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
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