Allergy, Shinjuku glory times, Yuwa's house

Well, yesterday was a whirlwind for sure. I woke up with trouble breathing and rashes everywhere, so after freaking out a bit and calling a lot of people, I went by myself to an English-speaking doctor's office 40 minutes away (walking and train). I got really upset because I didn't know what was wrong and I was alone, so I cried on the way there and stuff. The doctor told me it was an allergic reaction, but we didn't know to what, and they gave me really expensive medicine that I couldn't afford. Also, the insurance I have doesn't repay me until I get back to America. So it was going to be like $185 but I only had $140, so I got half of the medicine instead. 

The only good thing about that morning was that the doctor's office was literally RIGHT next to the Tokyo Tower, which I saw on my first day in Tokyo. :) So here is the view from the door of the hospital.

Anyway, I probably should have rested after that, but I wanted to meet my friend Rika in Shinjuku. So I ate a quick, super-cheap ($3) lunch in Roppongi just to see what it looked like (not too interesting to me) and got a few calls from my worried parents. I wasn't feeling very good due to the rashes and such, but I felt better since the doctor told me it would be all right. 

Then I met Rika in Shinjuku, after playing phone-tag a lot because I got lost in the giant Shinjuku station. It was sooo hot, but we wandered around anyway. I really wanted to see the Tokyo Metropolitan building, but I couldn't remember what it was called in Japanese. So we went on a lot of wandering adventures and saw really awesome buildings. 

Here's Rika. A long time ago, she and I went to Ueno and Akihabara, and she taught me how to do purikura. She goes to Kanda University and parties in Roppongi a lot, usually for the entire night. :) Her birthday is next week, and she's turning 19!

I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves for a little while. I really, really love Tokyo's architecture. It's amazing to me that these huge buildings can withstand big earthquakes.

This next building is called the Cocoon Tower. Rika said, "There's a Pokemon named Cocoon too, right?" Hahaha.

The next building is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building that I was hoping to see. There is a free observatory from the top of both towers, so we went there. I LOVED IT, although by that time the rashes on my feet were really starting to make walking difficult. The next few pictures are the views from the top!! On a clear day you can see Mt. Fuji, but it was a little hazy for us.

I loved this reflective building! As always, if you want to see a bigger version of my pictures, just click!

You can see a huge park in Shinjuku in this picture. How nice to have it in the middle of all that city.

Rika and I saw the world's cutest Japanese baby in the observatory, so I had to take a picture. :) He stared at me so much, haha. There were a lot of French-speaking people in the observatories.

Here is the view from one observatory towards the other. What a great building! It was so nice that the observatories were free.

I saw this bumper sticker and I really wanted to buy it, but was $20 and no way was I paying that, haha. 

By this point my heel rashes were hurting so much that I had partially taken off my shoes and socks just to walk around the observatory. Rika and I were going to go do purikura but then I got a rash on my face and I was feeling physically awful, so I asked to go home. Unfortunately it was the last time I will get to see her. :( 

But I went home, packed up all of my things, and tried to clean up my room. I really wanted to rest, but I only got a few minutes of rest before I had to leave to meet Yuwa at the Oji station. My host parents arrived home just before I was about to start my trek, and they offered to drive me to Oji. I'm so glad, because I would never have made it there on time and I certainly would have been in a lot of pain from carrying three huge bags with all the rashes. We got there early, so my host family and I ate McDonald's in the car. :) I got a chicken Aurora sandwich that was actually really good. Then we said goodbye until Sunday, when we will have dinner together. My host mom hugged me three times, which was the first time I had ever seen her hug someone. She also started to cry! I was sad to see that she was sad, but maybe it means they liked me. For a little while, I wasn't too sure, although they always treated me very, very kindly. I loved living with them!

Yuwa and I walked 15 minutes from the Oji station to her apartment, and the wheel on my carryon broke. :( So it was a little bit of a rough journey and I was totally worn out by the time I got there. I had just eaten and her mom offered me a lot of food, haha. We soon went to bed, after Yuwa and her mom watched their favorite drama. :) I was really exhausted so I couldn't understand any of the Japanese! 

This morning, I woke up at 11:30 because I needed a lot of sleep. It was raining so the apartment was nice and cool. They don't like air conditioning here. Yuwa's mom made me really good pasta for lunch! She was embarrassed because she couldn't find any spaghetti but it was so tasty. Look at all those veggies! And bacon, mmm.

After lunch, I went with Yuwa's mom to try to change some traveler's checks in to yen, which was successful. Then we walked a really long way to try to buy a new suitcase for me, but instead I found a metal luggage carrier for about $20 that will work just fine. The walk made me really tired and my knees/ankles were hurting so much, so I came back to the apartment and rested. Yuwa's mom and I ate the cake that Koki-kun's family gave me, it was quite good! Dinner tonight was also amazing. I took a long nap before it, and now I'm going to shower/bathe and go to bed. 

What a long two days it has been! Tomorrow I'm not sure where Yuwa and I are going, but we'll do something fun. Then on Saturday, we're drinking with Sachi's host mom again (hehe) and seeing the fireworks in Asakusa. On Sunday, Yuwa and I are going to Yokohama during the morning and afternoon, then eating dinner with my host family for the last time. On Monday, I leave for America. Crazy week ahead!