Hello!

I'm not very good at updating very regularly am I. At least I seem to be updating every month though I guess. 

I've just been so busy doing.... absolutely nothing...

My break from school still continues, and I'm running out of things to do (and money). But I have been going and visiting lots of places so this post will just have lots of nice pictures I suppose.

                                               

Also! Grades from my first semester at Waseda came out recently and here's my report

                                                

All A's and A+'s somehow, a miracle. Waseda's marking system sure is easy. But sadly I looked on UBC's website and my marks don't even matter, they won't show up on my transcript, it'll just say I have the credit for them. Thanks UBC. 

Anyway, one of the places I went and explored was Kagurazaka! It's only one train stop away from Waseda yet I'd never been there. And it is super pretty. 

A long time ago there was a drama I watched which regularly featured scenes all over Kagurazaka, including this pretty cafe that sits along the river. I had no money so I didn't eat there, but it was pretty just to sit and look at

And this is a shrine they also always filmed at in the drama I watched.

Wandering down the tiny streets found this shrine/restaurant as well

Then afterwards went to Nakano Broadway! It's a nice area and has lots of shops (including IDOL SHOPS! Good thing I had no money to spend there)

The Asahi beer building across the river.

A weird thing I've found in Tokyo is that flowers are literally in bloom all year round. And yes, they are definitely real flowers. All throughout the winter flowers were in abundance. 

I'm pretty sure this area has been used for dramatic drama scenes.

Inside a shoutengai (商店街 - no real proper English term for this, it's just a usually covered street of shops)

The most popular tourist spot in Asakusa, Nakamise shopping street. 

Here there is a huge row of shops selling super touristy stuff and food.

Me looking unimpressed and awful at Nakamise

At the beginning of Nakamise there is this Kaminarimon (雷門 in English, thunder gate) that is the gate for the Sensoji Temple

Looking down Nakamise

And at the end of Nakamise you get to Sensoji, Tokyo's oldest temple. 

Sky Tree as seen from Sensoji

Me and my friend Kailey!

Got some Taiyaki (fish shaped pastry with filling inside, usually red bean)

Friend made me take a picture in front of the river for some reason. 

Then I decided to have an adventure and walk across the bridge and get to Sky Tree with no maps or GPS, just by following it.

I found it. 

I don't believe these are cherry blossoms as they haven't started blooming here yet, they're probably plum blossoms?

Friend also made me take a photo in front of the plum blossoms for some reason. I don't look impressed.

Sky Tree at night.

I don't know why but all the grass surrounding it is brown and looks like sand and the trees are all this shape

A car gate and more moats

And surrounding the park and Imperial Palace are lots of skyscrapers

I picked a really bad time to go as right when I got there it started hail/snow/raining really hard and it was super windy and cold so I didn't actually make it to the Imperial Palace itself, so this picture of this building will have to do.

And then I found a swan in the moat!!! So majestic.

Another thing I've been doing all the time recently is karaoke! The great Japanese pasttime. I'm not sure how familiar everyone back in North America and Europe are with asian style karaoke, but you get your own private room (definitely not a karaoke bar where you sing in front of the entire place) and a TV where the lyrics and videos are displayed. In Japan (I can't speak for other places in Korea or China/Hong Kong/Taiwan because I've never been to karaoke over there) there's also food menus you can order from whilst karaoke-ing. Karaoke is super popular here in Japan, Japanese people love it. People go after work, after school, on their free days, for parties, for get togethers, FOR EVERYTHING. And it is glorious. 

A green tea parfait I ordered at karaoke. You can kind of see the set up of the karaoke rooms in this photo

EXCITING NEWS!!!!!!!!!! NEWS is about to do a concert tour around Japan and I applied to get tickets a few months ago (that's how Japanese artists sell concert tickets, you basically have to enter a lottery for them and if you don't hit for tickets, then well, you don't get to go. Or you just buy them illegally from people who did) and I hit!!! For their Sapporo concert! So in about two weeks I will be flying off to the great north of Japan to see my #1 alltime favourite band in concert for the first time! And not only that but my best friend who I met because we were both NEWS fans is going to be flying over to Japan to come with me. I'M SO EXCITED.

In Japan at concerts things like huge posters and banners aren't typically allowed, so if you want to get the attention of the bands (or as they say in Japanese, to "appeal" to them) you can make these fans (called uchiwa) and put writing on them and such. I made two, the top one says "From Canada" (gotta get that foreigner appeal in there) and the one below just says "Kei-chan" aka Koyama's nickname.

Me and my Canada uchiwa

And that's basically it for the main stuff! Here's just some random photos from here and there:

I'm on a mission to eat all the cutest food in Tokyo

This ledge is a place where Koyama and another member of NEWS sat during one of their DVDs. So of course I needed a picture of me sitting exactly where they did. (Don't judge me)

Cute little side streets in Harajuku.

Anyone familiar with Starbucks and Japan will know about Starbucks Japan's special seasonal cherry blossom drinks. Right around the time cherry blossoms start blooming Starbucks starts selling cherry blossom themed drinks. This is this year's, the ~Caramelly Cherry Blossom Chocolate Frappuccino~.  If you're wondering what cherry blossom flavour tastes like, it's basically just cherry flavour. 

My #1 love, honey toast. I finally found a place that has a huge variety of honey toasts in Shibuya and I think this is a danger to my wallet and my weight. 

I spent an entire day at my host mother's piano school students' piano recitals. This is a photo of only like half of her total students. There's tonnes.

NEWS' new album came out so of course as usual I went off to see the displays!!!

A giant NEWS hanging on the wall too

Haruko and Yoshio cuddling on my bed with Sorajiro.

NEWS album ranked number 1

Japan is known for its various Kit Kat flavours and while walking around Tokyo Station I found a shop that had tonnes of different flavours. I picked this one, sweet potato/taro flavoured, because sweet potatoes are my favourite thing in the world.

Plum blossoms in Ikebukuro. I like their flowers more than cherry blossoms I think.

So that's what my past month and a bit has looked like. Since I have to save all my money for my trip up to Sapporo to see NEWS I'm taking this opportunity to just go take walks around places I've never been in Tokyo in order to not spend any money, so in the upcoming weeks I'll have lots more pictures of random places around the city. In addition to going to Sapporo, we are also going to be going to Sendai, so I'll have to make a long post about all that when I get back in early April.

And then school starts again! I've planned out my courses, I've definitely learnt from my mistakes and will be taking way higher level courses because my first term was a joke. They all seem really cool too and have themes instead of just "Let's Enjoy Talking in Japanese". I'll mainly be taking courses involving learning through Japanese music and Japanese dramas and movies which should be lovely.

So yeah, that's about it! Here's a happy fish