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 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

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.