busy busy busy busy busyyyyyy~

Okay, so I've legit been MIA for more than a month now but I'm aliveeee~  November turned out to be a SUPER busy month; fun nonetheless, but crazy. I'm going to give you the abridged version of what happened in November / the 1st week of December because like I can't imagine how long an actual description of everything would be. You'd probably be scrolling down and then realize "wait, what? this is the SAME post?" so yea... I'm going to bullet everything.


1. November 1 -3 was our school's annual festival: Sophia Festival
 - It's pretty much when all of the clubs either set up little booths and sell food/candy to raise money, or you showcase your club by doing a performance

 - My club (SISEC) sold bubble tea =)
 - We made lots of money =)
This is my friend Shodo. He is from Hokkaido. He worked super hard and helped us sell out of the bubble tea. 

2. My friends and I creeped on Waseda University's festival the following week - it's normal to check out the other schools' festivals and see the different things they have. (I'm not THAT big of a creeper)
 - Waseda's was like a) 3x bigger b/c their campus is like 3x bigger, and b) WAYYYY more legit than ours
 - I heard that CIEE was at Waseda before, but that the exchange students were placed in a separate campus. So the major complaint was that they didn't have the chance to actually interact with Japanese people. (They called it the gaijin (foreigner) ghetto)

3. .....MIDTERMS..... (O_o)
 - yea.... the whole 'school' thing is still not working.... 
 - it's weird b/c like the majority of Japanese college students don't care about grades as long as you PASS the class. 

4. I made zori (traditional Japanese straw sandals) but with left-over futon fabric

 - I don't understand how Japanese people just like suddenly had an epiphany and made these sandals 100's of years ago - they're easy to make, but like HOW DID THEY COME UP WITH THE METHOD?
My zori are the pink ones on the top left-ish. (so like 11 o'clock?) But yea, this is a picture of a couple of the finished ones =)



5. I ate yakiniku (Korean BBQ) for the 1st since I've been in Japan - it was delish <3

So like we ordered 'sausage' thinking we'd get like a couple on a single side dish... nah dude. you get ONE. so we grilled it in all of it's glory, and my friend Jason ate it haha.





6. My camera broke =( it decided to start vibrating on me... 

 - the same thing started to happen to my friend Hanna's camera so we said our cameras were drunk - all of the pictures I tried taking legit looked like we were drunk 24-7





7. We found FRIJOLES (aka Chipotle).

 - It's located in Azabu-juban, and it has legit guacamole and huge-ass burritos like home. It's a little pricey, but SO worth if you're craving a LEGIT burrito. 
 - But the actual place is SO inconspicuous. Like no sign - the name is just straight-up CARVED into the front of the building. 

8. We held a Thanksgiving event with the club that I'm in!!!! I am SO sad that my camera was broken b/c I couldn't take any pictures, but the exchange students did this event to show the Japanese people what Thanksgiving was. (aka we committed carbo-cide)
- we madeeeeeee: 
  a) 2 turkeys (there was only 1 oven so we cooked 1 in the oven and the other we cut up and seared in a pot)
  b) stuffing
  c) green bean casserole
  d) mashed potatoes
  e) latkes
  f) sweet potatoes with marshmallows & brown sugar
  g) cornbread
  h) corn
  i) consomme soup
  j) cranberry sauce - my Japanese friend Shodo fell in love and legit ate it with EVERYTHING
  k) PUMPKIN PIE
     - dude, like okay. Japan, I'm sorry but pumpkin pie season = Thanksgiving. NOT HALLOWEEN. So please keep the cans of pumpkin pie mix on the shelves so I can make pumpkin pie and my pumpkin chocolate chip muffins in the future. 
     - My friend's host mom has a CostCo membership here (i know - like whattttt~? CostCo in Japan?!) and after 4 days of running around ALL over Tokyo and calling like every foreign goods store, I finally found ready made pumpkin pies at CostCo <3 <3 <3
  l) chocolate chip cookies =)
      - I got to bake, and I was in heaven, and I was super happy <3

9. I got a new camera =)
10. I went to Hiroshima & Miyajima

 - I was kind of skeptical of the trip b/c I felt like it was 'too' organized and I wasn't going to be able to like experience it for myself, but it was actually really awesome

 - We has Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki, which is different from regular okonomiyaki b/c it has 5 layers instead of it all being mixed into a batter and then grilled on a flat-top. 
 - Layer 1: thin okonomiyaki base
   Layer 2: cabbage and moyashi (bean sprouts)
   Layer 3: 4 slices of pork
   Layer 4: thin layer of scrambled egg
   Layer 5: yakisoba

 - Miyajima was soooo beautiful <3 me + nature usually don't mix, but this place (and Hiroshima in general) reminded me of my grandmother's place in Tokushima so I guess it was a little nostalgic at the same time =)
 - But yea, the island is famous for the 'floating' gate, which just looks like it's floating when the tide comes in. There's a temple on the land behind it and it was so pretty to see the tide flowing in ,the architecture , and everything else on the island on SUCH a gorgeous day. 

 - And another thing the island is famous for is for the wild deer that roam around. This is a picture of my friend Hanna being attacked by a deer for her ice cream. 

- Yea, it's pretty much just straight up deer in yo' face. 







10. The university held a Christmas party for the exchange students yesterday =)
 - I got to hear the Japanese gospel choir sing... interesting... 
 - motivating: yes
 - should they be asking me if i'm 'Down with G-O-D': no. (these 2 dudes broke it down and started rapping about God. They spelled it out in the song)
 - They played this like quiz-bingo thing where it was a bingo sheet, but you had to get bingo by answering questions related to Japan. And then if you got bingo, you'd hand in part of your ticket to be entered into a raffle and numbers were drawn for prizes
 - I was holding on to my friends' Alli and Kenney's bingo sheets because they had to leave early, and Alli's number actually won the 'grand' prize!!! It was a Sophia duffle bag, but like whatttttt~? I got to go on stage and get my picture taken  =)