Phoenix!

I went to the Pheonix concert in Shibuya the other day and it was SO GOOD!

It was definitely in my top 10 concerts ever, probably in my top 5. The crowd was SO energetic (which is saying a lot for the Japanese) and the band was really feeding off of that, so the show turned into a giant dance party. And in the end they invited fans to come on stage and it was just pure joyful insanity


You can tell Phoenix are genuinely good musicians and their straight-ahead unpretentious song writing just makes me smile. Check out the video of part of their opening song "Lisztomania" (I could see the security guards about to hunt me down as I was taking the video, so it had to be short):



and for those of you who don't know the band you can check out their wicked skills here:

February Fun

Recently I've been pretty busy with work but also with meeting friends

The other night I went out for food with one of my favourite students, and even though she speaks barely any english and I speak barely any japanese, somehow we had a hilarious and fabulous night (not to mention the food was AMAZING):



On my first day off this "weekend" (aka Monday and Tuesday) me and some Canadian friends headed out to Yuzawa in Niigata. Niigata is known for good snowboarding and close proximity to Tokyo.

In the morning, to catch the shinkansen (the bullet train) we had to meet at Tokyo station downtown which meant taking the local trains with ALL of my gear at the peak of rush-hour. It was ridiculous - there were definitely a few business men angry with me.

The Shinkansen

We caught the shinkansen out for the day snowboarded/skied and headed back in the evening. The snowboarding was wicked! Exactly what I needed, some time outside, away from the cemented in habitat of Tokyo. Plus, it was the first time I had snowboarded in mountains when it HASN'T been -30. The weather was perfect and the snow pretty fabulous as well.

The main lodge was actually called "Cowabunga station"

I'm giving the peace sign (especially for Jenna)

Snowboarding & a crepe - Could I be any happier?


The Japanese Alps

On the train ride home we relaxed with some beers and snacks. When we got back into Tokyo we met up with another friend for an okonomiyaki supper (which is basically like a traditional japanese veggie/seafood pancake-y thing) and we ended the day off with some karaoke before catching the last train home.

A successful beer run

Okonomiyaki

Now I'm incredibly sore and tired but happy as a clam :)

I love Cooking!

I know, you're probably thinking: "What?! who has hacked Pola's blog and writing crazy titles?!" or perhaps you're thinking: "Oh that crazy Pola, so long in Japan she is mixing up her verbs, she means Eating not Cooking!"

Nope! I just made onigiri! They're basically balls of rice wrapped in baked seaweed with a special surprise inside (mine were tuna onigiri). Not too difficult, but delicious.

The problem I kept finding with buying them at my local combini (7-11, etc.) was that the special surprise was usually something awful that I was not expecting at all - I swear to god one day I had one either filled with chicken-heart or some other dense granular non-western meat, it made me a tad sick.

So I just looked up a you-tube video (god bless the internet) on how to make them and I made them all by myself! I'm posting the hilariously-Japanese-awesome video here:



p.s. I've basically just been working a ton and nothing else special lately. The next little while I have quite a few day-trips planned (snowboarding, and Disney, etc.) so I'll post more photos soon

I've settled in

I finally have my stuff unpacked and somewhat organized in the space I have in this old wooden house. Check out the video of my room:

The Move

Hooray!

I moved today!

So the good news is I've only talked to 2 of my 4 roommates and they both seem wicked cool. Definitely in the small percentage of REGULAR foreigners in Japan.

Also, this area is totally a WICKED location.

I'm 20 minutes walk to Shinjuku (the main shopping/business district - basically the area you think of when someone talks about downtown, neon-lights, Tokyo)

and 20 minutes walk to Harajuku (the arty commercialized district - the area you think of when someone talks about crazy Japanese fashion)

and 20 minutes walk to Shibuya (the area you see in lost-in-translation)

and 20 minutes walk from Shimo-kitazawa (the area that isn't necessarily in the guide books but once you get to know the city, it's totally the most understated, happening place, cute cafes and pubs, great little hidden gem boutique shopping, etc.)

basically, I'm psyched.

Yeah, the house is a bit old, and yeah I can't figure out how to work my heater right now, and yeah it might be broken, and yeah I'm writing this in ALL of my merino-wool long-underwear and a few extra layers and a toque....BUT! I'm excited :)

I'll post photos soon

p.s. I crossed another adulthood milestone this evening again - I bought my first set of bed-linens! (my last place came-with really terrible bed-linens about as soft as potato sacks, so I ran out to the Japanese version of Ikea - MUJI - tonight and bought the coziest bedding)