cheesecake, purikura and tiny xmas trees!

hey everyone! There has been so much going on but we're finally getting a much needed break from school this week! Im not sure where to begin on the updates so I'll just post some pics for everyone! I had a great bday in Machida with my friend Gabbi:

ya that would be the tacky tableware of a TGI Fridays..But when you've been deprived of death-caloric American food, even TGI Fridays tastes amazing! I won't lie though, the TGIs here are sooo much better than in America and our birthday dessert was awesome! It was apple cinnamon strudel cheesecake aka apple pie cheesecake style =) 
It also seems like all Americans go through the purikura addiction whenever they come to Japan. We just cant resist a cheap photo shoot that makes our eyes huge and allows you to digitally add a bunch of random but cute images into your photo!!

After we satisfied our purikura addiction, we headed over to the UFO machines to see what useless items we could spend too much money on winning. If you've never seen a UFO machine in Japan, they are basically claw machines on crazy Japanese technological steroids...They look tough but are surprisingly fair as you can actually win things without going broke! Trav and I are pros at these machines and I managed to get this year's xmas tree in one try! 

You may think its small, but we think it's perfectly sized for our apartment =) I wanna try and get a pic of the crazy machines these are in but photos in the arcades are strictly forbidden and this rule is ardently enforced by the staff..I'd try and sneak a pic but unfortunately  I have too much pride to be caught pulling a classic gaijin tourist move(damn my pride!!) (^_^) and now Im gonna go chase down the yakiimo truck that's been slowly circling my street! Where America has Ice Cream trucks, Japan has Yakiimo Trucks aka Roasted Sweet Potato Trucks..The differences: well aside from the food item, in America the ice cream trucks play an upbeat, childish melody to announce their arrival whereas in Japan, the Yakiimo trucks play this haunting, funeral like melody that almost sounds like a buddhist chant..I'll try and get a video for you all! In America I can't stand sweet potatoes without loads of brown sugar and marshmallows on them (as both my fam and Trav's fam knows ^_^) but the sweet potatoes here are yellow and taste completely different...and are absolutely amazing with just a little butter (sorry orange American potatoes)...

おやすみ！！！！

EDIT: well I missed the sweet potato truck but he'll be back!! And speaking of sweet potatoes, Trav and I actually went to a sweet potato festival with our friend Jessie:

 















It was pouring when we went but it was still lots of fun, and this is where I discovered I actually like Japanese sweet potatoes!! The festival was at a temple in Meguro and as you can see, the area was gorgeous! I was curious to see just how many different ways a sweet potato could be prepared and the number is surprising! They had all sorts of sweet potato snacks, my favorite being honeyed sweet potato on a stick! sooooo good!  ohhhh I hear the truck again! love you all!!!