THE LONG AWAITED MASSIVE POST

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~

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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