I like to play dress up...

Waking up at 7:30 am on Saturday isn't too bad! 

Especially when I am greeted by my friend in Paris via Skype and have a breakfast like this!

 Along with a western style breakfast, accompanied by a mini lemon croissant, I also had this Chinese egg drop soup my mom made! East meets West in mah belly!!!

So, after Skyping, connecting to the rest of the world with facebook, and doing homework business, it was almost time for lunch! Since the kids wanted McDonalds (it's a universal love for children, I guess), we went to a food court in a mall near by! 

Now that normally sounds boring, conjuring images of Hot Dog on a Stick with weird employees wearing Tweedle-dee hats and so bad but good Chinese (but not Asian at all) food...but this was cool. 

Emmy and I were kind of in awe and wanted to be reborn as a native Japanese citizen. Omu-kare raisu and Ramune gelato out does Sbarro pizza anyday. period. 

After taking a look around, we decided on the very popular-looking udon stall. You choose your base (hot udon, cold udon, size etc...) which they give you in less than a minute fresh from a hot dip in the boiling water, then you can load it up with freshly fried tempura nommers (anything from squid to mini quail eggs)! I got the cold udon salad with a piece of fried squid. 

While I was digging into my 和食 eats, Haruki and Kaho were quite satisfied with their "Ma-ku" as they call it. The McDonalds toys in Japan are way better then the cheap little excuses they call toys they have in America. 

After lunch, my mom took Emmy and I to Kimono-Off to look at some second hand kimonos!

Some were soooo gorgeous like this one: 

And others....maybe not so much. What were they thinking? a kimono to a drag ball perhaps? 

Ahhh...this is much better....

 I ended up buying a kimono coat for 500 円! I couldn't believe it! I thought it was going to be around $100, which is still very reasonable for the quality of kimono, but instead it was around $6! That like, One bento box! Two Milk Teas! Three bus rides! Score. 

After a little inspiration from the kimonos from the store, Emmy and I met up with Marina to learn how to put on yukata! 

I chose this one: 

Then I got mah hair did. 

She literally moved so fast and did my hair in about two minutes, which is no easy feat because I have a lot of hair! Impressive. 

Tada! We got to go to Kenrokuen right across the street to take some 写真。

I tied my own obi! It's not pro status, but it'll do. 

And pose. 

 Look at our coordinating colors! We thought this through...

And as per usual...we must do a back shot. 

After taking enough pictures to last us until our next yukata adventure, we walked right next store to hang out in front of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. 

We like the silver jelly bean chairs. 

We met up with Aidan and the Yale folk who were visiting the museum. 

We started playing a hand rhythm game, and I think we became another exhibit. 

Some Japanese people were taking pictures of us Gaijin. 

 

Kaneko's Rage Cage!!!

We ended up taking a nice little walk back to the Eki for dinner. 

Aidan and I went to eat some good ol' washoku. 

Kept it simple with udon and kinoko mushroom donburi...

A little chatting and people watching, observing young Japanese in their natural habitat, before returning home. A successful Saturday of new experiences!