君が愛しい

多分、日本語に書いたら、このブロッグはとてもいい練習だね。でも、私はメッチャ怠け者から、しない。しかし、たくさんを学びってい る。約束する。


I'm afraid I don't think I have many pictures of new events to show you all--I left my camera in my friend's room a while ago and hadn't had a chance to get it back until just today. Sorry about that. I'll show you some music or something instead to make up for it.
I've done a lot, though, and I had a friend help me with photos while I was out and about, so as soon as I have access to them, I can re-cap my re-cap and show them to you. 
It's been really busy lately, what with everyone who is only here for this semester and those finishing up their year about to leave. All of the farewell parties and last-minute hanging out because none of us are sure when we'll be able to see each other again--it's very fun, of course, but it's also very stressful and a little bit upsetting. I suppose the fact of the matter is that even if I had my camera on me, the majority of my photos would have had people in them, and none of  you want to see that, I'm sure. 


Saturday I went to Machida with my guy friends to go to the arcade and waste hours playing fighting video games. It's not expensive if you're good at the game--you can get 8 sequences of two rounds of fighting on one game for just 1oo yen, which takes about 2o minutes, thereabouts. The only problem is versus gaming. Well, if you're bad at the game, at least. If you're good at the game, oh my gosh, you can go on for forever. As I am new to the game, however, I am still relatively close to terrible at it, so I was unable to play for too terribly long, although I did play for a while. After gaming, we went and took purikura of all of us together, looking as dumb as ever, and just generally having a blast. Those things can be great fun, as long as you're not actually trying to look cute or pretty or anything--it'll make you that automatically. The best way to enjoy it is to act as ridiculous as possible while taking the photos, I think. 
We went to the rental store and borrowed Kung Pow, a [stupidly] hilarious movie using two different Chinese action movies and a few added characters to make one absolutely nonsensical movie about nothing. The movie finished, and we went to a restaurant to eat. It was pretty great fun. 


Sunday, I returned to Machida and helped those same friends with a music video they were making, again with being dumb and goofy, which is usually the best way to be. We finished that, though, and a friend invited me to go with her and her boyfriend [and his brother] to do some travelling around Tokyo and go to a Brazilian festival that they were going to later on in the evening. Naturally, I agreed. Recently, I've really been having a bad case of wanderlust (even though I'm in Japan), so anything to do with any other foreign countries I have been very interested in lately. We travelled to Asakusa, known for it's famous temple and the shopping area around it. Asakusa and Akihabara quite possibly had the highest amount of foreigners that I've seen so far in Japan. It was interesting, but also a little bit disorienting. I like tourist spots, but only when they are out of season and are less crowded, so it was confusing to me to be in a place with so many people. It was a lovely spot, though, Asakusa, even though I drew a bad fortune. It was true, though, and my wish did not happen, for better or worse, but it was also a little frightening at the time. Haha. 
After Asakusa, we went to Ueno Park, which was lovely and also had lots of smaller, much less crowded shrines. It was beautiful, really, and it still strikes me as bizarre when I'm in the middle of one of the biggest cities on the planet, but surrounded by trees and birds and other natural beauties. It's really nice, though. 


The next stop was Yoyogi Park, to where the Brazilian Festival was--oh my gosh, the food was so good. The friend who invited me is a Japanese-Brazilian, so she knew what food I should try and such, and she directed me to some food, and it was absolutely delicious. Plus, they have fabulous meat skewers, and oh goodness. Food.
There was music, too, and it was magnificent and South American and wonderful to dance around to a bit. All in all, it was really crowded, but great fun, and I bought myself and my Japanese-Brazilian friend matching, Brazil-colour [green and yellow] bracelets as keepsakes. 


That was my fun before the last week of classes. Monday after class, I sat down and wrote an eight-page paper for Japanese Society class, and then, having the time, watched an episode of an HBO drama online. After an episode of that, I watched the Studio Ghibli film Grave of the Fireflies, which is quite possibly one of the saddest movies I've  ever watched. I've made it a point to, since I'm in Japan, watch as many of the Ghibli movies as I can while I'm here. Sure, I have access to them at home and on the internet, but for some reason, I enjoy renting and watching them much more. It's a lot less stressful than having to find it online, I think. 
Don't watch sad movies before bed, though. Just don't do it. It was a very good movie, though.


Yesterday was my last awful-Tuesday. I took a test in my Kanji class, complained about things in my Literature class [we've finished our readings, and we're just getting together and hanging out this week, it seems like]. In my Multilingual Interactions course, we had the last of our final presentations. 


Today, I had a field trip in my Japan Society class, and I turned in my most dreaded paper of the semester, the one I wrote on Monday. During our trip, we went to a few places in Machida--locations where they give mentally handicapped people jobs and things to do, so they can spend more time in and amongst other people and feel as though they're actually involved and participating in life. Afterwards, we went to the recycle centre and learned about how Machida is so frugal and effective with their garbage and recycling maintenance. 
It was very enjoyable, but I wore very complicated shoes, and it was frustrating when I had to take them off and put slippers on to walk around in rooms. As much as I love ankle-high converse, it is really difficult to take them off and put them back on every fifteen minutes.


Every day last week and this week, I've had quizzes in my Japanese core class. Friday is my last big test day, and I have one more paper to write out.
I finish Friday.
I'm both excited and stressed out at the same time, and that's been making me very tired.


But I am so ready for summer.
I caught Steam's summer game sale, and I have purchased Assassin's Creed and Portal 2 for playing over the summer. 
So ready. It's so tempting to just play them now, but I know that I shouldn't.


That's all that's been going on, though. Sorry about the lack of pictures. Let me see if I can find anything online for you to look at. 


For those of you who enjoy Engrish and all of it's ridiculousness, there's this series on YouTube.
PokéMon Crystal, Vietnamese-to-English version.


For those who are interested in the Japanese visual-kei rock music (like me!), I recently found an all-girl V-kei rock band, which was very surprising for me. This is a song of theirs, and one of my favourites, from what I've heard so far. 
If metal isn't quite your thing, though, Kalafina's pretty popular right now, and they have really good vocals. Might be worth looking into if you haven't already heard of them. 


Money-saving related, all I can say is explore the area that you live in thoroughly. I found a new place with a friend of mine for grocery shopping--the vegetables and meat are really cheap--and it was in an area that I had not gone over to yet. Explore and be willing to take adventures. Even if you get lost (which shouldn't happen if you walk in a straight line), it'll be an enjoyable experience as long as you make it one.


That'll be all for this week, though. Sorry again for the lack of pictures--I'll see about getting them for you all next week. 


Take care!

-RD

-Lyrics of some sort go here-

I can't think of much today. For that matter, I can barely think today. Welcome to finals, I suppose.
I'm really happy that I've decided to stay here until February--it's really hard to imagine being about to leave right now. With the ties that I'll have made by February, it'll be that much harder, I'm sure, but even so. It's at least delayed for another few months.


...
Well that was depressing to think about. 
Let me put something happy here to shift focus.

Mm. That mouthfeel.

All right. Now that a humourous beginning has been indeed created, let's start off with the week's recap~

I wrote stuff down again so that I'd remember. Really, I should have thought to do this weeks ago. Sorry about that, my loves.

Thursday!
I went out and ate sushi with a friend of mine who paid for it, as I'd paid for her dinner several months ago. Somehow, she had remembered, so I didn't argue. At the moment, though, because I'm going to have to pay next month's rent, it was very conveniently timed. We met up in my room, since I'd gotten out of classes before she did and just did not feel like hanging around on campus. After sushi, we went back to my room and did some general hanging out. There was some shaved ice and doodling together involved, as well as a pleasant music swap. I love music swaps.

At about ten or so that night, she retired back to her room, and I got ready to go to bed. 

Friday my week caught up with me, and from stress and general lack of enough sleep, I was exhausted. Nevertheless, I struggled through my classes, even taking a friend of mine between my break to go and buy herself a yukata at the second-hand store. She found and bought an entire set for about 1500, which was the same price of mine. Upon closer inspection, they also sell honest-to-goodness kimonos for about 3,000-4,000 yen, which I'm pretty sure is pretty fantastic for such a formal piece. 

After classes, I slept, and at about 8:30, I went up to a friend's room and hung out and played Mario Kart with them until about midnight or so. 

Saturday, oh Saturday. I had a fabulous weekend, really.

Saturday was my trip to Studio Ghibli's museum! I had to wake up a little early in order to be able to get myself dressed and ready on time, but before I knew it, I was on my way with seven other people to Mitaka, the area that the museum is. 

Here's a map.

We got on the bus headed to the museum and after about ten minutes, arrived at our destination, where my friends distributed the tickets they had been holding on to for each of us.

Rainbow!

And then...

Well, then I looked up.

Keep in mind, I'm a huge fan of Miyazaki's works, so I was thoroughly amazed. 

My first sight was the robot from Castle in the Sky? I loved that robot.

It felt like, besides the tarps to keep the workers in the shade, I had been transported into some Ghibli wonderland.

I suppose that's supposed to be how it feels.

So they did a fabulous job of it.

Couldn't take photos on the inside, but I did take more from the outside.

The inside, too, was fabulous. Three stories of movie storyboards, film reels, some interactive things, beautiful architecture, a gift-shop, book-store, and just... Everything. It was a perfect combination of things to be appealing both to children and adults and, although I'm sure I would have liked it even if it was more strictly aimed at children, I enjoyed it all the more for its catering to both.

The third story had the gift-shop and book-store. I bought myself a phone charm--the cat bus from Totoro, a small pin of Howl from Howl's Moving Castle, and, since I doubt I'll be able to go again before I leave, I also bought a book of the entire storyboard of Howl's Moving Castle, as it's been one of my favourite Ghibli movies so far. Bought a small gift for a family member, as well. 

The third story also had the exit that lead up to the outside level that was seemingly based off of Castle in the Sky--

This was the staircase leading up to it--the birdcage-looking structure in the first picture.

Walking along a path~  

It was quite humid that day.

The stone block based off of the instruction stone in Castle in the Sky.

Awwwhhh! The robot, which these guys were one of the best features of the film. 

I took a photo with it, which I would show you all, but I'd much rather my readers who don't know what I look like to continue imagining me the way they are. I'd hate to disappoint. Haha.

The view from the rooftop.

After Ghibli, we went out to get some late lunch and headed back home afterwards. I retired to my room and was seen for no longer that day.

Sunday was relatively cheap, all things considered, and a wonderful time. I met up and went on a Japan adventure with a friend of mine who I hadn't had much opportunity to hang out with before. We went to a place in Kanagawa Prefecture called Aikawa, which legitimately means "Beloved River," and may I say that the river was positively beautiful and very obviously beloved. 

Aikawa is about a 2 hour walk, 35 minute bus ride from where I live. My friend and I walked about 3/4ths of the route on the way there and rode the bus back, so I discovered both of these on the same day.  The reason it takes so long to get there by foot is because it's up in the mountains, so the walk is a little bit difficult. It was well worth it, though! Not only is the scenery positively beautiful, up in the mountains (I think I found where I wouldn't mind living in the future, haha), but the people were kind and friendly. I finally got some of the spontaneous "Hellos!" and friendly waves from vehicles I missed so much from my area of the US, and at one point, an older Japanese woman looked at my friend and I, grinned really big, and said "It must be great to be so tall, huh?" I was so charmed.

Here's some of the scenery, though, as well as a photo of my feet to show you just how clean and marvellous this river really was. They're pictures from my mobile phone, though. Sorry in advance for the poor quality of said photos--our trip was a little spontaneous.

Kind of going in backwards chronological order, head's up. This was the view that evening. 

LOOK AT THE SUNSET. I was amazed. 

I would officially love to live in the mountains now.

I had thought I would want to, before

but now I am absolutely certain that I love this idea.

Mid-calf deep in water and I can still clearly see my feet. 

I could still see them when I walked even deeper in, but I wanted to keep from dropping my phone or get it wet, so I put it away while I played for a while.

So blue.

This was one of the first views I saw, and I did fall quite in love with it. 

We got to the river at about four and stayed until about six, where I did a lot of sitting and relaxing (one of the first chances I've had to actually sit down and breathe since finals and the end of the semester really began) and my friend wandered around the bank of the river, picking up trash and enjoying the view. I'm sure he was relaxing, too. By the end of it, we both really wished we had brought swimsuits so that it would be all right to just jump completely in and have a blast, but it was still a lot of fun. Next time, though, I think I'm going swimming. 

He and I went to the actual town of Aikawa afterwards, and wandered around and explored a bit. I was only able to get one photo of decent quality, but I still enjoy it.

There was a festival going on that day, and I enjoyed the sign.

After wandering around, we found a Taiwanese restaurant and decided to eat dinner. I was happy we chose where we did, too, because it was really quite cheap, all things considered.

About 12 US dollars, for all of this. Normally, I would consider that expensive, but that bowl of ramen was absolutely monstrous, and there was so much other food to go with it. It was delicious, and well-worth the money.

We ate, caught the last bus back to Fuchinobe, and I came home and finished up a report I needed to write for Japanese class.

Monday was boring--You all certainly do not want to hear about me writing four short essays to finish half of my required work for one class all at once. All I have left now is to write a final essay, and that is simple enough.

Yesterday, too, was relatively boring, save the trip to the sushi bar I made with some friends after class. I had to prepare a presentation for today last night, so I was up until around 2AM, the slacker I am, working on that. It went well today, though, all things considered. There were some technical errors in the beginning, and I went last, so my time was cut a little short, but it went well, overall. 

Tomorrow I've got another test. Friday I have what I think is my last presentation. 

I've made it through today, though. I can handle the rest of this.

One more week until summer! I'm so ready. 

The biggest piece of advice I have at hand for all of you at the moment for saving money is find nearby places, or places that getting there, the walk is enjoyable, to visit and explore. Not only does it give you good exercise, but sometimes you can find amazing differences in lifestyle (in my case, city-life versus country-life), scenery, and, well, prices. Haha. I'll definitely be going back to Aikawa during the summer. It's cheap, convenient, and incredibly beautiful.

That's all I've got for now, though.

Hope you all have a fabulous week.
'Til next time!

-RD

Sunday Morning Rain is Falling

It's about time I used a Maroon 5 song. Goodness gracious, they're one of my favourites. 


Hey hey, all! What's going on? 
Pretty good week so far; I'm tired, but pretty happy. Maybe that's because I took a nap today. 
Stuff and things to tell you about, if I remember correctly. Let me check my agenda [I wrote things down to remember! Wow!].


Weather's been very much like summer now--a very stark contrast to what it was when I first got here, barely reaching sixty degrees Fahrenheit on warm days. A cool summer, but a summer nonetheless. Since I come from the US delta, I'm quite used to hot and humid summers, so during the daytime, I'm fine. At night, I have a bit of difficulty sleeping. 
So, to cope, during the day, I'll leave my balcony door open, save the screen door to keep bugs out. At night, I've finally broken down and started using the fan on my air conditioner just to keep air moving and comfortable enough for me to sleep in. I'm still doing quite all right on my electricity bills, however--as a matter of fact, they've gone down every month since I've gotten here, so I suppose I can spare to turn on a fan at night. As long as I remember to turn it off in the mornings, I'm good. 


OH LET ME SHOW YOU MY PLANTS THEY HAVE GOTTEN SO BIG.

On the left: Pepper.
On the right: Cynthia

There's a pepper in there. 

She's blooming! Got another bloom set coming up.

Okay, so weekly recap. 


Thursday I did absolutely nothing, as far as I can remember. I went to class, came home, fell asleep. 


Friday, there was a Tanabata party at my university that was, unfortunately, a little bit more than boring. But they did their best and it did have good moments, so I'm happy that I went. Besides that, I got sushi for dinner afterwards, so everything was all right and I was quickly no longer bored. I pitched in a 500 yen for what I ate, but as I had no more money than that, a friend covered the rest for me [although I had warned her in advance that I didn't have enough to pay for sushi, she did not care]. So we all had a grand old time and I came home rather late and crashed into bed and burned. 


Saturday, when I had intended to go to an actual Tanabata festival, it was raining, so I stayed at home and had a marathon of watching TV shows on the internet. 


Sunday, I met up that evening with my Japanese teacher and had dinner with her and my college mate in Shinjuku. It was a lovely time. I took some photos of the dinner we had, and it was positively delicious, let me assure you.

This was the view from the window of our restaurant.

This was dinner. It was delicous. Cabbage salad, pork and shrimp tonkatsu, rice, and miso soup.

Up at the floor above us, there was a small shrine for fox demons. 

The inside of the shrine.

It was a lovely time to see her again. Sometimes you don't realise how much you miss someone until you see them, right? I saw her, and my goodness. It was an awesome time, and I'm really happy that I went, although it also made me realise just how uncomfortable I get wearing dresses, haha. I'm a bit of a tomboy, though, so I suppose that's to be expected.

After Sunday's lovely trip, Monday came and left me with a mountain of schoolwork to manage my way through. So after class, I went to the convenience store to buy some magazines for a project of mine, as well as buy myself some lunch.

I also found these, chocolate-mint candies that were delicious. I love mint chocolate.

Summer edition of kinoko-no-yama. "Summer's refreshing chocolate" up at the top there.

I came home and broke down and began doing schoolwork, swearing that I was not going to take a nap.
... I unintentionally fell asleep in the middle of my work, and slept for quite a while.
But I did manage to get everything finished. 
Yesterday was a similar swamping of work after class. I also had to give three different presentations in my classes, which was tedious for me, being an introvert. But I managed. Everything's went all right, and for that I'm very grateful. 


It's the last couple of weeks of class--a lot of final papers and tests coming up, which is really difficult, but once I'm done, I'll feel much better.
Well, about two weeks after being done--for a while I always feel like I've still got things to do. But the sleep will be fabulous. 
College here hasn't been much more difficult than the stuff back home, really--it's just the stress from the end of the semester at the end of the moment. 
But things are about to start sort of happening again, at least. Tomorrow I'm going out with a friend of mine after class, and Saturday I'm going to go to the Ghibli Museum. I'm really excited.


I'm more excited for the beginning of summer break, though, as I'm apparently supposed to go camping with some friends of mine. Don't know where, but to get away from everything right after finishing classes sounds absolutely fantastic. 


That's really all that's going on at the moment, though. These next couple of weeks might be a little dry, just warning you, with finals and everything.
But next week, I'll have info on the Ghibli museum, so do keep checking, if you're interested. I'm really excited to tell you all about it!


Take care and have a good week. 
'Til next time.

-RD

Pretty People Everywhere, Sunlamp Tans and Flaxen Hair

Just tell the American not to stare~


Hullo all, and happy Independence Day, America! 
Leave it to me to be listening to a song about Oslo on repeat. 
I did, however, have quite the celebration, and my stomach hates me all the more for it at the moment. I ate far too much. 


And, I have pictures this week! Huzzah! Actual, Japan-related photos. Oh goodness. 


Due to financial restraint, though, about the only fun I've been able to have has been school or staying-in-the-dorm related. Because of a health insurance bill for the year, I had to spend 17,000 yen, which really isn't too bad--did I tell you guys about this already? Sorry. Anyway, because last month I spent too much accidentally, this month I'm going to try to be a little extra frugal so I have some money to spend during our summer break in August. However, if I'm going to the Studio Ghibli museum this month, I don't know how well that will work, but I'll definitely be doing my best! I've got tips. 


Let's start with the re-cap, then. 
Thursday, I made dinner for friends of mine who had fed me steak earlier in the week. My mother had sent me some taco seasoning in a package previously, so I had been saving it for a special occasion. After finally finding sour cream [although almost using plain yogurt as a substitute--which would have worked just as well, likely], and after been giving a freaking steak dinner for free, I figured sharing my glorious taco seasoning was the least I could do. 
So we ate together and sat around and watched British comedy for a while. It was a good evening. 


Friday, I took a field trip with my class to an Edo-period house in Tama-Centre, and had an absolute blast. The place was so beautiful! I couldn't take pictures inside, but I definitely got some pictures from the outside. Although I was as tall as the doorframes [170 cms, thereabouts, or 5'7 for those of you who don't use metric [like meeeee].], I would still be super happy to live in a places as gorgeous as it was there. My goodness. 


Here are some photos: 

Walking up to the house on a small path.

LOOK AT THAT FAT DUCK.

They had a pond in the front yard.

Er. Yard. I can't really say there was a specific front or back yard.

Here's part of the house.

The exit on the other side of the yard. 

The name plaque.

More of the house--look at that architecture. My goodness.

I couldn't get a picture of my favourite window, but you can still kind of see inside from this one.

Just outside of the exit area on the other way--the bird songs from this point were beautiful. I stood there and just listened to them for a while.

It was a beautiful place, really. There was a huge park nearby, just an enormous open field that was fabulous. After we walked and looked around, the teacher let us go, and my friends and I headed over to the local arcade. I couldn't really do anything due to a lack of cash, but I did take some photos along the way. 

This was actually on the way to the old house, but it's still a lovely view. A couple of my friends had a race along the stairs--it was quite amusing.

Guess what Tama-Centre has, Hello Kitty fans!
Tama-Centre is the location of Sanrioland, which is pretty much the Hello Kitty version of Disney World.

An interesting statue along the way.

I still have no idea what it is, but it's quite intriguing for me.

A multicoloured hydra, perhaps?

Here's how close to Sanrio I was able to get.

Enjoy it, Mom. 

I'm afraid I can't go in. 

Besides the fact it's expensive, I just genuinely do not want to.

But you all can be happy to know that I live thirty minutes away from Sanrioland. Haha. 


In my effort to save money, I did nothing this weekend but stay in my room, get some overdue homework and research out of the way, and practice my yoga.


Monday, I had another spontaneous cooking party with some of my oldest and newest friends since Japan together. It was pretty fun, and I was up far too late. We had pasta and hung out until quite late. 
Yesterday I was painfully tired, so I stayed at home, ate as little as possible just to keep from being hungry in the middle of the night [I didn't want to eat], and went to sleep as early as possible.


Today, the fourth, I went to class.
Afterwards, I went out to a second-hand store with some friends of mine who had told me about a place that had second-hand yukatas [summer, cotton kimonos] for around 1,ooo yen. So I went with them and some others and wound up finding myself one for 8oo, with a 5oo yen obi. Keep in mind, yukatas usually cost around 1o,ooo at least, so if you can find them this cheaply, way to go. Even rental yukatas were more expensive. 


I got one, primarily because it had butterflies on it and I like butterflies perhaps a little too much for my own good, but there was another that, in retrospect, would have probably been better, as it matched my hair and wasn't so overwhelmingly girly. Ah, well. They were so cheap, though, that I may just go back and get it, too, and use this one as a gift for back home. We'll see.

I'm not usually very feminine, but I must say.

I get absolutely stupid for butterflies.

It's really pretty, though, and the obi [sash] matches my sheets, haha.

Maybe I'll just check another second-hand store for a different obi, since they're cheaper.

After my purchase, I went to the grocery store to buy french-fries for the 4th of July party we were going to have in the dormitory. did a small amount of grocery shopping [I won't starve now, although I wasn't going to starve before], and headed back to the dorms, where I had a package of clothes waiting on me from back home. Thanks, guys. Now that it's warmer, I intend to be wearing many more tank-tops, and the jumper-skirt my grandmother sent me is lovely for prancing around in my room and being comfortable now that it's gotten warmer and more humid. 


I went in to the third-floor lounge and began preparing my french-fries, after which I took to the fourth-floor lounge after they were finished, which was where everyone was gathered.
We hung out, I ate way too much, and afterwards we hung out some more and played Mario Kart. 
Took some pictures of the food, so take a look. Very American of us, with hamburgers, hot dogs, and french-fries, and then we broke away from that with some schnitzel from a friend of mine from Holland, 
Here's some photos of the food, though, if you're interested: 

Au gratin and pasta salad, along with oranges.

Cheeseburger patties, schnitzel, and lettuce.
Not featured: hot dogs.

Everything all laid out and ready to go.

My plate after I ate my hot dog, and before I ate my schnitzel. 

I ate way too much today. 

And that was pretty much it. This weekend, I plan on going to a Tanabata festival, and I also plan on meeting up with one of my teachers from back in the states. I'm really excited.


So, money saving tips.
-Find things to do at home and make sure you don't overeat. It helps not only weight management, but also budget management. 
-Find the local recycle centres/thrift stores! You can find super cheap clothes, still-good clothes, like my yukata. It saves a lot. 
-If you can grow plants, grow vegetables that you like that can be grown in a pot. I've gotten one pepper off of my pepper plant, and I've got three more coming. 


That's really it for this week, really.
I hope you guys have a fabulous one. Sorry to cut it so short; I'm on Skype with a friend.


See you around guys! 

-RD