In the shoes of Haruki Murakami

Hey there :) Another two day have just been flying by. I think I am going to switch to the writing-every-couple-of-days mode, since it is a bit exhausting on some evenings. Like it was yesterday, but first things first...

So yesterday was another chance to sleep in a little, after all the walking done the days before. (The walking never stops, actually. I feel like I'm working out every day here in Tokyo, since the way to the train station takes 15 minutes, and so does the way to Mita campus. So at least one hour of walking on a university day...) But not very long, because around noon, I had the interview with my Academic Advisor about the courses I will be taking. I was really surprised when he started talking to me in German! And asked me some basic interview questions: Why are you here? What are you studying? Have you learned Japan yet? I'm a bit afraid now they will send me back if they didn't like my answers :D but anyway, the courses I had chosen seem to be acceptable...

Visiting Japan's most crowded place... or not?

I have planned to do a lot on that day, but ended up walking a lot again instead - this time in Shinjuku. The only reason that  led me all the way up there was to buy postcards. You wouldn't think that, but that is a nearly impossible task in Tokyo! Greeting cards and those with art motives are offered everywhere, but you won't see "regular" postcards with the city view. So I searched the whole internet to find one big department store where they are selling many of them. And finally I am already writing them :)

  

Shinjuku from above

Shinjuku train station is one of the busiest in the world, with over 3 million passengers every day. Therefore, I expected much more people when I arrrived, but was very surprised to find the station even less crowded than Yokohama, for example. On my way back though, the train was delayed for some reason, so I watched helplessly as more and more people got in line on the platform...

The obligatory food picture - udon noodles. There are some nice, hardly crowded and inexpensive places to eat right at Shinjuku station

Rock the box

While at Shinjuku, I received an invitation for Karaoke that night. I was very excited because I was looking forward to it all the time before leaving :D so the nine of us, all international exchange students and interns, went to one of the countless Karaoke box establishments in Shibuya.

These "boxes" come in different sizes and have Karaoke machines and comfortable seats there. You can also order food and drinks via a telephone or at the reception. For choosing a song, you have a tablet where you can search for artists and titles. Luckily, they had maaaany English songs as well (Disney songs!), so we easily filled the roughly two hours we have been there.

Everyone had lots of fun expressing their hidden talents. :D And with 1500 yen for the entry, it's not even that expensive. Unfortunately, in a huge city like Tokyo, the last trains leave at 12:30pm, so with a heavy heart, we had to leave quite early.

Lovely company

At least we never crawled

Since sleeping is for the weak, Alizée and I bravely decided to wake up at 7am the next morning to go for a run together. Although, somehow, it had been very intense and exhausting 40 minutes and 6 kilometres (considering that we both were out of practice and it was already starting to get hot), I was happy to have found great running company, and to try my new "Murakami" shoes. Unfortunately, we could not keep up to Murakami's "At least he never walked"... but hey, we managed to stay on our feet! ;)

Following the Yagami river

Meow?

Yummy ramen with seaweed noodles and soy milk

After a well-deserved rest, we girls visited the tour through the Keio university library, offered in English. The plan was to go sightseeing afterwards, but it was raining badly again (surprise!) and almost everyone was tired, so we just went for lunch and on to our beds... where I am sitting now, enjoying my udon noodles from the supermarket (where Essi and I spent ages to find frying oil and learned a couple of new Kanji en passant).

Before you could realise it, the weekend is already there - and there are lots of events coming up. Stay tuned for news from the Yokohama bamboo lantern festival and the Tokyo game show! Have a fantastic, exciting and relaxed weekend :)