Hafa Adai!(Hello)

Spring break was great! Not much else needs to be said. I went to Guam with some ladies and we enjoyed the sun, beach and shopping. I especially loved going to Kmart and seeing more cereal selection than my heart could take. Yea, it's rough in Japan not being able to go pick up some Honey Bunches of Oats or Honey Nut Cheerios. I had no intention of shopping while in Guam, but you will see from the pictures that the other ladies had something else in mind. I'll keep this short and sweet, enjoy the pictures!

GUAM PICTURES

Soca in Osaka

I'm gonna keep this one short.

On March 19th there was a Soca event for artist Sparkey Drakes(from Guyana/Antigua) that took place at club Life in Shinsaibashi. Can I just say steups?! Good thing I knew not to get my hopes up because I would've been upset!! The week before the party I went hunting for the venue and ran into the club owner. He is also a dj. I asked if he had new soca and that I would burn him a CD if he didn't have any. Needless to say my wicked CD was the REAL soca set for the night.


note: I'm not suggesting Sparkey's soca isn't real, it had more of a reggaeton/reggae vibe

SEE PICTURES HERE

Taking over Tokyo

On the weekend of March 14th I got to go back to Tokyo to celebrate Khaleelah's birthday. I was looking forward to this because I didn't really get a chance to see Tokyo when I arrived in Japan for orientation. I took the overnight bus and arrived Friday morning, met up with Khaleelah at the train station and we headed to Yokohama for one night. We found a little reggae club of course and although it was almost empty we enjoyed the music. The next day we were off to check-n to Sakura hostel then later meet up with Rasheeda who came over from Korea and Tamla. It felt great being around some familiar faces...especially ones from Toronto. I realize I miss the little funny nuances that we Torontonians possess.
Saturday night the 4 of us hit the town and went out to two clubs. First we went to Gas Panic, a bar/club in the Roppongi area of Tokyo. The music was OK and the club was JAM PACKED so we left there and headed over to club Jamaica. The name speaks for itself. The music was great and I was presently surprised when the DJ did a mini set of soca. I was Xtatik(pun intended) because it wasn't the commercial soca songs that are played on the radio. I was so happy when I heard Machel Montano play I swear I was in a daze the rest of the night. Add to that that I was super tired and fell asleep on a chair just before we left. Rasheeda and Khaleelah were troopers and left the club to go to the fish market, while Tamla and I went back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. I woke up to see the 5th lady, Christina from Cali, sleeping on her bunk. We all woke up pretty late and tried to squeeze in what we could, which of course involved food. We ate at Junkadelic Mexican restaurant. I had been craving Mexican for a while so it went down really good, not to mention the fact that I had a DELICIOUS glass of soursop juice. Our union was long overdue. Saturday night we went to club Harlem in Shibuya. The night was flop for me, I didn't enjoy the rotation of the music very much and I was exhausted from the weekend's events. Needless to say, I found myself a little corner and slept for the majority of the night. What a waste of a hot girl outfit. Sunday we had our last meal together at Denny's and then parted ways with two of the ladies. Christina, Khaleelah and I met up with Jason and had lunch at Aalawi Jamaican restaurant in Ebisu. The food was decent! We spent the rest of the day roaming Shinjuku and Harajuku before catching our overnight buses. Now that I know the ease with which I can access Tokyo at a decent price, I plan to go more often.

TOKYO PICTURES #1

TOKYO PICTURES #2