Programming Week: Complete

Sumimasen! Sorry it has been such a long time since I blogged last!
This entire week has been insane. Brittney and I have been putting in 10 hr+ days at work every day for the last week to try to get things ready for Monday. Having only 1 counselor and 1 camp director at a site really sucks. Yes we have GREAT ratios, but we only have 2 people to do the work of 4--and in reality Brittney has a lot of Directing stuff she has to do. Basically, I got the entire Camp room set up by myself (I did all the painting etc.) and ALL OF THE PROGRAMMING for next week. Brittney took care of all the administrative stuff which was great--but I am exhausted.
Today (Saturday) we went BACK to the Club to do some extra posters/finishing touches on the room for Monday. We spent the entire morning there and met up with the Embassy people for just a second in Shibuya (I got to see Hachiko the dog!!). The Embassy people left (they wanted to rest up to hit Roppongi tonight) and Brittney and I hung out with some of her friends from Nigishi--they were totally awesome.
So, yes: Brittney and I FINALLY got to see other parts of Tokyo! We went through Shibuya and Harajuku (some of the most popular tourist destinations). My first impressions: everything here is expensive!!! Mom always told be about how American-Brand crazy Filipinos are and I am starting to think it has something to do with how expensive American imports are (and how exclusive mid-range stores like H&M and Forever 21 are--there was a LINE to get into a 4 STORY Forever 21!!). We found some Uno cards at a gas station that were over 1,000 yen! That is over $10 American Dollars! It is crazy. Brittney's friends Ricky and Duane also got hooked into going to an "upstairs" boutique, thankfully it wasn't too sketch and they both got out with all of their money and no scrapes.
In Harajuku we found a beautiful park with a huge Koi pond (with GIGANTIC koi and turtles!). A Newlywed couple came to get pictures done--it was beautiful. I congratulated the couple and the family (Omedetou-onegaishimasu) and everyone seemed really pleased and happy. I definitely want to go back to Harajuku sometime to see the infamous 5-story 100 yen store--I can't wait.
Tonight we also got to eat in a REAL Japanese restaurant, and the experience was...in a word: awful. Brittney's friends were super nice, but also very hungry. I tried to communicate with the staff to get some Vegetarian food (and there were two customers who knew some English who were very helpful), but everyone was getting impatient, so I just went without food. I felt so terrible--I put everyone through all of that stress for nothing, I really felt like crying. After everyone finished dinner I got some inari at the 100 yen store and we all went back to the apartment. We're getting up SUPER early tomorrow to go to the fish market (the biggest in the world!)...in fact we're actually leaving in about four hours! I guess that is my cue to log off, I'll post again tomorrow!

P.S. I wanted to upload all of my pictures today, but Flickr has a monthly limit--i'll have to get a photobucket account or something instead...

Here are some before and (semi) after pictures of the Camp room. We're not completely done with it--but you'll get the general idea. CLICK HERE!!