what a week!

started the week with a cold...sniff, sniff...the cold outside didn't make it any more bearable and with it also came a wave of semi-homesickness...i wants my mummy!!

Had dinner with two of dad`s friends yesterday. Got to the station where i was supposed to meet them early so wandered about the fancy stores to kill time. Here`s a shot of the Xmas display at Shinjuku station.

Shinjuku is an area in Tokyo and the station is usually the one most people go to to change trains so its VERY very busy and crowded, with waves of people pushing through every few minutes (as opposed to the rest of Tokyo which is only very busy.) A new `Shinjuku Terrace City` has been set up which basically just has (more!!) shops and restaurants to get people to spend (even!!) more money.

Here`s part of the Xmas display on the roof, have a strong suspicion it was set up the day after Halloween. The shops here go all out with the Xmas themes too coming up with any excuse to get people to spend more money.
Joy to the world, consumerism lives!



Dinner was both awesome and sad at the time. One friend of dads' just moved back to Japan last month after working in Fiji for 4 years. Hehe...you can tell he spent a lot of time in Fiji by his vakachis and complaints about the crowds on the train and the cold! He bought a parcel from home, Mum had sent sulus, a bula shirt (yippeee!!) and some spices to assist with my attempt to make Fiji curry in Japan! Funny how things happen when you most need them to, this helped immensely to snap out of the homesickness!!

The other friend of my dads (who is now more my friend than dads`) is probably one of the coolest Japaneza I have met here. He got me from the airport to my dorm on my first night here and is just all around a fun guy...my first friend in Tokyo and a very good one at that! there are some people you just click with and feel comfortable with immediately after meeting them...he's one of those people.

Unfortunately he and his family are moving to Pretoria in February as he is being posted there for work. :( So yeah. His parents live in Kyoto and so I have been offered free lodge at his folks' place whenever i decide to go up there...hopefully sometime soon, Kyoto boasts beautiful temples but also want to see some of the left over old architecture before the place is completely turned into concrete jungle like the rest of Japan!! oh! and i also get his bike...for free!!!

A good friend at the dorm, lets call her Neto (will refrain from using nationalities to refer to people as Kaos pointed out that it 'paints their characters with wide strokes'...woah! like totally deep dude!) So anyway, Neto found a flat close to uni and is sealing the deal today! Her boyfriend gets here at the end of the month and so it was kinda urgent but she also got a sweet deal so that's a double delight! Downside is that moving into the new flat means moving out of the dorm :(

boohoo! my partner-in-crime, alcohol/art gallery/shopping/just being randomly silly buddy, confidante and sorta neighbour (her room is down the corridor from mine and we have an understanding where instead of using the fone we'd just walk up or down the corridor and knock on each other's door at anytime!) is moving away! wow, been a good three months!

Hehe, for Halloween Neto forgot to get a costume for the dorm party so with whatever resources we had, we dressed her up as an ...Island girl. Yes, necessity IS the mother of the most random inventions. She`s also the only other person in half of Tokyo who was as mad as me to go swimming when we finally got to a beach at the end of summer. sigh! oh well, at least she`s moving closer to the uni so we still get to see her!!

Ok, time to go enjoy my weekend, yes its only Thursday but tomorrow's Japanese classes are canceled and Monday is ...yep, yet ANOTHER national holiday in Japan. I love this country!!! Cheers to a week that's as long as the weekend, and to one that started off miserably but is now as cheerful as the flowers on my new Bula shirt. :)