Supply Drop!

WOOOOOO! My "Supply Drop" came today! This makes an otherwise sucky Wednesday into AWESOME FEST!

My lovely Michael and my Mum got together to ship me out a nice care package. It was thoroughly inspected by customs and neatly assembled again with nothing removed (Japanese Customs FTW!) and it contained many delicious things:

Gardetto's Rye Chips
Mint Milano Cookies
1lb Bag of Regular M&Ms
1lb Bag of Peanut M&Ms
Single bag of Peanut Butter M&Ms
EXTRA CRUNCHY PEANUT BUTTER <3
A bag of Peanut Butter Kisses
One of those Campbell's Soup on the Go in Cream of Broccoli (Om nom nom)
A self heating container of Hot Cocoa
A bag of Marshmallows (never know when they might come in handy!)

On the material side of things I got some of the best things ever:

A pink coffee mug with "LOL" inscribed into it. (LOL.)
Two reusable grocery bags (1 from Meijer, another from Family Fare)
A black cat plushie
The #44 Seeley Sheep
A pair of socks? (Michael, are these yours?)
and to aid me in my learning of TEH KANJI...

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Limited Edition Nintendo DS Lite. It's Atomic White with the pink ribbon in the upper right corner. A charitable donation of the proceeds go to the Komen Foundation. So I can play my games AND save breasts!

I definitely have some good, wholesome comfort food now <3

Thanks Michael! Thanks Mum!

I Left My Umbrella In Harajuku

Yesterday was a leisurely day of getting a whole page done on my research paper (always the hardest part!) and then going to Harajuku to participate in a market research dohickey about electric shavers and giving them as gifts to boyfriends or husbands. For the two hours I spent there, I made 10,000 yen. Not bad compensation for just talking about what we like in a shaver, packaging, and set options.

Met some really cool expats there as well. Kelly is a shoemaker (old school, sewing soles and stuff), Jaime is an English teacher, India teaches at Waseda, Kelly works at a PR and marketing firm along with Malaya, and Mari was a student as well, I think. Everyone but me and Jaime spoke fluent enough Japanese but I used mine as best I could. I aspire to be like the other women who were just fantastic (Mari is exempt, seeing as how she's half-Japanese)

Didn't get much of a chance to take pictures of Harajuku this time. There were a lot of kidlets in Halloween costumes though, it was cute. I think they were trick-or-treating in the department store. I saw a guy dressed up as a Saiyajin (Saiyan from Dragonball Z) and I tried to ask for a picture, but he was all, "10,000 yen! 10,000 yen!" ...yeah, right. Sorry. I might be white, but I'm not stupid, asshole.

Then when I was on the train heading home I realized...I left my umbrella at the interview room for the market research. Le sigh. I'll have to pick up another one soon.

Got home, ate dinner, watched a movie, studied some Japanese and hit the hay.

So a Persian, a Korean, and White Chick walk into a Mexican Bar in Japan...

Considering I missed the Canada House Ball due to a bout of feeling like crap, when Roxanna and Sojin invited me out to Los Cabos in Roppongi, I decided to go along. And you know what? It was fun. I learned that Roxanna and Sojin are perhaps two of the greatest gals I have met since arriving here. They were doing Jagerbombs while I kept to a nice cocktail favorite: Fuzzy Navels. I drank about two of those before they busted out the sake. Sojin's been here three weeks and she's already getting depressed about having to leave in a few months.

Here's the run down, Sojin is from New York, her parents own a fish market. A month or two ago, the market burned down and they've been struggling ever since. Sojin worries that while she has no doubt she'll stay in contact with me and Roxy, she wishes she could stay longer in Japan as she's not sure if she'll ever be able to come back.

I know the feeling all too well. She's as worried about money as I am.

Me and Roxy tried our best to keep her in high spirits, but me and Roxy soon found ourselves feeling the depression too as we're both relatively smart girls who just have no guidance in life (Sojin hasn't decided on a major)...

I'm really glad they came to the dorm. It's nice to have good neighbors (literally. Sojin's in 217, I'm in 218, and Roxanna's in 219!)

Good news for today: I'm going to Harajuku to participate in a Market Research thingy mabobber and I also got a certified mail from AU which is my rebate check for being 22 years old (apparently) and signing a contract with them. Suddenly this week got better, Silent Bob.

Lunch with ZE GIRLZ, Paper Slacking, and Japanese Angst

I'll just keep this brief:

I had lunch with Mariko and Noriko, which was fun. Mariko lived in Canada for four years and Noriko is the head of the Ikebana club on campus, which I hope to join next term, time permitting.

I'm only a paragraph in on my HST 321 paper. Go me. GET TO WORK, SLACKER!

Still not getting Japanese as fast as I'd like. I know everyone says to just go and use it, but it's rather hard to use it when you can't remember which grammar to use and no one will correct you :(

There has to be a better way. Maybe next term will be better since I'll be focusing solely on language rather than language and history zomg need the credits to graduate type stress.

Wooo. One last response paper for 221, two presentations, a project, and 2 more tests left in Japanese before the final. ZOMG.

Someone Shat in the Shower

...No, this is not a Dane Cook comedy sketch based off of the "Someone shat on the coats!" sketch, but rather, this is the second time, since I've lived in the dorm, that someone has been so unable to control their bodily functions and has shat in the shower.

The first time I was not privy to, nor did I even see any notices go up about it like this time. Karen, in fact, had been the one to walk into the shower to see a steamy pile in her shower and promptly screamed. She now avoids that particular shower like the plague, and really, who could blame her?

Today, walking into the main entry way of the dorm there's a whiteboard where announcements are often pinned up. Someone, another boarder I assume, took it upon themselves to draw a diagram of someone taking a shower normally ("O.K!") and another of someone in the shower, squatting, and dropping a deuce ("NO!"). Later when I went down to dinner the shitting stick figures were gone and an official notice was posted. One in Japanese, and one, thankfully, in English.

If it happens again, they are going to do DNA testing (or so they say). It'd be amusing if its one of the Japanese girls doing it in order to get us foreigners kicked out.

But seriously? Crapping in one of the three showers we have to share between 75 others? Not cool.

...and so, this is Japan :/

Uh, Check Please!

Past couple of days have been a blur and will continue to be as such until Mid-November. Posting and picture-taking will be sporadic at best. Rather, there won't be much variety since I'm not going to cool parts of Tokyo.

Had a bit of an emotional melt down today over the fact that I am not understanding Japanese as fast as I hope to. Stewart, that dear soul, tried to keep my optimistic by saying that while he has the better grasp of the grammar, I have been the one to correct him on other things equally as important in Japanese (vocab, how to properly write an essay on the essay paper, etc...) I still was feeling rather defeated and when I went out to go find some place to just collapse into a small ball, a wild Miki appeared. Miki is Thai, and "Miki" is actually just a nickname since being Thai and all, she has an impossible to pronounce and horrendously long first and last name. She was sweet and started to console me. Turns out she's not doing to hot in J3 and will probably go through Intensive 2 with me (meaning she's retaking J3 more or less and then learning J4) so for the first half I'll have someone with experience to lean on.

I didn't do so hot on another test. A little better than the last test (by a whole point!) but still, worrisome. Professor Sato had me come to her office today to review the test and she agrees that it's very simple mistakes that I've been making. I can turn my grade around, I know it.

After that, I went and talked to Professor Robinson about my term paper and potential future plans. He made the recommendation of if I decide on Graduate School to look into Area Studies, since you can choose a focus and perhaps even find something that might be more to my calling as it's a cross-discipline course. Sounds like a groovy idea.

Get back to the dorm in time for dinner and I decide to email Sho (my surgeon student who offers far, far too much money) about whether or not we can meet again in the next coming weeks, though not until mid-late November due to exams and whatnot. I get this reply back:

"I would like to be your boyfriend. Can you do that?"

...

...

...

...yikes.

I emailed him backing saying, "No, I cannot do that. I am sorry. There is someone waiting for me back home." Hopefully this does not make him decide to stop conversating with me. If all he wanted was a white, American girlfriend, Craigslist might have given better results >_>;

Peace, love and kisses,
E

Of Old Korean Women

I stopped out for a brief moment to catch some lunch at the 7-11 and on my way back, and elderly woman, must have been about 70-80 years old, stops dead in her tracks, smiles at me, and then starts to twirl in circles with arms outstretched. She gestures for me to join her, so I do. Afterwards, she continues to bow deeply, far more deeper than she should since I am so young compared to her, and she grabs my hand while repeatedly going "Arigatou gozaimashita! Arigatou gozaimashita!" When I asked why, she said "I am Korean."

She kept holding my hand while bowing, the smile never left her face.

I don't know what I had done to make the old woman so happy, but it was the first time since I've been here that someone seemed so happy that I was here.

I think she lives in the neighborhood. Hopefully I'll see her again.

Of Sharkfin Soup and Jellyfish

Yesterday was a busy day. I went to campus to study Japanese with a fellow classmate, perused through bibliographies while looking for sources for my research paper, and then later I had a student to go conversate in English with.

Sho is the biweekly student on account that he is a busy surgeon. He was also the student who, during the trial lesson, stayed for 30 minutes and paid me 5000 yen (~$50). Well, today he was running late and offered, due to this, to take me out to dinner.

Now color me weary. I've been fairly paranoid and at first I thought I should call it off, but then I remembered that if it wasn't a public place, I had told Roxanna to message me every so often so I could use one as an excuse to get out.

After a half an hour of trying to find the meeting spot, we head to the Keio Plaza hotel, which is ritzy beyond ritzy. Lot of 5-star restaurants in there. Most of them were closing when we arrived so we ended up going to the authentic Chinese restaurant. He ordered (since I sure as hell didn't know what to pick) and it ended up being like...an 8-course meal along with wine and desert and good heavens. I ate things like Jellyfish, Sharkfin Soup, Peking Duck...you know, shit that I would never imagine in all my years to be eating.

And it was good, too. I'm going to assume insanely pricey, but very good. Probably the best meal I ate in my entire life.

So we start discussing a various manner of things. Religion, politics, philosophy, sad, sad, sad state of the global economy. At about that time he pays me up front and just gives a happy old man smile.

...It was 20,000 yen. That's pretty much, given what the exchange rate is like, $200.

What. the. hell.

I don't know whether to be okay with this or to be more weary @_@

Pipe Wrench Fight!

(If you want to know why today's subject title is "Pipe Wrench Fight", I suggest you watch this video all the way through. It's for your own benefit!)

After two weeks of putting it off due to mixed schedules and a battle with the plague, I finally got to meet Dan J. and Dan L.'s mutual friend Dan S. (Yes, I am aware that is a lot of Dan's) Dan J. meet Dan S. through a study abroad program and Dan L. knew Dan S. from having grown up together (I think!). Both Dan J. and Dan L. are friends as well. Damn all these Dan's from California.

So! After trying to find my way to the Hachiko Exit of Shibuya station (and finding myself right smack dab in the middle of that intersection that you always see when Japan is referenced, where the entire street is mobbed by people. Yeah, I was there!). Up and above me were giant LCD screens with music, videos, everything being displayed on them. To my right was a massive billboard promoting Ayu's 10th Anniversary Song Collection and then. Then I saw the building so infamous, it was like another world...

I stood in front of Shibuya 109. THE SHIBUYA 109! The birthplace of Ko-Gal's and ParaPara girls! Not only that, but there's 109-2, which is 109 for men! ZOMG.

But I digress, of course. I finally got to meet Dan S., who is made of awesome sauce. Seriously. The dude is fluent in Japanese to point where seriously...I think they need to revoke his passport. He's Japanese. Seriously.

So we wandered around Shibuya, he told me about a lot of cool stores, we exchanged geek stories, talked about how we met Dan L. and Dan J. before heading off to dinner's at a little slice of Americana known as TGI Friday's. That's right, folks. TGI Friday's. They still have FLAIR. And damn good food. Pricey, but damn good. Dan was an amazing gentleman because when I was away in the bathroom he ended up paying for me ;~; Such a sweety.

After that, it was time for the greatest of Japanese past times. No, not baseball. No, not getting drunk to the point where you have a necktie around your head like Rambo, but true, authentic, often imitated but never quite the same...

Japanese Karaoke.

If you ever wanted to sing anime themesongs at the top of your lungs in the privacy of a swank room with a Cinderella theme...go to Japan. Seriously. It was awesome, though we weren't without our awesome between-song commentary...

About 10 minutes in...

Dan: So, the last time I did Karaoke, it was two hours of nothing but Gundam songs.
Me: ...o_o; *Has queued up "Just Communication" from Gundam W* ...Uh-oh...
Dan: ZOMG I LOVE TWO MIX!! *Squee's, and queue's up "Rhythm Emotion"*
Me: *_*;

30 Minutes in...

Dan: *singing some really strange ass song*
Me: WTF?
Dan: I dunno. I seriously think people were high when they wrote this song.
Me: With lyrics that repeat, "Star Rider, Star Romancer" with crazy scenery with a guy who looks like a Rasta...I'd believe it.

Some 2982743 minutes in...

Dan: We should sing the last song together. Any ideas?
Me: I'm down with Bowie, The Cure, Billy Idol...Anything from the 80s is good...
Dan: Billy Idol? How about "Dancing With Myself"? ...fuck, they only have "Mony Mony".
Me: Cyndi Lauper?
Dan: Oh GOD no. Hmm...AH! "Take On Me!"
Me: Dude, did you see the literal version of that on BoingBoing?
Dan: BAND MONTAGE!
Me: PIPE WRENCH FIGHT!
*Insert really bad high pitched singing*

Many LOLZ were had. Also, as it would turn out, Dan works for a CD production company, and has met with many Japanese bands and stuff. He asked if I liked JPop and Rock and I do, occasionally. I did like Visual Kei back in the day and that immediately brought up Malice Mizer and Moi Diz Mois to him. And I will forever, forever envy that man for he has met, conversed, and done business with perhaps the most talented man in all of Visual Kei history: Mana.

I nearly died. So I met a guy who's talked face-to-face with Mana. ;~; Mana-sama~!

Okay, nerdgasm over. Onto my song list!

I think this is a complete listing of what I sang:

Utada Hikaru - Beautiful World (Evangelion Theme)
Ayumi Hamasaki - Evolution
Two Mix - Just Communication (Gundam W Theme)
Two Mix - Rhythm Emotion (Gundam W Theme)
Round Table ft. Nino - Let Me Be With You (Chobits Theme)
Tommy February6 - Lonely In Gorgeous (Paradise Kiss Theme)
Peach Hips - Moonlight Legend (Sailor Moon Theme)
MELL - Red Fraction (Black Lagoon Theme)
Koda Kumi - Real Emotion (Final Fantasy X-2 Theme)
Mizuki Nana - Hime Murasaki (Basilisk Ending Theme)
Takahashi Hitomi - Aozora no Namida (Blood + Theme)
Hayashibara Megumi - Cruel Angel's Thesis (Evangelion Theme)
Malice Mizer - Gardenia
Gackt - Emu ~ For My Dear
Kosaka Riyu - Love Shine
A-Ha - Take On Me (PIIIIIIPE WREEEENCH FIIIIIIGHT!)

...they had songs from like everything. Azumanga, Oh! My Goddess, I! My! Me! Strawberry Eggs (!!)...

I need to do this Karaoke thing again soon. Need to better plot my plan of attack!

So now, Dan's going to link me to some good VK bands that he thinks I'll like, and also an invite to Mixi (Think MySpace/Facebook + Japan, and that's Mixi)

I had a great night. It was nice to get out for a little bit and meet new friends :)

=(

Today was a rather weird day. Not because it was bad, nor good, but it rates somewhere in the middle. I was actually able to sleep and be fully rested (\o/!), I finished up two papers (\o/!), I called my Daddy (\o/!), Daddy-O was in the hospital (-_-;), Daddy-O has an infection in his pancreas (-_-;) and my best friend's health isn't doing so well either (-_-;). It rates as a "bleh" day on my meter. Pretty much the only other thing I did was go to the local shrine and pray for both of their healths.

Say what you want about pagan, heathen, whatever religions...I never felt more serene and calm in a church as I have in an outdoor shrine in Japan.

I wish the best for both of their sakes. As much as me and my dad are as different as night and day and regardless of his past, he's still my daddy ;~;

Exchange Pains

For those of you who said I shouldn't worry myself with the entire economy going down the crapper don't know how much the exchange rate depends on stock trading and how badly its effecting me. It's currently 100 yen to 1, which is 1:1 ratio. This makes me very uncomfortable and worried and I pray for a speedy recovery.

Wherein I get a lot of use out of my bike

The legs, they burn with a righteous fury. I have done not well by them. Biking everyday to class and back, futzing around Fuchu and what not. Yeah, they're angry. But at the same time, the more I don't bike, the more it hurts. So biking feels good, strangely. Just not when it's raining, it's dark, and I have to put the lamp on my bike which is pedal powered (making it twice as hard to pedal).

Today was another one of them "long days". You're probably asking, well, it's a Sunday, what could be so long. It's the weekend, it's chill time, it's all good.

Au contraire, mon frere.

Today was not just any Sunday, but I had an early student today who wanted to meet in Mitaka (so basically, near my school). Seeing as how I am an early riser, the 9:30 appointment was of no issue. Woke up, ate some yogurt, pedaled to Mitaka to the McD's, got a quick breakfast (om nom nom) and waited for Sho (my student) to arrive.

Sho is an older gentleman, older than my first student even, and was much more relaxed and not as rigid as the first student. He's a surgeon who specializes in gastro-intestinal cancer and anything pertaining to the gut area. We talked a lot and that's pretty much what he pays me for: to talk. Strange, isn't it?

What is stranger is that he ended up needing to leave half way through our trial lesson and on top of that, he paid me more than THREE TIMES my price. That's right, what was supposed to be about a 1500 yen session became a 5000 yen session.

Holy fuck.

I see him again on the 18th. He's biweekly, considering how busy the schedule of a surgeon is. Dare I hope that I get 5000 yen each time @_@

So I pack my stuff up from McD's and go to pull out my bike when a wild Rachael appears! Not wanting to go back home only to ride back two hours later for a make up class session, I decide to follow her to this English speaking church she found. It wasn't until we were riding for like a half hour when I realized that we had rode from Mitaka to Kichijouji. Color me amazed since I was like, "Holy crap, I've rode from Fuchu to Mitaka to Kichijouji! There's nothing I can't do!" We met up with Katie, Abigail, Greg, and two others whose names I cannot remember and headed to the church.

I won't go much into the church thing. It wasn't really engaging, and I dunno...didn't really "feel" anything there.

So, after the service runs late, me and Katie have to haul ass back to campus for our make up class (We have the same class and are both on Festival Committee). On our way back we pass Inokashira Park and see some sort of awesome festival/open market thing happening and we're both like, "To ditch class, to not ditch class..." Considering that after class we were all going to a Korean Yakiniku restaurant, we opted for class. It didn't seem as long as it normally did, which was nice. Probably because it was done earlier in the day.

Note to self: Korean food is tasty, when you can avoid the really spicy food.

It was really nice to be able to talk to my classmates in a more relaxed setting. Noe is half-Japanese half-American, born in Tokyo but lived in the States for awhile and went to school here, Mizuki (or "Miz") is really awesome too. She lives in Kichijouji. Both have offered to hang out with me and show me the ropes of Tokyo, for which I am grateful.

Then it was the long ride home. I'm hot, I'm tired, my legs are sore. I'm going to go chill for a bit and study for my quiz tomorrow.

Dean's Reception and Yasukuni Shrine

The last few days. Woo. How tiring. Wednesday I all but passed out. Thursday, I went home after class and vegetated before going out to Shinjuku to tutor my first, permanent student (for now). Then I came back home and vegetated some more. I was sore as hell. The biking has been working my legs hard and all the walking around I have to do...woo. I've lost like...3 kilograms since I arrived, no lie.

Friday was one of those days. I had my second major Japanese test and afterwards I high tailed it to the library to forward my annotated bibliography to myself so I could print it off for my History class later in the day as well as renting out books for my other History class' research paper on Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After classes, it was straight to the Festival Committee Workshop to paint and socialize. Rena and Maya were very talkative and Yuka was a new face. The four of us were on the inside of the workshop cutting out foam letters and numbers and painting them black. Yuka was a major help as she forced me to talk in Japan and actively engaged me in conversation instead of ignoring me like everyone else.

I also ordered my commemorative festival 2008 hoodie and happi, so when I come back home I will have some special items to remind me of my time in the committee.

After painting in the workshop, it was time for the Dean's Reception. This was basically another forced get together for all us September students to get together, get a free dinner (Mmm, curry and dim sum? Yes plz.) When there I was given a bamboo flower vase that was cut that day (Thanks to Maria, from Spain!). Free food aside, it was a fun shindig. Then it was the long bike ride home. I promptly fell asleep.

Today I was up at my normal time (6:30-7:00) and started to get ready for my trip to Yasukuni. Takeyoshi was kind enough to suggest hanging out and going to the Shrine was a good way to kill two birds with one stone. I'd get to go to the Shrine for my project and I'd have a native speaker to help me find my way around the craziness that is Shinjuku station.

The Shrine was beautiful for something so controversial. For those uninformed, Yasukuni Shrine is where the souls of Japan's war dead are enshrined as kami. This includes everyone from the lowest peon soldier to those who were found guilty of Class A War Crimes (I.e. Hideki Tojo). The reason the shrine is so controversial is when Japanese leaders, such as Prime Ministers and the heads of Government Ministries visit it. The rest of Asia is not quite happy with how those in power seem to be glorifying Japan's war past (vis a vis the worshipping of the souls there, including the Class A Criminals). Yasukuni is in a way to Japan like our War Memorials are to us back home.

We ended up going to the museum attached to the Shrine (the Yushukan) so I could inspect the exhibits to see from what scope they were presenting their own history, as was to be expected, it never once cast Japan's aggression in the Pacific in the negative light. Everything was, "Japan was fighting against evil Imperialist forces to protect their Asian brothers." Heck, it even white washed older Japanese history (ie. Hideyoshi's aggression in Korea in the late 16th century). It was not surprising, all things considered. I did write my Senior Thesis on how Japan's government actively tries to re-write history...

Throughout the museum, Takeyoshi was lightly ribbing me. I think he has a crush on me, because when we were looking at the amulets the miko (Shrine Priestess') were selling, he pointing out the one for finding boyfriends. Starting inquiring if I had a boyfriend, etc, etc. He's called me cute on several occasions and likes my Japanese pronunciation...

He wanted me to go home with him after the museum to watch a movie but I opted out of it, you know...just in case my favorite mild mannered Osakan was really a crazy repressed Japanese guy who would potentially harm a small white chick ^_^;...

I bought a few Hinomaru (The name of Japan's flag) stickers, a cellphone strap, a metal komon sticker (Family Crest. Oddly enough, it looks like the same crest used in L5R for the Imperial family...whichever one is sitting on the throne, that is). I got my brother something I know he will love, that crazy goof. I hope he likes it.

There'll be a photo update on my blog shortly :D

Love you all~

Long Days, But Worth It!

My Wednesday's are perhaps the most hellish day of the week for me. I have class from 10:00am to 7:00pm, non-stop. That's right. Nine hours of class in one day. Granted it gets my once a week class out of the way, but it's nothing short of mind breaking when today was the first day of Kousen (my particular group in the Festival Committee...we're basically PR and advertising) began working in the workshop on the banners and signs and wooden constructs to put up around campus for the festival. That went until about an hour ago.

Before I headed there, I lounged in the library for awhile and ran into Takeyoshi again. He stopped in his tracks and looked at me like I had grown a second head. Apparently my outward appearance (read: HAGGARD) caused such an alarm that he dragged me to some chairs to sit and talk for a bit. I've been sleeping fine, it's just mostly stress and all that jazz from the past two weeks, my prior depression, the failing of a quiz, stuff like that. I'm also pretty lonely and don't go out much because I don't really have many friends to go out with.

That's when he told me that any time I want to go out, I just need to call him and we'll go hang out. He's new to Tokyo too (Takeyoshi is originally from Osaka) so we're exploring it together. I just get the bonus added of having a fluent Japanese speaker with me so I don't get lost, end up in Roppongi working at an S&M bar...

I really had fun today all things considered. Painting in the workshop felt great, and everyone was so friendly. I still get a little giddy when they call me "Erykah-chan!" and the occasional "Kawaii"'s throw me through a loop...but they like me, think I'm cool and are happy to have me on board. And I'm happy to be there.

Woo. Tomorrow I have my second trial tutoring session with another old Japanese business guy. This one seems like serious business, so I hope the impression I make is a good one. Go, go Money!

Tomorrow I'm also taking my Camera with me to Workshop and subsequently to Yasukuni on Saturday and to class (yes, class. A makeup period) on Sunday because after class, the entire group is going to a Korean restaurant for dinner. Yum yum. Time to see the professor get drunk XD

Now, back to homework!