LIFE DOES NOT SUCK

The fact is, I'll be flying back to the States in a few days. That being the case, recently I've been doing my best to be as hedonistic as possible. My day routinely begins with a hot espresso or perhaps a latte made by Emi with my name written in foam on the top. I'm not sure how you common people live without this...

Last Thursday Emi and I got out of the house and did a little sight seeing. We went to Harajuku first and did a bit of window shopping. The main purpose of going all the way out to Harajuku was to check out Yoyogi Park which we heard was a nice place to spend a summer afternoon. On the way we stopped and took some pictures at Meiji Shine.



I got in trouble for taking this next picture. A security guard tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to move away. Apparently the center of the temple is too holy for some one to stand unless they are in prayer. I was obviously not a Shintoists to the guard, never mind praying. I did get a good picture of the actual shrine though.


There is a path through the forest from Meiji Shine to Yoyogi Park. Yes there is a forest in the midst of the busiest part of the busiest city in the world. You can't see through the trees enough to even tell you are in Tokyo any more. Just a faint buzz of traffic ruins the illusion.


We finally arrived at Yoyogi Park. All I can say is, what a great place to spend a summer afternoon! We were woefully unprepared however. If you ever deiced to visit Yoyogi Park do yourself a favor and bring a picnic lunch, blankets, and a frisbee or soccer ball. You can entertain yourself for a whole day and pay nothing. Not many places like that in Tokyo.


We stayed in Yoyogi until we began to see some dark clouds roll over head and we deiced if we left right then we could probably walk to Shibuya and beat the rain in time for dinner. We went to one of Emi's favorite places to eat. A crepe restaurant in a basement on a otherwise forgettable side street. At first I thought, "crepe for dinner?". I mean, I like crepes as much as the next guy, but it kinda always struck me as a breakfast food. I was wrong.


I ordered "Le Nordique". A stuffed crepe with cheese, tomatoes and salmon, topped with a salmon fillet stuffed with cream cheese and sour cream(!). Maybe it was because we had been walking all day and worked up an appetite, or maybe it had some thing to do with the fact that I was already in a great mood, but this crepe blew my mind.

The hits kept coming on the weekend. I was minding my own business, checking my email, and Emi came in and announced "I'm going to bake some bread!"
I was eventually conscripted into helping but who can mind helping in the kitchen when the finished product looks and tastes this good.

"Choco pan"

And on top of all of that, it was Shin's birthday this weekend so we went out to eat yakiniku (grilled meat). We also threw a little surprise party for Shin last night at he and Fuji's apartment. I'll try to get those pictures off my camera and make another post because there are a few really good pictures from the party.