happy new year everyone !!

I spent a week in Tokyo during winter vacation, and it was super great, because I could meet my brother and stay with some friends.

I took a night bus on wednesday the 22th, my japanese friend drove me to the Hirosaki station. It was empty, so I have been able to lie down in the back, and I slept quite well. My friends took a different bus the day after, and that one was crowded, not comfortable.

On thursday the 23th, in the morning, I had to take my little brother Léo at Narita airport. He had difficulties to fill down the questionnaire, because he didn't know the name of the hotel we were supposed to sleep. Thus, I had to wait for him like two hours and a half, after his flight arrived. I was worried because I had no way of joining him, since he didn't have a cell phone. Finally, he came and we took a free shuttle bus to the Narita Port Hotel.

This hotel was very luxurious, and of course very expensive : 1200 yens for an internet access per day. The hotel cafeteria was an all-you-can-it buffet, and costed us 3000 yens for the diner, 1500 yens for the breakfast the day after (per person). But the food was delicious so I didn't bother. In the end, we only stayed one night in this hotel, before moving to New Tohoku Hotel, in Ueno, the next day.

It was much cheaper, and the owner was very sympathetic. She could speak a little bit french. We met my friends at 11 a.m. in front of Ueno station, and all together we visited the Ueno park, where there're a lot of cats, and the shrines next to it. then, in the afternoon, we went to visit the Tokyo bay, we took a ferryboat, and saw Palette Town, which was so colorful. There was this statue, with a crowd of people (most of them were couples) waiting for it to be illuminated : it was amasing, and very romantic. At last, we watched the christmas illuminations, split up in two groups, and my brother, one of my friends and I bought some food at the convenience store, and ate it at the hotel, while the others stayed visiting the city by night.

The following morning, I went to pick one friend up at Ueno station : he was the last missing in the group, and in total we were 7 : Agota and Ferenz (a hungarian couple), Sonia (german), Andrea (romanian), Shoki (chinese), my brother and I (from France). Occasionally, Andrea's romanian friend, Alex, would join us and act as a guide, since he lives and work in Tokyo.

On saturday the 25th, we visited Asakusa in the morning (where we saw a gigantic shrine, and a crowded market place). And in the afternoon, it was the Yoyogi park. The next day, we went shopping to Shibuya's 109, we took pictures of the Hachiko statue, and saw cosplayers in Harajuku. It was very funny, and our feet would hurt at the end of the day. We visited Chinatown, then Yokohama bay.

On monday, we visited Ginza (the imperial palace), and Akihabara in the afternoon. We had diner in a Sukiya near the hotel, then most of my friends had to take the night bus back to Hirosaki. In the end, only 3 of us stayed in the hotel.

On tuesday, we went again to Shibuya and Harajuku, since my brother wanted to do some shopping. On wednesday, we went to Ikebukuro, because I read the novel "Ikebukuro West Gate Park", which is also a manga, and I wanted to watch the suburb where the story took place in.

On thursday, I led my brother back to the airport, then my friend and I took a night bus again, ack to Hirosaki. We arrived the next morning at 7h30 a.m. , greatly welcomed by the snow and a cold wind, which we almost forgot while being in Tokyo.

I spend all the day in bed, and had a nabe party in my room, on the evening, to celebrate the New Year's Day. The party lasted until 2 a.m. , and was very fun, although we didn't come out to see the firework launched at Hirosaki park.

After that, I spent most of the time in my room until now, because it's very cold outside. Yesterday, it was my father's birthday.

Hope you too are having a good time during this winter vacation.
See you on friday !!!