Thrifty in Tokyo #1

Tokyo is a really expensive place to live in - when you don't earn a salary in Yen that is, or actually when you don't earn anything at all. My family is not in an entirely bad place financially, but which child wants to knowingly and carelessly increase the burden on their parents right? Besides, I still have 1 more year in Tokyo - 5th year - and one never knows what might happen, so of course it's good to start saving more now when I can!

Things I stint on:

1) Groceries:

- Japanese fresh produce is e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e. 2 garlics can cost like 250yen (almost 5sgd). So after searching a long time, I finally found Chinese garlic which was like at least 10 or more garlics for just 198yen!

- And I only buy fruits when they're on sale. Mostly bananas. On different days it can range from 200 yen to 78yen. Plus I always choose the bunches with more (sometimes they have 3 or 4 bananas in one bunch, so I always choose 4). Recently, I got one bunch with 9 bananas for 128yen. =)

- Comparing prices at supermarkets helps save sometimes. Like Yakult at Seiyu is 177yen but at Santoku it's 184yen. Food at Seiyu is generally cheaper as well.

- Bought a large packet of minced meat and cooked it into soboro (minced meat with green onions, onions etc) and froze it for future consumption.

- Have yet to buy chunks of fresh meat just because they're either expensive or just the value-for-money ones are too big.

2) Buying in bulk:

- Initially, buying big bottles or packets of things seemed expensive. 900yen (for a big packet) versus just 100yen for a small packet? Seemed such a no-brainer to buy the 100-yen packet right? But after a while, realised that alot of 100yens will easily build up to more than 900yen. Only gripe I have about Japanese supermarkets so far is that the hypermarkets that are so commonly found in Malaysia, Singapore and even USA, aren't all that common here. Big packagings also don't always seem to offer better value - hence need to be aware of that.

3) Snacks

- Japan is full of snacks; and it doesn't help that my roommate seems to love snacks too. But so far I've been pretty good at restraining from buying too much snacks.

- When I first got here, used to buy cartons of orange juice/fruit juice (100-150yen each). But I realised that if I stopped buying that weekly, I could probably save about 400-600yen per month so that counts too. Hardly purchase drinks from vending machines anymore. 100yen per convenient (but tiny) drink will add up!

4) All the cutesy things

- There are sooo many kawaii-cutesy little charms and stationery whatnots in Japan - and they are everywhere. Thankfully I've never really been into these things, so I'm not often tempted to buy any of these - which can actually be quite expensive despite it's impracticality.

5) Laundry

- This might sound really dirty but I don't do laundry very often either. Probably once in 2-3 weeks. The washing machine requires 100yen for 1 wash, and then the dryer needs 100yen/30 mins. Usually 60mins is required for drying so that's a total of 300yen each time I do laundry! What a far cry from the 20cents/30 mins in Eusoff =/... Well and since now it's Autumn - ie, don't perspire much, if at all - I mostly just air dry my clothes after wearing unless they are really in need of washing - ie, smells like cigarettes or got caught in the rain or reworn too many times. Most of the time I end up doing laundry only when I really need clothes for floorball haha. Each time I wash I make sure to throw in my bed sheets and quilt cover pillow case too, just to get more value outta it grr.

6) Piggy bank

- It started as a coin collection for laundry (only accepts 100yen coin) but now I guess it's my piggy bank. Each time my wallet feels too heavy with coins, I will take out about half the total number of 100yen coins from my wallet and put it in my piggy bank thingy! (which is actually just a small black drawstring pouch...) Sometimes 500yen coins are added too =)

7) Withdrawing allowance

- Since I withdraw from my savings account back home, I make sure to withdraw the maximum (or near maximum) amount each time I withdraw. This spreads out the value of the SGD$5 withdrawal surcharge.

- The money is then separated into monthly basis - and every week I take out about 10,000yen - 15,000yen - making me extra conscious of leaving enough for the remaining weeks.

8) Keeping accounts

- I've almost always kept accounts for my spending since before - but even more so now. I've drawn up a bookkeeping spreadsheet in Excel, and each week I calculate how much I spend and on what. This allows me to see where most of my money is going (and whether on unnecessary items or not).

9) Saving the Earth

- Okay, not as grand as I made that sound. Everytime I go to Seiyu, I try to make sure to bring my own plastic bag/grocery bag, because that saves me 2yen each time!

- And I know I like shopping, but I make sure that each time I shop, I usually only buy items below 1500yen.

- And flea markets are so <3!>

10) Reading up/Research

- I've started looking up blogs and online articles on how to save in Tokyo. There's been interesting things like a blog matsuri somewhere (it's like a themed blog posting), where just a few months ago they had one on Being Frugal in Tokyo.

- Started reading this old online newsletter called Frugal Watch as well (on japaninc.com)

- And I found out about the discount/wholesale supermarkets on a blog as well! Except that most of them seem to be in the outlying areas of Tokyo (I'm in Central Tokyo). Heard there's a Hanamasa supermarket in Okubo or nearby though - will check that out soon.

Things I don't save on:

1) Floorball

- I almost called it my 'passion' but I don't think I'm such a strongly-emotional person. Haha. I guess it's more of a self-commitment - an important one. Anyway, floorball is very expensive, in terms of transport costs: one-way can cost about 400-600yen depending on the day's training venue. Once, I went 4 times a week and spent like 3000yen for transport in total. >.<

- Nonetheless, I do try to save where I can: for example, taking the Yamanote Line to Takadanobaba Station which is further but cheaper (130yen, 20 mins walk) rather than the Subway to Nishiwaseda Station (160yen, 10 mins walk). And Mondays are when I mainly go, which is good because I alight 2 stops earlier than Chofu station and it costs 40yen less! I also walk from the station to the venue rather than take the bus (200yen).

- When I feel poor or have the urge to keep within tight budget in that week, I reduce the number of trainings I attend, though I keep it at a minimum of 1 a week.

2) Occasional sweet treats

- I've found that coming to Tokyo has increased the frequency of cravings for sweet things. Perhaps due to the salty nature of the food here (they use alot of shoyu and salt). So I've learnt to treat myself occasionally because I know that being too stingy on myself would eventually lead to a binge-spending later instead.

- But even when I buy sweet treats, I try to moderate it. Like a big tub of ice cream (my favourite Hokey Pokey flavour 1litre for only 398yen! Cheaper than Singapore!) which I eat over 2-3 weeks. Or a small tub of sorbet, which I divide into 4 portions. Sorbets are good, because they cleanse the palate and satisfies the sweet craving easily without needing too much. Yum.

Yay, a picture of the yummy Hokey Pokey ice cream!

3) Parties/Clubs/Events

- One thing I don't really hesitate spending money on is certain school events. For instance the recent Halloween party was 2000yen (was initially 3500yen but they lowered it for newcomers YAY), or the Paddy circle membership fee of 1000yen, or going clubbing with Yuting that one time ~2100yen etc. These are quite good for making new friends and getting to know more about Japan so I think they're quite a necessity! Besides, I'm pretty moderate in this manner already since I've not gone for a single nomikai (drinking party) yet. Those usually cost between 2000-3000yen and can be held pretty frequently! Japanese really love to drink!

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Perhaps I might sound like I'm leading a really frugal lifestyle here, almost to the extent of affecting my enjoyment of my time in Tokyo - but rest assured, I am not. The past 21 years of saving or sometimes mostly attempting to, has taught me about my own habits well. I've come to understand that being thrifty where I can and just plain starving myself into miserable-ness is quite different. I'm careful never to make myself feel too deprived, lest there be a (more) expensive backlash later on. I guess I just try to live with the conscious awareness and appreciation of money, and the sweat/efforts that have gone into obtaining it.

I just wish I know how to make my money grow. Been starting to read up a little on investing and fixed deposits etc, but there are soo many different types and banks that I'm getting confused. Argh. Slowly slowly. Investing has always been something I wanted to learn about for a long time already but never got round to it. I guess a quote caught my attention though: "The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest." apparently said by Albert Einstein. Hmm.

Singapore Embassy Lunch + Meiji Koen Flea Market

Oh, and just last Saturday, there was a lunch reception for Singaporean Students in Japan, very generously held by the Singapore Embassy, and more importantly, featuring Singaporean food for buffet!

So this is what the outside of the Embassy looks like (no pictures of the inside because we were too busy eating heh):

The food was... okay. For some reason it just simply further drilled into the reality that this is not Singapore, since the food didn't taste fantastically yummy or authentic. Maybe it's just high standards speaking. Anyway, there was chicken rice, prawn mee soup, laksa, a version of chilly crab with soft shell crab (haha), mantou (for the chilli crab sauce of course), satay and a few other dishes. Still not bad though of course; and got to meet my primary school classmate who's here on an Government scholarship.

The hour before the lunch commenced, Isabel, Rachel, Yuting and I went to the Meiji Koen Flea Market and rushed about buying and browsing. Didn't buy all that much this time - a knit dress, a cap, a denim jacket and 2 indie/hippie tops/dress. The denim jacket was an awesome buy though - only 500 yen (8sgd) and it's a cropped motorcycle style jacket and warm enough to wear in autumn. I spotted a really well-made bag that was blue and green - totally my colours! - but it turned out to be an LV bag and cost 7000yen. Too mind-boggling. I'm still thinking about how unique, how pretty and how "me" it was though. Oh well.

Waseda-Keio Baseball match this weekend. I'll be there!

Paddy's Halloween Party!

In case I've yet to mention, I've joined a school circle - Paddy Fielders' Tea Party - which is essentially a English Conversation Club. And it held a Halloween Party this recent Tuesday night.

It was held at a small pub-like place at Kabukicho from about 7pm onwards. I've never been to a Halloween Party before and this was pretty fun - especially seeing everyone's costumes and creative efforts. Being stingy, I absolutely refused to buy any worthless items just for Halloween, so that led to me deciding on my costume just 1 hour before the party itself. Thankfully Rachel had like everything haha. So I went as a ... gypsy! Apparently I looked like Jack Sparrow /some mediterranean thing too since one or 2 people approached me with the same reaction, but oh well. There was free-flow drinks (as is common in Japan) and food too! The food was pretty yummy, especially the dessert! The executive committee performed as a band as well and sang songs to entertain us. We even played bingo cards (with 5 winners but unfortunately I wasn't one of them) and there was a best-dressed prize too. Japanese seem to have no reticence about going in front to perform and sing though -interesting. And Seung Hee, a Korean girl in the circle and who stays in the dorm nearby, said that Koreans are probably even more 'shameless' in the karaoke sense lol.

So some pictures below:

(L-R: Yuting as Marie from Aristocats; me; Maria as a Watermelon/Ladybug; Wataru as a pretty maid)

(Me; Rachel my roommate as a sailorgirl/girl scout/school girl)

Shigenobu Okuma

In view that yesterday was a holiday - Founder's Day - hence this shall be a post on the founder of the School, Shigenobu Okuma, as well as a little bit on the School's history.

Shigenobu Okuma was a samurai scholar and twice former prime minister of Japan during the Meiji and early Taisho period. He was in charge of foreign affairs, then monetary reforms and finally made Minister of Finance in 1870. Some of his contributions include taxation and property reforms, unification of the nation's currency, creating the first national mint and setting up a separate Ministry of Industry. He was dismissed in 1881 due to inner conflicts with the Satsuma and Choshuu cliques. In 1882, he not only co-founded his political party, but also set up the Tokyo Senmon University (later renamed to Waseda University in 1902). He was again appointed to Ministry of Foreign affairs in 1888, particularly to deal with the problematic issue of "unequal treaties" with the West, and many people felt that the resulting revisions were too conciliatory. In 1889, a member of an ultranationalist group Genyosha attacked Okuma, and resulted in Okuma's right leg being blown off by a bomb. Okuma retired from politics then, but returned again for a year in 1897 as Foreign Minister & Minister of Commerce and Agriculture. 1898 saw him merging his political party with another, and was then appointed Prime Minister by the Emperor to set up Japan's first ever partisan cabinet. However, the new cabinet only lasted 4 months, before falling apart due to internal conflict. He remained the party leader until 1908.

1914 was the year of the Siemens Scandal and the Yamamoto Government was brought down as a result of the scandal. Okuma returned to politics, gathered a coalition party and won a majority victory. A few months later, Japan declared war on Germany and thus entered the WW1 on the Allied party side. Then Prime Minister Okuma was also involved in the drafting of Twenty One Demands. However, this administration also fell in 1915, with the exposure of the Oura scandal. Okuma finally permanently retired from politics in 1916.

A picture of Okuma Shigenobu statue at Waseda, facing the Okuma clocktower and Auditorium.

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History of Waseda University

Founded by Shigenobu Okuma in 1882, the University was initially Tokyo Senmon College but was often called by the locals as "Waseda Gakkou" (Gakkou = 学校=がっこう=school) or "Totsuka Gakkou" as Okuma's villa was in Waseda, whilst the school was located in Totsuka. In 1902, the college was awarded full university status and renamed Waseda University.

Some Titbits about Waseda
- It is apparently the only school in the world to have a square academic cap.
- It's alumni includes 6 Prime Ministers.
- The University Library and the Okuma Auditorium are designated as cultural assets in 2007.
- Haruki Murakami is from Waseda. As are a few other notable authors, sports athletes, CEOs (Uniqlo, Honda, Toshiba etc) and even founders of prominent companies (Samsung, Nintendo, Lotte Group etc).

Atom Club

No school on Wednesday (school holiday) and Thursday (replacement holiday for the previous Monday's Health Day), so Tuesday night, decided to follow Yuting (Taiwanese senior at Waseda) to go... clubbing! I guess there's a curiosity there since Japanese people can drink so much everyday without actually needing a reason for it - so it just left one to wonder what do they do when they go clubbing then? Back home, for me at least, clubbing is usually to drink and hang out with friends, and I only usually go for Hall bashes or as a gathering activity of some significance (ie, send someone off/ goodbye gathering thing).



So we went to Atom Club at Shibuya, which is apparently quite a well known club here. Perhaps because it is very cheap (1000yen before 12 midnight) and that allowed entry + 2 drinks. Rachel and I were a bit later than the pre-agreed 11pm and we ended up having to run from Shibuya to the club just to get in before midnight. What a sight we were - 6 nicely dressed girls running and clacketing around in heels (5 of them were wearing heels, I was wearing flats yay), and most people looked on rather bemusedly haha. 6 of us because we met 3 of Yuting's friends/dorm mates. There was C (short for Cirus I think; from Thailand), then Min (from Korea) and Ran/Lan (Japanese). Such an international mix eh.

Ran was explaining the club culture here to Rachel and I, and it turns out that clubs are frequent places for girls and boys to meet, ie, it's actually common to have guys come over and talk to girls (but not the other way around hrmph chauvinistic haha). So different from Singapore, where it seems like clubs are more for big group of friends to go and have fun, hang out, rather than a dating/meeting spot. Or at least for me anyway. Oh, but the alcoholic drinks here are certainly very cheap! 500 yen for most drinks! That's like 7-8sgd, almost 2/3 of the price in Singapore! And the first drink I had was pretty yummy - Brandy Mariana - saw it was by Calpis so I tried it heh. My subsequent two were not so pleasing to the palate.

We were planning to wait till the morning for the first train, but Min got her poor toenail stabbed into by a chair leg, and it was bleeding ferociously. She got sent to the hospital at Roppongi and the rest of us cabbed back so that her roommate could get back and fax her national health insurance card to her. Poor girl. Cab fare was not cheap -3000yen - but it was shared amongst the 5 of us so it turned out to be pretty okay.

Now that I've had the experience, probably won't be going for a while.
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In other matters, will be having the Reception for Singaporean Students @ the Embassy on Saturday, followed by dinner with Fujii-san on Sunday and Paddy's Halloween Party on Tuesday! Full week ahead vroom!

First weekend in - aka Lazy Weekend

This was my first weekend where I mostly stayed in and it's still certainly over too soon. I joined Rachel and Isabel for dinner at a izakaya (居酒屋）at Shinjuku though. An izakaya is basically a kind of drinking and gathering place, where they also serve many side dishes to accompany the drinks. We simply had the food though - corn and bacon dish, cheese tofu, lobster (which turned out to be prawns) and potato gratin, crab pizza and octopus. The food was not too shabby and it came up to about 1000yen per person. The izakaya had a really pretty name though! Hana no mai (花の舞) - the dance of flowers - and it totally reminded me of Kuchiki Rukia's zanpakutou name (Bleach anime).

The days are getting filled with readings, homework (weekly assignments for some of the classes) and sometimes Japanese dramas. Seems like the workload here is slightly heavier than back home, but then again I'm taking 6 classes, of which one -Japanese - is taking up a whopping 9 hours a week. So nothing to be surprised about I guess. So many people go on exchange and talk about how deliriously fun it was (usually clubbing and travelling) and how slack it was (taking the minimum load of 3 modules) but I'm here studying hard =)) or trying to HAHA. Quite abit of difference there eh? =P

So, back to the work. Blah.

Sugamo

Wednesday so no class today; instead, went to Sugamo with Rachel and Isabel. Sugamo is perhaps the Harajuku equivalent but for obaasan (old ladies!) and darn, my soul must be pretty old since this is probably the place I like best so far.

Reached Sugamo (巣鴨) station in just about 10 mins (2 stops after Ikebukuro on the JR Yamanote Line) and wandered out to look at the map since none of us thought to bring one or write the directions down. A very helpful old man sitting there happily engaged us in conversation though - or what limited conversation that we could squeak out haha - and very kindly pointed us to the place in question - Jizou Dori (地蔵通り). That totally made my day - nice old people are so happifying!

So why is this place my favourite place thus far?

Because there was no lack of streetside food stalls and so many old people! I like! The atmosphere was certainly different from that in Harajuku, Shinjuku and Kichijoji. There were many stalls set up by the roadside, ranging from thermal underwear, to pajamas and track pants to trinkets, shoes and of course FOOD! Food: not just in the form of cooked streetside food, but even pickles, dried goods, marinated seafood and more. Apparently a flea market only happens on the 4th, 14th and 24th of every month though, but there didn't seem to be any flea market (like the ones I've been to anyway) so perhaps that referred to the ad-hoc structures of these roadside stalls. Permanent shops were mainly selling clothing items, bags, Japanese sweets and shoes for older ladies. One interesting fixture was the prominence of bright red underwear though!

As for the food, I had pancake-shaped okonomiyaki (150yen), 1 custard and 1 cheese filled pancake (100yen each), 1 stick of unagi (300yen), 1 chinese pancake with meat filling (200yen), 1 chicken skin yakitori (130yen), 1 chicken meatball yakitori (130yen) and brought home a box of kiwi berries (400yen) - which are YUM! There was a few more stalls that I could have patronised but my stomach was reaching it's maximum capacity. Besides, we only reached there at about 4pm and stalls started tidying up by 5pm since it gets dark early here. Will certainly be back then! I have to try Japanese sweets some day as well, but probably not anytime soon since honestly they never really look very appetising >.<. Oh and apparently there's a very interesting (but not exactly cheap) souvenir shop as well. And old-lady fashion here is quite cute hehe.

There's a shrine within as well, and it seems to be of a certain significance. Probably will try to read up about this.

I'll be back!

(PS. At the train station, there were SO many posters about Momiji and the places where it blooms and stuff. Now I REALLY REALLY want to go! Raaa! )

Waseda- Rikkyo 2nd Leg - Autumn Match

Apparently the big 6 of Tokyo - Waseda, Todai, Hosei, Rikkyo, Meiji and Keio - hold a baseball league tournament every Autumn and Spring. So we (Rachel, Wanwei and I) caught the Waseda-Rikkyo match today at Jingu Baseball Stadium.

Waseda lost 0-4 but what an experience it was. The cheering (and all the accompanying hand actions) never stop; and I mean never. Everytime Waseda bats, the whole crowd of supporters stands up to cheer and sing. Everytime Waseda pitches, we get to sit, but the cheering goes on, mostly for the pitcher. They even have specific cheers for "strike", "3 strikes" (2 strikes), and "change" (2 outs, 2 strikes).

School song was sung twice - once midway and once at the end - and the "Deep Blue Sky" song was sung like 4 times at least. They're all very catchy though, so I just need to get down to learning the lyrics one day.

What an experience.

Paddy Fields and All

Typhoon 18 apparently hit at 8am in the morning yesterday, and diverted away from Tokyo towards China. Classes were cancelled for the whole day, but we only found out after we had made the trip to the campus. Nonetheless, it was a good day of rest to have.

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Today was the first meeting of Paddy Fields The English Conversation Circle, and Isabel, Rachel and I all went for it. Well, not before we filled our tummies at the President's Welcome Reception for New Students heh.

The meeting room was a pretty small one located at the Toyama Campus and the members were practically spilling out of the room - apparently because this was the first meeting since summer break. First part was to be shuffled randomly and get a chat partner. Mine was Shungo, a somewhat shy but really nice sophomore who only joined in April this year. Apparently he's been busy with another school soccer circle, but yay we both support Man U! My second partner - or two rather - were 2 girls called Saki and Saori. Both are committee members I think - can't quite remember. My memory for people, names and faces is being sorely tested nowadays, what with the floorball club and this. We changed groups again, but this time with 4 in a group - and Shungo was back in, with another Japanese guy Yuki and a Korean girl Seung Hee. Yuki was very funny - blushed SO furiously pink when we asked where he want to Universal Studios Japan with, and it turned out it was his girlfriend lol! Seung Hee is trilingual, being able to speak Japanese, Korean and English - my respect!

Last part of the night's activity was to have 5 discussion topics, and for people to just split up according to what topic they wanted to discuss. Joined Yuting's group on "My new semester's resolution" and it was 6 girls, 1 guy. Inadequate space in the room meant we settled outside, which wasn't too bad since we were treated to amazing 'live' chorale music - seems like they were practicing for the WIF. Certainly strengthened my wish to join choir again though; but I probably have to search elsewhere because their standard was simply way beyond my level.

Post activity, we all went down to Saizeriya - where we had our first meal in Japan ever, and what irony that it was Italian - and ate in a group. The three of us having filled our stomachs (and saved our pockets) earlier, we simply ordered desserts. This was perhaps the better part of the night - at least for me - because it didn't feel so contrived as earlier. Sat next to the Club President, Hiro, across from Shungo-san and next to Rachel - whom I didn't stop teasing about Nino haha. She should so thank me though, cuz that way she found another fan-friend in one of the Japanese girls haha.

First circle meeting not bad at all - looking forward to more!


P.S. Oh and the best thing was, I finally found out what it is that supermarket cashiers always ask me, and how to respond! Alrightyy =))

Hmm Typhoon

Typhoon #18 is supposed to hit Tokyo tomorrow apparently, so morning classes (ie, Japanese language) has been cancelled and the rest of the day is pending the typhoon's performance tomorrow I guess.

Interesting; never been through a typhoon before. Wonder if it'll just be all rainy and windy though...

Floorball!

Thanks to Alvin, I think I'll be able to join a floorball club here! Quite sad that there're only 5 female teams in this region though (Kanto).

Today was the first training and surprisingly I was early by almost 30 mins. Took the slower train to Choufu and got some very precious shuteye on the way there, but still arrived early. Was out in Harajuku with Rachel in the afternoon first, all because of the lure of eating the ramen haha. I tried the BonShan ramen today (the pork bones one that supposedly is chock full of collagen) but honestly I don't think it's anything great. The soup was so-so and the pork was too salty and not like the slices that they give in the Kyushuu ramen! Next time I'm so sticking to the Kyushuu version. Oh but chanced upon another ramen shop at Harajuku though, all thanks to the atm search and the wonderful wonderful smell of the barbequed/boiled pork that emanated from the tiny little shop. There was a queue as well. Next time =)

The very nice coach had his brother and him fetch me from the eki (station) to the training grounds because it was quite far. Initially I thought this would be a one-off, since I assumed the training centre was within walking distance from the eki, but nope. So now apparently all the senior members with cars are going to take turns fetching me from the Choufu eki every week... so paiseh but, such a good opportunity to improve my Japanese I hope! I really really hope. I really really really want to improve so that I can at least converse with them! Especially the few nice ones who keep trying to talk to me like Aya-san and Miho-san and this other guy whom I sadly have forgotten the name of. And the keeper who gave us a lift 2 years ago still remembers me! Wow. First thing he said when he saw me was sashiburi (long time no see). Or maybe he just assumed man. Not sure haha.

So first training today was great! Tiring (so tiring) but greattt. Makes me realise how much I miss floorball. And also how unfit I am now. I probably played like 2 hours plus outta the 3 hours straight though, because my team had only 2 defenders. So maybe it's not too bad - my fitness anyway. Can't believe it's been 3-4 months since I've last played and since I've last exercised regularly... No wonder the pudginess. Only thing is they train 3-4 times a week and each time I go it takes about 40-60mins and 380yen (6sgd) ONE way. Pocket's feeling the pain. Hopefully will manage to get a teiki (special commuter pass) though. Oh and the club has quite a few ladies' national players, and even those who aren't are still pretty good. Hope I improve!

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Oh and during the car ride to training, Tomoyuki-san was asking me where in Japan I wanted to go, and well I just said Hokkaido because I couldn't really think of one place. I know I want to go everywhere to try the food though heh. Oh but I asked him about Momiji and he said there are alot of places with that. Best place is Kyoto though and that's abit far. A good place near Tokyo would be Mt Takao (at Takaosanguchi eki I think he said) but next month would be the best time to go. I should really check this out!

Weather

Last week was all hot up till Sunday, and then this week was mostly drizzly and chilly. What a turn of weather. Pretty hot again today - out in Harajuku anyway. And omgosh the crowd that stretched out along the looonngg street of Omotesando was mind-boggling. Weekends out always always make you realise how populated Tokyo is. And sometimes it's tiring - especially when you're lugging a darn heavy bag and squeezing your way through - but sometimes, it's almost... exciting. The vibes and bustle is quite astounding. Perhaps something that I wouldn't feel back home - probably also because I'm a tourist to this country.

Slowly turning cold... I like =)

But also making me realise maybeee I don't have much clothes for winter. Lol. But then again, classrooms are pretty hot. I guess I'll just need a good jacket.