Then Come, Love, Let Us Dance All Night, Until the Birds They Waken at the Dawn

Hey, guys! 

Classes have started up again, so there really isn't much in the way of photographs today [though there probably will be next week], but I can at least let you all know how things are going. 

Actually, I do have one picture. 
Guess what I found on a super-sale yesterday?

Oh yes.

And the best part is, they were delicious. It was about $2.50 for the bunch, but not only is that really cheap for Japan from what I can tell, they were incredible. Had I known they were this good, I probably would have bought some for a much higher price before. I don't know about those from other countries, but grapes from the States taste, at best, usually like sweetened water. These grapes tasted like honest to goodness grape juice. I ate an apple the other day (a friend gave it to me), and it was huge and delicious. The strawberries I had at the beginning of my time here were fantastic, too. I just--I don't know what the people back home do the fruit, but before my time here, I'd never had any fruits with so much flavour before in my life. I am not looking forward to having to go back to US fruits. I might not get these often, but quality over quantity any day. My friend said she'd buy me some oranges at the store today. I can't wait to try those. 

Oh, and one more picture! A present I got from a friend of mine last week. 

It's a sarong.

Or a sheet.

Or a wall hanging. Or whatever I feel like it should be.

Since I'm pretty interested in Hindu mythology, my friend gave me this. It's a bit of a hand-me-down, but I don't mind. Makes a nice makeshift robe after a shower, and I've also used it as a blanket a couple of times. Super pretty. 

Okay, back to my weekly recap, then, shall we?
Thursday was my first day back in school. I started off with Core, my main Japanese class, and Tutorial, which is the self-study class. It might not be the most practical class ever, but it makes me sit down and actually study, whereas I might get too lazy otherwise. Core went well enough, I like my teachers and I usually understand what's going on. They're strict, but it seems as if you actually do your best, they're more than willing to help you along. The only difficulty I have is actually being able to say what it is that I want to say, or sometimes, when I'm nervous, I jump ahead and think the person said something entirely different then what s/he actually said. It's a little troublesome, but in the next couple of weeks, I expect I'll be fine.
Friday's classes were Core, Beginner/Intermediate Grammar, and Japanese Folklore. Grammar was okay, but it was a little bit painful. Because it's a combined beginner and intermediate [designed to pound the basic rules into the heads of the intermediate, which is a good thing], the teacher speaks really slowly [all of my other teachers speak quickly, so I've acclimated] and asks if we understand all of the time. It's considerate of her, but after an hour and a half of it, it gets a little frustrating.
This weekend... I didn't do much. It rained throughout most of it and there was a cold front, so I wound up primarily lounging around the house and not doing much of anything. Monday, my day off, I went to go buy my books from school. There's one more that I just found out today that I need to get, but I'll be able to get it next week Tuesday. 
Tuesday was just my Core class, and today was Core, Kanji, and Pronunciation. The Kanji teacher is the same as mine from last year, so I'm already fully aware of what to expect, and then Pronunciation is last year's Tutorial teacher. I didn't have much interaction with her last semester, but she seems quite kind, and the class seems as if it'll be at least somewhat enjoyable. We had to write a self-introduction to present in class today, and one of the questions was "If you were anything or any animal, what would it be?" Well, I couldn't think of anything, but a friend of mine suggested to me last semester that I'd be a cat. I thought about it, and it made sense. I don't like loud noises [I hate vacuum cleaners], I'm relatively tidy [but not perfect], and around new people I get shy and taciturn. 
So it made sense enough. Not for the reasons that most people might think [well, I'm lazy, too], but I made it work. 
One of my friends said that if she could be anything, she'd become a boy. Wish I'd thought of that one--I'd love to be a boy. That's probably just the tomboy in me speaking, though.

Fewer classes have earned my expected result--I have more time, and it is fantastic. We'll see how it goes as the semester progresses, but while I'll be busy, I don't expect I'll get swamped, and that is really exciting. Having Mondays off, too, is really nice. The extra night of sleep seems like it will be beneficial. 

Didn't do anything last weekend, but this weekend I'm going to meet up with my favourite person from that website I mentioned earlier. Hopefully it'll be all right--I'm pretty nervous. But, it seems like it'll be really fun, and we're meeting up in Shibuya, which is painfully crowded, and by a police box. So, I think it'll be okay. I'll take pictures if anything good happens. Wish me luck, guys!

That's really all I've got for now, though, so I'll start cracking down on my homework.
Catch you all next week, okay? 
Tips, again, are to wait for things to come in season. Oranges and things, now that they're coming off the trees, are significantly lowered in price, which is really nice. So, just remember to buy things in season, and it helps save a lot of money. It's also when the fruits and vegetables taste best. 

Have a fabulous weekend, all!

-RD

I'd Risk the Moon and Stars if I Could Have Your Sky

Hey, hey! 
How's everyone doing?
Happy Wednesday! Well, it's not a very happy Wednesday for me, but, you know. I've had a good day.
Scratch that--it is a happy Wednesday, worth much celebration and joy. We broke 1,000 pageviews for my blog today! Thank you all so very much! I really hope that you're all enjoying the blog. 
Tomorrow school starts, though, so I'm a little bit worried. I need to write out my schedule for my classes, and see about just calming my nerves. 

But first, let's go over what I remember of the week and weekend previous, shall we? 
I can't really say that I recall having done too terribly much. Thursday and Friday, I believe I stayed predominately in my room. I know I went to work on Friday and then ran some errands. Bought stamps to put on my absentee ballot application [if you're in the US, go vote, everybody! I don't care which side[s] you vote for, just exercise that right. Contrary to popular belief, your vote does count!], sent that off, and went to go get my student ID renewed for the next semester. I had to have a passport-sized photo taken, so I went to one of the kiosks on campus for those types of photos, and made myself some photos.
And oh my gosh, since I've been exercising and have lost a little bit of weight, I look like my grandmother. When the picture printed off, I wondered for a little while when my grandmother had gotten young, came to Japan, and stepped in front of my photo. It was a little bit disorienting, but I don't mind it. It's pretty cool.
I'd show you the picture, but again. Let's not ruin your images of a beautiful, perfect me, hm? Hahaha. 

Saturday, I went out for lunch with a friend of mine, primarily to just get out and get some fresh air. We went to a local restaurant--not one of the highest quality, but a decent, comfortable quality, and ate some lunch. 

Drink bars with caramel macchiatos.

I think I like it. 

Afterwards, we came back into my room and hung out, not really doing anything in particular but talking and hanging out, listening to music. She wound up staying until it was time for dinner, and so we ate together. She had frozen two pork chops together, so we decided to make tonkatsu, using some of my cabbage and whatnot for salads, with some rice. 

The croutons on the salad were made from the last piece of bread I had at the time. Accidentally toasted to a crisp and with a hint of a charcoal after-taste, but I seasoned it well enough that it wasn't bad at all.

Before the sauce and dressing on the salad.

Afterwards.

It's not as pretty as the stuff in the restaurants, but it was still very good.

And, I've found that one of my favourite things to do is to cook and eat dinner over jazz music, I think. Cooking with friends helps, too, of course, but the music just made it that much better. We ate, then sat around and visited for a while longer.

The rest of this week has been spent doing a whole lot of nothing. I spent yesterday cleaning up and doing laundry [barely saved it from getting rained on last night], preparing for the semester ahead. Best to start off with a clean room, I figured, instead of having a mess and watching it grow bigger as time progresses. 
Today, I woke up earlier in the morning to brace myself for having to wake up at 7:20AM tomorrow morning. I managed to eat right as I woke up, trying to see about re-scheduling my body's sleep/wake cycle--it won't fix it completely, but maybe re-adjusting will be a little easier. I managed to stay awake until about 2:00PM, where I let myself take a nap for an hour. I woke up, started to get myself ready to make tonight's post, and then received a message from a friend of mine, asking to hang out.

So, here's where today got fun. After I took a shower and went up to his room to meet him, we watched about 3/4ths of a ridiculous zombie movie from the 1970s, so bad that it was hilarious. Eventually, though, we gave up on it, and decided to go grab a pizza for dinner and find something else to watch. We went to the local pizza place with the pizza closest to American style we could find, ordered it, and then went to grab a couple of drinks.
They make Lichee soda now! That's so fabulous. It was delicious. Anyway, after we bought our drinks, we went back, picked up our pizza, and headed back to the dormitory. 
We decided to watch El Orfanato, produced by the same guy who produced Pan's Labyrinth, and just as fantastic. Oh my gosh, the film was incredible. Of course, I don't handle horror movies very well, so it was fortunate for me that my friend had a stuffed monkey for me to cling to during the more tense moments [I am secretly still a child, perhaps], but the movie was fantastic. They both are, really, though. If you haven't seen one, the other, or either, do look into it. I would recommend them highly. 
Besides, it's much cheaper than going to the theatres.

That's really all for today, though.
Tomorrow, my second semester in Japan begins. I'm a little worried, but I hope I'll do okay. I've only got four and a half months left in Japan! Can't say that going home is particularly wanted at this moment. 
However, I've registered for 12 credits worth of classes [with Mondays off!], only one class in English. I want to grind my nose in Japanese and learn as much as humanly possible within these next four and a half months. It may have been a good idea for me to do the internet search for friends that I did--There are a couple in particular that I have grown really fond of, and prove to be an excellent source for not only practice writing, but seem to potentially be very good friends, too.
I'm really hopeful.

Anyway, I must cut this one short. 
I've got to get my bag ready for tomorrow and get as prepared as possible.

I'll tell you how things go next Wednesday!
Take care, loves, and thank you again for keeping up with my posts!
TTFN,

-RD

Dreams Unwind, Love's a State of Mind

Hey guys~!
How are you all doing? 

After a traumatic end of the week last week, what with my Japanese placement test on Thursday and Friday, things have smoothed out very well. 

Well, Thursday's part of the test wasn't very bad. I walked out, feeling proud of myself for having done so well for just two and a half hours of sleep, and realising how much better my Japanese was since last semester. 
Friday, however, I had to re-do a writing test, take my speaking test, and do another grammar test. 
By the end of it, I was having a miniature panic attack, terrified that I'd have to repeat the level that I had been in last. 

But, the good news is, I don't have to. I'm in the first level of intermediate, meaning that I can theoretically pass the JLPT's N4 level exam. Baby steps! I can do this.
The panic may have forced me to make what may or may not be a really good decision, however. 
That evening, after I got home, I realised how little that I had practised my Japanese over the summer. All of my friends have been too busy or live too far away to visit very frequently, and so I haven't had much chance to really speak with other people and learn. Strangers never talk to each other here, so that part of communication is out, too.
Naturally, I felt a little frustrated. I had studied, of course, but it's massively easier to study when you're speaking to someone or some people whom you really want to be able to converse with. You try harder, and you're more willing to make mistakes, all for the sake of getting your point across.
And then I remembered. About six or seven years ago, I met one of my best friends, a Japanese girl currently studying in the US, on a friend-search website. I went back, and surprisingly, the website is still running.
So I made an advert, and set about making some new friends. In the advert, I explained what all was happening and why I was having so much trouble with making friends, and not only did I get an influx of new people to talk to, there are still a couple of really interesting people once I weed out all the creeps. Of course there are creeps, though. It's the internet; you can't just blindly trust people. I think I've met one or two people, though, who stand the potential to become genuine friends, and so I'm very excited about that. I may try to meet one in the near future, but not yet, because it's the internet and it scares me. Sooner or later, though. 

So that is what I did on Friday and Saturday--reply to e-mails in Japanese and see about getting as much study in the language as I possibly can before school starts next week. Eeehhh. Registered for classes today! I'm taking my core classes, Japanese Literary History, Pronunciation, Intermediate Grammar, another Tutorial Class, and Kanji~ 
I'm only taking one content course, courses taught in English, this semester, though. I intend to buckle down on my Japanese and learn as much as possible before I leave. I've got five months. 

Sunday, I went back to Aikawa and went on a picnic with a couple of friends.
After we ate and played in the river for a while, we walked to Miyagase Dam. The view from the top, and just the scenery in general, is absolutely breathtaking. I remembered to bring my camera this time! So, we have some photos of reasonable quality. Ready? 
Let's do it.
Going to pause mid-way through, to break up the wall of photos with some text. Give you all a break from looking at things.

A really interesting house that we saw just after getting off of the bus in Aikawa.

What a swell little fellow. I approve.

This is where we ate lunch. Not in the river, of course, but on the side of it. There were lots of people fishing.

I want to go fishing.

The mountains sometimes felt like walls around us, they were so huge. It's a fascinating feeling.

Another view of the river, on our way to the dam.

Stopped at a shrine along the way--they were having a festival, and the inside of the shrine was proudly on display.

So I couldn't resist taking a photo.

We found two along the road. 

It was interesting.

The petals make a stunning pattern. I was flabbergasted.

Almost to the park near the dam, now! 

This was one of my favourite views along the way.

We had gone into the park, and this was on display in one of the areas. I thought it was really pretty.

This was almost overwhelming enough for me, I wasn't ready at all for the top of the dam.

This was a stunning enough view for me as it was. 

I wish my camera was able to capture just how massive those mountains were, just so that you could all feel the sense of awe that you get from a view like that.

Made it!

My feet hurt so badly by this point. 

There's the dam!

The water was a really pretty colour, I thought.

Surprise!

This was on the inside of the tunnel to get to the elevator to go to the top of the dam.

Number six, number six!

Well, number six is my favourite, anyway. Haha.

It was at this point that we waited on the elevator in the freezing-cold underground tunnel. It carried us up to the top, and oh my gosh.
The view from there. Of course, I completely swamped my memory card with photos. You could see Yokohama from the top! It was... Wow. Just, wow. 

The first picture I took from the top.

If you look way off into the distance, which my camera didn't capture very well, Yokohama is out there.

Which, Yokohama from Aikawa is a little bit of a trip.

It's so green!

They had a gondola you could ride on to get to the top of the dam, but that costs money.

Why spend money when you get the same end result?

Want to take the stairs back down?

No?

Well, we're at the bottom now. You want to take the stairs back up?

"Dangerous! You can't enter here!" 

That dragon there is incredibly intimidating, isn't he?

A pretty shrine my friends and I spotted on the way back to Aikawa.

After walking back, we decided to stop and eat at the Taiwanese restaurant that we had gone to last time--the one with the incredible ramen. 
We ate our dinner, I had my sweet-chilli shrimp again, and it was just as fantastic as it had been the last time. I was famished, but I'm still pretty sure that it was very good. 
Once we finished eating, we went to wait on the bus, and then caught the wrong one. We wound up going to Hon-Atsugi, which would have been about a three-hour walk back home. It was late, I was limping, and my friend's back was acting up. We had to catch the train, which I had to beg money from my friends for, since I had brought just enough to make the trip there and back without mistakes. Haha. We managed, though, and made it home later on. 
It was a good time, but my feet had blisters and I had a bad sunburn on my back, arms, and legs by the time it was all over. 
I can't say I regret it, though. I had a blast.

Monday, another couple of friends and I had been intending to go see the new Rurouni Kenshin movie that I mentioned earlier, but I wound up sitting in their apartment with them all day while they tried to set up their wi-fi, borrowing my laptop. I didn't mind at all, of course--that's what friends are for, and besides. I had a really good time, just sitting there and doing nothing but talking to them and catching up on lost time. We went to see the movie yesterday night. 
It was awesome. I only understood about 15% of the dialogue, of course, but that didn't stop me from really enjoying it. It was a blend of the first season, somehow mashed together to make sense when mixed all together. Some of the things had changed, but the characters and general idea was the same, and from that, I was able to understand the basics of what was going on. I was pretty grateful that I'd watched the first season of the anime earlier this summer, though. Had I not, I would not have known at all what was happening. 
The actor who played Kenshin is stunningly handsome to me, so that made the movie all the better. The cast in general was pretty good, though--I really admired Sanosuke's actor. He really made the character come alive, with all his quirks and silliness. When it's out, if you're not in Japan or anything, see about finding it somewhere [with or without subtitles, depending on how much you can understand, of course], and watching it, if you like that kind of stuff. It was very enjoyable.
Things to note about Japanese theatres that I haven't thought to mention, though, if you ever plan on going to them. The seats are assigned, unlike American theatres, and everybody sits through the end credits, no matter how long. It was awesome when I went to see the Avengers, though, because there is stupid hilarity at the very end of the credits that had me and my friends nearly crying from laughter, and a nice little hint at a sequel in the middle. 
You can sometimes get student discounts at movie theatres, though! So there's a way to save money. Look for the places that give discounts. 

Once the movie had finished, my friends walked me back to the train station, and I caught one of the last trains getting home. Small miracles, I didn't get stuck in the middle of Machida or anything while I was transferring. 

Today was spent being lazy. My internet hadn't been working yesterday, so I had to go up to the fourth floor lounge and connect to a different network that worked. I was only able to put a small dent in what I was doing, however, and didn't have the time to register for my classes.
Fortunately, my internet was working again by the time I got back home--well. It was connecting to a different network. So, it was working again. I was able to connect and get what I needed done between this evening and today.

And, I have just found out that it looks like they're making a film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance. Well, colour me excited. I hope it's not just rumour.

That's all that's going on, though!
So, for now, I will sign out and catch you guys later.
Have a good week!
Talk to you Wednesday.
TTFN,

-RD

Back to Basics

Happy Wednesday, all!
I am dreading tomorrow with a passion--the Japanese placement tests for my university are tomorrow and Friday. I'm kind of worried. Studied a bit over the summer, of course, and maintained most of what I know, but I didn't learn anything new, and knowing just that is a little bit unsettling. 

I'll do my best, though!

I did do things this weekend, so I'll tell you briefly about that, shower you with pictures (I finally took some! Wow!), maybe show you some of the food I've been making to show you all it's possible, and then wrap it up pretty quickly in order to see about studying some more. Cramming doesn't work very well when you're really tired, I'm beginning to notice. I mean, it's working well enough since it's visual and I'm a bit of a visual learner, but. I'm so tired.

Friday evening while I was exercising, a friend invited me to hang out with her in Akihabara on Saturday or Sunday. Sunday, I already had made plans for because of birthdays and such--a friend of mine who moved from the US to here just recently wanted to take me out to dinner and catch up. So, Saturday afternoon, after talking to my aunt, I packed my pockets with my wallet and the like and walked out the door. Back to Akiba, in hopes that perhaps it would be more fun than it was the time previously. Not that the first time wasn't fun, per se, but after looking at anime figurines is only entertaining for so long.
After meeting with my friend, we decided we were hungry and headed out in search for something to eat. Didn't eat here [though afterwards I rather wished I had], but I managed to find this little gem: 

Itarian dog. I don't know a place called Italy, but I may know of a place called Itary.

How charming~

We decided that, since neither of us had gone before, to go to a Maid Café and see what all the fuss was about. 
Let me tell you all up front: it is worth it to go once. But only once. The experience is interesting and entertaining, but it is expensive. I ordered takoyaki and a piece of cake, with a soda. That ran me about 1300 yen, plus a 1000 yen fee for sitting and using the space. I guess because they're so outrageously popular, it's all right to do that.
So, for maid cafés? Go once, if you want to--the girls are charming, they have to be, and the food is good. But don't expect to walk out of there without having spent at least 2000 yen. 
We weren't supposed to take pictures, but before I realised this, I stole a couple of shots. I'll go ahead and show you guys.

Not the grand menu, but the set menu. You could take photos with the girls if you ordered off this list. My friend and I weren't particularly interested in that, so much, though, so we just ordered off the large menu.

Charming little place. A lot smaller than I had thought it might be initially.

After we ate, we wandered around the streets and went into costume shops and the occasional souvenir shop. Nothing really particularly struck our eyes, as we're not strictly into anime and games, but occasionally something came around that was interesting. I took some photos of the area, at least, as well as some of the things that intrigued and/or amused me.

Walking down one of the streets.

The view of the other side.

Views.

Views.

More views.

A claw machine with Yu-Gi-Oh! characters in them! I almost tried, but I'm terrible at claw machines. 

Yu-Gi-Oh! was one of my gateway animes when I was a child, so this was quite nostalgic for me.

Socks at a souvenir shop.

You want Buddha on your feet?

Gundam Café and AKB48 Café side by side. Gundam is an old mecha anime from the 90's, and AKB48 is a HUGELY popular girl band. 

...

...

I have no idea.

After a little while of exploration, my friend and I called it a day and returned to our own homes, and then I prepared myself for Sunday. The day finally rolled around, and then I had to do yet more waiting for the evening. So, I talked to my family and some friends while waiting on the friend I was supposed to see to let me know what was going on.
I left the house at about four in the evening and headed to Ikebukuro. We met up at the train station, a very happy occasion, and headed off. I went with said friend and girlfriend while they purchased a couch for their new [adorable] apartment, and then they took me to buy a pair of chopsticks with my name engraved in hiragana on them.
Which was really, really amazing.

Here they are! And if you can read hiragana, you're one step closer to knowing my real name. Haha.

Turtles! And not only is the image of half a turtle on one side, but if you pull them apart and turn one to the side, it still makes a complete turtle. There is a complete turtle on two sides of one chopstick. It's fascinating!

After that, I travelled to Ootsuka with them, where we got dinner. It was the first time I'd gone, actually--I was really surprised. It's a lot quieter than a lot of the rest of Tokyo, so it's much less overbearing to me than say, Shibuya or Harajuku. It was really nice, though. I liked what I saw of it a lot. They took me to a delicious okonomiyaki restaurant, and we proceeded to celebrate my birthday though much conversation and catching up.

Also, as the drinking age is 20, of course I celebrated by treating myself to a drink. Grape sour. It was quite good.

We ordered three different okonomiyaki.

Sausages, cheese, mushrooms, and beansprouts.

I think this one was Korean?

Japanese curry and cheese.

And Mexican! I miss Mexican food so much.

They were all delicious and quite cheap, for what and where we were. We finished eating, then went to buy dessert and sit and hang out in their new apartment for a little while. It's a really charming place--Built in the 1960's, so it's a nice hybrid of Eastern and Western architecture. I really liked it, but I don't think I'd be able to live with anyone there, unless I really liked the other person. Haha. 
I left at about 10:30 and went on home, going to bed shortly after talking to my mother on the internet upon my arrival. It was a good birthday. 

Monday I cleaned my room, yesterday I went to work and bought myself my birthday present to me:

You're never too old for PokéMon.

After I came back, I went to the grocery store and bumped into one of my closer friends here. She invited me to go with her and some of the new exchange students to karaoke. I hadn't been, up to that point, so I agreed. 
It was quite fun. After a while, though, I got tired of all the bubblegum pop the girls were picking, so I chose to do a song by Miyavi, and my friend chose a couple of old anime theme songs. I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

And today, I've been studying and stretching.
Tomorrow makes my third week of exercise, and it will officially be a habit. 
Of course, it's already something of a habit. I feel funny at the thought of not exercising, and the only day I've skipped so far these past few weeks has been my birthday. So, so far, so good on this lifestyle change. I even exercised last night after getting back from the karaoke bar. Found a really good yoga set on YouTube, so I've been following along with that recently. 

What else did I promise to show you..?
Oh, yes! Food. 

I tried my hand at making shrimp sushi for the first time. I bought the wrong kind of shrimp, of course. 

However, I improvised once I realised my mistake. I cut the shrimp in half and laid them on top of each other, two to a shrimp, with a dab of wasabi. It worked out pretty well. I would buy larger shrimp and try again, but that's expensive.

The smaller ones are pretty cheap, though. And it tastes about the same, so feel free to give it a shot if you like shrimp sushi as much as I do.

Fried dumplings! With a side of rice and umeboshi, or pickled plums.

Pretty easy to make, just a little bit time consuming. Worth it, though, because if you make enough in one sitting, it will last you a couple of days before you need to cook again.

Which is nice if you're as lazy as I am.

So there you have it. There may start to be more pictures soon, school's about to start back and people are returning and remembering that there were people left at the dormitory and whatnot. 
So, we'll see. 
Gotta go study for that test now, though, so I'll catch you all next week!
Take care!

-RD

PS: We broke 900 pageviews over the past week! Thank you so much for keeping up with this, guys! I hope this will prove to be of use to you, should any of you be travelling to Tokyo in the future. If you aren't, I hope you are all enjoying it! Thank you again!