Busy time and Namahage!

So the weeks have been rolling very fast. In school we have done already our second mid-term exam and I'm really happy with the results. There is basicly only one mid-term exam and two kanji tests before the final exam and end of the B course. I have been studying so much, but also meeting plenty of new people. With some I have done language exchange between English and Japanese, but with some it ended up being English only. My last two weeks has been so packed with meeting people, doing homework, reading to tests and trying to get even some sleep that I have practically spent two weeks in Tokyo without doing anything without a plan.

But this weekend has really been a highlight. Friday I went with my classmates to local izakaya and we had lots of fun time together. It was also super nice to get to know the people little bit better (even though through speaking rehersals in school we all know who in class loves beer, who hobbies photography, who enjoys anime the most and who sleeps over 10 hours in a day ^^''). It was my first real izakaya experience and it was nice, but also very much more noisy than I would have ever thought ^^ The food was good and company better, so the whole experience was really nice.

Today I went with Mikko and one of my language exchange partners to a Namahage restaurant. THAT was an intresting experience! Namahage is Akita prefectures special monster, who during New Year goes from door to door in Akita prefecture, searching families with small children. I thought is was a little bit like Santa untill my friend told me that the goal is to find small children and scare them so bad they will cry. More they cry, luckier they are next year! So, in this restaurant there was a few children and the Namahage monster came to visit us! Poor children I have to say, they really cried and one girl kept saying "gomen nasai, gomen nasai" all over again while crying when Namahage came close to her. Poor thing! But for us adults it was really entartaining and the Namahage also knew what the Finnish sauna was and asked from us why Finnish people bath in snow after sauna. ^^'' The food was also absolutely amazing, we boiled it ourselves. It was Akita prefectures speciality Kirintanpo which was a mix of Japanese mushroom, vegetables, chicken and speacial rice pipes. Also dessert, "grandmothers" special ice cream was so oishii!

Oh and almost two weeks ago here also was raining snow! The trains didn't stop though, even our teachers told that would probably happen. It was very shot time fun, becouse even the snow stayed in the ground for like.. couple of hours, after that it turnd out to be slush and raining snow to be sleek. But I took some very nice pictures from the near by Shinto shrine. :3 I also went first time after 2012 to sing Karaoke. We found a really nice Karaokekan from Koenji, the view was a really nice plus side of the place.

Mata ne ~
ps. here is very much pictures for you from all around Tokyo! And of course, Namahage!

Koenji & Snow

West Shinjuku

Namahage