Skytree - not much of a tree in the sky

HELLOO. Okay guys, I know I haven't been  updating and I do realise that when I post my holiday memories, they'll be all jumbled up and not in chronological order. Don't shoot me though, I did happen to accidentally leave my Japanese speech award inside a cake bag which was sorta left behind... and the cleaner, chucked out bag of souvenirs, probably thinking it was rubbish. To be honest, I was completely shattered but you can't dwell on the past.

December 2nd 2012'

Today I set out to go see the Tokyo Skytree with my host sister Mayu and her younger sister, Kana. It's our first free day together seeing as there's school on Saturday too, although it's just half a day. Anyhow, we had lunch at home, took the bus to the station and trained from there to Tokyo Skytree. I gotta admit, when I approached the building, I was pretty gob-smacked. There were over 5 escalators we needed to take to get to the 'ground' floor. Hah. Since it's a new tourist attraction, I wasn't too surprised by the millions of people there.

Alright... I admit, I didn't actually go up the Tokyo Skytree, I just went shopping in the shopping area surrounding the building and that shopping area is called 'Tokyo Solamachi'. 

Prices are generally pricey but they have the latest products out there in the market. There are about two levels of restaurants and the other many levels are filled with VERY EXPENSIVE clothing stores. -sobsob- I really wanted to buy a lot of clothes but ....my wallet would be very sad and I would be very sad when my mum finds out that I've been impulse shopping.

After about an hour of window shopping, we stopped by a taiyaki store. I've never been a really big fan of taiyaki but they had the choice of soy milk cream only instead of soy milk cream with azuki bean (red bean).

IT TASTED SOOOO GOOD. Argh, I should come back to get some more of this stuff. So basically, the three of us just walked around the shopping area, taking photos and staring at all the cutesy couples by the romantic lit trees. I took a photo with my phone. Oh yeah, by the way, all the photos from my trip are taken with my phone because I couldn't be bothered bringing my slr....well..I had no space and my backpack was already filled with all my workbooks and diary and wallet and and and and yeah, stuff. 

We then went to the planetarium! Hooray~ I was really pumped and excited but then.. er.. well, let's just say I was in for a surprise. I completely forgot that since I was in Japan, everything would be in Japanese. Well they decided that since we're learning about stars, it was somehow linked to Japanese history. When I talk about Japanese history, I'm referring to the Heian and Edo periods. That's all I could understand. The rest was talking about Kanji and poems. Anyhow, here is the ticket.

I also took a snazzy photo of the Tokyo Skytree from where I was waiting to enter the planetarium. 

Oh right, forgot. I'm going to post a review on the Japanese exfoliating product 'Cure'. I bought it at plaza when I went to Solamachi. Yay~ It works like a charm. 

Last night in the city of the fast and furious

TOKYO.
Bam and I'll be flying away to Taiwan to enjoy some atmospheric night markets. My 3 week long stay in Japan has been absolutely amazing. I stepped out of the hotel this morning to grab a green tea latte from the little cafe across the road. Catherine was feeling for some mocha, so she got one but iced. My parents just had a shot of their regular morning coffee and my sisters shared a nice mug of hot chocolate.

It doesn't feel like we're leaving so soon....
Despite the fact that I've been here for so long to the point that I actually felt 'sick' of the pace of life, I know that I'll definitely miss this place. It's an expensive place to stay but the high-tech, fashion forward traditional country is place that will be sorely missed. I've made so many memories here. On my language exchange, I found out that there was a fan club for me. Haha, there were only 17 members, but still it's a fan club for ME. I met many beautiful people whom I hope I will have the chance to interact with in the future.

My host sister's home room teacher happens to be the strictest teacher in the WHOLE school and is always seen scolding students. Well guess what? When I introduced myself to the class, he smiled. Seriously, that's like an eclipse. He never smiles. The whole class freaked. He then proceeded to tell the class that he was very impressed and that he hoped that by the time he went on a language exchange to New Zealand with a group of students, that he would be capable of speaking at my level of fluency, except in English of course. Well since I heard many bad things about him, I decided that he probably was just a very misunderstood man. I mean come on, he's married to a beautiful actress and has kids and absolutely adores them. He's got to have some heart in him. So every time I saw him, I did this really ecstatic hand wave and practically jumped up and down in glee and continued waving with both hands like a maniac until he would wave (exasperatedly) in return. I sort of understand where this hesitation comes from...I mean, every time I see him, he's in the middle of teaching a class or scolding someone so yeah..

ANYHOW, by the end of my stay, I thought that we became pretty good buddies so I asked if I could take a picture with him. At first he was all like 'むり' (can't, not possible) and then I kept pressing him and he eventually gave in. Oh yeah did I mention the fact that every time I waved to him he couldn't stop himself from smiling? See? He really is a misunderstood guy. Hehehehehehehe, well the photo I took with him is quite special. You see, I convinced him to do double peace signs with me. It was SO funny, all the students walked past and were all gasping and laughing. He did try to lower his hands because he was pretty embarrassed but in the end kept them up for a few pics.

I have so much to update, argh. Alright that's all for tonight.