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
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