This song's on repeat right now. I'm a little bit addicted.
Heyo!
How are things going?
Lots of money-saving tips today! I'm really excited to tell you about them.
But first my weekly review~
I can't remember Thursday...
Okay, then! On to Friday. Haha.
Oh, wait. Thursday I had a friend come over and we ate my leftover spaghetti together. She is Korean, and she had never had fried garlic bread before. She absolutely loved it and said that, between that and my spaghetti, I'd never need to go to an Italian restaurant again. I was all sorts of flattered.
She even took a photo of the food, which I would upload, but it's on her phone and not mine.
Friday I went to class, and afterwards to my room. If I'm not mistaken, I cleaned my room and afterwards loafed around. Last weekend I felt nothing like doing my homework, so it was full of happy procrastination. After I had decided I would take a nap at an obscenely late hour (I really knew better and that I should wait until bed time), a friend called me at the perfect time and asked if I wanted to hang out. So I went up to her room, and we ate vegetable omelettes and watched three episodes of Hellsing. It was quite nice.
She was leaving for Kyoto at three in the morning, though, so I excused myself at around 9:3o to give her some time to rest before she had to go. Afterwards, I went back to my room and eventually went to bed.
Saturday, I went back to Fuchuu with a friend of mine.
I wanted to explore that shrine, so we took the train that saved about 100 yen during each trip again, and we made our way, arriving in Fuchuu at about 12:45. The shrine wasn't as big as I'd remembered it at the party, but it was still enough to give me about 20 solid minutes of entertainment.
Here are some photos:
This is the sign at the entrance.
Walking up towards the shrine.
I believe, if I'm not mistaken, this was the place with the water you used to purify yourself. Of course, I forgot to, like a complete numbskull.
The architecture to the actual entrance.
One of the first buildings inside of the shrine.
So much detail. Oh my goodness.
And I just.
I just loved this.
I bought a couple of omiyage [souvenirs] to bring back home to some people, and afterwards, my friend and I decided to eat. The train stations around here usually have some kind of restaurants and mall areas around them, at least the more popular ones, so since my friend and I were just winging it, we wandered around and looked for some food. Finally, he found a place with a very Japanese sort of style of food. They brought you meat, and there is a grill on the table. you cook it yourself.
So I got myself a mixed plate.
And.
Oh. My. Goodness.
There was beef on it. Beef is REALLY expensive here, so I've been living off of pork.
And sometimes I just want to eat a cow, not a pig.
And proceeded to grill in my medium-rare beefy bliss. Japanese people are pretty hardcore sticking to having most of their meats well-done, and while it's still tender, every now and again I just want my meats to still be nearly alive.
Oh, y'know. There's just a grill built into the centre of the table. No big deal.
Oh my gosh, it was so good! Expensive, though, so I can't go too often, but there was enough to fill you up and be able to keep going for a while. I was really happy to find out about it.
I'll have to go again once I can afford to. Oh man.
After lunch, we wandered around and got bored, so we went and took the Keio-Hachouji line to Shibuya.
Turns out that it's about 100 yen cheaper that way, too [cumulatively, with the first train to Hachouji, it's the same, but compared to going from Machida to Shibuya], so it worked out in the end.
After that, we got on the Yamanote Line in Tokyo, which is basically a railway that just goes around Tokyo in circles, and we headed to Akihabara.
Akihabara is known for it's plethora of anime and electric-device stores, hence the name.
It's also just called "Akiba" for short, so I may refer to it as that from now, just for the typing convenience.
I found melon soda in a vending machine, and while I'm not often a soda kind of person, I must say. This stuff is absolutely addictive and wonderful. It tastes so good.
And it's green.
What's not to love?
Akiba is big and kind of intimidating. There were also more foreigners there than I'd seen anywhere else, which was kind of strange to me. But it was all right. My friend is somewhat obsessed with some animes, so he was having a blast. I haven't been keeping up with them as much these days, so there wasn't too much for me [although there was a little bit here and there], but it was still a lot of fun.
Akiba!
To pat myself on the back for not trying to buy some anime or music or anything, I bought myself a caramel and custard with whipped cream crepe at a little hole-in-the-wall kind of shop.
It was delicious, although my friend says that the crepes in Harajuku are better.
I'll have to investigate.
We went home shortly after, though, so I'll go ahead and tell you about Sunday.
I went back to the place where I helped teach that group of people English last time, and they brought a cake for my friend's birthday. It was really good. Afterwards, I wound up spending the evening and eating dinner with said friend, and then that night I went back to my room early to finally get around my homework.
Monday I went to class, and then afterwards I came home, cleaned, took a nap, and then went to hang with a different group of people. We had curry pasta, and while it was different, it was pretty good. I enjoyed it. I also went grocery shopping while we were all together and at the store. It wasn't the cheap place, but I paid attention to what was on sale and, as a result, didn't spend nearly as much money as I could have.
I also got a package from my grandma with a couple of new pairs of smaller pants [yay!] and some acne face wash, which I've been desperately needing.
But that's all that really happened.
Tuesday was my long day in class, but it was also two of my friends' birthday.
I gave a mini-Russian Lesson for my last class, multi-lingual interaction, and that was a lot of fun. I also learned some new Japanese slang [mostly contractions], so that will prove to be useful in the future, I'm sure.
After class, we went back to shabu-shabu for my friends' birthdays, and that was a lot of fun. I got back at around 11PM, though, and was really tired, but I had homework to do.
So today, I've been really tired. But that's okay. After my classes, I went with a friend to get my hair cut. Afterwards, after I'd said that I wanted pizza, she told some other friends and we all got together and made pizza. I took a picture, but it's on my phone. I'm sorry.
It was a beautiful day today, too, and you could see a lot of the mountains.
And that brings us to the end of the week.
So on to the money saving! I'm really excited to tell you about it~
- Some train lines are cheaper, like I mentioned last week. The trip from Fuchuu to Shibuya was quite a bit cheaper than from Machida to Shibuya, and is actually further away. Really strange, but I think that is the main goal of that rail line, so I think that's why.
- The sales for bento last week that I mentioned? It doesn't apply for just that. I forgot to mention last time, but that also applies to things like relatively fresh breads, as well. I can buy, after 7PM most days, various sweet pastries and breads in a separate basket around the pastry section for 20% off. This applies to other sections of the store, too! It's pretty great.
-Friends feed you. I can't keep saying this enough; but this week so far, I've only had to pay entirely for my own food once at the birthday party. At the rate I've been going, I'm just not going to have to make my own food this week. Sure, I'll pitch in to help pay for what was bought, but it's a lot cheaper than eating by yourself.
-A teacher told me today of some local parks that I didn't know about before for birdwatching and enjoying nature. When I finally find and go to them, that will be a nice, cheap day-trip. I'm really excited; I had no idea there were places as close as in Machida.
-Pizza here is expensive. Have some friends get together with you and make it together as a group. What is about 1,2oo yen for two pizzas is about the price of one pizza bought, on average, but when you split it between five people, it becomes even cheaper.
-Finally, my favourite! My haircut was 1/4th the usual price, and it is exactly what I wanted. Most salons around here have haircuts ranging from 1,6oo-3,500 yen, and so I was a bit nervous and decided to ask a friend of mine about it. She knows [and now I know] of a place that has haircuts during the daytime for just 690 yen. With a photo and my friend to help me with the Japanese part of it, the hairdresser did exactly what I wanted done with my hair, and oh my gosh. I was amazed. Now I can afford to get a small flat iron for my bangs~ I had been really anxious about that, and I'm so pleased.
That's all for now, though.
Take care, all of you~
Talk to you next week!
-RD
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