the past week [picture post]
the nic weekend was so awesome. i hadn't seen him since i'd left UCSB so it was great to catch up with him.
saturday- tokyo in a day.
shinto marriage ceremony at meiji-jingu, harajuku
nic opening his omikuji (fortune)
we went to harajuku, yoyogi park, ginza, roppongi, and shibuya. it was so awesome. yoyogi was just crammed with awesome people; the tap dancers, drummers, people juggling 10 balls, a guy moshing tothe sex pistols while painting, skaters, break dancers....
in the evening we ended up at gonpachi, most well known for being the set for kill bill, where we ate sushi on nic's business expense card. SEXUAL.
sunday- nursing a slight sake hangover, we met up with greg at some ungodly hour of the morning and caught the train over to fuji-san where we did a hike from my hiking book.
messing around on the kids playground at the beginning of the hike; me, nic and greg
discovered the hiking book was written by sas servicemen, and the prescribed 6-7 hours required for completion was actually 9 hours, and after coming perilously close to plummeting down an ice-cliffside, we descended the mountain by moonlight, with the aid of greg's mobile phone camera flash. it was however, an absolutely bitching day, the weather was glorious, the views of fuji and the surrounding lakes were spectacular, and the company was amazing.
me n' fuji, chillin'
the lakes as the sunset on our descent, and the only power line we saw all day, pretty fucking good for japan
we got to the destination train station and decided to nurse our aching bones with beer and sake. needless to say, we got absolutely wankered, and devoured actually THE NICEST 1/2 ADVOCADO BURGER i had been fantasising about all day.
monday- woke up at 6am, sacked off tsukiji in favour of sleeping a bit longer. limped around shinjuku, and then went to ueno to wander around the market place, buying random food off street vendors, and then getting a bit excited about the appearance of blossoms in ueno park. dropped nic off at the station. cried when he left.
tuesday, wednesday- well, you know about that. oh, got my hair done. my hairdresser had moved and his assistant wasn't as fit. still, got my massage and felt more like a girl at the end of it.
thursday- was our semesterly school trip, where we were taken to a sumo stable. a sumo stable is where sumo wrestlers live, and practice. we got there really early and we sat watching them train. it was so awesome, they were so close you could feel the impact as they smacked into one another, and the smell of sweat and the ring sand and oooh they were so massive upfront.
the biggest dude weighed 190 fricking KILOS. motherfucker.
afterwards our class went to the sumo museum and then we ate chanko-nabe, the food sumos eat to make themselves fat, although how they get fat i have no idea because i was still starving.
our class eating chanko-nabe, starting from me, clockwise around the table: me, yang [china], steve, shaolin [taiwan], soo [taiwan], andrea [italy], yachi [taiwan], robin, greg, kanshuu [taiwan], unsuku [south korea]
we split from our teachers after that and all went for a coffee. i fucking love my class man, we're so tight. and awesome.
friday, saturday- class, and in the evening, went to roppongi to robin's restaurant.
descent into oblivion
i feel as if this photo should have a rude caption. i just haven't quite thought of one amusing enough yet.
robin waiting on shaolin, roppongi.
you know the rest of the story.
sunday- tokyo marathon day! got up really early despite being absolutely knackered from a lack of sleep over well, the entire week, and grabbed the paints and cardboard i'd bought saturday and went over to steve's where we spent a couple of hours getting extremely messy with gloss paint making a banner for tina and christopher. we then met up with becky and one of our senpai alex, and went to ginza and stood cheering on the runners in the pouring rain with waterproofs and umbrellas. tina and christopher came along after about an hour and a half, half crying with happiness to see us. seriously never seen anyone that happy, ever. they were finding it pretty tough because they were cold from the rain and both of their knees were starting to give in. they went off, and we met them at the finish line, where they limped, looking pale as ghosts smiling so happily because they reckoned without us they wouldn't have finished. and they loved our banner, despite the less-than flattering portraits of them.
at the finish line
so, actually, awesome week. yay.
saturday- tokyo in a day.
shinto marriage ceremony at meiji-jingu, harajuku
nic opening his omikuji (fortune)
we went to harajuku, yoyogi park, ginza, roppongi, and shibuya. it was so awesome. yoyogi was just crammed with awesome people; the tap dancers, drummers, people juggling 10 balls, a guy moshing tothe sex pistols while painting, skaters, break dancers....
in the evening we ended up at gonpachi, most well known for being the set for kill bill, where we ate sushi on nic's business expense card. SEXUAL.
sunday- nursing a slight sake hangover, we met up with greg at some ungodly hour of the morning and caught the train over to fuji-san where we did a hike from my hiking book.
messing around on the kids playground at the beginning of the hike; me, nic and greg
discovered the hiking book was written by sas servicemen, and the prescribed 6-7 hours required for completion was actually 9 hours, and after coming perilously close to plummeting down an ice-cliffside, we descended the mountain by moonlight, with the aid of greg's mobile phone camera flash. it was however, an absolutely bitching day, the weather was glorious, the views of fuji and the surrounding lakes were spectacular, and the company was amazing.
me n' fuji, chillin'
the lakes as the sunset on our descent, and the only power line we saw all day, pretty fucking good for japan
we got to the destination train station and decided to nurse our aching bones with beer and sake. needless to say, we got absolutely wankered, and devoured actually THE NICEST 1/2 ADVOCADO BURGER i had been fantasising about all day.
monday- woke up at 6am, sacked off tsukiji in favour of sleeping a bit longer. limped around shinjuku, and then went to ueno to wander around the market place, buying random food off street vendors, and then getting a bit excited about the appearance of blossoms in ueno park. dropped nic off at the station. cried when he left.
tuesday, wednesday- well, you know about that. oh, got my hair done. my hairdresser had moved and his assistant wasn't as fit. still, got my massage and felt more like a girl at the end of it.
thursday- was our semesterly school trip, where we were taken to a sumo stable. a sumo stable is where sumo wrestlers live, and practice. we got there really early and we sat watching them train. it was so awesome, they were so close you could feel the impact as they smacked into one another, and the smell of sweat and the ring sand and oooh they were so massive upfront.
the biggest dude weighed 190 fricking KILOS. motherfucker.
afterwards our class went to the sumo museum and then we ate chanko-nabe, the food sumos eat to make themselves fat, although how they get fat i have no idea because i was still starving.
our class eating chanko-nabe, starting from me, clockwise around the table: me, yang [china], steve, shaolin [taiwan], soo [taiwan], andrea [italy], yachi [taiwan], robin, greg, kanshuu [taiwan], unsuku [south korea]
we split from our teachers after that and all went for a coffee. i fucking love my class man, we're so tight. and awesome.
friday, saturday- class, and in the evening, went to roppongi to robin's restaurant.
descent into oblivion
i feel as if this photo should have a rude caption. i just haven't quite thought of one amusing enough yet.
robin waiting on shaolin, roppongi.
you know the rest of the story.
sunday- tokyo marathon day! got up really early despite being absolutely knackered from a lack of sleep over well, the entire week, and grabbed the paints and cardboard i'd bought saturday and went over to steve's where we spent a couple of hours getting extremely messy with gloss paint making a banner for tina and christopher. we then met up with becky and one of our senpai alex, and went to ginza and stood cheering on the runners in the pouring rain with waterproofs and umbrellas. tina and christopher came along after about an hour and a half, half crying with happiness to see us. seriously never seen anyone that happy, ever. they were finding it pretty tough because they were cold from the rain and both of their knees were starting to give in. they went off, and we met them at the finish line, where they limped, looking pale as ghosts smiling so happily because they reckoned without us they wouldn't have finished. and they loved our banner, despite the less-than flattering portraits of them.
at the finish line
so, actually, awesome week. yay.