Dear Tokyo.

Dear Tokyo,

I hate you.

Sincerely,

Angel's wallet.

No really, I LOVE Tokyo! I took the night bus to Tokyo this morning and it was a long boring drive. We stopped about 3 times for an hour each for potty breaks though, which was nice.

Mike drive me to the station last night and we went out for coffee so I didn't have to wait alone. What a nice guy. :3

So yes, potty breaks. I thought that was nice. I also learned that they have urinals in the ladies washrooms in Japan apperantly. Don't believe me? See for yourself.

Yup.

So upon arriving in Tokyo this morning, we got here at like...5:40am. So I couldn't check in to my hotel for obvious reasons. However, I spent about 20mins trying to figure out where to take the train. It worked out. I got myself a suica card for while I'm here. It's like a prepaid train pass. I just pop 2000yen on it and it lasts me a while.

So while I was walking to the hotel this morning, I had to walk through a temple courtyard. It was lovely and peaceful.

 I also passed a poster for Phantom of the Opera by the Takarazuka Revue! I thought Ash would want to see.

 Since I couldn't check in, I just dropped off my bags and decided to walk about for a bit. I went to the temple and sat and read for a bit, then I went to the local Starbucks and got breakfast. Bitter coffee burnt caramel frappuccino. No for real, that's what it was called. The guy who served me was really cute too, Ahahah.

After that I decided that I wanted to go to Harajuku today. So I hopped on the train. It was then that I realized I didn't know where it was. So I decided either Harajuku or Shinjuku, which ever came first, thats where I went. It was Shinjuku.
When I got there it was like 9:30am, so everything was closed. I walked around and got my bearings and played in a game center for a bit.

 

It was fun. After that I walked around for a bit more and remembered OMG. Marui One is in Shinjuku. Marui One has a bunch of shops I wanted to visit. I'd best find it. So I did. I found it around 11:15 which is good because it opened at 11. I went to the 7th floor and nearly fainted. Sorry Mom and Dad but I swooned a little when I saw all the brand. And the lovely girls who worked for each shop. It was wonderful. I bought some things. But I got everything on sale so it works out.

 Cuuuuute boots! They were like 30% off. I couldn't say no.
After buying from Angelic Pretty (who were ridiculously nice, by the by) they held my bag and walked me to the outside of the shop, she bowed, said thank you and handed my bag to me. After she did that, all 4 shop girls all bowed and said thank you again. What service! Really. It was wonderful.

I went to Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, Alice and the Pirates, Metamorphose, Innocent World, Jane Marple, Moi Meme Moite, Excentrique, Atelier Boz, Victorian Maiden, Maxicam, Angelic Pretty, Putumayo, and Millefleurs. After all those I saw that there was a Jesus Diamante shop! I couldn't afford a damn thing, but it was nice to look. She shop girls were really bitchy though. Like looking down their nose at me. Eve Moite's shop girls weren't like that. Eh, whatevs.
After Marui One, I found Closet Child so I HAD to go in! They had Sugary Carnival special set JSK in pink for 7800yen Ash! (That's like a STEAL.) I didn't buy it though. I am not a fan of Sugary Carnival. I bought a plain white JSK from Meta for the summer. And some accessories. And a foldable parasol.

 After my shopping spree I was getting tired so I decided to come back to the hostel because I could check in now. I hopped on the train...and realized at the last stop that I hopped on the right train, but the wrong direction. So I had to switch trains and go all the way back! I kept falling asleep on the train! Eheheh.
After getting back to the hostel, I got a plate of curry rice and I bought a DragonBall Z soda. I haven't drank it yet, but I will. :3

 Yum.

Top Secret!

So Fumiki-san called me today while I was on the desk and said to come up to his desk later, and he would show me some "nice things. very nice things!". So after work I went to his desk, and he proceeded to get a key from another office lady and open a cabinet and pull out a worn looking shopping bag. Through the top of the bag, I caught sight of some yellow caution tape looking stuff that said Evangelion Store on it! He opened the bag, and pulled out, not 1, not 2, but 10 storyboard booklets for the new Gainax anime! Basically, I saw the story boards for the first 10 episodes! It was SO amazing! He arranged them in order for me and said I could take as long as I want, so I spent a good 45mins looking through them! After some time, Mori-san and Kanda-san came down and they both saw I was reading them and they both looked at me with shocked faces saying "ANGEL! Top secret!" and I said "But but Fumiki-san said I coulddd!" they then laughed and asked me if I liked anime, and I said YES, especially Gainax. Everyone in the office looked impressed. Lol. No pictures of the storyboards unfortunately, as they ARE like top secret, but let me tell you, it looks like an awesome anime! They've been coming to British Hills for 3 years now to prepare for this. I'm totally going to cosplay one of the girl characters when this comes out. Just so I can get pictures in the Manor House! I hope we get lots of cosplayers coming to visit because of this anime!

In other news, the desk was a bit boring today, so Sam brought something to brighten our day a bit! Scones! Chocolate coconut ones. And they're heart shaped too! They're really tasty!

Gainax. No really, GAINAX!

So we had some cool visitors the last couple days. None other than GAINAX! The people that made Evangelion! They are getting location ideas for a new anime they're working on. And British Hills is what they're basing the anime's backdrop off of! They were all really nice. They had one girl there modeling as the main character, so she was always dressed really cute. She had the most amazing shoes from Baby, the Stars Shine Bright. Before they left today, I managed to get a picture with all of them! They were really nice! They took some pics of us with their camera too. Who knows, maybe I'll be on their blog too?

I ended up getting Haruka to ask them for a picture with me. I was so worried I'd go all fangirly on them. but as it ended up, I think Haruka told them I was a Gainax fan because they all were really cheerful and happy when they heard I wanted a pic with them. They all spoke very good English as well, I was surprised.
This is the anime they're working on, if anyone's interested : http://dantalian.tv/

Counting down the days until Tokyo now! 4 left and then I have 5 days in Tokyo! Helen showed me her pictures today of when she was in Harajuku and I want to go SOOOO bad. Seriously, I might spend a few of my days just in Harajuku so I can take everything in. Can't wait!

Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

Ugh.
So much partying in a short span of time is really doing me in.
Helen is back now, yay! and Paul is here, yay! It really feels like Helen never left the mountain. We're all right back to normal with her here again.
And Paul is a really nice guy. I think he'll fit in really well here.
The only bad thing is we're losing Rob. He leaves tomorrow. He got a job in Tokyo, so he won't be coming back to the mountain. We had "goodbye Rob" drinks in the pub last night. That was interesting. I worked until 10pm so I was last to show up. Everyone (except like, George) was smashed, so I thought ok, I need to catch up. Bad idea. I drank like 5 drinks in 70minutes. After the pub closed, we went for a car ride to Regina (no one drunk drove! We had designated drivers!) and we lit off fireworks. Why they trusted drunk gaijin with fireworks I'll never know. Also, Tomo is a crazy driver. We were whipping down that road like no one's business. Yeah after that fun we went back home, and I proceeded to sleep in the ladies washroom for the night. I felt quite ill. Keira came and tried to get me to go up to bed, and I would NOT move. So she got me my duvet and someone brought me my pillow. Wendy got me a glass of water and I just slept there. Apperantly Paul, Helen and Gwen tried to move me upstairs around 3am but I begged them not to move me. So at 6am this morning, Paul being the gentleman that he is, came and got me and 1/2 carried me up to bed. What a great first impression I've left on him. >___>;

My birthday package came today! So excited! Thanks so much for all the goodies Ash and Mom! And thanks for shipping it Dad! It made my day so much better! Everything is awesome!

No pictures today I'm afraid. I've been so busy I have had NO time to take pictures of anything. I'll post something tomorrow though, I promise.

For Ashley.

Birthday BASH!

Ahh, best birthday ever! Seriously, it was a blast! We didn't do anything too exciting for it. We all just went to the pub and drank and sat around and stuff. I kinda like that there was no like...gimmick for this birthday really. I mean sure, people had to wear pink and bows but other than that, not really.
Zoe and I went early to the pub and blew up balloons earlier in the day, and when we got there, there were KUIS kids hanging around! I had totally forgot that we had guests that night! Eh, they were cool. They all were gawking and squealing when they saw our outfits. We all looked pretty good. How good you ask? Well here, have some pictures.

Oh yes. The boys all wore bows for me. I felt special. It was a great night. We stayed at the pub until close, then Wendy, Zoe, Rachael, Keira, George, Rob and I went back to the common room and danced about for a bit. I was also introduced to the "rodeo boy". AHah. It's like a mechanical bull thing, but small enough to be in a house. That was interesting. I was so busy trying not to fall off that I didn't notice Wendy turn it up to full power. Ahah.
It was an awesome night. I ended up sleeping on the couch in the common room because it was so comfy and I couldn't be arsed to move. And best thing? NO HANGOVER! YEAHHHH! That's surprising actually. I had like 10 drinks last night. I feel great today!

I got some lovely presents from people here as well! I was not expecting that at all! Beverley got me a lovely frame and a cell phone charm, Kyoko got my a silver charm for a necklace or charm bracelet (it has a heart, a rose and a bow and arrow on it, it's so cute!) and Yukiko got me that amazing heart mirror in the pictures. It's so cute!
All in all, best birthday ever!

Dinner and solitude.

Birthday dinner was a few days ago. That was lovely!
The day we were going to have dinner, I had to work until 4:30, and while I was at work, Megumi had a little gift for me. It was two little containers of konpeito, a Japanese star shaped candy. They're really cute!

 After work I ran home and got ready for the dinner, I wanted to look super good so I did my hair and whatnot as well. Actually, I looked damn good that night. I curled my hair in some places and pinned them up for volume, and I wore my little black dress with a big black belt, black lace tights and black pointed flats. This is the only picture I have until Wendy uploads her pictures, but you can kinda see that we all looked great.

It was sweet, Mike and Sam both wore sits for the occasion.
The food was AMAZING. And we had the fancy cutlery for our dinner which was nice. Saito-san seated me and Yuta seated Wendy. We got the middle of the table seats. It was lovely. We also got free champagne with dinner.
First course was a diced vegetable gaspacho type thing, it tasted good but the texture was weird. I had a couple bites then gave it to Wendy. All the food pictures are kinda crap by the way, the light was really bad in the refectory. It was all like mood lighting.

Next course was prawn for everyone else, and "cheese terrine" for me, which was actually seafood terrine. It was...different. The salad was lovely. But the texture of the terrine was odd...so I ate 1/2 and gave that to Wendy too. Ahah.

Next was the consomme soup course. I didn't get a picture of that but it was basically a broth. It was good though. There were herbs in the broth as well and they were covered in a thing called a "water shield" it basically made them slimy. It was weird. But good.
After that we had the fish course. It was crispy Norwegian Salmon served with a butter and mustard sauce. Damn, was it good. Fortunately for me, Keira doesn't like fish so she gave me 1/2 of hers in exchange for my onions.

After fish we had a quick sorbet course to cleanse our pallets and then on to the main event! Roast beef! Carved at our table and everything. It was lovely. We all got 3 pieces (usually they serve 2) and we all had seconds too! It was SOO good!

Like, seriously SO yummy! I ate every bite (except for my peas, I gave those to Wendy, ahaha). So after dinner, we had tea and dessert. It was the nicest plating I've seen them do for that particular dessert. It was really yummy.

Everyone's cookie had a little picture on it. Most of us got faces, but Sara got a star and I got a heart. <3
Yuta brought the heart one special for me. Lol.
It was SO DELICIOUS. Annd actually, Wendy wasn't too keen on the mousse so I volunteered to take it. She was just about to pass me her plate when George came up and said "done with your dessert?" and Wendy said she was giving it to me, and what does he do? He stuck his finger in it! And then laughed. D: Wendy then asked if I still wanted it and I said no. Lol. I was sad.
During dinner we had a nice bottle of wine brought to the table for us. Tomo bought it for us! It was such a nice thing to do! It was a lovely Australian red wine.
After dinner we all went to the pub and played "never have I ever". That was interesting. The object of the game is to make people drink by saying something you haven't done but they might have. So for example, I said "never have I ever smoked" and some people took a drink or "never have I ever driven a car" and everyone drank. Lol. It was fun.

Last night, everyone had the day off today so they all went to karoke together. I ended up staying home because I'm broke right now and I didn't want to borrow money. It was kinda nice I had the whole house to myself the WHOLE night. I was able to blast my music and leave my door open and it was a great night.

I went to town today on my own. I had a whopping 896yen to my name so I spent frugally lol. I bought my very first variety store bento today, it was really yummy! That and a bottle of cider was my lovely lunch. I sat in the park and read my book while eating. It was lovely.

 Yeah, it was SO yummy!
I bought some balloons for my party tomorrow and I got some candy for myself as well because it was cheap. I got a cute Ayanami Rei chocolate thing and some cute animal shaped boxes with candy in them.

And tomorrow is the party! Gotta start getting my outfit together. Can't wait!