Party Time!

Like I promised here are a choice selection of the almost fifty photos I took last night at the Christmas party in Yokohama last night.

Instead of saying too much I think I'll just let the pictures tell most of the story.

The moral of this story is.. I like to surround myself with cute genki girls and weird J-boys.

You probably noticed some cream on my chin. I hammed it up in one of the other's photos by smearing my face, and no-one told me there was still some around my chin. Bastards!

With a great turn-out of between forty and fifty people I think it's safe to say the night was a complete success. Of course the only thing that could bring the night down would be the inevitable karaoke post-party. I was there for about five minutes.

I made a very quick decision to just leave while I was still good, and managed to not get the train straight back home but the next best thing, to Shinjuku and find my way home from there.

It's strange that all the schools have their Christmas party on the same night. I was debating which one to go to but after this night, I know I made the right decision. I was with the people I really care about, and that's all that matters.

Wait For It

Just a moment..

I want to thank all the people that listened to me, ever, and even the people that didn't like me for no reason other than that they decided that was their choice, before they even let me prove myself. Not that I ever had to justify myself to anyone.

Tonight I feel like I know who are the people I trust, and the ones that are truly my friends. I've always tried to be honest to myself, and expect others to do the same for me. I really enjoyed myself tonight.

Arigato

I missed the last train, and walked home from Shinjuku. It gave me a lot of thinking time, about why I am here in Japan.

I NEEDED this. I'll go back soon, to remind me what was special back home, and I'll miss all the good things in Japan.

Two words.. Christmas Party! I'm too tired to post any pictures tonight. Stay tuned. Maybe tomorrow..

Walking To Shibuya

As expected, this morning I had a killer hangover. Even around 3pm it was still bugging me.

Eventually I managed to leave the house and make my way towards Shibuya.. on foot!

Initially I was only thinking we'd walk around Yotsuya, so I could take some pretty pictures of the last yellowing leaves of early winter, soon to drop and leave the skeletal remains of the trees.

This is the path along the main road leading towards Yotsuya station.

I can't help to mock the politician on this poster that I always see on the wall near my street.

This is Yotsuya crossing looking towards the koban and Yotsuya metro station.

As it was getting darker, we kept walking alongside the Imperial Palace and Jingu Gaien noticing a lot of the fallen yellow leaves. So Pretty. It was hard to take decent non-blurry photos without the flash.

This is a random Christmas "illumination" photo in Aoyama's CI Plaza. It turned out better than I expected.

I'm told the sign next to the Coca-Cola billboard is an advertisement for a hangover medicine. Just what I needed today!

This is an interesting sculpture outside the Aoyama theatre.
This is the AO building in Aoyama. At the moment it's so new, the only part open is the Kinokuniya supermarket. It's great to see some unusual architecture in the typically dull Tokyo cityscape.

If you look carefully you can see Kiddyland on the left. One of my favourite toy shops, in Omotosando. Lots of cool stuff.

Looking for love? This may be the place, in a back street of Omotosando.

Yes, I'm immature when I read things into this.

Since we walked this far we kept on going to Shibuya, not that far away. When most people first come to Japan they read that OIOI store as "zero one zero one" or "oi oi". The latter sounds more Aussie to me. It's actually the Marui department store.

And then we went to Karaoke.. NOT! By this time we were quite hungry and decided on pizza at Shakeys. It's not the most quality food, and I kind of regret that feeling in my stomach afterwards, but for 1500 yen all you can eat, it's a good way to beat hunger in Shibuya.

It took around an hour to walk back home from Shibuya. My legs were so tired. It wasn't such a bad way to get over a hangover though.

Eight Is Enough

I haven't played the catchers for a while.. until today.

She wanted the big "Daddy" moi to complete her chick family, so seeing that I couldn't find it in any other UFO catcher I bit the bullet and decided to try for the only one here in Yokohama.

From first appearances it looked like it had to be picked up and dropped into the chute, which I thought would be impossible. I asked the staff to give me a fighting chance, and he moved the holder that was cupping the plushie in the right direction.

Without much luck I changed some more money and asked again if he could move it chotto closer. He did and I got it on the next try. Only thing is I put in a 500 yen for three tries. He only let me use them on another machine which was a bit of a waste as there wasn't anything else I wanted to play for. All up it was 1000 or 1200 yen, I think.

So this will be the last of my UFO catching days.. maybe.

After work we had station beers outside the Diamond as per usual. LH came with us to watch those pretty ladies walk past. An African guy was hanging around for a while, blocking my view which I didn't like at all.

Both BBD and LH finished their drinks before I did and wanted another so unwisely I had another chu-hi as well. It was horrible getting the train home. I was dizzy and tired.

It felt like forever getting back. Those 8% chu-hi's are dangerous. Lolly water with a sting.

Skeletons In My Closet

It's getting cold.

Walking around Shibuya I felt the first snap of Tokyo's winter freeze. Maybe it's time to get those gloves out again.

This photo is from the start of Center Gai that runs through the heart of Shibuya. Tsutaya is Japanese for "rip-off" video rental store.

Today I realized I have a new addiction. That's right, another watch.. again.

On the left is the original skelton watch I bought back in July here.

On the right is my secondhand Swatch "Body & Soul" Irony watch.

This was the original watch that I REALLY wanted. The consensus is that the LK watch looks quite a bit cheaper, albeit much easier to work out the time.

So suffering to keep up with street cred (of which I mostly lack anyway), I didn't hesitate to get it. For 4,800 yen it was a bargain. I saved that 200 yen with a discount voucher they gave me straight away too! Lucky..

To give a little bit of perspective, brand new this watch is 17,850 yen from the Swatch shop. It only had a few very light scratches and came with the original box and warranty. Looking at the papers, it's not even a year old (5/2/2008!)

Nice.

This Strange Behaviour

Finally!

Looks like Tokyo Metro might read my blog after all.

It's great to see them "attempt" to thwart salaryman drunkenness on the train lines.

It's a lost cause of course.

If I was a typical Japanese salaryman ("work is everything" - short holidays and unpaid overtime? Yes please!), I'd want to be drunk most of the time too.

Please do It at home? I don't think so.

Ginza Desu ka?

Hai!

Another fun-packed day at Ginza.

Before school I wanted to print out one of the photos I took at Mt Takao the other day. The good ol' Bic Camera has a lot of photo machines that bang out quick pics for just 30 yen a photo.

On my D40x camera and on my laptop the photo looked perfect, but after I printed it out I was quite disappointed.

To my eyes it had far too saturated skin tones for my liking.

I didn't have much time to ask someone so I just rushed to get to work. Of course I allowed enough time for some Kimuraya anpan. Sampleman® has NOT been pleased with the stingy amount of samples they have been giving lately.

A few hours later I was lucky to have a vacant lesson to get some food. I was hungry!

Sad to say I had a double Quarter Pounder for 490 yen at evil Mcdonalds. I know. I shouldn't have. Still hungry I bought another anpan and scoffed that back at the office.

After work I pointlessly went back to Bic and asked about my over-saturated photo, to which they said nothing could be done.

Typical Japanese response.

I figured bringing my SLR along today I should take some pics. The photos on this post are from my camera.

Enjoy..