Weekend number 3…

Boy was it a busy one. On Saturday, I was determined to make it to Iidabashi for training at the main dojo. I ran some errands in the morning then headed out just before 2pm to catch the 4pm class. I made it to Iidabashi with lots of time to spare and took some pictures along the way. I forgot to take pictures once I was inside.

Training was really good and it helped that it was a semi-slow paced class, since it was my first time training in about a month. The second person to show up (I was the first) spoke English pretty well and he showed me around the dojo and told me the class schedules. He even took me out for a drink after class. Japanese people have been really nice (and you will see an even bigger example in my Weekend number 5 post).

Anyway, that ate up my whole afternoon, so when I got home I made my beef and broccoli on rice again. I am a one-trick pony. Wait, two-trick. I make spaghetti as well.

Sunday morning, I think I went to the net café to update my blog. I also talked to my family that morning on MSN.

Leading up to the weekend, I was in contact with a few people that wanted to head into Koenji (in Tokyo prefecture, west of Shinjuku) for a huge night festival. I wasn’t sure who was committed to going so I told them to text me if it was a go (since I didn’t have e-mail at home at the time). I got the text and for some reason I assumed it was one of the people from Toronto who showed interest in going. So I made my way to Koenji and started looking around for my friend. Somehow, these two foreigners (New Zealanders) recognized me as a foreigner and waved me over. That is when I realized that the person texting me was not my friend but the e-mail originator. I was a little surprised, but at least I was able to meet a couple new people and check out the festival. We made it about 20 feet from the station when we ran into two of my Toronto friends (one of them being the person who I thought was sending me text messages). What a coincidence considering there were thousands of people there. Anyway, the festival was awesome. It took a little while to get a good seat but it was worth the struggle. I took about 100 pictures but a lot of them look the same so I won’t post them all.

For dinner we found an Indian restaurant a few train stops away (to get away from the crowd). It was good, but pricey (about $17).