やっほー

I have like a million things to say and was thinking of just making a whole bunch of separate posts but I figured whatever, just combine them all in one
SO HERE WE GO.





Since I last posted lots has happened! I'm now about 3 weeks into the semester and classes have actually become regular classes and not just a whole bunch of orientations. I'm registered in 13 courses, all once a week for 1.5 hours each. Some of them are excrutiatingly long and boring (i.e. all the talking in groups ones), but some are quite nice (my reading course and my more culture focused course). So far I barely have any homework at all (well, from the perspective of a sciences/maths major anyway) and as I may or may not have said in my last post, most classes have no textbook and no exams. So this is basically a big vacation year for me really.
In a few of my classes I've managed to make friends which makes it so much better because I've gone 2 years of school with pretty much none and it's super lonely. 

In my host family about 2 weeks ago we got a new exchange student, a girl from Mexico, Tania! She's really nice and we get along well and it's nice to have a friend around. A couple of days after she got here I joined her and her friends from her language school to go to my very first cat cafe. For those of you who have never heard of cat cafes, please google them (or just animal cafes in general), they're basically exactly what it sounds like, a cafe that has tonnes of cats walking around. 

When I say there are cats just wandering everywhere, I literally mean they are everywhere

My favourite cat there, Ponko

most of their faces were all squishy and unimpressed looking

especially this one

You can see some more of the cafe in this picture

A cat that constantly had its tongue out, cutest thing

More of the cafe, people literally just sit on the floor and play with cats

At one point the staff brought out like 10 trays of cat food and just laid them all over the floor. You could take some and attempt to lure the cats over to you.

A picture of the downstairs of the cafe (the main part)

Ponko was scared of me :(

Tania and I on Takeshita street

They attracted quite the crowd

Me in front of the crepe place where my beloved Koyama was

it's very sparkly (even though you can't tell in the photo) Also I found out that at Waseda's school festival at the beginning of November, one of the members of one of my favourite bands, AAA, will be coming!! So of course I went and got a ticket for that.  This past weekend one of my new friends from school, Kailey, and I went on an excursion to Tokyo's Pokemon Centre, the NTV tower, and Skytree! First we went to Tokyo's Pokemon Centre, which was magical because POKEMON!!! (Don't judge me) It is literally just a store full of Pokemon merchandise and I bought way too much (again).  The entrance! A picture taking area by the entrance Then I dragged her along to the NTV (Nippon Television) building, my favourite television station. I freaked out a bit because Koyama goes out to do the weather on their deck every week day and I got to stand in the exact same place Look familiar?  I also found this staircase that my favourite band, NEWS (Koyama is one of the members), had to run up in their old show The fact I've stood in the same exact place they have is kind of overwhelming I have plans now to go watch Koyama do the weather outside on a day I don't have school on a weekday, I'M GOING TO SEE KOYAMA LIVE IN PERSON. I'm going to faint. Anyway, here are some more photos from the NTV building The building! Me in front of the building Me and Imoto (a famous Japanese comedian, a regular on my absolute all time favourite show, ItteQ) One of the sets! I believe it is a set for PON! The result of me going into the NTV store... lots of Miyagawa Daisuke stuff... (my favourite comedian, also appears on ItteQ) Autographs from the ItteQ regulars! In the centre is Miyagawa's   Some clock thing on the building After the NTV building we made our way to Tokyo Skytree! We didn't go up to the top because A) expensive, and B) I had already been to the top of Tokyo Tower last year so didn't think it was necessary. At the bottom of Skytree there is a mall so we just went and shopped around. Skytree! The tallest building in Tokyo Skytree purikura with Kailey! The Hello Kitty store at Skytree The entrance to Skytree and my favourite store, the TV shop (if you couldn't tell already, I have a huge obsession with Japanese pop culture) And then the last thing I want to share is a trip my culture class went on this week to a shrine close to Waseda. I have since forgotten all the information about it, so I will just upload some pictures I took The entrance Before you go to the actual shrine you have to go here and wash your hands and mouth because you have to be clean to see the god The shrine has two fox statues around it, I have now forgotten what their purpose is, I think they may be messengers? Here is the actual shrine, you throw in a 5 yen coin (0.05$), ring the bell, bow twice, clap twice, then bow again The earless fox statue, you pet the fox's head while touching something you want to make better (e.g. if your stomach hurts, pet the fox's head while touching your stomach and it'll make you feel better) Better picture of the shrine, my teacher told us all the flag things are red because it is the colour demons hate (would've thought demons would like red...) Most, if not all, shrines in Japan have places for these, you get one of these wooden plaques and you write a wish you want granted on it So yeah, I think that's all I have to say! (& this was long enough, so I should probably stop)  またね、みんな！