Another day, Another Update ^^

Wow, 2 updates 2 days in a row. I'm on a roll! I’m trying to figure out if today could have been better. I can think of a couple things, but that’s neither here nor there. Soo, I had the last of my Japanese midterm today. I know I passed, but I THINK I got an A. We’ll see. We had ANOTHER oral, can you believe that?! I could believe it, if I had looked at the study guide, but alas…anyway, the only part I was COMPLETELY clueless on was the transitive and intransitive verbs. Which was a VERY small part on the written exam, but was about half of the oral, sooo, oops. After that, I got some delicious Indian curry. We even got free iced coffee (that I think only Ayla and I had, so I felt kind bad) probably because we go there like once a week. While at dinner, Juan (never heard his name here before, huh?) mentioned video games…and we all know I’m game for games anytime, no pun intended. Or, was there? So we went to crea mall, he tried out taiko, guitar freaks, beat mania and pop ‘n music. And we played the arcade version of Silent Hill. And by played I mean OWNED. After that, we stopped by Modi and I bought some drum stick from the music store. I hope they’re heavy enough for taiko. I wanted smaller sticks so I don’t get tired as easily and can play faster songs. But If they’re too light, the sensors may not pick them up >< we’ll see. He headed home to get his camera, and I went back to campus to meet up with Keishya. Eventually we ended up with Nash, Tomoki, Keishya, and Brad, and a couple of us played tetris and puyopuyo together. Tons of fun. Around 7 we headed to dinner and met up with everyone at 8, got alcohol, and headed to KARAOKE. Which is funny, because the 3 people I met on Wednesday who were like “we have to practice our skits. Go Friday night!” didn’t even come. But we had such AWESOME people there tonight! A list: Ayla, Keishya, Nash, Tomoki, Yuuta, Juan, Sean, Brad, Erich, and Peter. Eventually, we also had Alexis, Annie, Alex, and Dan. It would be nice if Yuuta were just SLIGHTLY less attractive…I’m just sayin’. So anyway, we had sooo much fun. Nash and Tomoki sang Kobukuro. WAAAAHHHH!!! After our 2 hours were up, and we couldn’t extend, we went out to pay. While out there, I met another student from my school, who called me ‘fashionable’ and I almost died of embarrassment. Not something I’m exactly used to hearing, but it felt nice :) I tried today :P He was cute though. They asked me where I lived, and they said it was close (yeah, one station…) and then said I should skip last train and hang out with them tonight. Oh, the temptation. One of them is freakin HOT too. I don’t think he remembers my name, but I totally remember his from the FIRST DAY of orientation. But ya know, if an unmentionable someone had said the same thing, I would have agreed, no hesitation. MOVING ON! After deciding we didn’t sing enough (seriously, kid, marry me) a small group of us moved into another room. I sang some BoC (Katie, Yuuta LOVES boc, you guys would get along) with Yuuta, some Yamapi with Keisha, some Enrique with Juan, and everyone enjoyed some BSB!!! But the last hour ended early when we had to leave to catch last train. It STILL wasn’t enough. Yuuta leaves for China on Sunday, so a couple of us are meeting for MORE karaoke tomorrow for 2-3 hours before the festival. It was just a good day. Besides some creepy guys sitting in a car on a one way street with the inside light on and one OBVIOUSLY taking a picture of me with his phone, creepers…it was an AWESOME day.

Enjoy some photos, yo!

Nash fanning me off. :P
As many people as I could get in the shot >_<

Can't remember the song, but it made everyone dance. Maybe 'Graceland'??

She is GONE!

Nash singing KOBUKURO...to ME! haha

Me and Juan

Pimpin' dem hoes

Nash and Dan: BANZA~I! \^o^/

Silent Hill - Juan

Silent Hill - Me...obviously

Yuuta and Tomoki!

Sean and Alex rockin READY STEADY GO! (larc)

Mine and Keishya's frisky pose :P

Where has the time gone?!

I’m not really in the mood to study, so while I sit here listening to a mix of Mucc, System, B’z and Kobukuro, I shall update my blog. But my God, WHERE TO START?! I’ll look through my pictures as I type this. If I took pictures, it must have been somewhat important, right?! Let’s begin…

Well, it seems the last thing I wrote about was UGG, that’s mostly the reason I didn’t update as often as I used to. I was having a grand ol’ time, until they told me they didn’t want us to come to practice anymore. I was pretty torn up by it, and I’m trying to just move on, so I don’t want to talk about it much. Whether it was because we aren’t Japanese, or maybe they didn’t think we were good enough, no reason they could have given us would have sufficed in my eyes. Which, BTW, they didn’t give us a reason. I wish I had a bit more closure with it, then maybe I wouldn’t harbor such harsh emotions toward them, but, well, it is what it is. And if you know me, you know about my grudges. I finally found something that made this school suck just a little bit less…but alas, it disappointed me. My advice: ALWAYS live with high enthusiasm, but NEVER with high expectations. Enough of that, moving on.

Got my mucc tickets. Wednesday, November 12 is the date. But it’ll be difficult to go, considering I can’t find my tickets. Now, I know I’m pretty absent-minded…but these are MUCC tickets we’re talking about. I’ve kept them in my purse since the day I bought them, but now, I can’t find them. And I don’t have even the SLIGHTEST clue where I could have possibly lost them. I’m going to check lost and found tomorrow. Maybe they just fell out my bag or something, but I won’t hold my breath. When I bought the tickets, they ask for a ton of information, so I’m kind of hoping I can go to Lawson’s (the convenience store where I bought them) and they can look me up and replace them for a small fee or something. That would be grand, but again, not holding my breath. Kids, don’t be irresponsible. It’s annoying.

Since the last time, I’ve been to karaoke more times than I can remember, and have pictures from each time, but they all just end up looking the same right? But yeah, that’s mostly what I do for fun. I don’t consider it at all negative that I didn’t write for a long time, it just shows I found things to occupy my time. Mostly karaoke and shopping, but that’s SOMETHING right?

My birthday was a blast. During the day, Ayla and I went to Akihabara (Akiba, easier to say, lol) And I bought the FINAL FIGURE for my Genshiken collection. I’ve been looking for her for YEARS, and we went into some sketchy ally because I saw a sign that said “TOYS*FIGURES*MODELS” and said, well, let’s give it a shot. One floor was all the new gay crap. Up another floor was new and old, RFB, and NRFB (never removed from box, BWAHA. Sorry, dork moment). The floor above that was all the hardcore beautiful expensive models and costumes, and above that was the fanservice (I guess adult themed is a good way to put it) model floor. I zigzagged through the isles, and finally gave up when I walked down the last isle…until I saw her beautiful yellow box. I’ve the picture so many times, but could never get my hands on it. And there is was, for $25!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! The other 2 figures I have are Saki and Ouno cosplaying Pres and V. Pres from Kujibiki Unbalance. This one is of Ouno getting dressed, haha. I’m just happy my freakin collection is finished. All still in the boxes and beautiful. I’ll probably be sending that one home separately from everything else. After that, we met up with Keishya, Peter, and Sean, and PA’s: Tomoki, Ayako, Hiroyo, Miho and her friend Akkii. We did some Karaoke, and I got some awesome cake and a really pretty Kuromi Limited Edition mirror from Tomoki ^^ Then on Sunday, I went to this not so fun music event…to support UGG, but of course, our efforts went unnoticed. Haha, bitter much? YES. Afterward, Keishya and I went to Omiya for the first time on a whim, after finding out Akkii and Miho work there…and that it’s a big shopping district. And yes, yes it is, lol. It had MANY of my favorite stores, and I’m SO excited I don’t have to go to Tokyo to shop again. The arcade even has a game I would travel 1.5 hours to Akiba or an hour to Ikebukuro to play, so I’m pretty happy I only have to go 20 minutes to play when I want. They only have one, and I usually have to wait, but hey, that saves me MONEY! Then on Monday, my host mom took me out to a fancy Italian dinner with Youko, her husband (Yuu), his brother (onii-san), and his brother’s girlfriend (not important), and Hiroko (Youko’s twin). Where they told me the way I hold my fork is ‘interesting.’ Interesting = Wrong. My host mom apparently came from a family who forced etiquette lessons on her, because allll the girls held their forks the same proper way, and asked mom when they didn’t know which fork to use for which course during dinner. I was like…I can NOT believe a group of people from a county that uses chopsticks (predominately) is critiquing the way I use silverware. Haha, it was humorous.

Akkii and I got a long really well, and meet up a while ago to play video games and get dinner and such in Omiya (GOSH I love Omiya) but we haven’t been keeping in touch much lately. He works at least 2 jobs, and he commutes to school 2 hours both ways. I still try to invite him to things sometimes on the off chance that he’ll be free and nearby.

I went to even more UGG events, and UGG member’s birthday outings. Again, our efforts went unnoticed and underappreciated. More than anything, I hate wasting my time, and they wasted 3 weeks of my life. Thanks, you selfish pricks. Yup, still bitter. With time, though, with time.

While sitting in the lobby one day, I met these guys Yuuta and Youhei…which is HILARIOUS considering those are the names of the penpals (Kae’s friends) we had from Osaka before we came to Japan. Anyway, Yuuta is this beautiful, smart, Japanese SAINT whom I don’t really talk to, but hey, I’m ok with just looking. And Youhei is just freaking funny. We talk a lot, and try to hang out when he’s free after school or work. He lives in Omiya too, so that’s nice and convenient. HAHA! Anyway, he has classes on 2^nd campus, and recently (like this week and last week) I’ve been going to this event I think he’s co-coordinating where you meet and talk to ESL (English as second language) students. All JSP students have class on first campus, and for Japanese students who have class at first campus, it’s easy to meet us and talk to us, and practice English if they want. But 2^nd campus students only have each other to practice. And since it IS second language, no one is really THAT strong. Hiro was there, too. The tall, tan, hansome piece of Japanese MAN-MEAT from UGG…he’s cool. The people I’ve met are really nice – let me not assume that, let’s just say they’re all really timid – and after you get past the awkward silence of trying to think of something to talk about, it’s quite fun talking to them. Knowing that something as lame as ‘How was your weekend? What kind of music do you like? Why are you studying English’ is helping them, makes me feel just a bit better about myself. Haha, I assure you, it’s still a selfless act, but it is fun for me. It would be cool to make just one more friend because then we could practice English and Japanese outside of that one hour/week block that we have. We’ll see. I mean, Youhei and I jump back and forth a lot, but he really wants to speak English, and I’m not one to FORCE someone to speak Japanese, haha, but I should make him speak it to me at least while we’re at school. *shrug* Oh, one time me and Towson kids met up with some of the JPS Hawaiians and Youhei in Omiya for dinner, and video games. While I was there I go to play Taiko with some guys. They were watching Brad and I play, and by the time they showed up, we had already done like 6 songs, so we were soooo tired. So they were laughing at us because we were trying to play this hard song but we were soooo tired and I turned around and was like *please don’t laugh!! (in japanese, obviously)* and that only prompted them to laugh more. And I was like, these little brat are going to get on, play on the most difficult level and show off, but they didn’t. They played on the same level as me!! So after stalking around for a while (kekeke) I asked whichever one did the best if we would play with me. We were pretty evenly matched. After I beat him, he made the next song a one hand match (I lost), then we played the last song and I won again :) Then his friend wanted to play me, but the JSPs were waiting for me to take pictures with me (and Youhei was yelling at me in Japanese telling me to hurry…which, again, prompted them to laugh). But after taking pictures I went back to see if he wanted to play. He was going CRAZY. Like dancing and jumping around while he played, it was hilarious, but he did really well. Though I was waiting to play with him, he was too tired and tried to hand me the sticks and asked me to play the last song for him. I tried to refuse since they paid for it, until he put them in my hand and pushed me to the machine, lol. That was a long story, and I’m sure no one cared, but it was the first time I got to play a Japanese person in Japan, so I was pretty excited. After that, some went home, and Youhei, Erich, Brad and I went to Karaoke…that’s pretty much our fallback plan when we don’t wanna go home immediately. It was in a pretty room where you had to take off your shoes before entering and sit on the floor on mats. Sooo pretty.

Skipping other ‘met new people’ and ‘went to karaoke’ adventures, let’s move onto this past weekend…OSAKA!!!

Katie picked me up from the airport with her friend Yasu, who was going home to Kyuushuu for the 3 day weekend. Kae and her dad met us there, and drove us back home. It was nice not having to be on a train again after the 45min to Ikebukuro, 30 min to Tokyo, and 2.5 hours to Shin-Osaka. A bunch of Kae’s friends were there. I can’t remember any of the girl’s names but I someone remember EVERY guy who walked in the door that night. I also got to meet my penpal Youhei (a different one, the kanji for the ‘you’ in his name is 容, it’s differen’t from the youhei at school) who is also now Kae’s boyfriend ^^ Everyone was so awesome, I wish I wasn’t so shy and spoke to them more. I think I was also pretty overwhelmed with being able to see Katie again, aI pretty much only wanted to talk to her. But everyone seemed to have fun drinking and talking to each other, so I guess it’s cool. I’ll try really hard next time, for real!! The next day, we woke up late, ate breakfast which was leftover DELICIOUSNESS from the night before, got dressed and played a couple video games. Then youhei came over. We were talking about doing print club (purikura – it’s the little booths you go into and take pictures and then decorate them. Send them to your phones to make a background, e-mail to your friends, or just print them, peel off the back, and stick them on everything. Tons of fun) and around the time we were talking about it, I was read to do Kae’s makeup. Youhei was lying on the couch and I asked if I should do his too, and he and Kae BOTH said yes. Apparently, they had both been wanting to dress him up like a girl and do purikura…weird Japanese people. HAHA! But yeah, so, I did youhei’s makeup (while watching Ryou Ishikawa get an EAGLE in golf on TV!!! It was soooo cool!!) then Katie’s, then Kae’s, then mine, THEN we headed out. After purikura, I was able to play a round of JUBEAT then we headed home to meet Kae’s dad and go out to dinner. Osaka is known for its delicious food, especially Okonomiyaki (it’s like a pancake of vegetables or meat or fish or whatever you order) and Takoyaki (batterballs with octopus inside) I made sure not to eat okonomiyaki before going to Osaka, and I’m sooo glad I waited. It was AMAZING! Especially the mochi cheese. I dunno if every knows what mochi is, but I can’t explain it. Check wikipedia or google it or something, lol. But yeah, it was amazing. After dinner, we (kae, Katie, dad, KAE’S MOM, and 3 of their friends) went to karaoke. We had a blast. They kept asking if I really was sick (put it this way, I cut off Glamorous Sky, which I sing ALL THE TIME…I was really sick), but they all really liked my voice. It made me happy, but I wish these people heard me sing without music so they got it into their heads that I’m NOT a good singer, I can just match the pitches well enough that they overlook my voice, haha. After that, we went to get ramen. Here’s the normal routine for older Japanese men: wake up, work, dinner, 2^nd dinner, karaoke + snacks, ‘supper.’ HOW ARE THESE PEOPLE STILL SKINNY?! The next day was SUPPOSED to be my final day. We woke up, go dressed and headed out to Namba for some shopping. Katie got a ton of stuff, I got a hat. Probably the cheapest shopping trip EVER, haha. But I really just didn’t see anything I REALLY wanted. Afterward, Kae’s dad met us for dinner, followed by Karaoke with her mom and more food. *sigh* After that we took her mom home and headed home ourselves. Youhei came over for a bit and we all hung out a bit, then turned in for the night. Oh, Monday was a Japanese holiday. EVERYONE ONE BUT JSP STUDENTS had off from school. I was annoyed. But then when I found out there was a mistake one the schedule and my history midterm really wasn’t on that day, Kae and Katie and I went to the station to change my ticket to Monday night. On Monday, Katie and I met up with her friend Shouhei from school, and we, you guessed it, did Karaoke. We got there when the place opened at 11. For $10, we could’ve stayed till 6pm, but we left around 1 to meet Kae for lunch and some shopping. Around 4:30, I headed back to Shin-Osaka station to catch my train home. So sad.

Yesterday I had 2 parts of my like FIVE part midterm exam for Japanese. I had to talk for 2 minutes about my best friend. Considering I talk about her pretty much 5 hours everyday, it was no difficult feat. Afterward, Sensei told me how impressed she was in my listening ability, since it wasn’t ‘so incredibly wonderful’ when I first arrived. But she was more impressed with how fluidly I spoke. Trust me, I was pretty impressed too, since I wrote it 4 hours before class after only 4 hours of sleep, a horrible cold, and only reading it aloud twice. Sooo, yeah, I think I did well. Then we had the composition exam that I TOTALLY forgot about. But they listed a ton of sentence structures on the side, and you were supposed to mark it off as you used them, so that made it easier. The difficult part was more so just trying to figure out what you wanted to say in ENGLISH before you translated it. It was a strange topic, like, plan your friend’s best birthday party. I still think I did well though. I mean, it wasn’t interesting, but we had to use 5 of the listed sentence structures and I used like 15, so I’m ok in that aspect. After that I went to Old Kawagoe with Ayla to buy a gift for her boyfriend and head back to second campus again to talk to the ESL students. I was feeling pretty under the weather, so no dinner and karaoke last night.

I was in bed by 8pm and slept till 9 this morning. I needed that. I lounged around a bit, then cleaned a little bit, then headed to campus for ‘homework.’ I just sat and spoke to Keishya and the Hawaiians for a bit, then we went to the PACKED computer lab. Keishya and I just stayed in the lounge and played Nintendo for a bit. Afterward, we headed to the Tomodachi (friend) Event the PA’s set up. I like to meet other people, but events like this are hard. The ice breakers are usually really force and awkward. But I think Matt did pretty well, they were complete random questions you wouldn’t normally just throw into a conversation. I spoke to 3 really nice girls, but we probably won’t remember each other’s names by the end of the night. While I was there, I got to speak to Satsuki again, she was one of the girls I met at Karaoke FOREVER ago. And also these 2 guys Miho introduced me to a couple weeks ago. It was 3 guys: The one with the cool hair, the one with the cool name, and the one with the cool shirt; Kazuya, Ryuutarou, and Masaharu respectively. But today I got to meet Kazuya and Ryuutarou. GOSH they’re cute. And you can tell they’re really cute, because I said ‘gosh’ HAHA! No but seriously, they told me their ages and I just felt like an old woman. One is 19 and the other is turning 19 next Friday. WHAT IS THAT?! For some reason, speaking came easy today when I spoke to them. I didn’t hesitate a lot, and I was outgoing and not reserved. I think it was because Erich was there. It’s sooo much easier to talk to guys when there are other people with me. We talked about ridiculous things (and they told me my Japanese was really good…Japanese people are good liars, I’ve come to realize) and I mentioned karaoke and they both said they like it. But one of them had to work tonight, so they mentioned maybe going Friday. Hey hey! Improvement. I didn’t have to ask, they simply recommended Friday would be best, I think that’s a great improvement from playing the guessing/wondering game. Now let’s see if they pull the Korean Card and tell you want to do something then back out the day of. Hasn’t happened to me yet, but we’ll see, lol. I want to try to get my host sister’s friend Risa to go. Since she said she’s a night person and lives close, I want to hang out with her more.

Here’s the next 2 weeks in a nut shell:

Sat&Sun – I wanna do something this weekend, I just haven’t decided what yet

Monday – History Midterm (don’t expect much there)

Tuesday – Field trip to elementary school to talk to kids; ESL meet-up

Wednesday – MAY go to some little concert thing where a bunch of little bands will be playing. But they’re probably not good, and I think there may be a bunch of UGG peoples, so Keishya and I haven’t decided if we’ll go yet or not.

Thursday – No school, Disney Land!

Friday – Guess I have school…

Then the following week is the Kansai trip that I’m not going on, so I just have a free week. Sean and I had discussed a while back going to Fuji, but who knows if we’ll actually do it. I need to get some sleep now. I’m tired. Talk to everyone later. Enjoy some pictures!

Katie and Kae at Karaoke in OSAKA!

YamaPi lookin fine on a billboard in OSAKA!

Starbucks with my lady...in OSAKA

Sean carrying Tomoki down the stairs "he weighs like 5 pounds"

The sign says Hippie Pants...BWAHAHA...hippies...

Taiko!!!

Pretty and traditional style karaoke room. No shoes!!

Party at Kae's house the night I arrived in OSAKA!

Delicious Okonomiyaki in OSAKA

Kae's mommy and daddy

Shou-Sensei and Hiro-Sensei...look at the height difference. *giggle*

This guy pretty much only talks to me when he wants to sell tickets to his shows...but he's hot so whatever.

Learning imperative and prohibitive form in Japanese class with help from PA Ayako

Some building I saw down a side street while lost with Erich and Quinn in Harajuku

Pop'n music with youhei, we're not good at this game

The department store filled with awesomeness

A little piece of Omiya

I want to write a drama about these 2 strangers...
My host sisters Youko...

...and Hiroko at Karaoke for my birthday.

PURIKURA! With Kae, Katie, and Youhei...the other one...in OSAKA!

Happy Birthday to ME!

The final figure for my Genshiken collection

Akkii, Miho, and Peter (my favorite non-Canadian Candian) at karaoke for my birthday

Dance Party to 'Dancing Queen'...we had to stop after Akkii broke a mug on the floor. haha!

I'm still alive! AND WELL!

It’s been an incredibly long time, and I don’t really know where to begin. Well, after a trip to the hospital, I’m feeling tons better with these new drugs. Apparently it was a mix of allergies and, get this, ASTHMA. What?? So that’s good, the whole, not dying anymore thing. This past weekend, I experienced my first earthquake. It lasted all of 3 seconds, and wasn’t even strong enough to knock over my empty water bottle. But I gotta say, I’ve never experienced anything like it in my life. You can actually HEAR earthquakes, it’s like thunder, but not as loud. Like a low rumble. Pretty scary stuff. Have any of you ever been in one?? I dont think so...

For my birthday this weekend, ill be going out to ikebukuro for some shopping and video games with ayla, then returning to kasumigaseki (the area where my school is) for drinking and karaoke with Sean, this guy peter who goes to school in canada, and also one of the peer assistants here named Tomoki. Who has refused me many a date, and he won’t marry me either. He’d be the perfect house wife too. A couple others may join, but I was trying to keep it pretty small.

School is going well. Japanese class is tough, but I’m learning a lot. The other classes aren’t so interesting, but I’ll survive. I don’t care much about Japanese history, since the present and the future of japan are what fascinate me most. And literature would be interesting, but the teacher is like listening to ben stein talk politics for 3 straight hours.

The program coordinator here, I didn’t take to well at first. I felt like when we had a problem, his attitude was usually like, 'oh well, things happen'...gaaaaay. But I’ve been sick for 3 weeks now, and when the nurse said I needed to go to the hospital, he came immediately. He helped translate my issues and get the medicine I needed...which was an inhaler for my nonexistent asthma and Claritin for my newly developed allergies. God bless that doctor. It was so hard waking up everyday and feeling like complete crap. Wondering if I’d make it through the day. Wondering if whatever I had would eventually progress to something worse. I was so scared, and it made adjusting to this new life THAT much harder. But I feel like I can now look at things a bit differently, I’m very happy for that. On the way back from the hospital, we bumped into Matt’s Japanese lady friend. He spoke very fondly of her, and I feel like it helped us talk to each other a bit easier. That’s the kind of guy I’m waiting for. The type to get shy and smile a lot when he talks about me. But alas, I’ve lost all hope in the male species. Even though it’s his job to help us out, I offered to buy him a drink sometime as a thank you. He was there when I really needed someone, and I was very grateful. I’m really starting to regret the first impression I had of him, I think I was really wrong.

When I was in akiba the other day, some dude popped in money on the machine next to me, waited for me to pay, then (without asking) set the game to vs. mode. Jerk face. He beat me on beginner, then I beat him on advanced, then he redeemed himself by OWNING me on expert. Lucky he was so cute when he bowed and walked away or I would’ve kicked him in his face.

Then just the other day, Ayla and I went window shopping for stores. That means we hopped on the train, and just rode around, and if we saw something interesting, we’d get off and check it out. But alas, we just ended up in Tokyo, like always.


After some shopping, Ayla wanted to get dinner and go drink. Well, she wanted to go to this bar that she likes, and since I’m always dragging her around, I agreed. The bartender was soooo cute. But an older man. haha. Still, cute. So we sat there drinking and giggling in a bar not much bigger than our living room back home. Oh, let me just mention all the wonderful comments I said about him…I later found out he understood. Afterward, we did an hour of karaoke...nomihodai (which is all you can drink) Sometimes its person/hour. Sometimes it’s room/hour. Then went BACK to the other bar, because it was still early, and that bartender was still cute. Who was there but MATT, program coordinator! Studying to take the level 2 Japanese test. And it’s really hard too. Some japanese people even have trouble with it, not unlike our SATs in America. Since he was there, I bought him a beer, like I offered, and we sat there cracking up over the incredibly stupid things that Ayla and I would say. She likes to drink, I’m not a fan, so I don’t think we work out in that aspect, haha. But anyway, it was a really fun night (And no, I didn’t take those drugs while drinking. Because that would be dumb, right? right.)

At school, the Japanese students have finally returned. I’ve spoken to a few, but just the friends of people I already know. It’s really hard to just walk up to someone and talk to them, I don’t even do it in America where I can speak the language. But pretty much all of the students are really nice. And in the 'English lounge' –I don’t think it’s really called that, but may as well be-- all the people hang out who want to meet international students. And they each speak Japanese and English to each other. Today is the first day of dance practice for the club I want to join. Keishya and I are going to go watch and meet some people. Others, including Ayla, may join us. I’m easily the biggest girl they’ve ever had want to join their club, plus I have no experience, but I think I can do it. Wish me luck :)


Also, just for giggles, I asked Matt if my Jasso will still be made available to me in the off months. Like, when I’m in Osaka in December through March, can I still get jasso, and he said...YES. It piles up. So if I don’t go there and get it, by the time I return in march, I would have collected $2400 from jan-march. Pretty cool right?

Today I’m meeting up with Tomoki after class and buying tickets to a MUCC CONCERT in November. I just hope they’re not sold out already :( Only thing to do after that…is find someone to come with me, haha. I’m buying 2. If an American comes, they have to buy the ticket. But if a Japanese person takes me, they’re not paying, and here’s why. They’re going to have to show me how to get there, and the rules of the venue and such. They’re basically going as a tour guide and translator. Haha, but I hope I can find someone who actually LIKES their music and would really like to go. That would be awesome. Too bad Sarah isn’t here :(

*edit* 9.23.08

So yesterday, as I said, was the first day of dance practice. After a ton of stretching and a pretty fun warm-up, practice began. I feel like even the freshman there knew everyone and knew how practice was handled, but us JSP’s were just a bit clueless, so I asked. Apparently, after warmup the groups are split. For the first half hour it’s hiphop or lock. Then it switches to jazz or pop (pop & lock) for 30 miuntes. I think house met after everything was done and over. But yeah, because of this, you learn a little of the dance each week, and you’re able to learn different styles. I ended up in hiphop and jazz. Though I wouldn’t say they’re easy – because they’re not – they are easily less involved than freestyle or pop & lock. But I gotta say, after only 1 hour of dancing…I was hurting, lol. You guys back home know I can dance for hours, but this stuff is just a little crazy. I’m wondering if I’m really going to be able to do it :( But I’m going to try really hard. I’m even giving up shopping trips to Tokyo so I don’t miss practice, which is every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Ugh. The 2 who were leading hiphop, Miki and Hiro, are incredibly nice. While everyone else was owning the dance, me and the other 5 white girls were struggling to figure out not only what they were doing, but what they were saying. Eventually I was tired of not getting and asked Hiro to show us again, SLOWLY. Then Miki took over since time was up and he had to move onto the next group. She really took her time with us, over and over until we were ready to move on. It helps a lot that they both can speak English, but every time they tried to, I told them no, haha. “This is a Japanese club, and you’re Japanese. I’m trying to join a Japanese club, in Japan…so I need to be speaking Japanese!.....but for now please explain again in English” HAHA! So now I know the part of the dance we need to know for this week, now it’s all about practicing it and learning to execute it better and make it look natural. But I think by tomorrow, we’ll be learning the next part, and that worries me. It’s pretty hard to practice at home since I’m on the second floor with wooden floors and I don’t want to disturb the parentals. I think I may drag Keishya around Kawagoe or Kasumigaseki and try to find a place we can practice outside of the club. Oh, and btw, Hiro is freaking HOT. He’s like 6’5”, shaved head, and just a BIG guy. Me and Ayla were just like o_O *blank stare* *drool* And he still seems to be a perfect gentleman even though he’s gotta know he’s so freakin cool. Apparently all this practice now is for the school festival in the beginning of November. I really hope I become good enough to be in it. After practice, we went to old fashioned for a drink – and to stare at the bartender – then headed home. BTW, he’s not married. I asked.

For now, I must go get dressed. I’m meeting Ayla and Keishya for a bit of shopping.

Japanese Karaoke room for larger parties

Here's a PERFECT example of NOMIHODAI

Here's a perfect example of what happens when you order nomihodai

One of Shrines I visited. It's a shrine, right? Not a temple? Who knows.

Cleanse yourselves!

Very pretty

Cosplayer in Akihabara. Not all cosplayers are cute maids and kitties...

Private room at a bar and restaurant near campus.

LEO! I finished 3 beers that night. Are you proud of me? :P

Me and the bartender from old fashioned. Don't let that awkward smile fool you. I wanna see this guy on Ninja Warrior sometime. Haha! He makes me special drinks when I ask since I don't like alcohol much. Bailey's and Kahlua on ice...delicious!

No more Camp Rock theme, tired of tryig to find a title for my posts from song lyrics, lol

Too cute, right?!
9.7.08

Small updated from yesterday (as I post this, from Saturday). So, a bunch of JSP peoples met up for a day in Tokyo. The original plan was to go to Shinjuku, which we did, but inevitably ended up in Harajuku which was like 4 minutes away. In Shinjuku, we made it as far as a discount store (where I bought Leo something nice, from one of MY favorite designers. He’s not big into fashion, but it’ll look nice on him I think, and he should be able to get some use out of it) which carried some awesome Vivienne stuffs, that I didn’t buy, haha. After that, we hit up the Hello Kitty gift shop. They had sooo much Kuromi stuff, but I limited myself to a phone charm, and my first vending machine toy…h. Naoto Kitty! HAHA! From there, we had an awesome Korean lunch, full of laughs.

Tomoki, my PA, is pretty much the cutest thing ever. He’s timid (which is funny, because he doesn’t like shy girls) but pretty much everything that comes out of his mouth is so funny. After lunch, we met up with some other people who wanted to go to Harajuku, and umm…went to Harajuku. While trying to avoid the scary black people who lurk there, I ducked behind the alley leading me to Takuya Angel’s store again, with some hope that my persistence would once again pay off, and it SO did. IT WAS OPEN! Not only was it open, but TAKUYA WAS THERE! And I got a picture with him! AND I BOUGHT THE BAG I’VE BEEN STARING AT FOR 3 YEARS! AND I MET TAKUYA! AND A PICTURE! AND A BAG! Oh, and some gloves for winter of course.


ME AND TAKUYASAAAAAAAAAAA~N!

I’m so ready for this freezing cold Japanese people talk about. I’m tired of this heat. Everyday, I’m ready for bed by 8, but force myself to stay awake until 9. After that, we hit up a couple more small stores, and the mall I mentioned before.
h. Naoto Shop
ALGONQUINS!

But as Sean said, everything starts to look the same after a while. He said Takuya’s store was the thing he was most excited about just because it was the crazy type of fashion he had been wanting to see since coming to Japan. He even got a picture with some of Takuya’s new cyber gear, lol.

Oh, and I must remember to copy some of mucc’s music for him. He said that if he likes it, he may go to the concert with me in couple months. Otherwise *sigh* I’ll have to go alone. And believe you me, I WILL! There’s no way I’m spending 10 months in Japan and NOT seeing mucc on a stage at LEAST once. While in Harajuku, we were about to cross the street when a small parade started coming down the street...with TAIKOS! And this dude I took a picture of walked up like, RIGHT next to me. Too exciting.

So after completing our shopping escapades in Condomania, we went to a pasta restaurant for dinner in Harajuku, and then headed home. Some dude was watching a B’z concert on his ipod – probably preparing for the new album release on the 17th – which prompted me to bust out my own to listen to some B’z. It was a pretty fun train ride home. Over all, it was probably one of my best days here in Japan so far. I spent it with 2 really great people. And even though they have their own intertwined past, coming from the same school and all, they made me feel like we had known each other for a fairly long time. Minus this crappy cold that won’t go away, I feel my morale has been lifted just a bit, and I think this week will be better. For now, I have Japanese homework I must do, golf I must watch, and then I think we’re going to dinner with another one of my host sisters, 1 I have not yet met.

That's me with a boob stress ball...yup...