Cheese Day

Today we went to Aoyama for Cheese Festa 2007 at Spiral. 

 We caught the train to Harajuku and walked from there, which wasn't very far away at all.

Along the way we walked past Kiddyland and got to see the amazing green dinosaur, Gachapin!

Apparently we weren't the only ones with the idea to go to a cheese sampling festival. The place was absolutely packed.

We were given four cheese coupons to try the cheeses for free but wine and other drinks had to be paid for. 

 

Any thoughts that Japanese people are polite and courteous was thrown out the window as many of them fought over getting their samples first like pigs at feeding time. 

  I like their slogan, "Have A Nice Day With Cheese'. 

 Even though we were given four cheese tickets each, we walked out and walked back in and picked up another four tickets. 

 If it's possible to overdose on cheese we did it. We sampled quite a few varieties from Spain, Netherlands, France, Italy and even Australia. 

 The one we liked best was the french Brie cheese. The worst was probably the Italian Gorgonzola, with a blue vein mouldy taste, it wasn't the best. 

 The most deserted sample table was the Japanese Camembert. Why would Japanese sample cheese they can get in their supermarket easily? 

 We caught the train from Harajuku to Shinjuku. The train was delayed for ages as there was some crazy person running along the tracks so they stopped all the Yamanote trains. 

 Gf bought a new saucepan at Tokyu Hands and I got a 105 yen pack of playing cards so I can learn magic tricks. A new teacher showed one of my students a trick which makes me want to do them. 

 It will probably end up in the same unused place as the yo-yo I got months ago. 

 We ate some spicy noodles, dumplings and rice for dinner in Shinjuku and decided to catch the train home instead of walking. We were both tired and it started raining. 

 A good, cheesy day.

Woodstock, Not The Festival

She wanted to go to a Brain Science Institute information show in Aoyama, I wanted to go to the motor show. 

She won. 

 The motor show runs next weekend so I guess I wait a little longer to have my photo taken with a lot of hot girls with the cars. Thanks girlfriend. 

 It was all in japanese, so apart from a robot that could follow the movement of a red ball it was a little boring. 

  We walked through Aoyama past a lot of interesting buildings with expensive fashion clothes. We had Haagan Daaz icecreams and a free Macdonalds coffee with more expired coupons. 

 

It cost 320 yen to have the icecream at a table and 260 yen take away. As you can see on the look on my face I am not impressed.

Along the way we saw a Honda dealership. I laugh a little that they call the Honda Jazz, a "Fit". I saw a Honda S2000 convertible for only 3,900,000 yen (about $40,000), much cheaper than in Australia. I couldn't resist jumping on the Harley-style motorcycles. 

We had some green tea, caramel coffee and Cheesecake at Cafe Madu. We made our way to Shibuya. We haven't been there for a while. I checked out the Blister toy store, Bic Camera, Apple Store and some UFO catcher arcades and Don Quijote. At Blister, I saw two big Totoro stuffed toys. One was 30,000 yen and the other ginormous one was 90,000 yen! The larger one would be fantastic, but virtually impossible to get into a suitcase. I'll have to wait for their 50% off sale.

The Apple store had someone showcasing and performing their music, but like everyone else I was having a play with Apple's cool iTouch looking at websites. This thing is REALLY cool, but I think I'm going to hang out for the iPhone. The Taito arcade had a Star Wars R2D2 that projected a light onto the walls. I didn't think I could sink it, but at the Club Sega I played for a Snoopy Woodstock toy and won it first go, 100 yen. Sweet.

We played a puck game as well. I was beaten nine to seven. Yes, I let her win a little. If I kicked her butt I'd pay for it later. I just know it.

By this time we were both hungry. At first we thought a Yakiniku, but they had no chicken meat so instead we did an "all you can eat" at Shakey's Pizza for 1500 yen each for two hours. The pizza is not that great, but you can't say you are still hungry after that. Actually I felt a little sick from all that oil and cheese. Feeling bloated we caught the train home. Someone has a fixation with the Suica Penguin. Not naming any names.