This is a Cold War--Do You Know What You're Fighting For?

Happy Wednesday, all!

Not too much has changed since Friday, but there's a little bit that I can go over. 
Saturday was spent lounging about at home, if memory serves me correctly. I spent the day watching things online and cleaning my room once I got home from work. My Sunday was also relatively uneventful. I lounged about with a friend of mine, mainly. 

Monday, however, I took another trip to Yokohama again with my NZ friend to go explore the Chinatown over that way. The days over this way have been very short [the sun setting at around 4:30 in the afternoon], and so we left at about noon to try to have some time to explore. The trouble with that, however, was that I haven't been to Chinatown since I had just arrived here (the last time I mentioned it on my blog was the last time I had chance to go), and I had forgotten how to get there. 
We got off at Yokohama Station, walked out, and then proceeded to get thoroughly lost. 

I don't know.

It was a bridge. Above us was a highway, which was terrifying.

But I liked the colour of the water.

Finally, the two of us caved and decided to ask for directions, and upon receiving them, we were off.
As it turns out, we hadn't gone as far as we needed to and had to get back on the train. Oops. 

Nevertheless, and despite the fact that it was already about 2:30 in the afternoon by the time we got there, she and I made it. 

I thought the curves in the street were interesting. The guy in the photo, when he saw I was taking a picture of the... Street, basically, turned to see what it was that I thought was so photo-worthy.

Wonder if he saw it.

The first entryway to lead you to Chinatown.

The main entrance marker.

The view from across the street. 

A pretty lantern. I think they put them up for New Year's. They weren't there the last time I went.

A display. On the poster is an advertisement to let people know the events going on for the Chinese New Year.

I won't be here when they happen, so it's kind of non-applicable to me.

But if anyone is going to Japan soon or will be here for the Chinese New Year, go check it out.

Then let me know how it is.

Street view--no cars were coming, so I stopped and snapped the photo.

Because of the cold weather, there were hardly any people out, but the vendor food was just as delicious and the shops still as intriguing. My friend and I got wrapped up in a couple of South Asian and Hawaiian inspired stores, we ate a lot of the street vendor food, and in general wandered around.
I also found a pomegranate to buy. It was a very happy occurrence. 

We also found a cactus with a hat in one of the stores we liked so much.

What's not to like about a cactus wearing a hat?

Everyone needs one, I think.

There was also a pineapple with a smiley face knitted into it. 

Another view of one of the gates.

Remember the photos from earlier in the year when the place was absolutely stuffed with people?

It makes me want to go back to Asakusa and see if it's nearly as crowded as it was when I went the one time.

Yummy. 

Except not for vegetarians. Didn't think about that.

My camera isn't as good at night, sorry about that.

But you can get the gist, I hope.

My friend really likes tea. I do, too, but she wins.

She was looking for white tea, and we managed to come across some oolong tea with monkeys on it.

Apparently it was a monkey who first discovered oolong tea or something,

But I loved the can, even without the background story.

The temple that was so packed with people when I first went.

Nearly empty that day.

A view of a pagoda and some of the lamps.

I wish the photo had turned out a little better. 

The panda still wants to eat you.

They also had keychains of the asian-style spoons with various foods in them.

I would just get hungry. 

From Chinatown, she and I decided to go back to Sakuragi-Cho, a part of Yokohama near the port, and run back to the PokeCentre and Jump Stores to buy a couple of things. I had some present shopping that I needed to do for a couple of people, and there was something in the Jump Store that she wanted. 

We came home after that, except we stopped in Yokohama because there was a mall that had--wait for it--
...
A Krispy Kreme. 
Which.
Yes. 
Just--yes. 
I'm usually a bit more frugal than that, but while Mister Donuts makes decent doughnuts, and Wisconsin is home to the best doughnuts that I've ever had, I do like Krispy Kreme a lot.

The front of the store and the top of my friend's head.

You could buy dozens, actual sets of 12 instead of 10, just like in the US.

 I was a bit floored and wished I had known of its existence sooner.

I bought two, and even though they weren't fresh like they sometimes have, the people behind the counter still offered to make them warm.

My friend had never had a warmed doughnut before, so watching her face was hilarity. 

It was amazing to her, nostalgic for me.

We headed on back home after that. She had some schoolwork she needed to work on and I had some procrastination to do. Went to the grocery store for another friend of mine just before getting home, and he came over after he got off of work so that we could do some studying.
Of course, we wound up mostly talking and swapping music, but we did get quite a bit of studying done. Tuesday my classes started back, and I have tests every day this week.
So I haven't had much room to have too much fun. After typing out the bulk of one of my final papers for one of my classes, though, my friend dragged me upstairs to say good-bye to another of our friends who was leaving... Today, as a matter of fact. Heading back to Holland. Wound up hanging out and staying up way too late, but it was well worth it, since I don't know when I'll be able to really see him again, you know? 

Today after my first class, my stomach started acting up, so I decided to stay home today for the rest of my classes and rest it off.  Didn't get around to exercising today, either, of course. Feeling better now, I don't know what that spell was, but whatever it was, it has passed and I will be going back to classes tomorrow, and exercises on Friday. 
Finals are happening tomorrow and Friday for my core class. I'd better get back to that. Will be back next week, which is my last week of official school, I do believe.
Wish me luck!

'Til next week, loves.

-RD

We Must Awake, Our Lives to Make

Phew! Well, I made it. I don't know about all of you, but I have had a very busy holiday season, as unconventional as it's proven to be. 

I hope you all had a fantastic batch of holidays, though. 

Happy New Years, too. May it be a good one for us all. 

I told you briefly about my second Miyavi concert, did I not? I think that was about where I left off, if I remember correctly.

I mentioned yesterday that these past couple of weeks have been a positive drain on my finances, what between travelling from place to place and finally buckling down and buying Christmas presents for people. But, I've found a new way to save money, and it did come from a rather surprising source. I'll get to that in this entry. 

After the concert on Wednesday successfully wore me out and left me tired and grumpy, we stayed at home on Thursday, and I sent my friend off to Harajuku on Friday on his own to go explore and do whatever he saw fit. I needed a little bit of quiet time, you see. So my friend was away for the day, and I slept. 

Saturday, however, he and I ventured to Kamakura. We left a little late, however, and only had time to, besides doing a little wandering around aimlessly, look at Koutoku Temple, the home of the famous, enormous statue of Buddha. 

It is, indeed, quite enormous.

A lovely place, although my poor mood soured the adventure a little bit. I was still a little tired, and the holidays are always a little difficult for me, no matter what I'm doing or where I am, apparently. I'll try to go back again though, maybe a little earlier, before I leave, to see about enjoying it and going to places besides the temple. It was a lovely place, but Kamakura is absolutely dripping with history, and I want to see as much of it as possible. It was a charming town, besides. 

For whatever reason, the photos on my SD card are all out of order, so I'll write explanations underneath wherever they need, of course.

My friend went underneath to go see how it was built. I couldn't be bothered at the time, for whatever reason.

This was along the way to the Buddha statue, actually.

Part of the temple.

Two different trees from two different times--the other one was much earlier.

One of my closest friends over here is from Thailand, so I've grown a bit fond of the place. 

A different part. Behind the Buddha, there was a little doorway that you could walk through and get to a different area.

This was beside the big pair of shoes in the temple.

One of the trees from Thailand.

Incense burner in front of Buddha.

His back, for some reason, has windows. 

From there, my friend and I went back to the main portion of the town and walked down a street to look around before deciding to come back to the dormitory and eat dinner. 

He made some pretty delightful Indian food for me one night, and I returned the favour another night by making chicken quesadillas. 

Sunday, I stayed home again while he went back to Harajuku to go see the shrine for Emperor Meiji, but on Sunday, he, my friend from New Zealand, and I, all decided to go to Yokohama to enjoy the last day of 2012 there. We initially wanted to go to Chinatown along with the PokeCentre and movie theatre, but we would have missed the movie by the time we got back from Chinatown, so we decided to just go to a boat harbour and then go back to the main part of the city and eat dinner together before the film. 

This was actually at the end of the trip, when we were heading back that night. People were dressed up as snakes to celebrate the new year.

Year of the snake, and all.

It's shiny! 

This was when we first got here--the boat port that's beside one of the bigger shopping centres. 

And the fair in the background.

A picture in a rather obscure place over in the city, underneath a staircase.

No clue. But this was on the big port that people can walk on.

It was getting pretty dark. Started raining just a little bit after we got inside.

This was my dinner. It was slow to be made and expensive, but made from scratch and positively delicious.

Well worth the wait and expense.

Another skyline view.

The entryway to the port that we went to.

End of the port. It's quite long.

The walkway again.

So, yes, we three went to see the Hobbit, finally, after much waiting and anticipation, and I was certainly not let down. Quite excited for the next film. I would go watch it again, but the tickets are painfully expensive in Japan and I just cannot afford it at the moment.

I also want to see Les Miserables because I love the musical, but... I may need to wait until that one is out on video before I can watch it, haha.

At midnight, we were all watching a television show on my laptop and eating oranges. 

After we woke up in the morning, we all headed to Goutoku-ji, where I went previously on the field trip to see the lucky cat shrine and other things. The place looks about the same, except it was packed with people unlike the last time. 

But it was a good trip.

Afterwards, I saw my friend off so that he could go back to Nagoya, and then went back to the dormitory with my NZ friend. 

Along the way, we stopped in Machida and went to a cafe for a snack.

Yummy. 

I came home, cleaned up my room, and prepared myself for my next guest, a friend of mine from Kansai, visiting for two days. 

We didn't do that much on the first day, but he and I went to Ueno Park on the second, which is where my money-saving idea comes in.

In some of the museums in the park, they have really, really good discounts for college students. The Western Art Museum and National Museum both have tickets for 400 yen a piece, provided you have your university ID with you.

And the museums are stunning and you should all go if you ever get the chance.

The western art museum has a room full of nothing but Medieval works, and then another room of nothing but Monet.

To look at them was amazing, to see the detail and the care put into every piece, and yet, at the same time it can make a person feel so under-accomplished and so unworthy of looking at something by someone(people) that great. 

Then, in the National Muesum, there were items from Egypt dating all the way back to before the dynastic periods.

Which made me feel very small, to say the least. 

It was a mixed bag of emotions, the trip to the museums.

But I love those kinds of places, so I'm planning on going back when I've got the free time.

On the way home, on the train, there was a little boy [around five years old, maybe]. who kept looking at me. He was Japanese, and he stared hard at me. To be honest, I thought for a while I had offended him somehow. And then he started feeling his nose, staring at mine, I guess to understand the difference. 

It was charming and delightfully human in the very mechanical, very stiff Tokyo. 

I was quite moved.

And today... I saw my friend off and went back to my room. I gave another friend his Christmas present, because I hadn't yet had a chance since we'd both been so busy. He had a really good reaction to it, too, and it made me happy that he appreciated his gift so much.

But that's all I've really done, so I will sign out henceforth and tell you about my what is likely to be very uninteresting weekend on Wednesday.

See you all later~ 

-RD

Welcome to the New Age

It's still Wednesday in America!
I'm sorry to make you wait--I went to a concert last night [Miyavi again], and by the time I got home and settled down, I was dog-tired.

How is everyone doing? I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. 

I spent my Thursday working ahead and trying to get all of my homework and projects done for stuff due before Christmas break, and I was even feeling adventurous enough to try to work into my Christmas break stuff, but I only barely scratched the surface on that. I'll get to it soon. I hope. 

Last weekend was pretty lazy. I didn't really do too much, save for go out for dinner with my Thai friend one night. This break is going to be so busy for me that I knew ahead that I needed to go ahead and get whatever rest I could manage before I started doing things. 

Monday, Christmas Eve, some friends and I got together and had a little party. 
We had nabe for dinner, with sparkling apple and grape juice to drink, as well as some sweets and home-made eggnog, since you can't find eggnog here. 

Me getting ready to make the eggnog.

Whisking the whites into a meringue. It takes forever without an electric mixer, so I spent most of my time sitting there and wondering who came up with the idea in the first place, since of course it's been around longer than the electric mixer.

They must have been very bored. 

The broth getting hot and ready to have stuff put in it, as well as a Korean dish to the left, and three stacks of tofu.

Everything ready.

Everything partially eaten, with the addition of mangoes and a Vietnamese dish. 

We ate until we were stuffed, and there was still leftovers. Somehow, I suppose since we did the party in my room, it was because of that, but regardless, there was a lot of food left over and it took me waiting on my friend who came in Wednesday to finish it all off. Even now, there's still cookies and the like left. That will take a while, I imagine. 

Christmas was uneventful. I was initially planning on going to see my best friend at the airport, but she was unable to make the proper flight, so we had to cancel our plans. I spent the day with my friend from New Zealand, eating breakfast foods and listening to radio from NZ and hanging out. Afterwards, I took a nap and read. 

Wednesday, after I couldn't sleep very well the night previously, I got up early and then picked my friend up from the train station in Machida. We came home, I fed him breakfast, we took a nap, and then went out and about. 
He forgot the tickets to the concert, so we had to run back home, and then dash back and try to make the concert on time. Which we did, fortunately.
And it was amazing, as usual, and I was finally able to reach out and touch him at the end when he stretched out his hand to fans. It was wonderful and I am happy.

Today, I should be going to see the Hobbit. I'll let you guys know about it, although I'm sure you've seen it all before by now, next week. 
What else... Not too much. I should be doing quite a bit this week, so I'll write it down and try to remember it all.

Until then!
-RD

They Never Look to See Me Fly, So I Never Have to Lie.

Hey guys!
Writing this one a bit early--well, I'm starting to write it, anyway. I might be able to finish it, too, with as little as I've been doing lately.
It's just tedious and bad timing to write it on Wednesday evenings, especially now that I've started going to the gym on top of my two afternoon classes and what not. Last semester I was so busy all of the time that I just didn't notice it to begin with, but now that I've freed up my schedule a little bit, oh boy, do I notice.

Crummy winter mood has continued and I haven't done much as a result of it.
However! Friday is my last day of classes, and provided the world doesn't end on Saturday afternoon (since I'm a day ahead of the Mayans and all), I have a lot scheduled over my winter break. I wasn't expecting to be so busy, but surprise, surprise. It stands in stark contrast to my summer schedule, as the only "free time" I will have, it seems, will be the first and last weekend of my break.
Christmas Eve, I'm going to a friend's house to spend the night, and we'll all spend Christmas morning together [I need to go buy some presents of some kind. Uh-oh.]. That evening, I've got to go to Narita airport to pick up my best friend, who is returning to Japan from her study abroad in California. We'll spend the night together in Tokyo, going out for her much-craved sushi, maybe to karaoke, and so forth. I'll spend time with her until the evening of the 26th, and from there I will dash to Shibuya to go to a concert to see Miyavi before I leave.
In Shibuya, I'm meeting up with one of my friends from the States, whose doing a study-abroad in Nagoya at the moment, as well as my friend from NZ. My friend doing the study abroad will probably stay with me until Jan. 1st or 2nd, and on the 3rd, I've got a friend from Kobe coming up to visit me.
And then, that weekend, my friend from Vietnam wants to make Vietnamese food together. I can't argue with that.
But, my goodness. Since when have I been a busy bee?

I haven't really been lately, though. I didn't do anything this weekend except lay around the house and sleep. Monday I got up just long enough to go to the gym, and then that evening a friend asked if I'd be willing to help her friend with a project. Being a model for photos or something. So, I said I would. Afterwards, my friend and I went to go get ramen together, and I've eaten so little oil recently that even that put my stomach off for an hour or two.
I'm not looking forward to having to eat when I'm back in the States if it's already this bad. But, hopefully this will be not just a temporary change, but rather a lifestyle change, and I'll never have to go back to eating the amount of grease and oil that I ate before.
Fingers crossed.
From the ramen shop, we went to the grocery store, where I stocked up a bit on a few things like fruits and vegetables, and I also bought a couple of freezable foods to get ready for my friends coming to see me. Avocados are still reasonable, oranges, apples, and pumpkin are all still good to go for the time being.
What else--Oh! Sweet potatoes are pretty cheap at the moment, but since I'm trying to avoid as much starch as possible, I'm kind of avoiding those. But a big one, at the moment, is only about 100 yen.

Speaking of prices, though, have you seen the USD-JPY exchange rate recently? I wish I'd had it this high since I got here! Goodness. I'm about to have to get extra frugal, since I want to be able to see my best friend again before I leave Japan for a while.

I've been re-watching the Lord of the Rings series, as my friend coming up for the concert and I are planning on going to see the Hobbit soon. Today, my NZ friend is letting me borrow her iPad while I go to the gym so that I might watch Return of the King while doing my cardio.
I must say, I'm rather looking forward to that. It will make my stationary biking so much more entertaining.

But, that's all that I've really got planned. We're going over some really difficult things in Japanese at the moment (honorific form will be the death of me, I promise), so I need to study.
Saturday I've got work, and then after that I might be hanging out with my friend from Thailand.

But, really... That's all that's been going on. I haven't been doing much, so I can't really elaborate on any money-saving ideas at the moment.
Sorry about that. I should start having some as of next week, though, I hope.

In the mean time, have a really swell song:




Toodles for now, dolls~

-RD