FULL Weekend

The fundraiser was awesome! I'm so glad I woke up with one hour of daylight before i kicked my ass out to Takadanobaba station. I met up with Alex, Diana, Marie, and Tosha, a couple of whom I hadn't seen in a month or so, so it was great to catch up. The fundraiser was so much fun. it was downstairs in the volunteer center and there was a really good turnout. I talked to some people who are leaving on this month's boat. i met a girl who's going- guess where she's from? Frigging Nelson, BC. What an incredibly small world.

we watched the maddest belly dancing i've ever seen. this girl had it going on- she was spinning and twirling and gyrating all the while with a long sword balanced on the top of her head. it was just amazing. there's no way i have that much poise. and my bruised legs that run into everything can attest to that.

after the fundraiser we hit up an izakaya (Japanese pub) for some pub food (Yum!) and more drinks, and then swept ourselves off to karaoke. and i completely lost count of how many passionfruit sours i drank, but i must say I thoroughly enjoyed Alex's katakana way of saying "passionfruit sooooooooooow ah" every ten minutes into the phone to order another round. We stayed for about 3 hours, and then headed for an early morning bowl of bibimba- Korean spicy rice and vegetables. I didn't need to eat that, and I paid for it dearly, for its accompanying seaweed soup filled my head with nightmares when I made it home. I only busted one stop too far this time, and I caught myself in time to make the switch to a train in the opposite direction. I saw slightly sad to see it was such a beautiful day outside, and I was just heading off to dreamworld. But my nightmares roused me from my sleep in the late afternoon, and after going for a run out in the sun, i made yet another fabulous discovery in my life.

as if finding that flo-red highlighter wasn't the bestest thing ever...

nope, my life keeps hopping with excitement, for i found my neighbourhood sushi train. now, not nearly as good as Kappa Sushi, this place will entice and suffice for months to come. Its rice was a little on the sweet side, and its cuts of salmon quite fatty, but other than that i was thoroughly delighted to watch new sushi combinations float by on a conveyor belt right before my eyes.

afterwards, i took Champers out on another massive one into Tokyo. I headed south of Shinjuku to Yoyogi park. I've always wanted to go there and check out the area just because the very name screams, "Cool!!!!" It was late at night so of course there wasn't much to see, but i did get to cruise around the streets, watching all the salarymen who were just getting off work. I ended up taking a wee bit of an unbeknownst to me detour, but eventually hauled myself crazy biking-on-the-side-of-the-mad-busy-freeway-like street all the way home. I'm not a fan of riding on the street, mostly cuz of my recently-developed fear of motocyclists, but there was a dude in front of me who i just followed the whole way home. so now, i've built a little bit of road confidence. cool peas. that was a good three hours of exercise I got in, so I don't feel guilty taking it easy today.

I'm going to feed my current Memoirs of a Geisha obssession. I am just eating up books since I returned from Oz. First it was Tales of a Female Nomad, and I just finished R is for Ricochet (Sue Grafton). I think I've read more books this month than I have in the past 6! But I see a positive trend of substituting weekday drinking for reading and exercising... my oh my, could my phase of indulgent self-destruction be on its way out?