終わり

Kyoto

everything's done for school. my brain died sometime during finals, so i feel rather blank right now. i'm going to kyoto tomorrow. you guys'll hear all about my adventures as soon as i get back. i won't be able to shut up about japan.

excited to:

• move into a sweet new apartment and be almost everyone's neighbor
  
• go to some new bar in lawrence that kyle says is pretty fun
• see Cass's short blond hair! the photos on flickr aren't enough to satisfy my curiosity
  

hermit-ing it up in my apartment to study for finals and finish an enormous amount of papers the last few days has been having some adverse effects on my brain. need social contact of any kind. boy can i not wait to be back in kansas and have everything "back to normal."

god damn, i pretty much fail at life.

last night there were two earthquakes in the evening.

today amidst studying for my kanji final i started cleaning and packing because tomorrow my apartment will be inspected to see that cleaning and packing will be "presumably done by my departure." my room looks very lonely now. it's 12 days before i'll be back in america.

i decided i will in fact buy a yukata.

today i went to the travel agency on my university's campus and bought my 新幹線（しんかんせん）shinkansen--the bullet train, ticket to kyoto all by myself in japanese. i'm really fucking proud of myself. this proves that i can at least halfway function in japan. also, i went to a tea ceremony. it was great, but sitting on your feet for 45 minutes really hurts.

can we please ponder the japanese festival for a second

japanese festivals are called 祭り（まつり）matsuri. i've decided they're basically the next best thing to sliced bread. it's like an american carnival or county fair without all the animal contests and kiddie rollercoasters and ferris wheel and funnel cakes that make me feel sick.

elements of most festivals:
-お化け屋敷（おばけやしき）obakeyashiki--this is a tent or 1st floor of a building that's been turned into a temporary haunted house (or "ghost mansion"). whenever you walk by one of these there will usually be loud screams by middle school girls.
-かき氷（かきごおり）kakigoori--basically a shaved ice stand. perfect for 80F/30C weather
-お好み焼き（おこのみやき）okonomiyaki--Japanese vegetable unsweetened pancake stand
-焼きそば（やきそば）yakisoba--fried noodle stand
-じゃがいもバターjagaimobataa--a baked potato with butter and salt stand.
-a stand where you pay for a chance to try to catch your own goldfish in a tank. there are also turtles tanks where you can do the same thing.
-fried corn on the cob stands
-すいかsuika--watermelon stands
-chocolate covered banana stands where you can get different colored and with sprinkles bananas on a stick
-dessert crepes stands--we're talking strawberries, chocolate, whipped cream, etc.
-um, beer, duh, except people here aren't belligerent and loud when they're drunk

there are usually hella traditional streamers hanging everywhere and also sweet lanterns at night. also, lots of people carry うちわuchiwa　or せんすsensu, two types of handheld fans, to keep cool, and also wear traditional ゆかたyukata, a lightweight kimono. when i tell japanese people i went to a festival they keep asking me if i wore a yukata. i think they next time i come to japan i'll buy one at Uniqlo(yes! you can get them there) and wear it to a festival, even if i look like an idiot. i really wish you could all experience a festival here. it would be so much fun to drink beers with all my friends at one of these.

it keeps getting closer and closer to when i can go home to see kyle and all of my friends! i miss them all so much. everyone's going to have new houses, mostly, too, which is exciting.

there's pretty much only two weeks left here. i've been out of it because the action is non-stop. i'll probably be out of it the rest of my time here.

on friday i went to see my friend jula, her japanese boyfriend hide[hee-day](who reminds me of a japanese garth from wayne's world), and some of her friends. we went to izakaya(japanese pub) and had delicious food and all you can drink and then went to karaoke for an hour or two, again with all you can drink before i had to catch last train around 1145 :(.

saturday i woke up to visit ghibli museum to look at totoros all day. i fulfilled my dream of going to a mexican restaurant(supposedly the only one in tokyo. we had to wait for an hour to get in.) in the evening and was happy.


before i leave japan i'd been wanting to drink beers by a river. today i got to drink beers IN a river. i went to hang out with jula, hide, and friends at the futakotamagawa river that i cross all the time on the train on the way to tokyo. everyone brought inner tubes and someone was kind enough to bring one for me. we floated down the river for a good 3-4 hours, not without a few beers and capsizes, before we got out and took took a bus back to the station where we had put our stuff in lockers. we lost two phones to water damage (thankfully not mine). it was a totally awesome way to spend my sunday.

god i need sleep and to write papers, but unfortunately one doesn't really equal the other.

this is what i'll get to see soon enough

sure ain't nothin' like where i am now.

lately

i haven't been able to successfully concentrate on anything. this is not good.

my fucking amazing weekend

it was almost perfect except that kyle wasn't here to share it with me :(

just a few of the things i/everyone did:
-went to a Vietnamese restaurant and heard my friend speak Vietnamese for the first time
-went to British pub on the Fourth of July
-shot off fireworks in Fuchinobe park
-got yelled at by the police for shooting off fireworks in Fuchinobe park
-rode in my friend's car (i hadn't ridden in a car for three months, which is crazy)
-listened to really loud Reggaeton the whole time
-met my friend's half Dominican/half Japanese family
-met my friend's dog Lassie who had been dyed blue
-went to Tanabata Matsuri (huge fucking festival)
-wrote my wish for the next year on charm paper at the festival
-ran into the head of the Japanese department at KU at the festival
-ate a freaking whole deep-fried baked potato

now i want to listen to more Reggaeton

26 DAYS

i found out today that next semester i'm going to be in the same earthquakes and natural disasters class as my white T-wearing freshman brother. this is vastly amusing to me.

the stress of this last month of school is finally hitting me. there's so much left that i have to do. for school and in order to leave japan. not to mention a short trip to kyoto. oh my god. @_@

Today I was thinking about the "good old days"--the time from about my junior year of high school up until when I actually moved to Lawrence. This was when me and my friend Jessica would sit on the ground outside of Broadway Cafe on a warm evening and drink coffee and fold newspaper origami, and Kyle, Sarah and I attended the Andy Warhol film series weekly at Tivoli. One night Kyle drove me to a noise show at the Hassle Castle and we drove back quite late in his ancient Honda hatchback that had a hole in the floor hurtling at such high three-digit speeds that I feared the vehicle would about fall apart. This was a time that I didn't even dream about drinking alcohol. On a trip I acquired the angry cat air freshener that still to this day hangs off of my rear view mirror. Back then it still smelled of the pumpkin spice scent. Whenever I smell pumpkin spice I'm always reminded of these days. It makes me wonder what my friends now were doing at that very time back then, but I guess I'll never know.

so um i want to do a lot of dancing when i get back bc srsly NO ONE does that here.

also: not new but, i miss kyle

This Friday I was coerced into attending my Chinese neighbor's birthday party at, strangely enough--T.G.I. Fridays. I'm pretty sure this was the first time I've even been to T.G.I. Fridays. Everyone ordered the nomihoudai (all you can drink for a few hours, which is available at many restaurants in Japan) and then I attempted to order some vegetarian appetizers. What I ended up with was a plate of nachos that contained only four chips laid out around the edge. What the hell. Also, I ordered something called "fried mac and cheese" which was rather interesting and quite similar to a mozzarella sticks.

Then I looked across the restaurant and noticed that many Americans had decided to come to T.G.I. Fridays on this particular night. They looked exactly like people I would imagine go to T.G.I. Fridays in America, and this is horrible...they made me feel like I wanted to vomit. I simply hadn't seen "real" Americans in a while, and by real I mean the kind with buzz cuts and khaki shorts and butterfly tattoos. I can tell reverse culture shock is gonna be a trip already.

On a lighter note:
Unidentified Flying Object noodles

i feel very self-conscious today

places i want to visit:
australia
hawaii
china
iceland

it might be nice to learn mandarin chinese

Hakone

so this weekend i went here:
it was incredibly beautiful and much different than the city-ish part of Tokyo in which i live in. i didn't take a bath in the hot springs. i get stared at enough with clothes on.

it rained torrentially almost the entire time. you were supposed to be able to see Mt. Fuji, but visibility was less than a mile thanks to fog. the highlight of this trip was probably me and my friend sleepily walking into the crowded shoes-off breakfast hall with our shoes still on at 730am.

Sick Day

today i was sick. i've been coughing like none other. i slept until 3 and then stayed home to watch japanese infomercials and children's shows. of course this was much better than going to class. now i'm watching a dubbed version of the matrix reloaded.

i'm going to spend all of this weekend at hakone, a place famous for hot springs.

crass tattoos are pretty cool. i don't plan on getting one.

i did my homework on the train. tonight i went to the wrong venue at first that was approximately 50ft away from the correct one (O-West instead of O-Nest) and made a fool out of myself when i had to ask for my money back.

i had a lot of fun tonight. i'm more homesick than ever.

Bonjour

in the last week i've been taken for a French person...twice.

so i just got this stuff today. it was recommended to me by someone because it's sometimes difficult to find vegetarian food to eat when i'm out and about. it comes with four potato-flavored blocks in this one box. from what my friend said you're not supposed to eat them all at once because this is some serious calorie intake. all i could find on the internet about it was some hikers saying they split half a stick when they were stuck overnight in the wilderness. is this some willy wonka food or what? wow.

i foolishly thought that bringing a week's worth of clothes would make me want to wear only those clothes. of course i was very mistaken. at least my so called "wardrobe" has pretty much doubled now that i've been here for months. i can't believe i've been here for months.

if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all

I don't even like Elvis Costello

but I recently came upon the My Aim Is True album and looked at the back because it has that "Alison" song that everyone used to always sing to me when I lived in Ad Astra. When I was looking I realized that not only is Track 5 titled "Alison" and spelled the same as my name, but Track 4 right before it is titled "Blame It On Cain." That, to me, is really weird...

this was going to be about how i didn't give a fuck today and how good it felt to not care what people think for one second.

it seems if i think i have a good attitude for japan it's a bad attitude for america, and if a good attitude for america, it's horrible for japan.

now it's getting towards 3 am.

fuck my life.

i refound the shoes i want!

Akihabara

yesterday around noon some guy stabbed and killed 7 people in broad daylight on a busy street in Akihabara, the electronic district in Tokyo. yeah, i don't really want to ever go there now.

i've been so busy lately! it's almost a surprise. this weekend i saw three contemporary art museums, and went to see my friend monika's band. i have a sleep deficit. i think my goal for the rest of my time here is from now on to fill up as much of my time possible with fun things to make the time pass quickly until i can go home. i talked to cass for the first time in months, for two hours and could've talked for much longer.

in the next week i'll go see another friend's band and also go to see mika miko twice! oh god. sometimes i wonder if this is reality or if i'm still in lawrence taking a nap and dreaming about all this--not because living here makes me happy, but more because it really puzzles me that i've been able to live so long so far away from where my heart is. i've never been good at explaining how i feel or if i feel at all.

omg. i just looked at the ten day weather forecast for Tokyo and it actually says that it's supposed to rain EVERY DAY. rain sucks major ass and i wish it would die.

at least--i am more than halfway through my time here. i'll get to see my baby soon. i'm pretty sure the realization that i'm not here for too much longer has affected my already faltering social skills. in the numerous awkward conversations i have each day with new people i meet, i think: is there even enough time to create any sort of real friendship?

still, japan is pretty fucking amazing. i think kyle and i coming back out here so i can teach english in a few years is definitely a possibility.

this weekend i:

• was not bored for the first time
• wore some new shoes until my feet bled
• went to a mix cd exchange party in the park
• saw a skateboarding dog
• met a cute Japanese artist couple. the girl, Yuma, is a glassblower who makes necklaces i want to buy. the guy, Yoichi, studied abroad at KU a few years ago, has a love garden messenger bag, took art classes from Carol Ann Carter, and i guess, knows Annie!
  
• am excited that my friend Yun is back in Japan! i can't wait to hang out with her
  

well, the bad news is i fail at life, but the good news is i got a new, tiny, digital camera.

god. today is a school holiday and what time did i wake up? 730. i was supposed to go on a trip to visit Kamakura, where there are lots of old temples and a fucking huge bronze statue of Buddha called the Daibutsu that's hundreds of years old. did i actually go? no. did i mention it's also raining today?

i already played tourist yesterday when i went to Ueno Zoo. highlights obviously include the jackass penguin,

and sad looking polar bears.

Mr. Polar Bear, i feel you.

right now langhorne slim and death and flowers sound a lot like home...

i need these shoes

...but they are not my size. alas, eBay.

if i had them i would look like a space cadet, in a good way, of course.

my friday night...

was certainly a lot better than my week. there's nothing like doing things you actually want to do, as in, not homework. i journeyed out to Koiwa in Tokyo to go see Dmonstrations(GSL and SAF records) at a venue called eM SEVEN. eM SEVEN is in a skyscraper on the 2nd floor. it was a late show that started right after the trains shut down so no one would have to worry about being stranded somewhere sucky because we were at the venue watching the show.

the bands and dj were all pretty sweet. there was also this guy that would beat box while playing this Chinese stringed instrument that looked like a koto--it sounded cooler than i can describe in words. Dmonstrations were of course awesome. you should of course go see them if and when they come through lawrence again.

then after Dmonstrations there was a 3 am dance party. i was quite excited about this because i really do miss lawrence dance parties. it doesn't look like people were dancing in this photo but i swear they were.

at about 4 am i went downstairs to go outside for a second because i was starting to feel claustrophobic, and i could see the sun was starting to rise. it was weird. at 430am the last band, called Deepslauter, played. i was pretty much gone by this time. i still enjoyed their set but i was tired.

at 5 am i walked back to the train station to go home. it was already broad daylight. on the train, some business man was standing in a corner drinking a beer and reading the day's newspaper. the guy sitting next to me kept unintentionally dozing off and leaning on my shoulder and i felt uncomfortable that i had no personal space. yup. eventually somehow i got home and went to sleep.

things recently brought to my attention by japanese people

-japanese people hate the movie lost in translation
-japanese people think americans have horrible fashion

tomorrow i'm going to see dmonstrations and drink some beers. thank god--i've certainly memorized enough kanjis this week to deserve this.

right now my mind is a little bundle of nerves shooting sparks, and i'm jumpy and weary. but whenever i'm in school it's pretty much always like this.
---------------------------------
1. find a smaller camera with which to document "the good times" so i can not forget so quickly that, duh, there are good times.
2. i can now report that studying for four hours for my kanji midterm with my Korean friend who speaks no English can be described as, how can i say, challenging.

what i miss

1. kyle
2. the rest of my friends
3. taco bell
4. burger king veggie burgers
5. pizza shuttle
6. jimmy john's sandwiches
7. oriental flavor instant ramen--pretty sure it's not over here

p.s. i missed my brother's high school graduation yesterday... :(

today i went to hang out at my japanese friend's apartment. she had a carpet like fuzzy cover on her toilet seat which greatly amused me. there's pretty much nothing stranger to me than a fuzzy toilet.

What the hell

About a half an hour ago I was in my room when I looked out my window and saw an immense building sized swarm of perhaps bees or locusts outside my house. At that same second I could hear the Korean girls that always hang out downstairs scream when they tried to leave. It was extremely surreal. It reminded me of one of the seven plagues. I was glad that I hadn't opened the screen. About a minute later they moved on.

today marks my 40th day or something in japan

sooo here's the cutest strawberry soymilk ever (and delicious!)

the 豆乳 means soymilk--yum

cooking fiend

that's me

mopey and homesick and it's supposed to rain all week. it's only monday bahhhhh

today i:

-ate delicious vegetarian ramen for the first time
-saw an amazing traditional parade of energetic people carrying shrines through the streets(perhaps photos to come? if my friend emails them to me)
-wanted to buy the most incredible colorful adidas high tops ever, but they were 120$
-went to a great record store that contained probably all the japanese thrash kyle could ever want

all in machida city approximately 10 minutes away from where i live by train! fun

by the way

did i tell you guys i've been smoking here? you've gotta do something when you're walking alllllll the fucking time. i like to think that when i get back i'll have the grit to just stop the second i get off the plane.

Cinco de Mayo

I missed it?!? I guess no one really cares about Mexico here, which is a shame. Still, I'm going to try to celebrate this weekend by eating some Mexican foods and throwing back some beers (tequilas?, no...beers).

from CNN

"TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A strong earthquake struck off the coast of Japan early Thursday, the national Meteorological Agency said, waking up people 100 miles away in Tokyo.

Two people suffered minor injuries from falling furniture, public television broadcaster NHK reported. An 18-year-old man was hit when his stereo speakers fell onto his bed, and a 25-year-old man was hit by objects rattled off shelves.

There were no other immediate reports of injuries or damage from the magnitude 6.8 earthquake, NHK said. No tsunami warning was issued.

The earthquake occurred at 1:45 a.m. offshore at a depth of about 25 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter was about 100 miles northeast of Tokyo.

A second quake with a magnitude of 5.3 struck the same area about 30 minutes later, and more aftershocks could follow, Tamotsu Aketagawa, an official who monitors earthquakes for the country's Meteorological Agency, told The Associated Press.

"Since it was a very large-scale earthquake, we would expect to see some modest aftershocks," he said.

Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world because it sits atop four tectonic plates. Tokyo has not been hit by a major quake since 1923, when 140,000 people died in the Great Kanto Earthquake."

-------------------------------------------

I woke up, but when I heard that nothing was falling off of anything, I just rolled over and went back to sleep. LAME. Why can't the big ones be during the day when everything is more exciting??

i watched Liars videos on youtube last night after i finished my homework. they gave me nightmares

story of my life

"Is that totoro on your arm?"

I probably should have been able to guess that this would happen...

Art

Japanese contemporary art rocks. Why the fuck can't we learn about it in Kansas?

p.s. What's wrong with me? I bought a Merzbow cd and listened to it all the way through.

omg

Last night my friend gave me train directions to go see Lucky Dragons. It turns out that the venue, a warehouse space called Highti, is on the complete opposite side of Tokyo that I'm on. It took me almost exactly two hours to get there. When I got of the last train I saw this:

This is certainly not the busiest part of Tokyo, but at least they can get away with diy shows here.
When I got there Minifer started playing.

Noise noise. Then later, Lucky Dragons.

Lucky Dragons used a lot of audience participation with whimsical sounding instruments.

I didn't talk to too many people there. I mean, in America I don't just walk up to strangers or anything. I did meet some traveling Australian people though. I think I might've been the only American there besides the touring LA bands.

Then after being at Highti for only about an hour and a half, I had to go catch the ten million trains I have to take to get back home before the trains shut down. I still don't know if I feel comfortable enough to stay out all night somewhere...

TV

On TV here, instead of dieting shows where fat people lose weight, because basically the only fat people are sumo wrestlers that you never see, they critique the eating habits of skinny people and tell them that if they don't change their eating habits they'll gain weight in five years. It's kinda fucked up.

Also, this weekend and Monday and Tuesday are a collection of holidays (including the emperor's birthday) called Golden Week. I hope there's something fun in store for me during all these days off. I'm gonna go buy some beer now.

Costco

I found it, but it takes me about 40 minutes to get there. This is important only because it's the only place I have found tortilla chips, tortillas, and black beans. Last night I made delicious guacamole to go with my chips. My quality of life has increased seven fold now that I can potentially make and eat delicious Mexican food.

food, or lack there of

umm..so you guys are probably going to have to fatten me up when i get back. let's just leave it at that. i'm not going to feel bad about eating anything after living here.

p.s. last night i paid 20$ for one game of bowling--wtf japan, god

culture shock

i think i might be over it already?

god

Today I mooched off of a friend's field trip and got to see pretty much all of the famous Tokyo museums in the part of Tokyo called Ueno. The coolest thing I saw was probably this guy. He's an Egyptian mummy of course.

After viewing at least four different museums, we headed to Harajuku, the part of Tokyo known for crazy-clothes wearing people.


Then we walked to Shibuya to shop and walk around. I found a Japanese copy of Vice at American Apparel. We went to Tower Records--which I wasn't expecting much from, but found such artists as Crystal Castles, the Death Set, and Yelle (which I purchased). The top floor book store was even more impressive--you can find things here that I mail-ordered in America. Here, also, in Shibuya I saw this with mine own eyes: the Bape Store

We ate dinner at an all-you-can-eat Indian buffet and I got full for the first time this week. This was basically the longest day ever as we were downtown for nearly 14 hours. God.

Lists

Likes:
-onigiri, especially handmade(rice balls--note: learn how to make while here)
-trains
-Uniqlo
-cell phones
-super cheap food
-going new places
-Skype

Dislikes:
-baby eels or baby fish in my onigiri
-super small (read: "Japanese-sized") portions
-fish flakes(or the so-called "dancing fish" on my vegetarian food)
-trains
-being crowded and pushed against 10 people i don't know at the same time on any kind of transportation system
-being hungry
-being tired
-being stared at because i'm white
-cell phones
-no free refills
-hanging laundry to dry (oh god, i know it saves energy, but how many of you guys would voluntarily do it?)

Hey, i'm still having a good time, i'm just really really tired right now.

:(

Being far away from Kyle sucks ballzzzz man. :(

...

I learned how to say "infrared" in Japanese this weekend. Most Japanese phones have infrared communication devices. Oh yes.

iTunes

I can't live on 400 songs, AND apparently I'm retarded because I don't know how to get BitTorrent to work. Oh, and cds here are like 30$, but as soon as I find a neato record store I'm still gonna buy like 5. EAR HUNGRY.

Shibuya

Last night I went into downtown Tokyo (Shibuya, to be specific) for the first time, and it was by myself to meet my friend Monika for dinner. Somehow I managed to not get lost on the trains during Saturday rush hour. Shibuya is supposed to be the busiest part of Tokyo. It contains that giant intersection that they always show in movies. It looks like there's a lot of fun stuff to do in Shibuya! Especially when it's not raining. And I guess it's also where most of the venues are.

The restaurant we went to was all vegan! There were lots of zines around the restaurant and the owners also have a record label. It was very cute, kind of like a Japanese vegan YJs.

When I got back to Fuchinobe after dinner I ran into some friends and I got to play Wii for the first time. It's pretty much the most fun thing ever. Someone buy me one plzzzzz.

Cigarettes

How do they keep the little guys off of these suckers? I've heard they're trying to get legislation passed to ban cigarette vending machines because they make for easy access to cigarettes for children. Lucky Strikes in the lower right hand corner go for about 3.20$

Also, according to Ping Mag (and this photographic evidence) somewhere in Japan they have American Spirit vending machines. I want to find one.

Also, also...

Hahaha, I think everyone's heard of this by now, though. It's a gatorade type drink--therefore, something you drink when you sweat. It tastes basically the same.

Weather

It's a typhoon, bitch! God, why?

School and tiny earthquakes

I've been what could be described as quite frustrated the last few days with the start of classes. I don't know why it took any thought at all to realize this was because ALL my teachers and ALL my textbooks are speaking/printed in ALL Japanese--which at this point is still at least KIND OF difficult to understand. And one would think I would take this as an advantage. And I do except I don't really know what my homework even is or what the test is over.

P.S. Earthquakes are at least as common here as thunderstorms are in Kansas. I have felt at least three for sure. They feel basically like a 50 ft tall truck driving by. One was in the middle of the night. One of my teachers said that everyday there are earthquakes in Japan. Now when I sit at my desk doing homework I like to trick myself into thinking that I feel tiny earthquakes.

#1

The most exciting thing about my apartment here in Japan besides that it's brand new and came with internet and all that bullshit is that I live about one block away from Baskin Robbins.


Because most streets are not named in Japan I have been attempting to use this as a landmark, but when I tell Japanese people I live near Baskin Robbins they only get extremely confused. I finally realized this is because the Japanese text underneath the Baskin Robbins sign only says "Thirty One Ice Cream." I have also realized that just like I pretty much ignore all the Chinese characters I see everywhere because I don't understand them, Japanese people pretty much ignore any English words they see.