Tokyo! Tons of Photos Time!

It's been a long time since I lasted posted- sorry! Things have been busy and lots of traveling has been had! I was so thrilled that I spent a weekend four hours away in Tokyo!!! I had an incredible time :)

I was able to go to a Pokemon Center in Tokyo, which was crazy nostalgic because it was the same Pokemon Center I went to the first time I came to Japan! 

Below are images of the Kit Kat Store. Yes, you read that right. There is an actual places dedicated solely to the glory of Kit Kats. They sell flavors exclusive to this little store in Tokyo which includes a chili flavor the packs quite the aftertaste! 

Back in America, I work at a Ben and Jerry's. So I totally geeked out when I came across one of only three Ben and Jerry's in existence in Japan!!! I would have gone in, but I was with my boyfriend who is currently studying abroad in Tokyo (I went to Tokyo to visit him) and we were headed to a really cute parfait cafe!

The cafe was absolutely adorable! The inside was decorated like a little cottage and the tea pots and cups were Alice in Wonderland themed!

I had this absolutely delicious orange tea- yummmmmm!

 Next up was the dessert! There were both sundaes and parfaits on the menu. My hardcore sweet tooth decided that I wanted the Strawberry Banana Chocolate sundae and it was as good as it looked!

After the cafe, we wandered around Shibuya, which is a famous district of Tokyo. One of the biggest attractions of Shibuya is the world famous Shibuya Crossing, which is the crazy all-way street crossing that can been seen in almost any film about Japan. For example, you can see Bill Murry standing lost in the midst of Shibuya Crosing in Lost in Translation. A great movie, by the way!

Below is a statue of Hachi, a famous dog that waited by the train station for an owner that never returned because he had passed away. I had been wanting to visit the statue since before I arrived in Japan! It was great ti see in person!

Shibuya 109 is a huge shopping center for women's clothing. If you are in the mood to be at the heart of Japanese fashion, I highly recommend shopping here! I didn't have time to go inside, but sometime I will! Hopefully I will have more than a college student budget to get some awesome outfits there someday haha!  

I had a wonderful time in Tokyo! There is tons to do, way more than can be fit into one weekend, but we did as much adventuring as we could and I loved every minute of it :) I can't wait to go back there again! This weekend I will be headed on a school trip to Hiroshima and will share my experiences there with you all next week! I have so been looking forward to this trip :) In the meantime, enjoy my spamming of photos :P

Catssssssss

Anyone who knows me knows that I love cats. I have been going through cat withdrawal since coming to Japan and was finally able to spend time with cats again thanks to a cat cafe! In Japan, animal cafes are extremely popular. There are everything from owl cafes, cat cafes, doctor fish cafes, and even reptile cafes! You pay for the amount of time you want to spend with the animals and, since these are cafes, you may pay extra to have a drink and/or snack as well. The cafe I visited is called Neko no Jikan (which literally means Cat Time). 

One hour with the cats costs 900 yen (approximately $9) or you can pay 1100 yen ($11) for and hour with the cats plus a drink of your choice. I decided on the drink option and got to sit in a small cafe area drinking a caramel latte while waiting for my turn to see the cats. Only so many people are allowed in with the cats at a time, so you are put on a waiting list and must wait in the cafe area, so the drink option makes the waiting much more enjoyable! One of the cat cafe staff calls your name when they are ready for you and you remove your shoes and wash you hands so as to not bring any germs in to where the cats live. When you walk in, there are cats sleeping on cat beds and on wall shelves, along with playing with the other customers. One even decided to take a nap in a man's lap for his entire hour!

Zzzzzzz

This guy was super soft and fluffy!

The white cat was coming over to everyone and seemed really curious!

Visiting Neko no Jikan was a really cool experience and definitely something you wouldn't be able to find in America! I love everytime I get to try out something new to me here! Spending time with the cats was lots of fun and I am planning on visiting the cafe again for sure!

A Day in the Diet of an Exchange Student

Saturday morning for this particular exchange student begins at around 11 am. Time to stumble into the kitchen and slap some breakfast together. Today's choice- an egg on toast, a cup of coffee, and a giant bottle of water. 

After some time working on starting the day properly, a trip to the vending machines downstairs is in order. Japanese vending machines offer a wide variety of types and flavors of drinks. To change things up from my usual coffee drink, I ended up buying a strawberry milk which was super sweet!

As the day moves on, it comes time for lunch. Nothing quite like heating up a frozen pork bun in the microwave and eating it while watching some Japanese television!

Then it's time to go adventuring out into Japan with some friends! First stop- a bakery cafe! You pick your bakery goods off the shelves, then order a drink and bring it all upstairs to the sitting area. I chose a chocolate croissant, a Hokkaido Melon Bread (which tastes like watermelon), and a cafe mocha! Yum!

After an hour or two of wandering around and shopping, it was off to karaoke! You can order drinks and food to be brought to your private karaoke room while you belt out Backstreet Boys and Avril Lavigne classics at the top of your lungs with good friends. I got an apple pie to go with my crazy singing!

Not the healthiest of days for sure, but definitely tasty! I promise I don't eat like this everyday :P This is just what happens when I go adventuring on Saturdays! You have to go a little all out every now and then!

Long Adventure Post Time

After a full week of adventures in Japan, I can confidently say that Kansai Gaidai is AWESOME! This has been the most incredible week!

 The week was spent sitting through orientation sessions, making lots of friends, and eating tons of great Japanese food! I had to take a language placement exam and register for classes as well as figure my way around Hirakata City. On one of the adventures trying to figure everything out, my friend/roommate Shawnae and I tried as best we could to find 枚方市駅 (Hirakata City Train Sation). It involved about an hour of wandering, a chat with a police man, and a bus ride to before we finally made it to the station. All was well, though, because there was a Starbucks across from the station haha! We bought electronic train cards, which are incredibly useful in Japan when using the bus and train system, and did some shopping. 

 Some comics from a convenience store- totally different from in America!

One night, we found an incredible little noodle shop! It's about a 5-10 minute walk from my dorm and had absolutely delicious udon! Nothing better than little hole-in-the-wall restaurants!

 Keeping with the theme of adventuring (there was A LOT of adventures this past week), one evening was spent taking the train into Osaka!

 A ferris wheel on top of a building in Osaka!

Once in Osaka, we headed for an all-you-can-eat sweets shop. You pay 1,500 yen (~$15) for 70 minutes of unlimited cakes, sweets, dinner food, and drinks!

After an epic 70 minutes of relentless cake eating, we all went to the Osaka Pokemon Center! It was filled to the brim with every Pokemon-related product imaginable. 

Of course I had to buy some things while I was there!

My Pokemon Center purchases!

School begins on Monday and I have officially gotten into all the classes I wanted- woo hoo! I'm sure there will be plenty more adventures to come as the school year officially starts! 

And so it begins...

I began my day at the airport, waiting excitedly for the 13 hour flight that would take me to Japan. Mind you, 13 hours in an airplane isn't the most enjoyable or interesting experience. I have to give so much credit to the JAL staff though because they made the flight awesome! The food was delicious and they were always serving yummy hot tea! The plane itself was one of the huge dream liners and was super comfortable! 

      Helllooooo delicious ice dream 

The scenery from in the air was gorgeous! Check this out! 

Flying is always a cool experience! I still don't think it's fully set in that I'm in Japan, but I am so glad to be here :) I'm in Narita airport right now waiting for my flight to Osaka, so in the mean time enjoy a photo of the Japanese coffee I hade today :P 

Almost There!!!

I'm a little over a week away from heading off to Japan for the whole school year! Woohoo!

She doesn't seem to care too much...

My family had a get-together/party for me on Sunday as a last hooray before I head off :) It was lots of fun to get together with my extended family and share a super cute cake!

It will be so strange not being at my normal college and at home for holidays this coming school year. However, I have been planning this experience for the past years and am over the moon excited that it is about to begin! I picked up yen from the local bank and have been doing shopping for light weight clothing, shoes, and other supplies. I have Outlander by Diana Gabaldon loaded onto my phone and ready to go for the 13 1/2 hour flight across the Pacific Ocean. It will be just a matter of days before I fly off to Japan (which stills seems hard to believe!) Packing everything efficiently is the biggest challenge right now so I have started pulling everything together.

I cannot wait to get to Japan, but for now I am just relaxing and knitting for the next week :) 

I'll post again when I am in Japan!