Happy Japanniversary!

So today marks a very special day for me. It has been exactly one year since I moved to Japan! It's been a very interesting year full of new experiences, I'm lucky to say I've met a lot of good people along the way. Hopefully this is the first of many years to come in Japan.

So what have I been up to as of late? Nothing outrageous.

For Golden Week I went to Osaka. I decided to do something a little different regarding mode of transportation down there. Instead of taking the bullet train or highway bus as I have done before, I took the local trains. The bullet train usually takes two and a half hours and the highway bus (depending on traffic) takes about six hours. The local trains took roughly ten hours, 8500 yen and nine train transfers. It was a fun experience and definitely worth the time. By taking the locals I got to see a lot of the countryside and because of all the transfers it kept things interesting and gave me the opportunity to walk around and see some small towns. Osaka was fun as usual and I saw some people I met last month. I can't say I did anything special or noteworthy. I ate a lot of food, sang Karaoke and walked around parts of Osaka.

Last weekend I spent my entire weekend alone. It was a first for me as I tend to be a socail butterfly but for some reason I just felt like being alone and having a relaxed weekend. It was great! On Sunday I went to Shinjuku and just walked around Kabukichyo and Shinjuku-sanchome, I also went to Shinjuku park which is a hidden gem in the city! I've been to the bigger, more popular parks like Hibiya, Ueno and Yoyogi but I had never been to Shinjuku park before. It's truly beautiful! It has a good sized lake with bridges and koi fish, a traditional tea house and thick forests. It was great to see the contrast of a serene lake against the back drop of the skyscrapers of Shinjuku. I'm looking forward to returning soon for a picnic! I went home and made myself some Japanese food for dinner!! Nothing too crazy, just some yakisoba.
On Monday I decided to do some more exploring. I went to Nakano (a little bit west of Shinjuku) to see this shopping arcade they have (It is said that Nakano is the new Akihabara but I didn't see that at all). Apparently in this arcade they have a store where you can things people have found on the train! Unfortunately I did not find this store. I got bored of Nakano quickly and went to a regular spot of mine called Kichijoji, it's good for shopping and funky little cafes. I just wandered around there and found a foreign food shop so I bought a couple western food items and cooked myself dinner. I'm seriously impressed with myself as I have cooked myself dinner four nights in a row now (if you know me, you know that this is quite rare).

Needless to say, nothing really noteworthy has been happening. Life is good! :)