BEST WEEKEND EVER!!!

You think I've said this before... you think that really, it has to be a severe exaggeration. NOPE! This is completely true and completely un-exaggerated. I've just had the best weekend ever. Now for the details...

Friday, I had to go down early to take the GRE. Now, you're probably thinking... that sounds like a great start to a weekend... but you know what? I rocked that test! Increased my score on both verbal and math... so I was dancing as I walked out of the test center. :-)

That night, Lauren, Kirsty and I met up with my roommate from Tokyo orientation when I first came to Japan on JET. It was really good! She's a great girl and she's just gotten engaged to her Japanese boyfriend... which is so cool since they're such a good couple! We went to a nice place that was kind of izakaya and kind of a yaki-tori-ya all rolled into one. And being starving (I hadn't had anything to eat since 11.30 that morning and the girls were also starved from their train rides), we ordered a LOT of food! And what more do you want than a nice, big dessert course after you've had a huge dinner!?! Well, we did... especially since there was a TGI Friday's (they have awesome cocktails afterall...) on the 2nd floor of the same building. So, we headed there for drinks and dessert, I treated myself to a HUGE mudslide and dessert because of my GRE success!!

Just before we left, we started Lauren's birthday off right... we had the wait-staff sing happy birthday and embarrass her!! Heehee... they took a picture and everything. It was really funny!! And a great start to what would be the best Saturday on record!

Saturday morning we got to an early start and headed for Starbucks and Ueno park. (The Starbucks wa in Ueno station... perfect!) We went to the Tokyo National Museum and the Metropolitan Art Gallery. The special exhibit at the National museum was The Dancing Satyr... which will be on exhibition in Aichi-ken for the World Expo starting in March. Then we moved on to the other exhibits in the museum... there were some beautiful kimono on display as well as authentic samurai armor... some really exquisite painted screens... and loads of amazing china as well. After that we moved on to the Met... where there was a Mucha special exhibit. I didn't think I'd seen any of his stuff... but I have. It's very art nouveau, but really nice. The only problem was the number of people and an overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia that I was feeling at the time.

Then it was time for the main event: KABUKI!!! It's funny... in Japan there are many things you hear about that are really amazing. But when you go to the particular festival, have the particular dish, etc... you are disappointed. The only thing that has definitely NOT been true for was the Sapporo Snow Festival I went to last year. And now, kabuki. There's no good way to describe kabuki. It's a traditional form of theater that developed during the Edo period. It's highly stylized theater where the actors are all men, the costumes are all elaborate and the stories are all well-known. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Even if I hadn't known what was going on (we got the English headsets), the colors and acting would have been enough. All I can say, is if you ever get to come to Japan... go to kabuki. It's worth every penny!

After we stopped gushing about kabuki (which took over an hour... ;-), we headed out for dinner and karaoke. Where we ate cheaply priced food, had some cheapish drinks, and sang to our heart's content! It was GREAT!! After that, we headed to Shibuya... in search of clubs and dancing. First we looked for a club that came recommended by a friend... and we couldn't find it. Then we tried to find the old stand-by, Bar Isn't it?, with no luck there. We were starting to get really cold... when we happened on a club... passed it a few times (passed the guy trying to lure us in as well) and finally decided the music that we could hear was acceptable to our ears. And if all else failed (and it sucked) we could go somewhere else. But luckily, it didn't suck. Far from it actually... it was AWESOME! The DJs were good (though I could have done without the techno entirely!) and the club was hopping. Cool Japanese people (some could actually dance...) and cool foreigners as well. It was a great night... ;-) So great in fact that we didn't leave until around 4.30... and didn't get to sleep until 5.30. Eeeeek!! But man, it was worth it.

Sunday... we slept, showered and were out on the streets before lunch. We stashed our stuff in lockers at the station we'd have to leave from that night, and headed out. We took a few pictures of the Imperial Palace grounds... then headed for coffee (by this time we'd already run across a closed Starbucks and a Dean & Deluca that wouldn't serve us unless we bought lunch!!) at Starbucks (Lauren badly needed her caffeine fix!) and then on to shopping in Shibuya. :-) And by the end... we'd found a great bookshop, good sports stores (was in need of some sports clothing... bought a cute running hat and some other essentials), and eventually ended up in purikura. ;-) Yay!!

So that was the weekend... I'm completely wrecked, but it was worth every second and every penny!