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.