Another great weekend

I went to the beach,
Saw the Pacific Ocean.
It was a great day.

Well, the title about sums it up, it was a great weekend here in Tokyo. After dinner on Friday we headed out for the usual festivities in Roppongi. We started by grabbing a few beers at the convenience store and hanging out in the park. It was a nice tranquil start to the evening. After that we checked out a place called Heartland, this place that was supposed to be chock full of Japanese girls looking for foreign guys. Being a bunch of foreign guys, we decided to see what it was all about. After a fairly long walk we were pretty disappointed though, the place was packed with guys who had apparently heard the same things about Heartland that we had. So we left and went to our favorite place, Marine Hide-Out. It's a pretty wild place and we go pretty often, so the manager gives us a discount on drinks, and the free shots usually come out before the night is over. Not that we needed them. It turned into another long night, walking home to the rising sun.

Saturday might haev been my favorite day in Tokyo yet. When I checked into my apartment I got the email address of the girl in the office. She suggested going to the beach on Saturday, and I jumped at the chance. She took me to a place called Kamakura, a seaside town that reminded me of Newport to a certain extent. It was a cloudy day (as usual), but there were plenty of shops and shrines to check out. One of the local dishes there is called octopus paper; it's like a thin hard cookie, with octopus tentacles throughout it. I wasn't really feeling it, so Megumi bought me an ice cream, apple-mango, it was delicious.

There were a bunch of really cool shrines there, and we did a lot of walking. Unfortunately it started to rain, so we had to end our trip a little early. I was going to stay in because I was really tired from the night before, but it was a long train ride back to Tokyo and I slept for most of it, so I was feeling rejuvenated.

So I called a few of my friends who had met up for dinner and drinks. There's a girl on the program who was born and raised in Tokyo, and she takes some real enjoyment out of showing us around her hometown. As you might have gathered, we generally go out in Roppongi, the center for nightlife for foreigners. Our friend took us to Ginza, a completely different part of town. We went to a place called Clubtheque Genius, and we were the only foreigners in the place. It was loads of fun, the club was two levels and pretty packed. It was great to be off the beaten path and into an area more for locals.

As for today, I told myself that I was going to hang out at home and do some schoolwork, but I sort of got sidetracked by napping and watching Smallville on my computer. It's tough to get motivated, especially after that last exam we had.

Ohhhh, I almost forgot. I met a girl at the shopping mall here and got her email. She speaks almost no English, so our interactions are hysterical; here's a copy of the first email she sent me:

I'm sorry slowing the answer.
The sentence cannot be stricken in English.
However, because the site where Japanese was made English was found, it is
possible to finally answer.
Thank you for coming to the shop for the other day.
It was terrible and it was glad to come twice.
Are you for a long time in Japan?
Let's do tea by all means.

Priceless.