Post-Korea
Now I've been to two countries in Asia. ^^ I went with two of my friends from my dorm. None of us really had a good idea what Korea would be like, we had heard of cheap prices on most things though, so we were pretty excited about that. The day we got there doesn't really count because all that happened is that two of us got screwed by the exchange of yen to won at Narita airport. When we got to Incheon, they exchanged it for DOUBLE what we got. So after getting over the idea of almost being super rich for 10 days, we took a taxi to the hostel, which took about one and half hours. We were really tired by the time we got to the hostel, as it was basically 11pm and we had been traveling all day (it takes two hours to get from our dorm to the airport, a three hour flight, and another two hours to the hostel). Here's the hostel and our room (we shared a three person room):




Our ideas when planning this trip were not of grandeur. We just wanted to get good food, shop, see the sights, and relax. So that's what we did. We kinda did everything semi-spontaneously... whatever we felt like doing that day, at most we planned one day in advance. The hardest part was budgeting since Sanja and I had less money than we had planned. It all worked out and we're much better at budgeting than we thought. (plan: spend every last penny, just have at least enough for food everyday; we spent our last few won the morning we left)

We started measuring everything in terms of kimbap, (1000 won or about $1 - and two kimbap can fill you up) like "oh those pants are nice... but you COULD get 10 kimbap and a CD for that..." Haha actually, we're still doing it after coming back to Tokyo. Once setting foot back on Japanese soil, we were once again poor and food being outrageously expensive here, we just wanted our kimbap back. ^^; Unfortunately, I somehow managed to not get any photos of our favorite food from Korea.

Korea was strangely welcoming. They're MUCH louder than the Japanese so we were no longer the "yelling" foreigners, but just foreigners. They also give you take out boxes at restaurants. AKA portions are big enough for take out boxes!! Movies are super cheap (cheaper than the US) and they have all the foods we were missing: pizza with cheese!!, mexican food, salads with lettuce not cabbage, HUGE bunch of delicious bananas for 2000 won ($2) ... you get the idea.

Some things were really funny though. Pizza Hut, Baskin Robins, and Dunkin' Donuts are really popular and you can find them basically everywhere. But... unlike in the US, they're classy places. xDD

Exhibit A: Dunkin' Donuts

and the inside:


Exhibit B: Pizza Hut








Exhibit C: Baskin Robins








Oh, and McDonalds delivers, and Gandalf guards the movie theater.




It was no surprise though that it smelled like kimchi and garlic everywhere (yup, that's huge bags of garlic).


Don't worry though, we had a day of cultural events. xDD We visited two palaces and went to the fish market.






























meal we got at a restaurant near the fish market (we shared all this but it was A TON of food, and it kept coming, this wasn't even all of it!)












As I said, our Korean was VERY limited (I knew the most and that's not saying much), but we managed to get by just fine by pointing at things and using fingers to gesture how many... movies were the best. The first night we kept saying the title over and over, eventually having to take a photo of the poster to get him to understand (obviously had a very different title in korean). After that we collected movie flyers to the movies we wanted to see. Much easier. The one cab drive we took in the middle of the week was the most difficult, he didn't speak english and all I could understand was "do you have their phone number? no? no? aishhh"

Only had one hiccup in the plan really. On the second night I got food poisoning or something. Whatever it was, it was NOT a pleasant night for me. The next day we took a day off, I told them to go do stuff but they just went and got me rice porridge and saltines. I'm not sure why I got sick though because I ate the EXACT same things as Lily did... all I can figure is that I had a lot of cheese that day, something I haven't had now for 6 months. Apparently I can no longer tolerate it. And word to the wise, getting sick in a foreign country SUCKS. I really wanted my Mommy and some apple sauce. Didn't get either. But Lily, Sanja, and the managers of the hostel were awesome. It was really frustrating to me because then I was really careful to not eat as much spicy stuff, afraid I would get sick again, so I didn't have anywhere near enough kimchi/korean food. And thus, I must go back.

Here are some random photos I couldn't fit in the categories above:


























All in all, I had an excellent time in Korea. I would definitely go back, but I'd love to learn some more Korean first. The trip really made us appreciate the little Japanese we do know. At least we can tell the man at the subway station he gave us the wrong ticket and we want the one worth XX. T__T I hope you all had an excellent start to March as well! The family will be here in less than a week now, and I'm really excited to show them around/see them. ^^

As always, my Flickr has better photos, so go visit!!

Hello All!!
Sorry, that once again, I have neglected this blog and I'm sure all of you are just DYING to know what I've been up to. Lucky for you this huge break in writing has let me gather some great adventures to retell.

Let me start with New Year's. A few days after my last post we went to Tokyo Tower to see the city, and hopefully Mt. Fuji. A lot of other people had the same idea, as the first few days of every year are the clearest, but we were rewarded for waiting in a two hour line. I have photos, and you will see them shortly, but let me just say that these do NOT do any justice to how amazingly beautiful and clear it was that day. Fuji looked colossal and we could see for miles.





Look! It's the tower's shadow!!


That same day we went to the Imperial Palace, in hopes of catching a glimpse of the Emperor. Unfortunately by the time we got there he was back in hiding and you'd never know there was an event there because all around the Palace was basically empty. But here's one of the gates.




The rest of January was very boring. Just working on finishing up classes, papers, exams, nothing exciting. So skip to February, a few other girls in my dorm and I went to Hokkaido (the northern most island of Japan) for the Sapporo Snow Festival. It was amazing. We stayed in a sister dorm right in Sapporo. We were close to everything we wanted to do. Everything was beautiful and snow-covered, it snowed every day we were there! <3 Unfortunately I suffered a few injuries while there, mostly ice related, but it did make the week a little harder for me. But being the Great Savvy I am, two hurt knees (and on the last day a strained/twisted ankle) can't get me down! It was a week of some of my favorite things, snow, great food, and fun. And now begins massive pic spam.

My room


and view from it


collection of random photos/fish market












sapporo government building








FACE building!! haha




walkin' like penguins


food themed bowling alley


cool stuff at Sapporo beer factory










cable car we took around town


a beautiful park we visited






snow was DEEP!! most of the time (at the park especially) we were walking on top of all that


so benches looked like this


delicious sweet potato kit kat


pikachu!!


view of the city from the nearby mountain




from our ferris wheel ride






and BALLOON pudding!!


and now for the snow sculptures


























CRAZY band










Finland


Thailand (it won)








So there you have it. ^^ We got back on February 11th, and since then I haven't been doing much. I did go to the Ghibli Museum (of which I have no photos because I forgot my camera >< AND we weren't allowed to take photos inside). It was really fun seeing all that art work (it's a museum for a famous Japanese animation director, Miyazaki. Movies that made it to the US are Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke). Other than that, I have been studying some Korean for my trip to Korea (I leave on March 1st!!) and planning for that trip. We're getting so excited! I'm going with two of the girls in my dorm. We can't wait for the Kimchi Museum... among other things. xD I get back from Korea on the 10th of March, and then nine days later the fam comes in to Tokyo! Then, one of my friends and I are planning on going to Okinawa (the tropical islands of Japan). Just for a well rounded vacation. ^^

I hope you are all doing well. I will try to post Korea photos as soon as I get back!! Oh, and go visit my Flickr page, because I have some new photos from these trips up there (and they're better than these photos ^^) <http://www.flickr.com/photos/savvy_photos/>
Hope this wasn't too pic spammy~~ xD
<3

As promised, photos to match the last post. Since then I have gone to Odaiba and Kamakura so those will also be in here. Those little day trips are so refreshing and fun. Kamakura was great, we got to smell/see the ocean and it was so quiet there. Odaiba was really just a day of fun, running around and being happy.
Happy New Year's everybody! I hope you have excellent resolutions and we can stick to them. <3

In order of travel:



DISNEY

got a little too excited... photo RIGHT after exiting train station




all decorated for Christmas


Disney castle!!


Nightmare haunted house <3


poor Donald wanted to ride the merry-go-round


guys forced to come by their girlfriends, as made obvious by the attire






photo of fail but hats of awesome


jack sparrow!!! he was spot on for the voice and behavior


where we had dinner


that looked like this


and can't forget the Mickey waffles


and WALLE~~~


just a random delicious waffle i had the week of Christmas




AQUARIUM II (SHINAGAWA)

too bad the window was dirty


but there was a tunnel!




and lots of fishies




a seal show


and a dolphin show




and then we saw the lights








ODAIBA

rainbow bridge


look mom! i saw the statue of liberty!


and this huge anchor!!




i promise that grey triangle in the distance is Mt. Fuji xD


awesome indoor mall painted/built like italy


then we found toys r us


a beautiful sky


and the ferris wheel!






lights make the dark so much prettier










KAMAKURA

first temple we visited










and every good temple has awesome fish




the giant buddha! looks photoshoped but i SWEAR we went!




i just really liked this wall ><;;


and we could see the ocean




so we followed the smell xD


















*phew* that took too long. hope you enjoyed! xD
<333

WOW!!! How did that month and a half (or a bit more...) go by so fast?!

Well first things first, I must give you all good news, which I really should have done a lot longer ago. The last entry was quite depressing and, as expected, I got over it. Rather quickly I might add. Now I've just got a weird mix of really wanting to stay in the present, learn as much as I can and keep moving forward, wherever that may be, meanwhile still wanting to come home... at least to visit. ^^; Sorry to keep you worried for long, I kept meaning to update about my status of culture shock but hadn't gotten around to it.

Now, for things I've done since then. The next few weeks after I updated last were jammed full. Lots of birthdays (including my 21st!), some midterms, research for a big paper, and of course, Thanksgiving. Mostly I've been busy with schoolwork, but Thanksgiving, and now this Christmas break, have been welcome company. Thanksgiving we didn't get school off but two of my American friends and I decided to have our own, albeit tarnished Thanksgiving. They had been sent mashed potato and stuffing mixes by their parents, and since Turkey can really only be found in Subway and Disneyland here, we settled for KFC (bit of a side note: KFC is the meal of choice on Christmas as apparently when they were introducing KFC to the Japanese market it was decided that the marketing strategy would be "this is what Americans eat on Christmas!" and now it is impossible to go to KFC on Christmas and there are waiting lists, supposedly xD). I made a huge bowl of all the vegetables we could find, and we found a place that had pumpkin tarts, not the same but still tasty. So that was a fun adventure, although our stuffing ended up tasting like water and we weren't in the Thanksgiving mood because we definitely didn't eat enough. ^^;

After that I was back in school mode, except for December 8th, when I took my first trip to Disney. It was AWESOME! Having well prepared myself with all manner of Disney soundtracks and watching many movies again, I was delighted to find out that we had so many choices of hats and waffle toppings. Although we thought we had picked a random monday it must have been a secret holiday because EVERYONE was there. It was still tons of fun though and now I need to go to Disney Sea, where they are said to have Jasmine's palace!!

Then back to school work for a few more weeks. And now on into our short Winter break. On Christmas Eve we went to the school where they had mass services all day. We accidentally ended up at a Japanese one, but it was still quite nice. Quite interesting to here and know hardly any of the vocabulary but still basically know what is going on. Then on Christmas I made french toast for everyone, and we had a fruit salad (yay for splurging on fresh fruit and veg on holidays!), it was quite nice. That night we went to see Walle and were quite surprised that it was subtitled instead of dubbed.

Yesterday I went with some friends to another acquarium (this one had a tunnel!), then to karaoke, and dinner was okinomiyaki (basically... a delicious pancake? I don't know how else to explain it... It has a batter and whatever you order to put in, I got kimchi and shrimp). Hopefully before the break is over we will take a few day trips, and plan some longer ones for the long break in Feb/March.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season. I'm sure you are planning wonderful things for the New Year. I think I will have a picture post soon, so be on the look out!

~~ Savvy

Hey all~~

Sorry it took me so long to let you know my new address and update you with photos of it. I'm still not completely settled... I haven't posted up very much on my walls, as you will see, and I need an extension cord so I can push my desk back into it's spot. But it's a cute room with lots of storage, a mini balcony, and lots of other people to hang out with. We've been cooking together a lot so that's really fun. Here are some photos!

my bed, the front door, and my closets


my desk, bed, mini-fridge... i guess i didn't really get the bookshelf in a photo... it's between my closets and my desk


the balcony and "view"


My new S-Mail:

2-32-5 Minami-cho Warabi city, Saitama, Japan 335-0003



Onward, to less happy matters. I now know how weird and hard culture shock can be. I remember studying culture shock in my Comm 101 class last year and thinking, "oh the novelty can never wear off of Japan~~!" Well... I'm here to tell you it can. And did. I believe I am at the homesick stage. The first month was for sure very fun and so exciting. I couldn't believe I was in Japan let alone going to be here for such a long time, and I was meeting a lot of really cool international students, most of whom I expect to be friends with for a long time. Plus classes started and I was settling into a routine, learning the stations and still finding it funny that the Japanese don't seem to sweat, even when pressed against 5 other people in the wee hours on the commute in the morning. Then came the surprise of having to find new housing and knowing I wouldn't be with my host family anymore. It was a complete shock and threw me off but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. I had my day or two of really missing people, but for the most part everything was very exciting.

Now... I'm seeing things differently. Moving in general just sucks but let me tell you that moving on trains sucks more. That's really not what's eating me though. I miss a lot more than I thought I would, and don't seem to be making friends with anyone but international students. This week too was probably the worst. Hopefully it'll all get straightened out soon, but it's just a big mess right now.

Allow me to elaborate. On Monday I sent a message to my pen pal, apologizing for not emailing recently from all my busy-ness. She answered and for some reason I couldn't read all of it. I thought maybe it was because I was on the train, so later I tried to retrieve the rest of it but it kept giving me this strange message. Then I got a mail from Softbank (my phone company) and as their usually all in Japanese I just scroll through to see if I can read any of it and this time at the bottom there was English too. "..blah blah... If you do not send us your current address your contract will be terminated." The scariest part about that message is that I hadn't had time to tell them yet I had moved. Now my phone doesn't do anything. I can only receive messages, not send or reply. (Yesterday I went to Harajuku to fix the problem with an English speaking worker and they said it'd be fixed within 2-3 hours.... now it has been... 26ish hours...) On Tuesday I bought my new commuter pass and got refunded for my old one. That was hard enough, fumbling my way through, luckily a very nice man works in Yotsuya station and he was very happy to help me (and tolerated my horrible Japanese). Then Yesterday I had major problems getting into and out of stations. So add these together and that's not MAJOR... just my phone doesn't work and neither does my commuter pass... meh. But wait, there's more. My iPod keeps dying... like, dead dead. I don't have a wall charger so I can't fix it and this also means my battery life has gone away.... or something equally horrible. So now I have to find a wall charger or something so that I can listen to SOMETHING other than people breathing on the train.

Oh the trains! Yeah... not so funny anymore. More frustrating really. The commute from my new place to school is slightly worse, it's a bit shorter but way more crowded. It's a lot harder to get off the train at your stop and make the next train... And I get stared at. A lot. It's beginning to be quite annoying. It's not like little kids either... it's the old men who have to peer from around a corner or other people and just stare. It was funny at first but now... it's definitely getting creepy. AND there's only like... five fresh fruits and vegetables to choose from in the grocery store, and looking at the prices will just make you cry (and apparently it's always like this, high prices and no selection). They have; bananas, tangerines, apples (one kind), persimmons, grapes (one kind), and pears(one kind). Don't get me wrong, the fruit is good, but ... I miss the variety of fairly cheap fruit!!

Also, the Japanese students aren't nearly as friendly as everyone said they would be. They're very nice, that's not a problem, all the Japanese people I have met are very nice but it's always small talk, never with the intent of ever hanging out again, and usually they just want to speak English. I'm not practicing Japanese enough at all and I'm not sure how to get to. My Japanese tutor is really nice but since she's Korean... well I'm starting to know more Koreans than Japanese. Also my classes are kinda boring and not taught very well... I feel kinda like I'm back in high school where all the teachers are just teaching so that you'll pass the test. Its almost like I'm wasting this year.

I dunno... I guess everything is just very different than what I expected and I kinda wanna come home... but then then I don't because I'd be letting all of you (and me) down. I did "fix" my commuter pass today... but everything else remains questionable.

It's been almost 7 weeks and I already want to come home? -_- PLUS I really wanted to be home for the election. Watching it in the embassy was a lot of fun and I'm definitely glad I found out about it because finding out on the internet would have been so lame and boring. But I've never seen our country so united, hearing stories of the shear happiness and relief after the elections, and I've never been so proud to say, I'm American. It was amazing watching the coverage from Martin Luther King's church and Kenya, hearing Obama speak and feeling like he's inspiring people to come together. I was even interviewed (along with a few other students I went with... oddly we were the only white/American students there...) by an apparently conservative newspaper. So I'll keep checking to see if it's posted online and if it is then I'll let you know! Although... it'll be in Japanese... ><; Anyway... I'm just missing all the comforts of home and feeling quite hopeless.

I really hope that the election was as exciting for you as it was for me, and that things are going just swimmingly there in the U.S. of A.

<3

Alrighty. So here's some big news.

On Tuesday last week I got back to the house and no one was here, but I had been in contact with my host mom and new she'd be home late. Then around 7:30 I get a message saying that I should wait for dinner, if I'm not too hungry, because she is bringing sushi. YAY!! ***warning, this is not usual... so if you are in Japan _especially with a host family_ this is probably not as awesome as you think it is*** So I was really excited to have sushi!! Haha. THEN after dinner she made us real green tea... not the bag stuff but the really thick powder tea. Still I was oblivious to the exctravegance and potential bad omens...
Then my host dad said, "We have something important to tell you... At the end of this month we have to move..."
my thoughts **oh well that's inconvenient... maybe it's closer to school!**
"I just found out yesterday from my company that I have to go to New Zealand."
**Ohhh New Zealand is pretty!! wait... blink blink... WHATTTT???? o__O**
"We feel really horrible for putting you in this position. We have really enjoyed having you stay with us, and wish it could have been longer."
**so ... this is real...**
"I called the school today to let them know the situation and they asked for you to come talk with them tomorrow."
**maybe I'll have a TV in my new home stay! But Madoka and Ayaka are sooooo cute~~~ :(**
"We are so sorry, it's really hard."

So this past week has been filled with confusion on where I should live now. I was convinced I would be able to get into another home stay quite easily... but they have all been filled and so that was now not an option. So then I had to choose between three dorms. One I really wasn't interested in so it was down to two. One is like a bunch of apartments and although I would get my own "kitchen" and bathroom... I really would never see anyone. It was also so tiny that I couldn't imagine where I would cook/store food and what I would do with my suitcases, AND they don't have INTERNET~~~! BUT it was a lot closer to the school, the cheapest option, and I know two of the people living there. But in the end I chose the dorm where most of the international students live. It has a big community kitchen and the room is sizable. I know a lot of people living there, and they have a sister dorm we can stay in in Sapporo (Hokkaido) so I can go up there whenever I want (aka when I have the money to...)! It was an extremely quick decision to have to make and I'm still wondering if I made the right one. But it is only for 10-ish months and I probably whichever one I picked would/will be fine. So that is the whole story. Oh, except that I move into the new dorm on Thursday this coming week. Soooo I'll post up photos of my new place when I get it all set up.

Moral: Sushi platters are a means of softening a big blow... the bigger the platter, the bigger the blow. So don't think twice before you eat all the tastiest pieces. ^^

WOOOT Finally have time to post these photos~~

First, a few random ones outside my home stay building.
A view from the bus stop looking up:


The bus stop... xD


And the sidewalk next to the park and school area across the street.






These next few are from Madoka's Undokai. It's a sports festival that schools have every year for the kids... kinda equivalent to field day. Only... it seems really fun. Haha at least for the little kids. ^^

Each class had different color hats. ^^ Madoka's class was navy blue.


Yay tug of war~~ They played the Rocky theme when each class came out. xDD




Then all the classes got prepared for the final event while the parents played the games the kids played earlier. ^^ And they just looked too cute so I took too many photos. ><




Madoka's class had white.




Then they all performed a choreographed dance. They did really well!!




And even Ayaka had a good time. ^o^





This next batch I imagine won't be too interesting to some of you... sorry~~ (Don't worry!!! Fishy pictures are coming next~~) Last week I went to the Tokyo Game Show... aka Nerd Convention!!!! Haha. I was really just going because I had nothing else to do on my Sunday... but it turned out to be fun.
For those of you who don't know, as I didn't, Tokyo Game Show is a convention of video games and the companies let you play games that haven't come out yet, vote for games that should come out, play SUPER new games... etc. I played Cooking Mama on the Wii~~~ It was EXCELLENT and now I need a Wii!! Haha.




There were cute characters:


And tons of cosplay-ers:






We got to play Kindom Hearts Mobile~~~ soooo cute. ^^




See character art for games yet to come out:


PENGUINS~~~


A game that Shun and Maki are both voices for characters. <3


Of COURSE figurines that you could buy of all the characters known to man kind.










Games we weren't supposed to take photos of... ><;


And a "Lost Child Center" xDDD


Cooking Mama~~~
(I even won free food erasers just for playing!)


And for Sara, the Ai Nori bus~~~~ DUDE that was hard to get a photo of! Haha. I saw the sign and made a bee-line for it. xDD




Then we had dinner near Tokyo Station and they happened to have a University art exhibit going on.


This guy is made out of styrofoam! Sooooo cool and huge!





And NOW for the Aquarium photos!!
Sabine and Ayumi


(a surprisingly still excited even though we were done) Lily and Sanja


The underside of a manta ray! Have you ever seen it??? xD


Hugemongous crabs (a little kid yelled to his dad "tabetai~~" (I want to eat it!) xDDD )


Silver fishies!! and a super cute couple that came in at the same time as us. He tried to jump into one of our photos... unfortunately it had already been taken ><


Really? these are fish??




NEMOs~~


Penguins?


and a guinea pig/deer thing...?


and huge birds


and now back to fish. ^^




TURTLE!!!




and my favorite, jellies~~ "you shall be my squishy" xDD




And when we were leaving they had a seal competition/show. ^^


Yay aquarium!!!

Whew that was a lot of photos! Now you don't need any for like.... three/four weeks right? Haha. I hope you are all doing well. I shall be having a rather strange yet important entry soon pertaining to my living arrangements. Please tune in next week for more details. In the mean time... please don't send snail mail! ^^

<333

Hello All!

Sorry I haven't had a real post in a while. Honestly though I think pictures are way more fun than reading. xDDD Yet you all are dying to know about my classes and there are no photos to accompany these stories!

OKIE so the first day of classes was last Wednesday and I only have one class on Wednesdays, Japanese (I have Japanese every morning). So that was a super easy day. It seems good although I was sad to find out that I needed to learn a few chapters of kanji to catch up since we hadn't studied them yet. AND that I forgot a lot. >< I'm trying to brush up on everything and once I do I'm sure that class will be A-ok!

Thursday I had two classes (Mondays and Thursdays I have Japanese and one of my Art History classes). I always like art history so I'm sure that class is going to be good. I actually had it again today and she did a lot of history so I think once I'm into my history class all the classes I chose will be fitting together very nicely.

Friday I had three classes (Tuesdays and Fridays I have Japanese, the second of my Art History classes, and my Japanese History class). My art history class on Tuesday/Friday is surprisingly big. The professor seems really cool and he has an interesting way of studying art history (we're only looking at around 20 pieces the whole semester). PLUS we get to go on a field trip soon so that makes any class EXCELLENT in my book. ^^ My history class seems really easy. Which is actually good since I really do want to focus mostly on Japanese. It's a kinda small room but every seat is filled so it is really crowded. The only problem with Tuesdays and Fridays is that lunch will be very difficult since no one has classes from 12:30-13:30 and is therefore deemed lunch time, all the cafeterias are extremely crowded.

Now, my Japanese class starts at 9:15 which means I have to leave around 7:30 (ewwww waking up at 6:30 is going to kill meeeeee). I get to the train station around 8:00 and that is part of the infamous Japanese rush hour. So for about 40 minutes of each week day picture savvvy sardines. Haha. No for real, in that first or second post I said that the train was crowded and I had finally experienced it. THAT WAS A LIE. Any amount of description cannot prepare you for the event that is rush hour. TOTAL CHAOS.

RANDOM CUTENESSSSS:
Today on the train on my way back from school this couple got on and sat across from me. They were super cute. When they sat down the guy got out a mini music player and gave her one head phone and they shared. As soon as the train started moving they both fell asleep (which is DEFINITELY the Japanese thing to do) and it was sooooo cute. Then she woke up and started playing with his music player. It was one of the kind with a clip so she started clipping it on him... like on his ear (which to her dismay provoked nothing) and a few other places until she decided to clip it on his nose. xDDDDD He woke up but had that "omg what is happening i should be sleeping" face and she took it off and couldn't stop laughing because as soon as it was off he was asleep again. THEN (oh yes there is more!!!) she got super excited when we were approaching the stop at Disney Land and so I figured they must be going there. So she got up and had kinda woken him up before the train stopped at the station and then he didn't actually get up so once it stopped she dragged him off like a little kid waking up her parents on Christmas and dragging them to the living room to open presents. ^^ Just thought that was super cute! <3

ONWARD! Yesterday I went to an aquarium with a few international students and one Japanese student. It was a lot of fun. I do have accompanying photos but I will upload them sometime this week. We saw some very strange animals, lots of fish that definitely did not look like fish, the fattest seals I have ever seen, a sunshine fish that was swimming into the wall (you know like a bug flies into a window and doesn't know what's happening so it's actually flying in one spot?), and some weird guinea pig/dear things... haha. There was a show right before we left of a competition of sorts to decide which performing seal was the best overall seal, competing in events like, cuteness, best at having fun, best tricks... you know. ^^ So that was fun. I got some really good photos too so I'll post them up later.

Hopefully this weekend I'll go to a museum or two... we'll see. I definitely need to study Japanese though, so I hope this update will suffice for now.

By the by, just to let you know, those of you who are reading this and DON'T have a LiveJournal account CAN post comments. If you want. Haha no pressure xD. Just be sure to say who's writing either in the subject or at the end of the comment!

Love you all!
Hogs and quiches (^-^)~~
<3333

Just wanted to show these to you guys. I will post an actual entry sometime this weekend I hope. After tomorrow I'll have a few days of classes to share with you and some random stories... so for now here are a few cool photos! ^^

First, Ayaka, as I said loves to steal stuff. This time however it was Madoka's school hat and her mom's rain boots. xDDD



Alrighty, so today I was walking back from the station and on the bridge right before our group of apartment buildings there was a group of little elementary school kids looking over the railing at something. So of course I had to see what they were seeing! Guess what it was?!?! There were like... 5 or 6 sting rays swimming under the bridge!!! So cool!


Then I decided you needed to see the bridge and Urayasu on a nice day. ^^

The really tall buildings on the right side are some of the buildings in the group of apartments my home stay is in.


and the other way.


Okie dokie, off to do Japanese homework then.

Hello everyone!

Yesterday I met my pen pal Hiromi near her work place. We had a lot of fun. We had lunch at a Chinese place (which gave us a LOT of really good food) and then walked around near her work.

We visited the shrine that is really close to the Tokyo Tower:


After that we walked to Hinode Pier and took a little cruise up the Tokyo Bay to Asakusa. It was really fun and we saw a bunch of bridges. xD

our boat:


on the way we saw a bunch of food/drink cruise boats, cool river walls, and that really famous fish market that i can't remember the name of.... xD






and now for bridges ^^ (i'm showing you photos of my favorite ones so the numbers are weird... xD)

bridge #1: Rainbow Bridge


bridge #3: Chuo-ohashi Bridge




bridge #10: Kuramae Bashi Bridge


we arrived at the Asakusa port and saw the Kaminarimon shrine again. This time less places in the shrine were open, but it was at night so it looked really cool!


Then we both decided to get something to drink, so we went to a Denny's close by. Hahaha I know. xDD But we each got floats, which I had to take a photo of because... their cream soda is GREEN!!! xD I got the cream soda one and Hiromi got blueberry. yummy!


well that's all for now. maybe i'll go watch some japanese tv on my new japanese phone. xDDD

my room




the apartment/house
(i should say that my "host dad's room" is like... his lair... not bedroom and usually you CAN see the ferris wheel... it was just unusually cloudy)











fireworks we get to watch daily (yay for camera shake!!)





what i did tuesday:
aiki-budo ... performance? both madoka and makiko were in it.




one of the best women there (flipping a guy almost twice her size)



after we finished watching all the performances we went to Ikspairi (the shopping mall in Disney Resort) to have lunch, which was tako yaki and onigiri!!!! WOOT!




Then we went to this park also in the Disney Resort where I took a lot of cute photos of the girls playing.




the playground was shaped like an old old wooden ship ;)


and there were people doing some strange... sport. it looked soooo cool and really hard!





then yesterday i went with Eri and got an inkan!! (the stamp that everyone has for their signature) mine just says savannah in katakana





OH and for those of you who keep asking: I really do like my host family. They are very nice and help me with a lot of things. I was expecting a bit more traditional family (they don't have a TV, don't share main dishes for meals and such). But it's good... they are SUPER nice. ^^

i leave you with what ayaka loves doing... stealing something from my drawers, wearing it, and then finding the shoes they gave me and clomping around the house. ^^

basically all photos ^^

somewhere over CANADA


somewhere over RUSSIA - we're getting there!!


YATTA!! HOKKAIDO - my first sighting of Japan. ^^


SOPHIA UNIVERSITY




ASAKUSA


getting smarter xD






on the way to lunch - beer company


lunch - おいしいそね〜


TOKYO TOWER




one view from the tower


the ones you've all been waiting for, my host sisters. ^^ mind you, they're from photobooth and neither one was as interested as I had hoped... so I'll take some later, but here you go!



Madoka




Ayaka




Ayaka has the cutest smile!!! <3 She pretty much just says "mama" and "papa" so otherwise she gestures, and before/after a meal she claps her hands together while we all say "itadakimasu" and "gochisosamadeshita"! SOOOOOO CUTE! ^^

[pictures coming soon]

The 14th was a hard day. I told myself I wouldn't cry, yet there I was, in the security line with big puffy red eyes. After waving a tearful goodbye to everyone at the other end of security, I headed towards my gate. For a while I couldn't remember why I was even going. ><
On the plane I slept but not enough, watched four movies (What Happens in Vegas, Made of Honor, Kungfu Panda, and Water Boys), and mostly got really scared about landing. By the end of the flight I almost didn't want to land, fearing that Japan wouldn't be all it was cracked up to be.
I got through customs, baggage claim, etc just fine and found Eri's family super fast! What a relief to see familiar faces! I was sooooo tired though. We went to a grocery store to get things for dinner and had homemade tempura. おいしいかった！ ^^ Then I went to bed early (which was really, WAY late... xD) at 9ish, but for me it was like 8am. Which just meant the next day I had almost no jet lag! WOOT

So yesterday was my first train experience. Since we left around 9:30am it wasn't very crowded at all. The trains are so clean and bright and pretty new. We went to the university and I met my exchange adviser. He was very nice. The campus is so small but very nice, clean, and pretty. After Eri got help with something about grades we met up with Haruka.
We all went out for lunch and then KARAOKE!! Haha that's right. My first full day in Japan included karaoke. It is soooooo cheap, just like everyone said! haha. とてもたのしかった！~~~
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Eri has to keep telling me to stop dancing. >< Haha.
On the way back the train was rather crowded, but not like sardines. We had curry for dinner and pudding for dessert!! I had mango pudding. ^~^ And on the TV that night... Yamapi had a commercial. ^^;

TODAYYYYY we went to Asakusa (soooooo cool!). It was so touristy but a lot of fun. Eri's mom went with us so she was showing us what to do at the fountain (cleansing before entering the temple), the smoke (making us smarter ^^), and wishing. Eri's mom even bought us a snack which we noticed because of Yamapi's photo close by (as he is said to love it) haha. We haven't tried it yet though.
Then for lunch Eri's dad met up with us and we went to a sushi place! It was one with the rotating sushi plates. So fun! Haha. And tasty.
After that Eri and I went to Tokyo Tower. I took too many photos. >< We relaxed up there with such a great view. Unfortunately it wasn't clear enough, but if it had been we could have seen Tokyo Disney (which is very close to where my host family lives). We did プリクラ (purikura) too!

Now it is time for dinner so I must go. I'll post photos to accompany some of these stories later.

<3

it's funny how often i neglect this and forget to update about semi-important things. not that getting sunburn is really something one usually documents... but this happens to be a highly important sunburn. xD no...

so a few weeks ago i got an email from lamyaa (center for global education correspondent for japan and korea programs) and it's officially official. i'm studying in JAPAN! i have to say i'm quite scared now that it's all real... totally excited and terrified. i mean... once i'm there, i'm there for like 10 months. it's just intimidating i guess. wondering what things will be like, what kind of people i'll meet and even though eri will be there... i don't want to rely on her for EVERYTHING and just follow her around like a puppy... but i also don't want to be that weird american girl... >< but yes, very exciting and i can't wait to hear about my housing assignment! (which might frighten me even more)

now on to sunburn. ^^ oh how irish i am. haha. soooo california has been great so far with the exception of getting sunburned on the ... second? third? day here. southern cali was filled with my super crazy mom's side of the family, REALLY awesome hotels, a graduation, beaches, wonderfully sunny (although sometimes too hot) weather, and, of course sunburn. i have to say though... i healed the quickest i ever have from sunburn and now have the hottest farmer's tan in all the world. xDD after a few days of festivities it was on to northern mid-cali and dad's side of the family. the few days with the grandparents were spent taking photos of their neighbor's horses, visiting the capital (and seeing the governator's office), picking TONS of cherries, and eating excellent homemade cherry pie. YUM! xP

the last few days we've been in monterey celebrating grandma's birthday with the rest of the bader family. my little cousins are the CUTEST. one thinks she's a cat and the other is just a firecracker (she calls me sabannie!!! <3333). the first two days had marvelous weather and we saw real live seals and jelly fish. then it got pretty cold but we baders don't let that get us down. we had a little variety show (inspired by dan in real life) for my grandma as part of the birthday festivities. and NOW we're chillin' for the last couple days at auntie anne (oh yes that's right i forgot to tell you my family owns the pretzel company mwahahaha) and uncle kenny's house. SUPER fun shall ensue.

i'm not too thrilled about going back to the va in a few days. i'll have to start taking my classes and get ready to move out of the apartment. coming down from vacation highs are never fun... and coming right back to classes is even worse.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

on a completely different note... i've been having these really sad dreams about kendoyuki, iheartdbsk, and bustedsatellite. they're all like... we're all back from our trips and they're all SUPER sadface and don't want to even talk to me because i didn't go to japan with them and all they want to talk about is the trip to japan. you guys better not do that!!! i want to hear all about your adventures ok?!?!

i had another uber weird dream but i can't remember what it was about right now... o_O

welp... i'm gonna make a video blog soon and figure out how to use it before i leave for japan. hope everyone's having a super fun summer, whatever you're doing.

<3

p.s. how would one spell california as it would be said by the governator?? o__O hmm

Alright. So I know I just updated and you all ... you two?.... are used to hearing me babble very infrequently... bear with me.

So I want to address this word 'emo'. It's a very peculiar word. I myself use it and sort of giggle whenever I do. I don't know what brought on my sudden curiosity of this word but while I sat in Sub 1 today eating dinner by myself I started listening in on conversations around me. None were very interesting BUT this small group of people next to me started to talk about someone they knew and how "emo" he can be. It's funny that this word meant nothing a few years ago and now we all use it as freely as any other word. I guess it just got me thinking... how on earth do we change our language so frequently? Our slang anyway... Is anyone else amazed that we all pick up words and/or new definitions so quickly and then the whole English-speaking world seems to know it too? It's bizarre. Alright... enough on that.

Now you may wonder WHAT I was eating for dinner tonight. Ordinarily I would laugh at these curious minds because they could probably guess what it was. Tonight, however, you cannot. Except that the title of this post gives it away. Yes folks, I ate chicken and didn't die!!! >< Mum says I need to start eating more protein so over Spring Break she had me eat some chicken. *Addressing your first question* Of course it tasted good. Why would people eat it if it didn't taste good? That's not the question you should be asking. *Addressing your second question* I don't know how often I will eat it... probably like... once a month.

I can't imagine that that was very exciting. Well... I'm off to do some downloading.

<3

HOLY HELL! Look how long it has been since I last updated you all on my life! Well first things first.

Last night I had an extremely strange dream. Apparently I need more sleep or I just really want to go to a concert... ANYWHOOO... So I was going to a Prince concert, only he looked like Beck... meaning he was an amazingly skinny white guy not that I know what Beck really looks like enough to depict him accurately in my dream. ANYWAY. When the concert started he like... flew onto the stage wearing some really hideous cape/robe thing that looked like living room curtains from the '70s. I'm not sure if that was really more like a preview or what because it was then time for all of us to find our seats. I didn't actually have tickets but a two pieces of paper with the ticket info written on it. No one was with me and the tickets weren't together so I set off to look for one of the seats, deciding to take the better of the two. The first one was in this room that was facing the stage but you couldn't see it, there was a highly decorated wall blocking the view and you just had to sit there listening to the concert. So I was like, "psh I'm gonna see if the other ticket is better." Of course it would be but the concert had already started and when I found out the stairway I was supposed to take to get there it led to a ladder which dumped me right onto the stage and all these people (part of the show) in these Gumby-like costumes started trampling me. The End. I told you it was extremely strange.

Righto... so I never know what to put in this. I mean... who really wants to read my TRUE thoughts? ... No one. It'd be way more boring than reading my wonky dreams.

So basically... that's all folks. I hope it gets warmer soon because I'm gonna have to strangle that Groundhog soon. He's always so mean! Stupid little Philadelphian rodent.

First off, I wish everyone a rather belated but still just as warm as if I told you the day of, Happy Christmas. I had fairly great pre-Christmas events and a grand Christmas day. I hope yours was just as lovely~!! <3

Secondly, the tragedy really brought me down from my usual Holiday High. I spent the better part of day 2 crying, especially after reading the newspaper that morning. Not getting to be with his family and our friends was hard and I thought about it for most of my waking time in NYC. I wish I had been there. *hug*

Thirdly, NYC was really fun despite my mind being preoccupied. We did all the touristy things like Rockefeller Plaza (aka the HUGEMONGOUS tree), window shopping on 5th Avenue, and the touristy tourist trap of them all: Times Square. The Met was fabulous and I had forgotten just how big it really is. The Japanese section was beautiful and Spencer and I had a wonderful time making fun of the strangely exposed armored statues. ><'

The Cirque show I was all excited to see, Wintuk, turned out to be more oriented to small children. It was still really amazing but I could have certainly done without the large stuffed-animal-talking dogs. The singing lamp posts weren't much better. The Museum of the Moving Image was amazing. I highly recommend putting up with the shadier part of upper Manhattan to visit this museum. It had tons of fun interacting stuff (like making your own animation or replacing Babe's voice with your own) and it had spiffy originals of props and costumes. For serious, it had the real Yoda puppet and tons of the original costumes from Chicago. After a full morning of museum exploration and a viewing of Ratatouille (totally cute) we started the drive back only to make it back to the 'ville in time to see the ball drop.

Finally, I want to wish everyone the very best start to 2008~!! Can you believe it?! It was quite silly seeing the ball drop on TV since we were there THAT MORNING. I mean, we saw them setting up the stage Lenny Kravitz played the first song of 2008 on. Anyway, I just want everyone to think mostly of the future and have a wonderful year. ^^

<3

As we all know I love Blue Man Group. The show last night was TEH AWESOME and I loved every second of it. It was so interactive and FUNNNNNN. XD Everyone should see this rock show and their show in NYC because... both are awesome in their own ways. And yes... I love those blue men. XDDD Here's a video of Blue Man... if you haven't seen anything they've done. XD



The opening act was Mike Relm, who is also amazing. XD He's a DJ but... not really. It's awesome. Here's a video he posted on Youtube. At the end he does a sing-a-long of "Imagine", and it's excellent. A lot like what he did at last night's show.





So yeah... anyway. Last night was awesome. Thanks Rae for the best birthday present ever! And... yes... everyone should see both Blue Man and Mike Relm sometime. They're awesome. I'll go with you. XD

The past couple of days I had a lovely encounter with everyone's good friend Migraine. At first I was like... "Oh, I just have a headache that is lasting for days. Nothing too bad." Then, yesterday morning, I thought I was dying. And then bustedsatellite was nice enough to suggest maybe I have a brain tumor. Which of course was a joke and I laughed, but then as I lay there dying, I wondered if that may be true. I DON'T have a brain tumor, but it seemed a very easy situation when you're laying there, your head feels like it's being smushed by some giant hand, you feel nauseated at the thought of food, and there is a small blurry spot right in the middle of your vision. Anyway, my brush with death was probably caused by all this freaking stress that's been building up lately. That and I think I need a new prescription for my glasses....

Now, on to the lesbians. For my Mass Communications class we have these ongoing projects that we have to write little "reports" on every week. We have to watch a TV show and also get articles out of the newspaper and then summarize them. YAYYYY back to high shcool and busy work! Anyway, my show is called "The L Word". Any guess on what it's about? That's right! Lesbians. I have no problem with watching this stuff normally, however, every episode has some sort of lesbian sex... like, for real. Not stuff they'd put on regular channels. It has an interesting plot, but I could do without the sex.

The next intersting piece of information I have to share is that I have decided to apply for transfer to GMU. It's final now, I am applying. I still have a lot to work out if I get in. Like... where to live, you know, small stuff like that. :P Having to apply and think of all that has added to my stress level since I still have stupid classes >:| ... haha, and still have to work on a portfolio for here. Yeah... I know it's a lot to do. I'll get it all done though, it's slowly coming along. I made a list! I love lists. It's so satisfying to cross off something on your list. XD Unfortunately I have crossed off the easiest things on my list. I just hope I don't have to keep adding to it.

I believe that is all. I should probably go so I can cross off more things on my list.









RAE~!!!! I know you read thisssssss OMG why didn't you tell me? or leave a freaking comment??? DUDE NEXT WEEK~!!!!!! Are you ready?? Mum is picking me up either Thursday or Friday. YAY I'm excited.

As it is rather cold right now... yes, even in my dorm (we have two, unlike most people with one, outside walls)... iheartdbsk and I decided to go to 7-11 to get hot chocolate.
The afformentioned hot chocolate was thusly spilled on us with the worker announcing: "did i do that?"

the end.