What do Shrines and Fashion Shows have in common?

They're both part of my week in Tokyo, silly! Been busy with studies and work lately, so I shall put two features in one post. Fuyoh, just like Danny Choo! I need a Stormtrooper suit.

Alright, first off, let's talk about coincidences. Months before I arrived in Tokyo, Daim went to this little party in his language institute. There, he took this picture:



When it arrived in my inbox, I gasped. Rather loudly, I might add. She's Kawashima-sensei, my Japanese teacher back in Malaysia! Until recently, she was working in Daim's language school as a student support, uh, person. Tokyo is such a big city, yet it's a small small world after all.

The second not-as-amazing coincidence is that my ex-classmates, also under her, decided to come to Tokyo recently. They contacted me, then Kawashima-sensei, and we decided to go out for a little get-together walk... in Tokyo! \o/



Kawashima-sensei decided the destination: Meiji Shrine in Harajuku. Reminded me of my trip to Kyoto, where I visited, like, a thousand temples or something.

It was really a nice relaxing place. For the past weeks, I've been in small rooms, narrow streets and huge crowds. There, we walked through this super wide path. I took that time to do 4-weeks worth of body stretching!



When my friend wanted to take this girl's picture, she posed for the camera right away! Haha, kawaii~



If you read my Kyoto trip travelogue, I also took a picture of a guy cleaning the road. It's thanks to them that Japan has clean streets, you know!



These are sake kegs of old, all of them coming from different prefectures throughout Japan. The Japanese and their sake, an unbreakable bond.



Maybe it was Lucky Wedding Saturday, coz there were a lot of couples getting married that day!



This is a bunch of ema-s. No, not gold, ema in plural form! People write their wishes on a wooden block (that's the ema) and hang it here, in hopes that their wishes will come true. Wanted to write "hope my japanese gets better" in intentionally VERY broken japanese, but lazy la, keke.

After we're done with the shrine, we wanted to do some shopping in the popular Harajuku street.



The extreme polar opposite of the Meiji Shrine experience.

Ok that was last Saturday. Now I'll talk about what happened last Tuesday. As you know, Yamano Japanese Language School is where I'm at. It's actually part of the Yamano group of schools, which includes the Yamano Aesthetics College, a college dedicated to fashion, hairstyling, etc.

Last Tuesday, as respect to the Yamano group, we were forced invited to attend the wonderful annual Yamano International Beauty Forum in Shin-Yokohama. At least class was cancelled.

Wait... I'd rather have class.



For those of you living in Japan, I'm sure you'd understand that sleeping in a train is a necessary skill to master. I've seen a Japanese businessman sleeping while standing up, barely holding on to the dangling handle. As for me, I've missed my train stop a couple of times already :P



The fashion show was intriguing, to say the least most. There were girls dancing on the stage with beautiful dresses. Halfway through, they stopped and posed, then this master comes out and cuts their hair. Talk about pretentious artsy.



All my classmates came, because you would be considered absent in class if you didn't. And if you think that just because I'm some fashion idiot I didn't enjoy the show, think again! Today the sensei asked us how the show was. First, there was silence, then we all answered in one unison voice: "TSUMARANAI! (BORING!)"



These two are my closest classmates right now, save for Dzaid of course. Both are from Korea. We chatted almost the entire duration of the fashion show. That's how "interesting" the event was, keke. Well it does have its advantages, if you know what I mean ;)



Towards the end, we couldn't take it. We tried, we really did! A shout-out to Dou Hi-san for taking this pic! (if she can read this that is :P)

Then it's time to go home...



Time to master that sleep-while-standing technique!