Fun in Tokyo

Hey~!

So early this week, I went to Tokyo to meet with my family and to hang out with my friend. I went from Thursday night and left on Sunday night. Although it was short period of time, it was very tiring!!! >.<

Anyway, I went to Tokyo on Thursday night with my mom because she was leaving Japan the next morning. While my mom stayed until 4:30am to catch her flight, I stayed over until 10am. Around 11:30am, I met up with my cousin at an area called Ginza in front of the Kabuki Theatre. The theatre looked BEAUTIFUL on the outside! I wish I could of gone inside, but for some reason it was closed that day. :/ After meeting up, my cousin and I went to a sushi restaurant nearby, which a family member recommended to us. I did not catch the name of the restaurant, but it was delicious! My cousin and I had a kaidendon, which is a just various sashimi topped of rice.

After eating, we went shopping around Ginza. We first went to a clothing store called G.U., which is affiliated with Uniqlo. However, it is much cheaper! I bought a shirt for ¥990 (approximately ~$9.90). I wanted to buy a dress as well, but it didn't look good on me. -.-'' After, we went to Uniqlo and I bought a camisole, which supposedly very cooling during the summer. My cousin and I went shopping a little more, however, we didn't buy anything else.

That evening, I parted ways with my cousin and slept over at my younger cousin's house. The next day (Friday), I went to a hotel called Villa Motosu located in Yamanashi Prefecture. My family and I always go there when we all get together. Usually we go there for a few days, but this time we only stayed for two days and one night. On the first day, my younger cousin and I played tennis for about an hour. It was my first time so I was really bad at it, but by the end, I was able to serve (kind of)! Later that night, my family and I went in a bath, played table tennis, and then ate dinner (which was a course!).

The next day, we didn't do much besides eat breakfast and go in a bath. We had to leave to Tokyo early the next day since my cousin had work. While my cousin was off to work in Tokyo, I went to see the Sky Tree with my cousin's mother and my great aunt. The Sky Tree was HUGE! We went up to one of the observation deck, which was at around 350 meters. I was able to look out at the whole city and it was really beautiful! However, it was a bit foggy and I wasn't able to look out at the distance. If it was a clear day, I would of seen Mt. Fuji! >.<

After going to the Sky Tree, we went to Asakusa. We went inside the Senso-ji, which is a buddhist temple. I didn't pray, but I did look around the shops nearby. After looking around Tokyo, I went to have dinner with more family members at a restaurant near Asakusa. I had some really good kamameshi (rice in kettle pots). We had various kinds of kamameshi, but I liked chicken kamameshi the most.

On the last day, I went to Shibuya around noon saying goodbye to my family. For about 3 hours, I walked around Shibuya by myself, shopping at various stores. I mainly went to Shibuya 109, which is a gigantic shopping mall. It had several floors with various clothing stores. To me, the clothes were all flashy gyaru style, which is fine, but not really for me. Also, many of the clothes were very expensive. It was just nice looking at it.

After looking around Shibuya, I met up with one of my best friend from NYC. We went shopping in Harajuku at Tekeshita Dori. I've been there several times already so I know some stores in the area. We went to several clothing stores, but I only bought two things. I bought a brownish-orange shirt for ¥1050 (approximately ~$10.50) from a store called Sango. I also bought a cute cat eye mask for ~¥290 (approximately ~$2.90). I went back to Nagoya at night by bullet train. It was all so fun and I was so glad I got to spend time with family and friends.

Back in Nagoya, I spent time mostly by myself, relaxing at home. During the next week, I went to the movie theatre with a friend of mine on Thursday night. We watched the new Miyazaki movie called Kaze Tachinu. It was about a young man name Jiro Hirokoshi who chases his dream to make airplanes. The movie spans about 10 years and although the story line was slow, it nice lighthearted, summer movie, which I didn't expect. I expected the movie to be more depressing, but that wasn't the case at all. I recommend this movie for anyone who doesn't want to see anything heavy.

I also made some new dish! I made mentaiko cream pasta with sausage and onions. It tasted delicious and I got the recipe from the website http://justonecookbook.com/blog/. It has various Japanese recipes and they are all so simple! :] Anyway, until next week, sayonara~!