LUI LUAU (X_X")

I HAVE BEEN BACK: for a while... ^^"

2008-08-18T10:42:00.002-04:00

howdy doo buckeroos?

well, i've been in america for like over 2 weeks now. back in the land of food and drink!!! *woot woot* all the random posts before this were my attempts at trying to keep up with what was going on with me at that particular moment. right now, this morning, i am in my time of solace. just chillin' and waitin' for the phone call to come, informing me to pick up mi madre from carmax where she is officially pawning my father's vehicle. *nods solemnly*

SO, I have not had any reverse culture shock. Not really, anyhoo. The first thing I did notice when I got back to America is that Americans are huge. Really. Seriously. Big. American portions are also mighty ridiculous. Beyond that, I have been in a state of constant awe since hopping off the airplane at the incredible beauty of America. There's just so much green!!! and BLUE!!! I seriously don't think that I'll ever take the blue skies over America for granted ever again. America is just beautiful. Period.

This past weekend was a G-Splash 留学生 Reunion, of sorts. Kay, my mostest amazingest buddy, came down from Pennsylvania. Diana, most amazingest West Coast-er EVER, flew over to D.C. to tour around the area with her family. Jeannette, hottest b-girl known to mankind, met up with us in D.C. It was amazing. At first I was hesitant, afraid that now that we are all out of Japan, we wouldn't be able to really get along ever again. BUT, boy was I wrong! We just all clicked. It was so natural, as if we were still just milling about the outside of the gym, hanging out, talking about G. As strange as it is to say, G-Splash is the only thing that I'll miss about Japan. When we all got together here on the east coast, most of our time was spent reminiscing about the fantastic-ness that was our cumulative G-Splash experience.

The worst thing about being back in the U.S. is that all I do is eat. Seriously. Food is the one thing central to American culture and I've just spent hours upon hours doing nothing but eating. When Kay first came down on Saturday I ate 4 meals, in one day. Luckily, we walked it out with D-Bang all the way to the Lincoln Memorial, but... 4 meals/one day = GROSSNESS. The next day, the first thing we did when we woke up was order pizza from Papa John's, sit, and veg out in front of the television. Then, we finally took showers and headed out to D.C. to meet with Jeannette at Teaism, and ate some more.

Ahhh... G-Splash, how I wish you were here, keeping me from bloating up like a whale again. *shrugs* It's okay. All I need is a mirror/reflective surface to keep up with my 　自主練.

I need to peace out now. My head's getting all spinny.

- T　

HOUSE ROCKS

2008-07-31T11:07:00.005-04:00

*collapses in a dead faint*

*hand reaches out for help*

HI FRIENDS AND FAMILY

I am one of the last UVA-ers here in the Land o' SAMURAI. I am tired out of my mind. I am in desperate need of more time and a decent scale.

So, House practice is officially whooooooooooooopin' my butt. I'm so tired I can barely move my body and the moves are actually all in my head, I just can't get my body to move to it. Extremely frustrating and made worse by the fact that the time in which we're allowed to do independent practice is practically null. I have like nowhere to work out my moves full out, and this is the first time I've ever been driven to do so. There are so few people in House that every person and every move counts.

Tomorrow is Friday, the 1st of August. Campus is closed. Practice should happen elsewhere.

Saturday, 2nd of August. The day before Summer CAMP starts.

-----

Practice will be held at Yasuda Dance Studio, but I don't have to head out there until 5.30pm at Shinjuku. That means I have like 6 hours until I have to move my butt. On my long list of things to do: grab presents for Poppa Bear, Brother Bear, and Baby Brother Bear; a scale for me and my box o' heaviness; t-shirt/clothes from used clothes store; pack; practice for House.

今学期末終了：　ワクワク

2008-07-25T22:32:00.002-04:00

HI YOOOOOOOOOO~

Well, finals are over, classes are OWARI, and I have almost all the free time in the world. Almost. G-Splash Practice is picking up speed, and I should be practicing at the very moment, but... yeah... XDDD

期末試験：　スカット

2008-07-23T09:46:00.008-04:00

YA-HOOOOOO!!!

Well, I'm currently watching Woman in the Dunes and drinking a 500mL can of "strong" Chuhai. I can't finish this movie without some form of alcohol in me and it's rather sad... XDDD. I have two finals tomorrow, the middle two finals that I have left. On Friday, it's just one final, but it's the one that promises to be the most difficult.

Life this week has been rather chill for me despite the fact that many of my friends are soon to be vamoosing and I'm likely to never see them again. I really hope that doesn't happen, because just the thought of it kind of hurts.

Between practice and finals, my life has gone to the pots. All I kind really look forward to is that finals will end Friday, and by 8pm Friday night, practice will have run its course and I'll be free to play all weekend until Tuesday, when practice starts up again. Luckily/unluckily, we have all night House practice on Tuesday night until Wednesday morning at about 5am. Mayuki-san also wants to turn our Thursday practice at Nakano into an all nighter, possibly. Oh well. House is rather awesome. The senpai are kind, attentive, and truly willing to help. I've been watching some of the older videos of House and there were either a lot more of us before, or people from other genres randomly join us for our performance. If not, it's only going to be me, Geri, Emi, Jiro, Yuuta, Mayuki, Yukie, Akihiko, Mami, Tomochika, and Sakura up on stage. That means that if any of us messes up... it'll be really super obvious.

The only thing that I can say for sure is that Jishuren works!!! You just really have to commit yourself to it, and the self-practice helps as long as your willing to put forth the effort to improve. This is the first time in my life that I've actually taken independent practice like this seriously. I still feel like a tool most of the time, but I know that my endurance is improving by leaps and bounds and I can literally feel some of the moves becoming more comfortable to my body.

Ewww... okay... the guy in the movie just licked his hand like a poodle while testing out the cleanliness of the water condensed from the sand in the hole he's been tossed into.

I didn't like the book much, the movie really isn't doing it for me either. The only thing that's keeping me semi-focused is the fact that I'm running on a slight buzz and typing this at the same time that the movie is playing.

I can't believe Greg, Natalie, and Jen will be heading home soon. Mia's plans are unclear to me. Sehyun is planning on staying here for a little while longer and traveling around with his sister. Jeanette will be at camp with me.

Gah, 20 minutes until this boring movie is over and I can head to bed. The only thing is that I'll be waking at 5am, studying for my finals, heading to class by 8am, testing until 12.30 pm, 1 hour lunch break, and then modern fiction final from 1.30 until 3pm. Oh yeah, and then I'll do jishuren for 2 hours until 5pm, when House practice runs from 5.00pm until 8.00pm. I could run home and sleep, but either way, I'd have to be back at Sophia byat least 4.30pm or so to really stretch before practice.

Oh yeah, I've taken to watching American dramas on TV, and Supernatural, CSI:Miami, and Bones are all fantastic options. I download Japanese dramas, just like I do in America, so I don't have to deal with ads and all that.

It'll be less than 3 weeks now until I can go home. I miss my family like no other. I think that as soon as finals are over, I'll enjoy House practice 13924891273129x more, because right now, it's just super tiring to go to practice, knowing that I'll be screwed for the next day's preparations and whatnot. I just want to pass my classes. Honestly. I could pull A's if I really cared, but I don't. I'm beyond caring at this point. I just want to pass my classes, play with the G-Splash kids during camp, and then go home to my family.

I forgot my Dad's birthday because I was so wrapped up in my own drama. Seriously. My mom had to call me and remind me of what I'd forgotten. He forgave me, but I know he must've been hurt by me not calling. Oh well. I intend to make him a delicious cake when I get home. I want to cook for my family!!! I want to make them delicious foods and stand around all day around a stove, making sure that the food I make for them is good enough for them to indulge in. I want to hear all the meaningless banter that makes their lives so interesting. I want my family... here, with me, like pronto.

I had a semi-dream today when I was napping. I had a dream that Johnny was there, and he gave me the best hug ever. It was so realistic that I can't wait to go home and just touch my family. That's one thing I think I'll never get used to in Japan. I like being touched and held by my friends and family. When I'm here, unless a guy is trying to snake into my drawers, nobody holds me, nobody hugs me. There's no real comfort touching. Well, D-Bang and Kay and the UVA crew hugs me, but it's because we're all American. I just want to be in friendly arms again and feel well and truly loved... XDDD

Too much to ask for ain't it?

Well, I got my kouhai [by age, not experience] semi-drunk on Friday night. Emi was super cute. Jiro only had one drink so that was rather muri. I did run into a whole bunch of my G-Splash senpai though. Apparently Ikkyuu is the place to be to get tipsy on Friday nights. Hitosu-senpai was seriously wasted. Tonbo-senpai was like the energizer bunny and thus dubbed "power house" by Kaoru-senpai. Kaoru-senpai actually talked to me and though he claimed to be drunk, was actually quite sober by my standards. Oh yeah, and no matter how much I tried to push for it, nobody would tell me their bakuro [secret]. I was rather disappointed by that... yup yup.

MOVIE IS OVER!!! *laughs* I sleep now!!!

Love,

AMERICA

2008-07-15T22:49:00.009-04:00

<---- okay, that was google'd...

AHOY WORLD!!! It's literally the final full week of classes, and guess how I'm spending the 2nd to last day of kanji class? In a computer lab. Writing this. *grins*

I have less than 3 weeks until I fly back to America and besides the amazing, non-Japanese friends I've made here, I don't think I'll miss Japan much. It has many amazing points, but once you've been here for a while, you quickly realize how it's just like every other country in the world and unfortunately enough, refuses to acknowledge many of its negative points. At least in America, we look around at ourselves and go, "Yeah, damn, we are kind of chubby, huh? Oh well! Bring on the TURKEY!!!" In Japan, all the girls strive to look exactly like the Photoshop'ed models in ads and are in fact succeeding at it, in a very scary, "Man, can I buy you a hamburger?" sort of way. But yeah... ENOUGH WITH MY NO NO RANTS!!!

I'm looking forward to finishing out my last few days here with a BANG.

I have no idea how that'll work, but I do know that I want to spend as much time as possible with my friends here and go out with them constantly. I'm kind of Japan'ed out, so I don't really want to travel. I mean, if my friends want to go somewhere, than I'll come with, but me planning out something intense like heading to Hokkaido or something just won't happen.

House practice officially started yesterday and was awesome! I know I need tons of practice, so I've been gradually acclimating myself to it by listening to House music for hours on end. *laughs* We have practice every week from 5.30 pm until 7.30 pm or so. Most times we stay until 8ish or so and then finally clean up, leaving 30 minutes for people to chill, chat or do some more practice on their own. All of the House-senpai are ridiculously nice and cool. They are also ridiculously patient, which gives me an incredible amount of relief as I know that I'm slow and that my body has a tendency towards the ridiculous.

Man, oh man, I'm having the time of my life adding all of these randomly Japanesey pictures to this entry of mine. EVERYBODY SHOULD DO THE SAME!!! The link is:
http://kids.nifty.com/material/index.htm

Okay, wow, adding pictures took up a lot of time because I had to master the usage and difference of [p] versus [br]. I'm good now. BACK TO LIFE!

I am officially, completely and utterly, totally tabehoudai'ed out.

No more endless amounts of meat and vegetables for me. I need my food in portions now. *smiles* I had yakiniku tabehoudai [all you can eat] with Kay on Sunday at Gut's Soul in Yoyogi for 1980yen. This is an amazing price for the amount of food we ate, that and we ordered the highest class. Prices there range from 1280yen to the 1980yen course. I really wanted to eat Korean kalbi, so that's why we pushed forward with the priciest course. You can also add nomihoudai to it for just another 1020yen. Ridiculous and delicious!

I have 5 minutes before I need to be in front of building 11 to help Kay out. So, here I vamoose off!!! I hope everybody enjoyed the ridiculous pictures. I'll upload all the crap on my laptop soon. I have an amazingly stable internet connection now... so I really have no excuses to be holding back.

Much Love,
T

Not REALLY New, but Interesting Nonetheless

2008-07-07T00:18:00.001-04:00

7.05.08

And so, the count down begins. I’m actually still really ridiculously tired even after the nap I had today, so I’m just waiting to be called on down for the final “talk.”

Today I went to see a Noh play with Geri and her friends. James, who’s this wonderfully nice guy from the U.K and is in my class, went too. I also re-met this guy named Pablo, who seems really nice and very funny, and Geri’s other friend, Erica, who actually lives in Chantilly and is from NOVA. I only made it through Kyogen and we left soon after the masks appeared in the Noh play. I was literally about to pass out and though I understood every 5 words or so, I just didn’t want to focus all that hard on being entertained. That’s why I like Japanese dramas, the acting is super good and the Japanese totally makes sense to me.

Well, after we walked out of the National Noh Theatre, I headed on home. I got back using a key, yes, I was left a key, and just chilled on the first floor for a long while, playing on my computer and watching television whilst enjoying the relief being in an air-conditioned room gave me. Meimi arrived home after me, so I got to open the door for her, which is super duper rare/I can’t remember the last time I ever did it, if I did. I took a nap at about 5ish, slept for lil bit, woke up, and now here I am.

I think I just heard my host father get home, and it is night time now. My host mom will probably text me to go downstairs. I’m just super tired, numb, and wanting this to be over.

It’s over. Next day, next round… last night was good at first, but my host mom kept pressing for solid reasons for why I wanted to leave and I couldn’t give them to her. Until she kept pressing and pressing, forcing me into a corner, making me give her a reason she could assent to. Literally, assent to as in [nattoku dekiru]. So, I finally told her about the common sense thing she said to me a month ago and all the comments she’d made to me about Americans, and me being an American [as if that were a bad thing].

I really tried not to hurt her feelings or the feelings of anyone in the house. My intention is to leave without injuring those who have taken care of me all these months. But, as I had apparently twisted her words as I heard them, she too has twisted mine. The official reason she is giving her family for my leave is that I hate her and that she is the original cause of all my strife. Turn about is fair play, but her doing that just makes me want to leave even more quickly. I don’t want to be in a household where I’ve come to be despised, I don’t need to deal with that.

I kept telling her that I liked her and her family, that I’m leaving now in order to walk away with just happy memories, but she couldn’t deal with that. Eventually she just straight up told me that it was a bother [meiwaku] for me to have misinterpreted her words. Her sense of responsibility forced all these scenarios out of her to explain why I might have been uncomfortable such as the fact that she’s a housewife and hasn’t really interacted in the world in a long while [not true because she does have friends and was just playing with them yesterday], or that she’s not selective enough with her words. Fact of the matter is, no matter how pretty you make something sound, the message behind it remains essentially unchanged. I guess, in me saying that, I acknowledge that some part of me hates her, as I am indeed leaving and all. However, I don’t actively hate her. Hating people takes a lot of time and energy out of life.

I kind of got done with hating people at the end of high school. I gave up on hate because as good as it feels to feel morally superior to someone else and whatnot, it’s just a super waste of time that accomplishes nothing. I’m human and all, but I don’t hate. I dislike, everyone does. What I feel towards my host mom has nothing to do with animosity or acrimony, I’m just weary of the entire situation.

I’ll accept this right now; I was probably not built for home stay. Some other people are, those who don’t speak the language well and want to have a base with which to learn and grow from, those who have lived with their families their entire lives and are used to the close-knit interactions that come with that, and those who are much more willing to change their entire lives to suit that of another culture’s.

I think I ought to begin packing. I have lots of stuff and not much time left. The money my parents wired should arrive by Monday. I will be signing the contract Tuesday. The apartment is reserved for my move-in on Wednesday. I have G-Splash practice on Tuesday from 5:45pm to 8 or so. I have class every morning from 9:15 to 12:30. The only thing that makes this week easier is a break from Modern Fiction on Monday. I have to catch up on homework and make sure I don’t fall behind because of this.

Whatever happens… fact of the matter is that I’m out.

One of the major causes of problems from last night’s talk was that my host family was sure that they could convince me to stay and was determined to do so, feeling that it was a sure win for them given enough time and thinking. I came to the talks with the reserve to leave at any and all costs. I admit it, half way through I wanted to change my mind and stay, but that’s what happened before. I’m like an abused wife, kind of, dangle the slightest bit of bait in front of me and the pain that’s been done to me is momentarily forgotten and all I want to do is return to the good times, except there were no good times.

Communication is key. Don’t hold back when someone asks for your opinion. If you have one, say it. Otherwise, you’ll end up like me, a cautionary tale of the bads of homestay.

I need to begin packing a bit now. I’m still waiting for Mia’s phone call. Hopefully, she’ll call me in time for me to escape lunch with the host family.

- T

And thus, here I am, to report the final round of “battle word play” with the Matsumoto family. My host mother has finally assented to letting me leave the house. Our final talk happened tonight, after I got home and was waiting for the shower. I kept trying to go in, but there was always somebody in there for the hour that I tried. That’s when I realized it was really weird and decided to get cracking on my packing. When I went downstairs to check if the shower was available at 9ish or so, my host mom met up with me on the stairs and called me on down to the living room. My host dad was already there.

The conversation went pretty much the same as all the other conversations before, except this time I didn’t even bother to try correcting her or telling her anything. She needed this talk a lot more than I did. She told me I was weak for not sticking it through. My parents did me wrong by not being there for me when I was growing up. I failed to endure/develop through this hard-won chance at home stay. I need to grow up, get a job, and take shit from strangers for 3 years before I’ll get recognized by them.

Well, no… I can say that in a much nicer, much less acrimonious way, and here it is:

One day, you’ll enter into the real world, and it won’t be as nice nor as kind as the life you’ve been living. A student’s life is nothing compared to the hardships you’ll endure in the real world. When I was younger, just like you, and had to begin working for the first time, my father told me this, “Give it three years. No matter what happens, don’t give up and just stick it out. If you want to leave after those three years, then do. But, give it three years before you make the final decision to quit.” I worked hard for those three years. There were many difficult times that made me cry and want to quit more than anything. Afterwards, I thought, ‘Ah yes, now I can finally quit.’ However, those three years had changed me and I realized I could continue on. Also, because my superiors had seen me stick it out for three years, they finally recognized me and all the efforts I’d put into my work.

That’s the story my host mom wants me to remember as I leave this house. I will, partly because it’s a good story and partly because she twisted it towards the end. She essentially told me I’d fail at being a doctor because my selfish ways will lead my patients to suffering. She said that because I didn’t have the will to see this through, I am a failure.

Tell me. How would you respond to that?

Me? I smiled, nodded, and let her say her peace. After all, I’m leaving.

The only problem I’m facing with them now is money. Apparently, they’re “okay” with returning the money for the meals that I won’t eat here for the remaining month, but they want to deduct the price of the laundry machine that “I broke,” the 40,000yen wireless router that “I made them buy,” and the door that “I broke by using too much force.” I’m fine with paying for the laundry machine and the door, even though neither were really broken by me. As for the router, I feel like if I’m really dropping $400 on it, I ought to keep it, no? I mean, they are seriously wanting to charge me for it… so shouldn’t I be able to take it back with me?

Also, the laundry machine? Wasn’t broken! It’s actually broken now because now it no longer weighs the amount of laundry put into it and decides washing/drying cycles from there. The guy who fixed it fucked up because it doesn’t do anything that it did before. The Matsumoto’s thought it was broken because it would add time to a drying cycle in case the laundry didn’t dry in the calculated time. Now, this is a bit normal to me because my dryer is automatic as well and decides the drying time based on the amount of moisture in the clothes. Now, no matter how little or how much laundry I dry, the cycle is for 5 hours unless I input the time myself.

And the door? It wasn’t broken until my host dad tried to fix it. After his attempt at fixing it I had to use force to close the door or else it wouldn’t close. It was totally fine before that. This was a little bit before I left for Kyoto and came back, realizing how hard it was for me to close my door. But, because it was my door and my privacy at hand, I closed it anyways. This resulted in a number of small scratches on the opening of the door where I had to lift it in order to close it.

This money that they’re talking about isn’t mine. It’s my parents. My parents worked damn hard for that money, so eventually… I think I will have to talk it out with them. I’m tired of having this hang over me. Give me my peace and stop trying to screw me over. Honestly…

Oh well, I still think there is tons of hope in home stay in general. I got to spend the day today with Mia, her host mom Touhara-san, and Jeannette. Her host mom was amazing and took us to ride a boat from Hamamatsucho to Asakusa. After that she treated us to an amazing lunch with an incredible view in Asahi’s Beer Tower [I don’t know it’s real name XDD]. Mia talks with her host mom a lot, so Jeannette and I were bound to come up in the conversation from time to time. Her host mom talked with me a bit about me moving out of my home stay, and she said that as a host mom, things like that do happen and it’s very sad. She didn’t try to patronize me or make me change my mind, which I appreciated like none other.

After lunch we walked down to Asakusa and did the tourist thing for a bit. Her mom helped us get Mikuji [fortune papers] and because Jeannette and I got bad luck ones, we got to tie them to bamboo to help us get rid of the evilness of our fortunes. Mia’s host mom left us after that and we just walked around in circles for a bit, doing a little shopping for friends and family. We walked to Ueno station and had dinner there at the Rose and Crown Pub. Guess what we all got?! FISH AND CHIPS!!! It was awesomely yummy and ridiculously filling. We also all ordered drinks because… well, we’re just cool like that. *laughs* I drank a Suntory Premium Black Malt beer, Mia got the Moscow Mule, and Jeannette ordered the Sea Breeze. It just felt right after a long day of broiling under the sun all day.

Oh yeah, if I haven’t mentioned it before, summer is officially here and it’s abso-freakin-lutely DISGUSTING. It’s so humid that the moment you leave any un-air conditioned space, your face bursts into a sea of oil and sweat just floods out of all your pores. I hate it. But, it does make me appreciate dry heat all the more… so I’ll never avoid being outside in VA ever again. EVER!

I need sleepiness. I’m going to head out to Kyobashi tomorrow before going back to my host family’s house and finishing up my packing. I also need to confirm with Enplus when I’ll be available to sign the contract and get the key to my new apartment.

I’m nearly there. I think to celebrate, I should treat everybody to hot pot at that Chinese hot pot restaurant in Shinjuku. I went to the one in Shenzhen and Guangzhou a couple of times and loved it each time. It’ll remind me of home and doing something like hot pot/shabu shabu/sukiyaki with friends is always super fun.

Peace

- T

MOVIN' ON OUT~> TO THE EAST SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE XDDD

2008-07-04T21:00:00.003-04:00

GOOD MORNING ALL~

Well, kind of, it's beastly beautiful outside, but also freakin' hot as anything so I'm hiding out on the first floor of the Matsumoto house. Speaking of which, attached to the end of this lovely blog entry will be the entry I wrote right after I told my host mom I wanted to move out and talked it over with my mom. Because that's already all covered... I'll start in with the photo.

It's not bakuhatsu nemuri or anything, but yeah, I was coming home tipsy from a night of fun with friends and strangers and there was this guy. He was just OUT. He also took up more than half the bench. I just couldn't help but smile. Everybody else on the seats around him made sure to clear plenty of space from him.

SOOOOO....

Moving on now. *laughs*

Yesterday was awesomely fun. I spent the majority of the day figuring out my housing options and have an apartment all lined up now. I'll be going into the office to pay for it on Tuesday or so, the move-out will take place Wednesday. I still have yet to go through the official last talks with the family, but it's supposed to happen some time tonight. Host mom is running out the door right now, even as I type this, so yeah... XDDD

After the apartment application was filled out, my ID cards scanned, and my life all squared away, I met up with D-Bang and met some new people, Su-an and Yukari, and saw some of her other friends I'd been introduced to before, Sergio and Wa-wa. We chilled in the shade for a bit because yesterday was beastly hot, but eventually we got moving to HARAJUKU! We did some shopping in Harajuku and I had my lunch/pre-dinner meal of a strawberry/chocolate ice cream/ cheese cake/pastry/whip cream CREPE. Oh yes... do be envious. *grins* I scored this awesome deal with a wonderfully blue hoodie for 1050yen! It was just plain ole hot so I ended up changing out of my red baseball tee into my white tank top with the hoodie over it.

We met up with Jeanette a bit laters and we all did some more window shopping. Pretty soon it was time for dinner at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant in Harajuku!!! AMERICAN FOOD!!! ON THE 4th of JULY!!! WHEEEEEE~ Motoi-kun from G-Splash who is was in Harupa's First Year Hip Hop group with me, Jen, Jeannette, and Steph came out too! Unfortunately, both Diana's and Jeannette's cellphones died at the same time, so I ended up texting everybody I had the address of in G-Splash for Motoi's info. It was a very interesting experience.... especially because I asked TONBO-SAN! He was really great about it and we tried to get him to come out with us to do fireworks, but it was a bust. Oh well... we'll just have to wait until camp!

Dan also came out to eat with us, and it's been like months since I've really seen and talked with him. We met up with a bunch of people, but because introductions weren't really done, I didn't know any of them. Well, I started off my meal with a 680 yen SAMUEL ADAMS *cheeeeeeeeeeses*. Bad luck for me, but I don't think it was brewed in the States. Still, I got the Puck Burger and it was delicious and meaty! I only ate half of it, but I got a good chunk of Jen's yummilicious BBQ Chicken wrap[?]. The other half of my burger went to Jen and Motoi. I'm really starting to doubt my "grub on" skills. Especially since Motoi took one look at my plate and was like, "Dude, that's huge, isn't it?" Me: "Yeah... it kind of is..." ^_____^ That's why he got a quarter of my burger. I used to be able to kill the 2 patty Five Guys Burger with no problem. The 4 patty heart attack burger from Wendy's? ATES IT! All you can eat hot pot at home? I ate for HOURS. Now? Not so much.

After we ate and talked for a gooooood looooong while, we were going to head to Shibuya's Don Quixote to buy fireworks, but the majority of us just wanted to drink and chill in Yoyogi Park, so that's what we did. We were there from like 9:30ish until 11:30ish or so, about 2 hours. With two cans of "strong" chuhai, I was able to get a decent buzz and be quite chirpy. I talked to Motoi about lots of stuff, but mainly about the sex culture in Japan and the differences between dating here and dating in America. Jeannette and Diana had schooled him on the culture of evangelizing Christians in America, the problems of Yellow Fever, and other such topics earlier in the restaurant. Me talking with him about why Japanese men stare at my chest when I wear tanks and such was like a joke. XD He's actually quite chill and I really liked hanging out with him.

Let's see, the day before yesterday, the 3rd is the blog that will be added on at the end of this entry. The day before that was WEDNESDAY and Tokyo Disney Sea DAY!!!!

I had a bomb blast time. That's about all I can really say about it. It's expensive as hell to get there and I didn't know about the student discount that would've saved me 1300 yen. But, I did get my awesome Stitch hat and my amazing Mickey visor. I also met some of Diana's amazingly super nice friends like Jackie, Rakellie, Rachel and Emily. Steph went too and I met her friend from VIRGINIA, Nicole. We ended up getting there around 1:30ish or so I think, but we stayed until they kicked us out. XDDD It was a great, long day. Please expect pictures when I can finally get a stable internet connection, which should be like Wednesday.

Okay... here's the entry you'e been waiting for:

7.3.08

Okay, so while these feelings are still fresh and vibrant within me, I need to drop them onto something. I’ve done it. I’ve finally told my host mother I wanted to move out, and I did it with a sad smile. But still, at least I smiled. I wasn’t trying to be mocking or anything, I just needed to smile to keep myself from screaming. Sometimes, at moments like this, when I’m somewhat settling down to the reality of moving out, I realize how selfish my request is.

Leaving after 3 months just because you can’t take it anymore? There’s only 1 month left! Hell, not even! There’s like 28 days left! What a waste! You can’t even get that final month’s worth of money back either! Geez… what are you thinking? How selfish can you be?

And to that, I can’t really say anything because it is reasonably selfish of me to want to leave, to waste my parents’ money like this, to not stick it out for the next 28 days. However, this experience was supposed to be for me to learn the language, the culture, the peoples… and I haven’t done any of that.

After I told Okaa-san that I wanted to move out, she gave me a sigh. I’ve essentially conditioned her to brace for whenever I want to speak to her one on one, because each time I’ve done it was to put my complaints out there. Maybe I’m nothing but complaints, but she knew. I let her speak after I said my peace because… I said my peace. Anything I try to say would just hurt her in the long run and I didn’t want that, so she went on a long spiel about how inconsiderate Americans are [as a people and traditionally speaking], how the family has also been holding back its comments on my behavior, and how my doing laundry really did peeve the absolute hell out of them.

She went on for a while about how because I was still young and ignorant, inexperienced in the ways of society, so I couldn’t be faulted for my shortcomings. She said that she wanted me to stay but could understand if I felt the need to go. She also put it out there that they’ll never host another student again [which I think is for the best].

I nodded and smiled the entire time, encouraging her to let her feelings out. She has a tendency of holding back that barb on me and she lashes out at me at the weirdest/most painful times, so I was just rather wishing for a frontal attack rather than a sneak. She said that she tried her best to see the good in me, because that’s what she does, she tries to see the good in people. I told her the same thing essentially. I’m leaving this house now before these feelings of pain and regret suffocate all memories of staying here. I want to walk away with only the good things that happened like all the delicious meals Okaa-san made, Otou-san’s weirdly random behavior, and Meimi just being Meimi. She told me that’d be impossible to do.

After she said that if I left it’d be a lose/lose for both of us, I told her it was a lose/win because I might be leaving, but I got to meet her, and she, being an essentially good person, is worth meeting. She corrected me, told me I was wrong, and said that I was essentially running away from my problems and not dealing with a situation just because I found it “iya [bad/no good/uncomfortable].” It was “iya” 2 months ago when I went to the Overseas Liaison Center and wanted to leave. Now it’s “kurushii [suffocating/difficult/painful].” I didn’t say that though, again, why hurt somebody who’s already hurting?

It’s over.

I’m out.

I called my mom right afterwards and in the midst of telling her about how much I’d need for an apartment, I broke down crying. Between regret for leaving and joy for finally going through with it, I was just torn. Apparently, she was just surprised I held in there for so long. I have a tendency of sticking through painful situations and trying to deal with them alone. I usually succeed, but the results are scarring. My mom had been curious why I’d stuck with it despite being more than ready to leave 2 months ago. I think it was my naiveté. I’m still young enough and not jaded enough to think that things gone super sour can still pick up. I want to believe in that light in the dark tunnel. I want to find that damn pot of gold at the other end of the rainbow. My cup? It looks pretty half-full to me. I tried. It just wasn’t meant to work out.

Oh well. Tomorrow is JULY 4th!!!! INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

Apt isn’t it? On the day my friends and I will celebrate America’s independence, I’ll celebrate mine as well!

I need to sleep now because it’s late and I had only 5 hours of sleep the night before.

- T

-----

Voila. That's it. I'm sort of all blogged out now. Look for pictures soon. I'll be sure to update.

Love,

ｖ（ｏ＾－＾ｏ）　ヤホ～

2008-06-29T08:30:00.002-04:00

AHOOOOOOY world!

Well, my super fantastic idea of resetting my router and all that seems to have gone bust on me, so this entire entry is being copy/pasted back in blog land from the hard drive of my compie comp. However, there is a much unexpected perk to doing it like this and that is that my sheet is absolutely blank and encourages me to fill it with all sorts of things. Being that I haven’t really had time to myself to sit down, ponder, digest, and let my mind just process before my pretty blue screen in a long while, I have lots to say and it’s likely not many will notice what I’m trying to express. Oh well. XD

To begin, my weekend started off fantastically. Actually, my week got progressively better from the long hell that was Monday. Monday was just super hard for me because I was so tired and so weary of school. Tuesday was lots better because I got to chill with D-Bang, whom I love for her gracious smiles and sunny persona. Wednesday was LAUNDRY! Yes! I finally have my Otou-san’s schedule down pat, so I do laundry on the days when he’s not around. Doing it like this might seem a bit extreme to you, but he’s a very schedule-oriented, shy Japanese man and having to take a shower while my delicates are in the dryer is apparently very embarrassing for him. Thursday was… Thursday? *laughs* I remember making plans to chill in the gym and watch people practice with Geri, but she suddenly canceled on me so I picked up my G-Event ticket and hiked it on home with D-Bang. I met her friend Rachel [I think it’s like the 50th time we’ve been introduced], who’s super sweet and got an awesome hair cut/dye job the day before. It was really funny because D-Bang couldn’t stop staring at her and going, “Wow, you look so pretty!”

As for meals, I’ve developed a penchant for bananas. This predilection for them has likely arisen from the fact that I miss my brother, a lot. While he was around I bounced between loving every moment with him to wanting to smack him upside the head for being a raucous ass. Now that he’s gone and I only get to hear from him via e-mail, I miss him. Distance really does make the heart grow fonder. However, I ate like a bunch of bananas everyday this week so I’m kind of BA NA NA’ed out. It’s much like how I’m tabehoudai-ed out, but still, my craving for banana delicious and unlimited amounts of yummy meat does come often.

I’ve recently discovered that now that I don’t have G-Splash practice, I’m hungrier than ever. It’s like for that full month and a half of workout hell that I went through, I was starving but didn’t know it, and now that I’m in recovery mode, my body is desperately fighting me to eat more and more. Last night I ate kaiten sushi with Greg and Ben, and I out ate both of them and had a beer to top off my meal. I felt like a salary man. *grins* It’s was a lovely role reversal. Greg had a tabehoudai later on to go to, which explains why he ate so little, but Ben just wasn’t all that hungry I think.

Boo! I’m jumping ahead of myself! OOOOOKAY~ Back to FRIDAY

Friday was sunny and beautiful. I decided to dress super American-like and rock out with a backpack and sneakers with ankle socks. *stage whispers* it’s the sneakers that give us snarky Americans away! After school, I spent a good hour at the school computer lab answering e-mails and fiddling with Facebook. Once I was done with that, I moseyed off to UENO! I walked all over Ueno and then some. Saw tons of homeless people and saw them in a massive crowd waiting for handouts, I think. I got bored of Ueno pretty quickly though because I’d walked through it quite briskly before with Arukoukai [which I am officially no longer a part of]. So, I decided I’d walk to ASAKUSA. I stopped by a 99cent store on the way there and bought some food [and more bananas!] because the “lunch” I ate in the 15-minute break between 1st and 2nd period earlier wasn’t keeping me juiced enough. My lunch was partaken of in a park near Asakusa loaded with little kids screaming and playing. Cutest thing I saw was this little boy calling to a group of little girls, getting ignored by said girls, and then him trying to throw a Frisbee above the metal fence separating the two and failing. It was picture perfect.

Asakusa was packed with tourists and was exactly as I remembered it from 3-4years ago. I even went to the shop where I bought my favorite fish-papered bookmarks from last time and got some wall decorations and more bookmarks. I blew 8,000 yen at that place, but I have no regrets because that’s the store I’m returning to for gifts for my family and friends. Everything there is so Japanese, but it has so much universal appeal that it doesn’t really matter. I LOOOOOOOOOOVE that store. I’m going to drag Mia and Greg to it soon, hopefully. Depends on when those two busy bees aren’t so busy.

I also found my MOST FAVORITE DESSERT EVER!!! I thought I could only ever find it in Kyoto, but I found it again in Asakusa and it was triply delicious. Black sesame seed ice cream!!!! My mom used to make this sweetened soup thing for us from time to time, and it was essentially brown sugar dissolved in water with black sesame seed paste in rice flour balls. I miss it. The reason why I’m craving it so bad is probably because I’m growing increasingly nostalgic of home.
After I walked all over Asakusa, I found like 5 different fugu restaurants which made me wonder why we went through all the trouble of eating it in Osaka. *shrugs* Still, super good times. After Asakusa, I walked back to Ueno, and then I walked all along Okachimachi which is a massive hodgepodge of shops selling everything! Again, it was exactly as I remembered it from years ago. Only this time around, I was alone and not as wide-eyed about everything Japanese. >_>
I got kind of bored of Okachimachi and decided to walk to Ikebukuro. I made it to Myogadani.
So, I kind of walk the width of Tokyo in a day, which just goes to show that it can be done.

Yesterday was BEN KING day! *smiles* Ben is this nice guy I’ve had Japanese with for a couple of years now. In 2nd year Japanese, we were in a group together and made a movie. The name of our group? BeATKuMi. It was an amalgamation of all of our names in Japanese, kind of. Ben, Amanda, Teresa, Christine [Kurisutein], and Mia. Well, he’s here in Japan and we met up with him yesterday in Shibuya, we being me and Mia. Christine’s also in Japan but I haven’t heard anything from her yet.

We were supposed to meet at 9.30 but my alarm didn’t go off, so I didn’t get there until like 9.50 and Ben was just waiting there with a super worried look on his face. Mia was also late, so we were just chatting about until she came. Once we were all grouped up with hoofed it over to the Starbucks in Tsutaya near the crazy Shibuya Crossing and got some coffee while we talked a bit more. Yesterday was mainly talking, chilling, and shopping. Ben got a really nice jacket from Zara’s and a shirt with not just ONE but TWO collars from a store in either Parco or OIOI. I think it’s OIOI but I’m not sure. We walked around a bit more after that and eventually headed out to Roppongi. Greg met up with us there. We did Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown. Then, we went to Shinjuku and got some kaiten sushi. We spent quite a lot of time in Don Quixote and Greg was eyeing some adult goods with me. I don’t know why, but boys need girls to look at naughty stuff with them or else they’re just seen as pervies. *nods solemnly*

I got home pretty early and hopped into the shower. I still crashed kind of late though at about 1.30 am or so because I have the latter half of HYD’s 2nd season downloaded and I wanted to watch it. We were going to watch a movie a Roppongi Hills yesterday, but nobody wanted to pay lots for a movie and nobody wanted to watch the same movie. I eventually want to watch HYD Final though, so I’ll either do it alone or drag someone with me to do it.

Oh yeah! I got an obi and koshi-himo for my yukata! Now I’m all ready to matsuri it! The Tanabata festival is coming up soon, so I’m going to get all dressed up and do it up!

So far, Sunday has been super relaxed. I was going to meet up with Kay so that she could trim/cut my hair, but that plan is bust. We’re going to do it later because Miyako, who we met in Kyoto at the baKpaK hostel, is here in Tokyo! She’s this really awesome person with an amazing mixed accent that blends Japanese, French, and English all together. It’s fascinating. I’ve already done my reading homework for tomorrow and I should read the book that’s due to have been finished last Thursday. Yeah… it’s been a long couple of weeks.

It’s weird, but now that I have tons of free time back, I’m getting compounded left and right with assignments. There’s just no breathing room. I literally have no idea where my time goes sometimes. It just flies out of my hands and I’m left standing, scratching my head and going, “Huh?”

Well, it’s actually the 3month 3day mark, so here’s my newly updated opinion of JAPAN:

Would I ever willingly live here? No. But, if I loved someone here and had a purpose like working or eking out a life here, then yes. Japanese people I feel care too much about societal appearances and keeping them up. I’m such a bum and really lax about things like that, that people who constantly fix their hair or check their reflection in the mirror irk the heck out of me. Most of the Japanese people I’ve met seem genuinely nice and are open to new experiences, but they, are like me in that I too, have a very deep fear of failure. So, if there’s a chance that they’ll be embarrassed or won’t look 100% cool in society’s perception of them, they flip out and run the other way. I run when it’s almost guaranteed I’ll look like a tool. *smiles*

Anyhoo, I’m digressing again. I’m rather terrible at that. I feel like I’ve done everything there is to be done as a “tourist” in Japan. I’m all “tourist” out. I’ve done mostly everything that there is to be done to see “Japan” as a place of recreation and culture as perpetuated by the government as being authentic and recognized. Essentially, I’m over the well done point; I’m just rather burnt and crispy. I don’t know what I’m looking for in Japan anymore. It’s not the shrines, temples, ceremonies. It’s not in the hordes of people crowding the department stores, the lonely side streets of shady Tokyo, and the sweat-drenched peoples all up on each other in dark clubs. I guess, at this point in time, I’m not looking for anything. I just want to hang out with the friends I’ve made here. I want to eat and play with them. I want to go shopping for gifts for my family, get them things that will make their faces split with joy.

So, I’m kind of done with living in Japan and am gradually going into, “Oh, I’m going to leave soon” mood. I have things I want to buy before I go and that’s about it. Memories? Those would be nice too. Just wish they were packaged and kept well under pressure. *winks*
For my host family, well, it’s been an experience. They’re nice people. They’re good people. But, we’ve been dancing around each other for 3 months now and nothing has changed. There’s a limit to how considerate I can be and how I can expect them to be for me.

GOOD POINTS:
- Okaa-san is an amazing cook
- Meimi is a riot when I do get the chance to speak with her
- My room is a little haven and I have A/C in it

BAD POINTS:
- They weren’t ready for me and I wasn’t ready for them
- Otou-san works too much and when he isn’t overworked, the effects of his work still make him less than whole
- Okaa-san has little going for her beyond her family, which is good for some people, but I feel like she had aspired to be more
- Meimi is rebelling, very subtly so, but still… It’s not always fun to be around teenagers as they transition into adults, seeing their selfish helplessness is quite astonishing and makes me want to drop to my knees and apologize to my parents for the hell I put them through

Yeah… so that’s it. I kind of need to take a nap before I start on a sakubun that’s not due until Thursday and a book that’s actually quite interesting.

I hope that everybody reading this is taking good care of themselves and making sure that they’re okay. I feel like people are forgetting how important it is to run out in the rain sometimes or grab an ice cream with a friend.

Love,
T

UPDATE

Well, I still have time before this is posted up, so I’m just going to give a quick run down of my meals with the Matsumoto’s today. Once you read them, I’m sure you’ll realize that life, right now, is pretty sweet for me, meal-wise.

Breakfast: Coffee, egg and mushroom mix, a slice of raisin bread, salad, and a slice of watermelon
Lunch: Water and ramen with chashu.
Dinner: Roast beef with potatoes and carrots, rice, squash, daikon/hotate salad, miso soup, and water.

All the efforts G-Splash made to carve me into a new person are being buffed away by most delicious meals. I can’t say I mind when the means are so wonderfully yummy. Nothing I’ve eaten since Harupa has been, “Oh geez, why did I eat that?! GROSS!” Well, almost nothing, there was that unadon in Kyoto that bordered on disgusting and actually made Kay ill. >_<”
My nap was pretty useless. I didn’t actually sleep too well, but I did sleep. That’s all that really matters in the end isn’t it?

Because I think I can get away it… XD I’ll probably digest for a bit and then do down’s and up’s for a little while. Otou-san should be heading to bed until 8pm or so, and Meimi is heading into the shower now, so that gives me an hour to do everything without driving him nuts. ^^”

Oh yeah, if you can, watch “Last Friends” the Japanese Drama. It’s super good! It deals with lots of current issues that are rather rare I suppose, like domestic violence, infidelity, the consequences of child molestation, and gender confusion. I love it.

GO WATCH!

眠い　（ｚ＿Z)

2008-06-19T02:51:00.002-04:00

Do you all see that wacky face/title? Only in Japan could I get away with that... *whee*

I'm in a super hot computer lab and need to make this quick. LIKE SNAP!

*poof*

- yeah, that was written like a week ago... -

WELL~

hello world,

I am OFFICIALLY back from one of the best trips ever with some of the most awesome people ever. Remember the randomly decided trip to Kyoto? Well, we pulled it off with little to no glitches, the only trip up being that Hunter couldn't get a ticket to come back on the same night as us [but he ended up having more fun anyways].

Last week went by in a blur. I had a test, think. I also realized that without G-Splash practice and something dictating to me exactly what to do, I'm pretty useless exercise-wise. My only form of exercise is walking for miles on end for the sheer fun of it. Pretty great, eh?

Well, Friday rolled around. I packed my bag. I went to Tokyo Station. I found my bus. I found that it was assigned seating and I could've just boarded at Shinjuku-eki. I sat next to an irritated old woman for 7 hours. My Unisom failed to get me sleepened. I arrived at 5am in Kyoto and was just bomb ass tired. We walked around all day. We partied at the 5th floor lounge of Bakpak Hostel in Kyoto.

That's as basic as I can get it. All in all, on Saturday we hit up: Toufukuji, Touji, and Kiyomizudera. Sunday we traveled to Osaka after hitting up Sanjyuusangendo. We rocked it up at Spa World.

I got back to Tokyo at like 6am on Monday. I had a presentation that day. Sophia's campus doesn't open until 8am. I freshened up at Yotsuya Station, meaning I washed my face and brushed my teeth and everything there.

Tuesday I chilled with D-Bang and we hit up Meiji Jingu and then went to TMG to see Tokyo from the observatory they have there. TODAY, I am doing laundry. I just finished one load of whites and my colors are about to finish. As soon as I toss my pants and other ish into the dryer, I'm off to nap.

I need to walk it out now.

Peace

- T

drum rolls

2008-06-17T03:45:00.002-04:00

<--- that is the goofy x 130981237128 man that i had the pleasure of dealing with for 2 weeks. *grins*

Well, after hours and hours of fiddling and fumbling with the wireless network at home, I have officially abandoned the lovely AOSS button ala Buffalo router and just went ahead and input my own passwords as such. The result? My connection is so much more stable now and I haven't had to reset it in the last 30 minutes. IT'S A BEAUTIFUL THING!!!

John officially flew back to Beijing yesterday on NW29 leaving from gate 25 at 6:55pm, as the flight had been delayed 10 minutes before he even checked in. After I saw him through security, I hiked on over to the South Wing of Narita Airport and officially CHANGED my airplane ticket. I am now heading back home August 8 on the 4pm flight out of Narita ala UA804. *cheers*

Now, the only problem I have is informing my host mom of the following:

1: I'm eating out with Mia Mia tomorrow and won't be needing dinner

2: I'm heading out to Kyoto Friday and won't be back in Tokyo until Monday morning, given that I can find a bus ticket in time... a reasonably priced bus ticket

3: I'm definitely moving out the 31st of July but won't be flying anywhere. I'll be living at a hotel until camp starts, leave my luggage there and return for it after camp is over.

Now, I haven't actually really talked to her these last 2 weeks because of John, G-Splash, and life just kicking me in the head. I went to school this morning and didn't realize why I felt so nasty until halfway through 1st period when I made Natalie touch my forehead, followed by Jen. It turns out I have a bit of a fever as a result of drinking poisoned water. DON'T DRINK WATER LEFT IN UNWASHED WATER BOTTLES!!! >_> I'm learning that one the hard way.

So, I'm definitely in HOUSE now. With Geri! Yay! I was trying to decide between Hip Hop, Girls Hip Hop, and House, but after being kicked around by the HHs, I dusted off my furry bottom and hopped on over to House where they have the patience of saints and are willing to teach lil' ole super un-coordinated me.

In order to prep myself for the joy that is House, I'm starting to listen to House music and I have to say... I don't get it. Did I get the really bad stuff or what? It's likely. *shrugs* I'll ask the senpai what's good.

SO...

I kind of need to get a round bus ticket. Like ASAP. Yeah... *looks aside*

I randomly decided to go to Kyoto with Hunter and Kay plus 1 guy I've never met. Apparently the reservations for the hostel have already been made. So, I really need to get a jump on that.

----- BACKKKKKKK -----

OKAY. So, I have my tickets, and I'll be riding down to Kyoto before long. Yeah. ^______^

All it did was set me back 10,400yen. But hey, once in a lifetime experience, yeah? No... I've kind of already been there, so no. XD Oh well. Lots of pictures. Hangin' with new friends. Let's see how badly we can drive each other all crazy.

Oh yes, before I forget:

Brandon - English

David - English

Paolo - Italian

Nick - American

Just for me own little brain. I need to grub majorly bad now, so I'll be seeing ya around. I'll post the link to all of my pictures soon.

- T

終わり！！！

2008-06-08T00:14:00.004-04:00

IT'S OOOOOOOOOOVER~

*laughs maniacally* This is the final result of being up for 17 consecutive hours with no sleep, lots of alcohol [no drunken stupor], hours of loud bass, and tons of insane dancing.

Harupa is over!

The show that I have been practicing like crazy for with EVERYBODY else in G-splash is over and I'm both relieved and saddened by the fact that I won't see people's pretty pretty faces everyday. From now on, our senpai are splitting off into groups for G-Event which will be on July 12th at Womb in Shibuya. Essentially, they're performing all day and we'll be cheering them on like crazy. I still have yet to buy my ticket because Maro-senpai and Yuki-senpai didn't remind me... *sneaks off into a shady corner*

Let's see, how to begin this post, eh? Well... I suppose it's already well under way so I may as well begin at how this week was, both pre- and post-HARUPA. Pre-Harupa I was pretty damn miserable. I was tired everyday. Lacking sleep. About to pass out in practice. AND THEN, there was Thursday...

I went balls to the wall. HARD. BUT I met every single one of my senpai in G-Splash, and I'm pretty sure everybody remembers me. I'm a pretty fantastic person to get drunk with, I must admit it. I'm a happy, cheerful, friendly drunk. My maternal instincts also kick in like crazy so I make sure everybody is having a bomb ass time. Also, if I don't notice how you're not having fun, but you really want to have fun like I am, I include you in. I'm pretty sweet that way.... >_<" *blushes like crazy*

Well, as a result of the insanity that is G-Splash, I missed all my classes Friday, which is just two. However, those two classes were the ones that I probably should have gone to as I have exams in both on Monday. *shrug* My awesome friend Natalie has already sent me a detailed e-mail regarding everything I need to know for one of the the exams so I'm not stressed at all. The other exam will just entail me memorizing an entire passage in Japanese, particles and all, whee~

I kind of ambled in to our LAST practice on Friday, still semi-drunk [yes, I did hit the bottle that hard]. Tonbo-senpai was nowhere to be seen, but rumor had it that he was likely just passed out somewhere. Akko-senpai [who I'd been callin A-ko senpai] was the only one there to give us words of wisdom and make us form a circle of love and share our sweet sweet feelings. Yes, there were tears. No, my Japanese was so horrible I likely said something non-sensible. *CHEEESE* We did our final run through and then broke for the night. Our senpai's went out drinking again. This time, they did it in a park nearby. I was still pretty bomb blasted from Thursday's lovely evening of fun, so I headed on home, showered, popped a Unisom, and passed out.

SATTTTTTTTTTTURDAY

I woke up a little later than usual so that I'd have enough energy to make it through the rest of the day. A little later than usual is 7.35am. XD I was out of the house by 9am but right as I was heading out, Okaa-san asked me to open the windows in my room and ventilate. I ended up making it to the morning meeting right on time. As in, giri giri. We did morning stretches and then broke up to head out to Shin-kiba on our own. Half of us went to Komora Soba and the other half grabbed food at the 7-11 on campus. I got this most delicious pasta thing at the 7-11 and learned how to operate the microwave! *SCORE*

We did a random photo shoot on the train. Steph has this amazing camera that I completely adore her for. All the girls were doing their makeup. Anson was just the odd one out, but we made him our pimp daddy in a number of pictures so I'm sure he loved it. *laughs* We got to Studio Coast aka Ageha and had to wait out in the hot hot hot x 23812847247 sun for a while. When we finally got in, I found out that we were up first! YAY! G-SPLASH IS AMAZING! J also went and he took a video of our performance! Whenever I get my camera back I'll be sure to post it up.

I totally killed our dance. Nailed every move. Was on beat on EVERYTHING. It was fantastic. I ran off stage feeling on Cloud 9. I then spent the next 8 hours wondering why the hell I didn't leave earlier between bouts of going "Wow! That group is fantastic!!!" or "Uhm... what the hell are they doing on stage?" John left after the first set that lasted from 1.30 until 3.15. I stuck around, changed into my afterparty clothes in the bathroom, and headed out to Ikebukuro with Hunter.

Oh yeah, during Harupa, there was this amazing artist named ISOPP that was wonderful... but he picked the wrong topic/source to remind people to cherish ever day of their lives and the ones they love. He picked the A-bomb. Hunter turned to me halfway through and asked, "Is this going to get my ass beat?" My reply? "I don't know, maybe..." And that's all I'll say on that.

We went to the wrong exit at Ikebukuro because Kaoru-san told us this morning that is was NISHI-guchi aka WEST exit. And then, through e-mails, I found out that it was HIGASHI-guchi bka EAST exit. Yeah. We hauled ass and once we got there, we belatedly discovered that we were 30 minutes early. *shrugs*

Last night was just really long. Seriously. One of the longest nights of my life. I did a lot of talking though, got to know some people much better. I found out a bit more about all of my senpai, and here I will list my most interesting observances.

- Tonbo-san is insanely funny. He can only take pictures when drunk/intoxicated. He practices like crazy and was the voice of Akko-san's unspeakable opinions.

- Akko-san is unbelievably sweet and cute. I also think I kind of scare her because I can be extremely lovey dovey/huggy. I like giving people hugs and I really don't think she's used to it so... yeah... *smiles ridiculously wide* I told her I was deciding between House and Hip hop, and she was like, "The House-senpai are all really nice. You'll really like it there." ^^" Decision made... maybe~

- Kaoru-san is super responsible/quiet. It was really weird because every time I tried to talk to him or ask him something he'd answer my question to someone else around me or like run away... ^^

- Masa-san is a kikoku!!! He spent 3 years in the States, from 8 to 11. In Kentucky, the land of chicken. In Elizabethtown. I had no idea he spoke English. But, apparently it's because he doesn't really like speaking it. Maybe he was teased about it when he was younger... I derno.

- Hitosu-senpai [I think that's his name, he tried to enunciate really clearly but he'd had a number of shots of sake] works all night at McDonald's from like 11 to 6am and he goes to school as a full time student. INSANE! He's also studying English and wants to understand the lyrics to hip hop songs... Yeah. I don't think most Japanese people would be dancing so happily to some of the hip hop music they bounce to if they knew that much of the songs they choose are chauvinistic, violent, gang-related, or involves drug dealings. *shrugs* Just a thought. He also had ridiculously pretty eyes. I was kind of mesmerized by them.

- Coco-san is from BEIJING. I talked with her on Thursday about her tenure there but I was drunk, so I only remember bits and pieces of our conversation. *blush* She's really nice and will be studying in the States next year.

- A~bo-san, long AHHH ^^, is a pretty cool guy. He apologized again about the thing with not letting J come to the afterparty. I'm pretty sure he's dating Risa-san. I saw them holding hands during Harupa.

And here are my general observations about G-Splash in general:

The senpai really keep to themselves but they are ALL NICE. Literally, every single one of them. I don't think you can really be in G-Splash without being somewhat nice. It'd make the endless series of practices really hard if you were a constant bitch and people hated being around you, yeah?

Kouhai are equally insane. PERIOD.

All the guys that wear hats, KEEP THEM ON. Really. Like, if you even try to take it, then they get really pissed and embarrassed. Every single guy whose hat I saw get taken immediately covered their hair with their hands and rushed to get it back. Tonbo-san. Yuuya-san. Masa-san. Kaoru-san. Every single one.

Everybody wears the same socks. Seriously. It's kind of amusing. Kay has this thing for one of our senpai, and she asked Akko-san what to do to get his attention. Her advice? Wear the same type of socks... ^__________^

Now that I won't be sweating through tank tops, sweats, and t-shirts everyday... I'll admit it, I'll really miss it. I loved working out with everyone. When you dance alone or practice alone, you're more likely to stop sooner because you don't think you can take anymore. With others around you, there's this incentive to push yourself harder, farther, longer. Oh well, it'll pick up in time for camp.

I'm a bit tired now. I did only get 5 hours of sleep in. My body was rebelling against the idea of being in bed past 9am. Seriously.

*vamooses off somewhere fun*

- T

疲れた！！！

2008-06-05T03:04:00.002-04:00

Hmmm... I think it's about time I dropped an update on my life with John in the country before G-Splash practice catches up to me.

^^"

SO! We've had practice every day since last Friday. EVERY DAY. I am so tired that this is the first time I've ever truly come close to passing out/blacking out. Even when Dan and Rose were here and I had a cold and took them around between dance practice for G-Splash, I wasn't this exhausted. It's soooookai tho, you know why? Because the show is in TWO DAYS. All of our efforts, our dedication, our time, our strength is going into 4 eight-counts of a dance. We have 30 seconds to OWN the stage and make sure every person in the crowd goes, "Ohhhhhhhhhhh SNAP~ G-Splash kids are like SUPER genki!"

I had a midterm for Intensive Japanese 3 on Monday. I ditched 2nd and 3rd period to run to the airport and pick J up. His flight ended up arriving an hour early so I managed to get to practice early. Afterwards we ate and parted ways.

Tuesday was walking in the rain and chilling with J for the better part of the day. He found out that one of the girls here, Kay, is the same Kay that he met back in high school, during his Key Club days. Yes, J really knows the entire world. No joke.

Wednesday was me doing homework... kind of. I really forget for the most part what the hell I was doing yesterday, forgive my language XD. I ate spaghetti with J. What the heck did I do for those hours between practice and the end of class? OH YEAH!!! I finished my medical school application. I'm just waiting for all of my transcripts to come in and my recommendations to arrive at Interfolio. *winks*

I'm nearly there!!!! YESSS~

I'm running low on money because I'm eating out like crazy and G-Splash is sucking the life blood out of me. It costs loads of deniro to be in the dance circle, but every yen is worth it. It's better than a freaking gym membership because they are ON YOU to go to practice. That, and you learn skills that are usable within [J's words] "circles of love" formed at clubs and other such lovely gatherings. But, as he pointed out, the only "circle of love" ever made in a D.C. club is when a fight is about to break out or girls are gathering together to protect each other from the shady shady men dancing up on them.

Oh, I learned something really fun today. Apparently Spain has this 3 hour nap time much like China does and it's called siesta. Fun, no?

I'm coughing like crazy but my body [beyond the faint spells] is completely 100%. Bit strange, but I figure I'll adjust eventually. I also need to pick up some meds to make sure I don't wipe out before the performance. This is really bad but we've already lost a few dancers due to injuries and illness. It's freakin' ridiculous but yeah... we're dropping like flies.

But yeah, time to return to the original point of this post, J!

He's here. He's taking care of himself. He's a wonderful influence on me. I feel like I have a damn sun shining over my head whenever he's around because he's just so positive and always looking/pushing forward. We really are just way too caught up in our own drama sometimes to look at the bigger picture. I haven't seen him in months and now I get to see his goofy face every day. He'll be gone for 27 months after this. Apparently, I could get pregnant, have my kid, raise it to be 1 year old before I run into him again. Weird, no?

Time to change for practice. I need to stretch out like crazy. Prevent those injuries.

*scoops it up like a ball of dippin' dotssss*

- T

ボケット：　空っぽいな～

2008-05-29T04:44:00.007-04:00

CHEESE!!!

i'm alive!!!

no, you're not imagining it. i do have those dark circles under my eyes and there is no ghost in this picture... ><"

hahaha. okay, i just kind of needed to do that. *wipes away a fake tear* my internet randomly dropped out when I was trying to type this, so I had to run on downstairs, ojyama Okaa-san, and re-register the pin code of my compie. alas, it works now and i am back and snug in my own lil room.

well, this is a bit late, but 2 month impression!!!

Japan is still very much JAPAN. There are numerous quirks to this place, especially given that they seem to be obstreperously [sp?] proud of their homogenity. So strange. So true. I've also learned that no matter where you go on this Earth, people with no manners will be there. I've also learned to just laugh and smile, a lot. Hit in the ribs by a little old lady looking to get out of the bus? Laugh it off. Pushed out of a train car by the crowd surging out? Grin and walk it out. Shoved sideways and cut in front of by Japanese people waiting to get into a train? Just shake your head and let'em at it, obviously they have more urgency than me, and a heck of a lot less patience.

I'm rounding my learning curve now, and it's just... normal. My host family is still pretty much the same except that the same issues keep resurfacing, namely laundry and as a result the electricity bill. I'm pretty sure I have a huge part in upping their electricity bill, as I am the one in the house who a) blow dries her hair every night, b) uses her notebook computer like an addict, and c) uses the dryer for her clothes. Still, Otou-san via Okaa-san expresses much disappointment in my habits, but let's face it, if they haven't gotten used to me doing my laundry the way I do it now, they never will, period. Silly people.

You see, we've had all sorts of discussions in Japanese class, in place of actual learning of course, but the point is we've covered the concepts of "mottainai [wastefulness]" and "kougi suru gimu [duty to protest even minor wrongdoings]." I can understand how the electricity in a city like Tokyo is super expensive and all, but if the money my parents paid aren't going to support my lifestyle, than where is it headed towards? If it gets to be even more pickly from now on, I may have to change course and just start lugging my laundry around to do it elsewhere, ala super commercial duty coin laundries. I passed one once, by here, it was a 15 min walk away... ><"

Well, I suppose that's the end of my impression. Japanese people are just crazy. That, and they have a really high opinion of themselves and their habits, much more so than us "loud Americans." At least, we'll admit to being fat and loud. We just kind of smile, shrug, and go, "Yeah... that's us!"

With the Japanese, they seem to get super affronted at any non-positive criticism that's thrown at them. Like, if you throw a random general observation at them:

"You guys smell a bit wonky after a long, hot day. Don't Japanese use deoderant?"

They'll just stare at you like you've grown a second head and be like, "What the!?!? HOW RUDE~"

But, how does calling someone smelly and another fat not essentially equate? They're both mighty offensive. *shrug* Don't dish it if you can't take it. *nah nah nah*

OOOOOOOOOOH YEAH~

A lovely update on my brother's stay here in Japan. He's extended his trip so he'll be here from the 2nd of June all the way until the 16th, leaving me with 2 whole weeks of his lovely company. That also means 2 whole weeks were I'll again be struggling to balance family, clubs, and schoolwork. Let's hope I don't get sick this time! It'll be much easier if I don't. Truly.

I'm a bit sleepy now. And hungry. And tired... *grins*

*zippity offs to somewhere*

- T

弟が来る！！！！

2008-05-23T10:37:00.003-04:00

AHHHHHHHHHHHOY~

well maties, i feel like i have been slacking off like crazy in terms of keeping this lovely blog of mine updated for all you slackers/stalkers out there. i have, really. then again, life = school + family + club activities have finally come full circle, so i'm up to my neck in heaps of trouble [not really, but you get the gist, no?]

uhm yeah, my med school application is supposed to be ready by 6/4/08. i am anywhere near ready for this ball thrown from left field? NOPE! this lovely fire-ball of "ackkkkkkk" just hit me out of nowhere as i was randomly wasting time in the computer labs at Sophia one day. yeah. way way way LEFT FIELD. i think that's how you say it, baseball terms aren't really my forte.

on to the bestest news ever!

MY BROTHER IS COMING!!! FROM BEIJING!!! TO SEE ME PERFORM WITH G-SPLASH AT STUDIO COAST ON 6/7!!!

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS~

yeah. i'm just a whole bundle of joy now. i have 8 hours of practice tomorrow, so i need to be sleeping now.

i have a uber good goal now! to be super fantastic for my brother! and for all the other people who are actually paying to see us perform! YAY!

*runs, jumps, skips into bed*

night x2 all

- T

久しぶり：　ブリブリ大好き

2008-05-07T00:57:00.002-04:00

Hey all,

It's been a long long while it seems since I last dropped an inshyou (印象) on everybody. Golden Week is sadly over and time well spent with my family is over a week in the far, distant past. Life has gotten dramatically better for me, so why don't I start with that?

Well, since I've walked away from everybody, leaving people panting with bated breath... (no, really ><") We had this random holiday last Tuesday to celebrate the birthday of the dearly departed Emperor Showa. I had planned to go to Yokohoma with friends from DK and G-Splash, but laundry kept me at bay. After a day, stuck indoors all the while the sun was shining its pretty, godly face down upon the Earth, I resolved to leave the Matsumoto household. I was just so sad and miserable there that I couldn't understand or convince myself to stay. So, the day after break, I went to the Overseas Liasion Center and told Mr. Nakayama Ei all of my problems. He listened to me kindly and said that if I wanted to, I could move from the Matsumoto's to DK House. But, before doing so, it would require me to talk to them in a detailed, calm manner. After G-Splash practice Wednesday night, I went home and was kept waiting outside for 15 minutes as nobody was present and I don't hold a key ( and may never hold one).

To be quite honest, being kept outside the house resolved me to leaving. I thought it was unbelievably ridiculous that I had to be kept waiting outside of a home that I paid to reside in. When Okaa-san and Meimi came home, they greeted me and apologized. They had gone to the local Police box (kouban) because Meimi had a traffic accident the Saturday previously and didn't recollect the incident until forcefully brought to the Nurse's office earlier that day, whereupon she was suddenly flooded with details of the incident. Well, I didn't say much, just nodded my head and asked to take a shower in a quiet, mellow voice. I also asked to speak to Okaa-san in depth after my shower and dinner and she consented.

I just realized that I have this all written in a post I did on my notebook, but I'll leave it here and post what I wrote earlier later on. End result is this, I'm staying with the Matsumoto's. Life isn't grand there, but I can breath much more easily now and don't dread going home.

OOOOOKAY~

ONTO GOLDEN WEEK DETAILS:

Friday - Club Ageha
Saturday - Recovering from Ageha (literally)
Sunday - Harajuku's Meiji-Jingu, Ikebukuro's Namja Town, and Shinjuku Karaoke
Monday - Ochanomizu's Kanda Myojin (?), Music Area, Jinbocho's Used Book Stores, and Ikebukuro's Libro
Tuesday - Kamakura

Friday was... friday (?). It ended. I went to play at the manga cafe near my house for the better part of the day. That night, I went to Club Ageha, which was an experience. Overall, $35 to get in was a bit ridiculous, but it's something that every young person heading to Japan should try at least once to see whether or not they're comfortable with it. I feel like I need to do it one more time with a different group of people before I can definitely decide whether I hate it or not. The only thing that really mars my memory of the club is that I was pushed/tripped/fell down the stairs and have this series of massive bruises running down my left side to show for it. I seriously looked like a battered female at the moment. ^^" Also, I got my chest groped in a seriously out and out conspicuous manner. This guy walks past me, grabs my chest, gives my bra a good hefting, and then saunters on by as if it's the most natural thing to do. I glared at him the entire time and he just gives me the peace sign. Really. Japanese youth are rather... insane when intoxicated.

Saturday was my day of RR from the events of Ageha. Greg invited a bunch of us out for karaoke, but I had to turn him down as the thought of leaving the house at any point in time during Saturday was just beyond me. I made plans for a culture-packed day of fun with Hunter though.

Sunday was culture-driven craziness with Hunter. Unfortunately for him, he may have come upon the delayed realization that I really love to walk and walk everywhere. Sunday morning, I arrive at Shinjuku-eki 15 min before I'm due to meet Hunter at Harajuku, so I decide to run on over to the TMG building to pick up copies of the maps and coupons I gave away to my cousins a week earlier. It took me like 45 min to grab everything because I got lost twice and the building was locked all around except for one entrance that couldn't be really seen from the street level. I finally met up with Hunter, all sweaty and gross, but victorious with handfuls of maps and goody good coupons. We did Meiji-jingu. Wrote prayers. Went to the Treasure Museum. Walked lots. Then, we went to Oriental Bazaar because that's what Frommer's told me to do and Hunter picked up a number of presents for his friends back home. We were rather ravenous by then (me especially because he happened to describe the most amazing way to eat French bread that made my mouth water), so we head out to Ikebukuro for some GYOUZA DELICIOUSNESSITY. Gyouza Stadium in Namja Town within Ikebukuro's Sunshine City was a bit of a trial. Because of Golden Week, no matter where we went it was massively crowded. Namja Town was no exception. We ate. We went through some free attractions. By the time we left, it was too late to do Ueno, so we settled in to do some shopping around Ikebukuro. We bought clothes. He found a gift for his sister. At that time, Hunter got a message from Greg about some karaoke fun. Since I had yet to do karaoke in Japan, I said "Why not?" We met up with Greg in Shinjuku and after some crepe dessert, we settled in to finding a karaoke place. We found one. I did the talking because Greg was tired of doing the Japanese bargaining every time he went out, I do it every time I go out. Jen met up with us. We did karaoke. We drank nomihoudai. We sang horribly bad. Overall, fantastic day.

Monday I got off to a bit of a late start and just did some random solo tourist fun. I got hit on at a strand by a older Japanese man who went: "Oh wow, I thought you were Japanese." And then told me in English, "You, beautiful girl!" It was... different. *looks to the side* I was trying to find my texts for Modern Literature 2, but I couldn't. Because it was a holiday, most of the used bookstores were sadly closed. I could barely find them in Kinokuniya and I still have yet to locate the book, The Setting Sun by Dazai Osamu, that I have to have finished reading by tomorrow. Turns out that even the bookstore the school depends on is out of that book, so I'm just right out of luck. Monday was fun though. Only weird/bad point of the day is when I was looking at a map of Libro in Ikebukuro and coughed into my elbow behind this guy who was too looking at the map. This guy apparently thought I coughed on him because he went right behind me and coughed on me. No joke. Japanese people can be so weird sometimes.

Tuesday was amazing. I did Kamakura. I'm actually quite tired of temples so not much of it was fantastic. The best point of the day was that I walked, lots. I love walking. It was sunny, bright, and beautiful. I wore a tank top and halter dress with knee-highs (to cover up my many bruises). I have tons of pictures from yesterday, but I'm typing this here at Sophia, so I can't really do much a la picture posting. Best of all, when I got home, I arrive to find Okaa-san had made tempura for dinner! SCORE! I had "Chinese" food in Kamakura, which is ridiculous if you think about it. The lady didn't even speak Chinese, but my Cha-siu wonton ramen was good in a Chinese-y Japan-ified way.

Today is sunny and gorgeous too. But, I'm here. On campus. Trying to figure out when G-Splash practice is. I have a sakubun do tomorrow that I'm not too interested in doing and a test to study for. School is just... a hassle(?). None of the work is really challenging. Again, I think I covered this in my other post that's on my notebook, so I'll post that to cover this part of my entry.

Oh yeah, it's been a little bit late but:

AFTER ONE MONTH - Impression of Japan

Japanese people are evaders. If they can find a way to avoid conflict, they will. They are passive aggressive to the nth degree and if you don't realize that soon, be prepared to be frustrated out of your mind. They have a truly astounding sense of beauty, but it has been my finding that most of Japan is manufactured to be "beautiful." If even it's "natural" beauty is not by the hand of Mother Nature, then can it really be considered "natural"? *shrug* It'll probably take me a little while longer to figure out exactly how I feel about Japan, but for now, I'm just rather grateful to be American. Americans may be considered rude, stupid, and brash, but at least we as a people are willing to try and are overall more straight forward than not. I am Chinese-American, but I'm much more American than my Chinese heritage makes me Chinese. Life in Japan is like life anywhere else in the world. The laws are generally the same, don't litter and don't kill strangers. The lifestyles are different as are the beliefs, but for every difference there is, there's a common ground that allows us to sympathize with lives that are carried out in a manner wholly different from one's own society.

There. That's my opinion of life in Japan. After a month. It'll likely change loads as time moves on. But, for now. This is where it's at.

Time for homework now.

*crack snap whip*

pc
- T

ゴカイが多い

2008-04-28T00:16:00.002-04:00

As a result of countless, numerous misunderstandings and misrepresentations, I have finally come to the conclusion that life isn't as horrid as it was once before. I have decided to strike out a new path of just not giving a damn whenever I must bow my head or apologize for something that I have no clue whatsoever about.

*shrug*

Life with the Matsumoto's isn't mind numbingly terrible but it was a far cry from both of our expectations. The problem that we faced was that we both came to the negotiation table with our hands empty but our minds filled with preconceived notions of what the other would do. As for me, I had expected at the very least internet and the freedom to do laundry as I pleased, however I pleased. Well, boo hoo for me, I'll cope. Okaa-san shares the same love of doing laundry with me and as far as trying to evoke her time, I won't. She really needs the break that doing it gives her and I think as much as she hates the title of "shufu" and the negative connotations it brings up, she's proud of her work and would like to do it as she pleases. Internet is and will likely forever be an issue as they hadn't encountered one who is as addicted to the "now" as me before. To them, the Internet is a luxury that they don't quite partake of because they don't really have a true use for it.

It turns out that every time I trying to be polite, I ended up rude. For every snide comment I did make, I hit my target. But, if you're going to call me names, just expect the same treatment in return. I am human, and although laden with faults, I feel that one of my strong points is that if you step on me long enough, I will bite back. I'm like a puppy. Kick me too long and I'll snap yapping and yipping like crazy.

For every suggestion to a problem that I thought we had, Okaa-san shot down, so the ball's in her court. She wants me to look forward to coming home everyday, which will either develop or not, and I want to be free in my own space. There will likely be more problems developing forthwith, but with my new laissez-faire attitude, I should coast on by without too many bumps.

I need to run to class now.

*trippity hoppity drops*

- T

P.S. I made it into G-Splash! Although I have no idea what that actually means...

無視されている：＾＾”

2008-04-19T21:35:00.001-04:00

Howdy doo folks,

Today is the beginning of the finely exhausting journey of balancing time between classes, family, and clubs. Today is also the day that I’m being ignored by my host mom and sister, and that I will explain later on in this post. So, let us backtrack to where I last abandoned all of you dedicated readers, of which there are only a mere handful.

Well, after G-Splash practice on Friday, I was right exhausted and willing to pass out on my feet. I got home, ate dinner, took a shower, did my after-shower routine, and then brought my compie downstairs to reach the wireless signal there. As tired as I was, I stayed up way later than usual to just enjoy the fact that I had full access to the world again. I told Okaa-san that I would out tomorrow from 2.30-5.00 for Arukoukai. She nodded.

The following morning, following a deliciously simple breakfast that I cannot recall, I hopped on into my room and cleaned for like 1.5 hours. I vacuumed, organized my trash, tidied my closet, and changed my sheets. I also dropped a load of colors into the laundry the very second that I could. Afterwards, I head back downstairs with my compie in tow and played around with the network until noon. My Okaa-san just kind of looked at me as 11.30am rolled around and was like, “Why aren’t you gone yet? Won’t you be late?” I told her it’s from 2.30 to 5.00, so she just nodded again.

I got this text from Jeannette about last night. We were to meet up with Mami, from G-Splash who does House, and her friend, Nanae in Shinjuku at 7/7.30. I figured that if my Arukoukai thing ended at 5.30 and it takes about 1 hour each way to get home and back, I may as well stay on campus with them and kill some time until we met up at an izakaya. I got dressed, as best as I could knowing that I was dressing at like 1.30 and would have to look good from 2.30 until whatever time I got home. I told Okaa-san I was staying out late tonight with friends. She asked about dinner, and I responded that I would probably not need it. She nodded.

Arukoukai was fun. It was lots of games and just overall chilling. They, too, had another nomikai, but in favor of my friends, I politely declined. After Arukoukai, I went out in search of Jeannette and Hunter who were both supposed to be at Sophia for Shyuurenji Kenpo. I could find neither, so I decided to take a walk to Shinjuku to waste some time before the evening began. I ended meeting up with Jeannette later and we ate some yakitori that REALLY WASN’T YAKITORI but more like YAKI-liver,intestine,something(?). We eventually met up with Mami and Nanae and Hunter after a long delay.

Right when we met up, I got a message from Okaa-san, and have translated below:

Subj: About Dinner
I have prepared Teresa’s dinner. I’m sorry, but please eat dinner around 9.00pm. Because I have tried my very best to make this meal, as time passes, the flavor and texture of the meal will decline. Please come home early/soon.

In Japanese:

夕食について
テレサの夕食を用意してあります。すみませんが夕食は９時頃迄に食べてください。一生懸命に、お料理していますので時間が経つと味も食感も落ちます。早く帰ってくださいね。

My response:

I’m sorry, but I just met up with my friends. Because I thought I said to you that I would be out late tonight, I told you that I would not need dinner. I’m sorry about tonight’s dinner, but I will be unable to eat it. I’m sorry for being a bother.

In Japanese:

すみませんが友達に会ったばかりです。お母さんに今晩遅く帰ると言ったと思いますので夕食はいらないと言ったんです。今晩の夕食はごめんなさいが食べられません。ご迷惑かけてごめんなさい。

Following that lovely little exchange, we headed to a new izakaya with our new friends and as the night progressed, I checked with them to see whether I was just crazy or my Okaa-san really is that much of a loon. Turns out, she is. They were both quite shocked at what I was telling them and then asked me, “What’s wrong with her?” In order to avoid any conflict following my arrival home, I was determined to get as teetotaled as possible. I failed, miserably, but still had a happy glow about my face that would protect me from most questions/accusations.

I spent most of the night laughing and chilling with our new friends and it was great that they were so nice and just laid back. There was no false fronts and backwards smiles. Very very refreshing. I heard Hunter do his tranny voice, which is as ridiculous as it sounds and caused Nanae to flip out with laughter for more than a minute. The most funny thing I could recall was how as we, the DK 2 and I, were separating, Jeannette’s Japanese had gone just a bit south as a result of our excursion and as she said じゃね！[see ya later!] it sounded like “JOHNNY!” I laughed, reminded of my own little brother, and we parted by throwing some “Johnny’s” at each other.

Well, I got home. The entire house was dark. It was like 12.05ish. Otou-san opened the door for me. Okaa-san was nowhere to be seen. I did my night routine of shower, teeth, and hair, and passed out, kind of. I think the Tylenol Jeannette gave me may have had some caffeine in it, so I couldn’t sleep at all until I took a magical pill bearing the white letters of Unisom. I was also as sick as a dog last night. My throat burned. My nose was so stuffed I couldn’t breathe. It was, to sum it up, a wretched night.

I woke up this morning feeling fan-freakin’-tastic compared to what I went through last night. When I just went down to eat breakfast, I said good morning to all family members and Otou-san was the only one that acknowledged my existence. Even when I said Itadakimasu, with Okaa-san in the room, I was ignored. Heck, by the time I began tucking into my meal, all females had bolted from the same room as me and I finished my breakfast in peace. *shrugs*
I’m definitely not about to broach that topic. I think I’ve learned my lesson now. I’ll just give everything to her in writing from now on so that there’s no way for her to misunderstand me. She was the one who brought up the fact that she should return $70 to me for the meals I will miss for the next week. She hasn’t mentioned it since and actually shows no intention of giving anything back to me. I had told her I didn’t really care about whether or not she paid me back as I hadn’t entered this homestay with the intent of reclaiming the meals I paid for. However, if she was the one who found fault with both my actions and reasoning, would it not make sense for her to pay me back as quick as possible to salve her own desire to be morally right?

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH~ well…

*grins*

I have like 1.5 hours to do a week’s worth of hw. WISH ME LUCK!!

*breaks out her red hot and SPICILY new denshi JISHO*

- T

こうざゲット

2008-04-18T02:43:00.002-04:00

*pops and locks her way onto center stage*

Hello ladies and gentles,

Today, I GOT A BANK ACCOUNT WITH MIZUHO!!! YESSS~

The first time I went, I was missing a hanko, the second time, I was missing my Gaijin Card, and now that I had both and half of a day free, I decided to hike it through the nasty, windy, misty rain to see how I would fare. I also needed to exchange some moola to enjoy myself with as my cousins and I bizounce around Tokyo for a week between classes, tests, readings, homework, and dance practice. *huffs*

Uhm, yeah, the exchange rate? Saddening. Definitely. 99.59/dollar. gross, no? *shiver mee'z timbers*

I was feeling quite perky after succeeding at my little venture and blew 1050yen on 3 very cute towels for my personal use at home. I figure the more towels I have, the less I will have to reuse the ones I have, leaving them to develop less of a pungent odor by the time the weekend rolls on by.

Oh, let's continue with the Matsumoto drama, now shall we?

- I told my Okaa-san last night that I would be eating out with my family that's visiting from America from Sunday until the following Saturday. They're here for a week and while I may not be able to break fast with them in the morning, I sure can in the evenings at my own leisure. Well, her response to me was at first and very entranced/confused blank look. And then she asked me if I had read through the Homestay/Study Abroad Student Rule Packet thoroughly. I said, sure, just tell the family 3 days in advance or so right, to which she responded that I should give my packet a closer gander before approaching her again. Well, then she broke right into the problem she had with me eating out for a week, which was the money she would have to return to me as I would not be eating with the family for more than 3 consecutive days (or meals, I forget) and informed her beforehand of the fact. I've already skipped 2 meals previously, choosing instead to grab my own grub (McDonald's and the take out from Wakana) and she had nothing to say then. Technically, she would have to refund me 7,000 yen, 1,000yen/dinner.
She looked very put out by that fact. But, when I told her that I didn't really give a care (別にかまわないよ）, she just looked at me again, froze as if confused, and then announced, "Oh! It must be because you're rich." She then proceeded to throw in some spicy supports like, "But, Teresa, it isn't your money, so you shouldn't be so free with it!" I told her that my parents had paid that money in order for me to experience life abroad with a family completely unlike my own. She was like, "But, it's such a waste of your parents' money!" I was like, "Uh, I'm not rich. My parents both work really hard, and they have done so their entire lives in order for me to be happy and grow into a decent person (which I have)."
Okaa-san just wouldn't let go of the opinion that I must be very wasteful with my parents' money because I didn't care if she didn't give it back to me. I even added that because I use the hair dryer every night and do a bunch of other things, that it all adds up in the end. She just gave my a brows down look of deep disappointment and was like, "But, your parents already paid for that. It's a part of the fee they paid." Yeah, I know! The meals are also a part of the fee they paid, but if I'm not eating and am instead in want of doing 2 loads of laundry a week, wouldn't it make more sense to just keep the money and then let me do my laundry in exchange?
Well, after that, the conversation dissolved into a segue that had absolutely nothing to do with me not eating dinner at home for a week and her having to (being expected to by those at the Study Abroad Office here at Sophia) return the money to me for not eating. She started saying how bright I was and how much she was studying/learning from just living me me, essentially using me to see how life on the flipside might be. Like, when she warm water washed instead of cold water and was so shocked by how much more clean her clothes turned out. She just kept complimenting me over and over again. It was, by the end of 15 minutes of conversation, a waste of time.
I brought the topic up again this morning, after having re-read the packet thoroughly the night before and told her that "I would not be needing dinner from THIS SUNDAY to NEXT SATURDAY." She just looked at me and said, " I wish you would say it more clearly." *sighs* *laughs* I don't get it, either she really doesn't understand what I'm saying half the time, or she's just pretending not to in order to get me to back off.
I've realized that every time I broach a topic that makes her the least bit uncomfortable, she jumps into a monologue about how busy she is everyday, how hard she has it with Meimi who won't do everything she says, and how I'm such a "bright" (明るい) person. My mother has worked 13 hour/days for most of her life. She struggled in a country where she knew nothing of the language, the culture, or the rules of the world she moved into. Whenever I look at how hard my mother had it and compare it to what Okaa-san does everyday, there is no comparison. I honestly don't see how her life could be so hard. Yes, housework takes up a lot of time, and a housewife in Japan is expected to buy groceries everyday. But, if my mom could do it with 3 kids at home, most of whom that went through "rebellious" periods so extreme that even Meimi could never fathom it, what the hell does she do all day? Her busiest hours are in the morning and evening. She has all afternoon and then some to catch up on sleep if necessary and do housework, most of which is automated in terms of the dishwasher and laundry machine. The bath, I think, takes up the most time to clean. Other than that, I know that she doesn't clean house everyday, so seriously woman, where does your time go?

- Okaa-san does laundry EVERY SINGLE DAY. There is no way on Earth that her daily loads are bigger than my weekly ones, and yet she wants me to save up my dirty, smelly, sweat-soaked clothes for days at a time until the load is satisfactorily large. Honey, you have a 3-person family who all wear single layers, as in one shirt, one pants, one pair of socks, etc. I do LAYERS, so each outfit I wear and sweat in is actual MULTIPLES of what your family wears. Kettle? Meet the POT.

That's it with my incredibly amusing/frustrating account of life with the Matsumoto's. I've been ranting and raving to anybody who would listen to me this past week, SORRY DK AND MIA!!! But, the good thing is that I'm not alone in my crazy opinion. This family does have some issues and who knows... maybe I'll become so numb to it that I won't let it bother me anymore. If not, apparently DK is always open.

I don't know why, but it's a trait of the Japanese that they never tell you anything directly. This leads to major problems with people who are like me, those who are accustomed to being direct and forthright with what they want, what they will do, and what they really think. Whenever the slightest blip of discomfort arises, a random digression is inserted in the conversation to divert the speaker from their original intent and try to cause a long case of LET'S FORGET IT, SHALL WE?

Bah! Maybe it's an American thing, I don't know.

This weekend was looking to be majorly packed with fun and distraction, but due to Jeanette's failing well-being and my extreme case of exhaustion, I am skipping Amity's Nomikai tonight in order to make all of G-Splash dance practice. Tomorrow is Arukoukai's Welcome Party from 2.30-5.30. Sunday is Danny and Rosanna time! But, most of my morning is free, allowing me to do most of my homework in advance and get my laundry all washed up for the following week.

OOOOOOOKAY~ I'll leave it here.

*floppity flops*

- T

雨が嫌い

2008-04-17T03:54:00.002-04:00

HELLLLLLO~

I hate rain. It's true. It's also quite unfortunate that we'll be having a full month of the stuff, by which time I will have to had acquired a relatively amazing set of rain boots to survive the horror that is TSUYU - rain season .

Today was pretty decent. Lots of running around for classes, trying to grab a meal before class starts while jostling with loads of other college students striving for the same thing.

I went to try to get some money exchanged today after my 3.00 class and unfortunately realized rather belatedly that all banks in Japan close by 3pm. They also open at 9am, which makes the 1 hour I have between classes to be the only time I can ever go to get shiz done.

Cousins are coming Sunday. This weekend was supposed to be chock full of fun, but it is gradually clearing up as Jeannette has fallen ill and my club activities are coming into their full power.

I need to jump on over to G-Splash soon.

Oh yeah, new page in the saga of my life with the Matsumoto's:

- I can only do laundry once a week. This may seem realistic to many of you, but if you remember how bad I freaked about my laundry from previous posts, it's now my goal to be safe rather than sorry. I am essentially busy up the wazoo for the next week and a half, so I asked my Okaa-san to do me the favor of washing my laundry for me, to which she promptly refused. "Be more of an adult." and "I'm too busy." were her replies. She's a shufu who stays home all day and the most time consuming thing she did yesterday was getting her hair cut. Seriously. *shrug* If worse comes to worse, I'll just find a coin laundry nearby and get my clothes washed there.

- Otou-san put a chain around the cabinet in the main living room. This chain was not there when I first moved in. When I finally noticed this chain and asked Okaa-san about it, she looked away. I followed with, "Oh! Is it for when robbers come in?" to which she replied with a silence weighed with very sound implications.

That's it. It's 5 now. Need to bizounce.

*hip hops her way on oooooout*

- T

あの．．．怒ってる？

2008-04-15T00:57:00.002-04:00

4.13.08

今日はヒマ

Hmm… so I am at the end of my day and the beginning of a new page in this lovely offline blog of mine. I tried to hop on the computer at the Matsumoto’s today and was unfortunately shot down. Oh well, that’s what computers at Sophia are meant for I suppose, although it will very well be the day after next before I am finally able to post any of this onto the net. Fortune just does not seem to favor me, not at all.

Tomorrow will be classes all day long, well until late 4ish. After is G-Splash dance practice with the DK crew. Oh yeah! I totally forgot to mention this earlier, but remember how I was earlier amazed at running into Dan and Jen in the middle of nowhere, out of Harajuku and towards Shinjuku? I was trying to catch the Saikyo line to Ikebukuro yesterday night, and guess who calls out to me from the middle of a train!? JEANNETTE AND HUNTER!!! Yeah, weird… the city is either shrinking or we/I have ridiculously good luck with kismet and all that.

But, back to G-Splash, the awesomest of awesome hip hop dance troupes at Sophia. They have practice from 5-7pm, and it might be every day for the entire semester. If not, then it is for these first 2 weeks. Jeannette and Hunter urged me to try it, so I say c’est la vie, why not? It’s not as if I’m in a terrible rush to get home.

Today, I finished all my laundry and then some. For some reason or another, maybe because of the massive load of laundry I jammed into it, the washing/drying machine can’t do both of it functions when it has too much in it, surprise x2. I did all my Japanese homework though and prepped for tomorrow. I even ran it by Meimi to make sure that there were no ridiculously bad mistakes present.

I remember when I used to try and mix Japanese up to say new things with new forms. I am now finally consenting to the fact that there’s a reason why there are example sentences of every grammar structure. My ability to make stuff up is severely limited by what actual Japanese people would say. Japanese just gets harder and harder as the nuances of language come greater into play.

Tonight’s dinner was curry and this afternoon’s lunch was a piece of mochi cake x2 dipped in soy sauce and wrapped in seaweed. Both were surprisingly simple and yummy. I think Okaa-san has been stretching herself for me for a while now and I’m quite happy to see her step back and do something easier. She still jumps on me sometimes, but I’d take criticism over silence any day.

There’s this fat burning machine aka body rumbler aka the shakey shakey SHAKE machine, where one stands and apparently has the fat jostled out of him/her, in the house and I’m a bit in want of trying it some more. The first time I used it, I was really surprised. I’ll probably ask to use it from now on. It’s only 6.45pm but I am right exhausted. Laundry will take another 35 minutes to dry I’m afraid.

Even though I have like hundreds and hundreds of books in this computer, I find myself in want of more. All I read is Kresley Cole, and as amazing as she is, I need other works for sustenance.
Today was a day of small victories. I got my calendar hung, I did my homework, I sorted all the e-mails/texts I received on my cell phone into easy categories, and I actually got my laundry done. I’m starting to lean towards making Sunday and Wednesday laundry days just so it doesn’t pile up as much as it had up until today. It’s been nearly 2 weeks and that’s been nearly 2 weeks without internet and an ever growing pile of dirty laundry, that’s now quite deflated.

Well, that’s that. Tomorrow is a new day and my mellowness continues. Living abroad really isn’t as stressful as I thought it’d be. I’m actually kind of disappointed in how simple the transition has been. Kind of.

*tumbles out*

- T

4.14.08

もう少しだけでももうがまん出来ないよ

Hmmm... On top of a shitastically busy day, I just took the worst shower of my life, was made a fool of twice in the span of minutes, am long overdue for my beddy bye time, and am exhausted beyond belief. I’m so tired of this BS that I’ll just put it out there. I have Finger Eleven as my pacifier right now, so they’re helping me burn through the worst of my wariness/weariness.
The Matsumoto’s are an interesting bunch. The Dad ignores my very existence and doesn’t try to do anything to make me feel any more comfortable in their home. The Mom does everything she can to keep me out as much as humanly possible. Meimi is the only chill one and that’s because she gets even more hassled than I do. I do everything that I can to make my presence here as little of a bother as humanly possible, and instead of being treated with the decency that any other person deserves, I get treated worst than their damn dog. At least Alice always gets her clothes cleaned on time, sits around all day just chillaxing, and eats with the family and all/can eat without getting made fun of. The wireless internet finally came into play today, but it’s dropping out every other second so it’s practically useless. I’m about to become a fixture at their damn dining room table until the internet works itself out.

But, let’s begin this rant with exactly why living with the Matsumoto’s has been a special kind of hell for me lately:

1) The internet, they promised me it the first night I got here, and it took them until now to get it down and it doesn’t even work all that well. I’m about to connect the damn LAN wire I bought at Sophia to see if I do any better.

2) Last night, Meimi had her piano recital, so her and Okaa-san went out for it. That morning she had told me that I’d be home alone, and I wanted that because I love being here without one of them constantly present, essentially keeping me a prisoner in my own room unless I want to be harassed with a bombardment of Japanese and made to feel a fool by their constant use of electronic dictionaries. Well, right before they left, they just announced to be that Otou-san would be home the same time I was. So, I never got to be home alone. I never do. I wouldn’t steal anything even if I had that urge. Okaa-san makes it ridiculously painfully obvious that she wants me out of the house as much as possible, and when I am out late, I get punished with her wary vigil. She’s like a hawk.

3) Back to last night, Otou-san finally gets home. Apparently, he was waiting for my pants to dry before using the bath, so I took them out at like 7.30ish. I wanted to use the shower early because I sleep at 9.30pm every night. There’s no TV, no internet, no distractions to keep me up late. Hah… and people wonder why I love going out to drink with friends, now there’s a fun distraction. Well, he hops in at like 8ish and I’m waiting and waiting and waiting for him to finish. I couldn’t really hear what he was doing downstairs, so I just figured he really likes to take long baths like Meimi. Uh no. I went down at like 9.17pm, which is so close to my beddy bye time that I was about to pass out, and he was just lying down on the couch chilling. I ask him if it’s okay to shower now, and he just looks at me and goes, “Oh, you didn’t go in yet?” Uhmmm… no, I didn’t, that’s why I’m asking if it’s okay now. Honestly, would it have killed the man to just give me a little shout and be like, “Shower’s free!” I had asked him earlier if I could shower and he told me to wait while he bathed and I did. I waited so late that I was right exhausted. WTF…

4) Well, I got home at like late 9ish tonight and Okaa-san greeted me/let me into the house because giving me a set to come and go as I please is beyond their comprehension. Mia has a set and I doubt she realizes how much I have come to envy her freedom. Okay, well I proceeded to heat the food in the microwave and instead of telling me how to microwave it properly, she just sits there as I do as she has told me. When it doesn’t finish in time, she runs over, gives me a condescending frown, and tells me “yame nasai” which is the equivalent of saying “stop that!” to a child or pet. Apparently, I’m only supposed to microwave one item at once. She never told me. How was I supposed to know? She’s done this a couple times. Correcting me only after I do something wrong, not even trying to teach me beforehand. I feel like I’m playing a really complicated game with only a half deck of cards. I have no way of knowing whether I’m doing anything right or wrong, no way at all, and they won’t tell me until I offend them. It’s either offend away or ask before doing ANYTHING. Use the restroom. Take a shower. Pour a glass of water. Watch television. Use the laundry machine. Be home.

5) I’m still on the blarghness that was tonight. She called me fat. To my face. Told me to lose weight too. I’d been wondering why on earth she was so dead set on mentioning to me every time I did some form of exercise how I must be getting skinnier and all that. She was like, “I was surprised at how different you look from your picture! You got fat!” Uhmmm… thanks? That picture was a damn head shot, you’ve never seen a full body shot of me before. How on earth would you know? Better yet, why the freak do you care?

6) Uhm, remember how I said that they all wait until I do something wrong before telling me how to do it right? I took the first cold shower of my life because not one of them could be bothered to tell me how to turn on the hot water. That, and the hot water takes 40minutes to prep, so somewhere between me eating dinner and getting into the damn house, Okaa-san should’ve realized that I might not take a normal shower as the rest of the family had bathed and thus turned off the hot water already. She even rushed me off to shower. Really? Did it not occur to you even once that I might want hot water and you have NEVER TAUGHT ME HOW?

7) She blames me for her cold. I say the fact is that almost every Japanese train you’ll ever ride is covered in germs and that has no bearing on me. I catch a cold in the morning because my room is damn cold and there’s nothing that can be done about it, or so I believe, again, they haven’t TAUGHT ME ANYTHING. I get better by the afternoon, after I’ve left the house. She’s the housewife, why doesn’t she figure out why she got sick in her own home? Lord knows I do, every single morning I’ve been here. She kicks me out the house as early as she can and then does I don’t know what for the rest of the day. I understand that being a housewife can be difficult, but to my knowledge, she does NOTHING else but stay at home and shop for the home. She has Alice, the dog, to take care of during the day and that’s it. She gets exhausted from running out for groceries. Seriously? What is that? No, really.

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH~

Today I had classes all day, meaning from 9.15 in the morning until 4.45 this afternoon with a 1 hour break for lunch and 15min between periods, of which I had 4. From 5-8 I had G-Splash dance practice which was amazing, but utterly exhausting. By the time I’d gotten home, I was so fatigued and tired of not having internet that I couldn’t take it anymore and was nearly in tears.
I’ll just leave it here for now. I still have to do my Japanese homework, which I didn’t know I had to print out until Jen kindly reminded me.

*angry… grrr… barrrk…*

- T

THE LONG AWAITED MASSIVE POST

2008-04-14T03:48:00.003-04:00

Okay, this one doesn't have any pictures because I am in a bit of a rush, G-Splash practice and all. I will post below all that I have written since moving into my homestay and suffering for ages upon ages without internet. TAKE IT~

-----
4.1.08

I’m here! AND, I’m in one piece!!! YES!!! Let’s see, today began with me waking up in a groggy mess thanks to two lovely blue pills bearing the name of UNISOM. Yes. Oh well, it was thanks to those two lovely pills that I had my first dream since coming to Japan. It was this crazy, anime-like adventure that ended with the death/semi-birth of an entity born of evil but not destined to it. All his siblings were killed in vivo, and he alone survived. It was weird, I know.

Today consisted of me checking out of the fabulous Ace Inn Shinjuku and walking over to Yotsuya with my damn heavy toiletries bag (bad idea, really). My arms practically fell off because I was lugging about 20lbs per arm and hiking 0.5 mile with it. Sick. Oh well, I made it into Sophia University all right, but I came to early so I was sent off again to kill 4 hours on my own. It wasn’t so bad. Lots of walking. Everywhere I went I saw first years entering college, from Sophia to Waseda. I walked up and down Kagurazaka-dori and got stuck in a dead end near Ushigome eki.

When I headed back to Sophia at 3pm, I met up with my student advisor/1st Japanese friend, Katou Tomoe. She’s really nice and lived in New Jersey back in her early teens. Her major is Portugese and we share tons of the same interests. *high five*

My host family’s house is amazing. Like, no, seriously, amazing. I think because I stayed with the Nishikawa’s back in 2005 or so, I thought all Japanese homes would be the same, but BOY, I was soooo mistaken. My family, Ma, Pop, and Sister are all super nice and really easygoing. Meimi is in high school now so I will probably see her little to NONE. I think my Ma is a homestay shufu. She doesn’t appear to work. I know for sure the Pop works. Let’s see… I have my own humungo room to myself and I have free run of the house, well, except for the parents’ room and Meimi’s.

The only problem I have now is internet. See, all this has been typed up on Word beforehand and then copy+pasted back into the lovely blogness that is “lui luau.” Also, I have this like 1in long .5in wide blister on the back right hand side of my right foot and it just flippin’ hurts.
Tomorrow is orientation at Sophia University and I am positively ecstatic to see Mia Mia and Netto-chan once more. I can’t wait to see who else will be at Sophia this semester. It really is a super short period of time to be here and study, 4 months. Now that I’ve finally moved all my junk in and am getting a good peek at what life in Tokyo is like, I gotta say, I like it. There’s always somewhere to stroll, somewhere to get wonderfully lost in. I doubt that this city will every lose that charm it has for me. Even if it empties my pockets of all monies, I will still love its winding roads and hilly paths.

I’ll stop here for now. *bounce*

Okay, now, I’m back. Literally, not even 10 minutes later, I have returned to the glorious warmth of my lovely notebook computer. My room is damn freakin’ cold and the only thing that holds my interest is the electronic blanket that gently lies over my bed. I am eternally grateful to my Ma for showing me how to work it.

Apparently, she’s going to check out Biccamera for me and try to set up a wireless internet network at home. This way, I can use my own computer and avoid the family computer. That, and Pop kind of doesn’t want me using theirs because “he has stuff that ‘s puraibetto (private) on it.” *shrugs* I love my rockin’ Karuna over theirs anyways.

Kk, off to sit atop my bed and charge up my batteries, both lappie tops and mine.

4.2.08

It is uhm, hella cold. Yes. Really. That, and my allergies are finally acting up. Ugh. 8am right now, but the entire family wakes up around 4am or so, which is ridiculous but true.

4.3.08

Ahh, one whole entire day later and what has changed? EVERYTHING! Orientation was yesterday and it was incredibly boring but very much insightful. I met Atsuyo, my student advisor, and ran into Tomoe but didn’t have the chance to chat, until today that is.

Yesterday was boooring, lots of walking and getting lost around Nerima, wandering into Nakano, and getting lost and lost again. I walked around a bit for like a hour and a half because my mom seemed to want me out of the house, and then I hopped on a train and rode on into Tokyo. I had tanuki soba with Sehyun, as he is my partner in crime in terms of shared advisor, and the meal really didn’t sit well in my tummy. I ended up going home and passing on dinner because of it, even though dinner was this amazingly delicious looking cabbage roll.

I’ve pretty much become accustomed to life in the Matsumoto household. Everybody really does just do their own thing and leave me to do my own. For my birthday, we are going out for sushi on Sunday although I turn 21 in 3 hours aka FRIDAY. Meimi has juku Saturday and Otou-san works late on Fridays, so Sunday is when the entire family gets together to eat one meal together. Okaa-san has already bought me my own hand towel for the dinner table and a bath rug to use when I go in and out of the shower. She’s super nice and called me part of the family. ^_^ I ess L-U-C-K-Y. When I told her about my plans to go out with friends tomorrow night and stay out the whole night and then go to Tsukiji in the morning, she just smiled at me and encouraged me to enjoy myself. She also told me that I was an adult and free to do as I wished as long as it wasn’t anything too dangerous/sketchy.

I can’t wait for tomorrow! We’re meeting up at Shinjuku Station’s New Southeast exit at 5pm and grabbing some dinner, some crepes, and then partying it up at Izakaya in Kabuki-cho. Because we do seriously plan to stay out past when the last trains run, we’re going to either live it up at Denny’s, McDonald’s, or a manga café with internet. And then, once morning hits and the trains begin to run, off to Tsukiji we go! Whee~

But, that’s for tomorrow, now, for today. Today was the placement test at Sophia University for Japanese language. The first part was ridiculously easy, THANKS SENSEI-TACHI @ UVA, but then the rest of it was a bit ridiculous. Then again, thanks to Kawai-sensei, I at least knew enough to piece together enough Japanese language to make some sense of it all. After the test, we grabbed food in Building No. 2’s 5th floor cafeteria so that we could eat on the outdoor terrace. It was majorly gorgeous outside today and I really loved it. Today was Kitsune Udon, a bit of fried tofu floating on a bed of udon noodles in what was essentially instant soup base. Yummers. After lunch, our group split in half and then half again as Mia and Sehyun went off campus for food and Miranda and Julie went off campus to sightsee on their own. BUT! Today we got our Suica passes!!! YAY!!! It’s not cheaper at all, but it is majorly convenient to have. Now, we don’t have to get kippu (tickets) everytime we want to ride a train. We just slide our Suica and zoom off! Like, whoooosh~ All of our passes, all 6 or 7 of them were done by the same Station Attendant person and he was totally awesome about it. It set me back $180 but I need it so I can’t complain too bad.

After the Suica pass, Jen left our group to chill on campus and we took a turn around the city by hitting up one of the parks I’ve been to on my lovely way to Ginza. By the time it 4:30pm, we were all back on campus and headed to the party. We got majorly lost x2 along the way and eventually made it down there where I met a bunch more nice Japanese girls. There are seriously no Japanese guys in sight and that makes me a bit non-glad, but hey, the world is big ole place, I’m sure I’ll make at least 1 or 2 Japanese guy friends. Today was Akiko, Kaori, Ai, and Atsuka. I ran into Tomoe again today too! Oh, and my cellphone kept buzzing non-stop as people got their cellphones or just texted me/called me to get in touch. It felt majorly cool to be so connected to the world and be buzzing off every other minute or so.

I got home late today and had expected to eat out with friends, but that kind of fell through so I grabbed Mickey D’s on the way back (580 yen… that’s like $6). When I got home, Okaa-san had beef stew made and could’ve fed me as well, but I had gotten my Mickey’s so I grubbed on that instead. Stew will be for lunch tomorrow, before I vamoose off to a night of spectacular fun.
I have nothing much to do tomorrow except look around my station and see what’s available/fun to do. I sort of saw this manga café type place, but yeah, I don’t know if I’ll go to it or not. There is a 100yen store around me, but it doesn’t have anything I really want. I’ll take a closer look tomorrow though and decide then. I do want a couple dehumidifiers to remove this wet feeling from my room. I have towels hanging up and all and they’re not drying right.
Oh yeah, allergies are a right bitch in Japan. Everybody runs around in masks to avoid the superfluous amount of pollen present in the air. Everybody in my family has allergies, so they all run in and out of the house in face masks. Even I got one today, and it was super Japanese of me to rock it. Okay, I’ll end it here for now as I really don’t have anything else much to divulge.

Peace until I can finally post this.

4.4.08

Happy Birthday to all the 21-yo’s out there! I am joining your ranks and stepping into the mantle of total LEGAL-NESS. Before I came here, I was a bit remiss about crossing my 21 in a foreign country, but now? Hey! It’s Japan! Whaaaaaevvvvvvvver~ *winks*

I don’t really have much planned for today. All I know is that I still can’t figure out what I’m allergic to, but I’m seriously beginning to think it’s people. *solemnly nods* Breakfast was the standard salad, bread, ½ apple, homemade apple juice, tea (now a standard as of yesterday), and whatever cooked yumminess Okaa-san makes. I feel like I’m eating better in than in America and I sure as heck work out a lot more from the sheer fact that I have to walk everywhere and I don’t drive, I mosey. Oh yeah, I feel like Hunter and Greg are trying to bring “mosey” back, so I’ll be rockin’ it as much as possible. ^^

My room sort of looks like a tornado hit it, so I better do a little clean up.

*dances and wiggles off*

4.5.08

Uhm yeah, yesterday was insane in terms of the amount of money we accidentally blew (technically not me since I got birthday girl privilege of not having to pay for most of the night), the amount of walking around/getting lost that we did, the random number of sketchy guys we met (labeled 1-4 I believe), the chaos caused by the innumerable number of fellas coming up to me to offer “good deals,” and the extended period of non-sleep we all endured to make it to Tsukiji this morning and look at crazy big tuna.

Yesterday began with a series of delays caused by cell phone getting of the entire DK House crew, except for Hunter ‘cuz the boy is rockin’ like that. *sideways glance* haha. We all did eventually meet up and find our way into a restaurant that was willing to seat 11 people, even though our group was split. Greg had the unfortunate discovery of finding his “wife,” Natalie, settling in with his “rival,” Hunter. Oh, it was during this time or actually a little bit before it when one of the vast numbers of paid men/advertisers targeted and singled me out to chat me up for 30 minutes about a “good deal” he had for our group. He was seriously working on me for 30 minutes, non-stop, with Tomoe as my only source of distraction as I tried as best as I can to not understand anything he was saying. The one thing I learned from all the fun of this night is the word for unlimited drinks, nomihoudai. Yeah, and I refined my skills in haggling and bargain searching in Japanese.

After a dinner of yummy yummy hamburger, we all set out to find a bar/club for me to have my first drink as a 21-year old LEGAL IN THE U.S. drinker. That was a bit windy wordy, but *shrugs* whatever. It took us a long while and we kept walking up and down the streets lined with host and hostess clubs, whereby it became nearly impossible for us to NOT look like we were looking for some sketchy fun. We finally ended up at Kachikachimu, care of Dan through Jen’s voice. I’ll sum it up here because others will obviously voice louder objections than me over this (I only lost 5 yen). To say that they ripped us off would be a understatement. The service was crap. The drinks were watered down. They kept playing weird 80’s music videos and refusing to change the music. The music was right crappy. They charged us for limes when we took tequila shots. Seriously. Well, 12,924 yen later, we all know better to go into that stinkhole.

Afterwards, we wandered out of that place to look for another location in which we could continue our drinking spree (well, mine, Hunter, and Sehyun’s) and do some rockin’ karaoke now that I was sufficiently tipsy enough to consider singing in public. I got approached again and the Japanese within in me just FLOWED like WHOA. We wandered around again for a bit. I bought Greg his owed McDonald’s Happy Meal because he didn’t break his seal before Hunter. We ran into sketchy guy number 4.

After deciding that we didn’t want to do karaoke because the majority of us no longer wanted to drink, we went in McDonald’s at first as a place of respite. Until they kicked us out at 3am for “cleaning” at a 24hr Mickey D’s, we were quite pleased with the place. We moseyed on over to a second café, one from the same chain of cafes we ran into earlier to use the restroom before bailing. Most of the group passed out during that long, interminable wait for Tsukiji and the first trains to run. Luckily for me, I was one of them. (Lucky until I got home this morning and was ready to pass out from exhaustion.) We played never have I ever and learned random useless facts about eachother like, how I’ve used a pad at least once in my life and don’t have a penis in my pants. *shrug* We were degraded into low blows as time progressed.

The penalty went from introducing yourself to a random Japanese person, which I did, to buying something/anything from the café we where chilling at. I guess now is as good as time as any to describe sketchy guys 1-4. Number 1 made a freakin’ beeline to Hunter and started chatting him up. He was this gangster-like 60 year old grandpa figure with blonde hair done into a mullet and a number of missing teeth. He was also rockin’ out this shady looking white suit and a pair of sunglasses even though it was well into the night by the time we met him. Apparently, Hunter didn’t understand a single word of what he was saying, so yeah, that was sketchy guy number 1. Number 2 was met when we stopped at another random, dark corner in our quest for a decent bar. When we noticed how this sign saying “Sakura Information” looked like a perfect rip off of the Starbucks logo, this guy just randomly came up to and started spewing off English, like “Copyright! Copyright!” and other phrases that I no longer remember. Number 3 came up to both Alex and Hunter and tried to offer them drugs as we were still journeying towards our goal of a drink. Unfortunately for me, number 3 seemed to have develop a notice for me because everytime I ignored him, he remembered me. I ran into him again at the station and ignored him right off. He called me out for it and was like, “No, I remember that girl! She speaks English!” Well, uh, no dur, of course I do, American? Me? Yes. Number 4 made his appearance after our 2nd stop into a karaoke place looking for a good deal before abandoning that venture. We were talking about heading to Denny’s and he just came up to us and went, “Hey, I want some fucking Denny’s!” He spoke very gangster-like which was very strange because he appeared to be very Korean American. Well, that is how sketchy guys 1-4 were made known to us.

At Tsukiji, which was insane just because of the sheer number of foreign tourists present, we took lots of pictures of ridiculously fresh seafood and walked and walked and walked. I spent the entire night in 3.5” strappy platforms. I did Tsukiji in a white sweatshirt and a dress with platforms. *raises chin* Yeah, I know, amazing, don’t envy me. *smirks* Haha. We didn’t buy anything nor eat anything because by that time we were all pretty wiped. So, we headed home on the Hibiya line where we said good bye to Mia, Se-Hyun, and Alex. The DK House crew and I were accidentally treated with the experience of waiting for a train that would never %$$@$#$@$%^%@ing come. We were in the cold for over 30 minutes, waiting for a train that would never arrive because none of us could understand the Japanese being blurted out over the intercoms in Yotsuya Station. There was some sort of problem that led to the train going to that station to have its service terminated for some reason or another that even I know not of.

I split with DK House at Shinjuku and headed home alone afterwards. I was so numb and looking like such a hot mess that most people I walked past looked at me and gave me this, “Damn, that girl had a loooooong night” kind of expression. Well, I got home, waited to take a shower, learned some Japanese from Meimi, took my shower, brushed my teeth, popped my liners back in, did my face routine, and then passed out until 1.30. Now, it’s 3pm and I’ve spent the last half hour typing this up. Oh! Okaa-san made Yakisoba and I had that for lunch. I went down for food right after I woke up at 1.30pm, but Okaa-san and Otou-san were both passed out. So, me being the kind, considerate child that I am, scampered on back upstairs and waited until I heard noise from the both of them before I headed on back down.

Now, I’m watching Pride and Prejudice, reading an E-book, and typing this. I need to check with Okaa-san when she gets back about when I can expect the wireless internet because not having it is become right ridiculous. Everything I do requires the internet and without, I am 100% scrooged. That, and if you say you are going to do something, you better damn well do it is all I’m saying. I’m still tired, hungry, and irritated.

Oh yes, I have to give my thanks to Greg for the wonderful pleasure of being allowed to sport the “fresh thinking” button even though I was fresh out of fresh thoughts all night. Also, I have to thank everybody who came out and made my 21st birthday in Japan a memorable one in terms of the mishaps and misadventures we encountered. Thank you.

Before I forget, we also did purikura. Before the bar and after dinner, we had a competition and my group obviously won with our superior posing. I want to go back there soon and take some more. I also want to go all out for it and dress up to the nines before taking them, like every other Japanese girl there.

Kk, now, I am OUT!

4.7.08

Nearly a week’s worth of blog material later, I am still out of INTERNET. Well, I’ve already ranted and raved plenty much about the current predicament I am in, so I’ll continue here with where I left off of last from this blog.

Sunday was supposed to be just a day of internet shopping and joy for me at Biccamera in Ikebukuro. But, due to reasons already given, those plans totally and completely and utterly fell through. So, instead, my Okaa-san and I randomly decided to go to Kawagoe, which is like 1.5 hours away from Ikebukuro. Kawagoe is this part of Tokyo (is it actually a part of Tokyo? I don’t know for sure.) that still has many of its building from the Edo era/early Meiji period. As a result, it’s nickname/alia is Sho/Ko-Edo which means “little Edo.” It’s most touristy shops are old school candy shops and its most famous symbol is this bell that Okaa-san kept pointing out to me. Needless to say, I have already forgotten its name. However, I will forever remember the feelings of ‘wow, nifty…’ that it inspired within me.

We spent most of Sunday wandering around Kawagoe and being touristy like every other Japanese person there. I bought this really cute cat coin purse and a cat bean bag and a rabbit cellphone strap that I just couldn’t resist. Lunch was a huge affair and I almost thought I ran into Gackt and his bestfriend You because this guy sitting at a table one down from me had glasses on and looked Gackt-ish from a peripheral side view kind of way. Well, it wasn’t him. Dur. The udon was super delicious tho and Okaa-san pawned some of her dessert on me.
We mainly just walked around and looked into random shops after that. She had lots of fun tasting candy from all the candy stores, but I could do very little with my Invisalign. I did have dango though, but they weren’t so delicious as they were cooled and thus not yummy. I ate them with my Invisalign in which will make every dentist I know cringe as that’s a huge no no.

Oh well~

Afterwards, we went back home to Nerima and went to have sushi at this super popular kaiden sushi store. It was ridiculously yummy but my tummy was unfortunately uber full from the udon earlier that afternoon. One thing I’ve noticed is that although their home is nice and everything is really nice, Okaa-san always calls me rich and says that they’re poor. I don’t get it. I’m really not, like really, seriously, not.

Oh, and another thing I noticed about Japan is the reappearance of the horrific squatting toilets! I thought I’d gotten away from them in China, but no! Once again they burst forth into my life, raising hell like no other! Gah! Run away!

Today, I left the house early after failing to get my laundry done as Okaa-san was still doing laundry. She actually has to clear time for me to wash my laundry as she washes multiple loads during the day and never at night, although that I really don’t understand. Electricity is cheaper at night when less people are using it, no? Oh well… maybe different policies apply in Japan?
Well, as mentioned on the blog earlier, I wore super Japanese-y clothes and got mixed reviews. One girl went “shijirarenai!” (“ I can’t believe it!”) which can either be + or -, and another girl went “gakkoii~” (“That looks sooo cool~”). Eh, whatever, I wore a skirt when it was slightly cold outside and lived. After chilling in the computer room for an hour or so, touring the campus for clubs, returning to the computer lab, I went to pick up my placement test result and ran in Alex. I got in Intensive Japanese Lvl 3, and then Alex and I went to grab lunch in Bld. No. 2’s cafeteria.

We chatted and practiced some Japanese before hitting up the campus store because Alex said he wanted a sweatshirt. Well, surprise surprise, even though we went to the store for him to shop, I ended up being the only one getting clothes. I picked up a pair of guy’s shorts and a t-shirt for me to sleep in for $25. Yes, it kind of stung but at least the prices are better than the ones at UVA’s bookstore. Rather than toss our money away on notebooks bought at the campus store, Alex and I set forth on a search for cheap notebooks for class and we failed. We walked all the way to Shinjuku and failed in our search. You’d think that after the many number of times I’ve wandered around Shinjuku, I’d finally be able to recall where most stuff is, but nope, we failed. Alex says to blame him, so I do… XD

I got him around 5.30ish, missed a text from Okaa-san, and skippy dooed right on over to a dinner of croquettes, miso soup, this congee-like mess that strangely resembled nattou, roasted pumpkin/squash, rice, and a glass of mugi-cha. Hmm… yes, I guess this would be the best place to recall the mother of all embarrassments from yesterday. After I took my shower, I left all my dirty clothes/undergarments downstairs and had to be kindly reminded by Okaa-san to pick them up. Yeah. *blush* There’s a man in the house, so hopefully Otou-san didn’t notice at all. That’s all that I can hope for. But, yeah, I’m kind of over it now. All I am now is thirsty and that’s because no one gives me enough water to drink, ever. I need to head back to that 100yen shop, buy some water and keep the bottles to refill them. It would be dangerous/dirty to do so, but I need some means of slaking my thirst.

I’m sleepy now and it’s only 9.46pm, but here will be where I sign off. Tomorrow shall be a day of fun with Jeannette and Mia! w00t w00t!!! My family’s trying to kick me out of the house early/kick me out (period), so that will be what’s I do.

*passes out*

- T

P.S. Before I forget, today Okaa-san and Meimi argued about her study habits today. I mention this because she thinks that every time I’m on this computer blogging, that I’m studying, which I’m really really not. She wants me to be an example for Meimi, but I feel that because Meimei is still young and has her entire life ahead of her, now is the time to enjoy herself, not later. Why wait until later when life won’t be nearly as enjoyable when you can take advantage of the time you have now?

Yeah, and she also mentioned that I buy a water bottle to keep water for myself up here in my room. This also stops me from interrupting her kitchen time and being a nuisance to everyone else in the family. I’m too Asian to be treated as a guest and too American to be treated as “distant” family. It’s a weird place to be. Oh, and she warned me of 100yen shops because Chinese people tend to poison the goods they sell off to those places. All I want from them is a water bottle and some bookends to hold my crap in one pile and keep them from falling all willy nilly. Not too much poison there I hope. G’Night.

4.8.08

I am peeved. Today was great despite the horrendous rain showers because I spent all day with Mia and Jeannette shopping around Shibuya and just randomly checking out Japanese styles. From all of our efforts, we managed to purchase very very little, Mia = nothing at all. Everything is expensive in Japan, but only in the sense that you may not be looking at the right places. I found the prices reasonable, if not the style.

Well, onto the reason why I am peeved, it is now official, I have been without internet for a week. A WEEK. That’s just not cool. I didn’t endure this when I was in China, I sure as hell don’t need to for when I’m in Japan. I mean, seriously, it’s mighty ridiculous. Goodness gracious, oh yeah, and another spur to my peevishness is that I just got semi-lectured by Okaa-san for doing my laundry and then running out of the house. She also asked that I do all my laundry in one wash, and as big as she says her laundry machine is, it isn’t big enough to wash all my clothes. I tried to shove them in there and she made it sound like I was wasting time and energy by not washing enough when the freakin’ drum was right full. I mean really, my washing machine is bigger than hers and I don’t shove that much clothing into it. Oh, and I also turned my white sweatshirt and sweater pink today by washing it with the wrong undergarments. Yes. That also annoys me. But, it was my own damn fault and I take full charge of it.

Aside from the laundry issue and the business with internet, I am quite content here. But, not being able to phone home cheaply is a right freakin’ pain. Really? How long do they need to consider renting the damn internet? Will they have decided by the time I’ve left? If I sound bitter/angry it’s because it’s raining outside/I don’t love rain when I’m in it. I’ve tried really hard to be a good house guest, but how the hell can they expect me to anticipate their needs? I can’t! I’m a smart, intelligent woman though and if you tell me something ONCE I will understand immediately. Honestly, it’s not much to ask to not be disciplined when you haven’t pointed out the rules in the first place.

Tell me if something bothers you before lecturing me about a rule I had no place in knowing beforehand. If you want to save water/electricity, TELL ME. I will try to be as frugal as I can. I pay them almost as much for housing as tuition which is ridiculous. Living at UVA cost half as much and they have the nerve to get on my case about one laundry accident? *deep breath* Whatever. I’m over it.

Ahhhh, yes, today I scored myself a good deal on a really cute beanie. I love it. Other than that, I picked up a pair of bookends, a water bottle, and something to keep my white clothes white. On that note, I will now wash ALL my white clothes separately, damn the consequences, and keep them white with the lovely solution I bought! YAY! No more pink clothes!

Uhm, okay, just got from Okaa-san when I presented her with my pink clothes and a bottle of the whitening stuff I bought. She just looked at me, told me to ask first before doing anything and informed me of the fact that the house already had some. Yeah. Uhm, yeah. I also gave her the bottle she told me to buy yesterday and after giving it a perfunctory wash, she filled it with water. No wonder there’s poison on these things, nobody really washes them before use. Heard of soap? It helps, really, it does. Gah~

Okay, right back to ranting, this is BULLSHIT. My clothes are STILL dirty. She tells me to stuff the damn tank and my clothes are STILL dirty. WTF!?!?! DON’T FILL THE DRUM IF YOUR CLOTHES HAVE NO DAMN ROOM TO WASH!!! AND!!! COLD WATER WASH PLEASE!!!
I feel like she just wants me to hand my dirty laundry over to her to take care of, but I can’t, really. You’d think that she’d be okay with it by now, but she really really isn’t. At least I have water to take my damn pills with now…

I need to fall out before I say something I may/may not regret later.

- T

4.10.08

Well, the bloom is definitely off the rose and any sort or rose colored glory that enabled me to see the Matsumoto’s with perfect loveliness have now been shadowed by the fact that I am officially one of the pawn pieces/cogs of the family, thus expected to pull my weight around the house and do what I need to do to live easily with them. Yesterday was fun in that it was sunny and I saw a slice of Japanese culture that I’d never see before. But, before I jump ahead of myself, I am here to announce that my internet is still sadly out of order. 9 days after the smiling promise they made me, I am now done. I’ll just do what I need to do to get my internet at a reasonable time, damn the toes I may tread upon.

Yesterday, I happily/unfortunately realized that I may have accidently dried my dirty clothes rather than clean them. So, yeah, my bad. However, I have still yet to drink from my water bottle because let’s face it, I really need it to be scrubbed with soap and water before I take my first gulp. Yesterday was also the first time that I woke up at 6.30am to begin acclimating myself to the joys of getting off my toasty warm arse at such time. I did it without much trouble and suspect that as long as I sleep ridiculously early, I should have no problems at all.

Well, yesterday was supposed to be me lounging at home, being a bum, waiting for Okaa-san to run out before trying to get my laundry in. Instead, because it was Meimi’s New Student Entrance Ceremony, I was invited to go with her and see it all in action. We went to Myogadani, where Mia lives, and while I quietly laughed at Okaa-san, who was quite nearly asleep during the entire 45 min ceremony, I took loads of pictures and uber subtle videos. There was this one lady in front of me who seemed to have a radar for my filming and moved her head every single time I began filming to intrude on my shot. Weirdo.

After the ceremony, I wanted to stick around and see Meimi, but Okaa-san shooed me off and so I went to Sophia University, earlier than expected. There I ran into Mia and then Jeannette and Hunter, in order. M and J zooshed off to watch the concerts of the orchestra and some other group whilst Hunter and I perused the school’s clubs and sought the diving club for info, the judo club for its existence, and the ballroom dance club for its presence. I signed up for Amity and Arukoukai. After figuring out all of Hunter’s business and running into the Ninja-3, nearly all separated, we saw the dance groups perform and G-Splash was ridiculously good. I felt like with their group, even if anybody messed up, throwing in some random moves, freestyle, and energy more than made up for it.

Uhm… a bit after keeping Alex waiting for like 30 minutes, we finally met up and he gave me Laddie, Sr.!!! YES~ And then, we all head to Akihabara where all we really did was sightsee, try to shop and fail, and eat some super salty ramen. It was good, but it was salty. I found an electronic dictionary that caught my fancy, but it was 29,800 at the first store we stopped in and I managed to haggle it down to 28,000 in another store. However, it was still much too expensive, so I did not invest in one. My family has been pushing like crazy for me to get one despite the fact that there’s one at home and they’re the only ones that ever use it. I try and struggle through with the Japanese I know, whilst they attempt to explain around the terms they use, give up, and turn towards the nearest dictionary. Oh well. My momma okay’ed me buying one, so *shrug* as long as momma’s okay with it, as am I.

We all went our separate ways and made plans to go to Harajuku today, even though today = rain. We had 3 separate goals in mind, all of us = rain boots, mia = school bag, and me = coat. Unfortunately, I was the only one to succeed in my goal and I’ll eventually post up a picture of the awesome $40 jacket I snagged. We did console ourselves with awesomely yummy crepes though. Yes, it was worth it. Today’s shopping at Harajuku was a bust, but I got a sweet tip for where to find rain boots, ABC Mart!!! That’s where my sister said I’d be able to find them .
This morning though was hell. I left the house at 8.50 to begin my trek to Harajuku, which should have at most taken 40 minutes. Due to accidents, traffic, delay, and a whole host of other problems, it took me until 10.40 to make my way there. If I thought I’d been in a super congested train before, I was mistaken, this morning was SUPER CONGESTED. OMG… My arm got crushed and everything. That, and right after I got to Shinjuku on the Saikyo line and thought I was heading to Shibuya, I ended up getting shafted and taken right back to Ikebukuro from whence I came. The fact that I’ve hopped on the wrong train two nights in a row since the 8th would also add to my ire.

Well, I’m home now, and I managed to get my whites washed right before Okaa-san came home. Luckily, she acquiesced to the fact that I’d already put my clothes in and let me do a load, otherwise, it would be another day with week-old dirty towels for me. Tomorrow, my goal is colors. Classes also start tomorrow and I am so not looking forward to it. I have no idea what I really need for that class though so… yeah… I have nothing at moment, not even the smallest amount of typical college notebook paper. I’ll figure it all out tomorrow. Class can’t take all 3 hours tomorrow, that’d be right ridiculous, that and we really don’t have all that much to learn/discuss tomorrow. Anyhoo, I’ll wake up at 6.30am, eat breakfast, wash my face, change clothes, head to school and see where the day takes me.

I’m super tired now and Okaa-san has told me shite about the internet, so whatever. 20lbs on my back every morning? BRING IT!!! I’m so done.

- T

P.S. I think I’ve finally figured out what keeps making me sick in the morning. I’ve discovered that the house has a bit of a mold problem. All the water that’s out there makes this place a super sweet place for mold to grow and that makes me ill. My room has a thermometer/clock courtesy of me, but all it tells me is that its 17 degrees Celsius, which is like 63F. *shrug* I’m rocking sweats, a zip up hoodie, capris and a long sleeve shirt, all black. I look like a damn ninja right now…

4.13.2008

44228 42444

Hello friends all over the world/family/those abroad in Beijing,
The above line of random numbers was from playing Ding Dong on my cellphone with mPets, through my adopted dog Bella, who’s so independently dumb that she will wait all day for me to feed her or tell her to get in the damn dog house and sleep. So, each morning I’ve awoken to a dog on the brink of starvation/dying of fatigue. What does the game expect me to do? Wake up in the middle of the night to feed my non-existent animal? Weirdness…

The first day of classes was Friday, and it was alright. It’s just going to be like Kawai-sensei’s class only extended to a whole week and doubled. *shrug* I feel like I can take it. That, and I’m in the same class as Natalie, Jen, and Sehyun. Dan and Mia ended up getting put into 280B and the rest of us in 280A. I spent the entire day on campus even though my class let out at 12.30pm and that was my only class for the day. After getting my textbooks with Jen, Natalie, Greg, Dan, Mia, and Sehyun aka the NEARLY the entire crew from UVA, Mia, Sehyun (SEAN~), and I hopped it over to this lovely street of restaurants right near campus for food so that we wouldn’t be crushed by the overwhelming numbers of people jockeying for food at the school cafeteria. We ate Korean food because 1) I had a craving for it and 2) I had two Koreans with me. ^___^
The food was alright. I ordered the Dolsot Bibimbap, which is rice that is mixed with vegetables and red pepper paste in a hot stone pot. It was the hottest Dolsot Bibimbap I’ve ever had, ever. In both senses as I accidentally put in too much kochu jjang and spiced the life out of my mouth. Mia got a Bulgogi Don and Sean/Sehyun got Kimchijjigae, although it tasted more like kochu jjang than kimchi. Apparently, the kimchi wasn’t fermented enough and I couldn’t really tell because I still thought it was delicious. We killed what was left of our little jar of kimchi. Uber yumminess in my tummy.

From the restaurant, we trekked on back to campus and Sehyun met up with a girl named Kathy/Cathy/Cathie that I’ve never met before and thus can’t say much about her. They did however hop on over to a pub by 4ish so yeah… Mia and I went to find a computer room to waste some time before her politics class started and all the computer labs were mighty crowded as people jostled to register for classes and all that. I left a bit early and set out to set up my lappie top for wireless internet use at Sophia and was sadly disappointed twice by how slow my connection/futile it was to connect to websites outside the Sophia circuit. I even shelled out 700 yen for a LAN cable when I have hundreds back home, home as in America, and I still couldn’t connect to uber fast internet which is A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E BS.

*throws off her stress in a super ball of stress fire ball stress* <----- Yes, I know that makes nooo sense. Thank you very much. *bow*

Well, Mia’s class ended, I made a compatriot whose internet connection was also sadly lagging and then we randomly decided to go shopping since neither of us really had to go home. I went with her to her homestay in Myogadani and met her host family/host grandpa and host grandma. After we picked up her money, we hiked on over to Ikebukuro with my backpack full of junk and my hands full of text books. I really got a workout, yes!

Ikebukuro was surprisingly fantastic! I got a denshi jisho (electronic dictionary) for a way better price than at Akihabara and looked into getting wireless internet! Well, the wireless internet was a bust as it would cost me like 200usd or so for 4 months of internet, not including the amount of content I download from the web I think. I get that at home for much much cheaper, so yeah… I’m a bit down about that but not really. We also picked up a case and a plastic film protector+2x extra stylus pens for our rockin’ jisho. Mia got white to match her cellphone both here and at home, and I got red because it matched my cellphone and the black one was just not floating my boat. Too much silver in a black denshi jisho. The model is Casio’s XD-SP66000rd, from their Ex-word line. We were looking into the nearly twice as expensive XD-GP9700, but all it has is a more advanced dictionary for geared towards specialists in business/medicine that added 4x as many words as the content in our current denshi jisho. Mia looked like she really wanted it, but ours can be upgraded with the same dictionary at a later time, when we’ll actually use/need it. Oh, and we also checked out the Canon Wordtank, but as it honestly looks like a low-tech tank and didn’t call to us like our multi-color Casio’s did, we focused on our original goal. With the lovely gakuwari and 500 yen discount for buying a case at the same time and Biccamera bonus points, we scored our dictionaries at a relatively sweet total of 28670yen, including case + plastic film. That’s still 1200yen less than the price we found at Akihabara which is ridiculous. I happy. Yeah!

After Biccamera, we hopped on over to find an ABC mart to look for the ever elusive rainboots and found a Sanrio store!!! There was only Hello Kitty junk there, but both Mia and I landed some pretty sweet+cheap folders for all our schoolwork, so I’m pleased. There was this uber cute kitty cat handtowel that was calling my name, but as it was only the size of hand and cost 400yen, I resisted it’s siren’s call. We saw this couple there though that was TOTALLY enjyokousai, which is older men paying younger women to go out with them and do the nasty nasty or just date. This girl was totally leading this older dude around the store, gushing over items and getting him to buy them for her. It was sooo gross to see. *shudders*
ABC mart was a bust for rain boots but we saw the cutest shoes ever there and it was all for a wicked good price. We were both like, OMG, Jeannette should totally be here!!! It was the store after that in which we finally found success! SCORE! RAINBOOTS! CUTE RAINBOOTS! I feel like I can score a cuter pair for cheaper though, so I resisted. But, if I see them again, I may just snatch them up. Scratch that, I will snatch them up!

Hmmm… I think that I’m missing an event here and I am! It was after Biccamera and before ABC Mart that we ate at this totally packed/ridiculously good restaurant. I ordered this massive udon and tonkatsu set for like 630yen and Mia got this really yummy shrimp and vegetable thing. We saw so much delicious food, that I just can’t describe it here. It was all too perfect, too yummy. We’re dragging Jeannette back here for her to try, so yeah, maybe I’ll do better then.
But, back to where I left off from the escaping the beautiful rain boots, Mia and I wanted dessert despite our uber full bellies and we wanded into this café-like place called the Milky Way where they had desserts based on your zodiac sign! OMG~ The pictures will do the describing for me, but this is the place to sate your sweet tooth. It’s right by the Sanrio store too and even if it was a bit steep, 800yen for a dessert, it was so worth it that I walked out filling absolutely pleased with my choice.

We wandered into a really nice clothes shop after that, where nearly everything was on sale, and Mia finally found her school bag! YAY! After that, it was wandering around a bit more looking for a bookshop that was open, but it was pretty late by then so they were all closed. We parted and then I waddled on home with my purchases, exhausted as I’d never imagined well… until the next day when I had ARUKOUKAI!!!

Arukoukai yesterday was a might ridiculous in that we walked super uber duper slow. We covered 13km/8miles, but it took all day. If it were me, I would’ve killed it in like 4 hours, easy, without all the random breaks and long lunch hour. But yeah, I met lots of Japanese people and they seem like they’ll become good friends, some of them at least. There’s a few I’m majorly hesitant about because they are very exclusive and I don’t like that in a potential friend. People who become my friends tend to be nicer than average or have a certain trait/personality that draws me to them. Then again, I have friends who have been to jail, done hard drugs, gotten pregnant at 12, so I can’t really say that I’m an amazing judge of people. The nomikai (drinking party) afterwards was majorly fun, but after the beer, sake, and cassius orange (I have no idea what this is except that it was yummy and tasted like orange, might have been a blood orange cocktail) my Japanese was slurring and yet I was still sober. The drinks took a long time to order and arrive so none of us really had all that much. BUT! EVERYBODY WAS RED-FACED! Especially me! My Asian Glow came out full force and it was sooo embarrassing until everybody I met told me that they couldn’t really see it and that it was cute that I looked so bright (akaraui). Sure… *laughs*

We split up by 8pm and it was weird to be toasty that early in the evening. Then again, everybody in Japan seems to time their lives/party schedule to the Shyuuden (last train), so whatever. I went home with my new friend Hiromi and we ran into Shimizu-kun, who was in my super slow walking group, on the train. I actually got home before Meimi so it was super weird. My eyes were all red from allergies kicking up and the warm sake working it’s way through my system. I have one discovery to announce though, I am actually a pretty decent drinker apparently. I could hold my own against everybody else there and it was quite nice to discover that.

I went home, picked up a obentou box from Wakana, a little cafeteria/box lunch selling place down the street from me, and ates it in my room so I wouldn’t disturb my Pa’s studying. I finally drank the water in the bottle that wasn’t properly washed and can now announce that I am NOT DEAD! w00t! It was also some mighty tasty water.

Today is laundry day, well it will be as soon as Okaa-san stops jockeying with me for use of the machine. She should keep to her own schedule if she wants me to acquiesce more and more to her preferences. Oh, I finally managed to hang up my Hello Kitty calendar. I was also right that she didn’t want me pinning anything on her walls. So, I made my own mechanism with a rubber band and thread to hang it up.

Oh, my laundry day number just came up and Okaa-san was right, I take back every word I said in anger. I just shoved in 1.2kg of laundry and that thing ate it up! It was over a week’s worth of laundry and it just gobbled everything on down. Sweet. 3 hours or so later and I’ll be able to do my whites, which are much much less than my overwhelming amount of colors. Oh well, when they leave the house, I’m going to do a video of the place and copy down the characters on the sentaku (washing machine) so that I can start better selecting my options like tumble dry low and whatnot.

Homework time starts soon. I have a quiz tomorrow on vocabulary and it would be best if I knew what I was doing before then. That, and I need to play around with my jisho to get used to its features and make it become the necessity that it has come to be for all others.

PC PC PC PC PC

- T
-----

KK NEED TO RUN NOW!!! ENJOY STALKING!!!

BYEEEEEEE~

*kiss kiss kiss kiss*

- T

インタネットがほしいよ

2008-04-06T22:45:00.002-04:00

Uhm, yeah, I am damn well addicted to my internet as it is one of the few links I have to the freakin' world and I REALLY REALLY x 2346841324549 need it. Unfortunately, it seems like it will still be some long long while until I come across it again, full time. Right now, I am typing this up from Sophia University's computer lab numero D, although that doesn't really make sense. *shrugs* I'm like a millimeter away from not giving even a shred of care for anything that happens hence. Like that? "hence" *laughs*

I have this uber long blog post on my lappie top computer and left it at home today because lugging around 20lbs of junk for my computer when there's one present right here is right ridiculous, no?

Well, I believe I must first begin on the re-telling of the story of how I lost my internet. While at Ace Inn Shinjuku, I had unlimited access to the relatively shitey connection they had there, but still WiFi is WiFi is WiFi. At least I had some means to contact my family and blog and keep track of the world revolving beyond Japan. It was helpful that I had my cellphone with me at all times, but there's only so much that I can do on a cellphone, even if it does have e-mail.

After my family promised me upon my arrival that they would hook up the house for wireless, so that I wasn't freakin' stranded without it, they waited nearly a week, until I brought the issue up again, to remember it. Heck, they were the ones who didn't want me using their personal family computer in the first place. Yesterday, I finally went out with Okaa-san to Biccamera to check out the WiFi situation. She's quite concerned about the cost of WiFi and wanted to measure the costs/benefits of buying a WiFi Router now or investing in some rental for me as I would be the only person really using it at this time. Meimi won't get her notebook computer for another 3 years, when she graduates from high school and needs a computer for college schoolwork. I've been using a computer on my own since forever and all my essays and homework and etc. have been done on it. I don't know why they think she won't need it now, when she's entering high school and is actually studying hardcore, and will need it later, for college which is pretty darn lax and all that. *slow shake of the head* I don't want to tell them, but hey, if I see Meimi aching for one then I might play devil's advocate and push her cause.

OKAY~ Back to the adventure, yesterday, we finally made our way to Biccamera, only to be SHUT DOWN. Or in my case, SHOT DOWN. The guy at the store said that my "American-made personal computer" could possibly NOT link up and that there really is no way for them to know for sure and no support for it. Because of his words, me no get's internet. Heck, I even saw PLC while I was there and decided that I could settle for that as well, anything as long as I could connect. But no, he shot down that option as well with a spiel about cookies, drivers, operating systems, and other junk. I know, understand, and sympathize with the possibility that my computer might not link up, but hey, if my computer can link up everywhere else in freakin' Japan, why on Earth would it not in the Matsumoto household? I'm becoming seriously confused. It might just be my brain making not-so-correct algorithms and all that, but I sincerely believe that my computer can freakin' connect. Everybody else around me has internet and I love my family, but they seriously need to invest in some wireless for me before I massacre their personal compie with my obsession of all things techy.

*tears* It really isn't all that hard, and the way I figure it, if I can connect at Sophia, at a Manga cafe down the street, at Ace Inn, then heck, why wouldn't my computer connect at home? Seriously? Are you tryin' to mess with me? Gah~

On to happier things, today I picked up my Gaijin card! It was done early, so I bought the temp one for Sophia's overseas office and picked my actual one up! YES! ゲット！With this, I can finally apply to Mizuho for a bank account and get some actual funds to support my life in Japan. But, I've been here for nearly 3 weeks now and spend a lot less here than I do in America, which might be a sad signifier of how quickly I burn through my parents' pockets. They love me though, so... yeah... *giggles* I say that as if it actually justifies my spending, it doesn't. Not really.

Okay, I'll end here for now. The results of the placement test come out today and I'll be there to pick it up. Oh yeah! I tried to dress Japanese-y today and am getting definite mixed results.

Green sweatshirt, yellow t-shirt, white tanktop, black skirt, black knee highs, and Timbs. What do you think?

*flies on by*

- T

家族が大好き

2008-03-30T05:08:00.016-04:00

I don't think I say this nearly enough in life, or heck, daily, but yeah, I LOVE my family. I have one of the most amazing, supportive, incredible families ever and I feel incredibly blessed every day, knowing what I know about them and their unbelievable love for me. I love my mother who always worries about me but knows that I'll always be fine in the end, even if I'm not sure myself. I love my father who has always been my silent cheerleader, doing everything he can in the background so that I can forge ahead proudly with all my dreams and aspirations. I love my older brother who always has something to say to me and makes sure that I know how insignificant my problems really are when I need reminding. I love my little brother who encourages me to be me and damn the consequences. *grins* I am just one lucky ducky and trust me, I know it.

This post is going to be ridiculously long because I have hundreds of pictures and even a few videos. *HIGH FIVE* Since I've last blogged, I did a lot more walking. Yesterday, Saturday, I walked from Akebonobashi to Ginza, which may not sound like much to you, but if you were me and kept getting lost in the damn gardens around the Imperial Palace, you too would realize how much exercise I really got. I even passed by Sophia University on my way there, and in fact, my hostel is wicked close to my campus, which is AMAZINGLY good for when my cousins get here because it's literally 10-15 minute walk away. I love it. I have so many things I want to show them now. They'll have to bring loads of money, especially for food, but every yen is worth it.

After spending the majority of my day yesterday checking out loads more of the city, I finally met up with the Ninja-3 and we took some purikura. *laughs* We made a boo boo and messed up one of our shots by picking the wrong frame, but overall, it was good times.

Today, I went to Harajuku and Shibuya and did loads more walking because I kept trying to find the cosplay/gothic lolita people. I did eventually find loads of them, but by that time, they were so tired of being photographed that they were quite incooperative so I got very little pictures of them. I kept getting lost in Yoyogi Park, so I eventually ended up in Shibuya. From Shibuya, I somehow managed to walk my way back to Harajuku and ambled in Takeshita Street, which is INSANITY INCARNATE. OMG... It was so packed that I had to take loads of sideroads to beat the crowds going in and out of it. I'm pretty sure Rosanna is going to love it. I had tons of fun just looking around at all the people.

Weirdest of weird coincidences is that I actually bumped into Jen and Dan on my way out of Harajuku towards Shinjuku. *The train station was freakin' packed like no other so a detour was the only way I was getting out of there alive.* We separated once we hit Shinjuku and I bought myself some crepes at Lumine's Kitchen floor and then hopped on the train back to my hostel which is where I've been ever since.

And now, will follows the crazy long string of pictures. I actually had to get an account at BOXSTr to get all these up here. Seriously, appreciate my efforts. AND ON WE ROLL...

- UPDATE 08.03.31 -

Uhmm... yeah, that plan has been freaking Xed because I have over 190 pictures and they take freaking forever to load on BOXSTr. I'll post the link to the pictures here, and upload only the ones that are most significant to my journey through Tokyo.

This process still takes me loads and loads of time, but I have all the time in the world today to study up on my Japanese, watch movies, and blog. It's getting grossly rainy today, so I'm staying in at my hostel to catch up. I actually found a heated toilet at my hostel! SCORE!

My breakfast this morning was from Matsuya. I mixed a freakin' raw egg into a bowl of rice and ates it. YUMMMMMMMM~

LINK TO ALL THE FANTASTIC PICTURES

On my way across the city, I decided to walk in the direction opposite of where I went yesterday. This is how I found out that my hostel is even closer to Sophia University that I originally thought.

There's this gorgeous bridge that crosses the train tracks and links to Sophia.

There's this gorgeous path along the side of Sophia University that is lined with cherry blossoms. Everybody was doing hanami. It was a bit insane, also it was crazily cold with a brisk wind blowing extremely strongly.

SOPHIA UNIVERSITY!!! YAY!!!

Random little statue of a boy in a yukata. I just found him unbelievably fascinating.

This bit of artwork was found in the lobby of a building I was walking past. I just loved the mirrored facets of it and thought it was super pretty.

This is the end of the road which led into the gardens surrounding the Imperial Palace. There were loads more people doing hanami here and just walking around.

YES! I made it to Uchibori-dori, one of the major roads that crisscross Tokyo.

A lovely view into the craziness of blossoms that drew huge crowds of Japanese.

There's this gorgeous moat that practically surrounds the gardens. Very nice. The water didn't look too wonderful though. No fish.

Lovely sign in Chiyoda Kouen. My favorite one is the graffitti warning.

Stone sign in the park.

Statues of naked men standing in a circle in the middle of a manmade pond. I think they don't live up to David's standard.

LMFAO. This guy was completely passed out and was reserving an area for hanami later on in the day. I saw a number of people doing this all over.

PRETTY!!! I think this was a museum of some sort. I didn't stop to look in.

The love the juxtaposition of old and new as seen from this view. Old temples naturally incorporated with the new edginess of the evolving times surrounding Tokyo. Gotta digg it.

CHEEEEEESE! I got somebody to take this pic for me. See the crazy wind? It was really blowing the day before yesterday.

This art in the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art was so simple that I got angered by it. I was like, "Seriously? Even I could have drawn it.

I loved the melty colors in this one.

JOHNNY!!! I FOUND YOU IN JAPAN!!!

Haha, I found you again! Silly boy.

One of my favorites out of all that I saw. I just love the beauty of it.

This painting was on the 3rd floor or so and was one of the pieces done during the time when Japan was at war, as seen from the violence and death shown in this work.

Another of my favorites, it seemed very poignant and insightful to me. A woman's body is never truly wholly hers, she is split into pieces and parts by the world and society.

I think this was hands down the most INSANE bit of artwork in the entire damn museum. Seriously. The thing in the middle is a phallus stuck all over with needles and embedded at its base was a glass bottle of something that looked very medicinal/technical. It was just... jaw dropping.

Again, another one of the artworks that just made me scratch my head in its simplicity.

I took a like 1-2 hour stroll through here. It actually took that much time just because I got lost over and over again.

The little plastic pass they gave me so that I could wander all I wanted. For free.

More and MORE crowds of people, namely families, doing hanami.

Okay, I think that's it for pictures being that I am extremely tired of uploading them twice and I don't feel too poppin' right now. I had some awesome strawberry daifuku though. OOOH! Yesterday I had a strawberry crepe and a banana chocolate crepe. Even though they were filled with mostly whip cream (which I hate), they were still uber yummy! YES! I WILL GETTO BACK MY LOST 5 POUNDS!!!

I'm super tired now, so I might just hit the showers super early. I'll be moving into my homestay tomorrow. I'll report back about how my family is like and all. I'll give major details to all who want to know.

- T

けいたいゲット！

2008-03-28T04:26:00.018-04:00

Okay, today was super duper UBER better than yesterday. I actually ate REAL food, (yes, I was merely subsisting before) and I saw 3 major parts of Tokyo today, on foot!

I even managed to score my keitai denwa, even though it set me back by quite a lot. Heck, in my path towards achieving a bank account, I even got a HANKO! What now!? I am JAPAN-ified. Haha, I'm so used to my Toei subway line now that I kind of giggle to myself whenever I make transfers between the lines in Shinjuku.

I have tons of pics which explain how my day has been, and some from before, when my internet was acting up and I couldn't post. ENJOY THE SHOW~

Magical map posted on the back of the chair in front of me. This was taken right as we were nearing Tokyo. The flash is a bit extreme, but you should see the teeny tiny airplane coming in over Tokyo.

Random view from the window. Unfortunately enough, all I saw was wing and blue. Very boring, but at least it was better than something creepy like fire or dead birds.

Natalie, Jen, and Dan right after we got off the airplane, shipped our stuff via Takkyu (the black kitty cat) and hopped on the Keihin (I think) line.

Greg and me, but Greg is mostly covered by his awesome amount of luggage. Yes, I know I look like crap. You try looking decent after a 14 hour flight.

If you rotate this picture 90 degrees counter clockwise, you'll understand that it's a shot of my miniature-sized locker at Ace Inn Shinjuku. The bottom half is host to all my computer crap at the moment. The top half is random junk, and my backpack just eats up space above my computer stuff.

Again, rotate it and you'll see the lovely row of lockers that we're given here at Ace Inn to use to prevent our "important staff" from being stoled. Yes. I said stoled. The "important staff" is straight from one of their warnings strategically placed in the elevator. Singular. It's slow as anything too. No stairs, except for the emergency staircase.

A pretty shot of my top bunk. It's damn roomy in there. And private. I love it. I'm sure my bottom bunk neighbor hates me though.

A close up of the back of the bunk. There's even a little shelf that I use to store my liquid stash. I can't seem to drink enough water here in Tokyo. Weird.

I look majideous (majorly hideous), I know, but this picture is to demonstrate how there's still this like 4-5in gap between my head and the top of the bunk.

My first meal in Tokyo, courtesy of Family Mart. They were yummy nummy and cost me about 200 yen for 2. I love being smartly frugal.

My first morning in Tokyo. A shot from the 6th floor balcony of Ace Inn Shinjuku at about 7am.

Another shot, from like the left handed angle or so.

Yeah, one more from the same angle.

Front shot.

Skyscraper heaven, still from Ace Inn Shinjuku, that's actually in Katamachi, Shinjuku-ku. It's like 20 min walk away from Shinjuku proper. Damn close in my opinion. It costs just 170yen to get to Shinjuku by train. It's like a 5min train ride. Super quick.

The lovely bank that rejected my bid to open a bank account. After this, I was majorly down. >_< Yeah, it was a bad start to my day.

Hopefully, you can see the Softbank store in the background there. That's the first SoftBank store I went into, it's right across from the previously shown bank, and they didn't sell the prepaid cellphone I so desired. It was just another notch in the "Teresa will have an amazingly shitty first day in Japan."

Hmmm... I think this is Shinjuku. I'm not really sure. It looks like Shinjuku to me. Heck, it might even have been Roppongi. Yesterday was a bad day, hence why my memory of it is fantastically blurry. Oh wait!!! NOW I REMEMBER!!! This was the first picture of TODAY! Haha, I hiked from Akebonobashi all the way to Shinjuku, and when I finally made it, I started snapping pictures. So, yes, this is Shinjuku. Lovely isn't it?

A random building, it says Aoyama on it... Wouldn't that be near Shibuya? I don't know. Bah!

Pretty pretty Shinjuku, I got lost here for like 3 hours today. Spent a lot of time walking back and forth, first looking for the Tokyo Metropolitan Building and then trying to look for Kinokuniya. I didn't find it until I ran into Tokyu Hands, walked down the street in front of it that connects to Shinjuku-eki, and was hit by the memory of 3 years ago when I had crossed that same street so long ago. Now, I know how to get to Kinokuniya. I just have nothing I want there because, heck, my bag is already loaded with books.

Another random pretty building in Shinjuku.

What's this!? SHINJUKU! Haha, I just liked the whole ATOMU thing. I think. *shrug*

This picture was taken from one of the many pedestrian crossings I used to help me get lost and reach where I needed to go. In that order, too.

Oh yeah! There's this weird network of staircases in Shinjuku, near the Odakyu line that reminded me very seriously of a dream I once had. In this dream, I go down through a network of trains and staircases with friends into this mad world of shopping and craziness. To me, it seemed very deja vu-ish.

More pictures of the funky network of staircases that triggered deja vu in me.

Oh yeah, this was near the Odakyu lines. I just saw a number of massive circles randomly placed below me and thought them fascinating, so I photographed them. I still have no clue what on earth they're used for.

A shot of another randomly massive circle towards the back of the photo. This was taken off of a pedestrian bridge near the Odakyu mall.

Now, I'm going down the pedestrian bridge to join the massive crowds that are practically omnipresent in Shinjuku.

I just thought this was randomly amusing. It was an entire row of vending machines that filled an entire corner. Seriously, do Japanese need that many?

Odakyu! That's the mall I was walking forwards and backwards on. Yeah, I got lost a lot today in my search of free maps and Kinokuniya.

Oooh, I just thought this building was really pretty. Still in Shinjuku. See the network of white bands? They criss-cross the entire building and I thought that really made it stand out from the crowd.

My first REAL meal in Japan. It set me back 1,600 yen but was worth every single damn yen of it. Muchos delicious. Also, because I was the only okyaku-san there, I was left to slurp it up in true peace.

This amazing toilet was found right across from the restaurant where I ate that lovely nabe bowl of udon at. The toilet also helped to make that 1,600 worth it. It was heated, played a flushing sound while I went, and had butt washing/bidet functions. I still can't tell the difference between the listed latter 2, but heck, they're both super fun. They even had a sanitation wipe down area. I loved it.

Hahaha, omg, I just loved the warning they had for the child seat. Don't leave your kid behind to do your makeup, watch after them!

The area where I spotted Tokyu Hands and enjoyed a bit of a light stroll after my first meal. I was in a light mood and decided to look for a hair dryer, because I'm seriously smart enough to invest in one rather than rent the one at Ace Inn Shinjuku. Not that there's anything wrong with renting one. Nope. Not at all. Haha.
Oh, while I was strolling about, I kept seeing these tiny Japanese women carry HUGE boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts and was majorly confused until I got HERE. See the people lining up to get some frosty goodness? Krispy Kreme is seriously cleaning up in Japan. They are making BEACOUP BUCKS. Yup yup. It also smelled pretty darn amazing. I just really didn't want to wait. At all.
This is a picture of the lovely mashup that makes up Shinjuku-eki. It was taken off the pedestrian bridge that links My Lord (I forgot the building's name but it was on its 8th floor that I had that awesome bowl of udon) and the Tokyu Hands building.
TOKYU HANDS! WAIIII~ I love this place because it has a mashup of EVERYTHING. Also, it's just plain nifty. It can be a bit pricy here though, that's the only downside.
A pretty clocktower in Shinjuku. It says about 12ish, making it about 3 hours since I'd left my hotel and hiked it all the way there. Damn, I am sooo proud of myself for walking so much today. Majorly so. My feet are a bit angry at me though.
This is a picture of the road that triggered my memory. I walked down this same road 3 years ago. If I had kept going straight down this road, I would have hit Kinokuniya. But, I quickly realized that I needed nothing there, so I turned around and headed to Roppongi to buy my prepaid cellphone.
This is a shot of the other side of the street from the previous picture. I headed down this road to get to the Station.
There's like major construction all over Shinjuku now, it's pretty weird. So many areas were closed off and many new buildings were being raised all around. It's even more skyscrape-ry than before.
This is ROPPONGI! Actually, the picture is a shot of the tv asahi building as I was strolling about Roppongi Hills after having picked up my CELLPHONE. I finally got it! YES! I'll post my keitai e-mail at the bottom of this thing to make it easier on people who really don't want to read through all the details of my day.
Pretty pretty sakura trees right near tv asahi. The previous picture was taken from a gap. This one is through glass. See the reflection?
Welcome to the chaos that is Roppongi Hills! Tons of shops. Ridiculous amounts of tourists. Gotta love it. I was so out of things to do today I actually considered shelling out 2,000 yen to watch a movie here, but they had nothing good out and all the movies I was even remotely interested in had already begun. Luckily.
A pretty shot of the Roppongi Hills Arena. People just randomly sat, chatted, and played around here. It was very at ease.
A better picture of the tv asahi park/front lawn area. Super pretty, no?
Looking allllllllll the way up at the top of the Mori Building/Roppongi Hills. I was too cheap to shell out money for a ticket to see a wide view of the city and the art gallery that's up there. *shrug* Today was cloudy anyways, I highly doubt I would've seen anything special.
Random water in the West something or another of Roppongi Hills. I thought it was zen of them to have it. Good fengshui too.
There's this random park in Roppongi Hills that I kept getting lost in. This was it. See that spider in the back? I feel like it was freaking taunting me about the 4th time I passed by it, lost in the grandeur that is Roppongi Hills.
Yup, another upwards shot. It's a seriously tall building.
Uhhh, yeah, I kept seeing this 425-Shibuya sign and read in Frommer's that one can walk from Roppongi to Shibuya, no problem. So me, being the eager beaver that I am, decided to walk to Shibuya from Roppongi. It took me a while because I was lugging a 2L bottle of green tea and my bag of keitai stuff from SoftBank. Good sweating. Good fun. Damn deceitful signs. Bah! I'd do it again though, just because it was kind of fun to randomly hike around Tokyo.
When I finally made it nearer to Shibuya than I thought possible!
Sexy schexy little vixen of a car that called out to me. It was practically screaming at me to ride it. ^^ It was the most beautiful thing I've seen in Japan thus far. I do so love my Audi's.
I FINALLY MADE IT TO SHIBUYA!!!!
The road that I walked along to get there.
Random graffiti. You really wouldn't think Japan would have so much graffiti, but it does. Most of it is in random English to. *looks below*
Neck face!? No, really? NECK FACE? What the heck does that mean? Also, why on earth is there a hairy arm under it? This just confused the bee out of me, so I snapped it.
SHIBUYA!!! Right after I passed the tunnel of darkness.
La la la. Huge pedestrian walkway that branched out every which way.
*wink* I made it here in one piece. Good times.
Welcome to SHIBUYA! Craziness. I didn't see Hachiko, then again, I saw him last time. I have no need to see him again.
More Shibuya prettiness.
Vamoose! SHIBUYA!
Big CAMERA! That's where I bought my hair dryer at. Heck, I even signed up for a members card there. Damn nice.
After I got lost again, I snapped this picture. Pretty building.
Haha, the normal sighed of Shibuya. People just coming and going.
My SECOND meal of the day. It was only 750yen and was totally delicious. Mighty filling as well.
Shibuya as I was leaving. Pretty ward.
MY CELLPHONE! It set me back quite a bit but was worth every damn yen.
Haha. Uhm, this is my hanko. I couldn't use it because I don't have my official Gaikokujin card and thus I can't do it, yet. At least I still have a hanko all ready for when I do. Mizuho bank, WATCH OUT! I WILL SIGN UP WITH YOU!!!

Alright, this took me like over 2 hours to type and upload all my pictures. You better have read every single last word of it. YOU BETTER!!! XD

E-mail my cellphone whenever. I have the unlimited messages plan for 30 days for 300yen. It's all charged to my prepaid card.

teresalui@softbank.ne.jp

My cellphone will only be given to people that need it. UVA people, check your uva mail, I'll send it there.

Gah, I need to shower and maybe nap or try and wrangle up some people to go out with me tonight.

PEAS

-T

しっぱいした

2008-03-27T09:26:00.003-04:00

The internet at my hostel is acting up right now, so all of this is pre-written and copy+pasted back into the blog itself. My first night at Ace Inn Shinjuku was super un-eventful except for the English couple beneath my bunk going on for hours about their relationship as I puttered about getting my shower stuff ready and off to go.

Oh, here’s my review for Ace Inn Shinjuku:

It’s really worth the money if you’re into privacy and good, high-pressure showers. Showers cost 100yen for 10 minutes, but heck, if I can take a 10 minute shower, anyone can. It’s really clean, and thus far, all the people I’ve spoken to here are nice. Bunk beds are surprisingly big, I can sit up in them and 2 of me could sleep in one. Staff speaks really decent English and is super helpful. Only problem is that sometimes the elevator smells like feet. The bathroom’s are clean and private. People don’t really make much noise around here, so it’s like really quiet for whenever you want that mid-day nap. There are 10 floors in the building, and the only weird thing is that the common space is on the 9th floor. The television is broken and there is no Wii (they advertised it). Still, I like it. It’s really near Akebonobashi station, just take exit A3 and hike it to the left, you’ll see it after you pass under the overpass.

Well, today was a bust, hence the title of today’s post. I managed to get all my luggage back in one piece and scored myself a gaikokujin card, but a bank account and a pre-paid cellphone are beyond me. First, I went to UFJ?FUJ? or Mitsubishi Bank. Apparently it’s one of the biggest banks in Japan. They wouldn’t let me open an account because I’m only here for 4 months, minimum is 6 months. I’m afraid that might be the policy for all banks, but it’s just my conjecture at the moment. I honestly don’t know. I’ll try Mizuho or the Post Office Bank tomorrow to check again.

Cellphone-wise was nearly the same. I went to every convience store around me and couldn’t find one pre-paid cellphone. I even went to Roppongi’s SoftBank store and they told me they were out. More stock is supposed to come in tomorrow, so I’ll go again tomorrow.

My current mood is very blah. I’m nearing sadness but not quite because I’m still blissfully numbed out. I feel like I skipped the excited part of the culture shock transition and am now making my way to just adjusting. I think the worst part of my day thus far was that I did everything alone. The Ninja-3 are beyond my means of contact and I haven’t been able to grab anybody from my hostel and have them go out with me somewhere, anywhere. I’m like super independent lady. It also feels like I’m just passing time. I’m kind of super duper uber mellow and at the same time, lonely in that I really have no one to count on.

Oh yeah, Dan Andreano totally gave me this warning yesterday about avoiding the South Gate of Shinjuku Station because I had to traverse it during rush hour. Well, the Toei Shinjuku line is right off of that damn South Gate and I nearly got lost like 4 times. I even tried to ask a random Japanese lady and she totally brushed me off. TOTALLY.

Anyhow, I made it in one piece. I was able to phone home via SkypeOut. Now, if only I could get SkypeIn, I would be amazingly set.

At this moment, there’s some random Japanese guy that keeps flipping open my privacy curtains. Weirdo. Oh yeah, I bought some lotion today, seeing as how my hands are oddly super dry, and Japanese lotion is WATERY and now my hands just hurt. They’re so dry they hurt.
I’ve also just been subsisting on a diet of onigiri because I’m too lazy with my Invisalign to hop it to a real restaurant. I’m also trying to be uber savvy with my money and that’s just not working out. I blew $10 on transportation today. That’s about the same about I paid yesterday to get from NARITA! Since I’ve left my parents’ sides, not 2 days ago, I’ve somehow managed t blow $400 or so. Then again, that includes my 1 week stay at the hostel and my random ticket upgrade that I never should have shelled out for.

I’m a bit sleepy now, so damn the consequences, I’m off to nap!

UPDATE as of 10pm or so

Hmmm... yeah, I just took a 7 hour nap and after a shower and some movie/private time, I'll probably pass out again. I don't know why but Japan sure makes me super tired. Since I'll be in Roppongi tomorrow, I'm going to check out the sites there and see if I can be super touristy. ^^

Gahhhhhh~ I really do need some way to connect with the outside world, depending on my computer to be able to connect is a bit ugh. Off I go again, to the world of blankness.

ムカツクー

2008-03-24T10:35:00.004-04:00

There is a hitch in the plan. My ticket changing is most troublesome, and I may actually end up trapped in Nippon for an extra 2 weeks. The place where I bought my tickets are being not-so-gentle with me and have kindly reminded me that trying to change my RETURN FLIGHT DATE, which is months and months away, is nigh impossible despite the fact that the flight that I am interested is still rather empty. GAHHHHHHHH! I am peeved right now. I also couldn't sleep too well last night because of stress creeping up on me and I had to self-medicate, pronto.

Tomorrow, my dad, mom, and I are leaving from our home in SF to head to Dulles. Dad says I need to be there 3 hours before for international flights and I need to watch out for traffic and all that. I am nearly completely packed, but due to the lack of my having a luggage scale at home, I am nearly 100% sure that I've broken the 50lb limit. My momma says I haven't, but who knows? Oh, and I went shopping at Walmart yesterday and found the PERFECT duffel bag with which to take with me. It's wheeled, has dual compartments, feels sturdy as anything and cost me all of $30. WHOOO HOOOO~

Today, my mom will be taking me to Bank of America to finally figure out what I am to do for money besides opening up a Japanese bank account. We're going to get our nails done. Then, we'll head to both/either CVS and/or Target for the last minute stuff I need to pick up.

Only 1 day until I vamoose. GAH! Stress abounds. How will I make it to my hostel? How will I make it from the hostel to Sophia on my own? How will I get in touch with the Ninja-3? Should I get my Alien Registration Card alone or wait until my host family can help me with that? Grrr... argh...

*collapses into a pile o' tears*

- UPDATE - 1.48 PM -

OOOOOOOOKAY~ $450.23 later, my return flight date has been changed. I am completely set flightwise, hostel-wise, and luggage-wise. I still need my luggage scale, but that will soon be purchased at Target as soon as mi madre returns with me kuruma. I have contacted my long lost pen pal Akane, who now resides in Nagasaki for college. I have set up my seats through United, gotten my Mileage Plus number added to my confirmation, and will have to check in at the airport tomorrow due to the untidy fact that I'll be in Japan longer than 90 days and thus they need's to see mi passport.

*SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH*

I've been in front of my computer and on the phone since I've woken up. I haven't even put my liners back on from when I had breakfast this morning. Bizzy bizzy bizzy.

Oh yes, last minute reminders to people:
- put into your checked luggage a copy of your itinerary in case your luggage is lost, this way they can identify it and have it sent where it needs to go
- keep a spare change of clothes into your carry-on in case luggage does get lost
- split your money/credit cards between suitcases
- TSA now allows locked luggage, so lock them! with the proper locks of course
- take batteries out of all battery operated things before packing them so that the TSA doesn't have to unnecessarily open your bag
- lithium batteries for notebook computers must be packed into your carry-on and you can only take 1 spare
- the TSA liquid rule is 3-1-1, 3 x 1oz bottles in a 1 quart bag, not to exceed 1 L of liquid
- international check-in should arrive at the airport anywhere from 2-3 hours before departure
- don't wear anything that'll be hard to take off during the security check, namely shoes
- don't pack sharp stuff into your carry on, you'll hate losing that nail clipper or pair of safety scissors

kk... that's all folks!

明日は早すぎ：ガーン

2008-03-22T17:27:00.003-04:00

Hmmm... this well and truly is the final stretch now. I have my suitcases completely unpacked, but I am now back in Springfield, with my family.

Today was spent waking up and relaxing with family, and then dragging said family to the oh so wonderfully sketchy SF Mall. I have everything I could possibly need for Japan. Everything and more. Now, my only task is only to whittle down my pile of "necessities" to "absolutes." My mom took one glance at my bed, loaded with clothes, and told me, "You really don't need all that. Just buy what you forget in Japan." I just kind of looked at her and she scampered away. She's even forgoing mahjong night to spend more time with me. She was all teary eyed last night, right when I got back from Charlottesville. It was just too cute.

The oh so debillitatingly wonderful pile of clothes that I want to take with me to Japan. This pile includes T-shirts, tanks, sweat shirts, sweats, jeans, shorts, sleep wear, bathing suits, dresses, dress tops, and *not shown* undergarments. ^^ I once forgot to pack and extra brassiere for a weeklong trip and was uhmmm... scrooged (?) for that lovely duration. Remember to pack'em ladies!

My suitcase all empty and sad, well, except for the gift wrapping stuff I have in the cover. The white netting like thing is a laundry bag so that I can pack my dirty clothes in something while I'm in Shinjuku for a week.

My all important pile o' books. The MSAR at the top left is essential to me picking out medical schools while abroad. Everything else is for Japan class. I'm debating on whether or not I want to pack the middle 3. They're fun but not essential. If anything, I would definitely like to pack the onomateopoeia book. It's how I get all the fun fun sounds for my blog. *REVELATION* TERESA IS NOT ALL THAT SMART!

I have to change my departure flight date soon, now that I no longer need to be in Japan until the 15th. I'll probably be joining the Ninja-3 on their flight back on the 1st, but I'm kind of straining towards the 4th because it might be a bit cheaper. Oh well, let's see what I can do. I also need to change my cellphone to a prepaid plan so that I can keep my number while abroad. I have all my medicines, toiletries, comfort goods, and entertainment for my voyage abroad. School stuff like notebooks and whatnot will be purchased whilst in Japan.

Gah. My tummy's hungry. Phillip, my delectably rolly polly brother, got furious with me for eating cookies and thus I stopped early. Bah! Brothers are stupid. You should throw rocks at them. ^^"

Oh yeah! My other brother, John, the younger one, will be in Beijing when I'm in Tokyo. He's graduating from American University on his birthday, May 11th, and then he's flying back to Beijing on the 13th. He'll be in China until August 13th or so. Insane, no? He's also going to be in Peace Corps and will likely be in Morroco.

I need to scrounge for food now. Wish me luck with sifting through my pile o' fun!

PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAS

- T

あの．．．大ピンチ：ワクワク

2008-03-19T16:46:00.005-04:00

OOOOOOOKAY
50lbs doesn't seem like much now. I have two 1/2 packed suitcases and they are super packed despite the many number of things that I have left to stuff into them. Whenever I look at my suitcase now, my head develops this acute pounding as I realize that I have to drag it through the Tokyo subway world to reach my hostel. Oh yeah, speaking of hostels, I will totally drop a detail review of Ace Inn Shinjuku here in case people ever desire to find a nice hostel to crash at.

For those who want to stalk me, my address in Tokyo is as follows:

- AS OF 4.17.08 DELETED B/C IT NEEDED TO BE -
- email me or something if you really want it...

I'll post up my cellie phone number and all that other goodness once I arrive and get my Alien Registration Card.

Here's my tenative schedule in Japan:
3/26: Arrive, go to hostel, shower, either go out or crash at the hostel and study
3/27: Go to Nerima-ku to get my Alien Registration Card, stalk the Ninja-3 and meet up with them, try to set up cell phone and bank account, study
3/28-4/1: UNPLANNED

YAY! Okay. Here a some pictures of what I have done thus far with my packing life.

hahaha. my backpack, the LV bag, and the exploding bomb that is my suitcase.

included now is my large duffel, stuffed at the moment with t-shirts and sweats.

VOILA! there's a like book-wide gap for more stuff to be jammed in.

the way i intend to identify my bag, with this obnoxious bit of ribbon and my pretty prettty piglet tag.

my jewelery and how i intend to take it with me. the box was a christmas gift from my cousin Rosanna, who's visiting me with my other cousin/her brother Danny this Spring. i want to take it with me but i just don't have enough room to pack it. *sigh*

頭が痛い：ウンザリ

2008-03-18T13:31:00.003-04:00

Ugh... I have just started to pack. My flight leaves in a week. UGH!

Good news is that I just received a reply from 1 of the 4 professors I e-mailed today and will be able to meet with him tomorrow! WHEEEEE~

Bad news is: I left my license and credit cards back in NOVA, My apartment has no food in it because I leave soon, I have too much to do in too little time with no energy whatsoever, Shoes should be shrinkable.

I have too many clothes because I know I will not be shopping for clothing in Japan unless my warddrobe bursts into flames. ^^ I don't know why but my style is just that, my style. Trying to replicate it in a foreign country is just much more difficult than pulling it out of my pretty pretty suitcase.

I have all the medicines I think I will be needing bought. Hand towels, shampoo, conditioner, and soap can be bought over there. I like my own toothpaste, thank you very much. Hmmm... floss and all that other good stuff too. I need to dye my hair today seeing as how it'll be somewhat difficult to do while in Japan. I have my air travel medicine ready. Sleepy pills, check.

I bought this really cute photo album to hold some pictures of my family and friends to bring with me and it's broken. $8.95 down the drain. I can't even fix it with crazy clue. BAH! I should've kept the receipt. *cries*

Let's see. A week before showtime and how do I feel? Not so much stress and knife-sharp anticipation. I just want to get it over with. Like a shot. Or the all evil MCAT. Do it and run. It's very daunting, but I'm not the first to have done this nor am I alone. Hopefully, life picks up soon. Right now, downer time.

*floppity...*

しなきゃいけないことが多すぎ：ジタバタ

2008-03-16T10:19:00.003-04:00

Seriously, my list of to-do is both rapidly increasing and decreasing in sucessive increments of 15 minutes. I have 9 days left until I leave for Japan, and I hate it.

Before leaving, I need to find and set up interviews with 3 professors to get my medical school recommendations in order before I vamoose. It's terrible. AMCAS opens June 1st, I'll have my application ready before then, but I have to have my recommendations in order beforehand. Gah!

What's worse is the American tradition of writing Thank You cards. I hate it. Makes me all nervous and tingly, then again, that might be the super number of cups of coffee I have running through me. Coffee = good. Teeth stains = bad.

I have so many books I want to bring with me to Japan because they'd be majorly useful, but what to bring? Me can't decide. Also, clothes, shoes, medicines, and gifts. *shudders* Now, I know why my mom was getting on my case so bad for. She's practically hopping mad. My dad's more subtle about his nervousness for me. All he does is watch me whenever I'm in the same room as if I'm about to magically disappear, which in a way, I am.

It's like a week before Japan and I still haven't looked through any kanji or bunpou. It's a serious tragedy. Then again, I have like a week in Japan to study. I highly doubt I'm going to spend everyday running around Tokyo like a little kid. I'm going to grab the Ninja-3 and force them to study with me. *wicked grin* They won't know what hit them! And, when Jeannette and Mia get to Japan, I'll wrangle them in too. Sehyun's still very much off the boat, so I can't really speak as to when I'd ever get to see him.

Let's see. When in Japan, I definitely want to get an arubaito (part-time job). I also want to boranteia (volunteer) at a hospital somehow. If possible, I'd also like to do some clinical research. Think I'll pull it off? Well, I sure hope so. I also hope to get fit as crazy but walking everywhere like I do in Charlottesville and partaking of the awesomely healthy Japanese menu. Wheeeeeeee.

Enough destressing! Time to thank the wonderful people who got me into Sophia in the first place and the others who have aided me incredibly with kind words and thoughts.

*pop pop pop*

母の愛はすごい：カー

2008-03-14T11:46:00.003-04:00

Ahhh~ *blush*

My mother is ridiculous. You see, like many other women her age, she has evolved from an obsession with shoes to over priced bags. Yesterday, when I asked her if I could take her Burberry bag with me to Japan because Japanese people have this deep love of brand-name goods, she said "Sure, but I don't think it suits you well. How about we go out right now and look at some Louis Vuitton bags?"

Me: 'Kay, I need to walk around a bits anyway

At the store, I caught a glimpse of my mom's daily life without moi, and it was that she LOVED the Louis Vuitton store. To put a wrap on this story, I now have 2 Louis Vuitton Bags of my own and a wallet given to me from Madre for use in Japan. This is all so that I can blend right in with my "obsession" of all things Louis. ^___________^

I took an entire class about Japan and its place in the New World Order. We did studies and analyses of globalization and its effects on identity, community, and mental health. Awesome class, I learned loads of stuff and it made me a better, much more well rounded person.

Well, now I had some super pricy things to take with me to Nippon. All I need now is to pick me up a cellphone and a stack of handy dandy international phone cards ala Padre. Oh yeah! Me being the nerd that I am, I ordered my J-Yen from Wells-Fargo and I picked it up yesterday. That's why I was waiting all day long for Mr. Fed-Ex.

I also finally bought a most needed replacement charger for my cell phone, seeing as how I lost mine and was unable to communicate at all via keitai for like over a week. Sad, very sad.

I have this inkling that my older brother is going to seriously miss me when I am gone. I'll miss him too. I will probably miss all my family although I don't see them more often than 1 a month. The trials and tribulations of trying to be an adult. Speaking of, what does make a person an adult? It sure as hell isn't age because let's face it, I've met some 30-somethings who don't have their life together and then there are the 18-yo's that do. Is it a matter of paying taxes? Owning property? Knowing how to live alone or with others? What makes a person an adult? And, most importantly, is it worth it?

*bounce bounce bounce*

- T

ドキドキ：きんちょうしてる...

2008-03-13T15:41:00.004-04:00

Pickle schmickles tickles wiggles: I AM BORED!!!

I've been waiting for the Fed-Ex Guy all day long in a strange and very saddening repeat of how I wasted yesterday, waiting for Comcast Cable Guy. But, that's not what I'm here for and that's not what this blog is here for now, is it?

Bah! Welcome and ようこそ, this blog is designed to be a complete and utter drain for every little thought that runs through my head regarding my impending journey to Tokyo, Japan. I am one of 7 students heading out there from the University of Virginia, and we will seriously work it ooooooout in Japan. *laughs*

I actually freaked myself out last night regarding how I will survive whilst in the Land of the Samurai and Vending Machines. I couldn't really sleep, so I spent a good hour or so awake and spazzing over what I'll do while over there. Everything is muchos kuchos expensive, but I can survive on 200yen ramen like all the other poor college kids in the world.

Let's take this from the beginning for all you newbies out there who are looking forward to STUDYING ABROAD IN JAPAN:

1 - GET ACCEPTED
I'm just going to cut to the quick and put it out there, just get yourself accepted into a program there first. DUH! I won't detail any programs because that's a bit much and that isn't my field of expertise. No siree. Once you've been accepted, fill out all the paperwork required of you at your school. For us, it included the dreaded Green Form for all the classes we intend to take over there. After you get your paperwork all turned in, wait for your school to respond with your housing and Certificate of Eligibility (COE). Next up is...

2 - GRAB THAT VISA!!!
Fill out a visa form off the Japanese Embassy website. Go to your nearest embassy with all the required goods: Passport, Visa Form + 1 Photo, and COE. It's a 4 day turn around at the Washington, D.C. Embassy. Drop off from 9:30 until 12:30. Pick up from 1:30 to 6:30.

3 - BUY YOUR AIRPLANE TICKETS
Tickets are expensive. Really. Finding a place to stay is also expensive. Don't go for hotels unless you have cash to burn and are willing to cough up $900 for a week's stay. Hostels are your BEST choice. Clean, friendly, catering to students, hostels is where it's at for all the pocket pinchers out there. To the right are some nifty links that should help you out in this venture.

4 - FLY TO JAPAN
Yeah. You got to be there for me to continue. *shrug* If you are not yet aware, I'll point this out to you now. Japan has new immigration policies that includes fingerprinting and photographing all travelers to Japan. It should take some time, but not too much. Just make sure to hit the bathroom before joining the line, it could be a long wait.

5 - GET TO TOKYO
For this, getting a Suica+N'Ex rail card for 3,500 is most convienent. The fare into Tokyo from Narita is cheaper by a half and 1,500 goes to traveling around Tokyo whether through buses or trains. It's just muchos more convienent. When I learn more about cell phones, I'll drop a couple lines here. What I have garnered thus far is that Japan and Korea are weirdoes that use their own special network unlike the rest of the world. Then again, the U.S. is the only country in the world that uses miles/feet/inches and whatnot. Who am I to nitpick? All incoming cellphone calls are free, but outgoing calls can be anywhere from 200 yen to 80 yen for any plan. Before even qualifying to get a cell phone or prepaid phone plan, one must have their Alien Registration Card.

6 - ALIEN REGISTRATION CARD (gaijin something something card)
Once you know where you'll be staying in Tokyo or wherever, go to your city/ward office with your passport and 2x photos. After 3-4 weeks, return to get your permanent Alien Registration Card. But, until you have that card in hand, get the temporary form for 300 yen or so. With this, you'll be able to open up bank accounts, get insurance, and sign up for a cell phone plan.

That's about all the helpful advice that I have for today. On to more fun and much random things!

Officially, I'm going to bring one large (30") red suitcase + 1 large grey and orange duffle + 1 backpack + 1 computer carrying case. Luckily for me, when I arrive in Japan, Winter will have just begun it's quiet journey up and out. So, NO BIG JACKETS to pack!!! 1 or 2 sweatshirts will still be necessary though, seeing as how weather flippin' fluctuates like no other nowadays.

I'm trying to find a way to call my parents from Japan without it costing me too much. I'm leaning towards Skype, but the last time I tried it my mic was wonky as anything.

I sleepy now. *hop hop hop*

- T