Update November- February

So 2014 is here and soon (4th March) I will have been in Japan for a whole year!

Over the last few months I have done a lot of exciting things:

• I went to a T.O.P from BIGBANG fanmeeting in Yokohama at the end of November and got a seat only 24 rows from the front. 
• Went to 'Namjatown' and ate the weirdest ice cream flavours ever (for example: eel, garlic and beef tongue' lol)
• In December I went to the BIGBANG concert at Tokyo Dome in December which was AMAZING.
• We went to a BIGBANG club night run by the B.B cafe and drank and danced way too much. haha
• My family came to visit for Christmas and New Year and it was wonderful to see them and show them Tokyo! We saw a alot of tourist sites and traditional Japanese shrines and temples I hadn't had the chance to visit yet.
• Going to BIGBANG karaoke rooms to sing and molest the walls
• Hunting down Sailor Moon merchandise (some of which is still hard to get hold of even in Japan!)
• Tokyo Disney Sea in February and eating more popcorn (in an array of strange flavours) than should be humanly possible
• I started taking Japanese lessons again and I hope I can improve my skills so I can get more stuff done myself! (A friend also started teaching me a bit of Korean!)
• I also received a certificate from my company as a 'Teacher of distinction' My manager and staff nominated me. I was very thankful.

And of course I've been generally hanging out with awesome people and talking, eating, drinking and shopping in the city that really has started to feel more like a home. Sadly a few of my friends here had to leave or will be leaving in a matter of weeks. I am emotional about that... :( 

Already planned for the next few months, I want to visit the YGFamily Exhibition in Japan next month. In May I will go to the YGFamily concert and see BIGBANG, 2NE1, Psy, Winner etc etc. I am so excited! I saw a poster for the concert 2 weeks ago in Shibuya.

Happy Birthday T.O.P!

Today is November 4th, which means it's TOP from BIGBANGs Birthday. Yesterday I went with my friend to to BB cafe in ShinOkubo (Korea town) in Tokyo. It's a BIGBANG themed cafe and they were having a celebration party for TOP's Birthday. There was food, cake, TOP masks, glow-sticks, alcohol, music, a quiz, prizes and a lot of very excited people who love BIGBANG. It was SO much fun!

This month BIGBANG start their Japan dome tour and next month I will see BIGBANG again in Tokyo Dome. I am so excited and the organisers of this event have lots of other parties and stuff planned around the time of the concert so I am super excited!







In other news, Halloween has come and gone and Japan have already put the Christmas decorations up everywhere! For Halloween at work we had to dress up in costume for an entire week and still teach English lessons to kids and adults! I chose a nice simple costume, Kiki from the Studio Ghibli movie, 'Kiki's delivery service'.

I can't believe it's already November! My Mum, Dad and Brother are visiting me next month! Another very exciting thing to look forward too!

Summer time

Time for a well overdue update!

The Japanese Summer is SO hot and humid it's unbelievable! Coming from England where the Summers are mild and it's never really that humid at all, it was quite a shock!

I now understand why Japanese people have to carry parasols, fans and sweat towels with them everywhere during the Summer time! All I can say is thank goodness for air conditioning.

Over the past few months, I've been working hard in the intense heat which has often left me a bit stressed, grumpy and restless, but, I am enjoying it here all the same. On my days off I have been partying or relaxing and just appreciating and loving living in such a great city. (despite melting from intense heat every single day!)

Being a huge fan of Kpop, especially BIGBANG and 2NE1, I have been enjoying taking advantage of the great Kpop club nights that Tokyo has to offer. The clubs here are much better than any club nights I've ever been to in London (sad but true!) It's nice meeting other Kpop fans too.

In December BIGBANG are coming to Japan for a concert toour, so me and a friend snapped up tickets for their concert in Tokyo Dome in December. It's going to be so exciting! My membership for their official fan club came as well! Got my light-stick so I'm ready to cheer!

The Sailor Moon musical is in two weeks! (so excited!) Since the shows 20th anniversary is being celebrated this year, merchandise is starting to appear again and I got my hands on the new S.H Figure arts figure and saw the promotional displays in stores, including one in Akihabara. The food in Japan is amazing, and there are so many good restaurants to visit. Recently I went to another Alice in Wonderland themed cafe with friends. I've visited the cafe in Shinjuku before, this time we went to the one in Shibuya, which has a carousel theme. The decor is so amazing and the food is so cute! My dessert was in the shape of a cute smiling cheshire cat. :3 There are many different Alice cafe's in Tokyo with slightly different themes. We're hoping to visit each one eventually! We also discovered a REALLY good hawaiian burger place in Ikebukuro. Though trying to eat such a huge burger stuffed with avacado is rather tough without a knife and fork! haha!

Hawaiian burger in Ikebukuro

I am looking forward to Autumn when the humidity will drop again and it's a little more comfortable being out and about.

After clubbing all night after work on Saturday my body hurts. lol. So today I am going to go get a relaxing massage before a 6 day work week next week. (Yikes!)

I've got a lot to look forward too for the rest of this year, including my family coming to visit at Christmas! It gets stressful living abroad and surviving on such basic Japanese and having to ask for help a lot, even just to read your bills and post. However, this is the best life experience I've ever had, and I hope I can keep living here for a while... if not forever maybe!

Here are some kittens that were in Harajuku the other week. There was a guy looking after them and loads of people were crowding around to look and take photos. I'm not sure if he was trying to sell them or what but they were super cute and I wish I could have taken one home!

xXx

Korean BBQ, Pokémon center, Akihabara and Alice in Wonderland cafe

I've been busy recently as it's golden week in Japan and I've had some time off to explore Tokyo :D
Therefore this whole post will be full of photos! You have been warned! haha

Golden week started after a tough Saturday of working for so many hours I lost count. However, because we had to work late my Head teacher who is awesome bought us all pizza :D

The vacation began with a day of catching up on sleep and washing. Then it really kicked off with an AMAZING Korean BBQ in Korea town with my other staff members. It was SO much fun and the food was incredible! Afterwards we went to Karaoke which was really fun as always!

Chillin' with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu in Shinjuku and GDragon in Korea town.

I went to the Pokémon center (Tokyo branch) and my inner 9 year old was rejoicing. They had everything pokemon related, ranging from stuffed toys to cooking utensils. I bought a few things including CHARIZARD SOCKS.

I wandered around Akihabara and explored the various anime and idol shops that are there. The third Evangelion film has just come out so there were Evangelion themed things everywhere! 

I found a store with some Sailor Moon stuff but it cost more than my rent... so there was no way I could buy it! I did buy a few small things though including an Asuka figure and T-shirt, a stuffed Jiji from Kiki's delivery service.

Guess who was on the side of Akihabara station? :D Sailor Moon! I saw this and had a total 'fangirl moment'! The new anime starts this summer and they were advertising the new toy figure coming out soon. Here is my shelf with the new Asuka figure and Jiji on it, along with some other geeky things.

I went with a friend to the cutest cafe that has an Alice in Wonderland theme in Shinjuku. It was one of the best things I have done in Tokyo so far! The food was incredible and SO well presented! The cafe's decor was also amazing! The cafe was on the basement floor so it really was like falling down the rabbit hole and entering Wonderland! I had a beef dish in the shape of the Cheshire cat and a pudding that looked like a card soldier. Afterwards we went shopping in Harajuku finding all the lolita shops. I ended up buying some shoes but no lolita outfit... yet! 

Purikura in Harajuku :D

xxx

Korea town and the Ramen museum

Korea Town

Last Sunday I went to Korea Town in Tokyo. 

I think it's my new favourite place in Tokyo! 

It was full of cute Kpop shops and cafes with tons of amazing Korean food. They were literally playing Kpop songs in the street. They was so much merchandise. I had to resist buying so much! Just bought myself a BIGBANG hat and T-shirt.

We found a restaurant that had a special 'BIGBANG' seating area where you can go and eat whilst being surrounded by BIGBANG posters. It was impossible to resist! There were even BIGBANG cushions on the seats! The food was absolutely amazing too.

I was also amazed that they had some TV's in the restaurant and they were playing back to back BIGBANG live performances whilst we ate :D We also found another Korean cafe where we had milkshakes and they were playing BIGBANG and 2NE1 music videos from a large screen projector on the wall. It was awesome!

I was overwhelmed by everything! It was so amazing to be in a place literally full of all the things you like. Cafes playing Kpop are so rare in London. It was great to see it being loved and appreciated.                   Later we walked to Shinjuku and got some purikura. My first time using a real purikura booth in Japan! it was great! 

Ramen museum

Last Monday I travelled to Shin-Yokohama to the ramen museum. The museum is designed to look like Japan in 1958 when instant noodles were invented. There are many different small restaurants inside that sell different types/ flavors of ramen. You can try whichever kinds you like. I wish I could have tried all of them but it was impossible to fit it all in! 

Settling in and adventures so far in Tokyo

This is going to be a huge post!

I haven’t had the time or the internet to update over the last few weeks, so here is lots of news (and photos) all in one go!

I visited Harajuku on Sunday 10^th March. I’ve wanted to go to Harajuku since I was about 14 so this was SO exciting! Words can’t even explain! I ate a strawberry ice cream crepe. It was so delicious! I had to force myself not to go back and try a few other flavours! (I must pace myself, I’ve got at least a year to try them all) The shops were all really awesome FULL with cute and quirky clothes. The streets were really busy and it took a while to walk down the whole street.

My favourite shop though was ‘K-IDOL Park’, A Kpop store bursting with Kpop merchandise! I have a feeling I will be visiting there very often. 

We didn’t get to see all of Harajuku so I’ll be going back there to keep exploring. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s face was everywhere in Harajuku. Posters, adverts, TV’s, purikura booths and make-up stands. 

The weekend after, we went to Shibuya. We found many cool places including the HUGE music store ‘Tower records’ and the Disney store. ‘Tower records’ was incredible. There was the biggest Kpop section I have ever seen. I once again had to restrain myself! Ended up buying just 2 CDs including Daesung’s / D-Lite’s new solo album (which is really good!) Whilst we were exploring the main streets of Shibuya a BIGBANG truck drove past! It was advertising their new concert DVD, Blasting music from speakers. I literally screamed for joy in the street. Haha! At one point they were also playing Kyary’s new song from some huge speakers in the street. 

We had the most amazing Okonomiyaki in Shibuya where it was cooked on a hot plate infront of us. I had a pork and kimchi flavour one. SO Delicious!

During training hours our group worked SO hard. There was a lot to learn and practice. However, We did get a small amount of time to relax. One evening we went to an Izakaya (all you can drink all night for around £8!!) followed by some karaoke. It was such a fun night. By the time we got home it was 5.30 am!

I travelled to the school where I will be working and my new apartment at the beginning of this week. I unpacked and made the apartment feel a bit more like my own with some decoration!

My first day at work was super exciting and everyone is SO kind and helpful. Being called ‘Katie-Sensei’ is going to take some time to get used to! Lol There is a massive shopping center right across the road from the school so everything I need is so close by. (Including lots of delicious choices for lunch!)

In general Tokyo is SO exciting. I’m not sure everything has quite sunk in yet… Every morning I stand on my balcony and look out and just think ‘wow. I really am here!’ So far I've managed to negotiate the train systems fairly well, but it's such a maze! 

Many more adventures to come! :D