Study Abroad: Tokyo

the trials and tribulations of japanese anime cons

Sun, 26 Mar 2006 17:11:07 GMT

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??"

quick post

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 16:10:07 GMT

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.**

look, i'm actually updating again!

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 07:25:29 GMT

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...)

:-P

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 13:42:44 GMT

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!

raining again...

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 08:21:47 GMT

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)

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 07:38:34 GMT

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.

Nagano Ski Trip

OK, when we showed up for the bus, Ron and Tomo were walking around on the street in their boxers. We knew it was gonna be an interesting weekend, to say the least.... Thank God Ron didnt come on the trip - i think i would have killed him by the end of it...

Tony was pretty wasted, too... he passed out somewhere along the way and everything got a little quieter lol

Once we got to the ski lodge, we had to wait like 2 hours before anything opened. We couldn't check into our hotel till 3PM and the rental place didnt open till 8. We arrived at 6. We weren't happy.

However, Ben and Steve did get in some nap time... Ben says it wasn't all that comfortable under the table lol

but he eventually fell asleep anyway.

Josh found a wireless connection to pass the time. Lucky him.

Karen and I found food while we were waiting. Subway as a breakfast food? Interesting, i guess...

These are all over Japan, but I just happened to get a pic of them here. Beer vending machines.

Our first view of the mountain from outside. That's the 'bunny slope' by the way... Bunny slope, my ass!

The one and only pic of me on my snowboard. That was of me putting it on for the first time. Lemme tell you, i put it on, stood up, and promptly fell right back onto my ass. :-P

I love this pic. Josh = scary. Marc = scared.

Look! Ben crawled out from under the table and joined us in the land of the living!

This is Karen. She actually sleeps like this. How? We have absolutely no idea.

Dude, this was our dinner the first night. The cost of the trip was totally worth it, if only for the food they gave us!

Marc and his bad-ass camera

Karen waiting to go back out on the slopes

This is the downstairs part of the lodge. It was a pretty cool place, I gotta say.

Amanda, gathering her thoughts. She hit her head really hard outside on the ice and actually forgot where she was and why she was here. She was ok like 10 minutes later, but we all had our eyes on her the rest of the weekend to make sure. (no, she doesnt have a fat lip in the pic or anything, she was just making a weird face)

Our room for the weekend. It was really cute, but a little small for 3 people.

THe party Friday night. Most people were a weeeeee bit tipsey lol. IT was pretty damn funny to watch it all sober lol

Ben passed around his fish-eye lense and everyone was looking thru it, freaking out over the depth perception deprivation.

Look! Tomo has clothes on this time!

Josh joined the ranks of the drunken fools

Karen getting a piggy back ride from drunk!Josh

I have no idea... lol

The view from the top of the mountain. Marc had my camera most of the day cause it was easier to carry around than his and so he could take pics of all of us skiing. (he was the most experienced of all of us)

Dunno who these people are, but the shot's cool

This was a black diamond slope. Guess who didn't go near that one! lol By the way, Marc was holding the camera at an angle, so its about 20-30 degrees steeper than that...

Josh, the sole snowboarder of our 4-person group.

Watch the progression:

Anyone seeing a pattern here?

Me skiing! :-)

No, Josh was not the only one to fall on his ass on this trip... he just spent most of his time on it lol

Karen skiing and being a camera whore. :-P She's the only one that Marc didnt get pics of when she fell.

Molly skiing

Molly falling on her ass. :-) Told you we werent the only ones lol

The ski lodge from the outside

Me and Josh. I think this was just outside the lodge. Marc took the pic, but, no one remembers him taking it, including himself lol

Marc's legs after he fell on his ass trying to get off the snow lol

Josh fell asleep in the cafeteria after we were done skiing. I have a TON of these pics just cause they're funny as hell.

the giant map of the mountain with all the slope on it.

this was outside the lodge. I thought it was really pretty, and therefore deserved a pic.

Temperature: -11 degrees C, Wind: 0, Old Snow: 2.8m, New Snow: 0

Tomo eating his dinner

Looking up the bunny slope

we thought this was really cool. the lights outside cast a rainbow on the snow and anything else it touched

playing cards while we wait to head home

no clue what she's doing, but then again... i dont know what she's doing most of the time lol

Tomo tryin to look cool

On the bus again. This time, we played cards till we all passed out from exhaustion.

Marc's thoughts: 'shit... not again...'

yes, karen slept on the FLOOR of the bus.

Marc is the one lying across the chairs.

I got kicked for taking this pic lol

how the hell was this kid still so awake??

Tony looking midly confused

shhh... it's naptime...

Karen, having just been woken up...

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)

skiing

Sat, 18 Feb 2006 06:57:59 GMT

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...)

Harajuku!

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 17:43:47 GMT

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

Christina paying hommage to Hide and X-Japan. The second pic is her pointing out the Hide flag that she wore.

Guess who this is! :-D

Lynn being adorable

this kid was a-freakin-dorable! too cute to put into words

fluffy!!!

I thought that was awesome just cause it looked rockin as hell

these girls were cute too.

Oh, I also bought a shirt today that i thought was wicked awesome! i really want my bondage pants to dress up with now...

My new shirt. Killer, huh?

Quote of the Day

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

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 09:08:28 GMT

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 - BOmbardment #1 (<~ it was at this point that jay stopped randomly holding down the shift key.)

The gang on the way to DisneySea. L to R, its marc, josh, suzette, and karen.

the monorail had mickey-shaped handles!!!

Me and Navigator!Micky

Minnie!

Mickey!

Pluto! His paw is bigger than my head....

Donald!

the view when you first walk into the park. that mountain is a manmade volcano that houses the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride.

we were really lucky, and it was a really clear day out. if you look closely in the background of this pic, you can see Mt.Fuji.

Bourough of Manhattan, 15th Precinct. Sugoii, ne!

One of the park staff took this pic of us. I thought it came out pretty cool.

it took us forever to figure out how this ride worked. (it's all random computer-generation, which is directed to the individual cars thru laser.)

the entrance to Mysterious Island, where Journey to the Center of the Earth and 20000 Leagues Under the Sea reside.

Journey to the Center of the Earth. Awesome, awesome ride.

Some shots from the walk-through to the entrance of Journey to the Center of the Earth

20000 Leagues Under the Sea. Completely different ride from the one that used to be in FL. The one in FL was a LOT better

Walk-through shots from 20000 Leagues Under the Sea

I really liked this shot, so i'm gonna post it. this was on a US Steamship. I'm pretty sure it was a replica cause it doesnt move, but it was cool

OMG I'm back in the States!

Outside the Indiana Jones ride.

Adventerures, ne.

Inside the walkthru to Indiana Jones. i have another one of the main waiting room that hasnt been uploaded yet but i'll post it when it is cause its a pretty cool image.

the outside of the Ragng Spirits rollercoaster in the Lost River Delta area.

Arabian Coast

"Closed by order of the Sultan!"

reminded me too much of Aladdin to pass up

the double-decker Carousel

Abu!!! He was a slippery sucker! I had to litterally chase him down the street to get a pic!

That damn camel was so noisy i thought it was gonna turn around and bite me. (or spit on me... lol)

Some pics from Sinbad's Seven Voyages. I thought dad might like these, so i took a lot of them lol

OK, that's all for now. i'll get some up more up soon, tho. I also have pics of the view from my balcony that are on my "to upload" list, so those'll be up in the near future, too.

PLEASE comment! I thrive on comments!

Quote of the Day

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

oops...

Tue, 07 Feb 2006 08:11:16 GMT

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...)

DisneyLand Pics, Pt. 3

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 15:54:28 GMT

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

DisneyLand - It's A Small World

The outside of the ride

"It's A Small World"

The operators

The multi-lingual good-bye

it says: "THANK YOU, come sail with us again!" and then something in japanese lol

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)

DisneyLand Pics, part 2

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 15:11:31 GMT

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!

One of the stores in the front of the park in "the Marketplace".

I found it amusing that the construction signs look exactly the same as the one from Disney in FL, but they have Japanese in them.

My first view of the castle!

the fountain outside of Tomorrowland

The entrance to Space Mountain

Karen waiting in line for Space Mountain... think she was excited? lol

self explanitory lol

Buzz Lightyear's AstroBlaster ride! (didn't get to go on this one cause of the wait... next time, hopefully...)

Star Tours!!

Outside the entrance to Star Tours

The display pod in the first part of the line

R2-D2 on top of the pod

C3P0

Oh no! The pods gonna like explode or something! lol

Oh, btw, the robots all spoke in Japanese - shocked the hell out of me when you're used to hearing them argue in english lol

The Star Tours exit.

Look! Mickey-shaped burgers and chicken nuggets!!

the massive amount of ketchup that karen got... and yes, she did use most of it. scary, huh?

The Winny the Pooh ride (which we didn't get to go on cause the like was like 80 minutes long)

The Pinnochio ride! They dont have one of these in FL... it was cool. made me want to see pinnochio again lol

Carousel!

Karen named her horse Gus. I didnt name mine... i shoulda, tho lol

The Snow White ride... i made Karen go on it lol

and the warning is the same haha

yay! Peter Pan ride!

And Dumbo... cant forget about Dumbo..

Critter Country - the home of Splash Mountain :-)

I made her stand there lol

The castle up close. I think this one's the castle from Sleeping Beauty (you know the 4 Disney castles are different, right? the one in FL, the one in CA, the one in Europe, and the one in Tokyo are all different.)

one of the scary crows... i dunno if i've mentioned this before, but the crows here are fucking terrifying. they're all over tokyo, and they're like 2 feet tall. a few of the study abroad-ers (myself included) dont believe they're birds. we think they're actually people in disguise that are paid to scare away the gaijin (foreigners).

SPLASH MOUNTAIN!!!

mmm... turkey leg....

Country Bear Jamboree!

I love these bears!!

"There was blood on the saddle, and... blood all around! And a great big puddle of... blood on the ground!"

"some folks say he looks a lot like me!"

Melvin, Buff, and Max!

look there was an Enchanted Tiki Room too! :-D I freaked when i saw that they had this. it was so weird... some of the songs were in japanese and some were in english.

yay, enchanted tiki room!

the last shot o got before my camera died... i need to go to akihabara and get another spare battery... this was on the Jungle Cruise, which was AWESOME at night

yay mickey hat!

Beware the raccoons... This one's name is Goku... he's attempting to suck my brain...

With the exception of the Its a Small World pics, thats about it. there are a lot more, but they're all similar, or too dark, or too fuzzy, so i didnt post them. I got a disposable camera after mine died, so i cant post those, but once i use up the rest of the film, i'll get them developed and see if theres a scanner at school.

I decided to post the Its a Small World pics in another post cause i took a LOT of them.

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

Pics!

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 12:01:51 GMT

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)

Kyudo Practice

Josh learning how to shoot with arrows that are taller than me.

Josh taking one of his first shots.

Me taking one of my first shots. My form's more than a little off (back not completely straight, elbow's up too high, not sighting right, etc), but thats cause we hadnt really been shown proper form until later. we were just shown how to notch the arrow and how to steady it. I know other things now. lol

One of my first attempts. It got sorta better later on. lol Oh well, thats what practice is for.

Ginza

The famous clock tower in Ginza.

OMG HUGE Apple Store.

Cute Casio wrist watch the size of an elephant. lol

Ginza at night. Pretty, huh?

DISNEYLAND!!!

This was the first Disney sign we saw when we got off the train.

Palm Trees in Tokyo... Who'd'a thunk it?

Look, Mickey's passport!

And then there was the bike parking lot...

Tokyo DisneyLand!!

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!

Got pics uploaded

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 10:32:25 GMT

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*

Book Finished

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 16:40:58 GMT

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...

:-P

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 13:18:21 GMT

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...

Yes! New Layout!

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 07:43:36 GMT

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).

Pic Post

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 07:57:00 GMT

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).

Edo Museum

This is the entrance to the museum... and please, no comments about the phallic symbolism - i've heard them all already lol

Ah yes... the umbrella rack. it was raining. i think there are about 3000 umbrellas in that thing. and the cool thing is that its so safe here that no one really takes them if they arent theirs.

This huge structure was actually inside the museum on the first floor. its really pretty, and i think they hold like presentations and stuff there.

Me inside an one of the old rick-shaws (sp?) that used to be carried by at least 4 people (one in each corner). it was actually pretty roomy in that thing, believe it or not!

Another type of rick-shaw. this is one of the types that people usually thing of these days with wheels under the cab and a guy pulling it. Karen has a pic of an newer version where the driver bikes. I'm in the cab and she's on the bike, but i still have to get it from her. i'll post it when i do cause its a cute pic.

they had these mini models all over the museum of different places and times in edo and tokyo. they were actually really awesome and really well made.

The historic firearms display

not really sure i remember what this is but it was an awesome display.

Historic clock display

the navigation display. i thought this was really cool. the long thing near the front of the case was a telescope and the detailing was incredible.

the medical display. and yes, that is a glass eyeball.

this was near that big building on the ground floor.

Kimono displays. kirei, ne?

I think this is some sort of ceremonial object, but i'm not sure. all i know was that it was really beautiful and i had to get a pic of it. the detailing (again) was absolutely gorgeous.

very cool boat. Want one, dad? :-)

Lucky cats!

Noh theater display. I love Noh Theater. i'd really like to find a production and go before i leave.

An unexploded bomb shell that landed in Tokyo during the bombings that destroyed nearly all of it early in the last century. the entire display was heartwrenching, but intreaguing.

I believe this was a fire alarm bell. That thing was damn heavy!

Ben in Yuka's jacket. I just had to take a pic of this lol

Sumo Tournament

Karen is still attempting to figure out the train systems lol

This was cool. its a fishing place that you can go and just chill on the dock and fish in the middle of the city.

Not our train, but i thought it was a cool pic.

and then there were bikes....

Ha! Look! Soul Bar: Philadelphia Motor Town!

Thats the ring. nifty, ne?

All the high ranking competitors

Some random Sumo pics. we were making 1 yen bets haha. i think i broke even.

OWNED!!!!

Everybody, meet Yokozuna. He will beat your ass.

Post-tournament, we tried our hands at sumo. it didnt go so well lol

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

sleepy time!

Thu, 19 Jan 2006 17:16:51 GMT

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.

weee skype!

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 19:41:08 GMT

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!

get off her lazy ass to post

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 07:43:40 GMT

sorry its taken me so long to post guys. my internet is being a royal pain in the ass and even josh is having trouble figuring out whats wrong with it. i'm in one of the computer lounges in class now so i can at least put up some more pics.

Oh! got a bike the other day. It's so kawaii!! i looked up similar ones online and discovered that in the states, they'd cost at least $350 - $500. more in some cases. my bike folds! :-) i'm totally shipping it back home at the end of the semester. i'll put pics of that up soon too.

i went out to the bar the other night with karen and matt and then josh met up with us a little later. this place is so cute! its called Arte, and if you've ever seen the decorum at the Polynesian in Disney, it looks kinda like that. the covers on the menus are made of unfinished wood and stuff. Oh! and they have glowing ice cubes in the drinks! i havent uploaded the pics from there yet, but i will soon.

i went to a sumo tournament on saturday. that was pretty damn cool if i do say so myself. the last match was so funny. the one guy just kinda like picked up the other one and threw him down. it was like a .5 second match. lol i got a lo~~t of video footage which i'll attempt to upload at some point in short clips so you guys can see. i also got a bunch of pics but i havent uploaded them to the web yet either. like i said - my internet connection is a bitch. if its cooperating tonight, i'll do it then. maybe i'll commandeer joshs connection or something.

anyway, i got pics from Coming of Age Day and a few from the first few days of school to put up, so here they are!

Coming of Age Day!

Darnell at TUJ house before we left for the Meiji Shrine.

Dude! TUJ House has a common room!! No fair!!

Josh #1 playing games before we left

Josh #2 looking at me funny before we left. lol

The entrance to Meiji Shrine. It was packed solid, and all the girls that were coming of age were dressed in these beautiful kimonos. usually the boys wear yukatas, but i couldnt find any at the shrine to take pics of.

2 girls that were coming of age.

another 2 girls coming of age. i love kimonos...

these are the lamps at the shrine. i thought they were really pretty so i had to put this pic up.

i really liked those kimonos... i dunno what it was about them but they caught my eye.

All of us at the shrine. I love this pic.

these girls were really nice. we took their pics and then they wanted to take some pictures with us with their cameras, hence:

they were really cute and spoke a little english. so with our mangled japanese and their grammatically incorrect english we managed to hold a 15 minute conversation lol

and... SAKE TASTING AT THE SHRINE!

i thought this was cool. you can purchase a fortune in the shrine, and a lot of people do so around new years. if you get a bad fortune or you dont like it, you can tie it here and i think its supposed to help prevent it from occurring. As you can see... there were a lot of people who werent 100% thrilled with their fortunes lol

ah the goths... i love harajuku!!

School

I only have 3 school pics so far so i guess i'll put them all up.

Josh and Karen chilling in the cafeteria after classes.

Karen being a dork outside TUJ. Thats Jude. he's cool :-)

i have no idea what josh is doing.

Ok, thats all for now. Hopefully i'll get a couple more uploaded later. if so i'll try and get them up by the end of the week.

Mark convinced me to sign up for the ski trip thats gonna take place over the 4 day break we have. That should be awesome.

of anyone can figure out where to find cheap airfare to travel within tokyo, please let me know. i cant find anything under like $500 between tokyo and hokkaido. i'm gonna see what i can do about okinawa too... my goal? travel a lot and travel relatively cheaply... tips anyone? :-)

Ja!

and i really need to upload some more icons for this journal...

more pics from the weekend

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 04:15:02 GMT

I know i'm bombarding you guys with pics right now but i wanna get them up.

Free Day 1: Akihabara with Marc

Karen preparing for the day... she looks like she's missing something, ne?

All of us are in complete awe of the fact that the pigeons and gulls are CLEAN here! None of them look like they came straight out of an oil slick or something like in Philly. So we stood on the bridge next to the Akihabara station and took pics of the birds.

at the Jonathans - the efficiency here is incredible. i know that when i get home i'm gonna be like "ok the service is taking more than 30 seconds. whats wrong here??"

Japanese ketsup!

Cosplaying on the streets of Akihabara!

Marc and one of the cosplaying maids... i dont even wanna know how cold those girls were!!

Gah! KINGDOM HEARTS II is EVERYWHERE!!!! I wanna play it NOW!!

and for that trip, That's all folks!

Ok, more soon. i have a whole bunch from the shrine from the next day. i'll probably post those later.

Ja ne!

more pics!

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 14:25:50 GMT

ok i have a few more pics uploaded from the 2nd day of orientation. these include the shrine and KARAOKE!!

and a really random one - see if you can figure out which ones the random one lol.

Day 2: Tokyo Orientation Cont'd

This is outside the entrance to the shrine itself. that little building thingy has a sort of fountain in it thats used to purify you before you go inside. i think josh took a pic of me during the purification but i have yet to get the pic from him.

The actual entrance to the shrine. isnt it pretty?

Me praying at the shrine.

One of the walls at the shrine

the wall of prayers/wishes. the priest has to read all of these every morning.

my prayer/wish: "I wish for the happiness and health of my family, friends, and myself. I wish for the power to make good choices and for inspiration. I wish for a happy and enlightening semester in Tokyo and the rest of Japan."

Shrine maiden

me and the shrine maiden :-)

view from the bridge on the way into the shrine.

Shinjuku

AND NOW *drum roll* KARAOKE!!

Random pic of the day... :-P i dont know, i dont wanna know, and i have no opinion. lol

the computer room in noisy!

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 07:56:14 GMT

i'm sitting in the computer room on the fifth floor of TUJ just hanging out for a little. its a long-ass walk back to my dorm, so i'm kinda procrastinating lol. i really need to get a bike. despite the hills, it looks sooo much easier and faster. umm... pics... got a bunch and i still need to put them up. i have a few for you for the time being, but soon i'll do a huge post with a whole bunch of good pics.

Weekly Mansion Akasaka... anyone see anything wrong with the wording there? maybe it's their english...

I'll put the rest of these under a cut cause they're pretty big pics.

Arrival

Kyle and Kevin were the first people from TUJ i found when i got here. we all waited for the bus to ANA Hotel together and talked about how we couldnt believe we were actually in japan lol

This is my cubby-hole of a room. this was taken like 30 minutes after i got to the dorm so theres crap EVERYWHERE. You can tell which bed is mine fro the stuffed animal (KUMAGOROU!!!) on the bed.

Our "kitchenette". yeah right.

Yes, i can touch all four walls by simply sticking my foot out slightly. i swear, it's a port-a-potty that they bolted to the wall.

Day 1: TUJ Orientation

The toilets at TUJ have heated seats and play a recorded flushing sound so no one can listen to you do your thing. ...they also wipe your ass for you... now THAT's service.

TUJ orientation party! everyone here's awesome.

Everyone, this is Sam. I graduated from high school with him and haven't talked to him since. imagine my surprise when i came down for orientation and he was waiting in the lobby with the rest of the group. weird...

Karen and Josh at the ramen shop across the street from TUJ.

Day 2: Tokyo Orientation

Kyle looking REALLY lost on the subway... i can understand that.

Josh doing the "white boi dance" on the platform. i almost got "white boi dance #2" but i wasnt quick enough. he said if we got a few beers in him, we could take all the pics we wanted. >:-) blackmail anyone? XD

Ah, the luggage handle... poor karen...

the entrance to the park that houses the shrine in shinjuku. its really pretty there. this is also the place i went for Coming of Age Day on Monday.

This is right next to the gateway in the previous picture. im not sure what it says, tho...

on the way to the shrine. each one of those white and blue lantern things represent someone who's donated money to the shrine.

Unfortunately, my camera died right about there, so i dont have any more pics taken with my camera from that day. fortunately i'd gotten my phone the night before and my phone takes pics just as well as my camera (scary, huh?). i haven't gotten those online yet, though, so you'll have to wait to see the actual shrine till sometime this weekend (unless i get off my lazy ass and post them tonight XD).

OK, i think that should hold you over for a few days. now at least you can see some of the stuff i've seen. sorry for the abundance of pics. i didnt really expect to put that many up right now. XD

i'm debating whether i wanna go down to the cafeteria or the student lounge and read for a little or if i wanna get my butt in gear and head home... hmm... choices choices...

eh, i'll write more later. maybe post some more pics. Ja ne!

damn that hike...

Wed, 11 Jan 2006 15:27:36 GMT

not much big happened today. i had my intro to east asia class and my japanese elements I class, both of which were ok. there was a bit of a mixup with elements cause the room we're supposed to be in had the law school orientation today, so me and one other kid ran around OIS for 10 mintues tying to figure out what the hell we were supposed to be doing. we figured it out tho and everything is ok now. :-)

umm... i finished nightswimmer by Joseph Olshan today. I really liked it. awesome book, if not mildly to pretty depressing. what is it with books these days? almost every book i've read in the last like 6 months has been depressing in some way with the exception of the ones by Steve Kluger (who's an awsome author, and a really nice guy too).

i'm going to watch SUMO WRESTLING on saturday! wee! but josh is a loser and didn't want to go lol. so i'm going with karen and a bunch of other people.

I think i've fallen in love with the Yoshinoya chain! I heart japanese fast food. :-D i feel like i'm gonna seriously crave it when i go back to america, lol.

ok, i have to turn up the heater before karen freezes. Ja ne!