I'm so sorry this week's post is late. I planned to upload this last night but I got sidetracked preparing for my school's orientation (which is tomorrow).
A Birthday Celebration & Visiting a Cafe
My Grandfather's Birthday
This year I was lucky enough to be able to celebrate my grandfather's birthday with him. He turned 86 this year! For his birthday, we went out for lunch to eat Yakiniku and had some cake at home afterwards from Cozy Corner (a cake and cream puff shop). The Yakiniku was so delicious, the meat had nice fat marbling and there were so many different dipping sauces.
In order for everyone to get the cake they wanted, I bought everyone each their own slice of what ever cake they asked for. My grandfather and I got mont blanc cake, which has a chestnut flavor. It's definitely one of my favorite cakes to get in Japan and if you aren't allergic I would recommend trying it at least once.
 I forgot to take a picture before starting to eat. Sorry... |  |
 Mont Blanc Cake |  |
Komeda Coffee (コメダ）
My friend and I met up at Komeda Coffee this week to eat some lunch and talk. It's a really nice coffee shop franchise in Japan that serves not only delicious coffee (especially iced coffee-according to my mom) but also sandwiches, pasta dishes, dessert and many milkshake-like drinks. So even if you don't like coffee, like me, there is still something for everyone I would say. I had such a fun time and everything was delicious.
I had the teriyaki chicken sandwich and a milkshake made from ice cream and blended up house made chocolate cake called a クロネージュ (kuroneejyu). For dessert, their seasonal speciality caught me eye and I ended up eating a クロネージュ (kuroneejyu) but it had azuki on the bottom of the cake and was topped with vanilla ice cream and yuzu jam. Honestly, when I ordered it, I really didn't think the flavors would go together but it was unexpectedly delightful and not too sweet as the yuzu jam had a tartness to it that offset the cake nicely.
Since coming to Japan though I've noticed that I tend to buy food just because it is labeled a seasonal specialty which worries me for my wallet's sake....
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 |  | I've noticed a pattern, I tend to take a lot of pictures of myself holding food. |
Preparing for School & Off to the Museum
Visiting Sophia University
I know what you're thinking. "Kili didn't you visit Sophia University last week with your grandparent's? It was on last week's blog." And you are 100% correct, I did visit Sophia University last week but I went again this week to practice commuting one last time by myself. This week I actually practiced commuting at the right time too. For my school's orientation I have to be at the school by 9:00 am so I took a 7:20 am train and was able to arrive at university at 8:30 am.
After that I spent the rest of the morning exploring the area around my school and looking at the sakura trees nearby which were in full bloom and the petals were beginning to fall.
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Shinjuku Historical Museum
While exploring though, I happened to notice a sign on the road that read 新宿歴史博物館(Shinjuku Historical Museum). I followed that sign and happened up this cute museum about 300 meters from my school in a residential area. It was a hidden jem and I spent the next 1 and a half there just looking through their exhibit. The museum did have English translations for all of their pieces but most of the longer explanations were only in Japanese so I don't think I fully understood everything that I was seeing but it was still very interesting.
The museum spanned from 5,000 years ago (this portion of the museum had a lot of broken pottery) to after WWII I believe, when Shinjuku was known for its movie theaters and fun night life. There were also some cool photo spots which included a remake of what Shinjuku looked like I think 2 centuries ago, an old Japanese style house, and I think a replica of an older model train.
The museum's admission also only costed 300 yen which is equivalent to $2.26 (according to the exchange rate today). So all in all, I think the museum was very well worth it.
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