Study Abroad: Tokyo

ok, again, short entry. i'm tired and i have to sleep on the floor again. (i'm at marcs cause me needs my help putting on his costume in the morning. hes giving a speech on cosplay in class and he has to dress up.)

the anime con was great. it wasnt as good as american cons cause it was mostly showcasing, and there wasnt a lot to do but walk around and look at stuff. at the same time, i came home with bagfulls of free fliers and pencil boards and folders cause they were all give-aways. :-D fun stuff. i also bought some stuff, which i'll mention later. most of it was Bleach-related, with the exception of a few One Piece things.

My most favorite accqusition of the weekend has to be my Luffy hat. It's even got the stitched up slashes through the top!! I'm totally putting together a Luffy costume when I get home.

I'm slowly but surely uploading pictures from our vacation. Right now i've got most of the Hiroshima pics up, but i wont post them here unless you guys want me to cause a lot of them are from the Peace Memorial Museum (the museum about the a-bomb and it's effects) and are pretty depressing. let me know if you want any of them posted.

next weekend, marc and i are going to the Toei Museum and the Sword Museum on saturday and akihabara on sunday (like all day).

i think that's about it for now, cause i'm gonna crash. i'll try and be more consistent in updating, but the semester's coming to a close (nooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!) so i dunno how much time i'll have.

sleep calls...



Quote of the Day

"these fucking crows are gonna steal a baby one of these day... what are the Japanese mothers gonna do then? Cage their kids??"

ok, quick post cause i wanna go to sleep so i can get up for the ANIME FAIR INTERNATIONAL tomorrow!!

just want to say last weekend was incredible. we went all over the place from hiroshima to oosaka to nara (where we were attacked by deer) to kyoto (where we were attacked by monkeys) to kobe (where we had the worlds best steak for $100). it was a pretty damn amazing trip, even though it was tiring as hell. if i can get the internet to work later, i'll get some pics up. maybe next week at school, i'll upload some if i cant get it to work before then. anyway, it was great. just know that.

I took a hell of a lot of pictures. over 1000, actually, so it'll take a while to get those up. I'll work on it, tho.

anyway, tomorrow, the convention should be awesome. it's 2 days of anime straight from the works. i'm excited. i'm planning on taking a LOT of pics.

ok, sleepy time.

ja!



Quote of the Day

"Compared to theirs, we got the welfare steak!"
~Karen (comparing her and Josh's $50 steak to Marc and my $100 steak in Kobe)
**Moral: If you're going to Kobe for the steak, go all out. It's worth it.**

I'm sitting in the comp lab at school to write this cause i never know when the internet in our room is gonna conk out again. thats one of the reasons i havent been updating a lot. the other is that i've just been really busy. Lets see... whats been going on...

Sunday was karens b-day, so friday night we went out drinking and for karaoke. we left marc's place at around 10:30 with jesse (marc doesnt like drinking or karaoke, so he didnt come), and went to a traditional japanese place. it was really cool. you had to take your shoes off at the door and sit on a bench that was imbedded in the ground. we had a few drinks there, then at midnight, we went to this karaoke place that was nomihodai (all you can drink) from 12 to 5am, and stayed there till 5. by then we were pretty drunk. lol at some point jesse and i started 'browsing' and walking into other people's karaoke rooms and chilling with them. it was so much fun. i went back to marcs afterward with josh and we fell asleep for a little while. when i woke up, i decided not to go to the bandai museum with marc and josh cause i felt like crap, so i slept a little longer and then went out with jesse for a little. by the time i got home, my hangover was gone. however, as soon as i stepped into the room, i developed a migraine that had me in bed for pretty much the rest of the day.

the next day, tho, me, josh, and karen went to yomiuri land so karen could bungee jump on her b-day. we all went once ( that was my 3rd time! :-D ). josh was like "i wanna go first!" and ran up the stairs. i talked to karen (who was gonna wait at the bottom till we jumped so she could take pics and then go up) for about 3 minutes and then bolted up to the platform so i could be there when josh jumped. when i got there, the loser was sitting down waiting for me. i was like "what the hell?" and he was like "i changed my mind! you go first!" lol at least the loser actually jumped, unlike a certain someone i went with last time. :-P

we got pics of all 3 of us jumping, so i'll post those soon. i have a LOT of pics to put up still.

Oh! we planned our trip for this weekend, too. We (karen, josh, marc, and I) are going to hiroshima, osaka, kyoto, nara, and kobe. we're taking an extra 2 days off from school so we can hit all of it. we were just gonna take off one day, but we miscalculated, and after spending about $350 each on our shinkansen tickets, we were decided 'screw it, we'll take the days off.'

i've heard all kinds of good stuff about osaka, nara, and kyoto, and i'm excited about kobe and hiroshima, too. evidently, we're seeing a lot in 6 days that most people dont get to see at all when they come here. and know what Kobe is famous for?? It's meat! Mmm... steak... we're all totally prepared to spend the $50 on kobe steak. lol

hmm... what else... oh! pachinko! So last week, i went to shibuya and saw Brokeback Mountain with Jay. while we were there he discovered that i'd never played pachinko before and was like "ok, thats it, we're going in here." we went in at like 10:45 and the place closed at 11:00, so we decided 'ok, 1 or 2 games and thats it.' i put 1000 yen (@ $10) in the machine and played for a few minutes, and then it started making funny noises and lighting up and doing stuff on the screen and i was like "what the hell is happening!!" turned out what was happening was it was giving me money lol. and lots of it. i walked away with 10000 yen (@ $100) that night. so the next day, we went back and i put about $30 in the machine in total and walked away with about 19500 yen (a little more than $195). that was fun lol

i dont think i've talked about odaiba yet, either, have i? wow... its been a long time... ok, so odaiba's pretty damn cool.. its a manmade island that basically consists of a shopper's paradise. its got like 5 huge malls on it and a Sega arcade called Joypolis. The arcade is awasome. its all 4D rides and stuff. josh and i went a few weeks ago and had a blast.

someone remind me to look up a book on akihabara and see if there are any comprehensive guides or anything. lol i keep discovering stuff that i didnt know was there and the even marc didnt know was there.

I also discovered the wonders of IRC the other day. amazing place to download, but a pain in the ass if you dont have a stable internet connection *big, flashing, neon arrows pointing to me*. i also need to switch some stuff over to my new hdd when i get a chance. i'm running out of room again lol.

wow... thats a lot of writing...

i dunno what else to write right now, but i think i'm gonna start keeping lists of cool shit i do so i can make note of it here.

I need to know if i can get my plan ticket changed: marc wants to know if i want to go to hawaii with him after the semester. think we can change my ticket to hawaii and then from hawaii home? only for a few days and i'd kinda like to go to hawaii.... (hey, you're the one that originally suggested it, mom!)

Oh, one other thing: I DONT WANT TO COME HOME IN A MONTH!!! WAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!

ok, i'm gonna go back to the hell-hole and see if i can get the internet there working and do laundry (which desperately needs to be done...)

Sorry guys! I know its been like a super long time since i updated and this post cant be long cause i'm going out with Karen, josh, and jesse to karaoke for karens birthday (which is sunday, btw). anyway, i've been really busy doing everything from planning my trip next weekend to shopping at akihabara (yet again) to playing pachinko (and winning!) to having yakiniku and bungee jumping with jay. I have pics from a lot of this stuff but my internet in the room is a bitch, which is one of the reasons i haven't updated in so long. if i can get it to work or if i can get on one of the PCs in the computer lab next week or i can log on from josh's room or something, i'll post a bunch of pics. in the mean time, you'll have to make due with this one:



yes, that's me jumping.

ok, heading out now. i'll try and post more later. hope this satisfied some of your cravings for "tales-from-japan". lol

ja!

well, its raining. AGAIN. I'm sick of the rain. lol me and karen wanted to go to Tokyo Tower today, but we decided against being up on a large metal object in the rain.

I discovered the other day that there are at least 3 people here that have NOT seen the Pricess Bride. SACRELIDGE (as rachel put it)!!! Therefore, I downloaded it the other day, and I think i'm gonna force Karen and Christina to watch it. Maybe tonight. Umm... Not much else to say right now.

I keep seeing icons I made in other peoples posts, and it still makes me happy. lol I'm seriously considering making a few tonight if I have the patience.

Tomorrow we should be going to Odaiba (huge-ass mall with a ferris wheel) and Akihabara, but I have to get in touch with Marc to make sure. We're supposed to do Harajuku on Sunday, but if it's raining (which it's supposed to do), I doubt we'll be going. Then I can wait till I get my pants so I can dress up, too. :-D

I got a CD with pics that I took on disposable cameras from Disney and the Ski trip yesterday, so I may try and put those up tonight. (if my damn internet cooperates...)

Ok, I think thats about it for now. I dont really have much interesting to say. lol


Quote of the Day

"Feet were no longer a necessity once I discovered I had wings." ~Scotty MacKay (Changing Pitches, by Steve Kluger)

Ok, here's my first official pic post from this weekend. It's hot as hell in the PC room, so i'm dying, but I'll see how much I can get up right now.

Be forewarned - there are a LOT of pics here (almost 90), so it may load slowly.


( Ski Trip Pic Bonbardment )

All in all, it was an awesome weekend. I'm totally going skiing again!!


Quote of the Day

"I'm you're roommate! I should be the first to know if you get a goat!"
~Me (i have no idea what we were talking about, but i was mishearing things all weekend lol)

ok, so this is gonna be short. i just wanted to let everyone know that i'm still alive lol. i'm sitting in the ski lodge, waiting for everyone cause im sore as hell and my knee hurts. i'm having a blast, tho. marc got a whole lot of pics with my camera on the slopes, including a bunch of me going down the bunny slope (which didnt look like no bunny slope if you ask me!!), a couple of karen being a camera whore ( you know its true, karen! :-P ), and a bunch of josh falling on his ass. it was mildly amusing. I cage up on snowboarding after the first time down the bunny slope on thursday cause i kept coming really close to landing on my wrist and i didnt want to risk it.

skiing kicked ass tho. I think i found my new sport lol. the only reason i'm online now is cause josh discovered that the ski lodge has wireless in the main room with all the vending machines. umm... what else... on yeah - i'm bruised in places i didnt know could bruise, josh almost went around the ski-lift, hanging by a string on his jacket, and marc kicks ass on skis (at least in comparison to us haha).

So I have 1 pic of me sitting on my ass on my snowboard from the first time i put it on and couldnt get up, and a bunch of pics of me on skis. I also have some really cool ones of the mountain, which is gorgeous, and s bunch of really random pics. i wont be able to upload them till later, tho. I'll post them when i do.

This trip was totally worth it, and now i have to start planning ski trips. Hey, mom! Wanna go back to Vail, CO?? :-)


Quote of the Day

"Oh my God! It's cold and it's snowing on my bed!!"
~Me (when the damn window over my bed blew open during the snow storm yesterday morning and litterally snowed ON my bed. It was NOT a pleasant way to wake up yesterday...)

I'm tired, so this is gonna be kinda short. I went to Harajuku today, and I have decided that I WILL be dressing up to go back at the very least one Sunday. Karen and I spend last night at Marc and Jesse's place (TUJ House) and then we went to Harajuku to meet up with Lynn and Christina this morning. I thought Harajuku was pretty cool normally, but on Sundays, it's a MADHOUSE! It's awesome!!

Anyway, here are the pics I took today of some of the people that dressed up.

( Harajuku Pics )


Quote of the Day

"If you fall, I will catch you, I'll be waiting."
~"Time After Time," by Cindy Lauper (inspired by Jay)

I'm STILL uploading pics from DisneySea, rabble (<~word of the day, typed by Jay).

I'm gonna put a few up not to tide everyone over tho. HERE are a few of thE Ones from the park.

( DiSNeySea PICs - Batch 1 )

PLEASE comment! I thrive on comments!


Quote of the Day

"You're brain must've been constructed unbelievably wrong..." ~Ishida to Ichigo (Anime: BLEACH)

umm... sorry about the lack of updates guys. lol i had a busy weekend and then i had another migraine yesterday, so i didnt really do anything with LJ.

This weekend was awesome tho. Saturday, Marc, Suzette, Josh, Karen, and I went to DisneySea. We had an awesome time there. I'm in the process of putting pics on my PC, so i'll get them up soon. After Disney, josh, karen and i slept at Marcs place and chilled all night and slept till noon on Sunday (which was soooo nice). At about 4, we went to Ikebukuro and stayed there till like 9 something. That place is sooo cool! there are cosplay shops everywhere! We're going back on Saturday *evin grin*. After this weekend, my body HATED me. my feet hurt and my shoulders were so tense that the muscles felt like bone. i think i scared karen...

Anyway, tomorrow, i'm going to Harajuku with karen and marc after class. i havent really gotten to spend time there, so i'm looking forward to it.

once i get all my pics up and everything, i'll let you know and post them here.

ok, back to my precious camera! :-)


Quote of the Day (sorta...):

"Naked roommate!" ~Karen (every time she comes out of the shower...)

OK, now for the 3rd round of pics. This is all shots from Its a Small World.

( DisneyLand part 3 - It's A Small World )

ok, thats all the DisneyLand pics... Im going to DisneySea this weekend, so there'll be more pics to put up. right now i still have to upload my Zojo-ji Shrine pics and some other ones i took, too, so you'll be getting a LOT of pics in the near future. have fun! :-)

On another note, i'm considering starting a quote of the day. therefore, i begin with my first quote.



Quote of the Day:

"If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you meet your father, kill your father. Free of everything, you are bound by nothing. Live your life as it was given to you."

~Genjo Sanzo (Anime: Saiyuki)

I figured I should put the next set of disney pics in another post since the last one has a bunch already and the more pics i post in one entry, the longer the load time is for everyone. so, here we have it:

( DisneyLand Part 2 )

sorry about the insane amount of pics. i went camera happy... lol

ok, i'm home and right now, the net is working. i'm praying it'll stay that way. *crosses fingers*

Who wants to see pics?

I have pics of Kyudo Practice, Ginza, and DisneyLand. I know you all want to see the DisneyLand pics, so I'm gonna do those last. (mostly because theres a LOT more of them than anything else)

( Lets go see pictures! )

I'll put up more and fix everything later, but right now, i'm starving and josh is here waiting to go for food. more coming soon!

ok, the hardest part is done. i'm still in the computer lab at school and i've been here since like 4:30 (it's 7:30 now) uploading these damn pics from disneyland. If the net is working when i get back to the room, i'll put them up in my journal, if not, you'll have to wait till tomorrow. Sorry guys - not my fault that the 'mansion' is a piece of crap. lol

I went on a field trip to ZoJo-Ji Shrine today, and got some pics of that too. Those wont go up for at least a day or 2 (maybe longer). the shrine was cool tho. huge, series of structures right in the middle of Minato-Ku, right under Tokyo Tower.

Speaking of Tokyo Tower, I've been here for a month already, the damn thing is like 15 minutes from campus, and i STILL havent gotten to go yet. *pout* I wanna see Tokyo Tower!

on another note, i stole jay's bracelet and i'm wearing it. haha. i like it - they're like prayer beads.

Ohh! I saw the last 8 episodes of Saiyuki last night and fell in love with the series all over again. I can't want to start watching Reload (which i have downloaded already lol).


and now i have to ride my bike home in the rain and the cold *pouts even more*

I just finished Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger (the author I wrote to a while back). Wow. It was so good. I highly recommend it. I have to read Changing Pitches now... Gah! but that'll mean i dont have anything else of his to read till he comes out with another one! :-(

I really have to write that man another e-mail...

I have 1 word for you all... actually, it's more like a sound.

OWWWWWW!!!!

I've had a migraine for the past 2 days. i thought it went away last night, or at least died down a bit, but when i got up this morning, i discovered that not only did it not go away - it brought friends.

therefore, instead of 1 or 2 little men with jackhammers, I have a whole herd of them. and nausia. this bites. i'm going to class tomorrow no matter what, tho. i cant afford to miss this much school. damn matt and his "i dont care if i pass, so i dont have to go to class" attitude. oh well, i'm gonna try and sleep again soon. hopefully i'll be posting tomorrow with something along the lines of "yay! the headache-hell is over!".



btw, i really dont like living over a construction site...

Ok, I finally got sick of you people not being able to see the icons i love so much, so changed my layout to a new format. this one lets me put up a new icon for every entry *evin grin*. you WILL be bombarded.

btw, the icon is the little 100x100 pixel box in the upper right hand corner of each entry. for example: for this entry, you should see Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop with the words "Life is but a dream" written accross it. I also make icons, and i'm pretty proud of some of the ones i've done. I'll give you the link to the page of my icons for this journal and you can check them out if you want.

anyway, i'm gonna go back in a minute or two, but i wanted to put SOMETHING up here cause i havent updated in a couple days.

I'll be posting more pics in the next few days or so. I have a few that i havent uploaded yet and i have some that i got from Karen, so i'll be putting those up. Who knows? Maybe tonight! :-)

Let me know what you think of the new layout, ok?

I really want to make some icons tonight... maybe i'll go home and do that...


EDIT: LiveJournal (which I will henceforth refer to as LJ like a normal person because typing out the whole name is annoying) was just being a pain in the ass and kept telling me i wasn't logged in. It fixed itself but i thought you should all know that it was being a pain. :-P

I LOVE YOU LJ! DON'T DISCONNECT ME FROM MY WORLD!!!!


EDIT 2: I was just looking at the pic of Kyle from the last post and I realized it was taken a while ago. His hair is a lot shorter now. I'll see if i have any pics of the short hair and you can tell me your opinion (i think it looked better long, but hey whatever).

it seems like all i have to post are pics lol. im doing a whole lot of stuff that you guys would probably like to know about but at the same time, it seems so natural to me at this point that i dont even know what you want to know or what would be rediculous to post. and dont say "we want to know EVERYTHING!!!" cause that doesnt help me lol

Ok, so last weekend, we went to the Sumo Tournament and the Edo Museum. I'm gonna post the museum pics first, and if i have time, i'll put up some of the sumo pics.



Kyle with our kitty. She's a stray but shes so domesticated we think she was owned by someone. She's gotta be the sweetest cat in the world, and she hangs out around our building. I have given her the name of Tenshi Koneko (Angel Kitten).

( Here we go... )


There are more pics in my Japan album on photobucket. if anyone wants the URL, just let me know and i'll get it to you. BTW, the museum pics I thought grandma might like so i took a lot. lol

I'll try and upload the pics of my bike and the other ones i have on my camera this weekend, and i will change the layout of this thing soon. i wanna show off my icons. lol umm.... i think thats about it for now. i'll post more soon! I think i'm going to Yokohama tomorrow and I'm hoping to go surfing with Jay at some point in the next few weeks, so i'll try and get pics of that too. Yes, i know camera + water = bad things. i will bring plastic baggies and stuff. and they rent wetsuits and boards, and jays from florida and surfs on a regular basis, so it's all good.

I LOVE THIS PLACE!!! :-D

i just realized that with this layout you cant see icons for individual posts. therefore, i will attempt to change my layout some time this weekend (also because this one isnt very pretty and its getting on my nerves). i just spent several hours uploading pics from sumo and the museum so i can put them up here tonight and wound up running out of storage space on photobucket and having to purchase the upgrade for $25. its ok. I used 50GB and the upgrade gives me up to 100GB, so i should be ok for now. if i need to, ill just open another photobucket account at some point. umm...

its late.

i'm sleepy.

goodnight.

i just got Skype and ive decided its awesome. you can call and leave me messages and its an area code 973 number! therefore, most of you wont have to worry about long distance! awesome, huh? :-)

let me know if you need the number! :-)

ugh... it's 4:40 and i have to get up at 9:15. :-P

btw, mom - dont you love the icon? :-)

Ja!