Christmas in school

Shumu as gingerbread man during Lucia. On his sign it says: "No nigger-jokes please".

Contestant as a geisha. I say watch out miss universe this swedish chick is HOT!!!!

We had a christmas party in school the day before the holiday begun. There were lots of different activities arranged. For example, a kimono dress-up, many people in ugly costumes, calligcraphy competitions, people making fried noodles, some korean pancake stuff, cookies, cakes or porridge done in the swedish way (which I cooked ^^). Anyway it wasn´t really that enjoyable. The food was free though so we didn´t have to pay for lunch later. The event that was worth coming to school for was the dragshow. Guys dressing up as various kinds of ladies entering a small stage to make some short performances. It was hilarious, sadly I didn´t get many pictures though because the crowd blocked my camera aim, and I was too far away from the stage. The winner was announced judged from the noise of the applause the audience caused when the competitors names were dropped. The best one won, a energetic and witty swedish guy named shumu. He looked like a real drag queen, reminded me of Diana Ross somehow haha... The picture of the gingerbread man is Shumu, but from Lucia though.

Sayonara Canadians

Ok, unfortunately Amanda and Paula didn´t stay in Japan very long (You should have skipped a week or two in Thailand I think "ey?"). Despite that your stay was soo short, I had a greeeat time! The ninja restaurant was really special, and I´m glad a certain hostfamily paid for our fancy meals, drinks and desserts :/ The frog and the bonzai tree was truly art, but not beautiful enough not to be devoured ;) Those dishes and the ninja-waiters tricks were really something. I liked the melon penetrated by a sword which later was withdrawn and let out seeping smoke. And about the karaoke, although we only were the three of us, it was niice. Amanda was pretty tired for some reason... haha. But she was doubtless in a party mood at the same time though. I got some pictures of her nearly sleeping on the couch. That "salaryman" (as they say in japan) who we accidently bumped into after the karaoke created a pretty odd situation haha.. well he was drunk and we made him lose his boss so 5/5 stars to us. Well I had loads of fun partying and spending time with you. I hope you´re doing fine in Canada, oh and Paula if you´ve got cash and sparetime for quite a while, the trip to India, or of course the "trans siberian railroad" is still of current interest!

Purikura

Paula finally managed to persuade us to take some purikura. The large amount of glitter everywhere, the stress about selecting the best pictures in time and decorate them before the countdown runs out always hit at first when I think about purikura. BUT when it´s finished I´m basically always glad to have put up with some trouble for it. The result usually turns out hilarious or ridiculous.. and they stock great memories! :D There is one thing I definately won´t change my mind about though, I will never buy a stupid purikura-album hahaha OMG.. it´s a crime!

Paula !!!

Only two days ago, Paula a veeery good ol´friend of mine who I haven´t met in two years came to visit Japan!! She and her friend Amanda (If you read this Amanda, notice that you´re not referred to as Amy, the taunting is done ok!? :P). They flew directly from a 6 weeks vacation in Thailand where they were bathing in the sun all day long. Here it´s winter though so they had a small temperature shock I think. The fact that they for the time being only had summer clothing was kind of funny I think hehe... But no actually poor guys. Anyway it was amazing and soooo indescribably fun to actually see and chat with Paula again! We´ve only talked to each other maybe 4 times or so on the phone since we split up from the exchange. Her friend Amanda is really nice, she actually taught me how to make Indian chai, or masala chai tea. I might need it written down on paper though and I think I´ll be able to find the spices and ingredients actually, I know just the place for it! Anyhow We met in Harajuku yesterday because they were planning a shopping spree, but it was also for practical reasons since they needed.... clothes. Rie- san a funny lady from the hostfamily where Paula and Amanda are staying right now also joined, she was nice to talk to and ha a great sense of humor. During the time we all strolled around the various stores hysterically searching for cheap and interesting clothes we chatted about lots and lots of stuff. Unfortunately we only visited ladies departments, but I do look "stunning" in dresses though so it didn´t matter to me at all of course. Later on we ate some Udon, and finally finished the night at a cafe with a relaxed atmosphere. The thing is they only stay until this friday so basically every minute of this week is planned in detail. It´s such a shame that they can´t stay longer.... well it can´t be helped. Tomorrow we´ll have karaoke night together with some school friends to Paula, Nozomi, and maybe Pim if she can make it. It´ll be great fun! I´ll take school with a grain of salt this week, it´s soon winter holiday soon anyways. This week will supeeerb!

Meeting old school pals!

I`ve met my closest school friends from my exchange many times since I came, Shouhei, Ooishi and Shinya. But this time when we gathered at the place we usually meet up, two other classmates showed up! I was gladly surprised to see them again. They´re studying at university in Tokyo as well, but still live in saitama not far from where their old highschool is located. Anyway since all of us were so indecisive, finding a bar took a while. But I´ve been in Shinjuku many times by now so I came up with enough examples and ideas of good spots. We went to a cool irish bar with a nice atmospere called the dubliner. We basically chatted about funny memories from school, and mimicked teachers we used to make fun of, talked about cultural related stuff and what we´re planning to to from now. It was really nice! But since it was Sunday and I had planned not to spend large amounts of money I though it would be wise to go home. But instead of doing that I ended up eating japanese food, and then finished the evening with going to an izakaya (a japanese style bar) to have a drink. I HAVE been taking good care of my budget so far, but from looking at my daily expenses this month I wouldn´t have guessed that I´m a mere student. It´s soon christmas though so of course so.. a lot of money goes to presents and cargo costs. I´ve also been eating out a lot recently. But no problem, I´ll just eat porridge with soymilk, rise and salad mix until christmas! Wish me luck.

Indian cousine party

About a week ago Maja and Linus invited me and some other friends to a party at their apartment close to Ikebukuro. Because of the fact that they´re very skilled when it comes to cooking (especially Linus since he took cooking classes for some time) we were very eager to find out exactly how delicious their homemade indian dish would taste. This put some pressure on them of course hehe... It was really tasty I must say. although they had difficulties with the frying pan and oven caused by some electrical problems for the time being (the blame is on sakura-house!) they managed really great! It was a stew made from peas and typical indian spices, together with nan bread and rice so it definately felt very authentic I think... yum yum! They weren´t completely satisfied with the taste of the nan bread though since it was kind of difficult to attain that acquired taste. But it was really good anyway. Later on we started drink pretty much beer and mixing drinks which lead to quite intense "drunkenness". We had a great time, but it was getting late so me and Pim had to hurry back home to catch the last train. Sadly we missed the last train traveling all the way to the final station :/ The train we catched stopped a bit further than halfway to our destination so we had not much choice but to walk the rest. Anyway we still hade some liquer and beer left so we started to drink beer and midori along the way to keep the mood and body temperature up. It was hilarious, we had deep talks about our own ideal opinions about this and that, what attitude you should have towards certain things during life etc etc. Pretty much interesting or trivial thoughts that leaks out much easier being severely intoxicated haha.. that was fun... I hope no one saw us stumbling alongside the railroad.