Christmas Party

Another Monday! (how did it become the 12th so fast?) 

This past Saturday was the annual Niji no Kai (international club) Christmas Party! It was 3000 en (around 30 dollars) for 2 hours to go to this club they rented out in Shinjuku, and eat and drink as much as you want. Expensive but they advertise it as 'the best event of Niji no Kai' so me and my friends went for it.

Oregon kids plus Yuji hiding in the back center

Besties <3 (me and Dorothy)

The Santa hat was as Christmasy as the party got.

It was a  formal event so I tried getting dressed up all cute and Dorothy did my makeup and my eyelids weighed 5 pounds by the time she was done (my fault wanting "Katy Perry eyes. haha but it was awesome).  There were 140 people that RSVPd in a club with only 2 bathroom stalls.  Whenever the "all you can eat" food would come out, you literall had to be ready with chopsticks in hand or it would be gone in 10 seconds with this massive swarm of people. Kind of hilarious actually...I eventually gave up and made everyone who passed by me with a pitcher of beer refill my glass to get my 3000 Yen worth. 

After the party we all went to a restaurant and lost track of time, and I missed my last train home and took a waaay too expensive cab ride back to my house (I will only be doing this once this year, mark my words)... Good night. But too expensive. 

This brings up a few things about Tokyo life I thought I'd share:
1) How early the city shuts down: trains stop running around midnight. That means, if you don't want to pay for a waaay to expensive cab ride home, you either have to be done partying by 11:30 or you have to pull an all nighter somewhere and go home when the trains start running again at 5 am. But really like, when that midnight train is gone, the city literally goes dead.  I'm not saying this bugs me, because I usually like to go home around 11:30 anyway and pass out fairly early, but It's shocking kinda, in a city this big most everyone is home by midnight. 
2) How the parties work:  Like I said above, we had paid 3000 en for 2 hours of all you can eat, all you can drink. These are called Nomihodai's (nomu= to drink) and Tabehodai (taberu=to eat). Different places you go will have different prices and different rules. For example, the cheapest one I've been to was 2000 en for 2 hours, while 3000 en is the most expensive one I've been to (those were both TabeNomihodais). Let me know if you guys have specific questions about these....cause I don't know what else to say about them haha.
3) Christmas in Japan: Christmas in Japan is more like how Americans celebrate New Years. Basically a lot of parties.  But, New Years in Japan is supposedly more like how we celebrate Christmas= everyone goes to shrines and it's more of a family event. I will let you guys know if this turns out to be accurate. (Also, I mentioned there are Christmas lights here, but they are called "illuminations" and are a pretty spectacular affair.)

Anyway, that's one Christmas party down, 2 to go!  

Have some Purikura:

 NO FRIEND NO LIFE.