Couchsurfing ~ Earth Day

Wow, I havent updated for almost 2 eventful weeks...
Last weekend I went to my first Couchsurfers' gathering, down south in Chigasaki, a surfer city one hour southwest from Tokyo. I was really wondering if there was actually a surfer city in Japan but just after going out of the station and heading to the beach I was surrounded by surfer shops, and a really peculiar japanese surfer town atmosphere. And then when I got close to the beach there was definitely no doubt it was a surfer beach with all the people carrying their boards, and wearing wetsuits, and even bycycles with a special device to carry surfing boards. And then the beach... it was beautiful (for japanese standards I have to say...), much cleaner than other japanese beaches I've been to, and with an amazing view of Mt Fuji, specially in such a wonderful day. Then I joined other couchsurfers and their friends for a BBQ-picnic next to the beach, chatting with many people, eating nice food, salads, fruits and grilled veggies and tofu! :)
I got to meet really nice people, and then we end up going to karaoke, where a small box became a very lively disco full of gaijin's singing, dancing and drinking all around. I was feeling really comfortable in such a good company, and they asked for spanish songs, so after singing a few latin songs, and english songs everyone was standing on their feet. It was a really great karaoke night, including me singing Avril's new song "Girlfriend", that got completely recorded in my camera, but which I'm just too ashamed to show... :p
Lots of nice people joined, and it was great to meet them and have fun with them. After karaoke we stayed at our hostess place. A really nice surfer's japanese house!

Me, Alice and Kenji

My Chilean new mum: Ines :p

The marshmallows and sunset crowd~ :)

Everyone! Pose for the group picture!!!

Before the sun sets behind Mt Fuji leaving beautiful colors in the sky

Next day, after having breakfast and chatting a little bit more with the people who stayed, I went for the first time to Yokohama to meet Kim, and we had a really nice time eating Indian food, strolling around the Port Area, buying crazy stuff at Lush store, and finally having a long chat over coffee in very comfortables armchairs in Starbucks. We actually tried to catch a boat to anywhere from the International Port of Yokohama... but we didnt see anyplace to ask. :p


This weekend, after getting sick since wednesday with a bit of everything... cold, cough, headache, fever, sore throat, etc... I went to the doctor on sat and got a test for influenza, which was negative, so I have no idea why I got so bad, but well at least I was already feeling a little bit better and I got some medicine. So after going to the doctor, I just didnt want to stay home specially cause I wanted to go to Earth Day's celebration event in Tokyo, so I headed to Tokyo Sat and Sunday, for a great atmosphere, full of hippie energy, love and peace~ but now I got lazy to write about it... :p
In short, it was a great weekend, meeting old friends, not so old friends, and meeting new people, and learning new things about our earth, the way we treat it, and the way we treat each other. It was also great to see how this year there were much more veggie food stands, which means even in Japan people is gaining more conscience on the environmental impacts of animal farming, and on the fact that animals should also be part of our circle of compassion along all other humans and living beings, and earth itself... and which meant I could have yummy veggie food! :D