Blog: Japan Day 3 Part 2: Harajuku and Shinjuku

Of course I couldn't not go here at least once!  It was only a very quick trip, since I have been here before many times.  It was nice to see these places I haven't been in so long, and be reminded that it wasn't just a dream!

I went to the new Harajuku Etude House

And here's just random quick pictures

I know this isn't particularly interesting to you guys, but I got to revisit the first conbini I ever went to when I first went to Japan, in Harajuku! XD

Anyway, after that, we headed to Shinjuku to meet some of Takeru's friends for drinks at an izakaya.  We hit some pretty rough rush hour traffic on the Yamanote line...

Can you find Godzilla?

This is the inside of the izakaya! It was called: 磯丸水産 (Isomarusuisan)

And here comes the food porn...

Japanese alcohol is the best!

After that, we went to karaoke and ate ramen, but I was a little drunk and didn't take pictures of it XD  That's all for that day!

Blog: Japan Day 2, Part 2: Shimokitazawa

Takeru said that I would love Shimokitazawa, and he was so right!  It might be my favorite place to shop in Japan so far.  There were so many secondhand and vintage stores there.  Of course there will always be a special place in my heart for Harajuku and Shibuya for shopping ♡

I even spotted a little bit of lolita there!

I found two Gunne Sax dresses at this store! This was one of my favorite secondhand stores for sure.  Really cheap and absolutely full of  cool clothes

After shopping, we went to a game center in Shimokitazawa to do purikura and play some games!

Japan definitely knows what a girly-girl like me wants and needs ♡ This little makeup corner is for getting pretty for purikura.  Lots of girl's bathrooms even have extra mirror sections specifically for doing makeup.  Some purikura places have some costumes that you can wear for the pictures too!

Also, in the purikura section of game centers, boys aren't even allowed unless accompanied by girl.  So, yes to cute purikura with boyfriends, but no creepy lurker guys! ♡

It was exciting to use my Nesica card thingy again and access my old account!

One of my favorite games!  He still beat me though....

I couldn't figure out how to change my thingy from being fries...also I did horribly, but I was so happy they had this song!

This is probably the best I've ever done at this game!

Before leaving Shimokitazawa and heading to an izakaya to meet Takeru's coworkers, we ran into one more cute, literally hole-in-the-wall, store that was having a going out of business sale, and we haggled the price down on a skirt from $150 all the way to $60!

Matcha flavored Baileys! One of the things that I wanted to try while I was in Japan. I was lucky to find it on the menu here.

What all I drank....

And that ends day 2 after a quick ride back home sitting on the back of Takeru's bicycle!

Holidays: Christmas and New Years

Sorry, I've been super busy and lazy, and I have so much to post!! I'm going to have to break it up into more than one...My next post will be on New Years shopping and sales in Japan and fukubukuros, and stuff I've bought lately. Gotta finish these posts before I go to Tokyo in a few days! =D
 
Me and Emily did a bit of exploring a few days before Christmas.

 Such pretty dresses!! <3 Japan just does everything fashion perfectly.

On Christmas Eve, we all had a little Christmas party together =] It was so much fun, and I'm glad I had an opportunity to get to know some of the other exchange students better. We even had KFC for our chicken dinner as current Japanese tradition goes, and I made some eggnog again, since everyone liked it so much the first time I made it.

Also got to hang out with my Jer and friends a lot <3

New Year's Eve we went to Gens

My friend Kyoko took me and Jer to the Atsuta Jingu to do hatsumode (pray for the New Year).

So many people!

Me and Jer went to Higashiyama Koen/zoo, but we got there when it was almost ready to close so we didn't have a lot of time. After that, we went to the top of the Higashiyama Sky Tower.

This group randomly wanted pictures with me...I feel like a celebrity sometimes with all the random pictures people take of me! Or like I'm one of the zoo attractions...I like attention but sometimes it's a bit weird XD

Silver 500 yen coin! Usually they're gold

We also went to this really awesome izakaya =] I think it's called Nipachi and everything (almost) was 280 yen, even drinks.

You order your food using this little touch screen thingy!