Slightly un-PC....

So once again this week I've been busy with both teaching and photography. A friend of mine invited me to come take pictures of his band while they played at shibuya REX! It was great fun, but after suffering through a deafening live with a headache, I was feeling like dying once I left.
Here are a few of the snaps!

Yeah...I know what they are wearing, and concerns have been voiced to the guys, who were actually pretty surprised to hear how offensive it might come across as. A lot of people here don't quite realise the connotation that has with foreigners.

Trip to Yamanashi

Towards the end of August me and the boyfriend headed off to Yamanashi prefecture to his hometown! The aim of the short stay was to watch the famous fire festival in Fujiyoshida and to meet his family, both of which were really fun.

We tripped around during the daytime and drank with friends and family in the evenings, visiting Kawaguchiko and nice places around the city, a huge big ice cave which stays below freezing inside even during the scorching japanese summer, a brief drive through the edge of Aokigahara, a trip up the little cable car close to the lake, and of course..the festival!

I hate backlighting.

Just some recent work done in Nakano.
For those of you who don't know, photography is my hobby and slowly turning into my part time job here in Japan.

Regardless of that! Please enjoy Clayna Cake. These guys are my friends and awesome nice people. If you ever get a chance to catch them live i recommend it. Not visual kei, but they certainly put on a good show and you can find them most times playing around Shimokitazawa area of Tokyo!

Oh how I miss home cooked food.

Last week i was lucky enough to beable to hang out with some awesome people, and I feel so spoiled. My friend Nina from Slovakia is staying with me right now, and we both hauled ass down to Kichijoji (I work there so for me it was easy to just meet up after my shift finished) and got treated to some amazing home food by Nina's adoptive mama here in tokyo.

Korean BBQ and good company. What more could I ask for!

Long time no see.

Recently I finally managed to meet up with someone i haven't seen in almost a year! For whatever reasons, both work and life have been getting in the way, but now the busiest time of year seems to have passed for the both of us, meeting up is going to be much easier!

I travelled down to machida city to hang out this week. My first time in this city, and it's a good meeting point for both of us, seeing as we now live almost 2 hours apart! Machida was nice, much busier than I expected and with a huge 109 department store too. Before heading somewhere to eat, we wandered through tower records and a guitar store (seeing as he plays guitar we were there ages while he drooled over his dream items). After we were done with musical fangirling we headed to a cheap izakaya for some relaxed food and a couple of beers, ending the evening with iced tea! I was thankful that day wasn't so humid, because right now in japan the weather is disgusting, especially in tokyo, it feels like you're never cool and constantly sticky. Not nice!

Dinner time.

So me and the other half spent a day in the park yesterday. It was damn hot and yoyogi was nice and breezy, so we didnt cook under the trees. After that we went to sit in an izakaya for a couple of hours while we waited for my friend to arrive from the airport! Her flight was delayed so we were there for longer than planned, but it was nice because they gave us free alcohol since it's Jun's birthday this month. Nice huh?

He hates having his photo taken just like me, so forgive the grumpy face.

Party time 2

I guess this doesn't need any explanation this time. Same izakaya, more people, more drunken mayhem. Sorry the pics aren't so good this time, I didn't take my camera so these are leeched from my friends.

Party time.

So recently I haven't been blogging at all.
I've got plenty to talk about but I haven't really found the motivation to post about anything. Last week we had a party though, which was meant to be Hanami but because the weather was awful we ended up in an izakaya instead. All night drinking party resulted in hilarious antics, a trashed izakaya, and 30 very loud people....not including the couple who were passed out on the floor at the end of the night.

I love my friends lol.

Not dead.

Sorry for the long time without an update.
I'm in the middle of getting my apartment and internet set up properly here in Tokyo, so there won't be many proper updates until all that is finished! To use this blog I currently have to go and sit in the Starbucks in shinjuku and leech their free wi-fi.

Don't worry, things will be back to normal before long and then everything will be running smoothly again.

Love K.

Long time no see.

I only noticed the other day that I haven't made a blog post in over a month!
I've been pretty uninspired, but then suddenly everything seems to be happening all at once and I've been rushed off my feet! There was christmas, and then new years, but on new years eve I finally got my start date from my new job....19th of February....I have to be there and ready to start work. This basically means I have a month to move myself to Japan. 

I handed my notice in at my current job yesterday, this afternoon I'm booking my flight, next week I'm going to London to get them to stamp my work visa into my passport, and on the 18th of Feb my apartment will be ready!

I'm leaving on the 15th Feb.....everything suddenly seems so real rather than just something that was going to happen at some point....

 

I'm going to try and make some blog posts between now and leaving, and I'll be starting up a youtube channel for you guys too, so keep your eyes peeled!

Cats and Studs - Outfit Post.

Bag - Putumayo
Dress - H&M
Studded Slippers - Crafted
Necklace - Vivienne Westwood

 

Kuroneko

Sho makes me realize that there's nothing wrong with wearing nothing but black. I should stop trying to change myself and my style. I may have to wear a suit for work, but that doesn't mean I should change the rest to better fit in with 'appropriate' styles, to be more 'feminine' and wear colours I don't feel comfortable in.

Screw them all.

Some big and scary changes.

Sorry for not writing much recently, but I've had a lot to think about over the past few weeks. Trips back and forth to London, interviews, paperwork, waiting..waiting..waiting..

I had my official job offer last Monday!
I'll be working for one of the big chain Eikaiwa (english conversation schools) in Japan starting between Feb/March 2013.

Now it's onto more waiting....

I sent my visa paperwork off earlier this week along with copies of all the documents they need to process it. It was surprisingly less work than I first thought, but hey, they do the hard work at their end. The whole thing should take between 4 - 6 weeks, and I'll be waiting for them to send me a CoE (certificate of eligibility) which I then have to take to London along with my Passport for them to stamp my work visa into. Only once this is complete will I get the location I'll be working in.

I now have 3 months left in the UK and it's yet to really hit me. This will be my last christmas with my family for at least 2 years. I am terrified and excited all at the same time. From here on I'll be keeping you all regularly updated on my move to Japan and all the shit in between. 

For now I have to work out what the hell I should be taking with me....

Snap Snap. Date night in Pictures.

I took a short trip to Akihabara during the day (It was PACKED. Thanks Comiket) I agreed to go meet Chibi after he finished work. So a good wait on the Ginza line took me down to Gaienmai station (Close to Harajuku) where I was to wait for 8pm. I arrived there at about 7:45, so I took a few minutes to linger around the area (not that exciting...) while I waited. The boy arrived at about 8:10 and propmtly dragged me off to Takeshita dori, walking up from the bottom and crossing up onto the main shopping area from the Laforet side. We went to take purikura first before anything else, wanting to get there before the place closed (no need to rush in the end, it was open until 11pm ^^;; ) I'll scan them and upload them when I do the rest of the ones I took on the trip! After that, we headed up towards the subway station and to a cute little Izakaya. I've never come across these computers before (we always had a server at other Izakaya) but Chibi dutifully explained what was where. All we needed to do was press what we wanted and someone brought it over. (We need more of these in the UK!) Beer, Ray fish, Chicken and Tuna fish. (Yummy) It was a cute, chilled night, but I voted to go back to the hostel instead of spend the night in Sagamihara (Down near Machida), because I had plans for the next day. It was really bizarre sitting on an empty train platform at almost midnight...spooky....