Week in the Life: Sunday Photos + Stories

I can’t believe WITL documentation is already over! It has been such an interesting week and I won’t lie in saying that I’m a little relieved I can put my camera back on the shelf, instead of carrying it in my purse everywhere. But, I must say I learned so much during this week in terms of documenting, and in terms of our family. It made me see and appreciate how much my mom does for L and I, and how much Alfie really affects our family. I see how much I value the time L and I spend together during the week. Although limited, it means so much to be able to laugh ourselves to sleep. No matter what may get me down during the day, when I can go to sleep with my best friend with a smile on my face, nothing matters. It really is the little things that mean the most. Anyway, enough with the sappy, onwards with the photos!

This morning was an unusual start to our day. L woke up at 5:00 AM (!!) to go walk Alfie, and buy some beer at the convenience store because he was doing his Fantasy Football draft over Skype with his friends in San Francisco. By the time he woke up, he was already tipsy and shouting at the computer. Mom and I roll our eyes, but we tell ourselves, “It’s only once a year.”

Good morning, handsome!

What I usually look like in the mornings hahaha. Make my iced coffee, have a conversation with my mom, and go through my phone before finally getting ready for the day.

Since it was such a beautiful day, I decided to do some laundry. The funny story about the top photo is that it’s a photo of our neighbor’s house through the trees. Mom and I always decide whether to do laundry or not by first checking to see if they’re hanging their laundry. For some reason, this lady ALWAYS knows what the weather is for the day. Even if it’s blaring sun, sometimes she won’t be hanging laundry and SURE ENOUGH, it starts pouring later in the day. Like, what the hell? Does she work for the weather people or something? So weird.

For some reason, I totally spaced out after that to take any photos. Probably because I was so thrown off that L had taken over the living room and I was trying to avoid it to not get in the video chat. Mom and I decided to go to the grocery store to get some groceries done and pick up some sushi for lunch. So, we did that, and ate it. L and mom took a nap after that while I went upstairs and cleaned the study for a while before coming back down to wake L, and get some help from mom in writing a work e-mail in Japanese.

After about 20 minutes of trying to wake him, we decided to go check out the Azabu Juuban Matsuri (Summer Festival). My friends and I used to look forward to this festival ALL summer and went every year but about 4 or 5 years ago, we stopped going because it’s SO hot and SO crowded. Literally you’re in a bHUGE crowd of people moving at a snail pace. I’m so lucky I’m tall in Japan because otherwise, I’d feel SUPER claustrophobic.

Like I said, SUPER CROWDED. Also, like an idiot, I forgot my camera at home *facepalm* so these are all iPhone photos 🙁

These are some “traditional” festival games they always have. You get a little racket-like thing that’s covered with a special paper. Using that racket, you have to try to and scoop up goldfish or these bouncy balls and whatever you can scoop up before your paper tears, you get to keep. Personally, the whole goldfish thing makes me a bit squeemish (animal abuse, anyone?) but I used to love this stuff when I was little. Granted, even if we won a goldfish, it would usually die within a few days of bringing it home. Not surprised considering they’re being poked and proded all day….

The food stands are my favorite (obviously). Traditional festival foods are noodles (yakisoba), cotton candy, shaved ice, meat on skewers (yakitori), etc. but this festival has all kinds of unique stuff. This riceball had TRUFFLES on it. NOM NOM NOM.

THEY HAD ORANGES THAT YOU COULD FILL WITH VODKA. HELLOOOOO IS THIS HEAVEN?

My nickname for L is “the Emperor of Fruits.” He made a beeline for the fruit stands and bought himself peaches hahaha. Another traditional festival snack is ice-cold salted cucumber on a stick. SO refreshing and delicious!

Tummies full and feet aching, we decided to call it a night around 7:00 PM. We walked around trying to find the entrance to the train station but they were all closed because of the crowds.  They were only letting people come UP the stairs, not down. What the hayll. So we had to walk to Roppongi Hills to get a bus to Shibuya. But we got to see a Bon Dance (Bon Odori) they were doing there! So cute!

SO MANY PEOPLE! But, I’m so glad I got to show L a little glimpse into Tokyo’s summer. Last summer, we got to go see the fireworks, and this year we got to go to the festivals. My childhood summers in Japan revolved around these 2 things 🙂 We finally made our way home and were pooped, but L had to work on a presentation for work when we got home.

He stayed up until almost 1 AM working, then we retired to bed. So exhausted, but worth it because he nailed the presentation today! I also made it to the gym this morning so I’d say it was a success 😉

So, that’s a wrap to my WITL Photos + Stories series! Looking forward to it again next year and terrified of the album I’ll be putting together! Hopefully I can power through it this week or else it’ll be unfinished until next year, ha! Thanks for checking out my posts every day, it was fun! Will be working on creating an editorial calendar for my blog so I can stick to it because this was really enjoyable. Til next time – adios!