Van Gogh Would've Sold More Than One Painting If He'd Put Tigers in Them

So I said I'd have a blog up on Friday... well I lied! I don't play by anyone's rules. Except my own. And sometimes I don't even play by those!

A busy weekend again, though I didn't travel too far. Friday night was a typical gym/dinner/home evening. Saturday was a typical gym/haircut/downtown peanut butter expedition day, followed by Hikari Lightup in the evening.

Pictures will be most effective for this blog... so I'll just write about the other parts. Hikari Lightup, like many of Japan's lightups, involves lights. In this case, as in many cases, trees and paths are lit with lights. This one was a bit different though, as there were lightup displays made by students from Rie's university, which were cool and interesting. There was also a large number of vendors selling foreign food: tequila, tandoori chicken, donuts, hot dogs, etc...

There was also another Christmas concert, which was interesting because they were playing African and Latin American Christmas songs too o.O.

After stopping at Osaka station (Rie needed a computer mic from Yodobashi Camera), we said farewell to Anton and Rie and went to Kyobashi, with the goal of getting drunk as quickly as possible. And by we, I don't include myself. We found an all you can drink (nomihoudai) place, but misinterpreted the price outside, finding out it was a hostess bar too... so we moved on and found Beetle Girl's Bar. 2000-en for nomihoudai shochu. I had water :P.

Keith and Erika came late, I went to fetch them from the station, they wanted beer and not shochu so I went with them for snacks/beer. Then I left to return to the dorm, as the others were planning on clubbing the night away. Made curfew by less than 3 minutes, whew.

Saturday was Kobe, I met up with Keith, Erika, Boon-Hau, and very eventually Tongxin at Kyobashi, then headed for the Bruce Lee Weapons Store in Chinatown. Quite the selection of nunchakus, fake weapons, clothes, posters, figurines, etc... Boon bought a lot, I wonder if he'll have problems with customs...

Next was Kobe Luminaire, home to the largest lineup I've ever seen... about 10 blocks long with the entire street packed with people. Eventually you pass through large arches filled with lights, and at the end of the street is an arena of lights.

Afterwards I bought two hot double chocolate cookies (this is very important (to me)), and we went out in search of dinner. After walking in a very large cold circle we came to where we started... and found the restaurant we were looking for. Mmm, Kobe beef steak... Our meal cost 60 bucks each, for 10 bites of steak, but sooo good. Definitely worth trying once, though meals go downhill from here.

Oddly enough we saw Jen at the restaurant, not expecting her to be there at all! But she was the one to recommend the restaurant to us in the first place.

6 days till Christmas, and I'll be all alone... both Dave and Byron will be leaving this week, and I probably won't see them till after New Years. So I'm all alone for a week :(.

And I found the official dates for getting kicked out of my dorm! 1pm on the 29th, and then I can go back in on the 3rd. In other words, one night to pack and get out haha.

And more finalizing New Years plans... changing hotel reservations, reserving train tickets, etc, very busy...

Well, back to work! Pictures up in a few hours maybe.