光と森 Starlight Illuminations

 Last week we went to Shinrinkoen. For those that do not know, Shinrinkoen is rather big park and a popular spot for events. While you can theoretically walk there from Shinrinkoen station in 45 minutes, it's easier to take the bus which stops at one of the many entrances. While there is a small fee to get in, I do also understand that it contributes towards the upkeep of the park. To give you an idea of how big the park is, there is a shuttle bus that can take you around inside the park. While you do you have to pay to take the bus, it isn't a must, as you can just as easily take a leisurely stroll and admire the views, or even stop by a kiosk along the way. 

While we went there to get a last glimpse of the autumn leaves before the official start of the winter season (which started yesterday), there is also a special illumination event in the park, which is still going on this month. We originally planned to find somewhere to just play a bit of badminton, but we ended up spending our time seeing the illuminations. 

While most of the kiosks closed at 4:00 pm, there were some pop-up stalls and other kiosks where the illuminations were that were open. We ended up having some snacks and something and coffee before we slowly made our way back while admiring more of the illuminations.

Before we left we watched the light show that was by the one of the entrances. It was about of the story of Captain Bubble. From what I could understand, he was fighting a witch by means of... smokey bubbles. And, true to his word, on top of all the lights, bubbles filled with smoke belched out form his castle. I am guessing there was some kind of machine set up inside the castle, given the volume of bubbles that were coming out of the castle at any one time. In any case, it was an amusing light show.

We took the bus back to Shinrinkoen station, where we took the Tobu Tojo line home.

Phantom of the Opera on the organ at Suntory Hall

To celebrate our anniversary, my girlfriend and I went to a special event in Roppongi called Suntory Hall Organ Day Zanmai. It's an all day event which is broken up in to smaller events. All of them revolved around the organ that is situated at Suntory Hall. We went later in the day to attend the Phantom of the Opera performance played on the organ, with Mari Ohki (大木麻理) playing on the organ, and Kenji Urai (浦井健治) narrating the story, who apparently played the role of antagonist N Daguva Zeba in Kamen Rider Kuuga back in the 2000s.

The only photo we could take before the performance began (写真は禁止だった)

Personally, I have never watched Phantom of the Opera in any of its forms, whether it be film or stage play. However when I was a little boy, my dad liked listening to the songs from the Phantom of the Opera - this was back when the Phantom was played by Michael Crawford, so I'm one of those people who thinks that all those that came after Mr. Crawford to play the part of the Phantom are mere pretenders to the throne... actually it's more I just grew up listening to the songs being sung by Michael Crawford than anything else, and I don't have any qualms about others playing the Phantom, especially with Michael Crawford now in his eighties. In any case, it was a joy to listen to the songs being played on the organ and trying to recognize all songs. Of the 9 songs Ms Ohki performed, I actually recognised most of them, and could hear Michael Crawford's singing voice in my head. 

Afterwards, we went for dinner not far from the concert hall for a course meal at a restaurant called Trattoria Italia. Turns out there was more food than we thought in the course when I made the booking the day before - it included several antipasti, a pasta dish, a steak, and finished off with desert and coffee. Naturally, we were pretty full after that. Compared to the photos that I had seen of the restaurant, it actually looks a lot nicer in person. I'm not sure if it was because the photos were taken in during the day, but the presentation and atmosphere was much nicer in the evening. 

So that was all that we did for the evening. We went out for morning tea/lunch the next day, but we were still full from the night before.

Date Night

Probably after about 3 or 4 weeks, my girlfriend and I were finally able to go out for an afternoon/evening together. Before the move, she was busy finishing up her thesis, while I was busy finishing up with school and doing the packing/preparing to move. 

Before we headed out, we went to the station to enquire about purchasing a commuter pass (定期券). I used one when I was in Kyoto for my studies back in 2014, and I remember that it was a bit more involved to get the pass in that I needed to not only fill out a paper form, but had to provide proof of where I lived and why I needed to go to my destination. Even then, I could only use that pass for the one subway line. 

Since I need to take two different train lines to get to my work and one of which is not a JR line, I was a little bit concerned that I would have to pay for two separate passes. Nope, turns out, I could purchase a pass that could be used for both lines. On top of that, I didn't need to fill out any form this time; it was all done at the station's terminals where you normally purchase tickets/recharge your pass. All I had to do it was input the station I will leaving from, to the final destination station, and also inputting the station I was going to be changing lines. Finished it off with my name and phone number, and I was good to go. My new commuter pass isn't as cheap as the one I got in Kyoto, but it's still cheaper in the long run. I'll roughly be saving about 3000-4000 yen (roughly $30-$40) a month as a result. Of course if I bought a 3 or 6 monthly commuter pass, I would be saving more. However, as this is my first month, and I haven't got my final pay from my previous employer yet (not until the 25th), I just went for the 1 month commuter pass. 

Anyway, after sorting out my commuter pass, we went to my city's main station (I live near a smaller station that's 2 stops away from the main one) and decided to walk along the main strip to see what's around. My girlfriend looked at a bunch of stores, and I had a look at one store that, among other things, sold some international snacks, including some honeycomb chocolate made in South Australia. I didn't realise it had been at least 3 years since I had some honeycomb chocolate, so I purchased a bag of it. Yeah, it's not Violet Crumble, but it's just about the same thing. 

We had some time to kill before dinner, so we decided to go to karaoke for an hour. What we found surprising was that there was at least 3 karaoke places along the strip. In addition, they seemed to be really cheap, even with drink bar included, at least compared to my previous city. Though most likely because of the system we chose at karaoke in the past, the karaoke place we went to had a greater selection of songs.

After karaoke, we headed to a nearby yakitori place. From experience, yakitori restaurants' dishes are usually cheap individually, but it does build up the more you order. Regardless, it's was pretty good. 

We headed back around 8 p.m. after a quick train trip. We both had fun, especially since it had been a while since we had a "date night." We hope another opportunity to go out there again during the upcoming Golden Week. We're looking to get a vacuum cleaner for the apartment, and I'm looking to get to get some new shoes that will be good for the rain too.