And After All, You're My Wonderwall

Hey all! How goes it? 
I haven't been doing anything really strikingly new, so I'm short on photos this week. I'll add a really interesting video I saw just yesterday at the bottom of the post. It was directed by Amano Yoshitaka, who was the person in charge of the character design for Final Fantasy for a long time, and who is also one of my most favourite artists ever. Between him, Alphonse Mucha, Michaelangelo, and Shibamoto Thores, I am a very happy girl.


All right, I'm going to be honest with all of you: this week has been, by my standards, very spending-heavy. Tomorrow, too, I expect, I will be blowing a lot of money. 
So I guess I'm happy that I've saved so much overall, huh? And of course, I've been saving money along the way, as well.
Guess we'll start off with the recap. 


Thursday I started to really want a real steak, since I've not had one since I've been in the states [almost time to celebrate my two-months away from home!]. So, I went with a couple of friends to a steak joint that's right by the dormitory--which has been a real temptation, walking past every day on the way home from school--and got myself a steak. And a student discount, since I'm a college kid. It was delicious and heavenly and steak-like, and since it was part of a set meal, I also had a lovely portion of ice cream towards the end.
So I suppose that's a good tip for money saving: in a lot of places, just like in America, if you ask or if they assume you're in college, people will give you discounts for various things. For instance, that red paper that I had bought last week for my friend's birthday party? It was expensive, but since I'm in college, I got 20% off. On that note, does anyone have suggestions on what to do with a lot of super-thin red tissue paper? I still have most of the package left [guess it was worth the money, huh?]. Guess I'm going to have to get creative.
That's all that really happened on Thursday. After I came home, I did my homework and then went to bed; it was simple enough. I couldn't be bothered to do too much that night, as I was really tired.


Friday evening, I went on a spontaneous trip with some friends of mine to Tama Centre, which has some shopping centres and the like. They were looking for birthday presents for a friend of theirs that I've only just recently met, so I was pretty much just tagging along for the ride.
We wound up eating out again, this time at an Indian Restaurant, which gave us another pretty big discount as broke college students. Even though they were on their dinner menu by the time we got there, they gave us the option from ordering from the [much] cheaper lunch menu. 

They also had these little cuties outside of the entryway.

Two of my favourite animals side by side.

I wanted to take them home with me.

I was out with them until maybe around nine-thirty, after which I came home, watched some shows online, and then went to bed. It had been a very long week, and I was tired of it. 


Saturday was devoted to that online show that I had begun [a friend of mine recently has gotten me into the Game of Thrones HBO series. Yay, Sean Bean!] and laundry. It was at this point that I, much to my dismay, used what was left of my laundry detergent.
There was also an awesome nap somewhere in-between all of this. It lasted several hours, and I felt much better after the fact. 


Sunday, I went to my usual place of helping to tutor English; they've also started trying to help me with my Japanese, as well, which has been really beneficial for me. 
I spent the rest of that evening hanging out with another friend of mine for the first time outside of school. We went to Machida and got some shopping done. 
Both much-needed and much-spontaneous shopping. In Machida, there is a five-story 100 yen shop, which has absolutely everything and anything a person could ever want. 

Of course, if you broke the rules, severe punishment was in store.

Don't cat.

Do not cat.

Although it said nothing about not being allowed to dog. So I assume that to dog is okay.

I bought myself a new broom and some other odds and ends, such as a lot of spices and some new laundry detergent. After the birthday party on the Saturday before last, my first broom, which we used for a piñata bat, has since been AWOL. This broom is probably better, though; it's tall enough for me, so I don't have to sweep hunched over and in pain.
After combing through the floors of the enormous 100 yen shop, my friend and I then went over to a few hobby stores, and finally to my favourite place so far here, besides the art and fabric shops: Village Vanguard. It's really expensive most of the time, but the stuff inside of the store is just so obscure and awesome that I cannot help myself. To add a bit of spice to my painfully white room, I bought myself a 550 yen poster of Ganesh. 

If I'm not careful, my room will start to look a bit like a headshop. 

If I can get my hands on the right potpourri, it may start to smell like one soon, too.

... 

That really doesn't sound like a bad idea, though, now that I think about it. We'll see.

After Village Vanguard, my friend and I then went to the cheap Italian joint that I mentioned a while back. To prove it's cheapness: to feed two people [with extra garlic bread, a drink bar, and a dessert to split], it was only 1,500 yen. And it's actually good food, which I think is the best part of it all to me. It was really odd to go into a restaurant with a broom, though, I must admit. We came back home shortly thereafter, and she showed me a store in Fuchinobe that specialised in CD/multimedia rentals and thrift-store clothes. I joined the rental section because it was a day that it was free to join, and it was 100 yen per rental. I rented four CDs. 
A good tip for those of you who can potentially fit into Japanese clothing [I'm a little too tall for most things] would be too look into finding these thrift stores. The clothes were good quality and really cheap, for Japanese clothing. 
After looking around there, we came back, though, so there's not much to write about Sunday beyond that.


Monday... Oh, boy, Monday. [Happy belated Memorial Day. I wish I had had a three-day weekend, as well.]
After class, I knew I needed to go to the grocery store. I went to the cheap store that I've told you about earlier--and I also decided to buy a little bit in bulk. Keep in mind that I was by myself, and it's about a mile-long walk from school to the grocery store. I wasn't thinking very well, obviously, because the walk back, with my book bags and two very full grocery bags, was torturous. I did it, though, and once I got to the bus, had the good fortune to find a seat in which to sit instead of it being too crowded. 
I came back home, ate slowly to help myself get to feeling a little better, and then of course spontaneously decided to clean my balcony floor [because it looked as though it hadn't been cleaned since the place was built]. So when my attempted nap failed, I got a bowl of soapy water and, armed with my new broom, began to clean.
About halfway through, I had to get up and get something from my kitchenette, so I walked back inside. On the way back outside, I slipped and fell, banging up one of my toes pretty badly. After that, I just became incredibly accident prone, running into things and banging my elbows a few times.
So I decided to sit down after I finished cleaning and just... Stay sitting for as long as possible before bed. 
It wasn't a bad day, though. On the contrary, I was actually really amused and in a generally good mood, so it was quite funny to me. But it was a little painful. 


Tuesday my body felt the aftermath of Monday. I was a pained mess, and it was really difficult to make it through my long day feeling as bad as I did. When I could move around, I would gladly do so, but sitting still for prolonged periods of time, unable to sleep or really rest, became rather... Excruciating, I suppose is a good word. I'm glad I went to school, though, because I got to see an incredibly visually-pleasing video in my literature class [which you will see in just a little while, too! I'm so excited.]. After class, though, I wound up going to a second, more expensive grocery store with a friend of mine to pick up a few ingredients I lacked. Afterwards, I made myself breakfast for dinner and decided to sleep as early as I could.
It proved to be a good decision, because I feel much better today. 


I haven't done much today, but in about an hour and a half, I should be going out to see some friends of mine. I'm not sure, though--I told my friend to let me know what he found out, so we'll see how it goes. Anyway, I wanted to go ahead and write this now so I wouldn't be sleepy by the time I finally could write it when I got back. 
I feel that these reports come out a little better when I'm not so tired. 


So, I did spend a lot, as you may can tell, but along with those little tips I threw in and amongst my recap, there was also something else that I feel I did really well.
With my buying in bulk at the small grocery that's so far away, I also found cans of drinks that are most commonly available in vending machines. The cheapest I've ever found these vending machines for, however, is 100 yen. 
I got two drinks: café au lait for 39 yen a can, and melon soda for 27 yen a can. 
The vending machines are convenient, certainly, but that convenience comes with a serious price inflation. Be careful, all right?


That's really all for this week, though. Ready for the video?
All right. It's based off of Natsume Souseki's seventh dream in his short story collection Ten Nights of Dreams. So, since it is supposed to be a dream, it's not supposed to make an incredible amount of sense [unless you feel like analysing it. If you want to, please feel free], but since it's Amano Yoshitaka, I am absolutely in love with the graphics. 
There were some things in the video different from the story, but it's the same basic idea.
So, please enjoy it~. 



Watch 7th Dream in Animation  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com


Next time, I'll see about having more pictures for all of you. Have a good week!

-RD

And You're a Far Cry From an Empire

Hey hey~
How's your week been going? Really, you guys should actually like... Tell me some time. I'm curious. 
Hope that everything's great.


This week I haven't done so much as far as adventure, but it has been a lot of fun and I haven't had to spend too much money doing it, so it's pretty exciting to tell you about. 
We'll also have a food section this week to compensate my lack of travel. xD;

Birthday parties and home made piñatas.
Glorious birthday parties and piñatas. 

Here we have edamame [soybeans], an octopus [my baby!], and a whale.

That's pretty much what happened all throughout the rest of last week after I left you guys. 
Thursday, after class I went to go visit a friend of mine and watch a movie that she had been really wanting me to see--We Bought a Zoo, the new one with... is it Matt Damon? in it. It was a good film, really. I was surprised--didn't expect so much out of it.
After the film, a friend of mine started haggling me, because his birthday had been on Tuesday and he wanted to throw a party that Saturday with everyone. He wanted me to help him make piñatas, because they don't have them in Japan. 
So those piñatas you saw in the above photo were completely handmade by myself, him, and a friend of ours whose birthday had also been the Tuesday previous. 
In all actuality, we should have started them much sooner than we did, perhaps Tuesday or Wednesday, since that would have given us more time to let it dry properly and actually work a little harder on the details and all. But we started Thursday night, and we still managed to get it finished, at least.

Although we were a little worried at first.

So that night we got the first layer of papier maché finished, and we called it a night. 


Friday in-between classes, I went to Machida with a friend of mine and we went to eat and then went to get purikura done of us together, because I had been wanting to do that with her since Golden Week. It was a lot of fun, and she showed me a cheap pseudo-Italian restaurant. 

A white sauce with shrimp and rice. It was really really good.

And only about 500 yen.

Also, for my mother, who wanted to see just how green melon soda can get, I took this photo: 

Seriously green.

After hanging out with my friend for a while, I had to go on back to the university to meet up with my conversation partner, who is really awesome. She's done a lot of travelling, and actually speaks English really well, so we're planning on making it a mutual study for the both of us. I'm really excited to see how this will go. We almost spent too much time talking, though, and lost track of time, and were almost late for the next class. Made it on time, though, with about thirty seconds to spare.
Class was over soon enough, and then my birthday buddy and I got back together to do more work on the piñatas. We added a new layer to the papier maché, and he and the birthday girl went to Machida to get candy and some other supplies for the birthday party Saturday. Twister, anyone? 
I went up to one of the lounges to eat dinner with some other people, and then came back after they had been back and working on it for a while. Jumping in, we got quite a lot done. The rest of the layers of newspaper [drying accelerated by a borrowed hair dryer], and then the first layers of colour on the edamame and whale, which weren't taken pictures of. The octopus was entirely mine to play with, though, and I was saving that for Saturday.

Whale was beginning to take his shape by the end of the night, too.

My room was a mess. by this point, and only due to get messier. 

Saturday the birthday boy promised to go out to an exercise park with some friends, and so it was just me and birthday girl. He hadn't expected to be long, but he only got back about two hours before the party, and so that left me and birthday girl to finish the piñatas. I didn't mind, but she got a little frustrated by the fact. 

But since I wanted to work on the piñatas by myself for a while [he was excited, and it was cute, but sometimes it just gets in the way when I know what I want to make], I was secretly quite pleased by the fact. There were a few hitches along the way that irritated me, as well, but the basic idea of having them to myself to finish was really awesome.

So, I worked on the octopus first. I was so excited: my first big art project in a long time.

Tissue paper cut into strips and layered over each other, then cut at an angle to accommodate the shape of the structure.

Looks like a lamp shade. It did, really, all the way until I added eyes.

With that much finished, birthday girl and I went to Machida so that she could buy birthday boy's birthday present [my present to him was the piñatas]  and eat lunch together. Afterwards, we came back and proceeded to finish the piñatas.

I put the face on the edamame while the rest of the paper dried on my octopus.

I also put the face on the whale, a Ghibli-styled smile.

Once the paper had dried, I began to feather it, like the piñatas back home.

And from there, I attached the eyes and tentacles and called them done. I left the candy filling to birthday boy and girl, since I'd drawn on the faces and all. And the end product, as you saw previously, was pretty great.

I was pleased, at least. Not perfect, but not bad for just three days, you know?

I also drew bizarre marine animals on all of the remaining balloons, and we hung them up in the lounge, only to be popped later, much to my distress.

There was a birthday party from then on, and after a couple of rounds of Twister and a food fight, at around eleven, I decided that it had been enough fun for me and that I wanted to call it a night. It was a lot of fun, but I'm secretly a homebody and just didn't want to stick around for much longer after that. I'm really happy that my birthday kids had a lot of fun, though.

I spent Sunday at home, cleaning my room and working on homework. Birthday boy came by to help me scrub the flour out of the floor--it's mostly gone, but I still need to go back and get the rest of it out at some point soon. But, my room is clean again, and at this moment, that's all I really care about that much.

Did I tell you all that I bought myself a pepper plant for 100 yen at the flowershop? Well, at the 100 yen store, I found bigger pots and dirt so that my plant would have some space for his roots to grow.

I got a picture: 

His name is so creative you wouldn't be able to stand it if I told you. So much creative.

I mean, who else, besides everyone else in the world, would have thought of calling a pepper plant Pepper? Really.

I just.

I amaze myself sometimes.

Living in the city has been a bit of a struggle for me; I really really like plants and trees, and not having constant access to them has really worked at getting under my skin. So, to compensate, I seem to have taken up just a little bit of gardening. Another friend of mine has bought me a pot for my plants, so I think I might buy another plant here in the near future. I thought I couldn't grow anything, but I've kept little Pepper alive [and blooming!] for about two weeks now, so maybe I'm not as bad at it as I thought I was. 

We'll see how it goes. I'll keep you updated. 

Monday was really boring, though, going back to what I've been doing during the week. I did my classwork, came home, locked myself away in my room, and finished up a huge chunk of my homework. It's made the rest of this week really easy, so that's been nice, but it was tedious and awful. I wrote two papers, did my Japanese homework, Literature and Society readings, and just some other stuff that had accidentally built up.

I was miserable by the end of the day. But it's been really nice since then. 

Tuesday is my long class day, but because of my work on Monday, it went amazingly smoothly. 

After class, I ran into a couple of friends and asked if they would want to grab a bite to eat with me since I didn't feel like eating alone, and they agreed.

So we went and had a good time, and afterwards, a friend came over for a while to help me with some grammar that I didn't understand, and we also watched another episode of a comedy that I'd shown her earlier. 

Today, of course I would forget my freaking camera. The weather was beautiful, the skies were clear, and up on the top floor of my school? You could see mountains for miles. Ugh. I was so angry when I realised I left my camera. 

What's more, my teacher took us out [since there are only four of us] to a nature reserve in Machida, and oh my gosh, it was gorgeous. 

I took a couple of pictures with my phone, though. Not as good as they would have been with my camera, but they're not terrible, at least.

The weather was nice, the people were nice, it was lovely. She wanted to show us some wild orchids that sometimes grow in large amounts around there, but they've stopped blooming by now. It was okay; the irises were blooming, and even if nothing had been, the scenery in general was so beautiful that I just didn't care. For one of the first times, I actually felt like I was in Japan--it was just like the pictures of the traditional houses with all the trees around them, with the really narrow roads and everything.

I would love to live in an area like that.

Another picture from the nature park. Down beneath us was the tiny beginning of a river--we got to see where the river started, too.

After we spent some time in the park [and saw the strangest and biggest bee ever in the history of bees], we went to the temple that's really close by. Actually, really, I think it's part of the park.

Here's an up-close view.

A view from one of the hills. Isn't it wonderful?

After we explored for a while, our teacher took us to a tofu shop and a bakery, and then we went back to class. I bought myself some fresh bread, a couple of sweets, a small thing of peanut butter to tide me over until Mom mails me some, and a small thing of coffee. It was a little bit expensive [about 10$ for everything], but so far has tasted well worth it. 

I came straight home afterwards.

So that's been this week~

Now for the food special! 

Which will also cover how I've been saving money. If you have trouble cooking and are working with a budget that looks a bit like mine, you may want to start having someone who can cook show you the basics. 

I've been trying to learn how to make as many foods as I can in order to save money. Last Thursday, while I was waiting on my friend to get to my room to start the piñatas, I made myself some gyoza, otherwise known as fried dumplings: 

They needed salt, but for it being my first time making them, I wasn't too disappointed.

The only things that are really all that expensive for Gyoza are cabbage and the meat. Of course, those are the primary ingredients for them, too. But do you see all of those? There were 36 gyoza, and I still have meat and cabbage left-over. The cost was approximately what one or two restaurant-made gyoza plates would have been, and I got two or three times the amount that I would have gotten at a restaurant. It's a little time-consuming, but if you have the time, it will save a lot of money.

I also, a long time ago, learned how to make Japanese-style curry. It's inexpensive to make at home, but at a restaurant can run you a pretty penny if you're not careful. 

Ramen shops here aren't too expensive--but it'll add up quickly if you go too often. At about 8$ a bowl, it fills you up and keeps you full for a while, so it's worth it, but... I'm trying not to make a habit of going, because I can only afford to support their business so much.

But I have paid attention to what extras they put into the ramen. In Japan, they freeze-dry some of the fancier ramens, and while it's a little more expensive than the instant ramen, it's still not as bad as going to a ramen shop and tastes almost the same. So, noticing that I had accumulated all of the add-ins, I decided to make some myself.

With the added bonus of leftover cabbage.

It tasted pretty close to what I was looking for, so it's nice to know that I can fall back on that should I ever crave real ramen and not the 25 cent kind. Of course, I'm sure this kind of treatment for the 25 cent kind would taste really good, too.

The fancy ramen at the grocery store costs about 180 yen. All of the ingredients piled together, in as small of an amount as required, might have cost about 250 yen all together. The cheapest bowl at the ramen shop is 680 yen. 

Lastly, in times when I'm low on cash, don't want to go to the ATM or to a restaurant, I kind of want to eat well, and I have a lot of vegetables? 

I make a really big omelette.

That has peppers, broccoli, cabbage, bean sprouts, green onions, and cheese all inside of that.

And it was delicious. 

I don't know how much money I saved [haven't seen anything quite like it around here], but my goodness.

I was proud of myself.

Moral of the story?

Being able to cook helps save a lot of cash.

It might not be as instant as going to a restaurant, and it might not be nearly as fun [I secretly hate cooking], but it's worth it if you need to watch how much you're spending. 

So there you have it for this week! I'll let you all know how expensive it is to get to the park as soon as I find out, and if there's any way to cut the costs on it. It was beautiful, and I'd really just like to have a picnic there some day in the near future.

'Til then, take care. 

Hope you enjoyed this week's update. I'm not falling asleep this time, so I think it's a lot better than my other ones. Haha. 

Talk to you all soon!

-RD

Re-play~

Nrahahaha. Korean pop music song today~
This song's on repeat right now. I'm a little bit addicted.


Heyo!
How are things going?
Lots of money-saving tips today! I'm really excited to tell you about them.


But first my weekly review~
I can't remember Thursday...
Okay, then! On to Friday. Haha.
Oh, wait. Thursday I had a friend come over and we ate my leftover spaghetti together. She is Korean, and she had never had fried garlic bread before. She absolutely loved it and said that, between that and my spaghetti, I'd never need to go to an Italian restaurant again. I was all sorts of flattered.
She even took a photo of the food, which I would upload, but it's on her phone and not mine.


Friday I went to class, and afterwards to my room. If I'm not mistaken, I cleaned my room and afterwards loafed around. Last weekend I felt nothing like doing my homework, so it was full of happy procrastination. After I had decided I would take a nap at an obscenely late hour (I really knew better and that I should wait until bed time), a friend called me at the perfect time and asked if I wanted to hang out. So I went up to her room, and we ate vegetable omelettes and watched three episodes of Hellsing. It was quite nice.
She was leaving for Kyoto at three in the morning, though, so I excused myself at around 9:3o to give her some time to rest before she had to go. Afterwards, I went back to my room and eventually went to bed.


Saturday, I went back to Fuchuu with a friend of mine.
I wanted to explore that shrine, so we took the train that saved about 100 yen during each trip again, and we made our way, arriving in Fuchuu at about 12:45. The shrine wasn't as big as I'd remembered it at the party, but it was still enough to give me about 20 solid minutes of entertainment.
Here are some photos:

This is the sign at the entrance.

Walking up towards the shrine.

I believe, if I'm not mistaken, this was the place with the water you used to purify yourself. Of course, I forgot to, like a complete numbskull.

The architecture to the actual entrance.

One of the first buildings inside of the shrine.

So much detail. Oh my goodness.

And I just.

I just loved this. 

I bought a couple of omiyage [souvenirs] to bring back home to some people, and afterwards, my friend and I decided to eat. The train stations around here usually have some kind of restaurants and mall areas around them, at least the more popular ones, so since my friend and I were just winging it, we wandered around and looked for some food. Finally, he found a place with a very Japanese sort of style of food. They brought you meat, and there is a grill on the table. you cook it yourself.
So I got myself a mixed plate.

And.

Oh. My. Goodness.

There was beef on it. Beef is REALLY expensive here, so I've been living off of pork.

And sometimes I just want to eat a cow, not a pig.

And proceeded to grill in my medium-rare beefy bliss. Japanese people are pretty hardcore sticking to having most of their meats well-done, and while it's still tender, every now and again I just want my meats to still be nearly alive.

Oh, y'know. There's just a grill built into the centre of the table. No big deal.

Oh my gosh, it was so good! Expensive, though, so I can't go too often, but there was enough to fill you up and be able to keep going for a while. I was really happy to find out about it.
I'll have to go again once I can afford to. Oh man.
After lunch, we wandered around and got bored, so we went and took the Keio-Hachouji line to Shibuya.
Turns out that it's about 100 yen cheaper that way, too [cumulatively, with the first train to Hachouji, it's the same, but compared to going from Machida to Shibuya], so it worked out in the end.
After that, we got on the Yamanote Line in Tokyo, which is basically a railway that just goes around Tokyo in circles, and we headed to Akihabara.

Akihabara is known for it's plethora of anime and electric-device stores, hence the name.

It's also just called "Akiba" for short, so I may refer to it as that from now, just for the typing convenience.

I found melon soda in a vending machine, and while I'm not often a soda kind of person, I must say. This stuff is absolutely addictive and wonderful. It tastes so good.

And it's green.

What's not to love?

Akiba is big and kind of intimidating. There were also more foreigners there than I'd seen anywhere else, which was kind of strange to me. But it was all right. My friend is somewhat obsessed with some animes, so he was having a blast. I haven't been keeping up with them as much these days, so there wasn't too much for me [although there was a little bit here and there], but it was still a lot of fun.

Akiba!

To pat myself on the back for not trying to buy some anime or music or anything, I bought myself a caramel and custard with whipped cream crepe at a little hole-in-the-wall kind of shop.

It was delicious, although my friend says that the crepes in Harajuku are better.

I'll have to investigate.

We went home shortly after, though, so I'll go ahead and tell you about Sunday.
I went back to the place where I helped teach that group of people English last time, and they brought a cake for my friend's birthday. It was really good. Afterwards, I wound up spending the evening and eating dinner with said friend, and then that night I went back to my room early to finally get around my homework.


Monday I went to class, and then afterwards I came home, cleaned, took a nap, and then went to hang with a different group of people. We had curry pasta, and while it was different, it was pretty good. I enjoyed it. I also went grocery shopping while we were all together and at the store. It wasn't the cheap place, but I paid attention to what was on sale and, as a result, didn't spend nearly as much money as I could have.
I also got a package from my grandma with a couple of new pairs of smaller pants [yay!] and some acne face wash, which I've been desperately needing.
But that's all that really happened.


Tuesday was my long day in class, but it was also two of my friends' birthday.
I gave a mini-Russian Lesson for my last class, multi-lingual interaction, and that was a lot of fun. I also learned some new Japanese slang [mostly contractions], so that will prove to be useful in the future, I'm sure.
After class, we went back to shabu-shabu for my friends' birthdays, and that was a lot of fun. I got back at around 11PM, though, and was really tired, but I had homework to do.


So today, I've been really tired. But that's okay. After my classes, I went with a friend to get my hair cut. Afterwards, after I'd said that I wanted pizza, she told some other friends and we all got together and made pizza. I took a picture, but it's on my phone. I'm sorry.

It was a beautiful day today, too, and you could see a lot of the mountains.

And that brings us to the end of the week.


So on to the money saving! I'm really excited to tell you about it~
- Some train lines are cheaper, like I mentioned last week. The trip from Fuchuu to Shibuya was quite a bit cheaper than from Machida to Shibuya, and is actually further away.  Really strange, but I think that is the main goal of that rail line, so I think that's why.
- The sales for bento last week that I mentioned? It doesn't apply for just that. I forgot to mention last time, but that also applies to things like relatively fresh breads, as well. I can buy, after 7PM most days, various sweet pastries and breads in a separate basket around the pastry section for 20% off. This applies to other sections of the store, too! It's pretty great.
-Friends feed you. I can't keep saying this enough; but this week so far, I've only had to pay entirely for my own food once at the birthday party. At the rate I've been going, I'm just not going to have to make my own food this week. Sure, I'll pitch in to help pay for what was bought, but it's a lot cheaper than eating by yourself.
-A teacher told me today of some local parks that I didn't know about before for birdwatching and enjoying nature. When I finally find and go to them, that will be a nice, cheap day-trip. I'm really excited; I had no idea there were places as close as in Machida.
-Pizza here is expensive. Have some friends get together with you and make it together as a group. What is about 1,2oo yen for two pizzas is about the price of one pizza bought, on average, but when you split it between five people, it becomes even cheaper.
-Finally, my favourite! My haircut was 1/4th the usual price, and it is exactly what I wanted. Most salons around here have haircuts ranging from 1,6oo-3,500 yen, and so I was a bit nervous and decided to ask a friend of mine about it. She knows [and now I know] of a place that has haircuts during the daytime for just 690 yen. With a photo and my friend to help me with the Japanese part of it, the hairdresser did exactly what I wanted done with my hair, and oh my gosh. I was amazed. Now I can afford to get a small flat iron for my bangs~ I had been really anxious about that, and I'm so pleased.


That's all for now, though.
Take care, all of you~
Talk to you next week!

 -RD

Well, Now You're Just Giving it Too Much Thought.

Heyo~ 
How was everyone's week? 
I hope you're all doing well. 


These past few days I haven't been taking any photos [I've come across nothing too new lately], so I'll just post what I have and we'll see how it works out.
Starting from Wednesday where I left off. 
Turns out that I didn't get to go my friend's house because she was sick, so instead I went out with some friends of mine to eat and go to an arcade. It was quite a bit of fun, and I'm glad I had been being stingy up until that point. It wasn't as though I spent much--an all-you-can-eat of Indian curry for roughly $11 seems well worth it, and afterwards spending a few dollars on arcade games was quite enjoyable. Really not too much to say about the arcade that you don't already know, though. I got whipped by a friend of mine at the game that he's obsessed with, but as it was only the second time I've ever played the game, it wasn't too bad. I at least could hold my own for a little while, and that felt pretty good. 


After that I caught a train back home and from there went to my room and retired shortly thereafter.
Haha, no I'm just kidding.
I didn't go to sleep until about 3AM that night, but only because my mood had inexplicably soured and I wanted to do everything but sleep.
At least I had Thursday off. And I took it entirely off, staying in my room, watching films, taking naps, and washing my laundry. 
It was lovely. 


Friday was a Machida day with a few friends, and we went shopping. I finally broke down and bought myself a new pair of jeans since most of mine now are about a size too large, which was silly as I am the 3rd largest size in the average portion of men's pants in Japan, apparently. It was quite silly. I even have to roll up the pants' legs just a little bit, and that was quite surprising for me--only about an inch and a half's worth, though, as my legs are quite long. 
I also bought the first three volumes of the Trinity Blood manga in Japanese for studying purposes. Well, sort of. I wanted them anyway, and manga here, if you go to the right places, is really cheap. What would have been 400 yen was 200. 
After a while in Machida, buying things both wanted and needed, I headed back home and called it a day. 


Saturday, though, I actually went out and did something. So don't worry, I haven't become stagnant and settled just yet. I'm still going places. 
Friday night, as I was finishing up washing my sheets, I ran into a friend who was washing her laundry. I asked if she wanted to go with me to a city called Fuchuu and go to a festival for Golden Week [I mentioned it to you all in the previous post, if I remember right..? I don't remember.]. She agreed, and on Saturday afternoon, to Fuchuu we went.

The first thing that greeted my friend and me once we had walked out of the train station.

Lovely.

Of course, we couldn't get to where we were going before getting lost, first. To go a cheaper route, we had to switch stations in Hachouji, a city in-between Fuchinobe and Fuchuu. 

Hachouji.

It looks like it would be fun to spontaneously explore one day.

And leave it to good old Google Maps to give me the wrong directions once I was out of the station. After walking in the wrong direction for about a mile, my friend and I finally stopped at a convenient store and asked for directions. Fortunately, they were really easy to understand "Go back to the station and then go right," and we were able to, after that, find the second station without a hitch. 

I'm sure the birds were laughing at us, though.

We got onto the train headed for Fuchuu, and sure enough, five stops later, we were there.

In a new place absolutely jam-packed with people on the sidewalks. 

With one lady clearly understanding my actions.

Ah, well.

I wanted some tradition in my Golden Week, so my goal in Fuchuu was the Ookunitama Shrine. This place apparently has one of the largest and most important Golden Week festivals, and after I witnessed just how many people had been thinking the same as I, I'm much more willing to believe that claim. Oh my goodness, there were so many people. 

But what I was there to see was a parade where they toured the shrine's gods around the streets, and oh goodness. Once the real stuff began, it was so interesting.

The drums were loud enough and had a deep enough resonance to make the ground shake just a little bit every time they were hit. It was absolutely incredible. 

After several of these ridiculously large Taiko drums came out, it was time to tour the small shrines for the gods. At about this time, my camera had begun to die, so I wasn't able to get too many photos, but I did manage one: 

Lovely, isn't it?

Besides the tradition, though, there was a lot of general festivity and gaiety in general. It was, besides the old standards, full of what I could only really consider to be something of a fair, with the food vendors and games. 

And more people!

There were also chocolate covered bananas. Just before we left, I decided I want one. They were 200 yen, and the vendor I went to let you play a game of rock, paper, scissors against him; if you one, you got a second one for free.

And I won. So I had two, and while I wanted to offer one to my friend, she doesn't really eat bananas. It was delicious, but by the time I'd finished the second one, I was painfully full, as we'd eaten earlier.

But winning one for free was quite a bit cheaper than buying a second one. Hahaha.

This guy was a little more creative with his bananas than most were. I appreciated it.

After that, though, we headed back home. It had been several hours crammed up against complete strangers and my friend and myself were both quite tired of it by that point. It was all quite a bit of fun, though. 

This is Hachouji all lit-up and sparkly at night. The view on the way back. 

Sunday... I feel like I did something, but I can't quite place my finger on what it was at this particular moment. I'm sure it was something, though.

On Monday my classes began again, though. After class, I made spaghetti for myself and some friends of mine, and it was a bit hit, I'm really pleased with how it turned out, although I forgot my camera for photos.

I didn't sleep well on Monday night, though, so on Tuesday, after I did my homework, I went to bed.

And today I had a friend over for dinner again, and together we watched the first four episodes of IT Crowd, and absolutely hilarious British comedy. She wanted to work on her English, especially her British English, as she has trouble understanding it. So I thought it would be a fun way to work on studying.

And luckily enough, she loved it. 

Tomorrow is an exam in my Japanese core class, and afterwards, another pal of mine and I will get together and hang out tomorrow evening, I think. 

So now that you know what's going on, what did I do to save money?

-Google Maps is good for train directions, and it gives you a list of options, which vary in price. Although my friend and I got lost, we still saved roughly 200 yen that way by using that route. 

-In a note that I haven't yet brought up, I'm going to get a hair cut on Monday. I mentioned wanting to know of a cheap, good place nearby, and a native friend of mine immediately volunteered to take me to a place that she knew of where it was about half price of the usual, and they apparently do a good job provided you know what you want. So, with someone who speaks the language better than I going with me, I feel better and more confident about the matter, which I was already feeling pretty good about, since it's apparently quite a bit cheaper than most places. 

-Take silly risks like what I did with the banana. Won't win all the time, but maybe something will come up that will help you stretch your money a bit further than it was originally going to go. Don't gamble away money, of course, but if the opportunity arises to gain something without losing anything, at least try. 

-Find ways to spend time with people without spending much money. Watching TV shows online is a pretty swell, free way to spend some quality time together. 

-Keep an eye out for cheap all-you-can-eats like the Indian Restaurant that my friends took me to, if you're going to eat out. 

-Lunchboxes and prepared foods seem to go on sale after 7PM, before the store closes, trying to get rid of stock. Half off, usually. It's a prime time to grab some dinner if you're in a rush.

That's all for this week, though.

Talk to you soon~

-RD