happy halloween!

happy halloween to everyone at home!!

susie-thanks for sending the picture it's absolutely adorable!!! so, i know i said no travelling until hiroshima but there was a costume party at this club in tokyo this past weekend...how could i say no? hahaha..."my name is andrea, and i'm a travel-holic." but at least i have a bunch of new pictures to post!!


this is ryo...he can be a little devil, don't let the innocent eyes deceive you!


this is kaon...the light of my week..she is the most enthusiastic kid in all of japan!

the last train to tokyo from iwaki leaves at 8:20pm and my last class ends at 8, so chris and i had to run from work to the station as soon as class finished to make it in time...we stopped in tsuchiura to meet friends and then it was off to the club. it was raining that night and the line was so long probably about half a mile. it took us 2 hours to get in but it didn't feel that long. cameras aren't allowed in the club so i don't have pictures of all the great costumes. the winner of the costume contest were these bunch of jedi's they won 1,000,000 yen!! crazy yah? i went as a hula girl, boring i know, but it was last minute.


can you see the line of umbrellas over the bridge?



club ageha

the costume party was a lot of fun, and it was my first clubbing experience in tokyo...we left around 5am and i wanted to check out tsukiji fish market since i was already up but my friend said that it isn't open on sunday morning, bummer! the tsuchiura bunch went home to sleep, but chris and i stayed in tokyo. we went to denny's to eat breakfast and take a nap. i would've felt bad about sleeping at the table for 2 hours but everyone else was doing it so it was ok.


5:30am...falling asleep waiting for the subway

fish, rice, and natto...traditional denny's breakfast

after our nap, we went shopping around akibahara and harajuku. the shopping in harajuku is unbelievable! any shop you could ever want in one district! good thing i had no money :) while we were walking we stumbled upon a halloween doggie costume contest!







kawaiii!!! ne?

later on that day i met michelle in shinjuku and we were off to tokyo race course!!






HUGE CROWD!


the stats board

place your bets here!!




the mess after the race...who said the japanese were clean people? haha

the stands lit up

the horse races were good fun! who would've thought?? for some reason when michelle and i get together beer just magically appears in our hands...i don't know how it got there! that night i stayed at michelle's in saitama. we went to this all-you-can-eat and drink, make your own katsu restaurant...it was soooo good! yummy deep fried goodness! :)




michelle and i ate so much...in addition to the katsu sticks, they had different types of salads, curry, udon, dessert, and an ice cream machine! we were so stuffed that it hurt and we had to take the bus to her apartment...even though it was only a 15 minute walk. hahaha. the next day we went to a park near her apartment and had brunch. we decided to go light and HEALTHY haha, fruit, yogurt, and a musubi. at the park there is a shrine and it just so happens that they were having a shichi-go-san ceremony that day!! reminded me of when i had to do it :)











michelle and i decided to go visit tokyo university aka todai...we're dorks i know, we just wanted a t-shirt.


library

famous akamon building


football!!

we also stopped off at another shrine in yushima...we got lucky because there was a flower festival going on!






that night we ate MEXICAN in tokyo :) the bartenders were incredibly nice and we got to put our picture up on the wall!







another thing about michelle and i is that we always end up at a starbucks haha. this time it was a pumpkin spice latte with a pumpkin pastry...yum! happy halloween to us :)



i have one more day of work tomorrow and then i'm heading to hiroshima on friday to meet christine!! my train is at 5:59am i hope i make it!!! haha...i'll keep you posted :) keep emailing and i will write soon! love you guys at home, i hope everything is okay...i'm sorry that there are so many pictures, i couldn't help myself!

love you and take care,
andie