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

Happy [food] post!

Yattaa! After studying so hard for two weeks I managed to complete my test with a great grade and so I can stay in B class like I wanted to. I'm so happy for that, since during these two weeks I've also made friends from my class, they are such a lively bunch! And teachers are all very nice. We don't have only one teacher, but four of them. Three of them teaches one day in a week and our "classroom teacher" teaches us two times in a week. It is actually kinda nice to have so much change, but I just don't get it how they can keep on track with all our hand-in homeworks and what the other teachers have told us before.

But in this post I thought I could be really mean and post you food. I unfortunately have forgotten to picture most of things we have eaten, but here is some nice ones. For sweet section there is ice cream heaven Baskin Robbins which I absolutely love. In Finland we don't have Baskin Robbins, but Ben&Jerry's are kinda same when it comes to ice cream flavours, but they don't set ice cream out same flashy way. More from sweet section there is Crêpes. I absolutely love crêpes in here, but you have to know the best places to go in order to have a nice crispy crêpe. Otherwice you might end up with a too soft one, those kinda tends to collapse if the support (paper cone) is taken a away. And then there is some Japanese delicates, like that fishy thing. The inside was some kind of creme and outside was crunchy and very sugarish. Oishii!

The salty side I can offer you very much less pictures. We tend to cook a lot at home, salomon rice and beef rice are the most common home made foods. My absolutely favorite outside home is Yakitori and Takoyaki, but also ramen is very nice, though in some places it is very much greasy. Many foods have a lots of salt and after a while I had to go to a Turkeys restaurant to get something else than sweet japanese foods. Sushi we have also of course tried out, but I have to admit it (Don't eat me!) I'm not a big fan.

Other things I've been doing here includes one classical concert by Tokyos philharmonic orchestra in Bunkamura concert hall, strolling in Nakano Broadway (visited Mandarake manga store and finally found some of the Sword Art Online manga I've been looking for) with one of our classmates and challenged each other in Game Archades drumming game. We added an extra bite to the drumming competiton, the loser pays Baskin Robbins! I can't wait to weather to get better so that we can spend even more time strolling around the city (now it has been raining many days...)!

Mata ne!

Koenji

Nakano