I tend to do that on test days.
Yeah, we had a midterm today.
Professor Hall assured us that it was nothing to worry about.
It really wasn't.
The test itself was open book.
We had to write 2 paragraphs about any article we wanted and relate it to a concept we learned in class.
It was no sweat at all.
Some of us finished early and we got to go back to the hotel to drop some of our stuff off.
We were to meet back at the station again, yeah class wasn't over.
Our next destination was Omote-Sando/Gaiemmae area because Professor Hall wanted to show us several good examples of architecture in Tokyo.
By the way, on the subway, I saw an ad where inside the red circle was my name written in katakana.
I dunno if you can see it though.
It was pretty crazy.
So we arrived at Gaiemmae and Professor Hall directed us towards several buildings.
[LOL Demetri]
Some general comments were made about the surrounding architecture.
We were then led to a second destination.
I tried to get a certain shot, but Lali photobombed me.
Well it was a good thing she did, so I had a chance to correct contrast and the frame.
So by this time, we were kind of wondering what kind of place we were in.
Then we got up to this building:
I don't think we would have ever guessed what this building was (behind Prof. Hall) without either going inside or him telling us.
It was a shrine.
Kind of a modern day sort of shrine, to be exact.
Then we wandered out to a cemetery.
I don't know if it's disrespectful or not to take pictures here, but I did it anyways, since I didn't know when the next time I would see a cemetery would be.
(I think there was a funeral going on that day, as you can probably see)
We were then led to one final destination in Omote-Sando.
It was the Prada building.
Sorry about this shot I was like waaaaay up close.
It served as a good example for several points that he wanted to make about architecture.
We went inside and checked it out.
A lot of the shit in there was really ugly and expensive though.
No different from high end stores in the US.
After that, we were pretty much done with class.
We wandered around and did some boring stuff before winding up at an okonomiyaki place.
Our group got split into two tables again.
I was with Josh, Eric, Cheryl, Lauren, and Valerie.
We decided to get the "all you can eat" lunch special.
But when it came to making our own okonomiyaki, we had no idea what the hell we were doing.
We just experimented around with the first few ones.
And before long, we were pros!
I put all sorts of toppings on my pieces and they were delicious.
Then the process just flowed naturally.
...that is, until we got full.
Okonomiyaki is good, but I don't think it's something that you should do at an "all you can eat" setting.
I got kind of sick of it after a short while.
Oh yeah we got this other thing called m*****-yaki (it was some sort of m-word, I can't remember what it was).
It was a bitch to make and a bitch to eat so we didn't order any more.
After that we started to wander into an art gallery...
...when it started to rain.
Hard.
I didn't have my umbrella on me, which I should've, but I was being a dumbass.
So I didn't really have any other choice but to go back to the hotel.
I went back with Maaike and Nathan.
Demetri came back a little while later and he attempted to take a nap while I was watching Tokyo Godfathers.
Good movie, by the way.
Anyways, like I said in the previous post, today our group had a planned outing with some of the Jikei guys.
They told us the previous few days to meet at the Nishi-Kasai station at 7:30 to play with sparklers.
It was me, Demetri, Josh, Nathan, Maaike, Lauren, Eric, Teresa, and Shunya.
We slowly assembled to the train station where Kengo, Miyu, Mana, and Erika were waiting for us (Erika's not in this picture for some reason).
When all of us gathered, Miyu and Kengo led us to the river, which was about a 10-15 minute walk.
I talked with Kengo and Miyu a lot about their day and their interests and such. Their English is kick-ass compared to my Japanese.
It's SGI fun. They're really nice people.
We got to the side of the river, where we would be messing around with fireworks that they bought.
I brought my flash just for this occasion, but as they were setting up, I noticed something weird.
The flash wasn't attaching to the top of my camera.
When I put a light on it, I found something that really annoyed me.
One arm of the hot shoe was bent inwards.
My flash was useless.
As a result, the following firework pictures are taken with long exposure times in the dark, making them shakey or blurry, and I apologize in advance. I did take SOME pictures with the pop-up flash.
I tried to bend the arm back while they were setting up, but all of my attempts were futile.
So I just tried to plan out the shots without flash.
So moving on, they started the fireworks.
It was super fun.
GIGANTIC PICTURE DUMP!!!
This is when I started to use the pop up flash more.
You can tell which ones they are.
[Longer exposure]
Shunya looks PISSED off in this one.
We used up all the fireworks and we all decided to go out to dinner!
[Oh, there's Erika]
It was a really nice walk back, and I talked with Kengo and Miyu more. All of them were really awesome to hang out with though; Kengo, Miyu, Mana, and Erika.
I joked around with him a lot, poking fun at Bakemonogatari and calling it "Tabemonogatari".
Then I said to him "Kudemonogatari" and made up characters like Ringo-san and Banana-san and he just cracked up.
We ended up eating at this family restaurant place, but our group was so big that we had to split up the group.
Me, Eric, Lauren, and Josh got put at a smaller table to the side of the bigger group.
Josh was mad salty about that.
I do have to admit that it was pretty lonely hearing all of them laugh heartily on the other side.
Eventually though, the adjacent table cleared up and we moved over to join them.
LOL Erika
Then I took this group picture.
Moar fun times were had.
Eric and I shared a plate of fries, and that was it.
Most of the other people got steaks and stuff ("hamburg").
There was a LOT of fucking around that dinner.
For example:
- Erika now thinks that my name is "Sexy-san" and now refers to me as such. Much hilarity followed.
- She also pretended that Demetri was a bottle of soy sauce on the table and yelled "shut up!" to it. We all just lost it.
- People started showing off all the weird shit they could do with their bodies and it was freaken insane.
- Demetri tried speaking Japanese and everyone laughed at him. I feel bad cuz this always happens but it was all in good humor this time.
ETC
We paid our stuff.
And..
KENGO
And...
MIYU
I also caught Miyu trying to copy Shunya doing the robot.
LOL Maaike
We all walked them to the station (since none of them live here) and what ended up happening was we ended up just hanging out with them in front of the station some more. I don't think anyone wanted to leave.
When I took this picture...
...Kengo noticed that I took a picture and he ran over to look at it.
Then he wanted to try taking pictures so I gave him my camera.
I had it set to multishots so he held the shutter down for too long and took 3 pictures at once.
Here's one.
When he heard the 3 shutters go off, he started laughing and jumping up and down, being really animated. It was so funny to see and it was really nice to see that these guys had really opened up to us like this.
Then he tried to take a picture of both of us, but with the bulky DSLR, it's quite difficult.
Maaike saw, and decided to help us out.
She took this:
Fuck yeah.
If we messed around too much, though, they would miss their train, so unfortunately they had to leave.
In conclusion, today was a probable candidate for one of the best days I've had yet in Japan.
I'll see Kengo and Miyu again in the Kamakura trip we'll have next Wednesday, and maybe some others.
WHY THE HELL DOES ERIKA NEVER SHOW UP IN ANY OF THE PICTURES?
It's like she's a vampire or something.
But yeah.
Anyways. In other news...
NOBODY is going to Kyoto this weekend.
Everyone failed to book a hotel and as a result, the trip was called off.
Tomorrow, I really don't know what I'm going to do.
But I'll find out soon enough.
Good movie, by the way.
Anyways, like I said in the previous post, today our group had a planned outing with some of the Jikei guys.
They told us the previous few days to meet at the Nishi-Kasai station at 7:30 to play with sparklers.
It was me, Demetri, Josh, Nathan, Maaike, Lauren, Eric, Teresa, and Shunya.
We slowly assembled to the train station where Kengo, Miyu, Mana, and Erika were waiting for us (Erika's not in this picture for some reason).
When all of us gathered, Miyu and Kengo led us to the river, which was about a 10-15 minute walk.
I talked with Kengo and Miyu a lot about their day and their interests and such. Their English is kick-ass compared to my Japanese.
It's SGI fun. They're really nice people.
We got to the side of the river, where we would be messing around with fireworks that they bought.
I brought my flash just for this occasion, but as they were setting up, I noticed something weird.
The flash wasn't attaching to the top of my camera.
When I put a light on it, I found something that really annoyed me.
One arm of the hot shoe was bent inwards.
My flash was useless.
As a result, the following firework pictures are taken with long exposure times in the dark, making them shakey or blurry, and I apologize in advance. I did take SOME pictures with the pop-up flash.
I tried to bend the arm back while they were setting up, but all of my attempts were futile.
So I just tried to plan out the shots without flash.
So moving on, they started the fireworks.
It was super fun.
GIGANTIC PICTURE DUMP!!!
This is when I started to use the pop up flash more.
You can tell which ones they are.
We used up all the fireworks and we all decided to go out to dinner!
It was a really nice walk back, and I talked with Kengo and Miyu more. All of them were really awesome to hang out with though; Kengo, Miyu, Mana, and Erika.
I joked around with him a lot, poking fun at Bakemonogatari and calling it "Tabemonogatari".
Then I said to him "Kudemonogatari" and made up characters like Ringo-san and Banana-san and he just cracked up.
We ended up eating at this family restaurant place, but our group was so big that we had to split up the group.
Me, Eric, Lauren, and Josh got put at a smaller table to the side of the bigger group.
Josh was mad salty about that.
I do have to admit that it was pretty lonely hearing all of them laugh heartily on the other side.
Eventually though, the adjacent table cleared up and we moved over to join them.
Then I took this group picture.
Moar fun times were had.
Eric and I shared a plate of fries, and that was it.
Most of the other people got steaks and stuff ("hamburg").
There was a LOT of fucking around that dinner.
For example:
- Erika now thinks that my name is "Sexy-san" and now refers to me as such. Much hilarity followed.
- She also pretended that Demetri was a bottle of soy sauce on the table and yelled "shut up!" to it. We all just lost it.
- People started showing off all the weird shit they could do with their bodies and it was freaken insane.
- Demetri tried speaking Japanese and everyone laughed at him. I feel bad cuz this always happens but it was all in good humor this time.
ETC
We paid our stuff.
And..
KENGO
And...
MIYU
I also caught Miyu trying to copy Shunya doing the robot.
We all walked them to the station (since none of them live here) and what ended up happening was we ended up just hanging out with them in front of the station some more. I don't think anyone wanted to leave.
When I took this picture...
...Kengo noticed that I took a picture and he ran over to look at it.
Then he wanted to try taking pictures so I gave him my camera.
I had it set to multishots so he held the shutter down for too long and took 3 pictures at once.
Here's one.
When he heard the 3 shutters go off, he started laughing and jumping up and down, being really animated. It was so funny to see and it was really nice to see that these guys had really opened up to us like this.
Then he tried to take a picture of both of us, but with the bulky DSLR, it's quite difficult.
Maaike saw, and decided to help us out.
She took this:
Fuck yeah.
If we messed around too much, though, they would miss their train, so unfortunately they had to leave.
In conclusion, today was a probable candidate for one of the best days I've had yet in Japan.
I'll see Kengo and Miyu again in the Kamakura trip we'll have next Wednesday, and maybe some others.
WHY THE HELL DOES ERIKA NEVER SHOW UP IN ANY OF THE PICTURES?
It's like she's a vampire or something.
But yeah.
Anyways. In other news...
NOBODY is going to Kyoto this weekend.
Everyone failed to book a hotel and as a result, the trip was called off.
Tomorrow, I really don't know what I'm going to do.
But I'll find out soon enough.
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