Ghetto Happy Dining - Restaurant in Shibuya

Not a whole lot has been happening lately. But there are some things happening in the not so near future.
-My bandmate's other band has asked me to take pictures of them... Maybe I'll have a gig as the band's official photographer haha.
- I'm going to a taiko drumming concert - not sure what to expect there haha
- I'm DJ'ing for an event my bandmate is throwing. I have no idea how that will go as I have absolutely no experience in that field. I like music but I'm not sure that will translate to me being a decent DJ.
- I'm going back to Canada for Christmas/New Year's!! I dont think I can even begin to explain on here how excited I am to go home for a visit. So I wont.
- My band is having another gig sometime in early 2012, we have no new material and no time to practice so it should be another gong show haha. Good thing we aren't in it for the money/fame/glory!
So lately it seems like I have a lot of free time on my hands as all my friends seem to have found lives of their own. Because of this I've started using my DSLR camera, that I bought in Canada before I came to Japan, a lot more recently. So here are some pictures I took a week ago in the Iidabashi, Ochanomizu, Ebisu and Shibuya areas of Tokyo.

My Short Trip to Asakusa

So on one of my days off last week I took a quick peek around Asakusa. It was my third time there so forgive me for not taking too many pictures. It was also raining very heavily. The pictures are of: an alleyway by the Sensoji Temple - this is my favourite picture of the bunch and if you look carefully you can see the Tokyo Sky Tree in the background, a couple side streets leading towards the temple where there are a lot of shops where you can buy souvenirs and the like, the gate leading into the main area by Sensoji, the Kaminarimon and a picture of the Tokyo Sky Tree which is currently being built. Sorry for the brief descriptions of the pictures but I haven't figured out how to line up my captions with the pictures... yet!

Yoyogi Park, Harajuku and Shibuya Pictures

So here are some pictures of what I did on Tuesday -- I went to Yoyogi Park in Harajuku and then wandered down to Shibuya.

The above picture is of an enterance way to Yoyogi park. There is a big shrine in the park and is really popular among tourists and foreigners. We fit right in.

This is the view of Harajuku station from a pedestrian bridge.

This was taken in Yoyogi park. It's a huge park.

This was taken in a mall of sorts on Omotesando (a street in Harajuku) Chanel, Bvlgari and all those places were in this mall...

A view of Shibuya from a pedestrian bridge.

Nobody's Ugly after 2 a.m. - a T-shirt

So here are a bunch of pictures of the Tanabata festival I went to and some pictures of Route 16 - a.k.a. "California" (It's right beside the American air base so there are a lot of English shops and what not)

Your Mother is Developer - a t-shirt

So! I finally have internet! What a gruelling ordeal that was! Took ages and ages.

But rest assured I am alive and relatively healthy! After my birthday weekend I think my health took a major beating! My students took me out after class on Saturday and we proceeded to drink for a good five or six hours... maybe longer. They were all really sweet and pitched in to buy me a traditional Japanese fan (I'm always bitching about how hot it is here hahah)and they gave me a champagne toast and everything. It was really sweet!
On Sunday I drunkenly welcomed NTT into my home to install internet which was entertaining... and then I went to Yoyogi park to see some teachers and continue drinking. It takes a lot out of you -- drinking in 35 degree heat. I went to bed at 10 that night and spent the next day lounging around. It was a very nice birthday weekend. My one friend gave me a 1.8 litre bottle of Japanese sake... I named it Koshi and it lives in my fridge. I'm far too scared to open it.

Let's get on to the goods now!! Pictures of my travels!

The top picture is of the shrine in Omiya where I was at first.
The second is of a street in Omiya.
The third is of Ueno (one of the wards in Tokyo)during training a bunch of us went there and explored a bit, had some traditional izakaya food... and beer. :)
The fourth is of the traditional izakaya food - apparently when you eat the tiny squids they explode all their juices and gunk in your mouth. I did not try them.
The fifth is of Hibiya Park (also in Tokyo) we went on the search for Oktoberfest but apparently we missed it by one day. Shucks!
The sixth is of a building in Roppongi - the ward where all the foreigners go. I had to check it out!!
--> Blogger has somehow put them in reverse... the building in Roppongi is top right and Hibiya park is top left and then it goes down in reverse from there! My apologies I will hopefully figure this out sometime!
So those are all the pics I'm going to upload for now... I have plenty more but I need to put them onto my computer and all that jazz... I hope you enjoyed them!