Sophisticated Fun: That Didn't Suck...

The title of this blog post happens to be one of Mary's favorite sayings. It was well-used this weekend, which we spent in 東京 (Tokyo). Heather invited a bunch of us out to 本厚木 (Honatsugi) to spend our last weekend before winter vacation. Honastugi is about 40 minutes from Tokyo and about 2 1/2 hours on a local train from me. I met Mary in 沼津 (Numazu) and we met up with Heather at her station, then off to find Mandy at the 新宿 (Shinjuku) station in Tokyo. Poor Mandy. She was coming from 仙台 (Sendai) and has never left the area since she got there in July. If you don't already know, the Tokyo train/subway system is ridiculous. In case anyone else is wondering, Shinjuku is a place, not a train. We all wandered the streets of Shinjuku, impressed by the bright lights and the crowds and looking for a place that would suit everyone's needs for an acceptable dinner. Instead, we took photo stickers and stared at the men that stand around with pretty hair. We eventually found a little smokey "izakaya" (Google says it's a tavern, but I think of it as a step up from a pub. it's more restaurant than bar). We drank lots of sours and ate lots of little fried snacks. Delicious. After dinner, we went to karaoke, drank WAY too much and sang some awful songs. I made friends with the cabby on the way back to Heather's after our little bathroom excursion. It was great.

Pretty view of Mt. Fuji from the train!

歌舞伎町--Kabuki-cho

The next day we had another adventure to 秋葉原 (Akihabara), the electronics district in Tokyo. These gorgeous yellow trees lined the streets and even though it was a tad cold, it was a beautiful day! We had lunch at the ガンダム (Gundam) Cafe. I was told once that Gundam are like Japanese transformers ( I also thought that transformers were Japanese, but apparently that is not true either).. They are things that morph into war-fighting robots (I'm sorry Heather if I get this wrong) and they now have their own cafe. Cool. I had lunch with robots with the strangest taste in food. I had a pizza, topped with what appeared to be potato salad and a drizzle of basil pesto. Why do they think they can just throw any picnic side-dish on top of a pizza? (**That reminds me. I had asked one of my students what kind of pizza she liked and she said salami. Now, I know there's pepperoni and Canadian bacon and whatever, but I don't believe I've ever heard of salami. I then told her my favorite is cheese and pineapple and I think she almost threw up in her mouth).

He's so cute!

Pretty yellow trees!

So, I'm not cool enough to give you all the statistics about the ridiculous amounts of anime and electronics that are produced or whatever happens here. Feel free to use my friend Google to find that information out on your own. We made our way to 浅草 (Asakusa) where we went to the 浅草寺 (Sensou-ji temple). The outer gate of the temple is called 雷門 (Kaminari-mon), which translates to "Thunder gate". We had asked someone to take our picture and as we're standing there, waiting for the guy to snap the shot, a bunch of older people with giant cameras squat down and immediately start snapping photos of the four of us. I wasn't aware that any of us are celebrities. I mean, if you're looking for foreigners there are plenty to choose from. All I have to say is, if you're going to put my face on a brochure, you better come find me because I want my cut. This face ain't cheap. I have kids that spend 7,500 yen to talk to this face for an hour. Rude. Anyway, we wandered around the temple grounds and there was a little festival thing happening. We ate some street vendor food and made our way back to the station to part our ways. We did run into a guy selling oranges who has no concept of bartering. He was trying to sell his oranges, 8 for 500 yen. We said that wasn't bad, but we don't need 8 oranges, they're too heavy. He said, "Ok. I give you 10 for 500 yen." Seriously sir? We may just want one. He said, "Ok. 12 for 200 yen." Mary couldn't take it anymore and just bought them.
It was a fantastic weekend. Just what we all needed before we finish out the six days of work we have left this year. This weekend did not suck, as Mary would say. I cannot wait for this weekend because I can finally see my parents!! I will meet them in 横浜 (Yokohama) on Sunday and they will be here for the next 2 weeks. Well, until next time! またね！