Mum, this one's for you.

This blog post is the result of more than two week's worth of my dear mama's incessant nagging. Blasted wench. (Love you mum) (lots) (and miss you) (you're not a wench really) (post me a decent kebab?).

Hello hello hello. Rianna here! I'm 'taking tokyo' singlehandedly at the moment, as some time ago Robson went back to Blighty for Spring hols. What have I been doing with all this time I hear you ask? Well, allow me to enlighten you my dear blog peepers.

After reports/ exams/ general nastiness, I took a few days to myself as well-deserved (?) rest.

On a literary note, things are getting very exciting in my anthology of Sherlock Holmes tales, he sure knows how to solve a mystery that one.

Recently I went to see some Plum Blossom with my mate Yuki. Very nice, very pleasant, very pretty and so on and so forth. Photo evidence?

See? Told you it was nice and that.

Went to see Foals with my buddy Alice. AMAZING. Real horrorshow.
Think some members of the audience confused the event for a Slayer concert though, things got out of hand FAST. No one stopped us dancing though. Also, only in Japan would you see people wearing a face mask to a gig. Weird.

NEWSFLASH: Going to see Friendly Fires with Maja this Friday...more dancing.

Crazy weather in Tokyo recently. It's warm. It's wet. It's snowing. Snowing?? Yeah that's right. It snowed. Hard.

I'd also like to announce the birth of 'Cooking Club', of which the first rule is not to talk about it. Thanks for your cooperation. This week's menu consists of chilli con carne and stuffed pepper. Very good, very good indeed.

Thought of the day for all you thinkers; 

'Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men' 

Cheers for that one, Lord Acton.

det här ār inget sätt att säg adjö

Evening all. Robson here.
Thought I'd better check in, and just alert everyone that the blog will be changing a bit as of tomorrow.... I'm heading home for two months, Jerome is staying on in Japan though so the duo will be having separate adventures for a while! We'll both keep blogging in the two months obvs, but don't expect to see joint day trips around Japan! Jerome might post some photos of hijinks in Tokyo, I might post photos of mucking out stables, but rest assured it doesn't stop here!
So it's 7.35pm, I've had my dinner, had a shower, and set the alarm for 5.45am (no typos there, probably is before sunrise) all ready to fly tomorrow. Pretty excited!!!! Squeezing four months' worth of stuff into one suitcase was trickier than it sounds, keep your fingers crossed the case doesn't split in transit!!
Anyway, sayonara for now, next time I blog I'll be on home turf!

do it like the man'dem

Wow where to start with this weekend?!!
We've had a fantastic time, all began when Sarah showed up on Friday morning. Sadly I had two exams on friday (yeah both alright thanks) so couldn't meet up with The King as soon as she arrived, but whizzed down to TakaD's ice rink as soon as I was out to meet Jerome, King, and some of the usual suspects - Lin, Dunja, Mirja, Mash. As predicted, I was a disgrace to Nottingham, Torville and Dean would be more than ashamed. Hobbled round 2 laps, then sat down to start catch up of the century with Sazzle.
So after we'd embarrased ourselves (actually Jeroz was pretty good, reckoned she'd never done it before but I wasn't having any of it, she looked like a pro!) we headed to Shibuya, and took Sarah to some famous shops, and then to our fave pizza spot for dinner (name still secret).
We arranged to meet at 10 the next day to clamber up Tokyo tower, Jerome and I still hadn't been, probs the only place we haven't been in Tokyo! So woke up the next morning bright-ish and early, Sarah came round to mine, as her guesthouse was only down the round, and we set off to the tower. Anyway we arrive bang on time, miracle. Called Jerome, to find she was still in bed! Useless. So we hiked up there, took the obligatory pics, terrified Sarah on a see through window and came back down...... Manic up there, so took us bloody ages to get back down, knew we'd never make it to Shinjuku before Jerome had to teach a lesson so took ourselves for lunch at Le Pain Quotidien - YES there is one in Tokyo, literally MADE MY LIFE. Pictures.

Can you see Mt Fuji in that last one? Maybe not. Fiddled the colours but still not fab. It's there, promise.
OH. Here's us:

 I love this girl.

A monkey much more agile than I am.

Lunch. YUM.

So yeah. Did that, went to Shinjuku to find the third muskateer. Tracked her down in Starbucks with student, so we went for a wander round shops, got a couple of bits, then we all went to Harajuku. Ended up a bit late to go to Meiji Jingu (big shrine) so we just did a bit more shopping - LaForet had their massive sale on, so obvs I made a beeline for the HL section, picked up a dress so happy! Then we went for dinner, and had the BEST food and even better cocktails!!! Spent 3 times as much dollar on drinks as food, completely worth it. Made a few friends, swapped mad stories, came away a bit merry! Too merry to remember about photos anyway so this is all we've got:

Jerome's photography talents are WASTED. Mario who? Inez and Jerome? 

So the next morning, again feeling a bit worse for wear, we decide we should have a bit of a lie in....... so didn't meet up until lunch. Jerome couldn't join us on Sunday, she's had 2 exams today so it was nose to the grindstone in Oyama. 

Anyway Robson and Sarah 'The Danger' King then headed to Daiba, had a wander, shopped, went on the wheel, standard trip really. Purikura'd. Need to take pics of them though to get them on here.... later. That night Sazzle had to catch her bus back to Osaka (wah), so we went for a final meal, met up with Sam-well and turned him into a cocktail lover, he was definitely a fan, it's not everyday you discuss which Sex and the City/Friends character you are over a Cosmo in Shinjuku is it?

There's a worrying theme with the pics.

Does this sum it up? We made origami out of 10,000Y bills. Equiv to about £80. Oops?

Miss you already Sarah, mega excited for your birthday in May!! 

Day Tripper

Hello! Long time no blog for me!! Rianna here.
So we've suddenly found ourselves in a new year, 2011 would you believe it. Why is it going so quickly already?! Had a good Christmas/ New year with friends and skype...and am now back in the thick of it with exams/ presentations/ reports. Negative excellent. However, the new series of Shameless IS most excellent. Definitely helps me study. The exposure to the Manc accent improves my Japanese, obviously. Hand in hand, those.

Right. So last Sunday we popped over to Yokohama for the day. It was chilly, but really a beautiful day. Only takes 30 mins to get there from central Tokyo, and it was nice to get some sea air!
But before we ventured to the seafront, we headed into Chinatown for a nose around and for CRISPEH DUCK. Nice.
Note; the street venders sell rather delectable spring rolls, even if they are the greasiest things ever.

So, when we had exhausted Chinatown, we popped to the seafront with a hot choc in hand and had a walk round there. Watched some people ice skate for a bit, then after browsing a shopping mall in converted warehouse, we went to find the BIG WHEEL.

We frolicked in the fun fair until the sun went down, then went inside to crack out some moves on Dance Dance Revolution. We're terrible. So bad. There was a middle aged man there who obviously practices every day and was taking it far too seriously. But he was really quite impressive.
Few more fun fair rides after that, including a Carousel.

Picture time!

shines like the real thing

Evening chums.
Robson here (obviously). There was going to be a reunion post, but Jerome has just scarpered to go home and have a bath post-jacket potato and film night, so I'm left to blog on my own tonight! I've only been back in Japan for a week and a half, but in typical R&J style we've already crammed loads in!
Eg, the day I landed, I'm sitting on the limousine bus en route back into central Tokyo, when I receive a text with the words 'Fancy going on a rollercoaster today?' from Jerozzle. Never been a fan of jetlag or people who have it so agreed straight away, went home and unpacked, then headed to Korakuen for the afternoon. Jerome was a bit gutted, the big rollercoasters were actually closed (hahaha, sort of a public holiday day? but not quite.) So we ended up on a big wheel and carousel. Pictures:

Sorry to rub it in, but yeah the weather really is that good over here still!!! Bloody cold, but bright sunshine and clear skies most days! Now I've said that it'll probably chuck it down tomorrow though......

Anyway, PART TWO

So as we've turned into mad Japanese-style tourists, we decided to do a trip to Nikko on Monday just gone, it's a town about 100 miles North of Toks, and home to a World Heritage site and a big mountain whose name I can't remember, lake and waterfall 2000m above sea level!!! We met at our usual spot, armed with food for the journey, and in my case, suitably-ish dressed for the weather. Jerome however, turned up in a pair of shorts with tights and ballet pumps. Always a good move for sub-zero temperatures. 

After a 2 hour train ride up t'North, we hopped on a bus up the mountain, and went to see the Lake! I do know the name of this one, it's Chuzenji. There's bus tours and stuff that you can do, but tbh we were so cold, we had a look at the important bits and came back down the mountain. 

MONKEHS

After that, we headed to the World Heritage site, to have a look around the temples. SO many! All very beautiful, and important for various different historical figures. Again probably best to let the pictures say it all!

We managed to do all this and still be back in Tokyo in time for dinner! So the New Year's been kicked off where we left off on the trips front, but this term we're both having the homework and tests piled on a bit...... rubbish. Obviously we'll still be up to our usual tricks, no presentations or reports will be stopping us! Yokohama is planned for this weekend, then next week Sarah (remember we visited her, Chris and Jack in Osaka?) is coming to Tokyo!! Massively excited, got so much planned for her to see, can't wait! xxx