Hannah!!!

It's soooo nice to have Hannah in town.  Of course, for her first breakfast I took her to my favorite breakfast spot, Lauderdale, for an Acaii berry bowl!

Singapore

For my first three day weekend while working in Tokyo, I decided to go to Singapore to visit my Uncle and Aunt! While I absolutely love Tokyo, it was definitely nice to get out and see some family, friends, and have a change of scenery.  Although it was a very short trip I was able to do a ton and see a lot of people! Some of the highlights of the trip were gardens by the bay, the botanical gardens, and an art opening. 

Art show opening with Arshna Aunty

My crazy cousins

Remnants of the spiciest/best chicken I have ever eaten. 

Garden by the Bay:

View from Lantern

Kinky bar

Singapore Botanic Gardens: 

Colorful lunch: 

Random After Work Adventures

After work a couple weeks ago Matt and I decided that since we finished at a decent hour we should make the most of our night and explore a new part of Tokyo.  We decided to leave Roppongi Hills/Azabu Juban for dinner and go find a gyoza restaurant that was highly recommended to us by a friend.  However in our attempt to do this we ended up on an express train going in the opposite direction from where we wanted to go.  We ended up in Ikebukero, which is a major commuter hub, filled with technology stores, and one of the hangouts for manga fanatics.  While this is not where we had intended on going it still ended up being a really interesting night! We first grabbed dinner at a second floor izakaya looking restaurant.  We really did not know what we were ordering but the food ended up being pretty good! My favorite dishes were a shrimp salad and salmon that we cooked with veggies and butter. 

We then quickly stopped at Bic Camera, one of the major Japanese technology resellers.  We found the Apple booth right as they were closing at had to snap a quick picture. 

This part of the city is also filled in Panchiko arcades.  Panchiko is essentially an arcade filled with slot machines.  One can find these all over Japan so Matt and I decided we would try our hand at it.  We were highly unsuccessful...after much trying we couldn't really figure out how to play and the people at the arcade were interesting to say the least.  After spending 1000 yen, Matt ended up winning 2 pieces of candy, a box of chocolates, and 200 yen.  All in all a successful night! 

TOKYO OLYMPICS 2020!!!!!

Tokyo won the Olympic bid to host the summer 2020 games a few weeks ago! This was such an exciting day to be in the city.  It has always amazed me as to how a sporting event could bring SO many people from all over the world together, and sure enough everyone Japanese and non-Japanese were talking about it! I can't wait to plan another trip to Japan to get to see the Olympics here in 2020.  It was an incredible experience to go back to London after studying abroad there to see the summer Olympics, so I can only imagine how great it will be to come back to Tokyo! 

Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art

A few Sundays ago I ventured to the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art to go see Francis Alys exhibition about the the straight of Gibraltar.  The exhibition was called Don't Cross the Bridge Before You Get to the River.   Alys show combined so many different forms of art (pictures, videos, documentaries, paintings, origami etc) to make a commentary about immigrants in Europe and Africa, specifically Spain and Morocco.  Unfortunately I was not allowed to take many pictures, but enjoyed seeing this really unique exhibit in Tokyo. 

What also really impressed me was how much the exhibit paid attention to detail.  For example the description of the exhibit was given to us on a large square sheet of paper.  The description was on one side while the other side was a map of the Straight of Gibraltar, with instructions on how to fold it into an origami boat.  This boat was meant to symbolize one's ability to cross the straight.  I thought this way of including the viewers into the exhibit was very clever.    

On my way home from the museum I ran into a large dance show.  Although I am not quite sure what it was for or what type of dance it was, it was a really cool experience to watch so many local people perform traditional Japanese dance. 

Hanako

It's so nice to have some fam in Tokyo!  Had a wonderful korean BBQ dinner with Hanako in my area. Can't wait for more hang outs when you move here!

Not a Drill!

This past week my whole office was quiet when all of a sudden it felt like we were on a moving train.  It took me a solid few seconds to realize that we were experiencing an EARTHQUAKE! I was at work on the 40th floor of a building so were were able to feel the shaking quite noticeably.  I looked around and no one seemed to really be shaken up by this at all.  No one duck and covered! Once it was over I asked my boss why people were so calm, and he said because during the last big quake you could look at the window and actually see other buildings swaying.

What's crazy is that we could feel the quake so strongly all the way in Tokyo, when as you can see from the graphic below the earthquake was in the middle of the ocean off the coast of the Izu Penninsula! It ended up being a 6.5 magnitude quake, which is pretty significant.


After all these years in CA I had never actually felt a real earthquake.  It was honestly pretty cool to experience one and get to observe how everyone reacted! I definitely only feel this way because nobody got hurt and Japan is okay! Guess now not only have I survived a CA earthquake, but a Japanese one as well!