Harajuku

Today we attempted to cook rice for breakfast by steaming it but ended up having to boil it and it became a little bit of a gluggy mess. Nonetheless we ate it up and carried on. 

Venturing out to Harajuku we saw just how crowded it can get although we didn't go down the street because it was so busy and we just wanted to see if we could find somewhere to get towels and some more more supplies

This rooftop starbucks cafe is set up to light up at night for Christmas. 

Then we came home and went back out for dinner later to a little fast food place which was super cheap. 

Yoyogi Park

Today we set out to Shinjuku again, this way navigating there by ourselves. Along wthe way we tried out the infamous vending machine, me getting a 130 Yen massive coke and scott trying out what we thought was juice and turned out to be some sort of flavoured water which he ended up having to wash down with some of the coke.

After getting lost and having to resort to using Chris' phone to find our way to the right place we finally headed in the right direction. After taking a few detours we found yodobashi, a massive electronics store and found sim cards to have data :)

After that we explored the arcade and found a guitar hero-esque game played ith drums which we struggled through japanese instructions for- having to play Japanese "Let It Go". We then made our way to find something to eat and for an easy option resorted to McD's.

Getting lost on our way home ended up being a blessing in disguise as we stumbled across Yoyogi Park and made our way through the temple, as a parade was beginning. The prayer walls and food sacrifices were beautiful and thought provoking.

After a small break at Sakura house, we ventured out to Harajuku again to attempt to eat at the buffet we found the previous day but it was too crowded so we made our way down some side streets and found a small basement restaurant where you entered your order into a vending machine and gave your receipt to the chef.

We ended the day with a trip to Cookie Time where I had an authentic miniature milk bottle and a cookie speared through with a straw.

Trip to Sakura House

Today our mission was to find our way to Sakura House Office and then trek our way back to the Embassy to grab our bags and then off to find our home for the next 3 months. 

Tony was kind enough to drive us to Shinjuku and we made our way to the office, signing copious amounts of documents and quizzing the office staff for any information we had yet to pull out of Tony. 

We then attempted our first ordering of food by ourselves. The waitresses spoke no english which was interesting, not even knowing what I meant by rice but we got there in the end by pointing and using the little Japanese that we've picked up so far. The food was delicious and cheaper than expected although paying presented a bit of a problem with the inability to ask to split the bill with our limited knowledge of Japanese and the guide books lack of phrases. 

So with fuller stomachs and lighter wallets we made our way back to the New Zealand embassy on foot, only making one small mistake where we overshot a street but making our way back in one piece. 

When we got there Tony again offered to drive us, this time to our new home. After some confusion and grabbing a courier man's attention to find the right address we finally made it. Lugging my bag up 4 flights of stairs was something of a mission but finally I reached my room, a little smaller and less amazing than the photos but it would do none the less!

After an hour and a half of uploading photos and skyping Liam we ventured out to try and navigate to Harajuku- a place known for its crazily dressed locals and bright shopping. We were not disappointed. 

The streets are lit up like Christmas trees- some actually having Christmas trees too which I was super excited to see- and so much shopping that I can't wait to browse and buy from! 

We finally stopped being distracted and found a place to eat- again it was delicious and reasonably priced so we split a few meals between us- again no English so Chris tried his hand at ordering in Japanese and all went well! but the meals were rather small so decided to pay and go back to a burger place we had found on our travel. More english was spoken here and we got our fill and tucked into a mcdonald's-esque meal to fill us up. 

After an interesting interaction with the burger places toilet- filled with intrigue at how many buttons are really necessary and what the strange symbols could mean, we made our way home, stopping in a 7-Eleven to scope it out.

After a fairly relaxed day of exploring it seems as though my NZ body clock is still in play as I'm super tired and it's merely 10pm- 2am NZ time. 

So I'm off to sleep now,

Sayanara