Yokohama Weihnachtsmarkt 2015

So I found out that there are a number of purportedly German-style Christmas markets around Tokyo and decided that, since the Pikachu event was so good and Yokohama is generally pretty fun, I wanted to go to the Red Brick Warehouse one.

I invited Rejon and Alex and he brought his friend Chase, and because I'm a dumbass they had to sit outside in the cold at the Sakuragicho Station Starbucks waiting for us for 40 minutes. 

Going anywhere in Tokyo basically just takes at least an hour, it's ridiculous. The damn city is way too big and spread out, but I know how long it takes to get to Yokohama and have no excuse. One of my New Years' resolutions is to be more punctual. At least I'm never late for work, I guess.. ><

It was also a pretty long walk from Landmark Plaza, which I hadn't realised either.
But I'd say it was worth it.

It was very reminiscent of Hamburg or another Baltic coastal city because of the red brick buildings. The atmosphere was nice, though it was a Saturday and there were about 8.4 million people in this one very small area, a single aisle of food and drink stalls.

D'aww

Predictably, only one of these stalls was actually selling gluhwein, and it was 700円 for a tiny cup. Sigh. That boot cup you see is also kid-sized, and was 10 bucks. No thanks. ;(

Creepy Santa photobomb

We had a nice time drinking hot drinks and talking, though.

... Although a lot of the conversation was ranting and bitching about how Japan makes no sense and can't get its shit together, lol. Alex is only going to be here for about 6 more months and he's very ready to call it.

Hannes got me a bratapfel, which is a baked apple full of whipped cream and raisins. Between that and the lumumba I had after we first got there, I went way overboard with the dairy.

Whimsical!

While walking back to Landmark Plaza with Alex (Rejon and Chase had other plans and left before us) I suddenly had extremely painful stomach cramps or muscle spasms or something like I haven't had in years, and had to sit on a railing for maybe 10 minutes. Then, when I started feeling better, we went to cross the street. While I was dead in the center of the crosswalk, my extremely poorly-designed new hightops tied themselves together and I ate shit, hard. I had enough time while going down to try to do something about my feet, realise it was impossible, turn to avoid having my face hit the asphalt, and lament the slow-motion tragedy of my mostly-full, overpriced cup of gluhwein dramatically flying out of my hand and disappearing into the black street

.
Hannes looked around before helping me up, seeing what had happened and not being able to think of anything other than someone having tied my shoes together as a joke. Some douche in the car with his girlfriend had the audacity to honk at me while I was being helped to the sidewalk, so I kind of flipped out, started yelling and swearing at him, etc.

The shoes have outward-facing hooks right where the laces are. So that one shoe can perfectly grab the laces of the other. Who fucking does that?! I took pictures because I still want to e-mail the company and be like, "Y'all done fucked up".

I tore my favourite pants in two places, lost it a bit, and went on a big emotional semi-drunken rant about how Japan fucking sucks and even when it's not Japan being directly retarded (which it very often is) it seems like we can almost never go out and have fun without it somehow turning to shit. 

But then a lady standing at the next crosswalk with her son saw my leg, gasped a little, and fished two Band-Aids out of her purse. She asked if that was enough and if I needed more. I told her two would be fine and thanked her earnestly.

Fucking emotional rollercoaster country, really.

Anyway, we had some fries and McDonald's before heading home, and I took a selfie because I wanted to feel cute in my cool thrift store sweater and not hideously embarrassed.

A few days later when it came up Hannes started laughing and was like, "All we did was go to the Christmas Market, and you hurt yourself in like, 7 different ways!"

It's true, I am pretty prone to sickness, weird accidents, and injuries, lol. My other New Years' resolution, though, is to stop stressing out about/being so angry about/hating living here, though, because that's obviously a waste of time and everything else.

Before going home I covered the shoelace hooks with mustache-print duct tape and have been trying to improve my attitude ever since. Finding out that I may be able to keep the good job I found helps a lot (visa issues, who needs 'em), and so did having Patrick stay with us for a week. This year I want to keep making bank while working less than full time and do Japan right. We already have someone else coming to stay with us in 3 weeks, and doing all the stuff I haven't had the chance to do in the 10 or so months we've lived here - like going to the Mori Art Museum and Kawaii Monster Cafe - with friends we haven't been able to make in this country is a good start.