November 20th

We went on a "Tour of Shitamachi" with Kenji.  Shitamachi is the area we live in. Kenji and one of his previous teachers took us around and showed us lots of fun things around I-House like a puppet museum, a traditional sake shop, Nezu Shrine, and the cemetery where Yoshinobu Tokogawa is buried.  My favorites were the shrine and the cemetery~  The Shrine was gorgeous and Molly and I had fun running around looking at the koi fish and the turtles haha  When you go to the shrine you go to the alter, throw in a coin, clap, then say a prayer, which I got to do :)  We also got to run through the red gates! Poor Kenji hit his head on them and, despite our concern, Molly and I couldn't help but laugh.  I'll post a video below~  When we went to the cemetery, we all got into an in-depth conversation about why Japan would be the safest place to be during a zombie apocalypse because everyone is cremated here so there are no bodies to become zombies.  This theory held up great until Kenji informed us that during the time of the Samurai bodies were buried and we realized we would have to fight samurai zombies... haha

 

November 18th

This day started off with me and Molly being even more tired than usual, so for some reason we thought it would be a good idea for us to both drink two coffees before class..... Needless to say we will never make that mistake again.  We were so hyped up through the entire class, which resulted in a tower of coffee cans on our desk that our teacher questioned at one point, but never actually got mad at us for, as well as some interesting additions to our Japanese books.  That night, we had a "Takoyaki Party" in Eddie's room (Takoyaki are balls of cooked dough with octopus inside them).  Eddie did a great job cooking and I had a GREAT time at this party.  We had a giant tickle fight, taught my boys how to dance the macarena (for the record any time I refer to 'my boys' in this blog it means Daiki, Naoki, Takuto, and Masaki), had a chance to hang out with Akira again for the first time since the very first big I-House party, met Daiki's friend Kazuya, and watched creepy Japanese ghost movies.

November 16th

This was a REALLY rough day for me.  I won't go into details because it just plain sucked.  I'll just leave it at some things didn't work out the I had hoped and I was really upset.  However~ because I am blessed with some fantastic friends and the #1 roommate of all time, it turned into a pretty great day.  Molly went out and bought me a big chocolate birthday cake then Nick, Trevor, Eddie, and Alex came over to help eat it~  Nick even came in his Pooh PJs so I could cuddle with Pooh Bear and feel better \(^_^)/ We had fun and it made me feel so much better!

Pooh bear cuddles!

awesome yummy cake that Molly bought me in Nippori

November 13th

Molly and I were SUPER lazy for about 90% of this day.  It was a Sunday so we didn't have to be anywhere or do anything really so we didn't even change out of our pajamas until the evening when we decided to venture to Nippori and try out the "Renoir Cafe" that we pass by all the time.  This turned into an adventure of us being at a place that was WAY too fancy for how we were dressed, where we laughed at the terrible English on the menu and gagged on a 600 yen (aprox $6) scoop of vanilla ice cream that had some gross jelly stuff on it.  While we were at the cafe, Daiki texted us and asked if we wanted to go to an izakaya (a Japanese pub for those of you who might not know).  So we rushed back home to actually dress decently then headed to Shinjuku to meet Daiki.

the vanilla ice cream would have been lovely if the other stuff hadn't been on it.

fantastic Engrish

Izakaya time with Daiki

November 12th

I went to Shinjuku with Daiki, Takuto, Naoki, and Masaki.  Just an evening out with my boys haha We went to Burger King because here in Japan Burger King has an "as many whoppers as you can eat in 30 minutes" deal.  I didn't even try because I do good to make it through one hamburger! But I had fun watching them do it.  I'm pretty sure four was the most any of them ate, but to me that's super impressive.  After we went to eat we wandered around Shinjuku for a while in search of an arcade, where we played air hockey (I lost terribly) and played a zombie shooting game (I was pretty good at this much to everyone's surprise) and then took purikura (this part was per my request of course). I think we had a little -too- much fun decorating our pictures though haha.  It was such a fun day and honestly one of my favorites in Japan thus far.  We weren't doing anything super special but I have so much fun just hanging out with the guys. We are always so goofy and silly and just have a good time, it's great~ :)

air hockey~~

Takuto looks like Mario lol

November 9th

This day was just an average day in the life of Lauren and Molly really, but it just happened to be the start of the running "poke vs pork" joke we have with Kenji.  We were all sitting at lunch having a discussion about how the two words sound exactly the same when you same them like a Japanese person would.  Which resulted in me thinking Kenji was calling me pork when he was saying poke so I asked him if he was calling me fat.  So now we "ポーク" each other all the time :P   This was also the same day that Kumba and I were throwing paper airplanes at each other across the lunchroom and teaching everyone how to make "cootie catchers" and paper snowflakes haha

 Our kanji writing/drawings with Kenji

Just chillin' out in the cafeteria after class

November 6th

Molly and I ordered pizza for the first time.  From Dominos. It was amazing and tasted like real American pizza and truly deserves it's own special post because it is so very difficult to find real pizza in Japan.  And by real pizza I mean pizza that does not have corn or mayo on it.  Me and Molly were so excited that we could order it online (in english!) and then they delivered it all the way to our door (on the inside of the building not just to the office!)  it's the ultimate food for when we are feeling super lazy haha

November 4th

This was one of the longest days of my life, but also one of the most fun.  I met up with Daiki and Eri at Hakusan Station (the train station closest to my school) and we took the train together to Mt. Takao where we met up with Ayaka, Takuto, Naoki, Yoshi, and Masaki.  First, we had some pizza for lunch and Daiki taught us all how to make our napkins look like birds.  Then, we climbed up the mountain.  Yes. I, Lauren Faye Maddox, of my own choosing climbed a real mountain.  I was regretting that decision by the end of it when I couldn't breathe and my legs felt as if they would fall off, but it was totally worth it.  I rewarded myself with some mint chocolate chip ice cream at the top haha  It was dark by the time we came back down the mountain.  Eri and Ayaka walked me back to I-House and we had fun girl-talk time.  After that, I changed faster than I ever have before in my life and ran back out to meet Uki and Haru for dinner.  They took me to this awesome Korean restaurant.  I had never eaten Korean food before so it was really fun~!

 Our napkin birds.  Mine's the one on the far right.

 Our whole group on the way back down the mountain.

 Me and Daiki with our mint choco chip ice cream reward at the top of the moutain haha

Korean food~~~

 Haru was taste tester for all the food to make sure it wasn't too spicy for me to eat lol

November 3rd

Since I was having some friend problems, I was feeling sad and little homesick this day. Especially since Molly was gone on her homestay visit. But! Since he's such a wonderful big brother, Takuma took me with him to see a Gevil show and my day was made significantly better.  I met Takuma in front of Starbucks in Shibuya and we went together to Shibuya-AX(the music venue).

While we were walking I tried speaking in Japanese.  It was the first time I had really tried to have a conversation in Japanese with someone since coming to Japan and, even though I couldn't say everything I wanted to, it made me feel really good that I was trying.  I was able to show both myself and Takuma that I had at least learned more than I knew the last time I was in Japan.

I really liked Shibuya-AX.  It seemed kind of small at first until I realized that it had multiple floors.  The first floor was the area where the stage was and there was a bar and some tables to sit at.  Then the second floor had another bar and a dance floor of sorts.  There was a third floor as well, but that was being used as a dressing room on this particular night, I don't know if that is normally the case or not.  When Takuma and I got there we got our drinks and watched some dancers perform.  After the performance, I turned and realized I was standing right in front of Waka, who completely didn't recognize me until Takuma turned around.  We talked to Waka for a while and he was surprised to hear that I was back in Japan for the year.  He also told me I lost weight... while I was completely shocked that he would notice, I like anyone who tells me I look thinner, so I was happy haha  After that I found Gevil's merch girl that I met last time I was in Japan.  I was excited to see her again because she was so sweet! It's hard for us to communicate, but we manage and I enjoy talking with her.  It's like a big game of charades! lol  Eventually, Takuma took me up to the third floor and I got to see Taka.  I was SO happy to see him.  When he spotted me, he walked over and shook my hand, and I was about to start a MAJOR pout fest until he laughed and gave me a big hug.  He was completely messing with me with the handshake *sigh* Then I stood there and tried to get his TINY bracelet on my arm for several minutes.  I eventually managed it, but I still am at a loss for how he gets it on his wrist that is even bigger than mine.  After that I took a picture with him and the other guys then headed back down to wait for their performance.

Gevil's merch girl gave Takuma the video camera and asked him to video Gevil's performance since he's so tall and could see over everyone's heads haha  so Takuma and I had a good laugh calling him "Director Takuma" and going on about his new movie and the plans he had for it.  It was just the kind of goofiness I needed to cheer me up.  After we watched Gevil's show (which was fantastic of course) we continued our craziness and danced and just had a good time until we had to leave in order to catch the train back home.  Taka walked us to the station and we said our goodbyes for the evening.  I can't begin to explain how much the entire night meant to me.  I was having a really rough time and they were there to cheer me up when I needed it the most.  I truly have some amazing friends.

Me with Gevil

Director Takuma

Just a short clip of Gevil's performance

karaoke~!

We started November out right....with KARAOKE! haha After an evening of drinking and hanging out, someone (I don't remember who) got the bright idea that we should go to karaoke at 1AM.  So, Molly, Nick, Trevor, Jun, Kenji, Charlotte, and I all got bundled up and headed to Nippori.  We stayed there singing karaoke until almost 5AM.  During which time, Molly fell soundly asleep in my lap so I was singing while trying to hold her there and not let her fall in the floor.  Actually...by the end of it almost everyone was asleep. At 5 we headed back so that they could all get some sleep before going to their home-stay families later that day.

 Taken when Molly was already passed out asleep and Kenji and I were trying our best to stay awake.

We look awake right?.......right???? >>

 Jun, like Molly, was completely passed out.