Weekend success

What a weekend! As I suspected, I got right on top of exploring once I got settled in my apartment. The journey has initiated its next phase. Work was good on Saturday. Classes went OK and the business end of things went just fine. Actually, our shibucho (divisional manager) came in, but she was just checking numbers, so I wasn't really affected any sort of way by her visit. The night ran long for the Japanese staff though. They were talking to prospective students still as I left the school at 9ish. Poor guy and gals =/

While they took care of business I headed to dinner with my American as well as one of my Japanese colleagues to a familiar spot. It was this family-run Indian/Bangladesh restaurant near my pad I have been to three times already since I've been here and is really good (it was even recognized by the governor of Yokohama). I need to get some photos of their food huh? Anywho, the three of us chatted away the time and made a delightful evening of a satruday night.

Sunday marked my first official trip away from where I sleep with the intent to explore Japan . . . finally. It was awesome for that reason AND that I got to meet up with one of my friends from the states and explore Tokyo together. The first checkpoint was to meet up in the town of Shibuya. Some of the things that I have been told about shibuya is that it is known for its shopping, eating, and nightlife. The trip we took there confirmed that. We went shopping for a bit and just walked around looking at shops and people till we got lost and ended up walking to Harajuku (next town down; not far at all) LOL.

Unfortunately it started raining on our little walk and the rain probably chased off all the Harajuku kids, cause we didn't see all that many. We did see a few here and there though, so it wasn't a total loss. We of course walked down crowded ass (plus umbrellas!) Takeshita street and checked out a handful of the little shops along the way and all around town there as well. An interesting sight we saw was a forever 21 that had a Line outside it just to get in and an H&M next door with the same situation. The even crazier thing was that everyone leaving forever 21 had a bag with merchindise in it! FOREVER 21 IS MAKING A KILLING IN HARAJUKU! From there we then decided to stop at an English style pub for a quick lunch.

This is where I need to mention that my freind decided to change her shirt cause it was hot out. What she changes in to was essentially a sash that covered her breasts. It was halter top style, tied at the base of her back (thats right, no back at all) and a ring kept the front together. Guys and girls were checking her out EVERYWHERE we went. It was really entertaining. She was quite the scandal that day. I even heard a Japanese woman go: " Ehhhhh!? shexy Desuyo!" As we went into the pub and she though we could't hear. Quite entertaining . . . and it wasn't hard on my eyes either =P

Anywho, from lunch, we went next door to a local Karaoke place and sang our hearts out for an hour. Trying to talk to the staff and get an English songbook was interesting, but we got the job done hehe. Afterward, we took the train back to Shibuya where we actually randomly ran into a store we were looking for earlier and couldn't find. My friend got another racey shirt that suited her style and we were off once again. It was 6 pm and we walk up to a dance club that we saw along the way and heard them playing music (we wanted to dance). We asked if we could get in, but alas, it was a college event. No biggie; we just went to the club nest door called Lounge Neo Club Asia and got in fine. WOOHOO!! we danced for practically two hours straight and as we were the only foreigners in the joint, we were quite the attraction. Many people came up to us, danced with us or took our picture. It was a feakin blast. I have been dying to dance since I got here and finally did. I'm so happy!

After that we headed back to the JR Shibuya station and went our seperate ways. It was a wonderful adventure. Thank you Stephanie!

Today I slept in, as you can imagine, and then was productive as hell. I went to the community sports/recreation center here and used the gym. Its small, but good enough for my workout regimen. It is only missing pull up bars and another machine I can't recall the name of, but I can adjust for the lacking easily enough. after that, I picked up some things for the house, organized all my official and billing documents (for here) into folders and did all my laundry and ironing. I will head to sleep tonight with nothing to worry bout. Love it.

Before I go, check the picks below. They are of the route I walk to work everyday. Usually there aren't the streamers though. They went up last week and I really like how festive they have made my trek. I will try to find out the name of the holiday for which the city is flying these decorations. I just wanted to share the sight though. Enjoy!