sweet!

So we all made it back and passed out. The next morning we got up and separated into our two cars for the journey back to Takayama. My car stopped first at a 7 floor book store. Yes, I found my own personal heaven here. Or it would be if I could read Japanese. Sadly only the seventh floor had English books and the selection wasn’t super great. But I did buy 2 novels. And some more French textbooks for my class.

After that, we stopped by this international grocery store. Tomoko kept laughing at me as I got excited over the things I hadn’t seen in a long time. I now have a giant jar of pickles and one of olives as well as a 10 pound box of oats among other things. That place was awesome!

When we finished, we packed the car up, we all bought too much, and came home. And that was Tokyo.

Tomorrow, I have my medical exam. All the ALTs have to do it. I started preparing for it yesterday when I had to poo on a stick. Yes, you read that right. I had to get poo on this stick, there are picture instructions on how much should be on there, and then seal it up. I have to do this again tomorrow morning. I also have to pee in a tube. So tomorrow morning I go to the Kuguno branch office and get checked out. My supervisor came over to my school today to help me fill out the forms. Because they are entirely in Japanese.

We had some fun trying to figure out what to write for some parts. Like one of the questions was asking if I’ve ever had an operation around my stomach area. So I had to say yes. Then you have to specify what part of the stomach area. Yeah. The forms were fun.

The last thing I shall regale you with is the approach of winter. It’s started getting cold here. Cold enough that I finally dug out my kerosene heaters. And then realized they had no kerosene in them. Something I’ll be rectifying today.

Because Japan pretty much doesn’t build anything with insulation, there are several things you have to do here that you wouldn’t do at home. As one of the ALTs has already had to do, you have to put some of your toiletries into the fridge. To keep them from freezing. I wish I was making this up.

I should have realized this was coming given there have been mornings where the fridge was slightly warmer than my apartment. Yeah, it gets that cold. One of the things I want to get when I’m home is an outlet timer like for Christmas lights. Then I can set it a half hour before I get up in the morning and plug my heater into it so I don’t have to freeze when I get out of bed in the mornings.

So that’s about all for now. I just realized I’ll be home in like 3 weeks. Which made me realize I haven’t finished Christmas shopping. So I’ll be busy doing that in the next little while. Until next time, bye!